Interiors Setting
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 2:12 pm
This is a setting of infinite spaces.
This is not what they were created to be, but is what they became. The rules it was meant to follow twisted over time and with each iteration. The rooms have the relics of people who never existed. Rumpled beds no one has ever slept in, still warm meals no one ever cooked, and mansions no one had to pay for. Here, you keep moving to survive, but there is always somewhere new to go.
The people here live in wandering tribes that have developed their own languages and customs and strangeness. Humans have been here long enough to evolve. There is the occasional solo traveler. It is easier to survive this way, but you may never see another human again.
Things weren't always like this. There was a world before, with open skies and meadows. A place that was finite, where it was possible to find the same place more than once. Something happened. Everyone has their own rumours. A magical accident. A punishment from the gods. Some believe the world before never existed, but the evidence exists in pictures, hung on walls and inside books in languages no one living can read.
Some say that this place also creates people. That's why most tribes are wary of outsiders. Maybe they are simply lost or kicked out, but maybe they are something stranger, something that was never really human at all.
There is a rule all wanderers learn early on here. When things begin to get too strange, you turn around. Even if you are running low and supplies and the path behind you is straight and you have exhausted every nook and cranny, you turn around.
When the furniture starts to be sized wrong, seemingly made for children or people ten feet tall, when the water from the taps starts to take on a sweet odd flavor, when the music playing on the radios is sung by voices that don't quite sound human, you turn back. You do not want to enter the deeps.
These are the inhabited places and you don't even question if the creatures that inhabit them are human. The answer is obvious. They are not.
Some tribes never see the deeps. Some tribes can never escape them. They will wander down a hallway with doorways not sized for human travellers and then, when they turn around, will find that the rooms that before were so normal, so safe, now have an odd sharp smell in the air, like metal pressed to the back of the throat. They say, the larger the tribe, the safer you are. Which some reject, it implies variation. Few argue that this place was created. But, it was created in the past tense, the process is supposed to be done.
Some do seek the deeps. The restless, the curious, the betrayed. Despite the stories, despite the strangeness, they never present a direct threat and there are those for whom indirect threats are nowhere near enough in the face of all of their questions.
The deeps start as small variations, things almost as you expect but not quite. They do not stay that way. Once you have truly entered the deeps, once you are at a point where simply turning around will do you absolutely no good, the deeps change. You will find spots of normalcy. Rooms with absolutely nothing strange about them. These are not a sign you are anywhere close to going home.
In the metaphorical "above" there were some things so consistent, so unchanging you might have considered them universal laws. In the deeps, those laws are discarded easily, frequently, almost on a whim. You are used to light not needing time. It is instant. Here sometimes light moves as slowly as molasses. There are places, here, without color, or where the color exists but is strange, some hues missing, some hues added that you have never before seen. There are places here where up does not exist. Down depends on where you set your feet. Sometimes the laws are what you expect and it is what they affect that is strange.
Here, you might find a city of stained glass where the light filters and filters again taking on new colors with each iteration. A place where everything you touch can shatter at the slightest pressure and no matter how careful you are, you are sure to leave bleeding.
If you travel deep enough into the depths, into the places all rules have broken down, you may, yourself change.
Other relevant facts:
The majority of rooms exist at a modern tech level, but areas of the Interior have the tech and styles from various eras.
Animals occasionally exist here, mostly companions traveling with humans, but occasionally birds, insects, and small mammals will appear in places like large gardens.
No alterations made in the deep will immediately kill you, but you could quickly die from the effects. For example, if you are turned into glass, you will not die even though humans can't normally exist as glass, but you could quickly shatter. If you avoid shattering, this transformation would also remove your need to eat or drink.
The deeps' name is metaphorical. You can approach them from any direction and literally going down is as safe as going up or sideways.
For glowfic, the Interior can grow into other worlds. Opening a doorway in strange places. Unlike with Milliways, this door will remain, but it is very easy to get lost and never find it again.
This is not what they were created to be, but is what they became. The rules it was meant to follow twisted over time and with each iteration. The rooms have the relics of people who never existed. Rumpled beds no one has ever slept in, still warm meals no one ever cooked, and mansions no one had to pay for. Here, you keep moving to survive, but there is always somewhere new to go.
The people here live in wandering tribes that have developed their own languages and customs and strangeness. Humans have been here long enough to evolve. There is the occasional solo traveler. It is easier to survive this way, but you may never see another human again.
Things weren't always like this. There was a world before, with open skies and meadows. A place that was finite, where it was possible to find the same place more than once. Something happened. Everyone has their own rumours. A magical accident. A punishment from the gods. Some believe the world before never existed, but the evidence exists in pictures, hung on walls and inside books in languages no one living can read.
Some say that this place also creates people. That's why most tribes are wary of outsiders. Maybe they are simply lost or kicked out, but maybe they are something stranger, something that was never really human at all.
There is a rule all wanderers learn early on here. When things begin to get too strange, you turn around. Even if you are running low and supplies and the path behind you is straight and you have exhausted every nook and cranny, you turn around.
When the furniture starts to be sized wrong, seemingly made for children or people ten feet tall, when the water from the taps starts to take on a sweet odd flavor, when the music playing on the radios is sung by voices that don't quite sound human, you turn back. You do not want to enter the deeps.
These are the inhabited places and you don't even question if the creatures that inhabit them are human. The answer is obvious. They are not.
Some tribes never see the deeps. Some tribes can never escape them. They will wander down a hallway with doorways not sized for human travellers and then, when they turn around, will find that the rooms that before were so normal, so safe, now have an odd sharp smell in the air, like metal pressed to the back of the throat. They say, the larger the tribe, the safer you are. Which some reject, it implies variation. Few argue that this place was created. But, it was created in the past tense, the process is supposed to be done.
Some do seek the deeps. The restless, the curious, the betrayed. Despite the stories, despite the strangeness, they never present a direct threat and there are those for whom indirect threats are nowhere near enough in the face of all of their questions.
The deeps start as small variations, things almost as you expect but not quite. They do not stay that way. Once you have truly entered the deeps, once you are at a point where simply turning around will do you absolutely no good, the deeps change. You will find spots of normalcy. Rooms with absolutely nothing strange about them. These are not a sign you are anywhere close to going home.
In the metaphorical "above" there were some things so consistent, so unchanging you might have considered them universal laws. In the deeps, those laws are discarded easily, frequently, almost on a whim. You are used to light not needing time. It is instant. Here sometimes light moves as slowly as molasses. There are places, here, without color, or where the color exists but is strange, some hues missing, some hues added that you have never before seen. There are places here where up does not exist. Down depends on where you set your feet. Sometimes the laws are what you expect and it is what they affect that is strange.
Here, you might find a city of stained glass where the light filters and filters again taking on new colors with each iteration. A place where everything you touch can shatter at the slightest pressure and no matter how careful you are, you are sure to leave bleeding.
If you travel deep enough into the depths, into the places all rules have broken down, you may, yourself change.
Other relevant facts:
The majority of rooms exist at a modern tech level, but areas of the Interior have the tech and styles from various eras.
Animals occasionally exist here, mostly companions traveling with humans, but occasionally birds, insects, and small mammals will appear in places like large gardens.
No alterations made in the deep will immediately kill you, but you could quickly die from the effects. For example, if you are turned into glass, you will not die even though humans can't normally exist as glass, but you could quickly shatter. If you avoid shattering, this transformation would also remove your need to eat or drink.
The deeps' name is metaphorical. You can approach them from any direction and literally going down is as safe as going up or sideways.
For glowfic, the Interior can grow into other worlds. Opening a doorway in strange places. Unlike with Milliways, this door will remain, but it is very easy to get lost and never find it again.