On the other hand, it stalls me out for the 2YN story because I can't answer the questions until after I've already answered them for Fortress Launne. I therefore need to do this time- and thought-intensive assignment twice. Hence I haven't done anything yet.
In roleplaying news, my game is the only one that's moving. I got slammed with applicants last week, but things have quieted down this week. All the games I play are dead.
I've also started a game on RPoL for alcar's roundrobin story idea. The basic premise is:
Writer A writes Chapter 1, aiming for somewhere around 500-1000 words. Writer A passes their last 10 lines (up to 200 words) to Writer B.
Writer B writes Chapter 2 based on what Writer A passed along, and passes the last 10 lines of Chapter 2 to Writer C ...
This goes on until each participant has written three chapters. When the last writer has finished the last chapter, the entire story is assembled and read for the first time. Hilarity ensues. :)
Come one, come all. ;) I've got one story already started, plus a couple tandem stories to pass the time while people are taking turns writing. If more people sign up I can coordinate another one.
[members-only cut]
Anyway, so here's my attempt to answer the Week 5 questions for Fortress Launne...
1. Culture as personality - What basic overall influence has gone into creating your setting? How is this influence reflected in the setting, in both physical appearance and general atmosphere?
For Amulet I, there are two distinct cultures. The native folk are hardened survivors living in swamplands after having been driven nearly to extinction. They're a very resourceful people and have a culture that was originally matriarchal but now reflects equality among everyone. There are no officially designated gender roles; each person has their own set of talents and skills that can help the community, and what gender they are is not as important. There are female warriors and male babysitters. All of the tribal leaders are still female, however.
The other culture is sort of a medieval European culture, male dominated with highly-defined ideas of gender roles, roles by birth (nobility vs. servants/peasants), etc. Everyone has a place, and stepping out of bounds of their places is severely disapproved. Needless to say, the native folk find this way of doing things a bit distressing.
2. Scars - Signs of previous troubles in the setting. What are the scars on your setting, and what caused them? How do your people react to them?
The native folk are highly suspicious of anyone outside of their lands. Non-natives are called "outlanders." It doesn't help that previous overtures of peace have turned into betrayal and bloodshed. They tend to overreact at any sign that they're about to be betrayed again.
The biggest physical scar would be the fort in the valley. This was where the first outlanders set up to extirpate the native folk. The fort has been flattened twice before in the past several decades, then rebuilt in the same place. By the end of Amulet I it'll probably be flattened again.
3. Status - Is your setting the location of rich and powerful people, a quiet village with everyone working together, or an impoverished town where everyone is scrambling to survive?
It's a frontierland to the European-style culture. The fort and surrounding farms is a small population that is always on guard for hostility from the native folk. The outlanders would really like to colonize the rest of the native folk lands.
The native folk live in primitive-looking villages of round wooden huts on stilts, adapted to constant flooding. They mostly get their food from fishing and hunting/gathering, and a tiny bit of gardening.
4. Population - What is the general population of the setting for your story? Consider this not just as a number function, but also a relative function as well. One hundred people on a small ship can be far more trouble to maintain than 1,000 people in a small village.
The fort population is small, somewhere in the low hundreds. However, they are not far from a larger population center to the south. The city of Myan is just across a wide river.
The native folk, meanwhile, are the last of their kind. There are less than a thousand of them in the Amulet I part of the timeline. There are more of them somewhere "off to the west" because most of them were captured and relocated to wastelands several decades ago, but they aren't in contact with each other.
Population is one of the things that keeps changing on me; I'd originally figured that there are only 300 or so native folk, but it keeps getting bumped upward because I'm not sure they can have as much power as I need them to have with only 300.
5. Weaknesses - What are the weaknesses within your setting and how did they come about? Are the people aware of the weaknesses, blind to them, or worried about them?
Based on the way Zette describes it, she's asking about signs of decay. I'm not sure there's been enough time for permanence to either setting at the time of Amulet I for anything to have decayed. There are certainly signs of past battles, especially at the fort, but those were total destruction events. Later on, when Fortress Launne is an actual city, there will be more of these. 80 years later, the native folk are dwindling by slow atrophy of their ways rather than outright battle.
6. Relationships - What are the relationships within and outside the setting which help to define it?
Hmmm. These questions are starting to get a bit repetitive.
Between settings, I've already covered in Question 1-2.
Within each setting... the native folk are mainly cooperative with each other, as their survival is still threatened from outside forces. There are a series of small villages of 30-50 people each, set up that way to make it easier to find resources and stay hidden, and they communicate closely with one another. The setting as a whole hasn't been in place for more than a couple generations since the last major attempt at annihilation from the outlanders.
The fort population is fairly cooperative as well. Their survival is threatened by native hostilities, and they rely on a centralized government system to guard everyone. It has really only been an organized town for about a decade.
7. Weather - What is the general weather pattern for your setting? What extremes might affect your story?
Well, basically it's southern Florida except with mountains. A subtropical setting, lots of swamplands. There are occasional hurricanes. On a daily basis it's fairly sunny most of the time with scattered rainshowers that last less than an hour each.
8. Emotions - What is the emotional impact the background has on your setting and scene?
Mutual distrust between the two settings. A reasonable sense of trust and cooperation within each setting. Also, the native folk work in harmony with nature, while the outlanders would like to tame it.
Hmmm. In retrospect, this wasn't as hard as I was thinking. Apparently I do have the bare basics pinned down fairly well. It's the details that keep tripping me up.
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