Diversity in World Building

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

It is a better use, yes...


I actually have nothing against magic. For a long time I was always heavy in the support for magic against science, and in some ways I still am-for instance, I am not of much patience for alien sci fi. But, over the years, and a lot of it attributed to being a member of the site here, I have mellowed a bit in my stances, and realized that it really isn't best to wave a wand and set your problems on fire.


But using magic even in such a way as this, does again simply sound like taking the easy road. There shouldn't be need to have to Jordan in details of each particular race; this is where geography and reflections of our own world will come in at. Readers will think the world there evolved in a similar manner to ours, and leave it at that.

 

[Mirannan]

Evolution could easily have gone in a slightly different direction from the path on the real Earth, and for logical reasons. Example: It is widely held that the differences in skin colour among humans across Earth is an adaptation to levels of sunlight. (Worth mentioning that ark skin probably came first!)

On Earth, this meant that (in general) people living in Northern climes with generally less sunlight (and also lower UV levels because the light comes in at an angle) have lighter skin. Now imagine a different situation.

On Planet Olympus, the air is thicker on average than on Earth and the average temperature is higher. This means that the lowland regions strongly tend to cloudy, gloomy weather - and even when it's not cloudy the sunlight is low in UV. The highland regions (and there are more of them than on Earth) run to dry, thin air and strong sunlight; think of conditions similar to the Alps in summer as an average, perhaps.

Which means that the highland people have bigger chests, more red blood cells and darker skin than the lowlanders. Each set of people has disadvantages in the territory of the other. (There are many possibilities for this - exercise for the reader!) It's also fairly likely that on Olympus the light-skinned peoples have a more primitive society than the highlanders, for similar reasons to dwellers in tropical jungles on Earth having less technology than Northerners.

 

[The Storyteller]

Karn, thanks for the additional feedback. I feel pretty strongly about what I have in my mind, but I probably haven't explained it very well. And, even though I feel strongly about it, sometimes our favourite ideas are the ones that weaken our stories the most. For now, I will run with what I have, but I'll keep a close eye on it; if it is taking away from the story or getting pointed out a lot by people editing it, etc., then I will revise my thoughts!


Thank you Mirannan for the feedback and example. I am sure there are a number of ways I could create the world to allow for different races, and I liked seeing it written out in a specific scenario. Thanks for taking the time to reply!

 

[JonH]

The fantasy write Brandon Sanderson has a rule about magic. He says if you don't explain it, you can use it for awe and mystery, but you can't use it to resolve plot points. If you explain it you lose the mystery, but you can use it to resolve elements in the plot. If you use unexplained magic to get around problems, it's the fantasy equivalent of a deus ex machina.

It sounds like you are aiming at the awe and wonder end with your "inexplicable and immense", so by all means use it in the world building, but the suggestion would be to never use your magic to save the day.

 

[Mirannan]

Karn, thanks for the additional feedback. I feel pretty strongly about what I have in my mind, but I probably haven't explained it very well. And, even though I feel strongly about it, sometimes our favourite ideas are the ones that weaken our stories the most. For now, I will run with what I have, but I'll keep a close eye on it; if it is taking away from the story or getting pointed out a lot by people editing it, etc., then I will revise my thoughts!


Thank you Mirannan for the feedback and example. I am sure there are a number of ways I could create the world to allow for different races, and I liked seeing it written out in a specific scenario. Thanks for taking the time to reply!

You're welcome. I chose that specific example because it turns the way that white supremacists think the world works on its head.

It might also be worthwhile to think about racial differentiation in the dominant species more extreme than that on Earth. After all, if one didn't know better one might think chihahuas (sp?) and Great Danes are different species. Why shouldn't H. sapiens spread out like that? As an aside, it's quite likely we will if we spread out into the Solar System; Martians might well look quite different from Earth-dwellers.

Larry Niven has greatly diversified human-derived peoples; for example, some have grown considerably larger and developed into herbivores and other races have developed to fill some of the ecological niches. (Carrion eaters, for example.) Some pairings are fertile and some are not.

Just as an example, my back-burner story has elves who are basically humans who have taken the tree-hugger lifestyle to an extreme (to the extent of developing chromatophores for camouflage) and dwarves specialised for digging, with heavy claws and toughened skin among other adaptations.

 

[The Storyteller]

JonH- Ironically, I think I will manage both of these at once, in a sense! The raw forces of magic in the world will be mysterious and unexplained; these will shape the world in huge ways, but will not solve conflicts (though they might occasionally create conflict!). However, the ability to harness magic and cast it in the form of spells is explained carefully and will be understood by the reader, and this ability to use magic will be part of what is used to solve conflicts, and, additionally, to create conflicts depending on who is using the magic! Great point, thanks for mentioning it!


Mirannan- I was actually planning that the races would have greater differences than IRL, though they will all still be considered 'human'. There is a huge height difference between the shortest of the races and the tallest of the races, as well as extreme differences if body build, agility, facial shapes, hair/eye/skin colours, etc. There is no suggestion that these are different species, they are all considered to be different races of humans.


Thanks again for the ideas and feedback! Always appreciated.