by Ippy Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:21 pmThe World
On this planet, its inhabitants simply refer to it as The World. They call it that because though they understand the concept of a planet, they have seen no evidence of any other planets. In fact, some god-based religions speculate that there is another planet full of The World’s creators.
The World is divided into realms, large planes of earth and ocean. The world itself is immeasurably vast, and it is unknown exactly how many realms there are (though efforts have and are being made to record each realm). The realms themselves are separated by silver veils, magical auroras through which physical matter may not pass. Essentially, a realm is defined all the area enclosed within a border of silver veils. The veils may extend into or be found in the middle of a realm, but so long as they do not close off an area, they establish no new realms.
The World is proven flat. The Coriolis Effect does not apply, pendulums swing in a line indefinitely, toilets flush straight down, and there are no leap seconds. Most importantly, those realms at the edge of The World, through supernatural means, have discovered that beyond one or more of their silver veils lies nothing but the emptiness of space. As far as The World’s inhabitants can tell, the earth beneath their feet goes on infinitely. Some religions speculate that there is a world on the other side, or some other cosmic/heavenly existence.
A single sun overlooks The World, high above the moons. It operates in a 24 hour cycle, gradually increasing and decreasing in light. During the night, the sun is not visible. It does not appear to move at any time. The sun’s effect on each realm is basically the same, and its position does not appear to change regardless of which realm one stands in. It is thus theorized the sun is very far from The World.
For the most part, all the realms have adopted a standard measurement of time. There are 100 days in a month, 100 months in a year, and 100 years in an era. Since the counting of time, one era, one month, and nine days have passed. Dates are commonly expressed by only their day number, the units of months and years finding their place only in documents meant to stand the test of time.
Moons, Magic, and Crystals
Whereas there is only one sun, there is a multitude of moons. They are located at differing heights, but are believed to be much closer than the sun. Moons do not appear to affect gravity, and are visible during the day. They travel above The World’s surface at unpredictable speeds in unpredictable paths. A slow moving moon may rest above a single realm for years, and then zip over to another realm in a matter of hours. Moons occasionally collide with another, smashing into bits or cleaving another into small fragments. As such, moons are not always spherical, and can be tiny enough where they aren’t visible by the naked eye.
Moon collisions can create devastating meteor storms, sometimes even sending a mountain sized rock hurling toward The World. This can spell the end for a realm, and leave a lasting body of moon rock embedded in the earth. Also, small moons for some reason plummet to the earth, splintering and shattering as they go. As a result, small moon rocks can be found all over The World. Moons are made out of crystal, similar in appearance to jewels.
Most can immediately tell the difference between a moon crystal and a jewel, however, for moons are the source of all magic. There are six types of moons, one for each color of magic. A moon is always one color; crystals, despite all attempts, cannot be merged or combined in any way. The six colors are: green, red, purple, blue, yellow, and silver. Each color is associated with two elements and numerous values.
Green is the color of life and earth. Green is associated with growth, mirth, happiness, health, food, envy, decay, sorrow, survival, stability, chaos, instinct, stupidity, and common sense.
Red is the color of fire and light. Red is associated with anger, passion, love, lust, desire, kindness, forgiveness, hate, hostility, impulse, vengeance, patience, and protection.
Purple is the color of ice and the psych. Purple is associated with knowledge, truth, deceit, pride, expertise, inability, humility, advantage, clarity, precision, perfection, and failure.
Blue is the color of wind and water. It is associated with honor, duty, sloth, discipline, friendship, loyalty, community, isolation, rivalry, disrespect, obedience, tolerance, and ostracism.
Yellow is the color of lightning and sound. Yellow is associated with power, despair, hope, ambition, cunning, resourcefulness, worthlessness, virtue, zeal, purpose, greed, absence, and benevolence.
Silver is the color of death and the soul. Silver is associated purity, innocence, judgment, evil, apathy, harmony, transcendence, fate, divinity, heroism, and peace.
Because moon crystals are infused with the colors of magic, they are a sought-after resource, made use of in all manner of inventions. For instance, many sell-swords value blades wrought of silver crystal, as an opponent cut by silver may instantly be afflicted with death (granted the sell-sword is properly channeling the crystal blade).
Weather and Technology
In fact, The World is highly defined by magic. Weather, though it operates as physics would suggest it should, is largely a function of any present moons. As moons are enormous sources of magic, the sheer power they radiate changes the land beneath them. The larger and closer the moon, the greater the effect. As an example, consider a realm beneath a large red moon and a small blue moon. The blue moon might cause rainfall and weak winds, where as the large red moon would bathe the realm in perpetual light and scorching heat. If the red moon were larger, the realm might even experience wildfires.
Since magic is so prevalent in The World and all have access to it, technology is not only melded with magic but is based off of it. Inhabitants of The World were able to manipulate and control electric energy before they were able to communicate with words. Computers have yet to be developed, oil and natural gas are not fuels, and physics are often attributed to magic, not nature. There is sparse knowledge of biology, but medicine and healing is made possible through magic. Complex machinery does not exist, however there are often simple, magical substitutes, such as an animated golem in place of a crane. The most important law of The World’s technology is that realms can differ greatly in their inventions, styles, and age of development, due to the difficulty of passing knowledge between realms.
Heroes, Souls, and the Silver Veils
What happens in the afterlife is common knowledge in The World. Applications of silver magic have discovered that once a living thing is killed, be it sentient or not, its soul leaves its body and slowly drifts to another realm, somewhere beyond a silver veil. The soul will then linger in that realm until a new, compatible body appears that it may populate. Souls retain no memory once they cross the silver veil, but still carry their intrinsic values, beliefs, feelings, and personalities. A new life in another realm can then modify these before the soul passes on to yet another realm. The process is not perfect, however, and sometimes (very rarely) certain memories persist beyond death, the soul inhabits an incompatible body, or the soul is radically mutated. When such an estranged soul passes through a veil again, it will likely be returned to its normal state.
Occasionally, when a soul passes through a veil, it becomes a heroic soul (there are heroic rats, rabbits, kittens, and ferns). Heroic souls lose their heroic status once they have been disembodied and passed through another veil, similar to memories. The difference between heroic souls and non-heroic souls is that heroic souls are significantly more palpable via magic. Once a heroic soul takes a body, that being is called a hero or villain, depending on society’s reception of the individual. Heroes are generally found out at a young age due to their glaring differences from their non-heroic counterparts. Heroes are skilled at nearly everything they try their hand at. They learn quickly, often masters and prodigies in their field. Their reflexes are unnatural, and magic comes easily. Most prominently, they have supernatural abilities, unique to the individual. Some heroes can conjure lightning storms, whilst others become like lightning themselves as they perform their craft with blazing speeds.
All heroes share the momentous ability to walk through the silver veil. They can take no physical thing with them; however, they do have access to what is called the heroic pouch. Each hero has their own pouch, and it is theorized that the pouch is an extension of their heroic aura (explained below). The heroic pouch is a place of limitless space, and all the hero need do is open the pouch and place an object within. Thus a hero can carry an infinite amount of things (so it is believed), so long as he or she can fit them through the mouth of the pouch. The mouth appears as a silver line in the air beside the hero’s hand, and when stretched it remains a portal of silver aura. It can stretch to a width equal to its length, appearing a rounded diamond shape when fully opened. The length seems based on hero age, and as heroes have long life spans, the pouch can become quite large. In this way, older heroes can transport humans between realms.
Also, heroic bodies are gifted with the heroic aura, a shield against all harm. The aura is not detectable, except for when the hero actually has harm inflicted upon them. In this situation, silver aura appears around the hero’s body where the body would be damaged. The aura can absorb much pressure, but not all pressure. A blade that would cleave a man in two would only leave a cut upon a hero. Likewise, a fall that would normally kill a human would only impart bruises on a hero. As the heroic aura protects against all harm, it also reduces the effects of poison, disease, and hostile magic. Individual heroic auras have varying potencies, some being more effective against certain types of attack than others.
Heroes are expected to do great things, and are by and large treated as first class citizens. They are also expected to do battle for the public good, as they lend themselves so well to combat. This is because they are so hard to kill; even untrained heroes are a large threat. Their soul’s susceptibility to magic allows for easy resurrection if they do die, and their supernatural abilities, more often than not, are combat orientated. They are physically more capable: stronger, quicker, and metabolically superior (more often in-shape). As a final point, whether a hero likes fighting or not, they will be good at it if exposed long enough.
Inhabitants of The World
Heroes are called upon to fight due to the influx of monsters which inhabit The World. Monsters are any living thing without a soul, and, for whatever reason, are generally malevolent when it comes to other living things, most of all sentient living things. Since monsters are often slaying machines, societies have come to rely on heroes to counter this obvious threat by virtue of their heroic prowess. Even in comparison to heroes, however, monsters can be quite dangerous, even powerful with magic (though not exactly cunning in its use and application). Many heroes have met their end against the monstrous horde. Monsters, then, are rightly feared. Those realms with monstrous problems view the green moon as ill omen, for it spurs monster growth, number, and ferocity.
There exists an unknown amount of sentient races in The World. Things like elves and fairies aren’t unheard of, but they are myths and child’s tales as much as they are real. Humankind makes up 95% of The World’s sentient population, and so humankind is naturally suspicious of all intelligent, non-human life, if just due to lack of understanding. Non-humans are accepted by most human communities even so, and non-humans need not worry about higher prices at the market. It’s simply more comfortable living with one’s own race, where they are more understood and better accepted.
Of the local flora and fauna of The World, many of the species found on Earth may be found on The World. Generally, however, The World boasts a lesser variety of species, as each must be more adapted to the highly unpredictable and ever-changing climate of each realm. A little over one-third of The World’s species are not found are Earth, and of those about half are fantastical or magical in some way.
On this planet, its inhabitants simply refer to it as The World. They call it that because though they understand the concept of a planet, they have seen no evidence of any other planets. In fact, some god-based religions speculate that there is another planet full of The World’s creators.
The World is divided into realms, large planes of earth and ocean. The world itself is immeasurably vast, and it is unknown exactly how many realms there are (though efforts have and are being made to record each realm). The realms themselves are separated by silver veils, magical auroras through which physical matter may not pass. Essentially, a realm is defined all the area enclosed within a border of silver veils. The veils may extend into or be found in the middle of a realm, but so long as they do not close off an area, they establish no new realms.
The World is proven flat. The Coriolis Effect does not apply, pendulums swing in a line indefinitely, toilets flush straight down, and there are no leap seconds. Most importantly, those realms at the edge of The World, through supernatural means, have discovered that beyond one or more of their silver veils lies nothing but the emptiness of space. As far as The World’s inhabitants can tell, the earth beneath their feet goes on infinitely. Some religions speculate that there is a world on the other side, or some other cosmic/heavenly existence.
A single sun overlooks The World, high above the moons. It operates in a 24 hour cycle, gradually increasing and decreasing in light. During the night, the sun is not visible. It does not appear to move at any time. The sun’s effect on each realm is basically the same, and its position does not appear to change regardless of which realm one stands in. It is thus theorized the sun is very far from The World.
For the most part, all the realms have adopted a standard measurement of time. There are 100 days in a month, 100 months in a year, and 100 years in an era. Since the counting of time, one era, one month, and nine days have passed. Dates are commonly expressed by only their day number, the units of months and years finding their place only in documents meant to stand the test of time.
Moons, Magic, and Crystals
Whereas there is only one sun, there is a multitude of moons. They are located at differing heights, but are believed to be much closer than the sun. Moons do not appear to affect gravity, and are visible during the day. They travel above The World’s surface at unpredictable speeds in unpredictable paths. A slow moving moon may rest above a single realm for years, and then zip over to another realm in a matter of hours. Moons occasionally collide with another, smashing into bits or cleaving another into small fragments. As such, moons are not always spherical, and can be tiny enough where they aren’t visible by the naked eye.
Moon collisions can create devastating meteor storms, sometimes even sending a mountain sized rock hurling toward The World. This can spell the end for a realm, and leave a lasting body of moon rock embedded in the earth. Also, small moons for some reason plummet to the earth, splintering and shattering as they go. As a result, small moon rocks can be found all over The World. Moons are made out of crystal, similar in appearance to jewels.
Most can immediately tell the difference between a moon crystal and a jewel, however, for moons are the source of all magic. There are six types of moons, one for each color of magic. A moon is always one color; crystals, despite all attempts, cannot be merged or combined in any way. The six colors are: green, red, purple, blue, yellow, and silver. Each color is associated with two elements and numerous values.
Green is the color of life and earth. Green is associated with growth, mirth, happiness, health, food, envy, decay, sorrow, survival, stability, chaos, instinct, stupidity, and common sense.
Red is the color of fire and light. Red is associated with anger, passion, love, lust, desire, kindness, forgiveness, hate, hostility, impulse, vengeance, patience, and protection.
Purple is the color of ice and the psych. Purple is associated with knowledge, truth, deceit, pride, expertise, inability, humility, advantage, clarity, precision, perfection, and failure.
Blue is the color of wind and water. It is associated with honor, duty, sloth, discipline, friendship, loyalty, community, isolation, rivalry, disrespect, obedience, tolerance, and ostracism.
Yellow is the color of lightning and sound. Yellow is associated with power, despair, hope, ambition, cunning, resourcefulness, worthlessness, virtue, zeal, purpose, greed, absence, and benevolence.
Silver is the color of death and the soul. Silver is associated purity, innocence, judgment, evil, apathy, harmony, transcendence, fate, divinity, heroism, and peace.
Because moon crystals are infused with the colors of magic, they are a sought-after resource, made use of in all manner of inventions. For instance, many sell-swords value blades wrought of silver crystal, as an opponent cut by silver may instantly be afflicted with death (granted the sell-sword is properly channeling the crystal blade).
Weather and Technology
In fact, The World is highly defined by magic. Weather, though it operates as physics would suggest it should, is largely a function of any present moons. As moons are enormous sources of magic, the sheer power they radiate changes the land beneath them. The larger and closer the moon, the greater the effect. As an example, consider a realm beneath a large red moon and a small blue moon. The blue moon might cause rainfall and weak winds, where as the large red moon would bathe the realm in perpetual light and scorching heat. If the red moon were larger, the realm might even experience wildfires.
Since magic is so prevalent in The World and all have access to it, technology is not only melded with magic but is based off of it. Inhabitants of The World were able to manipulate and control electric energy before they were able to communicate with words. Computers have yet to be developed, oil and natural gas are not fuels, and physics are often attributed to magic, not nature. There is sparse knowledge of biology, but medicine and healing is made possible through magic. Complex machinery does not exist, however there are often simple, magical substitutes, such as an animated golem in place of a crane. The most important law of The World’s technology is that realms can differ greatly in their inventions, styles, and age of development, due to the difficulty of passing knowledge between realms.
Heroes, Souls, and the Silver Veils
What happens in the afterlife is common knowledge in The World. Applications of silver magic have discovered that once a living thing is killed, be it sentient or not, its soul leaves its body and slowly drifts to another realm, somewhere beyond a silver veil. The soul will then linger in that realm until a new, compatible body appears that it may populate. Souls retain no memory once they cross the silver veil, but still carry their intrinsic values, beliefs, feelings, and personalities. A new life in another realm can then modify these before the soul passes on to yet another realm. The process is not perfect, however, and sometimes (very rarely) certain memories persist beyond death, the soul inhabits an incompatible body, or the soul is radically mutated. When such an estranged soul passes through a veil again, it will likely be returned to its normal state.
Occasionally, when a soul passes through a veil, it becomes a heroic soul (there are heroic rats, rabbits, kittens, and ferns). Heroic souls lose their heroic status once they have been disembodied and passed through another veil, similar to memories. The difference between heroic souls and non-heroic souls is that heroic souls are significantly more palpable via magic. Once a heroic soul takes a body, that being is called a hero or villain, depending on society’s reception of the individual. Heroes are generally found out at a young age due to their glaring differences from their non-heroic counterparts. Heroes are skilled at nearly everything they try their hand at. They learn quickly, often masters and prodigies in their field. Their reflexes are unnatural, and magic comes easily. Most prominently, they have supernatural abilities, unique to the individual. Some heroes can conjure lightning storms, whilst others become like lightning themselves as they perform their craft with blazing speeds.
All heroes share the momentous ability to walk through the silver veil. They can take no physical thing with them; however, they do have access to what is called the heroic pouch. Each hero has their own pouch, and it is theorized that the pouch is an extension of their heroic aura (explained below). The heroic pouch is a place of limitless space, and all the hero need do is open the pouch and place an object within. Thus a hero can carry an infinite amount of things (so it is believed), so long as he or she can fit them through the mouth of the pouch. The mouth appears as a silver line in the air beside the hero’s hand, and when stretched it remains a portal of silver aura. It can stretch to a width equal to its length, appearing a rounded diamond shape when fully opened. The length seems based on hero age, and as heroes have long life spans, the pouch can become quite large. In this way, older heroes can transport humans between realms.
Also, heroic bodies are gifted with the heroic aura, a shield against all harm. The aura is not detectable, except for when the hero actually has harm inflicted upon them. In this situation, silver aura appears around the hero’s body where the body would be damaged. The aura can absorb much pressure, but not all pressure. A blade that would cleave a man in two would only leave a cut upon a hero. Likewise, a fall that would normally kill a human would only impart bruises on a hero. As the heroic aura protects against all harm, it also reduces the effects of poison, disease, and hostile magic. Individual heroic auras have varying potencies, some being more effective against certain types of attack than others.
Heroes are expected to do great things, and are by and large treated as first class citizens. They are also expected to do battle for the public good, as they lend themselves so well to combat. This is because they are so hard to kill; even untrained heroes are a large threat. Their soul’s susceptibility to magic allows for easy resurrection if they do die, and their supernatural abilities, more often than not, are combat orientated. They are physically more capable: stronger, quicker, and metabolically superior (more often in-shape). As a final point, whether a hero likes fighting or not, they will be good at it if exposed long enough.
Inhabitants of The World
Heroes are called upon to fight due to the influx of monsters which inhabit The World. Monsters are any living thing without a soul, and, for whatever reason, are generally malevolent when it comes to other living things, most of all sentient living things. Since monsters are often slaying machines, societies have come to rely on heroes to counter this obvious threat by virtue of their heroic prowess. Even in comparison to heroes, however, monsters can be quite dangerous, even powerful with magic (though not exactly cunning in its use and application). Many heroes have met their end against the monstrous horde. Monsters, then, are rightly feared. Those realms with monstrous problems view the green moon as ill omen, for it spurs monster growth, number, and ferocity.
There exists an unknown amount of sentient races in The World. Things like elves and fairies aren’t unheard of, but they are myths and child’s tales as much as they are real. Humankind makes up 95% of The World’s sentient population, and so humankind is naturally suspicious of all intelligent, non-human life, if just due to lack of understanding. Non-humans are accepted by most human communities even so, and non-humans need not worry about higher prices at the market. It’s simply more comfortable living with one’s own race, where they are more understood and better accepted.
Of the local flora and fauna of The World, many of the species found on Earth may be found on The World. Generally, however, The World boasts a lesser variety of species, as each must be more adapted to the highly unpredictable and ever-changing climate of each realm. A little over one-third of The World’s species are not found are Earth, and of those about half are fantastical or magical in some way.
Last edited by Ippy on Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:04 pm; edited 3 times in total
