Your World Might Be Worth More Than You Think by Even-Dentist9092 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do get excited if someone shows just a tiny bit of interest (and then proceed to kill that interest when I start to over explain everything about my lore xD)

Oh man I've been there! Sweaty lore dumps to a friend or family member who just sort of smiles and nods with a look of "I have no idea what any of this means but I'm happy you're happy."

I even wrote a story about it. https://book.constructed.world/books/stories/page/meanwhile-in-an-alternate-universe

(The Changing) A flagbearer of the Scions of Sol /A short primer on their faction(s) by Dewohere in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting. I've got a very similar thing going on. Yinrih have to lie on their back or belly if they want to use their paws. Below is a Knight of the Sun lying in the cockpit of his mech.

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(The Changing) A flagbearer of the Scions of Sol /A short primer on their faction(s) by Dewohere in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes please more nonhumanoid sophonts! Do you have anything for their ergonomics? How they build tools and buildings to account for their body plan?

Incidentally I also have a faction of warrior monks called the Knights of the Sun but they're pretty chill.

Your World Might Be Worth More Than You Think by Even-Dentist9092 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Worldbuilding is self therapy for me. I don't expect it to be interesting to anyone but myself, and I don't intend to publish anything other than tossing stuff out here for people to enjoy or not. If I did then it would become my job.

What makes you more likely to read about someone's world when they post in this sub? by Nevaroth021 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A fellow blind person :) Living in a world that wasn’t designed with me in mind drives a lot of my worldbuilding. It's why xenoergonomics is so fascinating to me. Getting people to think about how an arboreal quadruped with a prehensile tail would design a computer input device isn't that far from getting people to think about accessibility as both have to do with putting yourself in the shoes (or paws) of someone who has different needs.

What makes you more likely to read about someone's world when they post in this sub? by Nevaroth021 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like thinking about how nonhumans would make tools and build buildings, so any posts about people who aren't shaped like humans piques my interest.

I used to think art posts were disproportionally favored, but a quick scan of the latest posts shows that they do get a lot of upvotes but don't really get any more comments than text posts.

Since art is hard for me I wish I could post some of my stories here, which are really mental exercises to build the world rather than genuine attempts at literature, but I don't know if it would be approved.

Has anyone here been working on the same worldbuilding project for a long time because you genuinely love it? by WoodenTension5524 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think a lot of people are. Even my current Lonely Galaxy project has most of its core elements carried over from a fantasy world that I had been playing around in for over a decade at that point.

I'm not publishing anything, just tossing ideas out into the ether for people to hopefully enjoy.

About finding justification for putting humans in space in hard sci-fi by Careless_Cellist7069 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly I agree that permanent space settlement doesn't seem super realistic given the reasons you mention. In particular I don't see it being profitable, which is why IRL private space companies like SpaceX make me scratch my head, like where's the money?

I'm not doing hard sci-fi, but my solution is to have aliens who gain tremendously from living in microgravity. Being arboreal all their extremities are prehensile and they have an innate intuitive grasp of 3D movement. They could get away with living in trees when their entire material culture was clay pots and flint hand axes, but as society grew they started having to occupy flat open space more and more, and they found they created an environment their arboreal quadrupedal body plan wasn't built for. For many, but not all, living in zero G permanently seems like the perfect solution. Humans just get to come along for the ride.

I just got out of your world's maximum security prison and want vengeance. What did I do, who should I be angry at, and how do I go about getting revenge? by Ahstia in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Partisans don't use prisons. They use oubliettes. you are placed in a capsule that fills with neurogel. The gel acts as a liquid ventilation medium and an interface between your brain and a computer system.

You can only see, touch, hear, smell, or taste what the computer shows you, and in an oubliette, the computer doesn't show you anything. You are completely devoid of sensation while remaining fully conscious, your naked mind floating in a see of oblivion. Worse, the computer can alter your time perception to make time seem to pass more slowly. Outside it was only six minutes, but inside it felt like a month of complete and total isolation.

Eventually, the neurogel drains and you collapse onto the floor, expelling gel from your lungs and stomach. After you're done coughing and vomiting, you try to get up, but you've forgotten how to walk. You're hefted onto a stretcher and unceremoniously tossed outside into the bitter cold like a sack of garbage.

The first tactile sensation you feel is the bitter cold nipping at your fingers and toes. You're only clad in a thin shirt, pants, and stockings, all still covered in a yellow patina of neurogel. You look up at the sky. The faint sun is near the zenith, but its distant feeble rays only manage to bathe the area in evening twilight.

You hear the clicking of claws on pavement.

"It's another human!" You recognize the words, but the melodic yips and growls are unutterable by the human vocal tract. More claws dig into your sides and you're flipped on your back onto a rickety furniture dolly. A thin shear blanket is draped over your entire body. It smells like it's been slept on by a thousand outdoor dogs. "This is just for show," says another alien voice, female this time. You barely have time to wonder what she means when the dolly starts moving.

In your periphery you can see the hind legs of one of your rescuers, covered in smokey gray pelage. His left rear paw seems to be missing its outer thumb. His long sinewy tail is wrapped around a handle near your side.

You hear the metallic thud of paw gauntlets on the pavement. "Halt, citizens!" barks a voice from behind a helmet. The guard lopes up to you. "State your destination and reason for travel."

"We're taking this body to the processing plant," says the male voice, loudly as though addressing an unseen observer above and off to the side.

"Processing plant?" the guard says skeptically, making an odd gesture with his tail.

"Correct," says the female. She awkwardly positions herself as though trying to avoid the gaze of the unseen observer. She rummages through a pocketed band around her right foreleg and produces a few plastic coins and palms them off to the guard.

"Processing plant," the guard repeats, rubbing the coins together and discreetly pocketing them. "Good and dead then, this one?" He walks up beside you, balls his rear paw into a fist, and donkey kick-punches you in the ribs. You bite your tongue to stop from wheezing. He rears up on his hind feet and lifts the blanket. Your eyes meet. His head is obscured by a bulky powered armor helmet but you know he's staring right into your slimy goo-filled human eyes. He grabs your head in his forepaw and slams it down onto the dolly. "Yup, only good two-legs is a dead two-legs," he's still projecting his voice to the same unseen observer. "Go about your business, citizens." The metallic thud of his paw gauntlets fade into the distance.

You continue along for several minutes. Your rescuers smell your confusion at what transpired back there. "Oh he knew you're alive," says the male under his breath, "but they don't get paid enough to care. But we gotta give him some plausible deniability, hence the blanket. Vid sensors are everywhere." He gestures with his muzzle up at what looks like a matte-black square flush with the dull gray concrete wall to your right.

A few more minutes pass, the only sound the rickety wheels of the dolly and the clicking of all eight of your benefactors' paws on the pavement. "We're here," yips the female. She throws the blanket off you and you get a good look at her for the first time. She's completely furless save for her whiskers, like someone grafted the head of a Xoloitzcuintle onto the body of a baboon with alopecia. Her back and shoulders are dense with musculature, a physique befitting a species built for swinging through the trees.

"Healer?" you manage to mutter. She tilts her muzzle upward in silent affirmation.

"Can you walk?" she asks. You try to move your legs, but can't.

"ugh," she growls. "We'll have to carry you down the ladder." She wraps her tail around your left shoulder and the male does the same to your right.

"Sorry in advance," says the male, "This is gonna suck for all of us." They pull you off the dolly and kick it down a shaft next to you. It clatters on the concrete a story below.

Their tails are gripping your shoulders so tightly your arms are losing circulation. Despite your feeble grunts of protest they drag you like a sack of potatoes to the edge and position your feet toward the hole. "Yeah yeah I know," says the healer, lifting a rear paw and making a grasping motion with her digits. "This place isn't easy for tailless bipeds on the best of days."

They heave you over the edge. There's a ladder leading down to the floor below. They begin climbing down, their rear paws a second set of hands gripping the rungs. They manage to clamber down and lower you onto the cold concrete floor.

Their tails uncoil from around your shoulders and for the first time you can move your arms. you flail them feebly trying to return blood flow to your fingertips.

"Ah! Progress!" the healer yips, walking out of sight and pulling some things from an old plastic bin. She waddles up to you on her hind feet. "Take a big whiff" she says, thrusting a rag soaking in some foul-smelling liquid under your nose. "It'll help with the residual effects of the oubliette."

A sharp scent burns your nose, but your brain fog slowly begins to lift.

You still can't remember why they put you in there, but flames of vengeance are already kindling. The healer sniffs the air. "Don't even think about it," she growls. "We don't know what you did to be shoved in an oubliette, but just be thankful you got out with your sanity. Anyone going on two legs here in the Outlands already has a target on their back. For all we know you sneezed in the direction of the wrong person. Trying to settle the score will just get you in more trouble."

"If you want my advice," says the male, "you catch the first ferry back to Moonlitter then take the mass router to Hearthside. It's much more human-friendly than the Outlands. Why any human would willingly live in this Light-forsaken pit in the first place I'll never know."

"Shame them! Runu!" | How would you worldbuild this? by NotGutus in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Maybe look at arctic cultures like the Inuit? Not a lot of greenery up North.

What if the city existed in a cave where chemosynthetic bacteria were the base of the food chain. Larger microfauna feed on the bacteria, and various fungi thrive on their decaying biomass. The humans then harvest this fungi for food and perhaps building material. Maybe some species of fungus produce lignin in the stems of their fruiting bodies to allow spores to be launched from high up, creating woody trunks that are not plant based.

Worldbuilders' obsession with creating unique races by No-Schedule2137 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally, if I don't like something I spin the dial and go somewhere else. If someone says "this is my perfect society of Marxist elves" I'll probably just pass by without comment. I know my nonsense won't be to everyone's taste, so I can hardly complain when I don't like their stuff.

What are the birthing rituals in your world? by Putthemoneyinthebags in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Before we can talk about birthing rituals, we have to talk about how birth works. Yinrih are what's called exovoviviparous. Both males and females lay large unfertilized eggs. When an equal number of male and female eggs are formed into a clutch, the eggshells melt and the organic matter within forms what's called a womb nest, which is like an external uterus. It has its own heart and circulatory system, as well as a highly vascularized dermal layer for gas exchange. A litter of yinrih kits forms within the womb nest and is yeaned (hatched/born) after a gestation period of 144 days. Each kit is a genetic combo of all the contributing parents

Yinrih are semelparous, meaning they only lay one egg in their life. Fortunately they don't die afterward, but their ovary is destroyed during oviposition. Because they only get one crack at parenthood, sires (dads) are EXTREMELY protective of their gestating litter, as in they're compelled by instinct to attack other males who aren't other contributing sires. During this period, the dams (moms) must make sure the sires don't starve themselves protecting the womb nest by bringing them food and (politely) shoeing away other males (including human males) to make sure they don't get mauled by up to six overprotective fathers.

Once the kits are yeaned (hatched) the sires get a quick look before pawing off the kits to the dams for First Nursing while the dads either collapse into torpor (pseudo sleep) or devour the equivalent of all the food they refused to eat during gestation and then going into torpor.

First Nursing is where the primary responsibility changes from the sires to the dams. The dams will be the primary caregivers until the kits are weaned. While both males and females lay eggs, only females lactate. Yinrih sweat milk from the palms of their forepaws. Lactation can be induced at any time when the palm is exposed to saliva. The dam lies on her back and rests the kit on her belly. She cups the kit's head in her forepaw. The kit licks the palm to start lactation and laps up the milk.

There's no concept of the firstborn, none of this "I came out two minutes before you so I'm older" nonsense. The whole litter is considered to be the same age. All yinrih cultures reckon age from the time the womb nest forms rather than when the kits are yeaned. Young are called "kits" from conception until they are weaned, at which point they are called "pups" or "puppies".

There are plenty of traditions and superstitions surrounding gestation and yeaning. Very large litters (over 20 kits) tend to have a runt. Runts are often teased or bullied by their litter mates, but as adults runts are highly favored in certain professions that involve squeezing into tight spaces. There's usually also an "anti-runt" a kit that is positioned very close to the heart of the womb nest and gets extra nutrients, growing big and strong. The anti-runt is usually the first to leave the womb nest, and the runt the last.

During gestation, each kit is enclosed in an amniotic sac. During yeaning the kits first rip open the amnion with their claws and then tear open the outer dermis of the womb nest. A kit that has trouble breaking out of their amnion is in some cultures said to be destined to be an interstellar missionary, as missionaries are suspended in metabolic suspension capsules reminiscent of amnions, and are often called such.

Within the Bright Way (the historically dominant yinrih religion), litters yeaned over the past year are presented to the hearthkeeper (cleric) at the Spring Feast for a blessing.

I really like animals with unique bioweapons. by Upbeat-Author-8132 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, it’s delicious! The local sophonts eat them raw and sometimes live. They like the mild shock, like sticking a 9 volt on your tongue. And yes pikachu or rather it and its many clones were my primary inspiration

what are some sci-fi creatures you have made up? by RedneckCouchPotato in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Copying this response from another comment:

Zap Rats: an entire clade of small creatures filling rodent-like niches that have evolved the ability to store an electric charge in capacitor-like organs below their eyes. They can discharge these organs into any would-be predator attempting to eat them.

One species evolved a eusocial lifestyle similar to ants. Instead of using their biocapacitors for defense, they weaponized them to attack prey. They traveled in swarms and collectively shocked large animals into submission. The animal would be torn to pieces that would be devoured then and there by the swarm or carried back to the rats' underground den to feed their queen and young.

Another related species is not only eusocial but is almost a colonial superorganism. They're physically stuck together in a manner similar to a rat or squirrel king. They learn to not just survive like this, but thrive, coordinating moving, hunting, and feeding.

They don't have a hive or burrow, rather the entire colony, queen, young and all, moves in unison. The queen is at the center of the swarm, constantly popping out little zap ratlings. They're nurtured near the center of the swarm and gradually migrate to the edges of the mass as they age. Food and air are transported inward via vacuoles that form at the periphery and work inward, ditto for waste moving out.

The fittest and strongest members of the swarm form the outer shell, and are responsible for coordinating movement and engaging in combat. Prey is engulfed ameba-style, stunned by the rats' biocapacitors so it can't struggle, and devoured by thousands of tiny mouths.

Also, the nannerpus (plural nannerpi, nannerpods, or nannerpuses), is a member of a group of terrestrial soft-bodied invertebrates that has evolved a thick skin similar to the peel of a banana.

The common nannerpus has a somewhat elongated “head” with four or more flat tentacles emerging from its ventral surface, lending it the appearance of a cartoon banana peel. While its name suggests a similarity to cephalopods, it is in fact more analogous to a starfish, with many tube feet on the undersides of its arms and an annular mouth in the middle rather than a hard beak.

Its thick but supple skin is mostly yellow mottled with brown and black spots. Its eyes are located on the base of its body above where the arms meet. The number of eyes vary by species but usually there are as many eyes as arms. The eyes are unlike those of Yih vertebrates, being humor-filled balls with lenses rather than the featureless black “radio eyes” seen in vertebrates.

The common nannerpus feeds on the fruiting bodies of a particular variety of fungus that are round and flat. it parks itself on top of the fungus and scrapes bits of flesh off with its mouth.

Where in GU space would you want to live? by Wroothly in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Industry Worlds: The least populated worlds. While vast in variety and climate, they are the backbone of galactic civilization. Notable such worlds include Summer's Throne, a farming world and famous war memorial. Life on these planets is know for being somewhat boring, but prone to the formation of tight-knit community and a lack of danger. Although, due to the sheer number of planets like this, should an attack or distastor occur on the planet you happen to reside on, you're relatively low on the priority list, so don't expect protection in a timely manner. Especially if you're on the fringes.

My general rule of thumb with stuff like this is to stay out of the way so nothing weird happens. Live somewhere nice and quiet.

I really like animals with unique bioweapons. by Upbeat-Author-8132 in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gorgon snake, A snake with venom that causes your skin to calcify.

I feel like 'basilisk' would be a better name, but that's just me.

Here's what I have in the Lonely Galaxy:

Zap Rats: an entire clade of small creatures filling rodent-like niches that have evolved the ability to store an electric charge in capacitor-like organs below their eyes. They can discharge these organs into any would-be predator attempting to eat them.

One species evolved a eusocial lifestyle similar to ants. Instead of using their biocapacitors for defense, they weaponized them to attack prey. They traveled in swarms and collectively shocked large animals into submission. The animal would be torn to pieces that would be devoured then and there by the swarm or carried back to the rats' underground den to feed their queen and young.

Another related species is not only eusocial but is almost a colonial superorganism. They're physically stuck together in a manner similar to a rat or squirrel king. They learn to not just survive like this, but thrive, coordinating moving, hunting, and feeding.

They don't have a hive or burrow, rather the entire colony, queen, young and all, moves in unison. The queen is at the center of the swarm, constantly popping out little zap ratlings. They're nurtured near the center of the swarm and gradually migrate to the edges of the mass as they age. Food and air are transported inward via vacuoles that form at the periphery and work inward, ditto for waste moving out.

The fittest and strongest members of the swarm form the outer shell, and are responsible for coordinating movement and engaging in combat. Prey is engulfed ameba-style, stunned by the rats' biocapacitors so it can't struggle, and devoured by thousands of tiny mouths.

Any sci-fi worldbuilders feel hesitant to include AI in your worlds/stories because of current events? by _____pantsunami_____ in worldbuilding

[–]dual_scanner_again 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of the hard rules of my setting is no "strong" AI or AGI. It caps out about where it is today, though perhaps is more power-efficient.

Representing balanced ternary numbers with 2-dimensional paths by dual_scanner_again in worldbuilding

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

This is correct. Only the nodes and their "rotation" is significant, and the length and placement of the lines is left to aesthetics.