My stories set on my fictional planet begin rather early stages of my civilizations. But then, after evaluating some parts of my future stories I have planned for this planet, I noticed that the civilizations would not have advanced as much as one would think. At least not in Earth terms that we are used to. You see, my fictional planet has very little metal, and the only large amounts reside deep underground. Metal is used only for tools, and even then, only a handful used for hard jobs requiring metal. This, in my opinion, sets the advancement of my civilization back, in our modern Earth terms.
Our stages of civilization here on are mainly based on metal and the advances the use of which brought. My civilizations, however, get along quite well without much metal. One of my races is a forest dwelling race. Their entire culture is based around wood. Not trees, but wood. They chop down many trees and employ more wood in their daily lives than any of my other races. My other main race is a coastal based one who's main resources consist of ones given to them by the sea. Parts of sea creatures, a very wide variety of shells, some beach grass and trees all allow them to live perfectly satisfied, well kept lives. The races of my world would really not know what to do with metal, aside from some very basic things that advanced tool crafting.
However, all of my races are advanced. There are several well developed spoken and written languages, various academics, lots of non-metal tool crafting. There are even some impressive, sizeable structures built by my races too.
So to us, my races would not be classified as Stone, Bronze, or Iron Age races, as it does not make much sense because they have different resources and live in areas with little accessible metal.
Do you think this is believable? A more modern "Stone Age?" Think of a group of civilizations just as advanced as our Medieval era, but built around stone, wood. I would also supplement coral, sea shells, and even body parts of other sea creatures too as they are very plentiful and the second largest race's entire commerce is built around sea resources. Do you think other readers may find this believable?
I have just always liked the idea of a more modern "ancient" or "stone age" set world. Too many stories rely heavily on the Medieval era with metal weapons and armor. How about a world forced to rely on other resources found on Earth, not magical ones instead?
Also, there is very little magic here in my world. It is mostly wild, and there are very few practitioners of it and even they are not great at it. Just for those wondering about this factor.
Our stages of civilization here on are mainly based on metal and the advances the use of which brought. My civilizations, however, get along quite well without much metal. One of my races is a forest dwelling race. Their entire culture is based around wood. Not trees, but wood. They chop down many trees and employ more wood in their daily lives than any of my other races. My other main race is a coastal based one who's main resources consist of ones given to them by the sea. Parts of sea creatures, a very wide variety of shells, some beach grass and trees all allow them to live perfectly satisfied, well kept lives. The races of my world would really not know what to do with metal, aside from some very basic things that advanced tool crafting.
However, all of my races are advanced. There are several well developed spoken and written languages, various academics, lots of non-metal tool crafting. There are even some impressive, sizeable structures built by my races too.
So to us, my races would not be classified as Stone, Bronze, or Iron Age races, as it does not make much sense because they have different resources and live in areas with little accessible metal.
Do you think this is believable? A more modern "Stone Age?" Think of a group of civilizations just as advanced as our Medieval era, but built around stone, wood. I would also supplement coral, sea shells, and even body parts of other sea creatures too as they are very plentiful and the second largest race's entire commerce is built around sea resources. Do you think other readers may find this believable?
I have just always liked the idea of a more modern "ancient" or "stone age" set world. Too many stories rely heavily on the Medieval era with metal weapons and armor. How about a world forced to rely on other resources found on Earth, not magical ones instead?
Also, there is very little magic here in my world. It is mostly wild, and there are very few practitioners of it and even they are not great at it. Just for those wondering about this factor.