All right, finally getting around to starting some of these world-building threads! This is a brief world history of Erde, the parallel universe from Faded, my NaNo 2010 novel. (Excerpts can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1498) Or, more specifically, Erde is the planet in this fictional universe on which the novel is set. I would like to eventually earn a subforum for this world, but I will need lots of help!

See, I usually set my fantasies in this world, and when I do, I don't have a lot of history. I'm breaking both of those conventions with this work. Additionally, for reasons I won't get into here, I don't want to address creation or a god-figure in my fantasy world. So, I had to get creative with the history. As such, I need honest opinions on the realism and cohesiveness of my history. This history stops just a couple years, maybe ten, before the present day. Please help!

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A BRIEF WORLD HISTORY
Phase I: The Founding
Erde was once an uninhabited plate in the unchartered expanse of the solid sky. No known soul was witness to its creation. Rather, Erde was discovered and populated by nomads and refugees from other spheres, who found Erde as a lushly-vegetated planet without animal or human life.

Erde was discovered during an age when the sky throughout all the universe was light continually; there was no darkness. The lack of darkness (and resulting drop in temperature) allowed expansive travel through the breathable atmosphere. Travel between neighboring earths was possible with the use of the larger variety of birds and dragons, as well as ship-like structures leveraged by the beasts. Most of Erde’s founders arrived this way, but it is rumored that the innovative elves and dwarves also had primitive hot-air balloons.

Erde was populated over a period of roughly 150 our-world years known collectively as “The Founding.” A variety of groups and races came to Erde from different homelands and settled in Erde’s various regions, laying the seeds for Erde’s distinct cultural blocks. Elves and dwarves, many fleeing political persecution, arrived in mass in the north and quickly replicated their highly-structured societies. Nomadic humans and special races pooled in the center regions, choosing out climates that suited their trade and lifestyle. Disjointed bands of adventurous humans, most of whom came from a string of Germanic-speaking spheres and were known collectively as the Volk, sprinkled the south with homesteads.

Phase II: The Great Darkness
Near the end of the Founding period, the sky began to fade – and eventually turned black. For approximately two our-world months, the universe was solid darkness except for occasional explosions in the distant sky. Some believe that the explosions were caused by planets and other celestial beings freezing and self-destructing in the eternal cold caused by the lack of light. By the time the light returned, only a few distant green dots remained in the sky beneath Erde.

Erde was kept habitable in the south by the warm winds that blew up from the Underside. In the north, the advanced society and organization permitted survival. Groups in the center regions either banded together or relocated.

The fight for survival drove societies together and began to shape the distinct cultures. The people in the south sustained themselves off of their previous harvest and managed to coax some crops to grow in the darkness. The center groups, unable to grow any crops, wandered in search of food and ultimately turned to their animal husbandry for sustenance. The frigid north, nearly plunged into the depths of ice, depended on their industry and innovation to forge survival indoors.

Eventually, the sky grew light again – only to darken a week later. The light fluctuated irregularly for around a month and then settled into the rigid day-night cycle, setting Erde on its endless path of days. After “The Great Darkness,” as the period of solid night is often referred to, the “fading” cobha of Erde set in. The day now showed its age by fading; the rest of the world fell prey to this fate as well. It is rumored that natural objects on Erde faded prior to the Great Darkness, and some legends indicate that certain living beings experienced this phenomenon; however, old records differ unreliably on this issue.

Phase III: The Middle Years
After the Great Darkness, a relatively uneventful period of 500 our-world years followed, known as the “The Middle Years.” During this period, the various cultures in Erde took root and the inhabitants firmly colonized the land. The world recovered from The Great Darkness – and almost forgot about it entirely. It is during this period that the inhabitants of Erde built up the despondency and hedonism that morphed into the current political scenes.

In the north, the advanced cultures attributed their survival of the Great Darkness to their organized society. Taking that mentality to the extreme, the north built rigid kingdoms ruled by strict politics and regulations. Borders were harshly defended, international relationships were bitterly regulated, and reproduction was legally enforced to preserve society. Communistic governments were common.

The various tribes of the center regions continued to develop their animal husbandry, but their group pride gained during the Great Darkness turned into deadly racial divisions. Groups banded together closely, developing highly unique cultures and excluding all others. War and cultural divisions forced most groups out of both the north and the south, leaving them to mark territory for themselves in the center regions. In a wilderness populated by roaming nomadic tribes, these hastily-drawn borders were unstable at best.

For the humans of the south, political and social identity was of no issue – but land was. The people were content to lump themselves under the general name “Volk” and focus on farming the land. As crops became more precious, farmers came into conflict over the land, and those that had resources to defend their holdings won. Mighty landlords came to power and formed self-sufficient estates; serfs joined themselves to estates for employment and protection. Soon the land was divided amongst dozens of landlords; no neutral “cities” existed. The landlords cared only for their own advancement and were happy to war for more land, setting the south up for the bitter battles that would lead to the founding of the Federated.

That's not a particularly long post, but there's a lot there to think about before I give any comments or suggestions.

Ooh, interesting...

Do you know what caused the Great Darkness or is that as much a mystery to you as it is to the inhabitants?

My first question is: Are all the planets flat, or are there spherical planets?

I hope that reaction is a good thing, Jonathan. Thanks for reading, guys!

Leandra - it was a natural phenomenon. There is no explanation. Do you think I need one? I didn't think I needed one.

Jonathan - I don't know. At this time, I do not have any other worlds in the universe developed. There could be both flat and spherical. I'm leaving it open for possibility, but this novel stays on Erde.

No, I don't think you need one. I was just curious.

It seems like it would add to a flat planet's believability if it is known that there are other flat planets, and thus flat planets are "normal" for where you're writing about.

Second question: Is there an explanation for why most of the humans are Germanic in origin?

Even though it isn't covered anywhere in the book, discovering a flat planet wasn't a surprise to the visitors. If I have opportunity to develop other planets, some will be flat. Good point about believability, though, Jonathan.

Yes and no. I want to use German words in my world, as opposed to making up my own fantasy words, for love of the language and to convey a certain "feel" by the tone of the names. ("Erde" is German for "earth," and "Volk" is "people," IIRC.) To explain that, I surmised that many of the humans in the south (not all, but the bulk) came from Germanic-speaking planets. My MC enters the world in the south, so it is the southern fantasy terms that he acquires.

There are other humans in other parts of the world, which are not Germanic in ancestry, but they need more developing yet.

Thanks again!

Are the Germanic planets in any way connected to Germany on earth?

No. They just speak a Germanic language. This world is not connected to earth in any way, and I close the book leaving it up to the reader whether it was "real" or just a dream. I like to use real-world languages in my fantasy novels, though for some of my obscure races I am considering just letting them speak "the orc tongue" or "the Schwab's language" and not specifying the details of said language. (Since my MCs won't know how to speak it, regardless.)

What is the Federated?

That... will get its own post eventually, as that is very relevant to the story. I consider that "modern history," so I'll make a thread for it when I write up the details on it. But in short, it's a union of many of the estates in the South, and the politics thereof have a big effect on the storyline.

Okay. I wondered if it might be going to get its own thread.

It will... after I write it.

Thanks again for your help!

I have a question. Would plants be able to survive six months of darkness? If they couldn't, how would the animals survive?

*thinks* As I have it written, some groups were able to coax a few select crops to grow, but for the most part, people and animals sustained themselves off of stored food and foraging. Many plants with short life cycles probably died, but established plants like trees didn't - though they may not have borne fruit. If anything, it was the cold that killed or stunted most of them.

Now, we are dealing with a fantasy world, but here's a thought. I could do one of two things to make this phase more realistic. I could shorten the length of the darkness. Right now I have 6mo, but it doesn't need to be that long for people to band together against the crisis. I could go with 2mo or even less, which would make it more believable why all of the established plants didn't die.

On the contrary, I could make this a catastrophe closer to the Flood in significance and say that the darkness killed a lot of plants and animals, forcing the land to almost (but not entirely) start over. Either will accomplish my purposes.

Thoughts?

I started this topic to detail the effects this history has on Erde and its people: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2625

I think I like both suggestions equally. Hmmm...

Shortening the darkness, as opposed to killing off most of the plants and animals, is closer to my original design. I'll ponder it. Thanks again, Aemi!

You're right. Now that I've thought about it, I like shortening it better.

How short should I make it, do you think? Is a month long enough?

Hmmm, maybe. But I think two months would be more...more of a disastrous occurrence.

I agree. I like the sound of that number.

* goes to edit * Thanks again for the help!

Has the history morphed since you made this thread, Phili?

*wonders why she never saw this post and is very happy a blue person alerted her to the oversight*

Thanks for asking, Aemi! Actually, the basic world history hasn't changed at all since I started world-building. I may be tweaking the Volk's history slightly as I develop their ancestors in more detail, but the basic framework is still the same. I'm kind of surprised by that, now that you mention it.

Hm. That's cool.

This is interesting.

Thank you.