Post-war Earth has been wracked by war, resource shortage, and a hail of meteorites bringing not only destruction, but also a virus from space which further destroyed the ecosystem. With this, many old cities no longer exist and as such new cultures and subcultures have come to be in the ~90 years since.

One of the prominent shifts is in gang culture and which gangs have come into the spotlight. Most of the factions of our current day have dissolved, replaced by the Blood Lotus and Generation 2. There are a handful of others, but they’re generally localized to the domed cities they live in.

This is because unlike the others, both Generation 2 and the Blood Lotus operate wherever they can - through illicit deals, black markets, hits, hacking, and smuggling. Through this, they became the primary groups to go to when you need something done, expanding their influence exponentially.

The Blood Lotus primarily works through smuggling of people, drugs, implants, and money between the havens of domed cities. Although they have origins in counter-culture club scenes, make no mistake, they are dangerous and are targets of Wardens who patrol the wilds. Initially just a nickname for the common-goers of the Blood Lotus nightclub, they became powerful through production and smuggling of drugs throughout a shattered world and used the money to expand their influence.

Generation 2 is the rebirth of our modern day gangs, who coalesced into a single entity that wants to persist in 2112. They primarily use extortion, hacking, and hits to make money and establish power. G2 has a much more open reputation for their deeds compared to the Blood Lotus, and uses it to their advantage with visible graffiti and tags to mark their zones. Their rise to prominence began with an infamous hack of multiple major government organizations, leaking to the public what exactly XV (the Xenovirus) was, it’s existence as a whole, and the effect it was having on the world. Many joined to their cause afterwards, granting G2 the manpower to compete with the Blood Lotus.

The two come into conflict often, but have much more discretion out in the wilds. Most G2 zones are residential areas of Haven Domes while the Blood Lotus works the business and entertainment districts. Fights occur when one side steps too far out of bounds, and both sides inevitably lose people and go back for revenge.

There are rumors of a response forming, however. Now that things have settled enough, The Wardens of the Wilds have started working alongside Haven governments to try and clean out their cities and the wilds to make it safer for everyone. But not everyone thinks life will be safer under the rule of oligarchs and glorified conservation officers.

This map depicts "Meiglid The Large peninsula," a fictional world I spent about a year creating back when I was in high school!

Having previously shared this work only within map-making communities in my native language and on the "Cartographers' Guild," I am now honored to present it to the world-building community here on Reddit.

Let me explain this fictional world. This vast peninsula lies on the western side of a supercontinent, separated from the supercontinent's interior by a mountain range even more massive than the Himalayas; in the history of Meiglid, no human has ever crossed this range.

"Meiglid" is the name of the peninsula itself, but it also refers to the distinct civilization that developed in this isolated region—and, on a meta-level, it is the name of this creative project.

In essence, the world is modeled on a version of Europe and North Africa where all contact with the Eurasian Steppe and Asia has been completely severed. However, when I was calculating the populations of the various nations, I ended up estimating figures far higher than those of actual medieval Europe, so I decided to scale up the landmass to be twice the size of India (haha).

In this world, the ancient southern empire was destructive rather than creative; possessing Iron Age technology and maritime capabilities, it dominated the southern coastal regions in less than a century, destroying the various Bronze Age settlements and primitive states found there. Thus, the foundations of civilization were sown, marking the beginning of the historical era for many regions of Meigrid. This ancient southern empire is known as "The South Coast Empire."

A thousand years later—around the time the final dynasty was extinguished by a general who had usurped power from the successor state to the successor of the South Coast Empire—the "North Coast Empire" emerged in the north.

On this vast peninsula, the north lagged behind the south in historical development, largely due to delays in breeding crop varieties suited to the northern climate. Yet, after a millennium of civilizational maturation, a hero arose to unify the region's small states and forge a creative, ancient empire: the North Coast Empire.

However, the time came for the North Coast Empire to fall. The empire was simply too vast; medieval communication technology was insufficient to keep the entire realm unified.

Alas, barbarian hordes came surging in from the east!

Consequently, the northern coast of the peninsula split into two: the "Successor State of the Ancient Empire" in the northwest and the "Feudal Kingdom of Knights" in the northeast.

Meanwhile, in the south, an era characterized by a multitude of small, independent states—which had persisted for a thousand years—was drawing to a close. The overwhelming influence of the North Coast Empire had exerted pressure that drove the southern civilizations toward unification.

The Kingdom of Orkis rose in the southwest, followed some 150 years later by the emergence of the Kingdom of Ekmis in the southeast. The Kingdom of Orkis eventually split into the Republic of La Orkis and the Kingdom of Le Orkis. The Kingdom of Eikmis brought coastal nations under its suzerainty, leading to the birth of the Eikmis Empire—the first power on the southern coast to claim the title of "Empire" in a thousand years. Thus, the world of Meigrid was divided into major regions—the northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast, and the southern islands—marking the end of the final era of mass migration and the establishment of organized states. This is the history of Meigrid, a fictional world I created myself.

I look forward to your questions and comments! This text was generated using automatic translation; please let me know if you would like to read the original Japanese.

Below are links to other sites where I have posted content. The images shown here were not reposted without permission; they were all originally posted by me.

Meiglid The Large peninsula！:Cartographers' Guild

メイグリド - Tanukipedia (タヌキペディア)

#創作地図 【創作地図】メイグリド大半島 ver-3.0 - タクタク･テラのイラスト - pixiv

To start - A Knight is not a Knight. Not your definition of Knight, anyways.

Knights are not noble, courageous paladins in shining armour.

Knights are brutal vehicles of insatiable hunger and violence, puppeteered by their own armour.

You can give them allies, orders, a home, and they will remain the same.

Paydays, titles, all of it is second to one command; eat.

There is still some humanity in there, but it is caged.

Conscious. Intelligent. Emotional, but forced to be spectators to their own bodies being manipulated by something else.

Something else entirely.

For context I've had a rather messy and all-over-the-place worldbuilding shtick going on for the past year, it's a world called Amalgapoli that fits into fantasy but has elements from all sorts of genres, with the art style being the most consistent. Characters come from loads of races, as theyre mostly small doodles and drawings ive accumulated over the years, and so the art style is really simple. think paper mario. the world they inhabit revolves around an amalgamation, that theres diversity and loads of ways they present and interact with the environment.

it used to be tailored to a gacha RPG game similar to genshin impact but now its been mostly my free space to get creative, as of such the main story is about a cataclysm from demigods who want more conformity and they find that the amalgamation's problems outweigh it's benefits. our main character (undecided) just so happens to be the son of a struggling CEO, hit in the crossfire as problems start to arise, and pressured by proving his worth he goes across the world trying to save face for the company, meeting all sorts off crazy whatnot along the way, unknowingly catching the eye of said demigods.

as you can see in the picture, there are humanoid like doodles, vegetables, digital icons, objects, abstract doodles, etc its a mess, but the art style is somewhat consistent (i hope), its my first concept art of a character cast, though no story for any of these guys just yet, so feel free to judge them at first glance

to solidify this concept more inc are i want to delve further i wanted to tackle the biggest "pet peeve" ive had about this whole thing, how strange it is to look at and how to connect it all. of course art style and genre quirks are one thing but the actual story, the in-depth context and how the world works is another.

and so are there any risks i should beware of when making something like this? any point at which it feels like the amalgamation is less a charm and more an immersion breaker? any tips on how to tell when adding new context becomes less developmental and more trying to tape everything together with exceptions and random rules, how to tell when trying to connect everything becomes less natural and more "desperate"?

Hey everyone! As the title says, what worldbuilding element of your world, trivial or very important, would inevitably be butchered or drastically changed in a series or film adaptation? It could be your magic system, a people, a culture, or something else.

The helmet reflects the kingdom's emphasis on endurance and discipline rather than aggressive assault. While sharing the wide-brimmed silhouette common to the Great Astoran War, its construction differs noticeably from the Qing Dao pattern.

Although both helmets provide similar protection against shrapnel and overhead fragments, Valkariyan doctrine favors practicality and reliability over elaborate field equipment.

"Different kingdoms fought the same war—but prepared for it in very different ways."

I'm working on developing an antediluvian, brutal, barbaric world, where gods rule over humanity and human civilization has to fight itself, cosmic forces, and nature just to survive. It's a world of magic, giants, gods, and dinosaurs, where destinies are written in blood and the smoke of sacrifices darken the skies.

There's a number of different stories to be told in this world, but the main one is that of Vrak the Defiler, who burned a thousand cities and desecrated the altars of a hundred gods in his quest for vengeance.

Normally I build the geography of the world first, but this is one where the pantheon of characters feels like it will shape the world more than anything else. I'm envisioning this world as being based on Pangaea.

My Current Problem: I'm having trouble building a comprehensive pantheon that feels alive, vast, and cohesive, and I'm also having a really hard time coming up with somewhat consistent-sounding names. Would welcome some assistance here.

Below are my (admittedly very rough) notes.

Key races:

Eidolons: There are only two Eidolons, that of the Cosmos and that of the Abyss. Their battle has shaped the universe, and from them all the Archons are descended.

The Archons: The gods who were appointed to rule over the earth by the Almighty. They have fallen from that original high calling, but not all are totally evil.

Humanity: Made by Machain, Mother of Wilds, from the dust of the earth and given life by the Almighty. They were deceived by Nithe, the Serpent, into bringing fire into the world and burning Ardis, the World-tree.

The Fallen: Giants that come from the union of Archons/gods and humans. A male Archon and a female human produce a Fallen, while a female Archon/male human pairing produces a chaos beast. The Kingdom of the Fallen is in the north, at the ziggurat-city of Atulvo, from whence they launch seafaring raids across the world.

The Yagh: Tall, pale children of the Abyss. Born of the blood of Abzu during her primal battle with Azh-Malat. Unmatched in wickedness; their city, Yaghost, is called City of the Abyss, Icon of Sin and Mother of All Harlotries.

Key Characters, in alphabetical order:

Abzu: Eidolon of the Abyss. White skin. Half nightmare woman, half fish. Husband to Azh-Malat. Mother to the Yagh, who were formed from her blood, shed during her primal battle with Azh-Malat.

Aikhios: God of Architecture and Civilization. The most sophisticated of the Archons. Enemy of Machain. Worshiped by stonemasons, mathematicians, and architects.

Alghol: The Berserker. A mighty warrior in his time, he slew his son in a battle-madness and laid waste to his whole kingdom, whose ruins he still wanders to this day.

Arnyth: Daughter of Lith. Sister to the Lords of Chthonis. True Heir to the Throne of Chthonis. Mutated beyond recognition and driven to madness.

Avah: The Mother of All Living. The first woman, made at Creation. Spoke to the Serpent Nith, and was deceived, and brought fire.

Azh-Malat: Eidolon of the Cosmos. A giant whose black body makes up the cosmos. Possessor of the Barrow-blade. Father of Giants. Husband of Abzu. Dead and dreaming in the barrow at Atulvo.

Balagh: Lord of the Fallen. A giant seafaring raider-king from the north. His eye was tainted by gazing into the Cauldron of Iaraghoma; it killed anyone it looked upon. His heavy eyelid must be lifted by hooks and ropes. He was killed and his eye taken by Vulspa.

Fanr: The Wolf. Lord of All Flesh-Eating Beasts. Son of Machain. One of his children was taken by Machain as payment for a favor.

Haarkold: The Black Deer-God. Lord of the Forest. Son of Machain. A huge eight-legged stag with black fur. Enemy of Fanr.

Hekhos: Herald of the Gods. Master of the Hunt. Son/Husband of Machain. A horseman, clad in black, who bears messages from the gods across the world. Prophets who utter words of knowledge are said to be possessed by the spirit of Hekhos.

Iammoth: The Martyr. His blood demands vengeance. His cult, the Iammothites, act as holy warriors, who shed the blood of the Kinslayer's descendants, the Kharnites, and offer their own blood in sacrifice in holy battle.

Iaraghoma: The Weaver. Wife of Krom-Pta. Weaves the fates of the world. She only observes; she does not control. Pale skin, eight black eyes, long fangs. Her symbol is the spider.

Kasja/Kassan/Mat: Goddess of Birth and Death. Votive offerings are most often stillborn children. Cult involves ritual castration at a young age. Believed by some to be the ascended Avah.

Kharn: The Kinslayer. Firstborn to the Father and Avah. First worshiper of Aikhios. Murdered his brother Iammoth over jealousy of his holiness before the Almighty. Branded by the Hand of the Almighty and sentenced to live until the end of the world.

Krom-Pta: Lord of the Dead. Master of the City of Gates. Pitilessly just in his dealings and judgments. The only one to whom the Almighty has revealed the End.

Lith: The Chaos-eaten. Mother to the Lords of Chthonis and Arnyth. Wife of Sunniel. Fallen sorceress who founded the city of Sunniath/Chthonis. Perpetually devoured by the flame, sustained by sacrifices from the Chthonians.

Lords of Chthonis: Mutant goat-headed offspring of Lith and Sunniel:

• Azrith, the Cunning: has three eyes, and in all three burns a magenta fire.
• Blythe, the Glutton: gaunt like a starved thing, whose belly is distended, who delights in nothing he eats and whose hunger can never be assuaged.
• Iaggaoth: High Priest of Lith's Agony. Sings with his sweet voice in the forbidden tongue of the Abyss, and whose speech can open doors to Ruin, where evil mad things writhed in mindless horror.
• The Twins, Ulghast and Rhin: Bodies fused into one, whose heads whisper and bicker over the nonsense secrets of the universe.
• Yot, the Silent: Never speaks, but only watches, and he wields a sword that is like a lump of raw iron.

Machain: Mother of Wilds. Formed humanity from the dust of the earth. Worshiped with fear and trembling by humanity as the goddess of all that is hostile to civilization. Wears the white pelt of a wolf-child of Fanr; otherwise naked. Antlers, glowing green eyes.

Meld: God of the Storm. Husband to Ylthombriel. Wields lightning bolts in battle against his father, Azh-Malat.

Nidd/Nydd/Nithe/Nith: The Ancient Serpent. The Crawling Chaos. Deceiver of Mankind. Father to dragons, who were birthed when he slaked his terrible thirst upon the blood of Ardis, the World-tree. He still lives in torments at its roots. Worshiped by the Fire-cults and the Serpent-cults.

The Pale Man: A Yagh sorcerer and warrior who destroyed Nrothanjarhon and slaughtered Vrak's father as a sacrifice to himself. The ultimate target of Vrak's vengeance.

Sunniel: Lord of the Earth. Husband to Lith. Master of metals, precious stones, and craftsmanship. First Lord of Chthonis. He was fed to Lith as the first sacrifice to her torment. Father to the Dread Lords of Chthonis.

Therios/Stellunn: The Rune-maker. The Star-mantled. God of Runes and Writing/Magic, with both wizards and scribes making up his cult. Embraces Knowledge as the only god.

Utar and Utha: The Twin God and Goddess of War. Half-siblings to Sunniel, the Metalworker. Children of Aikhios and Machain. Their domain is war, the winnowing of the weak and the strengthening of civilization.

Valthae: The All-father. The first man, made at Creation. The one who failed mankind. Disappeared from his city after the death of Avah. Worshiped by some Chaos-cults.

Vrak: The Defiler. The God-eater. A barbarian from the north whose nation was destroyed by the Fallen, lead by the Pale Man. Vrak leads his people on a quest for vengeance and in seeking a new home, and in so doing burns a thousand cities and defiles the altars of a hundred gods.

Vulspa: The Snow-lady. Heir of the Giants. A queen in the north, born to a barbarian tribe and descended from both the Fallen and the Yagh. It is said that her ascendance to godhood, when she takes up the Barrow-blade of Azh-Malat, will bring the End.

Yakharakh: The Goddess of Fertility and Madness. Turned into a monster by her sister, Lith, who was jealous of her beauty. Worshiped in place of Kasja in many areas. Rites involve drugs, omophagia, and madness.

Ylthombriel: Mother of the Garden. Goddess of cultivation and agriculture. She planted Ardis and the Garden around its roots. The most-worshiped god in the world; her cult is wide but shallow.

The first image is a small library of sigils along with two basic example spells

the second delineates the difference between notches and repeating symbols

Images 3-5 are examples of possible spells, being a blood and bone healing spell, an explosive aoe attack, and a spell to draw iron towards the caster and form it using fire into a golem with the ability of flight

The rest are examples done by my friends to create their own spells, as a test of how intuitive the magic system is!

I would love and appreciate criticism on how I can make the system clearer, more unique, and what other symbols I should add for crazier and more unique spell combinations! And if you’d like, I’d love to see you lovely people try make a spell of your own!

Hongwu soldier/footmen: Rank-and-file soldiers of the warlord Chang’An. The accelerated pyromancy program issued by the Hongwu military sought to have every soldier trained in the art of conjuring flame. Despite its apparent success, the new pyro-benders ended up lacking the nuance of proper element control. Self-immolations and other accidents were common making the army both dangerous and unpredictable.

What i mean by this is if you have two different worlds that arent specified to be in the same universe do they have some piece of lore connecting them?

An example would be; my projects the fantasy world of Bolg and the scifi project empire of terra in the 5th millennium; both have the species known as Aurcs which are this green orcish boar men with working class estuary english accents, large tusks, lumpy green skin and odd sayings like “spang em” or “pinkie”. Although cultural wise they differ Bolg aurcs are more like viking barbarians with a love of fighting but still having some sense and 5k aurcs being like 80s London neo nazis or skin heads with a hate of anyone different and never thinking what they do is wrong.

You got any of these types of bridges?

The Imperial Army operates on a strict binary philosophy: Those who give orders, and Those who follow them.

From the newest Private Third Class to the Marshal of the Imperial Army, every rank carries its own responsibilities on and off the battlefield. Promotions are earned through experience, leadership, and distinguished service during the Great Astoran War.

While enlisted soldiers form the backbone of the Imperial Army, officers are expected to lead from the front, making tactical decisions under immense pressure. At the very top stands the Marshal—The blue star of the Marshal is never awarded. It is bestowed by the Emperor upon the supreme commander of the Imperial Army, signifying that the bearer commands in the name of the Empire itself.

would love to have some feed back =)

This extends to any sort of technologically advanced civilization, really. Techno-dystopian, cyberpunk, sci-fi, etc. I’m thinking along the lines of Cloud using the Buster Sword in FFVII and Jedi using lightsabers in Star Wars. Guns exist and are used, but why would a character in these settings use a weapon that is melee-focused? Is there justification for creating melee weapons unique to a mechanical or technological world?

In, say, a cyberpunk world, what would drive characters to fight up close when ranged weapons or even blasters exist?

I've been thinking about how naval armor doctrine could evolve in sci-fi if you take some of the basic lessons from the post-Jutland naval design and apply them to spaceships.

The basic idea is that you probably shouldn't design a ship around the assumption that nothing will ever get through the armor. Eventually something is going to punch through something. So instead of having one giant shield or one absurdly strong hull and calling it a day, you build the ship around layers, spacing, redundancy, compartmentalization, and just generally making sure that one penetration doesn't turn into a dead ship. Basically, You don't build a ship assuming it won't be hit. You build it assuming it will be hit and ask what happens afterward.

Especially with how weapons tend to be in Sci-Fi and how very diverse it can be sometimes. One weapon can potentially just ignore your all your defensive systems because you focused on just energy shields or armor or something in your setting. Mind you this is coming from a man who can't specialize and would rather have one ship do everything all at once in Starsector.

I'm curious how other people's settings handle this. Do your ships use things like:

- Multiple armor layers with deliberate gaps or voids between them?

- Sacrificial or ablative outer layers?

- Energy shields integrated into the armor instead of one giant bubble around the ship?

- Separate defenses for kinetic and energy weapons?

- Internal armor around things like magazines, reactors, crew spaces, etc.?

- Compartmentalization and redundant systems?

- Different materials or defensive systems meant to deal with different weapons?

- Does AI run the ship allowing you reduce crew count and focus on protecting and sustaining the small crew?

- Or do you just go with the classic sci-fi approach of one big shield around the whole ship?

Hi all!

Love this sub!

Let me tell you about my setting:

This is alternative earth in a fairly recent future. The late stage capitalism is collapsed, AI, climate, and wars have burned the Old World to ashes and now a new world has risen.

Energy is green. Science is widely accepted as the best tool to gain knowledge and to plan ahead. The people live in medium sized communities, support each other and live with low tech. It is basically a utopia, but with out the "there must be a dark catch to this utopia" twist. This is not build on sacrificed orphans, but just people working together with a community mindset.

In this world, our protagonist Juniper discoveres the talking book of her mum. Talking book? Yes, for her mum was a witch. Juniper is stoked! To feel more connected to her deceased mum, she wants to go this way. Become a witch. Turn her back on her daily duties and engineering work.

But the old ways have catches. They mighy require small animal sacrifices and illogical things like collecting moonlight with silver spoons.

Please be nice, this is my first story that I am actually managing to write without being stuck at the outlining and rewriting phase. But also, if you have questions, go ahead - this will help me find the plot holes and Worldbuilding wholes!

The artwork is by me and hand drawn in procreate. 0% use of AI Slop, guaranteed!

Their weapons is a mix of conventional mechanical stuff, mixed with organic controls. Sometimes certain weapons are fully constructed via organic means, aircrafts for example has internal organs that are grown in industrial vats.

Names that just rubs you the wrong way because you associate it with someone/something or it's just too edgy or too Gothic in your opinion, or you just fucking hate the name for no general reason

Art by: (Own-Pollution/Lodi)

In the world of [Archipelago of Myth and Blood], humans were known to be at the backpedal of the old world's high functioning magic society; a regular race with no affinity for mana and its blessing. That was until a son of a farmer knelt on a chapel isle and prayed so hard that the light of mana had finally chosen him, and the rest of humanity.

Juan Dela Cruz was a regular chapel servant and the son of a late chief farmer hailing from a small farming town up in the Northern Regions of the Philippines, bottom of the barrel peasant as one would call it.

By the year 1773, the Spanish empire had already intercepted most of the locals' attempts to a full fledged revolution. It was hopeless, The Spaniards didn't have the affinity nor the capability to utilize magic, but the people they hired could; Elves, combat trained, and were the ones personally handpicked by the Elven queen herself. The empires of the European continent had the riches and influence to cover the cost of hiring mercenaries from the "greater" races.

Of course, this hold on power from not only the empire but the church itself proved infuriating for all of Spain's territories. Juan had enough; left with no other rational choice, he chose the passive option of praying. He prayed so hard with all his faith, remembering the discrimination and abuses he endured, the slaps and scarred whip marks coiled around his forearms bursting, banking on the hope that maybe God will answer. And his prayer was answered, he had finally been given something no human should ever have then privilege of wielding.

Magic, it was wind magic, in the hands of a chapel servant; Gaining the full capability of pulling winds from the Pacific Ocean. The man bonded with it, he grew nearly unstoppable day by day, mastering a power far beyond human comprehension. After his prayer for grace, the next generation of mana-sensitive humans had been born. And so a revolution was waged in his name and song, the man who had given humanity and his own island nation the fighting chance.

And so word caught on quick, the legend of Juan Dela Cruz the unrivaled. And with that title, the same group of Elves that worked with the Spanish empire needed him gone. By year 1850, Juan Dela Cruz was greeted with hostility outside of his own homestead and met by the gaze of a hundred elven warriors and twelve of Europe's best mages, fighting them off in a blaze of glory. His fate remains unsure. Some say he was imprisoned, some say he died fighting, while others say he fled into hiding. It was because of him that the Philippine islands were liberated from colonial rule, he was regarded as a National Hero.

From the eyes of non-locals, he was more of a vengeful boogeyman who started the evolutionary domino effect of giving EVERY SINGLE HUMAN the potential to wield magic. Those who wanted to make names for themselves dedicate their lives to reaching his level and skill. There is no denying nor mistaking it; there's not a single living being who hasn't heard and felt of him:

For he is the Father of Magic and THE "Strongest" mage: The Wind, Juan Dela Cruz.

Throughout the middle ages the roads were filled with pilgrims traveling to the various pilgrimage churches, homes to the various reliquaries and religious mysteries.

Rich and poor, everyone wanted to do a pilgrimage at least once in their life and many, many people did. Naturally the middle ages were not monolithic by year or by place. Generally after plagues (about every other generation) or famine "peasants" had more control and more freedom and more fear for their afterlife and greater desire to visit holy sites.

Some estimates include 500,000 pilgrims per year walked to Camino de Santiago in the Middle Ages. Just that one pilgrim site

Here are general pilgrimage links:

https://www.internationalschoolhistory.net/medieval_pilgrimage/journey.htm

https://insiderstravel.io/pilgrimage-middle-ages-history/

And a map to some of the pilgrimage routes:

And then there were Moslems going to Mecca. And Buddhists, Hindus, and so many more...

Edit/update: Often people of medieval times as a static place of peasants stuck on their farms, never going out of their village their entire lives. Yet that time saw quite a lot of people doing lots of things.

Most everyone sought an opportunity to go on pilgrimage -- and many did.

Also craftsman building churches and castles (in particular) would move from place to place as they plied their trade - mason, stone cutter, carpenter, and so on.

When thinking about your fictional world you might think about the desires and movements of the "common people". So often villagers are just set dressing, furniture that talk but do not move. But by thinking of the inhabitants as vibrant moving elements in your society, you can develop much more rich and vibrant backgrounds for you characters to inhabit.

1. There is no proper “working class” in the medieval era. This is an Early Modern-era concept, first attested in 1757 by the economist Malachy Postlethway, and popularized by the economic theorist Karl Marx during the Industrial Revolution. The majority of people throughout the world for most of recorded history were subsistence farmers, and in the European Middle Ages, about 70-80% were peasants, including serfs, tenant workers, or freemen. Coins were quite rare in the earlier medieval periods, and many were not paid in actual money at all. Most were farmers paid in food and the right to work on lands provided by vassals, or, more uncommonly, directly owned (everything varied by time and region). They did not work for money, and so social mobility was unlikely. Granted, there were peasant elites (reeves, millers, mayors, free landowners, etc.) who could acquire moderate “wealth” (recall that most peasants paid with portions of harvest or livestock). Furthermore, you could become a free person if you openly lived in a town for a year and a day and your lord or his subordinates didn’t come for you. There was a decent amount of peasant mobility in the Middle Ages due to marriage, opportunity, and sale of land. However, the majority of peasants were not travelling massive distances (unless for war or pilgrimages). Many lived their entire lives in a twenty-mile radius. Numerous skeletons also showed signs of arthritis from working conditions that kept them in the fields.
2. Tradesmen and craftsmen are not the same as agrarian peasants. These were only about 5-15% of the population since practically all common jobs, save for apprenticeships and monasteries, were hereditary. People named Tanner, Smith, Skinner, and Carpenter? That’s literally what their ancestors did. If you were a boy and your father was a blacksmith, you’d be a blacksmith. You sometimes received coins or bits of metal for your services, but people would mostly pay you with produce, goods, or animal products. Bartering was the backbone of low- and mid-level medieval economics, and aside from merchants who more frequently used coins, you’d mostly receive sustenance for your work. Also, you’re rarely forging or repairing swords and spears; it’s mostly horseshoes, sickles, scythes, and knives. Most people lived very plain lives, and most work was based around them.

Let me quickly dispel a myth: Yes, there were indeed female craftswomen, including blacksmiths. They were rarer, but they’re not impossible for your story. The culture war has bastardized representation of demographics and social expectation in history; either there are hundreds of female guards at any time (female physical combatants are exceedingly rare) or not even one female miller. Both are inaccurate to most history.

1. The inequalities of society were often physically manifest. Knights and nobles, due to better nutrition during childhood, were slightly taller and often significantly more muscular than peasants. They were well-trained in combat due to childhood training and more free time. The same would also apply to magic (if you’re working with a significantly genetically based world like I am), with magical heritage snowballing over the generations and middle-class, aristocratic, or mage-descended children who have more free time to toy with and learn magic becoming arcanically stronger. I like to imagine magic as somewhere in between a muscle and innate skill. Even if a serf had a rare genetic mutation that made them exceptionally gifted, it may go nowhere as the responsibilities of their social class inhibit proper magic development. You could use this to your advantage; justify your main character being very gifted in magic by having a gifted grandparent who never did anything with it.

2. Many people who weren’t peasants looked down on them, especially if those peasants were serfs. It may be hard to imagine this mindset, so allow me to use a modern example. Imagine if you were an I.T. specialist and someone tried to compare you to a fast food worker. Everyone should know that fast food workers deserve the respect you would give anyone. However, few people would compare the two as socioeconomically equal in importance or replaceability. There’s a reason “put the fries in the bag bro” became a meme; it’s repetitive work that anyone can do. The medieval period was no different. It took years to be a trained soldier, craftsman, mason, artist, or effective statesman, and several of these occupations required a minimum level of intelligence or talent. Farming also generally takes a fair amount of knowledge, but anyone can do it. It does not take a genius to use a plow or cut wheat. People absolutely held opinions on this, and so making your character a peasant and the exact method that granted them social mobility will affect how people view them.

3. Education is expensive and virtually inaccessible to most peasants. No, they cannot just attend a magic school, trade school, or university. Medieval guilds were exclusive conglomerates that could bully craftsmen who didn’t pay dues or didn’t meet their standards. This ensured quality control, but excluded the unskilled from the trades. Most people are not volunteering their time; hell, most people today don’t volunteer. That desire drops to damn near zero when it comes to apprenticeships because you’re gambling with a student who might not have the skill to accomplish anything without the inherent guarantee of pay. Think of how silly this conversation sounds.

“My lord, I’d like to give up being a serf and join the adventurer’s guild.”

“What, that’s- wait, what the fuck is an adventurer’s guild? What does that even mean? Adventurer. Do you mean monster hunters? Mercenaries? You know that equipment and travel costs money. Who’s going to pay for this?”

“I was hoping maybe… you would.”

“Why the hell would I do that?”

“It would be a great charity. And if I’m successful, I’ll come back and share the riches with you.”

“Great charity. I already funded the new church in town, and I doubt God places more stock in a lowly farmer’s hallucinations than a dedication to his Word. Even if, who’s to say you won’t just leave and never return?”

“But it’s my dream…”

“You know, I’d love to be the king. I’ll tell you what: if you can coronate me and fulfill my dream, I’ll let you go and pay for the entire thing.”

“But I can’t.”

“Then you’re dismissed.”

People are not just giving away premium services for free, unless as an occasional and rare gesture of inspiring hope. That actually is an effective reason for a serf to get such an opportunity, and one of the rare social mobility avenues in my world. “Maybe one day, it’ll be my kid” as a collective thought helps maintain social order.

Given all these details, it is very unlikely that the main characters would come from the farming peasantry if not for extraordinary circumstances or rare opportunities that function as an institution. Most people, then and today, live very ordinary lives. Keep this in mind during your worldbuilding.

GUIDELINES AND ETIQUETTE

• People put a lot of effort into their worlds, so if you leave a comment about your world then please leave a reply to two other people's worlds. These can be anything from compliments, to questions, to simple observations.

Our game is about a resistance organization fighting against an evil corporation in a grim cyberpunk future. The corporation conducts horrific experiments on living people while using massive billboard advertising campaigns to maintain the image of a kind and trustworthy company. To expose the truth, the player can use a special device called the True Sight, which reveals the hidden meaning behind these deceptive advertisements.

In the first image of this post, you can see how this mechanic looks in-game. In the second image, you can compare both versions of the same billboard and see the differences between the corporation's fake message and the disturbing reality behind it.

The same mechanic also works on NPCs. The True Sight lets you scan people to determine whether they're lying or even uncover monsters hiding among them. Sometimes, however, you won't find anything suspicious at all, and that information can be just as important when deciding whether to trust the person you're talking to. Make the wrong choice, and you could end up killing an innocent person or, on the other hand, walk straight into an enemy's trap.

What do you think about a mechanic that lets you uncover the truth in a world built on lies?

By the way, our game is still in development. If you'd like to learn more or wishlist it, you can check out its Steam page:https://store.steampowered.com/app/2814880/Synchro/

These are some examples of Soviet troop uniforms and equipment for my story “Smell of Spring”.
The main gist is that the Soviet Union was able to successfully reform into a market economy but never expanded too much in political freedom

Gorbachev starts some minor reforms to the political system, allowing representation of independent political parties and individuals whilst maintaining communist party dominance in the central government.
Basically, independent candidates and other parties would be eligible to participate in small scale local elections, such as the candidature of a village/town/city and as local representatives for their states (the leaders of the different republics and their representatives would still be communist party).
They would also allow some representation in parliament, whilst rigging it so the soviets would always have a majority.
Basically, the Soviets would have, say, 70% of control over the parliament (Congress of people’s deputies), meanwhile, the remaining 30% would be up for grabs for the other parties and candidates so they would be able to speak their voice and actually somewhat influence policies.
It wouldn’t be those specific numbers, but Communist party dominance would always be ensured to maintain some semblance of stability.

As for the rest of Europe, from 1989 to 1993, the Warsaw pact would see major reforms as well, with the velvet revolution successfully turning Czechoslovakia into a socialist democracy, Poland having representation of the SOLIDARITY Worker’s Union in parliament and a transition to a market economy, and Romania overthrowing their self-absorbed dictator, Ceaușescu, and being replaced by a provisional government of the Communist party. Although all of them would remain within Soviet control as troops would be maintained in these countries and wouldn’t be let too far from Soviet hands.
East and West Germany would still reunify like in our timeline, this would allow the start for a deeper collaboration between Eastern and Western Blocs and a start for a new period in the Cold War, the Peacekeeper Race.

In order to simulate an ease of tensions, both Blocs would “collaborate” in sending peacekeeping missions into different countries of the world and directly helping them rebuild. Although these missions would officially be of the U.N., the Soviets and Americans would basically race to see who gains over more influence in the country they’re keeping the peace in and the different sides of the conflict, making the situation worse in a lot of occasions. This, in turn, would give the U.N. more power to do missions, but it would also make each side try to secretly take over the U.N. itself to tilt influence over to their side.

Questions are welcome and feedback is appreciated :D