April Foundry - Fisher's Island (Week One)
Hey folks! Permanent Backlog posted a great set of prompts to encourage worldbuilding in April over at The April Foundry. I've been posting these daily in the thread at the NSR Cauldron Discord, but I'd also like to record them here in a more permanent fashion.
I've decided to take on this challenge by filling out some information about Fisher's Island, one of the most fleshed out portions of my Jewelsea setting. It's located in the great Archipelago, a region of the setting location between the eastern and western continents in much the same way that Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines stretch from Asia to Australia. That means we're a long way from the regions where Thekkish is the primary language, but the world is a big place.
Fisherâs Island is roughly the size of Cyprus, Corsica, or Crete. Iâll only expand beyond its immediate environs when scope of the question necessitates answering for the larger Jewelsea rather than the immediate region.
April 1 - Create a d6 table of biomes found in your setting.
- Salt mangroves - located in the estuary of the central river system, these contain mangrove palm plantations in the more hospitable regions and are filled with saltwater crocodiles and worse in the wilder areas
- Terraced farms - covering the whole of the river valley, these provide the majority of the food supply on Fisherâs Island. Sweet potatoes and plantains are the most common crops
- Western hills - the rains fall on one side of the hills, while the other is dry. They gradually rise to the north until reaching the 2,000+ meter peak of the islandâs greatest mountain
- Iron mines - Metal City, located on the fishhook shaped bay that gives the island its name, is surrounded by ore deposits so rich that the rivers and streams of the area are often stained red-brown
- Pearl swamps - these brackish swamps located below the mountain are dotted by fishing villages and one small port town. Swamp oysters provide both food and the occasional pearl, while more intensive pearl diving occurs in clearer waters near the port
- The City of the First Moment - a great edifice of the old empire, a city sunken into the rock of the mountain itself. Its various entrances dot the nearly 1000 meter cliff face
April 2 - Choose one or two words and describe how they represent the tone of your setting.
- Ancient - the setting of the Jewelsea is largely inspired by the civilizations and cultures of antiquity, drawing primarily on the time periods when Persia and Rome were at their peaks, but also stealing bits and pieces from the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Late Antiquity (in addition to all the other media that I absorb and cover in an ancient gloss)
- Vibrant - this is not a setting where everywhere outside of a few benighted settlements is a blasted wasteland filled with monsters. Itâs a region that has largely recovered from an apocalypse centuries ago and is continuing to expand and grow. Though it is not without danger, those hazards largely lurk on the fringes, in places still scarred from the collapse of the old empire or sealed away since that time.
April 3 - Describe how common, if at all, magic (or supernatural phenomena) is in your setting.
âMagicâ is not a word I use to describe things in the Jewelsea. Things exist as they are and humans can act to change them, whether through what weâd understand as ordinary means or through beseeching the gods and ghosts of the land through rituals to take action and change the shape of things. There are also spells, things that have much more ephemeral effects than rituals. Various schools of spellcasting disagree about their nature and their source, but most concur that they come from some realm outside of the Jewelsea and were probably brought here in the time of the old empire.
April 4 - Is your setting newly discovered or has it been mostly/fully explored?
The Jewelsea is an old place, though none alive today can say exactly how old. There are tales of the Frost Age that predated the old empire and stories of the chaos that followed it, but they are short on verifiable details. The greatest city of the Archipelago was founded over 750 years ago following the collapse.
April 5 - How advanced are the denizens in your setting?
As mentioned previously, the Jewelsea is an ancient setting. Blacksmithing is reasonably advanced and a typical soldier is armed with a bronze helmet, an iron spear, and the best armor they can get their hands on, ranging from quilted armors up to coats of mail. Great works help irrigate the farmlands and control floods. A few devices left from the old empire that still function make life radically different within their bounds; those who live in these places try to keep them secret lest another group steal or destroy them.
April 6 - List two or more established industries in your setting.
âIndustryâ as such is a word I associate, for obvious reasons, with modernity. That said, there are still drivers of economic activity (beyond the subsistence farming that occupies well over 80% of the population in the ancient world). On Fisherâs Island, hereâs the two biggest ones -
Mining. As mentioned, the hills around Metal City are filled with rich iron ores to the point that the rivers and streams run a rusty red and taste of iron. Many mines yield their bounty and the city is named for them. Most of the region near the city has been logged for charcoal to smelt the iron. The costs of shipping charcoal in from elsewhere on the island are beginning to have a strangling effect on the mining efforts.
Pearl diving. The coasts of the island near the swamps and river deltas are full of filter feeding oysters and other shellfish. Anywhere along this coast, youâre likely to find both full-time divers and those who do it during the times that their farms or plantations need less tending.