Fantasy Gods, Races, Settings, Magic Systems and Miscellaneous

Hello everybody,

This is a post for all things Fantasy. Want to discuss or ask questions about the Gods, Races or other super humans in your setting? Want to discuss powers or magic? or just want to discuss an interesting setting you have? All of this can go here.

The guidelines for this forum are similar to the two sci-fi world building forums, to quote:

- When providing a critique of a design or concept, please ensure it is constructive criticism. Similarly, don't just say "That's cool/dumb/makes my head hurt" if you can help it - explain why it's cool/dumb/makes your head hurt.

- Be polite/respectful etc.

Another more specific forum for Fantasy Weapons, Societies, Equipment and Mounts/Vehicles can be found here: [1]

A general Alternate History thread can be found here for all things AH [2]. A more specific AH thread can be found here [3]

The Sci Fi forums can be found here[4] and here[5]

Now let's begin with the first post

edited 11th Oct '14 12:34:27 AM by matti23

Necromancers in this universe don't raise the undead. That's a separate arm of magic call Emetism, which is itself a type of golem magic.

Necromancy is closer to the original definition (communicating with the dead). The undead tend to send and receive information from their summoner to facilitate control. Necromancers can eavesdrop in on these lines of communication, making them a good countermeasures to anyone using a force of undead. A Necromancers can often pinpoint where zombies are in an area (navigation data), see through their eyes and hear through their ears. Powerful Necromancers can even send messages disguised as the summoner to mess with a force's IFF (Identify Friend or Foe). Although understanding Necromancy can help in learning Emetism, it doesn't cover the focus needed to raise and control large armies fast enough to rival Emetists.

A terrible disaster occurred when a malicious Necromancer jacked into an undead army for kicks and deleted the entire "friendly" list of the IFF system.

edited 5th Oct '14 2:17:25 AM by matti23

emetism sounds cool. it'd also kinda make sense for golem magic to be the "raise the dead" magic, if only because most undead will probably be rotted to the point that their corpses would be completely non-functioning, so magic based on giving live to objects that dont require those same parts to be functional would be ideal for the undead.

my setting's magic system is a form of summoning magic. which is to say, the base magic system allows for someone with special abilities to create a type of widely-usable magic from that ability, for as long as the original user is alive to keep fueling the system. since how the magic works is dependant on the creater, each type of magic tends to come with its own set of rules and restrictions.

4 types of magic so far:

• Fire Magic: gifted from the fire-god of the southern theocracy to his trusted and learned soldiers. while the firegod's control over fire exhibits itself in mostly dangerous explosive blasts with merely a thought, the magic he gave to his people is of a more refined, controlled form. Controlled via hymn of a language not of this world (german), it often snakes through the air and is used primarily in combat as a controlled fire starter (say for instance, you want to prevent a group of people from running; they would have their fire snake around the surrounding area, setting the scenery ablaze as it does and trapping those within), though also as an intimidation tactic, and often enough for practical uses too. one specific use of this magic comes in the form of a persistant summon; with a certain command they can create a flame that exists beyond the limits of their concentration, existing as long as they do or until commanded to dissipate. it's fueled solely by air and thats all thats needed to keep it going, though it can be made to flare up with access to traditional fuels. every member of the theocratic firecorps has to leave one of their limited number of summons at the capital at all times, and these are used for various tasks; heating the communal baths, controlling elevators, and confirming the status of the firecorps- especially spies. if they're dead, the flame is gone. if they live but are captured, the flame shrinks and changes color.

• Barrier Magic: the oldest form of magic and gifted by an unknown person to the entire world, barrier magic has the biggest affect on the world, and is applied through what is essentially a programming language, carved onto a "trigger" that can be made of any material, so long as the code can be applied to it. the harder the material, the stronger the trigger and thus barrier. barriers come in two forms: mobile and stationary. triggers belonging to stationary barriers can go anywhere within the barrier, whereas mobile barrier triggers are stuck dead center in the barrier, and all impact the barrier experiences is transfered directly to the trigger, destroying it if the impact is strong enough. Barriers can get very precise about what they do or do not let through, all thats required is you know the language, and the most gifted of barrier users can make distinction between nationalities, or allow certain conditions in which things unable to pass through are capable of doing so.
  the only thing that can break a barrier from the outside is an impact. as such, barrier magic is quite the bane of the theocratic firecorps, who find their fire too controlled to cause any impact at all.

• Illusion magic: a relatively new and unknown system of magic, illusion magic is the boon of craftsmen; applied through "idols", illusion magic lets the user take on the appearance of whatever their idol is carved into, so long as they use the (unique to idol) call and dismissal words.
  primarily, the things to keep in mind are: the idol can not be perfect, there always has to be a flaw in the appearance. most craftsman brand their work in place of intentionally creating a flaw however. the maximum amount of time an idol can be used in one go is 12 hours, and the exact amount of time you used the idol for is the same amount of time the idol is on a cool-down period for (so, use it for 2 minutes and you cant use it again for 2 minutes), and finally, so long as they're said in earshot of the user, anyone can dismiss or call the illusion by using the right words. the one deciding the words used for calling and dismissing the illusion are the craftsmen, incidentally.

• Gravity magic: the 2nd oldest magic system, it was mainly created with a certain race of demons in mind; those who are simply too large and heavy to fly with their wings. who made this system is unknown, though they're venerated as a god among these demons and included in the theocracy's pantheon as Vir Genja. Any of this race of demon can use this magic naturally without thought, provided they're above a certain weight. while its possible for everyone else to use gravity magic, no one is actually sure what the requirements for them to do are, and the demons arent telling. the most notable application of gravity magic however, is when applied to objects. the end result can vary between floating objects, to flatout creating a gravitational core- which was used by these demons to create their own floating country; a mini-planet that orbits within earth's atmosphere, going up and down, in any direction as guided by the core's maintainance and occasionally interfering with weather systems (often to the anger of the earth-bound civilizations)

edited 5th Oct '14 3:48:50 AM by Tarsen

Since we're on the subject, In my setting, Necromancy shares a branch with Blood and Void magics. Necromancy allows for creating undead, while the other two allow for recreating the abilities of undead creatures at sufficient levels.

edited 5th Oct '14 3:50:43 AM by dvorak

I'm working out a system wherein magic is 'in the air' in a way, like nitrogen or water vapor but in a 'higher dimension' sort of way, and can be harnessed as a fuel or weapon propellant through compression. In 'gameplay' terms, it resembles Front Mission: Gun Hazard.

Sounds interesting, how do the people in your setting harvest this stuff? Sounds like it could be a pretty powerful fuel source.

In my setting there are what seems like Hollywood radiation effects such as people melting into green goo and people turning into mutants and monsters. This is not actually a trait of radioactivity in this universe but the Aureo class of magic used by the same faction that fields the nuclear powered killer robots and other radiation weapons.

edited 7th Oct '14 7:35:13 AM by matti23

The setting I'm working on is a fusion of Action RPG (specifically, FPS/RPG fusion, as popularized by Fallout 3) and 4X. Basically, what happens when a Forgotten Realms type fantasy game runs into Galactic Civilizations because the latter dropped a colony ship on the former's head.

edited 7th Oct '14 3:03:00 PM by dvorak

Is there a reason why subjects are grouped into the threads as they are...? I'm not sure why races and settings are in with gods and magic, and societies is mixed with weapons and equipment...

In my setting, there are Arcane beings from a magical dimension (basically Gods in a sense) subtly infiltrating a hi-tech planet via shapeshifting, having Half-Human Hybrid children with society's higher ups, then leaving. Said children (known as Gifted) have inherent magical powers and learn to control them as they grow up.

Gifted have two parts to their soul- the human (Terran) soul, and their Guardian. This represents their Arcane half and tends to reside within the Gifted. They survive by sustaining a portal to the magic dimension to draw mana from, but in order to perform this, they need to regularly eat sentient souls once they are older. Should they fail to do this regularly, the Guardian will kill the human side's soul and emerge as an Arcane being.

More on Gifted:

• They make up <0.0001% of the population.
• Require 1 sentient soul/week, more or less depending on how much extra mana they draw/conserve.
  • They can conserve mana production to extend it up to 1 soul/month, or greatly increase production that it runs out within a minute.
  • Souls can be stored as soulfood reserves- i.e. if they consume 2 sentient souls at 1 go, they won't be hungry for 2 weeks.
  • Partial souls can be drawn so that they don't kill the Terran, but it takes skill to extract it from a living being. Any partially missing soul will regenerate slowly in a Terran.
• Age 1/4 as fast as a regular Earth human (The Terran humans on the planet age 2/3 as fast). They stop aging at 40 Gifted years or so.
• Children (0-13 Gifted years, aka 52 Earth years or ~36 Terran years) don't eat souls. During this period their powers are much weaker.
• At age 16 (Gifted years) their Guardian gains human-like sentience. Its first action will be to take over the Gifted, making them attack other sentient beings until the Gifted can take control of it in a mental battle. This is part of their nature, passed down from the non-human parent.
• Male Gifted have weaker magical ability than females, but they have greatly superior physical capabilities. Females on the other hand can be potentially more destructive than the strongest of nukes.
• Untrained Gifted usually don't know how to use or shape their powers properly. They're at much less risk of using wide-area spells as they don't even know how to do that.
• Too much mana emmission (when using stronger powers) will cause tech to spoil. Tech needs to be shielded from magic in a delicate, time consuming process (requires rare material and precision) for it to work properly around them, as a result most tech is still unshielded.
• Unlike humans, they show less remorse when killing. They can be trained to feel remorse however.
• A Gifted can Ascend any time they want after 16 Gifted years of age, shedding their mortal body, and their Guardian becomes a full-fledged Arcane.
• At 100 Gifted years a Gifted will Ascend. The result is much stronger than an Arcane being created through forced ascension, while also merging the minds of the human and Guardian.

edited 7th Oct '14 4:19:27 PM by ironcommando

Interesting ideas everyone. Tarsen, I'm curious how people gain these powers in your setting. Fire and Gravity seem to be linked strongly to certain factions in your world and gravity seems to be for everybody. Are there any other factions around?

ironcommando, curious what types of measures the high tech people have developed to counteract these arcane beings. Is it more of a war against the arcane people, with the half humans being an infiltration method or is the society oblivious or unable to do anything about it?

Noaqiyeum, this forum was intended to be the overall forum for discussing all things Fantasy as well as any questions anyone had about anything Fantasy related. The other forum (Fantasy Weapons, Societies, Equipment and Mounts/Vehicles) [1] was intended to be a more specific forum for asking questions about or just posting info about more specific Fantasy related stuff. Do you have a question about anything Fantasy related, or would you like to discuss your Fantasy world? It all goes here :)

edited 13th Oct '14 6:04:38 AM by matti23

An insane mix of Highlander [1] and Ravenous [2]. Based on this XKCD strip [3].

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, every person on the world gains the inexplicable urge to eat each other, gaining their power in the process. Eventually the last man, having kicked and eaten everybody that can be eaten, proceeds to use his new found power to open a portal to the dimension of the Gods, proceeding to spread his rampage of violence through the Pantheon. Time from start of rampage to becoming king and sole occupant of the universe? 36 months.

edited 13th Oct '14 7:34:58 AM by matti23

This seems like a good place to ask about an idea I've been stuck on.

In my fantasy setting a character (the worlds devil equivalent) is cursed by the gods and partially cursed with awesome. I'm not sure how to justify being given powers as a curse and what powers could easily be seen as a curse. So far the only one I can justify is immortality because it lets him be repeatedly killed.

the ability to see through any lie and the curse of being forced to announce the lie, no matter how devastating the reveal of said lie is.

that can be useful for something like a sleuth but disasterous for his social life, or for a career outside of truth-seeking.

kinda on the low-key side of the scale though.

Bit of a headscratcher that I've pondered once or twice. What makes a god a god?

I define gods as immortal males (as opposed to mortal men). Demigods are part god and part element, beast, man, or woman. Goddesses and demigoddesses are obviously the Distaff Counterpart.

Lately, I've been falling in love with the idea of faeries being the angels of my Everlasting series, though their werewolf influence is still very strong. My primary inspirations are Islam, democracy, and liberal theology. The faeries bring certain tropes to mind - Inhumanly Beautiful Race, White Magic, Deus Sex Machina, Mana, and Language of Magic. My secondary inspirations are Mahayana Buddhism, meritocracy, and The Good King. The series is built on Arcadia, Ambiguous Time Period, Good Versus Evil, Sealed Evil in a Can, Humanoid Abomination, and Deal with the Devil. My tertiary inspirations are Catholicism, Council of Angels, and pharaonic Egypt (before the Greeks took over). The faeries are embodiments of the origin's beauty and personifications of his creativity.

While the faeries are unambiguously good, they are not faultless or infallible - they can take things too far or not far enough and while most are social or settled, others are solitary or nomadic.

I'm trying not to seem like I'm ripping off Tolkien's Ainur.

edited 16th Oct '14 2:18:11 AM by nekomoon14

the gods in my setting arent really gods- the closest you can get is Vir Rune, the goddess of time, who was originally a human but ascended to what essentially be called godhood when her powers literally broke time and the fallout caused a kind of merge with one of the eldritch abominations she was previously working for. having made the new world more or less the way she wanted it (via extensive save-scumming and placing certain people from other timelines to shape the world after creation in certain ways) she actually is the settings god, though she remains a mortal entity with definite limits to her powers.

every other god in the setting is just a regular human from a previous timeline who fuels one of the magic systems, the main indicator of godhood generally being that the person never ages- in reality a boon from Vir Rune. Vir Nej the god of fire is the worlds only known remaining God in Human Form, having lead the theocracy from near the dawn of man to the modern era. unlike several other people who claimed to be gods, he had more than just agelessness to back it up, having rather explosive pyrokenisis which he then gifted onto his followers in a safer, less volatile form. (should probably be mentioned that unlike other timelines people being born with supernatural powers is outright impossible in this setting, which is why every creator of a magic system comes from another timeline, and the magic system that allows for the creation of all the others isnt very well known.) while his pantheon includes a fairly large number of gods, he's only ever met 3 of them (Vir Rune,Vir Genja the god/goddess of gravity and flight; and Vir Rez the god of sight, light and knowledge who acts as Vir Rune's laison with Vir Nej), created at least one of them specifically to explain an aspect of his creation myth he couldnt otherwise, and otherwise only knows the others exist through the fact that their magic systems do.

his pantheon also includes "deities", regular people who rise to godhood after death in recognition of impressive feats or some such. this includes the 7 men who helped his create the theocracy, the heroes who took out the primordial beasts that ravaged the land prior to the theocracy, and the high empress of the eastern empire, who rejected it at first. while deification and the fact that Virnej himself has children means there are technically "demi-gods" in the setting, they dont inherit anything unusual like powers or agelessness, and their divine blood is usually just a trait used to calm or awe the lower classes; among the upperclass in the theocracy it means little. (though Vir Nej's bloodkin are outright forbidden from getting involved with the theocracy's inner workings, usually sent to work outside of the theocracy or given small benign jobs that usually belong to the lower class, the one exception being the military/navy)

edited 16th Oct '14 2:56:29 AM by Tarsen

Eagal: The general traits of deities are immortality, magical powers, and worship by humans.

In Moonflowers, The Fair Folk can often be as powerful as the gods, but the difference is that humans don't worship them (and often fear them instead).

edited 16th Oct '14 10:59:59 AM by Sharysa

Funny, the "what is a god" question is a motivation for one of my characters - a devout monotheist who abruptly finds his reality is henotheistic... which he's basically okay with, except that most of those lesser gods claim to be the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent one, so he's basically going to Guile Hero his way through the pantheons proving them all fallible, against each other as necessary, until he finds the only one worth caring about. (Which leads to moral turmoil, what with encountering gods who can will him to believe them, or who are basically mentally ill and suffering from delusions of omnipotence, and knowing that if he's ever actually successful in finding his God he'll still find himself morally obligated to prove him wrong.)

I've toyed with the idea of a setting where humans culturally believe themselves to be the gods for some lesser, subsapient species, but I haven't thought of any further details than that yet.

edited 17th Oct '14 9:41:34 AM by Noaqiyeum

aiode, how about an idea from the Dracula movie where you become a monster which is rejected by almost everyone around you. The ability to read minds is an old gem too.

In my setting there is a certain group of 40 people within the enemy army. They are masters of kung fu and generals but can be killed just like anyone else. They are relevant later in the story and it is imperative that they not be killed. The generals are the leaders of the enemy faction and will not take any action to harm themselves. You must capture them alive in order to complete a task vital to your own kingdom and they know this but simply do not care about your cause. How would you accomplish this task? The setting is in 1200 era China. Your own coalition of kingdoms is a rough match for the enemy. How might the enemy generals alter their tactics knowing this information?

edited 21st Oct '14 6:05:04 AM by matm

I'm definitely going to have the character isolated as part of the punishment but it will be because the religions view him as a monster for opposing the gods rather than as part of the curse. The ability to read minds seems like it might be a bit too powerful, but I might do something similar with the gift of foresight- he has visions of the worst possible futures.

I think I'm going to attribute a lot of his abilities to immortality. At the start of the story he will be a few thousand years old so I think it is reasonable for him to have skills and knowledge far exceeding normal humans, since he has seen almost every conceivable situation. As far as downsides, being repeatedly killed and hated by the main religions on two of the four continents has adversely affected his sanity. He also is visibly not human, although magic can hide that.

What makes a god a god? That's easy: when someone asks if you are a god, you say YES. Oh, and you have the power to back it up (however that may be defined in the setting, and it may be as simple as commanding the worship of your followers). After all, if there's no difference between a 'god' and any other 'normal', the distinction is moot.

Oh, that's easy - poison the water supply. Not with anything lethal, but with a sedative (which they would've had in 1200, I think).

Interesting setups and ideas about the God topic everyone .

My setting went with two definitions of Gods. One refers to beings that created the universe (Sr̥ṣṭikartā) and the other refers to a powerful being that is worshiped by others. Due to most powerful beings claiming to be Sr̥ṣṭikartā it can be hard for people in the world to tell the difference.

A group of people attempt to climb Mt Olympus only to find the peak empty. After visiting a variety of other holy sites around the world they have found no evidence that the creator beings exist... for now.

edited 22nd Oct '14 8:42:50 PM by matti23

Humans find out that the true God of a world is a random diety from the deep Amazon jungle that will send you to hell if you don't drop to the floor and face left every morning. Humans are not impressed and deicide results.

Ok I have a sub set of blood magic call flesh-crafting. which as the name implies is....fuck up.

Let me explain flesh crafting can be use to alter the body in many ways, like having wolvering claws or ever to survive without a heart, they also have unpleasnt things like controling people body or seal the mouth, and pretty much all the thing you can do with body horror

Interesting concept unknowing, any healing spells based off this magic?

In my setting powerful demons are genre savvy and set up their temples and inner sanctums to trap heroes. Did you just pass through a temple with a ton of puzzles where you have to reflect light from one place to another? Did you get a mirror shield before the fight? Raise your mirror shield to block as the enemy prepares to fire their glowing magic at you... and get your head cut off by a particle beam.

Sometimes they have a weird sense of humor such as a chest right before a fire breathing dragon containing a marshmallow armor set.