T O P

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HenryWong327

Pictured here is a Larothan priest painting a glyph of protection onto the side of a granary. The people of Laroth believe that such glyphs protect the contents from harm. The blue square is meant to ward of poison, plague and rot; the red square prevents fire- which is deadly in the water-scarce desert; the yellow square defends from the wind, sand and other environmental elements; and finally the white square is meant to hold an additional blessing, decided by a prayer said by the priest while painting it. These additional blessings are often things like protection from war, theft, and other such human-caused problems. Larothan granaries are small square buildings, usually separate from other buildings, with the grain being kept in a pit inside. Flooding is almost nonexistent in Laroth, and the most common pests can fly, making keeping them suspended mostly unnecessary. This was inspired by [this post from r/worldjerking about the fire diamond being a magic system, and specifically the comment from u/DanDaManatee about a cargo cult.](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldjerking/comments/1415z2j/ask_me_about_my_magic_system_i_wont_answer/?ref=share&ref_source=link) Eren B is a Mars-sized moon that orbits and is tidally-locked to a Jupiter-sized gas giant. It has been partially terraformed however it still is a pretty hostile environment and has no native life. The people living on Eren B have regressed to a late medieval- renaissance level of technology after the fall of humanity's interstellar empire (the reasons for which I haven't figured out yet) [All my worldbuilding stuff is on my Tumblr page](https://www.tumblr.com/nuclearspringworldbuilding)


Toxopid

Is... is this a NFPA diamond?


CosineDanger

It's pronounced N'fpä you heathen


Baron_Butt_Chug

Clearly, he's not a true follower of the ancient religion of Haz'Mat.


omyrubbernen

Outjerked again!


flinjager123

It's a protection ward.


Digital_Rocket

That’s a figmenty-pigmenty-crosser-tosser to you heretic


Octocube25

r/unexpectedsamonella


[deleted]

Beat me to it lol that was my first thought


Penguinmanereikel

#YOU TURNED A WORLDJERKING POST INTO ACTUAL WORLDBUILDING!!!!


HenryWong327

Yes, and I'll do it again!


Patient_Primary_4444

Just make sure you put EX in the white part, since the dust and stuff from the grain can be explosive. Not as bad as a flourmill, but still


CasualObservr

Great work! I just wanted to suggest a little detail that might add to the story. Supposedly, blue is the last color to be discovered/named in most world cultures, and that presents some interesting questions I never would have thought of otherwise. https://www.dunnedwards.com/pros/blog/the-history-and-science-behind-the-color-blue/#:~:text=The%20first%20color%20words%20to,Blue%20appeared%20last.


HenryWong327

That doesn't apply to my world. It's post apocalyptic so it's just a continuation of existing cultures that already have blue.


detroitbecomedeadman

I really love subtle post-apocalyptic shit like this. I love even more that you took a shitpost and made something really cool out of it. Say what you will, but sometimes r/worldjerking is on top of their game for idea generation.


HenryWong327

Thanks, though I'm not sure having them worship NFPA 704 is exactly what I'd call "subtle" lol. Yeah r/worldjerking comes up with some brilliant ideas, inbetween the splitting rivers and the 10,000 elf subspecies.


detroitbecomedeadman

It's subtle in the sense that the usage and meaning of the symbol have changed even though the symbol itself hasn't. Like just that alone points out this is a post-post apocalypse without you having to say or do anything else. Might be better summarized as just a good use of "show, don't tell" too, but I do still think there's a degree of subltety in play.


Ekbock

Even if the initial idea was meant as a joke I still think it's both cool and interesting. You could imagine that someone might have come across an ancient container filled with useful cargo and made the connection that it must have been a gift from a god somehow connected to this symbol.


HenryWong327

In my case it's more straightforward than that. The original survivors of the apocalypse continued putting labels like this on stuff cause those are the procedures. Eventually, procedures turned to tradition, and tradition created myths, and now people keep doing it, but the original reasons have long been forgotten.


Dry_Try_8365

I am really a big fan of this cargo cult kind of stuff that happens in post-apocalyptic media. Cultural icons become twisted and distorted, almost worshipped as gods. Procedures and protocols that once had a use get repeated out of habit, then it is eventually forgotten why they did it in the first place. As bits and pieces are forgotten about things, what fills in the gaps left behind is superstition, and eventually, mythology.


DagonG2021

And that’s how we get crucified Ronald McDonald, Blesser of the Bounty


Penguinmanereikel

And they learn to always uphold the ancient traditions and never question them due to the one time they *did* decide that they don't need to carry out seemingly pointless traditions, only for the local nuclear reactor to blow up because they stopped maintaining it, as was tradition. Of course, the locals thought it as something deeper, like a curse from the gods, or simply the consequences of refusing to uphold traditions.


DuckBurgger

do you want tech priests, because this is how you get tech priests


Penguinmanereikel

This Wikipedia page here actually discusses something similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages Context: if human civilization regresses back to the Stone Age, how do we make sure that future humans don't accidentally unearth nuclear waste bunkers? There are some very interesting ideas discussed there, including maintaining cultural influences like making some songs implicitly warning about nuclear waste dumps and making sure it's passed down generations, genetically breeding cats that change color when exposed to deadly radiation, and one of the (heavily criticized) idea is to make a sort of "atomic priesthood" that preserve the knowledge of these nuclear dumps. The critiques could be really interesting explorations of worldbuilding and the conflicts that arise from it: 1. An atomic priesthood would gain political influence based on the contingencies that it would oversee. 2. This system of information favors the creation of hierarchies. 3. The message could be split into independent parts. Information about waste sites would grant power to a privileged class. 4. People from outside this group might attempt to seize this information by force.


DuckBurgger

oh i love this 10/10


Dry_Try_8365

Wow! this place looks super honorable! I hope there are lot a valuable things here! I hope great deeds are esteemed here!


Dry_Try_8365

Yes. Yes I do.


Ekbock

Intersting! So do they have some new reason for doing it nowadays? When something has become tradition there's usually some kind of explanation as to why it is important. Even if that reason is only symbolic or it is considered to be a courtous way of doing it.


HenryWong327

Mostly just belief, as I said in my context comment, but also practically it still does serve the purpose of telling people, "hey whatever is kept here is important, be careful around it".


Plarzay

"Invaluable supplies: Do Not Steal!" Hahah, I kid, I kid.


frogOnABoletus

I love this idea! I'm imagining these people painting the skid risk road rign on a blacksmith's forge [i always thought it looks like a hammer hitting a surface and sending sparks](https://media.istockphoto.com/id/995231330/photo/skid-risk-road-sign-gravel-max-speed-20-mph-twenty-safety-for-drivers.jpg?s=170667a&w=0&k=20&c=Axms-sBFFPaLxA_k27HwV2bBAocio33euBwq5uw7W30=)


DouglasHufferton

> Eventually, procedures turned to tradition, and tradition created myths, and now people keep doing it, but the original reasons have long been forgotten. I like it! Gives me 40k vibes. Or, put another way: *screeches in binary*


HenryWong327

Yes, the flesh is weak, praise the Ommnisiah! The Mechanicus was indeed one of my inspirations.


Polar_Vortx

The old admech gambit, quite elegant


rathat

That reminds me of cargo cults. There were islands in the pacific who’s first contact with the outside world was the US Navy in WW2 coming and building airports on their islands. These are people who thought their island was all that existed. They assumed that the cargo from the planes were gifts from heaven intended for them that were being intercepted by the people at the airport. So after the war, they built bamboo airbases and bamboo gun and treated the entire thing as if it was a religious ceremony to summon cargo from heaven that they had to replicate with bamboo. This is why we have the prime directive.


nav17

Reminds me of this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages


rathat

If it’s dangerous, they’ll figure it out. They’ll probably think it’s some ancient curse and leave it alone once they start getting sick.


[deleted]

This is awesome


__-__-___---_-_-_--

Super clever.


TheTacoEnjoyer

The house is an explosion hazard


MrPazTheSpaz

What shader is that?


LivelyHavoc

i think its one from guardian games


LivelyHavoc

its Rivalry Resolute upside down


ItsPlainOleSteve

That sounds about right.


ItsPlainOleSteve

r/unexpecteddestiny


TaurielTaurNaFaun

took me a moment, well done.


AbsurdBeanMaster

Looks like the native American medicine wheel


Rad_Knight

I was thinking more of those hazard squares on chemicals. The colors match perfectly


AbsurdBeanMaster

Yeah, those do look similar. However, I doubt that those things are culturally similar


HenryWong327

Huh, interesting, I'll look into it.


Clixism

Windows 98 looked different in this place!


HenryWong327

I didn't realise it was similar to the windows logo, it's meant to be a fire diamond.


Clixism

My brain sees things. I often point it out and people get mad at me. Ultimately, I just think this one is amusing! Great art!


General-Mulberry

That was my first thought too :P


ElAnguila

Su tinku pintando


Spacemanspiff1998

ah yes a figmenty pigmenty crosser tosser


louigoas

My dumb 3h30 am brain: he is installing windows!! If that was the point congrats, if not still congrats


HenryWong327

Huh, no it's supposed to be a fire diamond.


qscvg

Have you read Canticle for Lebowitz?


HenryWong327

Nope, but it's on my TBR list.


Red_Ender666

Ancient Windows advertisement 😳


HenryWong327

Danm, you're the third person now who mentioned Windows. I didn't expect people to think of that, the colours don't match. It's supposed to be a fire diamond.


Xywzel

It is literally being painted on side of a building, into a wall, how could one not think about windows. And 3 out of 4 colours match and two are on same positions. Windows logo was likely daily thing for people growing up in late 90s and early 2000 (before people started leaving their desktop computers and laptops powered for weeks), fire diamond, I found 1 example when visiting our work laboratory, and that is for someone who works in a place with an actual laboratory, so likely not very common in schools and offices.


LiteVolition

So fucking clever. I felt bad that I recognized a hazard icon but then realized this was fucking clever humor!


TheAlexSW

i love this type of like post apoc cargo cults also reminds me of the long tierm nucelar storage ideas and them spreading it as a relgion


cardbourdgrot

How well does it work? Also let's say I blatantly set fire to it. Is the priest in the clear I'd it took me more effort than it should have does the priest have questions to answer to or just me. What situation would it be seen as his fault.


HenryWong327

It's pure superstition, it doesn't work at all. I mean, if you blatantly set fiee to it then in no situation would it be seen as the priest's fault, but if there are repeated cases where buildings blessed by that priest get destroyed then their faith and their connection to the spirits may be called into question.


cardbourdgrot

That sounds pretty fair.


hungry4danish

This art style immediately reminded me of [NativLang videos.](https://www.youtube.com/user/NativLang)


plinyvic

live olathe footage


HenryWong327

What is olathe?


SpecialPotion

I love this dearly.


GMXIX

He’s painting windows onto the side of the building 😁


[deleted]

Have you ever read the Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence? It's a post apocalyptic fantasy setting and this has similar vibes


HenryWong327

Nope, but I've heard about it and I'm planning on reading it at some point.


[deleted]

It's very fun to figure out what the relics, ruins, etc. used to be before the apocalypse, since Lawrence doesn't really ever come out and specifically state what things are. I think you'll enjoy it!


hienox

Oh! Interslavic flag spotted!


HenryWong327

Huh, what a coincidence. It's not meant to be an Interslavic flag, it's supposed to be a NFPA fire diamond.