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How would the culture look in this kind of setting?

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Icalasari Warble from Alberta, Canada Since: Jan, 2001
Warble
#1: Feb 14th 2011 at 12:51:58 PM

I'm trying to figure out how the world around these people would affect the setting

Basically, Diamos acts a bit like Britain at one point, claiming other continents and countries in an expansion. One of the places claimed is Crystaka

Crystaka has an environment matching British Columbia and a bit of Alberta

Mythology in the world is quite rich and well warranted, due to the fact that creatures that resemble things like werewolves exist, and that actual spirits and gods exist

Speaking of gods, I'd assume that humans would be very religious and have constant wars due to deities actually appearing to them

Magic is prominent, but only some humans can be really good at it, with most magic being limited to deities

Technology was/is quite prominent, but Cybrosia (a country next to Crystaka), the leader in tech, was razed a few hundred to a few thousand years ago by deities due to making robotic gods, trying to replace said gods. The gods played along at first and used only a portion of their power, then nearly got killed. Realizing the purpose of these machines, the three tier 2 Diamos deities shed their three dimensional avatars and completely wrecked the machines (they still exist, however, and are currently running every single repair function they have, being helped by the fact that they, due to the battle, are able to more easily emulate the deities in question now), along with razing the landscape, turning a lush prairie landscape into a blistering desert that only now is recovering (most is still desert, with some plains (about... 30% I'd say))

As such, from what I can decide from this, technology in the weapons department is severely stunted, leading to medicine and transport to flourish

Population would be kept down as the deities would likely not like people expanding too much. Not sure how that would affect culture

I'd imagine that most people would be fairly racist due to some species of Cryscon and Fiend being extremely humanoid (one species is practically human, with the only difference being strength, magical affinity, and the fact that the species can be turned into cards through Oz exposure). This would likely lead to, even in an interconnected world, people assuming that someone of a different race is some sort of Cryscon/Human hybrid

Speaking of interspecies relationships, some Cryscon are very intelligent and can get into very deep relationships with humans, leading to a pseudo bestiality. Some legends even deal with the hatred this would draw from some people (Crystaka and Diamos would be the most tolerant)

Normal animals do exist, but due to natural selection, the species variety is much lower (insects, rabbits, essentially things that breed a lot stand a better chance, as do animals that are cute (the whole, "YOU'RE A KITTY!" syndrome) and animals that resemble certain Cryscon/Fiends (wolves and hell's mist canine, for example, would help each other. Wolves would hunt in the day, when hell's mist would have the most issues, and in exchange would be able to run back to the hell's mist if attacked and have the attacker slaughtered))

Grooming Cryscon and Fiends for battles would be encouraged (helps that the deities don't give a crap about that, so there is no religious qualm about that) since it helps produce not only strong, loyal creatures to fend off the wild beasts (guns can only take you so far when some creatures can manipulate the elements and others have shells made of steel and a nasty temper), but also makes one's Oz production improve, leading to a stronger human who can possibly use magic

Music, Art, and Language are all highly valuable due to the connection to magic

However, I'm not sure how this would affect the culture. Would people who rely on such beasts be more aggressive? Less? How would pop culture look? Would cities be big to create a fort like situation? Small and scattered to help ensure survival? I'd imagine environment would be a big concern, but would these creatures keep people from valuing things like oil and diamonds, or would humans be more brazen and try to make a huge fortune off of this stuff? What would the religious world look like exactly? Would people be able to tolerate other religions as there is proof of these other deities existing? Or would the religious war thing go down to even a personal level?

I wonder what a strip tease from a creature made of souls would be like?
colbertimposter Since: Dec, 1969
#2: Feb 14th 2011 at 1:13:26 PM

I'd rebel against these sadistic warlords who call themselves gods. They probably just want humans to remain low in numbers so that they can remain in power.

Icalasari Warble from Alberta, Canada Since: Jan, 2001
Warble
#3: Feb 14th 2011 at 2:29:36 PM

^ Considering the user name, I'm doubting that that was a serious post, but either way:

The deities razed a country - one of the largest in Illusoria - with little effort when people tried to rise against them. I don't think the majority would be willing to repeat that experiment

Also, funny thing about your post is that one of the deities is a war god and could be seen as a war lord as a result

edited 14th Feb '11 2:30:05 PM by Icalasari

I wonder what a strip tease from a creature made of souls would be like?
colbertimposter Since: Dec, 1969
#4: Feb 17th 2011 at 2:40:34 PM

[sincerity mode]

They could rebel like Ghandi did: you either have us as equals or you don't have us at all.

If the gods are killing humans for no reason or for pleasure, the humans will rebel.

Take a look at the recent Egyptian rebellion, for example. Over 300 peaceful protesters were murdered, but the protest continued. People will make self-sacrifices when pushed to the edge. In your setting, the humans die whether they oppose the gods or not so they may as well take a chance at gaining freedom with their deaths.

edited 17th Feb '11 2:43:27 PM by colbertimposter

Icalasari Warble from Alberta, Canada Since: Jan, 2001
Warble
#5: Feb 18th 2011 at 3:01:04 PM

[up]Well, those in Cybrosia did rise (out of arrogance, however), which lead to the razing

Also, humans were successful once. When the Elemental Deities of Diamos were having a war, a human went up to Herantev and got assistance. He was sent out to get a rare metal that even the deities cannot make, which was used to make armour that sealed the Elemental Deity's powers if they ever had a stupid war with each other or if they were captured by a mortal, so the mortal would have to prove their worth both by defeating the deity in battle and finding the unlocking card (in these fights with humans, the deities go a LOT lighter with their attacks, as if they went all out... Well, see the razing)

Humans were successful another time in sealing a deity that had rage issues and was razing things for no reason (which made me just realize that I have an issue with the time line. This event is supposed to happen before the uprising against the deities in Cybrosia... Which also occurred after Crmirnauc went to sleep and Jtagn was sealed away, meaning that the robots were trying to get rid of deities that were already incapacitated. How the hell did I miss THAT continuity error...?), although this was, once again, with the help of another deity

An ancient culture also made weapons out of the rare metal (I still need to come up with a name for it. The placeholder name is insanity metal, as handling it too much, due to the temporal and spatial distorting abilities of the metal, would cause insanity, even in a deity. The deities of time and space are said deities because they are actually able to resist the effects of the metal, as no deity is able to manipulate time and space without the metal) which would allow them, at any time, to not only defeat a deity but kill it (think adamantine). These weapons were quickly confiscated and hidden, however, as the deities aren't stupid enough to let humans run around with weapons that can kill them. They were taken under the condition that, if any of the deities went completely nuts and had to be killed, the sane ones would return the weapons to the humans so that they could defend themselves and assist in battle

There are also situations where humans outsmarted deities. These situations may or may not turn out well (one had a cruel woman who fell in love with a man she enslaved. When she finally realized her feelings for the man, the man finally succumbed to malnutrition and illness. The woman tried to use a potion that would save the man, but she was too late. The deity of death came to claim his soul, but the woman sobbed and the deity tried to console her. This gave the potion enough time to kick in and save the man. This angered the deity, who then turned the woman in a Cryscon (one styled after mermaids, the tears turned into scales) as punishment), and there is even a case of a deity and a human falling in love (the human was killed by the other deities who did not approve, which pissed off the deity royally. She, being the deity of souls, pulled some strings however and kept the soul with her. She also tends to pull the most screw yous on the other deities, angering them quite a bit))

People also fear Chaos and love Cryna (for the most part), although, unknown to them because humans can be a bit stupid, Chaos is actually the good one and Cryna is the insane psycho who wants everyone dead, but since she is Order, well, humans are naturally drawn to her. Doesn't help that Chaos is split into 12 pieces, seven being sins, one being a zone that causes chaotic conditions, and four being the four horsemen of the apocalypse re imagined (Thacumn's presence causes plants to wither right away, and his insane hunger causes him to eat any animals near by, causing, well, famine (Crystal Fruit won't wither and can fill him for a decent amount of time, however), Pnusta causes wide spread disease, but being aware of this, he keeps away from humans unless needed and constantly stays under a waterfall in a self contained area he made, washing the disease off, Waracosa's presence makes everyone want to fight, and Drndai kills on touch). Due to this, well, it is no wonder that a deity of order that they don't know too much about may seem alluring

There are also other relations (there is a group of people who worship the War deity (yes, there is Waracosa. There is also Thatalvathic, just like how Drndai and Zetark are both Death. The redundancy is on purpose, in case if a deity dies) because he also stands for freedom, there are people who worship powerful Cryscon who aren't even gods, etc.), so it is a huge, religious mess

As for killing for pleasure/no reason, well, as stated, people have done stuff about that, and although they needed assistance from deities that weren't killing them, they still do everything they can

One other relation that I just remembered

The youngest deity sees a specific human as her father, as he played the harp of reality, causing her to be created. This is more recent in the timeline and would have minimal effect on the culture, but it does add another interesting relation

edited 18th Feb '11 3:03:24 PM by Icalasari

I wonder what a strip tease from a creature made of souls would be like?
Dagobitus Since: Aug, 2010
#6: Feb 18th 2011 at 4:52:11 PM

Music, Art, and Language are all highly valuable due to the connection to magic Priests and pro-Church Bards sing pro-God songs. In obscure corners and hidden places, pro-Human Bards sing anti-God songs. If either side has an anthem with a catchy tune, the other side will set their own words to those tunes. Likewise, the Church of God A might encourage songs which denigrate odB

Icalasari Warble from Alberta, Canada Since: Jan, 2001
Warble
#7: Feb 20th 2011 at 12:32:16 AM

[up] I never thought of that. Bards WOULD be a pretty vital job in such a world. I kept thinking of it as, "People who use magic would use music to assist," and not, "Musicians would likely be pretty kick ass magic users"

I wonder what a strip tease from a creature made of souls would be like?
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