[GAME] Conceive a Cross Dimensional Fantasy Milieu

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Imperials have a long tradition of "God-hunting", which is essentially taking a hiking trip through the distorted lands looking for divine realms. Showing the new Gods proper respect and offering gifts is of the utmost importance, but it would be a mistake to consider this behavior worship, and God hunters care more about how many gods or afterlives they've visited, rather than how devoted they are to one.

So life lists and field guides like birders here. Who is the Audubon equivalent?

[patchwork]

Answer 66 Two of Five trading houses on Calledron

The Swarm of Lambent Reciprocity has its primary office on Calledron in the city of Jamselmar; a previous archmage thought her city should be lit like midday at all times and the SoLR obligingly built and maintain a light network. Subsequent archmages of Jamselmar think the think is a pointless waste of money but don't cancel it for fear of looking less competent than their predecessors (maintaining relations with the SoLR doesn't hurt either). The Swarm's core business is light and heat; Ton is a steady market for light sources, and pays in esoterica that can be resold on Calledron. Tonic worldsuits are helpful in breaking through the vacuum in Eddy to reach and harvest the sunstones. Gnomon is their binge and bust market; during a 5-year winter or string of very long nights, they make money hand over fist and fund expansions and endowments; during a long summer, they tighten their belts. They have several inhabited minor cosmi locked in darkness and/or cold as captive markets. They mount expeditions into the skull, perhaps even the sinuses, but have yet to discover a portal there that would make it a stable market. As the name implies, the Swarm are majority chanovat, and all management and supervisory positions are chanovat. They treat their many non-chanovat employees reasonably, however. They are a large and diverse combine, though, that grows exotic plants in greenhouses away from prying eyes and trades whatever looks like it will make a quick profit in their travels. The Swarm primarily uses the Madrigal Network; their buzzing multipart harmonies, sounding like a battle royale conducted with hurdy-gurdys, cause opening along different paths and to different minor cosmi than the singing of humans, hawk-people or mer. They are always buying alchemical ingredients for both their core products, communion fluid and maintenance. Non-chanovat employees who sing well enough to use the Network are among their very well compensated employees even if not management. They sort of have to be, since singing at the level required is, like professional sports, something most performers will be able to do for about ten years of their life. The SoLR contribute fairly extensively to local choral music as a way to spot potential new employees (and inspire public goodwill).

The Untarnished Combine, by contrast, are among the oldest commercial concerns among the Imperials. They began as a panicked reaction to the Keeper of Graves barring access to the Oppuhan realm of the dead. There appears to be an afterlife in Fragment that is both ecumenical and largely non-toxic, of course, but the Untarnished weren't having any of that. They swiftly developed a technique for extracting a human soul from a living body and housing it within an elaborate constructed device; their name comes from the fact that these constructs must be made from gold, with crystals and gems embedded. It is often whispered that they couldn't have worked that out through trial and error in time and they must have learned it from the Debauched Reveler, and that further their management still honor him, willingly or out of necessity by contract. Most of the Untarnished business is conservative by nature - importing food and construction materials, exporting cash crops grown on Calledron plantations, but in two centuries they've learned a thing or two about soul transfer. They'd never sell a paying customer a new body, of course - that would be an abomination, wouldn't it? - but a piece of a soul, well, that wouldn't be so bad, yes? Some lovers go to them to create a permanent bond by exchanging small pieces of their souls; others go to have a piece of their soul removed or discarded, such as their memory of a crime, or something new added, such as the courage of a tiger. Some of this work could be considered therapeutic; most of it really couldn't. But for enough money, the Untarnished may be able to sell you a new personality. In days past, the century-old souls that abandoned flesh for gold were the directors and managers of the Untarnished still, and the goal of employees (which most could not meet) was to earn enough to afford a body of gold, the transfer procedure and storage and maintenance in perpetuity. After two centuries, there are more such souls than management positions, and many of them gather dust in archives now.

Question 99 What is Calledron's currency like? Is it backed by anything, in a polycosm where nearly anything could be found behind the next portal? Who makes it - mints, banks? Is it widely accepted beyond Calledron? If not, is there any currency that is used, or is it strictly barter between different polities?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by patchwork

What's a supernatural substance? I'm not trying to dismiss your objection, but I don't think that term is defined enough to be meaningful. In fact, it seems a tautology - what defines a thing as supernatural? The fact that it is part of a cross-cosm summoning process. One's own labor, secrets, murder, sacrifice, tears - all of these things seem sources of magical significance to me.

It's a well-established fantasy trope that some substances are inherently magical- unicorn horns, phoenix feathers, dragon's blood, mithril, orichalcum, meteoric iron, et cetera and hencewise. Calledronite, in this setting, and spice gems. They contain a magical charge, glow magically, prickle a mage's senses, can be dispelled, naturally generate magical effects, and such and so-forth.

You're talking about mundane items which may accumulate magical significance through some symbolic event. A pewter fork is not just a pewter fork if it was used to stab out the eye of a murderer, for example. There's nothing wrong with this magical paradigm per se, it's just that it's different to the axioms that were laid out further upthread (see Answer 21). With your idea, for example, how would a Ton Alchemist turn a Calledronite blade into a soul-stealer? And does it lend itself to some of the industrial scale production that we've implied the Alchemists are capable of?

The Temper bit is great though- it's given me some character ideas. We just need to massage the other part of the formula into line with what we've got. Maybe just add a fifth element to the formula- a power substance with some appropriate qualities.

Originally Posted by sinleqiunnini

I am currently through page five, and am thinking hyperlinks would make organizing them significantly easier. Once I've got everything into the document would anyone object to me making a wiki (not through wikia, I've heard awful things about them) and putting everything up on there?

I use MS OneNote for storing all the setting notes (23,000 words at the moment), Word is too linear. I have the question stream as a table in one tab, then other tabs for ideas, working and keeping track of things by category. I have also made wikis before based on these threads- the Interstellar Drift space trader setting, and the Below the Horizon steampunk setting. You'll notice I had one page for the raw question stream, i.e. a mirror of what was posted here, then other pages for re-grouping and summarising that information. The Wikifoundry WYSIWYG editor seemed to work okay, but it would eat spaces between differently formatted text when I copy-pasted. I haven't used it for a while, so I don't know if that's still an issue.

Originally Posted by dcarson

So life lists and field guides like birders here. Who is the Audubon equivalent?

Is that a question for our list? ;)

ETA: And by the way, don't forget to quote the question you're answering, guys. It helps make sense for the punters following along at home.

[patchwork]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

With your idea, for example, how would a Ton Alchemist turn a Calledronite blade into a soul-stealer? And does it lend itself to some of the industrial scale production that we've implied the Alchemists are capable of?

The Temper bit is great though- it's given me some character ideas. We just need to massage the other part of the formula into line with what we've got. Maybe just add a fifth element to the formula- a power substance with some appropriate qualities.

I don't think an additional element is needed, as that's what the "vital" part is supposed to do. I suppose I chose power sources that were insufficiently exotic. I don't think we need to work out a full magic system as complex as decanic, or at least that seems a poor use of this time and space to me. But if power sources are both as easily identifiable and as impersonal as your examples, they need to be highly finite in number. They need to be sourceable from many different cosms. And we haven't identified any such things on Ton.

It does lend itself to workshop scaling but perhaps not factory scaling, which for me at least is the target we had in mind. The key is that a shop taskmaster must be an extremely perceptive judge of character. Timmy wants a job and gets in a lot of fights; is he a choleric or an antimelancholic or one of the mixes? You need to judge that correctly to know which line to put him on and what materials to give him. But Timmy doesn't need to understand anything about alchemy or himself to assemble things, so long as the shop steward does. Ironically, the taskmaster doesn't need to understand himself in order to be an effective taskmaster; she can successfully direct other people to do things she can't do herself because of the limits of self-perception. But since you have to actually know the worker on some level to correctly assign them a formula, the impersonal large-scale factory isn't really possible.

The question about the life-stealing blade is cogent though. I'll have to think on that; not formulating this as specific questions and answers for the moment since, regrettably, while we are not an impasse I suspect we're not on the same page yet either.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by patchwork

I don't think an additional element is needed, as that's what the "vital" part is supposed to do.

I read "vital" as being "a living thing," not "a magical power source." Of course, some living things can qualify as magical, but that seems tangential.

I suppose I chose power sources that were insufficiently exotic. I don't think we need to work out a full magic system as complex as decanic, or at least that seems a poor use of this time and space to me. But if power sources are both as easily identifiable and as impersonal as your examples, they need to be highly finite in number. They need to be sourceable from many different cosms. And we haven't identified any such things on Ton.

I think this is the disconnect. Remember that the first conception of the Alchemists was that they were out exploring the polycosmos for exotic substances (and creatures) that they could use, abuse, convert and pervert to doing what they wanted. The idea of using symbolic but mundane substances leans more towards ideas of witchcraft than towards the empiric style of alchemy we started with.

As for Ton, the Alchemists were initially described as spending their time knee deep in the semi-molten effusions looking for "alchemical fortunes." So nothing in particular was named, but Ton isn't a totally barren place in terms of effective alchemical substances. They could be interesting but mundane chemicals, but they could also be magically charged.

It does lend itself to workshop scaling but perhaps not factory scaling, which for me at least is the target we had in mind. The key is that a shop taskmaster must be an extremely perceptive judge of character. Timmy wants a job and gets in a lot of fights; is he a choleric or an antimelancholic or one of the mixes? You need to judge that correctly to know which line to put him on and what materials to give him.

This stuff I think we can still keep. Connoisseurs might be able to pick out items that were made with the wrong mix of temperaments, or notice that the master was feeling somewhat sanguine on the day he made an item.

[ericthered]

I think Daigoro has made most of my points. His understanding of the magic described so far aligns very closely with mine. A few additional comments:

I never attached "Exotic" to the word substance. I think I implied it, but I didn't explicitly say it, and I should have.

Originally Posted by patchwork

I don't think we need to work out a full magic system as complex as decanic, or at least that seems a poor use of this time and space to me.

I don't want this setting to have a full and complex magic system, particularly an open ended one. I answered Question 21 specifically to prevent a broad a sweeping magic system from being implemented. I'd rather focus in on small ability sets associated with individual groups.

Originally Posted by dcarson

So life lists and field guides like birders here. Who is the Audubon equivalent?

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Is that a question for our list? ;)

I think it is! You are now a contributer!

Question 100: So life lists and field guides like birders here. Who is the Audubon equivalent?

Originally Posted by sinleqiunnini

Once I've got everything into the document would anyone object to me making a wiki (not through wikia, I've heard awful things about them) and putting everything up on there?

That's awesome! Let us know what you end up using!

[Daigoro]

Sorry to make another bookkeeping post, but hitting the 100 question milestone I think it's time for a question recap.

I'm taking the liberty of expanding a couple of questions into Name 5s, as we'd just be asking the same question later anyway with other topics.

Spoiler blocked for spammage.

Name 5 Questions

Spoiler:  

Question 43 [MV][Name 5] - Imperial Realms 3 or 4/5
As of Answer 16/Post 31, the Calledron Empire is spread across 6 realms. One is presumably Fragment, so what are the other 5? Give some details.
(Only one answer at a time is ok, you don't have to try to do all 5 at once.)

1- Fragment
2- Eddy, as mentioned re: answer 32
3- Mother Plains (?) (We'll see if we need this or if we come up with another Civilised realm)
4- Gnomon
5- Impossible Sea

Question 47 [MV][Name 5] - Races 3/5
If humans are the most complained about species, what are some of the other races? Which ones live on Calledron?
Actually, let's make this a "Name 5" question, that is, let's describe at least 5 races in some detail.

Answer 47-1 Chanovat
Answer 47-2 People of the Hawk
Answer 47-3 Elluumeragh/Mer

To be described:
- Ogre Knights
- Neckerlings
- Kobolds of Niph
- Torkaltar (polycosm trackers from Q74)

Question 66 [FRG][Name 5] - Merchant Houses 2/5
Describe 5 of the major or minor merchant houses, trading companies or caravans that traverse the polycosm.
Think about: Where do they go? Which portals do they use? Where in Calledron are they based? What goods do they specialise in? What resources do they have? Which are the ones embroiled in Plot Seed 1?

Answer 66a - The Swarm of Lambent Reciprocity
Answer 66b - The Untarnished Combine

Question 69 [MV][Name 4] - Rival Empires 2/4
Give a name and brief description of the four other multicosmic polities Calledron is in contact with.

69a) The Five Banner Concordat
69b) The Orthodox and Catholic Temple of One-In-All.

Question 78 [MV][Name 5] - Portal Networks 0/5
As per Answer 15, the Madrigal Network is one of the 18 portal building civilizations, whose portals involve music in some way. What characteristics and tendencies do portals built or modified by the Madrigal have?
--> Furthermore, describe 4 other portal networks. Think about:
- How they work and are operated
- What they look like
- What is known about their builders, if anything
- What sort of lands they traverse, if there's a common theme
- How they appear when operating (i.e. how you would describe them to the CGI crew)

Madrigal Network partial details:
(From A66) The Swarm primarily uses the Madrigal Network; their buzzing multipart harmonies, sounding like a battle royale conducted with hurdy-gurdys, cause opening along different paths and to different minor cosmi than the singing of humans, hawk-people or mer.

Other networks mentioned:
- Fiend Gates
- Stone Syndic Highdoors and Grand Roads

Question 90 [MV][Name 5] - Unique Portals 0/5
The Chequered Field is an unusual portal that rather than allowing transport to another place instead "pulls" individuals, objects and creatures to its location when certain conditions are met.
How is this portal used?
--> Describe 4 other unique portals with special operating parameters and capricious "personalities".

Question 83 [MV][Name 5] - Hellish Realms 0/5
Describe the Curselands that all Fiend Gates apparently dump travelers into somewhere.
--> Further, describe 4 other realms that wayfarers wish to avoid at all costs but which they may accidentally find themselves in. They could be spirit or divine realms, or inhospitable mortal realms.

Question 94 [MV][Name 4] - Tetral Realms 0/4
The Impossible Sea is one of a skerry of five tetrahedral realms. What are the other four like?

Standalone Questions

Spoiler:  

Question 55:
What do Lokou Temples look like on the outside? How large are they, and how many of them are there? how many of those are in the capital?

Question 64:
What are some heinous crimes in the Calledron legal system, and what are some comparably minor crimes?

Question 68:
How does The hanging City of Ton fit into its political entity? Does it rule? is it a quirky city separate from the capital? Or is it independent?

Question 70:
How different are the languages of Ton, Calledron, The stone-etched alliance, and other poly-cosmic entities? How do they compare to the languages of mono-cosmic nations? And to the scripts of the 18 civilizations?

Question 71:
What divine sigils does the Emperor display - based on his crown, sash and jewelry, which gods does he honor, and how much? Are any of them peculiar or idiosyncratic in display? Are any conspicuous by their absence? Is there suspicion of any level of insincerity in his devotion? Does he make a public show of his devotions?

Question 72:
What innate magics do non-Imperials possess? We've discussed the Lokou, and as of yet have no other real human populations to discuss, but what about the nonhumans? I'm going to suspect the other tribes of Calledron and Gnomon have limited ability and/or will be left blank as a place for PCs to bolt in a weird character concept that nevertheless works, but feel free to correct that impression.

Question 74:
The race known as the Torkaltar has individuals who possess a rare ability, they can follow a trail across multiple cosms. What else can be said about this race and how its fits in the polycosm?

Question 76:
Does the inland sea of Calledron experience enough wind to make sails work?

Question 79 [CALHB]- Callous Harbour Underworld
Who rules the criminal underworld of the empire's capital? How many factions are there? What goods are traded on the black market?

Question 81:
Laying aside the training of mages, which was a previous question - what is the education of a typical poor citizen of Calledron like? How about the education of a wealthy or powerful one?

Question 84:
What are the native inhabitants of Gnomon like?

Question 86:
How does the Empire conceive and organize military force? Is it "every free person bring their own weapons, we're having a short campaign" or is it paid professionals? Are officers elected or appointed? How much coordination is there between military units from different provinces?

Question 88:
The Empire prefers Archmages for rulers. Is there a preference for mages in middle positions, or are they shepherded into other professions?

Question 91 [IMPSEA]- Calledron Rule
What is the Calledron outpost here? How does the empire impose its rule?
(i.e. In the Impossible Sea)

Question 92 [IMPSEA]- Kolona Culture
What are the cultures of the various kolona peoples like?

Question 93 [IMPSEA]- Impossible Depths
If a Calledron mage were to go plumbing the depths of the sea, what would they find?

Question 96:
What wildlife lives in the Pit and the Pirate City? How does the citizenry interact with these creatures?

Question 97:
What happens when an alchemist uses close-but-not-quite components for a summoning, particularly if they misunderstand their own Temper?

Question 98:
What is the Temple's home cosm like?
(re The Orthodox and Catholic Temple of One-In-All from A69b.)

Question 99:
What is Calledron's currency like? Is it backed by anything, in a polycosm where nearly anything could be found behind the next portal? Who makes it - mints, banks? Is it widely accepted beyond Calledron? If not, is there any currency that is used, or is it strictly barter between different polities?

Question 100:
So life lists and field guides like birders here. Who is the Audubon equivalent?
(i.e. Who is the field expert in exploring divine realms and cataloguing gods?)

[ericthered]

I built my second stained glass image, this time of Fragment. Getting the right point of view is tricky, I probably need to add buildings (and maybe even a boat), but this has been a difficult image, and I'm happy with what I've got so far.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Question 68:
How does The hanging City of Ton fit into its political entity? Does it rule? is it a quirky city separate from the capital? Or is it independent?

Answer 68 [ALC] - Ton's Origins and Independence
In the last decades of the last reign of the last age of portal building civilisations, Ghuussa, the Last of the Nine Rebel Daevae, summoned his lieutenants and philosophers before him. "My vassals, injured, they die too readily. Aged or ill, they wither too soon. Each generation of warriors passes before they have their fullness of time in glorious battle. Find me a way to conquer this curse of mortality so that my liegemen may command the myriad realms." So spoke Ghuusa to his subordinates, not realising his impending fate, and they hastened to his command. The Academes of Geb, Mil, Ton, Jukh, Julh and Tez were established in farspread, magic-rich, unique and inaccessible realms.

That was some seventeen centuries ago. When that age ended in high catastrophe, three fourths of Ton's special portals fell defunct. Being cut off from its rule and sister institutions, and said rule presumably falling to ruin, the Provost-Elixirs reformed the research settlement into an independent town with a particular mission. Since then, having control over its portal access and having a small but effective defense unit has meant the city has been able to retain that independence.

---
Question 101 [ALC] - Ton's Defense
What defenses does Ton have?

Question 102 [ALC] - Ton's Mission
What is Ton's particular stated mission? How goes their search for an elixir of life?

Question 103 [MV] - Age of the Nine Rebel Daevae
What else do we know about this civilisation? What other remnants are there?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by patchwork

Question 86 How does the Empire conceive and organize military force? Is it "every free person bring their own weapons, we're having a short campaign" or is it paid professionals? Are officers elected or appointed? How much coordination is there between military units from different provinces?

The turtle fleet arrived as an organized military unit, and that organization still underlies society in the modern day. The empire doesn't have Citizens: it has soldiers. That a large number of them never fight and rarely drill doesn't stop them from being part of a military organization.

Various military units are more or less likely to be called up, forming a sliding scale between "professionals" through "militia on paper". When needed, huge armies of militia do get called up, but many arch-mages find this erodes their personal power, and try to get the job done with the professional army and the top few tiers of semi-professional units.

Leaders are technically appointed by higher leaders, but in practice appointments are a negotiation between the higher leader and those to be lead. At the highest levels personal arcane might matters as well.

Questions 104: How have the imperials been able to increase their numbers so rapidly? What effects has it had on their society? Are subject peoples becoming imperials, or are they kept mostly separate?