I have developed the worldbuilding for a setting, but I haven't developed the actual narrative yet.
I currently have no main characters, plot, central conflict, or defined story direction.
I'd like to post the setting here and ask for narrative ideas based on what I've established.
I am not looking for a specific type of story at this point. I'm interested in seeing what kinds of narratives people think could be created from these existing rules.
- Cosmology
The Primordial Event
In the beginning, there was nothing happening.
The first change ever to occur was the transition from:
“nothing happened” → “something happened.”
This is the Primordial Event.
From this single event, the infinite timelines ultimately emerged.
Timelines & Time Branches
Timelines are infinite.
Whenever a situation has more than one possible outcome, reality splits.
Each possible outcome creates a separate time branch.
A single split can therefore produce:
– 2 branches
– 10 branches
– infinitely many branches
depending on the number of possibilities at that point.
Every timeline and every branch is equally real and important.
The narrative naturally focuses on only one at a time because showing everything simultaneously would be impossible.
Timeline Set
A single timeline together with all of its corresponding time branches constitutes a complete reality following its own sequence of choices from every branching event.
- The Chronic Domain
The Chronic Domain exists outside ordinary reality.
It groups/contains timelines and their branches.
Although it exists outside reality, its influence alters reality.
The Chronic Domain is therefore associated with the chronic structure of existence.
- The Spatial Domain
The Spatial Domain exists within reality.
Quantum particles are its fundamental physical foundation.
At the most primal layer of the Spatial Domain lies the Omnivoid.
- The Omnivoid
The Omnivoid is filled with quantum particles.
However, these particles have no structural arrangement or pattern.
Because there is no structural arrangement:
– the particles do not interact in any way
– larger structures cannot form
Therefore, the Omnivoid itself doesn't naturally contain any macro-scale structures such as matter, stars, galaxies, etc.
Omniverses
Within the Omnivoid are infinite blobs possessing a specific pattern.
These are called Omniverses.
Their internal quantum structure allows interactions and therefore the formation of larger structures.
- Omniverses
Fundamental Properties
Each omniverse has a uniform quantum pattern throughout itself.
The underlying quantum pattern doesn't interact in the same way as ordinary matter.
Macro-level interactions are what occurs, allowing structures such as:
– atoms
– matter
– stars
– galaxies
– etc.
Different Physics
Different omniverses have differently structured quantum particles.
Because the structure differs, the mediums and outcomes of interactions drastically differ.
Therefore, every omniverse has its own unique laws of physics.
The laws remain uniform throughout a particular omniverse.
Each omniverse therefore functions as its own distinct physical dimension.
These aren't dimensions in the conventional “first dimension, second dimension, third dimension, etc with increasing spacial axises” sense.
these are separate dimensions because they have unique laws of physics and reality thete acts uniquely.
Stability
Regardless of how strange or violent an omniverse's physics may be, every omniverse is stable.
Their continued existence demonstrates that they possess some form of stability, even if the exact reason isn't clearly explainable.
Topology
Omniverses are finite externally but infinite internally.
The mechanism/topology allowing this is extremely complex and is simply not something necessary to explain.
- Multiverses & Universes
Inside the omniverse that the main story focuses on:
Omniverse → infinite multiverses → universes
There are infinite multiverses.
The universes within them are mathematically finite, although their number is extraordinarily large.
This particular hierarchical structure exists in some omniverses.
It is not necessarily true of every omniverse, because different omniverses have different physical laws.
- Omniverse Naming
Every omniverse has an official/formal name based on how a very fundamental law of physics 'e=mc² acts in that particular onniverse.
Our Omniverse
Its formal name is:
E = mc²
which means the physics of our omniverse is normal and completely same as that of real life.
This is specifically the formal name of the omniverse, not necessarily its everyday/colloquial name.
- The Civilization
The main civilization exists in an extremely long lived reality.
Longevity
The civilization has existed for an extremely long period of time.
Some traditions and social practices have therefore existed for tens of thousands of centuries.
Because of this enormous timescale, technologies that would seem revolutionary to us can be completely mundane to them.
- Technology
Mechanical + Electrical Technology
Mechanical and electrical technologies are equally important.
They aren't competing technologies.
They are coexisting and complementary technologies.
They are frequently used together.
Neither mechanical nor electrical technology is regarded as old/new or father/successor simply because the other exists.
Mechanical Infrastructure
Large mechanical systems are openly visible throughout society.
Examples include:
– giant gears
– linkages
– reciprocating mechanisms
– large moving machinery
These aren't necessarily special attractions or unusual sights.
They're ordinary infrastructure.
Because such machinery is commonplace:
– it doesn't necessarily need to be hidden underground
– exposed machinery is socially normal
– some machinery is deliberately aesthetically pleasing simply because people enjoy attractive things
Safety Culture
Not every machine or mechanism is surrounded by fencing.
This isn't because:
– people are careless
– people are physically indestructible
– accidents don't happen
Rather, the civilization has normalized living around extremely powerful machinery to an extent comparable to how modern society accepts dangerous roads without completely fencing them off.
Accidents still happen offcourse.
- Social Aesthetic
Clothing
Clothing has a strongly aristocratic/Victorian aesthetic.
The formal global language is Victorian English.
General social behavior resembles a culture of gentlemen and women.
Nudity
Nudity isn't inherently considered socially inappropriate.
The relevant distinction is anatomical rather than simply “wearing clothes vs. not wearing clothes.”
A being does not necessarily need clothing when:
– they don't possess intimate anatomical features that require concealment, or
– their body naturally conceals those features
Therefore, for example:
– a fully fur-covered cat-person can walk around naked in public normally
– an android with no intimate anatomical details can do the same
This isn't treated as inherently sexual or indecent.
- Born & Made Beings
There are two broad categories of sentient people.
Born
Beings that are born.
They naturally possess Aura.
Made
“Made” does not simply mean robot.
A Made being is:
Any sentient being that was made rather than born.
This can include many forms of artificial or constructed life.
Made beings are fully sentient.
They are completely normal members of society.
Born and Made people aren't inherently divided into separate social castes.
There is no built-in racial discrimination between them.
Discrimination can still exist individually or socially, because the civilization still contains ordinary good and bad behavior.
- Aura
Aura is a biological energy possessed only by Born beings.
What Aura Is
Aura is an energy.
It is not quantum manipulation itself.
Aura can directly manipulate quantum particles.
Through this interaction, Aura users can alter reality.
What Aura Cannot Do
Aura cannot simply do anything imaginable.
Its only fundamental capability is:
Manipulating quantum particles.
Everything else follows from that.
Conservation / Matter Requirement
Aura does not create objects from nothing.
When an Aura user creates something:
– existing quantum particles are used
– those particles are converted/rearranged into the desired structure
Major Limitation
The biggest limitation is the amount of Aura a person can produce.
More significant alterations require:
– more Aura
– more concentration/focus
The larger or more complicated the alteration, the greater the requirements.
This provides the basis for a controlled and internally consistent supernatural power system.
- Elemental Classification
Aura abilities are broadly classified into five main elements:
– Fire
– Nature
– Water
– Wind
– Earth
Additionally, also exist:
– Sub-elements
– Combination elements
– Special/abnormal/Uncategorisable elements
The five main elements are therefore broad classifications rather than an exhaustive list of every possible Aura expression.
- Technology vs Aura
Made beings cannot naturally produce Aura.
However, this isn't necessarily a crippling disadvantage.
Their technological possibilities are extremely broad because engineering has enormous design freedom.
Made beings can potentially possess things such as:
– guns
– lasers
– advanced machinery
– highly specialized weapons/tools
– absurd inventions like a blue-whale launcher 🐋
The setting therefore doesn't establish:
“Aura = magic users superior to technology users.”
Instead, Aura and engineering provide fundamentally different routes to extraordinary capabilities.
- Species & Hybrids
Universal Biological Compatibility
Because of Aura's influence on biological evolution, species are reproductively compatible regardless of how biologically different they may be.
So:
– radically different species can reproduce together
– hybrid offspring are possible
– hybrid people are extremely common
One Hard Limitation
There is still a requirement for physical reproductive compatibility.
Aura doesn't magically make physically incompatible reproductive systems function together.
Therefore:
Species compatibility is effectively universal, but physical reproductive compatibility still matters.
Hybrids
Hybrid people are completely normal.
They are widespread throughout civilization.
Being a hybrid isn't inherently unusual or automatically significant.
- Personhood vs Livestock
Because hybridization and extreme biological diversity make species-based distinctions unreliable, the civilization doesn't determine whether something is edible based on species.
The governing principle is designation.
Citizen
If a being was designated as a citizen before being born or made:
It is not food.
Livestock
If a being was designated as livestock before being born or made:
It can be eaten.
Species does not determine the distinction.
Therefore, a citizen and livestock individual can potentially belong to the same species.
A fox-person citizen eating meat from a fox-person livestock animal is not culturally interpreted as cannibalism.
The distinction is based on status/designation, not species.
This system has existed for an extraordinarily long time and is completely normalized.
- Age & Social Status
Chronological age does not automatically command respect.
The civilization has technologies/capabilities allowing people to have more than a million ways to continue living.
However,life span increases aren't considered a special standalone phenomenon.
It is simply one ordinary capability among many available to the civilization.
Consequently:
– extremely old people are normal
– changing bodies is normal
– continued existence for enormous periods is normal
– age alone doesn't automatically confer authority or respect
Someone's social standing instead depends on things such as:
– actual accomplishments
– personality
– expertise
– position
– relationships
– etc.
- The Core Feel of the Civilization
The important underlying principle tying all of this together is:
The extraordinary has become ordinary.
Things that would be world-shattering to us have had such an enormous amount of time to become integrated into civilization that people simply live around them.
A person can encounter:
– a hybrid
– a Made being
– an ancient individual
– enormous mechanical machinery
– Aura
– radically different species
– body replacement
– bizarre technology
and still basically think:
“Anyway, I have work tomorrow.”
That mundane attitude is an important part of the setting's identity.
Current Narrative Status
Worldbuilding: 🌋 Extremely developed at the cosmological level
Civilization: 🌋 Newly conceptualized but already has a distinct identity
Power system: ✅ Established foundation
Social norms: ✅ Several strong foundational rules
Main characters: ❌ None yet
Plot: ❌ None yet
Central conflict: ❌ None yet
Story direction: ❌ None yet
What I'm Looking For:
Given all of the above, what narrative ideas do you think could come out of this setting?
I haven't decided on the main characters, plot, central conflict, or story direction yet, so I'm interested in seeing what other people come up with based on the worldbuilding itself.
Feel free to point out potential narrative possibilities, interesting consequences of the established rules, character ideas, conflicts, situations, or anything else that could potentially become a story.
Source: r/IndianWritersGroups · by /u/Abnormal_POVs