The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt

[ThinkerX]

Question 22: How many people roam your world, and who do you count as 'people' ?

Hmmm...apart from earth, I have two principle worlds, both originally terraformed by the 'ancient aliens,' who then imported other races (including humans0 as servants and experimental subjects. This resulted in additional races. Still:

Char - humans predominate, located mostly in Solaria (40 million), Cimmar (25-30 million), Chou (40 million), the great southern plains (20? million), and another 10-20 million in 'other places' (like the 'black states.' Cities of 100,000+ are not uncommon; a few metropolises approach the million mark.

Goblins and the stronger tougher cousins hobgoblins have their own nations and tribes. Biggest is probably the Hobgoblin Hegemony, 30+ million, Pakar (7-8 million), 10-20 million more in the southern plains, and another 10+ million in smaller, ill-defined realms and enclaves (about a million goblins occupy menial positions in eastern Solaria). A large minority of Solaria's humans regards goblins as either animals fit only for manual labor or as vermin to be eradicated.

Largest elf nation is Sinaliel, north of Solaria, with around 8-10 million. Another couple million dwell in Ghand on the far side of the world, and maybe a few million more are found in isolated kingdoms and fiefs. Solarians tend to view elves as dangerous quasi-demonic entities because of their magic.

The rachasa cat-people are found mostly in small tribal bands, mostly in the southern plains, though enclaves of up to a couple thousand are found in other races. Maybe a couple million, total. They are regarded as a creation of the ancient races, a view supported by their own tales.

As to other races...well, dwarves are basically 'short humans' - a genetic trait that bred true for whatever reason. In Solaria, dwarves have a reputation for cleverness and are often found as prized servants and artisans. There are a few more or less purely dwarf realms and enclaves scattered about. It's much the same with giants: a few exist, hunt hard enough and you'll find a village or two. They have reputations for stupidity and brutality. The Skrea bird-people are almost, but not quite a myth, with a realm or two adjoining the southern plains. The ancient aliens were mostly gone...but that changed recently.

Aquas - a much more mixed collection of sapient's owing to its geography. Aquas has two principle land masses: 'The Continent' (a bit smaller than north America) and the 'Strand,' a narrow ribbon of land that runs clear around the world - 25,000+ miles on a rough NE/SW axis. Nations dominated by different races are located at intervals on the Strand.

The Continent requires some work (back-burner project), but boasts several million each of humans, goblins/hobgoblins, elves, dwarves, rachasa, and skrea, dwelling in a vast patchwork array of petty kingdoms, tribes, city-states, and confederations, loosely dominated by a pair of mutually antagonistic wizardly organizations, who first imposed, then largely destroyed a measure of civilization on all these races. Cities abound, but few have more than 20-30,000 inhabitants.

The Strand is a similar story - a strung together collection of petty realms, mostly at least semi-civilized, with few major cities, and almost none with more than 100,000 citizens.

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 23: Can you tell me a little something about your world's organized crime?
(Obligatory self promotion here : A Primer on Organized Crime for Writers – Mythic Scribes)

There are always people who believe it is their right to take others possessions. Wars of conquest on my worlds, like those in the real world were often 'theft on a grand scale.' That said...

...organized crime in Solaria at least is mostly a gang thing, and then mostly in the larger cities. At intervals the urban cohorts (thuggish police) will sweep the streets, and many gang members end up either dead, in labor camps, or in the military. Piracy and banditry are not uncommon, but the larger operations get shut down hard by the imperial navy or army.

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 24: I look above, what do I see?
(What colour is the sky, what do the clouds look like, how many moons, can I see the stars?)

Both Char and Aquas feature the usual 'blue sky and clouds' during the day. Their night skies differ.

Char has a single large moon - still a bit smaller than earths. The sun is a tad more orange in shade than earths. Like earth, it is the third planet from the sun - the innermost world is a gas giant occasionally visible as a disk. In times past, each was associated with a different mythological entity. The other worlds in the system are not human habitable and are mere points of light without a telescope. Of great concern to those on Char is the 'Herald of Guzur' or 'Demon Star,' an object that appears every few hundred years bringing greatly disruptive change.

Aquas has two moons, both barely large enough to show disks. A near literal double planet system orbits closer to the primary, one reddish, the other white, ascribed to the deities of war and love respectively. The next world out from Aquas is a gas giant, just barely discernable as a disk without a telescope, and its oversized yet still faint primary moon. In myths, the gas giant is the king of the gods, and the moon is home to his court. Past that is a dim greenish world, associated with secrets, loss, and mystic portents,

 

[ThinkerX]

Question 25: What are the boundaries of what is magically possible?

Put bluntly, mortal (especially human) mages are wimps in my worlds compared to others. Magic is psionic ability, originally imbued into humans and others by the ancient aliens. ESP - influence, scrying, prediction. Telekinesis, including levitation, and 'odd knacks.' (Faith) healing and manipulation of bodily energies - sleep, strengthen or weaken a person). Illusions - as much sleight of hand as anything else. Runes and rituals, many dubious. Teleportation - rare and risky. Pyrokinesis. Casting more than a few 'spells' at a time weakens mortal wizards substantially. Some wizards attempt to circumvent these restrictions via pacts with alien etheric entities - aka 'demons' - who are orders of magnitude more adept at the occult than humans. These efforts usually result in disaster.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 25: What are the boundaries of what is magically possible?

The only main rule of the OmniCosmos is: You cannot violate anyone's free will.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Question 25: What are the boundaries of what is magically possible?

The boundaries are set by the capabilities of the magician.
In theory, anything is possible. However, weaving magic is difficult. It needs practice and understanding, and more practice. The difficulty of a weaving increases with the complexity of what you want to achieve.

 

[WooHooMan]

Question 25: What are the boundaries of what is magically possible?

There's a general rule that nothing physical (matter, energy, space, time, etc.) can be created from nothing or be completely destroyed. Magician's can create matter from seemingly nowhere but that's actually creating matter from energy or thought or whatever. Likewise, when something is "destroyed" it usually just becomes something else like ash or smoke or something.
There is one exception to this rule: there's a guy who can completely destroy anything (matter, energy, thoughts, concepts, etc.).

 

[Ban]

Great to see so many responses! I do read all of them.

Question 26: Disease shaped our world, so what role have plagues played in your world?

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Question 26: Disease shaped our world, so what role have plagues played in your world?

There's no diseases in my OmniCosmos. That does not mean it's a paradise, however. If you want to get metaphorical, there's always a surge and then reside of beings forgetting their divinity whenever they incarnate, but that's a natural process and their own choice; plus they remember once they dis-incarnate. The circle of life, and all that.

[I'm kind of feeling bad that there's some questions I can't really answer...]

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 26: Disease shaped our world, so what role have plagues played in your world?

Enough that they have entire orders of healers and even dedicated plague doctors are around. Though due to magic and somewhat decent research they've kept them in pretty good check. The magical plagues, especially ones formed up by the Rat King have been much harder to put down. But since the Lich Wars, they've been harder pressed to put down some of the old ones they could once put down are a little harder to kill again.

STD's and other such are also fairly minimal, though this is more due to a combination of factors and things like legal prostitution, temples keeping a close watch on them, going to healers regularly and drow research and their own temples. Probably also helps that it's not demonized unless the literal demons are part of it.

 

[ThinkerX]

Plagues did play a significant role in collapsing the old Solarian empire, and they have decimated armies and inspired draconian responses from the rulers of various cities. Imperial scholars and officials were able to halt the worst of the diseases by mandating a minimum separation of 200 yards between well and privy, a statuette that applies to both civilian towns and military encampments. STD's are a larger problem, though the Solarian tendency towards cleanliness - a measure frequently imposed on brothels - keeps the infection rate down.

Cross-race diseases are rare, and are usually trivial to one species and catastrophic towards the other.

Strange afflictions are often recorded when the Demon Star appears in the sky. Accounts tell of souls left with mutable flesh, entire cities falling into enchanted slumber for days at a time, a city whose populace was compelled to sing rather than speak, and more.

 

[Ban]

Question 27: Can you give me some insults, specific to your world?

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 27: Can you give me some insults, specific to your world?

Soulless abomination - Usually thrown at any alchemically created being. Or golem, if most golems recognized it for what it was. And now undead get it thrown at them too.
Drow lover/loving- A very, very specific sort of insult.
Lower then a human- Fairly self explanatory given the world, where humanity is prey more often then not.
Dragons Spawn- Same as the above, but with another race that is often food.
Sun touched nymph- Thrown at the golden elves who may be a bit promiscuous.
Rockhead- For those bone headed dwarves.
Rabbit- All elves, for the ears and their own breeding habits.
Bright as a Sunleaf- An all around insult that implies the current wood elf ruling family is actually pretty dim and that the person in question isn't much brighter. Sometimes has been used at the royal family, but the ones who do don't usually live that long or end up very hurt.
No better then a raging elf- Usually thrown at anyone with a short temper that's not an elf. Usually a good shaming tactic. After all, no one wants to be compared to the damned wood elves. It's very much considered a sort of backhanded compliment to the actual wood elves, as they think they're pretty damn good.
Ugly as a troll- Seems a standard one, though the trolls themselves can dispute it and it's only during their morph phase. They also point out the elves aren't any better in their morph. In the past this has been pointed out with weapons and blows with fists.
Pig rutting greeny- Thrown at orcs, usually in an attempt to get them to rage before battle. Also thrown at the Bristles, who mostly get angry when they are confused with orcs.
Brittle Metal- A delver to delver insult, more or less saying they've got no spine or it's broken.

There's probably more.

 

[Ban]

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

 

[Orc Knight]

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

Honestly, I have no clue. I could say Magic, but it's kind of vague. Material value get's a little wonky when there's many ways to make or create materials and even things like rare metals or valuable gems. Though to be fair, steel and it's subsets are likely the move valuable. Steel and iron and all the things you need for war. Though to go metaphysical on you, if story and song is material, then it is the single most valuable. Especially to those who know how to use them.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

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

When you can make anything from nothing, material wealth and values pretty much vanish. There is one thing that is exceedingly rare, and sometimes sought after: Eternal One essence, used to make Divine Memory Pastries. The only way to get it is to first find an Eternal One [which is harder than you'd think], and then ask really nicely.

 

[Vaporo]

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

The material is called unsundo. The word means "memories of a god," and the material is the literal memories of the god of Thought given physical form. All things in the world are made of unsundo, but unformed unsundo is the material of interest here. Its only source is the corpse of a Fel, whose bodies are made of the stuff. It is a glass-like material that is over fifty times denser than lead and is so durable that is nearly impossible to shape by mundane methods. As a result, it is totally worthless to most people except as a curiosity. However, to a kind of magic user called an Alstalia, a single splinter of unsundo is priceless.

Alstalia have the power to take their memories and mold them into physical objects as they see fit. Unfortunately, since they are usually only able to work with flimsy mortal memories, their constructs are always flawed in some way or another. They are less "real" than everything else in the world. However, by absorbing unsundo into their minds and molding it, their constructs can become totally "real." This allows an Alstalia to make things like indestructible armor and weapons, permanent portals connecting distant locations, and magical stones that can bind a Fel to their will.

 

[CupofJoe]

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

A psycho-reactive crystal. For most people, being near it for any length of time gives them a headache that grows worse the longer they stay near it. It can lead to insanity - it has been used as a very cruel and unusual punishment. It is also why some places are thought of as eerie or cursed.
For some very rare people, a crystal can amplify their innate psychic ability in line with the structure of the crystal. Each crystal is subtly different and has different strengths so being able to use one does not mean you can use any others. If someone can tune in to the crystal well enough it can give them the ability to see the future, create illusions and lots of other things I haven't had to work out.

 

[ThinkerX]

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

First, my two principle fictional worlds were terraformed from near lifeless rocks a few tens of thousands of years ago, meaning they lack a major resource taken for granted in most fantasy settings: coal - the remnants of plants many millions of years dead. Coal, amongst other things, is extremely useful in smelting metals. Without it...well much of the metal found in fantasy settings becomes scarce...unless one gets creative.

In the equatorial regions, smiths and smelters make use of solar forges - curved reflective plates that generate intense heat at focused points (a technique used here on present day earth). At higher and lower declinations, solar forges become less useful (short winter days.) That is where 'fumar trees' come in.

'Fumar Trees' are a creation of the ancient aliens - relatively short, spikey looking trees, seldom taller than 10-12 meters (30-40 feet), Their bark has a sort of metallic glitter or shimmer to it, cut through the bark and you find a very thick paste in lieu of wood. Cut one way, a 30 foot long fumar log will heat a cottage for a winter. In places, northern aristocrats permit their subjects one such log a year.) Cut it another way, and one can smelt iron with it for a day, maybe longer. Additionally, just one of the tree's spiky branches ('candles') - up to about a yard (meter) in length - can illuminate a fair sized room for days, possibly longer. The 'bark' is heavily laced with metals; a clever smith can use it to fabricate items such as pots, pans, even armor.

Downsides are fumar trees require heavily mineralized ('tainted') soil in which to grow, and (eventually) leach those minerals from the soil, requiring continuous importation of toxic mine tailings. They also crowd out almost all other types of vegetation, plus seed to harvest is on the order of twenty years. They also don't grow well in tropical regions.

 

[Ban]

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

(choose whichever cuisine of your world that you feel is most interesting/delicious)