Las Lagunas
Las Lagunas
This conworld is a spiritual successor to Oceano de la Vida. It is also a real place in that universe, but you don't need to know anything about it to get into this one.
Las Lagunas is a small universe with many planetoids, each encircled by a lake. Waterfalls connect lakes to planetoids and to each other. The people here are a mixture of east spaniards, people of Oceano de la vida, Argentinians, and extremely advanced scientists from Mid-Hades. Their civilization is pre-industrial.
Universe
At the heart of the universe of Las Lagunas is a tall, steep planet floating in the middle of nowhere. It is very bright to look at and provides a lot of soft lighting and ambient heat to the rest of the universe. The people call it El Monte, while the advanced scientists instead call it <unintelligible word that means "root">. It is important, but we'll cover it more later.
The space around El Monte is very unstable. Things will appear, other things will violently disappear, occasionally glimpses of stars and other things can be seen in the little rips in the fabric. It is very hot here (100-120F) and not a place for humans to linger. Sometimes a clean planet will come out of one of the rips, with a big splash of water following it. This will quickly stabilize, get seeded and become a new Laguna.
Lagunas
A Laguna is basically a giant floating sea with a planet suspended in it. The sea is very thin, much like a ring system. It circles around the planet slowly, while other stronger currents push water towards and away from the planet at various points along the Laguna. At the center spacetime curves a bit and the planetoid becomes much larger. About 15 miles from the boundary of the Laguna is the surface of the planetoid. Connecting the two are long waterfalls that flow of their own violation to and from lakes in the planet below. Riding one of them down is a gentle but terrifying journey.
Planets vary in size. Small planets may only be 20 miles in diameter, while larger ones can be half the size of the moon. Lagunas too vary, the smallest ones having a radius of three of its planet and the largest dwarf the planet and can take weeks to cross.
Vino and the Capitanes Locos
The water of Lagunas does not heal, but it replenishes and intoxicates. It is a thin soup of neurotransmitters and psychoactives. Plants don't mind it so much, but people call it Vino, and rightfully so. Drinking it will increase focus, concentration, decrease pain.. and also fill you with delirious overconfidence and mania. At medium doses it induces violent behavior and psychotic breaks. At high doses---well, we won't get into those effects.
There are Capitanes that sail across lakes, up waterfalls, across lagunas, and through the twisting Gran Cascadas to other worlds. They drink themselves half-mad with Vino, which allows them to navigate across the shifting currents and through terrifying voids but at the cost of their own sanity. If you're lucky you'll only hear them singing nonsensical words at the top of their lungs; if you're not they might get nude and try to set the ship on fire. So mad and so devious are they that no one has been able to challenge their monopoly over the high seas.
An economy of greed and faith
The people of Las Lagunas are numerous and specialized. They have adapted to the strange materials and stranger science of Las Lagunas and prospered, on the verge of full industrialization. There are five broad social classes that have been at war with (and reliant upon) each other for power and wealth.
Clergy -- The ruling class by rights. These are members of the Holy Catholic church that also have extensive diplomatic ties with the highly advanced Zepts and the Fraternal Order of Guiding Light (an alien race that we'll cover more later). Despite their ubiquity they are highly challenged for total domination.
Priests & Paupers -- The underbelly of society; the poor laborers of this world have essentially been treated as slaves, which has led to uprisings and infiltrations by the Clergy. The priesthood's role is a bit more complicated here, but the groups here are still a force to be reckoned with.
Compañías Mineras -- Powerful groups that run large-scale mining operations on uninhabited worlds. Economic ties with the Zepts and the only group to occasionally gain access to their technology.
Dirt under my Nails -- Small and widespread groups of farmers and ranchers. Their power is based on their numbers and the movement that organizes them, but it is probably short-lived.
Artesanos -- The craftsmen of Las Lagunas. Were they a single unified group there could be no challenge to their dominance, but instead they're separated into various industries with various collective interests.
With the amount of infighting that happens and the isolation of Lagunas, there's nothing like the concept of a "nation" or "government". Instead there are various ruling bodies, smaller localized States, and lots of corruption, unrest and even outright war throughout.
Craftsmanship underpins everything
A fresh planetoid is made entirely of a white chalky substance known as Tiza. At some point it will transform into another substance. Which one depends on temperature and pressure.. because it's difficult to know *when* a Tiza will transform, these substances can't really be synthesized but must instead be mined from Lagunas where the transformation has taken place.
The substances themselves (with the exception of Jalea) are composites of other materials.. a kind of strange ore that can be distilled into more diverse materials with clearer properties.
Conclusion
I will get into some more details over time. Thoughts so far? Questions?