Poem: "Build with the Mind"
Nov. 13th, 2022 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the July 5, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from siliconshaman and dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "invent" square in my 7-1-22 card for the Body Parts Bingo fest. This poem has been posted in memory of Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"Build with the Mind"
[Monday, August 25, 2014]
Professor Len Ellison watched
as his Worldbuilding students
piled into the classroom.
It had blackboards and
bulletin boards interspersed
among the big old windows,
some with low bookcases
tucked underneath them.
Wooden chairs accompanied
a couple of large tables, and
Len's desk stood at the front.
The other students were settling
into their seats when the tap-tap
of Signy's white cane announced
the arrival of the last member.
"Okay, folks," said Len. "Welcome
to our Worldbuilding class. I am
Professor Len Ellison. You can
call me 'Professor' or 'Len' --
no need to get fancy about it.
Let's go around so you can
introduce yourselves with
your skills and interests."
He had met all of them earlier
while composing the team, but
they didn't know each other yet.
"I'm Howard Emerson," said the first.
"I'm a graduate student in English. I'm
a writer, mostly nonfiction, but I also
want to learn editing and publishing."
"Sylvia Lee," said the Asian girl. "I'm
a sophomore in Professional Writing, most
of it fiction, and a minor in Asian Studies."
"I'm Zephaniel Bell, a sophomore,"
said the black boy. "My major is
African-American Studies, while
my minors are Poetry and Nutrition."
"That's a good spread on writers,"
said Len, who was glad that they
had come together this well.
"My name is Lillian Beale. I'm
a junior in Studio Arts, focusing
on portraits and human figures,"
said the serious girl. "My minor
is Gender and Sexuality studies."
"Hi I'm Georgia Field and I'm
a nature artist, landscapes,"
the redhead said, bouncing
in her seat. "My minor is
Adirondack Studies, oh,
and I'm in my junior year."
"My name is Caeru and I'm
a crayon soup. Yes, the teal hair
is natural. I use ey/em pronouns,"
ey said. "I'm a junior too. My major
is Graphic Design and my minor is
Computer Applications, so I'd like
to build a website for this project."
"Maybe we could do something with
sex and gender in this," said Lillian.
"Yeah, that's a thought," said Caeru.
"I have explored gender history on
my own time, and different cultures
have done very different things with it."
"I'm Signy Landvik," said the pale girl.
"I lost my sight this spring. I've spent
all summer learning blind skills, but
they're still pretty patchy. I'm a junior.
My current major is Disability Studies
with a Peace and Conflict Studies minor."
"Brian Yellow Corn Boy," said the next.
"I'm a freshman, but my advisor thought
I knew enough for this class. My major
is Linguistics: Heritage Languages with
a minor in Native American Studies."
"Oh, yay, we can have languages
for our story world," said Sylvia.
"My name is Nas de la Fuente,"
said the Hispanic man. "I'm
a biologist with experience in
Healthy Touch. Currently I'm
a graduate student studying
Community Health and
Therapeutic Recreation."
"That sounds like a good team,"
said Len. "The syllabus is just
an outline for now; we will fill in
planned presentations, deadlines,
and other details as they develop.
Assignments are sorted before
and after midterm, but even
that is negotiable if necessary."
"Negotiable?" Lillian asked.
"This class teaches teamwork,
creativity, and organization,"
Len explained. "If someone
decides to make, say, a set of
four ecosystems then it might
work better to set four deadlines
instead of one or two for that."
The students nodded, which
was an encouraging sign.
"You'll have time to work on
your assignments here during
class hours," Len went on. "I've
also made arrangements with
the library so you can reserve
a group study room in case
you want additional meetings."
"Why the library?" Nas said,
looking around at the classroom.
"This place seems good enough."
"It's a great room, but it is old,"
Len said. "It has blackboards,
bulletin boards, and a screen for
projections but no viewscreen.
The library room has a viewscreen
to make online research easier."
"That'll be useful, especially
with Caeru making a website
for our project," said Lillian.
"The first class session of
each week will include a lesson
or lecture on different topics,"
Len said. "I'll try to make sure
there's at least one guest speaker
for each of your specialties, too."
"What about the other sessions?"
Howard wondered. "Book study?"
"No, the rest are yours to work on
your project," said Len. "If you
get stuck, let me know and I'll
help you work through the snag.
Do you all have your textbooks?"
There was one on teamwork and
one on participatory decision-making,
plus a whole archive of materials about
different aspects of worldbuilding itself.
"Yes, Professor," the students chorused.
"Well, we've got plenty of time left since
you didn't goof around and drag out
the overview," said Len. "If you want
to get started on the brainstorming
about your story world, then go ahead.
Build with the mind; create with the heart."
"And what, just throw out ideas and
see what sticks?" said Georgia.
"That's how brainstorming works,"
said Lillian. "No filtering, that's later."
"Well, it might make sense to try
for some basic parameters first, so
we don't waste time brainstorming
in the wrong direction," said Howard.
"Like what?" Signy wondered.
"The class packet has some of
the basic worldbuilding parameters,
probably to help spark discussions,"
Howard said. "We could use that."
"That works for me," said Lillian.
"We can note anything where we
agree quickly, and other stuff
we can discuss more later."
The others nodded agreement,
shuffling to find their pages.
"Genre?" Howard asked.
Most of the others students
listed fantasy as a favorite, but
Howard mentioned horror instead.
Lillian shook her head. "I am
really not into horror," she said.
"Howard, what kind of horror
do you like?" Len asked him.
"There are many variations."
"Mostly psychological stuff,"
said Howard. "I like digging into
how and why things happen. It
creates interesting tension."
"Well, you can write that in
any setting if you want to do
more than just the nonfiction,"
Len pointed out. "Lillian, could
you live with that as long as you
don't have to handle it personally?"
"Yeah, just bear in mind that I'm
not great at illustrating zombies
or anything like that," she said.
"I love those 'lost in the woods'
scare stories," said Georgia. "I do
mostly nature art, but I'd be up for
trying to illustrate one of those."
Howard brightened. "Yeah,
that could be fun," he said.
"So, maybe a fantasy world
with enough variety in settings
to accommodate different tones,
subgenres, and stuff like that?"
"That sounds fun," said Zephaniel.
"It's good to have some flexibility."
"So is this going to be a plane,
a planet, or what?" said Caeru.
"Fantasy worlds can get weird."
"Do we need that flavor of weird?"
said Sylvia. "If we make it a planet,
an Earthlike planet, then we can
just use a lot of everyday details
and save the big differences for
wherever the story needs them."
"Keep it simple," said Nas. "I'd
rather stick with familiar physics
and play around with biology."
"Well, what about magic?"
said Signy. "It's fantasy, so do
we want to include that? And
how does it relate to science?"
"Show of hands, who's in favor
of magic?" said Howard. "We
can brainstorm its details later."
Everyone was in favor of
some sort of magic, but
Brian said, "I want to avoid
repeating major clichés. I'm
tired of the Magical Indian stuff."
"And Magical Negro stuff too,"
Zephaniel added. "Can we
make a list of things we don't
want to include in the magic?"
"Sure," said Lillian. "I can
keep track of the rule-outs."
They quickly compiled a list
of things they wanted to avoid.
"You know, we should talk about
diversity," said Lillian. "We need
at least one sapient species. Do
we want just one, or more -- and
one ethnic group, or several?"
"I dunno, elves have been
done to death," said Zephaniel.
"We could create new species,"
said Nas. "Nothing says we have
to use elves, or even humans."
"Let's not throw out the baby
with the bathwater," said Sylvia.
"Humans are easy to work with
because we're already familiar
with them. Every new species
means starting from scratch."
"Yeah, but new ones are fun,"
said Nas. "I would like to do
at least one new species,
or maybe a few of them."
"Perhaps I can help," said Len.
"Look in your class materials
for the spectrum of agreement.
That will let you gauge how much
support you have for an idea."
The students shuffled through
their papers and textbooks
to find the relevant content.
The spectrum ranged from
enthusiastic support through
reservations down to veto.
Accompanying materials
explained what kind of spread
equaled strong support, or
lukewarm support, or
no agreement at all.
A quick poll of students
showed decent support for
multiple sapient species.
"Not everybody has to build
a species," Nas pointed out.
"If I do one, because I'm excited
about the diversity, and other folks
stick with humans, then that still
gives us two to work with."
"Fair enough," said Sylvia.
"Two is a good contrast."
"As for other diversity,
why not use ourselves?"
said Lillian. "Look around,
we have fair, black, tawny,
and copper skin tones."
"Yeah, we're only missing
the olive," said Georgia.
"Nas is Hispanic," said Brian.
"Doesn't he cover that part?"
"True, but he doesn't have
the olive skin," said Lillian.
"It's tinted, but it still lacks
that greenish-bronze tone."
"My ancestors came from
northern Spain," said Nas.
"Basque?" said Howard.
"No, Galician," said Nas.
"There's a Basque guy in
one of my classes, though,
and we get along just fine."
"Spain has its own diversity,"
said Brian. "One nation now,
but made of many peoples."
"We could work with that,"
said Zephaniel. "Make up
different ethnic groups, and
a place for them to mix."
"Seacoast," said Nas.
"Water is life. Rivers
make good ports, and
those ports make for
travel and trade."
"Maybe something
like the Mediterranean,"
said Sylvia. "An inland sea,
with plenty of coast around it.
Then people could travel from
one part of the coast to another."
"Hmm," Nas said thoughtfully.
"What about when Pangaea
started to break up? The rifts
opened an inland sea between
Laurasia and Gondwana, then
eventually the continents
drifted far enough apart
to make the Atlantic Ocean."
"I like that idea," said Zephaniel.
"Make like a cluster of continents
around an inland sea, each with
its own people, but connected
around the middle area."
"That'll make pretty art,"
said Georgia. "Beaches!"
"Consider the geology, and
what that might tell you about
the lands and their peoples,"
Len suggested then.
"Yeah, but we don't
have a geologist,"
Howard pointed out.
"We can fake it, though,"
said Lillian. "We've all had
geology classes and learned
basic plate tectonics and stuff."
"Land rises and falls," said Georgia.
"Where continents come together,
mountains form, but sometimes
other places sink under water."
"Islands!" said Zephaniel.
"Imagine like --" He spread
his hands. "-- a continent in
the north with mountains, then
two on the sides of the sea,
but the southern one sank
so it's just a bunch of islands."
"So north is higher and south
is lower," said Lillian. "What
about east and west? We
don't want those too similar."
"Maybe one has a high coast
and the other has a low coast?"
said Georgia. "If most beaches
are low, a high cliff would stand out."
"A former seabed or floodplain would
make for great caves if it got lifted up,"
said Lillian. "All that limestone."
Nas perked up. "If we had caves,
we could make a cave ecosystem,"
he said. "Bring in some more diversity,
because cave dwellers don't need eyes."
"Oh, like the cave fish!" Signy said,
bouncing in her seat. "I was hoping
we could do something with blindness,
since I'm working on Disability Studies,
but people discriminate and that's no fun."
"What if they didn't?" Nas said. "It's
one thing for blind humans, because
that's a disability, but a natural species
with a different set of senses wouldn't
necessarily get the same reactions.
Plus they'd have their own culture."
"That sounds pretty cool," said Signy.
"I could come up with some sports
or other cultural stuff. I play goalball.
I can read Braille, so I can take notes
from our discussion in class, too."
"Wait, if Signy's making all of
her notes in Braille, then how are
the rest of us supposed to read
them?" Brian wondered.
"I could learn Braille,"
said Howard, who was
on editing as well as writing.
"Me too," said Caeru, who
would be building the website.
"It's not that easy to learn,"
Signy warned them.
"How long did it take
you?" Howard asked.
"Well, I spent most of
the summer studying
various blind skills, but I'm
still only on Alphabetic Braille
and I don't read very fast,"
said Signy. "I did better with
adaptive technology, so I've
got a translator program."
Howard shrugged. "That's
convenient, but I'd still like
to try Braille if you don't mind."
"Honestly, I could use a break
from all the color chaos," said Caeru.
"I used to get headaches in puberty
from all the extra stuff I see, so having
a different option could be handy."
"Fair enough," said Signy.
"Anything that helps me
keep track is a good thing."
"Keep track?" said Howard.
"You mean the worldbuilding?"
"The worldbuilding, and you guys,"
said Signy. "Anyone out of my reach,
if they're not making noise, I tend
to lose track of where they are."
"Healthy Touch guy here, if
you want contact," said Nas.
"I'm cuddly too," said Georgia,
"if you'd rather have another girl."
"Okay, great," said Signy.
"That'll help me remember
who's where in the room."
"Cuddle puddle!" Caeru said
as ey leaned against Signy.
"Not really my thing," Lillian said.
"Yeah, I don't usually get close
to people I don't already know
pretty well," said Brian.
"No problem, we'll just
shuffle seats," said Nas.
"Professor, is that okay?"
"Sure, you all can sit
wherever you want,"
Len said. "Just leave
room for anyone who
doesn't want to cuddle."
Brian and Lillian shifted
toward the end of the table.
That left Nas on one side of
Signy with Caeru and Georgia
on the other. Zephaniel scooted
around to take the other side of Nas.
"Better, Signy?" asked Caeru.
"We can move if you want."
"This is great," said Signy.
"You all feel different."
"Yeah, my crayon colors
probably help with that,"
said Caeru. "Even though
you can't see them, we
tend to have this energy
that some folks can feel."
"There's an idea," said Nas.
"We could base another species
on Caeru. The colors are different."
"It's more than cosmetic, though,"
Caeru murmured. "I'm intersex.
Even the SPOON doctors can't
figure out all the details, just told me
I should probably take precautions
with everyone I have sex with."
"Some species don't have
separate sexes, or don't divide
them the same as humans do,"
said Nas. "Mushrooms have
thousands of sexes, and most
of those are fertile together."
"Okay, that sounds cool,"
said Caeru. "Thousands is
probably pushing it, though.
What about three? Male,
female, and uh ... dual?"
"Yeah, that should work,"
said Nas. "Hey, we could
put them on the surface over
the cave race, and they'd share
territory without conflicting."
"I like that idea," said Signy.
"Cooperation instead of
conflict or discrimination."
"If each different species
has its own set of senses
and abilities, then they'd have
incentive to work together and
compensate for each other's
weaknesses," said Brian.
"How are they related,
though?" said Sylvia.
"Close or totally different?"
"Humanoid will be easier
for me to draw," said Lillian.
"I don't know about Georgia."
"I can do animals," Georgia said.
"Maybe these species could be
sort of similar, but not too close?
The hominid family tree is
more like a willow thicket."
"I've got an idea," said Nas.
"Suppose an ancestral species
diverged. The cave dwellers split
first, so they're the most different.
The three-sexed people split next,
but they kept exchanging partners
with the other two longer, so they're
more compatible with both humans
and cave dwellers in the present."
"Can they still mix, though?"
said Georgia. "Humans carry
bits of several other species,
but there aren't any others left."
"Whatever we want, I guess,"
said Nas. "Just remember that
different species usually can't
produce fertile offspring if
they can interbreed at all."
"What about the duals?"
said Caeru, snuggling
against Signy. "Say that
it's impossible for humans
and cave dwellers to breed,
almost impossible for male
or female three-sexed people,
but the duals are fertile with
anyone they want for a mate."
"That has potential," said Nas.
"Some species do have kind
of a safety or backup feature
in case usual breeding fails."
"Plus we talked about travel
and mixing around the seacoast,"
said Zephaniel. "That could mean
mixing across species there too,
not just mixing across cultures."
"Put the fair-skinned people on
the southern islands, and they'll do
most of the sailing," said Howard.
"You could get an ethnic gradient."
"What gradient?" said Signy.
"They'd have the most mixing
on or near the inner sea, less of it
farther inland, and probably none
on the outer coasts," said Howard.
"If the fair coloring is toward the south
and the center, it'll get darker toward
the outer edges of the continents."
"Then that probably indicates
past population movements,
because here the color gradient
goes from the equator toward
both poles," Nas said.
"Their ancestors would've
had plenty of time to move
around the supercontinent
before it broke," said Georgia.
"Maybe put black to brown folks
toward the outside of a continent,
with tawny or copper closer to
that inland sea," Zephaniel said.
"If we stack black and tawny, and we
already stacked the cave dwellers
and three-sexed people, then that
leaves fair skin in the south and ...
copper in the north?" said Brian.
"Sounds good to me," said Nas.
"Less territory for the fair skins,
but they travel more, so they'll
overlap with other people's too."
"We just need to be careful about
the stereotypes," said Zephaniel.
"Chaos to the rescue!" Caeru chirped.
"We can't repeat stereotypes if we
don't create the cultural setup
ourselves. Let's throw ideas into
a hat and draw some at random."
"What if the ones we pull don't
really go together?" Lillian said.
"Then we figure out how they
could, and that's creative writing!"
said Sylvia. "It'll be a challenge."
"Or we could trade virtues with
another culture," Howard said.
"We could also flip stereotypes,"
Brian mused. "What if the culture with
my appearance lives in cities, inventing things,
and the culture with yours --" He nodded
at Howard. "-- lives in the wilderness?"
"I like this idea," Howard said. "Back
in high school, I had a great history teacher,
and we studied a lot of early European tribes."
"Oh, me too!" said Georgia. "I got into
the Celts and other island peoples."
"Islands would be a good reason for
people to develop technology slower,
or just different technology, and not
to build big cities," said Howard.
"Island dwarfism," said Nas. "If they're
native to islands, they're probably smaller
than other populations of the same species."
"That would also lend itself to more variety
in coloration, because of the founder effect,"
said Georgia. "One island might run to red hair,
another to blond, and so on. Like Ireland."
"Different cultures, too," said Lillian. "If
we base the cave dwellers on Signy,
they could be cuddly. But islands are
great for independent people or hermits."
"Depends on the size of the island,"
said Howard. "Bali is small, Greenland
is huge, and there's a lot in between."
"Well, we sank a whole continent,
so it probably left some big islands
and some smaller ones," said Lillian.
"How about I sketch out some maps,"
said Georgia. "I'll do some research,
come up with several alternatives, and
whichever one you folks like best,
I'll develop into a finished version."
"Excellent plan," said Len. "You
only need a preliminary map before
midterm, but you do need that so
everyone knows where things are."
"We need better names, too,"
said Brian. "I can build languages,
but we probably want English terms
for stuff, sooner better than later."
"That can be part of your classwork,"
said Len. "English terms count. How
do you plan to organize languages?
You can't do too many of them
and still expect to do them justice."
"How about one per group, and just
say it's the biggest of theirs?" said Brian.
"That'd mean maybe four human ones,
but the two that share a continent
are probably related. Then one
for each of the other two species."
"Six is a lot, Brian," said Len.
"Can you do that much work?"
"How can we cut down this list
of assignments?" said Brian.
"It's designed for one language."
Len looked at the list. "Okay,
at minimum you need a set of
phonemes, a sketch of grammar,
and a Swadesh list. From that
you can build a description."
"Smaller word counts for
the other stuff, or ditch it?"
Brian said. "Maybe I could
do one bigger piece on how
these languages are related?"
"Oh, I like that," said Len.
"Let's try for six languages.
The family analysis can replace
the lessons. Ideally, I'd still like
to get at least one piece of text."
"No, no, a Rosetta Stone!"
Brian said, waving his hands.
"One text, it doesn't have to be
very big, in each language."
"That sounds so awesome,"
Georgia said. "I'd love
to illustrate that one."
"That would make a lot
more work for Brian,"
said Len. "Let's try
not to overload him."
"Maybe not," said Brian.
"Look how far alphabets
spread in our world. Theirs
might have variations based
on just one or two systems."
"The inland sea!" Howard said.
"Ideas would spread around it,
fast, like the Mediterranean.
One place figures out writing,
and then bam! Everyone has it."
"Two," said Signy. "One like
Braille for the cave dwellers,
because they're tactile, and
their companion species would
copy their version. Then one
in visual mode from the humans."
"That works," said Brian. "I can
manage two writing systems, if
they're both alphabets and not
fancy ideographs or the like."
"If you design a tactile alphabet,
then we could make things with it,"
said Signy. "I have Braille T-shirts
made with puff paint and such."
"Ooo, friendship bracelets!"
Georgia said. "They can have
raised lines, knots, or beads."
"It fits with a tactile society,"
Signy said. "They would use
textures or tactile writing to show
rank or affiliations, the way that
other people use colors."
"So let's play around with
more social ideas," said Sylvia.
"I liked Caeru's idea of making
the traits for each culture random."
"Here, everyone write down
three things you like most and
dislike most about your own culture,"
said Caeru. "Then we'll mix them up."
When they were done writing things,
Sylvia collected the virtues in one pile
and the vices in another pile. "Now
we just need to put these in a hat and
blindfold someone to draw them out."
Signy laughed. "Or you could have
me pick, since I can't see anyway."
"That works," Sylvia said. She pushed
the virtue pile down the table to Signy.
"Okay, they're in front of you now."
Signy disentangled herself from
the cuddle pile enough to reach them.
As she drew the slips, other students
wrote down the resulting virtues by culture.
It went fine until she pulled one for
the islands that did not fit at all
with the society shaping up there.
"Seventh generation thinking,"
said Georgia. "What even is that?"
"It means that before making a decision,
people have to think about how it will
affect their descendants," said Brian.
"That ... really doesn't sound like
how the islanders are going, though,"
said Georgia. "We already have
free love and wanderlust there."
"Cave species live longer than
surface species, so that kind of
perspective would fit that culture,"
said Nas. "Could we swap one
of their traits to the islanders?"
"How about independence,"
said Signy. "It doesn't go
all that well with cuddliness
and cooperative economics."
"Do either of those turn into
stereotypes?" Brian asked.
"The islanders are sounding
pretty bohemian, but there isn't
really a strong stereotype of ...
boho fishermen?" Georgia said.
"The cave culture doesn't match
anything I can think of, either,"
said Signy. "It should be fine."
"I think it's great that they got
the cuddliness," said Georgia.
"Who was that one from?"
"Mine," Nas said, grinning.
"Hispanic culture is snuggly."
"Which is awesome," Signy said.
She drew out slips for vices and
distributed one to each culture.
Then she wriggled back into
the cuddle pile of students.
"This looks like a good start
on the cultures," Zephaniel said.
A vidwatch chimed, and Len said,
"That's a ten minute warning, class,
start looking for a stopping place."
Howard skimmed their notes.
"Okay, we have a rough idea
of the planet and continents,
plus a handful of cultures. Let's
plan something for each person
to do before our next meeting,
and what we want to cover then."
"Speaking of our next meeting,
I could get us a group room at
the Healthy Touch building,"
Nas offered. "No reason to use
a classroom or library room if we
don't need those, and it'll be easier
for Signy to keep track of us."
"What's it like?" Signy asked.
"Imagine a giant C-shaped couch
with cushions and throw pillows,"
said Nas. "There are footrests too,
and floor has this shag carpet
over a layer of padding."
"I am totally on board with
that," Georgia said, grinning.
"I like textures now more than I
used to," Signy said. "It's like
I can feel things I didn't before."
"Sometimes the brain can
reorganize things if it loses
a sense," said Nas. "That
doesn't always happen, but
it does for some people."
"It's one reason why
my physical therapist
encouraged me to join
the goalball team here,"
said Signy. "It's supposed
to help me learn how to do
things without eyesight, with
proprioception and hearing."
"Is it working?" Nas said.
Signy shrugged. "I don't
know. I get hit by the ball
a lot. It's fun to play, though."
"We should go to a game
together," Zephaniel said.
"Great idea, but we need
to focus on the worldbuilding,"
said Howard. "Everyone, pick
an assignment to work on. I'm
going to collate today's notes."
"I'm already on the map,"
said Georgia. "I'll make
some preliminaries, and
maybe doodle ideas for
plants and animals too."
"Hey, start looking into
some keystone species,"
said Nas. "We could do
one or two per continent."
"Like beavers?" said Georgia.
"Okay, maps and keystones."
"I can do the same with sketches
for character races," said Lillian.
"Make a handful of options for
each culture and see which ones
the rest of the team likes best."
"I'll start setting up a website,
get the frame done," said Caeru.
"I can't swear I'll have it ready
to start uploading stuff before
our next meeting, but it should
be ready by the end of the week."
"How about I do some plot seeds?"
said Sylvia. "That may give us ideas
on what to do with each culture."
"I want to work on the cave dwellers,"
said Signy. "Does anyone else want
to take a culture? We'll need those."
"I can work on the dark-colored one,"
said Zephaniel. "They're sharing
land with the tawny one, right?"
"Yeah, I can help with that one,"
said Sylvia. "It's not too much."
"I'll take copper in the north,"
said Brian. "I can't really start
on the languages until we get
the cultures roughed out."
"In that case, I'll start on
the three-sexed species,"
said Caeru. "It'll slow down
the web building a bit, though."
"Don't worry too much about
the website yet," said Len.
"You need at least an outline
of the world and its cultures
before you can start making
content for that anyway."
"I'll take the islands for now,"
said Nas. "I can't do much
with the biology until I know
the habitats. Caeru and Signy,
touch base with me about
your species and I'll help
with the biological details."
"Yeah, I don't know much
about cave critters and you
seem familiar," said Signy.
"They're cool, and I've always
been interested in adaptations,"
said Nas. "Give me your vddress
and I'll send you some references."
"Remember you have a bulletin board
on the school server for class chats,"
said Len. "You can share things
that way if you don't want to swap
personal contact information."
"I need all the friends I can get,"
Signy said. "Most of my old ones
pulled back after the accident."
"That sucks," Lillian muttered.
Nas hugged her closer. "They
don't deserve you," he said firmly.
"Finders keepers, losers weepers!"
Georgia caroled. "We're gonna make
the coolest world ever and get famous
and then they'll all be sooo jealous."
Signy laughed and jostled her.
"Oh, you," she said. "Now
you're just being silly."
"Actually, a few groups do
become famous for story worlds,"
said Len. "Don't count on it, since
it's rare -- but do think about how
you'll handle that if it happens."
"We'll worry about that later,"
said Howard. "What do we
want to focus on next session?"
"Pick a map so I can start on
a more detailed one," said Georgia.
"Once we've chosen a map, rough in
the ecological regions; I can do that,"
said Nas. "It'll help Georgia make
a more realistic map later on."
"Once she has an outline of
the globe or continents, I can
scan that so we can make layers
for things like nations or cities,"
said Caeru. "That will be faster
than hand-drawing multiple maps."
"I'll note that part for future work,
but it won't fit in the next session,"
said Howard. "More short-term ideas?"
"Talk through preliminary ideas and
make at least a thumbnail description
for each of the cultures," said Sylvia.
"Without that, we can't even start
on stuff like character creation."
"I'll bring some preliminary sketches
for species and cultures," said Lillian.
"We can discuss which we like or
what we want to do differently."
"Choose some real names for things,
because 'three-sexed species' is
descriptive but silly," said Brian.
"Hear, hear," said Lillian. "We
have to start somewhere, but
we need consistent labels soon,
so we can organize our notes."
"Since this is fantasy, maybe
begin exploring what we want in
the way of magic," said Zephaniel.
"We need to put that in early."
"Okay, I think that's plenty for
next time," said Howard. "We
might not finish all of that, but
we can probably get most of it,
especially if we divide the work
once we've voted on a map
and some character sketches."
"Sounds good to me," said Nas.
"I'll reserve us a group cuddle room
and let everyone know where it is."
"Yay," Signy said softly. "I can
hardly wait. Just piling up this much
is helping. I feel like my head's clearer."
"You're not spending as much energy
trying to track everyone, because you
can feel the ones you're touching,"
said Nas. "It frees up that energy
for other things, like thinking."
"Yeah, that makes sense,"
said Signy. "Everything takes
so much more attention now,
it gets really exhausting."
"Cuddle room also makes
a great nap room if you get
sleepy," said Nas. "As long as
you stay awake for the voting and
chip in work on something, I won't
mind if you fall asleep on me."
"All right, class, that's a plan,"
said Len. "You did a great job
with this first session, everyone
stayed pretty much on track and
you got a lot more done than
most folks manage this soon."
"Thanks, Professor," said Howard.
"Any last words of advice for us?"
"Build with the mind; create with
the heart," said Len. "You need
to set up solid infrastructure for
your story world, and that relies
on logic at first. Then once you
get to the artistic content, you'll
need imagination and emotion."
"Yeah," said Sylvia. "This is
going to be the best class ever."
Len hoped that she was right.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its character (writers, artists, miscellaneous and professor), worldbuilding (instructions, links, storyworld physical notes, storyworld population), location and content notes appear separately.
siliconshaman and dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "invent" square in my 7-1-22 card for the Body Parts Bingo fest. This poem has been posted in memory of Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics."Build with the Mind"
[Monday, August 25, 2014]
Professor Len Ellison watched
as his Worldbuilding students
piled into the classroom.
It had blackboards and
bulletin boards interspersed
among the big old windows,
some with low bookcases
tucked underneath them.
Wooden chairs accompanied
a couple of large tables, and
Len's desk stood at the front.
The other students were settling
into their seats when the tap-tap
of Signy's white cane announced
the arrival of the last member.
"Okay, folks," said Len. "Welcome
to our Worldbuilding class. I am
Professor Len Ellison. You can
call me 'Professor' or 'Len' --
no need to get fancy about it.
Let's go around so you can
introduce yourselves with
your skills and interests."
He had met all of them earlier
while composing the team, but
they didn't know each other yet.
"I'm Howard Emerson," said the first.
"I'm a graduate student in English. I'm
a writer, mostly nonfiction, but I also
want to learn editing and publishing."
"Sylvia Lee," said the Asian girl. "I'm
a sophomore in Professional Writing, most
of it fiction, and a minor in Asian Studies."
"I'm Zephaniel Bell, a sophomore,"
said the black boy. "My major is
African-American Studies, while
my minors are Poetry and Nutrition."
"That's a good spread on writers,"
said Len, who was glad that they
had come together this well.
"My name is Lillian Beale. I'm
a junior in Studio Arts, focusing
on portraits and human figures,"
said the serious girl. "My minor
is Gender and Sexuality studies."
"Hi I'm Georgia Field and I'm
a nature artist, landscapes,"
the redhead said, bouncing
in her seat. "My minor is
Adirondack Studies, oh,
and I'm in my junior year."
"My name is Caeru and I'm
a crayon soup. Yes, the teal hair
is natural. I use ey/em pronouns,"
ey said. "I'm a junior too. My major
is Graphic Design and my minor is
Computer Applications, so I'd like
to build a website for this project."
"Maybe we could do something with
sex and gender in this," said Lillian.
"Yeah, that's a thought," said Caeru.
"I have explored gender history on
my own time, and different cultures
have done very different things with it."
"I'm Signy Landvik," said the pale girl.
"I lost my sight this spring. I've spent
all summer learning blind skills, but
they're still pretty patchy. I'm a junior.
My current major is Disability Studies
with a Peace and Conflict Studies minor."
"Brian Yellow Corn Boy," said the next.
"I'm a freshman, but my advisor thought
I knew enough for this class. My major
is Linguistics: Heritage Languages with
a minor in Native American Studies."
"Oh, yay, we can have languages
for our story world," said Sylvia.
"My name is Nas de la Fuente,"
said the Hispanic man. "I'm
a biologist with experience in
Healthy Touch. Currently I'm
a graduate student studying
Community Health and
Therapeutic Recreation."
"That sounds like a good team,"
said Len. "The syllabus is just
an outline for now; we will fill in
planned presentations, deadlines,
and other details as they develop.
Assignments are sorted before
and after midterm, but even
that is negotiable if necessary."
"Negotiable?" Lillian asked.
"This class teaches teamwork,
creativity, and organization,"
Len explained. "If someone
decides to make, say, a set of
four ecosystems then it might
work better to set four deadlines
instead of one or two for that."
The students nodded, which
was an encouraging sign.
"You'll have time to work on
your assignments here during
class hours," Len went on. "I've
also made arrangements with
the library so you can reserve
a group study room in case
you want additional meetings."
"Why the library?" Nas said,
looking around at the classroom.
"This place seems good enough."
"It's a great room, but it is old,"
Len said. "It has blackboards,
bulletin boards, and a screen for
projections but no viewscreen.
The library room has a viewscreen
to make online research easier."
"That'll be useful, especially
with Caeru making a website
for our project," said Lillian.
"The first class session of
each week will include a lesson
or lecture on different topics,"
Len said. "I'll try to make sure
there's at least one guest speaker
for each of your specialties, too."
"What about the other sessions?"
Howard wondered. "Book study?"
"No, the rest are yours to work on
your project," said Len. "If you
get stuck, let me know and I'll
help you work through the snag.
Do you all have your textbooks?"
There was one on teamwork and
one on participatory decision-making,
plus a whole archive of materials about
different aspects of worldbuilding itself.
"Yes, Professor," the students chorused.
"Well, we've got plenty of time left since
you didn't goof around and drag out
the overview," said Len. "If you want
to get started on the brainstorming
about your story world, then go ahead.
Build with the mind; create with the heart."
"And what, just throw out ideas and
see what sticks?" said Georgia.
"That's how brainstorming works,"
said Lillian. "No filtering, that's later."
"Well, it might make sense to try
for some basic parameters first, so
we don't waste time brainstorming
in the wrong direction," said Howard.
"Like what?" Signy wondered.
"The class packet has some of
the basic worldbuilding parameters,
probably to help spark discussions,"
Howard said. "We could use that."
"That works for me," said Lillian.
"We can note anything where we
agree quickly, and other stuff
we can discuss more later."
The others nodded agreement,
shuffling to find their pages.
"Genre?" Howard asked.
Most of the others students
listed fantasy as a favorite, but
Howard mentioned horror instead.
Lillian shook her head. "I am
really not into horror," she said.
"Howard, what kind of horror
do you like?" Len asked him.
"There are many variations."
"Mostly psychological stuff,"
said Howard. "I like digging into
how and why things happen. It
creates interesting tension."
"Well, you can write that in
any setting if you want to do
more than just the nonfiction,"
Len pointed out. "Lillian, could
you live with that as long as you
don't have to handle it personally?"
"Yeah, just bear in mind that I'm
not great at illustrating zombies
or anything like that," she said.
"I love those 'lost in the woods'
scare stories," said Georgia. "I do
mostly nature art, but I'd be up for
trying to illustrate one of those."
Howard brightened. "Yeah,
that could be fun," he said.
"So, maybe a fantasy world
with enough variety in settings
to accommodate different tones,
subgenres, and stuff like that?"
"That sounds fun," said Zephaniel.
"It's good to have some flexibility."
"So is this going to be a plane,
a planet, or what?" said Caeru.
"Fantasy worlds can get weird."
"Do we need that flavor of weird?"
said Sylvia. "If we make it a planet,
an Earthlike planet, then we can
just use a lot of everyday details
and save the big differences for
wherever the story needs them."
"Keep it simple," said Nas. "I'd
rather stick with familiar physics
and play around with biology."
"Well, what about magic?"
said Signy. "It's fantasy, so do
we want to include that? And
how does it relate to science?"
"Show of hands, who's in favor
of magic?" said Howard. "We
can brainstorm its details later."
Everyone was in favor of
some sort of magic, but
Brian said, "I want to avoid
repeating major clichés. I'm
tired of the Magical Indian stuff."
"And Magical Negro stuff too,"
Zephaniel added. "Can we
make a list of things we don't
want to include in the magic?"
"Sure," said Lillian. "I can
keep track of the rule-outs."
They quickly compiled a list
of things they wanted to avoid.
"You know, we should talk about
diversity," said Lillian. "We need
at least one sapient species. Do
we want just one, or more -- and
one ethnic group, or several?"
"I dunno, elves have been
done to death," said Zephaniel.
"We could create new species,"
said Nas. "Nothing says we have
to use elves, or even humans."
"Let's not throw out the baby
with the bathwater," said Sylvia.
"Humans are easy to work with
because we're already familiar
with them. Every new species
means starting from scratch."
"Yeah, but new ones are fun,"
said Nas. "I would like to do
at least one new species,
or maybe a few of them."
"Perhaps I can help," said Len.
"Look in your class materials
for the spectrum of agreement.
That will let you gauge how much
support you have for an idea."
The students shuffled through
their papers and textbooks
to find the relevant content.
The spectrum ranged from
enthusiastic support through
reservations down to veto.
Accompanying materials
explained what kind of spread
equaled strong support, or
lukewarm support, or
no agreement at all.
A quick poll of students
showed decent support for
multiple sapient species.
"Not everybody has to build
a species," Nas pointed out.
"If I do one, because I'm excited
about the diversity, and other folks
stick with humans, then that still
gives us two to work with."
"Fair enough," said Sylvia.
"Two is a good contrast."
"As for other diversity,
why not use ourselves?"
said Lillian. "Look around,
we have fair, black, tawny,
and copper skin tones."
"Yeah, we're only missing
the olive," said Georgia.
"Nas is Hispanic," said Brian.
"Doesn't he cover that part?"
"True, but he doesn't have
the olive skin," said Lillian.
"It's tinted, but it still lacks
that greenish-bronze tone."
"My ancestors came from
northern Spain," said Nas.
"Basque?" said Howard.
"No, Galician," said Nas.
"There's a Basque guy in
one of my classes, though,
and we get along just fine."
"Spain has its own diversity,"
said Brian. "One nation now,
but made of many peoples."
"We could work with that,"
said Zephaniel. "Make up
different ethnic groups, and
a place for them to mix."
"Seacoast," said Nas.
"Water is life. Rivers
make good ports, and
those ports make for
travel and trade."
"Maybe something
like the Mediterranean,"
said Sylvia. "An inland sea,
with plenty of coast around it.
Then people could travel from
one part of the coast to another."
"Hmm," Nas said thoughtfully.
"What about when Pangaea
started to break up? The rifts
opened an inland sea between
Laurasia and Gondwana, then
eventually the continents
drifted far enough apart
to make the Atlantic Ocean."
"I like that idea," said Zephaniel.
"Make like a cluster of continents
around an inland sea, each with
its own people, but connected
around the middle area."
"That'll make pretty art,"
said Georgia. "Beaches!"
"Consider the geology, and
what that might tell you about
the lands and their peoples,"
Len suggested then.
"Yeah, but we don't
have a geologist,"
Howard pointed out.
"We can fake it, though,"
said Lillian. "We've all had
geology classes and learned
basic plate tectonics and stuff."
"Land rises and falls," said Georgia.
"Where continents come together,
mountains form, but sometimes
other places sink under water."
"Islands!" said Zephaniel.
"Imagine like --" He spread
his hands. "-- a continent in
the north with mountains, then
two on the sides of the sea,
but the southern one sank
so it's just a bunch of islands."
"So north is higher and south
is lower," said Lillian. "What
about east and west? We
don't want those too similar."
"Maybe one has a high coast
and the other has a low coast?"
said Georgia. "If most beaches
are low, a high cliff would stand out."
"A former seabed or floodplain would
make for great caves if it got lifted up,"
said Lillian. "All that limestone."
Nas perked up. "If we had caves,
we could make a cave ecosystem,"
he said. "Bring in some more diversity,
because cave dwellers don't need eyes."
"Oh, like the cave fish!" Signy said,
bouncing in her seat. "I was hoping
we could do something with blindness,
since I'm working on Disability Studies,
but people discriminate and that's no fun."
"What if they didn't?" Nas said. "It's
one thing for blind humans, because
that's a disability, but a natural species
with a different set of senses wouldn't
necessarily get the same reactions.
Plus they'd have their own culture."
"That sounds pretty cool," said Signy.
"I could come up with some sports
or other cultural stuff. I play goalball.
I can read Braille, so I can take notes
from our discussion in class, too."
"Wait, if Signy's making all of
her notes in Braille, then how are
the rest of us supposed to read
them?" Brian wondered.
"I could learn Braille,"
said Howard, who was
on editing as well as writing.
"Me too," said Caeru, who
would be building the website.
"It's not that easy to learn,"
Signy warned them.
"How long did it take
you?" Howard asked.
"Well, I spent most of
the summer studying
various blind skills, but I'm
still only on Alphabetic Braille
and I don't read very fast,"
said Signy. "I did better with
adaptive technology, so I've
got a translator program."
Howard shrugged. "That's
convenient, but I'd still like
to try Braille if you don't mind."
"Honestly, I could use a break
from all the color chaos," said Caeru.
"I used to get headaches in puberty
from all the extra stuff I see, so having
a different option could be handy."
"Fair enough," said Signy.
"Anything that helps me
keep track is a good thing."
"Keep track?" said Howard.
"You mean the worldbuilding?"
"The worldbuilding, and you guys,"
said Signy. "Anyone out of my reach,
if they're not making noise, I tend
to lose track of where they are."
"Healthy Touch guy here, if
you want contact," said Nas.
"I'm cuddly too," said Georgia,
"if you'd rather have another girl."
"Okay, great," said Signy.
"That'll help me remember
who's where in the room."
"Cuddle puddle!" Caeru said
as ey leaned against Signy.
"Not really my thing," Lillian said.
"Yeah, I don't usually get close
to people I don't already know
pretty well," said Brian.
"No problem, we'll just
shuffle seats," said Nas.
"Professor, is that okay?"
"Sure, you all can sit
wherever you want,"
Len said. "Just leave
room for anyone who
doesn't want to cuddle."
Brian and Lillian shifted
toward the end of the table.
That left Nas on one side of
Signy with Caeru and Georgia
on the other. Zephaniel scooted
around to take the other side of Nas.
"Better, Signy?" asked Caeru.
"We can move if you want."
"This is great," said Signy.
"You all feel different."
"Yeah, my crayon colors
probably help with that,"
said Caeru. "Even though
you can't see them, we
tend to have this energy
that some folks can feel."
"There's an idea," said Nas.
"We could base another species
on Caeru. The colors are different."
"It's more than cosmetic, though,"
Caeru murmured. "I'm intersex.
Even the SPOON doctors can't
figure out all the details, just told me
I should probably take precautions
with everyone I have sex with."
"Some species don't have
separate sexes, or don't divide
them the same as humans do,"
said Nas. "Mushrooms have
thousands of sexes, and most
of those are fertile together."
"Okay, that sounds cool,"
said Caeru. "Thousands is
probably pushing it, though.
What about three? Male,
female, and uh ... dual?"
"Yeah, that should work,"
said Nas. "Hey, we could
put them on the surface over
the cave race, and they'd share
territory without conflicting."
"I like that idea," said Signy.
"Cooperation instead of
conflict or discrimination."
"If each different species
has its own set of senses
and abilities, then they'd have
incentive to work together and
compensate for each other's
weaknesses," said Brian.
"How are they related,
though?" said Sylvia.
"Close or totally different?"
"Humanoid will be easier
for me to draw," said Lillian.
"I don't know about Georgia."
"I can do animals," Georgia said.
"Maybe these species could be
sort of similar, but not too close?
The hominid family tree is
more like a willow thicket."
"I've got an idea," said Nas.
"Suppose an ancestral species
diverged. The cave dwellers split
first, so they're the most different.
The three-sexed people split next,
but they kept exchanging partners
with the other two longer, so they're
more compatible with both humans
and cave dwellers in the present."
"Can they still mix, though?"
said Georgia. "Humans carry
bits of several other species,
but there aren't any others left."
"Whatever we want, I guess,"
said Nas. "Just remember that
different species usually can't
produce fertile offspring if
they can interbreed at all."
"What about the duals?"
said Caeru, snuggling
against Signy. "Say that
it's impossible for humans
and cave dwellers to breed,
almost impossible for male
or female three-sexed people,
but the duals are fertile with
anyone they want for a mate."
"That has potential," said Nas.
"Some species do have kind
of a safety or backup feature
in case usual breeding fails."
"Plus we talked about travel
and mixing around the seacoast,"
said Zephaniel. "That could mean
mixing across species there too,
not just mixing across cultures."
"Put the fair-skinned people on
the southern islands, and they'll do
most of the sailing," said Howard.
"You could get an ethnic gradient."
"What gradient?" said Signy.
"They'd have the most mixing
on or near the inner sea, less of it
farther inland, and probably none
on the outer coasts," said Howard.
"If the fair coloring is toward the south
and the center, it'll get darker toward
the outer edges of the continents."
"Then that probably indicates
past population movements,
because here the color gradient
goes from the equator toward
both poles," Nas said.
"Their ancestors would've
had plenty of time to move
around the supercontinent
before it broke," said Georgia.
"Maybe put black to brown folks
toward the outside of a continent,
with tawny or copper closer to
that inland sea," Zephaniel said.
"If we stack black and tawny, and we
already stacked the cave dwellers
and three-sexed people, then that
leaves fair skin in the south and ...
copper in the north?" said Brian.
"Sounds good to me," said Nas.
"Less territory for the fair skins,
but they travel more, so they'll
overlap with other people's too."
"We just need to be careful about
the stereotypes," said Zephaniel.
"Chaos to the rescue!" Caeru chirped.
"We can't repeat stereotypes if we
don't create the cultural setup
ourselves. Let's throw ideas into
a hat and draw some at random."
"What if the ones we pull don't
really go together?" Lillian said.
"Then we figure out how they
could, and that's creative writing!"
said Sylvia. "It'll be a challenge."
"Or we could trade virtues with
another culture," Howard said.
"We could also flip stereotypes,"
Brian mused. "What if the culture with
my appearance lives in cities, inventing things,
and the culture with yours --" He nodded
at Howard. "-- lives in the wilderness?"
"I like this idea," Howard said. "Back
in high school, I had a great history teacher,
and we studied a lot of early European tribes."
"Oh, me too!" said Georgia. "I got into
the Celts and other island peoples."
"Islands would be a good reason for
people to develop technology slower,
or just different technology, and not
to build big cities," said Howard.
"Island dwarfism," said Nas. "If they're
native to islands, they're probably smaller
than other populations of the same species."
"That would also lend itself to more variety
in coloration, because of the founder effect,"
said Georgia. "One island might run to red hair,
another to blond, and so on. Like Ireland."
"Different cultures, too," said Lillian. "If
we base the cave dwellers on Signy,
they could be cuddly. But islands are
great for independent people or hermits."
"Depends on the size of the island,"
said Howard. "Bali is small, Greenland
is huge, and there's a lot in between."
"Well, we sank a whole continent,
so it probably left some big islands
and some smaller ones," said Lillian.
"How about I sketch out some maps,"
said Georgia. "I'll do some research,
come up with several alternatives, and
whichever one you folks like best,
I'll develop into a finished version."
"Excellent plan," said Len. "You
only need a preliminary map before
midterm, but you do need that so
everyone knows where things are."
"We need better names, too,"
said Brian. "I can build languages,
but we probably want English terms
for stuff, sooner better than later."
"That can be part of your classwork,"
said Len. "English terms count. How
do you plan to organize languages?
You can't do too many of them
and still expect to do them justice."
"How about one per group, and just
say it's the biggest of theirs?" said Brian.
"That'd mean maybe four human ones,
but the two that share a continent
are probably related. Then one
for each of the other two species."
"Six is a lot, Brian," said Len.
"Can you do that much work?"
"How can we cut down this list
of assignments?" said Brian.
"It's designed for one language."
Len looked at the list. "Okay,
at minimum you need a set of
phonemes, a sketch of grammar,
and a Swadesh list. From that
you can build a description."
"Smaller word counts for
the other stuff, or ditch it?"
Brian said. "Maybe I could
do one bigger piece on how
these languages are related?"
"Oh, I like that," said Len.
"Let's try for six languages.
The family analysis can replace
the lessons. Ideally, I'd still like
to get at least one piece of text."
"No, no, a Rosetta Stone!"
Brian said, waving his hands.
"One text, it doesn't have to be
very big, in each language."
"That sounds so awesome,"
Georgia said. "I'd love
to illustrate that one."
"That would make a lot
more work for Brian,"
said Len. "Let's try
not to overload him."
"Maybe not," said Brian.
"Look how far alphabets
spread in our world. Theirs
might have variations based
on just one or two systems."
"The inland sea!" Howard said.
"Ideas would spread around it,
fast, like the Mediterranean.
One place figures out writing,
and then bam! Everyone has it."
"Two," said Signy. "One like
Braille for the cave dwellers,
because they're tactile, and
their companion species would
copy their version. Then one
in visual mode from the humans."
"That works," said Brian. "I can
manage two writing systems, if
they're both alphabets and not
fancy ideographs or the like."
"If you design a tactile alphabet,
then we could make things with it,"
said Signy. "I have Braille T-shirts
made with puff paint and such."
"Ooo, friendship bracelets!"
Georgia said. "They can have
raised lines, knots, or beads."
"It fits with a tactile society,"
Signy said. "They would use
textures or tactile writing to show
rank or affiliations, the way that
other people use colors."
"So let's play around with
more social ideas," said Sylvia.
"I liked Caeru's idea of making
the traits for each culture random."
"Here, everyone write down
three things you like most and
dislike most about your own culture,"
said Caeru. "Then we'll mix them up."
When they were done writing things,
Sylvia collected the virtues in one pile
and the vices in another pile. "Now
we just need to put these in a hat and
blindfold someone to draw them out."
Signy laughed. "Or you could have
me pick, since I can't see anyway."
"That works," Sylvia said. She pushed
the virtue pile down the table to Signy.
"Okay, they're in front of you now."
Signy disentangled herself from
the cuddle pile enough to reach them.
As she drew the slips, other students
wrote down the resulting virtues by culture.
It went fine until she pulled one for
the islands that did not fit at all
with the society shaping up there.
"Seventh generation thinking,"
said Georgia. "What even is that?"
"It means that before making a decision,
people have to think about how it will
affect their descendants," said Brian.
"That ... really doesn't sound like
how the islanders are going, though,"
said Georgia. "We already have
free love and wanderlust there."
"Cave species live longer than
surface species, so that kind of
perspective would fit that culture,"
said Nas. "Could we swap one
of their traits to the islanders?"
"How about independence,"
said Signy. "It doesn't go
all that well with cuddliness
and cooperative economics."
"Do either of those turn into
stereotypes?" Brian asked.
"The islanders are sounding
pretty bohemian, but there isn't
really a strong stereotype of ...
boho fishermen?" Georgia said.
"The cave culture doesn't match
anything I can think of, either,"
said Signy. "It should be fine."
"I think it's great that they got
the cuddliness," said Georgia.
"Who was that one from?"
"Mine," Nas said, grinning.
"Hispanic culture is snuggly."
"Which is awesome," Signy said.
She drew out slips for vices and
distributed one to each culture.
Then she wriggled back into
the cuddle pile of students.
"This looks like a good start
on the cultures," Zephaniel said.
A vidwatch chimed, and Len said,
"That's a ten minute warning, class,
start looking for a stopping place."
Howard skimmed their notes.
"Okay, we have a rough idea
of the planet and continents,
plus a handful of cultures. Let's
plan something for each person
to do before our next meeting,
and what we want to cover then."
"Speaking of our next meeting,
I could get us a group room at
the Healthy Touch building,"
Nas offered. "No reason to use
a classroom or library room if we
don't need those, and it'll be easier
for Signy to keep track of us."
"What's it like?" Signy asked.
"Imagine a giant C-shaped couch
with cushions and throw pillows,"
said Nas. "There are footrests too,
and floor has this shag carpet
over a layer of padding."
"I am totally on board with
that," Georgia said, grinning.
"I like textures now more than I
used to," Signy said. "It's like
I can feel things I didn't before."
"Sometimes the brain can
reorganize things if it loses
a sense," said Nas. "That
doesn't always happen, but
it does for some people."
"It's one reason why
my physical therapist
encouraged me to join
the goalball team here,"
said Signy. "It's supposed
to help me learn how to do
things without eyesight, with
proprioception and hearing."
"Is it working?" Nas said.
Signy shrugged. "I don't
know. I get hit by the ball
a lot. It's fun to play, though."
"We should go to a game
together," Zephaniel said.
"Great idea, but we need
to focus on the worldbuilding,"
said Howard. "Everyone, pick
an assignment to work on. I'm
going to collate today's notes."
"I'm already on the map,"
said Georgia. "I'll make
some preliminaries, and
maybe doodle ideas for
plants and animals too."
"Hey, start looking into
some keystone species,"
said Nas. "We could do
one or two per continent."
"Like beavers?" said Georgia.
"Okay, maps and keystones."
"I can do the same with sketches
for character races," said Lillian.
"Make a handful of options for
each culture and see which ones
the rest of the team likes best."
"I'll start setting up a website,
get the frame done," said Caeru.
"I can't swear I'll have it ready
to start uploading stuff before
our next meeting, but it should
be ready by the end of the week."
"How about I do some plot seeds?"
said Sylvia. "That may give us ideas
on what to do with each culture."
"I want to work on the cave dwellers,"
said Signy. "Does anyone else want
to take a culture? We'll need those."
"I can work on the dark-colored one,"
said Zephaniel. "They're sharing
land with the tawny one, right?"
"Yeah, I can help with that one,"
said Sylvia. "It's not too much."
"I'll take copper in the north,"
said Brian. "I can't really start
on the languages until we get
the cultures roughed out."
"In that case, I'll start on
the three-sexed species,"
said Caeru. "It'll slow down
the web building a bit, though."
"Don't worry too much about
the website yet," said Len.
"You need at least an outline
of the world and its cultures
before you can start making
content for that anyway."
"I'll take the islands for now,"
said Nas. "I can't do much
with the biology until I know
the habitats. Caeru and Signy,
touch base with me about
your species and I'll help
with the biological details."
"Yeah, I don't know much
about cave critters and you
seem familiar," said Signy.
"They're cool, and I've always
been interested in adaptations,"
said Nas. "Give me your vddress
and I'll send you some references."
"Remember you have a bulletin board
on the school server for class chats,"
said Len. "You can share things
that way if you don't want to swap
personal contact information."
"I need all the friends I can get,"
Signy said. "Most of my old ones
pulled back after the accident."
"That sucks," Lillian muttered.
Nas hugged her closer. "They
don't deserve you," he said firmly.
"Finders keepers, losers weepers!"
Georgia caroled. "We're gonna make
the coolest world ever and get famous
and then they'll all be sooo jealous."
Signy laughed and jostled her.
"Oh, you," she said. "Now
you're just being silly."
"Actually, a few groups do
become famous for story worlds,"
said Len. "Don't count on it, since
it's rare -- but do think about how
you'll handle that if it happens."
"We'll worry about that later,"
said Howard. "What do we
want to focus on next session?"
"Pick a map so I can start on
a more detailed one," said Georgia.
"Once we've chosen a map, rough in
the ecological regions; I can do that,"
said Nas. "It'll help Georgia make
a more realistic map later on."
"Once she has an outline of
the globe or continents, I can
scan that so we can make layers
for things like nations or cities,"
said Caeru. "That will be faster
than hand-drawing multiple maps."
"I'll note that part for future work,
but it won't fit in the next session,"
said Howard. "More short-term ideas?"
"Talk through preliminary ideas and
make at least a thumbnail description
for each of the cultures," said Sylvia.
"Without that, we can't even start
on stuff like character creation."
"I'll bring some preliminary sketches
for species and cultures," said Lillian.
"We can discuss which we like or
what we want to do differently."
"Choose some real names for things,
because 'three-sexed species' is
descriptive but silly," said Brian.
"Hear, hear," said Lillian. "We
have to start somewhere, but
we need consistent labels soon,
so we can organize our notes."
"Since this is fantasy, maybe
begin exploring what we want in
the way of magic," said Zephaniel.
"We need to put that in early."
"Okay, I think that's plenty for
next time," said Howard. "We
might not finish all of that, but
we can probably get most of it,
especially if we divide the work
once we've voted on a map
and some character sketches."
"Sounds good to me," said Nas.
"I'll reserve us a group cuddle room
and let everyone know where it is."
"Yay," Signy said softly. "I can
hardly wait. Just piling up this much
is helping. I feel like my head's clearer."
"You're not spending as much energy
trying to track everyone, because you
can feel the ones you're touching,"
said Nas. "It frees up that energy
for other things, like thinking."
"Yeah, that makes sense,"
said Signy. "Everything takes
so much more attention now,
it gets really exhausting."
"Cuddle room also makes
a great nap room if you get
sleepy," said Nas. "As long as
you stay awake for the voting and
chip in work on something, I won't
mind if you fall asleep on me."
"All right, class, that's a plan,"
said Len. "You did a great job
with this first session, everyone
stayed pretty much on track and
you got a lot more done than
most folks manage this soon."
"Thanks, Professor," said Howard.
"Any last words of advice for us?"
"Build with the mind; create with
the heart," said Len. "You need
to set up solid infrastructure for
your story world, and that relies
on logic at first. Then once you
get to the artistic content, you'll
need imagination and emotion."
"Yeah," said Sylvia. "This is
going to be the best class ever."
Len hoped that she was right.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its character (writers, artists, miscellaneous and professor), worldbuilding (instructions, links, storyworld physical notes, storyworld population), location and content notes appear separately.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-14 01:45 am (UTC)The "big block will have coastal regions with lots of diversity, but the interior will be like the Australian Outback or worse. *nasty* desert.
Once the rift forms, you'll get plants and animals from the old coasts spreading up the new coasts. which will make for some "odd" distributions, and lots of species having to adjust to new-to-them ecological niches.
Weather and climate on the new sea coasts will keep changing as the sea grows.
Given "normal" geological processes, the effects will probably be well over by the times they'll be writing. But if it happened faster?
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-14 03:10 am (UTC)Then this 'verse will treat earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes the wa uh we treat bad thunderstorms.
...and they'd have a lot of geothermal activity, too.
Thoughts
Date: 2022-11-14 03:18 am (UTC)True.
>>The "big block will have coastal regions with lots of diversity, but the interior will be like the Australian Outback or worse. *nasty* desert.<<
This fits extrapolations of Pangaea and other supercontinents as largely desert. Although there was that time it rained for 2 million years.
>>Once the rift forms, you'll get plants and animals from the old coasts spreading up the new coasts. which will make for some "odd" distributions, and lots of species having to adjust to new-to-them ecological niches.<<
True.
>> Weather and climate on the new sea coasts will keep changing as the sea grows.<<
Yep. By this point it's a pretty good-sized sea, though nowhere near ocean size yet.
>> Given "normal" geological processes, the effects will probably be well over by the times they'll be writing. But if it happened faster? <<
There is no "over" in plate tectonics. Things are always changing slowly, and sometimes this comes clear in volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. The pace can change; there may be periods of massive eruptions or when little happens.
The geology does play a major role in this setting, because of the central sea, but also the differences in continental coastlines and the southern islands. So there are places prone to earthquakes or volcanoes, just a different pattern than on our planet.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-14 02:08 am (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2022-11-14 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-15 03:17 am (UTC)I spotted two typos, "story word" and "vddress". Not bad for such a long poem.
Thoughts
Date: 2022-11-15 06:33 am (UTC)I'm glad you liked it.
>> How long are we going to follow this class? <<
However long people prompt for it. I have plenty of ideas.
>> I spotted two typos, "story word" <<
Fixed, thanks.
>>and "vddress". Not bad for such a long poem.<<
Actually not a typo, it's short for "vidwatch address."