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[TD1]

An island of vibrant green is said to be seen drifting eerily through the fog of the damned. The sea of ashes itself seems to speed this island on some predetermined course, and behind it mini-whirlpools of the dead wail in a discordant jumbles, fragments of which to the practiced ears of the Skalds sound like hymns of revival, and growth. Or perhaps of preservation, for it is guessed that this was a leaf of the Gretree the gods of the depths abide in to this day, and that nestled deep within its verdant folds is a single pearl, the World Seed, from which a new planet shall arise once doom befalls the world. All know of it, respect and fear it. None doubt that it exists but many dispute the function of the pearl, mainly those that have opposing beliefs on world regrowth.

However, few have ever seen the pearl as it is guarded by a group of fierce spear wielding aphids. These have limited intelligence, but have enough to craft their weapons from the driftwood washed upon their leafy isle. They are particularly fond of eating the island on which they dwell, and it is theorized by the Great Dwarven Scholars that the dead renew and replenish the leaf, so that it may fulfill some purpose. The Aphrodids, as they are known, guard the pearl and treat it as a deity, forever polishing and cherishing it. Any who lay foot on the leaf are killed by them as a matter of course, except the maggot men,who they emphasise with. They live in holes in the upper tissue, which they constantly rebuild as the following dead heal the leaf.

Some say that the island has no course, but that it is moving simply because the dead who nourish it attract the Soul Eaters of the deeps, and should the souls encounter such a beast and be devoured the leaf shall rot, thus ending the entirety of creation's chance at revival.

[Armok]

There are scholars who study the Oblivion, using experiments performed in deep mines at the very bottom of the world as well as a network of seismographs that have been logging the subtle motions of the world for centuries. They have concluded that it is not a void, but a substance, with properties allowing souls to pass into the world but by fundamental impossibility not out, and information or matter neither way. Seismographic data suggests that it forms a spherical shell around the world, at least a hundred times thicker than it's diameter, and that by some unknowable force is moved around every few decades. They believe that those throw into it in fact rest frozen in time just a few meters below the surface, and that new souls occasionally enter from the other side, neither they nor any of their substance ever to leave. Some hypothesize this is why those throw in seems to be erased from time; some unknown principle require some abstract metaphysical thing to travel between an object remembered or thought about and the thing doing the reference, and not even this the substance allows.

[WillowLuman]

(Behold my crappy attempt at mock-epic!)

The Saga of the Dread Pirate, verse I:

"They say the dreaded half-breed man
who murders over water,
Was sired 'tween two races, one our own;
a Dwarf-skald was his Father.
While speaking with the Dead one day,
he lost himself, and faltered,
but perchance was saved by elvish hand;
the Elf-king's own granddaughter."

Amongst those who believe in the circulation of the Dead, drawn down to the bottom and up again through the land, it is said that only the most prodigious of of souls complete the journey to live again. For first they must make it to the bottom, avoiding both the hordes of jelly-fish and the great Eaters of the Deep. Those who make it to the under-sea must then find their way to the places where water is drawn up through the land, and then find their way upwards. They say many become lost and stuck along the way, so few make it to within the earth. Of those that do, yet more cannot find their way to the top, and are trapped, or are deceived and drawn into the Orichalcum. Thus, it is said, only the mightiest, cleverest, and luckiest souls survive to reach the surface. At least, so is said amongst those who believe in this cycle.

Of the few said to have died and live again, there is Yolajj, the oldest living Dwarf-Skald. It is said he died at the hands of his own son, the halfbreed Pirate, yet came to live again.

[Karkov]

-snip-

((I'm not sure we had that advanced of a technology for seismographs, or who would study them if we did.  Possibly the Mould, seeing as how they're basically a Hive-mind, but for everyone else they probably wouldn't be testing this.  The Maggot-men would be obsessed with gaining wealth and power due to their abilities of traversing the world without complications, the dwarves would be stuck worshipping the spire in the middle of everything, and the Lava Squids are tribal(?) and born of this world, or at least were born during it's birth, so they wouldn't care about trying to leave it.  The Mould however would probably be power/knowledge hungry and I could see them doing this.  Also, I'm not quite sure why, but every time I have a mental image of the Mould, I keep seeing them in a sort of still-suit that the Fremen would use, except with a sort of gas-mask/filtration system attached.  In fact...))

The Mould are more technologically advanced than the other races of the islands, however they rely on magic much, much less than the other races.  Moulds have developed a suit that hermetically seals them within it, and allows them to travel safely through the terrain temporarily.  The ash will clog the filtration systems on the suit, and any attempt to clean it might break the seals, voiding the protection of the suits.  The Moulds are able to bypass the Maggot-men's monopoly on trading and transport, but only do so with themselves, and to a much smaller extent.

The areas that the Moulds have colonized have been rather devoid of materials, so they have been unable to use the resources of the world to further themselves too much.  As is, their armies aren't that well equipped, but their hive-mindlike nature allows any and all of them to pick up a weapon at a moments notice to fight off invaders.  They're fierce fighters, but they cannot leave their suits without succumbing to the elements.

Moulds reproduce more slowly than the other races, due to the complications of a fetus or the like attaching themselves to the hive-mind.  They typically have a pregnancy duration of two tides (years), and the mothers/infants are to be kept safe within the cities they live within, until they are able to wear their suits once again (or for the first time for the new members).

EDIT:  ((Does anyone else see the maggot-men wearing the Plague Doctor masks for some reason?  Hiding their skins underneath giant cloaks and whatnot to conceal their detestable forms from the other people they're trading with?))

[WillowLuman]

(Karkov, that kinda contradicts the earlier establishment of the Mould-men as trying their hardest to help out with the Spire. So far they haven't seemed like enemies-of-all-races. They've got a grudge with the trees, not a general hate for everything.)

[Darvi]

I see no Putnam here.

Also helloooo Darkness Induced Audience Apathy. Or do I just have that low a threshold for not giving a damn?

[WillowLuman]

(Sorry, I meant Karkov. I keep confusing them because Karkov's avatar is similar to one of the ones in Putnam's rotation.)

[kaian-a-coel]

EDIT:  ((Does anyone else see the maggot-men wearing the Plague Doctor masks for some reason?  Hiding their skins underneath giant cloaks and whatnot to conceal their detestable forms from the other people they're trading with?))

No, I see them as basically giant maggots with a lamprey-like mouth, no face features otherwise, and wearing nothing but a loincloth. Like gollum.

[WillowLuman]

Here's a WIP picture. Landmasses neither accurate nor to scale:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[kaian-a-coel]

Put that on the first post and rename the thread with the planet's name.
Come to think of it, does it even have a name?

If not, I propose Ashenpearl.

[WillowLuman]

I prefer Ashworld. We could put it to a vote. Once we have a name for the setting, we could start a tropes page.

Whatever name we use for our convenience for the setting, the inhabitants will probably have different names.

[Kadzar]

There is a long-standing myth that this world is not the first to exist. The legends are hazy on whether it was the Elves or Dwarves or Moulds or Dwarves and Moulds working together or some now extinct race, but apparently this world was created by mortals to escape the destruction of their original home. Stories conflict on whether the world was normal from the start and slowly deteriorated or that the world was flawed from the start and it was the best they could devise on such short notice. There is some postulation that this world was created before the destruction of the first one for some purpose other than survival.

Also helloooo Darkness Induced Audience Apathy. Or do I just have that low a threshold for not giving a damn?

((I think the world's good for what it is, but I do think it might be worth making another thread to create a non-Grimdark setting.))

[WillowLuman]

(I think it only becomes overly grimdark if we allow the moulds to be Always Chaotic Evil. I prefer them having a specific grudge against the carnivorous trees rather than automatically hostile to all non-moulds.)

[Karkov]

((I took off the "Hostile to all races" bit of the Mould thing, didn't realize they were trying to help the spire, guess I buzzed over that one.  I just sort of had the instinct that since they were of a hive-mind, anything outside of it would be considered foreign and sort of taboo.  Ashworld's a pretty good name, could put up a poll for it.))

EDIT:  ((I'd totally be up for making another world that's not as grimdark, it'd be kinda fun to not torture every race and religion with a destruction prophecy ))

[Flying Dice]

Actually, I've got what I think is a pretty good starting point for a non-grimdark world. Might go ahead and start a thread for it if nobody objects.

---

Re: Moulds: I'd agree that they don't need to be hostile to everything. The kill-devour-overrun sort of hivemind is incredibly overdone, to say the least.