Horrifying Truths about fantasy worlds.

I still want to live in the Star Trek universe. I wouldn't want to be in Star Fleet, though. Just a nice house on a pretty planet with a replicator and a pet tribble. I really, really want a tribble.

I created a pretty cool fantasy universe.

Lots of plenty, money, jobs and etc available. The politics are a stable four branch checks and balances thing.

Want to escape reality for a little while? A lot of the population has non-detectable cybernetics that can allow them to play video games as if actually inside it. or porn, but that's not ever mentioned in the series.

There is low pollution, beautiful cities, it's just a great place to live.

What would suck about it? This fantasy world has a LOT of war going on at all times. In a single battle they can have casualties than the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since the society is so comfortable, every person is required to be part of a militia in case a war gets really nasty. You could be conscripted, and deployed in a matter of hours.

And whats more. Say you loose your job, and then unemployment runs out. Welcome to the army soldier. You're in here for two years.

In fact, this fantasy world is so ravenous for soldiers that can be lost, it doesn't even have a prison system. You are just placed in Special Operations Corps Six. Or the suicide squad. A chip gets stuck in your brain and if you go AWAL they just turn it on and it heats the contents of your skull up to a cheery 160 degrees F.

Oh, and they're fond of ossuarys. No nice grave yards here. After you die your flesh is stripped from your bones and you're placed inside a glass box with a bronze plaque for the whole world to see. At least the memory chips from your brain are made accessible to your family. That way they actually do get to know how much you loved them.

I have actually never wanted to live in any of my fantasy worlds; I guess I'm too afraid of chanc to want to embrace that sort of opportunity.

Everything you use to live, work, create a comfortable life and sustain yourself likely talks, wisecracks, parcels out sage wisdom and most certainly will scream their asses off when you take a hatchet to them. That mosquito you just swatted had hopes and dreams. The flower you just picked for your princess just found out it was accepted to Princeton, you dick!

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That would make an AWESOME short story, OMG.

Amusing he talked on about how dangerous the compratively safe Star Trek universe is, but neglected to mention how dangerous the Star Wars universe or the planet Pandora is. In Star Wars there is basically, as the title suggests, constant war, with lots of collateral damage. All it takes is one dictator to decide destroying your planet is fine, and you're dead. Plus there's slavers and the like in that universe.

As for Pandora, well, there's all those predatory monsters that can tear your head off. Mating for life would be the least of my worries.

Never mind all of this, my girls are tossed into a fantasy world and are about to discover true horror: no toilet paper.

Tanydwr said:

Never mind all of this, my girls are tossed into a fantasy world and are about to discover true horror: no toilet paper.

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*gasp*

I still think Star Wars universe would be uber to live in...but only if I could be a jedi. I just have to make sure never to get a limb chopped off nor have any children.

The thing he fails to mention is that in the Marvel Universe, the majority of everyone lives in NEW YORK!

So if you lived pretty much anywhere else, there'd be no superheroes and life would be pretty much as it is now.

Holy crap, the Star Wars one made me laugh SO hard.

Tanydwr said:

Never mind all of this, my girls are tossed into a fantasy world and are about to discover true horror: no toilet paper.

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I think the appropriate reaction to that would be, "Oh, shit."

MGraybosch said:

I think the appropriate reaction to that would be, "Oh, shit."

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Tanydwr said:

Never mind all of this, my girls are tossed into a fantasy world and are about to discover true horror: no toilet paper.

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I had fun with this in a time travel I wrote many times--the things she missed most about being in the past was: no easy caffeine, no flush toilets and no TP.

Now, is this where I'd like to go as I am now, or where I'd like to be born into on my next lifetime? If it's going now, then I don't want any of them that doesn't have eyeglasses, where reading/writing is a privilege and technology lower than what I grew up with as a kid in the 1960's. (No, I don't count either SW or ST as Fantasy 'cause they're labeled as SF in my mind.) There's no world I want to move into now.

Being born into, well, I'd have to think about that. There's one world I've created that I wouldn't mind living in, but of the ones I've read and seen--nice places to visit, but none that I'd want to live in.

Lydia Sharp said:

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Aren't I horrible?

Tanydwr said:

Never mind all of this, my girls are tossed into a fantasy world and are about to discover true horror: no toilet paper.

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They then discover the wondrous world of bidets?

I haven't solved the no toilet paper issue yet. Although the Romans had sponges on sticks... But just think how much bacteria might've got lodged in those...

And if you think that's bad, wait until they all get their first periods. Paige has it lucky there - she gets pregnant within the first three months, and by the time she's giving birth, Faith has conveniently turned up with, among other things, the knowledge of a second-year medical student (as well as local birthing knowledge because she's been living with a healer and his wife who plays midwife).

Ignoring a lack of tampons - no paracetemol! Maybe PMS *is* a certifiable defence in this world...

Nivarion said:

I created a pretty cool fantasy universe.

Lots of plenty, money, jobs and etc available. The politics are a stable four branch checks and balances thing.

Want to escape reality for a little while? A lot of the population has non-detectable cybernetics that can allow them to play video games as if actually inside it. or porn, but that's not ever mentioned in the series.

There is low pollution, beautiful cities, it's just a great place to live.

What would suck about it? This fantasy world has a LOT of war going on at all times. In a single battle they can have casualties than the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since the society is so comfortable, every person is required to be part of a militia in case a war gets really nasty. You could be conscripted, and deployed in a matter of hours.

And whats more. Say you loose your job, and then unemployment runs out. Welcome to the army soldier. You're in here for two years.

In fact, this fantasy world is so ravenous for soldiers that can be lost, it doesn't even have a prison system. You are just placed in Special Operations Corps Six. Or the suicide squad. A chip gets stuck in your brain and if you go AWAL they just turn it on and it heats the contents of your skull up to a cheery 160 degrees F.

Oh, and they're fond of ossuarys. No nice grave yards here. After you die your flesh is stripped from your bones and you're placed inside a glass box with a bronze plaque for the whole world to see. At least the memory chips from your brain are made accessible to your family. That way they actually do get to know how much you loved them.

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In the world of my Downside books:

there is no discrimination (gay marriage is legal, frex, and nobody even thinks anything of it)
no racism, or at least such a small amount that grown people have never heard some of the more offensive terms for minorities
no STDs
pretty much all communicable diseases have been eradicated, in fact
cures for many more diseases have been found
no religion hence no religious wars (in fact, the Church runs the whole world, so war is totally a thing of the past)
the environment is in great shape (so many fewer people)
fuel is cheap
housing is fairly cheap
income tax is a flat 10% for everyone, no matter what they earn.


BUT. The problem with all of this is:

no STDs because a, um, Castro-like quarantine & eradication program was implemented
same with other infectious/contagious diseases
religion of any kind if illegal; you can go to jail for praying
corporal punishment is given; people are put in stocks outside the Church hall for things like adultery
Huge censorship; the TV, the internet, newspapers...you learn what the Church wants you to learn, period
Lots of books were also censored, mostly religious/psychology texts
If you don't pay your taxes you go to jail
Poor areas which don't provide a lot of money are totally neglected; no fire stations, no police stations, one or two schools hardly anyone bothers to go to
all charity is Church-run, so there is little help for those who need it


I actually expected to hear some chatter about that, and what a rough world it actually is and how it's portrayed, but haven't really yet.

Stacia Kane said:

In the world of my Downside books:


I actually expected to hear some chatter about that, and what a rough world it actually is and how it's portrayed, but haven't really yet.

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Hmm. Thing I find interesting about that, in that world all forms of discrimination are discouraged but religious. Religious is encouraged.

When a government bans or forces a religion, it normally does so to make itself the highest power to the people.

I have a fantasy world where there is no Deus Ex. They have a long history of under prepared heroes loosing. Thus many evil emperors.

Nivarion said:

Hmm. Thing I find interesting about that, in that world all forms of discrimination are discouraged but religious. Religious is encouraged.

When a government bans or forces a religion, it normally does so to make itself the highest power to the people.

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And that's it exactly. The Church of Real Truth is the highest power. There is nothing else.

It's not so much that religious discrimination is encouraged; religion is illegal. You are not allowed to own religious books or items or artifacts. You are not allowed to worship any gods or even say something like, "Oh, God."

If you found out someone you knew was Jewish or Christian or Muslim or whatever, you wouldn't discriminate against them as in refusing to hire them or refusing to let your children play with them, you'd report them to the Church and they would be severely punished.

Maybe that's what you were saying, and I just misunderstood?