/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General Bread Edition

Bread edition

/wbg/ discord:
discord.gg/ArcSegv

On designing cultures:
frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir's_Ethnographical_Questionnaire

Mapmaking tutorials:
cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48
www.inkarnate.com

Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
sacred-texts.com/index.htm
mega.nz/#F!AE5yjIqB!y7Vdxdb5pbNsi2O3zyq9KQ

Conlanging:
zompist.com/resources/

Sci-fi related links:
futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
military-sf.com/

Fantasy world tools:
fantasynamegenerators.com/
donjon.bin.sh/

Historical diaries:
eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html

A collection of worldbuilding resources:
kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources

List of books for historians:
reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/

Compilation of medieval bestiaries:
bestiary.ca/

Middle ages worldbuilding tools:
www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm
qzil.com/kingdom/
lucidphoenix.com/dnd/demo/kingdom.asp
mathemagician.net/Town.html

QUESTIONS ABOUT STUFF
>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?

>What are some animals kept as livestock?

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?

>How many people typically live in a single household?

>What kind of music do people enjoy?

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?

>How might people spend their leisure time?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_phonology
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

previous thread:

I am new to conlanging and I had the fucking idiotic idea of making a proto-lenguage like PIE. But I cant understend/find information about phonological constraints of PIE. How cant I get this information from proto-indo-european or examples from other languages?

I dont really want a "full lenguage", I want something like a list of words that I can use In specific moments of the history. I really want to show how the language changes through the ages in a reallistic way. This is why I cant just put some letters together that sound cool or look cool.

Going to throw my old post to here as conversation starter.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
Duck meat. Mallard Folk herds domesticated ducks as food for special occasions and trade goods. Of course foodstuffs imported from abroad is always wanted by nobility.

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?
Oats and Rye are the main crops and food derived from them. Easy to grow and both Mallard Folk and farm ducks can eat oats. They also grow some marsh grasses and reeds for leaner times.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?
Because Mallard Folk are pretty small, it is rare for them to have cattle. So pigs, chickens and of course ducks are kept. Mallard Folk really doesn't care that they are herding their "retarded" cousins and eating them. Their neighbours do find that slightly disturbing.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Cats are liked for their mouse and rat hunting skills. Cats also are somewhat frightened from different creatures that move in the woods that they serve as alarms. When cat behaves erratically something is awry.

Cont

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
After previous High Chief Rikhard died, and his second son was elected to be the next High Chief the other five sons didn't really like it. In long civil war that engulfed whole Red Marsh and Mallard population beyond. Second son won after killing his big brother in single combat during the clash of their armies. High Chief Roland now has long task to weld Red Marsh together again. Elective Gavelkind is a bitch.


>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
Mallard Folk is against common belief quite well traveled. Especially young sons of nobility travel abroad in search of glory and treasure to boost their probability to inherit. Of course if travelers come from faraway they are met with strange looks and disdain. Basic farmer of course hasn't seen much, it is too big effort to wander around as you could be farming at home.

>How many people typically live in a single household?
Typical household includes drake, hen and 4-15 ducklings. Hen can lay 1-6 eggs, but more eggs means bigger chance for hen to die during the process. In one year ducklings have entered the fledgling age and in age of three they are juvenile. Juvenile Mallards participate in running the household and are considered adults in age of 10. Adult Mallards then can choose what they want from their lifes. Usually adult Mallards stay at the household until they find a wife and start their own farm.

Cont

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Throatsinging

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Due to High Chief Rolands noticiable red stripe on his head, colour red has been the thing for past few years. All self respecting nobles and ladies want to wear it.

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?
"Look before you jump" saying coming from the fact that Red Marsh has some lakes and ponds that are habitated by large pikes and other swamp creatures. So you have to look and see if it is safe. Fits also to many other situations. Plan before doing anything basically.

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?
If you springle the eggs with pike resin, it makes the ducklings strong and fertile. Doesn't really do anything else than makes everything to stick to eggs.

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?
That High Chief Roland is bastard. Other brothers don't have the red stripe on head. Elders do remember that one ancestor had the stripe.

>How might people spend their leisure time?
Nobility has their own feasts and religious meetings and parties to attend. Cityfolk appreciates the gladiators fighting and training, shows replaying great victories are the best thing. Common folk has their own fairs and times to celebrate. Usually thought after work day is over, people gather around in their homes to listen to old tales of glory or just making some shingles to be burned for light.

Going to write about Kvennes. They are underground race, bit like mixture of falmer, HoMM 3 troglodytes and DnD troglodytes. But they are not as savage or crude as they are.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
Due to food sources being limited underground, more or less everybody eat the same stuff. Difference is just in the quality of the dishes and for nobility the fact that they usually have more diverse dishes. Cave fish, mushrooms, meat from cave frogs. Cave chickens are one of the only domesticated animals there.

>What are some crops grown in your setting?
Due to normal crops being more or less impossible to grow, their farming has concentrated on cultivating different mushrooms and reeds or grasses that can survive in the waters.

>What are some animals kept as livestock? What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Cave chickens are blind creatures that can eat dried mushroom bits and reeds for their survival. They are very common and are found everywhere.

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
Geon the Overseer after several years of built up declared wars of annexation to other Kvennes underground. One by one they were conquered and now he was preparing to launch an attack against dwarven of Red Mountain. Before he managed to so that, he was assassinated.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
Most items and foods coming from overworld. Rarely they have anything to trade with those not in caverns.

>How many people typically live in a single household?
Only few. Kvennes are very independent. When kvenne is 6 years old, he/she heads out to do whatever he/she wants to do. Usually this is to make name for himself/herself. With natural lifespan of 30ish years for those without magic, they are in bit hurry.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Claves, they make claves out of tge fungus trees. Their very good hearing can notice small differences in different claves.

Picture bit related

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Ponchos have been the wear for long period. Due to bad eyesight, different trinkets and bones are used to denote rank and wealthy. They can be heard and felt easily.

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?
"stay awhile and listen" Kvennes have superb hearing and it is common for them to stop to listen before they do anything.

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?
A story of a invincible Dwarven who single handedly broke all kvenne buildings as they were too weak. Tge teaching is to make as good thing as possible always. No shoddy work.

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?
It is suspected that Geon the Overseer was assassinated by the priests who support another Overseer that is now competing for leadership.

>How might people spend their leisure time?
There is no day/night cycle in the caverns so mostly they just work. They know that they do not live long, so they they try to get most out of it.


I want Kvennes to be counter for Dwarven expansion underground. A race that has evolved to survive in the caverns. They are not savages and can built and mine whatever they want. They have whole civilization down there.

There is going to be Deep Dwarven as the another underground race.

Just take the top 3-5 Indoeuropean languages and swap around letters and pronunciation until something vaguely Romantic appears. Add in some old Sanskrit for flavor.

That is not very helpful... Thanks anyway.

How is it not helpful? Indo-European languages have a lot in common.

Pumped as I am to see so many of my own questions posted by someone else, that is way too many questions for the OP.

Do your setting's factions have flags? Post them.

Yeah, I know that. Everyone who heard something about PIE knows that. What I need is more technical information. What I need are the "rules" that formed words in PIE.

Hm. Can't help you with 'words'. My degree was in composition. If you needed any help on sentence structure I could help a little bit.

But my original point still stands. I'd take the same word from multiple languages and see what sounds connect them. And remember to keep the High German consonant shift in mind. It's the big divider between European and Asian branches of the IE lang group.

You mean you need PIE grammar? Or how we reconstructed it? Or how languages evolved from it?

Question to my fellow worldbuilders:
Would creating a setting based on a enormous renaissance tech level city, with around 1 million citizens, bring too many problems?
I'm thinking about a very D&Dish style game, but with a little bit more investigation and politics.

It's no issue, honestly. I've done similar. In a very D&Dizzle world the magic level is usually sufficient to prevent the sort of disasters that kept the human population in check prior to the 19th century. Clean water, sanitation, and a good supply of food are very easily created with even cantrips, so as long as there are a handful of mages around you can really easily justify any mega-cities regardless of tech level.

The main problem is that pre-Industrial Revolution cities were hotbeds of disease. Typically, they only grew because of people moving to the city, not because the birth rate there ever exceeded the death rate. If there are fewer animals and better sanitation, then it could work.

Also, D&D isn't super-well suited to games heavy on investigation and politics. Admittedly when I tried I was using Pathfinder, which is garbage, but I don't think it would work super well even with a good edition.

I dont need right now to know the grammar nor the sentence structure, but if you have information about that, I would love to learn that because I will need know that stuff in the future. So please share it with me!

My question was about how was the syllabic strucure of the words. I think that in linguistics its known as "phonotactis". Thats the information that I cant find.

Start here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_phonology

Bump while figuring shit out.

Is there a place where we can find the questions used in these OPs? They're often not found in the ethnographical questionnaire, yet they're a great ressource to find stuff to expand upon in your settings.

Deep Dwarven are group of dwarven who very long time ago ended up living underground. From there they have spread out and continue their business in underworld. They have albino skin and more sharp bodies. Not as stout as normal dwarven are. DnD Duergar are inspiration for these, but in terms of alignment they are not lawful evil, but more like lawful neutral.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
Anything traded from overworld. The rare overworld trade with civilized humans brings spices and other valuable things. More common trade with Greymen or Dragonmen doesn't bring high quality products. Mutton is priced amongst the nobility.

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?
Cave wheat is the crop they crow. Using their limited magic to grow the crops. When they noticed that their runelights can be used to grow crops their old problem at feeding themselves was solved. This is very slow progress thought. Cave trouts and salmon are important source of food and are used to replace other meat products.

>What are some animals kept as livestock? What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Livestock is rare, but just like Kvennes, cave chickens are most common livestock. And because dwarven of all kinds hate vermin, cats are common pets. They can see in the low illumination of the caverns and hunt for the vermin.

cont.

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
Deep Dwarven of Iron Chasm broke their truce with Dwarven city of Copperhall. It is thought that they have made a deal with Dragonmen to provide them with metals and weapons.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
More or less everything coming from overworld. Anything that is not common in overworld is very foreign for Deep Dwarven. They might know about it, but haven't seen it for long time.

>How many people typically live in a single household?
Just like normal dwarven, they are very clan centric. They live in same households carved into the bedrock with all households being small fortresses inside fortresses.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Building large amphitheatres, Deep Dwarven are friends of music. It is very common for them to learn some instrument during their lives. Ranging from hurdy-gurdies to cymbals.

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Deep Dwarven are very utilitarian and more or less it is just rich nobles and merchants who use jewels and other fancy things on their clothes.
These are just old questions that some user made and I decided to copy directly from my old notes that I made back then.

Bumping

bump

Principality of Sergii is a small militarized nations bordering Dragon Kingdoms and the northern wilderness. Originally founded as a frontier state for the long dead Nehrovian Empire. With Nehrovian Empire dead, the Sergii family that ruled Graus river valley decided to stay put. With other principalities and petty kingdoms fighting over the scraps of Nehrovian Empire, Principality of Sergii rearranged themselves and prepared to weather the storm. Now 2000 years later they are still there, ruled by the same family.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
Bear meat is very important, It is mainly eaten in different important events. Bear meat is also eaten before battles to try to acquire blessing of Barithas, the god of slaughter and death.

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?
Rye and barley are the most common crops. Rye bread lasts quite long time in dry places. One important food source is hunting. With the northern wilderness practically feeding elks and other wild game south towards the Principality of Sergii.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?
The basic livestock of everywhere. One thing is that Graus river valley is home for camels with thick fur. Their wide feet are perfect for walking in snow.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Graussian Spitz is very popular dog breed. It can hunt more or less every game there is from rabbits to bears.

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
Severus Sergii, brother to Prince Gnaus Sergii, was found out to be homosexual. With homosexuality being a taboo, it threw popularity of Severus down. He was stripped of his offices and sent to command a lone, but safe fortification near the border of Dragon Kingdoms.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
With Graus river valley being bordered by mountains, the most mountain roads are cutoff during the winters. This restricts trade. While nobility usually get to enjoy foreign delicatessen and fruits of the trade. The common folk rarely see anything foreign. Sergiinum, the capital of Principality does have great university with extensive libraries full of old scrolls and books. This university does attract foreigners and even magis to learn from the archives.

>How many people typically live in a single household?
Families form small villages where their houses are built into a circle. This naturally forms a wall that defends them and their livestock from beasts and other nasties. These villages are lead by the assigned village chief who makes sure that fields are farmed and taxes are paid to the crown.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Common folk rarely uses instruments, but they enjoy acapellas. It is common for the whole village to gather around to listen what priest and village chief has to say and then sing and eat together.

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Purple. For some reason purple has been the colour that everybody tries to wear. Yellow has started to appear.

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?
"Forgive your enemies - but don’t forget their names" The way they live in villages mean that they have to do things together. Unnecessary feuding is bad for whole community.

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?
"It's bad luck to take sword out of hilt indoors."

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?
With Severus Sergii being homosexual got out there was a lot of rumours that even Prince Gnaus is homosexual. Prince Gnaus does have seven children so it seems unlikely.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?

Foie gras.


>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?

Depend on exactly where we are but porridge is a staple food for the lower classes in most sedentary societies.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?

Pretty much anything that's kept IRL with the addition of a few more pack animals.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?

Dogs and cats are the most popular pets.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
Silk has become increasingly common amongst the upper classes to the extent that it's now one of the most important imports of the empire.

>How many people typically live in a single household?

A household usually consists of a parent couple and 1-4 children, the odd grandparent, and one or two slaves.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Folk songs are popular in the country side where as ballads telling tales of times gone by and heroes are popular in the cities.

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?

Silk clothes. Oh my how the wealthy love their silk clothes!

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?

"May s/he feed the Gods." (Akin to but not entirely identical to "Let s/he serve the Gods")
"Let the Gastramite worry about it." (Let someone else/the help/ the staff sort it out)

"Drunk as a Bitalosian." (drunk off your ass)

CONT.
>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?

That there are trolls in the Taulbar Forest. Before they were driven into the woods they ruled over a large kingdom in the vicinity.

In actually this is just a cultural memory of a large nomadic empire who ruled the land before the Empire of the Tetrachy drove them away and conquered the lands.
This nomadic empire was ruled by a people of short stature, with broad chests and large heads, which were further elongated through head binding. Their eyes were small and they were flat nosed with tanned skin, and often kept large and bushy black beards.

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?

That the emperor Florentius III Valdhur Scipiacus and his successor, Hasdrubal I, were lovers.


>How might people spend their leisure time?

In one of the myriad public or private bath houses or at the gladiatorial games or chariot races.

Principality of Sergii idea is to be a nation lead by leaders that are foreign to the main population. Nehrovian Empire had spread to these lands and then current emperor installed Sergii family to watch over this backwater valley full of peasants.

This foreign leadership brought influence and wealth tonthe valley which lead it be prosperous under Nehrovian Empire. With being border state in the Empire they also constructed numerous fortifications and castles to defend it.

So when Empire fell, the Sergii decided to stay put and managed to defend the Graus river valley against former states of the Empire and migrating hordes from east and north. Turtling up and not overextendeding themselves, they have stayed out of majority of conflicts around them.

In terms of real world equivalent, Switzerland comes close. Think that if Romans conquered Switzerland and when West Rome fell they managed to keep the old Roman culture till modern day.

Tell us more about your Empire.

Sure, anything in particular you'd like to know?

Let's start with the basics:

It's official name is the Empire of the Tetrarchy, a theocratic autocracy ruled by an emperor, appointed by the senate (i.e the wealthiest of the wealthy) whenever a dynasty collapses for whatever reason. The emperor is the God's steward on earth. However he is but a man and as such can be mistaken or even bad. For this reason he is aided by the senate, which is viewed as the most competent men in the empire, and the clergy which is naturally seen as the most in tuned with the Gods' wishes.

The pantheon they worship is called the Tetrarchy as it's composed of four deities. These divine beings have been given many names and been worshipped in a myriad different ways by a myriad of cultures. The worshippers of the Tetrachy see most, if not all other religions and cults as misguided worship of the True Gods. However, as long as their teachings aren't too blasphemous or heretical, local religions and cults are usually considered an adequate if not ultimate provider of nourishment to the Gods through prayers and good deeds and as such are rolled into the overarching Church of the Tetrarchy. It's from these local cults that the official priesthood of the Tetrarchy is chosen.

Cont.

Cont.

The Empire's military is based on the usage of heavily equipped legionaries backed up by auxillary troops from the regions of the Empire who haven't yet been granted citizenship. To serve in the military is the easiest way to gain citizenship for people not born into it. These auxillaries are often selected from regions who excel in a particular mode of warfare - such as rugged hilltribes who have mastered the art of skirmishing or expert horsemen from the great plain Cities of Eastern Unam.

The class-system of the Empire is primarily based upon wealth allthough noble families exists. As a result the Empire is full of "New Men" who through amassed wealth have gotten far beyond the class they were born into and raised themselves up into occupying a central part in the imperial bureaucracy or military. The ethnical barrier to the imperial throne which at first only allowed people of Nualtan descent to become emperor was abandoned when Hasdrubal I was granted the crown to stop a deadlock in the senate which could potentially have lead to a devastating civil war.

The generals defeated, the monarchy dethroned, the ministers surrendered, a new land is subjugated to another. So what happens to those who escape death on the battlefield, or the headsman's axe? Do they continue the fight, give up and settle elsewhere, historically what happens to these generals, men-at-arms and knights?

Is it wrong for me to approach science-fantasy from the view of sci-fi? Essentially, I'm trying to worldbuild a science-fantasy universe, but insofar everything fantasy is only justification for why this sci-fi tech works the way it does because I want to avoid the mathematical and scientific autism required for sci-fi which I realize sounds really autistic. There ain't even any space knights or space wizards or space dragons or space swords, just magitech explanations for why spaceships and the like work the way they do. Everybody even uses only guns.

Am I taking the wrong approach here?

>Am I taking the wrong approach here?
Nope. Sorta reminds me of Mass Effect. (Granted, that's because I'm replaying it, so everything reminds me a little of Mass Effect right now.) Seems fine to me.

I was dicking with inkarnate and made this map. I'm trying to decide where good spots for towns to settle in and which ones would most likely wind up being cities.

I figure the northern half of the coastline where those rivers spill out into the ocean will probably be the main focus of civilization, but if anyone has input on good placement I'd love to hear it.

Nope, you pretty much got it. Cities do tend to spring up around rivers, or more rarely, ports.

>Calling that thing bread

This is bread. Anyone who says otherwise or calls other things bread is retarded and should be shot on sight

This thread is no place for a bread nazi.

It's not being nazi, it's just truth. The fucking thing that passes as bread in half over the world is a joke.

Alternatively - people never tasted this delicious fucker and consider toast bread the best human invention.

No, it's totally fine, just be consistent where the magitech explanation is applied.

This user put it well.

Cities tend to form next to rivers and waterways. Only thing that bothers me is the lake that has two rivers coming out of it.

What's wrong with the rivers? Looks okay to me.

A lake will usually drain through only one river and be fed with multiple rivers. Having two rivers draining a lake is very rare and usually unstable. Eventually one of the rivers will either block up, or the level of the lake will lower enough for only one river to remain. I think Finland and maybe Norway (not sure) have a bunch of lakes that naturally drain in two directions, but they're all tiny.

Additionally, when a lake drains in two directions, it's usually into two different drainage basins (essentially two different directions), and your picture looks like it drains in the same basin.

All these things combined make it look unnatural.

An exception would be a man-made canal that's given regular maintenance, for example.

>A lake will usually drain through only one river and be fed with multiple rivers
Yeah, but here this happens near the estuary, like the river just goes into the lake that is connected with the ocean by several small rivers.

>Additionally, when a lake drains in two directions, it's usually into two different drainage basins (essentially two different directions), and your picture looks like it drains in the same basin
But here the the lake drains in one direction, but with two rivers. Also, I'm not the user who posted the picture.

But then, I don't really know much about rivers, so maybe you're right.

He is right. Water tries to find the shortest and easiest route downstream. Water wants to be with other water so they connect, but don't split into two different directions. Stuff like islands in middle of river are ok. Really only place where rivers split in large scale are deltas.

One thing people forget is the fact that many rivers zigzag all around the place. Check Danube for example. It just doesn't go straight to sea.

Popping back in from last night.

I could always just have one of the two (I'm thinking the more northern one) be manmade. Maybe the city that dominates that space between the two saw some kind of advantage in having the second waterway and there's some huge feat of engineering they're famous for keeping the river where they want it to be?

Bump

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
The staple of mid and high end food in my world is the use of so called "Golden Seeds", grain very similar to wheat, but with higher nutritional value. People of my world do not know how to grow it, and are forced to trade it in en-large with a strange, presumably divine creatures from across the ocean.
Golden Seeds are mostly used much like wheat: grinded into flower and used to bake white bread and various pastry, both of which are signs of wealthy households. Less conventional preparation is something called "courd", a paste-like substance produced from grains purposefully infected by a type of "noble rot" like fungy.
>What's a food for commoners?
My world has a very lousy agriculture that lacks large scale common crops, such as wheat, rice or maizene, and this dictates the local economy and cuisine. The few crops are more commonly available are mostly lentils: peas and bean-like stuff, that is usually either slowly boiled and used in soups and porridges, grinded into a flower-like powder and used to make griddlecakes, or fermented. Basic oat-like plants exist too used usually to make simple bread, porridge or cakes. Outside of that, cabbage, bell-pepper and turnip-like plants are used for simple meals. Some regions have olives too.
One of the more location-specific crop is the "highland peach", a tree that produces peach-like fruit. Unlike our peaches though, highland peach is not sweet, but rather very sour and bitter: it's often used as a basis for salty meals rather than sweet ones, often in conjunction with nuts, poppy seeds mushroom.
All of this is supplemented with whatever diary and a meat products people can get their hands on, but unsurprisingly, meat is generally not part of a daily diet of settled commoners. Fish, kelp, sea-weeds and similar stuff is used to supplement diets as well. Nomadic tribes, on the other hand, mostly live off diary and meat of their animal herds.

Terran food has suddenly been taking the Plorax by supirse. Ever since the alliance, there has been an introduction of famous foods like Burgers and Frogs Legs into the plorax.

A popular rumor about Emperor Kinrotos XVI is that he has no sex drive, due to them having no hatchlings.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?
Goats and sheep are most common, as they generally require least effort to keep. Poultry is common as well. Less common are steppe cows, yaks and aurochs. There is a creature called "karaf" in my world that looks a bit like a cross between a cow and a dog (pic related), but serves essentially the role of a horse in my world: while they are most frequently used as mounts, they are also kept for their fur and at times meat: the steppe nomads also use their milk.
A lot of local, somewhat strange species of birds are also used as lifestock, including some larger flightless birds that are herded much like bovines.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Snakes, ferrets, various (usually singing) birds. Ferrets serve similar role as cats: they are mostly kept as a pest control. Dogs and cat's do not exist in this particular region of my world.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Percussions and instruments similar to flutes are most common musical instruments that many people have at home and know how to play. Various instruments similar to bagpipes, lyres and lutes exist, but usually only "professional" bards and traveling musicians have access and knowledge how to play them. Other than that, collective singing (often during work or drinking) are most common musical instances in my world.

Damn, wrong pic. This is what I wanted to post: artwork that inspired the Karaf creature.

>Dogs do not exist in this particular region of my world
Why is it so? Unlike cats or any other animal this is something that needs explaining.

What are some notable real world cultures where men take their father's identity? I'm fully aware of it being an incidence but I don't know of any cultures where it is standard.

I wanted one of the minor cultures in my setting to take patrilineage to an extreme, where men have only one son who they "reincarnate" into and the son inherits everything from his father, including their name, property, good deeds, and the mother becomes his wife (non sexual) for that "incarnation" and that man's friends treat the son as if he is the man himself. They trace these identities back generations and in historical recordings they consider that male line as one man, so their records have plenty of people listed as having lived for centuries. Then there are of course the consequences of this, such as reputation having incredible importance that outweighs the value of individual life, etc.

>Why is it so?
Basic biology. Not all evolutionary paths went the same way in my world as they went in real world. Cats and dogs evolved in my world, but were isolated to other continents (and continential isolation is a BIG thing in my world, as cross-oceanic travel is much more difficult due to number of issues: hostile oceanic mega-fauna, more volatile weather, and electromagnetic anomalies making compasses worthless in deep ocean make crossing oceans a major difficulty). They simply did not spread to the particular region I'm focusing on. Their roles were partially taken by other creatures: most frequently birds, which are trained and used in hunting, and sometimes even house protection.

I don't think such culture really ever existed in real world. It's extremely dangerous to limit number of your male offspring to one, because shit happens and when your son suddenly dies when he is 14, you have a major issue on your hands.

Assuming partial identity of your father is otherwise something that is (obviously) quite common in most existing cultures (it's why most patrilinear societies pass their name from son to father - in our context it's usually second name, but in Russia, for an example, children inhereted their fathers surname as well as their own middle name (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov is literally Vladimir - son of Illya Ulyanov). It's a form of adopting parents identity.

But while there is no real example of a society where identity inherentance would be quite as strong as you describe it, that does not mean you can't invent such society for your own purposes. It's actually quite an interesting idea, for reasons you mostly identified yourself.

So humans were able to cross the oceans before domestication of dogs and then the continents got separated so much that further contacts became impossible?

Humans originally evolved on a continent that had very little canides to begin with. Unlike earth, canides did not become ubiquous to the whole world, as other kinds of competing predatory animals existed and drove them off quite wide regions.

Since wolves and wild dogs were not a common-place along the regions where humans first spread, and since there were other alternatives to dogs serving similar function, domesticating dogs happened fairly late in human evolution cycle, and has became a matter of regional preferences, rather than near-universal in the world.
Things have been made even more complicated by a serious of major rather cataclysmatic events that took place over the very long history of human existence of my world: entire continents were nearly cleaned of life, one sunk under water: multiple major industrial civilizations emerged and then fell appart.
But dogs... dogs simply weren't necessary. Keeping them as pets is very much like keeping ferrets or capybara's in real world: some cultures do it, but it does not necessarily spread among other cultures, simply because there are other alternatives.

Okay, I see. Bird dogs is a cool idea btw.

Yeah, I wanted to shake things up a little. Semi carnivorous and carnivorous ungulates and greater selection of various strange birds serving less common domesticated roles seemed like a way to introduce a bit of novelty into the settings without going too crazy and odd-wordly. In some parts of my world, giant flightless birds completely took over the role of apex predators and basically serve the same role as lions and tigers in real world, in others species of carnivours boars prey in woods instead of wolves. Though I'm not really focusing on those regions in my fiction - reflections of those regions exist mostly in some very old iconography and semi-mythical sentiments. The giant terror birds roaming southern steppes instead of lions (called Roah) for an example have been part of royal iconography in many cultures, despite the fact that nobody from those cultures have seen a Roah for several thousand years (much like medieval european cultures associated royalty with lions, despite lions being little more than a mythological creature for them...).
It's the small stuff I enjoy.

Where do you get your frame of reference for how big a specific region or biome can realistically get, and what the transitional area between them looks like?

How can I manage to describe the environment both succinctly and vividly? Are there creative writing ecercises or tips that go into this subject?

>Where do you get your frame of reference for how big a specific region or biome can realistically get, and what the transitional area between them looks like?
Yeah it's a huge problem, I wish we had like, I don't know, a planet with different regions and biomes on it, how cool would that be, eh?

1) Read fuckton of books to learn about it.
Or
2)Shamelessly steal the areas from real world.

I go with 2). I try to match the regions so that they have some real world equivalents available. And from there to see how biomes change. Of course in smaller areas it is more or less unchangeable with only minor differences if there is not mountains or other major landmarks splitting the land area.

I quite liked reading this, very interesting!

Well thank you. At the moment more or less everything I post to /wbg/ is in note form or made to answer the thread questions. I will write more about them later, maybe in another thread.

There is a lot of editing to be done. Of course if you have questions please ask.

>Where do you get your frame of reference for how big a specific region or biome can realistically get, and what the transitional area between them looks like?
Research. There is no other way around it: learn enough about real world, and then you'll start to get good ideas about what might or might not work in it's fictional counter-part. After all, even in a fictional world: your audience's only frame of reference is going to be their (real world based) experience.
So: open google maps, open wikipedia, look up travelers books: find real-world regions similar to what you want to describe, and research, research, research.

>How can I manage to describe the environment both succinctly and vividly?
The same way you learn to write (or storytell in general): READ. And. WRITE. There is no other way around it. Good storytelling (which includes good world-building) is a CRAFT. It's learned by experience: both by learning from others, ad by you yourself doing the damn thing over and over and over again. There is no short-cut, no specific excercise to it:
You read. And you write. And you do that at every opportunity. And you listen to feedback, and you consider that feedback, and next time you do better: that is really all there is to it.

>Where do you get your frame of reference for how big a specific region or biome can realistically get, and what the transitional area between them looks like?
Typically, by comparing it to real-world examples of those things. The world is a big place, and odds are there's something at least vaguely similar to what you're imagining. You can also look at the natural forces that cause the place to be the way it is, and use that to figure out stuff like size and shape.

>How can I manage to describe the environment both succinctly and vividly? Are there creative writing exercises or tips that go into this subject?
Editing and practice, basically. Write up a description, then take out everything you don't need. If you think it doesn't pop, add in some details or revise what you've written to make it more interesting. Try to make whatever material you have flow well.

bump

In "my" setting ("my" as in, a modified version of the published Fragged Empire setting so not really mine), humanity underwent the technological singularity in the 2040s with the creation of an AI that jump-started human technology and science by huge leaps and bounds before shutting down a few months into its existence.

After that, humanity manages to expand into the galaxy at large, terraforming hundreds of planets and partially terraforming many more. Around the 2500's though is when humans begin dying out due to various factors.

The existing races are basically genetically engineered offshoots of humanity. So in short, humans fit the setting's "ancient precursor alien" trope.

Does 500+ years sounds like a reasonable amount of time for humans to rise, build a technologically advanced interstellar civilization and then fall? On one hand I know there's nowhere near a realistic time frame IRL. On the other hand I think people underestimate how much a thousand years is, let alone half of one, and so I used the excuse of "singularity AI" as a way to make humanity's current scientific levels skyrocket.

you no have to create a movement based off of this meme

now*

I'm stealing words and phrases from Manx and making them slightly less stupid-looking when spelled out. Like, I love the sound of the language, but when you romanize it into English it looks really ugly with a lot of -ee and -oo sounds, and some key words are really long-winded.

>Where do you get your frame of reference
I don't care. Since adventures and stories tend ot have self-contained chapters that occur in specific areas and don't usually spill over, it doesn't matter to me what the actual sizes of biomes are, especially when they're supposed to look fairly similar.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
In the country of Capre there is not much land available for ranching. Beef is considered a delicacy for royalty as one of the few places to get it was from the Archduke's private herd before the Bright and Glorious cultural revolution. When the House of Commons and House of Masters took over they opened the herd's meats for commercial selling. They are housed on an area of land meticulously tended and drained of water for the herd to graze in.

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?
In Desmon, the capital, the most common is duckwheat, the stable crop of the region. The second most common is slinkir fish, the most common fish in the great Capre marshes. A large canning industry flourishes in Desmon.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?
Fish in large fish farms. As well as shellfish has become common for consumption. River crab is considered easy to keep in a relative area and care for as they are willing to eat essentially garbage. Next would be ducks and other water fowl, who often are kept by farmers who clip their wings and allow them to swim and eat in the marshes.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Vek are a variety of river snakes that are surprisingly clever for being reptilian. They respond to training and verbal commands. The rich will often keep them as pets. Many vek breeds exist from herding animals, to guardians, to lap pets.

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
In the House of Enlightened Masters, the governing body after the Bright and Glorious Cultural Revolution the first High Master Milok Tor was assassinated while walking in the city's public gardens. This was surprising as the man was already extremely old, but for the next three months a bitter struggle embroiled the House of Enlightened Masters as to who would inherit the title.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
A recent cultural movement has come through Deneheinian fashion. The fashion of the Denehenian empire consists of strange bulbous suits. Silken cape humps are a fashion among men, with gaudy patterns decorating the clothing bulges.

>How many people typically live in a single household?
Households are large due to the urbanization of the main population centers. Tenements with many families are common in Desmon in particular.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
Music is generally considered the pass time of the poor as opposed to Silent Theatre. Music is played with a variety of string and percussion instruments among the poor.

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Talked about it above.

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?
Chicken's Feet is a term for someone not yet accustomed to walking on the semi solid marsh mud. A Block Writer is a term used for the strange political activists that tend to write political murals and statements on buildings. Bruckers are poor addicted to scour.

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?
Kikimora supposedly are able to crawl through holes as small as a key hole and will sit upon a man's chest while he sleeps to judge him. If found unworthy he will strangle them. This is an explanation for sleep paralysis.


>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?
The son of the Archduke, kept around by the House of Enlightened Masters as a symbol of avarice is known to have made several escape attempts from the royal prison. Rumor has it he succeeded some time ago and official statement he is still there is false.

>How might people spend their leisure time?
Penny dreadfuls have become popular among many. Particularly the mystery novels of a famous urbanite turned political activist that are seeing print despite having been outlawed. No one is sure where the copies come from.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
Anything that isn't spike-filled mutton.

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?
Mutton, hopefully not the spike-filled kind. As for crops, leeks and beans.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?
Basically sheep, except a mystic mutation has caused them to grow chitin spikes from their bodies, and sometimes within their flesh.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
The least spiky of the sheep.

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
A mayor claimed to have found sheep with no spikes, but he was just sawing them off and was run out of town for his lies.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
People are happy to pick up anything foreign, as long as it doesn't involve spiky sheep.

>How many people typically live in a single household?
A man, his wife, and however many of their kids who haven't been gored yet (usually around 7 or 8).

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
"Enjoy" is a strong term but the spikes are hollow sometimes and those can be instruments.

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Some people have been leaving the spike-holes in their sheepskins unpatched.

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?
"You can cut off a sheep's spikes, but they'll just grow more."

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?
The one about the man who had sheep with no spikes.

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?
They say the king has a stash of spikeless sheep in his courtyard.

>How might people spend their leisure time?
Running from sheep.

I want to make the genealogical relationships between goblinoids much closer, like they can all breed together, and some goblins become hobgoblins and some become bugbears. How could I do this that makes sense?

I know there is probably some sort of scientific term for this sort of relationship, but I can't seem to find it.

Any help or resources I should read?

Maybe something like the common side-blotched lizard, where they're all variations on the same species?

That's the idea that I want to do, but all variations can also be either sex.

So instead of competing for mates, exactly, they're competing for resources.

Bugbears are the brutes that beat up hobgoblins and take their stuff.

Hobgoblins are the warriors that work together in groups and protect their stuff from goblins.

Goblins are the scavengers that steal from bugbears when they aren't looking.

And whichever subspecies happens to be dominant at a given time attracts more mates from the other two subspecies, which causes an even bigger boom in their population, which eventually causes the subspecies that trumps them to flourish. If that makes sense.

Not even that. Goblin tribes consist of all three at a time, and a gobbo babby can grow up to be a regular goblin, hobgoblin, or bugbear, depending on the something i'm trying to find out.

Something I notice when I was re-designing my map is how a lot of custom fantasy maps go with long and narrow continents separated by a lot of sea. Paradoxically our own world is dominated by a gigantic thicc blobby 3 continent nexus, with the other 2 continent nexus being really only slim and long narrow in central america.

It's making me struggle with the paradox of realizing my map doesn't feel right when I look at fantasy references but remembering those references don't look right when compared to our world.

It's not impossible because where a terraformed mars is a single massive continent, a terraformed venus looks 100% like your typical fantasy world.

To paraphrase Don't-shitpost-I'm-scared, do you like thicc or slim g̶i̶r̶l̶s̶ continents?

I don't think it's too far-fetched, considering we've come close to wiping ourselves out several times in less than /one/ century. When you think about the amount of energy needed for any currently hypothesized model of interstellar travel, and how easily any high-energy system can be turned into a weapon, it's not hard to imagine a couple of lunatics ending our brief, glorious existence. Throw in whatever unforeseen circumstances we might encounter in space, 500 years seems like plenty of time for the vast majority of us to succumb to /something/.

I chuckled.
Argonians in the Elder Scrolls 'verse are separated into tribes (the toad-like Paatru, the thin, reedy Agacephs, etc.) and a large part of their physical development can be attributed to how much Hist sap they ingest as juveniles. Maybe your goblinoid culture has some kind of rite of passage with a similar effect?
My problem with really big landlocked landmasses in reality is their tendency to become deserts, and deserts kinda suck. That said, arid environments could set up cool cultures and ecosystems. There's no right answer.

>Maybe your goblinoid culture has some kind of rite of passage with a similar effect?

Not that I can think of. I'm worldbuilding from the bottom up so the only relevant Goblins in the campaign are a tribe of chaos toad worshippers with a fat gluttonous king and a penchant to get high from licking magic toads. That's just their tribe though, other tribes have their own cults and ways to get high.

I figure the desert interior depends on other factors since the interior of upper asia is steppe and siberia, the interior of Europe is verdant woods, interior of Africa around the ivory coast downwards is jungly and verdant, interior of USA is steppe/savannah style.

It needn't be bloatedly large, but think say Middle Earth or the like rather than looking like Indonesia.

Made up crops edition

>What's a food for commoners? What are some crops grown in your setting?
The big staples are corn and jabberseed, or Abendi wood-peas. Corn tends to be reddish-brown and grows on finger-sized cobs. Jabberseed grows in tough, woody pods on short, twisting trees. The trees grow ~8-12 feet tall and begin producing after 3-5 years. The seeds are 1-1.5 cm wide, with a sweet, smoky flavor. Consumed raw, they have a bitter aftertaste--they're almost always blanched before consumption. Jabberseed is a key ingredient in regional specialties, including a kind of unleavened bread made from jabberseed flour, hard candies (jabberdrops), and a heady liquor known internationally. When the trees are being pruned, the fresh leaves can be used as greens, and the buds are dried and used as spice. Bean pods and jabber wood are used to smoke food.

>What's a high-end fancy food in your setting?
There isn't a remarkable disparity in what the wealthy and poor eat, generally. The notable exception is jabberworms--a crop pest that infests the roots of jabber trees. Infestations can be hard to detect, as jabberworms hibernate for years within the roots before hatching and eating their way out, killing the tree. Jabberworm pupae are a highly regarded delicacy among the elite, but harvesting them means digging up entire jabber trees the moment a farmer notices signs of infestation, and the infested taproot must be roasted within days, or the pupae will die. This ensures both that jabberworm pupae are a rare treat for the wealthy, and that farmers can recoup some of the losses incurred from infestation.

>What are some animals kept as livestock?
Goats are the big one. The /big/ one--they get buffalo-sized. Pigs are another favorite. Cattle haven't been domesticated to the same extent--the wild bovines in the region are unruly and aggressive, their meat is gamy, and they reproduce more slowly than goats and pigs. As a result, they're hunted more than farmed. Kanti--heavy, flightless fowl--are raised for eggs and meat.

>What kinds of animals are kept as pets?
Cats and kanti cockerels are favored among the poor (though never both in one household). The rich tend to keep enormous goat dogs, although lesser goblins are becoming popular.

>What's the biggest political shake-up in the last five years?
Mollebran, a relatively wealthy city situated along the River Buwe, underwent a pogrom, purging its meager goblin population. During the riot, the mayor was killed, and his hastily chosen replacement declared independence from Aldgood. King Jerome was having none of this, and laid siege to Mollebran for all of one month before the new mayor was killed and the gates opened. Mollebran is now ruled by a royally appointed governor, until everyone is satisfied they have their shit together.

>What's something foreign that's seen within the culture (like sushi or yoga)?
Goblin magic is a bit of a fad among the lower class, as it's more approachable to people with small mana reserves and the information is less restricted. Still, goblins don't hand out their secrets for free--most peasants will only ever learn parlor tricks. Lesser goblins (or tree imps, green devils, scale monkeys...), which many goblins keep as pets, are showing up in wealthy households.

So, in the next session or the one after that, my players will go to to a music concert, and that got me thinking about applause.

So, /wbg/, does your setting have applause? Or more generally, how does an audience show their appreciation for someone, particularly in a more formal setting in higher society? Do they clap normally, or maybe synchronized clapping? Snapping their fingers? Stomping? Waving cloth? Nothing at all? Maybe something else altogether for weirder creatures?

There's also a question of occasion, when is it appropriate to applaud and when is it appropriate to be more exuberant?

I'm still thinking about my setting, but I wanted to know if anybody else though about stuff like that? Also what do you do when a cultural situation that you didn't think about comes up in the game? Fall back to familiar human defaults or make it up as you go along?

>How many people typically live in a single household?
5-8: Two parents, three to six children. Give or take a set of grandparents.

>What kind of music do people enjoy?
The lower class tends to hear more drums, horns (literal goat horns), and an instrument resembling a banjo. Upper class has more of a focus on woodwinds and a pitched drum resembling a steel drum/pan.

>What's a fashion trend that's currently in vogue or which has been recently?
Since trade with goblins to the north really got going, people in Aldgood have started adopting some of their stylistic choices. Notably, this means furs and bone or horn circlets studded with rock squirrel quills. Wearing the circlets annoys goblins, because stealing quills from rock squirrels is proof of daring in their culture. Wearing furs just confuses them--they only wear them because the mountain pass their trade caravans have to cross is cold all seasons.

>What are some common sayings, truisms, or slang terms?
"Pesky as a--/worse than a tree imp", "Don't pluck a kanti's tailfeathers", "Stronger than jabber brew". People with a low view of Mollebraners (recently, everyone except Mollebraners) call them rackwhistles--a carnivorous aquatic reptile one part dangerous and three parts annoying.

>What is an old wives' tale in your setting?
It's common knowledge that men with freckles are more trustworthy than men without, burning meat is a sure sign you're due ill fortune, and drinking before a meal will bring nightmares.

>What's a popular rumor about a monarch or other leader?
Before the pogrom in Mollebran, there were rumors the mayor had a goblin mistress. King Jerome doesn't hide it--he definitely has a goblin mistress--but there are whispers he also has goblin bastards. They aren't true, of course, as goblins can't have children with humans.

Deacon Pelloris, the mayor of Aben, may or may not be undead, and his wife may or may not be a novice necromancer.

>How might people spend their leisure time?
Fishing, if they're near a river, playing cards, slinging rocks at lesser goblins, practicing goblin magic, startling lesser goblins with goblin magic, telling tall tales, and handicrafts.

>Other stuff
Lesser goblins (tree imps) are warm-blooded, scaly, arboreal animals. They largely resemble monkeys, in both anatomy and behavior, though they're more intelligent and better behaved when trained. True goblins have raised them as pets for ages.

True goblins range from ~3'6"-5' and nearly match humans in terms of technological advancement. They breed and reach maturity faster than humans, but their numbers are kept in check by frequent, if small, wars between their tribes. Interestingly enough, goblins rarely engage in large conflicts with other races. Their mana reserves are smaller than humans, but their spellwork is efficient, and nearly all goblins are trained to some degree of magical proficiency.

Hobgoblins are the result of a true goblin breeding a tree imp. Goblins naturally find this disturbing, partially because it's sex with a pet, and partially because tree imps bear a fair resemblance to goblin infants. When a hobgoblin is born, the goblin community exiles the goblin parent, or stones them to death if they refuse to leave. Hobgoblins are average height for a goblin, about 4', but tend to be stockier, with a tough hide, a short tail, and, oddly enough, a natural affinity for magic. They're only about as intelligent as tree imps, but more aggressive and territorial. Left to their own devices, a hobgoblin will join a tree imp family group. They quickly become a nuisance near settlements, as they're bolder and meaner than normal tree imps. Hobgoblins will kill livestock, harass villagers, steal tools and valuables, and attack people who enter its territory--often in unpredictable bursts of magic.

When creating a hexmap, what do you use as the in-game diameter? I've noticed that 6-mile hexes are often used, but this sounds kind of 'low-res'. If I were to take a 6-mile walk from where I'm sitting now, I would pass two castles and a number of other 'points of interest', in game terms.

Why do you even need a hexmap? I'm curious, I'm not familiar with Veeky Forums stuff actually, so what's the point of it? Why can't you just say how much or how long you walk?

>Why can't you just say how much or how long you walk?
You can. This just gives me a fairly neat way to cut the exploration into manageable chunks.

In every hex, they check for encounters (environmental hazards or enemies), check for fatigue, are updated on their current situation and, should they decide to press on, check for orienteering or navigation.

There are other variables, of course, but this is the basic run-down.

It's not suitable for every kind of adventure, but this adventure is supposed to be about exploring uncharted (but not necessarily uninhabited) terrain at the edge of the characters' civilisation.

>terraformed venus
Thats fucking cool.

Eurasia Its the only big horizontal continent. Africa, North and South America, and Antartica, (and almost all subcontinents, Australia being the only exception that comes to my mind) have greater height than length.

Anyway, broader continents have implications that narrow ones dont have. For example, an lnad mass have very similar climate at the same latitude (at least that they have mountains). This mean that In early stages of farming, the crops were distribuited easly in the west-east axis than north-south. That is why almost all Europe, all the cost of the Mediterranean, Egypt, Middle East, etc, shared the same crops and farm animals, while in America, the Mesoamericas and the Andes never could trade, merge or share crops. Natural barriers didnt help very much either, but Eurasia also have natural barriers between the west and orient, and arround V century there already was established a trade route.