Kamuril, TheShattered Stars

[NovenFromTheSun]

My First memory was the birth of my little sister, though most wouldn't call her that. Or 'her' for that matter. She was born as one of the undead, little gooey shadowy thing before they start eating and turn into those corpses and bones. Most run off to join their fellows after birth without so much as a "bye", but mama and papa were prepared this time. I was their first living child, both of the ones they had before came out like her. They trapped her with a lomelie lamp, set one at the entrance to a little enclosure they made, mama gave birth there and ran out before my sister could do anything to her.

They came to visit, tried speaking to her, named her Myelin. To be honest, I never found out how they knew she'd be a girl, or would have been a girl had she turned out right. I guess a parent just knows, I never tried it myself. Anyway, people didn't like how my parents where keeping Myelin around, some tried to sneak in and kill her, that's when papa started keeping the meaner oxen outside. Things got worse after a month or so when Myelin's pre-memory showed up and tried to take her. It was one of the winged tricky ones, and the other townsfolk started saying that the pre-memory must have enchanted them to act like this. Of course, I was fie years old at the time so I knew better, my parents just wanted to see their little girl smile at her mama's voice like any baby should.

Eventually the pre-memory got some of its buddies and surrounded our place. A few of them even attacked some of the villagers. More pressure was put on my parents to give up Myelin to the pre-memories, but that would make them go away by then, it was the lomelie in the nearby field that drove them off. A moot point anyway, eventually Myelin's pre-memory broke the lamp and she went dashing off. That was the last time mama and papa tried having kids.

I still dream of her sometimes, of who Myelin would become had things worked as they should. They depict her as a curious lady always learning new things, if a bit loose with the drinks. I think she and her pre-memory are still out their, and sometimes I wonder if they have the same dream.
- Overheard

Setting Concept

Before the word was material, it was thought, and the beings that were to inhabit it were ideas before they were flesh. The blueprint of potential life spread like a song, each lifeform-to-be a single note, and the spirits rejoiced in it, though they didn't create it. Each note was a pre-memory of what was to be, awaiting the day they would exist.

It wasn't to be. When the first of the pre-memories began to spawn as organic life, disaster struck.

No record tells of where the Cloud of Unmaking and the evil spirits that serve it came from, but each race mortal or immortal blames themselves for it, they may all be right. Whatever the truth, the Cloud thirsted for the pre-memories that hadn't yet been born. Each one its servants delivered to the Cloud were corrupted, and took form on the world to terrorize the living; and when the living gave birth to a creature based on a corrupted pre-memory, they would come into the world as an unliving abomination. It's theorized That the Cloud claimed a third to half of the mortal pre-memories before it and its spirits were pulled to a place behind the stars, guarded ceaselessly by the spirits of old. Mortal life spread across the world, but much damage was done, and those lost to the Cloud remain as life's enemies.

Meta Concept

It's hard for me to describe the main idea I'm building this setting around, but I think the best way to put it is that I wanted to blur the line between "life" in a fantastic world and "adventure/quests" in a fantastic world. From one viewpoint "adventurers" in the RPG sense are very rare, seeing how few can keep up such a life style for long, but in another way there are many, because sometimes that's what existing in Kamuril requires. Sometimes daily life provides all the excitement and danger anyone needs. Likewise, even heroes need a break sometimes.

[NovenFromTheSun]

Races

Humans: Widespread and varied, though inclined towards gathering in large groups. They make more humans in the way you’d expect. My current conception of them is that they have no personal magical abilities (thus can’t cast spells), but are the best at working with magical materials, though I might change this.

Lomelie: A people said to come from the stars, and have a lifecycle much like them, though shorter. A lomelie comes into existence from a convergence of unseen elements; they see their families coming not from bloodlines, but the place of their forming. They live around 300 years, after which the “burn out” and dissipate.

Lomelie appear as diminutive humans-about 5 feet in hight (15.24 decimeters), with a wider array of skin and hair colors. Their faces tend to have soft but not childish features. They have shining, mono-colored eyes. A lomelie is fully grown physically at creation, but still needs time to learn how to process information, speak, and take care of themselves, where they’ll be tended to by lomelie that stayed around the convergence zone.

Lomelie can generate an aura of light that conveys a magical effect on what it shines on. They can also bind this light to lamps as commodities and gifts for other races. One can chose what effect the light will have when first generating it, but no lomelie can use every effect there is.

Undead lomelie are called shades, and look much like humanoid shadows. Their auras absorb a variety of energies and elements, which ones depend on the shade in question. People might grow fatigued in their presence, or fires can go out, for example.

Longaevi: The first mortals, through the later words is by technicality. They live until their purpose is fulfilled, then they stop to become like fleshy statues. A longaevi that lives for 1000 years will have their hand and feet grow old and wizened, but their faces will remain that of late-twenties to early-thirties adults.

(Still developing them, more to come.)

Revenants: There were some pre-memories damaged by the Cloud of Unmaking, but not corrupted. They were born like undead, but had their minds and souls untouched. In some countries their tolerated if not trusted, in others their hunted down.

A revenant can conceal himself from more conventional undead if the act the part, but corrupted pre-memories will see though it.

If a revenant makes it to adulthood, they’ll tend to look like faded, grayed out versions of their species. While their personalities can vary, they tend to get caught up in their goals easily but are less obviously emotive unless the feeling is particularly intense.

-
I haven’t settled on a name yet for the corrupted pre-memories. I originally based them on low-level fiends: larvae, lemures, manes, imps and the like, but I doubt this will end up as a D&D setting given how humans, lomelie, and longaevi each have a different type of magic.

I’m also thinking of another group that’s usually enemies with the rest, but can be negotiated with, but haven’t figured out what yet.

[NovenFromTheSun]

Reserved for later.

[NovenFromTheSun]

Should be the last reserved post I need.

[Wizard_Lizard]

I like it.
Kind of like Plato's realm of ideas.

[NovenFromTheSun]

I like it.
Kind of like Plato's realm of ideas.

Didn’t notice that until you said it. I was debating with myself over whether to use the “pre-memories” idea or have souls preexistent.

Races are up, but not finished.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Didn’t notice that until you said it. I was debating with myself over whether to use the “pre-memories” idea or have souls preexistent.

Races are up, but not finished.

Are souls immortal in this worold?

[NovenFromTheSun]

Are souls immortal in this worold?

Probably, sorry for the delay.

I'm likely going to put this on hiatus for a while because of real life circumstances.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Probably, sorry for the delay.

I'm likely going to put this on hiatus for a while because of real life circumstances.

ok, I understand

[NovenFromTheSun]

Tentatively starting up again, finished the revenant description.

Also, can I change the title so it’s “The Shattered Stars” rather than “TheShattered Stars”?