The Blend - What it is, why I think it's a cool idea, and why I would love to see you join in.
06:29
Regarding, *The Blend*
This is an open-source thing I am calling, "The Blend," that I would like to invite any of you nice folks to join me in creating. I call this open source because I want to try an experiment in which the GWA community can create its own little, "mythos," like the Cthulhu mythos (without Lovecraft's rampant racism) or the SCP foundation (without everything turning horrible all the time). I figured this was a simple venue for all my fellow Monsterfuckers out there to play with some magical realism, and do it in a shared universe (which I am a total sucker for). Whether that, or magic in a contemporary setting, or any other fantastic element brought to the real is your thing, you should be able to insert a story that will help define the environment.
It is a high but simple concept made to be fairly easy to slide a story into - for...reasons, our world and a classical fantasy world have randomly swapped portions of their living creatures. Knowledge of magic has crossed over along with elves, dwarfs, orcs, and whatever else you can think of, and somewhere on the other side, you can assume people have brought a higher understanding of technology. It has been several years since the blend, and people have settled back into the swing of things on both sides of, "the veil," and have pretty much made peace with the fact that there doesn't appear to be any way back. This means that there are relatively small communities of classic fantasy species living in the modern day, trying to make their way in the larger human society. Go for a hike in the wrong place, and instead of a cougar or a bear, you might be unlucky enough to run into a chimera.
Magical colleges have started popping up the world over, but they are hard to get into and secretive with their trade skills. “Arcanist,” is now a title, like Dr. or Rev., and some stuffy wizard will very eagerly correct you if you dare call them, “Mr. Gandalf (or whoever).”
The elves and gnomes (to a lesser extent) have utilized knowledge of magic to create lucrative corporations, and elven investment is now a powerful force in both the private and public sectors. Dwarfs have taken up more physical roles as industrial workers, skilled technical tradesmen, and builders of durable appliances and machines that put cheap mass produced human crap to shame - just ask them. Centaurs aren't thought of poorly, but the world isn't exactly made for them.
Orcs, goblins, minotaurs, and other less, "noble," species have had a harder time integrating, and have fallen into places on the fringe of society, though the disciplined, martial pre-blend culture of the hobgoblins has found them an accepting niche in military service. Orcs have found places as blue-collar workers at best, and professional goons at worst. There is a thriving goblin-operated organized crime syndicate in most cities, which has sort of become the underworld equivalent to the corporate but often equally ruthless power of the elves. All of these are just the molds society has forced these species into - it's not like every, or even most goblins are part of the, "gob-mob," for example, but it is the lens through which society views them.
I am not so arrogant as to think that everybody (or anybody even) is obligated to play along. If any of the above ideas don't appeal to you and (assuming people haven't already made scripts/audios that contradict your ideas), replace them. I am trying to have as little ego as possible involved in this little thought experiment. Just add, as a tag to your script or fill if you think it syncs with the world.
06:29
