Science fantasy Wuxia world-building help

[tecnowraith]

I am in need of help, advice and suggestion for building a campaign set in a science fantasy world (planet) with major influence from wuxia stories and movies. So far I just have notes and few ideas of what will magic be like, an energy source that technology and people can "tap" into it to manipulate and the political system of the major kingdoms, a clan/tribal based system based around fighting schools.

The aeras I am working on and need help with are religion (if any), cosmology, Geography (Climate/Terrain Types), Ecology, Demographics and Economics. The Technology part I have some ideas but deciding how to work it into the world. There will be cybernetics and implants.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Decades ago, there was a sci-fi novel in which a world existed in which magic appeared to be real. It was eventually revealed that the seeming violations of the laws of physics were enabled by microscopic machines- essentially nanobots- which responded in certain predictable ways to the will of "mages" etc., that had been created centuries before and forgotten. Similar plotlines have showed up in Star Trek, the Matrix and other sci-fi shows & stories- sometimes mistaken for magic, sometimes not (like in Forbidden Planet). All of them are exemplars of Arthur C. Clark's observation that any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...and as others have pointed out, vice versa.

Some form of that might be used to explain various wuxia feats, like the amazing leaps, preturnatural speed and agility, and so forth, all unbeknownst to the people of the world (except maybe some hidden cabal...which could specialize in neutralizing the nanites for short periods of time, gaining the element of surprise...).

As for the rest...well, I don't see a real need to alter the world much from reality, except maybe in the sense that its closer to ideal. Colors are brighter, steel stronger, water clearer- all courtesy of the unsuspeced influence of the nanites.

Religion could be some sort of Buddhism/Jedi fusion...with a Sith/Necromonger flipside in opposition.

 

[tecnowraith]

Yeah but I have never liked that explanation of magic or tech being the the reason behind magic.

 

[ajanders]

I experimented with this question a while ago and found myself asking the question "Why wuxia? Why not a laser pistol/gyrorocket derringer/plasma sword?"

I got two answers, one technological, one historical. Historically, people turned to the martial arts because the government wouldn't let them have swords, guns, or "real weapons".
This leads me to suggest the government is oppressive and tyrannical, tightly controlling the economy to eliminate weapons sales and restrict the sales of things that might be made into weapons: nobody can buy a laser pistol and you must have a permit to buy an exciter crystal...even if it's being mounted in a printer.

The technological answer is that wuxia -- swords and fists -- won't accidentally rupture a pressure hull like a missed shot from a plasma cannon. This suggests that the geography of the campaign takes place in spaceships, space stations, and sealed environments on planets with a hostile natural environment.
This suggests your society has not found any Earthlike planets: everyone is living in space stations, Dyson Spheres, or on planets that cannot be terraformed or have not been yet.

So, to recap: oppressive government won't let people have guns. Fear of depressurization means that while people may want to resist the oppressive government, they don't want to do it with guns either...and are unlikely to look kindly on the people that do.

Getting your wuxia elements might be easy, but I wouldn't use "magic" or anything understood as magic myself. Try at least using pseudoscience.

For wuxia leaps and flying techniques, consider going to places with different gravity levels. On the moon, everybody can leap wuxia-style. The same would apply to a space habitat that only used microgravity.
(And of course low gravity makes it possible to send someone flying back twenty feet with a good punch.)

It's entirely possible a government (especially an oppressive, tyrannical one) might start genetically engineering colonists to make them more compatible with their environment. Such genetic engineering would probably increase their dexterity, strength, and most importantly, constitution: all of which make for a wuxia character.

Lastly, you'd had a question about religion. Dannyalcatraz Jedi/Buddhists are good, but I'd also go back to China and look at ancestor worship. You could pair that up with the Transhumanist notion of "consciousness downloads" to create a "virtual god".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Excellent point!

In a world where you can download personalities & consciousnesses- or at least convincing simulacrum thereof- Confucianism/Ancestor Worship could gain a lot of purchase.

 

[ajanders]

A nap and some yardwork later, I had an idea. It's been growing since.
Feedback appreciated.


It was not easy to leave Terra. She was old, sucked dry of natural resources, crumbling under the weight of our teeming billons, slowly collapsing into entropy.

But space was worse. The first three colonies on Luna died without ever sending a message back: we still don't know what happened. When an oxygen tank ruptured on the first L5 habitat it spiraled down into the atmosphere as a 5000 km streak of flame: the inhabitants evacuated, then chose suicide when they realized we had no way to rescue them.

We clawed our way out of the gravity well on the corpses of five billion men, women, and children, brave pioneers all. We succeeded in establishing our civilization across the solar system with iron discipline and the guidance of those who came before us.

We regulated our waking and sleeping, we rationed our food. We rigidly controlled our births and our deaths so as not to outgrow our food, water, and air. We recycled our industrial waste, our excrement, and even our own corpses and cognition.

And today, all that ends. Today, the tesseract drive gives humanity the bounty of the universe!
Archives of the Infinity Collective, 3550

The year is 3572. The tesseract drive has not given humanity the bounty of the universe.

The Emperor, advised by the downloaded consciousnesses of his predecessors, has sent out explorers in tesseract drive ships. The reports for these expeditions are slow in returning, and must be carefully considered before any ill-advised actions are taken. Some day it will be safe for civilization to explore the universe.

For some people, some day is right now.

Stripped of all flavor text, a society facing extreme hardship survived only by taking the most draconian of measures. People do need licenses to have children. The police take you away when you are seventy or so, download your consciousness into a weak artifical intelligence, and then humanely euthanatize you before composting your corpse. Food and water are rationed. There are sumptuary laws. There are police looking for dissenters -- if they find you, you go on the compost heap without benefit of download.
People live in space stations and pressure domes: despite everyone's best efforts, terraforming just doesn't work in the field.

The tesseract drive was supposed to change all that by effectively allowing faster-than-light travel: the mathematics to design the drive are fiendishly complex, but once the design was complete, it was easy to make with current technology. Private citizens could build one if they could do the design work.
Official Imperial exploration vessels have been built and sent out. None have returned yet, and some people are getting impatient. They're willing to fight for their freedom -- with their bare hands if they have to. Given the tight control of their society, they usually have to.

Points to Ponder
1. Is the Empire evil? Are they suppressing the tesseract drive and faking the exploration voyages? Maybe it's all a scam...feed the people false hope to keep them quiet...

2. Has the Empire been outmoded? The tight controls necessary for survival have left the empire very conservative. This conservatism gets reinforced if you add ancestor worship and downloaded consciousnesses as weak AI's. The weak AI's cannot learn new things, only repeat previous responses to stimuli. They can't handle the newness of the tesseract drive. The Emperor might be in a tight spot too. For years they've taken counsel with the greatest political, military, or legal minds of the past: it's like becoming President of the US and having Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and FDR around to offer you advice. Would you be willing to disagree with Abe Lincoln?

3. Is the tesseract drive safe? Maybe monsters live inside the tesseract: when you go inside Tzeentch comes and eats the ship. Maybe Tzeentch does something else you don't find out about until the ship comes back crewed by warp zombies.

 

[tecnowraith]

So far the plan is no space travel, it will be on one planet. Think sword and planet style setting like He-Man (the original and the 2000 version) type world. I thought about different gravity level but wanted a true mystical aspect of the world and not always explain by science. Since this a different planet i am looking how nature and environment will effect certain people like special fruit. This keep the wuxia elements intact cause certain wuxia stories had special fruit that gave powers to the heroes.

There will ancient ruins and civilizations that would be underground creating this this world's underworld. this will also help me some history.

The magic aspect I am thinking is that is and new energy source and the way to into that source is technology. One idea is taking the Dune movie sound guns and modifying in a "caster weapon" in which certain words or phrasing (spells and incantations) fires certain effects of the weapons. So in a way you voice activating weapons.