Quiescence
After the destruction (http://www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/John_Harris_The_Chaos_Equations.jpg), all was dark and dim. The blast wave careened across the galaxy, showering what systems and planets it found with the dust of the Earth, lightly touching the creatures it found with the sorcery of the annihilated world. Where there had been a planet, only a jumble of dust and odd rock. A quiet settled over the place and in the following centuries would be a site of great pilgrimage and sorrow for mankind.
[ic]
The brothers sat back to back on the hull of the old stellar-ship. The old tarnished metal had grown hot in the late afternoon sun so they sat on dried Ackla hides and drank water from a pouch they passed back and forth until it was gone. The older boy jabbed his brother in the ribs with his elbow.
"Da's gone give up his sword tomorrow. Put it in the ground for good final. Whatcha' think of that Petre?"
Petre squirmed at his older brothers jab. "I dunno Lun... Good I guess? Maybe he'll grow a pond and then I can swat a fish for mum."
Lun scoffed. "A pond? In this waste?" Lun gestured to the sand dunes all around. There was a sea of course, a few miles away, but it was mostly salt anyways. The star-shippers came once or twice a year and took some of the salt away. Lun supposed the salt would be gone for good one day.
Petre shook his head. "Da told me he saved a stone from the old place. Took it outa' this ship-dust an' all. Papa Crow called it Earth and that it would grow something for the whole village someday."
Lun grimaced and chucked the empty water pouch into an open hatch on the side of the old ships hull. "Piss that is Petre. Magic's not real." [/ic]
Refugees
Despite the enormity of the destruction, mankind survived. Forewarned and with a head start, humans made there way into the universe. They took with them all sorts of wonderful technology that worked gloriously at first-for centuries even. But eventually the knowledge was...muddled. Things broke down and people forgot how to fix them. Families fractured. Colonies split. Planets lost contact with one another.
The scholars of old earth barely concerned themselves with the solar system, let alone the universe. With such wondrous magics beneath their feet, is it any wonder they refused to look up?
Survivors encountered many things in the universe they were not prepared for; could have no comprehension of. The monstrous black tongue of Gioji IV. The endless gloom of iron flames on PLANET 6. Igben Yagva's gargantuan corpse in orbit around the star known as Bi.
On the planet called Kjal Sartheen many centuries later, the primordial ooze shivered with the dosing of Earth-like dust, trembled and shook and the sticky pink goo spat out the first Kwaalish Arthropods. Their spherical cities would not arise , nor would the viviparous great-mother hatch her acolytes within her womb for a million years.
Sorcery
The Sorcerers came and took everything. Every rock. Every tree. All of my vials and micro-biomes. My journals and data. My food. The whole ship. What do I have left? The elements inside of me. I think next time they will take me.
Not everyone understands or even believes in magic....
The matter of Earth was scattered across the stars. Sure, there were large chunks like the Rock of Hjallin, kept safe by Javle Ker and his Eye-less Shamans. But there was so much more, an unfathomable amount of trace elements cast off into the inky black to land on some star, some planet or some dim-witted creature. And then of course their is you and me...
Actualizers use a combination of psychic force and outward hallucination to achieve a desired effect. Depending on the target creature and the scope of the augury, the resulting spell will either manifest literally or remain a mere illusion.
Agglomeration. Sorcery dependent on a focus; an object that is crafted. In the old days, sorcerers would artifice every chunk of old-earth they found into an item of power. Over time these tools and weapons were stored either by the Cabal or those opposed to it in pretense of some vague future-war to be fought. Time passed and the locations of these vaults were lost or hidden by stronger magics.
Provocation is a novitiate style of magic. The caster will hold in reserve a pool of elements and, when a moment arrives when a spell is required, will force the elements to combine into some sort of...effect. The results are not always satisfactory or even good, but a large number of spells can be cast in this fashion. Over time the spellcraft is learned; particular combinations of elements become reliable leading to more concentrated and potent styles.
(These are only preliminary ideas for how magic might actually work in the setting..)
The Cabal
Panic set in when the scope of the catastrophe was gleaned. The scattering of Earth was a disaster for the old sorcerer caste. But it was also a blessing. A new power arose, one that would seize the precious elements wherever it was found. The Cabal formed from the husk of the old guilds and incorporated a new generation of magic-users, one that never knew Earth as it was, only heard of its greatness and mystery second-hand. The consolidation of power would crack the foundation of the unity that mankind felt after the destruction.
...
[ooc]This is a vague idea I had where an Earth-like planet literally imbued with magic is destroyed by something. Players would travel the universe looking for lost shards of the planet, or having stolen away particularly significant pieces of the planet before the cataclysm, guard them from the BIG BAD. It's a bit dense but the more I thought of this, the more I realized I was just telling a creation story from a different perspective-after the planet goes kaboom there is a period of dark; of reforming. The forces of power that were particular to that setting (the just destroyed earth-like) are taken out into a wider, new setting-the universe. The survivors of the planets destruction become gods later on in the game/narrative/story etc. by using rare chunks of Earth-like ( I like the sound of that) to cast spells and use power never before seen in the universe. So to anyone else encountering these forces-it would appear for all intent and purpose as if the PCs were gods. Unless the civilization was significantly advanced to see it for what it really is-I digress. This will be a collection of odd thoughts on the original idea. EDIT: Thanks to Rose-of-Vellum for the thread name. Discuss![/ooc]
I like the idea and the introduction paragraph, brief though it is.
Sword & Planet is a pretty cool genre, although it does suffer a bit because a lot of it is so old, so you occasionally run into some pretty awful stereotypes. I'd recommend just removing most of that for a modern audience, or flipping them around into something appealing. I also like the introductory vignette, though it does leave me a little unclear on what the game would actually be about in practice-- would it be primarily about spacefaring, or do you have some magical means of hopping from piece to piece of the destroyed planet, or what?
Radiance, by Catherynne Valente, is a very fresh, awesome take on sword & planet. I'd highly recommend it.
I had no idea Sword & Planet was a genre!
Radiance looks interesting Rose-of-Vellum, outside of my usual historical fare. Could anyone point me in the direction of more Sword & Planet genre stuff?
Quote from: sparkletwist
I also like the introductory vignette, though it does leave me a little unclear on what the game would actually be about in practice-- would it be primarily about spacefaring, or do you have some magical means of hopping from piece to piece of the destroyed planet, or what?
Hm. Have to distill the setting a bit more and find out the most interesting aspect of it I would have to say. I don't imagine a n enormous amount of technology slipping into this universe-but it easily could. If it was prevalent I would imagine it as big blocky buttons and flashing panels
ala 60's Star Trek or the original Star Wars trilogy. More dressing than practical application if you know what I mean-what's the term....
soft-sci-fi?
The John Carter novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs might be the most famous Sword & Planet fiction, although they're not about space travel but an Earthman mysteriously transported to Mars.
It'd also be lacking if I didn't mention John Norman's Gor but I recommend just reading Tarnsman of Gor and forget about the rest of the series, because as it goes on it rapidly devolves from a swashbuckling Sword & Planet tale to squicky misogynist bondage erotica.
Quote from: MasonSorcery
The Sorcerers came and took everything. Every rock. Every tree. All of my vials and micro-biomes. My journals and data. My food. The whole ship. What do I have left? The elements inside of me. I think next time they will take me.
Not everyone understands or even believes in magic....
The matter of Earth was scattered across the stars. Sure, there were large chunks like the Rock of Hjallin, kept safe by Javle Ker and his Eye-less Shamans. But there was so much more, an unfathomable amount of trace elements cast off into the inky black to land on some star, some planet or some dim-witted creature. And then of course their is you and me...
Actualizers use a combination of psychic force and outward hallucination to achieve a desired effect. Depending on the target creature and the scope of the augury, the resulting spell will either manifest literally or remain a mere illusion.
Agglomeration. Sorcery dependent on a focus; an object that is crafted. In the old days, sorcerers would artifice every chunk of old-earth they found into an item of power. Over time these tools and weapons were stored either by the Cabal or those opposed to it in pretense of some vague future-war to be fought. Time passed and the locations of these vaults were lost or hidden by stronger magics.
Provocation is a novitiate style of magic. The caster will hold in reserve a pool of elements and, when a moment arrives when a spell is required, will force the elements to combine into some sort of...effect. The results are not always satisfactory or even good, but a large number of spells can be cast in this fashion. Over time the spellcraft is learned; particular combinations of elements become reliable leading to more concentrated and potent styles.
(These are only preliminary ideas for how magic might actually work in the setting..)
I meant to post yesterday about how much I really love how this feels, but I didn't, so I'm posting it today.