Queshire
Istar
So I'm thinking about the cosmology for one of my WiPs and want to see what you guys think.
First off there's multiple worlds. They're more like different planes in D&D then actual worlds though, you can't physically travel between them, you have to use magic or some other thing. In practice each world acts like an individual nation or such.
The region of the multi-verse (Regions act like a continent on Earth) called The Nine Worlds. This is inspired by the nine worlds of Norse Mythology, however I don't want to exactly copy the nine worlds, so I thought to myself "What else has nine worlds?" and then it came to me, their are nine planets in the solar system! YES, PLUTO IS STILL A PLANET!!!
So the world's are partly based on Norse Mythology, partly based off the planets in the solar system.
Mercury: This one gave me trouble... :/ When I think of Mercury, I think of something flowing and constantly moving, along with metal. I'm thinking of an infinite ever shifting dessert of the sand is water variety. Maybe have the sand be metallic and sparkly? Tiny bits of precious metals all mixed together. What land is there are just islands of stone or melted together sand floating on top of the shifting sand. It was home to an ancient civilization and is a popular destination for archeologists when the shifting sands reveal the buried ruins. I need some way to work in oasis and cacti... Maybe symbioticly bound with giant animals? An oasis on the back of a giant sand turtle sounds nice... For the cacti, maybe have them be giant cacti only most of them is buried beneath the sand, with the cacti seen above ground being just the tips? They would need a way to support all that bulk beneath ground... Maybe have the needles spear and feed off the animals swimming beneath the sand? Of course in a desert there has to be mysterious nomads! Maybe descendents of the ancient empire? I still need a name for this place... Any suggestions? Preferibly something thematically appropriate and taken from mythology.
Venus: I don't know who first interperted Venus as a jungle world, but I like it! This world is overflowing with life, skyscrapper sized rainforests, huge prairies, even the oceans are either just large swamps or forests of coral! Entirely new species can evolve from scratch in a decade. This is the home of the Elves, and they developed their signature life-shaping magic to deal with the large variety of beasts and animals in their home world. While the elven cities are popular tourist spots, it's important to stay in the mark area or you'll end up a quick snack for some animal or plant.
Earth: Called Midgard, home of humanity. Nothing really special. They are considered a bit... backward by the other worlds. Doesn't excel in any area, though how much it's advanced in the century since it was first contacted by the other worlds is nothing short of impressive. Several areas of the world are consumed by what's known as The Blight, which is really just the ruins of the previous technological age.
Moon: Called Mu, the capital of Midgard, which is it's actual Moon. Compared to the rest of Midgard it is significantly more advanced magically with a correspondingly higher standard of living. Among many visitors from the other worlds it's often considered to be the only "civilized" part of Midgard. Hmmm..... Maybe on second thought, I'll disconnect this from Earth/Midgard and just have it be a neutral zone between the worlds?
Mars: Once a peaceful, ideallyic world of vast rolling prairies, unfortunately it had the missfortune to be caught between the Elves and the Dwarves in during their war. Reduced to a wasteland by the war, even all these years later some areas are still incredibly dangerous with areas of wild magic, ancient traps, and elvish monstrosities and dwarvish golems wandering about attacking all. Despite that, it has been claimed by the newly liberated Orcs, themselves Elvish creations for use in the war, as a homeland. They have dug out a foot hold with their might and sheer stubborness and in parts are even working to restore areas to it's former agricultural glory.
Jupiter: Jupiter's a gas giant, so why not work with that? I'm thinking cities in the clouds. Gusts of wind and thicker gases letting a normal human fly if they're skillful enough. Natives from this world often have to get their "land legs" on other worlds.
Saturn: Haha... actually I completely forgot about Saturn ^^' WELL! Why not work with that? How about a reputation as a generally peaceful, ingorable civilization? They're there, but they don't really do much. They stay out of other worlds affairs. They have a reputation for fairness and impartiabiliy, and often act as a third party between other worlds. In addition they have one of the greatest libraries in the multiverse, anything from magic to technology to how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies can be found there. Don't think they're weak though, as numerous worlds found out over the years, you do NOT mess with this world. They're the definition of a sleeping giant. (For bonus points, they actually HAVE giants) I also need a good name for this... Maybe Akasha making their famous library the Akashic Records?
Uranus: I don't know why but when I think of Uranus I think of gems and crystals for some reason... :/ This would be the homeland of the Dwarves, while the surface is pretty much just a bleak rocky wasteland with the occasional large glowing crystal errupting out of the crust, beneath the surface is mile upon mile of tunnels include the Dwarve's techno-magical society. This world is known for it's rich supply of crystals which naturally store large amounts of magic and lead to the Dwarve's development of runic circuitry based magic.
Neptune: Neptune's easy. It HAS to be a water world. It's completely covered in water, the only land being a chain of archepeligos which are really just the tallest underwater mountains, the expansive fields of ice at the poles, and the occasional island sized clumps of floating seaweed.
Pluto: YES PLUTO'S A PLANET!!! In fact I'm going to play with that! Despite being the smallest world, it was once the head of an ancient multi-world spanning empire. Their power has since waned significantly since then, and now they're generally only included in The Nine Worlds due to tradition and there's been talk of removing them from The Nine Worlds. Needless to say, they are NOT happy about this. They have been working desperately to regain their lost power, even delveing into magic that the other worlds consider... squicky. Their attempts to regain their power aren't really that big of a plot point, just that most necromancers or warlocks come from this world. I would like to do something with the duality thing between Pluto and it's moon Charon... Maybe have a naturally occuring shadow world be connected to it?
So questions:
-Are these too generic / cliche?
-Do you guys have any suggestions for the names of the worlds? Something thematically appropriate and taken from mythology would be nice...
-Do you have any suggestions for alternative worlds? I was thinking of maybe a volcanic world...
-Do these worlds seem too... video game levelish? I mean, I basically have a desert world, a jungle world, earth, a battle world, a cloud world, er... Saturn... (library world?) a mine world, a water world, and a dark world.
First off there's multiple worlds. They're more like different planes in D&D then actual worlds though, you can't physically travel between them, you have to use magic or some other thing. In practice each world acts like an individual nation or such.
The region of the multi-verse (Regions act like a continent on Earth) called The Nine Worlds. This is inspired by the nine worlds of Norse Mythology, however I don't want to exactly copy the nine worlds, so I thought to myself "What else has nine worlds?" and then it came to me, their are nine planets in the solar system! YES, PLUTO IS STILL A PLANET!!!
So the world's are partly based on Norse Mythology, partly based off the planets in the solar system.
Mercury: This one gave me trouble... :/ When I think of Mercury, I think of something flowing and constantly moving, along with metal. I'm thinking of an infinite ever shifting dessert of the sand is water variety. Maybe have the sand be metallic and sparkly? Tiny bits of precious metals all mixed together. What land is there are just islands of stone or melted together sand floating on top of the shifting sand. It was home to an ancient civilization and is a popular destination for archeologists when the shifting sands reveal the buried ruins. I need some way to work in oasis and cacti... Maybe symbioticly bound with giant animals? An oasis on the back of a giant sand turtle sounds nice... For the cacti, maybe have them be giant cacti only most of them is buried beneath the sand, with the cacti seen above ground being just the tips? They would need a way to support all that bulk beneath ground... Maybe have the needles spear and feed off the animals swimming beneath the sand? Of course in a desert there has to be mysterious nomads! Maybe descendents of the ancient empire? I still need a name for this place... Any suggestions? Preferibly something thematically appropriate and taken from mythology.
Venus: I don't know who first interperted Venus as a jungle world, but I like it! This world is overflowing with life, skyscrapper sized rainforests, huge prairies, even the oceans are either just large swamps or forests of coral! Entirely new species can evolve from scratch in a decade. This is the home of the Elves, and they developed their signature life-shaping magic to deal with the large variety of beasts and animals in their home world. While the elven cities are popular tourist spots, it's important to stay in the mark area or you'll end up a quick snack for some animal or plant.
Earth: Called Midgard, home of humanity. Nothing really special. They are considered a bit... backward by the other worlds. Doesn't excel in any area, though how much it's advanced in the century since it was first contacted by the other worlds is nothing short of impressive. Several areas of the world are consumed by what's known as The Blight, which is really just the ruins of the previous technological age.
Moon: Called Mu, the capital of Midgard, which is it's actual Moon. Compared to the rest of Midgard it is significantly more advanced magically with a correspondingly higher standard of living. Among many visitors from the other worlds it's often considered to be the only "civilized" part of Midgard. Hmmm..... Maybe on second thought, I'll disconnect this from Earth/Midgard and just have it be a neutral zone between the worlds?
Mars: Once a peaceful, ideallyic world of vast rolling prairies, unfortunately it had the missfortune to be caught between the Elves and the Dwarves in during their war. Reduced to a wasteland by the war, even all these years later some areas are still incredibly dangerous with areas of wild magic, ancient traps, and elvish monstrosities and dwarvish golems wandering about attacking all. Despite that, it has been claimed by the newly liberated Orcs, themselves Elvish creations for use in the war, as a homeland. They have dug out a foot hold with their might and sheer stubborness and in parts are even working to restore areas to it's former agricultural glory.
Jupiter: Jupiter's a gas giant, so why not work with that? I'm thinking cities in the clouds. Gusts of wind and thicker gases letting a normal human fly if they're skillful enough. Natives from this world often have to get their "land legs" on other worlds.
Saturn: Haha... actually I completely forgot about Saturn ^^' WELL! Why not work with that? How about a reputation as a generally peaceful, ingorable civilization? They're there, but they don't really do much. They stay out of other worlds affairs. They have a reputation for fairness and impartiabiliy, and often act as a third party between other worlds. In addition they have one of the greatest libraries in the multiverse, anything from magic to technology to how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies can be found there. Don't think they're weak though, as numerous worlds found out over the years, you do NOT mess with this world. They're the definition of a sleeping giant. (For bonus points, they actually HAVE giants) I also need a good name for this... Maybe Akasha making their famous library the Akashic Records?
Uranus: I don't know why but when I think of Uranus I think of gems and crystals for some reason... :/ This would be the homeland of the Dwarves, while the surface is pretty much just a bleak rocky wasteland with the occasional large glowing crystal errupting out of the crust, beneath the surface is mile upon mile of tunnels include the Dwarve's techno-magical society. This world is known for it's rich supply of crystals which naturally store large amounts of magic and lead to the Dwarve's development of runic circuitry based magic.
Neptune: Neptune's easy. It HAS to be a water world. It's completely covered in water, the only land being a chain of archepeligos which are really just the tallest underwater mountains, the expansive fields of ice at the poles, and the occasional island sized clumps of floating seaweed.
Pluto: YES PLUTO'S A PLANET!!! In fact I'm going to play with that! Despite being the smallest world, it was once the head of an ancient multi-world spanning empire. Their power has since waned significantly since then, and now they're generally only included in The Nine Worlds due to tradition and there's been talk of removing them from The Nine Worlds. Needless to say, they are NOT happy about this. They have been working desperately to regain their lost power, even delveing into magic that the other worlds consider... squicky. Their attempts to regain their power aren't really that big of a plot point, just that most necromancers or warlocks come from this world. I would like to do something with the duality thing between Pluto and it's moon Charon... Maybe have a naturally occuring shadow world be connected to it?
So questions:
-Are these too generic / cliche?
-Do you guys have any suggestions for the names of the worlds? Something thematically appropriate and taken from mythology would be nice...
-Do you have any suggestions for alternative worlds? I was thinking of maybe a volcanic world...
-Do these worlds seem too... video game levelish? I mean, I basically have a desert world, a jungle world, earth, a battle world, a cloud world, er... Saturn... (library world?) a mine world, a water world, and a dark world.
Myth Weaver
Maester
