#worldbuilding tutorial 6

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #6: Example World B

Introduction This world is actually a much better example for Tutorial #6 than World A was, because a lot of the relations going on in World A are rooted more deeply in magic and species differences than in actual needs and wants. This world is also going to be pretty much exclusively human in terms of its population, so differing biological needs are not going to come into play as much. With that - on we go.

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This world is a lot bigger than World A was, and this particular continent is very big. So it has more territories marked off than World A does. However, because this world has more technological development, each of those territories is a lot larger than each of the ones in World A. For example, Territory 4 here is only a little smaller than the entire continent being worked on in World A. Granted, Territory 4 is full of lots of nomadic groups, so it’s not being governed in any centralized fashion, but we’ll get to that later.

Resources and Deficits

As before, I’ll list off the resources and deficits of each location. I have edited some things that I said previously because, as I was tallying up resources, some things clearly needed to happen or not happen.

Territory 1

Resources: Fish, Shellfish, Pearls, Wood, Fruits, Vegetables, Wheat, Livestock, Salt, Copper.

Deficits: Gold, Silver, Iron, Gems, other Metals.

Territory 2

Resources: Wood, Furs, Fruits, Berries, Herbs, Mushrooms, Fish, Nuts.

Deficits: Livestock, Grains, Metals.

Territory 3

Resources: Limestone/Shale, Fish, Wheat, Barley, Leafy Veggies, Livestock, Clay.

Deficits: Salt, Metals, Spices.

Territory 4

Resources: Horses, Antelope/Game, Iron, Grasses, Herbs, Dyes, Roots, Berries.

Deficits: Salt, Fish, Fruits, Nuts, Spices, Wood.

Territory 5

Resources: Salt, Fish, Shellfish, Blubber, Game, Root Veggies, Leafy Veggies.

Deficits: Wood, Iron, Nuts, Spices, Gold, Gems.

Territory 6

Resources: Salt, Fish, Livestock/Game, Wool, Oats, Rye, Sapphires.

Deficits: Wood, Nuts, Spices, Iron.

Territory 7

Resources: Game/Livestock, Root Veggies, Hardy Fruits, Furs, Fish, Salt.

Deficits: Other Veggies, Grains, Wood, Metals, Gems.

Territory 8

Resources: Cotton, Corn, Wood, Fish, Salt, Fruits, Veggies.

Deficits: Metals, Gems.

Territory 9

Resources: Wheat, Barley, Herbs (Medicinal), Shellfish, Fish, Spices, Sugar, Gold.

Deficits: Wood, Stone.

Territory 10

Resources: Coffee, Spices, Wood, Nuts, Fruits, Herbs (Medicinal), Iron, Gems.

Deficits: Roots, Veggies, Grains. 

Territory 11

Resources: Corn, Fish, Peppers, Wood, Spices.

Deficits: Fruits, Nuts.

Territory 12

Resources: Barley, Veggies, Tea, Wood, Salt, Fish, Livestock, Gourds, Silver, Iron.

Deficits: Fruits, Berries, Gems.

Territory 13

Resources: Gold, Gems, Cotton, Fish, Livestock, Herbs, Wheat, Woods, Fruits, Salt, Sandstone.

Deficits: Wood, Metals, Gems, Nuts, Leafy Veggies, Roots.

Territory 14

Resources: Silk, Wood, Berries, Fruits, Herbs, Fish, Oats, Flax, Tin.

Deficits: Iron, Gold, Spices, Livestock.

Territory 15

Resources: Sapphires, Copper, Tin, Fish, Herbs, Berries, Birds, Granite.

Deficits: Wood, Grains, Roots, Livestock.

Territory 16

Resources: Wood, Berries, Fruits, Nuts, Fish, Salt, Livestock, Roots, Flax, Furs.

Deficits: Gems, Gold, Silver, Iron, Spices.

Territory 17

Resources: Fish, Marine Mammals, Barley, Oceanic Goods, Roots.

Deficits: Spices, Gold, Silver, Gems, Wood, 

Territory 18

Resources: Livestock, Herbs, Fruits. 

Deficits: Berries, Veggies, Metals, Gems.

Territory 19

Resources: Moonstone, Sandstone, Game, Poisons, Seeds.

Deficits: Grains, Fruits, Nuts, Livestock, Vegetables, Textiles.

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Trade Regions and Brief Notes on Relations

On this continent there are three major trade systems - the northern one, central one, and the southern one, with the former and latter separated by the middle in the rainforest, mountains, and swamp. These are not entirely independent, however; ship technology is such that the two can trade with one another fairly easily, although as with all ship goods, that trade will be very expensive and risky.

Northern System - Territory One is the major power here simply because it controls the best ports and thus most of the wealth of the area, as well as being able to provide for its own food needs. It is on good terms with Territories Two/Three. Territories 5/6 get along well, and Territory 4 is mostly on its own. Territory 4 is important in that it’s the major source of iron in the region, and Territory 3 is the most friendly and able to trade with them on that count. There is definitely a system of trade up here, though people are always looking to twist things to their own gain and conflicts will erupt from time to time - especially against Territory 4, with people trying to get the iron deposits under their own control. The exception here is Territory 7, which tends to stick entirely to itself and doesn’t get involved in anyone else’s affairs.

Central System - This entire system is made up of territories that basically keep to themselves. There isn’t much interest in trade, and there isn’t much interest in warring. This is heightened by the fact that the terrain in this whole area is by and large difficult, which makes either of those activities... well, difficult. However, these goods are highly desired in the northern system especially, and there are often less-than-friendly attempts to gain these resources. Some trade has been established to keep this from happening particularly frequently, especially between Territory 3 and Territory 9 - the latter of which supplies most of the gold that is used in the northern system’s currency.

Southern System - Due to the scarcity of some food types (thanks to the hostility of the environment - deserts and water scarcity), there is a lot more warring that happens between different systems. Territory 19 in particular is the type that will happily kill you for trying to mess in their affairs, and they are generally avoided by the others. Most trade here relies on personal connections rather than large companies or businesses, so it’s slower and smaller but it does exist. In general this whole region is much more decentralized than the northern one - again, due to having to move around a lot to obtain resources - so all relations come down more to individual groups than large-scale ones.

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That’s it for now - again, things will make a little more sense as cultures get developed from here. 

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #6: Example World A

Introduction Some things to keep in mind for this world. For starters, size. To refresh your memory, this world is about 1/3 the size of Earth, so distances are a lot smaller. However, it isn’t very technologically advanced and it’s sparsely populated, so territories still have to be fairly small all things considered. That’s why there are so many of them.

Secondly, some notes about what lives here. This world is populated, first and foremost, by fey. And fey biology does not work like human biology, at least in this world. Eating food is something done more for pleasure than out of necessity; fey still eat, but they get most of their nourishment from the magic inside things. So they will eat rocks if they feel like it. Plants and bugs and such also. The point being that in terms of trade, areas populated more heavily by fey are not going to need the same kinds of import/export that one might find in the real world. There are some areas that are populated by humans and by other species - those connections will look a little more familiar. I have noted which ones are populated primarily by what.

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First thing’s first - I’ve gone ahead and divided up Continent A into an assortment of territories. I have also colored them slightly so that they may be more easily distinguished. 

Now to go through and, in a brief word, list things they have a lot of and things they don’t have a lot of. Oddities will be explained as we go.

Area 1 (Unseelie Fey)

Resources: Fossils, Limestone, Herbs (Medicinal and Edible), Mushrooms, Assorted Gemstones, Berries.

Deficits: Metals, Spices, Staple Crops.

Area 2 (Seelie Fey)

Resources: Fossils, Limestone, Herbs (Medicinal and Edible), Mushrooms, Assorted Gemstones, Berries.

Deficits: Metals, Spices, Staple Crops.

Area 3 (Humans)

Resources: Gold, Gems, Fish, Furs, Wool, Livestock, Barley, Ry, Oats, Root Vegetables, Flax, Legumes, Salt.

Deficits: Metals, Spices, Lumber, Leafy Vegetables, Fruits.

Area 4 (Humans)

Resources: Gold, Gems, Furs, Fish, Oil/Blubber, Ivory, Lumber, Wool, Livestock, Salt.

Deficits: Metals, Grains, Spices, Leafy Vegetables, Fruits.

Area 5A (Fey)

Resources: Wood, Nuts, Fruits, Gems, Herbs (Medicinal), Gourds.

Deficits: Grains, Root Vegetables.

Area 5B (Fey)

Resources: Wood, Nuts, Fruits, Berries, Gems, Herbs (Medicinal and Edible), Furs.

Deficits: Grains, Metals. 

Area 5C (Fey)

Resources: Wood, Nuts, Berries, Gems, Furs.

Deficits: Grains, Metals, Fruits, Vegetables.

Area 6 (Elves)

Resources: Gold, Fish, Oil/Blubber, Ivory, Furs, Salt.

Deficits: Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, Wood, Metals.

Area 7 (Humans)

Resources: Fish, Shellfish, Fruits, Berries, Leafy Vegetables, Wood, Barley, Furs, Wool, Livestock, Silver, Gold, Gems, Stone, Metals.

Deficits: These guys drew a jackpot. They basically are only wanting for versions of things - species of fruit they don’t have, or particular roots they don’t have, etc.

Area 8 (Elves and Fey)

Resources: Rice, Fruits, Nuts, Spices, Herbs (Medicinal and Edible), Feathers, Iron, Copper, Silk, Wood.

Deficits: Salt, Oceanic Goods, Gems.

Area 9 (Fey)

Resources: Tin, Fruits, Nuts, Tea, Clay, Porcelain Clay, Silk, Wood.

Deficits: Oceanic Goods, Iron, Salt, Gems.

Area 10 (Humans and Fey)

Resources: Wheat, Corn, Cotton, Wood, Livestock, Yams, Rice, Clay, Salt, Fish, Shellfish, Gourds, 

Deficits: Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Gems.

Area 11 (Humans)

Resources: Rice, Fish, Shellfish, Spices, Wood, Salt.

Deficits: Metals, Stone, Gem, Livestock.

Area 12 (Humans)

Resources: Cotton, Silk, Fish, Shellfish, Rice, Fruits, Nuts, Salt, Iron.

Deficits: Gems, Gold, Silver, Livestock.

Area 13 (Fey)

Resources: Iron, Lead, Bison, Legumes, Root Vegetables, Volcanic Rock, Herbs (Edible).

Deficits: Grains, Fruits, Nuts, Gems.

Area 14 (Humans and Fey)

Resources: Iron, Bison, Horses, Volcanic Rock, Root Vegetables, Herbs (Edible).

Deficits: Grains, Fruits, Nuts, Gems. 

Area 15 (Unoccupied)

Resources: Granite, Diamonds, Silver, Furs, Metals, Gems.

Deficits: Plants of all kinds.

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Trade Regions and Brief Notes on Relations

Due to natural barriers, there are three different mini systems of trade, and for the most part those systems cannot access one another. The first system consists of territories 1-6; the second system of territories 7-12; and the third of territories 13 and 14. 15 is, of course, the barrier that separates them all. I will go ahead and outline some basic notes about trade within those systems, with more fleshing out to follow later (because this is also starting to get into cultural stuff, which I haven’t gone into yet).

System One - The human areas tend to play well together mostly out of mutual hatred of the fey. If they didn’t both have to deal with the fey, they would very likely be warring all the time (and they already still do from time to time). Luckily for both of them, they border on the Seelie Fey area (not that that’s luck - we’ll get to that in culture), so there is a little bit of trade between the Seelie Fey and the humans (more in Territory 3). Humans general steer clear of the fey wood, but there is definitely exchange between the Feywood and both of the Feyfen territories. The two Feyfen territories tend not to get along well, and the Feywood will trade within itself. Territory 6 hates both the humans and the fey and refuse to trade with either of them.

System Two - Everyone in this area is cautiously open to one another. There isn’t as much open warring, but there isn’t as much open trade, either. Territory 7 doesn’t need to trade with anyone if it doesn’t want to, but it will sometimes get hold of spices or exotic goods. Territories 12 and 11 - both the exclusively coastal ones - get along well. Territory 7, because it has the resources to do so, is the one most likely to reach into the other trading systems. 

System Three - Everyone has roughly the same resources and they hate each other. 13 and 14 war not only with each other but also with themselves, and it’s not a happy time up there. They are very distrustful of outsiders, and the few times that Territory 12 has made it up there, they’ve been slaughtered immediately. 

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I’ll cut it off here - I’m looking forward to expanding on the cultural stuff going on in these different regions, because what’s going on up above will make a little more sense once I can. On to World B, and then to hopefully on to cultures.

[worldbuildingworkshop]

Worldbuilding Tutorial #6: Territory and Resources

A Summary of the Process Determine where the boundaries of your continents various civilizations or political entities lie, according to topographical and environmental features as well as defensibility and other social factors. From there, determine what resources each territory has access to and which ones it does not. Based on availability of resources, begin to outline in broad strokes both the culture of each territory and the relationships between different territories.

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Territory Boundaries The first thing to consider in terms of where the boundaries between territories are is the size of your world. A civilization can only control so much space; and the more space it controls, the more advanced infrastructure and technology it is going to have to have in order to keep control of it. More advanced civilizations are going to be able to control more space, whereas less advanced ones are not going to be able to control as much. Larger land masses are generally going to have more political boundaries on them, and smaller land masses are generally going to be able to sustain fewer. 

The second thing to consider regarding territory boundaries are physical obstacles. Land features such as mountains, rivers, and coastlines all present natural boundaries between territories that you can see even in the real world. This is for several reasons. The first is that it’s difficult to traverse large obstacles like that, and if you are going to control across such a boundary you are going to need to be able to cross it all the time. The second is a sub-reason of the first - large obstacles like this are also very defensible, in that they pose problems for anyone attempting to invade across them. It puts outsiders at a distinct disadvantage, which allows you to keep control of your area more easily. Peninsulas can also be good for this, as can islands. The third is simply that they make recognizable landmarks that everyone can see and go “oh, this is this river, so if I go any further I’ll be in that territory instead of this one”. Borders become more policeable when they are physical features instead of just imaginary lines on a map. 

These large physical obstacles are also often desirable for other reasons, as well. If you have a border on the coast, your ability to travel and trade is distinctly above a territory that is landlocked. The ocean is also a great resource for food. Similarly, rivers are also great for travel, and if you control a river then you not only have fresh water and more food options but you also have what is essentially a major highway, assuming you can develop boat technology. If you look at maps of the real world, you can see all these factors playing in. Many, many boundaries between countries are along rivers and mountain ranges; and many wars are fought over trying to gain coastal access, especially as technology develops to make boat travel a real possibility on some kind of largeish scale.

The third thing to consider is, of course, resources. Every single occupied territory absolutely needs two things: 1) fresh water, and 2) sources of food. Unless your world is populated with creatures with a totally different biological basis than humans, if your territory does not have either of those resources, it cannot be occupied by any kind of civilization. Most likely those are the wastelands that no one either can or wants to claim, and/or the place that exiles get banished. There are other resources that are important and that will factor into territory lines - fuel/lumber, building materials, ore, sites of metaphysical importance, and so on and so on and so forth - but they are not the end all be all. Civilizations will still find a way to go on without obvious sources of these things, by working around them or through trade.

Resources also brings into question the population factor, which is also an influence on territory boundaries. A territory can only sustain a population of a certain size based on the number of resources, not just that it has, but that that population has the ability to extract and use. So a territory with an abundance of easy-to-access resources is going to have a larger population size, whereas a territory with many scarcities is going to have a much smaller population. This leads to two things. One, the larger your population is, the more space a territory is going to need to contain them. Two, human power (or other species power) is in and of itself a resource, and the more people you can send out to go take and hold land, the larger an area you can control, even if those areas would not necessarily have the immediate resources to sustain that kind of population. This leads to a kind of, if not exponential, then imperfectly logarithmic sort of situation where people who begin with more resources are more likely to be able to obtain even more resources (and territory with them). 

Very likely what you want to do at this point is sketch out rough borders for now. As you start to figure out what the resource access looks like for various territories, you can tweak and adjust them to account for resource propagation and population size and technology differences and so on. That will all come later. For now, just get a rough idea of where everything is.

Finding Local Resources Once you have the territories marked out, you can start looking at the kinds of resources each one has available. For this you’re going to want to consult previous write-ups regarding the biomes. What kinds of rock and stone are in the area? What kinds of plants grow in the area? What kinds of animals live in it? All of these are very basic kinds of resources. 

Food is particularly important. If you like, you can do research on the growing conditions of kinds of foods in the real world and figure out where they go in yours. Most, if not all, civilizations are based on some kind of staple crop that makes up a major part of its peoples’ diets. More often than not, they are starches or cereals. Corn, wheat, rice, potatoes and more have been staple crops in various civilizations in our world. You can also make up your own if you like. But having some kind of staple crop gives your civilization some stability in terms of energy and food that will allow it to pursue other resources. Alternatively, this staple energy source can be some kind of meat - many polar civilizations, such as the Inuit, base their diets very largely on meat rather than on plants because plants simply don’t grow well in their necks of the woods (so to speak). There are ways to get around environmental challenges- something just needs to be a basic food source.

Aside from food and water, there are a number of other needs that have to be met:

Shelter

Fuel

Tools

Clothes

Look at the kinds of resources each area has that they can meet those needs with. Take shelter for instance. Are there forests around? Great, you can use trees to build shelters. No forests handy? Maybe there are mountains, and you can use caves or even quarry stone to build your living quarters. No mountains, but a plethora of solid earth? Sod and clay are also viable building materials. Or you could tunnel into and under it. Not much of that either? You can make tents out of skins and furs. And so on and so forth. Consider also the degree of shelter you are going to need. Is the climate mild and relatively free of bad weather? You’re not going to need a lot of shelter to keep your risk of dying due to the elements very low. On the other extreme, if the climate is very hot or cold and prone to ravaging storms, heavy shelter of the appropriate kinds is a must.

Similarly, there are all kinds of resources you can use to make tools: bones, teeth, claws, grass, stone of various kinds, sand, clay, wood, metal, etc. Fuel - which is used for cooking, light, and warmth - can take the form of wood, coal, dung, animal fat, and much else. Essentially, figure out how people can meet their needs - and be creative with it. Some answers are more difficult to find than others, and the answer isn't always obvious. If you need help, you can always research real-world cultures and see what kinds of resources they base their societies off of.

One last thing to consider (for now) is stationary vs. migratory. In some places, resource availability shifts with the seasons. Whether it is due to animal migration patterns, inhospitable weather, different plants coming in and out of season, and so on, resources are not always steadily available in one location. If a group has to move around to meet its resource needs, its shelter and tools will need to accommodate this. But if their resource sources are steady, or they can arrange their resources to become stationary (such as planting crops), they will develop other kinds of tools and shelter due to differing needs. 

Resource Deficiencies On the flip side, most places do not have all the resources they want or need. Certainly, they can meet their basic needs - but they might be able to meet them better if they could obtain different resources from other places. And resources go beyond just basic needs, too; a society doesn’t need things like spices or citrus fruits or extra-special shiny rocks, but if they can obtain them, they sure do like to have them. So what you want to do next is figure out what kinds of things your territories lack, and figure which territories elsewhere in the world have them. This will become the base upon which relations between your territories is built.

Generally speaking, there are a couple ways to obtain resources that you want and someone else has. You can trade with them, or you can wage war against them. Distance factors in here. If the resource you need happens to be right next door - maybe a territory you border on has a forest, but you don’t - warfare is a much more viable option than if that forest or other resource that you want is several territories and hundreds of miles away. Excepting in very advanced civilizations, waging war at that distance is impractical, unwieldy, and ineffective. You are more likely to trade with your neighbor, who will trade with their neighbor, and in doing so a trade route will be established. That doesn’t necessarily mean that if what you want is only the next territory over that you will de facto declare war on them - trade is usually a much lower-cost way of obtaining what you want. 

Reciprocation also features heavily in trade. In order for a trade to happen, generally both sides have to give something to the other - which means that both sides have to have something that the other wants. If side A has all the resources they need, and side B needs something they don’t have but side A does, side A is not very likely to want to trade with side B because there’s nothing for them in the deal. (This is another reason warfare might be the go-to rather than trade - only one side has to consent to warfare to make it happen). Of course, this access can be indirect - maybe side C is on the other end of side B, and C has something that A needs but can’t get to, so A can trade with B can trade with C and bring it back to A. 

There are plenty of other reasons to trade or go to war besides just matters of resources. Cultural, religious, solidarity, and so on can also become reasons to do one or the other. But figuring out what kinds of trade are ongoing will help determine everything’s status. Need for trade can prevent war where war might otherwise erupt, or it can encourage war between territories that might not otherwise have happened. That is by and large a topic for another time, though.

Unoccupied Territory Lastly, don’t underestimate the role of unoccupied territory. Some places in your world are just going to be too inhospitable for anyone to live on it. Or perhaps they might be livable, but your civilizations don’t yet have the means by population or resources in order to be able to occupy it. Unoccupied territory becomes a place to be traveled across or explored, which can make your world rich in other ways besides simply might and resources. It can pose a big challenge to territories bordering it; it can become a place where outlaws go to hide; it can be the place that all the biggest, wildest creatures of the world retreat to as civilization encroaches; it can be a barrier in and of itself between different occupied territories. So consider also which places are unfit for civilizations in general, and factor in what role those places play in the dynamics between the others.

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Those are the basics, for now. After the example worlds to demonstrate this one, the next tutorial will likely be along the lines of more detail regarding how technology and cultures develop out of access to resources. With that will come some basic culture-building, which will be expanded upon further in the future.