Worldbuilding Project - Olestria - Part One
This is the start of my attempt at a fantasy world with modern technology. I'm using the questions from here to form the basis of this. I'll use each of the sections for one or two short essays (depending on the number of questions). With luck they'll give me a firm grounding in if it's a feasible concept. The essays (if that's the right word) will be thrown together quickly so don't expect copious detail and forgive the rough edges.
Olestria is a continent in the northern (or possibly southern if I decide to invert which hemisphere has most land) hemisphere of a world that in geology and climate is much like our own Earth. The laws of nature and physics of the place follow the same rules as the real world unless some supernatural force interferes. These include the gods, those who came before the gods (think like the greek titans) and the outsiders. One other major difference is the presence of genuine traversable paths to other realms such as the underworld.
The world has a single sun and moon just like Earth but the constellations are different. Tides, day length etc all tally with Earth. The land/water ration is about the same as Earth as well. It’s is very much an Earth analogue world but it is not Earth. The geography and history are different. Olestria may be similar to Europe but Europe it isn’t.
Magic exists - though it more miracle than magic since it comes from the gods and can only be requested not compelled - and it is wielded by the priests and priestesses of the various deities. Magic can break the laws of nature but given the limited number of wielders most people prefer to fall back on technology. There are no actual magical creatures in this world but sometimes they wander through the paths by accident or are driven through by design of the outsiders to wreak chaos.
Dwarves, Elves and similar races do exist but they are semi-divine creatures. Lesser deities who were human until empowered by the ones who came before the gods for certain tasks. Some of them live in other realms and others hidden in the human world.
The humans on this world originated there and have been around for about the same amount of time that there have been humans on Earth. The current population of Olestria is about two thirds that of modern Europe. World population is also a little lower than our own world. It was as high about twenty years ago before the year of chaos (and what that was we’ll explore later). Town and city sizes are comparable to similar areas on our Earth.
Olestria itself is a very ethnically diverse continent perhaps even more so than our Europe. It’s position geographically has meant it has been both the victim of many invasions due to it’s temperate climate, mineral wealth and fertile lands - and also the invader of other lands. Kind of like its real world analogue Europe only more so. Cultures also exist in multiplicity across the globe with most of them represented to a greater or lesser extent in Olestria.
I'll crosspost this to my worldbuilding blog tomorrow but for now I need to get to bed. Can I have feedback please? Oh and does this continent name you think of 'fake fat'?