All Is Wrong With The World

Because God is in his Heaven. And he ain't leaving. Matter of fact, he's been stuck up there for a good millennia or so now. Hasn't so much as lifted a finger in centuries. Not the poor guy's fault, really. Not with you humans running around proclaiming the good word.

Yeah, that's right. You. You humans. What, with your "the Lord works in mysterious ways" and your "God helps those who help themselves", and your independence and yadda yadda. I mean honestly, he goes on a vacation for a century or two and all of a sudden you think he's entrusted you with the whole shebang. Now you've stranded him up there, and what's worse, you're starting to think you don't need us gods to make things run anymore.

Well you're wrong.

Have you bothered to look around lately? War, disease, corruption, famine, death. With no rhyme or reason, no guidance or purpose. Just senseless action with no direction or thought. Yeah, you don't need us. Just like junior doesn't need his dad to tell him "no" when he finds the .44 under the bed.

Well, the godless age has gone on long enough. You all refuse to ask for help, so we're giving it to you. By force. Oh, it ain't gonna be pretty. But when we're done here, you're gonna thank us. However many of you are left...

----------------

Welcome, welcome. To the next war for Heaven.

As you may have guessed, the premise of this RP is that the gods of old have returned to retake the planet, and save humanity from itself. But gods aren't exactly infamous for working together within their own pantheons. So a decision must be made as to who will govern this new age of gods and men.

And so it was decided that there would be a war. All the deities not stuck in their respective Heavens (like the Abrahamic God) have returned to Earth to duke it out for the throne, and the position of head of the new world order. Joining them are a select few humans, their "Chosen". These people, selected at random by forces other than those of the gods themselves, are their prophets, their messengers, their advisors, and, as many of them hate to admit it, their handlers. Together, these gods and their Chosen will wage a grand battle to decide the new boss.

Okay, that established, time for some infodumping on how gods in this RP work. Here, God needs prayer badly, and the number of humans who believe in a god, as well as how the view that god, directly correlate to that god's capabilities and strength. This is why the Abrahamic God, the winner of the last such battle, is no longer with us. His followers believe him to be all-powerful, yet they refuse to allow him to interfere, because their own conception of an all powerful being scares them. So once he dropped out for a while, humanity was quick to assume (or hope) he'd left, which kept him from ever returning to Earth, and consequently, ever restoring the balance.

As your god wins battles against other gods, their prestige grows, and more people will begin to respect and revere them as deities, raising their power. There are other ways to achieve this sort of respect, such as performing miracles or bringing down some good ol' wrath, but defeating or even killing other gods is the quickest way to go about things.

However, this does not mean you can simply do as you please 24/7. There's a lot of freedom involved with being a god, but there is one rule participants in this battle must abide by. Protect your Chosen. Above their roles as advisors and whatnot, the Chosen are also proof that the god in question is capable of running the planet should they win. After all, if you can't keep one human alive, how are you going to manage several billion?

Obviously some gods will already be receiving more prayer than dead ones, like Zeus and Odin, which means they'll be more powerful out of the gate. To balance this, old gods, like the aforementioned Greek and Norse pantheons, will gain more reputation faster due to brand recognition. Think of it this way, if you ask A. Randomdude on the street if he's heard of Kali or Shiva, then ask him if he's heard of Zeus, chances are nine out of ten times he'll respond to the latter rather than the former. In this way, old gods start weaker than those currently worshipped, but "level up" far more quickly.

Finally, power levels. Please keep your gods at around the level of your average superhero to start with. As time goes on, they'll begin to fit their role as true gods more and more. Also, while it would make sense from an in-universe perspective to have multiples, please do not have more than one type of god running around at a time. Having two sun gods or two war gods just gets confusing and awkward for everyone. For deities with minor attributes (like a a god of the underworld who is also a minor cat deity), sharing these attributes with major deities is okay.

Okay, without much more ado, here are your character sheets:

Gods

Name:
Aliases (titles, other names etc.):
Myth or Religion of Origin:
Type (please sort their attributes into Major and Minor if applicable):
Gender:
Appearance:
Personality:
Abilities:
Misc:

Chosen

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance:
Personality:
Skills:
Equipment/Weapons:
Bio:
Misc:

Name: Artemis
Aliases: Aeginaea, Aetole, Agoraea, Agrotera, Alphaea, Potnia Theron, Kourotrophos, Locheia, Cynthia, Amarynthia, Phoebe, Diana
Myth or Religion of Origin: Greek Pantheon
Type: Goddess of Archery, Hunting, Virgins, Wild animals, young girls, wilderness... and that's it I think.
Gender: Female
Appearance: "Four targets?"
Personality: Artemis is serious-minded and calm... most of the time. She is prone to making biting, sarcastic comments to those she perceives as idiots, and has little to no tolerance for stupidity or fooling around. She takes a great deal of pride in her abilities as an archer and a hunter, and sometimes boasts that she has perfect aim. Which isn't really a boast, as her aim is beyond fantastic. Enough irritation will drive Artemis to yell and insult the source, berating them rather relentlessly. She does show softness towards young girls... provided they don't act stupid, too.
Abilities: Artemis is inhumanly fast and strong. However, her real abilities lie in what she can do with her bow and arrows. Curving arrows, firing them through walls, rapid-firing them, aim so impossibly near perfect that she nearly always hits her target unless they have abilities to match her own, firing dozens of arrows at once, Artemis is a master of archery. And also turning men into girls, apparently.
Misc: N/A

Name: Loki
Aliases: Lopt. It's... used in the exact same stanza of poems, sometimes.
Myth or Religion of Origin: NORSE
Type: God of Fire and Mischief. Maybe Evil.
Gender: Male. Doesn't seem to stick to that, though, or particularly care to being impregnated by a horse...
Appearance: Inclined to meet people like this. This and this are viable alternatives.
Personality: An annoyingly smart jerk. To be honest, he's basically the divine equivalent to Hazama. Sure, he does SOME good stuff, but mostly he's a walking source of trouble and disaster.
Abilities: Shapeshifting. Burning shit. Talking his way out of trouble. Probably calling his children to help, which is nasty. Oh, and he has a flaming sword.
Misc: SPOONS.

Name: Sekhmet
Aliases: The Red Lady, Mistress of Dread, Lady of Slaughter
Myth or Religion of Origin: Egyptian Mythology
Type: Goddess of War, Destruction, and Healing
Gender: Female
Appearance: Sekhmet in one of her calmer moods.
Personality: Sekhmet is the wrath and strength of Ra, her name literally translating out to "the powerful one". During her heyday, her name was synonymous with divine wrath and death, and this fierce, harsh personality has not left her since. Sekhmet is quick to anger, quicker to violence, and is generally loud, rambunctious, and hard to control. And when she gets mad, she gets mad. True rage from Sekhmet is practically impossible to control, and all one can do is either wait it out, or apply one other oddly specific method. She enjoys her drink almost as much as a fight, and it was this vice which actually calmed her bloodlust the first time she was unleashed on the world.
Abilities: Titanic strength and speed which are powered by an energy well grafted to her soul by her father, Ra, after he ripped it out of himself. Bits and pieces of this boundless power are spent in her attacks, making her blows quite literally explosive. She's also very durable, but her speed eclipses it, and her strength eclipses that. Can also harness the energy within to heal herself and, on a whim, others, but she's not quite as good at it, as it takes some refinement and subtlety (two things she lacks)
Misc: Actually a very nice drunk, something which starkly contrasts her usual personality.

Name:Amanikable (pronounced "ah-mah-ni-kah-bleh")

Aliases (titles, other names etc.): Ama ni Cable, Ama ni Coable

Myth or Religion of Origin: Filipino Myth. SCREW MAINSTREAM!

Type (please sort their attributes into Major and Minor if applicable): God of the Sea, Patron of Hunters

Gender: Male

Appearance:

Spoiler:

Personality: Ill-tempered, quick to snap at people, maybe a little derisive, and he kinda doesn't like humans all that much. Nevertheless he's going to fight to become the next ruler. He might not like humans but he's going to make the world a better place anyway...

Abilities: Can control the sea and element of water. He can use a variety of weapons, like a bow, a sword, and a knife (he's a patron of hunters, what do you expect?) but he favors using his harpoon that can also shoot out the sharp heads, sometimes attached to a long rope.

Misc: He dislikes humans because his love was spurned by a mortal woman back in the day. Yeah he's still bitter about it...

[I request more info about the Chosen. Can they use magic? Can they have above average human physical abilities? Can they be granted powers by their god? Etc.]

Name: Anansi
Aliases (titles, other names etc.): Kwaku Ananse, aunt Nancy, Mr. Nancy
Myth or Religion of Origin: West African folklore
Type (please sort their attributes into Major and Minor if applicable): Spiders, stories, sometimes wisdom.
Gender: male
Appearance:
Personality: A laid back prankster with no real goals and no ambitions. Claims to have interest in the war; and that he's only there to make record and occasionally troll the other gods. Because of this, the other gods don't really take him seriously; and consider him a joke. Just as he planned it.
Abilities: Able to shapeshift and control spiders. Can also summon rain.
Misc: He can't seem to decide whether he bought the stories from the sky; or conned Tiger out of them.