Cosmos

The general idea is nailed down, details are flexible.

The cosmos is seperated into the "real world" that people will be fairly farmiliar with, and TwinWorld. The door Oswald installs is one of the few pathways between the two, though the Fay and Zarth can occasionally make other portals and temporary connections.

There may be other worlds as well, but currently only Earth and TwinWorld are conceptualized.

Transporting material between worlds

Since TwinWorld is a rather metaphorical place, materials transported between worlds take on a somewhat metaphorical transformation.

When transporting materials from TwinWorld to Earth, everything carried is changed into mundane and fairly useless stuff. Twigs, dry leaves, soil, old tin cans, coat hangers, rusty cogs. This lends to the "imaginary" quality of TwinWorld, since anything brought back would have a resemblance, but not the function, of it's former self in TwinWorld.

When going the other way, from Earth to TwinWorld, everything becomes just a bit more whimsical, pure, and un-encumbered. Excess material is shorn away, magical and mechanical means replace technological ones, minor decorations grow, sometimes becoming the main form. Metal (an especially dangerous material for Fay) is maintained, and sometimes transmuted into a more potent alloy. Mostly functional Zarth equivelants are usually rendered for technology.

Idea! Mostly equivalent Fay enchantments are rendered for relationships, whether friendship or rivalry! Could have some interesting story repercussions!

There is a lot of lore about fairy treasures turning to leaves and acorns when the fairies have left. I think the permutation of transported materials could mimic this effect well.

Story ideas for this mechanic

Sometimes materials shuttled back and forth consistently change into the same thing. Other times it varies.

• It would be fun to have a short scene where Oswald experiments with a bowl of rice, going back and forth to and from TwinWorld with the bowl changing respectively into a stone bowl of tiny clouds, a plastic bowl of marshmallows, an opal bowl of pearls, a glass bowl of marbles, a crystal bowl of round rocks, and finally a bowl of ice filled with dirt. He could cry at the end.
• For bonus points, this mechanic could eventually cause a "transportation transmutation permutation conflagration instigation castigation" (someone gets chewed out for starting a fire by carrying something across the boundary of worlds)

Fayrie and Zarth

Since the question was raised, seems to me like the right way to do talking points like that is in talk pages, so I moved this to the talk page. --Toad 19:20, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

I moved it back, since I don't think anyone checks the talk pages. Ziggy 19:58, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

We have been talking a lot about how the Fay and the Zarth interact. So lets see if I got all the ideas down.

1. The Zarth don't care about Fayrie. This makes no sense because domination and exploration are extremely masculine. Oswald
2. The Zarth invaded and took over Fayrie. It is currently under a occupation. However this has no effect on the life style of the Fay themselves.
3. The Zarth have tried to invade, but whenever they show up with hostile intentions the Fay use their magics to defuse the onslaught. (i.e. the Zarth find themselves lost, the zarth are caused to "really just not feel like it anymore", the trees themselves wall off thier movement, or whatever)
4. The Zarth often explore Fay, but they haven't taken it over because it has no use to them.

I like 3, and then 2. The idea of a "war that can't be fought" between the Fay and the Zarth strikes me as a fun mechanic. --Toad 19:20, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Questions

• What level of awareness do people have in the "real world" of Faierie?
• What level of weirdness goes on in (or leaks into) the "real world"?

Mythology, History, and Cosmology

As an attempt to craft a Silmarillion type overarching history, here is a basic outline of a proposed origin story, as well as the Fay and Zarth interpretation of it.

Ziggy's rant

Watching the sun rise this morning, it occured to me how much of our mythology and culture is based around the world God created. We, as "modern men" wake up in darkness, even when the sun is shining, and turn on lights whenever we want. However, for most of our history, the myths that were born were made by men and women who woke up to the sun every day. Who watched the sunrise, and wondered, and marveled. People who were afraid of the forests for their secrets, or of the night for its terror. Seeing clouds pierced by moonlight, knowing that the mountains your grandfather trod are still visible on a clear day, remembering the last rain, how uncomfortable it was, and wondering when it will rain again. These are all things that shape our language, our myths, our expectations, and how we think about the world.

So, when considering a place like TwinWorld... a place where there are no days, no mountain ranges, no lasting landmarks (except near the Great Tree), certain death at the horizon, and roiling life all around... considering all of that and more, what kind of a culture and mindset would the "people" living there have? What kind of myths would they build? What kind of cities? What would they worship when they stoop to worshiping idols? How far would they go to make something of beauty, or secure safety for themselves and their friends? What would they love? What would they value?

Two hundred years ago, the sun, moon, and stars were the standard of reliability, beauty, and wonder. Now we trust machines to be reliable, and wonder at screens filled with our own visions. But in TwinWorld there is no sun, there is no moon. Can we even imagine the thoughts that would mark the minds of a Fay? What pictures would adorn their walls? When would they rise, and when would they sleep? Their culture and cognizance will have some fundamental ideas that will be naturally alien to us.

Tolkien was interested in history, and I think we should be as well. What stories do the Fayrie tell each other? What legends do the Zarth recount?