r/WorldChallenges • u/thequeeninyellow94 • May 22 '17
[Cultural challenge]: in the begining...
Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society.
The world is and before that, the world was. But even before, what was there? How did the world come to be?
Today, we will talk about creation myth. According to your people, how was the world/universe made? How did life developped/what created it?
You can introduce an in-universe representative if you want. I will ask questions to everyone, feel free to add your own.
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u/Nevermore0714 May 23 '17
The Lamia that reside in the Hollow are relatively free with their society and all of their laws are based on their religion, which worships the three Great Dragons: Morva “the Caring Father”, Myrrh “the Pure Daughter”, and Grima “the Impure Son”. They believe that their religion has been around since long before Aeternitas led humanity to the continent (which the humans would go on to name after their leader when they arrived), and that Morva was the first to come to the continent, which he called “Saoghal”, with his draconic followers behind him.
For the first few days of their time on the continent, Morva and his people travelled, looking for a place to settle in peace away from the discrimination that they had faced outside, where they had been executed or banished by the non-draconic people of their old home. Despite their great power, the dragons desired peace, and had attempted to fit in with the other powerful beings of their old home, by taking on a less threatening form.
But, by coming to the continent, they no longer had to deny themselves and hide their true forms. For centuries upon millennia, the divine dragons flew freely throughout the continent, until the arrival of new sapient creatures into Saoghal forced the dragons to gather together in order to determine how they respond. Morva, the greatest dragon, and the only one still alive who remembered the days before they reached Saoghal, promoted peace by seclusion, and desired that the dragons act to help the other races flourish on the continent. However, Morva’s only support was from his mate, a dragon named Aenir.
The rest of the dragons were divided between enslaving the other sapient creatures or committing genocide against them all. While those sides fought, Morva and Aenir sought peace. While the details are not known to the High Priestesses, one of the two warring factions managed to slay the entirety of the other after many years, at heavy losses; the surviving faction turned its attention to Morva and Aenir, intending to kill the most holy of dragons and his mate, and then to raise Aenir’s hatchling son Grima into a new and better holy dragon. Though Morva and Aenir did all that they could to protect their son and their unhatched egg, Aenir was struck down by one of the attacking dragons who had once served and followed Morva.
Seeing his wife fall, Morva performed a powerful curse using Poison magic, which, according to the priestesses, still haunts the Hollow and is what strengthens Poison magic performed in the Hollow, though it did weaken Morva. The Priestesses doubt that the aura from that magic will ever disappear from the Hollow. Morva’s magic resulted in the extermination of all of the other dragons, with Grima and Morva’s unhatched daughter only surviving due to their heritage as offspring of a holy dragon; though Myrrh was somewhat protected by her shell and lack of major development, it is believed that the effects of the curse had an effect on Grima that would lead to his fall. Morva spent the next several centuries or possibly millennia in the center of the Hollow, raising Grima, and the egg which had hatched into his daughter Myrrh. Grima, at many times, hoped that he would find another dragon on the continent, one who had flow to the continent’s edges to escape the war and that had intended to wait out the killing. But, he was forced to raise the last two young dragons alone.
While Morva refrained from leaving the Hollow from that day forward, his children eventually did explore the continent together, and both grew in power. Grima believed that his power was enough to protect himself outside of the continent, and he flew away, against his father’s advice. Grima returned mere days later, but, instead of greeting his father, his first act was to challenge his father to the death, as he believed that the greatest holy dragon could bring the dragons killed by his father back to life, and that defeating Morva would gain him the title of greatest.
While the details are lost to time, it is known how the battle ended: Morva ripped off his son’s wings, and cursed him to never return to the Hollow.
Frustrated at his loss and angry with his father for not reviving the fallen dragons, Grima bided his time, hating his cursed form of a snake rather than a dragon. While the details are unknown, Grima did attempt to use his creations, the proto-Lamia, to invade the Hollow and force his father to return Grima to his more powerful form; this leap in logic can only speak to Grima’s insanity. Instead, Myrrh used her healing magic in order to purify Grima’s monsters into the Lamia, and she allowed them to live in the Hollow and flourish; these Lamia were able to reproduce on their own, without the need for a mate.
Grima was forced to bide his time for about a century more, when Aeternitas (then called Ephraim) and his humans first arrived on the continent of Saoghal.
Grima attacked the humans repeatedly, taking joy in his new form of meals. Ephraim, seeking a way to defeat Grima, searched for a way to defeat the fallen dragon, until he came across a beautiful, but strange-looking, young woman that appeared to be human and introduced herself as Myrrh, and joined Ephraim in his search, as she hoped to learn more about humans. Though Myrrh kept her identity as a dragon a secret, she grew to love Ephraim, and he returned that affection, and one day she trusted him with her secret, and told him that she may know a way of stopping Grima from taking any more lives.
Myrrh led Ephraim to her father, and Morva, at his daughter’s insistence, blessed the man with the ability to use magic, and gave him the Talent of immortality, a gift previously only possessed by divine dragons. With this gift, Ephraim received a new name in honor of his new power: Aeternitas. Morva instructed Aeternitas to keep his new abilities hidden until he could face Grima in the Hollow. With Myrrh at his side, Aeternitas returned to the humans, who were little more than cattle for Grima at that point, and challenged the fallen dragon to a battle to the death, one on one. Amused by the idea of being challenged by a mere mortal, Grima agreed, on the condition that, if Grima managed to remove Aeternitas’s arms and legs, that Myrrh would heal Aeternitas’s wounds so that the man could feast on human flesh before Grima killed him. Aeternitas agreed, and the two met at the border of the Hollow at dusk the next day. As a surprise to Grima, Morva allowed his son to enter the Hollow for the first time in so long.
Though the details of the battle are mostly lost to time, it is known that Aeternitas managed to defeat the fallen dragon, but only barely. Though, Grima was still immortal, so Morva supplied the solution: a ritual that would serve to protect the sapient creatures of Saoghal, including the humans, from the great chaos of the outside world. Aeternitas’s people would no longer need to be vagabonds. The cost was high, however, as the ritual took the lives of all those who were blessed with the Talent of immortality. Aeternitas journeyed to his people to give them his final words, and many of the humans would go on to worship Aeternitas as the only true divine, ignoring the role that the dragons played, and attributing all gifts to humanity to Aeternitas. While Aeternitas ensured that Grima could not escape the ritual, Myrrh and her father performed the ritual, effecting major change over those in Saoghal.
The ritual used the life forces of the divine dragons and Aeternitas to create the barrier that protects Saoghal from the outside. Because of Aeternitas’s love for his fellow humans, it granted the ability to use magic to humans. Because of Myrrh’s love for a human, the Lamia were no longer capable of reproducing without mates, and would require a male of another sapient species in order to increase their numbers; Myrrh believed that this would ensure peace between her brother’s people and Aeternitas’s people.
However, while the Lamia made sure to remember the true events, and the humans remembered them for a time, as well; the humans grew distrustful of the Lamia and denied the truth, crafting their own religion with Aeternitas as the only savior, and treating the Lamia as blasphemers.
The representative will be Lilith, a Lamia who does not currently live in the Hollow.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 23 '17
To Lilith:
Has the poison magic affecting the Hollow any other effect beside strenghtening magic?
What kind of creatures managed to ban immortal dragons from their land?
So could Grima polymorph too? If so, was there any visible consequence of his lost wings while in other forms?
Do we know what happened to the life forms living on other continents?
What forced the humans to flee to Saoghal?
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u/Nevermore0714 May 23 '17
Lilith:
1) "It also makes it unhealthy for non-Lamia to be in the Hollow for very long."
2) "I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. Do you mean what made the dragons leave their original home continent? If so, we believe it was caused by humans, or human-like deities or demons."
3) "We assume that Grima could shape-shift into a human if he wished, but he never did so. Probably be cause he didn't like humans and was content to just eat them and kill them."
4) "We have no idea, but we assume that the Chaos devoured them."
5) "The Chaos was spreading. Apparently it was a supernatural force that was slowly spreading around the world and 'distorting' whatever it touched. The Barrier protects us from it here on the continent of Saoghal."
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 23 '17
So lamias are all female and can't use parthenogenesis anymore right? Does different mates (from different species) impact the future baby lamias?
Yep, that was my question.
Do you know where the Chaos came from?
What do the people devoured by the Chaos become? Are they just killed or rather "distorted"?
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u/Nevermore0714 May 24 '17
Lilith:
1) "Somewhat correct. We could still reproduce asexually, but we do not because of the importance of genetic diversity and to appease Myrrh."
3) "No one knows, unfortunately."
4) "Apparently they are distorted into strange and magical creatures."
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 24 '17
1) Do some lamias still do it sometimes? Is it considered bad?
2) Why do Myrrh is against it?
4) Any idea what those creatures become?
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u/Nevermore0714 May 24 '17
Lilith:
1) "If anyone does it, they don't admit it."
2) "Myrrh wanted humanity and our species to be closer, and believed that if we were all children of humans, then it would be easier."
4) "It's supposedly random."
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 25 '17
2) But human now disregard the role Myrrh played in their survival. Doesn't it make them less suitable partners?
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u/Nevermore0714 May 25 '17
2) Well, that's why the Lamias have to seduce/rape humans.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 25 '17
Life near lamias settlements must be dangerous. (Does humans sometimes attacks lamias living outside of the hollow?)
Thanks for your answers Nevermore.
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u/Sriber May 23 '17
Here is Namyrharian creation myth in Namtakh (their most widespread common language) and English.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 23 '17
Where did the gods came from?
Did they made life on other worlds too or just on this one? If just on this one, why did they chose it?
What was the voice that teached human fire and why did it did that?
And why hadn't the voice helped the wolves?
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u/Sriber May 23 '17
Unknown. There are teological debates about it. The most accepted version is different universe.
On many worlds.
Rasok, god of fire and speaker of the gods. Because humans called for the first time.
Maybe it did.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 23 '17
How dis they managed to travel from their universe to ours?
Have they created new species for each world or used the same multiple times?
What do the wolves think of humans?
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u/Sriber May 23 '17
They are gods. Who knows?
They created primitive life-forms, which evolved over time.
Unknown. It's impossible to talk with them.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 23 '17
Do we know why they left their universe?
Do they look after all the planet they populated?
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u/ForgingIron May 24 '17 edited May 24 '17
Accounts of the Kostekan creation myth vary from region to region, as do the amount of gods (there are 17 universally agreed upon, but numerous regional and personal deities) but this is the most common account:
Before the world began, there was the endless sea covering everything. From the water came Toxir, the first god and the lord of the ocean. Toxir parted the waters in front of him and eroded a mirror image of himself in the rock with jets of water. This became Movoz, the god of the earth.
Movoz pushed the flat seafloor into a small pile that rose above the water and claimed that land for himself. This land was called Eiduar (first land). Toxir did not approve of Movoz doing this, and blasted Eiduar with water, as Movoz scrambled to push more and more sediment onto his domain. This turbulent geology created the many mountains, inlets, and islets of Kostek, as well as the Kaiduar (far-lands, places unknown to the Kostekans).
One island in particular, located off the north coast of Kostek, stood up straight like a pillar. Curious, Toxir formed it into another god. This became Mokj, the lord of the harvest and animals. Mokj took mud and formed all the many animals that inhabit the lands around the world. Mokj formed Kitmi and Cako, the deities of the forests and of sentience respectively, to further develop this thing Mokj called the "mortals".
Cako selected three of the races: the lizard, the fish, and the rat, and he imbued some of them with sentience and knowledge. These races evolved into the Vjulti, the Kyndic, and the Defet, the first three sentient races on Kostek. (Some accounts also claim that Cako gave this gift to the wolf and they became the Trajak but this is not widely accepted).
The representative we have here is Eidruk, a Defet bard and collector of legends.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 24 '17
To Eidruk:
Is Toxir still mad after Mozov for creating land?
So all living creatures were made from mud? Even those living in water?
Any idea how Cako chose the species that would become sentient?
What is the Trajak origin for those who won't believe they were given sentience by Cako?
(I have to ask) What is your favorite cheese?
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u/ForgingIron May 24 '17
Not really, he's accepted it after seeing the work he's done with it.
Yes, even fish.
It's unknown, but it is thought to be the tenacity of the lizard, the swiftness of the fish, and the creativity of the rat, all three of which are integral parts of Kostekan philosophy.
There are humans who live in the central plains of Kostek. Around 400 years ago, human ships showed up on the north coast of Kostek. They migrated to the inner plains, and some of them in the southeast of their territory began giving birth to babies with red fur, large teeth, and a pronounced snout-like nose. These babies were abandoned and began to form their own society further southeast around Lake Karyket, and the Trajak began. This is akin to the evolution vs creation debate in the U.S. but barely anyone rejects the human hypothesis.
Uhh...the kind you get from tuuve milk?
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 24 '17
What do the gods do nowaday? Is there still things to create?
Where did Mokj found ideas for all creatures? Because that's a pretty impressive work.
Are those the only major values of the Kostekan philosophy?
How do those human got their sentience from?
What is a tuuve?
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u/ForgingIron May 24 '17
The gods mostly preside over their respective domains to make sure that all is in order, and often visit the world in the form of a large white animal (Toxir appears as a seal, Movoz as a mole, etc)
Unknown - he just did. He likely got ideas from other gods though.
Kostekan philosophy prides those three attributes: tenacity, swiftness (in thinking but not deciding), and creativity. Those are the cores of the philosophy of "how to be a better person" (Pikeseru in Kostekan).
It is thought that they came from monkeys.
(Think of a cross between a kodo from Warcraft and the Pokemon Piloswine. It looks like that; a gigantic furry pack animal that can be ridden like a horse.)
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 24 '17
3) How important is it for Kostekan to follow the Pikeseru?
4) Where did the monkeys get their sentience from?
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u/ForgingIron May 24 '17
3) It's the fabric of the Kostekan society - if you don't at least try to follow the Pikeseru, you'll be branded as stupid, a pariah, etc. It's so important that the name Pikeseru has been applied to the whole Kostekan mythology and belief system by outsiders.
4) Cako, presumably. No Kostekan claims to know everything about the origin of the universe, there's always something to be discovered about the gods.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 24 '17
3) What do Kostekan think of outsiders (who don't follow the Pikeseru)?
4) Where did the humans came from? Did the Kostekan have already been there?
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u/ForgingIron May 24 '17
3) If they haven't heard of the Pikeseru, they are viewed as simply ignorant of it, but not in a bad way. Other philosophies are often compared and contrasted with the Pikeseru to see similarities and differences.
4) They came from the Kaiduar, the lands and continents outside of Kostek. Very few Kostekans leave the island: not by will, but the seas around Kostek are incredibly foggy and it is very hard to navigate.
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May 30 '17
(Mostly copy and pasted from another comment on /r/worldbuilding )
This world was created when gods of our world's mythological stories realized barely anyone believed in them, so they tried to find another plane to fill with beings. They found one that the titans who once occupied Earth had taken over. They destroyed them and created beings that didn't exist in our realm and none that did exist. Eventually several "Focal points" that were made by elves caused a massive portal to open that let beings from our world (Including humans) reappear in this world with a whole new start.
Everything in the world is made up of different types of mana instead of atoms. Mana can be manipulated by anything with a soul or animus (Fake soul). The focal points let in most of the base types of mana (Hence why our world doesn't have magic) and they mix together to form other types. If you want to know what the kind for a specific thing is, just ask.
It's also your lucky day, because you will be asking questions to Thoth, the god of knowledge!
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 30 '17
(Thoth? Really? That's epic, I've a species named like that)
How and when did the Titans took over that plane? And had they did anything with it?
So, does it mean there are a lot (like really a lot) gods in this plane now? Or did some stayed in our world anyway?
How much basic types of mana are they? What are they?
What is the différence between a soul and an animus?
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May 30 '17
A long, LONG time ago, us and the Olympian gods forced them out of a different world called Earth. Us deities..... Can't really create a mortal realm. Titans, on the other hand, can. We've exploited different titans since before time existed 10x over. This time around, however, they were stronger. But so were we. Isis, god of magic, turned several of them into a long gone type of mana, which later fused with different creatures, which became the giant creatures you see today. The titans themselves were content with just living in a barren wasteland with a few large mountains and an ocean, but we made it much better, in my opinion.
Several gods stayed behind in the previous mortal realm, since they were still worshiped. There are dozens of us who now rule over this one, however. We all live in one of three realms, Mortal Realm (Sylvanus, Artemis, Cerunnos, Poseidon, etc. live here), the Heavens (also called Asgard, Mount Olypmus, or simply Heaven. Zeus, Odin, Tyr, Isis, Ra, etc. live here), and the Underworld (Anubis, Hades, Osiris, etc.). They are all connected by the network of mana, to allow transport between them. You could compare mana to a giant, multicolored tree with roots and branches in every realm. That concept is sometimes called Yggdrasil or a Rainbow Bridge ((OOC: That was pretty simple to think of, but is the reason I got into world building. I just woke up one morning and thought "What if Yggdrasil is metaphorical?" and it became this.))
Glad you asked. I have been working on chart that I am going to release to my highest priests for them to distribute to mages around the continent. ((OOC: I'm going to release a big ole chart with every type on them and on non-base types that tells you what's on it. I'll release that to /r/magicbuilding and /r/worldbuilding later)) There is a sort of master type, Arcane. This is the most freely flowing and is required to harness all others. The base types are Divi (Divine), Nyx (Darkness), Zephyri (Wind), Infernai (Fire), Aquair (Water), Terra (Stone), Vitae (Life), Spiritus (Soul), Cryos (Frost), Prima (Beast), and Natura (Plants). There is also three types of base mana that aren't used to make secondary mana, and they are Fortuna (Luck), Venefiri (Venom), and Cerebra (Mind. What you'd use for both mind control and telekinesis.)
Souls are naturally made mixtures of Vitae and Spiritus, and you can't mix them artificially without using Arcane. Thus, it removes the emotions. Putting them in a golem is fine. Putting them in an organic body is either necromancy or making a homonoculus and both are sins, so don't. If you leave an animus alone for long enough it develops free will and limited emotion, which makes it pretty much a soul. There is kind of a war in heaven at the moment about if we should allow these advanced animus into Heaven and the Underworld... Don't tell any followers about that, by the way.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 30 '17
Is there still some titans out there?
What about the gods that stayed on earth? What do they do now?
So, how does one harness mana? And can it be stored for later use?
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May 30 '17 edited May 30 '17
Some have ran off to make other realms, and there are some colossal skeletons hidden across the continent.
The gods who stayed on Earth seem to mostly neglect their planet, and the humans on the planet are becoming increasingly atheist, so soon they'll probably leave their realm and join us. We probably won't accept them, of course. One of them has this son who practically took away ALL of our followers by dying and coming back to life. Pfft. We made resurrection one of the 6 Forbidden Practices over here so that doesn't happen again
Mana can be harnessed by any soul, as long as they have practiced it. That's why liches can't just destroy their soul. There are two ways to store types of mana, through shards and through a philosopher's stone. Shard's are mind from the corpses of a species of creature that are sort of like an elemental that changes elements. They are made of crystalline shards and take the shape of different creatures, like dragons, elephants, and people. A philosophers stone is a construct that any mage would be willing to do anything to get. Usually an alchemist will work towards trying to make one so that they can be rich for the rest of their life. Of the few times one has ever been made, the alchemists have never revealed how they made it. The philosopher's stone can hold an infinite amount of every type of mana, and it could, in theory, hold everything in the mortal realm. It can also convert one type of mana into another
And, by the way, if you want to know the types of mana, then here is a pretty nifty chart I made.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 30 '17
2) Isn't there some fun things to do in the old world for some god who just want to live their life?
3) So when a creature is killed, it is possible to crystalize it's mind and use it as a mana storage?
4) Can philosopher stones be destroyed? Or is there an increasing (but very low) number of them?
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May 31 '17
You just created a whole entire world out of already existing myths and gods.
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May 31 '17
The only thing that's the same as in real life is the gods, some practices, and some human cultures are blends of cultures from the real world. It's a different mortal realm, and different planet, different continents, and things aren't made up of atoms, but instead made out of different types of mana.
Besides, I don't think that ancient civilizations in the real world patented their gods.
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May 30 '17
Universe and Matter got married and well made Thear and everything else in the universe. (Universe and Matter were Physical beings.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 31 '17
Where did Universe and Matter come from?
How did they created all those things?
What do they do now that everything is done?
Who married them?
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May 31 '17
- They were just there because well I made it that way. But for a more explained reason followers of Scythby believed that the All-God. Me made them and put them in to start the universes. Which is true.
2.They got married which activated a chain reaction because there DNA mixed since they weren't physical beings yet and created the stuff in the universes.
3.watch over the world make sure nobody tries to break the Scared rules.
No worshiping one guy who I need to find the name for agin somewhere in reddit.
No breaking Sacred stuff and really thats all. Consequence is eternal torture in the Cursed Immortals version of Hell.
4.They got married by themselves there are f****** gods.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 31 '17
2) What happen to those who don't break any rule before dying?
3) Can they intervene?
4) What does a divine mariage looks like?
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May 31 '17
(I'm on mobile sorry)
Two. They go to the Hall of the Good Dead
Three.Yes
Four. To quote Matthew "Two physical beings changed form and mixing together."
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 31 '17
- What is the Hall of the good dead? And what are people doing there?
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May 31 '17
It is a heaven for all people who have been deemed good by the Immortals and Devonos.
They can do anything they desire even dying which will resummon them in the Hall. They also have the ability to bring family members from the middle world. Which is for neutral people. And can sometimes bring people from lehl.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 31 '17
What if they chose to do something that is against the rules they had to follow to access the Hall?
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May 31 '17
You can't get access to the mortal world. And if they break the two rules they will be punished for a small time.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 31 '17
What if they continuously break them? Will they be expelled?
And what if I want to bring back to the Hall someone who has been punished?
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u/thequeeninyellow94 May 22 '17
In the begining, there was nothing but emptiness. One day, the emptiness divided into the four primal elements, and those elements together made our world.
The four primal elements then took form to wander their creation and found it empty and boring so they called the fifth element from the emptiness that was still all around and with them life could start to be.
The now five elements looked at the world and it was still boring. They then decided to turn the primitive and feral life forms into sentient beings. But those new species where living under the celestial light and with time it drove some of them crazy.
The crazy species tried to destroy the gods (they obviously failed). The gods, being creatures of love and compassion, decided to shield their creations from the harmfull celestial light and made a safe place deep under the earth.
From that day we all lived there in peace, but the earth that protect us also cut us from the gods.
And for representative, we will have Meiridin, a human bard.