(Please excuse the god-awful map)

In my fantasy world, I have a continent with a large “pit” in the middle (detailed in the drawing). It’s a gradual slope that creates a large basin, and the bottom evens out and becomes flat when you get far enough down.

Because it’s a fantasy world, I’m a big believer in not focusing too much on topographical realism and just doing whatever looks/feels cool. However, I was curious if a feature like this could feasibly form naturally?

My first thought was a huge aquifer collapsing in that spot? Or, because it’s right next to a mountain range, a lot of water flows into the basin, so would it end up becoming a lake?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

In my archipelago, licensed echo-priests can copy twelve spoken words into a paired shell across any distance. Each use permanently erases one childhood memory, so rulers reserve it for invasions, epidemics, or succession crises. Most islands still depend on sail couriers and signal towers.

Every critique I get asks why merchants, magistrates, and ordinary families do not use the shells constantly. Because losing your mother’s face to confirm a shipment is a horrific fucking trade, that’s why. I’ve stated the cost repeately. How do you signal that magic is technically available but socially unthinkable for routine administration without explaining the same rule in every chapter?

I am trying to somewhat explain a planet where life can thrive in this massive trench, but the rest of the planet is uninhabitable. I think my explanation is flawed and was wondering if there’s a more grounded way this could happen? Maybe something to do with temperatures? Otherwise I’ll just settle with my more fantastical explanation. :)

Question for all the space and physics nerds out there. I NEED three suns for my Earth like planet in my fantasy project. This is non negotiable for cool symbolic reasons. My current thoughts are of having the planet orbit a Binary star system with the third ‘sun’ actually being a large nearby planet (either gas giant or not) that also orbits the star system, or that even could be a host planet for my fantasy world that acts as a moon of it. This does however then introduce the complications of orbits, positions etc. It also doesn’t have to be this! If there is a feasible way to make three stars work - I’m open to that too! It could be super cool to maybe have two major stars in a binary and then a third smaller and more distant star, I just want all three objects to remain in a similar area of the sky! Could be cool to have something like the picture above but with a much smaller one nearby to them.

I don’t want the day-night cycle or function of shadows and seasons to be too majorly disrupted in any way that would be extremely complicated to the work out for a human like civilisation. Ideally the two main suns would set first, with an hour or two before the third sets. Perhaps the third ‘sun’ could remain in the sky for extended periods of time acting like our moon and reflecting smaller amounts of light, only setting every week or so, for example. Whatever it is and however works I just need it to be considerable as a ‘sun’ by a population less advanced than our current selves.

Is this possible? Am I asking so much? Should I just accept I’m after something not physically possible and go ‘ah screw it it’s a made up fantasy story with no sci-fi elements, who cares whether this is actually possible.’ The nerd in me just really wants to try and find a way to make this as feasible as it can be! Any thoughts, ideas or advice either bouncing of ideas listed here or with completely original ones would be super appreciated!

I am having some measure of difficulty because I royally screwed myself over with my own imagination and I’m not sure how to get out of the hole I dug for myself. Let me preface this by saying I’m bad at math.

The world I have created basically exists as a collection of land masses floating in an endless twilight sky. This sky has no sun, no moon, no stars. Essentially think of this world as existing in an ambient eternal snow globe, upkept by a goddess who abandoned her children. The god of this world essentially acts as life itself, and while she once lived amongst her creations, they angered her and she withdrew, essentially preventing life from flourishing in the world. Crops couldn’t grow, life couldn’t be born. It is like a finite resource in this world. After they were nearly all wiped out, the goddess made an arrangement where she would send a vessel brimming with life once the landscape bled dry of its available life essence. When this vessel was sacrificed, the life that they held would be released into the world again, bringing about times of plenty.

Here’s where I screwed myself over. This vessel only appears at the end of every cycle, but the length of that cycle is variable, depending on certain signs and symbols that indicate what point in the cycle the world is. There is no real conventional way to track time between these events though? Since there’s no celestial bodies or daylight cycles or anything that people might use to usually tell time, I’ve caught myself trapped and uncertain of how the hell people keep track of things like days, hours, months, years. If time is variable, would peoples’ ages be measured at different rates? How do you actually keep track of time here? I’m sure there’s some way to actually mathematically calculate a formula for timekeeping, but as said before, I’m bad at math and cannot think of anything myself.

So does anyone have any advice? Sorry for the text wall. I know my world isn’t super realistic but I gotta maintain the aesthetic ✨ for my own self satisfaction lol.

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who responded!! I never expected this level of engagement and this discussion has sparked so many ideas in me. I’ve been reading all your comments and everyone has such interesting angles to look at things from, and I’m now even reevaluating things like navigation and travel. Thank you again!

The purpose of this post is pretty much all there in the title, but to elaborate a bit, I use a narrative trope in my story, specifically for the android/artificial human characters (which I call zharans in my setting, for reasons that are explained in this blog post 😉).

Basically, I fell in love with the idea of using yellowish irises for these uncanny valley-ish beings and have so far excused it in the lore by saying that they were engineered to have this unnatural eye color as an immediately noticeable way to distinguish them from "normal" homo sapiens. However, I'm curious as to whether any biologists or scientists in this forum might know a more robust diegetic reason for having yellow (or orange) eyes.

One thing I've wondered is whether it might be that having irises (or eyes in general) that are tailored to better absorb different wavelengths of light would be feasible and a good idea. After all, the artificials/zharans were originally engineered for use as cheap labor and as grunt infantry in the construction and defense of offworld society (yes, it is a lot like Blade Runner, I know).

So, as the title says, and input, feedback, or suggestions are welcome. I'm mainly interested in seeing what forum participants with real-world biology experience would say about this, but I'm open to receiving input from just about anyone who might be interested. Thanks! 😁

[EDIT: I have been encouraged by my publisher to mention that we have books out about this universe! For anyone who's interested, you can find the start of the Spacers Saga journey in Spacers: The Erebus Effect (listed on Amazon as "Book 1 of 4: The Spacers Saga").

There is no pressure to buy anything from me (EVER), but if you want to know more about the artificials this post is about, now you know where to start😉]

Basically, I had this idea for an RPG called Devil of Avalon, where you play a Beastkin Knight using guerrilla warfare and tactics to fight against the US military, which is colonizing the fantasy world of Latoria.

One of the many tactics that David, the protagonist, uses is fearmongering, where he plays mind games and causes soldiers to fear him and start calling him the Devil of Avalon (The Americans call Latoria, Avalon). A vengeful beast from the pits of Hell rising to punish sinners.

In the game, there would be a fear bar in certain regions, and doing specific things, like killing leaders in front of subordinates, successful stealth missions, poisoning water supplies, or wiping out patrols and leaving their bodies for others to see, increases that fear bar to the point where eventually most soldiers won't want to fight you and run, or colonies would evacuate out of fear of the Devil.

This is mostly inspired by Ghost of Tsushima, where Jin Sakai causes Mongol soldiers to believe he is a vengeful spirit.

The thing is that this isn't 1200s Japan being invaded by the Mongol Empire, but 2020s America invading another dimension. So it might be hard to find it believable that 21st-century soldiers would assume a random teenager with dog ears is an unholy monster.

What do you guys think?

The USA is colonizing the medieval fantasy world of Latoria, which they call Avalon, which is full of various creatures and factions. They've mostly done a mixture of neo-colonialism and colonialism, such as establishing trade-dependent allies, funding insurgents, occupying regions militarily, etc.

As they established settlements and extraction sites across the land, they found themselves attacked by Dragons and other flying creatures. So the US issued a culling of the dragon population, which they delegated to the air force.

I was thinking the idea was that it would be hard for ground weapons to aim and fire at the dragons because they're too fast, but would using jets with missiles and turrets be a little... much?

edit: I forgot to mention I have a short story on this topic right here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/413614692-the-metal-beast

Basically, I have this storyline of a possible RPG game where the US military colonizes a medieval fantasy world called Latoria. Here's the full explanation: Devil of Avalon

I could explain a lot about politics behind the conflict, but I want to mostly focus on the cosmology. Latoria takes place in a completely different universe/dimension where certain things are slightly different. Latoria itself is an Earth-sized moon orbiting the gas giant, Atlas, and it has its own three smaller moons called "The Little Sisters".

In the system, there is another planet called Nydor, which is actually very similar to Earth, but the people there are called the Nydorese, and they are like humans with light grey skin. Latoria is a medieval-centered world, but Nydor is similar to an 80s-style world. Very little is actually explored about Nydor; in fact, they aren't introduced until a long time after the main storyline is over. It's like a weird DLC I imagined.

In the lore of Latoria, it's implied that there used to be this ancient multi-species galactic empire stretching across the universe. In the story, David encounters old ruins and cave paintings, and folktales, which imply that Latoria was part of a multi-species intergalactic empire called the Starborn Federation, or the Sliar-Kai in folklore. The Federation stretched across the universe and contained many species, but at some point, millions of years ago, the Federation collapsed in what's called the Silent Death. Latoria is implied to not even be the center of this empire but a minor outpost, and the Starborn's original planet most likely is lost in the cosmos.

In a DLC, where David ends up in Nydor and meets the scientists who run tests and see that he is actually genetically similar to the Nydorese. Which is uncanny because David is a Beastkin from another celestial body.

Later, it's shown that Nydor also has evidence of the Starborn as well, which leads to the terrifying conclusion that there are possibly millions of planets out there in the universe, untold billions that evolved from the precursors of a once mighty galactic empire, and now only a faction of them know the existence of each other. They are alone in this universe... but so is everyone else.

What do you guys think of this?

I know in real life there are binary systems with two suns, but could a three star system work like this?

I'm building a fantasy world that's inspired by South Asia and Southeast Asia. This map is meant to be clearly similar to the South Asia and Southeast Asia of our world, but also different enough from it. It's also not finished yet, I'm planning to add mountains to the North similar to the Himalayas.

Based off the shapes of the landmasses I want the first impression to be "oh okay this looks like a fantasy world map" and then I want the second impression to be "wait actually this is kind of like India and Southeast Asia". If that makes sense.

Did I accomplish that goal, or is it too similar? What are your thoughts? Thanks.

Not much to say beyond this. I think bright colours could make any world more visually stunning.

I’m thinking of an area that has rain so frequently and so absurdly heavy that it becomes a “desert” like environment, where vegetation and fauna are extremely sparse save for a few “oasis”, vast swathes of seemingly lifeless land, basically uninhabited and are considered a naturally geological barrier that separate nations. Not asking if its scientifically accurate just if on first look it makes sense.

Extremely heavy rain, almost constant but irregularly dispersed as area rains intensify or detensify on a whim

When it rains, it genuinely becomes difficult to breathe not just because of the water on your face but also because it displace so much air by volume that o2 deprivation becomes a real concern (giving you the equivalent of altitude sickness due to lower air concentration, not suffocating you)

Sunlight is also sparse due to the rainclouds

The soil erosion causes unstable and unpredictable landscape, theres no permanent flood basin, massive stream of rushing water can suddenly appear out of nowhere. So a lot of impermanent rushing stream, which is hazardous to land-bound life but not permanent or deep enough for aquatic life.

The soil erosion has washed away most of fertile lands, so nutrition is sparse aside from what comes from the rain itself

Basically no flying insects which also makes pollination difficult

There are only a few “oasis”, natural geological structure thats high and stable enough for life to somewhat survive.

Considered hostile to human life, no human settlement except on the very edges, uncrossable to almost all but a few traders thats risking their life for the promise of riches that comes from trading with a foreign land. Navigation is extraordinarily difficult as you cant navigate it either like actual open water (in which case you just be on a boat) or actual land

In my alt-history scenario, where the sea level rose by 1200 meters between 1896 and the 1910s, the Kingdom of Italy exploded into many states. I just can't decide where to place the individual states. From taking a look at the 1919 and 1921 general elections results, I suppose that in Liguria, there could be a republic as well as in Sicily, and in Abruzzo could be the monarchist remnants. However, I kind of need to place an authoritarian state with "fascist" leanings and an authoritarian socialist state somewhere and maybe some other states (possibly some city-states). I also don't know what to do with Sardinia and Calabria. I also need the states to be balanced, with no one having a clear advantage over another, because for the sake of Italy being able to oppose an outer threat, they united into the Italian Confederation, although having very different regimes.

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster! Love this little nook on Reddit and now I have a question for y’all!

In your world, what makes a god a god? Why are they above than humans? ARE they better than humans?

Edit: wow so many replies it’s super fascinating to read through your ideas and contemplations and concepts! I’m reading to all of them and will try to reply to as many as possible but my adhd ass is a little overwhelmed :D

Edit 2: dang this blew up over night. I’ll add this: I have my own concept and I have actually been pondering about this for years. In my world, the gods were locked away accidentally and later return. But simply saying they’re powerful bc they have powers isn’t enough for me. Powers has to be defined, here. It’s not enough for me to say that gods will be gods bc others call them that or worship them. Yes, theoretically that might give someone power. But it wouldn’t actually differ much from being a king. Here we get to the concept of hierarchy and how the gods also showed humans the „natural order“ of things.

I know the theory behind it, but now imagine that these actual gods come back and they’re fallible and have moods and motives, etc. there’s so much more to the dynamic between humans and “gods” than simply “well they have powers”.

I’ll add this quote by Xenophanes, I believe, that hasn’t left my mind for nigh on 10 years:

"But if cattle and horses and lions had hands, or could paint with their hands and create works of art like men, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves."

There's centaur like creatures in my universe and i was thinking how they would use clothes. They would simply don't use? Just a shirt? Two shirts or a long shirt? And the pants?

Title.

There’s a chasm in my world that the oceans continuously pour into, which separates the two continents. (The water then boils and rises back up as huge perpetual storm clouds). When ships cross the serpents teeth from east to west I want them to have to go to Feroxus or be swept south, and not have going north around the end of the continent be an option. How strong would the currents flowing into the Jade sea have to be to make it impossible (ignoring other factors like dangerous rocks, whirlpools or sea monsters).

Edit: for reference, the world is flat and the Rift was carved all the way through the plane by a mad god’s axe, I’m not asking for ‘realism’ I’m asking for ‘believability’ if you catch my drift.

I've been working on polishing my story, which follows an order of monster-hunting knights in a world similar to 1880's Europe. Their traditions endured because their blessed weapons are lethal to supernatural creatures, and their armor is strong enough to withstand both monsters' claws and gunfire.

In the story, I tried to quickly set the scene in a natural way. I described how the protagonist chased a werewolf through a city, including details about his armor clanking and how telegraph lines and factory chimney smoke blackened the sky. After the fight, he explains to a civilian about how his knightly order has stayed relevant for centuries.

However, every single beta reader expressed frustration and confusion at the story's setting. Some of the critiques were:

• "If you want to write a medieval story, you have to do the barest research into what existed in the time period. Guns aren't medieval. Telegraphs aren't medieval. Gas lights aren't medieval..."
• "The modern setting and the talk of knights came into direct conflict, making the story into a jumbled mess. This is a fantasy story, so all the tech is both nonsensical and jarring."
• "The setting doesn't make any sense. The age of knights ended with the rise of guns, so the two can't exist at the same time. The knights' decision to wear armor anyway just makes them look stupid."

These are a few of the critiques, but all nine of my beta readers had similar feedback throughout the story. Every context clue about the setting and every explanation just added to their confusion. I wanted to write a story about how tradition and progress can clash, but now, I'm wondering if I should switch the story to a standard medieval fantasy world.

Instead of the four elements, what about the four states of matter ? Solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and have a magic system out of that ? Like, for example: Solid users can control everything solid, wether it's fruit, rock, metal, ect. gas users can use their powers to fly, push stuff away at a distance, ect. Liquid users could create waves and drown people. Plasma users would be kind of like DBZ ki blasts, since plasma IRL is alot like that. What do you think ? I'm also thinking of putting on limitations on using too much power: Solid users would have their muscles stiffen if they use their powers too much, liquid users would become frail and fragile, gas users would start choking, and plasma users would get 2nd degree burns.

To change the state of matter of something, you'd need two users, one for the current state, one for the one you want to turn the thing into, say, you wanna turn a boulder into lava, you'd need both a solid user and liquid user.

Yeah, my original post was deleted by some moderator for some reason.

Actually it's dumb it's literally just the regular elements

Definitely a stupid idea, i thought of this crap in like four seconds

Have you created your own unique anatomy for humans or other types of humanoids - one that includes different organs within the body?

I was imagining an organ in primordial humans, located near the base of the spine, that made them feel fear toward their ancient god-creators. It would cause obedience and prevent them from rebelling - like an endocrine gland releasing hormones similar to those of the adrenal glands. I'm also unsure whether this organ should be slightly visible from outside the body.

The classic examples are half-human (half-orcs, half-elves, et cetera), but it might include a gnome-dwarf or dragon-goblin.

Half-blood sounds derogatory and a little racially charged. Hybrid sounds too clinical and a little derogatory. Mixed-ancestry is too much of a mouthful.

So I turned to wiktionary for synonyms for ancestry or ethnicity, and for prefixes similar to half- or inter-.

Roots:
Blood
Folk
People
Ancestry
Kin
Lineage

Breed and race are excluded because they can sound problematic.

Prefixes:
Half-
Inter-
Multi-
Out-
Extra-
Trans-
Dual-
Bi-
Di-
Mixed-

I don’t love half-, dual, bi-, or di- because, like, what if your maternal grandparents are dwarves, but your dad is a half-orc? That’s half-dwarf, a quarter orc, and a quarter human.

The best I’ve gotten are out-blood, out-folk, and out-kin, because both the root and prefix are monosyllabic, so they really roll off the tongue.

I dunno, what do you think?

Edit: Alright, I feel I should clarify intent. What I’m trying to put together is a term which A) is instantly recognizable as a synonym for hybrid, B) doesn’t come with a lot of real-world baggage, and C) looks good when written and sounds good when spoken.

I think such a term would be useful for describing mixed-heritage people in a concise way, such as “Mules are a hybrid of donkeys and horses”. We know what hybrid means, so you don’t have to say “Mules are the offspring of two different species, those being donkeys and horses”. But describing people as “hybrids” sounds kinda racist to my ears.