World Creation Superdraft 8: July 2024

[Old Man]

4 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

Aren't there sapient, technological bears in the His Dark Materials trilogy? I seem to remember seeing that in the movie of The Golden Compass.

 

Armored bears in HDM are sapient but not all that technological.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

4 hours ago, DShomshak said:

Aren't there sapient, technological bears in the His Dark Materials trilogy?

 

There certainly are. 

 

Spoiler

 

[Old Man]

Sentient Life: Vampires

 

Those who give themselves up to the darkness will find themselves rewarded with an eternity of lust and romance. Though they still bear fangs, unlike the monsters of legend these vampires feed not on the blood of mortals, but on the passion they can evoke in them. Thus they emerge at night to find unsuspecting lovelorn mortals to seduce. In addition to the usual immortality, prehensile tongues, and shapeshifting abilities, Umbscurnox gifts all vampires with superhuman grace, stamina, and senses, the better to give and receive pleasure.  And no matter their original form they will appear irresistibly attractive to their chosen “prey”.  Umbscurnox also generously provides custom tailoring services so that his vampires are always sharply dressed.

 

It is possible for any sentient life to receive the gift of vampirism, especially the Taloi. The activities of the vampires often support the domains of other gods—choices, roadwork, communication, drama, and machines can all feature prominently depending on the participants’ proclivities. Even fertility comes into play, as Umbscurnox’s vampires are not sterile. 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

A little bit of supplementary fiction. 

 

“You worry too much,” Tranvers told his sister. “Please take a deep breath before you have an attack.”

 

Kjosa snapped, “Don’t give me that! What were you thinking? You don’t mess with the god of the forge, dummy!”

 

“I had some help. Umbscurnox covered my tracks and Jarnvoldir doesn’t even know I was there.” He felt strangely calm for someone discussing a celestial offense. “And those materials are going to do so much good.”

 

“I can't believe you, I can’t... I don't even want to look at you right now.”

 

The god of bridges spoke soothingly. “Sister, I implore you to use your divine sense of consequences to see what will happen now.”

 

“I see you getting booted out of the symposium, that’s what I see! And probably me, too, as some sort of accomplice after the fact.”

 

“Not for me, for them…” He gestured broadly to the world below and around them.

 

“Oh no, don’t try and ‘the ends justify the means’ to me, buster! That’s not how this works.”

 

Tranvers shrugged. “I saw the bridge to the future, and it was necessary.  I didn’t see you reacting like this.”

 

“Why didn’t you just ask? He’s a reasonable deity, more than most. Dagnabbit, sure, he’d probably say no, but Jarnvoldir likely would have helped. What’s wrong with you?”

 

Tranvers didn’t answer. He didn’t have an answer. He knew what she was saying was true. He felt something he never felt before in his divine life: shame.

 

It will be worth it, he thought. It has to be. 

[Old Man]

10 minutes ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

“I had some help. Umbscurnox covered my tracks and Jarnvoldir doesn’t even know I was there.”

 

For the record, Umbscurnox categorically denies any involvement and will not comment further in light of ongoing investigations

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Coward. 

[Old Man]

3 minutes ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

Coward. 

 

Officer, I've never seen this man before in my life. 

[Psybolt]

9 hours ago, Hermit said:

 

 

 

 

 

(Hopefully Psybolt is okay with Tomfoolery being a catalyst for this, but the fiction can be dropped/change if not )

 

 

 

Love it.  Any time anyone wants to include Tomfoolery, I am up for it

[Psybolt]

Player Psybolt, God Tomfoolery, God of Humour

• Geography. 

• Sentient Life. Bamfs

• Gift to Civilization. Music

• Flora/Fanua/Ore: Marijuana

• Interference. 

• Mythic Monster or Guardian. 

• Secondary Domain. Drama

• Secondary Domain. Tragedy

• Secondary Domain. Performing arts 

 

 

Tomfoolery knew that there was a lot to do, so he decided to dip into the human race, looking for a HERALD.  Tomfoolery was still slightly annoyed by those road crossing chickens, so he knew he needed something special.  He knew what he wanted and he took a man and molded him into the perfect assistant... at least in the eyes of Tomfoolery.  

 

"He may be more of an annoyance to the fam," thought Tomfoolery, smiling broadly.  Tomfoolery lived for these kinds of moments. "Awake my form of a monster.... I dub thee... Les Grossman!"

 

 

 

Mythic Monster or Guardian.: Les Grossman (Tropic Thunder)

[Cancer]

9 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

It started simply with wood. Branches, primarily, some tree trunks. Then vines and lashes were added. Stones were utilized. Tranvers’ construction was serviceable, and far above what the mortals could achieve until he showed them. He… and one other. Another god crafted more durable goods because he had a new resource: metal. Jarnvoldir’s creation of the strong, malleable substance changed things. Tranvers probably could have asked. Why didn’t he? Pride? Envy? Fear of rejection?  It doesn’t matter now, that was long ago and feelings have mended. Mostly.

 

What matters is that Tranvers stole the secret of metal and he worked it into his creations. Slowly at first, so subtly that the casual observer wouldn’t notice. Who sees the individual nails in a house?  Then he got bolder, and soon there was no denying his use of the proprietary stuff. But it was out there now. Some by his hand, some by Jarnvoldir’s. Civilization had crossed that bridge, and there was no going back now.

 

Interference: Stealing the secret of metal

 

 

 

Do an image search for "Deception Pass bridge" -- a famous local structure I've been to many times -- for what has to be the real-life inspiration for that artwork.  The "official" site is the State Park site.

 

===================================

 

Pooftah Blowhardt's sentient race are the Nightflyers, oversize bats.  Though their name recognizes that they are chiefly active by night, the nightflyers are frequently seen in daylight, and they have large, sensitive eyes as well as large and highly mobile ears.  Mostly they live in the fringes of temperate and tropical forests.  They do some husbandry where they live: they plant and tend groves of trees whose fruit and flowers make good eating (for them), as well as similarly encouraging the growth of groves of trees and shrubs that are home to the large insects and small reptiles that make up a substantial part of their diet as well.  A few tribes near large bodies of water catch fish, and engage in husbandry of both fin fish and shellfish for their ongoing subsistence.  Large and daring nightflyers will take up missile weapons (largely javelins) and team hunt for larger game, though they usually are obliged to work with terrestrial sophonts when they hunt in this way, because the bats cannot carry much weight compared to most walking races, even when wearing their vests with buttoned pockets.  They can fly by sight or by sound (echolocation) with generally equal facility, though individuals almost always prefer one or the other.  They can fly through moderate rain, but that's a difficult, exhausting task; mist and fog don't bother them at all.

 

Nightflyers have their own music (almost exclusively vocal, though some tribes have instruments like panpipes) and storytelling traditions, which they are willing to share with "ground-pounders".  They do like fermented beverage, though they can partake only modestly of it.  Reasonably often they hire out as messengers, carrying written notes -- often thick sheaves of papers, or books -- over modest distances (up to fifty miles or so) of difficult or even trackless terrain.  At some ports where conditions are often foggy, the authorities maintain a squad of nightflyers for ground-to-ship communications in thick conditions.

Edited July 11 by Cancer

[DShomshak]

12 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

Interference: Stealing the secret of metal

 

An... interesting choice, considering Jarnvoldir already had plans for steam-powered bridges as a gift for Tranvers, as mentioned a while back. <Steeples fingers> This calls for careful consideration. And selecting the right tool for the job.

 

Dean Shomshak

Edited July 11 by DShomshak

[death tribble]

All the races need to eat and that is why Rethormathe became the goddess of agriculture.

Sustainable agriculture.

 

Secondary Domain: Agriculture

[Hermit]

10 hours ago, Cancer said:

 

Do an image search for "Deception Pass bridge" -- a famous local structure I've been to many times -- for what has to be the real-life inspiration for that artwork.  The "official" site is the State Park site.

 

===================================

 

Pooftah Blowhardt's sentient race are the Nightflyers, oversize bats.  Though their name recognizes that they are chiefly active by night, the nightflyers are frequently seen in daylight, and they have large, sensitive eyes as well as large and highly mobile ears.  Mostly they live in the fringes of temperate and tropical forests.  They do some husbandry where they live: they plant and tend groves of trees whose fruit and flowers make good eating (for them), as well as similarly encouraging the growth of groves of trees and shrubs that are home to the large insects and small reptiles that make up a substantial part of their diet as well.  A few tribes near large bodies of water catch fish, and engage in husbandry of both fin fish and shellfish for their ongoing subsistence.  Large and daring nightflyers will take up missile weapons (largely javelins) and team hunt for larger game, though they usually are obliged to work with terrestrial sophonts when they hunt in this way, because the bats cannot carry much weight compared to most walking races, even when wearing their vests with buttoned pockets.  They can fly by sight or by sound (echolocation) with generally equal facility, though individuals almost always prefer one or the other.  They can fly through moderate rain, but that's a difficult, exhausting task; mist and fog don't bother them at all.

 

Nightflyers have their own music (almost exclusively vocal, though some tribes have instruments like panpipes) and storytelling traditions, which they are willing to share with "ground-pounders".  They do like fermented beverage, though they can partake only modestly of it.  Reasonably often they hire out as messengers, carrying written notes -- often thick sheaves of papers, or books -- over modest distances (up to fifty miles or so) of difficult or even trackless terrain.  At some ports where conditions are often foggy, the authorities maintain a squad of nightflyers for ground-to-ship communications in thick conditions.

Oh I like these guys. The Valvi and they might even become semi friendly

[DShomshak]

The World Machine is, literally, a miracle. And yet, sometimes it needs maintenance or repairs that ordinary taloi cannot perform -- if only because they aren't big enough to manhandle the giant pistons, valves and gears. Jarnvoldir therefore created three special taloi to handle those special jobs. Taloi big and strong enough to wrestle machines parts the size of mountains, with enough hands to grip a hundred tools or a hundred parts at once.

 

Mythic Monster/Guardian: The Hecatoncheires, Hundred-Handed Giant Mecha!

 

They do most of their work at the center of the World. Once in a while, though, a hecatoncheir ascends to the surface in a massive volcanic eruption, and keeps climbinb the column of ash to repair a planet that has diverged from its proper course.

 

No mortal has ever seen a hecatoncheir carry weapons, though their sheer size and strength would make them combatants of truly godlike prowess. And their humongous hammers, rivet guns and other tools could deal a lot of damage. But myths and fables say the Forge God has wrought arsenals of incredible weapons for his three greatest servants. If the World needs defending from something outside that invades, the Hundred-Handed Ones shall take up arms -- lots and lots of arms --as some of its mightiest defenders.

 

Or, you know, if someone manages to really piss off Jarnvoldir. But how likely would that be? He is such a famously even-tempered god.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

First, Pooftah Blowhardt fills in some creation myth.

 

The earliest reported memory of this world comes from Pooftah Blowhardt, who had not yet named Themself.  All that could be perceived was vapor, without shape or any perceivable limits, in continual motion, with greatly varying warmth and taste and motion throughout what could be perceived.  One might think it void, but it was not empty of matter, warmth, or movement.  One might think it chaos, but it was not devoid of pattern in the perceivable arrangements of its contents.  One might think it unchanging, but in it were tendencies of development, clear signs of preference for certain kinds of configurations within it, though those configurations came and went, congealing out of contrastless ylem and then dissolving back into it.  One such configuration that arose was great enough that it had the beginnings of volition, and it held itself together, even growing from the fluctuating all-filling vapor, and maintaining and sharpening its own form.  This was the first element of Pooftah Blowhardt, and They perceived other self-organizing ensembles growing in the vapor.   With others it merged, and the new-formed intelligences fused into a cooperative mass, which recognized Themself as an identity, but whose initial units had lost their ability to be recognized or even thought about individually.

 

This fusion of intelligences found that collectively They could impose structures upon regions in the vapor, organizing it, though initially those structures were allowed to dissolve back into the shifting, all-filling turbulence.  They considered that this shifting infinitude could evolve, taking patterns that were not reversible, and if this was allowed to occur, then identity would be a concept that had not previously existed, with constructs and entities for which it was appropriate to give names to, and which would endure for meaningfully long times.  And as this realization was reached, so it began to happen, and Pooftah Blowhardt began to perceive other primoridal entities in the coalescing cosmos, whom They welcomed and shared thoughts with, and marveled in the previously unimaginable differences between Themself and the others with whom They contacted.  And as this went on, all these entities grew, took further shape from their original units, and gradually took on forms and tendencies which, much later, would be recognized as aspects of each entity's godhood.

 

It occurred to Pooftah Blowhardt that all of its ... cousins?  siblings? fellows? ... had creative powers, and that the all-filling cosmos was taking on shapes which the later-to-be-called gods could affect, construct, destroy.  And, this evolution might be averted, but to prevent the nascent universe from forming it would be necessary to dissolve all patterns, including those that had congealed and united to become the gods.  If that happened, would the same initial creation occur, albeit with possibly very different result?  There seemed no way to know the outcome, for all identity -- and memory seemed to be a product of identity -- would be dissolved in that total unmaking.

 

So, Pooftah Blowhardt approached all of the emergent entities and urged them that the entities to acknowledge and agree with each other on the patterns which would be created.  Even at the this earliest concordance all recognized that some patterns excluded others, and that inevitable processes of destruction and succession would result.  But the agreement took the forms of oathtaking, and that even the gods were bound by the oaths they made; and by this recognition, very few oaths were entered into by the gods, so as to leave as open as possible the panoply of forms that could come into being in the cosmos. 

 

Even so, Pooftah Blowhardt recognized that even this concordance eternally ruled out an infinitude of possibilities which had had the possibility of realization in the primordial vapors from which They and all else had formed; and this recognition of loss at the outset of existence was the First Mourning, that it was in the nature of the gods themselves that they necessarily excluded unimaginable cases which might have come to be.  Pooftah Blowhardt felt -- and still feels -- this loss that was inherent to the beginnings of Time and the Universe.

 

Still, Pooftah Blowhardt was the first voice that urged the forming of rules, and the validity and sanctity of oaths, and that these things are fundamentally required for the stability of the creation of the Universe the gods shaped.  And therefore They created the formal structure of oath-taking, and a means by which it could be assessed whether one entity had acted in contradiction to an oath entered into by that entity.  

 

So, in this creation legend, two divine attributes are laid out.

 

Pooftah Blowhardt  Secondary aspect #2: patron of oaths, oath-keeping, and fidelity, in dealings between entities (divine and otherwise) in this world

 

Pooftah Blowhardt  Gift to civilization: the Soothfrost, an easily invoked ritual to verify the truth of statements made by any self-aware entity about their conduct relevant to an oath they had taken.  In the ritual, the invoker must state why they are invoking the ritual, as well as the question which the subject of the ritual must answer.  The responder must answer -- they are rooted in space and time until they begin the answer -- and when the answer is complete, or it becomes clear that the answer is internally inconsistent or wholly irrelevant to the question asked, then the ritual is complete.  If the respondent spoke truth, then frost forms on then, and drifts slowly to the ground around them.  If the soothfrost does not form, then subject of the ritual has failed to provide a truthful answer, and the consequences of breaking an oath may be imposed.  And for that, Kjósa has claimed that domain, and Pooftah Blowhardt has little more to say.

 

[Pattern Ghost]

While the Gremlins were a rousing success, as companions -- nay, helpful tinkerers! -- to the other sentient races, they weren't Dagnabbit's first attempt at creating sentient life. As he looked upon the creations of his kin, the wily Humans, the wise Valvi, the . . . vampires, the industrious Taloi, the graceful Ocari, those adorable Bamfs, the swooshy Nightflyers and all the rest, he thought, "I shall make something like these, so I may have a people in the World to represent me and shower the other races with my wisdom. And so, he went to work, doing godly things, industriously studying the species his family had developed, and made something very, very similar to them. And lo, he released them into the World.

 

But he forgot to add enough of that gray stuff in their heads, and they didn't quite reach the high mark of sentience. And the likeness . . . well, there's a reason he abandoned that approach after seeing the caricature that he'd created of t he other life forms. But he didn't have the heart to scrap the project, and let them continue. Thus, were born the Noids.

Animal life: Noids

 

 

As it turned out, the one thing that he got completely right is that the Noids were able to spread his gospel far and wide, by causing all manner of minor annoyances, particularly concerning the delivery of culinary services!

Anyway he looked at it, Dagnabbit had to admit he felt a certain relief at getting the urge to create the Noids out of his system., for after all he's also the God of  . . .

 

Tertiary Domain: Intrusive Thoughts

Edited July 12 by Pattern Ghost

[Pattern Ghost]

 

Player: Pattern Ghost, God: Dagnabbit, God of Minor Annoyances

• Geography:

• Sentient Life: Gremlins

• Gift to Civilization: Allergies

• Fauna/Flora/Ore: Noids

• Interference: Traffic Jams

• Mythic Monster or Guardian: The Pet Peeve

• Secondary Domain: Puns

• Secondary Domain: Perseverance

• Secondary Domain: Intrusive Thoughts

Edited July 12 by Pattern Ghost

[Hermit]

4 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

Tertiary Domain: Unintended Consequences

 

Mmm okay I want to protest this one. As what it does is reduce my goddess own earlier pick to 'Choices and their INTENDED consequences'  which isn't her concept

Unless you are saying Dagnabbit and Kjosa  are SHARING Unintended Consequences now?  Not crazy about it and Kjosa would possibly be angry, not annoyed, but at least I wouldn't feel I just had my concept wrecked

 

[Pattern Ghost]

Mea culpa, I didn't see/remember that one. I shall change it.

 

I'll just put it as "TBA" as I'm a bit tired to think of something else at the moment.

Edited July 12 by Pattern Ghost

[Hermit]

5 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said:

Mea culpa, I didn't see/remember that one. I shall change it.

 

I'll just put it as "TBA" as I'm a bit tired to think of something else at the moment.

 

Thank you for understanding, and .. hope you get some rest.

[Pattern Ghost]

2 minutes ago, Hermit said:

 

Thank you for understanding, and .. hope you get some rest.

 

 

I'm about to. My sleeping got flipped b/c I was sick last week, so I'm back in night owl mode.

[csyphrett]

Player Csyphrett, God Crose, God of Flaws

Geography. 

Sentient Life. 

Gift to Civilization: Random wormholes

Fauna/Flora/Ore. 

Interference: Murphy’s Law to meddle with tech

Mythic Monster or Guardian. 

Secondary Domain. Breaks and Breakage

Secondary Domain. Entropy

Secondary Domain. 

I need four picks to catch up.

Geography: The Canyon of Crose (a canyon big enough to be seen from orbit, running from pole to pole.)

Sentient Life: Petrosapiens (Diamondhead from Ben Ten)

Fauna/Flora/Ore: Giant Diamonds

Mythic Monster:   maxwell's demon

 

So all I need is my secondary domain after today.

CES

[Hermit]

Just now, Pattern Ghost said:

 

 

I'm about to. My sleeping got flipped b/c I was sick last week, so I'm back in night owl mode.

Ugh. Sympathies.

 

Maybe Dagnabbit's last domain should be Insomnia

[Pattern Ghost]

2 minutes ago, Hermit said:

Maybe Dagnabbit's last domain should be Insomnia

 

Probably don't want to step on any Vampiric toes with that one though.

[Hermit]

Point.