New post and an old post.

A handful of things today. First and foremost is a parody I ran across called The Dragon with a Girl Tattoo. I've done a bit of research into the author to see what else he's written and decided to have a little fit of rage. I don't mind parodies exactly, but I do feel they should exist within certain limitations. Primarily I think it's a matter of how long you can get away with essentially telling a single joke over and over. Five minute sketches on youtube is probably the best thing you could do for material like this. After all, the majority of the jokes are basically just going to be referencing the source material in absurd ways and waggling your eyebrows until the laugh track rolls - we're not looking for highbrow crap here. I can even see some of these being good in a movie format, but only if they stick strictly to the hour and a half format. If you've gone past that mark and still haven't developed a shred of original material for your story I'm going to want to punch you.

Of course that's a nasty perspective to have when you're considering a book parody. It's hundreds of pages long and even the fastest reader is going to have to sit through several hours of what will quickly become the same old dreary shit. The only saving grace would be excellent delivery, but if he can tell a joke that makes us laugh regardless of how bad the source content is; why the hell is he doing parodies? He has to be creative enough to think up some sort of original story to frame his writing. It's not like we'd expect master-crafted plots or anything, just enough effort that you can official label it original. Ta-dah, some degree of respectability, hopefully making up for the fact that one of his older books (I'll let you guess what about) was named The Da Vinci Cod. Isn't that nice?

Anyways, I suppose I should hand out the obligatory huzzah for Josh returning to our posting cadre. To celebrate this fact I've decided to dredge up a post we made in collaboration a while back. It was never posted due to mutual laziness and the fact it was somewhat incomplete. It was meant to be a brief look into many of the cultures present in the fantasy world Josh is slowly compiling. It still is, just it's a bit briefer than we intended. Thus I'm now officially labeling it a preview of a brief overview; with added intro I wrote out eons ago. Enjoy.


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Hey, it's Andrew at the helm.


Today we're going to talk about world building in a more general sense, rather than purely in context of a game. In fact we're using an example made by one of our own, Josh. It's a fantasy world that's currently being created as a hobby, and I can almost say with a straight face that they'll be written in full someday. Nothing like novels have been composed, and while there's idea abound very little has actually been put to paper.


Our purpose today is to finally write out a great deal of the concepts that have been floating about and showcase one of the many ways a writer can put together a world. Also we're putting together a podcast of what went into the writing of this post, as a quasi-test to work out the kinks in some new equipment I just got a hold of. Technically that pod-casting set would warrant a post all of it's own, but that'll come later. We have enough to discuss.


The People


Nearan Civillization


Nearan is largely based off the Roman Culture - at in context of it's current status, that of an empire that has both been decaying through time and continuing to decay. As an empire it shared the Roman civilizations past by being one of if not the strongest empire of the world at it's peak. Its fall is also heralded by a increase in corruption throughout the years. In the presence of the story it's on its final legs and attempting to make last hurrah into the world in an attempt to reclaim glory past.


The people are primarily caste based. There are four basic castes, however, in side of those castes there are multiple different levels.


The Behemians are named after one of the four gods who created the universe. Their focus is typically earth oriented - tilling the soil and working the land. They happen to be some of the most common of the individuals. The peasants right through to the slaves. They are both the most basic, unlearned, and populous of the castes.


The Levitans the peasants in control of the fisheries. Their status in society is just slightly above that of the Behemians - though the difference is small. Their focus derived from the fact they were based around the lake that the city was founded around. The more regular source of income and access to trading along the lake front provides the slightly better life.


The Gurudans were the original guards and militant people of the city. At first they would be the sole source of all warriors of the city-state, working as career-soldiers and retiring if they survived. As time went on the military began to need more individuals to the point they were focused to recruit from the other castes. However, even as time progressed it was maintained that the upper crust should be Gurudan only. In matters of war however it's rarely a good idea to limit the number of people who can be promoted based off merit, so the other castes can get those promotions - but they must first be converted to being Gurudan. These individuals were often faced with hostility from the 'pure' Gurudans.


The Gurudan's role in the city eventually expanded to controlling the throne itself. They were meant to keep the peace and this role extended to making sure that the emperor himself was a good one. The political fall out of this was catastrophic as it elevated the importance and influence of the Gurudan people.


The Phenosians come from the name Phenonix, unsurprisingly. The Phenosians are something of an aberration in the Nearan culture due to their religious beliefs. The people of Near have two sets of gods. There were four old gods, who's names the castes were based on and are still held in high esteem by the majority of the population. The Phenosians however are more focused on the other set of gods courtesy of their wealth. Being the leading caste they found the older texts and became more learned than the majority of the people. In myth it's said that Nero himself declared that the Phenosians would rule the city, but that the Gurudans would be set to make sure they never became corrupted, or remove them if they did.




Arden


The Arden are the oldest of the people. They aren't human. They may resemble something of a larger than life person with animal features. The features don't stop with purely looks, but intelligence as well. More bestial in nature they have skills unsurpassed in tracking and wilderness but they simply don't understand many of the new concepts coming into the world by the younger races.


The race is prone to recruitment in mercenary wars due to their size and fondness of the wealth that they can gain through the continuous battles of the world. Furthermore the combination of sending large tracks of your population away to war and keep vast amounts of health at home means the Arden have found themselves constant victims of raids. Because of this they're a dying race.


North Barbarians


The Eastons were originally a barbarian tribe that, unsurprisingly, stemmed out of the east. As time wore on the curt name stuck and eventually become a source of pride of them from the direction of the rising sun. A fiercely independent people, they're a frequent source of mercenaries for the area. While not wide spread, their name carries weight in the surrounding lands. The subsets of their clan typically adopted an animal to represent them, and works as an idol to rally to.