The God Equation
- Thread starter billymorph
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Fantasy
- Location
- Earth
Tried to write something that came to me, but it ended up stuck halfway between being a proper omake and an elevator pitch.
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The most famous gnome to live is arguably Harria Windsborne (she originally had a different last name, but nobody in the Skylands can be bothered to remember it for some reason). She was the inventor of the airship, and later captain of the Perseverance, which many consider to be the first of its kind.
She was born in a village near the edge of Zylwe to a pair of meteorologists, who expected her to follow in their footsteps. Harria wanted something more to life, though, and was at her happiest when she took the family's glider out to observe the horizon.
The Industrialist movement was just getting started back then, and Harria saw potential in it. She wondered if there was a way to improve the glider's flight times so she could remain in the air for longer. Harria's parents (who were proto-Pastoralists) disapproved of her dream, but tolerated her activities because Harria excused her tinkering on the glider with the fact that she was helping with meteorology efforts.
Eventually Harria realized that the glider design, no matter how refined and improved upon, was fundamentally unsuitable for long-distance flight. So she started from scratch, with a completely different structure. Creating the airship took many, many rounds of trial and error, and a LOT of materials. When Harria's parents kicked her out of their home at age 13 when they caught on that she'd never be a simple meteorologist, a friend (who was a proto-Industrialist) took her in, and the experiments continued. After over a decade and a half of exhausting work, Harria was finally able to create a prototype that could sustain extended periods in the air, carry a much heavier load with room to spare, and withstand strong wind currents.
Finished with her invention, Harria decided it was time she start exploring the skies more. Now that she had a way to stay in the skies for longer periods of time, every minute she spent on a skyland and not in the air was unbearable. She named her airship the Perseverance, loaded up on supplies, invited a few friends to join her, and flew away from Zylwe. Harria would go on to spend the majority of her remaining life aboard the Perseverance.
As a captain, Harria was fair and caring, though she had a tendency to let her passion get the better of her at times and push her crew to do less-than-prudent things. Perhaps things would have fallen apart but Harria's old friend and first mate Alastor Elcore had an eye for talent and organizational ability that meant the Perseverance was always well-staffed and efficiently run.
The Perseverance would anchor itself on the trailing edges of skylands it came across. Harria herself often remained aboard, but Alastor would visit the local settlements, if there were any, and bring news back about the state of things. They often recruited new crew members on inhabited skylands. Harria was said to have had a certain charisma about her, and her offer of a life of freedom and exploration appealed to many.
Harria Windsborne died in her sleep at the age of 66, and was found by first mate Alastor, who came to check on her absence from the deck. She was survived by a single son, Amemis, who later inherited the airship.
Harria and the Perseverance left a great deal of legacies behind them. The most obvious of these is the invention of the airship, which lead to a new age. However, there were many other lesser known contributions that shaped life in the Skylands just as profoundly, if not more. These included advances in meteorology and astronomy, as well the first docks being built on inhabited skylands in response to repeated visits from the Perseverance. It was crew member Mikeale Drala who first identified the eternal storm that would later bear his name, correctly connecting reports from multiple skylands that spoke of a great maelstrom as referencing the same one. The docking system was also the prelude to mass-trading and transportation between skylands, with great shipments of food and supplies standing in stark contrast to the small packages and few passengers that could previously be transported by glider and pegasus.
The belief that Harria Windsborne was a great person is one of the very few things that Industrialists and Pastoralists can agree on in modern times. Industrialists see her as a personification of the spirit of invention and innovation, while Pastoralists credit her work for bringing more freedom into the world (establishing New Arcadia would've been borderline impossible without the airship). Ironically, if one were to use the modern system, she would be classified as a Renegade.
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The most famous gnome to live is arguably Harria Windsborne (she originally had a different last name, but nobody in the Skylands can be bothered to remember it for some reason). She was the inventor of the airship, and later captain of the Perseverance, which many consider to be the first of its kind.
She was born in a village near the edge of Zylwe to a pair of meteorologists, who expected her to follow in their footsteps. Harria wanted something more to life, though, and was at her happiest when she took the family's glider out to observe the horizon.
The Industrialist movement was just getting started back then, and Harria saw potential in it. She wondered if there was a way to improve the glider's flight times so she could remain in the air for longer. Harria's parents (who were proto-Pastoralists) disapproved of her dream, but tolerated her activities because Harria excused her tinkering on the glider with the fact that she was helping with meteorology efforts.
Eventually Harria realized that the glider design, no matter how refined and improved upon, was fundamentally unsuitable for long-distance flight. So she started from scratch, with a completely different structure. Creating the airship took many, many rounds of trial and error, and a LOT of materials. When Harria's parents kicked her out of their home at age 13 when they caught on that she'd never be a simple meteorologist, a friend (who was a proto-Industrialist) took her in, and the experiments continued. After over a decade and a half of exhausting work, Harria was finally able to create a prototype that could sustain extended periods in the air, carry a much heavier load with room to spare, and withstand strong wind currents.
Finished with her invention, Harria decided it was time she start exploring the skies more. Now that she had a way to stay in the skies for longer periods of time, every minute she spent on a skyland and not in the air was unbearable. She named her airship the Perseverance, loaded up on supplies, invited a few friends to join her, and flew away from Zylwe. Harria would go on to spend the majority of her remaining life aboard the Perseverance.
As a captain, Harria was fair and caring, though she had a tendency to let her passion get the better of her at times and push her crew to do less-than-prudent things. Perhaps things would have fallen apart but Harria's old friend and first mate Alastor Elcore had an eye for talent and organizational ability that meant the Perseverance was always well-staffed and efficiently run.
The Perseverance would anchor itself on the trailing edges of skylands it came across. Harria herself often remained aboard, but Alastor would visit the local settlements, if there were any, and bring news back about the state of things. They often recruited new crew members on inhabited skylands. Harria was said to have had a certain charisma about her, and her offer of a life of freedom and exploration appealed to many.
Harria Windsborne died in her sleep at the age of 66, and was found by first mate Alastor, who came to check on her absence from the deck. She was survived by a single son, Amemis, who later inherited the airship.
Harria and the Perseverance left a great deal of legacies behind them. The most obvious of these is the invention of the airship, which lead to a new age. However, there were many other lesser known contributions that shaped life in the Skylands just as profoundly, if not more. These included advances in meteorology and astronomy, as well the first docks being built on inhabited skylands in response to repeated visits from the Perseverance. It was crew member Mikeale Drala who first identified the eternal storm that would later bear his name, correctly connecting reports from multiple skylands that spoke of a great maelstrom as referencing the same one. The docking system was also the prelude to mass-trading and transportation between skylands, with great shipments of food and supplies standing in stark contrast to the small packages and few passengers that could previously be transported by glider and pegasus.
The belief that Harria Windsborne was a great person is one of the very few things that Industrialists and Pastoralists can agree on in modern times. Industrialists see her as a personification of the spirit of invention and innovation, while Pastoralists credit her work for bringing more freedom into the world (establishing New Arcadia would've been borderline impossible without the airship). Ironically, if one were to use the modern system, she would be classified as a Renegade.
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- Location
- St. Petersburg
Unfortunately, QM's tally doesn't pick up ranked votes, so what I meant by approval voting is voting for several options without ranking them, and then picking the most popular option.
Approval votes can be counted with the inbuilt tally, while the ranked votes can't.
Astra Myst
Do you want a wish?
- Location
- Milky Way Galaxy
[X]Nothing
- Location
- UK
Yeah sorry to change the rules half way, but my tally software just isn't playing nice with mixing and matching. If you change these to x I'll try and get consensus voting working, otherwise I'll have to just go for option 1 as the vote.
- Location
- UK
Looks like a good bit of early lore to me
, I'll hold off until after the magic vote to make sure it'll make sense with the system but I don't see any problem with working it into the fluff.
- Location
- UK
Much, thanks
- Location
- UK
Voting Closed!
Winner: Runes
I'm not really surprised by this outcome given where we are.
Winner: Runes
I'm not really surprised by this outcome given where we are.
Prologue 5: Those Who Lead
- Location
- UK
Prologue 5: Those Who Lead
It was the discovery of runes that changed us from survivors to masters of the Skylands. Without runes we would be trapped on our homelands and at the mercy of the storms and wind. Instead, we built great ships of the air to explore our shattered home and bring back the bounty of the skies. We journeyed, we suffered, we warred and we thrived. We learned of the multitude of forms the gods had granted us, and we learned that we are stronger together than we are apart. We formed kingdoms and empires, they were fragile things, at the mercy of the winds and luck, but slowly they spanned the breadth of the unforgiving skies.
Still, slowly and with many setbacks, we began to build the world that the gods had failed to grant us. Scattered huts became villages, villages became towns and soon entire skylands became hubs of industry, learning and magic. We called these scattered lands civilisation and they were linked by a fragile chain of sky ships. As civilisation grew and adapted and learned we discovered something strange about our magic. Runes were thought of as commands for countless generations; Move, Protect, Heal and so on. Such commands were variable, however, depending on the will and the strength of the one powering them leading to unpredictable results. It was only as we began to compare our runes that we realised that our imagination was too limited, we had not in our hands a magic word, we had a magic language.
This brought about the second great awakening. No longer was rune craft an art it became a skill. On the backs of our runesmiths great forges grew, monuments to industry and magic alike. New sky ships, faster, safer and cheer than any before set out to conquer the skies. New discoveries, new cities, new peoples, new lands, all were made on the back of this one vital discovery. Our people grew wealthy and civilisation reached further than ever before. In this turmoil and chaos one group stood out above all the others as the leaders of this second awakening. They were:
Consensus Vote: (Select with an [x] as many options as you'd like)
[]The Soldiers
-We advanced with fire and sword in hand, bringing the light of civilisation to the Skylands. Their rule was harsh and rarely fair, but wonders were built from the labour of the defeated.
-Reach ++, Industry +, Exploitation +, Cohesion --, Freedom -,
[]The Merchants
-The money lenders and merchants profited greatly from the expansion in magic. They did not rule, but their market did, and it had no time for the infirm, unlucky, or unskilled.
-Prosperity +++, Reach +, Exploitation --, Freedom -
[]The Priests
-A new magic revived faith in the gods and their creation. The priests moved swiftly to capitalise on the surge of interest, putting words in the mouths of their slumbering gods.
-Prosperity ++, Cohesion +, Innovation -, Curiosity -
[]The Runesmiths
-This new art drove the value of runesmiths to dizzying heights. They became titans among the flock, but to preserve their power they kept their secrets to themselves.
-Industry ++, Innovation +, Freedom -, Mastery -
[]The Nobility
-The old adage is true, the rich only grow richer. The nobles found their wealth reach dizzying heights from ownership of the booming smithies, and proceeded to do they best to fritter it away.
-Prosperity ++, Reach +, Cohesion -, Freedom -
[]The People
-People have always struggled for power in this world. With magic at the finger-tips of the masses at last the common man found himself exalted well beyond their ability.
-Freedom +, Innovation +, Reach +, Prosperity -, Cohesion -
[]The Students
-The dreamers, the wonderers and the mathematical minded embraced this new language of power. Their drive was great but focused on their own aggrandisement.
-Curiosity ++, Innovation +, Prosperity -, Cohesion -
---
There should be a chapter detailing just how the runic magic functions in the future but I won't have time to write it until the weekend. Watch this space
[X]The Merchants
-The money lenders and merchants profited greatly from the expansion in magic. They did not rule, but their market did, and it had no time for the infirm, unlucky, or unskilled.
-Prosperity +++, Reach +, Exploitation --, Freedom -
[X]The Runesmiths
-This new art drove the value of runesmiths to dizzying heights. They became titans among the flock, but to preserve their power they kept their secrets to themselves.
-Industry ++, Innovation +, Freedom -, Mastery -
[X]The Nobility
-The old adage is true, the rich only grow richer. The nobles found their wealth reach dizzying heights from ownership of the booming smithies, and proceeded to do they best to fritter it away.
-Prosperity ++, Reach +, Cohesion -, Freedom -
-The money lenders and merchants profited greatly from the expansion in magic. They did not rule, but their market did, and it had no time for the infirm, unlucky, or unskilled.
-Prosperity +++, Reach +, Exploitation --, Freedom -
[X]The Runesmiths
-This new art drove the value of runesmiths to dizzying heights. They became titans among the flock, but to preserve their power they kept their secrets to themselves.
-Industry ++, Innovation +, Freedom -, Mastery -
[X]The Nobility
-The old adage is true, the rich only grow richer. The nobles found their wealth reach dizzying heights from ownership of the booming smithies, and proceeded to do they best to fritter it away.
-Prosperity ++, Reach +, Cohesion -, Freedom -
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
[X]The People
Long live the People's Republic!
Long live the People's Republic!
- Location
- Georgia
[X]Students
Tech Ahoi!
Tech Ahoi!
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Astra Myst
Do you want a wish?
- Location
- Milky Way Galaxy
[X]The Runesmiths
[X]The Students
- Location
- UK
Hey all, so I ran out of time for today's update so the vote is going to remain open until Friday as I'm even busier tomorrow. We're nearly there with the prologue now, just one more question after this to complete our civilisation and then we can get to the magi-punk fun times!
- Location
- UK
Yeah, we've laid out the groundwork for the whole Skylands and these last few are going to be zeroing in on what our specific avatar nation will be like. There will definitely be competitors out in the sky.