Countries that have different genre settings but set in one world. Is that even possible?

Hello. I’m new to worldbuilding and have started building my world last week. The world that I'm trying to make is a paranormal fantasy but as I was building the world I had an idea that I wanted to experiment but don't know how to approach this. The idea is each country in this world has a setting based on a sub-genre.

For example the types of countries I'm thinking to make are: One country that has a steampunk setting where the government is a absolute monarchy. Another one is a cyberpunk where a mega corporation runs the country.

Is an idea like this even possible? By “possible” I mean can it even make sense and fit in one world. And how can it? I'm having trouble trying to make sense of it. Are there even any stories that have a idea like this?

It's certainly possible, even in real life history - just about every period before the 1940's featured massive civilizations with different social systems and aspects of technological advancement. You could easily have, for instance, Prohibition-era gansters duking it out with Arabian warlords with camels and scimitars; English cavaliers and Caribbean pirates dodging mysterious ninjas; etc. etc.

The important thing is to replicate the basis for such disparities - namely the political and commercial isolationism that frequently put certain countries ahead or behind their contemporaries in terms of social and technological development. Moreover, countries would have to be able to remain isolated - meaning they would either still have to be able to defend their territories in spite of the visible disparities in armament, or just not present too desirable a target in the first place.

So, you can definitely have a steampunk monarchy in the same world as a cyberpunk corporatocracy... but the monarchy would have to be regarded as a backwater dump with no useful resources worth the trouble of conquering. Corporations by design rely on external partners - else it's just a Socialist dictatorship with a nationalized economy - so having the cyberpunk country as the isolationist Dubai expy is far less likely.

Yes but whether or not the disparities exist is up to the genres in question.

Well, if the world has magic, it's fairly simple. Just have it so that certain types of magic only work in certain physical areas.

Because that easily answers the question of 'why isn't someone from Cyberpunk land, with it's highly advanced technology, invading all the other countries with less advanced tech?' with the simple answer 'Because Cyberpunk technology only works in Cyberpunk land. The magic in any other country renders is useless.'

The biggest problem is indeed the disparities of technology. Specially if using modern or future vs older ones. A country that has computers, explosives and weapons would destroy a kingdom with swords and there's no reason for they to exist if there's no limited interaction.

Maybe if technology only worked in half of the planet, while magic only worked on the other half, or some stuff like that?

The reason could easily be just plain and simple geography - a relatively low-tech nation would still be left alone if it was in the middle of a perious region and didn't have any natural resources worth the bother. At the same time, it would still be a viable trading partner for hand-crafted luxury goods and art.

For that matter, low-tech doesn't have to mean low-power. Cyberpunk land may indeed suffer from crippling overspecialization with regard to information technology at the cost of durable heavy industry that can actually survive a power surge. So, that door swings both ways as well.

Or maybe all the other lands that still exist have found ways to counteract each other so that they don't encounter a situation where they'd have to keep themselves from being quashed.

Maybe one country has decided to stay steampunk, another cyberpunk, another fantasy, another sci-fi, and another modernday-ish, because each of them are specialized in that type of technology, architecture, and fashion. Basically Planet of Hats but on a country scale.

Or it could be like Sims 3, where present-day Sunset Valley, futuristic Lunar Lakes, retro Roaring Heights, fairytale Hidden Springs, urban fantasy Moonlight Falls, spooky Midnight Hollow and high fantasy almost-steampunk Dragon Valley exist at the same time in the same country.

Pokémon Black and White too. Pacific Island-like wood hut Humilau, clay hut Lentimas, pastel vaguely reinassance village Lacunosa, medieval countryside Icirrus, and wild west Nacrene (and Opelucid who is either sci-fi cyberpunk or long lost semiprimitive civilization depending on version) are all in the same time period, and a few miles from each other.

edited 25th Aug '17 1:38:58 PM by KaikoMikkusu