Chat Assorted original fiction discussion.

Welcome to this thread! What it's about is just fiction we as people have created and wish to share for the sake of discussion, critique, or just because you feel like sharing. It can be anything from lore, to item ideas, to stories and concepts, to original characters!
Now then... I'm just going to invite GMs from the RP section because they may enjoy this place.
@Dragonclaw @Roland Weiss @Arra @Relten (anyone else I need to invite?)

 

Indeed; I'm certainly interested in discussing story ideas, lore and the like.

 

i thought of a new setting recently! it is in a world called Pandemonia, or 'the dream'. it is supposedly a world created by a dreaming god's subconscious. it is split into an infinite number of sections, and the sections have a habit of teleporting at random - the inhabitants can never be sure who their neighbours will be the next day!
the character i came up with is a young bunny-monster called CHZ JST (aka Chess Justice) who lives on 'the cheese shard' with a village of nomads. the cheese shard is a section where one of the rock layers has been turned into cheese, and the village lives off of mined cheese.
nearby there is a river of socks; there are other nomads on the other side of the river who seem to think it's a good idea to fish in the socks, even though there's no fish.

 

The Key'Shin:

The Key'Shin ("The god's children" in their language) are a humanoid species that look suspiciously like humans. On average, they're about 150cm tall, weigh around 30kg and have a very pale complexion. Eye size can reach up to 120% of the human standard, 110% is the average. Aside from visible light, their eyes can perceive the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, their senses of smell and taste are sub-par though. Key'Shin have very resilient digestive tracts that can withstand, destroy and digest most orally consumed toxins and other harmful substances including rotten food, alcohol, shards of glass, amatoxins etc.

In optimal conditions, Key'Shin are very quick and very dexterous but, on average, weaker than the average human. This is because of their highly advanced nervous system. However, said nervous system has the major disadvantage of malfunctioning in temperatures warmer than 15°c. Malfunctions start at random twitches at slightly higher temperatures and eventually culminate in complete failure of the nervous system, leading to complete loss of control over all muscles including the heart which is, ultimately, fatal. Xenobiologists suggest that this is the only reason the Key'Shin have not expanded their empires far beyond what they have now despite having untold years of history more than human civilizations.

The cultural basis of the Key'Shin is the family and the house, both named with the word "Ash'Narras", "Ash" meaning "home" and "Narras" meaning "Kin", so Ash'Narras means "Home of Kin". Basically, all generations of a family live in the same, round tower-like house, with more stories being added as the family grows. Younger family members are expected to obey the older ones. The Key'Shin know few differences in gender - basically, the only time any gender gets any special treatment is when a woman is pregant - so the head of household is always the oldest one.

The Key'Shin have two superior, seven major and hundreds of minor gods. The two superior gods are, ironically, not worshipped - they are feared. One of them is Shuralibinat, the endless void of the universe, the other one is Kurashikulor, the endless mass of energy and matter. In the Key'Shin creating myth, both of them met in the Korrlokaran, the infinite emptiness (which is even emptier than a void), fell in love with each other and had seven children: The gods the Key'Shin claim to be descendants of:

• Key'Vunat: The god of war and honor. After his birth he was so furious, he cleaved a great scar through space, which would be the first black hole.
• Key'Kulee: The goddess of mercy and health. She managed to calm down her older brother and heal the wound he slashed into reality. Said healed wound would be the first star.
• Key'Nara: The goddess of the hunt and stealth. She made the first animals for her brother to hunt and for her sister to heal.
• Key'Voku: The goddess of the weather and emotions: She gave Key'Nara's creations speed and created powerful storms for her amusement.
• Key'Eshton: The god of crafts and fire. He crafted a powerful weapon for his oldest brother but hid in a volcano because he liked to be alone.
• Key'Thrak: The god of secrets and knowledge. He taught his siblings forbidden knowledge and built a huge library in the center of the planet which supposedly contains every book that has ever been written, ever will be written and ever could be written.
• Key'Orun: The god of nature and farming. He created plants and animals who could survive in the extreme climates the Key'Shin need.

Key'Shin express who they are through traditional tattoos. The back is reserved for the family crest, the left arm is for siblings, the left leg for ancestors, the right arm for friends and the right leg for personal achievements. The face is only tattooed in case of personal shame, and receiving a tattoo to the face is considered equal to banishment by most.

The most important thing for Key'Shin to achieve is honor. Their concept of honor is slightly difference from ours though. To gain honour, a Key'Shin has to be good what they do, whether that be traditional combat, farming, a specific craft or even backstabbing people. Dishonor, however, is gained by breaking promises, failing to serve elders or superiors and being bad at one's job. Key'Shin that incur too much dishonor bring dishonor upon their families and are thus kicked out. The only way to redeem themselves at that point is to join the Dishonored - bands of mercenaries with no armor and whatever weapon they can get that sell their services to anyone with the sole purpose of dying in combat.

I have a whole bunch more info about the Key'Shin, but it takes some time to translate it, so if you have any questions about them feel free to ask away and I'll translate and/or explain the appropriate part!

 

Now I feel like sharing the salzarian lore...
The Salzar (means greater serpent) are a race of giant parasitic snakes that live in the guts and bodies of "salg'hæīs" (greater giant) which are incredibly massive upper ocean dwelling creatures sort of resembling massive crocodilian-whales. Naturally, they don't have limbs, and spent their days like animals, forming and maintaining territories in their host and feeding off of that which it consumed. However, despite there being enough food consumed by the creature to feed a city, there was never enough for such a population.
Until "bjau'fi" (cancerous tumor in our terms, endless growth in theirs) was discovered. Of course over time the dwellers within this particular leviathan abused, consumed, and later controlled it, finding a way to somehow manage the growth. (Won't go into details because I don't understand it) Things started interesting when they uncovered strange mutations in their domesticated creatures and began to understand the principles of genetics and breeding as they continued experimenting.
Skip many millennia in the future to "now", and these serpent men have managed to master genetics as much as we have elecrictity, or he sallok have thermodynamics mechanics, and pneumatics. They've managed to construct massive cities within the leviathans in an incredible symbiosis, create biological enhancement of a wonderous kind (especially including growing limbs in a lab and giving them to a child for their fifth birthday, since that's how long it takes to make), and exploring outside of their living cities. It was around that time that live contact with sallok was made, since they had only then begun exploring upper sea territory and were still quite prone to getting devoured. In one case, they were lucky enough to end up as food for a salg'hæīs and remained intact due to their diving suit. Of course, relations began to grow outwards from there, but tenser as well. Some parties were skeptical of the other, and conflict began emerging in tales I will tell in coming fiction stories.
Uhh, as for gods, they have many, but praise only one now and fear the rest, the same as their sallokian cousins. The limbed serpent all father... the great old one...
___

Lessee... any questions?

 

So what about you guys' ideas about post mortem existence? If any.

 

If you suffer from writers block or just don't like what you've produced so far, how about asking for help here? From many other posts in many other threads I can see that creativity isn't a problem for you, so maybe we can assist you? I'm sure many, including me, would do so if asked.

 

Post-mortem existence you say?

 

I think it's a posh way of saying 'afterlife'.

 

More or less. Here's the treiachian belief... for now...

They believe that any living thing Is composed of three things. The mind, the body, and the soul. (Cliche, I know) The body is driven by the mind, which holds memories, which is then controlled by the soul, which holds the person's "persona". (Multiple in some rare cases. Mirra, Luci, Aus/Blae/Jar, etc.)
When the brain, sustained by the body, dies, the soul is released to the "Dreamlands". There they will relive their entire life up to that point from the third perspective, and judge in the end whether they wish to be reborn again, wander forever in the dreamlands, or be smothered and destroyed from existence. However, without the logic and such of the mind, their judgment can only be their unfiltered decision.
The dreamlands are a dangerous realm. More or less where a soul goes if they do not judge themselves as having lived goodly enough to be reborn, nor evil enough to be dispersed. They will simply be working to make their way back to the stream of consciousness, trekking the lands to find the 7000 steps of deeper slumber and return to the realm of the living to be given a new body and mind in a developing fetus. What creature you get, who knows...

 

Yes, very clichéd, you should be ashamed.

Ehm, sorry, all joking aside; this falls kinda in the realm of philosophy, so I don't know if it's relevant to the discussion, but I feel the need to share it.

I'm not one for writing about the afterlife, since it's not something I can bring myself to believing. Something that cannot be proven either true or false falls under the category of things not worth thinking about; after all, the dead tell no tales.

I fear death, as one should, because the only rational explanation is oblivion; without senses to perceive any new experiences, nothing is what we would feel. And what other options are given to us? The eternal paradise is preached by religions as a reward of a life of piety, the eternal torment preached by the same religions as a means to scare those who would 'stray from the path' back towards 'righteousness', whatever that might be. Reincarnation is the more interesting option, another shot at life, but this all falls apart when one bring to mind the one element that is needed for this all to be possible.

The soul, the spirit, whatever you wish to call it, something beyond our mortal shells that defines us. Something that could depart from our bodies and travel to these afterlives, and most importantly, it is immaterial, invisible, immeasurable. One thing must be asked, since it is something that cannot be measured, how can we be certain such a thing really exists? Or is it all just an invention by our fevered dreams to rationalize our own mortality? We fear death, after all, so the thought of death being the end of our lives, well, it can be difficult to fathom.

Perhaps I will be proven wrong, when I die I might see myself facing my maker; but frankly, until that happens, I chose not to think about it.

 

Yeah. Personally that's why i fear death as much as I welcome it. Endless nonexistence is a scary thought, but I wouldn't exist to be tormented by it. I wouldn't care, or anything like that. While I prefer a more pleasant alternative, this seems like the likeliest outcome.

 

Cliche? Yes. Unjustified cliche? No.

The body I shouldn't have to explain, because it kind of helps with being a species and manipulating things and stuff. The mind is also important, since we're talking about a sentient species here. The soul could always be interpreted as a person's individuality.

Some cliches exist for a reason, and the Mind-Body-Soul trinity is one of them because it makes sense.

 

Why....why didn't I get the alert for this!

 

Sounds like I'd enjoy hanging around here..

 

Because more than two tags breaks the tag system? Or your alerts hate you; doesn't help that this thread is three weeks old.

 

Pfaaaaaaaaaaawh........I am perturbed at my alert system!