#world a

Intro Starting with this set of example tutorials, I am going to continue to tighten my focus to a handful of regions in each world. Which regions these are may shift a little depending on which ones are most useful to demonstrate a given tutorial; likely it will probably tend to be a core few.  

As a reminder (the “going over notes” step): the primary supernatural forces underlying this world are the world’s magical core; magic itself derived from emotion and instinct; the strong presence of Fate; the strength of Chance as fate’s counterbalance; and the presence of fey in the world. The actual post on it can be found here, if you would like a more detailed reminder. 

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Region #3: Humans There are two primary influences on this region in terms of the supernatural. The first is the farming culture, and thus the way the culture in this region is heavily influenced by the seasons; the second is that it shares its only border with the region filled with Seelie Fey. The other influence comes in the way that magic works in this world; in that humans, because they are on the higher end of the food chain, have a difficult time with direct magic and must rely on indirect methods to practice magic at all. Because of the structure of this region - many independent villages that don’t rely on one another to make decisions or live under the influence of one overarching ruler - the actual religions and magical practices will vary some between villages. However, there are a few core ideas that permeate through most of them, and that’s what I’ll cover here. 

The first is a sense of order and structure in the world. Most humans in this region do not have an overarching sense of fate being a major influence in their lives, per se; but they understand that there are structures in terms of the seasons, and in terms of the phases of the moon, and in terms of the constellations in the night sky - and that these things are inevitable and cannot be changed by mortal hands. Many villages in this region have rites that celebrate and acknowledge the passing of the seasons or other milestones such as the harvest. These tend to involve the entire village and take the form of giving gifts to the world - the best grain, the slaughter of a cow, etc - in hope for mercy during the upcoming seasons in return. These celebrations are usually led by the head of the village, sometimes in concert with the village caster.

Some regions may mark these celebrations by passing of the stars, sun, and moon; others may mark them by the first frost or the first blooming flowers - but the core of the celebration is the same. In nearly all cases, there is no concept of a god or goddess or any deity with a particular will; there is no figure of worship, merely the world. Its will is perceived as being diffuse and not embodied in any particular person or place.

Many people, however, worship the Fey. Because of the fey’s ability to perform magic - and because the Seelie Fey tend to be kind - it is very common for people in this region to leave out gifts for fey too, especially in places they are known to frequent; and to ask for help or advice in return. Fey are not seen as deities, but rather powerful beings with capabilities far beyond humanity’s. Some humans may build relationships with particular fey, and may come to know them more as people; this is particularly common with traders who trade for resources that they fey have with the few who understand that concept as humans see it. 

Lastly, magic: it is common for a given village to have a single practitioner of magic. Most of this magic comes in the form of herblore and alchemy; as such, this person tends to also be the village healer, particularly since the set of tools to do so is the same. This is passed down through long apprenticeships with a chosen successor, and is a highly respected position within a village. It is very uncommon for a village practitioner to also be the head of the village: rather, they are often seen as a legitimate counter to the village head when it is needed. Any other particular requirements of the person - age, sex, rites of passage, etc - vary highly village to village, as does the name of the position.

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Region #4: Humans This region has many of the same primary influences as Region #3. The primary difference is that, because of the climate, this region has very little farming - and thus not the same attachment to the seasons as a force of order in the world. Instead, most of the region relies on fishing, hunting, and herding - and as such, the primary sense of order in the world comes from death, and from the duality of long winter nights and long summer days. As such, there are few seasonal markers or celebrations; some regions may have practices that mark the longest day or longest night of the year, but no more than that. 

Instead, the primary form of worship comes in the form of sacrifice - usually in the form of sacrifice of livestock, sometimes in the form of performances simulating human sacrifice (actual human sacrifice is extraordinarily rare and generally taboo), and sometimes the form of ceremonial hunts performed in honor of a particular occasion. These occasions tend to be community events: marriages or partnering, death of a community member, birth of a child, adulthood ride of passage, and so on. These people, too, also perform rites to try to placate the elements; but it is less likely to be tied to season and more likely to be tied to weather and necessity. 

The people in this region also do not have or worship deities; however, they may embody certain forces - storms, darkness, the ocean, etc - into various beings. Many of these started as stories - the kind of stories you tell children so they won’t go wandering off at night - that grew somewhat beyond the bounds of story; many of these beings do not exist at all, except for those that are based off of encounters with particular Fey. People in this region are somewhat more wary of the fey than people in region #3, and are less likely to have a direct relationship with them; most relationships are based off of interacting with these storied beings and attempts to placate or to ward them away from a village’s bounds.

Lastly, there is magic. Because plants do not grow well here, there is little magic done with herbalism; instead, most of it is done with stone. Most of this involves stacking stones or creating stone structures using particular types, shapes, etc; or making charms and talismans out of particular stones to lend properties to the wearer. Magic is treated with suspicion in this region, and fewer people practice it; it is common not to have a magic-worker at all living in one’s village, and people who do practice it are generally distrusted on the premise that they may be evil. This comes partly with people’s experience with fey being less direct and more as dangerous and hostile beings; and partly with the experience of a harsher world to contend with in general.

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Region #6: Elves This region in particular has a curious intersection of influences on their beliefs in the supernatural. Part of this comes from their mixed fey-human heritage, which gives them much easier access to magic than humans but much more limited abilities than fey; part of this comes from their longer lifespans, which allow them to see the ebb and flow of Fate and Chance in the world more clearly; and part of it comes from their cultural relationship to their heritage - which is to say, a heavy rejection of humanity and fey both. 

I have stated previously that amongst elves, magic is viewed like any other tool: useful in the right hands, but dangerous if used improperly. Those who practice magic are often not fully trusted by others; however, it is also a skill that can be mastered, and a masterful practitioner can gain a great deal of respect from other elves as well. Not all elves are capable of performing magic equally; those elves who have more fey in their bloodlines tend to have more powerful magic.

Unlike humans, elves are capable of casting magic directly - and thus do not rely on indirect tools like plants and stones, but can do much more creative and flexible work when given reason. The source through which they access magic is through the strength of their emotions and intuition; many have also learned methods to increase their abilities by meditating or performing other rituals on stone outcroppings (either natural or built specifically for this purpose). These rituals are not religious, but practical only.

Elves do not practice any religion, and in fact tend to actively reject the notion of it. They prefer to take matters into their own hands; part of their emphasis on creating skilled individuals comes from actively leaning into chance and the possibility that any given person might have a chance to change things and to defy fate (which they see most often as cruel, if necessary - another piece of baggage from their rejection of both fey and humans). One role that elves have which neither humans nor fey do is that of prophet: those who hone their skills towards predicting the ebb and flow of fate and writing down prophecies of what is to come. Some do this through skill, and others through magic; in either case, this skill is highly valued amongst elves, as is the foresight that it brings.

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Region #2: Seelie Fey Last, but not least: the interaction between fey culture and the supernatural. This one is interesting because fey are, to the other inhabitants of this world, one of the supernatural elements in it; and some of the below deals not with just how fey view the world, but also how they respond to how the world views them.

Fey, as stated before, have an intimate relationship with magic: they live and breathe it, and rely on consuming magical energy in place of food and other forms of sustenance. They can cast magic on a whim - often literally - which is drawn from impulse and deep emotions. There are no rules when it comes to casting magic, nor customs: fey do whatever they please, much in the same way that any person in the real world has a particular laugh or a walk unique to them - the variations are as many as there are individual fey. 

Seelie Fey, because they consider themselves caretakers of the world, tend to use their magic in ways that they see as beneficial to both the world (and the current flow of fate) and to the things living in it. This may take forms that seem odd to us: for example, mesmerizing a deer so that the wolf hunting it can nab it without chase - and return later to feed it to her cubs. Seelie Fey also often try to work beneficial magic for humans (and, at times, elves - though they encounter them less often and this is generally much subtler), particularly those in Region #3 - though this is, of course, much easier when they are moved to do so out of pity for the humans’s situation. Of course, this beneficial magic takes the form of what the fey feel will be beneficial - whether asked for or not, and whether they understand the situation or not. Many mishaps come from this kind of misunderstanding, and it is the source of many of the conflicts that arise between fey and other beings.

Seelie Fey do not have religion, nor enduring traditions surrounding magic, because of their highly individual nature. Many dislike the way that Unseelie Fey practice magic, this does not develop into codified practices or dogma. There are no other supernatural beings, and they do not believe in any; Fey, Seelie or not, are the the group that sees the world most accurately for what it is, because of the way their nature is intrinsically tied to it. 

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Because of the nature of this world, practices around the supernatural are highly variable even within regions; and, all in all, tend to be very simple with few concrete rules. This also comes from the complexity of the societies it is drawn from: because these societies tend to be simpler and smaller-scale, so do their supernatural practices. 

Intro This will cover designing cultures from at least one group of all three species in this world: fey, humans, and elves. Because we’re starting to go into more detail I’m having to narrow the focus; just like we went from one world to an entire continent, I’m now going from one continent to one region within that continent. It will be the southern third, as seen below.

Due to space I can only go into brief detail with each of these. In further tutorials I will narrows the focus even more to just a couple; but it’s important to flesh all of these out with the basics so that there’s a sense of the context that the detail of individual cultures can exist in.

Region #1: Fey

The northern half of the moors here are home to a type of fey that would be classified as “unseelie” fey. Culturally, fey are very individual; day-to-day life is not governed by laws, but rather the feelings and whims of individual fey. “Unseelie” fey tend to manifest this in a way that emphasizes competition, and competition that tends to turn nasty at that: tricks, pranks, sabotage, and bloodshed, all for the cause of outcompeting your opponents and leaving them scrambling in the dust. For these fey, the wiliest ones live the longest, and thus as a whole being cunning and devious is valued - and coveted - highly. Long-lasting bonds are more often made out of jealousy or mutual hatred than out of friendship, and enemies are generally much easier to come by than friends amongst the unseelie. As a whole they also have a long-standing hatred of the seelie fey to the south, and have been known to temporarily join forces to pull some kind of ill-willed “prank” on their neighbors.

Due to the nature of the moors upon which they live, these fey tend to favor misdirection and hidden things over brute force. The moors are full of plants that cause visions, sleep, and loss of sense of time; gates and thresholds that lead to feyspaces; and a lot of fossils, which among other things are going to give off a lot of memories. It’s a much better use of magic to be clever with these elements and use them to turn your opponents upside-down than to blast them to smithereens - and a use that requires more cunning - so that is what the unseelie here do. They hoard stones from which to “feed” off of the magic they give, and around these hoards craft a safe place they can also use to sleep (often filled with traps for possible invaders); the stones they generally prefer are fossils, because they feed on the memories left there too.

Region #2: Fey

The southern half of the moors are populated with a kind of fey classified as “seelie”. Like the unseelie fey (and indeed all fey), seelie fey are highly individual and don’t live their day-to-day life following particular laws or codes - just whim. Unlike unseelie fey they don’t have a strident sense of competition and indeed much more inclined to benevolence; they see themselves as caretakers of the world and its creatures. This is not to say that they have no conflicts - quite the opposite, as any two entities with good intentions can still get in one anothers’ way. There are an assortment of rivalries that have developed over time, but they tend to be tamer and centered around pranks with little intent of causing actual lasting damage or harm. They certainly do cooperate as well; some have hidey-holes like the unseelie in the northern marsh (but they aren’t as heavily trapped), but others will line communal areas with rocks to serve as a place to rest and rejuvenate for any who pass through. These areas are the inspiration for the stone labyrinths and circles that are built by non-fey (more on that later).

Fey in this region prefer to feed off of more normal gemstones rather than fossils - they find that the memories contained in the fossils tend to impact them in unpleasant ways and come with a lot of “baggage” that other stones don’t have. Their interaction with the landscape is also different, though just like the unseelie they also live on the misty moors; rather than using it primarily as a tool to undermine others, they simply use it as a way to control their own space. If there’s something they don’t want to interact with, they simply slip away. If there’s something they want to watch without being seeing, they use the mists to do so. Sometimes they will harvest some of the herbs there to exchange with humans for unusual gemstones; sometimes they will allow humans to do the harvesting themselves, if they have a particular tolerance or like of a particular person. 

Region #3: Humans

The humans who live in this region are generally farmers and herders. They tend towards hardy stock in both cases - goats and sheep for livestock, and hardy root vegetables and grains. Oxen mostly exist as draft animals, and keeping horses or poultry is unheard-of. Most of the rhythms of the year are ones determined by the crops and harvest, as well as the harsh winter storms and long days and nights near the solstices. There is very little time for leisure; what time isn’t spent planting, harvesting, and preserving is spent repairing tools and building houses or sheds or fences (if you are a man), or spinning yarn and making clothing (if you are a woman). Leisure tends to look like evening gatherings in a communal barn with plenty of ale and a big fire.

The community structure generally looks like lots of independent villages. There are no large cities, nor any capitals; individual villages may be friendly with each other, but rarely do they share any kind of official alliance or common governance. Generally there is a particular man with the community’s respect who becomes head of the village; if he is suddenly incapacitated, his wife is allowed to take over for him until a suitable replacement is found. Some villages also deviate from this structure - this is just the most common format. 

Region #4: Humans

Crops do not grow particularly well in this region, especially the southern and coastal areas. Instead, this region is much more reliant on fishing and hunting in the ocean for resources. Some livestock - mostly heavier yak-like creatures that can withstand the cold - are kept as well as a supply of hide, milk, and meat. The fluctuation of day and night is even more stark here than in Region 3, and the weather harsher; some times of year are too stormy to be outside, especially in a fishing canoe, and people mostly keep to themselves inside. These elements are somewhat less severe on the eastern side of the region, where there is instead a greater reliance on gathering as well as woodcutting (most of which is used as fuel, for boats, or else traded north in exchange for food). 

As with Region 3, the community structure is as a number of small, unaffiliated villages without any kind of overhead government. Individual villages themselves are generally ruled by a small council of the village’s eldest men. Division of labor tends to fall in favor of men doing the fishing-related tasks and women doing the herding-related tasks, with both helping to strip carcasses and preserve the meat and other resources. The elder women are in charge of care taking of children and domestic activities. Leisure is taken during longer periods of heavy storms, mostly in the form of crafting competitions or storytelling.

Region #5: Fey

Even though the Feywood is several distinct pieces environmentally speaking, it’s one single region culturally speaking. Here the fey aren’t divided into seelie/unseelie; they are neither particularly benevolent nor terribly malicious - just prone to mischief, especially on wanderers-in to their woods but on one another. They also take great delight in taking the forms of animals (if they are able to do such things) and confusing the animals as well. The Feywood is also distinct in that space and time do not always work in a linear or steady fashion, and the wood is constantly phasing in or out of the fey realm to some degree. This is no issue for the fey, for whom the woods and the realm are sometimes one and the same, but poses problems for other beings. 

These fey are more prone to the antics of classic woods fey - which is to say, lots of parties and lots of indulging in various pleasures. These are the kind of fey who will seduce you one way or another and keep you there for a hundred years while you don’t age a day. They are very individual as with all other fey, and hold no particular cultural roles depending on age and sex and so on - except for the queen and king and their ladies and lords. These are not titles based on sex - you could have a male queen or a third/other gendered king - but more like roles that are filled. They have more to do with dealing with mortals than they have to do with internal fey politicking - sort of more like diplomats. Respected, but not bound to by the other fey of the feywood.

Region #6: Elves

The elves of this region are outcast from all the other regions, and very closed-off in turn. Trespassing humans are often killed; trespassing fey are usually not greeted quite as harshly, but usually there are an assortment of wards erected to keep them out in the first place. The landscape is very cold and very harsh; almost all food comes from hunting, especially larger mammals like walrus and whale, but also caribou and regular fish. Houses are usually half tunneled into the icy ground (using magic), and half built up from found stones or snow and ice. There is very little difference in gender role between men and women; usually it is only relevant in courtship, and even then only in the nuance of give-and-take. 

There is a hierarchy amongst the elves that is based primarily on age and secondarily on ability to perform - usually magical feats, but great hunters or fishers can also rise to high social standing. Magic is treated much like any other tool - useful, but potentially deadly when used wrong and to be treated with caution. Magical things and people who use them are often treated with a certain level of suspicion and never fully trusted by the rest of the community. 

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DJ Sports World A (2017)

Introduction This world is going to have three species: humans, elves, and fey. To begin, the map as we last saw it, and a list of which territories are which: 

Humans: 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14. Elves: 6, 8. Fey: 1, 2, 5A, 5B, 5C, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14.

Humans Humans in this world are going to be essentially the same as humans in the real world. This is a very intentional choice; generally, when writing something for a world, you don’t want to take something from the real world and change what it means. If I were to make a species called “humans”, except they all had prehensile tails and hooves and green hair, why am I calling them humans? Better to stick to a frame of reference that someone viewing your world will understand.

The couple notes I need to make about humans as a species are in relation to forces that don’t exist in our world - that is to say, magic. Humans in this world have a fairly low propensity for magic. They can do it to some degree, but only with a lot of training and only at a very low efficiency. The best you could really hope for is about as powerful as a hedgewitch, which is about right since most of the magic done by humans is very ingredients-based anyway. 

Secondly, there are a couple of tweaks I need to make to human physiology based on the presence of magic in this world. When talking about the environment, I said that because of trophic levels, creatures lower on the food chain would have much higher magical abilities, and creatures higher on the food chain would have less but also have developed extra physical abilities in order to compete with magical creatures. This means that humans are going to be slightly tougher and stronger than they are in the real world. Not significantly so, and not at all outside the range of what we might be able to expect out of someone who spends their life building strength; but that the average person will have the same degree of strength and toughness that someone who does train regularly might have, without having to actually do so.

Fey Physiologically, fey are very different from humans. Previously, I mentioned that they don’t need to eat and sleep the way that humans do. Instead, they get their sustenance by consuming magical energy directly, and can thus feed directly from even the rocks of this world if they wish. Their ability to sustain themselves comes from a constant exposure to magic: it’s less that they feed by putting things in their mouths and chewing, and more that they’re constantly processing energy taken in much the way that plants process sunlight. This in mind, were fey ever to wander into a very low-magic area, they would weaken and die very quickly. More quickly than humans would starve to death - about three to five days or so, and thus more along the lines of how quickly a human would die of thirst. Fey also do not need to sleep or breathe the way that we do. They can enter a waking dreamlike state in order to do all the things that dreaming does for the brain, but only need to from time to time (once a week or so). 

Fey also live forever. They are not truly immortal, in that they can still be killed through injury or starvation or sickness; but assuming that none of these occur, a fey does not have a natural end to its lifespan, and does not age physically. This means that reproduction is very difficult, and never happens by accident; any attempt to reproduce takes a great deal of effort and intent on the part of the fey involved. How fey reproduce is fairly nonstandard; there aren’t necessarily just male and female fey, and you don’t necessarily need to have multiple fey involved to make offspring happen. It’s almost more a huge investment of magical energy and time and emotion, and less a physical act (though it can be that as well - and many fey will engage in physical acts for the pleasure from it, even if it doesn’t result in offspring). Because of the difficulty of making children, children are considered very important by the fey and cherished deeply; and fey will sometimes kidnap human children as well if they are unable to make a child on their own. 

Fey’s lifespan also impacts how they think. They have a very short attention span, and most of their memory is very short-term. Their long term memory is made up not of actual memories that they can recall for the most part, but rather emotional imprints from important memories that incorporate into fey folk’s generally intuitive decision-making process. Fey tend to do things for reasons that even they don’t understand, and among the many reasons for this is this emotional imprint that is their form of past memories and experiences. Older fey are more powerful because they have deeper emotional imprints, and thus a greater capacity to cast strong magic. 

Lastly, notes on magic. Fey are of course able to sense magic - strength, type, and source - since it is their source of nourishment. The form that a fey’s magic takes varies greatly and can change as a fey’s emotional imprints and to some extent environment change, so their senses and other aspects of their perception and thought process are widely variable and can shift as they do. 

Elves In this setting, elves are the offspring of humans and fey. This includes not just half-and-half but one quarter/three quarters etc - so long as traits of both species manifest, you are considered an elf. Many hypothetical generations down the line someone may be considered human or fey again, but this is very rare due to cultural reasons which will show up later.

The traits that elves take from humans include their rough size and shape, their unchanging form, and their general cognitive abilities. However they are, in terms of strength, agility, and other physical abilities, they are about on par with real-world humans. From fey, they take the ability to do true magic and a much longer lifespan - 700 years or so at the very oldest. Thus their niche exists not in being very good at one thing but in being versatile. 

Elves also take more subtle traits from their forebearers, which make them in many ways alien to either group. To humans, elves seem intensely connected to nature; possessing of extraordinarily deep emotions; mysterious, unfathomable, and timeless; and fragile. To fey, elves seem slow to change; more like children than mature beings in their own right; and in many ways naive and slow to perceive their world.