Voyager A ship stuck in the past, present, and future surrounded by a sea of sand Protected by Voyager Climate: The night is always dark and it is always slightly cold due to the constant darkness of Pluto. Environment: The entrance leading to the ship is surrounded by the normal trees usually seen on Pluto until one finally gets to the Wonder. Only then it can be seen that the Wonder is surrounded by nothing but sand. Structures: The entire Wonder is a ship that is very large in size (think of the types of ships in One Piece). The back of the ship and middle appear to be in relatively good condition. The hull however appears to look as though it has been ravaged by time and currently cannot be stepped into lest one wants to be injured. Notable Locations: Captains Quarters: the main area that the Knight lived in. Hull: The hull and most of the inside of the ship contains the stolen treasures that previous Knights of the Wonder plundered collected. However there is a series of doors and stairs that one must traverse to get to them. Other Notes: The entire Wonder is like a museum and most likely contains items from past lives of many other Wonders and Homeworlds. Player characters may be able to recognize some of these items that belong to their Homeworld/Wonder. They are also filled with items that the current Knight is collecting as well to display (with permission this time).
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2023 1:58 pm
Halle, Wonder of Lysithea Protected by Halle, a large bluebell forest, once known for its flowering beasts.
Climate: Days, nights, and seasons of about the same as those on earth's northern & western hemisphere. Environment: Almost entirely forested, save for a few ponds and lakes. The lavender grasses typical of Lysithea grow thick here, carpeted by bluebells that bloom year round. A large variety of trees grow within the forest, their leaves creating a horizon of greens, blues, and Lysithean pastels. While there are some hills, terrain that might once have been mountainous has been worn down to something much more gentle over the ages. Structures: The forest is peppered with a few small cabins and sheds, their sturdy exteriors still standing but beyond that time has stripped them of whatever lay inside, just leaving debris. There's only one large structure in the forest, a massive hunting lodge. In extreme disrepair, the lodge remained sealed shut and safe over the centuries, so while abandoned, much of the interior remains intact, if faded, dusty, and in extremely delicate condition. Currently only the first floor and basement are safely accessible. Notable Locations: There is a magic formation of several eyes within the forest, that creates a sort of invisible maze. Correctly navigating it leads one, and allows them access, to a special tree with a very particular trunk that they can enter to access to a massive underground area. Halle's code piece rests within the heart of this area.
Fauna:
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Tamblin Spinner: A palm sized spider-like insect, visually notable for the flower on its back, resembling the earth's tea rose. Their webs are distinct in their detailed patterning, which is intricate and lacelike. The Tamblin Spinner was the main component to several unique dyes during the Silver Millenium, which were rare due to laws protecting many of Halle's creatures from hunting and mass harvesting.
Their flower color spectrum is quite broad, and boldest in their early life, fading over time. By winter, most of that year's spinners are nearly white.
Spring and early summer are the most abundant and vibrant times for spinners within the forest, sometimes creating the impression of a slow moving floral festival. Populous nesting grounds were sometimes sought out for weddings.
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Spring Coquette: A mid-petaled slug, named for its spring color spectrum and fragrant trail of petals. Extremely toxic to ingest, though several of Halle's flowering beasts have evolved an immunity. With careful processing, their petals could be put to medicinal purpose.
As a fully processed poison (no longer feasible in modern times) the Coquette was slow acting. Over the course of several months, the main symptoms were simply discomfort as the flowers begun to take root in the stomach and intestines. As they began to bloom, the victim would emit a tell-tale fragrance in their sweat and other fluids, notably lovely. Often the coughing up of petals would follow, though on rare occasion the roots would redirect to the surface of the skin, instead. A slow and beautiful way to die.
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Frontwise Fascinator: A fairly petite crab, known for its ability to float in water via its air bladder, and for their delightful flavor which is greatly effected by water, food, local pollinators, and seasons.
The Fascinators of Halle were particularly prized, as the flowering forest created an environment that was both very clean and capable of instilling a wide variety of flavor.
Winter was the best time for harvesting fresh Fascinators, with the culinary Fascination Festival a highlight of the season.
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LadyBrow: A segmented creature known for it's floral "fuzz" that greatly varies in coloration, with hues that shift in the light.
One of many Lysithean creatures named in reference to the folk tale of a spring goddess, her name long since lost to time and simply referred to as "The Lady". It's said that piece by piece, she removed first her jewels and make-up, then her lovely features, and finally her bones, to beautify the world each year. She laid each piece of herself gently on the ground, trusting that the people of the moon would carefully tend to her living remains.
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Wandering Minske: A landbound hermit crab that prefers to use tree bark or firm dirt mounds for their homes. While aggressive toward perceived invaders, they often maintain a symbiotic relationship with small insects and even tiny colonies that make use of the "shell" surface.
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Blessings: Small, delicate mammals, rarely reaching above knee height. Known for their ruff-like petal collars. Extremely energetic, friendly, and curious. Not known for their intelligence. Dawn, Morning, Afternoon, Dusk, and Evening Blessings are solely differentiated by their colorations, not by the genetics of their herd (know as a "Bell"). Folk Lore says the first blessing you see, will be your luckiest time of that day.
Kaifeng, Wonder of Saturn “My Wonder is a perfectly lovely place and the exact correct amount of creepy; you’re all just mean”—Kaifeng, probably.
Climate: Perpetual twilight (it’s on Saturn, so that’s to be expected).
Environment: A river runs through the fields and by all rights, it should be scenic, beautiful, and soothing. However, it’s been stagnant since the fall of the Silver Millennium, so right now, the river is mostly a mess of toxic algal blooms and death. Liánlí wants very much to fix this, but has not yet figured out how to do so.
Structures:
The So-Called “Evil Wizard Tower”: Definitely the most typically Saturnian-looking structure here. Literally only Liánlí/Present Day Kaifeng calls it the “Evil Wizard Tower” (unless somebody else has been influenced by him to do so). In his day, Xingyi Kurogane/SilMil!Kaifeng called the tower Xuánhuán, 玄 “black, deep black, reddish black; deep, profound, mysterious” + 還 “to return”—so, “return to mysteries” or “return to the black.” Anyway, you can’t miss the thing, considering it’s dead-center in the middle of the fields and takes the shape of an enormous, gleaming black spire with edgelord gothic architecture. Most people find it creepy, but Liánlí-Kaifeng loves it. Guys, come on!! His evil wizard tower is AWESOME, what are you talking about!!
Don’t go inside the tower if you don’t have Kaifeng’s signet ring or a good plan for how to pull yourself out of the trapdoor you will fall down pretty much immediately. If you don’t have a plan, you will find yourself on a dirt floor, surrounded by skulls and skeletons belonging to assorted different humanoids, all sticking out of the walls like the Catacombs of Paris. During the Silver Millennium, the fields of Kaifeng would serve as a final resting place for anybody who needed one, regardless of where they’d come from or what their people were, so some of the skulls have remnants of antlers, horns, etc. Liánlí-Kaifeng thinks the skulls are great and endlessly charming.
There are ways up from said pit once you fall down there, though the only one Liánlí-Kaifeng has currently discovered goes into the wine cellar of the little cottage where Xingyi-Kaifeng used to live. Five different corridors branch out from the central pit, and Liánlí-Kaifeng currently only knows that one leads to the cottage, and one leads to a hole in the ground with a spike death-trap at the bottom. You should probably avoid the spiky death-trap.
Even if you somehow manage to avoid falling into the pit, or perhaps climb up out of it, there are all kinds of other things waiting in the tower to try and kill you. Back in the day, the fields of Kaifeng had a problem of decently renowned criminals and outlaws ending up buried there when nobody wanted to claim them after death. This led to a rush of would-be grave-robbers, who caused all kinds of problems for both Xingyi and the people of the nearby town. Xingyi filled the tower with various puzzles and traps specifically to ******** with would-be grave-robbers. No matter where they turned, they’d likely end up in an absurd death-trap that would make Gary “my players complained that my dungeon crawls were too easy, so I gave them the Tomb of Horrors” Gygax weep with joy.
Xingyi’s cottage: Calling it a “cottage” may be a bit of a misnomer, or at least kind of understate the reality of what’s going on here, physically. Xingyi Kurogane’s home on the grounds has two storeys, plus a basement (which was entirely used as a wine cellar and has a side-exit into a long underground tunnel).
Xingyi’s workroom: The out-building by the cottage where Xingyi took bodies to prepare them for burial and administer their people’s last rites inasmuch as he could. Occasionally, he took people who were dying in order to ease them through the process and make it as painless for them as possible. But mostly, the worktable in his out-building was used for preparing corpses prior to burying them.
The workroom also has an exceptionally well-stocked wine cellar underneath it. Liánlí-Kaifeng literally does not remember any of the four occasions on which he met his eldest sister’s husband, at least somewhat thanks to alcohol all four times, and he is frankly agog at how much wine and liquor is just chilling around Kaifeng. Every time he finds a new room in the tower, some part of him expects to find more liquor (and unfortunately, he’s not entirely wrong to expect that).
Also, hey, if you ever want Liánlí-Kaifeng to find some alcohol that was made on your senshi’s homeworld or your Knight’s wonder during the Silver Millennium, hit me up! You’ll get ultimate veto power over anything I write about said alcohol (I’ll hit you up with what I write before posting it to get your approval), and I’d love to work those details into a Wonder visit thread or solo sometime!
Notable Locations:
Xingyi Kurogane’s parents are buried together at Kaifeng, with a pomegranate tree planted over their graves. Although Liánlí-Kaifeng has been working to see the tree properly watered in his absences from Kaifeng—thanks to a non-magical device of Xingyi’s design and water from a nearby spring that is not technically part of Kaifeng the Wonder—the tree hasn’t borne fruit since Xingyi’s death, over a thousand years ago.
Nearby Kaifeng to the north is a settlement where people once lived outside the planet’s main sprawling city. Calling it a “town” is a bit generous but probably the most accurate possible name for it. The settlement consists of: the manor house belonging to the local noble family (Xingyi’s adoptive family who never actually adopted him); some smaller homesteads (some of which belonged to the noble family’s servants, though others belonged to people who weren’t employed by the Qiu family); a couple old shop-fronts; the old local theater; and the old trading post. Architecture style in town is extremely traditional Saturnian.
Because of the Wonder, the town near Kaifeng regularly entertained off-world guests who were here for various reasons related to the fields of Kaifeng, and the trading post was where they were allowed to congregate and sell or trade off-world goods to the locals or each other. Not much of this history remains at all visible in the present, but that has not stopped Liánlí-Kaifeng with growing fascinated by it.
There is a freshwater spring sort of between the southern boundary of town and the northern border of Kaifeng, which Liánlí-Kaifeng has been using to feed the water tank for Xingyi’s pomegranate tree irrigation system, since the river on the grounds itself is currently a mess with water that is unsafe to drink and generally useless.
Fauna:
Bejeweled Rock Lobsters: Despite what Kaifeng calls them (he’s not sorry), their biology and appearance are closer to the white-clawed crayfish. Most of their exoskeleton is a mottled brown color that gives them natural camouflage among the river. Their carapaces, however, come in a wide variety of colors that all look sort of like gemstones. Kaifeng defends his nomenclature by pointing out that they enjoy sunning themselves on rocks by the river’s shore.
Death’s-Head Spiders: Liánlí named them this, based on the markings on their abdomens: where a Black Widow spider would have a red hourglass shape, these spiders have a white marking that looks like a skull (imagine the Punisher’s skull symbol from Marvel; it’s very that). Most are approximately average tarantula size (~5 inches/13 cm) and jet black, though some may be more purple-toned than others. Despite their size and formidable appearance, they are actually gentle and quite friendly. They don’t bite very often, only when startled or threatened (their venom causes a mild skin irritation at the absolute most) and they really just want to be friends. Liánlí-Kaifeng loves his eight-legged babies and happily allows them to climb up his arms.
Gemstone Trilobites: Similar in shape and overall design to Earthling Trilobites from the Early Cambrian Period, save that these have evolved to live amphibiously, rather than exclusively in the ocean. The smallest (and usually youngest) ones are about half an inch long (~1.27 cm), while the largest of the fully grown adults get up to six inches long (15 cm). Extremely peaceful and friendly. Also, incredibly helpful because they’ve been eating some of the algal bloom that has built up in the river at Kaifeng’s wonder. They earned their name from the looks of their shells, which aren’t actually made of gemstones but come in vibrant colors and have a particular sheen that makes them resemble different kinds of Terran gemstones (e.g., purple ones that look like amethysts, red ones that look like rubies or garnets, black-and-red ones that look like bloodstone, pink ones that look like rose quartz, black-and-reddish-purple ones that look like black garnet tourmaline, etc).
Ghost Shrimp: Similar to Earthling crustaceans from the Caprellidae family, but adapted to live in Kaifeng’s freshwater river rather than a marine environment. About six inches long when uncurled. Very pale with a sort of wispy appearance. They blend in easily with the river’s assorted weeds and algae. Although closely related to the skeleton shrimp, they have a territorial rivalry.
Hairy Crabs: Exactly what it says on the tin. Little six-inch river crabs that come in assorted dark shades of brown. Their thoraic legs and claws are covered in black bristly hairs that function as sensory organs.
Hell Butterflies: Jet-black butterflies with red markings and a blue-purple iridescence to their wings. (borrowed from Song and Aokigahara, with permission!)
Obsidian Devil Crayfish: Similar to Earthling Devil crayfish, save that they are shiny jet black and incredibly durable. Amphibious crustaceans; they look like very small, black lobsters. They live in burrows near the riverbank, and feed on decaying matter in the water (or algae, as the case currently is……or some of Kaifeng’s other buggos).
Saturnian Fireflies: Creatures much like earth fireflies; however, instead of glowing yellow, their phosphorescence is red, blue, or purple. (borrowed from Song and Aokigahara, with permission!)
Saturnian Silk Moths: Basically just Earthling Bombyx moths, but: A. they also have silk spinnerets, similar to spiders; and B. they are closer to wild silk-moths than the Bombyx mori moths that usually get used for Terran sericulture, not least because they can still fly. Xingyi/PL!Kaifeng cultivated silk moths in order to create burial shrouds for some of the people interred at his Wonder. Normal sericulture practices upset him deeply, and he worked to raise the moths as humanely as possible.
Skeleton Shrimp: Similar to Earthling crustaceans from the Caprellidae family, but adapted for freshwater. About six inches long when uncurled. Very pale, with a harder outer shell than the ghost shrimp; they look like little skeleton monsters and don’t blend in with anything. Fight viciously with the ghost shrimp.
Spectral Butterflies: Despite the name that Liánlí-Kaifeng has given them, they are entirely non-magical. Can range in size from normal Earth butterfly size (wingspan of ~2.5 inches/6.35 cm) to much larger (maximum wingspan of about 6 inches/15 cm). They come in several different deathly shades that, in various ways, call to mind death, dying, and the dead: varying shades or degrees of white, off-white, silver, gray (again, exact shades and tones vary widely), a sort of pale grayish-green, a sort of bluish-tinted white like what you might see in severely anemic people with naturally pale skin-tones, etc. Patterns on the wings also vary widely. Many seem to enjoy the different rooms in the tower and cottage where Xingyi kept books.
Starbright Snails: Very similar in appearance to the Terran quick glosssnails, save that the largest adults can get up to 6 inches/15 cm long (average size is closer to 3 inches/7.5 cm). Their dark purple to black bodies have white flecks that look like stars, hence their name, and their mucus has an iridescent sheen that looks particularly galaxy pattern-adjacent under Saturn’s perpetual twilight. Shells have a similar sheen to them; common colors include black, white, light to dark brown, blue, purple, and sometimes, an amalgam of blue, purple, and pink with white flecks that resembles galaxy print.
Tiny Dancers: Basically, imagine a Flabellinaaffinis (Animalia.bio, World Register of Marine Species) that has evolved to live on land/semi-amphibiously. Adorable wiggly slug bois, most of them about 4 inches/10 cm long (though some can get up to 6 inches long), with clumps of wavy tendrils along their backs. They come in various shades of pink, red, purple, magenta, indigo, and fuchsia. The antler-looking stalks at their fronts are primarily sensory organs, both too small and too sensitive to do any damage.
Other Notes: Kaifeng is nearby a wonder called Asshai [link to a SilMil writeup in the past lives almanac forthcoming] and its surrounding settlement. The temple complex of Asshai should have a happy little Saturn Knight all its own……but unfortunately, he’s a Negaverse Agent in this life and quite happy with that, thanks. Lucky for Kaifeng’s curiosity, he can still get into the settlement around the temple complex, which has a lot of places for him to stick his nose.
Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2024 6:55 pm
Puck, Moon of Uranus A tiny, twilit world covered in forests, overseen by the Senshi of the Woods
Climate: Puck is blessed with a cool temperate climate year-round. It exists in permanent semi-twilight due to its distance from the sun, with the vast blue orb of Uranus providing most of the light. There is a brief night period.
Environment: The surface is blanketed by dense forests of ancient twisting hardwood trees, the forest floors covered with fallen leaves and twigs and bushes and brambles and ferns. What wildlife there was were insects, most being tame -- fireflies, huge dragonflies and butterflies, enormous millipedes and pillbug things called mosies used for transportation, caterpillars raised for their silk, stingless bees raised for their honey, small iridescent beetles and crickets kept as pets. There were no birds, reptiles or mammals on Puck; those ecological niches were all filled by insects. The apex predators of the world were huge wolf spiders, who lived in the trees and preyed on smaller mosies or millipedes.
Structures: The Puckish people lived primarily in small family groups on subsistence farms in small villages interspersed through the forests across the tiny world's surface. The capital city of Arden was itself barely larger than a village. Dirt roads interconnected the villages, oftentimes appearing concave in shape, as though some huge creatures had worn the surrounding forest floor down with their comings and goings. The homes on Puck were treehouses, literally -- immense living trees cultivated and hollowed out into comfortable dwellings of all sizes, complete with windows. On the taller trees, the upper levels were accessible from the outside by stairs formed out of the tree itself or ramps winding through the trees. Even the royal castle in Arden was formed from a massive stand of hollowed-out trees growing together into a single unit.
Notable Locations:
The Senshi's Hometree: The Stone Beacon: The Guardian's Cave: The Royal Castle:
Other Notes:
The people of Puck, referred to as the Puckish, were a playful folk, resourceful and hardy. They were master bodgers and foresters, making what they needed from the land and cast-off technology from other worlds. Fiercely independent, The Puckish were fairly low-tech, reliant on imported tech from other worlds which they would then bodge together into whatever it was they needed; this extended to their space-faring endeavors, which were limited and patchwork at best. Their energy needs were largely provided by the wind, with huge windmills poking above the forest canopy.
Puck was led by a simple hereditary monarchy. Somewhat distrustful of the Moon Kingdom, politically they by and large went how Uranus went -- not that it mattered, as the tiny moon held very little political power. Puck maintained political and trade alliances with Uranus and its other moons. The new Senshi was chosen from amongst the moon's children; following a brief ceremony, they would go on a quest into the sacred woods surrounding the castle to find the Guardian, a giant mosie which would select the new Senshi from those who found it first.
Flora: TBD
Fauna:
Fireflies of some sort, visible even during what passes for daytime Small mosies, about three inches long; Puck keeps one as a pet (he named it Iggy)
Tjilaki, the Asteroid General summary or brief description of the Homeworld or Wonder Climate: Tjilaki was known for its ever-changing climate, with blizzards sweeping across the landscape at a moment's notice. The Tjilakiians had learned to adapt to the harsh conditions, seeking shelter in their sturdy ice dwellings and bundling up in layers of fur to brave the icy winds.
The summers were brief but vibrant, with the sun casting a golden hue over the glaciers and thawing the frozen rivers that snaked through the land. During these precious warm months, the Tjilakiians would gather for festivals of song and dance, celebrating the bounty of the land and offering thanks to the ice goddess for her benevolence.
Environment: The landscape of Tjilaki was a harsh, unforgiving beauty. The sparse foliage consisted mostly of twisted ice trees, their gnarled branches reaching towards the sky as if in prayer. These stoic sentinels provided shelter for a variety of creatures, from small rodents to majestic snow leopards with piercing blue eyes. But the true jewels of this frozen world were the delicate frost flowers that bloomed in the cracks of icy rocks. Each petal glimmered like a diamond under the pale light of the twin moons, a testament to the resilience and resilience of life in this extreme environment. The Tjilakiians revered these plants and animals, believing them to be sacred gifts from their ice goddess. To harm or destroy any living being here was to commit a grave sin against nature itself.
The Topography of Tjilaki was a marvel of icy wonders, with towering glaciers carving their way through the landscape like frozen rivers of crystal. The mountains loomed overhead, their peaks dusted with snow that sparkled in the sunlight. Deep crevasses scarred the land, leading to hidden caves and tunnels where the Tjilakiians sought refuge during the fiercest blizzards. At the heart of Tjilaki stood the Glacier of Eternity, a massive ice formation said to be as old as time itself. Legends whispered of ancient spirits trapped within its icy depths, watching over the land and guiding the fate of its inhabitants.
Structures: The structures in Frosthaven reflected the Tjilakiians' deep connection to the ice and their reverence for their homeland. The buildings were carved from solid blocks of glacial ice, expertly chiseled into intricate patterns that shimmered in the moonlight. Each structure told a story of the people who built it, with symbols of the ice goddess and the bounty of the land etched into every surface.
The central structure of Frosthaven was the Ice Palace, a towering edifice that loomed over the city like a guardian spirit. Its spires reached towards the heavens, gleaming with a frosty sheen that never melted, no matter how warm the sun shone. Within its icy halls, the High Ice Priestess held court, her presence commanding respect and awe from all who entered.
Surrounding the Ice Palace were the dwellings of the Tjilakiians, each one a masterpiece of ice architecture
The Ice Palace in Frosthaven was a breathtaking structure, its towering spires reaching towards the sky like frozen fingers. The entire palace was crafted from shimmering blocks of ice, intricately carved with scenes depicting the history and mythology of the Tjilakiians.
As the heart of the city, it stood as a testament to their reverence for the ice goddess and their mastery of ice carving. Despite the ever-changing climate, the Ice Palace remained a marvel of architecture, its walls glistening with frost and icicles year-round. Inside, the halls echoed with whispers of ancient ceremonies and the soft glow of ice lanterns illuminated intricate ice sculptures that adorned every corner.
The High Ice Priestess resided in the inner sanctum of the palace, her chambers kept at a constant temperature to honor her connection to the ice goddess. Visitors marveled at the grandeur of the Ice Palace, feeling a sense of peace and wonder in its icy embrace.
Notable Locations: (Has your character discovered any important areas? Any locations that were previously hidden? Are there areas that are important to your character or the lore of the Wonder?)
Other Notes: (Is your Knight Wonder near another Knight Wonder? Do you have approved items or trinkets you can recover from your Homeworld to distribute as gifts? Is there anything else worth noting about your Homeworld or Wonder?)
Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 2:45 pm
[Lyonesse, Wonder of Earth] An island protected by high seawalls, with a great ancient tree known as the Sun Tree growing in the center.
Climate: Generally, sunny--it often seems to be a perpetual pleasant summer, here.
Environment: As a small island, it's mostly flat. The island is technically below sea level, but its great, enchanted seawall protects it.
Structures: There are crumbling buildings in a late medieval style, made of wood and stonework.
Notable Locations:
The Sun Tree: The great tree at the center of Lyonesse, visually similar to a weeping cherry tree, from which its natural magic emanates. Its roots run throughout the city, and many of the magics on Lyonesse draw from its well of power. Knight's Manor: The home of Knight Lyonesse and his immediate staff, and also a "city hall" of sorts where citizens were welcomed in to debate the issues of the day.
Fauna: Note: Most fauna on Lyonesse is just...Earth creatures!
Planet Fang A sunny planet with lots of wide open space. Climate: The climate is similar to the Cerrado in South America, a wetter savanna with a semi-humid tropical climate, which averages between 22 and 27 °C over the year between both the wet and the dry seasons. Environment: Mostly, the planet is open canopy forest (tree savanna) with strips of riparian forests near streams and smaller random pockets of closed canopy forests (gallery forests). Night and day work similarly to Earth. Structures: Structures tend to be wood, mud, brick. They look weathered and dilapidated, but mostly still stand fairly strong with few collapses. Notable Locations: a small village Fang grew up near, the planet's capitol [unnamed because Fang himself does not remember] Other Notes: Approved item:Chrysocoin of Comfort. A small, exquisitely carved, wooden coin with a chrysocyon paw carved into it. The coin itself is a light wood, almost birch in appearance, and the paw is stained to a rich mahogany dark shade. Rub the coin over the paw, and a feeling of comfort will embrace you, as if you've just had a long conversation with a good friend of yours. It can be used once per day, and the magic lasts for up to ten minutes in non battle environments.
Flora: tall grasses, trees
Fauna: grasshoppers, butterflies, fireflies, ticks, pinstriped tickbats, anak [dwarf] rabbits, rapai [racing stripe] lizards, limdos [aka slimes aka slugs], chimney swifts [type of bird Fang has no Fangan name for yet], winchels [a small, fast bird that hunts the rapai lizards], mosquitos
Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2025 1:33 pm
Murikabushi, the Asteroid The ruins of a great, cosmopolitan society, their many cultures, and their bloody revolution.
Climate: (What is the weather like? Does it have days and nights like Earth or how does it vary?)
Environment: (What type of environment is in the area? What sorts of foliage does it have? What is the topography of the area?)
Structures: (Are there any noticeable structures? Is there a specific style of architecture? Are there visible buildings? What state are they in?)
Notable Locations: (Has your character discovered any important areas? Any locations that were previously hidden? Are there areas that are important to your character or the lore of the Wonder?)
Fauna:
Butterflies: they are basically just normal butterflies. Common colors include purples, pinks, reds, black, etc. Heart or rose-shaped patterns are common on their wings. Discovered by Muri and Sonora, July 24th 2024.
Miniature Rabbits: Very smol, very friendly. Short-haired buns with perky, upright ears. At their full size, they can be easily held in an adult’s palms. In addition to normal earthling coat patterns and colors for bunnies, some of them come in different shades of purple. Discovered by Muri, Kaifeng, and Helene, October 20th 2024.
Teacup Piglets: tiny pigs that come in all colors of the rainbow. Fully grown, they are still small enough to be held in the palms of both hands. Were once kept as pets by the elites of Murikabushi. Discovered by Muri, Fang, and Yuki, October 13th 2024 (a bit of follow-up on them given by Helene, October 20th 2024).
Other Notes: I’ll be back to actually fill more of this in later, okay. I just need to have the post up.
Senshi Homeworld or Knight Wonder and Planet - Tempesti The ruins of a once vibrant civilization dot a slowly reawakening landscape.
Climate: The planet generally has a mediterranean climate. It has day/night cycles that are somewhat shorter than Earth’s and slightly lower gravity due to the smaller size of the planet.
Environment: Most of the planet’s land masses are rocky and mountainous, with arable land highly sought after and contested by political and military powers. As with Earth, most of Tempesti is covered with oceans, with most major cities forming near warm water ports and along rivers. Some simple plants are beginning to sprout as Sailor Tempesti explores.
Structures: Light-colored Brabantine Gothic (lots of pointed arches, groin-vaulted ceilings, tracery, etc. etc.) with metal art nouveau accents on exterior and interiors of buildings. As of now, most of them are derelict with none serving as a perfect shelter for any visitors.
Notable Locations: Tempesti has begun exploring the capital city of Keraunos and seen the Tower of the Winds from the shore.
Other Notes: None yet
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2025 9:44 am
A small castle, keep, associated courtyard, and patch of uncultivated land, on the banks of a river and within view of the ocean, notable as a haven of chivalry and exalted romance - but also the home of Knights prone to practical ideas about necessary violence.
Climate: Temperate and Earthlike; generally pleasant but often prone to light rain and chilly mornings and evenings. Follows a typical day/night cycle. Generally breezy and airy, with frequent wind and foggy mornings due to its proximity to the water.
Environment: Temperate forest; the main structures are located on a woody ridge of manmade hill and designed to overlook the river and ocean more than any terrestrial approach. The river is broad and slow-moving, with pebbled banks and overhanging trees. The side of the castle away from the river was once sheltered by a broad manmade moat which ran right up against the curtain walls on this side, but this has long since grown over and mostly dried up, leaving only swampy areas here and there. Walking along the curtain walls on this side of the structure puts one at about eye level with the tops of the trees occupying the former moat.
Structures: The most intact structure is a towered keep, small but fortified. It oversees an overgrown bailey and is ringed with largely-intact curtain walls, although the curtain walls running down towards the river have largely collapsed, leaving behind scraps of interior staircases that make them scalable. On top of this curtain wall is where most visitors to the Wonder will arrive. Outbuildings are almost entirely inaccessible, and the gatehouse - itself in ruins - oversees an impassable bit of of architectural collapse, so it's easier to just go in via the curtain wall and directly into the main hall, which is situated above the ground floor. There are several underground and partially-underground structures as well, including a chapel (uncovered and accessible, although still quite overgrown) and a maze of crypts and storerooms, which remain unexplored.
OOC note: The architecture is generally in-keeping with circa 1000-1050 France, but with some later medieval creative liberties mostly borrowed from post-1066 Norman conquest buildings in what is now England, and some later liberties (mostly, the tiltyard). This extends to the artwork and ornamentation as well, which is generally 11th-century accurate, but has some later-medieval creative liberties.
Notable Locations: Still being explored.
Keep - Primary living and work area. Surrounded by squared towers, from which the ocean can be seen. Most windows were always unglazed; those that were glazed have lost their glass, save for one or two panes which remain and are brightly painted (albeit very chipped and faded). With arched ceilings and tiled floors, and with the remnants of painted plaster murals still clinging to both the walls and the ceilings and the rotted threads of old tapestries still clinging to empty bars on the walls, it is clear that it was once a place of some opulence.
The main hall, located above the ground floor, has been cleared of debris and greenery; identified rooms that are still largely too cluttered by debris and plantlife to access include a trophy hall (with antlers and skulls still on the walls), a small armory (largely empty; the remnants rotted or rusted beyond usefulness), and a living quarters area on the ground floor which is entirely stripped of useable furniture. Staircases to the roof are useable and cleared of debris.
Most of the ornamentation depicts scenes of romance or hunting, and it does appear that one is a metaphor for the other, although it's not clear in which direction the metaphor is intended to go...
Bailey - The central courtyard, largely overgrown but with some cleared areas. While largely built for function rather than form, there is an expanse of tiled courtyard before the bottom floors of the keep and near the fallen gatehouse - featuring beautiful mosaics but the worse for wear. The ruin of the gatehouse is covered in fragrant white flowers and ivy. Notably large for a structure as small as the castle itself is, as it was sometimes also used as a training area and tiltyard. The outbuildings are almost entirely disintegrated; a few small stone store-rooms and towers remain, in varying degrees of accessible and intact.
Chapel - Semi-sunken structure accessible but still partially overgrown. Encompasses a central dias with a richly-engraved platform and altar, and walls engraved with humans and creatures of all kinds. Lit by narrow slit-windows at ceiling height, and by battery-operated fairy lights and a few candles. Converted to something like a bedroom/quarters, with the bed rather sacrilegiously made up on the altar, for lack of any better place to put it.
River A large stretch of bank is fully accessible and forms a sort of beach area, with a combination of sand and pebbles on the bank, as well as numerous large, flat rocks (great for sunbathing, if it's not cold and rainy!). The water is cool and slow-moving, and the remainder of the banks are shaded and overhung with old trees and thick undergrowth.
Crypts - Unexplored
Forest - Unexplored
Fauna Fauna on the Garde is largely normal Earth animals, but the carvings and paintings seem to suggest that perhaps some things more fantastical may have once lived here, and may one day be seen again.
Spiders - so far only one is known - some sort of argiope - and has made an impressive web in the keep's main hall. Presumably there are others around.
Dragonflies - appear in various colors over the river and nearby.
Crickets - easier to observe audibly than visually; they begin singing around dusk and continue throughout the night, especially near the river.
Cicadas - another noise-making denizen, which contributes a gentle racket during the midday hours.
Bumblebees - fat and cheerful residents of the Garde's more floral areas.
Crayfish - abundant in particular areas in the shallower areas of the river.
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