kuddelmuddel

‘Erde’ is akin to Earth in many ways, but completely different in others. The climate is similar, the plant life is as well, and even dishes have similarities (though the equivalent of tomato sauce is purple). The level of technology is similar as such – there is even the internet. The major difference being that magic is incorporated into technology. Weapon technology is often based on magic as an energy source, for example, and military vessels often operate on magic, which allowed the creation of massive airships.

Politically, it is VERY different. There is only one country, spanning the entire world. It is centered on an island the size of Easter Island, in whose middle is the imperial palace, which in turn is constructed around a gargantuan tree.

It is still an authoritarian nation, less oppressive than Russia, but noticeably more than most western countries. Non-humans are known, and are respected as long as one fits the known types (goblins, fairies, dragons (up to the size of a pony), ratmen, frogmen and mermaids). All others are immediately suspected to be mutated chaosspawn, which is a death sentence: Normal citizens will flee, and soldiers will arrive soon, utilizing a “fire first, ask questions later” policy.

Indeed, the military presence is noticeable. Parades are frequent, as are soldiers on patrols. In some cities, one can find containment zones protected by soldiers. If one sneaks into, all one will find is a part of the city, looking like normal…except that the floor is covered with crystalline sand, and that people and animals that once lived there are frozen in place, shattering like glass even when only brushed against.
Overall: Still a pretty oppressive atmosphere, odd people get odd looks, and the smiling shopkeeper may report them to the authorities just moments after they leave.
The soldiers seem to prefer long, black coats and black uniforms, and military vessels are all black as well. It’s not the best place to spend a holiday, that’s for sure.

Magic is commonplace; it is not rare to see a mage help with the construction of a dam or accompany soldiers. Magical technology is common as well, usually seen in the massive airships (which exist in lieu of airplanes, a technology that was never invented on this world). Mages tend to use elemental magic, usually based on a single element.
Animal and plant life is similar overall, with some species existing here that do not exist on other worlds, such as various living beings that use magic (a fire salamander that spits fire to scare of enemies, or a flower that uses magic to spread their seeds really far)

Supernatural creatures exist mostly in the form of elemental spirits, usually at the size of a football. Elementals of fire, water, wind, air, ice and wood are common and are usually considered harmless. Less harmless are elementals of chaos and order, which tend to “infect” the area around them. The above mentioned containment zone is, for example, the result of an order elemental that was spotted too late. That is why citizen flee when they suspect one, and why the military reacts with overwhelming force to suspicions of one.

Greater elementals are simply bigger, more powerful and usually sentient versions of the above mentioned elementals. Most of them have shapes similar to sentient beings and can speak. Again, the elementals of Chaos and Order of this category are feared, especially because they tend to look like completely normal mortals, and can thereby infiltrate society.
Their overall power is similar to an archangel in Supernatural or a greater demon in most canons I’m aware of.

Finally, the most powerful supernatural entities known on the world are Order and Chaos. Nobody knows what they truly are, what is known is that they are the most deity-like entities around, and that they used the world as a plaything. It appears that they do not influence the world directly, though. They usually use servants, in form of their elemental spirits and mortals they corrupted. Every few centuries, they also create direct hosts for themselves, called Avatars. This is the only known way for them to influence the world directly. Indirectly, they can speak to mortals through their lesser elementals, and can infuse a willing human with their power, using a lesser elemental spirit as a catalyst.

As for the concepts of Order and Chaos – Chaos refers to chaotic changes, but also life itself. Gross mutations are as much a part of chaos as spring. Order, meanwhile, refers to a calm see as much as to complete and utter destruction, for the most ordered thing is a space devoid of anything. Ultimately, neither force is good for mortals. Neither is good or evil.

ABOUT YOU

Name: Fennel
Are you 18 or over?: Yes
Other characters played: None

CHARACTER

Name: Andemona
Canon: Original
Age: Nearly as old as sentient life on her world. The usual applies; she looks to be in her twenties, unless she changes that.
History: Andemona was created long ago, when two entities, known as Chaos and Order, spotted a world called ‘Erde’. The world was populated by various sentient beings, and was, therefore, a perfect battleground for these entities. Another thing of notice was a large, immortal tree, the tree of life, which was the source of this world’s magic.

Chaos and Order each picked a particular group of sentient beings, becoming their god. They also created several higher servants, elementals of their respective primordial force. In the case of Chaos, these five were called Pandemonium, Discord, Clamor, Dissonance and Cacaphony, created in that order.
Pandemonium, of course, was the one that would later call herself Andemona. These beings were, essentially, this universe's equivalent to archangels. If God was a complete douchebag, that is.


Chaos and Order respectively drove their factions to expand and finally wage war against each other, a war that engulfed the world. One side triumphed, while the other was annihilated. But it didn’t end there. It turned into a cyclical conflict: Every few hundred years, it would repeat. The mortals – playthings of the higher powers – were not even aware of this. The few that did were removed by either Chaos or Order, who did not want their game to be disturbed.
Andemonas role in this was always the same: Infiltrate a particular group of mortals that were not behaving as they should, then drive them on a proper course. She killed kings, impersonated viziers, all to fuel tension.
And then, when the conflicts erupted into war, she’d get actively involved in the battle, usually hunting down enemy mages… or entire groups of people trying to broker peace.

There were dozens of cycles like this, until nearly one thousand years ago, where things changed. At that time, a group of human heroes, aided by Order, was gathering allies, to fight against an empire, championed by Chaos. But one of the human heroes, a bookish priestess, had her own ideas. Based on scattered, forbidden historical records, she had figured out that something was amiss in all the conflicts. That there were entities playing all sides. She had a different plan. Secretly, she had allied all those races that had, during the earlier cycles, been trampled asunder. Goblins, ratmen, the outcasts.

Her plan was simple: No side that follows one of the two major sides must win. A third side must be victorious, and then crush anyone following either “Order” or “Chaos”. How? Simply by having that third group attack whoever was victorious at the final battle of the war, which usually was waged over the control of the Tree of Life. Neither Chaos nor Order noticed, until it was too late.

She won, creating an empire that was more brutal, illiberal and restrictive than anything her world had ever seen. Rebellions would be crushed, followed by forced mass executions and relocations. Three different secret services were created, competing against each other and weeding out any sort of chaos or order-inspired group, both real and imagined. Anyone could be a snitch for either of the secret services…

It was a horrible regime, made worse when the empress discovered a way to use the Tree of Life to attain immortality – thus not even the ruler changed, culling any hope for reforms.
And yet, it was successful. Attempts by Chaos or Order to gain a foothold were crushed. The world had not seen peace last so long for millennia.
During this time, Andemona started to truly get involved beyond merely obeying. Before, she had simply been a servant of Chaos, spreading chaos when Order was dominant, and fighting back Order when Chaos was dominant. Now, both Chaos and Order were struggling to grasp the new situation (for neither had ever faced true resistance from a mortal), which made them lose the reins on their greater servants. Pandemonium – who now took the human form of a woman that called herself Andemona – was among those sent to secretly spread their respective master’s influence, evading detection from the empire’s intelligence. The aim was to sow seeds of dissent, to corrupt the regime from within.

She had other plans. The cyclical wars had been boring for a while now, and she liked the new situation: The future was completely uncertain. She decided to aid the humans, for she knew something they did not: Chaos and Order were not opposed forces as such. Oh, yes, they fought, but they were more akin to opponents of a board game. And now, they were allying, to regain control of the game, something no mortal anticipated (as the leading theory was that chaos and order, while hostile to humans, were also anathema to each other – a hypothesis that the entire strategy was based on. Essentially, mortals assumed that the struggle of chaos and order was like the struggle of good and evil, when in reality, it was anything but that – more a contest between plague and cholera)

Andemona’s plan was simple. The secret services had long since tried to capture servants of either Chaos or Order. She let this happen. Not just that: She essentially created the ritual that would, a century later, be used to “enslave” her.

The ones who “captured” her was a group called ‘Necessary Evil’. That name wasn’t irony. It’s a name based on the philosophy of this secret service. They believed that evil acts were necessary for the greater good. If so, the humane thing was being as efficient as possible, to limit the evil to the truly necessary amount. Whoever they had to kill or torture was, therefore, a necessary sacrifice. Whatever they did was justified as long as they made an effort to limit any suffering they caused.
This doctrine was called Necessary Evil, which was what the agency got named after.

Enslaving (and then using) a servant of Chaos was one such necessary evil. It was a move akin to the inquisition enslaving devils to fight devils. Insane, maybe, but also daring.
And pretty successful, in their eyes. Andemona proved to be one of their major weapons (alongside others - crazy, unnatural laboratory abominations and the like) in the years to come, without them ever realizing that the greater elemental had conned them from the beginning. She was used often, against particularly dangerous foes, like some sort of hellhound on a leash, let loose when the alternatives were worse. Andemona considered it completely hilarious when Necessary Evil made her infiltrate a chaos cult, for example, although the occasional bout to take out order elementals also happened.

A thousand years after the founding of the empire, things took a turn for the worse. Attempts by Chaos or Order had become somewhat infrequent, and slowly, people began to believe that the worst was over, and the wish for reforms became stronger.
During the celebration of the first millennium the empire had existed, both Chaos and Order launched a full scale attack, starting several rebellions and sending their servants, both greater elementals and lesser ones, en masse. The mortals – humans fighting at the side of nonhumans – seemed to be dealing well with this… until Chaos and Order combined their forces, driving the empire to its knees when the Avatar of Chaos (a direct manifestation of the entity “Chaos” itself) killed the Empress, before being slain in turn. Traitors then staged a coup, surrendering to the forces of Order.

The ensuing upheaval was precisely what Andemona had been waiting for. She had told Necessary Evil about the impeding alliance between Chaos and Order months earlier. The secret service had decided to lay low, to strike at such a moment. One of their assassins, a woman called Gabrie, killed the Avatar of Order during a victory parade, while Necessary Evil enacted a Night of Long Knives. Andemona was kept out of the main battles, but participated in chasing down various cultists (mostly of Order – Necessary Evil was too paranoid to risk her allying with chaos servants in this crucial moment)

It took a year to consolidate. The old empire had fallen, but it wasn’t being replaced by a nation controlled by either order or chaos. The strongest players were surviving members of the old elite of the empire, who created a more open, modern country – with a constitution, and with rights. There were even elections, which caused the new empress to be nobody else but the woman that had killed the Avatar of Order in public. That woman, Gabrie, had become a folk hero for her actions, and her appointment as empress was proof how the country had changed. She had not been the favored candidate of the old guard.

And Andemona? Continued as usual, working for Necessary Evil – while secretly gloating. Without her, the outcome would have been very different indeed. She considered it her victory, especially after defying her very creator. The future was going to be interesting indeed…

…especially when she discovered the portal, which led to new worlds. She couldn’t help but try to explore. Who knew, maybe that would lead her to even more exciting things…
Naturally, also to trouble. If she were to venture into that new world for too long, Necessary Evil might start to ask questions. They were a paranoid bunch. She’d have to come up with a good story then – or ditch them. That could be interesting as well…

(And all that was ignoring possible trouble with others of her kind, neither of which was happy with her!)

Point in canon: 1004 AF (After Founding), as things settled down after the events described in her history
Window Location: The capital, in the bottom floor of a derelict warehouse in one of the containment zones.
Universe:
‘Erde’ is akin to Earth in many ways, but completely different in others. The climate is similar, the plant life is as well, and even dishes have similarities (though the equivalent of tomato sauce is purple). The level of technology is similar as such – there is even the internet. The major difference being that magic is incorporated into technology. Weapon technology is often based on magic as an energy source, for example, and military vessels often operate on magic, which allowed the creation of massive airships.

Politically, it is VERY different. There is only one country, spanning the entire world. It is centered on an island the size of Easter Island, in whose middle is the imperial palace, which in turn is constructed around a gargantuan tree.

It is still an authoritarian nation, less oppressive than Russia, but noticeably more than most western countries. Non-humans are known, and are respected as long as one fits the known types (goblins, fairies, dragons (up to the size of a pony), ratmen, frogmen and mermaids). All others are immediately suspected to be mutated chaosspawn, which is a death sentence: Normal citizens will flee, and soldiers will arrive soon, utilizing a “fire first, ask questions later” policy.

Indeed, the military presence is noticeable. Parades are frequent, as are soldiers on patrols. In some cities, one can find containment zones protected by soldiers. If one sneaks into, all one will find is a part of the city, looking like normal…except that the floor is covered with crystalline sand, and that people and animals that once lived there are frozen in place, shattering like glass even when only brushed against.
Overall: Still a pretty oppressive atmosphere, odd people get odd looks, and the smiling shopkeeper may report them to the authorities just moments after they leave.
The soldiers seem to prefer long, black coats and black uniforms, and military vessels are all black as well. It’s not the best place to spend a holiday, that’s for sure.

Magic is commonplace; it is not rare to see a mage help with the construction of a dam or accompany soldiers. Magical technology is common as well, usually seen in the massive airships (which exist in lieu of airplanes, a technology that was never invented on this world). Mages tend to use elemental magic, usually based on a single element.
Animal and plant life is similar overall, with some species existing here that do not exist on other worlds, such as various living beings that use magic (a fire salamander that spits fire to scare of enemies, or a flower that uses magic to spread their seeds really far)

Supernatural creatures exist mostly in the form of elemental spirits, usually at the size of a football. Elementals of fire, water, wind, air, ice and wood are common and are usually considered harmless. Less harmless are elementals of chaos and order, which tend to “infect” the area around them. The above mentioned containment zone is, for example, the result of an order elemental that was spotted too late. That is why citizen flee when they suspect one, and why the military reacts with overwhelming force to suspicions of one.

Greater elementals are simply bigger, more powerful and usually sentient versions of the above mentioned elementals. Most of them have shapes similar to sentient beings and can speak. Again, the elementals of Chaos and Order of this category are feared, especially because they tend to look like completely normal mortals, and can thereby infiltrate society.
Their overall power is similar to an archangel in Supernatural or a greater demon in most canons I’m aware of.

Finally, the most powerful supernatural entities known on the world are Order and Chaos. Nobody knows what they truly are, what is known is that they are the most deity-like entities around, and that they used the world as a plaything. It appears that they do not influence the world directly, though. They usually use servants, in form of their elemental spirits and mortals they corrupted. Every few centuries, they also create direct hosts for themselves, called Avatars. This is the only known way for them to influence the world directly. Indirectly, they can speak to mortals through their lesser elementals, and can infuse a willing human with their power, using a lesser elemental spirit as a catalyst.

As for the concepts of Order and Chaos – Chaos refers to chaotic changes, but also life itself. Gross mutations are as much a part of chaos as spring. Order, meanwhile, refers to a calm see as much as to complete and utter destruction, for the most ordered thing is a space devoid of anything. Ultimately, neither force is good for mortals. Neither is good or evil.

Abilities: Andemona is the personification of pandæmonium, not a human, which makes her an elemental being of chaos, a bona fide eldritch abomination. What seems to be her body is, actually, a mass of chaotic energy compressed into a human shape (similar to, say, a elemental spirit of water, whose body usually consists of water). It certainly looks like a human body, and even bleeds when cut.
Just like a human radiates body warmth, Andemona radiates chaotic energy at all times, albeit on a low level. This does not have a noticeable effect on higher organisms, but smaller ones are affected visibly. If she stays in an area for a longer time, plants grow much faster as they are affected on a cellular level, both speeding the growth and randomly twisting the very cells during proliferation. If affected for a longer time, the plant may even visibly change – it blooms out of season, the new leaves may have a different color, a different shape, grow strange, barbed hooks, or other things entirely. It’s chaos, after all.

Consciously, Andemona can use chaotic energy (drawing the energy from within herself, as she is a sliver of pure chaos) for a variety of effects.
-She can rapidly grow nonsentient beings into new shapes (that apple tree suddenly shooting up in size, getting strange, barbed fruits while leaking a sap that reeks of a disgusting, poisonous sweetness). This can be used to set traps, for example by further changing a tree into a *thing* that uses its whipping branches to entangle prey, dragging it to a newly formed maw in the crown. Most of these modifications look disgusting and deformed in some way.
-She can change her entire body, including growing additional limbs on a pretty big scale, essentially ‘monstering out’. She is actually named after this, as she can make her body grow over an wide space, forming gaping maws, spiked tentacles and murderous talons that make crossing an incredibly dangerous endeavor – while her “main body” still walks around happily.
This also includes regrowing lost body parts, regenerating herself. Whatever she grows does not have to be connected to her main body, and not all of it does have to be completely horrible and twisted to look at. But all of these things are, essentially, her, not separate beings. On that subject: Her clothes regenerate as well, since she forms them, too. Can’t be bothered to go shopping!
-She can use said chaos to temporarily bend some natural laws, floating in place or walking up the side of a wall. Essentially, she temporarily treats physics as if she was in an Escher painting.
This is unsettling to look at, for some reason.
-Finally, she can just throw chaotic energy in a multicolored blast. This is essentially your generic fireblast, just more chaotic-y and less burn-y. It tends to make technology hit by it go completely haywire.

As for weaknesses, the main one would be ‘elemental order’, that is, an elemental power that directly opposes chaos (NOT evil, as chaos =/= evil and good =/= order!). Ice magic usually falls under this to a lesser extent, because ice magic tends to lower temperature, reducing molecular movement and creating a more “ordered” environment. While she can’t be killed by this, her body can be dispersed, requiring days, weeks, months, or even years to put itself into a human shape again.

All of this raises the question…what happens if one looks into her mind or at her “soul”? Well… the first thing one will notice is that she has no soul. If one can look further somehow, one will see raw, pure chaos. Angles that have more or less than 360° yet are full, shapes that defy Euclid, colors that shouldn’t exist, ever-changing things that form eyes or maws or eyes in maws that look at you…. It’s somewhat unsettling and alien. Slithering, teeming chaos, pretty much.
Looking at this tends to inspire one to write cheesy horror novels, or seek out asylums whose name starts with A.

Possessions: Nothing in particular.
Personality: Andemona is a mischievous, fun-loving being that loves variation. The problem is that her sense of ‘fun’ and ‘variation’ are not the usual human ones. Fun, for her, is seeing new things, experiencing new things, going through exciting situations and messing with people. Combat, for example, is something she considers exciting and fresh, because few battles are alike. The same goes for competing against others. And for war. Yes, that’s right: Since she has no family, was never truly born and was never raised, she sees no particular problem with war itself, and rather enjoys being involved in one. War, in her opinion, is something where people show their true colors and give their everything - what can be more exciting than that? What skirmish is like another? How can one assault be compared to another?

As this shows, she is entirely amoral. She does not follow a human sense of good and evil at all, she mostly cares for her personal enjoyment. The reason that she does not simply kill random people is not morals, but a sense of sportsmanship: One-sided slaughters are boring, which is why many beings of her kind tend to play along with human rules. This is why she is entirely fine with helping humans when it suits her: Usually, this leads to situations that are more fun, in her twisted opinion. She also tends to give weaker enemies a fighting chance, arguing that this is akin to a player giving themselves a handicap to have a fairer match. Besides, she likes messing with people. People are fun when messed with! Dead people? Cannot be messed with. You don’t break your toys. A humiliated enemy is usually better than a dead one, in her eyes. And if this ends up with her losing?
Well, you win some, you lose some. This is a human saying, but one she is quite fond of.

Next is her mischievousness, which…isn’t necessarily murderous or connected to combat at all. Chaos shows on small and large scales, and on the small side, mischief is where it’s at. In her case, that’s usually in form of various pranks, which range from cruel (usually played on enemies) to completely childish (usually played on allies, such as using mild amounts of chaos to, say, twist the taste of an apple to something unpleasant).

Finally, a trait that isn’t usually noticeable is shrewdness. Not all things she does are random, even if they seem as if they are only for her personal enjoyment. She is capable of planning ahead quite far in advance, very patiently. For example, Andemona getting ‘trapped’ by humans is not actually what happened. She played along, with the intent to screw over chaos, simply because the ensuing situation would be more interesting than one where her own side won. This took rather careful planning (over decades!), both to ensure that her own side still trusted her, and that humans did, so she could turn the situation the way she wanted.
Pricks of conscience over betraying her own side? None whatsoever. She’d likely argue that it’d be rather un-chaotic for a chaotic entity to always go along with chaotic things.

Tl, dr: Likes to mess with things, likes excitement and new things, is an amoral creeper that has way too much fun with mortals.

Thread Sample: Here, I hope this suffices!
Prose Sample:
Andemona was slowly walking through the deserted town, each step sounding as if she was walking over emery paper. Fine sand, sparkling as if it was triturated glass, covered the paved road. There were no other noises. No birds, no insects, no distant chattering, nor the noises from machinery. Only her steps – oh, and that of her controller, a mortal agent overseeing her actions.

“We’re too late, again. It already happened, everyone here’s dead.” The man’s voice was grave, and for some reason he was covering his mouth and nose, as if trying to protect himself from stench. There wasn’t any, of course. An order elemental killed in ways that prevented rot – not even microbes survived. He was acting by instinct. So silly, so human.

“Don’t be so sure, Whitehat. Sometimes, there are survivors. Your lot is pretty tenacious.”

Whitehat – a nickname she had given him based on his preference for white hats – shivered for a moment, then whirled around, grabbing Andemona by the collar and pushing her against a wall.
“We wouldn’t have to be, without you abominations!”

Andemona blinked, then laughed, spreading her arms widely, not even making an effort to break the hold. “Whaaat, blaming me? I’m of chaos, Whitehat. But hey, go ahead, punch me. You’d be wasting time, though, there really is a survivor, after all.”
“Wa-what? Where? Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“You didn’t ask.” Andemona chuckled, and then vaguely waved her hand in the direction of a group of smaller buildings that had partially crystallized. A part of her had found the survivor earlier.

Her companion glared into the direction she was pointing, then let go and started to run. Andemona smiled, and then followed slowly. Strong mortals always survived in the eye of the storm. They were amazing creatures, in many ways. Just like this one: Rushing off to save someone he didn’t even know, who didn’t even need rescue – the immediate danger was over. And he was of the group that was supposed to be among the most ruthless!
But then, that was why she was so fond of them, these cute little buggers. Who knows, maybe she’d get to save a village like this next time. The look on Whitehat’s face would be priceless!

Plans: Discovering new worlds and sowing seeds of chaos, both small and large. Getting involved in conflicts for her own amusement, and maybe starting one or two. She would also be interested in dust, simply because of the strange properties of that supposed substance. It's pretty alien to her, after all. Since the role in her "canon" is a bit Lucifer-ish (betraying creator and all), she might wonder if she can use dust for her own purposes to further drive a wedge between deities in her world and, well, everything else.

Nothing that'd likely ever come up in game, because the scale is too big, but it'd be a reason that motivates.

Notes:
After thinking about it, and checking your FAQ, I think that Andemona would be one of those without a daemon, similar to angels in the original HDM canon. She simply lacks a soul of that kind, as well as a body: She’s all spirit, just that she isn’t made of Dust, like an angel, but of pure Chaos, going along with the whole "very, very alien kind of being" design thing.

DÆMON

Name: N/A.
Sex: N/A
Form: N/A
Additional notes: Since she is shrewd, and will quickly notice that everyone has some kind of animal companion, she is very likely to create one using her abilities. This will be a Paradisaeidae bird, with iridescent feathers. It obviously lacks any sort of true Dæmon ability. Since it would be a manifestation of chaotic energy, it would still not be a mere animal, and might cause unusual reactions with Dæmons that manage to touch it, which she would then blame on her world being more alien than most.
Why this form: N/A