New World Idea: Mechanismos, the Infinite Labyrinth
Crossposted from r/Worldbuilding.
I was watching something (detailed at the bottom) and it triggered an inspiration. This happens to me a lot, and usually I don't have time to fully flesh out a world with all the other ones I'm currently working on, but I thought I'd share the details I have so far and see if they pique anyone's interest. If nothing else I might get a nice discussion out of this. I might at least write a short story based on this idea, and I might even consider making a comic or animated series if a handful of people show interest.
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The Basics: Mechanismos is a seemingly infinite world of rooms, with unknown origin. These rooms vary in shape, though they tend to be more blocky than otherwise; in size, some a few inches across, and others several miles; and in style, usually dressed in stone or metal, sometimes a more rare material. They also contain various items or structures, some useful, some borderline miraculous. Most importantly, the rooms move relative to each other, according to different patterns. Some pivot around each other constantly, others are fixed for months at a time before suddenly shifting to a new position.
The true mechanism is in between the rooms, an immense complex of gears that no one fully understands. The gears turn, but also provide a magical effect that is more subtle than mere mechanical motion. Each gear controls something within a room: an aspect of its movement, a lighting fixture, or some other mechanism. Many have no apparent function, but removing them can cause unexpected changes in the local area. For this reason, people examine the gears with great hesitation.
The Magic System: Mechanismos' rooms often contain strange devices and machines. Some of them have no practical use, but many are essential, providing food, water, clothing, etc. Some have more fantastical effects, such as reproducing an item, or making a material stronger. Many can also be used as weapons, either by apparent intent of their design, or as a byproduct of what they do. Others are highly dangerous, behaving as traps or impediments. Removing a device from a room will make it stop functioning, but if one removes a gear of the right size from the main system, it can be rigged into the device to make it work. Some of the more sophisticated inhabitants have also reverse-engineered some of the devices and built their own, powered by gears harvested elsewhere. In general, the more powerful a device, the more gears it needs. This creates a demand for gear salvage, but taking too many can have devastating effects on the local rooms. Often an unneeded room will be written off and entirely cannibalized for materials and gears.
The World: The largest rooms, generally several miles across and of some sort of complicated shape, are known as grand chambers and tend to be the main population centers. Because they usually have only a handful of entrances, they are easy to defend as a whole, and locals can take advantage of their superior knowledge of the local rooms' movement patterns to further protect themselves. The most prized grand chambers contain devices that provide needed amenities, or are very close to rooms that do.
For the most part, the world is made up of city-state-like organizations that control grand chambers and the rooms within walking distance of them. These tend to be within a few dozen to hundred miles of each other, in any direction. They can have any relationship with their neighbors, ranging from alliance to war. Often there are valuable rooms in between the two which are held in dispute, changing hands periodically as a result of targeted skirmishes; more rarely they may be shared between the two parties.
The Protagonist: This is a part that I'm kind of iffy on. I like the following as a general idea, I'm just not sure if it fits for this setting. I may divorce the two eventually. The current idea is to model the story off an isekai, the genre popular in Japan involving a character dragged from our own world into another world with fantastical rules. While this is trite in many ways, I find it a charming genre, and I like to use a formulaic story structure to explore the limitations of its own assumptions.
The protagonist has a mysterious background, because it's not important to dwell on their past. All that matters is that they somehow wound up inside Mechanismos. They are somewhat heroic, but also reserved, preferring to think things through in advance. I'm going with this characterization because it's how I like to write protagonists.
As per isekai tradition, the protagonist gains a unique ability by dint of coming from another world: in this case, they can instantly cease the function of any device or room through skin contact. This is a simple rule that I think opens up a lot of story possibilities.
The Plot: I have only a basic outline here. It's fundamentally a Quest storyline. The protagonist meets up with a bunch of people from a nearby grand chamber, and they journey together after some highly-sought device in a hard-to-reach room, one that is right in between several grand chambers and subject to constant fighting among them for its control. It's something very powerful; currently thinking it's a device that creates portals to anywhere, potentially returning the protagonist to their home; other characters want it on behalf of their homeland because it grants a huge military advantage to whoever controls it.
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Inspirations: These are spoilered because they may skew your impressions of what I've written above.[Spoiler (click to open)]
I got the idea for this setting when I started watching Tower of God. It's also inspired by the manga Blame! and Ursula Vernon's Gearworld (look it up, it's awesome).
This is one of several world ideas I've had in the "endless labyrinth" concept, it seems to be a favorite of mine.