Tag Archive | worldbuildingjune

World Building June: Government, Economy

Jun25

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
It‘s June World Building!  And I continue with some more questions from Inspector Caracal’s List!

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11- How many different governments does the story interact with? How are they different or similar, or why is the one isolated?

Nimbus really doesn’t interact with any of the Sky Island Governments, but as mentioned before, there are four of them.  Her parents belong to the academic group and live on one of those Islands (although I may need to check that).

The Sky Islands are intermingled only with each other, of course, and do not touch the land below.  Many of the differences and similarities were mentioned above in “Who Lives in your World?”; notably, while msot of the people on the Sky Islands share a single broad set of values, each government represents a subsection of those values. Continue reading →

World Building June: Government, Economy

Jun22

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
It‘s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 

And it’s also June World-Building!  So I’m shifting over to Inspector Caracal’s questions, but as I already had a few (a week) written on the first set, there’s some overlap, and I skipped ahead to closer to the actual day on Cal’s list. 

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8. How is your world run? Who’s in power?

Above: All of the sky islands are technically one government.  They are run by a central elected set of leaders – five of them – who are supported by a set of representatives chosen by each of the four territories of islands. Continue reading →

Back to World Building June!

Jun21

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
It’s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 

And it’s also June World-Building!  So I’m shifting over to Inspector Caracal’s questions, but as I already had a few (a week) written on the first set, there’s some overlap. (and I skipped question six on the “Official” list). 

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Day 7 World-Building June

How does the economy work in your world? What sorts of currencies do they use?

Above: On the islands, there are four different currencies, depending on the islands you are on. Continue reading →

World Building June Day 6

Jun12

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
>It’s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 

And it’s also June World-Building!  So I’m shifting over to Inspector Caracal’s questions, but as I already had a few (a week) written on the first set, there’s some overlap. (and I skipped question six on the “Official” list). 

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6- What kinds of wild and domesticated plants grow there?
Are there many types or only a few?

Oooh!  *Rubs hands together*

Some spoilers below for Expectant Wood. Continue reading →

World-Building June Day 4 & 5

Jun5

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

 It’s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 

And it’s also June World-Building!  So I’m shifting over to Inspector Caracal’s questions, but as I already had a few (a week) written on the first set, there’s some overlap.

🌋

4.  What’s its history? (How did it come to be?)

Many years ago – around 500 – there was a great and long battle between two factions or nations.  The final act of the opposing side, the side that does not live in this area (I see them living off to the left, which would be west, over a great obstruction, perhaps a very wide river) was to cast several plant-growing spells on the area.

The most notable of these lifted up the sky islands.  It left below them something like  craters, but considering the amount of plant matter that quickly covered everything else, those craters were not very notable.

Everything – roads, the remnants of cities, the wizards themselves – it was all covered over.  And in the peace treaty that was made with those who survived on the surface, it was said that they must remain apart.  The people on the sky islands had to stay up there, where they couldn’t cause any more trouble, and all of their magical artifacts left on the surface must be destroyed.

Then the wizards went back over their river. Continue reading →

World-Building June Day 3: People

Jun3

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

It’s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 

And it’s also June World-Building!  So I’m shifting over to Inspector Caracal’s questions, but as I already had a few (a week) written on the first set, there’s some overlap.

🌋

3. Who lives in your world?

There are several groups just in the small region covered by the Expectant Woods. 

The Sky Islands themselves are a loose confederacy of people.  Only the central three largest were originally urban, and they have a certain feel to them that is different from the two ends; those nearest the ocean are inhabited almost entirely by people who came there from the cities or the further-into-the-mountains islands (although there is a legend of one warship of people that was risen up with one of the smaller islands).  The mountain-ward are more independent people, not hearkening much to the laws of the central islands.  And the first mountain-ward island after the three central is almost entirely devoted to academic pursuits.

Below there are the groups that those above call the tribes. Continue reading →

World-Building June Day 2: Geography

Jun2

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

It’s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 🌋

2. What’s the Geography of your world?

Twelve sky islands hang above the sea, forest, and mountains.

Each sky island has the same basic geography: It is roughly round, usually with four to eight rounded protuberances (thin overlapping petals). At the center of each island, the ground curves upward in something that might look like a small volcano.

This center is hollow in all cases, but only on the biggest islands is it big enough to admit a full-grown person.

The islands above the forests tend towards rich soil, hilly surfaces, and small rivers.

Those above the ocean tend towards relatively flat areas with sandy soil.

Those above the mountains are quite hilly and rocky.

This, of course, is because they were all lifted up from the ground beneath.

As for the Down-Below land: the Nevilla mountains are not impossible, but they present a very impressive boundary which comes rather close to the ocean.  Between the ocean and the mountains, the ground rolls slowly down to the ocean-front plains, covered until the coast mainly in thick, dense forest and wild grasslands.

The ocean seems to stretch on forever to the west and to the east-south-east.  There are no other islands visible save for the sky islands.  Even from the highest island, one cannot see past the mountains.

Want more?

World-Building June: About Aerax

Jun1

Originally posted on Patreon in June 2018 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

It’s World-Building June!  So I’m building Worlds! Here on Patreon, I’m building “Aerax”, the world of Expectant Woods. Over on WordPress, I’m working on Bear Empire, the world of the so-named story, and a new thing called United Space. 
🌋

1. Tell us about your world, what’s it about?

Sky Islands!

The world I call Aerax, or at least the continent that the story Expectant Woods takes place on, was the center of a massive Mage-War approx 500 years ago.

The notable remnants of this are a series of islands high in the sky, isolated from the forest, ocean, and mountains below, and ruins of places on the edges of where those islands once were in that forest and those mountains.

Magic is generally considered to be a myth on the islands, but it is still very much alive in the down-below world, although mostly in protected pockets.

Exploring the connection between these two is the subject of the story Expectant Woods; spoilers below.

The islands were raised up on gigantic flower-like stems, bigger than any tree on earth, long-lived and durable but still, in the end, a plant. Travel between the Sky Islands and the lower area is both nearly impossible and completely taboo, which means that the societies have been evolving separately for quite a while.

This land used to be fertile farmland and the heart of a city.  Now… Now the ground below lies mostly in jungle and ruins, and the islands above make their own way, each one only tenuously connected to the next.

Want more?

Worldbuilding Day Six Part 1: Gender and Sexuality

Jun26

Desmond’s World
Okay, yay, gender in Desmond’s world!

Gender in this world – or at least in this nation – is marked by clothing, by behavior, and by voiced preference. The clothing is pseudo-Edwardian in style, so it is often the case that Male People wear Pants, Female People Wear Skirts, and so on.

However, people a) sometimes choose to wear robes that hide everything, thus obscuring the question of gender – often for political-functionary roles where gender has no place in the role.

Many roles are still very gendered: someone has to stay home and watch the children, someone has to do the heavy labor, someone has to make meals, and these are often but not always split along gender lines. However, one can choose to put on the role and pronouns of either gender – although in a marriage or other partnership, it is generally considered polite to discuss such things with your partner and work out the roles ahead of time or, if not ahead of time, in teamwork with your partner.

Marriages are often for a combination of procreation and protection of the young, especially among the lower classes, and for those things and for financial unions among the upper classes. Thus, it is generally considered useful to have two people with the appropriate sex organs to make a child together in a marriage, but there are several ways around this, and nobody would ever ask outside of that partnership or forming one. What sex organs you have and who you have sex with is generally considered private business as long as it does not lead to babies.

Babies are raised as genderless until they begin to express a preference, at which point they are generally dressed as that preference until they take over dressing themselves.

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Worldbuilding Day Five Part 1: Civilization and Architecture

Jun22

Desmond’s World

Stone is is ample supply all around Desmond’s nation, and that is amply evident in their building, which is wood-supplemented stone for the most part. The oldest buildings are often dry stacked stone, some of them just literally stacked, others carved cleverly and carefully to join perfectly while losing as little stone as possible.

In the Capital City, further from the mountains than many of the, stone and wood are used more equally: buildings are often wattle-and-daub over timber frames (think “Tudor” houses) wit tall stone foundations, often mortared together.

You can often tell the mage-wars-time buildings, because their stones are improbably large, their joins improbably tight, and their polishing improbably bright even after hundreds of years.
The Potentate’s Palace and the City Hall Building are from that time.

(Another feature of buildings from that time is an Escher-esque opinion about dimensions and architecture, even in houses now owned by the lower-middle or lower class. You might still wander into a poor person’s home and find that it improbably fits an extended family of twenty comfortably in a narrow building in a tiny lot that does not tower over its neighbors. Sometimes these buildings have views of other places, as well, out windows that should not show anything but the neighbors’ underwear: the mountains, the sea, even another nation. These houses are tightly-guarded secrets which nobody speaks of, often owned by the same family for centuries, by some deed from a long-dead Potentate.)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1341890.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable