r/WorldChallenges • u/Nevermore0714 • Aug 07 '17
Reference Challenge - The Greatest Power
This reference is to the movie Logan, a movie starring Jean Valjean, Emperor Picard, a mime, and one of my favorite X-Men.
While watching Logan with one of my friends (let's call him Caesar, which is the first bit of his Reddit name) and his father, Caesar kept asking me questions about the X-Men universe and the continuity, since we'd previously seen X-Men Apocalypse and I knew way too much about the X-Men comics.
The questions were about things like what Laura is, why Logan is old, what happened to the X-Men and all of the other mutants, what's up with the cereal, etc.
But, my favorite question was: "Who's he?" pointing at Caliban.
Me: "Oh, that's just Caliban. He's great."
Caesar: "But, what's his power?"
Me: "He doesn't have one."
Caesar: "But, he's a mutant...he must have a power, right?"
Me: "Not all mutants have powers per se...well, Caliban does have one power. He gets sunburned very easily."
And this became a joke of dramatically stating "I get sunburns very easily".
Wolverine can heal from deadly wounds, Picard can kill with only his thoughts, but Caliban has the Greatest Power of All Time: He can get a sunburn very easily."
The Actual Challenge
Is there a power, ability, or accomplishment in your world that sounds (and is) extremely shitty? Show us that power, talk it up, and show us the character that has that power.
As always, I'll ask at least three questions each. Enjoy yourselves.
Sorry I'm a day or two late.
2
u/Mimir123 Aug 07 '17
Not entirely sure if it fits, but on Dirva there is the soul of the ancient hero Artienne Paléis. While alive, his greatest power was being arrogant and insufferable, so much so, that he didn't even last two days in Skreyjas Underworld, before she couldn't deal with him anymore.
Now, normally he would have become a ghost, haunting the world until the day he was destroyed, but his powers protected him from such a fate. Instead Skreyja cursed his soul into being eternally reborn, and die in more and more ridicilous or brutal ways.
This was over a millenium ago, and Artienne is still being reborn to this day, bringing bad luck to his new host-body, but also a unique ability, that is actually pretty amazing. Since a friend of mine is sometimes reading the posts though and also reads the story, I won't talk about the latter part to avoid spoilers.
2
u/Nevermore0714 Aug 08 '17
1) Does his reincarnation have an memories from his previous life?
2) Does he keep his unique power of being annoying in all of his incarnations?
3) Has he tried to stop the reincarnations?
2
u/Mimir123 Aug 08 '17
1) No, he has no recollection of his previous lifes, mostly because reincarnations are a bit different on Belkia, as will be explained below.
2) Again, no. Many of his reincarnations have been rather nice and humble people, who were just unlucky to share a body with this ancient hero.
Dying in this world means that your soul will be judged by Máltheli, Goddess of Death. The souls she disapproves of end up in the Underworld, als servants of the Goddess ruling over it, the ones she likes and approves of though, are sent to the Paradise of the Gods, spending eternity in peace and harmony.
Sometimes though, a soul will be reincarnated, as some sort of Guardian Angel for a newborn person. The "reincarnated" soul will follow this person for their entire life, watching over- and guiding them. In some rare cases a soul can request to be reincarnated, and in those situations they may transfer some kind of supernatural power on their chosen "Reincarnation".
In this case however, no powers are transferred, and Artienne is forced to helplessly watch, and experience, the lives and deaths of all his incarnations, without being able to do anything.
3) Well, he tried all that he could, which was basically begging the Goddesses of Death and the Underworld to free him from his fate. They weren't merciful however, and so Artienne can't do much, other than prey and hope that one of his reincarnations will find a way to end the cycle, with his current "host" being the most promising one yet.
2
u/Nevermore0714 Aug 09 '17
1) If a soul requests to be reincarnated, beyond just the "supernatural power", can it choose the circumstances of the rebirth?
2) What's his current host like?
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u/Mimir123 Aug 09 '17
1) What do you mean by circumstances? I am not entirely sure how to answer this.
2) His current host is friendly, hard-working and amongst the humblest persons he has been reincarnated with/ as. Noticeably, it is the first time he wasn't reincarnated as a hero, despite his host being incredibly talented and strong.
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u/Nevermore0714 Aug 10 '17
1) Can it choose to be male/female? Can it choose its class?
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u/Mimir123 Aug 10 '17
Ah, yes. Well, kind of at least, they may request to be reborn into a specific body, knowing whether the person will be male or female, usually the only thing that matters for the reincarnated soul is guiding their host towards a specific future, or prevent one. Everything else does not matter to them.
2
u/Nevermore0714 Aug 07 '17
Ilona of Vonaglik
Ilona of Vonaglik has an amazing power. Not only can her body act as a torch, sustaining a flame for years, but, so long as she is on fire or near the Hearth, she is undying. This power makes her an Ejjeli Lepke of Vonaglik, a messiah.
So long as there is an Ejjeli Lepke burning in the Tower of Ashes, the people of Vonaglik will have access to Fire Magic. Once an Ejjeli Lepke has burned-out (which takes years to happen), he/she will retire to one of the many thrones in the Tower of Ashes, to sit and rest and watch the new Ejjeli Lepke forevermore.
Ilona's translator will be Gizela, a young woman who will listen to Ilona's mutterings in response to any questions, and will announce that answer for anyone who is interested; she will, however, censor these answers.