The Bigass Fantasyland Challenge - 2 Mill Per Section!

[Rose Demon Axel]

Yeah, I was planning on focusing on the "fairy" society anyway.

I'll probably get my thread and prompts started up in a few days.

[whimsicaldreamer]

I have been doing some planning to make the timing work. And I think even if a bunch of people do decide to do it I can still give everyone a good challenge.

And now the mini challenge

March Challenge: Gifts

Sometimes giving things to people carries a lot of meaning. Think the horse head in The Godfather, the "donations" politicians receive from people who expect favors in return, and the practice of giving away daughters to solidify political relationships between rulers. In what ways is "gift" giving more than it seems in your world? Is there are type of giving that is culturally standard? Are there particular moments of gift giving that were unique for what those gifts represented?

I think I have covered gift giving in a couple of prompts (even the ones that do not ask about it) so in this one I will try to focus on parts that I have not covered. Or whatever.

In the Warring Lands where politics are everything it is not the daughter that is married away but the sons. Among the ruling class it is common for the prices to be married off to ensure peace between the individual kingdoms (ad oh how that came about for a female rules society, that is going to come soon) to the point that most kings are not native to the land they rule and the family tree of the warring lands is tangled and luckily it is not uncommon for the women to secretly (or not so secretly) sleep with other men. It is also not unheard of for the princess to be married away if there has been a particularly notable rift between two kingdoms.

The individual kingdoms in the warring lands got their names as Kingdoms instead of Queendoms (also it sounds strange to me) because when the warring lands were first being claimed, they were claimed by men who then turned around and gave it as a "gift" to the women that ended up as the first rulers of the Kingdoms.

The various rulers make a habit of sending their sons and daughters to the city of Riverport to train and study. This is viewed as a "gift" to the city as they tend to bring with them various items from their homelands and make the city very rich. It is mostly just a way to ensure that the city maintains political control in the Warring Lands and that nobody will be dumb enough to try and knock them out of power. (This strategy has backfired a lot but still works better than the others)

Now to the Emerald Empire!

Another non standard form of gifting is for Breakers to "gift" their puppets with the weapons that they use. The standard way that this happens tends to result in a blood bound magic bond between the puppet and the weapon, meaning the item sticks to them like glue and has a habit of turning up again if lost of deliberately left behind. (Could possibly result in an ultimate boomerang, I think.)

And I think that is all I can think of that I have not already covered or not come up with yet.

[Rose Demon Axel]

Decided to do the mini challenge to get my brain juices flowing.

Sometimes giving things to people carries a lot of meaning. Think the horse head in The Godfather, the "donations" politicians receive from people who expect favors in return, and the practice of giving away daughters to solidify political relationships between rulers. In what ways is "gift" giving more than it seems in your world? Is there are type of giving that is culturally standard? Are there particular moments of gift giving that were unique for what those gifts represented?

In the American Empire Under, gift giving is a common practice. Small items such as cloth, plastic, and stone jewelry and decorations are often given to friends and family at the whim of the giver, and hostess gifts typically include a little bag of mushrooms or Under insects. Anything small and cheap is considered a customary gift among most races. Somewhat larger gifts, sometimes of more expensive food or drink, or trinkets made of valuable materials, are exchanged by many during holidays, though it is very rare for the forced Yule holiday to include any gift giving. The amount of gifts that is considered proper varies among the races, with the fey tending to have access to more and thus having more to give, and the lycans giving far less due to exclusions from Surface contact.

The most significant gift an Under citizen can give or receive is a potted plant, the rarer and more beautiful the better. It is typically expected among all races that romantic partners proposing marriage would gift one another with some kind of living plant, however small, and if such tradition is not upheld, it is considered a slight against the would-be in-laws. It would be even more offensive to give a dead plant, whether beautiful or not, and a whole bouquet of flowers would be the social equivalent of a slap to the face and a spit in the eye of the recipient.

In the Russo-Asian Empire Under, gift giving is also a sign of respect and is considered necessary to cement the relationships between friends and family. The wide variety of races that inhabit the Under have made a much larger range of gifts acceptable, ranging from the mushrooms and cloth jewelry common of the American Under to blind fish-beasts, sunstone gravel, and paper trinkets. Surface-purchased food is a less common gift, as the Russo-Asian Empire has less to sell. The races within this Under also uphold the tradition of giving living plants as marriage gifts, though this has begun to slowly fade as the faltering structure of the Surface empire affects what can be bought and sold.

There are no documented gift traditions within the European Colonies and Pacific Empire Unders, as most of the populations there were annihilated after their various failed rebellions. The Atlantis Under and the Yellowstone Vaults, and whatever refugee population they may or may not contain, are simply rumor at this point. As there are no true ruling families in any of the Unders, political gifts are almost unheard of, and what little gang presence there is tends to be focused more on petty theft and rebellious vandalism while keeping themselves hidden from the human police and military forces. Some of the richer citizens of the Unders might attempt to bribe powerful Surface humans, but as this almost always fails due to the difference in value between Under and Surface money, it is something done only in emergencies.

[Lea Fealith]

Nice start, Rose.

I like the boomerang concept Whimsical. It adds a nice magical aspect to the concept.

I've finished four prompts so far: 2.7.8, 2.7.9, 3.1.4 and 3.1.6. So that's the number to beat at the moment for the sprint.

[Ysavvryl]

Sprint challenge, huh? Good luck to all of you doing that! biggrin

[Hebijou]

Just submitted my entry. In for the long haul.

Maybe I'll do the mini-contest too...does it count toward the March Sprint contest?

[JustAnotherRandomPoultry]

Hey, okay. I've been away for a long time, been meaning to come back and what better way to start than with a mini contest? Get my brain gears churning. Here goes.

I think I'll focus on the most important gifts in the Blue Flame. (If you don't feel this counts, I can find other, more in depth cultural stuff too emotion_awesome )

The Blue Flame is one of the most powerful nations, in wealth, military strength, and political power. How much more powerful would it be if it didn't happen to share a homeland with arguably the most powerful creatures on the planet? The dragons share the homeland of Golvana with the people of the Blue Flame, and to the dragons it would be nothing but a horrible annoyance. If it weren't for the tributes. Almost every reasonably powerful dragon has some sort of regular tribute from mortals set up, be it taxes from the territory they rule (technically illegal but you can bet the king won't do anything about it) or protection money from people they've taken under their protection. Whatever the case, almost every community knows the meaning of deadline, as every year or so a chunk of the local livestock, wealth, perhaps even people are carted up the mountain, never to be seen again. Of course this near robbery is painted as 'Wise gifts' by the dragons, cunning, conniving, and vain beasts that they are.

[Lea Fealith]

Eripsa

Just submitted my entry. In for the long haul.

Maybe I'll do the mini-contest too...does it count toward the March Sprint contest?

No, the mini contests don't count as part of the sprint, since it gives you 5k all by itself.

[whimsicaldreamer]

I think the boomerang does add a touch of a good aspect to it. I have also figured out a way to implement it.

And progress on the sprint (will be posted once I complete the section): 11.1.1 [done], 11.1.2 [done], 11.1.3 [thinking about], 11.1.6 [done], 11.1.9[done], 11.1.10 [done], 11.1.14 [done].

I think that is a good start considering they were all done today. (Although at the cost of falling behind on my other challenge.)

And it is good to see other people posting.

[sleeps with sheep]

Cool sprint idea for motivation! Unfortunately I won't be able to participate - much too much school work.

Have fun, guys =P

[Hebijou]

Oh, and in my haste I forgot to introduce myself. Hi! I'm Eripsa. I'm here to flesh out a world I've had clattering around my brain forever, and there's nothing like a contest to motivate me! Winning is nice, but the true reward is the writing, amirite?

Name: Eripsa
World Name: Oneira
Thread Link: Oneira

[The Love Mutt]

I keep feeling guilty about having dropped this entirely...

I would really, truly like to start up again... but I'm so far distanced from my land that I'm thinking of starting fresh, new land, new everything... Would that be okay? [I'd link soon as I begin/make some progress].

[whimsicaldreamer]

Maldia has Philosophy: Ungrouped done, so 17 prompts official for sprint month.

[Lea Fealith]

The Love Mutt

I keep feeling guilty about having dropped this entirely...

I would really, truly like to start up again... but I'm so far distanced from my land that I'm thinking of starting fresh, new land, new everything... Would that be okay? [I'd link soon as I begin/make some progress].

Yes, you can restart if you like. I'm a bit hesitant to let any prompts that were already completed for the prior world be counted for the sprint, but for the general challenge you can always restart.

Whimsical, doing good! I don't know if I'll be able to catch up to that.

[Lea Fealith]

JustAnotherRandomPoultry

Hey, okay. I've been away for a long time, been meaning to come back and what better way to start than with a mini contest? Get my brain gears churning. Here goes.

I think I'll focus on the most important gifts in the Blue Flame. (If you don't feel this counts, I can find other, more in depth cultural stuff too emotion_awesome )

The Blue Flame is one of the most powerful nations, in wealth, military strength, and political power. How much more powerful would it be if it didn't happen to share a homeland with arguably the most powerful creatures on the planet? The dragons share the homeland of Golvana with the people of the Blue Flame, and to the dragons it would be nothing but a horrible annoyance. If it weren't for the tributes. Almost every reasonably powerful dragon has some sort of regular tribute from mortals set up, be it taxes from the territory they rule (technically illegal but you can bet the king won't do anything about it) or protection money from people they've taken under their protection. Whatever the case, almost every community knows the meaning of deadline, as every year or so a chunk of the local livestock, wealth, perhaps even people are carted up the mountain, never to be seen again. Of course this near robbery is painted as 'Wise gifts' by the dragons, cunning, conniving, and vain beasts that they are.

Great idea, but the word minimum is 200. If you can add a little more detail I can give you the 5k.