[Forum Philosophy] #18 - Cosmology

[Polycarp]

If you have interesting superstitions in your setting, share them here. Do you make much use of it in your writing? Do you assume most of the mystical is true, or is it just peasant superstition?

Absolutely.  Fantasy is all superstition anyway, and I think that just like religion in a campaign, you lose something when you make everything black and white (it either obviously exists or obviously does not).

I have plenty of superstitions in CJ.  Some are widely "known," but false, like the idea (shared by most of the civilized peoples) that snow is inherently evil and/or poisonous.  In reality, it's just snow, but it helps set up the world's tall mountains as fearsome and forbidden.  Other superstitions I purposefully don't confirm or deny, like the origins of the Artificers or the true nature of much of the world's history and mythology.  Sometimes it's tempting to just say "such-and-such happened, that's canon," but leaving room for interpretation is a great boon to GMs and Players alike.  It makes people curious, which is always good, and it allows others to understand, interpret, and expand your work in other ways.

[Nomadic]

If you have interesting superstitions in your setting, share them here. Do you make much use of it in your writing? Do you assume most of the mystical is true, or is it just peasant superstition?

It also immerses the players since they're not on the outside looking in from every direction, they're on the bottom viewing the world from a particular angle with some things visible and others shrouded.

[Ghostman]

IMO the best way is to go for a mix of true and false superstitions and keep most of both as backdrops, so that you can never be sure. Not to mention superstitions where there is some truth behind them, but that's actually quite different from what the superstition claims.

[Nomadic]

IMO the best way is to go for a mix of true and false superstitions and keep most of both as backdrops, so that you can never be sure. Not to mention superstitions where there is some truth behind them, but that's actually quite different from what the superstition claims.

raw meat is unsafe to eat, it is the sign of the umberkyre and it will smell out the meat within you and possess your body.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Like it, Nomadic.

Cosmology is one of my favorite things to write, and one of the few things I enjoy reading about in other settings (if done well). Designing the intricate workings of the universe is large part of the appeal in setting design for me. Politics and economics are often more of necessary evil than fun design in and of themselves to me, though I do like history a lot.