The main religion of the setting counts three gods. Each is responsible for the existence of one of the races of the setting. Their real name is unknown, so they are called after their corresponding races.
- The Elf God :
- Created the elves by taking human form and bearing the children of a man. Her descendance is blessed with a long lifespan and a graceful appearance.
- She taught the "God's Language" to men, allowing them to perform magic (see below).
- Usually represented as a female elf dressed in the sober robes of a scholar. Her attribute is a roll of parchments, her animal is the eagle.
- She is prayed for wisdom and guidance.
- The Dragon God :
- Gifted the draconics with the "dragonrocks" found throughout the Draconic Kingdom. These monoliths change the appearance of people living in the region, over a few generation, to that of a draconic : grey skin, stout body, scaly plaques on some parts of the skin.
- The dragonrocks can also be used to channel the god's power and "ascend" a draconic to become a true dragon, a giant, flying, fiery creature acting as protector for the kingdom.
- Usually represented as a male draconic dressed in the rich garments of a noble. His attribute is a scepter, his animal is the serpent.
- He is prayed for luck and success.
- The Warg God :
- Created the wargs by allowing them to drink his blood, known as the "blackblood". It gives wargs the power to take at will the form of a bloodthirsty, hulking beast-man.
- Members of other races can become wargs by drinking the blackblood from a transformed warg. This triggers a transformation and afterwards leave them with the tan complexion, long canines and slitted pupils of a warg.
- Usually represented as a transformed warg clad in the armor of a warrior. His attribute is the sword, his animal is the wolf.
- He is prayed for protection from harm and good health.
Even though each race is associated to a god, practitioners of the religion pray all three gods, depending on the circumstances. For example, a fisherman who set sails in the morning will pray the Dragon God for a good catch. If a storm comes, he'll pray the Warg God to keep him from sinking. If there is fog, he'll pray the Elf God to guide him back to land.
Temples typically have three gates, each facing the statue of a god set in the center. They range from small wooden buildings to domed and columned marvels of architecture. One city have instead a round(ish) plaza, surrounded by an arcade, with three towering statues in the middle each facing an avenue.
The Church Militants consist of three orders : the Order of the Eagle, open to elves, the Order of the Serpent, open to draconics, and the Order of the Wolf, open to wargs. Their sigil is their animal namesake, in gold, on a white field. They serve as a police force in the countryside, escorting caravans and pursuing bandits.
On the God's Language : it is used to make a request that will be granted by a demon, a lesser godlike being. This is done by writing it down, in the form of complex patterns of lines and circles drawn on a floor known as glyphs. They are limited : the effect of the magic are always confined to the inside of the outer circle. The most complex glyphs known are those engraved on the dragonrocks.
The God's Language can only be learned by reading the "old scrolls". These texts, written in an archaic elven dialect, appear obscure and nonsensical on the first read (and the next hundred too). Deciphering them (or rather copies ; the original are far too precious to be handled by apprentices) is the task of a lifetime, and only elves can live long enough to make much of it, though a few dedicated draconics and wargs have been known to successfully create basic glyphs. On the other hand, skilled scholars can use this magic to prolong their life, sometimes living for a thousand years.
Their is one important splinter group in this religion. This "heresy" believes :
- There is only one God, the one known as the Elf God.
- The "Dragon God" and the "Warg God" are actually demons, and worshiping them as gods is blasphemy.
- The acts attributed to them (the creation of the dragonrocks and the gift of the blackblood) are the work of the one God.
Post on the other important religion later.
edited 1st Jun '15 3:57:15 PM by Aetol
Worldbuilding is fun, writing is a chore
the Elves gods are...complicated
In part because they aren god in the used sense of the world: they are energy beings who survive a cataclysm long time ago and the survivor brand themselves as the eterial court, they create their "children" from living metal with jewerly eyes and magic flowing in their veins, everything was good....until they fuck up, long history short, they bring evil into their land
So they make a third atempt and the elves are born, the third childre, they workship the guys who came before(the star breathen) and their..."gods" are the only survivor of the first one, and since they are energy beings, they dnt have gender, so elfs usually show them as they wants(some like human, other like animals, etc)
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Black's faeries are based on "pagan werewolves". These faeries are primarily inspired by the RPG Werewolf:The Forsaken, the novels of the Nightwalker series (by Jacquelyn Frank), and the TV series Teen Wolf. My faeries are also influenced by the video game Odin Sphere, the graphic novel series Hellboy, and the movie Maleficent. Faeries are modeled after the stars of UK Naked Men, Raging Stallion, Jalif Studio, and Butch Dixon.
Faeries can work charms and weave enchantments by using their inheritances and acquisitions to channel essences such as souls. Faeries are classed as nobles (who have four aspects: the lie, the truth, the spirit, and the beast) or commoners (who have only one aspect). Faeries are mostly homosexual males who spawn progeny asexually, through a series of magical rituals. Faeries are descended from gods and monsters. Faeries can't break oaths sworn in the language primordial without destroying themselves. Faeries are divided between the solitary and the social, the vengeful and the spiteful; most are spiteful socialites but their regents have always been vengeful solitaries chosen precisely because they didn't want to be responsible for the discord unrestrained faeries can cause.
A faerie is born with four inheritances: his name, his heart, his shadow, and his reflection. His name binds his mind and body together; he protects it by collecting the names of others. His heart animates his body; he protects it by hiding it and carrying a stolen decoy in its place. His shadow holds his memories and fears; in the dark, he can travel through it. His reflection holds his dreams and hopes; when he sleeps, he can trade places with it, entering the supernatural realm of Chaos. The faerie's acquisitions are names, hearts, shadows, and reflections he has won from others in contests of skill or games of chance.
Women are descended from faeries who were "emasculated" for having sided with the gods in the grand war. A woman spawns progeny as spirits and beasts do; she needs men as much as they need her. The woman always gives birth to twins, one male and one female; she keeps the girl but sends the boy to his father. Women are nomadic, because faeries won't long abide their presence in their territories, and faeries own every thumb-length of earth, air, and water in the world.
(Men are descended from "mortified" gods. A man's soul is a vestige of his divine ancestors' magic. The man's soul becomes his ghost when his body dies. Men who willingly share their bodies with ghosts are called shamans, and they can weave minor enchantments.)
edited 2nd Jun '15 12:00:03 AM by nekomoon14
Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.
Gods are hard for me, because I don't want to say that any of my worlds religions are right or wrong, nor do I want to make factions of competing gods for each religion. The only gods I've really mentally confirmed for myself are the unnamed Patron of three powerful mages and a couple of Orkish spirits the shamans can manipulate.
So I'll talk about magic instead.
The above-mentioned triumvirate of mages consists of the Magister of Koring, the Gravedigger Kyle, and the Blue Mage of the Waste. The Magister's name is Cedric and he's a Classic Wizard with a tower, beard and stuffed alligator. He's also a close adviser of the Athlen King. The Gravedigger Kyle is a walking-the-earth type who's somewhat younger and hunts down witches and dark powers and corporal daemons and things, and the easiest way to describe the Blue Mage is "Turkish." There is a fourth Superior Mage, but he's an Elf and mostly sticks to himself on the island.
Each of these superior mages has taken several apprentices (in fact, the Blue Mage runs a school), and if they die one of their former apprentices will take up the job. Due to the high mortality rate among Gravedigger apprentices, often a different wizard will have to become the Gravedigger, and before the current one (Kyle) the post was unoccupied for almost fifty years.
Magic comes in two forms, academic and instinctive. There's no iron distinction between them, a mage could use both in the same breath. Academic magic uses complex spoken spells and various catalysts to make the magic easier. Academic mages can do incredibly difficult or complex works with little effort from their auras, but it could take weeks for them to figure out the best spell. On the other hand, instinctive magic is simply forcing the aura to doing the mage's bidding.
As I said, there's no perfect distinction between the two. A nominally academic mage might use instinctive magic if he's in a tight spot or can't come up with the proper spell; and an instinctive mage, like an Orkish shaman, might go through academic preparations before a spell.
Half Hope and Half Des-bear
Hello everybody.
So in the beginning of my verse, there was only the primordial nothingness. From nothingness was The All-Maker was born, whose birth laid down the foundation of reality itself. The All-Maker in turn created Sophia, embodiment of all Magic, whose song and dance created the other parts of creation, such as other planes of existences, like Heaven. However, Sophia had little control over her own power, and there was much, much collateral damage to reality. So the All-Maker created Nihilo Ex Cosmos, reality's immune system, designed to counteract any magic that could slightly cause a tear in reality. Eventually Sophia matured enough to get control of her own powers, and so did the All-Maker slept. It is said that when the All-Maker wakes up, reality would have already ended, requiring him to make it anew. Nihilo went to rest also, only waking up to address ridiculous problems.
Sophia created the Aeons, and was genuinely happy. But one of the Aeons, Yaltabaoth, fell into error, and rebelled against his fellow Aeons, turning himself into the first Archon, the Demiurge. He succeeded in driving them away, killing all but Sophia, and created his fellow Archons. When Nihilo woke up and heard about this, he slaughtered all but two of them, including the Demiurge, but was backstabbed by the Demiurge's lieutenant Aeternitas, rendering both of their destructions incomplete. The two remaining Archons (Aeternitas was also destroyed, but not completely) created the gods, and they died from their wounds. Nihilo went into a deep slumber, not unlike his creator.
The gods chose a world to live on called Clamare, and created Humanity as their Slave Race, without any knowledge of good or evil, making them sociopathic. The humans were immortal unless the gods grew tired of them, from which they threw them away like toys. The first human, Aleph, was thrown away, but had managed to escape, with no purpose but to wander. He managed to stumble upon the location of Sophia, who in her kindness took care of him, and granted him the knowledge of good and evil, while also giving him the usage of magic; by deconstructing the souls of her Aeons and giving them to him. Aleph could do what the gods couldn't do: change. Aleph managed to free humanity from the god's grasps, and taught the knowledge of magic to his fellow humans. But the gods in vengeance took away all of the human's immortality, though the humans became Long-Lived, with each generation having shorter lifespans. The gods also influenced Cain to murder his brother Abel, showing it as sign to obey the gods. It sort of worked. Abel in turn, became the personification of Death, since he was the first human to die, while Kain became the first murderer and the progenitor of vampires.
Note: When the All-Maker first laid down the foundation of reality, he created the physical planes first like Earth, the galaxies, solar systems. Heaven and the like were created by his descendants.
I'll get to you about magic, later.
edited 18th Jun '15 12:14:46 PM by SkyHavenPath13
Looking forward to it!
Half Hope and Half Des-bear
Not all of the gods were complete Jerkasses. Some of them sympathized with humanity, and defected from their kin. One of them even gave up god hood to live help humans.
Anyway, when Abel died and became death, he decided to teach the humans how to slay gods and other immortals, called Iconoclasm. The principle of the magic style is that everything has a weak point that once shattered means the entire structure will collapse, sort of like Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, from Tsukihime. Mortals has this one weak point apparent, but immortals and gods have them hidden away. The point of Iconoclasm is to bring out that weak point and then strike them down. Regeneration is negated when Iconoclasm is used. It only works on living beings, with exceptional practitioners able to slice through magic, but not kill it. The initial concept was rough but was perfected by a guy who was meant to destroy humanity itself.
I haven't decided a name on him, but his backstory started with him being created and given magical power, along with one of the most powerful ability of all: the ability to destroy anything, up to and including concepts. He somehow developed emotions and since he didn't have anybody or any way to deal with them, the experiment was quickly ruined. He was declared a failure and was locked away in a room of infinite space. He was rescued by the same god who gave up his godhood, and who tried to teach him how to control his strength. Key word being tried. He then met the practitioners of Iconoclasm and had it compared with his own power of destruction. Specifically, he is able to see the weak point of everything and can materialize said weak point into a ball to which he crushes with his right hand, destroying the object which the weakpoint belonged to. Sound familiar? It's like Hollywood Voodoo. He then realized his emotions were not helping him, so he suppressed them to not hurt anybody.
edited 18th Jun '15 2:23:09 PM by SkyHavenPath13
Half Hope and Half Des-bear
On Arcanaverse Magic (Which is really simplistic) :
- Everyone who is sentient in the Arcanaverse can utilize magic to some extent, though humans have the hightest potential to exceed gods and everybody else and to learn any spell they want. Though the magical talent and potential at birth varies from person to person, they increase control and amount of Mana they have by training/studying.
- Mana powers magic, and Mana is separated into two groups: Anima, the personal pool of Mana within one's self and Ether coming from the Background Magic Field.
- The two sources are interchangeable, though Ether must be handled for caution as they can cause unintended side-effects, and it's supposed to be used for high-powered rituals.
- Ritual Magic usually requires a certain date to achieve results, as they are symbolic of what action you are trying to do. The amount of Ether in an area varies from place to place, and it waxes and wanes as time passes.
- Life Energy, Emotional Energy, Ether, basically anything that emits energy can be converted into Mana for use. The only thing is that it depends on how skilled at converting it.
- Mana is transferable, though it only refills the Fantasia Core, the source of a mage's power. Though if they share genetic traits, the receiver can be given more mana to work with and the giver's spell records are transferred to the receiver (See Below)
- Magic Users essentially have an ethereal organ called a Fantasia Core. It's essentially a fuel tank/engine/heart/CPU for Anima.
- The Fantasia Core regulates Mana flow and output, which can be increased and decreased on will.
- The Core is replenished by taking in ambient Ether and converting it into Anima, though it can impeded by illness and the like.
- It also holds the record and memory of every spell cast in their lifetime. Growth and development is possible given enough repeated use and training it like a muscle, giving more Anima to work with.
- Should the core itself get damaged, its regulation goes haywire, not unlike a flamethrower without its safety valve. If left untreated, the user may die.
- The Core can be regenerated as long as the mage still has their soul or an equivalent. Their is an unused portion within the core that is mostly unused in a lifetime (think of the 90% of the brain myth).
- Abnormalities can developed that grants a special magic type available to them and is somewhat genetically inheritable.
- To cast a spell, a mage must first gather Anima from within, mold it into the spell required, aim it, and release it into the general direction.
- Some spells require prerequisites in order to make happen such as Hollywood Voodoo.
- Theoretically, a mage could whip out new spells on the fly... It just won't be as effective or hell, it might not even happen and it's more likely to blow up in your face. They would have to calibrate the idea and work out the specifics on how it works.
- Copying spells is about as easy as trying to reverse engineer machinery in seconds, if you need the spell right now. You might have a general idea on how it works and what it does, but you won't have the nuts and bolts. Besides, some powers cannot be replicated perfectly.
- Human mages have the most benefit for this, as with they can conceivably do anything with magic, but with the downside that sometimes they don't have all the time in the world to complete it.
Still a work in progress. I'll add more as I get to it.
edited 21st Jun '15 7:05:49 PM by SkyHavenPath13
The story of my elves, let hope you like it
At first the first people come to light, there where being of color and music, who dance as the voice moves, they leave in almost apathy, without understanding anything else.....
Them the thing that lies beyond came, and the first people die, with their spirit be cast into the void beyond to everyone else, it take time and effort but finally they cast the horror away, but only a few surivied, worry they decided to make a great choice and decide to see the mortal word and make people to put the souls of their dead, such the second people was born: with jewerly eyes and skin of metal, they served the survivor of the first people, who them become their gods, the etherial court
the second sons and they call themselves become a power in their mortal world, creating greafull castle, descovering intersting feature and in a way, become everything they can hop to be with their gods at their side, everything was great.....until it was not.
It not exacly understood what happen but the horror beyond comes back again, the second people put their best but this time they fight in the inside, and their unio shatter like cristal.
In the end, the third sons where built, the elves, they dont have a unified nations and each of them workship a hero of the second sons who thing are destiny to rule the others...let see who it goes that
and well...that is the backstory
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
In a web serial novel I'm working on, the existence of magic and monsters has been revealed to the world, and now magic is commonplace enough that it is taught in schools, especially at the Aleister Crowley University of Supernatural Studies, where the series takes place.
The protagonist is particular is a student of Applied Enchantments, better known as artificing, the creation of magical technology. A thing to note about artificing is that the emotion and hard work that goes into the creation of a magical device is as much a vital component as the raw materials and magical runes. While mass-produced magic items can and do exist, these will always be of inferior quality to a passion project the artificer puts their heart and soul into. As a result, while magic weapons and vehicles can be purchased anywhere, the most powerful one are always the one of a kind work of a single artificer.
Half Hope and Half Des-bear
Hey guys can I tell you about my protagonist's abilities at the end of the series?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
As long as you use spoiler tags, I don't see why not.
I'd love some help with the goblins in my world. I'm not sure if I should make them stupid violent creatures not much better than animals, or more clever craftsmen and merchants.
I'd go with the clever craftsmen idea. Making goblins a bunch of barely sentient savages instead of a fully fleshed out culture just strikes me as a waste of potential.
Why not both? A race doesn't need to be define by a single sentence (unless said sentence is describing its appearance).
indeed, having one race describe as one sentence(the magical race,crafy one,brute race,etc) is lazy, unimaginative and a little bit racist
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
What most fantasy writers mean by "race" is "species" or "subspecies", so actually there's nothing racist about it. Maybe fantastically racist but not actually racist. Just had to clear that up real quick.
I know, I know, what I said is that even when one specie is good for something, many fantasy setting put elf,dwarft and orc as race of hats, so is weird when you see a map for example and see 7 or 8 kindoms and empires full of diverse humans...and then only one place for elfs, it become jarring
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Of course, of course. I just can't let the word "racist" be dropped so lightly is all.
I agree with what you're saying, though. I hate the Standard Fantasy Race Stereotypes with the burning heat of a thousand suns. I actively avert or subvert as many of these kinds of cliches as I can manage. Tropes may not be bad, but they CAN be annoyingly overused.
edited 29th Jun '15 2:19:33 AM by nekomoon14
Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.
The amount of difference between my two ideas means it would be really hard to do both. I do try to avoid generalizing species in one sentence like you said. The fantastic-race-of-hats thing bothers me too.
Well, not all goblins need to be stupid violent creatures, and not all goblins need to be clever craftsmen and merchants. By having both you can have the latter goblins suffer prejudice due to their race being seen as "naturally barbaric". Or you can have a gang of traveling criminals who rob merchant caravans and sell what they pillage. They don't even need to sell the same stuff they rob: they can craft copies that look very close to the real thing, and even keep the high end stuff to themselves (and build steampunk machinations that you can't help but wonder how they aren't already broken).
Of course, these are simply examples. I don't know how you're planning to use goblins in your story.
And more important, you can have them fight each other, after all humans have a very good tendecy of murding each other for very petty reasons: because they lands are good, because his skn is to light(or no enoguht) because his god is creepy to me,etc. Warhammer teach me something very good: that other races dosen have to like each other more that we do.
Anyway you for example have have diferent tribes of barbarian, or even one tribe who despise other as savage(because barbarian dosent see themselves like that) and trading with the crafy one(who themselves have some weird practice as well) and so one
Also, I know this may sound needy but a put here the backstory for my elves, can someone said something about it? I need feedback to adavance
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Absolutely, go for it
I already put it some messegaes back, go and look it meanwhile I will put another part of backstory:
the second age:
After the first age thing where bad, the nightmare(this is just once of their names, if you have others I will thank you) where seal back into their dimension but not before they have their graps into reallity, some mortals pleage allienges to them, ether for greed or fanatism, they where granting power to change their evenrioment as they see fit.
This change when the first man came, nobody know his aparience since he like to change it each time but its power where beyond mesure, it had one single mission: united the race of the first age in one empire, to endure the return of the nightmare
At first he take people, sharing his message and them testing their resolve, if they past they just vanish without any track...at least until he strike.
When everything was in place, he strike, showing of in golden halo with his warrior, taken from all over the world and united to his will, it was a brutal war but finally the last one of them where banish to the hell they come from.
adn that it, is just a part so more will come, and I know my grammar is horrible, english is not my first language.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
My world is going to end up as a sci-fi (due to Abusive Precursors) and fantasy.
But I'm going to talk about the magic.
Magic started as the primary way of fending off their negligent guardians. It also started out very complex, needing elaborate rituals, incantations, and other various stuff. Over the centuries, it has developed into a readily accessable art, needing little more than foci, Instant Runes, and maybe a few reagents for highly specific spells. Magic could be used for brewing tea with a fire spell to something as complex as combining Water magic, Time magic, Necromancy, and bits of fossils to flood a battlefield and summon a Mosasaur.
Then the Imperial Balamar Magic-Science Research and Development Department got involved and...
The Dark Mage- a highly skilled magic user, who is employed by the Imperial Military to brutally murder their enemies. Some of their more nasty magic include reversing the flow of blood, mummifying people, turning blood into a BFS that grows in size when in contact with more blood, teleporting people into the ground, teleporting bodyparts off people, stopping someone's heart with a jolt of electricity... Fortunately, they tend to be lazy, and use less complex magic, like fireballs.
And then they discovered magic enhancing crystals to supercharge their Dark Mages. Yay!
edited 1st Jun '15 3:50:51 AM by WillDeRegio