Lodestone
I still plan on writing a series of novels in this world.
The idea for the world came from a doodle I drew during one of my more boring classes. It was a series of covered wagons with no wheels floating their way towards a majestic city in the middle of a prairie. In my effort to figure out why they would be floating, I came up with "lodestone," a brittle, grey shale-like rock which is able to reduce the pull of gravity. A new world, based on the technology that such a material would bring about, was created.
As I developed the history of the world, I decided that it was a future version of our own Earth. Over the years, the mystery of how our world changed so dramatically (from a world of technology to a world of magic) would take several turns before it found its current iteration. I only ran one adventure in this world, but I would like to do so again some day.
The idea for the world came from a doodle I drew during one of my more boring classes. It was a series of covered wagons with no wheels floating their way towards a majestic city in the middle of a prairie. In my effort to figure out why they would be floating, I came up with "lodestone," a brittle, grey shale-like rock which is able to reduce the pull of gravity. A new world, based on the technology that such a material would bring about, was created.
As I developed the history of the world, I decided that it was a future version of our own Earth. Over the years, the mystery of how our world changed so dramatically (from a world of technology to a world of magic) would take several turns before it found its current iteration. I only ran one adventure in this world, but I would like to do so again some day.
Map of the world of Lodestone
While I might simply use a map of the modern world were I to start again, this map was my creation for Lodestone. I wanted a more natural look for the continents than I had for Dragon World, so I based them on natural formations. The massive continent to the left is based on a Pangea map that I found in an old atlas. The large, long continent on the right is based on the shading of the top craters of the moon that is then rotated 90 degrees.
The world we know has shifted according to this map. The massive continent on the left is a reverse of Pangea. Eastern Europe is in the upper left-hand corner with Africa below it. Asia has shifted and rotated to become the bottom left of the continent, with a combined Australia and Indonesia at the bottom with South America (in two parts) crashing into it. The upper right of the continent is what is left of North and Central America. Antarctica has split into three parts and is to the south of the long continent, which is mostly a new continent that rose from the center of what had been the Atlantic Ocean. Spain and part of France are that long island to the right of the long continent. What's left of Scandinavia is that bit to the north.
Basically, the world has been torn apart by three apocalyptic events: an initial nuclear war which began the sightings of lodestone and the advent of "magic," second world war that combined magic and technology, and a third war between the most powerful mages of the world. Each war broke the Earth a little more and gave lodestone more and more power.
The world we know has shifted according to this map. The massive continent on the left is a reverse of Pangea. Eastern Europe is in the upper left-hand corner with Africa below it. Asia has shifted and rotated to become the bottom left of the continent, with a combined Australia and Indonesia at the bottom with South America (in two parts) crashing into it. The upper right of the continent is what is left of North and Central America. Antarctica has split into three parts and is to the south of the long continent, which is mostly a new continent that rose from the center of what had been the Atlantic Ocean. Spain and part of France are that long island to the right of the long continent. What's left of Scandinavia is that bit to the north.
Basically, the world has been torn apart by three apocalyptic events: an initial nuclear war which began the sightings of lodestone and the advent of "magic," second world war that combined magic and technology, and a third war between the most powerful mages of the world. Each war broke the Earth a little more and gave lodestone more and more power.
The Four Ages
I know; having the world divided into ages has become a bit of a fantasy cliche. Still, at the time I created it, this sort of division made sense when trying to explain how our world could become so radically different. Upon reexamination, I still hold with the original concept. Not only does it make sense, but it also gives me possible settings for other stories set in the various ages.
The First Age -
This is us, so there's not much to explain. Life as we know it ends with a chain-effect war of mass destruction, leaving some areas uninhabitable even to the fourth age. The idea for Lodestone rattled around in my brain in the early post-Soviet Union era. I was not convinced that we had avoided nuclear annihilation, so my original scenario was very much influenced by the Cold War.
The Second Age -
People are pulling themselves out of the wreckage in a rather standard post-apocalyptic world, with three exceptions: electricity no longer works, floating rocks have been found near the later sites of mass destruction, and a few people seem to be able to use what can only be called magic. The first is a major concern as it makes a horrible situation even worse. Lightning still flashes in the sky, people can still stick balloons to the wall after rubbing them on their heads, but controllable, sustainable electricity is gone. The second is largely unnoticed as the areas where lodestone (as this floating stone is called due to its magnetic properties) is found are still not habitable by humans. The third takes a while to manifest, and then for news of it to spread, but when it does, it shakes people's beliefs to their cores.
People fight over the meager resources that are left using technology that had been largely (though not completely) abandoned for over a hundred years. Ironically, areas of the Earth that had been ignored in the first age now become the primary focus of humanity as much of the "first world" countries had been devastated, and even poisoned, by the apocalypse. Steam technology returns with people even creating "steam-punk" machines that work like computers. Firearms are still usable and an "Old West" mentality grips much of the population. Humanity learns to live without electronics in this steam-filled age, but it also falls back to early industrial age sorts of treatment. Unfortunately, humanity also learns how to adapt some of its more fearsome weapons from the first age. After a few hundred years a second apocalypse falls. (I have not decided if it is a war or a terrible accident.)
The Third Age -
The minor societies of the second age are the first to step out of this destruction, partially because these societies had embraced the magical elements of their world and partially because they were further separated from the power of the steam-based societies. Like the annihilation of the first age, this world-wide destruction has brought changes. The continents themselves have changed a bit. Portions have submerged, others have risen. A few areas, such as much of Africa and Central Asia, have remained largely untouched.
Steam power and explosives no longer operate properly or predictably. One can use such devices, but mishaps (from the inert to the volatile) are now more common than what had been normal actions. Magic, meanwhile, has grown in power--both in direct strength and in the number of people who can use it. People start to depend on magic the way they had depended on electronics and medicine in the first age, especially due to the unpredictability of technology from the other ages.
Also, strange creatures, some shadows of stories, some wholly new beasts, begin to walk, fly, and swim across the Earth. Some people believe that they have returned from wherever they were hiding in the ages of technology, some believe that they are creations of previous ages or misguided mages that have finally freed themselves, and some believe they are products of the poisoned lands.
Lastly, lodestone has also increased in its prevalence. People start to use this floating rock and the magic of the world to create a new kind of technology. A few enterprising mages discover that magic used with lodestone can magnify their powers exponentially. (In an effort to reclaim irradiated East Asia, one particularly powerful sorceress even lifts a significant landmass into the air with the use of magic and an immense amount of lodestone.) Armageddon, with weapons of magic enhanced with lodestone, begins. Great power with little understanding and unbridled ambition breaks the world a third time.
The Fourth Age -
The world is significantly different (as can be seen on my map of the world). A new continent has risen. Humanity has somehow survived a third calamity. The dangers of magic and lodestone are now apparent and the new societies either ban the use of magic (since lodestone seems so harmless and is now in even larger quantities) or tightly control those who can use it. Those who use magic are now much more careful in using it around lodestone and seek to attune themselves with this strange substance rather than try to dominate it. Societies of the more intelligent creatures that rose in the third age have begun to develop next to and even compete with their human neighbors. Empires and religions have formed and fallen since the third breaking. Hundreds of years have passed, and dragons have been sighted at the edges of civilized lands. Some (including a few who have learned how to catch glimpses of the future) believe that the world may soon break again, and that humanity might not survive it this time.
The First Age -
This is us, so there's not much to explain. Life as we know it ends with a chain-effect war of mass destruction, leaving some areas uninhabitable even to the fourth age. The idea for Lodestone rattled around in my brain in the early post-Soviet Union era. I was not convinced that we had avoided nuclear annihilation, so my original scenario was very much influenced by the Cold War.
The Second Age -
People are pulling themselves out of the wreckage in a rather standard post-apocalyptic world, with three exceptions: electricity no longer works, floating rocks have been found near the later sites of mass destruction, and a few people seem to be able to use what can only be called magic. The first is a major concern as it makes a horrible situation even worse. Lightning still flashes in the sky, people can still stick balloons to the wall after rubbing them on their heads, but controllable, sustainable electricity is gone. The second is largely unnoticed as the areas where lodestone (as this floating stone is called due to its magnetic properties) is found are still not habitable by humans. The third takes a while to manifest, and then for news of it to spread, but when it does, it shakes people's beliefs to their cores.
People fight over the meager resources that are left using technology that had been largely (though not completely) abandoned for over a hundred years. Ironically, areas of the Earth that had been ignored in the first age now become the primary focus of humanity as much of the "first world" countries had been devastated, and even poisoned, by the apocalypse. Steam technology returns with people even creating "steam-punk" machines that work like computers. Firearms are still usable and an "Old West" mentality grips much of the population. Humanity learns to live without electronics in this steam-filled age, but it also falls back to early industrial age sorts of treatment. Unfortunately, humanity also learns how to adapt some of its more fearsome weapons from the first age. After a few hundred years a second apocalypse falls. (I have not decided if it is a war or a terrible accident.)
The Third Age -
The minor societies of the second age are the first to step out of this destruction, partially because these societies had embraced the magical elements of their world and partially because they were further separated from the power of the steam-based societies. Like the annihilation of the first age, this world-wide destruction has brought changes. The continents themselves have changed a bit. Portions have submerged, others have risen. A few areas, such as much of Africa and Central Asia, have remained largely untouched.
Steam power and explosives no longer operate properly or predictably. One can use such devices, but mishaps (from the inert to the volatile) are now more common than what had been normal actions. Magic, meanwhile, has grown in power--both in direct strength and in the number of people who can use it. People start to depend on magic the way they had depended on electronics and medicine in the first age, especially due to the unpredictability of technology from the other ages.
Also, strange creatures, some shadows of stories, some wholly new beasts, begin to walk, fly, and swim across the Earth. Some people believe that they have returned from wherever they were hiding in the ages of technology, some believe that they are creations of previous ages or misguided mages that have finally freed themselves, and some believe they are products of the poisoned lands.
Lastly, lodestone has also increased in its prevalence. People start to use this floating rock and the magic of the world to create a new kind of technology. A few enterprising mages discover that magic used with lodestone can magnify their powers exponentially. (In an effort to reclaim irradiated East Asia, one particularly powerful sorceress even lifts a significant landmass into the air with the use of magic and an immense amount of lodestone.) Armageddon, with weapons of magic enhanced with lodestone, begins. Great power with little understanding and unbridled ambition breaks the world a third time.
The Fourth Age -
The world is significantly different (as can be seen on my map of the world). A new continent has risen. Humanity has somehow survived a third calamity. The dangers of magic and lodestone are now apparent and the new societies either ban the use of magic (since lodestone seems so harmless and is now in even larger quantities) or tightly control those who can use it. Those who use magic are now much more careful in using it around lodestone and seek to attune themselves with this strange substance rather than try to dominate it. Societies of the more intelligent creatures that rose in the third age have begun to develop next to and even compete with their human neighbors. Empires and religions have formed and fallen since the third breaking. Hundreds of years have passed, and dragons have been sighted at the edges of civilized lands. Some (including a few who have learned how to catch glimpses of the future) believe that the world may soon break again, and that humanity might not survive it this time.
The Secret [spoiler]
Lodestone is made of (mostly) inert nanobots (robots that exist on the nanometer scale). Designed to do anything from repairing cellular structure to turning trash into usable material on a molecular level, nanobots have the ability to replicate and to draw both energy and materials from their environment in order to carry out their tasks. Developed to interact and be programmed wirelessly and literally with a thought (thanks to improved brain-based methods of interaction), these nanobots evolve over the ages to work at the thought-given commands of certain human beings. They are the source of the "magic" of the world. The complicated gestures, components, and words of "spells" are actually programs that "mages" have inadvertently (for the most part) learned to use to create the effects (from healing and building to flying and fire) they desire. Due to their ability to communicate at a quantum level, and since they are everywhere in the world by the third age, someone or something competent enough can use the vast amount of data they collect to rather accurately predict future events (as well as know present and past events that are otherwise considered secret). Using materials that allow them to manipulate gravity and magnetic fields, these nanobots combine once (mostly) inert, drawn to each other to form the shale-like gray rock (they are created from carbon-based elements rather than metals) called lodestone. It is these devices that sucked the electricity dry in the second age and that interfered with steam and explosion based technologies in the third age. It is almost as though they are trying to stop humanity from destroying itself. Is it due to their early programming, is some intelligence controlling them, or have they developed an intelligence of their own?
... I haven't decided yet.
... I haven't decided yet.