Random Conworld idea thread

Discussions about constructed worlds, cultures and any topics related to constructed societies.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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Inspired by Greek Mythology and Gnosticism?
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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I expanded the idea of the Dragon Infection.

The mysterious disease that turns humans into dragons acompanied people for thousands of years, but it wasn't a problem - dragons just hid away on the middle if nowhere. But time passed and age of exploration arrived. Humanity explored the nowhere, and dragon disease infected pure explorers and virus began to spread among the world. Now probably you ask "what's wrong? Dragons are super!" but because of their weight dragons eat more than humans. Abrupt increase of dragons made the world economy start to fall apart... And there was a miracle - Russian scientists invented the Cure for the virus and they selled it to other countries in cost of falling in with Russia. This country become an empire and subdued almost whole Earth. A group of dragons in South Africa declared the war with Russian Empire; Dragon Alliance members want to conquer the world and infect whole humanity with disease. At the same time Americans don't want to choose between turning into dragons and falling in with Russian Empire, and they created Order of the Freedom. Orderers slay dragons because will be no infection after killing last dragon.

(Again sorry for my bad English)
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by eldin raigmore »

(For similar subject matter, see this post and the sub thread it’s in:
viewtopic.php?p=321586#p321586)

I have an idea about double-unilineal-descent (aka duolineal descent) kinship systems.
In most (or at least many, or at least more than one) such societies in real life,
A person is born into their mother’s matriclan and their father’s patriclan.
They owe a clan duty to anyone in any clan they’re both in. This duty is comparable to the duties they’d owe their siblings.
(Indeed, they might call anyone who was in both their matriclan and their patriclan, “sibling”.)

They usually have a primary affiliation, or strong (but weaker than actual membership) affiliation, towards the other clans their parents are in; that is, their father’s matriclan and their mother’s patriclan.

In some (if not most?) such societies people are also encouraged to exercise a weaker, secondary affiliation, to those clans to which their parents have a primary affiliation; those would be their father’s father’s matriclan and their mother’s father’s matriclan, and their father’s mother’s patriclan and their mother’s mother’s patriclan.

….

Suppose that’s all there is to it as long as everybody (except the parents and grandparents) are still single.

I want to bring up, and consider, the possibilities that a person who marries, might acquire obligations to their spouse’s clans (and maybe their spouse’s parent’s clans).

Suppose, for example, that one owes equally-strong duties to one’s spouse’s clans (matriclan and patriclan) as one owes to those of one’s parents’ clans to which they are primarily affiliated.
So one has these strong non-member duties to one’s father’s and spouse’s matriclan, and to one’s mother’s and spouse’s patriclan.
We could go a step further, and consider whether one owes the weaker, secondarily-affiliated duties, (or at least equally valuable duties), to one’s spouse’s father’s matriclan and one’s spouse’s mother’s patriclan.

….

This would mean that, when someone marries, they gain the protection of two more clans at the strong nonmember level, and two more clans at the secondary level.
Also, that when someone’s child marries, the newlywed’s parent gains the protection of two more clans at the strong nonmember level, and another two clans at the secondary nonmember level.

….

How likely is it that the clans to which a newlywed is primarily affiliated, might resent the dilution of that person’s strong obligations, which were shared by two clans before the marriage but will be shared by four clans after the marriage?
Would there be any drama derived from such a thing?

Under what circumstances would gaining the obligations of the newlywed’s spouse be considered less valuable than losing a share of the newlywed’s obligations?

Likewise, the four clans to which the newlywed has been secondarily affiliated, might be wary of having the newlywed’s obligations diluted by being shared among six clans rather than four. (To summarize, before the marriage the spouse-to-be owed these weaker obligations to their grandfathers’ matriclans and their grandmothers’ patriclans; but after the marriage the newlywed will also owe similar obligations to their father-in-law’s matriclan and their mother-in-law’s patriclan.)
I’d think this would be less likely to be dramatic, maybe less likely to occur at all, than the primary-affiliation version, because,
Spoiler:
assuming the newlywed’s obligations are a finite resource, the strong affiliates’ shares will be reduced from 1/2 to 1/4, while the secondary affiliates’ share will be reduced from 1/4 to 1/6. 1/4 is half of 1/2, but 1/6 is 2/3 of 1/4.

….

For story or game purposes, another angle to consider is that, if any outsider causes grief for any member of one of these societies, they’ll soon have the entire society seeking justice!
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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eldin raigmore wrote: 04 Jul 2024 23:51How likely is it that the clans to which a newlywed is primarily affiliated, might resent the dilution of that person’s strong obligations, which were shared by two clans before the marriage but will be shared by four clans after the marriage?
Would there be any drama derived from such a thing?
oh there'd certainly be drama...particularly from anyone who was worried that one of their clanmembers might do more things for one of the two married-in clans than for either of the born-into clans.

but in practicality, its unlikely that all four clans would have emergencies calling for assistance at the same time, so I can see most people helping out their born-into clans just as much as their married-into clans. (and of course everyone will have favorite relatives in each - thats normal)

thats a good mental exercise you've made there; kudos.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Visions1 »

I mean, you've basically just explained why bilineality is so rare.
But interesting work you've got.
Truthfully, it kind of sounds like our western system.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by eldin raigmore »

Visions1 wrote: 05 Jul 2024 03:44 I mean, you've basically just explained why bilineality is so rare.
But interesting work you've got.
Truthfully, it kind of sounds like our western system.
IMHO it resembles our western system only up to the first few steps. (And of course I could be wrong!)
In a duolineal system such as I have described (and I read about it in some book or other), a married individual owes member-strength duties to one matriclan (their own); and owes primary-affiliate-strength duties to two matriclans (their father’s and their spouse’s); and owes secondary-affiliate-strength duties to three matriclans (their mother’s father’s, their father’s father’s, and their spouse’s father’s).
Similarly they’d owe membership-strength duties to one patriclan (their own); owe primary-affiliate-strength duties to two patriclans (their mother’s and their spouse’s); and owe secondary-affiliate-strength duties to three patriclans (their father’s mother’s, their mother’s mother’s, and their spouse’s mother’s).

They don’t owe anything to their father’s mother’s father’s matriclan, nor their mother’s father’s mother’s patriclan, nor their stepfather’s matriclan, nor their stepmother’s patriclan, nor their father-in-law’s mother’s patriclan, nor their mother-in-law’s father’s patriclan. But in our western system, they might.

….

My ideas may not have been well-enough organized for me to come up with a good example.
But maybe the above is one.

Thanks for your discussion!
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Keenir »

Visions1 wrote: 05 Jul 2024 03:44 I mean, you've basically just explained why bilineality is so rare.
Well, presuming that all clans are adhered to with equal devotion and fervor(sp), yeah, it gets harder and harder...which is probably why sometimes there is a cut-off point -- such as "after three generations distance, X no longer can call upon the assistance of Ego."
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Visions1 »

Speaking from experience, it reminds me of why my Dad's sister-in-law's sister's cousin-in-law's nephew is my cousin or something.

(Edit: I should add by the way that it's a good thing - he's quite close to us.)
Last edited by Visions1 on 07 Jul 2024 19:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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Visions1 wrote: 07 Jul 2024 12:03 Speaking from experience, it reminds me of why my Dad's sister-in-law's sister's cousin-in-law's nephew is my cousin or something.
I've mostly given up on the idea of extended yinrih families. A single litter could have up to 144 grandparents and it just snowballs from there.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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lurker wrote: 07 Jul 2024 19:15
Visions1 wrote: 07 Jul 2024 12:03 Speaking from experience, it reminds me of why my Dad's sister-in-law's sister's cousin-in-law's nephew is my cousin or something.
I've mostly given up on the idea of extended yinrih families. A single litter could have up to 144 grandparents and it just snowballs from there.
I'd suppose this is where it really pays to have favorites - favorite grandkids, favorite grandparents, cousins, etc.

(also, i assume that 144 presumes that everyone survived infant/juvinile/etc mortality, is both able and willing to interact (ie no vow of silence, no being on the other end of the galaxy))
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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lurker wrote: 07 Jul 2024 19:15 ….
I've mostly given up on the idea of extended yinrih families. A single litter could have up to 144 grandparents and it just snowballs from there.
Heck, I’ve considered what might happen in three-sex three-parent species, and found it extremely difficult (nigh impossible, in fact) to go past two generations.

Keenir wrote: Well, presuming that all clans are adhered to with equal devotion and fervor(sp), yeah, it gets harder and harder...which is probably why sometimes there is a cut-off point -- such as "after three generations distance, X no longer can call upon the assistance of Ego."
In the (possibly hypothetical) duolineal system I’ve been discussing, EGO does not adhere to all clans with equal fervor.

EGO’s own clans are those to which EGO adheres most fervently; and other full-members of EGO’s clan view looking out for EGO as their reciprocal duty. That reciprocity, BTW, is where clan-loyalty to one’s children, and to one’s full-or-half- -siblings, comes in.

EGO views their duties to EGO’s parents’ other clans, and to EGO’s spouse’s clans, with the next “level of fervor” (primary-affiliate or strongly-affiliated); and they reciprocate.

If EGO owes primary or strong affiliation to someone, and that person owes primary or strong affiliation to a second person, then EGO owes secondarily-affiliated or weakly-affiliated duty to that person and their clans, provided EGO is not a member nor a primary affiliate of said clan. That covers some “grand-relatives”, some “half-relatives”, and some “relatives-in-law”: and these weakly-affiliated duties are reciprocated.

And there, the chain of clan-affiliation duties, stops.


In the possibly hypothetical duolineal system I’ve been talking about, the obligations don’t go past two steps, or at least don’t automatically go past two.
One owes member-of-my-own-clan duties to parents and children (and (half- or full-)-siblings). (That counts as zero steps.)
One owes primary-affiliate or strongly-affiliate duties to one’s parents’ parents and probably some of one’s parents’
full- or half- -siblings; to one’s spouse’s clans; and probably to at least some of one’s parents’ spouses or siblings’ spouses or children’s spouses or spouse’s children. (I believe that counts as one step.)
(I’m not sure the previous sentence is exactly right. So I’m not sure how to go on to the secondarily-affiliate or weakly- affiliate duties. Possibly the topic sentence of this paragraph is somewhat erroneous.)

I’ll come back to this later if it needs cleaning up and anyone wants me to clean it up.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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A super hero/super villain/antihero whose power is that whenever he holds a clipboard and wears a hardhat and safety vest, people just ignore him and he can go wherever he wants. It's functionally similar to invisibility, but he's not actually invisible, people just assume he's there to fix the air conditioner or something. The effect may also be achieved by holding a pizza box. Very perceptive people may be able to see through the illusion.

I call him the Social Engineer.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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lurker wrote: 01 Aug 2024 14:06 A super hero/super villain/antihero whose power is that whenever he holds a clipboard and wears a hardhat and safety vest, people just ignore him and he can go wherever he wants. It's functionally similar to invisibility, but he's not actually invisible, people just assume he's there to fix the air conditioner or something. The effect may also be achieved by holding a pizza box. Very perceptive people may be able to see through the illusion.

I call him the Social Engineer.
😉 🤓 I like these ideas very much!
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Wind Powered Aliens

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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

Post by Visions1 »

Oh, neat!
Still, I was thinking more about how on a windy, beachy planet, aliens would power their organic bodies using wind as opposed to (or in addition to) chemical energy.
We do have men-o'-war and such, but those are just limited to the sea.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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I have several ideas for a Dimensions in Alterverse:
-Humans terraformed few planets, taked a lot of flora and fauna on each planet in way that planets' biosphere differ from each other, and drived the evolution of one species per planet into the humanoid form and sapience. When the species become sapient, reached the space and created powerful space empires, they start to interact each other and it drive to an interstellar war.
-In ancient times dragons were powerful race, but humans almost exterminated them, so they hidden in places almost unaccesible to humans, and in modern times they attack the humanity and take over the world.

What do you think about these ideas?
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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This hovers between fan theory and original conworlding idea, as it started out as "What if the Omnissiah from WH40K were a warp god in its own right?" It always bugged me that this doesn't seem to be the case, as the Eldar and the Orks get their gods, and as far as I understand how the Warp works, the Omnissiah should manifest as an actual warp entity since the Mechanicus believes in it, regardless of how they came to that belief.

Anyhoo. Imagine a planet-sized hulk of machinery. Mechanisms beyond the ken of mortal minds writhe across its surface. As you descend deeper into the structure, plasteel bulkheads and quantum relays give way to optical fiber and integrated circuits. Yet deeper, and ICs become discrete transistor logic, then mechanical relays, then vacuum tubes, then a maze of steam pipes, then cogs and springs and belts, and so on. The artifices that make up this place get more more primitive as you go further down. Steel becomes iron, iron becomes bronze, bronze becomes copper, and copper becomes stone, until at the very center, a crudely knapped flint hand axe. This is the machine god.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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I was worried that Fredauon does not have enough tree species, so I thought of alternatives and came to think of giant mushrooms. Then I came across Prototaxites, an extict giant fungus (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites?wprov=sfla1) which had a tree-like structure and a reconstructed height of up to 9m. That fits.
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Re: Random Conworld idea thread

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TBPO wrote: 02 Sep 2024 22:48 What do you think about these ideas?
I like them. I think they show up in media if you look carefully, but otherwise I'd like to see something with standalone focus in them.
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