Building a kingdom tips/help

[Amaterasu34]

So…my character is building a kingdom from scratch. A bit of backstory…she is isolating herself from her friends in a self exile sort of way. So she comes across a race of people imprisoned in some caves, she frees them and she plans to give them a good life. So my question is…how does she build this kingdom up? It’s located in the desert and the land is large and others haven’t settled there because of the extreme heat. What should I first setup in building it?

 

[pmmg]

Find water and shade, I would think.

I dont think one just wanders out and says, hey, I think I will build a kingdom. That would have to form organically over many many years...centuries perhaps.

But, since this is your story elements, to actually build structures, they are going to need resources. Stone, wood, agriculture, money...water.... If its not in the desert, they are gonna have to find someone to trade with. Do they have anything to trade?

 

[Amaterasu34]

Find water and shade, I would think.

I dont think one just wanders out and says, hey, I think I will build a kingdom. That would have to form organically over many many years...centuries perhaps.

But, since this is your story elements, to actually build structures, they are going to need resources. Stone, wood, agriculture, money...water.... If its not in the desert, they are gonna have to find someone to trade with. Do they have anything to trade?

So my character is a goddess of water so water should be fine lol. She also has a lot of money that she can pour into this place whenever she wants. As for trade, they do find some lucrative mining caves and the ocean that borders the land has some exotic fish that they will sell.

 

[pmmg]

Well, I find this to be a hard question to answer. I suppose my answer is really, no one would build a kingdom in a desert. The desert does not support it.

And for this to happen, there would have to be some reason the desert became attractive, such as a rare resource, and then it would form over time as needs grew and problems got solved.

But since this is a goddess, who is capable of making something from nothing, there would be no reason to assume the organic process would shape it. She could just essentially play minecraft till she got what she wanted. But she is going to need to solve the problem of essentials for the people that live there. Food, water, shelter, meaningful employment, prosperity and defense.

 

[Amaterasu34]

I mean…I thought of Egypt when building it and she was from Egypt once upon a time. I figured it would be familiar for her since she used to be a princess. Although she is a goddess, she isn’t the build something from nothing type, she would do this organically and probably call some assistance from other gods to make the building faster…in my mind anyway. I figure she could try and build relationships with other kingdoms once she has more of a foundation built.

 

[pmmg]

Well, Egypt had the Nile and the fertile Nile valley. The cities there will built over centuries, and they did not build where the resources where not. So, she could model something off of Egypt, but the Egyptians did not wander out into the sand and say....hey, this looks like a good spot. The spot they ended up at happened because that was where the river was, and the crops would grow. Outside of the Nile valley, the land is too inhospitable. So....if the Goddess wishes to build a kingdom, she is mostly going to need something that attracts people, and then let time pass. If she wants ready made cities, she needs the resources to build them. Wood, stone, metal,...everything people would want or use.

 

[pmmg]

This is a picture of Egypt from space. What do you notice about it? Where do you think the cities are?

 

[ThinkerX]

Not many reasons to settle in a desert.

First one would be valuable minerals. However, that would lead to a mining camp type situation, and ore deposits are finite.

Second would be the desert is on a trade route. Caravan town.

Third, the desert is 'temporary' as a result of blight or climate change (case in point, much of the Sahara Desert was fertile in early historical times.) Given sufficient water, it could be made to bloom.

Four, bandit/exile camp - the people present are not there by choice, but because going elsewhere is a death sentence.

Combinations of these are certainly possible.

 

[Amaterasu34]

So my plan was to have her form a river going through the entire kingdom towards the ocean. It would be a water system that she created that flows from the castle she is going to have built. I also had plans for floating islands of water scattered throughout too. Water and fertile soil wouldn’t be much of a problem I think this way

 

[Finchbearer]

*coughs* what about Petra in Jordan. Irrigation would be key.

 

[Queshire]

If you've got the capabilities to do so, and it sounds like they do have the capabilities, then settling a desert no one cares about sounds like a decent idea compared to trying to settle some place more valuable and risking conflict with anyone else that might be interested in the area.

Key areas to develop would be food, establishing a code of law, security, both internal and external trade, education and culture.

Along with a river, the goddess could also create a series of oasis across the desert to establish overland trade routes.

 

[Amaterasu34]

If you've got the capabilities to do so, and it sounds like they do have the capabilities, then settling a desert no one cares about sounds like a decent idea compared to trying to settle some place more valuable and risking conflict with anyone else that might be interested in the area.

Key areas to develop would be food, establishing a code of law, security, both internal and external trade, education and culture.

Along with a river, the goddess could also create a series of oasis across the desert to establish overland trade routes.

Oh the oasis thing is definitely happening! I just wonder how to establish relations, I mean I have an idea for one, but she kinda just pops up in uncharted land and sets up a kingdom. I wonder if that would appear threatening to them, especially if it’s built relatively quick

 

[pmmg]

Relations would most likely form because they have something, and they want something. So, if they have iron mines and their neighbors have banana's, a trade might get started. Being new, they would probably have to fend off some who might think them weak enough to annex or conquer, but the thing that sits most pressing to me is the time period in which all of this happens. If she has decades to set it up, then all of this will happen in due course. If you want her to be an instant kingdom, I would think those things would not likely come quickly. I guess if she had the only source of water, she might get to expedite things. If they had something of value, other peoples would probably want to own or make use of it. If she can make instant trade routes via water-goddess power to make oasis's, well...who would not like a well provisioned trade route?

 

[Amaterasu34]

Relations would most likely form because they have something, and they want something. So, if they have iron mines and their neighbors have banana's, a trade might get started. Being new, they would probably have to fend off some who might think them weak enough to annex or conquer, but the thing that sits most pressing to me is the time period in which all of this happens. If she has decades to set it up, then all of this will happen in due course. If you want her to be an instant kingdom, I would think those things would not likely come quickly. I guess if she had the only source of water, she might get to expedite things. If they had something of value, other peoples would probably want to own or make use of it. If she can make instant trade routes via water-goddess power to make oasis's, well...who would not like a well provisioned trade route?

So this is time period would be considered pretty modern, but my goddess is slowly introducing more advanced things since her people are from an island originally. The mining sources around the kingdom are plenty full and their fishing is plenty top tier. I had an idea how she builds relations with one kingdom that is her direct neighbor but I do imagine the others would be a bit intimidated because she is a goddess and the kingdom roses up quickly because of her connections

 

[Queshire]

Ultimately they're going to be looking out for their interests. It could be the interests of their country, their personal interests, the interests of some group or clan, or some combination of all of the above. At the same time their country and the goddess' country aren't the only players in the game. Someone might help out the goddess' country because doing so will end up hurting a third country.

 

[Amaterasu34]

I know that setting things up for the people is very important, but realistically…should borders be the first thing set up after housing and other things or something else?

 

[pmmg]

Many of the nations that have large deserts kind of have ambiguous borders. The governments dont seem to care to much who wants to walk where in the sand. They only care if they come near the important stuff. So borders tend to be fuzzy when all of it is inhospitable anyway.

 

[Queshire]

By default I would say no. Borders should not be the first thing set up. Without the ability to enforce the borders or have other countries recognize the borders then they're just lines on paper.

Your character has two advantages however.

You mentioned her wealth. It would solve a lot of problems if she could just go to whatever country nominally owns the desert and buy the territory outright.

Secondly, she could show off her divine might by creating a new river and making the river the border of her territory.

Pmmg mentioned the fuzziness of borders in a desert. This is because they largely lack landmarks that make natural borders. If you look at a map of the world many of the borders that aren't just arbitrary straight lines follow either the course of rivers. There's a reason for this. It's rather easy to point to one and say this is the edge of our territory. In comparison you can't exactly do that with a random stretch of desert.

 

[Amaterasu34]

By default I would say no. Borders should not be the first thing set up. Without the ability to enforce the borders or have other countries recognize the borders then they're just lines on paper.

Your character has two advantages however.

You mentioned her wealth. It would solve a lot of problems if she could just go to whatever country nominally owns the desert and buy the territory outright.

Secondly, she could show off her divine might by creating a new river and making the river the border of her territory.

Pmmg mentioned the fuzziness of borders in a desert. This is because they largely lack landmarks that make natural borders. If you look at a map of the world many of the borders that aren't just arbitrary straight lines follow either the course of rivers. There's a reason for this. It's rather easy to point to one and say this is the edge of our territory. In comparison you can't exactly do that with a random stretch of desert.

I suppose making a border would be a wait until later thing the desert does have mountainous borders around it anyway, nobody really made claims on it…I guess the main focus should be on the water system and building everything up

 

[Finchbearer]

hoping I can link this up for you, but look into how Petra set itself up for success:

Petra

All about ancient irrigation system and conserving rainwater. It would have been very green in its heyday.