#worldbuilding example 8

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #8: Example World B

Intro This is the example tutorial for cultural basics for World B. As with Example World A, because I am starting to get more in-depth with the examples, I am going to need to start to limit how much I am fleshing out due to space and time constraints. As with the other example, I’m going to focus on developing regions 1-6 from here on out. Because this world is largely human and doesn’t contain different species, the divides between regions aren’t going to be based in species; this makes them somewhat more arbitrary, or at least less obvious. I will try to do some talking about why the divides are where they are in this one, since they don’t follow the regional environment divides laid out some tutorials back.

Region #1: Warm Coastal Region

This region is largely coastal and centers upon the small mediterranean region within its borders. It is long and narrow because a great deal of its everyday business centers around ships, which specializes it towards that rather than things that will help it control and maintain large amounts of inland territory. Its northern border is decided by the river in that region; its southern border essentially by distance from the mediterranean region. 

This region is the most populous of all the regions in this area. There are several rather large cities, mostly at the ports or along major roads that connect them. Trade is a major focus economically, and its culture reflects that: an emphasis on people skills, hospitality (but not too much!), a highly stratified social and economic hierarchy defined by wealth, business and the baggage of efficiency and contract that comes with it, etc. There is also a great deal of cultural mixing and diversity here because it contains major ports, so there is a lot of mixing, experimentation, and sometimes clashing of ideas and ways of doing things. It also picks up a particular personality from its environmental context: it is hotter and drier than the surrounding regions, so it tends towards a more relaxed “attitude” during afternoons and summers. The primary values of this culture are productivity, wealth, reliability, responsibility, and hospitality.

Region #2: Wooded Region

The boundaries of this region are mostly defined by the boundary of the woods, the river that runs through its center, and the peninsula that no one else has access to that gets lumped in with the rest of it. This one is one of the few that’s fairly easy to figure out.

Culturally, this region is much less “uptight” than many would consider the culture of region #1. Life happens at a slower pace, with a much more “things will happen when they happen” attitude than a heavily structured, scheduled existence. It is less populous area as well, having fewer and smaller cities and tending rather towards smaller communities on the scale of large villages. People here tend to either be loggers or crafters - particularly crafters who focus on woodworking, such as making furniture or ships or art pieces; or who focus on paper making and paper-related arts like books or paintings. Having a craft and getting good at it is respected, as is developing your own style within that craft. The primary values of this culture are patience, creativity, community, and discipline.

Region #3: In-Between Region

This region has somewhat odd boundaries. In part, it is defined by rivers - on its northern border and the reach of some of its western border. Part of its southern border is defined by ocean access; ocean access grants access to a degree of mobility and kind of resource that is worth working to get, and this region did. Otherwise, it is defined by the regions around it and what space they do or do not feel is worth fighting over.

Like region #1, the economy of this region is defined by trade; however, it is a very different kind. Region #3 is defined by being the “middle-man”; they are the gatekeeper between primary resources and places where those resources are crafted, and the place where a lot of trade passes through but does not stay. As such, one of the biggest factors in this region’s culture is not pissing off its neighbors and staying friendly with everyone. Most of its industry tends to focus on “service” rather than “goods” - shipping services, guard services, inn keeping, tour-giving, accounting, etc. They end up being the “face” for a lot of other people, and as such have a dual value on pleasantness and self-preservation. Within their own culture there is an understanding that everyone is on their own and can’t expect help from anyone else if something goes wrong. There is also a certain competitiveness that underlies the pleasant, uniform facade - because if you’re not the best (or most convenient), you’ll be left in the dust. Primary values of this culture include friendliness, perceptiveness, self-preservation, negotiation and connection-making, caution, and hospitality.

Region #4: Open Plains Region

The borders of this region are mostly defined by rivers and the western coast. Its southern border is defined by the place where the flat stops and the hills start.

Culturally, this region is very different from #1, 2, and 3. It is a place with a lot of primary resources and a lot of people who would like to take advantage of them, so it is very militant as a matter of survival. If it cannot defend itself then its resources and people will be deeply exploited, used, and discarded - so it defends itself. It is a very open region with a widely-spread population; there are very few permanent settlements, and most groups are nomadic in order to make best use of the space. This is further facilitated by the large presence of horses, which serve many important roles in the functioning of society - transportation, beasts of burden, war machines, wealth, and companionship. The culture is very aggressive because of the need to act quickly to address any kind of problem; giving ground on anything is seen as a sign of weakness. If external threats were not so large, there would be a great deal of in-fighting between different groups in this region; however, because of the persistent threat, there is an understanding that if you leave others alone they will leave you alone and no one gets their time wasted. Primary values of this culture are protection, freedom, aggression/passion, strength, endurance, physical prowess, and loyalty.

Region #5: Cool Coastal Region

Borders of this region are defined by the coast and local rivers - fairly simple. Realistically speaking I don’t know that the very narrow southern tip would survive as part of region #5 rather than getting absorbed into #6, just because over time unless there are really serious natural barriers the borders of countries, states etc tend to get rounded off - but it can happen, so I’ll go with this for now.

This region and region #6 are more closely associated with each other than with any of the other regions. Both of them are primarily geared towards farming and fishing of various types, and both are mostly composed of either towns as major hubs of activity or spread out, rural populations. Region #5 has its particular focuses on herbs, root vegetables, leafy green vegetables, and shellfish; its coastline is largely expansive mud flats and slough, so it’s an excellent place for all kinds of shellfish-hunting. Culturally, this region and #6 are alike; things are done at a slow, measured, but productive pace and usually on an established daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythm. Everyone knows roughly what they’re going to be doing every day for the rest of the year, and what their neighbors are going to be doing, and what their families are going to be doing, etc. It’s usual for there to be a division of labor within a household, but no rules about which sex has to take up which task; children are expected to help their parents at their tasks from an early age, and may elect to help either one as needed. Distinct from region #6, region #5 tends to have more festivals and celebrations throughout the year; major milestones such as marriages, births, weddings, etc are celebrated more often and more extensively, and such things are seen as large community affairs. The primary values of this culture are predictability, reliability, family, community, productivity, and groundedness.

Region #6: West Coastal Region

This region’s borders are defined mostly by coast - it has the highest proportion of coast to inland boundaries of any of the regions outlined here. The exceptions are its eastern border, defined by the river; and its southern border, defined by the parallel between the bend in the coastline and the furthest tip of the river.

As described above, culturally speaking, this region is very similar to region #5. It has its primary cornerstones in agriculture and fishing. It differs somewhat from #5 in this regard in that this region does a lot more farming of grain crops - wheat, oats, barley, etc - and a lot more fishing in place of shellfishing. The work in this region is thus somewhat harder, or at least more tedious, and lends itself to a somewhat harder, less easygoing attitude about life in general than is found in region #5. In this place you do your work, you get it done, and if you get it done fast and right only then do you get to take some time off - until tomorrow anyway. In this region, labor tends to separate itself along “harvesting” vs. “processing” lines; the men tend the fields and harvest the grain, or sail the ships and catch the fish; while the women separate grain from chaff and grind it to flour, or debone and smoke or salt the fish, etc. The different sexes tend to spend most of their days gathered together with other members of their own, working together in work communities while the children are gathered in their own spaces and out from underfoot of the adults. The primary values of this culture are productivity, community, contentment (in terms of, you take what you get and don’t complain), commitment, and grit.

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #8: Example World A

Intro This will cover designing cultures from at least one group of all three species in this world: fey, humans, and elves. Because we’re starting to go into more detail I’m having to narrow the focus; just like we went from one world to an entire continent, I’m now going from one continent to one region within that continent. It will be the southern third, as seen below.

Due to space I can only go into brief detail with each of these. In further tutorials I will narrows the focus even more to just a couple; but it’s important to flesh all of these out with the basics so that there’s a sense of the context that the detail of individual cultures can exist in.

Region #1: Fey

The northern half of the moors here are home to a type of fey that would be classified as “unseelie” fey. Culturally, fey are very individual; day-to-day life is not governed by laws, but rather the feelings and whims of individual fey. “Unseelie” fey tend to manifest this in a way that emphasizes competition, and competition that tends to turn nasty at that: tricks, pranks, sabotage, and bloodshed, all for the cause of outcompeting your opponents and leaving them scrambling in the dust. For these fey, the wiliest ones live the longest, and thus as a whole being cunning and devious is valued - and coveted - highly. Long-lasting bonds are more often made out of jealousy or mutual hatred than out of friendship, and enemies are generally much easier to come by than friends amongst the unseelie. As a whole they also have a long-standing hatred of the seelie fey to the south, and have been known to temporarily join forces to pull some kind of ill-willed “prank” on their neighbors.

Due to the nature of the moors upon which they live, these fey tend to favor misdirection and hidden things over brute force. The moors are full of plants that cause visions, sleep, and loss of sense of time; gates and thresholds that lead to feyspaces; and a lot of fossils, which among other things are going to give off a lot of memories. It’s a much better use of magic to be clever with these elements and use them to turn your opponents upside-down than to blast them to smithereens - and a use that requires more cunning - so that is what the unseelie here do. They hoard stones from which to “feed” off of the magic they give, and around these hoards craft a safe place they can also use to sleep (often filled with traps for possible invaders); the stones they generally prefer are fossils, because they feed on the memories left there too.

Region #2: Fey

The southern half of the moors are populated with a kind of fey classified as “seelie”. Like the unseelie fey (and indeed all fey), seelie fey are highly individual and don’t live their day-to-day life following particular laws or codes - just whim. Unlike unseelie fey they don’t have a strident sense of competition and indeed much more inclined to benevolence; they see themselves as caretakers of the world and its creatures. This is not to say that they have no conflicts - quite the opposite, as any two entities with good intentions can still get in one anothers’ way. There are an assortment of rivalries that have developed over time, but they tend to be tamer and centered around pranks with little intent of causing actual lasting damage or harm. They certainly do cooperate as well; some have hidey-holes like the unseelie in the northern marsh (but they aren’t as heavily trapped), but others will line communal areas with rocks to serve as a place to rest and rejuvenate for any who pass through. These areas are the inspiration for the stone labyrinths and circles that are built by non-fey (more on that later).

Fey in this region prefer to feed off of more normal gemstones rather than fossils - they find that the memories contained in the fossils tend to impact them in unpleasant ways and come with a lot of “baggage” that other stones don’t have. Their interaction with the landscape is also different, though just like the unseelie they also live on the misty moors; rather than using it primarily as a tool to undermine others, they simply use it as a way to control their own space. If there’s something they don’t want to interact with, they simply slip away. If there’s something they want to watch without being seeing, they use the mists to do so. Sometimes they will harvest some of the herbs there to exchange with humans for unusual gemstones; sometimes they will allow humans to do the harvesting themselves, if they have a particular tolerance or like of a particular person. 

Region #3: Humans

The humans who live in this region are generally farmers and herders. They tend towards hardy stock in both cases - goats and sheep for livestock, and hardy root vegetables and grains. Oxen mostly exist as draft animals, and keeping horses or poultry is unheard-of. Most of the rhythms of the year are ones determined by the crops and harvest, as well as the harsh winter storms and long days and nights near the solstices. There is very little time for leisure; what time isn’t spent planting, harvesting, and preserving is spent repairing tools and building houses or sheds or fences (if you are a man), or spinning yarn and making clothing (if you are a woman). Leisure tends to look like evening gatherings in a communal barn with plenty of ale and a big fire.

The community structure generally looks like lots of independent villages. There are no large cities, nor any capitals; individual villages may be friendly with each other, but rarely do they share any kind of official alliance or common governance. Generally there is a particular man with the community’s respect who becomes head of the village; if he is suddenly incapacitated, his wife is allowed to take over for him until a suitable replacement is found. Some villages also deviate from this structure - this is just the most common format. 

Region #4: Humans

Crops do not grow particularly well in this region, especially the southern and coastal areas. Instead, this region is much more reliant on fishing and hunting in the ocean for resources. Some livestock - mostly heavier yak-like creatures that can withstand the cold - are kept as well as a supply of hide, milk, and meat. The fluctuation of day and night is even more stark here than in Region 3, and the weather harsher; some times of year are too stormy to be outside, especially in a fishing canoe, and people mostly keep to themselves inside. These elements are somewhat less severe on the eastern side of the region, where there is instead a greater reliance on gathering as well as woodcutting (most of which is used as fuel, for boats, or else traded north in exchange for food). 

As with Region 3, the community structure is as a number of small, unaffiliated villages without any kind of overhead government. Individual villages themselves are generally ruled by a small council of the village’s eldest men. Division of labor tends to fall in favor of men doing the fishing-related tasks and women doing the herding-related tasks, with both helping to strip carcasses and preserve the meat and other resources. The elder women are in charge of care taking of children and domestic activities. Leisure is taken during longer periods of heavy storms, mostly in the form of crafting competitions or storytelling.

Region #5: Fey

Even though the Feywood is several distinct pieces environmentally speaking, it’s one single region culturally speaking. Here the fey aren’t divided into seelie/unseelie; they are neither particularly benevolent nor terribly malicious - just prone to mischief, especially on wanderers-in to their woods but on one another. They also take great delight in taking the forms of animals (if they are able to do such things) and confusing the animals as well. The Feywood is also distinct in that space and time do not always work in a linear or steady fashion, and the wood is constantly phasing in or out of the fey realm to some degree. This is no issue for the fey, for whom the woods and the realm are sometimes one and the same, but poses problems for other beings. 

These fey are more prone to the antics of classic woods fey - which is to say, lots of parties and lots of indulging in various pleasures. These are the kind of fey who will seduce you one way or another and keep you there for a hundred years while you don’t age a day. They are very individual as with all other fey, and hold no particular cultural roles depending on age and sex and so on - except for the queen and king and their ladies and lords. These are not titles based on sex - you could have a male queen or a third/other gendered king - but more like roles that are filled. They have more to do with dealing with mortals than they have to do with internal fey politicking - sort of more like diplomats. Respected, but not bound to by the other fey of the feywood.

Region #6: Elves

The elves of this region are outcast from all the other regions, and very closed-off in turn. Trespassing humans are often killed; trespassing fey are usually not greeted quite as harshly, but usually there are an assortment of wards erected to keep them out in the first place. The landscape is very cold and very harsh; almost all food comes from hunting, especially larger mammals like walrus and whale, but also caribou and regular fish. Houses are usually half tunneled into the icy ground (using magic), and half built up from found stones or snow and ice. There is very little difference in gender role between men and women; usually it is only relevant in courtship, and even then only in the nuance of give-and-take. 

There is a hierarchy amongst the elves that is based primarily on age and secondarily on ability to perform - usually magical feats, but great hunters or fishers can also rise to high social standing. Magic is treated much like any other tool - useful, but potentially deadly when used wrong and to be treated with caution. Magical things and people who use them are often treated with a certain level of suspicion and never fully trusted by the rest of the community. 

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Those are the basics for the cultures in this region of the continent. It is unfortunately unlikely that I will flesh out other regions, because I want there to be as much context for explaining and describing as possible, which necessitates working on the same area the whole time.