Inner Worlds: a setting

[Kappa]

I've been noodling around this idea for a day or so and I think it might be ready for its own setting thread.

In this world, everyone has their own internal universe. Your internal universe grows as you do: it contains representations of your ideas and memories, and you can change it and share pieces of it with other people. "Look at this cool rock I made in my inner world!"

Most people have internal avatars that explore their internal universe. Your inner self might start out looking like you, or not. You can change it the same way you can change everything else in there, and you can show it to other people likewise. (Does this afford opportunities for Extreme Magic Cybersex? ...maybe.)

Inner worlds aren't really "real", though. Things that happen there don't affect the real external world at all, except...

Some people have extra magic. They can do things like:

• Bring objects from their inner world into the real world, as long as that object is something that could physically exist (you can manage rocks, but you probably can't manage flying pigs unless you have an unusually detailed idea of your flying pig's inner workings, and even then unless your unusually detailed idea works you're not going to have a fully functional flying pig.) Call these "conjurors".
• Alter themselves similarly to how everyone can alter their inner-world avatars, except again limited by real-world physics. Call these "shifters".
• Alter nearby objects and landscape features similarly to how everyone can alter the objects and landscape features in their inner world, same limitations. Call these "shapers" (originally "changers").

One person usually has only one list item. If you're a conjuror you can't also change existing stuff. If you're a shifter you can't also change non-you stuff. If you're a changer you can't change yourself. There are usually also further limitations, although those aren't as hard-line: some changers work best at a large scale with things like reshaping hills, some at a small scale with things like crafting jewelry. Some are better at altering objects while some are mostly good at moving objects. And some shifters can mostly just change their colour scheme (rainbow hair!), while others can change their appearance in different ways.

So far, so good. Now, there is also an even rarer phenomenon of extra extra magic. You almost never get two of these in the world at the same time and aren't guaranteed even one. Some examples:

• The Architect, sometimes also called The Sculptor, was a conjuror who could make things that worked on imaginary physics. She couldn't do imaginary biology, but she built floating castles and shit, and they are still merrily floating.
• The Door was a changer who could make any frame into a magic portal that led to some other real location. Rumour has it that one day he made a portal to his inner universe, walked through it, and closed it behind him.
• The Mirror, who is the reason this whole setting exists, is a shifter whose inner world constantly changes to reflect her surroundings. She can pick apart the inner reflections of nearby things and graft their properties onto her inner-world avatar, and those changes are reflected in her real-world self.

I need a name for the "extra extra magic" category, and I think I need to refine some of the details of how this all works, but overall I'm kinda proud.

[DanielH]

Until I got to the description of The Mirror, I thought you might have designed the entire setting for a Sandy.

You said it’s rare for one person to have more than one extra-magic category; does that mean it does occasionally happen?

How often are extra-extra-magic people in the world at a time? You made it sound like there is usually not always one, but you listed three specific individuals, so I misunderstood something.

[Kappa]

Note that the Mirror is but the Door and the Architect were. Extra-extra magic people don't happen very often, but there have been a bunch of them in sequence.

It's theoretically possible for one person to belong to more than one extra-magic category, but you're not going to see any in practice unless they're extra-extra-magic. For example, there might be a Healer who is a shifter/changer that works on all and only people and mostly specializes in healing.

[Tamien]

ooh i like where the mirror girl idea has gone!

are people constantly experiencing their inner world and the outside world at the same time? how do they balance attention between them?

how does showing other people your inner world work? how do they access it? do you merge inner worlds? can you leave yours to visit someone else's?

if you eg summoned a demon cam to your internal world, would he be able to get to the outside world, or would he be stuck in there? can you get milliways doors in your internal world? ...can the Mirror take aspects of Milliways doors and stick them to herself? does the Mirror always know what the bit she's taking from the reflection and sticking to herself *does*?

what happens if you raise an inner-world child in horrifically stimuli-impoverished conditions? like, if they were blind and bedridden and mostly not spoken to, or something similar. do they develop okay because inner-world stimuli exists? do they develop *weird* because they spend almost all their time "inside"? does their *inner world* develop weird, because they have almost no outer-world stuff to base it on?

[Kappa]

Interacting with your inner world works approximately like daydreaming but better. (Dreams might or might not take place in your inner world. Lucid dreamers can *move* from "dreaming" to "sleep-exploring internal world".) It's always there, but the amount of attention you pay to it can vary from nearly nothing to nearly all.

I'm not sure you can summon demon cam to your internal world. This might only work if you're an extra-extra with a particularly real-ish internal world.

I'm pretty sure a horrifically stimuli-impoverished inner-world child would grow up super weird. They might spend all their time in their internal world and not really notice the real one. Internal worlds do all have a foundation of basically-recognizable real world physics, but the actual stuff in them depends mostly on the person, so their internal world might indeed end up bizarre and unrecognizable.

I'm not totally decided on the exact mechanics of showing someone your internal world but I'm pretty sure it doesn't ever involve one person's inner avatar actually straight-up visiting another person's inner world. You might be able to create sort of concordance-like spaces with someone and each populate the space with stuff from your own inner world, and then it goes away when you're both done exploring it and you have to make a new one next time.

The Mirror might have trouble analyzing some thing-aspects depending on author preferences, but for the most part she's used to finding everything pretty straightforward. She does have to have some idea what something does in order to section it out and stick it to herself, but it's possible for her to end up surprised by the details if she was hasty about the initial examination.

[Eva]

I feel like an Isabella would do interesting things to/in this world, since her "things" are biology and excessive mental detail.

[Kappa]

An Isabella might end up as some kind of interesting extra-extra. We could totally talk about that.

[RoboticLIN]

Get your Two Cents here.*

Clarification, does everybody within their own world have the basic 3 magics, with the 'extra times 1' being able to bring it to reality? Can conjurers/changers pull Inceptions on people? Can people Inception/Persona themselves by just visiting the correct part and applying rainbow lasers? NPCs wandering, head-themes? Active thoughts reflecting in a weather-like change?

Stupid section: Mind-boning turning into some sort of reality crash between two personal worlds. Armegadon! . . . Or letting a small area do that to cross ideas/interact between themselves in a sort of shared part that reflects the other persons side (Joining an area to be controlled by both)

*Canadian

EDIT: I left "Active Thoughts" followed by empty space. Humm.

[Kappa]

What do you mean by "Inception/Persona"?

[RoboticLIN]

What do you mean by "Inception/Persona"?

Sorry i got distracted by tasks the moment i posted that basically.

More or less, If this "internal universe grows as you do: it contains representations of your ideas and memories, and you can change it... " - From OP, is it possible to go to any bad memories/ideas and erase them, or deal with your own personal issues (Persona 4). Would it also be possible to insert new ideas into this universe and change who you are (Inception).