The Future of the World?

[Tortanick]

Reading the dominions nations guide, and noting how nations change across the ages, dose anyone else get the fealing that the world is in trouble?

The sea's are now a realm of madness and void beasts. Both Cits & Agartha are dieing realms that rely on necromancy. Ermor is, well Ermor. Ulm has practically collapsed, Humans are takeing over from once mighty nations like Abysia, Vanheim and Jotunheim. One wonders what happens next?

If anyone has a good prediction (prefrably with evidence) I'm dieing to hear it.

[Morkilus]

Ah, it's all part of the general trend of mythology and the second law of thermodynamics. Mankind makes nature and religion less relevant, things were fancier in the Olde Dayes, and everything goes to crap in the end. Also see works by Tolkien, Miyazaki, and George Romero.

[Frostmourne27]

You CAN'T tell me this is a closed system... second law not so important. But there does seem to be a steady downward trend. Death is fun!!!

[Tortanick]

Morkilus said:
Ah, it's all part of the general trend of mythology and the second law of thermodynamics. Mankind makes nature and religion less relevant, things were fancier in the Olde Dayes, and everything goes to crap in the end. Also see works by Tolkien, Miyazaki, and George Romero.

Its true, anyone know why in fantasy its allways more magical in the old days? I mean I absolutely LOVE the way you can see nations rise and fall over the ages, I just wish that there wasn't a general downwards trend twoards death and no magic. I understand it from a gameplay point of view but from a story point of view its not so good.

[Nerfix]

Not from gameplay point either. All death makes a boring late Era.

[FrankTrollman]

Its true, anyone know why in fantasy its allways more magical in the old days?

Comes directly from mythology. Magic is anything you don't know how to explain. So the farther away something is in time or space, the more of it is "magic".

The classic example is Beowulf's thistle shirt. At the time of his actual exploits, thistle was simply something that people made cloth out of (you soak it first, it doesn't sting or anything). In fact, the mentioning of his thistle shirt is there to show how completely ordinary his equipment was. Over time, techniques of making other cloth improved and people stopped wearing thistle and wore linen or cotton even if they were poor. The people stopped using thistle and the techniques of making it into cloth were lost.

But the mentioning of the thistle shirt persisted. And as people grew up so rich in linen that they never had to wear thistle, they also grew up without the knowledge of what thistle was like to wear. And well, if you poke a thistle with your hand it hurts. So that line of poetry began to mean to people that he was wearing some sort of magical shirt that was woven out of pain spines somehow.

What was at the time a perfectly ordinary list of clothing and equipment eventually transformed into a depiction of a man decked from head to toe in powerful magic.

And that's why the past is more magical. Technology isn't only discovered over time, it is also lost. So the ancients demonstrably did things different than you do. Everything you do is technology (not magic) and everything they did was magic. Therefore, the ancients had a lot more magic. By definition.

-Frank

[Morkilus]

Well said, Frank. The same could be applied to literature about the far future (usually sci-fi). The galaxy at peace through the technology magic of robo-intelligence, contact with ancient races, etc. The near future, on the other hand, is much easier to write about without "magic".

[Arralen]

Tortanick said:
If anyone has a good prediction (prefrably with evidence) I'm dieing to hear it.

Yes - there will be no Dom4. Presumably, it is not worth making!

[Endoperez]

Actually, the old nation of Agartha is fully and totally dead in the late ages. However, the humans are reanimating the Ancient Ones, to learn from them. They will learn from their mistakes, rise to power, rule the world - and bring back the ancient Agarthans, start a new cycle. Eventually, Agarthans and humans will develop interstellar travel, and travel into another kind of void, space. Then we get Star Dominions 1: The Space Age.

[okiN]

Endoperez said:
Actually, the old nation of Agartha is fully and totally dead in the late ages. However, the humans are reanimating the Ancient Ones, to learn from them. They will learn from their mistakes, rise to power, rule the world - and bring back the ancient Agarthans, start a new cycle. Eventually, Agarthans and humans will develop interstellar travel, and travel into another kind of void, space. Then we get Star Dominions 1: The Space Age.

I can hardly wait.