Deone opened his eyes to a great blackness and immediately met the eyes of the person across from him. Those eyes were white and pupil-less, in a face with no features and no gender; a glowing body, human and vague. They blinked.

He looked left, then right, and found himself within a circle of similar forms. He looked at his hands and realized they, too, were glowing, white and nail-less.

It took a moment to remember who he was. His body began to change, shifting- still glowing, still white, but nails began to form and in a vague way he knew he was growing shorter. The other forms around him, 12 other white figures, began to change in subtle ways, some seeming suddenly more masculine or feminine, some growing far taller and one shrinking to a size that seemed barely above a child's. They remained featureless. Their eyes gain pupils of the palest grey. 

He knew where he was.

He knew who he was. 

He couldn't remember where he was from or how he'd gotten to this place but he knew, in his core, what being Deone meant. And he knew, this was the beginning of the God's Game. 

"Hello, players," a deep voice, comforting, detached and calm, rang from all around them in a way that he felt in his chest. "You are all here and aware now. You know who you are."

A few figures nodded to themselves while one, one of the three tallest figures, broad shouldered but thin, a body that seemed to hang from itself, called out, "We're five by five. Skip the Cut-scenes, let's get on with it."

Deone understood the reference but still shook his head, folding his arms. Such impatience. 

"We begin, then," the deep voice said without a hint of emotion. "You are Gods. You are a Pantheon. The world, your field of play, will be an agricultural, post-traditional pre-industrial economic early civilization level of 200 million souls, as agreed upon. You have set parameters as population 20 billion souls as end-game, proportional spiritual influence win condition. You have set parameters that you may not make direct physical or spiritual attacks on other Gods. You have set parameters that Powers may influence or effect other Gods if not intented as physical or spiritual attack. You have set parameters that Manifestation may only be done through Prayer from the mortal soul of a True Believer. You have set parameters that there will be one Reset Cataclysm, if agreed upon by a 2/3s majority of the Pantheon.

"You will have the choice of 1 Domain, which may have one or more related subdomains (Randomized). Know that with your Domain will come a Godly perk (Randomized). You will also have the choice of one Free Perk chosen from a pool of Perks which may provide you with additional powers, direct influence or Divine weaponry.

"The pool of Domains and Perks have been taken from the overall pool and have been decided.

"Lottery has determined First Pick of the Domains. First Pick of the Domains will have Last Pick of the Perks.

"Do all Players understand these perimeters?"

Some of the figures nodded, others folded their arms and the tall, thin figure just snapped, "Get on with it."

"Then let us begin..."

A menu appeared before all the figures, showing the list of available Domains:

 Available Domains

Contracts

Wine

War

Fire

Art

Oceans

Memory

Chaos

Death

Pleasure

Animals

The Sun

Light

Magic

Electricity

Order

Crime

Forests

Reptiles

Metal

Wind

"Lottery has determined pick order beginning with... Gary. Gary, choose your domain. You have 2 minutes, as per agreed upon parameters. Note: this choice may effect your appearance and, based upon Belief, may influence your personality until the Game is completed. Timer starts now."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Gary was one of the middle-sized, more masculine forms- nothing about him stood out, beyond that. He was, as yet, unformed. Gary took a long moment going over the list, stroking his chin; Deone took a moment to glance around, seeing most of the others examining the list floating before them, except for two- one feminine form that seemed to be stretching, maybe even doing Yoga, while the other, neither masculine or feminine, the closest to their original forms, just sat cross-legged, gazing about with their head cocked.

Deone took a moment to examine the list and figure out his options. As this was a hidden lottery, he would not know his choices until his name came up- at least, until the Free Perk round came up, where he could take a guess. He knew, intuitively, that there were thousands of domains that make up the overall poor but only a handful were presented as choices. Some of these were common, like War or the Sun, while others... he hadn't heard of a God of Contracts, Memory or anything as oddly specific as Reptiles and wondered what their actual rarity was. As the Game had begun, there would be no way to know what those concepts meant, as translated into the Mythology of a Pantheon. The God of Reptiles might be able to bring back the Dinosaurs... actually, Deone didn't know if the Dinosaurs, in their world, had ever done extinct. For all he knew, it could be an OP domain.

"Alright," Gary said in an almost bored voice. "I think I'm going with..." as he touched the screen, a glorious blaze of light lit him from the darkness, giving him more and more form until that indistinct figure resolved itself into a 5'9 young man with slicked back black hair, pitch black eyes with white pupils and sickly pale skin. He wore leather pants, thick soled black boots and cloak that covered his pale, bare chest.

"First of the Pantheon," the omnipresent voice intoned, "Gary, the God of Death. Godly Perk: The Lord of the Underworld sub-dimension."

When Gary, God of Death, smiled at the first of the Pantheon, his teeth were sharp and his mouth obscenely wide.

"I'm guessing you're an evil God of Death?" called one of the feminine forms to Deone's right. "That's a little cliche."

"Evil is relative," Gary said, shrugging. "Maybe I just look evil. Guess you'll find out."

"Evil Gods of Death are never popular," said the figure who was sitting. "Humanity already fears death. We should welcome it, instead."

"Yet," said the tall, thin figure, "here we are, immortal. Next pick!"

"Lottery has determined second pick of the Domains is... Wen. Wen, choose your domain. You have 2 minutes, as per agreed upon parameters. Note: this choice may effect your appearance and, based upon Belief, may influence your personality until the Game is completed...."

"No more Tips," the thin figure snapped, interrupting. 

"Acknowledged," the voice intoned. "Wen. Timer starts now."

Wen, a short but somehow extremely masculine, athletic figure immediately made their choice without saying a word.

"Second of the Pantheon," the voice called, as the blaze of golden light surrounded Wen's form, resolving him into a handsome, still short, man in tan leathers with a series of complicated seeming decorative buckles wearing fingerless glovers. He wore his reddish-brown hair spikey and no weather or time would change that. Gods didn't need hair gel. He had a tool belt around his waist, nestled with a small silver hammer.  "Wen, the God of Invention. Subdomain, God of Tools. Godly Perk: Manic Inspiration."

"Alright, next!" called the thin figure, but Wen held up a hand.

"Wait! What's that Perk, Manic Inspiration? I don't know it."

"Godly Perk, Manic Inspiration," the voice calmly recited, "when a mortal soul is close to new invention, the God of Invention and Tools may place the mortal into a manic state where they will work tirelessly to create the new work. Depending on the difficulty on the work, as decided by civilization/technology level of the surrounding culture and Multiple Discovery, increasing chance mortal will work themselves to death before the invention is completed."

"Eh," Wen grunted folding his arms.

"Thanks for the heads up on your Power, Wen," one of the taller masculine figures said, giving him a thumbs up. "Appreciate that little leg up. Guess I won't be afraid of you building too many temples."

Wen grimaced, then shrugged. Deone nodded to himself, resolving that whatever his perks ended up as, he wouldn't pass that information on if it gave him an edge in the game.

After a beat, the voice spoke again:

"Lottery has determined third pick of Domains is... Timely. Timely, you have-"

"War!" the tall, thin figure shouted triumphantly.

"...two minutes."

Before the voice could finish its sentence, Timely had already begun his transformation, filling out with muscle, growing in stature, long, thick and wavy black hair spilling down his broad shoulders. He had a barrel chest, a chiseled jawline and massive hands. He also seemed to be wearing a leather kilt and sandals.

"Third of the Pantheon, Timely, God of War. Godly Perk: Drums of War."

"Don't explain that!" Timely snapped up at the nothingness, his voice suddenly a deep baritone. He smirked and looked at each of the other players in turn, suddenly wanting to draw out every moment. "Game over, kids. I win. Anyone want to align with me, the line starts...." he draw a line in the nothingness with a toe. "Here."

Multiple eyes rolled though Wen cocked his head at Timely thoughtfully.

Deone could see where the arrogance might come from. War, like Death, was part of mortal life. It was a powerful deity in every game played, a powerful God in just about any Pantheon. If the peaceful Gods, whoever they might be, wanted to gather followers and keep them, they'd have to band together. Looking over the list again, Deone could see a few solid counter picks, domains that were almost always powerful, like The Sun or Oceans, but... in a way, Deone almost felt bored with the choices. 

He had knowledge of nothing beyond who he was and that he was playing the God's Game but some part of that, some vague emotion, pushed him away from those obvious powers. He was more interested in... the interesting.

The voice called for fourth pick and, just like that, Deone lost one of the more interesting choices on the list.

"Fourth of the Pantheon, Petra... Goddess of Reptiles. Subdomain: Poisons. Godly Perk: Reptilic Possession."

When the golden light faded, the feminine form of Petra resolved itself in... a stunningly beautiful face with high cheek bones, emerald green eyes and blonde hair tied up into a thick, single braid that trailed almost as long as her.... tail. Her upper body remained close to human, those her skin had a patina reminiscent of scales but seemingly soft. Her breasts were bare and her nipples... non-existent. And her entire lower body was that of a snake, coiling to let her stand at eye-height with the others. Unlike the other gods, she remained nude and was entirely nonplussed by the fact.

For the first time, Petra spoke. "Testing, testing... Okay. Good. I was afraid I'd end up with a lisp." Petra grinned and bared fangs. She cast a cold, detached look around at the other unformed Gods, flexing fingers that seem to sprout retracting fangs from their very tips. "Just to let you know, I'll be aligning with nature-based Goddesses. Reptiles may not seem like much, but Poisons...." She let that linger.

Timely, God of War, spoke up again, his voice rumbling and he seemingly enjoying the feel of his every word. "Those claws might be useful if this were God vs. God but the parameters were set to No Direct Physical Attacks. Bare fangs all you like but they better be with kisses."

Petra flicked a forked tongue his way, pausing with wide eyes when she realized she could taste the air, before snorting at him. "You're so not my type. You're not even my species."

Timely shrugged. "Just keep that in mind, people. Line still starts here."

The voice spoke again, calling out, "Lottery has determined Fifth pick of Domains is... Deone. Deone, you have two minutes."

Deone blinked. If his faintly glowing figure could sweat, it would. He had a high pick. Two minutes. And no idea what Domain to choose.