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LegitimateIdiot Since: Nov, 2015
#1: Mar 10th 2018 at 5:54:14 AM

First off, I want to clarify that this is not an Alternate History situation. I am building a multiverse that consists of several universes, and one of them is a setting/planet that is analogous to our current Earth (tentatively named “Ginos”). There are obvious differences such as the presence of Fictional Counterpart countries and Culture Chop Suey, yet Ginos’ path of history would lead to its present-day being similar to ours at least in terms of technology and social environment. However, I have no idea how to go about writing it without lazily copying from real-life. Using Like Reality, Unless Noted would be a start, but I want it to make sense within the universe. For example, is it possible for the “Little Red Riding Hood” story to exist in-story despite being divorced from its actual origin?

The reason why I’m taking all this trouble to build a new setting from scratch is because of multiple fantastical factors: stories written in Ginos are responsible for creating all the other universes in The Multiverse (eg. a popular multimedia franchise serves as the basis for a fantasy world), sometimes magical stuff from other universes leaks into Ginos and there is The Masquerade set in place to prevent the general populace from freaking out, some creators might figure out their Author Powers and use it for good/evil, etc. Not to mention the fact that I don’t have deal with real-world accuracy and historical/cultural baggage, which is even more tedious to me.

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#2: Mar 11th 2018 at 10:28:39 AM

Sounds awesome. Were I you, I would posit that stories like Little Red Riding Hood, etc., were invented on Ginos on a whim, but took root and spread on places like Earth Europe due to prevailing cultural and socio-economic circumstances there. That way the only research you might have to do would be focused on folk literature in the real world, and you can free your imagination regarding the rest of your universe.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
lavendermintrose Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
#3: Mar 11th 2018 at 12:01:09 PM

How detail is your story actually going to have on the field of folk literature in your setting's various cultures? You don't have to go into that much detail unless it's significant to your plot.

If you basically want to have a world like the one you see around you, I think the point would be to avoid things that would make it different. Social customs evolved because there was a need for them - e.g. marriage so that everyone would know who a child's biological parents were, and to prevent inheritance disputes; funerals so that everyone would know the person had died, and to prevent disease, and for emotional support for the survivors; food prohibitions to prevent disease, etc. When society needed people to do a thing, but the people didn't want to, instead of explaining why and expecting everyone to listen and remember it, they just told everyone "The Gods Say So," and created a stigma around it.

In real life, if a technology comes up that takes care of one of these issues, the social stigma and habit will be so ingrained that the culture will continue the practice - because in your great-great-grandparents' minds, those problems were never the point - the point was to appease the gods. And that's what they told their kids, who told their kids, who told their kids, who told you. A new magical development would be the same.

In the settings of my stories, they had magic for contraception and safe childbirth before they developed a concept of marriage, or a gender construct, so they don't have that. If they'd developed that magic later, it might not have caught on, and their social setup would be like those in real life.

For other things - urban transport systems, photography, currency, communications technology - a lot of these things developed into the forms that are most convenient, and a lot of them developed the way they ended up because of a bunch of weird coincidences. I don't think it will seem unusual to just copy real-world societies for these things. If you want your setting to be particularly functional or dysfunctional, find real-world examples that are like that and go by those.

I made this Idolized Julius Kingsley icon back when Akito first came out, and now that the crossover is actually happening, I don't care.
LegitimateIdiot Since: Nov, 2015
#4: Mar 13th 2018 at 8:21:28 AM

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I had to think about this for a couple of days. Thanks for your writing tips! (Also don't think too much of the Little Red Riding Hood example, that's meant to be hypothetical..) Feel free to ask me to elaborate on certain points.

[up] Your idea is feasible, but it wouldn't work in my world. Storytelling as a whole started in prehistory even before the age of civilisations, and their power were discovered co-current with the rise of religion so most people thought that was the cause of the magic. I haven't quite figured it out yet but essentially something happened around the beginning of the post-classical age where the overall amount of the magic in Ginos with deities and such got nerfed overall, and so societies started valuing science over religion and quickly left the "Age of Wonder" behind. Hence the reason why Ginos' modern-day is similar to Earth's.

The magic of stories still stuck around of course, though in order to consciously harness them, the author/caster would have to be aware of how it worksexplanation .

Since this world would have different cultures with otensibly original languages, should certain words or phrases derived from specific real-life languages not be used? Also this is a bit insensitive of me, but is certain tragedies required in order for world affairs to progress?

edited 13th Mar '18 2:52:27 PM by LegitimateIdiot

This account is dead. I’ve said a lot of dumb things in the past and I wish to forget them. I’m sorry if I’ve ever hurt anyone.
lavendermintrose Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
#5: Mar 14th 2018 at 2:08:45 AM

[up] You have a lot of things mixed up, and your posts aren't very clear.

1. Your historical timeline seems to be: "Storytelling" starts -> "Age of Civilization" -> People think magic comes from the gods -> "Classical Age" -> Power declines, "people abandon religion" -> Modern day.

- What do you mean by "storytelling"? That can have many different meanings in different contexts. In real history, of course, early humans told stories before writing/ before "civilization", but the stories they told were very different from the stories we tell today. Before a certain point in history, way into writing/"civilization" in most cultures, stories were assumed to be true. The Ancient Greek dramatists wrote their plays based on mythology, which they believed to be true. The idea of just making up a story was considered silly and pointless for a long time. Also, these things weren't done primarily for entertainment.

- You use terms like "Civilization" and "Classical" - what do you mean by those terms? By "Classical", do you mean either ~18th-century Europe, or Ancient Grome? Either way, you should probably reconsider sticking so closely to real-world societies if you want your history to be different.

- ..... I really shouldn't write an essay here, but I just think you're assuming a lot of things... sorry I ran out of time writing this...

I made this Idolized Julius Kingsley icon back when Akito first came out, and now that the crossover is actually happening, I don't care.
LegitimateIdiot Since: Nov, 2015
#6: Mar 14th 2018 at 2:56:14 AM

[up] Yeah, that’s what I meant. Thanks for summarising that, I’m generally not good at explaining my thoughts and this is my first time doing a project like this. When I referred to “civilisations” and “classical age”, I was thinking of the general time periods in which they take place in rather than the civilisations that was associated with them. Obviously they would be different, I just needed a real-life reference in terms of timeline.

I did imply that storytelling isn’t necessarily oral in my magic explanation - basically anything that creates or depicts a story falls under that term. Good points about everything else, so I’ll keep them in mind.

edited 14th Mar '18 3:47:09 AM by LegitimateIdiot

This account is dead. I’ve said a lot of dumb things in the past and I wish to forget them. I’m sorry if I’ve ever hurt anyone.
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