Here's a little world in bits and pieces; please yes, and it if you wish (and tell me about it):
- mechs
- the mechs are there cuz the scale of the world is larger than the humans/human analogue
- they grow these mechs so they can shepherd, interact with ruins, farm, hunt, gather
- areas they settle in are full of ladders, ramps, platforms dividing the too large space into heights more in line with the humans
- things are verdant. The ruins are never larger than a town (but due to scale these towns are Big). There is winter. Farmland is small varied plots. There are Big Trees and Vegetation, but also human sized vegetation. this implies something about the origin of humans here, I suppose (they have been here a very very long time, but were after whatever was Big)
- the only other known sentient creature are the Vats
- these grow the mechs piece by piece
- they also grow other things
- humans used to sing their instructions, but after they invented writing the Vats were like, "lit, let me do one better" and grew themselves interfaces for better communication
- the vats each have favorite operators/colaborators
- some vats WILL take creative liberties. Others play jokes on people. Sometimes what they grow gets recycled immediately, other times a mech just ends up with a certain... aesthetic
- the vats are stationary by choice (they could grow themselves legs); this choice is sort of a Law to them
- the vats are individuals, but they're Extremely Linked
- the vats don't really understand the concept of time
- the vats like it when the humans take care of them, but will grow little bugs to maintain them/add to them if needed/if they cook up a surprise (like the interfaces)
- the vats need to eat to Make and they love to Make
- things they eat impart knowledge/memory (even inanimate matter)
- some humans wish to be ingested when they die, others are supremely weirded out by that
- by eat I mean drop into the very same vat of... liquid? that everything grows out of. it is much faster to submerge something to eat it vs pushing something out/make something from the liquid
- if it goes in the vat it is assumed to be food and will be deconstructed. Do Not Touch or Stir the Liquid
- the liquid does not glow or look strange outside of, maybe idk oil or tar type vibes? It is opaque. It is liquid enough to potentially be sloshy and to make one question how something can grow out of it, seemingly not existing under the surface but only existing as it gets... pushed? from below? You can't Know cuz you can't touch or stir the liquid (that's feeding it)
- a vat has never been tipped nor spilled and never will. Earthquakes make the liquid ripple; if this happens when a vat is Making there is some Neat Stratification
- the humans don't have a strong concept of soul, but the vats really really do. One time the humans asked how the vats procreate/how more vats are made and the vats were Very Confused, asking "who would live in it if we made it??"
- I think one time the vats ate something and it gave them such a revelation they all shut down for a generation. Was it a good revelation? bad?
- there are likely other colonies of vats elsewhere. Maybe this is part of what caused the Revelation? These colonies are not interconnected with one another. Maybe they hire humans to carry letters to one another (the letters are polyhedrons of unknown material in various sizes/number of sides)
- the mechs are not "organically shaped" unless you count like, Egg Shape. Egg Shape mechs are a Classic. Mechs are also not always bipedal and generally are not humanoid except for combat/generalized labor ones
- transport mechs have lots of legs
- aerial mechs are not a thing. This may mean the vats are not convinced humans can handle flying, but it also may mean humans need to work out how flight works and teach the vats (the vats can probably make like, drones or flying bug or bird or bat analogues from what they have eaten but the lift/mass problem is not worked out maybe)
- some mechs are for sport combat. All mechs have comically overtuned escape pods that trigger at the slightest provocation (cuz the vats think humans are ridiculously fragile and they can't convince them otherwise), which is the basis of the sport.
- the escape pods of mechs are Cute and have Legs. they skitter about and are maybe vehicles in their own right. Egg and Orb and UFO shapes.
- there are mechs of all sizes; standard sized ones match the scale of the world and ruins, but there are smaller and larger ones too.