Erilensi - The World of Flying Islands - World Building Checklist!

[Stomphoof]

So I posted a long time ago the backstory of this world.  I have decided to take it out, dust it off, and try to really get it ready for playing.

Mainly because I am going to be running a game once a month that I want to put in this world!  I have a few ideas for plot, but I really need to get the world setup for it.  You can find the Erilensi history here somewhere  (I forget the link!)  But for now I am working with Moonhunters "World Building Checklist" and was hoping someone could look over what I have and see if they have any suggestions.

7Cs: Consistency, Connection, Chrome, Cycle, Conflict, Control, Continuity

(X) Conception
(X) Bits
(__) Sift and sort
(__) Top down process (__)(__)(__)
(__) Bottom up (__)(__)(__)
(__) Polish

Listings -

Themes and Images:  A world created by a pair of mages, which has been left to its own devices.  Powered by a giant machine hidden below the floating landmasses.  The mages left after the machine showed sentience/intelligence.  Programs are the gods, and grant the same level of divine powers.

Worlds Specs:  7 Layers.  Top layer is the most normal layer.  Temperate Climate year round.  Gentle Storms normally.  No snow save for the mountains.  Ruins and labs are hidden throughout the islands.

Second layer is usually shadowed by the top layer, but still gets sunlight.  Less verdant, has colder weather.  Snow storms occur instead of rain when the islands are hidden underneath the larger islands above.

Third layer is generally kept in the dark.  Is a shanty town where mostly criminals dwell.  Large amounts of scavengers in the ruins that dot the islands.  Cold Weather outfits are needed.

Fourth - Seventh:  Hidden in the Mist, these layers are almost always bathed in snow, and a cold wind blows over them.  These islands are smaller, and dotted with discarded experiments and labs.  The only life down here are golems, defense system, and bizarre creatures not seen in other places.

Terrain:  All forms of terrain are present somewhere in the system.  The upper layers (1 and 2) have almost all forms, save desert.  Desert terrain is found on 3 and lower.

Flora/Fauna:  Most normal forms of life and creatures can be found.  The mages peppered the landscape with all types of plants and animals from their home land.  Standard fantasy races (orcs, Elves) are present in various locations.

Resources:  The landmasses are huge, and rich in most standard metals (copper, tin, silver, gold) and some rare metals (adamantine, mithril).  Water on the first 2 layers is plentiful, and on the 3rd layer is still found, in smaller amounts.  (Water is piped in from portals from the elemental plane of Water, this does result in random water elementals appearing sometimes)

Races and Peoples:  Most standard fantasy races (humans, elves, halflings, orcs, ect)

Cultural Overview:  3 Major Countries.  1 Democracy (Altimur), 1 Monarchy (Jasmine Kingdom), 1 Magocracy (The Tribunal)  They rule the first 2 layers.  The 3rd is a no mans land.

Calendar/Standards:  Standard 300 day calendar, made up of 10 months, 30 days per month.  24 hour days.

Institutions-Major:

Laws and Morals:

Family:

Social classes:

Political Power:

Economics:

Religion:

Technology and Common Power:
        Military Weapons and Tactics
        Industrial/ Production
        Medical
        Agricultural
        Communication
        Math and Science:
        Construction

Information:

Other Knowledge
        Holidays:
        Transportation:
        Arts/ Literature:
        Shadow:
        Power:
        Paranormal:
        History Brief:
        Rules:

I wonder if I am using this correctly?  I mean, certainly I can use it any way I see fit but I dont want to use it in such a way as to make it useless.  Furthermore, the sections I have NOT filled out seem to be more for building the Countries inside of the world and the cities and suchness.

Any tips?  Suggestions?

[MoonHunter]

You need to better define your bits (or just add more).  Your world could you a bit more description because it is hard to visualize with the imagry.

Everything else is just kind of blank... Add a bit, just a one line to the others and there will be more for us to work with.

[Pariah]

I'm moving in, like a bad case of indigestion...  Floating piles of rocks, which means airships and other things.  Allowing such nonsense as crazy gnomes and even crazier humans. 

First layer is over-verdant, forests where you can cut down a tree, but by tomorrow, 3 more will have sprouted up where the first one was. 

Second layer is actually manageable, and it's where most of the civilizations are.  Elaborate trade networks composed of airships and 5 mile bridges over never-ending falls.  Due to the 'stabilizing' influences of civilization, the islands here are largely fixed into their relative positions with each other, though the layer above still rotates as it feels fit, with rain for the crops grown here being provided by the non-nonsensical springs from the layer above.

Third layer is pretty much always cloaked in shadow, with rare patches of light shining through.  It's also the most minerally rich layer, and as such it is largely populated by miners of various races.

The forth layer is actually under the uppermost layers of the mist, and weird things happen in the mist.  Airships suddenly fail and go plummeting to the depths, beasts whose size defy all logic slowly stir the mists around, and if you were to watch closely from the third layer, you might see one stick it's head above the mists.  Only the brave and the foolhardy come down to these layers, which grow ever more frigid and deathly the further down you go, but it's these layers where one can find artifacts from the 'creation' of this world.

The only things that Stomp sat up with his intro that I'm changing is the borders of the gov'ts.  I'm extending the sovereignty of all of them down to the 3rd layer, mainly because I made that such an important layer, due to it having the raw minerals.


IDEAS:

The power that it would take to make a world, let alone one as screwed up as this, put the power of those two mages on par with gods.  Absentee gods, but gods none the less.  Possibly they visit their creation every once in a while?  Loki and Odin maybe? Wandering around and pulling pranks on their creation, but leaving the general day-to-day maintenance of the world to their steampunk AI.

The UNDERBRAIN - Dues est Machina
Why did they create it?  Is it here to solve the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? Or did they just want to prove that they could?

War?  How do you do it?  Traditional fantasy armies would seem to be worthless in a world that's just a bunch of floating landmasses.  Strong air-navies would be a must, as well as air-marines.  It's like space combat without the desperation of fighting in a hard vacuum.

And, yes I realize that most of my ideas are in fact questions.  Also I'm willing to accept any idea on how to make this work...

[hylandpad]

Necromanced!

This was such a good topic I had to do it.

Concerning the Underbrain; The underbrain does serious number crunching algorithms to constantly alter the trajectory and power of the secret jet thrusters keeping the "Civilization" layer stable perhaps? While doing so, it's also the liaison to the god-like wizards that created it, activating itself to the highest tier of the elite only when purveying a message from the "Gods."

Air-Warfare; Always thought it would be cool to craft giant platforms, which the foot soldiers could use as mobile air-rafts (launched from massive capitol-airships) to storm the enemy's airship docks. These docks could intercept each other in their, where a "land" battle would take place literally in the middle of the sky. Supported, of course by musket fire from the marines on the airships, or maybe in air-skiffs that guards the most valuable destroyers.

[MoonHunter]

I invoke Clarke's laws... so the "science" of the machines seem mostly as per magic from our 21st century point of view.

They seem to shoot rays or beams out of effectors that help keep things under control.

That would make a buoy system of floating crystals spread around the the various layers.  To be honest, most would be between the layers (maintaining them). 

Grydions, Floating crystals of 2 man's size are used as navigation markers like stars would be used by plaentary sailors.

Above the first layers is the ferment, where hundreds of Grydions are found.  During "the day", they blaze brightly and hotly.  During the dark (night), they glow gently (giving a star effect and giving some light to see by). 

No one travels too close to those glowing crystals that float in the sky, as occassional those that do are struck by rainbows that few ships have ever survived.

Seemingly randomly, floating crystals, throw beams.  (beam's adjusting trajectories, adjusting weather, pulling water up from a lower level to an upper one, warming areas to create wind, etc).  Once you get too far from a grydion, the color becomes invisible.   Sometimes they are called "colored winds", as the flow of the beam creates a breeze associated with it.

Which Gods and Subsystem's exist? 

[MoonHunter]

Book keeping connection

http://strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,2428.0.html