Original Fantasy Setting

[Cabisco]

Moreover I don't have much confidence when it comes to my own writing so thats a lovely little hinderance to have.

Writers don't need confidence, that's what editing is for!

In all serious, though, I know exactly what you mean. I've thrown away more novels than some people have written. I'll get half-way through writing and just give up because I think it's crap.

The trick, I guess, is getting through that feeling long enough to finish something.

That trick sounds hard, but likely worth it.

Well, I guess actually attempting to write it is a lot better than never writing it so I'll at least try to get something resembling an opening written down. Now to figure out to whether to go for one of my crazy ideas for a twist or not.

How is the current Trilligan novel coming along btw? (you mentioned it in your previous post)

 

[EquestrianGeneral]

Awesome! So I'm not the only one who enjoys creating worlds of high fantasy!

So, like many others, I am currently writing something of a novel. It takes place in a land known as "Selmia," which reflects medieval Europe. Selmia is both the name of the actual planet that the characters live on, and the only known continent of it.

The continent is split between four nations, each ruled by different races. The Human Empire in the northeast, which is in the "Era of Equality" when the story begins. The Lejud de Lejers to the northwest, which is home of the Karin (more or less Elves). The Wul to the southwest, which is home to the Wulard (basically Dwarves). The Rey Confederation to the southeast, which is a "melting pot" of all of the other, less intelligent races (such as goblins, orcs, trolls, dragons, etc).

Being that this is fantasy, there is magic and those who wield it, the Magi. Every race has them, and they are treated and trained differently from the other races (ex. The Karin use more passive, "stealthy" magic, while the Rey have adopted more of a "tribal/shaman" mentality when dealing with magic).

Three hundred years before the story begins, during the "Era of Honor," the normal humans revolted against the human magi, who held most government positions, out of jealously and fear. The human magi were all but wiped out, and over time, it was told that the magi had tried to destroy the normal humans, but had failed.

Over time, the human race focused less on arcane practices and more on industrial goals and technology. They develop technology that share similarities with steam-punk, and do away with arcane practices entirely, while the other nations continued the study of arcane techniques to varying degrees.

Fairly standard high fantasy, but I like it.

 

[Cabisco]

How is the current Trilligan novel coming along btw? (you mentioned it in your previous post)

Slowly, but steadily. I keep making progress but it's not as much as I ought to because it's really easy to just come poke around the forums instead. :/

Well if you ever fancy writing about a ship people have lived on for 600 years I'd welcome the help haha

 

[Waffle_Man]

Let me see what I can think of off the top of my head...

On a world inhabiting a realm of existence different from our own, there lives a population of small beings. These beings live out their lives in a somewhat child like existence, gathering all sorts of memories and experiences. However, once an allotted time has passed, all of these beings must find a mate, have offspring, and then make their way to one of the four corners of the earth to serve under one of the three elemental spirits of the earth. This allows the world to continually change and never stagnate.

Some go to the spirit of earth, where they help decide what landscapes on the world will look like. Some go to the spirit of birth, where they help to maintain the delicate balance of life and determine the order of it. Others go to the spirit of growth, where they maintain all of the environmental condition required for life to continue, adding variety to that which birth has created. Lastly, some go to the spirit of death, where they make sure that the world never becomes stagnant or in excess.

Charged with caring and raising the young beings are the guardians. The guardians also help to make sure the system doesn't falter by doing two things: First, they protect the world from various creatures things that sometimes enter from other plains and realms of existence through cracks that occur when the system has become too stagnant. Second, they escort the beings to a shrine that reveals which spirit they are destined to join with.

It must be noted that these are not the world's only inhabitants. The aforementioned creatures, while not allowed anywhere near the important areas of the planet, are not necessarily destroyed the moment they come into the world. Thus, there is a somewhat large population of varied creatures that continue to live on the world, some of whom are sapient and quite intelligent. Almost all simply "fall" into the world through cosmic accident. The various creatures are often times alone and unable to communicate with others, but there are instances of many of a certain creature arrive together, thus allowing the formation of small communities. However, the world's constantly changing nature bars all but the most hardy and adaptive creatures from ever forming something even remotely resembling civilization.

I'm sure something like this has been done before, but I can't think of what has done so. I'm not sure what to do with this, but I though it was an interesting idea.

 

[Manji187]

On the contrary, it is rather interesting. A double mystery; what is Topside really (wasteland, utopia, something else entirely?) and who is Trilligan really?

What I am curious about is Trilligan's methods of keeping everyone in line and his motivation for doing so. What does he get out of being "king of the slaves"?

No matter how powerful he is, fact is that he needs the people more than they need him, so when all the workforce starts to rebel en masse and eventually they will (for instance because they have come to consider even death to be a welcome release from their pitiful existence), how will Trilligan manage the situation and get everyone working again (and not plotting the next uprising)?

Also, who is the main character/ protagonist? Some youth who wants to escape the drudgery of work and see Topside for himself?

Thank you for the encouraging words!

My biggest problem, at this point, is building the mystery and it's resulting revelations in such a way that the end result - the answers to questions about who Trilligan is, what his penultimate motives are, the actual state of Topside, etc. - doesn't disappoint the audience by falling short of their imagined expectations.

The protagonist I have in mind is one Taylor Crosse, who isn't one of the Gap's laborers; he hails from Cliffwall, and descended into the Gap in pursuit of someone (though I'm still finding a reason for this pursuit that fits thematically); the biggest feature of Taylor at this point is his addiction to a drug called Epiphany, which gives him visions of the future.

The drug is part of Trilligan's control apparatus, of course, but the prophetic elements are so far functionally unique to Taylor.

The other part of Trilligan's control apparatus is a woman known as Minerva, who is at this point his Dragon, but who I hope to flesh out a great deal more over the course of the novel.

I see. Keep in mind though that you are the one who gets to set the expectations. As the author of the work, you can lead the reader into expecting one thing while keeping your options open to come up with a surprise reveal.

Who is Taylor Crosse? If he is pursuing someone, is he a detective/ investigator? Or is he a wanted felon who wants to clear his name (falsely accused/ wrongfully convicted)? Or something else entirely?

Be careful if you opt for the detective route though. Combined with his drug addiction he might resemble a character named Nick Bottom, the protagonist from a novel called Flashback by Dan Simmons (yes, Nick Bottom is also a character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the link was intended by Simmons). In Flashback, the protagonist uses a drug called flashback (yeah lol) to relive the past.

I wonder how exactly the drug is part of Trilligan's control apparatus. Sure, it could keep the populace passive/ docile but they still need to be fit for work, right? Is the drug free from adverse effects?

Interesting choice for a name, Minerva. Minerva as in the Roman Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice? People are likely to associate, even if that was not your intention. The thing is, how will you use that association? Will you use it at all?

 

[penguindude42]

I've been formulating a D&D setting without all the elves, dwarves, orcs, what-have-you.

There isn't even humans. Just beastfolk. And golems.

 

[Overusedname]

No. You'll just steal my ideas.

I'm paranoid and egotistically and my ideas are that valuable.

Leave me alone.

 

[konor77]

I'm currently working on a world for an RPG campaign, theres not that much in the in the way of true originality in it, with huge swathes being taken from other sources most notably from ravnica but there's warhammer, rivers of London, ankh-morpork, shadowrun and a million other sources, but I like how the different bits and bobs combine.

Spoiler

the world began with was. At some point was made the gods and they made the titans(or perhaps it was vice versa) at any rate there was a war between the gods and the titans. The titans were defeated but the war desolated was with it's gleaming remnants forming the suns and the stars. The titans couldn't be destroyed and so a prison called is was made.

Is is where the story is set. It's impossibly large with no mortal and perhaps not even any god knowing it's true size or even shape, the most popular hypotheses being infinite, ring-shaped, a disc and perhaps even a sphere. Every possible environment and countless others exists on is. The RPG focuses on a region dominated by a city called reikech.

Reikech is an enormous melting pot of a city teeming with hundreds of races, humans are most populous with over two million freemen alone, Next are the dwarves, founders of reikech they are far less populous but most are quite powerful, with many being judges, buildmasters, bankers or lawbringers. Elves are nearly entirely gone. Elves as a whole were poorly equiped to deal with both the rise of city life and of industrialisation with the remnants found as mercenaries or recluses in the citiy's few remaining wild places. skaven are a rising power in the city being highly capable engineers, survivalists and tinkerers but their history of war with the dwarves and humans notably still haunts the race and to this day most skaven clans are still fighting a war against the with the commonwealth with a mere 13 clans of a total 168 having joined the commonwealth, ogres are a relatively new race to the streets of reikech with their northern kingdoms having joined the commonwealth only 150 years ago.They aren't that common at society's top but their greed, ambition and drive makes them natural matches for the middle and lower classes. There are countless other races such as the wolfir, mer, vampyr( I enjoy spelling things slightly differently where I believe they're different enough to warrant it), goblins, knoblar, trolls, demons, devils, angels etc

The politics of the city and by extension the commonwealth is rather strange. At the centre of reikech, where three of it''s great rivers meet there is and island palace known as rav. Whenever a new nation enters into the commonwealth it's nobles are given citizenship of rav. Each noble house is allowed a speaker who is has the power to speak and vote at the great forum that decides the future actions of the commonwealth. The day to day running of the commonwealth is done by the high council on which each lord of rav sits. Lordships are not hereditary and the process for attaining one is impossibly complex. The only constant fixtures are the 21 seats held by representatives of each of the Mage-guilds. At any given moment there are usually approximately 100 Ravi lordships.

The Mage guilds are the heart of reikech with each being a superpower capable of besting most nations. Their constant feuds and machinations are at the core of city life. Each guild specialises in two of the seven wind of magic and has a specific duty it performs in service of the commonwealth.

Well that's a lot of writing I have way more to say but that is almost certainly for anyone reading to comment on whether they think it would be a fun setting to play in. So what do you think?
Edit: I can't get the spoiler tags to work what am I doing wrong?