Divine Morality

Here at Foonie Magus, we believe that choices should matter. Games are a special kind of media because they’re interactive. If none of your…

Here at Foonie Magus, we believe that choices should matter. Games are a special kind of media because they’re interactive. If none of your choices make a difference, why not just watch a movie instead? In Apeiron — the first god game on the blockchain — the choices that you make will have a huge impact on your world. That’s what we’ll be talking about in today’s article: Apeiron’s alignment system.

In the Apeiron universe, you take on the role of a Wandering God, able to take custody of planets across the galaxy. Each planet has its Doods, our cute and chubby universal denizens. And each of these Dood communities has its own prayers to fulfill.

For a normal planet, these should be easy enough. They might be thirsty, and ask for you to make a little pond to refresh themselves, for instance. Or maybe they want some food cooked, so you throw down some fire for them. With your divine power, such miracles are simply a snap of the finger.

Every time you fulfill one of these prayers, your alignment will slowly push towards Good. And as you reach certain thresholds, your good deeds will be rewarded. Your planet will begin to change to reflect your benevolent nature. Trees and plants will more readily sprout colorful flowers. The sun will shine out beautifully through the clouds. Your Doods will frolic in the fields, laughing and jumping in joy. Even your Avatar will become more angelic in appearance, manifesting white-feathered wings and a golden halo.

But the benefits of being good are not purely cosmetic. You’ll also receive — as you walk along the path of righteousness — unique skills, such as the “Holy” spell for your Avatar, which can both damage enemies and heal allies, making it an invaluable combat tool. Then, as you reach the higher levels of goodness, you’ll be able to encounter special rare Apostles such as Michaeldood or create Planetary Wonders like the Serengeti.

So there are advantages to pushing yourself to be good. Still, prayers will not always be so easy to fulfill. There may be times when you either forget about, ignore, or just plain can’t meet a certain dood’s wishes. For instance, if you have a planet that is all Fire and Earth, it might be hard to give him the water he needs to quench his thirst.

The thing is, the doods, not being the smartest of creatures, are disposed towards throwing temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want. You may find yourself juggling multiple prayers at once and then see a dood you missed wander off in a huff. Some might even scold you, waggling their little arms at the sky in disdain. The nerve!

In such times, it would be easy — even desirable — to want to teach them a lesson and remind them who their god is. Chucking a fireball in the direction of an ignorant and stubborn dood will quickly put them in their place. Yet every such act of divine retribution will tip the scales of alignment in the direction of Evil.

Which is not to say that Evil is bad. Well, evil is bad but, but bad in a good way. At least, good for you: as your Evil alignment goes up, you will unlock corresponding special skills just like for Good. Holy is a great spell for the goody-two-shoes, but how about Defilement, which adds a powerful and multiplicative damage-over-time debuff to all enemies? There’s no need to heal your allies if all your foes are dead. And even should they survive, they would have a tough time against the onslaught of Doodsatan, a rare Apostle only discoverable by the foulest of the foul.

And much as with Good, when you embrace the Evil side of things, the planet will morph around you. Darkness covers the land. Hellish cracks open up, belching up flashes of fire from below. The doods let loose with massive parties, collapsing on the ground as they frolic and fight in mad delight. Your Avatar manifests a dark nimbus of shadow and a brimstone glare, making the doods cower in terror in its wake (it looks awesome).

Good or Evil, your choices will not only affect your planet, but drive Apeiron’s overarching narrative. The more Good players we have, the more powerful Cosmos will become. On the other hand, should more players embrace Evil, Chaos will grow in strength. Outcomes will shift but the future will remain exactly where it should — in the hands of the players!

So long story short, you’ve got some choices to make. What will it be? Will you lean towards what’s Good and right, or will you take on the dark side and go full Evil? The choice is yours, and whatever you decide, you’ll be transforming the galaxy. That’s all we have for now. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for more updates!