Introduction to the original idea
For the sake of keeping the original record of how this project evolved, I offer the following reiteration from five year old (October 2020) reddit post of mine, that reflects on 18 months of initial conceptualization.
I intent on using this 3D sandbox as a platform to test and showcase the following hypothesis:
Is it possible to use complex worldbuilding
to provoke new unknown systems to emerge on their own?
I can talk at some lengths about the cultures ( arachnid beings are the maintainers of the realm, that in some fashion functions as a fantasy matrix, that evolves into a sci-fi setting ), that reside within the 'webbed mini-world' – but for this post, I would like to see any feedback on the general thought process.
Everything, including geography, fauna, flora, would in some shape or form reflect one or more systems. These systems range from purely mathematical (as with Fibonacci sequence, or geometry of platonic solids) to ideas from modern philosophy (Wittgenstein's unsuccessful logical approach to language, Derrida's ideas about narratives and process of deconstruction) and even esoteric lore (tarot – that doesn't have to be viewed as part of esoteric, poetry and thoughts of sufism and hermeticism, Kabbalah, astrology, etc.).
It's not that important what we use, if we use the above-mentioned systems intelligently and with a forethought of what is our intention. That intention being the use of the connected systems and fill in the data accordingly to see what could emerge. Our minds would help connect the dots and construct sense and logic.
In theory, that would bring us novel systems – for example a new way for storytelling, that would not be dependent on classic Hero's Journey and other overused schemes.
This effort is a bit bigger and would require an aid of machine learning and AI, but at the current state and with a bit of humour, I will simulate the big data and all the complicated things – this is an experiment, but I need to speak with people.
I'm not saying I have all the answers - I have this theory and would love to have a constructive discussion.
At this point, I will only provide a hint for the geography – the canopy of the over-arching Overtree actually leads to the middle of the world (not its roots), and the higher you get, the more weird it gets.
For the cultures, I have used 16 court cards from tarot. (That's one of the systems, with an underlining aim to create an extended tarot, which in turn will bring nine new cultures.) Each era of the simulation brings new 4 races - so that on the 4th era, there are all the court cards (and thus races, where I work with animals to further fullfil the complexity by adding associations and breaking them; plus there's a level of playing with the evolution of the culture and biology, especially for the early-comers ):
knight in fire (wands) = Quaggars or Quaggai (ferocious zebra folk), 4th era
queen in fire = Kotharakai (desert hounds or gnolls), 1st era
prince in fire = Daiodi (boar folk), 3rd era
daughter in fire = Goritaurs (ape/rhinoceros yeti/centaur), 2nd era
knight in water (cups) = Karchars (shark/crocodille folk), 3rd era
queen in water = Kalameghi or Tentaro (siren squid folk), 2nd era
prince in water = Arachi (spider folk), 1st era
daughter in water = Lutrans (otter folk), 4th era
knight in air (swords) = Ourangi (orangutan/ape folk), 2nd era
queen in air = Opitchaitsi or Aupitchai (monkey folk), 3rd era
prince in air = Nat-Bakka (bat folk), 4th era
daughter in air = Piir-Bakka (crow folk, later skeleton bird folk), 1st era
knight in earth (disks) = Loxodon or Eluabu (elephant folk), 1st era
queen in earth = Panterexi (tiger/panther/lion folk), 4th era
prince in earth = wild dwarves or Vousai, 2nd era
daughter in earth = Blijan (chameleon folk), 3rd era
16 cultures of Leccos
rendered by Stable Diffusion 1.5
In a way, all the cultures existed from the beginning of the world, but that's yet another level of complexity, which is not yet ready. (There will come some of the tibetan buddhism, hermeticism, matrix-like, non-dualistic, non-linear, soul ecology, etc. to play. ) The interesting part is that on the verge of the 5th era, sci-fi elements start to appear as I add the 5th suite/color/element. That would give us a glimpse of how the magic in the world works (and other systems ).
I have even prepared 14 races ( as Goritaurs and Piir-Bakka are not a good choice for player race ) for D'n'D 5th edition game. There are some more detailed information about most of the cultures as of the 4th era of the Leccos world. And all the cultures are hand drawn as well for the better picture.
See this Artstation link, or this reddit at Unearthed Arcana for the pdf.
