Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kontako]

@GoblinCookie: I understand that you were disagreeing with the point, I was merely hoping that education of yours could finally make an appearance and aid us to construct an understanding of the historical flat world. You know what they say, "It is the mark of an educated man to entertain a thought without accepting it".

@LMeire: Thank you for replying. I really enjoyed the concept of endless tortoises holding up the world. It provided me with the idea that forgotten beasts may be the kin of such world bearers. Perhaps the generation of a figure similar to Atlas within the world history could also be used to explain the floating flat world. However I fear through this we are digging ourselves towards the 'omnipotent deity', through such that he may simply toss away the world if improperly appeased. Something along the lines of "Sizet, son of Ur - God of the sky - was imprisoned to eternally bear the world in order to reconcile for his misdeeds" wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities to solve it, essentially creating a powerless deity.
Through some unremembered source, it is my understanding that the Viking people along with many islander cultures believed the world to be flat. Perhaps we may learn more through their perspectives.

[Urist McVoyager]

The Viking world was flat, bounded by an ocean that was surrounded by a massive serpent that encircled the entire world. If you went out to sea far enough, you'd run into monsters. Eventually, you'd reach the World Serpent (Or whatever it is called) and have to turn back.

ETA: And let's cut out arguing about humanity and what we've done, please. It's completely irrelevant here. This is a world generator. All of human history that we know of is bound to a single world. If we actually bound all of Worldgen to the real world, we'd get bored and sick of having the same old shit happen time and time again. There is never one way to do something, or for something to happen, unless you're a mathematician of some sort, and human religions aren't matters for math unless they're trying for the Truth of the Universe. Otherwise they're just story time to teach people why they should do things the way they do them.

[Thuellai]

Generally speaking the flat-world belief, as far as I'm aware, mostly existed among cultures where travel was limited beyond a certain point.  For obvious reasons - actually circumnavigating the globe would make it very obvious that the world was round, as would a study of astronomy (which is actually where the revelation came from, as mentioned - although this still allowed for geocentric models of the solar system along with the proper heliocentric model)

So generally speaking, the 'edge of the map' was something no physical being was ever expected to reach - rather, it was an explanation for what happened to explorers who wandered so far they never made it back.

[GavJ]

ETA: And let's cut out arguing about humanity and what we've done, please. It's completely irrelevant here.

That's not the discussion. Nobody is arguing that on Earth, monotheistic religions started more wars and spread more rapidly and have been gradually gaining popularity, etc.

The discussion is whether that was a coin flip situation (next simulated world might have the opposite happen), or whether it is an inevitable result from the fundamental nature of religions (such that it would be in every simulated world).

Evidence of both types of things having happened on earth in more obscure examples points to it being happenstance. No evidence of anything else ever happening points to it being inevitable.

[LMeire]

Idea: Some spheres aren't really connected to the terrain or architecture at all, so what if some gods attached themselves to specific people or groups instead. Like the "Travelers" sphere, why would a god of travelers stay in one place? It'd make more sense if they wandered around the map, possibly disguised as an ordinary person, or if they followed a pious caravan or something.

Likewise, a god of something abstract like "Truth" wouldn't really have any particular reason to stay put, so what if they could adopt an appropriately minded individual as their "prophet" or "hero" and spread their worship/blessings that way? So we'd have sedentary gods whose strength depends on their proximity to specific map features, "trade-based" gods that randomly move around on roads and empower caravans/migrants, and "philosophy" gods that depend on the actions of special mortals to spread their teachings and gain power.

Personally, I think it'd have lots of extra story potential.

Example: Say there's this isolated human village near a river that plays host to their goddess, maybe they sacrifice fish to her every week to keep her from falling asleep in the winter and freezing the water. One day an elf comes through, seemingly talking to himself. It turns out he's the hero of a Luck/Games god, he gambles with everyone and wins himself enough favors and goods to stay for a few months. A couple villagers ask him how he does it, and he starts talking about his god. Soon enough, the whole town is listening to the elf's sermons, amazed by the gains to be made with this new religion just from donating a few coins in a gamble. By the time the elf leaves, he's rich and fat and the villagers have forgotten all about their river goddess in their attempts to replicate the hero's successes. The river freezes in the winter, they realize too late and none of their sacrifices are enough to reawaken their sleeping goddess. The hero of the god of Theft and Lies makes his way to the next town.

[Detoxicated]

Sounds cool, but I feel even a travelling god could be tied to a place. I do not want any restrictions really. All suggestions you made were quite good. I feel there SHOULD be wandering gods as well as gods tied to features, but it should never be a requirement. I can see a Mountain goat, often appearing as a mountain goat, who could appear on a mountain to guide a traveler to the other side. In another world the "same" mountain god would be the mountain itself and maybe create a pathway for the traveler. (Or if the god was angered block pathways or lead him astray)