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View Full Version : Let's Build a Setting: The Yggdrasil Solar-System



DuctTapeKatar
2018-11-26, 07:31 PM
You know what? Space Pirates suck. Vikings is where it's at.

Let's make a solar system based on that. Humans are the primary species, with non-humans being folk-tale like creatures and monsters. Basically, Firefly, if you replaced space cowboy with Vikings, Celts and Goths.

1)


Yggdrasil
When the sky became the sea, and men sailed the stars, along with them came the majesty and mystery of the ocean.

The Yggdrasil solar system is composed of twelve planets and countless moons orbiting a green sun, with different factions of humans vying for control over the most fruitful of these worlds in an interplanetary stalemate.

Travel between the worlds is possible thanks to magical runes, charged via sunlight, allowing for the creation of Bifrost portals and hyperspace travel.

Deep space is known for being a strange, inhospitable place, with spirits of the void taking shelter in asteroid belts and wandering between the stars. Nymphs, serpents, and other beings are spoken between sailors and astronauts alike, and tall tales are told of brave captains taming the solar winds and aelf-ran ships that attack lone merchant vessels.

2) Magic, Runes, and Druids

Magic originates from Yggdrasil, the green sun of the solar system, and is channeled and programmed through carved runes on stone, metal or wood that direct the energy. Practitioners of magic are known as Druids, those capable of not only understanding the runes, but capable of charging them with the green energy that is required for them to function. It takes years of training to become a Druid, and even then, a lot of people drop out due to the metaphysical nature of magic and tedious crafting of runic scripts.

Runes are capable of many functions, from FTL travel, creating portals, or offensive functions such as firebolts or electric discharges. Due to the amount of material runes require to be written and properly programmed onto, most tools made with runes are either small, simple devices (self-sharpening blades, armor that deflects energy attacks, and flashlights require only small lines of run program in order to function, and are easily recharged), or massive megitek monstrosities (Stone ships with hyperspace drives, cannons that fire missiles, and computers of varying metals all require more than a hundred lines of rune carved carefully into material, and take a lot of energy to function).

Druids can charge runes by channeling energy from the sun into the primer (the small dot that every line of rune begins with), or by using crystalline batteries that were charged beforehand. The further away from Yggdrasil, the harder it is to collect the energy. Some say the further away from the sun less effective the runes become, though it is a question of debate at what point magic begins to weaken and nobody knows if the magic can be used to travel beyond to other solar systems.

Eldan
2018-11-27, 02:17 AM
Why twelve planets? Surely, if it's called Yggdrasil, it should have Nine Worlds?

the_david
2018-11-27, 05:02 AM
Why twelve planets? Surely, if it's called Yggdrasil, it should have Nine Worlds?
Yggdrasil has 3 layers, and 9 worlds... In a way.
The highest layer contains Vanaheim, Asgard and Alfheim. The worlds of The Vanir, Aesir (Asgardians.), and Alfar (Elves.) respectively.
The next layer contains Midgard (Earth.) and Jotunheim as well as Nidavellir and Svartalfheim. These are the worlds of the Humans, Jotun (Ice Giants.), Dvergar (Dwarves.) And the Svartalfr. (Also Dwarves, except in fantasy where they are usually dark elves. They were also referred to as Dokalfr.)
The last layer contains Hel and Muspelheim. If you die outside of combat you'd end up in Hel. Fire Giants live in Muspelheim. (Also known as Jotun? I'm not sure. The world is named after the giant Muspel, not the species of giant. )

This is by no definition the only interpretation though. One of the problems with this is that the Dvergar, Dokalfr and Svartalfr are considered to all be Dwarves, but they do have two worlds. Nidavellir and Svartalfheim. (They all live underground and turn to stone in sunlight.) Snorri Sturluson already messed up by adding the Dvergatal in a place where it shouldn't be, I wouldn't be surprised if there were actually 8 worlds instead of 9.
Another problem is that we don't know exactly where each world is on the world tree. Svartalfheim might as well be on the bottom layer, along with Hel and Muspelheim.

Eldan
2018-11-27, 05:22 AM
Yes, I?m aware of all that. The layers are not worlds, though. Yggdrasil has explicitely nine worlds, so if we put it into a solar system, why not give that solar system nine planets?

I'm mainly wondering where the idea of 12 worlds comes from.

the_david
2018-11-27, 06:28 AM
Yes, I?m aware of all that. The layers are not worlds, though. Yggdrasil has explicitely nine worlds, so if we put it into a solar system, why not give that solar system nine planets?

I'm mainly wondering where the idea of 12 worlds comes from.I just wanted to be helpful by naming all of the worlds, seeing how nobody had done that before. It seemed like a logical starting point.

I messed up a little bit though. The source I used replaced Niflheim with Nidavellir. I mentioned before that there are multiple interpretations. I've also seen the locations of Muspelheim and Jotunheim switched around.
The layers might come in handy when you want to determine which planet goes where. There's the top of Yggdrasil, then the middle and finally the roots.

Max_Killjoy
2018-11-27, 07:37 AM
Here's a spin on the mythology.

There's a planet where people believe the best, bravest warriors are taken up at death and fight alongside their gods for eternity.

And they're kinda right, only it's not their gods, it's aliens who use the planet as a "crucible" for warriors, and the elite soldier servants, post-"harvesting", are so valuable that they use cloning and "memory recordings" to restore them if they fall in battle.

Xuc Xac
2018-11-27, 11:34 AM
The valkyries that choose the slain to go to Valhalla are actually just alien EMS evacuating the mortally wounded. They can resuscitate them in the sickbay on their ship in orbit.

DuctTapeKatar
2018-11-27, 05:40 PM
Here's a spin on the mythology.

There's a planet where people believe the best, bravest warriors are taken up at death and fight alongside their gods for eternity.

And they're kinda right, only it's not their gods, it's aliens who use the planet as a "crucible" for warriors, and the elite soldier servants, post-"harvesting", are so valuable that they use cloning and "memory recordings" to restore them if they fall in battle.

Well... This IS a Let's Build a Setting. You expand on that!

Sizzlefoot
2018-11-28, 08:03 PM
"Gods" could be descended from genetically modified humans made to be perfect, and maybe linked to Yggdrasil's magic somehow. Ages ago, they broke free from the laboratories they were grown in, mind-wiped most humans on whatever planet it was, and set themselves up to be worshipped. A few humans remember what they really are, but everyone knows that they're insane at best, heretical at worst.

Cluedrew
2018-12-19, 05:50 PM
We are still doing this? I admit the fire in me for this when out... not sure exactly when, but still, let us see if we can make another Toxic Seas. Also does anyone have links to Toxic Seas, Flare Tower, the underground city, the canyons one, the weird summing land... am I missing any? Even the less successful of these have some good ideas.

#) Celestial Winter
(I'm not sure if the points above were meant to be counted, so it is just a numbered point.)

Magic flows like water, but like water it can freeze. It does this during celestial winter, a brief but regular period where the sun changes to more autumn colours. Magic around the planets is less affected but makes deep space travel much more dangerous.

Open Points: I don't know how regular this should be, maybe 1 month out of every 9 or something. But one of the major things that make Vikings different from standard pirates is climate, this might be a way to play with that. Also I am not sure what celestial winter actually does.

Juicy Kisses
2019-01-05, 02:20 PM
I'm still confused about the 12 worlds thing a bit. It's all well and good, I'm just curious about what the other 3 worlds are intended to be outside of the 9 from our "source material"