I had a six-hour long drive today (I went from Sault Ste. Marie to Bracebridge) so I had a good long time to think about what I wanted to do with all of this.
I've always been a very creative guy and a good writer. I want to write some short stories about the people in this fictional world. The series of stories would be set in different periods of time, starting in the late neolithic to early early bronze age (think Sumer or Catal Huyuk) and eventually to a period equivalent to around 100 years in the future. (I decided the world will end in some horrible cataclysm.
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The stories will be take place in the point of view of an ordinary person, who witnesses world-changing events. That way we see these events from their own eyes.
Here's some of the basic ideas I figured out:
The Merchant: A late neolithic/early bronze age city - the only city in the world, as far as its inhabitants are aware - has thrived on the banks of a river for centuries. But their Sun God is angry (not really, but they think it is) and a heat wave leads to a drought, which gradually dries up the river. Crops are failing due to increased desertification. An old merchant/trader sees how this is causing the end of their way of life. His large family (families were large back then as children were produced as a source of labour) is split on what to do. Some want to stay, some want to leave and start again. There are two groups of people who are leaving, heading in opposite directions. The merchant, being too old to join either exodus, stays in the dying city.
The Priest: Set about 400 years after the exodus. Both groups of people have settles down and built new cities. One found a nice, fertile land while the other was less fortunate, finding land that was less plentiful. Neither has heard from the other since they originally split. The story of the angry Sun God and the two exoduses from the dying city has entered into mythology and oral tradition. There's a priest from the more successful city who preaches about making sure the Sun God is happy or it will once again destroy their way of life. Eventually, they make contact with each other. The lesser city becomes jealous of the better city’s success, and there’s a war. I haven’t decided who will win yet.
The next story will talk about how the victorious city-state has conquered the other, and formed the first nation-state (think Mesopotamia).
The Fisherman: Seen from the p.o.v. of a fisherman on a large fishing boat. Set around 1200-1400 AD equivalent. Is fishing off the coast of the northern continent (I'll upload a pic in a second) but gets lost in a storm. They end up lost and starving (there are many deaths of the crew) but eventually they discover the New World. (I'm going to make this one different than what happened on Earth. There will actually be a civilization of equivalent technology in the New World.
The Doctor: Set equivalent to around 1800-1900. The southernmost continent (see the pic I’ll upload in a sec) is populated by primitive people. They reject the rapid industrialization that we see on the other continents. They’re that way because of their conservative culture. They think that modernizing will destroy their way of life. These people are also very environmentalist: they don’t pollute, they re-use old things and they do their best to minimize waste. The continent’s 61 tribes are unified under a “Tribal Federation”. All of a sudden there’s an epidemic. The doctors of this federation are helpless to stop the spread of the disease. There’s a big debate on whether to allow foreign doctors, with their corrupt ways, to enter the country, but they do allow one in (Think Norman Bethune visiting China). He begins a vaccination campaign and eventually stops the spread of the disease. The good that the doctor does convinces the leaders of the tribal federation that perhaps modernization isn’t entirely bad, after all.
Epilogue: A few hundred years later (around 2100 equivalent) there’s a nuclear war that kills everyone except those on this southern continent. In the meantime, they’ve embraced modernization and technology while sticking to their pacifist, environmentally-friendly culture.
Here is the map so far:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n227/emistal/mapjpeg.jpghttp://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n227/emistal/mapjpeg-1.jpg
I want to make physical and political maps of this world.
Thanks for the help and input!
