Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

For 'verse proposals, random ideas, musings, and brainwaves.

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Shroom Man 777
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I really like this! I think your nektas should look like flying metroids, jellyfishlike rather than serpentine!

Like THIS! and all glowing from whatever magnetic stuff goes on in their organoids!

It'd be cool and ridiculous! Imagine cowboys riding those things, chasing rhinodons! Then when the cowboy is tired of this shit, he hops up and places his feet on the nekta's back, riding it like a surfboard! Haha!

If they hover and have air sacs, yeah, they'd be better off as weirdo blobby balloon things rather than serpentines or draconics. Since they sound unlike any vertebrate I've ever heard off!

Surf's up!
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

The image that popped into my head was basically a rigid, serpentine body with an equine head and a pair of large gas bladders, one on either side so they look a bit like organic fuel tanks. Not sure where the rider would sit, either at the front of the fuel tanks with his legs over the front, either side of the neck, or in the middle of the back with his legs crossed, or possibly sitting in some kind of elaborate chair-saddle.

Anyway, that is a nice and nicely comprehensive idea.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Somes J »

Another idea that I found interesting was a civilization that had developed in a world where there was abundant archaeological evidence of an earlier, advanced civilization. There are two scenarios I'm playing around with in my head for this.

One is to have a pre-human hominid that developed an advanced civilization tens of thousands of years ago, and the civilization then destroyed itself. Sort of like in the original drafts of my Omniverse One universe, but this time instead of trying to find ways that it can stay undetected to us I take the fact that archaeological evidence should be everywhere and run with it.

I imagine the first diversion from OTL would be that old plastics from the dead civilization might become a precious material to ancient human civilizations. They're durable, untarnishable, exotic, rare, and often shiny. More interesting things would start to happen when formal archaeology and paleontology emerged.

By 1900 I think we'd know that somebody else had lived on the Earth before us. There would be plastic and ceramic remains everywhere (the stuff preserves very well), and general buried stuff, and stuff like open-pit mines and road cuts that would be readily recognizable as artificial. I find it rather interesting to imagine how this would influence twentieth century history.

For instance, how would the politics of the Cold War be influenced by knowing somebody else already crawled out of the caves only to blow themselves up before?

You'd probably have people trying to reverse-engineer some of the advanced relics. Technology might advance faster.

The space race might be different too, as if the hominids made it out into space the best preserved relics would be there. I can totally envision a hyped-up space race with the US and USSR sending out expeditions all over the solar system to try to find intact relic tech that could be reverse engineered.

The other possibility I can think of is along those lines, except that WE are the lost civilization. I got this idea from reading The World Without Us, where it had a little paragraph that mentioned the possibility that if we disappeared the same evolutionary pressures that originally produced us (the shrinking and expanding of the African rainforests with the ice ages) might drive chimps to follow the same evolutionary path.

So the idea would be that humans all die out, maybe from a disease or asteroid impact or something. As the ice ages come and go, as said above, the same evolutionary pressures that produced us start to work on chimps, pushing them along the same lines of development that we went. They leave the forest and live in the grasslands, develop upright walking, hairlessness, and big brains, and eventually over millions of years they evolve into something not unlike us. Eventually they begin to develop civilization and technology. Of course, they'd be living in a world in which the ruins of OUR civilization would be readily findable. Heck, Mount Rushmore might still be recognizable (due to the hard rock it's cut into) - it'd certainly be interesting to see what they make of it. You could then see their attempts to make sense of the remains of our civilization.

I'm thinking of maybe having the chimps in question be bonobos, as it'd be kind of interesting to have them have behavior that's in some ways quite alien to ours. I'm thinking that their family structures might evolve along very different lines from humans. They'd have little or no pair-bonding. Rather they have families based on common matrilineal descent; males don't raise their own children, but rather those of their sisters. The result is a lot of human culture would be very difficult to impossible for them to understand. Romeo and Juliet, for instance...

At some point I've totally got to 'ship a human to somebody from a society like that. The culture clash would be hilarious.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Artemis »

I think I like the second idea a lot more, just because it seems like it would give you more freedom to really explore how a species would grow up in the shadow of an elder race, without having to factor in human history in ways that might not fit. Also, I want to see what different evolutionary track you take these super-bonobos down!
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Mobius 1 »

I have, for the longest time, wanted to make Pokemon into a functioning, realistic (well, as possible) verse. A nice injection of grimdark would combat the whole goofy mask of 'hey we're essentially dogfighting', as well as, perhaps taking the route of Digimon and making the 'mons sentient. The Elite Four, for example, wouldn't just be bosses sitting in their chambers, but actually the prime oversight of an already highly regulated activity (if not the special operations law enforcement themselves, considering they're sitting on some truly potent forces of nature). Gym leaders would either be underground gang leaders or just district oversight to the Elite Four's national jurisdiction.

That would, of course, lead to Ubers (the fandom's pet name for the legendaries) being actual shaking forces in the world- in the practice of the game, they're built up wonderfully right up until you capture them and force them to do your bidding. Kinda ruins the whole 'sentient god' thing, doesn't it? You have some potentially great plotlines to set up, especially is you turn some conventions on their head. What if the legendary birds from Gold and Silver (Lugia and Ho-oh) were total dickwads? What if MewTwo, instead of becoming some silly bond villain from one of the horrible Pokemon movies, instead decided to go on a quest to find his true meaning - he is, after all, an artificial walking god (and pretty much the most powerful chump in-game).

Moreover, groups like Team Rocket and its ilk would be Serious Business cartels instead of goofy miniboss squads who traffic Pokemon. They actually have a level of danger to them and would control a good portion of the world. It's implied ingame, but the corruption of the government runs pretty damn deep (why else would Giovanni, of all people, get to become a Gym Leader?). Even if a good portion of this thought exercise is turning the good guys into bad guys and vice versa, Team Rocket would still be a bunch of dickwads.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Well that's an interesting concept. It implies that the idea keeps the sillyness which comes up in a lot of anime whereby some kind of sport is something of national political and economic importance. Not that I'm saying this is impossible, the phrase 'bread and circuses' doesn't have that second noun for nothing.

Oh, except this isn't just like any sport, of course, you're dealing with seriously dangerous creatures here, just imagine poke-terrorism; you could sneak a dozen huge monsters into a public place, get them out of their balls and in the time before you've finished saying "Gyarados, Solar Beam attack!" or whatever, and the time the police arrived hundreds would be dead!
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Mobius 1 »

speaker-to-trolls wrote:Oh, except this isn't just like any sport, of course, you're dealing with seriously dangerous creatures here, just imagine poke-terrorism; you could sneak a dozen huge monsters into a public place, get them out of their balls and in the time before you've finished saying "Gyarados, Solar Beam attack!" or whatever, and the time the police arrived hundreds would be dead!
Indeed, that was originally going to be the plot of the story I was running. A couple of the darker legendaries (why not? I don't see a better villain that a giant white bird-thing with blue spikes down its back) fund some poke-terrorism to reclaim the world, with the Elite Four having to team up with Team Rocket (obviously, the End of the World isn't a very good thing for business) to uncover the cells and head off the attacks. From this setting, I plot down two Regular Characters (tm) to enter the situation.

It's actually implied in the games Pokemon do serve some economic importance: perhaps the greatest example are the huge, muscular Machokes helping construct buildings, but the possibilities are endless. Imagine some Alakazam employed by the police department or a group of Muks being some major problem in the sewers. It won't take the place of technology in most areas, but a 'serious' Pokemon world would still be very different from our own.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

So, wait, does this make the Elite Four pretty much the overseers of all pokemon-related activities, or just those related to training and using them in combat?
You know you could have a lot of fun with this idea, since when you think about it the people of Pokemon World have a really outlandish society; 10 year olds heading off into the wilderness alone with control over monsters with magical powers, in order to capture more monsters for use in a magic-monster version of cockfighting?
It's nice when one realises what bizarre stuff kids tv comes up with.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Somes J »

I'm thinking of doing an alternate universe rewrite fic of the TNG episode The Last Outpost. I always thought the Ferengi might have actually made a somewhat interesting foil to Roddenberry's vision of the future as exemplified in the Federation, but the problem is he approached it completely hamhandedly, turning them into one-dimensional repulsive trolls. So, thinking about the ways the Ferengi might have been improved, I came up with this idea:

The general plot would be similar. The Enterprise is following a Ferengi vessel that was sneaking around/spying on Federation bases (maybe I'll even go with the explanation in the episode: they stole a power converter, probably to learn more about Federation technology). They track the Ferengi vessel to this craphole planet, but there they find themselves stuck there. They eventually figure out that it's not the Ferengi that are holding them there but stuff on the planet, and the planet is actually full of T'Kon ruins. This touches off more tension as that means it's full of possible valuable super-awesome paleo-technology that both sides will want and neither will want to see falling into "the wrong hands" (the other guy's). Each side sends away teams to the surface and the Ferengi capture the Federation people, but eventually they figure out they're better off cooperating to find a way to turn off the field that's trapped both ships.

The idea would be to present a foil to the "we no longer care about money, the desire to improve ourselves is now the driving force in our lives" vision of the Federation. To this extent, I think I'd run with the Yankee traders idea for Ferengi, and make them sort of like Space USA.

I think I'll ditch the short troll look and just make them look like humans. There's plenty of precedent for it in Trek, and it works with the idea that the Ferengi are sort of what humans might have been if they took a different path. They'd be interested in profit and acquisition, but not to the extent of charicature like they were in TNG. Think more along the line of 19th/early 20th century capitalists. They are as culturally and physically diverse as humans, and I want to convey this sense in the fic with the description of the crew. The set-up of the Ferengi's empire would be rather like 19th/early 20th century colonial powers on Earth: they're interested in exploiting the resources of other planets and colonizing them, regardless of whether they're inhabited or not, and if they're inhabited they'll buy off the natives with "trinkets" such as electricity, replicators, modern medicine etc. and eventually gradually assimilate them into their culture. The crew of the Ferengi vessel would include members of such subjugated races. One of them, for instance, is a member of telepathic species that they conquered just so they could exploit their telepathic abilities. The Ferengi government farms out exploitation of the galaxy's resources to huge megacorps (think the British East India Company) that control entire planets and are also responsible for exploration of the galaxy to look for more exploitable resources.

Ferengi tech would have a more primitive "modern" look, rather than the "futurey" look of Federation tech. The impression would be that it's simpler but sturdy. For instance instead of phasers they use simple slug-throwers. Weaker weapons, but the funky energy field on the planet doesn't disable them, which is how they capture the Federation team. Their away teams wear actual environment suits, whereas the Federation people have personal forcefields that protect them from the environment. Their officers wear something that looks more like what we'd recognize as a military uniform, as opposed to the pajama-like outfit worn by the Federation's Starfleet. Their ship has a cloaking device and also those subspace fields from The Wounded the prevent internal scans, emphasizing their more suspicious and militaristic nature.

One major change I'd make from the original episode is to actually have the Ferengi be able to score points in that little rhetorical showdown with Riker. Like the point about how messed up the Prime Directive is. In the episode it's brushed off, but it's actually very valid. In the fic I'd have them go harder on that angle - pointing out that even though they exploit primitives worlds in the process they immensely improve the natives' lives by giving them modern medicine and technology and putting a stop to wars (bad for business, after all). What's so benevolent about just leaving them to endure millenia of misery and barbarism again?

Sound good? I think I might start on it when I'm done with finals.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Magister Militum »

I certaintly like how you present the Ferengi, Somes. The Ferengi always had such potential as being a worthy adversary and counterpart to the supposedly morally superior Federation before they were morphed into the greedy and cowardly trolls that they became, and it appears that your fic will do a good job in rectifiying that. It'll be interesting to see what other changes you have in store for the Ferengi.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Well, I like the idea of the Ferengi as a kind of thematic opposite to the Federation; capitalist vs communist, exploitative vs isolationist, practical and suspicious vs hi-tech and optimistic ("you certainly seem very edgy for people who say they're so enthusiastic for contact" "commander, when you have spent half a year holed up in a city under siege by religious fanatics you prefer to be able to decide on the terms of contact"). I also like the idea of their parcelling out the galaxy to corporations, it reminds me of a similar idea I saw someone posit that the Ferengi you are likely to meet are the merchants, prospectors and company men who are out in the universe to make money, so even though these guys may be a big part of Ferengi society they are far from all of it, any more than the EIC was completely representative of Britain in the 1800s.

However, I'd just advise not to make them look like the good guys; You can make a fair point in that their appproach is no worse than the Federations, and possibly better, but to my mind there is a genuine argument over which is the best. After all if they really are anything like the East India Company, or yankee traders, or indeed modern day megacorporations then, yes, they may sell you electricity and modern medicine and transporters (damned if they'll give you too much access to replicators, though, enough to make lots of cheap metal and food, yes, but nothing too complicated), but I bet they'd also want to make sure they were the only ones selling it to you. And depending on how interested they are in the productivity of your planet they might not be bothered about selling you stuff that could absolutely wreck your society, provided you could pay for it, we all know what the EIC's most famous export to China was, after all. And wars bad for business? Well that very much depends on the specifics.
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by Somes J »

speaker-to-trolls wrote:However, I'd just advise not to make them look like the good guys; You can make a fair point in that their appproach is no worse than the Federations, and possibly better, but to my mind there is a genuine argument over which is the best. After all if they really are anything like the East India Company, or yankee traders, or indeed modern day megacorporations then, yes, they may sell you electricity and modern medicine and transporters (damned if they'll give you too much access to replicators, though, enough to make lots of cheap metal and food, yes, but nothing too complicated), but I bet they'd also want to make sure they were the only ones selling it to you. And depending on how interested they are in the productivity of your planet they might not be bothered about selling you stuff that could absolutely wreck your society, provided you could pay for it, we all know what the EIC's most famous export to China was, after all. And wars bad for business? Well that very much depends on the specifics.
Yeah, I wasn't thinking of making them the "good guys". It'd be black and grey morality (or maybe white and grey would be a better term - neither one is "evil", but they both have definite flaws). The Ferengi might improve the lives of people on the planets they dominate, but they'd fundamentally be in it for themselves and all their actions would reflect that.

Edit: and I absolutely am so totally stealing this line:
("you certainly seem very edgy for people who say they're so enthusiastic for contact" "commander, when you have spent half a year holed up in a city under siege by religious fanatics you prefer to be able to decide on the terms of contact"
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Re: Random Worldbuilding Ideas of Yours

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

I have an idea which is derived from wanting to do my won version of David Brins The Life Eaters(a short story where the Nazis get the Aesir to help them win WW2) and the Blue Oyster Cult song Veterans of the Psychic Wars. The idea is this, there are psychic 'planes', along which psychic energy can run from one mind to another, but we don't really notice because we basically have blocks placed along the human plane, preventing much information from getting to us from other humans. It's a tradeoff, you lose the potential for telepathy but you also lose vulnerability to other people killing you with their brain.

But there are other planes, used by other creatures. These creatures are a little like dark matter, we can't interact with them except by psychic contact, and then only when they establish link from their plane to ours. Detecting them is very difficult because you need to use psychic amplifiers (not entirely sure what form these would take), which would work by bouncing psychic energy from their plane into the mind of a senser. You could have passive and active sensors, so one that picks up the energy from passing extraplanars and bounces them back onto your psychic, and one that actually bounces your psychics energies into their plane, and the immediate response from them back to him.

Scanning is only the beginning, though. It's also possible to effect the minds of extraplanars in all sorts of ways if you know how, and it's very tricky to defend against this (though I won't say completely impossible). It's possible to communicate telepathically, to disturb peoples perceptions, memories and thought processes, it's even theoretically possible to control someone completely (though only a few extraplanars have the skills to do this, humans are too inexperienced and extraplanars to alien for them to reciprocate). This is where the Life Eaters paralell comes in, as I originally intended the first people to get extraplanar allies to be those wacky nazis. Unpleasantness of all kinds ensues as the Nazi war machine, supported by immaterial 'elves' maraud across Europe. Not really sure what happens after that.
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