Mention a random quirk of your world

I have a lot of monsters inspired by the catfish because that thing scares the shit out of me IRL.

But they look great on a plate. ;)

My story has nothing but furries or furry characters. That's a quirk, right?

It's actually a genre definition by this point.

A quirk in my world is that all magical creatures are affected by society's perception of them, but this doesn't mean they need people believing in them to exist: They just need to be know to the masses, even if those masses don't educate themselves further about what they truly represent.

Ex: If a movie stars a god as a main character, the majority will see that movie, and the perception of that majority will change the god's appearance and personality to be more in line with the movie. The same with all the mythological monsters that appear in the movie.

Edited by Andres1265 on Oct 20th 2019 at 5:06:36 AM

In my world from my upcoming book series The Dragons Legacy magic can only be used by magical races. The funny thing is how said magic races exist. You see, there's a Phlebotinum called mana ore that leeks raw mana energy and has multiple variants and uses in civilization.

As a result of sufficient exposure to it, people can become something called a Magi. Magi are indistinguishable from humans except they can use magic and manifest markings on their skin while doing so. Magi are created by either enough raw mana to mutate you, exposed to it in-utero, or when two magi have a baby. As for what happens between a magi and human hybrid, those are elves.

Any reason why you wouldn't want to be exposed to magic, then?

Nope, that's the point

The deity in my story lost some angels twice. The first group went evil and became demons, necessitating a familiar plan to arrange forgiveness. The second group of lost angels went insane and became Eldritch abominations. This delayed construction of heaven, so to stall for time and prolong the shelf life of the universe long enough to clean up the mess, the deity enhanced negative entropy until it became the setting's version of magic. This justifies all the Ragnarök Proofing and it is why magical energy is called nenro instead of Mana.

Sifsand, what you thought reminds me of something that happens later in the world, but first:

In my world (Thinking of calling it Primordial Chronicles), the energy needed to use magic only comes from souls, so a very amoral mages can take Anima(The equivalent of mana) from other living beings, including humans and gods. Although taking Anima from a another human threatens the life of the drained person, while a god doesn't have any issues at all.

There are many uses for Anima, but it's mostly used to fight the monsters that humanity inadvertently created through their collective unconscious.

To make sure humanity didn't destroy itself in its attempts to protect itself: The gods decided to give them their Anima, so that humanity can protect themselves with it, in exchange for humanity to spread their existence to the whole world.

This created a nice loop of people capable of using Anima, using it to make great feats, which would be then told around the world, putting emphasis on the fact the human couldn't do it without a connection to a god...

While also accidentally spreading knowledge of the monsters the human faced, leading to those monsters to spread too, leading to more humans taking Anima from the gods and using it for more feats against monsters, which would be spread again.

The gods were incredibly important in society, even when they did horrible stuff, because they gave humanity a way to fight back...

This would have continued to be humanity's path, if a human that could create as much Anima as the gods hadn't been born.

In my world (heroic-fantasy), while there are horses for getting around and whatnot, there is also a species of dragonkin known as drakes, which can be used as mounts. They are four-legged, wingless dragons that are about the size of an elephant up to the shoulder, with smooth, thick, leathery skin as supposed to having scales, and make up for not being able to fly by being able to traverse on land at great speeds.

The caveat is that drakes are much harder to keep and train than horses due to their size, carnivorous diet, and territorial instincts, but if you’re willing to put down the money and commitment to keeping one, it’s worth it even if only for Rule of Cool.

Edited by Lightbearer77 on Nov 1st 2019 at 7:08:39 AM

Female soldiers are almost universally known as Queensguards.

The term comes back to a more turbulent time when the King at the time was constantly commanding armies and his Queen was a talented diplomat trying to solidify alliances. Seeing as the Queen was traveling quite a bit and there was no heir at the time it was decided that the Queen needed a bodyguard both to safeguard her chastity as well as her life.

Thus, an all-female military unit was create solely for the Queen's defense.

As time went on, the Queens needed personal soldiers less and noblewomen found the idea of female bodyguards attractive. It offered them more personal freedom and had less risks than male bodyguards. Some actual Queensguards left Royal service to work for these noblewomen while other's were recruited from promising commoners or lesser nobility.

Queensguards are still very rare but tend to be well paid.

In the setting I'm working on, some beings take a drug known as Traveler's Dye, or The Dye for short. Imbibing the Dye temporarily forces the soul out of the body and into adjacent universes, often into ones with alien laws of physics. This can lead to really wild experiences, and sometimes insights into the nature of reality and the laws governing it. Artists, scientists and sorcerers alike pay a handsome price for small amounts of it, whether for inspiration for their latest work, or to obtain a previously unknown piece of knowledge.

Genetic engineering vat protoplasm smells almost like amniotic fluid. Key word being "almost", the Uncanny Valley effect kicks in, especially for the keener-nosed species.

Dare I ask what overdoses do? Does the Soul just never return to the body?

Gonna be honest, I don't think normal amniotic fluid smells too good to begin with.

The soul does indeed come back... but as the Joker says, what doesn't kill you, makes you stranger. Overdosing causes the soul to mutate as it becomes overexposed to foreign physics, until it starts affecting the body and causes the individual to no longer be recognisable as a material being.

Edited by ericshaofangwang on Nov 16th 2019 at 11:17:11 PM

Hey me again with a second quirk about my world. I mentioned Magi as one of the magical races capable of performing magic but I didn't say how magic works.

Magi and by extension Elves are like living batteries of mana. This means that to do a spell they have to power, shape, and project it. Powering a spell is done by supplying it with your own mana supply.

The powering aspect is important because some of the technology is powered by mana, such as teleporters. Also, magic users end up with glowing marks across the body that show when mana is being used. These marks are like birthmarks, a kind of "Mana Scarring" if you will.

But do they get Dental?

The Empire in my setting had endured decades of heirs assassinating each other to inherit the throne, often encouraged by their own reigning parent as a means to keep the kids too busy fighting each other to overthrow them.

This stopped working when four princes and princesses banded together and overthrew their tyrannical father. At which point they looked at each other, realized that there was only one throne, and brought in some more chairs.

They ruled together as a four member monarchy, with the eldest having a "First Among Equals" sort of deal, but still operating more or less in harmony. It was a golden age of peace.

Which promptly ended the moment the last of them died and their kids took power. Kids who did not agree on who should be the "First Among Equals" and promptly started killing each other, eventually wiping themselves out and ending the dynasty in blood and fiery ruin.

My God, it's like the Succession wars all over again. Take that as a compliment 'cause BT lore is Impressive. I also see shades of the Mongolian empire as Genghis Barely gets his sons from destroying the empire just for his grandchildren to do just that.

Also, Queensguards do in fact get dental. However, keep in mind that this is pre-modern dental so they at least get some pretty impressive drugs while someone pulls out the tooth.

In my setting, the "United Earth Government" went through a period of anti-alien polices due to a nasty civil war where the Cay Empire got involved and plenty of border skirmishes with their galactic neighbors.

The ironic result is that there is a sizeable population of aliens on Earth's colonies. Cay, Dow, and Marta make up about 70% of the alien population.

Earth has to tow a fine line carefully to regulating movement of colonists and their livestock. However, human majority areas seem to have better services and pest control over the alien sectors on UEG colony worlds.

Earth's solution is the make certain areas "human sectors" and the others "alien sectors". This has bitten the United Earth Government in the arse. Many areas set as "alien" have high walls and separate (some say inferior) sewage and drainage systems.

Earthers say it's to prevent "Colony Collapse Disorder": when a colony's ecosystem, economy or social order crashes and the colony fails. Detractors and separatists say that CCD doesn't exist or isn't as bad as the Interstellar Health Organization claims it is.

Earth loyalist gangs prey on vulnerable alien populations (some say they are hired muscle for Earth based corporation as well).

The one area where aliens are welcome is the Earth Defense Forces. Many serve a term in the EDF and use that to help secure employment in civilian life or complete a 20 year term of service and get a pension.

Edited by TairaMai on Sep 18th 2020 at 8:32:55 AM

The original vampire was a neanderthal. He was so barbaric and cruel that he literally drank the blood of his own kind. He even used a knife to carve his canines into sharp fangs to make it easier to draw blood from his victims. Lucifer himself was so impressed that he turned the neanderthal into an immortal creature of the night.

Following the collapse of the Selis dynasty, a period of 30 years of chaos followed before the rise of House Amrice was able to restore order (for a little while anyways).

During this peroid nummerious individuals declared themselves to be King or Queen. In one instance the "Necromancer King" siezed control of the capital city with an army of zombies.

This was considered notable not because "holy crap there's an army of zombies in the capital city" but because necromancy is generally regarded as an outdated and ineffective school of magic. There isn't much a zombie can do that a stone golem can't do much better, and they don't smell like death. It was essentially the equivalent of someone taking over Washington DC in the real world with an army equipped entirely with muskets.

The fact a necromancer was able to take the captial at all forced the various major factions to realize that the kingdom was near complete collapse and most of them united behind House Amrice and ended the Necromancer King's reign just one week after it started.

Would that be the shortest reigning monarch?

Nope that would be King Louis XIX who was a king for a grand total of 20 minutes

He was king just long enough to sign the abdication papers just after his father, Charles X signed the same papers.

Oddly enough, many still considered Lois XIX royalty after this and Francis I of Austria even lent him a castle.