'>>92561216
I'm more interested on how a great empire fall and become smaller kingdoms.
Anyone making such story?
Care to share?
Like, what lead to the downfall or how the smaller kingdoms rise.';

'>>92563545
Emperor has 5 sons, 3 with wife #1, 1 with #2, and 1 with wife # 3

Wife #3 was the favorite and her son was very competent and granted political authority over a lot of territory

His half brothers were petty and spoiled

Dad dies and the war begins

Que Battle of 5 Armies

Roll for initiative';

'>>92561216
>Just realized the only "empire" in my story is a full on xianxia parody and is only occasionally mentioned
Now I feel like my story is missing an empire.';

'>>92563545
>empire becomes over extended
>a bad harvest/population crisis/complacent army/ineffective leader makes holding its colonies harder and harder
>eventually the government becomes more and more unreliable
>local leaders/imperial governors start taking more and more power for themselves and acting autonomously
>a generation or two later, people start to forget there ever was an empire';

'>>92563545
My setting is an SF one, but the big interstellar empire attacked Earth, twice. The first time, they were pushed out of Sol and then had a peace treaty shortly thereafter, the second time, they threw a dinosaur killer at Earth, and this led to a massive no-holds-barred second round which culminated in the Earth powers carving up the interstellar empire's territory into relatively small statelets where they jockey for power (e.g. USA/USSR in Africa or Southeast Asia).';

'>>92561216
>Q1
Before, it was the Ianthan Republic which spread throughout the three ancestral continents in the years when the gods were manifest in the planet, holding a significant amount of provinces. Since the days the gods died and many disasters followed that annihilated most of humanity, their influence has waned dramatically as they were forced to flee a dying land. The Ianthan Republic now only have a few remnants in their new world colonies which are left to their own devices. Today, the greatest power in the new world is perhaps the Ra-Dakar Sheikdom, which boasts “the last true civilized city” in the world. Even with their diminished power, the Republic Remnants are still a force not to be reckoned with lightly. Pic related, a specific Republic Remnant controls three small islands and their settlements on the corner of this map (Rale, Ves, Alba, and Delos).
>Q2
The Strategos is the supreme head of the military. It is said that the first Strategos is said to have been appointed by the God of War himself, who was once but a lowly soldier, appointed to conquer the land. After which, the succeeding Strategos has been appointed “by God”, though the position always falls into whoever was once the head of the Strategos’ circle of generals. Sometimes, the Strategos just so happen to be related by blood. While there still exists a Strategos, other minor remnant colonies act on their own accord led by their respective governors.
>Q3
Warfare, mainly in the olden times. Nowadays, the Remnants seek to adapt and survive through trade and outlast their own decline economically. Their soldiers are some of the best trained in the world, despite lacking in manpower.
>Q4
On a framework basis, the Ianthan Republic is almost the same as Republican/Imperial Rome. Aesthetically, there is overlap with the Macedonian Kingdom (especially with its fracture post-Alexander).';

'>>92563545
The Empire started becoming increasingly more authoritarian with the straw that broke the camels back being the Empress declaring war on the much more benevolent hegemony empire and promptly got bitchslapped so hard she lost the mandate of heaven';

'Trying to create a hard scifi setting with some kind of quantum kubernetes cluster spread out over the entire galaxy. The individual nodes communicate using infrared light. I'm just blanking on what problem that actually solves, aside from letting them create mechs and AI at the drop of a hat. Is it really only useful to think about this in a researcher's playground kind of way, or is there something below a galaxy threatening monster that it would be helpful in combatting?';

'What's the best way to do religion and religious buildings like temples in Empire, if all magic and miracles come from gods and the only way to learn it is not through religious practices, but by learning ancient wisdom about how the world was created?
It feels like temples and active god worship would be pointless and redundant, but I don't want to have no temples at all.';

'>>92567255
Temples can be a place people go to specifically learn the ancient wisdom that makes miracles possible. That's basically what a church sermon is.';

'>>92567321
But then libraries become pointless, if all scroll reading and learning are done in temples
Well, after posting that question, I realized that temples can be the place to do rituals and more "global" miracles. So now I'm thinking about how to make that make sense.';

'>>92561216
I have been designing a "Courtesy Monarchy", in that the royal privileges accorded to its monarch is a courtesy granted by states, simply because the states' citizenry recognize them as their cultural monarch. This is only achieved due to specific geopolitical circumstances, and while states have no official endorsement, their citizenry continue to recognize them as their monarch. Here is a drawing I made depicting a daughter of the many country's Emperor.';

'>>92567351
Temples can be a place for the illiterate or just less fortunate to learn miracles. If you're doing a spell memorization thing, players could get a free bonus miracle for that day if they attend that day's sermon. Just have a table for what miracle the sermon centers around.';

'>>92561216
>>What empire(s) or other major powers exist in your setting, and how much of it do they control?

Currently most fleshed out Empire is the Hyperborean Kingdom and they control the Hyperborean Continent
It's Natives are all furry races like Owlins and Harengons while Elves and Humans are considered Foreigners even if a Foreigner had 4 generations born there

>>Who controls said empire, and how did they or their family come into power?
The Council of 5, Councillors who countrol the Kingdom. They came into power after their faction in the 1,000 Wars Period won and took back Hyperborea, the land that was originally their ancestors
They're also, like, Artic Monkey People with red faces

>>Assuming that the individuals in question founded the empire, how did the empire get started, and how have they continued to grow and consolidate their power over other regions?
They're Goddess is an Egregore that their Ancestors created to replenish their population numbers, so every Hyperborean Monkey person created afterwards is kinda not real sorta and if she were to die then they'd die
They treat their Foreigners with enough respect that they also kinda get away with treating them like shit since they fucking hate Foreigners but there's already way too many for them to ship back elsewhere so they accomodate them just enough instead

>>>Also, other than the Roman Empire, what real-world empires did you use as a basis for your own (or would like to see used that way more often), and why choose those particular ones? What process did you use?
Didn't really think about it, I just went with what I thought best would represent a good or shady Kingdom';

'>>92565775
How did you make the map? Worldographer?';

'https://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/669f5d0614cd3162e57a8d956e9a2167b37b87c5

Do you ever make national anthems for countries in your setting?';

'>>92561216
Solving interstellar coordination with FTL comms but not travel was the Empire's chief task. With its collapse I can't see another coercive polity rising to replace it for some time in part because the empire only managed it due to Earth's overwhelming advantage over a few easily-tracked early colonies and because all survivors have suffered from the methods used to force unity when those methods failed.
>>92563545
Basically armed with FTL comms, clarketech memetic engineering and transhumansism they set about overcoming light lag. First off they forced specialisation so that any rebels who unplugged themselves from the network would be automatically neutered, this wasn't too difficult as higher tech requires weirdo specialist humans who in turn require specialised cultures to mold them. Cosmopolitanism is diverse and resilient but it isn't specialised, creating dependence aside it was just good sense to make each world a funhouse mirror version of human nature.

The other thing they did was plant "cultural bombs" primed to explode and sow ruin in the abscence of delay programming periodically sent by FTL comms once satisfied that the colony remained loyal. Making themselves indispensible to high tech and sanity served them well but the real ace in the hole was being able to fall back on "we must police mankind lest the Singularity be unleashed again" as justification for hegemony.

It's unclear what happened but the memepocalypse is taken to prove them right or wrong by different factions, the one thing everyone agrees on is that their faildeadly approach is an ongoing blight.
>>92564608
How so? If anything the lack of overarching authority lends a setting its own distinct feel.
>>92567245
Could you clarify "quantum kubermetes"? As to an overarching threat I don't see why the overarching threat has to be a directly hostile force overall. The Inhibtors war a lot despite [spoilers]wanting to keep the milky way's sapients safe.[/spoilers]';

'>>92563545
Hello Future Me has a series on youtube about just that';

'>>92561216
In my world one of the empires has a tradition where only the most capable heir will take the throne, but besides a free-for-all where the heirs kill each other until only one remains, which I dislike the idea of for multiple reasons, I’m having trouble with ideas for tests that the heirs could undergo to prove their worthiness. My only real idea is a sort of mock battle, a bit like a Civil War reenactment, to see how they fare in military campaigns, do you have any other tests for a future emperor?';

'If i had a world where 5 kaiju's represented the 5 magic forms from ars magica (create, destroy, alter, perceiv, control) and had one of the race on the world kill the kaiju of destruction thus removing that form from all spellcasting.

Would that make for an interesting magic system if player didn't have access to an easy answer to problem solving like "erase threat"?

in ars magica that can be balanced with all the crunch but im trying to scale it down to a more manageble quick system';

'>>92563545
>Care to share?
Sure, wall of text incoming:
After at long last having vanquished their long time rival the Arsanid Empire and annexed much of its southern territories the Fulvian Empire was seemingly at it's height of power in the fulfillment of the millenium old goal of ruling all the lands of the Middle Sea. This golden era was however not to last long as the new territorial gains meant that the empire found itself dangerously overextended into far away lands it could ill-control without the permanent stationing of legions that taxed the imperial populace and state treasury. With the Gam Peninsula on the far eastern side of the empire requiring its fair share of troops to garrison in order to put down the perpetual local revolts the military capacity of the state was heavily strained.

When a great steppe people suddenly emerged on the northern boundary of the empire and broke through the Hasdrubalian Wall that was meant to keep such threats at bay the empire struggled to scrounge up enough forces to meet them on the field of battle. When said battle was then lost panic struck the empire. After the consul of the autonomous consular province refused to come to the greater empire's aide by reasoning that he had to first see to the defenses of his own province the Brighyans, a foederati tribe tasked with protecting the north-western border of the empire was summoned to deal with, or at the very least delay, the invaders, but their leadership took one long look at the carnage that these horse lords had caused and packed up their women and children and moved west into what was once arsanid steppelands where they formed a brief empire of their own before being subsumed into the local populations.';

'>>92573636
Desperate to protect the hearthland from invasion the emperor recalled legions from the newly conquered territories aswell as Gam with little chance of either making it back in time before the invaders could put the imperial capital to siege. The High Librarian, seeing where the wind was blowing, fled the capital and relocated to the great city of Gastram, which already acted as a sort of southern capital, where she started preaching a message of doom for the old imperial ways, justified by a claim of having discovered hidden tomes that revealed the state religion to be a falsehood. Sensing a prudent move, the always calculating merchant families of Gastram backed her and they together hailed the coming of the Second Gastramite Republic. Bribing the returning legionaries on their way to the capital through gastramite lands, and cutting a deal with the resurgent dorians of ancient renown to hand over to them most of the newly aquired territories of the extinct arsanids in exchange for stable relations the Gastramites found themself in a stable situation and with a strong army in what was otherwise a very tumultous time as the empire fell.';

'>>92573710
As if that wasn't enough calamity the Gullvegian cult hailed the discovery of a fifth reincarnation of Gullveig who lead the mostly sandarian throng of believers to ambush the legions returning from Gam on their way to the capital. Having utterly crushed the unprepared and tired legionaries in the battle, Gullveig proclaimed a sovereign theocratic state centered on Sandarmark.
With no troops to reinforce him the emperor made a brave but brief attempt to hold the capital of Nyhem but the walls, ill-prepared as they were for a siege, were soon breached and the populace slaughtered with the exception of a significant portion of the senate and others who had fled the city before the arrival of the invading host.';

'>>92573744
With the capital fallen and the emperor slained alongside his family it was up to the diaspora of senators to elect a new emperor. With most of them reconvening in the prosperous city of Cyralos, situated as it was on an big island that formed the crossroad between the hearthland and the rich and here-to unscathed tyrhenian provinces in the east a new emperor was soon elected. This man however, rather than go on the offenses in order to reclaim the lost lands that the invading steppe people now squatted on, chose to take on a strategy of guerilla warfare and naval raids in order to hopefully force the foreign host to leave imperial lands in search of greener pastures. As time drew on and the invaders grip on the lands wasn't lessened the senate, never letting a good opportunity to squabble and conspire go to waste, started turning on the emperor, and eventually, themselves. When the dust had settled the emperor had been assassinated and a new one had been elected by a cabal of senators who had made the important dual-city of DalKur in the south-east their seat. This naturally didn't sit well with the remaining senators in Cyralos who appointed their own man for the job. Instead of continuing the ongoing struggle of liberation the two emperor's turned their attention on each-other, leaving the north to fend for itself.

Seeing that the formal state had for all intents and purposes abandoned them the remaining imperial pockets in the north made due with the situation at hand, resulting in many imperial warlords declaring themselves the subject of the steppe people in exchange for ruling the bits of provinces they still held as their vassals. Somewhat ironically this lead the previously isolationist consular province to become the shining light of imperial reclamation as it was the strongest pro-imperial player still in the game north of the Middle Sea.';

'>>92573772
As time moved on the steppe people was slowly pushed back over a period of one to two centuries but by then a new post-imperial world had emerged along the Middle Sea. Tied as it was to the empire as a concept, the state religion called the Tetrarchical Truth was fundamentally changed and splintered, with the dominant versions in the north deeply influenced by the perceived betrayal of the "false emperors" of the south. The one championed by the consular province firmly held to the importance of the reestablishing of the empire to which the consul himself was often considered of central importance. Meanwhile the dalkurian rump state in the south, which was still a potent regional power in its own right, held to the notion that they where in fact still the empire of old and so all the world was technically their subjects, and the states in the north needed to pay them homage if not actually assimilate back into their control.';

'Building a city for an actual game but still putting in the effort to fill things out to a point of believability. I like having a well-defined central structure with lots of moving parts, opposing factions, trouble to get into, and secrets to find.
City's founded by pirates that took over a progenitor race ruin on the coast. It's a trade port, pirates keep it "clean enough," they've learned it's an easy way to make money off everyone else's hard work. They allow "sanctioned smuggling" because they can scrape off the top, shelter criminals and the like, but keep small crime off the streets to attract people to live and do business there. Slavery, prostitution, gambling, and drug dens are all over. There's a law enforcement corps that does their jobs, but obviously can be paid to look the other way. Blah blah.

My question is- does the gladiatorial arena go in the cleaner, richer, more sheltered part of town, or the dirty and dangerous part? I'm torn between it being a repurposed ruin and central "attraction" to the place, or being more of a den of violence for knaves, more of a fight club grown big.';

'>>92573032
I'd suggest a meritocratic approach in which all the eligble heirs are given governorship over provinces for a set amount of time before moving on to another with their performance continously judged by some kind of panel or whatnot. That way they get actual administrative experience while also familiarising themselves with parts of the realm. Furthermore they are also encouraged to govern competently rather than use the position merely as a way to amass power. Military experience could also be had by having the governor be both the civil and military leader of a province, and as such responsible for its protection aswell as its peace time flourishing.

If you're looking for something a bit more fantastical then you can have the heirs tasked with going on quests, be they to slay a dragon that threatens a town, find the lost X of A or to solve a situation no other has yet managed.';

'>>92573834
>Where does the gladiatorial arena go
Where do cities tend to place their sport arenas?';

'>>92573834
It makes the most sense for a large attraction to be in a safe spot, because everybody, including the larger-scope criminals, have an interest in people spending money there instead of losing them to petty crime. Like you're never going to get robbed outside of a mobster casino, yeah?';

'>>92573944
Forgot to add that this panel would have the power to disqualify a heir by reasons of incompetency. The shame and loss of political clout following from being disinherited that way would probably stop atleast the self-reflective from taking on a challenge well beyond their ability and in so redirect them toward a more productive goal befitting a close familial to the ruling family.';

'>>92573954
Hell if I know, I'm a country boy. I've been to Chicago a couple times over the last 30 years and hated it there, that's why I'm asking people who might know more.
>>92573977
That makes sense and aligns with putting it in the Pearl Quarter.
I posted that last post and thought "Why not both?" immediately after- the "big stage" in fancytown and a bunch of gang-like fight club pits scattered around that feed their "best" into the main one and have private side shows. Probably at war with each other trying to eliminate competition for their guy. Then slavers throwing their stock into the pit too, and some people that own pet gladiators basically. Lots of space for gameable content and plot hooks.

But then I also realize I'm not running a "city campaign" I'm running an island exploration and dungeon crawling campaign that happens to have a city in it for use as the most major settlement so I'm probably just creating pointless work for myself.';

'>>92573834
If the criminals are in charge, why would their stuff go in the dingy part of town?
Also why does there need to even be law enforcement? There wasn't for most of history. The first recog sizeable police force becomes a thing in Europe in like the 17th century, and even then it was mostly privatised rather than being a true state organ.
>>92573954
That's a dumb way to phrase that. The colloseum was built smack dab in the middle of Rome, but El Jem was built a short walk outside of Thyrsdrus itself (And the later Berber settlement was built in and around the amphitheatre), the Istabul hippodrome was built at the city center, some nesoamerican cities had ballgame courts right next to their temples, while Teotihuacan doesnt have a single one within the city limits, modern sporting arenas can be built way outside of town or at college campuses, or in the middle of nowhere, etc';

'>>92575261
>That's a dumb way to phrase that.
The point was obviously for the guy asking to look up the reasons behind the placement of similar buildings. Once he got a cursory understanding of the things going into it he would be able to come up with his own good reasons for why the arena should or shouldn't be placed in a particular area.';

'>>92563545
In my setting, quite a few empires have arisen and fallen from the Elven Empire, which made floating cities and made the "Basic," which most people speak outside of a native tongue. However, a civil war between the triplet's heirs destroys the empire from the inside out and almost sent the world into a "magical stone age". Which has the Wood Elves mostly keep the massive forest which holds Yggdrasill The Great Tree. Which they are mostly isolationist, only doing some light trading just outside of the woods and rarely let others in their lands for long. The High Elves kept only 3 of their 13 floating cities intact, and outside of them have a few "City-States" over laylines where they have magical universites a magical orders HQ and all. As for the dark evles mostly went underground and in a few swamps and forests.

After the Elven Empire fell, the humans made a few with the "Ten Kingdoms/Empires," the ten biggest nations humans made at one point, which became the names for the races of humans. Many ended up breaking apart or shrinking after a Demon King conquest, which laid waste to most of the world. The current era in my setting is a race of many nations to rise and become the next major empire, but the remains of a demon king army still terrorizing towns and villages, dungeons, crypts, and tombs of old kingdoms are still littered with traps and holding powerful artifacts. The Adventurer became a great job for those skilled enough to make a living fighting bandits, demons, and other monsters, as well as conquer dungeons in hopes of finding powerful magical spells or artifacts to sell or use themselves.';

'>>92561216
I've just started with my setting, and I want one of the nations to be an empire of necromancers and undead, ruled over by a council of liches. What do you think, is there anything that I need to consider, especially in regards to what might be keeping them from completely dominating the world?';

'>>92575261
The law enforcement is a lot more like just private enforcers for the captain's will than public servants, but they still largely keep things safer around town than it would ordinarily be. They're there to make sure a den of bastards behaves themselves, so that merchants actually want to come to the place and people actually want to live there, both of which bring prosperity to the ones in charge. So, for basically the same reason a mafia has enforcers on their turf. To protect the interests of people. Because there are also trade taxes in place. "You can trade anything you damn well please here, but we get a cut."
It's bad for business if people just openly steal shit and the promise of security is a boon to public image. They need to be able to have something to point to, to make coming there appealing to merchants, in the face of being ex-pirates and having trade taxes, and the specter of order is one of those things. Alongside just the island itself being in an excellent location with unique natural resources, of course.
They're also the leadership's strongarm around town and if someone needs to disappear they take care of it under the guise of the law. People violating the rules (no messing with merchants, no broad-daylight murder, no breaking and entering, no freeing slaves, no approaching the Black Glass Ziggurat, etc) either get shoved into slavery and sold (easy money) or chained to the anchor in the bay at low tide for public execution (fear). To top it off, the jungle is close to the walls and is full of cannibals, dinosaurs, and other dangerous wildlife. Which isn't so much law enforcement as it is being part of the guard, I guess, but that's a bit besides the point.';

'>>92575662
You know, you get better answers when you can narrow down what you want help with or input on. If you can't figure out a way for them not to be dominant, the let them win and see what happens.';

'>>92575809
I was thinking that the conflict between the necromantic empire and the other nations to be basically a fantasy Cold War, and I was trying to think of ways to keep things in balance. Yeah, in hindsight I can admit that maybe I should have gone into more detail, sorry.';

'>>92575662
their existence is an affront to the god of death himself and to protect themselves from him they've sealed themselves away in a pseudo-alternate dimension and can only act in the world of the living through their still-alive necromancers, who can cross the veil
they can't dumpster the rest of the world until the god of death is, himself, dead
the necromancers that serve the empire do it for personal power to use in the realm of the living but are ultimately not powerful enough on their own to crush the rest of the world. they are also reliant on resources not found in the alternate dimension (food/water/fuel/maybe oxygen) to function
and, even if the liches found a way to kill death, they would be putting themselves in immense danger if they just came back to reality and used it. so they'd have to foster a living champion

or some shit idk man';

'>>92575925
>>92575952
some thoughts, then.
It's probably a good idea to give some thought to what the other side is when writing a suspended conflict kind of scenario, unless you want to deal exclusively with necromancer and lich infighting and political maneuvering.
I personally think really powerful but hidden away forces is an interesting idea. Like they could win, but Death would rock their shit if they tried, so they can't really act in obvious ways. If you don't think necromantic guerilla war sounds dope i simply don't know what to say.';

'>>92563545
Sometimes border outpace post-office technology. This happened to the Mali, who could sail along the river pretty easy and project their armies, but further inland struggled to enforce taxation on the far-flung parts of the Empire. And if the King isn't collecting taxes, then he doesn't own that territory, instead regional governors could declare independence, and the King would have to march his army to deal with it.

Often times the Emperor decides he can sit on his ass all day reading poetry rather than actually governing. This is how Japan turned into a Shogunate as the Emperor enjoyed the luxury of Kyoto and seeing no need to really bother actually governing. This led the Samurai who did governing in his stead to effectively become the 'real' government.

In China the term for this is actually 'burning your ships' which happened to the Ming specifically after Zheng He's legendary expeditions, because they decided everything worth having in the world was already in China. This lead to a period of long isolation and withdrawal, and in turn lead to the Ming falling into Civil War, and then easily being overtaken by the Manchu who were horse-nomads that had amassed a larger navy then the Ming had.';

'>>92573944
So, basically like musical chairs, but with governing imperial provinces. I like it for the most part, but while it works for scenarios when they can start this training governance before the old emperor dies, I'd imagine if the emperor dies unexpectedly, they'd have to either find a regent they can trust not to seize power somehow, or speed up the tests drastically for such an emergency (or both), as such a time would be a prime chance for the empire's enemies to strike. The quest option might work then, but how could they make sure that the heirs don't cheat or are just lucky, or unlucky for that matter?

>>92574030
I presume that the panel can also countermand completely incompetent or stupid orders by the heir during the process. Any ideas on what this panel might be like, I'm thinking perhaps the clergy.';

'>>92575662
What is the motivating force of the liches? Immortals can be hard to write.

Are they power hungry? Hedonistic? Just regular dudes that happen to be immortal? Expansionists? Scholars? Clerics? Narcissists? An undead empire is going to be fundamentally more internally stable than other empires due to a lack of need for several basic necessities, so what binds the people to the empire and what are the collective ends of the government beyond simply maintaining an already stable status quo? What would day to day life be like in such a setting? Are people largely artisans, traders, miners and woodsmen? Are they mindless drones or ravenous beasts?

It's going to be a wildly alien setting.';

'>>92578151
>An undead empire is going to be fundamentally more internally stable than other empire
I wouldn't be so sure
Ambition and not wanting to kowtow to anyone, won't go anywhere. But undead will have way more time to plan for power grabs.
If in his society undead still need to feed on livng, then said living will cause unrest too, and nobles(whatever his ruler class called) will use them to cause unrest and fuck over their rivals.
Also, the number of seats in positions of power will always be limited, no matter the system. But in undead society "retirement" isn't a thing, so you can only take it by scheming and betraying';

'>>92568748
Hexographer, yes, and its only the basic version but it achieves what it does.';

'>>92575574
>magical stone age
That concept is hella intriguing.';

'>>92576053
>If you don't think necromantic guerilla war sounds dope i simply don't know what to say.
NTA but I completely agree. Shit sounds rad as hell.
>>92576918
>basically like musical chairs, but with governing imperial provinces.
I'm not sure what you mean by that but what I meant was a set term limit of X years and upon completion they are tasked with governing another, more or less randomly assigned province so as to avoid favoritism, entrenchment and a varied situation to make them good at handling as many scenarios as possible.
>if the emperor dies unexpectedly
The best option as I see it would be to have an interregnum in which the state is governed by a council of uncles and other noteworthies, while the princelings come to a sufficient degree of competency.
>I presume that the panel can also countermand completely incompetent or stupid orders
The problem as I see it with that is that it would require more or less direct control by the panel which seems like a great way for it to become the defacto governing body of the provinces. More importantly, the time it would take for the panel to become aware of a decision and countermand it might be far to long for efficient governance meaning that the situation on the scene might have moved on well beyond the point of rendering such a verdict moot. As I see it part of the competency test would be for the heirs to develop a talent for aquiring useful underlings capable of offering prudent advice and the ability for the heir to take such thoughts into considration. If the heir still manages to make a mess of the situation then ideally it just proves to be an excellent test for a more seasoned heir in the following term of office, and if worst comes to worst then the incompetent fool can always be recalled.';

'>>92579457
Yeah. The idea is Magic outside of basic magic which most people used today was keep hidden in the Floating Cities. So during the Elven Civil War, a popular target was hitting the Mage Towers keeping everything under control and basically killed most if not all of the people who maintain and make more floating cities. (Also the other ten cities turned into a floating ruin with many dangerous rocks flying around and gravity wells. Making it risky for even experience Adventurers, hell half the reason most people let the High Elves keep their pockets of lands on Leylands is they open up their colleges to all races and nations, and they are top teir universities.';

'>>92581487
Oh, I thought you were talking about high magic in a stone age tech-world.';

'>>92561216
There's a continent in my setting that's split between a roughly Europe sized area in the west that's called the Eight Empires of the Confederation of Imperial States, and a somewhat smaller than Siberia sized area in the east called the Commonwealth of Clans. The westerners refer to their collective area as the Empires and the eastern lands as the Wilderlands. Clansmen refer to their lands as Clansland and the western region as Knightsland. Basically the empires were founded when humans from the island humans were originally from migrated north and colonized the place, adopting linguistic cultural traits from the even earlier humans who had come here and settled but were significantly less advanced, essentially cousins of the eastern clans. They all speak variants of the common human language now, just with heavy accents from the other absorbed languages. Some are also only empires in the sense that that's what they call themselves so they don't appear lesser than their neighbors. I haven't fully settled on the names but they are basically:

Mabynnog - Welsh/Celtic forest mystics
Iox - Dutch/Romans w/ actual overseas empire
Ziibz - Greek/Mediterranean sea raiders
Nogris - French/German magitech inventors
Covayar - Spanish cossacks
Vellfjord - Scandinavian axe knights
Galiceland - human supremacist slaving empire
Xyrpathia - heavily stratified magical society
Vramm - Swiss style neutral region jointly held by all major powers as an equal meeting ground

The leaders all have big impressive titles they made up to match each other. There are 12 great clans, although one guy who leads a giant raider group on the border between the Empires and Clanslands claims it is the 13th, but I've been thinking of cutting down the total number, just not sure. Each clan is led by a chief who is supported by a lieutenant. While all the Empires are human majority, some of the clans are elven or half-elven.';

'>>92561216
What's a medieval sounding term for particles or atoms?';

'>>92584618';

'>>92584618
Corpuscles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpuscularianism';

'What is the point of a space empire? I got to thinking this because presumably, most star systems should be self-sufficient on resources by mining planets and asteroids, so what and why would be the purpose of paying taxes or being part of a larger political body?
he main conflict in this setting is basically that, solar systems or collections of systems banding together and seceding from a large empire but I can't really think of a reason to actually justify why said empire would demand taxes and tithes from it's member systems. It doesn't necessarily need one, but it would be nice to have you know?';

'>>92585362
A star system is really just a city-state. There's a number of reasons as to why someone might want to be part of an empire to some degree. First is economics: In the absence of advantageous trade, most would settle for fair trade codified by law and backed by power. An empire facilitates that kind of trade.
Second reason for joining is protection. For a (relatively) small fee, you get to not worry about the horrors at the edge of the horizon. Would you rather pay pre-agreed regular sums, or would you like to pay whatever a foreign forces decides upon, whenever they decide? People want safety and stability, especially against a common enemy.
Third reason is the empire decided that you're part of it now, and fighting isn't exactly worth it. At the low low cost of some autonomy, they protect your stuff too.

So why would an empire demand tithe and tax? Running an empire isn't cheap! There are obligations to keeping the system working, namely satisfying the three reasons for joining. The empire has to protect it's constituents, it has to ensure the flow of trade and money, and it has to enforce law across it's entirety. It's also a method of weakening local forces, so they have less ability to resist the empire at large.
It can take the form of a loose federation or a tight almost feudal system, the basic mechanics are the same. The only difference is local autonomy.';

'>>92585362
1. Comparative advantage. Some places may be richer in certain important materials, have an easier time making them due to differences of regulation/skills, etc. This is why even self-sufficient countries (e.g. the USA) seek international trade.
2. Security concerns, "internal case." A colony that is part of your empire can't realistically become a threat to you, because you can always monitor military production at any scale.
3. Security concerns, "external case." An empire works kind of like an alliance, in that everybody's security is guaranteed by everybody else's military, except "everybody" here is the periphery and "everybody else" is the entire citizenry of the state.';

'>>92582333
Nah, the idea would be the loss of most to all old high magic and all. Though the idea you thought I meant also sounds interesting. Something like DR. Stone and all. Have stone age equipment and items but with powerful magic with those who know it.';

'>>92585362
>What is the point of a space empire?
Because empire allows specialized and more efficient planets
One aggro planet can support 3-4 planets that can't produce their own food
Kinda like real history when the Romans literally shipped food across the sea to feed themselves';

'>>92579615
Okay, I was thinking a more organized rotation, thanks for clearing that up. How exactly would they enforce the randomness in the choice? Also, depending on the number of heirs and provinces, they might be ruling provinces for a decade before the successor is chosen if I'm understanding this right. And that wouldn't be fair to the younger heirs, so maybe limiting it to a year in each province would be best. Okay, that makes sense, thanks for clarifying.';

'>>92584791
Thanks, that's a good idea.

What's a good term for radioactive sand or particles in fantasy terms?

I was thinking
>Miasmic Corpuscles
>Radiant Sand
I think Corpuscles would be a more scientific term for it among the scholars whole colloquially it's called sand or dust or grains. I'm not sure if miasmic would fit well.

My idea is it's blue that glows with all the colours of the rainbow and it burns and sloughs flesh off.';

'>>92587640
>How exactly would they enforce the randomness in the choice?
I envision drawings of lot within a tiered system that doesn't send the potential heir that's just out of his apprenticeship to the hardest to govern province.
>depending on the number of heirs and provinces, they might be ruling provinces for a decade before the successor is chosen
The most proven of the potential heirs would automatically be the heir apparant, as long as he has qualified to govern a specific tier of province. Until that happens you'd likely see a interregnum council of uncles and other senior statesmen.
>And that wouldn't be fair to the younger heirs
Tough titties. The system would be designed to create a good ruler out of a cadre of capable middle managers, not to cuddle some babyfaced princeling.
>so maybe limiting it to a year in each province would be best
I'd extend that to a couple of years given the possible travelling distances and necessary initial process of familiarizing yourself to a new task.';

'>>92587908
Real radiation would probably be called miasma, since it's invisible and acts in an unclear fashion that we have no natural defense against.

If it's "magic radiation" that glows and is colorful and works super-fast, maybe they would call it radiant.

I don't think they'd use different terms for that between scholars and normies, unless it's extremely old. Just like how we call it radiation, and scientists also call it radiation. Or we call them black holes, wormholes, protons, etc, and scientists also call them those things.';

'>>92589436
Can't real radiation actually be pretty bright? Like the demon core releasing that blue flash.

Radiant sand I guess works, although something about it feels too simple. I also intended for the users to be able to compact the sand into dense stones, so the umbrella term I wanted to be a bit more overarching of the solid and powdered states. I guess "radiant earth" works but it feels a little bit just like an extra tacked on thing to regular earth.';

'>>92589536
>Can't real radiation actually be pretty bright? Like the demon core releasing that blue flash.
It can be (another example is radium), but only rarely. Most deadly radiation has no strong visible effect, which is part of what makes it so scary.';

'I've been coming up with political systems for a world, and came up with the following:
>There's a large number of aristocratic families each having one vote in the parliament
>They don't all go and vote, instead they throw their support behind someone, either their peer or a professional commoner statement to vote on their behalf
>The support can be given and withdrawn at any time
So, there could be a guy with ten votes, or a hundred votes as long as they have enough backers.

Was this kind of system ever attempted in history? As in, not equal representatives coming from fixed groups, but rather malleable groups throwing their support behind representatives who have variable voting power as a result.';

'>>92590710
>Was this kind of system ever attempted in history?
>They don't all go and vote, instead they throw their support behind someone, either their peer or a professional commoner statement to vote on their behalf
burgerland';

'Forget empires, tell me about the scientists of your setting.';

'>>92590862
>tell me about the scientists of your setting.
Not important at all';

'>>92590097
Yeah I think it'll be more magic-y radiation, as I intend for it to glow with all colors of rainbow

So any ideas what I should call the material? Initially formed as loose grains but able to be compressed into hard solid shapes. I guess maybe dust would work';

'Is this only for totally original settings? I'm trying to turn Touhou into a tabbletop rpg setting, but I'm not sure that should be talked about here.';

'>>92591557
No, this is the thread for worldbuilding in general. Original or not.';

'>>92591557
Are you doing worldbuilding? Then cool.

Are you doing system stuff? Probably the homebrew general or whatever.

Are you cataloguing canon worldbuilding for a reference document for your players? Probably just post a thread of your own.';

'>>92591580
I'm mostly working on system stuff right now after everybody collectively decided "Fuck Myon" but for the actual campaign I do try and introduce my own worldbuilding since a lot of canon Gensokyo is kind of vague and nebulous. Like a lot of my campaigns are basically about how the human village works since they never amount to more than a plot device in any official work.';

'>>92591580
>Probably the homebrew general or whatever.
Wait, there is one?';

'>>92579232
would you care to share your settings?';

'>>92590710
Sounds like the kind of "democracy" that the local nazis want.';

'Why do people only build fantasy and sci-fi worlds? Why does nobody build fictional worlds set in something like modern times? The closest I can think of is Shadowrun, and even that's just Earth with a slightly different coat of paint.';

'>>92561216
Kys d*scord cancer.';

'>>92593804
Strangereal and Disco Elysium are both near-modern.';

'>>92593804
I guess people want novelty and gravitate away from the familiar because it feels too much like real life and therefore the same aka "boring". That and Earth's already a big place, so they rarely go through the trouble of building a contemporary world from scratch and just grab New York or Tokyo for a backdrop and fudge a few things or make up a new place to slot into somewhere. The only well-known contemporary-era constructed worlds I can think of would be Strangereal from Ace Combat, which only exists because it was necessary to avoid real-world geographical and historical baggage and sticks close to familiarity and the unnamed world of Disco Elsium, which is significantly more distinct from the familiar present-day. There's definitely an uncanny valley of similarity too, if you distort geography/history/culture/politics a bit like putting Earth in a carnival mirror, it just looks.....indescribably "wrong" somehow.

I'm working on my own contemporary alt-world so I can have a sandbox to play in without the aforementioned baggage and to later destroy it, since the "real" setting is postapocalyptic but I have just as much fun trying to make a cohesive and comprehensive pre-apocalyptic world to use as a foundation for the what-where-who-why as with what comes after down to national histories, HDI scores and city lore but it's very difficult to not fall into "like thing from Earth but X" and you can't get away with as much bullshitting as you would in an era or environment with which people are unfamiliar that makes it easy to gloss over it.';

'>>92595078
Based modern fictional world anon. What destroyed the world?';

'>>92591785
"Amateur Game Design and Homebrew Thread," apparently normally gets posted on the first day of the month. You can also find it in the archives or post your own, of course.';

'Obsidian makes this so much more fun';

'>>92595093
Catastrophic global pandemic leading to the zombie apocalypse. Patient 0 crops up in Oct 2025, reaches its first major city and goes global in Dec and the last lights go out by mid-Mar - the pandemic itself did most of the legwork, with most of the survivors of the plague not being survivors of the other half of the one-two punch (the story to Project Zomboid is actually quite close to what I had in mind). A few island countries that managed to get their quarantines up in time still stand, but struggle with limited resources and being amputated from globalisation as the years drag on and those in the mainland Grey Zone try to stay alive, with a timeline running out to 2050.

Honestly, my original objective with the setting was just to explore the genre to my liking and toy with its conventions a bit (I worldbuild for fun), deep dive into a world and ponder ways to circumvent some of the recurring cliches and nonsensical elements I dislike about these kinds of stories and creating tales and lore for all four stages of the apocalypse (before, during, aftermath and long-term) rather than focusing on just one or two. Now it's kinda run away and I've used the 2025 world as a template for some other genre settings as well because having a personal constructed modern world in your back pocket is damn useful. I've considered running a couple of quests in it over on /qst/ but will likely never get round to it.';

'>>92594949
>Disco Elysium
I like how that game is basically a schizo hodgepodge of real-life 20th century. You have cars that look like they were taken from '30s or '40s, computers like mainframes from '70s, and still-experimental electronic music from '80s.';

'>>92593804

REJECT MODERNITY
EMBRACE ESCAPIST FANTASY';

'>>92597512
Nice that it's justified in extra materials as being a matter of prophetic visionaries "stealing" the future before it's naturally emerged plays into the underlying "wrongness" which the expanding Pale implies and snubs any artists who mights squawk "ackshually even alt-hist doesn't explain...".
>>92593804
As has been said familiarity is opposed to escapism. Also the modern world comparatively de-emphasises the individual, sci fi also does this but tosses in miracles which give it a veneer of novelty or else disrupt the status quo enough for heroes to shine.
>>92594949
I'd like to blend the two with a para-modern Cold War featuring weirdo ideologies. Mostly because the Innocentic history worship and Moralism sprouting from it were kickass in DE and Strangereal's distance from RL allowed crazy shit to happen without political overtones which could get awkward at the table. Specifically I'd make the blocs more ambiguous (economic success wise mostly, moral high ground too) and run a mix of Jagged Alliance with Phantom Doctrine (maybe Witchdoctors and War crimes too...). Spy fiction level sci fi without going to the extremes of Metal Gear but lots of chemically augmented soldiers, MK ultra fuckery and supercomputers.';

'I remember someone posted a very interesting infographic on how terrain is formed for the purpose of work building, would anyone by chance have this infographic saved on their computers and be willing to share?';

'>>92597512
And the police use flintlock pistols, while the mercenary goons use machine-guns and plastic polymer body armor.';

'>>92593804
I think because the lack of familiarity with a fantasy world and science fiction world (given we do not live in them) means that there's a layer of obfuscation. I think also history majors are drawn to fantasy, and science/engineering majors are drawn to sci-fi but for a modern fictional setting the required info would suit someone with a business or politics major. And I think those types tend to be focused more on tangible realities in the world, rather than things they would be unable to directly experience. Not to say there's zero overlap, just less.';

'>>92585362
The idea of space-colonialism past the solar system I think is rooted in a capitalist mindset that would be outdated by the time we get to that point. The idea that constant growth must be maintained and that to maintain it we must increase the degree of resources we consume, instead of learning to use the resources we have more efficiently. For instance you could squeeze the entire population of the earth into Texas with the same pop-density as New York (and less if you use a city like Tokyo as a framework). We could also invest in putting people into resource efficient VR pods that have us living as immortal god-kings that are maintained by a population of drones. That's my personal answer to the Fermi Paradox.';

'struggling to name the China analogue something that's sufficiently chinesey but not too on the nose';

'>>92600177
jade empire';

'>>92600177
Use a dynasty name, which is what was more common. China is derived from the Qin dynasty. The Chinese refer to themselves as 'Zhonguo' meaning 'middle kingdom' as in 'center of the universe'.

Dynasty names include the Qing, Ming, Yuan, Song, and the mythical Xian. Also in medieval times the name 'Cathay' was used to describe the area by europeans.';

'>>92600275
>Also in medieval times the name 'Cathay' was used to describe the area by europeans
Pretty sure Cathay was used by chinks themselves, while europeans used somethign else';

'>>92600310
Maybe the Chinese used it, but it was in use by Roman times 'Cathayan Silk' and was picked up by medieval europeans referring to those same records to refer to a region that was downright mythical to them at the time. Marco-Polo in his journey set 'Cathay' as his destination.';

'>>92599723
>Also the modern world comparatively de-emphasises the individual
The fudge are you on about, mate?';

'>>92600373
I think he's trying to get at the idea that we live in an environment of big complex forces that an individual has little ability to influence. You like one guy can't really dismantle like NATO or the UN or something.

That said, not like you can really change 'the system' in fantasy or sci-fi either because those are also governed by large forces. Like Luke Skywalker didn't singlehandedly defeat the Empire, the Rebels arose organically in response to the Empire.';

'>>92600177
I called my last not-China the Xin Empire, since it was inspired partly by the short-lived Xin dynasty. (Xin is pronounced like "Shin.")

Zhuxia means "the various Xia", and Zhuhua means "the various Hua," with Huaxia meaning basically "the Chinese nation." Tianguo is "Heavenly Kingdom," and was the suffix for the Taiping (full name Taiping Tianguo, meaning Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace). Tianxia, meaning "under Heaven," is also an older term. The most common term nowadays is the nigh-unrecognizable Zhongguo ("middle kingdom").

Could use any of those. Or the Wade-Giles versions:
Xin - Hsin
Zhuxia - Chu-hsia
Zhuhua - Chu-hua
Huaxia - Huah-sia
Tianguo - T'ien-kuo
Tianxia - T'ien-hsia
Zhongguo - Chung-kuo

>>92600310
No, Cathay is from Khitan (horse nomads) via the pinyin "Qìdān," because the Khitan Liao dynasty ruled northern China from 916 to 1125. Chinese people have called it some mix of zhongguo, zhuxia, and zhuhua historically, when they referred to it at all.';

'>>92600536
>Huaxia - Huah-sia
Oop, this is a typo. Should be Hua-hsia.';

'I am a casual worldbuilder and was wondering whether it's possible to have First World level maternal and child outcomes without First World medical equipment? There's constant apocalypses in the setting that force civilizations to rough it for a while before trade links can be restored*, and many communities have protocols to ride out said apocalypses.

I wanted to know whether it's possible for said communities to speedtrack their way to repopulation without needing to rebuild industrial civilization first.

*the royals are literally divine and will always survive long enough to reestablish the realm, so there's never any doubts about whether they will be restored. Just about when.';

'>>92600713
Something people tend not to understand is how child-mortality rates correlate directly to womens rights. Back when 1 in 5 kids would live to adulthood, you had to be constantly pregnant for 10 years to have two kids and keep the population even (let alone grow it and account for wars, plagues, famines, and so on that'll kill off the adult population). And remember how physically taxing childbirth is even today. Meaning 'death by childbirth' was the number one cause of death for women, and the husband would just get a new younger wife and repeat the process, thereby commodifying women.

Now I take the approach that just like how nobody will portray how people in the middle ages would toss their raw sewage into the streets, that one can handwave child-mortality rates by saying white-magic and such allows for a much less deadly environment for mothers and young children. And consequently women suffer less commodification since they now have time and energy to pursue dayjobs.

Anyway vaccines are a huge boon to child-mortality rates, hence they are mandated by most schools. Children have TERRIBLE immune systems fresh out the womb. Technologies like ultrasounds also help identify potential problems with childbirth before they might become too severe (and to broach a touchy subject- sometimes it's better for the mother to go through an abortion than a miscarriage in terms of being able to survive and produce more babies).

Otherwise a lack of wars, droughts and famine in the modern day also do A LOT to bring down child-mortality.';

'>>92569852
After the Civil War, the Drow have removed the lyric about "Rape and Slaughter of the Innocent" from their national anthem. It was controversial, but the new empress feels like the new lyrics extolling the virtues of nerve gas attacks against entrenched enemy forces will promote harmony and good relations with their neighbors.';

'>>92600823
That makes them less evil than the English. Who refuse to remove the part about how they need to shoot all the murderous Scots trying to kill their queen from their National Anthem.';

'>>92593804
Modern world sucks.
European fantasy rules.';

'>>92600828
The new government is doing its best. Spousal abuse is no longer the national sport and the bounty system for dead slavers(Who supported the opposition during the civil war but that is neither here nor there) has done a lot to reduce trafficking in the region.';

'>>92600855
Why put a bounty on a slaver if they're already dead?';

'>>92600869
Look, if the slaver was alive, there would have to be a trial, and then they would have to go to prison and then the government would have to waste money feeding and clothing someone who is in all likelihood a traitor to the crown and supporter of the High Matriarchy anyway, so it's better just to bring in a corpse, a head or a scalp and get a certificate you can exchange for coinage. The rebuilding efforts are taking some time and much of the Imperial Treasury is still missing, so the government can't be bothered to coddle every single disloyal worm.';

'A campaign hook in a pirate game I was thinking up-

-A rogue admiral takes his fleet, turns pirate, and then starts turning the seas upside down looking for a lost treasure, and attacks what's basically the Mediterranean where he loses his fleet in a month-long chase to find the map to said treasure. A map that the party ultimately has.

What I'm wondering is what could the treasure be that's worth all the effort that's not gold? I was thinking maybe it's some native magical artifact. So far the only idea I have is it's a coomer artifact that lets you mind-control women and build a giant harem. I feel it should have more gravitas than that, but I do kinda like the idea that the pirates motivation was petty booty.';

'>>92600935
>What I'm wondering is what could the treasure be that's worth all the effort that's not gold?
Something that related to his ancestors?
Something of personal value
I'm more autistic about
>A rogue admiral takes his fleet, turns pirate
Because it would be very hard to support entire fleet by piracy';

'>>92601234
I was thinking the setting is like One Piece where there's a one-world government that's in essence a military junta that is keeping a veneer of the old monarchism, and it has a problem of leaders forming cults of personality around themselves and cultivating personal loyalty within their command rather than to the government (similar to Rome). And 'rogue general/admiral' is actually the most common threat the government has to deal with (aside from more organic piracy or revolutionaries).

This particular admiral was more just a real noteworthy (and politically embarrassing) case of this happening, with it being more common on smaller-scales.';

'>>92573636
>>92573710
>>92573744
>>92573772
>>92573780
NTA but this was a great read, thank you.';

'>>92600275
>>92600536
cheers, love me some references to heaven';

'What's a good name for a company that produces military combat androids? The setting is shamelessly based on Girls Frontline and I need a Sangvis Ferri ripoff.';

'>>92591496
actually some google-fu says uraninite was called pitchblende in ancient times

that is good enough for me, I think that works';

'>>92604857
Blackmarsh. Sanguine Industries. Neith Industries.';

'>>92604857
Doll-Co. Be blatant about it.';

'I need a name for a galactic federation, preferably something that references the Orion arm in some way. It was started by humans and initially only included Earth, but has since been expanded to include other civilizations in our part of the galaxy.';

'How do I make a setting from scratch? I'm having trouble laying the foundations';

'>>92603149
Thanks. Always great to hear that someone besides myself liked the stuff.

Currently I'm fleshing out a much earlier period following the annexation of Sandarmark into the empire. When the latter tried to integrate the blasphemous gullvegian cult into the wider umbrella of the tetrarchical faith by the creation of a religious order tasked with policing the theology of the former by making sure that its preachings was free of blasphemy. Naturally this wasn't especially popular and lead to a circle of religiously motivated violence and insurgency which radicalized a sizeable portion of the gullvegians and militarized the order until it basically had displaced the imperial machine as the ruler of the province. With the order clamping down on things in Sandarmark many of the leading radicals fled to the wildlands in the east beyond the mountains that separates civilisation from the lands of the savages. Not willing to see blasphemy fester even in so remote a place the orders starts sending out its agents amongst the savage tribes of hillmen to bring the runaways back to face justice for their crimes.
When one particularly haughty tribal chieftain not only refuses to hand over an influential priest that quickly made himself a favourite of the leader, but also executes some of the agents of the order for their perceived lack of respect when making their demands the imperial machine responds by sending in two legions on a Great Raid to lay waste to the territory of the tribe. In doing so the centuries long process of absorbing the Gam Peninsula into the Empire begins.';

'>>92605863
Initially this is process is little more than punishment and division expeditions that serves to keep the savage tribes in check aswell as an ample supply for the imperial economy's constant hunger for slaves. With time the empire begin to establish fortified outposts and keeps amongst the hillmen which slowly grows into towns and serve to fulvianize the locals and tying them closer to the Empire as subjects and client peoples. Eventually, the growing imperial sphere of interest and the already tense relations with the expansionistic tivanian state whose seavoyages has seen much of the shorelands of northern Gam, aswell as some of the inland tribes, fall under their sway, break out into a series of wars in which the empire displaces Tivania as the hegemon of the region which also marks the start of the conquest of Gam proper.';

'>>92605646
You could always start with a king list. Jot down one or two noteworthy things about each ruler and/or their time of rule. Examples could be "was a bad father", "won a great victory" or "stopped a would-be revolution". Once done with a dynasty or two go back and start to flesh out some of the points of interest. Eventually you'll start making connections, tying that catastrophy to the emergence of that new political movement which in turn sets up the event that sees a new people enter the scene of players on the geopolitical scene. From that you're likely to have a good groundwork to work from as each new thing you establish have a habit of leading to a handful more and so on.';

'>>92605052
Going with Neith. Thanks.
>>92605095
Using this for another corp.';

'>>92606141
Also, if you don't have to do a kings list for thid approach to work. Just find something to ground stuff in and tske it from there.
An alternative for a Sci Fi-setting could be to start naming a few planets, give them one or two details each and then see if you can come up with fun ways for the details to impact eachother. If one planet is a ecumenopolis then it's likely that the nearby fertile agrarian planet makes its money supplying it with food. That in turn requires interplanetary transporting which neccessitates some solution to the problem of space being so fucking big. It also asks the question whether there are established travel routes which in turn asks the question if they are in some way policed and orderly or if anarchy reigns supreme once you leave the security of a planet. If piracy is wide-spread then it also follows that said bandits would need to have bases of their to operate from aswell as having their own connection to some kind of interplanetary economy unless they steal in order to ude for themselves in which case you need to figure out how potentially non-planetary societies would operate that rely on piracy for the sruff that they are incapable of achieving self-sustainment.';

'Holy hell, I really should start proof-reading and stop posting in bed.';

'For anyone willing to take a look over this, I'm working on taking an old computer-generated map I used to use for d&d games forever ago and update it using a climate model to rework things from the ground up.

My question is, do these general currents make sense when it comes to temprature? I'm loosely working with the Artifexian videos for this, but I'm not 100% sure how the currents between the two main landmasses work out.';

'>>92587908
>>92589436
>>92589536
>>92590097
So I drew a rough idea of how the radioactive material ability would work

I intended to have it be similar to bending from Avatar, i.e. it is a blend of martial skill and mystical ability.

I'm not sure what to call it as a snappy quick name though. Radiant-dust-bending sounds kind of run-on and long.';

'I've been stuck on the idea of in-setting card games and I've had a couple of ideas I've playtested. The first of them was something less convoluted and only required regular playing cards and that was fun but I've moved onto a different idea that involves three/four suits with face cards having specific effects, etc. Without getting too into details, a lot of stuff is pretty murky still, the idea is that the numbered cards represent soldiers and the suits represent the type of soldier. There's an advantage mechanic between them, similar to the weapon triangle in Fire Emblem. Does "Pikemen beat Cavalry, Cavalry beats Archers, Archers beat Pikemen" ring true enough off the cuff or would something else be better?
A 4 of Pikes beats a 4 or lower of of Horses, or could push a 5 of Horses, whereas a 3 of Arrows could beat a 3 or lower of Pikes. A card played against the same suit has no advantage or disadvantage, so against a 3 of Pikes you'd need a 4 of Pikes or higher, etc.
The nebulous fourth suit which I've not decided to include or not would be a suit with no type weakness but no type advantage but I'm not sure what to call it. That was going to be the Cavalry suit with my original triangle of Blades>Arrows>Helms but it didn't make enough sense.';

'>>92605646
The usual answer I give is that you should start with something that you think is interesting. Unless you're a specific kind of autist, worldbuilding is something you should do to support a story by grounding it in a setting that's thought-out and internally consistent.
If you're just looking for something to, for lack a of better term, practice on, you could start with writing up a city. It's always a good idea to start out somewhat narrow and slowly expand outwards, instead of having to make everything all at once.';

'>>92605646
Copy something else, but with twist';

'>>92593804
I'm working on one right now with my group of friends that's set in modern times - well, sort of. Supercorp buys Bahrain, evicts everyone, levels it and build a gigantic WalMart that spans three quarters of the landmass. Supercorp goes bankrupt, all travel is cut off, and the people of the MegaMart degenerate into various tribes based on the Departments of the gigantic store.
It's incredibly stupid, but designing the Tribes of the Mart has been great fun so far.';

'>>92610959
What have you copied that way?';

'>>92616351
not him, but I started worldbuilding by basically plagiarizing other settings and changing stuff that I didn't like from the originals, or adding stuff from other settings that I like.
for instance, I wanted to play in a Castlevania setting but didn't want to adhere to the actual lore, so I changed Dracula to some other guy and changed the lore around him, his castle and its monsters.

If you want a more proper example from real media you probably know, take something like Fist of the North Star, which is basically Mad Max but with crazy magic martial arts.
Just mix and match stuff you enjoy, I'm sure you can come up with something, and don't forget that you're free to come up with the cool stuff first and reverse-explain it later, that's what I do and honestly my explanations become even better because of it.';

'>>92605646
Have a single idea of your own and write it down.

Seriously, why do you want to make a setting from scratch?

Want to do Mass Effect, but better? Take notes on what you liked in Mass Effect and other similar franchises (Traveller, Halo, Known Space, Animorphs, etc), then start mixing them in a blender.

Want to do World War One as a fantasy setting? Make notes on relevant mythologies, geography, etc. Decide what characteristics you want the magic system to have.

Want to make a game for your players? Design one single town and one single dungeon, and just throw whatever you want in as implications to get developed down the line.';

'>>92616351
Parts of Silmarillion, especially /insert race/ coming back to land under control of Satan where almost all humans serve him';

'>>92565775
>look mom, it's not Tamriel!';

'>>92608770
Oceanic currents are based on the Coriolis effect (rotation of the Earth) as well as temperature, so all gyres should turn in the same direction, depending on whether they're north or south of the equator.';

'>>92608770
I think that central ocean would actually be much warmer than the rest of the world since the water largely remains there. Being close to the equator, it will just warm up and couldn't travel that far up north to cool down, cycling back into the central sea. The far western side of the western continents are probably going to be much cooler than expected, and I'd imagine its northwestern side to be one of the colder parts of the world. Remember that, on our planet at least, water at the equator is warm because of constant exposure to the sun and it will be warmest on its most western side as it takes time to travel on the equator, continuously warming up. It only begins to cool when it travels up north away from the sun.';

'>>92616351
NTA but my setting basically stems from the questions
>what if the romans lost the cimbric war and
>what if Scipio Africanus accepted the kingship his allied troops wanted to give him.';

'>>92584618
Monads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(philosophy)';

'So this isn't 100% complete, and it probably sucks, but how does this look? Assuming that the planet's equator is a little further south, does everything look okay for the most part? Also, does it make sense for the circled area to be a desert? Or too many lakes?';

'>>92623048
Any idea what I should call this?
>>92609215';

'>>92623166
I'd need a map legend. I assume this is a topographic map?

Anyway I think it suffers from 'lonely island' syndrome which a lot of fantasy does, which is the setting is an island continent rather than connected to a larger continent. Which I think removes a lot of interesting things you can do with geographic natural barriers as it's pretty easy to sail around locations, and a lack of strategic straight crossings. Maybe add a 'barrier continent' on some of the corners nearby. Outside of that I think the plethora of lakes is good, but mayb the continent should be larger in comparison to them. I think those inland seas could also be a little enlarged. And I think the outlines just look a little rough.';

'>>92592076
>settings
Hex Width: 84
Hex Height: 96
Some of the map Features are scaled to on 60-75%. This particular map also has Hex Orientation be set to True Rows, with a dimensions of 80x110 hexes iirc.
I uploaded this to Owlbear Rodeo as I find its map adjusting tool superior to Roll20’s, but had to deal with compression and poor image quality on mobile devices. You may have to fiddle with the hex height on your VTT of choice as it may not entirely match up with the hex grid.
>>92618955
There are even not!Nords and not!Imperials fighting each other!';

'>>92623166
both "bays" wouldn't be called like that by anyone living in that world
That clearly a massive sea in both cases
bothers my autism';

'I was thinking of drawbacks to magic that wouldn't make it any less cool.
And then I realized, wouldn't the ability to completely shape nature to your whim make a Wizard *really* arrogant? And isn't Pride the first and worst of all sins?

So what if the drawback of Magic isn't some stupid game mechanic, but instead the negative feedback loop it traps its users into?
Why, it would basically create a perpetual supply of Lucifers and Demiurges. Would-Be gods that think they can make a better world than God...or at least destroy this one if it displeases them.';

'>>92630845
It's normal to take pride in your work, even if it's just conceit and your "achievements" are meaningless
Shaping nature with your magic wouldn't be any different than being proud of humming a song in a funny way.';

'>>92630867
And you think people who take pride in their work aren't conceited?

Pride is a bad thing in itself. It leads you to place yourself above others, and only think of your fellow humans as objects.';

'>>92631089
>Pride is a bad thing in itself. It leads you to place yourself above others, and only think of your fellow humans as objects.
Don't be a dingus.';

'How do you create a genuinely unique culture/civilisation, instead of some knock off?
Sometimes it feels like trying to create a colour that doesn't exist';

'I feel like a fraud because most of my world is stuff from different games I like kitbashed together and it's making me feel kinda burnt out';

'A despotic government has the guilty party's family partake in public cannibalism of the executed as punishment. How effective would it be in deterring dissent when the family is disgraced because they ate their own and forever associate meat with cannibalistic behavior?';

'>>92635161
it's not the severity of punishment that's deterring, it's the certainty of it. Being made to publicly confess would be deterrence enough if the authorities got their guy every time.';

'>>92635161
That sort of stuff depends entirely on cultural notions regarding cleanliness, the handling of the dead, the afterlife, and consumption of meat, to name just a few.

As an example, being forced to consumed your loved one is much more horrendous in a society who think that the wholeness of one's mortal body reflects upon their spiritual body. Some cultures might even think that separating parts of the body also separates parts of the soul, which could mean that a cannibal would basically have bits of the soul of the consumed stuck to them, rendering the deceased unwhole in the afterlife. Undoubtedly that is going to lead some people to shy away from them in fear of becoming collateral damage from whatever haunting happens as a result of the the splintered soul throwing a shitfit.
Another society might instead see the forced cannibalism as just a humiliating act the family is put through to for the sake of further deterrence without it tainting them further while yet another culture might understand it as a redemptive act in which the family consumes and thereby obliterates the shame of having had such a member. In this latter case the eating would be obligatory for the family's reintroduction back into society since not consuming the guilty would mean that they sanctioned his actions. Why else would they not want to remove the stain on their family?

Another thing you have to consider is how widespread such punishment is. If it is carried out too much then it's easy to think that the cannibals, if they are shunned by society, would get together and form their own community which in turn would be a breeding ground for criminal enterprises and insurrection.';

'>>92635782
If I understand you correctly you seem to focus on the act of cannibalism tainting their relationship to meat eating from then on. If meat fill some cultural/religious role in this society then you could definitely use that to justify the family's disgrace by it making it hard, if not outright impossible, for them to take part in rituals of purification/cleansing or friendship.
>>92635769
>it's not the severity of punishment that's deterring, it's the certainty of it.
Yes and no. It's definitely true that for crimes of passion deterrence holds very little value since people by definition tend to not think rationality when committing such deeds. Same goes for crimes that are hard to catch people for or are understood to not be particularly zealously enforced. After all, you're much more likely to take your chance and not buy a ticket for the bus or train when you know that they only rarely check them verses if you know that they tend to check everyone who goes on board.
>Being made to publicly confess would be deterrence enough if the authorities got their guy every time.
That's not true. A public confessions is only a deterrence if the person doing it considers it negatively impacting him or her in some way and as such what's important is the feeling of shame and potential societal fallout. For a passing-by stranger with no ties to the community just having to publicly confess would hardly be a deterrence at all.';

'>>92631131
Don't be an idiot.';

'In The Wheel, which is the name of all the various worlds and elements of my setting, magic is basically an expression of the ego into the physical world.
>It can be manipulated by humans because humans were created in the form of God. However, they aren't the only ones. Or for that matter, even the strongest ones.
>The Gods are the most powerful users of magic, because their egos are the greatest. After all, they're the Lords of All Creation. Some are even so arrogant that they think they are rulers of the universe.
>However, all that egotism blinds them to the fact that magic is hardly supreme. The Will of Heaven is another supernatural force of the universe, not to be confused with magic. If anything, it's the anti-magic. It's responsible for ending the disruption magic causes, and can only be used by Priests after sufficiently quelling their egos and becoming mere instruments of capital G God's Will.
>The *other* magical users that are stronger than humans, but slightly weaker than the gods, are the Demons. They aren't strong enough to overthrow the gods, but are strong enough that the gods don't mess with them.
>Humans lack enough egotism to use magic to the full extent of its power. But at the same time, their ability to subordinate themselves to "The Will" allows them to wield powers that can dispel magic.
>Since magic is effectively the application of egotism, Mages are egotistical. The more powerful a Mage, the more of a solipsist he would be. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are evil, or even cruel, but it does mean that they are incredibly self-centered and conceited.
>However, the presence of powerful religious bodies ensures that their egoism doesn't destroy society. Some of them can even be made to work for it, as long as it's on their own terms.
>For this very reason, Mage organizations like the Academies of Magic or the Directorates (basically the Magic warriors) tend to be highly competitive and prioritize individual prowess.';

'>>92638866
While most civilizations use magic, there's a massive difference between "Magic Users" and Mages.

>A magic user is just using magic. He doesn't study it, he may not even have created the magic he's using, he just wields it like a tool or a weapon. Think like the many mythical Heroes who use divine items that the gods gifted to them. Except in this case, Mages will give them in return for money or favors.
>A Mage, otoh, is someone who studies magic. These are people who pore over old tomes where the old Masters have described countless thousands of spells, and work out how to reproduce and maybe even strengthen them. To figure out just how magic works, and how it can be used for their own selfish purposes.

To reiterate, those selfish purposes need not be evil. An entrepreneur who wants to become rich by selling products or services is still selfish, but he's also beneficial to society. That's the kind of Enlightened Self-interest Mages like.';

'>>92638893
Selling magic is actually a pretty big industry. From something as simple as potions that improve your health to literal resurrection contracts.

>Naturally, alchemy is the most profitable because it creates physical products. Alchemists commonly create potions that will delay sickness, normal medicines, potions that give you supernatural abilities, transmute cheaper metals to more expensive ones, and sometimes even grant a limited form of immortality.
>The second most profitable are what you might call White Mages. They heal people, and can even resurrect you from the dead. Their services are equivalent to having a permanent supply of potions.
>Just their knowledge of reality can also be highly profitable. It was Mages who invented gunpowder, started the use of fossil fuels, created the steam engine, and even AI. You gotta know the rules to break them, after all. So Mages are often experts in myriad fields of natural sciences.
>Other than that, there's good old fashioned mercenary work. Many Mages find work keeping colonies safe from monsters and spirits. They are also useful in hunting down evil spirits, especially in more atheistic places where priests are hard to find.
>This also means that Mage organizations tend to be filthy rich. And of course, the major officials in such organizations are also powerful or well-respected Mages.

All in all, there's lots of money in being a Mage. 4/5 of the world's richest people at any given time are Mages, though few of them show up in the Forbes 2000 because Mages prefer to live on the down low.';

'So naturally, the Academies are filthy rich. Not just because their alumni are rich, and said alumni give massive endowments as long as they get shiny plaques and certain privileges out of it, but because even the government makes sure to give them lots of money to operate better.

And what do said Academies do?
>Firstly, they find new Mages. Not anyone can learn magic, you need a certain talent for it. You either have it or you don't, though once you have it your power scales with meaningful effort. A "weak" Mage that learns lots of useful spells will thrash a "powerful" Mage that gets complacent.
>Weakness or power isn't a function of genetics, but the children of Mages have a higher chance of being Mages. Most of them still do have some magic power, but most people have miniscule levels of magical power that don't let them do anything more than use Magical Items.
>However, most Mages are Muggle-born, to use a Harry Potter term. Their parents have low enough magical power to be unable to be proper Mages.
>Now, when they DO find these Mages, usually just with Scrying for particularly large disruptions of reality? They just send them either a letter or a faculty member to explain the situation and offer a seat.
>Rejections are rare. Especially in certain countries which make it mandatory for potential Mages to join an Academy.
>And the rewards, of course, are many. You won't find many poor Mages. Even if they were unemployed, they could easily subside by just creating food and water for themselves. The most powerful ones can outright create entire dimensions for themselves.';

'>>92639062
>Secondly, they educate said Mages. This means hours and hours of poring over thick tomes describing every spell and spell system in existence.
>They also learn the theory, which is about how you get into the mindset that allows you to project your will into reality and warp it to your whims. How to channel supernatural power. And how to perceive the world in ways physical beings just cannot.
>They also learn how to fight. Magic grows stronger by combat, and many Mages get into wars just so that they can become powerful by struggling hard until their Ego is easier to project. It is said that being close to death sharpens your self.
>Other than that, they also learn "normal" things like science, economics, history, and foreign languages. Since Mages are natural geniuses, they rarely take these classes very seriously.
>Some magics are so advanced and useful that they have entire faculty devoted just to understanding and teaching about them. Magics like force manipulation, space manipulation, or time manipulation have entire departments for themselves.
>They also learn to meditate and become less impetuous. Hubris is the #1 killer of Mages, and the faculty would rather their students live long enough to give them heavy endowments.';

'>>92639111
>And thirdly, they research Magic.
>Now let's be honest here. Magic is dangerous, unpredictable stuff. Expecting it to follow a set pattern of laws is a fool's gambit. It's better to be prepared for ANYTHING. You can't even expect it to do the same thing thrice in a row.
>Mages usually follow the usual Scientific Process. They observe and explore a topic, read up about it, form their hypothesis, test it with experiments, check the outcomes, and write down the conclusions.
>Needless to say, the experiments are the most dangerous part. There is absolutely no way to know what magic will do if you're about to use an unfamiliar spell, so Mages are encouraged to carry out their experiments in special pocket dimensions.
>Yeah, they're so dangerous that you don't even want to be in the same UNIVERSE as them.
>But worth noting that while the experiments are the scariest part, the others are hardly safe. Researching magic is dangerous for your sanity. Some spells can drive you mad. And writing magic down, or even keeping it in your head, tends to warp reality and create unpredictable outcomes.
>There's a reason most Mages are only allowed to practice magic past the age of 25. And even then, a third of them don't live long enough to die of old age.';

'Why isn't this thread being bumped?';