/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

You're basically describing Europe from the end of the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

This is more of a question about history and what I gleaned from a class about the Ottoman Empire that ended like a year and a half ago, so take it with as much salt as you like.

I'd say it depends in large part about how the people in those different countries feel about it.

If they're far apart? Feasible in name but less so as far as having direct control over everyday practices. Maybe they pay fealty because it's a pain in the ass to fight, or too dangerous. Maybe they like knowing that they're contributing to the rulers such that the rulers will protect them if their enemies come knocking.

If they're closer together, it's probably easier to have more actual authority over the way they run their shit.

But still, you need people to either fear resisting you, actually believe you have some kind of moral legitimacy/right to rule, and/or just like the shit you're doing.

If you have none of those, then people aren't going to listen to you for long.

>What's the holy grail of PERSONAL transport in your world?
In my sci fi setting, a Class 4 starship. Experimental and highly expensive, but can jump from one end of the galaxy to the other in one FTL jump. Usually armed to the teeth with plasma cannons and kinetic weapons, as well as some stealth tech. Can hold hundreds of thousands personnel as well as a dozen or so squadrons of starfighters (as well as several hundred mechs). Science, medical, navigation, engineering, recreational, you name it it has it.

Alignments are shit senpai. Just ignore them.

Anybody want to help me invert Urban Fantasy?

I've got some half formed world concepts that would either make for a funny RPG setting or some mediocre novels.

Say all humans had magic, and existed alongside the typical urban fantasy slew of creatures. At some point in the past, a bloodline curse was put on humans that funnels all their innate magic into ignoring magic, constructing coverups for magic events, and if needed a hiveminded trance to then destroy repeat offender magic sources. Hence kitchen sink Urban Fantasy is possible, where humans literally ignore crazy shit like it isn't there and if pressed will trigger some to enter a trance and create a coverup. For example, if a magical creature was to shoot someone the nearest concealed carry normie would enter a trance run up and shoot the guy some more then get arrested and any cursed normies viewing recordings or investigating will "see" and remember the false event. The setting is a post-apocalypse for the world of magic. Minimal flaunting of magic is ignored, but continued magic presence will trigger a hivemind response in the cursed normie humans to destroy the source. Hence the kitchen sink urban fantasy elements are in hiding as per normal Urban Fantasy, since the cursed humans problem went full zombie apocalypse despite the normal modern world evolving and carrying on like nothing is wrong. Human wizards are actually people with no innate magic, freeing them from the curse.

So you've got a couple wizards dueling with fireballs in the street while normies commute to their 9-5. If it continues, some normies will go out of their way to do things like block or catch fireballs and other casual interference. Even further, then they'll start going village of the damned. Finally, it will go GTA chaos cheat mode on the wizards' asses if they keep it up. Magical creatures trying to make lairs will generally get hit by SWAT ('terrorists' on the news) or burned down in the night by people still in underwear.

>What's the holy grail of PERSONAL transport in your world?
A steamship is generally the fastest way to get from one place to another. If you're lucky enough to live in an area with paved roads, landship (imagine a cross between a yacht and a luxury car, about the length of a bus and 50% wider) can get your around even faster.

>Is there a mass-transport version, like a caravan, a Carrier ship, or just a very large hoverbus?
Not really. Sociological factors mean there isn't much of a market for large scale passenger ships. Public land transport is even less developed, with local trains just beginning to becoming a thing in a couple of the larger cities.

>questions relating to biological anthropology
How long would populations have to be isolate before speciation would occur?

That depends a lot on things like rate of breeding as well as how strong the imperative to adapt is (for instance, skin color change happened quickly because of how important it is to get enough Vitamin D without reducing folate too much if you want healthy offspring). If too complex of changes are needed too quickly, then the species just doesn't do well and possibly doesn't even survive there.

The first humans left Africa closer to 100,000 years ago, but there has been intermingling pretty much the whole time since then, so that's not a great way to tell.

But consider Australia. The first people arrived there 50,000 years ago, and this was almost certainly the part of the world that was the most isolated from the rest for the longest. Yet speciation did not occur.

So the best I can say is "probably way longer than 50,000 years."

Part of this may be due to the fact that we've evolved in a way that lets us produce tools and manipulate our environment to be more conducive to our survival, meaning that evolutionary pressure is lighter.

That said, even intentional eugenics probably wouldn't produce speciation as quickly as you might think, given that traits are linked together in very complex ways such that some things which produce intelligence, for instance, may also produce traits that you want to breed out.

Neanderthal could interbreed with modern humans but were distinct in the way that various humanoid species might be, and are believed to have diverged about 500,000-600,000 years ago. So I'd go with that, or maybe even more if you want to be on the safe side.

Different guy here; let's alter the environment a little. Say you have a population high enough for self-sustaining reproduction, they've got all the food and water they need, but they live somewhere with thin air and lighter gravity than Earth. How long would it take for them to become noticeably different from us, if at all? Or is this more of a biology question?

I mean, this isn't even just bioanth. It's entirely speculative.

But much lower gravity would probably start to affect us quickly. Hell, astronauts have trouble with that. Muscles would be much thinner and weaker, so that's something. Thinner air would mean a need to either breathe more efficiently or take in more oxygen. Or maybe since they'd have less muscle, it'd cancel out. I'm not a biologist.

I have no idea how long it would take.