Development Thread: Sacred Seed
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Yeah. There's a lot of potential in this setting, whether you want to go PvE or open things up for more PvP - rebel cells, charismatic pretenders, rogue Seeded trying to establish their own Court.
Are you thinking there might be other nations out there? Even a fairly distant one with a regular trade relationship (or that pirates the home nation's waters) could add some depth to the world, as well as another antagonist or ally for players to court.
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I'm also getting a bit of a Codex Alera vibe from this, which could be an interesting idea to expand on. The possibility that everyone has the most minor of seeded power (using influence over water to make faucets flow or stop... influence over fire to make lanterns burn bright or dim) could be a thing. Or maybe that's how the nobles work and I missed a thing about it?
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@jennkryst Seedless, as far as anyone knows... can't work any kind of magic. >.> <.<
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Who Are The Rulers?
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Serafine Agatta Coaldust, is the Queen of Embers. The rule of the Court of Flames. She is the twin sister of Amos Coaldust, the Sovereign of Ice, the ruler of the Court of Frost. No one understands how a family that traditionally produces Fire Seeded, managed to produce such a strong Ice Seed... But he was strong enough that he challenged the ailing Sovereign of Ice five years ago, and won. There's dark rumors that the two are somehow stronger when they are together.. as if they were amplifying each other's magic somehow, and that's how Amos took over the Court of Frost..
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Tristan Delgado, King of the Storm is a mercurial man. His father was the previous King, and he inherited when his father died from an illness he had fought his entire life. His mother is his most trusted adviser... But Tristan has terrible mood swings that are somewhat unpredictable. And occasionally he'll go into a blind rage. Rumors are that he has the same disease that his father had...
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Mielle Seaborn, Empress of the Waves, ruler of the Court of the Sea. She's from an ancient lineage. Her is the longest, as far as historical texts go, ruling family of the five courts. Only she's not yet produced a Seeded heir. Her first son was Weeded when he turned 18 because he had not a single bit of magic to his credit. Her second son has been given the same name... But at 10 years old he's a remarkably hardy boy, who has yet to manifest a power... there's still time, but... it's not looking well for Mielle.
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Sascha Auer, Monarch of the Mountain. Ruler of the Court of the Groves. They are one of the oldest rulers, yet they do not show their age at all. Their skin is flawless, and they have minimal wrinkling. So far they have not had any children either. It makes some members of their court uneasy... A seemingly unaging and heirless monarch?
These are our five rulers! Each of them have deeper secrets that are at least semi-fleshed out, but we've not decided yet if they're going to be PCs or NPCs.
@Coin is fantastic for ideas. XD
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@cobaltasaurus But that's four. Who is the fifth!
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How Do We Age?
- Aging in these people (not foreigners) is different, and they don't even count the passage of time in years, but just seasons (so instead of saying "the Spring of 1994" they actually say "the 1994th Spring").
- Aging in seasons means they don't count "years" (the concept probably exists, as in "one cycle of seasons"); their entire process is counted in Seasons and each person has their own progression and season moments of change: Spring is their childhood, through puberty; Summer is the beginning of adulthood and marks their age of legal sexual consent; Autumn is their middle-age, and by its beginning they are expected to have settled into a way of life and profession already, and/or finished their studies; Winter is their elderly age, all the way to their deaths.
How Do We Talk?
A lot of their slang is based off of plant metaphors, and playing with the "verbing" of certain terms in different ways. For example, young people refer to sexual intercourse as "pollinating" ("He came over last night and I pollinated him for hoooourrrrs"), but other versions exist, such as: to pollen (ejaculate) ("I got him so worked up he pollened right in his pants") and to pollenize, which is a one-night stand or extremel casual relationship ("Yeah, we pollenized, but we didn't tend each other").
Which swings to: "tending" is "dating" and "gardening" is dating several people, while "having a secret garden" is dating several people when they don't know about each other--also used for cheating "tending my secret garden" and cheaters "secret gardener", not to mention the person you're cheating with, your "secret flower".
Just some ideas. It would be cool if people came up with their own slang, and the game had a huge glossary of it.
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@rucket said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:
@cobaltasaurus But that's four. Who is the fifth!
Count again.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@rucket said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:
@cobaltasaurus But that's four. Who is the fifth!
Fire & Ice are on the same bullet point. >.>
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@coin @Cobaltasaurus lol, well this is what happens when we read forums at work.
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How Big Is the Kingdom?
Roughly around half the size of the US, it's not completely theirs, either. There are wild and badlands at the edges of the Kingdom. But it's not inhabited by any other large nation or kingdom.Are There Other Kingdoms?
Yes! However, the Sacred Seed Kingdom is very isolationist. They're aware that there are other people's out there-- and even more than the roaming nomads at their borders who terrify them... But they mostly don't have much contact with them. There are rumors of foreign countries with different types of magic, but most non-elemental magic is looked upon with suspicion or downright hostility.What's the Tech Level?
Frontier / Wild West kind of... The very very rich Seedless have access to prototypes of cars, and other mechanical wonders. There's telegraphs and maybe even telephones. However, technology containing lead and copper makes the Seeded sick to be around it. So technology has been hampered in some ways. The Seeded control the vast majority of the wealth, and they don't fund things that will make them sick.Do Outside Nations of Tech?
Maybe. That might be part of why the Sacred Seeds are so isolationist. Legend has it that they once sent a delegation across the sea by boat to explore the world... For only one survive to come back, terribly ravaged by an unknown sickness, and tell tales of smog choked skies, and ash covered grounds...Do Outside Nations Have Seeded or Seedless?
No, that is only found in the Kingdom of the Sacred Seed. Whatever magic the outside world has comes from some other source... -
I'll confess I'm just not a person who LIKES traditional L&L games so the following should be taken with a grain of salt. It's possible this is just for a different audience than I inhabit and that's fine (I always feel like I'm in a slightly different demographic than a lot of players when I do end up on fantasy games, but the people who like L&L seem to REALLY dig it).
One of my big frustrations with these games though is the feeling that commoners are essentially accessory pcs to nobility, who can't really pursue impactful stories of their own, or do things without faction approval. I wonder why they're even playable characters at all, in a lot of cases. I can see that you're doing stuff to make Seedless useful but unsure how they're useful as independent entities rather than as some noble's knight etc.
I don't mind being a low power character but I never approach my bits as a supporting player in someone else's story.
Anyhow this looks quite interesting even if maybe not entirely for me.
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@three-eyed-crow One of the things I want to push is that while the Seeded control the money and the land... the Seedless control most everything else. The Seedless are the work force, the Seedless are the Guards/Police, the Seedless are the Chefs, the Seedless are the backbone of the society. The Seeded can probably get away with some abuse...
But if the Courts piss off the Thorns too much, oh well look at that... They're going to start turning a blind eye to crime in that Court's section of the city. They're going to stand aside and watch as a Seeded gets a beat down, stepping in only just before they'd be killed.
If the Seeded piss of the Chefs? Well, whose is going to prepare the Fruit for them...
There's also the ideas of Seedless characters trying to start rebellions, or doing secret forbidden research to try and bring magic to everyone and completely upturn the society.
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@three-eyed-crow I definitely think one thing games should think about more is 'how far outside of our intended PCs are we going to support', and what to do if someone wants to play outside of that. I don't mean a "bad" concept, but just...like, a regular, ordinary baker in a high fantasy court intrigue setting. Are you going to allow that character? If you do, are you going to devote time from high fantasy court intrigue plots to support that character's quest for the perfect cookies?
I don't think there's a right answer to either of those questions - it really depends on the pace of the game, and the amount of load staff feels like taking on - but they should be asked, and lines drawn where necessary.
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@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:
What's the Tech Level?
Frontier / Wild West kind of... The very very rich Seedless have access to prototypes of cars, and other mechanical wonders. There's telegraphs and maybe even telephones. However, technology containing lead and copper makes the Seeded sick to be around it. So technology has been hampered in some ways. The Seeded control the vast majority of the wealth, and they don't fund things that will make them sick.So lead and copper have no impact on the Seedless? What about weapons? Are there bans on the materials or can a Seedless grab a copper dagger and really do some damage against one of the Seeded?
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@pyrephox
Yeah I don't think staff should be obligated to support plots for random street sweepers if what they want to run is the high magic intrigue game. That's just going to lead to dilution of resources and frustration for both players and STs. But I do want games to be upfront and blunt about what they are interested in elevating as important characters. Most L&L games are all about nobles from a utility standpoint and that's fine. It's the encouragement of characters that aren't actually entities unto themselves where they typically lose me. -
@three-eyed-crow Yeah, to be honest, I wouldn't encourage like a Seedless Fisherman concept. If you want to be a Seedless you're going to be an exceptional one. One with some hook into the tapestry of the story, or one in a position of power that gives you more agency than say Random Baker Seedless (who doesn't work with the fruit).
You're going to be: Captain of the Thorns, or The Up and Coming Chef who is experimenting with how they prep the fruit to improve its effects. You're going to be a member of the secret assassin's guild...
etc. etc.
@rucket said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:
@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:
What's the Tech Level?
Frontier / Wild West kind of... The very very rich Seedless have access to prototypes of cars, and other mechanical wonders. There's telegraphs and maybe even telephones. However, technology containing lead and copper makes the Seeded sick to be around it. So technology has been hampered in some ways. The Seeded control the vast majority of the wealth, and they don't fund things that will make them sick.So lead and copper have no impact on the Seedless? What about weapons? Are there bans on the materials or can a Seedless grab a copper dagger and really do some damage against one of the Seeded?
Seemingly has no impact on the Seedless, and yes there's probably a ban on those metals in the Seeded Districts. And yeah, a Seedless with their enhanced strength and a copper dagger would fuck up a Seeded pretty bad-- assuming they got close enough to them. A Seeded with fire is going to be harder than Seeded of rain to deal with.
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@cobaltasaurus What kind of weaponry do people use anyway. You mentioned some level of technology, but are the weapons more melee-based? I could see guns and other ranged weapons would probably be something the Seeded might not want to have used against them.
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@rucket Guns are probably a no-go. It's probably more medieval type weaponry. There might be some highly illegal research into explosive and handguns, but the majority of the populous would either have melee or bows (regular and crossbows).
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Who Tends The Sacred Gardens?
The Gardeners. This is often Seedless or Seeded who have an affinity for plants. Once they join the Order of the Sacred Garden, they rarely leave it. They are akin to isolationist monks. Only a select trusted few of the five Courts interact with them. And rumors have it that working so closely with the Sacred Seeds does something to them... When they are outside of their Gardens and before the prying eyes of society, they wear deep hoods, and tend to keep their hands within their robes. They rarely speak above a whisper.The Gardeners are holy, and honored ... but deeply disturbing.
