God: Connie Chang
Godkiller: Fred Hicks
Audience: Cris Viana, Sophie Lagace, Sean Nittner
GODKILLER: First Blood Edition is a holypunk duet PbtA game for one player, the Godkiller, and one Game Master, the god of gods. Together, the two of you will weave a mythic, violent, and transformative tale about the only mortal in existence with the power to slay a god, rising against the challenges of the divine. Which gods will you kill to shape the realm — and which gods will you spare?
Our Crade
What beautiful place in the Cradle do you call home, and what about it is broken?
My home is made in the skull of a fallen titan, felled centuries ago by ancient hands, overgrown with grass and mosses over the years. The titan’s name is forgotten but its form still shapes the land—its body sundered the surrounding plains when it fell, leaving a jagged valley that cuts deep into the earth, a wound which still remains, unhealed. Those who slew the titan settled in that valley, and their descendants still live there today.
What god rules your home, and what must you tithe to them in exchange?
Euslak, the Wound-Gifter, the Thrice-Refused, is the ancient god that rules your Forgotten Valley. At night, when the elders gather around the fires and remind the Valley of everything you have gained and everything that you owe, they must always speak of Euslak.
It is said that Euslak, the Hate-Maker, came to your ancestors before they had names and promised them the power to slay the titan which darkened the land. It is said that your ancestors did not accept Euslak’s wise offerings at first, for they were mortal, and they were ignorant, and they were proud. Euslak came to your ancestors three times with his gifts, and was refused three times; but on the fourth, your ancestors saw reason, and they took his gifts, and they slew the titan. Thus came prosperity; thus came knowledge; thus came names.
To pay what they owe, the people of the Valley make daily offerings of little agonies to echo the gifts of violence their ancestors claimed: blood from a pricked thumb, a bruise, a cruel word. There are larger offerings, too: the Triptych Tithe, a sacrifice that must be made every thirty years, a decade for each time Euslak was refused.
During the Triptych Tithe, a person from the Valley is chosen to walk alone into Euslak’s underground shrine, nestled deep within the bones of the titan. The sacrifice must undergo exquisite agonies before they are consumed, body, mind, and soul, by Euslak himself — an immense terror; an immense honor.
Perhaps the Triptych sacrifices are mourned. Perhaps they are not. No one truly knows; for once Euslak consumes them, they cease to have existed at all, their names forgotten like the name of the titan whose corpse forms your home. So it is said; so it is known.
Who’s the local heretic, and how are they humiliated or punished every day?
Khlaevon’s heresies are without number. They claim the fallen titan was a friend to our people, and that Euslak poisoned our hearts against it, using us as a weapon to kill a creature Euslak itself could not touch. They speak of a life devoted to pleasure, to kindness, to softness and community. They call Euslak’s blessings curses, and dare to call him by other names, each darker than the one we have been taught.
We have whispered to one another of Khlaevon’s original sin, the day they were to be Tithed, but instead left the valley for three years and three days. Another walked into the shrine in their place, and though we no longer know who that one was, we can feel in our hearts how it has diminished us.
We would be better indeed if Khlaevon had kept with tradition, as was their place when they were chosen.
But Khlaevon left, and Khlaevon returned, claiming revelation. We were not to listen to such words. We impaled Khlaevon upon a finger-bone of the titan where it juts from the ground at the valley’s cusp, as Euslak in his wisdom demanded done. And so Euslak blessed Khlaevon with the opportunity to understand, their every day an agony in tribute to the god they forsook, unable to die but always able to bleed.
Who is your closest friend, and why can they never truly understand you?
Your closest friend is Beishang (pronounced Bay Shung; they/them), the child of Haipa (pronounced High Pah; he/him), the Head Priest of Euslak and the Keeper of the Tomb. Unlike their mournful, stringent father, Beishang is an easygoing, compassionate, and lighthearted individual who’s been groomed their whole life to take over Haipa’s position as Head Priest when they’re ready. Much to their father’s dismay, Beishang is now well into their young adulthood and are showing no signs of being ready. Life in the Forgotten Valley is hard and punishing — the lands are fickle and don’t always yield crops; the winds change on a whim; the rivers don’t always teem with fish; neighboring gods skirmish on your borders, with the threat of war ever-looming. Beishang is the one reliable spot of light and joy in your life; they’ll even steal away from temple duties to spend time with you.
But even Beishang’s companionship has its limits. They are the child of the Head Priest, and even though they’re not quite ready to shed their youth and step into their destiny, their duties are their guiding star. They are completely, fully, 100% faithful and devoted to Euslak, as they have been taught to be from birth. This is why they can never understand you… because you are anything but devoted to Euslak.
This was the world we entered.
