My World (Yet to be Named) - A Work in Progress

Daniel Knight

First Post
The following is my world’s creation myth. I’ve also posted it on the WOTC Homebrew board because I know it can be a little quite here sometimes. Like anything I post, feel free to tear it apart and tell me what you think of it. That’s the only way it can improve :). I hope you enjoy.
 
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Daniel Knight

First Post
Setting the Stage

In the beginning there was nothing. Without getting too mired down in asking how nothing can be a beginning, or how a beginning (such as this) can be represented with nothing but nothing, we should take it on good authority that this is possibly just a figure of speech. So maybe it’s more accurate to say, that in the beginning there wasn’t nothing. Or maybe, that at the start there was a just figure of speech.

Anyway, after this speech figurement something became. How it became is currently up to much speculation, as (as has all ready been stated), there really wasn’t anything around before the something to take notes. So as myth would have it, this something formed and gained shape. It decided to start with something easy and formed balls. Balls where fun. It discovered (as did many creatures to come afterwards), it could have a lot of fun with balls.

So the something that was formed created balls, and scattered them about the universe of nothingness and named them (as the gnomes of the University of Trundlecog would have us believe), as planets. This is in fact a lie (as any self-respecting creationist philosopher would tell you), as something formed from nothing couldn’t possibly go around giving names to large round balls it’s formed, and let’s face it those gnomes from Trundlecog spend too much time messing around with quicksilver to form any cohesively intelligent speculation anyway. The gnomes argument to this line of thought, is usually to mention that that’s a fine comment coming from someone who spends their life walking around wearing a dress staring at their own navels… and besides if something formed from nothing can’t go around naming large floating balls, then how could they possibly create them? Exactly, the philosophers would reply, and even if they could, why would they? At this point as is often studied, the two groups usually end up in a brawl with hypothetical case studies and the odd plumbing wrench flying across the room in a cloud of existentialism.

If we ignore (for the moment), both groups we can focus on the common man’s tale of the creation or the world. Although they don’t have the spiritual of technological approach of others, at least they know how to tell a good yarn. So after the planets were created, a blanket of jewels was created to keep them safe, and these became known as stars. The creationist philosophers agree with this. The gnomes say that there’s no room for metaphor in a logical and well ran world. The philosophers point out that something that can’t name planets (with obviously no grasp on language), couldn’t possible be as clever to use metaphor, and then the gnomes say, exactly!

With out going into the intricacies of it all, the world as we know it was formed. The exact time that this took is really irrelevant at this point, because no two groups on the metaphorical face of Akeema can agree. Some say a day, while others say eight hundred and ninety-two thousand billion trillion years, three months and fours days… around afternoon tea… you know about four-thirty in the afternoon, just when your nan comes over with the muffins with the raisons? One school of philosophy holds that the world was created by a being in a parallel dimension with far too much time on his hands, in the span of about four months for his own and others enjoyment, using the fate of men as playing pieces in the great game of life. The people that believe this are also the sorts of people that look at distant stars and say things like “Man… there’s probably someone exactly like us looking up at us on one of those stars, saying that up there’s someone exactly like us.” It’s for this reason that the smoking of certain hallucinogenic plants has become illegal in the city of Halfway.

After everything was formed, life began to spring up. Little parasites multiplied and ate other little parasites, thus becoming larger parasites. Evolution soon took control and before long a complex ecosystem was formed in the galaxy of our tale. Everyone was happy.

And then the strangers came.

Coming from a nearby galaxy on a magical flying vessel, they landed on the planet Akeema (which due to the creative nature of the something from nothing, actually doesn’t resemble a ball in the slightest). The strangers decided to stay, kill the local fauna, rape some virgin forest, and invite all their friends from their own galaxy to experience the natural pristine paradise and drink some beer. Soon trade routes were established to base camp Sarindew, and “intelligent” life soon flourished on the continent of Crimea. Over time, countries would form and fall, the other continents would be populated, and gods would be created.

As the settlers old god’s reach didn’t seem to stretch this far into the galaxy, new gods sprung up created by all the excess belief floating around formed by the planets new races. These too, rose and fell through time, each fighting with one another for portfolios and followers. Only strength ensured survival, or in the case of Ruebork God of Grunt, intelligence, being the only god in history to die of consuming a pickled onion the wrong way.

Twenty-three gods currently have power in the galaxy that soon became known as Seskotspace (so named after the man helming the ship that first landed), and have done so for the past thousand years. Akeema has had its own legends, tales, and world shaking events spring up with time, that has made into the well established world that it is today. None of the planets current residences know much of their ancestral homeland anymore, and not many care. To them Seskotspace is home. And they love it.
 
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Echoes

First Post
Very Douglas Adams. I love it. I think the sheer fun of running a world like this would be great. I'm wondering if there are still relics of technology sitting around--is the world strictly fantasy now that it's been so long since the ship crashed, or is there still some science fiction?

Um, what else. I like the ideas of the gods and the creation myths, and I think that, the way I'm looking at the world, it would be very filled by factions and very ruled by them (in a sort of Planescape way--no one has control, they constantly fight and bicker, and the characters could be in a whole campaign just by being associated with one of them.)

Does magic function in the world? After working out a god/creation scheme for my world, magic is the thing I always turn to next. Is it high magic? Sounds like it, but I was just wondering.

I'd love to hear more about this, whenever you get the chance.

Laters,
-John-
 

Daniel Knight

First Post
Hehehe… one of the things I love about hearing things like this, is that you’ve inadvertently suggested something I hadn’t thought of by interpreting what I had written differently.

I was actually thinking that the first people to land on the planet were Spelljammers. So although there is a strong sci-fi element, there aren’t any unusual technologies lying about for the players to discover. But now after your posting, I’m starting to rethink this. It could be an interesting thing to come into play later on. Maybe it was a spaceship that landed, but through the eons the story has been altered to use the more “believable” Spelljamming ships… created at some point after the first landing with the discovery of magic. Could be fun for the PCs to discover the horrible truth when they reach higher level. Oooh… you’ve got me gears clinking over.

The gods in Seskotspace have pretty much the same standard influence as any campaign world. There are of course fanatics, and the odd splinter group much like the Planescape factions, but these don’t often play a major role in the common man’s world. They usually run about in their secret societies stabbing one another in the back in the name of Jade Goddess of the Night, or forming self-help circles in the name of Beldon God of Virtue. The gods themselves only meddle in the affairs of the common person when the common person meddle in their affairs. Such as when the now legendary thief Shi stole the secrets of sorcery from them causing the Retribution. The Retribution being the world’s cataclysmic event that seem to shape most fantasy worlds.

Magic certainly does function in the world. It depends on which region you’re in however as to whether it’s common or not. In Rendland and Gimlet, they have a very negative view towards magic after the Retribution shattered their countries. In Rendland it’s actually illegal to wield a spell and is always associated with dark powers and the undead. But then there are places like the small island of Candlewick, which consumes and produces enough magic to run a large continent. It’s all a matter of location and culture.

As has been noted, the act of casting spells without study (sorcery) was stolen from the gods in ages past. Sorcerers in most places are often viewed with caution and distrust. Their eyes enhancing to a metallic colour when they first manafist their powers, doesn’t help their reputation either.

Psionics is a relatively knew discovery (about thirty years), being manifested by those who consider themselves higher on the evolutionary scale then common man. And in some ways they’re correct. Only five years ago they created Psi-Orbital REX, an experiment to create a planet that could shape and mold to their wishes. Things went bad in the experiment however as the planet managed to formulate a crude form of intelligence. Psi-Orbital REX now orbits the jungle planet Vanoosh as a moon, and is possible to reach via the normal means of Spelljamming.
 
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Daniel Knight

First Post
Woohoo! Over 100 views and only 1 reply! That's a huge %1! Go me!

:does a little happy shuffle:

Seriously... have I alienated the D&D game?
 

UnDfind

First Post
Well, I've gotta say that this is one of the more original ideas I've ever seen. As long as you have the right type of players you could have a LOT of fun with a place like this.

The big question in my mind is characters. You have a setting that differs greatly from the normal view of a D+D world. If you could, do you think you could post what you'd feel the classes would be like in this world? I mean, the world is well-concieved and (as mentioned before) VERY Douglas Adams, so classes would act very differently, or at least be seen from a different ange. I'd have a better chance responding to a discription that wasn't just the history of the world.

Possible suggestion: Have you ever read Raymond E. Feist's Midkemia books? There's a character who calls himself Nakor the Blue rider who has some very good views on wizards. That would be a great discription of them for a world like this.

Keep up the good work! :)
 

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