TVTropes builds a campaign setting!

I like it. 'S nifty.

Also:

Nuada Airgetlam, First King of the Tuatha De Dannan. His arm got hacked off by a Fomoiri (sort of like a giant) prince.

So, naturally, he had a silver arm made to replace it, which was attached at his shoulder. Aftethis was installed, he proceeded to kill the ever-loving shit out of the Fomoiri that beat him.

That's what Airgetlam means, actually- "Silver-Hand."

edited 21st Dec '11 12:59:46 AM by Exelixi

Nice.

Demi-Gods and The Law of Association

Terrestrial Gods that were once mortal being with sexual libidos and reproductive organs totally can keep on breeding and some totally do. It's also possible for a Terrestrial Spirit-God and Celestial God to manifest physical forms with biological functions such as reproductive organs and it's been known to happen. For Celestial Gods, it must somehow have to do with their defining concept, a god of commerce did it as a business transaction, a god of conquest raped victims, a god of fertility fertiles. However, their is rarely anything special encoded into the genes of the resulting child for any of these unions that spells out the word AWESOME.

The Aether, the source of all magic and especially of the power of gods, is a psycho-reactive realm. Like us, it -If one takes to personifying the Aether which may or may not actually lead to it developing a personality of its own, a dangerous concept but concepts are what it's about- tends to associate things that really have no physical connection and this results that anything that can be associated with one another can have a magical connection to varying degrees. This is called the Law of Association.

Children of gods have not just a genetic lineage but a magic connection to their parents by Law of Association and will naturally receive a portion of their power, including their worship inspiring aura. A known child of a god may receive a portion of their parents worship too. This weakens the god to a degree but it's a double edged sword; the child if kept close at hand may act as a battery or reservoir of power and if sent out may spread worship of the god. Even if the child is worshiped separately, Law of Association guarantees the parent a portion of that power. Further, mortal parents of children who become full-blown gods also benefit, although becoming demigods instead of full gods.

Creating too many children may result in every child becoming meaningless in power or a god being torn apart by so many kids leeching of his power.

I googled around and found that the true male counterpart of the song is He of the Sidhe- which has a male character escaping from the Queen by, again, playing the violin. [1] Too bad I can't seem to find the lyrics.

Works for me.

@Vyc. I like The Bottled Worlds concept. Do they come with snow?

Also: last call for comments before I update the Project Page.

edited 21st Dec '11 4:51:05 AM by Sijo

Magic: Practitioners and their names

Every magic-user falls under the broad category of "magician," and for Average Johannes, this is classification enough. However, those more knowledgeable about the magical community sort magicians into subcategories based on how they utilise the power of the universe.

Wizards: The most common and respected sort of magician is the Wizard. A Wizard learns magic through study and practise, and the effectiveness of their spells is based on how well they can translate the formulae in their minds to the lattice of magic around them.

The magic of a Wizard is unique in that it is incredibly versatile given enough time and thought. It has been said that a Wizard with time to prepare is as dangerous as any dragon. While this is an exaggeration, it nevertheless holds a grain of truth; given the chance to think, a good Wizard can devise a solution to an obscene number of problems.

Wizards benefit the most from Ley lines and nodes, and go out of their way to seek such places of power as locations for their colleges, monuments and brooding towers.

Sorcerers: Instead of knowledge and focus, a Sorcerer's power comes from raw will and emotion. Whereas Wizards craft precise, focused constructions that resemble both art and science, Sorcerers stomp thunderclaps and scream infernos. A Sorcerer's power is magnified under times of great emotion, and the magic produced from intense sensations burns like fire in their veins, begging to be released. An overjoyed Sorcerer may suddenly produce a dazzling fireworks display, while an enraged Sorcerer may collapse a building with a shout. Because a budding Sorcerer has little control over their power, they are often feared and ostracised by less tolerant communities, at least until the weight of years and experience helps keep them calm.

Some Sorcerers, growing to hate their power, join monasteries in an attempt to disconnect themselves from all intense emotions. Sadly, a life of enforced calm is the only way a Sorcerer may abandon her magic, aside from letting it build up inside them until it consumes them in a burst of flaming glory.

Witches: The rare individual with the courage or stupidity to make a pact with the Fae is called a Witch. They are taught spells not from musty tomes or elaborate manuscripts, but from the mouths of the Fae themselves. For a Witch, as for the Fae, the words of a spell are the most important component, and a being's name is its most valuable secret. As such, Witches never give away their name, and go out of their way to assure that other magicians do not hear the chants they use to cast.

Witch magic tends to focus on altering living things directly, rather than using force in some capacity to hurt them. Instead of throwing fireballs or blasts of kinetic energy, a Witch blinds or causes disfiguring illnesses. On the opposite side of the coin, this also means that Witches are the most proficient healers.

Witches are frequently given familiars by their patrons, beasts housing the mind of a minor Fae spirit which acts as a teacher and advisor for the Witch, and a pair of eyes and ears and a mouth for their lords. A Witch with a familiar is usually (and wisely) looked upon with caution.

Oddly, though Witches are the rarest of magicians in the modern day, the legends of them are the most well-known, and, indeed, the average peasant knows at the very least not to give their name to a Witch. It is believed by some scholars that this is because the Fae were more frivolous with their patronage in the past, when they believed there was more power to go around.

edited 18th Feb '12 11:32:47 AM by Exelixi

Hmm. Combined with my own Theory of Magic, Wizards would then be users of spells, while Sorcerers would use raw magic (and possibly Elemental effects? Eg. anger at someone might burn the target to death?) Also do specific emotions have specific effects eg. hate kills, love heals?

Witches... I like concept, but the name brings images of ugly ladies with pointy hats to my mind (my apologies to any Wicca reading this, but it does.) Perhaps "Fey-touched" would be better? Also sounds more neutral eg. neither good nor evil, which is what the Fae are (or so I hear?) Also, how exactly do the Fae fit in our setting? Are they gods? If so, are they celestial or terrestrial? If neither, what is their relationship to the deities?

edited 21st Dec '11 12:03:57 PM by Sijo

-Is pagan-

Ahem.

Anyway, the Witches as presented are basically what the original witch concept was, but then the whole catholic sweep happened and "fairy" eventually became "demon" and boom, malleus maleficarum and its ilk.

As far as the moral connotations of the word, I guess that depends largely on your experience. For instance, amoung pagans, calling someone a witch is possibly the highest compliment you can give.

God mentioned the Fae as a parallel to angels and demons, not strictly benevolent or malevolent.

edited 21st Dec '11 12:17:36 PM by Exelixi

Wizardry vs Mysticism

My idea was that Witches would actually be more Mystically inclined sort. But first, let's explain the difference. Their are all sort of supernatural laws, spiritual etiquette and just natural flow of things, Karma, Law of Association, Rule of Three, hauntings, possessions, curses, spirit courts, the Gods and even more strange things, the 'macro' of magic. The study of how all these things interact with the world and each other, how it might be dealt with, defended against, manipulated and even wielded is often placed under the label of 'Mysticism'.

Wizardry is the study of the base power of magic, mana and quintessence, the individual motes and the very structure of magic, how an effect might be built with them, the 'micro' of magic. A Wizard does something because he studied or built the quintessential structure to what he wants and has the necessary time, power and talent to build that effect, a Mystic did it because he knew how to make the Powers That Be just set off and do it for him or he had significant clout with those Powers That Be to ask/order them to do it.

Of course, Mystics tend to be called Witches and Wizards Mages. Some Mystics end up being called Wizards, especially if people feel like their should be sexual segregation. Sometimes they may have different names altogether, perhaps no difference is seen between them. All the various schools of magic of some measure of Mysticism and/or Wizardry in them.

So while Wizardry is definitely like being a magic scientist, a Mystic isn't some uneducated hack. They're like magic lawyers.

-Already apologized-

So far, it seems we are all on the same page re: magic, exact terminology aside. And how about "Ethereal energy" for our magical force?

Proposals for the main page:

-Adding some art, at the least a logo. Perhaps the title done in Celtic-style runes? I'm sure there must be a program for that somewhere in the net.

-A trope section, to sum up the setting's concepts. Yes I only thought about this now.

I still think just changing Dwarven society limits them to the One King, One Creed thing we were trying to avoid and that Dwarves should have some physiological oddity.

I could perhaps expand on the Elemental Dwarves idea and see if I can use it to justify certain Dwarven Tropes and allay fears of tradition elemental personalities?

For the trope section I know of one. Planet of Hats -Averted. I feel this should be mentioned even most setting do not do this.

Also I'm sure they had ones with snow biomes inside as well. The cold could easily pass through the glass while keeping the magic in so I could imagine them being used as magical AC's in the past.

edited 21st Dec '11 7:13:19 PM by Vyctorian

God: I don't follow. How does physiology relate to politics?

Sijo: Goidelic languages are written largely with the same alphabet English is.

But, stylised letter and Celtic knot patterns would be sweet.

Vyc: I agree, considering the aversion is a big part of the setting.

Also, I sort of like the idea of a big terminology clusterfuck. It reflects how sciences were treated for a long time; you might have three or four names in as many languages for a study.

Well, all we concentrate on was dwarven societies and I still think dwarves need to be more interesting then that.

Dude.

Clockpunk cyborg skin-wearers.

How is that not interesting?

I'm currently having a mental block on Dwarves, can't decide. Must reread all the options before giving an opinion. Good thing we have links.

Exelixi: I meant precisely the weaved artwork, it's pretty impressive.

Will tall the votes for the updates tonight.

Trope section now added, feel free to start troping.

I'll start working on the update next.

[1]

Note: any rumors regarding the fact that El Sijo has a sense of humor that surfaces at unexpected times are completely untrue.

edited 22nd Dec '11 4:50:32 AM by Sijo

Will do.

Magicians and "trophies"

Certain magicians collect small pieces of the bodies of magical creatures; the tooth of a were-creature, the fingerbones of a Wraith, et cetera. Wizards use these objects as focii for certain spells and reagents for alchemy, whereas Witches use them in combination with words of power to invoke aspects of the objects, whether to cast momentary spells or create talismans.

Werewolves

Werewolves are commonly conflated with the Beast-folk; however, they are in fact entirely different sorts of beings. A werecreature is a humanoid most of the time; they only take on animal features under the nights of the full moon or under intense negative emotion (IE rage, despair). Some werewolves learn to trigger a transformation of their own will; this process takes years to master and is typically limited to the Primordials. (See below)

Werewolves are, indeed, werewolves, strictly. It is unknown if there used to be other sorts of werecreatures and they simply died off, or there were only werewolves from the start. (Heheh, were, werewolves)

The degree of transformation varies by circumstance of the transformation; if emotional, the transformation is dependent upon the intensity of said emotion. Come the full moon, however, werewolves resemble a nearly fifty/fifty split of human and lupine features.

Werewolves, like mundane wolves, are pack animals. Come the full moon, all the werewolves in an area will gather together by instinct for a massive hunt, sometimes nearly depleting a nearby forest of game animals. . . Or wiping out the population of a small town.

Werewolves do not go out of their way to seek human prey, despite popular belief; however, if a human does present itself as prey or attempt to slay a werewolf, they will be slaughtered as any other creature.

Lycanthropy can be transferred either by simple contact of bodily fluids, but this process leaves the infectee weak and feral for some time. A more involved process, a ritual involving the consumption of specially treated werewolf blood, is used to create werewolves that begin their run at full strength.

Primordials

The largest werewolf pack in existence, the Primordials are a group of shamanistic lycanthropes that stretch across a large portion of (the as-yet unnamed human-controlled continent) and number five hundred strong.

Calling the Primordials a single pack is a bit of a misnomer; it functions more as a loose conglomerate of packs, each numbering anywhere from three to a dozen. Each pack has a say within the organisation as a whole, and most have names of varying levels of pretentiousness.

The Primordials universally practise the embrace and control of their werewolf side. What application they put this control towards, if any, varies; plenty of packs function as vigilantes, while others simply hunt. There is the rare group that decides to use their abilities to garner power or torment foes; however, the laws of the Primordials forbid such a practise, and said groups are quickly obliterated.

(You know, this makes three Things That Go Bump In The Night that I've presented here, maybe soon to be four if I get Skinwalkers done. I think my Urban Fantasy roots may be showing a little too hard.)

edited 23rd Dec '11 3:51:02 AM by Exelixi

I've noticed, in regard to werewolves, that most often (in popular culture) when it's the case of a human turning into one, the result a dangerous monster. However, when it's a case of wolves changing into humanoids, they are usually not evil, and may be civilized, as above. Probably because the first case sounds like a curse, but the second sounds like a race. (Also, the later would not likely call themselves werewolves as were means "human".)

I have no problem with Urban Horror elements, though in a setting like this they tend to lose their edge (as humanity knows about monsters and is better prepared to deal with them.)

The page update has been delayed due to my being heavily involved in Christmas preparations. But it will be done soon.

Meanwhile, here's another idea:

God of Conquest (terrestrial god)

(Note: unnamed right now as I SUCK at coming up with names, suggestions welcome.)

Once he was just a mercenary, plundering lands for fun and profit. Until the day he found an artifact of unknown origin -perhaps some god's ethereal energy reserve- and absorbed all its power unto himself, becoming a living god. At first, he tried to continue with his life as normal, but as time passed and all his family and friends died, he was forced to deal with his immortality. He tried associating with other gods, but most shunned him, probably because of that little plundering thing. Now, conquest is the only thing he has left. From afar, he guides the colonization of the New Lands, uncaring about the suffering he might bring in the process.

Khan is always good for conquesty names.

Mm, I must make a distinction between fantasy and horror. I write stories about the guys that see the things that go bump and hit them in the face. Less World of Darkness, more Dresden Files.

And, also, occasionally, meditation on the nature of good and evil and what defines a monster. But that's secondary to things being hit in the face.

edited 23rd Dec '11 9:21:43 AM by Exelixi

I enjoys Ex's ideas on werewolves, and the God of Conquest.

Are we still doing multiple gods of boarder concepts like Conquest ties into the War god?

Well, this is a Terrestrial God, while only Celestial Gods are concepts.

We could still have more gods of specialty, God of war(general), god of conquest, god of tactics*

Rea-Ti-Stras, Celestial God of Tactics

God Of Presents (Terrestrial God)

Once he was a human priest, famed for driving away evil monsters, especially invisible beast-men that prayed on children. But as he got old, his power and health declined, and he could not adventure anymore. But he still wanted to help children. So he took and indirect route: money. He helped the poor with his acquired riches, until even those ran out and he found himself broke.

...And yet, he still could not resist the desire to help brighten people's lives, in any way he could. So he employed his last usable skill:

Toymaking.

For the whole year he would labor, making gifts for children, to be delivered around the time of the Winter Solstice, when many cultures celebrated their holiest days. Until finally, he succumbed to mortality.

...Or he would have, had the members of the Seelie Court, impressed with his kindness that moved even their usually uncaring hearts, not decided to reward him with immortality.

Ever since, on the night of the Winter Solstice, he rides around the Known Lands in an enchanted sleight, granting presents to the deserving, and occasionally, battling menaces such as the Celestial Embodiments of Heat and Cold.

Merry Christmas, folks!

edited 24th Dec '11 6:32:33 PM by Sijo

Is that a Shout-Out to Heatmister and Freezmister ?