Goob Posted August 22, 2021 Report Share Posted August 22, 2021 The basic premise for this idea came to me last year and me and @Spock have been working it on it off-and-on since last October. Massive thanks to him for co-creating the setting and plot! The Setting: Spoiler A Mosaic of Blood is set in the Fragile Universe where, early in it's lifetime, some great calamity caused spacetime to significantly weaken, allowing all sorts of strange things to leak in... Beings Beings are extradimensional beings of immense and unknowable power. In any other universe, a mere glance at a Being would drive the onlooker insane- however, due to the length of time these entities have been in the Fragile Universe, the denizens have adapted to their presence and have an "Outer Mind" to filter out and ignore the unknowable. The Beings sleep for hundreds or thousands of years in hard-to-reach places such as the deep sea or under a mountain. This is due to the mostly logical nature of the universe weighing them down. Whenever one does awake for even a short amount of time, it is a momentous occasion indeed... Cults Cults are religious organizations that worship the Beings. There are a great many cults and most people are part of at least one. Cults usually focus on the positive side of a Being's domain- for example, the cult of Khæg, a god of decay, focuses more on change and letting the past go than death and the inevitable end of everything. This makes cults far more approachable and due to their commonality, they've become far more friendly. Most of them, anyways. A few in particular follow Beings who's domain is far less interpretable, and have fallen into degeneracy and have been cast out from the rest of society. Beings can occasionally give out blessings to prominent cult members, giving all sorts of strange and fantastical abilities. Here is a list of some of the larger and more popular cults: Spoiler Cult of Khsu: Unity, one-ness Cult of Khæg: Decay Cult of Ngæzax: Darkness Cult of Noteyx: Stars, the night sky Cult of Cvak: Obsession, passion Cult of Adynaton: Probability, fortune-telling Cult of Kismet: Fate/Destiny Magic The magic of the Fragile Universe is Cracking, in which a user (who can be anyone with education with a small exception) breaks the great ceramic of the universe and causes a variety of effects. Aspects are building blocks of the universe and are heavily entwinned in magic. There are five of them, being Space Matter Energy Thought Time Each Aspect has a number of associated Cracks (spells) related to them, and to Crack in the first place you must have a piece of Fluxonium to swing and you must sacrifice one of your personal aspects. Sacrificing Matter erases a piece of matter which you choose. Sacrificing Energy permanently tires you a little. Sacrificing thought permanently fogs your mind, and sacrificing time shortens your lifespan. Space cannot be sacrificed. The more you sacrifice, the more powerful the Crack. Any sacrifice can power any Crack of any type. To regenerate a lost Aspect, you must go to a Capacitor, which acts as a source of a specific Aspect and can heal Cracker's sacrifices. They can also charge specific materials connected to an Aspect with that Aspect., allowing anyone to draw from this source. The aspect's substances are: Space: Silver, Gold, or Platinum Matter: Anything, but the more dense it is the more it can hold Energy: Uranium Thought: Anything living. Time: Bismuth List of Cracks Spoiler Space Crack of Inflation: Inflates space in a certain area, warping targets in it’s radius and making travel across it take longer Crack of Deflation: Deflates space in a certain area, warping targets in it’s radius and making travel across it take less time Crack of Displacement: Makes it so a portion of your body acts shifted anywhere from a couple of feet to a couple of yards. (Allows you to punch someone from a couple feet away) Crack of Transportation: Creates a wormhole for a fraction of a second, transporting anything of your choice from a couple of feet to a couple of miles away. You have to have been to the location before, however. Matter Crack of Creation: Creates matter out of thin air. Cannot create Capacitor materials. Sacrifice is proportional to the mass of the thing you want to create- it’s hard to make anything intricate Crack of Destruction: Destroys matter. Proportional to the mass of the thing you want to destroy. Crack of Warping: Bends, twists, and deforms matter. Crack of Changing: Changes one form of matter to another. The more different two substances are, the more sacrifice it requires. Crack of Friction: Increases or decreases the amount of friction and target experiences. Energy Crack of Light: Creates a light source- the larger or brighter the source, the more it costs. Crack of Stamina: Decreases the amount of energy it takes to run a body or do physical tasks. Crack of Force: Applies a force in a certain direction on a target. Crack of Heat: Heats or cools a target. Crack of Strength: Increases the amount of force the target’s muscles can exert. Crack of Invisibility: Requiring constant focus (and much practice), this makes a target undetectable to the eye. Beginners to this crack may be able to camouflage a target—which requires less skill and focus. This can affect multiple targets at once, though the sacrifice requirement grows exponentially to size and number of targets. Thought: Crack of Entry: Prerequisite for the rest of the cracks in the school of Thought. Gives entry to a person’s mind, to allow the other cracks to be used. Crack of Control: Completely takes over the target’s mind, acting as a puppet of the caster. Crack of Focus: Increases the mental ability of a target (usually a sentient entity). Crack of Confusion: Confuses the target, making them think they are lost or just adding a mental fuzz. Crack of Breaking: Drives the target insane. Frowned upon in most groups. Crack of Spying: Allows the caster to see what the target is thinking about, or at least an general idea. Crack of Manipulation: A more subtle alternative to Control- nudges a person into an emotion or an opinion. Crack of Guarding: Gives extra protection to the target against other Crackers- it takes significantly more sacrifice to cast the Crack of Entry on a person with a Crack of Guarding Time Crack of Acceleration: Increases the rate at which the target perceives and/or moves through time. Crack of Deceleration: Decreases the rate at which the target perceives and/or moves through time. Crack of Longevity: Changes the rate at which the bodily functions age/break down—note that this does not affect the perception or passage of time relative to the target. Crack of Jumping: Time Travel. So powerful it instantly kills anyone who attempts to use this crack. Dveix Dveix is the world A Mosaic of Blood is set on. It is an earth-like planet with large oceans. Most of Dveix is ruled by or pays lip service to the Tessellate Empire, a highly decentralized kingdom that has only a small amount power outside of it's core territory. In the Empire, when a child hits the age of 10 they choose a occupation to study- usually they choose their family's trade but some choose to take a test and become eligible to become a Cracker of a specific Aspect. Even if you do past the test, however, a master must choose you afterwards. Those of higher classes tend to get chosen more often, since masters appreciate their parent's deep pockets, but a good few commoners are still chosen every year. Once a Cracker graduates school and gets their fluxonium hammer, they are free to choose- many of the richer Crackers work for the empire, or are permanently hired by a lord. Many, however, become freelancers and mercenaries for hire. A Cracker usually chooses to specialize in one Aspect- learning one is difficult enough, and learning all of them is essentially impossible, especially due to Time being incredibly dangerous and forbidden to learn. Rough Map of the Tessellate Empire (Apologies for an unfinished map, I can't edit it anymore for some reason...) The location of A Mosaic of Blood is Cveiran, an semi-independent city state on the coast, ruled by a council of local cults. (If I explained anything poorly, I'll happily clarify) It's a perfect day in Cveiran. The sun shimmers over the ocean, the stubby buildings casting short shadows in the midday light. Thousands of people line the streets, as today is the day the Emperor's Parade arrives at Cveiran. The Emperor himself wouldn't be there, of course- he was far too busy up in the capital, Xahelis. But many important people would be there- nobles, generals, and, most importantly, the Emperor's head diplomat and cousin, Dergoan J'kal, It was truly a fanciful occasion- carts pulled by the emperor's finest horses carried men of great stature throwing golden coins out into the crowd to show the Emperor's wealth, and a Cracker repeatedly turning a chunk of lead into various other substances with a Capacitor behind him to show the Emperor's highly skilled Crackers. Guards line every float and cart, of course. Surely nothing could ruin such a perfect celebration! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Channelknight Fadran Posted August 22, 2021 Report Share Posted August 22, 2021 Quote I will read all that later when I have the time and motivation 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unknown Ajah Posted August 22, 2021 Report Share Posted August 22, 2021 Quote This sounds very fun. Can I have person be blessed by one of the last two cults, allowing them to travel to the future? Probably from a time before the current empire, so they can remark on the things they dislike and stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goob Posted August 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2021 On 8/22/2021 at 4:59 PM, The Unknown Order said: Quote Alright, but you can only time travel once every 50 years. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goob Posted August 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2021 On 8/22/2021 at 3:39 PM, Channelknight Fadran said: Quote Sorry for doubleposting, but... poke? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Szeth_Pancakes Posted December 25, 2021 Report Share Posted December 25, 2021 Quote Why did this get abandoned? The premise looks really interesting. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goob Posted December 25, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2021 20 hours ago, Szeth_Pancakes said: Quote I dunno. Suppose people just weren't interested 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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