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Vanillite the Dragonslayer's World-Building Notes


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Okay, I'm sure that by now, some of you know my secret identity, do I really need to explain/hide it? I'm going to post my world-building notes here, just in case anyone wants to read them. I'll try to retrieve some of my messages to COOKIECHEESEMAN, as I remember telling him a lot of the stuff regarding FE. But since I'm too lazy to get them right now, here are some other notes.

The Existence Clause

Spoiler

"In order for a deity to continue existing, they must have a sizable group of mortals (not necessarily worshipers) that acknowledge their existence, and/or their sphere (domain, like Poseidon->Sea or Sheogorath->Madness) must continue to exist." This is the fundamental concept of the Existence Clause. It applies to many worlds, such as the Riordanverse (Camp Half-Blood, Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase) and possibly the Elder Scrolls universe. For example, if the mortals somehow manage to evaporate the oceans, boom, there goes Poseidon. Basically, the deities are personifications of aspects of reality. The gods are beings of pure energy, given souls. However, one universe is exempt from this rule, and turns it on its head.

The Reverse Existence Clause

Spoiler

In the Pokémon universe, the deities (Legendary Pokémon) influence their sphere, and not the other way around like in other universes. For example, physics does not define Palkia; Palkia defines physics. Legendary Pokémon define their portion of reality; it is subject to their will. Lunala could hurl the moon into the Earth. Solgaleo could turn the sun into a deadly laser. Dialga can create an infinite time loop if he wanted to bargain. Of course, this means that if the deity is somehow incarcerated or fades from existence, then their sphere slowly will fade. If Giratina is controlled against its will by another being, the Pokémon universe will slowly deplete its antimatter reserves, Distortion World and Ultra Space included. This leads to disastrous results, as the matter-antimatter ratio of each realm is perfectly balanced, in a way as all things should be. Each legendary is the source of their aspect of reality, which could not exist without them.

Some legendaries, such as the Regis and Musketeers, don't really have a sphere they control. Instead, they are the guardians of what they represent. The Regis guard the past, and the Musketeers uphold justice.

TL, DR; Legendary Pokémon define/control their aspects of reality, while the aspects of other realities define the deities there.

The Nature of Souls

Spoiler

Any sentient being brought about by gods or reproduction is guaranteed to have a soul. A soul's level of sentience/sapience can be defined on a scale. Humans are 1.0, and so are other similar beings, such as dominant races on alien planets, such as the Yugopotamians from the Fairly OddParents. Sorry, that's the only one I can think of, right now.

Humanoid beings that have supernatural powers but not as powerful as gods, such as fairies and ghosts, lie around 5-10 on the scale. Ghosts are an interesting case, as those originating from the consciousness of dead humans are elevated to this level from their previous 1.0 grade.

On the flipside, common Pokémon lie around 0.1-0.9 on the scale. This includes artificial Pokémon such as Porygon and Magnemite, as Arceus was gracious enough to give souls to any artificial Pokémon brought about by progress.

100 is the lower limit of godhood. This includes mortals who have achieved apotheosis from a strong following or their deeds, and lesser gods such as Hecate and Iris of the Greek Pantheon.

500 is that lower limit of Legendary Pokémon, such as Jirachi and Meloetta. This tier is inhabited by the "cultural" Legendary Pokémon, those that represent humanity's heart.

1,000-2000 is much more powerful. The scope of their powers, however, is limited to planetary. These gods can often bless their followers with powers that become part of their host's nature, allowing them to continue functioning even when the host is in a completely different continuity (more on that later) from the source. Examples of 1000-range beings include the Greek, Egyptian, and Norse Pantheons. Naga from FE also counts here.

The guardian legendaries lie around the 750-2,500 mark, which includes the Regis and the Legendary Beasts. The Big Three Olympians (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) lie at 2,500 while their sisters lie at 2250.

5,000-10,000 is where the more powerful legendaries come in, like Solgaleo, Lunala, Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza. Primordial beings such as Gaea from the Greek pantheon also fall into this category.

Those that control life, death, and spirit lie around the 50,000 mark. This includes Xerneas, Yveltal, and the Lake Trio.

100,000 includes the true primordials; those whose existence are required for the continued existence of their reality. The Creation Trio fits here.

1,000,000 is the upper limit of all, and is reserved for the truly omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent beings such as Arceus and Greek Chaos.

However, the Soul Scale is not the defining authority when it comes to who would win. A properly-equipped human can capture ghosts and fairies. A well-trained Pokémon can stand toe-to-toe with some legendaries. A group of demigods (who are at 1.0, despite their divine heritage) can defeat a primordial, if they can pull it off correctly.

Next time: Magic, Dragons, and the FE Planet.

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Edited by Purple Mage
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Part II: I will try my best to retrieve my old messages to COOKIECHEESEMAN, as those contain a lot of the FE-related lore.

FE Planetary Geography (Relative to Earth)

Spoiler

In COOKIECHEESEMAN's A Glimmer of Hope, portals are mentioned as the way for dragons to go to the different continents. However, since none have the technology/guts to cross the oceans yet, everyone thinks that each side of the portal is already another world. The truth is, they all take place on the same planet.

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Also, portals are still there, because they are more convenient. Due to this, I'll assign the relative distances of the continents by placing them on places of the world map:

Elibe is Japan/Korea/China/Mongolia, Magvel is South America. That's why portals are more convenient. Meanwhile, Archanea/Ylisse is where European Russia/Poland/Germany/Scandanavia/Denmark is, with Valentia/Valm in the relative position of Spain/Britain, making it a short trip between.
Nohr/Hoshido is in North America.

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The portal hub mentioned in AGOH can be the Fates continent, as that doesn't have anything going on. Also, I have to make a "BBQ Party of Belhalla" joke in Archanea. Also, this fic takes place in Year 610 by the Archanean calendar. Three years after Echoes, two after New Mystery, and around twenty after Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones. Alm and Celica are 20, while Marth is 22. Marth didn't wear any pants during his first campaign, keep that in mind.

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Jugdral, Archanea, and Valentia canonically exist in the same world, and I guess the portals mean that everything is actually in the same planet, but <insertnamehere> basically was like Screw It and tried sailing east from Archanea, which nobody else had tried yet because everyone didn't have the tech to go that far. But with a ship literally pulled from the future (or another world), it's possible. Any other vessel which tried would run out of supplies or get wrecked before even reaching sight of other lands. They may think that everyone else are from other worlds, but the truth is they all live very far from each other that none have tried to manually cross the oceans because they were too busy with the portals.

I should really post all of this worldbuilding stuff on Serenes Forest.

That was shorter than I expected.

FE Fanfic Timeline

Spoiler

AY = (Archanean Year)

AY ~590 - The events of FE7 and FE8 take place.

AY 607 - The events of FE6 take place.

AY ~610 - The events of COOKIECHEESEMAN's A Glimmer of Hope take place.

AY ~610-611 - A manakete sets sail from Archanea, leading to the events of Shenanigans on a Boat.

Bonus Statement From Me:

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Right now, I'm currently working out the metaphysics of my main fanfic while working on the next chapter, because it actually has to make sense, unlike SOAB, which runs on the Rule of Funny. I posted a thread on Serenes on the topic, and I have plenty of ideas, headcanons, and mental notes on the whole thing, that sometimes I accidentally give the readers only half of the picture. All my reviewers so far have been positively critical, and I commend them for that.

Completely unrelated to the AGOH Continuity:

On Dragons existing in an Earthlike universe similar to our own (excerpts taken from a work in progress):

Spoiler
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Long ago, there lived the Manakete tribes, draconic beings who held tremendous power. Legend has it that a faction of them rebelled against the gods, and as a result, they were inflicted with a terrible curse.

First, after they were done fighting, the Manakete fertility rate was cut in half. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Second, if they stayed in their true forms for long periods of time, their minds would gradually degenerate until they became mindless beasts.

Third, a subliminal hatred for dragons was instilled into the consciousness of humanity. Humans started spreading nothing but lies about dragonkind, with their weaving of tall tales involving vile and greedy dragons. During the Middle Ages, the common folk of the European continent became disillusioned with their reptilian neighbors and drove them away from their towns and villages. The harsh years that followed led to a decline in Manakete population due to all of the dragon-slaying activity overseen by European lords and knights.

Some manaketes, however, sealed their true forms into dragonstones and fled to different parts of the world, where they thrived.

The Fire Dragons, with their mighty wings and four legs, hid all around Europe, and yet they were relatively common to be seen by humans, leading to tales of armored knights on horseback rescuing princesses from fire-breathing dragons, which makes me think about why aren't there any stories of female knights saving princes too. I guess the world was not as kind back in the day.

The Ice Dragons, with their wingless reptilian features, flourished in the harsh frigid northlands, such as Canada, Scandinavia, and Siberia, with small colonies settling in the southern edges of Chile and New Zealand.

The Wyverns, with two legs and two wings; bodies optimized for flight, scattered across Europe and Africa, mostly sticking to the Mediterranean.

The Mage Dragons, with their elongated bodies and mastery of the arcane, fled east and inspired the artisans of China and Japan.

The Earth Dragons, large terrible beasts, stalked the flat lands of Africa and the Middle East, often terrorizing the local humans.

The Divine Dragons were a mysterious group, and nobody knows where the heck they went.

Of course, there were probably more species of dragons, but they either became extinct or obscured from the passage of time.

Now, you may ask, what is the taxonomic classification of the dragonkin? Let me answer that too. Domain Eukarya, Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Reptilia, Clade Archosauria, Order Dracoformes, Family Draconidae, Genus Draco. Each type of dragon is its own individual species. Fire Dragons are known as D. pteropyra, Ice Dragons are D. cryosaurus, Wyverns are classified as D. anemos, Mage Dragons are D. arcanryu, Earth Dragons are feared as D. terrasaurus, and Divine Dragons are referred to as D. aetherius. You don't know how hard it was to come up with those names. It was really, really hard.

Despite being reptilian in nature, manaketes were recently known to be able to breed healthy, fertile offspring with humans, provided that they stay in human form during mating, of course. (Researcher's note: A human mating with a Manakete in their true form has not been tested yet.) The way the offspring is brought into the world depends on the parents. If the female is a human, then the offspring is born live in human form after a pregnancy period of similar length to a typical one. If the female is the Manakete, then the child is laid in an egg and hatches in dragon form after nine days. If the female is equal parts half-human and half-manakete (Again, perfectly balanced, as all things should be.), then it's a fifty-fifty coin toss scenario that is left up to the Random Number Gods.

Take this with a grain of NaCl. It's still a WIP, so some things might change.

Coming soon: The Different Forms of Magic

Edited by Purple Mage
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Part III: Magic and some other power stuff.

The Different Forms of Magic

Spoiler

Magic is basically a type of power not inherent to its user; it must be learned, studied, and/or taught to be harnessed. Beginners usually have an item that aids in focusing their magical power, usually a book or a wand or a staff or a rod, though more advanced mages can do it with their bare hands. The different forms of magic include:

Elemental Magic: My personal favorite, it relies on manipulating nature and the user's surroundings. At the base level, it is rearranging particles and energy to cause damage. Heat transfer is vital for thermal spells, both hot and cold. Beginners can break bonds between atoms and rearrange chemicals to form new compounds, like say, breaking CO2 into oxygen molecules and carbon. Electrons can also be flung around to cause chain reactions to simulate lightning. More advanced practitioners can manipulate nuclear particles such as protons and neutrons, so it's possible for them to create nuclear explosions. Those who have mastered this art can manipulate the basic particles such as quarks and stuff (bosons, etc.) and can potentially break a living being down to their base elements, such as disintegrating a jellyfish into a puddle with some amino acid-ish compounds mixed in. This type of magic is dangerous bare-handed, so more advanced users tend to wear protective handwear. Although it reduces their spells' magnitude and power, the trade-off for protection from burns, frostbite, paralysis, and much more is worth the reduction in power. The weakness of this magic is that it observes the laws of conservation of matter and energy. If an element called for is unavailable in the surroundings, material is used from the caster's body. The caster can also choose to do so willingly.

Divine Magic: This is magic in which the user draws their power from any deity. The Egyptians are notorious for this type of magic. This often results in a positive feedback loop in which the user's belief/worship of the deity strengthens said deity (see Existence Clause) then the deity grants the mortal with more powerful magic, thus causing the user to believe in the deity more, and so on. Due to how deities are (usually) infinite wells of energy, this type of magic ignores the laws of conservation. However, the weakness of this particular type of magic is that if the user is in a separate universe from their source deity, they are disconnected and lose their magic. If the deity is weakened, then the user's magic is weakened too.

Dark Magic: Sort of like elementalism, it's all about controlling shadows, dark matter, and dark energy. Because of that, it is very dangerous, as it can deteriorate, corrupt, wipe, control, or even enslave the mind. Some dark mages bargain with evil spirits for more power, which usually backfires. It can be used to drain life force or pierce defenses. This was actually the first form of magic humans had harnessed, so some (looking at you, Canas) call it by the proper name of Elder Magic.

Illusion Magic: Relying on trickery, deception, and perception, illusion magic is all about making the opponent believe nothing but lies... Lies, lies, lies, lies, LIES! Ahem, this usually is based on mind games, sense manipulation, and other stuff. The Mist and Mist-manipulators in the Greek pantheon are related to this, as the Mist tricks mortals and all.

Anodite Magic: This is the form of magic mastered by the Anodite alien race, but humans can also use it to a lesser extent. It is usually pink or blue in color and is translucent but glowing.

Fairy Magic: Fairies harvest magic stemming from belief in fairies (mostly from one Denzel Quincy Crocker) and harness it using their wands. There have been some recorded instances of other beings using fairy wands to cast magic. This type of magic can do literally anything not restrained by Da Rules (an ancient metaphysical code of laws the fairies have to follow lest the universe is destroyed) and ignores the laws of conservation.

More might be added. In the meantime, here are some more abilities and stuff:

Powers

Spoiler

Divine Blessings: The difference between blessings and divine magic is that blessings become part of the user until revoked by the deity or the user, so it can still be used even when away from the source. Again, since the powers are derived from deities, blessings which grant the power to make something ignore the laws of conservation.

Dragon Breaths: Manaketes have unique abilities in the form of breaths. Using this, they can conjure fire and ice and stuff from their mouths, and even do FUS RO DAH! They function somewhat similar to Dragon Shouts in Skyrim, but are powers, not words.

Ghost Abilities: Every ghost can walk through walls (intangibility), disappear (invisibility), and fly. They can also throw blasts of ecto-energy and possess mortals. However, some ghosts are much more unique than the other ones. The variety of ghost powers include cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, photokinesis, food powers, music powers, plant powers, mind control, telekinesis, teleportation, body doubles, technopathy, etc.

Demigod Abilities: Demigods have inherent abilities based on their heritage. The status of their parent does not affect the offspring. For example, a son of Poseidon in a world where Poseidon faded/is not there can still do hydrokinesis and cause earthquakes.

Psychic Powers: Several humans in the Pokémon universe (and a few in others) utilize the power of brainwaves to do stuff like telekinesis, mind reading, teleportation, mind games, etc. The difference between psychic power and magic is that psychic power is more on how manipulating brainwaves can affect reality and messing with the mind.

Aura Abilities: Aura is the term in the Pokémon universe for quintessence, also known as life energy. Aura Guardians manipulate Aura to fight. A skilled master of Aura/quintessence can drain life force and even bring about constructs of life (morphs), as Nergal does repeatedly in the storyline of FE7. Aura users often augment their combat abilities with weapons or magic.

The Council of Regulation (CR) and the Cosmic Threat Ranking Logistics System (CTRLS)

Spoiler

There is a cosmic board of leaders across the multiverse which regulates beings powerful enough to be potential threats. They are known as the Council of Regulation (CR, heh), protecting the multiverse through the Cosmic Threat Ranking Logistics System (CTRLS). The ranking of such threats are based on how many Infinity Stones are equal to the user's power. Items, versatility, and allies are key to getting a high rank on the scale, as varied items, powers and allies means more unpredictability and flexibility. The rankings are as follows:

Alpha: This rank is equivalent to one Infinity Stone. An example could be any fairy from Fairy World, as their magic can mostly substitute for the Reality Stone but can have minor coverage in all other categories (Space, Soul, Time, Power, Mind).

Beta: This rank is equivalent to two Infinity Stones. An example would be Professor Paradox, a once-mortal human now rendered immortal. His ability to be anywhere anytime is basically equivalent to having the Time and Space Infinity Stones.

Gamma: This rank is equivalent to three Infinity Stones. An example can be a fully-realized King of Asgard, such as Thor in Infinity War, who can use the Bifröst at will (Space) and has great allies in the form of Loki, the Hulk, and Doctor Strange if the situation calls for him, which can substitute for the other two.

Delta: This rank is equivalent to four Infinity Stones. An example would be the fully-assembled Avengers. Throw in their ties to others like the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther, then they'd probably qualify.

Omega: This rank is equivalent to five Infinity Stones. An example would be Ben Tennyson, whose Omnitrix (with Master Control unlocked) grants him the abilities of over a million different species. You may argue that he isn't powerful enough, but hey, Alien X. (technically Alien X is omnipotent but Ben doesn't have super-intelligence in that form, so the Mind category is out)

Alpha-Omega: This rank is equivalent to all six Infinity Stones. Any being in this rank is omnipotent, although they can still be defeated though the chance is extremely slim. Examples would be Arceus and anyone wielding the full Infinity Gauntlet.

Holy heck, coming up with examples aside from Professor Paradox, Ben Tennyson, and Arceus was really hard to do.

Next: Character Profile (Perseus Jackson)

Edited by Purple Mage
Added info on Psychic and Aura powers.
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