Mention a random quirk of your world

This last sentence makes me incredibly curious about the world you've got.

Which one?

I have a multiverse of worlds, as a result of too many ideas, many slightly incompatible with each other. They're all connected, of course, as any good multiverse is bound to be. The easiest ways to travel between worlds is by fairy-gate or trans-dimensional wyrm-holes. If you're game to put up with dwarves, you can go through Untirirdisch, a universe filled entirely with earth and tunnels, instead of empty space, which connects to many of the worlds. The worlds all have their own special oddity. One is on the back of a turtle. One has multiple realms stacked world-tree style. One is an infinite plane of terrain. The most realistic has planets and all, but the planets are basically gods, and use lesser immortals as a kind of trade good/currency/status symbol.

The Uelane have an equivalent to MMA. And the national league is run by the continent's main religion, the Xayusa Temple.

The Temple is, after all, heavily wrapped up in the Uelane's Proud Warrior Race Guy traditions, to the point that being an Actual Pacifist is explicitly grounds for excommunication. (Martial Pacifists, however, are held in high esteem.) As such, they've got plenty of warrior monks who could use the steady supply of income and training, and it ensures even non-Temple fighters looking to make money from their talents have a legal way of doing so that's safer and more legitimate than underground fight clubs or just going around insulting people's ancestors.

The galaxy is rather empty actually but nobody is quite sure why. There is countless evidence for Alien lifeforms on numerous dead planets, fossils, remains, even a few ruins of civilization or two. But largely there are no aliens around.

It's generally assumed that all Alien life decided to leave the Milky Way for other galaxies or forms of existence and humanity has just yet to do so. There is however evidence for something else.

Among many of the fossilized ruins are various forms of mechanical pieces, often solar systems or even apart and yet always carry the same construction and metallic structure. Numerous ruins also show evidence of records involving beasts that look as if they were walking armor.

This has the Federal Union and the Galactic Imperium concerned for what this may mean in the long run.

The Reapers? :P

Something like that. Only less giant Cuttlefish.

Talk of Precursor remains but no living aliens always makes me think of Strata.

edited 7th Nov '16 4:30:00 AM by Ulysses21

In the nasty underbellies of the mega-cities, many strange and highly militarized subcultures exist. Biomodded crustaceomorphs crawl across the streets to feed on refuse and congregate with their Bottom Feeder clans, gangs wired together with neural interface telepathy act as singular beings against their rival gang hives, cannibal posthuman cyborgs hunt for flesh to gorge upon and new cyberware to assimilate, gutter ronin make futile attempts to align their surroundings to their black and white views of the world, ancient squatter tribes make their homes in abandoned corners of everywhere, Hider clades make their homes in makeshift deep webs, all under the post-panoptic web of A.I.s and camera drones that keep this low boil from spilling over.

A Soul is a lot like fire, each person has their own individual flame, each with it's own unique flicker and burn to others. Every species has their own unique colour of their flame. When a person dies, their soul is typically the last thing to go, and while tragic, death is accepted.

However when a soul itself is dying before the body, this is usually cause for panic. For when the soul dies, all that's left are referred to as "embers" and "coals" that don't burn. This typically renders a individual something known as a Husk, husks are often feral former soul-bearing creatures that live in constant pain and agony. Husks actually have the ability to see souls and thus read what kind of person someone is, however this only serves to magnify their pain and to solve it, feral husks will attempt to kill the soul bearing creature. Some Husks retain personality and sapience because their embers burn brighter than others, thus rendering these ones not actively hostile, but little better than zombified misanthropes.

Finally there exists a type of wraith like creature called a Reaver, that when it comes across a individual in a suitable state, will suck out their soul completely. Leaving the victim little more than a empty shell to serve it's new eldritch master. Shells unlike Husks don't take on a necrotic look and remain pristine and perfect.

Western Amalgamated has a very simple way of deciding whether or not somebody who is already part of the select elite used for interplanetary operations is worth making an anti-mage specialist. They introduce the subject to a Void fragment they keep in a very secure location — a chunk of something Made of Magic and Made of Evil (same thing here) that emits a "shining darkness" that can only obliquely described through metaphor to anyone who hasn't witnessed it. The candidates are, at this point, disciplined and well-trained enough to not Go Mad from the Revelation, but their reaction measures whether or not they can specialize in dealing with the stuff.

If they're genuinely, overwhelmingly shocked or nauseated, they're clearly not the sort who can be trusted to face the dark powers routinely, although after a minimum of one year, they may try again. Few do after the first round, but to date, everyone who has had the nerve to try again has passed.

While it has never happened, the guideline is that anyone able to look at the Void with no ill-effects whatsoever without training is to be quietly removed from the list of potential anti-magic candidates and recommended for priority psychological evaluation. Even Chief Security Officer Winters, who wrote the guidelines, isn't comfortable being that close to pure, unshielded Void-stuff.

If the candidate is modestly stunned or unnerved, but attempts to lie about it, they are politely removed from the list of candidates — nominally for whatever excuse is available but actually for the attempted deception. Anti-mage specialists have to be instinctively trustworthy. Or at least smart enough to not try and lie to experts.

The required reaction is, thus, to be able to bear briefly looking into the Void, to recognize it as something sickening and dangerous, and to be entirely honest about all this.

edited 19th Nov '16 1:17:54 PM by KillerClowns

for me when it comes to cyperpunk, wearing colored clothes makes you stand out to most people

All dragons are hermaphrodites. When two dragons meet for breeding purposes, they fight for dominance. The victor serves as the father. After mating, the father leaves to continue hunting and breeding while the mother is left to care for the offspring.

The Sol Union is a heavy user of nanotechnology when comparing to the other interstellar nations of the setting. Swarms of nanites programmed for various tasks from construction to tending to personal hygiene are in use by practically their every citizen, but the Union's proudest of their medical technology, specifically the AAPMC (Automatic All-Purpose Medical Chamber), a nanite-using Auto Doc the size of your average room. They're programmed to perform any medical procedure known to humanity and five other starfaring species, are issued by the government to be easily accessible by anyone, and do their job cleanly and painlessly. But the most remarkable of their traits is that their programming cannot be altered or accessed in any way. This is for safety reasons, to prevent less morally upstanding people from turning an AAPMC into a torture chamber or making sure that certain colony worlds whose leaders may have more outdated values can't prevent their people from accessing certain procedures such as abortion or sex reassignment surgery.

Androids are actually surprisingly stable, a large number of them have turned out to be well adjusted individuals and not desiring the extinction of humanity, the few that do are considered anomalies and act much like human sociopaths.

In short, making a robot so human, actually made varied people.

I love that idea, similar to what I am working on.

Earth expanded out among the stars starting with Mars and then the outer planets. As those worlds craved independence, a coalition of various MegaCorps and nations on Earth bore down on these new colonies. As a result the entire Martian population was "resettled" on colonies further away. Soon the outer colonies and Earth were at war.

Things would have been in Earth's favor until the UN space fleet made contact with the Cay Empire, the Dow Hegemony and several alien refugee fleets.

The rebel colonies became the Southern Cross as the Cay Empire fell apart. Earth now had a war on two fronts: rebel colonies and hostile alien powers.

The Southern Cross historians maintain that the Cay saved them from Earth's forces. Earth's position is that the only reason they let the "Southies" go free is that those desperate UN forces were so busy fighting hostile alien interlopers.

This is still a source of bad blood between the United Earth Government and the Southern Cross.

My world is basically 80% pure wilderness/ocean, with the remaining 20% of civilization scattered throughout it in various communities (Several villages, large towns, and at least two cities). At day, you have this astoundingly beautiful and expansive world; lush grasslands, huge snow-capped mountains, sunny tropics, picturesque landscapes, absolutely EPIC sunsets/sunrises, you name it. Basically all of Earth’s natural beauty ramped Up to Eleven. The thing is, at night, it’s nothing like the utopia it is when the daylight’s out. The wilderness turns into a death zone. The second the sun disappears, you have waves upon waves of vicious and feral creatures emerging from their hiding places and roaming through the wild. I don’t mean monsters like Minecraft mobs. I’m talking monsters that would look more at home in Silent Hill. Not to mention there’s some sort of supernatural effect on normal wilderness animals (Bears, wolves, lions, elephants, hippos, the like) that increases their far more feral animal instincts. So not only are you dealing with the aforementioned monsters, you’re also facing animals who are now as vicious and bloodthirsty as the creatures already gunning for you. There’s quite literally ONE thing that actually works as a legitimate defense against them: the walls of your house. Hiding from them, even fighting back against them (even with a large group of people) feels more like delaying the inevitable than actually surviving.

edited 26th Nov '16 10:23:06 PM by Blastmasterism324

My world a science fiction world spanning the entire Orion arm (with several tribal-level sapient species, but a conspicuous absence of anything more advanced). The FTL system is influenced by gravity, with Subspace being more and more turbulent the closer to an equivalent source of gravity in Realspace. The deeper (not an actual direction like we think of it. Subspace doesn't work the same way as Realspace) one goes within Slipspace the more compressed (decreasing the travel time) and turbulent it gets. Better Subspace drives can create a bubble of stability that's stronger and thus able to keep the ship going with less distance to travel.

Because of this, colonies closer to the center of the Galaxy are considered outskirts, and many are independent because they have relatively little strategic value (though the home of one faction is near the core. They also have the most advanced Subspace drives, allowing their Guerilla and raiding tactics to be successful). Meanwhile, colonies at the edge of the Galaxy are easily accessed and make good trading posts and such. This fact ended up leading to coalitions of outer galactic colonies forming, and those actually have a disproportionate amount of political power.

Dwarves do not precisely die of old age, not as others. Instead, they slowly transform into an elemental appropriate to their breed. At the moment of complete transformation, when the elemental within burst free from its fleshy confines, their non-elemental body is destroyed and the mortal mind house within is snuffed out, consumed. Something of the dwarf lives on, but something else dies.

There is a race of elves and they're made up of almost entirely gluttons who are culturally obliged to fuck anything on 2 legs.

No this isn't a script to a bad VN, let me explain. You know how in almost all fantasy fiction, elves are long lived, nature loving weirdos with a stick shoved perpetually up their asses? I wanted to subvert that, so in my world, they're lucky to hit 40. Their bodies metabolize incredibly fast so they eat double what humans do, and as a result of their shorter lifespan, their reproduction rate has to compensate so every last one of them has an incredibly active libido. And as a result of that, their culture revolves almost entirely around sex.

The personal greetings between elves is also pretty out there. Not uncommon to see family members tounge-kissing out of platonic affection. There's actually a scene where one character (who is a human) sees this between a brother and sister and says "Alright... Just... burn that fucking image into my mind for the rest of my life."

In your Standard High Fantasy universe, Humans, as the youngest race, are more tribal and underdeveloped then the rest. Humans with magical power is rare and they're often viewed more as large pests than people. To the point where even Goblins are treated with more respect than Humans. Humans are usually found in small villages or towns mostly, if not roaming in Nomadic groups. Seeing a Human of power and status is incredibly rare, as other Races have no qualm with having them as Slaves.

Background event: Elves and Dwarfs were almost wiped out when they intervened in a war between the Imps and an alliance of younger races. The Imps had already won, but they ignored all calls for parley as the long war, instigated by the younger races, had left them hateful and bitter, and the fighying was swiftly turning into slaughter. So, when the Elves and the Dwarfs took up arms against their fellow elder race, the Imps curb-stomped their newly-raised armies into the ground with forces that had decades of war experience. This led to a Heel Realization for most of the Imps, who turned against the extremist elements within their own race, who were wiped out in the ensuing civil war.

Effect on current time period: imps are by far the most populous of non-human races, and still harbour a deep, culture-wide sense of guilt over the entire affair, (fairly serious, given that Fun Personified and The Gadfly is one of their (soft) race hats). Even imps dozens of generations after the event feel awkward and apologetic around an elf or a dwarf, who were reduced to a few thousand members of each race by the end of the war - and who have mostly turned isolationist due to the war.

Therefore, the 'stock' fantasy races of elves and dwarfs are only rarely seen in the present day. I have only thought up two characters of each race, and they're fairly minor roles (in contrast to dozens each of imps and humans which include minor as well as major characters).

The Gods may possibly be space aliens. Also, they've wrecked the world about four times before deciding to say "fuck it" and stay in "Heaven."

The Fifth World has no memory of them. At least, not any that the majority would know.

Terrans — the people of Earth, 20 Minutes into the Future — are regarded by the few Alosians that know of them as more than myths as having a hat. It's an obsessive, slightly unsettling love of pop culture. Even moreso than today.

This isn't No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture. The Alosians understand the general idea of what we do. There's Maurosians who get anxious if they have to go two weeks without arguing shipping with their book club over cakes. There's Uelane who write Fan Fic for their favorite series, sharing and critiquing efforts. There's Kykzavi with complex, sometimes loony theories about who the real murderer in an ongoing mystery radio serial is and a deep passion for explaining them, possibly with diagrams.

But to compare those Maurosians' occasional snipes to fandom forum drama, the Uelane's apocryphal chapters to Earth's epic fics, or the Kykzavi's curious theories to the complex cosmologies dreamed up in the dark corners of the internet, is like comparing a candle to a star. And whenever a Terran tries to explain the sheer scale of Terran pop culture, and how serious it can get, the response is either incredulity or a "You're Insane!".

Of course, pop culture is a common hat for humanity in many works. Here, though, it's not quite so cheery. It's not that we're wonderfully creative or charmingly wacky. Earth, at this point into the future, is not doing so great. For many who have given up any hope of making the world a better place, or who profit too much from its current state to have the courage to risk changing anything, pop culture is all they have left.

edited 6th Jan '17 5:54:39 PM by KillerClowns

The Sarnovian Empire divides its citizens into several castes, called avariakas - which could be roughly translated as "citizen-ness-es".

Valkazal, which means "land-owner", denotes nobility. They can leave their country at any moment, don't have to follow most of the laws, can buy land and obey only the Holy God-Emperor. Tyotikas, meaning "honored", enjoy the same privileges valkazals do, but they aren't allowed to own land; usually, you're a tyotika because you or some of your ancestors did a grand deed of some sort. Zgeravarias, "free-moving citizens", must obey all the laws and have to answer to valkazals' every command, but they are protected by the law and are free to travel all over the country. By contrast, voravarias, or "land-bound citizens", enjoy the same legal protection zgeravarias do, but cannot leave their local valka - princedom - without a written permit. Both can perform any profession, as is not the case with the yakavits - "part-citizens" - who are bound to the same job at least one of their parents was performing. They still have it better than trakavarias, though - the "un-citizens" are property of the valkazals, bound to the specific plot of land, and have little legal rights. They're rare, though - most trakavarias are either criminals or people so poor, they sold themselves to the valkazals. Their children are yakavits by default.

Most people are either yakavits or voravarias, though it's possible for both to go up to a zgeravaria by either marrying into the caste, military service or impressing a valkazal enough. Tyotikas can become valkazals through marriage, too. The Holy Imperial Family and the priesthood - olyaka - are avariakas unto their own, with the latter being open to anyone who's not a trakavaria. Foreigners to the Empire are called rapozas, or "out-folk", and there's an entire system governing how to deal with them.