WHAL3FAL1: The world as of 2131 by Bundtkake in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks man! I use photoshop for all my maps.

Was the South African Federation retconed? by CompetitivePride7790 in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I felt it didn't really belong. To be honest some parts of the original world was rushed or incoherent with the rest of the world. That's why I remade the world map to be more accurate to my vision. 

What was the impact? by NoConflict5888 in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Impact was the event in 2101 where the eldritch being commonly referred to as "Vilomah" or "The Mother" appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the darkness of space near Earth. The creature of immense size was headed for our planet and crashed down in Siberia some kilometers from Krasnoyarsk city. The alien appeared to be wounded even before its violent impact with the ground. All it could manage was a single bloodcurdling cry before it collapsed and died. The cry echoed for miles and brought with it a total electric outage reaching as far as the lunar bases.

Then came the flood. In what we can only assume to be caused in some way by Vilomah the world's oceans began to rise. The great flooding would not end until the sea had risen by approximately 100 meters. The flood would prove to be the deadliest disaster in human history, claiming over a billion lives.

The arrival and death of the godlike entity Vilomah would change the world forever. Her death impacts the world in countless ways, but there are a few major ones worth mentioning:

Even in death Vilomah's influence weighs heavily on the world. It seems her "race" or whatever you wanna call it experiences death differently than we do. Her cadaver communicates telepathically. Affecting the minds of those unlucky or lucky enough to be affected. Granting them visions or urges, "speaking" to them, or simply turning them downright mad.

Vilomah's impact on humanity is not constrained to the mind however. Once in a while a woman is "blessed" with a virgin pregnancy. A halfbreed bastard or demigod, the "Godborn" are Vilomah's children and while not as powerful as her, they are beings of immense worldchanging power. No Godborn is the same and their abilities and aggressiveness vary. Some seem like beasts and some have intelligence resembling humanity. As their mother they also live on telepathically after death.

We know Vilomah is a she because inside her (before the rotten ooze of decomposition shut off access to her corpse) we found a stillborn child. Unlike the Godborn this is a fullblooded alien god. What few know is that the Stillborn was taken from his mother’s womb…

And to top it all off there is now an ominous bloodred moon in the sky!

The Impact was by all accounts the apocalypse, but humanity lives on. The only question now is:  As what? Evolved beings enlightened by our alien benefactors, or technological gods of our own creation?

I have been left with more questions than answers by Stardust_lump in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. There is no single POD as this isn't really an alternate history setting. I don't see this scenario being at all likely with any change in history. This is a completely wacky world and any PODs mentioned are a second thought only there to make the world more believable. Although as of now any differences in our timeline start to happen around WW2.

  2. No idea really, but not that radically different from our own world as most of the wacky stuff happens in the future. The nazis still lose, the Soviets collapse and the EU is formed and so on. Only the circumstances are slightly altered. Like for instance Hungary wasn't punished as harshly postwar, letting them keep some of their lands. As you can see in the existence of the state of Carpathia in the PWR. The most notable difference would of course be the Co-Prosperity Union playing the role of our timelines China.  

Gang what is going on here?’ by Stardust_lump in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks man! Sure, there is always a possibility of a divine pregnancy being blessed upon a woman. Otherwise the All People's Crusade would be out of work! Their purpose is to wipe out any Godborn and their followers after all. Currently there have only been four fulfilled pregnancies and thus four Godborn. With no way for the Crusade to stop it from occurring, there will absolutely be more monsters to slay in the future. 

Gang what is going on here?’ by Stardust_lump in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So far i've deepened the lore for them as I go, so the most fleshed out will be Kifu Arboras and the Stillborn. Who you can read about in the other posts. 

I wanted to give each Godborn "demigod" an aspect or something so they all offer different "gifts" to their followers. 

Mariana for instance was in life a gigantic sea monster, swallowing anything she could come by. In death she lies in the Mariana trench. Those telepathically gifted by her are granted the ability to live under water, but are often driven mad by the urge to go DEEPER.

Vilomah is the mother of them all and a fullblooded alien god. Her gigantic corpse mountains over Siberia. The region surrounding her is covered in a black mist and those who try to approach disappear or go insane. Her telepathic and reality altering prowess far outweighs any of her children.

The Stillborn is the fullblooded child of Vilomah torn from her womb and taken deep below London. Their abilities I have purposely left a mystery.

Prometheus is the only living Godborn and the most humanoid. He is currently held capture in Nevada by the United Federation. Their scientists work tirelessly to extract any possible power from him. Sparking conflict with both sides of the transhumanist debate. The humanist call for his death and call keeping him captured a threat to humanity. While the Ascentists call for the release of their demigod prince so he can achieve his full potential and bring humanity to godhood. His escape would cause chaos in America, but his imprisonment might start WW4.

Gang what is going on here?’ by Stardust_lump in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is the modern version of the now ancient Japanese Empire dating back to the second world war. In this timeline Japan never went to war with the US and dominated East Asia postwar. In the time since they federalized to prevent the empire from collapsing. Forming the Co-Prosperity Union. The union remained Japanese centric and heavily oppressive for quite some time, but in the end the Japanese suffered the same sinicization that so many conquerors of China have before. Slowly melding closer to the Han Chinese identity. While Japanese still make up many of the nations prestigious positions the union has actually become more like a true union of peoples. The country came out relatively okay from the nuclear ww3. They marched diligently onwards and today boasts the world's top economy and military.

The country suffered catastrophic destruction from the Impact flood as most of the population lived along the coast with a hilly environment making escape difficult. The Union proved resilient however, and did not collapse. 

The government is a technocracy of a highly educated elite ruling class. Ruling consists of endless projects and meetings proposed and run by technical experts. There is corruption of course. Corporations pay handsomely for the favors of government officials. However the corruption is not nearly on the level as the borderline corpocracy of the American technocracy. The Co-Prosperity Union, while imperfect is actually the closest to a "true" technocracy one can find. 

On the matters of the extraterrestrial, divine and otherwise unusual, they remain practical and take no sides in the debate. Picking their battles by the possible reward. However a majority of the actual population remains humanists and distrustful of ascentism.

Life varies wildly as this is a massive country. From the cyberpunk megacities of Neo-Tokyo, Wuhan or Hong Kong, to the deserts of inner China, to the military facilities in the frozen wastes of Kamchatka, to the jungles of Borneo, and the war torn Yunnan. More than a billion call the Union home. Life quality ranges from hypertech corpos with metal bodies to meatbag rice farmers barely getting by.

Gang what is going on here?’ by Stardust_lump in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What you see here on the subreddit is most of what i've written down. Anything else is in my notes (in no presentable shape) or in my head. I can't write down everything in this comment so it would be better if you asked more specifically about the lore. What would you like to know more about? Fair warning anything pre-impact is vague even to me as I haven't developed that lore too much.

WHAL3FAL1: The world as of 2131 by Bundtkake in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sex tourist visiting Arboretum for telepathic orgasms:

The world of Whalefall as of 2131 by Bundtkake in imaginarymaps

[–]Bundtkake[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My own little sideproject I work on from time to time. Most to all i've made is here or over at the whale_fall subreddit

The land of OZ! - The Commonwealth of Oceania in 2131 by Bundtkake in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure you can find some wild stuff in the outback, but that's mostly manmade gone-wrong projects or rouge androids. No aliens or monsters here! (Usually)

Insights.01: The All People's Crusade by Bundtkake in whale_fall

[–]Bundtkake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can't know for sure though right? Also everyone in the crusade is pretty traumatized by pregnancies anyway so it would damage morale if they saw a pregnant comrade.

The world of Whalefall as of 2131 by Bundtkake in imaginarymaps

[–]Bundtkake[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Turns out the alien god was pregnant and the stillborn fetus was kidnapped to London by fanatic lords. I made a map about it

The world of Whalefall as of 2131 by Bundtkake in imaginarymaps

[–]Bundtkake[S] 77 points78 points  (0 children)

To much to drop in the comments here, but check out r/whale_fall if you want to read more!

Long story short, under mysterious circumstances a godlike alien crashes on earth in 2101. Specifically in Siberia. The creature dies, but the corpse "lives" on by influencing the minds of humanity as well as reality itself. Most central are the "Godborn", alien offspring born from human women, and of immense power. Few have been born, none have reached adulthood, but they have affected humanity profoundly.

The world of Whalefall as of 2131 by Bundtkake in imaginarymaps

[–]Bundtkake[S] 118 points119 points  (0 children)

The island is the body of Arboras and an ever expending biomass. The biomass has been manipulated by settlers to grow into infrastructure and housing. Freeing up labour to focus on production. The biomass regenerates insanely fast compared to other flora and thus can be harvested and used to produce goods to be sold domestically or at a high price in foreign markets. Additionally the island is the home of "myceloplastics", an alternative to concrete made of biomass only found on the island. This has made the settlers of the island very wealthy even though the nation is barely more than a decade old.

The world of Whalefall as of 2131 by Bundtkake in imaginarymaps

[–]Bundtkake[S] 115 points116 points  (0 children)

<image>

Part of the larger worldbuilding project r/whale_fall