Help! Rethinking My World Premise

[WizardofOwls]

Hello!

If you have looked at my Shattered World thread, then undoubtedly you have read my world premise which is as follows:

WORLD PREMISE:

Oramis was once a solid world like any other. A millennium ago, a war sprang up between two formidable mages (who also happened to be twin brothers but of differing ethical beliefs). This war raged on for many days, but neither mage could seem to get the upper hand. The final blow of this Wizard War was so potent that neither mage was able to contain it, and the world was shattered like a glass ball into a thousand pieces.

Since both mages were far more powerful than the Wizards’ Guild could handle, it was powerless to stop the war. Luckily, however, the Guild (some of whom were diviners) was able to foresee this disaster months before it actually happened and was prepared. Though unable to completely prevent this event - now referred to as the Shattering - they were able at least to save the world from total destruction. After determining how the world would be shattered, the Guild devised magical devices - called shard-keys - and placed one of them on each piece of land which would someday become a shard. These devices maintain each shard's gravity, atmosphere, climate, and stability. If a shard-key were ever to be removed from the shard it was designed to protect, that shard would lose all of these things and would pose a hazard to other shards as it spun out of control. All of these shards were suspended inside a large envelope of air and set to floating within it in random, ever-shifting patterns.

Millions of people died in the ensuing chaos which followed the War’s conclusion. Common people, blaming mages for the destruction and death, hunted down and slew many wizards. Much knowledge of magic was lost. Modern mages have yet to duplicate many of the marvels that have been accredited to those ancient wizards - including the magic which created shard-keys! Even today, after one thousand years, mages are still feared, shunned, and - in many places - actively hunted, despite the fact that they were instrumental in saving the world from total destruction. Undaunted they have continued to be of great service to man, creating the windriggers which provide transportation from shard to shard.

I have received alot of criticism on this, both here and at other sites where I am seeing advice. As a result I am ready to rethink my premise, and would love to get your help in this.

Problems:
- Most everyone agrees that they don't like the entire twins/wizard war idea behind the Shattering.
- Some want to know how common people were able to bring down mages powerful enough to shatter a world.
- Some want to know details behind the shard keys...how did they become intelligent?
- Some want to know how priests and deities tie into all of this.

Well, I don't have answers. I do know the folowing details which I want to work into my premise somehow.

- Long ago there was a race called the Dragon Lords who came from "somewhere else" (no one knows exactly where) who ruled the world for thousands of years, then disappeared. They were ulta-powerful mages. Elves and dragons are somehow tied to them.
- I love the concept of ley lines and standing stones and monoliths and would like to work them in somehow.
- Priests helped the common folk in supressing mages.

Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

Perhaps the Dragon Lords came here for a purpose...something to do with magic. Maybe the magic here was wild and untamed and they set down a system of ley lines to help regulate the flow. Haven't yet decided if the Dragon Lords were called that because they actually were dragons. Or perhpas they were ancestors of elves who rode dragons. Or perhaps elves were the race the Dragon Lords chose to teach to maintain the ley line system after they left.

Anyway, maybe something interfered with the ley line system and this magical back lash caused the Shattering.

Perhaps the gods, angered by the devastation, had their priests begin the persecution of mages.

Where did the Dragon Lords go? Did they move on to another world which needed their help? Are they coming back? Or did they sacrifice themselves becoming the Shard Keys which now hod the world together?

Well, what are your thoughts on all of this? Better than the Wizard War premise? Advice? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

 

[Quartz]

How about turning your original idea about: the world was not destroyed by the mages but saved by them? But, of course, the common people, being ignorant and fearful, got very much the wrong end of the stick? Perhaps the word is shattered to save it from the Umbral Blot sleepingat the world's centre?

 

[Shane_Leahy]

Couple things...

What if to create the Shard-Keys alot of the Guild's power was poured into them. Draining the magic from the mages. Ironic that they gave so much to save the world that then blamed them for what happened. Perhaps some of the intelligence of the mages was shunted to the Shard-Keys.

Ley Lines: With the shattering of the world the Ley Lines would reform and create new patterns. The Shard-Keys perhaps lie on these lines and intersections and help power them. Also the Ley Lines could enhance certain magic such as teleportation that allows one to teleport from Shard to Shard.

Gods and Brother Wizards: Instead of it being simply being twin brothers fighting, it was proxies of the gods themselves fighting for dominion over the world. One of the gods (the trickster one) started it in hopes of destroying the world, or perhaps he did not know what actually would happen. Then why did the Guild know what was happening? Well they were not being blinded by the fight. The Gods were pissed and wanted things settled and could not see beyond that. Once the world was shattered then some gods in thier grief fled to their planes, others were killed, etc.

Just some random thoughts.

 

[Shayuri]

Just some brainstorming...take it or leave it.

- Most everyone agrees that they don't like the entire twins/wizard war idea behind the Shattering.

-- Yeah...that's a pretty extreme level of power. You could make them gods, as mentioned above. Or, OR, perhaps the world blew up for other reasons, possibly not even related to magic at all. This ties into the "maybe wizards SAVED the world" idea also mentioned above. The wizards saw the world was doomed, and acted. People saw wizards doing funny things...and then the world blew up. Their natural conclusion? Wizards blew up the world. Oops.

- Some want to know how common people were able to bring down mages powerful enough to shatter a world.

-- Well, presumably there were some UNcommon people too. Mage hunters...high level rangers and warriors, consumed with the loss of their loved ones and nations and swearing revenge. Etc etc. The heroes sung about on this world are probably based on these people. This is especially true if you go with the "people only THINK mages blew the world up" idea.

- Some want to know details behind the shard keys...how did they become intelligent?

-- Perhaps the wizards had to imbue each shard with his own essence, transferring himself into it so it would endure forever, drawing power from his immortal soul. This would also explain why the wizards were so weakened. All their most powerful mages became the artifacts that preserved what was left of the world.

- Some want to know how priests and deities tie into all of this.

-- Excellent questions! If wizards saw it coming, why not priests? Where were the gods? Several ideas. It's possible that the world before the shattering was so hung up on arcane magic that it became faithless and atheistic (a magic version of modern technologism). Gods might not have even really existed there then...or if they did, they were weak and toothless from the lack of worship. The destruction not only caused arcanism to be lost, it also created a resurgence of religious belief and god-isms...as crises often do.

Kind of makes you wonder why the world blew up again, doesn't it?

Well, I don't have answers. I do know the folowing details which I want to work into my premise somehow.

- Long ago there was a race called the Dragon Lords who came from "somewhere else" (no one knows exactly where) who ruled the world for thousands of years, then disappeared. They were ulta-powerful mages. Elves and dragons are somehow tied to them.

-- They may have brought the magical secrets that made the world turn its back on the gods.

- I love the concept of ley lines and standing stones and monoliths and would like to work them in somehow.

-- Perhaps ley lines are the bands of energy that -held the world together-. The destruction was caused by using great rituals, at standing stone formations natch, to disrupt these mighty rivers of power...causing the earth to lose cohesion and start to break apart. Then they just needed some climactic burst of power at the center of the world to make the weakened crust shatter completely.

- Priests helped the common folk in supressing mages.

-- No doubt. See above for the root of a nice conspiracy theory about priests.

Remember, when investigating any event's causes, one big thing to do is "follow the money." Broadly put, that means to look for who benefited the most from the event. It's not conclusive...sometimes people just get lucky from unexpected serendipity. But it's usually a good place to start looking.

 

[WizardofOwls]

Thanks for the great ideas! I'm still mulling all of this over until I can make it all click in my head. I'd still love to hear YOUR ideas too! Want to share?

 

[Dog Moon]

Well, if the mages could have foreseen the Shattering, I would think that they had also foreseen that people would suddenly hate them and desire to kill them. The Wizards who were killed were either Clones left to die on purpose - after all, not all would know the difference - and some Mages willingly sacrificed themselves for the greater. Thus while everyone BELIEVES so many mages have died, the truth is that only a few died and these are the weakest of the ones.

As for why the Shards are intelligent? Well the mages know that if one is removed, then part of the world dies. Thus, they needed to create a fail-safe, something to protect the world in case some would wish to destroy it. What they did was bind themselves or other beings to protect them, casting spells to empower them, and then left the souls within the Shards to protect them until the end of time.

Just a couple of thoughts.

 

[WizardofOwls]

Okay, here it is... a preliminary version of my new world premise. I know it still needs a LOT of of work, but I'd thougth I'd get your thoughts on it so far....

WORLD PREMISE

In the mist-shrouded ages of times gone by, Oramis was a different place. Myths and legends tell us that the world was whole and solid then, a sphere of unimaginable proportions. They say the world would turn its face away from the sun every day so that a great darkness called “night” would fall, dividing the days into alternating days and nights. In this darkness, or so the legends run, one could see lights in the sky - small lights called “stars” as well as a greater light the ancients called the “moon”. The followers of Selene say that this is true and that this moon and their Lady are one and the same. But if that is true, who supplies their powers now that the moon is gone?

They also say that great sections of our world were covered in water. Vast “oceans” of water so great that one could not see the other side, and so deep that one could not see the bottom. Ships plied their trades on the surface of these oceans and great monstrous beasts filled their depths.

Then came the Dragon Lords. From whence did they come? What did they want? What was their purpose? No one seems to know for sure save, perhaps, the elves and dragons - and even they do not have the answers... or so they claim. For ages the Dragon Lords ruled, setting up stone circles and monoliths. Only they knew the purpose for them. Their servants, the elves and dragons, provided the labor, while the native peoples of our world - human, dwarf and twyll - could only watch in awe. Great magical powers the Dragon Lords had, and watching them we learned. We learned about building, about power, and ultimately, about magic. Through their servants, the elves, they began to teach our peoples the ways of magic, and our peoples learned well and true. Many of the people began to worship them, turning their backs on the True Gods. In return the Gods, in their jealousy and rage, turned their backs on us.

If only we had known what was coming....

Everything seemed peaceful according to the stories. Yes, the True Priests and the Followers of the Dragon Lords bickered and fought, but everything else, it seemed, was fine. Then one day the
True Priests began to cry, “The end is coming! The Tapestry unravels! Turn away from the false ones and return to the True Faith! Bring their blessings back upon us before it is too late!” But few heeded their warnings.

Then He came. He Who Has No Name. The Incomprehensible One. The Destroyer. The Unraveler. The people cried out to the Dragon Lords to save them, but they could not be found. They and their followers, the Mages, had vanished, deserting the peoples in their time of need. The True Priests gathered their strength and stood up to him, but ultimately it was no use. The Unraveller struck, and the world was shattered like a glass ball into ten thousand pieces. But the True Priests were able to rescue us. They cried out to the Gods “Save us!” And the Gods responded. They drove away the Nameless One, and created a sphere to keep the pieces of our world from drifting away.

Only after the world had shattered and the Nameless One defeated did the mages return saying that they had saved the world for us. The Guild (some of whom were diviners) claimed that it had been able to foresee this disaster months before it actually happened and was prepared. They said that - though unable to completely prevent this event now referred to as the Shattering - they were able at least to save the world from total destruction. After determining how the world would be shattered, the Guild - working feverishly - claimed it had devised magical devices called shard-keys and placed one of them on each piece of land which would someday become a shard. These devices maintain each shard's gravity, atmosphere, climate, and stability. If a shard-key were ever to be removed from the shard it was designed to protect, that shard would lose all of these things and would pose a hazard to other shards as it spun out of control. All of these shards were suspended inside a large envelope of air and set to floating within it in random, ever-shifting patterns.

Millions of people died in the ensuing chaos which followed the Shattering. Common people, blaming the cowardice of the mages for the destruction and death, hunted down and slew many wizards. Much knowledge of magic was lost. Modern mages have yet to duplicate many of the marvels that have been accredited to those ancient wizards - including the magic which created shard-keys!

For centuries mundanes - those who don't practice magic - persecuted those who do, blaming them for the catastrophe that was the Shattering, despite the fact that they were instrumental in saving the world from total destruction. However times and people change. As society began to rebound, people became more and more dependent on those who use magic for trade. There is now a grudging acceptance of mages in most places. However there are a few shards - even today - that still cling to the old beliefs, that remain suspicious of those who use magic and continue to support the witch hunters who help to "rid the world of those dangerous people."

RASAMA (the Royal Academy for the Study and Advancement of the Mystic Arts - also known as the Mages' Guild) was originally conceived as a means of controlling and monitoring mages in light of the general public's fear of them. All mages were required to register with the Guild, and those who did not were shunned and hunted down by witch hunters - betrayed by to them by their own brother mages. Today the registration of mages with the Guild continues, despite the general shift in attitudes and the changing views of most people. In many places a mage will not be hired for work unless he is a registered Guild member, and since the Guild still brands those who practice forbidden schools as rogue mages, often those who are not registered will be viewed with suspicion.

Undaunted by the prejudice and persecution they received in the past, however, mages have continued to be of great service to man - their greatest accomplishment being the creation of windriggers, flying ships which provide transportation from shard to shard.