The Quick Questions About World Building Thread

What could a primitive human society that's settled down in village use for a basic defense system against dinosaurs, besides things like spikes and pit traps?

edited 20th Mar '14 9:42:27 PM by DarkbloodCarnagefang

What kind of dinosaur? That's like asking how to defend against mammals.

You're right, I should have specified.

Things ranging in size to dog sized raptors to something slightly bigger than a T-Rex.

If they have the time and resources, they might put up walls—I find it somewhat amazing how far back human wall-building (including dry-stone walls) seems to extend.

Also, digging trenches would possibly be useful against larger theropods.

What would be a good name for a sci-fi race, that is a mostly militaristic empire, of rugged, brutish reptilian-esque creatures. Not necessary Chaotic Evil, more like Chaotic Neutral. The primary human civilization of the setting has classified them officially as Saurians, but I'm not sure what they could call themselves. Likely, they wouldn't use a human dialect word for "Dinosaur". Any thoughts?

Hmm, I've really got no idea actually.

We do have a proper thread for naming things though, try there

There's always obscure mythological names. How about Enyo?

Edit: Gah, wrong forum.

Thanks, Marq

edited 14th Apr '14 11:46:37 PM by Sharur

Is there anywhere in modern Greece — mainland or insular — where it would be plausible to have a small matriarchal community develop since medieval/Classical times in relative isolation and little to no drastic interference by outside forces? I'm assuming a completely mundane setting here, BTW.

That's not a World Building question, if I may point out. Writer's Block is where you would want to put it.

I've seen a lot of conlangs (and I'm working on one myself), plenty of con-scripts and alphabets (I have two of 'em), and even some con-numerals and mathematical notation (check and check). Has anyone made con-musical notation? 'Cause I'm really tempted to create one to go along with the rest of my project.

edited 24th Apr '14 8:04:50 PM by Blueeyedrat

Are you familiar with Shape Note Singing? You might want to look into it.

So I plan on having elves in my story - both as the main villains and a few as the heroes. I'm thinking about keeping the traditional graceful, near-angelic, magical creatures that you see in today's fantasy. Since I plan on there being big battles, how does one kill elves without making them lose their graceful, formidable fighter appearance? Also, how does one kill lots of elves without making them look like mooks?

Well, as to be honest most of the elves I see in today's fantasy seem to tend to the sylvan or the eldrich over the angelic. Really, the only time I've ever seen elves portrayed as angelic is Tolkien. (And video games with High Elves, to make a distinguished and refined counterpart to the natural wood elves).

I guess you could have their bodies sublimate. Then they only lose their entire appearance. Although when I think of that, I imagine them like video game corpses, just fading away.

Generally, I would say that it is impossible to remove the easily defeated from a big, anonymous-making battle Mooks. That's the definition of Mooks. (Unless they're good. Then they're Red Shirts.) I guess you could make the battles smaller (at least on the elves side) and make the elves into elite mooks, like the Spartans.

Disappearing corpses is a great idea. And maybe I could have them not react to pain like a normal human being. Maybe a line like "I seem to have been mortally wounded." said in a dry, deadpan way.

What's a food with a particularly strong smell that will carry quite a distance while it's being cooked? It doesn't necessarily need to smell bad, but it needs to be distinctive enough to be recognized.

Eggs, tamales (can be smelled from anywhere in the tri-state area) curry, etc.

What sort of tamales and curry would be the strongest? I'm going to assume that fish would be the answer for both.

Eggs don't smell particularly strong when they're being cooked.

Cabbage (especially boiling cabbage); anything with a lot of garlic in it; onions; cinnamon has a fairly distinctive smell as it cooks; bacon; bread baking; some desserts, especially those with fruits, like apple, cherry, or peach cobblers, crumbles or pies, although pies less so than cobblers or crumbles; any roasting red meat, but mutton, lamb, and goat all have a very distinctive smell (lamb is milder, goat can be quite strong, and mutton can be nauseatingly intense).

Chilli paste, or sambal as we locally call it in Malaysia, is very strong when you're making it. First-hand info here, as my mother makes it all the time. It's pretty piercing to the nose. I suspect gravy-based food would give off a strong aroma too, like the aforementioned curry and other dishes - I think curry leaf chicken is one of them. Savoury foods and proper meals mostly, rather than sweets and desserts.

Fantasy Liver: Have their "souls" or whatever equivalent dissipate upwards when they die, taking their body with them (following from that sublimation idea above) if you don't want the mess. Plus, if you want to make them more formidable, have them blow up into a small, contained but still violent "soul explosion" when they reach some sort of Critical Existence Failure. Making the explosion small makes it so that they won't be too dangerous to the killer in question and thus can still be mowed down, but also still make them look cool and dangerous. Ideally, all these "soul" things should be white-hot in appearance. Don't make them too easy to kill, so that the explosions don't become funny after the hundredth time you see it. Perhaps mix them both up - most of them dissolve upwards while certain rarer kills result in a soulsplosion - perhaps by running them through the heart, or because it was a mage elf. Magic's pretty volatile stuff.

I have an elf question of my own. I have a race of elves called tree elves that are pretty much like your vanilla wood/sylvan elf. I want to base their culture around the forest, but I have trouble with their cultural perception of death.

My question is: Which season is more suitable to a forest-dwelling elf as a symbol of death - fall, or winter? And if you chose one, what could the other one mean, if not death? Both have connotations of death (leaves falling, Snow Means Death) but also hibernation, endurance and rebirth (which is what spring is for). I don't want two seasons to symbolise death - or my elves would just seem like very gloomy people.

edited 28th May '14 8:50:08 AM by Nadir

I could see Autumn being associated with death, as everything retreats or dies off. Winter, then, might be either associated with the afterlife, or with gestation: the period of waiting and preparation before the new life enters the world in spring. If they believe in reincarnation, then both ideas might work together.

Alternatively, winter is death, while autumn is old age / dying.

Winter is cold(Death Is Cold) and very little (plant) life is around, save for established trees.

Autumn as old age has three things going with it. First it allows each season to have part of the life cycle (birth/childhood, youth/adulthood, old age, death). Second leaves falling is like the breakdown of the body due to old age (which gives me an idea for a euphemism;, "losing one's leaves" for all the negative effects of aging, arthritis, memory loss, etc.) Finally, new and established plants will gain nutrients from the detritus of the falling leaves, like younger generations benefiting from the elders teaching their wisdom to them.

Also, I've seen some elves who have/believe in reincarnation(Tolkien's most notably). If yours do as well, that increases the synchronization with nature: death(winter) produces birth(spring).

I rather like that, too.

edited 28th May '14 2:33:02 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

I like both, but I feel a little odd putting so much seasonal emphasis on old age in particular. Afterlife seems like a more distinct concept.

I think it's just me not being old enough to appreciate the importance of your golden years. Anyway, thanks you two.

How many ranch hands would be needed for a ranch with 200 head of sheep and 50 cattle? It's a weird-west set in the future (WW3 has sent much of America back to a frontier-level of technology, but there's magic and the wealthy can afford huge advancements in technology), but I'd like a baseline for how many workers a well-off ranch would need in real life.

I get a lot of google searches for what ranch hands do, but no idea of how many would be needed for a ranch with X number of livestock.

edited 8th Jun '14 7:49:06 PM by Sharysa