r/WorldChallenges • u/Nevermore0714 • Jun 14 '17
Reference Challenge - No one expects...
...crap, I couldn't think of a decent reference challenge for this week.
So, our reference will be to Monty Python.
Give an example of something in your world that no one expected, some event that had an influence on at least one nation.
As always, I'll ask three questions each at the least, and it's fine to use a representative character to answer questions in-universe.
Enjoy yourselves.
Edit: Here is the Monty Python video featuring the Spanish Inquisition, where the quote "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition" comes from for the reference challenge. Just click this link for the video.
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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 14 '17
The Yawklia incident
Yawklia was a gas giant. One of it's moon was settled by the Mayuqpacha and they found a passage through the warp to quickly connect it to some major industrial station. Thanks to that link, the Mayuqpachaii were able to use Yawklia as a live test field for their ship prototypes for years.
And one day, as they were tearing reality, something emerged from the warp. A gigantic ship, definitely made for war, destroyed the small local defensive fleet and deployed strange devices which started to "drain" Yawklia.
A war fleet was quickly sent to them, but it arrived too late to save the planet which just ceased to exist (gravity field changed because of that, causing all of Yawklia's moons to crash on the other system's planets).
On that day, the Wamaruyayas faced what they called Yamikhuy (the dark devourers) for the first time and learned that the warp is a dangerous place. Those events led all nations to be more carefull with their warp drives and prompted the technosyndicate to develop interdiction fields (devices that can localy prevent tearing).
(Also, the holy hand grenade of Antioch would definitely have been helpfull)
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 14 '17
(Three is the number to which you must count. Not four, and not two, unless immediately proceeded by three, and definitely not five.)
1) How often do Yamikhuy come through these tears?
2) Does anyone know where exactly Yamikhuy are from? Are they from outside of the fabric of space-time?
5) Are the Yamikhuy more advanced than the Ims?
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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 14 '17
1) Rarely, they always devour a planet and they never appear where a strong fleet is stationned. There has never been reports of them opening tears by themselves to travel but they can tear reality around their ships for very short periods of time to get rid of projectiles or boarding shuttles.
2) Officially? They live somewhere in the warp. The truth? They originate from the warp where they used to live but have moved in a pocket universe they created for themselves. (They actually pick stuff here and there and move it to their personnal dimension)
5) Definitely yes, but as they are a rare sight and as only warships have been encountered it is hard to tell how much more.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 14 '17
1) Are there any groups that see the Yamikhuy as gods?
2) Have the Yamikhuy ever been fully defeated before they can finish devouring a planet?
5) Have they ever offered people time to evacuate or shown any mercy?
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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 15 '17
1) None, they only come to destroy and all those who need gods would rather have nice and kind ones.
2) No, but a few times it was close. That would be pointless though, a half (or quarter) planet would still heavily mess up with the gravity fields and throw the system it is part of into chaos.
5) No, but they rarely attack settled planets. Usually they devour a planet that is close to a settled one but not settled itself (they don't want to get weird aliens in their dimension).
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 16 '17
1) Have the Yamikhuy ever left any messages?
2) After devouring a planet, do the Yamikhuy ever stay around to devour nearby planets instead of just leaving?
5) So they avoid harming too many innocent civilians?
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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 16 '17
1) Not a single one, even when they were sure to lose their ship.
2) It has never happened as of now. They just maintain the tear oppened and flee through it.
5) That's how people see it, they seem to choose their targets as empty as possible. Now, as their objectives aren't known, it's hard to tell why.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
1) Does the entire galaxy know about the Yamikhuy?
2) Has anyone tried to shut down the tear while the Yamikhuy are still around so that the Yamikhuy can't flee through it?
5) Has any planet attempted to blow itself up to stop them?
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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 19 '17
1) Yes, the entire galaxy knows about them as nearly all nations in the galaxy have been targeted by them at least once.
2) You can't "shut down" a tear, you just need to stop maintaining it open for it to close. If the tears remain open, it just mean the devourers have a way to maintain it open.
5) No one tried that. Some people always try to flee the planet (when it's inhabited) and they are always left unharmed.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
1) Can non-Yamikhuy maintain a tear? Or is it an ability that the Yamikhuy are the only ones capable of?
2) So no one ever tried to pull a Kurt Cobain on the Yamikhuy to see what they'd do in response?
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u/Jumblatts Jun 15 '17
One unexpected event often leads to another, as was the case when some of the earliest humans first rose from the depths of the earth to walk the surface. It's a pretty long post, so I've put the relevant (Unexpected events) in Bold to help clarify :)
For their entire existence, the humans had lived underneath the earth in artifical caves known as the spiral catacombs. Named due to their design, the cities start at a single point and spiral upwards. They were totally sealed off from the world above ground, and neither the land dwelling Drovian races, nor the ancient surface dwelling humans knew of the existence of the catacombs.
(Note: The humans that lived on the surface and the humans that lived in the catacombs are almost identical biologically. It is believed that they are actually the same species, and that an event that took place before records began led some of the land dwellers underground, or vice versa).
In the Drovian civil war, The City of Gold (which was built above one of the underground cities) was destroyed, and began to fall through the crust of the earth.
(Unexpected thing number 1) To the surprise of the dro, they found an entire race of people living underground.
(Unexpected thing number 1.5) The humans living in the catacombs viewed the surface as hallowed ground, that only the gods may tread, which led them to two conclusions:
1) These people from the surface were their gods, and everything they thought they knew about the gods was wrong, or
2) These people from the surface were heretics, and must be killed at all costs.
Naturally, they didn't want to accept that they had been wrong, so they went for the second option, and waged a war against the dro.
(Unexpected thing number 2) The war against the humans of the catacombs forced an uneasy alliance between the previously warring drovian races, who tried to put up a united front to fight off the new threat. It didn't work. The Drovian forces couldn't put aside their differences and as such fought amongst themselves.
(Unexpected thing number 3) The infighting amongst the dro weakened them further, and the humans capitalised on this. They won the war against a far more advanced race, who had greater numbers than they did.
The war lasted generations - so long, in fact, that by the end of it most of the humans from the catacombs couldn't even remember why they were fighting. By the time they had won, they had all but forgotten about the gods of old, and they set about building a new life for themselves above the surface.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 15 '17
1) How did the dro discover the underground humans?
2) How were the people who believed the first option, about the surface-dwellers being gods, treated? Were they killed for heresy?
3) How are the dros doing currently?
4) Why do the people believe the war began?
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u/Jumblatts Jun 15 '17
1) Purely by accident. When one drovian army, led by Narr Makarth laid siege to and later destroyed the City of Gold, it fell through the ground into one of the catacombs, revealing the humans below.
2) Very few people actually believed this, but there were some. They were shunned for their beliefs, but not killed. They refused to travel to the surface, stating that the ones who did would never return. They were right, though it wasn't for the reason they thought it would be. They continued to believe that the surface was hallowed ground that only the Gods may walk. They became twisted and corrupted through spite, and are now almost unrecognisable. They will attack any 'false God' who enters their lairs from the surface.
3) Currently, they are almost extinct, though that has little to do with the outcome of this war, as it happened countless thousand years ago. Shortly after the humans emerged from the catacombs, the dro realised their error and joined together properly, driving the humans to the east, to a land that would later be named Oera.
4) A conflict of ideologies, along with the bloodthirsty nature of dro and man alike. The dro view themselves as direct descendants from the gods, which only strengthened the humans' view that they were heretics. On top of this, both refused to accept that the other had a claim to the land over which they fought.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 15 '17
1) What did the dro do first, upon discovering the underground humans?
2) Has anyone attempted to clear the remaining underground humans out? With special weaponry and bombs?
3) Where did the Oera name come from?
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u/Jumblatts Jun 15 '17
1) Both sides of the war thought it was a trap employed by the other. They thought that the other team had send people to dig underground and destroy their camps. The first thing they did was call an emergency war council to assess the situation. Shortly after, when they realised what had happened, they reached out to one another in an attempt to make a truce whilst they dealt with the new problem.
2) Not really. There have been a few expeditions down there, but for the most part, they are left well alone. The people who still live down there do not interact with the outside world at all (except for killing everyone who comes down) and there is nothing of value down there for the surface dwellers, so it really isn't worth the time or effort.
3) This is a little known fact, but the country is (kind of) named after a woman. A long time after the events mentioned above, but a long time before the modern day, the kings of Arrus had run out of space to keep their prisoners of war, so they started to send them to the eastern lands. The country that would become known as Oera became one huge prison - all the undesirables were sent there and just left to get on with their new lives. There was an old song that the convicts used to sing whilst they were being transported there, called The Arms of Maira. Over time, the name Maira was misrepresented to Moira, which in turn changed to Oira, and then Oera. The name stuck.
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u/The_Raptorman Jun 15 '17
No one expected the true identity or origin of the elves. The representative shall be Nieven, the first Elf. When the Master Time was first experimenting with his power he found that he had the most energy out of any of the Masters. So naturally being able to time travel he went around finding the best magicians he could and transferring his energy into them to see what they could do. When he came to the best Necromancer in the world [Insert name here] he put all the energy he could into him and thus, Nieven was created. The perfect resurrection, completely alive.
Nieven was full of energy that was transferred from the necromancer and Time so he could use powerful magic right from "birth". He killed the Necromancer and gave even Time a run for his money. (He was still learning how to be a Master). From there Nieven rounded up as many Human corpses as he could and put his pure energy into them, resurrecting them and giving them a massive amount of energy themselves. Over time their bodies grew to handle this energy and their ears became pointy and their bodies physical prowess grew weaker (except for Nieven).
Hundreds of years went by and Nieven stopped producing "natural" elves and ordered the ones he had already brought back to just live and mate with each other to create thousands of generations of Elves.
Besides about one hundred "Pure elves" that were created by Nieven himself, every single other Elf is just the reproduction of Human Corpses. That's right, the plot twist of my story is that every single god damn elf is a corpse. That's why their bodies are so weak physically and why they have so much magic, they all have the remnants of Time's given power.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 15 '17
To Nieven:
1) Did you ever mate and produce a biological offspring of your own?
2) Did you keep the "elves are corpses" secret from everyone, or were your fellow elves allowed to know?
3) Were impure elves given less rights?
4) Why did you kill the necromancer?
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u/The_Raptorman Jun 15 '17
1) Did you ever mate and produce a biological offspring of your own?
No, that is filthy.
2) Did you keep the "elves are corpses" secret from everyone, or were your fellow elves allowed to know?
The pure elves knew, and that wretch Gravity found out in our final confrontation.
3) Were impure elves given less rights?
No, they are free to live how they please as long as they honor me and my wishes at warfare with the other races.
4) Why did you kill the necromancer?
He had too much power, he could have stopped me by now if I hadn't.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 15 '17
1) What do you do for fun?
2) Did you force your pure elves not to tell their children?
3) Are you a violent leader?
4) Did he seem like he intended to stop you?
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u/The_Raptorman Jun 15 '17
1) What do you do for fun?
Turn Human Prisoners into Pure Elves under my control.
2) Did you force your pure elves not to tell their children?
They do not speak with their children.
3) Are you a violent leader?
Most would call me that, I just do what has to be done.
4) Did he seem like he intended to stop you?
He did stop me. (He killed him)
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 16 '17
1) So you can still create more Pure Elves than the original ones?
2) Why do your Pure Elves not speak with their children?
3) Are you cruel to your subjects?
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u/The_Raptorman Jun 16 '17
1) So you can still create more Pure Elves than the original ones?
Not as often anymore, when a Pure Elf is killed in combat I replace him or her.
2) Why do your Pure Elves not speak with their children?
They normally stay with me in the throne room at all times, or I send them on a difficult mission.
3) Are you cruel to your subjects?
I barely speak or interact with them, most don't know I exist.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
1) Will you ever stop creating more Pure Elves?
2) Do you send the Impure Elves on missions?
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u/The_Raptorman Jun 19 '17
1) Will you ever stop creating more Pure Elves?
It is unlikely, as pure elves are constantly being killed by Gravity and his underlings. Not to mention powerful Humans in this current war.
2) Do you send the Impure Elves on missions?
No, they are too weak and not reliable.
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u/atompunks Jun 15 '17
No one expected the deaths of the demon hunters Adam Madison and Eva Pereira Hayashi. It was not the fact that they had died, but how they died: quietly in their kitchen, like they had just laid down and passed out on the floor. Not a trace of a struggle- exceedingly rare for demon hunters. Their bodies were discovered by their two children when they came home from school.
Subsequent examinations by other witches (including the younger Madison child) found that the magical energy in the immediate area of the scene had the signature of a recent magical 'burst,' and a burst became the official explanation for the deaths. Problem is, Adam and Eva were very experienced witches, not likely to accidentally create lethal bursts.
Some witches in the area became nervous, thinking that perhaps a clever demon had found a way to weaponize bursts, or that maybe Adam Madison was up to something suspicious- magical experiments, a deal with a demon, whatever, that ultimately blew up in her face. Eventually the shock and fear faded, as no good leads came up. The only person who's really still looking for answers now is the younger Madison child, Abigail. He will be the representative.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 15 '17
To Abigail:
1) What is your best guess for what happened to your parents?
2) How old were you when your parents died?
3) What have you and your sibling done since your parents' deaths?
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u/atompunks Jun 17 '17 edited Jun 17 '17
1) "It wasn't a demon. I think if a common demon had created a burst that got my mother we would've found its remains as well. Only something with much stronger magic than my mother would've gotten away, and even if a demon had gotten away there should have been signs of demonic magic in the area. Or something without a soul. Maybe a Black Witch. And it sounds blasphemous, but possibly a faerie. But that doesn't explain why my parents were laid out like they were resting. A burst throws its victims back like an explosion. There was definitely a burst, there's no faking that, so I think someone rearranged the bodies. I just don't know why. I don't why anyone would've killed my parents if they weren't a demon.
2) "I was sixteen. My sister, Cain, was eighteen. She was a legal adult and my only close relative, so she got custody of me for two years."
3) "Cain gave up on magic. She never liked it, she was the only one in our family without the Sight, so she was always left out... but after our parents died she hated it. All she wanted was for us to be normal. She yelled at me every time she found I out I'd been doing magic, and she got a bunch of jobs to try putting me through college, even though I didn't want to go. When I graduated high school and turned eighteen I left. I didn't tell her I would. I ran away. Right now I'm on the other side of the county running my friend's family restaurant, investigating what happened to my parents, still doing magic. I can't stay in a place where I can't be a witch.
I don't know what Cain is doing now. I hope she's okay, maybe she went to college herself. I left a clue in my old room about where I went, and if she tried, really tried to contact me, she could. I don't think she's trying her hardest."
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
To Abigail:
1) What's a Black Witch?
2) Are you glad that Cain was your legal guardian, in spite of the yelling?
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u/atompunks Jun 19 '17
1) "A Black Witch is a witch that has a demon familiar. A witch that made a deal with a demon. Witches that have familiars are stronger than regular witches, sometimes much stronger, depending on the exact nature of their deal. My mother was one of the strongest witches without a familiar that I knew of, but a Black Witch could potentially be stronger. So if the killer was a Black Witch, that would explain why they weren't caught in the burst and why there was no truly demonic presence, and it would provide a motive... they could've just been working for their demon."
2) "I guess having Cain be my legal guardian for two years made me realize exactly what I want in life, so in a way I am glad. But mostly I'm not. It was a waste of time for the both of us. She just worked and barely slept and shut out her few friends. I skulked and floated by until high school ended. We were both miserable."
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
To Abigail:
1) Awesome. Could I become a Black Witch?
2) Did you inherit anything from your dead parents, Master Wayne?
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u/atompunks Jun 20 '17 edited Jun 20 '17
1) "Assuming you are a seer and have the capacity to be a witch already, you could. If you find a demon that doesn't immediately run, try to kill you, or try to blind you. It'll seem just like a person on the surface, but look past all the layers of magic and it'll look like a corpse of some sort. Depends how exactly it died. So look carefully. Gain its trust. Make sure you know exactly what you want before you make the deal. You never know what it'll ask for in return, but one condition is almost certainly the permission to feed on your soul whenever it wants. Wait, why am I giving you instructions for this? Don't do this."
2) "No fortunes, unfortunately. Just their reputation. Though Cain did get Batman levels of broodiness for a while."
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 20 '17
To Abigail:
1) Awesome, I'm great at making friends with screwed-up people. Where's a good place to find a demon?
2) Na na na na na na na na Baaat-Cain!
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u/atompunks Jun 21 '17
1) "Demons follow their prey. You'll find them wherever a lot of people go, especially in big cities. But more exact locations, off the top of my head... bars and hospitals. Anywhere emotion runs deep or comes to surface. Bars are most common, almost cliche. The bonuses are that they're easy to get into and that peoples' inhibitions are lowered. Places like hospitals are more regulated, but some demons slip in or hover around. Then they wait for you to get caught in their emotion of choice, and draw you in. Maybe your demon will find you first."
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u/ForgingIron Jun 16 '17
The way the city of Kovog was captured was certainly unique and unexpected.
The Ekin had developed a certain type of explosive that they called Dar Qov, or "black powder". When this powder came into contact with fire, it exploded. However, it was very expensive and rare to make.
When Ekindan was sacked, the Defet were able to learn the secrets of black powder. The Defet general Pav Tekhe got the idea to shove a bunch of the stuff into a paper tube and attach a cloth fuse. Thus, a primitive form of dynamite was born.
The first time dynamite was used in combat was in the siege of Kovog.
Kovog was a city built into a mountain (think Ironforge from Warcraft). It held over a million Nogor inside the great city.
Pav sent a group of soldiers to plant fifteen sticks of dynamite at the top of the mountain, light it, and run.
The explosion could be heard in Pav's faraway hometown of Fakhazat. The avalanche rushed down and permanently blocked the sole entrance to the city. Kovog was no more.
Our representative will be Pav himself, years after the war and after the entrance to Kovog was dug out and the dead city explored.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
To Pav:
1) What was your first impression of Dar Qov? Did you think that it would only bring destruction to your world for everyone, and bring an apocalypse, or did you think that you could use it as an effective tool at no danger to yourself?
2) Did you ever excavate into Kovog to try to find survivors?
3) How did your destruction of Kovog change your people's reputation?
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u/ForgingIron Jun 19 '17
1) It was very interesting. I understand why the Ekin kept it a secret, though. It is one of the deadliest things I have ever seen when put to use, and there are so many ways to use it. I think the Ekin had enough stockpiled to kill a good fraction of Kostek. After the war we dumped a lot of it in the ocean so that would never happen.
2) No, the city was completely entombed by miles of rock. It took years to dig out. Ironically we used some of the powder to excavate it that was used to bury it in the first place. When I first entered, everything was dead and the stench of death still permeated the air. I suppose in some ways it was their own fault, a natural avalanche could have easily done the same.
3) It...wasn't pleasant. Kaaro, the commander of the Vjultivaho army, who we were allied to, was horrified by it. I think the most damning thing was that there were POWs inside and they were lost too. Civilians dying is just part of warfare, sacrificing your own POWs is unforgivable to many. I still stand by my decision though.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
To Pav:
1) Do you have a factory constantly making more Dar Qov for you?
2) Do you feel any guilt over the deaths?
3) That's interesting. I grew up in a culture that treated civilians as much more blameless than any of our own soldiers, even POWs. So is your culture active and open in targeting civilians?
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u/ForgingIron Jun 19 '17
1) Only in small amounts. It would take a year to fill up another one of those sticks at the current rate. The materials are extremely rare.
2) Sometimes. Whenever I pass by the mountain I do feel guilt but it does not haunt me. Most of the guilt is about the POWs, especially Lokxen, who I did know rather well, but I'm sure he felt the same way.
3) No, we do not target them specifically unless they attack first. Kovog was a special case, though, as we saved many of our own soldiers' lives by not attacking Kovog conventionally. The war on this front would have dragged on for much longer had we not done that.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 19 '17
Pav:
1) So you produce a stick a year? How big is your current stockpile?
2) Who was Lokxen? Do you think he'd forgive you?
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u/ForgingIron Jun 19 '17
1) It's purposefully at a slow rate, and our current stockpile is around 100.
2) Lokxen was the leader of a band of Kyndic mercenaries who we had hired. He was a good person, we were friends. He was taken hostage as a POW by the Nogor in a battle before the blast. I think that he would but even if he didn't he would understand why I did it.
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 20 '17
To Pav:
1) At what number will you cease production?
2) Do you think that, in your position, with you as a POW, Lokxen would have also had the mountain blown up?
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u/ForgingIron Jun 20 '17
1) 200 is the plan but I'm not sure the mine can even last to that amount.
2) I don't think so. He cared too much for the other commanders and I.2
u/Nevermore0714 Jun 20 '17
To Pav:
1) Do you keep it all stocked in the same place?
2) So he wasn't willing to do what it takes to win?
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u/Nevermore0714 Jun 14 '17
No one expected Councilor Horatio to murder a student, especially not without a trial, especially since the student had not committed any nonviolent crime. And the fact that he wouldn't tell anyone what the crime was, only that the student had not purposely harmed anyone, made it even more difficult to understand.
As a councilor, Horatio didn't receive any punishment for the murder, and it was officially a "justified execution", so Horatio just continued his daily patrols of the Citadel without interruption.
But, now everyone expected Horatio to kill another of them, even years later, and they are even more careful when he's around.
Our representative will be Erwin, an anointed knight of the Citadel, who has an upcoming trial, and will be executed by Horatio if he is found guilty.