How would your typical low magic setting (lets say for the sake of explanation only potions are magic or similar) would change if people had nine lives like cats?
Lets assume each person who is born is born with a number of horns symbolizing how many lived they've lived up to having a crown of 9 horns. Let's also assume that most if not all people can meditate on their past lives after reaching maturity to tap into their past skillsets and knowledges in a simple way such as remembering geological areas and how to weild certain weapons.
I see people on their first life being seen as very unskilled even into old age. People who had lost their first few lives early would be jaded as shit. I feel like people would have as many children as possible to try to have a 9th gen soul be born into their family. I feel like families of 9th gen would look down on 1st gen souls and despise those of new souls born into their family. This might even make a caste system where the 9th souls gather to lead the people.
Furthermore let's assume that the soul weakens every time you die, but is more educated and refined. That's why you only live 9 lives, your soul just can't take more than that. If the soul was refined and educated enough to leave the host body a little bit near the later lives, then as long as you have a material that can interact with the soul you now have a means of making prosthetics for old souls. Perhaps an empty shell of an arm or something with a "soul adhesive" on the inside to keep the soul in. Perhaps people who have had near death experiences have more outward souls that are less tied to the body. This would make for easier prosthesis for those who have lost body parts as well even if they are low gen souls as long as they have had a near death experience.
What does this all make you think and come up with fa/tg/uy?
>Lets assume each person who is born is born with a number of horns symbolizing how many lived they've lived up to having a crown of 9 horns.
I don't like this.
I think it should be more like "wow, that stab wound should have killed you... but it looks like it didn't even touch your skin?"
People would be more cautious fighting because you wouldn't know if the guy you're fighting was on Extra Life x0 or Extra Life x8. Or maybe instead of being more cautious, warfare would have evolved to massive overkill tactics.
Noah Adams
So you'd prefer people work off of FMA : Brotherhood Homunculus lives? That would kind of ruin the entire premise of getting visions of your previous life. You make it sound like you would just get back up. I feel like your idea works very well for something based heavily on combat, but I don't think it would come off as relateable or anything. To add to that, people on their 9th life would be cowards and terrified of dying probably. They would be seen as frail and one foot in the grave.
Zachary Hall
Let's assume it's not a bait in the first place
Wyatt Phillips
While more than 50% of threads on Veeky Forums are bait, this thread doesn't seem to be bait.
Maybe if I was a weeb I would know better?
Evan Taylor
>To add to that, people on their 9th life would be cowards and terrified of dying probably. They would be seen as frail and one foot in the grave. They have already died eight times, what would be so frightening about ending the suffering of the mortal coil?
Elijah Davis
>Let's assume it's not a bait in the first place Veeky Forums is nothing but generals and bait nowadays.
Michael Flores
I am intrigued by this as a concept, OP. Can you clarify something first, though?
These two anons seem to believe that a soul, after its first death, revives in it's same body. Whereas I pictured it as more of a reincarnation, not necessarily immediate; somewhere down the line, a child is born with 8 horns, indicating a previous life, already spent. Not just getting up from a mortal wound and losing a horn like a baby tooth.
This brings to mind several concepts and questions:
>how are new, "virginal", 9-lives souls created? What are the conditions that cause this? Is there a saturation point in which new souls can no longer be created, and everyone is a trickled-down version of an earlier self?
>souls with less than 9 horns, going on pilgrimages/spiritual journeys to discover their past selves seems like it would almost be a rite of passage/coming of age event, in many societies
I definitely see some societys organizing themselves into castes, based on remaining lives and their experience/wisdom. I see the youngest castes being conscripted into military service, with this becoming less common in later lives.
Definitely a fun thought experiment.
Jose Reyes
Can y'all not read The dude had a whole section about families trying to have a child with 9 horns, because that would indicate a soul that's been through 8 previous lives. You die all right, and you're born again somewhere else.
Austin Green
Yeah, I said I didn't think OP's idea was very good, and then I posted an idea that I liked more. This shouldn't be a hard concept.
Asher Wood
desu your idea is kind of boring. The implications of OP's idea are far reaching on a societal level. Your suggestion ultimately boils down to 'humans but they die less.'
There's room for expansion there but it's not nearly as flexible as the suggestion in the OP.
Benjamin Mitchell
Off the top of my head, high ranking military officials would probably all be several lives into their existence, with the field experience in past lives informing their decisions and favored strategies.
I'm torn between the ideas of this causing very strict conservatism or runaway innovation. A single contiguous existence seems like it would breed very old habits in people but your mention of rebirth and having to deliberately recall old lives makes me think that probably isn't the case. Since the soul has to start a new life all over again before they're able to remember old info, you probably wind up with a very useful mix of grounded context for old practices and fresh perspective for making necessary changes. They'd probably wind up with a relatively advanced society pretty quickly, since the oldest members would have a knowledge base accumulated over multiple centuries.
Ayden Nelson
I meddled with reincarnation for a campaign I never got around to fleshing out. Since I subscribe to the Great man theory of history I thought it would be cool to have this sect of people,called Historians, who specifically looked for the reincarnations of great men; either to kill or protect them. For example a Historian would study the mannerisms and behavior of Alexander the Great so that he could be found and brought up to bring Greece into another great age.
Carter Richardson
I think you'd need some kind of merit thing in there, and a rate of new soul births, otherwise why would 9 horns be rare?
Isaiah Bennett
>Veeky Forums is nothing but generals and bait nowadays. FTFY
Hunter Flores
There'd be a lot of people looking for the people they knew in their past lives, I think.
Connor Turner
Four things.
1) A common saying would be, "What are you afraid of? You have [X] lives behind you!" To which the proper deprecating remark would be, "And all [X] of them ended."
2) Court intrigue could be something like, "This 9-horned family is breeding 1-horned again. Looks like they've run out of lives [to remember]. Will they be pushed out of circles now that they can no longer recall past lives?"
3) Fake horns for satire. "Look at me! Look at me! Look at all the dozens of horns I have! I shall remember all things that were and lead you all to the lands of honey and honeycombs!" "But how can you lead when your horns bend your head so close to your toes?"
4) The prosthetic system. Would surgery branch off to include inducing near-deaths so as to allow prosthetics to be attached? i.e. Your leg fell off a gangrenous wound. So now you need to inhale a half-measure of ether and be smothered in order allow enough of your soul to escape so we can attach a false limb to the trailing edges. Might cause you to lose your horns though.
4.b) New and involved ways of torture where the person is kept on the threshold of death and life, having new phantom limbs added to torture when the natural ones have run out.
And that's not going into the whole new slang and idioms that will arise.
Nicholas Gray
Makes me think of nothing. It's an extremely lame concept that does no exploration of humanity that couldn't be done without the concept.
It's different for the sake of different. Something slapped onto a setting for no other reason than to be slapped onto a setting, demanding to be dealt with by its sheer existence without providing anything on its own. Literal cancer.
Cooper Jones
I don't know if it was ever translated into english, but there was a Russian fantasy novel with such premise. It was weird, but pretty good. lib.ru/OLDI/oldie.txt >"4. "LIVE FOR THE LAST TIME" (short novel, about 25.000 words, 1991.) >The action of the novel unfolds in the world inhabited by the Ninefold-Living people and the vampires ("varks"). The principal hero is a boy who was born "a cripple" (from the point of view of people surrounding him) -- he lives only once ("for the last time"), which means that he can't return to life after death."
Brody Kelly
Cats would kidnap people and murder them to try to make a powerful elixir out of their blood
Brandon Flores
This would be neat because you'd also have a guy who thinks he's still got all 9 when he's down to his last man.
Kayden Campbell
>bait Literally how
Oliver Taylor
OP HERE Sorry I was gone so long. I'm phoneposting though so it will take me a while to post Dying the final death is scary business m8 >how are new souls created By god I would imagine. There probably is a number for the safety of humanities sake, but I doubt it will ever be a problem unless the gm wants it to be. >souls with less than 9 horns would go on pilgrimage I believe you mean souls with more than one horn, and you might be right depending on if someone could pinpoint where they used to live. It might help to rediscover some of their lost talent from dying. >caste and military for younger gen souls I could definitely see this
>very fast development I would imagine this is true. If you worked 3 lives as a carpenter, your ability to change and adapt carpentry based on your 3rd or 2nd life would probably be astounding. My wife thought about this but in a worse sense. What about a serial murderer who really gets off on killing the same few people over and over again? I don't imagine it would be exceedingly rare. Just something everyone has to deal with. You got a 1 in 9 shot when you're born essentially.
John Sanders
Why? They would be entirely different people the next time they meet. Though if you want to be a romantic about it I could see plenty of people recovering their past life's will to find their lover after death. But nurture would change these people into entirely different people with each death. 1) yes yes yes yes yes 2) they could always breed more children. I doubt it would be that big of a deal 3)I could see children doing this very easily. That and jackass court jesters 4)Maybe. But if you lose a limb that is usually a near death experience anyways. Dat rite? Ancient Magus Bride?
Blake Torres
Yep, I was unable to reply anything other than that since I just watched that episode last night.
Logan Robinson
You like it? I'm a big fan of it myself. Way better than the OVA. I'm really interested to find more out about the villain and Ellias. 7/10 so far. Is good.
Carson Barnes
A caste system in a world like that would be a big problem, because do you know what that would lead people into? Mass suicide and baby killing during their first lives. Which kind of makes the whole notion of a caste system based on skills gained on a longer lifespan moot.
Imagine there's a caste system. Would you spend 300-400 years living as a shit-poor peasant if you know that dying a few times guarantees that you get a good 100-200 years down the line, on lives 6-9?
If you were a technically only 150-year (but this can't be seen anywhere) old 9-horner (compared to some 500-year olds), do you think anyone but another 9-horner has any right in saying that you are actually shit at what you're doing? Even if some 8 or 7-horner has actually lived longer than you in total, they have no power to criticize you.
Nathaniel Martin
prophets would have a lot harder time justifying their visions as from god and not a past life. Probably would need to be hornless as a requirement.
I'm not too keen on 9, that seems like quite a lot. Maybe 9 is the absolute limit, and most souls die out at 4 or 5, requiring a mysterious something to "live" for longer. Fanatics would go around trying to reach ever more lives.
What does it mean to break a horn, or cut it off?
Kevin Lewis
They might not have power to criticize but you will certainly be seen as inferior on your limited skillset. I would imagine most later gen souls wear their old names and lives like badges of honor, proudly displaying their hard work and sacrifice for all to see. Perhaps in this society you would ritualistically tattoo your past names on your body as a sign of passion for all of your hard work? Suicide then becomes moot and just as shamed. Though nobles killing babies I could see. It would be a lot like slaves trying to become free men. One-horners would want to be seen as "the hard working nigger" on the plantation for their first life before they die. That way they can say they "deserve" the life they have now. Suffering would probably be seen as a virtue in this world.
Henry King
9 is just for the cat folklore. I don't think it would be too many depending on life expectancy. Breaking a horn would probably be a sign of turning your back on a past self's life as a thief or scoundrel.
Jayden Robinson
Problem is, what's stopping you from lying about your ancestry? What if you just knew a shit-ton about some really important person and just pretend that you're their next incarnation? There's literally nothing stopping you from doing that.
And people are expertly bad at evaluating the expertise of other people, and their own. 60% or so of professional programmers think that they're in the top 5%.
Say that there's a legendary one-horner who beat some 8-horner in a swordfighting duel, fair and square. Real tough shit. And then they die.
There would be loads of 2-horners in the coming years trying to pass off as that duelists' next incarnation. And even if you tried to weed them out by trying their hand at dueling, what if there's three people who are excellent duelists?
Caste system based on skill doesn't work because hacking the system is possible.
Jaxson Rodriguez
What the fuck is your definition of bait to find this bait?
Samuel Wilson
I feel like family records would be handled by government like in Japan. This happened a lot in real life too. Plenty of people went around saying they were people they weren't. In the case of this 1 horn guy who is really famous, it would be a kid's dream to be that guy's reincarnation but they would also have to abandon whatever life they DID actually live when they realize it too. It can't be that easy to throw a part of yourself away.
Evan Bennett
Hacking the system is possible but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I think that hacking the system would be seen as a serious crime and would leave a stain on your next lives. I think that evaluating people would be done at a very young age to try to prevent this.
Caleb Lopez
Yea, I feel like being caught lying about that might be punishable by death.
Samuel Myers
Punishable by death? Well, you know what people do 8 times before actually dying? Die.
And if you die punished by death you go up in the caste, so it wouldn't make sense as a punishment. "We're punishing you so... You can be of higher caste next time".
This place should definitely not have capital punishment. Unless you want to make it super dysfunctional.
Luis Nguyen
Here's a little twist to get around life-skipping caste manipulation tricks: A horn's appearance depends on the length and fullness/quality/fulfillment lead by that life. So we'd have great, accomplished folk with distinguished, ringed and shiny crowns, people who've had some good and some shit lives, and then wastes of the air they breathed who've only lived lame lives.
Makes wanting a kid with good horns instead of more horns a thing.
Jaxson Adams
Oh, that's a cool concept.
I can still imagine nobles getting quite into baby-killing though, but that's the kind of horrible shit nobles do.
Eli Gonzalez
One if your last lives would be a stain. He may be of higher caste, but he would be the lowest part if that caste.
Evan Mitchell
This is a really good idea. Maybe the souls of others react to the souls of those that they highly respect. That in turn makes those souls react and grow bigger horns. You could fluff it as "people who are respected have their souls reach OUT to more and more people. This action of the soul trying to leave the body and reach out to others stretches the skin and bone on the head making a horn."
Brody Lopez
Or do you keep the one horn babies because they have a chance of adding yet another 9 lives of greatness to your legacy. Imagine if you lived your first life in royalty. It might far outweigh the benefits of killing them. Another question that arises is what if a great dead noble from one house is born into another one when he resurrects. Do the houses merge?
Evan Wright
Tiny Horn : Short Life Horn with No Detail : Uninteresting or Unrespected Life Horn with Many Rings : Life Spent Close to Others who Respected the Person Horn with Many Colors : Life With Many Experiences Skin Tone Horn : Uneventful Life Length of Horn is (Number of Years Lived In that Life X 3 Millimeters)
Alexander Gutierrez
I can't immerse myself into this not knowing how people "respawn" or use up lives. If someone explodes in an explosion, dies in a house fire or gets decapitated, what happens?
Jeremiah Cox
I am leaning towards all these horns and false limbs and past lives, all being the result of one specific phenomenon. That of the Soul seeking to leave this mortal coil.
You could build the low-magic based on how everyone has a soul that can extend out of their meat shells. Anyone can concentrate and "build" a hand that exists farther away from their "real" hand. But only ascetics can learn to move their Soul outside their body whilst running the risk of dying prematurely as the link between soul and body is severed or really, really dedicated swordsmen can learn how to use the second notch in their swords with their "second hands" to hit harder and pull off other sorts of maneuvers.
>Tiny Horn : Short Life How about >Nubs that don't pierce the skin : Died in childhood
Austin Parker
They just reincarnate with normal reincarnation rules. Why are so many people confuses by this?
Grayson Lopez
A nub that won't pierce the skin should be a stillbirth.
Joshua Martin
Cults who kill babies to skip ahead a horn in a desperate search for power or in a way to better humanity. Could have families of 9-horns kill any child that isn't. A kind of ceremony for when people come of age to learn the skills of their old life. Maybe it's painful to have all that lifetime of knowledge being shot into your brain all at once and there are ceremonies leading up to it to prepare you for that point in your life. If a horn breaks or falls off or something, you lose the memories of your past lives in a way. Rebels saw down their horns so that they can be their "true selves" and not have the lasting influence of their old lives. A strange kinship between people at the end of their lives and a younger person with just one horn. Old people being visited by old friends who have been reborn as a horned kid who wanted to meet their old friends after their ceremony. How cute would it be to have a young woman come up to a man who could be her grandpa and they embrace because they both know.
