Sword Rain Alpha
Acolyte
So in one of my books/writing projects that I'm currently working on, I'm in the early stages of outlining and worldbuilding. The world in question, Telosza, is essentially going to be a sort of dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic fantasy world. One thing to note about all of my fantasy stories is that they generally take place in different worlds but are all in the same shared universe. And the one thing these worlds have in common is that their magic systems have a basis in structures called "Lifestreams" that flow beneath each planet's surface. As the name implies, the Lifestreams are sort of like life support systems for the worlds, though they also power each world's magic system to some extent.
The thing that makes Telosza different is that due to a certain...event that occurred in its distant history, its Lifestream has been degrading and failing for roughly a millenia. In the present day, when my story takes place, the world is nigh uninhabitable. Most of the land has become dry and barren, unable to sustain crops and flora. Pretty much all of the rivers and lakes have dried up. The oceans are slowly but surely receding from the continents. Tectonic/geologic activity has also ceased for the most part. There is still human life on the planet, but the population is a fraction of what it once was. These small packs of survivors have only lasted as long as they have due to the discovery of rare "artifacts" that somehow hold small slivers of the Lifestream's power. These artifacts have the power to "bless" swathes of land, partially revitalizing it and allowing the soil to spontaneously generate various types of natural resources depending on the location and the magnitude of the blessing. The wielders of these artifacts have essentially created small, walled city-states that survive using the artfact blessings to grow crops and draw water from aquifers.
The issue that I'm running into is that I have a bad habit of coming up with an interesting idea for a world and then failing to come up with a history for that world that is believeable and makes logical sense. Like, I can explain the biophysical and magical mechanics that shape the world (like the Lifestreams) but I'm not very good at explaining how the various countries, societies, people groups, etc. got to the point that they're at in the present day/time period when the story takes place.
In Telosza's case, what I ended up doing was creating a setting where most of the history and culture from the "old world" (i.e. before the collapse of society) has either been forgotten or discarded. Basically, at some point shortly after the event that caused the Lifestream to begin to fail, the consequences of that failure became readily apparent to the world's inhabitants. They noticed that natural resources (i.e. arable land, water, precious metals and/or gems) were starting to disappear, and that this phenomenon was occurring at faster rates in certain regions. The various nations began to panic and fight over the steadily-depleting resources across the land in order to try and survive, with the more powerful countries basically cannibalizing others. Inevitably though, no nation truly survived The Collapse. A large majority of the world population died off throughout the centuries, and the survivors had to band together to create new settlements and communities when they discovered the aforementioned artifacts (which, of course, led to the establishment of the city-states as we know them in the present time). The end result is that most of the world's history has been lost to the ages, and now most people "identify" (in a cultural/ethnic sense) with the city-state that they were born in or currently live in.
However, I have also established that there are some ethnic groups from the old world that have attempted to hold on to their history and culture. In the continent that contains most of my setting, there's one ethnic group in particular that's done a pretty decent job of maintaining their history, culture, and language. However, they don't exactly have a homeland anymore and instead live in diaspora scattered across various city-states. Some of them attempt to assimilate into the culture of the city that they live in, while others choose to form nomadic caravans/tribes that travel the desolate wastelands between cities, making a living through trading and entertaining the local populaces they encounter. Either way, they're not very well accepted by most of the general populace. Even the ones that try to settle down in a specific city-state still usually end up forming their own small communities. They prefer their native tongue over the common language and often have thick accents, making them stand out. Basically, this results in them being shunned and distrusted, usually treated like foreigners or second-class citizens in most places. The analogy I usually think of in my head is that they're treated sort of like Jewish people or gypsies were back in old/historic Europe (disclaimer: I don't actually know a whole lot about the Jewish or the gypsies/Romani people. All I know is that they weren't treated very well throughout history. In any case, I'm not trying to say anything remotely offensive, I was just using them as an analogy).
What I worry is that this scenario isn't quite "realistic" or "believable". I'm no historian, and I'm also still somewhat of an amateur when it comes to fantasy worldbuilding. As such, I'm not really familiar with how cultures and people groups evolve and change over time, and I have even less of an idea how they would evolve (or devolve) in a post-apocalyptic setting such as the one I've described. And now I kinda feel like I need a good reason to explain why some of the cultural and/or ethnic groups dissolved and assimilated/congregated into new ones while others held onto their identities and stuck together after the collapse of the old world. I can't really seem to think of a GOOD justifying reason for that, though. Also, the way I imagine it, race as we know it (i.e. defining different "races" of humans based on different physiological traits such as skin color or facial structure) would probably have stopped mattering to most people long ago. As such, the only reason for the unique/longer-standing ethnic groups to stand out would be due them essentially wearing their distinct culture "on their sleeve" so to speak. Like, wearing their own unique clothing, speaking their native tongue, or having an accent when they speak common. Physiologically, they don't look different enough compared to everyone else to stand out otherwise. Also, keep in mind that, at least in Telosza, I've chosen not to include any "fantastical" races. It's just humans. So when I say "races", I really just mean different races OF humans , like in the real world.
I don't know, I feel kind of lost at this point. I'd like to see what more experienced fantasy writers and worldbuilders thing of the setting I've described so far. How do you guys imagine cultures and people groups evolving/devolving in a post-apocalyptic world? Would some cultures survive while others fall apart and meld together? Would race (in a physiological sense) stop mattering at some point? Let me know what y'all think.
The thing that makes Telosza different is that due to a certain...event that occurred in its distant history, its Lifestream has been degrading and failing for roughly a millenia. In the present day, when my story takes place, the world is nigh uninhabitable. Most of the land has become dry and barren, unable to sustain crops and flora. Pretty much all of the rivers and lakes have dried up. The oceans are slowly but surely receding from the continents. Tectonic/geologic activity has also ceased for the most part. There is still human life on the planet, but the population is a fraction of what it once was. These small packs of survivors have only lasted as long as they have due to the discovery of rare "artifacts" that somehow hold small slivers of the Lifestream's power. These artifacts have the power to "bless" swathes of land, partially revitalizing it and allowing the soil to spontaneously generate various types of natural resources depending on the location and the magnitude of the blessing. The wielders of these artifacts have essentially created small, walled city-states that survive using the artfact blessings to grow crops and draw water from aquifers.
The issue that I'm running into is that I have a bad habit of coming up with an interesting idea for a world and then failing to come up with a history for that world that is believeable and makes logical sense. Like, I can explain the biophysical and magical mechanics that shape the world (like the Lifestreams) but I'm not very good at explaining how the various countries, societies, people groups, etc. got to the point that they're at in the present day/time period when the story takes place.
In Telosza's case, what I ended up doing was creating a setting where most of the history and culture from the "old world" (i.e. before the collapse of society) has either been forgotten or discarded. Basically, at some point shortly after the event that caused the Lifestream to begin to fail, the consequences of that failure became readily apparent to the world's inhabitants. They noticed that natural resources (i.e. arable land, water, precious metals and/or gems) were starting to disappear, and that this phenomenon was occurring at faster rates in certain regions. The various nations began to panic and fight over the steadily-depleting resources across the land in order to try and survive, with the more powerful countries basically cannibalizing others. Inevitably though, no nation truly survived The Collapse. A large majority of the world population died off throughout the centuries, and the survivors had to band together to create new settlements and communities when they discovered the aforementioned artifacts (which, of course, led to the establishment of the city-states as we know them in the present time). The end result is that most of the world's history has been lost to the ages, and now most people "identify" (in a cultural/ethnic sense) with the city-state that they were born in or currently live in.
However, I have also established that there are some ethnic groups from the old world that have attempted to hold on to their history and culture. In the continent that contains most of my setting, there's one ethnic group in particular that's done a pretty decent job of maintaining their history, culture, and language. However, they don't exactly have a homeland anymore and instead live in diaspora scattered across various city-states. Some of them attempt to assimilate into the culture of the city that they live in, while others choose to form nomadic caravans/tribes that travel the desolate wastelands between cities, making a living through trading and entertaining the local populaces they encounter. Either way, they're not very well accepted by most of the general populace. Even the ones that try to settle down in a specific city-state still usually end up forming their own small communities. They prefer their native tongue over the common language and often have thick accents, making them stand out. Basically, this results in them being shunned and distrusted, usually treated like foreigners or second-class citizens in most places. The analogy I usually think of in my head is that they're treated sort of like Jewish people or gypsies were back in old/historic Europe (disclaimer: I don't actually know a whole lot about the Jewish or the gypsies/Romani people. All I know is that they weren't treated very well throughout history. In any case, I'm not trying to say anything remotely offensive, I was just using them as an analogy).
What I worry is that this scenario isn't quite "realistic" or "believable". I'm no historian, and I'm also still somewhat of an amateur when it comes to fantasy worldbuilding. As such, I'm not really familiar with how cultures and people groups evolve and change over time, and I have even less of an idea how they would evolve (or devolve) in a post-apocalyptic setting such as the one I've described. And now I kinda feel like I need a good reason to explain why some of the cultural and/or ethnic groups dissolved and assimilated/congregated into new ones while others held onto their identities and stuck together after the collapse of the old world. I can't really seem to think of a GOOD justifying reason for that, though. Also, the way I imagine it, race as we know it (i.e. defining different "races" of humans based on different physiological traits such as skin color or facial structure) would probably have stopped mattering to most people long ago. As such, the only reason for the unique/longer-standing ethnic groups to stand out would be due them essentially wearing their distinct culture "on their sleeve" so to speak. Like, wearing their own unique clothing, speaking their native tongue, or having an accent when they speak common. Physiologically, they don't look different enough compared to everyone else to stand out otherwise. Also, keep in mind that, at least in Telosza, I've chosen not to include any "fantastical" races. It's just humans. So when I say "races", I really just mean different races OF humans , like in the real world.
I don't know, I feel kind of lost at this point. I'd like to see what more experienced fantasy writers and worldbuilders thing of the setting I've described so far. How do you guys imagine cultures and people groups evolving/devolving in a post-apocalyptic world? Would some cultures survive while others fall apart and meld together? Would race (in a physiological sense) stop mattering at some point? Let me know what y'all think.