OOC: World Building

[ch00beh]

Yesss bears. I love the Roaming Shields.

Regarding the residence of Shields, I was talking to Biscuit, and he said that the shields are probably specialists, aka tank-healer-dps type deal, so the smallest group they'd probably have is two (warrior-mage, and if one dies, the other can bring news). That said, I like the idea of assigning them to cities. I'm also thinking that more major cities with a large Shield group have a designated tower outside the city, away from the lights so that they can more effectively watch the Fringe at night.

PS. Fringebeats are now known as heldyn (it's similar to the Norse word for heathen... and it's similar to the word heathen). There's a more complicated word that I don't feel like typing. Magic crystal is magite. Pretty straightforward there.

Tower Shield Golems is really cool. I love the idea, though I'm going to hope that people just keep them as NPCs, though I wouldn't explciity bar anyone from having one of those characters.

Apprentice-ship is a really good idea. It makes perfect sense.

And this is in the wiki and not here, but Gvera City is kind of like the Telaenian capital. It's a graveyard city, with high walls fashioned out of bone and carapace, and every telaen passes through or near the city at least once a year. There are several graveyard cities spread through the western rainforst (The Alurile), and a telaen almost always ends their life there if they die of natural causes.

[Ninety]

Jul 12, 2010 19:13:43 GMT -5 ch00beh said:

new rule acquired: pubes don't grow on people.

Anyway. Possible sports for the wonderful world of Aleta. No plans for actual RPs of these, as they'd need to get translated to tabletop rules to be fair at all, but they are here for atmosphere.

Tower

Tower is a sport played by two 6-man teams with a spherical ball. It is one of Aleta's most popular sports.

The game is played on a 50 meter long rectangular field, which can consist of a variety of materials. Aleta's most famous arena has a clay floor. At either end of the field are two goals; a large 7x1.5m one is positioned on the ground while a smaller 1x1m goal sit atop. Officially, there is no designated keeper, though some teams have opted to train them.

Players are allowed to control the ball with any part of their body, as long as they do not hold the ball with their hands for more than 3 seconds. The ball must not be under “explicit hand control” for another 10 seconds before it can be held again. Additionally, one may not hold the ball at all within 10 meters of the opposing goal. Players may dribble with both their hands and their feet. Magic is expressly forbidden.

Tower is a full contact sport. Penalties are only called if a player is completely incapacitated for over one minute. A player may receive up to three penalties before being ejected for the rest of the game. Additionally, players may not tackle one another or attack from behind. A tackle is defined as grappling another player and pinning them to the ground. Typically the only protection worn are leather shin and forearm guards, used both to fend off attacking players and to strike the ball with increased force.

Traditionally, the ball is made with regular leather panels stitched around a magically inflated cow bladder.

Tower is professionally played in a league in the northern country of _________, where teams come from the individual fiefdoms. It is also a popular pick up sport, though amateurs tend to use smaller, more makeshift courts.

Skull

Another one of the northern country's more popular entertainment sports is Skull. Essentially, Skull is non-lethal gladiatorial combat waged with wooden weapons and leather armor. Games are played between two equally sized teams on an open area. Obstructions may or may not be present. The goal of the game is to cross into the other team's territory, take their designated bear skull, and bring it back to your designated home area, all while simultaneously guarding your own team's skull.

An alternative version of skull has no teams, and instead, players individually try to keep the skull for as long as possible. Sometimes, small squads are used.

Fighting is only to incapacitate the other person. Broken bones and knocking out are allowed so long as the intent is not to kill. Deaths are punishable by death penalty.

[ch00beh]

Does anyone have any idea of what can go in the little eastern green spot?

If all else fails, I make it an "unenterable zone" because of a wall or something and we figure it out later.

mystery zone o:

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

Which little green spot?

[ch00beh]

if you look at the map on the wiki, there's a country marked in green right under Tal-Hydor and above the Free Territories on the eastern edge of the continent.

Also need to figure out what to do with the Reaching Islands (northeast archipelago). Thinking of just inhabiting it with shark-shapeshifters since it was just shark week.

Here is the wiki again.

I can't fill in the stuff about the Golaudrin, Talitians, or Bottomside without your guys' help.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

That green area could be where the majority of the Ovorans eventually migrated to (the ones that weren't forced to Talitia). Unless you'd prefer an Exodus to the Archipelago =P

Seriously I'm not quite sure what to do with the archipelago. I'll give it some thought.

Also, is anyone else starting to associate this with Hailfire Peaks from Banjo-Tooie?

[ch00beh]

i don't know what banjo-tooie is. Ovorans can go there. My notes have 3 options and the combinations: militant kingdom, dragons, mindrapia, militant dragon kindgom, mindrapia + dragons, all three.

the more i think of people that can shapeshift into various sea creatures (sharks, dolphins, squids) for the archipelago, the more i like it. But you can also put the exodus there. Really it don't matter.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

That was just a joke. Put the shapeshifters on the archipelago, I like that idea a lot more.

[ch00beh]

i know it was a joke but i don't see why they wouldn't go to a new island. Presuming their main form of transit is boats, it would be easier to relocate to an island than to land on the main continent and migrate on foot.

[ch00beh]

Oh what's this?

Since the world wasn't complete on the timeframe I thought it would, and in order to not distract from the other big RPs, but to help alleviate the wait, a small Aleta pilot episode is now airing. It is invite only, but at least y'all can watch it.

[ch00beh]

I accidentally drew an example heldyn while sitting in a boring meeting.



They do not all look like this. They are all unique in their fuckeduptery.

[Tout-Perd]

Just an idea, but what about a race of plant people that do horribly wonderful things with vegetation? Stuff that, if done with animals, would count as the most perverse of tortures? Y'know, like bonsai stuff cranked up to eleven, plants engineered to die out specifically to carry out certain purposes (like warping what would normally be a long living tree that yields fruit for many years so that it produces a massive yield, but burns itself out in a single season), hybridizing plants in bizarre and unsettling ways, etc. I'm also thinking something along the lines of them actually being humans, but having found some way to graft vegetation into their own bodies.

I dunno, just another part of an idea that Choobs might be able to use. I don't personally have the time to flesh it out much beyond this.

[ch00beh]

that is an interesting idea and could work with the ambulatory plants. Maybe the ambulatory plants are slaves.

They can have the Eliralu rainforest (south eastern in the Free Territories where Telaen occasionally roam). Maybe they even get their own country! I don't know. Or maybe they could even be in the little green country and have a gigantic wall made of trees.

I'm currently drawing out Aleta's suns and documenting the seasons in the wiki, but once done, I may start thinking about these perverse people.

(Yes, I figured out the sun situation that will give interesting seasons and a proper day/night. Go me wooo.)

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

I also thought of another group that forms a symbiotic relationship with a certain plant. It's a creature that relies on a certain plant for it's home and food. A tree-like plant releases spores frequently. The spores cover a large area. Once a spore touches a stationary object it expands. As more spores are released they start to form layers on top of each other. Every once in a great while the tree releases several seeds. The seeds sit on the surface for a time, then they begin to burrow into the layers of spore-material where it grows into another tree.

The creatures that live with these trees eat the aged spore-material and burrow into the newer material to obtain it. Their tunnels typically collapse under the weight of the spore-material before too long which prevents the spore-material from building up burying the trees that create the spores. The creatures also create dens in the younger sections of the material, but these homes seldom last long because they too collapse under the weight of new material. The creatures also tend to get covered in the spores, causing their backs to develop a layer of the material before it is shed from their bodies. this camouflages them from their enemies as well as the enemies of the trees.
--------------------------

I can think of several plots that could deal with these. The obvious ones being the sudden appearance of the spores which start to bury a city, or destroy a nearby food source. They could at least appear and cause some problems for whoever tries to pass through the area.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

Before Ovora began to sink its people didn't feel the need to travel. As such, there was only a few fishing vessels. When they realized what was happening they panicked and pieced together whatever they could and "sailed" in hopes of finding a new land.

When they landed on the main continent they were no longer a united people and thy had lost their home. For many generations they wandered the lands, constantly looking for a new land to call their home. Eventually a group of the nomads found it in a land that others had called "Paldeta". The Ovorans founded a city along the coast named "Pal-Ovoros" in honor of their new home and their old one.

Shortly after the founding of Pal-Ovoros word was sent to the nomads, causing them to flock to Paldeta. While many of these nomads settled down in Pal-Ovoros, most of them did not wish to truly settle down, and instead roamed the nearby areas while a small few founded small towns of their own.

Ovorans do not share the architectural skills of their Talitian cousins, but they are somewhat hardier due to their many generations spent wandering Aleta. They're also very clannish and somewhat distrustful of outsiders, as well as any threat that they believe could take them from their new home.

[ch00beh]

Where is Paldeta? Small green place? Or should I pen in a new place? Or is that just the Ovoran name of the continent?

Also, I've documented the suns. Everything that doesn't make sense cosmically is solved by Corinth having a dense magite core. Bam. Except I can't explain how the animated parchment. I guess this falls under the purview of magical elements, too.

The transitionary seasons around Midsummer can exist or they can just all be called Midsummer.

Also, don't be bogged down with details. The seasons all generally act the same as ours, except that summer is longer and there are multiple suns in the sky, which has no bearing on about 90% of RPs since RPs usually take a couple hours of story time and people forget about describing the sky or saying the season. This is all just for flavor. Plus if you really can't handle two suns but want warmth, just say it's Midsummer. Can't see Corinth when it's surrounded by Pallus, anyway.

The names of the stars are still up debate. And the names of seasons, but I would like to keep those similar so as not to be overly confusing and arbitrary.

This also means there is no forever-day. At the solstices, days do get pretty long since the two suns are far apart, but it's not ridiculous with night never coming.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

It was my idea for what to do with the small green patch on the map. If you'd prefer to put Lee's idea there then we can do that instead, or we could put both there and have the plant things come into conflict with the remaining nomadic Ovorans.

[ch00beh]

I'm only a little hesitant to put the Ovorans on the little green spot because there is no actual coast there. Its just space.

However, the plant people wouldn't use a plains area, they'd probably prefer the rain forest just south.

What could happen maybe is that I extend the oceans to properly surround the continent there. Conflict can still happen between the plant people and the Ovorans and the Telaen! Man those plant people sound like assholes. Like an entire race of Blaises but with plants.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

Nah, the idea of it being on the coast was a last minute thing. Originally I wanted to put them close to a large hill or a mountain, but I have a tendency to rely too much on them for cities (why I don't know). I can simply move Pal-Ovora over and just keep it where I originally intended to.

What about the things I left unnamed?

[ch00beh]

I'm not exactly sure what you left unnamed. Could you point them out? Your descriptions seem pretty water tight, but I might not be reading it very well. Anyway, so do you want the coast or not? It won't be too big a deal to extend the ocean. Alternatively, they can have that peninsula south of the Alurile (orange region) for some coast as well as minor mountains and understandable migration and similarity of environment, but yeah, it's all your call, I'm just tossing out possibilities.

I'm seeing some bad history with Tal-Hydor trying to take over them a couple decades back before the Hydorian civil war distracted them, too.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

Aug 11, 2010 9:10:26 GMT -5 @BloodWolf7 said:

I also thought of another group that forms a symbiotic relationship with a certain plant. It's a creature that relies on a certain plant for it's home and food. A tree-like plant releases spores frequently. The spores cover a large area. Once a spore touches a stationary object it expands. As more spores are released they start to form layers on top of each other. Every once in a great while the tree releases several seeds. The seeds sit on the surface for a time, then they begin to burrow into the layers of spore-material where it grows into another tree.

The creatures that live with these trees eat the aged spore-material and burrow into the newer material to obtain it. Their tunnels typically collapse under the weight of the spore-material before too long which prevents the spore-material from building up burying the trees that create the spores. The creatures also create dens in the younger sections of the material, but these homes seldom last long because they too collapse under the weight of new material. The creatures also tend to get covered in the spores, causing their backs to develop a layer of the material before it is shed from their bodies. this camouflages them from their enemies as well as the enemies of the trees.
--------------------------

I can think of several plots that could deal with these. The obvious ones being the sudden appearance of the spores which start to bury a city, or destroy a nearby food source. They could at least appear and cause some problems for whoever tries to pass through the area.

That whole bit. I double posted so that I could keep things separate and simple but I guess that this caused it to be overlooked. As to extending the ocean, that's fine if you really want to do that. It's your map that you'll have to change. The ancient Ovorans didn't have much use of coastal cities so it actually fits their history a bit better for them to settle inland.

[ch00beh]

Oh ok. If it makes sense for you then it makes sense for me.

I read that, snippet but didn't realize you were referring to them as "unnamed bits". Go ahead and keep everything to one post unless you get new ideas later in the day. The organization will happen in the wiki.

Anyway I feel like those trees would also be part of Lee's crazy-plant-people. I dunno what, though. But anyway, those, too, can be in the eastern rainforest. Or they can be in the Western one and get controlled in part by the Grinlek swarms as well as your animal dudes. Biscuit and I discussed a swarming animal with group intelligence, and I pestered Q a bit about reptiles, and this is what came out.

I'm going to start penning in the Lee-people's territory. Maybe start calling them Leelags. :up:

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

I could see them being subspecies or distantly related. They're just plants. Without the aid of the creatures they'd eventually die out, either by being destroyed by people or other animals, or by burying themselves and wasting away. The creatures that defend them would also die out without the plant because they'd lose their food source, their shelter and part of their defense.

It's obvious that others would want the plant destroyed though, it's a highly invasive species. Once it moves into an area it casts it's spores, which quickly kill all native plant-life just by landing on them and smothering/crushing them. An interesting possibility would be the spores/seeds landing on the back of a Telaenian and then taking over it's ecosystem while spreading to every place the Telaenian goes.

At least they rarely develop seeds, otherwise they'd quickly take over the country-side. I suppose that if you're really worried about them then we could just put them on the northern archipelago where they'd slowly be spreading from island to island.

[ch00beh]

Oh that would be a good plot or sublot or something. Gg.

So I kind of want to name Lee's place the Plantae Kingdom for the pun of it. But instead I guess they will be the Saibon or the Iasnob kingdom. I can't think of anything.

Petalae kingdom.

PS. Not too worried about the spreading. I'm fine for sticking them in the eastern rainforest.

[Beelzebibble]

Aug 11, 2010 14:16:22 GMT -5 ch00beh said:

Iasnob

At least you have the courage to admit it.

[{WW}BetaBloodWolf7]

Didn't you say that the rain forest was a veritable Hell or something of that nature? If so then the plant/creatures would probably be quite fitting there.


EDIT: Also did you want all the wikipages for Aleta to have (Aleta) in the title?