Random Conworld idea thread

[eldin raigmore]

I had the idea of giving my conworld a supernatural conflict between embodiments of opposing philosophies or ideas, but Good vs. Evil is horribly overdone, way too difficult to define properly, and the terms are loaded to hell.

So I had a different, more interesting idea. I'm unsure what to call these sides, so let's call them Team A and Team B. Team A believes it is wrong to rise above your station within the natural order and the way to happiness is to learn to be satisfied with what you have. Team B believes it is wrong to take things lying down, and you should try to change things to better fit your desires. The central supernatural conflict of my conworld is the one between the physical embodiments of Team A and Team B.

Ideas for names, anyone?

Not bad!

Earlier I had a suggestion for "Team Green" vs "Team Red".
Well, really, I guess, I only distinguished "green magic" vs "red magic".
"Green magic" IIRC is guaranteed not to hurt anyone; requires only small sacrifices; may take a lot of time to work (because working immediately might get someone hurt); and isn't 100% guaranteed to work.
"Red magic" OTOH is guaranteed to work; requires large sacrifices; works quickly enough and obviously enough that the user can tell it worked; and could have unintended negative side-effects, even on the user.
A similar distinction could easily pervade a culture's politics and/or religion and/or technology.

[Darkgamma]

Not bad!

Earlier I had a suggestion for "Team Green" vs "Team Red".
Well, really, I guess, I only distinguished "green magic" vs "red magic".
"Green magic" IIRC is guaranteed not to hurt anyone; requires only small sacrifices; may take a lot of time to work (because working immediately might get someone hurt); and isn't 100% guaranteed to work.
"Red magic" OTOH is guaranteed to work; requires large sacrifices; works quickly enough and obviously enough that the user can tell it worked; and could have unintended negative side-effects, even on the user.
A similar distinction could easily pervade a culture's politics and/or religion and/or technology.

Green magic - biofuels
Red magic - oil

Green party - "hippies"
Red party - "refined people"

COLOUR NEWS: Currently, dear viewers, we can see that the Green Magic Party staged anti-Red protests earlier this day near a Red Magic Facility (oil refinery). There were a tragic 19 dead Red Magic users and just 291 dead Green Magic users.
Today is a Red day and is very lovely

xD I couldn't stop laughing

[eldin raigmore]

Green magic - biofuels
Red magic - oil

Green party - "hippies"
Red party - "refined people"

COLOUR NEWS: Currently, dear viewers, we can see that the Green Magic Party staged anti-Red protests earlier this day near a Red Magic Facility (oil refinery). There were a tragic 19 dead Red Magic users and just 291 dead Green Magic users.
Today is a Red day and is very lovely

xD I couldn't stop laughing

I like it a lot so far!
What else you got? (Or anyone else?)

[cybrxkhan]

(bump)

I just had a little idea: mushroom/fungus bonsai. Although there's kind of no point since usually mushrooms and kind of small anyways... unless if the world has huge mushrooms. Or I suppose you can use fungus to recreate landscapes. That might work too.

[eldin raigmore]

I just had a little idea: mushroom/fungus bonsai. Although there's kind of no point since usually mushrooms and kind of small anyways... unless if the world has huge mushrooms. Or I suppose you can use fungus to recreate landscapes. That might work too.

Seems possible, as a story feature anyway.
IRL most fungi are microscopic.
But there are underground fungi in woods and forests and other places, that actually occupy pretty much most of the entire volume under the woods or forest (or grassland or what-have-you).
Still, most above-ground fruiting bodies are not big; and the below-ground fruiting bodies of fungi (e.g. truffles) depend on attracting animals to dig them up and eat them, in order to spread their spores.
But I can't think of a good reason there couldn't be a tree-sized mushroom.

[rickardspaghetti]

Wouldn't it be too soft and collapse under its own weight?

[Ànradh]

Wouldn't it be too soft and collapse under its own weight?

The same could be asked of giant daisies, but look at the Galapagos.
Giant mushrooms would evolve some way of supporting their greater size.
Fungal cells have an outer layer of chiton, similar to insect exoskeletons; this could be used as some form of 'scaffolding' by the mushroom.

[Micamo]

What reproductive benefit would such a large size have?

[Ànradh]

What reproductive benefit would such a large size have?

Hmmm... fair point. It's not like they need to compete for light...
Spore dispersal perhaps?
I'm sure something could be thought up; hell, one could just say 'island gigantism' and probably get away with it since it's not really understood anyway.

[rickardspaghetti]

Would such mushrooms be edible, or perhaps they could be used as building material, similar to wood? That last one was just a random idea I threw out there, you can ignore it if it sounds stupid. When I hear "tree-sized mushrooms" I think "could they be used like wood?".

[Micamo]

Would such mushrooms be edible, or perhaps they could be used as building material, similar to wood? That last one was just a random idea I threw out there, you can ignore it if it sounds stupid. When I hear "tree-sized mushrooms" I think "could they be used like wood?".

It depends on its structure: A giant mushroom would have to be pretty radically different from existing mushrooms to work. If it has:

A. A soft core

B. A hard exterior that structurally supports the shroom

Then it might be able to handle both of those.

[cybrxkhan]

Originally I was just thinking of something like using lichen to make miniature bonsaid-esque landscapes or something...

But huge shrooms would be interesting too. As long as I don't rip off Morrowind. But for having supports - what if the issue was solved similarly to how land-walked squids were dealt with in The Future is Wild, namely, something like large interior rings that... do something. I forgot, actually.


I also had another idea. Wild West + Middle East. Or rather Medieval Middle Eastern Wild West. Where guns would be replaced by crossbows, fast-drawing pistols would be replaced by fast-drawing throwing knives and darts, etc. Has anyone bothered to do something like this before (since I don't find it too drastic a concept)? In China I know they sometimes like to depict the pre-modern Chinese excursions into Central Asia vaguely like the Wild West, with bandits running around and all that.

[Micamo]

As long as I don't rip off Morrowind.

Trust me, you can take far worse inspirations than Morrowind.

I also had another idea. Wild West + Middle East. Or rather Medieval Middle Eastern Wild West. Where guns would be replaced by crossbows, fast-drawing pistols would be replaced by fast-drawing throwing knives and darts, etc. Has anyone bothered to do something like this before (since I don't find it too drastic a concept)? In China I know they sometimes like to depict the pre-modern Chinese excursions into Central Asia vaguely like the Wild West, with bandits running around and all that.

Sand Punk?

[eldin raigmore]

I also had another idea. Wild West + Middle East. Or rather Medieval Middle Eastern Wild West. Where guns would be replaced by crossbows, fast-drawing pistols would be replaced by fast-drawing throwing knives and darts, etc. Has anyone bothered to do something like this before (since I don't find it too drastic a concept)? In China I know they sometimes like to depict the pre-modern Chinese excursions into Central Asia vaguely like the Wild West, with bandits running around and all that.

Sand Punk?

That sounds cool!

[cybrxkhan]

Looked online to see if there was anything similar to what I had above, and the closest I got was tvtropes' Desertpunk, except they're using that to describe post-apocalyptic or sci-fi situations.

So I suppose Sandpunk is a good name for it, thanks Micamo. Especially considering how the historical Middle Eastern dynasties did have some clockpunk-esque or proto-clockpunk-esque machinery running around, it wouldn't be wholly that radical of an idea, either. Heh heh, Arab-like Jesse James-esque bandits raiding a Byzantine clockwork caravan... or something.

[Avjunza]

Heh heh, Arab-like Jesse James-esque bandits raiding a Byzantine clockwork caravan... or something.

I'd actually watch that one.


Trying to get ideas together for a new conculture, the Tágwa. So far they're stone-age humans on an isolated subcontinent roughly 2/3s the size of India, mostly temperate rainforest, with plenty of hunter-gatherers as well as some agriculturalists and a handful of settlements, their larger architecture being timber and adobe pyramids, with average dwellings being either tents or pyramid-framed wooden huts, often with an underground chamber. Wildlife include crocodiles, snakes, panthers, baboons, boar, and teƿókoa (think mammalian brontosaur about the size of a large horse), which are in the early stages of domestication. They haven't invented bows, so far just knives (possibly for throwing, haven't decided yet), spears and slingstones. Their religion is sort of inspired by the Daedra, although I've only just started on that aspect. I want to give them a bit of a Japanese feel to them as well, although so far this is just through extensive use of honorifics in the conlang.

And I'm still playing around with this idea, but I might make it that their ancestors made a pact with their gods so that they can turn ethereal every now and then (how often and what controls this transformation I haven't decided yet).
I also don't have anything yet that could cause serious conflict, apart from the hunter-gatherer vs agriculturalist aspect.

Thoughts?

[eldin raigmore]

Arab-like Jesse James-esque bandits raiding a Byzantine clockwork caravan...

I'd actually watch that one.

Oh, yeah. So would I.
Very high "coolness factor", IMO.

[Bristel]

This is more of a far into the future idea for me to write about, but I was thinking that my conworld's civilizations would be almost completely wiped out (if not entirely) by a supervolcanic eruption that is heralded by several thousands of years of major earthquakes and minor fissure eruptions. (although I'm not sure if the civilizations of that era will have volcanology or geology sufficient enough to know that the eruption is possible or imminent)

[cybrxkhan]

Arab-like Jesse James-esque bandits raiding a Byzantine clockwork caravan...

I'd actually watch that one.

Oh, yeah. So would I.
Very high "coolness factor", IMO.

Come to think of it, I think there needs to be more love for Byzantine-inspired stuff. Like real Byzantine stuff.

And I'm still playing around with this idea, but I might make it that their ancestors made a pact with their gods so that they can turn ethereal every now and then (how often and what controls this transformation I haven't decided yet).

You mean they can turn into ghost-like things, or just their ancestors i.e. once they're dead they can come back and trollhaunt their descendants?

This is more of a far into the future idea for me to write about, but I was thinking that my conworld's civilizations would be almost completely wiped out (if not entirely) by a supervolcanic eruption that is heralded by several thousands of years of major earthquakes and minor fissure eruptions. (although I'm not sure if the civilizations of that era will have volcanology or geology sufficient enough to know that the eruption is possible or imminent)

Reminds me of MorrowindRed Mountain for some reason.

[Avjunza]

And I'm still playing around with this idea, but I might make it that their ancestors made a pact with their gods so that they can turn ethereal every now and then (how often and what controls this transformation I haven't decided yet).

You mean they can turn into ghost-like things, or just their ancestors i.e. once they're dead they can come back and trollhaunt their descendants?

Their living descendants can turn into ghost-like things; they are see-through, can't be touched by a living entity, and can fly for short distances (maybe half a km).