The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt. Chapter 2

[CupofJoe]

Question 99: I arrived to your world from ours 99 questions ago. By now I've spent a lot of time in your world, but I've become homesick. If I aired my grievances to the people of your world, would my story be believable to them? (What would the reaction be?)

No, they would think you insane and if you were lucky you'd be chased out of the village before you spoiled the Harvest.
If you were less lucky you might be thrown in to dank cellar and sold to the Slavers next time they visit. Always good to have something/one to trade in case they start looking around...
If they REALLY didn't like you, you'd be tied to a stake and burnt to scare off any evil spirits.
That is all because you are a stranger and they don't know you.
Not much of a tourist industry in this place...

 

[Deleted member 6067]

Question 99: I arrived to your world from ours 99 questions ago. By now I've spent a lot of time in your world, but I've become homesick. If I aired my grievances to the people of your world, would my story be believable to them? (What would the reaction be?)

Not really, but all the same they wouldn't think much of it. Everybody who arrives here ends up with blurred out memories and once they realize there is no way to actually leave the island they go a little cray-cray for a short time. It's normal.

 

[Miles Lacey]

Question 97: From Batavians to bikers. Who are the rough and tough folk to be weary of in you world? (And do the myths hold up?)

Dark mages are feared the most because their magic involves dabbling in necromancy and other forbidden spell casting. Their bad reputation does have a valid basis but not all dark mages are bad people. Some are possessed by the spirits of those condemned to wander the Cosmos forever so they are (sometimes) pitied.

Ahabs - A derogatory name given to pirates. Pirates are ruthless looters and killers whose lack of mercy has made them feared almost as much as the naga. They often go for smaller vessels that are less likely to have guns or armed crew members. For this reason ahabs are viewed as cowards.

Primal Neanderthals - While Neanderthals are seen as humanoids by many people others see them as animals and primal Neanderthals are the reason why. They often live in jungle or very remote areas and live by raiding travellers who stray off the main highways, farms and small villages. Some are even rumoured to be cannibals.

Quids - Gangsters not unlike the Prohibition-era Mafia in the U.S.

Question 99: I arrived to your world from ours 99 questions ago. By now I've spent a lot of time in your world, but I've become homesick. If I aired my grievances to the people of your world, would my story be believable to them? (What would the reaction be?)

They would have some sympathy but a lot of your problems would mystify them. Internet? Television? Smart phones? Never heard of them. Your favourite foods back home? Stop your whining and make them there. Pizza has yet to be invented so you'd probably make a killing. Some of the issues like corruption and bad leadership will get you nods of approval. Just don't insult the Monarch. Rant about how you miss Christianity and start talking about Jesus and an agent from Branch IX will take you aside and... let's not go there.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 99: I arrived to your world from ours 99 questions ago. By now I've spent a lot of time in your world, but I've become homesick. If I aired my grievances to the people of your world, would my story be believable to them? (What would the reaction be?)

Well, you could complain about it, but there are bigger worries then someone who ended up there against their will. It happens so often that they don't generally bat an eye. There are ways to escape of course and well not everyone will believe things you tell about our world, you do have a sympathetic ally in the drow. Several of their Rangers are well acquainted with Earth in some way, shape or form. And for a fee could get you back. Though, first you have to know about things, which may mean some more paying to get secrets. Even if to the drow it's an open secret.

Either that or someone smart will distract you with cheese and beer. Probably well before you think of getting homesick or to forget about it on the way.

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 99: I arrived to your world from ours 99 questions ago. By now I've spent a lot of time in your world, but I've become homesick. If I aired my grievances to the people of your world, would my story be believable to them? (What would the reaction be?)

Depends on who you aired your grievances to. To ordinary people, and even most educated ones, the notion of 'other worlds' (apart from the afterworlds) is absurd. Complain overmuch about the way the societies are set up, making comparisons with conditions here...well you might be regarded as a madman, or be seen as a revolutionary.

Those in the know - specialized church and government officials, wizards, scholars, and others might accept your account - isolated travelers from other worlds are not unknown, and these people are aware that their ancestors 'arrived from elsewhere.' (I have a number of characters like this, mostly in 'Empire.') Whether or not they'd help with your return is another matter.

 

[Ban]

We have arrived at the last question of the thread. I think we all did well and I've read a lot of interesting responses. On my part, It has been more difficult to come up with questions this time around, but I hope everyone still enjoyed answering them. A Chapter 3 may open later, but for now we will take a bit of a break. Also, a file with all the questions asked in this thread, will be attached to the first post later on.


Question 100: How do your people think the world began and will end? (Are they correct?)

 

[Miles Lacey]

Question 100: How do your people think the world began and will end? (Are they correct?)

It is implied in the Book of Zuyus that Mubarek (the name of the planet) was terraformed by the Gods. It has even been suggested that the Gods were actually from a highly advanced alien race.

The truth is the planet was terraformed but not by advanced aliens. A group of refugees in fourteen spaceships, including a de-registered terraforming ship, escaped from an ambush. They needed refuge and found a barely liveable planet they could terraform and take refuge on. To avoid detection they avoided all but the most basic things. The Gods were the captains in charge of the fourteen ships.

As for how it will end? The Gods will return in the flesh and take away the righteous to join them in Paradise. The others will perish "when all will be returned to rock".

The reality? Terraformed planets have an average shelf life of 20,000 years. It's Year 7445.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 100: How do your people think the world began and will end? (Are they correct?)

They don't really think, so much as know the world got started by the Elder (as the Elder can and have often confirmed it). Some are willing to put it onto the gods, but even those still put the blame on the Elders. As for how it will end? No one's quite to sure, seeing as they've had plenty of apocalyptic scenario's. Moon attacks? Well, a wolf eats it and cancels that particular one. Then several wars that eventually escalated to scorched earth tactics. World still lived on. Then big magics came around with people throwing astroids at the planet and rearranging mountains and coasts. World still lived. Then came the unbalancing of Eld's natural balance and the undead. World survived that. The current feeling is that since it survived all that, it's going to take the Elder to unmake it. And as far anyone knows, the Elder aren't touching it. They too can be killed by mortals. They'll leave well enough alone.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 95: What about funerals? (How are they performed? Who is invited? How significant are they? How are the dead honoured? What happens to their body? Are they given a stone, a cross, a...?)

Given that the Untian culture originates from fishing villages, they often prefer aquatic burials. The remains of sailors will often be sent out to sea on a simple sailboat with small holes drilled in the side. The body will be weighed down so the boat and body will sink to the seafloor together, so that the sailor may continue sailing forever.

Another common practice is to cremate the body and have close friends and relatives toss the bones over the side of a boat. There's not really much deep symbolic meaning to this. It's simply a way to let everyone have a final goodbye, since there will be quite a few bones to toss overboard.

If there is no body of water nearby in which to dispose of remains, then they will revert to the old standby of burying the dead. While the grave will almost always receive a marker, many villages only have one or two people who can barely muddle their way through written language, so the marker will usually just be a square cut stone inscribed with the name of the deceased. More elaborate burials may also have the stone inscribed with images of things that the person enjoyed in life or were otherwise meaningful to them.

Most cities are built near the ocean or a river, so their inhabitants will use some sort of burial-at-sea method as described above, but some landlocked cities may have an elaborate system of catacombs to store the dead.

Question 96: What will be served for a typical lunch and/or dinner?

I don't ever think that I answered the breakfast question, so I'll do that here as well.

A typical Antisan breakfast consists of hron fruit. A common preparation method is to section the fruit and roast it over a fire for a few minutes, then sprinkle a bit of sugar over top. It's quick and easy, perfect for starting the day.

Many Antisans will skip lunch entirely, since they see it as an unneeded distraction from work. But, when applicable dried hron segments are a goto snack that's easy to carry with you on the job.

And for supper, Antisans will have (You'll never guess it. I'm sure that you haven't picked up on the recurring theme of Antisan agriculture by now.) hron pie served with hron beer.

Of course, hron is just the most common food. Other crops such as wheat and rice are grown in vast quantities and are still staples of the Antisan diet, and the meat industry has been booming thanks to the fact that hron leaves can be used as feedstock.

Question 97: From Batavians to bikers. Who are the rough and tough folk to be weary of in you world? (And do the myths hold up?)

I mentioned dock gangs once before. Ragtag groups of thugs and small time criminals. Usually, they just extort money out of shopkeepers and leave everyone else alone, provided that everyone else leaves them alone. However, there's a reason for their reputation, and they won't hesitate to beat you to a pulp in a back alley if you get on their bad side.

The tribes in the arid valleys north of Halgol are notoriously violent. The valleys tend to funnel rain storms between them, so your neighbor's crops may get absolutely drenched this year while you barely see a drop. As a result, the tribes are in a constant state of war with each other. When a valley-dweller warrior wanders into them outside world, the will sometimes be completely incapable of interacting with anyone simply because they're so used to killing anyone who is not part of their tribe. The violence was so bad that Halgol instituted a near-total isolationist policy that stood for centuries, since they came to believe that all outsiders could only be barbarians. They only recently loosened the policy when they came into contact with Untia in order to open up trade.

Question 98: What sort of biomes and landscapes are found on your world, that are rare or even alien to ours?

If it's on Earth, it's probably somewhere on Dor or Gen. The only really "alien" places would be the scars from the war with the Generals. Reality around the land the Generals took would become fragmented and inhospitable. When the war ended, some of the land never quite healed.

Buy rights, many of the scars should be jungles. Some of them are literally in the middle of a jungle. However, there just something wrong with these places. Seeds refuse to germinate, and plants brought into a scar eventually die. Animals avoid them. Migrating birds flying thousands of feet in the air will go out of their way not to have to fly over a scar. The lack of plant life has left the soil in the scars loose. In many, it's been washed down the slopes into valleys form enormous mud pits. In others, it's blown away entirely.

Question 99: I arrived to your world from ours 99 questions ago. By now I've spent a lot of time in your world, but I've become homesick. If I aired my grievances to the people of your world, would my story be believable to them? (What would the reaction be?)

They'd probably call you a crazy lunatic and go about their day. A few learned folk may diagnose you as some sort of traveler from the land of the gods, but when you fail to produce an even remotely accurate description of the land of the gods they too would probably dismiss you as insane.

New Question 100: How do your people think the world began and will end? (Are they correct?)

In Untia, most follow some variant of the belief that the world came to be when a mighty divine being was shattered by a council of dark gods and the pieces coalesced into the world that they know today. There is no common ending myth, other than some vague stories that the dark gods may come to shatter the world being once again.

The Amul believe that the ancient Alstalia will one day be unable to hold back the Fel any longer and will return to the world. They believe that the world must then band together under the Amul to defeat the Fel, so that the Alstalia can once again lead the world into an age of prosperity. If the Fel are not defeated, then they believe that the few survivors, if any, will be doomed to live short, crude, ignorant lives hiding from the Fel.

The Tulvian tribes believe that the return and victory of the Generals is inevitable, so the only way to survive is to join with them and hope that they will be merciful when the time comes.

In truth, the world was cast from the memories of Azizzi: god of Time, and Goss: god of Thought. They created the world to spite the other twelve gods after they were kicked out of their pantheon. When they found out, the other twelve sent the Generals to besiege and destroy the new reality, but they were repelled when Goss gave up his connection to the world, and thus his memories, to expel the Generals to the land of the gods. The Generals have been slowly gaining influence over the last five thousand years and will eventually be able to return. When they do, Azizzi will have no power to combat them except to make the same sacrifice as Goss. When they have brought the entire world under their shroud, the Generals will have the power to destroy the world and complete their mission. While it is possible that mortal armies could outmaneuver and defeat them, it's a long shot. However, a chance of survival does exist.

Beyond that, there is the vague possibility that Nothingness could eventually rise up to consume the land of the gods, causing all of existence to simply cease to be.

Aaaaaaand that's it! It's been a fun thread. Might go back and answer some that I've missed, now.

 

[Deleted member 6067]

Great thread. Unfortunately I couldn't answer the last few of them but that's okay. Will be looking forwards the next one.

 

[Ban]

Chapter 3 has started if anyone feels the worldshowing urge: The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt. Chapter 3

 

[Gotis]

Question 55: How is light taken care of at night? (Candles, torches, electric, magic. Who keeps them lit?)

Among the Dwarves, light-stones have changed their society in the last 50ish years. It's a specific type of rock that is magically treated then cut up. one piece is known as the source-stone. As long as it is exposed to a light source, the rest will glow. Most light-stones are rented out, though wealthier folks might buy their own. The lighting companies buy land on the surface to keep the source-stones exposed to sunlight. This causes some resentment with surface dwellers.