The "How Well do YOU Know Your World?" game!

Are there any special courses in your schools that students can take? (like magic class or a class just for kids of rulers?

The study of sciences is primarily dominated by the study of witchcraft. It is a women's only course. Because of how taxing magic is on the body, it's discouraged or forbidden in some places from teaching magic to women under the age of 18.
Witchcraft is the cornerstone for the majority of functioning societies and as such it's promoted almost as a lifestyle rather than a profession or study. Witchcraft learning institutions are considered the most prestigious places on the planet. At first they were extremely exclusive, only allowing the daughters of the particularly wealthy to join. Recently schools have started to lower their standards and admission prices in order to allow a greater number of people to join, much to the chagrin of the wealthy elite.

What's a typical way to solve a dispute in your world?

Calaani disputes are solved one of two ways: brutal physical violence (fight till surrender) or intense intellectual debate.

Both are seen as valid forms of conflict resolution, and some Calaani like to do both--socratic style arguments in the midst of a fist fight.


Talk to me about execution in your world. And/or torture. What are some fun ways criminals and traitors might die?

In Ketar and Gelketar, two nations with a common religion and culture, but very different languages, the common preference is to reform all their criminals. But when somebody is determined to be beyond reformation, they are locked up until after the last day of harvest. The condemned is then taken before their community where their crimes are read and made known. They are then branded on the face, normally by a family member, with the mark of outcasts and thrown from the community in the nude.

The Ketar don't kill intentionally. An outcast who survives will not be hunted down, they won't even be spoken of. But nobody will give food or shelter or garment to an outcast. After harvest there's little food to find in the fields, hunger is certain if not starvation. But that's the least of worries for an outcast.

The Ketars are on the northern most edge of the northern continent. Most of the two nations have as little as four hours of sunlight after harvest, much of the two nations are completely dark through the winter. On top of that, it can snow as much as ten feet while it gets so cold that the trees explode, and the nearest nations that would give aid to a Ketar outcast are on the other side of Duskoon a nation six hundred miles wide and over a mountain range.

The Ketar don't kill intentionally, but getting on their bad side is the long hard way to starve and freeze alone in the dark.

​What is the most common staple food in your world?

Organic foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits, that kind of healthy stuff (fortunately, my characters don't have to worry about insecticides and pesticides: they don't exist in my world). Grains are another common staple. I'd argue they probably eat quite a few insects and bugs for additional sustenance. And of course meats, but compared to the others this food is more heavily portioned.

What is one important myth/legend/fable of your world?

The Legend of the Mad Prophet, which was shamelessly cribbed off an old sanskrit fable. It goes as follows:

"The prophet, who saw with the eyes of gods, warned his people of a falling star that would poison the lake they lived by, and make any who drank it insane. He himself dug a fresh well and stored jugs of water in his mountain cave.

Soon enough, the star fell into the lake and poisoned it. A few months later the prophet came down to see what had happened. Everyone in the village had gone mad from drinking at the lake, and attacked him, for they thought it was he who was insane.

So the prophet went back to his mountain cave, glad for his foresight. But as time went by he found his loneliness unbearable. He yearned for companionship, so he went down to the village once more. Again he was rejected by the people, for he was so unlike them.

The prophet, who saw with the eyes of gods, wept with the tears of men, until his vision was clouded by sorrow. He stoned up his well, and drank from the poisoned lake, joining the town in their insanity. The people were overjoyed, and welcomed him back—for he was the Mad Prophet no more."



Very pretentious but I had fun with it.

In a similar vein.... Tell me about the most famous hero of your world (or heroine, whichever gender.)

Harlequin said:

The Legend of the Mad Prophet, which was shamelessly cribbed off an old sanskrit fable. It goes as follows:

"The prophet, who saw with the eyes of gods, warned his people of a falling star that would poison the lake they lived by, and make any who drank it insane. He himself dug a fresh well and stored jugs of water in his mountain cave.

Soon enough, the star fell into the lake and poisoned it. A few months later the prophet came down to see what had happened. Everyone in the village had gone mad from drinking at the lake, and attacked him, for they thought it was he who was insane.

So the prophet went back to his mountain cave, glad for his foresight. But as time went by he found his loneliness unbearable. He yearned for companionship, so he went down to the village once more. Again he was rejected by the people, for he was so unlike them.

The prophet, who saw with the eyes of gods, wept with the tears of men, until his vision was clouded by sorrow. He stoned up his well, and drank from the poisoned lake, joining the town in their insanity. The people were overjoyed, and welcomed him back—for he was the Mad Prophet no more."



Very pretentious but I had fun with it.

In a similar vein.... Tell me about the most famous hero of your world (or heroine, whichever gender.)

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Depends, actually. Half of the population in the Browns look at Quinto Glover as the most renown hero while the other half see him as a criminal and crime lord. The more affluent half see the Law Enforcement as the most famous heroes, while the other half of the community see them as a part of their larger problem.

So, tell me. What hypocrisy exists within your society that people just turn a blind eye to?

What hypocrisy exists within your society that people just turn a blind eye to?

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The Kathrandi are exceptionally proud of their system of law, openly bragging that in their courts a peasant is equal to a king. Their common law system is so well known and so highly praised that it began to travel, with their neighbors in Vanari, Evisian, the various Vorad kingdoms and eventually Nel and Ariam adopted variations of the Kathrandi system.

But in Kath, while a peasant might get his day in court, it isn't uncommon for the indignant to be just murdered by law enforcement if they are arrested, and their bodies dumped in a ditch or sewer. Most people know it happens, but very few people act to defend somebody who's just a 'burden' on everyone else.

What spirit, god, legend, or other entity avenges injustices when nobody else will?

Nivarion said:

What spirit, god, legend, or other entity avenges injustices when nobody else will?

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None. In the Path of Nine Stars, the state religion of the Tar-Amun Sacred Sovereignty, weakness is a sin, and the strong are encouraged to take vengeance without relying on other forces to do it for them. Lords may challenge other lords to duels to settle vendettas: this can be hand-to-hand combat, ship vs ship duels, or proxy battles using swarms of fighters (large, grotesque beings with metal exoskeletons. Their biology is based on re-engineered human DNA to fly around in the vacuum of space and fight. They are grown by the ships, which are also alive). These duels can be to the death and have all sorts of wagers.


What are the favored pets in your worlds? AKA, who is the goodest boi?

What are the favored pets in your worlds? AKA, who is the goodest boi?

Mostly none. 99% of wildlife was wiped out when the planet was deprived of sunlight for an entire year.

The muskal is therefore the goodest boi by default, but nobody except my MC can see him and he may or may not be imaginary. (If not imaginary, then he exists on another dimension. It could go either way.)

Everyone has an equivalent of alcohol/coffee/vice beverages. What are yours in your world?

Harlequin said:

What are the favored pets in your worlds? AKA, who is the goodest boi?

Mostly none. 99% of wildlife was wiped out when the planet was deprived of sunlight for an entire year.

The muskal is therefore the goodest boi by default, but nobody except my MC can see him and he may or may not be imaginary. (If not imaginary, then he exists on another dimension. It could go either way.)

Everyone has an equivalent of alcohol/coffee/vice beverages. What are yours in your world?

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Blood Boil Wine, they call it spiced wine but it has animal blood boiled into it. The rares the animal the richer the taste!

Is there a common belief as to how your world began?

Love this game!

People believe a pantheon of gods created their world for them as a sanctuary after a subspecies of hyper-evolved humans attempted to instigate a forceful evolution of the human species.

Are there different peoples in your world and how do they differ from one another in terms of appearance and culture?

Ohhhh are we bringing this thread back?

Yep yep, many different people! The story centers around two nations (although more people make an appearance). Sedanians are the northern kingdom. They're ruled by a corrupt lineage, but somehow people grow to really love their king. The king is quite good at making people feel valuable while using them. It's a talent. Because of that, his people are akin to corruption themselves. These things are normal and expected.

They share a border with en'Aleriya, a desert kingdom. They're strong, tough, and have a strong set of beliefs, yet despite all this they seem to lose wars often. A few years before the story begins, they lost a war to Sedania and they lost a fertile stretch of land. A few of their soldiers have recently broken off from the country and begun to partake in corrupt activities. They've tried to poison Sedanian officials, kidnap hostages for negotiating, and even infiltrate Sedanian courts. en'Aleriya does not consider these corrupt soldiers part of their country anymore, but the soldiers keep bringing up the point that the enemy is corrupt, and if they want to start winning wars they have to become like the enemy.

Each kingdom is large, so describing the people is difficult. The people themselves vary throughout the nations. The cityfolk look and dress differently than the mountain folk, even though both are from Sedania.

Give me one belief system that everyone trusts, but may not be true. Maybe people believe in the meaning of dreams or they predict the future by celestial events. What does your world trust in that isn't science and logic?

Lehssner said:

Are there different peoples in your world and how do they differ from one another in terms of appearance and culture?

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The people birthed by the living starships typically fall into 4 biological categories.
The first is the lords; they come in a variety of strangely colored eyes, hair, and skin, but otherwise, they look traditionally human. They have very fast healing, and they're neurology allows them to directly connect to the nervous systems of ships to pilot them.
The second is the protectors, and they have genetic predispositions for loyalty to lords, can generate electric shocks, and they're covered in exoskeletons like crustaceans (ex: lobsters).
The third is workers, and they're bald, have leathery skin, and have 6 arms to work on multiple tasks at once.
The fourth is the fighters, and they're humans grown from metal into strange shapes with many faces and internal fusion engines to fly and fight in space.
Culturally, these groups tend to follow a religion that emphasizes strength, a caste hierarchy, and the worship of nine god-stars. The lords in particular are very decadent and authoritarian.

Normal humans typically live and work on planets owned by the lords, and they've been forced to follow the religion of the ship-birthed. The religion places normal humans on the absolute bottom, and they're considered tainted by evil, so normal humans carry around a lot of shame as a result. Normal humans also worship their lords as lesser gods that mediate between them and the god-stars. Beyond the religious control, there is a lot of difference among normal humans in both appearance and culture, and this depends on the planets they're on and what continents on those planets. Most normal humans are generally kept in Iron Age level development though and are prevented from advancing any further technologically. Some are pale people wrapped in furs. Others are darker with colorful capes, headdresses, and elaborate skirts. Some live in massive complex cave systems where they farm plants and mushrooms that can't grow on the surface.

Blinkk said:

Give me one belief system that everyone trusts, but may not be true. Maybe people believe in the meaning of dreams or they predict the future by celestial events. What does your world trust in that isn't science and logic?

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Too many worlds that are too far apart for any belief system to apply to everyone.



Who are the most powerful national leaders that have risen up from historically oppressed peoples in their respective nations? Tell me about them.

*Teeth clenched, muscles rippling, pulls thread from depths of subforum*

Crowned in Fireflies said:

Who are the most powerful national leaders that have risen up from historically oppressed peoples in their respective nations? Tell me about them.

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The Dead have no concept ethnicity, so there aren't really historically oppressed people. But if there's one historically oppressed group, its naturally the slaves. Slavery is a fact of life in the City, and if it is horrific, then at least it is equitable. All Dead start out as slaves, and though some remain longer than others, the majority become free. And the ones that do can go on to do great things, become leaders and craftspeople, artists, scholars and poets. Defenders of slavery would have that it is the great leveler, as from then on, no matter how mighty the person in front of you, how puissant their titles and stern their countenance, they were once a slave like you.

Weirdly, the practice continue to be unpopular among everyone who isn't a slaveholder or slave trader.

The Trivium, the City's nominal ruler, opposes slavery, and works tirelessly to expose abusive practices. They also minister to the lowest of the low, and offer education, counseling, and legal protection to abused and neglected slaves. It is an open secret that they also recruit extensively from among this underclass, and many Mothers have rose to leadership from these origins.

What is a forbidden magic/science in your setting?

Necromancy/shadow magic. It's powered by the souls of those who've been murdered by it in the past.

What is one superstition that most people believe in your world, and how did it come to be?

Most people have dismissed the escaped mutant soldiers from a century ago as either a false alarm or an outright myth. No matter what vile experiments created these creatures, if no evidence has emerged to support their existence in over a century, there's no basis for any more hysteria. At the time the experiments were exposed, it was nothing short of an international disaster, but now it's safe to say most fears were unfounded. (But unfounded fears wouldn't make for a very interesting book, would they?!)

What natural disaster is most threatening or infamous in your world?

Blizzards. Since the planet is rocky and mountainous, a blizzard would be a disaster. Not to mention if the aliens who live in a enclosed dome ever left during one, they would perish in an instant since they are suited for hot, desert environments.

What is the end of the world foretold to look like?

The Lovecraftian sea deity Oumouniiou, The Lord of the Nameless Abyss, rises from the depths, scrapes the stars from the sky with his claws, and swallows the sea and land.

Do teenagers get acne?

(Don't laugh, this is a completely serious question. Never have a heard a reference to teenage pimples in any SFF book I've read!)

No, they don't. The aliens in my story have a different kind of skin, and the humans have been experimented on so that their skin is different too.

What illness has wiped out the most people?

The Ooze -- a magically manufactured plague-like illness that needs a better name and turns people to stone.

How many moons does your world have?

How many moons does your world have?

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My story encompasses a whole galaxy, but the very first planet, the Aerie, has a single small moon called the Nest Egg that houses the Falconn dynasty's most secure vault.

What technology or magic would the authorities of your world try their hardest to outlaw?

Well my story starts on Earth where all magic has been suppressed by a massive spell. Other than that, the worlds of the allied races place wards to prevent the use of mass teleportation into their territory, or others to prevent the casting of spells in populated areas powerful enough to cause massive damage. Other than that most obscure magic is taboo rather than outlawed.

Question: What limits an individual's maximum potential level of power?

In reality, it's the strength of his/her aura. However, the gods manipulated the fundamentals of magic to make themselves immortal. Each human who practices magic has to give a portion of his/her life to the god of the element they are using, and the amount of life they give controls the strength of the spell. As such, the strongest humans die young. (If they could fix what the gods screwed up, however...)

What is the literacy rate of your world/country?

What is the literacy rate of your world/country?

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Well, my story takes place in a possible future, where anyone with a disability is labeled and institutionalized away from common life. One obligation everyone has to be employed and active in the society is to learn to read and write. They even need to take a test on it. But the world lacks adaptivity to anything different and any students who struggle with learning are more likely to have the common curriculum washed over them than they are to have any special lessons or adaptations made. So there is likely to be a significant portion illiterate, but they will be invisible to average citizens and even looked down on.

What lessons about the real world can readers gleam from your fictional world?

Cobalt Jade said:

Do teenagers get acne? (Don't laugh, this is a completely serious question. Never have a heard a reference to teenage pimples in any SFF book I've read!)

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this cracked me up. seriously - i probably laughed too hard. maybe we're reading different books, but i've seen acne in teen books since at least the 1980s. my FMC is just shy of sixteen and obsessed with acne; she even gets some horrible breakouts. she checks herself for acne and fangs every morning before school.

as for my question, let's circle back to the beginning and cheat a little. i'd like to use the very first question - mostly because in this entire thread i think i saw it answered only once:

Religion0 said:

So to start us off: What is the most valuable substance in your world?

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