The CBB

So, I mentioned before in another thread that I was thinking about adding a form of magic to Yantas, but one that sort of only works in the background, inspired for the most part by Terry Pratchett's work.

Basically, there's a kind of magical field that permeates the world. It can affect the world, and in turn be affected by it but the main idea is that it's affected by "belief". I'm not entirely sure exactly how far this will go. Like, belief formed through selective pattern association, and some animals have been shown to have pattern recognition abilites, which can become ritualised. Anyway, onto the next bit.

The effect on the magical field increases as the number of instances of belief also increases, and this gives rise to deities, which are kind of like a conscious manifestation of the magical field, and it's the deities in particular that can have a noticeable effect on the world.

So, say someone believes that wearing certain socks on certain days will bring them good luck. This is actually true, in that that belief has an effect on a given outcome, but it's really, really small. However, if a person believes that praying to a deity believed in by thousands of other people will bring them good luck, then that deity can actually have a greater physical effect on the real world.

And that's where magic and devotion come into play. Deities, being conscious and the ability to make choices, can either act in accordance with a prayer or ignore it, or anything in between. Deities, by and large, like when people act the way they (the deities) want them (the people) to act, and sacrifices, and praise, and all of that stuff. So the more a person sucks up to a deity, the more likely that deity will do what that person has asked.

Deities, though, aren't omnipotent, nor omnipresent or omniscient. They're not omnitemporal or omnibenevolent, or anything like that. They exist and have power as the result of belief and only exist so long as people believe in them. Some deities do kind of go on forever. Like, solar deities are usually just different versions of the same actual deity, while the protector of a city will be very local. All creation myths are incorrect, regardless of belief in them, and deities can only act within a region in which their believers occupy (which could make warfare quite interesting).

Demigods can exist, but deities cannot themselves have children with other deities, or on their own. The family trees of deities that people imagine might also be incredibly wrong. A person believed to be a demigod might just be a really awesome person, and someone who is actually a demigod might be dull and forgotten.

Summing it up, there are deities, and magic does exist, but it's pretty hit and miss.

sangi39 wrote:So, I decided to have a bit of a go at a calendar, mostly for the Kusan Empire, but the development noted here could also mirror its in-world history, so neighbouring groups might employ similar calendars. All mention of "days" are a day on Yantas, which is 24hrs 40mins long. All mention of "years" are given as one orbit of Yantas around its sun.

So, let's start with the basics.

Very impressive stuff! I'd make more specific comments if I knew more about this kind of thing, which, sadly, I don't.

sangi39 wrote: Summing it up, there are deities, and magic does exist, but it's pretty hit and miss.

This is also an awesome collection of ideas!

I think that's an interesting expansion and refinement of Pratchett's work.
So magic is inherently associated with gods, interesting. And small gods can never be powerful even if they have one believer, who believes in them very strongly? What a shame
I also like that you found a consistent solution for creation myths and family trees of gods.
Fun fact: Your gods are not omnipotent, they are impotent. I don't know if this is as funny in English as it is in German, but in German impotent usually means unable to procreate ....

Creyeditor wrote: Fun fact: Your gods are not omnipotent, they are impotent. I don't know if this is as funny in English as it is in German, but in German impotent usually means unable to procreate ....

The joke works in English, too.

Creyeditor wrote:I think that's an interesting expansion and refinement of Pratchett's work.

Thanks. I quite liked the idea he presented in Small Gods, but I didn't want to just rip it off completely, and I think this gives more room for, for example, agnosticism and atheism to exist. Magic and deities do exist, but with deities being pretty up for doing there own thing you could just as easily suggest that magic doesn't exist as easily as you could say it does.

Creyeditor wrote:So magic is inherently associated with gods, interesting. And small gods can never be powerful even if they have one believer, who believes in them very strongly? What a shame

I'd say magic is more effective when associated with gods. Like, your belief in some ritual can have a real-world effect, but the chances of that happening are pretty small if there's not a well-established deity behind it.

So, yeah, one deity with one believer is going to be pretty weak, as is the magical stuff that deity can do

Creyeditor wrote:I also like that you found a consistent solution for creation myths and family trees of gods.

I'm still trying to work on the details for that. I mostly want the deities' existence and powers to be very dependent on belief, but I don't want them to be subject to stories. If that makes sense. Like, they exist as a result of belief, but they mostly exist in isolation.

Creyeditor wrote:Fun fact: Your gods are not omnipotent, they are impotent. I don't know if this is as funny in English as it is in German, but in German impotent usually means unable to procreate ....

It works in English as well. It was the basis of a joke in the TV series Friends

Completely forgot to post this here 3 years ago (thanks to a not-so-random search through the Cartographers' Guild):

Maps like this are always nice to see . Especially at different rotations like this so we can see how close continents/islands are from each other.

Davush wrote:Maps like this are always nice to see . Especially at different rotations like this so we can see how close continents/islands are from each other.

I was also a way of looking at how the continents around the poles would actually look given the distortions caused by the equirectangular projection. Velkasta looked a lot different before I started converting the map to a "spherical" projection and it took a fair amount of trail and error to get it to look a way that I was happy with (which is why here it looks so different from this older map).

I was actually meant to use it to come up with a basic map for the spread of the human and Kovur species on the planet, but for some reason I skipped over that.

So I thought I'd try to have a quick go at drawing out the spread of human and Kovur populations probably up until about 15,000-10,000BC (using our timeline and using the "languages" thread as 1AD). Humans and the Kovur evolved in what I hope would be similar climates at roughly the same time within the last 200-500 thousand years, with humans spreading much further:





This doesn't necessarily mark anything about the spread of languages up to 1AD. For example, the area populated by Lesic languages in eastern Sirden as well as the Ninda, Luvijasa and Bereka Islands are represented by at least two major people groups, one coming from the northern coast and another coming from the south.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing about Velkasta, but I'm thinking it will largely be fairly isolated from the rest of the world beyond occasional interactions with people from the Bereka Islands until people of the former Kusan Empire (western Sirden) start to explore the rest of the world by sea (maybe after the "Kusanic" people come into contact with the Kovur across the Sunset Ocean in eastern Mistaya.



There are at least three main points of early interaction between humans and the Kovur, in northern Konyur and then in western and southern Hungas. These would likely occur independently of each other, the first interaction occurring on the southern coast of Hungas and the third occurring in northern Konyur.

(and, yes, I'm still working very, very slowly on this world )

Just another small update to the world map:



I've added a number islands along divergent plate boundaries or close to them, so they'll most likely be either volcanic or formerly volcanic islands. I'm thinking the majority of them will remain unpopulated by humans or Kovur for much of history with some largely isolated exceptions that might be easier to reach, with the aid of ocean currents, from relatively nearby coastal regions or island groups.

I'm also still working very slowly on finishing the elevation stuff, adding in basins, plateaus, and a rough elevation "key" (mountains about 2000m, 1000m and 500~750m, for example) which I'm hoping to actually finish off tomorrow if I can shake this headache, and using that I can come up with the courses from some major rivers.

sangi39 wrote:Just another small update to the world map

No particular comment other than that the map is looking nice!

I admire your tenacity. At this rate, you'll be finished with the map in our lifetime which I didn't quite expect. ;)

elemtilas wrote:

sangi39 wrote:Just another small update to the world map

No particular comment other than that the map is looking nice!

Thanks I just wish I could stick with it more consistently.

gestaltist wrote:I admire your tenacity. At this rate, you'll be finished with the map in our lifetime which I didn't quite expect. ;)

Haha, it would be a surprise It's taken me a good 4 years to get to this point!

And what I've actually managed to work on today:



Changed the colours up a bit just so they contrast more, but still marking out plateaus, basins, and heights of 500m-1000m, 1000m-2000m and 2000+m, or more accurately, areas where those are the predominant height ranges. So, for example, there ight be areas in the central areas of Arenda that are below 500m, but I'm just not working on that scale yet.

Changed up the colour "key" for the elevation so that it might look a better better, and I've added in a few inland seas and major lakes, as well as changing the coastline a little bit here and there (I've also added in a hint of some islands in some areas of the new coasts):

sangi39 wrote:I was also a way of looking at how the continents around the poles would actually look given the distortions caused by the equirectangular projection. Velkasta looked a lot different before I started converting the map to a "spherical" projection and it took a fair amount of trail and error to get it to look a way that I was happy with[...]

Speaking from experience, I feel you might be understating here. XD

Ànradh wrote:

sangi39 wrote:I was also a way of looking at how the continents around the poles would actually look given the distortions caused by the equirectangular projection. Velkasta looked a lot different before I started converting the map to a "spherical" projection and it took a fair amount of trail and error to get it to look a way that I was happy with[...]

Speaking from experience, I feel you might be understating here. XD

Only... a lot... Kind of, mostly just a lot of "no, I need to add more width to it here... maybe a little bit more... okay, now make this bit just a little bit shorter... roughen the cost..."... Just a bit lol

i don't know....for me the coolest one is the first two maps, the third one looks alike to earth. But this is interesting ideas, I'm looking forward to see more of it

OliveAnne wrote: ↑23 Nov 2017 16:01 i don't know....for me the coolest one is the first two maps, the third one looks alike to earth. But this is interesting ideas, I'm looking forward to see more of it

Haha, that's what Ithisa said back in 2013 "Looks suspiciously similar to Earth..." and I still don't see it, lol.

Then again, which are you calling the "third map"?

sangi39 wrote: ↑23 Nov 2017 17:26

OliveAnne wrote: ↑23 Nov 2017 16:01 i don't know....for me the coolest one is the first two maps, the third one looks alike to earth. But this is interesting ideas, I'm looking forward to see more of it

Haha, that's what Ithisa said back in 2013 "Looks suspiciously similar to Earth..." and I still don't see it, lol.

Then again, which are you calling the "third map"?

The third one you have uploaded, from the 1st page.