CHARNEL - The Story of the Gods

The four Old Gods created the world. They created the sun and the moon and the earth and the water. They created mankind and animals and all the things that exist. They even created children of their own, godlings, full of power and loved by the Old Gods.

Forever passed and the Godlings grew tired of their place as beloved but essentially powerless things, unable to change the world for what they perceived to be the better. So they came up with a plan and they followed through on it. They rose up together and struck down their parents the Old Gods, pulling them from their thrones and claiming the seats of power for themselves. They took over the world and they imprisoned their parents.

Nobody remembers the true names of the Old Gods, they are known now by what became of them.

The Burned God was imprisoned in the sun, burning eternally until he became the hideous blackened and charred thing he is now. See him grinning, see his cracked and split flesh, feel his heat.

The Crushed God was imprisoned in the heart of the earth, beneath incomparable weight and immense pressure until he became the horrible broken and battered thing he is now. See him moaning, see the bones sticking from his flesh, see his organs turned to paste, smell the dark wet earth.

The Empty God was imprisoned between the stars, in the cold and empty void that barely exists there until he became the terrible haunted inchoate thing he is now. You cannot see his insubstantial form, you cannot hear his silent screams, you cannot feel his touch but you know the he is there.

The Dead God was imprisoned in his own dead body buried in an unmarked grave in the land of the gods until he became the putrid rotting dead thing he is now. Smell his rotted and putrified flesh, feel the cold of the grave emanate from him, hear the buzzing of the flies as they swarm around him.

Although they had, in many ways, the puissance of their parents, the Godlings did not have the wisdom or experience to control the world. Things began to fall apart, entropy crept into the world and cracks appeared in the fundaments of existence. Things were broken that could not be fixed and the world became a worse place.

After ten thousand years, or some say more, The Old Gods managed to regain a measure of their former strength and they broke free from their prisons (although they were eternally changed). They rose up themselves and cast out their errant children. They did not just imprison them though, they killed them. They slew them and they burned the bodies.

That is why the sky rains ash, because the bodies of the Godlings burn even now.

What makes CHARNEL unique?

Before you ask, I do always write it all in uppercase.

The thing that sets CHARNEL aside from any other game, at least to me, is the horrible nature of it. It's not just a bit grim, it's really awful.

As an example is one of the gods of the world.

The Burned God.
A figure splayed out against the sun, burned black. His flesh is cracked and weeping. His head is thrown back but you can't quite tell whether it's in unimaginable agony or rapturous pleasure. From his face, his charred hideous face, comes the white gleam of perfect teeth revealed in a grin or a grimace or perhaps the lips were simply burnt away.

And this is one of the gods that people call upon for protection. Well, protection when they really need it and they sacrifice to him the rest of the time to keep him away and hope in their secret hearts that it works.

The world is a horrible place in CHARNEL. I know this is probably a tired comparison but imagine the world of The Road. Now imagine it has been this way for generations. Now imagine the dead are also rising and there are cannibals coming to take away everything and everyone you love.

Sometimes I'm not sure why I even like this as a setting idea when it's so bleak and nasty.

And then I imagine the one man with a sword, going out to hopefully make the world a better place. Striking down the cannibals and striking down the necromancers and putting his blade to the throat of the world and demanding a new one.

It's a story about survival, about heroism and it's a story about doing what needs to be done to make the world a better place no matter what the cost.

Does that sound interesting?