#talaura

Hi all, Bunny here. So for Worldbuilding June I decided to take a look at some of the challenges or prompts other people have been posting. To that end, I decided to have a quick go at @ladytabletop‘s prompt for today. It’s something I’ve touched upon in a couple of previous posts, but I thought it could do with its own post.

Because of the diversity of peoples and cultures across Talaura, it’s inevitable that prejudices and stereotypes would arise. In general, these are not intended to be cruel or disparaging. Insensitivity is more often the cause of discomfort or anger than malice.

• Jafleaye’s history has lead to the caricature that the business-savvy humans, dwarves and halflings are obsessively bureaucratic and numerate. The cliché is that Jafleaye’s citizens are constantly counting their coins and writing things down, inundated with information and unable to see the important features of the world. From the outside, a more positive picture is painted of the culture in general, and the wealth of Jafleaye is often imagined as a huge treasure hoard, perhaps even an entire city constructed out of gold.

• Tesman’s community-mindedness leads many to joke about their extreme friendliness and politeness (imagine them like the Canadians of this setting, but without the hockey). They are seen as almost universally gregarious and accommodating, sometimes to the point of naïvité. Charity, hospitality and patience are strained to the point of ridiculity in the stereotypes, leading some to believe that many in Tesman will simply roll over when entreated. The dwarves of Talaura, most common in Tesman and Jafleaye, are stereotyped as obsessive and fixated, never moving from one task until it is complete, no matter the distractions around them. 

• The more positive stereotypes of Shabar will simply describe them as “proud” and “proactive”. However, the social structure and history of the country mean that these are often extrapolated to mean “vain” and “violent”. In addition, their status as beast masters leads many to suggest that the orcs are perhaps more at home with animals than other people. This stereotype is inverted by the Shabari people themselves, however, who view the weak as less worthy, historically as not even being people.  Shabari art and crafts are incredibly detailed and intricate, which is seen as perhaps incongruous with their warlike nature but not dismissed in any case, as merchant caravans between Shabar and Tesman or Jafleaye often come back laden with riches.

• At best, the merfolk are seen as scavengers and opportunists. The lionfish in the Aspuan often work as salvagers, but charge a great fee and claim to get the first choice of any loot, retaining the right to refuse to hand over whatever goods catch their interests. This is because of the philosophical belief among merfolk that passing The Veil (the surface of the water, seen as a divine boundary between the sky and the sea) washes clean properties such as ownership.  The sharkfolk bear the least distorted stereotype, and do the least to try and discourage it. They famously prefer solitude to the company of others and are viewed by many as barely more than animals. Again, though, sharkfolk don’t care about the stereotypes put on them by other people, largely keeping to themselves.

Hi, all, Bunny here. A quick overview of the geography of Talaura (what I have planned for it, at least). Thanks to Artifexian, I’ve been thinking about the physical formation of my planet and Talaura’s place on it, but what I find more interesting is political and social geography. Below is a map showing a rough outline of Talaura, with some handy notes and details following.

The planet on which Talaura is situated (name still pending; most of the names will probably be changed later on to ensure internal consistency) will be roughly earth-like in terms of size, climate, surface gravity and so on. Many geographical features, landmarks and settlements have already been created for the purposes of the games I’ve been running, but there’s still a lot of stuff that needs filling in.

I know it isn’t a particularly pretty map but it shows the sort of thing I have in mind. Each of the cultures on Talaura is influenced by one or more real-world cultures and this carries over into their physical geography as well. I don’t really know what sort of scale I’m working with (I’ll have to go through all of Artifexian’s videos again to work it out) but the lines of latitude give a rough idea of what we’re working with. The three stars represent the capital cities of Tesman, Jafleaye and Skoiasu, respectively (Shabar lacks a permanent capital city). 

• The capital of Tesman is Kaura, in the highlands. A great source of geothermal energy and metal ore, Kaura represents one of few permanent settlements in Tesman, and a huge industrial powerhouse with ready access to Jafleaye for the purposes of trade. • Centrico is the capital of Jafleaye, situated on the shores of the inland sea, its shipyards, docks and trading posts are a sight to behold. This is also the seat of the Sphinx Lucrezia and the Council of Eleven, the leaders of the nation. • Finally, in Skoiasu is The Ivory Tower, built up around the great observatory and archive of the Elven Lords. 

The indicated mountain range and the inland sea provide useful natural boundaries between three of the key nations, though Shabar’s lack of access to the sea is a cause for some upset.

I’ve not drawn the rivers or lakes on yet, but once I work out the watersheds properly I can start adding them. This is just a rough idea anyway, so the specific layout and designs of the different nations might change further down the line.

I want to add a whole load of islands to the eastern coast as well as along the north of Tesman (though these will form a continuous land when the sea freezes). This is what the area bounded by the dotted blue line represents.

Importantly, because of the organisation of both Tesman and Shabar into smaller, largely autonomous administrative units, the western border of both nations is kind of ambiguous. In addition, there is a large stretch of land, far out to the west, which acts as a significant barrier to passage. I plan on adding more continents and countries to the world at some point and indeed, I have a fair few ideas for things that I could do cough centaur samurai cough, but I’d like to work on Talaura before I do any of the others. I do want there to be smaller, independent countries within Talaura that aren’t part of the Big Five but I don’t really know where they’d go and I’ve not 

I think about map projections a lot. I feel the need to mention that, because this is a map of Talaura on a flat plane, some distortion is inevitable. I plan on making some more maps further down the line (might even work on them later today) of both different projections and different scales to show each individual nation in more detail.