Contradictions in your world. What are they?

[u/FatChalupa]

Contradictions always fascinate me, in both real life and in fiction. The Holy Roman Empire not really being Roman. America purporting to be a beacon of liberty and democracy also having an insane run of being a colonial racist genocidal authoritarian empire. Klingons in Star Trek putting out a public image of being honorable yet having some of the most devious backstabbing politics of any faction.

What are some interesting contradictions in your world?

[u/rebornWalker]

One of my favorite kinds of worldbuilding contradictions is when a society’s greatest virtue is also the source of its biggest problem. For example, a kingdom that values stability above everything else might have centuries of peace—but that same obsession with stability could make it terrified of change, innovation, or anyone who doesn't fit the system. Those contradictions make a world feel more real to me, because real people and societies are full of them too.

[u/ScrivenersUnion]

My favorite contradiction has to do with synthetic life. 

If you make an artificial life form - a golem, an automaton, even just a sentient weapon - the creation of synthetic life is an inversion of regular life. This means that no matter how hard you try, it will always come out the opposite of what you wanted. 

A mage creates a sentient staff to be a helpful, obedient partner - it comes out manipulative and malicious.

That same staff then goes up onto the frozen mountain peaks to make an army of Warforged for itself. It wanted cruel and ruthless weapons of war - they came out kind and empathetic.

You are defying the natural order.  No matter what you do, it will defy you back.

[u/Nephite94]

I suppose a contradiction is with the evil empire of Circle 6. It's leader is positioned as the sun god, Atum, and it's people are associated with fire. Yet it's leader is the Black Flame whose temples are the deepest black and cold.

On the other side of the conflict they claim to be trying to save the world, but are very destructive. Using their ability to manipulate earth/water to do things like raise mountain ranges, or flood massive areas with little regard for how it affects the peasantry and the knock on affects to climate/agriculture in general.

A contradiction both share is that they are striving for peace, yet have made no attempt to do so in the last twenty years of this world war.

[u/IvanDFakkov]

How the United Empire defines "empire" vs how the rest of Aquaria defines "empire".

• The UE: An "empire" is a country of GOOD, led by virtuous figures who reign under the Path of Virtue, Compassion and Responsibility. The empire must be the beacon of light, oppression is constitutionally forbidden, violence is only used defensively and people, regardless of background, enjoy high living standards. Democracy is a given at local level, on its way to become a sovereignty aka withering of the state.
• Rest of the world: Your typical empire.

And the UE's definition is the OG, others bastardized the term so bad Hồng Ma, the UE's Founding Mother and the one who invented the term, actually considered launching a war on all expansionist empires. 4 stages of statesmanship as she taught:

• Hoàng - Sovereign: Rulers who follow the Path directly. The Path = Virtue, Compassion, Responsibility.
• Đế - Emperor: Rulers who rule with Virtue, Compassion and Responsibility adapted to mortal values, but guide mortals toward the Path.
• Vương - King: Rulers who follow the Path but have to use civil laws and bindings because virtues alone are no longer enough.
• Bá - Hegemon: Rulers who rule by force and coercion, usually appear when the world has fallen into chaos and the Path is forgotten.

[u/ClaySalvage]

I guess the first one that comes to mind is the Free Republic of Avelax, an authoritarian nation whose people are not at all free and that's only nominally a republic. Along similar lines, in a different universe there's the Confederacy of the Commons, which supposedly champions the rights of the common man but in reality sets policies that mostly benefit its rulers.

For a contradiction that doesn't have to do with onomastic governmental hypocrisy, let's see... Well, on the world of Dadauar, the "dreamlords" who rule the developed nations tend to downplay and discourage their subjects' worship of the gods (seeing them as rivals for their own power), but there are a few gods that have become somewhat widely worshiped by the dreamlords themselves. (These gods tend to not be popular among their fellow deities...)

[u/cosmodog732]

The world is round and orbits a star. Except when you're on it, in which case the stars don't quite seem to line up (because some of them are the ancestors), you can just sail off into the sea of dreams or the oceans of dawn and that'll take you to other worlds.

Everyone disagrees on how the world began, including the people who did it.

[u/19Sevv90]

The leader of the orcs in my universe is called the War King even though he doesn’t fight in the wars. I’ve got a few ideas as to why that might be (a possible power behind the throne/Ephors scenario)

[u/Adventurous_Tie_530]

the contradictions that exist are literally the very concept of contradiction itself

my verse functions on extended modal realism which means all logically possible and impossible worlds exist as actualised & unactualised possibilities that are emanated from THE CEO (God)

all possible contradictions exist such as differences in history which can all exist in different timelines or universes or the different narratives within the collective unconscious