A Continent Under Construction

[Scrasamax]

Aleanaugh

Themes and Images: Aleanaugh is ekistically similar to England and the history of the British isles. There are currently four ethnicities in Aleanaugh, each in conflict with the others for domination of 'empire' and control of both the future and the past. Magic is all but gone, crushed under the relentless tread of mundane progress and steel weapons.

Worlds Specs: Earth Standard, Aleanaugh is located in the northern hemisphere, most of the dwarf continent lies within the temperate region while a small portion rests above the actic circle.

Terrain: Aleanaugh consists of three principle biomes:
Croaldir - Northern biome, characterized by long winters and higher average elevation. While mountainous and cold, the biome is rich with both mineral resources and timber, but abundant supplies of wild game and fish. 70,000 km2
Kynnaugh - Central Biome, bordered by massive bays/inland seas to the east and west, and the landlocked Hinaddel Sea to the south, this biome is mild in climate, has large open plains, but is minerally deficient, and has no significant mountain ranges. 50,000 km2
Aenworne - Southern biome, marked by the shortest winters and relatively long summers punctuated with frequent and heavy rainfall. Largest of the three biomes. 90,000 km2
Hinaddel Sea - a landlocked sea between Kynnaugh and Aenworne, the Hinaddel Sea is the largest body of water within Aleanaugh. It is a relatively shallow sea averaging only 90 feet deep. 12,000 km2

Flora/Fauna: Standard medieval Europe fare, emphasis on evergreens in the north and deciduous oaks, elm, ash and rowan in the central and south. Willow and cypress present in south exclusively. Sheep are predominant over cattle with swine and domesticate elk being runners up. Predators are commonly wolves, bears, and the like.

Resources
Arable Land: Kynnaugh has the largest amount of arable land, with only moderate forests and no badlands or significant mountain ranges. Aenworne also has large amounts of arable land, but has a large amount of rough terrain so falls short of Kynnaugh. Croaldir has the least amount of arable land and the most mountains.
Game: Evenly distributed, but Kynnaugh has more accessable coastline, providing greater abundance of fish and sea goods.
Timber: Croaldir and Aenworne both had substancial forests, while Kynnaugh has only light to moderate forests.
Gold: Croaldir has the greatest abundance of gold available, while Kynnaugh has almost none to speak of. Aenworne has moderate amounts but no significant concentrations.
Stone: As with gold.

Races and Peoples:

The Croaldrim

Currently the dominant culture in Aleanaugh, the Croaldrim are an aggressive and industrious people much akin to the Slavic and Nordic peoples. They are prolific castle builders and their military is built around infantry. The Croasel are an unrecognized sub-group, consisting of Croaldrim born and raised in Kynnaugh rather than Croaldir. As the heart of the 'Empire' the Croasel are generally better educated than native Croaldirim, but have less of a fighting spirit. A typical Croaldrim warrior has a war axe, round shield, and thick cuirasse or breastplate.

The Noavdyn

All but a memory, the Noavdyn were the original inhabitants of Aleanaugh, and most of the -augh suffix names are their legacy. As a primitive barbarian people located in Kynnaugh, the Noavdyn were unprepared for the emergence of the Croaldrim and as such were either exterminated, forced to assimilate into the nascent Croasel folk, or become nomads wandering the fringes of the Sea of Hinaddel. They were most like the Celts or the Picts, albeit lacking a military culture. The strength of the Noavdyn rested in their clerics, whom the Croaldrim slew on sight.

The Loakril

Principally located in the south-east region of Aleanaugh, the Laokril are a fairly advanced culture that is well versed in building, mathematics, philosophy and the arts in general.

The Hoatu

The remnanats of the last ruling dynasty, the Hoatu are a horse-people who formerly administrated to an empire that ruled roughly 3/4ths of Aleanaugh. Their culture was centered around the warrior-poet, and the bow was the weapon of the ruling class. Their dominion came to an end some time back when a trans-species disease decimated their horse populations and they were unable to enforce their collective will, collect taxes or even maintain their current lifestyle. The decline of the Hoatu was the signal for the re-emergence of the Laokril, the Noavdyn, and the Croaldrim.

incomplete...
 

Descriptions, coloring, profiles, and modifications to any rule mechanics. This includes ethnic/ subtypes of peoples as well.
Cultural Overview: This is the culture in broad simple strokes. Major themes of the culture. Languages/ Morals/ Common Beliefs/ the Unknown/ Needs
Calendar/Standards: Weights, Distances, Measures.
Institutions-Major: Areas of control and Power. These should be the important groups for both the setting AND the adventuring characters.
Laws and Morals: Legal rules/ responses/ punishments/ and manners. Social and moral rules are often more strictly enforced than laws.
Family: Types/ Sizes/ Values
Social classes: Formal and Informal/ Birth and Earned.
Political Power: Institutions and groups of political/social power, control, and who enforces the control. The power structure of the area.
Economics: Money/ trade/ value/ subsistence/ working/ monopolies
Religion: Beliefs/ Organizations/ Groups
Technology and Common Power: (Using Clarke's law and that power is just a technology in many environments)

Military Weapons and Tactics
Industrial/ Production
Medical
Agricultural
Communication
Math and Science: Math Engineering, Algebra. These things are the foundation required for other cooler sciences and building projects. Many "primitive peoples" had more complicated math abilities than we have today.
Construction
Information: Writing/ Printing/ Processing. How does it get moved?
Other Knowledge:
Holidays: Historical, Cultural, Religious, Political
Transportation: Land/ Sea/ Air(?) and other
Arts/ Literature: Forms/ Usage/ Needs/ Ideals
Shadow: Criminals/ Assassins/ Deceit/ and those on the margins of society.
Power: Magic per type, Psionics, Other. Notes on users, attitudes towards it and practioners, and prejudices.
Paranormal: Weird beasties, supernatural entities, spirits, demons, Gods, the Unknown.
History Brief: Every world has two histories, the actual one and the one that people believe is true.
Rules: Special modifications in game system needed to accommodate the world. This could be a power system, special skills and races, and items.

[MoonHunter]

The worksheet makes sense to me. (Gee I wonder Why?) What sort of thing are you looking for assist on?

(and if you want, you can do the work in the scroll and keep editing it. Or the finished product (if you don't want to export it to the Citadel)... http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=3572  (Worksheet Settings)

[Scrasamax]

I like worksheets   

If anyone has ideas to fill in, I am certainly open to them. This will eventually be exported to the main citadel, but I'm not expecting it to be done anytime soon. It is based on a game of Age of Empires that I played the other day and the random generated terrain was just the bee's knees and inspired this. I played as the Croaldir (Goths) and the other three opponents were computers, I won by Castling, building castles at the chokepoints around the central region of the continen. I thought it was an interesting thing to follow up since the central region of the map had little non-strategic value; no gold deposits, no stone deposits and minimal lumber to harvest. It did have alot of room though. So, once the two castles were in place to hold back the surviving two computer players, I ended up building a second colony there based around agriculture and food production.

Once I had sufficient forces, garrisoned in the castles, i opted for mass attacks taking out the surviving computer players one by one. I thought of what this would look like in a text book or history, since the expansion of my main base, establishing the second, and eliminating the other three computer players took in game time in the vicinity of 600 to 800 years.

[MoonHunter]

Okay, so that can be adapted to a history of the place...

The question is, how "fantasy" is this fantasy world? If it is not very fantastic, then adapting things more or less from the 10-14th century in terms of technology, political structure, and so on can be adapted.

Is there magic? Or if there is magic, it would probably be of the minor magics variety. (In short, magicians do lots of work and effort, for only a little effect. Cantrips even.) A special effect or theme for the magic might round it out?  Psionics or mind magics might be applicable. However, no magic works for me.

Exotic biologies. Monsters or "excessively dangerous" creatures?  Extra Races? So what might be in the paranormal category?

Lastly, relgion. This needs to be addressed in some way. What do you see as the world's religion or religions (and how well do they play with each other?)

So give some directions and some "bits"/ key images, and lets see what comes up.

[Scrasamax]

The question is, how "fantasy" is this fantasy world? If it is not very fantastic, then adapting things more or less from the 10-14th century in terms of technology, political structure, and so on can be adapted.

Is there magic? Or if there is magic, it would probably be of the minor magics variety. (In short, magicians do lots of work and effort, for only a little effect. Cantrips even.) A special effect or theme for the magic might round it out?  Psionics or mind magics might be applicable. However, no magic works for me.

Exotic biologies. Monsters or "excessively dangerous" creatures?  Extra Races? So what might be in the paranormal category?

Lastly, relgion. This needs to be addressed in some way. What do you see as the world's religion or religions (and how well do they play with each other?)

Magic: at this point minimal, likely to be shamanistic and a relic of pre-feudal times.

Dangerous Creatures: wolves definately. Perhaps the dominant predator is a a dire wolf species rather than a sort of bear.

Races: human

Religion: I would go with racial/ethnic religion, and make it minor in consideration. Clerics are available in the game, but I did not make any specific use of them.

Bits/Key Images
Castles are a major image, both the levies of commoners employed in their construction and the armor clad warriors who launch attacks from them, and retreat back under their protective fire. Transportation is also a big thing, since only one of the five castles built was actually built near the source of the stone. The rest logically had to be built by a steady train of stone being moved across country.

[MoonHunter]

So Clerics are basically Non-Powered? The only "magic" they might have will actually be magic?

Religion is normally a major part of every culture (in the 20th Century we have substituted other belief sets that do not have "clerics" that manipulate people).

So each culture/ race will have its own religion? A fedual structure shows a degree of social organization. Religions for such a people would reflect that.

[Scrasamax]

Clerics, and Religion can play a role in determining the winner of the game (collect all five relics and hold them 200 years you win). I did not build a church or train any clerics, healing and such was done by garrisoning units inside the castles. I am not saying that Clerics do not have power, or that they do not have influence, i'm just saying that religion was not a motivating or decisive factor in the battles.

The game starts in the Dark Ages, and I progressed through to the castle age, but not into the Imperial Age, so war drove the advancement of Croaldir society, making me think them to be a warrior people, likely displaced by some natural phenomenon either bad winters, or very good summers leading to a population boom. The rest of the continent was unprepared for the warriors from the north and their prolific construction projects

[MoonHunter]

Scras, can you send me those notes please?