Fantasy Gods, Races, Settings, Magic Systems and Miscellaneous

A random idea I had:

What if a God of Evil didn't want to be worshiped (favoring their followers to Rage Against the Heavens), which ironically makes some of their worshippers technically good because they worship him in spite of his wishes?

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"

i dont think thats how good/evil works.

they're still worshipping an evil god, and going against his wishes unknowingly doesnt suddenly make them good.

Evil God: "Dont murder that person"

Minion: "I just murdered that person"

Evil God: "Damn your goodness!"

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

The feline race in my fantasy setting only really has one chief deity known only as "the Hunter". The Hunter only asks that prey be respected, and to the Hunter: Everything is prey. When you pass on, you join the Hunter at their side hunting those who have disrespected prey in their lives.

(V)(;,,;)(V)

Magic is powered by the aether particle that humans can possess. The easiest way to become a mage is to be given a supply of aether from an experienced mage. Aether can also be inherited, but the person must train to use it or else their supply will dwindle until it no longer exists. A person may also absorb aether directly, but unless the person is sufficiently strong enough to accustom their body to it they will die. There are seven types of mages.

• Psychics

Possess telepathy, clairvoyance, and prescience. They also use their power to boost their mental processing speed. Their main form of defense is Combat Clairvoyance, but they have no ability to manipulate the physical world, so in a fight against other mage types they are always one step away from death. The only way to kill them is to make sure that all possible choices they could take lead to death.

• Holy Warriors

They invoke gods' powers into objects and weapons via incantation. Since the power overloads and destroys the weapon after a short time, they use projectile weapons, typically bow and arrow.

• Priests

They invoke gods' powers directly into the material world via incantation or writing. They occupy the Squishy Wizard role.

• Projectors

Can send their spirit outside their body and change its form, and even create spirit familiars that are invisible to most humans. They can directly attack a person's Life-Force. They can either send their familiars out to do a chore or attack a target while they are a safe distance away, or they can merge with a familiar to make an Oversoul that increases their strength and gives them a Healing Factor. They can also send familiars into animals to make animal servants.

• Shifters

They directly manipulate the material world, especially the four dynamics: earth (carbon), water (all states), fire (hydrogen, oxygen, heat, and electrolysis), and wind (nitrogen, oxygen, and clouds). They can also change their position in space-time. And as per their name, they can shape-shift, and also have a Healing Factor and can even make homonculi.

• Wielders

They seal their power into a weapon, which greatly decreases their utility, but gives the weapon the ability to violate the laws of physics, although it still has to work according to its nature. A magic swordsman could not make a long ranged attack to attack a far away target, but would just teleport to the target and make a melee attack. Since the bond between wielder and weapon is supposed to last, they use short-range weaponry.

• Strong-arms

Use their power to amplify the strength and healing of their body to inhuman levels.

edited 26th Feb '17 9:46:30 PM by shiro_okami

I had a brainstorm of the dream world as it will be seen in Volume VII. It looks like an endless deciduous forest with some large grassy plains here and there, only this forest is made entirely of soothing light.

• Above it all is an eternally moonlit and starlit night sky
• The atmosphere is soothingly and comfortably warm, like a summer night
• None of the leaves on the plants are the green of ordinary ones; they are all sorts of colors that subtly glow a soothing light in all manner of colors
  • The bark on the trees is midnight blue
• The flowers that grow throughout the forest and fields are a lot larger than their real world counterparts
• The trails that meander throughout the forest and fields are made up of shiny multicolored sand instead of dirt
• There are gemstones of all shapes and sizes instead of rocks
• The water in the lakes and rivers is actually liquefied diamond (thus averting the clichéd “Water Is Blue” trope)
• The goddess of dreams, Esheia, has her palace located in the heart of the realm

Princess Aurora is underrated, pass it on.

Another god idea but no setting to put it in.

There is a God Of Corruption, Entropy And Darkness. He was always the god of these things, but he used to be a good guy despite it. He "corrupted" the wicked with guilt, made it so bad things happened to bad people and spread a sacred darkness, that gave succor and comfort to the hurt and weary.

But a malevolent force insinuated itself into the world, and the god bid his sibling to stand back, because it was a corruption and therefore fell under his domain.

Then he got corrupted by it, go figure.

Now he's exactly the kind of god you suspect when you think "God Of Corruption, Entropy And Darkness".

Mixing a few elements of the Han Chu Contention into a story I'm making in the modern day. During that event there was a general called Han Xin. He knew his enemy was inexperienced, inpatient and rash but outnumbered him by a significant margin. He backed his army into a position from which there was no escape so that they would have to fight to the death. He then set up a defensive position and waited for them to attack. The theory was that if his army was fighting to the death they would fight more ferociously and allow his army to do more damage to the enemy. The enemy rushed into his defensive position and Han Xin was able to win.

The modern army in my story is in a similar situation. They have taken up position inside a small city and set up their defenses. For a modern army in that situation would that be a viable tactic?

On another subject, I was wondering how badly a modern army's effectiveness would be effected by having its supply depots stuck under several months of torrential downpour. The defenders have deliberately retreated from a settlement which will shortly come under a torrential downpour and is located on a floodplain. The position is closer to the invader's ultimate goal and unaware of the danger posed by the position, they set up a base there and moved their supplies up.

edited 29th Mar '17 3:29:57 AM by matti23

I don't often work with Fantasy. But I'm trying out on making some, I've already got it largely figured out for a Dark Fantasy.

So here are some ideas for what I'm calling a Mid-Fantasy, magic is a fundamental force of the universe and thus can be studied. Study of which is called Thuamatology for fundamental working principles that are understood and can be turned into magitek. Magic is reserved for two things, magic they don't understand and what the hell spirits do.

Mortal magic obeys very specific rules, and curses can always be undone with specific medical treatments. Magitek tools include casting gauntlets that can be given specialized "tablets" which allow them to preform elemental magic. Magical Tablets also exist but aren't common, typically being very expensive.

Spirit Magic however, does still obey rules, but only the rules of Spirit Creatures themselves. A Spirit Creature can say their temple is off limits unless you remove your boots and wear their uncomfortable sandals, for mortal casters, a simple dispelling charm gets around this. Spirits? No.

This causes problems as many don't want to anger spirits, seeing as spirit curses cannot be removed by anything but the spirit themselves.

I had an idea for an epic science-fantasy story (let's call the genre "cosmic fairy tale"), and I think I need some help/suggestions.

Specifically, I want the setting to have both sci-fi and fantasy elements while still feeling like a coherent whole. Hypothetically speaking, I don't want the thing to seem like I grabbed a spaceship from one story, a dragon from another, and just mashed the two together.

I'm going for a mythic or dreamlike feel—less Star Wars, more The Little Prince (or, if you prefer, Super Mario Galaxy). I'm looking for a way to make tropes like space battles and planet-hopping feel more airy and fantastical, and I'm not quite sure how to do that.

Furthermore, I'm not sure whether Earth should be a part of the setting or not. More specifically, whether the protagonist should be from Earth (in which case she'd be an Arthur Dent type) or from a fictional Earthlike planet that's slightly more "in the know" about what's happening out there. I'm leaning toward the former, so I can include familiar cultural references, but I'm not completely sure.

I don't want to give away too many plot details, but here are some of the elements at play: two well-meaning but irascible gods (well, a god and a goddess) waging a terrible war over a petty disagreement, their personal armies, a faction that's trying to stop the fighting, and a faction that's trying to exacerbate it. Oh, and our hapless young heroine, who's found herself stuck in the middle.

For the tone, think something like Kingdom Hearts, but with a little more Douglas Adams-style humor. Characters have names like Juno Hu and Dr. Sigmund Schadenfreude.

Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

As a reference for the setting, I think the ongoing Western Animation series Steven Universe is a good reference.

I'm having some trouble picturing the "feel" of the story to suggest more references. Probably because I'm not extremely familiar with all of your references. When you say "fairy tale", do you mean a modern fairy tale or a traditional fairy tale? It sounds like you're going for the former, but I guess I could see a traditional fairy tale played straight with, hm, say, Douglas' Adam's tone.

You Tube Video series Extra Credit's episode "Why Aren't There Science Fiction Games?" can help you visualize better the direction you would prefer taking the science fantasy elements: wondrous, mundane, or both (or maybe neither, but I suppose neither would mean the absence of sciency fantasy elements?). I mean, it seems like you know where you want to go, but there's a mental shorthand to this episode in my short-medium term memory.

I'm not that big a fan of Steven Universe but yeah, that's probably a good point of reference, at least in terms of the ethereal, airy feel I'm shooting for.

As for the fairy tale thing, I'm not quite sure what a "modern" fairy tale is, to be honest. I'd compare my idea to a game like Kingdom Hearts or Super Mario Galaxy, where the stakes are high but the setting and characters look like something out of a (particularly trippy) storybook.

Homestuck might be another good point of reference, but Homestuck is a good point of reference for every idea I've had since I read the damn thing.

Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

@Homestuck

Except for dialog. Good god that comic went on and on about jack all.

My setting is a world that resembles the contemporary world, infact one can say it is a reflection of our world as it has most of the same history, geography, culture. The people wear the same clothes that we do, eat the same food we eat and waste their time with whatever media they enjoy the most while still having a few things that only belongs to them, and yet for the world being almost a clone like our own one can't help but to feel that something is off with the world, that it doesn't feel quite right.

Most people either go on through their lives with this question never being answered as they quickly distract themselves with other matters that needs their attention. However for those whose curisity gets the best of them and decide to take a glimpse what lies beneath the pleasant facade of their society would find terror and madness lurking in the shadows, hiding in every nook and cranny or even in plain sight. What they would find is that along with their old world lied another world hidden from most people, a world that many would believe is impossible if it warrant for the fact it exists.

Behind the veil of the normal world is a massive, world spanning, occult underground populated by a loosely connected network of warring cults, shadowy cabals and secret societies; each fighting for greater influence, control and power over humanity's future as they make almost every institution possible their puppets. In this secret world loathsome monsters, marauding spirits and stranger beings coexist with humanity, unseen due to them being invisible to our senses or because they can blend in as any regular item, animal or person on the street. Bizarre supernatural forces, fortean phenomenons, and other anomalies threatening to tear apart the very laws and fabric of the universe. Eldritch magic that can shatter reality and bend the minds of those who witness and use it is practiced by those who are willing to pay dire prices in exchange for great power and forbidden knowledge. Pantheons of dark forgotten gods, ancient demons, and lovecraftain horrors reside in realms above our own and controlling the world through their invisible touch; their servants from the same realms now on Earth and their human followers assisting in their machinations to control and torment mankind. In the most unlikely places that one would think of incomprehensible eldritch truths and dark secrets can be found if only one is willing to do whatever it takes to earn those secrets, and this even assumes ones mind is strong enough to bear the knowledge man was never meant to know.

The world has gone through many cycles, many ages. Each age as seen ancient civilizations, continents and more be erased as one age ends and a new begins, yet remnants of these bygone era remains as specters to haunt the current age and many in the secret world will fight tooth and nail to claim these antediluvian relics. Even the history of the current age has many alternative tales that remain shrouded in secrecy by those in control of the world. Other realities exist above, below and side by side to the world; a membrane keeping these realities both invisible and intangible to most people. Yet this barrier has seen better days as not only are there holes to allow entities and objects to pass from one reality to the next but sometimes glimpses of the other worlds can be seen on the Earth.

That's all I'm gonna post right now because I'm tired. I would probably explain the magic system or something from that world if anyone is interested in it.

Characterization matters.

Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

I agree with them. You can have the most awesome idea for magic, tech, setting and more but it won't mean jack if the characters aren't interesting.

@Thrice Charming: I think Shrek is an example of a modern fairytale. Disney is arguable. There's a difference between a modern fairy tale and a fairy tale in a modern setting (including modern ideals). I'm talking about fairy tale as the storytelling itself, not necessarily the views behind them (although they are relevant to what a fairy tale is, I'd guess). Maybe there's a difference between modern and contemporary fairy tales?

@Crow The Magician and Belisaurius: And that's like, your opinion, man.

Well, when we speak about fairy tales, be that old or new, I think there's certain defining characteristic: let's call it Fairy Tale Logic, because I'm lazy and cannot figure out anything better.

What I mean by that is that when you compare fairy tales to straight-up fantasy, fairy tells do a lot less explaining about themselves. Where a work of fantasy often goes on about the structure of the world and the rules of magic for pages, in fairy tales things just... are. There just happens to be a magical flower that can cure any illness, where it came from is never explained. This helps to give the story and setting an air of otherwordliness and dreamlike mystique. Where fantasy is more of a setting where adventures and events of any type can take place, I feel like fairy tales are an actual genre with a distinct, uniform flow and mentality.

I think Neil Gaiman uses this kind of storytelling masterfully, and often his books feel more like modern fairy tales rather than fantasy books.

I agree with the conclusion but not with the premise. I think many other works roll with what they give you without dwelling on it too much. My example is Mad Max: Fury Road.

edited 6th Apr '17 6:15:03 PM by Victin

Well, my idea is definitely not like Shrek.

Neil Gaiman is kind of a good example, but I'm much less grimdark. I think Neverwhere is the closest thing of his to what I'm trying to do, but mine has a sci-fi bent and more humor in it.

Okay, here's a good example of the kind of "sci-fan" I'm going for, in terms of setting if not of tone: Ōban Star-Racers.

Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

So there are quite a few male names we can use for the Tom The Dark Lord trope. We could call our villain Steve, Greg or Stan for example. Curious to hear what you think the best and most funniest example for female names would be?

edited 8th Apr '17 7:29:42 AM by Matm

Tiffany

Gladys

FeEeEeEeEeD mEeEeEeEeE mY bLoG

Betty

(V)(;,,;)(V)

Natalie, Becky, Robin, Meghan...