(C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

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Ahzoh
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Ahzoh »

The Vrkhazh believe that when you die that you are in an eternal rest; oblivion that is.
At least that is as it should be. However, sometimes a person was greatly wronged in life or their corpse becomes disturbed, causing the spirit to become restless and aggressive.
Restless and evil spirits reside in a realm that is called by the Vrkhazh as "The Formless World" because of its formless and chaotic nature. Creatures known as the "Formless Beings" (not really formless, but their forms are often incomprehensible and fear-inducing) also reside in the Formless World. The most feared and well-known is the Formless Being known as Sillhav (who is considered the top dog of them all) who guards the veil between the Formless World and the Formed World.

The Vrkhazh believe that scavenging birds such as ravens and crows (ravens and actual crows are often lumped together as being a kind of "crow") are guardians of the dead that ensure that the spirits are not restless.
The Vrkhazh believe that if a crow is not guarding a body (or a flock of crows, in the case of entire graveyards) then the body and raise up and become a Hollow Man (a Vrkhazhian equivalent to a zombie, "hollow" because it is without sentience).
Times of famine and disease are times where the risk of Hollow Men rising up are the highest.

Often family members will fashion a small statue of a crow to make the spirit of a deceased love one to attain peace by tricking it into believing it is guarded by a real one. Usually the statues are made of onyx with the eyes being studded with turquoise.
Embalming and painting the body is also important in allowing the deceased to attain peace. Organs cannot be removed from the body except for the intestines (which are removed by the embalmer and replaced with preservatives before returning it to the family). This important because the deceased cannot feel like they are not whole. This is the original sense of the meaning of a Hollow Man, who would be literally hollow.

There are four days during the year where the veil between the Formless World and Formed World are thin. These days are the peaks of the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox. Thus these periods are often marked with fear because Formless Beings and evil spirits can gain access to the Formed World to wreak havoc and cause suffering. Because Silhav is the Guardian of the Veil, he is the first one to appear.

Fighting Sillhav is fruitless because he is unaffected by most physicals objects, however the only one known to have been able to successfully defeat Sillhav is the first emperor of Vrkhazh, Arash-Hijunu.
What do you think of this?

Also, I'm looking for ideas of the gemstones onyx and turquoise be associated with in the context of the Vrkhazhian belief about death. Other associated meanings is that turquoise symbolized purity and cleanliness and onyx symbolizes strength (physical, mental and spiritual) and spiritual and mental power.
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qwed117
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by qwed117 »

Ahzoh wrote:
The Vrkhazh believe that when you die that you are in an eternal rest; oblivion that is.
At least that is as it should be. However, sometimes a person was greatly wronged in life or their corpse becomes disturbed, causing the spirit to become restless and aggressive.
Restless and evil spirits reside in a realm that is called by the Vrkhazh as "The Formless World" because of its formless and chaotic nature. Creatures known as the "Formless Beings" (not really formless, but their forms are often incomprehensible and fear-inducing) also reside in the Formless World. The most feared and well-known is the Formless Being known as Sillhav (who is considered the top dog of them all) who guards the veil between the Formless World and the Formed World.

The Vrkhazh believe that scavenging birds such as ravens and crows (ravens and actual crows are often lumped together as being a kind of "crow") are guardians of the dead that ensure that the spirits are not restless.
The Vrkhazh believe that if a crow is not guarding a body (or a flock of crows, in the case of entire graveyards) then the body and raise up and become a Hollow Man (a Vrkhazhian equivalent to a zombie, "hollow" because it is without sentience).
Times of famine and disease are times where the risk of Hollow Men rising up are the highest.

Often family members will fashion a small statue of a crow to make the spirit of a deceased love one to attain peace by tricking it into believing it is guarded by a real one. Usually the statues are made of onyx with the eyes being studded with turquoise.
Embalming and painting the body is also important in allowing the deceased to attain peace. Organs cannot be removed from the body except for the intestines (which are removed by the embalmer and replaced with preservatives before returning it to the family). This important because the deceased cannot feel like they are not whole. This is the original sense of the meaning of a Hollow Man, who would be literally hollow.

There are four days during the year where the veil between the Formless World and Formed World are thin. These days are the peaks of the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox. Thus these periods are often marked with fear because Formless Beings and evil spirits can gain access to the Formed World to wreak havoc and cause suffering. Because Silhav is the Guardian of the Veil, he is the first one to appear.

Fighting Sillhav is fruitless because he is unaffected by most physicals objects, however the only one known to have been able to successfully defeat Sillhav is the first emperor of Vrkhazh, Arash-Hijunu.
What do you think of this?

Also, I'm looking for ideas of the gemstones onyx and turquoise be associated with in the context of the Vrkhazhian belief about death. Other associated meanings is that turquoise symbolized purity and cleanliness and onyx symbolizes strength (physical, mental and spiritual) and spiritual and mental power.

That sounds really cool tbh. The association with turquoise as purity and cleanliness is a tiny bit obvious. The gem would represent water with it's clear blue, and the cleanliness (and thus purity) one gets by bathing in the water. This may appear to be the IRVC should it have lived longer. The onyx could be because onyx is a strong mineral for war weapons. Maybe the turquoise should be placed on the body before leaving it in it's resting place above ground.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Lambuzhao »

I know we have talked about "alternate earths" (no water, all tropical, flooded, desertic etc).

Well, I just found this map which is inverted regarding sea-level (and poles):

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/ima ... uo7png.png

http://i.imgur.com/Vqhux.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5086/5292 ... d91f_z.jpg

And just imagining how Coastal peoples would now have landmasses to populate and interact with peoples formerly separated by miles of ocean.

The Iroquois Nations would be sea-faring Islanders living on The Great Archipelago.

Eskimo/Aleut and Inuit folks might live more or less the same, but hunting herds of caribou and musk-oxen. Maybe they wound up herding them like the Lapplanders.

Cultural exchanges between Eastern Coastal Native American Cultures with Western Coastal African Cultures (whoa & wow)

Mediterranean Cultures jam-packed on an island roughly half the size of Australia.

Man, the mind just wanders, and wonders at the possibilities.

Another take would be, rewinding a few millions of years, where o where would the genus Homo have likely developed, if not 20,000 leagues below the African Sea?

The permutations! :mrgreen:



I haven't been this excited since I saw the maps of "Blue Venus":

http://www.futuretimeline.net/images/ve ... formed.jpg


http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/ ... 2os1eb.png

http://www.worlddreambank.org/V/VENUSMAP.GIF

http://iflorinsky.narod.ru/venus-z.jpg


And the moon Titan, well, I've always had a soft-spot for Titan. She just looks better and better all the time:

http://www.planetaryvisions.com/images_new/221.jpg

[<3]

...for some reason, though, terraformed Mars does not get me excited (?) I just prefer it as a red Arrakian/Tatooinian dust-bowl, I guess.

This is as close as I could tolerate for a "wet" Mars:

http://www.erbzine.com/mag39/barsoom72.jpg
:roll:
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Lambuzhao »

[:'(]
And don't even get me started about how the Polynesians, Melanesians, Australian Coastal, and Inca/Aymara/Mapuche (etc) would all have a Tera-Tonne of room to muck about on the continent that once was the Pacific Ocean (Pacifica?).

...agayne, the mind just wonders... goes into full-on Super-Para-Über-Elsewhither-Alternate Risk/Sid Meiers mode. [:'(] (*joy*)
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Ahzoh
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Ahzoh »

Lambuzhao wrote:I know we have talked about "alternate earths" (no water, all tropical, flooded, desertic etc).

Well, I just found this map which is inverted regarding sea-level (and poles):

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/ima ... uo7png.png

http://i.imgur.com/Vqhux.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5086/5292 ... d91f_z.jpg

And just imagining how Coastal peoples would now have landmasses to populate and interact with peoples formerly separated by miles of ocean.

The Iroquois Nations would be sea-faring Islanders living on The Great Archipelago.

Eskimo/Aleut and Inuit folks might live more or less the same, but hunting herds of caribou and musk-oxen. Maybe they wound up herding them like the Lapplanders.

Cultural exchanges between Eastern Coastal Native American Cultures with Western Coastal African Cultures (whoa & wow)

Mediterranean Cultures jam-packed on an island roughly half the size of Australia.

Man, the mind just wanders, and wonders at the possibilities.

Another take would be, rewinding a few millions of years, where o where would the genus Homo have likely developed, if not 20,000 leagues below the African Sea?

The permutations! :mrgreen:



I haven't been this excited since I saw the maps of "Blue Venus":

http://www.futuretimeline.net/images/ve ... formed.jpg


http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/ ... 2os1eb.png

http://www.worlddreambank.org/V/VENUSMAP.GIF

http://iflorinsky.narod.ru/venus-z.jpg


And the moon Titan, well, I've always had a soft-spot for Titan. She just looks better and better all the time:

http://www.planetaryvisions.com/images_new/221.jpg

[<3]

...for some reason, though, terraformed Mars does not get me excited (?) I just prefer it as a red Arrakian/Tatooinian dust-bowl, I guess.

This is as close as I could tolerate for a "wet" Mars:

http://www.erbzine.com/mag39/barsoom72.jpg
:roll:
Venus looks beautiful terraformed! [O.O]
Image Śād Warḫallun (Vrkhazhian) [ WIKI | CWS ]
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Lambuzhao »

Ain't it the truth?!

[O.O]

Image

What a splendid idea
This Venus looks fun
Why, I fully endorse it
Terraform it at once
:!:
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by qwed117 »

I hear that dude keeps putting furry entertainment there, though.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by cntrational »

How could I generate a map for a ringworld? A map that is thin vertically but long horizontally.
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Ahzoh »

Will these mountain ranges allow for BWh climate at the north and Af in the south, with a BSh intermediary?
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Buffaloman »

I'm trying to make a world map for my conworld, and I fiddled around on AutoRealm for a little while before realizing how lost I really was. If you have made a map for your conworld, which program did you use?
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Post by Thrice Xandvii »

I make my maps in Photoshop, but I can't pretend to be that good at it.
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Post by alynnidalar »

I make them in GIMP, with the same caveat.
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Post by elemtilas »

Buffaloman wrote:I'm trying to make a world map for my conworld, and I fiddled around on AutoRealm for a little while before realizing how lost I really was. If you have made a map for your conworld, which program did you use?
A neat little app called Penz-n-Paper! :mrgreen:

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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Ahzoh »

elemtilas wrote:
Buffaloman wrote:I'm trying to make a world map for my conworld, and I fiddled around on AutoRealm for a little while before realizing how lost I really was. If you have made a map for your conworld, which program did you use?
A neat little app called Penz-n-Paper! :mrgreen:

elemtilas
You mean that old thing where if you draw it wrong you have to start from scratch again?
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Post by Egerius »

Ahzoh wrote:You mean that old thing where if you draw it wrong you have to start from scratch again?
Not necessarily, if you have a rubber.
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Post by Ahzoh »

Egerius wrote:
Ahzoh wrote:You mean that old thing where if you draw it wrong you have to start from scratch again?
Not necessarily, if you have a rubber.
He said PEN, how do you erase a pen?
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Post by sangi39 »

Ahzoh wrote:
Egerius wrote:
Ahzoh wrote:You mean that old thing where if you draw it wrong you have to start from scratch again?
Not necessarily, if you have a rubber.
He said PEN, how do you erase a pen?
I do remember once owning a pen that you could rub out. I think they're still a thing, but I'm not quite sure how they actually work.
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Dormouse559 »

From what I remember, they erase somewhat, but not as well as pencil.
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Post by Ahzoh »

Dormouse559 wrote:From what I remember, they erase somewhat, but not as well as pencil.
Eitherway the end result is an ireversible blurry smudge on otherwise clean paper.
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Post by elemtilas »

Ahzoh wrote:
Dormouse559 wrote:From what I remember, they erase somewhat, but not as well as pencil.
Eitherway the end result is an ireversible blurry smudge on otherwise clean paper.
And here I just do what they did back in the day -- put a patch over the error and continue onward! Or accept the mistake as a scribal error, or a mythinterpretation of fact... Just because I made the map or wrote the book about some aspect of the World doesn't mean it reflects my supposed external omniscience! That's half the fun, recognising how and where the in-world author would make mistakes.

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