What are the influences from each of these in this roleplay?
Tbh I really only listed those influences to help convey what the general feel of the RP would be -- along with the message of "if you like any of these things, you might like this RP" -- but I'll gladly go into more info about the influences of each one. ^^
Firstly, the four persuasions (wands/swords/cups/pentacles) are based off of (and directly named after) the four suits in the minor arcana of a tarot card deck. In the context of a tarot deck, each suit is supposed to focus on a specific aspect of your life -- for example, the pentacles cards deal with physical things, such as wealth, possessions, and physical health, while cups cards deal with relationships, creative aspirations, and other emotional/mental things. However, for the RP, I re-tuned all of these into personality types, while still staying true to the spirit of each suit. That's why people of the pentacles persuasion are hard-workers who are interested in physical and/or monetary gain and tend to be somewhat out-of-touch with the spiritual, while cups people are more driven by emotion and deeply value relationships of all kinds with other people. The idea that each persuasion is connected to a certain element also comes from tarot cards, as each suit is represented by a specific element.
Secondly, many of the gods and other important parts of the mythology in this RP are based off of figures from the major arcana cards, some of them got combined together -- for example, I was originally going to have two gods based off of "The Emperor" and "The Empress", and also two gods based off of "The Sun" and "The Moon", but I eventually combined them into a single pair of gods because of all the overlapping themes between them. Speaking of which, the nature of the gods was inspired by the fact that tarot cards tend not to have
one meaning, but
multiple possible meanings depending on context -- so, the moon goddess isn't
just a moon goddess -- she's also the goddess of creativity, irrationality, and mental instability, as those are all things that "the Moon" card in a tarot deck is associated with.
I don't have a comprehensive guide on all the gods written up yet, though, but you're welcome to give that a look once I do! ^^"
And lastly, the idea for the plot of the RP comes from a tarot-related concept called "the Fool's Journey", which is the idea that the cards of the major arcana, when viewed in order, tell a story about the Fool (which is the character in card #0) going on an epic quest, with all the other cards representing other characters/obstacles/events/etc that the Fool meets throughout his journey. The most interesting part about the Fool's Journey, to me, is that the story starts off with the Fool existing as a living person (starting in his youth and going all the way into old age), but then, upon reaching the "Death" card, the Fool essentially dies but then the story continues with him living on as a spirit. That was the main piece of inspiration for the plot -- I wanted the story to start out as an epic fantasy adventure in the physical world, until the characters eventually made it to the realm of the gods and continued the story there. But the details on all that are hush hush for now, I don't want to give out any
spoilers. :P
Haha, well, this is the obvious one -- I liked the idea of people being born into one of four elements and having powers based on that. I was also mildly inspired by the way that each main culture (Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, etc) had an overall personality that complimented its element (the most obvious one being fire -- all burning and ragey and all that). However, in this RP, elements don't influence personality directly -- persuasions do. It's just that each persuasion tends to correlate with a specific element.
Also, I expanded on the idea of things being element-based and basically made it the basis for virtually all magic in the RP, making the four elements more of an underlying force of the universe rather than a set of powers that a person may have.
This has a lot to do with the setting of the RP. I just liked the idea of a vaguely-medieval world that clearly wasn't heavily based off of real-world history, with magic everywhere, and humans (or "Hylians", in some games) definitely being the most prominent sapient race, but with other creatures like Gorons and Zoras still present and still being treated more-or-less like humans. I also thought it was interesting how the Gorons and Zoras always seemed to have their own self-sufficient society, while still technically being within Hyrule's borders -- they were sort of a part of the Hyrule kingdom, but also kind of their own thing. I imagined the demi-humans essentially fitting into this RP's world the same way.
This one I admit is the least fleshed out, because I still need to do more research on it. ^^" But, basically, I just wanted to add another layer to the possible categories that characters could be placed into -- namely, Zodiac signs. Also, since Zodiac signs are also divided by element ("fire signs", "water signs", etc), I wanted to play around with that and see how I could connect it to everything else.
Lastly, I wanted to create a goddess based off of "The Star" card from the tarot's major arcana -- and I thought that perhaps she could be the one in charge of the 12 "Zodiac spirits", especially if the star goddess is supposed to be the goddess of wishes, good fortune, hope, etc. It just seemed to go along well with everything that I already associate with astrology -- but, yeah, I need to tinker with this more. I found someone who was willing to help me with the astrology stuff, but they've been slow about getting back to me. :/
This showed up in many of the specific gods and goddesses I was working on -- with me more-or-less basing them off of existing gods from other religions. Daius, for example, in addition to being based off of "The Devil" tarot card, is also easy to think of as being a combination of Satan and Dionysus. The sun and moon goddesses are named Apollo and Diana (which I admittedly straight-up copied from Roman mythology), and those two goddesses in particular, representing
so many concepts and essentially being opposites of each other in most regards, made them into a sort of yin-yang thing -- the ebb and flow between those two represent the duality between some of the most important and most fundamental forces of the universe.
Additionally, I was largely inspired by religions such as Hinduism and Shintoism, which don't have any sort of specific text that they're based off of (such as the Bible or Quran) and are just a collection of different myths -- but they still have a very rich mythology, regardless.
The general vibe of Greco-Roman mythology was also an inspiration, especially in the way that many of the gods are related to each other and you could essentially create a family tree of how they all fit together.
What different races, personality alignments, and elemental alignments. What will these do for the character? I'm most curious about the elemental part.
The different races, in addition to describing your character's physical attributes, also determine what sort of culture they come from and how the surrounding culture treats them. For example, humans are the "majority" and the demi-humans are all minorities. Anyone playing a demi-human character has to bear in mind the culture that that character was born into, which would likely influence them in some way -- and they are also impacted in how they are subtly marginalized by the majority culture. A human character would have "human privilege", in that they already fit the mold of what society considers "normal" and "ideal", and they don't have to deal with being some sort of "other" that would have very different expectations.
The persuasions I think I already explained pretty well. They are general personality types that people can fall into. Let me know if there's anything specific you want me to clarify about that, as I already provided an explanation for them. o3o
The element types determine what type of magic people will be able to use. There's more about this in the magic guide (which I'll talk more about later).
What other super natural entities?
Magical Beasts. I have a whole guide on them if you'd like to take a look at that. Though I will admit that it's inconclusive and that there will likely be other magical beast guides, as I felt like I couldn't definitively describe
all the magical creatures in this world in a single guide. o_o I'm sure I'll go back and add other things that ought to exist in the setting later.
What is the magick like in your world? Wands? Mana? Spells? Bending?
I have a guide on this as well, if you'd like to take a look at that. ^^
How did the races come to be elemental?
Each one of them was created specifically by one of the gods -- a god that was already thematically tied to a particular element. More detailed info on this is sure to come when I get into the creation story of the world.
What are the dragons like that are trained by the Pyrans?
They are similar to the greater fire dragons (as described in the "magical beasts" guide), except smaller and less powerful, and also typically fitted with a saddle and reigns so that they can be used as mounts.
Why do the Avians wear robes to cover their wings?
It's not that they
need to cover their wings -- that's just the type of clothing that their culture is accustomed to. The robes cover more than their wings, as well -- essentially covering their whole bodies, save for their faces and hands. And besides, the robes make it easy for them to slip their wings out, making them visible when they're flying.
I'd say their average wingspan is about 1.5 to 2 times their height (and if you know that a person's armspan is approximately the same as their height, then hopefully this should give you a good idea of what their wings look like, proportional to the rest of their bodies).
What is so identifiable about their clothing and how they carry themselves?
The dark cloaks covering them head-to-toe are not exactly something that most other people wear on a regular basis. As for how they carry themselves, they just have a sort of dignified vibe about them -- though this could argue that this has more to do with the stereotypes regarding avians (that being their intelligence and mystique) than the way they intentionally carry themselves. They also typically travel in groups. And lastly, they're typically a bit taller and lankier than the average human. All that leads to them being fairly easy to spot in a crowd.
Basically, think of the reasons why Muslims -- or anyone who even
looks like a Muslim, for that matter -- often have to go through extra screenings when trying to get through airport security. There's a certain look and attire that people associate with Muslims (or anyone who matches that stereotypical image -- like Sikhs, for example) that makes it easy for the TSA to spot them and mentally file them as 'high risk', just based on that appearance.
Yes.
What about the Terran lifestyle seems so primitive? What is their lifestyle?
Their culture, compared to that of mainstream human culture, is comparable to the difference between Native American cultures and the cultures of European settlers in the Americas. The Terrans typically live in small, sustainable villages. They are not the least bit wasteful and have great respect for nature. They do not create any metal tools themselves -- and any metal tools they
do have must have been obtained from humans. They also do not farm any animals -- only crops, and even then, their farms are much smaller than human farms -- and they occasionally hunt for what little amount of meat they consume. All of this makes them appear to be less technologically advanced than the humans, although this is more out of choice and culture than a lack of intelligence. Despite this, they are still often thought of (from the perspective of humans) as being less intelligent and more tribal than humans, despite the fact that they have the same capacity for intelligence.
What do the Aquans look like? Do they have cities under water? How do they breathe under water?
Their appearance is kind of hard to describe with words -- I plan on drawing some sketches of all the demi-humans later down the line. Basically, though, they are humanoids (with two arms and two legs -- no mermaid tails or anything) with pale, blue-green skin, and fins around their wrists and ankles that help them swim (the fins sort of shrink up when dry, so that they're still there, but not as large or prominent, therefore not getting in the way when they're walking around on land). They also don't have any hair, but they do have fins that sort of mimic the appearance of long, feminine hair.
I wouldn't say that they live in "cities", but they do have underwater settlements -- I'd say they're a bit like the Terran villages, except more loosely organized. Also, they hunt for their own food -- living pretty much entirely off of fish and other sea-dwelling life.
They have both lungs and gills, therefore allowing them to breath air and water, depending on what environment they're in at any given time.
What determines which element one is aligned with? Is it like in avatar where your parents have to be benders of a certain element to be a bender yourself?
It's essentially random.
Can the races interbreed?
I'm honestly still up-in-the-air on this one. I'm leaning towards -- yes, they can interbreed, but A) it is culturally taboo, and you can pretty much guarantee that the offspring will be treated as a freak and an outcast, at least as far as human culture is concerned. And B) it wouldn't exactly be a glamorous, no-side-effects crossbreeding. There would definitely be physical deformities that come along with it, particularly in areas where the two parent races differ. For example, a human-Avian hybrid would probably have tiny, underdeveloped wings with a sparse, uneven amount of feathers. A human-Aquan hybrid probably wouldn't have fully-functional gills and, despite still having a lot of fish-like characteristics, would be incapable of surviving underwater. A hybrid between any two demi-humans would require a lot more creativity on my part to even visualize and would probably look even more deformed. o_o And I think it's safe to say that any hybrids would probably be rather sickly and frail in general, probably having shorter life expectancies than their parents. They'd also probably be infertile, themselves.
The same question goes for the persuasions. What determines which an individual has? Can an individual have more than one? Why or why not?
Persuasions are also essentially random. A person can only have one -- just because... that's the way it works. Even if someone may sort of have traits of a secondary persuasion, people's understanding of it is that everyone only has one, and they'd probably more strongly relate to a single persuasion, anyway.
That being said, because persuasions are based on personality, a person doesn't really know what persuasion they are until they get a chance to grow up and understand themselves more, which can result in people "switching" persuasions as they mature and learn more about themselves.
Are there gods and goddesses for each persuasion and element?
There's
a god that goes along with each persuasion (and it's corresponding element), but those gods are all associated with a number of other important things and aren't
just the gods of a particular persuasion. There are also lots of gods that don't relate to any persuasion or element specifically.
What is this world called?
"Altera" -- but, it's in the same sense as the name "Hyrule" where it's
technically the name of the human kingdom and not the name of
the world as a whole, but... since Hyrule already extends to the edges of the game map, and there's never any mention of any kingdoms that lie beyond it, and all the other races already sort of exist within Hyrule, it can effectively be used as a shorthand for "the world as we know it". Altera is the same way.
They still call it earth, yes, but it's definitely not the earth that we know. It's not concretely based off of any stage in real-world history or actual geographical region (although a lot of it is still vaguely European, I admit).
:/ I'm not sure what this question is asking, specifically.
For general things, I go back to the Zelda comparison -- it's a sort of vaguely medieval, magic-filled world along the lines of Hyrule.
What role do the gods play in the world?
The gods each represent a whole bunch of different concepts (which means that (demi-)humans would pray to them for matters related to one of those concepts). They also control a lot of different forces that can influence people (for example, Diana is said to be the source of insanity, and therefore the cause of it). The world is also similar to Greco-Roman mythology in that the gods are said to interact with inhabitants of the physical world from time to time, disguising themselves as (demi-)humans or animals.
Some of the gods also play an important role in death and the afterlife. One of the gods, Corvenus -- in addition to being the god of air/swords -- is also the god of death, and the spirits that work for him retrieve the souls of (demi-)humans and bring them to the heavenly realm. A different god, Daius, is said to devour the souls of the sinful and unjust.
Where do the gods reside?
The gods reside in "the heavenly realm", which has a completely different landscape from "the physical realm", and runs entirely based on magic as opposed to any limitations of the physical (so, it's sort of similar to the spirit world from A:TLA). As stated, the heavenly realm also serves as the afterlife.
Phew, that's a lot of things! ^^ A lot of this is stuff that I already had thought out but just hadn't written up officially yet, but, still, this is good! I like answering questions. Helps me solidify things.
