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The Nexus

Created by

gdbessemer
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Scope

The motivation behind building The Nexus

I want to build a world where interconnection is the key to everything, hope and wonder hide behind every bush just waiting to be found, and change for the better is possible. I'm writing this world to set a series of novels in.

The goal of the project

I want to experience a world with the reason and nobility of Star Trek but with fantasy conventions and swashbuckling and fun.

The Nexus's Unique Selling point

Travel anywhere, see anything--the portals of the Nexus connect hundreds of worlds together, bringing fresh discoveries to the city every day and opening the doors for endless exploration.

Theme

Genre

Fantasy world with a late Age of Exploration vibe due to magic portals to travel anywhere, and the slow ploriferation of magitech.

Reader Experience

The Nexus is the light of reason and hope shining in the murk of misunderstanding and mistrust in the greater Stellae. There is mysticism, secrets and legends beyond the ken of mere mortals, but they can approach understanding.

Reader Tone

Bright-ish world, where things can go right and there's a sense of enlightenment but it's not without dangers, setbacks, and typical mortal frailties

Character Agency

Characters should be able to change the world, and for the better. However change isn't always welcome, and it can be hard to fight against the neutral posture that the institutions of the Nexus strikes.

Focus

Arts And Culture Influence: Closely tied to the technological changes, the main problems the Nexus has is how its culture clashes with the culture of members. The ideals of the Nexus were born out of an unfair universe, but those ideals aren't widely accepted.
Technology Influence: Nexus technology is disruptive to most cultures--the portal network allows for a (mostly) free exchange of ideas, many of which the Nexus has already adopted. While the Nexus shares learning on alchemy, healing magic and magitech, their portal magic is a closely guarded secret, as has incredible potential for warfare. Many Nexus clients are secretly trying to reverse engineer the portal magic and build their own rival network.
Race Relations: As the Nexus itself is a huge melting pot of races and ideas from hundreds of worlds, there is both conflict and unexpected harmony between the meeting of various races. The Nexus considers minority / majority race makeups and historical information as only one factor in its decision on where to build a portal; depending on who gets a portal in their cities, a minority group might suddenly become one of the most powerful groups in the world, or it might help a majority group cement its power over the others.
Rule Of Law: One of the constant pulls on the Nexus is how involved to be in client worlds. They have a stance of neutrality and non-interference but clients can hold beliefs that the average Nexus citizen might find abhorrent, and the necessity of protecting the portal magic secrets as well as Nexus citizens abroad forces the hand of the marshal and diplomatic groups.   Some in the Nexus say, why don't we just take over everything, since we're so much more advanced than others?   Some outside the Nexus say, why do those blowhards keep forcing their views on us?

Drama

The Nexus has a monopoly on portal technology. This doesn't prevent others from trying to copy that tecnology or bribe existing Nexus mages to discover the underpinnings. There is a steady underground movement to try and figure out how portals work so that the client states can make their own portal network, or use the technology for wars.
A faction of fel from Abessa have started pushing to remove themselves from the Chain, which is the name of a given strand of the portal network. If they leave, all the other connections behind them will dissapear. Abessa trade guilds are attempting to use this as leverage to get more power in the Nexus.
There's mounting pressure within the Nexus to start making their own military force out of the marshals and pursue threats against the Nexus within client states. This is a microcosm of the larger conflict within Nexus-ite thinking: continue being neutral, or begin overtly influencing clients to adopt Nexus values and culture?
Every city needs agriculture to feed it, and the Nexus is no exception. Fortunately most visitors can eat certain standard vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. However there's been a rot going around, ruining potatoes. Last month the Nexus had to import vegetables to feed its people, which is putting strain on the city's budget.

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