An Asylum for Writers of Speculative Fiction

Once again the quoted text comes from 30 Days of World-Building by Stephanie Bryant.

Day Seven - Recent History

Spend 15 minutes outlining the major historical events of the last 100 years before your novel begins.

Include in your timeline:

Dates when power shifted in your civilization(s) (through coup, death of a monarch, revolution, election, etc.), and whether the power shift was smooth (as it might be when a monarch dies and their offspring takes their place)

Dates when a natural event reduced or increased the amount of natural resources (food, usually, but also water, timber, and other resources).

Dates when an unnatural event (such as a magical or technological event) changed the resources as well.

Each of these factors (power shifts and resource shifts) puts pressure on the civilizations. At the high-pressure points, write "battle/conflict"-- those are points at which violence may have erupted between cultures (or, if you have non-violent people, perhaps conflict that's expressed in other dramatic ways). Events may also be interrelated-- a technological event might give the edge to one power group, which forces other groups to respond, often with confrontation.

The last dates to write on your timeline: Date your novel begins, and the date your character was born (so you know what part of history he or she directly remembers).

Tuck this timeline into your notebook; you'll need it later! In fact, if you have a politically-oriented storyline, you'll probably need more than 100 years of history and more than one timeline to represent everything that's happening, so spend as much time on this part as you like. There's no need to limit yourself to 15 minutes.

Ugh. I have absolutely no idea about this stuff yet! Given how much the speculative elements influence this world I would have preferred to outline them first. But you go with what you've got I guess.

Except I really have no idea about this stuff at all and now I'm stressing out because my mind has gone blank.

Things I do know:

The North-Western peoples fall into two distinct groups. The Northern region is a set of independent city states that have an economic and defensive pact between them. There hasn't been a single political power since the previous empire disintegrated over a 1000 years previously. The current pact was formed about 300 years ago when the non-human race that runs the far north started attacking again. If it survives will probably become a federation in the near future.

The Southern part of the North-West retained a more integrated political structure after the collapse - think Byzantine Empire surviving the fall of Rome and has remained relatively stable ever since. About 800 years ago a new religion formed in the area and has become the dominent religion in the south (though unlike the fall of the Byzantine Empire to Islam this wasn't through war but some very impressive conversion rates especially in the upper class). The religion is closely related to the Northern religion (like Christianity and Islam) but the two tolerate each other better because their "gods" (not their word for them) tend to get pissy if they start killing each other over religion. (More on this when I do the religion section). Interhuman wars are kind of rare in the North-West anyway due to the threat from the north but as I said yesterday they do happen. I haven't defined any specific ones yet though.

There was a major pestilence/global pandemic about 200 years ago that afflicted both north-western areas and the desert societies as well (and just about everywhere else - that's what global means). It even afflicted the non-human races though not as badly as the human ones. This is this world's version of the black death and had many of the same social effects. Peasant revolts and the decline of serfdom etc.

That's what I have on the timeline for the Northwest so far. Given the vaguely clockpunky (more clock less punk) nature of north-west I probably need to look at the technology timeline as well, but not tonight.

The desert region is even less defined. I know the whole area was not always so dry (though it was at least semi-arid due to it's position) and the three cultures were once one but when the climate shifted they split apart. The Mountain Dwellers retain the culture most like the original soceity because the mountains aren't arid and the valleys and passes can support enough agriculture for fairly large cities (by their standards not ours). The rest were reduced to humter gathering though the Coast Dwellers figured out a whole new form of sea-based agriculture and started building villages and towns again about 600 years ago. This dependance on the Sea led to an inversion in their religion as compared to the original and they now favour the goddess of the blood moon over the sun because of her influence on the tides. (Again more on this when reach religion - there is a religion bit I hope. Religion is very important in the Desert area). About 500 years ago the coastal dwellers discovered they could make a very fine cloth from the threads of a sort of small spider that lives in their mangrove orchards. This cloth is this world's silk analogue (there are no silk worms here or if there are they haven't been discovered yet) and has enriched them greatly as it is a very valuable trade item. They also trade in salt, wood (from the mangroves), salted fish and pearl, coral and shell jewellery. Their major disadvantage is a lack of metals. They have to trade with the mountain dwellers to get them.

The desert nomads I have nothing on yet except that they're there and form a kind of buffer between the mountain and coast people.

So that's what I've got. I definately need more.

Once again the quoted text comes from 30 Days of World-Building by Stephanie Bryant.

Day Eight - Economics and Politics

Just as you examined your timeline for events and pressures,now examine your map for resources and deficits. For five minutes, make a few notes on the map to mark places that have more of a type of resource, and jot down anywhere that has a definite deficit of something needed. Also check your timeline; some of your pressure-point conflicts in the last 100 years may have resulted from an unexpected increase or decrease in the resources of one area or another.

When you're done with the resources, take another ten minutes and identify which major groups in your civilizations care about which resources. These factions may appear in your story-- they may be opposing the hero(es), or even helping the villain, or they might help the hero or at least get out of the way, depending on how each faction perceives and responds to the various characters in your story. If you are aiming for a political story, you'll want to flesh this out with descriptions of how the factions perceive each other as well as the hero and villain, key people in the factions, and their tactics in dealing with others. Again, feel free to label these with generic names for now; language is coming soon!

The North-Western region is in many ways like Western Europe. It has good resources including arable land, timber, iron, copper, tin and other ores, peat, coal, oil, livestock, salt and plenty of fresh water resources. Obviously the resources are not evenly spread but nor is any simgle region obviously rich in all of them. This is one of the things that has led to the extensive trade networks that led to the treaty mentioned yesterday.

The non-human antagonists in the north want access to some of the natural resources they lack and for various reasons aren't willing to trade. This is why they are building up to attack the human states and why the human states are more inclined to trade with each other than fight over resources. The Bugbear on you doorstep makes infighting seem counterproductive. Which is not to say there isn't tension and tradewars.

The Desert region is interesting.

The Mountain People have plenty of water, mineral and timber wealth but a limited amount of agricultural land due to being limited to the passes. What land they do have tends to be fertile and productive though and they've learned to make floating gardens (idea based on the Aztec Chinampas) on lakes to increase food production. They also don't have easy access to salt for preserving food.

The Desert Nomads don't have agricultural land obviously but they do control virtually all of the oases in their territory and have livestock. Their primary trade items are cloth and meat. These are possibly the least defined of the groups in the desert area at the moment. I'm currently researching nomads on Earth to get more ideas.

The Coastal People have the most unusual resource spread. Their entire food supply is based on halophytic plants, seaweed, fish, crustations etc and livestock that graze on the mangroves and other halophytes they grow. They do have access to fresh water (from the few rivers that reach the sea from the mountains and also via extraction from salt-excluding halophytes) obviously but they don't use it for agricultural purposes. They also produce lots of salt via evaporation. They also harvest pearls and coral and have the silk-spiders I mentioned yesterday. They don't have access to metal ores or much stone (they tend to build in clay bricks). Metal is important to them both gold and silver for jewellery, and bronze and iron for tools and weapons. It's so important to them that they are considering attacking the Mountain People to get access to the mines. Only the fact the Mountain People have access to better weaponary is stopping them so far.

Well that's all sketchy so far but it's a start. I think I need to be careful with the Coastal People though. I love them entirely too much.