r/worldbuilding Sep 05 '24

Lore Three million years into the future, after humanity's disappearance, the world is inhabited by new species called "Packers". They will have to reinvent math and rediscover science.

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3.0k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Jun 28 '24

Lore Retconning sorcerers to not be about "Specials and poo people"

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3.4k Upvotes

As detailed here there is quite a distain for the characters who inherit magical abilities. As someone who despises nepotism and eugenics alike. I was thinking of having an alternative in my world/campaigns

Every living creature (except for some irrelevant ones to this conversation). Has patent magical ability and in the distant past this was so easily tapped into, a world of high magic where these abilities were occuring at birth or took very little effort to unlock.

However either due to some generic catastrophe or a derivative analogue for climate change. The ability to do this is almost gone and extremely hard to master.

And so

One who wishes to use magic in the modern day must either study, the same way as the wizard or undertake a more emotionally tolling experience. Not quite sure what it is but I'd prefer it to be something that involves either work or tragedy.

Perhaps it just takes mental attunement as akin to study. Like you're almost literally exercising the brain.

Art credit to "Carbon Claws"

r/worldbuilding Sep 26 '24

Lore One of my favorite ideas in my world

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6.8k Upvotes

So the orks in my world use sign language as their native language for a few reasons. Number one is that it wouldn’t really make sense for a race with giant tusks in their mouths to have a vocal language in my mind. Number two is that they almost exclusively hunt so sign would be their main way of communication while hunting. Orks didn’t learn the common language until very recently when Dwarven engineers invited them to trade.

r/worldbuilding Oct 09 '24

Lore 3 million years after the death of the last human, conscious mind reappears on Earth

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3.3k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Nov 15 '24

Lore [Black Horizon] This is a vital weapon for warfare in the galaxy, and might beat the railgun.

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2.2k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Jul 07 '24

Lore Which nation of my dark fantasy setting would you rather join?

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3.1k Upvotes

(Ignore the ugly flags, they will change)

The little part of the habitable world is divided between three nations, all being theocracies/monarchies where royal families (who descend from gods) political and religious leaders.

The council nation: Their main belief is the importance of law to maintain a society. Obeying law is primordial, and disobeying it is often enough to be sentenced to death. Unlike other nations, they send troops outside of the nation to apply their laws, as they consider the entire world to need it. They also have a strong military power.

The divided nation Their main belief is the importance of patriotism. They also believe than production of resources to maintain a pleasant and powerful society. It is the richest nation of the three. They have a strong educational program allowing their citizens to easily learn jobs (at least the one that create ressources). They also believe in their racial superiority, hate and disrespect toward the members of the other nations is part of their values. It is the only nation not allowing immigrants.

The hero nation: Their main belief is the importance of science and research. Their educational program is very hard, but allow some of the students to become influents scientists. They believe than human life is less valuable than research, and don’t hesitate to sacrifice criminals for science. It is also the only nation governed by only one royal family (and such have only one leader at the time). Disrespecting the leader is a crime against the nation.

The great syndicate: It isn’t a nation but a criminal organisation. They don’t have their own territory. However they do have a form of government, a strict code of honour working as laws and have their own religion (but their is nontheistic). Their main belief is the importance of power to survive in society. They strongly value self respect and self exceeding. They see the world as a jungle where only the stronger survive and the weak perishes. However, they condemn cruelty, and don’t value killing innocents if unnecessary (but they do value vengeance)

r/worldbuilding Mar 04 '24

Lore Coding As a Written Magic System

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4.6k Upvotes

A written magic system for spells that resembles what you might find in a line of code.

What are your thoughts?

r/worldbuilding Apr 29 '22

Lore A list of presidents from the year 2016 to the year 2104 for a speculative future timeline I'm making.

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11.7k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Oct 13 '23

Lore What if the modern-day USA was transported to a fantasy world?

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3.7k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Nov 16 '24

Lore Three Kingdoms, A world split between 3 factions: Animal, Plants and Mushrooms

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2.2k Upvotes

This series initially started as a loose collections of drawings i made during biology class. My teacher was talking about the different kingdoms of taxonomy and i think to myself: "would it be cool if the Kingdoms actually fought against each other"

So i narrowed it down to just 3 kingdoms and made it into 3 different factions: - Animalian Empire, a renaissance type civilization of Anthro Animals inspired by warhammer's empire and HRE - Plantaean Kingdoms, collection of kingdoms of Plant People with more medieval aesthetic taking inspiration from Monty Python and Bretonnia - Fungi Horde, nomadic race of rampaging Fungi Armies inspired by the Mongols and Chaos Marauders from warhammer

r/worldbuilding Oct 21 '24

Lore [Black Horizon] This is how galactic empires harvest planets to fuel their interstellar fleets

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3.4k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Mar 22 '24

Lore Weapon Saints of Servannia

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2.6k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Jun 07 '24

Lore How my octopuses developed sentience, told as a myth within their world

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2.2k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Jul 10 '22

Lore [Meridia] REAL DIFFERENCE: a brief explanation of my magic system

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9.5k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Sep 19 '24

Lore In the future, you subscribe monthly for Human Rights.

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1.4k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Oct 25 '24

Lore I've developed mathematics for a non-human mind, and I want to tell you about it.

1.4k Upvotes

Sapient distant descendants of rats, known as packers, living on Earth millions of years after the extinction of humans, began to develop mathematics using cognitive mechanisms never intended for such tasks. Due to an evolutionary quirk, multiplication came more naturally to them than addition, and their mathematics reflects this

Packers write numbers as shapes, with each number having a corresponding number of corners.

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And they write large numbers as nested shapes. The number inside is multiplied by the number outside.

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Examples of some numbers:

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Packers haven't invented 0 yet. They haven't even invented 1! In fact, they don’t need the concept of "one" much in their system. There's no need to say "I ate one fish" when they can simply say "I ate fish".

Packers can't yet write large prime numbers, like 101 or 10,501, because they would have to draw a huge shape to represent them! Even writing 17 or 19 would be quite difficult if they only used convex shapes.

So packers use non-convex shapes too!

Many years later, some packer noticed that large prime numbers look suspiciously symmetric.

So this packer improved the notation system and made it clearer.

Later, another packer simplified this system even more, deciding that there was no point in writing the same shapes twice.

This packer was the first in their culture to declare that "a dot isolated from a number" should also be considered a number. The packer called this dot "the wonderful number that's less than two".

Many years later, another packer made an important innovation: the "dot isolation" could be repeated multiple times as long as the result remained odd. When the result became even, it could undergo a "two isolation" (division by two). The final result will be a series of dots and twos.

This invention led to the creation of a binary system based on one and two, which had a significant impact on the technological advancement of packers.

The comic "the book written by tiny paws" talks about all of this in more detail. There will be mistakes, debates, the invention of rational, irrational, multivariate numbers, and some other stuff. Some stuff will be very much like human math, and some will be different. After all, math is still math, only the point of view has changed.

r/worldbuilding Apr 26 '24

Lore First Post of My Fantasy World: Domesticated Bears

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1.7k Upvotes

Howdy folks! This is my first unofficial post for one of my world building projects. This world is a magitech-infused antiquity period level fantasy world. Some important info before I delve into each bear: this post would not be remotely possible without the brilliantly talented artist known as illustrated_menagerie whom you can find on instagram, DeviantArt, and Patreon. I commissioned him to design my bears in his style and thought pattern. Thanks again to my good friend Keenan!

“Domesticated bears come from the cold northern lands of Volksgaard. The Volksgaardi people trained social, tree-dwelling bears into a variety of domesticated roles. Using sacred techniques and mana-infused supplements, many cultures have tamed and domesticated unlikely animals not just reserved to the bears.

  1. House Bears - A similar story to that of the Mrr’saadi house lions, the house bears were a product of breeding the mighty beasts to not attack livestock and people unless commanded. This meant that a lot of them show no aggression or killer instincts whatsoever. These bears, deemed unsuitable for the jobs they were bred for, enjoy the life of a cherished pet.

Nobles of Volksgaardi clans usually have a few house bears that eat with them at the table and are spoiled, affectionate pets. Originally the breed wasn’t officially recognized, instead relegated to a catch all term for all bear breeds that didn't have sufficient aggression, stamina, or focus for the other tasks. However, after their popularity with nobles and wealthier commoners, the bears became specifically bred for companionship. Their social desire to care for young was heightened as well and they often make incredible companions for children, more so than some dog breeds. The most common sight for these “gentle” giants is as a living pillow for children and adults to cuddle and rest upon.

Do not mistaken its docility and cuddling behaviors as a sign for weakness. They are still weigh about 250-350 pounds and are highly protective of their families. When their “pack” is put in serious damage, the house bears can lash out, seriously maiming or killing the threat. Due to this, house bears are still expected to be treated with respect and caution to their size. While the threat of bears crushing young children a very real threat, house bears are often very aware of their size and I hugely attentive to the overall safety of the young ones, making accidents almost mythical in rarity.

  1. War Bears - Largest of the Volksgaardi domesticated bears, war bears, like war lions, are utilized in conflicts of many kinds. Unlike war lions, war bears are built for direct engagement of sometimes, multiple attackers. Loose skin, dense, shaggy fur, and a short, blunt head with strong necks for deadly bites; makes them terrifying tanks of flesh and fur.

The primary strategy of war bears are to travel through the back lines of a battlefield to get close to a line of men. When they are in striking distance, the bears are commanded to engage the foes. Long legs afford them a formidable stride and they can reach speeds of up to 40 mph. When they reach their targets, the bears slam into the group, breaking up the cluster and allowing archers to strike critical points while the bear does the heavy work.

With the proliferation of heavy infantry units used by the Bannerlords of the west, newer generations of war bears have been selected for even stronger jaws to tear off steel plates of the plate armor.

  1. Sheperd Bear - Livestock guardian bears; often referred to as shepherd bears, are primarily sheep herding bears that can fill a variety of livestock roles if the demand requires such. In the southern highlands and foothill forests of Volksgaard, sheep are abundant used for their meat and wool. Due to the warmer climate of the southern lands, cockatrice and other predatory saurians can live relatively comfortably. Shepherd bears are designed to fight these saurians and all other predators that threaten the flock with great tenacity and horrible aggression.

Shepherd bears are chosen by breeders as the largest and most aggressive of the population. Defending herds rather than hunting them was one of the first traits bred out of the beasts, so all could still be up for the task, but brawlers are preferred. While smaller than war bears, they are often far more aggressive. The long hair of these bears were bred to grow longer and thicker, matting with age and length. Overtime, this hair becomes like platw armor and makes them nearly invulnerable to bites and slashes from a variety of predators. While cockatrice are strong enough to penetrate the pelts of the bears, shepherd bears are often so aggressive and fierce that a cockatrice will sustain great damage during the brawl.

Huntsman Bears - If a domesticated bear shows traits like good endurance and high energy, they are often trained for hunting and war. Huntsman bears are more agile and speedy, a trait highly valuable in hunting breeds. Most huntsman bears hunt strictly by chasing down fast prey as little as a rabbit to as large as a moose.

A hunter where track the prey until within the bears sprinting distance. The bear then darts towards the prey at up to 45 miles per hour; before crashing down on the prey. In the bountiful pine barrens south of Volksgaard, many hunters make a humble living using these bears to take down all manner of bears, wolves, and small saurians.

Similarly to sheperd bears of the valleys, the huntsman bears also possess high aggression designed to strike fear into cockatrice. Despite the cockatrice being larger and stronger than the bears, most do not believe a fight against them is worth it.

Okay phew all done lol, if y’all have any questions feel free to ask I will try and answer in between breaks at work!

r/worldbuilding Mar 20 '23

Lore Anomaly Reference Packet: Cosmic Horror Alert Levels

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7.7k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Jun 02 '22

Lore Brief introduction of "Rune-magic" in the world of Servannia

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3.4k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Mar 15 '23

Lore PSA regarding the dangers of the Public Portal Network

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4.3k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Aug 25 '19

Lore Glimmers- a currency designed to be snapped in half

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19.4k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Dec 31 '23

Lore Some coats of arms that I'm working on. Which is your favourite?

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1.8k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Aug 29 '22

Lore The Great Soda War of 2025

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2.5k Upvotes

As the major soda brands Pepsi and Coca-Cola grew in the United States of America, the more powerful they became. They began to take control of each state they had the most power in.

Soon, it became a battle to control as much of the U.S.A. as possible, causing a civil war between the Coca-Cola Coalition and the Pepsi Allegiance.

This civil war began as more of a cold war, as each side threatens and attempts to out-compete the other. One day, however, everything changed.

It was all out war. Soldiers dying left and right on each front. Tanks and airplanes rolling into battle.

Each side held their defenses well, but none as well as the Coca-Cola Coalition. The Pepsi Allegiance lead an all-out assault on Washington D.C., yet they couldn't penetrate the CCC's defenses.

The war still rages on, and neither side can overpower the other. It's the powerful defenses of the CCC versus the determined soldiers of the Pepsi Coalition. Who could win?

r/worldbuilding Oct 04 '22

Lore I'm creating a comic book with a world where ancient warriors, advanced robots, and creatures from Japanese folklore coexist. What do you guys think? NSFW

2.8k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding Apr 24 '23

Lore [Lore] Slavery in the Terran Empire

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2.6k Upvotes