/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Maybe they could have the Roman "adoption" method? An elf can choose his "son" and he becomes his heir.

How do I go about creating cultures in a desert apocalyptic setting ? From tribal to military, I need some help.

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
>How they work, who rules how?
It varies (kingdoms, plutocracies, rule by elders, etc.) but for the most part, nothing democratic, at least not on the large scale.

For the smaller settlements there are mayors, but they're mostly figureheads bullied into submission by the local warlord or tycoon.

Closest things come is Grit: A middle of nowhere town run as a sort of peasant commune (think of the way medieval villages ran themselves minus serfs and nobles)

They lack natural resources to really prompt any large scale invasion or attract any carpetbagging robber barons to set up shop, so they're left alone to manage their own affairs.

They elect a representative from amongst themselves to organize harvests, trade, etc. and deal with visitors from the outside during their term as Mayor, and another representative as Sheriff who keeps the peace and organizes the town militia whenever a raiding party comes their way.

Thus, primitive division of powers and a direct democracy. Only problem is that in order to survive, they've had to take measures to attract merchants to their town and trade for supplies they desperately need and can't make on their own, which has gradually eroded their autonomy.

>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
Oh yeah. For the most part life is hell for people who aren't at the top. There are constantly revolts brewing in basically all settlements, it's just the effective ones that keep them from actually happening. Worst is probably in Cragston, where the local authorities (a mining corporation that owns it as a company town) have gotten too cocky and allowed an agitator of the lower classes to break out of prison and go into hiding among the miners. So far the guy's gotten overwhelming support and has even started work on underground arms manufacturing to even the odds against the Mining Co.'s private police.

I imagine elves doing inheritance either by choice if determined before death, or by merit, or depending upon what the material is, may very well just be sacrificed to the nature god/buried with the dead.

Everyone wishes there were another person good enough to be a King again, but they also fear that having a single ruler is more likely to get assassinated again, like the last one. Since then, the EMpire's been ruled by an Imperial Council made of the most prestigious in the fields of magic, commerce and religion. While the Empire isn't as prosperous as it was under the old King's rule, everyone agress that having the most capable rule is wise, to make for better decisions and drive off the undead hordes to the east.

Gotcha covered pal, that's all I've been doing here.
My setting involves a post-apocalyptic world set on a continent almost covered in desert. Basic theme is "What if the Atom Bomb was invented in WWI and only the colonies survived the ensuing nuclear winter?"

What are you looking for?

I've got some really basic ideas in mind. A military force parading themselves around as the 'police' that are both hated and loved by people in the desert, the generic roving band of slave-taking barbarians, and perhaps a group of people living in in the cold - their people naturally resistant to the frost because of generations of mutation caused by extreme living conditions.

Hmm, so I'm thinking for common folk inheritance is a non-issue; wealth is buried/sacrificed/defaulted to the state. For royalty the adoption method is the norm, but what if a king dies with no declared son? Maybe the could have like a vice president rulership transfers to?

In my setting, that's only been an issue once, where the ruling King was killed, and had no sons (females aren't allowed in governmental positions). After the king died, his advisors handled affairs for a short time until it was decided an Imperial Council would be formed of the most powerful and skilled masters of commerce, magic and religion. The Council oversees all matters of the overarching Empire, with leaders appointed by the Council from the nobility to rule outlying lands, also with an emphasis on merit. A dandy would never be considered to rule one of the border territories defending against the undead hordes, though a skilled noble battlemage or military veteran may.

I'd look at pic related from the first Mad Max for costume inspiration.

I have a very similar faction, except everyone hates them.

Without any real law enforcement, the only real authority in Boomtown comes from the “Pig Cops”; an unruly bunch of freelance rent-a-cops specializing in police brutality of all sorts. Their particular brand of “justice” is defined by whoever’s payroll they’re on at the moment, though they take particular delight in cracking down on the homeless addicts laying low in the slums of Boomtown, just for the fun of it. Also known jokingly as the “Piggertons”, though the reference has long been lost to time.

There are no skeletons in my fantasy settings undead, yay or nay?

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
Humans are predominantly kingdom based, but have gotten to that point where they're experimenting with other options. Aedda will likely remain in tribalism unless they get some serious uplifting from humans, something they aren't too keen on.

>How they work, who rules how?
Nothing special for the humans really. Aedda tribes are very heavily caste based and function largely off of family loyalties.

>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
Again humans nothing special as of yet, except booting people off the edge of the world as a means of execution, but even that isn't really radical as far as the setting goes. Aedda justice system consists almost entirely of ritual trials that due to the magical nature of the world aren't quite as bullshit as they could be (but still aren't entirely reliable, though try telling that to one of their elders).

>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
The 2 species just met each other about 80ish years ago. So not only has a lot of things changed for each of them, there are a variety of viewpoints within each's various cultures as to how things should go from here. A lot of new ideas have been being thrown around as a result of the 2 races having fairly different views on their fairly different worlds.

>How does states neighbours feel about how the state is ran?
Too many states not enough post.

Meta question: Your favourite drinkable fluid?
Tea or Jamaican style ginger beer.

Everyone is flesh blobs?

Posted in the previous thread, but I had to sleep and thread transitioned soon after.

I need some help coming up with ideas to create cultures. Each culture is loosely based off of one or more real world cultures, is attuned to one of 12 aub-elements, and mixes physically with something non-human (it was humans only until someone played God, so now everyone is anywhere from 15% to 85% human).

Here's what I have so far:
[Air]
Wind: Chinese culture, mix with birds (Tengu)
Thunder: Standard European, mix with cats (for obvious reasons. Think Charr and Khajiit)
Lightning: Nothing

[Fire]
Fire: Native American culture (plains and southwest), Werewolves (canines in general)
Arid (desert, erosion, time, friction, etc): Middle Eastern culture. Scorpions (brown drow. Maybe hivemind?)
Bio (chemicals, poisons, acids): post apoc, cancer, mutations.

[Water]
Steam: Russia? Mist forms?
Water: British Caribbean. More human-like are the british colonials, more fish-like are ghetto jamaicans. Think Zora
Ice: Vikings. Dwarven Vkings? Giant Vikings?

[Earth]
Earth: Maybe Japanese? Torn between dwarven insect hivemind and rock golems.
Plant: Irish Fey. Either have a dryad-like connection with a tree, or can transform into a tree.
Metal: Fantasy Cyborgs. Inner city america/Industrial revolution. ghetto steampunk.

Some were easy to do (Thunder, Wind, Water, Metal), but I can't seem to find something that fits well with others (Lightning, Steam, Earth,etc). Any oddly fitting combinations that I'm overlooking?

>>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
For the most part monarchy. There's also one merchant republic, totalitarian bureocracy in a faraway land, people who resent any sorts of rigid rulership and a completely failed state.
>>How they work, who rules how?
Major kingdoms are feudal. Merchant republic are run by a guy named Prince-Successor and an assembly composed mostly of top wealthiest people. Faraway land has rigid cast system and state exams to advance people in ranks. Failed state is also sort of monarchy, but smaller and more primitive
>>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
In most places local leaders handle everything. Large cities has judges.
>>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
Generally, people are content with what they have. In the republic there's a push for more inclusive government but otherwise conflicts are not about the system but about who should run it.
>>How does states neighbours feel about how the state is ran?
My anarchist people are thought to be savages. Feudals and the republic are doing fine with each other, although lords and ladies think merchants lack class. Failed state are subjects to major racism (mostly being stereotyped as a bunch of crazy racists) or simply seen with contempt for their complete failure of a nation (Plagued by racist craziness)

Their all corpses. Need some muscle to be resurrected. No skellingtons without their meat suits.

For earth, what about making it a Pseudo-Communist worker's state? They consider hard labour (especially mining and farming bc they're closest to the earth) to be divine.

Alternatively, because you're talking about Golems, you could do something with Eastern European Jews (Or Pre-Christian Hebrews)

Those could both work. I was thinking the Earth nation would be set in a canyonland environment (Wind would have the Needle Mountain aesthetic of southern China). So if I were to keep the canyonland idea, they could even be native mexicans. Hebrews and an xx-stan culture would definitely work as there are frequent mentions of those people hiding in/using mountain caves. By comparison, the Arid nation would be more like the Arabia/40 Thieves aesthetic.

I just wonder how that would overlap with the Fire nation's SW native aesthetic. I might just need to move them more Northeast to be Greatlakes and Great Plains instead.

What's your opinion on demi-Scorpions being a hivemind society? Are they sufficiently bug-like? Or should I do actual insects, like !Formians. An ant or termite mix would work well with earth, as they could craft their own mountains and canyons, but I also feel like one of these nations needs to be built literally from their element, and Earth is the most straightforward to do. Another wrinkle: I could reference the biblical "Humanity was made from the dust" with Earth Golems. I think its coming down to Judaic Golems or Japanese Formians. And then there's still the question of Steam and Lightning.

Scorps are arachnids, they're solitary.

I'd do actual insects. Maybe Pseudo-scorps or Earwigs if you like that body shape.

Some earwigs are very maternal and Pseudo-Scorpions have advanced mating habits.

As for the "Humanity was made from dust" thing there's also Greek Myth, which stipulates that Prometheus out of clay.

Steam is easy.

Steampunk floating cities (maybe over an ocean or lake to fit the water aspect?) that act as port towns and a hub of trade.

Better yet, why not make it so that they hover over a part of the ocean where giant sea monsters live? Their cities need to fly so that the monsters don't nom them up.
And one of their main exports are things they harvest from hunting sea monsters (tusks, scales, blubber, etc.) so it makes sense that they wouldn't just take the cities somewhere else.

Can I ask some feedback on a race i'm brewing?

Gnashers are a form of not!undead creatures. They're home to the desert nation of Vis, whose inhabitants practice vitamancy (controlling the ebb and flow of life force).
When a person is drained of their life force beyond a certain threshold, they begin transforming into a Gnasher:
- All remaining life force is pulled into the heart
- The body starts decaying and its flesh starts oozing black smoke
- Bony plates jut out the chest and back, covering the head (and internally the heart)
- The shift in weight forces the person on all fours, making him crawl
- Most Gnashers lose all sense of self and turn rabid

What's left is barely human at all. The name is derived from the boneplates' constantly gnashing against eachother.
The transformation is brought about by a corrupted enchantment an angel once put in place. Originally, a divine shield would prevent a person being drained of life force completely, but the greed of the Visians twisted the enchantment and in turn, the angel.

That's true. Bug is a pretty general term, but I agree most people won't combine arachnids and insects. Fantasy Scorps (like Guild War's two tailed variety) might break enough preconceptions.

Early Greeks might fit well enough to combine with Early Jews. I'll have to see if there are some aesthetics I can combine.

That's true. I haven't really been a huge fan of steampunk in general, but especially if I want to keep the idea that Steam is Russian, then I could make something where Steampunk Moscow works. I'll have to dig into my advanced lore to see if there might be any inconsistencies. A city in the clouds is always nice to have.

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms? How they work, who rules how?
-- a failed electorate that has devolved into principalities, free cities, holy cities, and domains under the third eye (equivalent to crusader states)
-- Tribes (can be an equivalent to a kingdom or a more typical tribe, depending on the region and people)
-- the Successorship (successor is chosen through a complex ritual, according to legends the Successor is supposed to be a reincarnation of the original leader)
-- two theocratic republics that are in a North Korea/South Korea type stalemate,
-- various city-states
-- a full blown theocracy with a God-Queen (or roughly the same as a God-Queen)

kingdoms are a HUUUGE no-no for various reasons

>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
aside from the theocracies which have their own, somewhat alien laws, most of the states have some variation of the Bloodlaw from the Serenelands (the aforementioned failed electorate), which is a comprehensive codex divided into Low Bloodlaw (generally laws for the peasantry) and High Bloodlaw (laws concerning the succession of states and international rules of conduct).

>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
a good portion of the peasantry want to be paid more and be less restricted by their mayors, since the last few wars
have depopulated the region a fair bit. they also want more fines and punishment for unlawful magic ('external manipulation' is the legal term).

some of the princes want to break away from the electorate, one family wants to re-centralize the region and give more power back to the elected-prince (mostly because the position has been in their pocket for forty years now)

>How do states neighbours feel about how it is ran?
many of them don't acknowledge the electorate directly and prefer to deal with the more powerful princes within it. they don't really care about how it is ran so much as how they can benefit them.

forgot to make the map smaller, sorry

Why would anyone be willing to use vitamancy to the point that they become a Gnasher? Is there any indication of the potential to become one, or is it one of those 'you never know if it'll happen' things like ODing on drugs?

What program did you use to make that map? I wanna steal the hell out of that program.

How does the race fit among others and the setting as a whole? because so far they sound like a Monster Manual entry. To me a race means there's some level of organization or civilization, but how does that happen if Gnashers trend towards becoming mindless and feral?

Maybe rather than steampunk, it's magitech?
Oh! Change it from steam to Mist and have the cities built on clouds of fog magically turned solid.

They drift over the Lake of Monsters teasingly out of reach of the snapping jaws and gnashing fangs below.

Every now and then, a city will lower juust low enough that a monster will leap up and snap at it, only to be caught by a hail of massive hooks and harpoons that drag it up to be gutted and turned into the city's meal for the next month.

made it in photoshop
i also have a drawing tablet, which makes drawing the actual landmasses/countries a lot easier

I wonder if there's some sort of mythology that supports that. The first image that appeared in my head when I was creating this was a foggy moor or misty lake. How that became Russia I don't know, but there's someway to reconcile everything. Russia itself is mutable, and I still don't have a fantastic non-human aspect. Mistform is nice, but I can't help but think there's something better out there, or at least a better implementation of the mistform.

The main currency in Vis is life force. Almost everyone there knows the basics of vitamancy, the easiest forms of which is donating life (a technique passed to them in ancient times to help with life in the harsh desert). More skilled vitamancers can also drain life. It's not unseen for shady debt collectors to push someone over the edge with it.
The first signs are back and chest pains. After that, red scars begin to appear where the plates will come out. If the person doesn't increase their life force in the next 24 hours or so, the transformation sets in.

It's meant more as a monster manual entry I guess, mixed up the terminology, sorry.
They're usually exiled from civilization, some stragglers wander the outskirts of town, others form bands in the desert, hunting anything that passes by.
Some are trained by the military to act as shock troops, though this is kept from the public, in fear of outrage.

Consider having them become full monsters. Wandering the outskirts or being "trained" by militaries I can see, but them becoming a band of highwaymen just doesn't seem to fit with your previous description. Unless, you meant they just become feral packs of non-cannibalistic monsters. I can dig the idea of humans transforming into purely instinctual beasts in this way. Is there anything that happens if someone has too much lifeforce? Either transforming up (i.e. becoming angelic), or becoming a cancer monster? Having something like that makes for some interesting interaction possibilities.

Eh, could change to Scotland?
Perhaps some amphibious frog-like species that originally dwelled on the banks until they learned how to make cities fly.

If you really want mistform, you could make it a Land of the Dead.

A site of some ancient empire that was wiped out in some long forgotten plague; miles upon miles of graveyards all smothered under the same mysterious fog, out of which appear strange apparitions seemingly made of the mist itself.

I already have the ancient dead civilization thing going on, and its going to stay out of the "playable races" group.

And Scotland would give me a 4th GB based culture (Thunder being Tribal England, Water is Colonial Britain, and Plant being Irish Fey). In some respects you can never have too much Britain, but sometimes you can have too much Britain.

I also have an America (beyond the Native American Fire nation and the Inner City Metal nation), but that idealistic, melting pot America is its own separate entity.

The Frogs are interesting though. There might be something to be found within Slavland. I wonder if there are any frog stories within the Eastern European bloc, or perhaps they could be more of a Russian/Mongolian combo. A Russia Mongolia mix might be better actually. I'll have to look around.

I meant it in the pack of beasts sense.
And I had an idea in mind:
White liches are high level vitamancers who have accumulated an immense amount of life force. Through ritual and meditation, they can focus all their force onto their heart and trigger the transformation themselves. They lose their bodies in the process and become floating bone shells (what's inside the shell stays functional, so they still have a working heart and lungs).
They can float about just fine, though it's not unseen for them to be mounted onto a suit of armor.

I'm still fleshing them out though.

Actually, Japan does plenty of things with frags.

There was a Frog-based ninja in a folktale who even had a giant frog mount

True. Japan opens up if I go the route of Mediterranean Golems.

So I could tentatively do Japanese Mist Frogs and Mediterranean Earth Golems. That still leaves Lightning without something to represent it. Anything woefully unrepresented that also relates to Lightning?

Which is better: A full globe map or an isolated area?

I ask as i'm realising that trying to write an entire planets lore is a bit too big a task and I have existing stuff for a much smaller map already written. Problem is, it would mean a huge upheaval of stuff and amalgamation of whats been written before.

Do I go back to nations bordering a man-made ecological nightmare or a harsh but verdant colonised planet

wat do?

Posting old lore I had written up so you can give it a read

I've been attempting to make a campaign setting for about two weeks. Come up with a very general overarching idea for the world, like is it more one terrain than another? Is it the only planet known/in the system? How did it come to be there? And then, focus on just the areas the characters are likely to explore in the beginning, perhaps one major city, a few smaller towns and some wilderness area.

You might just want to focus on what's relevant. It might take place on a planet, but most of it is inaccessible. You can work on what's necessary to run your game, and then as you have time release more parts to the lore.

Also:
>No one nation can be blamed for the creation of the Ecozone.
What can be assured is that every country has been effected
by it in some way or another

effected should be affected.

Now that is a cool map, both the design and the way you named the different areas. Very impressive. How did you work when making it?

Ran out of space, so I'll answer the meta question first.

Meta question: Your favourite drinkable fluid?

Wine. My family moved to wine country about 6 years ago and live

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
Plutocracy for the Saudia Arabia inject, Meritocracy for the noble savages, and Monarchy for everywhere else.

>How they work, who rules how?
Plutocracy: Family rule, every 3 years whomever has the most total wealth is given the offer to rule. The choice is optional.
Meritocracy: Every year there are different trials of survival elected by council (e.g. go into wilderness and do X). Volunteers attempt to perform trials, whomever finishes most efficiently is elected leader.
Monarchy: Typical family rule.

>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
Pluto/Monarchy: Ruler appoints judges to enforce will.
Meritocracy: Tradition dictates law.

>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
Pluto: Short-term no, long-term yes.
Merit: No
Monarch: Yes, kings are assholes.

>How does states neighbours feel about how the state is ran?
Pluto->Mon: Friendly
Merit->Mon: Hostile
Pluto->Merit: Friendly

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
In founding order (as viewed by their neighbors and the FoN)
>Aristocracy
>Monarchy
>Imperial Republic
>Theocracy
>Democracy with a dash of Constitutional Monarchy
>Union of Free States
>Republic

>How they work, who rules how?
Aristocracy has an immortal royal family, Monarchy is largely hereditary with an elected council, Imperial Republic has an immortal emperor who's fucking invincible, Theocracy chooses a pope, Democracy/Monarchy only has a government to maintain social order 'cause the inhabitants don't give a shit, City-States are trying to out-merchant eachother into a hegemony, and the baby Republic is still getting it's shit together.

>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
Depends on the country, and there are a lot of them. Imperial Republic is the only one with a legal system resembling the US's.
Adventurer's Guild sticks up for registered Adventurers across national borders, so there's that.

>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
Republic's the most fluid one, as it's attempting to make a bunch of people that hate eachother get along. Most of the "immortal" or "semi-immortal" folks have a well-grounded power base.

>How does states neighbours feel about how the state is ran?
Monarchy shadow-governs the Democracy/Monarchy. Apart from that, nearly all of them have some form of defense agreement against "threats to civilization" and couldn't care less about international politics.
Republic might declare war on the Theocracy if they learn about the demi-human slavery, but overall philosophy hasn't progressed to that point yet.

>players ask for a creepy weird faction in my sci-fi post apoc america
>come up with an oligarchy of former human scientists who lost all ethics and work flesh to make a bioscience society of slaves
>"Wow user that's fucked up"

That's what y'all wanted. A fucked up faction. Gives my paladin player something to hate though.

...

Are reptilian space dwarfs a bad idea? Really want a shorty race that kinda look like grunts from halo.

That sound bad to you guys?

What makes them more than their quick description?

I like square shields. Are they really feasible or practical enough to warrant their mass use in regions?

>fast breeding
>Live maybe 45 years
>Society revolves around heavy industry and agriculture
>Families view life as somewhat expendable due to pop growth
>Duty to kith,kin, and Company is paramount

That's the basics really.

If by square you mean pic related, then absolutely.

If by square you mean perfect square, then maybe. A nation might have a mass production method that allows them to cut sheets of metal into square shields, or maybe the nation just worships squares so that's how they make them.

The standardization/mass production idea is pretty darn good, guy. Thanks

I could see shield workshop gluing wood panels together and bending them in shape of a shield. Large number of young boys grinding the shields smooth or doing menial tasks not suitable for masters.

I planned long time to not add any beastmen or anything like that. Then I fell in love with Glorantha and I found the light that is not human races. Here is one bit new idea.

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
Gnolls (I have to think better name and not use that name) live in different communities and tribes. Most of them are lead by their chieftains or "kings" in their own language.

>How they work, who rules how?
Chieftain is usually decided by bloodlines and standard oldest son of previous chief becomes new chief. Thought usurpers are common and that is why chieftains have to have a council made from important people in the community. Chieftains word is ultimate, but it would be foolish to not listen what council has to say.

>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
There is simple and universal usage of honour duels to first blood to solve minor wrongings. In most cases cases are solved by the chieftain or the community elders. One common solution is volunteer or forced exodus.

>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
There is always power struggle in the warrior caste and desire to be the next chief. It is common for similar minded gnolls to band together to make sure one of them has highest chance to become next chief.

>How does states neighbours feel about how the state is ran?
They are not that liked. Mainly due to their beastly outlook and the fact that most of them are nomads. Strange untrustworthy folk either traveling on horse in plainlands or in big caravans in "civilized north".

Plain gnolls on their horses and more militaristic tribes and bands are tolerated due to their value as mercenaries. Gypsy like caravaneers or their shack communities are frowned as they rarely pay taxes or contribute to society.

Meta question: Your favourite drinkable fluid?
I drink a lot of coffee. Around 8 cups a day.

If questions please ask. Also it is pretty hard to find good gnoll pictures.

Hi Veeky Forums, I've just found an old map I used seven years ago for a campaign set in "generic fantasy land #114" but during the equivalent of WWI. I won't do anything with it anymore I think so I thought I might just post it here... (I was young when I made this, so I took a lot of names from various fantasy and sci fi settings I liked at that time)

Gnolls are around 2m tall when they have their backs straight, but their hunched backs make them aroun 160cm-175cm tall. Their physique is muscular and they have very good endurance. While they are bit slower than humans in running they can run for longer periods of time.

Female gnolls are quite similar to males and can carry one litter of 1-5 cubs every year, but due to gnolls having difficulties in acquiring steady aupply of food they rarely have litters every year. Thanks to similar physical abilities the female gnolls participate in fighting. While they could fight in front lines, female gnolls prefer on using bows, javelins or darts.

Gnolls are not stupid or incapable of building complicated things. The thing that hinders them is lack of actual experience or materials in their projects. Most of their arms and armours are simple. Spears, axes, gambesons and leather caps. Equipment got as plunder or trade are valuable.

Gnoll warfare differs a lot between nomadic gnolls and caravan gnolls. Nomadic gnolls on their horses are quite mongol like. Harassing enemy before charging in. Footslogging gnolls aggressively charge in enemies, killing and dragging several with them before retreating. They do this several times in hopes for enemies breaking formation. In prolonged conflict they like to raid and plunder the enemies and avoid direct conflict. After all it is hard to enjoy spoils if dead.

Most gnoll pictures are those savage robber looters we know from D&D and other fantasy. So these two pictures bit resemble what kind of gear they have and use.

Anyone draw for their worlds? Pic related some of my shitty creature doodles.

Sometimes. Mainly just map stuff before delving into gimp proper.

This is just some knight person inspired by Dark Souls elite knight armor

If you can call this drawing. I used to doodle characters and make up worlds around what ended up happening on the page, but fell away from art these last few years.

I enjoy drawing bits of it more than sorting out its politics

>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?

Well the whole setting runs the gamut, there's feudal kings, absolutist monarchs, bureaucratic republics, merchant republics, noble republics, theocracies, there's even a revolutionary state like Reign of Terror France.

The main setting of the game, though, is a constitutional monarchy. There is a parliament elected by the citizenry, though the majority of the populace do not qualify as citizens. The monarch is really just a military commander with popular appeal, he has no direct authority in legal matters.

There is a desire for change, as migrants have poured into the realm from more destitute and tyrannical regions, but have little opportunity here either unless they try homesteading the frontier (a dangerous proposition).

Its neighbors don't like it. To its north is the state it broke away from. Basically they're both ethnostates now, used to be that one of the ethnic groups lorded over the other, so they got mad and killed a lot of people. Prosecuted a successful separatist rebellion, with some outside help. Now, even the state that funded their breakaway detests them because its people are fleeing to live in the new state.

>tfw I want to make a setting where a shit ton of demi-gods are running around
>Either the product of fuk, greek pantheon rape, etc etc or performing epic deeds in the name of their patron and receiving boons
>tfw I'm absolutely terrible at worldbuilding

So how are ya'll enjoying this sunday. Hope the knicks win

Sounds like you want to run Godbound.

Well what are you having trouble with?

Is it bad to post without an update?

Is it also bad to post an update right after you said you didn't have an update?

I added notes to chapter 7.

I like to create things for the hell of it. My only problem is that I never finish them. I figure having a bit more structure to my world-building process might help. My questions are: What do you do, and in what order? Do you divide worldbuilding into phases? What is your secret to completing these things?

How multi-level feudal pyramid really was?

What are you asking?

You know how in Crusader Kings there's Kings ruling over dukes, dukes over counts, counts over barons. Was it really like this, or tended to have less levels?

CK2 is accurate in its depiction of de jure status, but it was scarcely ever so neat in practice. I mean, it can sometime even be pretty good at depicting the de facto power balance, since as in real life there are times when counts will be more powerful and significant than dukes.

The feudal system worked almost identically to the way that criminal organizations work. At the top is a king(pin), then his direct subordinates the dukes (underbosses), who may have commanding subordinates of their own, the counts (capos), who then give out orders to the footsoldiers. But as in the mafia, sometimes a count/capo answers to the boss himself, since the position of duke/underboss is about the assignment of territory rather than strictly the delegation of authority.

it had more levels if anything, especially since CK doesn't factor the peasantry in (which I don't why it would for game purposes, but they're still a crucial part of the system).

if you want to understand the feudal system, then you really have to separate yourself from the idea of the 'nation-state', that is, the idea of a modern country with set boundaries. it's much more based on who you own/who is under you, rather than a set territory that you rule over. even peasants can 'own' other peasants, a lot of times through renting the manor from the local lord who doesn't want to deal with the upkeep of it.

>when you love a homebrew ethnicity too much to give it ugly people

Nyet.

At that point you know you're either making elves, or fetish fuel.
The very first thing you should think of when you're designing any group of people's appearance is how they run the gauntlet from young -> old, poor -> rich, beautiful -> ugly and so on

>At that point you know you're either making elves, or fetish fuel.
>my setting's canon has Halflings and Dwarves being created due to the Demiurge's fetish for shortstacks

Well that's a lore reason for them having no ugly people.

Still fetish fuel tho
Feel bad user but not really
*lightly slaps hand*

Working on nanowrimo stuff. Pretty fun so far. Finally, an outlet for all this world building

>>What kind of governments or rulerships do you have? Republics? Kingdoms?
All kinds. Kingdoms, Republics, Theocracies etc.
>>How they work, who rules how?
Kingdoms are usually elective, some are hereditary.
Republics are run by nobles who elect a Doge
Theocracies are obviously ruled by those appointed by god or the council of High Preists.
>>Jurisprudence, legal system how it works?
Think 16th century jurisprudence and you wouldn't be too far off.
>>Is there desire for change? What do they want to change?
There's a global collectivist movement that has formed a state in the far eastern islands after overthrowing their king. They're basically a mix of French Republican/Communist revolutionaries.
>>How does states neighbours feel about how the state is ran?
Most don't care, few are so terrible as to attain the ire of everyone around them however there are 3 in particular that are infamous for their trading of slaves, human sacrifice, and the worship of darker powers.

Quick question: How much has ecclesiastic Latin changed over the years? Especially in the 400 AD -1400 range

Bumpo

I presume not much due to it having written alphabet and all the necessary rules made ready. Also I bet monks and priest where autistically accurate in copying how latin was written in 400 AD.

I was hoping for a second pair of eyes to make sure the geography/climate layout looks generally alright. This is the Western continent which assumes something of the Far East and Americas to the eastern continent of the world. The eastern continent is done, the west I have just started to work on the climates after finishing the mountains and so forth. The very northern tip of the map dimensions is around 75 degrees north, the very bottom is around 26 degrees south. I have yet to add in rivers and lakes and so on to the West.

The arrows are layouts of wind patterns/cycles, and the horizontal grid will be properly done in full when I have both continents on the same psd file (Right now I can't because they are xbox huge in size. 200mb+ each). I'll add more snow in the far north, I just don't like how the layer looks with snow across a wide swathe of territory vs just ice caps.

It looks like I need to make the Himalaya-esque mountains in the West a lot more rugged akin to the ones in the east. But both existing on almost the exact same latitude is a bit off-putting. I still like such a mountain junction from a northern plate and southern plate in the west butting up, but I'm thinking it should be much more diagonal angular now, not so horizontal.

I fear I don't know but I believe as a proudly and obsessively educational and ecclesiastic language I'd think i would have changed very little beyond the addition of new words when necessary. The entire purpose besides being a sacrosanct language of God and the pinnacle of culture and human development as its practitioners see it, is to maintain that conservative link with the golden past or a more holy past and to allow constant and reliable communication and understanding between practitioners separated by space and time.

I know (I think) for instance that written Persian today is almost the exact same as Written Persian a thousand years ago. Likewise with classical written Arabic.

It'd help posting the image, wouldn't it.

Going to switch it from a horizontal himalayas to a rocky mountains situation. Five second crop and turn around reference as pic. Figure the two tectonic plates will be the northern half with the southern half smashing up against it and riding in a North-east direction. Hence why mountain chains will extend from that rocky mt spine up across towards the shallower North-East mountains. Eastern side of continents always tending to be warmer and wetter on the same latitude (See US SouthEast and China South-East vs same latitude Sahara/Arabia) should allow it that on that 20-36 degree north region in the West continent it'll be more Southern/middle China parallel to more arid pseudo-India in the East across that sea.

Some of the mountains feel like why are they there? How did the tectonic movement form those mountains and how does the plate movement fit into the puzzle of how stuff is formed. Google for the RL map of plates and their movement and think how ravines and mountains form. Remember some of the mountain lines like carpathia are bloody fucking old and there really isn't no real direct "okay that is why they were formed" reason. But you have to go millions of years into the past.

One thing to also remember is that rivers don't have to go more or less straight from mountains to sea/lakes. They do zigzag a lot IRL.

Hopefully my old WIP map showing tectonic lines and how they move helps.

>Have nations
>Know which nations border which
>Know what the world looks like in your mind's eye
>Can't put it down in a map maker because it seems off

I thought I did enough zig-zagging with the rivers, though I could certainly increase it.

I did look up the basics of tectonics and understand it to be that mountains:
-Generally form in coastal areas, or were coastal areas in a more distant past (Appalachians being old and weathered that way), in this case they are formed from a land mass subsuming the oceanic plate
-Land to land as in the case of the Himalayas, the Pyrenees, the Swiss Alps, the mountain chain of Turkey to Iran.
-Volcanic, in which case they have to be on a ridge-zone a'la Japan or Indonesia or Hawaii.

In the West's Northern part I kind of went hogwild on mountains because I felt all that huge empty space felt weird for me, but I can agree that I need to rethink that there. They never felt right to me.

In the east my tectonic thinking was as followed. Admittedly I had to shape some of the mountains in that center area because I felt odd if the pseudo-Arabian desert (marked letter A) would be so close and easy to travel to the pseudo Gangetic Plains (marked G). That sharp right angle though does come across as off-putting.

I have kinda similar problem.

>Have the world drafted
>Mountain lines and everything
>Have vague idea what kind of people live where
>Still have great problems on making those nations

I think I will have to go with Grain into Golds method of nation building.

Don't worry about putting super neat and tidy lines down for the nations just yet. I'd think that the modern notion of super clear cut delineated borders is a fairly modern phenomenon.

To be honest I've never even heard of an period pre 1700s map that delineated borders between nations.

Rather than that, just put the name of your nation in question in the vague territory they own.

Later on you can draw in borders

Problem isn't really on drawing the borders, but to think culturally different populations. When you have earth scaled world to fill it becomes bit hard.

The goal is not HRE level fuck ton of states, but Belgium sized or bit bigger.

I am most likely just going to put the nation names on the map. Most of the times borders do follow rivers and such.

I must say that the Ancient Greece threads have been a treasure for inspiration. A lot of neat pictures to save and use as models for different cultures.

Hey, I know this isnt quite the right place for this, but im developing this desert that the players are having to escort a group of settlers through.

Near the center of the desert is a large kingdom that is mostly middle eastern inspired. They are pretty developed already, but what I do need is interesting stuff from the scrub lands at the edge of the desert all the way to the center.

What kinds of monsters would be cool to fight in a desert besides giant spiders and sphinx and stuff? What kids of quests would isolated desert towns have? How do isolated desert towns even work, aside from being attached to a source of water like an oasis.

Thanks for help in advance!