1. The world of Squiggleshit is not a proper planet of its own, but is a moon, orbiting a gas giant by the name of Yurgulurgul. Squiggleshit has an rotational period of 1 Earth day, and orbits Yurgulurgul once every thirty days. This causes Squiggleshit to be eclipsed for 10 days out of every thirty, effectively creating a "dark season" once a month.
2. There are other moons orbiting Yurgulurgul, some lifeless and barren, others covered in jungles and oceans. Eclipses are relatively common. Occasionally, once every hundred years or so, the orbital paths of two moons almost intersect, causing them to pass within a few dozen kilometers of each other. During this period, a bridge between worlds is formed, and each moon siphons off some of the other's atmosphere. Certain bird species even depend upon such atmospheric exchanges for migration.
There... those are some pretty major things. After all the details of astronomical significance (pun intended) are laid out, I'll move on to more local creations.
Edit: changed moon orbital periods to make calculation easier.
I actually love the idea of living on moons. Also, your names are terrible and you should feel terrible.
1. The Kingdom. On Squiggleshit (can we change this ASAP?), a country simply known as The Kingdom rules over a part of the northern region, surrounding a great lake and stretching out in all directions from it. The Kingdom is largely populated by peasants, farmers and miners, simple people living on the rather harsh countryside to provide food and materials for the few major cities, which live in technological splendor. While uprisings previously had been very effective for the countryfolk in getting what they want, they have been driven to silence because of The Kingdom's new favourite invention: the laser rifle. Since no one but those in the big cities can get their hands on this marvel or technology, the rest are screwed should any fight arise.
The countryside consists of a patchwork mixture of farmland, forests and great hills. Forests are largely untouched, causing many to fear what lurks in the shadowy corners of The Kingdom. The King himself, Lord Slagathor, has never spoken on this subject, instead preferring to remain out of sight and only speak through his employees. In fact, no one has seen Lord Slagathor in at least ten thousand years (that's in Squiggleshit years), yet they are certain that no one else has taken the throne from him.
Yurgulurgul has many satellites, but travel is forbidden only to one; Westworld.
Established as a prison planet, its hostile conditions and orbital distance from the more civilized moons made it the perfect place to exile criminals. Though technically habitable, its surface is nothing more than a vast desert stretching for hundreds of miles before terminating in a barren, salt-dead sea. Folks have been sending their unwanted to Westworld for a long time, and it's more a lawless frontier than a jail at this point, but that doesn't change the fact there's no way off. A few ramshackle towns have sprung up over time that offer a small taste of civilization, but there are no true laws—in the end, it's a place where only the tough survive.
((In short: Australia meets the Wild West in space.))
This is my second part of the creation, and it's a big one. It might upset some people, but for Bot to sleep well at night, I think it's necessary.
Magic. A wonderful thing, mysterious. Hard to understand. How do you conjure water out of naught, make the earth shake and cause bad dreams which has you screaming through the night? We'll have to step away from what "science" constitutes as reality for a little bit here, but I think you all can follow.
Energy is not hard to detect. You feel something, it's hot. Simple as that. What is the equivalent of magic, and how come so many people never sense it? That's because magic interacts differently with the rest of reality or, more specifically, does not in its natural state. We call the energy of the magic realm PF, potential filaments. Filaments, you may have heard that. Well, a filament is how raw magic manifests itself in reality, when forced into proper existence. This making any sort of sense yet? Okay, good.
So, potential filaments. There's not just one kind of them. There is a swarm of different kinds of magic, however in their natural state they are flexible. They constantly transform, switching between what we call aspects of magic. To be usable for the mage, though, potential filaments in their raw form need to be processed. This is what we call accumulating. PFs are brought together, creating a chain dedicated to a single aspect of magic. This is a filament proper, and it is very unstable. If not used by the mage for a spell, it will quickly dissipate and return to its natural state. This can, in certain situations and especially when dealing with large quantities of long filaments, get very violent unless handled properly.
So, what aspects are there? Well, magic researchers sometimes manage to discover something new, but oftentimes we refer to the 12 Aspects of Magic: Spoiler:Show
Astrotropy - The aspect of the infinite space. Uncontrolled dissipation may cause headache, exhaustion and summoning Cthulhu. Ataxatropy - The aspect of chaos itself. Any dissipation will get messy, and very unpredictable. Biotropy - The aspect of life. Uncontrolled dissipation may cause hernias and cancer. Have fun. Geotropy - The aspect of all things mineral. Dissipation might make you dirty, or a statue. Hydrotropy - The aspect of water, and liquids in general. Uncontrolled dissipation will make you go Blubb. Necrotropy - The aspect of death. Guess what happens if it dissipates. Nomotropy - The aspect of stasis. The unchanging. Dissipation... does nothing. Logically. Phototropy - The aspect of light (and thus darkness, although this is often called Skototropy). Uncontrolled dissipation will make you blind, and also make you feel like a complete idiot. Pneumotropy - The aspect of air and gases. Uncontrolled dissipation means storm warning. Psychotropy - The aspect of sentience, the mind and the soul. Enjoy your schizophrenia and ghosts. Pyrotropy - The aspect of fire. Uncontrolled dissipation goes WHOOSH. Thermotropy - The aspect of heat (and Cold, although this is sometimes referred to as Cryotropy). Uncontrolled dissipation may get sweaty, or freezing.
Added to these are anti-aspects, a highly researched area of aspect theoretics. The theory behind it is complex, but in layman terms: When a filament is normally created, the chain of PFs curves in one direction. The curve is always the same direction. Anti-aspects are what filaments forced to curve the opposite direction would create. I won't go into more detail on that right now.
So, from where do you get your water when you conjure it? What is it that makes the earth rumble? Well! When the filaments of a certain aspect (or aspects!) have been woven together, the mage may unleash them in a much more controlled fashion than dissipation (although the actual process works much the same). This is what we call a spell. The absolute details on how and why it works are far more complex than I could cover here, but think of it this way: A filament affects reality, it does not add to it. This means that to conjure water, the water needs to come from somewhere, be it the air or the ground or yourself. If you want to create an earthquake, the energy used must have a source. Filaments can not create energy, only redirect it. Filaments are not energy, they are the catalyst for energy.
So, in a more practical sense, what can you do with magic? Well, almost anything if you set your mind to it! A walking, talking illusion? Walking illusion is not a problem, light manipulation (possibly with trace amounts of ataxatropy or nomotropy if you're into that) with pneumotropical emissions which move the air in a specific manner making it sound like speech. You also have two options on how you want to do this: You either uphold a connection to the illusion to make sure it works properly, or you weave it up in a way you think is stable. The first one might drain you, but the latter could get unpredictable if you do something wrong. Sure, it takes a lot to pull off something like this, but we have some great minds on Squiggleshit!
Teleportation? Well, you could do it the painful way with a superspell of hydro/pneumo/geotropy combinations, but really, ataxatropy is the way to go there. You may not always end up EXACTLY where you want, but a few meters to the left is rarely a problem. A kilometer might be, but only if you're lazy and don't want to walk.
Oh, and regarding permanent spells: Please don't. When you remove PFs from the realm of magic and don't return them, the balance gets upset. Sure, an artifact or two is fine but try to keep it down. Too many permanent spells will cause filament storms which leak into reality. I don't want to have to deal with another Cataclysm of Wily's Peak. Remember that? Raining crystal shards and sentient boulders on legs of lightning? You have no idea how long it took to clean that up, and we had to destroy dozens of artifacts used in research, because you A-holes who collect them never come forward.
There. I could write more, but this is a decent first draft. I'll probably make a HUGE thread I'll gradually fill with more and more information until we have an absolutely complete system. Have any questions? Want to know how your spell works? Post a question in the Ruins, or send me a PM. Want me to rewrite something, add or remove an idea? Go fu-I mean you can post that in the Ruins too! I'm always open for suggestions, as my beloved playtesters of my board games could confirm. Oh and btw: This addition encompasses all magic in the game world. This is our framework, and we work within it.
A series of large islands stretch their way around a portion of Squiggly**** equator. They are completely uninhabited by the moon's populace due to the scorching heat and the dangers that lie there. The islands are mostly covered in sand or rock with no vegetation what so ever. There are some evidence of cities poking their way up through the sand, but very little. However, those who are able to find a way to beat the heat and are strong enough to keep the new inhabitants at bay, are able to walk these lands.
Long ago, when civilization on Squigglyshit! were just beginning to peak in their technology, they found the magic and harnessed it's abilities. They created Thermotropic artifacts. However, they did not know how to control the magic. The artifacts heated to points where no one could even approach the temples they were held in, and so, not knowing what else to do, they fled to new lands. They left the artifacts to continue heating.
One year, a bridge was created so close together between the moons, that species were almost able to walk across. Fragile they were at the time, they were somehow able to endure the heat created by the artifacts and found a new home in the Thermo-Wastes. These creatures are hardly ever seen and there is very little known about them, due to people's fear of the Thermo-Wastes. It is know that the once fragile creatures they were have been replaced by terrifily powerful beasts.
Through the years, many have tried to explore the Thermo-Wastes, and some have succeeded and brought back plenty information. Information like the vast amounts of usable magic created by the artifacts, or the history of he Squiggly**** people that was left for the sands. One very important piece of information that was collected by a series of Mages through the years is that the artifacts are becoming more powerful the more they lay beneath the sands. This places poses a threat to the whole moon. Unless the artifacts are to be controlled, they could continue heating until the entire moon is uninhabitable.
Glare: Rubik can pun all the leave he wishes. I can take the rest of the tree.
If you guys don't mind, I'll move this to the OOC subforum in a day or two, since it belongs there.
Also, I don't think it's a good idea to have one magic system, or at least have one person determine it. This is Kitchen Sink after all. (On a seperate note, ToEE's system requires too much bookkeeping/too complex, IMO. We don't want science v2.)
Anyway:
1. It is possible to travel between the Squiggleshit and other planes of existence, but only unique Elite-level characters and items of similar power level can pass, and only one at a time.
(To ensure this is still Kitchen Sink, set initial power level limits, and allow people to bring over unused PCs from the current setting. Note the phrase "unique character", so no armies)
2. The greater the power level difference between entities, the easier it is for the weaker one to land an attack on the stronger.
(An idea that just occured to me. Feedback welcome. "Power level" is a general term, and has nothing to do with the current tiering system)
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If you guys don't mind, I'll move this to the OOC subforum in a day or two, since it belongs there.
Also, I don't think it's a good idea to have one magic system, or at least have one person determine it. This is Kitchen Sink after all. (On a seperate note, ToEE's system requires too much bookkeeping/too complex, IMO. We don't want science v2.)
Granted, I don't think that ToEE's system really solves anything, but at least it appears internally consistant. And it ain't science--if it were, you'd be seeing equations, not spell descriptions. This setting is not Gleemax, and although we're trying for a freeform, kitchen-sink-like enviroment, we don't intend to fall into the same trap that Gleemax did--leaving things vague, unspecified and flavorless is a great way to lose players and create a boring setting.
1. It is possible to travel between the Squiggleshit and other planes of existence, but only unique Elite-level characters and items of similar power level can pass, and only one at a time.
(To ensure this is still Kitchen Sink, set initial power level limits, and allow people to bring over unused PCs from the current setting. Note the phrase "unique character", so no armies)
2. The greater the power level difference between entities, the easier it is for the weaker one to land an attack on the stronger.
(An idea that just occured to me. Feedback welcome. "Power level" is a general term, and has nothing to do with the current tiering system)
These are rules changes, and have little to do with the flavor or setting. You're speaking in vague generalities, not specifics. There's a reason this thread was in the IC section, not the OOC section.
1. Is unneeded and pollutes the plane of Squiggleshit (lol?) with characters from other settings. We're trying for an internally consistant setting, and that's damn hard when other stuff keeps getting introduced.
2. Makes no sense and would only exist for balance reasons. A normal human should never beat a godlike character unless that human does something extremely clever (and this is coming from someone who will be almost exclusively playing human characters).
Use your creation actions for specifics that add to the setting in a meaningful way. If you've got characters in mind that you think would require the ability to borrow from other settings, don't bridge them--change this setting so that they can exist within it, not apart from it.
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