Errant Story - World

World

It is not known whether the planet of Errant Story is in its own magical universe, or is another planet within our own. All the species except for the human are explicitly the creation of two gods, and an early text within the comic suggests that the gods have come from another world, with a rich unspecified history of their own. The origin of humans in the world is completely unknown, as they seem to have appeared after the two creator-gods went to sleep.

The story has taken place on one continent and a nearby large island-continent. The area contains the territory of the remaining elves (having mostly killed themselves off in a war 1700 years before); the large country of Veracia with a pseudo-Catholic church and somewhat backward standard of living; the island of Farrell with a somewhat libertarian or anarcho-capitalist social structure, and technology being upgraded by Tsuiraku; the levitating city of Tsuiraku, with a society and (magical) technology level similar to modern Japan; a barely seen Northern Confederacy of other human cultures, who introduced guns to the world, possibly thanks to looting dwarven ruins in their region; the equally little seen trolls; a village of half-elves hiding from elven persecutors; and a village of "time monks", martial artists once trained by the elves, who later invented a unique magic for accelerating their personal time, so that they can move extremely fast in combat.

The most advanced mundane human technology seen has been guns; the existence of electricity or steam engines is unclear. Airships and flush toilets have been mentioned, but by a Tsuirakuan, and may be magical. The character Kawaii describes having been shot by a dwarven gun long ago, which by her attempt at sound effects may have been a laser or blaster. The elves and Tsuirakuans use magic like technology. Elven effects include teleportation (between devices), artificial light (including "ridiculous fake daylight windows"), telepathy, mind control, reactive armor which can protect from time-accelerated monks, and healing. It is likely all elves have decent access to magic. Tsuirakuans have a similar range of effects. They have not been seeing using telepathy or reactive armor, but have used crystal balls for communication and direction-finding; smaller balls seem to be better, at least among some schoolgirls in a flashback. Magic in Tsuiraku is pervasive enough to be used everywhere for locks. Meji seems to have a "pocket dimension" purse, has used invisibility, and is very good—but not uniquely so—at blowing things up, once electrocuting a whole squad of policemen while being grappled by Jon. Tsuiraku itself was invisible for 1800 years, before the devices were damaged in a magical pulse, after which Tsuiraku chose to interact with the world rather than repair the devices. Similarly, the elven lands were blocked off by a magical barrier for 1500 years, until the Veracian god Luminosita brought down the barrier; it was this that set off the pulse, actually. And similarly, the elves chose interaction rather than repair and continued isolation.

Personal flight is prohibitively difficult, in that the Tsuirakuan record for magical levitation is about 20–30 seconds. With some sort of mechanical existence, airships exist, and the flying cities of Malacia and Tsuiraku itself have been of historical importance.