shutsumon (shutsumon) wrote in specficwriters, @ 2008-09-09 23:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | genre: fantasy, olestria, worldbuilding |
Worldbuilding Project - Olestria -Part Two
Well I'm using the first half of the second page of fantasy worldbuilding questions today (That's Physical Features. I'll do Historical Features tomorrow) but I've ended up with a load of theological stuff. The religion section is going to be very interesting. And I find Olestria is doing an Athena on me and coming out of my head fully formed. As soon as I think about it I know this stuff. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not.
I'm still looking for constructive feedback on what I have so far.
As I stated in part one of the project the story will take place on the continent of Olestria - most especially in the temperate coastal latitudes (probably western) there of. I am as yet undecided if Olestria is in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere but this hardly matters except in defining which direction is pole wards since the East-West direction matters more. Olestria is a much larger continent than Europe (which is pretty puny as continents go) though it is not so large as Asia. Like Asia it has several mountain ranges at its heart running in multiple directions which complicate the inland climate and create a cool steppe and desert at its heart. In times past the mountains and desert made travel from west to east and visa versa difficult overland but this is a world with a roughly 21st tech level with all that implies for transportation and communication. That is it’s fairly fast and easy. Olestria has safe air travel and a global computer network much like our internet. It also has the related environmental issues of over-farming, soil salination, desertification and greenhouse gas related climate instability. Magic helps with the worst acute situations but the gods and their predecessors refuse to miraculously fix problems that humans have bought on themselves. They might send manna to feed a starving country until aid gets there or send rain if the rains have failed due to non-climate change related changes but they won’t de-salinate soil human acts have poisoned and they won’t transmutate greenhouses gases. Or to quote the wind titan speaking through an oracle when asked to do just that. “Clean up your own mess - you aren’t children.” There are exceptions but only in extreme circumstances. They also don’t seem to care who’s asking. The gods of certain other continents seem a little more hands on especially when its not their people who made the mess but even then there are limits.
Since the planet is an Earth analogue there aren’t any extra suns or moons to effect the climate. The sea-land ratio is roughly the same as earth and there are at least three continents/super-continents but until I design the map I won’t know the exact layout. I’ll try and work on the map this weekend. I would imagine roughly the same amount of land as earth in each of the climate zones but in a different configuration to Earth.
The lowland temperate coastal areas of Olestria are extremely fertile and there are many rivers and lakes due to the mountains and the temperate climate giving the region ample water reserves. The area was also once rich in mineral wealth but the easily tapped reserves are tapped out and it’s becoming cheaper to import from other sources than exploit the reserves that are left. As on Earth this especially true of Oil reserves though Olestria’s oil fields are not quite as close to being tapped out as the North Sea Oil Fields. The flora and fauna of this area is very similar to north-western Europe as well.
The near-human races either live in their own linked worlds (think alfheim etc in norse myth) or in or near paths to those worlds. So dwarves will be found in mountain regions near the paths to their home world. Humans are aware of the existence of near humans but cannot usually see them unless they let them. Humans usually assume that the near humans all live in their own worlds. This has led to some resentment of humans among near humans who feel humans barge into their territory and steal their stuff. Some groups are beginning to neglect their appointed jobs in order to plot “counterattacks”. Gremlins for example are pretty much terrorist dwarves.
As previously noted the mythical beasties like dragons live in the otherworlds unless they wander or are driven through by accident. As such they have no natural habitat in the world. They are blessed by the predecessors (titans) with certain innate abilities (unicorns can purify water and dragons breathe fire for example) and all are more intelligent than the normal animals the resemble but this equates to about the intelligence level of a two year old child. They can communicate with humans and near humans but they aren’t great conversationalists. While some are mostly innocuous (like unicorns) others (like dragons) can cause mayhem without even meaning to but since all the mythical beasts are considered holy when they appear the Olestrians will try and herd them back through the paths if they can locate them or otherwise contain them. They will only kill a mythical creature if they can find no other alternative because they fear the wrath of their patron deity.
Feedback please.