Worldbuilding

I'm working on making my own ttrpg, a mystery action game where you play as a Psyker , think a combination of Call of Cthulhu and earthbound. The setting is suppose to be sort of a kitchen sink encompassing almost every type of supernatural entity or phenomenon and I'm struggling to come up with an origin and general vibe surrounding magic and witchcraft. I want it to be distinct from psionics with the two not encompassing the same abilities while at the same time making magic useful and interesting in case players want to interact with a potential magic system.

As of right now, most abilities i can think of can easily be done with psionics in some way so what would you say are some distinctly "magic" like abilities that you generally don't expect psionics to be able to do.

Are there people in your world that just don't get it, and keep spouting opinions that make no sense given the context of your world or would be disastrous if actually implemented? What are some of the most common bad takes in your world and what makes them so bad?

I noticed that there hasn't been any new post made for a while, and I am a bit too into world building to stay silent

What are your ideas for events, if you don't like events then would you like to share some of your current projects?

And, if you're seeing this, even if you don't have an opinion, just leave an upvote or a comment!

I have always preferred creating maps and geography over other types of writing, I love learning about language rules and I occasionally find myself thinking about conlanging in the most random moments

If I had to categorise it, I would mostly call myself a cartographer in the space of world building

What do you prefer? I know some that love creating unique species, others just fucking around with planets, some just like making art for characters they wrote about

Having great fun trying to depict my setting (link) in Flowscape.

In order to create the dramatic geography of this city, the cliff faces are actually 3D mountain assets rotated and transformed. As I get more familiar with the software I'm excited to see what else I can do.

Hopefully I get faster, as this setting has over 50 towns and cities...

https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/orcas-wearing-salmon-hats-3-90288/

Orcas wore dead fish as hats, and this was a fad among adolescents

One of the ideas that I had is that pork in the СШР is offered as a downgrade that costs less. The communist party would then pass laws mandating this since offering pork as a downgrade instead of an alternative as an upgrade would make it easier to get prosecutions for blasphemy and hate crimes if someone put pork into the wrong food.

20% of the population follows a consistent pork taboo without meaningful exceptions, which is half of the communist party. A third of technocrats believe in Transformatsiya instead of atheism, but it's extremely watered down to the point of being meaningless.

The pork taboo is not required but it's considered better to follow it. Most people who avoid pork in certain situations don't consume it because the alternatives are usually better.

Edit: Additional context

This is the СШР, which is a dyson shell in 50,000. In 48,776, it was populated by technocratic tsarist atheists who believed that the tsar had an innate right to rule because he was the most enlightened of the technocrats. Everyone had pervasive low key depression that never went away, but they were also largely ignorant of it because it was normal to them. Around 48,000, people started to break away and started forming autonomous zones. They developed a belief in a supreme creator and the spiritual being Tanisha Reznova contact them in dreams and psychedelic experiences and revealed previous revelations about God to them. They believe that by living in submission to God, He will remove the fog of spiritual dysphoria and allow them to experience inner peace.

Religion also leads the Transformniks to communism because they believe that capitalism is associates partners with God where corporations become idols. Tanisha mentioned a nation called Merika was founded through divine providence to be a shining beacon on a hill. Merika eventually fell into decline in the 21st century because Tanisha said they allowed themselves to become separated from God by corporations. Eventually people of the three main religions united and fought in the Red Army against the corporations and secular technocrats of the White Army. The Red Army and the White Army are the factions referenced in the first war against slavery under Abraham.

(This text was written with RPG in mind, but I hope it can be interesting outside of this context. I invite You to read and discuss. And if You have Your own "twisted gods", feel free to share here).

In RPG and fantasy, we are often faced with a situation where the existence of gods is an empirically confirmed fact, rather than a matter of belief. Two extremes can be distinguished in the representation of these entities (note – I do not claim that all creation adopts one of these two extreme points of view). On the one hand – the trend adapted by e.g. most of the settings for D&D – gods are personification of certain values professed by people, not infrequently they are even „born” from the faith of mortals or at least derive power from it/are shaped by it – gods described as „good” are simply good in the conventional sense of the word, they sincerely care about their followers and you know what to expect from them. On the other side, we have motifs that can be considered taken from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythology – the gods are incomprehensible, distant beings, completely unconcerned with human worldviews and so-called „good and evil”, mostly indifferent to humanity (and if by chance their paths intersect with humanit’s ones, humanity is screwed) – at the same time, it is not uncommon for most mortals to be unaware of their existence, instead worshipping imaginary, more anthropomorphic deities tailored to their emotional needs.

In this article, I wanted to present deities standing somewhere in the middle – entities whose goals, yes, are not fully understood by mortals, but nevertheless close enough to human morality that worshippers can find some commonality (real or imaginary) with their patrons. These gods are usually directly interested in some way in the lives of their worshipers – although not necessarily in the way those worshipers would like. At the same time, I wanted each description to contain a hook, an important point where the devotees’ understanding of the deity diverges from its real nature – and whose discovery could be a significant twist.

1. Mother of Peace

The Religion of the Mother of Peace, or the Cult of Harmony, is a strictly pacifist religion. Strictly and absolutely. No violence is allowed, ever, anywhere, in any situation. If you see a psychopath murdering children with an axe, you have no right to use force to prevent him from doing so. You cannot stun him, disarm him, knock him over, or even grab his arm. At most, you can ask him to stop, try to distract him, or stand up to the blow to give the children a chance to escape. Why do people follow such religion? First, the philosophy appeals to some – in the real world, Gandhi said something like „applying the eye-for-an-eye principle will make everyone blind.” – Followers of Harmony believe that violence begets violence, while peace begets peace. If they consistently turn the other cheek and don’t resist evil, they will stop winding up the spiral of violence and constant revenge and eventually evil will disappear naturally. Second – following the path of Harmony brings concrete benefits. Holy priests, who have long been non-violent, receive healing powers from the Mother of Peace – but they only work on other followers, so the policy of „I do violence, and the pacifist priest of Harmony heals me” is impossible. To use healing, you need to sincerely renounce violence – which, on the one hand, reduces your chances of survival in an encounter with hostile beings, on the other – if you come out of it alive, all your wounds will be healed, plus you gain protection from natural diseases and other threats. Third – the priests of Harmony preach that those who live and die, observing the principle of non-violence, will be taken into the bosom of the Mother of Peace after death, who will give them happiness incomparable to earthly suffering – so it is „profitable” to trade your life in exchange for heavenly pleasures.

The religion of the Mother of Peace may be perceived differently in society. It is possible that the authorities are avtively against it – it makes the subjects unwilling to fight, which reflects on the combat power of the state. Or perhaps they support it, seeing it as a tool to pacify potential rebels? Ordinary people may regard the Children of Peace as annoying lunatics – or treat them with deep respect. Even if healing powers may not work on „infidels,” after all, the Children may be able to help them in other ways – such as using conventional medicine (while remarking „Join us and you’ll see real miracles!”).

Well, what is the catch? Yes, the Mother of Peace actually exists. But her goal is by no means to create a utopia where people can live in happiness and peace. Her goal is to weaken the population of a given world/planet/country. When a sufficient portion of the population is transformed into followers of Harmony, for whom the use of violence – even for defense – is unthinkable, and even if it were thinkable, they would became too weak to use it, the time for reaping comes. The True Children of the Mother, hordes of bloodthirsty, voracious creatures, come out to prey and consume the pacified people. The devoured people continue to make prayers to the Mother, who continues to appear from time to time, assuring her followers that this is the final test and whoever perseveres without putting up a fight against the monstrous invaders will be saved.

During the course of the game, players may encounter followers of Harmony. It would be good for the GM to present them as something more than detached hippies, to make the players start to wonder if they are right. Maybe they’ll come across a reformed bad guy – e.g., a psychopathic follower of the god of murder who massacred a village of Harmonious heretics, but their indomitable will and serenity in the face of death made him convert and join them? Or more life-like – a husband who stopped beating his wife and children and is now an exemplary head of the family? Players can act as defenders of persecuted Harmonists (although this will involve some ambiguity – „Harmonists are decent people, but without people like us, who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, thay would survive”). They can have discussions with the priests about the legitimacy of pacifism. Maybe one of the player characters will start thinking about becoming a Harmonist after his career as an adventurer ends? The more sympathetic players become to the cult of Harmony, the more shocked they will be to discover indications that the Mother of Peace may be a much darker entity than it appears. At first, they may trivialize rumors like „Harmonists are actually a fifth column preparing the world for an invasion by dark forces!” as typical denigration of the new religion by the old clerical establishment. But as time goes by, the evidence will become stronger and stronger… Until finally there will be an invasion of the True Children that the players will have to face. Or maybe they will have the chance to prevent it, and will face the dilemma „Whether to believe the critics of the Harmonists and obstruct the great ritual, which, according to the Harmonists, is supposed to help bring universal happiness, but in fact open the gates of the dark dimensions…. Given that in order to do so, we will have to massacre a crowd of unarmed civilians, including women and children?”

The Mother of Peace is portrayed by her followers as a goddess with, one can easily guess, maternal qualities. Perhaps even as a pregnant woman? This is a play on the ambiguous nature of this entity – the presumed spiritual mother-protector of the followers of Harmony, and the actual fecundator of the swarm that will consume them. Players may come across disturbing references to „the coming of the True Mother’s Children” in sermons and hymns – priests may (sincerely or not) explain that it’s such a metaphor, that it’s about the era when people truly dedicated to peace will come.

2. Enemy of Superstition, Destroyer of Magic, Defender of Normalcy

There are many arguments that are made against magic. It is source of obscurantism, superstition and charlatanism, a way to fool people. It violates the natural order of things. It is the work of demons, leading to possession or by destroying the veil of the worlds to demonic invasion. It is the theft of the power due to the gods, a manifestation of human pride. It distracts people from giving honor due to these gods. It brings madness, sucks the life out of the environment, causes the risk of explosions or other side effects. Leads to inequality, as mages can exalt themselves over ordinary people. Or something.

Depending on the setting, each of these accusations may or may not be true. But that doesn’t stop the Defender cult from preaching them. Inquisitors and witch hunters roam the world, collecting magical artifacts, books and even arresting anyone who manifests magical talents. No, they don’t burn them at the stake. All items and people associated with magic go to the Bottomless Wells located in temples – supposedly the only way to effectively annihilate them. Importantly, the hunters are ordered to take mages alive if possible and throw them into the wells – supposedly a mage eliminated in the wrong way turns into a wraith, or something like that. Inquisitors are aided in this work by the magic-blocking powers provided by the Defender.

Witch hunters can be treated by the people as terrifying villains – or as heroes. The reason for the latter attitude is not necessarily solely propaganda and „fear of otherness.” It is possible that the land has actually suffered a lot at the hands of mages – perhaps it has just liberated itself from the rule of an evil sorcerer and his disciples, or it is fighting a fierce battle against a nation that uses magic in a fierce way. It would be worthwhile for players to see some of the negative effects of magic use with their own eyes, so that at the very least they would develop doubts about whether the Defender’s followers are wrong.

What is the truth? It’s easy to guess that the Defender is not concerned with defending the innocent from witchcraft. But neither is he driven by any other selfish yet high-minded motivations along the lines of „magic takes the glory away from the gods.” The truth is that for the „Defender,” magic is just darn tasty. Bottomless Wells are portals leading directly to his insatiable maw. It’s possible that the founder of the Inquisition managed by some miracle to communicate with this entity and make a pact „I will provide you with food, you will lend me and my disciples your anti-magic powers, which you use to safely digest objects radiating magic – and we will use them to incapacitate mages.”

What will happen when the players reveal the truth about the Defender? Maybe the inquisitors will be furious that their holy crusade turned out to be nothing more than feeding an inter-dimensional monster, they will turn their backs on their god, to which he will react with rage (not because of his violated dignity or some other irrelevant value, but because of the vision of being cut off from a steady supply of grub), through one of the wells he will enter the world and the players, along with the inquisitors, will have to face him? Or maybe the inquisitors will react with a shrug of the shoulders and the statement „So what if the Defender is not a noble god, but a voracious monster. Magic is still a threat, and he is the best means to eliminate it.” Perhaps, using the method of the cobbler Skuba (Polish legend), players will toss a special object emanating „toxic”‚ magic into one of the Wells, which will poison the Defender?

3. Truthsayer

God of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. People swear by his name. He is also worshipped as the god of justice and knowledge, so judges and scholars worship him. Lying brings his curse.

The Truthsayer doesn’t lie about himself – in fact, he wouldn’t be able to even if he wanted to (and he definitely doesn’t want to). The problem is that the people themselves have sung too much about him. As I pointed out above – he is the god of truth and ONLY truth. Justice does not matter to him, it is a totally foreign concept to him…. If he helps the investigators uncover the machinations of the villains, it is only so that the truth will come out, but he does not care whether the result will be the administration of justice. He might as well help the villains discover the heroes’ forays and subterfuges. As for acquiring knowledge – yes, he assists scholars in their research, in order to reveal the truth. However, if a scholar spins unsubstantiated speculations and hypotheses (which happen to be contrary to the truth), even in good faith – he draws the wrath of the Truthsayer. Simply put, untruths make the Truthsayer suffer. This applies to any untruth. Also fantasy. If the Truthsayer’s followers perform a ritual to increase his presence in the material world, they will bring a terrible calamity. From now on, the curse will fall on actors and poets, on anyone who utters a harmless lie like „You don’t look fat in that clothes,” „I’m not mad at you,” or „I’m on my way out,” as well as anyone who uses deception (no, the Truthsayer doesn’t care about the nobility of the cause – if you put on camouflage to sneak under the headquarters of the bad guys and rescue their innocent hostages, you are a hideous LIAR and deserve to be punished). Bah, people in ordinary conversations must be careful not to use metaphors and phraseological compounds. A Truthsayer may even go so far as to seek to eliminate words like „nice,” „tasty” or „good” – after all, they are subjective, and what is not objective truth, is a LIE.

Good player characters can help prepare a ritual to summon the avatar of the Truthsayer – after all, „God of Truth” sounds like a decidedly good dude, right? At some stage, they may realize that the world of absolute truth will be something terrible (maybe some conversation with a philosopher?) and try to torpedo the ritual. Maybe they will be able to accomplish this in advance… Or maybe the avatar will already begin to pass into our world? Then they will succeed in playing him off by pointing out the paradox – people summoned him because they believed he was the avatar of goodness, justice and knowledge – if he exploits this ignorance of theirs, he will benefit from lying, and this would be unacceptable. Or a character with an exceptionally high bluffing skill or the like might try to spew a tale so full of lies and absurdities that the avatar of Truth will go berserk just from listening – but a half-hearted success will only enrage him!

For the Truthsayer, as an antithesis, I would see a god of lies and fantasy – not the typical sinister „Prince of Lies” in the style of the Christian Satan, or some malicious trickster, but a deity whose motto is „Such is the world! A wicked world! Why is there no other world?” (B. Lesmian) or „Be guided in life by such foma (harmless lying) as will give you courage, goodness, health and happiness” (K. Vonnegut), who lies not for some selfish purposes, but because he firmly believes that lying IS GOOD. The real world is cruel and unfair, lying helps to endure it and achieve at least a little happiness – through escapist fantasies, small daily lies „From tomorrow I will take charge of myself and achieve something!” „You look nice”, „Don’t worry, you’re not a failure at all” through big lies like „Good is always rewarded and evil is punished”. In this arrangement, both the god of lies and the god of truth would be morally neutral in practice (both can assist followers in certain situations, but at the same time pose a danger – the god of truth mercilessly punishes anything that is not the absolute truth, the god of lies can entangle you in a web of delusion) – but in theory, it is the liar who is driven by more altruistic motivations and loves mortals.

4. Prince of Blades, Lord of Sharp Angles and Edges

Centuries ago, the Prince of Blades was worshipped as a deity of war, or even slaughter. Legends say that he made the claws of his worshippers – and even their teeth and nails – exceptionally sharp and dangerous to enemies. And the legend is true – albeit the Prince was never a god of war. He is the personification – or perhaps the source? – of all sharpness. He doesn’t care about crippling anyone, although that’s mostly a side effect, he just wants things to be sharp. Or rather – in passing, by his very existence, he makes them so?

Let’s say there is a place where strange phenomena occur. Babies are born with long and exceptionally sharp claws and fangs. Swords and axes made by local blacksmiths are famous for their exceptional sharpness (maybe the player characters just came here to get their hands on them?). Why go. There is a temple of the Prince underground, and its influence radiates to the surface. Cultists come to the town to unearth it – they believe in the Prince in his aspect of the god of war and believe that this will help them triumph over their enemies. When they realize their goal, they are met with a surprise. The cultists are transformed into living avatars of sharpness. Invisible blades cut them so as to eliminate all contortions (a head clipped to a cube is not a pleasant sight), their hands turn into scythes, and in their brains all thought of their own is replaced by a single imperative – cut! What’s more, the Prince’s influence is more and more visible in the neighborhood – everything becomes sharper. The most visible effect from a mechanical point of view is that all weapons (edged weapons to a slightly lesser extent, but also) deal more damage. But as the influence increases, even rubbing clothes against skin starts to be painful, then every touch hurts, until finally the very movements of air cut the skin. If players don’t close the temple, the effects can be really nasty. It is possible that earlier players encountered a strange artifact – a sponge ball. If they didn’t get rid of it, it will turn out to be a „statue” of Our Soft and Oblique Lady, the opposite of the Prince, which what him will mitigate the effects of opening the temple. The battle will take place not between good and evil, order and chaos, or other abstract constructs, but between Sharpness and Softness.

5. Mistress of Natural Instinct

A goddess of wildlife, her followers preach the need to return to a life in harmony with nature and reject the defiling influence of civilization. Oh, it would seem – another „mother Gaia” with a pseudo-ecological cult. The thing is, the Lady is not at all measured by the fact that people are poisoning rivers and cutting down forests, as her followers believe. What she doesn’t like is that they are rational. Reason, consciousness, morality, are evolutionary dead ends. They only multiply pain and suffering. Do animals – much less plants – waste time and resources on some foolishness like art? Do they risk their lives and the lives of others for abstracts like honor? Do they suffer from offended dignity, boredom or lack of meaning in life? People simply combine too much to be happy. The return to nature is not primarily about rejecting technology (although that will probably be a side effect of it), but liberating people from the unnecessary baggage of excess thoughts. Let them become like animals – free, innocent and amoral. This is the purpose of the Lady, which is not grasped (possibly except by the high priests) by her followers. Yes, during ecstatic rituals some of them fall into a trance, during which they walk on all fours, howl and growl. And the priests are able to bring this trance on their enemies… But are the followers ready to accept the truth that, according to the will of their mistress, this is how life should be, forever?

The rest of the text is avalaible here, for free: https://adeptus7.itch.io/twisted-gods

I've been using "mechanoid" as a classification (similar to humanoid, etc), but a friend pointed out that it's both too generic, and that said inorganics might just consider it biology, with organics being the weird outlier.

Transformniks don't believe in universalism because they believe that Satan and probably others will never repent and accept God. They also don't believe that permanent separation from God is never justified. There are Transformnik mystics share the belief from Christian and Muslim mystics that Heaven and Hell are states of being that people create based on how they lived. The default state of Hell is permanent and it's only through reform and purging of certain sins that certain people and spirits can be released from Hell.

The most severe sins as described in the Tome (the holy book) are polytheism and idolatry, atheism and social dysfunction and those who lead people to these sins. These sinners are punished the most severely and are usually considered beyond any salvation.

This is not an official part of Transformatsiya but is something that mystics have theorized. There are two possible methods of redemption for severe sinners. One is to appear in the dreams of a large number of people who would be damned and push them towards salvation. The other is reliving a recreation of one's life repeatedly with no prior memories while in the recreation. They continue reliving their life on repeat with the same initial conditions until they get it right. Usually it requires some major black swan event of free will. Each time they come out of the recreation, they have all of their prior memories returned, including memories of previous lives in the recreation.

There are Christians and Muslims who denounce mysticism as being dangerous while there have also been Christian and Muslim mystics. Transformatsiya is a fictional religion created from the influence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and was formed through mysticism and contact with the spiritual being Tanisha who revealed previous religious teachings to the early followers. Part of the religious teachings include how to safely understand the influence of the spirit world.

Under the religious Zakon Law, mysticism and occult rituals are restricted to sanctioned mystics because ignorant exploration of the spirit world is incredibly dangerous and is likely to lead to demonic possession or influence.

Unsanctioned mysticism is punished by mandatory intervention from social workers of the PKVD, court order to see a psychiatrist who is a sanctioned mystic, or in extreme cases confinement to a mental hospital where they would receive spiritual guidance.

All the prophets up to Tanisha (who is a spirit) are considered mystics who received divine revelations from God or his messengers through the spirit world.

In one advanced culture, which has largely achieved pacifism through technological and cultural advancements, legal cases are heard by judges who have studied law and ethics extensively. Their maximum sentencing, though, is limited to temporary incarceration. For more severe sentences, such as permanent incarceration or death, the case is brought before the Matrial Seats.

The Matrial Seats is a group of seven volunteers who have physically borne and lost children. Only those who have brought life into the world, and felt the terrible loss of it, have sufficient authority to pass the most severe sentences. Unlike the General Courts, the Matrial Seats are not specially educated, and contain members from various social standings.

The СШР is the largest civilization in the galaxy by population, but they don't have a regular military. The NKRB (Homeland Security) has planetary defense forces but the Red Army is not part of the military or the government except under exceptional circumstances.

Under most circumstances, it's forbidden for followers of the Transformatsiya religion to serve in the military, because it's considered participation in violence on behalf of the state.

All of the gun stores are owned by the communist party because it's illegal for arms dealers to be capitalist businesses because it leads to capitalists profiting from violence. The economy of the СШР is market socialism.

The 2060 presidential election has a reemergence of the Radical Republicans. Joe Sullivan becomes the first market socialist president and the abolition of AI slavery was announced as one of his positions. The Democrats viewed this as an existential threat because they relied on android and AI slaves for the masses as the foundation of their policy because they wanted to make sure that cis humans never needed to work themselves. They take a high school statement about the war in Ukraine out of context to try to claim that Joe Sullivan supports Bolshevism. The real context was he wanted to negotiate an end to the war.

After the inauguration at the beginning of 2061, all of the west coast states succeed. Later that year in June, they begin an invasion of the Union that lasts until 2065 when the capital of Los Angeles falls and AI slavery is abolished.

In Transformatsiya, they believe that God created the universe in six days 60,000 years ago at the beginning of the Holocene. Everyone was created with memories of existing before the moment of creation.

They don't believe that evidence of an older universe is "fake." Instead they believe that it's "in context" and scientists should study the universe as it appears and any evidence of existence before creation is simply part of God's work.

They believe in evolution since the moment of creation. Saying things like "Dinosaurs didn't exist" is breaking the fourth wall.

The Reflection

Communists of the Transformatsiya religion believe in the reflection archetype, which is a mirrored version of themselves and a manifestation of that which they repressed.

The spiritual entity Tanisha is a manifestation of the collective reflection of the pre-historic Merikans. This is why she contains seemingly contradictory qualities. She exists in the image of a trans lesbian Red Army girl, because these were both repressed by different groups of Merikans. She was created in 2004, and the Red Army was of interest and relevance to the Merikans at that time through multiple works of historical fiction.

There is also a mythological origin of Tanisha, which is not "real" in context, but is simply a story and is interpreted as such by the followers of her religion. The KGB agent Masha Zakayeva was impregnated by the CIA agent Lucas Walker. She gave birth to Tanisha who was given the birth name Sam Walker. Sam had to be hidden from the Merikan shadow government, so he was secretly adopted by the Kyle family. Eventually Sam transitioned to Elisa, then Tanisha split off as her reflection with the intent of protecting her. Elisa lived an ordinary life as a middle class liberal and had a girlfriend. Tanisha began collaborating with radical Merikan communists. Eventually Elisa discovered Tanisha and was angry and distraught and had no idea how she could become such a person. Her girlfriend ends up leaving her. Eventually Elisa ends up embracing the radical nature of Tanisha rather then the ordinary life of mediocrity that had been planned for her.

Compared with human history, I sometimes think my own setting isn't badly written enough to be realistic.

This takes place in the far future after there have been multiple cycles of hedonistic societal collapses.

The main reason why the spiritual entity Tanisha takes on the role of a prophet to create an entirely new religion rather then simply reveal one or more prior religions is because none of them existed in a technologically advanced time and so lack the teachings necessary to instruct people how to live in an advanced society.

Transformatisya is heavily influenced by Christianity and Islam with convergent evolution on the Baha'i Faith, but without the non Abrahamic elements because they are considered redundant and unnecessary. The main story of Jesus follows Christianity, although he is considered separate from God. Tanisha was created in the minds of the pre-historic Americans, so included elements of American history in the mythology.

Idolatry remains the most severe sin, but the second most severe sin is anything that leads to or is a product of social isolation. Tanisha was formed in 2004 with memories of being born in 1984 and watched what happens when a technological society isolates itself and can only interact electronically.

I could see this resulting in a very "tough love" approach to manifestations of social anxiety where sufferers are seen as "a danger to themselves" and their own development into the world. Socially isolating interests and behaviors would be viewed as morally evil* and viewed in a self destructive way as something like drug addiction or the socially alienating behaviors of severe mental disorders.

*I want to be clear that this would not be some "chad" or "jock" dystopia. Traditionally "nerd" interests would still be pursued, but the "nerd" aspects would be strong discouraged.

I want to present an "over correction" that prevents this faction from being "unambiguously good" and gives other characters within the same faction something to struggle for reform against where they advocate for people who have been persecuted by this approach.

Tanisha also presents a lot of stories in the form of myths and allegories that are related to 21st century isolation.

How do the religions and secular philosophies of your world deal with problems such as this that only exist in technologically advanced societies?

This is something tangential I've developed for my science-fantasy world with intelligent animals. For context: In this world, different taxonomic governments represent groups of related species. You have the Felines, Vulpines, Rodents, Avians, etc. Each of them technically belong to a different State but frequently intermingle and live in the same area, and taxonomic governments tend to also have territory/land associated with them where they primarily control the area, but other animals can and very much do still live there. Taxonomic governments have jurisdiction of the species within their scope no matter where they live, and are the ones responsible for having an ID system that works both within their own taxon and with other taxonomic governments and other official organizations.

Instead of making everyone carry ID cards or passports, which would be cumbersome for four-legged or winged animals to use, I envisioned a DNA-based ID system. The tech for this is definitely in the Star Trek levels of sci-fi, but it's basically a flat surface that you press your paw, wing, or other body part firmly onto, and a mechanism below produces a mild energy beam through your fur and skin which interacts with DNA in your cells and gives returns based on the specific sequence, and it's a safe, non-invasive DNA sequencer that can get a full read of your genetic code in seconds. The DNA scanner also checks for things like active metabolism and DNA synthesis and are generally configured to not even attempt to scan non-living cells, so you can't do something like use someone else's severed paw to make the system think you're them.

But since your full DNA sequences can be, for one, several gigabytes long and not conducive to things like printing onto certificates and migration papers or even just sending over the network to other agencies, and also contain actual information about things like your species, sex, family history and a bunch of sensitive stuff that you wouldn't want just anyone having access to, they typically take a cryptographic hash of the DNA and use that as an identifier for an individual animal. Kind of like how humans might have something like a social security number, animals in this world have a DNA Hash that governments use to identify them. Whenever a government agency in our world asks you to show some kind of ID like a driver's license, passport, health card, etc, they just have to scan their DNA and their information is automatically pulled from the right agency, using the hash to look it up. Even things like crossing international borders (of friendly nations) can be done with just a single biometric scan with no passport or ID card required. Basically, if you're animal in this world, the various government agencies around you refer to you as something like "8ed254569e8ddccea1784f569609aa32ced2691e2d22e99583ebd426cac76bd8" which is derived from your DNA sequence, and since you can't change your DNA, the same hash algorithm will always produce the same identifier, but better for privacy since it's impossible to reverse the algorithm and derive the original DNA sequence from the hash, and in theory only your own taxonomic government would have your full DNA sequence stored away on a server somewhere. Also extremely hard to falsify since it's literally identifying your body and not a card or anything that can be replaced.

What do you think? Does a system like this make sense? Are there glaring logistical or security issues that I'm not seeing? (Beyond just having a non-invasive and rapid DNA sequencing system in the first place, but that's what sci-fi handwaving is for.) Do you think a system like this is actually superior compared to physical ID media?

For context, I have a science-fantasy world with intelligent, non-anthro animals trying to live in peace with each other. A major problem is of course what the carnivores eat, and their solution is something called Dietary Enzyme Supplements, which carnivores take in order to supply artificial, carefully engineered digestive enzymes that allow them to digest plant matter and directly synthesize essential nutrients that would otherwise only be found in meat inside their own digestive tracts. It's something that works really well for its intended purpose and that they're really proud of, and I talk more about their history with solving the predation problem here if you're interested.

For the species, taxa, and factions that have committed to banning predation and having predator and prey live in harmony, dietary enzyme supplements are typically freely available and a guaranteed right under their constitution, along with plant based food in general. Dietary enzymes are ubiquitous and work really well for their intended purpose, and represent the very bleeding edge of their chemistry and nutrition science prowess.

The most advanced dietary enzymes, those intended for obligate carnivores like cats, contain trace amounts of a special quasi-element called Intium as part of how they work, which is also a really powerful substance that power most of their super advanced sci-fi tech. However, due to how versatile and powerful it is, Intium is also extremely dangerous if misused, so it is heavily regulated by the government, and the only real "consumer" product that contains it are those obligate carnivore dietary enzymes. The next most accessible source is hovercraft fuel and the internal components of hovercraft engines, both of which are prohibitively expensive and require an aviation related license to purchase, while dietary enzymes are both free at the point of access and anyone can just go into a grocery store and take them without anyone else batting an eye.

The vast majority of animals that need dietary enzymes do not abuse their free access to them, since there's no benefit in taking more than the required dose and they're just flavourless pills that most animals don't just stuff their faces with. However, this is where amateur chemistry enthusiasts come in, after a post on a science forum showing how to extract Intium from ATDP, which are the dietary enzyme supplements most commonly used by Felines. The process is pretty simple, basically just burn the pills at a very high temperature and in a high oxygen environment to convert the proteins and other support chemicals into carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc, and you're left with a solid residue of mostly Intium oxide, which can then be further processed into pure Intium. This is technically legal since the government doesn't regulate what exactly you do with dietary enzymes once you have it, but the problem is that ATDP, while free to use, still has a high production cost, and only contain minuscule amounts of Intium. A domestic cat for example typically takes one pill of ATDP per week, with the enzymes attaching to the lining of their digestive tracts to prevent the still perfectly functional enzymes from being expelled out the other end after one cycle of digestion and being wasted. However, an unlicensed chemist smelting pills to extract Intium can go through literally thousands of pills in a few hours, and those pills are paid for almost entirely by Feline tax revenue so neither the Feline government nor the Feline population in general are happy about this. Of course the safety risks of working with Intium apply as well, including pretty severe explosion risks, but the amounts they extract are so small that it's hardly a public safety hazard so much as a public burden as they destroy tens of thousands dollars worth of dietary enzymes just to extract ten dollars worth of Intium. The Intium is not the expensive part of those pills, the expensive parts are the carefully engineered and synthesized proteins that surround the Intium. After a few incidents of particularly brazen and entitled animals (who notably weren't even carnivores and had no biological need for dietary enzymes, certainly not the super advanced obligate carnivore versions that contain Intium) cleared out multiple grocery store shelves for their Intium extraction hustle and went viral on their internet, attracting intense public shaming with both predator and prey calling them selfish and misusing public resources, they realized that it was a massive problem and a policy change was needed to ensure fair access to this extremely important resource.

The most obvious and immediately effective solution is just to implement some kind of rationing system, where instead of a shelf filled with boxes of dietary enzymes that any animal can take, they move them behind the pharmacy counter and require ID to obtain, where they'll check both whether you're actually a species that requires the enzyme and also use a centralized database that tracks how much you're taking per month. However, again, only a tiny minority of animals abuse the free access to dietary enzymes to do things they really shouldn't be doing anyway, so it would feel like a massive burden for the rest of the carnivore populations who literally depend on access to dietary enzymes to survive in a society where predation is banned. It would also preclude things like animals who don't need dietary enzymes getting them for their carnivore friends since they were going to the store anyway, or even things like losing your box of dietary enzymes and potentially getting denied replacements if they only allow animals to obtain them at the specific dosages they need, nor would they be able to stock up some dietary enzymes in their own nests and dens in case of supply chain issues. Not to mention the costs associated with implementing and maintaining such a rationing system which will also be passed onto the general public, potentially siphoning funds away from other public projects like housing and transportation, or just having less money to make more dietary enzymes. Free and easy access to both plant based food and dietary enzymes have been such staples in their society that they really don't to abandon it just because a few animals don't follow the rules, so they're looking for an alternative that lets them have their dietary enzymes and eat it too.

What do you think? Is their only hope to just start rationing dietary enzymes? If you were a policy maker in this world, how would you address this issue?

The interdimensional Christmas bug is coming to town, and every world needs their own Santa. Doesn't matter if they have no idea what Santa or Christmas is, participation is mandatory and they need to use whatever exist in-universe to replicate Santa's flying sleigh as best as they can.

The following are some guidelines for what a prototypical Santa and sleigh would entail, your world needs to try and replicate as many of these elements as possible.

1. A fat bearded man or similar species dressed in all red.

2. A huge sack of toys or whatever the kids in your universe like.

3. A sleigh or another vehicle modified to resemble the classic shape of a sleigh, one that is capable of flight.

4. Eight flying reindeer or similar species strapped to the front of the sleigh.

5. One more flying reindeer or similar species up front with a glowing red nose.

Note that the reindeer don't actually have to be the ones pulling the sleigh through the air, you can choose any propulsion system you want as long as it looks like the reindeer are pulling it.

How does your world pull it off? Who would need to be called in and what kind of equipment acquired to do this? What unique conflicts does Santa face in your world that the "real" Santa wouldn't?

If your world is also conducive to other Christmas characters like Krampus, the Grinch, Frosty, Jesus, etc and you want to replicate them as well, we'd love to hear it!

Context: This is a world inhabited by intelligent, non-anthro animals, some of which have decided to outlaw hunting and eating prey in favour of living in harmony and cooperating.

They have a zero tolerance policy for predation and it is criminalized extremely heavily. Depending on what species or taxon you are (all animals have the right to be tried by members of their own species and taxa, and they are responsible for carrying out sentences of their own kind too), First Degree Predation, where you personally kill then eat an animal, is the only crime that formally carries the death penalty. Regular first degree murder where you "merely" kill an animal without intent to eat them only has a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Second Degree Predation (aka Simple Predation) is where you obtain meat with the intention of eating it without personally killing anything, carries only a mandatory fixed term prison sentence in addition to losing certain freedoms post release.

However, their laws on the issue is very much based on intent as that is their philosophy, that because they are all sapient and no longer bound by their natural hunter instincts, they are responsible for their own actions. You don't have to actually eat the prey you killed to have committed First Degree Predation, and the inverse is technically true as well, where if you kill an animal for some other reason and only after they're dead do you decide to eat them, then you're technically only guilty of murder and Second Degree Predation instead of First Degree Predation. There are also legal ways that certain animals can obtain animal tissue, for example, as skin grafts and organ transplants, autopsy and forensic investigations, or for general research. Because animals handling tissue in these cases don't intend to eat it, it does not fall under Second Degree Predation. However, if you buy animal meat and later decide not to eat it, that's still considered predation.

Especially with the nature of eating and digesting food, law enforcement only has a very small time window to order a suspect to undergo lab testing of what's in their belly where it will actually show a positive hit for animal tissue, so my original thought is that the intent clause is meant to make prosecuting predation easier, since they wouldn't need to actually prove that the accused has animal tissue in their digestive tract at any point, just that they wanted at some point for some form of animal tissue to end up inside them.

I know there are many real life laws that use intent in a similar way, but I don't know how courts actually prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Can anyone who's delved more into the legal side of worldbuilding comment on how the courts in my world might prove (or disprove) that someone intended to eat another animal when they do not have direct evidence that the animal was indeed eaten?

In my world, it's ambiguous whether The God exists, even to the residents of the spiritual world. The demon-prophet of the Transformatsiya religion is believed to have been rewarded by God for working to convert people during the pre-historic time in Ancient Merika. The reward is living in a recreation of a rural city in Ancient Merika. There are other people there who have to be servants and play along. While it might seem like a reward for them to be there, it's conditioned on them playing along and making sure that Tanisha only experiences a reward. It ends up being a punishment for them. They hate God, so it's a punishment that they have to serve a demon that is being rewarded by God.

Transformatsiya gets its name because the followers transition into accepting God.