Naelus, World of Wandering Cities (Edit - New Content Added)

[Lindel]

EDIT: Some information about another part of the world has been added in a new post. 

 

In a time long since forgotten, the Eidolons walked this world. But that was long ago, long before their wrath was kindled against mankind, before their children, the fledgling gods, these our Wandering protectors, rebelled, and were cast down from the Lune. Before the cycles of Skyfire began. It is a miracle that we continue to stubbornly cling to life on this blasted, scarred world we call home. Civilization should have ended that day, when our own gods turned against us. It was the children of those same gods, those beings we now call Wanderers, that came to our aid that day. Funny, how little we know of our saviors now. We rely wholly on them for our survival, just as they rely on us for our Hearts, and yet they are totally alien to us. They walk in the shape of a man, but they are as akin to a man as we to the stars, or the sun, or the Lune. 

It's strange to think that cities once covered the surface, where nothing but savage bands of Heartless now roam. Entire cities, built on the ground! No wonder so many historians felt the need to travel. 

 

Naelus is a world that literally rains fire and brimstone. A constant hail of deadly meteors shower the surface of the world, raining destruction upon anyone and anything unlucky enough to be caught in a Skyfire fall. Civilization as it had existed could never have continued in such conditions. The Skyfire is not constant, but it is consistent enough to make a static city impracticable, as it would be torn apart by meteors on a regular basis. The inhabitants blame the disaster on the wrath of vengeful gods, believing the Eidolons of their myths to be responsible for this terror.

 

Anyway, civilization lives on, literally borne on the backs of a race of titans known as the Wanderers. The Wanderers are vast creatures of stone, shaped roughly like men, but towering as high as mountains. Cities are built on the shoulders of the Wanderers, who are able to safely navigate the Skyfire, keeping their inhabitants safe by constantly moving ahead of the meteors. 

 

Naelus has several moons, as well as a planetary ring dubbed by the natives the Lune.  A more literal translation would simply be "The Curve" or "the Arch". The Lune can be seen as a series of closely bunched pale white bands filling nearly the center of the sky and running from east to west. Naeluan mythology often depicts the Lune as basically a "bridge to heaven", or a gate dividing the realm of the Eidolons from the mortal world. The Eidolons, the ancient gods of Naelus, are often seen as living beyond, above, or at the top of the Lune. 

 

Back to the Wandering cities. Be aware that I'm using the terms "city", "Wanderer", and "Wandering city", interchangeably. On Naelus, the word city refers both to the living Wanderer, and the city it carries. 

Each citizen on a Wanderer is equipped with a harness as they come of age. This harness is fused to the skin of their back, and designed to adjust as they grow. Each harness holds a single Blazeheart, a metallic sphere carefully harvested from the molten Core of the Wanderer. A Blazeheart forges a powerful connection between the person and their city. Blazehearts are what sustain the souls of the Wanderers. Each Heart bound to a city grants it a measure of power, so a city's strength is directly tied to its population. 

 

A city with few Hearts will move lethargically, while one holding many is quick, strong, and agile. This presents a danger, as a famine or war that leaves a city low on Hearts will often also leave it stranded under a Skyfire fall. When two Wanderers cross paths, they will sometimes simply ignore the other, each continuing on its way. Occasionally they will fall into step alongside their fellow Wanderer, travelling together for a time. During times like this, travel and trade between the two cities is common. 

 

Once in while, however, for reasons that unclear to their human inhabitants, the Wanderers engage in a sort of battle. When this happens, it can create massive devastation for both sides, and each fatalities meaning one less Heart to power the city. In a case like this, often the only choice is to join the fight, rushing the enemy city in an attempt to force them into surrender, bringing their citizens back as Heartless war prisoners. 

 

The outcome of these battles is generally the death of one of the two cities. For when a city has no Hearts left, it dies, no longer having anything to sustain its lifeforce. Dead cities stand motionless, their eyes, once blazing with an inner flame, now hollow and empty. The citizens of the conquered city are usually given the choice to join the new city, taking on Hearts from its Core and bolstering the victorious city's power. 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2014 by Lindel

[Kobold King]

Wow--upvote for a fascinating introduction to this magical world!

 

I'd don't have much to say by way of critique. Naelus definitely sounds like an interesting--if not altogether pleasant--place to live, and I'm incredibly intrigued by the Wanderers. There were similar humanoid cities in a Wayne Barlowe book, but the Blazehearts and the Skyfire are beautifully inventive details that more than set them apart from Barlowe's "Villars."

 

A few questions:

 

What do the people of Naelus' cities eat? Is it possible to maintain farms on the backs of Wanderers? Are recognizable plants and animals from Earth common on Naelus?

 

How intelligent are the Wanderers? Is it possible to communicate with them? When they fight, do they deliberately attempt to cause human fatalities, to weaken the opponent's Blazehearts?

[Lindel]

Thanks! Great questions.

 

Wanderers are composed mostly of earth and stone, so crops are possible, although they have to be terraced. The soil on Wanderers is also rather hard and dry, so farming requires a lot of work. I imagine some cities keep herds of animals for milk, cheese, and meat. I hadn't thought much up to this point about plants and animals, those are definitely some things to consider! I'm undecided right now whether I'll be designing my own animals and such, or using basically those recognizable on earth. (EDIT: At the very least, there are probably grasses and trees very similar to those found on earth.)

 

The humans don't understand much about the Wanderers. It might be possible to communicate with them, but if it is, it's very rare, and not well documented. Scholars currently believe that the Wanderers do indeed place blows specifically with the intent to cause human fatalities.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Lindel

[Talanic]

Seems like a nifty world, but I do have a number of questions and comments jumbling out of this too-tired brain of mine.  Hope they wind up being the helpful kind.

 

Originally I had imagined the harnesses as being tethered to the Wanderers.  Silly of me.  

 

Okay.  The surface of the planet is navigable but hostile due to starfalls, and people only really live on the Wanderers.  How fast do the Wanderers typically travel?  Top speeds?  Recall that everyone on top of a Wanderer is essentially in an open-topped vehicle and will be feeling the stride and the wind of passage all the time.  As the Wanderer turns, different sides of it will wind up shaded or exposed, sheltered from the wind or thrown in the face of it.  

 

This is clearly post-apocalyptic.  Is jumping off your Wanderer to salvage from ruins suicidal?  If it is, how do these people restock on raw materials? Wanderers are big enough that they have entire lumber industries on them, but they'll require fertilizer to keep that running, along with metal for tools and weaponry, sand for glassblowing, clay and stone for building, etc.  The entire concept of an economy is at the whim of these Wanderers; industries can go from plentiful to bankrupt really, really fast.  Most things from the earth itself, we take for granted these days. 

 

Two very basic questions:  Food and drink.  Drink is the bigger one.  As Wanderers appear to exist specifically to be cities, do they have a filtration / reservoir system built in?  Are they literally tall enough to be snowcapped?  (If so, I'm envisioning these things with perpetual Santa beards.  I'm sorry.  Your concept is cool but I can't help it.)  Do their legs absorb water from lakes they pass through, storing it for hydration and sanitation?  That would be what I'd expect - a walking city where everyone dies of thirst at the first drought isn't very useful.  With water, food can be handled one way or another, although I'm serious about a need to gather fertilizer; depleted soil would probably be difficult to replenish without work and materials.  Although, thinking of it, I suspect that fish is probably somewhat rare to the Riderfolk, unless a Wanderer happens to pass through deeper waters.

 

I'm now imagining a Wanderer with what looks like a green vest below his snowy beard.  On closer examination it turns out to be a massive hanging garden, built into an elaborate and carefully maintained harness that's over a mile tall.  The waters of his beard have been channeled very deliberately down through the gardens; what sections of his stony skin are not covered by crops are stained instead with moss.  

 

I also find myself wondering about the intelligence level of the Wanderers.  They clearly have a beacon that tethers them to each of their riders; are they otherwise aware of the people who are their source of power?  If you disembark a hundred workers to quickly perform some salvage, will the Wanderer slow down to allow them to come back, or will it move on?

 

Anyway.  Not kidding about brain shutting down due to lack of sleep.  Will check about in the morning.

[A Joe in the Bush]

These seem a lot like the Great Shells of the Reshi.

 

Where on the Wanderer are the cities? On top of the Head? In the hollow of the Stomach?

What type of Stone? (Sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous?)

Can a Wanderer steal another's Core?

How many is a Few hearts? If there's just one, can the city still walk?

[Quiver]

Color me intrigued. Joe pointed out that these sound a little similar to the Reshi Great Shells, but I'm not going to complain; that was one of the most interesting parts of WoR to me. I was also reminded a little of the Lion Turtles from the Legend of Korra.

 

I don't have much to say, really, though I do have one question. So far, your information has been focused mainly on the Wanderers- which isn't a bad thing. It's an awesome concept, and if I describe a novel to people I tend to start with that big, high-concept focus of the setting (Constant Storms, Decades of Winter, etc). But I'm curious about how human civilizations have developed. What kind of government exists for them, for instance?

[Argent]

Hmm.

 

Like @Talanic above, I might have an issue with the science logistics. You might need to do some math (unless you've already done it), because there are a few things that could be a problem:

• How fast are the Skyfires (Skyfire? Can I make it plural?) moving? The American Meteor Society (AMS) gives speeds ranging from 11 km/s to 72 km/s (~25,000 - 160,000 mph), with an average of about 17 km/s - that's when entering the atmosphere. Most likely impact angle is 45 degrees, while we are at it.
• How big is Naelus? The bigger the planet, the higher its atmosphere will extend, I think, and the more time your Wanderers will have to avoid an incoming Skyfire. Considering that most of Earth's atmosphere is packed within about 16 km from the surface (and so you would expect most meteors to explode there, instead of at higher altitudes), it will take a meteor just a little over a second to either hit the surface, or explode on its way to it. That's not a lot of time. Even if you take the formal thickness of the atmosphere, 480 km, it's still a matter of less than a minute (I am adding some time because the meteors will slow down due to friction, but I have no idea how much they will slow down).
• How big do you expect each Skyfire's impact area to be? In other words, how far would a Wanderer have to move in order to avoid a specific Skyfire?
• How fast are the Wanderers themselves? And do they accelerate fast? I have a gut feeling they wouldn't have much in the way of reaction time.
• Can the Wanderers just absorb some of the Skyfires? Creatures the size of mountains, I imagine they can easily soak meteorites a couple of meters in diameter (7m ones explode with about as much energy as the bomb in Hiroshima, so I guess that would leave a mark...)

Those are all the potential science problems I can think of right now. Other than that, I need to know that you know why the Wanderers fight - I don't need to know the reason, I just need to know that you have one, because this is a very counter-productive behavior from where I stand.

 

Oh, also, why do people live on the giants' shoulders instead of, say, on their feet? Shoulders sound like a less safe (if more comfortable) option.

 

P.S. This Wikipedia page has some solid information, if you haven't seen it - for example, if your world has an atmosphere similar to Earth's, you can use the tables in the linked section to figure out what kind of meteorites your... Naelusians? can expect.

 

EDIT: I should probably mention that I like the idea very much, despite my long critique. It's how I show love, by picking things apart

Edited October 14, 2014 by Argent

[Lindel]

Thanks for stopping by, Talanic! 

 

Great point! The speed the Wanderer moves at varies a great deal. In a city with a highly dense population, a Wanderer would be capable of sprinting basically everywhere it goes, but generally chooses to move a more steady stride. This can still create huge winds for the city, and I'd say that different cities have their own way of compensating for this. Many create are built terraced along the back of the Wanderer to protect them from the fiercer winds generated by the city's movement. 

 

Salvages such as you describe are fairly common. Wanderers often stop inexplicably, and rest for a period of a few hours to several weeks. Whether it's resting, getting its bearings, or simply allowing the humans to do their salvaging, is unclear, but during these times the citizens stock up on as many raw supplies as they can get their hands on. 

 

That's a good point about food and drink. As far as food goes, much can be grown inside the city. Water presents a problem though. The cities definitely have a built in way of sustaining a source of water. I like the idea of storing water from nearby lakes and streams! Maybe that's the purpose of stopping, to allow them to soak up and filter water, keeping a perpetual stock of fresh, clean water. 

 

Interesting image! There's quite a lot of variation in appearance between Wanderers, so this might actually be possible. 

 

The intelligence of the Wanderers, and their awareness of their human inhabitants, is a topic often debated among Naeluan scholars. They do appear to slow down during a salvage until every citizen returns, but whether they instinctively sense the presence of their Hearts and simply consider each one a part of themselves, or whether they are actually aware of each Hearts existence as an individual, is not clear. Some hold that the Wanderers are mere animals, following a migrating pattern that avoids starfalls but mostly ignorant of the lives being led on their backs. Others argue that if that were the case, how would they understand the need to supply water to their inhabitants, or the need to stop for salvaging?

 

Thanks again for your great questions! 

[Lindel]

These seem a lot like the Great Shells of the Reshi.

 

Interesting, cause, as Quiver pointed out, those reminded me of the Lion Turtles in Avatar. (Both Korra and the original series). I also agree with Quiver that the Great Shells were one of my favorite parts of the Interludes in WoR, and I'd love to see them explored in more detail!  

 

On to your questions!

 

Where are the cities? This varies from Wanderer to Wanderer. Many have a part of the city, often the capital, built up on the head, which long sets of carved stairs connecting it to the rest of the city below. Other cities are built terraced solely on the back, where it's more sheltered from the wind. I imagine some might even have large portions of the city carved inside the Wanderer.

 

What type of stone? That's a good question! There's definitely some variation here, but I'd imagine they're generally composed primarily of igneous or metamorphic rock. 

 

If this is possible, it hasn't been observed so far. After a battle, the victorious Wanderer will usually leave the dead one behind, only taking with it what the humans managed to salvage. 

 

By the time a city's down to one heart, it's basically comatose. It's Core still retains some heat, which would make it possible to harvest new Hearts and revive the city, but for all intents and purposes, it's basically as good as dead. It would take at least a dozen Hearts to make the city even begin to move at the slowest pace imaginable. 

 

Thanks again!

[Lindel]

Color me intrigued. Joe pointed out that these sound a little similar to the Reshi Great Shells, but I'm not going to complain; that was one of the most interesting parts of WoR to me. I was also reminded a little of the Lion Turtles from the Legend of Korra.

 

I don't have much to say, really, though I do have one question. So far, your information has been focused mainly on the Wanderers- which isn't a bad thing. It's an awesome concept, and if I describe a novel to people I tend to start with that big, high-concept focus of the setting (Constant Storms, Decades of Winter, etc). But I'm curious about how human civilizations have developed. What kind of government exists for them, for instance?

 

Great question! That's a point I haven't delved into yet, but equally important to continuing to develop this world. This is something I'll have to consider, now that I've got the main, big concept mostly fleshed out. It's up in the air right now, so any suggestions you have would be welcome.  

[Lindel]

Hmm.

 

Like @Talanic above, I might have an issue with the science logistics. You might need to do some math (unless you've already done it), because there are a few things that could be a problem:

 

It seems a lot of your questions revolve around how the Wanderers avoid Skyfires (Skyfire falls? Starfalls? Not settled on the plural form yet). Would it help if I tell you that I imagine these having a sort of pattern to them? 

 

Remember Naelus's planetary ring, the Lune? Would it be unreasonable for me to reply that Skyfire falls directly from this? Could this create a somewhat consistent bombardment as the Lune orbits? 

 

I'm definitely not brushing aside your science questions, I'm just curious if this is a scientifically sound concept. Because the Lune as the source of the Skyfire is central to some major points in the origin of the Wanderers. 

 

The way I envision it, he Wanderers don't move out of the way as Skyfire enters the atmosphere. They predict where it's going to fall next based on the orbit of the Lune. Does this work? 

 

Interesting that you brought up the Wanderers absorbing Skyfire. How do you think they keep their molten Cores replenished over the years? 

 

On the fighting: Yes, there is a specific reason for these battles. Glad you asked! The local Naeluans are with you, though. 

 

Why the shoulders? One, cause I think it's more awesome. It probably makes an attack from below much more difficult and easier to defend against. There's also the problem of stability. Wanderers are built in such a way that their upper body remains fairly stable as they walk, while the feet are constantly pounding up and down. This isn't just a question of comfort, though. The constant movement and impact of the Wanderer's feet while walking would be equivalent to a moderate earthquake, I'd imagine. 

 

That article looks to be quite helpful! Bookmarking it now. 

 

Thanks against for your thorough critique! 

[Argent]

Were you thinking about Saturn's planetary ring when visualizing the Lune - because that's what it sounds like from the brief description you provided in the first post. I ask, because I don't think that's going to work - Saturn's rings are made up of mostly (and I mean this as a "billions-to-one" kind of mostly) small particles, no bigger than, let's say a human head. A ring like that wouldn't be able to bombard anything with meteors. 

 

Now, if you were thinking more along the lines of the Solar system's asteroid belt, but smaller and around a planet, something like this - it would be difficult to form (easier with a larger planet though), but I could see it happening. The existence of the ring, I mean. As for the Skyfires... maybe? There is a ton of astrophysics here, and being an enthusiast gets only so far, but I am going to guess that it's possible. Even the particles in Saturn's rings brush and bounce off each other all the time, so we know those rings are not entirely locked in their orbits - a ring made of larger particles would have this problem even more often, and I could see meteors being bounced out of their orbits and entering a collision course with the planet below. They will probably lack the combination of speed and size to do any kind of serious damage to the planet, but maybe they would be enough to force a civilization to go ride its gods. 

 

As for the pattern those meteors will form, I guess it would look kind of like the ring's "shadow" on the planet. I couldn't find anything that suggests planetary rings can orbit the planet along more than one axis of rotation (i.e. if the ring orbits "above" the Equator, it will stay "above" the Equator - you can't have it wobble to, say, North America), so any meteors - or asteroids - ejected from it would have to fall, more or less, "under" it. I think you can solve this problem by making the axial tilts of the planet and the ring form an angle (45 degrees, I guess?), so that most of the planet is exposed to bombardment at some time during the day-night cycle. Big disclaimer though - I don't think you can have the planetary and the ring's tilts be different, I think the rings form so that they are parallel to the equator. 

 

All this being said, I may have thought of a quick hack to get this to work. You could have your planet in a region of space where meteor showers are (a lot) more common than in our own neighborhood, but have those meteors strike at the Luna instead of the surface (most of the time? sometimes?). They will then knock some of the Luna's own asteroids out of orbit, and send them flowing towards Naelus. The humans don't even have to know about this. You just need a reason for the Naelus-bound asteroids to hit the Luna, which is a pretty small target compared to the surface of the entire planet... but you can either ignore that (by letting many of those asteroids just hit the planet and then have the humans believe they came from the Luna), or come up with a magical reason.

 

As one final resource, you can make an account on the Astronomy StackExchange website (or hell, even contact the AMS) and ask people there a question every now and then. StackExchhange users are generally nice, smart, and helpful folk.

[Lindel]

A ring made of larger asteroids would work, assuming that's possible. What would this look like from the surface?

There are definitely some magical properties to the Lune, but not likely anything that would attract asteroids toward it. It's quite possible that a large number of the meteors are ordinary asteroids, I think that could work. The humans aren't actually aware that the Lune is the source of the Skyfires, so it wouldn't matter to them. Could this potentially knock Lune-asteroids off at various angles, allowing them to threaten most of Naelus's surface?

The question then is what gives the Wanderers the ability to predict with any accuracy future Skyfire falls? Do I just pass this off as an innate magical sense? That might be possible, as the Wanderers do have an affinity with the Lune. They might be able to use it to sense approaching asteroids before they collide with the Lune, and adjust their course accordingly.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Lindel

[Argent]

A ring made of larger asteroids would work, assuming that's possible. What would this look like from the surface?

 

Depends how far from the surface it is. It could be anything from a near-solid rock belt, or just a line in the sky. Think many small Moons strung together - if they are close enough, you can tell them apart; if they are far away, you only see either the glow from the reflect sunlight (during the night), or a dark shadow in sky (during the day).

 

There are definitely some magical properties to the Lune, but not likely anything that would attract asteroids toward it. It's quite possible that a large number of the meteors are ordinary asteroids, I think that could work. The humans aren't actually aware that the Lune is the source of the Skyfires, so it wouldn't matter to them. Could this potentially knock Lune-asteroids off at various angles, allowing them to threaten most of Naelus's surface?

 

Yes, the Lune particles could get knocked off in any direction. It depends only on where the space asteroid was coming from.

 

The question then is what gives the Wanderers the ability to predict with any accuracy future Skyfire falls? Do I just pass this off as an innate magical sense? That might be possible, as the Wanderers do have an affinity with the Lune. They might be able to use it to sense approaching asteroids before they collide with the Lune, and adjust their course accordingly.

 

This depends. If you stick with the "space asteroids hit the Lune, and Lune's asteroids hit the planet" model, I can't think of a good way for the Wanderers to predict where the things will land. A cool thing to exploit is that because of their large size, their eyes (assuming they see in a way similar to how humans see) can collect much more light, and essentially work like telescopes. So they could literally see the asteroids coming. If I threw a baseball at you from the Moon, it would be pretty easy for you to dodge it if you could see and track it from the moment I threw it. You could also give them a magical ability to "feel" stone and/or water (stone or rock fits better, I think) - in a large radius. 

[Lindel]

Alright. When you say a shadow during the day, would it appear pale, as the moon does when seen in the day, or something darker? I have a rough idea of how Saturn's rings would look around earth. How much do you think this would this vary based on distance and and size of the asteroids? I suppose the rings would be much grainier, but would they retain the same pale moon-like color in daylight? 

 

 

 

This depends. If you stick with the "space asteroids hit the Lune, and Lune's asteroids hit the planet" model, I can't think of a good way for the Wanderers to predict where the things will land. A cool thing to exploit is that because of their large size, their eyes (assuming they see in a way similar to how humans see) can collect much more light, and essentially work like telescopes. So they could literally see the asteroids coming. If I threw a baseball at you from the Moon, it would be pretty easy for you to dodge it if you could see and track it from the moment I threw it. You could also give them a magical ability to "feel" stone and/or water (stone or rock fits better, I think) - in a large radius. 

 

 

I like both of the above suggestions, and either one would fit well with established lore. I'll have to play around with it and see what I like better, but I could see it going either way. 

[A Joe in the Bush]

Another question about the Wanderers. If one becomes completely dead, is there a way to Reanimate it?

 

If not, is there a way to make new Wanderers?

 

If not, eventually, there will only be one Wanderer. . .

[Argent]

Alright. When you say a shadow during the day, would it appear pale, as the moon does when seen in the day, or something darker? I have a rough idea of how Saturn's rings would look around earth. How much do you think this would this vary based on distance and and size of the asteroids? I suppose the rings would be much grainier, but would they retain the same pale moon-like color in daylight? 

 

I believe the ring will look darker during the day. The reason the rings of Saturn are often portrayed in light colors is because they are composed of mostly water (well, ice). Your much rockier ring will be a completely different color - though I imagine the backlight from the Sun will still make them look paler than they are. I am going to guess that you can apply some creative freedom here and choose the way the ring looks based on its composition - make the rocks riddled with crystalline structures, and you could have a permanent rainbow in the sky

[Lindel]

Another question about the Wanderers. If one becomes completely dead, is there a way to Reanimate it?

 

If not, is there a way to make new Wanderers?

 

If not, eventually, there will only be one Wanderer. . .

 

Nope. When a Wanderer is dead, it's dead. 

 

There is no way that the current inhabitants of Naeluan are aware of to make new Wanderers. It would be possible, but... Let's just say it would be rather unlikely at this point. 

 

You might be on to something there.   You're not quite there, but you're on the right track.  

[Lindel]

I believe the ring will look darker during the day. The reason the rings of Saturn are often portrayed in light colors is because they are composed of mostly water (well, ice). Your much rockier ring will be a completely different color - though I imagine the backlight from the Sun will still make them look paler than they are. I am going to guess that you can apply some creative freedom here and choose the way the ring looks based on its composition - make the rocks riddled with crystalline structures, and you could have a permanent rainbow in the sky

 

Excellent!   Thanks much for your help!

Edited October 15, 2014 by Lindel

[mail-mi]

A question: how hard is it for Heartless to survive on the ground? Is the land completely barren?

[Talanic]

I would be surprised if it were completely barren.  A barrage powerful enough to glass the planet's surface would probably have atmospheric effects that would kill everyone as well.  Barrages constant enough to keep all the plants dead would probably leave the entire planet too hot for anyone to worry about anything other than being on fire.  Nature reclaims things pretty quickly when left alone, and ash tends to be quite good for new growth.

 

Also, I doubt enough plant life could be grown on the Wanderers to provide everyone with oxygen.

[Lindel]

You're right on, Talanic. The constant meteor showers don't render the land completely barren, but they do make growing crops impracticable. Heartless live in nomadic, hunter-gatherer tribes. They raid the occasional scavenging party, but only if they have the advantage in numbers. 

[Lindel]

This is one of the less refined concepts in this world, but one that I think has potential It's called the Fusion. It's basically a hivemind, but one built on the same principles upon which the Wandering Cities and Blazehearts were designed. Basically, it's a collection of many individual organisms, but it considers itself to be a single lifeform made up of many little moving parts.  

 

There are four main "veins" of the Fusion. Starting at the bottom, there are the Thralls. They basically living batteries. Magic on Naelus feeds off connections between living things. While the connection between Wanderers and their inhabitants is symbiotic, the connection between the Thralls and the rest of the Fusion is more parasitic.

 

...I'm going to go off on a short tangent, I apologize. In order to get some of what I'm talking about, you have to understand this: The force behind the Fusion is very similar to the force behind the Wandering cities. Each Wandering city has a spirit, or a soul, bound to its body and to Naelus through connections to Naelan humans. One of those souls is what's in control of the Fusion. So when I say it's a parasitic relationship, I mean that the soul controlling the Fusion basically feeds off the humans that it's assimilated. Compare that to the Wanderers, where both parties benefit. Wanderer gets to not die, humans get to not die. Everyone's happy! 

 

Anyway, where was I? Right, Thralls. Power is harvested directly from the Thralls and distributed throughout the Fusion. Much of their body mass is actually physically harvested to create the other veins, making them appear pale and emaciated. They're constantly attached to spinelike growths that crop up in clusters within a Fusion hive. The spines appear to pierce their stomach, through their throat, exiting out the mouth.

 

Next up are the Brawn. They're the muscle of the Fusion, forming the working and fighting force. They're roughly human in size and shape, although their skin often has a grayish tinge. They have no visible hair, but their body is covered is covered head to toe in thin, bladelike feelers, the only exception being the face and the palms of the hands. These feelers are used both as sensory receptors and organic weapons.

 

Next we have the Scions, which essentially make the nervous system for the Fusion. They transmit commands down from the Overseers to individual branches. There's roughly one Scions for every two dozen Brawn. Scions are similar in appearance to Brawn, but usually stand between eight and nine feet tall. They have a set of several longer feelers on each arm, growing from just below the elbow and extending about a foot and a half past their fingertips. They use these as effective weapons in combat, wielding them like daggers.

 

Last, the Overseers. The brain of the Fusion. Collectively, the Overseers are the mind that governs the Fusion. Rarely seen, the Overseers stand approximately fifteen feet tall. Their upper body is twisted and skeletal, with a skull-like face and a long, flexible neck. Their fingers are long, thin, and gnarled claws. I'm trying to think of how to describe their lower half.. It's basically like a huge, skeletal centipede, with many little legs protruding like ribs from under a layered shell. This tapers off toward the back into a sharp stinger. 

 

A little strange, I know. It's not a perfect description, but it's the best way I can think of to convey the image in my head. 

 

Anyway, thoughts? This part could definitely some work, so any feedback is greatly appreciated!    

[Lindel]

The problem is that people have done hive minds so many times, and after a while they all start to feel the same. What can I do to make mine more unique in some way, to make it stand out and really feel original?