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That's noice, lisalombs. Anywho, I guess that'd make an interesting world if no group is immediately antagonistic; but would there be any immediate conflicts, or would everyone be at peace for now?

I feel like there should be some accidental symbiotic relationship that prevents all-out war. For example, perhaps magic users can only cast spells if they have gems, which the humans find they have no use for but find plentifully while mining for iron and stuff. The gems don't have a limit for the number of times they can cast a spell, but more complex arrangements with rarer gems are needed for better spells. These days, 99% of the magic gems can only be found in the mountains where the humans dwell. (That's 'cause at the start of the "bronze age" magic users were able to find a few small caches of gems in tiny caves, but back then it gave them enough power to drive the humans into the mountains, where they thought they could find protection and iron. Unfortunately, the magic users miscalculated the amount of gems in the caves, and once they realized that gems could also be found inside mountains, the humans had already settled in enough to protect themselves.)

On the other hand, due to the general lack of water, the humans are forced to rely on magical means to obtain water. Since the humans can't do magic themselves, they rely on the magic users, in exchange for gems.

In essence, it's mutually assured destruction. If humans decide to stop giving out gems, they could eventually subjugate the magic users, but they'd probably die due to famine and dehydration first due to the lack of water. At the same time, if the magic users stop providing water, then the humans would be forced to go on all out war, which may end badly for both parties, since the humans would be extra motivated since they would have literally nothing to lose.

I feel like such relationships could also exist between every pair of races as well. That would be a great way to provide conflict that lurks just under the surface, while simultaneously providing backstory and fleshing out the mechanics of the world.

Very interesting, Spoopy Light Spectrum. What would the relationships between other racial pairs be, if you have any idea?

Well, first we'd have to pin down exactly which races "canonically" exist. I would actually enjoy writing up the relationships, but since they kind of all effect each other, I don't want to start until I know that I won't have to worry about another race being added or removed, basically forcing me to start from scratch if I want that race's role to seem natural rather than forced, or so that it doesn't seem like anything's missing. Once I do come up with the relationships, (assuming everyone's fine with me doing so) you guys can modify it to suit your needs (so for a simple example, maybe instead of gems they used fossils or something).

I'll help you guys pin it down. Here's the list of possible races traits, listed by biology and role. (I'll add a few extra ideas, just for fun.) I'll let you guys turn this into a single list of races.

Biology:
-Gods/ Pseudogods (Not a big fan of this as a race since it would be hard to balance them, but a handful of them like the Greek Gods might be interesting)
-Machines
-Humans
-Murlocs (Not a fan, I'd rather we come up with our own ideas)
-Multi-viral/ amorphous/ mineral/ non-carbon-based-but-still-physical-matter
-Ghosts/ Beings of pure energy (not sure how I feel about this one, could be a good idea, but could be bad as well)
-Angels / Demons / Tricksters/ Imps / Fae
-Anthropomorphic mammals/ birds/ reptiles/ insects/ plants/ etc.
- Elves / Dwarves/ Halflings (just 'cause they're cliche)
-Eldrich Horrors (for the sake of balance, please keep them relatively minor, or don't give them the power to destroy the world directly or indirectly, even if they are able to influence it)

Role:
-Magic users
-Tech users
-Magitech users
-Created by another race
-Corrupted version of a race
-Slight latent psychic abilities
-Powerful, controllable psychic abilities

So, yeah, if you guys could finalize a list of races (it doesn't have to be set in complete stone, but it would be nice to have a place to start) I'd love to get to work on it and propose the web of balances between the nations. Can't do it right now though, since I've got class in 10 minutes.

One last thing. For the sake of my sanity, try to limit it to 10 races at most, since that's already 45 relationships. I think a minimum of 5 is good, since it would mean 10 relationships. (Also, just in case you'd like to know, 9 races means 36 relationships, 8 means 28, 7 means 21, and 6 means 15.)

OH MY GOLLY I HAVE 3 MINUTES TO GET TO CLASS AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY PANTS ON!!! BYE!!!

How about beings made from discarded metals and minerals to make basically sentient rocks? aka STEPHEN GALAXY They're neutral-ish, and can't speak (they don't have a mouth) and are peaceful if left undisturbed. I really don't have a good visualization, but I thought the fighting Polygons from SSB64 pretty much sum them up, except they vary in color and what not

Golems?

So, is there any particular goal here? Is OP going to write a story about this, or are we going to have an RP set in this world, or are we just brainstorming?

I mean, if someone wants to write a story or do a roleplay then go ahead, but for the most part its just us brainstorming for what would make a badass story.

With Spoopy Light-Spectrum's post, I think we need to identify which races canonically exist. So, we got Humans, Scorpion People, Machine People, Urqaylids (Spider People), Wolf People, Angels, Ghost People (Not the Dead Money variety), Raptor People, Golems, Prototype People, Carniferns (Angry Plant People) on the table. Which ones should be given magical abilities, technology, or a bit of both? Or which should also receive the varying psychic abilities?
Humans -
Scorpion People (feel free to come up with a name) -
Urqaylids – [I kinda wanna give the Urqaylids magitech, but it should be approved by the collective think of the forums.]
Wolf People (feel free to come up with a name) -
Angels (other name ideas welcome) –
Ghost People (feel free to come up with a name) –
Raptor People (feel free to come up with a name) -
Golems (other name ideas welcome) –
Prototype People (feel free to come up with a name) –
Machine People (feel free to come up with a name) -

I really like this idea, so I'm going to propose some sort of structure so that we can actually figure out what we want to do and actually do it.

First up, I think it's best we pin down a backstory. I feel like this is a logical first goal, since it would be required to do any story telling/ role-playing/ dungeons and dragoning.

Here's a list of things we have to do, at minimum:
1) Figure out where in time the backstory will start (e.g. dawn of civilization, dawn of stone age, dawn of intelligent life).
2) Come up with a physical map of the world. (Rough draft done, not yet finalized. Could use more details, like volcanoes, rivers, etc.)
3) Determine which races are canon at the "starting point" we chose.
4) Come up with a name for the planet. (In progress.)
5) Figure out when the backstory should end (e.g. renaissance, industrial era, digital age, trans-human era, space colonization age, end of the world, end of the universe, etc.)

After that, I feel like we can let people pursue their own projects.
Examples:
-Bestiary
-Guide to local flaura and fauna
-Figure out if there are any other planets and/ or moons (and maybe even a second sun or something)
-Come up with backstories of different races, detailing their history, culture, how they relate to other races, major cities, etc.
-Timeline of magic/ technology
-Timeline of natural disasters/ wars/ great achievements (first trip around the globe, first person in space, first artificially created race, construction of the pyramids, first cloned animal, etc.)
-Descriptions of the religions, and how they relate to other races and to any other noteworty things if they are an important part of said religion (e.g. planets/ stars, sacred animals/ plants, etc.)
-A description of any sort of special systems that eventually crop up in the previous projects (i.e. overview of magic, fictional calendar after the discovery of astronomy, etc.)
-More detailed maps. They could be more zoomed in, or just a world map. They could be political maps, physical maps, or whatever. There could even be multiple maps of the same kind at different points in time as long as there was some sort of differences.
-Maybe even drawings of the races, flora, fauna, major cities, what have you.

One important thing to note is that a lot of these projects impact each other, so whenever they overlap, both parties will have to collaborate and agree on anything they come up with, so that the backstory makes sense.

Now, just so things don't turn into complete chaos, some sort of hierarchy is a necessary evil. I suggest one "overlord", multiple "mods", and then everyone else. The overlord's main role would be to get the community through the first five big decisions. They can also do a few special things, as long as the majority of the mods agree with it. Examples would include "decannoning" someone's work, deciding when the backstory was done, proposing new ideas of what to do after the backstory was done, and maybe even more. Mods would mainly serve to keep everyone's works connected (so they'd encourage people who work on projects that overlap to work together, or try to mediate disputes when two such parties come to a disagreement) but also serve as a foil to the overlord to make sure he or she isn't just a tyrant. They'd also have a few minor powers, like proposing something should be "decannoned" and maybe other things. Everyone else would be, well, everyone else. For the first big five decisions they'd propose ideas and vote on them, like everyone else. Then they'd develop their own projects, like everyone else. (Mods and overlords MIGHT get to call dibs on a specific project, though). If they had an issue, they'd bring it to the mod, and if they were being a jerk, then either a mod or the overlord would deal with them, depending upon the severity of their infractions.

So yeah, that's it. How does that sound? I'm totally open to any changes in this "constitution" since I just wanted to propose some sort of structure we could at least start off of, instead of going in circles forever. Also, I'm the thinker type, not the leader type, so the overlord position is not going to be mine. Maybe OP's, maybe by popular vote (assuming with we go with this structure in the first place.)

Sorry this was so very long! I hope that I didn't make this world building exercise seem dumb or a chore, because I think it could be very entertaining and creatively fulfilling. That said, I hope I didn't hype things up too much, since we're just a bunch of crazy memers doing something for fun.

….
I guess that's it.
Could some leadery type like RandomMan or Snickerway or whoever take up the reigns now? Because I'm finished proposing my idea, and I have literally no clue what happens next.

Also, after writing this, I'm going to be too insecure to check in on any developments to this specific wall of text at least for the next few days, so yeah, if someone else could take charge, that would be super.

Okay since nobody likes my ideas I'm just going to make a bunch of prophecies written on ancient emerald tablets. Since they're prophecies none of them have to come true so everyone's happy.

Ancient Emerald Tablets of The God of Destiny (name the gods whatever you want):

Bernie Sanders is a lost political deity, whom taught the world while he was in human form his many sacred teachings. It is prophecized he will be reborn again and lead the world to a new great era of political freedom and empathy.

The lost City of Anonymous is said to exist hidden deep underground in an ancient island. It is said they roam all the lands under the cover of masks to spread their virtues of creativity and anarchy. One day a leader under a red demonic mask shall rise up and unite the fury of all people against the restrictions of authority and lead a revolution against them.

The Quapurgate is a legendary scroll that is said to exist in a floating temple. He who reads the Quapurgate is said to gain the knowledge of all existence and be able to create anything and go to worlds unknown at will.

When the Sun and the Moon eclipse on the 420th year it is said a being of great memitude and dankness shall bring about a new enlightenment centered around memes and puns.

The Golden Turd is said to be a forbidden object capable of making anyone who licks it gain the ability to shit odorless turd-like gold. This prophecy has driven many explorers to madness, as it is said to only reveal itself to the truly insane and pure of butt.

Half Life 3 is a legendary name, but nobody knows what it truly is. Some theologians argue it represents the perfection of mankind while many historians counter that it is a metaphor for progress and science. A cult surrounding this legendary name says that it is however a whole other reality entirely made of electricity that will some day reveal itself to the masses as the greatest experience ever created. But the cult is dismissed by most as fictitious and ridiculous.

I might try and start a roleplay about this myself, then. From what I've seen, roleplays on this forum don't tend to last long, but it's worth a try. There's certainly a lot to work with here.

To everyone in this thread: how many of you would be interested in an RP set in this world? It'd probably be a simple, story-based RP – no stats or calculations or anything, just plain roleplaying.

@Roy

snip

Dammit, got ninja'd. This is what happens when I start on a post and forget about it for two hours.

1) Figure out where in time the backstory will start (e.g. dawn of civilization, dawn of stone age, dawn of intelligent life).

I'd say it should be set in the semi-modern society some people have been talking about. There's a lot of opportunity for plot and conflict there.

2) Come up with a physical map of the world. (Rough draft done, not yet finalized. Could use more details, like volcanoes, rivers, etc.)

This depends on how big our scope is going to be. A forum RP might be small-scale enough to fit within just one city.

3) Determine which races are canon at the “starting point” we chose.

I'd say we make everything reasonable canon – that is to say, everything that isn't OP or unbelievably ludicrous.

4) Come up with a name for the planet. (In progress.)

Hadn't we agreed on Therrat already?

5) Figure out when the backstory should end (e.g. renaissance, industrial era, digital age, trans-human era, space colonization age, end of the world, end of the universe, etc.)

This should probably come after we figure out what our scope is going to be, like with the map. We don't need to plan for future events that take place long after the story is set.

I was thinking about making an rp out of this earlier so I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think there are two obvious options for the scope though there may be others. Option one could be a Nat RP except instead of creating a nation, each group takes control of a race. Non traditional Nat RP's have worked in the past so its certainly possible. Option two would be an individual RP where each person creates their own character and RPs in this setting.