Build-a-world

So, this is like build a bear (TM) but collaborative!

I was thinking, we could all take turns, chip in an element of a world, see what we come out with. So, here's the rules:

1) You may introduce ONE thing. Below is a list of suggestions, but is not everything: - Technology - Race - Government - Religion - Philosophy - Cosmology - Known person - Weaponry - Magic - Myth - Geography

2) You can't use your bit to introduce OTHER pieces - so, you can't introduce a well known hero, then say they're of a race that hasn't been introduced by a previous poster, nor of a separate nation.

3) After you have written your creation, suggest what the next person has to design

4) Each suggestion can build upon the previous one. I will collate all the responses, distilled down to bullet points, in a second post.

I see this as being the first sort of post and it may not be extensive. But we could get a little bit of mythos and world building going, for our first bit. Feel free to discuss the suggestions as well and any clashes that may arise (but even that could make for an interesting suggestion, if one person, say, suggests a culture or tech that seems at odds with the rest of the setting)

I won't start us, I'll let someone else take the plunge!

WORLD AS IT STANDS:

Geography:

• An event known as the Calamity separated the original super continent into three smaller continents with a spiral-shaped archipelago between them. Only fale historians know what caused the Calamity, because some of the ghosts who witnessed it survive to this day.

• One of the three continents is in the north, one is in the southwest, and one is in the southeast.

• As the Sun crosses the sky every day, shortly before noon it passes behind one of Umbrus's outstretched arms, dimming its light for about 40 minutes, at the peak of which some 99% of the light is blocked. This daily eclipse (and the associated span of time in the day) is known as 'umbragheld', and is considered by worshippers of the other gods to have connotations of evil and misfortune.

• The equator runs right through the central archipelago.

• Every continent and two-thirds of the Shard islands have a subterranean "lake" of magma that causes certain mountains to become volcanoes. Some people believe Solaria and Gaius once had a sexual relationship while in opposite-sex forms, resulting in Solarus seeding Gaia with these pools of lava.
  • Earthquakes occur when the built-up pressure from these fiery lakes causes the earth to crack open in places, though Focraun's behemoths can also cause quakes when they fight or mate. Volcanic eruptions also occur due to high pressure, but the magma gets pushed up out of the mountains.

• The northern continent is called Focraun (pronounced 'FOE-krawn'). Its large central region consists mostly of temperate plains and deserts. In the east there is a mountain range near the coast. In the west, the plains gradually turn into patches of hills and forest.
  • Focraun is far in the northern temperate zone
  • It is primarily inhabited by farawads, along with a few tanaigs. The farawad population is concentrated west of the continent's center in regions of good farming land, while the tanaigs mostly live near the eastern coast. The central desert is inhospitable and only sparsely populated, with few permanent settlements.
  • Erfitunom (jumbled-up "fire-mountain") is the largest and most active volcano in the world. There is also a tanaig city-state underneath; it shares the same name as the volcano. The Emlafepni clan resides here. Erfitunom is a dangerous place to live because of the frequent earthquakes, due to the semiannual volcanic eruptions, and as a result of the vampires' ever-growing control over the city. Erfitunom is the northernmost location in Focraun.

• The southeastern continent of Auerbach (aw-er-bak) is thin, jagged, surrounded by islands of various shapes and sizes, and shaped like a noodle someone carelessly tossed on the floor. It is primarily temperate rainforest, with a lot of white sand beaches and coral reefs at the edges.
  • The sapient population of Auerbach consists mostly of tanaigs. Skara Brae is located at Auerbach's northern end, beneath a large fold mountain known as Skara Ehdon.
  • Auerbach is far in the southern temperate zone.
  • here is one part of Auerbach known as the Earthsea. It extends from one end of the continent to the other (the short way, of course), and is essentially a giant, foggy maze of tiny rivers, islands, and marshes, with the occasional tree or stone outcropping. It is here that the Fale city of Venedig is situated.

• The third continent, Espidara, lies in the subtropical zone; it is shaped like a crescent moon with a central island in the Crescent Sea. Fales are the most numerous and powerful race in Espidara.
  • Most of the terrain around the coast of Espidara is low and made up of plains, marshes and sparse forests. By contrast, the interior of the continent consists of a pattern of hundreds of flat plateaus of various heights and sizes, bordering with each other (and with the coastal terrain) by steep cliffs.
  • These plateaus are known as the 'Teeth of Gaius', with a single plateau sometimes being referred to colloquially as a 'tooth'. The biomes on the plateaus vary widely depending on their height and the height of their surroundings; low regions surrounded by higher ground tend to be swamps or even lakes, slightly higher ones develop jungles on top, still higher ones become alpine forests or steppes, and the very highest are too cold and harsh for plant life, bearing only snow and barren rock. Although plateaus nearer to the coast tend to be lower, this bias is weaker than one might expect, and some impressively tall cliffs can be found even bordering directly on the coastal lands.

• The central archipelago,including the surrounding ocean, is known as the 'Whorl', and its islands are called the 'Shards' due to their manner of origin. Lying close to the equator, the Whorl is the main tropical region of the world.
  • The Shards are jagged with small mountains, and although some are arid in climate, many are covered by dense tropical jungles.
  • Collectively, their land area does not add up to as much as any of the continents, but is still substantial, with some islands measuring as much as 20000km2.
  • The Whorl and the Shards are generally uninhabited by the ensouled races, save by the occasional Fale town drifting by. There are rumors that the central island contains a village, or even a nation, of Keefes that have obtained full sentience and even souls, though nobody's proved these rumors yet.
  • On the outermost island in the Whorl, known as Buda Rock, there is an odd building built in and around the rock that is one part luxury hotel, one part accorded neutral territory, one part meteorological facility, and one part cardio workout. The Buda Hotel.
  • The CETS is located on a Shard in the Whorl.

• There is a large pit that leads to the Underworld, but its precise location is not marked on any map. Idiots go bungee jumping there.
  • The Underworld is a subterranean realm with the world's largest monster population. The Inquisition regularly sends Aegian task forces into it on hunts when the population gets too high; with the occasional conscrpted bungee jumper to "smarten 'em up."
  • Sometimes, members of the Eclipse do this as well, with the only difference being that they cut the cord (and that they hire grunts that aren't as fanatical as they are)

Races:

• Farawads - short, stocky, greatest intelligence - Become zombies upon death
• Tanaigs - tall, thin, greatest strength and stamina - Become Vampires upon death
• Fales - medium-sized, greatest charisma and agility - Become ghosts upon death
• Melokks - taller than Farawads, shorter than Fales, rhinoceros-like horns and pointed ears, with four arms
  • Every race is possessed of an instinctive wanderlust and restlessness; similar to the Australian concept of ''Walkabout". This usually comes upon a person around their fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. For some, it lasts about a year. Others are never rid of this urge to explore, and become full-time adventurers.
    • The fifteenth birthday is something like a unigender quinciniera, since this is usually when someone goes Walkabout. This is when drills or armor are inherited-if one's parents don't decide to get them a new one.
    • Someone on Walkabout may become inflicted with "herrimina", where they become so intensely homesick that if they don't return soon, they will pine to death.
    • People inflicted with herrimina are prone to spells that put thin in a state of Suspended Animation and Lotus-Eater Machine. Such victims are used as guinea pigs for forbidden spells and experiments

Monsters:

• The term "Monster" refers to a creature mutated by a False Soul, a scrap of Umbrus' power rendered down into soul-stuff. Monsters breed true, and their children are falsely ensouled as well. Monsters become False Undead when killed.
  • While monsters have an innate predisposition toward evil, they still have enough free will to choose to live "virtuous" lives. Despite this truth, most other races are unwilling to give them the benefit of the doubt. The CETS is divided on the issue and can't come to a conclusion, so monsters aren't protected.

• There exists an entity known to all races as the Cheery Gentleman. He appears as a man of the same race as those who are viewing him*, always taller than average and dressed in a top hat, fancy suit, and with only four fingers on each hand. His face is nondescript. He is infamous as an entity of nightmares, stalking his victims and giving them nightmares so horrifying that the victims invariably commit suicide. One victim purportedly said "The walls are wrong" repeatedly before her suicide by drowning. Legend has it the Gentleman can be bought off temporarily with a gem of great value, but it's unknown if it works or not.
  • For example, if a Fale is looking at him, he appears as a Fale. Same for the other races. If he's in a crowd, his shape doesn't flicker between races- he appears different for each person that views him. The Gentleman's true form, if he has one, is unknown.

• There exist a race of serpents named Basilisks, who have the ability to petrify others with their gaze. These serpents are found over the world, but seem most attracted to warm climates. they can camouflage themselves to better sneak on their prey. They are said to be enemies of Gaius because their petrifying effect can be counter by earthen magic, however because their magic can only reanimate the statues, they are also seen as allies of Gaius gathering an army for an unknown purpose

Nations and Organisations:

• Located on one of the Shards is something called the Council for the Ethical Treatment of the Soulless (CETS), an institution formed by all three of the humanoid races (although primarily funded by the fales) as a sort of global court for managing relations between them and other intelligent creatures, with an emphasis on ensuring that the latter are not treated unjustly. Any interracial disputes between tanaigs/farawads/fales and soulless sapients, or between different species of the latter, too important and controversial to be resolved by the applicable local justice system can be brought before the CETS, the verdicts of which are considered to carry great authority. The council itself consists of expert lawyers, philosophers, anthropologists and priests, 15 from each humanoid race (making 45 council members total), and each dispute is presided over by N council members of each, where N is an odd number from 3 to 15 inclusive, generally a larger number for a more important case.
  • In addition to the CETS members, there are about a hundred other humanoids on-site (mostly fales) who act as support staff for the council. The council members themselves live and meet in a large, elaborate structure that has no special name and is simply called the 'CETS building'.
  • The staff live in a sort of tiny village situated right next to the CETS building, and many of them work in the building during the day. This settlement as a whole is not designed to be economically sustainable in itself, and relies almost entirely on food and other goods brought in by regular supply ships. ** The council communicates with the rest of the world (including their plaintiffs, if said plaintiffs don't want to physically make the journey to the council) by the use of fale long-range communication techniques.
  • However, they do not tend to interfere or exact "justice" within the non-souled.So, Keefes, for example, exact their own justice, not the CETS.

• On the outermost island in the Whorl, known as Buda Rock, there is an odd building built in and around the rock that is one part luxury hotel, one part accorded neutral territory, one part meteorological facility, and one part cardio workout. The Buda Hotel was founded by Farawads who wanted to get away from the constant warfare and politicking in their home cities, so they hired some Tanaigs to carve a grand residence for them out of the rock where they could live in luxury and not worry about being assassinated. Over time, they opened it up to other races, and allowed the construction of a weather station at the very top to help fund the hotel.

• The Inquisition is a secretive organization dedicated to stamping out threats such as monster nests, Umbran, Golem or Maltheist cults, Necro Tek factories, and Soul-Devouring Weapons. Each Inquisitor is a powerful cleric of their deity. Their authority is such that it gives even gangster tarif-mistresses pause.
  • The Inquisition and the Aegis often work very closely together; bound by an ancient covenant to protect the world from evil.

• There is an order of Paladins that serve to defend the weak. They are Magic Knights devoted to Solaria. The order is called the Aegis.
  • The Inquisition and the Aegis often work very closely together; bound by an ancient covenant to protect the world from evil.

• There is a splinter cell of made up of elements of both the Inquisition and Aegis, called the Eclipse, who are Knight Templars who go on witch hunts in a perversion of their mission.

Cities:

Tanaig - have large Underground cities, made of quartz and marble. Notable Cities:

• The underground cities of the Tanaigs are well-lit, high-ceiling'd, and very orderly and clean, especially their capital of Skara Brae, a stark contrast to the dirty, cramped cities that the Farawads have made.
• Every street is laid out in a grid pattern, and the buildings and streets are rigorously kept clean. This is due to an army of street-sweepers employed by the government. However, inside several of the building areas, there are "streets" that have been improvised by the people who live there, and if said area has been continuously inhabited for a while, they often crisscross in interesting ways, creating a veritable maze of tiny white pathways.
• A visitor to a city for the first time who sees one of these tangles and tries to navigate them on their own will get lost inside of two minutes, guaranteed.

Fales - Fales build huge floating cities a la Pacifidlog Town, though they also have marshland cities that are laid out like Venice; canals in place of most streets, spread out between various islands.

• Several Fale cities move with the ocean currents, while others are anchored by various means - caught on a sandbar a few feet underwater, anchored to a coral reef in such a way as to not harm it, etc.
• Some of the traveling fale cities control their route by using barrier magic to alter the ocean currents.
• Most fale architecture makes heavy use of octagons, and generally emphasizes angles of 45° and 135° as well as 90°. Truncated square tessellation shows up frequently, for instance, as a pattern on floors, walls, ceilings, and window grates. The main exception is their necropoli; for symbolic reasons, any Fale building built to house ghosts always has a round or elliptical floor plan, although octagons may still show up in the smaller details.

Farawad - huge, sprawling, maze-like aboveground cities. Notable examples:

• Several cities are massively fractured and have no ruling government.
• The cities are home to dozens of tribes/gangs/clans who vie for control over each other.
• They are bastions for guerilla fighters.
• City exits are some of the most valuable territories to hold and the price of exit is substantially larger than the price to enter.
• Only Merchants are exempt from the exit tax, who import and export luxuries to and fro the city to keep the economy going; though they're only exempt from the tax in the exit controlled by the gang they're allied with, and its not uncommon for caravans to be preyed upon by rival gangs or desperate civilians themselves.
• In some Cities, these "gangs" are controlled BY the Merchants and they turn the City into a Company Town, with only the veneer of it being a "free anarchist state": they forcibly take over and make the authorities comply.
• Only 2 cities so far are fully under corporate control, due to the Farawad tendency to resist such hostile takeovers.
• The farawad cities not taken over by gangsters, rebels, and MegaCorps are theocratic.
• The city of Greffemwieln is the largest farawad settlement in the world, and considered in many ways the center of farawad culture.
  • It is located in the west of Focraun, built on two hills that rise on either side of a river that flows southwards.
  • The richer upper-class neighborhoods are concentrated near the tops of these hills, while the lower land around them consists of a blend of suburbs, slums and industrial complexes.

Notable cities:

• The largest group of Fales is a seafaring nation called Kaskaven (2nd 'a' is long) with a wide reach and heavily centralized government.

• Venedig is a city built on several islands of varying sizes, and uses the rivers running between the islands as transportation. Venedig is also a city of cutthroat merchants, Deadly Decadent Courts, and beauty in a place where the only three colors are gray, brown, and depression. Other Fales joke that Venedigans are more Farawad than Fale.

• On the outermost island in the Whorl, known as Buda Rock, there is an odd building built in and around the rock that is one part luxury hotel, one part accorded neutral territory, one part meteorological facility, and one part cardio workout. The Buda Hotel was founded by Farawads who wanted to get away from the constant warfare and politicking in their home cities, so they hired some Tanaigs to carve a grand residence for them out of the rock where they could live in luxury and not worry about being assassinated. Over time, they opened it up to other races, and allowed the construction of a weather station at the very top to help fund the hotel.

Culture:

All nation governments and Societal structures tie into the worship of their patron deities.

Tanaig:

• Tainags are patriarchal
• A tainag's drill is a symbol of status. A poor tainag may have a hand-me-down augur older than he is, but a rich one might have a core extractor or an explosive charge tamper built into his drill.
• Tainag music is akin to Industrial Metal. Lots of music is made by leaving a recorder in various parts of a factory or a transport's engine/transmission and remixing it; with accompaniment by electric guitar and drums.
• The tanaig have a recipe for something known as a 'hommot-slee'. This involves submerging raw hommot nuts in a solution of water and rock leech acid and then allowing them to ferment. Once the originally brown hommot nuts have changed to a navy blue color over the course of a couple months, the liquid around them is discarded and they are dried. These hommot-slees don't have a great deal of nutritional value, but they contain a chemical that has a psychoactive effect on tanaigs, giving them a calm, relaxing feeling and making everything seem more humorous than usual.
  • Hommot-slee is deadly poison to most other races, since tanaigs are the only non-rock leech creature that can safely imbibe their acid.
  • The liquid waste produced by fermenting hommot-slee can be refined into something very much like tequila by adding leviathan oil, distilling the mix, and filtering it through charcoal. It's still toxic to everyone but tanaigs and leechmen, though.
• Tanaig fashion consists of essentially just two styles of clothing. One is a simple loincloth, a sort of scarf that is tied loosely around the hips with its ends hanging down in front and behind. The other is a loose, folded robe or toga, with hanging sleeves. The former is typically worn by those whose jobs and attitudes are more physically oriented, while the latter is worn by tanaigs in intellectual and bureaucratic professions, but it is by no means rare for the same tanaig to wear either garment depending on the situation and personal preference. Gender distinctions play no role in tanaig fashion.
  • Although clothing is not the kind of absolute symbol of status that drills represent, those of greater wealth and power do tend to wear fancier versions of these clothes; a lowly laborer may wear cloth of a simple uniform white or brown, while the clothes of high-ranking merchants, politicians or generals can be richly patterned with colorful, expensive dyes. However, really fancy clothes can be seen as a mark of extravagance, and a high-ranking individual may choose to tone down his level of dress when interacting with those of lower station, in order to appear more relatable.
  • Many tanaigs wearing robes will actually often wear a loincloth hidden underneath, so as to be able to quickly switch between them as the situation requires. Indeed, modern tanaig robes are even tailored specifically such that they can be dramatically flung off in a single rapid motion, revealing the tanaig's physique along with whatever appropriate tools or weapons they might have been hiding underneath the robe.

Farawad:

• Farawads are matriarchal
• They decorate their armor suits with ritualized graffiti. The art tells what family, clan, and city-state they belong to, who there parents are, and what their greatest achievements were. The symbols used in this art are always stylized representations of plants, animals, and fungi, or the sun, moon, stars, etc.
• Among the Farawads, certain foods are considered Sacred Meals; improperly preparing them is grounds for summary execution.
• The farawads' cycle of working days, their 'week', is 17 days long. It consists of three 4-day spans of working days separated by 1 day off between them, then a 3-day 'weekend'. The middle day of this 3-day span is known as 'Sfallad', and is traditionally a day when farawads get together in public areas to have big parties with food and entertainment. The other days of the cycle are simply numbered from 1 to 16, starting with the day after Sfallad. The other four days off are thus numbered 1, 6, 11 and 16, while the rest are working days.
• Farawad language is almost unintelligible if spoken quickly to non-speakers, and if written out in English, would resemble a cross between Dutch, Polish, and Welsh, and somehow manage to have too many consonants and too many vowels in a word at the same time.

Fale:

• Music produced by the Fales involves a lot of drums, chanting, and complicated rhythms, as well as a unique instrument somewhat akin to a violin, which creates a lazy-sounding "wwwwwaaaaaaah" sound, like in Hawaiian music.
• Fale are meritocratic.
• Fales take hospitality very seriously. There is a lot of ritual attached to hosting visitors and visiting fale homes. To violate any of the rituals of hospitality is an act of war. You can't enter a fale home without invitation and once inside, you can't leave until he feeds you an oatmeal-like hommot porridge. If you offend the host, you've declared war on him. If the host offends you, you can take that as a declaration of war. One way to keep an enemy from hurting you is to invite him to your home and treat him like an honored guest.

Melok:

• Meloks are a race of four-armed people taller than farawads but shorter than fales.
  • Meloks have rhinoceros-like horns and pointed ears. Meloks are to the skies what fales are to the seas. Meloks have lived in dirigibles for so long that they don't even have stories about when they lived on land.
  • Meloks revere a hermaphroditic representation of Phneumus called Phneumusia. Meloks are born as females but gain the ability to change sexes at puberty; the change is mostly voluntary but may be triggered by solar eclipses. The change takes a full day and night to complete. A pregnant melok woman can't become a man until after she gives birth.

Currencies:

The traditional form of hard currency minted by the tanaigs consists of small 'coins', where each coin has the shape of one of the five platonic solids and made of one of four particular materials. The value of such a coin is proportional to the product of the particular 'multipliers' associated with its shape and material. The multipliers for the shapes are:

• Tetrahedron: 1
• Cube: 3
• Octahedron: 6
• Dodecahedron: 18
• Icosahedron: 54

The multipliers for the materials are:

• Wood: 1
• Brass: 10
• Blue (cobalt) glass: 50
• Platinum: 1000

Thus, a platinum icosahedron (the most valuable coin) is worth exactly 54000 times as much as a wooden tetrahedron (the least valuable coin).

Notable People:

• The most infamous fale pirate is a woman known as Red Ruby. She's reputed to have such a fiery temper that she's made her favorite mates walk the plank for small slights. She's also rumored to have an obsession with rubies.
  • Red Ruby is said to be as tall as a tanaig, but in real life she's average for a fale. She's said to have hair as red as hot iron, but in real life her hair is more brown than red. Men swear she's more well-endowed than a farawad woman, but she's actually somewhat flat-chested, even for a fale woman.
  • Secret (known only to Red Ruby and her crew): Red Ruby's obsession with her namesake is the result of being told that she can achieve immortality by obtaining a singular magical ruby by the ghost of her great grandfather (himself a legendary pirate named Rumbeard).
  • A Secret (known only to Umbrus, Solaria, and Lunarus): For centuries after her death, stories will be told of her daring exploits. She'll be the Jack Sparrow or the Davy Jones of future tales. But now, she's just the most well-known pirate in the world.

Religions / Cosmology:

• Only farawads, tanaigs, and fales have souls, which is why they don't "stay" dead like other creatures in the world. When zombies, vampires, or ghosts perish, their souls merge with the disembodied spirits of the gods, becoming something like saints or angels. Souls that go to Umbrus are eaten and cease to exist altogether.
  • It is possible for soulless sapients to be reincarnated as a farawad, a tanaig, or a fale depending on what deity they worship. They might not have souls, but they do have consciousness.
  • Soulless reincarnation works by way of a deity placing the not-person's consiousness into a foetus of it's chosen race-having a soul is an inherent quality of being a farawad/tanaig/fale. The consiousness' personality is retained, but the knowledge is lost. For all intents and purposes, they're a new person, but kind of like that soulless friend of it's parents who wanted to know about these god people and why they're so important a few years ago. A faithful desciple will be rewarded with a good afterlife, soul or not.

• The world is formed from the corpses of the gods who perished fighting the Daemon King Umbrus:
  • Gaius, Lord of the Earth, the Ur-Tainag, gave his body to form the ground.
  • Pacifica, Wife of Gaius, Queen of the Ocean, gave her body to form the seas and waterways.
  • Solaria, the Sun Queen, the Ur-Farawad, gave her body to form the sun,
  • Lunarus, husband of Solaria, King of the Sacred Shadow, his body to form the moon.
  • Phneumus, King of the Wind, the Lonely God, the Ur-Fale, gave his body to form the wind.
  • The body of Umbrus forms much of the night sky, glaring hatefully at the world even in death through innumerable tiny eyes.

• During the Gods' War, hundreds of warrior species were created. All of these species were eradicated during the Calamity, and the fossilized bones people find buried in the earth are often the remnants of these titanic monstrosities. ** The bones of Gaius, in contrast, manifest as super-hard rock.

Some warrior species were humanoid, while others were enormous tusked mammals or gargantuan armored reptiles, the ancient ancestors of modern lemakki. The nogards are descended from a flying species. Another species continues in the lineages of behemoths and leviathans.

• All magic is religious but different deities grant different kinds of spells.

• Umbrus (worshiped by heretical cults) grants spells relating to darkness and death.
  • Umbrus causes soulless who worship him to be reincarnated as monsters; and imbues those who complete his dark quests with False Souls, which twists their body and Consiousness into that of a monster.
  • Umbrus considers monsters His children. Monsters can use necromancy, telepathy, and Umbran shadow spells without staves, wands, nor enchanted items.

• Gaius (supreme god of the tanaigs, also highly revered in the north) grants spells relating to earth and wood.

• Pacifica (supreme goddess of women in general) grants spells relating to water and ice.

• Solaria (supreme goddess of the farawads, also highly revered in the east) grants spells relating to fire and light.
  • Solaria and Lunarus both provide their more dedicated and skilled followers the ability to use spells belonging to other gods (excepting each others). however, they have to pass a trial for each and every school of magic they wish to use, and even after that the method of invoking these spells is atypical. it differs depending on the god but the requirements to use their magic is typically inconvenient and has to be pre-planned to be of any use; the ability to use other gods magic is purely for versatility, not for becoming OP.

• Lunarus (supreme god of men in general) grants spells relating to darkness and dreams (including daydreams).
  • Solaria and Lunarus both provide their more dedicated and skilled followers the ability to use spells belonging to other gods (excepting each others). however, they have to pass a trial for each and every school of magic they wish to use, and even after that the method of invoking these spells is atypical. it differs depending on the god but the requirements to use their magic is typically inconvenient and has to be pre-planned to be of any use; the ability to use other gods magic is purely for versatility, not for becoming OP.
  • Lunarius' shadow magic renders one immune to Umbrus' shadow magic, but not vice-versa.

• Phneumus (supreme god of the fales, also highly revered in the west) grants spells relating to air and lightning (as well as thunder). Phneumus's female clerics are considered his wives, and they can cast spells of air and lightning without wands, staffs, or other magical items (which are how the gods usually grant spells).
  • Due to Phneumus' designation as "the Lonely God", his clerics are charged with salving loneliness amongst mortals, in whatever ways they can. Some denominations take this to mean a confessional booth, others take it to mean temple prostitution, and some as meaning both.
  • Phneumus considers His preistesses His wives

• It's possible for a soulless to obtain a soul in life by completing a quest. The exact nature of the quest is only revealed after a month long fast, wherein they can drink only water and eat only the Sacred Meals, and then only for breakfast. Every day of the fast is filled with rituals and prayers dedicated to their god.
  • The Quests for Souls are just on the fair side of ImpossibleTask. Failure usually results in death. Only one in a hundred has the inclination to make the fast - the rest are a bit bitter they don't have souls in the first place and have to jump through a hoop to get one, don't know they don't have them, or don't care-and only one in a hundred out of that demographic succeed (1 out of 1000). And that's if Umbrus doesn't give them a phony quest that results in a Fate Worse Than Death as one of his slaves instead.

• The angels/saints (Shera) that reside with the spirits of the gods sleep more as time passes, until they become comatose. This peaceful state is somewhat like the Buddhist concept of nirvana, except that the individual essence continues to exist (indefinitely). Since nothing in the world is truly indestructible or eternal or infinite, the ultimate fate of these beings remains a mystery.

Magic:

Related to Religion:

• A wand can only contain a single spell (a lesser fire cone spell for example) and must be charged after each casting.

• A staff can contain all the spells of a particular element and can't be recharged until each spell has been cast.

• A miscellaneous magical item (which can be anything from a garment or accessory to an abacus or pouch) can only contain a single spell with an indefinite duration and must be recharged daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, or annually.

• Any pious follower of a god can use a wand, but only a cleric can use a staff; magical items are somewhat more common than wands and staffs - some may be used by anyone (within reason) who finds them, while others may be used only be clerics.

• All of Umbrus's wands, staffs, and magic items cause madness, even in his most devout clerics. Only clerics can create magical items, staffs, or wands.

• Lunarius' shadow magic renders one immune to Umbrus' shadow magic, but not vice-versa.

• All the gods except Umbrus can grant animal-related spells, and even Umbrus can grant Telepathy-like mind-related spells. Animal spells are mainly used to tame wild animals, but mind spells are heavily restricted through the efforts of the CETS. Mind spells are regarded as immoral and unethical, if not wholly unnatural like the necromancy and false ensoulment spells.

• All deities grant some kind of Barrier Magic; wether the barrier is a simple wall of magic or has some method of retaliation depends on which deity grants the spell.

• A paladin's sword is unique amongst magical foci. Somehow they are able to maintain a single enchantment for a year in the manner of an ensorcelled item, and yet other spells can be cast through them in the manner of a staff. Their make is of course a closely guarded secret.

Related to Cosmology:

• The term "Monster" refers to a creature mutated by a False Soul, a scrap of Umbrus' power rendered down into soul-stuff. Monsters breed true, and their children are falsely ensouled as well. Monsters become False Undead when killed.
  • While monsters have an innate predisposition toward evil, they still have enough free will to choose to live "virtuous" lives. Despite this truth, most other races are unwilling to give them the benefit of the doubt. The CETS is divided on the issue and can't come to a conclusion, so monsters aren't protected.

Technologies:

• The Farawads have advanced suits of armor to protect them from the world and it's dangers
  • Their suits of are armor not just a means of a protection, but an attempt to stave off death, having life extension systems built in.

• Tanaigs construct grand mechanical transport and wield large drills.
  • They also use Rock Leech larvae as excavation tools and weapons
  • The Tainag's knowledge of mining minerals and ore and smelting allows them to easily manufacture transportation machines and drills. Said Transportation machines resemble tanks.
• The tanaig developed Full Spectrum Lights before they did the Wheel. They discovered that a certain type of glowing crystal granted health benefits similar to sun exposure. IE, not getting Rickets.

• The Fales have specialized long range communication to better keep in contact and keep each other updated.
  • They have no suits or armour tech themselves, instead they have been trying to steal the suit technology for themselves.

• A golem requires a device known as a phylactery to hold the consiousness. A phylactery consists of a crystal approximately the size of one's thumb and several golden wires. The device has no magic about it, and seems to be some form of pre-Calamity technology.

• Necro Tek is a technique of manufacture wherein the Necromancy spell is used to merge dead tissue and machinery. Such devices are referred to as "Necromechanical."

• One of the styles of ships built by the fales is known as a 'loffen', or 'trading barge'. This basically consists of a low, rectangular main deck, usually in a 2/1 ratio of length to width, with the front corners cut off so that the front looks like half of an octagon. The superstructure is built down the middle, leaving some space at the front, and contains the control room, crew cabins, galley, and so on. If the loffen is sail-driven, the masts also extend up from the superstructure; if it is powered, the engine is located in the rear of the superstructure and connects to a paddle wheel on the stern. Some loffens have both masts and an engine, especially if they are built for long voyages where engine failure would leave the ship stranded far from land. The control room is located at the front of the superstructure, giving the captain a clear view forwards, and is sometimes raised above the rest.
  • The cargo is stored under and on the main deck, and some loffens are built with extra levels of cargo decks, although the superstructure containing the cabins etc always extends at least one level higher.
  • Because they move slowly, loffens are used mostly for shipping cargo and occasionally ferrying passengers, with other, faster boats being used for fishing and warfare. However, they are very cheap to build, maintain and operate, and very sturdy even in rough weather. They come in a variety of sizes.

• Melokkian airships are kept aloft by "Luftchambers", lightweight metal tanks ensorcelled to keep them envacuumed. The chambers provide lift by way of vacuum bouyancy, and without the risk of explosion their early hydrogen lifted models had. If one cell is breached or implodes there are several nearby to keep the vessel aloft. Each luftchamber cell has the date of its enchanting carefully recorded so they can be reconsecrated on time.

• There are basically two ways to cross the craunian deserts by land while minimizing the danger from behemoths. The most straightforward is to travel in as small groups as possible, following routes where the bedrock is as close to the surface as possible, in the hopes of not being noticed and pursued by a behemoth. The other is to travel in a vehicle so large and well-armored that even a behemoth will find it prohibitively difficult to attack:

Despite the economic and engineering challenges posed by the latter solution, a handful of such vehicles do exist, constantly plying the sands between cities bordering on the desert, carrying passengers and cargo alike.

• Built by tanaig engineers and powered by water engines, these machines are huge even by tanaig standards; the generally accepted parameters for a behemoth-proof vehicle require a hull displacement of at least 20000m3 and floor/wall armor equivalent to 20cm of iron.
• They tend to have giant plows or drills on the front to push aside sand and rocks that get in their way, and may carry weapons to repel behemoth attacks at a distance. Some are run by tanaig-owned companies, but most are owned by farawad companies that commissioned their construction from the tanaigs and employ tanaig crews to operate them.
• Standardization in tanaig vehicles is uncommon enough to begin with, and for machines as large and as few in number as these, essentially every operational example is unique.

• There are hundreds of weapons that have been enchanted with the ability to prevent the one killed by them from returning as an undead, along with some people willing to enchant a normal weapon with the same enchantment. They are technically illegal, but the high society of Venedig uses daggers with the enchantment as their preferred means of assassination.

Flora / Fauna:

Animals:

The term "Monster" refers to a creature mutated by a False Soul, a scrap of Umbrus' power rendered down into soul-stuff. Monsters breed true, and their children are falsely ensouled as well. Monsters become False Undead when killed.

• Small dragon like creatures are pets across all races, not unlike dogs or cats on Earth. This is because dragons adapt quickly to any environment, and become very loyal to a family once fed. Very loyal. They imprint on whoever first feeds them, then from there, the family group.

• There is a common species of underground pest known as a Rock Leech. Rock Leeches look like a cross between a spider and a squid.
  • The creature uses its strong predigestive acid to soften stone, and then uses its eight scythe-tipped arms to burrow through the slurry, slithering along on its tentacles for locomotion. The slurry is imbibed as the creature moves on, leaving the occasional toxic dropping of tailings and spent acid.
  • The creature's nymphs take several years to mature, and being far less ill tempered than their parents, can be trained as tools and the primary Tanaig ranged weapon for when drills are untenable. The mature Rock Leeches trained in this manner can find themselves used as guard animals.
  • There is a species of Rock Leech that is sapient and social. They are known as Leechmen. They resemble anthropomorphocized Rock Leeches; with four arms that end in clawed hands rather than eight arms that end in scythes. They balance on their nest of tentacles in an upright posture.
  • There are selective breeding programs for tame rock leeches. Breeders go for things like more powerful acid that can be spat farther, slimmer profiles, longer claws on fewer limbs, more powerful jaws, etc. This has led to a rock leech the size of a small house-dragon at full size. The breed has two disproportionately large jaws and scything arms, and acid saliva that can bore through a farawad's armor like it was soggy cardboard.
  • Tame/purpose-bred rock leeches are trained to sit on the forearm, gripping tightly, and respond to hand motions. This is what allows them to serve as a Living Weapon. Mature rock leeches use a single tentacle as a built-in leash; the vestegial remnant of this training.

• There is a small aquatic animal known as a 'skiib' (pronounced 'skeeb', the plural is also 'skiib'), a free-swimming trivalve invertebrate, that dominates many underwater environments.
  • It has three shell segments, joined at one end, each shell constituting an equal 120° of the animal's circumference. The edges of the shell segments are smooth, and when the shell is closed these meet each other, sealing the skiib's flesh away from predators. Muscle covers the inside of each shell, while the animal's other organs are concentrated at the end where the shell is joined. Extending from this part of the animal are also three tentacles, aligned with the gaps between the shell segments. The skiib swims by opening and closing its shell to push water backwards, and maneuvers with motions of its shell and tentacles. The tentacles are also used to catch food in the form of smaller creatures, and their tips are light-sensitive, serving as rudimentary eyes when the skiib is open.
  • A closed skiib is about 60% as wide as it is long. The marine variety usually grows to about 20cm in length, with rare specimens reaching as much as 30cm; its flesh is mottled pinkish-purple and its shell is silvery gray. A smaller species native to lakes and marshes reaches about 5cm in length; its flesh is brown and its shell is dark greenish-gray. The tentacles of both varieties are slightly lighter in color than the rest of the animal's flesh.
  • Skiib sometimes congregate into schools, although they will not attack prey too large for an individual to eat. They have an intellect similar to that of a fish, and can easily be tricked into biting on a baited hook or swimming into a net. The marine variety is often gathered for food, especially by the fale, and this activity is known as 'skiibing'.

• There exists a race of semi-intelligent beings known as "Keefes". They resemble a cross between a dog and a kobold, and are generally nonthreatening, being hyperactive and curious to a fault. They live in crude settlements scattered around the continent, and are very friendly to all races. However, Keefes have the ability to know when someone has committed murder and what they killed, and if somebody has killed a Keefe, they will collectively rip that person to shreds.

• The sandy desert of Focraun is home to a species called behemoths. Behemoths are like whales that "swim" through the sands. They prey on herds and caravans traveling across the desert, swallowing them whole. They are quite large and can easily fit fifty lemaks in their mouths at once. Behemoth meat is so expensive that only incredibly wealthy merchants or nobles can afford to eat it - this meat is tough but sweet.
  • Leviathans are aquatic relatives of behemoths that live in the depths of the oceans but occasionally swim closer to the coasts to prey on small ships and large fish. Leviathans are slightly arrowhead-shaped. Like behemoths, leviathans are sometimes hunted for their meat, which is more tender than behemoth meat and oily enough that it makes its own grease when cooked.

• The lemak (for which the plural is 'lemakki') is a hulking four-footed reptilian creature native to the plains of Focraun. It is reddish-brown in color and looks sort of like a giant fat iguana, reaching up to 4m in length from nose to tail (the distance from the front to hind legs being about half this), 1.5m high along its back, and weighing as much as 1 tonne. Along the animal's side between its shoulders and hips is a row of hard defensive spikes about 6cm long and 3cm wide at the base. The lemak's thick tail is also tipped with a single large spike, which the animal can use as a weapon. They are exclusively herbivorous, and reproduce by laying a single egg in a pit in the ground, which is then abandoned; the young can fend for themselves from the moment they hatch, but an adult who encounters a juvenile in the wild may travel with it for some time and protect it from predators.
  • Lemakki can be tamed and used as beasts of burden, or even as battle mounts, although they are incapable of achieving much speed. The spikes of tame lemakki are often dulled, or even surgically removed, for the safety of their riders. Their flesh and eggs can also be used for food.
  • If it is cold at night, the lemak habitually digs a shallow trough in the sand as a bed, in order to conserve heat while sleeping. However, they fare poorly in climates that are much hotter or colder than their native habitat.

• Nogards are "reptilian bats" that live in the jungles of Auerbach. They drink the blood of large land animals and supplement this diet with fruit and nuts. Nogards have been known to snatch up lone dragons and carry them off to their nests to be drained. Nogards live in large colonies in caves or enormous trees. Nogards are about the size of fales.

• Espidara is home to a race of green-skinned farawad-sized cannibals called bognils. Bognils have bulbous heads and no external eyelids - they have transparent internal eyelids to protect their eyes when they're submerged. They live in lakes and large ponds but must come up for air four times a day. They eat the remains of their dead relatives.
  • "Good" ones worship a male representation of Pacifica called Pacificus and a female representation of Lunarus called Lunaria.
  • "Bad" ones worship a hermaphroditic representation of Umbrus called Umbrusia.

• As lemakki are the camels of this world, so tagos are the sheep. Tagos are lizard-headed birds. In the wild, tagos live in migratory groups, preying on wild dragons.
  • Tagos are raised for their feathers, which can be woven into a cotton-like fabric called lowo, and their eggs, which are so large that one can feed a family of four fales.
  • Tagos range from twelve to twenty feet tall. Different species (because the tagos constitute a genus) have different plumage colors, different beak and talon lengths, and different egg colors. Tagos are large but still capable of flight; however, they don't make good mounts.
  • Their meat is like turkey.

• A Norrik is a quadrupedal animal cultivated for meat and milk. The low-slung, ponderous norrik is approximately the size of a Lemak, and is similarly herd-minded. The creature produces a rich, thick, sweet milk to feed its young; the tanaig first discovered that it also made for a nutritious beverage that could be fermented into cheese and yoghurt. Norrik meat is similarly delicious and nutritious; the stomach legendarily so.

• In the plains and forests of Espidara there lives an invertebrate called the daklahhu.
  • This creature is about 5cm long when fully grown, consists of nine body segments arranged front-to-back, and, like the skiib, shows 3-way radial symmetry in its body plan. The frontmost segment has a central mouth surrounded by a light-sensitive ring that acts as the creature's eye. The rearmost segment is a conical tail pointing backwards, with a hole at the end that is used for excretion and reproduction. The other seven segments each have three legs sticking off at 120° from each other, each leg consisting of two segments that sort of form a hooked triangle pointing away from the daklahhu's body and slightly backwards. The creature moves on 14 legs at a time, with the other seven sticking up and acting as defensive spikes to ward off predators.
  • The main body of the animal is bright orange, while the legs are red and get darker toward their tips. The body and legs alike are armored with a fairly hard carapace, like that of an insect.
  • Daklahhus are omnivorous, but are not active hunters, preferring to feed on fruit, carrion, or the eggs of other animals. They do not move very quickly, but are able to climb, and occasionally scale trees in search of food. They can also swim on the surface of water, but will drown if they do not reach land quickly. Like our insects and centipedes, they have no intelligence to speak of.
  • The body of the daklahhu contains a chemical that tastes quite spicy and a little tangy, and can sting the eyes of other creatures. This is meant to discourage predators, but some sapient races enjoy the taste, and crush dried daklahhus into an orange powder that they use to season food. Because daklahhus are solitary, hunting them is highly inefficient; the standard way of acquiring them is to set up a trap baited with mashed fruit, after which the individuals are picked out of the trap, washed off, and killed/dried by baking just above boiling temperature.

Plants:

• In certain swamps, there lives a bizzarre, semisentient tree that only grows three feet in height. If one were to meet such a creature, one might mistake it for a sessile animal not unlike an anemonie. It uses bioluminescence, a cheerful, piping song, and a sweet scent to lure swamp dwelling vermin close so it can eat them by catching them with it's tendrils and popping them into it's central maw. Many have found a living as garden features in fale cities. Others are content to stay in their pools and offer whatever help they can to lost travellers.

• There is a small green plant, known as a 'hommot', that grows vertically in a sort of trumpet shape, with the opening facing upwards. As a hommot plant reaches about half a meter in height, it grows several nuts in the inside of the trumpet, and when these nuts are ready to germinate, the hommot withers and tips over on its side, allowing the nuts to spill out onto the ground. Hommot nuts are edible, and hommots are widely farmed as crops, especially by the farawads.
  • Hommot nuts can be brewed into beer.
• The sturmurrek is a common species of tree found in the forests of Auerbach, especially near the coast. Its trunk and branches are covered in rough gray bark, with small ridges running along them in a spiraled pattern. Inside, the wood is divided into two distinct types.
  • The 'core' of the trunk or branch (extending from the center about halfway out to the surface) consists of a very hard, dark yellow wood that provides the tree's main structural integrity. Outside that, the rest is a softer, tan-colored wood through which the tree's water and nutrients run.
  • The tree's dark green needles grow thickly from its twigs, also in a spiral pattern that matches the underlying spiral in the bark, and are angled back along each twig toward its base. The sturmurrek's seeds actually come from its needles: ** Occasionally, at random, a needle will grow into a seed pod, becoming larger than the other needles and taking on a flattened spiral shape with several small, black seeds along its interior. Eventually it drops off, corkscrewing through the air (due to the aerodynamics of its spiral shape) and falling to the ground.

Sturmurreks can grow up to 60 meters in height, although most specimens are much shorter. The sturmurrek's core wood is sought after for construction and artisanal purposes. The outer wood is too weak to be useful for building much of anything, but makes decent firewood when dried.

• In the jungles of Espidara and the Shards, there grows a common plant called a 'cralsp'. It has a bizarre two-stage life cycle, where every second generation takes a treelike form and the other generations take the form of a vine.
  • The cralsp tree is mostly made of a tough, greenish wood with fairly smooth outer bark. The cross-sections of the trunk and branches are not always round, but frequently of random bulbous shapes that deform smoothly along their length. The trunk grows more or less straight up from the ground, but branches come off in essentially random places, and twist outwards in equally random directions, often with 'knobs' that look as if the branch was originally going to grow in one direction but then changed its mind at the last moment. The smaller branches bear shiny round green leaves, curved slightly downwards, with the stem of each leaf attaching to it in the middle of its bottom face so that each leaf looks like a little green mushroom. Other twigs grow clusters of pulpy brown fruit, each fruit containing one large pit in its center; when these fruit ripen and fall to the ground, the pits grow into cralsp vines.
  • The wood of cralsp trees is too knotty for most types of construction, but some artisanal work makes use of it. Cralsp trees can grow up to 30 meters in height.
  • The cralsp vine snakes along the ground until it encounters something vertical it can hold onto, then grows upwards, clinging to its support with small, smooth tendrils like those of a pea plant. Leaves grow directly from the main stem or from its branches, and are essentially the same as the leaves of the cralsp tree, being the only part of the plant that shares an obvious similarity between successive generations. The vine also grows small green berries, each of which contains a single seed in its center; when these berries ripen and fall to the ground, the seeds grow into cralsp trees. Cralsp vines climbing on trees do not generally grow so high or so thickly as to choke off their hosts, which are often cralsp trees themselves.

Neither generation of the cralsp can tolerate excessive cold or drought, and are not found growing naturally on the higher plateaus of Espidara, or on the continents of Focraun or Auerbach.

Last update from - Meklar - 20th Apr 2015 02:48:07 AM - post 177

edited 20th Apr '15 6:04:28 AM by JerekLaz

Please clarify; by "ONE THING" do you mean, "one thing at a time" or "thank you for your input, goodbye forever"? Because if it's the latter, people are going to not want to waste their go on the basics when they will inevitably come up with something that'll fit perfectly well later on.

edited 23rd Mar '15 11:36:06 AM by dvorak

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

I'm not entirely clear about the rules either...

But I'll take a stab at it anyway.

Races: There are three humanoid races: the short, stocky farawads (who have the greatest intelligence and senses), the tall, thin tanaigs (who have the greatest strength and stamina), and the medium-sized fales (who have the greatest charisma and agility).

Does that count as "one thing"?

Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.

Here goes nothing...

The world is formed from the corpses of the gods who perished fighting the Daemon King Umbrus. Gaius, Lord of the Earth, the Ur-Tanaig, gave his body to form the ground. His wife, Pacifica, Queen of the Ocean, gave her body to form the seas and waterways. Solaria, the Sun Queen, the Ur-Farawad, gave her body to form the sun, her husband Lunarus, King of the Sacred Shadow, his body to form the moon. Phneumus, King of the Wind, the Lonely God, the Ur-Fale, gave his body to form the wind. The body of Umbrus forms much of the night sky, glaring hatefully at the world even in death through innumerable tiny eyes.

edited 27th Mar '15 6:49:32 PM by dvorak

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

The Farwalds have advanced suits of armor to protect them from the world and it's dangers

Tanaigs construct grand mechanical transport and wield large drills.

The Fales have specialized long range communication to better keep in contact and keep each other updated.

the largest group of Fales is a seafaring nation called Kaskaven (2nd 'a' is long) with a wide reach and heavily centralized government.

edited 23rd Mar '15 5:00:42 PM by Tarsen

The farawads become zombies when they die (the first time), rotting corpses animated by force of will. The tanaigs become vampires instead, still animated by willpower but mummified rather than rotting. The fales produce ghosts when their bodies die, and of course they too are driven by pure concentration.

edited 31st Mar '15 6:13:53 PM by nekomoon14

Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.

Told you people wont stand for only having one go...

Small dragon like creatures are pets across all races, not unlike dogs or cats on Earth. This is because dragons adapt quickly to any environment, and become very loyal to a family once fed. Very loyal. They imprint on whoever first feeds them, then from there, the family group.

edited 23rd Mar '15 10:38:35 PM by dvorak

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

yeah I wasnt too clear on that one :) I meant it as "one thing at a time" so, a race, but in the same post you can't say "here's x race who have y form of government". Once someone else has chimed in the the idea was that people could post again. See what sort of mish mash we get!

So far so good - I'll get the updates thrown in there! Ideally one race at a time folks but love what I've read so far! Maybe someone can use this in their next rp!

The Tanaigs build grand underground cities, using lots of quartz and marble. Comparatively, the Farawads create huge, sprawling, maze-like aboveground cities, not unlike the RL cities of Florence or Naples, and the Fales build huge floating cities a la Pacifidlog Town, though they also have marshland cities that are laid out like Venice; canals in place of most streets, spread out between various islands, etc.

“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert

In certain swamps, there lives a bizzarre, semisentient tree that only grows three feet in height. If one were to meet such a creature, one might mistake it for a sessile animal not unlike an anemonie. It uses bioluminescence, a cheerful, piping song, and a sweet scent to lure swamp dwelling vermin close so it can eat them by catching them with it's tendrils and popping them into it's central maw. Many have found a living as garden features in fale cities. Others are content to stay in their pools and offer whatever help they can to lost travellers.

edited 24th Mar '15 2:10:07 AM by dvorak

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

a few of those huge, sprawling, maze-like farawad cities are massively fractured and have no ruling government. instead, the cities are home to dozens of tribes/gangs/clans who vie for control over each other. the cities are a bastion for guerilla fighters. given the dangerous state of citylife, you'd think the civilians would be lining up to get out, right? well unfortunately, the city exits are some of the most valuable territories to hold and the price of exit is substantially larger than the price to enter. the only ones exempt from the exit tax are the merchants who import and export luxuries to and fro the city to keep the economy going; though they're only exempt from the tax in the exit controlled by the gang they're allied with, and its not uncommon for caravans to be preyed upon by rival gangs or desperate civilians themselves.

It's not uncommon for more unscrupulous merchant guilds to take over as many gates as they can by force, turning much of the city into a Company Town.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

Necroplis' exist in all cultures, due to the nature of the "afterlife" in all cultures. This means that the dead dominate a lot of political debate and rigour in all societies, some more aggressively than others.

• In the Farawd cities, the Necropoli are often partly underground and reinforced, to pen the zombies in. The more lucid of the undead are allowed visiting rights, but these are controlled by the rampant gangs in many cities, if there isn't a strong central authority or religious presence.

• In Tanaig cities the Vampires tend to run things, if allowed to. However, as EVERYONE becomes a vampire on death, they SHOULD outnumber the normal people... or would do if they weren't constantly politicking against each other and if their living descendants didn't stake every corpse on death. As such, the Vampires that do animate tend to group together in large family groups and hunker down, driven by their need to survive. The living, in turn, tend to have very serious funeral rights, to keep the vampire population under control and special dispensation has to be made to NOT be staked on death, or for a family to "unstake" a relative, should they need their advice or will-checking done.

• The necroplis in each Fale city are more sad than anything, with tombs often having trinkets of the family member's life interred in the crypt. They are large, and regularly visited; they are treated more like long-term hospitals, as ghosts lose their grip on reality over time, fading away. But for a while they are very lucid and able to act as counselors and advisers, meaning their knowledge is not immediately lost. As such, the Necroplis is often twinned with a library or a centre of learning.

The Farwards built their suits of armor not as just a means of a protection, but as a attempt to stave off death.

The Tanaig see this as unusual as death is all encompassing and view the Farwards as cowards for this.

The Fale have no opinion on it instead just trying to get suits themselves.

edited 25th Mar '15 5:58:08 AM by EchoingSilence

To clarify, when I said that some guilds will take over a city, I meant they actually tell the government they own it now. It's Company Property. They toss that gang war / anarchy BS right out the window. If the gov't won't do anything, the MegaCorp will. Kinda like Weyland/Yutani corp fromAlien.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

this of course makes the gangs fight back even harder. some team up, others speed up their war to a hasty conclusion to make themselves bigger, others reach out for help from their own merchants, and all across the board the citizens have it worse because they're the "footsoldiers" in each faction, if not colateral damage.

merchant takeovers create even more chaos and nothing goes down without a fight. to date (whatever year we decide to designate "present day") only 2 of these cities have been successfully taken over by merchants and order reestablished.

The underground cities of the Tanaigs are well-lit, high-ceiling'd, and very orderly and clean, especially their capital of Skara Brae, a stark contrast to the dirty, cramped cities that the Farawads have made. Every street is laid out in a grid pattern, and the buildings and streets are rigorously kept clean. This is due to an army of street-sweepers employed by the government. However, inside several of the building areas, there are "streets" that have been improvised by the people who live there, and if said area has been continuously inhabited for a while, they often crisscross in interesting ways, creating a veritable maze of tiny white pathways. A visitor to a city for the first time who sees one of these tangles and tries to navigate them on their own will get lost inside of two minutes, guaranteed.

Also, due to their living underground for their entire race's existence, some of the Tanaigs have the ability to magically manipulate certain kinds of stone, marble and quartz being among them. If a Tanaig is born without this power, there is a ritual that can be performed to give them it, though it's almost prohibitively expensive.

“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert

Foul! Two things in one post is against the rules.

Tanaigs are patriarchal, farawads are matriarchal, and fale are meritocratic. This strongly ties into the worship of their patron deities.

Also, does anyone feel I'm bogarting the thread? I seem to be making the Lion's Share of the posts...

edited 27th Mar '15 6:50:49 PM by dvorak

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

I deal in the technologies.

I figured they were related enough to go in the same post, sorry. And no, you're fine with the amount of posts you've been making here.

Several Fale cities move with the ocean currents, while others are anchored by various means - caught on a sandbar a few feet underwater, anchored to a coral reef in such a way as to not harm it, etc.

“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert

The Tainag's power over minerals and ore allows them to easier form their transportation machines and drills.

Said Transportation machines resemble tanks.

some of the traveling fale cities control their route by using barrier magic to alter the ocean currents.

There is a common species of underground pest known as a Rock Leech. Rock Leeches look like a cross between a spider and a squid. The creature uses its strong predigestive acid to soften stone, and then uses its eight scythe-tipped arms to burrow through the slurry, slithering along on its tentacles for locomotion. The slurry is imbibed as the creature moves on, leaving the occasional toxic dropping of tailings and spent acid.

The creature's nymphs take several years to mature, and being far less ill tempered than their parents, can be trained as tools and the primary tanaig ranged weapon for when drills are untenable. The mature Rock Leeches trained in this manner can find themselves used as guard animals.

edited 27th Mar '15 6:51:42 PM by dvorak

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!