how things came to be, and other stories told (a worldbuilders perspective of legends)

[SDragon]

ive decided to create a thread where we can all share advice on writing for our worlds. more specifically, writing about how our worlds came to be the way they are.

these are stories developed to explain how things came to be- 'How the leopard got her spots', 'How the elephant got his trunk', or, more importantly, 'how the world started'.

from what i have seen so far, there are two ways to approach this:

1.) as a proccess. in other words, the world isnt finished being "created". its still evolving, and new elements are brought into the picture relatively frequently. this is generally very troublesome, but it lends the feel that youre not using some utterly unchangable planet with utterly unchangable features. it makes long-term effects such a errosion, tectonic shifts, evolution, etc. fit in wonderfully.
  the only problem in gameplay is that somebody that played one session in the world, then decided to rewind or fast-forward it a few hundred (thousand?) years most likely will have no sense of familiarity; they might as well be playing in an entirely different world.

2.) as an event. in this case, creation works for a certain, predetermined cause (usually creation of humans; feel free to come up with something completely different), and let things play out from there. while events may make alterations, the stage is ultimately set. this is best examplified by the biblical seven days:
 god start out creating the heavens to support the earth, then focuses on the earth to support its inhabitants, then focuses on the inhabitants to support man, then reaches the climatic point in creation, making man in his image. notice, of course, that god "rested", or stopped creating, only after he reached the climatic point of creating man.

since an event-based creation story is easier, i assume thats what most of us would choose, and so this thread can be used to work out ideas on how the event worked itself out, and what the final product was.

enjoy :)

[Raelifin]

Wait... is this out of character or in character? Meaning, are we writing legends of the worlds birth or how we brainstormed them up?

[SDragon]

i was hoping this would be for brainstorming different approaches to them, along with the various effects of approaching them.

or any other way to work with them, i guess...

[Raelifin]

So... a world builder's perspective on legends?

If this is the case, you may want to rename the thread "Writing Legends for your game." or whatnot. The curent title is confusing. :)

[Xathan]

This seems like a fun idea, now that I understand it. You do mean stories like "once the leapord was one color, like every other animal. Then, in some brave and heroic gesture, he stood out in a dirty rainstorm for days and days, and since then him and all his children have spots," right?

[Tybalt]

I'm still working on the legend of creation thing, but actually I prefer the idea of post apocalypse. For instance in Robert E. Howard's Hyperboria there were previous civilizations such as the Lemurian. I like the idea that an ancient civilization's bones lie beneath the one that exists in the current game. That brings up interesting thoughts about the races that are supposedly more long lived, such as elves and dwarves, and how long ago the change of civilization happened and what the demi-humans remember of it.

[Jürgen Hubert]

With Urbis, I've used the former approach; there is a real sense of evolutionary change (at least, I hope so) of the setting. The history of the world goes back far, though the further back one goes, the more uncertain events become. And it is quite clear that things will continue to change in the future, often in unexpected directions.

Certainly, some sort of evolutionary process seems to be at work, possibly in a sense similar to that recognized by Darwin. Even the gods seem to evolve and change over time. As for who or what created the world, no one really knows, though of course there is plenty of speculation (and the odd  god or their religion trying to take credit for it). On the other hand, some species were most likely created by sapient beings, not evolved - but after they were intoduced to the ecosystem, they have spread out on their own.

While there are a few hints to one direction or another, on the whole I prefer to keep things open and mysterious. Why?

Well, for one thing the "Truth" doesn't matter much to the day to day activities of most people - much less than what they believe in. So focussing on the beliefs people hold in the present day is much more important than the reasons (if any) for what might or might not have happened thousands or millions of years ago.

For another, if I keep things like this open, the DM can easly decide the "Truth" for his own campaign and build adventures campaigns around it. Discovering the facts will mean much more if the players didn't know them before than if they had simply read about all of it in the setting description and had to feign ignorance for the purpuse of playing their characters accurately.


Of course, this approach doesn't work for all campaigns. For some, it can be useful to have "Absolute Truths", especially if you have some overarching, epic conflict between the forces of Good and Evil. But Urbis, despite its vast size, centers on human conflicts, and I feel that the variety of mutally contradictory beliefs that humans tend to hold are vital for this.

[CYMRO]

Altvogge has a very precise timeline that begins with creation.  Everyone knows it to be  the truth, and the events surrounding creation still impact on the lives of the people, asdo the politics of the gods.

[SDragon]

cyrmo- was the creation of Altvogge event based? if so, do you mind me asking what major event finalized the creation?

generally speaking, i find the last event in creation is usually the biggest; it seems to me most of the time everything else is treated as "this happened, then things moved on so the next thing could happen". does anybody happen to have any other ideas on how to work a major event?

[CYMRO]

cyrmo- was the creation of Altvogge event based? if so, do you mind me asking what major event finalized the creation?

generally speaking, i find the last event in creation is usually the biggest; it seems to me most of the time everything else is treated as "this happened, then things moved on so the next thing could happen". does anybody happen to have any other ideas on how to work a major event?

Event based.

Creation of Altvogge

The beginning started with the appearance of Polu-Eeton among the five elemental spheres.
The finalizing act was the seeding of the Prifilial and Neslial races across Altvogge, Luna, and Celeriat.

[Stargate525]

I'm working with the rest of my gaming group to create a campaign setting right now, so we basically told the truth.

Five gods (the five of us), came together in a great council in the seat of creation (the living room) and did do battle (argued), each one creating a world to have it destroyed by the others (I now hate whiteout)....

it goes on, but the Idea should be there.

[Lmns Crn]

I'm working with the rest of my gaming group to create a campaign setting right now, so we basically told the truth.

Five gods (the five of us), came together in a great council in the seat of creation (the living room) and did do battle (argued), each one creating a world to have it destroyed by the others (I now hate whiteout)....

it goes on, but the Idea should be there.

Now that's a fascinating and novel approach. On some visceral level where irony and metaphor reside, it's very appealing.

[Stargate525]

Now that's a fascinating and novel approach. On some visceral level where irony and metaphor reside, it's very appealing.

Thanks.