The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt

[Ban]

Question 8: Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epics? The foundational myths as it were.

The world of 2080 is based on our world, only set in a near future, but that does not mean that national epics have not changed. History is a tool for state-formation, and so too has it been used by the various break-away states of this world. One of the more pertinent instances is that of Frisia, which has been independent from the Netherlands since 2047. Since then, the cultural sector of Frisia has strongly promoted the nationalization of the Frisian culture and identity, with many of its remaining folk tales becoming standardized knowledge. The story of the medieval rebel Pier Gerlofs Donia or "Big Pier", a half-mythical man, strong as an ox, with a personal vendetta against Holland (province/culture, not synonym for the entire Netherlands), has been accepted as Frisia's national legend, with many modern interpretations made in the previous three decades.
Similar attempts are being made by separatist forces in the unruly provinces of Limburg, Zeeland and Groningen.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 8: Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epics? The foundational myths as it were.

As a whole, everyone blames the Elders (those big moon things in the sky who went and hid after they figured there work was done. Not good, just done.) for the state of Eld as a whole. It's mostly a series of fighting as the races come clearly into being after going from spirits and some working their way up to gods and the eventual pantheons. Then there's the requisite bit about the fight with the moon that happened as everything got straightened out and the races took on their full identities. Then more came out of the woodwork (some rather literally) and then the Elder's original fights about who created the best race flared up once into the wars Eld knows and loves. There were some other things that happened and so on, including the Elder of Life getting corrupted by a vague something called The Corruption, but it was no biggie and they just planted said Elder into a prison in a so called City of Life. In the middle of the jungle.

So, yeah, everyone blames the Elders.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 8: Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epics? The foundational myths as it were.

The creation myth is shared by every universe in the OmniCosmos, mainly because it is true.
Before the OmniCosmos was, the symbiont and Eternal One called Dream is. There was an 'Aha!' moment, and their child, Awakening, was born. The other seven Eternal Ones, Unity, Light, Love, Song, Life, Eternity, and Infinity sprang into being. So too, then, was the OmniCosmos, composed of twenty-two universes, created by Dream and the other Eternal Ones. Dream chose a host, and the OmniCosmos was elevated to immensely high dimensional frequencies. All was well, until someone trapped Dream and inflicted horrendous torture on them, just to see if it could be done. Awakening was transformed in their agony, an Eternal One no longer, and they became known as the NoBeing ever afterwards.

It is important to note that the NoBeing is not the source of all darkness or negativity in the OmniCosmos, nor are they a supreme "evil" being. There is no such thing as the latter. They are simply a lost child, twisted by trust betrayed.

 

[WooHooMan]

Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epics? The foundational myths as it were.

The Gobrihlat is the cultural epic, most prominent holy book, creation myth and general foundation of Goblin culture.

The story beings with the human King Gob (descendant of the "demon-chief" Kobalus). His son, Kobek, stole a pipe from the god of magic, Demiurgus. Gob starts smoking the pipe and soon, Demiurgus knocks on his door asking for his pipe back. Gob hid the pipe and denied having it. Demiurgus said: "if you don't return, I'll make your people three feet shorter" then left. Gob continued smoking and an hour later, Demiurgus returned saying: "return the pipe or I'll turn your people green". Gob continued to hide the pipe. Demiurgus returned an hour later and said: "return my pipe or I'll give your people claws and fangs" but Gob continued to deny having it until Demiurgus left.
Around this time, Gob got hungry. When he left his chamber to get food, he found that three days had passed and his people had turned into tiny, green monsters. That's chapter 1.
Gob and Kobek traveled to Demiurgus's castle and returned the pipe. Demiurgus refused to reverse his curse. He goes on a long lecture about the nature of justice, authority and retribution. This lecture is the foundation of Goblin social and moral philosophy.

From there, the book tells of Gob and his family being banished. The kingdom is split between Gob's younger brothers: Hob, Kob and Grem. The three kings each have a moral philosophy and they each make a deal with supernatural beings to gain a type of magic.
Hob tells his people, the Hobgoblins, of the importance of dominance and expansion. The Hobgoblins make deals with demons to gain sorcery and black magic.
Kob tells his people, the Kobolds, of the importance of being resourceful and loyal. The Kobolds make deals with dragons to gain druidry and nature magic.
Grem tells his people, the Gremlins, of the importance of guile and craftiness. They make deals with human mystics to gain alchemy.

The other half of the remaining text is a family drama where Gob in isolation, strengthens his relationship with his sons while going on dragon-slaying, princess-saving, demon-killing and king-fighting adventures. Eventually, his sons gain the favor of the human gods who give their descendants, the Pure Goblins, the power of clerical and holy magic (previously reserved for humans).

The book ends with an epilogue where the ghost of Gob appears to his great grandchildren and grandnephews (the leaders of numerous Goblin tribes) and pleads for all Goblins to unite under faith.

I've been meaning to type-out this summary for a while and I'm glad this thread gave the chance to do so.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 8: Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epics? The foundational myths as it were.

Oh, boy. So many ways to answer this.

Before time, there was only Nothing. Or, perhaps there were other things elsewhere, but they are beyond our petty ideas of whether or not they exist. In, truth, it doesn't matter. Nothing did not exist, and was true, perfect Nothing. And Nothing thought, for in such perfect Nothing there are no rules to tell Nothing that it can't think. Nothingness thought only of its own nonexistence, and did Nothing but revel in its own nonbeing.

However, Nothingness suddenly had a curious thought. It was quite familiar with nonexistence, but what was the Nothingness to Nothingness? A Nothingness within a Nothing. A sort of... Not Nothing. Driven by curiosity, Nothing pulled itself back and Existence came to be.

Nothingness immediately hated Existence. It was a great wound on its perfect nonpresence, a wound that had to be eradicated. However, as Nothing pulled itself back to eradicate this new abomination, it suddenly spoke.

"Please, wait! I have much to show you!" So, Nothing held its attack, and Existence expanded to form Reality.


...And then that story continues for a long time, but you get the gist of it.


The Untians have lost much of the history of how they came to inhabit the north, but the fragments that have been preserved give them a general idea.

A thousand years ago, the Unts were fishermen living on the southeastern coast of the continent. A thousand years prior to that, they had been slaves on the outer rim of the hated Amulkine Empire before its collapse. Amulkine literally meant "Governed by Amul," or, "Ruled by Magic," and the word "Unt" literally meant "slave." The Unts had never forgotten these facts, so when a dozen men rode into their towns proclaiming the glory of the Religion of the Amul, few were keen to listen. The riders were driven out, and most thought the matter finished. However, over the next few years, more and more of the travelers who passed through the Unts' towns claimed to be part of this new religion of the Amul.

Little did they know, Amul had swept across the lands to the west and north, converting nearly everyone to their faith by both compassion and violence. Soon, the Unts' land was the only holdout.

The people of the arid valleys to the northwest had always been jealous of how the Unts could simply draw food from the sea whenever they desired, and had raided them frequently for longer than anyone could remember. Now, with their new faith at their backs, the valley-dwellers intensified their attacks a thousandfold.

Soon, the Unts were reduced to just a few villages, their population totaling a few thousand at most. Soon, even they were driven from their towns, and the remaining Unts formed together into a great caravan.

The caravan survived for a few years this way, but still their numbers were slowly being whittled down by the marauders. When the news came that the valley-dwellers were forming a great army to wipe them out entirely, they made a difficult decision. They would do what nobody else had ever done and cross the great desert to the north and hope to find something on the other side.

The trek was a disaster. Within two weeks they had lost half their number, and the army was growing ever closer. They would have died, had they not stumbled upon an oasis filled with strange trees whose branches seemed perpetually heavy with fruit.

The waited there three weeks to be sure that the army was no longer pursuing them and, after still another two weeks of travelling, they stumbled into the green land that they would come to call Untia.

 

[Ban]

Those were great answers to read, and I'll make sure to return to questions allowing for a bit of storytelling. But for balance, I'm bringing this next question back to the more "mundane".

Question 9: What do your common folk do for fun? (Bonus question: What does the elite think about this?)

 

[Ban]

Question 9: What do your common folk do for fun? (Bonus question: What does the elite think about this?)

The future of the world of entertainment is in many ways the same as it is now. The common yokels of the future scour the zyphernet, catch a VR-movie, participate in a club or association relevant to their interests, play an instrument, draw, write, read, garden, watch some football, go out and perhaps even go to the gym if they manage to stop being lazy for an hour or so.

More interesting is the life of the punks and the precariat of my world. These folks willingly or unwillingly live a high intensity life that (at least in the popular imagination) is filled with illegal slaughterfights, underground concerts, wholly unreasonable amounts of exotic drug and alcohol abuse, scavenging plastic and tech to sell to a local pawnshop, buying second-rate cybernetic implants and bio-augmentations, joining a mercenary company, joining a gang, joining a mercenary company whilst being part of a gang. The list goes on.

This lifestyle is romanticized by the public, and does not necessarily reflect the average day of those it pertains to. Among the adult and elderly elite of Europe, there is open resentment to the lifestyle, but many young rich folk actively emulate it, only on a more prestigious level. Instead of delving the layered streets of their local city, they take a trip to the warzones to party (surrounded by security) in one of the temporary safezones, most likely set up for the precise purpose of attracting wealthy Europeans to spend their parents' money. And instead of using the most experimental of synthetic garbage for a quick high, they use the best (and safest) trips money can buy.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 9: What do your common folk do for fun? (Bonus question: What does the elite think about this?)

This is entirely dependent on area's of the world, how many drow are actively about said area (or if it's a full drow occupied area or one of their cities), what's on tap and whether or not the local guard takes kindly to roustabouts. Children will always have their fun, be it hoops and sticks, blown up bladders (not necessarily a pig's) and other pretend games that involve copying local or known heroic or villain personalities or a monster.

For the adults there's everything from reading to local fights and hopefully a decently good ale, mead or liquor to help things along. And depending on the place, several other activities both legal and illegal to go to and more adult themed entertainment. And where there are drow, even more recreational activities and for the experimental, their many, many drugs and liquors that they've created through alchemy. As long as they can pay for it, obviously.

As for the elites, they have all the fancy stuff and don't really look down to hard at it, especially when they have duels and straight up knock 'em down (and sometimes kill and eat 'em) fights, particularly with the wood elves. And the drow often get even more involved there, as they have money for the really good stuff they keep on hand. It's not all that different, though the elites try to be.

 

[Ban]

Question 10: Can you tell me a tale, that is fictional within your world?

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 9: What do your common folk do for fun? (Bonus question: What does the elite think about this?)
Playing games, for one thing. There's neither common folk nor elite, so all games are open to everyone. The most popular are Infinite Reversal, a card game played with Tarot-like cards, and OmniLudo, which is basically Calvinball [from Calvin and Hobbes].


Question 10: Can you tell me a tale, that is fictional within your world?
In a sense, all stories are true in the OmniCosmos. It just depends on your perspective.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Question 10: Can you tell me a tale, that is fictional within your world?

I can't tell a story that's fictional in my world, but I'll quote a piece of a short story I wrote where two old farts discuss a series of movies they watched when they were young:

The two men sit quietly for a bit, Pat sipping his beer, Lars starring out the window, clutching the crumpled napkin in his hand and nodding along to the music. The song was a bit of a hit back when he was at the university. He hasn't heard it for years.

“Strange life though. Going around all over the place, shooting bad guys.”
“Aye... couldn't live like that myself. Risking my neck for some god or something. Not my thing.”
“Yeah, gotta be hard on them.”
“I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind them doing it. If I was young and strong and backed by a major god I would probably do it myself. But I'm not, never was and never will be. Not me.”
“Yeah, we've all dreamt of adventures like that. Every kid wants to be a paladin, or a fire fighter or a doctor or something.”
“Aye, aye, I remember when I was young. There were these movies about Hernando, the World's Greatest Paladin, you watch them too?”
“Yeah yeah yeah! Hernando! I loved those movies. Used to go see them at the matinée all the time. Good times.”
​

The two old men fall silent again, reminiscing about the past. The pub's quiet. Even the music's stopped. The song ended and the next one hasn't started yet. Pat rubs his scalp, looking uncomfortable.

“Those Hernando movies... I picked them up as a box set last year thinking I should watch them with my grandson.”
“Nice. Did he like them?”
“We didn't actually watch any of them.”
“Oh, why's that? Anything happened?”
“Well... I was thinking I'd watch one an evening when Annie was off. Nostalgia you know. The first one, the one with the dragon and the evil elf witch.”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember that one. My favourite. What happened? Crappy disk or something?”
“No, no, I wish it was. Disk worked just fine. It's just... let's say it hadn't aged very well.”
“Oh... I see... And I was thinking I should borrow it from you.”
“Better not. Was great when kids. Not so much these days.”
“Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe just as well I don't watch it.”
“Trust me. We done here? You do the honours?”
“Yep! Done! Moment.”​

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 10: Can you tell me a tale, that is fictional within your world?

The Dragon Who Became A God

Among the dragons of Eld, this story is of a dragon successfully becoming a god and fulfilling their kinds most common ultimate ambition. One of the few draconic stories of success and one that doesn't end up with the dragon slain. Said dragon varies from being a common drake, the usual winged one or a sea serpent (the poor wyvern's are left out, but they don't seem to notice). Said dragon manages to elude or as it grows more powerful, kill and munch on it's adversaries and their souls which it sacrifices to itself to gain more power. Then it rises to the point to crush cities under claw and scale and call upon vast armies of loyal lizard folk, half dragons and humans roped into worshipping it. Then after leaving a trail of bloodshed and destruction to match the wood elves during a particularly good season of war it finally ascends.

Then kills and eats all the races that ever wronged it's kind (pretty much all of them) and takes over Eld and earns the honors and appreciation of the Elder that created dragons and the other scaly sort of folk.

And much like anything on Eld, it may get laughed off at first, it's eventually told enough times and combined with certain dragons actual useful success' and generally getting through a fairly long life without ending up in a trophy room and on the dinner plate long enough eventually means it stops being so fictional. Though with a lot less bloodshed and destruction. Only one city ever destroyed when it finally came true.

 

[Ban]

Question 10: Can you tell me a tale, that is fictional within your world?

I have a pop culture list to categorize in-world video games, movies and tv-shows, with descriptors for the type of audience it is geared toward, the genre and format it takes, in-world ratings and its popularity.
Out of the in-world fictional pop culture, my favourite is a campy superhero movie series called "Horselordman". Its titular lead, Horselordman, is a galaxy-dwelling superhero with the power to summon Fantasztikus, a spectral horse that can run at the speed of light. He was first written in 2020 as the lead of a Hungarian comic book series, before being picked up for a movie in 2043 by the burgeoning Hungarian film industry. Since the debut of "Horselordman: Meteor to Mars", the young audiences of Europe have been enamoured with Horselordman. 7 sequels have been written, with "Horselordman and the Star-Derby" being the latest instalment, praised by children worldwide, and loathed by their parents for being unbelievably dull movies.

 

[Ban]

Question 11: I want to travel from one edge of the known world, to the other. How do I go about this, and is it possible?

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 11: I want to travel from one edge of the known world, to the other. How do I go about this, and is it possible?

You would need a stargate, which I'm sure the Star Children would open for you, or a trip on the Interstellar Train, which has stations in 20 of the 22 universes.

 

[CupofJoe]

Question 11: I want to travel from one edge of the known world, to the other. How do I go about this, and is it possible?

For a fee, I'm sure I could write a letter of introduction to someone I know who trades down the Slave Trail. For another fee, they will be able to write a letter of introduction to someone they know. Just make it a big fee. You don't want to come back as cargo. If the Gods smile, it will take you six months going east to reach the Pillars and more than twice that if you decide to go west. What is in the far west, beyond the Storm Shore? Crazy sailors will tell you tales of huge beasts spouting smoke and islands of floating trees. They say there is even an island of flying monsters!

 

[skip.knox]

>I want to travel from one edge of the known world, to the other. How do I go about this, and is it possible?
Get three ships. Sail west until you hit China. Wherever you land, call that China.

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 8: Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epi

Short question, long answer. An excerpt from my fake history - with apologies in advance to Skip)

What many other Solarians saw as a crowded island home, Titus Reginus perceived as a trap, a place that was stifling his peoples potential. He also saw a world beyond the isle that was falling into chaos and needed a strong hand to restore order. So, he commanded what became known as the Great Exodus – legion after legion, town after town was loaded onto great ships and ferried to staging points about the mainland – and the Great Exodus begat a great empire.


Titus’s mad act caught the even madder Priest King by surprise, and Titus’s general Manlius Maximus routed the armies of Kheff in short order. From there they marched north and east along the coast to Corber Port, whose common folk welcomed the Solarians as an element of sanity in an insane feud. Another confederate of Reginus, Alexander Bestia, landed a fleet in Carbone and made it part of the empire.


While campaigning on the coast north of Sancti, Titus heard of a special, sacred place just below the mountains of the dwarves, a great throne, so large that only giants and gods could comfortably sit upon it. What he found was a mountain jutting out from a ridge that did very much resemble a throne atop a dais, at a juncture of two mighty rivers two days walk from the sea. This, he decided, would be the perfect place to establish his seat of power. He called in artisans, priests, and made pacts with the dwarves, to carve this mountain into a literal palace and turn the town about into the metropolis of Princeps.

By this time, the legions had been on the march for more than thirty years. The plums of the conquest – Kheff and Carbone and Niteroi and Corber Port had all gone to the great families, but now the ordinary legionaries demanded a share of the wealth, and so the new made emperor granted them the nearly empty coastland north of Corber Port, and so was born the province of Equitant.


Titus’s descendants continued to expand the empire; within a century of his landing the Solarians ruled most of the coast around the sea and started conquering the city states along the shore of the great ocean beyond.

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 9: What do your common folk do for fun? (Bonus question: What does the elite think about this?)

This varies from country to country - and province to province. In Solaria, horse racing (and betting on the outcome) is a big thing, though one scarcely covered in my stories. Likewise, a 'soccer-like' team sport, imported from its neighbors, is starting to take off in Solaria. Gambling with cards or dice is a big thing, as are large dances that can include most of a towns inhabitants.

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 10: Can you tell me a tale, that is fictional within your world?

Several mythical ones, and several more that are 'distorted history.' Straight out fictional...none that I've developed.