#world building rambles

[within-circles-within-circles-w]

So to make some context for the game and describe Vaugarde state here, I probably need to introduce y’all to basic concepts here.

Geography of the country.

Vaugarde is a small country somewhere below the equator. It’s in a subtropical zone. I did some calculations on time and distance the party has to make and used Bolivia as a reference: two months, meanwhile the exposition says “It was almost a year ago now that the King appeared”. Of course it isn’t a time when the quest started, but Mirabelle’s quest definitely lasted longer than 2 months. So to make the travellings longer, I decided to go up: some parts of Vaugarde is higher(up to ~1500 meters above sea level)

It also solves those trees in Dormont problem that has been plaguing me before (before that I thought that Vaugarde is a big country, Dormont isn’t subtropical and most parts of the continent is straight up the ice). So for now there are two types of trees (I’ll draw more, promise): for hotter and for colder climates.

Time Period

First of all: worldbuilding of isat is way different and I by no means attribute in game events to any actual time period of our history. Secondly: fantasy does not mean medieval every time. 

We do not know a lot about the game setting. Dormont is a small village, and we see only two locations. And also, Craft exists. So I’ll start with naming some pretty advanced for "medieval setting”  stuff:

plumbing

pretty modern medication, pills

Siffrin mentioned that “they're [stars] big balls of fire and gas and light” —--- I can't stress enough how much knowledge of physics and chemistry needed to discover this. Really. It’s spectroscopy

Photography is practiced with crafted mirrors. So some things are just craft.

ISAT is definitely neither medieval nor modern. So in level in technological advancements, i’ll use the level of science in 18-19 centuries as some sort of non-strict reference 

[agaypersonthing]

Thinking about agriculture in PRISMcorps

Ok so junes mentioned they eat a lot of eggs bc chickens, which makes sense. It also implies that the place was fairly rural before the dome, or at least implies the dome also includes some farmlands? Which is very good for agricultural stuff, means they probably have access to some types of big crops like corn or wheat, possibly rice. If they do have rice, theyre probably also raising fish in that wetmarsh to capitalize on that area as much as possible.

Meat is the hardest thing to communally raise. If they had any livestock farms, great perfect cool, if not they need to be VERY careful when hunting. Obviously theres stuff like deer, squirrel, rabbit etc that they need to watch the population levels of. They'd also need to be careful with migratory birds (i assume winter wouldnt be a problem on account of fake sun, but yaknow) I imagine cows would go quick, the pure amount of land they need isnt really worth it unless you can pasturize the milk yourself. Same with pigs. Sheep would be easier and mean unlimited fabric if you can spin the wool, but thats a big IF.

As for the average persons diet? Probably a lot of potatoes and squash. Both are easy to grow and grow a lot when given the opportunity. Melons would also grow pretty easy, though thats less filling and would probably be less of a priority. Onion grass is also really good at growing, and obviously preexisting fruit trees would have be good.

[within-circles-within-circles-w]

non battle craft

Probably the last major point I need to mention here. We don’t have a  lot of information on Non-Battle Crafts. We know Body Craft and Wish Craft exist, Time Craft is theorised to exist. Bonnie mentioned their ban on using Craft for cooking  and gave the example of “Crafting a painting for weeks” when discussing Craft Exhaustion. Odile learns craft break and buff on higher levels, altering the craft properties of someone. 

There’s definitely a variety of different craft. Mirabelle knows the basics to a lot of them, but her knowledge on them is shallow, without much practice in skills. She learns how to craft lanterns and preserve  food by craft. Odile, though, can alter craft properties of objects in the game, it takes a few days and some resources, and she can change the equipment stats. 

Some encrafred stuff can be used as traps and will be used. Siffrin is the most knowledgeable here. They don’t know much on making those (that’s the moment when Mira and Isabeaus’s knowledge comes in handy), but they’ve been disarming those for a long time. 

Just to make list, what’s already mentioned in my docs: crafting pictures, statues, food, small light sources, weapons. 

[riverdoge]

I think Delvik will become a battlemage or something and Warren will come in as the ranger type. They're just too similar otherwise, and Warren is more developed and I don't want to change him. Plus I can add a sorta awkward sheltered dorkiness to Delvik that would be rly great. Ilikur will probably be dropped then tho, at least as main cast. Tho now that leaves my main crew as 3 talking animal people and one human(oid) lol, oh well