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Author Topic: Fantasy World Setting  (Read 2350 times)

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Fantasy World Setting
« on: April 03, 2009, 04:24:57 pm »

    Before the beginning, there was nothing, not even a place or time for there to be nothing. However, because the universe prefers to exist rather than not exist, from that nothing came slightly more than absolutely nothing. And so, there was an infinite expanse of void, infinitesimally tenuous existence, infinitely large.
    However, It is a fact that every singular thing, that is everything that can be identified as one whole, has a spirit of that embodies it's truest nature. Because this void's only reason for existence was to simply exist, it's spirit was one that embraced the creation of existence. The spirit of the void created many other spirits in it's quest for creation, by dividing it's self into distinct regions- a place to the left, the place above, and so on, with each new place, each new, lesser void, gaining it's own spirit. But though the void spirit worked, and it's creations worked, there was one flaw that became more evident as time went on. All of these spirits knew no new existence, as they where all from the same void and the same origin. The void spirit grew worried that all of infinite time may be filled with the same creation in the same void, and that this would be no better than absolute nonexistence.
    Thus the spirits came to a council and decided to find something new to create. For many eons, the spirits of creation invented many strange and exotic things, many of which we can hardly begin to imagine, and all of them utterly unlike matter, the spirits, space, or time. through all this time, none of these attempts where stable, and every one of them dissipated back into the void. Finally, after unmeasurable time, two new forms of existence where created, matter and energy. the two worked together and could never be destroyed, only transformed into one annother.
    With a tool to finally begin true creation, something new and wonderful, the Void spirit set the lesser spirits out to create in the endless universe granting them the powers of godhood, but most importantly, gave each spirit a name. This name was the first thing to differentiate any two spirits, so that each realm of each spirit would be unique.
    The Creation spirits went separately into the void, each one to create a single star to dwell in, and under that star a world full of lesser spirits and creations of matter. One particular sprit, named Sol, created it's star-home and it's first planets. One world was scorched by the mighty well of the star. Some worlds where distant and cold. But one world... one world was unique.

Well, how's that?
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Karlito

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2009, 05:22:15 pm »

More of an intro than a setting.  But its good writing at least.
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Jim Groovester

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2009, 01:33:23 am »

Most fantasy backstory is head banging retarded. Yours is not.
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Armok

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2009, 03:28:09 am »

Most fantasy backstory is head banging retarded. Yours is not.
You must be reading the wrong kind of fantasy, this is good but there are many around that are also good... i think.
As for it not being retarded, I can spot several fatal flaws in the reasoning, however none of these breaks suspension of disbelief, and it is FANTASY, it's SUPPOSED to be a bit "retarded", if it wasn't it'd be scifi.
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Servant Corps

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2009, 03:33:17 am »

Well, this fanasty origin story at least has the basis of pretending to be realistic and fit our conception of the world. I can suspend my disbelief.
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Tahin

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2009, 04:02:00 am »

Sounds good. Is this supposed to be an "alternate history" of the real world, or what?
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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #6 on: April 04, 2009, 12:13:21 pm »

Could be a bit alternate history, or a parallel universe or whatever.

The concept of the world here means that every conceptual "thing"- living and nonliving, and potentially even metaphysical- has a spirit. This means that each planet has a spirit, and each nation has a spirit, and each stone, each grain of sand. An important point is that a beach as a whole also has a spirit and that spirit is much stronger than the component elements.

People, of course, also have spirits; but there is something special about these spirits; they grow. Unlike all other spirits, which are eternal, the spirits of living things can grow more powerfull- but they can also die.

What we might call "Magic" is not supernatural, it is just using the spirits or working with them, or by using one's own spirit. In fact there are four kinds of magic, Divine and Demonic, Draconic and Drudic. I use these terms only for the alliteration. Divine and Demonic are the results of working with other spirits- Divine arises from serving them, Demonic from controling them (though they aren't good or evil). Draconic magic arises from a study of forces and techniques and using one's own spirit to power it (Say, weaving strands of black horsetail and spiderweb while humming the dirdge of days to create a cloth bag which can hold light and darkness). Druidic, which is a poor name for it- is artistic and spontainious. (things like willpower-powered inhuman strength, or a shield of thought)

You must know that there is a lot of overlap; each kind of magic relies in some sense on the other.
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Karlito

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2009, 03:01:52 pm »

Hooray for animism!

So, what is this setting going to be used for?
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Servant Corps

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2009, 03:08:29 pm »

Great. So each spirit is basically a combination of thousands of different spirits, with each spirit being also combinations of different spirits, with the exception of the "Human spirit" (which has the potential to change, which means they will grow and die)...except the Human being is composed of many different living cells, so even THAT "Human Spirit" is composed of many different IMMORTAL spirits, such as the Spirit of the Heart, the Spirit of the Liver, the Spirit of the Stomach, the Spirit of the Right Side of the Mind, etc. Oh dear, I don't want the spirit of the Immune System to tangle it out with the Spirit of the Cold Virus...

Quite frankly, the whole idea of spirits being combination of dfifferent spirits just will lead to two situations.

1) Everybody is connected to one another, being part of a grander spirit. Since the spirits that are within a spirit can't attack one another, everybody is united together under one common goal. You got utopia.

Which is bad because then you got no conflict, and no game.

2) Everybody is a Schizo, as the various mini-spirits within the main spirit compete against each other and start killing each other.

I'm betting the latter.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2009, 03:11:04 pm by Servant Corps »
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Tahin

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2009, 03:05:21 am »

This... sounds intriguing.

How exactly will the combined "spirits" function?

Does the death of one's spirit coincide with one's physical death, or is it possible to kill someone, and then kill their soul?
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SnorriMabdugkosak

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2009, 08:10:55 am »

It's also important to note how far back in history this setting's background goes. Is it only minutes ago or fifty billion aeons? That would have a drastic impact on what characters could and/or would be like.



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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #11 on: April 05, 2009, 12:04:40 pm »

It's also important to note how far back in history this setting's background goes. Is it only minutes ago or fifty billion aeons? That would have a drastic impact on what characters could and/or would be like.

Well, the first part, with only the void spirits, took up a significant portion of the largest finite amount of time.

The formation of stars and worlds by the lesser void spirits (which later became the stellar spirits) varies. Some chose to create more complex worlds, involving geometric shapes of all kinds (cubes, touri, inverted spheres, ribbons, disks), some went with the hand-crafted method and divided heavens, placed Sun and Moon, shaped continents and did some gardening. Rather many of the Stellar Spirits started with just some raw hydrogen and stirred that up for a few million years, directing little bits here and there as they felt necessary.

Please note that the spirit of a forest is not a borg collection of the spirits of the trees; it is more like the personality of a city. Take New York; even those not in the United States immediately know what that city is like.

I'm not sure if this is implied, but the strength of a spirit is partially tied to it's complexity and partially to it's significance. A grain of sand or a mote of dust has a spirit that can be called upon, but it is hardly there at all, the spiritual equivalent of a sand grain. But if a particular sand grain was picked up by the wind and blown in the eye of a king during an important battle, it would actually become more than it was. Machines may have spirits as well, but I'm not sure how much.

Also, because a human spirit has it's unique nature, tied in part to specifics of brain chemistry and heart rate, influenced by chemicals of the body and so on, and in part containing the memories of that person, they are only a "whole" and no such thing as a "cell" spirit exists unless I change my mind later. The justification for that is that taken apart from the rest, a body part is just meat, but together, there is an emergent whole with behavior and intelegence.

It may be that a flank of steak has a "spirit" but no more than a similarly-sized lump of dead wood or a nice geode.
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Servant Corps

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2009, 12:40:27 pm »

The problem with that justification is that then plants and animals get to also be "whole", since without the compotent parts, they would also just be 'meat'. So, humans aren't really unique in that respect, except that only human spirits get to die, while plants'/animals' spirits can't.

Meh. I'm overanyalizing. What this thing will be used for?
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Armok

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Re: Fantasy World Setting
« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2009, 08:02:13 pm »

What about the humans having all the spirits, but the Spirit of the Heart, and Spirit of the Brain are vastly more powerful and control the others, the spirits of the cells being mindless like those of the sand grains?
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