Do you wish this video had more Rain World and Studio Ghibli? Head on over to Nebula for entire exclusive video on my favorite kinds of 'post-apocalypses!' nebula.tv/videos/curiousarchive-my-favorite-kind-of-postapocalypse Also if you're wondering why it says Elden Ring came out in 2011 at the start of this video, believe it or not that's because moldiness is capable of eroding dates too. It definitely said 2022 when I put it in there.
Me too, got bored of the video I was watching before this, Refreshed the home page about to go through -a rabbit hole- some shorts if nothing interesting came up, New video from CA at the top of the page. Looks like I'm sleeping on time today...
Star Wars also does a super good job at showing something aged that has been maintained. For example, Naboo has structures that are a thousand years old, and yet are pristine, contrasting so well against ancient, forgotten temples on abandoned worlds.
YES!!!! moldy, overgrown worlds are one of my favorite things to study!!!!! there is something so fascinating and mysterious about them that i cant help but find intriguing. I also just have a weird fascination with plants and fungi that seeing them take over areas that were once i guess "clean" of these organisms is so exciting!
As someone whos watched this channel for years now, and clicks as soon ah he sees a new video…I’m extremely happy I’ve done so. From speculative evolution, to strangely philosophical dissections of tropes and series, I thoroughly enjoy each. I’ve noticed a slightly more comedic tone to some of your more recent videos, alongside the existential stuff, and think the slight change of pace is oddly comforting. Cant wait to see what you have to offer next time!
@@KalleVonEi yeah, that was what originally drew me in. Still, I haven’t seen anything big spec evo wise on the inter-webs, you know? Although, him making one would be pretty cool :)
I like a world where ruin and atrocity and war has created an endless "onion" of competing versions of lore. Depending on where and when each NPC comes from, they'll have dramatically different ideas of the same events and people. Elder Scrolls is good at this, so is World of Darkness.
The problem with Greek fire is that all we know about it is its ability to burn on water. We can make many different substances that can burn on water or even under water but without more information we can only guess as to what Greek fire actually was.
Its the cousin of "We don't know how the pyramids were built." Yeah, because we can't eliminate any of the plethora of options because there isn't enough information to do so.
@DefinatelyNotAI very true. Its not a situation of how could they possibly have pulled that off. It's a situation of they could have used a million different things/technique to produce the same outcome, but we have no idea which method they used.
What's insane and amazing in Elden Ring is the war you can see remnants of is technically still ongoing. It's just been going on for so long hardly anybody even remembers why. The soldiers you can find inhabiting war camps are tired from unending war, and practically undead due to laws of the world being in disrepair.
"ew that's gross, i didn't know what i was expecting" LMAO! love the super deep analytics then the hit of just being human for a second. I love your Videos
The homemade TTRPG i've been working on for the last four years includes a lot of fungi. I've also been a long time fan of the Curious Archive. Being here this early for this video feels like a blessing from a god only a mushroom could comprehend.
Would you consider Shadow of the Colossus' world a "moldy" world. I guess I'd personally consider it a "dormant" world. A world that has already completed its existence and has failed to join its citizens and society in oblivion
18:00 We just got an extended cut on *Earth's World Building!* Lets goooo! It's a very intriguing place, Would love to check its lore out one day. Hope we get more updates on the planet.
Ugh, it's so overrated. Half of it feels like the writers just wanted some cool big empire to rule half the world and then came up with excuses to make it happen, without any regard for previous lore. We have so much lore on the Romans and how they slowly and meticulously carved out their slice of the world, but then there's something like the Mongol and the Brits who build far, far bigger empires over no time at all. Like come on, the Chinese built that whole wall and they're just going to bypass it and conquer all of China on horseback in a few years? Give me a break...
@@Failure023 one day all will decay into nothing. Stars formation will cease, all stars will slowly evaporate. And one day, even black holes will evaporate and die. At which point nothing will ever happen again… Unless…
An interesting "moldy" setting is Turnip 28, where a rooty growth has mutated everything, with the mutant humans imitating the napolionic regiments of the past without a real understanding of what they are copying.
I have a soft spot for overgrown, rotting, moldy ruins. It's a cool asthetic seeing relics of ancient civilizations being completely overtaken by natural forces.
Sometimes, you have to see something ruined to appreciate what was once there I know it’s a bit of a cliche, and I’m sorry, but it feels very appropriate to this video
Even though you never mentioned it, I think World of Warcraft fits this very well. Maybe they don't have rot and decay in every zone, but it's very common, as are ancient ruins and other evidence of predecessor civilizations.
I LOVE MOLD!!! No but seriously, this puts to words why I love discovering how the mold got there, why is still exists, and who cares for it. Its the 'learning from the past' or ' making the same mistakes with/without realizing it' that really reels me in. And then putting the current characters to challenge or fall into it is really so interesting and fun.
One of the mouldy-est settings I've ever played in is definitely Final Fantasy XIV. Our calendar ages are measured in "years since last catastrophe" and "years since we last rebuilt". And most of the NEW catastrophes we avert are really just an old buried one someone dug up. The past is constantly trying to claw out of it's grave and make itself present, old life trying to feed on the new one for fear of death. I also recommend the Broken Empire trilogy from Mark Lawrence for enjoyers of post-post-apocalypse. I won't spoil too much, just be aware that the subject matter is often very dark.
A fellow ghost watcher here, I think it is finally time for me to pay you my respect. Almost every video of yours I watched so far has made me smile out of awe and child-like joy. It's impressive how you come up with new, interesting and beautiful ideas for video essays, and I especially love your way of noticing. I have recently heard of the debate about how some people ruin game experiences by analyzing them and every mystery they contain, ultimately stripping them from their enigmatic coats. But that is not what you do at all. I never, in my many, many playthroughs of Skyrim thought about the wall outside of Whiterun but damn, now that you mention it and got me to pay attention... Really, I love your videos and your creativity. Thank you for all your work!
I usually enjoy your videos enormously but have my own longing for the experience of the games you mention, as I am not of the generations who routinely access them. This video however was so interesting and so visually gorgeous that I enjoyed it without wishing I knew the games you mention, and just enjoying seeing the parts you showed. The inclusion of movies and TV with which I am very familiar was also a comfort!
Among my favorite ideas of forgotten, rotting yet life filled worlds is in "Made in Abyss". A civilization of people creating a city, surrounding an almost infinitly deep abyss. Travelers & scavengers who dig deep into it find fauna, land, lost civilizations, relics and artifacts of ancient past. Though digging too deep provides drastic & fatal consiquences. Each layer of the abyss give humans a curse. Top layers provide temporary curses like vomiting or bleeding. But far deeper layers give horrific, de-humanizing curses. And the farther down one goes, the more questions and horrors you may find.
The best part of the danger of the Abyss is that while the flora and fauna are in and of themselves dangerous, the biggest danger only hits you once you ASCEND. The abyss is like a giant fish trap. It'll let you descend as far as you want, but once you hit a certain threshold, return becomes impossible. It's like an even more horrifying, magical decompression sickness. Even ascending just a few meters will hit you with the curse, and then it's over. You're trapped in an eternal downward spiral and there is no way to go but deeper into the belly of the beast. Like the Voyager probes, hurtling through space until eventually its circuits and solarsails will give out, those who push the boundaries of the Abyss will never see the surface again. And YET, humans are undeterred. Our human curiosity, our need to push boundaries, to chart uncharted lands, to boldly go where no man has gone before is so overpowering that even so - KNOWING it will be the death of them - humanity pushes onward. And the Abyss will gladly swallow them all. When the Abyss stared into their hearts, humanity stared back in defiance.
Mold and mushrooms are just the coolest, in real life and especially in fantasy. I especially love them both when it comes to creatures- Elden Ring's mushroom shamans, Magic: the Gathering's fungus zombies and walking thallids, and The Last of Us's infected come to mind. The idea of a relatively innocent, stationary, plant-like organism like a mushroom hijacking a creature- colonizing it with more mushrooms, and spreading its spores further and further- has always creeped me out in a good way. Even more chilling to think that it already happens in real life with cordyceps to ants.
My favorite type of world building is world building via the power and abilities of others, discovered via exploration & meeting people with new powers, different usages of the same power, different ideological views of power etc..etc. AOT, Naruto/Naruto Shippuden, Hxh, Monster Hunter & a few Martial Arts manga like Kengan Ashura do it _really_ well
This is basically the same reason why I love giving characters visible, physical scars (once accidentally widely changed the idea for a character because I needed some kind of backstory for their scars haha)
never realized "rotting" as a perspective for worldbuilding and this was truly refreshing for me. besides, it definitely changes the meaning of "post-apocalyptic world" for me as well. guess I have to think more on this. thanks!
A recent favorite game of mine (that def deserves its own video) is Forever Winter. Basically a game about being a rat in a maze of a war that no one remembers the start of nor cares to. It’s a visceral experience and a living art book.
The man has such a way with words, and such a way of making us internalise the knowledge we already had, I'll be adding an Elfblood who keeps fragments of casual acts of humanity, to remind himself that even though the masses act as predictable nodes of an algorithm, each node has a life of it's own.
decomposing and erosion worlds weirdly give some hope and it shows as one civilization and the likes falls and decline, another one will rise. Aka life will find a way to continue
I love the vibe of fallout, the sand and rust, rot, and decay of the wasteland. It's cool walking around the drab yet still colorful ruins of Say, Boston, or West Virginia.
Post-apocalyptical or dead worlds are honestly my favorites worldbuilding projects, games like Rain World or in a way, Inscryption, just fascinate me. I want to know why the world is dead, why the Ancients are gone, and where do you take place in this? Most of my worldbuilding is based off of this, one of which having an entire robotic race made by a long-gone race much like the Ancients in Rain World
This reminds me of this thing I saw about the set design in the original Blade Runner, that they started off by making props that were pristine and futuristic, and then simulating decades of wear and grime onto them.
I noticed this myself too. I have a book idea and the world-building is your typical dark-fantasy yadi yadi yadi. I couldn't figure out how to make it that interesting thematically. It felt so boring to just have "politics" and "magic" when none of it seemed to add to any further plot or goal or event. Then, I got one simple idea in my head: Magic is waning from the world. So now all of the sudden, it's not a generic DnD story about cool magic, it's about a fantasy world coming to face with their entire way of life changing. It's kinda like civilization pushing out the Wild West. It completely flipped the entire world-building around to something more intersting.
This explains what captivated me about the video game Enshrouded. it was a world where in the pursuit of immortality, a kingdom pulls an ancient mould from the depths of the world to create an elixir of vitality. Forests of fungus break up the landscape within lakes and seas of spore-choked fog. The constructions of what came before ruined from the wars between scavengers and the creeping spread of the shroud. It's not a dead world. In fact beyond the fog the land is almost pristine, nature continues as always. But you can't help feel there are at least three or four civilizations built on top of each other. There's no telling how long it has been since the end. 50 years, 100, 200, 500. The story is not clear, but it also does not appear to matter. Neither did everything collapse in one go. The clues left behind tell it was a slow breakdown, as the shroud spilled from the wells used to pull it from below to drown the land, and the obsession for more elixir broke down the old power structures until cities became home to only the spore-creatures. it leaves the players, who emerge in this reborn world, an important question: Do you rebuild the old, or do you create something entirely new?
A good game that this sort of "ruined remains of a fallen age" is Lost ember. Someone called "Pixel biologist" made a video series on it! It is essentially you playing as a wolf helping a lost spirit recover their memories while simultaneously rediscovering bits and pieces of your own self as you explore abandoned structures, swim through water-logged passageways and climb high above to see the what the workd has come to and how life persists years after civilizations have become nothing but , as you said, "enigmatic structures" I love lost ember, its got beautiful graphics and storytelling. It may be an interesting binge-watch for you!
I’d like to also bring up Vermis as an example of a moldy world. The Vermis game guides are for a game that doesn’t exist and for a story that is old and already decayed. Each page has wear printed onto it, there are places where the prints are intentionally patchy and aged. The story itself is set in a world where empires have died, few people hold memories of the past, and even childbirth rates are dwindling. One of my favorite pages is a depiction of one of the locations called Green Grave, the art itself showing why this place got its name. A hulking skeleton in armor leans against a hill, covered in foliage. Apparently this was once a god. Even gods die in these books. (Seriously cannot recommend Vermis enough please read them or watch a video on them they’re so good)
'moldy' reminds me of Hollow Knight, After Image, Ender Lilies, Ori and Nine Sols--like, there's a lot of/large moldy areas in those games or 'something' world-ending encroaching everything
Hey! If you’re interested in written words, I recommend you read ‘shadow slave’ where the story takes us to a world that has been dead for millennia and the characters need to learn from the past of the lands to survive and advance, in the later parts of the story tells how this world is reshaped by the hand of human civilization
That little diatribe about seeing a cross section of eras in cartoon undergrounds just makes me think of the original Plants Vs Zombies, in which you could scroll through the achievements section to see the entire planet, full of Easter eggs from other pop cap games and, if you go far enough, Chinese zombies on the other side of the planet
A small correction: In ASOIAF the Alchemists haven't lost the method to produce wildfire. Since it's partially magical in nature, since the dragons died, the methods of producing wildfire have grown less effective and reliable, so it was assumed they lost the methodology. But since Dani's dragons were born that change has been reversing, so the alchemists are producing more, effective, wildfire. When Tyrion visits the head alchemist before the Battle of the Blackwater, the head alchemist mentions the change, though he doesn't know the reasons.
Very astute observation of a greater motive, and a good eye-opener for me as for why Eldenring is so fascinating and enthralling to me. Another great example is the manga and anime series Girl's Last Tour.
A cool world building which is similar of this is The First Law universe. In book two they travel to the old empire, in which it still stands nigh perfect. Even after so long has passed it's left standing because it was in part made by the best craftsman, but also a certain event happened killing everything. This includes rot. There are no living plants nearby and the ones which are dead wont rot. It has a dark vibe to it. Its a very good piece of world building which is also used to show the power of a certain thing.
Very interesting, always enjoy your videos. That said please do a video about Trollmans the artist, who draw some species for Serina, his project Folly of Man, Kaiju speculative biology.
Re: Elden Ring feeling like an archeological dig; the channel Tarnished Archaeologist is a good example of that. Haven't seen the Nebula exclusive yet, but if you like some anime robots with your post-post-apocalyptic mold, Turn A Gundam, Xabungle, Gun x Sword and (arguably) Gundam X are some fun examples. Edit: just noticed GX in the list of sources, lol. Must have blinked when it came up.
I'd like the make the distinction between moldy and scarred worldbuilding. Comparing your world to mold suggests, as you started off the video talking about, leeching off the ruins of the former civilizations. Something like Fallout, where everyone still lives in the colossi of what came before, eating their leftover food, using their tools and weapons, etc. rather than something like Lord of the Rings, where there's history, yes, the city of Gondolin is only remembered in song, despite those remembrances making it sound like the greatest place to ever be, but where the new peoples that come out of those cataclysmic events, such as the War of Wrath in that setting, start anew. Like the New Vegas expansion Dead Money puts it, they can "Begin again - but know when to let go". Unlike what I'd consider what you call moldy worlds, where they will begin again, but in the shadows of that former civilization and the world never lets go of what used to be, something I'm not a big fan of tbh. I'm all about my fictional history, but the post-apocalypse is just frustrating to watch in settings where people will just live in the shells of the past for hundreds of years without even trying to build any new history. That's also what we have done in the real world, people stopped living in the old Roman manors long ago and built new mansions, that would get their own history, would eventually also fall and have new mansions on top. I live in Denmark, we have a great many scars. The specific area I live in have grave mounds that pre-date written records, 1000 year old churches, a 500 year old fortress and paths made for railways 150 years ago, but right beside them are what people actually live in day to day, places like my apartment building from the 90's or the many new houses being built just down the road as we speak. Instead of obsessing over the scars our ancestors left, we moved forward when the culture changed and the old eras ended. The real world is less Adventure Time and a lot more Lord of the Rings, where civilizations fall, but that fall only leaves space for new ones to rise. Life can be dour and dark enough, I don't need my fiction to also be entirely about decay and collapse, but I still want my fictional worlds to have a rich history and lore to dig into, so I think leaving scars, while still allowing the world to live and move forward hits harder for me.
Do you wish this video had more Rain World and Studio Ghibli? Head on over to Nebula for entire exclusive video on my favorite kinds of 'post-apocalypses!' nebula.tv/videos/curiousarchive-my-favorite-kind-of-postapocalypse
Also if you're wondering why it says Elden Ring came out in 2011 at the start of this video, believe it or not that's because moldiness is capable of eroding dates too. It definitely said 2022 when I put it in there.
You should do No Man’s Sky at some point
"it is the birthright of any empire to die" is actually such a banger of a line to not have more emphasis on it
It’s lines like that that is why I watch curious archive.
"The worldbuilding of the show Adventure Time is especially sandwich-coded" Amazing line
I never watched Adventure Time, but now Curious Archive sold me.
I mean, you can clearly see that its yes
Just as I was failing to find anything to watch, Curious Archive once again comes to the rescue
literally me
Me too, got bored of the video I was watching before this,
Refreshed the home page about to go through -a rabbit hole- some shorts if nothing interesting came up,
New video from CA at the top of the page.
Looks like I'm sleeping on time today...
same
I was feeling the exact same way this morning!
Touch gr@$$ kid.
Grandfather Nurgle is very, very pleased with your work.
And so is Haster
Joy, blessings upon ye
Star Wars also does a super good job at showing something aged that has been maintained. For example, Naboo has structures that are a thousand years old, and yet are pristine, contrasting so well against ancient, forgotten temples on abandoned worlds.
YES!!!! moldy, overgrown worlds are one of my favorite things to study!!!!! there is something so fascinating and mysterious about them that i cant help but find intriguing.
I also just have a weird fascination with plants and fungi that seeing them take over areas that were once i guess "clean" of these organisms is so exciting!
As someone whos watched this channel for years now, and clicks as soon ah he sees a new video…I’m extremely happy I’ve done so. From speculative evolution, to strangely philosophical dissections of tropes and series, I thoroughly enjoy each. I’ve noticed a slightly more comedic tone to some of your more recent videos, alongside the existential stuff, and think the slight change of pace is oddly comforting. Cant wait to see what you have to offer next time!
the final scene at the end was my fav part. HAD ME ON THE GROUND LAUGHING!
Would love to see a new spec evo video tho
@@KalleVonEi yeah, that was what originally drew me in. Still, I haven’t seen anything big spec evo wise on the inter-webs, you know? Although, him making one would be pretty cool :)
I like a world where ruin and atrocity and war has created an endless "onion" of competing versions of lore. Depending on where and when each NPC comes from, they'll have dramatically different ideas of the same events and people. Elder Scrolls is good at this, so is World of Darkness.
elden ring does this pretty well too honestly
Kenshi!
I like my world moldy bruh
🙀
Having shots from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is perfect for this. Love this :D
I kinda wish he brought it up more in the video. Its themes of mold and bugs reclaiming the old world wouldn't fit right in!
“My name is Ozymandias, King of kings. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.”
Such is the hubris of empires.
When Curious Archive posts, the internet comes together to watch.
The problem with Greek fire is that all we know about it is its ability to burn on water. We can make many different substances that can burn on water or even under water but without more information we can only guess as to what Greek fire actually was.
Its the cousin of "We don't know how the pyramids were built." Yeah, because we can't eliminate any of the plethora of options because there isn't enough information to do so.
@DefinatelyNotAI very true. Its not a situation of how could they possibly have pulled that off. It's a situation of they could have used a million different things/technique to produce the same outcome, but we have no idea which method they used.
Not mentioning the rotten vale from monster hunter was a crazy oversight
What's insane and amazing in Elden Ring is the war you can see remnants of is technically still ongoing. It's just been going on for so long hardly anybody even remembers why. The soldiers you can find inhabiting war camps are tired from unending war, and practically undead due to laws of the world being in disrepair.
You also come across them fightning & most importantly feasting on their fallen foes on your way to Mt Gelmir.... Kinda gross
"ew that's gross, i didn't know what i was expecting" LMAO! love the super deep analytics then the hit of just being human for a second.
I love your Videos
This type of worldbuilding is this great because instead of it being told, you live through it
The homemade TTRPG i've been working on for the last four years includes a lot of fungi. I've also been a long time fan of the Curious Archive. Being here this early for this video feels like a blessing from a god only a mushroom could comprehend.
Would you consider Shadow of the Colossus' world a "moldy" world. I guess I'd personally consider it a "dormant" world. A world that has already completed its existence and has failed to join its citizens and society in oblivion
18:00
We just got an extended cut on *Earth's World Building!* Lets goooo!
It's a very intriguing place, Would love to check its lore out one day.
Hope we get more updates on the planet.
Ugh, it's so overrated. Half of it feels like the writers just wanted some cool big empire to rule half the world and then came up with excuses to make it happen, without any regard for previous lore. We have so much lore on the Romans and how they slowly and meticulously carved out their slice of the world, but then there's something like the Mongol and the Brits who build far, far bigger empires over no time at all. Like come on, the Chinese built that whole wall and they're just going to bypass it and conquer all of China on horseback in a few years? Give me a break...
Babe, wake up, it's time to get an existential crisis 😂
WHY ARE YOU IN MY BED- oh sweet curious archive
As if it ain't looming iver all of us all the time😂
This existance's just surviving and surviving ISN'T living...
Yippee
Me next me next!!
@@Failure023
one day all will decay into nothing.
Stars formation will cease, all stars will slowly evaporate.
And one day, even black holes will evaporate and die.
At which point nothing will ever happen again…
Unless…
An interesting "moldy" setting is Turnip 28, where a rooty growth has mutated everything, with the mutant humans imitating the napolionic regiments of the past without a real understanding of what they are copying.
I have a soft spot for overgrown, rotting, moldy ruins. It's a cool asthetic seeing relics of ancient civilizations being completely overtaken by natural forces.
Shout out to mycanoid players
Sometimes, you have to see something ruined to appreciate what was once there
I know it’s a bit of a cliche, and I’m sorry, but it feels very appropriate to this video
You can find the best of life in the smallest places and I just love that ❤
Even though you never mentioned it, I think World of Warcraft fits this very well. Maybe they don't have rot and decay in every zone, but it's very common, as are ancient ruins and other evidence of predecessor civilizations.
9:55 Calling Rykard a "divine dragon" is hilarious to me.
A Divine Snek.
SAME LMAO
I LOVE MOLD!!! No but seriously, this puts to words why I love discovering how the mold got there, why is still exists, and who cares for it. Its the 'learning from the past' or ' making the same mistakes with/without realizing it' that really reels me in. And then putting the current characters to challenge or fall into it is really so interesting and fun.
My favorite channel returned. The prophecy is true.
Everytime you upload it's like a mini-christmas for me
catching a CA video released 5 minutes ago?? that's a new one.
i like my worldbuilding moldy bruh
One of the mouldy-est settings I've ever played in is definitely Final Fantasy XIV. Our calendar ages are measured in "years since last catastrophe" and "years since we last rebuilt". And most of the NEW catastrophes we avert are really just an old buried one someone dug up. The past is constantly trying to claw out of it's grave and make itself present, old life trying to feed on the new one for fear of death.
I also recommend the Broken Empire trilogy from Mark Lawrence for enjoyers of post-post-apocalypse. I won't spoil too much, just be aware that the subject matter is often very dark.
A fellow ghost watcher here, I think it is finally time for me to pay you my respect. Almost every video of yours I watched so far has made me smile out of awe and child-like joy.
It's impressive how you come up with new, interesting and beautiful ideas for video essays, and I especially love your way of noticing.
I have recently heard of the debate about how some people ruin game experiences by analyzing them and every mystery they contain, ultimately stripping them from their enigmatic coats. But that is not what you do at all. I never, in my many, many playthroughs of Skyrim thought about the wall outside of Whiterun but damn, now that you mention it and got me to pay attention...
Really, I love your videos and your creativity. Thank you for all your work!
Love your content
I see that Souls game image
I swear I had a 3 page long YT script on mushroom worlds in my google drive 😂 oh dear, oh no!
Time to learn from the master.
If your vids are as good as this I have to check out your stuff after this one. I saw a Kiki’s delivery service one, will report back later
@epsi11i0n I can't possibly claim to be as good as curious archive, but I do claim to be inspired by their work :)
@ the only thing that you are missing is the production value that having more money to put into the video causes. You are doing great work
@epsi11i0n hey thank you! Thank you so much
the script in this video is so beautifully written, so glad ive gotten to see your growth as a writer and video creator
You are a true champignon!
I usually enjoy your videos enormously but have my own longing for the experience of the games you mention, as I am not of the generations who routinely access them. This video however was so interesting and so visually gorgeous that I enjoyed it without wishing I knew the games you mention, and just enjoying seeing the parts you showed. The inclusion of movies and TV with which I am very familiar was also a comfort!
Among my favorite ideas of forgotten, rotting yet life filled worlds is in "Made in Abyss".
A civilization of people creating a city, surrounding an almost infinitly deep abyss. Travelers & scavengers who dig deep into it find fauna, land, lost civilizations, relics and artifacts of ancient past.
Though digging too deep provides drastic & fatal consiquences. Each layer of the abyss give humans a curse. Top layers provide temporary curses like vomiting or bleeding. But far deeper layers give horrific, de-humanizing curses.
And the farther down one goes, the more questions and horrors you may find.
The best part of the danger of the Abyss is that while the flora and fauna are in and of themselves dangerous, the biggest danger only hits you once you ASCEND. The abyss is like a giant fish trap. It'll let you descend as far as you want, but once you hit a certain threshold, return becomes impossible. It's like an even more horrifying, magical decompression sickness. Even ascending just a few meters will hit you with the curse, and then it's over. You're trapped in an eternal downward spiral and there is no way to go but deeper into the belly of the beast.
Like the Voyager probes, hurtling through space until eventually its circuits and solarsails will give out, those who push the boundaries of the Abyss will never see the surface again.
And YET, humans are undeterred. Our human curiosity, our need to push boundaries, to chart uncharted lands, to boldly go where no man has gone before is so overpowering that even so - KNOWING it will be the death of them - humanity pushes onward. And the Abyss will gladly swallow them all.
When the Abyss stared into their hearts, humanity stared back in defiance.
Mold and mushrooms are just the coolest, in real life and especially in fantasy. I especially love them both when it comes to creatures- Elden Ring's mushroom shamans, Magic: the Gathering's fungus zombies and walking thallids, and The Last of Us's infected come to mind. The idea of a relatively innocent, stationary, plant-like organism like a mushroom hijacking a creature- colonizing it with more mushrooms, and spreading its spores further and further- has always creeped me out in a good way. Even more chilling to think that it already happens in real life with cordyceps to ants.
My favorite type of world building is world building via the power and abilities of others, discovered via exploration & meeting people with new powers, different usages of the same power, different ideological views of power etc..etc.
AOT, Naruto/Naruto Shippuden, Hxh, Monster Hunter & a few Martial Arts manga like Kengan Ashura do it _really_ well
My favorite genrua of sci-fi & fantasy is post-apocalypse! So seeing a video talking of that concept is really cool! 😊
This is basically the same reason why I love giving characters visible, physical scars (once accidentally widely changed the idea for a character because I needed some kind of backstory for their scars haha)
love your videos man keep up the good work
never realized "rotting" as a perspective for worldbuilding and this was truly refreshing for me. besides, it definitely changes the meaning of "post-apocalyptic world" for me as well. guess I have to think more on this. thanks!
I was so ready for a new CA post
Keep these coming, I need more existential crisis in my life 😂,
Side note can we get your opinion on what type of horror really scares you?
A recent favorite game of mine (that def deserves its own video) is Forever Winter. Basically a game about being a rat in a maze of a war that no one remembers the start of nor cares to. It’s a visceral experience and a living art book.
curious archive AND doctorr4t uploaded what a lovely day
I feel like when no one bothers to remove the giant dragon corpse from the middle of the square, that's whern you know it's over
Given fungi are one of the most of the decomposers, someone has to be jaintor for the moldy world to replace for a slighty less crappy world
THE GOAT HAS POSTED!!
The man has such a way with words, and such a way of making us internalise the knowledge we already had, I'll be adding an Elfblood who keeps fragments of casual acts of humanity, to remind himself that even though the masses act as predictable nodes of an algorithm, each node has a life of it's own.
decomposing and erosion worlds weirdly give some hope and it shows as one civilization and the likes falls and decline, another one will rise. Aka life will find a way to continue
This channel just keeps getting better and better.
I love the vibe of fallout, the sand and rust, rot, and decay of the wasteland. It's cool walking around the drab yet still colorful ruins of Say, Boston, or West Virginia.
Listening to your scripts inspires me to write every time, you are so good at conveying these unique topics 😮
Post-apocalyptical or dead worlds are honestly my favorites worldbuilding projects, games like Rain World or in a way, Inscryption, just fascinate me. I want to know why the world is dead, why the Ancients are gone, and where do you take place in this? Most of my worldbuilding is based off of this, one of which having an entire robotic race made by a long-gone race much like the Ancients in Rain World
This reminds me of this thing I saw about the set design in the original Blade Runner, that they started off by making props that were pristine and futuristic, and then simulating decades of wear and grime onto them.
I noticed this myself too. I have a book idea and the world-building is your typical dark-fantasy yadi yadi yadi. I couldn't figure out how to make it that interesting thematically. It felt so boring to just have "politics" and "magic" when none of it seemed to add to any further plot or goal or event.
Then, I got one simple idea in my head: Magic is waning from the world. So now all of the sudden, it's not a generic DnD story about cool magic, it's about a fantasy world coming to face with their entire way of life changing. It's kinda like civilization pushing out the Wild West. It completely flipped the entire world-building around to something more intersting.
i just looked up if there are any new videos lmao and this pops up !!!!
GODDAMN IT! HES BACK AT IT AGAIN! gotta share this one with the homies
As someone whose homebrew world just suffered a mold apocalypse this is hilarious timely. Absolutely fantastic video mate, thank you for making it 🙏😃
Can't help but think about how post-humans must've felt in All Tomorrows. It sounds like a good, if strange, example of such moldy world.
rot and mold is why nausicaa is my favorite movie of all time.
Anyone remember back when CA did spec-evo vids?
Those were good times. But these are even better!
This explains what captivated me about the video game Enshrouded. it was a world where in the pursuit of immortality, a kingdom pulls an ancient mould from the depths of the world to create an elixir of vitality. Forests of fungus break up the landscape within lakes and seas of spore-choked fog. The constructions of what came before ruined from the wars between scavengers and the creeping spread of the shroud.
It's not a dead world. In fact beyond the fog the land is almost pristine, nature continues as always. But you can't help feel there are at least three or four civilizations built on top of each other. There's no telling how long it has been since the end. 50 years, 100, 200, 500. The story is not clear, but it also does not appear to matter. Neither did everything collapse in one go. The clues left behind tell it was a slow breakdown, as the shroud spilled from the wells used to pull it from below to drown the land, and the obsession for more elixir broke down the old power structures until cities became home to only the spore-creatures.
it leaves the players, who emerge in this reborn world, an important question: Do you rebuild the old, or do you create something entirely new?
Attempt #39
*Pretty please do a video for the ecosytem from "Made in Abyss".*
i was bored and all of a sudden curious archive uploads
A good game that this sort of "ruined remains of a fallen age" is Lost ember. Someone called "Pixel biologist" made a video series on it! It is essentially you playing as a wolf helping a lost spirit recover their memories while simultaneously rediscovering bits and pieces of your own self as you explore abandoned structures, swim through water-logged passageways and climb high above to see the what the workd has come to and how life persists years after civilizations have become nothing but , as you said, "enigmatic structures"
I love lost ember, its got beautiful graphics and storytelling. It may be an interesting binge-watch for you!
ELDEN RING / 2011? (at the start of the vid)
Mixed up the release yrs of Elden ring & Elder scrolls 5 for sure
@@COHOFSohamSengupta probably has an excel sheet of his sources and 2011 was probably right below 2022 lol
I’d like to also bring up Vermis as an example of a moldy world. The Vermis game guides are for a game that doesn’t exist and for a story that is old and already decayed. Each page has wear printed onto it, there are places where the prints are intentionally patchy and aged.
The story itself is set in a world where empires have died, few people hold memories of the past, and even childbirth rates are dwindling. One of my favorite pages is a depiction of one of the locations called Green Grave, the art itself showing why this place got its name. A hulking skeleton in armor leans against a hill, covered in foliage. Apparently this was once a god. Even gods die in these books.
(Seriously cannot recommend Vermis enough please read them or watch a video on them they’re so good)
'moldy' reminds me of Hollow Knight, After Image, Ender Lilies, Ori and Nine Sols--like, there's a lot of/large moldy areas in those games or 'something' world-ending encroaching everything
i love you curious archive man please dont die
HELL YEAH great new video as always, love your content, every time you post something i know im in for a good time
I am always excited to see a new video from you, CA 💛
Well, I guess it’s finally time to get some work done-
Hey, what’s that on my notifications?
Hey! If you’re interested in written words, I recommend you read ‘shadow slave’ where the story takes us to a world that has been dead for millennia and the characters need to learn from the past of the lands to survive and advance, in the later parts of the story tells how this world is reshaped by the hand of human civilization
That little diatribe about seeing a cross section of eras in cartoon undergrounds just makes me think of the original Plants Vs Zombies, in which you could scroll through the achievements section to see the entire planet, full of Easter eggs from other pop cap games and, if you go far enough, Chinese zombies on the other side of the planet
Celeste music babyyy
(Love it)
watching this in math class 🙏🙏
Finally, world building for someone like me!
0:03 It’s amazing how long Elden Ring has managed to stay relevant even though it was released all the way back in 2011, before even Bloodborne!
A small correction: In ASOIAF the Alchemists haven't lost the method to produce wildfire. Since it's partially magical in nature, since the dragons died, the methods of producing wildfire have grown less effective and reliable, so it was assumed they lost the methodology. But since Dani's dragons were born that change has been reversing, so the alchemists are producing more, effective, wildfire. When Tyrion visits the head alchemist before the Battle of the Blackwater, the head alchemist mentions the change, though he doesn't know the reasons.
Yay, new vid :D
Very astute observation of a greater motive, and a good eye-opener for me as for why Eldenring is so fascinating and enthralling to me.
Another great example is the manga and anime series Girl's Last Tour.
My favourite aesthetic is ruins covered in overgrowth. Think the Last of Us, the Planet of the Apes trilogy or even Breath of the Wild in some places
shroomies… love em
A cool world building which is similar of this is The First Law universe. In book two they travel to the old empire, in which it still stands nigh perfect. Even after so long has passed it's left standing because it was in part made by the best craftsman, but also a certain event happened killing everything. This includes rot. There are no living plants nearby and the ones which are dead wont rot. It has a dark vibe to it. Its a very good piece of world building which is also used to show the power of a certain thing.
thats a hell of a way to start a video lmao
Very interesting, always enjoy your videos. That said please do a video about Trollmans the artist, who draw some species for Serina, his project Folly of Man, Kaiju speculative biology.
Re: Elden Ring feeling like an archeological dig; the channel Tarnished Archaeologist is a good example of that.
Haven't seen the Nebula exclusive yet, but if you like some anime robots with your post-post-apocalyptic mold, Turn A Gundam, Xabungle, Gun x Sword and (arguably) Gundam X are some fun examples.
Edit: just noticed GX in the list of sources, lol. Must have blinked when it came up.
Finally, a word for my favorite type of worldbuilding
I'd like the make the distinction between moldy and scarred worldbuilding. Comparing your world to mold suggests, as you started off the video talking about, leeching off the ruins of the former civilizations. Something like Fallout, where everyone still lives in the colossi of what came before, eating their leftover food, using their tools and weapons, etc. rather than something like Lord of the Rings, where there's history, yes, the city of Gondolin is only remembered in song, despite those remembrances making it sound like the greatest place to ever be, but where the new peoples that come out of those cataclysmic events, such as the War of Wrath in that setting, start anew. Like the New Vegas expansion Dead Money puts it, they can "Begin again - but know when to let go". Unlike what I'd consider what you call moldy worlds, where they will begin again, but in the shadows of that former civilization and the world never lets go of what used to be, something I'm not a big fan of tbh. I'm all about my fictional history, but the post-apocalypse is just frustrating to watch in settings where people will just live in the shells of the past for hundreds of years without even trying to build any new history. That's also what we have done in the real world, people stopped living in the old Roman manors long ago and built new mansions, that would get their own history, would eventually also fall and have new mansions on top. I live in Denmark, we have a great many scars. The specific area I live in have grave mounds that pre-date written records, 1000 year old churches, a 500 year old fortress and paths made for railways 150 years ago, but right beside them are what people actually live in day to day, places like my apartment building from the 90's or the many new houses being built just down the road as we speak. Instead of obsessing over the scars our ancestors left, we moved forward when the culture changed and the old eras ended. The real world is less Adventure Time and a lot more Lord of the Rings, where civilizations fall, but that fall only leaves space for new ones to rise. Life can be dour and dark enough, I don't need my fiction to also be entirely about decay and collapse, but I still want my fictional worlds to have a rich history and lore to dig into, so I think leaving scars, while still allowing the world to live and move forward hits harder for me.
I am impressed with your ability to make my mind turn its gears
I am reminded of the Ozymandias poem