Aquis worldbuild

[Blightedmarsh]

The world of Aquis

This is a water world with no landmasses and no real islands.

The dark

The world rotates with its axis pointed at it sun. It has a permanent dayside and a permanent night side. The nightside is permanently locked in thick sea ice and is illuminated by the moon shine.

The deep

The waters of the world are not a uniform depth. You have the deep abyss and the submarine terrania.

The abyssal oceans slope away from the terrania on the steep continental shelves; down to the crushing fathoms. They are comparatively cold and desolate; life being concentrated on their margins. They play host to the kajiu; the largest and most terrifying creatures in Aquis.

The terrania are effectively submerged continents. The waters are comparatively calm, shallow and much warmer. The terranian seas are filled with all manner of marine life and it is generally much safer than the open waters of the abyss.

The lost continent

No mere myth; a true legend. The lost continent of Alchazar was the birthplace of humanity and the cradle of civilization. What exactly happened to it nobody can say with any certainty. Some claim it was destroyed; others that it sank; others claim it was removed from the world and others that it lies locked under kilometres of ice in the darkside.

The shrouded lands

These lands occupy the same location as the real seas but are removed from the physical world. There are gateways from hither to yon. These can take the form of ice mirrors, rock arches, hidden pools and undersea caves.
The shrouded lands include the vast deserts of Petra, the haunted lakes of Wu, the mysty islands of Albeirnia and the verdant jungles of the Roran Zorrie.

The shrouded lands are the homes of powerful and dangerous creatures; mystic adepts who do not welcome intruders into their domain kindly.

Islands

These float around the dayside of the world; drifting in the currents. They often play host to small tribal communities. They tend to be too transient, short lived and unstable to support the development of civilised communities.

They include:

Leviathans

There are a variety of large surface animals that people can and do live on. The problem is that they are not always as inviting as they first seem. Some play host to horrific beasts who prey on the unwary. Some periodically submerge; drowning prospective settlers. Some are predators who feast on their unwitting colonists and some are themselves prey to the kajiu who haunt these seas.

Pumice formations:

These are released by undersea volcanic eruptions. They are a prized source of obsidians as well as other minerals. Conflicts between natives and prospectors over the resources are common.

Bergs

Large icebergs that spall off of the world glacier. Swarms of icebergs fill the twilight sea and are a major hazard to navigation. They are usually drawn around the world in the equatorial currents. They help keep the growth of the winter sea ice down by their erosive action.
Rouge icebergs are flung into the sunward seas and can drift for decades before finaly melting away.

Floatweed

These are shifting tangles of seaweed They can be miles across and strong enough to support small communities. The waters around them team with fish and other marine animals. The problems with weed life are that fresh water is hard to come by, the seas might be full of game but that also draws in predators. Finaly the weed itself is a favoured foodstuff of many leviathans and kajiu.

Reefs

These are the tops of undersea volcanos. Some of them are known to break the surface at lowtide. They provide geothermal energy, almost inexhaustible mineral deposits and waters that team with fish. The problems include competition from rival groups, the fact that many species of kajiu and leviathan use them as spawning grounds, predators as well as the ferocity of the sea, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Despite the dangers reefs play host to rigger communities as well as subhab settlements.

Communities

Tribals

These people dwell on the floating islands of the world. They use small boats to trade, to fish and to migrate between islands. Tribals are ancient peoples and have a sixth sense about the sea.

They are primitive in terms of material culture but often have sophisticated societies; well adapted to their lifestyles. They tent to be superstitious and shamanistic; they often engage in cargo cults.

Riggers

They live on surface communities anchored to the seabed. The largest and oldest rigger communities are effectively city states built on artificial mountains. Static Riggers are only found in shallow waters or reefs.

Some riggers develop free floating cities. These sail around the world on the tides and the winds.

Voyagers

These people live on ships. They are explorers, sailors, traders and pirates. Voyagers form large fleet confederations and are said to possess their own private homeports.

Habbers

These people live in submarine habitats on the sea bed. They are responsible for most of the heavy mining and industry in the world. They are a tough no nonsense people with little tolerance for fools. They are said to be close kin to the night-siders

Night-siders

The ice men of the dark side. They live in cities carved into the glaciers and habitats slung underneath the ice.
The underworld is a dark calm place filled with exotic and bizarre fauna. They do much of their business here. The topside is a hellish place of creaking ice and frozen storms. Most nightsiders do not go topside if they can help it.

Possibilities

From here on out little is concreate and I could do with some imput.

Technical Level

Scenario one

This is a diesel punk world. You have steamship dreadnoughts, primitive submarines, diving bells and suits. In the air you have biplanes, dirigibles and zeppelins.

Society has a 1920’s feel with fappers, dandies, gangsters and PIs. All very Pulp fictions/film noire stuff.

Technology and magic have combined to form Mad Science! This is the technological basis of society and replaces fossil fuel.

Scenario Two

This is a magitech world. People live in floating and flying cities. Crystal spires and togas rule the roost.

You find magitech power armor, mobile suits and FF style airships and gardens.

Scenario Three

The world used to be a Mad Science! diesel punk society and has evolved to become a mecha magitech society.

Races

Option A

There is only the human race

Option B

Humanity is a broad church of many (fantasy) races who emerged from
Alchazar alongside mankind.

Option C
The various mutant subraces of humanity evolved over time after the loss of the homeland.

Option D
The various races come from different shrouded lands. They are dismissive of humanity and often quite hostile to them.

Kaiju

Type 1

The megabeasts are simply the largest examples of very powerful and dangerous species; worshiped by some as gods. They may be moderately intelligent.

Type 2

True Kaiju are mutant creatures created by Mad Science! They are unique, intelligent and extremely dangerous. Some worship them as gods.

Type 3

The Kaiju are eldritch abominations. They are intelligent and by human standards utterly insane. They can mutate men into debased creatures and to look upon then is to risk madness. Some crazed fools worship them as gods.

So any thoughts? Input and perspectives are always welcome.

[AcerbicOrb]

I'd quite like to see scenario 1 for technology, and the upper classes, but with a more militaristic, perhaps Roman, twist. Maybe even worse technology elsewhere from the military. After all, that is the technology that matters in a world that dangerous.

I'd like to see Option D, with numerous races all hating humanity, and perhaps each other. It fuels conflict, which is the basis of drama.

Type 3 Kaijus sound interesting. Eldritch is always a fun subject, and a such a powerful common enemy for the races could lead to interesting plots.

[Alexkubel]

in scenario one you said steam dreadnoughts, does this include ships such as USS Iowa or Yamato (quite a lot later but the ship building hasn't changed much till after WW2 since the dreadnought era began (dreadnought era refers to battleships that where build around a collection of really powerful (and similar) guns and some secondary guns, after dreadnought era ended battleships began to phase out in favour of aircraft carriers), people often forget that ships these days are still powered by steam engines, other points on your first scenario points, submarines weren't so primitive then as people think, steam was used for navel travel with the exception of submarines, air travel (and submarines) used petroleum or diesel engines.

for the other 2 scenarios I don't have much suggestion.

to be honest I have another idea, why not combine all your ideas? our group used what Is dubbed an degaussing transmitter, allowing the group to jump from world to world, these could do some interesting things, meaning you could set you players up only to find themselves somewhere else in the morning.

[Blightedmarsh]

Senario one it is (sort of)

The thing of it is that the folks of Aquis don't have much in the way of access to fossil fuels. (it being all underwater) Big military ships will be powered by magitec fired steam engines of the lost orphan variety.

Steam dreadnoughts and battle cruisers usually take the form of Trimarans. Most ships are a at least a century old and have hereditary crews headed up by noble captains.

Technology levels will rang between that of the Scharnhorst and the older torpedo ram ships. It depends how much Mad Science! was invested in them. Stuff like radar, mechanical computers, tesla missile defense and zombie crews are all examples of Mad Science!

Because generally only the nobility and the military can afford the exorbitant costs of this technology it is usually found in their hands. Some civilian examples exist but these are usually hand me downs or civic projects.

Submarines are typically gnomish or dwarven make. They tend to be old and robust. New subs are off course built all the time; chock full of the mad science that allows them to do all of their stuff. the problem is that cyborg dolphin brain sonars, sonic cannons and crush tentacles don't tend to make for a particularly long lived vessel. Only the most conservative of boats tend to last any length of time. As long as the deranged artificers keep most of the zanier concepts to the export market they don't usually get in to too much trouble at home.

All planes are sea planes. Most of the big ships (and some of the larger submarines) have a few hangered aboard. Dedicated sea plane carriers are typically airships that use a drop launch mechanic and sea landing recovery.



to be honest I have another idea, why not combine all your ideas? our group used what Is dubbed an degaussing transmitter, allowing the group to jump from world to world, these could do some interesting things, meaning you could set you players up only to find themselves somewhere else in the morning.

In scenario three this is achieved with the passage of time without dimensional skipping. Progress over mad science leads to functional magitec.

[Alexkubel]

Senario one it is (sort of)

The thing of it is that the folks of Aquis don't have much in the way of access to fossil fuels. (it being all underwater) Big military ships will be powered by magitec fired steam engines of the lost orphan variety.

Steam dreadnoughts and battle cruisers usually take the form of Trimarans. Most ships are a at least a century old and have hereditary crews headed up by noble captains.

Technology levels will rang between that of the Scharnhorst and the older torpedo ram ships. It depends how much Mad Science! was invested in them. Stuff like radar, mechanical computers, tesla missile defense and zombie crews are all examples of Mad Science!

Because generally only the nobility and the military can afford the exorbitant costs of this technology it is usually found in their hands. Some civilian examples exist but these are usually hand me downs or civic projects.

Submarines are typically gnomish or dwarven make. They tend to be old and robust. New subs are off course built all the time; chock full of the mad science that allows them to do all of their stuff. the problem is that cyborg dolphin brain sonars, sonic cannons and crush tentacles don't tend to make for a particularly long lived vessel. Only the most conservative of boats tend to last any length of time. As long as the deranged artificers keep most of the zanier concepts to the export market they don't usually get in to too much trouble at home.

All planes are sea planes. Most of the big ships (and some of the larger submarines) have a few hangered aboard. Dedicated sea plane carriers are typically airships that use a drop launch mechanic and sea landing recovery.



In scenario three this is achieved with the passage of time without dimensional skipping. Progress over mad science leads to functional magitec.

ummm I hate one thing most, when someone says steam dreadnought, it's actually battleship they mean, when people think of battleships, it might not nessecarly be accurate but, you're 'few hangered planes' is something very true to W2 warships. just lowering aircraft carrier tech would help things out, a steam dreadnought is not an actual term for a type of warship in the battleship category, semi-dreadnought, pre-dreadnought, dreadnought and modern are all ones I would class as the bread battleship categories.
also warships where and still are very expensive, you made an accurate statement when you said nobility where the only ones who could afford it, heck probably even a heavy cruiser would be out of reach of all but the richest.

[Blightedmarsh]

They are steam not because they are fired by coal...there is no coal to be had anywhere in the world. They do not have diesel engines because they do not exist in setting; the only oil to be had being whale oil. They are steam engines because they have Mad Science! magitech fusion engines...powered by lost orphans (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoweredByAForsakenChild). They are steam in the same way that nuclear power is technically steam. They are steam turbine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_turbine) engines usually; some are indeed steam piston and others might just be zombies on hamster wheels. A few of them are powered by systems that no one in their right minds could possibly understand; tells you pretty much all you kneed to know about the kind of Science! we are talking about here.



also warships where and still are very expensive, you made an accurate statement when you said nobility where the only ones who could afford it, heck probably even a heavy cruiser would be out of reach of all but the richest.

I meant only the nobility can really afford to commission any form of mad science (projectors, theremin, electrode shock therapy, doombots) but your point gives me ideas.
I envisage a large primary hull with most of the large superstructures. This will be flanked by two smaller secondary hulls and a large deck space in between

Evolution

The design ideals of modern trimarans began life as armed merchantmen. To reliably across an abyssal depth is no small feat. You have to be fast in rough seas and independent from the wind to out run the creature who would devour ships. You have to be big enough, tough enough and have enough firepower to drive off what you cant flee. And finally you have to be stable enough to deal with the monstrous storms that have claimed more ships than the monsters themselves.

These early cutters where expensive and thus few; success fewer still. However they made their masters rich beyond imaginings and set down the templates of the black water vessels that where to follow.

It times of war these ships became bigger; more powerful. They became vital means of power projection. The biggest battleships and dreadnoughts where used to transport small flotillas of submersibles, gunboats and monitors across the abyss in under slung harnesses (as well as dirigibles in their stores) and provide the forward support they needed to operate in foreign seas.

Form

Battleship design is based around the principle of "all or nothing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_or_nothing_%28armor%29); only the most critical components of the vessel are given strong armor. The citadel (armored magazine/power plant..) is found in the central section of the primary hull.

Most vessels this size are fitted with a tall mast. Not only is this the principle radio antenna (if the captain can afford/has access to/any truck with those damned aetherion communications) but it also acts as a docking station for zeppelins, dirigibles and hot air balloons. Balloons are used for over the horizon spotting and signalling

Outriggers

The secondary hulls are primarily used to give the vessel greater stability. When waves can and frequently do travel all the way around the planet they can become fierce as monsters. A trimaran layout makes the vessel wider and thus a more stable firing platform.

The second purpose of these hulls is to act as floatation devices. They are filled with Pykrete (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete); in effect making them virtually unsinkable. In the event of the loss of a dreadnought the secondary hulls are often used as life rafts.

A ship is must vulnerable to a torpedo run when in enfilade. A dreadnought is protected from such an attack by the secondary hulls. It is extremely difficult to score a direct hit on a dreadnoughts citadel with a torpedo because the outriggers are in the way. As they are filled with (and often made from) toughened bullet proof ice such a hit causes little or no overall damage to the dreadnought.

Wings

A major danger to a dreadnought is plunging fire from long range artillery duels as well as bombs dropped from ordinance dirigibles. The wide wings actually help a vessel to cope with these dangers. Most of the living quarters and much of the ships stores are slung underneath the wings. This allows the primary hull and thus the citadel to be very narrow and therefore have a low profile to plunging fire. The wings themselves are only lightly armored (if at all) and thus armor piercing shells as well as kinetic kill vehicles tend to pass straight through them; causing little real damage. They are also usually fitted with incendiary flack cannons to help deal with the dirigible threat.

Deadnoughts today

The construction of a dread is a massive undertaking. The cost of running one is simply beyond the purse of most nations. As a result they are usually built by large coalitions over the course of a couple of decades (the time it takes to pay for the work rather than the time it take to do).

Large cruisers are usually operated by semi independent noble families. These guys make most of their income from trade and owe military service in time of war to their home nation/confederation in exchange for being allowed to own the ship.

Dreadnoughts tent to be autocratic nations under sail in and of their own right. They are usually the centerpieces of noble alliances and play an important part in the global balance of terror and anti kaiju operations. Many use their immense power to operate international extortion rackets; becoming as big or bigger threats than those they where built to counter.

Airplanes

Most airplanes are unique. Often designed, built and maintained by their pilots. Very few people (even amongst the initiated) understand the principles by which airplanes are held aloft. As a result airmen are viewed as brave, dashing and more than a little crazy.

Military airmen tend to be mercenaries; they fight for coin and glory. They care more about their pride than about whatever "cause" it is they fight for on any given day.

Airmen build strong rivalries over who is the best pilot, who has the best aircraft, the best reputation, the most glory. These rivalries can get out of hand; outright wrecking missions as rivals try to outdo each other and/or shoot each other down with little heed to the mission objectives.

[Blightedmarsh]

Dwarfs

A stocky humanoid race. They stand between four and five feet tall and are known for their large hands, broad shoulders and strong features. They are closely related to the gnomes.

Dwarfs are the best known race of habbers. The live in large underwater communities on the seabed. They tend to build their habs on sea mounts and continental slopes rather than flat terrain. They prefer to build their settlements near the top of the euphotic zones; deeper than most surface threats can reach.

They are known for being tough, determined and resolute. The prize self reliance, independence and strength of will. Dwarfs believe in progress; in a great river of tradition that carries from the past and flows through them to the future.

Dwarven society is based around the principles of libertarian economic freedom. The people who are governed least are governed best. Most forms of institutions are held by private parties and interests. Government tends to manifest either as self imposed protectionist guild systems, oligarchies of wealthy clan leaders or as corporate shareholder democracies.

Their society functions on a backbone of necromancy. They use embalming, vivisection and techno sorcery to create and enslave sentient undead. These being provide the dwarfs the cheep labor they need to create the levels of prosperity they enjoy. That they usually use humans gives them fairly dark reputation amongst surface dwellers. Furthermore the proliferation of undead workers means that there are few opportunities for poorer dwarfs; this poverty fuels both crime as well as a disporia of dwarfs from settled communities to new habs or the surface world.

One of the strange things about dwarfs is that you almost never see their women. They don't talk about them; a dwarf may on occasionally speak about a dead female relative but never a living one. How or why this is is subject to much speculation but the dwarfs never speak of it.

[Blightedmarsh]

Gnomes

Also known as nightsiders. Gnomes live around the edges of the great darkness within and beneath the world glacier.

They stand between four and five feet and are noticeably more rountud than their stocky dwarfish cousins.

Gnomes are great inventors and produce much of the worlds advanced technology. They have the higher percentage of scientists, engineers and madmen of most races. They do however tend to exile the most exuberant of these before they can cause too much damage. As a result many of the gnomes of the wider world are of the technical bent.

Gnomes invented:

Airplanes
Aluminum
Anesthetic
Antibiotics
Artillery
Barbershop
Blood transfusion
Blood transmutation
Buffets
Bullets
Cameras
Cinema
Clockwork
Cybernetics
Cybernetic killbots
Cybernetic psionics
Daemon binding
Dirigibles
Electricity
Fingerprinting
Gas lamps
Gas turbine engines
Geothermal power
Gramophones
Guns
Hydrolysis
Hydroponics
Jet engines
Jet skies
Light bulbs
Marzipan
Masers
Micrographs
Microscopes
Organ donation
Poole
Propellers
Psidar
Public transport
Public health
Pyrex
Pycrete
Quantum levitation
Radio aethonics
Rocketry
Rugby
Sanitation
Skiffle
Steam engines
Steam turbines
Submarines
Superconductors
Telephones
Telegraph
Telescopes
Tesla coils
Tidal generators
Torpedos
Tumble driers
Water cannons
Water immersion heaters
Xrays