The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 38: Can you explain one of your world's sports to me?

Well, it's not exactly a sport. It's called Omni Ludo, and the only rules is that there are no rules. I was inspired by CalvinBall, from Calvin and Hobbes.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 38: Can you explain one of your world's sports to me?

The common one among the knightly class is something called jousting. You might have heard of it. Otherwise there's melee's and getting in fights in bars. Also variations of foot the ball (or kick the skull). There's also intellectual sports, like chess and poker and gambling. Though the latter are more luck then skill. Unless you happen to be an exceptional cheater.

 

[Saigonnus]

Question 38: Can you explain one of your world's sports to me?

Among the Ruaka, contests with Elementals are common. First, it is a style competition. Each family shapes their elemental; which is made from any material(s) they want to use, so that it is aesthetically pleasing. They are permitted to use any sort of magical enchantments that augment that aesthetic.

Once they are judged and there is a winner, then the enchantments are placed upon the creature. This is important because once the next phase of the contest begins, the golems will be tested against each other and they must participate in all of the events to win. Each year features different events, so the families must try to maximize its overall usefulness without knowing what the events are ahead of time. Some are combat challenges. Others challenge the creatures physically, tests their endurance or agility and even intelligence by way of given the, tasks to accomplish within a certain time frame.

The overall winner of the event is granted a life charm, which basically allows the creature to not fade back into nothing from whence they came. They become a guardian of the village, to be use against any that enter Ruaka territory unbidden.

 

[Ban]

Question 39: Can you tell me about your world's boogie man?

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 39: Can you tell me about your world's boogie man?

Why tell when you can probably meet them. Granted not many of them 'boogie', but the ones that are used for scaring the kids are the likes of the Liches and the Golden Queen, who is the all around scary monster of the world. Mostly because she's not dead and can be a threat. There may be an actual 'under the bed/in the closet' boogie man/monster/machine in the world too. Though it is like a spirited mischief spirt.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

The answer to this one question has taken me so long. Material properties are hard to come up with when you're trying to be original.

Question 28: What's the most valuable material in your world, and how is it used?

Depends on who you talk to.

The cultists of Inespell would say that the strange crystals that grow from random points in the air around Inespell's Rage are the most valuable material in the world, as they believe the crystals are formed from Inespell trying to break back into the world. They are not wrong in that the crystals do have some useful properties, but the sheer chaos that they hold is too much to be able to do anything with them without risking calamity.

Adventurers like to have dragon scales on their armour and/or shields, especially if going against dragons, because of their high resistance to fire and heat, and their durability. The scales also help muffle their approach, so they're good for stealth missions that also need strong armour.

Gem Slimes don't quite count as a material, but are highly useful for any kind of mage who requires gemstones for magic, so I'll put them on here. Another thing mages like to have is crystallised mana, but that is made through a special ritual, it's not something that occurs naturally in the world(except maybe at Inespell's Rage, but nothing works as expected there). There's also a metal that can be found within moondust that is a potent magical fuel, and there are a few (difficult) ways of getting moondust safely.

There's a metal which has strong anti-psychic properties, meaning that if, for example, two people tried to talk using telepathy, if there was a wall laced with filings of the metal between the two of them, the conversation would fail(telepathy magic is lazy, and only goes in a direct line). A 1cm cube of the metal has a nullification range of about 1m in each direction. Has a side effect of hurting Duongels to the touch, much like how iron hurts Fae and silver hurts werewolves, due to the inherent psychic nature of Duongels. Haven't got a name for this metal yet.

One last material: Photite, a crystal that absorbs light and then re-emits it when in darkness. It does not absorb the light it emits, unless a manipulation-type light mage were to bend the light so that it heads back to the crystal. A crystal of Photite will actually steal the light from the original source, and leave the source dark until the light stolen has been re-emitted. For example, if you were to fill the crystal with light from a fire, the fire would be left sitting there, black but still releasing heat, until the crystal emits the light that it stole from the fire. The sun is too big for Photite to darken. You'd need a crystal the size of my planet to even make a noticeable difference, let alone completely steal all the light.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

Oh yeah, conspiracy nuts who think people are trying to read their mind will often wear a pendant made from the anti-psychic metal. Much like how conspiracy nuts in our world wear tinfoil hats, but more effective.

 

[CupofJoe]

Oh yeah, conspiracy nuts who think people are trying to read their mind will often wear a pendant made from the anti-psychic metal. Much like how conspiracy nuts in our world wear tinfoil hats, but more effective.

Or so they would like to believe....

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

No, the metal definitely works, it's just a case of I don't know how effective the tinfoil hats are.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

Question 29: What will be served for a typical breakfast?

A standard breakfast for a Duongel who is not in a hurry is often two slices of bacon and two eggs for each body, plus maybe a fruit-jam sandwich split evenly between the two bodies. If they're in a hurry, it'll be a whole sandwich for each body, typically ham and cheese.

With humans, it can be just about anything you might find in our world, though I'm not sure at what point to call the line.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

Question 30: Where do people get the news? (Do they have an established media system, or is it word of mouth, or... ?)

As easy as it is for news to travel across the Duongel's city, there's only actually one official newspaper system. They're able to make copies quite easily, as a Duongel might have one body holding an empty quill over a finished copy, and then just trace over it while having the other body synchronised but over a blank page and with a full quill.

This one newspaper is more for confirming or denying rumours than for actually spreading news, but there are some people that don't even listen to rumours, so it's useful for them. Some businesses will pay the newspaper company to advertise for them, but as this is the only newspaper, it can be quite expensive.

 

[Ban]

Question 40: can you describe the architectural styles of you world? (high/low, peaked/rounded, ornate/modest, open/closed etcetera)

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

Question 31: From the christian cross to the nike icon, our world is filled with recognisable symbols. What are your world's most widespread symbols?

Each of the deities have a symbol that works as their symbol of worship(much like how religions have a symbol associated with them), so I'll list a few of those.

• Inespell's symbol, largely considered to be bad luck/evil (like the upside-down cross) by just about anyone who isn't a cultist, is a strange one. It's a fanged grin, but the eyes are infinity symbols and the teeth are made of broken infinities. As it isn't used by many, people have forgotten what it originally meant, though many artists take the creative liberty to think that it might have been what Inespell's face looked like(all the actual depictions are trapped behind the immense chaos present at the ruins of Inespell's palace).
• Traviage's symbol is rather simple. It's a carriage with a horse.
• Temari's symbol is a lightning bolt striking a whirlpool. Very fitting for an ocean deity who's also the deity of storms.
• Pholux and Ombrsha, my deities of light and shadows respectfully, have pretty similar symbols. Pholux's symbol is a lit candle in front of a white background, while Ombrsha's symbol is an unlit candle in front of a black background.
• Tomort, the deity of death, has a skull perched on the end of a scythe, while Livita, the deity of life, has a cat resting on a flower.

Another important symbol in the world is the crest of the Duongel's city(I really need to come up with a name for this city already, it's getting annoying reffering to it like this). The crest is two wings, coming from the edge and meeting in the middle, with a pair of hands crossed over a depiction of the river that goes through the middle of the city. Might have a bow in there, but I'm not sure about that.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

Question 32: How much of a career can a writer make in your world?

In the human kingdoms, fiction writers have about as much career viability as they do in our world, as they don't have much direct exposure to the fantastic creatures found on the other side of the mountains. Non-fiction writers can become quite wealthy when talking about the creatures of the eastern side of the continent, and I'm pretty sure the first person to publish verifiable facts about the continent beyond the ocean will instantly become as rich as a standard noble, maybe even becoming a noble, no matter which side of the mountains they live.

On the other side of the mountains, the most profitable writers are those who document the bizzare physics and life-forms found at Inespell's Rage.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

Question 33: I am in search of work. Where could, would and should I apply?

Depends on what you're good at.

Since my interactions with you have lead to an impression that you're good with food, I would say you should look into trying to be a chef at one of the restuarants in the Duongel's city, or maybe a food critic.

There's an adventurers guild near the mage arena, so you could go there if you want to be an adventurer.

Other than that, it works pretty similar to in our world.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 39: Can you tell me about your world's boogie man?
Well, there's the NoBeing. It was once the child of the Eternal One Dream, but then was transformed into an eldritch, despairing creature. It is known by many other names, including ones that may give you a small sense of what it is like: the Nightmare Child, the Devourer, the Crithled, the Bone Child.

Question 40: can you describe the architectural styles of you world? (high/low, peaked/rounded, ornate/modest, open/closed etcetera)

There's a lot of crystals, that's for sure, and spirals and eternity symbols are common in decoration. Open spaces are vital, and most homes are built like Hobbit holes.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 40: can you describe the architectural styles of you world? (high/low, peaked/rounded, ornate/modest, open/closed etcetera)

Built to last. Or, as built to last as anything can be on the world. Even the most fantastical of the general standard fantasy ideal must be built to withstand a great many things that might be thrown at it. Eld's architecture is to a point fairly utilitarian and meant to withstand lots of battle and fighting. Which may make for not very pretty buildings, but they are quite hardy.

 

[Ban]

Question 41: Can you give me a linguistic overview of your world? (Language families, broad distribution, intelligibility, lingua franca, trade language...)

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 41: Can you give me a linguistic overview of your world? (Language families, broad distribution, intelligibility, lingua franca, trade language...)

No.

 

[WooHooMan]

Question 41: Can you give me a linguistic overview of your world? (Language families, broad distribution, intelligibility, lingua franca, trade language...)

I got nothing. Since I write in English, everyone just speaks English.