Forums / Discussion / General

Exactly what it says on the tin.

This will be a thread to talk about and discuss worldbuilding, either our own original ideas and settings or already existing ones.

All settings are welcome, whether fantasy, sci-fi, or other.

Interesting thread to stumble upon mere minutes after its creation.
Gonna toss my ring into the hat and provide a summary of a setting I have in mind. Will elaborate on things if asked provided I have the time and energy for it.

It's a fantasy setting taking place on an Earth-like planet where the most advanced soceities were on a vaguely 1700's era tech level originally.

Magic exists in the form of "Dark", named after it's source of power. Dark users consists of both vampires and assorted were-creatures.
All practitioners gain power from avoiding light, and will gradually lose it when exposed to sufficient light levels, especially from the sun. Running out results in death. Powel degradation varies, with the power running out faster in warm and light environments and vice versa.
Every type of Dark cteaure have their own specific powers, but common features to all of them includes regeneration, functional immortality, dark vision, increased toughness, increased strength, and reaction speed.
Practitioners are sterile except for when mating with mundane women, resulting in a hybrid called a Darkling. Darklings have less impressive powers but do not die if running out.
Dark does not have an inherent moral component to it, but it lends itself well to malefactors and thus carries stigma. Becoming a Dark creature requires either "corruption" from an existing creature or obscure ritual magic.

Around 400 years ago a rift opened up from another dimension and some refugees consisting of humanoid creatures with alien "Light" powers arrived, pursued by monsters.
Ever since, rifts to the other world periodically opens, leading to invasions of strange monsters made from amalgamations of different creatures. The only thing known about them is that they're born from a godlike Chimera with genocidal goals that has now added humanity to its shit-list.
The incident mysteriously also resulted in no nightime every third week, as well as the aforementioned ritual magic experiencing changes in how it works.

Most of human civilization is now concentrated in well-fortified city states and nomadic settlements in order to cope with recurring invasions of monsters led by a handful of intelligent monstrous warlords.
Humanity is holding up somewhat well but fears a seemingly eternal war of attrition, and there are signs that the Chimera will sooner or later manage to figure out a way to trounce humanity.

So in the end, basically a Low Dark Fantasy setting experiencing an interdimensional invasion from an apocalyptic High Fantasy world.

Interesting, very interesting. The only problem I have with this is that the whole concept with the Dark users feels a little low-key when compared with the situation with the chimera.

I'd like some elaboration on the technology of humanity in the setting; you mentioned it used to be vaguely 1700s, which implies it has since fallen behind. I am guessing gunpowder weapons should be very prevalent here. Some elaboration on the "light" creatures would also be nice.

Also, I am guessing the chimera are mostly left ambiguous in regards to motives and origin, or am I incorrect?

Thanks for the response!

I mostly scattershot most of the components of the setting and was afraid to create an entire novel in one comment so things are a little fragmented. Anyhoo…

Dark users are KINDA meant to be low-key. In ages past people feared them most of all, but were able to cope with them since among other things, the "Chunky Salsa Rule" is in effect and even a big ol' werewolf can be killed by a co-ordinated team of armed men if careless.
Silver is a weakness for Dark creatures since having it inside them will cancel their powers (most importantly regeneration), but enough regular violence will do the job.
In the end their existence wasn't enough to alter course of human advancement and they eventually started declining in threat level before the rift incident.
The rift incident was kind of a boon for them, since some of them have found employment as monster hunters where their abilites comes to good use. Darklings are preferred in this role since they don't fear the light and have the ability to expend Dark in order to "ping" other Dark creatures (sending out a pulse that the recipient will experience as a mental "tap on the shoulder"), giving them the ability to communicate over certain distances with each other and to sniff out creatures with Dark in them (forgot to mention that the invaders have some Dark in them, for spoilery reasons unknown in-universe).

Regarding tech, there has been some decline, but also development in others. Since the needs of soceity shifted, some technological paths diverged from real life analogues.
Gunpowder weapons and the production of them has been streamlined, especially since most warfare against monsters happens from walls or horseback. Rudimentary repeaters are the current standard but are supplemented by more archaic ranged weapons from time to time when every able bodied person in a city needs to be armed for wall defense.
Sewer systems and aqueducts are vital in order to keep large city states running in extended sieges, as well as providing springhouses in order to refrigirate food.
Machines like Spinning Jenny, printing presses and other handpowered machines designed for mass production to are widespread in order to meet demands of large populaces where few people have the resources to craft their own things.
Steam engines have some use, but haven't been perfected yet, most matching the type that existed in the late 1600/1700's in terms of performance.

The Light creatures (called Ashborn by themselves) are a race that look very humanlike on a quick glance but have some differences.
They have light grey skin with dark patterns that vary by individual, but most of them have a "mask" in their upper facial region.
They have large tapered ears that come to three points. They are born with one point but gain more during developmet, with three being a mark of maturity.
Their hair is coarser than human hair and grows into a mane, but Ashborn usually style it into mohawks or braids. They have eyebrows and eyelashes but no other facial hair.
They have prehensile tail that can reach 80% of their body length. It is naked and regenerates if damaged.
Lastly, they have digitigrade feet, with a hoof that can actually be splayed out into 4 separate toes.
The fact they look a bit mix-and-matched like the monsters from their home dimension is not entirely a coincidence, but they are not the same as them.

Regarding Light, it can be seen as a foil to Dark, but not necessarily analogus in all aspects. There are for example,no "light vampires", but just like Dark different types of users have different power sets.
Light increases the vitality annd endurance of it's users and grants longevity but not immortality.
Light users can transfer light to another person in order to temporarily revitalize them and remove corruption. It can likewise be infused into things in order to reinforce them and protect them from decay. Infused light does not go away even with no light present, but can be removed by contact with Dark creatures as long as they can infuse the object with at least an equivalent amount of Dark.
Ashborn are all practitioners of light, manifesting in the form of supernatural crafting. They can magically consume one type of matter and give its properties to another. One example being swords made out of silver, but with the physical strength of a steel sword.
Since light is involved in the process anything they craft will be at least partially infused with light, making them more durable over all. They are respected as great smiths, even when not actively using their powers, and mouch of their culture is based around the individuals ability to craft things.
However, whenever their population gets big enough they start birthing a new type of Ashborn, called Firegazers.
They have an offensively oriented powerset, with more powerful magical boosts to their physical attribytes, and the ability to project an "beam" of heat from their hands, albeit with a high power requirement.
Their signature ability is their pyromancy, where their eyes seemingly catch fire and gives them perfect vision in all light conditions as well as enhanced reflexes in response to visual clues.
Firegazers are forbidden from reproduction by reasons known only to Ashborn elders in charge, and unless trusted from years of service, always accompanied by monitors in order to keep an eye on them.

Lastly, yes, the Chimera's motivations are ambiguous on purpose since it's nature is very story focused, and I currently don't think I wanna blow my wad on it.
I can however divulge that it is intelligent (but not flawless) and has motivations beyond just being a generic doom monster, but it IS malevolent and self-serving, making it a true villain.

I really like post post-apocalypses ala New Vegas, but that game has been discussed to death.

Another excellent example is Kenshi. On a tidal locked moon where a cataclysmic war brought an end to a technologically advanced empire, the survivors are left to rebuild with what remains. As centuries pass, a new 2nd Empire is born, but in a cruel act of irony, this too comes crashing down. The surviving people are scattered once more to rebuild in the further decayed ruins. Even in this utterly devastated world, civilization continues to thrive, barbaric and backwards as it may be. It's been so long since the original Empire collapsed, that humanity is largely ignorant about the circumstances that brought them here, some having evolved, or how to rebuild whatever surviving tech remains. A Neo Neo-Dark Age so to speak.

The world of Kenshi is very bleak and unforgiving, but maintains a tongue in cheek humor about it that is very reminiscent of classic Fallout. Unlike, Fallout, there are no guns in Kenshi and the primary form of combat is through old fashion melee/martial arts. It's theme also has a Eastern-Western blend of influences. If I were to describe it, its like Dune meets Fist of the North Star.

Kenshi is very fascinating, with a very strange blend of influences indeed. Having the apocalypse so far back in time that no one knows and cares about it is sadly under-utilized.
The act that humanity is basically back to early agrarian soceity is the iccing on the cake.

It's kind of similar in tone to the cult classic Zeno Clash, which is centered around a bunch of mutants who live in Chile, which has been transformed into a giant enclosure called Zenozoik where a strange lawless Stone Punk ecosystem a has emerged through the centuries.
Meanwhile humanity outside has basically gone through the Singularity (and are per Word of God, unrecognizable as humans) and the two worlds are separated in time, place and state of being.

The main character in the first two games is part of a minority of people who actually look like humans, but the fact that he's a true anarchist makes his mindset seem alien to the vast amount of people IRL.
Primitive bizarre guns exists but most problems are solved non-lethally with fisticuffs or crude melee weapons, especially since every mutant is much tougher than they look and can take a beating or two pretty well.

The games are pure jank except the third one that came out this year, but I find the setting very lovable and the story is pretty fascinating.

An evil creepy content farm spreading dangerous cultish messages to children and secretly controlled by a malevolent ai could be interesting horror place to explore.

Skibidi toilet telling children to kill their parents to prepare for ascension.

Only one parent notices this awful shit (as the future is dystopianly obsessed with being on the internet almost 24/7) and needs to try and bring this evil ai down….and try to fix this dystopian shithole of a future.

That is only the begining after a while most members of hololive who are secretly ai generate all start acting sinister and scheming…. the ai generated content is getting hateful

Gawr Gura is especially sadistic and murderous…she loves killing

Ok, I think it's about time I finally shared my own settings too.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Rose War

This is my own personal idea for a Gundam series.

The backstory of the setting starts like this: at one point in the far future, a large, advanced militaristic federation (which is referred to by the people in the present as "the Old Federation"; its first official has been lost, and it changed its name as it expanded) rises in Central Asia, and with its large military resources and advanced technology, it manages to annex a big area of the far east. Around this time, they also experimented with the concept of a military vehicle that would be capable of mounting big weaponry, much bigger than normally possible. Leading to the creation of the first mobile suit (made possible by the creation of a minutarized nuclear reactor and a new artificial metal alloy), which they will use in their expansion in the west of the continent. Eventually they will conquer the entirety of the western hemisphere and africa Upon finishing their conquest of the entire earth (which resulted in many millions of deaths and the dismantling of many previously large nations), they will move on to large building projects. Their thirst for resources would eventually force them to start looking at space, resulting in the start of space colonization. The colonists were specifically chosen to be ethnic groups that the government considered the most rebellious and disloyal, and they would be forcibly deported from earth to space to build and live in the colonies. The colonists had little rights since the government mostly saw them as a large labor force to be used to enrich the earth. This will eventually result in a large revolt in the colonies, which will quickly develop into a full-on war between the colonies and Earth. The colonists will inflict plenty of unexpected defeats on the federal forces thanks to fugitive scientists from Earth, who will go on to develop a further evolution of the minutarized natural reactor that the mobile suits used, which was even more efficient and created a new type of particle that the rebel colonists mounted on their own mobile suits and developed particle beam weapons. They also realized the potential of the mobile suit as a space-environment weapon, which the federal government did not believe was possible. But the true defeat of the old federation will come from within through a coup that would depose the old government, create a new one, and sign a peace deal with the colonists.

The terms of the peace deal included full recognition of independence for the colonies, a full weapon and technology exchange, and a policy of complete self-isolation between the two parties.

And that's how the backstory of the setting goes. There's way more info, but I'll post it at a later time if anyone wants some specific details for something they can ask.

There is a gigantic dark hole hidden in a strange abandoned laboratory however, if you fall through the hole (which you did unwantingly) you end up in another world, one where everything is seemingly perfect and wonderful (especially in comparison).

The world is pretty and isnt polluted, the polarcaps didnt melt flooding most of latinoamerica and Africa, China didnt take over all of what was previously Asia and Australia and people arent too adicted to the web and also huge chunks of Canada and Europe werent nuked during the Moose wars.

More importantly than that robots based on Vtubers, Markiplier and other gaming youtubers and children content like skibidi toilet are good and not super-powered robotic omnicidal maniacs BUT other robots based on things like Slenderman, Jeff the Killer, Homelander and Sonic.exe are unusually….evil, unlike in your world.

So while this world is seemingly perfect compared to yours BOTH are secretly going through an ai apocalypse…which is even worse than it sounds…because there is something…strange, biological and perhaps even supernatural with the robots on both realms.

Being able to move into this universe and perhaps many others is a potentially powerful superpower (especially because both worlds are inherently connected, "unnatural" changes ,AKA changes done by a realm traveller, in one world affect the other world ) but because you come from the negative zone if you stay too long in this good universe however….you progressivelly get ill and will eventually die…use your time wisely

A post apocalyptic story where the apocalypse wasn't a result of war, disease or famine, but a combination of environmental factors and a demographic collapse leading to national and civilizational fragmentation where most of remaining humanity lives in very isolated communities and is beginning to branch out again. They retain certain levels of past technology, can replicate it on major levels but having deep understanding of its origins becomes arcane, not too disimilar how the number of programmers out there that can code in binary is going extinct. History and achievements become blurry as time progresses and I always thought what it would be like for such a civilization to see my Rushmore and think it was ancient carvings of gods.