Shattered Cosmos: A Fantasy Nation Building Quest

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Scholars hypothesize that once, in time immemoriam, the cosmos was whole and unified. They claim...
Introduction
Location
Cross River, NY
Scholars hypothesize that once, in time immemoriam, the cosmos was whole and unified. They claim that it was a single omni-plane, without any variances or divergences to its metaphysics. That every location in the cosmos could be reached modes of transport as simplistic was walking, or sailing, or flying.

Perhaps that was once true. But it is true no longer.

The cosmos in modern times is a shattered, scattered, shuffled-up thing. It is divided up into an innumerable number of different planes. Some planes are barren, others are lush with life; some planes are untouched by human civilization, while others have civilizations of creatures other than humans; some planes operate with ordinary rules to their reality, while others do not.

The first major event in the cosmological community was, indeed, the one which began it: the discovery of interplanar communication. This was followed with interplanar travel shortly afterwards. At first, only cosmically-adjacent planes could be communicated with or travelled to, however, later on, the creation of contrusct known as nightroads allowed for longer-distance intracosmic commerce.

To everyone's surprise, this development resulted in an era of... peace. Of course, there were attempts at interplanar wars; on nation would muster an army to invade another, with imperialistic portents. However, these invasions invariably failed. While many planes had quirks to their metaphysics that their native inhabitants often employed to their advantage in battle, these quirks lost all effect as soon as those inhabitants moved to another plane.

An army would invade a plane, but as a result, they'd often lose their greatest strength, oftentimes the factor that their whole military doctrine was built around, and they would be up against defender who still had access to their own greatest strength due to fighting in their home plane.

Yes, there were instances where one nation would colonize a previously uninhabited plane, and another nation would attack said plane, putting both invaders and defenders at an equal footing, but such conflicts soon fell to the wayside as governments realized they need only restrict knowledge of a plane's cosmic location, and their enemies would have no means of finding and attacking it.

And so, for a time, this peace prospered. With war effectively eliminated as an option for settling international disputes, nations instead honed their diplomacy and politicking— and, quietly, their spycraft and espionage. Despite the occasional covert backstabbing or coup d'etat, though, the interplanar community was largely able to enter a golden age.

Planes were certain technology was more easily built slowly reverse-engineered their marvellous contraptions for use in standard planes. Planes where panaceas were available accepted pilgrims from across the cosmos in need of healing. Joint expeditions were launched to explore faraway and bizarre planes with impossible properties and breathtaking sights.

Then, there was a new development. Then, quiddity theory was conceived.

Quiddity theory stipilulated that planes possessed discrete and unique quiddities— literally "thingnessess". This was not revolutionary in itself. What was revolutionary was the discovery a method throufh which planar quiddities could be encapsulated, stored, and taken into other planes.

It was groundbreaking. The entire cosmopolitical landscape shifted overnight. Nations scrambled to seize planes with useful properties so that they could begin equipping their armies with quiddities from them. Long-buried fueds which had been rendered untenable by the nature of interplanar warfare suddenly enflamed anew.

Bedlam and blitzkreig tore up across the cosmos for nearly a decade, before finally settling with an uneasy peace between an entente of empires which had claimed the most power. And it is in the wake of this panplamar war that you, the nation of a previously untouched plane, have suddenly entered the fold.
 
Claiming this and the next few posts. After I make the post with voting options, that's when you're free to vote.
 
Plane Creation
Plane Creation
The first step towards creating your nation is designing the plane in which your nation exists. I'm not going to modify the nation creation choices based on the plane creation choices selected here, but N.B. that some plane choices will synergize with or reduce the usefulness of some nation creation choices, so chose wisely.

Plane Type
There are three main categories of plane: ordinary and extraordinary, and bizarre. Ordinary planes have no exceptional aspects, or their changes are so insignificant they're virtually impossible to notice. Extraordinary planes, on the other hand, have aspects which cause notable differences between them and ordinary planes, which give them useful quiddities, although they still remain fully habitable. Bizarre planes have aspects which are so alien from the norm that it is generally impossible for normal living things to inhabit them.

For the purposes of this quest, only extraordinary planes are available: a bizarre plane would defeat the purpose of a nation game, and an ordinary plane would defeat the purpose of having the fantasy genre. Fortunately, there are still a number of choices to be made, as extraordinary planes are, themselves, able to be divided into three main types, as follows:


[] Extraordinary Material Planes: As the name implies, these planes have some sort of extraordinary material or asset in them. This may come in the form of some a special plant, a special metal, a special type of animal, or other such possibilities. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[] Gryffons: Your plane has a population of griffons, chimerical creatures with the hindquarters of a lion and the forebody of an eagle.
-[] Promise Ore: When purified for alloyed, promise ore becomes a metal the ductile strength of which is decided by how many oaths and promises its wielder has kept, able to be stronger than mithril or weaker than slag.
-[] Miracle Tobacco: Smoking the leaves of this peculiar strain of tobacco allows an individual to enter a hallucinatory fugue in which they can move around freely outside their body.​

[] Extraordinary Quiddity Planes: These planes have a quiddity that makes them special. This is the most varied type of extraordinary plane, and bizarre planes are often bizarre due to particularly exceptional quiddities. These can range from quiddities such as "the colors red and green are switched" to "substances can be produced by imagining them." For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[] Gravitas: With this quiddity, there is a causational relationship between weight and durability; the heavier something is, the tougher, and vice-versa.
-[] Animism: All things, living and inanimate, contain a spirit inside of them, reflecting their purpose. With careful rituals, these spirits can be removed and transplanted.
-[] Experience: Succeeding at tasks makes a person, creature, or object better at performing such a task; failure at tasks makes a person, creature, or object worse at performing such a task.​

[] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[] Smokeless Powder: Gunpowder detonation in your plane doesn't leave behind any smoke or residue.
-[] Diesel-Powered Engines: Steam-power was a 20 minute fad before the discovery of the internal combustion engine, and the refinement techniques needed to make its fuel.
-[] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.​

Plane Size
Planes are finite. They have boundaries. Some are as small as a single island, while others have dozens of continents and oceans. Sizes of plane available for the purposes of this quest are:

[] Small: Small planes are about the size of a single country. They may have lakes or waterways, or they may not.

[] Medium: Medium planes are about the size of a continent. They usually have lakes and waterways, and can also have small oceans.

[] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.

Plane Terrain
Usually, the terrain of a plane is fairly homogeneous. There is one particular biome across the entirety of the plane. These biomes come in many different forms, and some of them can be so alien they merit a bizarre plane. For the purposes of this quest, the types are:

[] Forest: A hilly expanse of dense forests interrupted only by ponds, rivers, or lakes, punctuated by the occasional mountain.

[] Jungle: An endless thicket of towering trees, high humidity, and animals of all shapes and sizes waiting in the underbrush to the treetops.

[] Desert: A vast expanse of desolate dunes that stretch for miles between rare oases and rarer rivers and tributaries.

[] Plains: Flat, dry fields of hard-packed dirt and tough, scrubby flora, as far as the eye can see.

[] Archipelago: An endless chain or cluster of small islands across a vast sea, some close enough to be reached by bridges or canoes, others requiring huge gulfs.

[] Tundra: An icy, typically barren landscape with summers that are colder than most plane's winters, and winters than can be unlivable without preparations.

[] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.

[] Skylands: Akin to the archipelago, but in place of a sea, only an empty undersky below, which the islands float upon naturally.

[] Volcanic: Volcanic planes are never-ending mountain ranges of active volcanoes, aflood with lava flows and magma pools.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes:
These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.

[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.

This could be fun.
Edit: added a plan name.
 
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[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes:
These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.

[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.

then this is fine i call it plan dwarf
Adhoc vote count started by Raptor580 on Aug 12, 2017 at 10:00 PM, finished with -549 posts and 1 votes.

  • [X] Plan: Dwarf
    [X] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
    -[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.
    [X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
    [X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.

Adhoc vote count started by Raptor580 on Aug 13, 2017 at 6:54 PM, finished with -546 posts and 1 votes.

  • [X] Plan: Dwarf
    [X] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
    -[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.
    [X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
    [X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.
 
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[X] Plan We Are High And Proud Of It

[x] Extraordinary Material Planes:
As the name implies, these planes have some sort of extraordinary material or asset in them. This may come in the form of some a special plant, a special metal, a special type of animal, or other such possibilities. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[x] Miracle Tobacco: Smoking the leaves of this peculiar strain of tobacco allows an individual to enter a hallucinatory fugue in which they can move around freely outside their body.
[x] Medium: Medium planes are about the size of a continent. They usually have lakes and waterways, and can also have small oceans.
[x] Skylands: Akin to the archipelago, but in place of a sea, only an empty undersky below, which the islands float upon naturally.
 
@Raptor580 I added the plan name you came up with. If you could just add it in to your vote that would be great. Make it so we don't have two separate votes on a technicality of no plan name.
 
[X] Plan Spirits of the Wild
-[X] Extraordinary Quiddity Planes:

--[X] Animism:
-[x] Medium:
-[X] Jungle:


I think a jungle continent of spirits sounds pretty cool.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes:
These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.

[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.

CATFISH!
 
[X] Plan: Honor Sky
[X] Extraordinary Material Planes: As the name implies, these planes have some sort of extraordinary material or asset in them. This may come in the form of some a special plant, a special metal, a special type of animal, or other such possibilities. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Promise Ore: When purified for alloyed, promise ore becomes a metal the ductile strength of which is decided by how many oaths and promises its wielder has kept, able to be stronger than mithril or weaker than slag.
[X] Medium: Medium planes are about the size of a continent. They usually have lakes and waterways, and can also have small oceans.
[X] Skylands: Akin to the archipelago, but in place of a sea, only an empty undersky below, which the islands float upon naturally.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes:
These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.

[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.
[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.
[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.
[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.
 
[X] Plan: Dwarf
[X] Extraordinary Technology Planes: These planes have some sort of quirk to their laws of physics, or an underlying quiddity alteration, which makes certain types of technology that would otherwise not be able to function feasible. The most extreme instances of this can be full-on laser rifles and spacecraft, though this is rare. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Electricity: Most planes are lit by gas lamps, and heated by coal furnaces, but not yours; electricity is a particularly easy concept to grasp and implement here.
[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.
[X] Cliffs: Bordering on a bizarre plane, cliff planesare seemingly sideways, consisting of a single sheer mountain bluff with no apparent top or bottom, just ridges and caves across its face.
 
[X] Plan: Sky Captains

[X] Extraordinary Material Planes: As the name implies, these planes have some sort of extraordinary material or asset in them. This may come in the form of some a special plant, a special metal, a special type of animal, or other such possibilities. For the purposes of creating your plane, you can chose from:
-[X] Gryffons: Your plane has a population of griffons, chimerical creatures with the hindquarters of a lion and the forebody of an eagle.

[X] Large: Large planes are the size of a full planet, and will have multiple continents and oceans in them.

[X] Skylands: Akin to the archipelago, but in place of a sea, only an empty undersky below, which the islands float upon naturally.
 
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