worldbuilding Fantasy World planning

[kenod]

8 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

I think that makes sense. But we probably want to call these people demigods, so we better come up with a new name for that level of invested naturalists.

I would think that this would be pretty rare.

I don't think that children of humans that have not ascended would receive any noticeable benefits, unless perhaps they were descended from a god somewhere.

If nothing else, they should be able to get power from their godly parent.

I think that it's fine for demigods to also have Innate magic. It's basically using Natural magic, and other Natural users can still use Innate.

 

I'm not sure about the term demigod, since it implies a rather high level of power. It would probably work for people who parents are gods, but I also meant this as a guideline for characters who're children of people or spirits with a lot less power.

7 hours ago, Steel Inquisitive said:

I like it and don't like it at the same time. I like it because it feels like a natural part of this world. I don't like it because it makes character crafting very lazy. At least with Natural magic you have to explain how they got the ability, but with this you can just say that you're the child of someone else and don't need to explain anything else. Basically I don't like it because it removes all the restrictions. If you guys want to use it, then I'm not against it. Maybe we could say it's very rare?

For rarity, agreed. My own idea was that most of the time, this wouldn't result in powerful active abilities, except for either rare cases or parents with high levels of power (rank 5 or higher). For parents of lower ranks it would be limited to either extremely weak active powers (like being able to light a candle), just being a lot more skilled at something, like the child of a famous archer having a lot of innate skill with bows, or having a special form of sensory-type ability.
Also, active abilities might need Investure crystals to work, instead of just working normally.

A few examples:

• (Parent: class 3 human, hunter): Child has an instinctive ability for tracking prey.
• (Parent: class 5 genius loci, forest spirit): Child can control the forest their parent is connected with to some degree (only that specific forest).
• (Parent: class 4 human, fortune teller): Child sometimes has feelings about what is going to happen, this isn't controllable.
• (Parent: class 4 spirit, fire spirit): Child can create small flames (about enough to light a candle, or start a camp-fire).
• (Parent: class 6 human, god of the storms): Child knows when storms will come, and can manipulate wind.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

8 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Wait Natural magic users can use Innate magic? I thought that was an inborn trait?

Sorry, I should have made that more clear. Innate users who gain natural magic can still use their Innate power. It doesn't get nulled by the natural magic.

2 hours ago, kenod said:

I'm not sure about the term demigod, since it implies a rather high level of power. It would probably work for people who parents are gods, but I also meant this as a guideline for characters who're children of people or spirits with a lot less power.

For rarity, agreed. My own idea was that most of the time, this wouldn't result in powerful active abilities, except for either rare cases or parents with high levels of power (rank 5 or higher). For parents of lower ranks it would be limited to either extremely weak active powers (like being able to light a candle), just being a lot more skilled at something, like the child of a famous archer having a lot of innate skill with bows, or having a special form of sensory-type ability.
Also, active abilities might need Investure crystals to work, instead of just working normally.

A few examples:

• (Parent: class 3 human, hunter): Child has an instinctive ability for tracking prey.
• (Parent: class 5 genius loci, forest spirit): Child can control the forest their parent is connected with to some degree (only that specific forest).
• (Parent: class 4 human, fortune teller): Child sometimes has feelings about what is going to happen, this isn't controllable.
• (Parent: class 4 spirit, fire spirit): Child can create small flames (about enough to light a candle, or start a camp-fire).
• (Parent: class 6 human, god of the storms): Child knows when storms will come, and can manipulate wind.

I don't know... spirits are like mini-gods, after all. I wouldn't say that demigod necessarily implies a higher level of power.

The way I think this should work is that when a god ascends and loses their physical body, they gain a "god" gene. When they have children, they pass this gene down, in somewhat less strength. For spirits, it's the same thing, only less powerful.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

3 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

Sorry, I should have made that more clear. Innate users who gain natural magic can still use their Innate power. It doesn't get nulled by the natural magic.

Ah okay, thanks for clarifying!  

[kenod]

9 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

Sorry, I should have made that more clear. Innate users who gain natural magic can still use their Innate power. It doesn't get nulled by the natural magic.

I don't know... spirits are like mini-gods, after all. I wouldn't say that demigod necessarily implies a higher level of power.

The way I think this should work is that when a god ascends and loses their physical body, they gain a "god" gene. When they have children, they pass this gene down, in somewhat less strength. For spirits, it's the same thing, only less powerful.

So for children of non-ascended parents, will they get any minor abilities, or will they be completely normal?

As for names, maybe use Changelings for children of minor spirits, and possibly Legacy for children of non-ascended humans?

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

So for children of non-ascended parents, will they get any minor abilities, or will they be completely normal?

As for names, maybe use Changelings for children of minor spirits, and possibly Legacy for children of non-ascended humans?

I think children of non-ascended parents should get minor ability, or affinity as you suggested. Affinity for something related to their parent's power. As for the names, Changeling is good, and Legacy sounds fine. Descendant could also work, with a capital "D". It makes sense that children of Natural magic creatures/gods have some power but I also want to prevent a bunch of people creating tons of magical children. I have the impression that a truly ascended god wouldn't be much interested in having children, unless they were perhaps a fertility god/goddess, but even then. The way we've set up divinities in this world gives the impression that once ascended they sort of lose interest in mundane human affairs like governance, etc. But that's just my opinion.

[kenod]

17 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

I think children of non-ascended parents should get minor ability, or affinity as you suggested. Affinity for something related to their parent's power. As for the names, Changeling is good, and Legacy sounds fine. Descendant could also work, with a capital "D". It makes sense that children of Natural magic creatures/gods have some power but I also want to prevent a bunch of people creating tons of magical children. I have the impression that a truly ascended god wouldn't be much interested in having children, unless they were perhaps a fertility god/goddess, but even then. The way we've set up divinities in this world gives the impression that once ascended they sort of lose interest in mundane human affairs like governance, etc. But that's just my opinion.

Alright, sounds good. Perhaps for names we should just stick to Descendant, since we might want to use the changeling myth later on, and it would be annoying for the name to be taken already.

I think we have everything to start RPing now?

P.S.
Here's the edited version of my character, taking the notes about Descendants into account.

Spoiler

Name: Lilia Blumenkind

Age: ~58 (physical age looks like it's between 14 and 20)

Species: Descendant, mother is human and the father is a class 4 (Haunt) forest spirit.

Gender: Female

Appearance: 5'4'' tall with purple eyes and dark green hair, she has a somewhat inhuman appearance, which makes estimating her age somewhat difficult. A large white lily grows out the side of her head, and small vines grow in her hair, the vines having small flowers growing from them. Her skin shows hints of green as well, in places having a texture similar to that of leaves, or vines. She has thicker vines growing out of her wrists as well, which normally wrap around her arms and her upper body, but she can use them as tentacles too.

She wears trousers and a shirt, both of which seem to be made from a green, plant-like material which seems surprisingly sturdy. She also wears sturdy leather boots.

Magic: She is a skilled Fleshcrafter, and has used her magic to inscribe a small set of spells on her own body, some of which use her vines for targeting things (no ranged spells). The small amount of magic that she knows that isn't Fleshcrafting is extremely primitive though, relying on extremely outdated theories and being highly simplistic and wasteful.

Innate Magic: She's capable of seeing spirits, even those who aren't powerful enough to be visible to normal people, or those that try to hide themselves. She's also capable of physically interacting with them, and asking them to do things for her. They aren't required to do this for her though, or might do things in a way she doesn't like.

Spells (Asterisk denotes inscribed spell):

• Physical enhancement (trigger word: Styrkja, deactivation: Eðlilegt)*: This spell alters her body, improving her metabolism, muscles and bones to allow for increased strength, speed, stamina and agility, but can't be active for longer periods of time, as the changes to her metabolism would become dangerous otherwise. This spell consists of two parts, one to activate it, and one to deactivate it, since the spell doesn't need to be continuously running for it's effect to manifest itself.

• Hardening (trigger word: Herða)*: Temporarily hardens parts of her vines, making it impossible for Lilia to bend and move those parts, but making them more effective as weapons and defenses.

• Decomposition (trigger word: Niðurbrot)*: starts decomposing all organic matter that her vines touch. Since it only decomposes what is directly touched, this doesn't instantly kill targets, instead only giving surface injuries. If she has her vines wrapped around something she can use that to keep pressing her vines against it though, destroying it.

• Fleshcrafting: A skilled Fleshcrafter, she's capable of healing people, as well as interfering with living beings in other ways. She can also use this to manipulate plants as well. The complexity of these spells means that this generally can't be done on the fly though.

• Heating spell: A very basic spell that can be used to heat up an area, or be focused in a smaller area to cook things. Does not create fire.

• Water condensation: A basic spell that takes water vapor in the atmosphere and condenses it, creating a source of drinkable water.

Skills: Decent woodland survival skills, especially when it comes to hiding in the woods. Knowledgeable of biology. More intelligent than her personality might sometimes indicate. Good tracker, and a fairly good hand-to-hand combatant (though only when using her vines and magic). Has fairly good instincts (except for social situations).

Personality: Her personality is somewhat strange, acting childlike at times, while surprisingly mature and wise at other times. Doesn't really understand human morality that well, and her thought patterns are somewhat alien to humans, being more similar to that of a spirit. Her rather bizarre perspective also means that she generally shouldn't be asked for healing, since she's just as likely to heal a person as to turn them into some bizarre creature. Tends to be rather soft-spoken.

Weaknesses: Almost all of her spells take time to set up, and she doesn't have any ranged spells. Her non-Fleshcrafting spells are also extremely simplistic, and are more utility spells, not combat spells. Her appearance and personality mean that a lot of people, especially the superstitious ones, are somewhat distrustful of her. Her attitude towards and usages of Fleshcrafting can also put her at odds with other mages.

Family: Her mother lives back in her village. Her father disappeared and reappeared at irregular intervals, and is believed to be a spirit.

History: Born in the Flower Spirit's village, she was somewhat unusual because of the white lily growing out of her head when she was born. Named after this lily she was raised normally, living in the village, wandering through the woods and modifying herself. When she got older she started getting interested in the outside world, of which their village knew almost nothing, except for the few pieces of news they got from the few merchants and locals that visited them. At one point, she decided to set out into the human world, taking a number of Investure crystals with her, and went traveling, exploring the different lands.

Themesong: Adrian von Ziegler, A Celtic Lore. Faun, Von den Elben.

tl;dr: She can see spirits that hide themselves or that aren't powerful enough to be visible to others (think Rock from SA). She's also capable of physically interacting with them, even if they aren't corporeal. She can also ask them to do things for her, but with no guarantee of them actually doing it, or doing it in the way she intended.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

21 minutes ago, kenod said:

Alright, sounds good. Perhaps for names we should just stick to Descendant, since we might want to use the changeling myth later on, and it would be annoying for the name to be taken already.

I think we have everything to start RPing now?

P.S.
Here's the edited version of my character, taking the notes about Descendants into account.

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Lilia Blumenkind

Age: ~58 (physical age looks like it's between 14 and 20)

Species: Descendant, mother is human and the father is a class 4 (Haunt) forest spirit.

Gender: Female

Appearance: 5'4'' tall with purple eyes and dark green hair, she has a somewhat inhuman appearance, which makes estimating her age somewhat difficult. A large white lily grows out the side of her head, and small vines grow in her hair, the vines having small flowers growing from them. Her skin shows hints of green as well, in places having a texture similar to that of leaves, or vines. She has thicker vines growing out of her wrists as well, which normally wrap around her arms and her upper body, but she can use them as tentacles too.

She wears trousers and a shirt, both of which seem to be made from a green, plant-like material which seems surprisingly sturdy. She also wears sturdy leather boots.

Magic: She is a skilled Fleshcrafter, and has used her magic to inscribe a small set of spells on her own body, some of which use her vines for targeting things (no ranged spells). The small amount of magic that she knows that isn't Fleshcrafting is extremely primitive though, relying on extremely outdated theories and being highly simplistic and wasteful.

Innate Magic: She's capable of seeing spirits, even those who aren't powerful enough to be visible to normal people, or those that try to hide themselves. She's also capable of physically interacting with them, and asking them to do things for her. They aren't required to do this for her though, or might do things in a way she doesn't like.

Spells (Asterisk denotes inscribed spell):

• Physical enhancement (trigger word: Styrkja, deactivation: Eðlilegt)*: This spell alters her body, improving her metabolism, muscles and bones to allow for increased strength, speed, stamina and agility, but can't be active for longer periods of time, as the changes to her metabolism would become dangerous otherwise. This spell consists of two parts, one to activate it, and one to deactivate it, since the spell doesn't need to be continuously running for it's effect to manifest itself.

• Hardening (trigger word: Herða)*: Temporarily hardens parts of her vines, making it impossible for Lilia to bend and move those parts, but making them more effective as weapons and defenses.

• Decomposition (trigger word: Niðurbrot)*: starts decomposing all organic matter that her vines touch. Since it only decomposes what is directly touched, this doesn't instantly kill targets, instead only giving surface injuries. If she has her vines wrapped around something she can use that to keep pressing her vines against it though, destroying it.

• Fleshcrafting: A skilled Fleshcrafter, she's capable of healing people, as well as interfering with living beings in other ways. She can also use this to manipulate plants as well. The complexity of these spells means that this generally can't be done on the fly though.

• Heating spell: A very basic spell that can be used to heat up an area, or be focused in a smaller area to cook things. Does not create fire.

• Water condensation: A basic spell that takes water vapor in the atmosphere and condenses it, creating a source of drinkable water.

Skills: Decent woodland survival skills, especially when it comes to hiding in the woods. Knowledgeable of biology. More intelligent than her personality might sometimes indicate. Good tracker, and a fairly good hand-to-hand combatant (though only when using her vines and magic). Has fairly good instincts (except for social situations).

Personality: Her personality is somewhat strange, acting childlike at times, while surprisingly mature and wise at other times. Doesn't really understand human morality that well, and her thought patterns are somewhat alien to humans, being more similar to that of a spirit. Her rather bizarre perspective also means that she generally shouldn't be asked for healing, since she's just as likely to heal a person as to turn them into some bizarre creature. Tends to be rather soft-spoken.

Weaknesses: Almost all of her spells take time to set up, and she doesn't have any ranged spells. Her non-Fleshcrafting spells are also extremely simplistic, and are more utility spells, not combat spells. Her appearance and personality mean that a lot of people, especially the superstitious ones, are somewhat distrustful of her. Her attitude towards and usages of Fleshcrafting can also put her at odds with other mages.

Family: Her mother lives back in her village. Her father disappeared and reappeared at irregular intervals, and is believed to be a spirit.

History: Born in the Flower Spirit's village, she was somewhat unusual because of the white lily growing out of her head when she was born. Named after this lily she was raised normally, living in the village, wandering through the woods and modifying herself. When she got older she started getting interested in the outside world, of which their village knew almost nothing, except for the few pieces of news they got from the few merchants and locals that visited them. At one point, she decided to set out into the human world, taking a number of Investure crystals with her, and went traveling, exploring the different lands.

Themesong: Adrian von Ziegler, A Celtic Lore. Faun, Von den Elben.

tl;dr: She can see spirits that hide themselves or that aren't powerful enough to be visible to others (think Rock from SA). She's also capable of physically interacting with them, even if they aren't corporeal. She can also ask them to do things for her, but with no guarantee of them actually doing it, or doing it in the way she intended.

I like it! I agree, I think we have enough to get started. Anything that needs to be ironed out during the course of the RP we can do when it comes up. I'm glad we ironed this out though, magical Descendants were bound to come up.

[kenod]

Just now, ZincAboutIt said:

I like it! I agree, I think we have enough to get started. Anything that needs to be ironed out during the course of the RP we can do when it comes up. I'm glad we ironed this out though, magical Descendants were bound to come up.

To be fair, I basically brought it up because I already had one, and wanted to iron out how their abilities would work.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

22 minutes ago, kenod said:

To be fair, I basically brought it up because I already had one, and wanted to iron out how their abilities would work.

Still I'm glad someone brought it up before we were in the middle of the course of the RP. It's cleaner now and we have a framework we can point to when others turn up. 

Also, I will try and hunt through this thread for exactly what we decided on Innate magic and re-work the Google doc with that. 

Edit 2: Okay I think I got the final decision in there. I also put in the details on Descendants. Please edit as needed.

Edited March 18, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[kenod]

49 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Still I'm glad someone brought it up before we were in the middle of the course of the RP. It's cleaner now and we have a framework we can point to when others turn up. 

Also, I will try and hunt through this thread for exactly what we decided on Innate magic and re-work the Google doc with that. 

Edit 2: Okay I think I got the final decision in there. I also put in the details on Descendants. Please edit as needed.

Alright, thanks.

Who's going to start the thread btw? And are we going to do it now, or wait untill tomorrow to see if anyone still has something that needs to be decided before we can start?

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

Can God's mate with eachother? What happens?

[kenod]

1 minute ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

Can God's mate with eachother? What happens?

I'd say yes if there are stories about this specific pair having children, otherwise, they either can't or just aren't really interested in it. Either that or the lack of stories would mean the children (as pure spirits), wouldn't have anything to anchor them to the world and would just disappear.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, kenod said:

Who's going to start the thread btw? And are we going to do it now, or wait untill tomorrow to see if anyone still has something that needs to be decided before we can start?

While I'm eager to jump right in, if we waited till tomorrow we could advertise in the larger PM and see if anyone wants to add characters or has questions. I could start the thread, or at the very least do some setting-descriptions to put into the first post and set up a few locations (an inn/tavern-type place for people to congregate, a census-station in a government building perhaps. If some people want to hook up at the Academy location, they should work out what that might look like though I have no idea, so they can build that themselves.) 

The giant river that runs through the heart of the continent needs a name. The Kur could be a good one, giving credence to the country named "Kuria." I don't much care that the rest of the rivers/lakes aren't named but that one will probably come up at least in passing as people are entering the city or walking around in the flooded portions of the under-city. I welcome any other names.

[kenod]

1 hour ago, ZincAboutIt said:

While I'm eager to jump right in, if we waited till tomorrow we could advertise in the larger PM and see if anyone wants to add characters or has questions. I could start the thread, or at the very least do some setting-descriptions to put into the first post and set up a few locations (an inn/tavern-type place for people to congregate, a census-station in a government building perhaps. If some people want to hook up at the Academy location, they should work out what that might look like though I have no idea, so they can build that themselves.) 

The giant river that runs through the heart of the continent needs a name. The Kur could be a good one, giving credence to the country named "Kuria." I don't much care that the rest of the rivers/lakes aren't named but that one will probably come up at least in passing as people are entering the city or walking around in the flooded portions of the under-city. I welcome any other names.

Sounds good. Are you also planning to act as GM, or is someone else going to do that?

Also, are you going to do the advertisement, or should I do it?

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

9 minutes ago, kenod said:

Sounds good. Are you also planning to act as GM, or is someone else going to do that?

Also, are you going to do the advertisement, or should I do it?

I'll do the advertisement! I've never actually run an RP before so I'm not sure I'd be the best person to GM. I just want to be as helpful as is needed. 

[kenod]

4 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

I'll do the advertisement! I've never actually run an RP before so I'm not sure I'd be the best person to GM. I just want to be as helpful as is needed. 

I've never run one either, so I probably won't be that much help. I'd say just use some NPCs to railroad the plot a bit if things get too far out of hand (either that or adjust the plot).

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, kenod said:

I've never run one either, so I probably won't be that much help. I'd say just use some NPCs to railroad the plot a bit if things get too far out of hand (either that or adjust the plot).

I figured that was probably the best way to keep things in the general direction of "order." I'm really excited! This world is wonderful. We have all done a great job of building it! 

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

I almost want to throw this out so we can make another world........... Weird.......

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, Steel Inquisitive said:

I almost want to throw this out so we can make another world........... Weird.......

Please no  But I do get where you're coming from. Building is fun!

[kenod]

1 minute ago, Steel Inquisitive said:

I almost want to throw this out so we can make another world........... Weird.......

We still only have two smallish (the size of the US when combined) continents. We could probably still do a lot on a different continent if we'd ever start a new plot-line. Personal suggestion, they don't have Investure crystals or symbols, and work magic through spirits instead, with each object having it's own spirit, using this to manipulate the world.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, kenod said:

We still only have two smallish (the size of the US when combined) continents. We could probably still do a lot on a different continent if we'd ever start a new plot-line. Personal suggestion, they don't have Investure crystals or symbols, and work magic through spirits instead, with each object having it's own spirit, using this to manipulate the world.

Ooooh.

[kenod]

Just now, ZincAboutIt said:

Ooooh.

Lilia's Innate magic is actually based around this, but I didn't add the full version because it would be a bit too strong, and wouldn't fit with the way local spirits work, since power is much more focused in a smaller number of spirits, instead of spread out.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, kenod said:

Lilia's Innate magic is actually based around this, but I didn't add the full version because it would be a bit too strong, and wouldn't fit with the way local spirits work, since power is much more focused in a smaller number of spirits, instead of spread out.

Count me in for this if we ever get around to the other continent! I'm eager to see Lilia in action, she sounds pretty cool.

[kenod]

3 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Count me in for this if we ever get around to the other continent! I'm eager to see Lilia in action, she sounds pretty cool.

Sure.

Btw, for comments/OOC talk, are we going to be using quotation boxes or just post stuff in this thread? I'd personally prefer using this thread, since it means we have all discussion for both worldbuilding and character/story things in one place, and we won't be filling multiple pages of the rp thread with discussions instead of actual roleplaying.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, kenod said:

Btw, for comments/OOC talk, are we going to be using quotation boxes or just post stuff in this thread? I'd personally prefer using this thread, since it means we have all discussion for both worldbuilding and character/story things in one place, and we won't be filling multiple pages of the rp thread with discussions instead of actual roleplaying.

I agree, comments and OOC stuff makes the most sense to do here. It would make it all easier to keep track of.