A fantasy setting collaboration?

[Oak7ree]

@Kenaron Late Medieval/Early modern/Renaissance period would be comparable. The sciences are evolving, but people still haven't figured out everything.

[JaceBeleren]

@Oak7ree I had an idea for a less typical use for dragons in the setting, but don't know if that's what you were going for with this setting.

[Oak7ree]

@Oak7ree I had an idea for a less typical use for dragons in the setting, but don't know if that's what you were going for with this setting.

@JaceBeleren

Well, if you have an idea, let's give it a try. I won't shoot down new ideas.

[JaceBeleren]

@Oak7ree The idea is that dragons are instruments of change. Whenever something happens that will affect the world in a big way, the dragons are there, helping it along, before returning to wherever they usually hang out. Maybe also, following with previous ideas, some are supporters of Chaos and some of Order? Similar to the Kingseeker Frampt/Darkstalker Kaathe conflict in Dark Souls, if you've ever played it (the idea is that these two ancient beings are trying to manipulate the player into choosing the ending that would support them).

[Oak7ree]

@JaceBeleren Yes, I've played Dark Souls 1 and 3, and I like your idea. How about dragon worship? As the dragons are heralds of change and affect the world in their way, perhaps some people have formed cults around dragons, seeing them as powerful figures.

How sentient the dragons would be? Of course, there could be also other "lesser" dragons, like wyverns, that might be more animalistic than their dragon breathren.

I've had an idea on magic: it could wane and grow in centuries long cycles. Sometimes, there's more magic in the world, sometimes less.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@JaceBeleren@Oak7ree About that, how about its more like dragons themselves aren't inherntantly for change one way or another but that's what people believe themselves to be. The dragons have their own, secret agenda that no one knows of but to the mortal races, they seem like they are gods bickering back and forth. The dragons will sometimes fight each other or help another seemingly at random and those who acknowledge their followers often send them on bizarre quests that tend to be nigh on impossible, random or borderline suicidal. Despite all of this, there are still zealots who will follow their dragons towards the end, even if they know not of their true motives and only what they perceive as their motives, presuming that there is some great plan.

It could also be that this is something of an old religion with a notReformation going on that has brought a new religion into play. Maybe it would be like fantasy crystal space jesus or something, maybe it something else entirely. Another idea is that you said there be evolving science, so what if humanity or some other race made their own god by combine magic and science? Bonus points if it looks like something out of Cuthulu or something lol.

[Oak7ree]

@ClocktowerEchos Never deal with a dragon. Perhaps. So, there could be dragons that have their own motives and plans, and probably have influenced the world over the course of centuries. But how long a dragon would live naturally? A few decades, a century?

And mashing science and engineering with magic... in a JRPG named Lost Odyssey, magic energy fueled an industrial revolution, like fossil fuels did in the real world. Perhaps a race engineered a powerful automaton/machine that took its fuel from magic.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@Oak7ree I would say that dragons should either live for centuries at a time or just flat out immortal.

As for the magic-machine god, I would say that it shouldn't be just a strong robot or something but an actual god that people created. Like they used some extremely powerful magic and then used some new bit of machinery as a catalyst in which the magic was turned into a living god. More magical based than anything, allowing it to act more like a god with granting blessings and stuff so people actually believe in it. If you want it to be a bit more grimdark, look towards Bloodborne, could also have it be some monster people created.

[Oak7ree]

@Clocktowerechos I'd say centuries, but for the mortals, they seem immortal. There would be only a few of them (few dozens at best in the world), but they are centuries old and mostly reclusive, as in staying out of people's sight sometimes years or decades at times. Of course, some might seek more contact or influence with the humans and others.

And concerning the living god, as you mentioned a monster, Frankenstein's monster came to my mind. A man or woman who came back to life thanks to some "unholy" magic or experiment.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@Oak7ree Seems fair enough. One idea I had is that in older times there were other gods, but they were all devoured and consumed by the dragons who then took on their powers but also, took on their personalities which would later become a schism between dragons and perhaps ultimately, their demise.

And concerning the living god, as you mentioned a monster, Frankenstein's monster came to my mind. A man or woman who came back to life thanks to some "unholy" magic or experiment.

@Oak7ree

Combining the frankenstien and bloodborne thing, I think this one boss from Bloodborne would be a perfect visualization of that hybrid: the One Reborn.

[Oak7ree]

@ClocktowerEchos I have always wondered how From Software comes up with their boss desings. "Oh, let's make a big monster dripping with goo and whatnot, voíla. Done, next!"

Jokes aside, how the person became a living god/monster?

[ClocktowerEchos]

Jokes aside, how the person became a living god/monster?

@Oak7ree

Seriously though, it would probably be a mix of magic and medical stuff gone awry. I assume that the moral codes of medicine aren't quite as tight as they are irl.

[Oak7ree]

@JaceBeleren, @ClocktowerEchos So, we've got rough ideas on the dragons and possible Mister Frankenstein's Monster. All we need is the world they inhabit.

[Kenaron]

@Oak7ree man, I've missed stuff. I like the idea of the dragons not actually influencing change, but making people belive it so that the people themselves enact the change short after the sighting of dragons.

The monster/machine frankenstain could even be an instrument as to oppose said "faith" in dragons, making a godly figure to stand up to them, at least ideologically.

For the world we shluld divide it into stuff, like how much land/water there is? How much continets there are? How did different societies develop and came to understant the world at large compared to one another? We could even have them look up to diferent kinds of dragons, and with the typical division of faithful and scientific sprinkled throughout the continent/s

Also, @ClocktowerEchos, @JaceBeleren neat ideas.

[Oak7ree]

An entry on the Frankenstein's monster. Remember, I've written this quite quickly while on a bus, so take it with a grain of salt. But, comments!

Morvran the Undying

Excerpt of an essay Highlander beliefs, from the book The Folklore of Kaledan

"Once upon a bandit from the Highlands, Morvran of Donnell was a handsome young man of infamy. Often a cruel and arrogant man, he has become an undead incapable of dying properly.

Ot is unclear when this happened, but according to a common tale, Morvran was cursed by the gods to walk upon the Earth until the end of the times, but truth is more... mundane.

Once upon a time, Morvran was on the road with his gang of thieves and murderers. They came across a small band of travellers, lightly armed and scholarly looking. The travellers had broken their carriage's wheel, and were busy repairing it. Morvran's gang attacked the scholars, killing a few, but in the end, the "travellers" unleashed magic upon them criminals, and most of them were shocked by the magic, never having seen its use before.

Most of them died soon, and Morvran was badly injured. The leader of the sorcerers, an elder man with a long white beard, decided to spare the bandit for an experiment: Morvran was about to die, and the elder mage hoped to revive him using an ancient artifact known as the Eye of the Dead God. A fist-sized jewel of crimson color, it held great power inside it, and the elder mage used the Eye to revive the man.

The Eye shattered suddenly, and Morvran came back to life, his wounds healed. He was astounded by the experience, and the mages tried to kill him, but to no avail. Morvran, in the end, killed the mages, but the white-bearded one escaped by levitating away.

Morvran vowed revenge for his men, and started a manhunt, finally killing the elder mage fivecyears later. During the centuries Morvran has walked on this earth, he has slain many crearures from lions to dragons, tried to find something that would kill him, but hasn't found a way. In the way, he is used as a boogeyman in common horror tales, and is a character of the folklore."

--- Elaine Fuchs, folklorist, 1463

[Oak7ree]

@Oak7ree man, I've missed stuff. I like the idea of the dragons not actually influencing change, but making people belive it so that the people themselves enact the change short after the sighting of dragons.

The monster/machine frankenstain could even be an instrument as to oppose said "faith" in dragons, making a godly figure to stand up to them, at least ideologically.

For the world we shluld divide it into stuff, like how much land/water there is? How much continets there are? How did different societies develop and came to understant the world at large compared to one another? We could even have them look up to diferent kinds of dragons, and with the typical division of faithful and scientific sprinkled throughout the continent/s

Also, @ClocktowerEchos, @JaceBeleren neat ideas.

@Kenaron

I'd go with 70 % water, 30% lands and a few continents, but let's finish at least one first, shall we?

[ClocktowerEchos]

My take on the Frankenstein:

The dragons, while often distant and seemingly uncaring, know when they are threaten and will act quickly to dispose of those who threaten them. Such was the case with an ancient king who wanted to become the strongest man to have ever lived and then going beyond it. He invested countless hours and his entire kingdom's wealth into research and study, bankrupting his people. But as his subjects laid starving and dying, their cries deft to his ears, he orders his host of mages to begin the rituals that would transform him into a god.

Sensing this, the dragons intervened and wove their own magic into the ritual, cursing it and the king. With an explosion followed by a brilliant black light, the king's castle was shattered and the streets where now empty of all life; no more guards, no more beggars, no more people. What had happened was due to the dragon's interference, the king had merged with all the citizens who he had tortured and oppressed to get the resources for this project, turned into a grotesque being instead of the magnificent god he had hope.

Driven mad by the souls of those he had under him, the kingdom quickly collapsed and all those left fled out of fear of the creature that now rule the broken lands from atop a ruined castle, howling and crying at its own misfortune. Now, no one knows the king's name nor the realm he once ruled, referred to as only the Forlorn King Reborn. Legends state that to this day anyone who nears the castle grounds will hear an unsettling eldritch howl that can break the will of even the bravest of men.

I realize how Dark Soulsy my writing on this sounds on this lol

[Kenaron]

@Oak7ree That seems pretty good, but it's a little more than Earth's proportions, I think? If so we could have a couple of continents and a lot of islands, maybe going as far as to have a massive ocean between the continents and islands forming some sort of bridge between them, something like the WoW map, but with more bridges, and less giant maelstroms.

@ClocktowerEchos man, I love that piece that you have there, it's really good! I like the sort of powers that you give the dragons (I'm guessing that they should vary between species, or be unique to every dragon?) and I like that feeling of unease that you get when you realize that an entire capital city is populated by a lone, deformed being, constantly screeching and howling. I haven't played Dark Souls (I tried the first Dark Souls, but found myself unable to Git Good), but I think I get that ominous feeling that you're going for. That's what you were going for?

[ClocktowerEchos]

A location I just thought up of: the Glade of Lost Knights

Deep within the ice-swept forests of Hyloth is a clearing with snow that never stops and suits of armor frozen in time. Once a regal army of knights on an impossible mission, their armor now faded and aged, joints rusting with a coating a snow, swords still clutched firmly in long dead hands.

When the crown prince of Walynr went missing, the Knights of the Velvet Flame immediately took a penitence quest to find the young prince. Overcome with grief and self loathing, the traditional guards of the royal family set out to find the prince, no matter how far they would have to go. With their banners raised high and mounted upon noble steeds, it would be the last time these brave knights would be seen.

In a tale now often sung of by bards and myth weavers, tragedy struck the Knights of the Velvet Flame who were hit with one unfortuante event after another. The wagons containing their rations where lost when they tumble over a cliff, bandits and monsters beset upon them at every turn and storms followed them wherever they went. The Frozen Forest of Hyloth would become their graves as what was once a proud order of over a thousand knights became less than one hundred ragged corpses walking towards death.

Yet, the persisted and marched into the forest, no longer on horses having eaten them long ago. They called for the prince with their fading voices and dying breaths. One by one the knights began to fall, consumed by starvation, too weak to move in their heavy armor until at last their Grandmaster, clutching their tattered standard, fell to the ground, the name of the prince on his frostbitten lips.

Declared lost by the kingdom, these knights were never found and their withered bodies and travelled armor became covered with snow, their souls locked within their armor. But so honorable where they that even in death they have not forgotten their knightly vows and legend says that should anyone within the glade call for aid, the suits of battered armor will rise up and defend those who cannot. Having failed to protect their prince, they swore to never again let someone be harmed in their presence, even in death.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@Kenaron Yeah, I believe there should be different types of dragons; would explain why there's a pantheon of them being worshipped and why they will fight amongst one another sometimes.