worldbuilding Fantasy World planning

[MacThorstenson he/him]

I do think that we need to come up with a name for the world. 

Also, in order to keep things organized, whenever we post threads for this setting let’s make sure to have the world name as a tag, and have that tag as a orange box before the title of the thread. 

Finally, @ShadowLord_Lith, does that mean that the women can understand the totality of the ritual circles and the individual runes? Or just the purpose of the general circles? Also what do you mean that women are able to draw on ey magic themselves. 

EDIT: I’m not sure I want anyone to be able to use the magic without a fuel, because then they get really OP. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[kenod]

7 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

I do think that we need to come up with a name for the world.

Pământ or Erde?

10 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

Also, in order to keep things organized, whenever we post threads for this setting let’s make sure to have the world name as a tag, and have that tag as a orange box before the title of the thread. 

Sounds good, but I think it would be best if we stuck to one thread for now, unless we get a large number of participants or start creating more stories. It would be easier on the mods and other people in the sub-forum.

14 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

EDIT: I’m not sure I want anyone to be able to use the magic without a fuel, because then they get really OP. 

My guess would be that they'd need to draw on the power of nearby ley lines, which would probably leave them rather limited in total power. Sure, technically you have infinite amounts of power, but you can only use a small amount at once. More power could be used, but it would require close proximity to larger ley lines or ley nodes (crossing lines, magical hot spots).
So sure, you'd be able to use magic without fuel, but the amount of magic you can use at once would be really fickle and location dependent, so it would be limited, both in usability and scope.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

5 minutes ago, kenod said:

Pământ or Erde?

I like Erde, it's practical and easy to pronounce in your mind. Out of curiosity though, what are the phonetics on that first one?

[kenod]

1 minute ago, ZincAboutIt said:

I like Erde, it's practical and easy to pronounce in your mind. Out of curiosity though, what are the phonetics on that first one?

Not sure, it's the Romanian word for earth, but I don't really speak that language and got it from google translate. According to what I can find it's pronounced something like Pah-moont though.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, kenod said:

Not sure, it's the Romanian word for earth, but I don't really speak that language and got it from google translate. According to what I can find it's pronounced something like Pah-moont though.

I love inflection marks above letters, they always look so neat, but it's rare that I actually know what they mean. Thanks!

[MacThorstenson he/him]

I think that whatever the planet name is should either be a constant throughout the world, or language specific. If it’s language specific we should use the same naming conventions we will be using for the rest of the locations. 

If it’s a world constant, we would need to figure out the oldest culture in the world and use those names. 

I am more biased toward nordic names, because I am part icelandic, but I like the idea of using the oldnorse/icelandic word for earth. Jörð. Its a mess to pronounce for English speakers, but looks archaic and foreign in my opinion.

EDIT:

38 minutes ago, kenod said:

Sounds good, but I think it would be best if we stuck to one thread for now, unless we get a large number of participants or start creating more stories. It would be easier on the mods and other people in the sub-forum.

Yeah, eventually the mod team will be rolling out a style guide so that things are a tad more organized. I hope that a part of that is that different settings will have different orange tags in front of their name.

Edited March 13, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

6 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

I think that whatever the planet name is should either be a constant throughout the world, or language specific. If it’s language specific we should use the same naming conventions we will be using for the rest of the locations. 

If it’s a world constant, we would need to figure out the oldest culture in the world and use those names. 

I'd say a constant, just for ease of use. As far as oldest culture goes, we should decide which of the two continents first gave rise to civilization/humanity. If it's the continent we're RPing on, then I'd pick an area near the coast or near a river. That central region with all the lakes looks pretty neat too, and it's far away enough to have that "old center of creation" mystical feeling to it.

If it's the eastern continent, then we should decide who colonized and where they landed, then use that parent language.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

If we have a constand, I would like a nordic name to be it. 

I am more biased toward old norse names, because I am part icelandic, but I like the idea of using the oldnorse/icelandic word for earth. Jörð. Its a mess to pronounce for English speakers, but looks archaic and foreign in my opinion.

To pronounce Jörð:

The J makes a y sound.

The ö makes a u sound like in "fur" or "urgent". 

The r is like a spanish rolled r.

The ð is like a th in "that" or "feather".

45 minutes ago, kenod said:

My guess would be that they'd need to draw on the power of nearby ley lines, which would probably leave them rather limited in total power. Sure, technically you have infinite amounts of power, but you can only use a small amount at once. More power could be used, but it would require close proximity to larger ley lines or ley nodes (crossing lines, magical hot spots).
So sure, you'd be able to use magic without fuel, but the amount of magic you can use at once would be really fickle and location dependent, so it would be limited, both in usability and scope.

OK. That makes sense. We would need to map out the ley lines though.

Edited March 13, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[+Sorana she/her]

Erde is also the german word for earth. And we pronounce it like that:

E (like the "e" end) rde (again like in end). You stress the first "e". "r" and "d" are like in "round".

So if you really want to use germanic names as was proposed above, Erde would fit. And I'll gladly help with them...

 

========

Regarding my character.

So to sum it up: yes there are crafts and journeymen, gender equlity maybe so I'll take a man, and innate magic only to see which plants could help?

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

We could call it Vax I like Erde, but don't care too much.

As for plotlines, I'm down for what ever. Preferably something with large consequences for Kuria, though I'm not set on that.

Characters......... How would you guys feel if we set a rule so that people could only have one character in this world? My main concern being, with characters outside of the main RP not counting towards your total, this rp could get a flood of new characters. I think this would help keep it small. I assume we don't want to be as strict with character's power levels as the main rp, but do think we should have some guidelines.... At the very least community approval of a character that is going to be powerful. I'm bringing this up because it is literally possible for people to become full on gods. This could be abused very easily. Thoughts?

[MacThorstenson he/him]

1 minute ago, Sorana said:

So to sum it up: yes there are crafts and journeymen, gender equlity maybe so I'll take a man, and innate magic only to see which plants could help?

Basically.

Shadowlord sith proposed a change to the magic that would make women more equal.

1 minute ago, Steel Inquisitive said:

Characters......... How would you guys feel if we set a rule so that people could only have one character in this world? My main concern being, with characters outside of the main RP not counting towards your total, this rp could get a flood of new characters. I think this would help keep it small. I assume we don't want to be as strict with character's power levels as the main rp, but do think we should have some guidelines.... At the very least community approval of a character that is going to be powerful. I'm bringing this up because it is literally possible for people to become full on gods. This could be abused very easily. Thoughts?

I love this Idea. This is one of my favorite ideas ever. Me encanta.

[kenod]

2 minutes ago, Steel Inquisitive said:

We could call it Vax I like Erde, but don't care too much.

As for plotlines, I'm down for what ever. Preferably something with large consequences for Kuria, though I'm not set on that.

Characters......... How would you guys feel if we set a rule so that people could only have one character in this world? My main concern being, with characters outside of the main RP not counting towards your total, this rp could get a flood of new characters. I think this would help keep it small. I assume we don't want to be as strict with character's power levels as the main rp, but do think we should have some guidelines.... At the very least community approval of a character that is going to be powerful. I'm bringing this up because it is literally possible for people to become full on gods. This could be abused very easily. Thoughts?

For characters, maybe one character per plot line? If we start up different plots, more characters might be necessary, but for now one character would be good, and would allow for more of an adventuring party/fellowship type thing. Also, if we're going to be working together, it would mean most opposition will be npcs, which means little pvp, so we could also relax power limits to some degree, since a certain level of power difference wouldn't be too disastrous for the plot. Obviously a certain degree of moderation and balancing will still be necessary to keep all characters relevant, but it's less of a deal (which is good, since designing an index for this would be a nightmare).

As for world names, Jörð would be interesting too. It also kind of gives me the idea that in this world Norse (or a different Scandinavian language) might be the local version of Latin, which would be fun (in this case, we could make symbols resemble runes or Icelandic magical staves).

[+Sorana she/her]

10 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

Shadowlord sith proposed a change to the magic that would make women more equal.

I read it. But I'm not sure how to tie it together with the journeyman part?

[MacThorstenson he/him]

5 minutes ago, kenod said:

As for world names, Jörð would be interesting too. It also kind of gives me the idea that in this world Norse (or a different Scandinavian language) might be the local version of Latin, which would be fun (in this case, we could make symbols resemble runes or Icelandic magical staves).

I have one concern with using different Scandinavian languages, and that is that a lot of them are similar to English.

Old Norse was very isolated in Iceland, and didn’t really change. So Icelandic is nearly the same language as old Norse, and both are very different from other languages. 

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

My guess would be that they'd need to draw on the power of nearby ley lines, which would probably leave them rather limited in total power. Sure, technically you have infinite amounts of power, but you can only use a small amount at once. More power could be used, but it would require close proximity to larger ley lines or ley nodes (crossing lines, magical hot spots).
So sure, you'd be able to use magic without fuel, but the amount of magic you can use at once would be really fickle and location dependent, so it would be limited, both in usability and scope.

^this is what I intended. I'm sorry, my auto correct likes to go on and use its own rules.

And yes, I know that we'd then have to map out ley lines, but it shouldn't be too hard if they tend to follow rivers and such. Besides, like was pointed out earlier, it would be limited only to women, and by local. Besides, the only thing they can do naturally is change their views. They'd need to be a prepared Ritualist directly on a ley line to be at all OP.

Even then, the maximum power would be equal to a normal mana crystal. In a true nexus/node is the only place they'd be able to out power normal Ritualist's, and that's dependant on the number of crossing lines. 

 

And women would understand circles and their function, but would have to research the individual runes themselves. I'd they saw a circle to cause a wave, they couldn't cause a tsunami- they don't know which runes control the size of the wave.  It's like knowing how to speak a language vs. knowing how to read one. 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

I love Icelandic, it's a fascinating language! I took lots of Norse mythology in college so I am behind using Jörð if we want to.

If all Innate mage women can and do see circles and runes automatically I am going to have to scrap my idea of swapping my itinerant deal-maker with a female Innate character because the whole Ritual magic setup confuses the daylights outta me and I don't want to have to write about circles and runes and whatnots. 

Edit: also if we're using Norse words can we please have a giant world serpent that forms the borders of creation?  (kidding, but not, but...)

Edited March 13, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[kenod]

3 minutes ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

And women would understand circles and their function, but would have to research the individual runes themselves. I'd they saw a circle to cause a wave, they couldn't cause a tsunami- they don't know which runes control the size of the wave.  It's like knowing how to speak a language vs. knowing how to read one. 

Maybe a better analogy: two people are given the code for a computer program. One of them (the female Innate), is then given the program's user manual. The other one (the male Innate), is given the code's documentation. Both can see the actual code, but the female Innate knows what program the code will result in, but not how the algorithms function, while the male Innate knows what each of the functions and algorithms does, but actually needs manually analyze everything to figure out what the final program will be.

15 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

I have one concern with using different Scandinavian languages, and that is that a lot of them are similar to English.

Old Norse was very isolated in Iceland, and didn’t really change. So Icelandic is nearly the same language as old Norse, and both are very different from other languages. 

True, though it would probably better to say that English was similar to Scandinavian languages, since a lot of the language was influenced by the Vikings who conquered the place. Still your point stands, and Icelandic would be better (just don't expect any grammar to be correct, since basically everyone will just use google translate).

[MacThorstenson he/him]

4 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Edit: also if we're using Norse words can we please have a giant world serpent that forms the borders of creation?  (kidding, but not, but...)

While you are kind of joking, this does raise a question, what affect do the different regions of the world and their beliefs about the creation have on the world itself?

As to @kenod‘s post, that makes a lot of sense thank you. 

And I wouldn’t expect everyone or anyone to be able to get the grammar right. I don’t even know the whole language, only that which is easily reasearchable. 

I would even be fine with the language being dead and studied like Latin is today. 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

1 minute ago, MacThorstenson said:

While you are kind of joking, this does raise a question, what affect do the different regions of the world and their beliefs about the creation have on the world itself?

I would think that the world is both too big and also not agreed-upon enough to have a measurable change in form or function. For the world itself to change, you'd have to have basically everyone believing the same thing - or perhaps even that wouldn't be enough.  However, what do we want to decide about the cosmology of this world? Was it created by a "higher pantheon" that then just sort of got bored and went away? Is the world one giant Ritual circle that was designed by a god and continues to power itself? Are there things that are still on the earth that remember its true creation (these could be the "concept" gods mentioned in the classification lists like death or change or some other base concept)? I ask because this could form the basis of a larger plot arc, depending on how epic we want our problem to be.

[Vogelsang he/him]

Okay, so I just found this thread and I don't feel like reading all 20 pages right now, could someone explain to me what's going on? From what I did read it sounds pretty interesting. Thank you.

Edited March 13, 2019 by P's and Q's

[kenod]

So I've come up with a character, as well as a piece of world-building regarding their origins. All this is fully open to discussion and change, since it involves additional world-building.

The Flower Spirit's Forest and the Hidden Village:

Spoiler

Somewhere west of Kuria an ancient forest exists, and in it, a strange village. The location of the forest, and the existence of the village, are not secrets. Merchants visit sometimes, and the people in surrounding villages talk of the place, warning their children not to go there, to stay out of the forest. The forest, they say, is home to many spirits and beasts, any who enter disappearing. Some are killed, but others are turned into beasts themselves, forever guarding the ancient woods. The only safe way through the forest is through strange path, that seems longer than it should, and that always changes how it goes. Those who follow the path will eventually find a strange village, where the wooden houses seem to have grown, instead of build, with strange people, who look human, but always have something off about them. People come there to trade with them, getting high quality wooden tools and bow staves, as well as coming to them for healing, for this is something they show great skill in.
Still, most people are wary of these strange people, and say that spirits live in this village too, like in the rest of the woods, that or that these people are part spirit, consorting with the strange beings that live in these woods.

Actual explanation:

Spoiler

Centuries ago, a group of Fleshcrafters were banished for modifying living beings. Seeking a place to practice their craft without disturbances, they came upon an ancient forest, strong with magic, with a strange spirit made of wood and flowers living in its depths. They made a deal with this spirit, the spirit providing them with a place to live, food, and protection from the outside, while the humans would worship it, and help it in protecting the forest, promising not to harm it.
Over time, they took the animals living in the forest, and changed them, while their worship of the spirit enhanced it's powers, and strengthening the magic of the forest. When settles arrived in the lands surrounding the forest, they took those who entered it, and modified them as well. Eventually, the flower spirit created a small path for outsiders to take, which brought the people back into contact with the outside world, though to a limited extent.

A large number of the people living in the forest are highly experienced with Fleshcrafting, though they use different theories and principles than the outside world, and are especially good at large scale modifications to living beings, as well as working with plants and wood. They've got a number of skilled healers as well, but most villagers aren't really that interested in it, preventing to study spells that alter living beings more extensively, creating numerous strange and dangerous new species.
A unique aspect of the village is that villagers are likely to modify their own bodies to resemble those of spirits living in the forest, making themselves more animal or plant-like. At the same time, it isn't bizarre for someone to be born with unusual or inhuman features either, these people being thought of as part spirit, and generally being even more unusual in personality than their fellow villagers. New villagers appearing or disappearing overnight isn't strange either, with nobody batting an eye at it, as they don't want to anger the spirit this person likely is (or was), treating them as normal villagers.

Most of these villagers are dangerous though, since their long stay in the forest, as well as intermingling with spirits, has altered their personalities and worldviews, making them somewhat alien to normal humans. In fact, when visitors come, they normally only see a small amount of the villagers, the ones who look and behave the most human, with the others hiding from their sight.

The forest itself is dangerous as well, with many strange and aggressive beasts living here, and the spirits capturing anyone who survives encountering them but didn't leave, bringing them to the village to be experimented upon. The only ones capable of safely walking these woods are the people living in the village, and even they need to be careful.

The forest also contains a cave with Investure crystals that grow there because of the large concentration of magic in the area. The villagers keep this a secret, to prevent people from trying to take the village from them out of greed.

 

Lilia Blumenkind:

Spoiler

Name: Lilia Blumenkind

Age: ~58 (physical age looks like it's between 14 and 20)

Gender: Female

Appearance: 5'4'' tall with purple eyes and dark green hair, she has a somewhat inhuman appearance, which makes estimating her age somewhat difficult. A large white lily grows out the side of her head, and small vines grow in her hair, the vines having small flowers growing from them. Her skin shows hints of green as well, in places having a texture similar to that of leaves, or vines. She has thicker vines growing out of her wrists as well, which normally wrap around her arms and her upper body, but she can use them as tentacles too.
She wears trousers and a shirt, both of which seem to be made from a green, plant-like material which seems surprisingly sturdy. She also wears sturdy leather boots.

Magic: She is a skilled Fleshcrafter, and has used her magic to inscribe a small set of spells on her own body, some of which use her vines for targeting things (no ranged spells). The small amount of magic that she knows that isn't Fleshcrafting is extremely primitive though, relying on extremely outdated theories and being highly simplistic and wasteful. She also has Innate magic, though this is somewhat weak, as she can generally only use it to view Spirits and Natural magic, not Ritual magic.

Spells (Asterisk denotes inscribed spell):

• Physical enhancement*: This spell alters her body, improving her metabolism, muscles and bones to allow for increased strength, speed, stamina and agility, but can't be active for longer periods of time, as the changes to her metabolism would become dangerous otherwise. This spell consists of two parts, one to activate it, and one to deactivate it, since the spell doesn't need to be continuously running for it's effect to manifest itself.
• Hardening*: Temporarily hardens parts of her vines, making it impossible for Lilia to bend and move those parts, but making them more effective as weapons and defenses.
• Decomposition*: starts decomposing all organic matter that her vines touch. Since it only decomposes what is directly touched, this doesn't instantly kill targets, instead only giving surface injuries. If she has her vines wrapped around something she can use that to keep pressing her vines against it though, destroying it.
• Fleshcrafting: A skilled Fleshcrafter, she's capable of healing people, as well as interfering with living beings in other ways. She can also use this to manipulate plants as well. The complexity of these spells means that this generally can't be done on the fly though.
• Heating spell: A very basic spell that can be used to heat up an area, or be focused in a smaller area to cook things. Does not create fire.
• Water condensation: A basic spell that takes water vapor in the atmosphere and condenses it, creating a source of drinkable water.

Skills: Decent woodland survival skills, especially when it comes to hiding in the woods. Knowledgeable of biology. More intelligent than her personality might sometimes indicate. Good tracker, and a fairly good hand-to-hand combatant (though only when using her vines and magic). Has fairly good instincts (except for social situations).

Personality: Her personality is somewhat strange, acting child-like at times, while surprisingly mature and wise at other times. Doesn't really understand human morality that well, and her thought patterns are somewhat alien to humans, being more similar to that of a spirit. Her rather bizarre perspective also means that she generally shouldn't be asked for healing, since she's just as likely to heal a person as to turn them into some bizarre creature. Tends to be rather soft-spoken.

Weaknesses: Almost all of her spells take time to set up, and she doesn't have any ranged spells. Her non-Fleshcrafting spells are also extremely simplistic, and are more utility spells, not combat spells. Her appearance and personality mean that a lot of people, especially the superstitious ones, are somewhat distrustful of her. Her attitude towards and usages of Fleshcrafting can also put her at odds with other mages.

Family: Her mother lives back in her village. Her father disappeared and reappeared at irregular intervals, and is believed to be a spirit.

History: Born in the Flower Spirit's village, she was somewhat unusual because of the white lily growing out of her head when she was born. Named after this lily she was raised normally, living in the village, wandering through the woods and modifying herself. When she got older she started getting interested in the outside world, of which their village knew almost nothing, except for the few pieces of news they got from the few merchants and locals that visited them. At one point, she decided to set out into the human world, taking a number of Investure crystals with her, and went traveling, exploring the different lands.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

I think that we should avoid tying Innate magic too closely to Ritual magic. It's supposed to be a balance between Ritual and Natural, but the way we have it set up is heavily Ritual-biased.

Maybe, if we do a gender division with Innates, one gender could be more Ritual-focused (i.e. seeing symbols and spiritweb) and the other could be more Natural focused (i.e. seeing the flow of magic).

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

6 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

I think that we should avoid tying Innate magic too closely to Ritual magic. It's supposed to be a balance between Ritual and Natural, but the way we have it set up is heavily Ritual-biased.

Maybe, if we do a gender division with Innates, one gender could be more Ritual-focused (i.e. seeing symbols and spiritweb) and the other could be more Natural focused (i.e. seeing the flow of magic).

Point A: you are correct!

Point B: maybe, but it could also be that only the ritual side of innate has been explored. Maybe the more natural side is just being discovered in the way you mentioned by the ASL.

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

I would rather that there wasn't a gender division within the Innates. If we said one gender was on average better at something than their counterpart, then I wouldn't mind, but I think making it so a gender simply can't do something is too restrictive.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

15 minutes ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

Point B: maybe, but it could also be that only the ritual side of innate has been explored. Maybe the more natural side is just being discovered in the way you mentioned by the ASL.

Just fyi I don't think the "ASL" aka the Orthodoxy would be against Innate magic. Unless I misread this and you're talking about Innates who can track the flow of magic travelling with the Orthodoxy, in which case that makes sense. However, I agree with Steel Inquisitive that it would be too restrictive to limit Innate magic usage in the way of women only getting one element of the power, men another.