>>25425531
Was this book good?

>>25425597
Yes, Dying Earth is a classic. Everything I've read by Jack Vance has been good, for that matter.

>>25425597
Reminds me of wow novels.

>>25425612
How so? It's classic 70s sci-fi fantasy.

>>25425643
Huh? You do realize modern fantasy slop is heavily influenced by Vance? The Last Guardian, arguably best wow novel, is literally based on the 1st dying earth story.

>>25425682
The difference is that Vance is actually a good writer.

>>25425531
Im reading planet of adventure by him and enjoying very much, and I don't enjoy genere very often.

>>25425531
is it feasible for a planet to maintain a modern/decade-in-the-future level of technological advancement without access to nuclear power or fossil fuels? What are the alternatives that they would try to pursue?
I'm sure renewables could support consumer demands, but what about industry and military? And what if the planet receives little sunlight/has little exploitable geothermal energy?

>>25426135
...too vague. What level of energy consumption are we talking?

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Let's say you live in modern times and have the power to turn yourself and your clothes invisible. You don't want to use your power to do anything illegal or unethical like stealing, murdering, or perving on women. What do you use your invisibility for?

>>25426135
the issue with renewables is storing the produced energy, this is the biggest obstacle currently, the BESS are not (yet) capable of storing enough energy to power anything significant. The other problem is the grid itself, the frequency of the energy lines have to be kept at the same level otherwise you will have brownouts/blackouts (too low frequency) or you will burn the grid itself (too high frequency). For Nordic countries a big part of their energy is produced by hydro - run of rivers, pumped storage, reservoir etc. you can maybe go in this direction instead of relying on nukes or fossil fuels. Some countries use Gas to Power or Combined Heat and Power. Biomass can be used as well, or straight up some kind of garbage powered generator. For the renewables, you might go with some offshore wind superfarms, or some SPV panels floating through the orbit

>>25426305
I'm getting hired by MI5 and become the best spy in the world

I had created a elegantly simple yet flexible magic system for my world.
It was great.
But other aspects of the worldbuilding and especially the multi-reality aspects means it just won't cut it.
Especially for the current main project I am working on. So now to continue to make progress I have to sit down and ether add significantly to it and make it more complicated, or create a entirety new magic system that better fits the story but is significantly less flexible and easy to use for other projects.
Ideally I would keep the core system and just add to it somehow.

Worse thing is the old system was simple enough that I could internalize it without needing notes, so could use it with ease when discovery writing.
However even making this new system will require extensive notes and plotting it out.

Whatever, I can put it off for at least another week since it won't come up directly until two more chapters.

>>25426135
Depends on the population, level of consumption, the particulars of the planet in question, and your willingness to just make up a energy source that isn't based on currently known science.

>>25426305
Could use it for spying, surveillance, or vigilante justice.
Depends on the kind of story I wanted to tell.
Also pranks. Lots and lots of pranks.

>>25426414
creating coherent magic is so hard, how do you gatekeep normies of your world from learning it and using for immoral things? or how do you explain things in the world that could be solved with magic, but just aren't? is this just battle magic or something?

>>25426428
>how do you gatekeep normies of your world from learning it and using for immoral things?
I don't.
I want conflict. I am writing high conflict stories in a dynamic ever changing world. I am not making something that stays in stasis or perfectly balanced.

>how do you explain things in the world that could be solved with magic, but just aren't?
It's a limited resource and conforms to the standard laws of supply, demand, and scarcity.
Again, this is to build in even more conflict for the world/setting.
> is this just battle magic or something?
Or something.

To describe the old system in it's most simple and overly reductive way.

All magic in the setting of the old system has 3 components.
Psycho-reactive energy + spell components + the infusion of will of a sapient being.

To expand on that.
The main bottlneck is the psycho-reactive energy, which in the main world of the setting takes the forms of spark, a gel like substance used mainly in spells, and charge stone which are used to power magecrafted objects (though some for "reasons" can use charge stones directly in very limited ways).
In the main world of the setting the only way to get spark is to kill horrific monsters. There are very few ways to actually kill these monsters, and they are a constant ongoing existential threat to all sentient life in the setting with zero permanent solution. These monsters aren't biological. They are purely artificial magical abominations that spawn into the world when certain conditions are met.
There are a few ways to create or find charge stone but as you can probably guess they are also require trial and tribulation. They too are not a natural resource.

But generally speaking the only thing I need to keep in the back of my mind when writing a scene with the old system is the base formula of magic energy+ component + will = magic.
Simple, elegant, flexible, damn near perfect most of the time for most characters and situations in the main world of the setting.
Problem is in the current project I am working on the few exceptions and edge cases that I could hand-wave as soft magic mysteries or whatever the fuck, are now directly tied to most of the major plot points, so I ether need to expand the system to explain these exceptional beings and situations or create a whole new system on top of the old system that they use.

>>25426135
Likely not helpful for you but depending on how sci-fi you want to make it I've always quite liked the "generating energy through temperature difference" thing they got going on in some of the Foundation series, or how in DUNE some vague free energy is used instead.

>>25426606
The problem are there are beings and objects that can draw directly from a extradimensional "source" of arcane energy. These "sources" always restrict the kind of magic that can be used compared to spark which can be used for any spell. There are also spell effects that appear not to require components, like telepathy which is the main way spirits communicate, both with each other and material beings.
It is especially important for beings in the setting that can travel through meta-reality to other worlds, why artifacts known in the setting as "legacy" are so special/important, as well as explain why spirits can bend the normal rules so much.


That is the thing I am currently struggling with, and why I need to coherently expand or create a additional system.
The story I am working on HEAVILY features these beings.
Plus if the current project goes well I would like to introduce other worlds into the setting where the psycho-reactive energy isn't in the form of spark gel.

Before I was mostly doing sword and sorcery stuff with morals bound to the main world. So the old system worked perfectly.

>>25426428
The current trend in fantasy has been making learning magic either very fast or downright instantaneous so that teenagers can be mighty magic-wielding heroes too. That's a far cry from the old trope of the aged wizard. In the old stories even the beautiful sorceresses are much older than they appear to be.

I think time and effort work well to balance the availability of magic and that's the route I have taken. There are also shortcuts to power, but those tend to be available only to a few as well as have side effects that can be potentially very severe, especially in the absence of a competent teacher. Amplifying gems can warp the user's sanity and emotions if used in an unbalanced way, which is very easy to do, and dealing with spirits carries the risk of possession or the spirit just randomly deciding to do something unexpected or not as ordered.

But none of this is about preventing immoral things in the story. The plot in my story exists only because various powerful magic users are currently making the situation dangerously dynamic after a long stasis in the high places, and the common people just need to survive the conflict somehow, which is far easier said than done.

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>>25426428
coherent magic is easy, just make it work at the whims of the gods. and behold, there's a god in your setting always present already: the author.

this is the most (only) honest and correct magic system that exists

>>25426428
Unironically read Reverend Insanity.

>>25426428
You make it hard in the same way getting a college degree is difficult. Realistically there's probably thousands of people right now that could build a bomb if they wanted to, but almost everyone with that knowledge is employable in some capacity so their livelihood is stable enough that they're not really looking to crime as an outlet for said skill.

>>25426305
the premise doesn't make any sense and you got the only answer that makes any sense, ie,

>doing illegal things but its okay because its for the government/spy

there's no other use for invisibility other than hiding, and you dont need to hide to do good guy stuff.

>>25428351
>you dont need to hide to do good guy stuff.
What if the government is after you?

>>25425531
I would congratulate you on your thread were it not for this tentacle grasping my leg.

>>25426305
Investigative journalist, private investigator, or meteorologist.

>>25428597
>meteorologist
elaborate

>>25426428
>how do you gatekeep normies of your world from learning it and using for immoral things?
Magic police. Literally always use some variant of that shit. Magic's not particularly different from buying lots of fertilizer. Anyone should be able to do it, but there should be someone in charge of knowing who actually is and why.
>or how do you explain things in the world that could be solved with magic, but just aren't?
Just have them be solved with magic, lmao.

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>>25428600

>>25428304
pretty sure buying explosives in considerable amounts is not that easy to obtain and would summon white glowing van in front of your house sooner or later.
>>25428601
Arcane FBI gimmick idea isn't terrible I guess?
>Just have them be solved with magic, lmao.
that's a hard task, honestly, you would have to make up a lot of words to make it believable that such and such activity is just usual way of doing things, you know what I mean?
>the same way getting a college degree is difficult.
so, Harry Potter? where after finishing this school these powerful sorcerers just settle for some shit office 9-5 job anyway? kinda lame
>>25428158
ugh, using magic as convenience, some kind of deus ex machina or plot device sucks dick

>>25428610
>so, Harry Potter?
Harry Potter's worldbuilding is fucking godawful, so ideally not. Why in the love of fuck are there so many of wizard cops and why in the love of fuck are they so fucking incompetent when truth serums exist and civil rights in wizarding society are a fucking joke?

>where after finishing this school these powerful sorcerers just settle for some shit office 9-5 job anyway?
If it's a modern setting, why the fuck wouldn't magic cops work 9-5? You think powerful people don't clock in and out IRL? If it's not a modern setting, why wouldn't they work whatever period appropriate hours make sense?

>>25426414
>>25426606
>>25426705

Figured it out.

Class/type modifiers and preset ability list.

Spirits have a certain list
Spirit beast have a list.
Immortals have a list.
etc.

I also included the concept of soul bound spells and source entities/guardians. The reason why certain sources only can be tapped to produce limited spells/effects is because each one has a source entity/guardian that only allows for certain flavors of soul bound spells to be cast when drawing from it. Besides immortals and greater spirits, no one knows exact details of this, and such beings would only ever hint at such information at great cost to the information seeker. As such the only way to gain soul bound spells or form a link to a source is through a pact with a immortal, a greater spirit, or a magical being of great power and age such as a grand dragon.
I think I will just call people with such a link and soul bound spells sorcerers for now. Get ii, source, sorcerer, sourcerers. Won't bother with spelling it weird even if the temptation is there.

Legacy will continue to be lone mysterious one of a kind artifacts that can straight up break rules without explanation. But each one breaks rules in extremely specific and one of a kind way.
Like dynamo, which is a legacy that is a object that directly taps a source of unlimited arcane energy and sort of works like a unlimited charge stone when in the use of a skilled mage, though will burn up those unskilled like a overloaded capacitor.
Or Dex, which grants remote viewing, esp, and various other second sight related abilities; but to use it you have to be compatable with the rather odd personality of the legacy since it's a sentient object.
Or the crossroads key, which turns any door into a portal to any other door in the multverse, but has the tendency to get both itself and most users of it hopelessly lost unless they have some special navigation or locating ability.
Basically every legacy has a special use condition and usually a downside to add cost and conditions to anyone who obtains one, which is already a difficult task.

I guess I just needed to vent and sleep on it.
Locking down a list for each troublesome group will be pretty easy.

>>25428632
As far as other worlds
I can just make it so the base system is the same, but the way people/beings interact with it is different.

Like in one instead of the arcane energy being in a gel that comes from monsters, it's airborne and everyone breaths it thus infusing themselves with the energy internally, which drastically effects how they cast spells and use magic.
While in another the only way to access arcane energy at all is one must be a sorcerer or other being with a extradimensional link, since there is no native arcane energy in that material reality or area.

Basically just modify the form or where the arcane energy comes from and extrapolate out how that would change each world from others.
Thus keeping the base system the same so I don't have to reinvent the wheel each time I add a world.

Yay!

Now back to writing for me. I have a inciting incident to craft.

>>25428620
if we assume modern setting, can you cast a spell to produce food for thousands of other mages? can you cast a spell to build a house or a road? fix the sink or paint the walls? if we do magic for everything we are falling for the NEET utopia trap. If we go other direction then, we need some mages to do bullshit jobs, would you be a plumber if you could cast fireballs? so we kinda arrive at another thing with magic, where you need environment that limits it, otherwise its nonsense, there is no life without struggle, no story without some inconveniences, no reality in utopia

Instead of writing my inciting incident i spend a hour updating my lore sheet.

On the one hand I feel satisfied that my setting feels solid again, on the other I know it doesn't matter if I don't actually write the damn story(s).

What did surprise me is how simple the immortals turned out to be once I wrote out their rules, while spirit beast turned out to be the most complicated by a wide margin because they are basically a hybrid of everything else with tons of special rules exclusive to them.

Only thing lore wise I have left to do is list out the rule/lore for extra-reality travelers. Which I can probably just based on sorcerers or standard high level mages, with the only difference being they know a spell that allows them to travel between realities one way or another without use of a gate.

>>25428761
not your blog

>>25429078
rude

>>25428680
In my system a dishwasher who keeps washing dishes will eventually in the course of time develop magical dishwashing powers that allow him to wash dishes incredibly quickly and well. (Mental focus and innate talent help.) He might be able to wash an entire stack of dishes in a few seconds with little effort on his part, but to him it wouldn't feel like magic, just skill. This power would be very limited in scope but with synergies that expedite the learning of related magical skills, such as cleaning tables incredibly quickly and well. Because of this phenomenon, which has no known upper limit, Elven commoners have plenty of free time for having parties and enjoying life.

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>>25425531
When I try to sit and write down the pieces of lore that I spend the whole day thinking about and elaborating my mind goes blank
any tips to help with that ?

>>25428680
>if we assume modern setting, can you cast a spell to produce food for thousands of other mages?
ideally not without a fuckton of investment.

>can you cast a spell to build a house or a road? can you cast a spell to build a house or a road? if we do magic for everything we are falling for the NEET utopia trap.
Those are things with wildly different resource requirements or level of skill. Also being a magician wouldn't suddenly also make you an architect, engineer, or material scientist. Not to say magic couldn't play a role, but that society doesn't suddenly become worry free if it does.

>If we go other direction then, we need some mages to do bullshit jobs, would you be a plumber if you could cast fireballs?
Depends. Which pays more and has tons of job opportunities? How often are fireballs called for?

>so we kinda arrive at another thing with magic, where you need environment that limits it, otherwise its nonsense, there is no life without struggle, no story without some inconveniences, no reality in utopia
Instead of having an environment that limits magic, you can just have limits on magic itself. Grand works require grand effort or grand skill. If you treat magic like a technical skill, all the better.

Ultimately you're just complaining about magic making life easier. But if it doesn't, your magic fucking sucks. Even being able to rapidly produce regular stone bricks or glass sheets would have a massive impact on society, modern or preindustrial. Instead of trying to write around magic impacting their worldbuilding when it logically should, writers should write magic into their worldbuilding and limit their magic so shit doesn't go too out of control. So no fucking truth serums if you want a setting with high crime. No fire spells if you want firewood and peat industries providing jobs and reshaping the environment.

>>25430903
In my system the more something violates "the nature of things" the harder it is to do. The typical fantasy fireball spell would be completely unworkable. Even the rare few who could theoretically pull it off wouldn't want to do something so impractical, especially given that it is required to do considerable study to really understand something, so that there is always an opportunity cost.

This isn't to say that magic is weak in my system. Far from it. For example, creating basic undead is only moderately tricky.

>>25430409
It's something you get better at with practice.
Keep at it. Keep trying to get stuff down. Keep writing and eventually it will feel natural.

>>25431204
I just don't like people that act like there's some mythical perfect scenario where you can have magic that is powerful but not world-changing.

That NEET utopia trap line really speaks to an overconfident and shitty writing attitude I see a lot of hacks embrace where they'd rather have just gaping holes in their worldbuilding than an interesting premise with an interesting conclusion.

The simplest magic spell in the most primitive society would be fucking world changing. As an example, using your "nature of things" standard since you brought it up, what if there were a simple, common spell to make bones glow? Bones actually already fluoresce.

Consequences:
>Peasants and serfs don't have to devote large chunk of their life on the production of candles and torches
>Lamps look and function completely differently
>Building interiors and exteriors built around bone installations
>Biphasic sleep is replaced by monophasic sleep millennia earlier
>The work day is completely altered to incorporate artificial lighting
>Drastically reduced whaling industry with massive ecological ripples
>Drastically delayed electrification and drastically reduced energy use with massive technological and ecological ripples
Shit would be earthshaking in ways your average writer couldn't even comprehend. Hell, your average writer doesn't even know humans were biphasic sleepers before the introduction of electrical lighting. When the fuck was the last time you saw a writer include that shit in a story set before the industrial revolution?

>>25428610
>ugh, using magic as convenience, some kind of deus ex machina or plot device sucks dick
face it: that's literally all magic in all settings.

I still remember those Sword of Truth books as a kid, I got through quite a few of them. Somewhere midway through or something, Richard is walking a cross a huge plain or something, and a massive army of mounted knights comes storming towards him. And he just waves his hand and does a war wizard spell he's never done before (and never does again) to instantly annihilate the entire army.

That's how all magic in all settings feels like to me now. When I read action-oriented books with more mundane settings, if the author is good at action, I'll often be like "man, somebody has to appear without any set-up to rescue him soon, because there's no way he's getting out of this otherwise", but sometimes the author won't do that and the character will make it out of the situation anyway and it'll feel earned.
Never feels that way in magical settings. Always feels like the character can just asspull some bullshit on a whim whenever. Because when you can do magic, you can literally fucking do whatever. Oh, you can conjure cocks and balls in your hands? Why can't you conjure them inside someone's heart? And then some guy conjures a dick inside someone's heart to instantly kill them. And then all the "action" just becomes word salad because you're always sitting there wondering why he isn't conjuring the heart-choking dick all the time. Telekenisis? Instant-kill magic. Conjuring? Instant-kill magic. Elemental manipulation? Instant-kill magic. Telepathy? instant-kill. Healing? Instant-kill magic.
The whole progfantasy genre is a perfect example of this. What happens if you have a mage with an iq above 80? You get stores like He Was Reborn With The Weakest Power (Conjuring Dicks) And He Used It To Become The Strongest Mage.
'Cuz it's all instant-kill.

>>25431288
This is why you should stick to LitRPGslop. The instakill shit is all spelled out in character sheets and it gets spammed constantly instead of treated like an ass-pull.

>>25426666
>"generating energy through temperature difference" thing they got going on in some of the Foundation
context?
cause that's basically geothermal energy IRL

>in DUNE some vague free energy is used instead
I don't recall Dune discussing power generation at all
then again I only read up to Book 3
I did also read the Kevin Anderson Dunes but I feel they're more... inspired by Dune, say

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>>25428610
>Arcane FBI gimmick idea isn't terrible I guess
Dresden Files, in other words
>after finishing this school these powerful sorcerers just settle for some shit office 9-5 job anyway? kinda lame
that is half the point of the urban fantasy genre
and yeah, it's "lame", until you look at our lives and compare it with... not even the 18th century, but people living in darkest Africa
people still live in dung huts in Xinjiang!

>>25428620
The worldbuilding is fine, arguably excessive for a children's book.
People who bitch about HP worldbuilding are either going off the absolute clusterfuck that is the movies, or having "aragorn's tax policy"-tier expectations of a series that was at peak merely a teenage magic fantasy.

>Why in the love of fuck are there so many of wizard cops
were there?
>and why in the love of fuck are they so fucking incompetent when truth serums exist
"The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister."
HBP Chapter One
>and civil rights in wizarding society are a fucking joke?
it's actually fairly developed for what is essentially a small town.

>If it's a modern setting, why the fuck wouldn't magic cops work 9-5? You think powerful people don't clock in and out IRL? If it's not a modern setting, why wouldn't they work whatever period appropriate hours make sense?
Yep

>>25430903
This
HP magic accelerates things the same way electricity does in our world, it doesn't create matter out of nothing (or violate causality, as proven by POA)
it needs to be repeated over and over again: in the HP universe, magic = tech
magic = tech
magic = tech
magic = tech

this is actually more consistent worldbuilding than fucking Star Trek which assures viewers that they live in a "post-scarcity society" but still obey all the socio-economic rules of a society that is resource-constrained.

>>25431336
>were there?
Given how sparsely populated wizarding society is in the books, they should have old west tier governance, not a fully developed administrative state, standing military, and bureaucratic state police force.

Also major plot points of the series being a wrongful conviction, spies, and traitors makes less than no fucking sense.

Do not come in here defending Harry Potter's worldbuilding. It's shit. Even before bringing up shit like a lack of guns or bathrooms. Magic fries electrical shit? Fine. But we know it works fine with mechanical devices.

There's also the matter of magical society being built around human wizard supremacy would incentivize sapient magical creatures to defect to human society for basic rights and also to dick over the human wizard ruling class. Wizarding society is way too fucking stable for how awful it's organization is. And I say that despite all the magic Hitlers.

>>25431359
>And I say that despite all the magic Hitlers
jej

>magical society being built around human wizard supremacy would incentivize sapient magical creatures to defect to human society for basic rights and also to dick over the human wizard ruling class
literally the ending of HP, remember?
Hermione is the bitch letting the brownoid house elves in
then again, given the degree of literal chattel slavery they had going, the wizarding status quo was really difficult to defend

>lack of guns or bathrooms
much of COS took place inside bathrooms, remember?
municipal indoor plumbing was only invented around the back half of the 19th century. until then we were still on the "chamber pots, then throw it in the river / bury it in the fields" system.

>Harry Potter's worldbuilding. It's shit
it's better than most fantasy series regardless of target audience

>Given how sparsely populated wizarding society is in the books, they should have old west tier governance
they DID
it's just that they have fancy titles
Mr Weasley was a 2-man department basically corresponding to those branches of the FBI and Homeland Security that deal with multi-national crime, COMBINED

>>25431371
>Hermione is the bitch letting the brownoid house elves in
I wasn't even thinking about them, lmao. I was thinking of the wand ban. Honestly goblins and the other sapient races not outing wizards to muggle society over that shit was nonsensical.

>they DID
No, they didn't.
>Mr Weasley was a 2-man department basically corresponding to those branches of the FBI and Homeland Security that deal with multi-national crime, COMBINED
The Department of Magical Law Enforcement was not a 2 man department. It was the largest branch of the Ministry of Magic. Let me put it to you this way, if the wizarding world were structured similarly to the real world, given the figure of 3k wizards in the UK, there should be maybe 300 people total working for the Ministry of Magic of which like 8 are in law enforcement. Meanwhile there's fucking more named Aurors than that alone in Harry Potter and they're just one branch of wizard cops.

Not only are there way too many cops for such a small population, there's way too many fucking criminals too. 20 wizards in prison at any given time would make the wizarding world UK worse off than the worst police state on Earth, but fucking hundreds of wizards participate in serious crimes and end up jailed or killed for their trouble. You'd think there was some sort of institution selecting people for their worst potential and instructing them to pursue their worst impulses while connecting them with like-minded people and shielding them from the consequences of their actions with institutional support from all of society or something.

Why the fuck does the Wizarding World make Fallout look civilized?

>>25431423
>goblins and the other sapient races not outing wizards to muggle society over that shit was nonsensical
easily explained: HP gobbos hate muggles worse than wizards, and gobbos haven't reached Mayan levels of existential suicide bombery yet
or if they had, the rest of the population had been successful at stopping them thus far
gobbos seem to be a mere fraction of the wizard population, so if the gobbos outed wizards hoping that muggles would destroy wizards, gobbos would be even more marginalised by muggles after the muggles were done with the wizards

>The Department of Magical Law Enforcement
HP wizards didn't have a British Army, per se
so the DMLE functions as all LEOs and Uniformed Services combined
reconsider your reasoning

>was not a 2 man department
Mr Weasley's office was a 2-man dept, and he was handling virtually every LEO task to do with muggles. in OOTP we saw him deliver the equivalent of a National Security Annual Threat Assessment. that's how tiny the DMLE actually is.

>figure of 3k wizards
JKR has long retconned that, and in any case it's extra-canon information, because the figure isn't given in the books.

on that note however,
>given the figure of 3k wizards in the UK, there should be maybe 300 people total working for the Ministry of Magic of which like 8 are in law enforcement
the actual figures based on OECD governments would be 540, and 24 would be in the security services
the typical Western civil service is more bloated than you think

>>25431280
I'm not trying to have magic not be world-changing. I just want to keep magic within limits so that I avoid the trap of >>25431288 and keep things from getting stupid. I don't want a setting in which magic is the easy solution to everything. That kind of thing undermines the stakes.

The setting is actually high magic, by the way. It helps with creating exceptionally serious and potentially world-ruining problems for the heroes. The system is very flexible and even the antagonists are meant to be using it in an intelligent way. The limitations are meant to balance it all.

As for the magical light example:
>Learning to cast any spells at all takes time, possibly a lot of it (usually a lot of it) depending on individual talent
>Learning to cast any specific spell takes more time on top of that and is not a matter of simple memorization
>Mortal humans mostly don't want to spend a big portion of their life expectancy learning to replicate a cheap and simple wooden torch
>The magical light requires a small but constant flow of psychic energy from the caster, drawing a bigger amount if the light is bright
>Innately glowing magic items are doable but far from trivial, only craftable by true experts
>The Elves know about electricity and make use of it for lighting
The humans would consider someone with a magical light (or an electric light for that matter) a bona fine wizard even though creating light really is one of the simplest things that can be done with magic.

>>25431614
Making candles takes time. Do not underestimate how much labor went into the production of simple rushlights each year. People would have to forage for appropriate reeds, individually peel them by hand, soak them in tallow, and squirrel them away, with each candle giving you like 10 minutes of smelly, dim light. People would spend hours a day doing this for weeks if not months every fucking summer/fall.

And this wasn't industrialized. There was no money in it. It was just a thing everyone did.

>>25432129
Now imagine if everyone spent on average multiple decades diligently training in magic to eventually be able to produce a dim light that tires the user simply by being on and requires some amount of mental attention to stay on. And that's assuming training is available, which it normally wouldn't be for mortals.

Nowadays it's become a common thing to assume that fictional magic needs to be quick and easy, but that's not the case. But that's not the same as being weak. Even though fireballs created out of thin air are too impractical to use in my setting, various highly destructive spells are totally doable for particularly powerful casters. For example, instead of shooting lightning from fingertips, someone might summon a lightning storm and make it so that ten lightnings in a row hit in the same spot, but the storm clouds wouldn't form immediately. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions are all possible but require a suitable location and time. Summoning five different comets from space to hit the desired spots on the ground is possible though very great magic and would take months to pull off. Creating innovative new diseases is possible too, but takes even more time and is very tricky.

One big reason mind-affecting spells are so popular in my setting is that they actually are quick and easy to cast, not making big changes in the physical world, and can often work against a warrior charging in with a sword.

>>25431599
i love how nerdy you are for HP, please tell me you still have a wizard wand from when you were a kid at your parents house, I liked the first two movies as a kid bigtime but they never really motivated me to actually read the books, LOTR did though. Tolkien went the easy way, didn't he?

>>25431599
>Mr Weasley's office was a 2-man dept
Again, Aurors are under the DMLE. It wasn't a fucking 2-man department. It was the largest department in the fucking Ministry.

>so the DMLE functions as all LEOs and Uniformed Services combined
And it was still too god damn big. Going by the UK .21% of the population is active duty and .23% are cops. The DMLE, including field agents and support staff, should be like 14 people including support staff if you want to count it as a military as well, which you arguably shouldn't since the Ministry of Magic explicitly relies on the British government for external defense, meaning it should really be treated like an internal protectorate and therefore lack a military

>JKR has long retconned that
Did she though? Cause she wrote every wizard child between the ages of 12 and 18 in the British Isles as fitting on a single 6-7 car train. Hogwarts is way too damn small for the 3k estimate to be that far off. She's welcome to walk back any out of canon bullshit she wants, but the general functions of the school aren't going anywhere.

>>25432344
I *am* a nerd in general. I liked the first HP movie but generally they suck. I read LOTR when I was nine. no, Tolkien didn't do anything easily.

>>25432799
>Aurors are under the DMLE. It wasn't a fucking 2-man department. It was the largest department in the fucking Ministry.
I was referring specifically to Mr Weasley's office which dealt with muggle-related crime, which is the equivalent of the LEO offices which deal with all international crime outside the US. this is appropriate because wizards are actually a tiny country surrounded by much larger countries (muggles) from a population POV.
Mr Weasley is not an Auror.

>Going by the UK .21% of the population is active duty and .23% are cops
the OECD average is 0.5% military and 0.3% LEO respectively, and yes this includes support staff and active duty, why shouldn't it? muggle clerks don't do the paperwork for wizard cops, right?

>you arguably shouldn't since the Ministry of Magic explicitly relies on the British government for external defense
does it?
the British Army will fight off a foreign wizard trying to take over the Ministry Of Magic?

you need to think of HP wizards and muggles as two separate self-contained polities, because they essentially are

>>25429123
This book was already written by David Brin some decades ago, the title is 'The Practice Effect'.

>>25433156
I've read that book, but mine functions differently. Brin's book isn't even humans developing abilities but objects magically becoming better for their intended purpose.

Brin's version: A hunk of crude metal used in combat over and over eventually becomes a shiny and extremely sharp and durable sword which slowly deteriorates and becomes a hunk of metal if left alone for an extended time.

My version: A sword smith dedicated to making the best swords possible (think Masamune) will eventually learn to make beautiful swords with wonderful properties, such as immunity to rust and extreme sharpness and durability. Later still the sword smith (if he hasn't died of old age by this point) will be able to forge explicitly magical swords with properties such as being wreathed in flame when wielded in combat and even having a mind of its own. All the swords are permanent once created. Meanwhile a sword smith who just crafts swords to make money will learn to make swords with supernatural quickness so that he can go to a bar and have a drink with his friends.

This is all balanced to be compatible with the real world and is not limited to mundane tasks. Various types of more standard magic are possible too, but have to be trained until they become innate abilities of the caster. Just reading something from a spell book or a scroll plain doesn't work. It would be like reading aloud an exercise manual and expecting to do a cartwheel just by speaking. The proper methods of training to accomplish a specific thing can be very hard to figure out though, so instruction is useful for that.

>>25433055
Granting magic to very chosen few (we talking only lotr, no metacanon sillmarillion) to use once in a while, is easier than making magic a commodity any Took could learn with some determination

>>25425597
It is great. Read it next, you will not be disappointed

>>25433411
I like the way magic is handled in the Thomas Covenant books. Anyone can learn magic, but only a small part of the society actually bothers to do so. A village only needs one caster to make magic lights and repair broken pots, etc., anyway. The particularly dedicated and ambitious individuals leave their homes to become magic experts. Those who complete the equivalent of a university double degree become very powerful wizards and members of the ruling council, responsible for protecting the people against outside threats.

I need a Hell-like realm for my Doom-inspired book. Is this too generic?

The Maelstrom (or the Nether, or the Void, or whatever. Haven't been able to come up with an original name for it yet, or for anything else for that matter.)
A dark universe that feeds on living worlds to expand itself. It spawns monsters called fiends to aid its conquest. The Maelstrom is not a living thing but a force of nature that seeks to consume all.
Origins: It was created long ago by a highly advanced world as a new power source. But the experiment went wrong. Instead of generating energy, it does the opposite, consuming the life force around it to grow ever larger.
Fiends: Beings born from the Maelstrom. Like their host, fiends live to feed on life force to grow stronger. Fiends are just as likely to kill each other for precious energy as they are to attack other worlds and pull them into the Maelstrom. Once a fiend feeds on enough energy, it can evolve intelligence and gain power over other fiends.
Hierarchy:
Lower fiends: Newly born fiends. Like mindless monsters, they live on instinct to feed.
Higher fiends: Fiends that have gained a certain amount of power by consuming others. They can use weapons and understand basic commands, although their intelligence varies greatly.
Fiend Lords: Fiends that have gained enough intelligence to talk and strategize. They are like barons of the Maelstrom, with the ability to control other fiends.
Arch Fiends: Three fiends stand at the top of the Maelstrom. Two are locked in an endless faction battle to become king, while the most powerful of the three resides at the center of the Maelstrom, acting as both guardian and uncaring god of the dark dimension.
Fiend Technology: Fiend technology usually comes in the form of pulsating flesh items and structures that operate on soul energy.
Gates: Portals that connect the Maelstrom to the living universe. Highly unstable.
Anchors: Structures that help stabilize and expand the gates. Only with enough soul sacrifice can fiends make gates large enough to pull entire planets into the Maelstrom.

>>25433928
Anomalies in the Maelstrom:
The Hateful One: An immortal being older than the Maelstrom itself. She was originally the daughter of the lead scientist who created the Maelstrom, and the last survivor of her world. Her father used an advanced piece of technology to make her invulnerable to the Maelstrom. Fiends cannot touch her, and she can go anywhere within it, but she can never leave. Forever a prisoner of a dark dimension. Although the fiends hate her, she sometimes acts as a messenger, a diplomat, or a judge between the different factions within the Maelstrom, depending on her mood.
Lost Realms: Fragments of worlds that have been consumed by the Maelstrom, some part of them still surviving within it for one reason or another, clinging desperately to life.
The Center: The center of the Maelstrom is the original world that created it. This is where the third Arch Fiend resides, guarding the heart of the storm.
The Usurper/The Fiend Butcher: The MC. Originally a socially anxious guy from Earth who managed to kill a higher fiend and absorb its soul. He's now basically Doomguy, fighting to stop the Maelstrom from consuming Earth. He fears interacting with pretty girls more than fiends, but for whatever reason, women keep throwing themselves at his feet.

>>25433411
wizards = elves
gobbos, elves, etc = dwarves
muggles = men

>a commodity any Took could learn with some determination
magic in HP is basically exactly the same as knowledge and skills IRL; it needs learning, practice, and innate talent, and no-one can learn all knowledge, there isn't the time in the world

>>25433928
>>25433931
What is the hero's major characterization? Good villains are often foils to the hero. If the hero is a physically-gifted warrior, make the villains intellectuals who fight using tricks and traps. If the hero is passionate, make the villains emotionless psychopaths.

>>25435129
except when you're hecking Harrino Potterino, you just swing your rod around and you're the best at everything you touch, first time, no training. Wearing glasses? Can barely see? No problem, you'll be the Seeker in Quiddich who gives a fuck you can't even see, there's this small object you need to track down, good luck laddy! kek, rationalising anything about HP is funny. Sherlock Holms with magic and for kids

doing military/sci-fi, found this tool fun for establishing organisations https://spatialillusions.com/unitgenerator/

>>25435657
Naming things gets less difficult the more practice you get at it.

>>25435390
>you're the best at everything you touch, first time, no training
in the first book, he didn't cast a single spell "on-screen" so to speak
and it's not like he spent hours practising spells with special tutors (Lupin, then Hermione) in books three and five or anything
or that he spent his free time practising flying and duelling spells through books four and five as if his life depended on it, which it did
no, such scenes were never in the books, amirite

>Wearing glasses? Can barely see?
what even is your point? people who wear glasses can barely see, even when wearing their glasses?!

>for kids
and clearly still too complicated for you
stick to Peter And Jane

>>25436056
>practising spells with special tutors (Lupin, then Hermione) in books three and
*four

>>25436056
It's pointless arguing with a hater.
They don't care about anything but trying to make you feel the way they feel about a subject, which is just blanket unthinking hate.

Currently the physical substance used for magic in the main world of my setting is highly volatile.
So volatile that it's part of the reason they use pneumatics instead of firearms for their primary projectiles.
However on a trinary world there is a substance that is far less volatile and so allows for "magic guns". The problem is I think this substance should have limitations that make it inferior to the primary magic substance. Already made it so it has FAR less energy density, but naratively that's boring. What other limitations should I add to make up for it being able to be used in guns besides lower energy density?

>>25439079
>What other limitations should I add to make up for it being able to be used in guns besides lower energy density?
one of the reasons our primary infantry weapon was and remains pistols, rifles and submachine guns instead of rockets: rocket fuel is more expensive

besides cost, there is also ease of manufacture; a thing may be cheap to make but still avoided because it requires greater skill, which is why Nazi Germany did not try to build their version of the deHavilland Mosquito

or preservation; it might not keep as well, which is why today fresh fruits and vegetables are far more expensive than processed and farmers regularly lose money on excessive harvests; because the cost of transporting the fruit is more expensive than they can sell it for

be warned however that just by making "one small change"
>far less volatile
and dismissing
>FAR less energy density, but naratively that's boring
you've painted yourself into a corner by removing maybe 60-70% of the reasons available
if I were you I'd keep one or the other

Which animal is most likely to take over the planet after we're gone? I've got some blokes showing back to an abandoned Earth couple centuries after humans either died out or left. I was wondering who'd be most likely to be running the place.

Looking for some advice: the thing I find by far the most difficult about worldbuilding is committing to a map. I can draw and have a tablet, so I'm not worried about that side of it. I also have a fairly solid idea of where several countries/locations are relative to each other.
But when it comes to actually committing to where the definitive boundaries of these countries are, the shape of the continent itself, and all the geographical features in between... that's where things get difficult. I've gone through several various drafts of the map, but I never feel *satisfied* with any of them overall.
Anyone else relate to this? Any tips on dealing with this?

>>25440550
I have a lot of experience drawing maps, but I do it on paper. I've tried using digital tools, but I run into the exact problems you're describing. The ease of erasing and editing features actually makes it harder to commit to anything, I have found. Whereas if I'm drawing in pencil, erasing to change things I decide I don't like later can destroy hours of work. Rather than making me indecisive, this actually makes me more willing to go along with whatever I've already drawn out, and trying to make it work. I still sometimes decide I just don't like the way it looks, and so I start over. I have dozens of drawings of the exact same setting, in different variations, as I continually try to get the shape right. Once I do find a shape I like, though, I scan the image into my computer and use it as a template for things like political borders. I try not to draw the locations of cities or political borders on the paper itself, I use image-editing software for that, so I can quickly try out a bunch of different political maps and see which ones I prefer.

>>25440550
>I also have a fairly solid idea of where several countries/locations are relative to each other.
If you try actually writing stories about these places, the locations should settle more concretely in your mind. I find most problems with "world building" are solved by actually using the world to tell a story. The needs of the story tend to quickly reveal which parts of your constructed world are working, and which ones aren't.

>>25439492
>if I were you I'd keep one or the other
It's less volatile BECAUSE it has lower energy dencity.
It isn't a one or a other thing. It's how nearly all fuel substances work.
A lead acid battery pack is less volatile than the same mass of lithium ion battery pack, but the li battery has much higher energy density.

Ethanol is less volatile and energy dense than gasoline, which is less volatile and energy dense than jet fuel.

Same logic here is at play with the magical substances.


That said, when talking about a magic system, just that is boring. A magical substance should have a magical catch/trade off, instead of just being treated like a mundane fuel that obeys the laws of physics.
Magic should be magical. Not just a branch of conventional physics that we just so happen to not have in our world.

>>25440082
Real answer is probably something boring and depends on what you mean by "take over".
I don't think human level intelligence would spring up naturally from the existing stock of animals though, if that is what you mean.

So just go with whatever makes for the most interesting story that you can tell, rather than what is most scientifically likely. Which would give you some boring answer like "well technically this particular mold is found in most climates and covers the most square inches of surface area therefor according to my calculations that is 'running the place' *pushes up glasses with a smug buzzkilling smirk*"
Obvously a answer like that is lame, but it's the kind of answer you get when you don't keep your priorities straight when asking these kind of questions.

>>25441037
The reason I asked is because I literally couldn't care less about which species is the reigning sapient as long as there is one.
Setting mechanics say that there must always be a sapient species on Earth. Since humanity has left, some other species will start evolving sapience to take their role.

>>25441462
Pick your favorite animal then.

>>25441713
I do have some integrity, you know.

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>>25425695
The Star Wars prequels were garbage Warhammer 40K ripoffs so what Disney did to the entire franchise is exactly what it always deserved! Mace Windu was an Ork and Luke Skywalker was the Primarch of the Blood Angels

>>25441982
>40kunts complaining about ripoffs
lol
lmao

>>25442058
Hulk and Malekith from Marvel superhero comic books were the only things that were ripped off by Warhammer 40K

>>25442758
where does "ork" come from?

>>25442811
Tolkien is public domain retard

>>25442866
>resort to legalism
very well; ideas can't be copyrighted and therefore can't be ripped off

>>25442866
I don't think it actually is.
*checks*
>The Lord of the Rings is expected to enter the public domain in the United States in 2050

So not even close to public domain. At least not in the only country that matters.

The utility branch of matter manipulation in my setting is called arcane synthesis.
I have more or less called it this since I started world building this setting and it's magic system.

When I was talking to a friend about my latest writing project and brought up arcane synthesis they complained the name was weird and misleading.
I am now second guessing if i should keep calling it arcane synthesis since that is what I have been calling it (in my head and notes) for months or if I should change it before I am too deep in drafting.
If I should change it then I am open to suggestions.

>>25443521
what's misleading about it? Is your friend legally retarded or something?

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How does one cleanse Martian topsoil of perchlorates?

>>25439079
Why use magic guns if the real ones already exist?

>>25443966
Magical effects and enhancements, counter certain armor and protection types including wards/talisman, capability to damage and kill magical entities that are immune to mundane damage, etc.

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>>25425531
What are some good resources on fantasy races to include in a setting goes, especially ones that are less common than the typical elves, dwarves, and orcs? Particularly if they have their origins in beings or creatures from mythology and folklore. What about general advice for adding races to a setting?

>>25444409
D&D wiki?
Wiki of any setting with a lot of races to take insperation from?

>What about general advice for adding races to a setting?
Try to make it thematically appropriate to the setting or one of the major themes of the work.
It should be modified to fit the overall general tone of your setting.
The more inhuman the harder it is for a potential audience to empathize with it.

>>25444409
You need to come up with a culture, something that makes this race different, their customs, religion, etos, creation myth, philosophy, way of thinking, clothing, music, language architecture, art etc

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Heard the criticism of 'this is something made by someone who researched a lot, and is clearly very passionate, but has never seen the situation/a human in real life''
Guess another way of summing it up is 'solid concepts that don't quite add up together'.
What's some ways of avoiding this mistake?
pic rel m3 lee/grant, I know its a tank not a book but this is my go-to example of this.

>>25445434
>but this is my go-to example of this
the M3 Lee/Grant was a fine tank however, it was a match for the latest upgrades of the Panzer III and hence stonewalled the Afrika Korps. Such was its value that at one point the strength of the defences in Africa prior to Second El Alamein was counted using numbers of M3s alone as a proxy of overall combat strength.

>>25445756
M3 was certainly a good tank, it was even used towards the end in the Pacific theatre, but its clear between the M3 and M4 which one was designed with feedback from the front.

>>25444409
Don't add non-human races just for the sake of having them. Use your races to tell stories that can't be told with human characters.

>>25443839
https://www.nasa.gov/general/detoxifying-mars/

>>25444409
Read some folklore.

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Why did we never invent a mythological label for angel-demon hybrids? There's nephilim and cambions, but nothing for pure celestial-infernal crossbreeds

>>25446663
>angel-demon hybrids
Fallen angels? I presumed if an angel fraternised with a demon, the angel would become a demon/Fallen angel themselves, or some other similar idea.

>>25446860
Im talking about a supernatural hybrid of angelic and demonic, not a rebellious angel who fell

>>25446663
>angel-demon hybrid
Demons are just evil angels. They're the same species.

>>25446663
>Why did we never invent a mythological label for angel-demon hybrids?
Because it doesn't make sense mythologically for those to exist. That'd basically just be a high fantasy thing.

>>25442811
>where does "ork" come from?
Loosely based on Warhammer's orcs which were loosely based on 1 and 2

1. d&d's orcs which were loosely based on Tolkien's orcs which were loosely based on 3 and 4

2. the Green Goblin which was loosely based on 3 and 5

3. goblins which may have been loosely based on kobels which had elements incorporated into kobolds due to conflation and are now mercifully known as gnomes

4. elves, especially dark elves, which also became dwarves

5. circus performers

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>>25448902
this presentation is so autistic that I must take my hat off to you, sir

What's the point at which human subspecies become that, instead of just human?

I've got one, I call them Spacers in drafts. Extremely high gender dimorphism, with males being about 3-4 times physically stronger and 1.5 times more intelligent on average than females. It's a result of deliberate genetic enhancement to create a species capable of quickly colonizing Planetary surfaces once you've given them basic radiation shielding and an atmosphere.

Are they even really human anymore? They look more like Dwarves than humans, just with greater intelligence and polite personalities.

What about the people who grew up in space, and are now nine feet tall with bones like paper? The people who can somehow absorb radiation like plants and need very little oxygen, like birds?

Are these people humans, or subspecies? How can one even tell?

>>25449172
Taxonomy is vibes based outside of sexually reproductive species complexes.

The usual standard for subspecies is breeding isolation. Two populations represent distinct subspecies when they very rarely or never interbreed, generally either due to geographic isolation, physical (but not genetic) incompatibility, or behavioral differences. How often is very rarely or never? That's where the vibes come in. If you're dealing with human populations getting regular visitors from other human populations though I would say they're almost definitely fucking enough to not constitute separate subspecies.

Importantly how different 2 populations are physically doesn't matter to whether or not they are subspecies. Wildly different morphologies can coexist and regularly interbreed.

>>25449172
Strictly speaking every sentient race is just a form of Man. Gods are immortal Men, Elves are graceful Men, Dwarves are short Men etc. Whether you want to classify them as human or another race entirely is purely down to personal preference.

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just thought about it and only works set in an original world isn't fanfiction
yes works set on earth are fanfiction of reality just like how a book set in hogwarts is fanfiction of Harry potter

>>25447900
Then nephilim and cambions should be the same type of crossbreed by that logic

>>25449749
>Then nephilim and cambions should be the same type of crossbreed by that logic
Nah. Nephilim are when an angel fucks a human. Cambions are when a fallen angel fucks a human male, absorbs their sperm, enchants it, then turns around and fucks a human woman with the enchanted sperm. Totally different.

>>25449749
Angels=Demons
Angels≠Humans
Demons≠Humans

Been sketching out a world alongside a premise for a few months. I don't remember what prompted it, I think I got annoyed with unpowered unmagical protagonist suddenly turning out to be super mega special, so I wrote out the concept of a story where the magic was hard locked to certain people and thus the protagonist was wholly unable to ever access it himself. The easy answer to that, in my head, was that magic was hereditary.

Then I immediately thought that that would create a ruling class that's warped society around them. So the result is magic-wielding inbred monsters who fully believe that they, as magically-gifted, or Aether/Quintessence Sensitive, are divinely chosen and thus elevate themselves above everyone else. Everyone is terrified, and due to their inbreeding they only grow more and more insane with every generation. Even worse, as they are the only ones with magic, they can manipulate magitech, so they have airships, fancy magic lamps and powered suits of armour that make them all but invincible in straight combat.

Enter the main character, who sneaks a Questing Knight when said Knight is out taking a piss, killing him in the hopes that he had some money or anything on him for food. He does not, but the main character finds he is able to pilot the suit of magic powered armour the Questing Knight was using, because one of the main things the ruling class of inbred magic monsters keep quiet is that anyone could theoretically use them, and if the commonfolk knew their right to rule would be weakened.

>>25450362
>the main character finds he is able to pilot the suit of magic powered armour the Questing Knight was using
Isn't the ability to pilot a magical suit of armor basically just access to magic with an extra step? If you want to write a story about normal people rising up against inbred wizards why not make the heroes characters who win through tricks and traps instead of magical weapons?

>>25449288
So, like, are chihuahuas and labradors dog subspecies? That's the closest to my humans. They're all capable of breeding with each other because they're all just humans evolved for different space climates, but they're easily distinguishable.

9 foot tall lanky dude with pale skin vs tar black bald dude vs Literally Dwarves vs Joe from Tennessee all evolved from the same baseline. Some are just closer to it than others.

>>25450516
>So, like, are chihuahuas and labradors dog subspecies?
No. No, they are not.

>>25450738
Then maybe all these weird humans are just.....different races?

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Need ideas/help with a magic system for my homebrew world. It started as a bog standard DND fantasy for the DND games I ran but I've deviated quite heavily from those roots into something that no longer supports the Vancian casting system.

Basically, I don't know if I should make magical talent innate, learned, or both, like how only some people irl can be surgeons but they still need years of training. And I don't know if it should be ritualistic or mathematical or bargained from higher/lower powers or maybe all of the above. The only thing I know for certain right now is that I want magic to spend the caster's stamina, and tire them out.

Can you guys share some magic systems that you thought were interesting? Be it from books or movies or video games.

>>25451098
What system are you actually using, and maybe you should ask /tg/ about this since the world builders over there will more likely have some game design experience to help out with this particular question.

>>25445434
>Guess another way of summing it up is 'solid concepts that don't quite add up together'.
I view it more as "it looks good on paper, but doesn't work very well in practice".

As always, I recommend actually trying to use your world building ideas in a story and see how it works in practice. An idea can sound cool or intriguing, but then it turns out to just be unworkable in a story or game or whatever you're doing with your setting.

>>25451098
If you're actually planning on using this in a roleplaying table top scenario, /tg/ has its own world building thread which is geared specifically toward GMs/DMs.

>>25450390
Admittedly, I just wanna write about cool magical power armor, but the story concept isn't about normal people rising up against the inbred magic nobles. Really, it's about the mercenary adventures of the main character and the other misfits he gathers around him as they try to make money for food so they don't starve. Partially inspired by Knight of Seven Kingdoms but I'm emphasizing a more cynical tone in general about systemic issues that are perpetuated not just by the oppressors, but the oppressed and how tough it makes life for people who run into said issues by virtue of their choices. As a result, the main character, currently named Wolf (as a reference to outlaws being considered equal to wolves in old english law), with the title of the overall story being 'Outlaw Knight'. Wolf is tricksy, but that's primarily because he doesn't ascribe to knightly honour or rules and fights dirty in his Mantle (current name for magic power armor), the Lupus Rex. His is by nature not as strong as that of the other Questing Knights who seek to kill him in the name of their Quest so they can become officially titled because they are Aether Sensitive and can thus use their Mantles to their fullest potential, whilst Wolf cannot and so must rely on his own skill, strength, and allies.

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I want to write a war story. Should I go with dieselpunk with fantasy elements or science fiction confined to the solar system? So hard to pick between those two.

>>25451811
Yes

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No matter how advanced humanity gets, stupidity should always be a constant.

>Secondary power in solar system; will surpass the Hegemon in less than 20 years if no big disaster happens.
>Growing for decades...and that's bad.
>Too many elites ; too few positions of power. More than enough resources for everyone's luxury, but power is always a zero sum game.
>Elites decide a quick and easy war will shut up internal dissent and prepone their rise to Hegemon.
>No way the Hegemon would actually fight for that trifling little territory on the periphery, would it? There's no way they could possible dare to risk so much for so little.
>War is on! Screw the Hypersophonts telling us we'll lose, we'll just redo the simulations till it says otherwise.
>The Hegemon declares war.
>The Secondary loses. Badly.
>Almost all territory lost, all allies desert, civil conflict in the streets, all politicians are corrupt, the old elites fled for it.
>Decide that a war might end internal conflict and reestablish yourself as the new Superpower.
>Go back to point 1.

>>25452833
They may have Supercomputers that are literally more intelligent than we can comprehend. They may have ships that can traverse the galaxy. They may have biological immortality, genetically enhanced Super-Elites, HyperSophonts to simulate every decision they make, a Post-Scarcity society, robots and automation everywhere......

But humans will still be stupid, and the stupidity of large numbers of people will always cause unnecessary wars.

Fuck your Star Trek utopia or YA Dystopia. The future will just be the present with better science.

>>25452833
aww man i thought ur pic was a fatty joint and u were writing stoner kino instead it's a fucking space ship or some shit shan't be reading

>>25452842
It's a rotating space habitat, not a spaceship. You live in it.

>>25452847
>well AKSHUALLLY
uhhh ok

>>25450806
You can call them races if you want since race has meant and continues to mean a lot of different shit over time. I don't necessarily think your creations would map well on the modern conception of race and depending on the history of your setting, that modern conception may still be in play though.

I'd call them morphs.

I picked up Ali Hazelwood's 'Bride' at the grocery store a few weeks ago and snuck some pages. I was annoyed and before I realized it I was sketching out my own werewolf story with their edgy society and shit.

>Werewolves are 'Hounds of God', inspired by Thiess of Kaltenbrun, who fight demons and witches.
>The only way to become a werewolf is to share a drink with another werewolf, as this was how the original eight became werewolves in ancient history, where eight warriors swore themselves to God and drank in his honor.
>When you turn you then gain werewolf powers depending on the phase of the moon.
>In modern times werewolves are now full on secret society-style, embedded in finance and politics.
>Main character, a delinquent orphan, gets into a bar fight alongside someone who turns out to be a werewolf. They share a drink, and the main character (working name 'Phelan') soon turns. However he has the bad luck of turning under a lunar eclipse, granting him no powers beyond the basics and even his werewolf transformation is stunted and weak. Main werewolf society tells him to fuck off their territory and to live in the shitty part of town.
>The tentative name for the fictional city is "Jericho City" because who cares about subtlety, and is a fucked up merging of Detroit and Gary, full on Rust Belt urban decay. The east part of town is the financial district and is just fine, but the west used to be the steet industry and is crime and poverty ridden.
>It's also right next to a Pit, a known hole where evil spirits, Devil-worshipping witches and the occasional Devil-aligned werewol comes out to start ruining things. Phelan has been thrown into werewolf No Man's Land, and now it's his job to keep it safe like werewolf Spiderman.

>>25454121
>I picked up Ali Hazelwood's 'Bride' at the grocery store a few weeks ago and snuck some pages
>I was annoyed and before I realized it I was sketching out my own werewolf story
I don't see the connection

>>25454334
Werewolves. There's nothing fancy to that, the connection is werewolves.

Harry Potter never explains how Wizards buy food, or how they arrange for other Muggle goods they may need themselves (you can't conjure everything).

My solution was to make Wizards moonlight as "experts" in high paying fields where magic gives you an impossible advantage. A wizard could just conjure expensive materials, or commit shady crimes for kings and/or billionaires like cursing their enemies, or literally just sell magically good medicines at marked up costs.

The "living in secret" thing is the only real problem because you cannot, by definition, do good business when your customers don't know you exist.....but whatever.

>>25454571
>A wizard could just conjure expensive materials, or commit shady crimes for kings and/or billionaires like cursing their enemies, or literally just sell magically good medicines at marked up costs
is explicitly what most of the wizard government is supposed to prevent
the very first chapter of HBP starts with Aurors bodyguarding the British Prime Minister and giving medical treatment to another minister whom magical terrorists (Voldemort's people) had tried to mind-control

>My solution was to make Wizards moonlight as "experts" in high paying fields where magic gives you an impossible advantage
magic in a HP-style, Dresden-style, or Rivers-style urban fantasy, with coexisting and interlinked yet secret communities, is usually basically ascended technology, in the sense that magicians can use it to do things faster, more efficiently, more effectively, instead of explicitly harming the nonmagicals

in other words, treat your magicians as if they are 21st century people living in a 19th century world. they don't have to use their Internet and jet planes and guided missiles to invade and subjugate others; just living on their own, they can live more prosperous, longer and happier lives without victimising the nonmagicals

>>25454584
>is explicitly what most of the wizard government is supposed to prevent
>the very first chapter of HBP starts with Aurors bodyguarding the British Prime Minister and giving medical treatment to another minister whom magical terrorists (Voldemort's people) had tried to mind-control
I know, I'm trying to make an economic system that makes sense.

>>25454584
Magic can't produce food, and it's a known fact that trading with others is much more profitable than making everything yourself.

I'm sure Wizards have better things to be doing with their time than conjuring stuff they could just buy from a Muggle.

>>25454591
>I'm trying to make an economic system that makes sense
haha
I've long studied this myself
>Magic can't produce food
but it can multiply food and reduce other farming chores considerably, so it can probably produce food at huge multiples of efficiency
for example, the best wheat farms today produce 2x the yield of older wheat farms using turn-of-the-millennium technology, and 9x the yield of pre-WW2 wheat farms
>and it's a known fact that trading with others is much more profitable than making everything yourself
the underlying assumption of Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage i.e. national specialisation is that other countries do in fact make certain products more cheaply than you do
and the theory does state that you are supposed to scan the market and make such assessments, it's not an iron rule at all that there "must certainly be" a product that someone else sells that is more efficient to buy
so ultimately, whether
>Wizards have better things to be doing with their time than conjuring stuff they could just buy from a Muggle
is a situational basis

that being said, one of the things that muggles would do better than wizards is anything involving massive amounts of human capital. millions of warm bodies are the one thing that muggles have which wizards don't.

>>25451198
Good tip, certainly had to do few revisions to organisations as they broke down once applied in world
On the other hand, similar 'good on paper, doesn't add up in practice' thing I'm looking at is culture and characters, already noticed I made the mistake of having a main character who witnesses all major events, so either going to have events told via word of mouth to the character or have multiple perspectives.

>>25426428
Side tangent first but there’s this recent want to make worldbuilding and magic separate to the story being told. It’s not. Everything about the world should start at the root of what you want to speak on. If you want a story of myths and mazes, why would you ever design the magic around sitting in a room and cultivating your dantian for decades because now your magic is tied to sidetracking the story for chapters constantly.

Going back to myths and mazes, if you’re designing the world around that, you’re drawn to conclusions like magic being something rare you have to delve to find. Everyone with it is running off of some ancient wizards understanding of it etc… also as others have said, it’s an interesting point of conflict. Why completely cut that off for yourself.

>>25455913
This guy gets it.

I want my stories to heavy feature fighting weird monsters.
So the magic and world building REQUIRES fighting monsters to get the resources for the magic system. There is always that baseline conflict and it's implications touch all aspects of the world.

>>25425531
>We don't allow the discussion of
since when do OPs and other posters have any power over what's posted in a thread on this site

>>25456518
Depends, but generally being intentionally off topic and trolley to the point it actively disrupt any productive discussion is actually against the rules and is enforced.
So take the hint and don't.

>>25456644
>is generally enforced
no, it's generally not

>>25456660
Don't be a jackass.
Is this a impossible task for you?
Why are you even in this thread?

>>25456694
Just saying "we don't allow" is bullshit. The science fiction general is 90% trashposts right now and nobody is doing anything about it.

>>25456717
So you decided to shit up an unrelated thread because the thread you like is shit.

The problem seems to be you.

>>25458567
Nope, I didn't, I just questioned the statement that the OP and whoever "we" are call the shots in this thread when such a system isn't seen anywhere else on this entire site. You simply presented a facade, there is no substance behind those words. Learn to not conjecture. Also, I bumped your dead thread, asshole.

>>25458576
I bumped the thread from page 10.
Your inane nonsense is what killed the thread.

Now if you don't have anything on topic to say then fuck off forever.

>>25458582
work on your character, child

>>25458584
work on your brains lobotimite

Does you world have any games, /wbg/? I invented a chess-like game for mine. It's mostly inspired by shogi. I still have to playtest it, since I would like it to be actually playable.

>>25458739


The most popular card game in the USNA, it's a modification of Texas Hold'em except players are given three hole cards and there are only three community cards (revealed one at a time) with players trying to make the best four card hand (The royal flush being AKQJ all of the same suite). Betting rules are as in hold'em.

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Do you think the death of 90% of humanity within a 20 year period is too great for "civilization" to survive?

>>25456694
>>25458567
>>25458582
this is what porn does to your character, people, learn from this

>>25458915
Sort of but not totally.
I would expect some regression and a lot of downsizing. And you can forget about the global economy functioning at speed or scale, but I think at least some areas would more or less keep it relatively together.

So a steep decline is something I would expect, but I can believe there still being a decent semblance of civilization in some parts of the world.

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>>25425531
Do people really use things like Worldanvil?
I kinda hate the concept of devoted worldbuilding sites.
I don't know why. I guess they make me sad. It's like the casualization of a very autistic hobby.
I will stick with Google Docs.

>>25458915
It really depends on which 90% of humanity died, and how. 90% of people dying evenly distributed across the planet (as in, 90% pop reduction in every country) would be devastating and reset humanity back quite a lot, until food production could stabilize enough for people to focus on other things.

But if you did like, 90% of people just from Africa and Asia, the world would be perfectly fine.

>>25459382
I just have a series of different odt files for writing, and hand-drawn maps and some handwritten notes.

>>25458915
Is a particular area untouched or is it literally 9 out of 10 people worldwide?

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>>25459857
>>25459857

The 90% is pretty evenly spread, except for two areas: India/Pakistan and Israel/Middle East where political leaders conducted regional scale nuclear wars in the days leading up to the landfall of the Asteroid Storm in a sort of "If we're going, we better make sure our enemies are going too" effort. In those regions, death toll in the 20 years is basically 99.999%.

Elsewhere, about a quarter of the 20 year 90% occurs during the Asteroid Storm and related follow on disasters (such as the tsunamis from asteroids striking in the sea) The remaining 3/4ths of that 90% die over the next 20 years from the breakdown of international trade and infrastructure leading to widespread food shortages and resource-wars.

The remaining 10% of humanity that survives to that 20 year mark after the Asteroid Storm has pretty much stabilized civilization and it's considered the Year 1 of the new calendar.

>>25459382
I tried it once. It takes a great deal of effort and app-knowledge to get it working to a level that makes it worth using.

I also choose to just stick with my Docs and the folder trees I've built over the pass decade.

Isthere any way for slang to be eradicated in a language?

Context:
>Kardashev I civilization
>Planet mostly unified.
>Most of the population lives in a cluster of 4-5 megacities.
>One World State, kinda like the EU but on steroids. They even have a military, though they call it just "Police" for political reasons.

They're supposed to have a single unified language to make administration easier. One they deliberately manage to reduce linguistic drift. I was wondering how they could cracked down on slangs to reduce friction.

>>25460485

It becomes old and cringe.

Look up "English Slang in the 1910's" and you tell me how many of those words you've heard irl.

>>25460485
I'm thinking they could subsidise government departments to publish official dictionaries and grammar books, and regularly crack down on any counterculture movements that might cause cracks in national culture.

Controlling social media is another obvious option. Entire servers of bots just to moderate any and all servers and prune any incorrect language.

>>25459382
My issue with it is it's a subscription trap.


If you go through the effort of learning their system and putting all your stuff on there, then you are more or less locked into paying the subscription fee for as long as you care about that world building project since none of their program is local to your device.

>>25458739
Yeah but I am trying to avoid putting too much effort in that direction since it isn't plot or character relevant.
If it actually comes up in the story then and only then will I flesh out such things.

How dense would a 400km cylinder have to be at minimum for its gravitational field to be perceptible? I want my space freighters to have their own gravity fields.

>>25463081
are they rotating? if not, why?

>>25463110
Fully automated. Spin gravity isn't necessary.

>>25425597
Cugel stories are fine, but I found the first book disappointing and just nonsense

>Monsters aren't individuals. Sure, the giant boar, or dragon, or bear might look like it's an individual entity, but they're all just individual portions of the "Planet", so to say.
>Kind of like multiple fingers of a hand.
>The only individuals are sapient beings, like humans (and other mortal races), and divine entities of all types.
>A dangerous side effect of this fact is that monsters could not care less if their rampages will lead to their own deaths, cannot and will not negotiate, and have no greater desires than to just kill and destroy everything they sense around them.
>They're more like natural disasters than animals.

I wonder if humanity can discover what they really are? It's not like you can dissect a dead monster to see how its brain works, they tend to evaporate.
The fact that they're all just disparate units of a single homicidal hive mind is probably impossible to discover.

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For how often plants are used for national symbols, does feel rather unutilized in world building
Just look at the Canadian coat of arms, at least 6 separate plants here

>>25464401
>A FUCKING LEAF

>>25463081
You have seen the quality of intellect in this thread.
Obviously no one here just casually knows astrophysics off the top of their head.
It's unreasonable to ask such a question here.

>>25463081
>>25465180
I've done gravity calculations in the university, but I don't feel like digging up the formulas again. The criterion of "perceptible" gravity isn't even well-defined, and it's unclear if the 400 km is supposed to be the diameter, the radius, or the length.

A level of surface gravity similar to the largest asteroids should probably be realistic though, at least when the internal cargo holds are loaded with something heavy.

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>>25464647
but the plant of Wales is A FUCKING LEEK

>>25463081
I'm 76% sure here will be no gravity inside if it's symmetrical. It all cancels out. The calculation is the same as the more common spherical version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_theorem

>>25426305
Ripping farts of the highest order

>>25428680
>can you cast a spell to build a house or a road? fix the sink or paint the walls?
Not only would you have to know the spell(s) that each of these things boils down to, you'd also have to know how to do it?
Like wouldn't you need a spell to log a forest, shape the timber into beams and shit, assemble it, oh you forgot the foundation start over, and nails nails where are the nails? Do you buy those or do you know how make them with magic? Do you at least buy the metal or are you conjuring that, too?

>>25467140
I was assuming the poster was talking about gravity on the outside surface.

>>25467872
Also, the space freighter would probably have internal walls and other components, or at least cargo. The cargo could well be valuable heavy metals stacked efficiently in a space-filling way. The forces would all nullify each other at the center of mass, but that would be just one point in the freighter.

>>25465450
>it's unclear if the 400 km is supposed to be the diameter, the radius, or the length.
I'm so sorry, it was supposed to be the radius. Length is around 900 km or so.

Regarding the threshold of perceptible gravity, I just want to write the line "big enough to have its own gravity well", so just enough that it can be perceived without weird sensors.

>Almost the entire human race lives in space colonies.
>Earth has been stripped of all of its resources. Even the oceans have been drained.
>However, it's still the only habitable planet in the universe, so whatever remained of it was converted into a VAST suburban sprawl for wealthy retirees and high earning families.
>90% of the working class lives harsh, precarious lives of abundance, peace, and never ending economic growth.

Almost nobody has ever eaten anything grown in the dirt, or saw a starry sky (even if said star is the sun), or really ever seen anything that is neither manmade nor a resource.

Not very romantic, is it? And yet they live better than our richest oligarchs and billionaires.

>>25468632
What story or point are you trying to make?

>>25470035
That trying for utopia is counterproductive, people will always hate the world they live in and desire more.
A true hero doesn't negotiate with such people, he just kills them.

>>25470067
I see.
Setting is thematically relevant and has conflict built in.
Just a matter of pulling it off in a actual story.