General Discussion

12066 readers

3 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy.World General!

This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.

🪆 About Lemmy World

🧭 Finding Communities

Feel free to ask here or over in: [email protected]!

Also keep an eye on:

For more involved tools to find communities to join: check out Lemmyverse!

💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:

[email protected] - Note this is for more serious discussions.
[email protected] - The opposite of the above, for more laidback chat!
[email protected] - Into video games? Here's a place to discuss them!
[email protected] - Watched a movie and wanna talk to others about it? Here's a place to do so!
[email protected] - Want to talk politics apart from political news? Here's a community for that!

Rules

Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.

0. See: Rules for Users.

No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
Link posts should include some context/opinion in the body text when the title is unaltered, or be titled to encourage discussion.
Posts concerning other instances' activity/decisions are better suited to [email protected] or [email protected] communities.
No Ads/Spamming.
No NSFW content.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

I’ve got this worldbuilding project where a big chunk of land is cordoned off. I’m not sure what’s inside. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Vaguely poking at an alternate history type project where the USA fractured into multiple warring states in a multisided modern civil war.

Since I can’t help but inject some kind of weird horror elements I added “The Ohio Exclusion Zone”, an area roughly bordering Ohio that has been completely walled off. The wall is patrolled and watched. Whatever is beyond it is so serious that the warring states all agree the wall is off limits of the war.

I don’t know what is beyond it though. My first thought was skinwalkers. Shapeshifting weird spirits seems pretty ominous. Maybe instead f them, just a giant black orb hovering in Ohio and doing, something…

I don’t know. What weird paranormal thing would make the military patrol a border and is such a threat that enemies of that military agree the border is off limits in war.

(Yes I’m asking people to be creative for me…)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It could be an area for nuclear waste. Long term nuclear waste signage is an interesting concept. How can you make sure an area is understood as dangerous for 10,000 years?

Here is a Wikipedia article on it but ideas include fields of thorns like this image

but you could add other elements like menacing rock blocks.

If you want you could have mutated wild life that inhabits the zone.

If I recall correctly some places employ people to shoot birds and what-not that enter so a military precense may make sense for several reasons.

Bonus for those interested here's a BBC article on the concept

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200731-how-to-build-a-nuclear-warning-for-10000-years-time

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Also my first idea, but I think that'd only make sense if it's a few centuries old and completely forgotten about creating weird superstitions. There's nothing actually dangerous about long-term nuclear waste storage, all of these markings would exist mostly to prevent people from digging in the area and potentially uncovering the waste.

Not to mention that it'd have to be a very small area, nowhere near the size of a single city – nevermind a whole US state.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It could be an area 51 situation where it is also used for weapons/military testing. Maybe it's a world wide disposal effort and that is why it's prohibited in war like OP wants? An element of fantasy is probably going to be needed either way if things like skinwalkers are included. Kind of like the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park story

I feel like superstitions can form anywhere that is generally viewed as off limits or secluded

load more comments (1 replies)