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Anonymous
Megastructure world building 2017-05-08 05:19:36 Post No. 53129587
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Megastructure world building 2017-05-08 05:19:36 Post No. 53129587
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File: Hinterlands-The Mega Structure.jpg (1MB, 2383x2484px) Image search:
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So there's this giant, self-replicating mega-structure about the size of a planet. Nobody knows why it exists or why it keeps extending itself. There's billions of human and post-human settlements on the millions of levels that now exist.
Please pick a numbered section and develop the culture and creatures that live there. Claim your section in your post. Keep in mind even the smallest section is still bigger then Manhattan island.
This particular section of the megastructure is suspended like a bridge over a massive drop, with more megastructure below. The white space inbetween the sections represents a steep drop to the levels far, far below.
Also I'm going to be storytiming blame! while we worldbuild, but I have a third world connection and will probably have to stop when the grid goes down
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>>53129615
Welp, at least you tried.
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>>53129626
skipping some pages cause it's all filler
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>>53129804
Fucking cold
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>>53130440
that's the conclusion of book 1, may storytime book 2 in a bit if there's any interest in megastructure settings and posthumanity
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>>53129587
Claiming section 10. It's a city built into the walls and towers, and is connected by hundreds of crisscrossing bridges. It's a giant trade hub and even has some rudimentary manufacturing businesses, mostly clan owned. The big pull of section 10 aka Mauve City, is its fully functional water purifier. The residents of Mauve city attribute religious significance to the purifier, and even have a priest class dedicated to its upkeep
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>>53129587
What type of setting is this? High fantasy gone wrong? Is there magic? Classic DnD monsters?
If so, I claim Section 6. It's primarily an agricultural zone that relies on the adjacent sections for protection. In exchange, the denizens of section 6 produce a surplus of food and trade it for other goods.
The primary crops are mushrooms, moss, worms, and dire rats. Over a few centuries of domestication of these creatures, the people of section 6 have altered them slightly to better suit their needs. The rats, while still massive, are less aggressive. Mushrooms grow to the size of trees under their guiding hands, and can even be cut and carved like wood once fully grown. The same mushrooms can be harvested early for food. The people there have even managed to domesticate some smaller varieties of giant spider, and use them as guard dogs.
They are famous, or perhaps infamous, for being uneducated bumpkins. However, their cooking skills are renowned for hundreds of miles around. No one can make rat and mushroom soup like a Section 6er.
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>>53131376
>>53131376
the setting is actually sci fi, kind of. There's extremely advanced technology but most everyone has forgotten how to use it, so your section 6 idea works surprisingly well
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>>53131457
and that's book 2! So far you can tell the story involves the "lone gunman" exploring different parts of the mega structure and the different cultures that pop up. It gets tits up from here, so ill def post more if more discussion happens. But for now it looks like we got
>>53130536
>Section 10, trade city/water religion
>>53131376
>Section 6, agricultural zone that pays tribute to surrounding sections
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>>53130920
>randomly rains huge grubs
Going to steal that for a game.
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>>53131457
part 3, in which we see some actual settlements
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>>53129587
Section 13 is a series of cities surrounding a giant citadel. Inside the citidel is a man known as the alchemist. He has 3D printers and birthing vats. He only has schematics for Soviet T90 tanks, attack helicopters and armored transports, as well as a variety of small arms. He uses the vats to birth orcs. He considers himself a good man, and uses his orc armies to exterminate surrounding monster infestations
The alchemist is not the best administrator, and most of the surrounding city is self governing. He covets 3D military schematics so he can expand his forces
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>>53129587
I'm claiming area 25, the furthest. Part an psychiatric asylum, part prison, part library, and part peregrination location.
Of all the near places, this one is the most dusty and most strange of all. The floors and walls are mostly covered in books ruined by mold and time. There's a huge hole in the ceiling, so this section is notoriously illuminated by natural light, but also extremely contaminated by the unfiltered air and eroded by the wind.
It's inhabitants wear the thickest clothes over their whole bodies to protect themselves from the wind, and are widely considered insane, and way too outsider and bizarre to even be considered pariahs. They speak in their own language. Most people suspect such language doesn't exist and they just shout random noises at eachother.
Other people (in the minority) suspect there's a sort of wisdom or great knowledge spoken between them, but few are willing to actually study their books and speak to this people.
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>>53132815
>>53132803
>>53132770
Two new sections, the Alchemist City and the prison/asylum/library mega structure with a divergent and isolated culture
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>>53132903
In which we find out why Killy is a badass
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So, why are you doing this, OP?
Just an exercise?
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>>53132939
>>53132944
I'm running a game in the setting, and I'm basically using your guys' world building skills to give the players a bunch of interesting options to travel around and explore. As for the story, Blame! is the inspiration, and simply a good setting
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>>53132980
End of book 3, gonna keep posting, all discussion, bumping and worldbuilding welcome
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>>53132980
That's cool
I might throw another one after a coffee.
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>>53133049
>>53133067
hell yeah anon, the more the merrier. The four contributions already given are perfect, you guys caught on quick
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Claiming area 18.
This area resembles a mixture of warehouse and landfill, because it was formerly used to store machines, food, different goods and the like. But since people have forgotten how to use technology they only use the most simple tools they can find and live in houses made of old boxes for storing. These houses are extremely flimsy, which is good, since the people of area 18 are nomadic. In the beginning area 18 was self-sustaining, the inhabitants living from the goods stored there. But since it was basically a gigantic warehouse there was no possibility of growing food in area 18. This is why most inhabitants have adopted a nomadic lifestyle, searching their area for materials and objects they can trade with people from surrounding areas for food and other important goods. The inhabitants of area 18 are generally friendly, but prefer to stay secluded and travel in small groups comprised of about 10-20 people.
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>>53133124
>>53133160
>Section 18, nomadic tribes in a warehouse megastructure
Love it, when I take a break from the storytime I'll mock up the updates on the OP map
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>>53133124
Forgot to mention:
I imagine there are small settlements on the borders to the other three areas which are used as trading hubs (which could also act as quest hubs in a game setting, which send you out on missions into the "wasteland"). The people there have ditched the nomadic lifestyle in favor of providing services which help the different trading factions (e.g. Inns).
>>53133191
Glad you like it.
These worldbuilding threads are always fun
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>>53129587
I know I'm pretty late at this point, but this left me with a bunch of questions.
Is it the shape of a planet? Does its adding a new section to itself send a ripple throughout the whole world as it grows larger?
Does it self-replicate so quickly that its landscape a constantly waving "ocean"? Or is it at the point where it's so large that those waves are basically on the timescale of plate tectonics?
Or does it expand like a balloon? Imagine what it would be like to live on a balloon, the distances between settlements would constantly expand, roads would break and need extending regularly
What does it use to self-replicate? Does it convert some kind of magic or lifeforce into matter?
How likely is it that people have some awareness of what's happening? Would those ripples or stretches signify to those who live on it that the world has grown larger? Has anyone hypothesized what it's using to grow and attempted to understand it or maybe even replicate it?
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>>53133419
>>53133420
There are "builders" which vary in size and are responsible for the endless building and remodeling that happens.
The planet-sized mega-structure is enveloping a planet, but few know that. Even fewer know whats on the planet
The mega structure and the planet it envelopes are hurtling through an asteroid belt. Specialized robots snag passing asteroids and process them for the builders to use. Again, few living inside the mega structure
There are a number of advanced scientific collectives and mega corperations and city-states that contain individuals who know the truth of their world. These are few and far between. Most people are peasants living off of traditions passed down from their forefathers. Some of the traditions result in beneficial relationships with the surrounding structure and the various programs and functions built into it.
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>>53132803
Lemme throw in a NPC to this sector for ya.
Xenoto does not hold any actual political power or leadership title in Sector 25, (outside a few aprentices, fanatics, and pupils that flock around him at all times) but to outsiders, he's the visible face of The Library. Probablly because he is the only one known to still speak the common tongue (or the only one willing to speak it to outsiders).
Xenoto is a mass of dirty rags and plastics, barely above one and a half meters tall, and no visible face makes it hard to know if he's looking at you when he speaks, though the fact that he limps when he walks, gives the imagination some semblance of humanity under the hump of pestilent fabric.
Rarely anyone who looks for him will get answers. Either he will speak nonsense, talk in riddles, or pay no attention to the traveller, instead focusing on his children.
But he will always bid you farwell commanding one of his pupils to pick up a random book from the ground, giving it to you and murmuring "any and all words written, are wisdom"
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>>53133558
>>53133536
Stealing it, thank you anon
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>>53133638
end of book 3 or 4 or whatever we're on. Gonna take a break and mock up the OP map with some new additions. The next chapter gets even more ridiculous, so stay tuned and please bump with discussion to keep the megastructure alive
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In exchange, maybe compile it all and make a nice PDF? :)
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File: Hinterlands-The Mega Structure 4 zones mapped.jpg (1MB, 2383x2484px) Image search:
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1MB, 2383x2484px
>>53133682
I'll definitely try, can't be any harder then the ol' copy paste function. For now here's a quick mock up of the mapped sections. Remember, this is just a giant, country-sized bridge of the structure, suspended thousands of kilometers over an even larger part of the megastructure. Think of it like Europe suspended over North America if both countries were made out of processed building materials. It just goes on and on, but for we're just mapping out this little corner of the world
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>>53133672
Let's ride this train to the image limit
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>>53133942
great thread OP, both the worldbuilding and the storytime
But I think you made a mistake on the map, I don't see the prison/library district
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>>53134088
>>53134090
goddammed your right! Sorry, the storytime is making it hard to find them all, adding it now
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File: Hinterlands-The Mega Structure 4 zones mapped.jpg (1MB, 2383x2484px) Image search:
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1MB, 2383x2484px
Fixed map
>>53133942
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image limit reached follow me to the new thread for a pdf and continuning storytime of Blame!
Bumps are always appreciated as is worldbuilding and discussion
>>53134573
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Something went wrong in section 26. Having been claimed by the followers of a cult leader from section 25, this area had been shut off from the rest of the peninsula by particularly isolationist zealots armed with determination and as many building tools as possible. They built walls, traps, weapons even, all to protect themselves from the outside. Those who refused both to join the cult and leave that particular area were never heard from again. In the course of a few years, they had effectively shut themselves from the world.
As their belief dictated : All is expanding, without, and within. A nation is only a tinier world, so is an area, so is a home, so is one, so are all the components of one. Only by cutting and isolating every element one by one will Mankind discover an endpoint, the soul's final atom, singular and indivisible.
Now, nobody knows what really happened inside. Their community, as paradoxal as might seem, seemed to thrive for a few years. Then they were forgotten, wanting no, nor being worth attention.
But now? Curious explorers will find nothing in section 26. No one, no bones nor graves. Only a weird, whiteish, dry and strangely heavy dust covering all remaining and long abandoned huts and traces of civilization.
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>>53129587
Sooooo space hulk?
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