Whether in gaming, movies, or novels, the world hidden inside another world is such an intriguing worldbuilding idea. Mainly looking at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 because the worldbuilding and story is one of my all-time favorites, but what are some of your favorite world-within-a-world ideas, stories, etc. you've come across, regardless of the medium?
Give me your best “scarecrow culture” ideas.
This can mean literal scarecrows with their own societies, beliefs, rituals, and traditions, or cultures inspired by scarecrows, harvest imagery, straw effigies, and rural folklore. Horror, dark fantasy, surreal, whimsical, or even cozy fantasy interpretations are all welcome.
Maybe scarecrows are animated by spirits, old gods, curses, or fragments of human memory stitched into them. Maybe they act as guardians of farmland, wardens of ancient boundaries, or silent observers that outlive the civilizations around them. Maybe entire human cultures revolve around harvest festivals, woven masks, straw idols, or seasonal rites tied to scarecrow imagery... or maybe something else entirely!
I’m mostly interested in seeing what kind of atmosphere, customs, aesthetics, or worldview people come up with when building around this concept. Feel free to make it strange.
Somebody else posted on this sub asking about unique takes on classic fantasy creatures and it got me thinking about actually unique creatures and races that don't neatly fit within classic fantasy settings. I'm not talking about reskinned elves, zombies, and hobbits, but creatures that at least **feel** distinctly their own.
Admittedly (but unashamedly), Sanderson has the best examples I know of from the rather limited selection of fantasy I have read--Things like the Kandra and Koloss from Mistborn, or the Singers and crustacean-beasts from Stormlight.
So for the readers: what are some of the more distinct creatures and races you've come across in fantasy? For the writers and worldbuilders: how do you come up with your own creatures and races that stand on their own, without feeling derivative?
Programmable Volcanic Ash
I've got the beginnings of an idea for a magic substance and wanted to poll for some opinions, thoughts, etc. The TLDR is that there exists an ash-like substance in the world that is "programmable" depending on what inputs it receives. It behaves like a type of non-newtonian fluid. The longer description is below. I've also provided 2 potential scenes to help picture how the system might work in practice.
Anyways, for anyone willing to offer criticism, insight, or ask questions, let me just go ahead and say thank you for taking the time to do so!
---
In its initial ash state, it is highly entropic; however, when one begins to "Gather" the ash, it begins to very loosely bind to itself until it becomes like kinetic sand. When someone applies a mechanical input (such as compression) to this gathered state, the ash undergoes another phase change, called "Form", where it is able to be shaped according to the type of input. Essentially, mechanical input turns the fluid-like, flowing substance into a temporary, moldable solid. Compression would expand the ash, whereas tension might act like a Chinese finger trap. Acceleration would have similar effects, as would other inputs such as torsion, rhythm, shear, etc.
As the applied forces increase in strength, the ash continues to harden/formalize its structure. Once the "Form" state is achieved, more force applied will cause it to enter a "Rigid" state, which is where weapons, tools, and architecture begin to live. A forcefully compressed handful of ash will thrust out into a dagger, baton, club, or similar form that is as strong (or stronger) than steel. I like the idea of it being sharp, which might cause hand lacerations if the ash dagger were "constructed" too quickly.
The limitation is that, once the forces stop being applied to the Rigid-state ash, it begins to "unwind", "decompress", etc. towards its original Ash state. I have not yet determined how quickly it will fall apart, but I imagine the relationship to how quickly it decays will be exponentially related to what phase it's in (i.e. Gather will almost instantly break apart, whereas Rigid may take a few minutes unless a separate force is applied).
Finally, its last state is "Glass" state, where the ash no longer breaks down when forces are not being applied. This is a very difficult state to achieve and cannot be done without tools, although I'm not 100% on the specifics of how to get it to this state. Once again, I imagine the force it takes to progress ash from one state to the next is exponentially related. That being said, Glass state ash would become the mark of an artisan, wealth, prestige, etc., and could even serve as the "magic" weapons and armor of my system
---
Scene — after activating a chromash dagger, the user throws it at an enemy as if it were a normal dagger, and the enemy moves to block it only to find that the hardened chromash loses its structure and becomes a cloud of chromash dust once again on impact. This obscures the enemy's field of view, allowing the user to either reactivate a portion of the released chromash or run away.
Scene — A performer (wearing special gloves with meshlike webbing) gathers Chromash in Ash state and, with light compression, shapes it into Gather, then Form shardlets. A controlled squeeze transforms the shards into Rigid before the performer tosses them upward. Once released, the Chromash loses input and begins to collapse mid-air—Rigid to Form to Gather to Ash—drifting down as colored dust. The performer catches the falling Ash, reshapes it back into Form, briefly hardens it again, and repeats the cycle, creating a rhythmic display of rising shardlets and falling glitter.
I've got the beginnings of an idea for a magic substance and wanted to poll for some opinions, thoughts, etc. The TLDR is that there exists an ash-like substance in the world that is "programmable" depending on what inputs it receives. The longer description is below. I've also provided 2 potential scenes to help picture how the system might work in practice.
Anyways, for anyone willing to offer criticism, insight, or ask questions, let me just go ahead and say thank you for taking the time to do so!
\---
In its initial ash state, it is highly entropic; however, when one begins to "Gather" the ash, it begins to very loosely bind to itself until it becomes like kinetic sand. When someone applies a mechanical input (such as compression) to this gathered state, the ash undergoes another phase change, called "Form", where it is able to be shaped according to the type of input. Essentially, mechanical input turns the fluid-like, flowing substance into a temporary, moldable solid. Compression would expand the ash, whereas tension might act like a Chinese finger trap. Acceleration would have similar effects, as would other inputs such as torsion, rhythm, shear, etc.
As the applied forces increase in strength, the ash continues to harden/formalize its structure. Once the "Form" state is achieved, more force applied will cause it to enter a "Rigid" state, which is where weapons, tools, and architecture begin to live. A forcefully compressed handful of ash will thrust out into a dagger, baton, club, or similar form that is as strong (or stronger) than steel. I like the idea of it being sharp, which might cause hand lacerations if the ash dagger were "constructed" too quickly.
The limitation is that, once the forces stop being applied to the Rigid-state ash, it begins to "unwind", "decompress", etc. towards its original Ash state. I have not yet determined how quickly it will fall apart, but I imagine the relationship to how quickly it decays will be exponentially related to what phase it's in (i.e. Gather will almost instantly break apart, whereas Rigid may take a few minutes unless a separate force is applied).
Finally, its last state is "Glass" state, where the ash no longer breaks down when forces are not being applied. This is a very difficult state to achieve and cannot be done without tools, although I'm not 100% on the specifics of how to get it to this state. Once again, I imagine the force it takes to progress ash from one state to the next is exponentially related. That being said, Glass state ash would become the mark of an artisan, wealth, prestige, etc., and could even serve as the "magic" weapons and armor of my system
\---
Scene — after activating a chromash dagger, the user throws it at an enemy as if it were a normal dagger, and the enemy moves to block it only to find that the hardened chromash loses its structure and becomes a cloud of chromash dust once again on impact. This obscures the enemy's field of view, allowing the user to either reactivate a portion of the released chromash or run away.
Scene — A performer (wearing special gloves with meshlike webbing) gathers Chromash in Ash state and, with light compression, shapes it into Gather, then Form shardlets. A controlled squeeze transforms the shards into Rigid before the performer tosses them upward. Once released, the Chromash loses input and begins to collapse mid-air—Rigid to Form to Gather to Ash—drifting down as colored dust. The performer catches the falling Ash, reshapes it back into Form, briefly hardens it again, and repeats the cycle, creating a rhythmic display of rising shardlets and falling glitter.
I've got the beginnings of an idea for a magic substance and wanted to poll for some opinions, thoughts, etc. The TLDR is that there exists an ash-like substance in the world that is "programmable" depending on what inputs it receives. The longer description is below. I've also provided 2 potential scenes to help picture how the system might work in practice.
Anyways, for anyone willing to offer criticism, insight, or ask questions, let me just go ahead and say thank you for taking the time to do so!
In its initial ash state, it is highly entropic; however, when one begins to "Gather" the ash, it begins to very loosely bind to itself until it becomes like kinetic sand. When someone applies a mechanical input (such as compression) to this gathered state, the ash undergoes another phase change, called "Form", where it is able to be shaped according to the type of input. Essentially, mechanical input turns the fluid-like, flowing substance into a temporary, moldable solid. Compression would expand the ash, whereas tension might act like a Chinese finger trap. Acceleration would have similar effects, as would other inputs such as torsion, rhythm, shear, etc.
As the applied forces increase in strength, the ash continues to harden/formalize its structure. Once the "Form" state is achieved, more force applied will cause it to enter a "Rigid" state, which is where weapons, tools, and architecture begin to live. A forcefully compressed handful of ash will thrust out into a dagger, baton, club, or similar form that is as strong (or stronger) than steel. I like the idea of it being sharp, which might cause hand lacerations if the ash dagger were "constructed" too quickly.
The limitation is that, once the forces stop being applied to the Rigid-state ash, it begins to "unwind", "decompress", etc. towards its original Ash state. I have not yet determined how quickly it will fall apart, but I imagine the relationship to how quickly it decays will be exponentially related to what phase it's in (i.e. Gather will almost instantly break apart, whereas Rigid may take a few minutes unless a separate force is applied).
Finally, its last state is "Glass" state, where the ash no longer breaks down when forces are not being applied. This is a very difficult state to achieve and cannot be done without tools, although I'm not 100% on the specifics of how to get it to this state. Once again, I imagine the force it takes to progress ash from one state to the next is exponentially related. That being said, Glass state ash would become the mark of an artisan, wealth, prestige, etc., and could even serve as the "magic" weapons and armor of my system
Scene — after activating a chromash dagger, the user throws it at an enemy as if it were a normal dagger, and the enemy moves to block it only to find that the hardened chromash loses its structure and becomes a cloud of chromash dust once again on impact. This obscures the enemy's field of view, allowing the user to either reactivate a portion of the released chromash or run away.
Scene — A performer (wearing special gloves with meshlike webbing) gathers Chromash in Ash state and, with light compression, shapes it into Gather, then Form shardlets. A controlled squeeze transforms the shards into Rigid before the performer tosses them upward. Once released, the Chromash loses input and begins to collapse mid-air—Rigid to Form to Gather to Ash—drifting down as colored dust. The performer catches the falling Ash, reshapes it back into Form, briefly hardens it again, and repeats the cycle, creating a rhythmic display of rising shardlets and falling glitter.
Title, but where am I supposed to be adding "remote_cluster_server.enabled: true" in the elasticsearch.yml file? Trying to follow v9 documentation, but it's not clear on where the setting belongs.