Random Conworld idea thread

Discussions about constructed worlds, cultures and any topics related to constructed societies.
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Ahzoh
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Ahzoh »

A conworld where an earth-like planet predictably enters the orbit of another earth-like planet but is always just outside of the range of gravity but is always inching closer until one day it's headed right towards the other earth-like planet.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by gestaltist »

I would love to see a conworld set here:

Image

Have we been too shy with our creativity? I am wondering.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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gestaltist wrote:I would love to see a conworld set here:
Spoiler:
Image
Have we been too shy with our creativity? I am wondering.
"Grandfather? What is the Great Snuffing the other elders whisper about?"

The wizend old Gnome sat still for some time, his white haired head bent over the curiously smooth black stone that jutted up from the flat reddish rock at the center of the village. The younglings wondered if he couldn't see strange wonders in that stone. Maybe he would tell them what he saw.

Then again, maybe he wouldn't... Grandfather didn't often like to talk about what it was he saw in the black stone.

At last, he lifted his head. Slowly. Looked up and into the young and curious eyes of his grandchildren. A great sadness was in his jet black eyes, black and smooth like the stone.

Suddenly, he drew a great breath and looked up into the darkling skies above the world. "What do you see, my younglings?"

Nara, the seventh, was by far the most curious and most observant of the twelve younglings. She said: "Grandfather, when I look up towards the highest skies, I see the Great Fire at the center of the world, and when I peer down towards the rim, I see the Lesser Fires of the Ring round the ends of the world. Well, I can see six of the Fires --- the others, I believe, must be hidden behind the mountains over yonder." She indicated with a flick of her short tail the dark line of distant bergs, outlined in shadows.

"And how many are the Lesser Fires, dear child?"

"They are twelve in number, Grandfather. Just like us, your Grandchildren!"

He smiled briefly, a low chuckle momentarily brightening his mood. "And now, dear Nara, what lore have you learned about the Lesser Fires, from your loremaster?"

Nara thought for some while, and at last responded: "Well, I remember the story of Perye, where he brought down the light from the tallest pillar of the highest skies, and that was the Great Fire and then climbed the twelve mighty pillars of the Ring of Worldrim and there did light the twelve Lesser Fires, each in its turn. Then he named them. They are the high ramparts of the Voidbenders, the knights who guard the world against any outside enemies. Oh, and they shall stand watch until the last flicker of time."

"Very good grand-daughter!"

But Coro interrupted, the eldest and most impatient. "But Grandfather, what of the Snuffing!? Do tell us what it is the really old ones are so worked up about!"

The old Gnome sat looking at his grandchildren for some time. They were eager to learn; but was it wise to teach them the things he himself had seen in the black stone? The things the old folk were barely aware of?

He sighed.

Quietly, he said only: "Dearest Nara, a high rampart you say? A mighty pillar of fire you say? I ask you, grand-daughter, as you look out towards the Worldrim, how high does that rampart seem to your keen eyes? How high above the Mountain of Spires is the 'mighty pillar' of fire?"

He stood up slowly, swished his long tail in agitation over his creaking joints moving so slowly. He took up his stick and began the journey back to his own hall, leaving the twelve younglings to wonder what his answer could mean.

At the last, he called over his shoulder: "Dearest Nara! Think and conclude! My own Grandmother asked me the same question when I was your age. I well recall answering her that I knew of the twelve Lesser Fires. But that I could only see eleven of them, and the fires of two of those were dancing upon the distant mountaintops..."
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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elemtilas wrote: At the last, he called over his shoulder: "Dearest Nara! Think and conclude! My own Grandmother asked me the same question when I was your age. I well recall answering her that I knew of the twelve Lesser Fires. But that I could only see eleven of them, and the fires of two of those were dancing upon the distant mountaintops..."
I like the punchline. :)
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Ahzoh »

elemtilas made a short story out a mere idea...
He must make one in my conworld eventually.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by k1234567890y »

Ahzoh wrote:elemtilas made a short story out a mere idea...
He must make one in my conworld eventually.
you want to invite elemtilas to write stories for your conworld? if so, then I want too OuO
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by eldin raigmore »

Leaving aside the gravitational physics of a toroid planet; what would its days and seasons be like?
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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For which kind of rotation axis?
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by gestaltist »

eldin raigmore wrote:Leaving aside the gravitational physics of a toroid planet; what would its days and seasons be like?
Hard to say without more data. Where is the light source/star placed? In the middle of the torus? Or does the torus orbit a normal star? Also: which side of the torus is inhabited?
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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eldin raigmore wrote:Leaving aside the gravitational physics of a toroid planet; what would its days and seasons be like?
Werraste stepped out of her dark and cosy cave, dumping the bundle of hides that was her entire inventory of clothing into the snowy drifts brought down from the higher mountains beyond Everdim. For a time she stood naked under the stars, their light barely illuminating the thick lines of her tattoos, her black hair and feathers caressed by the stiff breeze ever blowing. She tossed her head back a little and snuffed in the air. *snfff* *snrrf*! Huh. Nobeast wandering about within a mile of her lonely cave.

She bent to the task of dressing for her journey down to the other caves. First she pulled on her legwraps, then the underboots and last the huge overboots. She liked these. Her grand-dad taught her how to shave the fur of a laacq down close to the hide and put that on the underside of the boot. No slipping on snow or ice for Werraste! She straightened up, drew the soft fur wrap around her belly and hitched it over her hips; then the broad hide of the selcq. Finally she wrapped the thick leather belt around her belly and slid the end between the rings of carved stone made be her grand dad. A wicked sharp obsidian knife with a handle of ivory and her medicine and memory bags and her water bag all hung from the tinted belt.

This she would consider enough for her walks in the uplands, or for hunting: she needed to keep her arms free to tackle and bludgeon to death whateverbeast it was she planned on eating! But for this journey, she'd need her coat. In fact she brought two out. One short & close fitting, its soft fur trimmed and buffed and very comfortable against her skin. In length, it only came down to her waist and it was fastened by loops and bone toggles. The second, Werraste's pride and joy, was a great postun coat cut big enough to be drawn on over top of everything else she was wearing. She loved her broad postun coat, and had spent many stretches of time under the everdim of the stars with feather and dye, tracing graceful curves of beast and folk and wind alike upon its vast surface. The overcoat's sleeves could be folded up or let down to keep her hands warm and its hem swung gracefully along the toes of her overboots. Finally she crammed the tquuluuq over her proud brow and cinched the tie at the back so its furry bulk wouldn't blow away. She liked the tquuluuq hat better than the sereq of the lowlanders. That was nothing more than a shapeless mobcap; Werraste's hat was a construction of rib bones and unshorn warras fur. The bones served to give the hat its shape and also protect her head a little if she got in a tangle or a fall. It also added a good ell to her already impressive seven ell height!

She snuffed the air again, stretched her long arms and broad shoulders; arched her back and rubbed the sore spots.

Werraste hesitated a while before setting off on this journey. Sure, she'd thought often of going down into the lowlands and haling some boy or two up to her cave in the high hills. The lowlanders didn't seem to understand, but that's how it was done. If a self-respecting girl ever planned on becoming a grand mam herself, well, she had to start out getting herself a boy! But, still she wondered. I have only seventeen passings of the Red Syaaraat --- indeed she was born during the Full of the First Interval of the Passing of Red Syaaraat; a very lucky time for a tall girl of Evendim to be born! --- perhaps, perhaps...

She stood still, closing her eyes in long contemplation. She opened her eyes, her head tilted back. From her cave up in the high hills, she could see the graceful curves of Everbright & the Green Worlds above and below --- all four of them, though she often thought there must be others down near the horizon on either side of her world --- and the dim stars beyond, peeking in between the slender strands of the Green Worlds, so unlike her own world of perpetual ice and snow and dark cold wind. She could just make out the curve of Everdim as it seemed to flow into the curves of the Green Worlds. Werraste sighed. The Green Worlds always seemed so light and warm, as if some great star, hidden from her keen eyes, illuminated them yet left her own world of Everdim unillumined. She half smiled, watching as the puffy clouds passed over some part of Green World, imagined that she could see great beasts roaming over those distant lands. She wondered if it were always cold there, like it was here in Everdim. She wondered what it might be like to dance naked in the light & warmth of this unseen star as she often did under the pale cold stars of Everdim.

Suddenly, a great desire filled her breast to go down into the Green World. Her heart skipped its beat: could she endeavour such a journey? Should she go alone or take a companion? How could...?

"Shyayas! Warrascueta! Turray artaccuela!" Silly girl! The desire in her heart slowly faded. She snuffed at the bitter cold air again, scuffed her over boots in the crunchy snow, turned back to look once again at her cave. Her kin and her sister waited eagerly for her return. Hhuhh! Nineteen passings of Red Syaaraat that one had, and already six surviving brats born from her highland boy. He was worthless for anything but getting little brats out of him. Couldn't hunt or fight and hating running in the cold wind under the cold stars.

Werraste pushed idly at the snow with her boot toe. Hhuuhh. She'd have to much more careful than her dear sister. Can't just rush up and cosh the first boy you see, dear girl! Be crafty and choose wisely. That's what grand dad always said.

Finally, she put her left foot in front of her right and wended her crunchy way down the hills and high vales towards the lowlands below. As Werraste journeyed, that strange desire for adventure faded and faded.

Faded, yes, but never quite left her heart ever after.

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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by elemtilas »

gestaltist wrote:
eldin raigmore wrote:Leaving aside the gravitational physics of a toroid planet; what would its days and seasons be like?
Hard to say without more data. Where is the light source/star placed? In the middle of the torus? Or does the torus orbit a normal star? Also: which side of the torus is inhabited?
I think what Werraste sees when she looks up into the sky is the slender lengths of the sunbathed Green Worlds of Everbright. I think she must live in the mountains of the inner aspect of a coiled toroid world --- wound sort of like a donought electromagnet. From space, the farfarer would see a slender, spring-like coil, the halves facing the Sun would be well lit and warm. Possibly those zones hit directly would be torrid desert; while those along the northern and southern aspects might be milder and greener. Hence Everbright. Obviously, those zones away from the light will be cold and dark. Hence Everdim.

Anyone living on the outside aspect of Toroidworld, on the spaceward side, would never know the true nature of the world. Anyone living on the sunward side would have a pretty clear idea: they would be able to see hundreds or thousands of iterations of the Green Worlds. Those living on one of the inner aspects of Everbright would also be able to see the darker stretches of Everdim high overhead.

I imagine this is one of those wonders of the galaxy created by Mssrs Wonth & Lereyet of Bespoke Worlds. They're already well known for the wonder that is the nine-sided Tubeworld; I wouldn't be at all surprised if this, too, was not an example of their craft.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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Tube World (2014)

The HMS Moort easily slid into a long spiral orbit around the curious and massive black tube. Seen briefly from the end on approach, Captain Aster could easily see the green-blue-brown of a world inside the tube. She knew that if it weren’t for the bright light of the false star illuminating the inner world, she’d be able to see stars in the distant opening of the tube, some fifty thousand miles away.

Investigations Officer Dale broke the silence: “What do you make of it, Cap?”

“I don’t know, Dale. Perhaps it's one of those crazy nine sided tube-worlds. You know, like the ones constructed by Mssrs Wonth & Lereyet of Bespoke Worlds. Bloody wonky things, mind, and each one inhabited by a load of loony-toons. Well, each one that hasn’t shredded itself yet!”

“Could be. But Wonth & Lereyet have only been in the craft for what, three thousand years? And anyway, they gave up on polygonal worlds — too complex. This tube seems far older, though. Look at the scars along its exterior surface.” He magnified a portion of the tube’s surface, showing twenty mile long and two mile deep gouges, five mile wide craters and other assorted cracks and deformities. “This thing’s been out here and battered for a long time.”

The HMS Moort continued her long spiral orbit of the curious black tube, slowly rotating in space some distance from an old yellow W-type star.

“I think you may be right. Who knows? Maybe this is where Wonth got the idea in the first place?”

“We are pretty far out, ma’am. We’ve no records that any Consortium vessels have explored this region.”

“Maybe they weren’t dealing with Consortium at that time. Records are scanty from that era... Lots of things that should have been remembered are now long forgotten.”

“In any event, the question is still before us: if not us, who constructed this world? I didn’t think any world builders had done a nine-sided tube before. Well, before Wonth, anyway.”

“A prototype? An ancient one-off.”

“Could be. Whoever built this world at least got that disastrous ‘luminescent filament’ thing worked out. How many other tube and ring worlds have we seen get all out of synch and end up slicing themselves into ragged bits on the filament?”

“Too many. Any sign of a service module or entryway? This thing can’t be natural, and must have had a way for supplies and materials to be brought in during construction. Dare I even hope periodic maintenance schedules have been kept current?”

After more than three hundred thousand miles of careful spiral orbits, at last the distant sun peeked over the horizon of the tube’s terminus. “Look there, cap! Could that be your service module?”

Indeed, some twelve thousand miles distant from the end of the tube was a dark spheroid attached by a large gantry that disappeared into the near end of the luminescent filament. All along the gantry were service and materials management modules of various sorts, undoubtedly dating back to the construction of this curious world. There were even some monster derricks, heavy lift platforms and two vast machines each consisting of what appeared to be curved counterweights attached to the gantry by long arms. On closer approach, they could see on the outer surface more than a hundred of the tell-tale mile wide ports of a terraformer: like a gigantic dimensional printer, these machines would have been used to gently lay down the constituent components of familiar rock and earth in delicate half-millimetre layers.

Dale’s eyes were fixed on the graceful arcs of the terraformers. “How long do you think it would have taken to lay down a reasonable surface? I’d sure like to see the tech manuals on those things — they’re simply huge!”

“If you mean to build from plates to mountain tops? Well, near as I can figure, this tube is a good fifty thousand miles long and almost twenty-five in diameter. Of course, maybe six of that is substrate and maybe one more is actual world itself. Our terraformers can lay down a basic planet of Earth size in about fifty years. This thing is astoundingly vast — it must have taken a thousand years to lay down any sizeable amount of world surface! But the odd thing is, this isn’t a round tube. It’s nine-sided. I wonder why that is? Let’s head back to the service module. Maybe we can learn something there...”

Captain Aster was the first to enter the airlock of the service module. She noted that shortly after their entry, the module's environmental systems switched on: the air handling services, lights and gravity all hummed into activity. Clearly no one was here. The corridors were empty, as were the various quarters for the ... the crew?

At last, the boarding party arrived in a spacious though dimly lit control room high in the service module. The room was as vast as an amphitheatre. The sound of gently flowing water, as of a brook babbling over ancient stones could be heard. Control panels and boards began to awaken and light up. Looking out into the vasts of space, a wonderful sight greeted their eyes: some ten or twelve thousand miles away, the graceful arc of a nine-sided black tube, calmly rotating in space, bathed in the warm glow of a stable old star. Odd. No one alive in that strange world would ever know of the star their curious world has orbited for who knows how long.

A voice spoke from somewhere in the huge space. “Greetings! Can it be you, Mr Wonth? Have you come back to me at last...?” — an ethereal voice. A sad and longing voice, as if its speaker had spent eons alone. And now it was a voice also filled with --- hope? Aster wondered whose voice it could be. Clearly no person could have survived in the module's hibernation. I wonder, could it be...the world’s Computer?
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by LinguoFranco »

I have an idea for a conworld based on Pangaea. It is our Pangaea in our world, but it was home to all sorts of fantasy creatures, empires, and magic. Basically, like how Tolkien's Middle Earth is our world in the distant past, only it's Pangaea. They also have an apocalyptic prophecy about the land splitting up into separate continents with each continent's natives being descendants of the seven former empires.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by elemtilas »

k1234567890y wrote:
Ahzoh wrote:elemtilas made a short story out a mere idea...
He must make one in my conworld eventually.
you want to invite elemtilas to write stories for your conworld? if so, then I want too OuO
Then feed me! Give me some ideas & direction.

Sounds like there's still interest in the old CBB Fanfic Society; but to write a good story in someone else's world requires knowing a bit about that world.

I'd still love for folks to try and write stories set in The World; and I'd love to try my hand at writing in others'. But I'd need to learn more!
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by LinguoFranco »

I'm thinking about creating a mountains based civilization after exploring various languages and cultures like Tibetan, Georgian, and Quechua. So far, I have a conworld that hasn't been populated yet as I am still trying to figure out the climate and geography of the particular region I'm working on. However, there is a mountain range, which I think I will make the home of one of my conlangs. I also have a religion based on sun worship, and since mountains have high altitudes, I'm thinking this mountain culture is a very religious society (like Tibet) and feel they are closer to the sun god both literally and spiritually.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by qwed117 »

gestaltist wrote:I would love to see a conworld set here:

Image

Have we been too shy with our creativity? I am wondering.
I'm beginning to imagine a conworld made of but wax and water. Wax is lighter than water, so I have to see a way for the whole world not to be a Europa of some sort
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: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by gestaltist »

qwed117 wrote: I'm beginning to imagine a conworld made of but wax and water. Wax is lighter than water, so I have to see a way for the whole world not to be a Europa of some sort
This is actually a very interesting idea. :)
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Ahzoh »

Planet Sedu has two moons and one of them is a waterworld covered in ice, and creatures lurk under it. I'd like to imagine a situation similar to humans being chased across the ice by leopard seals.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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A niven ring planned and laid down around 34 Enkidu some time during the 47th Dynasty by the firm of Coats and Clerk.

A slight miscalculation in the two massive ribbon printers that lay down the substrate and subsequent layers of terraform strata causes a very slight counterroation of the printers such that they seem to match up when their job is done, but in fact they have created a most unforeseen circumstance... that rare misalignment of space that exists along the surface of a moebian world. Engineering bunglement and bureaucratic poly-chromatic tape mean that no one notices until the metaphorical lights are turned on and the all too real pantechnicons begin arriving with settlers...

JaTung is one such settler, ever eager for a new adventure. But as she sets off upon her journey along this world she begins to wonder if she will never return to her starting point again! With each gentle revolution of the moebian ring, her twisting path through space and time brings her into ever changing universes.

As the universes and cosms she travels through become ever stranger and more bizarre, her thoughts turn towards finding a way home again. Do you think she can ever get home by just turning around and going back the way she came? And where is home, anyway, when you're now shifted forty-seven universes to the right and have no key that will get them to line up properly again.
  • flippity-floppity-flip
    • the mouse on the moebius strip
  • the strip revolved, the mouse resolved
    • into a quantum dimensional slip
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Egerius »

Revisiting my magic Alt-Earth (which I named "World of Ur-Land" at the moment), if conlanging does occur in it, I probably will dig Proto-Avesto-Umbric out of its grave.
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