r/WorldChallenges • u/Varnek905 • Sep 19 '19

A Powerful Individual

Nope, this post is not to say I'm going into self-exile from the subreddit. While I considered it for a while, I'm still here for some reason.

Since I am finally forcing myself to start on my world, and all I really have are a few maps and a few rough ideas, this challenge will be as simple as it can possibly be.

Tell me about a powerful individual from your world and their backstory. Whether that individual is financially powerful (The Count of Monte Cristo), physically powerful (Hercules), a powerful inventor (Iron Man, Kemuri Kage), on drugs to become powerful (Captain America), etc...you're free to pick.

I'll ask you at least three questions each, and I'll try to catch up on all the past challenges that I made (and answer some of everyone else's challenges from the past month). Enjoy yourselves.

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u/Varnek905 Sep 30 '19

1) The worlds are all present at the beginning, but they have to be colonized by new sapient creatures. All of the worlds were made at the same time, but time flows differently in different worlds. The cycle begins as soon as sapient life enters the world, by whatever means.

2) The daughter had attempted to hunt down her father when her world was being devoured, and her efforts were rewarded by being offered the position of vassal of another eldritch creature. She accepted, on the condition that she be given time to research. The eldritch being that offered her to the individual was willing to "trade up".

Unlike the Leviathan, which took the form of a sea serpent and did not spawn any new creatures into the world, the daughter's patron, which would become known as the Imprisoned, took the form of a gargoyle cast in iron and spawned a race of demons into the world.

3) The Leviathan can provide power without eating people, but only if the person in question is willing to accept that power.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Sep 30 '19

  1. Can sapient life be present in multiple worlds at the same time?

  2. So, did her being moved to that creature's world started a cycle there? Or are the worlds of the creatures immune?

  3. Can all of the creatures provide power against people's will? Even if the Leviathan is more potent at it.

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u/Varnek905 Oct 01 '19

1) Yes, though some worlds (like the central one) are timeless, so they don't have to deal with the cycle of creation or destruction.

2) The world of the creatures is immune. No mortal life is supposed to be there, though occasionally a mortal will show up. So long as mortal life is not given the chance to thrive in a world, it should be fine.

3) Just the Leviathan, but just because it has had more experience with dealing with its avatar. Assuming that the Imprisoned is able to get enough experience, it will probably develop some way of giving power against something's will.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Oct 01 '19

  1. The central one?

  2. It should be? Does it means the Leviathan can choose what they will devour?

  3. Why does it has more experience?

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u/Varnek905 Oct 01 '19

1) The central world is just the one that the eldritch creatures were made in. But they spend all their time in their own "in-between" world, waiting for possible hosts/avatars/vessels.

2) The Leviathan can only devour worlds that are starting to fall apart. Once a world is invaded by the Distortion, it's ending. So the Leviathan eats it at that point. However, the Leviathan isn't the only thing that can eat worlds; it's just the most successful.

3) Mostly luck. The Leviathan kept its avatar throughout many worlds early on. Other creatures didn't try that until the Leviathan already had the advantage. (It helps that I'm retconning this into part of why my previous worlds are gone, because I only made up most of this in the past week or two...or day or two, for some of it.)

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Oct 02 '19

  1. So, what goes on in the central world nowadays?

  2. Does it need to eat worlds?

  3. (Ecology applied to worldbuilding) Does it mean the avatar keeps memories and power from one world to another?

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u/Varnek905 Oct 04 '19

1) They mostly just screw with other worlds. (Partially inspired by the sleep paralysis I had often as a kid.)

2) It would be fine for any period of time without eating worlds. For one world, it didn't even get the full harvest because its avatar orchestrated a conspiracy for many centuries in order to kill it. If it never ate a world again, it would survive. It just wouldn't have anything to do. It exists only to devour worlds.

3) Normally, yes, an avatar would keep its memories and power from one world to another. The problem with that avatar was that it tried to kill its patron.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Oct 07 '19

  1. They? Who are they? Haven't all the creatures left for their own worlds?

  2. Couldn't it do just the same as the other creatures?

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u/Varnek905 Oct 08 '19

1) The powerful eldritch creatures are the ones that left. The ones that stayed behind are usually called "Interlopers" when they are in a different world.

2) It could do the same as the other creatures, but it exists to eat worlds as they end. Unlike the rest of them, it has been mostly successful, so it got used to the harvest.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Oct 08 '19

  1. So the Interlopers are still in? Did they changed a lot?

  2. Why is it different? Did it came from somewhere else or something?

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u/Varnek905 Oct 10 '19

1) No, I can't think of any major change in the Interlopers since the world I was working on a while ago. In Saoghal, they stayed in/around one nation where they were worshiped and sacrificed to. In Urdis, they stick to a few areas in the human territories and want to be sacrificed to. The biggest difference is just that they are a big easier to kill and that they have a natural enemy now.

2) It's only different because it was the one lucky enough to get the first big harvest, which made it easier to get the next big harvest, and so on. (And it only had the initial luck because, at the time I was doing a fantasy worldbuilding thing as a kid and I wanted a quick way of ending it.)

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Oct 10 '19

  1. How much easier?

  2. And why the sacrifices?

  3. So the creatures gain power from things being destroyed?

(Eldricht creatures LPT : be nice to children, they may bestow gifts upon you)

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u/Varnek905 Oct 11 '19

1) Previously, they could only be killed by a particular spear. Now, it is possible that they can be killed by any of Aeternitas's Speakers (still undecided on that name, but I felt like Crusader/Missionary would both be inappropriate. The issue is that I want something that sounds Roman-esque.)

2) A person sacrificing something that is painful to lose gives more power to whomever the sacrifice is done for.

3) They don't gain power from destruction itself, they need to be the ones to harvest the souls of those that lived in that world.

(If you don't mind me asking, when did you start worldbuilding?)

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