worldbuilding Fantasy World planning

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

1 minute ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

I believe that concepts like death are the only ones that could kill a god, and then, only if- and I mean ONLY IF- that god were trying to stop death from happening to his subjects. If that's his whole reason for being a good, then death would only be able to block him, not kill him, but otherwise, if a good does not directly deal with life, trying to stop death causes the concept if death to kill the god. Concepts, after all, only act on their nature, because they aren't sentient in the first place. No ulterior motive. 

Hmmmm, that actually does make sense. (I'm easily swayed)

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

4 minutes ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

I believe that concepts like death are the only ones that could kill a god, and then, only if- and I mean ONLY IF- that god were trying to stop death from happening to his subjects. If that's his whole reason for being a good, then death would only be able to block him, not kill him, but otherwise, if a good does not directly deal with life, trying to stop death causes the concept if death to kill the god. Concepts, after all, only act on their nature, because they aren't sentient in the first place. No ulterior motive. 

"Death" is generally personified as being utterly unconcerned with the goings-on of the world anyway, so I can imagine it only getting involved if someone/something wanted to block it from its own rightful tithe, as it were. The taxman cometh...  

[MacThorstenson he/him]

Mak

Spoiler

Name: Mak

Magic: EVERYTHING! No seriously.

He is an innate magic user, that was able to see the symbols behind physical alchemy, transmutation. He quickly learned how to bake delicious baked goods via his powers and create explosions and used that as a specialization throughout his time in the academy. He did graduate however after the 70 year program which taught him the basics in a variety of areas, and the theory.

Through study he tried and succeeded at figuring out a lot about heat and how that needs to be used. He also learned the one command for lowering his own age, so is perpetually 35, though in actuality is about 170 years old. I expect this to be the age of most experienced ritual users, they would probably start training when they were around 25/30, have about 70 years to get a degree, and another 70 years as a practicing ritualist. See the backstory for more information.

He is well known for he knowledge and his ability to make explosions/fire, and thus people think he can do it naturally. Its nothing big, but he does have a lot of rumors surrounding him. I will edit and iron out the rumors and legends later, but he has been quite infamous.

He has the ability to produce flames in his hands and throw them, or light things like fuses on fire from a distance, and can control his pyrotechnics to a limited amount. He can also touch a handful of fine dirt, and transform it into a flammable compound.

Age: 170, looks 35

Skills: Physical alchemy, chemistry, pyrotechnics.

Backstory:

Mak was born to a ritual farmer who graduated with an accelerated 15 year "farming" degree. The family lived happily, using magic to grow crops and support themselves. Mac grew up seeing his father use magic to create compounds to help his plants and farmland and was fascinated by it. 

He realized when he was about 12 that without any explanation he could watch his father create the fertilizer and understood what it meant. He had no idea what the symbols were that moved dirt and such, but when his father was making compounds or stuff to help the plants he knew what the symbols were doing. He never tried anything though. He knew enough not to mess with the crystals to power the fuel. Those were expensive and really the families largest expense. They still made a lot of profit, but if he wrecked the crystals it would set them back a lot.

He lived with his parent's for a while, helping them run the farm, learning the basics of Ritual magic from his father, then at 18 he left the house to start going to the academy. He joined the DA in order to get a sponsor for his education. For ten years he learned the secrets behind alleys and bakeries and of the madness that was the alleyverse. They were willing to sponsor his education so that he would be able to use the local magic. They needed people who could do that.

He took a 10 year general magic course. A 20 year specialization in alchemy and then a 40 year advanced theory course to graduate as a wizard. He then got the equivalent of a PhD and developed the initial findings of pyrotechnics. He then left and started to make a living putting on firework shows, and helping people out with general stuff wherever he went. During his career he was working as a test subject for the DA, trying to figure out what was up with Natural magic.

Initially he used tricks to make special effects, slights of hand and the such to light fuses, tricks with flammable stuff to turn dirt into gun powder, but as people started to believe he had powers, he actually had those powers.

He worked in the field for 70 years, gathering information for the DA, and spreading baked goods and generally helping people to increase his reputation.

Here is some information on the academy:

Spoiler

The academy offers a variety of degrees and paths that one can take.

They have a general ritual degree which lays out the basics of the magic system. People generally get this degree to help them in their careers and they don't become general wizards.

They offer 10 year specialization programs for different careers. Accelerated programs are 5 years long. This can help in things like blacksmithing, farming, construction, whatever.

They also offer 20 year magic specialization programs such as alchemy and soul working, enchanting, flechcrafting (healing). They don't mess with necromancy.

After that they offer a 40 year advanced theory course. You don't become a master in all magic, but you do understand the entirity of the theory behind every part of ritual and what we know about innate and natural magic. We don't know that much about the innate and natural stuff though.

During the theory course the wizards figure out how to change their ages on their own. They don't tell this to non theory students or anyone else due to the complexity and rather disastrous consequences of failure (when you are messing with the spirit web like that all the symbols are very similar and a difference of a degree of rotation or a millimeter of line width can destroy your soul forever).

After the advanced theory courses they can do the equivalent of a PhD and study one aspect of the field, expanding it and developing new parts to it.

The times for degrees are changeable for the magic school, but generally I think they should be pretty long.

Also, Mak is not necessarily a needed character, but I would like to play him if possible. I made him mostly for a little bit of world building.

 

 

 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

14 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

Mak

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Mak

Magic: EVERYTHING! No seriously.

He is an innate magic user, that was able to see the symbols behind physical alchemy, transmutation. He quickly learned how to bake delicious baked goods via his powers and create explosions and used that as a specialization throughout his time in the academy. He did graduate however after the 70 year program which taught him the basics in a variety of areas, and the theory.

Through study he tried and succeeded at figuring out a lot about heat and how that needs to be used. He also learned the one command for lowering his own age, so is perpetually 35, though in actuality is about 170 years old. I expect this to be the age of most experienced ritual users, they would probably start training when they were around 25/30, have about 70 years to get a degree, and another 70 years as a practicing ritualist. See the backstory for more information.

He is well known for he knowledge and his ability to make explosions/fire, and thus people think he can do it naturally. Its nothing big, but he does have a lot of rumors surrounding him. I will edit and iron out the rumors and legends later, but he has been quite infamous.

He has the ability to produce flames in his hands and throw them, or light things like fuses on fire from a distance, and can control his pyrotechnics to a limited amount. He can also touch a handful of fine dirt, and transform it into a flammable compound.

Age: 170, looks 35

Skills: Physical alchemy, chemistry, pyrotechnics.

Backstory:

Mak was born to a ritual farmer who graduated with an accelerated 15 year "farming" degree. The family lived happily, using magic to grow crops and support themselves. Mac grew up seeing his father use magic to create compounds to help his plants and farmland and was fascinated by it. 

He realized when he was about 12 that without any explanation he could watch his father create the fertilizer and understood what it meant. He had no idea what the symbols were that moved dirt and such, but when his father was making compounds or stuff to help the plants he knew what the symbols were doing. He never tried anything though. He knew enough not to mess with the crystals to power the fuel. Those were expensive and really the families largest expense. They still made a lot of profit, but if he wrecked the crystals it would set them back a lot.

He lived with his parent's for a while, helping them run the farm, learning the basics of Ritual magic from his father, then at 18 he left the house to start going to the academy. He joined the DA in order to get a sponsor for his education. For ten years he learned the secrets behind alleys and bakeries and of the madness that was the alleyverse. They were willing to sponsor his education so that he would be able to use the local magic. They needed people who could do that.

He took a 10 year general magic course. A 20 year specialization in alchemy and then a 40 year advanced theory course to graduate as a wizard. He then got the equivalent of a PhD and developed the initial findings of pyrotechnics. He then left and started to make a living putting on firework shows, and helping people out with general stuff wherever he went. During his career he was working as a test subject for the DA, trying to figure out what was up with Natural magic.

Initially he used tricks to make special effects, slights of hand and the such to light fuses, tricks with flammable stuff to turn dirt into gun powder, but as people started to believe he had powers, he actually had those powers.

He worked in the field for 70 years, gathering information for the DA, and spreading baked goods and generally helping people to increase his reputation.

Here is some information on the academy:

  Reveal hidden contents

The academy offers a variety of degrees and paths that one can take.

They have a general ritual degree which lays out the basics of the magic system. People generally get this degree to help them in their careers and they don't become general wizards.

They offer 10 year specialization programs for different careers. Accelerated programs are 5 years long. This can help in things like blacksmithing, farming, construction, whatever.

They also offer 20 year magic specialization programs such as alchemy and soul working, enchanting, flechcrafting (healing). They don't mess with necromancy.

After that they offer a 40 year advanced theory course. You don't become a master in all magic, but you do understand the entirity of the theory behind every part of ritual and what we know about innate and natural magic. We don't know that much about the innate and natural stuff though.

During the theory course the wizards figure out how to change their ages on their own. They don't tell this to non theory students or anyone else due to the complexity and rather disastrous consequences of failure (when you are messing with the spirit web like that all the symbols are very similar and a difference of a degree of rotation or a millimeter of line width can destroy your soul forever).

After the advanced theory courses they can do the equivalent of a PhD and study one aspect of the field, expanding it and developing new parts to it.

The times for degrees are changeable for the magic school, but generally I think they should be pretty long.

Also, Mak is not necessarily a needed character, but I would like to play him if possible. I made him mostly for a little bit of world building.

I support this character! Great idea for the university, the age-cheat is a great way to cram a lot of knowledge into a character that still looks and acts spry and youthful-enough to do lots of stuff.

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

^Full agreement. Though, I figure that natural prodigies would be able to learn at a faster pace, but still not be allowed to progress to the next step until the required amount of time had elapsed, meaning that they'd have deeper knowledge and understanding of the things everyone learned rather than broader knowledge. Does that fit?

[MacThorstenson he/him]

Just now, ShadowLord_Lith said:

^Full agreement. Though, I figure that natural prodigies would be able to learn at a faster pace, but still not be allowed to progress to the next step until the required amount of time had elapsed, meaning that they'd have deeper knowledge and understanding of the things everyone learned rather than broader knowledge. Does that fit?

Im not sure.

My general idea for the academy is that its not like a high school, with 5 classes a day all day.

Over the course of the 10 year general magic, you would take maybe 40 courses. About 4 a year. 

Each class would meet once or twice a week for a couple or a few hours.

A lot of the work would be outside of class, a lot of practice and repetition/experimenting. Writing spells is a very common assignment, and those things would take a long time.

So an accelerated degree is very easy to learn. The only thing you are missing is practice and fluidity with the writing.

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

I know, I meant prodigy in the sense that they are naturally talented at ritual magic, and have an easier time grasping concepts and understanding principles. Especially if they are a skilled artist, and the classes meet as you say, these kids would quickly outpace the rest and be stuck searching for more information.Thus, they'd be forced to research what they are already learning, giving them a much deeper understanding of the subjects than the rest.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

10 minutes ago, ShadowLord_Lith said:

I know, I meant prodigy in the sense that they are naturally talented at ritual magic, and have an easier time grasping concepts and understanding principles. Especially if they are a skilled artist, and the classes meet as you say, these kids would quickly outpace the rest and be stuck searching for more information.Thus, they'd be forced to research what they are already learning, giving them a much deeper understanding of the subjects than the rest.

Yeah that makes sense. It should work.

[ShadowLord_Lith he/him]

Okay. Can one of us create a Character sheet that outlines what information is necessary?

[MacThorstenson he/him]

Sure.

I did forget to include a weakness with Mak.

Regardless of power level I think that weaknesses should still be a rule in this setting. They make the character interesting, providing some limits.

EDIT: If anyone is interested in helping with the academy curriculum please say so.

I want to figure out what the people would be able to do after they got a given degree.

Edited March 8, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Work is insane rn but I will be devoting this evening to brainstorming things!  I agree weaknesses should still be a thing. Makes a character more fun to play with because you need to be creative and find ways to live with the limits.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

1 minute ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Work is insane rn but I will be devoting this evening to brainstorming things!  I agree weaknesses should still be a thing. Makes a character more fun to play with because you need to be creative and find ways to live with the limits.

If you are busy IRL don't sacrifice that for shard time.

As much as I hate to admit it, IRL is more important than the shard.

 

[Turtle373 he/him]

I'm considering playing an animal that through the Natural magic has reached sentience, somewhere around alpha or apex. Does that sound good?

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

6 minutes ago, Turtle373 said:

I'm considering playing an animal that through the Natural magic has reached sentience, somewhere around alpha or apex. Does that sound good?

Seems plausible but what else can you tell us about this animal? What kind? Powers? Origin of legend? Why everyone believes in you? Basic motives? Etc.  

[Turtle373 he/him]

Just now, ZincAboutIt said:

Seems plausible but what else can you tell us about this animal? What kind? Powers? Origin of legend? Why everyone believes in you? Basic motives? Etc.  

no sure yet, just seeing how you guys felt about the idea

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, Turtle373 said:

no sure yet, just seeing how you guys felt about the idea

Ah, well I wouldn't be opposed to it, though I do think I'd prefer a nice solid 70+/30- ratio of humans to non-humans. I imagine that the Natural magic creatures and spirits aren't generally interacting with humans on any kind of positive level generally, and that they are largely in their own spheres, so if there is too much division we'll effectively have to run two separate storylines/worlds or just sort of mash everyone together, and I personally don't think that makes sense. But I'm sure the others will also weigh in on this and we'll figure out what to do.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

20 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Ah, well I wouldn't be opposed to it, though I do think I'd prefer a nice solid 70+/30- ratio of humans to non-humans. I imagine that the Natural magic creatures and spirits aren't generally interacting with humans on any kind of positive level generally, and that they are largely in their own spheres, so if there is too much division we'll effectively have to run two separate storylines/worlds or just sort of mash everyone together, and I personally don't think that makes sense. But I'm sure the others will also weigh in on this and we'll figure out what to do.

I could certainly think of a few cool magical places that have both humans and non humans.

@ZincAboutIt have you looked at the map generator?

I realized that its a pretty powerful tool. We can very quickly design this world, with a few elements of randomness as well. We just need to specify a few settings. If you have a moment glance through this link.

https://github.com/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator/wiki/Quick-Start-Tutorial

Edited March 8, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

6 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

I could certainly think of a few cool magical places that have both humans and non humans.

@ZincAboutIt have you looked at the map generator?

I realized that its a pretty powerful tool. We can very quickly design this world, with a few elements of randomness as well. We just need to specify a few settings. If you have a moment glance through this link.

https://github.com/Azgaar/Fantasy-Map-Generator/wiki/Quick-Start-Tutorial

Oooh thanks I'll take a look now. 

Meanwhile, I created a Master Planning Google Doc that we can continually reference and edit as needed. It's open-edit so be honorable everyone  

[MacThorstenson he/him]

Just now, ZincAboutIt said:

Oooh thanks I'll take a look now. 

Meanwhile, I created a Master Planning Google Doc that we can continually reference and edit as needed. It's open-edit so be honorable everyone  

I shared it with my shard email so that I would be able access it from google drive.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

@MacThorstenson That tutorial is very helpful, I think this is the way to go about the map. I don't have a need to make it myself, but I can take over playing around with it if that makes sense to everyone. I think what we should nail down up-front is the general climate zones we want to rp in. Do we want a tundra/taiga/temperate area (upper Northern Hemisphere), basic European climate with forests, hills, dales, plains, etc, Mediterranean climate with a large ocean component, steppe, desert, archipelago...? The list goes on. So, what are we feeling?

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

Just now, ZincAboutIt said:

@MacThorstenson That tutorial is very helpful, I think this is the way to go about the map. I don't have a need to make it myself, but I can take over playing around with it if that makes sense to everyone. I think what we should nail down up-front is the general climate zones we want to rp in. Do we want a tundra/taiga/temperate area (upper Northern Hemisphere), basic European climate with forests, hills, dales, plains, etc, Mediterranean climate with a large ocean component, steppe, desert, archipelago...? The list goes on. So, what are we feeling?

European....... We could have a more varied climate then Europe. I don't feel really strong emotions regarding this..... What do you want?

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Basic European is fine with me. The landscape is likely going to be more varied anyway, with belief and identity floating around tweaking a few things here and there. It's more just that I want it to make relative sense. No massive deserts right next to huge forests, things like that. Nailing down a climate zone area makes drawing up a world more cohesive is all, and will also affect culture in big ways.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

Speaking of culture and countries, are we going for a lot of tiny city states? Big empires? Lots of similar cultures? Lots of variety?

27 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Basic European is fine with me. The landscape is likely going to be more varied anyway, with belief and identity floating around tweaking a few things here and there. It's more just that I want it to make relative sense. No massive deserts right next to huge forests, things like that. Nailing down a climate zone area makes drawing up a world more cohesive is all, and will also affect culture in big ways.

We could always produce a  couple of maps and vote on them.

If we download the map files as a .map we can come back and edit them later.

I would say ideally if we could, it would be nice to have a large central continent, and then have parts of it near water. But I don't really care.

Edited March 8, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[Turtle373 he/him]

I think I figured out a way to create my natural magic creature, it's a dog that was used in dogfighting and it was slightly stronger and larger than pretty much any other dog, and it kept winning, and people began to believe it couldn't be beat, and stories started about this dog that couldn't be beat, enough for it to reach alpha/apex level, I haven't decided which one I want it at yet. what do you guys think.

EDIT: whichever level it's at, it will be intelligent enough to talk with other people, however it won't be human level intelligence, and it won't know a lot of vocabulary or understand human metaphors and stuff like that.

Edited March 8, 2019 by Turtle373

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

38 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

Speaking of culture and countries, are we going for a lot of tiny city states? Big empires? Lots of similar cultures? Lots of variety?

We could always produce a  couple of maps and vote on them.

If we download the map files as a .map we can come back and edit them later.

I would say ideally if we could, it would be nice to have a large central continent, and then have parts of it near water. But I don't really care.

That would be cool to be able to edit the map whenever we wanted! With Natural magic I think the land will be changing as time goes by...... I don't care too much, however, a large central continent would be nice.

8 minutes ago, Turtle373 said:

I think I figured out a way to create my natural magic creature, it's a dog that was used in dogfighting and it was slightly stronger and larger than pretty much any other dog, and it kept winning, and people began to believe it couldn't be beat, and stories started about this dog that couldn't be beat, enough for it to reach alpha/apex level, I haven't decided which one I want it at yet. what do you guys think.

That would work as far as I'm aware!

I got excited and made my character....

Spoiler

Name: Zack Night. 

Physical Characteristics: Tall (6’1”). Dark, short hair. Blue eyes.

Age: 32

Investiture: Legend. Abilities include: He never misses a shot. He has increased speed when firing his bow, allowing him to shoot two arrows per second. He can sense his prey (This is more of a general feeling, only good enough to get him within a mile.) He has slightly increased strength.

Skills: Very skilled archer and hunter. He’s good at woodcraft. He knows how to make arrows.

Equipment: Long bow and quiver. Hunting knives. Camping gear.

Weakness: The influence of Natural magic is weighing on him heavily. He always feels the need to be hunting. Is often rash. He tends to be reckless. Social skills are lacking. He is poor at hand to hand combat.

Family: Has a mother, father and three younger siblings (Two brothers and a sister).

Home: Grew up in a remote village. (More info once map is complete)

Backstory: Grew up with family and learned how to hunt with his father. His village was attacked when he was twelve by a monster. Zack killed the monster with his bow and his village honored him as a hero. As he grew up he would always be on the important hunting trips as his skill with the bow was already great (Natural magic had already started affecting him). He became well known in his village and the neighboring villages as the greatest hunter of all time. He killed many wild beasts and became a Legend when he was 22. Growing restless (there were no more beasts to be hunted close to his village) he decided to head for the academy to learn what he could of the Rituals.

Guild: Unaffiliated.  

Personality: Brash. Slightly arrogant. Kind hearted. Loyal. Passionate. Sincere.  

Fighting Style: Distance fighter. He can pick off a large group of enemies from a distance with ease.

Not sure what's happening with the font..... What do you guys think?

Edited March 8, 2019 by Steel Inquisitive
added Zack's age