World Story 1

Story 1 -

World - Set in a fantasy world similar to ours in ancient time and following a similar timeline.

Though set in a historical period I'll not be attempting to have it historically "accurate" but hopefull will have enough research to capture the feel of the area and culture.

The first story will be set in the area Bubastis in Egypt in 6394 BC (this is prior to the pyramids, and major civilisation, there is some agriculture but most are still nomadic.

Day 1 Climate and Variety

Terrain is varied across the world, however this story is set with the contrast of the greenery and more mildness of an area (the delta) around the nile, to the arid dessert not far away.

Climate is moderate, Hot in the summer, and warm in the winter.

Day 2 Physical planet

I'm not planning for weather to play a huge part in the story, I would gather that dust storms would be a common occurance and could be used to direct the character in a desired direction.

In fact that might be good for setting during the character's "exile" from her family, having to survive through the storm, gaining inner strength from surviving ( a good introduction to the character?)

Day 3 Mood & Setting

The mood I want for this is an environment of abundance, but still with its harshness and wildness, when its good its great, but when its bad it can be very bad. Chaos is always knocking on the door ;) Warm and lush.

This will give the story some contrast, though the character will be warm, when it comes to revenge she will be very cold, very cold indeed.

Day 4 Cataclysms

Cataclyms will not be a part of this story.

Day 5 The Map

http://www.nigli.net/akhenaten/legypt_1.jpg

Will need to work up a more localised map, perhaps using google maps as a guide.

Day 6 Races

This will be set in predynastic egypt which will be the Faiyum A culture, when settlements along the Nile where just starting to occur.

the racial details of this period are from what I can tell are pretty sketchy. I'll be using what I can of Ancient egyptian art and scuplture as a guide, and probably have them brown skinned, with probably a mix of european, arab, and african features.

People encountered would predominately display the same features although some would be european, arab or African to some extent.

most people would be nomadic, and whether they would fight, trade, or ignore, would most likely depend on whether they appeared stronger or weaker than the other party and past experience with them. After quite a few positive encounters they would probably intermarry, to avoid inbreeding.

Settlements would be weary but mostly welcomming of strangers, especially with something to trade.

Day 7 Recent History

with the discovery of agriculture many tribes have started to settle in locations to cultivate food (starting around 10,000 BC) This has altered life even for the tribes that have remained nomadic, these settlements have become trading posts where these tribes can pick up food and other items that they need, this has begun to alter things more towards trade than war, as its often more beneficial to both parties.

I will base these around the locations of the cities shown on the map and probably alter the names a little ;)

Day 8 Economics and Politics

Neither is going to play a huge part in this story, economics would be primarily barter of food and other assorted resources such as cattle, seeds, skins, cloth etc.

The political system would be tribal, with tribal cheiftains being mainly in charge, even in the settlements.

Day 9 Language

Well the place names I will be basing on the known names of cities that rose up later in egypts history, however the characters names (apart from the main character) may be more of a problem, perhaps these sites will be of use:

http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/egy-anci.php

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/names.htm

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/names.html

Day 10 Mood and Culture

I want it to have a sense of adventure, with an element of mystery, Tribal but with elements that would become the ancient Egyptian culture.

Day 11 Focus In

For this I will do the personal timeline of the main character, of which the story sits in:

Day 12 What if

What if communication with animals is possible?

What if you could gain the strengths of them?

Bored

Lol so somewhat expectedly, I lost interest in this project once I got stuck.

I haven't given up however, I've decided to use a public domain map say of Ancient Egypt instead:

This also gives me place names, terrain etc :)

as well as a cultural theme

Economics and Politics

So got snagged on the map, I'm thinking I might concentrate on one land mass and detail that and just roughly sketch the others.

Recent History

I already started to cover this so I won't go over that same ground again, instead I will look at the past Age the "golden" Age, here is the entry I did for that:

"Golden" age - with a balance of power, overt warfare was undesirable, and covert operations and esponaige became the new warfare, while maintaining the illusion of peace. along with this a single religion becomes dominant, and only increases the duality between public and secret. This build until the stage where it couldn't be contained any longer and broke out into an anarchic war, and combined with several severe natural disasters (seen as God's judgement and resignation) has torn down all forms of power and government.

Due to the nature of that age multiple timelines will need to be created, probably along the lines of Official history, and covert History

. It would also be good to cover the main events in other eras so that they can be used as well.

Will start filling this out once I work out the nations.

I'm thinking of using a Random generator to help with ideas and give me a format to work with:

http://www.fantasist.net/timeline.shtml

Races

Races:

As mentioned in a previous post the main races (the fantasy standard) are:

Humans

Elves

Dwarves

Halflings

Giants - in decline

Dragons - in decline

I'm not really planning for the non-human races to be a big part of the story, as they are mostly keeping themselves isolated, however they will have an influence on the human races.

I'm planning that the differences will generally be geographical, and so I will leave the

Distinctions until that has been worked out, but my plan is that during the more open trading period will have some blending of the races in that area, so humans near elven forests will have some elven features/qualities, etc.

Also those humans not in those areas(and many in there) will doubt the other races existance.

Day 5 Map making

Got Civ 4 and Campaign Cartographer loaded last night, and started work. Discovered that the map maker component of Civ 4 is internal to the game unlike previous version, but managed to generate the world and take screen shots. Unfortunately it wouldn't fit into one screen so I ended up with 4 pictures.

So will be creating the full world map in Campaign Cartographer once I get the hang of the application.

will go through the video tutorials tonight and try to get somewhat more familar with the interface:
http://www.profantasy.com/community/cc3_tutorials.asp

Once done I'll be looking to add key land features which should be fun :)

Being thinking about the concepts of the world, and these are my ideas:

There have been several ages where a particular race has dominated (based perhaps on who best is able to adapt to the environment and situation?) the world, on which the next has built their civilisation, meaning that there is many ruins sometimes many layers of ruins.

These ages have been:

Non-corporeal age - This age was during the forming of the world and was ruled by non-corporeal beings that are representational of many primal forces. This moved into the next age when these forces calmed and their work complete these beings entered into a slumber.

Dragon age - in the hot and humid climate following the formation of the world and its atmosphere still in a stage of development, insects and reptiles thrived, one of the larger examples of these reptiles gained sentience and quickly dominated the world. They started a grand if somewhat brutal civilisation and when it become considered unethical to hold reptilian slaves (of smaller and less intelligent reptillian species, although such things as gladitorial sport including them was still considered a grand time) they started looking for a suitable alternative, and when finding no natural occurence that was suitable went into research mixing magic and genetics. the experiments were many and varied and many "monsters" were created until they finally hit a suitable candiate with a small species of primate gorilla, after alteration they were semi-intelligent, and strong, and the benefit of opposable thumbs made them quite usual as slaves.

with their popularity, they were continuously breed and soon out numbered the actual number of dragons. However it soon became evident that there were some tasks that they couldn't perform, and they started experiementing with the breeding, creating more intelligent races, such as the dwarves, elves, Humans, and halflings, fearing the strength of the giants combined with intelligence could be dangerous they made sure that they were much smaller. however their was some interbreeding between the races (despite their attempts to control and prevent it) and the mixture of genes was also increasing the intelligence of the giants, but by this time they had other things to worry about, the world was cooling and their numbers where dwindling, without as much heat, they had to sleep more and more often, able to keep less of an eye on their slaves and what they were planning.

Giant Age - The world cooled and entered into an ice age, the slaves rebelled and freed themselves while dragons remaining went into hibernation underground where there was still warmth. many remained confidence that they could easily regain control once it was warmed. Despite the allegiance against the dragons, the giants soon gained brute domainance over the other races, and not wishing to become slaves to a different master, they scattered and sought shelter where they could, the dwarves underground where their stature , the elves in the forests, the humans became nomadic and soon started domesticating animals such as dogs and horses to their advantage in avoiding the giants, while the Halflings also become nomadic using what rivers they could to their advantage. The age of the giants entered into recession as the snow and ice started to melt and the other races were able to take advantage of greater mobility and organisation and offset their physical disadvantage.

Elven and dwarven age - with a more temporate climate, and with a stable settlement, the elves and dwarves came to dominate the world. Dwarves mainly below land, where they utilise a growing knowledge of technology, stone and metal, And Elves below land where their connection with nature gave them a growing knowledge of magic and agriculture. Humans became increasingly dependent on both cultures and started to become shrewd traders, although at times raiders, which didn't help thier reputation as barbarians to the more settled cultures of the elves and dwarves. However the nomadic lifestyle had taught them how to adapt and change with circumstances and with trade they managed to get to secrets of both dwarves and elves and was then able to combine magical and technological skills with the adaptablity and resourcefulness they had learnt. Soon human settlements rivaled the other races and started to encroach on the domains of the dwarves and the elves, and territorial disputes became more and more frequent, breaking out into wars, usering the War age

War age - Military power became the primary basis for most industry and humans excelled, the dwarves had retreated deeper into the earth, closing of their doors, and the elves likewise become more closed and deeper into the forests (and perhaps other dimensions?). Running out of opponents to fight the humans soon started fighting amongst themselves. This continued until the majority of the wealth laid in the hands of only a few people, and an uneasy balance of power was reached, none of them willing to move against another for fear

"Golden" age - with a balance of power, overt warfare was undesirable, and covert operations and esponaige became the new warfare, while maintaining the illusion of peace. along with this a single religion becomes dominant, and only increases the duality between public and secret. This build until the stage where it couldn't be contained any longer and broke out into an anarchic war, and combined with several severe natural disasters (seen as God's judgement and resignation) has torn down all forms of power and government.

Chaos Age - The fighting has
mainly stopped but all the previous structures are gone, and much is in ruin, the wilderness is wild once more, cities are full of refugees, with rural life dangerous. this is the period we come in, a world trying to rebuild.

Day 5 Map making

So Last night I discovered that I no longer had Civ4 installed, lol rather than look for the disks however I got side tracked by Dragon Ages: Awakening.
http://dragonage.bioware.com/awakening/

Will have a look for the disks tonight and will hopefully have a map together by the time Selina wants to play Sims 3 ;)

Have started work on some of the characters :)

Day 4 - Cataclysms

http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/days/days/04.html

I'm going to swap this with Day 5 Map making, as I'm planning to computer generate the map using the Civilization 4 map editor, once i have the map then I can work out more of the key features of the land, and how they were formed.

Day 3 - Mood and Setting

http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/days/days/03.html

So the assignment for this one is to pick a climate that will fit your story, well as I'm not planning a specific story at this time, I will choose to go with the 5 elements plan.

Although I'm a little torn at the moment whether I should pick a complementary or contrasting climate to the element, for instance the desert would suit for the fire element, but would setting that part in Snow locked tundra/mountains highlight their quest for the fire element (ie the need to find fire), I'm more inclined to go with the later, but will do both for the purposes of this exercise, maybe one will work better for one element while the other works best for a another.

This will only look at the 4 elements of fire, water, earth and air, as Spirit I'm planning to have in another reality/plain of existence

Complimentary:
Fire: Desert, Summer, Dust Storms
Water: Ocean, Winter, Storms and whirlpools
Earth: Forest, Autumn, Bush Fires, floods.
Air: Mountains, Spring, Avalanches, blizzards

Contrasting:
Fire: Mountains, Winter, Blizzards, Avalanches
Water: Forest, Summer, Bush fires
Earth: Ocean, Spring, storms, water spouts
Air: Desert, Autumn, dust storms, cyclones

Day 2 Weather

http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/days/days/02.html

For one story I'm planning to do it centered around the traditional 5 elements: fire, water, air, earth and spirit and I was thinking that the heroes would need to retrieve 4 artifacts that will allow them to enter the spirit world and complete their quest (not sure what that will be at this stage) so I could also tie in the seasons for each artifact:

Spring - Air
Summer - Fire
Autumn - Earth
Winter - Water

This would be good in showing the passage of time, and will also help define the period of time covered in the story.

Other plot ideas relating to weather:
1. Flashflood, the heroes get prior warning that a flash flood (perhaps the result of magic, or destruction of a dam?) is about to hit a town/village and have to try to get them evacuated/take percautions, in a race against time.

2. Heroes are hit by a blizzard, and are forced to take shelter in a cave, one which leads them to a long forgotten underground passage.

3. Town is cursed either to constant rain or with drought, the heroes need to investigate and find a way to remove the curse.

4. Dust storm causes the heroes to get lost where they are captured by bandits and must find a way to escape.

5. A severe thunderstorm isolate the heroes inside until the storm is past, perhaps causing a delay in something that is time critical, the heroes emotions mirror the storm outside, as there emotions bring to the surface the fears they have been struggling not to face.

6. Cyclone divides the party and they will need to use all thier skills in survival and theirs wits to find and stay together in the midst of chaos

7. Magical opponent causes Hail and lightning to strike at the party, dividing them and sapping their strength.

8. A fog takes them offcourse leading them to somewhere unexpected

9. Heatwave strikes the city, as the temperature raises the city's supply of water becomes mysteriously low.

10. a town suddenly seems to have an unusual abundance of perfect conditions, while a nearby (rival) town has the opposite. The town folk have become very secretive and definately seem to be hiding something, something that allows them to control the weather perhaps?

Plains

Climate and Variety: Plains

Main Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain

Plains are areas that are mostly flat and where trees are reasonably sparse.

There are several types:

Coastal plain,
Fluvial plains;
Flood plain,
Alluvial plain,
Scroll plain,
Lacustrine plain,
Lava plain,
Glacial plains;
Till plain,
Sandur (plural sandar),

A coastal plain, like it sounds is a plain that lies on the coast and is generally seperated from the inland by some other sort of terrain like mountains or hills.

They tend to have quite an abundance of different fauna and flora, along with flat ground for Agriculture and fishing opportunites would probably be prime land for a trading/coastal settlement, while mountain/hill surrounds would possibly provide protection over land.

from a story perspective could provide a good base of operations and source of adventure, though reasonably unexciting itself (atleast I think so ;) ), a coastal port, provides oppurtunities for sea ventures and the surrounding mountains tunnels and caves.

A flood plain like a coastal plain is a plain that lies adjacent to a stream, river, lake or wetland that experiences periodic flooding.

The soil there is generally very fertile and the access to fresh water, and easy transportation via the river makes them popular choices for argicultural settlements despite the floodings. I would imagine that they would try to offset this by puting buildings on stalks?

Story wise possible sub plots of having to help out during a flood, or perhaps danger to the settlement of a severe and unexpected flood.

An Alluvial plain is a flood plain that no longer floods very often, only a few times every century, and would thus be even more desirable for a farmland settlement.

A scroll plain is a plain where a river meanders (like a snake) across a plain, sometimes forming lakes.

A Lacustrine plain is a plan that used to be the bottom of the lake where the water in the lake has disappeared due to drainage, evaporation, etc

Sometimes they are fertile, and other times will be a wetland or a desert.

A lava plain is a plain created by lava flow from a volcano, they don't seem to be particularly fertile land for agriculture, but seem to be good spots to search for semi-precious stones, such as sapphire.


Till plains are plains formed by the melting of an ice sheet that has become detached from a glacier spreading sediment across the plain.

Sandur is a plain formed from sediment deposited onto a plain from the flow of meltwater at the end of a glacier.

Lol this is going to take me ages ;) interesting though ;)

World Basis

Before I get into Terrain/climate info I thought I'd do a quick post with the concept I'm thinking of (which will explain the name).

My plan is to have a world based on Yggdrasil and the nine worlds in the Norse cosmology. IE 3 upper worlds, 3 middle worlds, 3 lower worlds:

Asgard
Alfheim
Muspelheim

Vanaheim
Midgard
Jotunheim

Niflheim
Nidavellr
Svartalfheim

perhaps obviously this will focus mainly around Midgard

Introduction

Hi All,

I have started the creation of my own fantasy world, and will be following the steps for 30 days of worldbuilding here:

http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/days/index.html

So I thought that I would blog the process for others that might find it useful/interesting.

Day 1 is Climate and variety, although I think perhaps more accurately it is terrain, but not entirely sure ;)

I'll be using a number of different sources for information, ideas and tools, which will most likely be various D&D and other RPG source books, Wikipedia, various random name generators (will post the link when used) and probably Civilization (world builder) and other applications for help creating the maps. I will be using the terrains from civilization as a guide.