Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[Flyndaran]

I don't see it as an unavoidable danger. Just because they set up a nature preserve for Earth, does not mean they really care about the goings on.
So they set up a simple monitoring system? That could be the equivalent of setting out an automatic food and water dish for local stray cats. You could easily miss signs that some cat accidentally left a note book nearby.

As to them also existing in other timelines, that seems quite the odd presumption. There are many realities where humans never evolved. Perhaps these aliens are even more unlikely. Or their existence is unlikely assuming realities where humans are likely. Or they just never advanced so far technologically.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't see it as an unavoidable danger. Just because they set up a nature preserve for Earth, does not mean they really care about the goings on.
So they set up a simple monitoring system? That could be the equivalent of setting out an automatic food and water dish for local stray cats. You could easily miss signs that some cat accidentally left a note book nearby.

As to them also existing in other timelines, that seems quite the odd presumption. There are many realities where humans never evolved. Perhaps these aliens are even more unlikely. Or their existence is unlikely assuming realities where humans are likely. Or they just never advanced so far technologically.

Because humans don't like the idea of being prisoners. Knowledge that the prison exists makes it intolerable.

But what makes it worse is why is it there in the first place. To protect humanity from the fallout of their industry? The alien's actions toward Earth might not even have anything to do with humanity. They might want to preserve the biosphere, or be studying the corals. Or they're preserving it as the main dish in a celebration feast when they're done with their real project.

It's not that they might exist in other realities, it's that if they get hold of a working conveyor they definitely will back-engineer it between breakfast and brunch. Then these beings - who dismantle inhabited solar systems - will have access to the multiverse.

The Shell-Builders are alien. Their power is godlike, and their objectives and intentions are unguessable and unknowable. They cannot be opposed, like a bulldozer running over an anthill. That is what Infinity fears.

At the same time, the temptation of their ultra-tech is immense ... their equivalent of a throwaway food wrapper might transform one or more sciences entirely.

[David Johnston2]

Yeah but ultimately that's just one of the parallels that people create just to imagine Homeline wetting themselves. There's no actual gameplay potential in it.

Alexandria.

A blatantly artificial universe, it appears to have been created for the purpose of storing some vastly powerful entity's ever-growing book collection. No living being with the possible exception of the Chief Librarian has knowingly ever encountered Alexandria's Owner, but Alexandria is a High Sanctity area for it's staff, who know a variety of book-themed spells including one that lets them open a portal to any most places described or depicted in a book. Sometimes those portals lead to myth parallels but usually they just lead to those places in the world where the book was written and drawn regardless of whether the events described there are fictional. These portals are the means by which the Alexandrian agents are dispatched to seek out new acquisitions.

Alexandria itself is a seemingly endless temperature-controlled maze lined with book shelves that sometimes rotate to reveal cramped "secret" passages. It is furnished with comfortable reading chairs and tables in the public areas, while staff offices are equipped with couches or bunks that look like comfortably fleece lined oversized book shelves.

Alexandria is not a lending library. Visitors may read and copy but the books may not leave the collections and the Agents of Alexandria will reliably hunt down those who break that rule. And it is virtually impossible for a visitor to find a specific book they are looking for without the help of a staff member, staff members being armed with the Seek Book spell. Nor is it entirely safe to just randomly read books of the Alexandrian collection. the Owner has a certain fondness for books that need to be handled with care lest they drive the unwary reader mad, burn their eyes out, curse them with dire prophetic visions, or simply fascinate them to the point they continue reading until they collapse from failure to take care of their bodily needs.

[Flyndaran]

And now we have a world to make The Cabal wet themselves... from salivation. ;)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Because humans don't like the idea of being prisoners. Knowledge that the prison exists makes it intolerable.
... (snip)

The Shell-Builders are alien. Their power is godlike, and their objectives and intentions are unguessable and unknowable. They cannot be opposed, like a bulldozer running over an anthill. That is what Infinity fears.

At the same time, the temptation of their ultra-tech is immense ... their equivalent of a throwaway food wrapper might transform one or more sciences entirely.

I don't quite see it as a prison. The natives aren't anywhere near up to modern tech were the shell would even matter a little.

The builders are unknown. They could be alien, they could be Earth evolved or even a strangely advanced from of human keeping primitive humans as some reservoir for some unknown reason.

They're not more existentially dangerous than countless other world lines with actual gods or Lovecraftian universe destroying monstrosities. If anything, possibly greatly less so as most such super tech works only in its native parallel.

I get the greed of some Homeliners, but it sounds kind of dumb. No group of caveman geniuses could possibly learn anything from our litter. These builders are just too many TLs above "us" to matter, IMO.

Of course, one could have an adventure of rapidly and covertly capturing such greedy nitwits before they create a scene.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I get the greed of some Homeliners, but it sounds kind of dumb. No group of caveman geniuses could possibly learn anything from our litter. These builders are just too many TLs above "us" to matter, IMO.

I didn't say it was logical, I said it's what people woukld do. People have been doing stupid things for centuries.

Of course, one could have an adventure of rapidly and covertly capturing such greedy nitwits before they create a scene.

Actually I was thinking the same thing. I had pictured idiots trying to build a rocket in an 18th century world covertly, then launching it at the impenetrable shell with a nuke payload. And their surprise as they were discovered by ... well, everyone and their blind dog.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

I didn't say it was logical, I said it's what people woukld do. People have been doing stupid things for centuries.

Actually I was thinking the same thing. I had pictured idiots trying to build a rocket in an 18th century world covertly, then launching it at the impenetrable shell with a nuke payload. And their surprise as they were discovered by ... well, everyone and their blind dog.

... wouldn't they try to just do a cross-timeline jump from, say, outside lunar orbit first?

[Dalillama]

Ark In this parallel (present year 1000), the sea level is just under one mile higher than on Homeline. A few major mountain ranges form island chains and contain what's left of terrestrial life, including a few scattered TL0 human communities. There is no clear reason why this is the case, but every surviving culture agrees that ages ago the waters rose during a years-long storm, during which their ancestors fled to the highest ground they could, and when the clouds receded the waters didn't. It's generally agreed that this represents some kind of divine punishment, but each island has their own idea of what for.

[David Johnston2]

Merlin-5 is a setting where starting at the end of World War II mana levels began to increase world wide until by the 1960s much of the world had higher than very high mana. Mundane life simply ceased to exist on the surface since all of it was giving birth to magical mutants. However humanity and certain animals they brought with them survived on the aerial islands which float at a height that keeps the mana at merely "High". There they survive on magically conjured and grown foot.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

There is no clear reason why this is the case, but every surviving culture agrees that ages ago the waters rose during a years-long storm, during which their ancestors fled to the highest ground they could, and when the clouds receded the waters didn't. It's generally agreed that this represents some kind of divine punishment, but each island has their own idea of what for.

This has a common issue with weird parallels it's often helpful to watch out for - that of the locals paying too much attention to the thing that makes is weird for visitors. Something that happened "ages ago" isn't going to be remembered by most small TL0 cultures - "We've lived here since the creation of the world. Why is this an island? That's a weird question it's *always* been an island." Sure some of them may have flood myths of some sort, but all of them do, consider them significant enough to mention them to visitors, and even agree on a cause? Not happening.

Sure if a world is only going to be a setting for an evening's adventure you can't make the "mystery" too deep or the change point or cool bit of history or whatever too obscure or the players won't even notice it. But if you are going to use a setting for more than a one shot it's better to try for a little more verisimilitude in what the locals know or care about. Sure the players automatically consider the change point the most important event in the history of any world they are visiting, but the locals almost never should.

Edit: I also feel it would benefit from having something that would actually draw the PCs here. Stone age bands on very limited amounts of land probably don't have much to trade for and with the flood being long ago and no evidence the world was very remarkable before it, there doesn't seem to be much draw for salvaging anything, or even underwater archaeology, and presumably nobody is very interested in finding a way to draw down an equivalent divine curse. A recent enough event for there to be human stories doesn't allow for much biological change that might provide unique products or attract biologists - though I suppose a widespread legend of giant metallic golden sea dragons or something could draw somebody to look into it no matter how unlikely it seemed. But some prespecified reason to go there, even if it's only the beach resort being built as a side jaunt for skiers visiting Aspen Colorado, makes it a lot easier to drop into a campaign.