Mutania

Motivation behind building Mutania

Mutania is a world filled with fantastical creatures and cosmological horrors. Four different sapient species thrive in diverse, richly developed cultures. The interactions between cultures are being documented.

This project indulges our passion for human geography, ecology, biology, chemistry, linguistics, fantasy, science fiction, and classical history. We want to explore the edges of how societies function once we remove some of the worst manifestations of human psychology, such as genocide, slavery, and colonialism.

Mutania's unique selling points

• Novel and interesting cultures in a pacifistic world.
• Playful xenobiology, including mammiles, an animal group with a combination of mammal and reptilian traits. Mutation of these animal forms generates more chaotic arrangements.
• Multiple modes of magic, from the academic studies of medical magicians to the freaky transformative effects of wormstone.
• Science-adjacent geography and ecology of alien planets.

Goal of this part of the website

This is an ongoing worldbuilding project focused on realistic cultural development that will include stories about the people who live there. We want to entertain a fascinating thought experiment and create a lush world for strange creatures to live in.

Genre

This world is science fantasy with realistic fantastical culture. Cultures of the world are approximately in their Bronze Ages.

Recurring themes

• Creatures with multiple eyes and fantastical limbs. Bodies are inhuman to start with and become more unstable when exposed to magic such as wormstone.
• Cultures with unique social systems that play with gender, family, and government structure.
• Magic manifesting differently and uniquely to a given caster. Everyone is capable of magic in some capacity, but responses to it vary, and it is notoriously hard to predict.
• Evil at the individual level. Individual antagonists can be accounted for and brought to justice to effect the betterment of society as a whole.

Intended reader experience

• Grotesque: bodies mutated into unrecognizable forms, diseases without known cures, and dark magic that demands sacrifices
• Lush: ecosystems with unique creatures and climates, multiple cultures with their own histories and peoples, and individuals enmeshed in the world around them
• Thoughtful: pacifistic and egalitarian polities, gender and sex systems beyond human binaries, personalizing language for self-expression
• Thrilling: magical accidents, character transformation, and misunderstandings with grave consequences

Something strange this way comes...

Vopa, the Yalisi Priesthood on the Yalisi islands is gaining power. They own the city of Yalisi, and thus the island. Their Empire has reached the Zige mainland, Se Safo, and Mazedi, where it is starting to take hold. Other religions have different goals and methods, but the Vopa are sure that they're the ones who are right. They have the power of Pemija, the great moon on their side.

Hello? Hello? Hello?

Psychological disease is spreading. Neuroses are multiplying exponentially, moods have become impossible to articulate, and there is a breakdown in the relationship between body family members.

Laws of Mutania

• Two universes overlap. Dark matter is their cross-section, and in these universes, "dark matter" is called astral matter. Magicians use astral matter to perform spells and rituals. Physically, sound waves are sufficient to move astral particles, but sometimes intent and gesture can be enough.
• Magic and mutation are common, and they manifest uniquely.
• Mutania is a small, wet, and cold Earth-like planet.
• On Mutania, instead of mammals or reptiles (including birds), there is an animal group called mammiles. Imagine ostriches with kangaroo tails or bipedal egg-laying seals. Mammiles have at least 3 eyes, often 4. Some can photosynthesize.
• The world is in a state of peace.

Cosmology

Different people have different answers to this question. Many associate the birth of Mutania with the birth of its two moons.

Principal geography & features

Mutania consists of two landmasses that are separated by small straits. In Ipabi, one landmass is called Zige, with the Se Safo peninsula. The other landmass is made up of Kiusu, Mivi, Una Sape, and the Mazedi peninsula. You can see a full map using the Ipabi names for things.

Zige is a large continent mostly in the Northern hemisphere. It has very tall mountains in the center and a vast expanse of taiga to the North. Deserts claw at glaciers' shores and lush forests cling to the South. Se Safo has beautiful forested coasts and a dry grassland interior.

Kiusu and Mivi are dominated by their grasslands, but both have spots of high elevations surrounded by cold deserts. Mazedi is a mess of wetlands.

Initial active setting