"I feel the Earth move under my feet"

WOW! I've been gone a while! Well, family drama crept up, and then issues with the bathroom being renovated, and then I had started on this one project way back when - and if I were to submit it to AnimeNext on time I needed to finish that hard core! And thus, this poor blog was tossed to the wayside...

Anyway, I'm done with the AMV making - and submitting - and so I'm back. I'm not sure for how long, but let's forget about that now. ^_^

OK, so let's move on to today's exercise. As always, be sure to check out Stephanie Cottrell Bryant's world building guide. Link is on the right-hand corner of the screen. However, I'll also put it here.

Day 4: Cataclysmic Events

You have your mood. You have, generally, a climate you want. If you read the linked site, you might even have some idea of how to get that climate.


Now, let's get into history.
No, not dates and names-- that's too recent. We're talking planetary history. How long has your world been around? How old was it when your sapient species reached it (either through evolution or discovery)? Did a previous species dominate, like the dinosaurs, leaving a fossil record? Or is human(oid) evolution the first major species to leave a lasting record? If a previous species was sapient, did they also leave artifacts of their society?

A fossil record can be misinterpreted in many creative ways. You might end up with legends of dragons based on dinosaur records-- unless, of course, you have *real* dragons on your world. Your current sapient beings might believe in an older race that "built" everything, when in fact that older race actually destroyed it.

Also look for the non-biological records of physical change. Most geography changes slowly. You'll find that mountain ranges take forever to grow, except when they don't. When they change suddenly and dramatically, people remember, and their attitudes about such places change as well. Worldwide legends about sudden changes may spring up-- nearly every Earth culture has a flood story. There may be a historical record there, or there may be a parable being told instead. But they all have one, and there's therefore some kind of scar on what humans perceive of as their planet's history.

For example, consider earthquakes and volcanoes. Any seismically active region will gain a reputation, perhaps as a place where geographical records may be upturned rapidly (in the case of a tectonic shift bringing a fossil to surface), may be destroyed or buried quickly (perhaps by volcanic mudslides), or may be altered rapidly (such as by a more dramatic volcanic eruption that not only buries but also relocates debris for several miles, or an earthquake that opens a rift in the center of town). In a scientifically advanced society, your seismic causes won't hold all that many surprises for your characters, unless you want to set forward a speculative question about geological cataclysm (such as a non-earthly cause or something unearthed that's unexpected). For your fantasy characters, of course, a volcanic eruption can be an enormous deal-- the wrath of the gods, a dragon awakening, or even a magically-induced catastrophe.

Other major, fast-moving cataclysms include hurricanes and flooding, fires (though recovery from fire is actually a fairly rapid process, taking a matter of years), earthquakes, volcanoes and rifts, and meteroites. Less rapid but still quick in the geological scale are glaciers, ice ages, and global warming. A good example of a very slow-moving but planet-changing event is the plate tectonic shift that essentially moved India into Asia, forming the Himalayas and causing a massive climate shift in Africa, drying the continent out and forever altering (or perhaps just starting) the course of human evolution.

Even though we're not yet into culture-building, start thinking now about what kinds of scars your planet might have from major cataclysmic events. What major mountain ranges do you want or need to put into your story, what deep canyons, what crater-marked plains? Are all of your scars natural, or are some man-made through technological or magical forces?

The Exercise
For 15 minutes, jot down some of the Really Big Land Features you want in your story and just think "what if that were made by...." Write down a couple of causes for those features and scars, and stick it all into your notebook. Which scars are slow-force scars (like plate tectonics), and which are fast-forces (anything that takes less than 10,000 years is medium-to-fast in geological scales).


OK, another toughie since my story is mainly focusing on one country. This will be the alternate universe's version of England. In my story, all of the world-changing events that were not caused by non-natural actions (such as the H-Bomb, etc) would still have occurred. Pangaea still split up into the modern continents, the same mountain formations, same volcanos, etc.


However, magic will make things a little different between the two worlds. For instance, as Bryant suggested, there will indeed be dragons. Therefore, perhaps most of the mountainous formations in Great Britain are also in this parallel country, except part of one of the mountain ranges is actually missing. Perhaps an old dragon battle occurred and devastated one of the mountain peaks. The battle tore apart some of the structural rocks and eventually created an avalanche, landslide, and perhaps even an all-out collapse of the mountain. Perhaps this mountain peak was once a "hive" for dragons - as it were - and all of the dens broke down the integrity of the mountain to begin with. With this hollowed out mountain, a strong enough battle could collapse this mountain. Perhaps there is a lake where a mountain would normally be in England.

All of these are actually tricky assignments since I'm not necessarily "World" building... I'm just focusing on the one country for this story. And here I thought this would be easy since Lionhead Studios already set up the world with Albion in Fable, and then mix in some of Nintendo's Hyrule from Legend of Zelda. However, answering these questions while thinking of two video game worlds is tough. :-P

Anyway, neither game really have major land features that would be caused by anything spectacular. In theory, I could also include an enchanted forest all sprung from one tree spirit - just like the Great Deku Tree and surrounding Kokiri Forest. Perhaps a "volcano" which is really a hollowed out mountain that only erupts when the dragon living inside is angered. I don't know. I'm quickly scanning my memory right now and, like I said, neither game really showcased any major land feature, so I'll have to wave the white flag yet again.

You're real glad I took that two-week break, aren't you? :-P

If you don't like this world, create your own. ;-)