So, I came up with this idea- all of us chip in ideas and laws and concepts to build one world to be used by anyone, and made by everyone. How does it sound? First, the genre would have to be decided- fantasy, sci-fi, magitek, etc.
Well, that's less of the world and more of character interaction, no? Unless there are magic laws (or government laws for that matter) about romance...?
Ok, sure- so we'll use reality as a base until we (might) possibly destroy the laws of matter and maybe life? So- whatcha wanna about this world's history change first?
My idea would be very one-dimensional, and I bet rarely fun at all to take control of. Imagine a psychotic who thinks he is the messiah during a zombie apocalypse and sees the hoards of zombies as followers. In fact he assembles and collects them and drops them off at wards and hospitals; because he can't really heal them himself at all.
Historical Fantasy set in South Africa, 1879, leading up to the First Boer War. Specific enough for you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Boer_War (Actually theres a method to the madness - that historical event gives you three mythology sets to draw from, British, Dutch, and Bantu - plus you get all sorts of crazy themes about racism, colonialism, war, and culture clash.) And yes - I'm aware this is a screwy addition --- I like adding screwiness to any discussion.
Normally the way it works is for an author who already has a published work or works involving a unique world of his or her design and which has been popular and successful to open up the world to other writers. It seems pointless for an entire group of authors to build a collaborative world that may fail to be popular and resulting in mass failure.
It seems arbitrary to have to make it all up before we can even start writing. What used tot work so well as a kid completely shuns me as a young adult... For example if the assignment were to make up a setting that were on an island where it is supposed to be safe nowhere, with a dangerous volcano that's in a fact a giant fire turtle, we're just going to make our selves look silly. My point is that even the conditions for anyone to write in are best made up by one person. Turn this thread into a writing prompt idea-bank and discussion.
this would likely work better if there're only 2-4 committed members who work together, simply because otherwise there would be no rules to the world. You need people who agree on certain things together and then build upon those agreed points, and so on, if you wanted a functional world. That means participants have to be serious, and there would probably need to be rules on vetoing ideas and so on, and one person who'd summarise what the world looks like regularly (preferably the OP since it's best if it's the first post of the thread) and newcomers will need to add their ideas in accordance to that. All in all - this thread's idea isn't bad, but it needs more structure and parameters before it could work. Out of interest, what's Okami, @Yume No Okami ? The God of Dreams?
I suppose you're right- I expected this to be something like a casual sort of thing- guess it didn't exactly work like how I thought it would... To be honest I don't really know what the hell my username is supposed to mean- I just like the concept of dreams and knew the suffix No-Okami meant denoted god hood so I threw it in.
Lol well "no" is the Japanese possessive form, like "Watashi no" is "my" where "watashi" is "I" and "no" is the equivalent of the English "apostrophe S". So Jane's bag would be "Jane no bag" basically. Kami means God, which I knew (well, depending on the kanji lol) but I wasn't sure if it's still the same word with the O- suffix. I don't actually speak Japanese but I had a few lessons a while ago and watch enough anime to know some odd words lol. I knew "yume" meant dreams. Hence I thought it's probably "God of Dreams". Like 風の谷 = Kaze no tani, which translates to "Valley of the Wind" (where 風 is Kaze, "wind", and 谷 is Tani, "valley", and of course の is "no") So yume no okami is probably 夢のお神? Either it's God of Dreams or God's Dreams - not sure which I'll ask my Japanese friend when I see her on Fri lol!
You'll have to expand on the difference between Izanagi and Iznami for me, as my Japanese is only at beginnger's level lol
Well mine are nigh zero... Izanami and Izanagi are part of the creation myth, I believe. The original gods, Izanami died during childbirth and Izanagi went to Yomi (hell) to get her. When he found her she was a rotting corpse, so he fled and placed a boulder at the mouth of Yomi. She cried out that each day she would kill xxxx humans each day, to which Izanagi replied he would bring to life xxxxx/xxxxxx humans every day. Afterwards, he washed off, and everything that fell from him as he cleaned became a new god- from dirt to the particulates in the corners of his eyes. As far as I know, their names don't mean anything, but I could be wrong. Then again, "Kaze no Stigma" means Mark of Wind, not Wind, the Mark, so...
That's an interesting myth - not heard of it. Stigma is English, not Japanese... As I said before "no" is the possessive, so yeah... Not actually able to speak Japanese myself, I didn't wanna say you're wrong outright re "God, the Dreams" just in case there's some nuance in grammar I didn't know about, but "no" has always been the possessive in every manga I've read lol
I believe it is Dream of Wolf or Wolf's Dream. Okami means wolf and kami means god. The playstation game about the wolf god of the sun Amaterasu's title is a play on words. EDIT: A common play on words when dealing with furry tailed deities.
Actually, wolf is spelled with two O's , so it's ookami. O in front of a word is often used to be extra polite, or respectful, and is part of honorific speech(i think it's called that). So for example if you're talking about the weather with a stranger or someone of higher social status(like your boss), you're more polite or respectful if you put an O in front of tenki=weather, so it becomes otenki. Or if you're asking someone for their name, you're more polite saying, "Onamae wa?" Instead of just "Namae wa?" (O)kami means god. No can be a possessive particle like has been said, but can also be used in more ways. One of which is to simply modify one noun with another. The syntax looks like this: A no B, where A modifies B. So in this case the translation could be: Dream God. But for possessive, this could translate as: God(s) of Dream(s). (No plural in japanese.) I'm also a beginner at japanese, so I'm probably not using the right terms, or making the best explanation.
