The Unfinished World

[Epic Meepo]

[ic=The Unfinished World]The world is very young. Or perhaps it is very old. Maybe there is no difference between the two.

Whatever the case, the world is Unfinished in our time. The Wilderness, that unbounded space beyond the horizon, does not resemble anything we know here in town, in any town. Things like "distance" and "direction" have no meaning out there, beyond the settled lands. You can map a town or even a country, but you can never map the Wilderness.

That's not to say that there aren't other settled lands, other countries beyond the horizon. We know there are, for travelers more adventurous than I bring us word of such places. But those brave souls dis not reach such fabled realms by charting courses and following established trails. They used the basic truth of the Wilderness: know your destination, care not about distance, and with luck, the Wilderness will provide.

Such are the rules in places too young or too old to be captured on any map. But do not let the simplicity of the rules fool you. The Wilderness is a dangerous place. Should you tempt your fate beyond the horizon, know that which you seek. For in the Wilderness as in life, without knowledge, one is destined to become lost.

The world is Unfinished... but it would be more than happy to finish you.[/ic]
The Unfinished World is a world of isolated towns, unspoiled vistas, and wandering heroes. It is a world where settlements are bastions of order in a sea of chaos and adventurers are eternal explorers. Beyond the horizon lies an ever-shifting, otherworldly Wilderness that hides the secret paths between the world's many and varied realms.

For those who venture beyond the safety of settled lands, knowledge is power. Time passes strangely in the Wilderness, and familiarity with one's destination can get a traveler their in a matter of days, no matter how far one must travel. In the Unfinished World, knowledge of a foreign land and access to that land are one and the same. Distance is no barrier.

For the adventurous spirit and the open mind, something new is just a bard's tale or a sage's tome away. Those willing to leave home behind have a chance of finding anything and everything the world has to offer just over the next hill. That simple truth is the greatest promise of the Unfinished World, as well as the greatest danger.

[Epic Meepo]

[note=Revision History][spoiler=Last Update: 5th October]5th October, 2007:
-Clarified the rules for Wilderness travel.
-Moved those rules so they were part of this post.

4th October, 2007:
- Expanded world overview from "settled lands in a formless wilderness" to "settled lands scattered across a globe, with otherworldly wilderness filling in the gaps."
- Clarified that most settled lands are the size of small countries.
- Changed overview of Wilderness travel from "distance and direction have no meaning" to "time works differently, making travel times variable."[/spoiler][/note]
On the surface, the Unfinished World is an Earth-like place. Its lands exhibit familiar climates and terrain. Its surface is home to familiar plants and animals. Days, months, and seasons pass in the usual fashion under a yellow sun and a single moon. To the typical inhabitants of settled lands, this is all anyone needs to know about the world.

Scholars know more about the Unfinished World. They know that the world is a large spherical planet, and they know that the planet is incomplete: only small parts of its surface actually exist. Anyone traveling beyond these settled lands has strayed into the Wilderness, an otherworldly realm that fills the gaps in normal reality with endless expanses of ever-shifting terrain.

Few dare to travel the Wilderness, though the potential rewards of doing so are great. Unbounded by the laws of normal reality, a path through the Wilderness can reach the far side of globe as easily as it can reach the nearest neighboring country. For travelers with the right knowledge, no distance is too great that it cannot be covered in mere days.

But few inhabitants of the Unfinished World have enough wanderlust to appreciate this fact. The world is a sparsely populated place, and its sheltered inhabitants gather in isolated, insular communities. Government, trade, and warfare take place on small scales that allow residents of settled lands to avoid contact with the Wilderness altogether.

Accordingly, the role of adventurers and explorers is that much more important. Daring travelers are often the only link between different settled lands, and the only ones who can save communities from dangers too great to be overcome with local resources alone. Those who travel the Wilderness of the Unfinished World will find ample opportunities to become heralds, heroes, or villains.

[ic=Settled Lands]No one has ever visited them all, not as far as I know. They say there's more settled lands than one can count. They say that if you put them all together, they would stretch for thousands of miles. Thousands of miles! Who can even image such a thing as thousands of miles? Preposterous.[/ic]The 'finished' parts of the Unfinished World are known as settled lands. These lands are scattered across the globe like islands in a vast sea of nothingness. To venture outside the borders of a settled land is to pass into the Wilderness, the otherworldly expanse that connects settled lands while the rest of the ordinary world remains unformed.

A typical settled land is the size of a small country. It can be traversed on foot in three to four days and includes as many as a dozen settlements of note. Most of these settlements are towns with a few thousand inhabitants, or, in less developed lands, villages with a few hundred. Smaller settlements usually exist in respectable numbers, while larger cities are rare. Concentrations of more than ten-thousand residents in a single place are almost unknown.

A settled land might have any Earth-like climate and terrain. Settled lands frequently include one or more freshwater lakes. Rivers that disappear into the Wilderness at the edge of a land are also common. Caverns exist under most settled lands, but cavern complexes tend to be small and self-contained.

[ic=The Wilderness]The funny thing about the Wilderness is that there's no real edge. It sneaks up on you. One minute, your walking past places you know. The next minute, you're not. But don't think just turn around and get back to where you've been. No, once your in the Wilderness, you won't be that lucky. If you let a landmark out of your sight for too long, you won't ever find it again.[/ic]Between the various settled lands, there are areas of the Unfinished World's surface that do not yet exist. Filling these gaps in reality - and extending far beyond them - is the Wilderness, an otherworldly realm of wild beasts and rugged terrain.

The Wilderness varies greatly as one travels. Near the border of a settled land, the Wilderness blends seamlessly into that land, having matching climate and terrain. Further out, any environment found in any settled land might be encountered, and the land is in constant flux. Locations that go unobserved for too long disappear, replaced by entirely new terrain.

The shifting nature of the Wilderness also affects the passage of time. While seconds, minutes, hours, and days all seem to pass normally, the amount of travel required to reach a specific destination varies greatly. Reaching the nearest settled land might take weeks for one traveler while another traveler arrives at the far side of the world in only days. In the Wilderness, travel time depends only on one's familiarity with one's destination; distance, whether short or long, is irrelevant.

[spoiler=Wilderness Travel]
When a character leaves a settled land by traveling off the map, the character enters the Wilderness. No matter what direction the character was initially traveling, the traveler will slowly be steered in the direction of the destination he envisions (if he envisions a specific destination that actually exists) by the shifting nature of the Wilderness. To determine what happens next, roll 1d20, and consult the Wilderness Travel table, below.

If multiple characters are traveling together towards the same destination, use the most favorable row that applies to any of those characters. If multiple characters are traveling together towards different destinations, the destination chosen by the majority of the group becomes the actual destination. Ties are broken by assigning an equal probability to each tied destination and determining the actual destination with a random dice roll.

Any time before reaching a destination, a character traveling through the Wilderness may choose a new destination. This allows the character to re-roll on the table below as though he had just entered the Wilderness for the first time, negating any travel time already completed. Characters lost in the Wilderness may use this option to return to the settled land they most recently left, or to choose a new destination.

[table=Wilderness Travel]
[tr][th]Destination[/th][th]Hopelessly Lost[/th][th]Random Trip[/th][th]Long Trip[/th][th]Short Trip[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Previously Visited[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]1-10[/td][td]11-20[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Previously Viewed[/td][td]1[/td][td]2-3[/td][td]4-14[/td][td]15-20[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Never Before Seen[/td][td]1-2[/td][td]3-5[/td][td]6-18[/td][td]19-20[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]No Destination[/td][td]1-10[/td][td]11-20[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Destination
Previously Visited:A character traveling to any settled land he has visited in person on at least one occasion counts that destination as being previously visited.

Previously Viewed:A character traveling to any settled land he has viewed first hand on at least one occasion without being physically present (through scrying, for example) counts that destination as being previous viewed.

Never Before Seen:A character traveling to any existing settled land about which he has heard stories or seen illustrations - but which he has never seen first hand - treats that destination as never before seen.

No Destination:A character entering the Wilderness without choosing a destination, or attempting to reach a destination that does not exist, is considered to have no destination.

Result
Hopelessly Lost:The character is lost in the Wilderness and never reaches his intended destination, no matter how long he travels. The only way for him to cease being lost is for him to chose a new destination.

Random Trip:The character travels for 2d6+1 days. Some time during the final day, he arrives not at his intended destination, but at another destination entirely. If his intended destination was a real and specific place, his new destination is one that is thematically similar to that place; it likely has similar climate, terrain, and inhabitants. If his intended destination does not actually exist, his new destination has no connection to his intended destination at all.

Long Trip:The character travels for 2d6+1 days. Some time during the final day, he arrives at his intended destination.

Short Trip:The character travels for 1d6+1 days. Some time during the final day, he arrives at his intended destination.[/spoiler]

[Epic Meepo]

[note=Revision History][spoiler=Last Updated: 5th October]5th October, 2007:
-Clarified the specific types of concepts that give rise to deities.
-Clarified limits on divine power and the role of deities.
-Added a description of divine magic.
-Deleted references to Memes creating creatures other than full-fledged deities.[/spoiler][/note][ic=Gods and Memes]You want the gods' honest truth? Well here it is: mortals weren't created in the image of the gods; the gods were created in the image of mortals. Religous folk might not see it that way, but the hell with them. It's the truth. Fact is, gods have names and faces and dogma because us mortals dream them up.

The gods are just reflections of us. Very, very powerful reflections...

On second thought, forget I said all that just now.[/ic]
The deities of the Unfinished World belong to a race of beings known as Memes. On their own, these godlike beings have no form, no substance, and no agenda. But Memes are able to fuse with concepts that inspire powerful emotions in the minds of mortals. In doing so, Memes become avatars of the concepts they assimilate. In this way, gods and goddesses are born.

From the perspective of scholars, this means that mortals create their own mythology. They tell stories that reflect their views, and inspirating - or terrifying - elements of these stories take on a life of their own. Once imagined, deities tend to endure, evolving to reflect modern theology instead of adhering to outdated ideas. But imaginative individuals are not restricted to an existing pantheon of gods when seeking an object of reverence. A person of sufficient convinction can also give rise to an entirely new deity.

In general, deities conform to limits imposed by the stories that created them. Myths that personify concepts as physical beings give rise to deities that have powerful but finite physical forms; they can be interacted with and even killed, at least temporarily. Conversely, tales of all-powerful and unknowable forces give rise to distant deities whose limits will never be tested; they are simply too vast and too mysterious to directly interact with the world.

One property that seem to be common to all deities is the ability to bestow magical ability upon devoted followers. Sufficiently devout worshipers of any god, be it finite or all-powerful, are able to channel divine magic into a particular spells. There is some variation in the spells available to followers of different deities, but overall, divine magic seems to depend more upon the experience of the spellcaster using it than upon the properties of the deity providing it.

Despite the universal nature of divine magic, deities venerated in different settled lands tend to be distinct creatures, with unique names, faces, and personalities. Missionaries occasionally travel the Wilderness promoting particular deities. But religions spread across many settled lands eventually give rise to multiple deities, each an aspect of the original. The cultures of the Unfinished World come into contact with one another too rarely to sustain a single, shared narrative. Over time, individual aspects of a widely-known deity diverge, and the uniqueness of local pantheons is preserved.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Sounds like fun.  I played in a campaign a few years ago that was based on exploration of wilderness, and it was one of the more fun campaigns I've played in.  I look forward to seeing more details.

[Epic Meepo]

(reserved)

[Epic Meepo]

That "pantheon" in the previous post isn't finalized, so I'd be interested in hearing what people think about my backwards approach to deities.

(Actually, nothing above is finalized, so feel free to comment on any of it. I'm toying with some odd concepts here, so I'd like to hear what's working and what isn't.)

[LordVreeg]

[blockquote=epic meepo]But Memes are able to fuse with powerful ideas that exist in the minds of mortals. By doing so, Memes become avatars of the philosophies they assimilate. In this way, gods and goddesses are born.[/blockquote]
Hmm.  what makes an idea powerful?  Only certain strong people that radiate this?  Otherwise, i'd think there's be a lot of 'fear of death' Memes, and 'I'm Starving' Memes, and jealousy Memes...Maybe that is what you want.

Could the Meme's be attracted to certain flavors of ideas, or ideas that exist in many humans at once?  Like a political rally with a persuasive speaker could create a Meme that becomes a Minor deity of that political ideal?  Is this how Memes mature, maybe?  
ANd Maybe they can grow together, or become more powerful as they age, so that a Meme that became a very elemental god, like a God of fire 2 thousand years before might be a very powerful idea/Meme/God due to the age and consistent appreciation for that idea?

[Epic Meepo]

what makes an idea powerful?  Only certain strong people that radiate this?  Otherwise, i'd think there's be a lot of 'fear of death' Memes, and 'I'm Starving' Memes, and jealousy Memes...

Could the Meme's be attracted to certain flavors of ideas, or ideas that exist in many humans at once?  Like a political rally with a persuasive speaker could create a Meme that becomes a Minor deity of that political ideal?  Is this how Memes mature, maybe?  
ANd Maybe they can grow together, or become more powerful as they age, so that a Meme that became a very elemental god, like a God of fire 2 thousand years before might be a very powerful idea/Meme/God due to the age and consistent appreciation for that idea?[/quote]Definitely "yes," on all points above. Any political movement (or fringe cult or ancient family) with a strong enough philosophy behind its goals would have a patron deity. And as the movement grows more influential, the Meme would grow more powerful as well. Old Memes of very basic concepts (like fear/respect for fire) would definately be among the most powerful.

[LordVreeg]

Hmm.  I think this discussion is onto something.  I think you have, if nothing else, come up with a really cool dynamic behind the curtain.  Kudos.
(something that would never work in my setting, mind you, but something I am getting into here)

The Meme/Dieties, as they gain power, can they coerce/agree to join other Memes (Pantheons), especially if the same group of people created both?  Like the scientific method Meme might be in the same grouping as the Arithmatic and physics Memes...

And then there is the anthropomorphism process... I'm seeing some strange Meme maturation process...

[Eclipse]

I love the Memes as gods idea, especially since I've done some amateur study in memetics. Honestly, reading this setting here is the one that pushed me over the edge into finally delurking and joining the CBG as a full time member. Some questions about your Memes:

1) Are the corporal? I'm unclear on if Memes become anthropomorphic or are merely intelligent, disembodied ideas with divine power.

2) On a similar note, is it possible to kill a meme physically? What if you were to alter the primary belief in that meme to be that that meme was dead - would that kill it?(turning Nietzsche's "God is dead." into a sword against the gods.)

3) What about memes with conflicting interpretations? To take a modern example, many people have different views of Jesus Christ. How would a similar entity manifest in your setting? Would it be one entity with a lot of conflicting 'faces', a meme baised on the most prevelant ide about itself, or would be multiple entities with the same identity?

[Epic Meepo]

I love the Memes as gods idea, especially since I've done some amateur study in memetics. Honestly, reading this setting here is the one that pushed me over the edge into finally delurking and joining the CBG as a full time member.

1) Are [they] corporal?[/quote]On a similar note, is it possible to kill a meme physically?[/quote] What if you were to alter the primary belief in that meme to be that that meme was dead - would that kill it?(turning Nietzsche's "God is dead." into a sword against the gods.)[/quote]3) What about memes with conflicting interpretations?[/quote]Unlike the real world, the Unfinished World has no world-wide religions, so problematic situations involving multiple interpretations of singular, world-recognized religious figures do not come up. Different cultures might have similar divine figures, but they almost always have different names and different faces. Those differences are sufficient to allow multiple Memes to feed on otherwise identical concepts.

On the rare occasions when there is disagreement about the nature of a deity within one of the Unfinished World's small, insular cultures, that deity consist of multiple Memes, the way the Hindu gods have multiple avatars representing multiple aspects. And since divine magic is a measurable force in the Unfinished World, residents will have a hard time denying that any of these different aspects is less real than the others once the split occurs.

[Wensleydale]

Hrm, this is a very... interesting setting. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it - an UNFINISHED world. And I like the Wilderness - I really, really like the Wilderness. So, as far as I can see, if you're concentrating on getting to one destination, you will almost always find your way there? If so, that's a very clever idea. :)

On deities, I love the meme idea. So, whilst the gods DO exist, they depend totally on their cultural influence, and change depending on the thoughts of their worshipers? So Gods could, essentially, go through such a transformation that they are no longer at all similar any more?

[Eclipse]

haven't decided what creatures other than elementals and outsiders are Memes in this setting. Fey and incorporeal undead are likely formed from minor Memes. The same might be true of aberrations, constructs, and corporeal undead. Other physical beings would probably not be Memes. (Though I am kicking around the idea that creatures brought back from the dead are actually Memes drawing upon remembrances of the dead and mimicking them exactly!)

Any thoughts?

That's a great explanation for both corporeal and incorporeal undead. In fact, I could see a culture that believes that after death, the dead return to guard the living - and, since they have that belief, that's exactly what happens! I have trouble seeing constructs as memes, since I generally view constructs as needing to be constructed, and that seems to go against the idea of memes naturally evolving - unless, of course, a culture builds constructs to house gods and belief the gods enter them and live there, which, of course, they do.

For aberrations, I'd say make it half and half. Some aberrations are memes, horrible ideas and primal fears given form, or even created by cults worshiping dark forces as a hope of gaining power. Others, however, I think would be fun as physical beings, simply because then memes would spring up from their thoughts, and the number of ideas there is innumerable.

Which actually does raise a question - can the thoughts of memes give rise to another meme? For example, lets say a culture believes in holy warriors like valkyries that serve a higher power, but that culture worships the valkyries themselves, only believing in the higher power to the extent that it exists and doesn't interact with humans except through valkyries. Since the valkyries interact with this being, would their thoughts and perceptions of it influence its existance? Can memes even have 'thougths' the way we humans think of them?

Speaking of which, do beliefs in the afterlife spawn actual planes of existance, much like their beliefs in gods create them? Taking it even further, if a large group of people believe that spilling a child's blood during a full moon will open a gateway to hell, will it?

[Epic Meepo]

So, as far as I can see, if you're concentrating on getting to one destination, you will almost always find your way there?

teleport[/i] spell for characters of all classes and levels.

So, whilst the gods DO exist, they depend totally on their cultural influence, and change depending on the thoughts of their worshipers?

[Can] the thoughts of memes give rise to another meme?[/quote]Can Memes even have 'thougths' the way we humans think of them?[/quote]is[/i] that creature and thinks the way that creature thinks in any other campaign setting. When a Meme is "out of character" just being a formless Meme, it instead has no comprehensible thoughts.

Speaking of which, do beliefs in the afterlife spawn actual planes of existance, much like their beliefs in gods create them? Taking it even further, if a large group of people believe that spilling a child's blood during a full moon will open a gateway to hell, will it?

Beliefs in planes and gateways do not make them real. Aside from its unusual geography, the Unfinished World itself follows all of the standard fantasy world conventions. It just happens that the world's deities conform to cultural expectations because the race that gave rise to them sustains itself by doing that.

A metaphor that might prove useful: Powerful ideas are screenplays, Memes are movie producers, and deities are movies that are currently in production. Divine magic is the ability of the producer to offer jobs to people who are enthusiastic about the movie. Offering jobs can affect the real world in measurable ways, but does not cause the internal logic of the screenplay to overwrite the laws of reality.

That being said, deities and other creatures "descended" from Memes all behave in the normal fashion: they create and maintain planar abodes for themselves using whatever powers they have at their disposal and they still interfere in the affairs of mortals from time to time. They wouldn't be avatars of ideas if they weren't behaving accordingly, after all.

Also, there is still arcane magic in the world that causes all sorts of strange events, planar or otherwise. Unlike the magic of the gods, arcane magic has nothing to do with Memes and exists in a fixed form whether people believe in it or not. Memes may be a power source in the Unfinished World, but they are not the only one.

[Wensleydale]

Ahh. Now, if there was an immense split in the church of a single meme, would the meme split also? Or would a second meme rise up to take on one half of the god's 'portfolio' (using that word extremely loosely)?