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So within this system, it would be permissible for the humans to rely upon/have red lumuoles, granting them fire based magic; while the seals have blue ones and water magic?

 

It would. I mean, when writing this, I was talking about general associations, though. Humans with fire-based magic would probably be descended (either patriarchically or matriarchally) from a guy who ingested a Red Great Lumuole, but the variability between the characteristics of those descendants and those of another guy's kids could be huge. It's possible that all six main Lumuole types are capable of fueling that magic, or maybe it's just the red ones, or maybe it's reds, yellows, and purples.

Edited by Mckeedee123
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Yep. That's why they exist. Presumably, your regions would be the location of massive, weak hotspots that have a small population of disparate White Lumuole colonies. Over millions of years, the failed colonies that fell to the ground would build up mineral deposits.

 

 

Good point. If you want, we can tack earth and wind onto Orange and Green Lumuoles, respectively.

 

You wouldn't happen to be thinking about creating 4 adjacent island societies that specialize in manipulating earth, wind, water, and fire, would you?  ;) Because I would be so down for that.

Alright, I think I can actually pull something of that fits into them being "colorless".

 

I wasn't thinking specifically about creating such islands myself but I would appreciate adding the elements for my OCD.

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Alright, I think I can actually pull something of that fits into them being "colorless".

 

Oh. Hold on a minute, you do want them to be visible? Or are you saying that you want to have different types of minerals? I think it's preferable to change the model rather than to change your magic system.

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Oh. Hold on a minute, you do want them to be visible? Or are you saying that you want to have different types of minerals? I think it's preferable to change the model rather than to change your magic system.

No no, I'm quite alright. I didn't exactly go into this with a solid idea for a magic system and I like playing around with what's already there.

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My mind is already racing with potential applications of blue lumuoles in regards to ice. :ph34r: Let me know if any of these are too far out:

 

  • Changing the temperature and state of matter of quantities of water, allowing for the easy sculpting of ice or, for a sufficiently clever society, cheap and easy steam power.
  • Drastically slowing the melting rate of ice in a similar way to pykrete; even better if ice could be rendered completely unmeltable or if steam could be made completely uncondensable. Again, the potential for hydro power could be almost limitless.
  • OH MY GOSH UNMELTABLE ICE CASTLES WITH COMPLEX MECHANISMS CONTROLLING DOORS AND DRAWBRIDGES. CLOCKWORK AND GEARS MADE OF ICE.
  • What would it take to manipulate blizzards and avalanches with blue lumuoles, I wonder? Could make for a nasty surprise to anyone who tries climbing the mountain with malicious intentions...
  • Last but not least: what would happen if you froze a living brain in ice with the right mixture of blue and green lumuoles? After centuries of trial and error, could you figure out how to create a living snowman with an organic brain?

 

I'm getting carried away. Somebody stop me. :P

Edited by Kobold King
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It would. I mean, when writing this, I was talking about general associations, though. Humans with fire-based magic would probably be descended (either patriarchically or matriarchally) from a guy who ingested a Red Great Lumuole, but the variability between the characteristics of those descendants and those of another guy's kids could be huge. It's possible that all six main Lumuole types are capable of fueling that magic, or maybe it's just the red ones, or maybe it's reds, yellows, and purples.

That's actually perfect. As a creation myth, I'd envisioned a story about twin sisters, one of whom decided to live on land and command fire, one of whom lived in water and commanded it. The land-dwelling sister (according to the story) took on human form, while the water-dwelling sister took on seal form. The myth gives both races reason to cooperate, and the lumuole thing would provide a naturalistic explanation for each race's magic.

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Alright everyone, I drafted some racial profiles for the three primary species of Diaemus! I had no ideas for the merfolk so I left them out, but I created concepts for each of the terrestrial races.

 

Suggestions, additions, criticisms, and outright condemnations are welcome. This is a communal project, after all. I humbly offer these for your consideration.

 

 

Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens)
 
Of all the races of Diaemus, humankind is the newest. These were imported to the world of Diaemus no more than twelve thousand years ago, and are totally alien beings. They stand at roughly two meters tall. Like sticks pointing out of the ground, they hold a vertical stance from their feet to their scalps. Their faces are flat and their bodies are mostly hairless, save for for the sparse patches boasted by some of the males. They are physically weak, but they make up for their shortcomings with keen and greedy intellects.
 
The defining characteristic of a human is the hand, four fingers with one opposable thumb. With a pair of hands, a human being can craft anything from a pointy stick to a fire to a steam-powered engine. They can create tools for practically any situation, and can adapt their culture itself for lifestyles in every biome. Since their arrival humans have splintered into dozens of distinct cultures and several ethnicities. They can be found from the northernmost jungles to the barren tundras of the south. Only the seas themselves remain safe from these strange beings, and even they are being steadily prodded and explored.
 
The typical human culture revolves around a nuclear family unit, a mated man and woman who together rear a brood of one to five offspring. Multiple families can form a tribe led by a patriarch or chieftain, and especially large coalitions of human families can form complex hierarchies led by monarchs or democracies. Some human empires can grow quite large and powerful...
 
As a species, humans have no particular affinity for lumuoles. Some societies, however, are descended from daring (or sometimes incredibly stupid) individuals who somehow incorporated lumuoles into their bodies, passing down anomalous traits to their offspring and granting the gift of magic to their culture. Human societies lacking magical progenitors must rely on their wits to incorporate lumuoles into technology, or else do without magic altogether.
 
Dromeans (Ethnoraptor diaemi)
 
Before those no-good primates were shuttled here, Diaemus' dominant overworlders were the Dromeans. Anatomically modern Dromeans appeared roughly a million years ago, evolved to specialize in the cleverness that makes dromeosaurs successful all over Diaemus. Their craniums are slightly larger to cultivate large and complex brains, with the result being that the child stage of the species is longer and more arduous for the parents than in other raptors. Hatchlings must be allowed to grow from barely sentient lizards to intelligent and high-functioning adults, which takes a little over a decade.
 
It is the necessity for intensive child-rearing that first began drawing packs of Dromeans together. While non-sapient raptors tend to be aggressive and highly territorial, Dromeans have become cooperative. Their society tends to revolve around pack units consisting of an alpha male and female, with grown offspring that help rear younger hatchlings. Packs can congregate together in a similar fashion to humans, forming fierce coalitions that will pool resources, share intellectual findings, and fight together when necessary.
 
Dromeans possess three fingers on each hand, one opposable to the others. They are equipped with long and razor-sharp claws, which must be filed down to not impede the dextrous manipulation of items. A sturdy scratching post is an important centerpiece in any civilized Dromean household, and only the crazed ferals of the deep jungles leave their claws as long and lethal as nature intended.
 
The primary obstacle for Dromean colonization is not in temperature or biome preference, as their feathered coats can protect them from the cold and their bodies can easily adapt to new germs or conditions. Rather, it is their status as obligate carnivores that makes things difficult for them. Omnivores like humans can eat just about everything under the sun. Dromeans are a step below the great tyrant-lizards as apex predators, and require extremely plentiful numbers of large prey animals in order to sustain their communities. In some harsh regions, pastoral Dromeans can rear the meat they need to survive. The majority, however, stick to temperate and tropical regions that are flush with large game.
 
More innately magical than humans, Dromeans have almost universally evolved the ability to assimilate lumuoles into their bodies. By eating a diet rich in the microorganisms, lumuole colonies can develop practically anywhere in the Dromean body, allowing for fantastic feats of magic. As communities are rarely segregated by class and thus usually consume the same foods, this has the tendency to create entire cultures centered around systems of magic uniquely suited to their habitat and region.
 
Rachnyx (Sofiarachnus spelaeus)
 
The most ancient of Diaemus' dominant sapients are the Rachnyx, giant spider-like creaturess that dwell not on the surface but in the hollow cavities sprinkled throughout the crust. They are the smallest of the three major races, standing scarcely a meter high when pulled to full height. Nonetheless, they are among the most dangerous of them all.
 
A Rachnyx stands on four thick legs, using its foremost pair to feel the path in front of it and the intermediate pair as multi-fingered manipulatory appendages. The hands have four main digits and two extras in opposition to the primary digits as well as each other. The wrists are often bloated with nerve ganglions that make the fine weaving of silk webs an almost purely mechanical process.
 
As a general rule the Rachnyx have a poor sense of sight, as evidenced by the front pair of feelers, but the Rachnyx are arguably Diaemus' most innately variable race. Their earliest ancestors have been traced back four million years, and there are many subspecies that have come about since them. All have evolved for millennia in symbiosis with colonies of lumuoles spread throughout the abdoment, giving the Rachnyx access to the most streamlined, efficient magic systems on Diaemus. Common abilities include the production of silk with radically improved tensile strength and venom with heightened potency, but ESP and even dramatic powers of elemental control are well within the limits of Rachnyx parabiology.
 
Originally, the Rachnyx and all their subspecies appeared to be solitary predators with no language, culture, or civilization, dwelling entirely in the vibrant caverns deep underneath the surface. Their opposable digits appear to have evolved for weaving huge and mindbogglingly complex web systems throughout the caves. Their minds developed to enhance the efficiency of their labors, and seem especially geared towards memorizing the movements of hundreds of individual prey animals and calculating long-range statistics. Rachnyx at this stage in their development would usually eat any others that entered their territories, even if those others were their own offspring.
 
The details of the modern Rachnyx's evolution are sketchy, but it appears that a period of geologic instability roughly ten thousand years ago caused enormous ecological damage in the subterranean caverns. Thousands of Rachnyx starved, and the survivors were forced to conglomerate into loosely bound societies in order to cooperatively hunt what prey remained. The social systems they came up with either ended with one enormous, very well fed Rachnyx sitting among the remains of the others, or in successful constructs that are still around today.
 
Nowadays there are Rachnyx living in almost every way imaginable. Some live in eusocial colonies akin to ant nests or bee hives. Some have built sprawling underground cities. Some have even taken to slowly colonizing the surface world.
 
A pregnant mother Rachnyx gives birth to thousands of live young, each about as large as a common house spider. Parental care was once non-existent, and close individual care like in human and Dromean socities is impossible, but some Rachnyx colonies have taken to feeding prey animals and foreigners to swarms of their young offspring.
 
The Rachnyx are everywhere, just under your feet. Some are no more malevolent than the worms in the soil. Some are as sage and learned as the wisest scholar. Some are hordes of violent conquerors that could convert entire cities into tightly crammed slaughterhouses. They are not vertebrates, and they seldom follow the rules of conduct that vertebrates take for granted. They are so innately magical that the conventional laws of physics might as well not apply to them. If you have reason to meet with Rachnyx, expect the unexpectable.
Edited by Kobold King
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So, it's possible for my otter-herding humans to have the ability to shapeshift in reserved amounts? Such as to make their feet webbed to swim better or create gills or toughen their skin?

Follow your dreams, buddy. I will say that I'm pretty sure most demigodic bloodlines wouldn't make up more than 5-10% of any given population, though.
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Good grief. I turn around for five minutes and I have a hundred notifications from this page.  :P The productivity of you people astounds me! 

 

 

Alright everyone, I drafted some racial profiles for the three primary species of Diaemus! I had no ideas for the merfolk so I left them out, but I created concepts for each of the terrestrial races.

 

Suggestions, additions, criticisms, and outright condemnations are welcome. This is a communal project, after all. I humbly offer these for your consideration.

 

 

Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens)
 
Of all the races of Diaemus, humankind is the newest. These were imported to the world of Diaemus no more than twelve thousand years ago, and are totally alien beings. They stand at roughly two meters tall. Like sticks pointing out of the ground, they hold a vertical stance from their feet to their scalps. Their faces are flat and their bodies are mostly hairless, save for for the sparse patches boasted by some of the males. They are physically weak, but they make up for their shortcomings with keen and greedy intellects.
 
The defining characteristic of a human is the hand, four fingers with one opposable thumb. With a pair of hands, a human being can craft anything from a pointy stick to a fire to a steam-powered engine. They can create tools for practically any situation, and can adapt their culture itself for lifestyles in every biome. Since their arrival humans have splintered into dozens of distinct cultures and several ethnicities. They can be found from the northernmost jungles to the barren tundras of the south. Only the seas themselves remain safe from these strange beings, and even they are being steadily prodded and explored.
 
The typical human culture revolves around a nuclear family unit, a mated man and woman who together rear a brood of one to five offspring. Multiple families can form a tribe led by a patriarch or chieftain, and especially large coalitions of human families can form complex hierarchies led by monarchs or democracies. Some human empires can grow quite large and powerful...
 
As a species, humans have no particular affinity for lumuoles. Some societies, however, are descended from daring (or sometimes incredibly stupid) individuals who somehow incorporated lumuoles into their bodies, passing down anomalous traits to their offspring and granting the gift of magic to their culture. Human societies lacking magical progenitors must rely on their wits to incorporate lumuoles into technology, or else do without magic altogether.
 
Dromeans (Ethnoraptor diaemi)
 
Before those no-good primates were shuttled here, Diaemus' dominant overworlders were the Dromeans. Anatomically modern Dromeans appeared roughly a million years ago, evolved to specialize in the cleverness that makes dromeosaurs successful all over Diaemus. Their craniums are slightly larger to cultivate large and complex brains, with the result being that the child stage of the species is longer and more arduous for the parents than in other raptors. Hatchlings must be allowed to grow from barely sentient lizards to intelligent and high-functioning adults, which takes a little over a decade.
 
It is the necessity for intensive child-rearing that first began drawing packs of Dromeans together. While non-sapient raptors tend to be aggressive and highly territorial, Dromeans have become cooperative. Their society tends to revolve around pack units consisting of an alpha male and female, with grown offspring that help rear younger hatchlings. Packs can congregate together in a similar fashion to humans, forming fierce coalitions that will pool resources, share intellectual findings, and fight together when necessary.
 
Dromeans possess three fingers on each hand, one opposable to the others. They are equipped with long and razor-sharp claws, which must be filed down to not impede the dextrous manipulation of items. A sturdy scratching post is an important centerpiece in any civilized Dromean household, and only the crazed ferals of the deep jungles leave their claws as long and lethal as nature intended.
 
The primary obstacle for Dromean colonization is not in temperature or biome preference, as their feathered coats can protect them from the cold and their bodies can easily adapt to new germs or conditions. Rather, it is their status as obligate carnivores that makes things difficult for them. Omnivores like humans can eat just about everything under the sun. Dromeans are a step below the great tyrant-lizards as apex predators, and require extremely plentiful numbers of large prey animals in order to sustain their communities. In some harsh regions, pastoral Dromeans can rear the meat they need to survive. The majority, however, stick to temperate and tropical regions that are flush with large game.
 
More innately magical than humans, Dromeans have almost universally evolved the ability to assimilate lumuoles into their bodies. By eating a diet rich in the microorganisms, lumuole colonies can develop practically anywhere in the Dromean body, allowing for fantastic feats of magic. As communities are rarely segregated by class and thus usually consume the same foods, this has the tendency to create entire cultures centered around systems of magic uniquely suited to their habitat and region.
 
Rachnyx (Sofiarachnus spelaeus)
 
The most ancient of Diaemus' dominant sapients are the Rachnyx, giant spider-like creaturess that dwell not on the surface but in the hollow cavities sprinkled throughout the crust. They are the smallest of the three major races, standing scarcely a meter high when pulled to full height. Nonetheless, they are among the most dangerous of them all.
 
A Rachnyx stands on four thick legs, using its foremost pair to feel the path in front of it and the intermediate pair as multi-fingered manipulatory appendages. The hands have four main digits and two extras in opposition to the primary digits as well as each other. The wrists are often bloated with nerve ganglions that make the fine weaving of silk webs an almost purely mechanical process.
 
As a general rule the Rachnyx have a poor sense of sight, as evidenced by the front pair of feelers, but the Rachnyx are arguably Diaemus' most innately variable race. Their earliest ancestors have been traced back four million years, and there are many subspecies that have come about since them. All have evolved for millennia in symbiosis with colonies of lumuoles spread throughout the abdoment, giving the Rachnyx access to the most streamlined, efficient magic systems on Diaemus. Common abilities include the production of silk with radically improved tensile strength and venom with heightened potency, but ESP and even dramatic powers of elemental control are well within the limits of Rachnyx parabiology.
 
Originally, the Rachnyx and all their subspecies appeared to be solitary predators with no language, culture, or civilization, dwelling entirely in the vibrant caverns deep underneath the surface. Their opposable digits appear to have evolved for weaving huge and mindbogglingly complex web systems throughout the caves. Their minds developed to enhance the efficiency of their labors, and seem especially geared towards memorizing the movements of hundreds of individual prey animals and calculating long-range statistics. Rachnyx at this stage in their development would usually eat any others that entered their territories, even if those others were their own offspring.
 
The details of the modern Rachnyx's evolution are sketchy, but it appears that a period of geologic instability roughly ten thousand years ago caused enormous ecological damage in the subterranean caverns. Thousands of Rachnyx starved, and the survivors were forced to conglomerate into loosely bound societies in order to cooperatively hunt what prey remained. The social systems they came up with either ended with one enormous, very well fed Rachnyx sitting among the remains of the others, or in successful constructs that are still around today.
 
Nowadays there are Rachnyx living in almost every way imaginable. Some live in eusocial colonies akin to ant nests or bee hives. Some have built sprawling underground cities. Some have even taken to slowly colonizing the surface world.
 
A pregnant mother Rachnyx gives birth to thousands of live young, each about as large as a common house spider. Parental care was once non-existent, and close individual care like in human and Dromean socities is impossible, but some Rachnyx colonies have taken to feeding prey animals and foreigners to swarms of their young offspring.
 
The Rachnyx are everywhere, just under your feet. Some are no more malevolent than the worms in the soil. Some are as sage and learned as the wisest scholar. Some are hordes of violent conquerors that could convert entire cities into tightly crammed slaughterhouses. They are not vertebrates, and they seldom follow the rules of conduct that vertebrates take for granted. They are so innately magical that the conventional laws of physics might as well not apply to them. If you have reason to meet with Rachnyx, expect the unexpectable.

 

 

I really like all of these! Especially the Rachnyx (good name, by the way) I have the beginnings of some very interesting sub-species of Rachnyx brewing now.  :ph34r: That being said, would it be a huge issue if I introduced my own dominant species to my area? If I understand correctly, than these three are for the entire planet. So I don't see why it would, but I just want to get the all clear signal. 

 

I didn't? Oh. I'm reconsidering that, but I had the general idea when I wrote that that the colors would have vague elemental associations for people to use. Mostly, it would affect what kind of demigods manifested, but again, I'm not sure if people are interested in the system...

 

-White Lumuoles don't do anything, and are practically invisible, but they create mineral deposits of magic over time.

-Reds are associated with fire, industry, and fertility.

-Blues are associated with water, scholarship, and mental acuity.

-Yellows are associated with electricity, pride, and sovereignty.

-Greens are associated with wind, life and happiness.

-Oranges are associated with earth, strength and resolve.

-Purples are associated with light/darkness, illusion, and fear.

 

 

Personally, I retracted my opinion that sapient races would edge each other out. It happens all the time with varieties and races of hominids, but then again, hominid species had identical ecological niches. Twi's seals probably wouldn't edge out the humans in their region because they would (presumably) get most of their food from deep underwater while the local human population would fish more shallowly. I think the best way for the raptors to work would be for their societies to be less "formidable" than the adjacent human ones (who would do high-density farming), but also be adapted to environments that humans aren't very good at eking out a living in, like jungles and mountains.

 

I'll probably be including Autenots and Hakkites, but they'll be out on the submerged continent islands.

 

I also really like this magic system! Color based magic systems are kind of my thing, so this will be very nice. Can we keep it, please? 

 

I really should be in bed already, but I'll get this out for people to play with. For scale (assuming Earth size), each grid square is about 260 miles (416 km) on a side. so the small east continent is about 2600 miles (4166 km) east-west and 1300 miles north-south.
 
35ddf027fec68132570901b79309ff59.png
 
This should represent a fairly accurate representation of how the biomes would work out. Please note again the Köppen climate classification for more surveying details than I have time to provide.

 

Flora in each zone tend to be exclusive to that zone.

The H regions are mountain ranges where altitude is sufficient to change the biome.

The northern dark green area (Af) and the blue green areas (Am) are the rainforests and jungles respectively.

The brighter green (Aw) is often Tropical forest.

Light brown (BW) is the desert, and dark brown (BS) the neighboring steppe. The desert between the mountains will not be travel-friendly (an 800+ mile crossing in hostile terrain).

Red (Cs), yellow (Cf), and orange (Cw) are temperate, bread-basket regions.

Blue (D) are humid, but seasonally extreme regions.

Purple (ET) is tundra.

Pink (EF) is year-round ice cap (over land, oceans are not colored yet).

 

I am uncertain about the orange in the middle being quite right, so that may be modified later, pending research and feedback (I like feedback).

 

Next step is detailing coastlines and adding inland seas and islands. If you want to play on islands, feel free to pick a location. I plan on a set of polar islands and a semi-isolated tropical archipelago in the northwest.

 

Finally, I think that I have waited long enough, and no one has staked a claim on the territory that I want. So, if everyone is cool with it, may I please place a Crooked Warden flag on the Steppe above the Northern most desert? The one in between the mountains.  :)

Edited by The Crooked Warden
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It was on page six somewhere...

 

Here:

-Outside the realm of human perception, there exists a spiritual plane filled with magic. This leaks into the world in random places on the land. The type and intensity of the magic coming out of this "leak," as well as the leak's size, vary wildly.

-The only beings that can access this magic are a class of bioluminescent single-celled organisms called "Lumuoles," who use it as an energy source. Lumuoles are usually found as large groups of pinprick-sized colonies, floating through the air.

-Lumuoles can be found as different colors based on the type of magic leaking out: Red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, and white are the most common. White Lumuoles don't glow and even large colonies are nigh imperceptible.

-The unique residue from Lumuole colonies' methods of glucose production can be used by organisms to do magic "stuff" when ingested, with the exception of the residue of White Lumuoles, which needs to mix with silicon before it becomes a viable magic source. Each species of Lumuoles' residue is slightly different.

-A large portion of the continent is covered with massive, weak, sources of the type of magic leak that powers White Lumuoles. Over millions of years, the failed colonies that fall to the ground become fossilized in veins or are absorbed into the soil, mixing with silicon to become usable.

-Great Lumuoles appear extremely rarely, and their ingestion links an organism permanently to one of the six corresponding sections of the spiritual plane. Its descendants will have unique abilities and powers, and it will be able to influence the physical world after its death.

 

And here are the revised associations:

-White Lumuoles don't do anything, and are practically invisible, but they create mineral deposits of magic over time.

-Reds are associated with fire, industry, and fertility.

-Blues are associated with water, scholarship, and mental acuity.

-Yellows are associated with electricity, pride, and sovereignty.

-Greens are associated with wind, life and happiness.

-Oranges are associated with earth, strength and resolve.

-Purples are associated with light/darkness, illusion, and fear.

Edited by Mckeedee123
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It was on page six somewhere...

 

Here:

-Outside the realm of human perception, there exists a spiritual plane filled with magic. This leaks into the world in random places on the land. The type and intensity of the magic coming out of this "leak," as well as the leak's size, vary wildly.

-The only beings that can access this magic are a class of bioluminescent single-celled organisms called "Lumuoles," who use it as an energy source. Lumuoles are usually found as large groups of pinprick-sized colonies, floating through the air.

-Lumuoles can be found as different colors based on the type of magic leaking out: Red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, and white are the most common. White Lumuoles don't glow and even large colonies are nigh imperceptible.

-The unique residue from Lumuole colonies' methods of glucose production can be used by organisms to do magic "stuff" when ingested, with the exception of the residue of White Lumuoles, which needs to mix with silicon before it becomes a viable magic source. Each species of Lumuoles' residue is slightly different.

-A large portion of the continent is covered with massive, weak, sources of the type of magic leak that powers White Lumuoles. Over millions of years, the failed colonies that fall to the ground become fossilized in veins or are absorbed into the soil, mixing with silicon to become usable.

-Great Lumuoles appear extremely rarely, and their ingestion links an organism permanently to one of the six corresponding sections of the spiritual plane. Its descendants will have unique abilities and powers, and it will be able to influence the physical world after its death.

 

And here are the revised associations:

-White Lumuoles don't do anything, and are practically invisible, but they create mineral deposits of magic over time.

-Reds are associated with fire, industry, and fertility.

-Blues are associated with water, scholarship, and mental acuity.

-Yellows are associated with electricity, pride, and sovereignty.

-Greens are associated with wind, life and happiness.

-Oranges are associated with earth, strength and resolve.

-Purples are associated with light/darkness, illusion, and fear.

 

The humans/raptors/beings who ingest/ingested the Great Lumuoles are the ones who become/became the gods of Diaemus, right? Because if not, I think that would make sense. 

Edited by The Crooked Warden
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Personally, I am deeply in love with Mckeedee's magic proposal. I'm already brainstorming creatures that make use of the different colored lumuoles, and I think the system in general is beautifully diverse and allowing of all sorts of innovation.  :D

 

Speaking of creatures, I'm glad the Dromeans and Rachnyx are being met with approval. :) I'd love to have them declared officially part of the world, but I'm patiently waiting to see if anyone has any hefty objections to them. (Looking at you, Seonid and Edgedancer.) If they're approved, then my southern tip of the mountain range will be populated by a moderately powerful Dromean culture who call themselves the Ice Kin.

 

 

TwiLyght, since you're my worldbuilding buddy in the tundra region, do you have any preferences for what types of fauna and flora to populate the far south with? I've come up with a few concepts for some lumuole-adapted dinosaurs to populate the Arctic with, but I can hold off on them if you had specific ideas for the native life.

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Umm....I don't have any problems with those two races. I'm even working on a society of blue-lumuole adapted hill/plains-living Imperial Dromeans, who come into sometimes violent contact with a Rachnyx-allied Dromean tribal culture in the forests...

 

Which reminds me I need to pick a spot. Anyone mind if we add a northern continent? Two seems a little small...

 

And Crooked Warden, I think the point was that these 3 are all over the place. They don't have to be dominant everywhere (although they ought to be dominant somewhere). There are or should be at least a few localized intelligent species, including areas where they are dominant.

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Umm....I don't have any problems with those two races. I'm even working on a society of blue-lumuole adapted hill/plains-living Imperial Dromeans, who come into sometimes violent contact with a Rachnyx-allied Dromean tribal culture in the forests...

 

Which reminds me I need to pick a spot. Anyone mind if we add a northern continent? Two seems a little small...

 

And Crooked Warden, I think the point was that these 3 are all over the place. They don't have to be dominant everywhere (although they ought to be dominant somewhere). There are or should be at least a few localized intelligent species, including areas where they are dominant.

 

I agree that two seems small. I'd be okay with another continent, or even two if it's not too much trouble for Jerric.

 

And yeah, that's kind of what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for answering my question! 

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The humans/raptors/beings who ingest the Great Lumuoles are the ones who become the gods of Diaemus, right? Because if not, I think that would make sense. 

 

Spirits, ghosts, gods, whatever. Any being beyond the ordinary realm of perception. The demigodism is passed through their matriarchal bloodline.

 

Personally, I am deeply in love with Mckeedee's magic proposal. I'm already brainstorming creatures that make use of the different colored lumuoles, and I think the system in general is beautifully diverse and allowing of all sorts of innovation.   :D

 

Speaking of creatures, I'm glad the Dromeans and Rachnyx are being met with approval. :) I'd love to have them declared officially part of the world, but I'm patiently waiting to see if anyone has any hefty objections to them. (Looking at you, Seonid and Edgedancer.) If they're approved, then my southern tip of the mountain range will be populated by a moderately powerful Dromean culture who call themselves the Ice Kin.

 

Aww. Thanks.  ^_^

 

How tall is a fully-grown Dromean as compared to a human? Waist-height? Chest-height? Head-height? If their chief limiting factor is food, it stands to reason they'd have a lowish biomass.

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Spirits, ghosts, gods, whatever. Any being beyond the ordinary realm of perception. The demigodism is passed through their matriarchal bloodline.

 

 

Okay, cool! 

 

Back to the subject of the continents. Mayhaps throwing in a smaller one to Northwest, and then a mediumish one to the Southeast? I know I'm completely rearranging the map with this, so anyone who objects/approves please speak up!

Edited by The Crooked Warden
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I'm going to go out on a limb here, having just binge-read the entire thread, and propose a radical idea. This primarily impacts the metaphysics of the world, and not the actual cultural or biological aspects of the world. It concerns the nature of lumuoles. (I love that word. Upvotes for that.) To be read as in-world document of of an obscure tribe of Rachnyx. Asterisks indicate commentary by archaeologist, not forgotten WoBs.

 

[Diaemean_document]

Excerpt from a transcription of an ancient speechknot* found in a submarine cavern system that appears to be long cut off from the current skritchpass networks. Evidence of Rachnyx civilization is obvious. 

 

In the past, it has been widely held that lumuoles are infinitesimally tiny creatures that bring power into our world. They bring power of many types, reflecting the colors of the elements that they associate with. (Now, I will not treat the ages old debate of causation versus attraction because it is irrelevant to my main point.)1 The icefolk understand this much, but have not had the time to realize that this power is not intrinsic to the lumuoles, but is channelled from elsewhere. The more scholarly hunters have guessed about the otherworldly nature of the power, but even their clever minds have not come any closer to understanding what I disclose here.

 

I propose that our world is full of pores, holes within the substance of space, and that Lumuoles are not simply magical microorganisms, but the physical aspects of these pores in reality. They open up to many different** spiritual planes and have unknown aspects on the other side. What exactly they allow into each spiritual plane is unknown, but since they allow different powers into our world, it stands to reason that the other sides should be similarly gifted. 

 

Now, do not mistake what I am saying here. The fact that lumuoles are by nature portals does not mean that they cease to live. Rather, they are living breaches that have unknown origins. The wee beasts that we observe are simply one aspect of something with two bodies. Now, the other body may not be what we would consider biological or even physical, but are of a completely different nature. Recall the reports of individuals who, having absorbed absurd numbers of lumuoles seemingly rent their minds shortly before vanishing, leaving clouds of glowing air that warped the world near them. I hypothesize that this is caused by so many of these pores being forced together that the reality in between them was thin enough to tear by itself, leaving gaping holes, making an artificial Great Lumuole which quickly collapsed. Perhaps, given enough lumuoles and technique, a person could replicate the effect of ingesting a Great Lumuole. 

 

*Speechknots are collections of silk that are made by carefully twisting different kinds and thicknesses of silk into intricate patterns in order to record. They may be stretched over frames and magically reinforced with all manner of enchantments. The art is old and revered, but held in varied esteem by different tribes of Rachnyx. 

 

**The knot here is doubly weaved and triply thick, emphasizing multiple realms, which seems to indicate that the presence of multiple realms was a novel idea, even in the day of the author. 

[/Diaemean_document]

 

The remark about attraction versus causation is something I want to highlight. I'm afraid lumuoles are too similar to spren. Let's prevent Sandersonian plagiarism.  ;)

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TwiLyght, since you're my worldbuilding buddy in the tundra region, do you have any preferences for what types of fauna and flora to populate the far south with? I've come up with a few concepts for some lumuole-adapted dinosaurs to populate the Arctic with, but I can hold off on them if you had specific ideas for the native life.

The main fauna I wanted for the tundra region involved prey animals for humans and prey ocean creatures for the seals. Some land creatures that the humans could hunt so they wouldn't be in direct competition with the seals on that front. The humans would also need skin animals that could be used for parkas and dwellings, though if some sort of plant provided equal or superior covering I could work with that.

I'm considering having the twin sisters be the goddesses of that particular region and fashioning the religion accordingly. Tentatively, the human-seal society will be matriarchal.

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The main fauna I wanted for the tundra region involved prey animals for humans and prey ocean creatures for the seals. Some land creatures that the humans could hunt so they wouldn't be in direct competition with the seals on that front. The humans would also need skin animals that could be used for parkas and dwellings, though if some sort of plant provided equal or superior covering I could work with that.

I'm considering having the twin sisters be the goddesses of that particular region and fashioning the religion accordingly. Tentatively, the human-seal society will be matriarchal.

 

This is in a tundra, so any land animals would need at least some fur to keep them warm, even if they had a blubber layer. You could eliminate two birds with one stone by having the humans hunt certain animals for their fur and their meat. You could also have them use the bones for their tools and stuff, like the plains native americans did. 

Edited by The Crooked Warden
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I'm going to go out on a limb here, having just binge-read the entire thread, and propose a radical idea. This primarily impacts the metaphysics of the world, and not the actual cultural or biological aspects of the world. It concerns the nature of lumuoles. (I love that word. Upvotes for that.) To be read as in-world document of of an obscure tribe of Rachnyx. Asterisks indicate commentary by archaeologist, not forgotten WoBs.

 

[Diaemean_document]

Excerpt from a transcription of an ancient speechknot* found in a submarine cavern system that appears to be long cut off from the current skritchpass networks. Evidence of Rachnyx civilization is obvious. 

 

In the past, it has been widely held that lumuoles are infinitesimally tiny creatures that bring power into our world. They bring power of many types, reflecting the colors of the elements that they associate with. (Now, I will not treat the ages old debate of causation versus attraction because it is irrelevant to my main point.)1 The icefolk understand this much, but have not had the time to realize that this power is not intrinsic to the lumuoles, but is channelled from elsewhere. The more scholarly hunters have guessed about the otherworldly nature of the power, but even their clever minds have not come any closer to understanding what I disclose here.

 

I propose that our world is full of pores, holes within the substance of space, and that Lumuoles are not simply magical microorganisms, but the physical aspects of these pores in reality. They open up to many different** spiritual planes and have unknown aspects on the other side. What exactly they allow into each spiritual plane is unknown, but since they allow different powers into our world, it stands to reason that the other sides should be similarly gifted. 

 

Now, do not mistake what I am saying here. The fact that lumuoles are by nature portals does not mean that they cease to live. Rather, they are living breaches that have unknown origins. The wee beasts that we observe are simply one aspect of something with two bodies. Now, the other body may not be what we would consider biological or even physical, but are of a completely different nature. Recall the reports of individuals who, having absorbed absurd numbers of lumuoles seemingly rent their minds shortly before vanishing, leaving clouds of glowing air that warped the world near them. I hypothesize that this is caused by so many of these pores being forced together that the reality in between them was thin enough to tear by itself, leaving gaping holes, making an artificial Great Lumuole which quickly collapsed. Perhaps, given enough lumuoles and technique, a person could replicate the effect of ingesting a Great Lumuole. 

 

*Speechknots are collections of silk that are made by carefully twisting different kinds and thicknesses of silk into intricate patterns in order to record. They may be stretched over frames and magically reinforced with all manner of enchantments. The art is old and revered, but held in varied esteem by different tribes of Rachnyx. 

 

**The knot here is doubly weaved and triply thick, emphasizing multiple realms, which seems to indicate that the presence of multiple realms was a novel idea, even in the day of the author. 

[/Diaemean_document]

 

The remark about attraction versus causation is something I want to highlight. I'm afraid lumuoles are too similar to spren. Let's prevent Sandersonian plagiarism.  ;)

 

Great idea. I'm fine with tweaking the metaphysics to avoid seeming too much like spren, though I can't speak for everyone else.

 

And holy Termid, that's a fantastic format for explaining anything magical in the world! We need to have an in-world Rachnyx character in the "modern period" that collects lore like this just to give you an excuse to write more of this stuff.

Edited by Mckeedee123
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