The more I work on my T&T Mythic Greek project the more it becomes clear that this is not Trollworld. It started out as being a sort of bolt-on Sword&Sandal T&T supplement. It has changed. It no longer feels like Trollworld, or the predecessor of some pseudo-medieval fantasy world.
This world is on the cusp of the iron age, but it is not going to develop the same way Earth did. The geography is very different for one thing. As I develop the world background it is coming clearer that this world is flat. It centers on Mount Olympus where the gods live. It is surrounded by Ocean, and if you dig deep enough you will enter the realm of Hades. Surrounding Olympus and Greece the world spreads out bearing less and less resemblance to our world the farther you go. In the far North lie Ultima Thule and Hyperboria lands of ice and fog. To the south beyond Aethiopia, Aegypt and Kush lie jungles and deserts. To the West the Atlantic named for the island continent of Atlantis. To the East Asia, the land of the Hittites, the Persians, and beyond that unknown realms of men with faces in their chests and other marvels.
Lemuria may or may not have a place in this world. The Norse lands and vikings of saga do not. They have their own Midgard, perhaps reachable from this world, but still a different world. Albion, which corresponds in this world to Britannia in Midgard or Great Britain in our world is the farthest reach of trade, beyond it lie seas of ice and endless ocean.
Pharaoh rules in his palace on the Nile, the Aegyptians worship their strange animal-headed gods, and lay their kings to rest in pyramids.
Amazons, a noble tribe of horse nomads ride the plains north of the Black Sea. They are a culture dominated by women.
There are rumours of snake-men in the jungles of Kush. Islands that drift about in the Ocean, castles in the clouds home to Titans and giants, and other wonders abound.
Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Dwarves, Hobbits and many other common fantasy tropes are unknown in this world. Dragons do exist, as do various other serpentine monsters. Magical items exist, most being single objects imbued with unique magic.
World building is hobby with in a hobby for me. I have already concieved of several other related Mythic Worlds that can tie to this one. The cosmology is perhaps best explained by likening each world to a pocket universe hanging like a fruit on the Ygdrasil or World-tree. Travel between this group of related worlds is comparatively easy. Travelling to more distant worlds such as Michael Moorcock's Million Spheres, Tolkien's Middle Earth, Trollworld, Krynn, et al is possible but may require first travelling to an intermediary world with greater affinity for the two worlds one whishes to travel between.
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"...The cosmology is perhaps best explained by likening each world to a pocket universe hanging like a fruit on the Ygdrasil or World-tree..."
ReplyDeleteWorks better than a "ringworld" which I have tried to use.
According to the Greeks, there also troglodytes in the deserts, which resemble a hybrid of orks and hobbs in T&T/Tolkien terms.