So the last 24 hours have been full of inspiration and world building for me. I decided to create 2 starting world maps. 1 before the cataclysm, and one 200 years after.
My reasoning behind this was to create a world that looked like many other fantasy worlds, with borders and differing nations and cultures. Then, I looked at it from the view of the vengeful deities, and looked at what horrors I could enact to cause the greatest damage and suffering. I then looked at how the world, slowly rebuilt from the ashes would form, both in terms of topography, and changes to the nations and cultures.
The dwarven homeland was made so untenable in terms of survival, they were forced into a wide diaspora, signalling the end of unified dwarven culture. Other human nations were destroyed utterly, or forced into hard decision for survival. Several successor states arose to fill a power vacuum left by the collapse of some nations, and the borders between al nations radically shifted. All of this will be covered in the sections on races and cultures in the coming weeks.
I also needed a name for the horrific events that gave birth to this new world. "The Cataclysm" was already taken by events in the Dragonlance setting, and i didn't think the term "Apocalypse" applied to a world that survived.
A friend suggested "The Breaking", and I instantly felt that was the best I had heard or thought of since coming up with the setting. He also suggested the title "Broken World." I like that, but I may change it if a better name occurs to me. However, the working title is now officially:
BROKEN WORLD.
The next areas I need to look at are:
1: Race.
2: Cultures.
3: Classes.
I need to put races and cultures together for simplicity, so can show racial cultures at the same time as their respective races.
In that view, would you prefer to see Races and Cultures next, or Class discussions? Let me know in the comments if you have a preference.
I think all the good names for near-apocalyptic events are going to be taken - Robert Jordan's books had "The Breaking" - but I like "Broken World" so I'd say go with it :)
ReplyDeleteRace/cultures or class - go with what makes sense as the foundation. I'm sure it will all be interesting.
What did you end up calling it again? I can't remember. Wasn't it the fracturing or something?
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