Worldbuilding Thread - Home and Garden Edition
Some worldbuilding resources:
On designing cultures:
http://www.frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir%27s_Ethnographical_Questionnaire
Random generators:
http://donjon.bin.sh/
Mapmaking tutorials:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48
Free mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com
Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
http://www.buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
http://sacred-texts.com/index.htm
Conlanging:
http://www.zompist.com/resources/
Random (but useful) Links:
http://futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
http://military-sf.com/
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/
http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
http://kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources
Questions:
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
I'm autistic.
>How [many] pages of lore/backstory do you have?
It fluctuates between several hundred and tens of pages. Currently revising everything back to the early pre-time period. The only thing that's still cannon is the origin of reality and it's current nature.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
There's a bakery in Abalanny, Estonia that sells a pot pie with cottage cheese, gouda, and minced onion stuffing.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
So fucking much but I'm nowhere near my materials being presentable.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
It's a good way to keep myself busy. Also, I always enjoyed fantasy novels and the lack of information about the world beyond a few curcial bits annoyed me to no end, so it's a way of resolving my frustration about lack of information.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
I don't know. I store everything in my head and only write something when someone asks me about my projects.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
A few merchants from Old Jin are running a huge scam. Several noble families have lost big amounts of wealth due to this, but don't say anything for fear of losing their status.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
I need history books. Tons of them. About China, India, Korea, Tibet... Between the 3rd and 9th centuries preferably.
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
Because I have too many ideas and I'm afraid of seeing something I put this much mental effort into (thinking about whenever I have free time, essentially) disappear forever.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
For most, maybe two or three A4s of size 12. For my largest, it's at least two or three dozen...
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
Every faction, regardless of their motives and stances, are being controlled in a chess-like manner by existential horrors from outside the universe, keeping humanity in a constant state of socio-political flux.
>>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
How do I generate the effort required to actually finish things? How do I learn to say 'good enough' when designing maps and thinking about excuses for fantastical setting-points?
What are the overarching themes and root ideas for your settings, fellow worldbuilders?
>Why worldbuild
Need to solidify vagueries to actually get to writing. Not going to bog down in details after I get the essentials done.
>How many pages
Diddly and squat. Still on map, still on names of nations/religions/ect.
>Trivial, random fact
>Need feedback on
I need help deciding on the name of the collective nation (like "Greeks" or "Persians" as opposed to "ionians/Dorians/Athenians" or "Achaemenids/Medes/Bactrians") of the Vedic Indians. Few centuries removed kinsmen of the Raoxshanids to the north who are their primary imperial competitor. The Raoxshanid countries use -an as their ending modifier a'la -stan or -aria, I don't want/need that for the Vedics.
Options as of right now (parenthesis is the demonym ending or form a'la "Italian/Chinese/Swahili" and so forth).
Rahayat(i) - partial to reserve this for their Raja or Rajput or martial class as it has a nice slight similar sound to it.
Daksinam
Angarajya - Little hard to immediately figure out how to pronounce it. I see it as Ang-gar-rahj-eyah
Ulkapatah - perhaps with 'am' ending a'la Siam/Assam
Jalamatrakh - mouthful
Bhaskaram - denonym might be bhaskari
Mahasukam - denonym might be Mahasuki
I'm going to work on a lot more. Referring to old sanskrit words like I did other dead languages elsewhere (nakkarum is a real bastardization of something Akkadian, Harbanu is 'desert dweller'. It's a little cheap but unless someone can speak Akkadian or is well versed in Saka Khotanese or Sanskrit or Linear B Greek or Hittite's language I'm safe). Not crazy about any of those except Rahayati and Bhaskaram, but I don't think Bhaskaram for the entire nation, maybe a kingdom or a tribe.
>>47913428
I only really have osprey and a few other stuff but give me a sec and I'll upload it for you.
>>47912435
>Random generators
Suggestion for other sites to add to the copypasta:
http://chaoticshiny.com/
http://seventhsanctum.com/
http://www.random-generator.com/
Abulafia (the last one) is especially useful. They've literally got something for EVERYTHING.
Shall we create links for map generating?
http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/world/
http://inkarnate.com/
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/demo.html
http://experilous.com/1/product/worldbuilder-demo
http://www.gozzys.com/
http://yeoldemapmaker.com/
Personal favourite is Experilous' Worldbuilder. Say goodbye to Pangaea continents!
Also, Donjon is linked twice in the copypasta. If other people aren't against the idea, I'll write an updated one and Pastebin it.
>>47913800
>I only really have osprey and a few other stuff but give me a sec and I'll upload it for you.
I have most of the relevant ospreys, I think, but thank you. I will download them to see if they're better quality than mine.
How do you guys get around the issues of avoiding or creating your own slang, idioms, etc?
What process do you guys go through in order to write something that will still get the point across without having to be explained in full to your players?
>>47914003
im a sperg so i never uses idioms anyway
>>47913768
I have a strong passion for international affairs and geopolitics and I'd like to softly and slightly insert some themes and elements of it. Not in a lecture sort of way about spiral theory or deterrence but with an eye to influences of it. Stuff like bandwagoning vs rally round the wagons (I forget the right term but basically either teamstacking or forming coalitions against an ascendant power), the idea of geography creating inherent foreign policy desires and outlooks. A theme I'd like to touch on but I am not sure I will have the skillset to do so is the conflict between power centralization and power diffusion - the arabic adage "better 70 years of tyranny than 1 night of anarchy" or the experience we're seeing today with hostility to Brussels or the classic states vs federal government in the US.
I'd also like to try and present a world that draws more upon areas less covered in usual fantasy or even history, albeit with adjustments and changes.
>>47913843
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwYUexL0zGS_WkZncHVSZnVLWTg
Also check the info at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?1026-All-Under-Heaven-(AUH)
>>47914003
I accept that any idioms or slang that aren't utterly partisan to our world ("Road to damascus conversion", "Achillies Heel",) can be used. After all if you dig deep and try to omit any terms with overtly partisan meanings or etymologies you'd practically require a reader learns a new language.
>>47914113
Thank you for the links. I do wan fry rice.
>>47913768
>What are the overarching themes and root ideas for your settings, fellow worldbuilders?
Regret is a large one.
The entire reality of the world is held together by a single Omnigod who regrets breaking it. And a large quantity of the religions, short stories, and history are about regretting past mistakes.
Ultimately everything is moving towards forgiveness however. Eventually.
>>47913817
Go ahead, spruce it up.
>>47912435
A couple anons asked for some hard mode questions last thread.
>Pick a random citizen from your world. It can be a king/queen, a merchant, a noble, or a simple peasant.
>What's his or her name?
>What race?
>What country?
>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
>Give a very brief summary of a normal day in their life.
>What are their hopes and dreams?
Dante Must Die questions also available upon request.
>>47913817
>>47914292
I'm thinking that this is going to get a bit long, so it may be easier to just post the Pastebin link like in /cyoag/ and others (that I don't spend too much time on).
Does anyone else have links they think are worthy of being added?
>>47912435
>>47913817
>>47914292
>>47914339
Right, added a few stuff of mine and other links I've found scattered around. I'm not the best at formatting using ASCII alone, so if someone wants to make it prettier that'd be great.
http://pastebin.com/xLFkW82C
Do people want to make a /wbg/ shared PDF archive, or are Da Archivist's efforts on PDF share threads sufficient for people's needs?
Huh, surprised there's a thread about this, didn't know it was a thing.
How old are you all? I feel that I won't be able to create a world until I'm at least in my middle age. There's just still so much for me to learn. I have stirrings of ideas too, but I just don't feel that I have have something socially important to say with my world. I feel that at this I am only capable of emulation. If I create something, it must be groundbreakingly original, and I want that originality to flow from me naturally, which at this point it won't.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
I love seeing things on a large scale and creating nations. That and creating classifications and systems is one of my greatest joys.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
My largest setting has over 100 pages.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
The port of New Ibreth is separated into 5 sections, each for the five separate nations that are involved in Henelian trade.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject??
Any suggestions on how to develop a realistic military structure? Either sci-fi or modern is fine.
>>47913768
Sci fi setting: Loneliness and struggling against the cycles of humanity
Magitech setting: The power of will and companionship
Low fantasy setting: The distance of home and creating family for yourself
WWI setting: The bonds that war forges and how it pushes people to do great things.
D&D Setting: Setting aside your differences and general high fantasy stuff
AltHist Mecha setting: imperialism and standing up for what you believe in
>>47914003
I don't use idioms a lot. Curses can be easy to make depending on how developed your religious systems are. Slang are harder for me but come easier to others. I'm terrible at them though.
>>47914292
>Pick a random citizen from your world. It can be a king/queen, a merchant, a noble, or a simple peasant.
Ok.
>What's his or her name?
King Malitas III
>What race?
Human
>What country?
The Mage-Cities of Devia
>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
He believes the mage-cities to be weak and that the southern Consortium to be a bad influence on the continent as a whole, sucking away the resources of not only the mage-cities, but also the southern Kingdom of Rha'zhir.
>What are their hopes and dreams?
The unification of Devia
>>47916384
I'm19. My greatest advice would be to just have an idea and run with it.
>>47916384
I'm 22. I guess I'm younger than most, but maybe I'm older, who knows. You can create a world at whatever age you want, there isn't some kind of secret society regulating the world building scene. You will always have too much to learn, that's the nature of human life. You can find idiots and geniuses in all age ranges. Thinking that you're "too young" is just losing precious time.
What do you men with socially important? Like social commentary? That can be hard. Very hard. You have to understand society. And I mean actually understanding it, comprehending the relevant issues and being able to make judgement without letting some ideological bullshit influence you. We have enough SJWs and Stormfags ruining things for everyone. But let's not go there. It will derail the thread and we had enought of that last time.
And you should forget about being "groundbreakingly original" before creating something. To be original, whatever that means to you, you have to practise. Practising you gain knowledge, and knowledge helps you to overcome your limits, and that will allow you to be more creative and original. Trying to be totally original from the beginning will result in very, very shitty works, because you don't know what you're doing, or what has been done before. Nobody is original since the beginning, and a semblance of actual creativity can take years to appear. I'm not original, for example. Probably never will. But if I were to be, it would be after years of work.
Just practise, and forget about trivial matters. Do it for the sake of doing and enjoying it. This is a hobby, after all.
Of course, this is my opinion and it's as valid as anyone else's, so eh, do whatever you want.
>>47912435
>>Why do you like to worldbuild?
Not sure, it's just fun.
>>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
No idea, I loose the books I write in too often.
>>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
The majority of the ecosystem of the vast underground caverns is sustained by plants capable of thermosynthesis.
>>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
Biggest issue is probably just that I need to name more things.
>>47913768
>What are the overarching themes and root ideas for your settings, fellow worldbuilders?
Uniting to overcome terrible evil.
>>47914292
>>Pick a random citizen from your world. It can be a king/queen, a merchant, a noble, or a simple peasant.
>>What's his or her name?
Thibault Legrand
>>What race?
Human
>>What country?
He's from the Kingdom of Vecha, but is in the Kingdom of Irun, which is to the south.
>>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
Things could be better, but they could also be far worse, given that many kingdoms to the south essentially don't exist anymore outside of their kings. Not very interested in politics, and feels that Vecha should be more involved southern events, but this is largely due to the fact that as the third son of his noble father he won't be inheriting too much from him, and certainly not any land.
>>Give a very brief summary of a normal day in their life.
Outside of the obvious, like meals, most days consist of sparring and trying not to piss off more important nobles.
>>What are their hopes and dreams?
His primary goal, like those around him, is to see the land of Tagus (which Irun is in the northeastern most part of) purged of monsters and anyone who serves demons, so that the fallen kingdoms of Tagus can be recreated That will could also mean the recreation of the lands of the Mazhian invaders in the south of Tagus, but that's preferable to hellish anarchy.
>>47913768
Power. The difference between real power and imagined power. Mortals in-setting have a bad habit of overestimating how much power they have, and often get punished by the powers-that-be.
Having Greek God-equivalents walking around doesn't help things.
It's a High Magic setting masquerading as a Low Magic one.
>>47917420
>Just practise, and forget about trivial matters. Do it for the sake of doing and enjoying it. This is a hobby, after all.
This. You get better at this kind of stuff by doing. I've been trying to work out some high level stuff for years now, and constantly wind up scrapping what I have and going backwards, but each time what I have is a bit better and the point I go back to is a bit further forward.
>>47913768
history doesnt repeat itself... but it does rhyme
>>47912435
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
over 60
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
nest ships are cannibalistic..
>>47916384
22 been working on this setting for 6 months on and off
>>47914292
james
human
born on the generation ship Zalmoxis
he feels that he is a part in humanities future amongst the stars
he maintains a small bio dome/greenhouse with his family of 7 mostly cultivating vegies and wheat.
for him and his family to see the sky for the first time and live out their days in peace.
I'm about to run a session where the party discovers an island. On the island is an abandoned civilisation, whose buildings etc were magically preserved since the iron age. The civ was a coalition between orcs and humans, and at one point, elves (but then the elves left). I'm running low on ideas, so I was hoping /tg/ could give me some perhaps to kick start the process. What kind of artefacts could they find there? What other interesting things would be around? If pirates were knocking around here too, having only just discovered it themselves, what sorts of conflicts could arise between them and the party?
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
Well I used to think of it as a prequel to writing something, but I no longer write much. Ideas don't tend to leave me alone until I write them down, I suppose.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
13.5 according to Google Docs, although that's with the caveat that I tend to write more IN a setting than ABOUT a setting- I have probably a hundred pages of writing in various universes. Generally my worldbuilding notes are just minimal shorthand to get me to remember the world.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
If a normal human being looks at an angel, their eyes burn out- forever. If you implant replacement eyes in, they burn out. If you put glass eyes in, they will deteriorate much more quickly than normal until they are only dust. The closer the thing you use to replace an eye is to an eye, the faster it deteriorates. For eternity.
This can also happen to low-rank angels, should they gaze above their station. Generally only members of The Quick, The Watchful, and The Ordered have to worry about this, though a member of the Bright still wouldn't be able to, for example, look at one of the Holy Host with impunity unless he had God-given reason to.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
Hmm. I don't really have anything presentable.
Oh, actually, I have a spacefaring setting where most people are settling individually in asteroid clouds and other low-space environments, and I was wondering what they'd be growing to eat. My instincts say potatoes, but I recently realized I have literally zero evidence to back that up. Anybody know what crops have the largest calorie-to-growing-space ratios?
>>47913768
Well, my angels/demons urban fantasy setting is probably mostly leaning towards stuff like reaching towards self-actualization and also realizing that even if people love you, they almost certainly think they know better than you at some point. It's typical urban fantasy/YA stuff, I guess.
My Anglo-Saxon space-magic setting is probably about the power of determination, fighting to the bitter end, and dealing with a world that seems arrayed against you- the main antagonist is the Clockwork God that hates humanity, and the two time periods in which I'd set an actual story are when He first discovers and tries to destroy Humanity or the period some time after that in which some of his Loyalists try to rebuild him after he was destroyed.
My every-nationality-a-different-animal fantasy* is probably going to deal with themes of death, loss, grief, and a general sort of life-after-tragedy sort of deal.
I guess that's most of what I've been thinking about lately.
*Can you call it fantasy if there's no magic? It's just animals in a sort of late medieval/early renaissance adventure. Think The Katurran Odyssey, a little bit.
>>47913768
Generally, I found myself fascinated with concept of empire being overrun by an outside context problem leaving behind successor states so I started making medieval Europe-esque world only with more focus on Byzantine tropes rather then actual knightly parts of the world.
>>47920035
Were the orcs, elves and humans speaking the same language?
If not, have the PCs discover an artifact with writing in three different languages, sort of like the Stone of Rosetta. Or maybe a magical device that translates back and forth between three languages. That would have been vital to the island civilization.
Of course, there's tons of valuable stuff to loot from the ruins. I imagine the pirates could be going for that and don't want the PCs to get anything. Alternatively, the pirates want to set up camp on the island, since it is fairly secluded (I assume) and they don't want them to give away their hideout.
If the ancient buildings were preserved, maybe the same thing happened with their boats? Maybe their boats were magically enchanted and very advanced vessels? You could give one to your party as a base of operation at some point.
>>47920946
>Anybody know what crops have the largest calorie-to-growing-space ratios?
Dunno exactly, but this chart might be helpful for you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staple_food#Nutritional_content
>>47913800
Change of mind, names I'm considering for the Vedic Kingdoms/tribes are:
Niravahan (denonym being Niravahani)
Niravaham (denoynm being Niravahami)
Niravahanam (denonym being Niravahanami)
All pronounced "ner/nir + ah + vah + han/ham" or "ner/nir + ah + vah + han + am".
Pravasita (Pravasiti)
Pravasitam (Pravasiti)
Pronounced Prah-Vah-sea-ta or tam or Pra-va-Sea-tee)
Variyana (Variyana or Variyani)
Variyanam (Varianya or Variyani)
Pronounced Var/Vear-ee-ah-nah or Var/vear-ee-ah-nam.
Gunjitam (Gunjitari)
Pronounced Gun (with a j-ish ending like the start of jungle) + ee + tam/tar-ee)
Currently leaning to Niravaha whatever. Vedics are nearby Nakkarum but aside of the N syllable they don't sound too similar. Has a slight accidental feel of Nirvana as a plus.
Still working out possible terms but it's nice to have inspirations jogged by just looking up the meaning of some of these long dead language's words. Looking up "Exiles" and "Voyage" on a lark gave me the image of some primordial tribe in the ancient days of this world's Indo-Europeans exiled from the verdant north across the brutal desert of the Harbanu, suddenly coming across the silt-rich river valley of their new homeland. Like the Herodotean myth of how the wars of Asia and Europa began with some ancient wife-stealing a'la paris and Helen.
And nuts to chariots and big ol pyramids, I'm salvating at writing the sense of awe and terror of having to fight war elephants or other exotic beasts of war that come to mind (Rhino steeds? Chariots pulled by muscular horse sized Ibex or Antelope?)
>>47925204
You should learn how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet. English orthography is highly irregular and more or less useless to convey exact pronunciations.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
I find it rather enjoyable to come up with ideas for settings to play in.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
Usually not much, which is a bit of a problem. I tend to paint broad strokes and forget to make details.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
Mainly just how to make a setting coherent. It feels like every world I build is a grab bag of random good ideas I've had, smushed into one. I get too caught up on making things different to the degree I have to seriously alter the character creation options.
Basically I spend to much time homebrewing while world building and I always end up with a mess.
>>47925636
>random good ideas
Tell me about one of your worlds, anon.
>>47912435
>why do you like to worldbuild?
because it's fun
>how many pages of lore/backstories do you have?
it's pretty hard to approximate how many pages i have but it's quite a lot even if it's still has more room to cram in more development for this setting
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
People are made up of burrowing creatures instead
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
i need some insight on how to make a good mish mash of cultural exchanges inspired by the countries along the Silk Road for one civ. Originally, they're just notArabs but there is already one nomadic people that fits that bill. Because they have a robust trading culture they all tend to travel a lot, excahanging much of their culture throughout the world till they have even integrated some aspects of those foreign cultures into theirs, though if only aesthetically speaking. How does one make a good crossroads Silk Road civ?
>>47913768
I just want to build a cool world based around exploration. I suck at worldbuilding though so it's not going well.
>>47925783
Hmm...well, one of my more recent attempts was a twist on the idea of a Water World, being a world of fire instead. Basically just a world dominated by that element over the others.
So I had a planet with a higher surface temperature, with several continents. The oceans near the poles were temperate, temperate regions were more tropical, and the equator was scorching desert and steaming oceans.
Lots of volcanoes and tectonic activity, with streams and rivers often flowing from warm springs in the mountains. Vegetation was a mix of bright warmer colors, and even some wildlife would have natural fire abilities.
For magic systems, I figured I'd have elemental spirits be everywhere, in everything. You'd have spirits from rivers, rocks, mountains, fires, everything. Spellcasting was to involve either asking big spirits for small amounts of their power, or convincing multiple small spirits to give you more of theirs and combining it into something usable.
Race-wise, I had a few varieties of draconic humanoids all with fiery breath weapons of different colors. Some breathed smoke and were more stealthy, other had white-hot breath that they used to make tunnel networks in mountains.
The latter competed for space with kobolds, who also formed large underground societies. I also had Nymphs as a more sentient form of spirits that watched over rivers or springs, and dryads that became more detached from their trees due to the constant wildfires.
Humans formed more tribal societies, often with harsh divisions due to region. Most societies were very tribal and separated overall.
As for why the world was like this, basically the god of war and fire managed to kill off the other gods and impose his will. The last 'diety' left is a giant demi-god who wanders the world leaving a path of senseless destruction.
I can tell there's useable pieces here, but I feel like I just put them together wrong, or focused on the wrong things.
What are witches like in your setting?
Old, evil women who lure children into their cauldron? Kiki's Delivery Service-style magicians who are cute and benevolent? Middle aged women getting into paganism for the sake of something to do?
do you like to worldbuild?
Because I'm terrible at fiction. Fictional history, however.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
Many, but they're spread between corners of my university notes, digital notebooks, and a few actual pages.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
Gods come and go as they become relevant or not.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
I need help with Eastern European nomadic culture. Any PDFs relevant? My setting is 15-1700s, and I've got a Poland/Scotland to deal with.
>>47926607
There's only one witch. Cackling 200-year-old woman with magically youthful appearance. Lives in the woods, wears dress made of live rats, buys tears from people to water her vegetable garden and tricks people who anger her into becoming werewolves. Or just feeds them to her dress.
I'm looking for ideas for interesting artefacts. They don't have to be something that's only useful to players, it can be anything, does anybody have any ideas?
>>47926639
I can't help it. Everything is Europe. Indigo blob is Russia, northern section of mauve blob is Estonia, with the green blob next to it as Latvia. Other green on the east is Ukraine. Orange is France, stretching down to a bit of Spain that got chopped off. Everything else is just filling in between.
Everything is Europe. No one is safe.
>>47927112
I've got some joke artefacts in my day, like The Cap of Persecution. Anyone who puts it on becomes convinces that someone powerful is out to get him. Reasons for it are constructed based on wearer's personality. Every misfortune that happens is not attributed to this person.
This person is also entirely fictional.
>the suffering of being indecisive af
Can't make up my mind on how fantastical I want my rough outline of a setting to be
>>47927245
Calculate it based on what kind of stories you want to occur there
>>47916384
25. I've been worldbuilding since I was around 13, using an iterative system before I really came to understand what an iterative system was. Worldbuilding, personally, is a matter of concept exploration, sometimes a matter of reinterpretation, sometimes a matter of reconstruction, and not necessarily always a matter of innovation. I don't think it necessarily needs to be groundbreaking or original, but what it means to you is naturally more important than my opinion - it is after all, your world and your ideas.
>>47926004
One stage of my setting is postapocalyptic, but much brighter than postapocalypse usually plays out.
All the major empires and warring factions have fallen, disappeared or died out, and survivors of all races gathered together in communities of a few thousand, often hundreds of miles away from the next settlements. They make use of the riches and infrastructure that civilization has left behind. Now, several decades after this new age has dawned, people are setting out to remap the world. They search to rediscover the ancient centres of civilization, the wonders of nature, and the knowledge that can still be salvaged. There is a whole continent to be rediscovered.
>>47925810
>How does one make a good crossroads Silk Road civ?
The center of the real world Silk Road sat at Samarkand, roughly, which had a Aryan/Persian culture for most of its history and then turned into an Islamic center of sciences later on.
What cultures are closest are neighboring your Silk Road culture? What cultures are on the opposite ends of the route? Anything can take an influence here and the cultural possibilites could be endless. Commerce and knowledge would probably be held in high esteem no matter what.
>>47926607
Witches or witchers are people with a talent for an intuitive, visceral type of magic. They don't have the organized study or sharp wit of a wizard, nor do they have the deep rooting in the surrounding world as druids and shamans do. But with a similar amount of determination, they can perform an impressive amount of cantrips, brew useful potions and cast powerful spells. Their magic is more useful that flashy, more bewildering than stunning, more here than there.
>>47927147
>I can't help it. Everything is Europe.
Thanks for taking the burden of posting exactly this from me.
>>47912435
So the 'demon kings' I have look aztec crossed with sumerian for aesthetics. Very simple setup of might makes right rulership. "I want slaves, go out and get me slaves'. I feel its nice and pulpy.
For the life of me, I dont know how to convey this to the players wihout a direct audience with one of these posessed warlock/demon princes (which would be suicidal in it's own right. DO not trifle in he affairs of gods)
How do I get the point across to generic feudal participants that these guys they fight are brutally led by tyrants, and cutting the head off the beast would actually kill it(so to speak; rulership would dissolve at a SIC SEMPER TYRANNUS moment)?
>>47928489
Demonstrate unrest throughout the populus. Hint at it with gossip and undercurrents of discontent, show the necessity for control over the masses (or in some cases, the lack of control).
Alternatively, make it that a collective mindset is apparent, then set it up such that there's a very evident "brain" central figure. When the "brain" dies, thought stops. Logical?
If you can convey the idea that the power structure is as simple as "strongest man rules", then the idea that cutting the head off the beast will kill it shouldn't be too hard to express.
How sophisticated was WWI era military structure? Was it as developed as modern military ranks and command structure, or less so? And if so, how was it structured?
>>47928572
Ah yes; occams razor. I overthink the subject, yet again.
Danke anon!
>Pick a random citizen from your world. It can be a king/queen, a merchant, a noble, or a simple peasant.
>What's his or her name?
I still hasn't hasn't decided on her name
>What race?
Human, they are all humans
>What country?
Emerald College. Not quite a proper country, just a mage college answering to nobody in the middle of place of magic power
>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
Disdainful. When I was sketching faction leaders, I gave each a defining trait and her I labelled as "Disdain for ungifted". She feels little if any respect to anyone who isn't an elementalist mage and generally wish they'd slaughter each other already
>Give a very brief summary of a normal day in their life.
Leading council meetings, taxing ungifted peasants for their food. Beating some discipline into her students on a good day.
>What are their hopes and dreams?
She's a mean and bitter woman who came into position of authority at young age by means of sheer magic power, with everything to prove and nobody to prove to because outside the college nobody is that strong. She thinks more power would make her happy, but it doesn't really do. Also, he's a crazy sadistic lesbian who often singles out a female student to constantly pick on.
>>47913768
if you believe,you can do thisIt;s not trueit's not true
>>47928722
What does that even mean?
>>47925545
I should, but my concern there is to a lot of people (least of all myself) it seems like hieroglyphics/just greek to me.
I'm really just concerned to make sure that:
1) Pronunciation is relatively easy on reading the term (deleted some older ones that were troublesome, but if I stutter or slip on the tongue trying to pronounce it in 1 try or at the most 2 tries then it's a bad choice. Not scientific admittedly)
2) It doesn't sound like, or shorten to, or resemble something bad. Some of the Indian stuff would have a dum ending (after all dum-dum arsenal in calcutta behind dum-dum bullets), or one of my characters infamously is mispronounced to be cumflayer or cumfire.
>>47925810
I'll post some visuals from the real life central asia region - sarmakand, bokhara, sughdia, ect.
>>47928642
Check the wargaming topic with the osprey books for WW1 era osprey stuff. I would think it was as developed and perhaps almost exactly like modern military ranks and command structure. If I had to hazard a guess odds are like throughout history the crucial lack compared to modern (Western) armies and a WW1 one might be a lack of empowered NCOs. I also recall that I think it was in WW2 that the Germans were the first to really liberate lower level officers and soldiers in their orders - "Go take that hill" instead of "at 0751 march out, at 0758 proceed up the hill from a north-west direction, at 0770 circle round the back."
However I may be mistaking the period and nation, but if I am remembering it right I'd imagine the Germans might have had this in miniature during WW1 with the whole liberty of stormtrooper units.
>>47929085
At least in a book ( https://books.google.com/books?id=0LYDf02jgdAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=silk+road+book&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7h6mD_r7NAhULLSYKHVanBOYQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=silk%20road%20book&f=false ) I've read that did an exhaustive archaeological and analytical take on the Silk Road (not just uncited sources or only citing modern authors or older historical writers) the Silk road wasn't a "Li-Shua-Han goes from Northern China all the way to Baghdad with the explicit objective of selling his wares in Baghdad, stocking up on stuff to only sell there". Rather it was a staggered, multi-layered and informal trading network. Chinese man might sell silk to a Sughdian at Xingjiang, the Sughdian might sell to another Sughdian in Samarkand, who sells it to an Arab in Khorasan, who sells it to an Armenian in Baghdad, who sells it to a Jew in Damascus, who then sells it to someone in Europe.
I don't think you see joint ventures with long-term goals in mind until marco Polo.
>>47913768
Civilization vs. Chaos. the whole setting is a pastiche of colonial times, with medieval to modern technology but mindsets from classical antiquity. the feel I'm going for is Heart of Darkness as written by a Roman with a bit of Sinbad peppered in. a common theme is staying in "barbarian" territory actually brings out the worst in people not because it actually makes them mad but because there is no-one keeping them in check anymore.
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
It's part of my general urge to create things, really. I can't not create things, and somehow settings became one of the things I must create.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
Across all my notebooks, journals, loose pieces of paper, notes jotted down in margins, text files, and chatlogs with friends who I consult and brainstorm with, probably hundreds. A lot of it is superseded by newer things, though.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
The south-american-inspired moth-people can see a type of light reflected in the sky that no other species in the universe can see, and they have a separate calendar based upon the regular cycle of patterns and colors they see in it, used somewhat like a zodiac/horoscope system.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
My setting features nothing described as human, but many races inspired by races and cultures of humans. What are some physical variations I can add to them to make them less like just plain humans (i.e. the native-american-inspired race growing feather-like structures behind their ears or the ooga-booga jungle africans growing tusk-like bone protrusions under their noses)?
Unrelated, but pictured is a race I've recently imagined, meant to be a mixing of members of two other races stranded on an alien world and partially affected by the background magic of the planet.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
I've decided that if my setting is going to have any magic in it, I want it to for the most part be grounded in modern physics, and I have a very vague idea about how it might work.
What I'm stuck on is the obvious problem of how the universe would identify sapient beings. I know people say the brain is the most complex object in the universe, but the standard used to come to that conclusion seem totally arbitrary. Is there any possible physical measurement that can be made in which the human brain would have a higher value than any other arbitrarily defined object.?
...Am I overthinking this?
>>47929748
>.Am I overthinking this?
yes
>>47929748
Most definitely. Even without considering sapience as a matter of "definition", you could have simply approached it as a matter of "can it think for itself?" / "to what extent can it think?" / "how does it perceive the world?"
Start off with simple questions to put down zones before you start trying to isolate some specific tangible criterion.
>>47929748
Why do you need it to identity sapients? Is there a key difference if animals can tap into magic if they figure it out?
>>47929939
The thing is, if magic is dependent on sapience, then logic would dictate that the relationship between magic and sapience could be used as an identifer for sapience. Such that those creatures which are capable of magic can be considered sapient, provided that only sapients possess the capability to utilize magic.
I think he wants to identify sapience for a different reason, but I dunno.
>>47913768
Perspective/point of view and perception.
The nature of anything can change depending on how you view it. All points in the universe are actually adjacent to all other points in the universe, but things exist and move through them as if this were not the case because things cannot exist in such a reality, at least not in any way that makes sense. Usually, peoples' perceptions line up with each other and with what the forces of the universe themselves dictate, but not always. An example is the soul. Some view the soul as comprising two separate souls, one handling potential and one handling limitation. The mind is an entirely separate thing, being purely a manifestation of the body. Others view the soul as an animating force which the mind is attached to and which keeps the body alive. Depending on your point of view, both of these contrary ideas are equally correct--or perhaps equally deluded. Either way, working on the assumption that it is one way allows one to study and manipulate things--adherents of the first view find that forcing the power of a soul of potential into a dead body can animate it, for a time, and its original mind is still there, assuming the brain hasn't deteriorated. Adherents of the second view find they can move souls around and the mind goes with it.
By understanding the subjective nature of the universe, one may find themselves capable of accepting both premises, and thus they are able to manipulate souls from both viewpoints.
I'm having trouble picturing a sort of city state based in the mountains, not the foothills but mostly in the slope. Any inspiration?
>>47930040
Yeah. I'm not sue either.
On a related note, now I'm imagining a crow watching a random mage scribe a magic circle to light a fire or create some bread, only for the crow to mimic it later and become a crow wizard.
>>47930103
Tibet
Kappadokyan cave citiesBielefeld
>>47930122
I think Corvian based magic would be pretty interesting, though admittedly I have a hard time deviating away from the preconceptions of crows being sneaky thieves, so that affects my idea of what their spells would revolve around.
That, and I already have enough trouble figuring out what an interstellar bear civilization would be like in my current world.
>>47930217
That's just it. The magic is a crow being a sneaky thief. He spied on a mage, and managed to figure out how to cast a simple cantrip through trial and error.
I'm more thinking of this as a one-off thing that happened to a normal, mundane crow, rather than some sort of advanced crow civilization.
>>47930307
Well it would certainly put a whole new spin on "monkey see monkey do" if that was how monkeys were uplifted into humans in some alternative wacko story of genesis.
>>47929907
>>47929939
>>47930040
That may not have been the best explanation. Basically, magic would in all likelihood be an additional fundamental(?) force (or perhaps multiple), which means it should have its own particle to carry that force. If people (and perhaps some animals or even aliens or robots) are going to be able to manipulate reality with their minds, then they will need to be able to generate and send these particles. If sentience arises from electrical impulses, and there is no way to identify one electrical impulse from another, than as things are right now, there isn't any way for brain electrical impulses (and only those kind) to output magic particles. I will probably need brains to generate some kind of field which in turn can send these particles (or perhaps, auto spawn a spirit/guardian angel/thetan which interprets thoughts and then casts the spell itself). What ever hypothetical measurement would result in a 4d graph (measurement vs space) with local maxima in the locations of functioning human brains would be the way of determining the strength/existence of the field in a given location.
>>47931260
In that case you're better off just making up a random test and using jargon to make it sound scientific, because realistically that wouldn't make sense at all, and the deeper you delve into classical physics, the less that hypothesis will make sense, much less trying to work out any possible conclusion using quantum physics. I mean, the whole "sufficiently advanced science = magic" thing sounds nice as a concept, but if you're trying to put strict guidelines on it (or attempt to quantify it based on your understanding of existing systems in reality) you're just going to give yourself headaches.
Your statement that there is no way to identify one electrical impulse from another isn't necessarily true by the way. There may not be a definitive method to correlate the specific wavelength and frequency to a "thought" (and as neuroscience becomes more advanced the whole idea might hit a paradigm shift) but there's no real reason to believe that all electrical impulses must be identical.
And about brain electrical impulses creating magic particles, are you trying to go for something based off of the Wave Particle Duality or something? It sounds like you're trying to mix and match all sorts of different physics theories together with what you know about neuroscience before tossing magic into the cauldron.
>>47931616
I don't necessarily mean that they're all identical. I assume that it's possible for any individual electrical impulse in the brain to be duplicated elsewhere.
>It sounds like you're trying to mix and match all sorts of different physics theories together with what you know about neuroscience before tossing magic into the cauldron.
Admittedly, that's probably right.
>>47927456
That's pretty neat anon. Right now I only have tgethe core idea which is a bunch of sapient races with interesting cultures all arriving at a nearly unpopulated new world after theirs somehow gets destroyed. The hard part is making how and why it got destroyed and how and why they got there work and make sense. Also gods are super important.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
I like writing FANTASY and SCIENCE FICTION in general. I'm autistic and need a lot of details first for what I'm writing in though.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
Scattered pages everywhere. Sometimes I forget. It's horrible. I'll open up a notebook a year from now and get pissed I forgot something.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
There's a wereshark who doesn't like saltwater who hunts in wetlands instead, and keeps young'n's safe from gators and weregators. He's a bit of a superhero.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
Consistenly sticking with a project is my downfall. I need help.
>>47932804
>Consistenly sticking with a project is my downfall. I need help.
If you like to write, then why don't you set things in terms of chapters? Worldbuild enough to write a chapter, then write the chapter, then worldbuild a bit more, and so forth?
Otherwise I mean worldbuilding itself can have literally no end, it's like playing Spore inside your head, with no limitations to your controls besides imagination.
>>47914292
>Pick a random citizen from your world. It can be a king/queen, a merchant, a noble, or a simple peasant.
>What's his or her name?
Ludomar, Warrior
>What race?
Thaulantite, the only real humans of the setting. River based race, usually squat and strong with round faces and strong cheekbones.
>What country?
Not real countries exist yet, but you could say Thaulantia, his allegiance lies to the Mar Family.
>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
The Thaulanthites have been at peace since their arrival, exploring the vast waterways of these new lands. Ludomar is okay with this, but not too happy.
>Give a very brief summary of a normal day in their life.
Sailing in his boat with his brothers, fishing, killing a wild beast every now and then. Praying to the river god is very important, as well as trying to produce a son with one of the women.
>What are their hopes and dreams?
Ensuring his race survives these difficult times, getting as high up the Family hierarchy as possible.
>>47927147
>>47928197
Yep, it's my eternal shameful burden. I generated with donjon, cut and shuffled until it was right, and then everything was Europe.
Forgive me /wbg/ for I have sinned.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
Because it gives me something to do.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
I have no idea, to be honest. Anywhere from 50 - 100 pages. probably.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
The Mad Pair, a pair of Althunsi goddess, are the twin personifications of insanity (Discord and Delusion, respectively) in the Pantheon of Black Ash. They are both considered among the kindest gods in the religion.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
I'm in the beginnings of a legal code (Low Bloodlaw and High Bloodlaw) that is central to a story I'm planning to write. I'm looking for any suggestions about strange laws, plus cruel and unique punishments.
>>47913768
>What are the overarching themes and root ideas for your settings, fellow worldbuilders?
On a meta level, a focus on the 'normal' people (breadmakers, lawyers and judges, tailors, etc) with relate-able goals (locating a loved one, finding justice for a loved one, etc) in a fantastic world. I love finding seemingly trivial things, people, and stations, and building a grand story out of them (something like exchange rates between different currencies, or establishing new trade routes).
On a narrative level, several. History and historical revisionism, the nature of heroes (an examination of them from multiple points of view), and the oppression of the poor. On the biggest scale, the theme of death and rebirth.
>>47935427
>I'm looking for any suggestions about strange laws, plus cruel and unique punishments.
Cruel but just? Or simply cruel?
Sadism is a great source for cruelty, and when you start to know the human body a little better, you'll start to realize that the human body can go without a certain number of organs. Just remember to draw a fine line between using sadism as a tool, versus using sadism for the sake of sadism.
What kind of structure does the society have? That would have a large impact on what kind of laws you'd put in place. Whether there's a state religion, or a caste structure (as high and low laws tend to suggest). You need a bit more context to get better suggestions.
how do you guys come up with planet names and country names and stuff? so far i'm calling my setting Continent A in my notes but it feels weird to repeatedly write that out. Don't even get me started on trying to name the planet.
>>47937081
If you have trouble, why not take notes from how people have named cities and such? Plenty of places have drawn names just from how their surroundings resemble, and what that invokes on the people that see them. A planet called Solace gives the impression that the planet is perhaps safe, perhaps moreso if the name is Haven. Of course this could be turned on its head if you're going for an ironic touch to things.
Depending on how civilizations approach things, perhaps there are different names for the same places.
An intergalactic civilization might have a different name for a planet in comparison to the indigenous population - the planet might be seen as merely a "Wildlife Preserve" with a number code, but a much more personal name would be given by the indigenous folk...say "Earth" instead of "Human Food Preserve #13". The scale doesn't necessarily have to be in terms of different orders - maybe a foreign nation has a different name for a place in contrast to the aboriginals, or even simply different names between different local factions.
No shame in drawing inspiration from local areas. God knows how many Alexandrias there are in the world.
>>47913768
I don't really have any overarching themes or ideas.
I started with "hey wouldn't a dark and low fantasy setting based on the Pacific Northwest be neat," and spent the last two years tacking random things I like onto it and then retouching so everything makes sense.
One thing I'm really trying hard to do is avoid the classic fantasy setting trope in which there are a big heap of quantifiably real gods, and magic, this ridiculously advanced and literally arcane force, is perfectly understood by its students and yet incredibly poorly utilized.
In my setting there is religion, and magic, but they're not so empirically concrete. People will "prove" that their God exists by performing a "miracle," which a scholarly wizard will insist is just an accidental alignment of basic arcane principles, which a forest dwelling witch will dismiss at being an artifical explanation for the inscrutable ebb and flow of the natural universe.
Having gods and magic be a bit less set in stone (like in real life-ish) makes them a lot more interesting to play around with so far for me.
>>47914292
>Pick a random citizen from your world. It can be a king/queen, a merchant, a noble, or a simple peasant.
I choose shithead gang member on the streets of brave Rulaan.
>What's his or her name?
....You know this is actually a little tricky. Her 'proper' name would be Shala Baudaughter Cartdriver, but she's effectively given her birth guild the middle finger by joining another district's gang. Let's say she goes by Shala Armbreaker and it's a bad idea to question whether she really earned the nickname.
>What race?
Clayborn (approx. human), ethnicity is rulaani-numasaari mix.
>What country?
Rulaani Empire.
>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
Shala thinks gangs are what the cool people do. She doesn't realize her own part in the current political situation (that her gang's just an errand girl for her local Peace Guild and the political faction they represent.), and just echoes local propaganda: The Smiling General's an unfeminine glory-stealer, the Six Fingered General could conquer any foe if they were allowed to raise a proper army, etc.
>Give a very brief summary of a normal day in their life.
Grab her boys and go beat/smash property of/extort whomever her superiors say to extort. Take drugs, try to score loot of interest, hit on trade guild apprentice with the nice ass.
>What are their hopes and dreams?
To get real rasayana tattoos and the lockmake gear to use them with. To be the person everyone tells stories about.
>Dante Must Die questions also available on request
Requesting.
Alright /wbg/, describe each race in your setting as best you can in a single sentence. If it's a human only setting, do the same for ethnicities.
>Hard Mode
To spark actual discussion, don't post your answer without critiquing someone else's. I'll critique whoever posts first to keep things moving.
>>47938197
>Humans
>Naked apes that fuck everything and blow themselves up
>Dwarves
>Mathemagical Mole-people with a hard-on for full plate armor.
>Elves
>Conservative forest hippies that talk down to other races like they're children
>Halflings
>Lazy, gluttonous monkey people who only use their tails for thievery
>Goblins
>Walking, talking bacon trying to avoid being genocide'd
>Assorted Beastmen
>"Honorable", short-lived animal-people who keep annoyingly accurate records of their family trees
>Skeletons
>Byzantine Undead who exploit the fact that they don't need to eat and sleep to perform bureaucracy and oceanic merchantry
>Assorted Demi-Humans
>When they're not being dumb, dumb Adventurer fodder they're worshiping an unknowable death god.
>>47938387
Sounds pretty grimdark. Are goblins actual bacon? Are they all living together with sceletons monopolizing public service?
>>47938197
All Humans
>Merchant republic that planted intself in nomad's territories and assimilated some of nomads
>Former colony of a fallen empire that fanciest itself its true successor, obsessed with subjugating slaves and racial purity bordering inbreeding.
>Two medieval kingdoms with extremely underpowered kings
>Vikingslavs hiding in the thick forest and hating idea of having any kind of central authority
>Peaceful pig farmers with scary giant pigs
>Nomadic people whose days of raiding are gone by
>Mysterious orient-style isolationist nation which is completely alien to most others for its bizzare practices of valuing individual merit over birthright
>>47938457
Goblins were once pig Orcs (porks). The Orcs sided with the "enemy of all noble races" and got slaughtered in the last big war.
They do, in fact, taste like pork. This is half the reason the good guys won, they ate the dead of their enemy.
The Skeletons are living off on not!Australia, profiting off the fact that the surrounding seas are too dangerous for the living to traverse. If a Skeleton ship sinks, they just walk back to shore.
>>47938197
>Clayborn
Wretched little slaves golems with fake souls who killed their abusive creator gods and are now everyone else's problem.
-Rulaani: Glorious matriarchal communist rome and your national symbol is literally the fire you burned your gods in.
-Demechosi: Powerful research academies churn out TF2 medics who think squeamishness is the surest indicator of cowardice
-Numasaari: Greedy cosmopolitan traders that love cultural riches and their feathered dragon bankers.
-(Tons of others)
>Tengu
Crow velociraptor ninjas who used to run this shit.
Kotengu: Beaked pastoral nomads whose thundertowns are built on the backs of their massive herds.
Daitengu: Raider tribes who carefully maintain their portfolios of stolen gods and place great value on disrespecting the dead.
>Oni
Voodoo samurai gorillas with hot coals in their guts.
Valley Oni: Intense feudal honor, intense veneration of spirits, intense weaponizing of killing intent, intense everything.
Silver Oni: Shaped a strange new kind of empire whose decadence shaped them right back, and now they must find new purpose.
There's also Alseid, Shen, and Asura; maybe will cover another time.
I haven't done worldbuilding in ages.
I guess I want feedback, but my notes are onF-listhttps://www.f-list.net/c/major%20tom
Basically it's something I made to write fun pulpy trash to put on Amazon and because most of the fantasy settings I see don't have the right balance of dumb tropiness and video game references without going way too far and too stupid.
It's a setting where being a murderhobo is a real profession and there are Guilds that operate more like shadowrun style megacorps.
>>47938197
For now technically all humans
The """humans""" are actually descended from the neanderthal equivalents of this world who left the human homeworld in mass religious exodus dimension jumping to another world uninhabited by intelligent life where they thrived, they're gonna have a bunch of different cultures eventually when I ever get around to it
The early cro-magnon homo sapiens equivalents who coexisted with these notNeanderthals were all eventually unified by an oracular seer emperor with a curious mutation of his ears (pointy) which turned out to be a dominant trait and as he married his daughters (no surviving sons) and granddaughters etc to all the various tribal leaders the trait spread through generations and they basically started selectively breeding the trait in, eventually they also migrated from the human homeworld that's roughly an Earth size moon to the giant planet it orbits that was once upon a time inhabited by some mysterious giant race and there's only the ruins of their civilizations and their fossilized remains left to show, through various alchemical hijinks and magic shit they eventually became a pretty distinct species from who they once were
NotOrcs are just the soldier caste of the notElves, taken at infancy and conditioned and mutated throughout their youth through alchemy and magic also to be basically bio-engineered sterile super soldiers
I was thinking I'd have a "pygmy" homo floresiensis type folk being descended from fringe human groups that remained on the homeworld moon after the notElves left entirely
Also, a reptilian/dinosaurmen/something like that race that was living on that giant planet before the notElves came around that had gone through some kind of accelerated evolution just feeding on the remains of those aforementioned extinct magic giants, and the reptilians are like the tech race with cyborgs and automatons and flying vehicles and shit
It's all really rough and tbqh and full stolen ideas
>>47938888
>Dagda
Oh shit, I thought you were dead.
>>47938197
I treat all "races" as actual racest, i.e. ethnicities. Elves are still humans. I should really either think up a name for default humans or not have "default" humans...
I'd like some help /wbg/, I've got a problem with my worldbuilding and it would be most kind if you could throw possible solutions at me like a monkey throws shit through enclosure bars, I'm just desperate for something to jog my thinking-ness.
Keep in mind the setting overall does not take itself too seriously, hence why in a world with a late medieval analogue culture there can also exist a frontier continent that exists as a Western parody.
My problem is that this Western-style place has (in-setting) recently got a hold of a store semi-automatic pistols, complete with copper jacket bullets (or whatever the term is for ammunition that doesn't need to be prepared before loading it), invented by dwarfs and accidentally left behind and left for the pesky manlings to discover, anyway, soon these guns are reverse engineered and now most people on the frontier have some sort of semi-automatic pistol or rifle, similar to any Western style setting,
HOWEVER, I wish this to be the case without these new gun manufacturers to go crazy selling their devastatingly powerful weapon-products to the rest of the known world, basically keeping the late medieval, swords and sorcery places at their respective tech level, ie bows and crossbows.
And at the moment, I have no idea how.
Literally anything you have, throw at the wall which is my brain, and I'll see what sticks and tickles my creative testicles.
(This is purely a request by the way, I hate to think I'm being annoying or anything. I'll be sure to contribute in others ways)
>>47936591
>You need a bit more context to get better suggestions
Yeah, sure. The basic structure of the country as a whole is that there are four 'states' with a central government that wanes and waxes in power, depending on the particular point in history. This is because there were loosely four different ethnic groups living in this area that were made to work together during a time of great crisis. The current structure of the four states involves a very weak central government, and the four states themselves fractured into loosely aligned duchys, counties, and baronies.
The society operates mostly based off of a set of 'moral codes', kind of like Confucianism, made by a figure called simply 'The Great Lady' that is essentially the founder of the Four states, and is worshipped as a great deity (though she would tell you that she is merely a human). The main themes are 1) respect your elders (your father most of all), and 2) everyone, high and low, is accountable for his or her actions.
High and Low Bloodlaw came much later, but draws a lot of inspirations from these moral codes. The 'Bloodlaw' itself has a deep and violent history, but in simple terms, it is the idea that royalty is granted to the male through a female who shares blood with the Great Lady. Over time, the 'Bloodlaw' became a sort of legal code for succession rights and wartime conduct, and expanded into laws for the lower classes (basic laws were already there, but varied wildly based on where you lived). So, 'Low Bloodlaw' is essentially blue-collar crime, and 'High Bloodlaw' is white-collar crime + international and wartime law.
Of course, these days many practitioners of the Bloodlaw have been paid off by high lords, so it is not as powerful as it once was.
>>47939578
Society is broken up into (as far as classes):
>Undersights
Slaves who were former criminals and captured soldiers, except in the south. Due to an extended war with a southern country, in which one of the states attempted to secede, the nobles behind the succession + all their families and associated peasantry + the nobles involved from the southern country were made into slaves. Slave law is also much closer to entrapment in the south, with many peons getting caught up in it.
Slaves do not have rights under the Bloodlaw, and are exempt from the aforementioned moral codes, their reputation is based on their master's reputation.
The time that a person serves as a slave varies, but there certain crimes (called 'Unsightly Crimes') that call for lifetime slavery.
>Peons
A person from the low class, 80% - 90% farmers and associated workers. Peons are technically under a protected status under the Bloodlaw, but that has waned over the last 200 years or so.
>Merchants
Another 'protected' class. Stealing from merchants will invoke either the loss of a hand or five years slavery (which you are unlikely to survive if not born to it).
>Lawmakers, Judges, Lawyers, Guardsmen, and General Clergymen
With religion and law being heavily entwined, these groups enjoy a respected status in the four states, with some Judges and Lawyers in particular being equivalent to minor lords.
There is a separate branch (the general clergymen) that focuses on simply worship rather than law + worship, and they enjoy the same status, but have no real legal or religious power.
>The Ruling Nobility (Delphines, Low Princes, Grand Princes, and Serenes)
Loosely equivalent to Counts, Barons, Dukes, etc. 'Fathers of the Realm', according to the Bloodlaw, they are to be highly respected, but also are to lead by example and be of exemplary moral character.
The ruling nobility refers to the ruler and their extended family only, there is no legally defined 'noble' class.
>>47939552
So only wild west has guns?
Let's see.
-Fear and superstition, long stigma of types from that area.
-Gods of other lands hate guns.
-Some kind of magic drm that blows up gun if it's taken outside this region so it can only be used to defend this territory?
>>47939114
Mostly. Might hang out more again.
>>47940202
>So only wild west has guns?
Yeah essentially, dwarfs in areas beyond the Wild West have guns but they jealously guard them and the secrets to their construction from their non-dwarf neighbors. The guns found by humans in the Wild West were left behind by accident.
As for the suggestions, the first too seem pretty good, I plan to muse on them later, I thought of the "if the guns go anywhere outside the West they dont work" deal but it wouldn't really explain why dwarfs outside have them, ad I thought it was cheating a bot too much anyway. Thanks for the ideas!
>>47940294
> the first too
Just fucking kill me, how did I do that
Have a thread-related image I can hide my shame behind
Bump
I thought /wbg/ might be able to help me flesh out my House in an upcoming ASOIAF game. I'm playing the Ullers, a bizarre Dorne family reputed to be impulsive and unpredictable. A Dornish saying is "Half of the Ullers are half-mad, and the other half are worse." Their arms are rayonne yellow over crimson (pic related). They were Andal adventurers who settled along the Brimstone, and their seat the Hellholt is named after an event in which rivals were invited to the castle, locked within, and burned to death. This action inspired the Uller's arms. They also took down Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon during the Targaryen Invasion, and their heirloom is a spear made from the dragon's bones.
My question is: what words would they have? My base has been working off the obvious "hell" theme and their fixation with fire - but the world already has the Church of Rhllor and the Targaryens with similar themes, and I'm trying to be a little novel. Some random thoughts:
From The Heart Of Hell
Burn Wretches, Burn!
The Fire Rises
A Hope In Hell
In Fire We Triumph
Abandon Hope
Wild As Flame
Do you creative chaps have any suggestions about what could work?
>>47912435
Just made this map. Planning to add names tomorrow. I'm planning to change sea and land texture as well. Kind of happy about nation colors
>>47943053
That seems like a lot of nations
>>47943053
That green umbilical cord seems weird to me.
>>47943063
They are, I will not bother writing about all of them, I just want players to know that politics has a huge role in the world. Plus many of them have a vassal role towards another one. Maybe I should use a similar color to illustrate that.
>>47943081
you are right, but this map is a small part of a much bigger one I randomly generated 5 years ago and fell in love with. I would like to keep it as similar as the original as possible
>>47943146
I don't know, maybe trim the middle down a bit? Like real life Panama?
>>47943053
all these countries look like they're about the same size and have roughly the same shape. mix it up a little, it looks boring like this.
>>47943159
I was thinking about tying to the lore.
Something like "who built the sea bridge? " "did they had the technology? ". Or maybe something like the biblical story about dividing the sea.
If I will not find something really good I will cut it in the middle I think
>>47943165
Uh, that was the thing that was bugging me and I want able to tell what it was. Tnx
>>47943165
Fixed
What do you guys think of having elements of the real world in your settings?
I'm running a low magic fantasy game and it's sorta fun implying the setting is in our world while keeping clues contradictory.
>the people from the north are some kind of asian but don't exactly fit any real world cultures
>christianity was introduced by prester john who came here from the east
>an explorer left 20 years ago to sail across the western sea and returned with islamic noblemen from mali
>asians are considered the descendants of plague bearing refugees and invading warlords, they're only marginally integrated into areas where they form a significant part of the population
>the holy land is a mythical kingdom that's el-dorado tier for how much is actually known about it and their knowledge of the region ends at the 4th century
>africa is considered a fabulously wealthy land of opulent rulers and scholars
Other than that, a lot of the details of the setting(like having the second moon crash into the planet several thousand years ago) make it more high fantasy.
>>47943506
It seems good, just don't make everything happen at the same time
>>47943053
You do anything special to do that? That's pretty neat, reminds me of EU3 and CK3 and such. Is very pretty. Makes me think I need to rethink my borders and make them more numerous and irregular like that.
>>47943608
Oh definitely not. Since it's sorta sandboxy, I try to have most things be happening only on a very long scale with only local and regional things around the players happening on a faster scale. It makes things easier to handle as a gm since I don't have to progress 900 things every session or whatnot.
>>47943612
It's a program I wrote. It's inspired to paradox engines. It takes a mark divided in to regions and a text file about nations.
I thought about distributing at first, but then it came out with a lot of limitations regarding the region file that makes it really hard to use.
if you have a wrong pixel it will fail.
If you have a isolated pixel it will fail
If you have a region with multiple contacts to a neibours it will fail.
So I decided to keep it for myself.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
Not sure, just an itch to create things I guess.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
Very few beyond some rough notes. The vast majority of it is just in my head, and I manage to remember it.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
The surface of the world is on an umbilical cord.
/wbg/ maybe you could give me a hand
Can you give me a list of any overdone cliche's in fantasy writing? or just things that get mocked a lot
Like the edgelord, nothing personal kid for instance
>>47944995
Cliches are cliches because they either work or naturally occur.
Only problem is substituting actual writing with tropes you borrowed from the last big thing, without understanding of its inner working.
>>47944995
If you make a list of cliches that you're trying to avoid, you're just going to end up making a work that's a bunch of random stuff trying really hard to subvert and avoid cliches.
Cliches are cliches because they're recognizable, and they're familiar.
>>47945184
Nope im specifically trying to incorporate as many as possible
>>47945192
Go spend time reading TV Tropes, then. Start with the LotR page.
>>47945192
>>47944995
That's much easier then. Start with knights in shining armor rescuing princesses from dragons and marrying them, and go from there.
>>47932650
Maybe the great evil wizard was succesful in his insane plan this time?
I like the idea of races arriving in an unpopulated new world, sort of like a more peaceful, campy, adventurous colonization of America.
>>47943762
Understandable about the pain in the ass mechanics. Plus I'd need to be able to dictate some of the territories myself.
Real neato though.
Can anyone give me an idea of how life on a planet with a lesser axial tile would be like? Something like 18 degrees instead of 23 – perhaps a bit more perhaps a bit less depending on convenience.
I assume the seasons would be milder, but would that also translate into a larger habitable zone since the polar circles would be pushed back? Would the equator become incredibly hot, or would the heat just be spread over a larger area? If it was hotter, is there some reason why this could be lessened without missing the point of having a larger temperate zone?
>>47945771
That was my first thought, wizard fucks shit up, other wizards create portal for the survivors of this event. But it doesn't make sense. Why would everyone go? I was thinking about a vision from the gods lr something. Yeah I just love the idea too, so I'm trying to make it work.
>>47947174
How about some sort of planar accident that sucks the entire planet into a black hole or portal or something?
Then everyone wakes up to find themselves on a new planet, possibly with chunks of floating rock above or crashed meteors that are the remnants of their old world.
>>47941237
we dont need water (coming from a desert this would probably be weird and unique)
everything burns (perhaps look up the nordic story where Loki has an eating contest with someone named Lue)
ashes and bones (as in thats all there will be left you)
what i got as far as words go.
i did also have a random idea of how they would not so subtly warn or threaten other houses or lords.
basically a huge flour sack thats filled with ash and the entire skeleton of someone that may or may not be of importance, is delivered by way of a third degree burn victim.
pretty cool house overall if a little mary sue ish, what with the dragon thing.
>>47941237The Fire Rises is perfect
or something like Fire Clears Obscurity or something like that. Flames Into Clarity.
Clear Obscurity Through Fire.
idk
>>47912435
This OP pic is hilarious.
>>47912435
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
It's a fun and fairly productive timewaster that builds other skills.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
Huge library of pictures and some videos, otherwise only a couple.
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
(Names WIP.)
-Moonhell Aussies are said to prefer boomerangs when bounty hunting on the surface or hunting devil-roos due to the weapon's shape, a crescent moon.
-The greatest warriors of the northern desert are kept alive to battle forever, eternally burning with the comforting fires of death.
-The samurai of the west are famous for their brute force in combat, using their hard exoskeleton as a weapon in conjunction with their massive katanas.
-Many peoples of the great plains spend the first parts of their life as living chains being stirred in magma cauldrons by matron-stones
-A reaper-like figure named Billabob is said to take the souls of sinners on an endless ride down the Volanelphi on his river boat.
-The electrified death grip of the Shadow Nazis can only be broken with the death of either party.
-Empires have risen and fallen in the vast canopy above the abyssal woods, whose creatures get so little light that their skin has become transparent.
-Confetti worms are brightly colored and grow in any moist hole in Cmas. Ignorant travelers often find their lungs wriggling.
-Finding an dirty old man alone in a pool of wet clay in the lands of the Human Legion is a death sentence, as you are already surrounded.
-The ancient kings of legend taught their armies how to walk on water and marched them across the sea.
-The grainy texture of films produced in Underside is not due to outdated cameras, but the constant rain of dust from the from the city above, and the constant strikes of lightning from the endless machinery below.
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject?
All I care is if the setting stands out from generic fantasy.
How urbanized and densely populated is your world /tg/?
I just realized that I have one area that's 5000 sq miles with the largest town being 1000 people and most inhabited areas at 40/sq mile population density. It should be fitting for a game where the world ended in the 1400's.
>>47949531
I tend to go for pretty scattered villages and towns. I tend to prefer more tribal and less civilized settings in general, and planning giant sprawling kingdoms and metropolises seems like a chore.
>>47949531
There's not enough personal transportation for actual "urbanization".
The big not!Rome in the center of the continent has a couple "sub-urban" hamlets nearby; which amount to private homes for wealthy alchemists, artificers, and other merchants.
Small villages and towns are everywhere, but they occasionally get attacked by chimera or goblins.
>>47949572
Yeah, I have lots of villages and scattered towns as well. I think most kingdoms in my setting are glorified city states and the largest ones are glorified city states with a lot of feudal alliances from other areas. None of them are larger than Connecticut.
With running those kind of settings, how many rural folks do you have? If it's over 40/sq mile density, I assume that towns are no more than a 4-8 hundred but they're spread out every 10-20 miles but there's a farming family every mile and farmland far as the eye can see between towns.
While more frontier regions have villages of 40-80 people each a days walk from each other but with wilderness between them.
>>47913768
no man is an island, yet everyone is
the entirety of my setting and game are based around the idea that while individuality is important, societies big and small cannot move forward without cooperation, that every person's individual capabilities should aid and compliment the innate faults of others without anyone tugging the strings to their favor at the expense of others
it goes from parties and duos to villages and cities to Holds and inter-Hold relationships
equal exchange and cooperation without losing what makes each thing unique in their own sensebut the last time i shared this idea with someone they compared it to communism
>>47912916
Hello me.
But i am further along with my world building. Only got problems with geography and linguistics. Do need to go over another over culture again just to make sure.
>>47912435
Autism.
Honestly no idea its too scattered over different settings that are in truth the same setting but at different time frames/time lines which form an overarching meta setting.
The gods are dicks but at least the demons are honest about it unlike the tricky Fey.
I could use feedback on just about everything but its too much a pain to type it all out and /tg/ is rather unreliable. Wouldn't be worth the trouble.
>>47913768
Its all actually the same setting.
Outsiders want in.
The gods are dicks.
The demons are surprisingly honest dicks.
The Fey are tricky dicks.
Humanity isn't the big dog.
Can destiny coexist with free will?
Fate is a powerful double edged sword.
Mooks are some of the bravest bastards ever.
In other words there are a lot of themes as for root ideas...honestly it began with me being bothered about how little people treated their worlds in which their stories took place in. How little they cared about the worlds they wrote and the people inside of them.
That combined with the injustice that I saw done certain ideas and things became the root ideas.
Simply put its a real world with real people in a different very different yet oddly familiar universe.
Any good links or whatnot where I can learn how to make decent tectonic plates to make my mountains more believable? I'd like to at least try and make sense with the current map I'm doing this time around. Thanks in advance.
What do you think of a fantasy world with a one world government that enforces a united government and peace at any cost?
>>47950188
Could work, though something tells me it'd end up being rather totalitarian and oppressive. Doesn't seem like there would be much room for adventure.
>>47914292
Easy.
Loz Elkar.
Human.
Kingdom of Marsoth.
Worried about the monsters and the upcoming high taxes. Rumors abound that the Kingdom is gearing up for war again with the neighboring realms. Meanwhile its said the churches are about to commit to another Holy War.
Attend militia drills, go to work at the shop, drink at the local tavern, eat food with family, socialize with friends or family and sleep.
Dreams to save up enough to send his kids to school or apprenticeships and dowries. Personal dream is to enjoy an early retirement. Hopes the incoming war wont last too long again and the monsters don't get riled up while the army is away. Prays the priest will keep the demons and other bad spirits or outsiders away.
I'll take the Dante Must Die.
>>47916384
I started in elementary school and am 21.
...I been world building for too long. Only real thing that is delaying me is damned linguistics and geography. After I can get that sorted I feel like i start compiling it all together properly.
>>47926607
Witches are a force to be reckoned with but are deeply divided so outside the 'don't piss em off or else' nobody really pays too much attention to them. powerful curses, cauldron brews, and their strange magics are all notorious, but outside that very little is actually known about them.
There are good witches and there are bad witches. Sometime they are the same witch. The witches used to have male members but something happened and they all died/vanished except for the female ones. The female witches vehemently deny that male witches exist ever since and for some reason are in constant state of war against the warlocks.
No one actually knows why the two groups started to hate and war against each other. Not even they seem to remember anymore but that hasn't stopped the fighting.
>>47950250
There are still vast untamed wilderness areas covered in monsters that seem to spring from the ground itself.
They also enact peacekeeping missions. War is outlawed, of course, but there are plenty of massive-scale policing actions that require adventurers to tie up.
>>47950188
>one world government
>peace at any cost
Only if you want all in-setting politics to revolve around corrupt career politicians and dime a dozen rebel groups trying to win their region's freedom.
>>47950323
Vast untamed wilderness means that one-government thing is going to fall apart as soon as anyone gets the bright idea to go settle somewhere else and build their own kingdom with blackjack and hookers.
>>47950323
>one world government using Adventurers as doorkicking "peacekeepers"
>a good thing
>>47950331
Would certainly make for a decent villain campaign. Deconstructing locations to make them rise up against the monarchy and secure a power base only to let them loose on one another in the aftermath sounds like a great way to set the stage for the heroes that come afterwards if anything.
>>47950331
That's exactly what I want.
The story revolves around a corrupt but well-meaning central government being preoccupied with dozens of minor local rebellions and ultimately ignoring a larger threat from the relatively unimportant, untamed monster lands. The tragedy is in that both the world government and rebel groups are too set on fighting each other that the real threat is allowed to grow.
It's not meant to be anything allegorical to the real world though. I like my fantasy as escapism, not clumsy political shit.
>>47950375
Exactly! There's the conflict
>>47950413
It's not a good thing. it's an opportunity for story and lore to move along. Conflict makes story.
>>47950444
It just feels like your pitch is odd.
>What do you feel about a fantasy world with one government that's devoted to peace?
>It does this by waging war to destroy all of the other governments
>>47950444
Rebellion itself is inherently clumsy political shit.
If you just want escapism, the focus would be on adventurers 'splorin the wilds.
>>47938197
>Humans
A bunch of horny 'new' kids by about a hundred thousand years and whom nobody knows where the hell they came from.
>Dwarves
A people who believe in taming nature to their will and that one should be an expert in whatever trade they take.
>Elves
Eternally with a stick collectively shoved up their asses which isn't even including their massive butthurt of their loss of immortality and consider living with nature to be the highest virtue.
>Goblins
A short clever bunch who are agile but cowardly and seem to be trapped in extended adolescence.
>Orcs
A former slave soldier species created by gods who are deeply divided about the old and new ways.
>Beastmen
A bunch of deeply divided species who deeply hate each other even more then the other races hate them.
>Undead
A frighteningly powerful force who are only barely held back by a unified front both mortal and immortal.
>Talu
A species who accept that they are dying out and being replaced by the younger races.
>Dragons
Incredibly ancient species who actually remember the very beginning of the world and unsurprisingly the gods do not like them for this fact as it clashes against their rewrites of history.
>Giants
An old multitude of powerful species whose true civilizations are in incredibly dangerous far away lands but can still be found scattered about.
>Demons
An evil if surprisingly honest bunch of dicks who are eager to damn others.
>Fey
An unpredictable and tricky bunch of dicks.
>Elemtar
A strange species who are incredibly ancient but surprisingly unchanged who know an awful lot about their specialties.
>Naga
A powerful water species eternally at war with their flying enemies who live in the floating lands.
>Monsters
A various bunch of species who target the other races mostly with malice but contrary to popular belief not all of them are evil.
>Garuda
A flying species at eternal war with their nemesis a water species.
>>47950482
How are those things incompatible? Diversity historically generates conflict (unless strong discrimination through borders or class/ethnic segregation is imposed), and peaceful cultural hegemony is a time-tested excuse for war.
>>47950495
Rebeliion is merely modern code for "morally correct" hence the cliche of "evil empire." To be an empire is to be evil, to be a rebel is to be righteous; thus the backlash in the form of storm-trooper sympathizers etc.
>>47938990
>*Cough*
>>47950413
>Not a good thing.
>>47950331
Not him, but I feel like "one world government" should really just be like the UN, but not worthless. Regulates and facilitates communication and trade, and keeps people from going "muh states rights" and abusing the people. Seems like it would honestly be a great set up for a fantasy game specifically because you then have an excuse for Adventurers as third party groups designed to act as diplomats and soldiers ostensibly without borders or national ties. Then again, it's sort of the system I have in my setting, except they really are meant to be like MSF, along with the Pathfinder Society and legalized Shadowrunners. The governing body exists to keep the Seekers from being murderhobos.
Although mine is less "One World Government" and more Golden Age of Exploration sort of thing, where there's only one government because there hasn't been but the one country, really.
>>47950495
I can see wanting justification for adventurers. Although for my thing I essentially went with the real world reasons. Privateering was a thing, after all. Get some training to not destroy any artifact you touch and you too can have a license to go adventure.
>>47950542
Because by saying the fantasy setting only has one government, you're implying that they've already won and gotten rid of all the other governments.
It'd be like asking what people thought about a fantasy setting with one dragon, only to reveal that tons of lesser dragons crop up all the time to challenge it,
>>47950517
Fuck I am just going to call it short here. Already generalized several groups that in truth could be further divided up into specific species.
>>47949531
Certain areas are highly dense but closer to the wild lands it becomes more spread out. Density is due to how little land can be safely claimed and how so much is still unexplored. So people are rather concentrated given the tech level but magic help alleviates it. Some though are forcefully pushed out to the dangerous wild lands.
>>47950188
Meh could work but while my setting has governments with that goal they aren't the only powers that be.
>>47938197
>Big guys
8 footish dudes with one crystal eye and stony plated skin that make big things and are actually pretty smart.
>Little Guys
Escaped fluffy mothish servants of deep and dark powers that don't even remember their servitude, making little things that work really well.
>Fast Guys
Herbivorous collectivist empire builders that have to decorate everything and argue about aesthetics/practicality all the time.
>Humans
Meat/clay golems made by new gods as prayer producers, resistant to all magic but divine magic and pretty damn tough
>Shifty Guys
Semiaquatic short dudes covered in color-changing fur, riverboat gypsy assholes trusted by no one not trying to make a quick buck (including each other).
>Extraplanars
Things from REALMS UNKNOWN that can't travel here bodily, so they get stuck into dead bodies or constructed ones.
>Golemsouls
Someone tried making native extraplanars and it did not go well.
>>47950517
Mostly fairly standard, which isn't a bad thing, it lets people build with what they know.
Best parts are orcs (mixing in the purposeless warforged bit), dragons (giving them an antireligion bit), Demons (opening the possibility of 'fair deals'), and the naga/garuda split.
Worst are the elves (pointlessly /tg/ memey), giants (pointlessly distant), elemtar (strangeness is not explained at all and 'specialties' means nothing), and monsters (excuse to have a grab bag of whatevers).
Fulfilling hardu modu for >>47950766
>>47939552
The dwarven design actually contained a potent curse that was accidentally included when they were reverse engineered. Problem is nobody knows how to make the guns without the curse included as removing the curse ruins the gun.
The curse seams to be some kind of protection to be prevent the tech spread of their weapons. Probably made by law by a paranoid king who didn't want their precious tech to be spread or who knows
As it turns out the possibly by accident the curse doesn't function when used in certain areas but kicks in when they leave those areas. Rumors abound of cursed gunners who are forever cursed to walk the earth with their ghostly guns in ghastly form. That is one of the more popular rumors that could very well be true as its well known the curses are terrifyingly powerful.
>>47940294
The dwarves know how to get around the curse or at the very least appear to be immune to it.
>>47939552
The ammo depends on some inherent magical shenanigan of wild-west land, and doesn't fire anywhere else, though theoretically you could research a substitute.
Dwarven ninjas enforce DRM, but are beaten by the meme powers of cowboys in wild west land.
The ammo is actually much LESS explosive in wild west land than outside- the dwarves had to crank it way up to function, so using it outside there tends to cause misfires with a blast radius. This adds to the cursed reputation.
Bullets are trivially easy to counter with most established divine protection magics, which explains the prevalence of crazy street preachers in wild west land, the reason you get rekt by paladins for trying to export them, and why the dwarves haven't blown each other off the face of the planet yet.
>>47938197
>Elves
Basically extinct, with only four significantly genetic specimens alive anywhere.
>Half Elves
Second most common race though it's hard to tell since they are 90% human culturally, with a touch of elfiness.
>Humans
Descended from Atlantis-Africa, representing 60% of all humanoids everywhere.
>Goblins
Psionic Greeks, though they've been slaves to Elves, and then Humans so long they've largely forgotten their entire ancient culture.
>Dwarves
Sengoku-Japanese firearms enthusiasts who are big on self-control and figuring out how to fold mithril 1 mirrion times.
>Hobbgoblins
Catch-all term for "so mixed-heritage I have no fucking clue what I am".
>Why do you like to worldbuild?
I have a very active imagination, and I'm a forever-dm, so Its somewhat useful. Really though I just enjoy doing it, and think about little meaningless nuances and details whenever I have spare time to think.
>How pages of lore/backstory do you have?
A lot. Not very much. Most of its in my head and subject to constant revision, so the only things that actually get written down are the things that are already defined by player interaction or just that I deem passable enough to get made "canon"
>What's a trivial, random fact about your world?
South Qashmali wizards have a tradition of covering their faces to hide their identities, which has evolved into elaborate status posturing via fancy headgear and masks
>What's something you need feedback on? Or, maybe you need an expert's opinion on a random subject? Oh Jesus. Just about everything. I'm never sure if most of my setting makes sense/are interesting to anyone but me. I really need information on Vedic mythology and the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth
>>47951180
>Basically extinct, with only four significantly genetic specimens alive anywhere.
ah my setting has roughly 400 elves alive after a great war, and most of them live in the last elven city, which is protected by powerful magic which doesn't allow non elves to get in (actually the sleeping spirit of the forest protects it in a pseudo demi plane). other races have recovered since the war, but having elven children is so rare that there are only going to be 9 or 10 young elves out there in the world born after the war. all (not young) elves, as a consequence know each other by name.
why only 4 elves left?
>>47938197
>Men of Water and Earth
Ancient hyper-religious pascifists who were the Titans first draft at making humans
>Men of Fire and Air
Warlike zealous successors to the First Men
>Orcs
Ancient porcine race of libertarian tribal warrior shamans
>Sidhe
The Fair Folk's servants/pets/furniture turned into people after getting stranded in reality
>Thanaatkan
Asshole Snakemen trying to reclaim their empire, so they can go back to fucking and doing cosmic drugs
>Goblin
Magical trickster conmen from the space between worlds
>Dwarves
Pleasant agrarian social chameleons acting as frontmen for their autistic underground robot ancestors
>Night-kin
Freakish, gender segregated spawn of hags and their male counterparts, boogeymen
>>47951015
maybe a great desert dragon sleeping beneath the dunes has a lair effect that makes whatever the gunpowder is made out of highly explosive in the desert, but ineffective outside of it.
Drinkable water in medieval times or before.
How does it work? How do wells work? How do I know where to place settlements? Do settlements only exist when there is drinkable water nearby?
>>47951562
and maybe the dwarven desert king knows this, and has carefully guarded said dragon.
maybe even the dwarves are leeching off of his power as he sleeps, and don't want him to be awoken.
maybe him being awoken would be a catastrophe that would wipe out the dwarven kingdom
>>47938888
Sounds cool. Mind telling us more?
>>47951449
Elves and Humans mutually began a race war against each other. Elves hated humans migrating to their lands following their homeland sinking beneath the sea, humans hated elves for having a VASTLY different culture and for basically keeping them locked away from all the good farming land.
Most elves die out, with the survivors breeding with victorious humans. Half-elves grow in number and breed with elves, leading to no more pure elves.
The 4 "Elves" are really just rare genetic throwbacks at this point, but they are tasked with restoring elven culture.
>>47914292
>What's his or her name?
Rickertt Somnall
>What race?
Man of Air
>What country?
Aldstein
>What's their outlook on the world around them? How do they feel about the current political situation?
Fairly good. He's nobility, so he's living fairly well despite not being a major heir. He's selfish and childish and not really if the mind to examine his unearned social status
>Give a very brief summary of a normal day in their life.
Wake up, shoo away whores, powder up nose with starsalt to get through the day, check on father's business to make it seem as if you're involved, meet with friends by the dock, get more salt, start some fights, fuck some hangers on until you come down, meet with father, have dinner, sniff salts, get whores, go home
>What are their hopes and dreams?
To keep doing what he's doing for as long as possible, and that someone else will take the family banner when father dies
>>47951729
ah interesting. i like the idea of really rare races.
to be honest, the idea of half races creeps me out. like elves and humans fucking is just weird to me (not memeing or anti elf, just....). so i probably won't even think about half elves or half orcs or anything unless a player wants to play one, and then i'll try and think of something about them and just keep them really rare so they aren't too meta important to the world...
but i like your idea of them being bred out. thats kind of whats happening to mine, just not as drastic yet, and more as a result of their slow reproduction than the introduction of half human half elf hybrids.
>>47926607
Witch is the common, somewhat derogatory term for a female hedge mage. They commonly know little to no actual magic other than folk charms or herbalism, but are often persecuted due to occasionally falling under the sway of hags, who are one of the major evil force in my setting , along with their male counterparts and vampires
>>47951898
I generally dislike the slow reproduction and slow aging of certain races. I generally shorten that shit down a lot with some exceptions. I tend towards Elves living 400 years, Dwarves 200 and Humans 100-ish.
My elves technically used to live for 1,000+ years before being watered down, as it were. The oldest of the Four is only 400 years old, and already shows advanced signs of aging. The next oldest is only 80, and the last two are both in their 20's and 30's. There's hope amongst the older two that the younger ones will mate with each other and try to bring more "purer" elves back. If only to recover some of their lost legacy. Honestly elven ego in this setting is non-existent.
Took a break from my eastern inspired Humans and other races for a while and decided to work on dwarves instead.
They´re living of course in an mountainous region, with snowy peaks at one end and a vulcano at the other (it´s magical) and several hills to the southeast.
Mountain Dwraves have nine cities corresponding to the "nine realms". The 6 elemental planes, Heaven, Underworld and Mortal Realm.
Hill Dwarves have three cities corresponding to the three sections of the dwarven patheon. There are nine gods in total. War, Death, Guard, Healing, Trickery, Smith, Magic. Can´t decide what themes the last two gods should have. Maybe Discovery and Feasts.
Dwarves are discplined warriors marred in tradition and familial ties. They´re aestetically supposed to be combining sparta and the norse.
Their "cousins" the Duergar are universally reviled and various wars have been fougth in the corridors beneath the earth. The enmity existed since the original dwarves left a part of their men behind to move closer to the surface and the Duergars main deity abused his wife, who was rescued by the dwarves god of War. She later became the dwarven goddess of healing.
Dwarven get around a hundred years old.
Your thougths and criticism?
Hey guys I want to conlang but more for a functional purpose rather than just because.
Any tips on a way to make a simple language that's super easily translated from English?
I have a noob question, would it be alright for a game to have a deep lore wherein the main characters slowly unveil the "truth" of what happened in the past and decides that the current ruler is evil so their mission becomes "to defeat the ruler"?
>>47951524
I have no real opinion. Your taglines don't draw me in, but most of them don't repel me either. Your Nightkin sound like I'd like to know more, but your dwarves sound like you could be trying a little too hard to be different.
But it's difficult to do this in one sentence per race, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
>>47938197
>Humans
The standard against which all other races are measured.
>Cave Men
These are to men what cave bears are to bears.
>Elves
Exotic race from across the sea, often compared to living dolls for their eerily perfect complexions and expressionless faces, which also make them look rather haughty.
>Gnomes
Earth spirits with an autistic love for symmetry.
>Kobolds
Individualistic revolutionaries extremely salty about their lot in life.
>Cyclopes
One-eyed, horned creatures with a racial boner for volcanoes and lightning.
>Ogres
Large, with blubbery skin that makes their scars look really sweet.
>>47954686
There's a lot of shit going on with my dwarves, so I think I just didn't sum them up well. The original dwarves who still live deep in the mountains are basically kind of golems that act as geological maintenance men. They were never intended to interact with other races, so they don't really have social skills, but circumstances forced them to so they created the surface dwarves to be likable, inoffensive, and useful to the other races.
Surface dwarves are essentially dwarves, hobbits, and gnomes rolled into one, since I didn't see the need for three races of short folk,and combining them all gave me a broader archetype to work with. They're kind of Jewish, integrating into just about any community while keeping their own separate subculture, which is more or less what they were intended to do.
>>47938197
>humans
Can't use magic, and in fact are completely immune to it.
>Orcs
Big guys that look like they're made of mud or moss, and are mostly bro-tier except for the insane cannibals that live in the frozen swamps to the north
>Wood elves
taller, not-blue Smurfs that live in a huge as forest that takes up most of the continent, guarded by not-so-smurf forest ranger wood elves that are like a cross between druids and Batman.
>Dark Elves
fairly cool guys that live under ground and have coal black skin with hair ranging from coal black to gray to snow white, and mostly just farm mushrooms and prepare for the apocalypse
>High Elves
Tall, pretty, and good at magic, they've gone to war with humanity 3 times and had their asses handed to them because they manged to piss off either the wood elves or the orcs in the process of actually getting to the human lands.
>>47955278
Did everyone miss the part where you're supposed to review other people's races?
>>47955770
There were so many already posted that I didn't know which one I should critique. they all seem way more thought than mine, so I guess I just figured my input wouldn't mean much anyway.
>>47955770
Eh, sure.
>>47954686
Generally fairly interesting, but your descriptions are sort of lacking. You tell us a good bit about the elves, but not so much about the cyclopes, gnomes, etc, and the ogres and humans get basically nothing. I don't really get a feel for what they're like
>>47954686
Generally speaking, having your entire race summed up by one or two sentences is not the best way of going around designing them. Maybe you have a lot more going on for them, and you just don't have the space, time or mood to go into detail, but there is always a great risk of ending up having the race feel very one-dimensional when you give them stern but short characteristics like this.
It strikes me as particularly jarring about Kobolds. How are kobolds "individualistic revolutionaries" - revolutionaries against what? Are they part of some greater multiracial empire that they try to wage revolution on?
Isn't individualism and revolutionary attitudes something that only makes sense as a part of a greater, balanced system? And you can say "compared to humans" but again: if they have their own society, and already made a revolution or two, formed and extremely individualistic society, would not that make them post-revolutionary, and through that conservative?
>>47955278
>a billion types of elves only one type of each other race
WHEN WILL THIS MEME STOP
>>47950517
>settings with more than 6 or 7 races
Why
>>47953835
Pretty standard dwarves you got there anon
>>47956539
Well I couldn't really explain this with the one sentence thing, but Orcs and Humans are also Elves, they just don't call themselves elves because fuck elves.
>>47956539
>Dwarves
Sorry, I´m not all that imaginative. But, say what would your dwarves be like? Just curious.
>>47956539
>WHEN WILL THIS MEME STOP
If it fits their setting, it's fine. If the world is intended to be Elf dominant in the first place with most of the world focused around the elves, then having multiple species of elves just serves to strengthen that.
>>47938387
Very generic
>>47938888
It's hard to get a feel for the world, seems very eclectic and inconsistent.
>>47939788
It's generally unusual that a society would explicitly protect their merchants like that. In general, merchants usually got the shorter end of the social stick. ESPECIALLY in Confucian system, where Merchants were literally believed to be less than peons, and only above slaves and untouchables.
>>47950517
Generic as hell. Which does not necessarily mean "bad", it's just that it's all very predictable.
>>47950766
Now this is something I might want to know more about.
>>47951180
Something about this rubs me off the wrong way, but I'm not sure what.
OK, that should be enough for feedback for now...
I'll post my own now, will spill out into another post no doubt.
>Alright /wbg/, describe each race in your setting as best you can in a single sentence.
It's kinda hard to do so because qualities and characteristics of individual races/ethicities change over time. But here we go:
Human Ethnicities:
>Selenai
Once a small, insignificant ethnical group of hunters and gatherers stumbled upon a discovery that allowed them to establish some 700 years of almost complete rule over the Inlands, absorbing most other ethnical groups into their vast, slave-driven empire.
>Erui
Stereotyped as large, dumb, oaf-like and uncivilized nation, they were actually once more developed and competent than Selenai, until the Selenai claimed their accidental prize and rolled over them.
>Saami
Elusive and mysterious, they lived in small dispersed communities in higher-altitude regions of Inlands. Saami had most developed agriculture (farmed peas and lentiles), despite their small numbers, Saami made a massive cultural impact on the forming Selenai empire, who eventually adopted many of their old customs, including their script, fondness for masks, styles of pottery and some aspects of art.
(cont. soon because why the fuck not)
Question for everyone:
I don't know if this is just me, but I usually have all humans in my settings (be it sci fi, fantasy, or something in between). I usually find that it makes it easier to worldbuild/write that way since everyone is a human. I don't really get the appeal of having many races (i.e. D&D or Star Wars/Star Trek). Can someone explain it to me?
>>47956875
Nothing wrong with realizing you don't need anything in your universe other than superior humanity.
But really, I've also been partial to lower fantasy settings, with just humans and where magic is extremely rare and treated more of a force of nature that can just barely be directed instead something that can be used for mundane tasks.
>>47956875
Well, phenotype stereotyping is convenient. Fantasy is likely a tribute to Tolkien, and Lucas got creative - lots of his aliens are not very humanoid so he probably had a lot of fun designing them.
I'm singling out Lucas because usually sci-fi has actually good reason to have aliens. If you have Earth in your setting, without aliens all the interplanetary action would be between diasporas. Nations on Earth have common roots but they are long forgotten, Japan is pretty much unrelated to Navaho. And to replicate this state in space you need aliens.
>>47956944
I'm actually a huge fan of magitech and systems that use magic as a tool to an end rather than the whole "magic is a force of nature" deal. It's just the idea of multiple races that seems a bit off for me because it seems more trouble than its worth for the people interacting in the world (be it a player, reader, or what have you). In fact, my magitech sci fi setting has a very developed magic system that combines magic with math/physics/science but still has only humans. I'm just not a fan of a lot of different races because each race can really just be its own human nation and it would be practically the same.
>>47956875
It depends on your setting, the scope of it, the intention of it, and so forth. Sticking to humans makes it easier for other people to relate, but it doesn't always make sense, especially if your worldscale is larger than say, a single planet. In science fiction this often becomes more believable, but again it depends on what kind of narrative the builder wants to put together.
If you're worldbuilding along the scale of galaxies for instance, it doesn't necessarily make sense to have humans everywhere, especially if the humans don't have the tech themselves to get that far. In which case, multiple races is slightly more believable.
If the builder isn't using stock races, and forms each race up from scratch, then extra races can be an effective way to put in groups with wildly different perspectives, customs, and behavior from the standard human. It's not necessarily always there to introduce conflict or variety, but it can serve its purpose.
It's not so much a matter of appeal as it is a matter of necessity, cost, and return.
>>47956845
>River folk
Smaller of stature and almost olive-colored in skin, the river folk are insignificant and fairly dull, passive people who keep to the banks of Yellow river, but they are unmatched in their fishing skills and basketry products.
>Fair folk
As their name suggests inhabitants of north-west reaches of the Inlands and the Neck of the World are of fair complexion and europoid facial qualities (unlike most of the central/south Inland nations, who are more akin to Egyptians or even Inds in their appearance), and gifted agrarians (within limits of my world) who will, eventually, form a great theocratic kingdom inspired by Byzantine and Armenian culture.
>Nomads
Basically your standard Mongolian-tibetan sort of nomadic deal. Nuff said.
"Human variant and construct races:
>Tall ones
Tall ones, who are basically humans who all suffer hereditary giantism and have slower metabolism than normal people, are despite their seemingly idiotic appearance and slow behavior brilliant thinkers and once formed a great, star-worshiping nation of scholars and astrologers, before they fell prey to expanding nomadic hordes.
>Old Ones
Last remaining survivors of an ancient, long-lost civilization underwent a process that enables near-eternal life, but over the thousands of years most of them went mad, withdrew from reality, and lost track or interest about world outside their caves and monasteries.
>Celestials
The biggest mystery of the world these near-god-like creatures resemble great, pale golems with an unnatural affinity to nature, and play an absolute key role in the settings - too complicated to be explained in a single sentence. I could expand on them if anyone cared, but I kinda doubt anyone will finish reading to this point.
>>47956989
>>47956984
I mean for my sci fi setting it's just humans because Earth is the only habitable planet (every other planet has been terraformed) and humanity has used FTL to expand beyond the stars. I usually find that different nations can have different belief systems and social/cultural priorities that it makes the setting much more realistic/easier to buy into than the whole alien life thing. But I agree it really depends on the themes/purpose of the world. Many alien races fit space fantasy much better than they do hard sci fi.
>>47938197
For fantasy setting:
>Beastmen
Species which include humans, elves, orcs,giants, dwarfs, and assorted other humanoid races I care to add.
>Ehuihlt
Six-limbed flying dragons distantly related to land dragons where they evolved in the same island/region from a pangolin-like ancestor.
>Ehpunoj
Land dragons built like a t-rex with the addition of a pair of big arms.
>Sordek
Semi-aquatic reptilian race that taught the Xuande elves boat building and are part of the revolution in thinking that made way for Xuande ancestral teachings regarding peace
>Haorl
Ursine-like and still somewhat primitive race that has been adopted into Xuande society.
For the sci-fi setting:
>Terrans
Any sapient species whose ancestry can be directly linked to an earth species.
>Ancient Humans
Humans from before the rise and fall of the Terran interstellar empire that remain in the galaxy after Terrans have disappeared.
>Slime Bears
Amorphous alien slime race that found a lost sleeper ship and accidentally awakened the ancient humans inside from suspended animation.
>>47956845
I just used Confucianism as an example of a pervasive moral code more than anything, but your other points have merit. Thanks.
>>47956875
Personally, I always applaud and encourage people going for a human only or very few non-human races, as I believe it encourages people to think deeper into culture and complexity of their civilizations, rather than creating a large number of token and very one-dimensional races.
I think human-only world actually usually (not always) offers more interesting materials to play with: you can reduce your entire civilizations to a bunch of token qualities that can be summed up in two lines, and does not lead to the all-too-common sin of creating new races by reducing humans to a few basic traits.
The appeal of multitude of races is a semblance and sometimes flat-out illusion of variety. From a superficial point, there is just more and more "interesting" types of characters in your world. Personally though, I really think that in the long run, you'll find out that most of the settings trades superficial variety for conceptual and cultural depth.
But then again, I'm basically a fantasy nazi and most of the time /tg/ gets offended by what I think in these matters.
>>47957098
I find it amusing that you go from
>I believe it encourages people to think deeper into culture and complexity of their civilizations, rather than creating a large number of token and very one-dimensional races.
to
>you can reduce your entire civilizations to a bunch of token qualities that can be summed up in two lines, and does not lead to the all-too-common sin of creating new races by reducing humans to a few basic traits.
>>47956985
Sometimes, yeah, but that's only if you're doing D&D style rubber forehead races. If you have a significantly different morphology or nature, then it makes sense to have non humans
>>47957144
Actually, that is just me not being able to type properly for shit. It was supposed to say:
you CAN'T reduce your entire civilizations to (...) and IT does not lead to the all too common (...).
But now that I've re-read it, I realize it's an entirely wrong formulation to begin with.
Of course you can reduce entire civilization to token characteristics, and of course you can commit the sin of reduction in a human-only settings. It's just less likely to happen.
>>47956721
It's just really common for dnd settings to have "okay one of each type of the typical races, and 5 types of evles..."
Theres nothing wrong with it if each race has that kind of variety but it's just so common for elves to be the only one.
>>47956627
Standard isn't bad. Just standard, so it's hard to critique as interesting or not.
For a good example of an interesting take on dwarves, look at trudvang. It accomplishes waht your goal of a take on the standard races ought to be, close enough to still e very recognizable as that race, but with enough interesting departures to be compelling and intriguing.
The trudvang dwarves have a massive ape like warrior class in addition to their standard short bearded gold loving dwarves and an additional group of disheveled hermit dwarves who abandon the lavish gold and perfectly carved halls for rough hew tunnels far deeper in the earth, worshiping great furnaces at the center of the holds. Everything about it still feels dwarven but also unique, which is exactly what you want from your takes on the standard races.
>>47957220
To some extent, the root of the problem is that most people lack the experience to even fully flesh out humans to begin with, much less to start considering other races in any in depth fashion. So sticking to humans is like a security blanket, because a substantial amount of qualities, traits, and behavioral aspects can be "assumed to be known", since whatever reader they have is human anyways. With an alien race, this safety blanket is gone, the onus is on the worldbuilder to convey as much information about the race as possible in order to build up versimilitude to begin with.
Diet, psychology, history, morphology, social nuances, linguistic evolution, hormonal influences, genetic stability, bell curve tendencies across the board - and that's not even a quarter of what needs to be fleshed out. Everything needs to be tuned from scratch, and for some worldbuilders, none of this ever even comes to mind. So it's understandably easier to just take a stock fantasy race and run with it, and after the first, grabbing the next becomes easier and easier.
But I mean let's face it. If the worldbuilder is doing this to write a book commercially, nowadays there's the notion that people don't want to read in depth - the notion that people don't want to read an encyclopedia no matter how well disguised it is. If the worldbuilder is doing this for a game setting then they're at the mercy of their players, who might not even care.
Faced with the possible lack of return and interest for the amount of effort required, I don't think anyone can blame them for simplifications and sticking in stock races at all. It's easy to see it as just a necessary concession.
There are very few pieces of fiction nowadays that doesn't reduce entire civilizations down into token qualities, and on the flip side, it's a niche crowd who would really be interested in reading an encyclopedic discourse on all the elements of the human race represented through a novel.
>>47957239
People lean on stereotypes, and stereotypes generally have it such that elves were the first to commune, establish a society, and so forth and so forth. That in itself isn't much of an issue, stereotypes themselves create an opportunity, it's just a matter of whether the builder decides to act on it or not.
I never find the issue of racial differences exclusive to one race as a real issue, so long as the cause behind that is investigated. For example, if humans, elves, orcs, and so forth were all just genetic experiments, and the planet is nothing more than some immortals' test reserve, then it's fine - use the elves as the primary experimental subjects, and have humans/orcs act as the control.
But premises like these only gather strength if they have the explanation present, and with the OP's premise of "sum your race up in one sentence" that's not necessarily easy to get across.
>>47957391>>47957391
>So sticking to humans is like a security blanket,
Without wanting to be confrontational, I REALLY don't think this is the case. In my personal (admittedly, anecdotical, but not entirely small) experience that is NEVER the case.
I believe it's almost always the exact opposite. People unable to flash out the humans will use the "variety" of races as a security blanket. People unable to properly flash out human cultures will immediately realize that their world lacks depth, variety and complexity. That is why they'll immediately jump towards more and more "concept" races, usually generated by taking humans and reducing them to a few simple, significant traits. Dwarfs are stocky and small and working-class-like-humans. Kobolds are anarchistic revolutionary. Naga are humans except totally like, full of water. Etc. etc. etc...
VERY few people lacking the confidence to produce even a single culture detailed enough will not stick to the thing they can't do: they will substitute it. Cultural variety substituted by "radical", simple, easy-to-identify racial trait.
Making a fictional race is almost always considerably easier than making a set of solid human cultures. All those aspects you named are - generally speaking - pretty trivial compared to the complexities of well-fleshed out history of a single human empire. The reason for that is that really, you can't actually design anything radically different from humans while maintaining the same level of fidelity as we know in human species.
Here is a famous thing that any writer who knows his salt will confirm:
Making a single truly good human (One person, one character) is harder than making up a hundred alien races.
>>47938197
>Valis
collectivist-ish & matriarchal naval raiders with the great city of Ven Val (a former outpost of the fallen empire) as their home base, a melting pot of the continent's (NA and Mesoamerican inspired) cultures that only recently rose to power on a global scale
>Ahigbeni
theocracy under a God-Emperor that rules half the (relevant parts of the) world through military prowess and a massive number of conscripted soldiers, based on the kingdom of Benin, West Africa and located across the sea to the north of Ven Val
>Sharac
descendants of raider clans from the South-East that occupy the old ziggurat-cities of the empire they crushed, easily identifyable by their facial tattoos (which indicate their caste and rank) and their disdain for firearms (because they are a weapon of entropy, and therefore considered sacrilegious by the orthodox parts of their society)
>Totiche
great agrarian kingdom (formerly a union of tribes) to the South of Ven Val with a Salish/Tlingit aesthetic, infamous for its practice of sending political prisoners abroad as mercenaries to spend X number of years in service, which has lead to many of them making themselves a home among the Valis
>Anoroi
last remnants of the fallen empire who spent over 500 years isolated from the rest of the world in the sunken palace of Kel-Anor, developing a bizarre ritual-based tribal culture that worships the last empress's remains
>Ombrians
island-dwelling Not!Byzantines (ethnically closest to Melanesians/SE-Asians) whose society is divided into 12 noble houses (and their "clientes") based on the zodiac and governed by an inflated bureaucracy, renowned for being basically their world's equivalent of modern Switzerland
>>47939065
>It's all really rough and tbqh and full stolen ideas
doesn't matter if it's stolen or not, I'm always a slut for explaining the origins of classical fantasy races with human xenobiology.
>>47957552
it's a bit of a problem that you can't exactly do both because it'd take way too much effort. you'd need to consider the implications that the existence of a non-human sentient race (with multiple cultures and phenotypes!) would have for humanity in that setting - and then you'd still have to flesh out both.
also consider the following: non-human races can be used as stand-ins for archetypes and virtues/vices so you (as a story-teller) can make a point about them, like using dwarves as a way to talk about Marxism without going through the tedious song and dance of trying to accurately portraying the Proletariate in its late 19th century state (which is also boring to read about, whereas dwarves can be exciting).
Do you guys do titles in your setting? If so what do they look like, and how are they earned?
>>47957552
The two notions aren't exclusive from one another. Stock races are a security blanket, but humans in fiction are also just as much a security blanket.
As you pointed out, people make substitutions because they lack the knowledge to make the foundation. If you've already accepted this as truth, then of course to you making a fictional race is always considerably easier, because in that case you're not actually starting at the foundation, you're starting from a foundation. Personally, I don't consider that as making a fictional race at all, but that's strictly my opinion.
The aspects aren't trivial, because it's a part of design approach. Taking the "race" from nothing requires putting in constraints, and that requires understanding what constraints you'd have to implement. Even the choice between carbon based life and silicon based life, the impact of a vegetarian diet over a carnivorous diet, recreating a food chain based on whatever flora and fauna are present, and linking that together with what enzymes are naturally produced versus what enzymes are naturally absent. An individual who is aware of the science is capable of utilizing it - those aspects are thereby no longer trivial.
Everything that you'd need to do to flesh out the single human empire, you'd have to do that and more for whatever alien race is made. The influence of the planet on the race's history, culture, and social norms, the influence of other beings and individuals on the race's social and physical aspects - all of that needs to be created from scratch precisely because people don't know it to begin with. The onus is on the builder - if they're going for unique - to make it unique.
And at the end of all of this, as you concluded yourself, if the perspective character is human, the onus is again on the builder to express everything made in a way perceivable by a human.
>>47957585
I really like that. Maybe not too fond on the whole super-huge empire that rules half of the world, though drawing inspiration from Benim certainly is novel and applaudable.
I like some of the smaller details that give away the complexity of the settings like
>sacrilegious by the orthodox parts of their society
(acknowledging that the society is divided into different levels of orthodoxy on the subject matter)
There is one thing that bothers me though:
>infamous for its practice of sending political prisoners abroad as mercenaries to spend X number of years in service,
How does that work? How do you prevent them from simply walking the fuck away and doing what ever they want?
Are they granted pardon upon returning from several years of service? Are they essentially exiles until they prove the right to return home by proving themselves as soldiers? Why would they want to return, and how do you keep them as worries, as opposed of them deserting at the first opportunity.
And finally (and this bothers me most), when you have a POLITICAL prisoner, that is a person that threatens the political order of your country, do you think punishing them by making them into experienced veteran soldiers is a good idea? Seriously, you are literally giving the opponents of the regime weapons and experience in combat before letting them come home.
>>47957664
I think it's more of a problem with fundamental design philosophy. Creating a good human culture is about creating a complex pluralism. Human societies are near infinitely complex and variable: capturing that variability (and it's relation to the environment) is the true challenge of good human-oriented culture building. It's about creating something consistent but fundamentally pluralistic. It really is the same challenge you face when you try to write a good character: it's not his phenotype or even his family history: it's the incredible layers of small details and particularities that make the character truly human.
Creating human characters, and human civilizations is about taking simple form and then crushing it into thousand little, fractal like structures.
Building an entirely new race is the opposite: it's about taking chaos and organizing it into an order. You are taking the unlimited possible options, and then trying to mold them all into something consistent. It's inherently reductionistic process.
To put it in a different way: with humans, you don't have to define what is human "in general", which allows you focus all your effort on crafting what is this PARTICULAR human or this PARTICULAR culture.
With an alien or fictional species, you have to do the opposite, you have to focus absolute majority on just defining what this species is IN GENERAL (that is reducing them to general qualities), and there is no fucking way you can come to the same level of pluralistic and complex description as you achieve with humans: and the whole issue becomes even bigger when you realize that - once again, you can't really invent things that are not fundamentally relatable or intuitive to you. Which will lead to the situation that no matter what you'll do, you'll still be trapped within the restrains of human experience and perception (most of which you don't even realize you have) and trying to go out of them will actually feel awkward and forced.
>>47957757
>>47957552
I think, to some extent, the main difference between the ideologies is largely because of the way you're considering alien races as stock, rather than as a blank canvas for which every single detail (scientific, sociological, historical, psychological, temporal and spatial) need to be filled in with no substitutions.
I won't argue that substituting in a hundred stock races is easy. I completely agree with that notion. Stock races are things that anyone can recognize. But to create a truly alien race requires a phenomenal amount of both expertise and dedication, something that as 4chan puts it so eloquently, is blatantly "autism".
I mean who would consider the implication of a race that has a specific enzyme capable of breaking down the milkweed's toxin and replicating it as a natural form of defense, and how that relates to one of the race's predominant ideologies that a deterrence should always be presented before forceful action should be taken - all in relation to how that makes the main character a brash and headstrong individual, even if by human standards the main character might seem meek in comparison?
But even that example, as convoluted as it is, barely even touches upon the idea of an alien race. It's just wholly insufficient. For people who can't flesh out the history of a single human empire, creating even a single alien race can well be a nigh impossible task. Because it's a matter of creation, not a matter of substitution.
>>47957757
>but humans in fiction are also just as much a security blanket.
No, they really, really aren't. Saying that relying on humans in creating fiction is a security blanket is lying saying that relying on (existing) language in writing is a security blanket: it's not a security blanket, it's an absolute necessity and common sense. Those who claim otherwise really don't know what they are talking about.
We are humans, we will always talk human, think human, and those who pretend to do something else do just that: they just may not be realizing how shallow pretension they create.
And all those aspects you described ARE trivial, because there is no other way than trivial way to work with them. You can't invent a non-human psychology. You can take human psychology, trivialize it to a point where it feels barely human, twist it around a bit and think you have achieved something great.
They are trivial because all their fundamental implications are impossible to fully comprehend and view from a non-human perspective to begin with. In order to make them non-human, you must trivialize them. I'm sorry, this is going to sound a lot arrogant, but I completely doubt you have any idea of the actual implications of even the sightest deviations from human physiology, history, evolutionary and social conditions.
If you claim you can actually think out of those, you really are trivializing them to a level that is beyond reason.
And that is the CORE of the problem. In order to think outside of the given necessity of our living condition, you must actually INCREDIBLY underestimate how vital and fundamental even the smallest details are out our ability to comprehend.
You will always end up trivializing, humanizing, reducing an entire complex race to a set of banal observations and very shallow speculations that will inetably lead to equally banal and shallow models of life.
Again: don't take this personally, it's not that I'm saying that you in particular are dumb.
For me, sticking to humans is just Occam's Razor. I don't need non-humans in this role, so why should I invent another race?
>>47957781
half the world according to them, it's actually more along the lines of 2-3% of the planets inhabited landmass. think Rome.
>How does that work? How do you prevent them from simply walking the fuck away and doing what ever they want?
I might have phrased that in a misleading way. Totiche military is all about mercenary bands that are sold to other kingdoms to fight in their wars. prisoners are essentially drafted into the army to earn back their freedom or die trying (in some cases they're actually sent into battle without weapons to die). they get to keep everything they earn and/or plunder on campaign though. and of course it's supervised.
>>47957977
I don't think anyone here argues that humans are inherently limited by human perceptions and notions. No matter what anyone creates, it'll always have a human influence on it. No builder, author, or creator should ever forget that fact, that regardless of what they make, they are still inherently human. But that doesn't mean that other forms of life don't exist.
The thing is, you're fixated on the idea of inventing something completely new when that isn't the case. The argument was not on the matter of the necessity of creating something outside the bounds of human perception, but the inherent difficulty behind creating a race that isn't human.
If everyone needed to fully comprehend something in order to use it, most writers wouldn't be writers, and most builders wouldn't be builders. I have an engineering degree, and even I don't grasp the fundamentals of astrophysics, and nor should I, since I majored in chemicals. But the act of working out the intricacies between different systems (social, political, and whatnot) and their influences on how a hypothetical race would interact broadens my understanding of those different subjects. Yet even within the known bounds, there is already enough inherent complexity to make something different just by combining factors in a different arrangement than they were before.
You're insisting that you need to think outside the given necessity when the original problem never had anything to do with thinking outside. There's already more than enough things to think about within, why do you need to go outside?
If you're forcing the condition that creating a non-human race must also come with the corollary that they don't adhere to human logic and principles, then there's no argument, and also there has never been an alien race. Elves, dwarves and whatnot would all just be considered subsets of humans, with physical variations.
>>47958164
>think Rome.
OK, that makes sense. Still not entirely fond of the idea, but then again, I have some similar nations (though not particularly long-lived ones) in my world.
>and of course it's supervised.
Might be a bit bitch to supervise, but I think there are some historical precedents for similar organization, though in most cases, convicts formed a relatively small portion of the total military power.
>>47949531
The most urbanized city would be the Sha'haran Imperial Capital of Ses'shara which would have a population of about 200k in an area about 713km^2. It has major infrastructure such as paved roads, water system, sewage system and public transport. Still working out the details so stuff is likely to change.
>>47957977
Now, I'll gladly admit that I'm dumb. Given our discourse, I have no problems believing that you're far superior to me intellectually, and most likely far more successful in many different aspects of life as well. You've clearly demonstrated that you're a far better expert in many fields than I am. As I said, I'm an engineer, I recognize that my expertise lies in a very niche field.
But I don't see the necessity to restrict things down to the mode of thought that you've presented. There's a vague sense of fatalism in that last statement where you say.
>You will always end up trivializing, humanizing, reducing an entire complex race to a set of banal observations and very shallow speculations that will inetably lead to equally banal and shallow models of life.
If I were to take the statement alone, it'd seem that you arrived at the conclusion a long time ago that any non human race must be inherent banal and shallow because the process undertaken to create them was not inherently complex enough to meet your criteria for a race of complexity.
As an engineer faced with that sort of design problem normally I would have just said "increase the parameters". But in this specific case, since the core of what you've said pushes the notion that anything non human must be mutually exclusive from human standards, that doesn't apply - because as we both agree, we don't know what non human standards are.
But if you indeed believe that the conclusion is foregone and the venture is futile, then realistically this wasn't so much a discourse as it was just a work up towards this conclusion. In which case, bravo for having found something you have such strong convictions in.
>>47949531
Terribly unurbanized. Two prominent countries only have 4 mapworthy cities each. There's a country that is nothing but villages.
One nation mostly have free people walled themselves in the city and leaving slaves in the field and one breaks the pattern by being one city-state with bare minimum of agrarian population, with extremely advanced mollusc farming within city walls complimenting it.
>>47958176
>The argument was not on the matter of the necessity of creating something outside the bounds of human perception, but the inherent difficulty behind creating a race that isn't human.
I get that. I just think (actually, know) that you are missing one key obstacle in inventing new races in the way you had described it: the one little problem that makes me say that no matter your expertise or amount of time invested, the way you'll utilize aspects of your life-forms (such as the ability to metabolize and utilize poison from some plant) is "trivial".
You talk about "working out the intricacies between different systems" - I would probably talk about "moving between different levels of analysis" and there is just one thing you really need to realize about all complex life forms, and a solid portion of the material world in general:
Emergence.
In other words, the fact that qualities of supervenient structures cannot be reduced to qualities of their constituting elements. Which means that no matter how hard you'll try, you will never be able to come even CLOSE to modeling the actual intricacies of existing and familiar life if you try to figure them out from their fundamental constituting elements. You can't actually model what a species capable of ingesting poison and using it for their defense would be like, because the "higher" levels of analysis, the "higher" structures like social life is EMERGENT from it's biological basis: the qualities it displays are not found and cannot be derived from the qualities of the lower level of analysis.
And this is a massive fucking problem, one that all natural studies currently seriously struggle with, particularly anthropology. Emergence is what really forms us, what forms life as it is actually since life is an emergent property of matter to begin with, cannot be modeled efficiently from subvenient to supervenient.
Also, please excuse me sperging out like this, it's just a very interesting subject matter to me.
>>47958205
it's not like their entire military is just convicts, but it's something only they do with such regularity.
>>47949531
Antiquity level of urbanization. there are a lot of cities in the Sharac lands, a handful of massive urban centres in the Ahigbeni empire with some minor cities sprinkled along the coasts, the overbearingly large Ombrian capital of Zantiot, and the harbor city Ven Val, which is half uninhabited ruins from 1000 years ago and half repurposed ruins from 100 years ago.
>>47958308
>I have no problems believing that you're far superior to me intellectually, and most likely far more successful in many different aspects of life as well. You've clearly demonstrated that you're a far better expert in many fields than I am. As I said, I'm an engineer, I recognize that my expertise lies in a very niche field.
Not sure if that is ironic or sincere, but I really don't want to turn this into a ego-dispute. I don't think of you any dumber than I am, and I am almost entirely certain that you have higher education and achieved more success than I had, considering that I am literally nobody who just reads a lot.
But yeah, you are right about me being fatalistic, for reason I explained here: >>47958313 - it's the emergence that gives the resulting species it's fabric, it's actual appeal and reliability. Just like it's the emergent qualities of a person: not the neurons, the biochemistry, or the history, but a structure and pattern that emerges from all of those and cannot be reduced to either one - that makes a truly relatable character.
Just like you cannot conjure up language from understanding of letters, form a convincing character from understanding how his organs works, I don't think you can conjure up a convincing race from it's biochemistry, if that makes sense.
And just few last thoughts in one more post and then I'll stop sperging, I swear. cont soon.
>>47958448
>>47958308
And finally, there is one more question that I have to ask: and that is really the purpose. I am of the belief that world-building is, down to it's core, a form of storytelling. And I wonder if such speculation - even if possible, would really result in interesting stories. Because (and there is a beautiful theory by a Cognitive Psychologist called Dan Sperber), the ultimate measure of worth in communication is RELEVANCE, and I just have to wonder what relevance such a fundamentally alien race has to us, to your audience.
There is a famous comic strip by XKCD that states that "the quality of a book decreases proportionately to the number of made-up words you use in it" - a jab to poor fantasy often cluttering it's language will made up nonsense to make itself sound more interesting - and ending up sounding either silly, or pretentious.
I kinda think that there is an analogy to be made between use of language in cheap (and often amateur) fantasy fiction, and the use of fictional races, where existing language could be equated to use of normal, natural language, and use of made-up words akin to developing new races.
Because the situation is really similar. Every now and there, there is an author who can actually pull it off. Think Tolkien, Burgess, Joyce. But those are both exceptional. Then you have most of the great fiction, that uses natural langue, but in rich, varied and complex fiction. Then you have the fiction that uses "made up" words, but uses them in such a token and uncreative way they end up being just generic (what happened to elves and dwarves outside of Tolkien) simple because if you use them differently, no-body will understand you.
And then finally, you have the terrible B-grade fantasy where every third word is some random mashup of keys in a desperate attempt to sound varied or fleshed out.
>>47958517
To offer two cents, I think a good metric for determining if you want to use a foreign word for something is to decide if that something is well and truly distinct enough from the more mainstream word to warrant it. And how frequent the term is used. If it is very frequently used then you are better able to use a new ethnic term because the reader will quickly recognize it. If it is less frequently used you are better off using a mainstream english/whatever word.
I grew up with the Europa Barbarorum and Total War stuff so I very much like properly 'ethnic' nomenclature if it were up to me, but not all of them are made equal. For examples:
-A hoplite is distinct enough to warrant its use as opposed to 'man-at-arms'.
-A peltast is distinct enough to warrant its use as opposed to a 'light infantryman'.
-Psiloi or Akontistai is not distinct enough to warrant their use as opposed to light infantry or javelinmen.
-hetairoi is not in my opinion warranted when companion or companion cavalrymen suffice.
-If your East asian man-at-arms/warrior aristocrat is not meant to be a not-samurai then you are well placed to use your own ethnic term for them.
-if your mounted warrior-aristocratic heavy cavalryman is distinctly -not- a knight for whatever reason then you are well off using a different term, but I'd think cultural is the main reason to avoid knight (I wouldn't call the men of Rohan "Knights", nor would I some Rajputs. Muslims are a mixed bag because there's precedence for 'saracen knight' or 'arabian knight').
Concepts like honor, love, some non-familial bond like patron/client, blood-brother and so on? I'm more iffy about using some exotic made up word for it. Curse words I'm not sure, personally I think you should just use ones in the tongue you are writing. It sounds hokey if you use some ye old profanity, and to avoid being grimdark you can just scale it back to 'pg13 real life cursing'. Bitch, whore, bastard, asshole, but no fuck.
>>47958774
While you are certainly right, the distinction I see here is that hoplite, peltast, even hetairoi, while not being part of the common discourse, are not made up words. They have, to use the terrible philosophical nomenclature, a real-world signifier, and there is a historical context, frame of reference, and level of pragmatic relevance to them. Even if it's very small.
By the way, I studied philosophy. That is, I had spent months having to debate philosophical terminology. I think that quite often, especially with some of the greek and german philosophy, MUCH of the "language" philosophy tends to utilize is has less common with words like hetairoi nd peltast, and more in common with words like knush-chi or X'tac-suji. Carnap was not entirely off the track when he talked about "a curious sound that efficiently mimics the impression of real language"...
Maybe some closing words - all that I said so far is probably of extremely little relevance to absolute majority of people, and especially people here on /tg/. I'm a freak and I really, really like to overthink things. Big time. And there is nothing wrong with people making up fictional races, or using generic ones, using made-up words and not giving a fuck what I think about emergence, or principles of relevance of what-the-fuck ever. I just can't resist jumping into these concepts head first though, and really, really working the dirt. I don't think any less of people who don't give a fuck, in fact, in a sense I do envy them, and I say that without any ill implication.
>>47958774
At first I was going to say ethnic terms are good for physical things, not for concepts, but that's wrong. I would amend it that you want ethnic terms to be saved for 'macro' stuff. Think of ethnic terms as a finite resource, a spice you want to use selectively and strategically.
It would be off to call an Oni or a Yokai in a Japanese fiction an Ogre or whatever. You don't have to translate "Sohei" into "warrior monk" every single time but instead use the two as synonyms. "Tetsuma the Sohei monk strode forth, longbow in hand...high did the warrior monk's arrow stride in the air.." so you avoid the repetition of "The sohei Monk...then the Sohei monk...talking with the Sohei Monk".
Then there's a concept or an idea like Bushido. You can't just translate it as "way of the warrior" every single time. It's a mouthfull and it's vague. Bushido concentrates a highly specific, distinct concept more than just a generic title of honor or ethics will convey. The same way Chivalry with a capital C is not just "being a gentleman" but something highly evocative. But then when you get to the sub-categories in Bushido that's where you don't want to be a dumbass using ethnic terms for factors of Bushido like honor, loyalty, martial arts skill and so on.
tl;dr - fancy word for elf is cool. Fancy word for elven outlook on life is cool. Fancy word in elf for 'bow' or 'love' or 'hunt' or family' or angry or sad or sun is obnoxious.
>>47958517
I have no problems being sincere in admitting my lack of experience, knowledge, and intelligence. Believing otherwise is arrogance and nothing but. Others can be intelligent, I cannot. The fact that you know I'm missing one key obstacle already speaks volumes about your superiority, I think we can both agree on that.
But what you see as an obstacle, I don't. Because my purpose isn't the same as yours. I don't care about storytelling, and I don't care about relevance. I can recognize very well that there is a fine line between reality and fiction, and reality is that I'm an engineer, not a writer. If you're writing for the sake of an audience, then you cater to their whims and expectations. When your audience is strictly yourself, then all you're catering to is yourself. I personally don't have the delusion that I've made anything "interesting" or "great", much less anything "unique". I think that sort of thinking is unnecessary to the actual creation process.
With that in mind, it should suffice to explain why I neither see it as trivial nor as an obstacle, because for me the process and the purpose isn't much more than a controlled experiment in which more factors are added to the mix progressively. The main disconnect between us is that you've assumed that I need to come close to modelling reality within fiction in order to appeal to an audience, whereas I just see it as additions to an equation. You've drawn lines demarcating your hierarchical structure, I've stuck to linking dots together in a way I see fit. You're looking at the system with your firm grasp of the human race, I'm simply an ant moving specks of sand from one point to another.
The design process is different, and the environment is different, so it's only logical that the conclusion is different. As you said, you don't think you can conjure up a convincing race from biochemistry, I would say, who could dare claim to conjure up a convincing race to begin with from a single element?
>>47958879
>MUCH of the "language" philosophy tends to utilize is has less common with words like hetairoi nd peltast, and more in common with words like knush-chi or X'tac-suji. Carnap was not entirely off the track when he talked about "a curious sound that efficiently mimics the impression of real language"...
That's a good point. Though to pontificate I wonder if that's not just the common English or closely neighbored Romance/German/Russian/ect. language bias. Considering if you showed me Welsh or finnish or Polish sometimes I'm left wondering "Did Ayylmaos just come and abduct your fucking vowels or something?".
But yeah I'd say steer clear of apostrophes and hyphens and there's a bit of that obscenity US ruling business of "I know it when I see it" for if a word is too hokey fantasy looking and sounding.
>>47958517
We've moved so far away on a tangent from the original point of "challenges/rewards behind the design of alien races versus using humans" that I have no problems admitting I'm not sure why this is continuing, but I suppose it's worth noting that even the notion of relevance and purpose are wholly subjective. For instance, if you're going to use language as an example, why not go for something like Esperanto, a language artificially developed and put into relevance by those who use it? Certainly it should hold more weight than some fiction, no?
But, as you pointed out, it's based subjectively on the audience. Some people would find Esperanto to be an exercise in futility, not worth mentioning, that those who learn it are doing nothing but wasting their time, time better spent elsewhere. A very ineloquent example to demonstrate that trying to garner discourse from a subjective standpoint is shaky at best.
You put particular emphasis on relevance, and I've already pointed out previously my own personal parameters for that, but you also never pointed out what relevance is necessary. At this point the notion is still wholly nebulous. Is it relevance where it has to achieve commercial success or global recognition? Is it relevance to the point where it has to introduce a paradigm shift within society, or affect a certain number of people? Is it relevance where it has to have a meaning, or whether it has to reach an objective?
To summarize, relevance is a nebulous qualifier here because whereas you can decipher and fully understand my way of thought to even point out obstacles that I haven't considered, I'm not smart enough to do the same for you. I could certainly presume that you're actually a successful worldwide bestseller author, but then your relevant audience would be far different.
Pick a culture in your setting
>What is their food like?
>Their art
>Their music
>What do they consider virtues ? What do they consider taboo or vice?
>What is their architecture like?
>Their clothing?
>What is the common stereotype of them to outsiders?
>>47912435
Am I the only one who unironically builds a world of cliches?
Like I try to take every cliche I can think of and work it in. Vikings in the North, Arabs in the south, Noble Savages in the far western plain, the Great Dwarven Mountains Where Dwarves are...
The powerful but dangerously narrow-minded Paladin Order, the crazy magical Dragon Cult, the martial human kingdom with a great wall, the Assassin's guild whose members are constantly plotting against each other, etc...
I worldbuild to make a playable setting for players. I want it to be intuitive. I want it to give anything a player may want to play a place in the world. Just a celebration of everything we already know we like about high fantasy. Cliches forever
>>47958890
>I have no problems being sincere in admitting my lack of experience, knowledge, and intelligence. Believing otherwise is arrogance and nothing but. Others can be intelligent, I cannot.
Ease up on the humility, it starts to have the opposite effect at a certain point and seems a little disingenuous.
>>47960067
That's fine, the point of tabletop is to have fun.
The only reason to go deep into worldbuilding for a game is 1) if your players actually will appreciate it or 2) if you're going to turn it into a novel or something.
>>47960140
Or if you enjoy it. Everyone needs a creative outlet. I draw a lot too, I don't do it with the intent to share with anyone. I do it for myself because it's a better use of time than anything else I'm likely to do to pass the time.
>>47960112
it's 4chan, I don't think anyone cares.
im currently working on a city filled with the undead.
located up in the mountains and only accessible by a giant gate thats been shut for god knows how long.
im trying to come up with ideas for how this disaster came about and what i have so far is:
>Clergy taking revenge for being saddled with taking care of the dead and given responsibility for dealing with people dying inside the city.
>King went mad with power and cursed himself and his city because they were about to be invaded, and if he cant rule, no one will.
>The mages sought to control the king and people but their efforts backfired.
>A malevolent force from below corrupted the humans living above and shortly after struck them down.
>It was a result of necromantic infiltration and they still rule the city to this day.
notable areas/buildings inside the city are:
the cathedral with catacombs below.
the outer and inner city seperated by a ravine and connected by a huge bridge.
the castle and its ramparts.
and a mages tower.
>>47960283
Having a well-constructed personal world is worth worldbuilding for on its own.
>>47956845
>Something about this rubs me off the wrong way, but I'm not sure what.
Little late coming back, but what do you think bothers you? The rarity of Elves? The African-Proto-Culture Humans descended from? The lack of Gnomes?
>>47938197I already gave feedback in another post
>Humans, Giants and Dwarves
The mortals races created by the now missing god to tame the earth, Humans are split between free kingdoms most of which have a celtic nordic or germanic sort of theme and the worshipers of god's son (maybe, he claims to be anyway) who have something of a byzantine thing going on.
Giants' purpose is to civilize the places frail humans have trouble with, at the cost of expanding quite a bit slower, they are 10 foot tall horned things who lead an almost monastic lifestyle in tight knit communities.
Dwarves go to tame the deep places, burrowing deep and stroking their bears as dwarves are so want to do.
>Dragons
Also made by god as his weapons of war, but have suffered quite horrendously in his absence going quite quite insane. They generally benevolent at their core at least to the 3 mortal races if the insanity hasn't washed that away yet. Come in land sky sea and deep varieties.
>Trolls and fey spirits
The original inhabitants of the planet, come in all shapes and sizes, very pissed about the whole getting conquered thing, happy to have a chance to take their things back now that god is nowhere to be found.
General use baddies, can be not!goblins or orcs, evil or questionably motivated spirits, quite versatile
>Beastmen and the undead
The god of the mortal races wasn't the only of his sort, plenty of other gods exist beyond the world, and with their brother missing they figure now's the time to have a shot and usurping him. A million and one abominations walk the world thanks to their influence beasts and the dead being the most prominent examples.
>>47960017
>Food
Powders, spores, spices... anything that can be inhaled. Also various bodily humours from non-sapient species.
>Their art
The more religious folks like to sing along the tune of the big underground pool under each city (natural phenomenon, cause is still unknown). There's also a lot of street theater; people in general like reproducing events they've seen themselves or from another play
>Their music
Lots of vocal music, usually sung in solo. When people use instruments, they usually either use percussion ones or plucked string instruments with long, thick and slack cords that sounds kind of like an untuned contrabass
>virtues
Hard work. Every individual should work for either the preservation of the underground pool or preservation of existing life. Wounding the flesh is taboo, to the point where edged tools and weaponry basically do not exist.
>architecture
My weak point
>clothing
The other weak point. I'm not good at visual arts or designs
>common stereotype
They're seen as too dependent on their pool. Folks don't really venture outside the cities, and rely on traveling traders for importations. Usually obsessed with producing the perfect offspring rather than trying to solve the world's conflicts.
>>47960283
I do it as much as for the hobby aspect as for a gm tool
>>47960017
Totiche
>What is their food like?
heavily centered around the Three Sisters with a great emphasis on pumpkins. they grow well on the soil the Totiche settle on and over time the people have become quite creative with how to process them into food. "black brew", a spicy cocoa-based drink that's served hot and with a lot of mint leaves used to be a Totiche thing, but it has spread throughout the continent in last century.
>Their art
Salish-style formline art, with the actual formlines representing magical wards of divine power.
>Their music
based around a rhythm provided by two drums (a bigger "master drum" and the "hand drum"), with a variety of flutes and 2-4 singers; everything needs to be paired, because in their belief, music does not exist if you're alone.
>What do they consider virtues? What do they consider taboo or vice?
loyalty to the clan (and by extent, the king, who is the head of all clans), honesty even to the point of self harm, brevity in speech and listening well (not obedience, just thoroughly listening so you don't miss anything). selfishness (and by extent individualism) is looked down upon, as is showing mercy to someone who has wronged you before. of course this differs on an individual level, but this is what children are taught to value.
>What is their architecture like?
mostly wooden longhouses, with some of them being longhouses built on top of longhouses and stilt-houses alongside the rivers that cross into Totiche territory, none of them particularly decorated on the outside.
>Their clothing?
[still working on that one!]
>What is the common stereotype of them to outsiders?
that they're needlessly cruel and take ages to react to anything.
>>47960067
my friend's doing that for his school finals game design project. it's about dragon hunters, with renders of a typical medieval knight, an Arabian Nights swashbuckler, a WHFB style inquisitor and a rebellious princess straight out of 3 Musketeers (like d'Artagnan but female), and the world he's built around it is basically full cliché all the time. its breddy gud
What're your demons like, /wbg/? I'm working through that very thing in my urban fantasy setting at the moment, and I wanted to see how you guys handled it. And I don't mean just christian demons, anything that you think qualifies.
>>47962123
Demons are born of the miasmas that form from souls weighted by negativity and sin that gather in deep caverns called hells. The soul sludge and the miasma it produces is both physically and spiritually corrosive, and eventually eat away at the rock to cause a collapse and burst free. The miasma enters living beings through the mucous membranes, and after a brief period of illness forms a psycho-cerebral parasites called a Whisperer, which tempts its host towards vice. The sin feeds it, and once its sufficiently fattened and it's victim sufficiently corrupt and degenerate, it bursts forth as a true demon, often killing its host.
>>47913768
rebirth
I want a world that is post-apocalyptic, but it's POST-post-apocalyptic
for example, take your average tolkien-medieval-fantasy world, kill the majority of all sentient inhabitants, now add say some couple thousand years after that event of a super slow rebuild
My world's inhabitants went through a great cataclysm that shook the planes, billions died when tallied across every plane. A few races unfortunately went extinct, whether through just being obliterated or so few were left they could not find each other to continue gene pools and died as the lasts of their kind. Some others took a different path, as entires planes shook to their very cores, one of the very first casualties was the dwarven race. But, upon seeing themselves at the brink of extinction, entered into contract with elementals for protection. In exchange for their lives to be safe, they fused with the elementals and became a half-elemental people of fire and stone that still true breeded, but went deeper into the bowels of the world to ride out the apocalypse. How long the contract lasts has been lost to nearly all.
Those races that survived found themselves few and scattered, banding together where they could to create governments. Soon the war for resources began, and more death was to be had. however, unbeknownst to them until a few years later, the world was wasting away from the lasting effects of the apocalypse. Finally upon seeing this, the last kingdoms made way for the underground as it was their only choice. Resources were gathered and down they went, and down they stayed. There would be conflict from time to time but eventually came a time of relative peace. The races of the kingdoms intermixed (for the most part) and hybrids became the majority over the next couple hundred years, but being pure breed became a thing of status, royalty, and thus they held high positions of power and command.
All of this continued for the next few thousand years. -cont-
>>47962123
Demons reside in the Demon Realm, an astral plane beyond the Mortal Realm where they are resided upon by several families of archdemons who are always vying for control of the region. Every several millenia, an archdemon is eventually able to unite all the archdemon families under their rule and mount an invasion against the Mortal Realm in the name of conquest and riches. A demon cannot survive in the Mortal Realm without a host and for this reason many demonic cults will offer up their bodies to the demons so that they may live within them. Demons can only be cleansed from a body through religious purification, an act that only requires holy energy from the priest as well as devout belief from the one being purified. Demons can also stay dormant in a host if they are possessed without their knowledge, living within their body until a moment of weakness shows itself, allowing them to fully possess the body of the host.
Kinda generic, but this is all I have figured out.
how's my map? used the resources at the top. Every white bar is 200 miles, so it's small
>>47963051
and here's how I based the geography... basically mountain meadows, into grassland, into canyonlands, into desert
>>47963051>left-justified map
>>47963200
what does that mean?
>>47962793
-cont-
And perhaps until only 200 years ago has the world been discovered to have begun it's healing process. However, as the first parties and first dots of civilization began to sprout onto the land, they have found out that the world was wild once more, as it had once been long before the first civilizations even began even prior to the apocalypse. What extreme few indigenous species that survives were now warped, savage, feral from hundreds of generations of living in a wasteland that had turned to jungle and overgrowth nearly everywhere. Another horrifying reality to be seen was during the cataclysm, the boundaries between the planes were weakened for some length of time and several creatures of various sizes and shapes of meandered their way in, and like the surviving indigenous species, had adapted and flourished without the interfering hand of civilization to keep them down. They had been around so long they hardly are recognizable in comparison to their original forms and are no longer considered outsiders, or are rather now native outsiders and thus any sort of banishing magic doesn't work on them as this plane is their actual home now.
Ruins barely exist, only of the largest settlements before the end happened have any discernible buildings to enter, most things had turn to rubble and succumbed to the natural reclamation.
Technology had a bit of a reset, with nearly all smiths dead from the apocalypse and with their being virtually no access to resources like wood, the craft of iron forging died a slow death and alternate forms of weapon and armor crafting had to be implemented. Writings of teachings exist on the subject, but writings and language changed over time, especially with interbreeding species, their languages became as one as the old languages became dead languages, and thus essentially only scholars can even read some of the archaic writings of the past, and none can read old dwarven writing.
-c-
>>47963265
Ocean on the left and big landmass on the right is overplayed
>>47960017
The Serenelands
>What is their food like?
Wheat in the northernmost parts, with mostly corn and corn-based food in the more tropical south, with a particular preference for tamales stuffed with pork, or chicken, whichever is available.
>Their art/music
Performance art and music is big, with drums and singing about past heroes, battles, and conflicts, particularly about the War of the Four States.
Actual drawings, paintings, and sculpture tends to be around the same things, except for different oracles; it is considered bad taste (though not illegal) to depict them in painting and sculpture. Art goes through 'movements', and a big one was a wave of iconography featuring the different oracles, and especially of the Great Lady.
Also, whether it falls under 'art' is debatable, but there are 'forums' that travel around the country, acting as kind of talk shows/news about different events around the country. Naturally, this news gets outdated or misinterpreted, but usually the actors put a humorous spin on the news, so people still enjoy watching it.
>What do they consider virtues ? What do they consider taboo or vice?
Devotion to one's family is a big virtue, particularly to your mother and father. Speaking out against your parents is a big no-no, and children are expected to carry out their parents dying wishes, and even avenge them if necessary.
Eating beef is a big taboo, as it is associated with gluttony and, most important, the Aoipeons that invaded the Heartlands at the foundations of the Serenelands. The nobles of the Aoipeon people were big on beef as a part of their diet.
>What is their architecture like?
The Serenelands have a general tendency towards townhouses and big mansions with wooden paneling, with brick stone houses and 'castle' equivalents in the north. The truly poor will use clay and simple wooden houses, placing them together in a kind of 'favela' fashion in the bigger cities.
>>47963538
what makes the Serenelands serene?
