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jmepik -> RE: Let's make a world (12/19/2012 23:51:36)
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I am using the name Earth for the planet, for now, as a fake name. This is a world. A world, inhabited by races, species who have tried many times to coexist, and often can. Hmm, lets go a bit realistic here - if we're going to structure this like our planet, then there will be poles, northern and southern areas on the globe where the sun can't melt the ice. Deserts, viciously forested lands ravished by the apparent greed of men. Cracks in the landscape where water is completely devoid, and oil has been sucked out of. This greed drove the other species to try and push away the humans, perhaps to the point where the only way out was either a total war, or for man to move away. Now, in a war, the greedy and technologically advanced species of man would easily beat the often considered secondary species of orcs, trolls and elves. However, unlike the ordinary humans, elves, orcs and trolls have access to magic. And this makes a stalemate between the two species - at least in that point of development.
Love for magic, and fear for what would happen if they were consumed by curiosity like mankind, the other species abstain from technology, to the point where they live on the surface, trying to heal the deserts that man has created, while humans spend their days building, creating and inventing technologies in the sky. Imagine the city in Bioshock Infinite, only several times larger, and part of a larger network of airborne cities above the skies. As the unquenchable thirst for knowledge and the drive of curiosity advances man's machinery, they are at a new turning point in their development. Particles. Genetic modification and experimentation. Viruses and bacteria. Radio. Light. Tachyons. The microwave. Weaponized electricity. Plasma. Radiation, nuclear fusion and fission, solar energy, quantum physics, travel beyond the speed of light.
It has come to the point where man's science is going way beyond what magic has achieved. Space travel, exploring and discovering the exosphere, stumbling upon quantum phenomenon - basically Star Trek. With a final farewell, man takes it one step further and leaves the Earth, living in orbiting colonies, deploying ships to travel the galaxies. As they expand their reach throughout space, they begin building orbiting structures above the planet to protect it from natural or unnatural objects. Having given up on their "intolerant and ignorant counterparts", society has become nearly completely pro-human, to the point of speciesism (Wikipedia says its a word).
This doesn't exactly sit well with the magic folk. Despite a largely segregated culture, several humans have decided to leave the Near Orbit Colonies, and live a quieter life amongst the more "grounded" species. Of course, as some humans long to stay down below, away from science, many a troll, orc or elf wishes to explore the stars, and travel to distant galaxies. Families often rupture as rebellious youth sign up for Star exploration, or become physicists or biologists. As the years roll by, the ruling councils of the 3 Earth-born species are dealing with revolutions - generations of young elves and trolls and orcs, voting to mix magic and science - to try and get the best of both worlds. Senatorial arguments and democratic votes are held across the planet, as empires and states are divided amongst the opinion of the young, and that of the old. After many many years, notions of speciesism die out.
Technically, the earth is now nearly void of savannahs or grasslands. Mountainous regions and valleys are mostly ruled by the Elves, as the orcs and trolls study volatile magic amongst the swamps and the underground. Giant structures of marble, and cities carved out of mountainsides populate the lush surface, as the species go about their business. Despite the somewhat segregated areas, many a troll or orc can be found in the fair cities of the elves, and many an elf can be seen working in an underground magic-smith's shop, making artifacts or hunting weaponry. Technology has not advanced on the earth, despite several decades worth of negotiation between Humans and their former planet-mates. However, despite the constant abstinence vote from Earth, this is soon changing, as more and more revolutionaries are entering government, impressing politicians, and forcing resignations, as more and more people are voting for a coalition between man, orcs, trolls and elves, and more importantly - joined research into both science and magic, introducing both aspects of the universe into the education of the youth, and hoping for a better tomorrow in the light of science and fires of magic.
Now, the 4 species are the somewhat "main" species on the planet. The majorities. Goblins, ethereal beings, androids, lycans, vampires. They exist. They're the minorities. Vampirism is more of an exception - scientifically speaking, it is a virus, with magical qualities - this makes it one of the first subjects researched in the new union between the two factions - however, this means that many vampires are being tested on, and this creates a conflict between the minority, and the 4 big species. Therefore, this would be a big issue for anyone playing a political character, and it would be amongst the points they'd have to discuss. The ethical and moral standards in the research into these topics. For example, ethics and morals were abandoned during the genetic modification phase - however, after an incident involving a "super-powered" human, research into that matter has been restricted, unless closely supervised by the government and completely green-lighted by all factions of leadership surrounding earth.
The topic of angels and demons, and religious creatures can be debated, but my idea was that it was amongst the magical phenomenon that is being researched right now. We could say that deities are a higher alien species, and that hell-spawns and angels are their less powerful offspring, each coming from a hellish or heaven-like dimension within a space-time continuum rift - a portal that opens every now and again, causing a massive solar flare or something, and each time, one of these advanced beings are sent through.
The world I speak of allows for all types of genres and time periods - you can be an elf in space (amongst the first, actually), or you can be a human working in an orcish adaptation of the mines of Moria, with more magic and less Balrogs. Or more, if you want to.
All these ideas are momentary and can be changed, but its the structure between science and magic and how it affected the growth of the species on the planet - as well as the planet itself - which I am proposing.
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