On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Science Fiction

Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

I think that the number of deaths from the Black Death (mid-14th Century) can give a pretty good idea:

Black Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

75 million deaths worldwide, and between a third and two-thirds of Europe's population.


In particular, this paragraph is a big help:

In Italy, Florence's population passed from 110,000 or 120,000 inhabitants in 1338 to 50,000 in 1351. Between 60 to 70% of Hamburg and Bremen's population died. In Provence, Dauphiné or Normandy, historians observe a decrease of 60% of fiscal hearths. In some regions, two thirds of the population was annihilated. In the town of Givry, in the Bourgogne region in France, the friar, who used to note 28 to 29 funerals a year, recorded 649 deaths in 1348, half of them in September. About half of Perpignan's population died in several months (only two of the eight physicians survived the plague). England lost 70% of its population, which passed from 7 million to 2 million in 1400.[13]
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Note the fall of Florence's population from 120,000 to 50,000 - shows just how small the big cities were in those days.

And, of course, there's the figure at the end of the paragraph - England's population fell from 7 million to 2 million.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Cities

Avignon -- 30,000

Genoa -- 100,000

Venice -- 100,000

Ghent -- 50,000

Cologne -- 30,000

London -- 40,000

Paris -- 200,000 (!!)

Population density could be quite cramped. Genoa had over 250 inhabitants to the acre, lodged in multi-storied houses. Paris was better -- only about 130 people per acre.

Noting the discrepency between Lenny's wikipedia article and my book by Delort, obviously different sources give different figures for these things, but at least you now have a general idea.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

It's Wikipedia - what more can you expect? :p

But yeah, at least Cul has a general idea, now.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Just started reading 'The Writers Complete Fantasy Reference', found it very useful when developing my world - it made me think about the little things I had missed.

Discovered this book as a recommended read in an article on worldbuilding. Just search on Google for 'Worldbuilding' and there are several good articles available.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Yeah, I've come across that book, Laerten. And many thanks, Teresa and Lenny!
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

just a general question

where should world building go during the writing process

before or after character fleshing
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Methinks that World Building is one of these things that can go anywhere.

Some people will sit down and create a whole world before starting on the story. Others will do it as they go through the story. And a few may even build the world in its entirety once they've finished their story.

I dived (or is it "dove"? Sounds like it's the past tense of "dive". Much nicer worded than "dived", at any rate) straight into the story, and stopped a bit later to start building the world it was on - before I started, though, I did have a general idea of the setting. Nothing too detailed, though. Just a couple of nams.

Completely up to you how and when you do it.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

made a template for world building concerning physical environment and things but i think this type of template would be concerned with mostly SF world because some of it is quite technical anyway wat you think?

Template world building

Constellation:
Galaxy:
Star:
Star classification:
Planetary system present:
Terrestrial planets:
Gas giants:
Terrestrial dwarf planets:
Ice dwarf planets:
Asteroids:
Meteoroids:
Cosmic dust:

Planet name:
Moons:
A planetary year in earth days:
Equatorial radius:
Polar radius:
Oblateness:
Surface area:
Volume:
Mass:
Density:
Equatorial surface gravity:
Escape velocity:
Planetary day in earth hours:
Albedo:
Mean temperature in degrees Celsius:
Atmospheric pressure at surface:
Atmospheric composition:

Geology detail:


Hydrology detail:


Geography detail:


Atmosphere detail:


Climate detail:


Orbit and rotation detail:


Moon detail:


Inhabitability detail:


Exploration detail:


 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

am said:
made a template for world building concerning physical environment and things but i think this type of template would be concerned with mostly SF world because some of it is quite technical anyway wat you think?
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I'll use it!

Knock out some of the more technical fields and you've also got a template for a simple fantasy world, too.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

hey if i have a world that i'd like people to review should i post it here or in critiques

working on one now: Cairu for like a SF story
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

I don't see why you shouldn't post it in Critiques - after all, it's something that you've been working on and you want it reviewing.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Looks good to me Asher. Perhaps some atmospheric or climate details/geographic details,like
Hadley cells,
major gases in the atmosphere
presence/absence of ice caps*hydroology*
or magnetohydrodynamics:
presence of absence of v.Allen belt
orography
geological:
presence/absence of plate tectonics
oceanography:
major current systems,for heat transport/thermohaline circulation
just some thoughts,hope you can use some of it
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Okay, here's a question. And please feel free to speak to me like a five year old in explaining why I've got this totally backwards, if I have - which seems likely.

In my current work, I've proposed a calendar year of eleven months, and a seasonal year of sixteen months. That is, each season lasts four months, as opposed to three, and they aren't tied to months as they are here. I've called this sixteen-month period a harvest year in my world. Is this feasible? My (admittedly rudimentary) understanding is that the length of a year is tied to a planet's orbit, and the seasons to its axial tilt. What am I missing? I'm sure it can't be that simple... And thanks in advance.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Why would your calendar year be a different length from your seasonal year?

Calendar years originated from the seasons - that's what they're all about.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Well, that's kind of the point, that knowledge has progressed from marking a year by simple seaonal events, to the discovery that the calendar year - perhaps astronomical year is a more apt phrase, in as much as it's the period in which the planet takes to make one complete orbit of the sun - doesn't correspond to this. That's what I want to know - is that even possible?

It is fantasy, so I'm not going to obsess over it if it's wrong. Just curiosity, really.
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

I don't see why it's 'bad' - an eleven month calendar and a sixteen month year. You could probably get away with saying, oh, I don't know, that the moon of the world orbits the world and gets back to that position every eleven months.

Your world, your rules. :p
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

It wouldn't work - a year is the time taken for a planet to circle about its sun. During that period, axial tilt determines the seasons. One is a function of the other.

The only way you could possibly get away with it is by having more than one sun, or having the world as a moon of a gas giant - sort of a year and a Great Year. See the Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss, the Starbridge Chronicles by Paul Park, or Planet of Exile by Ursula Le Guin...
 
Re: On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

Culhwch said:
Well, that's kind of the point, that knowledge has progressed from marking a year by simple seaonal events, to the discovery that the calendar year - perhaps astronomical year is a more apt phrase, in as much as it's the period in which the planet takes to make one complete orbit of the sun - doesn't correspond to this. That's what I want to know - is that even possible?
Click to expand...

You are probably under the same misunderstanding that I was for most of my childhood. (All the blame falls on my fifth-grade science teacher, Mrs. Reed, who also vocally disbelieved in evolution.) Perhaps you, like me, were told that we have seasons because the earth "tilts" on its axis. This is very misleading.

The tilt of the earth is constant. The angle at which sunlight hits the earth, and thus the seasons, are directly related to where the earth is in its trip around the sun. (Hard to explain without an orange and a flashlight.) Right now, for example, its summer in the northern hemisphere, because the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun. Six months from now, the earth will have made its trip half way around the sun, and the southern hemisphere will be tilted toward the sun. Note that the axial tilt of the earth hasn't changed.

You can make the length of your fictional planet's year as long as short as you want. But the seasons would have to be directly related to this.
 
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