Alright boys we’re back
Not OOP but let’s do it
>WOODS <-> MOUNTAINS
>PEASANTRY <-> FOLKLORE
The purpose of this thread is to finish filling out the political compass, and possibly expand the compass if we end up running out of room too quickly.
We’re doing early 18th century fantasy with some folk horror elements and then people claim squares.
If you wish to claim a spot please ask and it will be marked. Please also state what you plan on putting in the square. The format to ask is [X,Y] axis, measured in distance from the top right corner. If you wish to redraw an existing square please state so, draw, and the thread will decide if it should replace the square (but we prefer you add new squares)
Post lore too, I’m curious what headcanon you guys are building
If a square is missing a photo, post or make a pic and I can add it in
[4,5]
>The Mill-Owner
>Owns a small textile mill by a stream
>Or was it a coal mine?
>Dreams of Soot and Steel
>Harbinger of Change
Under the Displaced Grog you mean?
I didn’t make it, just keeping it going. Thank you for the support!
>Under gorg?
Frick sorry I can't count I meant [4,6] above the pastor.
>/tg/ creates something for once in a blue moon
Based and don't let anyone discourage you.
It's wojak shit. Calling it a part of /tg/ is like calling a cancerous tumor a part of yourself. While it may be technically true, in spirit it's not.
lurk more
I think this setting needs a stronger theme or direction to go in. Something to ground everything and focus in on. Is it based more on folklore or myth? Lighter tone or darker? Are there proper human civilisations or are we keeping it firmly small villages in woods? Where is it even set, a general location on Earth or a vague Haunted Woods and Ominous Mountains? With Agartha there was a very clear "19 century colonialism and industry with science-fiction" thing going on, but I'm not quite feeling it here. Maybe I just need to read the some fairy tales again.
In my opinion, the vagueness is part of the fun at this stage, but I'll give you my take on these
>Based more on folklore/fairytales
>Noblebright setting, but with some dark elements
>Proper human civilizations exist, but they are relatively less powerful than the mighty mountains or woods
>it doesn't matter where it's set since it's self-contained, and people don't travel far anyway. Think the world of Over the Garden Wall, but rimmed in by mountains
In general the vibe is just fairytales with a little well-placed fear of nature thrown in
Stop complaining lol just come up with a square if you're here
See above, but also, the only lore that exists is the little snippets people put into their characters, so basically anything goes or can be added
top right
The Alphorn Blower
>No mountain too high
>No wall too steep
>Damn, look at those calves
>Eats raw pork liver for breakfast
>BRÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖP
b***h gonna wake up the mountains
>They're coming
>They're coming
>Never again
>Never again
I need to find a better picture but;
The Local Baron
>Fear not citizens, the monsters aren't real
>A talking wolf? Proposterous
>Pays the Huntsman handsomely
>Looks good for his age
>Maybe a little too good
Right below the Gnome. Or maybe where the Gnome is and the Gnome can go one down now that the space is free.
Below the pastor.
The Monastery Militia
>Patrol the hills
>For God and Baron!
>Lost four last week
>Will lose another four this week
>It's getting worse
>*Mad Laughter*
Could probably find a better bit of artwork unless another Anon has something to really sell the fricked up vibe. I'm no good with paint.
The way I'm reading it;
>Folklore or Myth
50/50
>Tone
Darker but with the occasional lighter parts.
>Human Civilization
The villages in the woods.
>Where/When
Isolated forests/mountains, 17th century ish just by some of the characters.
It feels to me more like a provincial part of Europe in the early 19th century, especially now because of the mill owner
Fair, though the anachronisms might actually help make the setting even more hazy and strange, we have things ranging from the late 17th to early 19th and that might be a good thing.
In think we might've run into something secretly genius here if we ever expand the chart - some kind of conspiracist asking what year it is or where they even are. That none of this makes any sense.
>The Current Year (Offcompass Folklore)
The most mystical concept in the land. Everyone will give you a different date and everyone will be correct. Multiple seasons coexist at the same place and time. Nobody knows why and nobody questions it.
>Nobody asks
Or maybe somebody asks, unsure if the compass is better or worse off for this but;
The Astronomer
>Doesn't know what year it is
>Doesn't know where they are
>Nobody he asks does either
>Everyone thinks he's strange for asking
>Something is wrong
Beneath Gorg or at Gorg's position and move Gorg down one since he seems a little more inhuman.
Most people who ask are children. While most adults just accept it as a fact of life.
As an example of how it could work:
19th century Noble
>His high society party got crashed by his medieval ancestor who returned from slaying a dragon about 1000 years ago
>Carpets ruined by dragon blood, cellar emptied of food, friend group feels awkward with medieval knights at the table.
>Ancestor highly entertained, gives him the decapitated dragon head as a parting gift.
>He now knows why the dragon skeleton in the ballroom was missing its head.
In other cases time might get fricked in other creative ways.
Another case
>Child goes to the forest
>Returns and 100 years have past
Looking solid so far. Can someone give me a quick rundown on the lore?
Rübezahl
>a tree is his walking stick
>hands as big as a barn door
>one moment fair and helpful
>the next malicious and capricious
>makes the weather
>keeps the wyrm in place
Above Zlatorog
Sorry but I have no paint skills at all. Feel free to replace with Wojak art my artist frens.
I like the mixed art styles actually, adds to the aesthetic
I like the vibe of a surreal dream-like place where there's intentional anachronisms that unravel if looked at too closely, but no one in universe questions
If anyone good at art is reading this, I'd love someone to draw characters for the Mycal King and Wen digo. I can take a stab at it but I'll have to plug in my tablet and I'm lazy
I think the world needs a name too, maybe something like Tisnif, or Oonhaim.
Any ideas?
Oh uh, and if anyone knows what a Gorg is, please tell me. I am assuming it's some kind of mountain mongol orc?
It's a meta joke. We should eventually retcon him.
I might use this incorrectly but your compass has been a great help for me OP, so I'm going to try contributing with what I have.
Sasquash
>another branch of homosexual sapiens
>survivor of a fratricidal war
>cognitive abilities hindered by living in the wood
>prey it stays in the wood
Skin Crawler
>its walk defy human anatomy
>craving for both human contact and isolation
>will satiate its need for intimacy by stealing your face
Gremlins
>opposable thumbs yet choose to destroy instead of creating
>if humans built it, they must destroy it
>know they are weak but will drive you insane with sleep deprivation
Mossman
>"was that mount of moss there yesterday?"
>"I swear it moved"
>sobbing sound when you're not looking at it
Manbat
>the human strength to work toward satiating blood thirst
>the motive of being a monster for not caring about the victims
>you wish it was just a giant bat
I don’t really follow. Do these creatures follow the axes?
We’re out of spots, I guess we should somehow expand the graph. Reminds me there are actually some from the original thread (Machinist, Lost Partisan, Pipesmoker) that somehow never got added either
Are you OOP? Tell me about the Gorg, I’m curious and he’s been around a while so I’m loathe to banish him
nah I think he's an inside joke from expedition to agartha decent
The gorg is from another political compass setting building thing, Expedition Agartha which is still running here
The gorgs are supposed to be the lovable half-serious creatures that live underground, I'd give the lore docs they have over there a read if you're interested.
How about a Twin Peaks twist?
The Policeman
>He just appeared one day
>Says he is here to investigate the murder of a girl, but no one sent for him.
>Talks to himself all the time, or to someone named Zach.
>He is not planning to leave until he gets to the bottom of this. Not that like he can.
>Stranger in a strange land. He thinks its a competition.
>If he fails we are all doomed.
If the Gorg is getting removed, this could go in that spot
Gänsemagd
>guards her geese every day
>walks through the city gate
>sees her horses baleful head
>hidden princess that she is
>will she be avenged?
>Chud
>Eat enemies
>Pale eyed
>Who are they?
>Beautiful
>Ancient people
Rübezahl and Mountain Mystic should switch places tbh
I really like how the Monastery Pastor looks like he’s scared of the Baron.
As the Anon who made them both (didn't want to go over two and things were a bit slow), entirely intentional deeplore.
>Maybelle
moronic coomer bait, the whole thing is ruined
Jokes on you, I already I took Maybelle out in the first update in this thread
When we expand which other characters except Maybelle should we remove. Personally I really like the connection about the mountains who shouldn't be woken and characters like the alphorn blower who seem to be specifically trying to wake them up. Maybe we can expand this aspect further with "silent" and "loud" characters. The whole unclear time things is interesting aswell but should be kept lowkey imo.
What's also pretty cool (to me at least) is the implied connection between red hooded girl, the wolf, huntsman, dog and maybe the lumberjack (?). Possibly also the Baron. Some others however seem a little out of place and are just kinda there without any real connection to the lore like the the false snow, the mycal king, h2rtkos or the tabunga man. Not sure about the wendigo either. In my opinion we should replace them and then expand the compass.
I think I'll rework the Mycal King
White Wood Knight/King
>Bastard son of a man and the White Forest
>Wields a bow made from white wood
>Knows more than you could possibly imagine
>Comes to collect the dead and perform miracles
Nah, let's leave it how it is. The king being vague feels like it fits the almost dark fairy tale aesthetic of the whole thing. Anyway, I'd veto any "reworking" of tiles at this juncture. A few tweaks here and there? Sure, but completely reworking a character at this point seems premature.
Why? Are you the one who wrote him?
Personally I don't see an issue with reworking stuff to better fit the overall tone we're going for.
I'd be opposed to it on principle. Unless it's something egregious like the horny cow, I think its best to leave it as is unless the anon who made it wants to rework it themselves.
Though if you really want something changed there's nothing stopping you from impersonating anon and pretending its yours.
I think so long as we're planning on expanding then there's not many, if any that are actively in the way so much that the expansion needs to focus on fleshing out the cells with no context. With the rush for everyone to get in their favourite monster a lot of them were left hanging but I could see plenty of them getting at least some attention in a 7x7 or 8x8.
could we add some sort of woken stone to where the wrym currently lies, to give context to the mountains rest?
or would that be too restrictive of the mystery?
I think the results of the woken stone are implied with the lost miners and it doesn't really need its own square.
>woken stone to where the wrym currently lies, to give context to the mountains rest?
Maybe, as the original Wyrm contributor, adding a stone may add more visual clutter to the chart. Also it could already be inferred from the chart the Wyrm lives in the mountains. But such a stone probably might lead to more questions than answers which fits the general tone of the setting which is interesting.
>pic related translation
>"Tyke - Tyke Viking - erected this stone in memory of Gunnar, Grim's son. May God help his soul."
There were also additional text for the Wyrm but left out to fit in the square:
>sits upon the riches and ruins of the old kingdom [in the forgotten peaks]
>the memories in your blood compel you to find his cloudy lair
>many [of your kin] tried to slay him, all have failed thus far
>awaits the day Rübezahl shall perish, so the carnage will commence for the final time (just typed this one out)
Are the woods sentient at all, like the Mountains? Perhaps it's them who keep the mountains asleep, they still remember the elder days when men once paid homage to the mountaintops...
Just spitballing:
>forest is a hivemind of the individual nature spirits that make up it, some of which are playful and others are outright malicious
>which personality is stronger depends on which part of the woods you are in, usually it is a mix but some places are unusually serene or magical - the kind that a fey folk might be seen giggling - while others are unnaturally dark and have hungry eyes everywhere.
In this vein:
The Wassailers
>Always a good time when they show up at your door
>Love their figgy pudding
>Won't go until they get some
>Probably the only thing stopping the forest from swallowing small villages whole
>HERE WE COME A-WASSAILING
>Worth the hangover
>The Woods are generally divided into 3 kinds: The Glades, The Wilds, and the Dark Woods.
>The Glades are the sunny, open spaces inhabited by the lighter fey folk and humans, generally the safest places to be outside the alpine fields. However, some people still go a little mad or outright disappear in The Glades.
>Several human villages and hunters camps are found in The Glades, though most live on the edges of the forest, or in the deep valleys.
>The Wilds are the deeper parts of the forest, a little gloomier than The Glades with fewer open spaces, but still light enough for regular travel. Human habitation here is small, but a lot come here to chop wood or hunt.
>The Wilds vary in danger levels. Some parts are little more risky than The Glades, others are off-limits to all but the bravest humans. Most of the time it's somewhere inbetween.
>You can encounter pretty much everything The Forest has to offer in The Wilds
>The Dark Woods are the forests that are closer to the mountains, and they are gloomy and full of shadow.
>Some say the Dark Woods have been infected by the malice of The Mountains. Others say that the Dark Woods are keeping the influence of The Mountains out of the rest of The Forest. The more capricious fey suggest the ground itself is cursed. The scholars of the monastery refuse to talk about it.
>What is known is that the Dark Woods contain the hungrier creatures of the Forest. The Wolf, The Wild Hunt, and worse.
>Men once tried to chop down the Dark Woods. Never again.
Where does the White Forest fit in with them? It is a mostly neutral force people are afraid of and the White Wood Knight is more on the positive side of things, with the miracles of his.
I dig it.
I like this a lot. Like the mountain side is also more centralized with the power coming from basically one unfathomable sleeping being, while the forests are more decentralized, like a confederacy of competing magical forces
>No king under the mountain
>not even a tiny Bergentrückung
F-
You can suggest them in the expansion
One of the alignments is MOUNTAIN, I shouldn't be the one to suggest this, it should have already been done.
>wanders the mountain in song
>often heard, rarely seen
>"O the winds, the frost, I feel ye bitin. Take me to my lost, O mine"
>remembers ages past when the song was a duet
Bigger compass when?
I kind of want OP to do a setting compass as a secondary thing, though we have enough creatures that a bigger compass would probably work too.
I'd put the White Forest under The Wilds, I wrote it to be a general catch all term for stuff that isn't purely bright and happy or dark and gloomy.
Mountain hag
>Has no mouth.
>Must eat children by throwing them into a pit full of teeth in front of her house.
>Only way for her to trully die is either starvation or being thrown into the pit.
>Her house is on mountain goat legs.
kino
> One of my entries got culled
Which one?
COW
You should be happy you made it in for a while
I know.
It was a joke entry made to keep the thread alive from a while longer. I'm not terribly broken up with it being taken down.
However, what I do find distasteful is that a small group of anons (
) are methodically pruning away other poster's far more reasonable additions to replace them with their own densely interconnected OCs.
It goes against the spirit of this form of creative exercise: to stitch together a somewhat coherent setting from a starting prompt, a limited number of squares, and the contributions of passing strangers.
Are you eventually going to expand the compass OP? I can make a bigger one as soon as I come home from work if you want me to. Just in case you are too lazy or unable to do it that is.
If you could, that'd be great, sorry I made this thread but I've been busy moving and haven't been able to pay it enough attention the last few days
Done. Went for an 8x8 grid since that worked out well for the Leviathan project.
Adjusted the color palette a little. I think it looks better this way.
Where would the characters we have so far go on the expanded compass
Say, what do people think the upper/lower limits on tech should be?
Because I have ideas. Bad ones.
>Say, what do people think the upper/lower limits on tech should be?
Highest tech level should be early to mid 1700s at best, imo.
seconded
>Lower
As far back as you want to go, there's some implications that people have been here for a long time.
>Upper
Early 1800s at the latest would be a good idea just to stop things from getting too weird. If anyone goes past that it should be a single character at most.
We want to throw in any Russian/Eastern references like Baba Yaga, Koschei, etc. or are we keeping it strictly western?
Like the mountain hag is just a mountain Baba Yaga so I guess we can have both.
If so then the Knight might be merged or put next to the White Forest. The King may stay as it is.
The Prince
>From a long line of princes rescuers
>His father saved a princes and so did his father' father ect...
>In touch with his ancestors
Has OP left us?
He’s probably still dealing with moving.
Someone just copy and paste the old compass over the empty one. People will move the things in it themselves.
Why don't you do it?
I'm away from my PC