Fantasy World Cultures Questions Thread

How advance is your world technologically? Is there some Science Vs Magic thing going on in it?

My world has the "Magic is the Dimension's Natural Law" version of Magic Versus Science with areas of the world that incompletely emulates the natural laws of another dimension (in this case, ours, or one similar to ours). So the world effectively has two sets of technology. One has replicators and lightsabers. The other has the principles behind how the Floating Continents work being used to make airships. The only thing keeping them from developing magitek is lack of a way to control which places follow the emulated natural laws and which don't.

What's the political state of your world?

A hivemind with prophetic abilities is currently the world's shadow ruler, manipulating events subtly mostly for the lols. Many people still remember the war that was fought against that hivemind that ended with a treaty that placed restrictions on what the hivemind was allowed to do.

What is/are the most common pet(s) in your world? How did it/they become so popular?

edited 7th Nov '12 2:05:16 PM by MarkerMage

Unfortunately, dogs and horses are the primary pets in my world for the same reason dogs and horses were so historicly popular. Farmers use dogs to chase thieves and vermin out of their fields. Soldiers will train war dogs on occasion but their usefulness is limited against diciplined and armored troops. Hunters and sherifs use dogs to flush out their quarry.

Horses are still considered a prime means of travel as well as a useful source of labor.

There are some interesting pets, though. Unicorns are rare and skittish but their innate ability to focus magic makes them extremely valuable. Elementals are hard to train but require almost no care. Baby dragons and, oddly enough, dragon eggs are also kept as pets although their parents think of it as a kind of day care.

What kind of natural disasters threaten society in your world?

Often times a flood can kill many in the southern marshes and plains, but a Great River flood would hit nearly every major economy in the world and kill thousands.

Question:How fast is technology currently evolving, and whats the last major advances in tech?

In my world, technology is currently evolving VERY fast, with the last major advancements being the invention of the steam engine, telephone, camera, and the telegraph, as well as wide use of electrical engineering, as my world is in the middle of an industrial revolution. In fact, because of this revolution, pretty much every industry or old form of technology has been completely redeveloped and replaced with machinery. None of this is really unique to my world, so to avoid boring you all I'll just go on to the question.

Question: Are there any old, destroyed civilizations in your world, and if so, what impact have they had on modern civilization?

Question: Are there any old, destroyed civilizations in your world, and if so, what impact have they had on modern civilization?

Quite a few. The world of Gaia is riddled with ruined cities, forgotten fortresses, hidden temples, and lost superweapons that occassionally rear their heads and cause problems for whatever nation that they happen to be built over them. Usually, a team of professional treasure hunters come in, disarm all the traps, take all the treasure, make records of damn near everything, then auction off both the notes and the treasure. Most dungeoneers have a healthy respect for the cultures that created these ruins if only because those ruins have nearly killed them a few times.

Often, there are just large ruins that are merely under about fifteen feet of dirt or so. Occasionally, there are working artifacts but most often it's just something cool but useless. Sometimes, however, there is something both big and working. Sometimes it's useful like an ancient mechanical irrigation system and arcane purifier. Sometimes it's annoying like a lost temple to a fertility god(dess)that makes everyone in a nearby town to be chronicly arosed. Sometimes, however, it's a ticking time bomb that threatens the lives of every mortal being on Gaia. It might be a portal that lets Outsiders in. It might be a bio/necromatic dynamo that turns every living thing within a hundred miles an undead minion. It could be an imprisoned deity, insane from centuries of isolation and dedicated to exacting unspecified vengence for misunderstood reasonings.

What are some of the more exotic tools and weapons of your world and what are they used for?

The castle ships of the Low Kingdom are unique to them. Similar to a European version of an Atakebune [1], they are used for two main purposes. The first is blockading enemy ports. In this case, a large group of them are chained together to form a ring blocking the entrance to the blockaded port. The second use is what the inhabitants of the Low Kingdom call River-locking. When it is believed that there is a high risk of raiders coming up the rivers in the Low Kingdom, castle ships are used to block off the entrance to the river, blocking all river traffic. Fortunately, this is not often necessary.

The ships can carry between one and two hundred men, and are generally considered to be unbeatable. The usual reaction of a pirate who is being pursued by one is first to put on some brown pants, then attempt to outrun it. If he does not succeed, then he will either be rammed by what is essentially a floating wooden castle, or his ship will be grapple-hooked, then boarded by about a hundred men. As the average pirate ship is a simple viking style longship with a crew of thirty to forty men, this is never a good thing.

The pirates, however have one advantage over the castle ships. While the larger ships are equipped with more sails than the original Atakebune, they are still largely reliant on oars, using bursts of speed to catch up to enemies, while pirate longships are generally faster. Even so, they are greatly feared by pirates, and once it is known that one is on the prowl, its area is well avoided.

Question: How important is religion in your culture? And what are the predominant religion's main teachings?

Hmm. In Enrael, religion is not of great importance, but it is very pervasive. Most cities and holdings have priests and monks of the various gods, and some of the magical powers that certain monks have are even ingrained into law; for example, certain monks can sense lies, and have become part of most legal proceedings. There are no predominant teachings, really, it's more a collection of traditions that people follow based around a specific pantheon.

What sorts of things do the upper classes do to show their status? Do they have grand displays of wealth and power, or do they have a more subtle approach?

The upper class generally enjoys displaying its wealth in their homes more grandly, but subtly on their person.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the upper rung of society usually wear finely made, but utilitarian clothing that doesn't blatantly differ from the middle class. On the other side, homes are where they choose to show off their wealth and status. It is a point of pride to be able to control a keep within a major city, and any family who seems to be slacking in terms of their home's upkeep will soon find themselves the victims of the schemes of other families.

What are some major social "Do nots" unique to your world?

It sort of varies from nation to nation and race to race, but Western Humans NEVER, evereverever, talk about war, which is a sentiment usually agreed on. The last major war destroyed empires, redrew maps, killed millions, and the effects still ravage the North.

My question: Do people often go adventuring, and are there often heroes out doing stuff?

Do people often go adventuring, and are there often heroes out doing stuff?

It varies from place to place. The civilized southern lands are mostly peaceful except with the occasional scuffle over borders or trouble from bandits. Most of those problems are dealt with by the local militia and there si very little that hasnt been mapped out.

However the lands to the north and west are more sparsely populated with many scattered and isolated small towns and villages amongst mountains and untamed wilderness. It is not unheard of for the people who live there to be terrorized by bandits, ferocious beasts or taken advantage of by the less ethical magic users. Explorers often spend dacades roving the hillside and forests discovering new things but few make it back out to report their discoveries.

Since there is no militia or organised government to stop this the people usually rely upon travelling warrior priests, mercenaries and bounty hunters to protect them from such threats and bring criminals to justice. These folks often end up building reputations as heroes through their good deeds though they do get paid handsomely for their trouble.

Question: Are there any ruins of past civilisations on your world? What is the true history behind them and how does this compare to what the current civilization believe regarding the ruins?

edited 30th Nov '12 5:53:29 PM by Merlanthe

There are several famous ones, mostly within areas around main cities. The most famous site is actually surrounded by a church and details the method for making Ink. The people believe that it is some sacred religious site, but it was actually the equivalent of a dive bar's bathroom. Oops.

What status do women hold in your society? Alternate sexualities?

I've chosen the society that allows me to give the most ridiculous answer.

Kaerian society doesn't have women. Their species has three sexes none of which would be considered exactly 'male' or 'female' in a human sense.

There are kaerar, who are physically the strongest and are typically expected to be involved in the military, and are considered very aggressive and reckless; kaerir, who are the smallest and weakest, known to be very intelligent and logical, and often engage in more intellectual pursuits; kaerar, who are thought to be more emotional and compassionate, but who mediate between the logical kaerir and impulsive kaerar and who take a leadership role both in society and in the family.

There's also an emerging counterculture known as the Ket who reject traditional gender roles, using gender-neutral forms to address themselves and striving for gender-bending dress and behavior. They're basically this culture's underground gay bar scene.

What level of technology does your world have? Is it medieval tech, steampunk, far-future or something else altogether? If there's magic in the setting, how does it contribute to the culture's technological advancement?

Fantas-punk. Fantasy Steampunk. In general, the further you go North, the more steampunk, South is more steampunk then most areas, but its mostly Dwarven. Eastern areas have lots of magic and elfyness, and the West is lots of Humans in Medieval European Fantasy. Some cultures, namely the Silver Elves of Arcanath, from which the word Arcane is dirived in this universe, not vice versa, run on magic like America runs on Dunkin'.

The question: Who are the single most important people in the world right now, and do most people know them?

Counting only mortals, those would be Sigmund Clark, Amu, the Maurosian Emperor, and Kykzavi Chairman. The latter two are unnamed due to their unimportance in the current story — they rule the two largest empires on Alos, but Uel, where the story takes place, shrugs off empires like the lovechild of Afghanistan and Vietnam. Sigmund is from Earth, the CEO of Western Amalgamated Agricultural, but has a interest in expanding his operations to Alos. Amu is the God King of Uel, with emphasis on the god part: he is described by Sigmund as having "the power of Sauron and the mental health of Idi Amin." Julia O'Malley is Amu's daughter, raised on Earth, and generally agreed to be the best chance of stopping him — she represents a psychological weakness to him, and he needs to sacrifice her or he'll be eaten by the Eyes and Teeth. Unfortunately for Amu's enemies, depending on who you ask, she's either naive but possessed of great potential, or a complete dumbass, but she definitely suffers a bad case of Wrong Genre Savvy.

Needless to say, the Chairman and Emperor aren't the sort of people you can just walk into and greet, although the Emperor is described as being much more approachable than his Kykzavi counterpart. Talking to Amu is dangerous, given his volatile temper and immense power, so even his own ostensible followers avoid directly communicating with him whenever possible. And most of Alos doesn't even know Sigmund exists — he generally operates through shells, puppets, et cetra. Julia is eager to make friends, but her handlers are wary about letting her get to know people until she acclimatizes to Uelane culture better.

What is the state of medicine — or its equivalent — in your world?'

edited 2nd Dec '12 7:57:43 PM by KillerClowns

Medicine is actually quiet good. The one thing the Venist theocracy got right was the development of arcane treatments for every disease they they could. Minor local infections could be treated within minutes and major ones like blood poisoning could be cured in hours. Flesh healed fast enough to see. As a rule of thumb, if you can make it to the cleric you've got a very good chance of surviving. Despite the late medieval-early rennaissance level of technology, health care is on par with the late 19th- early 20th century medicine.

Damn this thread has gotten long. Let's recycle some questions.

How do magic users fit into your society(s)?

They generally aren't treated much differently from others, they live under the same rules as everybody else, but there are some Magic Guilds for the younger magicians to learn to control their magic power better. Magicians normally are researchers that analyse the world's main energy source: the crystals, and that's about it.

Is there any kind of forbidden magic in your world? Why is it forbidden?

edited 7th Dec '12 5:24:27 AM by FullMoon

Resurrection and time travel magic are forbidden because they tamper with the nature too much.

How does people in your fictional culture deals with the concept of death?

"Death" as a deity is worshipped and beloved by most peoples, but there is a definite split between the way the upper and lower classes deal with things like funerals. Lower classes tend to celebrate the life of the dead by letting the soul loose. The family of the dead throw a party late at night following the preparation of the body for disposal, using loud music and torches to guide Death to the body, which will then be burned at sunrise. These celebrations are very much a community event, and often several families will come together to collaborate on planning and financing, though all guests are expected to contribute in some way.

Upper classes have more of a somber attitude, and funerals often include elaborate rituals to influence the treatment of the soul in the afterlife, including "The Calling of the Witnesses"'where those closest to the deceased present the good deeds of the person to Death. Upper classes also tend to bury their dead, rather than cremate.

What is the dominant religion in your world and what are its most important rituals?

edited 8th Dec '12 7:22:24 PM by Poisonarrow

In my dungeon punk world, the two most dominant religions are Human and Elvish. Human is the worship of a vast pantheon of gods each of which can be appealed to personally to get a boost of magic. The hierarchy of gods is corrupt and it is up to individual people who do rituals such as farming holy animals or praying to manage their accounts with the major deities. Considering the magic of this world works under an economic system the Human religion is like laissez faire capitalism. In contrast is the Elvish religion.

The Elves are an organized economy where magic is doled out to individual people. As the human gods are giving less and less favor to the opportunistic humans, the elves are represented by a class of high priests. According to these priests there is one almighty, etherial god while the lower human pantheon is a realm of demons. As the two groups reluctantly settle on the same continent mixing of these beliefs occurs. Who knows what will happen.

Finally the natives of this continent between two rivals, are known as the dwarves and due to a complete lack of magic, this proud warrior race believes all magic is trickery. As a result most dwarves machinery is outlawed.

Describe an article of culture from your world, whether it be an opera, a movie, a novel. What do you think your inhabitants tastes would be?

How does people in your fictional culture deals with the concept of death? Snip ;)

What is the dominant religion in your world and what are its most important rituals? Snip ;)

Describe an article of culture from your world, whether it be an opera, a movie, a novel. What do you think your inhabitants tastes would be?

Snip ;)

Who were the big movers and shakers in your world's history?

edited 2nd May '14 10:34:45 AM by Eagal

Snipperoony!

Are there any Mad Scientists in your world, possibly ones that might be inclined to say "They Called Me Mad!!!"?

edited 11th Jan '16 1:19:06 AM by Eagal

The Wizards pretty much fit this trope to a T. They followed the scientific method before the invention of paper and hoard knowledge and discoveries like gold. By applying scientific methodology to arcane research they manage to pull off miracles. The problem is that their creed gives no respect to ethics and that gave them a bit of a reputation. Aggravating this fact is the tendency of wizards to contradict people in power, commenting on their flaws. Most wizards get run out of towns on politically encouraged superstition.

Most wizards become either hermits or lie about who they are. Most wizards are extremely secretive. However, between their isolation and the implications of what they know, few wizards are completely sane. Most seasoned wizards know enough to start wars. Most veterans know enough to tear holes in reality. The strain of simply knowing these things often drives wizards insane. This combined with their already questionable ethics and vast understanding tends to produce some of the most bizarre and inexplicable things in Gaia. Hence the term A Wizard Did It.

Name a practice of the nobility that is unique to your kingdom/nation/empire.

Name a practice of the nobility that is unique to your kingdom/nation/empire. - The nobles in my kingdom all travel, once every ten years to a manor on a secluded island off the coast. There, all of the nobles will meet with the king and discuss with him the state of the land, redraw borders, establish outposts and that sort of thing.

The actual meetings takes place for a week but many nobles arrive days or even weeks in advance to take advantage of the entertainment that the king is paying for. This type of entertainment includes tennis courts, a harem of men/women, musicians, dancers, travelling performers, and a joust.

What sports, if any, are played in your kingdom/empire/planet?

edited 15th Jan '13 5:33:15 PM by FantasyLiver

What sports, if any, are played in your kingdom/empire/planet?

In the Four Kingdoms a form of football (not the American kind) is played, where a ball usually made of a pigs bladder is kicked around by two roughly equal teams of any size, into two large nets. Only legs, feet and heads can be used to hit the ball.

Archery is highly practiced among the villages that are near or in forests and woodlands. These people are generally very skilled with bows, and longbows are seen almost as a symbol that someone has reached Manhood. Anyone who carries a longbow is respected, mainly due to his probable ability to kill you if you don't respect him.

In the Low Kingdom Tug-of-war is very popular, however in the more extreme versions, which take place in the mountains and hills, where there are no priests of the Faith, the game is performed over a large pit-fire, with the losers being sacrificed to the old gods in the pit when they fall in.

Question: What forms of clothing are prevalent in your world?

In the primitive bronze-age civilization of the Nivi river valley (the only culture I have worked out in significant detail in my world), most people go about in very little clothes at all, due to the area's subtropical climate, most men and women both wear only a small wrap of cloth stretching from their waist to their knees, what we may call a dress. The royalty dress wear a similar, but longer dress, and a tunic that leaves one shoulder and the waist bare. The Royalty also adorn themselves with a variety of jewelry, including elaborate gold necklaces, wristbands, and earrings, often embroided with gemstones.

Alright, this question may be hard for people who aren't into conlanging, but here goes. Question: Give a very brief outline of one of the major languages in your world (A short list of words will do), and maybe a few grammatical rules.