Plant a Seed

[manfred]

I happened across an idea in the Idea Seeds, and it grew in my mind. I don't see any immediate place where I could dump it, but you know it has never stopped me from throwing it back at everyone else. So why don't we have a neat little thread for ideas growing out of Idea Seeds? If you happen across one and it talks to you, note it down here. If you make it into a scroll or a full submission, fine. If not, maybe someone else will pick it up.

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Let's try it out. This one comes from Cheka Man:

Witness Protection
 A planet where those who enter witness protection can escape old age and death itself, so they can live for centuries without aging-provided they maintain their cover perfectly. If they are outed by anyone or ever utter their true name, they age the number of years they have not aged since the day they entered witness protection (which might mean that they age centuries in seconds and crumble into dust and bone.)

A planet calls for sci-fi, but the mechanism doesn't strike me as very scientific; though it can be forced with some handwaving tech. But if you get into the realm of magic, it makes perfect sense - you deny your own identity and get immortality in return; but as soon as it is revealed, that gift is taken away... often fatally.

The planet can be turned into an island or a valley, add some strange magical properties, a ritual that makes the trick, done. Now, those who have served their land well and lost their former lives for speaking the truth, have a chance to live long and prosper. Just be careful.


(I might make an island or something of this one day, but leave it for public consumption now. You are all free to write it up. Post more ideas that make you think.)

[Cheka Man]

Useful in a fantasy world. I want to create something like that as well.

[Kinslayer]

The basis for this is the same Demons of Death that might take a child if you name it after a living relative--the child dies when it was the older person's time instead of them.  These Demons are charged with ensuring that the dead go to their proper punishment at the proper time.  Witness protection then involves faking the witness's death.  If they are ever called by their true name, the Demons hear it, and instantly take them away.  If they maintain their cover, they potentially live forever as the fake identity is not recorded in the Scroll of Life that the Demons use to determine when it is someone's proper time to die.

[manfred]

...and you don't even need to call them demons.

This important task usually falls to specific lesser gods... and the idea that they can be cheated is a good one. Long live Greek mythology and its reflections!

[Cheka Man]

I look forward to seeing that submission if you're still doing it, manfred.

[EchoMirage]

Imagine the scholars, mages, former kings, etc., all in hiding somewhere, under a false identity.

"Aren't you Molverick the Wise?" *old man crumbles* "Crap. I guess you were."

There could even be an university of the Veiled Masters, where all the sages go by nicknames and conceal their faces, garble their voices, etc.

[Pariah]

I'd simply go at it the old fashioned way, kill anyone that might have known me and work out from their to the 3rd ring of aquaintences...  Bloody yes, but after that there should be no reference left of your true name.  And if you're still worried, lock yourself in a hill for a century.

[Chaosmark]

Until someone you missed or didn't finish the job properly enters the WP program as well, so when you come out of your exile, they're like, "Oh hey, XXX, I remember you! How're you...Oh, crap."

[Kassy]

I like Pariah's idea much more appealing.