Fact and fiction makes a faction

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Unski's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

Forgive me for the misleading topic, but I couldn't resist such a wordplay.
This thread has very little to do with factions, but the topic's name serves to show how two things may create a very different third party.

Anyways, fiction.
Fiction in Planescape has mostly centered around various tall-tales and rumors. Many of them center around the planes and Her Cerenity.
Books, especially novels, are very rare since a hardworking berk hasn't got the money nor the time to read. Or that's how I got it. After all, since there aren't any massive printing presses (except the one in Sigil) books have to be copied by hand. A long process.

But then it all changed, right? It turned into the Urban Planescape. Suddenly they got factories. They DID have printing presses. Just like we do back here in Earth.
Lots of books on several topics and lots of novels as well. But so what? What's the big deal? What harm could possibly a fictional tale do in planes of belief and imagination, if it's taken into the hearts of thousands/millions of youths? I know, rethorical question.

Now I'm asking you, is it possible? Can the pen suddenly turn million times stronger than the sword, or does the natural cynical attitude of the 20th century protect us from people's imagination?
After all, if you would fall in love with a novel character (in worst case, think of the film Misery by Stephen King), what's stopping you from going to the right plane, gathering folks and start imagining. Start BELIEVING!
And as we know, belief can be really dangerous.

OK, that's a possibility, but not a massive danger. A single character, no big deal. What if a planar version of the Lord of the Rings comes and captures the imaginations of several generations? Could an entire plane/Crystal Sphere be born out of a book?

It might sound a tad silly, maybe even moronic, but I think that would be one of the things that might separate Urban from standard, if it's worked upon. What do you think?

"Why do the slaadi look like a combination of man and FOG, you ask? Because of a damned typing error done by one of the translators, that's why!"

Fidrikon's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

Its a valid concern. What worries me is this: what is a hero without a villian? I mean, a bunch of comic nerds dreaming Superman in existance is fine by me, but if my neighborhood gets blown up because the Big Blue Boyscout gets into a scuffle with Doomsday on my plane, whos going to pay for it?

Ulden Throatbane's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

This has the potential of being very good - It can be used to help lend definition to some of the modern Planes of Chaos (Arborea and the Abyss, in particular).

At the moment, we're trying to get the factions updated and create new factions. Mabye you can make a Faction or a Sect that revolves around this idea Eye-wink

Unski's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

'Ulden Throatbane' wrote:
This has the potential of being very good - It can be used to help lend definition to some of the modern Planes of Chaos (Arborea and the Abyss, in particular).

At the moment, we're trying to get the factions updated and create new factions. Mabye you can make a Faction or a Sect that revolves around this idea Eye-wink

Glad you like it. I'd select a Sect with a large supporting fanbase. Though books have lots of diehard fans, I wonder how many would really want them to turn into reality. That's why the Not-Yet-Named Sect, who believe that fiction is just as solid and important as fact (after all, no matter what arouses them, emotions are always real), should center around some real diehards with lots of "fanboys" around.
Hmm, now there's a fine nickname for this lot. Fanboys Smiling

'Fidrikon' wrote:
Its a valid concern. What worries me is this: what is a hero without a villian? I mean, a bunch of comic nerds dreaming Superman in existance is fine by me, but if my neighborhood gets blown up because the Big Blue Boyscout gets into a scuffle with Doomsday on my plane, whos going to pay for it?

That's a good point, I hadn't even thought about that. But you're right, if you change reality, you don't usually change just a single thing.
And once the doorway's been opened there's no telling who might decide to pop their head in.
I also didn't think about comics, games or movies either. Probably since they have less room for imagination than books do since you can see the event with your own eyes. But then again, this could be even more dangerous.

Since games and comics are essentially for 12-30 year olds, they would probably exist as a sub-category while old timers are gazing insanely at their Hitchcock Collection DVD box. The main thing should still lie somewhere between healthy fandom and very unhealthy dedication.
A dangerous Sect if you ask me.

WithoutNationality's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

Very Gaiman-esque. I like it.

Unski's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

This is some stuff I've thought about. Purely a raw version, I'd appreciate any ideas or thoughts. I'm not totally happy with what I have now, since turning something into life by will isn't excatly what I'm aiming at.
Perhaps most of them come out unintentionally, when you're imagination is doing overtime?

A lie turns into the truth if it's repeated enough times, and this is particularly true in the planes of Chaos where reality is a fragile thing at best.

It is easy to say that you just need to believe and to concentrate, but creating life out of nothing is never so simple.
Should the collective imagination create a creature out of thin chaosmatter, great care must be put on the details.
The very first Creations, as they're labeled, were very sketchy - to such extends that they didn't for instance have a face. This was one of the first problems the Fanboys encountered: all of them had a bit different image of the character they wished to bring into life. The results were literally shady, as if the Creation had hundreds of blurred faces mixed up together.

After the initial troubles were solved out - mostly by supportive art - many more were yet to come:
The more the complex a character anatomically, the harder it was to make it real. Though the things that came forth did live, albeit briefly, they soon faced problems with the most basic things in life, such as eating or digesting. Rare are the authors who go into detail with physiology.
This ofcourse raised many questions from witnesses and from the creatures itself. When questions couldn't be answered, wonder turned into doubt. Soon the things started to go mad and turn partly ethereal, until they disintigrated completely.

A side problem arose when a character, which never appeared in any story, creeped forth.
It was soon found out that it was a character which was first planned to be a major side-character, but who was later edited out from the novel.
If any word could descripe him, it was hate.
A possibility for life eternal taken away. It was there for a brief moment, yet it wasn't.
So far atleast three rather succesful authors have been murdered in suspicious circumstances. The Fans do not wish to talk about it.

Though this might evoke an image filt with hardship, there have been some successess. The easiest things to create, so far, are planets or locales. Though often blurry and devoid of detail, they EXIST.
This is a major breakthrough for the Dreamers, as well as a great boost for their morale.
Since planets or towns do not have, say, intestines or muscles, they are generally easier to create, just as basic biology and geography is easier than advanced anatomy.

Ulden Throatbane's picture
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Fact and fiction makes a faction

'Unski' wrote:
Glad you like it. I'd select a Sect with a large supporting fanbase. Though books have lots of diehard fans, I wonder how many would really want them to turn into reality. That's why the Not-Yet-Named Sect, who believe that fiction is just as solid and important as fact (after all, no matter what arouses them, emotions are always real), should center around some real diehards with lots of "fanboys" around. Hmm, now there's a fine nickname for this lot. Fanboys Smiling

Cant nicknames usually have a one-off variation on what we might call them here & now. For example, The Revolutionary League is referred to as "Anarchs", rather than "rebels".

An alternative nickname could be "fanners" or "fannies". Even more off would be "skyboxers", cause their brain box is always in the clouds.

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