World Creation Superdraft 4: May 2020

[Sociotard]

Secondary Domain: Sea Elves

 

Sea Elves can't swim.

 

From the name alone, everyone assumes they can. They assume they'll breath underwater, have flippers, and in general be a sort of elvish mermaid. Well, they can't and they don't. Actually, the Cave Elves are the best swimmers of all elf species.

 

Sea elves are just too dense to swim. People look at them and say "I thought elves were supposed to be lithe and slender?" But no. These elves are built like tanks, with thick heavy bones and dense bulky muscles. They sink like rocks. The upside is, they are so dense that they can simply run along the bed of rivers and sort of jump up when they need a breath of air. (they're comparable to cave elves in their ability to hold their breath).

 

At the end of the day, any water too deep for them to jump up in should be too dangerous for Sea Elves … but they don't care. They can be found crossing the deepest oceans as easily as their native rivers. They just have a strange instinctive joy at being on a boat.

 

They lay their eggs toward the source of rivers. When they hatch, the young sea elves instinctively run downstream. (run run and jump for air and run run and jump for air) until they are found by a boat of Sea Elves to take them in.

[death tribble]

10 hours ago, Lucius said:

 

My gift to civilization: Guitars

 

Lucius Alexander

 

My gift to taglines: palindromedaries

I recalled the song These Dreams and thought I would have a little fun.

But if you want guitars, guitars you will have.

[death tribble]

Shayol noted Nogram taking domain over healing and that it would work against addiction. He might have expected something from Tasha but this pomposity truly irked. Money meant nothing and your health was free ?

Pah ! and again pah !

Well if Nogram wanted health and healing and medicine why not give his followers something to keep them occupied.

Shayol took unto himself the domain of disease and poison.

 

There is a tale that says disease and poison were spread throughout the world by Shayol during an epic hunt. The story goes that Shayol came after Fox who took off running realising that the God of Evil was beyond reasoning and trickery. The chase went all over the world and through the rivers and over the Rainbow Bridges even unto the realm of dreams and that is how disease and poison spread for wherever the God of Evil went a fragment was left behind which caused these things. Ultimately Fox escaped, or was saved by the intervention of the other gods troubled that if Shayol should kill Fox would he not turn on them as well ? However neither god responds to the veracity of the tale. There is one version of the tale that is far more sinister. It says that Malice turned herself into Fox and let Shayol pursue her. Someone once mentioned this to Malice. They died in agony as a disease corrupted their body and destroyed them.

[death tribble]

In memory of the wood Elves we have this

 

[Hermit]

Once upon a time, I but a novice, and still very young, well, I guess you could say back then, I was a Beginner Kit! Ha!*

Where was I? Oh yes, when I was very young ,and the world was new, there were lies, and there were truth. It was all very evil, either something was so, or it was not so. One could say what was not so, usually in an attempt to slander a rival but sometimes to spare feelings.. Or one could tell the truth, often to inform, but sometimes as a back handed way to hurt.

 

Even this was, to use the term, too pat. When people spoke, it was as dry as hard toast. In fact, I commented on it.

 

A man, I think it was an elf actually, they were first ,was explaining of his journey "I traveled for five miles. There was a tree that was taller than average for its type. From there I turned north by north east..." 

 

"This telling is as dry as toast," I said shuddering at the lack of imagination.

 

The others in the crowd turned to me confused. 

"How can a telling be dry?" One said. The others looked equally baffled.

 

"I mean it has no flavor, it has no zing!" I explained.

 

More confusion from the crowd, including one guy who was only now waking "How can a history have a flavor when nothing was eaten during it?"

 

I gaped, "A history? Is, is that all you have?"

 

Confused looks abounded.

 

I gathered up and said, "Harken ye, to the tale of..." I glanced at the elf who had been talking, "What was your name again?"

 

And he gave me his name. Let's say it was Bob. Bob is an easy go to name and I've used it before.

 

"Harken ye, to the tale of Bob," I said, "And his great journey! Earlier today, while the lights were glistening like roses thick with dew, Bob rose, and he did hear the call of the road! Sweet like a siren's song, and he stepped out, prepared to make a journey. and what a journey it was... were you to lash not eleven, not a hundred and eleven, but two hundred and eleven great snakes together, still you would not go as far as the road that lay before him! Yet travel it he did, and while the wind made merry with his hair as if it were another set of leaves, he did spot a tree of a very different sort. Yay, for the true was a giant among its kind, of such grand immensity to dwarf its brethren who no doubt were green for the purpose of envy! Gaping at this giant, he noticed about it, like admirers parting, the road had broken in many direction. So great were the roots of the tree they had shattered the singular road into a myriad choice! But Bob was driven by a peculiar certainty, and did wander bravely in the direction where the Winter Lord is rumored to be strongest! And spiraling, spiraling up the great loop, he did make way to his destination, and a grand fate! For it is here where Bob and those about him learned that words themselves can have tastes and flavors and patterns, that HOW you tell can make even the mundane magical... and he learned it, they all learned it from Fox! God of stories! "

 

And they cheered,and whooped and praised my name!  Because while it was hardly my best it sure beat what they'd heard until then. And in that moment I mixed truth and lies, hiding in greater truths in lies, and little lies in the truth... stories vary, they may paint me as a fool, yet show I some how survive foolishness. They often portray me as clever, and triumphing over more brutish gods! Some might end in joy, others tragedy! I am pest, I am savior, I am nuisance, I am a hero, and... some times, stories don't seem to involve me at all.

But most do. And as stories are mine to guide, few realize great a teacher I am. I am Fox, and my stories maybe set in the past, but they help shape the future by guiding mortals through the lessons I lace in them.

 

Secondary Domain: Stories and imagination!

 

 

 

* Oh screw you, that was funny

[death tribble]

I liked it as well.

 

But the fun you are having with Trickery and the fun I am having with Evil is why next year we cannot have those as primary domains.

 

And thanks for this particular choice as I have made mention of it in a couple of my selections.

 

For everyone else I sent Hermit a PM regarding a chase early on and we did not go any further with it. But when Cancer selected healing, I already had thought of using disease as a domain and I could then use it. Putting in the tale of Shayol chasing Fox in order to spread disease was a derivation of the chase but having Malice play Fox was just the icing on the cake.

[Hermit]

13 minutes ago, death tribble said:

I liked it as well.

 

But the fun you are having with Trickery and the fun I am having with Evil is why next year we cannot have those as primary domains.

 

And thanks for this particular choice as I have made mention of it in a couple of my selections.

 

For everyone else I sent Hermit a PM regarding a chase early on and we did not go any further with it. But when Cancer selected healing, I already had thought of using disease as a domain and I could then use it. Putting in the tale of Shayol chasing Fox in order to spread disease was a derivation of the chase but having Malice play Fox was just the icing on the cake.

 

*Makes note* Not allowed to have fun next world creation draft. Got it! 

 

[L. Marcus]

Not true, not true! You just have to keep it Neutral Good or weaker.

[DShomshak]

Since I'm falling behind, I'll keep this one short. No b;lank verse, sorry.

 

Is it flora, fauna, or ore? A bit of all three, as Kylvn gives the world Living Frost. A great musician can set the snowflakes dancing in patterns, and the ice crystals growing in chosen forms. It grows like the traceries of frost but can leave a surface to grow up and out, denser, until solid objects are formed. Then the form can be locked in place using powerful, intense silence -- for as cold in this world is not merely absence of feat, silence is not merely absence of sound. Once set in this manner, living frost becomes as hard as stone -- nowhere near as hard as adamantite, of course, more like marble -- and has a melting point comparable to silver. Given time, castles or entire towns can be built of living frost.

 

If I had a picture of Crystal Castle from the end of The Dark Crystal, I'd post it here.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Sociotard]

Nice. I guess I know the primary export of my Frost Elves.

[DShomshak]

But why does Living Frost count as flora or fauna? Because if you don't fix its form with a silence, it keeps growing on its own. And this gives Kylvn his contribution to the landscape.

 

Geography: Ice Reefs. Living Frost can appear spontaneously from people singing in a snowstorm, or a chance harmony of winds whistling through cracks in a rock. It's small at first, but if nothing breaks it and it survives the passing seasons to the next winter, it grows. Not fast, but it grows and new forms appear. In time the patch of living frost resembles a coral reef: a mass of odd lumps, branches and fern-like sprays of ice, riddles with crevices and little caves where the wind can make more music and keep the reef growing.

 

People may destroy a nascent ice reef because they don't want it freezing and taking over their farmland. Kylvn understands, and has no desire for his creation to trespass and disrupt the domains of Liminus or Nogrom. But in some places the reefs grow miles wide and hundreds of feet high.

 

(And villages may tend a small walled ice-garden so they have ice year-round, and a place to cool off in the hottest times of the year.)

 

Okay, my first thought for Kylvn's geography was mountaintops. Nobody's mentioned mountains IIRC; and a rim of mountains would keep seas and rivers from draining off the edge of the Helix. And ice castles on glacier-clad peaks were tempting. But it was still too obvious and too Earth-like. The Helix may have a raised rim and possibly mountains elsewhere, but they are not Kylvn's doing.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

Oh, and if anyone wonders how silence can be a thing instead of a mere absence, I offer these words from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, a better writer than I could ever hope to be:

-----

PROLOGUE

 

A Silence of Three Parts

 

IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.

 

The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn's sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves. If there had been a crowd, even a handful of men inside the inn, they would have filled the silence with conversation and laughter, the clatter and clamor one expects from a drinking house during the dark hours of night. If there had been music . . . but no, of course there was no music. In fact there were none of these things, and so the silence remained.

 

Inside the Waystone a pair of men huddled at one corner of the bar. They drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news. In doing this they added a small, sullen silence to the larger, hollow one. It made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint.

 

The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar. It was in the weight of the black stone hearth that held the heat of a long dead fire. It was in the slow back and forth of a white linen cloth rubbing along the grain of the bar. And it was in the hands of the man who stood there, polishing a stretch of mahogany that already gleamed in the lamplight.

 

The man had true-red hair, red as flame. His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things.

 

The Waystone was his, just as the third silence was his. This was appropriate, as it was the greatest silence of the three, wrapping the others inside itself. It was deep and wide as autumn's ending. It was heavy as a great river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.

 -----

I don't know how spirit magic works. That's for Liminus to decide. But if magic words are involved -- words being things of both worlds, material sound and immaterial meaning -- I propose that magic silences be involved, too.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

On 5/13/2020 at 6:46 AM, death tribble said:

Shayol would like to point out that the Loyahs are not to be sneezed at.

 

Especially during the pandemic.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I was listening to some myth stories and it occurred to me there's something we might want to add next year: children. A lot of gods bear offspring which are gods or demigods themselves. Just something to consider. 

[Sociotard]

I thought we'd been doing  the mythic guardians to fill that concept, but perhaps we could allow sub gods to be attached to a domain. 

 

Like I might play zeus, and say Athens is my geography, but say if actually belongs to my progeny Athena

[death tribble]

39 minutes ago, Logan.1179 said:

I was listening to some myth stories and it occurred to me there's something we might want to add next year: children. A lot of gods bear offspring which are gods or demigods themselves. Just something to consider. 

Drop me a line as you created it and we'd need to agree guidelines

[Cancer]

... and no, you cannot have all the other gods and sentient mortals be your children, no matter how much nookie your divine libido insists on.

[Hermit]

59 minutes ago, Logan.1179 said:

I was listening to some myth stories and it occurred to me there's something we might want to add next year: children. A lot of gods bear offspring which are gods or demigods themselves. Just something to consider. 

 

Augustus Faserip Vance had his daughter as his Guardian/Monster pick

[Hermit]

On 4/24/2020 at 7:41 AM, death tribble said:

 

• Geography. You are the patron and builder of certain locales. It can be as broad as a continent  or an ocean, or it can be as specific as a city.

•  

•  

 

(REALLY long, really detailed- Edit, okay, not that long or detailed but still easy to miss mention of this or that god if you aren't careful)

 

And the other gods did craft lands and monuments and great works aplenty, they shaped the geography of this world and the next, and some asked "Where then is Fox's contribution?"

 

Workaholics, the lot of them, which is fine, I suppose, but to get nagged by some for not 'creating' enough (As if stories were not the creation that inspired other creations) is irksome. I'm the god of trickery, not the god of marriage, find someone else to hoist your honey dew list upon.

 

And yet, let it not be said I'm not able to rise to an occasion. Why, I'm even generous!

 

Nation states were brought into this world, yet they seem vague and nebulous! Clearly we're not a detail oriented pantheon. And so I shall make TEN great countries on one 'continent', one for each of my fellow gods!

 

To Nogram, I bestow the country of Nemohicarum! A lush, hilly, wooded land , and it is near the great river that rushes up. It has small villages connected by lesser rivers, and some of the lower hills are quite nice for vinyards or the like. Sadly, it has almost no metals (Unless Nogram puts it there). It must trade outside itself for such, or invade, or..well whatever. Each village has a temple to Nogram, again, lacking in metal components. save for the bare minimums. The villages are laid out in a vaguely circular pattern , if the hill in the center was further developed it might make a grand market.

 

To Volcanis, I grant the nation of Tá an Cíos ró-ard! a ring shape of sub-tropical and tropical jungles with wildlife aplenty but with a great HUGE City in the near center of it with a fine port. Further, there are metal ores a plenty under the green of the nature beyond with some samples getting into the streams to catch the eyes of travelers.

 

To Shayol, I leave Sucre Eclat, a land as barren as your offerings, as false as your hope. Lodged between Fluff Fluff Forest, and Cuddly Crag, this chromatic country shines garishly under an onslaught of bright often pastel daylight. Food grown here tastes saccharine to the extreme. And cheerful music seems carried on every wind. The main fauna appears to be incredibly friendly ponies of all colors of the rainbows. By pure chance, Foxhair weed seems to grow on the borders between it and other countries.

 

To Liminus, Askakupolfordrakar is yours to use or ignore. High Mountain ranges that plunge down into marshes with sluggish swampy rivers, some green willow filled woodlands, and everywhere mists and fog so thick that your average human couldn't see ten feet past his face. A great town built in the center of a lake has canals rather than roads, it is clearer here, and whatever people you choose to settle here will find rows and rows of sable colored arrows with a few bows.

 

To Eternus, creator of humans who are ever a source of amusement to me, I leave to you the city state of Blumenriechengut! Down in a valley are miles and miles of flowery fields and the great city of Essiehtgutausja! It is a great stone labyrinth of a city, and on its tombstone like walls are writings in many languages where the stories of those who have died and made a mark in history are displayed. Miles and miles as you walk from down town to the great temple that awaits priests of your choosing. Of course, one out of every hundred of every 'historical record'  or 'memory preserved' has an inaccuracy in it, and a few spots just have bad grammar. Irregardless of that, I'm sure your worshipers could care less, and if they want to will hunt down and spend the time correcting those.

 

To Andrea, I leave the mysterious underkingdom of Chikajunin. We don't want you falling through the helix, so the tunnels are more wide spread than deep. Don't worry, some have that stuff laced in it that makes it unlikely to collapse. It's actually quite lovely with phosphorescent crystals and under ground pools, some heated by the heat from below. There are vapors that induce dreaming in some vents. There's a resort like town with spas and cave paintings depicting you (might be a few Fox paintings too but who doesn't love those?). If you take the passages up you'll find your country is below Eternus land. 

 

To Inscissivus , I know your created people are nomadic, so I give them the great dry lands known as Fudalat-Sunduq which border three other nations and act  a major trade road called  The Lion's Walk. While some might call it a desert, it is a surprisingly temperate path, and there are small oasis here and there.It has variances of a sort. Golden sands that slip through your fingers are one part, rocky pebbles and gravel in another, and soil that gives away easily near the water holes. The great Tent City of alshuquq-sahla itself moves, or can be moved to wherever you or those in your nation wish. obviously it's not built for siege.

 

To Kylvn, I give you the mountainous country of Silyyaytsa, not the tallest mountains but tall enough to be top frozen all year. Below at the foothills are numerous villages pre constructed and then beyond them, ice shelves that arch out to a cold sea.  In your quest for music, you might wish to avoid Sopranos... high notes tend to cause avalanches. The cold waters are quite rich in fish though.

 

To Tasha, Goddess of Good. Imiplaceraubaieti is a country you have offered up to you. Filled with dark woods, misty moors and gothic towns, decaying fortresses with an overabundance of spikes upon their towers. Demonic looking statuary and high barbed arches. It rains a lot here. Guess you could say its a fixer upper. However, if you know which buildings to look for, you'll find art work of surprising beauty in this or that building, and in that art, good usually triumphs over evil.  

 

Lastly, to the Fair Star, I offer  T'pewNeik' Olt. It has everything elves could want, fine highlands where their rich accents can burr and 'och' all they want. Grains and goods that lend well to ale and beer like they adore. Minerals enough to fill their forges as their mighty smiths go to work! You'll find each village, be it under ground grotto or perched on a higland rim, has a barber shop ready for a master trimmer to shape and braid those beards.

 

Do with as you want with them on this great spur of land I claim nothing, yet I am sure I'll visit each land in my own time just to see what you've done with the place.

 

Geography Pick: The Continent "Regalo" with a free country for each other god

 

 

Obviously those that already have Geography picks now get a double dip in a 'nothing bad can come of this' kind of way, and those that didn't Still have theirs and if they want could, unless our current commish says otherwise, use their geography pick to alter/improve their country like laying something better over an old painting or just make something far far from this particular section of the helix. A god can ignore their gift if they want period, of course, and leave it on the door step of fate to face whatever happens.

 

 

[death tribble]

20 minutes ago, Hermit said:

To Shayol, I leave Sucre Eclat, a land as barren as your offerings, as false as your hope. Lodged between Fluff Fluff Forest, and Cuddly Crag, this chromatic country shines garishly under an onslaught of bright often pastel daylight. Food grown here tastes saccharine to the extreme. And cheerful music seems carried on every wind. The main fauna appears to be incredibly friendly ponies of all colors of the rainbows. By pure chance, Foxhair weed seems to grow on the borders between it and other countries.

I

I

I don't know what to say

It's beautiful !

 

look on the dreary side, boss, no dragons !

 

Shut up Malice !

[Hermit]

14 minutes ago, death tribble said:

I

I

I don't know what to say

It's beautiful !

 

look on the dreary side, boss, no dragons !

 

Shut up Malice !

 

I knew you'd either love it or hate it.

[Cancer]

Nogrom prepares and releases Our created fauna upon the world.

 

Under Our domain of health and healing, the Physicolugos are gliding mammals most resembling the flying lemurs.  Leaf, twig, fruit, and flower-eaters, they are very expert gliders; in climates that support it, they will also eat mosses and fungi.  Those around settlements of sentients will learn to accept offerings of fruit and vegetables, and many seem to have a taste for cheese.

 

The physicolugos are not sentient and do not understand language, but they are empathic, and seek out ill and injured creatures.  The presence -- usually, but not necessarily, physical contact -- of a physicolugo induces an improved healing and recovery response in the ill creature's physiology.  They also cannot be caged or held captive for any extended time; chains, locks, cages, and bindings simply dissolve into the air when holding a physicolugo in captivity, or being restrained from reaching a client creature in need of their aid.  A few creatures (most commonly large raptors, like eagles or owls) will prey upon them, but most sentients leave them undisturbed at least and some will put up nest boxes for them around the periphery of their settlements.  They cannot be made into pets, but some have "favorite humans" and visit these frequently over extended periods of time.

[death tribble]

As the admin I am beginning to dread what the mythic monster/guardian for money could be

[Hermit]

Just now, death tribble said:

As the admin I am beginning to dread what the mythic monster/guardian for money could be

 

The Giant Invisible Hand of the Marketplace!

 

 

 

[Sociotard]

My elves keep asking why the architecture seems intended for people 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

 

Well done trickster.