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Thoughts about minimal fantasy worlds


p11

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 (pretty long and maybe random, sub headers are less important)

I'm thinking a lot of a setting for my fantasy world.
I already had some fantasy world in mind for some years, and I tried to integrate every idea I had into it. It was some kind of futuristic fantasy world.
So it has much stuff in it, many races, many genres, many different ages and cultures, a big city, some villages, many small tribes, both magic and technology, also genetics, and even space.

I don't really see a reason in such a huge fantasy world anymore. I'm more interested in some kind of opposite.
I understand you need some differences between people and cultures to make the world interesting.
But you don't really need a lot of magic or technology to make an interesting story, even if it is a futuristic fantasy setting.
And you don't need different races at all. You could just have different cultures or character backstories if you want to have different behavior of people just like in our world.

But why to stop here?

Do we really need different sexes?
Different ages?
Different lifespans?
Or animals?
Different food?
Are clothes necessary?
Or arms? Legs?
A peaceful world without conflicts?

So I decided to create a more minimalist fantasy world.
Some world, which has less basic concepts than ours.
But I'm not sure, how much can be left out without losing the ability to create an interesting fantasy world.

The benefit of such restrictions would be the need to focus on the other stuff. In this case probably mostly human relations.
Maybe also the backstory if there is some link to our world.
You could still explore different philosophies and cultures.

So what I think about is a world where only one sex, one age. Clothes exist but being naked is pretty common.
The people don't die from age and have high regenerative powers.
There's only one tree with edible fruits, which grows anywhere and is very nutrious.
There are no animals, except maybe some small ones necessary for the nature.
The world is peaceful. Everyone lives in the tribes, villages, towns or cities they like most.
There might be magic or technology if it's interesting.

What do you think about this idea?
Are these restrictions too hard or is it good to find creative ideas?
Which of these restrictions would make a fantasy world more interesting?
How would you do it?

I have some thoughts about these points. It might be possible to normalize some fetishes, but I'm not sure, if that's good for a general fantasy world.

Sex

Having different sexes has these benefits:

- being able to reproduce => same sex people could also be able to reproduce
- gender roles could lead to interesting scenarios and subversions of gender roles => there could be totally new character unspecific genders

Is sexual reproduction important for relationships?

- it's not often used in stories, but it would be interesting to have some sex game, which also includes getting children
- children could be created using machines, people would maybe not know, where they come from
- the main race could have the ability to split into multiple persons (and maybe even rejoin (by eating each other? or are they slime people?))
- parent-child relationships (the normal ones, not in some kinky way) are easier when the child is born from the relationship
- if there are no relatives, there's one tabu topic less, which might be subverted

Should't there at least be genitalia? How else would sex work?

- there might be some genitalia, especially if there is reproduction it has to be there
- else it doesn't really matter; there could still be remainings of genitalia in the same region, just for

If everyone is of the same sex, there could still be some people of a different sex, who might just be very rare or live somewhere else.
In some story, you might be the only man, who comes to a world, where everyone is a woman.

Ages

When having different ages, it can cause these scenarios:

- mentorship: the older person teaches the younger person something => age is not important for being some kind of mentor
- differences in power and social status can give the older person some power => both can be achieved in a different way

In case there are no different ages, they will grow very rapidly for a few years, and then just stop getting older.

Lifespan

Having fixed lifespans will cause the problem of death.
Not having fixed lifespans will cause the problem of eternal life.

If life sucks, you probably wouldn't just say, you will die anyway some day. You would probably kill yourself much earlier.
Killing a young person wouldn't be worse than killing an old person. The days they were still able to live, were the same.

Death might even be more common. People, who have finished their life in some way will more likely just die.
Maybe they'll make it a party or some kind of (kinky) ritual?
Or they could become some meal for their friends (vore, cannibalism).

Animals

Animals could cause some interesting situations. Either having to care for some animal or encountering scary or dangerous situations with some animal.
But just using persons of the main race would also be possible in many cases.
They could also have grown up in some special place, where they don't learn to speak.
They could be just stupid. Maybe by using some technology or genetics.

If it really needs to be dangerous, it should probably be replaced by a real monster, though.
The monster doesn't have to be an animal. Real monsters, which don't normally appear in the wild would be more interesting anyway.

When normal people are used as animals, they might also be used as food, not necessarily voluntarily.
Being eaten could also just be something more common, especially if reproduction will be caused by some external force. (vore)

Wouldn't a relationship to your pet be some kind of zoophilia then?

Food

Food is not necessary for most stories anyway, but only having one could cause these scenarios:

- why is there only one food?
- how many different dishes can be created based on this food?
- will only a single food get boring? What will they do to make it less boring?
  - Add some ingredients, which should normally not be eaten? (also spit, piss, vomit, shit)
  - Become a cannibal?

Cannibalism as the only food won't work, as long as people are not able to do photosynthesis.

Clothes

Clothes are probably not necessary. But when being naked is too common, being naked will not be some kind of intimacy.
I guess this might work in general, but it probably works better, if being naked is not common in the world.

Limbs

The restiction of not having some common body parts might also be interesting. (people on this site might know some example)
But I don't think, this should be applied to a general fantasy race, especially if it's the only one.

It could be nice to remove less important body parts, though, like some toes, ears or some fingers.

Peaceful world

It's really difficult to create an interesting story in a really peaceful world.
Most of the time, there has to happen something bad.

I'd rather want to show some kind of utopia, you would want to live in. But would anyone really like to live in such a world?
I'm not sure, if this can be achieved.

Maybe it's by having small conflicts, which are not really dangerous to anyone. Different views on life and different hobbies, which might conflict.

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