"How will my nations interact?" The Project.

[00dlez]

I've been mulling this over for some time and hopefully have some worthwhile world building discussions to put forward.

The Project

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I am creating a campaign world (described below) that, like many campaign worlds, contains in it many nations - each with their own cultures, personalities, desires, and grudges. I do not yet have a history written for this world, but I do have ideas for the players in it. The concept of this thread series is to help me write a history working backwards in a sense.

I will present a series of threads (updated regularly viewable below) that inquire about how different nations might interact with one another. Many of these nations are derived/inspired by peoples that have emerged here on Earth, but often separated by centuries or more of history, let alone geography. How would they have acted as neighbors? Would their cultures clash or thrive together? You decide! and also write my world's history for me :)

The Story So Far...

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This is not a history from the dawn of time, rather, it is the current age. With regards to the project, things that happened prior to the current age aren't really all that important, but I won't leave you without context, as you may find it helpful in the discussions to come. (not to mention its still in draft form...)

The concise version of "since the dawn of time" goes like this:

There are a series of "ancient gods" who exist solely in their own plane, a paradise beyond reach. Unlike standard, canon gods these gods are truly all powerful, immortal, and lacking any specific dogma, domains, or intentions.
As one might imagine, eternity started to get pretty boring, so they held a competition, each would create their own universe and whichever god could create the most successful universe while introducing the greatest amount of chaos and entropy into it, would be considered the greatest among equals. This competition would never end, and indeed, "the winner" would only be temporary and subject to change at any time.

The only universe we are concerned with is the campaign universe, the creator of which chose to focus on a single planet, with a multitude of races and peoples. They were given free will and the ability to seize control of their destiny, for better or worse. The creator whimsically created "nodes of power" throughout the world, awesome locations brimming with divine and magical power so great that should the mortal races be able to harness the power, they could transcend their existence to that of a deity!

In a great first age, the chaotic and evil forces were beaten back to the very fringes of the world! Men, elves, dwarves and many other mortal races thrived in a glorious and gilded age. Technology abounded, great and powerful men (and elves and dwarves) spent generations, millennia, unlocking the power of these nodes, transcending to deities and administering their will on the world for all time! Or so they thought...

With such power and wealth, greed soon followed, and with it, evil began to leak into the world. At first it only a trickle, a mere hindrance to the advances of civilization, but soon, a stream become a river, a river to a sea, and soon an endless ocean. Evil races of orc, goblin, and drow ravaged the once prosperous and invincible nations. One by one they fell, each grasping to what little wealth remained, and like sand through a clinched fist, soon only grains remained. Evil now ruled the world, and the gods of the world, for the first time, found themselves powerless to stop it.

Now we enter the current age - a dark and scary time. For millennia, roving bands of nomads and small enclaves of poor and technologically deprived men (and dwarves and elves etc) could do little more than subsist on the fringes of the world, the once proud races now the hunted instead of the hunters. But as faith and renewed vigor slowly returned to the good races of the world, so has the power of the gods, and now the struggle for the control of creation has begun anew!

How exactly it happened, what nations have worked with and against what nations etc is the goal of the project.

Links to discussion threads:
Vikings vs. Colonial British!
Ancient Egypt vs. Age of Discovery Iberia (Spain/Portugal)
Cambodia vs. Amazon River Tribes
The above pairings represent the main players in the North-Eastern Hemisphere, a (VERY) rough map is available here


Imperial China vs. The Wild West
Sparta vs. Pacific Islanders

[00dlez]

You are victims of your own success, I'm very pleased with your comments in the first thread so I've put up a second, Ancient Egypt versus Age of Discovery Spain and Portugal! Link

[00dlez]

A third thread has been posted, Cambodia vs. Amazon River Tribes. The site was down for quite a while, but I hope that this is still an interesting exercise. The responses have been extremely helpful and very interesting so far and I'm looking forward to more threads coming soon!

[00dlez]

A rough map of the North Eastern Hemisphere is available here. It merely represents a rough sketch of the region and shows the major players that I've edited into the OP

[00dlez]

China vs. The Wild West has been posted and updated into the OP - Thanks in advance for all your comments

[00dlez]

Started a new thread for Sparta (not entirely what you think) vs. Pacific Islanders - should be another interesting dicussion, check it out!