The strange world - A world building project

[necroon]

This is a world Building project of my idle thoughts and, as such, is rather odd.
It is a plane of existence that exists underneath a frightened child's bed as he struggles to sleep in the company of dancing shadows cast by his nightlight on the coldest, darkest of stormy nights.
It is nestled away behind a word wooden door in an abandoned cottage tucked away in sleepy barrows under starry skies.
It it somewhere between the ravings of a mad-man and the awe-inspired imagination of a macabre poet.
So escape for a while with me as I scribble down my thoughts.

More to come :smallsmile:

[necroon]

Reserved for content and Indexing

[necroon]

Reserved just in case.

[necroon]

Perilous Portals to Places of Peril
The strange world exists in a kind of odd place in the Cosmology of Everything. It exists alongside things yet set apart: like an old shelf in a seldom used guestroom at a Summer Home.
Accessing it can be down in two ways: By Sleep and By Mistake.

The former usually requires a sort of criss-crossing of streams for only one in complete control of their dreaming state can choose to enter the strange world (although why someone would want to is open to discussion). The strange world boarders only one plane in a physical sense and that is the plane of dreams. While dreaming it is not unheard of for people to unintentionally make the cross over to the strange world in the way that one walking down a street my accidentally fall down an open manhole. There are claims that one who enters the strange world while sleeping is swallowed up by swirling white mists. Some say they enter a comatose state as their subconscious is whisked away and given physical form. Others say the person simply disappears - Completely. Their name fading from records and memory as if the very multiverse just gives up on their existence. Although to say that people "discuss" such things is not entirely accurate as most that know of the strange world's existence would rather not discuss it.

The latter, the way of accident, involves finding a physical portal (be it a doorway, window, or other like poral) or happening upon it while trying to go elsewhere.
Portals are usually in out of the way places: far from the eyes of heroes. A portal tends to be in a tucked away and easily overlooked place. A portal also needs fear, superstition, and sadness. A portal to this place needs to be a mirror that reflects where it leads to,do to a lesser degree. And above all a portal needs belief. Belief that something truly horrible exists across the boundary. It is by that fact that children are the most potent creators of portals for they tend to believe that imagination and reality are one and the same and are unhindered by the cold chains of fact and logic.

Denizens of the Dark, Desolate, and Destitute.

Stytched

Hush, new-one. The lights are bright and your eyes are new. Your stitching is still very delicate so take heed for you are not safe. Were things different you would be shown the world with loving care. Were times better you would sleep with your brow upon my breast. But alas: that is not how things are. Hush, new one. You must depart now. Make your mother proud.

The Primary inhabitants of the strange world are the Stytched.
Stytched are born using soul-stuff of other residents of the strange world (native or otherwise) and sewn together in patchwork fashion by the benevolent "All-Mother": a creature of massive proportions that resembles a 16 legged spider.
They resemble patchwork puppets with large black visible stitches that hold different colored pieces of fabric and magically preserved flesh together and their eyes pulsate with a pale blue light that searches the darkness like a pair of bulls-eye lanterns.
The Stytched are created to serve as a sort of janitorial creature. They wander the lands looking for material that can be used to create more of their kind and gathering things their mother might find interesting much in they way a young child brings his mother a shiny shell at the beach or a sweet smelling flower.
It goes without saying that the expectation of being able to take the soul of a creature and reassign it to a different purpose is at the very least somewhat unrealistic. The process often results in a sort of tortured existence as what once was conflicts with what now is.
A newly created Stytched is, emotionally speaking, as complex as a worker ant. They mindlessly carry out their assigned tasks with grim determination.... Than the dreams start. Around 6 months after creation a Stytched will have a horrendous nightmare. They awaken from sleep in a cold sweat, screaming, displaying all the reactions of a new-born having a night terror. Those lucky enough to have this nightmare in the company of others of their kind can find advisement and solace but more often than night they experience this dream while out in the land alone. About a week after the first nightmare, just long enough for most Stytched to assume the event is a one time incident, they are visited again by their twisted dreams: this time more horrifying than before. It is from this dream, however, that a Stytched draws strength. A Stytched is a creature of nightmares you see, and the worse their sleeping experiences the stronger they are when awake. With practice they are capable of taking those nightmares and manifesting them: summoning the horrific creatures from their nightmares to serve them. They learn to twist the landscape around them into the hellish grounds that haunt them so, cloaking those that stand against them in the darkness that lurks just in the corners of their eyes as they try and fall asleep.

Tick-Tocs

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock... the sound is rather maddening, isn't it? It's enough to make me go fish! ...What's that? Crazy? WHY YES I AM!

Tick-Tocs are creatures of clockwork gears and a type of mechanical intricacy that only exists in the realm of science fiction. They lurch around with machine-like precision, acting against those that would threaten them or their homes: massive steel buildings resembling clock towers that dot the lands. Tick-Tocs themselves come in various shapes and sizes. Some large, some small. Some on two legs and some on as many as twelve. Some with one arm and some with ten. There are only two common-factors between Tick-Tocs. The first is that they all make a constant sound like an old grandfather clock, and the second is that they are all perfectly mad. Their behavior is sporadic at best and inconstant from one moment to the next. They are, however, seemingly immune to the horrors that freeze others in place as they wear their madness like a shield against that which would scare other beings. A Tick-Toc is at the same time the most dangerous companion and the best that one could hope for.

Woes

Woes are adaptive creatures similar to changelings in the effect that they adept to the world around them to best serve their needs. It is not through their own will this change takes place, however, but rather much to their own dismay. A woe is a creature of masks: figuratively and literally. They are gaunt humanoids whose faces are all but blank save for the masks they wear. These masks twists and morph much to the way faces do however they reflect the emotions surrounding them rather than those of the Woes themselves. It is there that they get their name as seldom is their joy in the strange world. These changes give them some degree of protection through learned acceptance and a vary adaptable psyche. The change is not only perceptive on an emotional level but on a physical level as well. A woe basking in the emotions of rage is a physical brute capable of powerful blows with it's fists. Woes are so used to drastic mood swings that they almost lack any form of personality beyond a reflection of a single emotion.
A woe is created by a surge of emotion on the material plane. Extreme sadness, pleasurable euphoria, and even overwhelming lust, all result in a Woe's "birth". This also ties the Woe to whatever emotion it resonates strongest with. It is to this emotion that a Woe is drawn.
Woes often act with an out-of-place politeness and social grace: Some of them even relishing in their surroundings like an actor on a stage. As a Woe experiences different emotions they begin to learn to control their emotions: changing and warping their masks and reaping the physical and mental benefits there-of.

Creepers

Creepers... creep. A lot. Most travelers call them Rag-men due to their appearance. They drape themselves in cloth of sorts putting layer upon layer over their pale flesh. Some think this is because Creepers are always cold while others think it's simply because of some strange mental fascination with soft objects. Regardless of the reason these nimble-footed humanoids are excellent at moving around undetected and have been known to only speak on the rarest of occasions.
Creepers do not have homes and few have any sort of "belongings" to speak of. They travel together moving from one place to another at whim. Although their behavior is somewhat nomadic they lack a noticeable form of superstition or culture common in most nomadic peoples.
Usually a creeper is somewhat peaceful. If they spot a large quantity of cloth they tend to follow it in hopes that the carrier is either killed or dies of natural causes much in the way that a vulture follows a dying or weak animal. This behavior has been known to last as long as 6 months or until a larger collection of cloth draws away their attention. Many have tried shouting at or threatening Creepers as they find their stalking unsettling however a frightened Creeper usually comes back moments later: it's black, soulless eyes and filthy rag covered form hiding just out of reach.

Boogies

Boogies are the things that go "bump" in the night. They come in various shapes and sizes but all share a common quality: a desire to spread fear and notoriety. Boogies have a social ladder and climbing it is the only thing that matters to them. How do they climb it, you ask? By scaring people, obviously!
Not just people of course but anything capable of being scared. They gather in large groups and compete in an event that resembles a game show of sorts as they step through magical portals into random planes.
The scoring system is quite complex. Children are easiest to scare and worth less points than adults. The Boogies can earn massive points for inflicting fear by nothing more than word-of-mouth: spreading tales of terror and woe among villages of creatures that steal children and wives from their beds at night. A Boogie needs to take care to make sure the story reflects him or herself, however. As if the story changes and wraps too much it's no longer about him or her. This is actually how more Boogies are created. The power of fear is so grand at times that it results in the creation of a brand-new Boogie.
Every six hundred and sixty-one days the Boogies tally their points and crown their King (or Queen) of Fear who gets to feast on the collected essence of terror caused by all the Boogies.
Boogies tend to behave much like the celebrities and divas of today. When not scaring others or competing in their grand game they usually just lounge around indulging in various vices.


Wastings

The lands of the strange world are not by any means hospitable to travelers. Things stalk the land that are beyond comprehension and easily defy any sort of logic or rational. As such many of those that seek to traverse such a place find themselves going quite mad. It is by that madness that a "Wasting" is "born". The mind is an impressive thing, after all, adapting itself when faced with severe mental trauma. This occurrence happens a bit differently in the strange world. When someone experiences sensor overload and has an out-of-body experience (or sometimes other severe mental trauma) something else moves in to the vacant space turning it into something different: a catalyst for something... otherworldly. Something that on its own lacks physical forum but hungers for it. This is how a Wastling is born.
Wastlings are ancient creatures in their own rights. When they are created they are insubstantial and weak. They cannot interact with their surroundings in any way nor can they move to different planes of existence. So they watch, observe, stalk, and wait. They wait for someone, or something, to snap. They wait for their mind to take a short vacation and than they move in and make themselves at home. Their voices are mismatched compared to their physical form and often inspires discomfort among those unfamiliar with their kind. Wastings are very curious by nature, almost to a fault, and although they are not the original owners of their bodies they are fiercely protective of them for a Wasting can only inhabit a physical forum once in a great while, much longer than several life spans of most creatures, and have no such desire to return to their unsubstantial forms.
Wastings often speak in riddles and rhymes and have been known to follow others: displaying an extreme curiosity in their fate for reasons even they don't understand.
Having a Wasting take an interest in you is a good thing. They are ever-vigilant although at times chatty, however most would agree that loosing a little sleep is a good exchange for being warned of danger creeping up upon you.

Dreamers and Lost Ones

Dreamers and Lost Ones are similar yet very different.

Dreamers are those that enter the the strange world via their dreams: drawn into the world by mysterious forces beyond understanding. They exhibit a strange sort of control of the lands landscape and appear as they do snug in their beds. Dreamers are somewhat rare and always children.

Lost Ones are creatures that have entered the strange world by mistake. They have either found a portal or stumbled into the plane do to a mishap, magical or otherwise. Sometimes they have no recollection of how they came to be here and stranger still some even have no memory of who or what they are.

[Yora]

Is it an Otherworld reached by portals found in places ignored by human minds?

[necroon]

Is it an Otherworld reached by portals found in places ignored by human minds?

Indeed it is. However a portal needs more than just neglect: it needs fear. Superstition. Sadness. A portal to this place needs to be a mirror that reflects where it leads to, as all portals, to a lesser degree, do. Above all a portal needs belief. That something truly horrible exists across the boundary. It is by that fact that children are the most potent creators. They tend to believe that imagination and reality are one of the same and are unhindered by fact.

[Weltall_BR]

Seems promising, but there is still a lot to fill in. Would players be able to chose any race or would they play humans travelling along Strange World?

[necroon]

Seems promising, but there is still a lot to fill in. Would players be able to chose any race or would they play humans travelling along the strange world?

The thought was to just have native races available as well as humans that were either visiting via a doorway or trapped in a "Dream" (as I intend to detail as one of the methods of accessing the strange world).

I appreciate the inquiry. I find that ideas blossom best when people ask questions. :smallsmile:

[necroon]

The Ever-Expanding Wastes

The majority of the strange world is made up of the Ever-Expanding Wastes.
This is a true statement but an odd one in that although the wastes are technically finite in size they are ever-shifting and always increasing in size. The rest of the strange world, however, is not. Although places may phase into existence, seemingly rising from the endless wastes, they are always either finite in size OR in the same location (the wastes expanding beyond them or over them). Other locations always follow one of these two rules: if not both.

The Ever-Expanding Wastes (hereafter simply referred to as "The Wastes") is grim, bleak, desolate, and quite depressing. The days are devoid of any form of true sunlight with skies that are always cloudy yet seldom give way to rain. Dehydration is a constant risk as the temperature seems to always stay sticky and uncomfortably warm.
At night the skies remain cloudy. The temperature suddenly drops from a sticky hot to freezing cold. Worse more the waste grows pitch-black leaving travelers at the mercy of the foul creatures that prowl through the darkness.
There are a few sights that are common in the Wastes, the first of which is signs. Be they modern-day signs or medieval signs they litter the landscape pointing in various directions (sometimes even up or down) senselessly like scattered vegetation. They are often rusted and worn, usually scratched beyond recognition or badly damaged offering nothing but mild curiosity as to where they came from. It is not unheard of to see neon-signs, like those outside motels, powered by some strange otherworldly force.

The second common sight in the waste is the Endless Trail. The Endless Trail is a cobblestone path that stretches the wastes from one end to the next. It is by no means any safer than travelling off the path however travelers usually walk on it rather than off of it.

The third most common sight in the wastes are Archways. Sometimes of stone, other times of metal or wood, these arches identify where the wastes has officially ended another area of sorts has begun. These arches are the entrances to these places, as walking around an arch sees that one remains in the Wastes. Walking through an arch, however, will have one find themselves in a completely different environment all together.
Inhabitants usually piece together a makeshift sign to hang above or place near an arch to designate what is on the other side. Some arch's have great doors in their place, some locked and some unlocked. Most major Archways are located near, if not directly off, of the Endless Trail.