#ref:worldbuilding

[sanctuary-fm]

hello! i was looking through the worldbuilding and i could not help but wonder, due to the roleplay being set in a fictional port of s. korea, would muses be following korean currency (won)?

hey there! this was a good question, so i'm answering publicly for everyone else to see too. we're using simple gold coins as a currency, where 1 gold would be roughly equal to 1,000 KRW. some basic higher numbers:

1 gold = 1000 KRW

10 gold = 10,000 KRW

100 gold = 100,000 KRW

1,000 gold = 1,000,000 KRW

for worldbuilding's sake, since it can be pretty tedious to keep track of individual coins, gold bars are also used to represent larger sums of gold at a time, where 1 ounce = 1 gold (ie. a 14 ounce block of gold = 14 gold).

this is considered the common currency. other communities of different species may have developed their own currencies -- and if you headcanon a new location that your muse comes from, you can feel free to decide what currency they used as well! -- but as a compromise between all of the different lands / origins, gold coins are seen as the common currency that is accepted in most places.

bartering is also a pretty common way of paying for things, where whole goods / services can be traded for other whole goods / services without an exact monetary value.

that's all i can think of on this topic, but if i missed something, definitely let me know!

[sanctuary-fm]

hello! i'm so sorry if i missed this anywhere, but i was wondering what yeonghae's method of getting messages across long distances faster would be? because if it would fit into the lore, i'd love for my muse to be a courier bird trainer 🥺

that's such an excellent idea, yes that would absolutely fit! letters would be most commonly delivered by messengers who travel between places by some means (horseback, ship, etc, which would affect delivery time) or by courier birds like you've mentioned. we've added a LOCATIONS - SILVER COAST COURIERS within our memory grove locations, a hub where citizens can send messages through messenger or bird service. we've included an aviary & kennel where birds & dogs are trained for the job, if you wanted your muse to work for the town directly! alternatively, you're welcome to headcanon your own independent service for your muse, if they are providing more private / tailored services.

and, this isn't directly related to your ask, but since we're already on the topic of communications, i'd like to add that there would be magical modes of communication as well! one specific example i can think of is sending stones, which are a pair of stones capable of magically transmitting short messages to each other over any distance in the material world. nymphs could even find ways to pass messages through the intricate root system of trees. we're pretty open for people to get creative with this, so if anyone has specific ideas and would like us to work it into the locations page, shoot us a message!

[sanctuary-fm]

the first blight affected the whole world right? or was it mainly contained in yeonghae/sk?

yes, it affected the whole world! yeonghae suffered the worst of it since it was the epicenter of the catastrophe, but the darkspawn who escaped through that giant rift went on to terrorize the rest of the world too, so other lands & countries definitely know it as a major part of history.

[sanctuary-fm]

i’m getting the sense that this isn’t exactly a modern fantasy setting (unless it is??) but are there any time periods/media that the rp is pulling from in terms of aesthetics? like for fashion, technology, etc.

you're correct that it's not modern fantasy! it's a bit difficult to define a time period since we're thinking of this as an entirely fantasy verse where the only thing in common with our "reality" is the physical geography of the world (for example, yeonghae being completely made up but geographically located in what we know as southwestern south korea), but we are heavily inspired by the high fantasy settings, fashion, and general aesthetics of dragon age and baldur's gate 3.

for technology, it's a bit of a mix with magic involved. overall, things aren't advanced enough for cars or any complex electronics just yet. transportation-wise, people use horses, animal-drawn carriages/wagons, wooden ships, and so on. basic materials such as wood, coal, charcoal, oil, etc are still considered the most common source of energy.

however, magic is commonly used to make life easier. basic constructs/machines can be powered to run with magic, the easiest source being lightning magic. the first example i thought of is the magical constructs in bg3, which appear like advanced robots but are really just metal constructs powered by magic. you can see THIS CUTSCENE as an example (mild spoilers for the arcane tower quest in the underdark) for what that aesthetically looks like! you can get pretty creative with this --- because muses can come from anywhere in this fantasy world, you can headcanon your own places outside of the canon locations to be "advanced" in different ways.

finally, for weapons, the most common are still blades, bows, spears, staves, and other martial weapons --- the baldur's gate wiki has a pretty great list of WEAPONS for reference. gunpowder does exist and is used by basic firearms and ship cannons, but they would still be considered relatively uncommon / rare to find.

our other aesthetic inspirations include dungeons & dragons (for fashion) and pirates of the caribbean (for nautical related aesthetics). and since dnd can get pretty varied, you can also use the film dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves (2023) for a gist of its aesthetics.

i'm sorry that this ended up long, but let me know if you had any specific questions!

[sanctuary-fm]

hello admins! what year does the roleplay take place in? do they count years according to the blight?

hi! yes, for simplicity, we're going to be counting years relative to the blight, to avoid having to create a new calendar system on top of everything else, haha. the numbering system would echo our irl system of counting years in CE vs BCE.

so formally, the current year would be written as year 100, post-blight (casually, one could just say "X years post-blight" or "X years after the blight," etc).

the years before the blight would be counted in reverse, and 200 years before the blight would be year 200, pre-blight (and casually, one could just say "X years before the blight," etc).

we've updated the main to use this system so that the terms are hopefully a little clearer, thank you for getting us on that!!