Do you have a Paracosm?If so describe some of its main details.

[AustinFrom1995]

I don't have a fictional world so much as I have a fictional universe. It's more hard sci-fi (I'm not into fantasy) and is the setting for a book I would like to write. I don't want to bog the page down with page after page of Info, so I will just tell you all the basics, but if you want to know more, I will gladly answer any questions.


The year is 2184, Earth is but the latest member of a collection of worlds known as Ashyran Collective. At over 200 (not counting moons and dwarf planets) worlds, the Ashyran Collective is the largest galactic government. Earth has formthe most part been abandoned as its population has dispersed into the greater galactic community, although Humans themselves are a minority and aren't exactly looked highly apon by other species, especially those who make up the core of the Collective. While the Basic Rights of Sapience act protects most species, there's still a deep-rooted speciesism against "primitive" species like Humans.


The capital world of the AC is Myra'dwin, a Jupiter-sized Planet that is seen as the economic, political and military core of the AC. Covered in a diverse range of ecosystems, Myra'dwin is also a popular tourist destination. Another world of major importance is Llamin, Llamin is notable for its vast quantities of highly sought after minerals. However Llamin has recently become the center of a heated debate, between mining corporations and those who wish to protect Llamin's ecology.


Speaking of corporations, none is bigger than FleetWorks, origination as a humble ship-building firm (hence the name), FleetWorks has grown into a massive player in the galactic economy, manufacturing everything from personal cryogenic pods, to deep-space comm arrays to the Spatial-Temporal Displacement Unit, which makes prolonged space travel possible.


The Spatial-Temporal Displacement Unit deserves a brief rundown, I think. Basically, it works by "opening" a hole into a concurrent reality called the "Bleed". By doing this ships can traverse vast distances of space in far less time than would be needed normally. As the Bleed is compressed in comparison to the "normal" reality. One lightyear in the Bleed equals 10 in the normal reality, for example.


There are a lot of species in my universe, and it would take a whole other post just to go over a few. But you can PM me if your interested.

 

[Datura]

I don't have a persistent paracosm, but I do engage in world building. Strangely, I don't really give things names unless I intend to share them with other people, with a few exceptions.

One of my favorite settings is a far future post-human society. The premise is that humans departed from Earth to explore the cosmos. In so doing they split off into isolated groups and evolved into totally different species, only to encounter each other eons later, not realizing their common heritage.

One race spent many generations in deep space, exposed to both micro gravity and high levels of cosmic radiation. As a result they suffered extensive deleterious effects to their physiology. To adapt to this they developed extensive adaptive technologies and cybernetic modifications. With physical and mental fitness no longer being selected for the race eventually degenerated into minuscule homunculi with even their cognitive functions and personalities being the result of technological augmentation.

Tracking with the trend of increasingly cybernetic bodies is the notion that the flesh is shameful and impure. People are increasingly reluctant to consider themselves biological, indeed priding themselves on being more mechanical than others.

Social class becomes a matter of the quality of one's augmentations. Are you a utilitarian worker, with a body resembling a piece of assembly line equipment, or an aristocrat who's custom made visage is considered a work of high art? Ones body plan, memories, quirks and skills can all be bought and augmented. Entire subcultures emerge in relation to ones aesthetics and pragmatic function. Individualistic consumer culture and tribalism rule the day.

This begs the question; if ones personality and functional body parts are synthetic anyway, why cleave to ones biological body at all? Well, wars (both philisophical and literal) were waged over this very issue. The end result was a theo-corperation which promised to take ones soul and transfer it into a Soul Core, free of charge! Upkeep of ones Soul Core would, of course, require a nominal fee.

People do exist who decide to get rid of their Soul Cores. After all, they are expensive to maintain and a needless waste of energy and extra weight. Doing so comes at a great cost as to be labeled Soulless is to be nothing more than a piece of property with no human rights whatsoever.

Far from being liberated of their flesh bodies, however, the soul core is merely a container for it. The theo-corp also sustains the population through a secret breeding program. After generations of being brought up to believe that they are an entirely mechanical species these revelations would rock the foundation of their society.

There are other species as well, but this one occupies more of my imagination. I like the possibilities it presents for a very complicated society as well as the notion of an advanced civilization built on a blatant lie. I certainly would not want to live in that world though.

 

[OkRad]

So creative!! You really could write a book. It is kind of Avatar.

I have trouble sorting out reality so most of my imagination is taken up with either ancient history and Hannibal Barca or why the bank teller looked at me weird or how to cope or i am in pain.....Sad to say Survival has me in her grips.

But i love science and End of World stuff. If o did this., man would have created genetic monsters called Penders. They would start by gene kits you can buy. But got out of control. Rocks that are alive and huge bees. None are malevolent per se. But some are.

People would be deformed from CRISPR, all of them. Both sexes so you can both inseminate and be impregnated. No gender, all one but deformed and odd, . No old school people left.

No electric. We are back to being animals but we think and talk. Too many drugs in water and gmo's and the spent nuclear rods on top of CRISPR. Human race different

 

[AustinFrom1995]

I know I said I wasn't going to bog the thread down, but I just am really excited to tell people about this universe, here's some "snippets" of it:


*People can make money selling their dreams, using a "Dream Machine" that scans the brain during REM sleep and translates it into a visual/audio medium. This has lead to an increase of creative movies because they are taken right from the source and aren't pushed through focus groups and other corporate creativity killers.


*A rare flower, called a Halyna, is known as a "miracle cure" as the flower can be ground up and used to cure a variety of ailments from bone aches to colds. However, it has been shown that prolonged usage of Halynic powder can cause addiction, so the flower is a heavily regulated item.


*Rathnu, a large, horned herbivore commonly bred for food has recently seen a surge of popularity on Earth ever since Rathnu Steak was listed in the "Top 10 juiciest meats" by Glargian Digest, a food magazine.


*Genetic modification is far more common and accepted in the 2100's than it is today, and the average human lifespan is 120 years of age. Although this is still rather short in comparison to some other species.


*America is now known as the New American Republic after the Second American Civil War in 2067.


*2095 marks the year Humanity first colonized Mars.


*Humans make up .1% of the Ashyran Collective's population.

 

[Datura]

Oh man, I love some of these ideas. I enjoy table top RPG and my favorite part is reading world guides. In fact world guides and core rule books more than I do actually playing. I could simply devour fictional travel guides, frankly.

Many RPG players malign such content and call if "fluff" whereas actual game mechanics and stat blocks are called "crunch" and considered much more important. Personally, I consider the mechanics to be the bones and the "fluff" to be the meat.

Incidentally, if nobody minds I may pilfer some of these ideas for a home brew campaign.

*People can make money selling their dreams, using a "Dream Machine" that scans the brain during REM sleep and translates it into a visual/audio medium. This has lead to an increase of creative movies because they are taken right from the source and aren't pushed through focus groups and other corporate creativity killers.

This reminds me of a market I dreamed up which is inspired by several fictional sources. It exists in what we would consider a very antique society (think late bronze age) but exists at a sort of interdimensional nexus where extradimensional beings deal in the rarest and most intangible of commodities. Only those mortals with something truly extrordenary to trade ever meet these beings, but the trickle down effect is spectacular.

The result is a market where practically anything, up to and including godhood, can be purchased. For the right price, of course.

One of the more common (but still exotic) items bottled music. A spell has been devised in this world to channel sound through ones ears, and trap it in a bottle so it can be enjoyed later. This is a very rare skill and actually renders the caster deaf for the duration of the procedure. It does, however mean that a person might hear music the likes of which they would never get to hear in person. Some music and chanting might even have magical qualites of its own, so the technique has practical purposes as well.

The catch is that once a bottle has been uncorked and all of the sound has been let out, that's it. It's gone forever, and so such music is savored like a fine wine. People trade and collect it. The works of great masters are cherished most of all, their songs only appreciating with age.

So why not just get this music on vinyl or MP3 or something? Well, that would be possible, but you would first have to know what you were looking for, and it would probably be more expensive since it would require trade across several layers of reality.

 

[AustinFrom1995]

Oh man, I love some of these ideas. I enjoy table top RPG and my favorite part is reading world guides. In fact world guides and core rule books more than I do actually playing. I could simply devour fictional travel guides, frankly.

Many RPG players malign such content and call if "fluff" whereas actual game mechanics and stat blocks are called "crunch" and considered much more important. Personally, I consider the mechanics to be the bones and the "fluff" to be the meat.

Incidentally, if nobody minds I may pilfer some of these ideas for a home brew campaign.


This reminds me of a market I dreamed up which is inspired by several fictional sources. It exists in what we would consider a very antique society (think late bronze age) but exists at a sort of interdimensional nexus where extradimensional beings deal in the rarest and most intangible of commodities. Only those mortals with something truly extrordenary to trade ever meet these beings, but the trickle down effect is spectacular.

The result is a market where practically anything, up to and including godhood, can be purchased. For the right price, of course.

One of the more common (but still exotic) items bottled music. A spell has been devised in this world to channel sound through ones ears, and trap it in a bottle so it can be enjoyed later. This is a very rare skill and actually renders the caster deaf for the duration of the procedure. It does, however mean that a person might hear music the likes of which they would never get to hear in person. Some music and chanting might even have magical qualites of its own, so the technique has practical purposes as well.

The catch is that once a bottle has been uncorked and all of the sound has been let out, that's it. It's gone forever, and so such music is savored like a fine wine. People trade and collect it. The works of great masters are cherished most of all, their songs only appreciating with age.

So why not just get this music on vinyl or MP3 or something? Well, that would be possible, but you would first have to know what you were looking for, and it would probably be more expensive since it would require trade across several layers of reality.

So it's like my idea, but instead of dreams, it's music, and instead of science it's spells that collect and bottle it up?

 

[Kaitlin]

I have a similar experience to Nina. There's a world in my dreams that is very similar to the town I grew up in with some changes. I've been calling it a paracosm, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps the astral travel idea is closer to my experience. Either way, I've been dreaming inside my paracosm for as long as I can remember, I'm 20 now and it hasn't gone away. Honestly, it confuses me. Sometimes I take benadryl to avoid dreaming, sometimes I love it. Often I feel that things that happen in my dreams are important somehow to my real life. Sometimes I get a bit obsessed with it. If anyone knows anything about this or wants to chat about it, please connect with me.