Wildlings
Wildlings Brainstorming / Worldbuilding
World name: Jsoti
World basics: Jsoti is a violent world, professing many nonsapient species that compete fiercely with the sapients. It is lush and wild, with very few markers of industry or advanced technology and only a few real “tamed” places where civilization has grown and pushed back the primal forces of nature. Certain areas are deeply scarred and sport ruins of a prior civilization, which is thought to have given birth to the current prime species.
Species name: Wildlings
Species basics: Breeds of Wildlings are all related and can interbreed through the gifts of the Elements, though same or similar breeds can also have physical intercourse. (They all lay eggs.) They always have six limbs, unlike any other creature in Jsoti. All of them have at least one horn that glows with the color of the Element of their birth (not of their current allegiance). They’re telepathic and have a mixed level of technology from Stone Age to Iron Age across the small pockets of their civilization.
Species history: Originally, there was one breed per Element. When three of the breeds died out during [some catastrophe], the Elements relinquished their segregation and began mixing, claiming different individuals of different breeds. The breeds were originally called by their Elements, but after the desegregation, they gave each other not-exactly-friendly names that became their official breed names after a while. In the modern day, a Wilding can abandon their birth Element and move to a clan with a different Element (but are still referred to as [Element]born).
Species religion: There are various old and regionalized Elemental demigods, about 2-3 per Element, scattered over the world. Each has a particular strong quality of the Element, and each commands worshippers. Before [some catastrophe], the demigods were true gods, but afterwards, most of them fell from omnipotency and into fallibility. Especially the demigods of the three Elements Whose breeds went extinct--they are particularly localized and weak. In an effort to revive/save their demigods, Wildlings will Revert willing individuals to, essentially, feed the gods. These individuals are ritually slain, painlessly, and believed to live on to serve the gods as part of their ascended retinue. Some Wildlings don’t view Reversion as positively and consider it nothing short of murder. Between Elemental allegiances is a sense of Cold War mentality, because if one Element manages to revive all its demigods fully, it could easily seize control of large chunks of Jsoti.
Species civilization: Wildlings live in clans that have a primary Elemental allegiance, though a clan may have individuals from every Element in it. Their allegiance allows them to access certain Elemental gifts and fortes that a strife-torn or unsworn clan does not; some clans still stick to anarchy but are often out-competed by their Elemental neighbors. Individual Wildlings are expected to contribute to a clan’s success, wealth, and safety with whatever personal and Elemental skills they may have. Most Wildlings have an ambivalent view about extended family and hold the clan relationships to be more important than any personal relationship. In order to secure clan alliances, individuals are often mated out or traded; particularly Elementally-promising chicks are often traded or even auctioned off for greater wealth and reputation. In some areas, indentured servitude is common, but slavery is mostly off the docket in the modern day. If there is ever a sense of caste, it is usually centered around an individual’s Elemental gifts or lack thereof.
Breeds/subspecies:
Rakers (Mirrors)
Flits (Fae)
Downies (Skydancers)
Surges (Guardians/Imps)
Lopers (Wildclaws/Pearlcatchers)
Rakers: pseudo-keratinous, low-slung, six-legged predators with long tails and many teeth.
Flits: small, furred, four-feather-winged flutterers with feathered tails and nimble talons.
Downies: fully-feathered, two-feather-winged artisans with gazelle bodies.
Surges: thick-hide’d, thick-bodied, six-small-legged serpents with huge faces.
Lopers: two-scrunch-legged quadrupeds with glossy fur and noble hunter syndrome.
Elements (the Great Eight):
Flame (Fire/Plague) - red - Hot
Seed (Nature) - green - Bloom
Sea (Water) - blue - Wet
Sky (Wind) - white - Breath
Moon (Shadow) - silver - Shadow
Sun (Light) - gold - Bright
Iron (Earth/Lightning) - bronze/brown - Earth
Mana (Arcane) - purple
Links:
Flame : Rakers
Seed : Flits
Sea : Surges
Sky : Downies
Moon : extinct [Spirals]
Sun : extinct [Coatls/Nocturnes]
Iron : Lopers
Mana : extinct [Tundras/Snappers]
She Who Hungers, the demigod of fire ecology.
He Who Purifies, the demigod of dross, char, and destruction.
They Who Wait To Burn, the demigod of charcoal and volcanoes and latent power.
Seed:
She Who Blooms, the demigod of growth, springtime, and growing things.
He Who Feeds, the demigod of edible flora, harvests, and hungry plants.
They Who Bridge Cloud and Rock, the demigod of fervent and inexorable expansion.
Sea:
She Who Washes, the demigod of purity, cleansing, and floods.
He Who Dreams, the demigod of songs, peace, mysticism, and drowning.
They Who Rage, the demigod of hurricanes, tidal waves, and other storms.
Sky:
She Who Breathes Life, the demigod of moving air, breath, and tornadoes.
He Who Sees, the demigod of light, color, perception, and clarity.
They Who Hold Jsoti, the demigod of the atmosphere, the clouds, and protection.
Moon:
She Who Laughs, the demigod of trickster-ing, play, games, and deception.
He Who Always Changes, the demigod of change, cycles, and shapeshifting.
They Who Stab The Sky, the demigod of stars, comets, and necessary pain/evil.
Sun:
She Who Falls, the demigod of sunset, death, and war.
He Who Rises, the demigod of dawn, birth, and rescue.
They Who Soar, the demigod of midday, burning heat, exposure, and time.
Iron:
She Who Forges, the demigod of metalsmithing, the forge, and hard work.
He Who Mines, the demigod of ore, mining, gemstones, and hard work.
They Who Craft, the demigod of creating, inventing, artisanal crafting, and hard work.
Mana:
She Who Gives Feeling, the demigod of sensing, perception, empathy, and telepathy.
He Who Makes Different, the demigod of altering, transitioning, and change.
They Who Offer Power, the demigod of active magic work and energy capacity.
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