In the PM series, I’m evolving the cosmology, mysticism/mythology, and hidden knowledge of Filioque. But obviously that’s not all there is. There have to be people inhabiting that world for it to matter. Those people have to live somewhere, and it’s important to me that their civilization and culture make sense in that context, and that their geography and geology aren’t completely invented. Obviously, there’s a limit to that, and I’m sure if some dedicated scientist wants to find fault, fault will be found.
The first thing I want to establish is that this is a “scientific” world. Sure, over in PM, it’s actually the dreams of the sleeping gods, but it’s an internally consistent metaphor. Mass bends space causing gravity, light travels at c in all frames of reference, and when not otherwise altered deliberately, evolution proceeds according the usual foundational principles. Things only get weird when people get involved.
Here’s what I don’t want:
- Powerful Lost Civilization: Once upon a time on RPG.net, Bailywolf pointed out the theme of every White Wolf game: “In ancient days, when mystical shit was BIG and IN YOUR FACE, somebody FUCKED UP and BROKE EVERYTHING and now THINGS SUCK.” I don’t want to go down that road. Are there older cultures no longer extant? Yes, and some were even lost due to catastrophe. But no part of this game involves tromping around the ancient magi-tech fortress and killing magi-robots with magi-guns. We’ve all played Final Fantasy, it’s time to let it go.
- Big Evil Empire: Another sf staple I have no interest in exploring here. Yes, there’s a powerful church with wide reach that even controls some secular territory, and controlled more in a previous period. Hint: I am cribbing wildly from the history of the Catholic Church. Go figure. But it’s not evil even if it is intermittently run by assholes, and no part of the plot I’m interested in here involves “overthrowing” it. Also, it has a ways to go before its Protestant Reformation yet.
- Prophecy: This is something I haven’t gotten to in Particle Metaphysics yet, but bedrock rule of the universe: You can’t look forward by any means except reasonable estimation from facts at hand, and you can’t go forward any faster than sixty seconds to the minute. Oh, there are people who say, and may even think they know what’s going to happen, but hint: they do not. This universe doesn’t work like that. I hate prophecy plots.
Those are all pretty easy things to avoid, fortunately.
So. Looking at one continent for now — the timeframe is pre Age of Sail, something like the middle Middle Ages. Totally Not Rome has been collapsed for a while, the influence of Totally Not the Catholic Church is still widespread in a social sense though no longer the primary secular power.
Look, let’s put some names on this. I can’t keep calling my last major civilization Totally Not Rome.
As mentioned in the last PM, the church is the Church of Domon, named after its founder, who is historically a Person of Import.
So our main continent has two major landmasses with a decently-sized land-bridge/peninsula, something like Saudi Arabia linking Africa and Asia, and at about the same latitude. So the northern subcontinent is generally temperate to cold, and the southern has a large tropical region then down toward the antarctic circle. The peninsula is the seat of Church power and religious faith, a city-state called Eldwatch. The two subcontinents aren’t named yet. Eldwatch is an *old* city, possibly the oldest remaining city on the continent.
There used to be more land linking the two continents. There was a giant disaster and much of it is gone, though an archipelago of small islands remains that provides a haven for sea raiders, pirates, and smugglers. Yes, we’re still pre-Age of Sail; these aren’t deep sea pirates, they’re tropical vikings — work with me here.
Unlike Africa, the tropical regions of the southern landmass are much more arable and fertile, so the culture there is fairly wealthy and has plenty of surplus. Culturally, they’re France + Babylonia. Further south, life is harder, and the Church’s grip is weaker, so there’s a lot of heathenism and tribal cultures down there, but most of them know better than to dick with Domonic sorcerers, so relations are tense but peaceful. Since the southern Domonic civilizations have life pretty good, they spend a lot of time coming up with new philosophies (and new ways to have sex) — they’re considered libertines and the region is the source of most Domonic heresies.
The Northern continent is smaller, and does have a large desert region (on the eastern end that wraps around south toward the equator). The Kai, my necromantic desert civilization, live there, and since they actually do have decent sorcery, they raid the Domonic holdings pretty constantly. I’m not going to admit to ripping off huge swaths of what I remember of Egypt up to the First Intermediate Period for them, but I’m not going to deny it either. There’s a large zone that’s constantly trading hands as crusades go back and forth; the cultures on that border are much more militant and more conservative as a result. The Kai don’t have anything quite as useful as the Nile going for them, so their agricultural production is considerably more fragile — they eke a lot of it out with sorcery and raiding.
The western reaches hold a decently large non-Domonic civilization that mostly just doesn’t want to get invaded — a massive mountain range makes them reasonably safe from a conventional assault. Missionaries of Domon have made some cultural inroads there. It doesn’t have a name or much of a part to play in the campaign so far.
Next time: The southern subcontinent: geography, climate, culture, and influences.
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