"Fuck you. I opened up my heart to you and you stabbed it a thousand times." - Gamma, to me, right before confessing to being the town vig and murdering my scum partner N1.
There is also a Dionysian style race os Satyrs who are thought to be mythological until they are encountered for *insert plot point here*
Dire wombats exist; they hate most humans
Humans aren't civilized, they're basically mindless animals cultivated as an experiment by an enlightened Dire Wombat empire.
Civilised society is highly mixed, but humans (or another group) have established themselves as the dominant race. Likewise, there is decidedly an underclass race whose labour and disenfranchisement the empire depends on
There is a continent of sentient wombats.
Reclusive Human societies, perhaps humans considered unclean.
Bird people
Classic leads 9 to 8 over interspeciated, but the write-ins largely support an interspeciated world. This one was kind of tough, as it was effectively a tossup, but splitting the difference seems to be creating the most interesting outcomes, so let's do that.
Spoiler: Write-ins
Spells are created in a way similar to real-life engineering
No structure, you are limited by your imagination and control of power, your intent is what matters. But you are limited to only being skilled in certain categories.
Earthsea-type, verbal magic system
Based entirely on math and an understanding of the underlying forces of the universe where implementation is derived as a function of understanding. Truly unlimited in theory, but practically incredibly difficult to tailor.
So vague, the reader isnt even sure if magic actually exists or not.
soft magic system all the way yeet
Okay, so the consensus is for a softer, more flexible system of magic, allowing our protagonist (and you, the audience) to do pretty much whatever you like within the boundaries of his portfolio. I have to say, this troubled me a good deal, as deep down, I am a believer in Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic, but designing an intricate system with codified rules, limitations, and costs is a fairly massive undertaking for a project like this. I decided to go with a middle ground, giving you the flexibility to do what you like without completely giving away the farm.
Spoiler: Write-ins
Bear, Lord Byron had one and so should our protag
Snake!
I know that if I don't say "dire wombat" I'll be disowned by the meme squad but I'm also putting down DRAGON because nothing fits our boi better than the term "DRACO in leather pants"
SNAKE(also bears are cool)
Bat
Red Panda
Really? Non-dire....Dire Wombat
Snek
I'm a little shocked you didn't put fox as an option. Sentient Sapling.
Give that man a goddamn alligator
Tiger
Four Hamsters
Whew! Let's do something a little less heavy. Fine. Wombat wins. The protagonist has a familiar/animal companion, Bear the wombat. The protagonist can use magic to alter Bear's size, and often keeps him the size of a large housecat. Naturally, he is roughly the size of a large dog, but at need he can be grown to the size of an actual bear or as little as a squirrel. Happy? Bear the resizing wombat. He poops adorable little cubes. Every so often if he's feeling cheeky, he leaves behind a dodecahedron, because he's a goddamn magic wombat.
Spoiler: Write-ins
Subpolar
Varies by town due to weather mages doing their thing
Desert, tundra
DESERT
Due to the influence of magic climate is immediately variable with conflicting biospheres frequently directly adjacent (a desert and rainforest within the space of a mile because of magic causing clouds to skip portions of the sky, for example.)
Temperate oceanic
Temperate because I'm awesome.
Taking into account the write-ins, temperate is the winner here, but let's not be boring.
Question Six wrote:The story needs to begin with our protagonist in some sort of dilemma. What kind of situation is he in? Be creative, feel free to make multiple suggestions.
Spoiler: Write-ins
His house is made out of bricks of wombat poop, which is feasible because they poop cubes. Lately all the wombats on his wombat ranch have been pooping out all of the non-cube platonic solids but not cubes, so he can't repair his house. What sort of enchantment is causing these non-cubic wombat droppings?
One of his hamsters got lost
The plot of Super Mario Sunshine. Magical doppleganger framing him for largescale graffiti and vandalism and a lazy/inept legal system assuming his guilt until he fixes the entirety of the problem regardless of hard evidence clearing his name.
Our protagonist has found himself in possession of a frankly astonishing amount of coconuts and he has to make a profit off of them or else he's wasted a whole lot of time and money, and our boy is just not sure where to begin, what with his lack of business acumen.
Our protagonist is fleeing from a group of merchants and their guards who he tried to use persuasion magic on but failed miserably.
He’s lost some money gambling, and now owes a criminal a serious favour to pay off his debt...
i will think about this later & discord you
He awakes to the beating of drums and blare of trumpets that would signal a battle but outside his home all is actually quiet and peaceful.
The protagonist needs to cast a spell to get out of a dilemma that someone more creative than me will suggest, but he does not have the runes for that spell nor does he have the necessary materials to create such a rune.
Dire wombat attack
A dragon is demanding tribute
His sibling is missing
His house is made out of bricks of wombat poop, which is feasible because they poop cubes. Lately all the wombats on his wombat ranch have been pooping out all of the non-cube platonic solids but not cubes, so he can't repair his house. What sort of enchantment is causing these non-cubic wombat droppings?
Out of toilet paper in a pub and their animal companion who was sent to help has been gone for awhile.
The protagonist, with his knowledge of beastlore and decent magical abilities, ends up being hired by a mysterious person to investigate a series of disappearances involving a magical creature.
He's essentially Aladdin/Robin Hood in the sense that he's someone who enjoys stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Unfortunately, his pickpocketing has caught up to him and we start off with him evading the local Mage Knight Brigade. Will he get caught or will he manage to get away? Who will he bump into that will shift the status quo? Will there be an event. WHO KNOWS SO MANY POSSIBILITIES AHHHH
Acting as a nature guide/navigator for a group of bandits/pirates. Except he is infiltrating the gang and leading them right into a trap by the local authorities. Maybe he nicks something of theirs on his way out as "payment".
Despite his charm, our protagonist is deep in debt to the sorcery mob boss. If he doesn’t get enough money to pay him off in time, he’s gonna be a sheep
His village is destroyed in a hurricane built by an evil wizard with high magical talent. The protagonist sets out to earn money so he can rebuild his village and then fight the wizard and his minions. His sister later turns out to be the wizard's right hand man, who had grown disillusioned with the structured nature of village life and wanted to explore her magical talent.
In a prison cell
Judging by his character, barfight ensues when a covert trade deal for rare ingredients goes wrong. Think "drug deal" kinda thing.
The authorities are trying to round up his illegal dire wombat farm
Thayris is buying the help of numerous talented mages, especially from Antasia, for a shady operation that they didn't reveal the details of.
Okay, this is a bit of a mess. Picking and choosing, combining a few...
The story opens with...You know what? No. You'll find out! The details will come out in the first few chapters of our story about just how screwed the protagonist is.
"Fuck you. I opened up my heart to you and you stabbed it a thousand times." - Gamma, to me, right before confessing to being the town vig and murdering my scum partner N1.
Special mention to “Give that man a goddamn alligator.” Definitely my favorite write-in of this cycle, and it saddens me that it’s so wildly impractical
In post 159, Pine wrote:Special mention to “Give that man a goddamn alligator.” Definitely my favorite write-in of this cycle, and it saddens me that it’s so wildly impractical
Retiring from LSG's and Mish Mash, for the most part. If you want to contact me, I suggest going outside and enjoying what the world has to offer, instead.
You sure you're not a bearkeep? I could have sworn you were...
Xalxe: this is xofelf sometimes we call each other names and other times we share emotions
MattyP: Ur an enigma tho when it comes to circadian rhythm and the traditions we hold dear when it comes to the sun and the moon Get to reknow a xofelf here
Discord is faster than PMs or sitechat: xofelf#1697
Okay so in DnD one of my party made a character with an OwlBear familiar. She could use Enlarge on it a limited number of times a day (2 per Long Rest IIRC). I assume there will be similar limitations on our Wombat friend?
will matter. So if you're shrinking Bear to enter a community and be civil etc, that would drop your ability to intimidate, maybe bluff etc. If you're enlarging him to fight, you'll be losing some of your control and finesse.