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New Idea for a World that Needs Help

So I am currently doing some world building for a new novel I want to write. One of the main characters will be the sole survivor of a massive battle in space. He crash lands into a medieval setting with magic (not Earth). Where he comes from (Earth) there is no magic. He doesn't have a fighter ship but a suit of armor, like Iron-Man, that allows him to fly around in space. Also attached to his right arm, and only his right, is a gauntlet that can store and manipulate energy. The reason why is that for an older model, such as his, each arm requires a semi-sentient AI to be plugged into his brain and through experimentation the military found the human mind can only endure one additional intelligence in a person's brain.

The problem I having is language and culture, I have already established how humans got to the planet. It deals with a hyperdrive (not calling my rapid space travel this BTW) event where on a certain day on all routes a wave of time flows through it and throws spaceships into a different time but allows them to reach their destination. Sometimes people could go only a few minutes into the past or future other times it will be thousands of years into the past He speaks English the people don't. I know that I want his AI to have translation software, but it needs to get a sample of the language first. So question 1: How long should the AI take to gather a sample size and how should I go about dealing with this process.

Second issue is with culture. Their nobility consists of magic users and their families. Doesn't matter if the user was born as a beggar or noble if you have magic you are instantly in the nobility. Now I don't want to have the most powerful user to be the King or Queen always, that would lead to constant instability. I do however want that to be a factor. So what are some other factors that could lead to one being a low level noble like your knight or lord, a mid level like a baron, a high level like a duke, and the king. Also, what should I do if a magic user's child is not a magic user? And what crime(s) would get one booted from being say a duke and banished to the edges of the kingdom where all the mean beasties are but not executed?


Third issue is still with culture and I was wondering what kind of religion would spring from a culture like this. What kind of teachings would convince the more numerous lower classes that this was the proper way of society rather than strictly by bloodlines, since there will be more than a few children of noble blood but without noble power. Also what kind of religious teachings would convince some of the more powerful magic users that they cannot simply take power from their ruler that might be less powerful in magic?

Thank you for your help. This is all kind of a new brainstorm thing. It may take a year or so before I actually get to writing the story, which I have a bare bones idea for what I want the conflicts to be.
 
As far as your third question goes, the obvious answer is a religion that teaches that magic comes from a god or gods. Since if magic is given out by God to a select, then it is clear that He likes them better than everyone and thus they clearly deserve to be ruling over everyone else, right? Right. Good, because if you didn't agree I'd have to blow your face off.

How you stop the most powerful mages taking the supreme power rater depends on how one acquires power in the first place.
 

Spider

Sage
I've got an idea for your second issue-- Maybe instead of instantly granting nobility to those with magic, they have the opportunity to become a noble. Each year a tournament can be held where people from all over the world go to show their skills. I'm not sure what kind of magic the people in your world have, whether it's combat magic, elemental, healing, or all of the above, but either way these people can compete and try to make it to the top. The people who compete get ranked and the higher your rank, the higher your level of nobility. Those who are already born into nobility will have an advantage because they will have more resources to train for the tournament.
As for a crime, if anyone cheats in the tournament, receives help during the tournament, etc., they are stripped of their rank and banished.
 

Somniphil

Acolyte
Hello!

I find the language barrier intriguing. With regards to your first question, my initial impression is that the AI is continually adapting to the language and is constantly updating its translations. This could be the cause of both comedic and dramatic miscommunication and mishap throughout the story. In addition, there could exist many languages, if not many dialects, and the AI struggles, masters, and blends a bit of them all.

Considering the second question, perhaps nobility is more politically motivated instead of traditionally or royally. Instead of a monarchy, perhaps it is an aristocracy, rule by a few and the best. Perhaps the people are less governed and more influenced by an elite, ie the magically gifted. The more magic users in the family the more influential. Perhaps these families even go out of their way to adopt magic users from non-magic families. Maybe these families see the "iron man" as a threat, see as how technology is a source of magic for non-magic users. But that's not to say that the magic users are only looking out for themselves. Perhaps the laws that govern the magic they use favor non-magic users, ergo to abuse their powers is a crime punishable by banishment.

Lastly, regarding religious implications (these are only the first things that come to mind by the way) is maybe some sort of karma based religion. "What comes around goes around" is a relevant deterrent of misbehavior in society today. Karma amplified with a magical perspective would be reason enough for me to be a good mage. You can go as far as to dabble in beliefs of reincarnation, insofar that good people are reborn as magic users, bad people become non-magic users. Your space traveller could then be seen as a threat to the religion. If non-magic users believe that being good and obeying the magic users will elevate them in their next life to a magic user, then the introduction to technology as a source of power for the non-magic user somewhat renders the point of being good moot because he could remain a non-magic user and just use technology to make up for it.

It's an interesting premise and I hope to hear more about it sometime. I hope I was remotely helpful. Thank you for the post and best of luck.
 

Athena

Dreamer
I think it should only take 1-2 days for the AI to translate the most basic words of the language,like "hello","where can I get something to eat?",
"can I have some water?".Basically just what anyone of us could say when you first enter a country and only read a few dictionary pages.
And then the AI would gradually get better and after a month or so it should know just about any word.

And the king or queen does not automatically have to be the most powerful,it could still be like it is with real life royalty.
As in bloodlines and inheriting the title.Or like those tournaments Spider mentioned.

And crimes for a duke...betrayal of the kingdom,corruption like hiring assassins to murder other nobles and things that are considered a taboo.
The most obvious taboo being incest and the likes.

If a magic-users child is not a magic-user then the child either inherits the title by blood or the parent is forced to give away the child.
Having non magical children could also be used to strip a duke of his title,he'd not be punished for it though.

As for teachings...well magic users could have special cells in their DNA or there could be a concept of eternal energy that flows in everything and that those magic users simply have more of that energy.Or it could be internal energy like chi so the magic users have more willpower than regular people.
 
I would like to thank you all for the help. The ideas are all really good. I am thinking of creating an amalgam of the ideas for the nobility. The idea of a tournament to get into the ranks intrigues me. I believe the tournament will give initial rank, generally a minor lordship and inheritance with opportunity for advance at the same tournament. Thank you all!
 
It seems most of your issues have been addressed, but while reading the OP I was puzzled about something. If the people of this planet were in a spaceship when the time-event happened, even if they reached their destination a thousand years in the past, wouldn't they have above medieval level technology? Not trying to sound aloof, but I would think that they would be at the late nineteenth century, technologically speaking. I could be wrong, but that occurred to me and thought I should share my concern.

Again, I don't want to push my thoughts onto your idea. This didn't quite click with me, so I wanted to clarify.

-Cheers!
 
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Neybug

Dreamer
Just a quick observation and then I need to get to my own late night writing. Since this is specifically medieval, in other words, not scientifically advanced, the religion problem is pretty easy to solve with superstition of the masses. Those with magic can be seen almost as demi-gods, since their abilities will not be easily explained outside of religion. The religion can almost center around them, perhaps in an Egyptian fashion, with the magic-wielders representing invisible deities. The masses may not be willing to be suppressed unless at least some violence is used against them, just a thought.
 
Just a quick observation and then I need to get to my own late night writing. Since this is specifically medieval, in other words, not scientifically advanced, the religion problem is pretty easy to solve with superstition of the masses. Those with magic can be seen almost as demi-gods, since their abilities will not be easily explained outside of religion. The religion can almost center around them, perhaps in an Egyptian fashion, with the magic-wielders representing invisible deities. The masses may not be willing to be suppressed unless at least some violence is used against them, just a thought.

For instance, Stargate, movie and series. (I'll always remember it for the line, "This is a weapon of terror, designed to scare the enemy. (single-shot Zap!) This is a weapon of war, designed to kill the enemy. (buddabuddabudda, bullets cut the target in half.)")
 
It seems most of your issues have been addressed, but while reading the OP I was puzzled about something. If the people of this planet were in a spaceship when the time-event happened, even if they reached their destination a thousand years in the past, wouldn't they have above medieval level technology? Not trying to sound aloof, but I would think that they would be at the late nineteenth century, technologically speaking. I could be wrong, but that occurred to me and thought I should share my concern.

Again, I don't want to push my thoughts onto your idea. This didn't quite click with me, so I wanted to clarify.

-Cheers!

After thinking about this for sometime I believe I have an elegant solution that will deal with this problem and tie into the story nicely. This was a cloning vessel for the military. They were experimenting with cloning the best troopers they had at the time. This was early during the mass human cloning project and early during space travel, which explains why they got caught in the regular hyperspace event. Upon being jettisoned from hyperspace several thousand years into the past the ship struck an oncoming meteor causing critical failure, since ships then couldn't shield while in hyperspace. The few living crew members got to their escape pods but the back end of the ship exploded damaging their engines and sending them careening off course into a moon, they die. The ship crashes and with the clones intact. The AI activates the clones and awakens those that are fully formed. They emerge from the ship and only have some language skills and survival skills uploaded to their brains, like setting snares, making slings, spears, bows etc. This would compensate for the tech issue and create a plausible beginning for the religion or some religious elements. Like the ship that they emerged from they call the cradle or the womb.
 
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