Cataclysmic Events Edition
Some worldbuilding resources:
On designing cultures:
http://www.frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir%27s_Ethnographical_Questionnaire
Random generators:
http://donjon.bin.sh/
Mapmaking tutorials:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48
Free mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com
Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
http://www.buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
http://sacred-texts.com/index.htm
Conlanging:
http://www.zompist.com/resources/
Random (but useful) Links:
http://futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
http://military-sf.com/
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/
http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
http://kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources
Question: Is the geography in your based on realistic, natural phenomenon or fantastic and mythological events? For example, is that big volcano the result of tectonic activity or did the gods throw a mountain on top of a fire-breathing demon and it's stuck under there to this day? Does the sun rise because of solar cycles or because the Sky Father received sufficient sacrifices today?
>need to name about 300 cities
>only managed 70 so far
>>48133045
What is this a picture of?
>>48133166
grunkleshire, beethollow, and uncleton
next one's going to cost you.
>>48133197
The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Painter is John Martin.
>>48133166
>come up with theme of settlement
>translate two words relating to such into language similar to local language of the word
>swap 2 or 3 letters around
>>48133166
Why do you even need 300 city names?
>>48133526
to make things as confusing and clustered as possible
>>48133526
Two reasons
>I need locations to anchor the chunks of narrative I have written so far as currently they are set in generic or unnamed locations so that I may move them until the world is set in stone
>I also intend to use this setting in a game where my players have control of an Imperial army on campaign and thus may visit and know of numerous cities, both Imperial and foreign
>>48133646
If your players remember the names of more than 4 or 5 of those locations I'll be just as amazed as if that narrative actually has any reason to take place in that many locations because god knows you aren't making 300 separate things memorable.
>>48133646
towns/cities are commonly named after a local feature. Try common geographical features with a town/city suffix (-ton, -toun, -city, -ville)
What kind of government allows for multiple lords, has no centralized seat of government, but has a common currency, meets to vote on national matters, and unites in the face of a common threat?
>>48133904
Naming things like this feels a lot more organic than coming up with nonsense words for each city/town.
Towns called "East Harbor", "Hillsborough", "North Shire", "Port Land" are common for a reason.
>>48134149
ore-gon?
>>48134580
>>48134149
>>48134687
>>48133904
And also after religious figures (St. Michael, AK) or important political figures (Baltimore).
General consensus on how you guys feel about monarchies in space? Kinda going for a kaiser reich version of the helghast instead of full fucking fascist.
>>48066624
Make them have superior genetics as a method of survival. Sure there are other races that can cross breed, but these hybrids are always sterile, not humans. While they have slower breeding cycles and gestation periods than humans, the half breeds will have a faster "baby making" than their other parent raceunless the other parent race is something like a rabbit person or a mouse species, then I don't know what the fuck to tell youlets use orcs an example
>Man and she orc have a baby?
You got yourself a half-orc
>Female orc and a male half-orc get "busy"
the child will, again, be half-orc
>Half-orc gets it on with a human female?
Human with orcish characteristics. Maybe slightly pointed ears? Slightly increased muscle mass? Pronounced canines? It's almost indistinguishable. They're just humans though.
>Half-orc and half-dragon? What does that make?
Human baby with draconic and orcish characteristics
>and if a human with orcish characteristics has a child with another human again?
you just get a regular human, with "orcish" ancestry and nothing to hint that any of their ancestors were orcs and every child will also have "orcishalthough
There is no "1/4 dragon" or any of that nonsense. You could even add some extra fuckery to the mix. Make a new race, doesn't matter what it is, but if it mates with a human, the child is human. it could imply that the entire race is already only half of what it used to be and they might have gone extinct had it not of been for humans
if you stick your dick in a human, sooner or later your descendants will be humans
>>48133957
>multiple lords
I assume you intend for multiple independent-ish lords? Because, say a duke in France and in the HRE are lords (of the same rank, even) with wildly different levels of autonomy.
On first thought I'd say look at Switzerland, but really you can have any type of government you want as long as you explain the history and internal politics well-enough.
>>48134706
> River
> That Kingdom
kek
I know most of it translates literally as that, but did they mean something else beforehand, or did they come to mean that because they stood for it for so long?
If they were always named that way, I guess it's just the curse of hubris that humans like to name their countries like they are the only ones that matter on the planet.
>>48135303
Ohp, Thai* not that
>>48135303
>but did they mean something else beforehand, or did they come to mean that because they stood for it for so long?
Not quite sure what you meant here, anon.
>>48135303
Etymologies can be complicated considering the business of what they call themselves vs what others call them vs what other others call them. Like Germany being Allemagne for the French, Deutschland for the Germans.
>Maori literally call France Wiwi https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/W%C4%ABw%C4%AB
>>48135971
What I meant was that did the name China originally mean something other than 'middle kingdom', or did it gain the meaning 'middle kingdom' because it was the country's name for so long, and because China is literally the kingdom in the middle.
Did it receive its name because it existed, or was its name originally 'middle kingdom'? It's kind of a dumb question, looking back on it, because it's kind of one with no answer.
>>48133045
>Is the geography in your based on realistic, natural phenomenon or fantastic and mythological events?
It's all a world created by the gods, but you rarely have "magical" effects unless the gods did something. In the setting I'm currently working on, there's a vast desert that was created by a vengeful god burning away all trace of the Orc race about six months before the start of the campaign.
I'm trying to make non-decimal currency for my setting and I was wondering if basing at least the larger denominations on values of 12 would work, given the relative value of the metals? The primary coin is a silver coin, the filley. 12 filley equal 1 faighney, while 24 filley equal 1 smoo, which is 2 faighney. But the filley is 7/16ths silver, 6/16ths lead, 3/16ths copper while the faighney and smoo are gold alloys, the smoo being 4/12ths gold, 5/12ths copper, 3/12ths lead.
I worry that the exchange rate between silver and gold is too low, especially when I look at the modern commodities market and see silver at $15/ounce and gold at $1400/ounce. Does it matter?
>>48136161
China is based on Qin, the prehistoric state that conquered the early Chinese civilizations.
>>48136299
Base 12 is helpful because it can be divided by 2, 3, 4, and 6 with no remainders.
>>48133045
>Question: Is the geography in your based on realistic, natural phenomenon or fantastic and mythological events?
mostly natural geology, as I started by stealing North America and flipping it. Flipping in the sense of how they draw their maps, the equator is still where it is, but the capital is the Southernmost city, so they put that on top.
But I changed bits an pieces for flat magical/fantasitical reasons.
Like in the Atlantic there is a thing called the Sire of Storms, which spits out hurricanes. Hurricanes still form and move mostly like they do in our world, but this place seems to seed them a lot more often.
But the outer Caribbean has this old big magical constructs that direct most storms to slip up toe of Florida, losing their steam there. So Florida is the basically uninhabited Storm Lands, the rest of the continent actually gets slightly less hurricanes hitting it than in our world.
A few other things like this twist the land to being a little different.
>>48136442
nice map but it looks somewhat familiar somehow......
>>48136687
fuck me, was trying to make a joke but you pointed it out in your post.
>>48136412
while true, it misses 5, which is really important, especially as we have 5 fingers on each hand and that anatomy show ups a lot in how number systems develope.
The most common number systems were base 5, 10, and 20, the only known base 8 we know came from using the spaces between fingers.
The civilization that really wanted to have 3's divide evenly used base 60, with a bit of base 10. That was the Babylonians, we still use there shit for time and measuring degrees of circles.
Also the first people to have a place based number system, thought hey had neither a zero symbol nor a marker for switching to 1/X.
>>48134891
Monarchy is basically the only acceptable form of space government.
Watch LotGH and bask in the glory of the space Reich.
>>48136714
But what did the British base their currency system off of?
>>48134687
Why would it not be America? Was Amerigo Vespucci never born?
>>48136860
Fingers? Have you never met a British person?
>>48136860
Confusion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Pre-decimal
>>48134687
At first I thought you were bullshitting, but Texas' translation is correct. This is a pretty interesting map.
How large do you like your countries, /wbg/?
Do you prefer the American model, where a continent is mostly dominated by only two or three large countries, or do you prefer the European or African model, where there are tons of similarly sized countries?
>>48134687
>The One From the Land
I'm pretty sure that's Kalamazoo based on the location.
And I'm also pretty sure that we are not sure about the translation there.
>>48134706
>>48137058
Wish I had a bigger version of this next one
>>48136860
Under this system, there were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound. The penny was subdivided into 4 farthings until 31 December 1960, when they ceased to be legal tender in the UK, and until 31 July 1969 there were also halfpennies ("ha'pennies") in circulation. The advantage of such a system was its use in mental arithmetic, as it afforded many factors and hence fractions of a pound such as tenths, eighths, sixths and even sevenths and ninths if the guinea (worth 21 shillings) was used.
>>48135303
>Hubris
Yes. For thousands of years, Chinese civilization has thought of itself as the center of the world. Every other culture was judged according to how "far" they are from the Middle Kingdom. The only way a culture could become civilized is if they became Chinese themselves. The more a culture adopted Chinese characteristics, the more civilized it was.
The biggest foreign policy mistake was when a Ming emperor decided that oceanic exploration wasn't worth China's time. This was after Zheng He's voyages. China was way ahead of their time. But because of this emperor, building up their navy hasn't become a priority.
In more recent history, Empress Dowager Cixi spent money, earmarked for a modern navy, on a marble boat. Yes. A marble a boat. And the Qing government at the time wondered why they were getting buttfucked by foreign powers. Well gee. Instead of spending on an ACTUAL navy, they built a fucking marble boat.
And then came Mao's economic brilliance with the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution: full employment, free healthcare, free stuff for everyone. Worked out really well.
>>48133045
Don't post often, really don't even play much table top anymore, but here is a map I just made and without any context I want an honest opinion on geography and if you're up to it, what do you think is going on in the world based on just what is there.
>>48137253
Those are either some small mountains or a huge-ass bridge.
>>48137323
Well, I was trying to go for a huge bridge constructed to connect two continents.
>>48137346
>continents
Inkscape was a bad meme
>>48137346
you fucked up, it's historically incorrect and the pressures of stone would render the tectonics illegitamite and if you dont have tectonics do you ven have a setting what did you say to me you little bitch I'll have you know i graduated middle of my class in the cartographers guild and this isn't even a shitpost but the thing about tectonics is you can't just have a bridge that does that and oh my god work is so boring pls send help and pick up the pace wbg.seriously though, great concept
>>48137608
I'm not familiar
>>48137628
Thanks though, maybe I should have given some context. The land to the west is technologically superior to the the eastern lands. They do have early 19th century understanding of tectonics as well as some other scientific fields, yet industrially have just begun to enter the industrial revolution. They would have large steam powered suspension from one side to the other preventing tremors in the structure.
Like to hear more and see if its a good concept? I mostly have only the northern are figured out. Decide to write the world top to bottom.
>>48137745
Inkarnate whatever, I got the first word right, art programs are art programs
>>48137783
Got any suggestions, again just trying to build a world for fun. I really have no other reason to make one besides than to just take up some time in between my studies.
>>48137234
I think every civilization has had moments when they hit a sort of national complacency and the majority of the people in charge are more concerned with maintaining a status quo rather than advancing the state of their country.
At least the marble boat is sort of pretty.
>>48138003
China's "moments" lasted for almost all their civilization. The "century of humiliation" was the beginning of a rude awakening that continues to do this day. The lesson to be learned from China is that it's dangerous for a civilization to lose its spirit of entrepreneurship and exploration lest it be left behind by other powers. It's ok if you can guarantee that the other civilizations which are pulling ahead are benevolent. If that can't be guaranteed (which it can't, in reality), then it's in your self-interest to continue improving your civilization so it's at least ahead of the barbaric/degenerate civilizations. No one wants to end up like the Native Americans encountering the Spanish.
>>48133045
In my setting, all of the lands between major landmarks function like how they would in an everyday setting. forests are forests, and rivers are like rivers. But if you sit in a field and stare at the grass you will notice that it is slowly growing and morphing into another kind of terrain. forests slowly turn into swamps or deserts, a puddle grows until its the size of lake. When the blue sun shines all this change is slow enough to cause little problems to travelers or those making camp, but when the blue sun sets, this flux becomes so rapid and cataclysmic it is as dangerous as being out in a storm.
it seems like a fitting environment for a strange plane I am working on.
>>48138192
What was China ever good for besides slave labor? Did it ever have a spirit of entrepreneurship/exploration at all? Even nowadays all China is known for is stealing tech and reproducing it in crappier quality.
>>48133045
Realistic phenomenon, but the people living in the world believe it was created that way by the gods. They lack the technology to understand plate tectonics, but the necromancer cities - oddly enough - have charts showing evidence of earthquake zones. The lines drawn are clearly the plates, but they just lack the understand of the planet itself to put their finger on it.
There is a swamp that exists just because the Goblins got desperate and tried to keep the humans out of their last refuge in the far east. Humans ended up moving in, nearly died, then ended up becoming the best swamp dwellers on the continent.
They hunt gobbos for fun, so they ended up becoming the Goblins' worst nightmare.
Can anyone help me do a balance of power sort of thing like the U.S. government only with a monarchy?
Executive: king
Legislative: Elected representatives of the people that bring issues to the king and make laws as well.
Judicial... How do I work in a non partisan group that keeps the rest in check according to constitution? Do I make them appointed by the king or possibly by the people?
Also how does the idea of royal robots sound? Kinda want this thing going with my people how robots and man worked to together to throw of the yolk of government to well... install a king. whatever though i'm working on it.
Did I mention this is in space?
>>48137253
its so strange
no port towns?
![tumblr_o9vjeo2TTu1v1ceouo1_1280[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/fJbiRaI.png "tumblr_o9vjeo2TTu1v1ceouo1_1280[1].png")
>>48133045
>Worldbuilding General
Neat.
I have some art to share as I finally got around to doodling about a monster I've been meaning to illustrate: Terrestropods.
Terrestropods are basically all those pecuilar, rubbery, tentacly monsters you find -seemingly out of nowhere- within dungeons and caverns. Despite the name they're not actually related to gastropods (slugs and snails) but are more commonly related to creatures like sea anemones and sea cucumbers.
Terrestropods are found in all sorts of humid and wet environments, but they particularly love caves and dungeons because of the damp surfaces created that allow their spores/eggs to latch onto and hatch/pupate.
Here are some other fun facts:
-Their mouth and anus are the same hole!
-Terrestropods eject non-food-times via pro-lapsing themselves inside out!
-The name “roper” can refer to over a dozen different species of Terrestropod!
>>48137234
To be fair, during that period of the Ming dynasty there was internal unrest and chaos on the Western border, and the navy budget was taken for the army build-up. Plus, Zheng He's voyage showed there was nothing that China needed beyond its borders.
>>48137253
What kidn of scale am I looking at here?
>>48137346
>Continents
What the fuck? This looks morelike two small islands, especially with the volcano at the top of the map. And you have two cold regions at the top and bottom of the map; are they both the size of North + South America?
>>48138003
USAUSAUSA
>>48138192
Not really. The main issue for China's rulers, past and present, has always been
>Keep the peasants from revolting
The Chinese people have always had a spirit of entrepreneurship and experimentation, as seen by the Chinese Diaspora, but the nation as a whole is simply so vast, with so many people and cultures, that pre-modern rulers spent their time focusing on how to manage all the different power groups and make sure enough people were fed and wealthy that the whole didn't feel like it was time ot revolt.
It's only when the leaders stop caring and start spending money on luxuries like the marble ship that China starts to decline. Then you have bloody rebellions until someone comes out on top and reboots the empire.
Technological development is not just about having good leaders or a national aspiration. It's about how people think and what they do when they're faced with a problem. Look at moveable type; it worked so well for the Europeans even though the Chinese invented it thousands of years earlier because the languages worked completely differently and moveable type just didn't do much for the Chinese language. Or the compass; once you know where north is and where the stars are, you don't need the sextant for land armies or individual people traveling between cities. Gunpowder? They never had a foe worth using it against in the way the Europeans did.
>>48138772
Statdholder: The supreme executive, in the person of the head of the royal household.
Parliament: The elected representatives of the urban city-states.
Judiciary was never an independent power until the United States. More common was the clergy being a third pillar of government/state and enforcing its own laws while leading the masses.
Send help
>>48139075
>USAUSAUSA
USA has never been complacent though. It's pretty much been leading the way for humankind since its creation.
>>48139344
I think his point is
>right now
But I feel the whole populist meme is going to put something of an end to that
>>48139344
I'd say the USA is at this point right now.
>>48139426
Populism has only won twice in the history of the United States: Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt.
>>48139449
If USA is considered to be complacent right now, then the whole world and humankind is complacent in general.
>>48139449
Have you not noticed the massive rise in the politicization of fucking everything in the last few years
>>48139514
That doesn't mean anything when nothing is being done. It just means people are getting frustrated.
>>48139481
Not really. Look at what happened in the UK.
What's going on in the US is that the leaders are still fucking sleepwalking the country over the cliff, and the voters are split between a majority that dont' want things to change and a vocal minority that's trending towards the two extremes.
>>48133045
The whole world's basically held by two gigantic cosmic fish encircling it. i'll greentext this tho
>It was smaller then but whole. Until a cataclysmic even in which the world had split into several pieces the space grew.
>the now smaller pocket realms are connected by streams of energy in which any inhabitants can travel to and fro, provided they have the right equipment, the right spell or constructed a portal enough to keep it open.
>The two fish there functions to keep the world lit up, warm, supplied with life, and stable so it won't spin off to other worlds and colliding it
>after the world split, the fish alone won't be enough so, the greater spirits of the world that helped shaped it in the first place now helped to hold parts of the shattered world that are devoted to them, although there are still numerous pieces of the world still left unprotected and uncharted
>stars that appear along the space within that world are nodes for the energy streams connecting each realm
>nebulae are the dusts of the world after it split
these are all still a work in progress that i'm just exploring at the moment. how does this sound?
>>48139300
Is that China?
>>48139633
>Not really. Look at what happened in the UK.
People got frustrated and acted on frustration, now they're even more frustrated than before, and a lack of full understanding of the implications and the consequences has left many people doubting whether they did the right thing, so people are consoling themselves by saying that doing something is better than nothing.
People were pretty complacent all throughout the whole affair, just kind of accepting whatever each party spewed out. The consequences were extreme, the people making the choices weren't the most well informed. But now that the ship has sailed and both parties have put up their "job well done lads, let's retire" signs it's a done deal.
Also how is this /wbg/ related.
>>48139787
I'm legitimately not sure how you're seeing china
>>48139905
Internal politics of your setting.
>>48139300
This makes me wet.
Question: Is the geography in your based on realistic, natural phenomenon or fantastic and mythological events? For example, is that big volcano the result of tectonic activity or did the gods throw a mountain on top of a fire-breathing demon and it's stuck under there to this day? >Does the sun rise because of solar cycles or because the Sky Father received sufficient sacrifices today?
Natural phenomena altered by magic in some places. For example a piece of land rose and wedged a river into two. Or magical disaster created a desert-like wasteland isolated in otherwise fertile, temperate region.
>>48139300
I like it, looks dirty and faded. Like it's missing a cup stain but otherwise this is what you'd see on a table in the world. I'm stealing the idea of heraldic symbols on the map. And Grrm be damned I do love those mottos.
Decided to split my map up into separate files so a little bit of the godawful lag abates. So there is a continent or will be continents to the west.
Expanded territory in the north to have a larger steppe. Not sure about the mountains at the very tip of the middle continent.
I have to decide what I am doing with the eastern continent and region. Raoxshanids (Sanukharan/Ashragan/Asvaryan/Khasahan) are oriented more westward to interact with/feud with the Harbanu, Nakkarum, their Niravahnam rivals, and probably the usual steppe confederacy of the day in the Rruvasan steppe. The Hwagari were meant to be beastfolk (satyrs/Maenads) Raoxshanized in name and culture. I like their little peninsula business but I wonder about moving it northward so it juts out just beneath the [beastfolk tribes] tag. Open up the valley there and expand land - how far I am not sure.
Option 1) The white area expands to touch that island, it becomes a over-hang. Wind-pattern keeps it fairly verdant and wet (Think France/Britain latitude wise). It could be inhabited by arazala (Late Roman with Trojan/Etruscan West asia vibes) in the south, barbars in the north between Arazala and beastfolks. That gives a three-way competition for the core of the continent (nakka and Harbanu) between Arazala, Niravahnam, Raoxshan. I could move Makhenai into that bay area so the basin becomes rather east-mediterranean - Levantine Nakkarum, Roman/Anatolian Arazala, Mycenaeano-Greek Makhenai, Raoxshan having a limited presence.
Option 2) Same geographic concept as 1 but instead of Germanic and Roman/Greek it becomes Turkic (northern reaches of white sketch, including the corridor between the mountains) and Chinese (edge of white area and island the overhang consumes)
>>48133045
Technically both is how I usually roll. As in most mountains would have been created, and maintained by tectonics, which were of course planned and created by the gods.
Then you have the floating islands (which whip around in little "Tidal orbits" according to the moon), which required a little more involvement of the gods.
The cliche fantasy world climates are partially the fault of massive slumbering elementals, including the massive forested area in the east that is constantly smoldering.
>>48134891
Read honor Harrington. It can be cool. And I feel modern communication technologies could make being a king easier.
Need a name for a god that's the focus of a monotheistic religion of a country with lots of knights and has a divinely ordained monarchy.
Everything I think of sounds too Norse when I'm going for a more Anglican name, or makes them sound like a Pokémon/Digimon.
>>48145086
Heilafer, Jamlin, Thelan
>>48145086
God
>>48145086
Almighty.
>>48145086
Dave
>>48134891
I think it makes sense to treat monarchy as property rights to a nation. King own the nation and pass it to his heir.
Although modern shareholders usually hire professionals run their affair.
>>48148128
The moment the owners of this "corporate nation" gains a monopoly of force, they stop being a corporation and become a de facto government.
It's not exactly hard to get rich when you're the ones minting all the money.
>>48131828
You should probably google how boats and buoyancy works. I'm sorry you never had a middle school education.
>>48136976
A lot of the translations are bullshit. Either slightly (Montana just means "mountainous" and the notion that it refers to a place is implied) or totally (nobody really knows what the fuck California's name means)
>>48149470
I wouldn't count shifting to the implied 'land of' or 'area' bullshit.
Look at Ontario vs Lake Ontario. Clearly those can't be 100% word for word literal, but if they did you get
Lake Beautiful Lake as the lake, and the land mass as Beautiful Lake.
Slight concession should be made, without changing the point.
California, and Kalamazoo, being just guesses at words we don't actually know is bullshit.
>>48149421
Also, this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution
>>48149710
"this land is called beautiful lake"
"the lake is the lake of the land"
"therefore it is the lake of the beautiful lake land"
>>48148230
>>48148128
This is what I'm fucking doing with my setting.
>Corporation goes to the stars
>Gets property rights on multiple systems
>Time passes founders role and the board get more and more important/full of themselves
>Essentially found the nobility of the nation
>Corporate primarch is now king
>Board members autarchs now lords of the nation
>shareholders are now knights.
FUCK YES
>>48154955
That's kind of how my south shore city states are.
>some facet of local industry is incredibly profitable in global trade
>old (usually Elven or Dwarven) family has a monopoly on said industry, make bank
>end up controlling the city-state's politics
Basically Mafia Keebler Elves.
>>48155188
Hell yeah.
Only I think I just make my share holders nobles. Have the board members in houses spread across the empire who vie for control in inter wars then unite behind essentially a houses lord who become primarch among autarchs.
My first time making a world here, this is one of the continents of my world. Starting with something I'm familiar with, which is a East Asian continent.
How would I go about labeling the geographic forms and cities without creating too much clutter? Also, are my terrain transitions too sudden? Thanks.
>>48156378
You can't.
>>48156378
Transitions look fine, but god I hate those names. Also, Rivers do not work that way. And neither do climates. Look at Australia; the coasts are different from the inland climates, it's not just in bands.
What was Greece like? I'm talking sort of post-Homeric, when kingship wasnt really a thing anymore.
Greece is the birthplace of democracy, but I hear it was also a Oligarchy.
Can some one explain?
>>48156482
Independent city-states with different cultures, so you can have Sparta whose society is wildly different from Athens'.
>>48156482
Oh god that's a deep4u topic to get into.
How post homeric? Geometric/Dark ages? Archaic? Classical?
>>48156597
well, Ive been reading. By post Homeric, I mean when the City states started to be ruled more by the oligarchys and kingship was an obsolete. So yeah, Classical, I guess.
All the footnotes I got on Greeks that I'm going to apply to my world building is:
>independent city-states
>philosophically,artistically, and culturally revolutionary
>hoplite warfare
>shit at besieging(because hoplite warfare is the name of the game)
But I dont really understand their social classes. THey had slaves, but they also had a middle class, but they were all ruled by an oligarchy(sometimes). THis shit is confusing.
>>48156725
If I recall right the timetable goes:
Homeric - Late helladic/fall of the bronze age. So 1300s-1100s or so.
1100s to maybe 900-800 is primitive as fuck geometric/greek dark ages. Like, they lost their ability to write illiterate. Wish I could find the pic I saw in uni of Pylos region in late helladic (+115 archaeological sites suggesting settlement/villages/households) and Pylos region in greek dark ages (around 7 sites for the whole of pylos). That is one era where 'dark age' is a fitting moniker.
800-500 being archaic, Greco-Persian war or after Greco-Persian war to fall to Macedonia being classical. IO got some of the dates wrong but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_Greece will have it covered.
In that case the poleis seems to emerge in the archaic or the very end of the greek dark ages.
Firstly, check out the wargaming topic on /tg/ with ebooks and try and see some of their ancient greek ones. It should cover some points. Before I get to the social classes one point before I forget that I've found compelling (biased as I took two of his courses at university) was JE Lendon's thesis that hoplite warfare developed as a means of accruing Areté (virtue, excellence, superiority in something) in order to gain timê (honor, respect). This is at the root of the Iliad - Agamemnon refuses to recognize Achilles timê as the greatest fighter (his Arete) and so takes Briseis away from him. Lendon contends that hoplite warfare developed into its 'mature' form (a very brief window of a little before the greco-persian wars and in spirit down to the fall against Philip of macedonia, yet in a deeply challenged and flawed format) so as to try and achieve something close to the true and fair test of courage and strength found in the Iliad with its plot-armor which protects the great from the weak and cowardly and fortunate (Achilles killed by Paris excepting).
(cont)
>>48156725
>THey had slaves, but they also had a middle class, but they were all ruled by an oligarchy(sometimes).
But they're not mutually exclusive though. I suspect part of your problem is you're trying to understand their society using modern analogies, so it kind of fails when you go "but we have a middle class too, but we abolished slavery and have a democracy, HALP".
>>48156859
So they devised the strange cultural practice of war (so strange Herodotus even recognizes that fact by having a Persian egging Darius on to attack the Greeks remarking about how strange, perverse and odd those greeks are with their ritualistic warfare). Before the strategem and guile of commanders utilizing light foot and cavalry more efficiently in the Peloponnesian War these troops existed but in a marginalized and scorned capacity. Simply put, hoplite warfare was a chance for '1v1 me faggot.
In turn, the Peloponnesian war and a great many conflicts of the city-states derive from the competition for arete and claims of timê. Hegemon was not an imperialist ruler of the Greeks, but rather the 'first among equals' who was deferred to as a superior by virtue of their arete, not because of conquering others. Sparta long held that title but after the Greco-Persian wars Athens felt it had the claim to equal timê as they were responsible for the great naval victories against the Persians.
To simplify it - think of each city state as intensely competitive with eachother in almost every imaginable facet. The best olives, the most beautiful women, the most clever men, the strongest hoplites, the best ships, the fattest cattle. Not everyone will compete in the same categories - Sparta won't care about best ships while Athens won't care about best hoplites.
Similarly, while a pan-hellenic notion exists and they do see their neighbors and other Greeks as -Greek-, they hate other greeks about as much as they hate other foreigners. An immediate example is Pericles' reform which would deny citizenship to any Athenian if one of his parents was not Athenian. This was designed to cut at upper class competition because (cont)
>>48134149
Also remember that long words, including place names, have a habit of contracting and shorten after being in use for a while. A town might have originally been called East Harbour, but after a few generations it might be known as Eastbour or something similar. That said, I don't suggest doing it like that unless the setting is a fictional place on our planet or if you're working with a conlang and contracting place names in it.
>>48156913
The upper class is more liable to have friends and connections with other cities. See the Proxenos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxeny essentially a reverse ambassador - an Athenian Proxenos of Sparta is an Athenian living in Athens who has amicable relations with Spartans and speaks on behalf of their envoys.
Imagine the stereotypical (and accurate) parochialism of Tribesmen the world over from Scots to Arabs to afghans. The ol arabic sayng of "I against my brothers, I and my brothers against my cousins, I/my brothers/my cousins against my tribe, I/brothers/cousins/tribe against the world" runs true for the Greeks.
In terms of middle class you get a lot of class conflict and social unrest in the Greeks. Middle class would be able to afford in most city states the minimum amount for hoplite panoply (shield and spear at the least). The lower class would not be able to afford it and only in the emergence of "Total war" with the later Peloponnesian Wars onward do you start to have them sent out with state supplied panoply. But in Athens the lower class (not slaves) had a stronger gravitas because they were the rowers of the Athenian navy - the athenians explicitly did not choose to use slaves to man the oars because the training and experience of their oarsmen made their pay worth the cost.
>>48156945
For a quick approximation:
Thuc. 2.13
>‘they had thirteen thousand besides the sixteen thousand that were employed for the guard of the city and upon the walls.’ For so many at the first kept watch at the coming in of the enemy, young and old together and strangers that dwelt amongst them as many as could bear arms.
> And the whole compass of Piraeus together with Munychia was sixty furlongs, whereof that part that was watched was but half. [8] He said farther, ‘they had of horsemen, accounting archers on horseback, twelve hundred; and sixteen hundred archers; [9] and of galleys fit for the sea, three hundred.’ All this and no less had the Athenians when the invasion of the Peloponnesians was first in hand and when the war began.
Simplified the Athenians had a field army of 13,000, a garrison/militia/"oh god shit hit the fan" of 16,000, then around 1,000 mercenary cavalry and archers. Too lazy to calculate number of marines on an Athenian ship. Quick wiki says it could be as low as 10 hoplites and 4 archers or as much as 40 men.
http://www.ancientgreekbattles.net/Pages/47932_Population.htm - Athens having a population of 140,000-150,000, 40k of which are citizen males and 40k are slaves. However their calculation chart gives a much higher total pop of 350,000.
http://www.ancient.eu/Athenian_Democracy/ - has citizen males at 30-60,000. Bear in mind 'citizen' means an enfranchised voter. A metis (Foreigner without Athenian citizenship) does not have the right to vote but could be drafted if really necessary.
Athens would swell their army size with their coalition/alliance/subjects of the Delian league.
So Thucydides has us see Athens with almost 30,000 hoplite ready men. Some of the modern stuff suggests slightly higher rates.
>48142790
Old Dad
BUMP
>>48145086
A'Dindu
Current setting. Going for a slightly fairytale/folklore style on this one, like a High Adventure set in Fable. Names are terribly unoriginal, but largely either placeholder or classical names.
Basic premise is a "Modern" world (early 1700's or so) suddenly reverts into a magical ancient one when the Island of Avalon somehow is restored and all The Magic Comes Back, as those tv tropes faggots would say.
On the ground, this would look like your entire village vanishes into the forest as it seems to sprawl out over night, right up to the borderwalls of major cities. Wolves the size of bears are seen tramping through the woods, and in some places it looks like the Fae Wyld has simply overwritten the geography of an area, dropping lakes, hills, mountains, forests, and palaces where they weren't before. Hell, the woods themselves almost become a living, hateful enemy to man, and dark things begin to appear on the edges of civilization.
How's that sound to anyone?
>>48156725
I really think the whole "city states" approach to / structure of world-building is very interesting. It's smaller scale and therefore more managable and realistic to see to the end, but also allows for a lot of different flavor.
Alright, so working on a sky ship setting, I'd call it steam fantasy rather than punk. Basically the idea is a fantasy world with the clock dialed up to the mid to late 1800's. The reason for flight is basically the Nottomans did it first with magic and enslaved djinn, Europe eventually caught up with extreme never explicitly called hydrogen/helium (the advantage being that peak djinn was hit a long time ago).
I just finished combing through the leviathans lore book for ideas, but it's just so grounded (ba dum tish) in reality.
So right now I'm looking for ideas and inspiration for magical creatures of the sky either vaguely rooted in mythology or something else entirely to intrigue, harass, and endanger the players and their crew.
Right now I have balloon vipers (a colloquialism), which are snakes which slowly inflate themselves through their digestive processes, and when it's time for a new meal they deflate and dive into their next prey (they can get pretty flat and as a result can glide for rather impressive distances).
Then there's the grifflettes which are unmistakably some ancient experiment in selective breeding and the exploitation of morphology. Basically the wild cat to lynx sized version of the griffin, they've been semi domesticated since the time of their rediscovery a few generations ago.
And then dragons, but those are totally extinct I swear. Last one was merely an infant and was killed about 2 centuries ago. Outside of unconfirmed peasant sightings on the periphery of the civilized world, not a one has been seen since.
>my creations probably think their world is flat
Did a few edits, mainly fixed the river, added the 'capitals' of each kingdom, oceans. A few spots on the map I feel need something there, but I havn't quite figured out yet what I plan to put. Also don't know if I plan to add more cities, or if I'll save that for the country specific maps.
>>48158810
How did you make this map, graphically?
Is it possible to put Highfield City somewhere else? It seems abit boring with two capitals close to the sea. IRL, many capital cities have been inland, since you have so few, for the sake of audience experience, some variation in capital placement could be interesting.
>>48158810
Also, what is the scale of this continent/island?
>>48158895
http://inkarnate.com/
but all the maps feel the same that are made with it.
Bumping with my faggy setting (condensed version)
>>48158425
Sounds...well, I have no idea how a 1700's society would deal with a sudden change with the re-emergence of magic and monsters, so...interesting I guess.
>>48158579
>Harpies
>Giant Jellyfish
>Muderous crabs on floating rocks waiting to bump into food
>SKYYYY WHAAALLEESS
>Lightning/storm monsters
>Razorgulls
>Angry flying fish
>>48160203
FUCK YOU SIDEWAYS LOOKING CUNT
I apologise profously, hopefully this is an improvment on the image.
What are some ways to make the ecology of a planet feel more alien, while still being hospitable to human settlers? Is having reptiles be the dominant land animals overdone?
>>48160996
Add more fungi.
>>48160996
Put some weird-ass mobile trees. Maybe they migrate, or they really like eating human food.
>>48160996
No oxygen, only CO2 that the colonists have to purify to survive.
What important informations can you give your players about the different countries in your setting?
I have the political system, the social organization, the standard of living and the standard of moral.
What else do I need?
>>48133957
Straight up aristocratic republic? You would be surprised how many historical precedents you have for this. I mean, what you describe is basically the Holy Roman Empire, except the Kaiser not only does not have any real power, but instead is non existant? The polish magnate is similar enaugh. And a slew of other historical "states". Just google for aristocratic republic or aristocracy.
>>48158905
>>48158895
I don't really have a good grasp of measurements, so I can't accurately determine a scale, but I intend the continent to be very big so theres plenty of room for adventure across the entire landscape.
As for Highfield City, it is very possible to move it elsewhere. At this moment the only city that needs a reason to be located right next to the ocean is Vulufek, due to the importance of fishing with the Venterfelk people. I may relocated Highfield City along one of the rivers it's next to, or even towards the lake near the mountains
>>48160996
Some ways to make ecology feel more alien is to make normally small things, very large. For example, maybe have all the trees on the planets replaced with flower-like plants, so the planet is covered in massive flowers, whose stems are very thick and rigid, so they work like an even more flexible kind of wood.
>>48158425
I personally like your map. I've never been interested in The Magic Comes back, but power to you and I know people who do like it.
>>48160203
Not so sure about giant, but sky jellyfish I like.
"Known to the empire since the conquest of the shattered lands, the sky jelly, sometimes refereed to as dead man's wisps have been nothing but a nuisance over the southern skys. Armed with a paralytic toxin and a nearly translucent being , the cretin are a prime example as to why deck crews should always maintain their tether less they end up as many a messenger bird, or ship's grifflette. If this were not enough, during the creature's mating season coinciding with summer rains the creatures emit a slight bio luminescence during the twilight hours. Unfamiliar or disoriented crews have been known to mistake these light shows as signalling."
Not sure if I'd go for harpies, though that does seem like a fun thing to explore with a Victorian mind set, would they consider them savages? Suppose it depends on how humanoid they are. But it could be fun to have some professor somewhere trying to civilize the species. The flying fish, I was thinking something along that little teaser in dishonored, give them razor sharp fins and a propensity for jumping at passing sea ships.
Lightning and storm creatures I can totally get behind. Lightning is going to be a big part of generating electricity in the setting, so I can totally see say a mission to go off an capture a newly discovered creature that could be bound and used like a generator. Problem there is I wouldn't know what to base them off of, asia is where most of my lightning spirit knowledge comes from, and I've got a whole thing planned for that with magic absorbing metal and an endless storm that marks to boarder between the magical and anti magical poles of the planet (or edges, still debating flat earth or not).
>>48164774
Never done it before also, which is why I'm trying to expand my horizons and branch out a little.
>>48165452
I dig it. Your premise sounds good to me, and I'm not even interested in the basis of it. Which isn't to say if I knew you I wouldn't play it, I just wouldn't run it myself. But the fact that its interesting to me even though I've never been interested in that "genre" makes me think you're on the right track.
>>48166299
Thanks for the encouragement! It helps knowing someone, somewhere thinks it's a worthwhile concept.
Bump
>>48157023
>>48156945
>>48156913
>>48156859
Thank you very much. This demystified the Greeks a bit for me and put some things in perspective. Adding to my Google Drive notes.
Do any of you guys use D&D cosmology in your worldbuilding to any extent?
So I'd like some opinions on my current working system of magic.
First would be the energy. To avoid just saying 'magical energy' or 'mana' I have decided to entitle the magical energy in my setting as simply 'Arcane'. Every thing and person in the world can be described as hollow shells, covered in holes, and the arcane flows across the whole world like air, flowing through the holes and swirling around a bit inside the shells, before flowing back out, so rarely does arcane stay in one place. Arcane is raw creation, and can be used to create anything in the world, and in turn, arcane flows from the world as it's breath.
The art of magic is a complicated process, and to understand it, you must understand true names, for everything in the world possesses a true name, it's own unique identity. Magic is a method of replicating true names, anywhere and anytime, forming the names and the body from the arcane. To learn magic, one must learn a completely new language, as every spell, no matter how small, of magic, is a process of weaving parts or wholes of true names, lacing the arcane with these words. As such, a spell caster must learn not only how to speak true names, but study the countless kinds of true names as well, of course speaking is a vague term used by spell casters, as true names can be verbally, or even physically incanted, some spells would simply be movements of the hands or arms, only a few mutterings of words, or a complex combination. Some even require rituals or important materials, all methods to call upon the true names, to imitate the god's might.
>>48172217
Well what's the motivation behind becoming a magic user if the methodology for obtaining it is that obscure/complex? How was it first conceived if everyone had to learn it from scratch?
>>48172217
Despite how linear this sounds, magic is neither linear, nor confined. Though spell casters cannot truly create anything that does not already exist (that is the domain of the gods after all) they can get very close with complex weavings of names. As such, dozens of schools of magic have been created over the ages to study specific branches and expand on mortal grasp.
Back on the subject of the arcane. The arcane is a very unique force within the world, as said before, it is everywhere, and within everything. However, some locales are focuses of the arcane. Returning to the example of hollow shells, sometimes the arcane will be drawn to specific people, or creatures, and cling to them more than others, usually as the result of someone who has already heavily immersed themselves in arcane manipulation, thus aligning themselves with the arcane, these are usually the mightiest of spell casters, or geniuses of crafts and arts, or even incredibly masterful warriors. These individuals are officially labeled Arcons.
>>48172341
There is another category besides Arcons, of arcane saturation, known as Arc Wells. Arc Wells are unique occurrences in the world, where objects or locations draw the arcane to them, soaking up enough of it, that even when the arcane flows out, more quickly floods it, because of such situations, normal objects and locations are transformed, to become magical in nature, all by themselves. Some examples of this phenomenon include the grand library of Magus Falls, a massive warehouse of magical texts and objects of all kinds, and due to simply being in the presence of such ample arcane conduits, the library itself has become an incredibly magical structure. Another example is the sword "Conquest of the Meek" used by an immortal barbarian, due to it's decades of slaughter, the endless blood shed has transformed the sword into a magical weapon. One more example is the Book of Eibon, a journal used by one of the greatest magical researchers, who explored the Vast Realms, an expanse of forgotten pocket realms, and during his travels wrote down all the wondrous, fantastic and magical sights and experiences. So thick with the arcane were these locales and en-devours, that the entries into the journal themselves have become magical, transforming a simple journal into a mighty grimoire. Arc Wells are incredibly important things, and coveted by many who study, or wish to use the arts of magic for their own gain, and as such, finding an Arc Well is a rare find, and usually closely protected.
>>48170321
Yes. It was a challenge I underwent when making my setting (originally just a setting I could use instead of Forgotten Realms, because I found it too much of a God's Chessboard) that it had to incorporate everything in the PHB at least superficially.
>>48172338
The method of magic is not obscure, but it is complex and requires years of hard study to become well trained with it. Most magic users and spell casters are closer to researchers, scholars and scientists, rather than lightning hurling combatants. Of course that does not mean magic is not a powerful weapon, and many folks study magic so that they may go into an combat oriented career. Though it takes hard work to learn magic, the reward is plentiful, as you not only gain a very intimate understanding of the world, but you possess an unfathomable power that can grant you nearly anything you desire, if you work at it.
As for the first conceiving of magic, that is back in the Age of Toil. The Giants were the ones that created the arcane, taking the raw, unusable energy that was left behind after the world was made, and forged it into the arcane that now flows across the world, and as such, they were also the first to use the arcane. Giant's Magic, as it is known in modern times, was the first magic, and a very simple method of magic, as the giants physically bent the arcane to their use, doing things like stomping lakes into shape, or tugging mountains up with their bare hands, magic was more like farming tools than something mystical for Giants. When the first mortals became curious of the Giant's skills, a number of giants taught the mortals of the arcane and what it is like, and it's innate nature, and from there the mortals began to study it themselves, and eventually created magic as it is used today.
There are technically several kinds of 'magic' as a whole, Giant, Dragon, Fair and Mortal, and it's the mortal magic that is the most complex, with it's formulas of true names and intricate incantations, but it is the magic that has expanded the most and now covers so many subjects.
>>48137093
Jesus why?
How the fuck did they run an empire?
>>48172720
well, it collapsed, see
>>48133045
So I have two settings that are in the works atm.. One is a hard sci fi ( I've posted about it here before) the other is a post apocalyptic Magic horror based on a series of dreams and nightmares I had when I was really sick in hospital.
The setting is late 80s current earth but Magic is real and extremely rare until "the blue horizon event" wiping out 65% of the earths population and causing a collapse of most of society due to all the weird shit occurring; the dead rising, magic infected animals/monsters and people with all kinds of supernatural powers and magical abilities.
The geography is earth but with a big ass crater, fields of death, wastelands, lakes of fire etc where before there was cities and grassland.
>>48137253
I feel like you were too eager to use a lot of the icons, especially if this is a map of continental scale. Only use the majority of icons on very small-scale maps. A continental-size map isn't going to mark that many bridges, aside from the huge bridge in-between the continents. It makes it seems like all the marked bridges are the only bridges in existence. Same with the towns. Cities and towns should just be dots at this large of a scale, but you can get away with a few more fancy icons for only the fewest and most important landmarks, like a capitol or grand temple-city.
>>48139300
.jpgs, not even once.
Looks nice to be honest but I know this probably isn't the finished product and you can't really work on it any more and keep a consistent look whatsoever any longer. I empathize with your pain.
How do multiple moons work, /wbg/?
Anything I need to look out for when designing a setting/world with 3 moons? Is each moon at a different distance from the planet, allowing overlap/alignment on eclipses, or can they be at the same distance but on a course that never intercepts? Does their gravity affect each other? Planet is roughly Earth-sized (because fuck creativity) if that's important.
And although I'll never make use of the information, but it's a related and fun topic anyway, how the everloving fuck do two or more suns work? Do they orbit each other at the centre of the solar system? Why don't they just continue getting closer until they collide? Can there be planets in between them? How does a multi-star solar system even happen in the first place?
>>48173161
It'll affect the tides a lot. I'm not autistic enough to know exactly how, unfortunately.
>>48173161
Unless a wandering astrophysicists comes in, you're honestly better off just going to wikipedia and looking up information on binary stars and whatnot.
>>48133045
>Question: Is the geography in your based on realistic, natural phenomenon or fantastic and mythological events?
Well, for the most part, I've attempted to use what plebeian knowledge I have of geography, (plate tectonics, river formation, orographic lift and rain shadow) to form the planet Quenis. I've also tried to use the Gall-Peters Projection to display Quenis, though some areas may need tweaking.
But you see that little red circle in the bottom, snake-like continent? That area is magically sealed by a prehistoric (for humans, anyway) magical cataclysm caused by war. A long time ago, the material plane and the Feyrealm were unified. The Elves, the first major civilization that aren't eldritch abominations, were largely animist in their practice of arcane magic, using spirituality and rituals to guide their spellweaving. But one Elf, Galorron, believed that there was an inherent force being used, arcana, which could be studied and controlled by way of scientific inquiry. Studying this theory, he became the first wizard, and over the centuries, through his guidance, Elven civilization expanded and grew to new heights. Wonders were worked that no one had ever even dreamed of before and everyone saw it as a golden age. But as praise was thrown upon Galorron, his ego grew, and towards the end of his life he began to wonder if magic could be used to extend his life. His pursuits led him to a school of magic no one had ever even conceived of before: necromancy. To make a long story short, a war broke out and the wizards not under Galorron's command managed to seal him away, and to prevent him from destroying all of creation, created an impassable magical barrier around the region. Some elves decided to leave, some decided to stay, but from then on, the area inside the barrier was all that remained of the Feyrealm, while the outside was the normal material plane. This all happened around 10,000 years prior to the campaign.
>>48173161
You'd need not just the mass of the planet, but the moons as well, especially since I assume you'd want them to be more than just specks on the planet's sky.
>can they be at the same distance
Wiki "Co-orbital configuration". Otherwise not advised.
>binary stars
Very briefly: around their center of mass, centripetal force, yes, Google.
>>48158292
A'Dindu Nuffin
>>48145086
My monotheists god is currently haveing working name "The Progenitor". Will probably change later.
>>48145086
In my setting there are many gods, but the most popular religion believes there is only one true god (all the other gods are just part of him!) They call him He Above Us All
>>48158425
I like it. Reminds me of a setting I have on the back burner and have been calling plantpocalypse. Basically the capital of a kingdom erupted into a giant tree, and a forest has been ground out around it ever since.
The key theme is that nothing good comes out of the woods. Some things might look good, might sound and even act good. But then you have to remember that people who live near the expanding forest start to grow patches of bark under their skin and gain a psychological obsession with protecting the forest. The "elves" scurry around the canopy with their maws filled with tiny razors and their beady little pitch black eyes, chirping among themselves.
I Know I want the capital tree to be a portal to the wylds, and that it's going to be siphoning the life energy of the planet through it's roots and into the fae's world. But I haven't determined if the fae are actually future humans that are attempting to kill the past to save their future.
Can't remember if I posted this or not
I know some of these things are highly unlikely but who cares it's fantasy, I'm not going full science mode and make a second Earth
>>48139344
USA has been complacent the minute the USSR fell.
Do you worldbuild bottom-up or top-down?
I'm getting the impression that a lot of people like to start out describing grand cosmologies and creation myths. Ever tried starting out small and building outwards from your characters' area of birth?
>>48176145
I'm pretty sure everyone starts small. Everyone knows what they want it to be in the end and build around it accordingly.
>>48176145
Well no, I am doing both at once rigth now. A creation myth for the whole world, ancient history and the world layout.
>>48176145
I've only been working on one setting, and it all started at literally the beginning of the universe, and I've been fleshing it out from that simple idea. In fact my entire setting idea was spawned from a very old /tg/ thread where a lot of cool ideas were discussed and developed, and I fell in love with the ideas presented in the thread, so I decided to take them and do something with them
>>48176172
Yeah nah. Not on /tg/.
>>48176213
If I may ask, what kind of setting is this? Mine´s east and south asian in design for the most parts.
What´s your´s like? Do you have a link to the thread somewhere?
>>48176262
They do it anyway, just subconsciously.
>>48176279
I guess that's one way to make sure you're never wrong about anything.
>>48176287
I mean, it's not like they are going to build a world from creation of the universe and on step 50 realize they accidentally built setting with steampunk lizards and not setting with werewolf knights like they hoped. Not like they create a god and ask themselves "What would such a god create?"
>>48176306
"Fuck, futa goo dragons again! Back to the drawing board..."
>>48176263
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16908940/
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16923978/
These were the threads where the idea was born from
The setting I created is western, with a mixture of nordic and middle-eastern areas on the opposite ends of the continent.
It would be hard to short-hand the ideas from the thread and my setting, but the focus, at least in the start, is on Gods, Giants and Dragons. The threads don't really delve into discussing gods, so I did that stuff myself. The Giants idea comes from the concept of Giants forging concepts into objects, those old "A giant gave me a..." threads basically, along with a number of other ideas (true-name forging is what I've come to calling it) and Dragons that are just sacks of shape shifting flesh wrapped around pure chaos. I'd go into more depth, but it would take long posts to do so.
>>48176332
That image baffles me.
>>48176355
I've always liked the concept of true-names, and thus my setting is HEAVILY influenced by true-names.
The first part is pretty much explaining truenames, you have a name, the name has a body, that body is a thing. The second image shows that even if you change the body, the name remains the same, so even if you chip a rock away into a sword shape, the sword is still a "rock" in terms of it's true name.
The other images involve each of the 'big three influences' methods of handling true names.
Giants can forge true-names with their bare hands. So they can crush a rock in their hands, and create a stone sword, and it will be a sword through and through, even it's true-name changing.
Dragons a creatures of deceit and trickery, and they can manipulate mortals with ease, but they are terrible at permanent solutions. As such, they can manipulate an objects true-name like Giants, but it won't stick, and once the Dragon leaves, or stops influencing an object for a long enough time, the true-name will return to it's original shape.
As for Gods, in the setting, the Gods are the only things capable of creating true-names from scratch. Nothing else can just make something new in the world, they can only alter whats already there, but the Gods can create something brand new out of thin air by creating a new name, and as the rule dictates, where there is a name, a body will follow.
>>48145086
The main deity in my setting's Not-Christianity is called Monad or the Demiurge.
>>48177818
I can already see juvenile graffity on your churches
>Monad? More like Gonad!
You know what i absolutely love?
huge cities
im not talking hong kong or new york city or any of those baby metropolis wannabes
im talking CITIES
cities big enough to be their own country
the first thing that comes to mind is Ravnica, obviously. An entire planet covered 90% by urban sprawl. What resources are there that i can use to create cities like this?
r8 h8 'n' procre8 all up in my ms paint goodness
>>48178126
Deserts don't really border oceans, there should be a fertile strip along the waterline unless we're dealing with incredibly unfertile land (unlikely) or magical interference.
>Seasmoot
Love it
>>48178241
Yeah some of the biomes need some work, but thanks for the feedback
I'm trying to create a benevolent human centric religion based off of christian tradition.
By benevolent human centric, i mean a religion centered around protecting humans of all kinds against the horrors of the world that would see humanity brought low (everything form natural disasters to vampires to demons to cannibals to lawbreakers)
What i have so far is that in ye olden times, folk would worship actual gods and that was the central pantheon. Eventually a human came and dethroned the gods and claimed that humanity need not be bound to worship higher beings, but instead should worship human accomplishment. So instead of worshipping almighty deities, they worship saintly figures who ascend into sainthood through actions.
What i need to nail down though is:
Where do clerics and holy warriors get their power? clerics and paladins rarely have magical powers, probably only 5 or 6 total holymen get some holy magic gifted to them every 50 or so years (i'm thinking like ascent into angelhood)
But where do they get this divine gift if the religion is centered around humans and saints instead of all powerful gods?
>>48178656
divine magic pervades the world just like arcane magic. Gods channel and restrict it. Their worshipers affect the amount they can take, defining them as lesser or greater gods.
Not having an intermediary being to channel this energy, it makes it harder for it to manifest itself, as divine and mortal are meant to be in direct contact, however exceptional persons can exert a small amount of control over it.
>>48174625
Looks amazing, especially the font and colours used.
Though the island chains really do bother me, and does so much of the map have to be "Unkown Lands"?
>>48178241
>>Seasmoot
>Love it
agreed
tell me about dragons in your setting
>>48176145
Both ways work, so long as you're worldbuilding in a free manner and not with some sort of intention in mind. The world I'm working on started with the conception event first, and working out the cosmology, then after a while I started working on characters, then a bit on precursor "races", then back to characters, and so forth. It's always going to "start small" regardless, it's just a matter of perspective as to what "small" is. When you're worldbuilding based on multiverses, the start of the "current" universe tends to be the "small".
>>48177956
Ecumenopolis are basically your end goal. Search them up online and such. Resource and land use can be issues, as well as social structure and the implication of all that social connection.
>>48170321
I have a few demiplanes and the plane of air will come into play a bit but I don't follow the structure rules of the pathfinder cosmology when they're inconvenient. One thing in my setting I like quite a bit is a metallic isle guarded by druids. Metal equipment users will be slowed down in metal armor or will take a penalty to hit with metal weapons. They guard a standing stone that leads to The Circle Between, a Demiplane where otherwise extinct species exist in peace.
>>48179720
Like everything else, they are under an caste system.
The eastern inspired "wise ones" are the highest in the hierarchy, with the Dragon of the Center as it´s head (he´s also part of a zodiac and 5 directions/celestial bureaucracy state religion)
Then the traditional western ones follow, focusing on long lives, greed and brute strength with a few different breath attacks.
The wyvern after them are nothing bit pure brute strength, symbolising the strength of their brethren but not much else.
Then the wyrm, often insulted as am oversized worm are primarily seen as dumb, unintilligent primal forces of nature.
Higher than the wyrm, but lower than the wyvern are the dragon´s offspring, with half-dragons (primarily human, some of their descendants are called blooded and often believe themselves to have a divine heritage), dragonborn (result of the different dragon castes mating with each other), naga (wyrm that had been granted sentience and evolved) and kobolds, who are the result of dragon experiments.
Have I told enough?
>>48176145
Nah, I tend to start my settings off with an idea, and then haphazardly assemble the rest of the puzzle with an air cannon from 50 paces.
Setting 1: Hey, what if the dominant species was based heavily in hindu myth?
Setting 2: I made a drawing, I wonder what kind of world this fucker would live in?
Setting 3: What if I combined the most generic low fantasy setting imaginable with X men levels of suddenly super powers? (loved that game by the way).
Setting 4: What if powder fantasy with all the usual tropes but also with outlaw star style magic guns too?
Setting 5: What if everything was islands, and humanity had splintered into sub species based around the various islands (fish people in the atoll, bird people on the mountains, plant people in the jungles), and then let's throw in a mysterious moving island for good measure.
Setting 6: What if lovecraft wrote my fair folk and blue blood was not only an actual (and physical) thing which signified a connection to the fae and could result in magic powers. A darker take on the super's setting, which I have talked a bit about here >>48174534
Setting 7: WWI era war ships in the sky that I've posted about in this very thread.>>48164894
>>48158579
Then I fill in from there starting with the stuff that the players should most care about. I will usually as a result build mechanics into the world and the world into mechanics to a small extent. Not enough to completely overhaul the system (learned that the hard way), but enough to reinforce whatever theme I'm running with for the game. Afterwards I fill things out that are interesting to me, mostly behind the scenes stuff that may or may not ever come up, but I'll be able to rattle on about if a player asks.
Was trying to come up with a magic system that makes sense for weeks now. Can't stand hand-waving things away but magic, intrinsically, makes no sense at all so my progress grinded to a halt. However I had an epiphany after watching this anime I saw on netflix.
It was about an ancient evil returning, pretty standard stuff. The ancient evil was Ogres that fell from the sky hundreds of years ago. Only the "Ogres" were actually giant alien mechs.
Then I remembered Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law and everything snapped into place:
>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Now I just have to resist the temptation to hand-wave everything away with ancient nanomachines
>>48133244
Shamelessly stealing Grunkleshire
>>48176145
>>48180043
Hand-waving it away as "technology you cannot understand" is no different from hand-waving it away as "cosmic forces you cannot understand".
Can either make your magic an elemental-based system where a caster is just manifesting (water/earth/fire/air/void/holy/donuts), or one where the caster's imagination + secondary energy source work together to manifest any effect they can imagine.
You just need to determine your magic's scale, rarity of users, and cost/power ratio.
>>48133045
How would you guys do a campaign in a strictly military setting? Is there a nice balance between military realism and the more interesting parts of warfare for a soldier?
>>48182890
Do a campaign setting, have your characters be invading another nation for whatever reason. Have them take forts, make the status of war change the direction of the story (you're side winning? occupy a town and interact with the locals, are they violently resisting occupation or are they glad to see your banners? is your side desperately losing? have your players lose their troop and become guerilla fighters, disrupting the enemies best they can)
any experts on the roman empire here?
So ye olde medicine as a campaign tool. Would it work? I mean outside of oh it's old medicine go ahead and roll healing, but it's old. Whooooooooooooooooo wooooooooo oooooooooold.
Talking laudanum,amputation, and psychotherapy more likely to kill than cure. Would it work? Too many specifics and the like? Too cumbersome or penalizing?
>>48183204
Just ask your question, I have no doubt someone here might either know or know where to direct you. Personally? I know a little hear and there, mostly myth related.
>>48183167
What about their division? Is it better to have them be a part of a regular infantry force or a more specialized unit? In particular I was thinking of having the campaign take place in WWI timeframe.
>>48183297
Well, that depends on what kind of aspects on war you are most interested.
Do you want the gritty combat, the taking of strategic points, pushing the lines, celebrating great victories and coming home as war heroes? Then that's regular infantry.
Do you want them infiltrating enemy fortresses or towns, sowing chaos and disinformation, really learning about every aspect of the enemy, having a high stakes, tense assignment of staying under cover? or perhaps they are elite rangers sent to play out a guerilla war? than obviously a specialized unit
If you want soldier to soldier fighting, infantry
if you you want something more subtle, more strategically involved, less combat, than you go specialized i'd say
I want to kind of do something with goblins and hobgoblins.
>Goblins are small, stupid, cowardly, shitty
>Reigned in by superior hobgoblins, a closely related species
>Treat goblins a bit like humans treat dogs
>goblins who are without hobgoblins to rile them become destructive and violent
>Hobgoblins are playable, goblins are not
Is this an interesting idea or is it too edgy?
>>48183712
Ok thanks. I think I'll go with infantry then. Any other tips you could give me?
>>48183204
>>48183261
let's say that big Rome wants to subjugate poor little kingdom™ and bring it into the empire. what methods does the Roman Empire, specifically, favor in order to do this, especially including non-violent methods.
once the kingdom is conquered, how are the people of the kingdom usually treated? are they treated like dogs or are they treated gently? how long does it take for them to fully integrate into roman society?
if there are different answers depending on the period, then default to the early Roman Empire.
