worldbuilding Fantasy World planning

[+Invocation]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

 

We did, for now at least. It might be possible once the setting grows larger, but currently we're keeping it at one to keep everything cohesive, and make it easy to have an understanding of what's happening.

Fair.

[Steel Inquisitive]

@Sorana my thought was that they would get back to the tavern and discover that the boy is missing, spurring them to investigate, but if Amara stops to talk, Jürgen will too!

[xinoehp512]

On 3/26/2019 at 6:05 PM, kenod said:

I don't think there's really an ocean analog. The power doesn't really flow to or from any specific place, it just flows around, feeding into different ley lines, which in turn feed back into the original ley lines. The only way Investure is removed from the ley lines is if it manifests in the physical world, either through creating Natural magic things or forming Crystals. And when those are destroyed or used, the power would just flow back into the nearest ley line.

As for people living on ley lines, probably a fair amount, given that ley lines tend to follow natural land marks and locations with a lot of life, but they wouldn't really notice it (except for Yin Innates), since the ley lines can't manifest any effects.

As for power differential, I'd say the center of the ley line (at least for the powerful ones) would probably have a large differential with areas without ley lines (or those with only small ones), but I'd say they probably cover a large area, spreading out the power and making it taper off gradually.

As for Roshek, probably, since it's on a big river. Again, normally there wouldn't be any noticeable effects though.

If the Natural investiture is being concentrated significantly more than elsewhere, wouldn't that cause increased belief power from people in that area? Wouldn't that be a noticeable effect?

What do ley lines actually do? Why are they important? If someone disrupted one, what would happen?

What about power differential between places not on a ley line and places that are?

And finally, what causes ley lines to form where they do? What forces shape the flow of magic and determine the direction of flow?

@kenod

Edited March 29, 2019 by xinoehp512

[MacThorstenson]

Sorry if this is a big idiot moment here, but since when did we have ley lines?

Edited March 28, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[xinoehp512]

Kenod suggested them, I think?

[+Sorana]

3 hours ago, Steel Inquisitive said:

@Sorana my thought was that they would get back to the tavern and discover that the boy is missing, spurring them to investigate, but if Amara stops to talk, Jürgen will too!

I'm fine with both. It simply fit her. Amara will follow Jürgen's lead I guess.

===========

Edit:

Do you have something in mind they should tell her, when she asks after those vanished? So that I write them correctly.

@Vargo Seldon

@Steel Inquisitive

Edited March 28, 2019 by Sorana
Added information

[Vargo Seldon]

12 hours ago, Sorana said:

I'm fine with both. It simply fit her. Amara will follow Jürgen's lead I guess.

===========

Edit:

Do you have something in mind they should tell her, when she asks after those vanished? So that I write them correctly.

@Vargo Seldon

@Steel Inquisitive

Dunno.  Since the NPC's don't actually know what's going on themselves, I think not.

Edited March 28, 2019 by Vargo Seldon

[+ZincAboutIt]

@Godhunter where is Janim currently hanging out? I have this vision of them just sort of lurking moodily on the roof Mistborn-style, and Aldred going out back and yelling at them to get down and have a drink and some food like a normal person. The rest of the gang is getting back from the census so I'm thinking that soon, Liezl will be wondering where Fritz is, and it'll come to light that he might be among "the missing" that Amara and Jurgen are hearing about.

[+Invocation]

1 hour ago, ZincAboutIt said:

@Godhunter where is Janim currently hanging out? I have this vision of them just sort of lurking moodily on the roof Mistborn-style, and Aldred going out back and yelling at them to get down and have a drink and some food like a normal person. The rest of the gang is getting back from the census so I'm thinking that soon, Liezl will be wondering where Fritz is, and it'll come to light that he might be among "the missing" that Amara and Jurgen are hearing about.

I pictured them sitting on the porch, pretending to doze while sneakily watching everything happening in the area around.

[+ZincAboutIt]

Just now, Godhunter said:

I pictured them sitting on the porch, pretending to doze while sneakily watching everything happening in the area around.

Ooh also good. They’ll be in the ideal place to catch everyone else as they file back in.

[+Invocation]

4 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Ooh also good. They’ll be in the ideal place to catch everyone else as they file back in.

Yep. That's what they're waiting for.

[+ZincAboutIt]

@Vargo Seldon @Sorana @Chasmfiend#1 @Invocation @Steel Inquisitive @anyone else

So, I was expecting everyone to come back to the tavern and have Liezl say "oh goodness have you seen Fritz" but I could also have Aldred mention him to the group and put it all together, since he does know Fritz (the errand boy) hasn't been seen all night or day, so that's not strictly speaking necessary.  Algorath has been finding drops of blood so whatever is hunting the poor people has some kind of puncture-y type implement or body part at the least. The idea that has been brewing revolves around effectively sentient, hungry darkness, since that's sort of what the rumors are going around. I actually pictured it kind of like a weird spider-snake-mistwraith type thing, something that has no defined shape but has pointy solid-black legs that could pierce or skewer and then devour. However, if any of you have been imagining a thing yourselves, please let's discuss together!

[+Sorana]

3 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

@Vargo Seldon @Sorana @Chasmfiend#1 @Invocation @Steel Inquisitive @anyone else

So, I was expecting everyone to come back to the tavern and have Liezl say "oh goodness have you seen Fritz" but I could also have Aldred mention him to the group and put it all together, since he does know Fritz (the errand boy) hasn't been seen all night or day, so that's not strictly speaking necessary.  Algorath has been finding drops of blood so whatever is hunting the poor people has some kind of puncture-y type implement or body part at the least. The idea that has been brewing revolves around effectively sentient, hungry darkness, since that's sort of what the rumors are going around. I actually pictured it kind of like a weird spider-snake-mistwraith type thing, something that has no defined shape but has pointy solid-black legs that could pierce or skewer and then devour. However, if any of you have been imagining a thing yourselves, please let's discuss together!

That's pretty cool!

It is a "monster", or is there a chance to maybe breake a curse and free/ save the creature? It could be interesting to find out what binds it.

[Turtle373]

I envisioned the monster as a kind of amorphous smoke or darkness or something similar, that could harden and define it's shape when it wanted 

[xinoehp512]

On 3/27/2019 at 11:08 PM, xinoehp512 said:

If the Natural investiture is being concentrated significantly more than elsewhere, wouldn't that cause increased belief power from people in that area? Wouldn't that be a noticeable effect?

What do ley lines actually do? Why are they important? If someone disrupted one, what would happen?

What about power differential between places not on a ley line and places that are?

And finally, what causes ley lines to form where they do? What forces shape the flow of magic and determine the direction of flow?

@kenod

@kenod?

[Vargo Seldon]

On 3/31/2019 at 11:27 AM, ZincAboutIt said:

@Vargo Seldon @Sorana @Chasmfiend#1 @Invocation @Steel Inquisitive @anyone else

So, I was expecting everyone to come back to the tavern and have Liezl say "oh goodness have you seen Fritz" but I could also have Aldred mention him to the group and put it all together, since he does know Fritz (the errand boy) hasn't been seen all night or day, so that's not strictly speaking necessary.  Algorath has been finding drops of blood so whatever is hunting the poor people has some kind of puncture-y type implement or body part at the least. The idea that has been brewing revolves around effectively sentient, hungry darkness, since that's sort of what the rumors are going around. I actually pictured it kind of like a weird spider-snake-mistwraith type thing, something that has no defined shape but has pointy solid-black legs that could pierce or skewer and then devour. However, if any of you have been imagining a thing yourselves, please let's discuss together!

I'm fine with this.  I didn't really have a shape for it in my head canon, but this should work.  I'm also curious about Sorana's question.  Is it doing this of it's own free will, or is it being forced?

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

36 minutes ago, Vargo Seldon said:

I'm fine with this.  I didn't really have a shape for it in my head canon, but this should work.  I'm also curious about Sorana's question.  Is it doing this of it's own free will, or is it being forced?

@ZincAboutIt

Sorry for the delay! It could go either way, though I was thinking that it would be acting of its own accord. It's not particularly clever, but it is large and smart enough to plan attacks and sneak about. However, I could easily readjust a storyline to make it bound to someone. If we choose to go that route I may need some advice from someone who understands the Ritual side of magic.

[+Sorana]

2 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Sorry for the delay! It could go either way, though I was thinking that it would be acting of its own accord. It's not particularly clever, but it is large and smart enough to plan attacks and sneak about. However, I could easily readjust a storyline to make it bound to someone. If we choose to go that route I may need some advice from someone who understands the Ritual side of magic.

Free will work fine. There can always be a species like that.

So: we go there, do we want directly to discover the thing? Maybe finding the lair first and then go on to hunt it down (maybe in the woods as we have a lot of nature oriented characters around)?

Edited April 2, 2019 by Sorana

[+ZincAboutIt]

2 minutes ago, Sorana said:

Free will works fine. There can always be a species like that.

So: we go there, do we want directly to discover the thing? Maybe finding the lair first and then go on to hunt it down (maybe in the woods as we have a lot of nature oriented characters around)?

That could work! I did actually imagine it kind of like a fungus or an aspen tree, with a main "system" that sent out tendrils of sorts. They could follow it back to the host-thingy.

Yikes lol I'll definitely have to write the actual description of this thing during the daytime  

[+Sorana]

3 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

That could work! I did actually imagine it kind of like a fungus or an aspen tree, with a main "system" that sent out tendrils of sorts. They could follow it back to the host-thingy.

Yikes lol I'll definitely have to write the actual description of this thing during the daytime  

So we go to the lair, find some corpses/ bones. Maybe a survivor? Then we can follow the tendrils back to the main system, leave the city for that.

Afterwards we'll see?

[+ZincAboutIt]

Just now, Sorana said:

So we go to the lair, find some corpses/ bones. Maybe a survivor? Then we can follow the tendrils back to the main system, leave the city for that.

Afterwards we'll see?

That sounds good! I need to sleep but I'll have more time tomorrow to devote to building this up. Thanks for your help! 

[+Sorana]

52 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

That sounds good! I need to sleep but I'll have more time tomorrow to devote to building this up. Thanks for your help! 

Let me know if you need some support.

[Chasmfiend#1]

14 hours ago, Sorana said:

So we go to the lair, find some corpses/ bones. Maybe a survivor? Then we can follow the tendrils back to the main system, leave the city for that.

Afterwards we'll see?

We find Fritz wrapped up in it's tendrils, slowly draining his life, that would leave anyone wanting payback on the thing.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

7 minutes ago, Chasmfiend#1 said:

We find Fritz wrapped up in it's tendrils, slowly draining his life, that would leave anyone wanting payback on the thing.

@ZincAboutIt

Definitely sounds good! I really appreciate all of you taking initiative with the plot and stuff because I'm going through a bit of a time over here and it's gotten way harder to create recently. I enjoy reading where everyone is taking this plot and I love everyone's characters 

[kenod]

On 4/1/2019 at 3:02 PM, xinoehp512 said:

If the Natural investiture is being concentrated significantly more than elsewhere, wouldn't that cause increased belief power from people in that area? Wouldn't that be a noticeable effect?

What do ley lines actually do? Why are they important? If someone disrupted one, what would happen?

What about power differential between places not on a ley line and places that are?

And finally, what causes ley lines to form where they do? What forces shape the flow of magic and determine the direction of flow?

@kenod

Sorry for the late response, I had forgotten about this question.

• It would, and it is an noticeable effect, but only applies at ley nodes, not ley lines. I guess larger ley lines would still manifest a slightly increased belief power, but not that much, since the energy actually needs to stay at a location in order to do anything. See it as a river of discrete packages. Each package carries energy and will affect the region it is in. However, since it is constantly moving it never stays in a location for long enough to seriously affect it. At ley nodes these packages stay longer, and would cause more intense effects.
• They're important because they are what fuels the ley nodes. Without ley lines, ley nodes wouldn't exist. The two biggest impacts are that ley nodes are where Investure Cystals are found, which means that ley lines are indirectly necessary for Ritual Magic to work. The second effect is that a lot of the 'Wild' Natural Magic wouldn't really manifest anymore. Natural magic would still manifest, but be a lot more dependent on actual belief, and the level of belief necessary for Natural magic to take effect would be bigger.
  If someone disrupted them, it would affect the ley nodes connected to it, reducing the power of the nodes, and probably having a bad effect on the node's local manifestations of Natural Magic. In addition the energy would need to go somewhere, which means either flowing towards a different node (I think this would be difficult for larger ley lines, since the more powerful flow would make changing course difficult) or coiling in on itself and collecting in the location of the disruption. This would cause a lot of Natural Magic to start manifesting inside of the area, and can have a number of end results (ordered in level of danger)
  (Note that all these effects and classifications are my own take on things, and are not canon, also, I think that interference with ley lines at this scale would be extremely difficult and would likely border on impossible):
  • Class I Ley Line Disruption Resolution: The energy will keep building up until the pressure allows some of it to slip past the blockade and continue its old route (though with less energy). Eventually this would stabilize and form a new ley node at the location of the disruption.
  • Class II Ley Line Disruption Resolution: The energy keeps building up until the pressure causes the energy to forcefully explode outwards. The disruption will vanish, or at least diminish to a weak enough version that option 1 takes effect. The issue with this is that the energy that has been building up will need to go somewhere, and will spread into the area surrounding the disruption, as well as flowing downstream into nearby nodes, meaning that all Natural Magic in a wide area around the disruption will suddenly get a large, temporary boost. The duration, range and strength of the boost will depend on the disruption, as well as how much energy has been building up and how easily it can disperse into the surrounding area (check final point, ley line formation for more info on this).
    (For these sub-classes, note that for most of them the effect will lessen the further away from the epicenter you are, segueing into the preceding sub-classes)
    • Class II-A Resolution, Natural magic boost: All Natural Magic in the area is boosted to some degree, with people being more likely to develop abilities, and entities and objects that already have abilities will seem them strengthened.
    • Class II-B Resolution, Long-term Natural Magic manifestation: Reality will become weaker in the areas close to the epicenter, with Natural Magic-based phenomena materializing without the requirement for belief. Some of the manifestations can stay afterwards, and Natural magic will be stronger in this area for a long time.
    • Class II-C Resolution, Reality weakening: Reality as commonly known will stop functioning correctly close to the epicenter, with certain people being capable of consciously bending reality in this area.
    • Class II-D Resolution, Reality breakdown: The concept of reality as we know it will stop functioning in this area. Stray thoughts can drastically change the nature of reality around people and the laws of physics and common sense stop applying. In more extreme cases this will basically turn the area into a modern arts display.
    • Class II-E Resolution, Reality restructuring: This is an alternative to Class II-C and class II-D Resolutions, where the nature of reality undergoes a (possibly pernement) fundamental change instead of just weakening. The positive side of this is that the resultant reality is stable, unlike with other reality altering Resolutions. On the negative side, there is no guarantee that humans as we know them can actually exist under the new laws of reality.
    • Class II-*-C Resolution, Cascade reaction modifier: A modifier to other Class II resolutions, the energy released by the resolution has a significant impact on nearby ley lines, altering their paths and disrupting them. This can result in additional Disruptions forming, with the Resolutions from those Disruptions possibly kicking off Cascade Reactions as well, setting in motion a large scale chain reaction that can result in country or even continent wide Class II resolutions. Do note that these Resolutions would probably fade quickly and wouldn't happen at the same time, because the amount of Investure that can be trapped in Disruptions is finite, but large scale cascades can still ruin existing Natural magic ecosystems and cause widespread damage to civilization.
• What do you mean with this? Do you mean the relative difference of Investure or the relative difference in how easily Natural Magic can occur? For the first one, I'd say fairly large, but dependent on the size of the ley line. For the second one, I'd say there isn't that big of a difference (refer back to point 1).
• As for the locations and paths of the ley lines, I'd say it's probably influenced by both the physical and cognitive realm. The main principles would probably Path of Least Resistance, Investure Momentum, Investure Attraction and Investure Pressure.
  • Path of Least Resistance means that the stream would travel in paths similar to actual rivers, following the lay of the land and the cognitive realm, though it probably wouldn't fully correspond to the path of actual rivers, since there isn't a high an low point the Investure comes from and flows towards.
  • Investure Momentum means that any Investure is forced to stay in motion, and the more Investure there is the harder it is for it's path to change. This means that the larger the stream the straighter its path will be.
  • Investure Attraction means that ley lines will pull towards other places with Investure. This causes ley lines to cross with others to form ley nodes, and will also cause them to pull towards areas with lots of living beings. Taking Investure Momentum into account, this means small ley lines will often go through cities, but the larger ones probably won't since the cities wouldn't have been around for long enough to cause large effects on those ley lines. On the other hand, this means that it wouldn't be weird for ley lines to flow through large forests or islands.
  • Investure Pressure means that the more Investure is concentrated somewhere the harder it is to force more Investure into it, and makes it more likely for Investure to split off again. This balances against Investure Attraction, and is the reason that there are a large number of smaller ley lines, instead of all of them simply coalescing into a single large ley line.

Note: All of these are my own personal takes on them, and you shouldn't take them as canon, especially the ley line disruption resolution types (on the other hand, this could allow for some ancient precursor civilization that got wiped out because they interfered with ley lines and messed up, causing a weak Type-II-E-C Resolution that destroyed their civilization, possibly also affecting how magic works in the world (might also be an explanation for why other continents might have different forms of magic).