Fantasy World Cultures Questions Thread

The people of my setting believe in pantheism. The origin of the universe was from nothingness. No matter, space or time existed. Only a conscious mind with no sense of individuality. That is, until the first light began to flicker in the void. For the first time, the mind has something to identify itself against. Space and time was born at the same moment, as there was now distance and a past. The conscious void embraces the light, and start creating lights of his own, which became stars. Wanting more individuals to connect with, he created the three essence of the soul; Knowledge, emotion and willpower, and send the souls out to inhabit bodies of their own. The dead who lose their bodies will share their memories with the void, losing them before being sent out again without memories, thus creating reincarnation.

The void, wanting various environments for the souls to live on so that there would be more interesting memories, created the planets, allowing them to orbit around the stars to provide a comfortable environment. The planets' will manifested in the form of spirits, who each crafted bodies for the souls to inhabit, as well as terraforming the planet. Several species were wiped out by events, so the spirits chose one species at random to evolve at a greater rate. That was the human race, whose intelligence allowed them to survive harsh environments. Other species were created, molded in the image of man. Each spirit has a hand in creating their own sets of human subspecies. Some of the more unique ones are the elves. Elves were created by the twin spirits born from day and night. All elves are born in a set of twins, one with fair skin, emerald eyes and blonde hair, and the other dark skin, sapphire eyes and silver hair, to symbolize the duality.

How far has technology progressed in your setting? How did the existence of anything in your setting, such as magic, effected the advancement of science?

Good question. In the realm of granus, scientists had worked long and hard to combine magic technology into one thing. This resulted in faster innovation in technology. It slowed down a bit soon afterwards but technology is still being made to this day. That is, if magic wasn't so gosh darn popular.

does your culture have a rite of passage?

The dahkory have one: to visit the grey castle and have audience with the twilight king, now the tricky part about this is that is not a physical visit since is palace is not there but a atherical one using magic, the experience change the subject in diferent way which is show as the "will of the twilight king who slumber in is palace"

is there any culture clash in your setting, how and why?

This sort of thing happens as Mars. There are two types of people who live on Mars. The Native Martians who've been on Mars and those who originally came from Earth when Humans started to expand across the Sol System in the 1900s-who, for the sake of this post, will be referred to as Marsmen. The Natives, despite the name, had came to Mars 300 years prior, being immigrants that ran away from Earth to settle on Mars. They look the same as any other Humans do, save for markings that naturally appear on their bodies and significantly different blood-types which, for the most part, are not compatible with other Humans.

Anyway, this isn't a "Fantasy Biology" thread, this is a "Fantasy World Culture" thread!

Natives and Marsmen are radically different when it comes to cultures and ideals. Marsmen, like the rest of other Humans in the setting, Natives are much more spiritual, fully aware of the life Mars has. The Marsmen, meanwhile, are more technologically based and often downplay, if not, fully ignore the spiritual side of the planet. The Marsmen often think that the large, red, sand-covered ball that is Mars should be terraformed, where as the Natvies think that tampering with the balance of Mars would kill the planet rather than 'save' it. They compromise by only terraforming small portions around cities, but there is a lot of resistance from both sides. The Marsmen constantly try to over step themselves, demolish ruins, and push Natives off to the harsh, sun-baked hell of the ocean of sand, while the Natives often try destroy the Marsmen's cities by reawakening Gods and casting curses on the people.

It's Science VS Magic with no real good or bad guys and nobody willing to compromise.

What's the currency like in your setting? Do all cultures and countries use the game? And if not, how is it converted?

The human nations of Manastra and Rigoli both use gold coins with Manastra always mixing the gold with equal parts steel and Rigoli claiming their coins are pure gold. At least, the nobility uses gold coins. There are silver coins for regular everyday use with nickel and copper denominations. The specifics vary with Manastra having 10 copper coins per silver and Rigoli having 14 but all in all the coins are practically interchangible. Certainly most outsiders think so even if most Manastrans and Rigoli will fiercely deny it.

The Orc nation of Sasaha is experimenting in salt backed currency since they simply don't have the metals for a coin based economy. However, there is no central bank and with Sasaha being a confederacy of tribes there's constant issues with competing currencies and salt banks printing more notes than they can back. As it stands, most Sasaharans use foreign currency and orc merchants have gotten very good at exchanging currencies.

Elven run Wytherwyn actually does have central banking that prints its own currency. What backs that currency is kind of complicated as the notes are backed by the various treasures the Grand Treasury holds. There's really no determination on what the Pon is actually worth other than the fact you can buy anything in the Grand Treasury's vaults with enough of them. Nobody outside of Wytherwyn knows how to value them and even the humans in Wytherwyn have given up trying to explain it to explain it to outsiders. Don't ask the elves about it. Just trust me it's for your sanity.

Kirkland's currency is backed in grain and run by the grain merchant's guild. Each Dan'at is worth one bag of grain of a predetermined size. It's one of the most stable currencies on the planet and tends to be accepted everywhere. Oddly, the word Dan'at translates as "a wheat" or "a rice" what with Dan being a generic uncounted term for grain and -at being a counted article. It doesn't translate well into english not because Kirlandi is weird (it is but I digress) but because english is non-sensical and the word "grain" can be use like "amber waves of grain" as well as "grains of sand".

The Lost Continent is currently exchanging 7 weights of Cowrie Shells per 2 weights of Mana Crystals and that's the best description of the economy there I can come up with.

Let's say you go to a tavern or restaurant and order some food. What's on the menu and what does it taste like?

edited 15th Jan '17 7:57:50 PM by Belisaurius

If we talk about tavern, in reisarck the best would be some sauces and potatos, probably some soup with really good beer, order like vaukelder serve fish, a loooooot of fish

I is there eve a serious buissness thing that other consider weird or silly?

Sorry, what?

Damn, that happen for writing to fast.

What I said is: if there any behivor or costume in any town,city/nation that is consider serious buissness there but look as something weird by strangers?

I'm gonna try my best to answer this question.

On Luna, Earth's Moon when given a name other than...The Moon, it's very common for people to have animal-eared hoods. Like, hoods with cat ears, fox ears, and so on and so forth. While on Luna, this is pretty commonplace and symbols of social status (the equivalent to a Policeman would be someone wearing a Dog-Eared Hood), this is seen as pretty, well, silly across other systems. The reasoning for these hoods are pretty unknown to most, but Lunanatives will say it's because such hoods became popular in the 1950s and just never went out of style, making them something of an Ascended Meme.

Is there any commonly accepted lore to spirits, ghosts, and the like? If not commonly accepted, do various cultures have different beliefs?

As most of the people on the continent follows one religion, their view of the afterlife are mostly identical, though with some variation. It is generally accepted that there are spirits who govern the elements and helped god in the creation of human beings. Each race was created by their individual spirits, who they are suppose to pray to, but all living beings are governed by the spirit of death. Death exists in many forms depending on how the person feel about death, and it is forbidden for anybody to indulge in necromancy, since all souls return to god to share their memories with it.

Souls who insist on staying alive becomes ghosts, and they anchor themselves to an object before death. If said object is destroyed, they will die again. Ghost generally hide in fear of death, who chases them in the form of a black dog.

What are considered the most dangerous locations in your world and why?

That would be the outside points.

You see, in my setting reallity is made by 3 layers: the normal were regular stuff it is, the second when a lot of mini worlds lie and the final one were over-lovecrafnian move, a outside point is were the 3 layer find a hole to pull into the first one, changing reallity around it, this become....weird.....really weird after a while, some can be contain, others....not much

have the army of one nation suffer a serious structural reform lately? or what is the newest weapon they are devolping?

Several armies of my post-post-apocalyptic world, especially Mexicans, Canadians and Siberians, are currently busy developing a weapon called the Intamba Gun, named after the woman who first proposed the concept. An Intamba Gun is a Magitek weapon capable of projecting a focused beam of kinetic energy strong enough to tear a hole even in a laser-proofed ship hull. It doesn't need ammunition, it doesn't need a power generator, and theoretically, it could work indefinitely once activated. The problem is, the etheric energy requirement puts it far beyond what's called Terrence Limit.

The Terrence Limit comes from the fact that while ether (magic energy) is everywhere, it can be depleted in any given area, and it takes a while for it to flow back in. The problem is, if a spell doesn't find enough free-flowing ether in the environment, it starts drawing it from all life around it. In other words, an Intamba Gun whose ether requirement is beyond the Terrence Limit is going to kill everyone aboard the ship it's mounted on before it even begins to fire at the enemy. Because of this, a viable, energy-efficient Intamba Gun design is much coveted-for.

If your world has magic, how is it used in warfare?

Ever since Christianity starts dominating the continent, any practice of magic outside of nobles, royals or members of the church is forbidden. Thus, the average soldier can't use magic. Members of the church generally practice in healing magic, serving as medics on the field. However, mercenaries and the like don't follow the laws of the church. Famous warriors and heroes practice in magic that allow them to slay giant beasts and enchant their weapons, but advanced magic are only found among the occult, who stayed hidden after their persecution.

Races outside of humans practice magic regularly. Elves, using their connection to nature, are able to guide their arrows to their target and increase the force behind it. They specialize in jungle warfare, hiding among the trees to ambush their enemies. An elf's arrow never misses, even if hundreds of trees and leaves blocks the way, and retains the same momentum all the way through. Night elves use magic to completely eliminate their presence, allowing a huge group of them to sneak up on enemies and quickly transport supplies without notice.

What is considered a precious resource in your world that doesn't exist in our world?

Abraxium, a crystal that can turn electricity into Ether (magical energy) and back again. It's used to make super-batteries that power the setting's sci-if magitek.

Same.

edited 11th Feb '17 8:27:22 PM by Protagonist506

Soo... I take it you're repeating the 'resource'-question?

Gilganium is a magical metal that alternates between formable and durable, light and heavy when it's useful for the one working with it, almost as if it had a mind of it's own. It only occurs in a black mountain range that's said to be cursed, and the places where it's mined are under frequent attack from monsters, resulting in heavily fortified mines.

Mages describe it's magical composition as inexplicably twisted, but adventurers and lords alike pay no heed to the warnings due to how useful it is, in spite of rumors that Gilganium weapons and armor can drive their wielders insane.

Question: What role does sex slavery play in your setting?

edited 20th Mar '17 5:15:50 PM by ilili

Well there's a hell of a question.

Well, okay. The nation of Vikaasthan presses its criminals into service rather than imprisoning them, and the bulk of prisoners become a part of the church. The church has two cults: The cult of Vikaasi, Mother Goddess of the Soil and Plants, and the cult of Salay, Father God of the River and "Destiny" (In the sense of 'life brought you here, but what you do is up to you'). During the New Year's festival, the cults show their fertility-god roots by dressing up in very racy version of their usual dress and putting on public performances. This is a bit like stripping in a lot of cases; onlookers are encouraged to give donations for the churches based on performances they like, etc.

At the end of the festival, a representative from each church is chosen for the finale, in which the representatives engage in a symbolic courtship, followed by very real sex. For the next year the representatives occupy a special position within the church—essentially within acting as the face of the church, and allowing themselves to be purchased out for dances, courtesanship, etc, all proceeds of which go to supporting the church. This is technically mandatory for the chosen person—though whether or not they want to is considered in the choosing. For the most part though the positions are actually fairly fiercely competed for—the representatives are meant to be chosen as paragons of their gender, so it's a pretty big honour to be chosen.

So TL;DR: Criminals are pressed into service with the church where, once a year, they'll be made to put on sexually-charged performances, and may be selected to be the church's sacred basically-prostitute for the next year.

Question: Are there any behaviours considered taboo, or outright illegal, that we might not consider as such?

In most parts of Somiya, nobody wears any jewlery or even colorful clothes (almost all their clothes are quite colorful) unless they or a close family member made it. They also have various paints and dyes with magic powers, so the tradition was originally meant for protection. However, it has stopped being a question of trust and turned into a symbol of family identity. Outsiders, who everyone knows have no idea how to use this type of magic, were confused for a long time because Somiya people didn't buy any clothes from them but bought other things without a problem. So they would be shocked to learn that we wear things made CONTINENTS AWAY :p

Question: Tell us about a historical character or group who did something really controversial. How are they remembered? If people still argue about their actions, what do the different sides think?

edited 21st Mar '17 8:52:58 AM by CrownofDawn

(You forget your questiooon)

Sorry, I fixed it. If someone wants to answer the previous question it's also ok.

My world has the first Magõan king, Leopold. He was the third son of the king of Grenadeira, and got sent to rule over the kingdom's Magõan colonies, which at the time was the equivalent of being Reassigned to Antarctica. Leopold, being an ambitious bastard that he was, decided that he'll turn Magõa into an independent kingdom of its own. An opportunity for that came when a famine started back home and, right in the middle of it, Grenadeira was attacked. Leopold completely ignored his father's calls to send help for the first five years, only to swoop in at the tail end of the war and graciously rescue the ruined country, meaning that he both became a popular hero and made sure that Grenadeira didn't have the power to stop him from declaring Magõa's independence.

Now, the thing is, his inactivity has cost tens of thousands of lives and completely ruined Grenadeira to the point it has never reclaimed its former glory, and the question is whether Leopold's actions were right. One side argues that what Leopold did was wrong and he should've saved the common Grenadeirans and used this as a currency to get his father to let go of Magõa, whereas the other believes that the Grenadeiran king would never let the colony go if the situation wasn't dire enough, and that Leopold made a choice that was tough, but ultimately necessary. At any rate, the rest of his actions as the king of Magõa has made people give him the moniker "the Great" and he's quite liked by modern Magõans - the aforementioned events are one of the very few problems people have with his life.

Let's try something lighter now. What's the most popular film, play, puppet show or other such form of entertainment among the people of your world?

edited 22nd Mar '17 6:43:15 AM by Kakai

With all of the myriad of inventions brought about by the Arthurian Empire's Magitek scientific revolution, it should come as no surprise that a few have found use in entertainment, most prominently automaton theatre (basically stage plays where all the actors are autonomous robots) and holographic movie serials. While automaton theatre is mostly focused on performing existing stage plays with the novelty of bronze robots in period dress (most prominently the embellished exploits of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table), holo-movie serials tend to be original works made for mass market consumption (automaton theatre is more enjoyed by the aristocracy).

The most popular serial during the time the story takes place is "Voyages Beyond the Sea," which is basically Star Trek The Original Series as an Odyssey-style sea voyage, if it were also a black-and-white silent film (Arthurian artificers still haven't figured out how to give the holo-projections sound or colour yet).

What is a common courtship ritual in your world that we would consider unusual?

So... am I the only that still cares about this thread?

Wait... Did I kill the thread? Shall I have to forevermore be branded with the title of Threadslayer? Such a cruel fate indeed!

Well, I just hadn't been paying attention because that question didn't apply to my world, personally.

Buuut I just realized that was probably because I was thinking of the human courtship behaviours. Dragons are a whole other bag of worms.

By the time dragons are old enough to mate, they've lost most of their sociability and basically just want to do the deed and get out. Males in particular, since they have no hand in raising the children. Because it's really, really hard to make a dragon do something it doesn't want to do, that means that females have almost all of the say in what courtship is like—since they're basically just choosing a partner for the sake of what the child will be like.

A common method of choosing a partner is based on the quality of the gifts they can give. Traditionally, mothers will give their children a piece of jewelry before sending them off—dragon culture is big on craftsmanship—so they'll frequently expect prospective mates to give them good materials. Note that this is based on quality, not quantity. A few grams of high quality gold and a well-patterned pebble of Tiger's Eye will go miles further than a ton of pig iron and quartz, for example. In addition to meaning they have a good materials to make the jewelry with, it also demonstrates the male is strong enough to get the best stuff.

Females who are more social during their mating season (As dragons gradually transition from social to solitary around the age of 70-80) will make a sport of it, working together to come up with outlandish or funny 'tournaments' for the males.

How wide-spread are the trade relationships in your world, and what's most sought-after in trade?

In Corrnia, which is still in the medieval period, the trade relationships are still bounded to the continents. Due to the harsh conditions of the North, most trading are done in the South, who are at the equator. Due to the existence of dragons and other dangerous creatures, trade beyond your own country comes at great risks. However, the blood ruby, a gemstone that is able to heal any injury with contact and is also a risk-free strength enhancing drug when ingested, is only found in certain mines around the continent. A single blood ruby is worth twenty times its weight in gold, with no lacking in buyers.

How are human rights treated in your setting? What kind of discrimination is common between races?

Right now there is declering a right of human being since later which include the used of magic and how it interact with them, but since the world is suffering a world war right now, the whole project is in a hold.

and between race...the elves seen to have a cultural disdain for other, except a fetichization of humans as quick creature who cant see as much as them, the davari(dwarft) as secretic but aside for them can be pretty good fellow and the Khorda(ork) hold no ill will toward anyone.

Who law and magic interact in your world?