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arkshiparchitects) wrote2025-07-16 02:42 pm
Powers
| 0 | No powers, skills, or special abilities. Completely normal human baseline or below. |
| 1 | Above-average but not superhuman powers, skills, abilities. Experienced soldier, trained swordsman, average member of physically-superior species. |
| 2 | Slightly exceeding human limits. Fantasy master swordsman, supergenius, low-level cultivator. |
| 3 | Mildly violates physics or causality. Fantasy high master swordsman, apprentice mage, supernatural fortuneteller. |
| 4 | Significantly violates physics or causality. Fantasy grandmaster swordsman, 5th level wizard, young dragon. |
| 5 | Exceptional power and capability. High mage, wuxia martial artist, demon/angel. |
| 6 | Incredible power and ability, absolute peak. Archmage, ancient dragon, mid-story isekai protagonist. |
| 7 | Demigod or equivalent. Superman, Goku, Cthulhu. |
Class indicates how strong your powers and abilities are from your home canon or setting, ranked from 0 to 7. The table on the left provides a general overview of what each ranking means.
Class ranking determines your capabilities, rather than the other way around. In some events and plots, particularly Divinity Drop logs, prompts and setting notes will assign a Class range to different parts of the event, indicating which Class ranks that part is for. For example, in monster hunting, goblins might be assigned Class 0-2, while Supreme Earth Titans may be 5-6. Whichever prompt contains your Class, that prompt will be the one you should join, and it will result in your character receiving a challenge scaled to that level.
Because of this, class ranking is, within reason, entirely up to the player. (If you list Dr. Doom as Class 1, we'll have some questions, for example.) If you're stuck between two possibilities, just put which one feels right. We're not going to police it, since ultimately, the Class rank you receive dictates what prompts and threads are aimed at you. The ultimate intent is to ensure events that can be heavily influenced by powers have reasonable challenge and opportunity for all characters -- and also to give the other half of our power system more of a chance to shine, since Divinity will not have assigned levels in events.
Note that Class ranking includes all available items and equipment with the character as well. A 12-year-old kid might seem a solid 0 on the surface, but when they're throwing out a Poké Ball containing Rayquaza, you probably should rate them a little higher.
Characters with power equivalent to or exceeding that of Hyperion Star's gods are ranked as Class X. Class X characters have several differences compared to other characters:
- Class X characters are marked with their own unique symbol rather than one of the gods'.
- Class X characters cannot gain Divinity except in special, explicitly-stated circumstances.
- Class X characters must have a limiter that explains why the gods could choose this character without fear of competition or (meaningful) conflict.
Limiters can take any reasonable form, and be from canon or implemented in-game, so long as they prevent the Class X character from breaking the setting -- overthrowing the gods, enslaving all the other characters, destroying the ship, etc. They may be supernatural ("The power I rely on is weak here!"), physical ("I'm a freaking book!"), psychological ("I must submit for the greater good")... whatever is effective, so long as the limiter cannot be broken. A Class X character whose ego and pride stops them from doing any game-breaking stuff because it might endanger those weaker than them can't decide, "well, this one time, blowing up the ship really is the ethical thing to do!". You may apply more than one Limiter if you like, and if so, can freely remove all but one Limiter at any time without needing permission, though we do need a message so we know. You may also change your Limiter at any time, for example a physically-shackled character being freed, because their in-game character development resulted in a psychological Limiter instead. Again, just let us know.
The gods do not leave those they have chosen without succor, even if their chosen sometimes snicker at the word 'succor'. To those they have marked, they grant a mote of their power, that their bidding shan't go undone for lack of support. This power is Divinity.
Characters enter the game with a Divinity level equal to 7 minus their Class rank. This Divinity comes exclusively from the god whose mark they bear. As they spend more time in game, they will have opportunity to increase their Divinity level with that god (up to 7), and gain marks from other gods so that they can accrue Divinity with them as well.
Divinity powers, unless otherwise specified in the power:
- Take only a moment of concentration to initiate
- Require only slight concentration to maintain, where applicable
- Take no meaningful exertion to employ, and do not require the Marked to expend energy or resources
- May be used at will, a reasonable amount of times. ("Reasonable" should be understood as "enough not to trivialize a Divinity Drop prompt", for example.)
- Cause the mark of the god who granted that power to glow, visible even through clothing
- Cannot be used at the same time as another power
- Do not function against the gods
Divinity powers are listed on the Gods page with their associated god.