Every morning, someone dies.
So I have this introduction to a world a creating, where the magic system is based on truth and lies. Tell me what are your thoughts about it, any changes you’ll made, or any plot hole you see.
Counterfeit Dawn
Do you remember last night?
You went to bed, closed your eyes, and sooner or later you felt asleep. You probably dreamed
something, and if you actually did, you’ve surely forgotten it by now. But let me ask you this: Are you
really sure that whoever opened their eyes this morning is still you?
After all, no one truly remembers how a dream begins.
Every night, while you dream, something happens. No one knows exactly what it is but it always ends
up the same. Someone else wakes up in your bed: someone with your face, your memories, your
personality and absolute confidence that they are you.
An almost one to one copy of you who will carry on with your life, laugh for you, cry for you, and talk
about your experiences as if they actually lived them. The thought that they replaced someone else
won’t even cross their mind.
But as I said, a copy that is “almost” perfect.
The replacement process is not perfect. Small errors slips from night to night, and as time goes by,
they accumulate. A trivial memory that disappears, a conversation that seems completely different or
even life changing events totally forgotten.
Nobody knows exactly what you’ll lose, there’s no way to know. If you don’t remember something,
how would you realize you have forgotten it?
Despite all of this, there’s something that sets these copies apart of who they think they are: They
don’t dream. And in this world, that changes everything.
Dreams are the frontier between reality and falsehood, the place where what’s not true can be.
Where lies can become big enough to change the world as we know. The copies, having never
experienced it, can not lie.
You know, they clearly retain the imagination of those who they replaced, even make up fictional
stories or tell jokes. What they truly can’t do is to pass off someone they know to be false as truth.
Something physical doesn’t allow them.
But not lying doesn’t mean they always tell the truth either.
Their memories are incomplete, errors accumulated copy after copy. They don’t lie, they simply make
mistakes.
Now, in your case. You claim you’re wanted for murder, a crime you swear you didn’t commit.
You remember going to bed, closing your eyes and falling asleep. You didn’t even leave your room. I
mean, that’s how this conversation began.
So let me assure you my friend, I believe you. You are not lying…
You are simply making a mistake.
Power System - Verity
As a result of the dreaming phenomenon, knowledge is the center of this world. Lies that are passed as truth or searching what real in lies. Those who control these concepts can shape reality in different ways.
This creates a power system with two polar opposites born from the same phenomenon.
(Both this users are not intended has the good or the bad guys they are just results of the world, both sides don’t necessarily need to be in conflict)
Dreamers:
The exception. Rare copies that somehow break free from the replacement process and now are able to dream freely, therefore gaining the ability to lie at will.
They manifest lies into reality but only when it’s based around a false beliefs shared by a large number of people over long periods. The lies humanity has always dreamed of.
They can interpret the belief as they want but can’t contradict the core of the belief.
Cost: Lies are not free. The more a Dreamer uses their myth, the more they surrender control to the myth itself. When the push to hard they get consumed by the belief, losing themselves inside the lie
Dreamer: Black Cat
The user can project a cat shaped shadow with their hands that inflicts misfortune on everyone covered by it.
As the user manifests the lie more and more, their body starts turning cat like until finally they become into a black cat that gives minor bad luck, losing their consciousness.
Witnesses:
People that for some reason can’t dream, they can’t lie but that also means they are the only ones who have never been replaced. Without distorted memories, only they can claim an absolute truth. Reality rewards the with these abilities:
They can reproduce events that actually happened at will, transferring their properties to other objects, people, or their surroundings. Regardless of how improbable the original events may have been.
To manifest this truths, the user must possess an authentic physical evidence that proves the event truth.
Cost: The more improbable the event is, the greater the consequences. Common truths cost little, almost impossible one can kill the user before even activating.
Witness: “The sword that deflected a bullet”
When entering in contact with the evidence, the user can make that a sword (not knife, axe, etc, just swords) can deflect (not destroy or return, just deflect) any bullet (not any type of projectile). Every time they manifest this into a sword (not any time they deflect a bullet), a limb breaks all its bones. This is because it’s an event almost humanly impossible, but not that infinitely physically impossible.
The event must follow the same structure. sword > deflect > bullet. You can’t turn it into “any weapon destroyes any projectile”
Both this sides coexist one with another, the dreamer needs to be careful, since their supernatural abilities can increase the chance of improbable events, which can be used by witnesses for bad. While witnesses can’t explote the same truth through time, as it can end up creating a myth, and with mouth to mouth, become a powerful belief that can be used by dreamers
Knowledge is power.
The power system is incredibly simplified, each system has a ton of rules and conditions, and are balanced (or at least i think) if anyone is interested on them just let me know.
