Fantasy history

[Skybreaker Sin K'al]

So I don't know if I've ever said this before, but I love history. I really do. That's not saying I know much about it, but I do love it.

So I'm making this massive map for a fantasy world I'm making, and I intend to fill it with history. (Not literally the map, but the world)

And since my setting is in the 1930s, I have all the fun of figuring out the renaissance period and colonial eras, of course. What period is your setting set in? Does your world have a renaissance understanding of medicine, art, etc? I would be really interested to hear about your settings, I'm sure I'm loving them all already!

 

[WooHooMan]

My setting doesn't correspond with the actual world. So, technology developed differently as did society and culture.

Most governments are either theocracies or military dictatorships. Monarchies are rare and not very much like our monarchies since the people of this setting have a different understanding of "kingship". Their monarchies are closer to our republics.
This is all mostly inspired by Europe in the late 1800's through the early 1900's with some sprinkling of ancient and medieval Mediterranean and a dab of Chinese political philosophy and some modern sociology theories.

Technology is very magic-heavy. I believe "magitech" is the word. Practically speaking, they have the internet and automobiles but they don't have TV, phones or cameras. I'm iffy about including guns but I might.

Recorded history goes back about 5,000 years plus there's some assorted factoids of what the world was like before that. Apparently, there was an ice age about 10,000 years ago. From what I know about our world's ice ages, that would put this setting in the ballpark of 300 AD geologically. Of course, they also had a "fire age" so I don't know if that changes anything.

 

[skip.knox]

Altearth is very much set in a "real" world, because I'm a medieval historian. As a setting, I take everything from about 400AD to 1400AD. Rather to my surprise, and despite my intent to make all the stories medieval, I've written two stories set in later times (one early 1700s and the other in the 1950s), and my WIP is 19th century. I don't know what's the matter with me.

The next book after the WIP is a re-telling of the younger years of Emperor Frederick II, so early 13thc. As you can see, I'm sort of all over the place.

The historical context has been pretty easy for me. The real challenge has been figuring out how to weave elves and dwarves and gnomes into the world, not to mention troll kings and an orc empire. Europa can start to feel rather cramped! So far, I've been able to manage it, though I'm still struggling with placing that orc empire.

As for science and magic, I mingle them liberally. The basic premise is that there is a "scientific" basis for magic, but that this understanding does not come about until the very end of the 18th century. Prior to that, I let all the medieval and early modern pseudo-sciences flourish. They are all flawed understandings of what is "really" going on, but the people at the time were firmly convinced that alchemy or astrology were real, and so were their various gods (druidic, Norse, Roman), so prayer works, too, as far as they know. This has let magic be as magical or as scientific as I want it to be for specific stories and eras.

 

[ImaginationGoneWild]

Well my world building project is still heavily WIP but most of my setting is inspired by the 1800's technology wise. With heavy Magitek. Because Arcane Energy replaces coal power and Electricity and even nuclear power. But it's still a new energy because the people have only learned to control it for a small decade give or take. So there are still a lot of people who don't trust that technology and prefer to stick to the Old Ways.

I'm still figuring out how technology would've been influenced with Magic. Like per example in my world X-rays managed to make their way as a type of goggles/glasses where different type of 'enchanted' lenses can make you see the skeleton, but I'm thinking of also having like an MRI look. Or Cat scan, etc... still fiddling around. And since there's no x-ray -machines- which takes time to set up and for pictures to develop etc... it saves time for doctors. They just put on those glasses an can see that broken bone on the spot.

I'm trying to categories the technology fields: Medicine, Transportation, Defense (weaponry), Utility, etc....

But besides being tech advanced I also have cultures that are still tribal, other's are nomadic like Gypsy Centaurs who make a living with trade and music. Etc... My world is still all over the place and it takes place on multiple worlds. I have a desert world where the people worship water elementals, I have a asian inspired world where the world was broken because the surface looks like an apocalypse so they raised their cities into the air above the clouds to salvage what they could. They believe magic destroyed them but yet they still cling to it due to pride and still being ruled by magic users. In the meanwhile they are also struggling with resources as their way of life is slowly crumbling because of it.

In my worlds also, Animism is a very real thing. Spirits of Nature and the Deceased influence the world and religions. So there's a power struggle between the old ways (relying on the spirits to maintain your way of life) and the New ways (Arcane Magitek being the future) So in some worlds Magic is frowned upon while in others it gives you status.

 

[Orc Knight]

Eld's history stretches as far back as their version of the stone age and goes straight into the future. Or, well, slightly crookedly into the future. Been quite a few hiccups at times and time isn't always quite so linear on it. Given the world has alternates, sometimes straight up broken up and diverged from the main timeline, again, such as it is.

Given the current stories generally place it at what amounts to a sort of modern day, just after the apocalypse, it's having to rebuild and get back pieces of missing history and not all of it is recovered. It once had airships, floating cities, portals that could move armies and other advanced magic and weapons. Including guns and golem armies. Now the guns are practically relics (and used by humans mostly, as they were created by them) and lot's of magic was lost along with the advanced magic. And what does work sputters about due to the magic waning and slowly coming back after the Lich Wars.

But back on the history of it. I've done everything from early stone age stories to the early Elf Empires (think Roman, but with more blood sacrifice and griffons) and Troll Kingdoms and the rise of the dragons and human breaking their slavery. To the early middle ages of sort and the start of courtly romances and it's like. Then on to the high magic pulp times in a standard fantasy setting with all that got brought up in the previous paragraph. Then the Lich Wars and what happens after. Then eventually several hundred years in the future when they get invaded by aliens and go to space fantasy. It's kind a very story sort of history. Based kind of on how fiction tends to see it.

 

[Gurkhal]

I'd just caution against world bloating and getting trapped in world-building swamp. Casue I've been there.

Don't be afraid to no detail every single year in your story. The relevant places can absolutely be detailed but not everything is likely to come up in most stories and thus don't need much detail.

 

[skip.knox]

I agree, Gurkhal, that a given story does not need all the detail, but there is something to be said for doing all that backstory. For many it's just plain fun, and that can help keep up enthusiasm for the heavy lifting of writing a specific story. That's not a minor consideration.

The process of world building itself can generate story ideas. As the world gains depth, it can also help constrain stories so they don't lurch off in inconsistent or contradictory directions.

Most importantly for me, though, a thorough familiarity with my world means that while I'm in the trenches, I have a deeper well on which to draw. It's a little hard to describe, but it's something like having a richer vocabulary with which to write. Sure I may not use every word, but at any given point I now have multiple words (ideas/events/whatever) to choose from. Those unused words are like harmonics. I'm saying "words" but what I mean are all the elements--history, magic rules, even geology or weather--that constitute the world building.

If all that becomes a place to hide from actual writing, ... well, even then I'm not really going to blame the world building. It may be that spending eight years building before you write your first story simply means that you needed eight years of growth. For me it was more like forty years of noodling and sketching and false starts. And living. But I didn't get it done sooner for the simple reason that I didn't get it done sooner. If I'd been able to write full novels at age twenty-five, I'd be a different me.

 

[ThinkerX]

Yes, once you are in the world building swamp, it can take a long time to reach dry land - decades, in my case.

Anyhow, I've built a dozen plus worlds from scratch. Then, I realized that most of those worlds were merely *parts* of worlds, and hence could be combined. Most boiled down to just two spheres, plus a few oddball pieces.

That said, the main region of my principle world bears a superficial resemblance to Skips 'Alt-Earth' - mostly because I used a pile of AD&D 'Historical Earth' supplements as a foundation for a mangled version of 'Rome that never fell.' Within that umbrella, I incorporated provinces based off one or another of those sourcebooks - a classic 'Rome' heartland, a 'Greek' intellectual center, a somewhat barbaric 'Celtic region,' and so on.

As to history, well...that began when the planet was a near lifeless rock that was terraformed by the 'Ancient Aliens' entities pretty much straight out of Lovecraft several tens of thousands of years prior to the current era. Ten thousand years ago, give or take, these aliens began importing lifeforms from other worlds, some as servants, others as subjects in sometimes gruesome experiments. Imported races included humans, goblins, and skrea (birdmen.) They continued snatching isolated groups from Earth and elsewhere right up to the time their civilization collapsed, about 1800 years ago.

The aliens took groups of short, runty goblins and greatly increased their strength and stamina, making them hobgoblins.

The ancient aliens poked around in the deep etheric dimensions, found a race of mischievous spirits, and incarnated them in human hosts, thus creating the elves.

They also blended several strains of genetic material together to create the immensely strong and combative rachasa cat-men.

Because the dominant ancient alien race was psionic, and based their technology around psionic ability, they 'gifted' chosen human and goblin servants with psionic power. Later, their descendant's became known as wizards.

Then, the aliens encountered a menace beyond even their formidable abilities. Accounts are murky, but the ancient alien civilizations violently imploded almost overnight,

Their servants - the various races they'd enslaved and tinkered with - were on their own. For some of these people, life didn't change much - they'd been placed into quasi independent puppet states ruled by their own kind. With the aliens gone, the puppet monarchs became kings. Others had been made outcast, or escaped to wild parts of the world, where they dwelt in nomadic tribal societies. And some were civilized already, but outside the aliens direct influence. The founders of Solaria - my quasi roman empire - fell into this last category; they were among the last large group of humans imported, during the actual collapse of the alien civilization.

Events unfurled from there: quasi oriental city states banded together to resist a nomad invasion - and remained bound afterward as the Chou Empire. Agba, chief of the aliens puppet realms - delved deeply into black magic and was laid waste, first by demons, then by the southern nomads.

The Solarians sailed forth from Sancti Isle in the almost landlocked Mare Imperium and conquered ancient Kheff (quasi Egyptian) another alien puppet state. From there, they intermarried with the populace of vaguely Greek Carbone, massacred their way into power in Niteroi (a goblin state), and used intrigue to annex the massive metropolis of Corber Port. Solaria's legions marched far enough north to where they clashed with elfin Sinaliel, west to Kitrin (a lingering colony of Agba), and deep into the southern jungles. They relocated their capital from Sancti Isle to the mainland, leaving the island almost depopulated save for an odd sect that worshipped a single god. The appearance of the 'True God's' Avatar resulted in chaos throughout the empire. Most of the populace (eventually) converted; others broke away to form independent realms. Internal feuds between noble clans and external invasions by barbarians almost crushed Solaria. Almost. After a centuries long interregnum, Solaria has been restored! A new dynasty sits the Luminous Throne. (Of course, there was the small matter of the demon ruled Traagian Empire, successor to ancient Agba...)

 

[Ban]

The history for my ppp-apocalyptic world is too big to tell in a single coherent story, so I will focus on the general history of the West coast where most of my attention is placed. My goal was to create a realistic world with great potential for strong stories rooted in its history. I will also only lay out things that have happened for certain, not things that are known to be mythological within the world itself. Apologies for what will be a very long post.

Year 0: A series of apocalyptic events of which the details have been lost to history annihilated close to 99% of the American population. The survivors were, due to a newly inhospitable landscape, reduced to isolated nomadic tribes. The only form of advanced civilisation that remained were a handful of communities in Oregon and Washington who managed to retain knowledge of how to operate industrial cities.
Year 50-300: Emboldened by the miracle of Barstow (33), where a small occult group managed to survive a far greater group of christian aggressors through a lucky lightning strike that struck the christians, the occultists succeeded in establishing a homeland in south california and in mass converting other desperate survivors of the apocalypse. Within three centuries, the occultists would form into a loose "empire" akin to what is referred to in our world as the "celtic empire". They had no central leader, but did establish an unrivalled culturally and religiously homogenous civilization. During this time other tribals settle in other regions of the world, but nomadic tribalism remains the norm in America. Christians still thrive in South California, though not in positions of power.
Year 336/351: Portland and Lincoln, the last two surviving industrial cities fight a trade war that when combined with an onset of british columbian and inland-oregon raiders lead to the mutual destruction of Portland and Lincoln. Refugees from Portland move north to Seattle where peaceful tribals had settled in years prior, Seattle becomes a technologically advanced city (for ease of mind, imagine the European renaissance). The only survivor of Lincoln travels to San Francisco where he becomes advisor to a new-age/dharmic tribal chief who with his advisor's knowledge would establish the golden kingdom on the golden gate bridge. This kingdom expands its influence throughout California by sending envoys to peaceful tribes willing to trade and decades later incorporates them as tributaries in a coastal confederation (Crescent city, Oakland, San francsico proper, Hsi Lai temple, Napa)
The coded, a tribe of oregon raiders take over the ruins of Portland and establish a pirate haven there, thus cutting off Washington from California.
Year 381: Pressured by the rise of occultist, pagan and dharmic influence in California, the christians of Fresno call the council of Fresno to unite all christians under one banner. A religious figure similar to the pope called the Frankis (their mythology mixed carolingian and papal history somewhat as well as other history) is procalimed to rule all christians. Those realms in mid-california who do not buckle are to be conquered.
Year 410-431: When the christians of Fresno (From now on called Keddiks, a bastardisation of catholic) move as far south as Bakersfield, this leads to the bishop of Anaheim calling the council of Anaheim to unite all southern christians under a single banner. The bishop of Anaheim becomes the archbishop of the Protestariat. Numerous wars follow between Keddik and Protestarian factions, which leads to territorial stagnation of both and mass migration of fringe christian sects to Arizona and the channel islands. The council of Bakersfield establishes peace between the two religious groups in 431 and grants de jure right to Bakersfield and all land north to the Frankis, and all land south to the Archbishop.
Year 430-440s: Pagan tribes from Mexico migrate to lands surrounding LA and Sandiego, and horsetribes from the far east settle at the northern border of California as the Klamath Khanate after ravaging northern california and all settlements once controlled by the Keddiks and the Golden Kingdom.
Year 455-493: Fringe christians from the channel islands use the opportunity to conquer land from these newly arrived heathens. The sacred band establishes itself in Sacramento (once in Keddik hands) and the Hollies take over large segments of LA (once in occult hands). The overseers, one of the many tribes that lived in LA uses the weakening of its dharmic and pagan enemies to press its claim on most of LA (besides the Hsi Lai temple).
In 493, the protestariat claims that the council of Bakersfield should be declared nihil as the Keddiks no longer control the north of California and therefore cannot claim it. They use this opportunity to build protestarian states in the north, most notably Redding. Once the Keddiks had recovered, they themselves sought new lands for conversion along the colorado river.
6th century: Protestarian expansion pushes out large numbers of occultists who flee to Arizona as fringe christians had done before, keddik colonization along the colorado further pushes pagans and occultists down to phoenix. With the population surge and an accumulation of knowledge brought by the various immigrant groups, the crucifixionist faith (a christian, pagan fusion faith) rises to prominence is Phoenix where it becomes an economic powerhouse and soon takes over large areas of Arizona. //Also during these years, the preachings of a Tahosi muslim who had converted to christendom teaches northern protestarians of the existence of Salt Lake city which is believed to have been a great religious center once upon a time before raiders slaughtered the inhabitants in centuries past. A Crusade is sent for Salt Lake city, lead by Redding and Tahosi allies in Reno.//Wyoming is conquered by mutants, thus trapping the horse tribes of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana and forcing them to collaborate with neighbouring societies for survival.

...To be Continued!

 

[Ban]

Year 595: At the end of the Colorado, the Keddiks encounter another post-apocalyptic society of catholics called the catholists who had migrated all the way from Louisiana through the thousand tribes that lay between. Interaction with this society leads to a wealth of new information, including the availability of trade goods from the East. This spawns the start of the Western renaissance.
Year 600: Sandiego, one of the last bulwarks of occultism, is conquered by the protestariat. The other occultist societies and sympathizers in Bullhead, the Bodsland (south california) and the Phoenix empire form alliances to contain the protestarians.//In Utah, the saltlaw has been established by the succesful protestarian crusaders and the discovery of in-tact mormon scriptures and monuments leads to the mormonisation of the most prominent crusaders.// Crescent city, a tributary of the golden kingdom, has grown powerful in the lucrative but dangerous trade with Seattle. It rejects the hegemony of the golden king and establishes tradeposts in the pagan wildlands of Oregon.
Year 610: The occultists of south california rise against the southern protestariat and conquer Barstow, but Phoenix betrays the tenuous alliance and the uprising turns into a defeat for the occultists.//Phoenix was too occupied with the great rehabilitation, a war of conquest and proselytization on the mutant "warkids" who live on the arizona/new-mexico border.
Year 674: The Great Utah revolt emerges in the Saltlaw when protestarian christians and pagans unite in a rebellion against the mormonised elite. Out of all native groups, only a strong community of hellenised pagans sides with the status quo. The massacre at Lehi decides the war in favour for the hellenists and mormonised. To deal with the surplus of captives, the helenists (who have now assumed a position at the top of the social hierarchy) proclaim the legalisation of bloodsports.
7th century: Gallens, the capital of the catholists and crescent city become world cities through trade with Seattle and the emerging gun-manufacturing powerhouse that is the Lonestar Mandate (early firearms). The Western renaissance is in full swing by now.//Phoenix declares itself the protector of New Mexico and sets about colonizing and converting the local tribals.
712-732: Ovid Onesimos-encenitas, the margrave of Oceanside (south california) petitions the archbishop of Anaheim for a crusade on Bakersfield. This is accepted and Ovid leads the war with a novel development, professional mercenary armies which he buys from the channel islands.//Fresno allies with san jose (jozay) and pushes back with its own mercenary army//The golden kingdom join in on Anaheim's side to conquer Modesto//The sacred band of Sacramento expands its territory in the protestarian lands in the north, thus unofficially joining Fresno's side//Fresno conquers Oakland from the golden kingdom who promptly make peace with Fresno//a Peace without a clear winner is signed in 731. Fresno keeps Oakland, Sacramento takes all lands between Lodi and Chico, and the margrave of Oceanside personally takes control of Bakersfield.
Year 740: Margrave Ovid spins the resolution of his war as a success and uses the fame and power gained through it to leverage portestarian lords in favour of a crusade on the Bodsland. He conquers it without the archbishop's approval and thus destroys the last remaining occult state in souythern california (though a demonist tribe still lives in redwood and Bullshead over the colorado and Tijuana remain as iportant occult states outside california)
Year 747: The golden kingdom's system of tributary states unifies into a single kingdom and sets out on exploration missions south of the border into latin america.
Year 748: Redding (northern protestariat) invents the typewriter// The border marches of Forty, Havasu and Quartzite are established by the Southern protestariat//Crescent city translates the language of the Hunnadan, a tribe that long lived on its frontiers and the press following this bolsters a refound desire in the crescent citizens to tame Oregon.
Mid 8th century: The Lonestar Mandate devolves into a civil war after the invention of breechloaded weaponry. The ever-warring Lonestar mechanist and technate states emerge as a result and trade with the East is hampered.// Phoenix uses the new weaponry to speed up its taming of New Mexico//The protestarian under grand-margrave Herodion Onesimos-Encenitas (cousin and heir of Ovid) use the weaponry to decimate the remaining pagan spasenoi who still live in LA and colonize the pagan lands of the Gendemari (one of the tribes who came from mexico centuries ago).
Year 752-755: Herodion undertakes the triumph route, a grand campaign throughout southern california to demandfealty from every southern protestarian lord. All accepted, the archbishop was not asked. The californian empire is established, though outside of its land it is only referred to as Grand Anaheim.// The golden kingdom ('charter of golden states' after its federation) establishes profitable trade colonies in middle america.// Gallens establishes peace with the thousand tribes of colorado and opens trade with lands beyond the knowledge of other states in the West.
Year 757: Fresno and Jozay (san jose) unite into the united kingdom of fresno-jozay with the marriage of prince Thilobaert Thosabert IV of Fresno and queen Marlene Köln-Nora of Jozay. The Frankis remains head of state and buddhist oakland is granted special legal status within the kingdom.
Year 792: Salt lake city repels a mutant nvasion from Wyoming, which leads to the salting of Wyoming, an ongoing series of wars of the helleno-mormons to eradicate the Wyoming mutants. The initial aim was to make all wyoming lands infertile by salting the earth, but the discovery of great coal reserves switches the strategy towards enslaving mutants for labour in Wyoming mines.
Year 800: Grand margrave Herodion dies and is followd by his grandson the grand margrave Herodion II, who is officially crowned by the archbishop of anaheim as the emperor of California (Something his grandfather was never permitted officially). The Hsi-Lai temple is granted special status as a neautral zone between the charte of golden states and the empire in the first year of Herodion II's rule (He is generally recorded as the second emperor, thus retaining the "II", even though he is technically the first). Herodion II additionally begins colonization of Sinaloa as an exploitation colony.
Year 813: Crescent city destroys the codekeepers of Portland and tames the seas of Oregon. The hermit lords of Seattle, who have never before interacted with outsiders, request the aid of the crescent people in repelling pagan attacks from the Howlers of eastern washington and the Okerish of british columbia. The dependency may prove to be a faustian bargain for Seattle.
Year 814->present: Emperor Herodion II dies and is followed by his son Yoel Onesimos-Encenitas. His xenophobic beliefs rattle the occult minorities of Grand Anaheim. A new uprising arises, which is squashed in 815. Splinter groups of the uprising have never signed peace with the state and are currently waging guerilla wars against Grand Anaheim with the financial support of Tijuana, Bullhead and Phoenix. A romanticist movement emerges through rebel newspapers and many of the Grand Anaheim protestarian underclass become supportive of the rebellion.
Year 838: The northern game is the name given to ongoing missionary expeditions to the horsetribes of Idaho and Montana by hellenomormons, keddiks, dharmics and protestarians.
Year 840 (the current year): Grand Anaheim changes its official language to Clask english (an attempt at rebuilding the english language), which further infuriates the Occrol-speaking underclass of Grand Anaheim. The simmering rebellion is growing stronger.


Welp, that's the best I can do at simplifying the history of this world. Lots of renaissances.

 

[elemtilas]

What period is your setting set in? Does your world have a renaissance understanding of medicine, art, etc? I would be really interested to hear about your settings, I'm sure I'm loving them all already!

Hmm. The World is not a "setting" in the writing sense of the word as I understand the term. It's a world. There are different settings that can take place in it, though!

Basically, whenever I write anything from or about the place, the time period is "now" if you take my meaning. For example, I just wrote a little folk tale (paralleling and inspired by a tale from *here*). Technically, it takes place in the "early 1600s" based on the characters in question, though the mode of speech & behaviour would be entirely appropriate for the "early 2000s" as well. But I don't write in such a way as to advertise "this story is set in the 1600s". Some tales I've written are mythological or legendary and thus take place "in their own realm set aside for mythic truth".

It's not really possible to say "they" have a renaissance or medieval understanding of, for example, medicine. Different parts of the world are differently advanced. Even within a broad region, some countries' medical knowledge is in advance of others'. Also, different races have different understandings of the healing arts and so may not even understand "medicine" in the same way we do. For example, if you travelled to the Empire of the Axiomatics, in the farthest West of Gea, you could expect to be confronted by a wide range of silly nostrums and snake oils of various sorts in combination with perhaps some honest to goodness followers of Galen. Basically, don't get yourself sick or injured! On the other hand, in the Eastlands, if you travel to the imperial city of Pycleas, you can expect to be confronted by an entirely different, yet equally wide range of silly powders & sovereign cures! Medicine just isn't all that advanced among Men. On the other hand, there are precious few places, Pycleas being one of them, where you can expect that your surgeon will regularly wash both his hands and the surgical instruments not only after operating on you, but also before operating on you! That's a positive, I'd say.

If you wandered along the Highway of Silk and Spice, you might be lucky to find a wise woman or shaman who knows a few useful herbs and how to apply them to an injury. Just pray they don't use horse piss or rotten fruits as an oral medication! (But I guess those are no worse than those physicks of the East who have taken a fancy to dosing their patients with Number Nine Powder, reasoning that the small explosions will scour away the evil spirits and tiny animals whose wicked vapours are the cause of all disease.)

But if you travel through a Daine country, like Harathalliê, to the west of Auntimoany (where Pycleas is), you'll find that you'll be in a very bad way if you get sick. Daine do not suffer from viral or bacterial or parasitic maladies the way Men do: they are not familiar with Mannish anatomy and the best they could do for you is make some calming tea, hydrate you and, well, let Nature run her course. Skilled healers might try something thaumic, like lifting (what they hope is) the affected organ through your flesh, wash it out and let it settle back in again. That sometimes works for intestinal parasites. Such healings take a while and debilitated Men may not be strong enough to survive the treatment. On the other hand, if you break your back in a fall, they will be able to rather easily weave the broken bits of bone & sinew & nerve back together again. You'll actually walk away from an injury that would leave you entirely invalid and a hopeless case among the best medical minds among Men.

 

[Miles Lacey]

My work in progress is set in a world where the geography, vegetation, animals etc are Ice Age but the level of technology and agriculture is the 1930s. The Scriptures of the only faith on the planet (Terra) are called the Fourteen Books. These Scripture imply the planet may have been terra-formed around 10,000 years ago by the fourteen gods. The scriptures refer to animals and humanoids being brought from elsewhere by the gods. There were three humanoid races that were introduced: elves, humans and neanderthals. In this world there are three genders: male, female and nari (which refers to anyone with both male and female genitalia).

The Mentonian Empire (which is where the story is set) is 7445 years old. It went through periods of being a absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, republic, military regime and despotic dictatorship. For the last two hundred and fifty years it has been a non-hereditary constitutional monarchy. The regime is divided into four kingdoms, five principalities, four grand duchies, six duchies, three republics and the imperial capital. It has a total of 1,520,074 sq km and a population of 103,715,583 people. The capital Erquy has about 3,112,116 people and is the size of Hong Kong and modelled on Chicago in the 1930s.

There are elements of the United States in the 1930s in terms of race relations and technology, Germany between 1919 and 1933 in terms of social progress, Japan before the 1936 attempted military coup in terms of political stability and East Germany (1948-1990) in terms of the operations of the secret police. There is an Inquistion-like organisation called the Catechism (officially Branch IX) that regulates what mages can do and weeds out so-called heresies.

There was a Great War that was fought with the Occidental Republic and its allies between 7412 and 7425. In the war - which the Mentonian Empire started - the Mentonian Empire was defeated. It lost around 300,000 sq km and about 16,000,300 people as reparations. Medicine was basically Victorian era with a lot of reliance on what we would call so-called "alternative medicine" and magic until the Great War. The mass slaughter pf that conflict meant that medical science underwent a radical advance within a very short time. In the Mentonian Empire both medical science and magic are used together as it is the most efficient way to do medicine as it allows the mage to use only a small amount of magic in the process of treating the patient. The so-called "traditional medicine and healing" is still practised in much of the world and in the remoter parts of the Mentonian Empire.

Politically the Empire is unstable with the military, constitutional monarchists, absolute monarchists, republicans, social democrats and religious theocrats all wanting power. In 7445 the Empire has a coalition government made up of social democrats and constitutional monarchists.

The Mentonian Empire is a maritime empire and ships including tramp steamers, airships and aircraft connect the far flung parts of the Empire.

That's about as far as I've got with the setting.

 

[ThinkerX]

My work in progress is set in a world where the geography, vegetation, animals etc are Ice Age but the level of technology and agriculture is the 1930s. The Scriptures of the only faith on the planet (Terra) are called the Fourteen Books. These Scripture imply the planet may have been terra-formed around 10,000 years ago by the fourteen gods. The scriptures refer to animals and humanoids being brought from elsewhere by the gods. There were three humanoid races that were introduced: elves, humans and neanderthals. In this world there are three genders: male, female and nari (which refers to anyone with both male and female genitalia).

The Mentonian Empire (which is where the story is set) is 7445 years old. It went through periods of being a absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, republic, military regime and despotic dictatorship. For the last two hundred and fifty years it has been a non-hereditary constitutional monarchy. The regime is divided into four kingdoms, five principalities, four grand duchies, six duchies, three republics and the imperial capital. It has a total of 1,520,074 sq km and a population of 103,715,583 people. The capital Erquy has about 3,112,116 people and is the size of Hong Kong and modelled on Chicago in the 1930s.

There are elements of the United States in the 1930s in terms of race relations and technology, Germany between 1919 and 1933 in terms of social progress, Japan before the 1936 attempted military coup in terms of political stability and East Germany (1948-1990) in terms of the operations of the secret police. There is an Inquistion-like organisation called the Catechism (officially Branch IX) that regulates what mages can do and weeds out so-called heresies.

There was a Great War that was fought with the Occidental Republic and its allies between 7412 and 7425. In the war - which the Mentonian Empire started - the Mentonian Empire was defeated. It lost around 300,000 sq km and about 16,000,300 people as reparations. Medicine was basically Victorian era with a lot of reliance on what we would call so-called "alternative medicine" and magic until the Great War. The mass slaughter pf that conflict meant that medical science underwent a radical advance within a very short time. In the Mentonian Empire both medical science and magic are used together as it is the most efficient way to do medicine as it allows the mage to use only a small amount of magic in the process of treating the patient. The so-called "traditional medicine and healing" is still practised in much of the world and in the remoter parts of the Mentonian Empire.

Politically the Empire is unstable with the military, constitutional monarchists, absolute monarchists, republicans, social democrats and religious theocrats all wanting power. In 7445 the Empire has a coalition government made up of social democrats and constitutional monarchists.

The Mentonian Empire is a maritime empire and ships including tramp steamers, airships and aircraft connect the far flung parts of the Empire.

That's about as far as I've got with the setting.

Sounds a bit like my principle world a century or two from the era in which my tales are set. Technology, once confined to a few enclaves, is becoming more and more widespread (the deployment of bicycles contributed greatly to Solaria's victory in the devastating Traag War.) Innovative engineers are starting to tinker with the components of what eventually becomes a railway system. Others are looking at converting hot air balloons into blimps. Printing presses, once the sole domain of church and state, are becoming widespread. Not incorporated yet, but crude vaccinations, not sorcery, stopped a devastating plague in its tracks. Faced with huge losses in the Traag War and a pogrom afterwards, the mage circles are going semi-secret - and magic use is closely monitored by the Church. All this is causing massive social conflict with the (southern) aristocracy, whose wealth is rooted in man (slave) power.