alright you talked me into it, i'll post about my dark fantasy estern setting. (its unedited and my "double you" key is on the fritz but FUCK IT HERE"S MY THING:
The setting of Gut of the West is set in two epochs; the 1st is as the est is just beginning with its expansion into other directions, the God of the West promising his people that he would grant his power to one who proved himself holier than him. Then the 2nd here one of the godâs children sacrificed his life to make that possibility a truth. He spread his divinity in all directions so that any creature living, born, or dead could hold the power of a god and take his station, both in title and in function.
Directions
There are seven divine Directions in the world of Gut of the West: North, South, East, West, Down, Yonder, and the Center.
West
Color: Black (iron)
Topics and Themes: Colonialism, fanaticism, religious pressure, devotion, manifest destiny
The West is the most powerful growing direction in recent millennia. In the West the story of how a man gained the status and power of a god was when he tamed and bridle the Spirit of the West, a far more ancient and primal being than the man. But still he broke it. And as such earned mastery and ownership of the entire West. Since then the technology of the West had grown exponentially. The taming of iron and coal and steel led to the creation of machines powered by the minerals and treasures of the earth. Those that the God of the West found worthy he turned into Saints. Wise men of their craft and loyal to the point of giving their life in the name of the God.
The first was the Patron Saint of Arms, St. Gatling. A master engineer and savant in the combustive arts. He created many weapons that roared with the sound of Godâs voice, and struck down others like lightning. When his people were under threat by foreign armies Gatling used his greatest weapon yet, but died along with the opposing forces. For his genius and sacrifice the God of the West raised him again so he may continue his work in devotion.
The est is pretty much looks like anywhere between late 1700âs and the very late 1800âs. The further est you go the more towards the current present it looks with even the Capital city of Horizon having automobiles.
The true history is that the God of the est as a warlord ho organized and army to bring don the Spirit and chain it. He then at the hole of it. Ate the entire body of the Spirit of the est and as imparted with the power of a god. From this power he rules the est, but is hungry for more, and he cannot be satiated. He oversaw and warped the development of technology so it would suit his purposes of extending his borders. To corrupt the iron of the Railroad to dig its nails in the ground and take root. Splintering spreading iron that digs into the soil, and it contracts. It pulls and drags the soil and ground of all other directions into itself. Devouring all land in all directions into the gut of the est.
Most citizens are religious to a degree. Some join certain branches of the faith of the est like the Church of St. Gatling and the Saint of Spirits. Both of whom have been stripped of their humanity, no turned into servitors and puppets of God. They ill play the part the people believe them to be, but its monstrous self is hat the God has made them. The curtain of sainthood covers the horror within.
This truth is hidden from all westerners. The citizens of the est are encouraged by their god to go into the w0rld and lay don roots that the west may eventually reach. Missionaries that move to other directions and prepare a way for the est to come. Servants of the Railroad and the Gun plotting and conspiring to spread the rails across the land, even so far as to build mine carts into the earth.
Notable steeds are horses in many varieties and breeds.
North
Color: White
Topics and Themes: Consuming, cannibalism, harsh environment,
A frigid archipelago made up of islands of dirt and ice. The people of the north are hardy and superstitious. There can be little vegetation found in the north, but the peoples of the north have extensive taboos surrounding eating flesh. The most severe taboo to break is cannibalism, to eat another personâs flesh is deemed an abomination, not just the act, but hat succumbing to that hunger does to a person. The more people a cannibal eats the more they grow, becoming a giant that hungers for human flesh and thirsts for human blood. Not many are able to quench or keep this desire don. Some are able to keep their composure and humanity after consuming it, but it takes a great amount of willpower. All monsters in the north are creatures that resorted to eating another one of their kind.
Northerners appearance and complexion depend on the region and islands they are from. Their skin color can range from a deep tan and caramel across the hole of it, to a pallid hite tone in the northwest. Those in the northwest There are a number of different tribes, peoples, and clans in the north. One of which lives with living stones of ice, nomadic glaciers that travel along currents.
The notable steeds of the north are musk oxen, buffalo, ice bulls, and moose.
East
Color: Yellow
Topics and Themes: Poaching, corruption, stewardship, sisterhood,
A windblown desert, crags and canyons, pillars of stone jut from the earth like fingers of a hand hose palm lies beneath the soil.
The Spirit of the East manifests through the ind and weather. Dominating the skies are giant eagles ho mastered the ind and could fly with and against it. The eagles earned the respect of the ind and gave them the power to wield it. The greatest of eagles could create tornadoes and bring rain. Warriors caught lightning in their talons like a fish in a lake.
One day a woman found an eagleâs egg fallen from a nest. She wanted to return the egg to the nest in order to not draw the eye or ire of the eagle, but she could not climb up the cliff to return it. So she brought it to her home. There she made a nest of her for the eagle egg, she fended off thieves both animal and man who wanted to eat the eagle egg. Eventually it hatched and the sky thundered. The mother eagle heard it hatch and flew down in a rage only to see a human woman throwing her on body on top of her hatched child, protecting it from snakes, coyotes, and men. The mother eagle cried splitting the air and deafened all the attackers sending them fleeing. The mother eagle as thanks offered to teach the woman how to master the wind. So the first of witches as made. An art and spiritual practice passed don from mother to daughter, master to student. The oldest of witches ere called crones. Their faces beaten by the ind after years of dancing with and mastering it.
The peoples of the east typically have rich brown skin and deep black hair, their eye colors range from the darkest colors of the night sky. They live in family units, but seasonally all come together to a community camp here the wind is light and not harsh. Here they can harvest seasonal foods and compete against each other in daring sports of kite surfing.
Notable steeds are hippogriffs, and itch brooms.
South
Color: Red
Topics and Themes: Debts (emotional and monetary), servitude/enslavement, intimacy, devotion,
This direction has seen much turmoil among many ages. From a deep canyon of beasts to a massive ocean ruled by salt, and then the receding of the ocean against the land rising up from its once buried position. No the south is a massive samp and bayou, ith salt ponds and grottoes the further south you go toards the horizon and the ocean. The soil of this land as magic, suffused ith the poer of the Spirit of the South. Those that are buried in the ground and owe a debt may be raised as revenants ith human bones and dirt fat and skin. They may be raised due to a promise or agreement they made with someone in life that can be evoked and enforced by a miracle orker. Or from the sheer emotional eight and poer associated ith that promise raising them.
In the South there are those ith the rare vocation of being a miracle orker. One ho has a connection ith the earth and the south and its people. Ith faith and devotion they can enact miracles, such as raising someone from the dead by invoking their promise as ell as using a number of tokens, trinkets, and objects chosen by the miracle orker for their subject specifically.
But some miracle orkers are orkers for debt collecting companies and banks. If someone oes a debt then in their contract it states that they ould be risen and continue to ork in order to pay off their debt. These revenants are knon as âpoor sodsâ, indentured servants in death that are not alloed to lie in their grave to sleep. Hen their debt is paid off it is up to them if they ish to keep living again. Their ork may have worn down their bones and injured them, causing them to have a painful existence therefore choosing to rest. Others ill keep on, taking solace in joy in their loved ones, their hobbies, and their living.
Down
Color: Green
Topics and Themes: Freedom, debauchery, sympathy, rebellion, mean spiritedness, temptation
The only direction a fall may take. And all ho live don in the ground is fallen in a ay. The Spirit of Don is knon as the Pit Mammoth, a titan ith shaggy black fur, Long shark tusks, a trunk that is the body and head of a venomous snake, and and deep fire that burns from its eyes and mouth. The mammoth hears all ho are desperate deep inside the earth. All ho are buried under the eight of the orld, in the ground or standing on it. Those trapped and crushed, the confined and claustrophobic ho scream to anything and anyone that ill listen. Once the names of their family runs out, the names of their friends, and the names of hatever gods they orship. Hen they pray to anything at all, the mammoth listens, and it offers a ay out, a ay don. If they accept the mammothâs invitation they are fall through the earth into the mammothâs fire and is permanently changed. They gro horns, their skin turns green, and fire burns from their eyes, but the darkness of their irises still pierce through the fire. They typically take on a number of animalistic features; ranging from cloven hooves, eyes of goats and frogs, scales, cat ears, heifer noses, and tails of all sorts.
Many devils despise being referred to as âbelow, beneath, and underâ they donât ant to be referred to as lower than something else, that nothing else is inherently better than them. A devilâs freedom is one of the most valuable things they have. Many take the stance of live and let live. And some devils do return to the surface and atch as the people ith the blue above them go about their lives. Sometimes interferring. These anderlusting devils observe and/or interact ith those they have taken a fixation of. It could be someone ho ent through similar experiences as them in their old life and feel sympathy for them, so they may try to establish a friendship ith them, or even extend an invitation don themselves. This invitation does not turn the invitee into a devil, hoever.
Though devils revere freedom andto restrict anotherâs freedom is looked don upon, there are some devils ho relish in wielding their power and freedom against others. Those that play with anotherâs life as though it were a toy to be abused and discarded. Devils avoid tunnels near their dens.
Yonder
Color: Blue
Topics and Themes: Grudges, family ties, xenophobia, passing as something else, song and history
Hanging in the sky shines the moon, its milky blue shape changing ith the days, and by doing so changing the territories that shine toards the surface. The lands of the moon in Yonder are not physically concrete. The phases of the moon changing are in truth hich territory of the moon canids shines toards the orld, and therefore connects them. Hile one phase of the moon shines, hen not shining don on all other directions the other phases of the moon life in perpetual night. Hen the full moon shines the olves look don on the orld, for the half moon are the coyotes, and for the foxes the crescent moon. These boundaries and territories of the moon were established over years of war and feuds between clans of canids against their own kind and others. In addition to their peoplesâ howls and songs the canids of the moon could speak language like a human, and were sentient in their own right, their own people.
Among those ho live on the moon the oldest story of the great blue Yonderâs creation is hen the sky as still black. One day a fox that lived on the dark side of the moon began to hop and dig into the midnight sky, and as it dug it found light. It shoed other foxes ho to leap into the night and find ells of starlight. This is ho the foxes made the stars in the sky. But one fox dug too deep and too ide, its tail got caught in the starlight and caught fire. The fox tried to find anything that ould put it out, but the brightness of the sun blinded the fox, so it runs across the sky to this day.
Regardless of its origin the sunâs light shines on the moon and gives it shape and tangible borders. Once the sun shone on the moon olves, coyotes, and foxes began to establish territory as opposed to the unified survival in the dark of perpetual night. Years and centuries of ars over lands beteen packs and clans of canids led to the no current borders and lands of the moon. Set for the olves like a table as the Full Moon, here the most of the sunâs light shone. Next as the Half Moon for the coyotes, not as strong as the olves but ith tricks of their on. They could race across beams of light cast by the moon to the surface and hunted there. Then the Crescent Moon for the foxes, the ones ho gifted light in the first place. But foxes adapted and continued their art of sneaking through the darkness, and using the shadows to protect themselves.
There was a clan of humans that would wear the skin and fur of animals and would take on some of their power. One day a man wore the skin of a coyote he had killed and approached another who was departing back to his home. The man in the coyote skin asked how the coyote could travel to and fro to the moon. The coyote thought he was looking at a sagging elder who had forgotten how to return to his homeland, so patiently he showed the man wearing the skin of his kind how to tread upon the moonbeams back to the moon. Later more men with skins of coyotes came to hunt on the moon, making traps for all the beasts and taking their skins to sell or wearing them to fight them. In these skirmishes the wolves took a man and forced him to show how they skinned a creature and how they gained power from it. Once the man had fearfully instructed them how to do it properly they killed him and took his skin. And so wolves learned by the humansâ example.
Some canids found a way to poison themselves and their skins so that any human that wears it will go into a fit of sneezes, having a cursed allergic reaction to the fur and cause them to go feral and behave as a rabid animal. Those that stray too far from the moon for too long, are banished from it, or damn it entirely lose the spark it gives them, dimming their mind and turning them wild. These became the wild beasts of the wilderness, as well as the first dogs.
Center
Color: Purple Humans are creatures from the center and in ancient days spread in nearly every direction. Human ancestry, and Directional ancestry. The center only created the valley, where all humans came from. All other directions created their own life, trees and animals, to match their whims and the materials they had to work with.
The 2nd epoch began when the God of the West attempted to consume the Center and destabilize the borders between all Directions. But when he did, his son, the Railroaded, threw himself in front of the tracks. The spilling of his blood as the center was no more led to the divine nature of his life was spread across all directions. With the loss of the center all of Order is destabilized though it is difficult to tell. [[Wayward Chaos]] begins to take form once again, one manifestation is the [[Silver Saltfields]] which serve as a purgatory and transition realm where living beings are broken down and cast into the chaos to feed it and make it grow and return to the world to the state of existence it was once in before the Directions were created.
