Also, I concur with Mach that that is a really cool idea. (Incidentally, I had a vaguely similar idea about analogue/mechanical computing in magical languages where words are so potent with meaning that they can only be rendered in three dimensional symbols or matrices, but I think I'm going to use that elsewhere?)
Now I'm kind of picturing like, a nation, or maybe several, that exist mostly on fleets of massive fortress-boats (also something that needs a better name).
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
The character is the most complicated and largest character in the Chinese language, used only to refer to the belt-like noodle variant in the Shaanxi province. I prefer calling it "noodles" rather than "dumpling," although there is overlap between the two.
It contains other character components that mean "long," "horse", "heart," "boat," "moon," "roof," and "reading," among others I can't remember. And that's like, how we do things. Lots of characters are made of multiple other characters, some that refer to its meaning and some to refer to its phonetic pronounciation.
This concept for a "punch card", has them composed of a single, very complex word. The writing starts on the outside at the command's most general, and becomes more specific as it spirals inward. Maybe the centre point could have some kind of significance too.
Picturing like, cannon operators swapping these in and out of targeting computers rapidly during the heat of battle and such.
Now I'm thinking of competing, equally valid magic systems with their own drawbacks. Like, the card system is more predictable but less efficient, but there are other, less trusted means that are quicker but significantly less precise and therefore more dangerous in military application, perhaps emerging out of certain folk practices.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Jane, actually. Each character can only do one thing, but what is this one thing, exactly? What counts as one thing? Activation of a routine? Is "aim" a command? Is "fire" one command?
I've always liked the idea of spider engineers. Can I propose a race of individuals who excel at architecture and manufacture? They're able to climb all over structures without worrying about things like scaffolding and whatnot. Most of their structures are designed to be a bit extra grippy compared to others so that it's easier to climb around on. They are very much inner city denizens. Also, eight legs and whatnot, with dextrous hand-like clawed appendages.
Very steampunk, lots of hydraulics in their designs, since spider legs are actually powered by biological hydraulics and I've always thought their creations would mimic that.
It's not exactly going along with the asian theme, but the culture and designs made could fit in with that depending on how it's worked into everything.
Alright, so this kind of punch-card magic computer idea is very cool. I dig it.
As for how to keep this diverse while still being able to stick to an Asia theme, what if the cultures that have had the most prolific effects upon the world culturally were most similar to various Asian nations, much how European culture has had a broad reach on our own Earth. So like let's say that there's some kind of trade-imperialism that's either part of the present day or relatively recent past (last 60-80 years) that led to our nautical theme, and these trade Empires ran out of the continent that resembles our Asia, with a large focus on Southern China, Indonesia, India, Japan, and other coastal countries.
And these strange planes of existence that someone brought up might have necessitated the clockwork/magical instruments to navigate in and out of reliably, and perhaps they only appear at sea, rather than on land.
So naturally you have people devoted to studying these anomalous planes, which would create a culture of magical academia, and thus Vancian-style wizards.
Alright, so this kind of punch-card magic computer idea is very cool. I dig it.
As for how to keep this diverse while still being able to stick to an Asia theme, what if the cultures that have had the most prolific effects upon the world culturally were most similar to various Asian nations, much how European culture has had a broad reach on our own Earth. So like let's say that there's some kind of trade-imperialism that's either part of the present day or relatively recent past (last 60-80 years) that led to our nautical theme, and these trade Empires ran out of the continent that resembles our Asia, with a large focus on Southern China, Indonesia, India, Japan, and other coastal countries.
And these strange planes of existence that someone brought up might have necessitated the clockwork/magical instruments to navigate in and out of reliably, and perhaps they only appear at sea, rather than on land.
So naturally you have people devoted to studying these anomalous planes, which would create a culture of magical academia, and thus Vancian-style wizards.
this is a good
sorry, friends came over. are over. will come update thread tomorrow. wrist hurts. okay i have a bruise that's why it hurts anyway gonna update this tomorrow byyyYYE keep the ideas coming.
like i said before don't be afraid to suggest things that don't mesh with other ideas. ow ok i need to not touch this bruise gosh golly ok um yeah don't feel compelled to think of something that fits the asian setting necessarily ya feel
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
So this is from Shinkenger.
They're a group of samurai, each from a different noble family, that use their attunement to the elements to invoke their Chinese character-based magic against the Gedoshu, Buddhist demons from the River Styx. From left to right, that's 'Sky', 'Wood', 'Fire', 'Water', 'Earth'.
That character is clearly 'Fire', but with two smaller 'Fire' characters sprouting from the side. Not really how we do things, but I like it.
This is more like how we do things. This is the Sealing Word.
I have like one big idea but I'd hate to just drop in and DEMAND people take this one thing into consideration and then leave without doing anything further
Anyway my idea relates back to the world's origin, idk if you guys will like it at all, gonna write it in an in universe format cause it feels appropriate
"There was a time before magic, but that time no longer matters. When the plane of magic first intersected with the mortal plane, its bounty was seized by the Few- the most powerful, the most selfish, the most ambitious, who fell to fighting amongst themselves and razed the earth, leaving few survivors. Of those, one hundred were elected as seers, who had devised a method to disperse their combined consciousness through the magical plane, and provide its power only to the needy and the responsible. They never sealed off the plane, and many acclaimed moral philosophers and great heroes have since joined them, to form a more complete consensus on who may be given the power.
Those granted power by this Ephemeral Order had it bound unto a Totem, and would have revealed to them a unique personal Sigil to represent their own form and style of magic.
But not all magic is granted by permission, and the will of the Ephemeral Order can be overpowered."
I put the punch card system under 'Clockwork + magic technology'. Also, octal is cool. Fun(?) fact: apparently the Na'vi in Avatar use an octal numeral system.
Also, @MachSpeed mentioned Indivisible earlier in the thread. One thing I really like about Indivisible is that it takes aspects from a wide variety of cultures that don't normally get a lot of spotlight. So y'know, there's falconry, there's tibetan sandpainting, there's a mesoamerican ball game that can be played either recreationally or ritually (...often featuring human sacrifice, because of course). Little things like that are cool to me.
I was thinking about a race of sentient, non-anthro octopodes that live deep beneath the surface. They communicate in a language of tentacle gestures and color patterns, since talking is kind of hard underwater.
Surface contact is limited because it's hard to talk to something that both can't speak and lives 20,000 leagues below you most of the time. Sometimes the octopodes sic sea monsters (namely colossal octopi, because duh) on surface ships, and as a result there are some sea zones generally considered unsafe to travel.
Also I would like the ephemeral totem thing to not apply to everyone universally, because I still want me folk magic.
Okay, so what if Sigil magic is mainly used in more urban/civilized environments and further away more people use it without being granted to them?
Or what if there are two ways to derive magic, say, mysticism and evoking, the latter requiring either authorization from the Emphemeral Order or being taken by force and is the more structured, orderly form and the former being more unpredictable and being derived from a sort of "inner magic" rather than the magical force that exists in the environment
Sound actually travels better in water than air, babe.
I think that the only creatures that communicate via sound underwater are mammals, since most actual sea creatures don't have vocal cords due to their reliance on air. So it still makes sense for octopodes to have developed language that focuses on their natural abilities, such as tentacle-waving and colour changes. You could incorporate some beak clicking, but it would be hard for their to develop full speech without a lot of changes.
Also I would like the ephemeral totem thing to not apply to everyone universally, because I still want me folk magic.
Okay, so what if Sigil magic is mainly used in more urban/civilized environments and further away more people use it without being granted to them?
Or what if there are two ways to derive magic, say, mysticism and evoking, the latter requiring either authorization from the Emphemeral Order or being taken by force and is the more structured, orderly form and the former being more unpredictable and being derived from a sort of "inner magic" rather than the magical force that exists in the environment
how does that impact the people using the magic though?
because your system creates a setting where this council has implied domain over the entire world. Which isn't inherently a problem but, I don't know, I just prefer less structure unless we're talking about the punchcard thing.
I think it would be better if the order had dominion over only one method of magic and there were others outside of it. Others that are probably illegal in some places mind, but others nonetheless.
Why oh why was this thread made when I was asleep?
I'd like to contribute the idea of a religion with competing gods and a very, very extensive celestial bureaucracy
can you elaborate on this
A. The gods are powered by the prayers/faith of sentient beings. No prayers means they can't function in the material plane.
B. There are a lot of gods. Lots and lots and lots of 'em. Just a ton of the jerks. So there's never enough prayers for everydeity, leading to a lot of crazy god plans and bargaining to get more faith.
C. In order to keep the power they've got, the really powerful and well-known gods have a hierarchy and rules system set in place that protects both mankind and the powerful deities. No direct attacks against another god's followers, no mass killing of humans, stuff like that. The laws aren't magically enforced, so gods secretly break them all the time, but anydeity caught breaking them loses all protection from the rules.
Why oh why was this thread made when I was asleep?
I'd like to contribute the idea of a religion with competing gods and a very, very extensive celestial bureaucracy
can you elaborate on this
A. The gods are powered by the prayers/faith of sentient beings. No prayers means they can't function in the material plane.
B. There are a lot of gods. Lots and lots and lots of 'em. Just a ton of the jerks. So there's never enough prayers for everydeity, leading to a lot of crazy god plans and bargaining to get more faith.
C. In order to keep the power they've got, the really powerful and well-known gods have a hierarchy and rules system set in place that protects both mankind and the powerful deities. No direct attacks against another god's followers, no mass killing of humans, stuff like that. The laws aren't magically enforced, so gods secretly break them all the time, but anydeity caught breaking them loses all protection from the rules.
this def reminds me of the plot for a touhou game but i can't put my finger on which one. this is good tho
Also, I imagine that with Kexruct's magic system, those granted magic by the order would have an elevated status in society in comparison to other magic users. Like, I imagine magic given by the order is magic that you can *only* learn through the order, while other types of magic can be self-taught. I feel like the order and the gods should be connected in some way, whether they are the gods themselves, devoted followers, or rivals of a sort.
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
also i like the base-12 idea and think we should do more with it, like maybe it's actually the preferred numeric base in some major global powers?
"There was a time before magic, but that time no longer matters. When the plane of magic first intersected with the mortal plane, its bounty was seized by the Few- the most powerful, the most selfish, the most ambitious, who fell to fighting amongst themselves and razed the earth, leaving few survivors. Of those, one hundred were elected as seers, who had devised a method to disperse their combined consciousness through the magical plane, and provide its power only to the needy and the responsible. They never sealed off the plane, and many acclaimed moral philosophers and great heroes have since joined them, to form a more complete consensus on who may be given the power.
Those granted power by this Ephemeral Order had it bound unto a Totem, and would have revealed to them a unique personal Sigil to represent their own form and style of magic.
But not all magic is granted by permission, and the will of the Ephemeral Order can be overpowered."
while i'm thinking about numeric bases, what if spider people use octal?
Surface contact is limited because it's hard to talk to something that both can't speak and lives 20,000 leagues below you most of the time. Sometimes the octopodes sic sea monsters (namely colossal octopi, because duh) on surface ships, and as a result there are some sea zones generally considered unsafe to travel.
Or what if there are two ways to derive magic, say, mysticism and evoking, the latter requiring either authorization from the Emphemeral Order or being taken by force and is the more structured, orderly form and the former being more unpredictable and being derived from a sort of "inner magic" rather than the magical force that exists in the environment
I think it would be better if the order had dominion over only one method of magic and there were others outside of it. Others that are probably illegal in some places mind, but others nonetheless.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead