#worldbuilding june

[umbramatic]

29. How do people communicate with each other in your world?

Most Earth-like methods of communication exist. Letters seem to be the most popular, however. Princess Peach is known for her royal invitations promising cake.

[umbrasdoodles]

Here are some characters from my project Relationship Level Up I did for Worldbuilding June! Featuring platformer mascot Rails Z Rat, horror antagonist The Shatterwraith, action edgelord Hellsteel and fantasy RPG guy Sebastian. 

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

By pure electricity when Mario tries to somehow survive in Thavnair before, and falls under mutated monsters.

That's the best way I have to explain this.

In an old Penny Arcade strip,

it was written that some sort of "electricity of the mind" can produce

mutant monstrosities in the Thavnair experiment:

1st: A simple man who lives in New York City. 2nd: He is a victim of a brutal mob who has been sentenced to death by a "tri-state court." 3rd: But the jury, under the influence of electric power of the mind, has issued a hasty verdict. 4th: His executioner has been dispatched to New York City by a secret route, to deliver the victim to the state of New York and the state of New York only. The executioner arrives in New York. He is now the judge and jury of New York City, the judge and jury of New York City, the judge and jury of New York State, and the judge and jury of the state of New York only. 5th: The secret service has located the victim at a certain address in the city of New York. "But that means that it will take weeks for them to get here!" the mobster says. "There was a trial to get the verdict," the victim says. "I wasn't tried. I had no part in it." The mobster has received the wrong address. 5th: As the victim passes out from the electric shocks delivered by the mob to the executioner, he realizes what has happened. The monster that had been born within him, which had long been contained, has finally been unleashed. 6th: The monster has killed the mobster and the executioner and has run off through the streets with the body of the victim.

The "electricity of the mind" that creates mutant monsters is not very different from how the Worldbuilding Project works, where the "electricity of the imagination" is used to make people have a specific thought. In Thavnair, a similar thing seems to be happening -- the "electricity of the imagination" produces people who get the idea that they could somehow survive the mutated monsters of Thavnair. The electricity is probably produced by the "electricity of the mind" using electroconvulsive shock in the victims.

The "monster of the mind" and the "monster of the body" seem to have been created by this experiment, but also seem to be something that could exist outside of it, because they're the kind of things the Worldbuilding project creates. The Worldbuilding project in some sense represents an alternate reality that people could have in order to try out their own ideas.

(There's also something odd in Floornight where there seem to be different "types" of mutation in some sense. The Floornight monsters with "unnatural powers" seem to be a separate thing from monsters who would appear naturally, but are mutated.)

The main way of distinguishing these monster-related things from "normal" people or "normal" things is their "mutation." I guess that the electricity and the imagination are the source of the "mutation," but I still think it would be easier to make a case for how the Worldbuilding Project, and some of the monster things, came into being if you used the mutation terminology, but of course there's nothing that would actually make the mutations work better if you use the mutation terminology

[umbrahighpriestofgiratina]

Worldbuilding June 2022 Episode 5

5. What sorts of civilizations and architecture fill your world?

In a word, it's all somewhat "pesudo-solarpunk." People live in harmony with nature and Pokemon and build around, not over, natural features, with advanced technology helping it along.

[antialiasis]

Worldbuilding June (Pokémon edition), Days 8-12

Whoops forgot to post these for a couple of days, too busy with a load of Things as always.

8. Who rules in your world?

TQftL never brings up government, but each region has its own human government, generally just standard representative democracies similar to what we have in the modern world. Ouen has an elected parliament and president. It's a fairly utopian world with little scarcity and politics play kind of a background role - they keep things running, they have some different parties, but there's low polarization and usually they work pretty smoothly together and have little conflict. The situation in other regions is similar - movement is very free and conflict between them is rare and minor in the grand scheme of things.

QftLverse Pokémon, once again, have their own societies and are not subject to human rule except in a limited way while they're with a trainer, as per the Agreement, an all-encompassing contract dictating how the relationship between humans and Pokémon should work. Different Pokémon species govern themselves differently, but their societies are generally based on smaller self-governing groups. The Scyther society has a single leader, who is meant to be the simply strongest in the swarm, and anyone can challenge them to a duel to the death to take their place at any time.

The Morphicverse is once again close to Earth, with different countries having different modes of government. The Poké-USA's politicical climate resembles the actual USA's political climate in ~2007, but if I ever wrote references to the current president I wouldn't make him an outright Bush expy or anything, beyond being from the conservative one of the two highly polarized parties.

9. What religions and myths/legends exist in your world?

The QftLverse's human society is basically post-religious. Legendary Pokémon are revered, but not worshipped - people don't pray to them, ascribe natural phenomena to them, expect them to watch over them personally, perform symbolic rituals associated with them, etc. That said, humans do have myths concerning them - not always accurate ones. The story describes the human myth behind one set of legendaries early on before the reality much later turns out to have been fairly different, for instance.

QftLverse Pokémon have their own myths, legends, religions and beliefs. The Scyther society explored in the spin-offs has a bit of a vague mythology going on explaining the sun, moon, stars and clouds, but it's not very important to them, more of a just-so story. Meanwhile, they live by a system of ethics known as the Code that they consider sacred and all-important, though it doesn't have a godly figure behind it as the source of it, only a philosophy. Other Pokémon might variously have straight-up religion (whether worshipping legendary Pokémon or something else), be entirely areligious, or something in between; most will have myths and legends in some form, though.

The Morphicverse has a form of Christianity, which is functionally a lot like ours; this also means they had a version of Judaism. Other specific religions don't come up, but they'd at the very least be as varied as real-world religions. Like in real life, there are many sects and variants, and as many individual interpretations of faiths as there are people. The villain cult in particular has fringe views that in no way resemble the mainstream. And like in real life, many people nominally believe but don't really practice their religion, and many are agnostic or atheist.

Legendary Pokémon in the Morphicverse are cryptids - there are myths and legends about them, and people think they're neat, write fiction and make movies about them all the time, but in the modern day, actually-for-real believing that they exist out there ranges from mildly eccentric to entirely unthinkable. Worship of legendary Pokémon exists, but in the way that modern neo-Paganism does. It's not remotely mainstream, generally seen as a weird hippie thing, and the notion of Arceus appearing in the flesh one day and declaring he created the universe is about as fantastical to most people as the notion of the Norse pantheon doing the same in our world.

10. What traditions are observed in your world?

QftLverse human traditions are mostly just secular holidays - commemorations of important days in the region's history, etc. It's tradition for most children to go out on a Pokémon journey the spring after they turn ten years old, and participate in a First-Timers' League in the autumn if they manage to stick it out for the whole journey and collect all the badges - there are kids who don't, but it's rare for them to not want to, and other kids may see them as no fun.

Every year in Green Town, there is a Pokémon Festival originally built around the legendary Pokémon Chaletwo's yearly brief visit to the outskirts of the city (which may or may not be ditched in the next revision); it hosts a number of Pokémon-themed events over several days. One of them is a starter Pokémon giveaway, where most kids go to get official starter Pokémon, who have specifically volunteered and been trained to work with beginning trainers - though many kids have had Pokémon as pets/partners since they were young and journey with them instead, or their parents otherwise get them a Pokémon who's up for a beginning trainer. (Many Pokémon kind of like the idea of journeying with a beginning trainer, in the way that many people like the idea of getting a kitten rather than an adult cat - just something special about having been with them from the start. Though getting a starter who's actually been trained to deal with kids is recommended over just finding any random enthusiastic Pokémon.)

Pokémon have all kinds of different traditions. The Scyther society as explored in the spin-offs has a number of traditions and rituals, including a sort of blood baptism of new hatchlings, the leader of the swarm teaching all the adolescent Scyther about the Code, and First Prey, where each of the adolescents is sent out to hunt prey on their own for the first time, with a male and female witness following, so they can prove their ability to kill and to feed themselves. Afterwards, they're expected to publicly offer a symbolic piece of the meat of their first prey to some members of the swarm, and doing so signals respect; you don't technically have to, but in practice everyone always offers it to the leader and not doing so would be taken as outright disrespect.

The Morphicverse is once again culturally similar to the real world and has mostly similar sorts of traditions. Pokémon training is less culturally ingrained there, but still a very common hobby for kids.

11. What are some ways people communicate with pokémon in your world, or pokémon with each other?

In the QftLverse, humans learn to understand Pokémon speech as a mandatory subject at school. Pokémon inherently understand human speech, but they speak anime-style, usually in syllables of their species' name (which is what the species are named after). They share one language, which is not based on exactly what the syllables are but the tone and the way they're combined, hence why it works regardless of the species.

In the current version of the fic, this is pure handwave worldbuilding: it's established that it happens at school at the beginning, and then we just move on to the story, where every human simply understands what Pokémon are saying at all times. In the next revision I'd give a bit more proper worldbuilding attention to it - let the language barrier be a little more present, humans vary in exactly how good they are at it (luckily it's already the main character's best subject at school), and otherwise treat it less like it's just an excuse to act like Pokémon speak English.

In the Morphicverse, Pokémon do communicate but they don't do complex communication - instead, it's closer to the sort of communication most animals do in the real world. They can express how they're feeling, draw attention to something interesting, sound the alarm about something scary, ask another Pokémon to follow, and can do this in a somewhat more efficient and intelligent way than most animals generally do. But one way or another, they don't communicate complicated abstract ideas, neither to humans nor to one another. Pokémon don't automatically understand human speech here, though they're very quick learners when it comes to commands, and they can pick up a fair amount just by being around humans, allowing them to get the gist of basic statements and requests without being explicitly taught them, though anything abstract would still be entirely lost on them. You could tell a Pokémon you've lived with for years "I lost my hat, can you help me find it" and they'll go look for your hat, but they'd be lost if you tried to ask them for anything much more complicated than that.

12. What is the gym circuit or adventuring organization like in your world?

In the QftLverse, gyms are meant to be taken on in a specific order and gym leaders are accordingly expected to keep their Pokémon below a certain level. To be officially sanctioned by the League, a gym needs to have a theme - usually a type, although Rick got away with a legendary theme because he gets away with everything because he is hypnotizing League officials with his Mewtwo super-clone I was twelve years old. Every year there's a First-Timers' League in the autumn in each region, where new trainers who have collected all eight badges of their region face off (except for the bit where I somehow made a guy who'd been training for years be part of it without thinking about it properly). There's also a global Old-Timers' League for more experienced trainers, which crowns a world champion; this doesn't involve badges and is just a tournament. Trainers are advised to stick to official routes, while Pokémon who want a trainer seek out the routes and others avoid them; going off-route has the potential to lead to run-ins with Pokémon who are more hostile to humans. It's not forbidden but it's drilled into kids' heads that you're not supposed to.

The Morphicverse's gym circuit is not too dissimilar to that, but gym leaders are expected to carry a variety of Pokémon teams to take on challengers of different skill levels, who can take on the gyms of their circuit in any order. Kid trainers are strictly meant to travel only along official routes, which are thoroughly monitored to be safe, and often take public trainer transportation; when they're eighteen they can get an adult trainer license with which they can take their Pokémon anywhere they like, at their own risk. Mostly kids do it as a hobby, and many young children dream of being professional trainers, but only a fraction are actually good enough to make money off it, so most either quit it after a few summers on realizing it's not for them (they might release their Pokémon or keep them as pets, depending on how high-maintenance they are), or continue to do it as a side hobby. There exist college-level training schools for those who really want to dedicate their lives to it, but by that point in time most people will have dropped their pro trainer dreams.

[authoralexharvey]

Worldbuilding June - Day 3

Worldbuilding June is a phenomenon every June where, as the title might imply, you answer prompts every day sharing about and building a world of your machination. I love it, I’ve done it before, I finally have a new world in which I can do it again. Great! Except, the official blog who handles all things WBJ ( @worldbuildingjune) is on hiatus this year… so we’re just going to reuse the prompts from last year.

I’m also not going to try to link previous posts because I’ve come to realize that that’s super exhausting. However, I will have a post linking all of them at the end. So.

Day Three - Who live in your world?

This will be a short one, because the answer is sadly quite boring.

Humans - or, what we would consider humans - live on this planet. There are some minor exceptions - historians swearing to have seen serpentine people, people growing wings in remote island communities, people who have forged successful sexual contracts with the dorégal and managed to produce monstrous offspring.... but these are rare and humans are by far the dominant species.

I have, of course, entertained the notion of other, less human races, as I have a mighty desire to read more fantasy featuring such. However, for now humans are what I’m comfortable with? So.... But... harpies or mermaids would be cool, and would make a lot of sense. I dunno.

[silenceindustries]

Worldbuilding June Day 19: The Wars of Terra

Wars are fought with men and iron, sword and shield, mace and hammer. A nation will issue a formal declaration of war and then prepare. Wars aren’t as common due to the evolving style of the world towards the idea that if we fight each other we won’t be able to buy your cool shit later (a reoccurring theme among my works) but that doesn’t mean nobody prepares.

Terost introduced the modern firearm into the world and Seamus is still working on more effective designs than the bolt lock mechanism, add in Terost’s use of combustion fuel and how in a previous prompt I mentioned the development of tanks.

War is bloody, violent, and unpleasant, soldiers march in to overtake a location and hold it.

Warmages also exist, turns out having someone able to cast spells means they’re rarely if never without magic. Sorcerers and Wizards can often find themselves in roles akin to modern artillery while Witches can be seen in medical tents performing triage.

[formatastable]

Day 9: If someone asks you if you’re a god...

Nominally, the dominant faith of Ues is Sohnism: a monotheistic religion with its start in the coastal city-state of Metria. Over the course of thousands of years, and a fair number of holy wars during the early days of duchies and kingdoms, Sohnism spread along the Midland Sea, and from there both north and south to almost completely saturate the continent. To put it simply, Sohnists believe that the sun itself is some form of deity, and that it takes a direct role in the affairs of the inhabitants of Creation. 

Now, you might have noticed that Sohnism is nominally the dominant faith. I say that because while most people are Sohnists, not everyone is the same kind of Sohnist. Over the course of history, Sohnism has splintered into over a dozen varieties, some so wildly different that it’s difficult to imagine they came from the same base.

For reference, the original form of Sohnism, sometimes called Old Sohnism or Traditional Sohnism, is still practiced in Metria and its colonies. In this form, the sun is an all-seeing, all-knowing god who directs Humans with messages in their sleep, then watches them during the day to see who understands his words, and who acts on them. Those who consistently do are welcomed to his solar paradise when they die, while those who understand his words and refuse to act are forever damned to wander the cold blackness of space, eventually becoming the stars we see at night. There’s a saying in Metria that out of the entire population, only one Metratic person per day will understand and act on Sohn’s words spoken to them the night before. A lightly more cynical version of this saying continued by claiming that the head of the High Priest of Metria has never been that person.

Aquiland follows what is known as Reformist Sohnism, which developed as a way to integrate modern knowledge of the sun and the rest of the sciences into the religion. In Reforming Sohnism, the sun is a conduit through which Sohn views Creation. They still believe that Sohn sends them messages in their dreams, but in this case these messages are more of tests to see who is ready for the responsibility of following his orders. Those who understand and don’t act aren’t considered damned, but instead simply unready. While Reformist Sohnism started in Xerstra, it quickly spread to the Kingdom of Aquiland and its vassals, and remained the dominant religion there after the revolution.

Shapechangers, by and large, do not believe in Sohnism. In fact, most are agnostic. This is due to two factors: the feral, pre-colonialism Shapechangers weren’t civilized enough to consider an organized religion; and no Uesean religion explicitly covers the existence of Shapechangers . Some apply labels to them as Demons or Spirits, but these depictions are hardly flattering. Shapechangers did learn one important fact from organized religion, though.

The fact that Shapechangers bound to wooden stakes cannot survive being burned alive.