JUNO Abridged!
All right, so you are interested in contributing to JUNO! A thing you can do right here. But you are looking at all of the creatures and maps and gods that now populate our little world and it all seems too big and complete to find any space for you to contribute your little piece of brilliance that I know that you have.
Well, let me give you some help. Here’s some quick hits to get you into the world quickly so you can find your space to make something cool. Click the headings if you’d like to delve deeper into any particular topic.
What’s JUNO?
JUNO is a collaborative world built by our ever growing community of authors and creative people. We are continually adding more and more to the world so that anyone will be able to use the world of JUNO in their own creative endeavors. Whether you are working on narrative work like short stories or novels, or gaming, or anything else, the world of JUNO can be your playground. Here on the blog we are reaching out to new creators for additions to the communal world. We also collect the same things in our world anvil page which works like a wiki. But here is a quick overview of what we have so far.
The world of JUNO is spread between two primary continents with a massive island between them. Originally one massive super continent, over the last million years the tectonic shifting of this earth like planet has moved to its current form. With two broad polar regions creating tundra like spaces at the poles but with no ice caps. JUNO is water rich and has all the same diversity of life and biomes that we see on earth.
The Magic of JUNO
JUNO is the name of a world, orbiting a star somewhere in our very own galaxy in our very own universe. A star so far away that it will be thousands and thousands of years before human society, as it exists in that long from now time, even takes notice of it. But they will, because JUNO’s star is a special one.
For currently unknown reasons, JUNO’s star exhibits exotic energy. Power from a world where the rules of physics work differently. This energy has created new and strange evolutions on the life and material that populates this solar system. Its also created strange effects. For example the name of the planet JUNO is the same in all languages on the planet, including Earth based language used by the Observers. Always it appears as JUNO. It’s unknown if this is an aspect of language evolution, or if reference to the planet is changed in the minds of those within the exotic energy of JUNO’s star. Finding other new and interesting quarks of JUNO’s exotic evolution is fertile ground for world building.
The Creatures of JUNO
The Kuhfiladi - The most human appearing of the local sentients of JUNO, the Kuhfiladi are the only sentient creatures on JUNO to possess the Kuh, the membrane growth that they take their name from. Many other plants and animals possess this membrane, but none are as advanced as the Kuhfiladi. Their society has an entire history that we have yet to explore but their society has grown from small villages to eventually continent spanning empires. Mages roam the land, breaking their Kuh to release the magical solar energy that’s stored within.
The Uchafumlaji - Where there is light there must be shadow. Where the Kuhfiladi walk in the sun and absorb its strange power, the Uchafumlaji live in the shadows of JUNO and haunt the forests and under places of the world. They also have a long history currently unchronicled, but their society has a drastic transformation from predatory hunters to a technological superpower.
The Ngisikaa - The most inhuman of our three sentients, the Ngisikaa are anthropoid analogues with skin seemingly made from the crystalline Kuh-like membrane, and they frequently find spaces where they can soak in the light of JUNO’s star. Originally not a sentient species, at some point in their history they developed an ability to create and infuse massive crystal structures with the magic of JUNO and their own memories. As these memories stores grew it eventually resulted in the uplifting of the Ngisikaa to sentient status. But taken from their crystal homes Ngisikaa return to their non-sentient origins.
The Observers - Humans, having long ago abandoned the frail flesh of their origins, have transformed themselves into something similar to a Von Neumann Probe, self replicating robots, programmed with the memories of humans long past into history. With a mission to record and catalogue as much of the universe as possible, the human machines seek to understand all aspects of JUNO without interacting directly with its inhabitants whenever possible. Much of the framing we have created around exploring JUNO is through the eyes of Observers. Many of our contributors have been given Observer identities consisting of two letters and a four digit number. Feel free to include yourself as an observer in your writings around JUNO.
The Gods of JUNO
Keep your eye on this space. New gods will be added throughout the month of February. Include this new aspect in your pitch as the information becomes available.
Crafting your pitch
Here’s some information on the things we are looking for that will improve the acceptance of your pitch.
Things we are specifically looking for:
New plants and animals that populate this world that have been shaped by JUNO’s magical sun.
Cultural quirks and practices for our existing sentient species.
Cities! Find a spot on the map and plant your flag. Our sentients need somewhere to live, and so far the map is blank.
Natural disasters, Cultural Upheaval, Spiritual Events, and even great figures of history. Our timeline is sparse, though some events have been outlined in the descriptions of the sentient species, but you can now add to it.
Things we are less likely to accept:
New sentient species.
If you have questions about how to make the pitch or about the scope of the pitch you want to make just leave a comment here and we will get back to you right away. Happy creating!