/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Deities, divinity, demi-gods, and devils edition.

On designing cultures:
frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir's_Ethnographical_Questionnaire

Random name/terrain/stat generators:
donjon.bin.sh/

Mapmaking tutorials:
cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

Free HTML5-based mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com

Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
sacred-texts.com/index.htm

Conlanging:
zompist.com/resources/

Random (but useful) Links:
futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
military-sf.com/
fantasynamegenerators.com/
donjon.bin.sh/
eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources

/wbg/ discord: discord.gg/K3EzE

>Three starter questions
1. What are the major religions of your settings?
2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=fkNV-0O1ya8
youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTsFe1PVs
youtube.com/watch?v=aFkcAH-m9W0
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Think it would be too far fetched for space travelers to listen to the song the highwaymen?

Want a member of my archeology/salvage crew to listen to the classic but don't want to pull the reader out of it.

Song of the Highwayman? I assume you're NOT talking about: youtube.com/watch?v=fkNV-0O1ya8

I don't entirely see why not though, especially if it's an archaeology crew who would be interested in listening to old shit. Any song that's been able to be actually recorded may well survive to such a date and age.

on the note of old-as-fuck music, here's how some people think the Epic of Gilgamesh was meant to be presented: youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTsFe1PVs

Namely with musical accompaniment.

youtube.com/watch?v=aFkcAH-m9W0

Meant that.

Well, thank you for enlightening me to this beautiful song.

Either way, point stands I don't see why an archeologist sort wouldn't have ended up hearing the song and picking it up.

Little things like that, at least in my opinion, can help a sci-fi set in our future feel a bit more tied to the reader.

But don't take my word on it, I'm not a paragon of good taste.

Glad I you like it user. Thanks for the help by the way.

>1. What are the major religions of your settings?
Religious affiliation of those who matter is split between monotheists, who worship a god who allegedly created the world but was never heard from again and pagans - loose category for people who worship petty, but very real gods. Monotheists bank on promises of rebuilding the world into garden of eden as well as paint pagans as toying with forces they do not control.
>2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
So far there's one definitive tale I have, it's called Reign of the Wolf King. It most definitely happened, but certain details are uncertain beside general message of not trusting witches.
>3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
The big god, aka The Progenitor is not heard from. Allegedly, he created everything. Pagans believe he left the world on his own accord and Monotheists believe he was either tricked of forced and can't return unless lesser gods and spirits are purged. Gods are linked with tribes and nations and give people favours in exchange for sacrifices, but worshipping them is dangerous, if something happens to them, it will reflect on their followers. Spirits have more defined personality and tend to aid people they like, regardless of how people themselves feel.

>Either way, point stands I don't see why an archeologist sort wouldn't have ended up hearing the song and picking it up.
Archeologists do not need to be. We can listen to classical music without their help.

> What are the major religions of your settings?
The main two are not!Greco-Roman, and paganism.
> What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
I haven't really worked on that at all. The pagan religions tend to be more correct in their mythology.
> How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
Actuality or perceived?
Actually, not a whole bunch. They do grant miracles and such, but actual interaction wise very little is actually done.
On the perceived side, everything is an act of one of the gods.

>The reign of the wolf king

Don't suppose you've written this down. That's definitely the sort of thing I'd hear in a game and immediately want to know more.

Hm, I suppose that's true too. But do we really have a lot of samples of actually ancient (and not just very old) music to listen to? I mean as I recall, we only have rough ideas of music from the middle ages, and honestly are just taking more shots in the dark and inferences the further back we go from there.

So, what exactly do you mean by pagan? Animal and spirit worship, or just less-than-mainstream deities?

1. The old gods (mostly not gods at all) The Dragon Gods (think Aztec) The New gods (mostly mortal or half mortals who have reached divinity)

2. Too many to write about here, most are based on historical events. One is about the First of the new gods who became the new god of magic and freed the slaves of the wizards.

3. Fate died 30 years ago and with him all the rules about how The Powerful interact with the world has changed. The divines will be more active, but they do not yet know how to do everything.

>Don't suppose you've written this down. That's definitely the sort of thing I'd hear in a game and immediately want to know more.
I made a greentext some time ago, but I didn't save it.

This is a tale about a king who was losing war. And desperate he asked a witch for help, even though he insulted her earlier. Witch promised to make him "like a wolf three times over" which is a very odd thing to promise, but he didn't listen and made himself a werewolf anyway thinking it would give him ferocity of three wolves or something. Turns out it was three different ways to look at wolf - first he was a fearsome hunter, but his bloodlust turned him into a savage beast who turned on his own people, and this in turn made him a dangerous pest that was hunted and killed.

>Hm, I suppose that's true too. But do we really have a lot of samples of actually ancient (and not just very old) music to listen to? I mean as I recall, we only have rough ideas of music from the middle ages, and honestly are just taking more shots in the dark and inferences the further back we go from there.
We didn't have audio recordings until recently. And writing down music is also fairly new on a cosmic scale, I think. Now we have whole digital libraries of all the music everywhere and as long as we don't suffer some kind of digital collapse, future generations will have all the audios our generation created. The only question is, what music will stand the test of time.

By pagan I mean nature spirit worship. Imagine the religion elves would have if they had a religion. (actually elven paganism is one of my largest branches of paganism)

>1. What are the major religions of your settings?
By numbers, Desw state religion, maintained by their secret demigod emperor. They are actually only species that directly reincarnate thanks to its influence.
Then there are the usual, Sun-worship, abrahimic god of sort, philosophy-religions, paganistic spirit-worship, etc.
>2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
Ex. for creation myth, plenty exists, but nearly everyone is wrong. It is forbidden knowledge.
Of course, there are made-up myths and legends.
>3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
With 10 ft. pole. Life and true divinity is really incompatible, and lot of gods know this. They barely enter the material realm for these reasons, and usually just act through their mediums ( high-priests, miracles etc. )

Well, people listen to classical music or other old music ( 1920-1930s ), still. I mean, depending on how far in the future it is, the databases containing music still might be online, and I don't think the tastes will change that much...

1. What are the major religions of your settings?
There are countless minor religions, and only a few "large-scale" major religions. Ancestor worship is very common in the east, and most Elves practice some manner of spiritualism, druidism, or shamanism.

As for organized religions; the Dwarven "Forge God" religion ties in heavily with the structuring of their society, with Paladins acting as state military and religious officials participating in the High King's council.
Likewise, there's a Theocracy on the south-west corner of the continent that worships the father of modern spellcraft, who helped to free humanity from slavery.

2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
Most legends are old stories from the great war. "How accurate" they are depends on who you ask; if you ask the Emperor or any of the remaining Dragons you'll get a first-hand account, while most Beastmen storytellers have warped the stories through the generations.

3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
The Creator has meddled a few times, each time uplifting a species of intelligent life. Apart from that, most of the Demi-Gods that were around since creation life on islands or continents far away from "civilization". Two of the Dragon Lords having a dispute is what caused the Great War, so they haven't been completely innocent.

Damn, that kind of sucks. Sounds like all he became known for was being a werewolf when that didn't even happen until the tail end of things. no pun intended.

>The only question is, what music will stand the test of time.
>That strange feel when one thousand years from now, archeologists will think ALL of Weird Al's discography is original music and miss half the fun of them being parodies.

I think even Al would be sad. Then again, given how he looks younger now than when my parents listened to him, he'll probably still be around.

this sounds pretty interesting, written up any tenants of the various religions?

>Religious affiliation of those who matter is split between monotheists, who worship a god who allegedly created the world but was never heard from again and pagans - loose category for people who worship petty, but very real gods.

The pagans have magic/divine backing right? How are the monotheists competing?

Nice. I really like the idea that organized religions are a very rare thing. I would really like to design a world without dominant religions. Everyone is worshiping their own ancestors/gods and sects that gain to much of a following are considered dangerous.

Forge God religious practices revolve heavily around mining and craft. Miners have a union that has a say in the High King's council, and Stonghold politics focus on agreements and political marriages between old craftsman families.
As for tenets; mostly loyalty to kin and comrades, safeguarding home (ie: the stronghold), and maintaining a harmonious existence with the other "civil" folks.

Continuing from here, since the system decided to post it early: The Theocracy is the other major source of Clerics, training their priests in basic spellcasting and medical care (ie: applied healing magic).

Technically speaking, all the "widespread" religions (Forge God, Olden Mage, Springmother) are just worshiping the Creator in some form or another. Two of them are because the worshiping race was "uplifted" for their accomplishments, and the third was "sort this out yourselves, my children" meddling.

I picture my eastern Beastman ancestor worship as something like pic related. Helps that ghosts are actually a thing in-setting

I once toyed with the idea of a cosmic/divine mechanism that prevents large scale religions. The more followers a god has the more transcendent/not involved in the world he becomes (or he has so much power that every interaction with the world has REALLY bad consequences). So your village ancestors can help you with a plague that kills the raiders. The city god brings good weather for the traders (sometimes at least) and every god above that is basically powerless. Or if gods become to powerful people see them as mad/evil because the plague also kills their own people or the god weather is now a 3 year drought.

I wanted my setting to lack exterior forces as much as possible. Power levels are designed to be strict, in order to help keep things logical and consistent.

Having Little Timmy Soulsapper being able to summon a demonic hellbeast that is far more powerful than him doesn't fit too well. Having said hellbeast be both weaker than him and be a manifestation of his mental image of a "demonic hellbeast" fits a lot better. Also gives an excuse for most summoned demons and devils to look Orcish or Goblinoid, while angels appear Elvish or Dwarvish. In particular: the Theocracy often uses imagery of Cherubs, which are just a religious-flavored representation of a common Fae spirit.

How do you guys organize your setting notes? Do you just make it all separate files on each individual aspect, such as religions, locations, historical figures, etcetera? I am horribly unorganized when it comes to world building, so now that I'm picking up an old project and my notes are so scattered, I'm hoping to find a better method to keep things straight.

last thread went kaputz.

What's a good name for an italy/latin like region? I wanted something like Itanera or Itanerum, but they sound too on the nose(and dont roll off the tongue nicely, I find)

Here is world map(so far. the further the timeline goes on, there will be an asia-like continent beyond the mountains of the east)with basic major region names. They'll all have other regions within them, probably around half a dozen to a dozen other regions.

>1. What are the major religions of your settings?
The Diaspora, the complete listing of every god, spirit, angel, demon, and whatever else the humans worship. Within it are the various pantheons which cover each region of the world.
Ashurism, a pantheon of dragons and dragon people worshiped by the Tohmbahamit (dragonborn).
Tuatha Dé, the pantheon of Elven gods that arose when the Elves came from First World.
Toragism, the dwarven pantheon headed by Torag
The Ilk Qəbilə, the gnoll gods who are called the First Tribe
And like 6 others I've only barely conceived of, let alone given them names.

>2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
There are many and many are true, if just the broad strokes of it. There are legends and myths for each religion, each nation, each town, and sometimes for each family. The simple mythologizing that goes on for any type of peoples.

>3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
They keep reality working, they answer the prayers of their faithful with signs and omens and subtle visions hiding in dreams, and if it must come to it, they personally call them to their palaces and homes in their respective heavens to have a chat about what the god wants.

Some gods wander the world doling out boons and banes, checking on their faithful in a more hands on approach. The traveling beggar, the chance meeting of a traveling merchant who just so happens to have what you need but wants a favor, the pale hart who stares at you with knowing eyes during a hunt, and so many more.


OneNote on windows 10. Allows me to make various pages all organized together into sections, they can have links, pictures, and it's fairly easy to manipulate. If I had a smart phone, i could add notes whenever. Used to use Zim, a linux program that did the same thing but with terrible support and an ugly interface with much fewer features.

Random fetus of an idea I had for a fantasy setting to build on, wondering how original it could possibly be, and looking for a few ideas to possibly flesh it out.

I was thinking that most "nautical" settings tend to focus on Caribbean or tropical influences, so I thought why not go in the opposite direction? So I figured up a sort of Scandinavian influenced archipelago. Thought in terms of the greater world it would be a small section of newly discovered isles, whereas the mainland continent would be mostly populated this area would be sparse and wild, with maybe only 1 or 2 major cities, but those cities being really successful due to the export of all the untapped resources. (I suppose kind of like the opposite scenario in Dishonored with the Pandyssian Continent, so already not as original in hindsight.)

Cause I'm a blatant sucker for this kind of story telling I'm thinking the backstory for the landmasses would be that they used to be whole, but were shattered due to some sort of cataclysm in the distant past, so in addition to natural resources you'd also have all sorts of archaeological ones drawing treasure seekers and entrepreneurs in, sort of like a viking wild west. Then of course, since it's an archipelago, albeit cold, there'd be all sorts of northern ocean related activities and secrets.

Thoughts, Veeky Forums?

Look up Italian/latin names, both personal names, words in general (word for angry, for potato, for rainy, for shadow, for dog, for wolf, for falcon, for son, for sun, ect), and latin place names. Combine them together.

Is this supposed to look exactly like real-world Europe?

It's heavily inspired by a map I saw in Penguin Classics' Herodotus' Histories, which in and of itself is a main source of inspiration and led me to work on my world again(I'm writing a big book that is what the histories is: a big catalogue of the world. pic related).

It's a very distorted, yet very accurate for its time, map of the world.

But yes, it's supposed to be Europe/Mediterranean/Middle East/Persia but fantasy-like.

It'll look a bit different after I'm done more, but that pic is just a slap-hazard job just to get basic geography down.

Also, how's Parivum for a name? Or Ponstrada? Or Castrada?

I don't have this kind of difficulty with other languages, but with Latin it feels like I'm just using glaringly obvious pig latin.

Like, if I did not give a fuck, I'd have probably settled on Terranum.

There are eight gods and goddesses who govern the plane and it's physical and magical aspects; they created twenty angels, each representing a mortal race, to go out and create the mortal races and be sort of a figurehead to them.

> literally the Mediterranean just hanging out right there

what's wrong with the Mediterranean in that picture?

Sure, it's a bit squished, but...

Oh, I wasn't paying attention. Thought it was a fantasy map or something where they copy pasted the Med in for reasons. Still looks like a potato though.

>1. What are the major religions of your settings?
Two nations worship the god of creation/creativity and the goddess of nature primarily. Another focuses on the god of conquest and goddess of purification. And the other one in that area pays dues to the sky god.

>2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
Most myths are based on history, but heavily exaggerated. Since there's so much tension and fighting between factions, most myths are related to war.

The most well-known one would have to be the war that occurred when the god of creation set his sights on designing a perfect sword. He'd toss the failures from his mountain palace and mortals picked them up and fell prey to the whims of the weapons. Most people with Blades became warlords, and eventually they all met in a field and slaughtered each other. Some say that one survived with the second most powerful Blade in existence and still wanders the land, but most people think of that part as a boogeyman-esque aspect that isn't true.

>3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
Depends on the god, really. Most stay pretty aloof, but three are the leaders of nations, and the death god employs mortals to do his dirty work.

I wrote it all down in a notebook, and when I went about typing the document, I made a rough outline and filled in the details with what was in the notes.

I finally got around to drawing a first general draft of what my setting's main world/planet looks like for reference and viewing pleasure.

At the moment it isn't very defined and was just meant to easily demonstrate the general climates/shape, so I wouldn't forget how the world looks and operates.

I'm facing a bigger problem though than world building:
My self-scrutiny has finally reached a boiling point and I'm just so horribly unsatisfied with how my art looks.
I just hate it.

>The pagans have magic/divine backing right? How are the monotheists competing?
Not long ago people who worship one particular god went murderously mad and destroyed an empire. This propelled a weird cult into a worldwide phenomenon.

>Damn, that kind of sucks. Sounds like all he became known for was being a werewolf when that didn't even happen until the tail end of things. no pun intended.
Before that he was known for losing about half of his kingdom. Better half, where all the good stuff was.

Holy shit user that looks good. I've had OneNote and the rest of Office for years and never used it, might now

>tfw no good map

I like how this looks user. Keep up the good stuff. :)

OK, so you got yourself some pole oceans, which evaporate and move toward equator and then rain drops onto what I think is mountains and runs down? Right?

Bump.

My setting has gods who aren't actually gods but superpowered humans. The masses believe them to be actual gods, though, not realizing that anyone can become a "god" with enough effort. Only ones who realize this are the gods themselves and top religious figures.

For those who are in the know, should they still call them gods, or give them some other name?

Unless they are all villains, I don't see why would they claim to be gods and manage to keep ascension opportunity secret. Demanding worship is kinda universal dick move.

Also, setup like this really makes me wonder, would people worship things they know for sure to exist? Semiconductors did more for humanity in 50 years than Jesus did in 2000, but nobody worship them. Could it be that people use faith to plug the unknown? Would a "god" believe in god?

>Unless they are all villains, I don't see why would they claim to be gods and manage to keep ascension opportunity secret. Demanding worship is kinda universal dick move.
This is pretty much the case. They are controlling, powerhungry cunts.

>Also, setup like this really makes me wonder, would people worship things they know for sure to exist?
If they perform miracles exorbitant enough, I think so. Say someone creates a 100 meter tree in front of your eyes, sounds like grounds for worship if the setting reflects reality.

>Would a "god" believe in god?
Sure, if they knew that they weren't actually gods themselves. They still don't know how the universe, the planet, or humans were created.

>Say someone creates a 100 meter tree in front of your eyes, sounds like grounds for worship if the setting reflects reality.
So inventing an advanced 3d printer would make me a god?

Are you equating a technology built on logical advancements with creating something from literally nothing? If you did just create a 3D printer in the palm of your hands, when there is not enough tech in universe to support that logically, yes, that would make people worship you.

Got myself in a bit of a corner here. I need some deep feelsy moment. Its back story to an npc trio the party is very close with.
>Campaign is evil (no lolrandum, just set in hextorian empire)
>Trio is cleric, fighter, wizard
>Cleric hates wizard, wizard hates cleric, fighter dosnt care about anything but being strong
>yadda yadda, they adventure together, become three prime leaders of hextorian empire
>however, the wizard has become very injured in this prequel story, alot of life drained
>Fighter has immense respect for him after this, cleric dosnt know why

What I need is: What kind of bro-tier sacrifice would would an evil wizard pull off that would leave him wounded and crippled almost, to save the lives of the others? A wizard seen as weak and blasphemous really stealing the show. I have it set so the cleric was just knocked out, but I want the events to transpire that would cause the wizard and fighter to want to keep the cleric in the dark.

Literally, they part is only now getting to the point where the npc's backstories are somewhat important., and like, half a year ago I had the fighter say in private to tell the wizard "he remembers" or somthing, and now the players are digging into a plot hook I havent planned for. Will provide any info but really, its pretty open ended.

So if one know how my tree-making works, he would not see me as a god, but someone who is not aware of my patented cellular printer (tm) would think I am? Isn't this the argument I started with?

Either way, as for your original question you asked if they should be called "gods". But are they actually different from regular wizards?

>So if one know how my tree-making works, he would not see me as a god, but someone who is not aware of my patented cellular printer (tm) would think I am?
I'm having a hard time with this sentence. I will say this: if it cannot be duplicated or explained by science, it is a miracle, and if only one person can do it, they will be worshiped.

>But are they actually different from regular wizards?
I left out a lot of details that I didn't think were pertinent to my question, but to answer this, there are no wizards. "Godhood" is essentially get really good at or knowledgeable about thing -> soul goes into overdrive -> gain drastic and infeasible control over thing.

To give a real world example, Michael Phelps would have become a "god" of swimming in this world. Whereas before, he was just stupidly good at what he did, when his soul goes into overdrive, he could cross the Atlantic in a week and stay underwater indefinitely.

So for the select few who know about this -- the gods themselves and religious leaders -- I'm not sure they'd call themselves gods, since they know they know they didn't create the world and are just as ignorant about their own creation as the average person.

>So for the select few who know about this -- the gods themselves and religious leaders -- I'm not sure they'd call themselves gods, since they know they know they didn't create the world and are just as ignorant about their own creation as the average person.
Good guys don't call themselves gods and demand, usually, if they can help it. So this is something to consider. For bad guys, actual magic powers were never a requirement.

I think unless they are all evil, you should make some kind of more PC word.

So instead of holy wars against other religions the faithful sometimes goes Rwanda and murders their neighbors when the god gets to weird/under powered?

>I think unless they are all evil, you should make some kind of more PC word.

This is a really bizarre notion that doesn't take into account that the user's world may well have a different connotation for the word "God", and similar, for the notions of "worship", "religion", and "belief".

If it's taken as granted that 20th century views of worship, Gods, and a monolithic sense of right and wrong should be applied to the setting, then certainly it may well be valid to consider such a perspective. But to rush to a conclusion that associating a word "God" to evil doesn't seem necessarily fitting, given the little amount of information we know about the setting, and even moreso, the little that we know about the individual gods.

The way he described it, to preserve the notion of their godhood, they'd need to deliberately withhold information from people about how they too might become gods.

And wanting this kind of worship is a sign of unhealthy ego.

Then again, I suppose not all god-kings were 100% evil.

>The way he described it, to preserve the notion of their godhood, they'd need to deliberately withhold information from people about how they too might become gods.

In the views of a non-omniscient entity, there are multiple situations in which the propagation of various elements of godhood - immortality, power, the presence of a domain for example - is best left limited and restricted. In the views of an omniscient entity however, the problem becomes even more complex on top of what's already been stated.

>And wanting this kind of worship is a sign of unhealthy ego.
An ego is one thing to consider for a human, and as the premise was such that the "deities" in this case are "superhumans", this is valid statement. But what's left to consider is then the mindset of such individuals, if their existence is based on the presence of worship, such that rather than mortal human based necessities, worship becomes a necessity.

In such a situation, ego no longer should be the sole consideration when analyzing such individuals.

>Then again, I suppose not all god-kings were 100% evil.
I think you need to consider what it is that makes an individual evil. Is evil a matter of mindset, or a matter of action? Is it a sequence of events, or a question of intentions? Labeling characters as "evil" or "good" without carefully considering the basis for which these terms are defined is nothing more than a generalization at best.

Overall, I don't feel like I could consider someone who grabbed power and deny it to others heroes.

Also, demanding worship is egocentric and abusive. Might not necessary be evil (in intent) but signify and nurture certain personality.

How do you Worldbuild, /wbg/?
I feel like coming up with a world, I already have some ideas, but I don't know how to put it onto paper.

I connect the dots.
>start with cool idea (usually something pretty grand/existensial in size)
>why is it like this? Make giant, key events.
>what snowballed into these events? smaller events that sum it up to this key event
>connect each plot to an event, and and thise events to a key event till you reach your conclusion

Its how I GM alot too. haveing a VERY bare bones guide like this lets you map it out, and leave it vague enough to change a key point.

Hm, good advice, thanks.
But say a company likes for your setting and wants to use it, or you die and your friends want to keep using it. What do you hand them over?
Have you written books? How are they structured?

>Overall, I don't feel like I could consider someone who grabbed power and deny it to others heroes.

But nobody has taken the perspective of considering whether these individuals are heroes. Even presumably the OP admitted they were power-hungry cunts. That part of the analysis was long settled. There is however, an inherent difference between being power-hungry and having antagonistic behavior, and being evil. It's like describing a father as inherently evil due to his alcoholic tendencies and his tendency to neglect his family.

This of course, doesn't begin to address the notion that a "hero" is not necessarily "good" or "evil".

>Also, demanding worship is egocentric and abusive. Might not necessary be evil (in intent) but signify and nurture certain personality.

There's no question about this, but again, it's a single action of the individual.

any guides for hand-drawing maps? every "hand-drawn" map guide on cartographer's guild is actually a photoshop guide

Thats when you set branches into details in a similar fashion. The key in alot of world building (i.e, things with no actual character or emotion) is to work backwards. You start with a very simple idea. Like "hey, that would be a cool moment" or "What would a world based in 6 month light, 6 month dark cycle be like?". Keep a very simple, almost day dreamish idea of what you want.

Then come the details. What lives there? Did they arrive there or did they grow their? Would things be able to inhabit naturally? Or is there a method of survival that needs to take place.

Finally when you have all the chess peices on the board: Why do the move, and where do they move to? Are the aquatic elves envious of the land dwellers? Why? Is the evil king evil because somthing happend? Or is it tradition?

Baisically: your asking your self a series of what if's that fit together.

As for business and use by others: You let them do the asking, and sometimes its better to let an outside source fill the blanks. Its a good way to break up writing habits. I GM alot so its a fair degree of making shit up on the spot. I write shit alot, usually about 200 full pages at a time, but as I go back to them I fucking hate them and they disgust me, so I keep my ideas in pnp games to keep it fluid and changing.

Ok guys, got a slightly related question to you

I know some of the ancient people believed you can change sun beams into power, I think there were some Greeks that actually had plans for entire solar cities.Sadly this is all I know

Do you know else? Who was that person that had that idea, where to get more information and how did this technology look?

Need this for a setting I'm creating

Didnt they 'recently' find that greek fire wasnt a mixture, but a mirror that pretty much had the effect of a magnifying glass on ants? Dont know much more, but yea, look up greek fire. Was something they used to burn other ships out of the water with possibly sun beams.

>Major Religions and what they believe
All of them are kind of similar due to generally stemming from the same myth/history but slightly altered.

The Norsc are Ogre Vikings so their religion is very much norse paganism but with a shinto twist. Across their islands are hundreds of shrines dedicated to the various gods and spirits, they hold quarterly gatherings of the clans to honor the gods and the fallen, and they believe that the world will end when the darkness of the sea attempts to envelop the world and wage war against the spirits of nature and of their dead heroes.

The human Midland Empire are followers of the church of the holy queen, pretty much female jesus who led men into the ancient battle against the dark and sacrificed herself to banish it. Catholic Church with a female battle pope.

The dwarf city states are loosely Greek inspired and have a similar pantheon of gods and heroes that cast down the prior dark gods and took their place under the mountains, bringing freedom to the dwarfs that were slaves. Each city state generally worships one god of the pantheon that according to myth settled those cities.

I'm working on a few others but they're not going to be added for a while.

>the founding myths
The reason they are all kind of similar is that thousands of years in the past a dark empire of magic attempted to rule the world, eventually concentrating their wills in an attempt to gain godhood until the various races of the land united to cast them down. They were defeated and cast down with their twisted creations but one is returning and hell follows with him.

this empire are the setting's elves

>How did they interact with mortals
Not at all really. I prefer to keep if they were real jor ust myths vague.

Sounds kinda How to Train Your Dragon-ish, and I can certainly dig that. What exactly would be the impetus behind the setting, though? Why would characters inhabit it, and what would they be striving for? What's the inherent conflict in the setting?

I like it, it has a crude charm to it. Art is, at its core, about conveying information, and this gets across all the information I need to know very well. As long as that much remains consistent you have nothing to worry about.

>tfw worldbuilding helped to get me out of one of my lowest-lows
>tfw purpose in life

Hey all, wanted your opinion on something
Having a cult enemy group who's whole thing is pagan beliefs and sacrifice and shit. The thing that starts the focus on them is them kidnapping and sacrificing(implied rape) of a nobleman's only daughter

Was wondering if it makes for a better atmosphere if the cult is just a cult with no actual power to their worship or if their shit actually works. Your thoughts?
To me, the actual actions of the sacrifice are a toss up between a goat demon or just a dude wearing a goat's head acting out the ritual, advice is appreciated

Is your setting low magic?

If it's not there's no reason your cultists can't actually tap into some evil shit and bring out a demon. Or a cultist dressed as the goat who is then possessed and gets some buffs.

Or just make it a guy in the mask for laffs. You I ow your setting better than any of us do. What do you think works best?

1. There are a few major religions scattered across the continent, but the two most touched on are centered around the worship of Angels or Demons, respectively. There are no true gods here.
2. I haven't really developed too many legends, yet- this will come later, probably this weekend. Angels and demons do walk the plane, though, so the legends are probably very real.

However, some of the details surrounding them are not. People will eventually have to face the facts that angels are not always good, and demons are not always evil- it's not some universal constant. In fact, an angel was an antagonist for a recent game in the less developed version of this setting. He was one of two High Archangels, and his understanding of the laws of the universe- and viewpoint on law- lead him to have the Archangel of Truth killed for consorting with a demon lord. When the Archangel of Truth reincarnated as the Archangel of Truth(which wouldn't happen to a different archangel- normally, they'd be able to pass his mantle(and domains) to another angel), the High Archangel had him killed again, and again- hoping that this would eventually return him to the cycle of reincarnation properly. Unfortunately, it didn't get too far off the ground.

3. A conflict brought both demons and angels to the world, and its resolution left them trapped in the mortal realm. So, they're stuck and forced to interact with mortals on a pretty regular basis.

The hungering mother and her three aspects.
the places we destroyed
the places we forgot
and the places we where never meant to find.

As time goes ever onward she takes each of these in turn, save for those we where never meant to find, which where always hers. The earth is in fact shrinking, although we would never know it, for every place she has taken is either long condemned and forgotten.
she consumes the world on the edge of our attention, and each place she takes is incorporated into her body, and jumbled about into a landscape of tangled ruins, ashen dwellings, and untouched vistas of nature. It is said that once can go to a place taken by her if they look hard enough where it once was on earth, and that traveling though her realm one can find many more long lost places and exit up where they once where on earth, the traveler having crossed half the planet inside a few hours. Few know of the places, fewer know of the mother herself, and none know of her true nature, that one day she will consume all the world, the jumbled mess of a landscape within her will mingle indiscriminately, and she will give birth to a world anew

bump

What's the point of posting in threads like this?

It forces you to think about aspects of your setting you might not have otherwise, and express it in a clear and concise fashion. In doing so you may realize your idea is shittier or less coherent than you imagined

Worldbuilding is an important part of dming, user.

Tierrenia. It's a poetic word for Italy.

>Ancient Greeks had plans for solar-powered cities
>Greek Fire was not an incendiary, but a death ray

I'd ask for your sources, but then again I'm trying to kick the habit of mind-altering substances.

>1. What are the major religions of your settings?
Most humans have your "generic fantasy panthenon" (I really should flesh that out some more), with some regional variation on how the gods are portrayed or what gods are more prominent.
Wood elves recognise the same gods, but their religion is more like shintoism and other animistic religions, where there are countless gods/spirits, and the ones worshiped by humans are just particularly powerful ones. Elves mostly pray to the "lesser" gods because they're less remote (the god of the forest you live in probably knows you by name, and will be obliged to help you out in return for all the times you left offering for him, while the god of all forests everywhere is too busy to notice one random mortal). They also honor the spirts of their ancestors, with particularly famous ones being outright deified.
Dwarves don't really worship gods, instead believing themselves to have spontaneously emerged fully formed from earth itself (the dwarven name for themselves literally means "sons of stone"). They're big on ancestor worship, though. When dwarves die of old age, their body turns to stone, and they store these bodies in great cryps where living dwarves may commune with the ancestor spirits inhabiting the bodies.
Dark elves officially follow the church of the Audient Void, but in practice they belong to large variety of cults and sub-cults, many of which do not see eye to eye at all, and it's only the mutual respect for the Most Exalted one that has kept their society from imploding into a clusterfuck of a religious war.

>2. What myths and legends exist in your world and how real are they?
Human nations of wester Farallon have plenty of legends about gaining their independence from the Empire, usually some variation of "charismatic folk hero inspires people to rise againt their evil slavelords". These tend to be rather embellished versions of historical events (in actuality, the Empire fell apart due to a combination of internal corruption and peasant rebillions inspired by famine). The Empire of Ta'shaar (now reduced to ruling one island off the southern coast) has been ruled by a bloodline of powerful sorcerers who according to legends descend from dragons (not true, as dragons in the setting aren't the "shapeshift into humans and fuck everything that moves" types).
Both wood elves and dark elves tell legends of the fall of the original high elf empire: wood elf ones can be summed up as "our ancestors messed with dangerous magic and fucked up, and that's why we don't use that kind of magic", while dark elf version is far more grandiose, involving divine punishment and revelation, and forms the core of their religion's holy book. It's also for most part hilariously wrong.

>3. How much does the divinity of your setting interact with mortals?
Not much, generally. The various minor spirits worshiped by the elves interact with them a lot, but more powerful gods are very remote. Clerics can channel divine power, but you don't get a god directly interacting with their worshipers. According to legends, the gods once walked the earth and interacted with mortals, but if that is true, they haven't done it in thousands of years.

What can possibly justify space-era slavery in your eyes? How much slavering can you take before you stop believing this?

"Goes Rwanda" that's beautiful
Also not that user but I would imagine yes

war, expansion and industry justify slavery at any time

Well, but if say, you have a mine, and it's not really a mine, it's a borehole, you can throw slaves with pickaxes all you want into it, all you get is some slaves burnt in magma and no minerals whatsoever.

Give them better pickaxes

Slavery is justified as long as individual beings can be considered as possessions, and there is merit to owning individuals, whether for manpower, status, or other purposes (like food).

sex slaves, exotic pets, cheap pack mules, people whose job it is to boost their owners ego

opposite of organic farming, goods whose production has caused the maximum amount of animal suffering as prestige items

basically if you know how to build warp drives as opposed to having just found them laying around built by your absent precursor you have zero justification for manual labour save the fact that someone enjoys the continued existence of manual labour

I was always of belief that economical needs are the primary driving force behind morality. So without manpower need, I think slavery would not exist.

>I was always of belief that economical needs are the primary driving force behind morality

That's a very narrow statement to make, to associate the concept of morality primarily with the concept of an economy. But for argument's sake, let's assume that you're right, and that the essence of morals is driven by the construct of trade. In our current society, you can bring up cases in which this is true. The sex trade is an economic exchange of human individuals for garnering units of pleasure. The slave trade, arguably a superset of the sex trade, is an economic exchange of human individuals for garnering units of "humans".

But, it goes without saying that economical needs represents a driving force because in the current system the economy forms a central pillar of society. Once we move away from our society as a basis, this argument doesn't necessarily hold true anymore.

Let's take for example, a society in which humans are livestock. We harvest humans for their organs, we use them as breeding devices - whether it be for genetic experimentation, live test subjects, or for pleasure. Arguably, you could still say that this is in a sense - "manpower". But none of these are necessarily driven by an implemented "economy" - they can be, but they don't have to be. It would work just as well for an individual who simply goes and abducts or breeds humans en masse for their own purposes, without necessarily conducting trade and barter to acquire their "manpower". This is, of course, an isolated example in which the economy can be separated from the concept of morality as well as the concept of slavery.

While our society has moved away from slavery to a certain extent, there's no guarantee that an alternative society wouldn't embrace it, whether it is because of cultural values, or because there is another compelling reason to promote slavery (enforced caste systems, rigid social structures, political bias, social worth, and so forth).

It's possible to go one step further, and remove the notion of morality from the issue of slavery entirely. If we were to consider morality as a notion of "right versus wrong" behavior, then the point of separation lies in terms of the object being owned. For example, if you own a pencil, there's no necessary "moral quandary" behind it. You own it, the pencil is yours, it's a simple fact. We can elevate that to cattle then - you own a cow, how you treat the cow might be a moral issue, but the mere ownership itself isn't necessarily morally dubious.

From there we face the giant leap in comparing a human slave to a cow. In our current system this is inherently flawed comparison to make - morally speaking. But if, in this speculative society, we did make this comparison and we found it valid. Then the mere ownership of a slave isn't necessarily morally dubious anymore, no more than if you owned a cow or a pencil. Would we want to live in such a society? Probably not - but again, it's a speculative society for that reason. How the society can continue to exist is a different matter altogether, driven by a myriad of social, political, and cultural issues.

Eyy thanks man

the skeleton lords thank you for your cooperation.

Both sound like bullshit, but the death ray might have a sliver of truth considering Archimedes' Burning Glass

Archimedes death ray and Greek fire are two different things from two different times.

No shit, hence why I said "sliver" of truth. Archimedes was an Ancient Greek and he possibly had a death ray. That's it.

Okay but that's not a sliver of truth when the statement was that Greek fire WAS the death ray. That's not true in the slightest.

Look, all I said was there was a sliver of truth in there being an Ancient Greek Death Ray at all, mister specificity. Not to mention, no duh that's not a truth in the slightest, I even called it bullshit myself! Jesus man...

What part of your setting fits your aesthetic, /wbg/?

could you please rephrase the question?

What part of your setting conforms to your ideal of a beautiful vista?

Not that guy, but I personally find many natural settings beautiful. From swamps, plains, mountains, forests, jungles, oceans, coasts and so forth.

As for my personal favorite though? I would say a foggy gray hilly expense, though it may be colorless there is great grass underneath and sheep roaming. Farms and villages exist around every hill and corner, and somewhere is a massive city with great cathedral bells you can hear before you see it, just over the horizon.

Also not the other person.
All of my setting is beautiful in its own unique way. From the vast wind swept desert to the all but ghost towns, to the ruins and dungeons. From the high mountains that house the dwarven mines to the sea of death and it's eldritch creatures. All is beautiful.