Worldbuilding and maps
Jan. 16th, 2018 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sebenikelaIn which I ramble at some length about worldbuilding for a story I am apparently writing now because it ate my brain:
It is absolutely not necessary to have a detailed, geologically plausible map to write a good fantasy novel. But I have gotten a little ridiculous about it because…I’m me. And for me it’s just easier to have a map where I can measure things and say “ok from this village to that village is about 10 pretty flat miles, you could do that in one long day walking, assuming little kids and old folks and disabled people can ride on ponies or donkeys or [world-appropriate assistive technology of choice].”
And I didn’t want to use an actual real coastline because it’s fantasy, not alt-history or whatever else. So the Sword(s?) of Moss and Rain takes place in….southern California, but with sea level 150m higher, the ecology of the Pacific Northwest (the coast, between Seattle and Vancouver, to be specific), which means also the native plant foods and ways of preparing them are based (very roughly) on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh traditional foods. I’ve pulled some other stuff from neolithic through iron age northern Europe (they now have wheat and barley in the PNW agroecology because it’s my world I do what I want, there’s both farmers and hunter-gatherers around, farmers use iron plows and oxen…). The rituals/religion/magic I have been pulling ideas from all over, but most of it is completely made up because it’s fantasy.
Anyway. Mostly I wanted to show people my maps. The google-maps background is just for the mountains and stuff.
1. the “known world” for the main characters – outside the black line is mountains/desert/there aren’t People Like Us living there
2. Where Stuff in the Story Happens (blue lines are water, black are paths)
3. The Most Important Bit
This concludes “mo showing off because she’s bored” for today, thanks for playing!
It is absolutely not necessary to have a detailed, geologically plausible map to write a good fantasy novel. But I have gotten a little ridiculous about it because…I’m me. And for me it’s just easier to have a map where I can measure things and say “ok from this village to that village is about 10 pretty flat miles, you could do that in one long day walking, assuming little kids and old folks and disabled people can ride on ponies or donkeys or [world-appropriate assistive technology of choice].”
And I didn’t want to use an actual real coastline because it’s fantasy, not alt-history or whatever else. So the Sword(s?) of Moss and Rain takes place in….southern California, but with sea level 150m higher, the ecology of the Pacific Northwest (the coast, between Seattle and Vancouver, to be specific), which means also the native plant foods and ways of preparing them are based (very roughly) on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh traditional foods. I’ve pulled some other stuff from neolithic through iron age northern Europe (they now have wheat and barley in the PNW agroecology because it’s my world I do what I want, there’s both farmers and hunter-gatherers around, farmers use iron plows and oxen…). The rituals/religion/magic I have been pulling ideas from all over, but most of it is completely made up because it’s fantasy.
Anyway. Mostly I wanted to show people my maps. The google-maps background is just for the mountains and stuff.
1. the “known world” for the main characters – outside the black line is mountains/desert/there aren’t People Like Us living there
2. Where Stuff in the Story Happens (blue lines are water, black are paths)
3. The Most Important Bit
This concludes “mo showing off because she’s bored” for today, thanks for playing!