Re: Worldbuilding Invitational
Well, I gave it a try. Pardon any typos, I wanted to get through it a bit quick.
3-6 terms huh?
Global warming
Medieval weaponry
Nuclear physics
Cheese
If you can add porn to it somehow, that's bonus points
Sounds like a great exercise in creativity either way
And lo', the world did burn, as the Men-of-Old did unleash the Fires of Heaven. As unto thunderbolts they were, Celestial Wrath made manifest, and in their combustion the Old World perished. Consumed in the conflagration, strangled in the ashen downpour, snuffed away as the life-giving sun hid its visage for three full years in shame over the arrogance of the Men-of-Old. And when it returned, it shone not with gentle benevolence, but with a disdain for mankind, and we knew it had disowned us. We had been banished from Eden and sent into the Wastelands, where all did wilt and wither, and the air was choked with dust. And so we did wander, memories of old cleverness growing dim and faded, until we were lesser, and the wild beasts of the wilderness yet again became our foes, dragging away the weak into the dark of night.
But survive mankind did, and in time they did find the secrets of the wilderness, where water was bountiful, and they reclaimed lost arts, so as to make themselves safe against beast and stranger alike. In the ruins of te old World they did find steel, and so they made it into arms and armour, and some beasts they did tame, so as to ride out into the wilderness to protect their trade caravans carrying precious cargo. And man, nourishing himself on clear water hauled from the deeps, protected within the Oasis Fortresses, and the milk and cheese of mares and cattle, did yet grow strong, and in time he came to covet his neighbors riches, and so did war return, brave warrior clasing with brave warrior.
Those closed off from the Oasis Fortresses clinged to life in rocky places. Shielding themselves from the unforgiving gaze of the furious sun, and his daughters; the roaring winds that rip and tear, and indeed the invisible killer of old, that slow fire that makes the Gyger-accounters crackle and sputter, and skin burn with no visible flame. Closed off, they gathered water in the meagre ways they could, and ambushed with bows of bone and sinew those caravans they could. And if they could take the womenfolk of the Fortress-dwellers, they would, and used them for breeding, for in the unforgiving wasteland the supple flesh of woman is the grail which many lone wandering men seek. Indeed, Oases traded in them like commodities, and those that did not have water aplenty, might trade their womenfolk or their services of such commodities.
But something has changed... Rumours has it that soemwhere within the Central Massif there exists an artifact of old, that hums and churns... that it contains the cunning of the Men-of-Old, a cunning that could bring life to the Wasteland, and more importantly, unimaginable wealth and power to those that could master it. The race is on...
-Everything made of candy
-Red Light District
-Strip Casino
-Crooked Cops with Scoliosis
Step right up, step right up, guys and gals, and welcome to the brilliant city of Vices! It's the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas and the psycopaths giant purple dildo bat! Ah yeah, don'cha worry, we've got everything you could imagine, desire, and a whole load'a stuff the imagination can't even account for. Haha, and how!
Don't worry, chum, I'll be your guide to the City of Vices, don't you be so all balled up, I'm not just running my gums, see?
Now let us just crack of a pair of candy canes from this tree over here - and oh, don't start eatin' the walls or pavement willya, City Council sends out hefty fines for that kinda behaviour, don't take any wooden nickles, y'see? Unless ya gots some moolah of course, some jack, rubes, dough. The Bulls - err, that's the cops - will let ya go if ya pay 'em, if not you'll be on the lam - y'know, all fugitively-like, and no one really wants that, do tey? Nosiree!
'course, many'a the Bulls have that spine-twist that make 'em not so good at runnin their gams, so it's all very allegorical-like, you follow? No? Don't worry, sonny-boy, I've got your covered, we'll be sipping the giggle water in no time! Positively ossified the both of us, hah, splifficated to kingdom come!
Now, here's what ya gonna hafta know - the different districts, they offer different services, y'see? The ones with the red lamps, it has all the dolls, the birds, ya know - that you can spend some quality time together with for a bit of dough. Then there's the Die district. Nah, don't worry, s'not about biting the dust - hah, you slay me, chum! The Die District is for gamblin', see, throwin' die and playing the cards. Gotta be clever and quick with yer hands, in one or the other, yaknowatteyemean? If your lucky, you can get to see some birds in there too, doing the whole rigamarole of getting their corsets 'n' suspenders off, if ya play ya cards right.
Now, the most important thing ya gotta remember is...
don't look up into the skies, all right? Ignore the giant tentacles in the roiling skies above, and the lightning strikes that illuminate the eyeballs - watching us always. Just play along... Haha, easy, see? Don't question any of it! Let's go have a swell ol' time!
1) Wizards have no moral compass
2) Balkan Elves
3) Orcs are human/demon crossbreeds
4) Sci-Fi
(This one burnt me out a bit. I'll need a break before doing any others. XD )
It all started when Arabur the Golden sealed off the Zodiac Gate. For eternities it had stood there, revolving in the skies, sending omens and tidings from the Highest of Highs to those below, human and elf alike. Unjust rulers were condemned, merciless conquerors likewise. Those humble and gracious were granted the mercy of the gods, and given a voice to speak out against injustice and cruelty.
But Arabur and his ilk, the Arcanists, the Sorcerers, the Enchanters... they wanted it otherwise. "The gods are dead", Arabur proclaimed, and so the ritual was commenced, and the gates sealed shut. It had been in the name of progress - so that mortals should not have to rely on the whims of otherwordly beings. In reality, it merely replaced the whims of one kind of beings with those of another.
Arabur started by burning the city of Khobosh, which once had exiled him for proclaiming his message. Every last man, woman and child in the city were burnt to a cinder as the Wizard established a new order, of reason and logic. And supreme power in the hands of the Wizards. The Amethyst Order took up their experimentations on the remains of the dead, and created their working legions of desiccated corpses and skeletal walkers. The Jade Fellowship took and twisted nature's order, and through alchemical processes created many undreamt creatures into life, though paying no heed to the consequences and the havoc the creatures wreaked on the populace. "Common lives cannot stand in the way of enlightenment," said the Wizard Golmar, as he bound the spirits of twenty-thousand slaves into his constructs, shaped like men and beasts and vehicles, and made them into the unthinking automata that were to serve him and the others in the Circle of Sapphire.
Then, of course, the Wizards started killing each other, never content with the limitations forced upon them by opposing factions and frustrating rivals.
In the land of the Elves, the old order sustained by the gods, the Godseers and the Godspeakers buckled and splintered under centuries of pent up aggression. The representatives of Heaven were sacrificed most grisly to try to bring the gods back, but to no avail, and so the Ghurim-ta elves of the eastern highlands took the gods-anointed blood for themselves, in an act of primeval cannibalism forbidden since the first law was formulated in multi-voiced elven song. The Ghurim-ta were forever changed, and shunned the sun, growing pale and red-eyed, and became reliant on drawing the blood of others for their sustance. In return they were given command over darkness, mists and confusion, and all the beasts that feed on carrior.
In the far west, the Hauta-ta and the Lyrt-ta clashed into conflict over whose princeling was the true heir to the Throne of Seasons, and as the conflict lasted, more and more young princelings grew terrible antlers and horns and became overcome with the urge of the Wild Hunt, waging an unceasing war on the rivals - one side in perpetual autumn, the other in perpetual spring. Neither backing down.
All along the coasts, the Hattin-ta, the sea elves, raided the shores and killed villagers and drowned the emissaries of their enemies. Their ships made from living wood and imbued with the spirits of their dead captains. The Sea elves thought no land-dweller worthy of traversing the sea, and inherently inferior to the storm-riding, wind-howling, vastness-seeing Hattin-ta themselves.
And Ekena-ta saw it all, and barricading themselves within their fortress cities, the Deep Elves began forging weapons to sell to the highest bidder, making a high profit off the chaos that had been caused by the silence of the gods.
But it then came to pass, that the skies suddenly roiled in fire - and from them came three meteors. They rained fire and brimstone and destroyed the landscape around which they landed. At first, peopel thought the disaster was over, but alas, it was only just begun. Some say they were the punishment of the gods, others say there were the gods themselves, malformed and corrupted from being torn away from their children - yet others speculate that they were travellers from afar who'd set off to find the gods after Arabur had sealed the Celestial Gate. Regardless, they emerged. Spiked, clawing, jibbering monsters whom the native peoples dubbed "demons", and they ascended on the people with unbridled fury, seeking to kill everyone with no mercy and no questions asked. Not even the automata or the undead, or the mist-masters could stand against them, and in the end they sacked Arabur's Golden Pinnacle, and killed and dismembered the mighty wizard. The demons used automata of a kind of their own, buzzing metallic flies that flittered the skies, carrying warriors everywhere, rumbling brass wagons with no animals pulling them, and tubes spewing fire and molten metal.
But, a small order of wizards had a desperate idea. They took human slaves, and forced them to interbreed with captive demons that were calmed with powerful magics. The fruit of this sacriligeous labour were deemed strong, savage like the demons, but with intelligence near that of humans. And so these wizards, in secret, while the world burnt, created massive legions of these creature, whom they dubbed "orcs", and in time they unleashed them. The orcs were a success. For whatever reason, the demons failed to instantly recognize them as enemies, unlike the other races, and so the orcs raced into the fallen comets and therein killed what is said to be a giant wurm giving birth to the demons. The orcs slaid two of these, but could not reach the last one before it seemingly disappeared below the ground, together with most of the demons.
But now the wizards wanted to return the orcs into slave labour and experiments. To this a few orcs said no, establishing tribes along the lines of the old armies, and escaping into the wilderness, in order to find their own destiny.
