Hey /tg/, I'm currently creating a new setting based on the bronze age. But I have a few questions to ask.
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo?
>Can lockpicking, and by extension, locks exist for this time period?
>What's a good currency for a culture that uses copper in its weapons/armor?
>How can I keep every single bandit/warrior character from being 'generic hospilite style fighting man'?
Also, general Worldbuilding Thread I guess.
yeah locks existed in the bronze age, but it wouldnl't be something a barbarian would have
>>46828434
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo?
Depends on what kind of setting you are trying to make
>Can lockpicking, and by extension, locks exist for this time period?
Locks have existed since antiquity, so yes. They just wouldn't be as common or complex as modern locks, which rely a lot on precision technology. again, anything can be justified, it just depends on how realistic you are trying to make your setting
>What's a good currency for a culture that uses copper in its weapons/armor?
Shells, stones, literally any other mineral or metal aside from copper
>How can I keep every single bandit/warrior character from being 'generic hospilite style fighting man'?
By not being unimaginative and limiting yourself to generic hospilite style fighting men. Your own picture shows a bunch of fighters who don't fit that description. that man is wearing a flower pot helm
>>46828588
>that man is wearing a flower pot helm
Druid?
Druid *Paladin*?
How do I create a pantheon?
>>46829128
Make them flawed beings with actual personality and goals besides their God of 'X' shtick.
I really do mean that. Think about Zeus, he's just a God of the Sky or Thunder God, but half of Greek myth wouldn't exist if he wasn't a cheating fuck who had sex with a million women and made a bunch of demigods everywhere.
Also, God Domains are pretty easy to make, just focus on aspects of what normal people find important and their will probably be a God dedicated to it. If you want your fantasy cultural to be more legit you should probably make a few Gods relating to the fantastic elements as well. A lot of worldbuilders make the mistake of having a pantheon of Gods for Warfare, Farming, Fertility; but not a God for Magic, Monster Slaying, or your Steampunk technology.
>>46829410
What is a God of X domain actually supposed to do?
Say a God of war, does he just grant victory to whoever gives him the most goats?
>How weird/gonzo
Your players need something to grasp hold of, but it's hard for me to imagine a game being "too gonzo".
>>46829128
>lazy way
Take the default gods from D&D or mythology or whatever and rename them.
>hard way
Invent a creation myth, explain the role the gods played in it, and what roles they play in the world now. Decide whether they are active and human-like in their motivations like the greek gods, distant forces of nature that may or may not even know humans exist, etc.
Go read stuff about Glorantha. I recommend the King of Sartar webcomic and the book Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. Even if you don't like the setting, it's a good place to source ideas for a bronze age setting; especially in its mythology.
>>46829494
That depends on what you think it should be. Their actual role could simply be a kind of metaphorical one, and those who gain favor with the God will get victory in battle from favoritism, or it could be more directly in the form of a blessing on an army/magical armor and weapons, etc.
In my personal setting I am making all the Gods a bit more multi-faceted then just being God of X, but those Gods who are prayed to are all part of a divine Bureaucracy that controls everything, with that "x" being their department. While it's not quite as simple as a bribe, they do tend to get bribed with favors, worshipers, and sacrifices from those people who pray to them. I actually prefer it to remain a little unexplained, not everything needs to be super nuts and bolts, to avoid any silliness with how the Gods really interact with the world and keep it interesting.
>>46828434
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo
I am not the one you should be asking.considering that when I let my imagination run rampant in a fantasy setting I wound up with Halflings that have a tradition of pony-mounted knife-throwers, at least 2 major races of the setting being displaced extraterrestrials, and black powder being discovered by accident by gnomes trying to find the formula for artificial-sweetener, which was then refined by human alchemists into gunpowder. so I'm fairly certain I have shot right past 'weird' and entered the realm of "lavishly ludicrous"
>>46829991
wow, good blog
>>46829991
Is it bad I don't even think any of that is really weird?
The pony knife throwers thing is the weirdest thing, especially if its used militarily, but if it began as a tradition to show off throwing skills it makes a lot of sense.
Displaced extraterrestrials are perfectly fine for any fantasy setting, especially science-fantasy ones if that's what you are going for. Even so, regular fantasy has loads of outsiders or lovecraftian 'aliens' that can become races easily.
Finally, your last story about gunpowder is nothing more then a humorous story about the invention. Most inventions in real life are discovered by accident the same way, so that's not even far fetched.
2 out of 7 gonzo points, didn't even clok my bonkers.
>>46829501
>Invent a creation myth
I feel like this is kind of a narrow starting point for adding religion to your setting. One creation myth and one pantheon of deities feels kind if limited.
If religion and deities are going to be a prominent factor in your setting, you may as well create different cultures with different pantheons and conflicting creation myths. Let your players experience some of that uncertainty that humans must have felt when they became aware of themselves and the world around them.
I suppose it's a bit more work, but I feel like it will create more opportunities for rewarding stories.
>>46828434
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo?
I ain't stopping until I go full Kirkbride. Sadly, I don't have the drugs nor the knowledge of Hindi mythology to achieve it.
>>46829128
Don't create A pantheon.
Create two or three.
As for what gods you need for each of them...
Here's a potential list of example specializations: Agriculture, Crafting, Death, Earth, Healing, Hunting, Fertility, Fire, Knowledge, Love, Moon, Night, Rulership, Sea, Storm, Sun, Trade, Trickery, Underworld, War.
Now, combine two or three of these specialities (heck, for maximum craziness, roll a couple of d20s to select them randomly) and make a god based around the combination.
Do this a couple of times, and you'll end up with a handful of gods to make a pantheon or two.
>>46829128
Does the setting have actual gods? If so, decide if they actually interact with humanity in any meaningful way, or if human religion is mostly just wishful thinking that does not really portray the gods accurately.
Real world religions exist and compete with each other because none of them can prove each other wrong according to their specific criteria, but in a fantasy setting this is not necessarily true.
So, if gods can actually influence the world and show themselves, religion becomes a certainty, a way of dealing with the world instead of something that's created out of a sense of companionship and fear of the unknown.
This means that things like competing religions and different religions, if that's an important ingredient from you will take the form of either worshipping different gods in a pantheon that are all buddies, divided by domain, like harvest god, war god etc, OR, if the gods are not buddies, you can have competing gods using humans as their mortal pawns to further their own agendas, or a bunch of gods with very little in common that compete for attention or just mess about with the mortal realm just for fun.
In my setting most major religions and creation myths are the misinterpreted or fabricated legends that have sprung up around the period where the major races settled the world after a celestial event devastated their homeworlds. "magic" and miracles is performed with the help of beings that populate a universe that overlaps with theirs, and who are fascinated by the "real" world.
>>46831175
I like how you've conflated magic and divinity. This is an aspect of real-life magical customs that flies completely under the radar when games like 3.PF make a distinction between the divine and the arcane.
How hard it is actually to procure metal to make weapon and armour? Is it necessary to mine deep into Earth of it is possible to find workable ore just lying around?
I want to make a culture that lives in the woods and don't have much metal and I can't decided how little metal is fitting.
>>46828434
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo?
Coke machines in a dungeon is too gonzo.
Personally I like everything up to and including 'prog-rock fever dream', but modern artifacts in a fantasy setting is just beyond the pale and totally throws me off.
>What's a good currency for a culture that uses copper in its weapons/armor?
http://www.hamillgallery.com/CURRENCY/CurrencyExhibition.html
Have fun
>>46832535
Have a look at this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_iron
>>46832672
Huh, pretty cool. But it looks like bog iron is not very good, so I guess I can still run with my ideas about stealing foreign swords and treasuring them.
>>46832736
Shitty iron can be processed into steel too, it just takes a bit more work.
The japs created the greatest memesword of all time with shitty iron.
>>46831175
>In my setting most major religions and creation myths are the misinterpreted or fabricated legends that have sprung up around the period where the major races settled the world after a celestial event devastated their homeworlds. "magic" and miracles is performed with the help of beings that populate a universe that overlaps with theirs, and who are fascinated by the "real" world.
G'day Mr Fiest.
>>46832810
It seems very hard to forge a proper memesword. I stay by my cultural doctrine, my slavic vikings and maybe some Native Americans are going to treat swords they looted from more iron-rich enemies as their most prized posessions and sign a clan prestige.
>>46829128
First, understand how pantheons came about.
At least in places like Greece and Egypt, individual groups did not create entire pantheons. Individual gods would have had their own worshippers, this can be called a "cult" not a cult like we would think of irl or like in typical fantasy settings. These cults to individual gods would often eventually get subsumed by a more powerful cult/culture and brought into a shared mythology. Bacchus/Dionysos is a deity originating in Asia Minor and was brought into Greco-Roman pantheons later. Conflicts between cults would often be mythologized as conflicts between the gods themselves. The Titans were probably the gods of an older culture that was defeated by a younger culture, which wrote that its gods were the children of the older gods and were essentially inheriting a birthright, with the implication that their culture was also the inheritor of this older culture. The story of Osiris, Set, and Horus in Egypt is also probably a mythologized conflict between cults. A more pertinent example would be the relationship between stories attributed to Homer about the Trojan War vs the actual Trojan War, the gods are shown to support the cities in which their worship was strongest (though this is never stated explicitly)
Essentially, whether your gods are explicitly real, the "pantheon" is not a unified body that an entire large culture shares and that individuals just pick a particular deity to focus on, at least not until older pantheons are formalized like the Romans did, but that wasn't in the Bronze Age. Certain gods will "belong to" certain trades, or certain regions, or certain subcultures and ethnic minorities, with the "main god" belonging to the dominant culture. Also, if you have multiple pantheons, certain gods between them will be equivalent. It would be wrong to say that Mercury, Thoth, and Hermes are the "same god" but they do have similar origins, and it wouldn't be unusual for someone in-world to equate them
>>46832535
>>46832736
>>46832857
Also, if they actually live in the woods, they probably aren't very developed. The infrastructure necessary to systematically produce processed metal goods is something a lot of people don't think about.
And South and Mezo American groups had the infrastructure to produce decent metalworking (where things like gold and silver were available) but didn't have bronze or even copper tools. So availability is an issue, and you can just say that these people don't have access to copper and tin. And if they did, the area they live would've been deforested and they'd make money off of selling their metal supply to people who can do something with it. But none of this matters, because, again, they live in the woods and wouldn't even know they had access to these metals or be able to make tools with them.
Could a generic medieval feudal kingdom form in a polytheistic culture, or is a monotheistic state church an integral component?
>>46828434
https://books.google.com/books?id=Zkla5Gl_66oC&pg=PA149&dq=earliest+lock+and+key&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3otzW0qLMAhXMcz4KHTRSB24Q6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=earliest%20lock%20and%20key&f=false
Says earliest lock and key were 2000 BC from Khorsabad.
https://books.google.com/books?id=mf88HKKYEbQC&pg=PA152&dq=earliest+lock+and+key&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3otzW0qLMAhXMcz4KHTRSB24Q6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=earliest%20lock%20and%20key&f=false
>>46828434
There is plenty of scholarly research and analysis on the socio-economic factors that promoted or allowed the hoplite to take form. All of which wouldn't exist in our world until the archaic greek age so well after the bronze age. You can obviously circumvent that and have those factors present earlier. Simply put:
-Aristotle or one of his ilk is the one who propigated the idea that hoplite warfare was caused by the changing socio-economic status in Greek Poleis. He suggested a false and flawed but not without logic idea that: the earlier (dark ages and early archaic period) had the warrior-aristocrat whose wealth and status allowed him to fight from horseback (actually using the chariot to dismount for heroic duels but still). Then came the 'oligarchy' era where a strong middle and upper class could afford the panoply of the hoplite, and finally the 'democratic' era where the political power of the masses promoted a maritime martial dogma as naval warfare was a kind of socialistic egalitarian experience (the rich had to pay for the ships, the poor paid to row since unless you were a ad-hoc naval state you wanted good and skilled rowers and not just gang-pressed slaves or conscripted poor).
still designing a map for my world. How am I doing so far, /tg/?
>>46835080
ASOIAF-verse flipped on the east-west scale/10
Nah, doesn't look too bad.
>>46834996
-Victor Davis Hansen suggested the hoplite way of warfare developed as a kind of conscious desire to concentrate the savage ravaging of war into a single, climatic moment to better spare the populace/their agricultural interests. It developed as well to allow for largely untrained and undisciplined citizens to participate in battle with less importance placed on physical strength or youthful age (50, 60, even 70 year olds could participate in the phalanx with relative equality to younger men because it wasn't a long and strenuous campaign or an athletic business of dashing to and fro in Iliadic/barbaric warfare).
-J.E. Lendon suggests the hoplite way of war developed as a cultural expression of the pursuit of Areté (excellence/virtue) by making the hoplite phalanx into a kind of collective avatar of the city-state. It sought to boil away the irregularities of war (the javelinmen, the archer, the cavalryman, the ambush, tactical intrigue) and produce a concentrated and 'fair' competition of excellence or glory between two opposing armies.
Now how to avoid everyone being a hoplite? Look to the Iliad and greek heroic age rather than the classical period. That is the era where you had the duels of champions, use of the javelin as much or more so than the thrust of a spear by said champions, a variety of fighting styles (dude who fought ambidexterous with two javelins, Teucer with the bow, Odysseus with the bow, great big Telamonian Ajax). Warrior/Bandit archtypes could include:
-"The peltast", someone fighting in an irregular, nimble and skirmishing style reminescent of the barbarians or Iliadic heroes.
-"The stoic", someone reminescent of Telamonian Ajax or the classical era hoplite trusting in shield and spear/sword instead of the bronze age version of a PVP Dark souls character.
-Something like the old school D&D version of the barbarian in use of the Labrys 2 headed axe. Think sly and wily odysseus or perseus.
-Amazonians doing whatever.
>>46828434
>How can I keep every single bandit/warrior character from being 'generic hospilite style fighting man'?
Pretty easily; hoplites didn't exist in the Bronze Age. : )
(though shield wall-style warfare did exist, keep in mind that an armed adventurer/town guard/bandit/generic fighting man/etc. wouldn't be armed like a soldier equipped for mass combat, regardless of the period)
>>46834781
Depends on what you think a generic medieval feudal kingdom is. I know too much about the actual historical factors that lead to it to say what people who don't know or care think.
>>46828434
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo?
Depends. Don't make it wacky, but a lot of our foundational stuff was still formalizing, and alternatives, as well as a lot of them just not existing yet.
>Can lockpicking, and by extension, locks exist for this time period?
Yes, but not incredibly complicated.
>What's a good currency for a culture that uses copper in its weapons/armor?
Clay pieces, beads, shells, anything that isn't incredibly rare or useful for practical things.
>How can I keep every single bandit/warrior character from being 'generic hospilite style fighting man'?
Well, hoplites are a warrior from one small area of the world, and aren't nearly as effective one-on-one, I wouldn't imagine your average bandit forming a phalanx.
>>46828434
>gonzo
I'm biased - I like full gonzo. I like unapologetic silliness. It just works for me personally.
>locks
It'd be weird for a character to call themselves a "lockpicker" because locks would be much more rare in this age. Still, it'd be a neat niche skill for someone to have. Just wouldn't come in handy very often.
>currency
Slaves is the best answer. A lot of societies dealt flesh as currency in this age, and it has the added advantage of making sense regardless of the setting. Free labor is always useful.
>generic warrior
Depends on how weird or unrealistic you want to get. Have him be a hulking behemoth with a big, fat club that beats people to death smiling. Or armed to the teeth with a bunch of blades made of a brittle but heavily piercing material so he constantly has to switch out weapons in battle. Have him be a top-tier mook wearing the world's first experimental bronze plate armor, and be utterly immobile but impossible to kill.
So long as you don't mind a little impracticality you can always find ways to make it fun.
>>46829991
>>46830062
I also believe that nothing is specially weird in his post. At most the halfling thing is a bit silly.
>>46835153
>Something like the old school D&D version of the barbarian in use of the Labrys 2 headed axe.
The Labrys was a religious object. Actual 2-headed battle axes are almost non-existent in the historical record. They would still have used battle-axes, of course, but they'd be single headed.
<----- Some Bronze Age Anatolians. It was a pretty wild time. Also, much more developed than people expect. The transition from the "Bronze Age" to the "Iron Age" in the eastern Mediterranean wasn't an upgrade of civilization, but involved the collapse of civilization from between 1,200-800 BC or so. It took a long time to recover from this dark age, very much like post-Roman Europe.
>>46835118
I do see what you mean, but eh, its kind of a long-stretch.
Any advice? I'd like to put mountains, but not sure how to draw them on this kind of map
>>46835428
(forgot image)
>>46835432
The mountains should be running north-south on the long eastern continent.
Nice world, though. 8/10, would explore.
>>46835432
Eh, don't let fear of looking too much like a successful franchise force you into shifting around the things you like most about the map.
Best way to draw realistic mountains is to draw a series of tectonic plates beneath the map. They can be pretty much random, you don't need to be a geologist. Just draw some plates to make your world look like it's sitting on top of a jigsaw puzzle. Where the jigsaw pieces connect with each other, draw mountain ranges. That's how they work in real life.
>>46835080
pretty cool IMO i like the inland sea.
is this the entire world or just the known wolrd
>>46834781
If you give more info about the generic feudal kingdom maybe I can change my opinion, but for now I'll say no.
The important thing is not really polytheism vs monotheism, but unorganized traditional religion vs organized universal religion. The medieval european society as we know it cannot be explained without the massive influence of the church.
>>46828434
As far as being an odd or gonzo world, I find it depends on the person creating it. Naturally funny or sarcastic people could build a very silly yet believable world. It would feel natural. Stick to what you can do and if that entails some odd things, then so be it. It's your world after all.
As the other anons are saying, locks can and did exist at this time.
Currency would not be common at this time. Cities would have it, but much of the rural community - 90% of the population - would just barter goods. Depending on the geography and climate, certain items would be worth more than gold in those areas.
As far as soldiers, bandits, and other warrior characters go let me help with that
>>46835676
>>46835690
As goofy as this looks, it would protect you from most strikes the opponent tried. For the most part however, bandits and warriors alike would fight in just clothing. Often without it. Naked or "nude" - warriors in minimal clothing - were not uncommon. If you can't afford the armor, might as well go full agility build.
>>46835728
Not all swords were forged either, many were just cast using molds. They could be mass produced this way. Not in our sense of thousands a day, but perhaps 10 swords a day rather than 1 or 2 per smith. Not the best quality though. Maybe your world could have the richer or more important characters wielding forged weapons that show off status as well as a threat
>>46835760
The Bronze age was diverse because long term isolation created very unique cultures. In a century or two they were working metal and establishing connection with civilizations they had not heard from for thousands of years.
A city-state in Turkey would be completely unique from its nearest neighbor just down the Tigris or Euphrates.
If your world is even remotely large, it'd behoove you to create extreme diversity among the locations. It'd create more of a Bronze Age feeling rather than every city being an oasis in an otherwise arid enviornment
>>46835260
I just imagined a bandit using a Naruto style mass clone technique to create a instant phanlanx.
>>46835804
Priests and Priestesses were HUGE in the Bronze Age. Thousands listened to them. If the king was weak or there was no king at all, you better believe the religious authority was ruling
>>46835821
Aren't the clones easy to break? Have not watched that show since the ninja trials happened
>>46835831
Kings and nobility had ornate weapons. Nothing crazy that would ruin their functionality, but the engravings would be a symbol of status
>>46835647
The known world, for the most part. The >>46835432 map, there's a faint line towards the bottom of the paper that I'd like to think as the equator. There's a fairly sizable continent south-east of this map, but it's importance is extremely minuscule, so I don't worry about it.
>>46835568
I did do this in some areas. >>46835507 suggests that I run mountains north-south on the eastern continent, but I thought more about having the top and bottom half of the continent smash together, dividing the continent in half.
>>46835859
The use of wicker and rattan shields would be big in areas with limited access to large timber trees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VYdnHYWkbY
They work well and considering the weapons are bronze, stone, and wood the shields would hold up for most warriors the entire battle... or as long as they are alive anyway. If anything, they give a nice rugged bandit look
>>46835917
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/slaughter-bridge-uncovering-colossal-bronze-age-battle
Combat was close and visceral... like it always has and will be. That being said, battles were hardly big by today's standards. For a city of 10,000 people though, 500 fit and healthy men was a lot to spare. Make sure you don't overdo it in this world's number of soldiers and bandits
>>46835859
>Aren't the clones easy to break?
in my understanding the phalanx is designed to protect each other using big ass round shields and 3-4 rows of long spears pointed at your enemy.
>>46835968
The big deal in any battle or parade were the chariots. Only the largest and most powerful people could afford to build them, upkeep the horses necessary to use them, and outfit the drivers and warriors.
If somebody even used one of these, their opponent would feel humbled by it. Even if they had greater numbers
>>46835865
i like the east west mountain range. I would thinks about fairly significant climates differences between the north and south side creating two (or more) very distinct cultures, and all the conflict and drama that brings
>>46836034
Sure, but weren't the clone shattered if any force hit them? Say an arrow striking the shield or getting stuck in their armor? Again, not sure here on how strong those clones would be. If it took an actual lethal blow with force behind it, then this would be an insanely useful tool
>>46836072
The Bronze Age was filled with all kinds of blossoming ideas and technology. One new idea was that of diplomacy. Despite not speaking each others language or worshipping the same gods, it was possible for two civilizations to have peace and even cooperation.
The Egyptians under Ramses II did this with the Hittites after a brutal war against them. The Battle of Khadesh was a good victory for them, but cost many lives for the Egyptians.
They signed a treaty not only ending the war, but also proclaiming to aid one another should an enemy attack or a peasant revolt emerge. They used language like "my brother" and "my sister". Neat to look at really
>>46832857
Iron weapons aren't much better than bronze ones, though. The reason ironworking was such a big deal is that iron is much more common than copper and tin, which are rarely even found in the same area.
>>46834781
The Japanse were feudal as fuck and polytheists, so yeah you can have your feudal goons being polytheist.
>>46836160
>>46836334
>>46836160
I would say, hit to the shield is fine, hit to the body means ''poof'', but then a new clone steps in its place.
And yes, very susceptible to AoE.
>>46836348
Buildings got big during this time too. Maybe have a mega structure or two to give the feeling of a certain civilization's or city's prestige
>>46836365
I see, but yeah I guess the clones would not care about dying. They'd just march forward per the original's will.
>>46836371
>>46836371
Looks comfy as fuck.
>>46836409
Rock armor yay or nay?
>>46835821
As awesome as that sounds (and I may use it for a slightly less serious campaign/game), the main issue with bandits using phalanxes is that they don't work if you don't need to fight them, you can just walk away and the formation can't move fast enough to chase you.
I suppose maybe, since not very many people are going to be on horseback in the bronze age Mediterranean, it COULD work well enough to justify it, but it would still be an oddity and not a typical practice. Like, if other bandits heard about some crazy asshole using a shadowclone phalanx to rob people, they'd just go "the absolute madman haha"
>>46835859
Clones are, but iirc naruto uses shadow-clones which are apparently solid, or at least more solid. I only watched up until that bullshit with the Sand village attacking during some tournament, and it was a long time ago, so idk.
>>46836444
I'd vote nay, but only if it is that ornate. Like, it'd absorb of a blade's blow. Anything blunt would just shatter the little pieces and still allow the force into your body. Last I heard, that's not good for ribs and organs
>>46836442
Not all blades are hammered flat with the edge being a gentle slope. Some Greek swords or the Bronze and Iron Age had very interesting shapes
>>46836444
You'd need to magic it in some way otherwise it'd just crack and fall off of you with repeated abuse. On top of being obscenely heavy.
>>46836072
How would you represent the importance of war chariots in a roleplaying game? They don't look very useful for a small party.
>>46836447
I fell out long ago with the show too, around when they went into those redwood sized trees for some trials, but I agree that everyone would giggle about the "Phalanx Bandit". I would.
>>46836482
Helmets evolved over time too
>>46834781
Ancient Rome was rather feudal before the Republic period. Hell, they even had knights.
I can't prove it, but I'm fairly certain the Medieval Western European model of feudalism was largely modeled after the Roman system.
>>46836225
But actually we use feudalism by analogy. Japanese feudalism was completely different from french feudalism, and precisely feudalism was one of the few things we can say they had "in common". What about everything else?
Let's be honest here. How many people are designing settings for a writing project instead of a role playing game?
>>46833546
Absolutely this. Furthermore, especially in the Bronze Age, various city-states had their own personal 'patron' god, and the strength of the city-state and the powerfulness of this god were directly equivalent. These city-states often had a particular statue or symbol of their god put in the city temple, which was equivalent to ACTUALLY BEING the god; if a city-state was conquered (as by the Assyrians) then they would loot all the steles and the wealth and then take the statue of the god back with them--it was like actually capturing their god, taking the spirit out of the city, and they couldn't rebuild without it.
>>46836514
If it's a party of three, they could all ride together on it and cause some massive damage to the enemy. Or all perish from a rubbish roll. It'd be funny.
But let's say they encountered a foe using one. It's movement would great, but it's size would mean that the party could not clump together for protection. They'd get run over. Spreading out would leave them open to being singled out by any other foes on foot. A single chariot would prove a huge threat to a small party. Unless your party has magic. Then I would suggest throwing everything you got at that chariot ASAP.
If you have a party involved with a larger body of NPCs, the chariots would be the shock core.
https://vimeo.com/89611267
Skip to 6:00 and you can see their function in a battle. Not bronze age but they'd function the same way
>spend more than an hour just carving out a coastline on a map for my campaign on inkarnate
>looking real nice, my best map so far
>so into it that I forget to save every so often
>firefox crashes
>lose everything
I can't decide what emotion I should be feeling right now
>>46836701
Masturbate now.
You'll feel better afterwards, trust me.
It's how I deal with every setback in my life.
>>46836701
Sad feeling for sure. For future reference figure out the shortcut to save. In photoshop I will Control+S every so often randomly as it's muscle memory.
>>46836592
I am doing that.I have never actually done a roleplaying pen and paper game off the computer. I'd like to someday
>>46836559
It was modeled after the invading germanic kingdoms system which was modeled after the christian roman system.
>>46832658
Sory for OT, but anyone know any source on that image? Google gives me absolutely nothing. Based on my very limited knowledge of TES, I suspect its some kind of dunmer armor?
>>46836597
>>46833546
You're forgetting about animism. Many of the oldest religions we know about personify, or at least attribute spiritual properties, to all of nature. Rocks, streams, trees, weather, and the like. Attributing spirits or divine intelligence to important aspects of human life is a rather natural progression of the same mindset.
What you propose certainly did happen, but it's hardly as if every god worshiped was once part of a monotheistic culture. Monotheism was rare, polytheism was the standard. When Judaism shifted to only worshiping their primary warrior god, it was a big game-changer. And even that didn't develop the binary good v evil thing until encountered Zoroastrianism.
Complex pantheons and doctrine explaining relationships between gods would have been heavily influenced by the cult dynamic you explain, but that's just one factor of many.
>>46836733
Oh that cuts close to home.
>>46836733
Word of warning: if you jack off every time you feel sad, disappointed, or upset, Pavlov says you'll probably start associating those feeling to sexual pleasure. Being depressed could then develop into a fetish.
>>46836733
>>46836741
The worst part is, I will never be satisfied with my attempts to remake it. I got everything just right.
>>46836592
Anon from that bronze-age dump here.
Many, that's why I like to be over descriptive here. If someone uses the details for a role-playing game, great.
If they use them to build a world in whatever they're writing, great
>>46836529
Never underestimate stone as a weapon though. It was still used in the Bronze age by many
>>46836810
>Years pass, watching a sad movie
What the... not now boner!
>>46836889
It's worse than that, anon; one day you'll find yourself jerking it toGoblins.
>>46836592
I wanna do both. Many of my favorite game settings, Warhammer and certain D&D ones, also have fun book series. I wonder which would be easier: getting an RPG game published and then using that as a springboard to write books, or writing books to help get an RPG made.
>>46836870
The Bronze age also had a very diverse environment of pottery, art, writing, and architecture
>>46837037
Honestly, the game before the books. It seems like a less saturated market. Again, seems
>>46837043
>>46837062
Tattoos were around back then as well
>>46837107
>>46836755
It's actually for my own setting. Dunmer's a pretty good guess, Morrowind was certainly an inspiration.
>>46837152
>>46837107
I just want to say to all of you (or just you, don't know how many of you fuckers there are) who are dumping info and pictures and links in this thread are fantastic people.
>>46837184
Not the original anon who asked, but that's neat
>>46837192
>>46837184
Your own drawing then? Fuck you're good. Do you have any deviantart page or equivalent? I would like to steal your stuff for my inspiration folders.
>>46837197
You're welcome, dump-anon here. That fashion sheet is neat. Take this
>>46837152
looks comfy
>>46837236
At least you're an honest thief, kek
>>46837244
Games go back pretty far too. Chess stretches back ages
>>46837107
How did they tattoo you in the past?
>>46837251
Indeed, but I feel the hairy women and constant fear of some horse riding barbarian stealing my food and hairy women would not be too comfy for me
>>46837307
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_lAPyVl2aU
Very carefully... oh, and don't flinch.
You could use a needle made from bone and coat it in various animal fats, herbs for healing, and dyes for color. Charcoal was nice on pale skin
>>46837264
Writing got big in the Bronze age. People could live off of being a scribe comfortably
>>46837307
Depends on where and when you're talking about. At least one method just had someone poking someone else with a sharp stick and then rubbing ink into the holes.
And then there's this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pzkRkENmXE
>>46837264
A name/alias then, so I can at least properly attributed what you posted?
>>46837236
Not updated for years, but here's a dump of the stuff I have to hand.
>>46837431
Whoops, forgot link.
http://imgur.com/a/bdKb8
>>46837037
That's easy to answer. There are more shit books based on successful game franchises than there are succesful game franchises based on shitty books.
Nerds will read any old nonsense as long as it ties in with their hobby, just look at all those space marine books.
>>46837423
Talk to >>46837431 : just chuckling about your wording. "Do you have any deviantart page or equivalent? I would like to steal your stuff. . ."
I wish I had that artistic talent.
If anyone likes to read, here is a nice file
>>46837450
Thanks for sharing, anon. These are all great
>>46837363
Swords were works of art back then. Avoid having many people use them. Spears were the norm then. Clubs too but they were very simple
>>46837450
>http://imgur.com/a/bdKb8
yo, this shit is actually really cool!
>>46836759
We're not saying that the cultures were monotheistic, just that they had one primary deity that they payed special credence to, and that when a culture subsumed or subjugated another it would try to bring their god in a closer but subservient position to their own. This is how a bunch of gods in one region became known as a more collective group than they may have been previously. Of course their were still minor gods, and everyone knew of the gods the people around them kept, but Zeus and Hera both existing is different than Zeus marrying Hera, and then fathering gods primarily kept by other groups that were now the "children" of the dominant group's god.
Animism is less relevant to Bronze Age mediterranean groups, but it tends to function just as a much less orderly version of the same system.
Ancestor worship is also fun to play with, but that's too varied across cultures to sum up quickly.
>>46836586
French feudalism was different to Aragonese feudalism, than was different to HRE feudalism too. All of them had serfs, a high honcho than in theory called the shots and the nobles were ranked, but the actual power of said nobles varied, as well as the full support than the kings could call or even how the big dude came to power.
>>46836941
It happened. Fucking CoC.
>>46837184
Nice stuff anon, I like how the armor is plausible and the desings.
>>46837623
It's fun to imagine an ordinary, if influential, elder being revered after death, with the memory of him slowly turning into the image of a superhuman deity as the subsequent generations lose track of the real story.
Grandpa Tuk, who discovered that some rocks melt and can be shaped when they've hardened, turns into the hero-god Thunk of the valley tribe, who stole the secret of smithing from the Elder Gods.
>>46837643
This is very much medieval and not Broze Age, but it's a pretty good, detailed read on the European Feudal system for those interested. An interesting fact is mentioned is that oftenly, "A man of my man is not my man", meaning that a king didn't have the same direct authority over his vassal's vassals as he did over his vassals.
>>46837431
>>46837450
Nice! I once again ask if you have any sort of name, I like to have my art sourced.
>>46837623
This anon speaks truth
>>46837578
People back in the Bronze age were almost always skinny. Not thin, but skinny. Their muscles would be powerful but wiry and their feet would be wide from walking around so much. A beefy dude back then would require something like a modern diet: which the rich back then could only provide
To be realistic in the world, make most people look older than they are. I am 21, but would look more like I am 31 because of years of hard living, minor injuries, sicknesses, and so on.
>>46837743
Yeah I read it, there are lots of good books than make you thing before putting a millionr people city in the world. Heck ,the most I read about it the most impressive seems to me how people even waged war back then, the logistical nitghmare than is to support a +40.000 army makes Alexander feats even more impressive.
>>46837721
Exactly
>>46837743
Thanks, anon. I will read this tonight
>>46837578
Found more on the sword I posted here >>46835760. The moonrunes are neat just like cuneiform
Sometimes I wish I was an alchoholic, so I could quit and my hands would stop shaking.
Also look at my world and outline for people who live there.
>>46837814
That's why I can't imagine how much organization it took to keep a standing army in a place like Rome, China, or the states of the Fertile Crescent back then. To keep feeding, paying, and outfitting them was just tremendous
>>46837843
>Reesan Empire, RIP world's beacon of culture and progress ;_;
The little face at the end got me, this is a neat world you have here
>>46837879
Royalty was just as inbred as it is today. Egyptian dynasties, foreign or domestic, ended up inbreeding horribly.
>>46837814
Logistics certainly isn't a skill you normally associate with great conquerors, But It really was an essential skill for warfare. Pic related, the most terrifying of all Minotaurs.
Rate my continents.
>>46837965
It's OK. I feel that putting them in quadrants is a bit unnatural.
>>46837643
That's exactly what I was saying. Feudal is not really a very useful word for a definition of a nation, specially an invented nation that doesn't even really exist. Since his other words were "generic medieval", which for a westener anon means culturally european (maybe even western european) amongst other things, a nation like japan that had a feudal system but not any kind of cultural tie with those "medieval generic kingdoms" is a bad example. It's not that japanese feudalism is different, it's that the whole culture and history of the nation is completely unrelated.
Or maybe it's not a problem and he's okay with having feudal japan instead of feudal france (or britain, or aragon, or etc.), and feudalism was his priority, but that's not the impression he gives. He looks like asking for a classic kingdom with kings, castles and knights in shining armor but with traditional pagan religions instead of an organized church.
>>46837965
>not Europe turned sideways / 10
>>46837958
Either they would be a logistician, or they were smart enough to have good logistician travel with their armies. I can't imagine how awful it would be for the common soldier in a barbaric kingdom's army, or that of a falling Empire's back in the day
>>46837927
>>46837983
That was probably why I first thought it was a flipped map of azeroth. The continent shapes are fine, but I agree that they are unnaturally positioned.
>>46837927
>Helga
Where did this come from?
>>46837994
I gotchu
>>46837965
I feel like those islands in the middle are random. Random and huge. Unless there is a ton of volcanic activity there I can't see those existing in such quantity and size.
>>46838001
I do remember learning that the vast majority of soldier casualties in the thirty year war wasn't on the battlefield, but rather from the incredibly shitty living conditions in the army camps. A much later time period, but I don't imagine logistics having changed all that much between them.
>>46837782
Ursca is the name.
>>46838035
>who designed this, an alien?
Oh fuck, I only got that just now. My sides!
>>46838084
Check the amount of british soldiers died in action compared to the amount of british soldiers died from disease in the war of Crimea.
>>46838084
Nope. Fun fact: more American soldiers died in British prison ships and concentration camps than on the battlefield fighting. Wars suck
>>46838027
Helga was part of the Celtic Galatians who lived in Asia Minor. Many moved to Egypt to serve as mercenaries and metal workers. At least that's what I remember reading in some old book
Ideas and justifications for a vertical city? I've fallen in love with vertical cities, and I need help to make one come true in my setting.
I am currently making a setting which would be magitech-based (subject to change) and would be mostly about a vertical city. How should I go on about it?
One of the many justifications would be a civilization obsessed with the sky, the skybuilders (or whatever) who simply build their cities as high as they possibly can, because they simply desire to build higher, or to be closer to god etc.
Another possibility would be for this culture to be a past civilization (you know, one of those advanced precursor cultures, like always), and in the present the civilization is but a myth, but the structures are still used, renovated and new ones are built.
What is the reason people build vertically? Not enough space (Or not enough money to buy space) to build horizontally.
So, space shortage. Have one rock in the sea of shifting sands. Or just in the sea.
>>46838218
>>46838253
Pic related.
>>46838218
If they are building vertical, then they would need to be child proof. Can't have the village toddlers wandering off the eighteenth story. The people would have to be careful of weather too.
Get some strong winds in the picture and a poorly built vertical structure will dance like a tree in the breeze.
Magic would help, but plain ol human engineering would be needed too. The buildings could be designed to be very breezy so any strong winds hitting it would pass on through.
Building high structures could be an obsession with religion or meeting the ancestors, or it could be to get away from whatever is on the ground. Or whoever. A tribe of ravaging horse nomads rolling through would have a hard time reaching people several stories up.
>>46838172
It was not easy building things back then. Hell, we did not have modern building techniques even when modern materials came along
>>46838218
Building alongside and into a mountain side could be it. It was actually done in real life, mostly to make the city inaccessible to attackers.
>>46838218
You'd need a really good waste disposal system. Can't have the tenth story pissing down and it spraying into the fifth and fourth. Disease would be a BIG concern if the vertical city is set in any time period. Even now apartments can be hotbeds for small virus outbreaks.
>>46838455
Actually, with some proper garbage chutes installed (which, considering everything else it takes to build a vertical city, wouldn't be too hard) A vertical city could have a lot better waste disposal than an equivalent flat city.
>>46837643
This is something a lot of people forget because the "learned" about "feudalism" from CK2 and GoT. Like it's cool that more people know the basics now, but it's bad when they think they know all there is to know.
>>46837721
Yeah, obscuring of actual events in the historical record over time is fun in general, but I mean more like consulting famous ancestors for advice and favor with the gods, or venerating and mythologizing legendary ancestors to semi-deific but still semi-realistic standards.
>>46838534
Good point
>>46838328
I was thinking of possibly having "windbreakers" outside the city (don't know exactly how they would work, but it can be managed) to lessen the stress the winds have higher in the atmosphere.
Childproofing on the other hand is pretty hard... Railings are naturally mandatory in all places, but that doesn't stop people. But, unlike the railings we see today, the railings there could actually be 6-foot high walls with windows, for example.
Also the idea of possibly having either hostile nations or monsters is good, will save that.
>>46838386
>>46838253
I am considering the idea of having it be a small nation in a valley circled within a mountain range. It started with needing more space to build, so they started building on the edges of the mountain range, but in time, it expanded inwards to the valley from one point, creating essentially an almost unified city-state that is divided into multiple areas, with some self-sufficiency from the farming in the valley at the bottom. I just have to make a map out of this.
>>46838455
>>46838534
The waste could be directed to the bottom of the valley, where it could be distributed as fertilizer, possibly. Because in a non-modern setting, the waste is almost always natural stuff, such as excrement and rotten food.
>>46838968
Windbreakers outside the city or even on it would be neat. The devotion of waste to fertilization is a good one, but I feel large cities might flood the fields with shit. Literally. It'd have to be monitored. Dibs on not having that job
>>46839148
>The poopsmiths of the valley citadell are very well respected. So well respected, that people always cross to the other side of the street to let them pass.
>>46838968
:?
>>46839208
>poopsmiths
So after getting over my previous map being lost to the void, I went and made another one. Just gotta decide on mountain placement to help estimate the wind patterns for biome placement.
What do you guys think so far?
>>46839272
Coastline gives me a warm feeling in my underoos.
>>46839272
That's pretty good coastline. My coastline will be like this one day.
>>46839272
Maybe that upper landmass is colliding with the lower landmass. If the scale is not that big, then there probably would be a spine running through the upper land mass
Talking about wind, I bet I fucked up with placing steppes and swamps here >>46837843
>>46836371
now THIS is a picture that's going straight into my Landscape & City Ref folder.
>>46837244
>tfw u only get away with wearing a "manly" corset because the girly thing to do is let your tits hang out 24/7
BASED
>>46839148
Yes, it would need to be regulated, the flow of shit would be pretty horrific, taking account that the city is probably quite large, with the majority of the whole nation's populus living there. The fertile soil from the PITS (That's where they would probably go, to be honest) could also be transported back to some parts of the city itself, for gardening purposes. I could see that the city would have its fair share of mini-farms, for some neighborhoods for example.
>>46839208
The poopsmiths are not respected, but they are well-paid because their job is literally shit. Otherwise no one would do it. Think of it like the executioner's or a torturer's job in the medieval times. Well-paid, but pretty much everyone avoids them like the plague.
>>46839227
Not those windbreakers, no.
Now. Another question. Transportation. Most transportation would be on foot, naturally. But taking account this is possibly magitech (or alchemy, that's another plan I have), how would elevators work.
Also, water distribution would be rather hard on a vertical city, unless it had infrastructure for catching massive amounts of rainwater or have some mountain stream go through the base of the city.
If there was a stream going through the base of the city, how could it be used as transportation, for example, transportation of goods downstream and transportation of materials and food upstream?
OP here, thanks everyone for contributing, especially all the Bronze Age silliness.
I mean look at this fucker.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of Gonzo settings but its kind of hard for me to put away my sense for realism (not necessarily ACTUAL realism, just my personal taste for it) to do so. That's one of the biggest challenges for fantasy worldbuilding for me.
>>46839675
Welcome back
>>46839675
That hammer is weirdly like a medieval warhammer.
I know there's only so many designs for a weapon, but I can't help but think he's just spray-painted one gold.
Dump-anon here, mfw we have a better Bronze Age thread than >>>/his/
>>46839893
A medieval crow's beak or Bec de corbin. It is indeed spray painted to look bronze/gold
>>46839667
The poopsmith text was mostly a joke about how they stank so much everyone always keeps good distance to them.
About the transportation system, you could have elevators driven by manpower, but it doesn't have to be MANpower. It could be golems, possibly ancient ones that no-one knows how to replicate.
Have you possibly seen Avatar: the last airbender? In the city of Omashu they have a systems of great slides of polished rock running from the top of the city down to various destinations in the lower city, used for transportation of goods.
>>46840038
I know the poopsmith was mostly joking, but I took the chance to make a comparison.
And yes, I've watched ATLA... City of Omashu does indeed have an interesting infrastructure, and it is something I could utilize. Of course, because the operation is not necessarily manpower (I think pulling a raft upstream would not require a little too much manpower), the system must be a little different.
Considering the possibilities of magitech, there can also be trolleys going alongside the city, and a specialized raft that does trips down and upstream something like once or twice a day.
>>46840300
Waterfalls! You could have several huge water mills power the citys heavier public mechanisms, like elevators and such.
>>46840363
Indeed. They could be powered with water mills, at least partially. I imagine the energy requirement would probably be higher than what some water mills can give, so magitech (or alchemy engines) can do the rest of the work.
Aww man, I can imagine what the inner city "docks" would look like, with the docking officer stopping the raft, and people on both sides of the raft starting to unload and load the raft for transport... Shame that I can't art even if my life depended on it.
Also, dumping munashichi's work because gorgeous verticality.
>>46839667
>The poopsmiths are not respected, but they are well-paid
Not necessarily. In India they and others like them were untouchables. You gave them a shitty place to live and some food only because you didn't want to do it yourself. Hell, in some theoretical vertical city I could see the lower stories being slums where all the slaves who take care of trash/shit live.
Biomes are hard. I never feel that they look right when I place them.
What does /tg/ think about racially-based magic?
The most I've seen is Race X cannot cast Spell 1, but can cast Spell 2 whereas Race Y cannot cast Spell 2, but can cast Spell 1 ect.
In my universe, magic systems is radically different between the races. For example, Dwarves cannot cast spells like Magic Missle, but instead rely on creating items out inherently magical materials that they mine. i.e. something as simple as a sword that sets things on fire to a giant gate that can open to a passphrase. This is known as "Dwarven enchanting". In contrast, enchanting that is done by other races involves taking a mundane item and enchanting it temporarily whereas Dwarven enchanting lasts forever.
>>46841266
I think it's usually an interesting concept, but unless you are writing a book in the interest of game design it tends to be best to let them all work the same way.
For example I could make a character that knows X spell that only his race may be able to learn, but it still uses the same general magic system as to avoid potentially unbalancing or making the game unfun.
>>46840751
They don't tend to follow a single hard and fast rule I've found. Like Trade winds/horse latitudes are supposed to be 'dry and arid and hot' - and they often are with the Sahara and Middle East deserts and South-West USA but you also have verdant Florida or Cuba or Yucatan, India and Southern China on the same latitude. For instance Virginia is on the same latitude as the Maghreb/Egypt thereabouts and Syria and Mesopotamia. But all we really share with those is humidity. Jet streams can play a part too since you get L O N D O N and its ilk at latitudes of ice-cold Canada yet the jet stream makes them much warmer and milder.
I'd think as long as you don't pull obvious wtfs most people will not care.
With regards to monsoons - I understand 'everybody' gets a monsoon because of physics/chemistry with the water heating up slower than land, but why does Asia have major monsoons? Is it because of the large land mass? But if that's the case why doesn't Africa get big ol monsoons too?
>>46839578
>>46841456It's actually for a novel, desu. I only do it on /tg/ because I'd be shitposted to oblivion on /lit/
>>46841266
It makes sense that different cultures would have different methods of doing magic shit, but what reason would it be that a dwarf couldn't learn the way human wizards cast spells like magic missile? I'm not saying there isn't a reason, just that there needs to be a reason.
Personally, I only have it so a certain race can't do a certain thing in magic for specific reason, like frost elves can't do fire magic, or the anatomy of your mouth means you can't say a certain incantation.
>>46841533
Proximity to the coast also plays a big part in that.
>>46841533
>but why does Asia have major monsoons? Is it because of the large land mass? But if that's the case why doesn't Africa get big ol monsoons too?
In the case of Asia, I think the Himalayas have something to do with it.
>>46841846
Yeah, moisture butts up against the mountains and sits for a bit.
>>46841717
>or the anatomy of your mouth means you can't say a certain incantation.
Similar to that. Basically, certain races have an inborn perchance to spellcasting that can be boiled down to a sort of "sliding scale" of ability that fluctuates depending on genes. i.e, if this scale is measured 1-10, where 1 is mundane and 10 is hyper-magical, most dwarves are born a 1, but that doesn't mean they can't born a 2 or 3 (however rare of an occurrence it is), and they may never discover that they can be a catalyst for arcane energy due to conventional magic not widely present in their mainstream society.
In addition, the world that this takes place on gets its racial diversity through portals to several homeworlds (that, during the present setting, have long since closed) placed by their by the universe's gods, so each race developed magic in their own way. i.e. Humans, who came from a land with no magicstrongly hinted to be Earth but never outright confirmedhave had slower development as they've only been practicing it for a few centuries at most and average a 5-6 on the scale. Compared to the elves who have been practicing it since their people's infancy and average a 7-8 on the scale.
>>46841943
>Moisture spirits face-sit on mountain/earth spirits.
.p lewd barbosa
>>46842311
>people view the monsoons as the storm and mountain deities "coming together"
>bacchanalia-esque "love festival" during the rain season, it's considered good luck to be conceived during this time
interdasting
Hey, I'm working on a sci-fantasy setting.
I have an interplanetary co-monarchy controlled by four bio-engineered super-weapons-turned-tyrants and I'm having trouble coming-up with names for them.
The nation's tentative name is the "Celestial Authority" so I was going to call its leaders Celestial Blue, Celestial Red and so forth. Then I was thinking Celestial Fire, Celestial Wind, ect. but I wasn't really feeling that idea.
I want them to have a theme like that with their names but I also want them to seem like equals.
Does anyone have any kind of suggestions?
Pic kind of related. It's generally what I image them to look like.
>>46828434
>Can lockpicking, and by extension, locks exist for this time period?
Sure. Simple locks have existed for a vast amount of time.
>What's a good currency for a culture that uses copper in its weapons/armor?
Gold, silver, shells, salt, silk, and even barter economy could all be used depending on the region and degree of civilisation of the particular society.
>How can I keep every single bandit/warrior character from being 'generic hospilite style fighting man'?
By not making them hoplites. Why would you even use the hoplite style, which after all didn't even exists untill long into the future?
I myself would probably stick to lightly armed (if even that) warbands armed with axes and spears for most infantry. Slings, spears and bows would also be commonly used, as skirmishing would serve a more important part of warfare due to the lack of numbers. The elite units would be armed from head to toe in bronze armour, driving into battle on chariots from which they shoot their bows and only dismounts to go into melee, which would probably take the shape of a dual against a similarly high class warrior.
In general duals would probably be a much bigger deal as infantry tactics weren't that advanced during the time allthough a phalanx/shieldwall wouldn't be too rare a sight in a battle. If I'm not mistaken however they usually eroded into duals after a while as champions from both sides would challenge eachother.
Oh, don't forget including a scary, seemingly unbeatable enemy from beyond the sea who have started to raid the shores of the known world, causing much devastation and mayhem which rumours have are a herald of the end time.
>>46840706
Lower stories are for poorer people, simply because they have to live nearer to the water source, and consequently live nearer to the drainage pipes and stuff. Also it's darker in the lower stories, so naturally they're for the poorer people.
Speaking of lewd climates, I'd welcome second pair of eyes for if I did any glaring faux pas for the layperson and not the geographic/climatologist inclined.
My concern is justifying the somewhat green subcontinent in the center-left of the screen on the same latitude as the deserts, and also have the islands to the centerright being mediterranean in climate vs the North African/Syrian deserts of the dead center. South of that desert area you've got Abyssinian style semi-arid highlands and lowland savannahs leading into either jungles in the far south or subtropical forests (India-like).
>>46842445
I'd suggest going full-on Latin. Those can sound properly regal and powerful easily enough. Just as an example, the Latin word for something coming from the heavens would be "Caelestis".
>>46842646
So, would you suggest I ditch the title thing?
Instead of "Celestial Deus and Celestial Sanctus", I'd just call them "Deus and Sanctus"?
Or would you suggest those names with a different title?
I am absolute shite with making races actually feel different then human cultures.
I'm intending to have at least 2-3 nonhuman cultures in my world for the purposes of diversity and interesting story set ups, but I need a little help making them stand out.
As of right now, I have;
>Little halfling furries, live in secret glades and forests as they are popular slaves
>Monkey men, cousins to the human empires
>Lizard men, poisonous and solitary
>Trolls; too evil and far away to be playable, but a looming threat.
>>46842813
Seems something like "Caelestis Viridis" would hit what you're going for. That'd roughly mean "Green from/of the heavens." You could apply that to the other gods as well.
>>46842937
I guess look up the animal social behavior and apply it to human intelligence.
I got some mileage out of adding ant eusociality and dolphin communication to human intelligence.
>>46842937
To make other races actually different, you should make multiple subcultures to each of them, like humans have different cultures IRL and in most games. Think about the reasons why they have these subcultures and you're probably pretty much in the clear.
Not necessarily subraces, but different ethnicities too. Then try to think about the common factors that the different subcultures and ethnicities in the race have, and try to contrast them somehow to humans.
Such as one race being, regardless of their subculture or ethnicity, pretty much always oblivious of human ethics and values.
>>46842937
The first thing to consider is how the nonhumans are different from normal humans mentaly, on a basic level. Then think about how that would affect their behavior and culture.
>>46842937
what the other anons already said: look into animal behaviors and try to adapt them into a sapient humanoid(?) species, while still leaving enough room for individual cultures. as long as there's the illusion of variety ("orcs here are like this, but the orcs behind that mountain who you never get to see except for one dude, they're totally different") your readers/players are gonna be impressed.
>>46839675
Can anyone tell me what kind of armor that is? It looks like leather with some small plates or circles of metal on top for protection, but it isn't complete like that.
What would the name of that armor be?
So I want different languages to be a thing, but I don't want to have too many different ones to worry about. What makes more sense, to divide only by geographical regions ("the North", etc) or only by races?
>>46844635
It's the legendary and infamous studded leather.
>>46844829
I thought studded leather was supposed to look more like brigantine, with lots of little studs all over.
>>46844769
divide by cultures :^)
>>46844932
The studs are just rivets from the strip metal underneath.
>>46844769
Geographical regions, even though separate races may still have their own languages, which are usually sister languages to the common language of the geographic region - the common language of the region is probably a mashup of all the languages that originate from there.
Depending on the scale of the setting, you can put some geographic languages in and then have sub-languages within them. Also, depending on the age of civilization in the setting, the languages can be more or less mashed up or more divided.
>>46845004
I know what brigantin is. This was about how the supposed "studded leather armor", commonly believed to be a misinterpretation of brigadine, looked.
Show of hands, who would want to play a campaign that hadDemon's Souls set in Phantásia from The Neverending Storyas its pitch?
>>46842646
Hebrew and Babylonian also sounds biblical and cool.
For example,
Ishmamelek (the king has heard)
Israsedek (he who prevails with righteousness)
Abishalim (my father is peace/dusk)
>>46844995
Yes, that would be the realistic approach, but would make everything a real pain in the ass. That's why I'm asking about simplifications.
>>46845019
I definitely plan on having some languages be similar enough for people to sorta-ish understand each other. Not sure about adding a bunch of sub-languages thou.
>There was a rich and powerful empire. It covers the entire world.
>It was ruled by a Godking and his children.
>Suddenly the Godking disappears. His children fighting for the throne.
>In the following war, much of the world is destroyed.
>Most mortals also die.
>Almost all the magical power of the world is consumed. If the war continues dissolves the world.
>The surviving gods conclude a peace treaty (a few thousand years).
>The gods repair the world
Is this background too dark for a high fantasy world?
>>46845401
Don't see why it would be. Most fantasy worlds have some sort of terrible dark catastrophe/war in it's backstory, and this on did end with stuff getting repaired.
>>46845401
nah, but "most magic is gone" seems a bit off for a high fantasy setting don't you think?
>>46845460
There is still magic. The main reason for the peace treaty is that the world (and its life energy/magic) can recover.
>tfw when for the first time, the world building thread has been actually useful for my own world.building.
Man, I didn't expect this when I saw the thread. You guys have been pretty awesome today.
I guess this is my reward for being useful last time.
Still about the vertical city. Pic related is probably the closest I can describe it with the pictures I have.
The thing is, I am at the same time filled with excitement and dread when thinking about the scale of the city. In it's current state, I imagine it being somewhere about 1500m at it's tallest, partly because its base goes along a mountainside at 300m high or so. Of course, the shadowland under the city (called that because it literally is most of the time in the shadow of the city or the mountains) is also inhabited, but originally it wasn't.
At 1500 meters, it's still twice the height of Burj Khalifa, and way more massive. That itself (and the idea of possibly rendering it in 3d graphics someday, or at least commissioning it from an artist someday) makes me giddy, but also very intimidated. I really want to design the shit out of this city, but working from average height of a floor being just a couple of meters, the amount of designing it would take to tackle this city is, well, about as much as designing a real metropolis. The amount of floors would amount to about 300, even though I will probably reduce it to somewhere around 25-30, and just make larger blocks for apartments and such.
I roll around in excitement so much that I cannot sleep, and terrifyingly, I can't design.
>>46846283
My Dwarves figured out physics pretty quickly, and build their strongholds mostly-vertically. It helps with oxygen circulation, at least.
>>46846167
>Man, I didn't expect this when I saw the thread. You guys have been pretty awesome today.
Yeah, the discussion of pantheons early on in this thread has helped me a lot, since they've been one of the main stumbling blocks for me.
>>46846167
I find the topic to be a great place to stoke inspiration even if nobody repondu si-vous-plait. Just typing it out will help jog your thinking.
Finally getting the ball really rolling and placing and naming the nations/kingdoms/states. If others have trouble with names what I did was look at place names, personal names or even just -words- in very forgotten and long-subsumed languages. So not just Middle Pahlavi or Greek or Latin but Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite, Linear B, Saka-Khotanese, Tocharian, whatever. Get a list of words you like for each respective culture, editing and adjusting and tweaking and combining words. Often finding patterns to pursue - '-an' being my Iranian's version of 'stan'.
Curious for the Egyptians whether Mefket or Inebket is more appealing, and likewise whether Arazila or Arazala is more appealing for Italian/Late Roman/Byzantine.
Not yet decided on the dimensions of the Arazila/Arazala, whether they would be the recoiled empire putting the pieces back together (and limited to the island and coastal areas) or if they would be the empire starting to tear apart at the seams with northerners starting to stream into their big continental reaches north-west of them.
Also trying to still determine how to approach the dichotomy of wanting Mycenaean style palace-kingdoms but also some of that city-state polis dynamic. Need a collective term for the "greeks" like Nakkarum is the "Akkadian/Mesopotamian" of the city-states.
>>46847105
I've been doing that as well. Really helped with one of my nations. I'm aiming for a mixed Early Muslim and Zorostrian Persia with a dash of Byzantine aesthetic.
Easily my favorite faction so far.
Casual/noob worldbuilder here. I'm trying to create a cult in my world based around the worship of void and the nothingness after death. Is there a recommended way I can make this look non-evil? I want them to be a relatively benign organization. The upper echelons are somewhat corrupt, but the majority of the cult is genuine. Anyone have any ideas?
>>46848044
>fantasy setting
>worship of literally nothing/the nothingness after death
>non-evil, relatively benign
>>46828434
>How weird/gonzo is too gonzo?
This is the Era where religious ceremonies consisted of watching the High Priests fuck each other. Go crazy.
>Can lockpicking, and by extension, locks exist for this time period?
Yes but they would be rare items and fairly easy to pick compared to the ones in a medieval setting.
>What's a good currency for a culture that uses copper in its weapons/armor?
stones, silver, copper, clay disks/tablets, gold, barter
>How can I keep every single bandit/warrior character from being 'generic hospilite style fighting man'?
Skirmishers were a big deal back then. A noble could be expected to be skilled with a bow or javelin as well as a spear.
>>46848044
This: >>46848140
Have their "upper echelons" be actual evil cultists trying to prevent the souls from joining the actual gods in Heaven/Valhalla/The Feywild/Uncle Gimbo's Love Shack. The rest are just useful idiots.
No matter what, a "Cult of the Void" is going to be evil-aligned.
>>46848145
>>46848189
Uh, you know that there are many real life religions with similar concepts which aren't evil, right?
Why are you trying to make his idea more generic?
>>46848044
>I'm trying to create a cult in my world based around the worship of void and the nothingness after death. Is there a recommended way I can make this look non-evil? I want them to be a relatively benign organization. The upper echelons are somewhat corrupt, but the majority of the cult is genuine. Anyone have any ideas?
Well, a few things that need to be verified first:
1) Is there a (provably existing) afterlife in this setting? Most settings assume there is, but there doesn't have to be.
2) If there is an afterlife, is it a benign one or a hostile one (heaven or hell)? Or does it vary depending on the person?
If there's generally a benign afterlife that provably exists, then making them non-evil is going to be a challenge. If there's a generally hostile afterlife that provably exists, trying to get a deletion of self instead of being sent to eternal torment is pretty easily "good guys" side, or at least neutral. If there is not a provably existent afterlife, their actions are going to have to decide how they're non-evil. They'd probably try to comfort those that are dying from really painful causes that their pain will go away, and maybe focus on making the current world better since it's the only chance they get.
>working on aforum roleplay
>it has the feature to create your own factions
>have four different environments for said feature
Do I only allow one faction per environment, or do I split up the environments into pieces, and let others claim said pieces, allowing for more world creativity?
>>46850338
The latter. One group of people per environment is dull.
Different groups per area allow interaction and more complex histories.
>>46850557
That's what I was thinking, honestly. Plus, if one edgelord takes an entire land and then never does anything with it, while there will be steps in place to get him kicked out relatively quickly, it'll still be more aggravating for roleplayers who actually want to roleplay.
>tfw your world continues to coalesce
>>46850881
Feels something like this.
>>46850338Forum?
>>46829410
>Make them flawed being
Shut the fuck up.
Jesus, I'm so fucking tired of this cliche... Can we for once have gods that aren't Greek style assholes, a bunch of petty fuckers that get involved into everything, fuck up everything and has the constant "never my fault" approach?
I never understood how the fuck people can even worship a deity that exists only to fuck them over
>>46835428
>Actual 2-headed battle axes are almost non-existent in the historical record
Only in the west. Two-headed battle axes actually were used in Persia and India.
>>46851786
>I never understood how the fuck people can even worship a deity that exists only to fuck them over
They worship the deity so that the deity [doesn't] fuck them over. The Odyssey was a thing because Odysseus didn't make an offering to Poseidon before embarking.
>>46851820
The Iranians didn't actually use it as a battlefield weapon though.
>>46851786
Because the asshole gods reflected the asshole world the people experienced.
Mesopotamian gods were brutal, capricious assholes, largely because the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were wild and unpredictable. Contrast that with the more sedate and consistent gods of Ancient Egypt, where the Nile River's regular flooding was relied on for food, and the world seemed so much more stable and predictable.
>>46851786
Why do you hate good stories?
>>46828434
is that a fucking flowervase on his helmet?
>>46851786
Less worship and more appease and asking for favor. Kind of like the Congolese Christians who worship Jesus as one spirit among many and ask him for magic favors.
>>46828588
That man is playing Galaga!
>>46851786
Because this is a natural way of handling polytheism.
Deities in a polytheistic religion are never* all-powerful, all-seeing entities like Yahweh. There are more than one of them, so none of them is perfect.
They're certainly superhuman, but a flawed superhuman is an entity to be feared and appeased, and not always loved as a perfect guiding light.
>>46848044
Make them a kind of Buddhist-Gnostic cross.
We were all made from the Void, the formless Chaos before Creation. The creator gods trapped us in their web, condemning us to a cycle of flesh and sensation.
The cult is a means of liberation from Creation, to return to the formless nothingness of the Void.
>>46851709
Are you asking for a link? If so, I don't have one. I'm developing it. It'll easily be a year before I even get close to releasing it, maybe longer.
>>46852876
Oh, I thought you meant you were working on a roleplay in a forum rather than the forum itself.
Do you have any other features planned?
>>46852518
>>46852518
Then have offshoot heresies like a cult that believes in trying to kill the evil gods (by any means necessary), and you have plenty of plothooks for players.
I'm stealing this, by the way.
>>46830469
This is a great idea. Even in a world where gods are real for sure you Vann have conflicting stories based on what they've done in different places and who they favour.
Interesting worldbuilding shit going on over here right now >>46851276
>>46847105
>Talks about having good names
>Several of these names are horribly ugly
Gotta hand it to you, you nailed the egyptian ones, and some are okay but Newokito, Krokula, Qerasaja as well as several Nakkarumi places make my bones tingle and my dick soft
>>46846283
Continuing with the vertical city setting, I can take suggestions for the city's name. It's supposed to be something akin to a Nexus, being one of the largest, if not the largest city in the continent. It is the largest city nevertheless of the fact that it's not in the center of anything, it's very hard to get to, to be exact. Still, the tip of it can be seen from over a hundred kilometers away, so it is a point of interest nonetheless.
Anyway, the same setting, which I before said would be magitech, I've decided to change it to Alchemy-based. This is because I suck at designing magitech because I am too anal about how it works.
Anyway, anyone have opinions about a setting, where there is otherwise no magic (let's just imagine somewhere around late-medieval / early renaissance period), but alchemy has been valid for a long time. So long in fact, that the complexity of the brews compare to those of magic.
For example, there are bottled fireballs, which can be thrown like greek fire, let out of the bottle like a flamethrower, or ingest and spit out, as in to breathe fire. Of course, the latter option will burn the shit out of your mouth if you don't have taken proper countermeasures.
Also, bringing back some of the possibilities of magitech, they have also created Alchemy Engines, which, well, are engines that work with alchemy.
Oh, and a sidenote: Monsters still exist in the world, maybe not in excess, but they do. And their body parts can be used for some potent brews. And while rare, a single monster can be a serious threat for a village without warriors.
>>46855054
>It is the largest city nevertheless of the fact that it's not in the center of anything, it's very hard to get to, to be exact.
how did it get so big then
>>46855239
Well, to be honest, it's not THAT hard to get to. It's in a valley surrounded by mountains, so getting to it from the valley is easy, but getting to it from the other side requires scaling a mountain.
Everyone heard that there was a city of opportunity and rapid growth on the other side of the mountain. The "kingdom" there then was barely a kingdom back then, so they couldn't regulate the stream of people coming from all around.
And truly it was a city of opportunity, because it had the best technology of the world and self-sufficiency, along with an ever-expanding inner economy.
Before long, I think they managed a way to go through / under the mountains, so it actually became much more of a Nexus. Huh...
Heck, now I went and contradicted myself. Well... Let's say that by now, there are several routes in and out of the city. Over, through and under the mountains.
>pic unrelated
>>46855496
>>46855054
Might as well just call it Nexus, or Emporion if it's gonna be your setting's iconic capital city.
since we're doing names now, what'd be a good name for a big city in a stereotypical Gothic horror setting with vampire courts, annual witch hunts, tall pilgrim hats etc.
