Musings. (On Fantasy Worlds)

[DragonFlight]

Wasn't sure where to put this, and mods, feel free to move it if it should go somewhere else.

But, as it is sleeting outside, and I'm still stuck and work, and trying not to think about driving home in this mess, I began to think alot.

Mostly, about my world setting. And then, some things occured to me. In truth, while I have come up with my own setting, and all its details are filed away in my head as they continue to expand - I realize I know very little about how other people have designed their own worlds.

For example. I was just musing on the aspect of currency. Looking at my own setting, I know that copper, silver, and gold are monetary units, traded in pieces of certain sizes, since most have a currency system. There are actually a few locations where currency does not exist in a particular form, and direct trade is used instead, or is measured in a different degree. Kynnese people also place value on certain stones, both for their rarity and useful magical properties or aids.

How does your currency or trade system work? Do you find yourself inspired by a particular culture, or cultures, when you write about a certain area or people? How do your government systems work, if there are any? How do people react to magic, or technology, or the 'supernatural', given the facts and truths of your setting?

Feel free to discuss, I'd love a change to read about everyones thoughts, and I won't hesitate to post my own! ^_^

[Shard]

Oh goodness. The only thing I don't have for the World of Zekira is images of their currency because it was supposed to be done by some friends, and he lost his computer and stuff in the Cedar fire a couple Novembers ago...

My cultures tend to value "earnings" regardless of whether they have tangible currency or credit chips. (I don't make much in the way of fantasy settings, so this is all mostly modern-type.) The Zekirans have nice metal money, which maintains its value *no matter how much of it they find*. So: you dig up a mine full of a particularly valuable mineral, you're filthy freaking rich. That's how it goes.

In Dawnlight, they have a strictly followed caste system for finances, color-coded, so no matter how great you are if you're a Brown caste topped out level 20, you're still only earning about the same as, say, a Green 10 or a Purple 5. (and not even registering on the highest caste, Silver.)

I've got oh so much of this stuff written already.

[Shiolar]

Well, on Mirus, I have four or five different civilisations, each of which has their own currency and government system. I haven't actually defined currency for most of them, though. Just one of the civilisations, which unfortunately got wiped out during the story for my Flurry Candidate... But that one operated mostly under a barter system for certain items, while the rest was 'get it yourself'.

For example, each family, or House, is expected to provide for its own food and so on, and only very rarely are the essentials of life traded between Houses. For more valuable items, though, they simply barter for it with an item or items of equal value. Or they just try to trick it out of each other. There is a fair amount of backstabbing between Houses and the whole city was isolated from the rest of the world (and they tend to kill foreigners on sight), so there really wasn't much trade to speak of.

My second civilisation, and the one I do most work with since the other one's unfortunate erasure from history, is the Bryquaine Empire, which uses the gold coin as its currency. Different size coins determine the value, and given the nature of Bryquaine, it's entirely possible those gold coins aren't actually pure gold anymore. But they're meant to be gold, anyway.

The government consists of an ancient Emperor, who's pretty much on the brink of death, if he's actually still alive. Nobody's seen him for years, and the city is mostly run by the wealthy merchants (who're often also the nobility - they're posh merchants that don't actually do a whole lot of selling themselves...). The whole city is focused around gold and the accumulation thereof, be it through trade or crime. As such, there's a thriving black market on magic, and it's common for the children of the nobility to be taught how to use magic....

It goes on, and gets more complicated. I started out with a vague concept for a city and what I wanted it to feel like. The original concept I had in mind was based loosely on the city of Ankh-Morpork from the Discworld novels, but classier. Bryquaine is somewhat like a more down-to-earth, richer, better smelling Ankh-Morpork. That's how it started out, anyway. It developed a fair bit from there...

So I suppose, when I'm creating a world or a civilisation, I get in mind what I want it to feel like, and add elements that add to that theme. Sometimes I just add an extra little thing that seems silly, but gives the place... character. The city of Acharon on Mirus is in the middle of the forest, and people aren't allowed to leave, so they've all been brought up to believe that trees will try to eat them if they get too close to the city walls.

On the whole, Mirus is an extremely magical world, just because I love the things I can do with magic for the sake of a story. So it's fairly commonplace, but just rare enough that the common man is fairly suspicious of it. Magic is a power held, almost exclusively, by the wealthy, and the only exceptions to this are amongst the non-human races. All of the Shiol are capable of using some magic, and the dragons also have powerful magical abilities. And to the average inhabitant of Mirus, the supernatural goes hand-in-hand with magic.

I decided to skip on too much technology, though. It occurs in a few places, but it's almost exclusively something that comes from outside Mirus itself. It's rare enough that most just see it as another type of magic...

Probably a few too many thoughts there, but...

[DragonFlight]

Oh I love hearing/reading about this sort of stuff. (My currency thing was just an example.)

Kynn has quite a few regions, and initially, each of the different races present in the world had its own homeland, for the most part. Some areas are separated by ocean, making for very different and diverse cultures, while the ones that were closer in vicinity share some traditions, or even special abilities.

Take my favorite 'homemade' race, the Malakym. They're rather demonic in appearance, and as a whole, are considered very violent and warlike by other peoples, a reputation they earned in the past. Their leader is not elected or chosen, or even passed by bloodline - the title of their leader passes to the one who can take it and then defend it. Which has been very chaotic in the past, due to the machinations of corrupt priests, but that's another story - the current ruler has held the throne for the longest recorded time so far, and is very much loved. Many disputes are also settled rather violently, but it's rarely fatal.

Still, despite this nature, Malakym are very oriented towards their family. They actually have a sixth sense that allows them to identify blood relatives in close vicinity of themselves within about three generations of their own position in their family tree, with a stronger sense towards those of closer relation. XD This sense also attributes a sense of comfort as well, which is why a young Malakym can always identify his or her parents, and even infants cannot be fooled. This does make it hard to institute any sort of adoption, though, but it's often not needed.

Just a fun tidbit, really. ^_~

[Dray]

X3 Both Star City and Driolo use a system of credit that is almost entirely non-phyical. People have credit chips, but the bulk of transactions are done over the system, which is itself based on technology and pimped up on magic to make it very difficult to crack (though it does happen from time to time. >.>)

Barter is surprisingly prevalent as well, especially on the planet's surface. Imports are a big deal since Driolo (on the surface, there) has little in the way to sustain itself. Travel and communication are practically instant between the two cities, save for with larger shipments which are physically carted down Star City's beanstalk to the center of Driolo (and vice versa!)

Both cities are run by a semi-elected council of ministers, with both cities lacking a central figurehead. They're semi-elected because they were voted into office some... couple of decades ago, now, when they overthrew the decaying, xenophobic (towards offworlders, and belittling any non-human sentient life within the station) oligarchy, and most of them have managed to stay in office since. Surprisingly enough, most of the ministers in both cities are human--though these were the ones who did a hell of a lot to throw off the earlier oligarchy. Both cities have an astounding beauracracy, which is fun.

Magic and science go hand in hand for both places, though Driolo sports a lot more magic in its infrastructure!

And... oh poo, my time's run out. X3 yay, thanks for letting me ramble!

[Mystic Dragon]

I r teh cheap. I use AD&D rules for most of Tris'Hath. Gold, silver and copper coins for all!

[Asha Wermyst]

I use a trade system, although some (various less small Tera-Cano cities, for example) might have their own local currency. It's just not widespread enough for everyone to use it.