From the patron-blessed city-states of Aerife to the walled regions of Aiasa, the Church of Theigaia has been ever-present, though its power in government varied from land to land. From Sefienna and Aethorien at the bottom of the world, their Wells of communication disconnected, to the famed and gilded Library at Iskandriyy and the High Basilica of Reme, everyone knows the story of The Ascent, Fall, and Resurrection of the Sky—though whether they believe it to have happened as the Church teaches is another matter. Some say the Church even had sway in the cursed and forbidden lands of Tara, cut off from rest of the world. At least, this was the way things were. Then everything changed.
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A little over a year ago, the Ashen Plague devastated the planet and upset the balance of world power. It was the worst global disaster since the Fall of the Sky over 2000 years ago, before the Church of Theigaia rose up and rebuilt society. Now, as people are beginning to pick up the pieces again, it is becoming clear that nature abhors a vacuum. Those whose power was destabilized by the plague—the Church, the Guilds, the Lords and Kings and Emperors—as well as those who might seek to seize power from them—particularly those who were not treated kindly by society—are beginning to make their moves.
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And somehow, whether by chance or by design, those with the potential to reshape the world—and perhaps bring back something from a time cloaked in myth—have come together at the Cathedral in the Sky: those with and without Blessings, those with and without political power, those with and without knowledge about the nature of the universe and the world before the Fall, those who have been born into a long line of privilege, those who have clawed their way to institutional power from nothing, as well as those who have had power figuratively dropped into their laps. Whether there will be a victorious rebirth from the ashes or an even greater destruction is up to you.
Reflection of Souls is (err… will be when it’s finished) a 4-hour secrets and powers LARP (heavy on the secrets AND on the powers) for 17 players using an adapted and augmented short form MIT Assassins Guild ruleset. It is a mechanics-heavy, lore-heavy game with a lot of pre-game reading (though this will vary from character to character, and some characters will lean more on mechanics for goals while others more on roleplay.)
This game has a focus on political and personal intrigue, digging up secrets both about characters and about the world, deciding whether to strengthen or shatter bonds of faction and family, and ideological and spiritual soul-seeking with many shades of gray. This game is written to be deliberately agnostic in terms of the in-game religion. It will never be definitively proven whether the gods do not exist or whether their stories have simply been twisted by humans for their own desires, leaving characters to make their own conclusions.
The game has pre-written characters and some predetermined plot elements and crises, and there will be a lot to learn from exploring the environment! This game contains character to character antagonism and secret information (secret from characters and players) that will likely come to light in game.
Note that it is possible—though somewhat unlikely—that all characters could die, and it is certainly possible for any specific character to meet an unfortunate end. Some are more likely to succeed or fail in their goals than others. Players will have the chance to rate their interest in different types of play and content in the casting form.
As an important note: This is a game that uses a fictional universe to critique the past actions (and some present actions) of the Catholic Church, from the perspective of a writer who experienced harm as a result of participation in Catholicism. If you aren’t comfortable interacting with this kind of content, this game is probably not for you.