Firesong's Worldbuilding Thread

[Firesong she/her]

Hey, I am Firesong, I have been doing a lot of Worldbuilding in the Combined Shards Thread, and felt it would be fun to have a greater variety of these smaller worldbuilding experiments that I can share. Which I felt I could include here. I like doing experiments with worldbuilding where I work on making a world in just a few hours, or to when I start getting burnt out and bored with the project, and see what I come up with. 

I can expand on some I make if y'all really enjoy them, and I feel like expanding on that world. 

I think it would be interesting to mark this one without any title, as a type of surprise box for the first one. (2~3 hours of development)

Spoiler

Saalashin, World of Titans:

Saalashin is a world where the only inhabitable land is on the back of immense creatures known as Lashin, or Titans, which move through an eternal sea. 

 

Titans:

Titans, also known as Lashin, are immense creatures that vary wildly in shape. Countless civilizations have been made upon their backs. 

Known Titans:

Ahur Ma'thal:

One of the Major Titans, a massive bird-like Titan with 4 wings with feathers of countless different colours, a long and sinuous neck, and large ram-like horns. 

While it is capable of flying, it primarily swims through the seas. But, as stated, it does fly occasionally, and society on its back had to evolve to deal with the occasional flight, which can easily throw them off its back and into the seas, spelling certain death. The way they deal with it is with most buildings and homes having an underground shelter that they can move into when they feel the beast about to take off, these shelters have various things that allow people to hold themselves still during the take-off. Buildings are also built sturdy to deal with the shaking of take-off and the high-force winds experienced at high altitudes. 

Varūn:

One of the Major Titans, a massive whale-like creature that spends most of its time deep below the seas, with people making their civilization in massive cavities in its body, accessible through the mouth when it opens it. Surprisingly, there is a complex ecosystem throughout its insides, and that oxygen, warmth, and pressure are all regulated to keep this ecosystem and the humans within it alive. 

It is believed that it does this through the magic of the prana running through its veins and arteries, allowing it to regulate its own body in a seemingly impossible manner. 

Vazah Hanem:

A large hexapedal, turtle-like Titan whose habitable area is a massive circular platform on its back. It is one of the slower moving Lashin. 

Biology:

All Titans have a thick layer of dirt, stone, and carapace between the surface people live on, and the actual layer between the inside and outside of their body. Thus, it does not harm the Titan to mine into layers of stone, or create underground rooms. It can only harm them if one does it in the specific areas where their biological material (such as veins, nerves, and arteries, move overly close to the inhabited layer of the creature)

Intelligence:

Titans are very intelligent creatures, smarter than even humans. However, the vast majority of Titans lack the ability to speak in any human tongue, thus many people tend to think of them as either glorified animals, or as simply just part of the world, a landmass and little more. 

 

Ichor:

Ichor is a unique substance that flows through the veins of Titans, acting as their blood. However, it differentiates itself from blood in several ways. 

Ichor is a bright almost cyan colour, which lets off a powerful iridescence. It is capable of holding onto oxygen, much like ordinary blood, but it is notable for also being able to take in the prana that permeates all reality, which it spreads throughout the body of the Titan, and grants them their nigh-immortality and immense size. Due to this, areas where it moves close to the surface tends to be lush with life and growth, typically accompanied by the growth of cyan and magenta crystals which can grow to rather immense sizes and give off the same iridescent glow as ichor, these are simply known as Ichor Crystals. They primarily get their prana from that which is deeply saturated into the eternal waters, with various organs being present in the parts of them that are always under the water, which are capable of taking in the waters, separating the prana and waters from each other through a series of very complex biochemical and magickal reactions, before releasing the water back and sending the prana into a collection of veins which are situated closely to the organ in question. 

Ichor can be harvested from various locations across a Titan where the veins and arteries move very closely to their body, allowing it to be easily accessible with a little mining. It is harvested for multiple reasons, one reason being the bright light that it lets out. But that is not the only thing that humanity uses it for, they also make use of it for powering various forms of advanced technology. The discovery of Ichor was integral to the technological revolution of Saalashin. 

Some people see the harvesting of ichor as an extremely cruel abuse of the Titans that they owe their existence to, and thus object to any use of Ichor or any harvesting of it. This movement is present on all Titans, but is most prevalent on the Titan of Ahur Ma'thal. Where the standard population was always rather opposed to it, but became especially opposed after the Ichor Incident of 1342, where an Ichor mine accidently ruptured a vein their were mining from, causing the mine to be drowned in Ichor, killing all of the workers and causing the Titan to noticeably bellow out in agony. 

Ichor Poisoning and Ichor Consumption:

While Ichor grants life and health those who interact with it, it is not exactly contemporaneous with good health in humans. This is due to the fact that high doses of Ichor can cause negative reactions which are known as Ichor Poisoning.

Ichor Poisoning can have various effects, such as long-lasting spells of nausea and dizziness (that can last from a few hours to several days or longer), visual distortions, audiovisual and tactile hallucinations, high body temperatures, high resting heartrate, high energy or euphoria lasting for extended periods of time (12 hours to several days or more), ego death, insomnia, depersonalization, and Organicrystallization. The most extreme cases, complete loss of subjective self-identity and existence. 

Organicrystalisation is the direct and irreparable modification of organic material into Ichor Crystals. It can be fatal if any vital organs are transformed, as they lose functionality and the crystals themselves can hemorrhage nearby organs, causing internal hemorrhaging. This is thought to come from the fact that the body is a very poor vessel for prana, and thus it leaks out and begins to warp the vessel it is contained within.  

 

Various people have taken a liking to the effects of Ichor when consumed, despite warnings from scientists and other authorities about the dangers of such consumption. The positive effects that attracts them to using it include: a feeling of euphoria, an increase in energy, and a feeling of spiritual enlightenment and connection to the Titans and all eternity. Due to the last part, many spiritualist people who worship the Titans tend to take part in consuming it for religious experiences and communion. 

Another side of the argument on using it are some scholars and doctors which suggest that it would be helpful in controlled microdoses, as it has been proven that it is able to deal with a large range of medical and psychological in small doses. This has received pushback due to the dangers of overdose on the substance, and due to people believing that allowing its use for such things would lead to people simply faking disorders to try and get their hands on it. This is still heavily contested in many nations. 

 

The Great Waters:

A sea that stretches on seemingly endlessly in all directions, many people have theorized, in both religion and science, that something exists beyond the sea, but as of yet, there as been no proof of this. 

It is impossible to actually swim in the water, anything that tries to float in it would ultimately sink. That is, everything except for the Titans, who, by their very nature, are capable of moving through and swimming through the sea. Due to this, people have attempted making boats out of Titan bone or carapace, which does work. However, this ignores another risk to crossing the oceans. 

The Waters are absolutely saturated with prana, but it is difficult to separate the prana from the liquid, in such a way that the only known method comes from the biological processes of the Titans. They take in the water, separate it into water and prana, and then release the water back into the sea. 

It is not exactly normal water, its chemical formula is different and it is much thicker. Beyond even the chemical formula, it has further differences that come to the energies which permeated and changed it. 

Beasts Beneath:

Various creatures live hidden under the waters, preying off anything that falls into the waters. They also attempt to feed off of the feet and bottom side of Titans, biting into their flesh with tight teeth to rip off flesh or drink from their ichor. This provides them sustenance integral to their survival. 

These are one of the reasons why it is so dangerous to cross the waters, even with a Titanbone Ship. As they will attack anyone who attempts to cross it. 

 

A Potent Energy:

Prana is a form of magical energy which permeates all of reality to different extents. All living creatures, and physical objects, hold some level of prana, as it is inherently required for life, without any prana, one is not simply not alive, but doesn't exist at all. In a sense, prana can be thought of as the substance of reality itself. Prana can be thought of as a metaphysical "is"-ness. 

Taking in healthy amounts can lead to an improvement of mental physical health, or at the further end even making one begin to ascend and connect more and more with reality. Taking in too much can begin to cause negative effects, and make the sense of Oneness become too strong, to the point that they begin to lose sense of self, as it begins to unravel one's self as it is understood by intelligent beings, freeing oneself from the boundaries of haecceity, quiddity, self, and definition.

Essentially, it makes one completely stop existing, becoming one with everything in the world and beyond, including nothingness. In this transcendent state, one cannot be accurately defined or described in any way, no truth values can apply to them, in fact, this very description is wrong due to the fact that by saying one cannot be defined, one is giving them a definition, and therefore a limitation that describes what is and is-not. And by saying this definition is wrong, we are saying what they cannot be, and therefore defining them again. (infinite recursion as I constantly point out how everything I say is wrong)

Origin:

Although prana permeated all of reality even long before it, the level present throughout reality had come from one specific event. 

The death of the great god Hakash Rumaiya sūndai Hanasur was a tragic event that changed much of reality. They were in a massive battle with their metaphysical opposite, Eshūma Ravati kaiyudai Aban, which lasted for countless years. This battle was between Hakash who wanted the land to extend eternally, with Eshuma granting water to nourish life. But Eshuma did not want to play such a minor role, and thus they tried to argue that land doesn't have to exist, and that it need only be sea stretching eternally. This lasted for countless epochs, in a battle both literal and figurative, land rising and life developing, to be flooded by sea, for the sea to be rended for life to begin anew, all while they dance the dance of steel and blood. It is not known how many years they fought, or how many cycles were gone through in their fight. Perhaps more than the eponymous number of Ronald Graham. 

In the end, Eshūma managed to strike his sword across Hakash, killing them and slicing them into countless parts. Their blood and essence spread out across reality, with most becoming part of the water which their sections were dropped into. This changed them into the Waters of the Endless Sea, and made them a magical source of essence. 

But at the same time as Eshuma slew Hakash, Hakash laid a killing blow across Eshuma, from the should do the naval, though they took longer to perish. In their final moments, they flooded the land with the Waters. But even in death, their will continued to grant life. Various creatures in the water, nourished by their essence, and from the flesh they partook of, began to mutate and become Titans over many billions of years. And from these Titans sprouted countless creatures and plants. 

But, Eshuma couldn't stop it, as they perished, and their body is still visible in the distance, with that massive gash still present across their form. People think of this as a rather humanoid Titan, others think of it as a dead creator, but nobody knows the truth of them and their history. Only having theories and mythology to go off of. They do act as a useful sign of direction and location, allowing people to determine their location by the size and location of Eshuma's Corpse, which is the one thing whose location remains completely consistent.

(as you would have questions, this is technically just their physical existence in the physical realm in a singular moment of time. With this moment in time constantly shifting forward, with them always lacking a form of either of them. They still exist outside of the world, and in countless different moments of time. It is like if you take a cube, and cut out a singular cross-section and destroy it. you still have the other 100% of the cube (as 1/∞ = ε = 0, thus 1 - ε = 1), and not only do you have all of that, but the platonic ideal of a cube continues to exist in the World of Forms completely unaffected (you have to assume that Plato's philosophy about Forms is correct within the context of this metaphor for this metaphor to fully work). Then imagine that it is a rectangular prism of infinite length, and that it is constantly moving in the direction of its length, you would see that the erased cross-section would move with the moving of the prism.  This is as good of a metaphor I can give to describe what exactly happened.) 

 

[The Sibling she/her]

Nice! I love the idea of living on a bird who randomly just starts flying, but honestly my favorite titan is the whale one. Living underwater off of it's oxygen sounds epic. 

[Firesong she/her]

21 minutes ago, The Sibling said:

Nice! I love the idea of living on a bird who randomly just starts flying, but honestly my favorite titan is the whale one. Living underwater off of it's oxygen sounds epic. 

Why, thank you, lovely to hear you enjoyed. 

[ʟɪɢʜʈ]

Yes this is awesome. I really like how to take specific things, and make them affect the natural world itself so much.

[alder24]

@Firesong I've missed this topic. My bad. I love your worlds and let's dive into this one. 

Ok, I should have started reading the whole section before commenting as you explained all my nitpicks a bit lower in your description.

That was a very fascinating world, as always. I love the idea of giant titans on which humans live and the addictive magic and the one that makes somebody transcend reality. The origins of this world are also cool and the idea of the corpse of the god visible on the sky but unreachable (I think) is so cool. I love those details. 

Edited August 26, 2023 by alder24

[Firesong she/her]

Spoiler

The World of the Godtree 

Sen-Azami-Kankoro is a world that once existed in relative peace, all under the guidance of a great goddess known as Fatakuni Sukuna, also known as Camasanu. Sure, war constantly ravaged the world and human rights were routinely ignored by monarchs, but people felt a sense of guidance in their lives. However, this period was not one that could last forever. 

Around 3000 years ago, the moon cracked open, and a great beast known as Yatoma-Suragi broke out and began to wreck havoc across the planet, creating great fissures, burning cities to the ground, and causing the planet to shake violently enough to collapse castles. He and Fatakuni-Sukuna fought in a long battle, which ultimately left them both exhausted and wounded, but, in a last act of hatred against her, Yatoma-Suragi broke the world into pieces and sent them flying into the void. Fatakuni-Sukuna reacted by killing him, and, using the last of her energy, she turned into a great core of light, from which radiated thick branches of gold and silver, scintallating like diamonds, which grasped at the chucks and pulled them back. Though, it ultimately couldn't restore the world back to its previous state, large gaps being left between the chunks through which one could look down and gaze upon the tree. 

In the middle of each chuck, an impossible large tree, nigh a kilometre tall, rises and lets of a radiant blue and silver light. These trees are very important to life, religion, and culture, and also act as the source of lifeforce throughout these chunks. 

 

The Monogami Dynasty:

The Monogami Dynasty is a powerful royal family that rules over the nation of Cami-Runat. They are the only political dynasty to have survived from the era before the world was broken, which is something that many dynasties claim, but only the Monogami can say truthfully. 

 

They live in an enormous palace which wraps entirely around their Tree, circular and rises in many layers. This not only creates a striking image and a meaningful symbol, a display of their power and (claimed) divinity, but it also establishes a monopoly over access to the Tree, further establishing their power and authority. And with how much connection the Trees have with the world and people, the level of authority this displays is nigh-indescribable.

The Monogami Palace is considered one of, if not the, most beautiful architectural marvels on the planet, gilded with gold and studded with gems, backed by the radiant blue and silver glow of the Tree, and with spires rising up all around the unique circular design. It is an absolute marvel to gaze upon.  

 

The current king, as of 3073 AB, is Ha-Jamushani.

 

The Founding Myth:

They claim that the progenitor of their line was was a great and ancient king known as Foumikunahama 5000 years before the Breaking. He was said to have ruled with both kindness and sternness, and gained the respect of all his subjects. He is said to have been the best man alive during his era, and even the animals and the winds respected his authority. 

It is said that he was chosen by the goddess Fatakuni Sukuna, who possessed his wife, so that the child born would have the body and blood of both god and man. Thus their line would have a true right to rule over all mankind. This, they claim, made a line of demigods which continued to hold the authority over man inherent in a divinity, and thus they could not be opposed. 

Historicity:

This myth is, although rooted in some actual history, completely untrue and simply made as an excuse to justify their position of rule over the people, and as a way to silence any opposition to their authority and their decisions by framing any opposition as essentially being an opposition against Camasanu herself. 

The true history behind this is that one king of Samuri, named Ranik, not Foumikunahama, was favored by the Goddess, despite his tyranny. This occured only 1000 years before the Breaking, not 5000. He was granted youth and vigor, but not godhood. Furthermore, the current house does not truly descend from him. His dynasty lasted for 8 generations, before they were left without valid heirs, and, after a bloody civil war, the throne went to a branch House of the family known as Rasani-You. 

Rasani-you lasted for five generations, before they too were left without heirs after a plague swept through the nation, and wound up striking the House hard. Ultimately, they had to secretly adopt a child from a House that a female member of the House (from a separate genealogical branch than the line of monarchs, splitting in the third generation) married into.* 

 

* This was with a pretty small and unnotable nation to the border, known as Hasesen, which they arranged a marriage with to establish peace; turn them into a protectorate, wherein Samuri provides military support if they are every attacked by a foreign power; form a solid system of trade, and to gain access to the valuable resource deposits (of largely gold, silver, and bronze found at the base of a large mountain range that runs through the nation, which they were not properly exploiting). The adopted child was the nephew of the prince (to which this woman was married), and thus was not even of Samuri descent, much less descent from Ranik. 

The Races of Man:

There are several races (read: Species) of mankind throughout the world. These number five. 

Humanity is as one would expect. 

Kaniga are humanoids with a tall stature and six fingers per hand. Their skin varies in different shades of purple and pinkish purple. They lack external ears, like a lizard, and have arms a bit too long relative to their height, enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be overly distracting or "ugly". Their canines are a bit sharper than standard humans, and their teeth have a somewhat bluish hue. Some humans have interbred with Kaniga, leading to the birth of genealogical lines and ethnicities which display their skin tone and stature, these people tend to have a high rate of polydactyly. The lack of external ears is rarely passed down to any cross-species offspring. 

Fatakuni Sukuna:

A divine figure in the history of Sen-Azami-Kankoro, who watched over and tended to humanity for a period of 30,000 years after creating them and the world as a whole, at least according to what she claims. 

She ultimately had to sacrifice herself in order to hold together the world as the Godtree, after it was destroyed by the dark god Yatoma-Suragi, as she was severely weakened in the battle against him, and couldn't fix it without sacrificing herself. Thus she became the tree and grasped onto the pieces floating into the void, pulling them back together. 

She was the one who sealed Yatoma-Suragi in the Moon to begin with. He was her far more destructive counterpart, who always destroyed whatever she created. Thus she bound him in chains of purest essence, imbued with the Ideal of Binding itself, and created countless layers, each engraved with a complex series of glyphs and circles and incantations, each almost infinitely complex and infinitely thin. Each not only acting as a binding in of itself, but also interacting with every other layer in order to compound and create even more complex bindings. In order to assure that he could never escape. (I am thinking on the order of trillions of these layers) Essentially, it was not a moon, it was just countless layers of binding spells to hold back a being of pure destruction. 

 

While usually rendered as a Goddess, she is interpreted differently to different people due to her transcendent and indefinable nature, thus some see her as male, some see her as female, while others see her as embodying both or neither.  

Other Titles: 

(Spoilered due to big list)

Spoiler

1. Our Great Lady
2. The Divine Feminine 
3. She Who is worthy of Worship
4. The Most Just
5. Vanquisher of the Beast
6. The Beneficiary
7. She Who Embraces All
8. Prince of Still Waters 
9. The Immovable One
10. She Who Remains Eternally Unchanging
11. The Immutable 
12. Lord of Purity
13. She who is Concealed
14. She who is Revealed
15. The Ever Victorious 
16. The Godtree
17. Heart of the Godtree
18. The Formless
19. The Untainted
20. The All in All
21. She of Purest Essence
22. She Who is Revealed Through Good Virtue
23. Attainer of All
24. Tender to the Endless Fields
25. Lord of Bountiful Harvest
26. The Most Merciful 
27. The Ancient One
28. She who Smites Evil
29. Giver of Life
30. He who is All
31. The All-Sacrificing 
32. The Walker of the Line
33. Bearer of Youku and Mani
34. The Night and Day
35. The Beginning and the End
36. The Infallible 
37. The Knower of All Things

 

 

(Unfinished, so if you only want to see it finished, it isn't ready yet. Just late so I have to stop for now)

[ʟɪɢʜʈ]

Wow I really like this one especially. I like the backstory and world itself a lot.

And you get my 400th post for it.

Edited September 18, 2023 by ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ