The Quick Questions About World Building Thread

No idea whya this would be far-fetched. Except maybe that eunuchs may not make the best sex partner ...

That was what I was concerned about. The research I've done has suggested it's not too far out, but I'm not entirely sure.

Not nearly that advanced, unfortunately. Sort of early-Renaissance-level.

edited 26th Mar '12 7:01:09 PM by ChocolateCotton

How technologically advanced is your society? If they were anywhere around 20th-21th century medical technology, they could probably figure out how to sterilize both males and females without too much effect on their... performance.

Hey, there are records of the Greeks and Ottomans doing it...

You would be surprised the sort of things ancient (and not-so-ancient) civilisations used to do without modern knowledge or techniques, though.

There are some plants that cause low fertility in animals, like the red clover. It doesn't work on humans because you'd need to eat buckets of it, but maybe you could invent some sort of plant that has a similar effect on humans.

edited 30th Mar '12 12:21:36 AM by LoniJay

That aside, there were also any number of plants used as borderline abortifacients, a few of which are now extinct. They were, however, potentially quite dangerous: The most infamous, pennyroyal, can cause a woman to bleed to death if not properly administered.

I think it's quite common in fantasy to invent some generic contraceptive herb and have it work like it was a hormonal pill. At least, common enough that I've seen it, but haven't seen the herbs failing.

I have seen a book (Robin Hobb's Farseer books) where the girl took some herbs under the impression that they were a contraceptive. In the end that tips off an older character as to what's going on, and she informs the boy that they aren't a contraceptive, they just make you sick.

That world also had hedgemagic contraception, but it ended up making the main character lose his libido as well, so I guess it was sort of pointless in his case.

I suppose that's a fairly effective contraceptive on its own.

On a totally different subject...

Is it at all unreasonable for a civilization, approximately on par with the British Empire in the early 19th century in both technology and resources, to be able to produce late Cold War Soviet firearms, light tanks, and SCUD launchers, if provided with the appropriate blueprints and a handful of experts from present-day America to help with industrial set-up?

I doubt a handful of experts would be enough, and why from present-day America for Sovietstuff?

The American organization in question isn't exactly operating legally, and has to rely on what they can scavenge from the black market, with an emphasis on connections in Eastern Europe.

So, what sort of logistical support would be necessary to set up at least basic, small-scale production?

I can believe the firearms, but both tanks and guided rocket launchers incorporate quite a few electronics which a 19th-century civilization is just going to be completely incapable of building. Tools to build the tools to build the tools, and so on. To get to that point, you'd have to basically turnkey upgrade their whole economy past the point of electronic computers and ICs, which is going to be a major undertaking requiring quite a bit more than a few experts.

edited 6th Apr '12 10:19:43 AM by alethiophile

Any of you knows some notable stories where differing types of magic are used by various peoples? I mean, we've got the Unequal Rites trope, and I'm sure the basic premise appears quite often. I'm, however, not sure how often it's explicit that different peoples use different sources and/or types of magic. If you are curious what got me to ask — I was thinking on Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, where magicians of the Hand are explicitly linked with the peninsula and apparently use some different magic than invaders.

Let's see..

This book series features different kinds of magic users in different places.

Then there's the wetboys, assassins skilled in magic to make killing easier.

How being an empath from birth would affect people's worldviews\way of acting around others?

Would they 1)don't bother demonstrating emotion, since others can sense them anyway or 2) why dissimulate or hide emotion, if everyone knows what you feel?

In a world where a perfect afterlife has been proven, why would someone want to stay alive?

This is for the protagonist.

Because the protagonist likes the less perfect aspects of life?

Because willingly causing one's own death causes the person to go to the less perfect afterlife, presumably hell. (It's how priests told people to not commit suicides IRL - 'although heaven is perfect, if you cause your own death to go there, you'll go to hell instead')

edited 22nd Jun '12 12:29:15 PM by Kalontas

Thanks.

That works, but it brings a different problem to me - How do I make the setting isolated, with the afterlife in mind?

edited 22nd Jun '12 12:43:21 PM by Haruspicus

As someone who is currently trying to write a fantasy story and has a lot of questions about world building/ wants to ask someone else's opinion, should I create another topic or is this not the place for that?

If they draw longer discussion, they should get their own thread.

edited 30th Jun '12 2:26:03 PM by risingdreams

Seeing as my world uses unicorns instead of horses*

Edit: I meant "Would it make sense for transportation technology to be a bit Schizo Tech due to culture?"

edited 3rd Jul '12 12:58:34 PM by Sharysa

I don't see any relation between unicorns and schizo tech. Unless there's something I don't know.