Terrea Culture: Living on Terrea, and How Bloblings Live.
May 23, 2020 18:20:54 GMT -5
Saerfall likes this
Post by Ichor on May 23, 2020 18:20:54 GMT -5
Welcome! Do you wanna learn more about the culture on Terrea?
Do you want to know more about how your blobling might live, and about how to accurately role play your goo ball's life? Well, you've come to the right place!
This thread will be updated periodically, as time passes and as Terrea develops.
GENERAL CULTURE
Since Terrea was created and Ichor became less active in the lives of bloblings, they have been learning to live on their own and gradually creating their own ways of life, as things do when they exist for long enough.
Firstly, bloblings begin their lives in the Smiley Sands, spawning in the area where Ichor started it all; right in the middle of the desert, awakening to the silky sand and the scattered, dark stalks of the chromillias. They begin play knowing nothing about themselves, remembering only hazy images and concepts from the Old World... and even then, they're murky rememberings, as if seen or heard through water. They may solidify in the future, should the blobling focus on them, but bloblings essentially begin play as blank slates. Amnesiacs, almost.
Bloblings who are born from bleedings begin play, instead, wherever the blood that created them was mixed.
While bloblings do not remember details about their old lives, they do begin play about as competent as a teenager or adult, with no 'childhood' to speak of. They don't know what's around them or of the mysteries of Terrea, and have no idea what the strange creatures around them are named, but they begin play knowing how to speak and communicate using the All Language. They only take a few minutes to a few 'days' to learn to move their body, and don't experience a learning period as Old World children did, popping into the world with their mind at its peak; some of them do, however, experience some vertigo and confusion about suddenly being Awake again.
Ichor herself has only a vague influence upon the lives of the bloblings, asserting herself into their presence (usually) only when it is time to create something together. They are free to roam and learn about the planet at their own pace.
Evolution Phases and Bleeding Seasons happen on a timer, and it is known on Terrea that when it is not an Evolution Phase, it's a Bleeding Season.
Bloblings tend to evolve either in ways that would be helpful to them, such as evolving long legs when they've been wanting something from a tall tree, or ways that just feel right to them. Many blobs believe that they're achieving their true form when they grow four sets of limbs and a mustache. These Evolutions happen basically whenever the player wants them to, provided it's an Evolution Phase in-character and the player has the art of the desired Evolution(s).
TIME
There is no 'sun' on Terrea, the planet does not rotate, and the only stars to be seen are the six differently coloured rainbow stars that hover in the sky and remain stalwartly still. As such, the entire concept of time is completely wonky on Terrea.
Most bloblings will know that they began existing at some point, and that things have been happening since. They will have a knowledge of the past and present, and a hazy knowledge of the future, in that they know they will do more things later... but that's about it. Days, hours and minutes are rarely used and mentions of those particular blocks of time will raise eyebrows, if there are eyebrows to be raised.
Instead, most blobs will say 'later' or 'eventually' or 'some time later', and will refer to time in amounts like 'a lot' or 'a little'. This tends to make meeting up with each other difficult, but as the sun and moon do not exist and the planet's light levels vary from biome-to-biome rather than from day to night, they don't have the anchors that make days and hours and minutes possible.
In the EB, the blobling version of the internet, there exists a mysterious number that advances every once in a while. It started out at 1, when the bloblings were born anew (even though none had access to it yet), and it is now sitting at 230. This number mirrors Old World days, though the smaller increments (hours, minutes, seconds) between do not exist anywhere and are nowhere to be found in any of the apps, such as Friendzy. You do not need to add these numbers to your posts - it is assumed that they exist and are present in the UI.
BLEEDINGS AND FAMILY
Bloblings are squishy, easily punctured sacks of flesh that grow a see-through, flexible skeletal structure as they evolve... however, their skin remains elastic and ripe for the popping, so they bleed a lot. They tend to bleed even more than Old World humans.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, mixing this blood of theirs is how they make more of themselves. As bloblings live on a planet where their Life Goddess gains power from Life, most bloblings see creating more blobbles as a service to her, a means to an end and nothing more.
As bloblings begin their lives as relatively competent beings, there is usually no need for them to be raised, reared or protected, and as they are functionally immortal... none seem to see any importance in caring for them. As such, if the 'parents' of a blobling do form any relationship with their offspring, it's usually more of a mentor/student relationship than anything overly familial. Most 'babies' tend to wander off and do their own thing shortly after being born.
Blobs share the same blood - the blood of Ichor, their Life Goddess - and experience no ill effects from bleeding with any other blobling, even if that blobling was created in a similar location or exhibits similar features, such as antlers.
As such, blobs tend to view bleeding together as more of a way to see what the new blobs who spawn from their blood look like when mixed with the features of another, as a service to Ichor, as a way to pass the time - basically, they are rather detached from the concept that bleeding together could possibly mean something more.
As most bloblings do not begin play remembering the words 'mother', 'father', 'sister', 'brother', etc, mentions of such words tend to lead to a lot of questions and misunderstandings, as each blob remembers them differently - if they even do at all. The vast majority of Terrea simply lives without the words, making connections based on conversation, personality and consistent company rather than being locked into a familial structure right out of the gate.
As most bloblings used to be humans and at once point did have a family, this leaves many bloblings feeling inexplicably lonely, with no concept of what to do to fix it.
MORALS AND THE GODS
Themis, Eris and Ichor are the Gods and Goddesses of Terrea. Each one of the Gods lives differently, but as each of them are scarcely in contact with those on the ground, there's usually no way to know what the Gods and Goddesses actually want.
In general, bloblings know that Themis wishes for Order, Eris wishes for Chaos and Ichor wishes for Life. As they continue to live and exist, they may learn that each one of them gains power from each of these things and may begin to try to serve their chosen God or Goddess by knocking over plants, cleaning things up, or by engaging in bleedings during Bleeding Season. They may read over what Eris says in Friendzy and decide he's an asshole, they may message Themis in Themis Direct and decide that her cadence and poise are delightful and decide to look into following her.
Presently, there is no organized religion on Terrea and being a devout worshipper of one of the Gods manifests more as someone who just sets things on fire in the name of Eris, or organizes the books on their shelf by colour in the name of Themis, rather than as someone who attends church.
Wrongfully or not, the volatile nature of worshipping Eris tends to paint his followers as, if not fully evil, just unpredictable and worth avoiding.
Since some Temples have begun cropping up on Terrea, such as the Temple dedicated to Eris that was created by Yume, many of the world's bloblings are beginning to find meaning in connecting more readily to their preferred deity. This means that a lot of bloblings are starting to perform actions for their Gods and act in a way that matches their preferences.
Followers of Eris are thrill seeking and tend to view rules as a boundary to be tested.
Followers of Themis are polite, tidy individuals who don't like to cause a ruckus.
Followers of Ichor are social, almost hedonistic individuals who love to experience all parts of life, even the painful ones.
Regardless of which deity a blobling has an affinity for, in general most bloblings retain the concept that harming one another is wrong. Being in pain sucks, having your things destroyed sucks, and there has to be some sort of basic set of things that should or should not be done or the entire world will descend into chaos and meaninglessness and hurt. As civilization is just now coming to be on Terrea, there are not yet any laws, orders or rules, so most bloblings tend to live by what they feel is right or wrong rather than having a global edict telling them so.
FOOD AND SLEEP
Despite being rather fragile on the outside, at least at first, bloblings are extremely survivable. They do not need to sleep, they do not need to eat and they do not need to drink. Doing so is entirely optional for them... however, many of them have a sort of muscle memory that compels them to consume, even though they don't strictly need to do so. They have taste buds within their mouth, even if some of them do not have a tongue, and begin play able to taste things fully and completely.
As food is completely optional for them and organized society is only just beginning to be a thing, there aren't really many recipes or recipe books, and most 'dishes' don't have an official name. Most blobbles who are seeking out something to nom will just do a whole-ass shot of sour poffdula juice or something, which tastes like a punch of straight citric acid to the face, to scratch the itch.
... however, it seems that the flora, fauna and pets of Terrea do need to eat. While they do not 'die' in the traditional sense unless their vessel is harmed sufficiently, they do grow lethargic, grumpy and just generally foul if they don't get fed regularly. As such, many blobs will keep collections of food for their pets rather than for themselves - if their pet even has a physical type of food. Some pets require only a blobling's happiness to live, or they eat the concept of 'red'.
CITIES, HOUSES AND CIVILIZATION
While bloblings have been creating steady homes for themselves since they began, at first in hollowed out camivian dens and later in the Onyxia Towers, there are still very few organized 'cities' on the planet.
This is because there were not many materials that were suitable for building until recently. The bark of the bleeding heart trees was soft and wet, and the vines of glow grapes could only be used for so many projects. Terreden spit could be mixed with sand to form a concrete-like substance, but with no bricks to glue together, very few blobs were willing to take the time to gather similarly sized rocks to use instead.
This is also partially because Ichor refuses to assert herself in the lives of bloblings unless it's to create something together, for them to assert their wills - and so the creation of flora, fauna and pets happens at a certain pace. Ichor must rest and regain her power between each creation event, enforcing a slowness to the overall Goddess-created sections of Terrea.
So, with little memory of cities or organized living spaces, bloblings have been left to flounder and learn for themselves. B has created a shoddily built set of huts in the desert, which has been growing and growing but is still not so pretty to look at.
Onyxia Sanctuary is a recent example of a more organized, sturdily built settlement, though it's worth noting that the claiming of rooms in the towers is done via the trust system and writing one's name on a board. Generally speaking, bloblings just... hope that nobody tries to invade their space or steal their things while they're away.
There are no bloblings who guard the towers and the city is not patrolled or kept safe by any organized force. There are no laws, and there is no established currency to speak of. While the Arena is built and stands strong, there are no organized times where peeps can use it.
Recently, people have started to write books, sharing their knowledge of Old World concepts such as gravity and physics. Not every blobling reads these books and not all of them even know about the Onyxia Library, and it cannot be assumed that just because a book is published, every blob has read it. However, ever since the library was spawned, many bloblings have been spending their time authoring new books, fictional and non-fictional.
... but the EB exists! Bloblings find themselves able to use a desktop that exists within their mind, as well as the few apps that exist within it: a camera, which offers them the ability to take pictures and record things, Friendzy, Flutter, Fastagram, a storage folder for all of their photos and videos, and a text messaging inbox. Every blobling that exists has access to these things, but they may choose not to access them or just not know how, much like someone with a cell phone can ignore their notifications, miss them, or simply not know how to operate the damn thing.
Generally speaking, they are currently living in a time that mirrors life just before the medieval ages, though they already have access to the EB. They have settlements, but no enforced rules or laws within them, and have only just been given ferrowood trees, which give them access to metal and forges. It is probably better to not try to liken their state of living to an Old World era and instead take it as it is; varied, flawed and ready to be improved.
TRAVEL
Terrea is a large planet, a little less than half the size of Earth, with little to no water to interrupt the patches of land. As such, bloblings have a hard time getting from point A to point B and travel takes quite a while. It takes a long time to get from biome to biome, so many tend to evolve for the sake of travel, growing wings and other such appendages that may help them run or fly to their destination.
Meowlers have become popular riding pets, however, aiding bloblings in their quest to see the world. While it is possible to ride most of the Terrean pets if a blobling is the correct size to do so, most of them find the experience confusing and irritating and will remove their owners from their back via force if necessary. Meowlers, however, have shown themselves to be extremely tolerant of saddles and traveling long distances, provided treats are involved.
They have become the primary mode of travel for bloblings who cannot fly, or who cannot fly as fast as a meowler can run, which is about as fast as a cheetah but with less limited endurance. Generally speaking, a blobling who only has 1 Wing Voucher applied and has not used an Other Voucher to make themselves faster in some way, is not as fast as a meowler.
Do you want to know more about how your blobling might live, and about how to accurately role play your goo ball's life? Well, you've come to the right place!
This thread will be updated periodically, as time passes and as Terrea develops.
GENERAL CULTURE
Since Terrea was created and Ichor became less active in the lives of bloblings, they have been learning to live on their own and gradually creating their own ways of life, as things do when they exist for long enough.
Firstly, bloblings begin their lives in the Smiley Sands, spawning in the area where Ichor started it all; right in the middle of the desert, awakening to the silky sand and the scattered, dark stalks of the chromillias. They begin play knowing nothing about themselves, remembering only hazy images and concepts from the Old World... and even then, they're murky rememberings, as if seen or heard through water. They may solidify in the future, should the blobling focus on them, but bloblings essentially begin play as blank slates. Amnesiacs, almost.
Bloblings who are born from bleedings begin play, instead, wherever the blood that created them was mixed.
While bloblings do not remember details about their old lives, they do begin play about as competent as a teenager or adult, with no 'childhood' to speak of. They don't know what's around them or of the mysteries of Terrea, and have no idea what the strange creatures around them are named, but they begin play knowing how to speak and communicate using the All Language. They only take a few minutes to a few 'days' to learn to move their body, and don't experience a learning period as Old World children did, popping into the world with their mind at its peak; some of them do, however, experience some vertigo and confusion about suddenly being Awake again.
Ichor herself has only a vague influence upon the lives of the bloblings, asserting herself into their presence (usually) only when it is time to create something together. They are free to roam and learn about the planet at their own pace.
Evolution Phases and Bleeding Seasons happen on a timer, and it is known on Terrea that when it is not an Evolution Phase, it's a Bleeding Season.
Bloblings tend to evolve either in ways that would be helpful to them, such as evolving long legs when they've been wanting something from a tall tree, or ways that just feel right to them. Many blobs believe that they're achieving their true form when they grow four sets of limbs and a mustache. These Evolutions happen basically whenever the player wants them to, provided it's an Evolution Phase in-character and the player has the art of the desired Evolution(s).
TIME
There is no 'sun' on Terrea, the planet does not rotate, and the only stars to be seen are the six differently coloured rainbow stars that hover in the sky and remain stalwartly still. As such, the entire concept of time is completely wonky on Terrea.
Most bloblings will know that they began existing at some point, and that things have been happening since. They will have a knowledge of the past and present, and a hazy knowledge of the future, in that they know they will do more things later... but that's about it. Days, hours and minutes are rarely used and mentions of those particular blocks of time will raise eyebrows, if there are eyebrows to be raised.
Instead, most blobs will say 'later' or 'eventually' or 'some time later', and will refer to time in amounts like 'a lot' or 'a little'. This tends to make meeting up with each other difficult, but as the sun and moon do not exist and the planet's light levels vary from biome-to-biome rather than from day to night, they don't have the anchors that make days and hours and minutes possible.
In the EB, the blobling version of the internet, there exists a mysterious number that advances every once in a while. It started out at 1, when the bloblings were born anew (even though none had access to it yet), and it is now sitting at 230. This number mirrors Old World days, though the smaller increments (hours, minutes, seconds) between do not exist anywhere and are nowhere to be found in any of the apps, such as Friendzy. You do not need to add these numbers to your posts - it is assumed that they exist and are present in the UI.
BLEEDINGS AND FAMILY
Bloblings are squishy, easily punctured sacks of flesh that grow a see-through, flexible skeletal structure as they evolve... however, their skin remains elastic and ripe for the popping, so they bleed a lot. They tend to bleed even more than Old World humans.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, mixing this blood of theirs is how they make more of themselves. As bloblings live on a planet where their Life Goddess gains power from Life, most bloblings see creating more blobbles as a service to her, a means to an end and nothing more.
As bloblings begin their lives as relatively competent beings, there is usually no need for them to be raised, reared or protected, and as they are functionally immortal... none seem to see any importance in caring for them. As such, if the 'parents' of a blobling do form any relationship with their offspring, it's usually more of a mentor/student relationship than anything overly familial. Most 'babies' tend to wander off and do their own thing shortly after being born.
Blobs share the same blood - the blood of Ichor, their Life Goddess - and experience no ill effects from bleeding with any other blobling, even if that blobling was created in a similar location or exhibits similar features, such as antlers.
As such, blobs tend to view bleeding together as more of a way to see what the new blobs who spawn from their blood look like when mixed with the features of another, as a service to Ichor, as a way to pass the time - basically, they are rather detached from the concept that bleeding together could possibly mean something more.
As most bloblings do not begin play remembering the words 'mother', 'father', 'sister', 'brother', etc, mentions of such words tend to lead to a lot of questions and misunderstandings, as each blob remembers them differently - if they even do at all. The vast majority of Terrea simply lives without the words, making connections based on conversation, personality and consistent company rather than being locked into a familial structure right out of the gate.
As most bloblings used to be humans and at once point did have a family, this leaves many bloblings feeling inexplicably lonely, with no concept of what to do to fix it.
MORALS AND THE GODS
Themis, Eris and Ichor are the Gods and Goddesses of Terrea. Each one of the Gods lives differently, but as each of them are scarcely in contact with those on the ground, there's usually no way to know what the Gods and Goddesses actually want.
In general, bloblings know that Themis wishes for Order, Eris wishes for Chaos and Ichor wishes for Life. As they continue to live and exist, they may learn that each one of them gains power from each of these things and may begin to try to serve their chosen God or Goddess by knocking over plants, cleaning things up, or by engaging in bleedings during Bleeding Season. They may read over what Eris says in Friendzy and decide he's an asshole, they may message Themis in Themis Direct and decide that her cadence and poise are delightful and decide to look into following her.
Presently, there is no organized religion on Terrea and being a devout worshipper of one of the Gods manifests more as someone who just sets things on fire in the name of Eris, or organizes the books on their shelf by colour in the name of Themis, rather than as someone who attends church.
Wrongfully or not, the volatile nature of worshipping Eris tends to paint his followers as, if not fully evil, just unpredictable and worth avoiding.
Since some Temples have begun cropping up on Terrea, such as the Temple dedicated to Eris that was created by Yume, many of the world's bloblings are beginning to find meaning in connecting more readily to their preferred deity. This means that a lot of bloblings are starting to perform actions for their Gods and act in a way that matches their preferences.
Followers of Eris are thrill seeking and tend to view rules as a boundary to be tested.
Followers of Themis are polite, tidy individuals who don't like to cause a ruckus.
Followers of Ichor are social, almost hedonistic individuals who love to experience all parts of life, even the painful ones.
Regardless of which deity a blobling has an affinity for, in general most bloblings retain the concept that harming one another is wrong. Being in pain sucks, having your things destroyed sucks, and there has to be some sort of basic set of things that should or should not be done or the entire world will descend into chaos and meaninglessness and hurt. As civilization is just now coming to be on Terrea, there are not yet any laws, orders or rules, so most bloblings tend to live by what they feel is right or wrong rather than having a global edict telling them so.
FOOD AND SLEEP
Despite being rather fragile on the outside, at least at first, bloblings are extremely survivable. They do not need to sleep, they do not need to eat and they do not need to drink. Doing so is entirely optional for them... however, many of them have a sort of muscle memory that compels them to consume, even though they don't strictly need to do so. They have taste buds within their mouth, even if some of them do not have a tongue, and begin play able to taste things fully and completely.
As food is completely optional for them and organized society is only just beginning to be a thing, there aren't really many recipes or recipe books, and most 'dishes' don't have an official name. Most blobbles who are seeking out something to nom will just do a whole-ass shot of sour poffdula juice or something, which tastes like a punch of straight citric acid to the face, to scratch the itch.
... however, it seems that the flora, fauna and pets of Terrea do need to eat. While they do not 'die' in the traditional sense unless their vessel is harmed sufficiently, they do grow lethargic, grumpy and just generally foul if they don't get fed regularly. As such, many blobs will keep collections of food for their pets rather than for themselves - if their pet even has a physical type of food. Some pets require only a blobling's happiness to live, or they eat the concept of 'red'.
CITIES, HOUSES AND CIVILIZATION
While bloblings have been creating steady homes for themselves since they began, at first in hollowed out camivian dens and later in the Onyxia Towers, there are still very few organized 'cities' on the planet.
This is because there were not many materials that were suitable for building until recently. The bark of the bleeding heart trees was soft and wet, and the vines of glow grapes could only be used for so many projects. Terreden spit could be mixed with sand to form a concrete-like substance, but with no bricks to glue together, very few blobs were willing to take the time to gather similarly sized rocks to use instead.
This is also partially because Ichor refuses to assert herself in the lives of bloblings unless it's to create something together, for them to assert their wills - and so the creation of flora, fauna and pets happens at a certain pace. Ichor must rest and regain her power between each creation event, enforcing a slowness to the overall Goddess-created sections of Terrea.
So, with little memory of cities or organized living spaces, bloblings have been left to flounder and learn for themselves. B has created a shoddily built set of huts in the desert, which has been growing and growing but is still not so pretty to look at.
Onyxia Sanctuary is a recent example of a more organized, sturdily built settlement, though it's worth noting that the claiming of rooms in the towers is done via the trust system and writing one's name on a board. Generally speaking, bloblings just... hope that nobody tries to invade their space or steal their things while they're away.
There are no bloblings who guard the towers and the city is not patrolled or kept safe by any organized force. There are no laws, and there is no established currency to speak of. While the Arena is built and stands strong, there are no organized times where peeps can use it.
Recently, people have started to write books, sharing their knowledge of Old World concepts such as gravity and physics. Not every blobling reads these books and not all of them even know about the Onyxia Library, and it cannot be assumed that just because a book is published, every blob has read it. However, ever since the library was spawned, many bloblings have been spending their time authoring new books, fictional and non-fictional.
... but the EB exists! Bloblings find themselves able to use a desktop that exists within their mind, as well as the few apps that exist within it: a camera, which offers them the ability to take pictures and record things, Friendzy, Flutter, Fastagram, a storage folder for all of their photos and videos, and a text messaging inbox. Every blobling that exists has access to these things, but they may choose not to access them or just not know how, much like someone with a cell phone can ignore their notifications, miss them, or simply not know how to operate the damn thing.
Generally speaking, they are currently living in a time that mirrors life just before the medieval ages, though they already have access to the EB. They have settlements, but no enforced rules or laws within them, and have only just been given ferrowood trees, which give them access to metal and forges. It is probably better to not try to liken their state of living to an Old World era and instead take it as it is; varied, flawed and ready to be improved.
TRAVEL
Terrea is a large planet, a little less than half the size of Earth, with little to no water to interrupt the patches of land. As such, bloblings have a hard time getting from point A to point B and travel takes quite a while. It takes a long time to get from biome to biome, so many tend to evolve for the sake of travel, growing wings and other such appendages that may help them run or fly to their destination.
Meowlers have become popular riding pets, however, aiding bloblings in their quest to see the world. While it is possible to ride most of the Terrean pets if a blobling is the correct size to do so, most of them find the experience confusing and irritating and will remove their owners from their back via force if necessary. Meowlers, however, have shown themselves to be extremely tolerant of saddles and traveling long distances, provided treats are involved.
They have become the primary mode of travel for bloblings who cannot fly, or who cannot fly as fast as a meowler can run, which is about as fast as a cheetah but with less limited endurance. Generally speaking, a blobling who only has 1 Wing Voucher applied and has not used an Other Voucher to make themselves faster in some way, is not as fast as a meowler.