Admiral Squish
2010-07-25, 06:11 PM
So, I have an idea that I think would make a truly epic world-building project, but as I am but one man with odd tastes, I thought that checking interest would be wise before I go off, reserve like six posts, and then get a grand total of one comment on it.
The basic idea is that the world of the time has been shaped massively by an ancient 'master' race of bio-mages and fleshwarpers. Medical science and magic came together as the master race shaped virtually every species on the surface of this world to their convenience, preparing a self-perpetuating system of changed beasts and warped men.
Some examples of things that occurred to me while pondering on this idea:
Agriculture:
The basic form of agriculture is a genetically enhanced form of rice that grows massive quantities of edible food. They grow from large, tangled nodes of roots, specially made to taste bitter (You'll see why), and they can continue to regrow almost indefinitely. The paddies are arranged in concentric loops hundreds of miles across that are staggered so one field will ripen within days of the previous one.
The system requires five animals.
Scytheboars (think Razor Boar, but slightly less crazy, and predatory)
Paddy Eels (Basically eels, but they nest in the root-tangles of the rice and have a lemming-like instinct described below)
Plowtusk (It looks vaguely like an elephant, but with an elongated lower jaw with a pair of flat tusks on the tip and a second set that goes down and curls forward like a hook, coming off the upper jaw)
Seedbeard (Sorta like an anteater/sloth thing. Very shaggy fur.)
Cropguard Lizards (Basically, mini-iguana that live in the rice fields and jump from stalk to stalk)
The process begins with the scytheboar. These boars come to a paddy and rampage through it, their tusks swinging back and forth, cleaving stalks. Their rampage stirs the paddy eels into a terror-fueled rush that culminates with them leaping, lemming-esque, on the paddy's banks to die out of water. The scytheboar eat the dead eels and continue back and forth through the paddy to scare up more of their meal, leaving the fallen stalks laying about. The eels have already laid their eggs by the time they scytheboar comes around, so the next generation remains assured. those that escape the scytheboar die soon afterward, of age, and rot to nourish the soil. Once a scytheboar is finished, he sleeps off the meal, periodically mating with the scytheboars of the other nearby rings. and proceeds to the next paddy. Once the scytheboar is finished, along comes the plowtusk. The plowtusk eats plants, tubers and roots specifically, that may grow in the paddies, but the rice's bitter roots make them unappetizing. The process of plowing it's lower jaw through the muck on the bottom is made difficult by the stalks laying around. So, the plowtusk's instincts tell it to first scoop up the stalks and deposit them onto the banks of the paddies. Then it gets one with it's meal, stirring up the soil for the next year's crop and weeding the field. Then the seedbeard follows the plowtusk, once the root-bundles have put up flowers. The seedbeard eats the eggs of the paddy eel, but it's appetite is low enough that only a fraction of the eggs are consumed. While feeding, It's shaggy body drags through the flowers and carries pollen from one to another, influencing the next year's seeds. Thereafter, the flower falls away and the true stalk arises. The Cropguard Lizards then move in. They eat insects and birds, anything that would feed off the crops, and live leaping from one to another for most of the year, gliding from one paddy to the next every few days. Their instinct prompts them to move along rather than fight when a new group of cropguard lizards moves into their paddy, causing a chain reaction. Every time a scytheboar gets a paddy, the lizards move on, and then the ones in that paddy move on, and so on and so forth.
A perfect cycle. All the intelligent creatures have to do is gather the piles of grain on the shores of the paddies.
Warfare:
Giant vermin, dire animals, and dinosaurs are all bred for battle. Where tanks and helicopters on a modern battlefield would be, there are dire bats or t-rexes in the fleshforged battlefield.
Dinosaurs are basically top-of-the-line models. Sturdier, with greater destructive capacity, they were designed from the ground up as opposed to dire beasts, which used the naturally-occurring animals and made them bigger and stronger. Battletitan and Judatitan (New idea, don't start looking for it, it's not there) dinosaurs are the greatest of them all, secrets of their creation as well-guarded as the creation of the stealth bomber.
Giant vermin are about a step below the dinosaurs in newness. While still working on the basis of a natural creature, the scaling problems were immense, but well worth it for the finished product. Some modified versions were made, including scorpion-based catapults and exploding giant bees, but they never saw widespread use.
Horrid and dire animals are the easiest to mass-produce, and so, make up the bulk of the forces.
These creatures are all directed by the 'common races' as riders, of course. It's infinitely simpler to simply give them riding instincts than to instill true intellect, and the common races can hardly rebel in the presence of the generals.
The generals of these amalgamated riding forces were the dragons. Strong, intelligent, resilient, mobile, and able to deliver concentrated blasts of devastation wherever it was needed most, these massive war-machines stuck terror into enemy forces. Each nation came up with their own versions, with their own themes on the dragon, but most remained true to the original design.
Common Races:
There are tasks for unskilled labor that simply cannot be simplified into animal minds without training. For these, the common races were created.
Humans: These were the basis, the template. They were easy to change, and their short lifespans and high birth rate allowed the master race to experiment with them the most. Humans were everywhere, but never were 'properly' specialized.
Elves: Elves are tree-tenders. They maintain the tall trees and the gardens of their masters, including the mobile plants that they create. The elves were most plentiful in the western forests and swamps, though some oversaw the order in the crop rings.
Dwarves: Dwarves are miners and builders, they made everything the master race couldn't grow. Eventually they were replaced in all but their mining efforts by the warforged. They were mostly in the northern mountains and tundra, more widespread when they were still used for building.
Warforged: The warforged were made from the ore the dwarven mines churned out, but proved themselves an extremely competent replacement for the stocky ones, able to work without breaks and even in the harshest of conditions. They edged out dwarves almost completely, and the humans were the competition. Warforged couldn't birth more, though, so their price tag was a tad steep for many.
Gnomes: Gnomes were the fine detail the dwarves missed. They were fine crafters and fixits. They also revealed an unexpected competence in alchemy and one in medical and surgical tasks, which could prove valuable to those interested into extending the use of their meat-machines. Their ability to speak with animals often made them extremely useful in the crop rings and on most other meatmachine operations.
Halflings: Halflings served a double function. They were merchants, first, traveling far and wide to sell the latest beasts and designs. In addition, they served as spies, though they were mostly neutral. Halflings were the only race that could have been considered 'independent' in the reign of the master race.
Orcs: Orcs were the enforcers. They were proud to serve the master race directly, and swiftly reprimanded any man or beast that stepped out of line.
Minor Illithid (Also a new idea): These thinkers served in the central cities as thinking computers. The elder brains were originally nonsentient, organic data storage, which developed intellect later.
Mass Production
Simple Explanation: Trolls.
More complex explanation: Seeking a easy way to arm their forces for battle,the master race made the trolls. May varieties with different purposes arose, but three were the most present and most widely-used.
Shellskin: These bone-plated trolls were covered in a layer of thick bony armor, which they could shed like an insect, leaving it mostly intact. Normally, these shells become brittle and useless quickly without the troll's natural oils moistening it, but if treated quickly with a special oil, it would seal perfectly and become a sturdy suit of bone fullplate.
Boneforge: These trolls bore a pair of bone-spurred 'wings' that could be torn off and treated to become lances. On one arm, the fingers formed into swords, while the other forearm was grotesquely elongated with a snakelike flexibility, able to be removed to form a deadly trollclaw whip. Finally, between their wings they grew bony plate that could be removed and formed into a heavy shield.
Flesh-harvest: These bloated trolls were used to harvest meat, able to regrow it nearly instantly as long as they were fed. They could also be used to harvest trollskin leather which could be made into either clothing or armor.
So, what do you think? Worth a proper thread?
The basic idea is that the world of the time has been shaped massively by an ancient 'master' race of bio-mages and fleshwarpers. Medical science and magic came together as the master race shaped virtually every species on the surface of this world to their convenience, preparing a self-perpetuating system of changed beasts and warped men.
Some examples of things that occurred to me while pondering on this idea:
Agriculture:
The basic form of agriculture is a genetically enhanced form of rice that grows massive quantities of edible food. They grow from large, tangled nodes of roots, specially made to taste bitter (You'll see why), and they can continue to regrow almost indefinitely. The paddies are arranged in concentric loops hundreds of miles across that are staggered so one field will ripen within days of the previous one.
The system requires five animals.
Scytheboars (think Razor Boar, but slightly less crazy, and predatory)
Paddy Eels (Basically eels, but they nest in the root-tangles of the rice and have a lemming-like instinct described below)
Plowtusk (It looks vaguely like an elephant, but with an elongated lower jaw with a pair of flat tusks on the tip and a second set that goes down and curls forward like a hook, coming off the upper jaw)
Seedbeard (Sorta like an anteater/sloth thing. Very shaggy fur.)
Cropguard Lizards (Basically, mini-iguana that live in the rice fields and jump from stalk to stalk)
The process begins with the scytheboar. These boars come to a paddy and rampage through it, their tusks swinging back and forth, cleaving stalks. Their rampage stirs the paddy eels into a terror-fueled rush that culminates with them leaping, lemming-esque, on the paddy's banks to die out of water. The scytheboar eat the dead eels and continue back and forth through the paddy to scare up more of their meal, leaving the fallen stalks laying about. The eels have already laid their eggs by the time they scytheboar comes around, so the next generation remains assured. those that escape the scytheboar die soon afterward, of age, and rot to nourish the soil. Once a scytheboar is finished, he sleeps off the meal, periodically mating with the scytheboars of the other nearby rings. and proceeds to the next paddy. Once the scytheboar is finished, along comes the plowtusk. The plowtusk eats plants, tubers and roots specifically, that may grow in the paddies, but the rice's bitter roots make them unappetizing. The process of plowing it's lower jaw through the muck on the bottom is made difficult by the stalks laying around. So, the plowtusk's instincts tell it to first scoop up the stalks and deposit them onto the banks of the paddies. Then it gets one with it's meal, stirring up the soil for the next year's crop and weeding the field. Then the seedbeard follows the plowtusk, once the root-bundles have put up flowers. The seedbeard eats the eggs of the paddy eel, but it's appetite is low enough that only a fraction of the eggs are consumed. While feeding, It's shaggy body drags through the flowers and carries pollen from one to another, influencing the next year's seeds. Thereafter, the flower falls away and the true stalk arises. The Cropguard Lizards then move in. They eat insects and birds, anything that would feed off the crops, and live leaping from one to another for most of the year, gliding from one paddy to the next every few days. Their instinct prompts them to move along rather than fight when a new group of cropguard lizards moves into their paddy, causing a chain reaction. Every time a scytheboar gets a paddy, the lizards move on, and then the ones in that paddy move on, and so on and so forth.
A perfect cycle. All the intelligent creatures have to do is gather the piles of grain on the shores of the paddies.
Warfare:
Giant vermin, dire animals, and dinosaurs are all bred for battle. Where tanks and helicopters on a modern battlefield would be, there are dire bats or t-rexes in the fleshforged battlefield.
Dinosaurs are basically top-of-the-line models. Sturdier, with greater destructive capacity, they were designed from the ground up as opposed to dire beasts, which used the naturally-occurring animals and made them bigger and stronger. Battletitan and Judatitan (New idea, don't start looking for it, it's not there) dinosaurs are the greatest of them all, secrets of their creation as well-guarded as the creation of the stealth bomber.
Giant vermin are about a step below the dinosaurs in newness. While still working on the basis of a natural creature, the scaling problems were immense, but well worth it for the finished product. Some modified versions were made, including scorpion-based catapults and exploding giant bees, but they never saw widespread use.
Horrid and dire animals are the easiest to mass-produce, and so, make up the bulk of the forces.
These creatures are all directed by the 'common races' as riders, of course. It's infinitely simpler to simply give them riding instincts than to instill true intellect, and the common races can hardly rebel in the presence of the generals.
The generals of these amalgamated riding forces were the dragons. Strong, intelligent, resilient, mobile, and able to deliver concentrated blasts of devastation wherever it was needed most, these massive war-machines stuck terror into enemy forces. Each nation came up with their own versions, with their own themes on the dragon, but most remained true to the original design.
Common Races:
There are tasks for unskilled labor that simply cannot be simplified into animal minds without training. For these, the common races were created.
Humans: These were the basis, the template. They were easy to change, and their short lifespans and high birth rate allowed the master race to experiment with them the most. Humans were everywhere, but never were 'properly' specialized.
Elves: Elves are tree-tenders. They maintain the tall trees and the gardens of their masters, including the mobile plants that they create. The elves were most plentiful in the western forests and swamps, though some oversaw the order in the crop rings.
Dwarves: Dwarves are miners and builders, they made everything the master race couldn't grow. Eventually they were replaced in all but their mining efforts by the warforged. They were mostly in the northern mountains and tundra, more widespread when they were still used for building.
Warforged: The warforged were made from the ore the dwarven mines churned out, but proved themselves an extremely competent replacement for the stocky ones, able to work without breaks and even in the harshest of conditions. They edged out dwarves almost completely, and the humans were the competition. Warforged couldn't birth more, though, so their price tag was a tad steep for many.
Gnomes: Gnomes were the fine detail the dwarves missed. They were fine crafters and fixits. They also revealed an unexpected competence in alchemy and one in medical and surgical tasks, which could prove valuable to those interested into extending the use of their meat-machines. Their ability to speak with animals often made them extremely useful in the crop rings and on most other meatmachine operations.
Halflings: Halflings served a double function. They were merchants, first, traveling far and wide to sell the latest beasts and designs. In addition, they served as spies, though they were mostly neutral. Halflings were the only race that could have been considered 'independent' in the reign of the master race.
Orcs: Orcs were the enforcers. They were proud to serve the master race directly, and swiftly reprimanded any man or beast that stepped out of line.
Minor Illithid (Also a new idea): These thinkers served in the central cities as thinking computers. The elder brains were originally nonsentient, organic data storage, which developed intellect later.
Mass Production
Simple Explanation: Trolls.
More complex explanation: Seeking a easy way to arm their forces for battle,the master race made the trolls. May varieties with different purposes arose, but three were the most present and most widely-used.
Shellskin: These bone-plated trolls were covered in a layer of thick bony armor, which they could shed like an insect, leaving it mostly intact. Normally, these shells become brittle and useless quickly without the troll's natural oils moistening it, but if treated quickly with a special oil, it would seal perfectly and become a sturdy suit of bone fullplate.
Boneforge: These trolls bore a pair of bone-spurred 'wings' that could be torn off and treated to become lances. On one arm, the fingers formed into swords, while the other forearm was grotesquely elongated with a snakelike flexibility, able to be removed to form a deadly trollclaw whip. Finally, between their wings they grew bony plate that could be removed and formed into a heavy shield.
Flesh-harvest: These bloated trolls were used to harvest meat, able to regrow it nearly instantly as long as they were fed. They could also be used to harvest trollskin leather which could be made into either clothing or armor.
So, what do you think? Worth a proper thread?