As a nod to Steerpike's venture into the fantastic (my usual area of creation); here's a slightly tongue-in-cheek Cadaverous Earth relative. :D
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The GrimDark IdDark
[ic=Silk]Silk... The words slipped through parched lips as the dolphin man lay beached upon the shore, a packet of missilefish dynamite clutched between a fin and his body. Only other thing worth mentioning of note, other than the 'Lisso's valuable skin was an unmarked red box tied with a bow that was strapped around his back with a mess of rope.
I tossed some water down his gullet, emptying out my metal canteen, but hell, it wasn't enough. I threw the canteen on the ground, glared at the dolphin and instantly regretted wasting the drops.
The trek across the desert was going to be hell enough already-- and now I had nothing to drink. It wasn't like I could make like a Sand Man, a Noxodustan, and live off the sun-- I was human, well mostly, and now I had to make due with what I had; the rain-purifier had better work as well as that shady Isobarran had promised me it would-- it was augmented with a Spirit of Water he claimed-- I never saw the pixie spirit myself, but he said that its soul was there, ripped from the pretty little thing and inserted in it. I figured it worked- it whirred when it needed to, just like all the other models-- but it would be just like an Isobarran to cheat an honest man from Glick.
As the dolphin man, Dave, died- of exposure-- of the fifty-seven starfish wounds pricked into his side, I reached on his back and undid the rope, and took the box, and its bow. I put the package underneath my arm, muttered a prayer to Gullettugger for the pitiful 'Lisso, cut his throat, then tore out a couple of bloody handfulls of dolphin meat, packed it with nearly half my stash of salt and jammed it into the top of my pack after wrapping the whole bloody mess in a pile of nudie newspapers wet from the presses of Krol
(At least those gawdawful things were serving some purpose now-- I had intended to use them to buy some favors from Dave if needed, since I knew he was always lusting for something to keep him warm at night; but hell now he was dead and I could get rid of these papers that no one but Dave would want. But hey at least he'd be getting some use out of them now; they would be keeping at least part of him warm at night, just not at all in the right way- but hell, the irony was sort of sweet.)
After getting enough dolphin meat and skinning a bit of skin for resale in case anyone wanted 'Lisso gloves or boots, I started out across the desert with the box under my arm, and with my harpoon tied around my backpack, looming behind my head.
Framed against the desert waste and the setting sun, there I was, smuggling the gawds-be-damned "silk" from the very diseased, germ-infested gullet of the ID Core itself in the Shattered Lands for the gawds-be-fed Queen herself.
Oh no, not that Queen-- the Two-fingered brown-nosed Hag Queen of Deep Uldar may be more famous but she doesn't have the right type of resources to pay for this type of good, or this type of fixxit man; this Queen I was serving- partially against my will... but, you know- you can't ever refuse a Queen when she makes an offer to you... Yeah, she was more locally known but she is, leastways she was twice as rich; See, she's the Queen of the Black-hearted Saarland Irregulars herself, the one who got the Bandit Lord's daughter to strangle him to death with her underwire so the Queen could take her rightful place as the leader of those mean SOBs. Yeah, she's that Queen. And she got me working for her.
I set my hand down on the table, it was glowing and sparkling and catching light and shaping itself into grotesque and obscene shapes right before this other guy's eyes--I was waiting for him to start trembling but he sure as hell wasn't moving--stone cold he was, as always; he'd been that way since we were both sucking at the teat of mama's best sow. I hadn't had this hand before I went across the desert- in either direction, but I had it now and no matter how cool this guy was, seeing the quivering hand was going to get my point across.
And you don't ever, ever try to cross the Queen, Mick.
[/ic]
What Is the World?
Grim. Dark.
The world is dying and you are dying too as your soul struggles to determine if your body is strong enough to house it. Daily, you must make exertion checks to keep spirit united with flesh as the two separated from one are half as strong as the twain united.
Don't even bother being a stroke of light in this world, for strokes of light are far too often snuffed out, whether by friends, or ID-Creatures, or a despairing oneself.
Instead, focus on getting by and trading a greater evil for a lesser (preferably one that isn't interested in killing you-- yet.)
[note]* LD does not by any means endorse the tone of this wretched world. LD prefers lollypops and gumdrops-- See Tatterdemalion, eBil, or to some extent Gloria for more of that type of world.[/note]
Themes
1. Decay
The world is dying at the hands of the violent ID Beasts who threaten to separate the soul of the world and all its spirits and creatures and beings from their mortal bodies and end the cycle of rebirth, instead strengthening the almighty ID Core which pulses and grows and threatens the world with its artificial sentience. While the ID Core contemplates, the world dessicates, so goes the saying. Whether or not it is possible to destroy the ID Core is unknown. All that anyone can say is that it certainly was offline for 100 of the past 125 years, recovering from the Great Comet's impact. But somehow, 25 years ago, it was switched back on, or dug up, or repaired, or something; or maybe there was a duplicate active elsewhere, located within the Great Volcano-- no one knows.
2. Mystery / Paranoia
Everyone is out to get you; even yourself as your doppleganger spirit is in a constant struggle to break free from your mortal body and find a more receptive, safe, and strong location for your soul.
3. Lack of Appetite
There is a strong subcontext of denial in this world. Denial of base needs, food, companionship, water, desire. The strong in this world are those who don't, not those who do. Hedonists are rare, and they are hated. Aesthetes are common, and even they are despised. The best man is one who does with as little as he needs and as much as he can get away with without putting on some pounds, or looking flushed, or having people know.
Inspirations
1. Settings
- Steerpike's The Cadaverous Earth
- China Mieville's Bas Lag
- Warhammer Sci-Fi
2. Other
- Pulp Fiction Books, movies, and Noir: LA Confidential, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Sin City.
Grotesquerie Menagerie
Bodiless (Doppleganggi Dopplegangger "Ghosts")
[ooc]Doppleganger Spirits are creatures that have wrenched themselves free from living being's souls. Doppleganger spirits may reside in, and take the shape (in ghostly mockery) of human beings, noxodustans, or dolphin men's visages.
The bodiless bear the image of the person within whom they resided for a great deal of time. Once freed from the flesh, Bodiless are more vulnerable to destruction, but they are much more powerful, being able to fly and cast magical spells.
Doppleganger spirits, tiring of freedom and its myriad dangers, may fight for control of a human body, and once united with another human body they lose most of their great magic, but they can provide counsel and limited aid- including healing to the person so assisted. Their aid is often worse than expected, however, since although Dopplegangers depend on living bodies to protect their spirit, they constantly hone and test bodies-- making them into stronger creatures, ubermenches like the Ur-Men.
It is rumored that doppleganger spirits were responsible for the Ur-Men's evolution through crafting shrewd genetic pairings. After thousands of years of mating, the dopplegangers created the bizarre, and evolutionarily dangerous many-armed, giant race. Many dopplegangers claim credit for this genetic dead-end mistake that was strong enough to briefly seize power from the Annelids and Iodines before falling to the dread machinations of the inevitable ID-Creatures.[/ooc]
- The Cubes (Friggan Frigokubos "Ice Cubes")
[ooc]Sliding sentient Ice Cubes, sometimes referred to as the "Peril From the North", "Winter's Peril", or "The Nefarious White Peril". [note]Frig- and Frigo- are latin and greek roots of ice.[/note]
Vulnerable to heat, these creatures live in the most extreme of locations, but they travel south every winter in attempts to extend their hunting ranges--some argue that in the depths of caverns in mountainous ranges lurk Friggans who wait all summer for the coming of winter's ice, and then they emerge, in the dark of night during blizzards to steal the young and consume their heat-- these stories are invariably wrong; Friggans may very well attempt to reside in cool locations on mountains in caverns, but they can only reside in caverns on the highest mountains- for temperatures underground are usually a constant 50 degrees. Additionally, Friggans do not "consume the heat" of human beings- instead they are more interested in slaying living creatures from afar, by cracking off icicles from their bodies, and tossing them so as to keep the heat-bearing heart-bearing life far distant from any chance of melting their cubes.
Some of their greatest scientists are hard at work, at the poles, on magnetic superprojects designed to slow the world's rotation and to plunge a hemisphere into a "Long Winter." It is said that the Friggans have partially succeeded in this, as each winter in recent memory has been harsher and longer than the one before.
The Friggans communicate and interact with their environment through vibrations and through liquid shapings of their exteriors. While their mass must always remain the same, they can exert energy and reshape themselves. However, each reshaping costs energy, which heats them and risks melting. In environments below -10 degrees celsius this is not a large problem, but in places where the temperature fluctuates higher, the Friggans are in constant struggle a to remain still.
The Friggans have no eyes or noses, but they have an acute sense of sound. Vibrations reach them and bend around their icy forms, giving them a concept of other shapes in three dimensions. In this way, they can also hear. Even the most minute sound cues them into the movement of an object across the icy plane.
Their scientists' grand project, the DeMagnetizer, sits in a grand hall of Ice Sculptures that descends on an incline into the icy halls of a frozen glacier. Deep beneath the earth's crust, the Friggans' greatest scientists, and their young families reside amongst the sculptures that represent all of the Friggans' hated enemies-- the other races.
Clutched close by doting parents who have raised their young from tiny droplets into strong, hard, frozen cubes; Friggan young are taken to this hall and instructed in the nuances of the vibration-shapes that their enemies (those whose hearts are warm) possess. IF a Friggan were to approach any of these creatures too closely, the would melt and be destroyed. The DeMagnetizer is a grand heap of iron lumped against the north pole.
Friggans' relationship with non-sentient ice is a strange one. They cannot understand why other droplets of water that harden into ice do not become sentient. They consider the non-sentient ice to be accursed; Friggans who are reincarnated and punished by descending to a lower level of existence for some naughty act they perpetrated against society.
Friggans' secret of sentience is similarly a mystery. It could be that a chance glancing of cosmic solar rays created their intelligence, or it could be that spirits who were ripped from other beings by ID men fled north, as far from the Id Creatures' empire as they could, and resided in the only living things in the frigid zone- the ice itself.
No Id Creatures have made it to the frozen north or south, for their humours tend to freeze in the zones. Being denied immediate satisfaction of their desires to conquer the north, the ID creatures have invariably retreated and have been "frozen out" of the ice.[/ooc]
- Dolphin Men (Lissodelphin Borealis; "Lissodelphin")
- Human Beings
- ID Men (Psychoanalyticadus Freudianianis; "ID Creatures")
Constantly shifting, grotesque creatures who have subjugated a good part of the world and who once ruled the entire world until the Great Comet smacked into The Land about 125 years ago, slaughtering their base of control and allowing portions of the world to splinter off into free agency. Starting about 25 years ago, the ID men began reconquering what was once lost, led by a dark leader who rides into battle astride ID beasts that have crushed the souls of thousands of humans out of their mortal shells.
- Sand Men (Noxodust Terraean: "Noxodustan")
[ooc]* With silicon-skin that shimmers in the reflected sunlight of the sands, the Noxodustans thrive on sunlight-- to them, sunlight is like water; without it in ample supply-- they die.
* Noxodustans live in the wide open deserts of The Land, and retreat inside the Shining Caverns for the eight hours of most deadly night. The shining caverns always glow with preternaturally stored sunlight as crystals catch the sun during the day, then convert it into a type of battery that stores the light until needed.
* Generally, a Noxodustan can go without sunlight for two days fairly easily. During the third, the Noxodustans being to flake to a great degree; this is called "flaking out." Noxodustans who "flake out" can take a long time to physically recover. And after the fifth day, almost all Noxodustans will perish, falling apart into a million silicon pieces in the blackness.
* The most hated days of rememberance in the Noxodustan history are 1-When the Great Comet (Tunguskaan "Hated Comet") came 125 years ago, striking the Land with such force that the Sun was blotted out for one and a half weeks. Without the Shining Caverns, all Noxodustans would have perished-- and many still did. 2-When the Great Volcano (Pinatubkaan "Hated Volcano") erupted 25 years ago, spewing ash and blotting out the sun for four days. [/ooc]
Sklikk
[ooc]Mucousy creatures that live in phlegm and bile. Some argue that these are the building blocks of life; their cell-structures are the simplest known to humans. They are created through spontaneous generation and are the only known living thing that does not have a spirit attached to their bodily forms.
It is said that before the ID creatures came, the Sklikk had a great Slime empire that swept over The Land, covering it in muck and mire.
Their motivations are commonly thought to be base- food, water, sunlight, mating; but they are also rumored to have a type of hive-mind intelligence. Sklikk have a preternatural ability to determine where others of their kind are located and they gravitate toward them, building great pulsing bulbous mounds of muck into forms of towers or castles.
The Sklikk can immobilize their foes through secreting liquids, and then can suffocate them. It is said that they communicate messages through telepathy and people who taste "silk" can communicate with them. Those who communicate with the Sklikk bear tales of how the creatures have a hive-mind agenda-- to eventually cover the surface of The Land in slime as it was in ages past and return to the long-forgotten glory where the Sklikk existed above, and the IdMen and Humans existed below.[/ooc]
-Other Spirits
-All creatures have a spirit, even the elements have a spirit originally. These spirits possess powerful magic that permits breakage of the laws of physics. But the ID Core is gobbling up these spirits and they are dying, and losing their individuality. The spirits deathly oppose the ID core and being severed from their homes- whether the homes be within a tree, a blade of grass, or a sparrow's heart.
Shark Creatures
Soulless
-Human beings without a Soul or Spirit. These creatures are hollow things, they can only respond to commands and base needs; being little more than beasts. They are often harvested and used by ID Men as slave laborers in their salt and "silk" mines, extracting the mind-controlling inhaled-stuff.
Sows
-Yes, the female version of the intelligent creature commonly referred to as a pig.
-Used to nurture human being creatures when they are young. Sow-milk strengthens the bond between human and spirit. Many humans grow quite close to these animals; some even consider them their real mothers.
-Sows cannot talk, but they can feel emotions and some say that they bond with human beings.
-No known successful human-sow matings have ever produced hybrid-children.
Ur-Men
[ooc]
Although the UR-Men once strode astride the world like Colossi, they are now humbled and walk hunched-back beneath the earth. Before, the Ur-Men stood nine feet tall on average and jousted with their enemies with swords clenched tight within the nimble hands of six to seven arms and within the tight toe-grip of three dexterous and four sinistral feet. Today, the Ur-Men amble, hunch-backed through the underground, hiding from the ID-Creatures and ashamed of the degeneracy to which their race has descended.
Long ago, the Ur-Mens' doppleganger spirits departed from their souls, leaving them hopeless and empty, and this race has never regained its once lost glory.
[/ooc]
Locations
Bridge of Hope : This is a depressing place where thousands commit suicide each year, hoping that their reincarnations will lead to better lives. The bodies pile up from the base of the Bridge to an extent where those jumping in recent years cannot even shatter their bodies and must vainly hope for a broken neck as they lie expiring at the top of the pile. In another year, the place will become so filled with rotted carcasses that the Bridge may need to be closed.
Scavengers do attempt to clear the area of bones and flesh from time to time, but the daily suicides outnumber their powers of consumption, and tens of scavengers are daily crushed by the weight of collapsing piles of bones.
Cavern of Crushing Despair
The First UR-Man : The Bronze Colossus.
River of Boiling, Molten Blood That Congeals Into Hideous Hardened Laval Shapes
The Melting Sands
In the Melting Sands, the patient Cubes lie in wait, watching, ready to pounce.
The Noxodustans, in their crystal caves of solar reflection ready their Glimmerarrows, fletching and preparing for war.
The struggle goes on for many decades, and as the World cools, the Kubos advance ever farther. The seasons change and the Noxodustans gain a temporary upper-hand. But the Frigokubos have manufactured resilient shells, ways to cool themselves and grow. Each year there are more cubes, and less Noxodustans.
The Noxodustans have employed several mercenaries in their attempts to push back the cubes, but all opponents have been crushed, or they have perished due to the area's oppressive heat- for applying sand to flesh does not work as much to protect as does applying sand to ice. And flames do not spread in the sand. Nor is there vegetation to ignite.
So the Frigokubos advance. And the Noxodustans retreat as the Ice Peril inexorably expands.
[ic=History Behind the Conflict of The Melting Sands]
A diplomatic slight seeded the beginning of preparations for the conflict between the Friggan Frigokubos and the Noxodustans. A contingent of Noxodustans, hearing of the long bright never-ending day of sunlight that occurs on the Summer Solstice at the highest north, ventured onto a Frigokubos glacier and built a fire to warm themselves.
The Frigokubos, seeing the flame, advanced on the Noxodustans, who fired their ancestral Glimmerarrows, fletchings that burst into flame on collision with a target. The small defensive party of Frigokubos fled; but later they returned, ten times as strong and slaughtered all but three of the Noxodustans. Many Frigokubos were lost in the altercation. Although they attempted to stick the Noxodustans to their sheer exteriors, the Frigokubos found themselves coated in a warm acrid substance and drew back in horror. Despite their initial revulsion, however, the Frigokubos advanced and, in formation, crushed the bendable Noxodustans between their hard cubic forms.
The remaining three Noxodustans were brought before the Great Cube and flogged with blasphemous flame; surprisingly to the Frigokubos, the Noxodustans did not seem troubled by the flame- but they were troubled by the deaths of their compatriots.
The Cubes began to experiment with the dead Noxodustan bodies. Their greatest scientists eventually discovered that a coating of the Noxodustan sand could prevent melting in the face of flame. The Cubes then set about learning the Noxodustan language. After decades of torture and experiment, during which one of the three Noxodustans perished, the Frigokubos finally learned the basics of the Noxodustan language and their Empire's relative location.
Slaughtering the remaining two Noxodustans, the Frigokubos sent twelve of their bravest warriors (The Double Six-Pack) south, coated in as much of the magical "sand" as could be slathered on their bodies. Across the warm seas, the cubes floated, until they arrived at a sandy shore. Once there, the eight survivors of the journey coated themselves and waited until morning. Sweating at the break of dawn, and nearly ready to call an end to the excursion, the Double Six-Pack witnessed the Noxodustans came and went to gather water for their daily supplies. One who gathered water grasped a particularly suffering Frigokubos- who had shrunk to nearly the size of a watermelon- and placed it in a bucket. This launched an uproar among the Frigokubos, who struck. Two Frigokubos were captured, including the nearly-melted one, and the survivors retreated, coated in the sand. None perished on the return-journey, but they were ill at ease with their failure.
The returning six-pack, half of the original heroes, reported on the sand's abundance and its protective powers--once coated completely with the sand the Six-Pack found themselves protected from the heat.
Declaring the sand a necessity, the Great Cube formulated a plan to conquer the Noxodustans, seize their sand, and revenge the insult that had been levied against the Frigokubos population.
[/ic]
Cities
Deep Uldar- Ruled by the two-fingered brown-nosed Hag Queen.
Glick
The ID Realm
[ic=12 Against the ID]There were twelve of them the bloody Queen sent across the desert, across the ocean, across the bog, under the earth. Only one returned.
That's him sitting in the corner, rasping out a story to Mick-- the short olive-skinned fellow-- the one talking is more tanned and scarred-- scarred worse than you could ever imagine in both body and spirit. Some people have nightmares, some people live nightmares-- he makes nightmares.
I hear he ripped a man's spirit out of his body and strangled it to death- magyk be damned. And you see that "thing" where his hand should be? That's a Nice Thing isn't it-- wish you had one yourself, don't you....
Don't you boy'o. Yeah, I see you nodding your head. Yeah, you're smiling now. %%%%-it I should brain you aside the head for being a stupid t^^^! That's not something you ever should gaze on and still walk away alive- it's an ID Man's hand, grafted onto a stump of his hand.
He had the d((( thing in his backpack and the Queen decided to SEW it onto him as an experiment in return for the favor SHE did to HIM. Yeah- you heard that right. And he didn't even hellasmuch complain. Whispers are he LIKES it. Ain't nothing RIGHT about tha' fact that he LIKES it, y'hear-- that %%%% isn't normal, boy'o--things shifting space and time and forming into nightmare-grips--No. Not normal at all.
Twelve bodies went out across the desert, through the sea, through the bog, and into the caverns-- and all that came back was that thing.
And all for what, some fool spice that ain't gonna bring us nothing but harm and nothing but attention from those da$$ed ID men.
That man there, the one you're seein'. He'll be the geds-be-d###ed death of us all, y'hear.[/ic]
Isobarr
Krol- Dolphin Men city.
Historical.
Modern Era
(-25 years) : The Great Volcano erupts. IdMen regroup and the IdCore is allegedly restarted.
(-125 years) : The Great Comet hits, disabling the IdCore and allowing the rise of Human empires.
Age of ID
(-900 years) : The IdMen consolidate their empire. Height of IdMen dominance begins.
(-1,390 years) : Emergence of the Noxodustans whose incubatory salt crystals crack after being warmed by the blast of harsh solar radiation.
Sklikk Sovereignty
(-1,400 years) : The Sklikk empire falls and enters a harsh decline after a blast of harsh solar radiation causes their mightiest towers to crumble.
(-1,800 years) : The IdMen begin building their empire, killing the last Salt-eaters.
(-2,600 years) : Humanity and the IdMen flee underground, slay last Annelids. Ur-Men stay and fight, very few survive underground since they find it difficult to fit into the tunnels.
(-3,400 years) : Beginning of the Sklikk empire with the assassination of The First UR-Man, a beast of a creature who stands twelve feet tall. The First UR-Man is killed by plotters who cast molten bronze upon his face, and eventually cover him with the metal-- in the ensuing chaos, the Sklikk begin to spread.
The Ur-pire
(-3,800 years) : Rule of the Ur-Men who stand nine feet tall on average and who have six to seven arms and legs. Salt creatures fall after a burst of solar radiation burns and destroys all their above-the-ground dwelling, their genetic legacy hardens into salt crystals. A few isolated Salt creatures continue life underground for thousands of years, seen occasionally and hunted to near-extinction. Solar radiation also arguably gives the Sklikk telepathic powers.
(-3,750 years) : The Ravenous Tick is finally slain by a UR-Man warrior and an Annelid swordsage lightdancer.
Iodine Kingdoms
(-4,200 years) : The Ravenous Tick, a giant AnaIode leads an alliance of Ur-Men, humans, Annelids and 'Lissos against the Iodine Kingdom in a grand, but fatal attempt at insurrection. The Ravenous Tick is reprogrammed by the salt-eaters to taste only Annelid and UR-Blood, and it grows larger.
(-4,300 years) : Salt-eaters (AnaIodes) evolve as a construct-race of the Annelid Empire's best technicians. The salt-eaters resemble tiny mites that you can't see until they've already sucked you dry.
(-4,900 years) : Rule of the Salt Creatures (Iodines).
Annelid Empire
(-6,200 years) : Annelid Empire Underground Falls, pushed back by Salt Creatures and inner decay, the Annelids begin their descent to extinction.
(-6,900 years) : Annelid Empire's peak. Annelids are like regular world worms, except they have mouths along their sides and razor sharp tails, and poisonous stings, like millipedes.
(-8,200 years) : Annelid Empire begins. Hunger Imprisoned.
Trilobite Imperium/ Ancient Era
(-8,900 years) : Great Comet. End of the Trilobite Imperium and extinction of the ancient races. Fossils from that time are still found today.
(previous) : Reign of the ancient races; the Trilobites, the Quetzlocotal, the Shim, the Sham, and the Eastern Coast and Western Coast Sweeng.
Prehistory
(-20,000 years) : Fall of the Great Big Black Blot- an ominous spherical creature that projects feelings of hate and loss and hopelessness that prevent technological progress and emotional stability. No one knows exactly how the Great Big Black Blot fell, but some argue that its end was met in suicide after a Shim explained to it how its existence was somewhat paradoxical.
(-27,000 years) : Creator god driven insane by the heavy metal music of the celestial spheres. The god disappears; scholars argue that the god has been attempting to self-rehabilitate himself. He has not been seen since and the world has suffered for his absence. Some argue that the Great Comets that come every few years are the God's attempt to blot out the incessant hum of the moving planets- and every few years more stars go dark. Where once the sky was filled with vibrant light, today only a few stars flicker. Some wonder how long before the God blots out the last glimmer of light.
(-27,500 years) : The worlds vibe and dance with music as the cacophony of the spheres swirls around, making order from chaos.
(-28,000 years) : World created in seven days and six nights.
Gods and Demons
[ic=Gods]- Gods in the GrimDark IdDark aren't all powerful, they aren't even omnipotent-they don't even remember anything from day to day; but they certainly aren't powerless, and they certainly aren't normal.
The only things they have going for them is that (1) they are immortal, and (2) they hear the petitions of all of their self-selected worshipers, (3) sometimes they can change shape, and (4) they can talk to their worshipers and relay messages; wherever the worshipers be- but they can only talk to one worshiper at a time. They cannot harm any living creature, although they themselves may feel pain.
Some say that when the Mad Creator God created the world, he intended the Gods to do his works as minions, angels of sorts. But he refused to grant them much authority and they mainly remained bureaucratic speed bumps, merely existing to pass information to him and without power to do much of anything.
There are three Gods.
Gullettugger - The crazed 'Lisso God. Formerly he took the form of a trilobite; although he doesn't know this records indicate that he only became a 'Lisso in the past thousand years. Gullettugger is constantly trying to strangle himself to death. Worshippers can usually find him hanging by his prodigious tongue from various hooks under the ocean. Gulletttugger is a highly popular God given that many can identify with his sense of tragedy and ineffectiveness. His greatest enemy is Id.
Id - The IdBeasts' God and the most active and ambitious of the Gods. Id gives active counsel to his chosen creatures. The Ur-Men have an ancient tale that Id once represented their interests until it grew tired of them; the Ur-Men are greatly hurt by this betrayal, and the IdBeasts revel in it.
Persephone - She loves her worshipers, literally, and she takes Human form. She lives in a pleasure dome at the top of one of the world's highest mountains. She calls her worshipers to come serve her and many do. Few leave. Those who do often end up dead, killed by other worshipers who she persuades to hate the ones who leave her. She is a jealous, possessive Goddess. She has little interest in the affairs of the world as long as some humans exist within it. She tries to ignore Id.[/ic]
[ic=Demons]-Demons are filled with constant pangs of pain. The only way they can ease their hurt is by inflicting it on others. Through inflicting pain, they gain peace. There are only Four known Demons and three are currently shackled. Many have been imprisoned for hundreds of years, and one- Hunger has been shackled for nearly eight thousand years by The Annelid Empire. Demons speak, and some have been known to impart great wisdom of ancient technologies and lore, but all of their deals come at a hefty price to those who seek their counsel.
Demons have the body of a horse and the head of a man. Legends state that they are the only remnants of the Mad Creator god- being four aspects of his being. But more believable tales state that the Demons are the soul of the world and some cults have grown up, seeking to free the imprisoned demons-- believing that the world's decay is directly tied to the length of time each demon has spent chained and deprived of its depraved feast.
Hunger/Famine : Imprisoned nearly eight thousand years past by the Annelid Empire; Hunger has largely been forgotten by his fellows and he rots, nearly fossilized under thousands of feet of sandstone in an ancient tarfield-- driven completely insane by wrenching pain and never, ever being able to sleep.
No one knows where Hunger rests, and to the cultists, hunger's absence from the world is a direct explanation for the constant sweeping famines and decaying dryspells.
Many seek Hunger- the black horse- to learn wisdom, or to free him, but almost no records of its location remain, save perhaps one brief scratch in the wall of an ancient Annelid tunnel, speaking of the defeat of a great demonic force heralding the rise of their empire-- the location of this clue may give some idea as to the Demon's ultimate location.
War - War bears a red horse body. War was nailed up by IdBeasts about 1,300 years ago and tied to a stake in the center of their empire, where all IdBeasts may glare at him and mock his ineffectiveness.
Plague - Plague was struck down 800 years ago and chopped into 999,999 pieces that were scattered around the land. Each piece was weighted down with a lodestone and sunk into either water or land. The lodestones pull the pieces toward the center of the earth and away from each other (naturally, over time the pieces would attract to each other without the lodestones' presences). If the IdDark's magnetic core flipped, or magnetism disappeared, the pieces could feasibly come together and reform-- returning Plague to the world.
Death - Death still walks the earth, as a Pale horse-beast carrying a scythe. Death is constantly wary of being captured however, and he has been known to ally himself with Humans and Ur-Men against IdBeasts desperate on capturing him. Death constantly shakes with fear, and chatters his teeth. He also likes coffee- caffeinated only.[/ic]
Reserved 4
Reserved 5. (Last one)
Quote from: Light DragonSliding sentient Ice Cubes.
Awesome idea. Can they move any other way than by sliding, make any noises, or otherwise interact with the world around them? Are they used to cool drinks like ordinary ice cubes?
I'm greatly honoured.
Looks awesome so far (and very tongue in cheek) - I'll give it a more thorough read soon.
Love the Sklikk. Then again it's hard not to love the idea of telepathic slime creatures having their own empire. That's pretty damn original, and funny.
Quote from: Light DragonUr-Men who stand nine feet tall on average and who have six to seven arms and legs
...
the Shim, the Sham, and the Eastern Coast and Western Coast Sweeng
...
the Great Big Black Blot
...
Creator god driven insane by the heavy metal music of the celestial spheres
LOL :D Are all these just bits of background lore or do you plan to make them relevant elements in the "present" era of the setting?
This has some subtle yet highly amusing humor in it, like a more subdued version of Terry Pratchett. I love it.
I agree with the others; this is pretty sweet!
It reminds me strangely of HOL, with all the abandoned humans/wasteworld/general nonsense to it. Although perhaps a bit grimmer and more subtle humor at times.
But your own desription of it as a bizarre noir apocalypse is perhaps more apt.
Are there any nations? I think you mentioned Krol and Glick and Indobarran (or something like that) but I'm not sure whether those are cultures or city-states or nations or races.
I agree with Cataclysmic Crow - feels a little like HOL.
I like the timeline (looks like some of my own timelines in my rougher notes).
I like all of the races, particularly the Sklikk.
Is the Queen human? Is Deep Uldar underground? Is there any difference between the IdMen and the ID? And what is Gullettgutter like?
Pardon but what is HOL?
Thank you all for the comments. I'm working on responses. Updates and upgrades to the above are coming in pieces.
Steerpike- Your timeline directly inspired me. I enjoyed its simplicity and structure of ever-older civilizations building on the previous ones' ruins- it seems very suitable for dystopias. All I need to add now is a spider race... but I have some other ideas bouncing around in my head... trying to think of something similar... but odder and yet sufficiently noir. We will see if it pays off.
For now
-Ice Cubes Updated.
A little Dr. Fu Manchu "Yellow Peril" and hollow world influenced the development of these although I'm sure I can take the analogy farther...
-Bodiless Expanded.
Thank you again!
Quote from: GhostmanLove the Sklikk. Then again it's hard not to love the idea of telepathic slime creatures having their own empire. That's pretty damn original, and funny.
Quote from: Light DragonUr-Men who stand nine feet tall on average and who have six to seven arms and legs
...
the Shim, the Sham, and the Eastern Coast and Western Coast Sweeng
...
the Great Big Black Blot
...
Creator god driven insane by the heavy metal music of the celestial spheres
LOL :D Are all these just bits of background lore or do you plan to make them relevant elements in the "present" era of the setting?
They will all play a part in some fashion in terms of leaving artifacts and other information.
Ur-Men still walk the world in a limited fashion.
the Shim, the Sham, and the Eastern Coast and Western Coast Sweeng are long gone.
The Creator God has repercussions on the world in the form of the Gods and Demons noted above.
And we may see more rumours at least of the Great Big Black Blot. :)
Thank You!
Interestingly, in the GrimDark IdDark, if you're not an IdBeast, the Demons may be your friend:
(Updated above but reproduced here)
[spoiler]
Gods and Demons
[ic=Gods]- Gods in the GrimDark IdDark aren't all powerful, they aren't even omnipotent-they don't even remember anything from day to day; but they certainly aren't powerless, and they certainly aren't normal.
The only things they have going for them is that (1) they are immortal, and (2) they hear the petitions of all of their self-selected worshipers, (3) sometimes they can change shape, and (4) they can talk to their worshipers and relay messages; wherever the worshipers be- but they can only talk to one worshiper at a time. They cannot harm any living creature, although they themselves may feel pain.
Some say that when the Mad Creator God created the world, he intended the Gods to do his works as minions, angels of sorts. But he refused to grant them much authority and they mainly remained bureaucratic speed bumps, merely existing to pass information to him and without power to do much of anything.
There are three Gods.
Gullettugger - The crazed 'Lisso God. Formerly a trilobite; although he doesn't know this records indicate that he only became a 'Lisso in the past thousand years. Gullettugger is constantly trying to strangle himself to death. Worshippers can usually find him hanging by his prodigious tongue from various hooks under the ocean. Gulletttugger is a highly popular God given that many can identify with his sense of tragedy and ineffectiveness. His greatest enemy is Id.
Id - The IdBeasts' God and the most active and ambitious of the Gods. Id gives active counsel to his chosen creatures. The Ur-Men have an ancient tale that Id once represented their interests until it grew tired of them; the Ur-Men are greatly hurt by this betrayal, and the IdBeasts revel in it.
Persephone - She loves her worshippers, literally, and she takes Human form. She lives in a pleasure dome at the top of one of the world's highest mountains. She calls to her worshippers to come serve her and many do. Few leave. Those who do often end up dead, killed by other worshippers who she persuades to hate the ones who leave her. She is a jealous, possessive Goddess. She has little interest in the affairs of the world as long as some humans exist within it. She tries to ignore Id.[/ic]
[ic=Demons]-Demons are filled with constant pangs of pain. The only way they can ease their hurt is by inflicting it on others. Through inflicting pain, they gain peace. There are only Four known Demons and three are currently shackled. Many have been imprisoned for hundreds of years, and one- Hunger has been shackled for nearly eight thousand years by The Annelid Empire. Demons speak, and some have been known to impart great wisdom of ancient technologies and lore, but all of their deals come at a hefty price to those who seek their counsel.
Demons have the body of a horse and the head of a man. Legends state that they are the only remnants of the Mad Creator god- being four aspects of his being. But more believable tales state that the Demons are the soul of the world and some cults have grown up, seeking to free the imprisoned demons-- believing that the world's decay is directly tied to the length of time each demon has spent chained and deprived of its depraved feast.
Hunger/Famine : Imprisoned nearly eight thousand years past by the Annelid Empire; Hunger has largely been forgotten by his fellows and he rots, nearly fossilized under thousands of feet of sandstone in an ancient tarfield-- driven completely insane by wrenching pain and never, ever being able to sleep.
No one knows where Hunger rests, and to the cultists, hunger's absence from the world is a direct explanation for the constant sweeping famines and decaying dryspells.
Many seek Hunger- the black horse- to learn wisdom, or to free him, but almost no records of its location remain, save perhaps one brief scratch in the wall of an ancient Annelid tunnel, speaking of the defeat of a great demonic force heralding the rise of their empire-- the location of this clue may give some idea as to the Demon's ultimate location.
War - War bears a red horse body. War was nailed up by IdBeasts about 1,300 years ago and tied to a stake in the center of their empire, where all IdBeasts may glare at him and mock his ineffectiveness.
Plague - Plague was struck down 800 years ago and chopped into 999,999 pieces that were scattered around the land. Each piece was weighted down with a lodestone and sunk into either water or land. The lodestones pull the pieces toward the center of the earth and away from each other (naturally, over time the pieces would attract to each other without the lodestones' presences). If the IdDark's magnetic core flipped, or magnetism disappeared, the pieces could feasibly come together and reform-- returning Plague to the world.
Death - Death still walks the earth, as a Pale horse-beast carrying a scythe. Death is constantly wary of being captured however, and he has been known to ally himself with Humans and Ur-Men against IdBeasts desperate on capturing him. Death constantly shakes with fear, and chatters his teeth. He also likes coffee- caffeinated only.[/ic]
[/spoiler]
So, once again asking, what is HOL?
Crow and Steerpike mentioned it.
HOL is an oldish RPG; the acronym stands for Human Occupied Landfill. It's very much a satire and generally comical, sometimes using black humor, sometimes just nonsensical craziness.
The story is set in the far, far future where the Confederation of Worlds (C.O.W.) and the Megapope of the fast food/religion mix church'n'munch send all their waste to a small planet on the far, far outskirts of the universe called HOL. This waste includes every human considered to be generally useless, obnoxious, or in the way.
So you play a stupid, crazy, or very alternative character living on a giant trash dump inhabited by cannibal accountants, crazy fleshtenders, television hosts, sodomy bikers and other weird things. Also there are small suicidal creatures called wastits that you can eat (but once in about a thousand turn out to be wastems who eat you instead). You can then visit the Diaper Swamp or the world's largest parking lot with the only fastfood restaurant on the planet.
The HOL book is also exceptional in that it is entirely handwritten. And they put that to good use. The text is all over the place, has typos (sometimes entertainingly showcased), and dramatic emphasizing.
Thank you very much for the summary. It sounds interesting. As you mentioned though, I'm trying to avoid too-direct in-your-face humor which appears to be HOL's schtick. Generally, the GrimDark IdDark is aiming at sarcasm. Outside of the Shim, Sham and Sweeng races, the 'jokes' are intended to be much more muted and less direct- more of the WTF-noir? (Sin City, Pulp Fiction, LA Confidential) type rather than 1940s-born parent humor of the type found on 50s and 60s sitcoms... or Home Improvement. Although obviously- that humor is also present- because in my opinion it sort of fits the "era"'s literary mood.
However, the characters you describe as meeting in HOL sound right up the GrimDark IdDark's alley. It gives me a few ideas that I think I'll have to bat around for player Character types.
Thanks!
I laughed hard when I saw the blurb on death liking coffee
What is a PC?
In the GrimDark IdDark PCs aren't bound to the class system.
Instead, think of Heros' power system.
So I present to you the
"Semi-Classless GrimDark System"
(Because in the IdDark, it's difficult to have Class- but when you have it you're not only going to be killing things-- they're going to hear your name, and drink some cyanide in fear.)
[Note: Need to work on catchphrase.]
In the GrimDark IdDark you can do things with Style/Class, or you can do it without style/class. It all depends on what sort of nihilistic you are. (Are you Emo, Goth, Punk, Anarchist, Ascetic, etc.?)
Ex:
Lucy Starrskyne
11 Classy Points - Classy points are for acting Cool, doing neat things, and being a standup lady or gentleman.
5 Classless Points - Classless points are for being a rowdy rody, a Bad Bad Leroy Brown-- a Real SOB or just generally a classless d***. (Think the Italian in Boondock Saints or Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs. "We Can Kill Everyone!")
1 Utility Point - (Can be used for Classless or Classy points)
Each power may be used once a day.
On multiple purchases, the powers can be used multiple times/day.
Gain points organically through gameplay.
Classy Powers
1. Looking Good "Neat And Proper" "Clean as a 'Lisso" (2) - Walk out of a bloodbath without anyone else's blood on you. (Good for evading detection). +4 aura.
2. Making An Offer They Can't Refuse (5) - You are extremely persuasive. +10 to persuasion rolls. 5% discount on items purchased.
3. Sly (3) - +3 bluff. You can keep your cool in any situation. Immune to truth serum.
4. Wyrd - (1)- You've got the beat. People follow and respect you. +2 aura.
Classless Powers
1. Kick in the Groin - (5) Dirty Fighting Specialist. You kick, you scratch, you yank and you hit them in the back. The adrenaline never stops. Aggression +10. If reduced to as much as -10 while fighting, can keep standing. If reduced to -10, will not die until reduced to -20, but must be healed within five hours.
Utility Point
1- Reserved Point.
---
Skills (tentative)
Martial
accuracy (aiming) - Used for guns, bows, slings
aggression - Used for morale, intimidation (instead of persuasion), and general fighting skill.
hand-to-hand - Used for melee fighting.
Social
aura [charisma] - Used for diplomacy, reaction rolls, one-on-one interactions.
bluff - Used for lying.
persuasion - Used for bargaining/discounts, bureaucracy/administration, intimidation (instead of aggression), managing structures.
Intellectual
analytical - Used for mathematical problems.
book-smarts - Used for historical research.
cleverness - Used for street smarts, perception, wits.
--
1 point= 2 skill points
2 point= 3 skill points
3 point= 5 skill points + minor power
3 point= 3 skill points + medium power
4 point= 5 skill points + medium power
5 point= 10 skill points + minor power
5 point= 8 skill points + medium power
6 point= 5 skill points + major power [Rare]
Any advice on the catchphrase in the post above or further differentiating persuasion v. aura-- currently they seem a bit too similar in terms of skills.
Social Combat and Social Status
In the GrimDark, people battle not only with their weapons, but with their wits and minds.
The various skills (above) are added to rolls that determine social combat.
Example:
[ic=Filing Taxes]
Devon the 'Lisso is attempting to negotiate the bureaucracy of filing a tax return with a corrupt filing service. He refuses to pay a bribe and wants to ensure that his records clearly state that he paid his taxes.
Devon enters the room and sees seven people set up at various kiosks around the chambers.
He rolls a cleverness check to see which of the kiosks will help him fare the best. He rolls a 7, and adds his 10 to it for a 17. This is a mild success so he chooses relatively wisely (being able to add a +2 to any subsequent persuasion rolls)
He walks up to the counter and talks to the lady, Esme, who frowns at him and holds out her hand for the customary bribe.
Devon could Make an Offer She Can't Refuse but he won't spend his power for the day. Instead he tries to persuade her to not accept a bribe. His roll fails. So he puffs out his chest and uses aggression. That succeeds and she is cowed. But because he used aggression, the security guards are alerted. They come over and ask if there's a problem.
He uses bluff to discourage them. (he could also use aggression or persuasion). He succeeds and they walk away. If he failed, they might forcibly remove him, or stand beside him, making subsequent checks with Esme much more difficult.
Next he uses his persuasion to encourage Esme to file his taxes properly. He fails, but she promises to file the taxes properly. The GM asks Devon to make a cleverness roll and he succeeds- seeing through Esme's thinly veiled plan.
Devon then uses his aura to convince her to do him a favor. He succeeds and she will file his taxes properly.[/ic]
rofl using tax filing as an encounter... brilliant!
Remember... in some countries even if you have illegal income from embezzlement, or illegal gambling; it's taxable: See Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_of_illegal_income_in_the_United_States)
Notably: "While embezzlers, thieves, and the like are forced to report their ill-gotten gains as income for tax purposes, they may also take deductions for costs relating to criminal activities"
However, there is a caveat in some cases:
[ic=Bribery Tax Analysis]Bribe to police officer by an illegal gambling den
--Is this necessary?
--Appropriate and helpful?
--Ordinary?
a-Common and accepted for this type of business- YES
b-Current deduction not a capital expenditure- no significant future benefits.
Is a current expense.
--Would be deductible under 162
--But 162(c)(1)- no deduction allowed for payment to any official of a government if the payment constitutes an illegal bribe or kickback.[/ic]
And analysis like this fits perfectly into noir black-humor. :D
Quote from: Light DragonRemember... in some countries even if you have illegal income from embezzlement, or illegal gambling; it's taxable: See Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_of_illegal_income_in_the_United_States)
Notably: "While embezzlers, thieves, and the like are forced to report their ill-gotten gains as income for tax purposes, they may also take deductions for costs relating to criminal activities"
However, there is a caveat in some cases:
[ic=Bribery Tax Analysis]Bribe to police officer by an illegal gambling den
--Is this necessary?
--Appropriate and helpful?
--Ordinary?
a-Common and accepted for this type of business- YES
b-Current deduction not a capital expenditure- no significant future benefits.
Is a current expense.
--Would be deductible under 162
--But 162(c)(1)- no deduction allowed for payment to any official of a government if the payment constitutes an illegal bribe or kickback.[/ic]
And analysis like this fits perfectly into noir black-humor. :D
Oh wow, never have I laughed so hard in my life.