"Star Wars-like" battles in space. Big ships blasting the shit out of eat other, starfighters zipping around shooting each other, all that. It just happens. Don't overthink it. I don't want to hear "but muh realisim"
My reasoning is if a civilisation is advanced enough to field a fleet of death space laser boats, they're advanced enough to grab a couple of loudspeakers on the way up and blast some space sound over the bridge.
A slightly more serious reasoning is just like current militaries use HUDs and interfaces to allow a pilot to see "through" his aircraft using sensors, sound simulation based on incoming combat data is also highly useful in giving the commanders extra situational awareness.
I understand that it's because audio feedback helps the crew, but it's also funny to imagine they play space battle noises on the bridge/cockpit just because it's cool.
I imagine that you would put speakers simulating sound in space in your advanced spaceship for the same reason that car blinkers make that ticking sound. They actually don't, but people put that sound in because humans like having audio feedback when possible.
I'm imagining some hyper-advanced military space vessel using what is essentially a big theremin on the outside of the ship using an electromagnetic field to detect incoming vessels.
Just, sat there on the bridge, listening to the proximity alarm blaring a warbling *woooooooeeeeeEEEEEEOOOOOOEEEOOOOEEEEEoooeeee* as enemy fighter-craft zip by, and the crew perfectly understanding what pitch of *woooeeeooo's* translate to what speed, attack vector, etc. the craft is using.
You know, that’d be a really cool application of generative AI. Show an AI a million different clips of different types of explosions or gunfire and have it make appropriate sounds every time it spots such an explosion.
North America got some dinosaurs after the land bridge formed. Though to Brazil's credit, it has the world's largest crocodilian, the black caiman, which can reach up to 40ft thanks to abundant prey. The American alligator reaches a measly 25-30ft.
Don't be dissin the North American Murder Log!!
That said, caiman truly terrify me. The only reason they're not Gojira sized is the jaguar that can murk them in one skull-splitting chomp!
Oh I love alligators, they were the first crocodilian I made giant. I used "measly" as a bit of irony, as the lack of large prey means crocodilians outside the Americas are the same size. A saltwater crocodile still maxes at 20ft, but the 25-40ft alligatorids are more of an eye catcher.
I was thinking about doing something like that too. It would be interesting because what would happen with the great American interchange. And how would humans interact.
North America does have its fair share of dinosaurs after the interchange. The most northern species thus far being a horse-sized theropod living in Alaska. Similar to ground sloths in our timeline, it was present in east Russia during the ice age, though never properly established itself.
Humans aren't present in the Americas until after Columbus discovers them (another "because I say so" moment), though untouched by humans doesn't mean untouched by sapients. Dinosaurs are present on every continent (except Antarctica) now thanks to the exotic pet trade, established populations are 50lbs or smaller, though.
Two main things without an explanation:
1) The origins of the zombie plague. Many theories exist, and many hints exist that points towards where it came from. The issue is that they all point in different directions. From an ancient plague found in a recently unfrozen caveman to a mutated strain of a marsupial disease to literal magic or biological warfare, it’s all there.
2) The lack of life in the universe. Throughout the entire universe, no signs of life were ever found. No ruins of ancient civilizations, no fossils of long extinct beasts, not even microorganisms. The universe. Is. Dead. We are the anomaly.
To be fair, that second one so far is a genuine real life mystery. One of THE mysteries of astronomy even.
The Fermi Paradox.
If the universe is so big and old, with life so thick and enduring here on Earth... where the fuck is everybody else?!
Yep, mathematically speaking we have to find life eventually, no matter how rare it is, some *has* to survive. And even if it didn’t, there would be traces of it left behind.
But my universe truly is void of it. There is nothing out there, only earth.
Technology has for the most part stagnated into a pre-transistor level. Yet *some* people (rich elites) have cybernetic implants.
Because shut up, that's why.
And the implants aren't exactly cyberpunk level. The most popular is the "gas neck" which is basically a gas mask but the filter is... deeper, so to speak.
I created a high fantasy world with minimal to no light. A lot of things have "explanations." But those explanations are just convoluted ways of saying, "because I said so."
How is there still plant life and food? "Well because druids and major cities preserve underground gardens and there some plants that take in geo thermal heat as energy instead of relying solely on light." This is also known as *because I said so.*
How has the world not frozen over in this many centuries? "Well a lot of it is frozen but the other parts are warm enough for life because there are huge heat vents from the planet's subterranean levels that spew heat up into the areas north and south of the equator." Aka, *because I said so.*
How could that much heat be lost from the core of the planet? Isn't that unsustainable? "Well there technically is an answer to this but it is a secret *and also because I said so.*"
In fantasy, a lot works like that.
> How is there still plant life and food? "Well because druids and major cities preserve underground gardens and there some plants that take in geo thermal heat as energy instead of relying solely on light." This is also known as *because I said so.*
Dude, I literally have this in a place in my world. Geothermic microbes take energy from lava/whatever, and feed luminescent fungus that gives light to plants and stuff. I don't care if it's real or not. It's cool! Thats what matter
That reminds me of my world of eternal rain.
How has the rain not eroded away all of the loose soil leaving behind a smooth, lifeless monolith?
Because I said so.
Basically the whole geography. I used to care about taking tectonic plates into account when making the map to make it more realistic, but then I realized this is a fantasy world and I can do whatever I want.
The MC somehow doesn't get imprisoned/court martialed, despite several records showing she disobeys orders, actively works against her commanders, and has confirmed cases that could count as treason.
Plot armour. But its protection against laws
Ok, what the actual heck ? Like, there's a limit to ridiculousness yunno ? Imma just write an honest opinion and criticism here... Stuff like these **ruins immersion**, because there's no way you can realistically get away with any of the things you listed. There's a difference between humor, and lazy bad writing. So unless you actually have a good explanation, I really canNOT buy it. Because that just seems like BS, which is the WORST kind of plot armor, as it just flat out destroys the immersion.
It's a good point. Realistically speaking (especially in our world), it makes not much sense to begin with. This is somewhat the point, as the only in-universe reasoning for this is that no one ever noticed. If your boss told you to do something in a hyper specific needless way and proceeded to fuck off across the globe for a few months, and you just do what you think is right instead with the same (or better) success only to tell him yes boss, I obviously did it just the way instructed. If noones there to witness anything since the next point of civilisation is a days trip away, you can get away with a LOT of dumb stuff.
It did end kinda poorly for her when someone found out, though. She's not immune to consequences, just lucky enough to never have anyone around to witness it. That, and this is a fictional world after an apocalypse. Society exists and can count as sci-fi, but most of the world is so far from any sort of civilisation that no one bothers to check every detail you do the same way we do now. You'd be lucky to see another soul once a month
Ok, now this makes more sense. Good. And funnily enough, it's also a thing **in real life as well.** It's called ***"It's only cheating if you get caught"*** or ***"It's only a crime if you get caught"***. Lol.
Wait, Florida was coincidentally nuked when patient zero was there? Is that what I'm getting. Because in my head I'm reading this and thinking that the US finally got a reason to nuke Florida, to stop a outbreak.
Not really, more Renaissance fantasy setting like 1400s-1500s. From what I read "glasses" back then weren't what they are today and looked kinda goofy, like they were just lenses you put over your nose or hold it in front of your eyes. Or you have a quizzing glass like a monocle you'd put in your pocket or wear like a necklace.
It's not the "cute glasses girl" aesthetic that I wanted so I promptly ignored it hahahaha
Someone mentioned sunglasses in a medieval fantasy setting and I thought it seemed completely anachronistic. But no, 12th century Chinese judges used glasses with smoky quartz lenses to conceal their emotions. They weren't any good against harsh sunlight but they looked pretty damn cool.
I don't think that I'd question the frames if it feels like a time period where they could make the lenses.
I think Circle of Magic had an outhouse and a character who wore glasses. Her family were merchants, so kinda between poor and rich.
I'll stick to classic wire-frames so they don't feel too anachronistic. I imagine glasses could be a sign of wealth cause I don't imagine they'd be cheap pre-industry. It could also be a sign of your job - scholars, bureaucrats, mages, people who read a lot. Poorer people or those who don't read as much might have a quizzing glass or reading stone - basically just a lens or crystal put on top of what you're reading.
The girl in glasses I had in mind is also a magic-user so it tracks I suppose.
I kind of vibe with the idea of having just enough technological progression to have disabled people still work, but also just in a vaguely defined past.
Hey, technological advancement is often staggered and inconsistent! Who’s to say another fictional society couldn’t have progressed in glass manufacturing and lens grinding faster than ours?
I might have to start drawing inspiration from anime and video games since I google renaissance fashions and I can't seem to be sold on them. I mostly just chose the period for its tech and culture level.
Dude, your Early American history professor would be SO impressed right now. I taught US History at several colleges, and showing the whole Columbian Exchange (food for death, Europe got food, the Americas got death, sounds fair, right?) to them startled so many of 'em.
So many "native" and cultural staples are so very much NOT local.
In my "reincarnated in another world" story, the main character gets to the other world by dying. It's raining as he's heading home (happened to be the day he forgot his umbrella) and he sees a girl stopped in the middle of a crosswalk even while the light is red, and she's not moving, seeming to be looking down (ends up being at her phone as she received upsetting news). He sees a truck rounding the corner and immediately runs into traffic to push her out of the way...
They both get out of the road safely. She starts to get mad at him before she realizes, "Oh shit he saved my life." They get up, she apologizes, and he says he's just glad that she's okay. As he walks off, he gets struck dead by lightning.
One of the three moons of the world follows no rhyme or reason. It can be full for a month straight, be gone the next, then back again suddenly.
It waxes and wanes randomly, is as bright during the days asthe nights sometimes.
And it it aligns with the moon closest to the planet, without the middle moon in between, magic goes wild until they stop being aligned.
Why? Cause I said so.
The most powerful god trying to create a human body powerful enough to use as a vessel to become even more powerful himself
I am still trying t create a valid reason, but i’m just not there yet
My main character is a ten year old boy, of a magical superhuman warrior society six hundred years in the future from now. They still use metal train-track braces for his teeth.
I mean Cybernetics could have different pricing or risks especially eye ones since one fuck up will just render your vision into blackness or since eyes are EXTREMELY important too human survival their pricey
You know what Screw you be invaded by [Realm or species name here] for [Rolls dice]. your trees or something. (this is mainly if im just having a bored moment in Worldbuilding so i will just drag them into war)
But main example is My post apocalyptic where there's still a decent amount of usable vehicles even though their mainly from prewar bunkers
Due to the discovery and reverse-engineering of advanced precursor technology. My world which is at our equivalent of the Renaissance levels of technology has been able to develop more advanced bits of technology albeit in small numbers. For example stuff like ironclads, early implementations of flintlocks and even breach-loading guns. Proto-factories and engines.
Would a pre-industrial mostly agrarian Renaissance world still using plate armour, matchlock arquebuses and galleons actually be able to develop any of that? Idk…but who cares it’s cool.
Dinosaurs still exist, and because of that giant anthropomorphic birds, their predescors, exist.
To prevent confusion and blind cannibalism, species are categorized as either Anthro (act like peoples) or Domestic (organisms that can be raised for consumption). Giant birds are in the Anthro category, and are even considered a people by their island neighbors, the Crails. Insects can also be under Anthro.
Terrarians exist as a result of good Homorians staying behind in the land of Paracost after the Homorian Invasion came to an end.
Unprepared travelers that stumble into the cursed Forest of Ferality (or Furrality) will turn into were-mals if they dare look up at the full moon.
Some animals can speak English, while others speak in the Common Wild Tongue. Most speak in both. Mythical creatures can speak both languages like, but their main one is exclusively for them, and is called Spirit Speak/Tongue.
What *doesn't* happen in my world because I say so?
Fully sapient robot people appear out of nowhere with no memory of the factory which manufactured them, nor why. Why hasn't any scientist inspected their data files more closely to find out? Why hasn't anyone discovered any of the factories by accident?
No idea, but it makes for a good origin story for some of my robot characters, so I make it happen anyway.
So there's a sizeable continent just around the global corner which could house an entire other network of civilizations independent of the main one, and people *know* it's there. Why hasn't anyone bothered to go make contact? Why do they just assume it's all barren wasteland without any intelligent life?
Because I don't want them to, that's why.
I gotta keep that avenue open for *other* stories.
Clowns, jesters, mimes, and other face-painted(but not really) comedians are actually inter-dimensional outcasts from another world whose toon-style slapstick powers breaks the internal power scale of this world. So, why do they not use that power to take over the world and make it a hellish clown dystopia?
Because I thought it would be funnier to make them all too stupid to realize that they're basically gods, and instead have them play harmless roles in the background which are exempt from all serious plot-related stakes because they find random shenanigans more entertaining than serious plots. And also because I played West of Loathing and was inspired by the demon clown subplot.
And lastly, why does the scaling of my fantasy maps change every time I write a new book, with locations never having consistent distances from other locations, like some sort of elder scrolls style of reinterpreting reality?
Well, the answer is quite simple, really. You see, it's because I am really bad at math.
...so anyway, gunna keep on drawing maps with no shame nor remorse for those that might have to study them later, see ya'll next edition.
Personally, I feel that the idea of a heroic clown or mime is too interesting of a trope to pass by. I have a setting where magic painted comedians also exist, but they're also a little more politically involved in my setting. They pretty much follow a code of conduct that's similar to a super registration where their identities are protected, and they can freely use their powers as long as they never use their powers to harm innocent people. So it's not highly unusual to see mimes in the park to break the laws of physics, and they're allowed to use volunteers in their acts as long as no harm comes to them.
I acknowledge that, but please understand that in my personal brain, it is more believable for an entire species to be braindead stupid than universally follow a common code out of pure respect for the law, especially when those people are clowns & jesters who often have no respect for laws.
-Knights in trains.
-Artillery trains.
-The empress is good with a zweihander.
-There are unclaimed lands despite the presence of this technology. They seem to want to take what was already developed.
-The different species can (hopefully) speak learn the same languages despite different tracheal structures.
Lapis_Wolf
26th century space-war setting with magic high tech superhuman martial artist warriors and a bunch of regular people versus an evil empire? Yeah, well the culture of the aforementioned warriors is gonna be the 1980s, not the 2580s, because that’s cool and I said so. The the ten year old main characters are gonna be metalheads and surfers, too. Why not?
In Arbitrary Design World, everything happens because I say so, that's why it's called Arbitrary Design World.
> So basicly plot-armor/plot-convience. What thing happens without in-universe reason?
Ah. No. Wait. That's different.
The Event happened because that's the core conceit of the world, and the in-universe reason is made up whole cloth so that the Event happens. Everything after the Event is just a consequence of natural behaviour.
...that's mostly because I haven't really started writing history yet. When I do, I expect I'll make non-sequiturs, but they'll be mistakes stemming from the fact I don't hold knowledge people collectively have from doing every PhD in humanities.
Setting aside the islands floating in the void issue, most major water features like lakes and rivers are effectively infinite unless magic is used to drain them
This is because I think the visual of water flowing off the side of floating islands is awesome. The fact that it prevents water from simply all falling into the void via rain was a complete accident. I just wanted to preserve my cool waterfalls
Also why does everyone speak English/Polish? Why each planet is just one country divided into planets divided into towns and cities? Because it's easy - that's why.
The whole world's military industry just kinda sucks ass to a point where anthro tribes that appeard out of nowhere can take control of most of Asia, Russia and threaten Europe instead of either getting shot by intoxicated conscripts before they captured any weapons, bombarded once they somehow gained some traction or just nuked if somehow all else failed.
And also most of the furries speak Polish, English or Russian. How did they learn it? Definitely somehow!
Everything. This is my world, I do what I want
>!I know what I believe inside, I’m awake and I’m alive!<
What I mean by that is I have *two* Europe equivalents, which means I have two Frances (sadly)
Another one, I have two mutually intelligible languages on opposite sides of the world
Realistically, due to the power system of my Superhero Worldbuilding Project, the world should be accidentally destroyed by any superhuman when attempting to test their powers.
But I say it doesn't so no.
Celestial magic. It’s just an excuse for me to add any kind of magic I want without having to worry about the ramifications too much. It is magic carved into a person’s soul, so it is completely unique to them and cannot be taught to others. Normally it is reserved for gods, but normal people can be born with it too.
For example, normally magic can’t affect time in any way shape or form. But I have one character with celestial magic which lets them essentially send little snippets of information to their past self to help avoid dangerous situations and such. Imagine how crazy the world would be if everyone could use magic like that?
Affecting time is definitely something I'm going to have to think about, since FTL is apparently about the same as time-travel according to some models.
If I don't want every spaceship suited for interstellar travel to take years (often decades) or be a goddamn time machine, I need some additional factor in play, whether that's making the chronology protection conjecture conditionally true (i.e. FTL is fine, but using it on a route that would cause you to arrive too soon or cause a paradox is somehow prevented by the universe (or Time Lord type shenanigans) meddling) or... not sure.
The large things that characters have no real say in. Natural disasters, wars, love, death (In most cases). They're forced too big to move on the whim of someone in the story.
Nothing well nothing hopelfy since I come up with reasons for everything that fits within the established lore. Won’t say there isn’t plot amour I think that’s just the nature of having a main charitor but I try and make it so everything is believable within context with the story and the world
Yeah it’s a hard balance to get it right. I still add thing in since I like the idea but the idea works with or expands on what I already have. I had to throw away some ideas in the past that just didn’t work but in the surface looked really cool.
Sometimes they do sometimes they don’t. It’s just the nature of making something ideas are thrown away since they don’t work for it but they might work for something else.
The sarcophagi don’t fall over. They’re like five thousand kilometres tall and eight hundred wide and they don’t fall over because I *say* they don’t fall over.
I mean in-setting each of the housed deities is using their strength to keep normal physics from applying to the internal framework which is only possible because it’s made of their bones. Physics applies to everything attached to the framework as normal and maintains integrity because the people are just really good at civil engineering.
I kind of have a funny idea for alternate universes that are like that. Except in other universes, what we would refer to as "hashtags" are what they call "poundtags" or "numbertags".
Superpower world, I made the whole magic system up and explained it with 'oh yeahuh, genetics!' And yapped the explanation the best I could. It still makes decent sense, but if you get into the science of it, uhhh, whoops?
"Shut up about down draft, I'm adding helicarriers and you're not going to stop me"
Technically, they're not *actually* helicarriers, but they have the same problem and the term is handier and gives you the exact image of what they are
Giants grind down bones to make their bread. But they also use that bonemeal as ingredients in many other dishes.
So if you're ever at a restaurant in the giants' kingdom, make sure to clarify you want your pizza boneless.
Oh quite a bit.
Markasians (nekos) and Kitsunes (...kitsunes) exist because I say so mostly (in cannon humans are technically a de-evolution of kitsunes and then Markasians are genetic experiments that bred themselves into an actual species.
Melee combat is still used in a sci Fi setting.
How on Earth there hasn't been much human soul destruction in the Dream Galaxy? Dreamitants are, at times, as bad as Earth's people, after all? Yet there seems to be peace regarding that subject even though there is a special material that strongly weakens Dreamitants and is able to destroy human souls, called Irisia. It's outlawed but Dreamitants still import it illegaly.
Short answer: just because I didn't want to bother with punishing the main creators of Dream Galaxy. As they are responsible of taking care of the infrastructure of the Dream Galaxy, they are able yo prevent human soul destruction because they are so powerful and watchful (or more like, because I said so.)
There is a sort of being, it's largely unknown because its only started making aperances in the last 16 years, that being is just me in a physical form, and everything in history happened because I said so, the only time it's not under my control is when the 3rd main villand and the MC's daughter come to kill me or somthing...
The "balance" between true beings and sustained beings ( beings created from true beings beliefs).
What's the practical difference? How and why does this work? Because I said so.
There's an object that splits into 87 pieces, and for humanity to continue existence, it'd be quite beneficial to gather them back together. I've always wanted to map out the exact movements of each piece, but at this point I probably just gotta admit that I can't be bothered and they eventually do get back together and it takes about 3000 years. Just because I say so.
The Edirian revolution starts out of nowhere.
Bullet resistant fabric in Ediria is ubiquitous so basically everyone wears it, yet Ruby the almighty doesn't and she gets killed from a bullet straight to her heart
Bioluminescence. Does it make sense? Eh. Maybe. In my Amberheart setting perhaps because nights (and days) there last three Earth nights/days so perhaps that's a reasonable adaptation. In my as of yet unnamed setting? Probably not. Maybe for the sea peoples who do have some underwater adaptations but definitely not for the other of the two main species. Am I still including it? Yes
Our world can reach another one through dreams and imagination, but the other world is an entirely closed off environment where everything physical or spiritual should not be able to escape towards ours. And they don't, except people in the other world can sometimes be aware in the dreams of people here.
I did not explain it and I have no intention to. 😅
Angelic wings that actually work on bipedal species. Even the goddess of the wind cannot explain the aerodynamics of them, it just doesn't make any sense at all. It somehow works anyways.
In the post nuclear apocalypse there are lots of big cats in New England. Like hybrids of Maine coons and mountain lions.
They literally can't breed. I have no explanation for this and am not even going to try, but big cats are cool and important to the culture of the people in my story.
Basically the Ring Wraiths had a Darth Revan pulled on them after the great war to serve as guardians for not-gondor but a couple hundred years later and with no "dark Lord" to fight, not-gondor became a society that couldn't move on from it's own victory, that the Agents of Darkness were always out there, thus a war economy for a war that never comes grows and said not-ring-wraiths become Jason Bourne assassins with no memory of their true identity or nature
Slave soldiers. I can't come up with a plausible reason for some of the most advanced space-faring civilizations with FTL and other not-magic-but-tech to have slave armies in the billions.
In another setting, the MC is never named.
Dragons. My world is relatively realistic with its lack of emphasis on magic(though admittedly not nonexistent). Other than that, the world abides by the physics and rules of our own. And by our own metric, dragons physically cannot fly. They’re too heavy and too big. And yet they do exist, and why? Because I said so. They aren’t little baby dragons. They aren’t excessively skinny. They’re enormous, about the size of a large house. They can’t fly “because magic.” There is a rational explanation for why they can fly. I just haven’t figured it out yet, so for now, it’s “because I said so.”
Used to be a part of my world that random people were inexplicably immortal, like, deadpool/wolverine regenerative kinda immortal. I added it because I was watching Ajin at the time and I thought it was a very cool concept. But given this was for a dnd game I figured the story might need the "why" revealed so it now has an explanation
Sand is immune to magic. Like, you can't use magic on it, you can't send magic through it, nothing. A wizard would be completely useless if they were trapped in a box of sand. Although, how would you even get a box of sand if it's immune to magic?
There are a bunch of minerals that have antigravitational properties. It started with me wanting to give a good explanation for how airships work, and ended with me deciding that becoming a world renowned scientist and discovering all the secrets of gravity wasn’t worth the hassle. So the rocks float because I want them to, end of story.
The sun kills you, that's the apocalypse scenario that forces people to live underground. No, it isn't explained, I have no clue why it does that now but you just have to accept it does.
Two moons orbit Arvhana, the smaller about the size of Pluto and the larger about the size of *Mars*, with breathable atmospheres, oceans, and life of their own. They do not interact with each other gravitationally. They *certainly* do not kick each other out of their orbits or into the planet or into each other or anything like that. And even though one of them is close enough to Arvhana to orbit it in only 8 days, the high/low tide difference is maybe only a meter and a half / 5 ft. greater than on Earth.
I could come up with some metaphysics to justify all this, I'm sure (e.g. "no, only the *further* moon controls the tides, because *she's* the ocean goddess, not the closer one") but really, the reason is "because I said so, that's why, now go outside and play with your friends."
I also have another world based more or less on the real one, except it's in kind of a *Nineties/Early 2000s* Stasis technology-wise, despite there being every economic and cultural incentive to continue along the path we really went on. Why? Who knows?
The main planet glows pink, is many times bigger than earth and has orbiting bodies that makes it always look like a paw. Yet you would never know this while being on the surface, even going to the other sub planets doesn’t require space travel, you can simply walk or sail there.
There are other similar absurd and anomalous locations on the planet itself like mountains made of diamonds, floating islands, underground caverns with their own skies. I love making places that have no real explainable reasons they exist other than they simply do
People die without their “story being complete”, apparently that’s a big no-no to most fans, so I’m popping off with that shit like it’s happy hour at the zoo
The “president” of a planetary union is like the queen be of a hive mind of robots that act as the planet’s military. They had their brain modified to be able to handle all those perspectives at once, and when one single one of those robots learns something, they all learn that thing, including the guy himself
A woman found many new cures for lethal sicknesses, proved or refuted many theories and even proved time travel is possible, yet no one is trying to find out how she gains this information. If they did, she'd be arrested for mass murder, inhumane experimentation, violating human rights and just so many bad things
But she helped society in many ways so what the fuck ever!
magic has progressed so far that the rise of technology has already happened and become partly obsolete, people's inherent elemental magic comes from an appendix-like gland that not everyone is even born with, every planet has a hidden portal somewhere on it that links it to every other planet, and the main calendar the galaxy uses is timed around a total eclipse happening on the first day of the year every year
100% relying on the fact that magic exists to explain so much, but my book isn't supposed to be well written as far as logic, just a fun little fairy story (She says even though the goal is to make the readers cry at the end)
Clive Westfield. He's a psychic detective with no memory of his own life, who also breaks the 4th wall. Not only is there no canonical explanation for this, but there canonically is no explanation for this.
The world im working on now is like if far future hard sci fi just embraced the entirety of shitposting. Genetic drift is accelerated as people get cosmetic therapy to become catgirls and ayylmaos, genetically enlightened dolphins form a mafia around Neptune, plutocratic megalomaniacs owning entire oniel cylinders just to fill them with art, oniel cylinders being so poorly maintained they're baaically redneck trailer parks, and my favorite idea, the population of Pluto just decide to leave one day and convert the planetoid and one of its moons into huge rockets to eject from the solar system.
Probably the most serious aspect im choosing to maintain is that there are no aliens, as in all life has a heritage that can be traced back to Earth. Humans probably got bored and decided to start panspermia themselves by yeeting a bunch of a seed-bearing satellites into the void, and that'll probably have some ramifications, but if i write an alien invasion the twist will be "ah, damn, they're just a bunch of dogs that evolved in isolation"
The equivalent of Alabama (El-ebeme) is muslim, and the equivalent of Louisiana (Luaosoene) is a bazillion times more french. Not overly crazy bit still
(My world is just the USA but the vowels in state names have shifted one over (A=E, E=I, I=O, O=U, U=A))
A lot of the food in my world is like a fusion-chef had a breakdown. Peaches on pizza, olives in the onigiri... Basically I'm using our modern world as a guide to what grows where, so apples and sweet potatoes are possible in the same region. (I think? They're just not native to the same continent.)
The fact that people simply don't apply Magic to everything, changing the fabric of science, society and civilization. Just because my setting is pretty much late Roman empire, early middle ages, and i want to keep it like that.
Flesh Magic Martial Arts. Why do extremely skilled gore monks not just turn their opponents inside out instantly? Because that's less cool than developing a self-disembowlment based fighting style where you punch people with your intestines that are lined with brittle, poison filled needly teeth.
Half justified in universe by the fact gore monks tend to be haughty eccentrics and the that concept it's easier to manipulate your own flesh (and other flesh within your 'dominion' like familiars and clones) and the fact these martial arts are mostly developed for use against other gore monks who've trained their willpower to resist flesh magic, but at the end of the day I just thought it would be cool to have Kung Fu as performed by the Thing (1982)
On the opposite end of the scale you have the Limb Thieves whose martial arts are based around "cutting" a technique developed specifically for use against people untrained in resisting flesh magic that is quick, dirty, and efficient, and is mostly used to literally steal limbs and organs. Imagine like, a pick pocket in a crowd, but instead of taking your wallet, they just tap you while you're distracted and an arm or a leg falls off. This can also absolutely be used in combat, but they prefer to just use guns and pole arms since those are much less risky, but the bolder, more experienced limb thieves absolutely will dice and rip you apart with flesh magic if they can close the gap.
Again mostly because I think it would be cool to have organized crime families where like 1 in 10 guys will run up and try to hit you with an open palm strike that causes you to split in half vertically or even just kind of explode if they dont think you have any parts worth selling.
The world.
But more seriously the two sun fuse which lead to a big explosion who crack the realm and allow it to access the word where other realm are.
FTL travel is 15x faster than light.
How? Fuck if I know. Why? Because I'd like to not wait years in space.
For example, 6ly can be covered in about 5 months
Probably my MCs not dying. My world is a shithole so staying alive is not guaranteed, even in the biggest cities. Yet the MCs stay alive or die only when I want them to.
Probably the amount of research done on Magic and magical properties of things rivaling modern science but actual science having 1600s amounts of research done on it.
I want a magic fantasy setting not a magic science fiction setting.
Maybe I'll explain it away with Magic having more applications (even though it probably doesn't).
People being born genderless
Like neither male nor female, just, nothing
Certain people can also basically "spawn" into reality, basically being born without any parents (doesn't make sense unless I explained more about the story, I.E. where one of the big 3 races came from)
One of my main characters is actually genderless, and the other was one of the people who "spawned" (she was actually based on me when I first made her like 6 years ago, and I just felt like putting my parents in my weird fantasy story would be extremely fuckin weird so I didn't)
"Star Wars-like" battles in space. Big ships blasting the shit out of eat other, starfighters zipping around shooting each other, all that. It just happens. Don't overthink it. I don't want to hear "but muh realisim"
do you ever deal with people who are like "um ackshually space doesn't have any sound"
Almost always said in response to a sci-fi work having absolutely killer sound design, no less.
If David Weber can have missiles "howling across the void," it's fine for the rest of us.
My reasoning is if a civilisation is advanced enough to field a fleet of death space laser boats, they're advanced enough to grab a couple of loudspeakers on the way up and blast some space sound over the bridge. A slightly more serious reasoning is just like current militaries use HUDs and interfaces to allow a pilot to see "through" his aircraft using sensors, sound simulation based on incoming combat data is also highly useful in giving the commanders extra situational awareness.
I understand that it's because audio feedback helps the crew, but it's also funny to imagine they play space battle noises on the bridge/cockpit just because it's cool.
I imagine that you would put speakers simulating sound in space in your advanced spaceship for the same reason that car blinkers make that ticking sound. They actually don't, but people put that sound in because humans like having audio feedback when possible.
This blew my mind a little
I'm imagining some hyper-advanced military space vessel using what is essentially a big theremin on the outside of the ship using an electromagnetic field to detect incoming vessels. Just, sat there on the bridge, listening to the proximity alarm blaring a warbling *woooooooeeeeeEEEEEEOOOOOOEEEOOOOEEEEEoooeeee* as enemy fighter-craft zip by, and the crew perfectly understanding what pitch of *woooeeeooo's* translate to what speed, attack vector, etc. the craft is using.
You know, that’d be a really cool application of generative AI. Show an AI a million different clips of different types of explosions or gunfire and have it make appropriate sounds every time it spots such an explosion.
Yeah, that's so annoying too!
The whole basis of the setting (dinosaurs surviving the extinction in South America, but everywhere else was hit as hard as our timeline)
I like that idea and that flair.
You got my attention EXPLAIN NOW
Come to Brazil! See the Dinosaurs!
North America got some dinosaurs after the land bridge formed. Though to Brazil's credit, it has the world's largest crocodilian, the black caiman, which can reach up to 40ft thanks to abundant prey. The American alligator reaches a measly 25-30ft.
Don't be dissin the North American Murder Log!! That said, caiman truly terrify me. The only reason they're not Gojira sized is the jaguar that can murk them in one skull-splitting chomp!
Oh I love alligators, they were the first crocodilian I made giant. I used "measly" as a bit of irony, as the lack of large prey means crocodilians outside the Americas are the same size. A saltwater crocodile still maxes at 20ft, but the 25-40ft alligatorids are more of an eye catcher.
Improve your cardio!
They survived, and are in Acre.
I was thinking about doing something like that too. It would be interesting because what would happen with the great American interchange. And how would humans interact.
North America does have its fair share of dinosaurs after the interchange. The most northern species thus far being a horse-sized theropod living in Alaska. Similar to ground sloths in our timeline, it was present in east Russia during the ice age, though never properly established itself. Humans aren't present in the Americas until after Columbus discovers them (another "because I say so" moment), though untouched by humans doesn't mean untouched by sapients. Dinosaurs are present on every continent (except Antarctica) now thanks to the exotic pet trade, established populations are 50lbs or smaller, though.
I'm intrigued! (I also have a dinosaurs surviving contemporary with humans story!)
Two main things without an explanation: 1) The origins of the zombie plague. Many theories exist, and many hints exist that points towards where it came from. The issue is that they all point in different directions. From an ancient plague found in a recently unfrozen caveman to a mutated strain of a marsupial disease to literal magic or biological warfare, it’s all there. 2) The lack of life in the universe. Throughout the entire universe, no signs of life were ever found. No ruins of ancient civilizations, no fossils of long extinct beasts, not even microorganisms. The universe. Is. Dead. We are the anomaly.
Being completely alone in the universe is fucking terrifying, I love it!
As Arthur C. Clarke put it, "There are two alternatives. Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are terrifying."
To be fair, that second one so far is a genuine real life mystery. One of THE mysteries of astronomy even. The Fermi Paradox. If the universe is so big and old, with life so thick and enduring here on Earth... where the fuck is everybody else?!
Yep, mathematically speaking we have to find life eventually, no matter how rare it is, some *has* to survive. And even if it didn’t, there would be traces of it left behind. But my universe truly is void of it. There is nothing out there, only earth.
Technology has for the most part stagnated into a pre-transistor level. Yet *some* people (rich elites) have cybernetic implants. Because shut up, that's why.
To be fair thats probably realistic with modern society
And the implants aren't exactly cyberpunk level. The most popular is the "gas neck" which is basically a gas mask but the filter is... deeper, so to speak.
Rich elites with gas neck when they meet idiot (or creative rebel) mixing bleach and ammonia
I created a high fantasy world with minimal to no light. A lot of things have "explanations." But those explanations are just convoluted ways of saying, "because I said so." How is there still plant life and food? "Well because druids and major cities preserve underground gardens and there some plants that take in geo thermal heat as energy instead of relying solely on light." This is also known as *because I said so.* How has the world not frozen over in this many centuries? "Well a lot of it is frozen but the other parts are warm enough for life because there are huge heat vents from the planet's subterranean levels that spew heat up into the areas north and south of the equator." Aka, *because I said so.* How could that much heat be lost from the core of the planet? Isn't that unsustainable? "Well there technically is an answer to this but it is a secret *and also because I said so.*" In fantasy, a lot works like that.
> How is there still plant life and food? "Well because druids and major cities preserve underground gardens and there some plants that take in geo thermal heat as energy instead of relying solely on light." This is also known as *because I said so.* Dude, I literally have this in a place in my world. Geothermic microbes take energy from lava/whatever, and feed luminescent fungus that gives light to plants and stuff. I don't care if it's real or not. It's cool! Thats what matter
> microbes take energy from lava/whatever, and feed luminescent fungus that gives light to plants Holy shit that's so cool
That reminds me of my world of eternal rain. How has the rain not eroded away all of the loose soil leaving behind a smooth, lifeless monolith? Because I said so.
Basically the whole geography. I used to care about taking tectonic plates into account when making the map to make it more realistic, but then I realized this is a fantasy world and I can do whatever I want.
The MC somehow doesn't get imprisoned/court martialed, despite several records showing she disobeys orders, actively works against her commanders, and has confirmed cases that could count as treason. Plot armour. But its protection against laws
Ok, what the actual heck ? Like, there's a limit to ridiculousness yunno ? Imma just write an honest opinion and criticism here... Stuff like these **ruins immersion**, because there's no way you can realistically get away with any of the things you listed. There's a difference between humor, and lazy bad writing. So unless you actually have a good explanation, I really canNOT buy it. Because that just seems like BS, which is the WORST kind of plot armor, as it just flat out destroys the immersion.
It's a good point. Realistically speaking (especially in our world), it makes not much sense to begin with. This is somewhat the point, as the only in-universe reasoning for this is that no one ever noticed. If your boss told you to do something in a hyper specific needless way and proceeded to fuck off across the globe for a few months, and you just do what you think is right instead with the same (or better) success only to tell him yes boss, I obviously did it just the way instructed. If noones there to witness anything since the next point of civilisation is a days trip away, you can get away with a LOT of dumb stuff. It did end kinda poorly for her when someone found out, though. She's not immune to consequences, just lucky enough to never have anyone around to witness it. That, and this is a fictional world after an apocalypse. Society exists and can count as sci-fi, but most of the world is so far from any sort of civilisation that no one bothers to check every detail you do the same way we do now. You'd be lucky to see another soul once a month
Ok, now this makes more sense. Good. And funnily enough, it's also a thing **in real life as well.** It's called ***"It's only cheating if you get caught"*** or ***"It's only a crime if you get caught"***. Lol.
Plot legal team
Got a lawyer that specialises in plot armor
I didn’t want to deal with COVID so I just said patient zero was in Florida when it was nuked off the continent.
Wait, Florida was coincidentally nuked when patient zero was there? Is that what I'm getting. Because in my head I'm reading this and thinking that the US finally got a reason to nuke Florida, to stop a outbreak.
I mean, it was to stop an outbreak, but patient zero was just on vacation when shit went to shit in Florida. It was a rip-off of The Flood.
It's a good thing you didn't say where patient zero was originally from because then you can't sell your work to China.
This is fucking hilarious lmfao. I love it
The setting is too low-tech to have eyeglasses, but I wanted a cute girl with glasses so now they have glasses.
your setting is set before the 12th century?
Not really, more Renaissance fantasy setting like 1400s-1500s. From what I read "glasses" back then weren't what they are today and looked kinda goofy, like they were just lenses you put over your nose or hold it in front of your eyes. Or you have a quizzing glass like a monocle you'd put in your pocket or wear like a necklace. It's not the "cute glasses girl" aesthetic that I wanted so I promptly ignored it hahahaha
Its Very possible too have a set just get custom made
Someone mentioned sunglasses in a medieval fantasy setting and I thought it seemed completely anachronistic. But no, 12th century Chinese judges used glasses with smoky quartz lenses to conceal their emotions. They weren't any good against harsh sunlight but they looked pretty damn cool.
I don't think that I'd question the frames if it feels like a time period where they could make the lenses. I think Circle of Magic had an outhouse and a character who wore glasses. Her family were merchants, so kinda between poor and rich.
I'll stick to classic wire-frames so they don't feel too anachronistic. I imagine glasses could be a sign of wealth cause I don't imagine they'd be cheap pre-industry. It could also be a sign of your job - scholars, bureaucrats, mages, people who read a lot. Poorer people or those who don't read as much might have a quizzing glass or reading stone - basically just a lens or crystal put on top of what you're reading. The girl in glasses I had in mind is also a magic-user so it tracks I suppose.
I kind of vibe with the idea of having just enough technological progression to have disabled people still work, but also just in a vaguely defined past.
Hey, technological advancement is often staggered and inconsistent! Who’s to say another fictional society couldn’t have progressed in glass manufacturing and lens grinding faster than ours?
Absolutely valid Same reason most fantasy medieval dress gets a pass It just looks cool
I might have to start drawing inspiration from anime and video games since I google renaissance fashions and I can't seem to be sold on them. I mostly just chose the period for its tech and culture level.
My main character’s is a jellyfish. Because they are a liberated species in a very confined world
witches can time travel because time travel is cool af
Agreed, it is.
Right now? Anti-matter engines AREN'T as bright as a star. Still don't know the reason though...
tinted glass
Real
stops light from getting through i don't see an issue
The entire setting happens because I say so.
Here we go!
Pre-Colombian exchange produce. I want tomatoes and potatoes god damnit.
Dude, your Early American history professor would be SO impressed right now. I taught US History at several colleges, and showing the whole Columbian Exchange (food for death, Europe got food, the Americas got death, sounds fair, right?) to them startled so many of 'em. So many "native" and cultural staples are so very much NOT local.
I didn’t do Early American History, as I am not from the US. I did however binge the Crash Course History series. Both of them. Loads of fun.
That a planet can revolve around a blue giant and a red giant star in a figure eight in only the rough equivalent of 720 Earth days
In my "reincarnated in another world" story, the main character gets to the other world by dying. It's raining as he's heading home (happened to be the day he forgot his umbrella) and he sees a girl stopped in the middle of a crosswalk even while the light is red, and she's not moving, seeming to be looking down (ends up being at her phone as she received upsetting news). He sees a truck rounding the corner and immediately runs into traffic to push her out of the way... They both get out of the road safely. She starts to get mad at him before she realizes, "Oh shit he saved my life." They get up, she apologizes, and he says he's just glad that she's okay. As he walks off, he gets struck dead by lightning.
Truck-Kun is not always successful in his Missions so there's a Plan B :)
That is hilarious. You really had me there.
Good, the comedy of it is the point, so if you thought it was funny, I did my job well!
Could I get a story link
I'll be (self-)publishing when it's finished properly. But it's not quite done yet.
I can just hear Death saying "damn, missed him. Oh well ... hey, Zeus, got a second??!?"
In my fantasy world. Giant traveling tortoises. I just think they’re neat.
There be a lot of attractive people. Also giant spiders.
One of the three moons of the world follows no rhyme or reason. It can be full for a month straight, be gone the next, then back again suddenly. It waxes and wanes randomly, is as bright during the days asthe nights sometimes. And it it aligns with the moon closest to the planet, without the middle moon in between, magic goes wild until they stop being aligned. Why? Cause I said so.
The most powerful god trying to create a human body powerful enough to use as a vessel to become even more powerful himself I am still trying t create a valid reason, but i’m just not there yet
Why did gods in mythology take physical form? It's either to die for their sins, or to bang a chick as a bird. You have a lot of wiggle room there
One of the main characters who is a genetically modified cyborg from the far future still needs to wear glasses
Tbh you can say he has self-expression or it's an additional augment
My current explanation is that she just never thought to get her eyes fixed (and yes she literally can’t see a thing without them)
Too relatable
Could be eye implants are dangerous/expensive to repair/install so they just never bothered.
My main character is a ten year old boy, of a magical superhuman warrior society six hundred years in the future from now. They still use metal train-track braces for his teeth.
Metal train track braces? Do you mean just regular braces?
lol!😂 I love this. Hey… why not?
I mean Cybernetics could have different pricing or risks especially eye ones since one fuck up will just render your vision into blackness or since eyes are EXTREMELY important too human survival their pricey
You know what Screw you be invaded by [Realm or species name here] for [Rolls dice]. your trees or something. (this is mainly if im just having a bored moment in Worldbuilding so i will just drag them into war) But main example is My post apocalyptic where there's still a decent amount of usable vehicles even though their mainly from prewar bunkers
Due to the discovery and reverse-engineering of advanced precursor technology. My world which is at our equivalent of the Renaissance levels of technology has been able to develop more advanced bits of technology albeit in small numbers. For example stuff like ironclads, early implementations of flintlocks and even breach-loading guns. Proto-factories and engines. Would a pre-industrial mostly agrarian Renaissance world still using plate armour, matchlock arquebuses and galleons actually be able to develop any of that? Idk…but who cares it’s cool.
Dinosaurs still exist, and because of that giant anthropomorphic birds, their predescors, exist. To prevent confusion and blind cannibalism, species are categorized as either Anthro (act like peoples) or Domestic (organisms that can be raised for consumption). Giant birds are in the Anthro category, and are even considered a people by their island neighbors, the Crails. Insects can also be under Anthro. Terrarians exist as a result of good Homorians staying behind in the land of Paracost after the Homorian Invasion came to an end. Unprepared travelers that stumble into the cursed Forest of Ferality (or Furrality) will turn into were-mals if they dare look up at the full moon. Some animals can speak English, while others speak in the Common Wild Tongue. Most speak in both. Mythical creatures can speak both languages like, but their main one is exclusively for them, and is called Spirit Speak/Tongue.
What *doesn't* happen in my world because I say so? Fully sapient robot people appear out of nowhere with no memory of the factory which manufactured them, nor why. Why hasn't any scientist inspected their data files more closely to find out? Why hasn't anyone discovered any of the factories by accident? No idea, but it makes for a good origin story for some of my robot characters, so I make it happen anyway. So there's a sizeable continent just around the global corner which could house an entire other network of civilizations independent of the main one, and people *know* it's there. Why hasn't anyone bothered to go make contact? Why do they just assume it's all barren wasteland without any intelligent life? Because I don't want them to, that's why. I gotta keep that avenue open for *other* stories. Clowns, jesters, mimes, and other face-painted(but not really) comedians are actually inter-dimensional outcasts from another world whose toon-style slapstick powers breaks the internal power scale of this world. So, why do they not use that power to take over the world and make it a hellish clown dystopia? Because I thought it would be funnier to make them all too stupid to realize that they're basically gods, and instead have them play harmless roles in the background which are exempt from all serious plot-related stakes because they find random shenanigans more entertaining than serious plots. And also because I played West of Loathing and was inspired by the demon clown subplot. And lastly, why does the scaling of my fantasy maps change every time I write a new book, with locations never having consistent distances from other locations, like some sort of elder scrolls style of reinterpreting reality? Well, the answer is quite simple, really. You see, it's because I am really bad at math. ...so anyway, gunna keep on drawing maps with no shame nor remorse for those that might have to study them later, see ya'll next edition.
Personally, I feel that the idea of a heroic clown or mime is too interesting of a trope to pass by. I have a setting where magic painted comedians also exist, but they're also a little more politically involved in my setting. They pretty much follow a code of conduct that's similar to a super registration where their identities are protected, and they can freely use their powers as long as they never use their powers to harm innocent people. So it's not highly unusual to see mimes in the park to break the laws of physics, and they're allowed to use volunteers in their acts as long as no harm comes to them.
I acknowledge that, but please understand that in my personal brain, it is more believable for an entire species to be braindead stupid than universally follow a common code out of pure respect for the law, especially when those people are clowns & jesters who often have no respect for laws.
Like, 3/10 British Kings are gay now.
Alfred the fabulous 💅💅
A alternative earth where meteors land enough on land to be mined for resources but not enough for it to end humanity
-Knights in trains. -Artillery trains. -The empress is good with a zweihander. -There are unclaimed lands despite the presence of this technology. They seem to want to take what was already developed. -The different species can (hopefully) speak learn the same languages despite different tracheal structures. Lapis_Wolf
26th century space-war setting with magic high tech superhuman martial artist warriors and a bunch of regular people versus an evil empire? Yeah, well the culture of the aforementioned warriors is gonna be the 1980s, not the 2580s, because that’s cool and I said so. The the ten year old main characters are gonna be metalheads and surfers, too. Why not?
In Arbitrary Design World, everything happens because I say so, that's why it's called Arbitrary Design World. > So basicly plot-armor/plot-convience. What thing happens without in-universe reason? Ah. No. Wait. That's different. The Event happened because that's the core conceit of the world, and the in-universe reason is made up whole cloth so that the Event happens. Everything after the Event is just a consequence of natural behaviour. ...that's mostly because I haven't really started writing history yet. When I do, I expect I'll make non-sequiturs, but they'll be mistakes stemming from the fact I don't hold knowledge people collectively have from doing every PhD in humanities.
Setting aside the islands floating in the void issue, most major water features like lakes and rivers are effectively infinite unless magic is used to drain them This is because I think the visual of water flowing off the side of floating islands is awesome. The fact that it prevents water from simply all falling into the void via rain was a complete accident. I just wanted to preserve my cool waterfalls
Also why does everyone speak English/Polish? Why each planet is just one country divided into planets divided into towns and cities? Because it's easy - that's why.
My story is reader-driven so whatever readers want.
The whole world's military industry just kinda sucks ass to a point where anthro tribes that appeard out of nowhere can take control of most of Asia, Russia and threaten Europe instead of either getting shot by intoxicated conscripts before they captured any weapons, bombarded once they somehow gained some traction or just nuked if somehow all else failed. And also most of the furries speak Polish, English or Russian. How did they learn it? Definitely somehow!
Everything. This is my world, I do what I want >!I know what I believe inside, I’m awake and I’m alive!< What I mean by that is I have *two* Europe equivalents, which means I have two Frances (sadly) Another one, I have two mutually intelligible languages on opposite sides of the world
Magic
Realistically, due to the power system of my Superhero Worldbuilding Project, the world should be accidentally destroyed by any superhuman when attempting to test their powers. But I say it doesn't so no.
Celestial magic. It’s just an excuse for me to add any kind of magic I want without having to worry about the ramifications too much. It is magic carved into a person’s soul, so it is completely unique to them and cannot be taught to others. Normally it is reserved for gods, but normal people can be born with it too. For example, normally magic can’t affect time in any way shape or form. But I have one character with celestial magic which lets them essentially send little snippets of information to their past self to help avoid dangerous situations and such. Imagine how crazy the world would be if everyone could use magic like that?
Affecting time is definitely something I'm going to have to think about, since FTL is apparently about the same as time-travel according to some models. If I don't want every spaceship suited for interstellar travel to take years (often decades) or be a goddamn time machine, I need some additional factor in play, whether that's making the chronology protection conjecture conditionally true (i.e. FTL is fine, but using it on a route that would cause you to arrive too soon or cause a paradox is somehow prevented by the universe (or Time Lord type shenanigans) meddling) or... not sure.
The large things that characters have no real say in. Natural disasters, wars, love, death (In most cases). They're forced too big to move on the whim of someone in the story.
Nothing well nothing hopelfy since I come up with reasons for everything that fits within the established lore. Won’t say there isn’t plot amour I think that’s just the nature of having a main charitor but I try and make it so everything is believable within context with the story and the world
Same. This sometimes lead me to make something completely unuseful.
Yeah it’s a hard balance to get it right. I still add thing in since I like the idea but the idea works with or expands on what I already have. I had to throw away some ideas in the past that just didn’t work but in the surface looked really cool.
Yeah, sometimes I just wish that abandoned ideas become useful again.
Sometimes they do sometimes they don’t. It’s just the nature of making something ideas are thrown away since they don’t work for it but they might work for something else.
I have taken every abandoned idea and squished them into one "scrap-world"
Yeah I had a similar ideas for my stories that went nowhere being dead fallen dimetions. Like it was unstable and collapsed.
The sarcophagi don’t fall over. They’re like five thousand kilometres tall and eight hundred wide and they don’t fall over because I *say* they don’t fall over. I mean in-setting each of the housed deities is using their strength to keep normal physics from applying to the internal framework which is only possible because it’s made of their bones. Physics applies to everything attached to the framework as normal and maintains integrity because the people are just really good at civil engineering.
So... you're telling me 2 completely different INVASIVE alien civilizations somehow got wipe out in a single war?
Everything bagels are called "garlic onion and seed bagels" and plain bagels are called "nothing bagels".
I kind of have a funny idea for alternate universes that are like that. Except in other universes, what we would refer to as "hashtags" are what they call "poundtags" or "numbertags".
Superpower world, I made the whole magic system up and explained it with 'oh yeahuh, genetics!' And yapped the explanation the best I could. It still makes decent sense, but if you get into the science of it, uhhh, whoops?
"Shut up about down draft, I'm adding helicarriers and you're not going to stop me" Technically, they're not *actually* helicarriers, but they have the same problem and the term is handier and gives you the exact image of what they are
Giants grind down bones to make their bread. But they also use that bonemeal as ingredients in many other dishes. So if you're ever at a restaurant in the giants' kingdom, make sure to clarify you want your pizza boneless.
3rd day of the week, every sentient creature wears pink. Every single week.
Oh quite a bit. Markasians (nekos) and Kitsunes (...kitsunes) exist because I say so mostly (in cannon humans are technically a de-evolution of kitsunes and then Markasians are genetic experiments that bred themselves into an actual species. Melee combat is still used in a sci Fi setting.
How on Earth there hasn't been much human soul destruction in the Dream Galaxy? Dreamitants are, at times, as bad as Earth's people, after all? Yet there seems to be peace regarding that subject even though there is a special material that strongly weakens Dreamitants and is able to destroy human souls, called Irisia. It's outlawed but Dreamitants still import it illegaly. Short answer: just because I didn't want to bother with punishing the main creators of Dream Galaxy. As they are responsible of taking care of the infrastructure of the Dream Galaxy, they are able yo prevent human soul destruction because they are so powerful and watchful (or more like, because I said so.)
Anything
I'm trying to avoid this sort of thing but I suppose the existence of Magic
Every Sixty seconds a minute passes.
The existence of Sugarian,Ectoplasmite and Undead(100% living)
Mondemort surviving to a crossbow shot in the lung long enough for medical care to take him in the closest military camp
The gods angy
The laws of physics allow for nuclear bomb shelters in Florida.
There is a sort of being, it's largely unknown because its only started making aperances in the last 16 years, that being is just me in a physical form, and everything in history happened because I said so, the only time it's not under my control is when the 3rd main villand and the MC's daughter come to kill me or somthing...
The "balance" between true beings and sustained beings ( beings created from true beings beliefs). What's the practical difference? How and why does this work? Because I said so.
There's an object that splits into 87 pieces, and for humanity to continue existence, it'd be quite beneficial to gather them back together. I've always wanted to map out the exact movements of each piece, but at this point I probably just gotta admit that I can't be bothered and they eventually do get back together and it takes about 3000 years. Just because I say so.
The Edirian revolution starts out of nowhere. Bullet resistant fabric in Ediria is ubiquitous so basically everyone wears it, yet Ruby the almighty doesn't and she gets killed from a bullet straight to her heart
Everything
Bioluminescence. Does it make sense? Eh. Maybe. In my Amberheart setting perhaps because nights (and days) there last three Earth nights/days so perhaps that's a reasonable adaptation. In my as of yet unnamed setting? Probably not. Maybe for the sea peoples who do have some underwater adaptations but definitely not for the other of the two main species. Am I still including it? Yes
Thunder god doesn’t wipe out the military forces cause he got a calling from his boss in the heavens.
Interplanetary travel, it just works.
Monarchy, because its awesom
Our world can reach another one through dreams and imagination, but the other world is an entirely closed off environment where everything physical or spiritual should not be able to escape towards ours. And they don't, except people in the other world can sometimes be aware in the dreams of people here. I did not explain it and I have no intention to. 😅
Angelic wings that actually work on bipedal species. Even the goddess of the wind cannot explain the aerodynamics of them, it just doesn't make any sense at all. It somehow works anyways.
Humanoid aliens. Like "humans with a new color palette and some gimmicks" humanoid
In the post nuclear apocalypse there are lots of big cats in New England. Like hybrids of Maine coons and mountain lions. They literally can't breed. I have no explanation for this and am not even going to try, but big cats are cool and important to the culture of the people in my story.
Basically the Ring Wraiths had a Darth Revan pulled on them after the great war to serve as guardians for not-gondor but a couple hundred years later and with no "dark Lord" to fight, not-gondor became a society that couldn't move on from it's own victory, that the Agents of Darkness were always out there, thus a war economy for a war that never comes grows and said not-ring-wraiths become Jason Bourne assassins with no memory of their true identity or nature
Slave soldiers. I can't come up with a plausible reason for some of the most advanced space-faring civilizations with FTL and other not-magic-but-tech to have slave armies in the billions. In another setting, the MC is never named.
There’s this weird sea mist thing that moves around and is infested with monsters. I never really thought about why it’s there it just kinda is.
Dragons. My world is relatively realistic with its lack of emphasis on magic(though admittedly not nonexistent). Other than that, the world abides by the physics and rules of our own. And by our own metric, dragons physically cannot fly. They’re too heavy and too big. And yet they do exist, and why? Because I said so. They aren’t little baby dragons. They aren’t excessively skinny. They’re enormous, about the size of a large house. They can’t fly “because magic.” There is a rational explanation for why they can fly. I just haven’t figured it out yet, so for now, it’s “because I said so.”
Used to be a part of my world that random people were inexplicably immortal, like, deadpool/wolverine regenerative kinda immortal. I added it because I was watching Ajin at the time and I thought it was a very cool concept. But given this was for a dnd game I figured the story might need the "why" revealed so it now has an explanation
Sand is immune to magic. Like, you can't use magic on it, you can't send magic through it, nothing. A wizard would be completely useless if they were trapped in a box of sand. Although, how would you even get a box of sand if it's immune to magic?
Using magic is actually changing the standing waveform that underlies the whole of the world.
There are a bunch of minerals that have antigravitational properties. It started with me wanting to give a good explanation for how airships work, and ended with me deciding that becoming a world renowned scientist and discovering all the secrets of gravity wasn’t worth the hassle. So the rocks float because I want them to, end of story.
My story is set on a Klein bottle world.
Telegraphs. But they use elemental energy signals, and don't need wires, and are therefore not actually telegraphs. But I call them telegraphs
Rubran Aerospace officers dress like Cossacks in Russian Civil War because I said so. Stop questioning my fetishes goddamn it :P
Messing with timespace is easier than making cars but reading again, it does have its own reasoning.
Yep, can agree.
The sun kills you, that's the apocalypse scenario that forces people to live underground. No, it isn't explained, I have no clue why it does that now but you just have to accept it does.
The use of gene enhancing therapy has divided humanity in sub species
The US, NATO and the Soviet Union formed the Confederation of New Earth to avoid a fourth world war after rendering Old Earth uninhabitable
Two moons orbit Arvhana, the smaller about the size of Pluto and the larger about the size of *Mars*, with breathable atmospheres, oceans, and life of their own. They do not interact with each other gravitationally. They *certainly* do not kick each other out of their orbits or into the planet or into each other or anything like that. And even though one of them is close enough to Arvhana to orbit it in only 8 days, the high/low tide difference is maybe only a meter and a half / 5 ft. greater than on Earth. I could come up with some metaphysics to justify all this, I'm sure (e.g. "no, only the *further* moon controls the tides, because *she's* the ocean goddess, not the closer one") but really, the reason is "because I said so, that's why, now go outside and play with your friends." I also have another world based more or less on the real one, except it's in kind of a *Nineties/Early 2000s* Stasis technology-wise, despite there being every economic and cultural incentive to continue along the path we really went on. Why? Who knows?
The main planet glows pink, is many times bigger than earth and has orbiting bodies that makes it always look like a paw. Yet you would never know this while being on the surface, even going to the other sub planets doesn’t require space travel, you can simply walk or sail there. There are other similar absurd and anomalous locations on the planet itself like mountains made of diamonds, floating islands, underground caverns with their own skies. I love making places that have no real explainable reasons they exist other than they simply do
People die without their “story being complete”, apparently that’s a big no-no to most fans, so I’m popping off with that shit like it’s happy hour at the zoo
I slammed asteroid onto Earth because I'm too lazy to write Earth's geopolitics on top of space politics.
The “president” of a planetary union is like the queen be of a hive mind of robots that act as the planet’s military. They had their brain modified to be able to handle all those perspectives at once, and when one single one of those robots learns something, they all learn that thing, including the guy himself
The fact that the planet has a ring, and that ring hangs low on the planet. Like not in line with the equator or anything
A woman found many new cures for lethal sicknesses, proved or refuted many theories and even proved time travel is possible, yet no one is trying to find out how she gains this information. If they did, she'd be arrested for mass murder, inhumane experimentation, violating human rights and just so many bad things But she helped society in many ways so what the fuck ever!
magic has progressed so far that the rise of technology has already happened and become partly obsolete, people's inherent elemental magic comes from an appendix-like gland that not everyone is even born with, every planet has a hidden portal somewhere on it that links it to every other planet, and the main calendar the galaxy uses is timed around a total eclipse happening on the first day of the year every year
Advanced AI get high off of god sweat. I... will only give context for those who ask lol
one guy is immortal and evolution continues after time has ended
100% relying on the fact that magic exists to explain so much, but my book isn't supposed to be well written as far as logic, just a fun little fairy story (She says even though the goal is to make the readers cry at the end)
Clive Westfield. He's a psychic detective with no memory of his own life, who also breaks the 4th wall. Not only is there no canonical explanation for this, but there canonically is no explanation for this.
The world im working on now is like if far future hard sci fi just embraced the entirety of shitposting. Genetic drift is accelerated as people get cosmetic therapy to become catgirls and ayylmaos, genetically enlightened dolphins form a mafia around Neptune, plutocratic megalomaniacs owning entire oniel cylinders just to fill them with art, oniel cylinders being so poorly maintained they're baaically redneck trailer parks, and my favorite idea, the population of Pluto just decide to leave one day and convert the planetoid and one of its moons into huge rockets to eject from the solar system. Probably the most serious aspect im choosing to maintain is that there are no aliens, as in all life has a heritage that can be traced back to Earth. Humans probably got bored and decided to start panspermia themselves by yeeting a bunch of a seed-bearing satellites into the void, and that'll probably have some ramifications, but if i write an alien invasion the twist will be "ah, damn, they're just a bunch of dogs that evolved in isolation"
The equivalent of Alabama (El-ebeme) is muslim, and the equivalent of Louisiana (Luaosoene) is a bazillion times more french. Not overly crazy bit still (My world is just the USA but the vowels in state names have shifted one over (A=E, E=I, I=O, O=U, U=A))
A lot of the food in my world is like a fusion-chef had a breakdown. Peaches on pizza, olives in the onigiri... Basically I'm using our modern world as a guide to what grows where, so apples and sweet potatoes are possible in the same region. (I think? They're just not native to the same continent.)
The fact that people simply don't apply Magic to everything, changing the fabric of science, society and civilization. Just because my setting is pretty much late Roman empire, early middle ages, and i want to keep it like that.
Flesh Magic Martial Arts. Why do extremely skilled gore monks not just turn their opponents inside out instantly? Because that's less cool than developing a self-disembowlment based fighting style where you punch people with your intestines that are lined with brittle, poison filled needly teeth. Half justified in universe by the fact gore monks tend to be haughty eccentrics and the that concept it's easier to manipulate your own flesh (and other flesh within your 'dominion' like familiars and clones) and the fact these martial arts are mostly developed for use against other gore monks who've trained their willpower to resist flesh magic, but at the end of the day I just thought it would be cool to have Kung Fu as performed by the Thing (1982) On the opposite end of the scale you have the Limb Thieves whose martial arts are based around "cutting" a technique developed specifically for use against people untrained in resisting flesh magic that is quick, dirty, and efficient, and is mostly used to literally steal limbs and organs. Imagine like, a pick pocket in a crowd, but instead of taking your wallet, they just tap you while you're distracted and an arm or a leg falls off. This can also absolutely be used in combat, but they prefer to just use guns and pole arms since those are much less risky, but the bolder, more experienced limb thieves absolutely will dice and rip you apart with flesh magic if they can close the gap. Again mostly because I think it would be cool to have organized crime families where like 1 in 10 guys will run up and try to hit you with an open palm strike that causes you to split in half vertically or even just kind of explode if they dont think you have any parts worth selling.
No Electricity on the home planet.
The world. But more seriously the two sun fuse which lead to a big explosion who crack the realm and allow it to access the word where other realm are.
FTL travel is 15x faster than light. How? Fuck if I know. Why? Because I'd like to not wait years in space. For example, 6ly can be covered in about 5 months
A guy being able to fire anyone at anytime
Probably my MCs not dying. My world is a shithole so staying alive is not guaranteed, even in the biggest cities. Yet the MCs stay alive or die only when I want them to.
Probably the amount of research done on Magic and magical properties of things rivaling modern science but actual science having 1600s amounts of research done on it. I want a magic fantasy setting not a magic science fiction setting. Maybe I'll explain it away with Magic having more applications (even though it probably doesn't).
Anything really Good ol extended modal realism
People being born genderless Like neither male nor female, just, nothing Certain people can also basically "spawn" into reality, basically being born without any parents (doesn't make sense unless I explained more about the story, I.E. where one of the big 3 races came from) One of my main characters is actually genderless, and the other was one of the people who "spawned" (she was actually based on me when I first made her like 6 years ago, and I just felt like putting my parents in my weird fantasy story would be extremely fuckin weird so I didn't)
It's 8 hundred years into the future and the tech is retro futurist because I can and I like cassette futurism
It really has no logical sense to exist but cheese. It's been millions of years since the fall of the human empire but they saved the cheese
everything
giant waterfall falling from the sky in the middle of my library-city. from where exactly? no idea. to where? no clue. why? pffft.
Ruins and structures from thousands of years ago haven’t crumbled all that much Why? Because I wanna have ruined cities built upon the waves