01-30-2016, 10:05 PM
Part the Second
It's that time again! Tales from everyone's favorite FFd20 gaming group, Sparkle Motion! ... what's that? ... no one asked or cared? ... the posts are an assault on decency and good taste? Welp, I've already started, so if you want off the ride you better be prepared to tuck'n roll.
AWRIGHT! Last post we got a cursory glance at our heroes before I got rum-drunk and watched several hours of Toonami bump compilations (ah, memories), so I thought this time I'd talk about the world a li'l bit. It's completely of my own design and, while unfinished, I am very proud of it. The world is Mondiale di il Gemma (Italian is cool), or Gemma for short. This translates roughly to Gem World. Why Italian, I pretend to hear you asking? It's a trick I picked up when I got tired of naming conventions while making characters in vidya games. Basically you just go into a language conversion search engine, type in an aspect of the character you hope to portray (thief, mage, tapeworm), and see what language strikes your fancy. I made a Khajiit thief back in Skyrim with the name Straziare (to torture, Italian, straht-zee-ahr-ay) and if you don't think that's cool as shit then I dunno what to do for ya. Also, the Final Fantasy games have a tendency of making up words or languages that just sound bonkers but acting like they're totally legit (lookin' at you, FF13), so I figure I can get away with some Italian appropriation.
Before I get into Gemma and its workings, I'd like to explain how I worked up to its creation. In an uncharacteristically proactive move on my part, mostly due to feeling the pressure of expectation, I decided I needed to study. The sad fact is... I've never beaten a Final Fantasy game. Not a one. Viladin will be so disappointed in me! I've played a vast majority of the series and am fairly excited for FF15, but none of them ever appealed to me enough to play them all the way through to completion. To be fair, that's a tall order for almost any vidya gheme. Don't get me wrong. I lurv vidya ghemes, but once I've acclimated to a battle system or there's a lull in the plot or even if I just get distracted with life and drop it for a week or two, I probably won't pick it back up for a few years.
So, that being said, I decided that I needed to understand what made a Final Fantasy game. Over Thanksgiving, between the delicious food, awkward family conversations and my Gramma's overly loud chewing, I set out to read up on all of the main line FF games (the only exceptions being 6 & 12, as I'd very much like to play them). Reading through the plots, I came up with a list of about a dozen or so different plot devices and recurring themes that I felt really stuck to what FF was about. In this way I think my limited knowledge may have been a good thing; the knowing of main plot points and having ideas in my head of how they played out, but then reading the story and understanding the context and impact an event had throughout the rest of the game.
One of the main recurring factors in an FF game, as many fans can attest to, are crystals. They're freakin' everywhere in the FF continuity and are usually powerful, tied to the land/planet, or are affiliated with a demi-godlike creature. With this information, and my predilection towards the simplicity of more old school FF's, I made a planet held together and continuously altered by the state of its most powerful crystals. The planet itself is comprised of 4 (mostly equal) hemispheres on a round planet with standard gravity and day/night cycles. Each hemisphere is ruled and shaped by an elemental crystal, the planets structure being held together by one giant neutral crystal(wip) and that overruling crystal's energy flowing throughout the interior of the planet in the form of a lifestream. The four "surface" crystals (for lack of a better word) represent the standard elements of air, water, fire and earth, with the hemispheres being shaped according to their dominant crystal as well as their opposite.
Campo Emisfero (Field Hemisphere), Il Paese Masso (The Boulder Country), Earth: This continent is lush, green and well tended. The bountiful nature of the land is in direct opposition to the Air Hemisphere which is, for the most part, a barren desert. The people of the Earth Hemisphere are simple, choosing to till the bountiful land and be content with the comfort their land affords them. As such, they're not particularly mechanically adept and don't have patience for over sized machines that are just going to belch smog and break down. They have an amicable trade agreement to provide food to the Fire Hemisphere in exchange for crystals, both for cosmetic and energy purposes.
Fuoco Emisfero (Fire Hemisphere), Fire: The continent dominated by the fire crystal is a rough place to live. Its surface layer is twisted and charred lava rock with the occasional river of liquid hot magma running through it. Underneath, however, are thousands of caves and tunnels full of crystals just waiting to be mined. The people populating this continent are industrious, having long ago made peace with the harsh surface terrain by spending most of their time underground. The combination of their mining lifestyle and the abundance of crystals as a power source spurred the people to be on the cutting edge of technology, as much for safety as well as pride in their engineering skills.
Emisfero Nebbioso (Misty Hemisphere), Water: Almost exclusively water, this hemisphere is populated by the most reclusive people of Gemma. With the lack of land masses on which to establish settlements, the people decided (in a hard-headed display of ingenuity) to conquer the sea from within. Taking a page from Andrew Ryan, they cut themselves off from the rest of the world and created self-contained cities under the waves. They're completely self-sufficient, utilizing the oceans bounty of ambient flora and fauna to survive. The people of the water hemisphere tend not to take too kindly to outsiders for a number of reasons; a sense of superiority from their chosen living situation, lack of contact due to their reclusive nature, a hatred of pollution and those who cause it (putting them at odds with anyone from the Fire Hemisphere), an envious frustration towards farmers of the Earth Hemisphere who's ancestors claimed the land but didn't have to work to make it habitable, etc.
Vento Emisfero (Wind Hemisphere), Cielo Emisfero (Sky Hemisphere), Posto Della sabbia (Place of Sand [Did You Know? If you type it in all lowercase then it translates to 'instead of sand'. I find this funny as I imagine the people there would prefer any other living condition instead of sand]), Wind: Probably the most fleshed out of all the hemispheres by virtue of being the starting location, the Wind Hemisphere is a wasteland of sand prone to whirlwinds and sandstorms. As such, the actual surface is mostly uninhabited aside from pockets of settlements sprouting up from popular trade routes and the land being stable enough to allow for solid buildings. The farther into the continent one goes, the less stable the sandylands, the more violent the wind storms (due to proximity to the wind crystal) and the less likely flora is going to be able to survive. However, there are settlements of people in the sky living in floating cities kept aloft by the intense wind. While I did borrow a bit from Bioshock Infinite in the way of possibly interconnected floating cities, that's about where the similarities end. I thought of these people as welcoming, carefree and just generally warm due to the freedom their lifestyle allows. These cities were probably founded by air pirates (because what is an FF game without airships?) in an attempt to create a place outside of standardized government rule. Over time it went from a hideaway to being populated by ex-pirates and their families, eventually becoming a fully recognized settlement over the course of many years. Despite being pirates or descendants, they're not greedy. In actuality, they understand that trinkets and gil are meaningless once a life is over, and instead think of physical objects as a shared commodity with which to make the harsh desert environment more bearable for everybody.
La Giuntura stesso (The Same Joint) & La Giuntura i due (The Two Joint), the two midpoints on the planet where all four of the hemispheres meet: I realized immediately that by making the planet four equal hemispheres that there'd be two points at which they converge. My thinking is that these are massive cityscapes with a booming economy and a mishmash of cultural identity; think all the big cities of the world just rolled together. I figured I'd give the vibe of Las Vegas to one and a New Orleans in the midst of a perpetual mardi gras to the other. I wanted Gemma to have a few more big cities, and what better place geographically than at the point where all the different cultures are closest to one another, allowing for trade and a flow of information.
While all the hemispheres have a dominant element that the topography and weather are based on, all the hemispheres do have traces of the other elements. The Water Hemisphere will have small islands, the Air and Fire Hemispheres will have pockets of water or oases (plural of oasis) and the Earth Hemisphere will have the occasional volcanic activity. I attribute this to the dominate crystal at the core of Gemma and it's lifestream. The lifestream itself is not tangible like actual water. I don't think I'm going too far by saying in FF7 and its affiliates that the lifestream is kind of a mix between liquid and plasma; able to be touched but not so dense that it can't pass through solid objects. This lifestream binds the planet, flows through it and keeps it cohesive. It acts as a relay of information through the dominant crystal, the elemental crystals and any other hot spots that the lifestream may currently be flowing into. The lifestream is constantly moving and flowing underneath the surface of the planet, filtering up into ley lines and focus sites that promote change in the local flora & fauna or as an energy source that people can tap into. For the most part the people of Gemma (Gemmans? Gemmians? Gemmites? no, that makes them sound like tiny bugs) are unaware of the lifestream or at least unsure of its nature.
In addition to interspersed pockets of alternative elements in the hemispheres, their borders are also areas of constant change and turmoil. The shared border of Earth & Fire is as beautiful as it is dangerous; the merging of the respective energies causing unpredictable volcanic activity while the ultra-rich soil causes plant life to be greatly exaggerated, resulting in a dense tropical forest. I'm less sure of the border of Earth & Water, unable to decide which would be more interesting between miles-high cliffs that loom over the ocean or a secretive swamp that people who decide to venture into rarely make it out of (or both). Water & Wind are like a resort destination, the water and sand blending together to make a picturesque vacation spot. Wind & Fire (my personal favorite and the first idea I had for the borders) is a jagged glass-scape, the heat melting the sand into undulating sheets of glass miles long. Once this happens, air trapped underneath the glass creates a buildup of energy that escapes only when fire meets the air, resulting in an explosion of glass shards and a righteous fire-cyclone. FUCKING. METAL.
So that's the long and short of it... ok the long of it. Sorry. When I started writing this, I wasn't expecting to have it be this long. It actually took me the better part of two days to write it in here. I do hope it was informative for anyone who took their time to read it. I encourage everybody to use this as a setting if you're in need of one or even if you just need a planet as a stop-gap when your group is lost in space or hopping planes. Maybe next time we'll actually get to the adventure. Maybe.
tl;dr Made a planet called Gemma. It has four hemispheres whose topography and weather are influenced by an elemental crystal of Air, Fire, Earth or Water. There's a lifestream in the planet that flows into and out of a massive crystal in the core of the planet.
It's that time again! Tales from everyone's favorite FFd20 gaming group, Sparkle Motion! ... what's that? ... no one asked or cared? ... the posts are an assault on decency and good taste? Welp, I've already started, so if you want off the ride you better be prepared to tuck'n roll.
AWRIGHT! Last post we got a cursory glance at our heroes before I got rum-drunk and watched several hours of Toonami bump compilations (ah, memories), so I thought this time I'd talk about the world a li'l bit. It's completely of my own design and, while unfinished, I am very proud of it. The world is Mondiale di il Gemma (Italian is cool), or Gemma for short. This translates roughly to Gem World. Why Italian, I pretend to hear you asking? It's a trick I picked up when I got tired of naming conventions while making characters in vidya games. Basically you just go into a language conversion search engine, type in an aspect of the character you hope to portray (thief, mage, tapeworm), and see what language strikes your fancy. I made a Khajiit thief back in Skyrim with the name Straziare (to torture, Italian, straht-zee-ahr-ay) and if you don't think that's cool as shit then I dunno what to do for ya. Also, the Final Fantasy games have a tendency of making up words or languages that just sound bonkers but acting like they're totally legit (lookin' at you, FF13), so I figure I can get away with some Italian appropriation.
Before I get into Gemma and its workings, I'd like to explain how I worked up to its creation. In an uncharacteristically proactive move on my part, mostly due to feeling the pressure of expectation, I decided I needed to study. The sad fact is... I've never beaten a Final Fantasy game. Not a one. Viladin will be so disappointed in me! I've played a vast majority of the series and am fairly excited for FF15, but none of them ever appealed to me enough to play them all the way through to completion. To be fair, that's a tall order for almost any vidya gheme. Don't get me wrong. I lurv vidya ghemes, but once I've acclimated to a battle system or there's a lull in the plot or even if I just get distracted with life and drop it for a week or two, I probably won't pick it back up for a few years.
So, that being said, I decided that I needed to understand what made a Final Fantasy game. Over Thanksgiving, between the delicious food, awkward family conversations and my Gramma's overly loud chewing, I set out to read up on all of the main line FF games (the only exceptions being 6 & 12, as I'd very much like to play them). Reading through the plots, I came up with a list of about a dozen or so different plot devices and recurring themes that I felt really stuck to what FF was about. In this way I think my limited knowledge may have been a good thing; the knowing of main plot points and having ideas in my head of how they played out, but then reading the story and understanding the context and impact an event had throughout the rest of the game.
One of the main recurring factors in an FF game, as many fans can attest to, are crystals. They're freakin' everywhere in the FF continuity and are usually powerful, tied to the land/planet, or are affiliated with a demi-godlike creature. With this information, and my predilection towards the simplicity of more old school FF's, I made a planet held together and continuously altered by the state of its most powerful crystals. The planet itself is comprised of 4 (mostly equal) hemispheres on a round planet with standard gravity and day/night cycles. Each hemisphere is ruled and shaped by an elemental crystal, the planets structure being held together by one giant neutral crystal(wip) and that overruling crystal's energy flowing throughout the interior of the planet in the form of a lifestream. The four "surface" crystals (for lack of a better word) represent the standard elements of air, water, fire and earth, with the hemispheres being shaped according to their dominant crystal as well as their opposite.
Campo Emisfero (Field Hemisphere), Il Paese Masso (The Boulder Country), Earth: This continent is lush, green and well tended. The bountiful nature of the land is in direct opposition to the Air Hemisphere which is, for the most part, a barren desert. The people of the Earth Hemisphere are simple, choosing to till the bountiful land and be content with the comfort their land affords them. As such, they're not particularly mechanically adept and don't have patience for over sized machines that are just going to belch smog and break down. They have an amicable trade agreement to provide food to the Fire Hemisphere in exchange for crystals, both for cosmetic and energy purposes.
Fuoco Emisfero (Fire Hemisphere), Fire: The continent dominated by the fire crystal is a rough place to live. Its surface layer is twisted and charred lava rock with the occasional river of liquid hot magma running through it. Underneath, however, are thousands of caves and tunnels full of crystals just waiting to be mined. The people populating this continent are industrious, having long ago made peace with the harsh surface terrain by spending most of their time underground. The combination of their mining lifestyle and the abundance of crystals as a power source spurred the people to be on the cutting edge of technology, as much for safety as well as pride in their engineering skills.
Emisfero Nebbioso (Misty Hemisphere), Water: Almost exclusively water, this hemisphere is populated by the most reclusive people of Gemma. With the lack of land masses on which to establish settlements, the people decided (in a hard-headed display of ingenuity) to conquer the sea from within. Taking a page from Andrew Ryan, they cut themselves off from the rest of the world and created self-contained cities under the waves. They're completely self-sufficient, utilizing the oceans bounty of ambient flora and fauna to survive. The people of the water hemisphere tend not to take too kindly to outsiders for a number of reasons; a sense of superiority from their chosen living situation, lack of contact due to their reclusive nature, a hatred of pollution and those who cause it (putting them at odds with anyone from the Fire Hemisphere), an envious frustration towards farmers of the Earth Hemisphere who's ancestors claimed the land but didn't have to work to make it habitable, etc.
Vento Emisfero (Wind Hemisphere), Cielo Emisfero (Sky Hemisphere), Posto Della sabbia (Place of Sand [Did You Know? If you type it in all lowercase then it translates to 'instead of sand'. I find this funny as I imagine the people there would prefer any other living condition instead of sand]), Wind: Probably the most fleshed out of all the hemispheres by virtue of being the starting location, the Wind Hemisphere is a wasteland of sand prone to whirlwinds and sandstorms. As such, the actual surface is mostly uninhabited aside from pockets of settlements sprouting up from popular trade routes and the land being stable enough to allow for solid buildings. The farther into the continent one goes, the less stable the sandylands, the more violent the wind storms (due to proximity to the wind crystal) and the less likely flora is going to be able to survive. However, there are settlements of people in the sky living in floating cities kept aloft by the intense wind. While I did borrow a bit from Bioshock Infinite in the way of possibly interconnected floating cities, that's about where the similarities end. I thought of these people as welcoming, carefree and just generally warm due to the freedom their lifestyle allows. These cities were probably founded by air pirates (because what is an FF game without airships?) in an attempt to create a place outside of standardized government rule. Over time it went from a hideaway to being populated by ex-pirates and their families, eventually becoming a fully recognized settlement over the course of many years. Despite being pirates or descendants, they're not greedy. In actuality, they understand that trinkets and gil are meaningless once a life is over, and instead think of physical objects as a shared commodity with which to make the harsh desert environment more bearable for everybody.
La Giuntura stesso (The Same Joint) & La Giuntura i due (The Two Joint), the two midpoints on the planet where all four of the hemispheres meet: I realized immediately that by making the planet four equal hemispheres that there'd be two points at which they converge. My thinking is that these are massive cityscapes with a booming economy and a mishmash of cultural identity; think all the big cities of the world just rolled together. I figured I'd give the vibe of Las Vegas to one and a New Orleans in the midst of a perpetual mardi gras to the other. I wanted Gemma to have a few more big cities, and what better place geographically than at the point where all the different cultures are closest to one another, allowing for trade and a flow of information.
While all the hemispheres have a dominant element that the topography and weather are based on, all the hemispheres do have traces of the other elements. The Water Hemisphere will have small islands, the Air and Fire Hemispheres will have pockets of water or oases (plural of oasis) and the Earth Hemisphere will have the occasional volcanic activity. I attribute this to the dominate crystal at the core of Gemma and it's lifestream. The lifestream itself is not tangible like actual water. I don't think I'm going too far by saying in FF7 and its affiliates that the lifestream is kind of a mix between liquid and plasma; able to be touched but not so dense that it can't pass through solid objects. This lifestream binds the planet, flows through it and keeps it cohesive. It acts as a relay of information through the dominant crystal, the elemental crystals and any other hot spots that the lifestream may currently be flowing into. The lifestream is constantly moving and flowing underneath the surface of the planet, filtering up into ley lines and focus sites that promote change in the local flora & fauna or as an energy source that people can tap into. For the most part the people of Gemma (Gemmans? Gemmians? Gemmites? no, that makes them sound like tiny bugs) are unaware of the lifestream or at least unsure of its nature.
In addition to interspersed pockets of alternative elements in the hemispheres, their borders are also areas of constant change and turmoil. The shared border of Earth & Fire is as beautiful as it is dangerous; the merging of the respective energies causing unpredictable volcanic activity while the ultra-rich soil causes plant life to be greatly exaggerated, resulting in a dense tropical forest. I'm less sure of the border of Earth & Water, unable to decide which would be more interesting between miles-high cliffs that loom over the ocean or a secretive swamp that people who decide to venture into rarely make it out of (or both). Water & Wind are like a resort destination, the water and sand blending together to make a picturesque vacation spot. Wind & Fire (my personal favorite and the first idea I had for the borders) is a jagged glass-scape, the heat melting the sand into undulating sheets of glass miles long. Once this happens, air trapped underneath the glass creates a buildup of energy that escapes only when fire meets the air, resulting in an explosion of glass shards and a righteous fire-cyclone. FUCKING. METAL.
So that's the long and short of it... ok the long of it. Sorry. When I started writing this, I wasn't expecting to have it be this long. It actually took me the better part of two days to write it in here. I do hope it was informative for anyone who took their time to read it. I encourage everybody to use this as a setting if you're in need of one or even if you just need a planet as a stop-gap when your group is lost in space or hopping planes. Maybe next time we'll actually get to the adventure. Maybe.
tl;dr Made a planet called Gemma. It has four hemispheres whose topography and weather are influenced by an elemental crystal of Air, Fire, Earth or Water. There's a lifestream in the planet that flows into and out of a massive crystal in the core of the planet.