Snoink, you're a total genius! I heart you!
I've thought of most stuff, but not all.
Sex- out in the villages it can happen before marriage, but not in high society.
Marriage- for love. Arranged marriages are rare, but obviously parents like to try and make a good match.
Religion- you can take it or leave it. I was surprised as I was planning this out, I found that one of my characters was deeply Christian, the one I wouldn't expect to be. It's all the old religions from here left over, mostly Christianity, small pockets of Islam and Judaism. But really, it's secular. Most people don't believe in any of it, or if they do, they don't think that their god will help them now that they've split from the rest of the world. But coronations and royal events still take place in the cathedral, even if the royals are quite athiest.
Racism- there isn't really any. As Eternity was taken from Time at one moment, there happened to be a small colony of black people living in the north-west. The colony spread. So the majority are Caucasian, but there are black people too. No one really differentiates. The only thing that they take into account concerns not people, but merpeople. A lot of Eternans shun the pearlhunters, who wear blue ink tribal tattoos on their bodies. They're considered unworthy of respect, but pretty soon people begin to think otherwise.
Sexism- there is some, and it makes us all angry! Especially because the council thinks that women can't rule. However, at the same time, the two most powerful professions (ie. those who have direct access to time) are midwife and fortune teller, they bother belong to women. Outside of the palace, there isn't that much. It's only those snooty old men.
And... what other issues?
Oh, politics. It's not a democracy, unfortunately. But the royal family have supreme power and they are sensible people. But if a monarch is mad and they get shot then no one really gets blamed because they did the country a favour. But if the monarch wasn't mad... mercy help the person who shot them.
Society's Influences
44 posts in this topic.
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I really have to generalize with one part of my book's society, since there are so many little aspects of it. So to sum it up there is two societies:
1.) A Major City in America. There is nothing really to say about this as it's normal city life.
2.) Janvrin Manor - Yes, it is a world. Think Wonderland meets Neverland meets Narnia meets Middle Earth meets ?. With a dash of the House in Keys to the Kingdom thrown in.
There are many little societies within it, but the stuff that covers all of them is there is a main ruling family and that family changes every hundred years or so. There are three other families always competing to be the next ruling family by fighting and sometimes even killing potential King-to-be's. The rest of the society is separated into millions of classes depending on race (human, dwarf, elf etc) and morals. Like most "mystical" creatures follow one family while most of the humans follow another but then everyone evil follows (no matter what race) will follow another family and then most of the things that don't exactly talk (animals and plant-life) will follow another. Hence a lot of drama was caused a few years ago when the youngest son of the ruling family married the rebellious daughter of the evil family (which to be rebellious in an evil family just means she's a good ). Not to mention that if Ev's Brother doesn't decide to take the thrown soon one of the other families get it.
^That's basically the politics of my world when the main character enters it. And considering that the most I knew about my society before this was that there was possibly going to be a few ruling families and Ev's Brother needed to take the thrown... it's pretty good. -
My Story opens in Hawaii in the house of a Japanese family on December 7 1941 the problem is I don't know much about any of these cultures and I don't know where to look to find out or what to find out in the first place can someone please help me?
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Alright i learned a bit about my characters religion and i already know a little about society in the time period so here goes
They're Japanese Buddhists, the holidays they celebrate around the opening of the book is Bodhi day which is December 8 the day after the story opens it is a Buddhist celebration that celebrates the enlightening of Buddha. The services for this holiday vary amongst the Buddhist sects but they all commemorate Buddhas achievement of Nirvana. Some families chose celebrate the event with additional meditation, study of the Dharma, chanting of Buddhist texts (sutras), or performing kind acts towards other beings.
There's also new year, the Japanese and American new year take place on the same day though the Japanese new year is a much bigger deal it is usually celebrated form the first to the third they regard each year as separate and all tasks must be done by the end of the year they have bonekai parties to forget the old year.
My characters family is not very religious so they will celebrate both new year and Bodhi day but for Bodhi day they will probably just go to temple and maybe do some brief meditation.
Common activities at the time period were playing outside since there was so little technology and my character-Madalina also loves to paint. Since they live in Hawaii the food is very tropical with mangoes, lemons etc
I also know that at this time period it was not common for girls to work -this creates a small conflict at the beginning of the story- and they also did not play sports.
i think i covered most of it.....
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Most of what I write takes place in a very modern rather normal society so there isn't much to talk about there.
However, I like to keep things very knit down to just an elite group of characters with common morals.
Generally Speaking:
As far as the law comes: Avoid it at all costs. The less trouble, the better. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, you never snitch, you never squeal (haha, snoik, squeal, pigs, get it), and you never let anyone take the fall for you.
Sex: Most of my characters would through in a "Yes please here." Still, its a take what you can get society but you never touch another friends girl or well, another friend if she happens to be a girl, not unless she touches you first.
Violence: If you have to fight, then you have to fight. You keep your dignity and you stand up for yourself.
Drugs: No matter how much of a BAMF you are, drugs are out of the question. Its just a big NO. Crack is Wack, and I don't mean plumbers crack.
Alchohol: If your drunk, you make sure you don't puke on your best friends shoes and you hold your best friends hair back when they blow chunks. And you sure as anything don't rat our your buyer.
Tobacco: Again, its your own life, live it the way you want. You'll be forced to deal with the consquences eventually.
Religion: Most of my characters, in fact I think all, lack religion, mostly for the fact that they've been betrayed or just lost faith in some way. Or just were never exposed to it to begin with. Still, you don't dump on someone for they're beliefs if they have any. -
Am I allowed to say "I stole a metric ton of haphazard information from immediately pre-revolutionary France, downgraded the technology by a couple centuries, and added magic as well as a bunch of implausible made up cultural icons?"
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Yes! I've been needing something like this.
The overarching society in the story is the "Coalition of Worlds", an alliance of worlds populated by humans and a few species of aliens (think the UFP in Star Trek, only somewhat smaller). Its culture is cosmpolitan, its politics democratic. All races, sexes, species are equal in the Coalition.
However, the main action of the story takes place on the planet "Aeta", a "lost planet" (meaning that it was settled centuries ago by humans sent from Earth on slower-than-light craft; the Coalition now has faster than light travel so is rediscovering these "lost" societies of humans who've evolved culturally without any Coalition influence).
Most of the action, furthermore, takes place in and around Aeta's capital city of Theratolia, a city situated on a Nile-like river in the large desert covering much of the western portion of Aeta's largest continent. Culturally, it's like a blend of Istanbul (or Byzantium or Constantinople, whatever you want to call it) and Timbuktu. A very large, metropolitan, diverse place.
Race--Aeta is not generic white fantasyland. There are white people, and most of them stand at the apex of society, as nobles (more on that later). However, most people in Aeta are of diverse ethnic groups reminiscent of the ethnicities on Earth. Most people around Theratolia are fairly dark-skinned (ranging from Southeast Asian in coloration to Indian); these are referred to as "Mainlanders". Other ethnic groups included the bedouin-like nomads in the desert, called Wanderers, and a warlike, Sikh-ish group from the south, and dark-skinned (like, African in tone) from the continent just south of the main one.
Class--Aeta is dominated by the nobles, who are mostly light-skinned, though race doesn't have a factor so much as wealth and family prestige (so there are dark nobles, like Lord Masudo). The vast majority of nobles in Aeta are magicians (more on that later). The Theratolian nobles live in a sequestered compound in the heart of the city, all broad boulevards and beautiful manors. Though small in number, Aeta's nobles wield a vast amount of power. Theratolia is ruled by a governing board of nobles up for election (by fellow nobles) every six years.
Gender relations--Aeta has fairly backwards views on women. They're viewed as the weaker sex, and in some cultures (such as the Wanderers) are seen as little more than chattel. It's a little better in Theratolia, but even then most girls have arranged marriages and are taught from their youth to obey their male relatives. Once a girl marries, she is the property of her husband.
Sex and Marriage--women are the property of their husbands, as said before. Marriages are arranged, especially in noble families (to maximize prestige). Most Aetans marry relatively young, at sixteen or seventeen or so, though most nobles marry around twenty. Premarital sex is frowned on, but quietly tolerated in noble circles. It's more tolerated with young men than young women, though; same as the double standard in our culture. Neeldess to say, the society is utterly intolerant of homosexuality, though oddly enough the Wanderers don't mind it as severely as the Theratolians.
Magic--on Aeta, people can perform magic (due to the unique properties of the planet...or something). It's purely genetic. Most nobles are mages, but not all mages are nobles. There are four main kinds of magic--battle magic, healing magic, divination magic, and time magic, though other (unimportant) side branches exist. Battle mages are traditionally male and the first sons of nobles, healing mages are traditionally female, divination magic is viewed as an eccentric branch suited only for old ladies and the youngest sons of nobles. Time mages were a kind of mage who could manipulate time, and have almost all died out by the start of the story. Their society was the most equal of all the mages, with men and women having the same positions and political clout, and they were also the most insular of all the mages. For time mages, the fact that you were a time mage came first, before family and ethnic bonds; they referred to each other as "brother" and "sister".
Whew, I think that's all. The magic system and the gender relations will play a major part in the actual story, so I'm glad there's a thread like this helping me clear them up. -
I'm writing historical fiction, so worldbuilding skills are sort of lost on me, but...
As a group of rowdy pirates, morals are either askew or nonexistant. Sex is something that bothers no one, and is an open topic. You know how sailors can be.
Drinking, too, is great for them, even the young people who are well below today's legal age can hold their drink. In fact, it's pretty nessasary, because alcohol lasts longer than freshwater when you're at sea.
As you can imagine, stealing is just fine with them. Most don't mind killing, though they'd rather get money without having to leave any bodies behind.
However, as a group of pirates, they also have their own morals to go with the profession. Collectively, they hate the Royal Navy, and most pirates consider it their duty to help out "Brothers of the Coast" in their time of need. And yes, there is such a thing as a pirate code (Pirates of the Caribbean, anyone?) but that's usually a basic set of rules about who gets how much plunder and which rules you aren't to break. (Gambling on board = fighting on board = killing on board, men weren't allowed to bring women to sea againt their will, etc.)
There is little discipline, but a Boatswain (almost always written as Bo'sun) is in charge of rule enforcement.
Education isn't worth much, either, and few know how to read and write, but young sailors are paired up with "sea dads" who show them how things work on a ship. If somebody knows how to write, they would sometimes write letters for the other sailors.
During the times of a war, particuarly loyal pirates would only shoot at ships fighting against their native country, but usually they'd stay out of it. Privateering is always an option (being a pirate legally, capturing ships from the enemies).
Money is basically worshipped. Most pirates are in it to (a) make their fortunes or (b) be at sea without the pressure of the Navy. You could buy pretty much anything you need (well, you couldn't take the bounty off your head) with enough money.
Religion varies, but some Captains do insist that on Sunday, everyone takes a rest while someone reads from a Bible.
That's just about all I can think of right now. To be honest, I've never really thought to much about the society of my story. I mean, I knew they accepted certain things, but I never *thought* about it. XD So thanks for the insight. -
My story is fanfiction, so yeah. It's totally different from our real world.
This is based on a Wii video game of mine, an action fighting one, so they don't exactly have marriage or anything like that.
Basically, there are two main groups of characters: the Bad and the Good. The Bad characters (human or otherwise) are rude, loud, annoying, and generally a pain to deal with. Now, turning it around, the Good characters aren't perfect, but they don't purposely do bad things to each other, and they're mostly nice and polite. However, near the very end of my story, the Bad ones will all turn to the Good side, except for a few here and there.
Their world is more like a universe stretched across multiple 'galaxies', places where different characters from different, previous video games interact with each other. I know that was confusing, so let me explain. The game is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, or SSBB for short. It combines a whole ton of other Nintendo characters; the classics--Mario, Peach, Bowser, Link, Zelda, etc.--and some newer ones, like Pit, Meta Knight, and the Ice Climbers. And the characters that appear in the same category of games--say, the Mario games--are in the same galaxy, but just in different parts of it. Something like that. So there's all these games, like Kid Icarus, the Kirby games, etc., all in different galaxies. Eventually, they all meet and join together to defeat the biggest, worst enemy they all have ever faced: Tabuu.
Tabuu is not exactly a human, but not exactly another animal or a robot either. It is a combo of all three sections. That monster tore apart quite a bit of the SSBB world (aka universe) for its own selfish reasons, trying to use Subspace (a jelly-like, liquidy world shrouded in darkness) to take over their beloved, beautiful world.
So our heroes (first on the Good side, eventually from both sides) meet up with each other along the way, going one stepping-stone at a time. Every new place brings forth new enemies, challenges, and friends. They each have different and unique powers of their own, although sometimes they're not enough to prevent them from getting captured by the Bad side. Some characters use just regular weapons, like a sword or a bow and arrow; some use magic; some use a combo of both; and some characters have abilities that can't be categorized in those 3 things. It all depends on who you are.
The thing is, these characters are all the fighting type. They were born to fight, and that's basically all that was programmed into their system in this game. So sometimes the Heroes have to fight each other to understand they're all on the same side, and sometimes the good guys need to defeat the bad guys. It appears so jumbled at first, then wraps up for a filling, true conclusion at the end, when Tabuu, the last boss-monster, is defeated.
OK, I'm pretty sure that's it for now. Sorry for the extremely long post!
Anyway, thank you for creating this, Snoink. Never realized before now how much the society influenced the characters in my story. -
My world is like this:
A futuristic and united Earth. They are Xenophobic, and had eliminated most, if not, all alien races around them. The government looks like a democracy, but secretly, it's a fascist, police state.
They inhabited planets that were once lived on by other races. Some planets were completely barren a la Mars and Venus style. Humans had mastered the art of terraforming, but it takes hundreds of years to do.
The people all just want to live their lives as peacefully as possible, and with the Earth united, they don't have to worry about war with each other. Of course, there is still the military. Because of the activeness of the military, people have become tense. Along with the discovery of Crystallons (sort of like mutants from X-men (unfortunately)), people have been reporting others left and right (Witch hunt style), and killing their families before killing themselves.
Eventually, this boils down to the Crystallon-Human War, the first war in centuries. Both sides use dirty tactics like taking a city hostage against each other. The civilians go into turmoil. When the Xenos (hive mind insects) attack and join the war, it becomes a full-blown riot.
Basically, my society is based on fear and the desire to live their lives. -
My story is set in an alternative reality, where slavery was never abolished and women are the dominant gender, so the slave characters live under the power of their mistresses. They aren't allowed to get married unless the mistress tells them to, but sex isn't a problem - the society is similar to ours today in most respects. However, they can't buy condoms or any birth control, and if they get pregnant or STDs, they are held responsible, so especially because of pregnancy they don't have sex as often as their mistresses and masters might. The mistress has every right over them and can use them in whatever way she likes.
Obviously this is a racist world. Education is compulsory, but for slaves it is only allowed between the ages of ten and fourteen, and classes are segregated.
Slaves aren't allowed alcohol, but I have this really sweet "mistress" character who illegally gives one of her mother's slaves brandy when he's ill.
Religion is pretty much the same as it is here. Most slaves are religious in one form or another. Most of them hate God, for letting them stay in this situation, but others try to turn the bits about slavery in the Bible to mean that there will be a revolution and they will be the slave owners. They're odd people.
I think that just about covers it.
~Grin -
My story takes place in the USA just as it is today. I really don't have much to say...
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Government-tribal leaders who want to conquer each other's teritories, and have no other interests, really. Unless you really step on their toes, you haven nothing to worry about from them. They're not even mentioned until the middle.
Morals-the basics...killing is wrong (well, depends who you ask) theivery will be punnished, revenge is admissible but not glorified, one's parents and family are to be honored and treated with respect and obedience, and depriving another of any major basic life-quality is detestable (but oddly enough, quite common)
Basic Society setup-a number of tribes that span a vast teritory, some of which are nomadic, others urbanized. Wars and seiges and feuds between groups of people are all too common, and slavery and piracy are an everyday part of life in the open. Urban areas are fairly sheltered, with some organized religion and even government systems, though they are only local.
Religion-a complex mythology consisting of spirits, "ancestors" and a strong respect for nature, and emphasis on respect for one's fellow man.
Education-indiviudals learn to read and write in a pictoral language, which, if limmited, is adequate (if you don't know the symbol for what you're saying, draw a picture)
Currency-amber coins or bartering with goods
Homes-tents, huts, and wooden bulidings; no stone or metal is to be found, as all the characters live in the tops of trees hundreds of miles above the forest floor (which is only mentioned in mythology)
Food-a variety of herbs, lichen, mosses, variety of tree-bark and fruits which grow in the branches, and the meat of birds, mice, possums, foxes, tree-leaopards and invertebrate animals are prepared in stews, roasts, or eaten raw.
Beverages include rainwater, tea, whiskey, and wine.
Clothing-fabrics woven from the fibers of plants or tree-bark, wooden shoes, leather clothing made from bird's skin or the skins of small mammals, leopard skins (prized) silk, valuable for its warmth and wind-resistance in flight, and feather robes made by sewing together individual feathers. Men and women wear leggings and tunics, varying in material and length, cut etc
Bedding-woven mats of bark or piles of leaves for the poor; hammocks, or bed-frames padded with leaves for mattresses, covered in skins or plant-fiber fabrics; silk only available to the elite
Language-modern english, minus the slang terms we use, with slightly more old-fashioned terms, such as "speak" instead of "talk"
Economy-trading between individuals using only items for bartering, and in cities, amber coins are used a currency; most villages have a marketplace, restaurants, tarverns, hotels, boarding-houses; toll roads are available for those who cannot fly; a slave trade which supplies cheap labor, and the breeding of domesticated birds for beasts of burden, and various small mammals as pets, meat, and a source of skins, goods such as lichen and herbs are cultivated in the appropriate regions, supplied to vendors at locales, cottage-industry products available, though many rural areas don't have such access to pre-made items.
Family-in towns, individuals live in boarding houses, hotels, and indiviudally owned homes, commuting to work as vendors, service-providers and farm laborers outside the town. Nomads travel seasonally to locales for food and religious cerimonies; refugees often create nomadic clans after a locale is destroyed or taken.
Transportation-Flight is key, as everyone is born with wings, and if crippled, must live in a town where there are roads and bridges, be carried by someone, or find a beast of burden strong enough to carry them on their back. Children ride on parents until they can fly. Goods transported in bags or in the arms of an individual, or tied to a large bird (beast of burden) -
Let's see...
In my story's world, every Sand Cat lives a solitary life. They hunt for themselves, travel around, etc. A mother raises her kitten alone, with no help from the father. Kittens leave their mothers at about a year old. After that, their mother has another litter. The kittens do not travel together. It's a very... nomadic lifestyle. Most kittens are raised in a fictional place called the Brushlands, where there a small, dusty bushes for protection from predators.
However, there is another society. There's a place called Silvergrove in this story, where the culture is different. It's a refuge area. Cats who are fleeing from the war that takes place in the human world can stop there for a bit of rest. A few Sand Cats even live here. It's run similar to a kingdom, with a male leader, and his advisors. A leader is picked based on their bloodline. It's a place that all cats dream of seeing. One character, Bonzu, actually used to live there.
That's it, in a nutshell.
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