Things That I Like: Cosmogonical Fiction

Things That I Like: Cosmogonical Fiction

What’s that, you may ask? Let’s start out with a few examples. Spoilers will be everywhere, so be warned.

Unknown Armies is a game that divides itself into three levels: street, global, and cosmic. In cosmic-level games, the players are trying to live their lives so as to imitate particular Archetypes strongly enough to ascend to a higher state of existence and become one of the 333 members of the Invisible Clergy. When their ranks are filled this universe will come to an end and a new one will be born under their direction.

Nexus War and its replacement Nexus Clash are a pair of browser-based MMORPGs that are about a conflict taking place after the end of the universe. The player characters are people taken from various worlds and points in the history of the last universe, and placed in a battlefield made partly of eternal planes and partly of post-apocalyptic flotsam. Their actions strengthen and weaken the various gods (and fixing things can be as useful as killing your god’s enemies, if he’s the craftsgod). The strongest god out of the nine will be the one who will exert the greatest amount of influence in creating the next universe. This will affect everything from how many spatial and temporal dimensions exist to how death works (or doesn’t) to how integral violence is to the very fabric of reality in that universe.

Homestuck is a really, really long webcomic (658,000 words and counting) that is, basically, about these kids who play a game called Sburb that sends them into another world. In the process this destroys Earth, and their actions in this other world will contribute to the creation of a whole new universe.

A Dry, Quiet War is a bit off from the others in that there is a war at the end of time— it’s literally called “the Big War at the End of Time”— but it isn’t being fought to determine the nature of the next universe. Rather, in crazy stable time loop shenanigans, the war is being fought in order to determine the nature of this universe. As Colonel Bone explains, “In the future, we won. I won, my command won it. Really, really big. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re all here.”

What do these have in common?

There is a conflict being fought by persons or groups. They may be fighting each other, as in Unknown Armies and Nexus War, or against the environment or another group which has no chance of influencing the universe, as in Homestuck, where the Dersites can only prevent the creation of the new universe, not twist it to their own aims.

The conflict generally involves an amount of violence, but violence typically isn’t the only factor. 

• In Unknown Armies you have to act in a way that befits your Archetype, and acting against this can actually reduce your power.
• In Homestuck, catching frogs is one of most important tasks out there, and building houses is also a pretty big thing.
• As mentioned before, in the Nexus games something as simple as repairing or building a door can help out your side.

The participants generally ascend to greater power in the course of events, whether or not they are directly responsible for creating the new universe or merely facilitating it:

• Characters in Unknown Armies gain godlike powers.
• In Homestuck, Sburb’s players have the potential to ascend to the “god tiers” and get other abilities along the way,
• The champions of the Elder Powers in the Nexus games can become angels, demons, vampires, and more.
• Those who fought in the Big War at the End of Time are almost like eldritch horrors by the end. Some of this is merely technological, such as how Colonel Bones’ nerves have been replaced by wires, but then there’s stuff like how he kills somebody so that that the other guy is plain wiped from existence.

Finally, those involved may have to destroy this universe or a part of it in the process of creating the new one. Indeed, destruction is necessary in three of the above four, and in two of those the forces of creation are apparently convinced that they are an IKEA and all universes must go.

These stories are to be distinguished from games like Mage or Esoterrorists, or stories like Fritz Leiber’s Change War series because the nature of this reality is set in stone. Even if you’re fighting for this universe’s nature, as in A Dry, Quiet War, there’s really no hope of changing the outcome. You’re just fighting because you fought, and it’s impossible to change time no matter what, or there will be other reasons for you to fight, or breaking the time loop does bad things to you but to everybody else in the timeline-as-it-should-have-happened it’s as if nothing different went down (as in Homestuck but also as in The Men Who Murdered Mohammed).

What’s the point of writing all this out?

I think that these examples represent a legitimate pattern of story. Hence why I bothered to give them a name. But, and here’s a point, I had to give them a name. It’s a real pattern, but not one that’s been recognized yet. Probably because it is, I’ll freely admit, pretty minor.

But these can’t be the only stories of their kind. Are there any other examples that come to mind? Or common elements that I’ve missed?

(And does anyone think that it’s an interesting enough pattern to use for a story, or am I the only one?)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Things That I Like: A Few More Magic Systems for the Taking

 We return this week with, well, a few more magic systems. And to round them out, here’s a link to an old story of mine, which is as much overview of a magic system as it is creation myth: A Legend of Creation.

1. The Multitudinous Way

The financial astrologers are not the only power in their world. In some opposition to them (not so much morally but ideologically, for their respective magics depend on wildly variant world-views) are those that consider themselves Icewalkers, or Driven, or Joktanists, or the followers of Ishmael’s Way, or nomad-princes.

Things That I Like: A Few Systems of Magic for the Taking

Like everything, these ideas are free for the taking. Consider them to be public domain. Just… grab them, and use them, and stuff. That’s what they’re there for.

1. Financial Astrology

Developed in the throes of the Great Depression, financial astrology is the art of using magic to make money, and using money to make magic. To those that have sworn the oaths, the signs of the stars unfold to their understanding. They are able to decipher the currents of the future, at least so far as it pertains to currency. The stock market becomes child’s play to them that have sold their eyes and their hearts to the great god Pluto, and the more learned among them can predict its changes to the minute.

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Parasite-Concepts from Alternate or Failed Universes

Wherein I take some time to expand a concept of mine and see how far I can take it. I have something like 50 pages of story ideas (just the ones I've sorted, moreover) and this will be an exercise in seeing how much potential they have. 

This one isn't so stream-of-consciousness, since I had some time to think about it before starting. Oops. I try to not do that, but sometimes it happens anyway. 

There are things that have been destroyed and written out of reality: histories that no longer happened, colors that don't exist anymore, emotions that nobody can experience now, lifeforms that never walked the Earth... Perhaps they're what was erased from the drawing board once God decided what would be included, or the remnants of dead universes, but they existed once and now they have ceased to exist so completely that for all intents and purposes they never existed. 

Except, they sort of do. Some of them, anyway. 

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Tiger-souled humans and mad scientist werewolves

Wherein I take some time to expand a concept of mine and see how far I can take it. I have something like 50 pages of story ideas (just the ones I've sorted, moreover) and this will be an exercise in seeing how much potential they have. 

The initial idea that I'm building this from is that our protagonist is a human with the soul of a jaguar... No, let's make that a tiger. That feels better. Yeah. I don't do enough with tigers lately.

So, human with a soul of a tiger. Shapeshifting is possibly, but it is really painful and against the natural order. Of course, having a mismatched soul like this is also against the natural order, but when you break one thing it's easier to break another.

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Twelve Domains

Wherein I take an hour or two to expand a concept of mine and see how far I can take it. I have something like 50 pages of story ideas (just the ones I've sorted, moreover) and this will be an exercise in seeing how much potential they have. It's all basically stream of consciousness, thrown out as it occurs to me, with only some polishing at the end to make sure that everything is grammatically correct and I didn't leave any sentences incomplete.

Like last week's entry, I took a bit more than two hours to work on this post, specifically the part where I look at the other Domains and throw some traits down. 

There are twelve Domains, including Earth. Each one is a parallel universe with four Constants, or principles, which differentiate it from the other Domains. For example, in one of the Domains matter reflects the mind; how you look depends on your personality, current thoughts, &c. Earth also has some Constants, and so it is not at all the "baseline" world that provides a yardstick for normality.

Things That I Like: 4 Conflicts Between Order and Chaos

“In Michael Moorcock’s universe, a war is fought by two separate yet equally important groups: Law, which provides the fundamental capability of existence, and Chaos, which provides the ability for change and development. These are their stories.”

Awhile back I wrote a post with four moral dichotomies that were not so simple as “Good vs. Evil.” I mentioned that I would probably do an article specifically treating Order and Chaos and, what do you know, that day has come.

CYOA brainstorming: Fallen Paladin

What is this about?

Fall: God is Dead
Weapon: Vampiric morning star
Powers: Necromancy 2, friend to animals, charisma, resourceful, favored by demons, unholy strength, serpent's reflexes
Companion: Engineer
Residence: Airship

When a god dies, its paladins feel the agony. They feel its loss, and the abandonment. They know, intimately, the difference between the world as it is and the world as it once was and never will be again.

CYOA brainstorming: Battlemage (undead & acoustic)

What is this?

Abilities: Soul Seeker, Soul Companion, Soul Drain, Summon Undead, Empowered Undead, Army of the Dead, Aria, Hymn, Legato, In Rilievo, Elegy of Fragility, Staccato, Marcato
Skills: Charmer, Bocca Chiusa, Cappriccioso, Soul Ripper, Martyr, Thrall, Soul Gaze

Right off the bat, this is a necromancer who controls the dead through sound. Ze can't ever sleep. Ze can't ever talk, it's sign language only from here on out. Because ze must always, always be making the binary-like code that raises and controls the dead, a series of clicks with tongue and teeth that can never end.

CYOA brainstorming: Mage

What is this about?

Mana Blue (wood & death)
Ideal Golem (petrified wood, bone, &c)
Order Illusionist
Specialties Celerity (primary); prestidigitation, necromancy, alchemy

Our character is alone. If there is magic elsewhere in the world, there are no other mages. Not even our character knows how this happened, and ze's long since given up on explaining zir existence.

CYOA brainstorming: Battlemage (flame & frost)

What is this about?

There are three of these sets, actually. We'll be playing with each one.

Oh, and let's ignore the cost for unlocking elements.

Abilities: Proximity shards, wall of ice, flash freeze, hydromancy, frost familiar, blaze, bonfire, molten flames, dragon fire
Skills: Frost weapons, obsidian ice, ember drinker, frost armor, heart of ice, beacon of cold, ice wings, kindle, flame armor, conflagration, phoenix

Alright. Interesting being this character is. Let's sort things out, shall we?

Equipment-wise, our character is outfitted with magical armor that is coated with tough ice. The ice adds weight but grows back over time, essentially repairing the armor. But another one of the skills grants increased agility, so let's rule that the armor makes the wearer faster but is a greater drain on stamina.

Also, the armor is the source for all these powers in the first place. Yeah.

The growth of the ice not only allows for repairs. The ice is also capable of sprouting tough, heavy wings. They're kind of feathery, save that the feathers are sharp icicles.

The ice can coat weapons as the armor-bearer desires but can also be used to create weapons. These are very thin and very lethal, not least because they drain heat from whatever they come in contact with.

The armor also sheds "droplets" of ice that grow into small spheres and float behind the armor-bearer. They can be directed to stay behind as well but fall apart if they are left too far behind. They can be made to explode with a thought or under specific circumstances (such as when touched), or be fused together to create walls or even sentient elemental servants.

Finally, the ice can be broken into fragments and "infect" bodies of water." Splinters of ice can control small amounts of water so that, with enough ice, the bearer of the armor can control even entire lakes.

The armor's ice is almost impossible to melt, having no difficulties even in temperatures of up to eighty degrees, but proximity is important. Ice that is left behind becomes more susceptible to heat, as normal.

The armor is a means for long life, above all else. The cold feeds the armor, increasing stamina, so that in sufficiently cold circumstances the bearer doesn't have to worry about getting tired. But heat sources (that are not created by the armor) can do the same thing. It's mild temperatures, ones that are no more than "a little uncomfortable" to others, that are disadvantageous for one that wears the armor. And should the bearer of the armor die, zir body will be burnt to ashes, from which ze will be reborn on the next day. But that should generally be unnecessary, because this same regenerative quality can be made manifest with healing flames. Or, you know, the armor can just make ordinary burn-things-up flames that are much, much hotter than normal.

It can uncomfortable to be around the armor-bearer. Temperatures can be raised or lowered with little effort.

Okay. I'll be the first to admit that parts of this feel a little forced. The other two Battlemage CYOAs aren't so adversarial, so those should work out better than this one.

CYOA brainstorming: The Island (Candid version)

What is this?

Island CYOAs were (are?) a fad on /tg/. I know of almost a dozen, and I come across a new one every so often. The idea behind each of them is the same (you find yourself on a spooky island thing, GO) but they differ in the options that they give. They also differ in how many options you can pick before you have to start taking penalties.

This one is not particularly forgiving.

Shelter: None
Companion: The Necromancer
Artifact: The Amulet, Possessed Sword
Covenant: Abominations
Nemesis: Fear and Madness, The Other

Oh, and The Other gets some choices too, dang it:
Shelter: Gypsy Caravan
Companion: The Other (a different one), the Blackbark Faerie
Artifact: The Sarcophagus
Covenant: Island Guardians
Nemesis: The protagonist

So what have we got here?

Our protagonist has been displaced to some horrible Otherworld. It matters not whether it's an actual island or not, though we'll refer to it as such for convenience's sake. It's a very dangerous place, inhabited by all kinds of horrible things. There was apparently a magi-tech kind of civilization based here, but it's anyone's guess what happened to them.

Perhaps the Island got them. It has a will of its own, certainly. And it's out for the protagonist's blood.

To that effect it has also plucked up two of the protagonists friends. Perhaps the protagonist's appearance here is a fluke, but theirs was certainly not. They have been told that the protagonist is a very, very bad person now, and that killing zem is of the utmost importance. Letting zem live will do nobody any good, but will mean the deaths of millions.

It may hurt them to believe it, but they've been thoroughly convinced that ze's somehow gone down a bad road.

The statuesque servants of the old civilization are at their disposal. The faeries of the Island, who may be connected or have simply moved in after the original inhabitants left, are responsible for conveying the Islands orders, and one of them is accompanying the protagonist's friends to help them on their quest. They are traveling with other humans (who, unlike the faeries, are definitely latecomers to the Island), who are not noteworthy for their combat skills but know the roads of the Island. And one of them has slight precognitive abilities that should be of help.

Should they die by anyone's hand but the protagonist's, the Island will be able to revive them.

But the worst thing is... our protagonist can't be totally sure that they're wrong. The protagonist has fallen in with some potentially bad company, an amoral necromancer whose reason for tagging along is unknown, and has explained the situation to the protagonist. The necromancer is definitely not popular in these parts, though, especially among the undead (of which there are many). And... there are horrible Lovecraftian monsters that like you. Which is probably not a good sign.

Finally, the protagonist is in possession of a thinking sword. It can steadily improve the protagonist's skill over time, but it is also the source of a growing compulsion to kill. The amulet, which confers both physical and mental health, is keeping its influence at bay, but the amulet will be effective for only so long.

CYOA brainstorming: Undead abomination

What is this about?

Type Tinker
Seal Holy circle
Phylactery Amulet
Nemesis Merchant

I like the combination of the first two. "You tried to augment yourself with machine parts bridging the gap between living and unliving matter through necromancy," but there's something about holiness, something of Heaven or something celestial, that works against you.

So there are two questions we've got to ask here:

How does necromancy cross with machines? And what does the Celestial Power have to do with machines?

While I'm afraid that we might fall into some unfortunate implications, let's say that there's an industrial element to Hell. Necromancy and the Infernal Power go together like a charm, I guess, and it's because this is some devilish kind of machinery that holy magic works against it. Why don't we do a bit of a biopunk/cyberpunk dichotomy here, and make Heaven a genetic engineering/flesh-shaping kind of place? Like the elements of H. R. Giger's artwork got a divorce and half of them went off to Heaven and the other half to Hell, and then they both got contracts to redesign the places.

Yeah.

And our humble character made a deal with Hell to rework zir body into some half-machine thing that would never die.

Its phylactery is a small object. Let's make it a battery. The character will keep on going so long as it has power, so you have to destroy its (basically unlimited) power source. Maybe, to go beyond the bounds of the CYOA but also make things more interesting, the battery is charged by dying. It can conceivably run out, but if somebody dies in its vicinity then the character will start running again.

And some silly merchant holds the battery. For now.

CYOA brainstorming: Domain Master

What is this all about?

Affinity Technology/Acoustics

Size class Giant

Race Monstrous/Construct

Boss perks Vitality prowess, charisma prowess, arena manipulation, phylactery, hybrid, empowerment, shapeshifting, enchanted armor, enchanted weapon, perception prowess

Minion races Humanoid, celestial 

Minion size classes Human, Colossal (only celestials)

Mooks Soldiers (100), clerics (25), slaves (50), recruiters (25)

Elites Warriors (10), craftsmen (10), agents (20), battle mages (20)

Lieutenants Chosen, Hunter

Minion perks Sustenance, training, faction

Realm perks Expansion, hidden

Complications Benevolent, whispers

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Aegis Rising

Atmosphere: 3 out of 5. Neither good nor bad, it simply is, in this book. From the beginning you can just tell that this story is going to be a clear black-and-white conflict, which does well because, while I may dislike such conflicts most of the time, the story is still accurately conveying its nature, which I can only think well of. 

Characters: 3 out of 5. None of the characters are particularly bad, except maybe  the villains, who currently seem to be two-dimensional "safe" bad guys that won't make us ask complicated questions about questions. I like Mr. Scientist Villager, for all that he appears, and there's another character that I'm fond of who I can't mention above the Spoiler Line because, well, spoilers. 

Plot: 3 out of 5. I don't like how the revelations are artificially strung-out. "We'll tell you that later" or "Now is not the time for you to know" over and over again. It gets kind of grating. However, and I cannot stress this enough, there was no goshdarned love triangle madness. In fact, absolutely no badly-written romances shoehorned in solely to nab a few more readers, in any way whatsoever. This earns the book some points. The revelation of the villains' nature is also well-placed, being right about at the two-thirds point. 

Writing Style: 3 out of 5. The whole "elyrni" bit in the beginning should be replaced with alcohol or something similar. It felt like namedropping for the sake of namedropping, the way that it was structured. As well, "As we all know?"-style infodumping is probably a thing to be avoided. 

Worldbuilding: 1 out of 5. Unfortunately, I feel like there's a lot to be desired here. The names and words don't appear to share a common heritage, and many times seem better-suited for a Tolkienesque fantasy or, in other places, something Japanese. This culture of the village feels pretty Western for all that it's, you know, not supposed to be a bunch of White Folk. In general, it doesn't present me with something that I can believe in. 

Details, details: [here there be spoilers] 

Why does every hungry teen in unfamiliar circumstances inevitably reference back to some name brand product? 

From my notes: "Akol's language ability explanation is BS or he's lying." Got it! Or at least that's what it appears to be, since it turns out that these people have been sending out their Sentinels for generations, which would imply that some knowledge of non-local languages would be had through non-magic means. 

And how could you leave out Hexxus?
Now he's sad. 

Speaking of which: It's freaking magic, no matter how much you say otherwise, Valley Village People, unless we get an actual explanation. 

Tegan absolutely fails at probability estimates. When you can ping two pretty interesting coincidences between the prophecy and yourselves, and the natives have already demonstrated magic powers, you should probably go with the flow and assume that these people know what they're talking about. But then, she's a freaking teenager, not the Second Coming of Bayes. 

This is... kind of like Fern Gully sans Hexxus. The villains are Total Bad Guys, Inc., which I can't say that I really like. I hope that we get shown more depth in the villains in future books. 

Zombie water! Freaking zombie water! I do like that. Even if I'm slightly confused how the exact nature of the contaminating chemical is making it zombie water. 

The revelation about the Sentries explains a lot of stuff that was really, really bugging me.

Idea: Everyday Necromancy

There was talk somewhere on RPG.net about the concept of necromancy existing in the world, but being the only form of magic, and being as common as, say, brain surgery. I can’t recall anything else, but it seemed like something to run with, and I spun off from there.

Necromancy is the act of calling the spirits of the dead, and these spirits can be “free,” which is mentally taxing, though not impossible, or else “bound,” and placed in a physical container. While spirits can be placed in objects, they usually have no means of communication in this state (there are exceptions, such as via the television). A spirit bound in the physical world can be banished back with a necromancer’s touch (free spirits are intangible, but the necromancer holding them in this world need only stop spending the effort). Corpses, or even living things, may house spirits.

Idea: Once a Slavetrader, Always a Santa Claus

Cast your thoughts back to the last ice age, for it is then that our tale begins.

Fairieland, you see, is a very cold place, a veritable winter wasteland. Its inhabitants don’t deal very well with heat. It is for this reason that the Good People aren’t so common in modern times, but back in the bad old days they flitted in and out of their Grand Doors to our world (and to many other worlds as well, but for those we humans neither had nor have no concern).

Idea: The man who stole a bit of time

A fellow has stolen nineteen days, four hours, eighteen minutes, and fifty-seconds of time. How it happened isn’t too integral to this idea. Decide on your own. Or don’t explain it at all. Perhaps he was Father Time’s janitor and then he decided to nick some neat hourglasses.

But he plans to put it to good use, especially because it wasn’t a clean theft. There are things coming after him, with the sound of shifting sand and spinning gears marching on before them. He’s only ever seen them briefly, because he knows enough to know to run.

Idea: A new system of elemental magic [B]

Continued from Wednesday

Metalshapers are able to manipulate emotions in their manner as well. By hardening the Inner Metal, a shaper can protect against psychological manipulation, whether this is attempted through shaping, or more mundane means. Softening the Inner Metal is possible as well, but an even more effective means of manipulating someone is by using one’s own Inner Metal to cut at the other person’s psyche like a scalpel, removing undesired behaviors, beliefs, and traits. In general, these shapers are tougher than many others, because they well know the benefits of keeping their Inner Metal hard and protective, but they can also make themselves softer than any other person can. Those few who have accepted the risks have become the most compassionate people in the world, though they can pay very well for their sensitivity. Take care in rousing them, however, for even a soft Metalshaper, when roused, can harden his spirit and take his Inner Metal to carve away his victim’s every last memory and even sense of self.

Idea: A new system of elemental magic [A]

Elemental magic is pretty common. Some people try to switch it up by using an Eastern elemental system, but there isn’t really much beyond that (I’d like to someday try an elemental system which adds mercury, sulfur, and salt to the Classical Four). Let’s go with a bastardized Ba Gua arrangement of elements, then, forgetting about their general associations and switching Lake/Marsh/Mist with Wood, and Mountain with Metal.

Now, there are there eight elements, then: Heaven, Wind, Water, Metal, Earth, Thunder, Fire, and Wood. Each of these has components within the body and outside in, in the physical world, and people who can manipulate the elements are able to manipulate both Inner and Outer Manifestations of their element. Of course, if you’d like to switch it up a little bit, you might have it so that most magic-users can manipulate only one or the either and that only a few people can manipulate both, if anyone can do it at all. This’ll probably mean that shapers who manipulate Outside Manifestations don’t display any specific personality traits, though.