Mention a random quirk of your world

Ogres and elves and trolls and the like used to exsist but wizards drove them to extinction.

From my post-apocalyptic setting:

The worlds biggest religion is the Church of the Car, and its tenets are based on the Book of the Car, which is just an old instruction manual on car maintenance. Of course, no one can actually read the book, so everyone is simply following the pictures and cars only work because of pure dumb luck. The religion's equivalent of the pope is the High Mechanic, who spends his time interpreting the pages of the book.

In a new sci-fi setting I'm developing, The Federation is known as the Federation of Organised Systems (FOS), and in contrast to the United Space of America trope, the FOS is very Soviet-inspired. It makes heavy use of Communist iconography (its logo features the hammer-and-sickle, for example), planetary colonies are referred to as Oblasts, and Russian is the most widely-spoken language in FOS territory (with Mandarin Chinese in second and English in a distant third).

The explanation for this is that the setting takes place in an Alternate History in which the USSR never fell apart. The Cold War dragged on for another half-century until the United States dropped out thanks to a resource crisis and a second civil war. The Soviets and their Chinese allies later reinvigorated their space programs and attempted to divvy up the Sol System between them, but turned on each other and fell into interplanetary war when they couldn't decide who got what. The Soviets ultimately emerged victorious.

They weren't the only nations to establish holdings in space; pretty much everyone had a stab at it at some point (with the largest holdings that weren't Soviet or Chinese belonging to the British Commonwealth, particularly Canada, which effectively took America's place as the dominant Western power after the USA was crippled by the civil war and its best and brightest fled in droves to the north); but they all wound up falling under the Soviets' influence anyway, resulting in the creation of the Soviet-dominated FOS.

The FOS, despite its use of Communist iconography, no longer actually identifies as Communist due to becoming so heavily privatised - the government is even run like a business. They essentially realised they had become Communist In Name Only and simply dispensed with the whole pretense. They take a hands-off approach to the various Oblasts under their control, largely enabling them to govern themselves as long as they meet industrial and military quotas and don't attempt to openly rebel or secede.

edited 3rd Jan '18 10:51:14 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

In this Dungeon Punk / Cyberpunk world I'm working on humans are basically forced to live in these hi-tech/Magitek Citadel cities because a race of nigh-invulnerable deadly Monsters hell-bent on eating all humans are now the dominant species on the planet. There are only 2 things that can actually hurt and kill these monsters:

1- Any weapon infused with Anima (basically the magic energy the superpowered people use), or, 2- Weapons and stuff made from parts of the monsters.

The monsters (and parts of their bodies) have special/magical properties that are very useful, and as such humanity's technology and weaponry has developed on the basis of using parts of these monsters to work. Because of this, hunting monsters has become sort of a necessity (even if they are VERY deadly) and some wonder what would happen if humanity finally defeated all the monsters, seeing as the most essential pieces of tech the humans have require things from the monsters to work.

edited 4th Jan '18 9:20:09 AM by JohannArt

United Earth Government fought a bitter "One Year War" with Southern Cross.

Earth found pirates and raiders hitting their colonies on the border with the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross had sparred with the Earth Defense Force and had taken several worlds from Earth.

Soon resentments and raids boiled over into a full scale war. Despite it's name the conflict lasted 765 days. The Southern Cross Mustered Citizenry had their worst years in their history. They had fought the Dow Hegemony (and on-again-off again ally of Earth) only to be humiliated by the Hegemony's Space Fleet. Ten years later, still smarting from the loss of seven colonies and several capital ships, the EDF hit them full force.

While the EDF was able to hold the line and even take ten worlds from the SCMC, the SCMS was left in disarray. They lost battle after battle in the first 300 days of the war. When the Cay Union attacked Earth, this did get better as the EDF supply lines were stretched thin.

But the battle ground on. A war fought with spaceships and lasers was soon fought on foot and with pack animals.

The crew of the SCMC flagship - The People's Spirit - mutinied and tossed their Admiral into space due to her incomptence. Several soldiers turned on their officers and officers turned on higher ranking leaders they saw as too stupid to stop the EDF.

After peace agreements were signed and Joint Security Area setup, the people called for the replacement of their prime minister. The vote was overwhelming and all his allies and friends were tossed out of the government and the military.

The youngest prime minister in Southern Cross history jumped to his death before the Parliamentary Guard could stop him.

edited 7th Jan '18 8:26:43 PM by TairaMai

My medival fantasy setting averts Medival Stasis by taking place relatively early in the world's history.

If you go back only a thousand years you end up predating the High Elven Ellerian Empire, which is already considered a lost civilization given that High Elves are basically extinct (the High Elf character I'm developing believes that he is the last of his kind) unless you count the handful of modern Wood Elves who have some High Elven ancestry. While the Ellerian Empire was not the first major civilization to exist, it can be seen as the equivalent of the Roman Empire from the perspective of the medival Europeans.

In addition while the magic and technology of the High Elves was very impressive for it's time, the 300+ years of progress since their fall means that if you were to pit the armies of Emperor Elleris I against half it's number drawn from the fledgling, but modern, Republic of Selis's army, the Republic would triumph and it wouldn't even be close.

EDIT—-

Ironically as I was grafting this new piece of backstory into the setting, I realized the name of the nation no longer made a lick of sense and had to change it.

Originally I didn't really have a notion of where the name "Selis" came from. It was just an arbitrary combination of syllables that I figured made a workable name for a country. Eventually it became attached to King Jon Selis I, who was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Selis and swept away the remnants of the Ellerian Empire.

The problem is that King Jon Selis I could be described as "thunderously racist" and "pro-genocide", and he's basically the individual responsible for the near-extinction of the High Elves. Fantastic Racism doesn't even adequetly describe him because he wasn't overtly found of other human ethnicities either.

The modern Republic on the other hand is practically defined by egalitarianism, and I therefore realized it would logically want to distance itself from Jon Selis's legacy. So I decided my best option was to rename the main nation from "The Republic of Selis" to "The First Akam Republic" (Akam being an archaic name for the continent).

edited 9th Jan '18 4:14:45 PM by Falrinn

1. In one multiverse I'm working on, the Butterfly Effect has resuIted in a lot of changes. There's a world that's about 30 years ahead of us technology-wise. Even though the world is only 30 years ahead otherwise, Flying Cars have been available to the public since The '60s and have been about as common as normal cars in our reality since The '70s. Also, H. P. Lovecraft died at age 86 in 1976. In another world, gunpowder wasn't developed until 1917. World War One ended a year early due to the technological breakthrough. Guns are called "pipes" and cannons are called "vats". Also, a certain German soldier tragically died in that universe, which resulted in World War II having much more Grey-and-Grey Morality. The allies still won both wars. In another universe, Nuclear Weapons weren't developed until The '50s, when the world was in the midst of World War III. Due to this, Communism failed 40 years earlier, the Nuclear Weapons Taboo is a staple of Russian media instead of Japanese media, and Americans are like Canadians language-wise, only with German instead of French as their other language (this is mostly an excuse for Gratuitous German and having an American character with a German accent). Despite these, this world developed along surprisingly similar lines.

2. In a Medieval European Fantasy world I'm working on, the planet is slightly farther away from the its sun than we are from ours. This means that it is slightly colder and its years are slightly longer. Even though the protagonist has recently turned seventeen in this world's years, he's probably about seventeen and a half in our years.

3. In Lethal Force, "20 years in the future" is a distinct location in time, a fact which is repeatedly made the subject of gags and sometimes a plot point. It is basically a Crapsack version of 2017 with some futuristic technology.

4. I have a group of Mind Screw-y stories set in various worlds collectively known as "Alt-World" that are nothing but quirks.

edited 20th Jan '18 4:46:55 AM by SomethingRandom113

People seem to like oddly-tinted aviator sunglasses in my world.

The Uel pig is one of the nastiest creatures anyone can expect to meet. Bigger, meaner, and uglier than any pig on Earth, the combination of their threat to hunters and Uelane religious strictures forbidding the domestication of animals for meat have combined to make bacon a luxury meal earned at the risk of one's very life.

Terran explorers gave the monster the scientific name, ''Daedon ganonus" after determining both its genus and its ability to remain a threat even when bleeding out after having several clips from anti-personnel weapons emptied into it.

The Philosopher'sStone is a combination of a Magistone (which massively increases a mage's range and power) and an Infinite Chain Ring which is a means of storing energy using a Stack and Queue method similar to computer file systems. In theory, the ICR can create new links out of nearby materials to store energy infinitely. In practice, the Ring will only absorb so much before it has to canibilize the user's own hands.

Holding the Philosopher's stone by the chain is also not recommended as the chain can rapidly contract when the stone is under heavy use. Many a mage has died strangle by their own stone.

A sort of magic called is present in the fantasy setting I'm working out, but there are some aspects of it that are unique. People who use it are called "shapers", not "wizards", "magicians", or anything like that; this is because its main use is to change the form and properties of physical objects. In fact, it can only be used on inorganic, non-living objects, as opposed to being used on other living creatures directly. In other words, healing magic and magic that allows one to transform their body does not exist in this setting.

There is a catch, though. Using this type of magic always results in the user losing a portion of their lifespan. The thing is, the evil government in the story isn't concerned with these drawbacks, and conscripts legions of magic-capable soldiers who are then worked literally to death from overusing their powers. Most of them die by the age of 30 from a combination of overusing their powers and poor treatment by their superiors. Even if they avoid this fate, it's not common to see a Shaper make it past the age of 50 unless they use their powers very sparingly.

edited 5th Feb '18 3:22:11 PM by ElSquibbonator

All races and nations have AI or computer assistance for Faster-Than-Light Travel. However, safe long distance warp or jump travel takes more than a mere computer or simple AI. Many species use cybernetics -a living being takes over or is bound to a computer.

Earth uses their "bio-androids" - a living machine- as the heart of a starship's computer. But not every bio-android can be a ship's CPU.

Space Forces Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) administers the "Command, Control, Communication and Intergration Course" or as it's know in the fleet "The Punisher".

The course begins when a bio-andriod with at least 10 years time in service and 3 years time in rank/grade applies for the position of "Data Systems Technician" or "Central Operations Technician". There is an interview process with a board of three flag officers and five senior chief petty officers (some of whom many be long serving bio-androids). 90 percent of those candidates go to the EDF facility on Syria Planum, Mars for class room instruction and simulation.

Then the candidates are wired into special pods on the ESS Pangea (aka the "Frying Pan") - an old warship that is used for training and exercises. They take turns running the ship with the bio-android who is attached to it. Battle simulations, ship operations and even actual emergencies (up to pirate attacks) test the candidates. Failure of even one exercise means that the bio-androids and human crew remove the candidate from their pod and a shuttle takes them back to the fleet.

Those who fail can never reapply and are barred from starship duties for three years.

The success rate is at 50 percent, but is sometimes as low as 30 or even 10 percent.

Even the bio-androids have no idea who will pass or fail until the candidate "goes on a cruise aboard the Frying Pan". Some say it's the stress of combat or emergencies. Others think it's having to chose self-sacrifice over self-preservation. The leading theory is that it's a mix of the stress of ship operations, loss of control and the responsibility for the crew that either makes or breaks a candidates.

edited 24th Feb '18 11:39:56 PM by TairaMai

There's a Realm where The Fair Folk come from. In said realm, random areas in it shift to somewhere else, with no rhyme or reason; whole masses of rock and islands randomly warp to somewhere that isn't already taken up, with each Isle belonging to one of eight distinct regions; meaning that an Überwald will suddenly be swapped out with a Sand Is Water Desert. The only major place in the realm that remains at all consistent is the World Tree at the center.

edited 16th Feb '18 11:59:46 PM by Z4-9K

If someone actually jumped into Candle Cove in my Massively Multiplayer Crossover/Kingdom Hearts Roleplay world idea, they would be stuck in a world of static until they find an artifact that makes everything.. you know, exist.

(PS, I plan on putting it up here relatively soon)

In one of my settings, users of Faith-based holy magic refer to themselves as "we" instead of "I" when using their powers as they're taught that, when doing so, they are not working alone.

nevermind

Edited by WolfMattGrey on Dec 28th 2019 at 1:11:00 AM

I'm conceptualizing a story where people are born with RPG stats that determine their place in life, and the protagonist has abnormally high Luck, the most useless stat.

In the underground city of light, Ballast-Ven, a gigantic lake illuminates the caverns and even some of the deep tunnels. The souls of the dead are said to swim the lake in the form of cursed fish, and the light source, 'Enrh's Heart', is said to be indescribably beautiful, though the only man brave enough to dive down deep enough to get a clear look resurfaced with burned retinas (though he was mighty happy about it). Enrh's light permeates into everything. Behind walls, through closed eyelids...shadows are literally not a thing within the lake's (large) vicinity.

edited 15th Mar '18 5:18:55 PM by Tarsen

A sizeable portion of the human population has Elemental Powers to some degree, all of which are referred to in-universe as Xkinesis. (e.g. hydrokinesis, electrokinesis, etc.) Pyrokinesis and cryokinesis, however, are in fact the same thing. The person using it draws heat from the environment through one part of their body, which usually causes any nearby water to freeze, and then expels it from another part in the form of fire. The difference is in whether you consider the fire to be ammunition or exhaust.

Magic has very specific rules and spells can be very literal, with different applications of various schools being used.

This causes things such as people who wish to try experimenting with magical law to see what wacky new schools they make, such as Cryoporting, the ability to teleport anywhere where it's cold for example.

One of the most unique changes is that Necromancy has gone from a dark art used by twisted sorcerers and liches to try and conquer kingdoms and the lands, to a form of contractor business that is highly sought after and wanted.

The first Contractor, now a lich herself, discovered there were other uses for a army of mindless undead and how that could be used to help people rather than harm them, when given refuge at a farm, she paid them back by using her powers to summon undead to help tend the crops and produce a more bountiful harvest.

A few hundred years later she's turned it into a respectable business with several rules in place so nobody ruins it for her, she is rather protective of this and made sure that every contractor that joins knows the rules and follows them to the letter.

Necromancy is now seen as a highly respectable art with endless potential for use, in construction, destruction, farming, and so on.

Some people can even hire their corpses out to Contractors with a specialized contract (enchanted to never be broken or abused because that's the first step to losing everything) that will give them a large sum of money for when they die (by anything other than the Contractor's direct or indirect cause). Necromancy can only work with corpses after all and anything hit with necromantic magic becomes a obvious corpse.

If a Contractor breaks the agreement in any way the body becomes useless to necromantic magic and the individual is left with the knolwedge that their body can never be used by a necromancer ever again, save for a insta revive as a apology and the Contractor in question has their assets "liquidated" for their bone headed actions.

This world is in its early stages of a Fantasy World/Planet. Like, really early. Humanity is very scattered and are basically still cavemen, living in huts and small tribe villages, anything resembling a city being either incredibly rare, a sign of advanced individuals, or just unheard of. Dinosaurs walk the Earth and they're a real problem, from Velociraptors raiding villages to T-Rexes being the equivalent to a natural disaster.

Elves and Dwarves are essentially Human sub-races, the Elves recognized by being called 'Knife-Ears' and Dwarves as 'Pygmies'.

Magic is vocal and is only taught via vocal communication. It's spoken in an ancient language that has been lost to everybody, perhaps some sort of lost civilization. But whatever it was, the language is called the 'God Tongue' and can do almost anything from flinging fireballs to summoning Dinosaurs to mending flesh.

Kaiju are an integral part of the world's economy. Not only are many of their body tissues fantastic metamaterials (nerves are room temperature superconductors, skin and bones are ultra-light but increadibly tough, etc.) but their fat is as potent a fuel as petroleum and as such monster oil fills the same economic niche as whale oil. A single kaiju corpse is worth a fortune and entire boom towns spring up just to process the remains.

Of course, actually killing one requires a decent sized army.

The reasons that there are prophesies at all is a key part of the plot. The world is stuck in a loop and people at the end of each loop can only store a tiny bit of information in an attempt to change the next. Initially it looks like the villain is in a commanding position but then he starts to realize that every single action he takes is already predicted. He starts to get worried about having a lack of control.

As this predictive information starts to trickle out he realizes that this ends with his death and thus a journey begins to break the cycle.

edited 8th Apr '18 5:48:19 PM by matti23

Elves reach young adulthood at 50 and then stop aging for as long they remain a virgin. As soon as an elf has sex, they begin aging again, but still at a slower rate compared to humans. Because of this, youngsters almost never fool around. To rape a virgin elf is considered murder and is punishable by death. Prostitution is heavily looked down on by elves.

A cabal of mega corporations (PM Cs) takes over takes over the government. Sounds common enough right? The evil PM Cs plotting to take over,

In this case the mega corporations are just a front. They are all actually a single entity, the rebel organization from the previous civil war wearing a corporate veneer. They seem so rich but they're actually being propped up by powerful individuals and are an excuse to field a large army and keep them inside the nation's borders. The government thinks they have them under control because they seem to hate each other (right up until the revolution) and individually they seem to have armies that are much smaller than the government's.

At first they look like the bad guys, some corporation trying to topple a democratic government. The government had actually been compromised by corrupt officials and the people no longer had any say in the government. When the corporations take over they ditch the facade and bring out their true leader from hiding, a man who had the popular support of the nation in the previous war and reestablish a new government.

edited 19th Apr '18 4:55:56 AM by matti23