Fun with google, world building and the Doctor

[kippurbird]

--Go to Google.com
--Click on Maps.
--Click on "get Directions".
--From New York
--To Paris

--And read line # 23.

If you laugh, repost this.

I laughed so hard I choked. But then again, I'm easily amused.


Mmm... so some world building stuff.



I was Rping with rurounitriv the other day. Alec and her character Triv were discussing an alt of Alec's who was a slave and sold off world. Triv made a comment about how off world slavery is something rare. Now originally there was no off world slavery, the alt had gotten off world by accident. But as soon as Triv said it, a little light went off in my head and it said, "Yes, there is off world slavery. And there are cracks in the world that lead to other worlds." Brilliant I thought. So then I had to figure out, well, how did those cracks get there?

Then I remembered that the fey and dragons fought a war against ... something. I haven't been sure about that, but I knew that the war lasted a long time and had many repercussions on the land. So, I thought, what if that war caused the cracks in reality? That seemed to make sense.

But that made me try and figure out what exactly was the war about. I didn't want it to be against a Dark Lord time character, because on of the things that I'm trying to cultivate in my world is that there is no "Evil". It's all shades of gray. There is no Dark magic. There is no Dark Lords that are Evil just because they are Evil. There are characters who could be considered evil, but they wouldn't call themselves evil. This thought brought back to mind a character that appeared once or twice in a few story bits some years back. He was a Dark Lord Evil sort of character, called Dem. I fiddled around with him but he never really connected with what I wanted. So I forgot about him.

He came back to mind as I was pondering this war (which I need to name) and I thought to myself, well, what if he was the big other? And that seemed to make sense. It settled well. But I needed motivation for him. He wasn't just going to be an evil emperor bent on conquering the land because he was evil and that's what he did. I needed motivation. Why would someone invade another world? Because they need something on that world. What would they need on Tynaria that they couldn't get on their own? Resources. Or better yet, their world was ruined. They were looking to colonize the new world. They had technology which put them fairly equal on the dragons and the fey. The dragons and fey did not like this. They didn't like the idea of their world being invaded. So, they retaliated.

Dem was the leader of the invading forces.

It seems to fit.

I'll have to fiddle with it some more before I'm happy with it. But it feels right.




On a completely random note, I am totally in love with the Doctor. He's a Harry Potter fan. You can't get better than that.

Comments

[dergerm.livejournal.com]

First of all? HILARIOUS! Line 23 made me crack up twenty million times over, and I'm sitting in class soo... awkward laughter.

That sounds really good though, this Dem character. I like the idea of him and how it can bring more into your world as well. Keep it up.

And the Doctor? Utterly awesome. He makes with the happy.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Line twenty three was awesome. I had people at work asking me what I was laughing about.

Dem is going to need work because it's a whole other world out there and I need to figure things out. But I think I've got a good start.

The Doctor is love. That should be a color bar. It probably is one.

[dergerm.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to find color bars, but trying to do it in class is a bit difficult.

And I have full faith that you'll work it into your story and it'll be better for it.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Actually, what I want is a "Meat is Love" color bar. XD

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I laughed.

And the Doctor being an HP fan rocks. And the fact that "Shakespeare" said "Expellarmius". Freaking brilliant.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

It took me a second to realize that's what he said. And then I was like... that was sheer awesomeness. And just the way it was dropped in there. So beautiful.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Considering the logistical issues of fighting an interstellar war, he'd have to be considerably above them to even have a chance of winning. He'd have only the soldiers he can bring across the light-years (if this is some kind of magic teleportation, of course, then this point might be null). Any reinforcements wouldn't arrive until they were far too late. It'd be like the British against the American rebels multiplied by a hundred. A vastly superior army defeated due to the expense and difficulty of maintaining a war across the Atlantic with late 18th century technology. This Dem character could've won every single battle and still lost the war, simply because he could not afford to continue the war.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Well, it wouldn't be an interstellar war so much. The people off world wouldn't be arriving in star ships so much as through a rip in reality. Like the Stargates on SG1. But yes, he would have more technological advances to fight against their magical abilities.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Even with something like that, the defenders would have a strong advantage. Any time you have attackers arriving along a narrow front, the defense has the advantage, the Battle of Thermopylae, as dramatized (rather inaccurately) in the movie 300 is a perfect example. About a thousand Greeks were able to hold off an army of tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousands of Persians by controlling a key pass.

All the defenders have to do is camp out at the location of this rip in reality. In addition, I imagine, there would be limits to the number of people you could bring across per unit time.

Unless, of course, the location of the rip on the surface of Alec's world changed frequently, ideally at Dem's control. Dem could then choose to concentrate his forces in a relatively isolated region of Alec's world (And that sounds like really bad English ... "Dem could")

[madamsnape.livejournal.com]

Not as funny as Milton Keynes to New York.

Apparantly it can handle boats - as in, you take the ferry from England to France, and then have to swim from France to America.

WTF?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

*snorts* Well... I don't really know what to say to that except maybe that the guys at Google were having a go at us gullible googlers. (How's that for alliteration?)

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised it doesn't use the Chunnel myself.

I rather suspect it was a joke. Though, I'm disappointed that it doesn't work for anything other than North American and European cities. You don't get "swim across the Pacific Ocean" if you put, say, Tokyo as the destination. :-(

[karma-kalisutah.livejournal.com]

Well of course the Doctor is an HP fan! He loves everything British!

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Rather elitist of him. XD

[indescane.livejournal.com]

Line 23? I laughed like a maniac.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I scared people at work.