Print

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

[Pillbo]

Overlap between spheres can be resolved by organising them into families and having some effects common to the entire family, others specific to some sub-branch, and some to a specific sphere. The spheres kind of already have some heirachy, so perhaps it could be derived from that?

That's what I was thinking like NATURE is a combination of the effects of it's pieces. NATURE contains PLANTS, ANIMALS, WEATHER; PLANTS contains TREES; ANIMALS contain FISH, etc so it could be used in a modular way, mixing effects however necessary- sort of like this:
                                             NATURE
                                       /          |            \
                         WEATHER       PLANTS        ANIMALS
                         /         \                  \                     \
                STORMS        WIND           TREES              FISH
           /          |        \
LIGHTING  THUNDER    RAIN

 That way you could have a region effected by LIGHTNING but not RAIN. It gets messy with things like RAINBOWS that can be a child of RAIN and LIGHT, but I'm sure Toady has a system already.

[Hapchazzard]

Finally updated everything up to and including LIGHT! Was lagging behind lately due to IRL stuff, but should be back on track now.

[voliol]

Finally updated everything up to and including LIGHT! Was lagging behind lately due to IRL stuff, but should be back on track now.

You forgot my second part on water.

BALANCE is a weird one, I don't have much but-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

MED
- Violence is reciprocal, causing injury with violence damages the creature causing it to some degree.
- Mystically redistributed wealth once economies are turned on. Being poor or rich becomes increasingly difficult as sphere influence increases. Maybe gold literally disappears from the coffers of the wealthy and appears in the pockets of the poor
- More animal people (a balance between man and beast) or plant people

HIGH
- Violence is reciprocal, causing injury with violence results in most of the same damage to the creature causing it. (Cut a leg off at the hip, your leg falls off at the ankle, break an arm and your tendons snap)
- The more powerful your fort becomes in a realm of balance, the more disasters and things happen to drag you back down.
- If your civ is crumbling while gobs thrive it could make things easier for you. Almost like the sphere has a built in fluctuating "difficulty level"
- Most animal life is replaced by animal/plant people

HIGH-EXTREME
- Creatures become genderless- maybe hermaphroditic.
- All violence is completely reciprocal. You cut someones head off and yours flies off too. Shoot a goblin with an arrow and a hole is ripped in you.

EXTREME
- Violence not possible?
- Exclusively animal people/plant people?
- All power structures broken (not sure how), kings, barons, crime lords, priests, maybe even megabeasts or deities are unable to hold influence? (This could also work to a lesser extent with less magical influence).
-- Maybe that could mean that traditional societies can't work in these areas and they could only be populated by tribes of family members, or small hunter/gatherer nomadic animal people groups.

I think this one is more inclined to meta-magic. Many of the extreme ones would be things created during mythgen, as a sort of cosmological constants.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Creature effects:

• At HIGH levels:
  • Creature can sense disruptions in balance, and seeks to correct them as a primary goal.
• At EXTREME levels:
  • Creature acts as a balancing force between at least two powers, be it realms of evil/good affecting the world, the power of WATER/FIRE wizards, or the military force of different states. Disrupting or killing the creature disrupts the balance.

Plant effects:

• At EXTREME levels:
  • Multi-tile plant (presumably a very large one) acts as a balancing force between at least two powers, be it realms of evil/good affecting the world, the power of WATER/FIRE wizards, or the military force of different states. Damaging or killing the plant disrupts the balance.

Item effects:

• At HIGH levels:
  • Item withholds the same internal magic balance between other spheres within itself. I.e. if you try to imbue the sword of fire and light with more FIRE, it will also gain more LIGHT, or you can't because unless you imbue equally much LIGHT simultaneously.
• At EXTREME levels:
  • Item acts as a balancing force between at least two powers, be it realms of evil/good affecting the world, the power of WATER/FIRE wizards, or the military force of different states. Disrupting or destroying the item disrupts the balance.

[/list][/list]

[UristMcVampire]

I would probably be a chaos mage and kill all the balance creatures/plants + destroy all the balance items.

[Detoxicated]

Oooh edgy...

[voliol]

Moon:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In general, this sphere is connected to the actual moon of the world, and effects thus vary with the properties and origin of the moon. E.g. if the moon is a Deity associated with NIGHT and OCEANS, moon-magic might take some effects from those spheres.

Rituals and sources:

• Do an action (e.g. chant, dance) while basking in moonlight.
• Do an action (e.g. chant, dance) while the moon is out.
• Use an item that has been drenched in moonlight.
• Stare into the moon.

Spell effects:

• Communicate with the Moon, if it is a deity/is sentient.
• Phase/Travel to the moon, if it is a realm or physical place.
• Affect the phases of the moon.

Plant effects:

• At LOW levels:
  • Flower also blooms/doesn't close up in the presence of enough moonlight, such as during a full moon.
• At MEDIUM levels:
  • Flower also blooms/doesn't close up in the presence of moonlight.
• At HIGH levels:
  • Flower only blooms in the presence of moonlight, or during a specific phase of the Moon.
  • Plant survives only on moonlight, withering if none is available. This won't matter much, until the Moon is taken away and the MOON biomes become empty wastelands.

[Hapchazzard]

Finally got around to updating the list! Sorry for voliol and others for lack of updates recently.

[UristMcVampire]

Oooh edgy...

This is Dwarf Fortress.
Edgy has no meaning here anymore.

[voliol]

Light:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All light from LIGHT effects may carry effects from other spheres. E.g. a ball of healing light, laser that causes plants to grow in its path.

Spell effects:

• Light a candle, torch, or other light source.
• Summon a magical light, that can be carried or follows a person/the caster.
• Fill a room/space with light.
• Cause a flash of blinding light.
• Shoot a beam of burning light/laser.
• Lighten an area like a flashlight/spotlight. This normally doesn't hurt, unless you're dealing with a creature hurt by light. Could be blinding depending on its strength.
• Counteract a DARKNESS spell or effect.
• Bleach a dyed object.
• Dye an object white.

Environment effects:

• At LOW levels:
  • All lights are slightly brighter.
  • Area is more rarely shrouded by clouds, or otherwise subjected to "dark" weather.
  • DARKNESS spells and effects are weakened.
• At MEDIUM levels:
  • All lights are notably brighter.
  • Area is very seldom shrouded by clouds, or otherwise subjected to "dark" weather.
  • Any DARKNESS spells and effects may take a significant amount of metaphorical die-rolling to get to work at all.
• At HIGH levels:
  • Lights are strengthened to the point of being blinding to normal creatures.
  • State of perpetual day, or rather very very bright nights.
  • Shadows are blurred out, and difficult to cast. Even a closed box will contain some dim light.
    
  • Any DARKNESS spells and effects are nigh impossible to use.
  • Pillars of light may shoot up from the earth.
• At EXTREME levels:
  • Sky is filled with plain white light.
  • Shadows are nonexistent.
    
  • Any DARKNESS spells and effects are nigh impossible to use.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Creature effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Creature emits light of increasing intensity.
• At LOW levels:
  • Creature gets a slight happy thought from being in bright areas.
  • Creature has glowing or flourescent body parts (e.g. eyes).
• At MEDIUM levels:
  • Creature gets a moderate happy thought from being in bright areas.
  • Creature is fluorescent (can be seen in darkness).
  • Creature with scales or chitin are reflective, like disco balls (might be a description-only feature; "its scales glitter in the sunshine")
• At HIGH levels:
  • Creature hates not being in the light, actively avoids stepping into the shadows. It gets an unhappy thought if forced to.
  • Creature can emit directed/spotlight-like light from a body part (e.g. eyes, mouth).
• At EXTREME levels:
  • Creature can only survive in the light, being damaged or forced if ever forced into darkness, or a shadow is cast upon it. Note that even if it also emits light, it might not have to worry too much about that.
  • Creature can shoot beams of light/lasers as an innate ability.
  • Tissues may be outright replaced with some kind of (solidified?) light.

Plant effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Plant emits light of increasing intensity.
• At LOW levels:
  • Plant needs slightly more light to survive.
• At MEDIUM levels:
  • Plant needs moderately more light to survive.
• At EXTREME levels:
  • Plant withers instantly if taken into darkness.

Object effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Object passively emits light, of increasing intensity.
  • Artifact creation may require some kind of fluorescent or reflective material.
• At MEDIUM levels:
  • Weapon flashes brightly upon striking a pose, or saying a spell-word.
• At HIGH levels:
  • Weapon flashes brightly upon striking a pose, or saying a spell-word.
  • Striking the air with a weapon sends out a beam of (materialized) light.
• At EXTREME levels:
  • Blade of blade weapon is made out of materialized light, remaining some of the initial material's properties.

[scourge728]

ptw

[voliol]

Beauty:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spell Effects:

• Grant beauty to a creature, with all natural consequences that could have (higher charisma etc.)
• Enthrall creatures (sentients) with illusory beauty.

Environment Effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Ratios are used when generating geologic structures, such as the golden ratio and sqrt(2). This should hopefully make the biome more aesthetically pleasing to the player.
  • Sentients view the biome as "beautiful" and get increasingly large happy thoughts from being there/seeing it.
• At HIGH to EXTREME levels:
  • Sentients are enthralled by the biome, making the likelyhood of their leaving on their own smaller.

Creature Effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Creature is seen as beautiful by others (sentients), giving them an increasingly large happy thought when they see it.
  • Creature body parts/materials have a increasingly higher VALUE.
• At HIGH to EXTREME levels:
  • Creature is seen as beautiful by others (sentients), and can enthrall them with its beauty, either by accident or purposefully (for more sinister intents, such as predation, or simply to gain allies).

Plant Effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Plant or plant part is seen as beautiful by sentients, giving them a increasingly large happy thought when they see it.
  • Plant parts/materials have an increasingly higher VALUE.

Reminder that anyone is encouraged to add to this thread; just look at the first post for instructions/guidelines.

[voliol]

Beauty:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spell Effects:

• Grant beauty to a creature, with all natural consequences that could have (higher charisma etc.)
• Enthrall creatures (sentients) with illusory beauty.

Environment Effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Ratios are used when generating geologic structures, such as the golden ratio and sqrt(2). This should hopefully make the biome more aesthetically pleasing to the player.
  • Sentients view the biome as "beautiful" and get increasingly large happy thoughts from being there/seeing it.
• At HIGH to EXTREME levels:
  • Sentients are enthralled by the biome, making the likelyhood of their leaving on their own smaller.

Creature Effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Creature is seen as beautiful by others (sentients), giving them an increasingly large happy thought when they see it.
  • Creature body parts/materials have a increasingly higher VALUE.
• At HIGH to EXTREME levels:
  • Creature is seen as beautiful by others (sentients), and can enthrall them with its beauty, either by accident or purposefully (for more sinister intents, such as predation, or simply to gain allies).

Plant Effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Plant or plant part is seen as beautiful by sentients, giving them a increasingly large happy thought when they see it.
  • Plant parts/materials have an increasingly higher VALUE.

Reminder that anyone is encouraged to add to this thread; just look at the first post for instructions/guidelines.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spell effects:

• Counteract or remove DEFORMITY magic.
• Cure natural deformities.

Item effects:

• At ALL levels:
  • Item has a higher VALUE.
  • Wearable item or tool makes the wearer/holder more beautiful, increasingly so as magic levels increase. The effect is either instantaneous or acts over time.
  • Item grants a happy thought to those who see it, bigger the higher the magic levels. "Urist McDwarf felt wonder/pleasure/exhilaration/bliss after witnessing the beauty of Artifact_name."
• At HIGH levels:
  • The item is very beautiful, sentients that see it may form slight obsessions, causing them to be more likely to steal it if they have such propensities.
• At EXTREME levels:
  • The item is very beautiful, sentients that see it may form strong obsessions, stealing it if they have such propensities, or simply take extensive breaks to go look at it. Worst-case scenario these breaks overwrite those of natural needs, and the dwarf dies of lack of water/sleep/starvation.

[Hapchazzard]

Been rather busy the last month or so, but will try and update OP in the coming week.

[Silverwing235]

Had the bits of this rattling around for a while, apologies if this doesn't quite count...or make sense, I realize.

A spell (medium) and ritual (high) being founded on ORDER, SUN and DAY....the inverse of three of the spheres that werebeasts are associated with, basically: cure a bite victim (medium) attempt to lift the curse from an 'original' werebeast (high). 

[VABritto]

To start off: This is epic. Now onto my suggestions.

In extreme environments for art:
An artist finds he can "paint" things into existence by simply getting a paintbrush and willfully "drawing" onto the air. Can translate in terms of game mechanic to the artist being able to "summon" the given item, it having the color equivalent to the paint that the artist used (or be described as transparent if he used a pencil for example and only drew the form).

At All Art Objects:
Make spells bound into art and activated by it (draw a dragon and embue it with a fireball spell and it will actually throw a fireball at passers by). The strength of the Art (low to extreme) would depend on the strength of the spell.

In Low environments for beauty:
Sentients notice that the place is very beautiful, but not unnaturally so. The feeling you get when you stumble upon an unusually beautiful place.

At Medium environments for beauty:
The place looks fairy like, everything seems rather otherworldly beautiful, it starts to feel a bit hard to leave the place and leaving it leaves a sense of grayness to the world outside the biome and gives the person unhappy thoughts for a while.

In Extreme beauty for creatures and plants:
Those who see such creatures or plants will be completely enthralled to them for as long as they are in their presence and will have very unhappy thoughts when away from them. These unhappy thoughts would become smaller and smaller over time, but would never completely leave the person without actually removing the memory of what they saw from their minds.

Regarding BOUNDERIES environments:
I imagine that the options shown so far (of things being tougher to open and such) would make sense in a biome in which boundery magic is Orderly, but if it is Chaotic it should actually be the reverse and doors open easily but lead to random places and you get lost extremely easy because you keep teleporting to different places. Some people could stay years trapped in a boundery biome because they can't find the exit (could make for an interesting quest).

At High Chaos environment, plants and crestures:
River water, infected meat or plant makes you temporarily crazy.

At Extreme chaos environment, plants and creatures:
River water, infected meat or plants makes you permanently insane.

At High darkness environment:
River water makes you temporarily blind. Shadows gain a life of their own but are still trapped on the surface they are cast upon.

At Extreme darkness environment:
River water makes you permanently blind. Shadows gain a life of their own and actually leave the surface they are cast upon and become "shadow creatures". If it is the shadow of a sentient creature, shadow becomes sentient. If shadow kills its owner it becomes completely solid and takes on the owner's identity (but having completely opposite personality). If owner leaves shadowland without killing his shadow he becomes shadowless and people might attack him out of fear (they might think he is a vampire or some monster).

At Extreme deformity environments, plants and creatures:
River water causes tumors to appear in the drinker, as does infected meat and plants and may cause death. Creatures that are extreme deformity will create deformities on things they touch.

At Low dream/nightmares plants, water and animal meat:
Whoever eats/drinks of it has more vivid dreams/nightmares. Each plant or animal meat might have specific properties in that regard, some giving good dreams and others nightmare. Could be used therapeutically to give a better night sleep.

At Medium dream/nightmare plants/meat/water:
Whoever eats/drinks it feels drowsy and when they sleep they have vivid dreams/nightmares. Might accidentally or purposefully slide into someone else's dream/nightmare.

At High dream/nightmare plants/meat/water:
Eater/Drinker falls asleep immediately and has a vivid dream/nightmare. They may interact with other people's dreams/nightmare by will.

At Extreme dream/nightmare plants/meat/water:
Eater/Drinker falls into a deep slumber and might need magical means to wake up (true love's kiss probably will not work). While asleep, has vivid dreams/nightmares and can go to other people's dreams/nightmares.

I also suggest creating more parallels between Dream Creatures and Nightmare Creatures. Like the Dream creature's ability to feed on dreams should be paralleled to a nightmare creature's ability to feed on nightmares (and maybe even provoke them)

At Low fire objects:
Can negate effect of cold environment when worn.

JUSTICE spell:
Forces creature to tell the truth. Forces creature to act justly with another (if the person deserves it, they will not be harmed and the creature will be kind and submissive if an animal. But if the person deserves it, the creature will attack it with the severity of their guilt.) Basically it permits elaborate judgements involving enchanted lions/dragons/etc

At Extreme Justice environments:
No injustice can be done in the area without excruciating pain for the one doing so and it might kill them depending on the severity of the injustice. No one can lie in the area.

At Low Justice food/drinks:
Will cause guilty consumer to feel bad, maybe even vomit. Will taste bad for guilty person. Will taste good for innocent person.

At Medium Justice food/drinks:
Will cause guilty person to vomit. The taste of the substance would be very bad for the guilty and very tasty for the innocent. Depending on the plant/meat/drink type, may force people to tell the truth, though the person could resist, but it would make them feel pain.

At High Justice food/drinks:
The consumer will consider the substance foul and uneddible if guilty. Might kill them. The innocent would find it delicious and might accelerate their wound regeneration. Depending on the food/drink can make people say only the truth, not doing so might kill them.

At Extreme Justice food/drinks:
Will either kill the guilty who eats/drinks it or force them to say only the truth, being unable to deny it. Would taste unnaturally delicious to the innocent and heal wounds.

A biome that mixes Light, Justice, Longevity, Agriculture and Beauty would basically qualify as an earthly paradise.

Moon magic ink:
Ink imbued with moon magic will glow when in contact with moon light. If it is invisible ink it will become visible for a time after exposure to moon light. This could be actually seen as simply a Low Level Moon Object and the principle be universally valid for said objects (swords glowing in the moonlight; moon powered Lighthouses; etc)

At Low Plant object:
What about those grown elven stuff? I was surprised it wasn't already on that list lol

ADDENDUM: I think the plant and tree spheres are rather confused in these suggestions and it might be interesting to actually differentiate clearly between them. My pitch is that Plant magic relates to plants that are not trees (sounds simple and straightforward enough lol) but that are also not tamed (which differentiates Plants and Trees from Agriculture). So a Plant world would be more like a land full of wild foliage but not necessarily high trees. In other words, in Plant magic there should be no mention of tree bark or abnormal tree growth or elves talking to trees (that would be on the Tree sphere).

At All poetry objects:
Given that the sphere of POETRY also includes in it Writing, I'd make it that this sphere is the one that permits you to actually enchant things with Writing (magic runes, symbols etc) using Poetry in conjunction with other spheres for the desired effect. So you could, for example, write the word "Fire for those that touch" on a floor tile and when someone steps on it they catch on fire. Or "Warm" be sewed onto a coat and it always stays warm and protects against the cold.

At Extreme Poetry Environment:
The river water inspires poetry. When wind blows onto the leaves of trees they actually sing. Fruits and plants inspire poetry when eaten.

At Extreme Pregnancy environment:
River water becomes milk.

REGARDING EXTREME WAR BIOMES: I think there should be a variation of this biome in which people actually heal their wounds faster and might even ressucitate when there, the healing and ressucitation actually making them more frenzied and willing to kill, possibly creating something like a land of perpetual war with immortal creatures killing each other daily.

WATER spells: Transform water into ice or vapor or one of the two into water (regarding vapor, basically, make it rain).

At EXTREME Wealth environments:
Creatures may end up enchanted by the environment and refuse to leave the treasures they find there, either dying of hunger or subsisting on the rare foodstuff that the environment produces

At All Wealth Objects:
Objects can be enchanted to become more valuable.

At Extreme Wealth Objects:
Objects can be enchanted to make those that touch it greedy or obsessed with it (nod to the One Ring).

I have read the entire list and made all the suggestions I could currently think of. I think it would also be interesting if we could put mixed Sphere suggestions (what would X sphere + Y sphere Biome look like? How can X + Y magic complement each other?)