Servant/Project Idea Thread, "The Womb"

[StormBringer207]

I've been thinking about diving into servant making. Actually, I have a few ideas, but it's a struggle to get past the "loose scribbled ideas" phase. Currently have some Philippine deities sketched out. I don't have any sheets yet obv, but I'm also pretty interested in alt classes/seasonals for the rework contest.

I'm sort of equally passionate about all of my ideas and I got decision paralysis, so I figured I'd ask. The first one is always one of the hardest, so any thoughts on where I should begin? Idc what kind of thought it is. Opinions are helpful.

[Kabalisto Koga]

I've been thinking about diving into servant making. Actually, I have a few ideas, but it's a struggle to get past the "loose scribbled ideas" phase. Currently have some Philippine deities sketched out. I don't have any sheets yet obv, but I'm also pretty interested in alt classes/seasonals for the rework contest.

I'm sort of equally passionate about all of my ideas and I got decision paralysis, so I figured I'd ask. The first one is always one of the hardest, so any thoughts on where I should begin? Idc what kind of thought it is. Opinions are helpful.

Thats honestly awkward as i today dived into austronesian peoples religion and mythology and get to the phillipine mythology and that it was influenced by buddhistic and hinduism lores . How would it be if you give some examples of these ideas ? though i would say that try to work on the ideas you feel the most inspiration and drive .

i knoww the feeling as ill tell you i have 56~ ideas of potencial servants respectively on working .

[DelRey]

i would say start with the simplest one you got. get experience before you try to convey the wackier ones.
If you are interested in exploring a character in several classes then try and see if you can get enough myths about that servant to legitimize that. If you put all their lore into one class, then other classes seem unneeded. If you want to make seasonals it is funny to connect them to something in their culture and make it believable why they are. If you already have an idea how their seasonal may look like, then you can hint at it with random character traits in the regular version.

my best example would be my Munch. I made three completely different versions of him plus one joke because I could divide his story into the different parts of his most famous work.
I know nothing about philippine deities so i have no clue if they allow that too, but perhaps you can divide different authorities into different classes.
If you have several deities on your list, perhaps you can try to tell the mythology of your region in the nasuverse. Connect them, describe what happened in their age of gods, even if just passing anecdotes. I always recommend seeing them as a connected project and not separate sheets. Get a bigger picture of them first and then describe the gods based on your idea of how this region looks like in myths.
hope that could somewhat help to get you started.

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I know the feeling as I'll tell you, I have 56~ ideas of potential servants respectively in the works.

Do you mean on your to-do list or did you actually start in terms of writing skills and stuff?

[Kabalisto Koga]

Do you mean on your to-do list or did you actually start in terms of writing skills and stuff?

Well alone for my current two Lostbelt projects are circa 24 Servant for my Armenian are the concepts of the Great Armenia big boss servants already found the lostbelt kng also the from other factions are also far . Then are few i already started a while ago like Makaria was one and so on, in other words these are somwhere between these lines if you understand what i mean ? other Question how many servants are you have in the working ?

[DelRey]

that didnt answer the question tho. Are those 24 actually on your list to do, so havent actually started to work out their skills, or did you start all of them in some form?

in my private formatting blog are 4 servants pretty much finished. I started on some skills for my 20+ individual project. in my head a new servant is already forming. And too many names for future projects i do not know where to start.

[Kabalisto Koga]

that didnt answer the question tho. Are those 24 actually on your list to do, so havent actually started to work out their skills, or did you start all of them in some form?

in my private formatting blog are 4 servants pretty much finished. I started on some skills for my 20+ individual project. in my head a new servant is already forming. And too many names for future projects i do not know where to start.

They are in the working ,in short i have started to make them abbillity ,background and personality wise as well to search a fitting faceclaim. So now now you can say why i am occupied ,beside that i work on the secret Santa .

[Tabris]

I've been thinking about diving into servant making. Actually, I have a few ideas, but it's a struggle to get past the "loose scribbled ideas" phase. Currently have some Philippine deities sketched out. I don't have any sheets yet obv, but I'm also pretty interested in alt classes/seasonals for the rework contest.

I'm sort of equally passionate about all of my ideas and I got decision paralysis, so I figured I'd ask. The first one is always one of the hardest, so any thoughts on where I should begin? Idc what kind of thought it is. Opinions are helpful.

If you're working on Pinoy Servant sheets, why not start by presenting Servant sheets about perfectly mundane Pinoys? Of course part of what makes a Heroic Spirit a Heroic Spirit is street cred -- you have to be at least this popular to be summoned blah blah -- but there's only so much mileage you can get out of endless renditions of Jose Rizal, you know? Or -- since you've mentioned them -- the indigenous deities that survived European contact and half a millennium of thoroughgoing Christianity?

[Kamera]

Lapulapu servant plz

I know there's already one, but honestly that one's pretty underwhelming

[Tabris]

Lapulapu servant plz

I know there's already one, but honestly that one's pretty underwhelming

Plenty of interesting revolutionary Pinoys (and their allies and supporters and hangers-on!) out there. Why not, say, Artemio Ricarte? Or Antonio Luna? Or Edward Lansdale (ha!)?

[StormBringer207]

If you have several deities on your list, perhaps you can try to tell the mythology of your region in the nasuverse. Connect them, describe what happened in their age of gods, even if just passing anecdotes. I always recommend seeing them as a connected project and not separate sheets

How would it be if you give some examples of these ideas ?

I believe there's a seperate thread for pantheon creation, but I was asked so I may as well drop my loose sketches. There's a lot of overlap between the mythologies, perhaps misconceptions or just the fact that the cultures influenced each other that much. Mostly I've been researching Bicolano mythology, but it's difficult to not reference other ones just because of how many similarities there are.

The short tl;dr is that my current pre-project concepts are the sun and moon deities that fought each other, and a goddess who tried to eat the moon and lost her divinity as a punishment. Everything else I mention is sitting in the back of my mind.

Covering for Size. Seriously, I didn't mean to write as much as I did.

Bathala

The creator god. There's a couple different names between mythologies, which could lead to things like different Authorities, but I don't plan on doing much here. I think those almighty creator types are best left as mysterious, heavenly forces, without any kind of manifestation. It's also conceivable that this is just a name given to the Abrahamic God, or that Bathala was sort of absorbed into God??? Islam and Christianity showed up in the year 1400, and a couple legends simply refer to God.
-----I've seen some claims that there is a Philippine take on Adam and Eve, but I genuinely can't tell if its real or not.
-----Also, there's an account of "Dapu", giant crocodile that holds the earth, an earth goddess and goddess of the sea. I've only seen her mentioned once, but she's supposedly the counterpart to "Batala", who presides over the heavens. Might be the same guy? Then again, Batala is stated to be inferior to a different creator deity. Maybe not.

Bathala's Three Demigod Children

Bathala had three children with the same mortal woman, who I don't believe has any significance in any other story. All three girls were taken to the heavens and made full goddesses. Mayari was made goddess of the moon, Hanan was made goddess of dawn, and Tala was made goddess of stars. Mayari has a couple parallels to the evil moon spirit I mentioned some time ago, and is one of my projects. It could be possible to pull a Stheno/Euryale with the other two and just have them show up as low ranked deities since they have about as much source material.

Creation Myths

There are really two different variations, with a single outlier. In some, two siblings that represent the sun and moon fight, and the moon breaks apart to become the stars, the earth, etc. and loses its brightness compared to the moon. Buwan, Bulan, and Buan are all names given to the moon. Aldao, Adlao, and Araw are all names given to the sun.
The second archetype is there being four siblings instead of two. Adlao and Bulan are manipulated by their older brother Daga into battling the god that lives in heaven (named Languit, but shares a lot of similarities with Bathala). Their sister Bitoon gets caught in the crossfire and becomes the stars. Another version is entirely identical as far as the events go, but they just give everyone different names.
I really don't know how to deal with this discrepancy. Maybe two different pantheons would be easier. Admittedly, I haven't given it a lot of thought.

Moon Eaters

There's like five or six different creatures that eat the moon in the Philippines, it's kind of crazy. Lots of easy berserker/avenger material. Does Moon Cancer specifically apply to Moon Cell things? If not, maybe they apply??? Moon Cancer as a class is above my current pay grade.
Sometimes a goddess turns into the monster in order to eat the moon, and sometimes it's just a monster. There could be just one with a lot of different people telling the story in different ways. Could be a goddess and a moon eater monster that have their legend congregated for an "Innocent Monster" gimmick? There's a couple of routes here.

Haliya

A moon goddess, but also a warrior goddess who battles the Bakunawa, one of the aforementioned moon eaters. It's kind of debated if she existed or if someone made a mistake and misnamed another god. A ritual called "Halia" exists to scare off the Bakunawa, so a "the character exists by many people believing in them" idea could be possible? It's also possible Haliya was just a part of the pantheon, or another name for a different moon deity. Possibly a deity with two different Authorities over the moon?

Great Floods

The Ibalong is one of the epics of the Philippine areas. It tells the stories of three different heroes, the massive monsters they slayed, and who would have guessed, a great flood. As far as the pantheon goes, it names the god which flooded the world (Onos or Unos), who doesn't appear anywhere else as far as I can tell. There are a couple other stories that detail how humanity angered the river gods or how Bathala angered the sea god. Some name the Abrahamic God as the cause, so it could be worked into the very same Genesis flood, hypothetically? Seriously doubt I'll follow through with that one.

Everything is still in beta, so concepts are always changing. Due to the amount of similarities and characters who show up in multiple of them I'm leaning towards creating a collective, singular mythology, but I might just transpose them individually. Only the future may tell.

That's about all I know and all my thoughts on it. I really didn't mean to dump such a large chunk of text, but this is the place for formulating ideas after all.

[Kamera]

Plenty of interesting revolutionary Pinoys (and their allies and supporters and hangers-on!) out there. Why not, say, Artemio Ricarte? Or Antonio Luna? Or Edward Lansdale (ha!)?

too hispanisized tbh

[StormBringer207]

If you're working on Pinoy Servant sheets, why not start by presenting Servant sheets about perfectly mundane Pinoys? Of course part of what makes a Heroic Spirit a Heroic Spirit is street cred -- you have to be at least this popular to be summoned blah blah -- but there's only so much mileage you can get out of endless renditions of Jose Rizal, you know?

I did give this some thought. Most of my research thus far has been into mythology, but the Philippines are an area of personal importance to me, so I want to get to those individuals eventually.

[Kamera]

snip

Except for the much cooler moon mythos, these sounds awfully similar to the Indonesian (specifically the Indianized parts) pantheon. Bathala is probably connected to the Indonesian Batara Guru. Well, they're a pretty close neighbors anyways. In any case, looking forward to what you're going to do with it.

[Spartacus]

Lapulapu servant plz

I know there's already one, but honestly that one's pretty underwhelming

I have one but I'm using it for a story.

[Tabris]

You can actually make up a Lostbelt based on the interactions between the indigenous gods of the Philippines and the Hindu pantheon. Not a few fringe theories claim the Philippines to have been either Srivijaya or Majapahit, spun out of the threadbare piece of cloth that is the legend of Datu Puti and the very name of the Visayas. In any case, one can go with the Panhuman headcanon of the remaining Hindu Divine Spirits, weakening so that they resort to shrink mode to conserve power or whatnot, flee to the Philippines by the eighth or ninth century -- around the time of the first extensive Hindu-Buddhist cultural forays into insular southeast Asia -- and try to establish themselves there, only to achieve a mutual kill with the indigenous lowland deities, and then craft a Lostbelt possibility where those Hindu deities win their war and find a way to stop the Age of Man from encroaching on its new turf, leading to Pruning.

[Kamera]

I have one but I'm using it for a story.

oooh a Maritime Alliance servant? of course Magellan's killer would be in Conquest

[Tabris]

Not more Lapulapu and Magellan -- ahhhh why did you do your jobs too damn well, ye damnable frailes --

[Spartacus]

oooh a Maritime Alliance servant? of course Magellan's killer would be in Conquest

something like that

[DelRey]

Storm: The legends about the moon are for sure interesting. Yes you can expand the MoonCancer Class to the actual moon. "those who scarred the moon" is an ample description.
Regarding Onos and the flood myth. Idk if any time is mentioned there, but an unmentioned god related to the great flood that appears in all mythic structures is for me an invitation for Sefar.
Thanks for writing everything down, it was a very interesting read. I will look forward to learning more about this region through all the sheets of our SE Asian creators here.

[Kabalisto Koga]

I believe there's a seperate thread for pantheon creation, but I was asked so I may as well drop my loose sketches. There's a lot of overlap between the mythologies, perhaps misconceptions or just the fact that the cultures influenced each other that much. Mostly I've been researching Bicolano mythology, but it's difficult to not reference other ones just because of how many similarities there are.

The short tl;dr is that my current pre-project concepts are the sun and moon deities that fought each other, and a goddess who tried to eat the moon and lost her divinity as a punishment. Everything else I mention is sitting in the back of my mind.

Covering for Size. Seriously, I didn't mean to write as much as I did.

Bathala

The creator god. There's a couple different names between mythologies, which could lead to things like different Authorities, but I don't plan on doing much here. I think those almighty creator types are best left as mysterious, heavenly forces, without any kind of manifestation. It's also conceivable that this is just a name given to the Abrahamic God, or that Bathala was sort of absorbed into God??? Islam and Christianity showed up in the year 1400, and a couple legends simply refer to God.
-----I've seen some claims that there is a Philippine take on Adam and Eve, but I genuinely can't tell if its real or not.
-----Also, there's an account of "Dapu", giant crocodile that holds the earth, an earth goddess and goddess of the sea. I've only seen her mentioned once, but she's supposedly the counterpart to "Batala", who presides over the heavens. Might be the same guy? Then again, Batala is stated to be inferior to a different creator deity. Maybe not.

Bathala's Three Demigod Children

Bathala had three children with the same mortal woman, who I don't believe has any significance in any other story. All three girls were taken to the heavens and made full goddesses. Mayari was made goddess of the moon, Hanan was made goddess of dawn, and Tala was made goddess of stars. Mayari has a couple parallels to the evil moon spirit I mentioned some time ago, and is one of my projects. It could be possible to pull a Stheno/Euryale with the other two and just have them show up as low ranked deities since they have about as much source material.

Creation Myths

There are really two different variations, with a single outlier. In some, two siblings that represent the sun and moon fight, and the moon breaks apart to become the stars, the earth, etc. and loses its brightness compared to the moon. Buwan, Bulan, and Buan are all names given to the moon. Aldao, Adlao, and Araw are all names given to the sun.
The second archetype is there being four siblings instead of two. Adlao and Bulan are manipulated by their older brother Daga into battling the god that lives in heaven (named Languit, but shares a lot of similarities with Bathala). Their sister Bitoon gets caught in the crossfire and becomes the stars. Another version is entirely identical as far as the events go, but they just give everyone different names.
I really don't know how to deal with this discrepancy. Maybe two different pantheons would be easier. Admittedly, I haven't given it a lot of thought.

Moon Eaters

There's like five or six different creatures that eat the moon in the Philippines, it's kind of crazy. Lots of easy berserker/avenger material. Does Moon Cancer specifically apply to Moon Cell things? If not, maybe they apply??? Moon Cancer as a class is above my current pay grade.
Sometimes a goddess turns into the monster in order to eat the moon, and sometimes it's just a monster. There could be just one with a lot of different people telling the story in different ways. Could be a goddess and a moon eater monster that have their legend congregated for an "Innocent Monster" gimmick? There's a couple of routes here.

Haliya

A moon goddess, but also a warrior goddess who battles the Bakunawa, one of the aforementioned moon eaters. It's kind of debated if she existed or if someone made a mistake and misnamed another god. A ritual called "Halia" exists to scare off the Bakunawa, so a "the character exists by many people believing in them" idea could be possible? It's also possible Haliya was just a part of the pantheon, or another name for a different moon deity. Possibly a deity with two different Authorities over the moon?

Great Floods

The Ibalong is one of the epics of the Philippine areas. It tells the stories of three different heroes, the massive monsters they slayed, and who would have guessed, a great flood. As far as the pantheon goes, it names the god which flooded the world (Onos or Unos), who doesn't appear anywhere else as far as I can tell. There are a couple other stories that detail how humanity angered the river gods or how Bathala angered the sea god. Some name the Abrahamic God as the cause, so it could be worked into the very same Genesis flood, hypothetically? Seriously doubt I'll follow through with that one.

Everything is still in beta, so concepts are always changing. Due to the amount of similarities and characters who show up in multiple of them I'm leaning towards creating a collective, singular mythology, but I might just transpose them individually. Only the future may tell.

That's about all I know and all my thoughts on it. I really didn't mean to dump such a large chunk of text, but this is the place for formulating ideas after all.

as mythology and lore enthusiast can i tell you atfirst about BAthala is the old Creator and Sky God whichs name is often in christian manner misused for their God similar like as pother example the finish Sky God Jumala whichs name is used for the finish language as the christian God in the countries language .

about the other aspects i think that the philipines are belonging with tthe Malayan and indonesian area to one mythospehre .