World Building #3 - The Next Chapter

 

The Antagonists

In my last World Building post I tried to explain how by asking and answering questions about an imagined thing, you can help add depth and purpose to whatever is being created.

In my own example, the world of Goroesgi, a floating castle with multiple levels and environments, the first couple of chapters were aimed at giving the floating castle a purpose and reason to exist.  By asking myself questions about the floating castle, and answering them, the expansion of the idea created a world for the castle to exist in, and a reason for it to exist in the first place.

Included in this expansion was an acknowledgement of the existence of different factions that shaped the history of the imagined world and allowed a reason for the existence of the floating castle.

To be able to expand the ideas and suggestions raised from the first chapters, the same process of asking questions and answering them allows the world building to continue.  However, instead of focussing the questions on the castle, the next step is to focus on the different elements created in the first chapters.

For this week's example, the next chapter explores the Demons created in the first chapters using the same process that created the "History of the World".

Next week's post will look at the structure and workings of the castle in more detail.

The Chapter

The Demons

The Demons, creatures of great power and thirst for blood, came to this world from another. The great variety of Beasts they brought with them leads one to think they plan to settle this world and use it as their own. It could be an invasion or an evacuation, the reason for their coming here has never been understood, and through their ferocity, no explanation has ever been discerned. Since arriving in this world they have assumed to hunt and exterminate everything natural in this world.

The Darkness they brought with them is no embellishment on their actions for the great beasts they brought with them poison the air and the water, making the world wherever they spread all but uninhabitable to any of the natural life of this world, giving the Demons free reign to expand across the world. As the Beasts spread across the world, they emit a toxic miasma, a dark fog, that permeates across the lands and seas. Wherever the Beasts go and spread this miasma, the Demons always follow. The miasma drifts on the wind creating an environment suited to the Demons, with no possibility for any other forms of life to be able to remain there because none of the natural life of this world seems capable of enduring the toxic miasma.

The Demons themselves seem to rely on their abilities to survive. Their unique powers and abilities seem to come to them as naturally as breathing. While they appear humanoid in appearance, and appear to have the capacity to communicate, they don’t appear to have any great sense of society or community. That is not to suggest that they don’t have a sense of community, but it appears that they exist in tribal groups.

The Demons have a spoken language that seems universal across their species, though they don’t appear to build great cities, or rely on any form of written language, or on any of the principles of nations or countries.

Based on their innate strength and the tribal nature of their society. It is assumed that they rely on a concept of survival of the strongest, the strongest take command, the strongest make decisions for their tribes, the strongest have the greatest chance for success.

This world view, if really held by the Demons, would explain why many of their actions would seem so strange to the people of the world, who conversely live in larger communities and societies with rigid social structures not wholly reliant on strength to be the biggest differentiator of success. The tribal nature of the Demons explains how they can appear to operate in unison in small numbers, but when in larger groups, their activities appear uncoordinated and random, with little to no cohesion between the smaller tribes.

The tribal nature of the Demons, their innate strength and their concept of survival of the strongest likely explains why they appear so focussed on the eradication of all natural life in this world. They are naturally stronger than any other form of life in this world, they have no understanding of the life of this world, and therefore they believe that it is right for them to destroy all before them, for without the strength to combat them, the life of this world has no right to survive. It is strange, it is weak, and therefore it must be removed to make way for the strong.

In the age when the Demons first appeared, the people that lived then feared them for their abilities and the effect they had on this world. The Demons seemed to pose a threat that was insurmountable. Every challenge to made against came to nought, no person or nation seemed able to defeat them in any way. No strategy yet existed to defeat them, and the onslaught of death they brought seemed inevitable.

However, even without hope, the people of that age did not allow themselves to be easily killed. On occasion, people managed to defend themselves for a time, and even kill a few Demons. As powerful as the Demons were, they were in no way immortal.

Even though those minor victories were temporary, and in no way long lasting, these efforts were in no way wasted actions in a futile war. The great thinkers of the age, those that were left, studied the Demons and Beasts that had been slain. From this they learned about the miasma and the source of the Demon’s power. They also learned how to capture a few Demons, this in turn lead to a greater understanding of them, and the eventual harnessing of their power in the construction of the Ark. By this point in the war however, using this newfound knowledge for any other purpose would have brought the complete extinction of the people of that age. They were then too few to be able to continue to challenge the Demons for their right to survive.

On the relationship between the Demons and the Beasts they brought with them, the Demons never appeared to directly command the Beasts in any way. While the relationship appears similar to that of people and animals, the Demons do not appear to farm the Beasts, or use them as beasts of burden. Rather, the Demons will hunt and feed on them, but they seem to see no need to restrict the Beasts in any way.

Perhaps because of the Demon’s own abilities, the Beasts will not openly attack a Demon, save to protect themselves, yet a Demon will kill a Beast for food without any thought or remorse as easily as a person would kill and consume an animal for food.

The Demon’s appear to be a singular species, with little noticeable difference between the different types and their differences in their abilities. The Beasts however appear to be as varied in species as animals were in the world before their arrival.

Something unique to the Demons and Beasts in their biology is that each one contains a crystal within its body. These crystals appear to be related to their abilities. From the few Demons slain in the ancient age, these crystals were shown to hold some kind of power, even after death.

It is from these crystals that the power to make the Ark possible came.

These crystals appear to form naturally within the bodies of Demons and Beasts. Studies of them showed that while they contained power after the death of the creature, that they could be used to negate the effects of the miasma in a finite area.

While the crystals give the Demons and Beasts their unique abilities, the power held within the crystals was not limitless. It is assumed that the bodies of the Demons and Beasts fuel and recharge the crystals in some way, allowing the Demons and Beasts to use their abilities almost without limit. The instances where people were able to kill Demons and Beasts were through long and sustained battles, where it is assumed that the heavy use of the Demon’s abilities drained the power held within the crystals within their bodies, making them no stronger than they would otherwise normally appear. It was at this point they were able to be killed. Once this strategy was known, a few Demons were eventually captured, allowing this relationship between the Demon’s abilities and the crystals within their bodies to be proven and more easily understood.

Since the creation and usage of the great Ark, the descendants of the people of that age now appear to be developing similar abilities to those of the Demons. It is assumed that the changes in the world brought about by the arrival of the Demons and Beasts has allowed the survivors to undergo a change, making them more similar to the Demons and Beasts. Crystals have not yet been found in any of the survivors, but a similar process must be at work for the survivors to be able to use the abilities once thought to be unique to the Demons and Beasts.

Thanks for reading!