Were goblins and other xp-fodder races created first on this world, or had xp-fodder races existed on previous worlds?
If the xp-fodder races were created on this world, then were there no high level characters on any world before this one?
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Were goblins and other xp-fodder races created first on this world, or had xp-fodder races existed on previous worlds?
If the xp-fodder races were created on this world, then were there no high level characters on any world before this one?
This is possibly the first world using a dungeons and dragons-like ruleset, where characters have levels to begin with.
Presumably the wizards/sorcerers that V soul spliced with were from this world's tenure, as any fiends would have had their memories erased and would not know about older worlds' souls. Not to mention, Xykon is less than 2 centuries old, and this world is "A few thousand years old" given that the world is about to become too unstable due to the rifts. If it takes less than 2 centuries to become epic level, then there have definitely been more high level characters from previous worlds.
On the other hand, this world being a "Self-aware stick figure fantasy parody" might mean that some other worlds didn't even have a concept for "high level".
On the subject of xp-fodder monsters, the gods must have created them using the strands of reality before humanoids were conscious (probably means the narrative from SoD that RC provides is false). They aren't a concept that hasn't ever been made before, but in older worlds you can always get your xp from killing other low-level PCs.
The possibly-novel thing about Goblinoids is that they were created with the intent, from the start, that their entire purpose for being was to supply combat experience for whoever defeated them. They were, for all intents and purposes, meant to be sapient prey so that the races whom the gods actually cared for could hunt "The Most Dangerous Game".
"High level" may have existed previously in the sense of "mortals powerful enough to become demigods or to challenge demigods", but it is only because the current world is a "self-aware fantasy parody" that levels and stats and such have explicit numerical values.
I think Soda was pretty high level.
I don't think that's likely. First world using D&D, yes, quite possibly (would explain the different editions they went through just in this world). First world with levels, probably not.
I expect some poor chocolate bar crippled itself by running too much, thus leveling up without boosting its combat stats, Oblivion-style.
I doubt this is even the first world using D&D, cause if the gods made all those rules, I imagined they'd try to play them straight the first time around. So I imagine there having at least a couple D&D worlds, with this being the first to be a comic parody.
I have a crazy theory that all the various different worlds represent different RPGs and settings that predate OotS.
Given the sheer number of them, and the examples Thor gives, there might, say, have been a world that runs on Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS, etc. rules.
But then, anything's possible. And it's not entirely relevant anyway.
I think that all worlds have run on a d20 rules system. But this is either the first or one of the few in which the inhabitants have actually been self-aware of the mechanics.
In a D&D game, a character is supposed to know that he is, say, a powerful fighter, but not a "Lvl 12 fighter". A character is supposed to know that he is very strong, but not to have a "STR Attribute of 18". It's like in that scene when Roy gets his sword repaired and the blacksmith tells him that it's efficency has been boosted in about a 20% over a normal sword, and Roy answers him "just say it's a +5 GreatSword".
And probably this isn't the first world to include XP-Fodder races. But perhaps it's the first whose inhabitants, being self-aware, have been able to figure out they were actually designed as XP-Fodder.
This is not the first one with high level characters.
If anything, it is one of the lower-level scenarios given the lack of 18th level clerics and such.
All the other worlds could've run on D&D and other game systems for all we know. This is likely the first world where characters know they have levels and know that they roll their actions and know they need to earn XP to level up and that goblins are an easy way to get it.
It's entirely possible the Dark One's version of how the beast races were created is wrong or misleading, either intentionally or not.
I would go so far as to say it's probable. TDO came to godhood during the lifetime of the current world, so he wasn't there at the creation and anything he's been told about what happened back then must necessarily have come via the other evil gods (when he was still speaking to them, at any rate), who might well have had their own reasons to hide or change the truth. They didn't even tell him about the Snarl until he'd already discovered it for himself.
What's special about this world? :smallconfused:
WILD WEIRD SPECULATION MODE ON!!!
It's not about this world. It was never about the world per se. You see, when the gods created the first goblins, they didn't notice that they used in the mix a very special group of threads of reality. Those threads were dispersed in many goblins, but as the years passed and goblins bred, those threads kept being passed on until they all met in TDO. When he died, and his soul was free from the mortal limitations, the threads that composed his very soul finally were able to manifest their full power emerging as a new color!
Which threads are those? The threads that in previous world had composed Soda! TDO is Soda reincarnated into a tiny refreshing grape god.
The part that puzzles me in Redcloak's Crayon recap of TDO, is that the knowledge about the goblins being created as XP Fodder is supposed to just come to him infused when he becomes a God. Yet more basic things like the existence of the Snarl or the fact that there have been a bajillion worlds before this one, do not.
So, reading that scene again, I think the information that the Goblins were created as XP Fodder was either told to TDO by another God (maybe it's is true and was a split up from a Good god, or maybe was a lie fabricated by an Evil god to rile him up against the good Gods), or was just fabricated by TDO as propaganda for his followers.
Yeah, agreed. In fact, TDO would have an excellent reason to fabricate this--if his goblinoid followers had every advantage that the other races did, yet ended up shoved into the bits of the world nobody else wanted, then they must be a bit crap, really. Last thing a god wants to be telling his followers is that they're in the position they're in because they're rubbish!
A world based on Stick figure DnD parody is probably predated by several worlds based on actual DnD, so no.
The Dark One could have easily found out about the exp fodder from the other gods
However there is a strict embargo on telling outsiders about the Snarl
Every other new god has been raised within an existing pantheon so is already in on it. He is special because he raised himself and that was partly due to the mechanics of the system eg goblinoids have a massive fertility rate as seen by how the hobgobs populace exploded in size once they got peaceful(ish) coexistence
I do take issue with the implications about the elven gods being raised since it implies there weren’t elves before
Or that they were raised in a previous one?
It is implied that different iterations have different non human races, so sometimes we only get Asiatic dwarves
What happens to race specific gods who survive the transition and then get stuck with a new version of their race?
You're being slightly incoherent, slow down a bit.
I know the answer to the last one: they typically get screwed over mentally or otherwise like Odin did in the previous world. It's not race specific so much as it is "what I am/represent is not relevant or present in the minds of my new worshipers, so how do I exist?"
The Dark One being unique has nothing to do with the goblins themselves biologically speaking, just that [special stuff] happened that isn't normal. It could be disdain towards the preexisting pantheons or something entirely unique to the scenario itself (maybe something like that happens every few hundred worlds, but normally geography determines the quiddity in the ultra-specific scenario a god is raised without an influence from the pantheons but this time its different for some reason). TDO didn't raise himself, he ascended after his death due to the sheer amount of goblins devoting themselves to his cause and doing things in his name. The high birth rate of the goblins is a contributor to how TDO got powerful so quickly, you're right about that.
The Elven Gods were raised in this world. There were presumably some others raised before, and could have survived many worlds, but eventually died at a point prior to this one.
Dvalin was a dwarf before he was a god, meaning that dwarves predated some dwarf specific gods. TDO is the god of goblinoids, and again goblinoids existed before a god for them did. Being a god of a thing does not mean you have to come before it.
Any god who only allows themselves a very limited domain is unlikely to have enough god food to make it across to the next world. The gods who do make it will have a certain amount of breadth and adaptability.Quote:
It is implied that different iterations have different non human races, so sometimes we only get Asiatic dwarves
What happens to race specific gods who survive the transition and then get stuck with a new version of their race?
Thor explains it. Gods have been raised by mortals in previous worlds, and never survive the destruction of their world. There has presumably been a long cycle of worlds with elves created, they raise their own gods, the world is destroyed and the elven gods die.
Thor doesn't say that new gods never survive the destruction of their worlds, he said that he's seen new gods with more worshippers than the Dark One has fail to survive to the creation of the next world. There is a very significant difference between those two statements.
^
The implication seems to be that it's rare but has happened. Only a small fraction of worlds have lasted long enough to raise gods, a fraction of that has lasted long enough to raise gods and also have enough time to gather resources, and presumably only a small fraction of those gods have been able to actually do it.
For all we know it was originally the Ten Gods or something.