The "Daily" Worldbuilding Prompt

Question 5.
What strange beliefs do your peoples have about places lying beyond the known world?

It is still largely believed by philosophers that the Torrid Zone – the lands around the equator – are too hot to support life. This mythconception is due in part to the wholecloth acceptance of Heliophilos’s Theory of the Girdles. The old Rumish word for “girdle” (a lady's undergarment) was zona, and it just so happens that the word for north-south regions of the globe is also zona. It might perhaps be the case that excitable old philosophers were hooked by the title and read a little too much into the theory. Simply stated, if the northernmost zone is frigid, due to its distance from the Sun, then the equatorial zone must be boiling due to its proximity to the Sun.

While Heliophilos was not exactly correct on that latter point, he did get one thing right in postulating a parallel southern frigid zone. Oddly enough, most philosophers poopooed this as academic frippery. These philosophers tenaciously hold the notion that the further south one travels, the hotter the world becomes, such that the South Seas are aboil and any lands there are burnt and lifeless deserts. A logical inconsistency, to be sure! – or so say those philosophers supportive of Heliophilos. They hold that if the southernmost regions were hot enough to boil lead and melt rocks, then surely the globe of Yeola would fly apart like a wet piece of clay on a potter's wheel.

 

A circle divided into four represents the heresy of the old gods and their domains: glory and will, craft and skill, knowledge and truth, power and change. It's basically the equivalent of an upside-down cross or a pentagram.
Four interlocking circles represents the religion of mainstream Olympianism and its denominations: Aesirian, Caulish and Orthodox. The four circles represents the four gods of civilizations and their domains: government, military, labor and clergy. That's the cross of this setting.

The sword and pipe represents extroversion and introversion, responsibility to others and self-indulgence, action and peace, the destiny and origin of the religion Paradosi (also called "Devotion to Olympia" or Devotionalism).

A hook and chain is associated with one of the old gods (the power and change god) and is used as a religious symbol for Gnolls and their traditional misotheistic religion.

Red represents passion, green represents knowledge, blue represents life and gold represents power. These "symbols" are universal. If the two circle symbols above are shown in color, each circle is one of these colors.

Finally, and most importantly: a three-dimensional ten-pointed star is used to represent the universe and all symbols, powers and meanings within it. It is said to be the actual shape of reality if viewed from the outside.

So, those are the notable religious symbols.

 

Much like the real world, depends on what you're writing and what's popular at the moment. Which also becomes dependent on most species/races on Eld too. Ever since the Lich Wars stories have taken on a desperate need for Happy Endings which are rare enough on Eld at the current time. There's a lot of need for hope and optimism in the post apocalyptic world. Wanna do Epic Poetry, Wars and Romance? Write for the orcs, they eat those ones up. Sappy Romances with literature minded protagonists? Many a troll carries some of them around. Smutty Romances? For the wood elves, who won't even admit they're buying them. Though the gold elves will and the drow open carry them. Adventure Stories and ones that end with the Hero saving the day? Covers a lot of the rest of the races. Just have to tailor the hero/ine very carefully.

Pick somewhere, find a niche and worm your way in. As the whole Crime Fiction genre hasn't started on it, you could try that. Sure a lot of guards get annoyed at how incompetently they often get portrayed in stories and it'd probably be nice to be thought of as competent. Also, if you can do cookbooks, do cookbooks. Be a bit of competition? Sure. Pretty good business all around though.

 

I have!

I just hope you'll have fun reading the answers!

 

Question 6.
Pets and mounts: what interesting animals are kept as domestic pets and servant animals or beasts of burden in your world?

Various kinds of fox & dog are favoured by many, both as pets in the usual sense of the word and also as working animals. Guardsbeasts, vermin control and the like. Birds of prey (eagles, falcons and raptors especially are kept by nobles for hunting and sport. Lots of people like to attract owls and ratbirds to their homes for their obvious utility.

Dragonets are cute and very popular pets. Girls love em, especially, because they’re so cute and soft and cuddly! Basically, they’re cat-sized downy-feathered bird-billed dragons that love to eat bits of fruit and veg. They kind of warble and coo. Bit of a pain to clean up after, mind.

 

Question 7.
The reckoning of time: how will mark the days, weeks, fortnights, months, years and so forth in your world? How are they measured and what are they called?

Well, if you’ve a mind to study the great Horologue, you can literally watch the actual minutes tick by into hours of the clock. A day is divided into smaller segments called hours, and there are two kinds: of the clock, which are regulated by the sometimes a little wonky clockwork mechanisms of the great Horologue; and of the Sun, which are generally speaking more regular. Many public squares and parks have well maintained sun dials for your inspection.

Longer times: fourteen days make a fortnight and each month has two: the fore-half and the back-half of the month. In between each fortnight is an intercalary day: the dies meridianus (the 15th) and the dies januarius (the 30th) . Twenty-four fortnights make up a year and a few intercalary days round out the cycle. Each year and century is named. Today is Monday the ninth day of Longnights, by fortnight reckoning, or 24 Bladmath by moon reckoning in the Year of the Crooked Way in the Century of Cured Bacon.

Philosophers also reckon by decades, centuries and myriades. Historiographers reckon also in ages (currently, you are living in Interesting Times indeed, for it is the Fifth (and last) Age of Men). But no worries! The actual end of your race is still some little while off, and war has not yet come to the Men of the Eastlands!

Daine and Teyor, very long lived folks indeed, reckon also the longer ages that can only be seen in the movements of the stars: furthermore, today is also in the tenth year of the reign of Handfast of the Bloody Blade, Emperor of the Avantimen, in the 2018th year of the Fifth Age of Man, the 4th year of the Apwarias Zodiacal Era in the Pwerncas Hipparchian Age in the ninth Age of Stars which hight Calior, the ninth Age of Stars having been born 4205 years ago when the Torras zodiacal era, the Nimbullas Hipparchian Age and the Xora Age of Stars passed away into the dims of memory.

Not that you’ll ever live long enough!, but you might be interested to learn that a zodiacal era is 2100 years; a hipparchian age is 25,200 years and an age of stars is forty hipparchian ages. Something like eight million years and change.

 

Question 8.
Give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural or national epics! Perhaps a great foundational myth.

For the Men of Auntimoany, this would probably be a dusty legend from the time of the Migration. The Theitish folk came, about 1500 years ago out of the Uttermost West, driving their great oliphant drawn waggons through all the long leagues of Eosphora. In the East, they came up against Men who were already living here for a long time, though were in decline. These ancient empires they overthrew and founded the younger kingdoms. The Men who came to Auntimoany found there already Daine living in an ancient land beyond reckoning. Maybe by the whisperings of one of their strange gods, the Men, the Thiets, chose not to attack and invade the Daine, but rather came and lived among them.

Now, it is the case that Men have become comfortable within their dual country. The emperors rule the affairs of the visible country all around and leave the Daine to their own customs. For their part, the Hidden Queen of the Daine rule the affairs of the country invisible, suffering the whims of Men, condescending to allow them the overlordship.

For now.

 

Question 9.
What do your ordinary folk do for fun? What do the elites think about this (unproductive!) activity?

People in general, Man and Daine (and Other) alike enjoy a variety of recreational activities. Music making and singing are probably the most popular; story telling and the recitations of the sagamen rank up there. But there are parks and gardens and street theatre and street food and subscription concerts and art galleries and public executions and various travelling marvellists’ shows to take in as well!

The elites among Men have actually a fairly laissez faire attitude. They have come to learn that simple people have but simple needs. You know, all work and no play. So, give a hard working and simple man, be he carl or slave, some time to relax, give him some opportunity to improve himself, and he'll be much less inclined to upset the carefully balanced apple cart.

The Daine who rule unseen have come to appreciate this solution. While it is the case that Auntimoany has seen its share of wars and invasions and plots and coups, it has endured. The cousins of the Avantimen who ruled over another empire where Men and Daine lived in close quarters, that of old Hoopelle, did not learn. And they were utterly ruined.

 

Question 10.
Tell me a tale that is fictional within your world!

A favourite kind of phantasy tale that Daine and Men alike enjoy is the mancalio. Halfway between our manga and a graphic novel, the mancalio mongers love to pen fictions. Tales of either fictional heroes (like Prince Weliwand) or the extremely fictionalised (but essential historical) heroes (like the Adventures of Lena Orck Slayer) are popular.

Born to a family of herdsmen and weavers of Husick, Lena Wolfbanesdaughter rose to prominence during the Orck Wars that ravaged the Eastlands between 1413 and 1418.

Dismayed by the lack of action on the part of the great armies of the lands about, and especially the imperial armies of Hoopelle, many local militias sprung up to defend towns and villages against the predations of the Orckish Hotai hoardes. The militias engaged the invading armies in many savage battles. Lena became the herzog of one of the more powerful militias and soon took the battle to the Hotai commanders. In order to punish the resistance, the Orcks destroyed Husick in 1415. The tattered remnants of the Husickite army joined with Lena's growing militia and increased her power. In 1417, Lena, now known as Orckslayer, overthrew the Hotai king and founded the Queendom of Husick. As her fame spread and her victories amassed, even the Orck Kings and their warriors took to calling her Foehammer and Warband Slayer. Heckla was liberated a year later, in 1418, when that land was cleared of the remaining bands of Orckish Hotai.

Though the original Lena undoubtedly wore sensible armor, the Lena of the mancalio (particularly Brad Swainford's She Came in ye Nighte serial) invariably wears an iron studded and rather revealing leather loincloth and a rather more revealing short cape (also leather, though bronze studded) round her neck that only just about covers her shoulders. No wonder she has slain so many Orcks; they must have been as mesmerised by her buxom qualities as by her swordwork!

 

Question 32: How much of a career can a writer make in your world?

Artists of any kind are hugely successful in the OmniCosmos, since Dream personally looks after them.

 

Question 11.
I want to travel from one edge of the known world, to the other. How do I go about this, and is it even possible?

Mm. A perilous course you make! The best course I can suggest is to follow the feet of many Daine wanderers before you — travel my way and take the highway that’s the best! No, not Route 66! But rather the Great West Road. The Great West Road is a broad highway that extends from Pycleas in Auntimoany and crosses the whole broad and vast expanse of Eosphora and Hespera ending up near Marloyn in a Daine country of the Uttermost West. People say it was built by the gods, but I think it probably predates the gods by a good while. Chalk it up to ancient aliens. In any event, the Great Road is uniformly made, twenty two feet kerb to kerb and is properly graded all along the way. That's wide enough for two olifant waggons to trundle side-by-side and have a bit of room to spare! It has bridges and seems to be a magical artifact of some sort.

The Road can not protect you from all danger. Sure, you won’t get lost; but you can still be snatched by slavers or eaten by gruôndyo or mauled by black hearted trees out in the uninhabited wilds. And it’s a long walk indeed! A number of Daine have made the journey, there and back. The Road passes through many fair Daine countries and long tracts of wild and beautiful country. It's so easy to tarry along the way... They say, take a hundred years for the walk, if you really want to take it all in. Or more if you can spare. Maybe settle down for a time and rest, find yourself a mate and raise up a couple kids. Then go on your way again. That’s the only way to really travel the Road!

If it’s the Walk you’re after, it might take you three to four years maybe five to get there. And another five to get back again. It's not a straight course and there's a lot of Geagraphy to contend with. You'll pass over the Holy Hills and through Ziberi Uplands and down into the midge and black fly infested Mere (thank Heaven for the great dragonflies that eat midges and duel black flies to the death!). And then up, up again into the the high country beyond which lie the hill country and then the foot-mountains of the mighty Spine of the World. (Please, hire one of the guides that inhabit the wayside stations of the hill country!) Through the high passes and down into deeply cloven vales and up again! And at last, down again, into the western foot-mountains and the hill country of eastern Wespera. And then it's the trackless forests of the Bear People (do not, under any circumstances follow the gay music! Do not try and catch them unawares!) Eventually you'll come into the ruined & blasted wastelands of the old Wovydaine kingdoms. Try not to tarry there. Probably best not to seek a mate there either! Eventually, the Road will bear you up towards the coasts of the Sea that was once a mighty a river and at last you'll travel down into more civilised lands and, coming into the great monastery city of Marloyn, you can at last walk upon the great stone wharf that juts far out into the Ocean of Sunset.

And then?

Come back again into the East, if you dare!

On the other hand, you could probably walk north to Mearby-on-Sea, a wonderful little domed city on the chilly shores of the Ocean of Congealed Waters, out in the Wastes of Weem. That might take a month of steady walking. Keep an eye peeled for Orcks in the wildlands. And whatever you do, do NOT stray into the Great Northern Forest.

A much more pleasant walk, perhaps, for the introverted. Far fewer people, to be sure. Lots of nice ruins to explore up in the Anian Desolation. The roads up there haven't been maintained in centuries, so keep a close eye on the contours of the land, lest you become hopelessly lost!

But if you ever get there, Meareby is an interesting town to visit. If you wind up in The World as a Daine, you shouldn't have any problems. Daine travellers do stop by from time to time. But the folk of Mearby are Men and, well, they do take note of who comes their way and the Archons deem your skills and knowledge are valuable enough, well, they might just not let you leave right away!

 

Question 12.
Can you give me an example or two of differences in morality between peoples in our world and the inhabitants of yours?

One main difference, I think especially from the Daine perspective, is that they actually take matters of morals and ethics seriously whereas too many Earth humans seem to be lost and wandering in the fogs of im- and amorality. This they do not understand. Daine, you see, are kind of soft-wired to it and by nature will follow the divine Law the way a bird will traverse the magnetic field and fly thousands of miles from Here to There.. They can be tempted away from the straight road, make no mistake! And can make (and have made) terrible decisions; but really that is not in their nature.

Another thing you’ll notice is that the practice of morality and ethics in The World will make even you, a visitor-to-long-term-resident-alien healthier. Sin is truly a spiritual sickness and it is known that the soul-mind-spirit-body system is not only integrated within itself, but is also polydimensionally interconnected and integrated within the World's oecumene. If you starve your body of food it becomes sick; if you starve your soul of moral & ethical nourishment, it too will become sick. And the sickness of the latter especially will rot the former. As an Earth human, you may be a kissing cousin of the local kindred of Men, and thus among the Fallen, but you can do much in your new home to improve your own condition!

 

Question 13.
Zoos, Waterparks, Museums, and Parks. Do the peoples of your world have any equivalent public facilities? Tell me about one.

Well, there’s the Dangling Gardens of the Palas. That’s always a favourite of visitior to and native of Auntimoany alike! The Palas itself is huge stone and brick structure full of audience chambers, government offices and so forth. But up on the stepped-peaked rooves, all is an abundance of red and green foliage, brilliantly coloured flowers, burbling fountains and the song of a myriad kindreds of bird.

A daler gets you in for as long as you care to wander the aisles and culdesacs of plantings. Imagine Longwood Gardens resting on top of Angkor Wat and you’ll get a good idea for what the Dangling Gardens look like.

 

Question 14.
What is the biggest, most beloved celebration of the year? And how might I join in the celebration?

Yule is pretty spectacular, and is definitely a foody’s favourite holiday in Auntimoany. But probably the most beloved celebration in the whole year is New Year itself. 25 Yastermath (March) is the day. Unlike Earth humans who celebrate the night before; folks in Yeola most often celebrate the day of and the First Night. This is because the new year ticks over at Noon. This is when all seven houses of Parliament gather in the Hall of Thrones and the Empress delivers a throne speech and then there will be public liturgies and then lots of street theatre, street food and as the Sun goes down, parties and revels long into the deeps of night.

You missed the greatest party of the century, though. 2014 marked the passing of the Pesqas Zodiacal Era and 2015 witnessed the inauguration of the Era of Apwarias. Big parties. Harmony and understanding. Sympathy and trust abounding. Lots of Men getting drunk. You get the idea!

 

Question 15.
What is the latest fashion and / or what type of clothing never goes out of style?

Daine feathers always seem to be in fashion among the rich and fashionable of the Imperial City. Daine are winged folk you see, and grow nice long, beautifully coloured feathers on those wings. Hunters will risk death and dismemberment out in the wilds looking for a hapless Daine with purple or iridescant red and green feathers. As you might expect, most Daine will not willingly part with their feathers, and so they end up being quite the expensive bit of bling to decorate a fashionable lady’s fascinator or bouffant.

Daine on the other hand, wear very little clothing as a rule, so for them, bangles and body paint are the “clothing” style that never goes out of fashion!

 

Question 33: I am in search of work. Where could, would and should I apply?

You don't need to work in the OmniCosmos. Thanks to the Glyph system, you can make food and craft buildings out of thin air. As such, there's no currency, and people trade and share things. There's plenty of leisurely activities, though.

 

Let's see here. Could take up an apprenticeship as a cheesemonger. Work for any number of bars and restaurants around. Take up life as an adventurer, though nowadays that mostly means killing undead. Which is still a hard job, but someone has to do it. There's a variety of jobs, but choose wisely. Find a small village, take up being a guard and only have to fight a few days out of the month, rough up some drunks or be the roughed up drunk and hang out. Probably the easiest job.