Jeremiah Reed
Dreamer
In the setting I'm working on, it's been several million years since the world has been almost completely wiped out after some mass extinction (whether it's caused by World War III or some natural disaster, I'm still debating with myself about.). The survivors of this apocalypse live on and evolve into the classical fantasy races we have (elves, orcs, kobolds, etc.) I want to hint to the audience that it's Earth without just outright saying that it's Earth.
I have one or two hints already. The elves and orcs only have four toes (evolutionary biologists believe that we're going to lose our small toes in a couple million years), almost all the fauna and flora have been replaced with other animals (giant deer taking the place of horses, rabbits becoming goat-like livestock, and bats becoming the dominant airborne animal during both night and day), and I even taking geography courses to see how the continents will shift in the next few million years so I can write the terrain properly.
So my question is: How do I hint it to the audience that that's what it is without practically telling them that the world my characters are in is Earth in the future?
I have one or two hints already. The elves and orcs only have four toes (evolutionary biologists believe that we're going to lose our small toes in a couple million years), almost all the fauna and flora have been replaced with other animals (giant deer taking the place of horses, rabbits becoming goat-like livestock, and bats becoming the dominant airborne animal during both night and day), and I even taking geography courses to see how the continents will shift in the next few million years so I can write the terrain properly.
So my question is: How do I hint it to the audience that that's what it is without practically telling them that the world my characters are in is Earth in the future?