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/lit/ - Literature

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4211384 No.4211384[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I'm inventing a fantasy world where the inhabitants of a continent cannot travel beyond their own land (either by boat or airship).

I need a conceivable reason as to why

Please help me creative /lit/izens!

>> No.4211391

God said so.

>> No.4211395

>>4211384
Religious reasons
Restriction from the state
Sharks
Jellyfish

>> No.4211401

protip : if you can't find a reason, it's probably a bad idea.

>> No.4211413

Uhh the reason should be integral to the story seeing as the plot is based around immigration. how many people are traveling? Is it government sanctioned or illegal? Are they religious? Poor? Insane?

>> No.4211417

>>4211401
Why is that?

I have the idea that their continent is surrounded by thick mist that precludes navigation and stops airships from being able to operate.

>>4211391
>>4211395
Thanks heaps guys, I will look into these

>> No.4211424

They're unwittingly taking part in a vast psychological study, the conditions of which are that they can't travel.

>> No.4211427

Seconding the jellyfish idea.

>> No.4211430

>>4211384
The sea is lava.

>> No.4211436

Sea monsters that can fLY sometimes

Noxious vapours above the seas

Ancient precursor civilisation's relics intended for defence (OR To TURN THE CONTINENT INTO A PRISON FOR ITS INHABITASNS????) that shoot down anything going past a certain point from the land

Horrific fog emanating from the water for some reason that make navigation impossible

A special property to the water that makes anything between it and the sky extremely conducive to lightning strikes, also later they find out they can go UNDER the water and thats their age of exploration

>> No.4211445

>>4211436
Damn son I'd read a book about the last one.

>> No.4211454

Do not explain why. Make sure it is considered common knowledge in the book world, characters casually reference the fact but never explain why.

>> No.4211455

OP here

You guys are incredible seriously! Some really awesome ideas!

>> No.4211458

They are all vampires.

>> No.4211461

>>4211455
I think sometimes all you need is a different outlook on a situation.
Which is why I think that even though writing is primarily a solitary art, people should consider collaborative writing a bit more.

>> No.4211473

>>4211461
Agreed

>> No.4211513

Eleven generations ago the Red Emperor of Samech grew bored in his palace city and sent an expedition of 231 volunteers to "reach the easternmost corner of the World, survey the Sizes and Shapes of various Lands therein and spread the name of Emperor". Three years later two members of the expedition staggered to the palace from the west. They could not give an account of their journey, for their lips were sewn shut. All three died shortly after, seemingly from exhaustion. A court physician Sargon from Yeshirah claims in his memoirs that their bodies were found to be mirrored - hearts located in the right side of the chest, although the veracity of this account is much disputed. This fact has led certain star gazers to produce clearly absurd and contemptible speculations - namely, that the World is akin to a bottle in its shape. Regardless, the Emperor had the prudence to declare any further ventures into far lands illegal under the pain of death - and so they remain to this day.

>> No.4211519

>>4211384
Every continent has a layer of tremendously dense space blocking passage without bullshit.

>> No.4211526

>>4211430

This.

>> No.4211532

I've always wanted to read about a setting where the world is a gigantic planet, like the size of Jupiter, so entirely dislocated civilisations and even subspecies of human can grow to full flowering and never have a goddamn hope of reaching one another, until an age of extremely advanced technology.

>> No.4211533

>>4211384
Sea monsters. And giant monsters that live in the sky. I don't fucking know.

>> No.4211546

>>4211532
Jesus Christ the gravity on that planet! The gravity would crush them like tin cans!

>> No.4211550

>>4211546
STOP RUINING MY FUN I JUST WANT A /TG/ THREAD FULL OF PEOPLE SPERGING ABOUT INTERCONTINENTAL WARS

>> No.4211552

a bad writer said they couldn't

>> No.4211568

Violent storms that destroy everything outside the island but don't encroach on it.

>> No.4211571

>>4211384
If they cross the border they turn... to wood.

>> No.4211589

>>4211384
camus beat you to it with the plague bro
don't even bother

>> No.4211615

>>4211526
>>4211458
The sea is vampires.

>> No.4211620

>>4211532
How would the species spread between them in the first place?

>> No.4211625

they think the earth ends past their land
border set by aliens
aren't brave enough to explore the unknown BUT THEN... ONE MAN...
power hungry tyrant forbids it for his own selfish reasons
the world actually ends there, splits off into a different dimension or something

>> No.4211633

>>4211384
cause the natives of the other lands are racist as shit and will kill outsiders

>> No.4211648

>>4211384
b/c their home continent is covered with a thick mist all over, and this mist is what powers their airships and boats. However, the mist stops shortly after the sea begins, and so no one has ever ventured beyond the continent.

>> No.4211663

Worms

Motherfucking dune worms

That can swim obviously. I don't know about your flying problem though, just don't let them have airships.

>> No.4211671

>>4211663

I forgot to add, but something sort of like Oblivion(that newer movie with Tom Cruise, I know I know) where they are boundaries and beyond the boundaries are irradiated or some such shit, it's all a big conspiracy obviously but no one is going to want to risk it

>> No.4211697

Global warming has caused gravity to increase so much that boats sink as soon as they touch water and planes can't get off the ground

>> No.4211700

This thread makes me feel bad.

>> No.4211701

The oceans and clouds are on fire.

You can't swim in fire. You can't fly in fire. Ergo they're trapped by fire.

You're welcome

>> No.4211702

>>4211384

The seas are covered with mist that reaches up above the level that airships can travel. Ships that venture too far from shore into the mist are lost, with the occasional survivor babbling insane tales of Things miles high arising from the depths. Airships likewise disappear if they wander too far from shore, only those never have any survivors.

>> No.4211716

>>4211513
Sigh, I wish I was this skilled

>> No.4211723

>>4211401
fagtip. that's stupid and makes no sense.

>> No.4211725

>>4211401
creativity strangling faggot troll

>> No.4211726

There's too much sulfur in the sea for wooden ships to cross long distances.
Airship technology is simply beyond them.

>> No.4211728

They lack the technology to do so.

They're scared.

They totally stable and sufficient and have no reason to.

Or you could just go with them simply not being able to, without any conceivable reason as to why. You don't really need one.

>> No.4211735

>>4211702
>you will never be a special forces soldier commissioned to storm and explore vessels, sometimes ancient and unrecognisable, which drift shore, either by air or sea
>you will never see things you wish you could forget
>you will always be a gas station attendant

>> No.4211739

There are several reasons why

Magical barriers

They think there is nothing beyond their own
lands (sort of how hundreds of years ago people didn't know the Americas existed)

Maybe their leaders have told them the lands beyond are unsafe and uninhabitable

Maybe some kind of guardian, or they're peacefully trapped there (for example they can't leave the village but to do so is considered crazy as those in power provide for their every need and tell them that the outside world is cruel, so nobody wants to leave)

Just off the top of my head

>> No.4211740

>>4211735

I'm sure you've seen a few things you wish you could forget, while cleaning the restroom in the gas station.

>> No.4211782
File: 27 KB, 314x448, final_fantasy_the_spirits_within.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4211782

Go watch this movie and use something like its "dragons" living over the seas.

>> No.4211786

>>4211454
This sounds really good for some reason.

OP, did you ask /tg/ too? Maybe they add to the ideas as well.

>> No.4211790

>>4211782
Note: the movie has nothing to do with the vidya series and is actually pretty good. It's Advent Children you want to watch out for.

>> No.4211841

>>4211384
OP make it so that a person's soul can't leave where they were born, make it so that their soul is bound to the place where they were born. Have the land be semi sentient or some symbiotic relation. If you leave your life force slowly seeps away untile you are nothing more than a empty husk.
Different person born on different continents are bound to it for a "tweest" you can have the bound be like like 24 hours after you are born, if you are able to leave the land and go to another b4 the 24 hours are up you become unbound and are able to move around freely.

Good luck and tell me if you liek it

>> No.4211846

Make it so that nobody actually knows precisely why, but there are several different theories being thrown around, ya know the kind of stuff you hear in pubs by shady characters who enjoy attention type of thing. So everyone obeys for one reason or another but nobody knows for sure. Ya dig?

>> No.4211903

>>4211790
That movie is awful. The video game series is much better.

>> No.4211909

The people can't afford tickets and they all are generally apathetic toward travel. What is the point? Shit is the same everywhere.

>> No.4211919

crazy storms

>> No.4211933

>>4211417
Your idea is too unbelievable.

Maake them a heavily.superstitious people.

A few failed attempts in the past led to rumours which became legends. Now no one is game enough to try again.

>> No.4211934

>>4211725
Omg I just died

I owe you my life that was beatiiful

>> No.4211937

titans

>> No.4211939

>>4211933
at least give credit for stealing an idea
>>4211846

>> No.4211940

>>4211933
Taking that idea further you could add in a monster. Whether it is a monster based in reality or not the reader will habe to find out.

You could add intentions in. Think the village. A fabrocated mons5er that serves someones purpose

>> No.4211944

>>4211846

This right here is gold. very kadare-esque

>> No.4211951

so basically the exterminating angel but a country

captcha: pathetic ansboog

>> No.4211959

Because the continent is actually located in a reality-warped bubble, and travelling outside displaces you to some random location in a hellish world full of hostile monsters and inhospitable weather.
>Cliche/10

>> No.4211976

>>4211384
Why can't they, OP?
By which I mean, why does there need to be a reason for them to not be able to travel beyond their continent?

>> No.4211980

>>4211976
Adventure fantasy novel. Protagonists venture into the great unknown using experimental airship.

>> No.4211986

because fucking MAGIC you idiot it's fucking FANTASY do you really think it matters whether it is fucking conceivable, jesus shit

>> No.4211990

>>4211980
Then, you've got a simple answer, there just hasn't been a reason to travel outside the continent. Someone had to be first, didn't they?

>> No.4211997

they all feel an overwhelming compulsion to remain near some kind of object in the centre of the continent. Leaving causes them physical and emotional distress. Turns out it's because the object leaks contaminants into the water system and going without it leads to withdrawal.

>> No.4212015

>>4211384
Poison gas erupting from fissures?

>> No.4212021

Huge gay vampire fish
+
Huge gay vampire pterodactyls

>> No.4212022

>>4211384
litigation and bureaucracy

>> No.4212030

A dying wizard king's curse. Fucking walls of magical fire. A never-ending storm. Some effect of unknown source such that, whenever one tries to leave, one loses track of directions and eventually finds oneself heading back towards land. Giant fucking monsters in the sea and sky. It's just too fucking far. The entrance to heaven is in the way and anyone who tries to travel that way will die. A secret society sabotages any attempt to leave the continent, stopping at nothing - not even murder. Giant balls everwhere.

>> No.4212048
File: 10 KB, 327x173, 1382374510519.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4212048

>>4212021

>> No.4212062

Do they know the other lands exist?
you could just do flat earth

>> No.4212079

>>4211427
>>4211615
Flying vampire jellyfish infest the seas surrounding the continent

>> No.4212083

Magnets.

>> No.4212111

They're in a snowglobe.

>> No.4212114

>>4211940
>A fabrocated mons5er that serves someones purpose

This sort of thing is worn out to the point of being cliche. The only way to use that one is to subvert it, and have the monster turn out to be real after all.

>> No.4212116

Because everyone who left never returned.
They don't know the reason why, so they're doomed to living in superstition.

>> No.4212117

>>4211980

The continent is surrounded by a ring of circling storms, like Pseudo-Australia in Discworld, so that people can be washed up on the shores, but no ship can survive the journey out. The protagonists are the first people desperate enough that they simply HAVE to leave, and foolhardy enough to try an experimental high altitude air to travel through the storms.

>> No.4212123

>>4211384

You can't just say they can't travel. There are tons or reasons you could use.

Not being able to travel should be a side effect of something else. Here you are just finding a reason to force an idea.

Forced anything is bad.

>> No.4212131

they were ded the whole time

>> No.4212134

there a bunch of big gays

>> No.4212168

>>4211384
Don't know if you are still here but you could use the different in immune systems required for each area to be hospitable. Like how today many foreigners get sick at first when they visit north Asia because of the different mutations of sicknesses

>> No.4212170

If it was a planet that had undergone artificial biosphere creation, it could be that after reasonable amount of time for civilization to reach an industrial foothold, the bi-products cause a biological/chemical reaction that later explained a biological anomaly with the physical make up of the planet. Sea's become gaseous and toxic, unable to sustain any form of life, let alone allowing any form of travel.

>> No.4212189

>>4211395
>Sharks
>Jellyfish
Please

>> No.4212193

They just can't, for some inexplicable reason, like in The Exterminating Angel.

>> No.4212224

>>4211384

...but they can communicate., or not? if they cannot, in any way exchange ideas with each other then it's effectively two separate "worlds", yes?

>> No.4212444

>>4211384
1. Competing nations have a treaty not to develop the means to travel beyond their continent to preserve the balance of power

2. Giant waves

3. Ships that leave inexplicably return by themselves

4. The sea stops and ships fall down the water cliffs to dry land and are smashed by the several kilometer long fall

5.Giant mountains that rise out of the sea and stretch to space

6.Aliens zap anyone trying to leave

Look up Chinese exploration for a real world example.

>> No.4212612
File: 443 KB, 455x500, 1345912640136.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4212612

Extremely high mountains, effectively isolating a part of that world.
Planes can't reach that height, tunnels would have to be 500 miles long, and the civilisation has not yet developed more than basic space technology. Theoretically, balloons with pressurized capsules would be an option to reach the area. Keep in mind that mountains are a product of tectonic activity, so they weren't always there, but definitely for the last 20-50 million years or so. So that's the time all life in that area was isolated.

>> No.4212625

>>4212612

Basically mega-Tibet.

>> No.4212647
File: 813 KB, 399x500, 1369171903003.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4212647

>>4212625
It's likely the more powerful civilisation will develop inside the isolated landmass because competition will be stronger there. Once they either develop stratospheric travel or decent digging equipment the game is on.

>> No.4212663

The women, and nymphomaniac inducing perpetual puberty.

But mostly just the women. My gawd the women.

>> No.4212756

>>4211384
question OP : do they know if there are other continents out there and are merely not able to leave their own, or completely ignorant of anything else ?

>> No.4212758
File: 230 KB, 500x484, dolan doge.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4212758

make it so that whenever they try to leave this happens :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16_8l0yS-g

u welcome

>> No.4212777

>>4211384
>/pol/s wet dream

>> No.4212868

>>4211384
The city is protected from the suns rays but outside you would burn up in minutes. Maybe.

>> No.4213090

>>4211417
>>4211702
>>4211648
enjoy your lawsuit.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Mist_Continent

>> No.4213098

They can't leave the continent because they are inside of a novel and the narrative demands that they stay where they are.

>> No.4213101

>>4213090
that was the joke, yes

>> No.4213102

>>4212189
Jellysharks

>> No.4213111

>>4213098
>A novel about a group of characters trying to break out of the narrative that the writer has planned for them
That sounds really cool.

>> No.4213136

>>4211384

Make it interesting OP. Put enough attention to it to leave the reader wondering, and then snatch the concept away,and let them decide what's going on beyond the borders.

>> No.4213161

>>4211841
What about this guys?
I see everyone else commenting, but mine is left along... is it so bad?

>> No.4213166
File: 152 KB, 960x714, kdu77.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4213166

>>4211384
You can adapt from this experiment

>> No.4213227

>>4213166
Not op but that's a pretty brilliant suggestion

>> No.4213235

>>4211513
I wish I was this euphoric

>> No.4213264

>>4213166
That picture is misleading, it was made by someone trying to justify some idea. That actual experiment was faulty and didn't produce those exact results.
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6828/was-the-experiment-with-five-monkeys-a-ladder-a-banana-and-a-water-spray-condu

>> No.4213275

>>4213264
Well, he is writing fiction, presumably fantasy or science... Does not matter how "real" it is if it's at least somewhat believable.

I mean I think it's a good compromise between researching every scientific/realistic facts and and just saying "they can't leave because MAGIC!"

>> No.4213306

>>4213264
>That picture is misleading, it was made by someone trying to justify some idea.
That picture is a parable, not a historical account, you doofus.

>> No.4215354

>>4213111
It's called At Swim-Two-Birds.

>> No.4215474

They're all like dryads - they can't leave their trees for to great a distance.

It could be the same for the city. The citizens are just allegories/spirits of aspects of the city, which has now been abandoned by people. They are so bound to the city that they can't leave otherwise they fade. That's because their very essence IS the city.

>> No.4215532

Im not a writer, but wouldnt this be the absolutely best part of being a writer? To be able to weave the lore and landscape yourself? Why ask for help?

>> No.4215547

>>4213166
this image always annoys me (mainly for the preachy tone)

realistically, the monkeys are doing the right thing. Your family tells you "don't run into the road". If you do it they scold (or hit) you; that's not your family trying to keep you down, it's them trying to keep you safe

if a new monkey had tried to go up the ladder, it would probably have got them all hit with the hose (unless the scientists were pussies) so the monkeys had figured out a system where if nobody goes up the ladder, nobody could get hit by water and nobody would need to be beaten up - everybody wins

it's an argument against everyone doing the same thing - but doing the same thing as everyone else is often necessary to keeping yourself alive/out of jail/not squirted by a hose by crazy scientists

>> No.4215595

>>4213306
It's being presented as a historical account of a study. You doofus.

>> No.4216424

>>4211735
I wish I could work at a gas station. I wish I could get a job anywhere.

>> No.4216444

>>4212758
I died.

>> No.4216458

>>4213235
What's so euphoric about this.

>> No.4216885

>>4212193
Damn, I wanted to be the one to suggest this. Good taste, anon!

>> No.4216894

>>4213161
10/10 bretty gud

The tweest is kind of silly though, but it can easily be explained with MAGIC

of course, I'm not OP so it doesn't matter anyway lel

>> No.4216950

How about because there isn't anywhere else/they don't realise there even could be? It doesn't even cross their mind that their could be lands other than their own.

>> No.4217212

These people live in a society that is slavishly bureaucratic. Every day in every town, city and farm, there is a roll-call where everything runs smoothly unless someone is missing or unaccounted for by death or disease.

When someone is not in their place or otherwise unaccounted for, it starts a chain reaction of chaos, bureaucratic indecision and systemic break-down. This makes travel impossible.

>> No.4217219

(OK, i posted this once and it didn't show-up, my apologies if it is a double post)

These people live in a society that is slavishly bureaucratic. Every day in every town, city and farm, there is a roll-call where everything runs smoothly unless someone is missing or unaccounted for by death or disease.
When someone is not in their place or otherwise unaccounted for, it starts a chain reaction of chaos, bureaucratic indecision and systemic break-down. This makes travel impossible.

>> No.4217229

>>4215547

The point is that by the end, none of the monkeys have been squirted. They can't pass down the legend of the hose monster, so they're just stopping each other from climbing the ladder without knowing why they're doing it.