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  • File : 1287801569.jpg-(9 KB, 319x319, brackish.jpg)
    9 KB Anonymous 10/22/10(Fri)22:39 No.12539605  
    So I need some help with a fantasy setting I'm designing which plays with our typical assumptions about time.

    So I'll describe what I have so far, and we'll see what sorts of suggestions spring to mind.
    >> Anonymous 10/22/10(Fri)22:40 No.12539613
    === HISTORY ===

    So this world had a finite beginning where it just sort of popped into existence one day fully-formed, with all the people and animals. It was created by an omnipotent god as a form of entertainment after he became bored with his previous world.


    === ANTHROPOLOGY ===

    Humans are very unusual in this setting. A finite number of humans were created as fully-formed adults at the same time as the world was. They all innately possess certain knowledge such as language, their name, how to walk, etc. These humans never age, become ill, or reproduce (possibly genderless?).

    However they can sort of die from an injury, hunger, or thirst. Once "killed", the person disappears, and their body rematerializes somewhere else on this world. Once they reappear, they no longer have their memories, skills, etc. but those slowly return over time.


    === GEOGRAPHY ===

    Life exists on the inside of an enormous hollow sphere, sort of like the old "hollow earth" theory.

    Light comes from a blanket of luminescent clouds high above which softly glow in a wide range of colors and brightnesses. This "weather" is completely locked in place and never changes for a specific area.
    >> Anonymous 10/22/10(Fri)22:44 No.12539674
    So we're still looking for things like:

    >Biology:
    How would animals adapt to this world?

    >Sociology:
    How would human society group itself together in this situation? Hunter-gatherer? Villages? Nations? What would the culture be like and what would it value?

    >Raw Materials:
    Is this world missing something we take for granted? Wood? Clay? Metal? How would that effect how human society developes.

    >Technology:
    How far was technology come? Stone tools? Steel-making? Perhaps further?


    And so much more!
    >> Anonymous 10/22/10(Fri)22:52 No.12539762
    Hmm, kinda quite here...

    Well I'm thinking that since time isn't really an issue in this world, maybe the cities are so huge and extravagant and enormous and beyond human comprehension.
    >> Anonymous 10/22/10(Fri)23:17 No.12539994
    Okay, I'll continue talking to myself then...

    People would definitely group themselves together in clans or societies, but a lot of it would depend on what natural resources were available. Hmm... I'm just not so good at coming up with the specifics. All I can think of are normal biomes and environments and stuff. But I want something original...
    >> Alternate OP 10/22/10(Fri)23:21 No.12540032
    I think you locked yourself in corner, bro. The god that did this for the lulz, who had the power to do it for the lulz, isn't someone who is going to forget a basic ecosystem.

    In itself, I'd say map out the world, then add mythologies as you see fit. For extra points, I'd recommend Hindu mythology, those haven't really been done.
    >> Anonymous 10/22/10(Fri)23:24 No.12540073
    >>12540032
    Well, that was really just as afterthought to explain away everything else about the world. It's a minor detail and this whole thing is early enough in development for everything to change.

    Also, as for religion, I don't see humans as being as interested in religion since there's less of a need for it to calm fears about the afterlife and morality and such.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)00:04 No.12540481
    Okay, time for some more talking to myself...

    I like the idea of there being no wood. That would mean you'd have to get creative: a lot of things made from bone and leather, a very natural look to things. Maybe there's not even any metal-working skills and everything is just harvested from the various parts of enormous beasts. I think that would make architecture and toold very interesting.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)00:17 No.12540617
    More self-musing:

    Hmm... yes, I like it so far. Let's go with very diverse animal and plant life. Some of it very enormous, powerful, and/or dangerous. However in this world there's no woody plants or metal. Now moving on from there...
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)00:34 No.12540781
    Talking to self:

    Now, eventually the society would reach an equilibrium, a point where things pretty-much wouldn't change, but it would take a while to get there. So let's think about how things would progress logically...

    1.) Everyone wakes up naked and confused. I'm not sure how big the world is and how many people there are, but let's assume it's a lot.

    2.) It's a very hectic time, everyone is trying to band together and survive while constantly starving and being killed off by the giant monsters and such.

    3.) Eventually people start to get the hang of things and form clans that survive by different means. Some master farming, and erect defenses to protect them. Some become nomadic and master hunting.

    3.) But what next? Damn... I can't imagine city-state becoming larger and developing all that normal stuff like kings and taxes and slaves. Something about the humans in this world seems fundamentally equal, and makes them hard to manipulate.

    So is that the point of equilibrium? Hunter-gatherer tribes and small villages? I dunno...
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)00:50 No.12540945
    >>12540781
    Even more talking to self:

    Ah! But each individual town / city-state wouldn't need to grow! They'd only need a set number of people who were in their original clan and they would stay in there forever. They might take on the rare occasional traveler who could do some skill that no one else could, but other than that, there wouldn't be any need.

    But then there's another problem... what would they do all day? what is the goal that people have? It's sort of survival, but that's not as big a deal as it is with us. So... pleasure, love, adventure, comfort, fun, etc. Those would be the focus for people. Maybe towns and stuff would just be temporary and used by whoever needs them, and everyone just moves on to whatever adventures await them.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)01:06 No.12541083
    Just so we're totally clear here, 11 out of the 12 posts in this thread so far have been me talking to myself. Stunning...

    Okay, I like it so far. People band together and make friends, sometimes on a whim and go do things. Maybe they want to build something or go get raw materials or get revenge or explore or whatever. And some of these buildings (made of stone and animal skins and whatnot) eventually just litter the landscape as ruins and act as meet-up points.

    On a side note: since there aren't any oceans in this land, it could be roughly the same size as earth, and still have three times as much livable area.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)01:08 No.12541101
    >>12540481
    So Monster Hunter universe, sans metalworking?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)01:09 No.12541110
    >>12541101
    With some Riverworld mixed in...
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)01:26 No.12541240
    My next thread will be more organized, I promise:

    >>12540032
    It is interesting that you should mention that, because one of the things that got me interested in this was the Mahabharata. I wanted some kind of epic war with mighty heroes and gods backing each side. Then I needed a good setting for it.

    So I'm thinking maybe... the setting for the story is that this over-god that I described in post #2 is becoming bored with this world now, and gives the people a chance to redeem themselves by orchestrating a war between two mighty clans. He sends down a few avatars who are allowed to each choose a warrior and give them advice and help, but never participate directly in the battles. Something like that.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:17 No.12541643
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    Also, does anyone have some nice landscapes to incorporate?

    I personally like the Pyrenees.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:21 No.12541668
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    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:26 No.12541707
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    It has to be places with no trees.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:29 No.12541723
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    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:29 No.12541724
    Make up shit time. Not wood? How about a flexible stone as strong as steel?

    Call it Malgerite.

    It could be very rare and have lots of "alchemist" or whatever you want to call them trying to create more of it.

    It would be a "growing stone". A rare sight to see one growing. They grow up out of the ground and slowly bend until they form a kind of half circle shape.

    Even if you do find some it would be hard to take it as it is strong as steel and can go on for miles into the "dirt" or whatever you want to be the basic material of the planet.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:37 No.12541778
    >>12541724
    Ooh, a contribution!

    Yes, yes... what about this: rock in this world has more properties in common with crystal. In other world it kind of naturally grows in a predictable way and stuff. And there's different varieties and whatnot.

    Ah! And maybe there's no dirt, and plants attach themselves to specific kinds of rock in the way that lichens and mosses and stuff do.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:38 No.12541787
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    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:40 No.12541799
    >>12541778
    Sounds fantastic.

    Would this world be mostly liquid or solid?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:45 No.12541830
    >>12541799
    My inkling is mostly solid with drinking water coming from natural underground springs, which form lakes and such. There would be no precipitation.

    Of course there could be larger amounts, and it is nice to have some borders. None of this is set in stone.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:50 No.12541862
    if humans are new, have other races. elves who live in the tangle, a wicked maze of razor sharp crystals only the craftiest and most agile humans can navigate more than a few rods deep before dying.

    have a race of centaur folk, wild savages who for the first time in history are gathering into a great horde to strike at the greatest of human cities.

    there is a vast desert region that men who worship dark things in small caves and warrens beneath the earth have been exiled to. rumor has it they have learned to tame the ravenous ur-hyenas, to ride them and drink their milk. they have made a bargain with the horse-men to split a small alliance of recently formed city-states that have been founded as modest fortresses on top of steep but low rising plateaus (there are few, if any mountains in this world, or at least near the desert.)

    great rivers of magma course through some places, and wondrous works can be constructed by men and elves who know the ken of the lava, able to guide it's coursing to create vase, hollow rock structures, or in the case of elves, expand their crystal forest.

    Vast fields of low growing vegetables, rice marshes and above all else, many types of fast growing hardy and flavorful fungi grow rampantly. in some regions slime molds and insects the size of 2 centaurs roam about.

    the sky is the ocean. the odd gravity of the place has a null zone in the clouds, full of large, gas bladder filled sky ecology. everything from shrimp to whales floats eternally through the mists. they are hard to see but a few clever humans who have forged perfect glass lenses from the lava have built telescopes and seen them.

    the wild men in the desert wish to ride them for war and have enacted several measures to truck with the beasts, or perhaps subdue.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)02:55 No.12541901
    >>12541862

    by null zone i mean an area where the gravity of the center ( if there is such a thing) and the gravity from the hollow earth would create an area of what was effectively microgravity, and with clouds that are incredibly dense and liquid, capable of being sailed on.

    if there is nothing in the center, then its just an area of micro-gravity/ sailable free fall
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:02 No.12541971
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    >>12541862
    Blast... I know it's hypocritical, but I feel kind of embarrassed when someone has better ideas than me. But anyways:

    That sounds great. All these different races (I don't like using the stereotypical fantasy races, I can come up with my own), are "tied" to different areas of the land. In other words, they can go anywhere, but if they die, they are reborn in that original area.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:07 No.12542016
    >>12541862
    >>12541901
    Oh, and I really like the ideas about the enormous creature in the aether up there. But I'm not so sure about the whole null zone thing. Maybe it should be more like... a precious few of the enormous animals have been harnessed, maybe by teams of men with harpoons from the top of the highest mountains, and they are used as living airships?

    You could have an enormous bassinet hanging down and not have to really worry because there probably wouldn't be any wind in this world.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:08 No.12542025
    Any areas like the desert?

    Don't have to be hot. Just dry.

    There's no rain right?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:14 No.12542074
    >>12541971
    another thought, from the wall o' text guys.

    for the wild men and the fortress states as well.

    because humans are new to the world, it does not yet recognize them, and human-beast hybrids are possible although in a few generations when men are not so unrecognized by nature this will no longer be true.

    the wild men in the desert have created broods of hyena-children, hungry clever beasts who wish to serve their fathers. they are also the progenitors of the centaurs but abandoned them, fearing that their strength and speed would over come their fire and spears.

    in the cities the matriarchs direct clever men to breed with cows and mammoths, producing towering bull-men who guard the city gates and massive cow-women who serve as wet nurses for the matriarchs..

    (inb4 furry, this is rather grotesque bestiality that's supposed to have an island of dr. moreau feel)

    The half-breeds are not much smarter than a gorilla and capable of only halting, crude speech, and a craven devotion to their human progenitors, encouraged in part by an addiction to a species of hallucinogenic mushroom and stupefying amounts of rice wine and honey mead.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:15 No.12542089
    >>12542025
    Nope, no rain.

    Originally I thought the weather, including the precipitation, was locked in place eternally. But that causes some immense problems. Namely erosion and plantlife and all that.

    But yeah, I'm not sure about how the temperature would work, but plantlife should be termined by how much water seeps up naturally through the ground.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:20 No.12542141
    >>12542089

    you could have rain. the rain occurs where the rice marshes and the like are. rain watersheds inevitably lead to the lava flows. the land in between lava and water flows is very rich, damp ash soil. the water is boiled away when it hits a lava flow and goes back into the sky.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:22 No.12542165
    >>12542141

    alternatively, have it be like the bible in genesis where before there was rain mists rose out of the earth and gave the plants moisture.

    if you're willing to say that days have two periods of weather (sort of to replace night) where the sky thickens and a light rain comes down for a portion of the day.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:27 No.12542216
    >>12542074
    Hmm... well I do like it. But I'm trying to go with a sort of semi-immortal, no procreation type world.

    And as for the other races, I'd like for everything in the world to sort of come into existence at the same time.

    >>12542165
    Mmm... that would solve some problems, but I'd like to keep this world kind of "timeless", which means no real concept of days or years or birth or death or anything.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:30 No.12542233
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    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:31 No.12542241
    >>12542216

    sounds fun but i got more of a hyperborea/conan/exalted/paleolithic vibe from where you went originally.

    i'd suggest checking out the chronicles of amber and nobilis, if you want the people to be semi-divine as well.

    i'm out of ideas for the direction you want to go in. happy hunting!
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:39 No.12542303
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    >>12542241
    Aww... I did want it to go that way too...

    Well, I'm flexible! Those were great ideas!
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:41 No.12542315
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    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:43 No.12542334
    Played around on google translate.

    Your basic four types,

    Min Sychete: Dreamers. Peace is pleasure. Calm is happy.

    Gia Timi: Fighters. The meaning of life is to fight. To fight is to live.

    Elpizo Ktirio: Builders. Work for luxury. Make dreams come true.

    Allagi Fysi: Naturist. One with the land. Teamwork is the key to life.

    Any ideas come from reading?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)03:47 No.12542356
    >>12542241

    i'm back with one last idea. no mountains. instead have giant trees. i know, you said no wood. there isn't any. these trees are miles tall, massive things that would dwarf skyscrappers. on the outer surface of a planet they'd be as tall as a space elevator. their uppermost reachs form the skeleton of massive sky-reefs that house what larger sky-aquatics consume.

    the trees are too hard (perhaps made of crystal like the tangle instead of true trees?) to be harvested from, even lava only discolours them.

    humans can climb them, and while 99% of them have dangerous, large tree-lions that hunt men, a few that are near where men have settled have slowly and methodically been purged and settled. at their "tops" men hunt the great sky-aquatics, and tame some to ride.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:07 No.12542465
    >>12542356
    Mmmm! Yes, I like that. I'm picturing crystal forests. Enough light to have mosses and stuff latches onto all their surfaces, discoloring them and supporting a wide ecosystem inside, all the say up to the sky. Yes, yes...

    >>12542334
    Ahh, so these are kind of like... ideas for tribes or personality types or something?

    Well, either way, they did get me thinking. Basically of different societies based around these values. Nomadic raiders, great builders and craftsmen who hide away in their guarded city, tranquil wandering hermits, etc etc.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:12 No.12542488
    >>12542465

    the great trees are isolated from one another as well (the rise like lonely mountains)

    and they have massive year-round fruits that drop.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:14 No.12542494
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    This is a real picture, by the way.

    Creepy...
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)04:14 No.12542503
    >>12542488
    What kind of fruit we talking about?

    Like a coconut?

    I image they'd have a mushy center from trying to gather as much liquid as they can.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:19 No.12542529
    >>12539674
    >How would animals adapt to this world?
    Animals wouldn't adapt as such in the way the do in the real world since they were just created as is. There are three options I can see you viably using:
    1: All animals were created a certain way but over time have evolved as necessary, changing physically and mentally as selective pressure is applied.
    2: The animals were designed as is and cannot evolve physically. They can, however, develop intellectually like humans would so that the smarter species become superior.
    3: The animals are designed as is and nothing happens to them at all. They stay 100% constant.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:22 No.12542542
    >>12542503
    Coconuts? In Mercea? The coconut's tropical!

    Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:24 No.12542549
    >>12539674
    >How would human society group itself together in this situation? Hunter-gatherer? Villages? Nations? What would the culture be like and what would it value?
    It depends. If humans can evolve mentally then industry would develop and society would change to something more industrial and it depends whereabouts you're starting your people. If they cannot develop then they'd be stuck as hunter gatherers, most likely.
    If people effectively just disappear and reappear in a completely random piece of land I imagine there'd be a fuckload of 5-10 man villages every mile or so so that people can walk to a nearby civilisation. If they were to become very industrial and concentrate populations in cities then a taxi system might be used to pick people up.
    Depends how common death is.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)04:24 No.12542551
    Need a name for this, but what do you think of a rock that gets stronger the more you try to break it and weakens again when you stop?

    kind of like a type of non-Newtonian fluid but wont crack or break.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:26 No.12542559
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    >>12542529
    Hmm, good point...

    I'm going with #3, but they would need to be somewhat... "intelligently designed" for lack of a better term so that they don't keep dying constantly.

    Also! Thank you for reminding me. Since humans would be using animal parts heavily for tools, bodies couldn't just instant;y disappear like I vaguely suggested earlier.

    So when a person / animal / (plant?) dies, the body sticks around, but the soul is reincarnated in an identical body somewhere else.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:30 No.12542577
    >Is this world missing something we take for granted? Wood? Clay? Metal? How would that effect how human society developes.
    Take away wood from the evolution of humanity and you can't have fires and evolution of humanity grinds to a halt. Sure, maybe we would've made fire from dried grass stuck to animal bones but it would've been a lot harder.
    They three most common materials for tools in prehistoric times were bone, wood and rocks.
    You can't take away bone, obviously, and you can't really take away stone as the Earth is made of it. You could take away loose rocks though. i.e. stone you don't have to break off of a large rock.
    Humanity could probably make it to an 1800s-like phase without metal, but any further is unlikely, as metal is far too useful.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:31 No.12542580
    >>12542551
    Hmmmm... it's tough to imagine such a thing. I've never been good with physics.

    So I guess under immediate hard contact, like a hit, it tenses up, so it could be kind of a smart-armor. It's harder to imaging it as a weapon because it seems like there would be different amounts of tension at different points...

    Arg, my head hurts...
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:32 No.12542588
    >>12542577
    >>12542559
    Actually yeah, you could deny them bone tools, furs and whatnot if the body disappeared.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:36 No.12542604
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    >>12542577
    Very true.

    But you could have naturally-occurring flammable material like coal or oil or something. And then flint and tinder.

    And fire might not even be necessary if these humans can eat meat raw.

    >>12542549
    Well, remember that the wild card in this situation is that people don't age or get sick (if we still wanna go with that), so they have lots and lots of time to develop.

    And although they start off at adult-level intelligence, they certainly have the capacity to learn, at learn to the extent that any normal person could. So yeah, I guess a lot of it depends on the environment.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)04:36 No.12542606
    >>12542577
    Just because we take away wood doesn't mean we can't replace it with a different kind of flammable solid.

    Make two new kinds of rock that both look almost the same.

    1 when heated burns for a long time and is pure solid rock. The other looks just like it and burns the same, but has a softer core that has large air pockets in it.
    let the fun begin
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:38 No.12542619
    >>12542551
    It is possible to turn energy to mass in particle level (E=mc^2). The energy of hitting the rock could be converted to mass on the rock. Why it would be rock mass and not just the simplest sort of mass out there (i.e. why turn the energy into rock and not hydrogen?) I don't know.

    Or you could have the rock as a level thing. The energy transferred is used to respire ad grow. Similar to how plants literally use light energy to create ATP and glucose.

    >How far was technology come? Stone tools? Steel-making? Perhaps further?
    Depends on where you want to start humanity, how they develop and how long they've developed for. Also depends on what's available.
    If these humans think like real humans, it'll take them millions of years to make fire and simple tools, then just a few millennia to convert mud huts to large, stable houses and then just a few hundred years to go from gas powered lamps to electricity everywhere.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:38 No.12542621
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    >>12542588
    Oh oh. That would kill two birds with one stone.

    I was kinda looking forward to all those bone skyscrapers, though...
    >> 008 10/23/10(Sat)04:44 No.12542640
    Few if any large cities, most villages have transitory populations, where the group only stays there a season and moves on to the next one in a huge circle, adding or removing what resources they need or can't take with them for the group behind them. In the center of each village is the message wall, where the inhabitants write down their names and events or warnings for the next group to read. So many villages with populations moving in a big circle.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)04:46 No.12542656
    >>12542619
    Would that be armor/tools/ect. that greats harder as it is hit or armor that would regrow anything that is taken off?

    or both?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:46 No.12542664
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    >>12542619
    >If these humans think like real humans, it'll take them millions of years to make fire and simple tools
    Mmm... I'm not so sure about that. I think if you compare the brains and bodies of these ancient humans to us today, there would be worlds of difference. And having an advanced language would give you a huge kickstart.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:47 No.12542668
    >>12542604
    >>12542606
    >Just because we take away wood doesn't mean we can't replace it with a different kind of flammable solid.
    >And fire might not even be necessary if these humans can eat meat raw.

    I agree. Without wood humans would likely find other methods of evolving, perhaps completely without fire, or perhaps it would just take them longer to create fire. Keep in mind that they'll almost always evolve via the simplest method.
    If there's a choice between wood and a flammable rock they'll use whichever's easiest to obtain.

    I don't know whether cavemen ate meat raw initially and then decided to cook it, or realised that, onve they cooked things, if they cooked meat they could eat it. Other omnivores eat meat raw, but humans are very different to other omnivores. In all likelihood I think humans cooked vegetables first (being herbivores initially) and were able to get more energy from this, meaning they had to eat less. Then they tried cooking meat, ate it and the extra fat and protein allowed for greater development. There are several views on this and it's hard to dispute them. Pick one.

    Also, if animals die and the reappear, how do humans get meat? You could have a herbivorous human race.

    Also, what happens to plant life?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:50 No.12542687
    >>12542664
    > there would be worlds of difference.
    I mean if the development of these humans was like the development of real humans. As in would these humans 2 million years ago have the same brains as real humans 2 million years ago.

    Advanced language would allow for simpler trade and certainly speed things. I overlooked the language part.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:52 No.12542698
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    >>12542640
    Oooh, smart. Yeah, I was thinking something like that, with the temporary villages, but that idea about the message board is really great!

    Maybe each group / clan carves down whatever extraordinary exploits they've encountered in their last journey (a la Gilgamesh). Yes, yes...
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)04:55 No.12542719
    >>12542640
    1: Find out where people are reborn
    2: dig a big hole
    3: ???
    4: profit
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:56 No.12542723
    >the message wall, where the inhabitants write down their names and events or warnings for the next group to read.

    I like it. Certainly a unique way of evolving by every person getting to know their surroundings. They'd effectively evolve intellectually while technically still staying constant.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)04:58 No.12542727
    On to something I've been wondering about.

    Slaves?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)04:58 No.12542731
    >>12542687
    Right, right. But I'm imagining these humans popping into the world as sort of... modern-day humans in everything except specific knowledge. In other words they wouldn't know that Berlin is the capital of Germany or anything (not that that'd help them...)

    >>12542668
    Well i know very early human ancestors ate meat raw, and I'm almost positive that Homo Sapiens used to, but don't quote me on that.

    Also, good point about the disappearing Let's make the bodies stick around, no matter what. Although it would be creepy if you ever found your own body...
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:02 No.12542747
    >>12542719
    Ah, but it's assumedly a random place each time.

    >>12542727
    I too wondered about this. It would be difficult to enslave people if they could just kill themselves to get away from you. It's not pleasant to think about, but since people apparently don't fully heal when they're maimed, maybe you could cut off their hands? That would make it hard to kill yourself. Or maybe just bind them behind their back.

    That would limit their uses to things like pulling millstones and stuff. And, unfortunately, prostitution, if these humans have sexual organs.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)05:03 No.12542748
    >>12542731
    Creepy to you and me maybe.

    These people might be fine with eaten their own dead bodies.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)05:05 No.12542759
    >>12542747
    The most basic thing you could enslave someone to do is pull a cart or something along the lines of that.

    Blind them, gag them, and tie them up to a cart.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:11 No.12542784
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    >>12542759
    Possibly.

    On the one hand, we don't know enough about the flora and fauna to know whether or know they would have some better animals to do that for them.

    On the other hand, if humans and animals lack the capacity for evolution, would it be possible to domesticate animals? Seriously, I don't know.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)05:19 No.12542831
    This whole world is a hollowed out earth right?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:25 No.12542868
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    >>12542831
    Yeah, unless there's a problem with that.

    I just wanted something self-contained that worked with what I wanted with the light never changing and there being no day/night, etc. I guess a torus would make sense, but that's a little weird.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)05:27 No.12542876
    >>12542868
    Nah, it would work. Just less gravity.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:35 No.12542922
    >>12542784
    > would it be possible to domesticate animals?
    Yeah, it's all about conditioning. If any animal realises it can get food from a home it'll return to that home. It just so happens that dogs changed physically.

    You can domesticate a wolf. You can even domesticate lions.

    >>12542731
    >it would be creepy if you ever found your own body...
    Could make one hell of a plot hook. You could with the idea that if you ever see your last body (but not any bodies before that) you die permanently. Cue people chasing other people round carrying their bodies to get rid of them permanently and then people gouging out their eyes so they can't see their body.

    To kill someone permanently you'd have to kill them once and take their body to wherever they reappeared.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)05:39 No.12542933
    >>12542922
    What if I just cut off their face and used that?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:40 No.12542938
    >>12542876

    Well, I could invent some reason for there being normal gravity. And it should have normal gravity if the ground is thick enough, right?

    Also, it kept saying that part of this message isn't allowed to be posted. I wonder why...
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)05:44 No.12542960
    >>12542938
    Nope, If you give the ground more mass you have to give the ground above you more mass as well.

    I suppose you could make up some "reverse gravity" where the center of this world(the middle of the sky)forces people downward.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:46 No.12542970
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    >>12542933
    >>12542922
    Ooh, very neat.

    Or maybe the burial ritual involves mutilating or cremating the body for this reason.

    >>12542922
    Hmm, all right.

    I think I can come up with the plants fairly well. I'm not even sure I want any soil, so I'll probably look at lichens, mosses, slime, mushrooms, molds and stuff that can live on stone and such, and then just make the scale enormous.

    But animals... that's gonna be tough. It's hard to not fall back on the obvious stuff. For example dinosaurs and other reptilian creatures seem appealing, but I want it to be original. Hmm, difficult...
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:50 No.12542991
    >Yeah, it's all about conditioning. If any animal realises it can get food from a home it'll return to that home. It just so happens that dogs changed physically.
    >You can domesticate a wolf. You can even domesticate lions.

    Nah, you can make'em less scared or indifferent to your person, aka you can tame them, but you don't domesticate them.
    Domestication is reshaping an animal into a form and a behaviour type that agrees with human needs and behaviours. Dogs have learned to react upon humans, cows have become too fragile to survive on their own.

    Domestication's breeding a behaviour type and body shape you find agreeable. If creatures can not change naturally as they do under evolutionary pressure, you can't domesticate them either.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:50 No.12542992
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    >>12542960
    Oh yeah...

    Well, in my imagining of this world, it doesn't exist in a vacuum of space like our universe does, but rater a vacuum of rock, if that makes any sense. It's embedded in an infinitely large expanse of rock, and there are probably other worlds embedded in this rock.

    So I guess the long story short is that this universe doesn't play by the say laws as ours and... okay, this makes sense:

    The luminescent aether, that lights up the world, also pushes you away from it with a consistent force, which we would call gravity.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)05:53 No.12542999
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    >>12542991
    Ah. I think you're actually right.

    I think these humans might learn to "tame" animals by stealing babies and then raising them so that they are accustomed to humans. but they wouldn't be able to kill off the innate instincts of the animals, which I guess is what "domestication" is.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:05 No.12543058
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    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:09 No.12543083
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    Tell me if this is right.

    This worlds layout is in this order from center outward,

    Weird light/reverse gravity(love it).
    mist that weird creatures swim in(blocks some light).
    Air(for breathing and shit).
    Dirt?(unlimited amount).
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:12 No.12543095
    >>12543083
    You don't need the reverse gravity.

    Just have the ground extend out to infinity around the planet and normal Gravity will make you stick to the floor just like you'd expect.

    (Well actually you'd be crushed down to a singularity instantly but still, I'm assuming that this universe is magic)
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)06:19 No.12543110
    >>12543095
    I was seeing it as the "dirt" above you would also pull you and make the gravity less effective. It would all depend on how hollow this world is.
    I'll go with a really big hollowed out sun.

    Gravity works.


    How would being reborn work? Painful? Nauseous? Sleepy?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:32 No.12543148
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    >>12543083
    Yes, except it would be rock.

    Excellent work, good sir.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:35 No.12543156
    >>12543110
    >I was seeing it as the "dirt" above you would also pull you and make the gravity less effective

    It would, if you could somehow get to the exact middle of the sphere you would be in complete zero G. (Ignoring the anti-grav stuff).
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:36 No.12543159
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    >>12543095
    >>12543110
    Yeah, let's just go with reverse-gravity. Normal gravity causes too many logical questions.

    >>12543110
    Rebirth, I imagine, would be associated mainly with intense confusion, since you've just lost all your memories and built-up skills (don't worry, they'll slowly come back). It would probably be like waking up, so... drowsiness?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:40 No.12543174
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    Whoa, look at this weapon.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)06:41 No.12543177
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    >>12543174
    >> Brotonnian !!kgt9PWyoNNR 10/23/10(Sat)06:48 No.12543196
    >>12543177
    You are now aware that rage face is based off of the space marine helmet.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)06:53 No.12543214
    How about a creature that grows rock on its skin?

    This rock could be as flexible as its skin and as hard as Tungsten.

    Would look kind of like a kangaroo with a longer neck and straight legs.
    A small pocket in the front that it uses to carry around a type of rock it eats.

    How's that for transportation?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:01 No.12543256
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    >>12543214
    Hah! I like it. Although I am imagining two different kinds of animals. The rock-covered one brings to mind an Ankylosaurus (pic related).
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:03 No.12543259
    >>12543174

    So what I thought I'd do was, I'd take a club and stick a bunch of teeth on it.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:06 No.12543278
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    >>12543259
    GENIUS!
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)07:09 No.12543286
    >>12543256
    People usually do when they think of "armor skin".

    Think of a kangaroo. Straighten it's legs so it's standing straight up. make it's neck longer.

    You wouldn't sit on it to ride it. Instead the animal would wear a belt like contraption with 2 places to put your feet. Thanks to its "pear shaped body" the belt wouldn't slip off and it wouldn't be painful for the animal because of it's hard skin. You could adjust where the belt stops by making it tighter or looser for different sized players.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:12 No.12543298
    How many humans are there, and how big is the world (or more importantly, the habitable area of the world)?
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)07:16 No.12543313
    >>12543286
    Every part of the world can be inhabited if you're MAN enough to do it.

    As for size,

    Think of the earth. Now hollow it out. Now put yourself inside of it. Reverse gravity that you are pushed up against the sides of it.

    Now replace everything outside the hollowed out earth with rock.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:17 No.12543316
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    >>12543286
    Ahh. My only thing would be that kangaroo locomotion is very strange, so it'd have to be a little altered.

    When you think about it, the way undulates move is really perfect. Slow, smooth, but strong and steady.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:21 No.12543334
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    >>12543298
    >>12543313
    Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

    For the sake of simplicity, let's say that it's the same size as the earth (except hollow, of course). However, unlike earth it doesn't have oceans, only lakes and springs, so it would have about three times as much habitable land.

    As for the number of people... I really don't know. I was going to say about 10 million based on an old estimate I heard about some time in the bronze age, but that's just a shot in the dark.

    What do you think is a good number of humans?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:26 No.12543361
    >>12542999
    Definitely. Alexander the Great and a bunch of other people used war elephants, but I don't think elephants can be considered domesticated animals.
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)07:34 No.12543396
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    I just thought of something.

    If a bird flys around the world it flys in a circle and doesn't have to worry about running into the ground because gravity pulls it in the same way the earth curves.

    If a bird were to fly in this world it would have to turn upwards a lot to stay in the air.

    What I'm basically saying is that it would be really really really hard and annoying to fly because you would have to be flying up instead of straight.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:37 No.12543403
    >>12543396
    When the Surface of the world is the size of a planet the curvature is almost unnoticeable.

    Flying at low altitudes would be exactly the same as on Earth.

    It's only when you try and go to high altitudes that things would go screwy.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:38 No.12543413
    >>12543396
    Fly upside down. Duh.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:40 No.12543419
    So, after reappearing randomly as a fully formed adult with amnesia, do memories of your past lives slowly come back to you, or are they forgotten forever?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:41 No.12543420
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    >>12543396
    Huh, you're right...

    On the one hand this wouldn't be a problem even for things like albatrosses that glide for hundreds of miles without touching down. But in this world things might be scaled up to much that it might make a difference, especially if we're talking about these really enormous creatures about a mile up at the cloud layer (how high are clouds?).

    Also, I'm going to sleep. See this thread tomorrow!
    >> Idk....David? 10/23/10(Sat)07:41 No.12543422
    >>12543403
    I keep thinking in small scale. Sorry,
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)07:42 No.12543425
    >>12543419
    Yeah, your slowly regain memories of your past lives. Convenient plot device.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)08:24 No.12543556
    >>12543425
    So there is really no reason to fear death?
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)08:33 No.12543594
    >>12543556
    Other than the pain before it? Not really.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)08:35 No.12543604
    >>12543594
    Wow, think of the impact that would have on culture in this world. Also the fact that there would be no maternal/paternal instincts, or reproductive urge.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)08:55 No.12543664
    >>12543604
    What impact?

    If it's how they're raised it's how they're raised.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)09:18 No.12543735
    >>12543664
    I guess impact was the wrong word. Just sheer difference to how we think and feel.
    >> Anonymous 10/23/10(Sat)09:28 No.12543768
    >>12543735
    So it was a comparison?

    Then I misunderstood. You were right.



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