#foramen lore

So, this past week has been mainly me filling out the world of Bor with different nations. I'm like, a third through filling the map with various interesting people? And then once I'm filled I'll go back through and connect them further and that brings change, of course. I'm making a world that, if all goes well, feels lived in and hopefully connected. Today we'll be talking about... The Gybladstrak! It's technically a major world power, though that's mainly through spearheading one of the few global organizations of allied states. I have some of those allied states written, primarily those on the same continent, but it's still a long way from completion. The Gybladstrak is primarily made up of the Straki, who have historically been organized within their Houses. Honestly a lot of the nations of the world are primarily made up of their native peoples, but that's more due to globalization not being a major thing worldwide just yet. I mean. Colonization is still a thing so that makes things a bit messy when it comes up, but. The Straki speak Strakin, which is also the dominant language of the continent, Kadath. The nation is heavily socialist, in a matter of "the government runs most everything". I definitely will need to research the ins and outs of different government types further, socialism included. Part of the reason of the government being the way it is is due to the aid of Calculators, a Weirding Way that has been made up of advisors for the Straki Houses since time immemorial. They're basically human supercomputers, with a touch of the mystical. They're tied into the religion of the region, known as Kotti. This post was a bit rushed because I realized I haven't put anything out in, like, a week. It's hard to articulate lore outside of my notes, and that's mainly what I focused on these last few days. Now though we're getting further into the domain of "lore impacting game" so I may switch it up a bit.

I want fucked up alien spec-evo animals AND smilodons and pterodactyls. And I can have them both… nothing is stopping me…

Also, lol, as I start filling out the map with the various nations and peoples of the world, I’m realizing how big of an undertaking it’s turning out to be. Not one I’m shying away from, not at all, but it might take awhile longer than I thought to get a general worldwide structure down. Oh well! I’m in no particular rush!

So, the biome map is... probably finished for real totally! I'll get around to posting it... eventually... I've had some vague ideas for the different peoples and nations of the setting, but I didn't really make things concrete until I actually had some solid aspects of the world to work with. I have those concrete aspects done! WOOO!!!! I can now also start to add some more flavor to Vat, because up until recently it's been fairly solidly just Mechanics and Generic Stuff. I will do some more in-depth Foramen posts when I get some more specifics down, as right now it's broad strokes. IMPORTANT broad strokes, but broad strokes nonetheless! More Vat posts to come, probably! I need to look back at what I've already said to know what else to say. Character creation has been the focus as of late, and that's a lot for me to handle as a one man band. A big thing with Vat is the emphasis on options and mechanical niches so. I gotta figure those out!

One thing regarding the alien life was exploring different types of symmetry other than the bilateral kind that dominates Earth. There's still bilateral symmetry, especially regarding humans, but it's uh. Humans didn't really evolve naturally! For reasons that are currently secret. Don't worry about it but it's not like a super important detail, it's in the background and isn't meant to detract from the fairly grounded main story. Purely relegated to the metaplot. So, I'm constantly figuring out different life forms that are on Bor. Vegetation has some similarities, but other ground coverings exist to fill the niche grass does. From slime to plates to just barren dirt. Instead of trees, pillars of tubes rise from the ground alongside giant spikes or rock hard monoliths with a texture reminiscent of brains. Sextapeds, pentapeds, chimeras, ptagons, and pinwheels are the main classifications of animal life. Sextapeds are radially symmetrical megafauna which operate off of muscles and hydraulics. Pentapeds are carapaced radially symmetrical animals where one of their 5 legs has evolved into a grasping appendage. Chimeras are fucked up bilaterally symmetrical critters with a penchant for asymmetry that have scales, feathers, AND fur. Ptagons are like if a bat was a bird and had a cone for a face that split into 3 distinct parts. I don't know how to succinctly describe pinwheels but they're funny. They have a manipulative appendage that also is a sensory appendage. Their mouth is in their torso and is surrounded by tendrilled lips. THey have a tail that's just an arm. They walk on two digitigrade legs. Uhhhh, that's all for now! Kinda scatterbrained as I wrote this because I was futzing with my internet all day but. You know. Drawings of these beasts, or even miniature versions of these beasts, are to come! Oh yeah, when I posted those miniatures? The dog with a man's head was a chimera, specifically a manticore. I would've put more detail on there but I'm still getting good at green stuff.

There's a lot of stuff I'm working on in the background that is important for background info as well as foundational for important player-facing details. One of those is the world map, specifically various versions of it. Just here recently I finished the first complete iteration, being the height map! Currently, as in literally as I type this, I'm working on some of the rivers and lakes. So, Bor, the planet of Foramen (and thus Vat!) is... not like our Earth, tectonically speaking. Next to no plates, and what plates do exist are simple and small. Instead, landmasses are primarily formed by way of massive communities of shield volcanoes. Craters dot the landscape, as well.

Weirding is the practice of fundamentally altering how you think into something inhuman. It's different than any sort of mental illness or neurodivergency, because those are all, at their core, still facets of humanity. Many cultures each have their own take on the practice and make use of tried and true methods, often with the aid of psychedelics or some other mind altering substance. The benefit to Weirding is that a practitioner gains unnatural abilities tied to the Weirding Way they used. As a practitioner falls further into the Way, their body starts to change in unique ways. Some Ways are subtle, maybe limited to growing a third eye, but others are much more grotesque. The base human mind can be molded into any number of Ways, but once you get far enough into the process, there's no going back. you're stuck, human but not.