Istion - an Age of Sail Conworld.

[Pogostick Man]

Preliminarily, my culture (as-yet-unnamed, but there will be click consonants involved) has origins and important data as follows. This is subject to change pursuant to the constraints of Torco's settings and my whims.

There were originally some scattered tribes and city-states of common genetic stock scattered about these two islands; call them Group A. Group A was sort of Anglo-Saxon-ish in style. Group B, whose settlements, while more maritime than agricultural at first, were more centralized, came from the northern circumpolar-ish areas via migration.

Initially, populations of Groups A and B kept well enough away from each other, aside from the occasional trade transaction or scouting parties. However, contact eventually became more involved, and both parties obtained benefits; among other things, Group A taught Group B about agriculture, while Group B conferred astronomical and seafaring knowledge upon Group A. Thereafter they gradually homogenized. (I could use help on which language would have come out on top, at least for the most part; what would be a realistic scenario?)

This resultant culture exhibits mastery over astronomy, meteorology, and oceanic navigation (in large part due to the two previous). Aurorae in particular are objects of quasi-religious significance for a large segment of the populace, a legacy of Group B's origins. (Speaking of religion, there would probably be one more unified religion dominating the larger cities with some of the more rural communities keeping to the older practices.) Government-wise, I'm thinking some kind of a witan-type deal, maybe with a king or something, and some smaller regional polities.

There'd probably be some pirates haunting some of the more remote or inaccessible areas, especially towards the extreme north or extreme south of the territory.

Sound good? Any problems, questions, suggestions, Dadaist poetry?

[Ollock]

Oh, are we doing non-Earth fauna like Etheria?

If so, I have a submission -- sea serpents reminiscent of Eastern dragons (large scales, serpentine, four limbs, and horsey faces with barbels). I had a picture but I can't find it.

[Rodlox]

Initially, populations of Groups A and B kept well enough away from each other, aside from the occasional trade transaction or scouting parties. However, contact eventually became more involved, and both parties obtained benefits; among other things, Group A taught Group B about agriculture, while Group B conferred astronomical and seafaring knowledge upon Group A. Thereafter they gradually homogenized. (I could use help on which language would have come out on top, at least for the most part; what would be a realistic scenario?)

maybe something like (Metis?), where the nouns are from Group A, and the verbs are from Group B?

[Astraios]

The FT file is http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19348113/Age%20of%20Sail.ftw, I hope that's the public link, though.

Whatever it is, I can't figure out how to open it...

(I could use help on which language would have come out on top, at least for the most part; what would be a realistic scenario?)

Or smash them together and make a creole or a pseudo-English.

[Turtlehead]

My claim

[Astraios]

Your claim is wonky and doesn't match up. And it's too big.

[Ollock]

Yeah, that claim is massive. If you want your people to travel that far, then you might want to figure that out after we do the initial claims -- maybe get other people involved.

[Torco]

Oh, are we doing non-Earth fauna like Etheria?

If so, I have a submission -- sea serpents reminiscent of Eastern dragons (large scales, serpentine, four limbs, and horsey faces with barbels). I had a picture but I can't find it.

I think that changes the game a bit too much, I mean, they're huge. I could go for middle-size snakes that eat people, but on first thought I think sea-eating dragons aren't the best idea.

Turtle is joking, of course.

Whatever it is, I can't figure out how to open it...

It's a fractal terrains file, which you open using, well, Fractal Terrains, a program. still, lemme upload the new claims. theta, your piece looks more like two pieces, just because of how clustered the islands are, how about the couple of islands to the right?

Climate maps aren't too varied: most places get enough rain to be temperate forest and tropical evergreen forest, except Rorshack's, which is mostly taiga and tundra due to latitude, with some desert, and the Islands of Theta, the rightmost ones at least, which are covered in desert and Chaparral, which I find most awesome. Ollock islands have interesting climatic diversity in my own rendering, but the parameters are subject to everyone's preferences, so its ultimately your choice, within reason: Straioland won't be covered in dry ice, for instance.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Do you have something that can be opened with a program that's free?

[Ollock]

Do you have something that can be opened with a program that's free?

Fractal Terrains has a free trial version.

[Torco]

I don't know if there's an open source alternative to FT, but I think there isn't. lemme try and export the file in a more detailed format.

Okay, I can export a spinning view of the globe with climatemap mode on, but the program is taking forever to render it. I'll have it up by today.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

How about just a simple map in equirectangular projection? (Possibly with climate?) I can convert it into other forms from there.

[Ollock]

Oh, dear. Torco were you getting what I'm getting on that my islands? Sea-level ice and tropical evergreen on the same island?

EDIT: Oh, and I need an image. My trial of FT has expired, so all I can do is look at it and not export an image.

[maıráí]

Here's the current set-up, although it's rather dependent on how I set up their society, which I've still yet to do.

Left, bottom island - the "original" culture, home of the ruling class. A sort of strict society, very imperialistic, into trading and war.

Right, middle island - an island attempting to break away and form it's own nation. Fierce trading nation; they are looking more for economic power, like cybrxkan's nation, but also for allies against the main island.

Upper, right island - an island wavering between breaking away, staying with the original island, or joining the rebel one. Largely agricultural, self-contained, trades nowhere near as much as the other two.

Regarding each other, there is usually a lot of talk of fighting and preparations for it, if no actual battles break out, but towards the rest of the world, they are usually very peaceful. The main island would take over empty land before attacking a nation, and would be sure that it's a small nation or something they can cripple first, before attacking.
They aren't completely separate entities - the fighting is between major families/clans; the lesser clans are still loyal to the main family, who is still the most powerful. (At least for now.)
The separation is something the common man would hear about, but not actually have to care about.

And that's the rough draft of the situation.



Could I get a picture of my islands with climates as generated by the program? With my knowledge on the subject, I'd end up just making everything temperate forest.

[Torco]

Oh, dear. Torco were you getting what I'm getting on that my islands? Sea-level ice and tropical evergreen on the same island?

EDIT: Oh, and I need an image. My trial of FT has expired, so all I can do is look at it and not export an image.

Nope, I'm not getting that at all...
Okay, now I can't remember who claimed whom. So guys, if someone could have a map of the claims ready by tonight, I'll send the climate maps your way
[a single equirectangular map with climate info doesn't work, it needs to be in a very high resolution, which my can cannot support, for whatever reason. still, here, spinning globe view]
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19348113/spinni ... %20map.exe
its a self-extracting file that yields images, switch between them to get a globeview, but the resolution isn't ideal.

(oh, and Ollock, use Win7's snipping tool, or a screenshot )

[Pogostick Man]

Claims map thus far:
- Orange: Me
- Red: Torco
- Light Green: Astraios
- Yellow: valiums
- Pink: Lyhoko Leaci
- Black: cybrxkhan
- White: Theta
- Teal(-ish): Amuere
- Olive Green: Ollock (claims in dispute in-universe are to the left of the dashed line)

Did I miss anybody's claims?

[cybrxkhan]

I'm wondering whether my climate might have lots of variation, given that I have one of the bigger islands on this world. I was hoping there'd be at least a bit of desert or semi-arid desert, but I'm not sure how likely that is.

Anyhow, speaking of 'this world', does anybody have any names for this world yet? It does need a name! I don't think we can even have the wiki up until there's a proper name. I propose some vaguely Graeco-Roman sounding name.

@Rorschach: Thanks for the map!
@Torco: Thanks for the... close-up map! (Also, it'll be the Qicui city-states, not Cybrxkhan's Star Shaped Island. It also doesn't look like a star to me. )

[Izambri]

Oh, if that were a Civ II's multiplayer scenario...

[Herr Dunkel]

I'm wondering whether my climate might have lots of variation, given that I have one of the bigger islands on this world. I was hoping there'd be at least a bit of desert or semi-arid desert, but I'm not sure how likely that is.

Anyhow, speaking of 'this world', does anybody have any names for this world yet? It does need a name! I don't think we can even have the wiki up until there's a proper name. I propose some vaguely Graeco-Roman sounding name.

@Rorschach: Thanks for the map!
@Torco: Thanks for the... close-up map! (Also, it'll be the Qicui city-states, not Cybrxkhan's Star Shaped Island. It also doesn't look like a star to me. )

Saiwiseld?
That's not Graeco-Roman, but means Age of Seas

[cybrxkhan]

Okay, here's my proposed name: Istio, which means "sail" in Greek.

Also, another thought: how frequent and severe will hurricanes be?

[----]

I'm assuming very frequent in the summery times, they'd probably be pretty severe too since the landmasses are almost all small islands.

[Salmoneus]

That's a terrible map. It's just random fractal islands. Island-chains, anybody? Plate tectonics?

And seriously, don't pay attention to FT's climate simulator, which is pretty rubbish even on an earth-like planet. You can't just paint earth's climates onto the same latitudes on a water-world.

Anyway, with that advice, I'm out.

[Amuere]

This map is just fine, a planet with this setup wouldn't be too improbable.

[cromulant]

Questions.

1. Where and how did humanity originate?

[Astraios]

Questions.

1. Where and how did humanity originate?

I thought we weren't bothering with that stuff.