#wbj2019

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World Building June, Day 3: Who lives in your world?

So, standard fantasy races like Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs did exist on Creation at one point. Humans lived alongside the noble forest-dwellers and mountain kings for generations.

It’s a shame they died out.

Well, I suppose the better word for it was that they were bred out of existence. See, Humans, being the little scamps they are, were the only race capable of *cough* successfully copulating with the other races. So, humans inter-married and *cough* copulated with the various other races, and produced their half-blood offspring at a rate far faster than any other race on Creation. The other races were eventually outnumbered by, integrated into, and subsumed into the soon overwhelmingly Human genetics,

The does mean that non-human traits occasionally crop up in the modern nay descendants of those Human kingdoms. Some people exhibit these traits more strongly that others. For example, people from Askedelos, like Perez’s father, carry the physical strength of their distant Orcish bloodline. There’s never enough to drastically change someone’s appearance, so at most you might see someone with a pair of pointed ears, nubby horns, or hairy feet.

...Except, that’s not quite as true anymore. In the last few generations, those buried genetics have begun interacting in ways that they were never suppose to. Elf and Dwarf genes were never designed to mingle, but when connected by way of Human bits, they started having some... weirdnesses. Case in point, Fara Iokiend.

Fara was born as the unfortunate loser of the genetic roulette. Pale-white skin, pointed ears, and an eye that faintly lagged behind the other would have given her enough self-image issues, but those are almost forgotten when compared to the fully functional third arm sprouting from her right shoulder blade. 

Fara isn’t the only one, either. Fur-covered wolf-men, shadowy figures with curved horns, and cat-eyed women in the night are all the subject of whispers. Not like boogeymen or demons, mind you. No, they’re the subject of gossip and hearsay. As in “Did you notice that the politician’s wife always wears a hat? I bet she had horns removed and is hiding the scars.”

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World Building June: Religion

I know I know, I’ve been a disappointment this year!

To be honest, worldbuilding june is just a regurgitation month for me so if you’re interested in what I’ve said about my world and setting so far, you can check them here.

This instance, I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough with my worlds set religion. For some brief context, Winged Cat series takes place in a higher spiritual plane called Eden. Yes, that Eden. 

The people there are essentially angels in training, living out humanish lives and when they die, they will ascend into the angelic ranks. Their “gods” so to speak are angels who they look up to as role models oh how they should act and live their lives.

This belief structure is truth and created the religion that the majority follow in.

This religion focuses on teaching those of Eden theology and philosophy both from the human word and their own. They strive to be vessels of perfect judgement, empathy, compassion, and humility. Showing loyalty to both God and the Angels who rule over Eden. Doing so will put you on the right path and strengthen yourself against falling into demonism. So in the other life, you’d be there to do the same for humans.

Tag List: @authorkimberlygrey @ragethewriter @kainablue @angelwriteblr@thegobletofire

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WBJ2019-Diaries of Straud: Prompt 2

Day Zero: Emergency Landing Successful by which I mean we didn’t blow up on the way down.

(What’s the Geography of your world?)

Turns out the ship had more damage than we thought. We had just set our selves up in orbit when the engine’s fuel alarms started to sound. I have had it explained to me hundreds of times, and I still don’t get it beyond the big picture. So the big picture i’ll have to write here, the ships engines use power to make our thrust, by plasma ion somethings, in any-case we generate the electricity to do that via a special chemical mix we then cause to- Oh gods I’m losing myself and I’m trying to write this. Summary: the ships need a special fuel and we had almost run out, no fuel=no movement, and the ship had been leaking fuel sense it took the damage that broke the nav systems. Ergo limited time to set the ship down. We threw our probes at the planet and hoped if there were sentient aliens they wouldn’t mind us suddenly moving in.

The captain picked what seemed to be the best site on the largest of the main islands and set the ship up to land there as we threw all of the satellites into orbit we could and then prayed that the leak didn’t drain the fuel too soon and cause us to smear ourselves over the land, or not drain fast enough and we blow up due to the frictional heating. Well I’m still writing in my new diary so yay we didn’t all die horribly.

Also yeah I’m writing in a good old fashion bound paper book now, they are worried about the ships reactor and any more hidden damage. So systems usage is heavily restricted. At least until they’ve checked things. I’m sort of getting some pleasure from this, so I might stick with it for a while... at least until I’m done being mad about my criminal hand writing and lack of spell check.

Anyway satellites, of the fifty we have we managed to get about ten or so of them launched before the window closed. Give that the captain focused on getting weather and communications satellites. He had one geological survey sat go out but most of what we know geologically comes from the sensors as we came down. We got a nice look, but the survey sat will hopefully fill in the holes and resolution we lack currently.

What we do know is that this world holds three major landmasses about two thirds the size of Australia according to calculations. And another about the size of Lander’s Island, which I've heard the Earther’s say is a bit like Ireland and Britain smooshed together. The rest of the land is broken chains of islands from what we’ve seen. A lot of shallow shelves, and plenty of deep water. Also ruins, a lot of alien ruins all over the world. The smart ones are busy trying to get the sats to filter the signals we’re getting from ruins allowing us to actually communicate with them when not right over head.

So far we’ve not seen any locals, but if the signals are any indication they might be all hiding in the deep oceans. We think we’ve spotted entire cities found built in the shallows, not built then flooded later. If the fly over’s are indictative of anything it looks like they were built in the ocean and raise out of it on purpose. The biologists have been speculating wildly about the nature of the aliens. Amphibious is the leading odds right now, and yes of course they’ve started a pool.

We landed in a large clear valley in the middle of one of larger continents, we don’t have a name for the whole island, but we decided collectively to call where we landed Twilight Valley. Apparently something in the air causes the sun to really turn gold, orange and red during sunset. The Valley was bathed in fall colors. I don’t think there was a pair of dry eyes when we saw that. For me it was a combination of having survived our dangerous journey and thoughts of if we’d ever be able to see home again. I wonder if they’ve begun looking for us yet or if they’re just waiting to see if we’re late. Welp, I just blew the good feelings I had, screw it I’d better stop now before I ruin this dairy with tear stains.

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World Building June, Day 4: What’s it’s history?

(Do ya get it?)

There are a few historical events that are important to the story of The Game We Play. The first took place over 200 years before the start of the story, and that is the Aquiland Revolutionary War. While it’s called a war, it was really a coup by the Aquilish people to depose the monarchy. The king’s loyalist troops were fought, and eventually overwhelmed, by the revolutionary army. After six years of bloody combat, the revolutionaries won out, and executed the king, his family, and all other members of the nobility they could get their hands on. From this, the seeds of the modern Electoral Republic were sown.

Of course, with a couple hundred years of distance, there are now Aquilish people who believe that Aquiland should return to a monarchy; either headed by surviving member of the former ruling family, or a newly chosen king. These monarchists mainly keep their opinions to themselves, as in recent times the rest of the Aquilish have been taking a “Punch the Monarchist” approach to dealing with them.

The next historical event of note is the invention of the Focus; a device that uses mana to produce specific magical effects. The first of these devices, created by Aquilish native Adam Turnam, was a pair of connected crystals; one drew heat from the air around it, and the other converted that energy into light. Before the Focus, magic mainly took the form of single-use items, such as scrolls, potions, and rituals. The Focus both provided a reusable method of using magic, and opened up the use of magic to everyone; both of which lead to a technological and magical boom.

The final event known as either the Askedelian Civil War or the Askedelian Conflict, depending on who you ask. This was a war in Askedelos between two successor governments after the previous government collapsed, fought between the Independents and the Unifiers. The independents wanted to form a loose federation of states, while the Unifiers were seeking an absolute dictatorship. Multiple nations provided support to the three sides: the Independents, the Unifiers, and the rapidly crumbling former government.

This support grew into armed troops and fleets being sent to fight on behalf of their respective sides. Notably, Aquilish forces fought for the Independents, while Rhos (formally known as the Federation of Rhosan Republics) did the same for the Unifiers. At the end of a 4 year bloody war, the Unifiers claimed victory, executing the majority of their former foes and closing the country for the next 3 years. Those who were not killed became refugees, with many of them seeking shelter in Aquiland.

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World Building June, Day 8: How is your world run? Who’s in power?

Remember that Council thing? With the representatives and the Princes/Princesses? Well, they might in charge, but they’re not always who’s calling the shots. Let’s talk about the guilds.

On Creation, a guild is what we would consider a corporation or company. There’re big guilds, small guilds, and guilds that cross international borders. Guilds tend to specialize in a particular field, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t multiple guilds catering to the same customers. For example, agricultural guilds include names like Universal Goods, Hordsen & Sons, Montanos, and others.

Entry into a guild isn’t mandatory, but most business owners tend to get pulled into them due to an inability to compete with them. A Ma & Pa corner store just can’t supply enough goods to break even with a major guild, so they get bought out and incorporated. Aquiland has laws against foreign guilds buying out Aquilish businesses, but that doesn’t stop them from getting eaten up by Aquiland’s own guilds.

The most powerful of these guilds are the Magic Development Guilds, who invent and produce Focuses. These range from HASIA to Rosen-Gunn, from Kannonmench to Talpasis Arms & Armament, and the big boys themselves: United Business Magic, which makes its living producing Focuses fro other guilds.

Why cover the guilds in a prompt about who runs the world? Well, it has to do with Aquiland’s laws concerning patronage. A representative, or even a Prince/Princess, can become a patron of any individual or organization, essentially representing that person or group as well as the people they were elected by.This was originally developed to allow subgroups, like Hemfall’s Love United movement, more play in Aquiland’s politics.

The result, however, has been more representatives becoming patrons of guilds, who just happen to also donate large sums of Scrip to their election campaigns and projects. Some have argued that the guilds are buying power in the Aquilish government, but the representatives assure the populous that the guild’s views align with their own. 

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World Building June, Day 2: What’s the Geography of your world?

Yep, that’s the best you’re getting. Made with Inkarnate so I’d have an easy way to visualize how far apart everything is.

This is a rough map of Aquiland, the country in which The Game We Play takes place. The rest of Creation is, roughly, equivalent to Earth: ice caps at either pole, a hotter equator, one sun in the sky and one moon circling it. Bam, done.

Aquiland is south of the equator, so the northern coast with cities like Talpasis and Port Mordan are the hottest parts. Cities to the south, like Hemfall, are colder, with heavier forests and hills the more south you get. That band in the middle of the country stays fairly comfortable all year round; not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter.

The capital of Aquiland, Aqui City, is built into the base of Mt. Oriad, the tallest mountain in the country. On the opposite side of Mt. Oriad is Melas, a center of magic and engineering advancement filled with counter-culture, organic foods, and piping hot stimulants.

So basically, it’s fantasy Seattle with wizards instead of techies. No wonder both of our protagonists live in or around it.

To the north of Aquiland is the nation of Askedelos, whose already scorching equatorial landscape has been blighted by weapons used in a violent civil war several years ago.To the east is Xerstra, one of Aquiland’s few remaining political allies. And far to the north, past Askedelos and the Midland Sea, lies the Federation of Rhosan Republics, an oligarchy who’s relationship with Aquiland can best be described as “peacefully antagonistic”.

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World Building June, Day 30: What’s the weather like in your world?

Like the sky, the weather on Creation is very similar to that on Earth.

Yeah, sorry to end this on a low note, but Creation has the same general weather systems as our world. It’s hot in the summer, cold in the winter, it rains water when the clouds are out, and sun shines when the clouds aren’t. 

Is there anything weather-wise on Creation that doesn’t exist on Earth? Well, there is one, and it’s what happens when people try to control the weather with magic. Let’s take a look at the Eye of Ruin.

Hans Gemrick was a contemporary to Adam Turnam, who wanted to use Turnam’s principals on a broader scale. The idea was simple: a Focus that would draw its power from ocean waves in order to clear the clouds from the sky. The idea was that this would allow farmers to avoid any weather they didn’t want effecting their crops.

The first test took place miles away from shore, and the most charitable description is that it worked a little too well. Gemrick’s Focus moved not just the clouds away, but everything that was above the ocean’s surface, with residual force moving the wind around it in a ring.

The result? A massive cyclone powered by the ocean’s waves, which in turn are kicked up by the very same cyclone.

To date, no-one is sure if the storm is still powered by Gemrick’s Focus, or if it’s just feeding into itself. In either case, the Eye of Ruin has been a fixture just below the horizon for over 20 years now. Analysis taken at a safe distance shows that entropy is taking effect, and the Eye is slowing down. That said, the rate is glacially slow, so chances are that sailors will have to avoid sailing near the Eye for decades to come. 

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World Building June, Day 29: How do people communicate- Wait, didn’t we do this already?

Yeah, I kinda talked about how people communicate over distance back on Day 11. So instead, I’m gonna take today to talk about the two women I kept mentioning in other prompts. Let’s take a look at the two protagonists of The Game We Play: Fara Iokiend and Perez Vahl.

Fara Iokiend is the only child of Gale and the late Martel Iokiend. You may remember from Day 3 that Fara has some physical differences when compared to the average young woman, with the more obvious one being a third arm. This is the source of some serious self-image problems, which in turn has lead to self-confidence issues and anxiety. The latter, Fara has been able to treat with Ambrosia tinctures. The former has been... more of a problem.

In spite of this, Fara has decided to follow in her parents’ footsteps and run for public office, making her one of the youngest people running to become a representative in Aquiland. Fortunately for her—or from her viewpoint, terrifyingly—the Council had voted to expand both the number of representatives for each province, but the number of people on the Council as well. So now, Fara finds herself running not just as a test of her own self-confidence, but for the place of the second Princess of Melas.

Perez Vahl, on the other hand, is a farmgirl living mainly on her family’s farm outside of Melas. While she works hard on the farm without complaint, her passion is in creating Focuses and her dream is to work for one of the development guilds. While her father, an immigrant from Askedelos, has encouraged her to follow those dreams, the growing pressure from agricultural guilds has made it difficult for her to chose between the farm and the city.

That didn’t stop her from learning how to build Focuses on the side, usually from second-hand parts. The same curiosity that made her learn how to build Focuses has also gotten Perez in trouble, though. Investigating one of Resistance’s displays got her questioned by Melas’ local guard, which only heightened her interest in the group of subversives.