Do You Believe in Magic Edition

...

Because you searched for worldbuilding and not /wbg/

I need a magical creature that can hunt someone over the internet or wireless connection. Any ideas?

you're describing an SCP but I don't remember what number it was

>Methodology
>When making a Fantasy setting that features a magic system, do you define it? At what step of the Worldbuilding process should you think of Magic?
I normally don't define it. The only time I tried defining it, my micromanaging autism kicked in full force and I got so deep into developing arcane minutia I almost forgot about my setting. And the resulting system was boring and bland. Fuck it. Magic works as feels most "magical". I normally try to recapture the feeling of ancient legends, fairy-tales and early fantasy, where magic is primal and wondrous.
>What is the difference between Magic and Technology?
Magic is primal and wondrous, not to be understood by mortals, players, or me.
Technology is understandable, though I steer away from realism too.
>Setting Specific
>Do you have a magic system for your world?
No.
>What is the role of Magic for your world?
What do you mean? It IS.

Mah setting. WIP. Halp.

How important is it for you to obscure your inspirations?
The main human empire in my setting is largely inspired by Disciples' Nevendaar, and I still can't find a name for it that I'd like, unless it very conspicuously sounds like "Nevendaar". So I obviously want to hide that, but no different-sounding names fit, and that is driving me crazy, gah!

What are your thoughts on concave worlds?

>How important is it for you to obscure your inspirations?
once you crank something through your own creative process you shouldn't have to hide it

>Nevern D'ur

Niverend

I think you just triggered Brandon Sanderson.

I reckon OP means something like Warhammer's Winds of Magic and other in-universe explanations how magic works, not vancian vs mana

i didn't ask forname ideas, just whether to make inspiration unobvious

i'm currently stuck at Irdvinaar

Could make your own. Depending on how meta you need, it could just be a modern Troll.

So it's Destiny plus AtLA plus the Night Land plus Attack on Titan?

I decided to start a new setting to act as a backstory to my old one.
Dark Age
>No sun. The planet is just flying through space.
>Almost all races are straight from real life (Neanderthals, Giants, Midgets)
>Very down to earth in combat and magic, but overpowered shit is nerfed.

Here are the major decisions I need opinions on:
>Beautiful stars or black abyss in the sky
>Caucasian or albino majority
>Regular plants that are aided by magic or "plants" that have found some other way to live.

How about
>planet's core is a miniature sun
>plants grow inward, tunneling through the crust until they can grow their leaves in the hollow mantle where the core is
>on the surface, all that is seen are the roots, which stand in open air to absorb aether or w/e
So maybe like the plants are natural magical refineries, absorbing raw aether from the planet's air (gained as it hurtles through space), processing it, then emitting it out of its leaves into the hollow mantle. The hollow mantle is therefore stuffed to the brim with potent magical energy, occasionally causing volcano-like eruptions that fuck shit up on the surface.

I realize now this goes against your down to earth theme but maybe you can get something you like out of that.

>>When making a Fantasy setting that features a magic system, do you define it? At what step of the Worldbuilding process should you think of Magic?
Nah, magic is magic, It takes none of our known forms of physics. Its not an energy, radiation or force. It acts outside of having matter yet still does interact on an entirely symbolic or as is idea. A firball is not actually plasma but a orb of fire like, it does not consume air and will impact the target like a solid ball of matter and then eat away at them like one would expect fire to do.
>>What is the difference between Magic and Technology?
Mincing words and pish posh, using magic might take having the spirit for it but you can't do anything to remove the definition of science from it. Technology is however more defined and set in less rules of the world. There's many ways to flay a cat but magic is silly varied.
>>Do you have a magic system for your world?
I had one for witches, which was entirely hex and curse based. It was basically a list of things that described the loophole of the curse, every time they either rolled for the curse or made one up they had to make another roll or three for the loophole. It flip flopped between op to absolutely useless in tests.
>>What is the role of Magic for your world?
Too add fantastic elements,wizards are their own thing but explaining why there's fuckbeasts and mysterious shit is generally down to magic. The handwavium to end them all.

>When making a Fantasy setting that features a magic system, do you define it?

Yes. But I never go out of my way to explain it beyond the bare minimum necessary until and unless someone asks.

>At what step of the Worldbuilding process should you think of Magic?

Whenever you think is best.

>What is the difference between Magic and Technology?

I don't even understand what this is supposed to mean. In terms of methodology, there is startlingly little that I could say about magic that would not also apply to technology, and vice-versa.

>Do you have a magic system for your world?

Yes

>What is the role of Magic for your world?

Magic is everywhere, and everything is magical. Broadly, there are two supertypes for magic: that which is derived from powerful supernatural creatures whose power allows them to transcend the common sense laws of reality (which is to say, gods, spirits, demons, dragons and other somesuch), and that which is grown from one's understanding of the universe, the self and how the two relate.

>Yes. But I never go out of my way to explain it beyond the bare minimum necessary until and unless someone asks.
Well, I'm asking user.

sound cool?!

Reminder that if you do ANY of the following you need to stop posting until you learn some creativity:
>he uses elves and dwarves
>>he thinks it's ok because his elves and dwarves are stand-ins for some non-western-european cultures (e.g. his elves are not!arabs and his dwarves are not!byzantines)
>>he thinks it's ok because his elves are dwarves and/or his dwarves are elves
>>he thinks it's ok because he sticks with the tropes of elves and dwarves but "deconstructs" them
>he has a language named common that 100% of the people in his setting speak fluently
>his humans have several distinct languages and cultures but all his other races have one each
>the names for people and places in his setting are random gibberish with meaningless diacritics and apostrophes
>his "medieval" setting has modern nation-states
>more than a tiny fraction of people in his "medieval" setting are literate
>more than a tiny fraction of people in his "medieval" setting aren't subsistence farmers (or herders, fishers, etc.)
>"adventuring" is a profession in his setting
>his setting misunderstands even the most basic geography (e.g. rivers running backward)
>his setting has been stuck at the same level of technological development for millennia
>he changes his setting to fit some retarded rule of whatever system he's homebrewing for (e.g. vancian magic in D&D)
And most egregiously
>he justifies any of this with "It's fantasy bro, you can accept wizards and dragons but not this?"

yes-yes, we get it, you're oh-so-original, good boy
now crawl back into your basement

You're a fag but can't argue with the trips of truth. Be aware that someone could make a furry ERP simulator while still following all of your rules.

I'm making the races for this now, is there anything I should add (ie: any more cool genetic disorders) or cut? Should I make up names for races taken straight from genetic disorders?
Races of Mankind:
>The diligent Neanderthals who thrive in the mountains.
>The peaceful hillmen, whose heads are empty and large. (Down Syndrome)
>The cherished Midgets that serve the gods.
>The Pygmies who aimlessly and eternally wander.
>The wise Sapiens who seek the truth in this world.
>The wiry and thin people who gather souls for the moon. (Marfan Syndrome)
>The imposing Giants who rule the lands deep in the north.
>The sleeping Goliaths who lazily graze the leaves.
>The headless Blemmyes who devour their kin.
>The ailing Lepers who are kept alive only by their souls.
>The hirsute and lonesome Sasquatches of the woods.
>The strange Cyclops who keep their secrets.
>The strong, ugly men with roots for arms. (Elephantitus(?))

Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age?

>Be aware that someone could make a furry ERP simulator while still following all of your rules.
A furry ERP simulator would be capable of having an interesting setting, yes.

It it really wrong to have the same level of tech indefinitely if it's hit its cap already?

Show me your magical realm then

?

That's the last one but I need to change the description to something cooler. I'm also thinking of replacing cyclopses with black-eyed ayy lmaos.

>He uses Latin words and names

Forgot a couple
>he has half-___ in his setting
>he has ___-folk in his setting

>technology
>cap

Don't have a magical realm. I'm slowly working on a setting but so far I'm ironing out the geography (it's a flat world and I'm trying to figure out how that effects the sea) and I'm working on the languages.

This one can be ok if you're doing a Tolkienesque system where you represent each in-setting language by a culturally/historically analogous real one. Otherwise I agree, another sign of a brainlet.

What if I categorise fictional species by their scientific names?
also
>>he has half-___ in his setting
>not "is X species but inherits Y traits from the second parent"

>has the gall to call out lack of creativity
>rips off Discworld

>another 4 hours of trying to make new location markers and they are still ass

just about ready for the noose

What essentials should I include in a blurb about a god, a race, and a country?

also do you like this layout

what's wrong with technology having a cap? Lets asssume a bronze age society and there doesn't exist any signifixant iron deposits, why would they advance?

Why not both?

>do you like this layout
no.

also you can use more than two fonts.

Not to mention... how long did the bronze age last? Maybe it just hasn't ended yet, or hasn't ended for those people, or who the fuck cares it's made up.

If everything was realistic you'd just be using earth. If your world is just not!earth, why make a world?

>use more than two fonts.
*at least two fonts, rather.

How do I make medieval fantasy Nazis?

>muh superior elves

I need them to be specifically cartoonish Nazis. I'm building a cape comics style multiverse but with high fantasy rather than super heroics and there's always a Nazi universe in those.

Thanks! I prefer to use 2-3 fonts max tbqh. The God's name is its own typeface and the text is medium while the headers are bold so I count those as different fonts. Too many fonts always seems really busy to me. Maybe I'll pick something else for inside the purple 'fun fact' boxes to break it up.

I'll try the all-caps idea, thanks. I usually stick to 'lower case caps' but I think for the header it's appropriate to bring out the big guns. Oh and the 4 domains are a little bit separate. Each god has one thing and then four lesser things, so I kind of like them on different lines.

Oh and once I know exactly what it's going to say I'll be sure to fix those blank spaces, I can always add a flourish.

Thanks for the critique.

I'll do both at once by making the ayy lmaos cyclopses. I'm worried they won't have enough of a physical difference from the others so I think they'll be intelligent (Different from the Sapien's wisdom and cunning) but generally skinnyfat.
Even though that user posted a smug anime girl now that he mentioned it using latin names for everything would be pretty fucking neat.

Just doing my job.

t. graphic designer/copywriter

>walls of texts
>shitty choice in aesthetic
scrap the whole thing and start over

None of that is in my setting and I'm unironically proud of it. Good on you for rustling the uncreative hacks user.

I use greek, norse, hungarian, finnish, turkic, arabic, polish, and ukranian place names

>modern ideology based on the concept of a nation-state in a pre-industrial feudalistic society

The Nazis come from a place that isn't medieval fantasy

Thanks, I'll add the italics in the domains. That's a nice touch.

I want all the pages to be consistent and some of the names for things are longer, so it's hard to go that big on the races/countries.

I always like lingua francias and Latin is recongizable in cognates but I'm inclined to use either bastardized Akkadian, Aramaean, or Hebrew for one area, not sure what it'll be for the other. I like the easy recognition of certain words and terms of Greek but that familiarity can be too much. Conversely Luwian terms in place of hoplite or the like can be too exotic. Depends on what I can find glossaries and dictionaries for. Akkadian has stuff available but they seem to end almost every word in -u.

I actually do recommend using dead and hipster languages like those or Hittite or Luwian or the like. Gives you languages with rational and structured systems beneath the hood so the words you pull out aren't gobbledy gook bullshit yet it's obscure enough that nobody will call you out on it. I don't know how to say "They went out" in Latin, but Netsamda is "they went out" in Saka Khotanese. Cakvaka (with little symbols I am not going to type) is 'as much', gara- is mountain, kuysva is 'thrown down'. Any could work as place names, adjust to be demonyms, or even personal names.

Just avoid ' 100% full stop. It doesn't bother some readers clearly given the abundance in pulp shit but I find it so tediously common I just refuse to use it. Even - is risky, but I am liable to accept it.

I disagree with technological development freeze. I really dislike the idea that technology has to follow the progressive whig development it did in our world. Jericho got founded around 8000-6000 BC. Technology there did not drastically differ from technology 3000 years later outside of a very supplementary and top-down introduction of copper and bronze. People mistakenly think the shift was universal when stone was still commonly used well into the 2nd millenium BC. I expect this most often with the idea of gunpowder or steam or industrial revolution and there is no reason we were preordained to develop it. A setting can easily have technology of around 0AD largely stay the same for 2-3 thousand years barring minor improvements like windmills, better plows and tools and maybe some metallurgy. But it's not as if you have to go from iron age to modern in 2000 years or your setting is goofing.

You've also got the potential for reverses in technology/civilization quality - we saw civilization go backwards in India with the Harappan civilization giving way to Vedic savages. I wish I had the slides on hand because I recall in a class on Greece by the author of Song of Wrath we were shown slides depicting archaeological sites of settlements in Messenia dated to the late bronze age versus the Greek dark ages. The former had upwards of +110 settlement sites. The latter had maybe 17. The Greeks with the bronze age collapse literally forgot written language, political order turned to barbarous warlordism for centuries.

>Do You Believe in Magic
In my setting, only young girls have the spark of magical ambition in their hearts.

>he doesn't have a setting which embraces every single one of these
>he doesn't also have a setting which subverts every single one of them
>he doesn't have a setting that averts every single one of them
>he doesn't have a setting which plays with a balance of familiarity with alien through a careful selection of playing things strait, avoiding them, and embracing seemingly illogical things to their logical conclusions

MEDIOCRE.

Excellent taste my friend.

Methodology
>. . . Fantasy . . . features a magic system, do you define it?
I define it. Level of clarity required in that definition varies by setting. My most developed setting has a very blended definition of magic and it exists in a few forms. But mostly a force of character against or toward the natural order of things.
>[When] should you think of Magic?
If magic is an important/common part of the setting, early. But as soon as it is a comfortable subject to tackle for the builder. A lot of things will logically follow divergent paths depending on how magic works and how abundant it is. Because it is powerful it should be considered early.
>. . . difference between Magic and Technology?
In that setting the most major difference is that technology is a forcing of the natural world into a form that it is not accustomed to. Basically the entire world has some essence of character (down to even the smallest grains of sand) that influence the world. Most technology works by "killing" the essence of the material being used, putting it in a dormant state. This higher technology and magic - which relies on that essence - do coexist within the same items.

Setting Specific
>. . . a magic system for your world?
Yes. It is basically using force of character/will to convince the world to either be different that it is now. This is sometimes forceful, and sometimes more like a polite request. It may be attempting to return something to a former state or make it take an entirely new state. For example, magic items cannot be made through construction, but only through use and [great] deeds. Some used of magic are very powerful and seem arbitrary, but are some of the rarest of occurrences.
>. . . role of Magic . . . ?
It's a Fairytale setting. Magic is pretty ingrained. A growing use of technology by the geographically suffocated human [kingdoms] in the center of the [known world] is causing issues, and the more magically focused [kingdoms] are worried of what may come of it.

>magic is a mundane everyday thing
Why do people always portray magic the wrong way?

There is no wrong way. There's just different ways.

I like magic to have clear, defined rules. Whether or not the intended audience of the work is ever told this is irrelevant. As long as it can make a sort of sense, magic can stay mysterious.

Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong.

Cliches are like Lawful Good alignment in D&D.
First you use them because you don't know anything else.
Then you decide to be oh so original and start avoiding them like mad - like you.
And then you stop being an idiot and understand that cliches became cliches because they are best tools. And the ONLY thing that determines whether you creative or not is how you use those tools, not tools themselves. A good writer can make a compelling and original setting even based on overused stuff as "humans-dwarfs-elves vs evil lord and his orcs". No amount of original creations can help bad writer though.

This really matches what someone else pointed out- that his special snowflake original world is a discworld. Everything has been done, being original is pretty tough, you just need it to be interesting and serve your needs.

So rather than "I'm having dwarves and elves because lotr had them" it's "I'm having elves because I like them and you can have a bunch of flavours which gets some nonhuman diversity into the world, and I'm having dwarves because my husband didn't like it when I said they were extinct so I said there are a few left"

Maybe I missed the message but the point is, fuck that user do what you want kids.

How many settings do you work on at once?
'Cos I'm working on one, another is on hold due to lack of time, and I just had an idea for a third one...

Do you guys figure out marriage/romance/mating rituals of your cultures and races?

I feel like some of my ideas for that part of life would be 'smutty' to write down. But not everyone is going to wait until marriage to bang, and when you have a goddess of sex you sort of need to hint at what's going down at that temple.

How pg are your setting notes?

I have three, two of which are on the backburner since high school and one of which I'm working on now.

Very much PG, PG-13 at best, though vague enough to put in some hardcore sex if a player feels like it.

=(

1. by being completely anachronistic
2. have no taste

Which part of nazis do you like? Genocide, conquering, sick uniforms...?

Very nice. Blemmyae are underrated. As a Marfan I approve of the race, maybe add some reference to magical crystals.

They will also have severe reproductive problems, it's hard for women with Marfan Syndrome to give birth.

Bump

>A good writer can make a compelling and original setting even based on overused stuff as "humans-dwarfs-elves vs evil lord and his orcs"
Name a single good post-tolkien setting that uses that as its concept.

Warhammer Fantasy, for the most part. "Orcs" being composite of O&G and equally degenerate hordes of chaos

Tad William's "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn". Albeit with evil elves instead of orcs.

Pre-disneyification Warcraft, especially Warcraft II

plus Shannara from what I hear, haven't actually read/watched it yet

etcetera

goddammit, why these threads are so dead these past two days?

I'm not used to generals this slow

Because they didn't tag it with wbg. I had to search for it because my filter didn't pick it up. You fuck up the op you fuck up the thread. There's also two threads (both of which are fucked up) as a result

Also *be the change you want to see.*

bewmp

Post lore drafts.

Kinda shitty desu. A bit too repetitive. Why the 1890's?

Another Useful Link:
youtube.com/watch?v=E0AJ40eX2Vo

>using races to define people rather than culture and ethnicity

>using components of race to define people rather than race

Making a magic system, it is based on WFRPG/MERP, in that magic is divided into categories based on theme. I call these categories "Lores" current lores are
Pyromancy
Geomancy
Divination
Atmomancy
Illusion
The use of these Lores are done with skills
Evocation
Invocation
Abjuration

I'm trying to figure out more Lores/Themes to add

Man I fucking love Schmendrick so much

>Lores
Have you by chance read Thomas Covenant?

The world is covered in Aether. Aether fuels magic. There many different schools of magic with each with teachers and mechanics. Some people are more geared to one school then an anothers.

Summoners, for example, have different skills sets and names depending on where you go in the world but they all do the same thing. Those from eastern countries tend to not stay in one place and have healing and purifying abilities. Some end up working there local lords. Summoners from the west end up anywhere and nowhere. Some stay they small time and others end up as kings. All summon are known for the ability to store Aether in their bodies for far longer than any magic user on the planet. Some can store their Aether for years. I'll post another example if I can.

No, what is it?

It's a wonderful fantasy series. It also used "Lore" as a general term for some types of magic.

So do a lot of things user