The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt. Chapter 3

[Orc Knight]

Question 126: Okay sign, fist pump, middlefinger. What are some unique handsigns used in your worlds?

The Spiders Fang, from the drow, which is the middle finger and third finger raised in a crooked V while the thumb, pointer and pinky fingers make a little mouth. It is the equivalent of the middle finger, if a little harder to do. Though they use it too. Unlike the middle finger though, it can be used to mean just about as many things as the middle fingers wordy form all depending on actions.

Question 127: What are some of the most prestigious awards people might earn in your world

There's the Noble Plate, served up for the annual Summer Ball after the cooking contests in Val Royale. Really gives cooks and chefs a high up, even a chance to serve the Sea Queen and her family. There used to be the Tourney Lance, a golden lance and a good pot of money for the jousting tourney circuits, but that stopped after Queen Inivia kept winning it extremely decisively.

Question 128: What food/drink do people in your world offer to guests?

Pastries, cookies, cakes, tea's, ales, cheese, crackers and bread and other such things. Really, whatever makes for a good snack time. Takes too long to butcher and cook the guest most times.

 

[Ban]

Question 129: Rivers! Can you tell me about the biggest one, the most famous one and the one most vital to the world economy?

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 129: Rivers! Can you tell me about the biggest one, the most famous one and the one most vital to the world economy?

The Sylvan River on the Western Fea country which is the primary trade source from up and down river, ending in the vast swamplands where Val Royale and the other port villages and cities within the tributaries of it. It is big and famous and more or less splits the lands between the Fea and Green down the middle. Think of it as a bit like the Mississippi, even with big paddle ships. Possibly crossed with the Rhine, but longer then either.

Then in the Zukal Kingdoms there is the Vineal River, which is the Nile mixed with the Amazon, but as always, more. Trade from the lands south of them and out of the plains and what comes down from the oceans. It is also a very dangerous river. Where even the smaller crocodiles make even Salties small and drakes and serpents swim it. It is good fishing and good to live off of and thrives on trade and the plantations along it. At it's widest point it is over thirty miles across.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 127: What are some of the most prestigious awards people might earn in your world?

In Antisa, there is something called "King/Queen's Honor." It is an extremely broad, nonspecific award with no real requirements other than "impress the king," which can mean anything from winning a war to doing a particularly good job mopping the floor one night. There is no physical or financial component to the award (although it may still be accompanied by one). Basically, it just gives the recipient ultimate bragging rights for the rest of their life, but it has also been historically handed out very sparingly and so is still an extremely coveted award.

While this doesn't really count as an "award," among sailors it's considered a great honor to be able to paint the crest of Halgol on your ship. Untian captains paint the crest of every major nation or city that they've visited on their ship's hull, and Halgol is the longest most difficult journeys that an Untian sailor can undertake. Having the crest of a place you've never visited is considered to be incredibly bad luck, so a ship that has the Halgolian crest is basically announcing to the world that they're the best in the business.

Question 128: What food/drink do people in your world offer to guests?

Some kind of alcohol is usually offered to guests when they first arrive, particularly if they're going to be staying overnight. Beyond that, it's usually just a slightly more extravagant version of whatever they would normally eat. It's also customary to offer some food for the road when they leave, usually something that is dried and travels well.

Question 129: Rivers! Can you tell me about the biggest one, the most famous one and the one most vital to the world economy?

I can't remember the name I gave it at the moment, but the river that runs through the Antisan capital of Talive leads all the way up into the mountains, where it originates in a large lake which births a multitude of other rivers. It is possible to travel all the way across the Untian peninsula via riverboat in this way. It also makes Talive the gatekeeper for sea-land trade for much of Untia. It's also a little bit of a security risk, since it's possible for warships to sail back down the river and attack Talive from behind. This is countered by building multitudes of underwater bronze spikes in the riverbed, which can be raised to damage ships coming downstream.

There is also a saltwater river flowing out of the Halgolian mountains.

The Amulkonian empire was connected by a network of magical portals. However, the portals were limited to a few hundred miles range, which made crossing oceans impractical. The workaround was to drop a series of "signal booster" relay stones every hundred or so miles along the seafloor. Basically, the relay stones are actually two portals pressed flat against each other so that no water can leak in and no perceptible distance is added when passing through. During the war with the Fel, the Fel sabotaged one of the relay stones by separating the two portals when they became active, allowing the ocean to rush in and flood the city and valley on the other side. Normally, the portal would use up all of its stored memories and close after less than an hour, but in this case it was held open by sheer water pressure. So, the portal is still open to this day creating a saltwater river flowing out of the mountains.

 

[blondie.k]

No awards at all? Back to food then. Every worldbuilder loves to think about food.

Question 128: What food/drink do people in your world offer to guests?

Wine or fine drinks and cheese or other savory foods. That's what the more rich and high standing families give. The lower, poorer families just share whatever they have.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 107: Land-Oysters, Sea-Giraffes and Flying-Bears. What sort of strange and terrifying evolutions have you subjected real world animals to in your worlds?

Most of the normal animals in my world are fairly normal earth animals. On the dark sides of the two respective planets, there are few mutations to enhance survival at night. Frogs with bioluminescent patches in their noses and foreheads to attract insects. Animals with larger eyes, thermal vision, that sort of thing. Nothing too crazy.

However, then there are the Grat. There are the Tenren Grat, now usually called Muggs or something similar by the Untian people, which were originally released by the Generals to ravage the crops, livestock, and ecosystems of the world. Muggs look a bit like a cross between a komodo dragon, a hyena, and a wild boar that... You know what, they look kind of like Zuul:

They can adapt to virtually any environment. In cold climates the grow thick layers of blubber. In dry regions they have larger guts to store excess water. They have intelligence roughly on par with pigs and are notoriously able to learn to open latches on fence gates in order to get to livestock. They are omnivores and, while they prefer meat, they can subsist on nearly any plant matter.

The original Tenren Grat were much more voracious than the modern Muggs, meant solely to eat and reproduce as quickly as possible. However, when they were released subsequent generations became less and less aggressive, as natural selection quickly thinned out the Tenren that drove their entire food source to extinction. Eventually, they fell into an ecological niche and became the modern Muggs which, while still extremely voracious, territorial, and aggressive, are threats roughly on the same scale as bears and other large predators. They are also extant in nearly every part of the world.

 

[WooHooMan]

Question 129: Rivers! Can you tell me about the biggest one, the most famous one and the one most vital to the world economy?

The Jan River is the most well-known, historically significant and among the biggest (though the biggest is the much less historic Lavo River).
I’ve estimated it to be around 3,000 miles long.

When humans (and really, mortals as a whole) first came into existence, they settled on the coast of the Jan River whose source are the dormant volcanoes which shaped the Jan River Basin (and Qian subcontinent) and the river ends at the Jiang coast along the Kalian Sea (THE major economic hub of the world, basically). It’s the only major source of water near the Qia desert so it stands to reason that it became a major population hub for the early human civilizations.

The thearchies of the Magnus Concord and Olympian Order both had the capitals on the river’s shores. It was also part of the Qichu, Arkadian, Terha, Black Tower, Redeemer Dynasty and Qiang Empires (among many other).

Basically, it’s like the Nile, Yellow, Tigres and Ganges rivers all rolled into one. The Yellow River was the main source of inspiration though a lot of the cultural importance and history were based on the Tigres.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 108: From elephants to fighter fleets. What's the most awe-inspiring form of transportation around? (Is it awe-inspiring due to its size? Its sound? Is it state-of-the-art or long-established?)

Well, Antisa has recently used their invention of the steam engine to commission a small number of steamships for their navy. Steam power is still considered to be a temperamental unproven technology and ships can't carry enough coal or wood to travel the more laborious routes, especially since Antisa has the only ports with large enough supplies of fuel to service steamships, but still. If you're a seasoned sailor tacking into the wind and suddenly this massive bronze smoke-belching abomination blows straight past you like it's nothing, it's a little bit impressive.

In the same vein, steam tractors also exist. They're slow, loud, and aren't usually used for transportation, per se, but still a rather impressive engineering achievement all things considered.

Once every year, three high priests of the Amul crosses the ocean to Halgol. Normally, strong winds and frequent storms make the journey untenable, but the high priests use magic to propel their ships through unfavorable conditions. The small ships they use are specially designed with a shallow draft to minimize drag and built with materials that are particularly conductive to magic, such as glass and iron, and include a few other features to make magic have a greater effect. The trip is still obscenely expensive, usually requiring the expenditure of several years' worth of memories.

The Amulkonian Empire was once connected by a vast array of magical portals. The portals appeared to a polished granite wall with an extremely smooth artificial waterfall running down one side. When a portal activated, the reflection in the waterfall would warp and shift until it became a window to the destination, at which point its user could simply step through.

In their heyday, the Amulkonian people didn't see them as anything special. There was a posted schedule for when and where the portals would open to, so if a citizen wanted to travel halfway around the world they could just wait until the desired time and purchase a ticket.

Each time the portal opened it required one day of memories, or ten days of the memories of another person. This was rather expensive, but there was a system in place to account for it. If a lower class citizen needed to go through the portal, they could pay their way by exchanging ten or more days of their own memories for passage.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 109: Hush... we shouldn't be seen talking, but let's say I wanted someone to 'disappear' in your world, who should I ideally approach? (And who would I actually approach?)

Well, you'd probably head towards the criminal underworld. Dock gangs would probably be your first choice. They're cheap, unscrupulous, fairly "off-the-grid," and not usually very smart. A good choice if you just want to off someone and send what's left over the end of the pier. If it's a bit higher profile, you'll probably end up talking to a larger, more organized crime ring. However, not all crime rings are created equal. Many, while they'll happily kill their rivals in a fight over territory, find the idea of blatant assassination to be distasteful and will turn you away or even rat you out to the authorities. Usually, you'll find the right people in the least savory parts of town, where the guards don't patrol and you're likely to get mugged before you find who you're looking for. Bring a (trustworthy) friend. And a weapon.

Question 110: What's a typical autumn meal? (Bonus: Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks?)

Well, Untia is an equatorial region, so they don't really have autumn. They divide the year into "The windy season, the stormy season, and the rainy season." However, those season names are all relative. The weather is actually fairly consistent for most of the year, so they usually eat the same thing most of the year. The rainy season coincides with autumn in the south and is conducive to growing rice, so I suppose that they may eat more rice than normal.

And (sigh) of as with so many of the food questions, the actual answer is hron fruit, which is a dietary staple in Antisa all year.

In Halgol, which is much more temperate, I suppose that an autumn meal would consist of whatever they had just harvested. Maize, wheat, etc. Crops that are only available in the Fall such as pumpkins and squash.

Question 111: What is something from our world that people in your world couldn't care less about? Why?

Well, aside from the obvious due to technological limitations, electricity, social media, etc. I'd say lighting at night, depending on where in the world you are. Dor and Gen are very close together. On the near side, they each provide the other with a great deal of illumination during night hours.

Question 112: If I decided to move to your world, and you wanted to keep me out, what fact would you bring up to scare me off?

Halgolian Cheese

If you are truly insane and that alone is not enough to scare you off, just remember that you share this world with kaiju-esque eldritch abominations and that it is being circled by ten cosmic Generals bent on the destruction of this entire plane of reality. Also, this world contains mad shape-shifting spirits who hate all humans and are about a hair's breadth away from escaping back onto the planet Dor.

 

[Ban]

Question 130: What sort of undomesticated animals might I find inside of the cities? (If they are not from out world: How do they survive?)

 

[blondie.k]

Question 130: What sort of undomesticated animals might I find inside of the cities? (If they are not from out world: How do they survive?)

The everyday alley cats, vultures, crows, maybe some hawks and falcons... not really anything out of the ordinary.

 

[Devor]

Question 130: What sort of undomesticated animals might I find inside of the cities? (If they are not from out world: How do they survive?)

In my setting any kind of creature that isn't a real-world animal has to be tied to one of the world's maybe-twenty? magic systems. The magic in the local region though is seelie magic, which has been used to create the Wolpertinger and the Peryton (winged rabbits and winged deer, respectively). It's also had an effect on hedgehogs, tortoises, toads, and a variety of insects. You might see these in a city, but they're all close to domesticated. There's also a variety of "taisidhe" creatures who've fed on a corrupted seelie magic, but you wouldn't find them in a city. So mostly I guess you'd see the normal list of pets and pests.

Because of this question though I've added "invasive species" as a topic under my notes for the second book, which is designed to take a look at some of the other magic systems in the setting at large. I'm not ready to develop that stuff yet though.

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 130: What sort of undomesticated animals might I find inside of the cities? (If they are not from out world: How do they survive?)

There's the usual sorts, bats, rats, squirrels, pigeons, wild dogs and cats, raccoons and other such. Monkeys in cities that have such things. Then there's things like the root boars, who I have mentioned, living in the sewers and such and off trash, refuse and other animals. Rodents of unusual size of course. If the city is large enough you can get small wyvern along with other predatory hawks. In the right cities saurians and dinosaurs set up shop too. Most under cities are an entire ecosystem in of themselves and can carry everything from the aforementioned root boars and ROUS to sentient mushrooms and even the occasional croc or gator. Though the latter jumps up from occasional to frequently in southern cities. Even fish and sharks depending on city too.

The world is full of beasties. Even the cities.

 

[Vaporo]

Question 130: What sort of undomesticated animals might I find inside of the cities? (If they are not from out world: How do they survive?)

Mostly rats, stray cats, that sort of thing. Antisans often leave out hummingbird feeders to attract birds into the cities. Muggs are rather fearless and will venture into a city in search of food if they get a chance, but it's still a bit uncommon.

 

[Ban]

Question 131: Roads. How and with what are they paved, who lays them (if anyone) and is there a significant difference in quality by region and proximity to the cities?

 

[blondie.k]

Question 131: Roads. How and with what are they paved, who lays them (if anyone) and is there a significant difference in quality by region and proximity to the cities?

In the cities, the roads are usually laid out with stone creating cobblestone streets. In the country, the roads are not paved but are dirt paths; whether they are dusty or not depends on the geographical location. There are some people who are skilled in building who lay the roads out, but otherwise, it is anyone who is willing to help (such as in small towns like Meridian).

 

[Orc Knight]

Question 131: Roads. How and with what are they paved, who lays them (if anyone) and is there a significant difference in quality by region and proximity to the cities?

For the Trade Roads, it's mostly concrete as both dwarves and drow know how to make it and neither use things like asphalt. Other roads are just dirt paths and tracks. Cities often use cobble or fitted brick or stone roads. Other places have roads that are really just the forest stepping out of the way because someone told them to. Obviously the Trade Roads are the closest one comes to modern roads.

 

[Miles Lacey]

Question 129: Rivers! Can you tell me about the biggest one, the most famous one and the one most vital to the world economy?

The Biggest: The mighty Salsango River in the Janeiro Republic. It runs through the largest rain forest in the world. Much of it is still unexplored but it is home to some of the most powerful dragons in the world - and deadly beasts including the polka dot anaconda.

The Most Famous: The Blue River of the Occidental Republic. The stories, the myths, the bullshite written about it... and the wars waged to gain control over it.

The Most Economically Important: The Nig River in Arabica (the continent). It is the economic and agricultural lifeline of at least ten countries that it passes through and it is the major transportation link for many other countries.

 

[Ban]

Question 132: Taxes... bloody taxes. Who gets to issue and collect them?

 

[blondie.k]

Question 132: Taxes... bloody taxes. Who gets to issue and collect them?

The King's treasurer issues the taxes. Rather than someone coming and collecting the taxes, the people come to the designated area (usually the treasury) and file the taxes.