Hawk Black
Administrator
Pirate Captain
Posts: 186
|
Post by Hawk Black on Feb 26, 2009 23:28:16 GMT -5
TECHNOLOGY [/size][/b][/i] Elquin is very similar to our world in many ways, and very different in others. Because this world developed parallel to ours, they have also developed very similarly, technologically. They've got electricity and most of the things that go along with it--television and movie theaters, ovens and refrigerators, modern building standards and steam engines for farm equipment and ferries. It would be much easier to list the things that they don't have than the things that they do: - Cars--Elquin is made up of islands. Cars would be useless; nobody has ever even attempted to invent them. Few islands are big enough that you can't travel them by foot, or by boat through the rivers or by circling the island to dock on the other side.
- Telephones--it would be impossible to lay landlines from cluster to cluster, or even from island to island. It would be impractical to create internal telephone systems for each individual island. Therefore, the technology was never developed.
- Wireless technology--Elquin's scientific curiosity focuses far more on the unknowns of the ocean than the unknowns of space. They've never even begun to develop plans for space exploration; therefore, no satellites, no radio towers, no cell phones.
- Computers--without the possibility of internet, computers are rather pointless. Nobody in Elquin ever felt the need to move beyond typewriters.
Besides these things they don't have, there are a few things they do have that we don't, generally: - The Ferry System--Elquin doesn't have cars, buses, or taxis. They have ships, boats, and ferries instead. The ferries are the public transportation. They run at certain times of day, every day, from one island to the other, just like buses run between cities.
- Ships--Elquin does have steam power to run the ferries and the private boats of the upper class, but most people still run sailboats. Sailing ships are the common mode of long-distance transportation for both people and goods. They're also the preferred vessel for pirates and royalty.
Other than these specific things, Elquin works technologically right along the same lines as our world.
|
|
Hawk Black
Administrator
Pirate Captain
Posts: 186
|
Post by Hawk Black on Feb 26, 2009 23:42:46 GMT -5
CULTURE [/size][/b][/i] The culture of Elquin is similar to our culture, as well, if you take the world as a whole. If you think of the races of Elquin like the races of Earth, there are many parallels. - The first of these is the way the races feel about each other. For the most part, everyone gets along well, and everyone is generally accepted by everyone else. However, there are certain groups that don't feel this way. The biggest of these groups are the Purists--people who feel that interbreeding is wrong, and that each race should stick with its own. There are Purists of every race, and they generally dislike crossbreeds of any racial mix.
- This leads to another cultural aspect unique to Elquin. It is completely socially acceptable, and even expected, for one person to ask another "What mix are you?" upon meeting. It's more common among the lower class than the upper, but it's also more common for the upper classes to be Pure instead of mixed. Being a crossbreed isn't something that is frowned upon by the general population, and it isn't an issue to be skirted around; though there are some who may be offended by such frankness, it's certainly not the general population.
- Though there are no established enemy races at this point in time, there have been in the past. The history of Elquin is riddled with racial wars; feuding over issues with slavery, territory, and the individual racial cultures. These issues have been mostly solved by the modern day, but there's still a chance of something new breaking out. (Keep an eye on the plot for things like this.)
- Elquin, as a whole, is more accepting and tolerant than our culture. There are certainly those who oppose anyone being 'different', but for the most part, it's a live and let live policy. Homosexual and multi-racial couples can get married just as easily as two heterosexual humans could; and though religion isn't as crucial an element of life in Elquin as it is on Earth, people are equally accepting of religious and nonreligious people alike. There will always be individuals or small groups who oppose these kinds of things, but they really aren't considered controversial issues in Elquin in the first place--they're just parts of life, there.
- The food of Elquin is slightly altered because of the world's oceanic state. Seafood is the main diet of all residents, including various kinds of seaweed. A favorite snack food are kelp chips, which are similar to potato chips, but made from kelp and seasoned in many different ways. They have various land-based vegetables as well, such as corn and tomatoes; but these are often flash-frozen and shipped instead of being fresh, due to the lack of land to grow things on in most clusters. They do have land farm animals, though these originated strictly from the Royal Island. They've been imported to some of the bigger farming islands around the world, but any meat besides fish is rare and generally very expensive.
- The money in Elquin is called doubloons, and works along the same rates as our money. There are half-pieces, ones, fives, and tens; these are coins made of different metals and of different sizes. After that point it moves into paper money, which only come in fifties and one-hundreds. If hundreds can't cut it, people usually deal in goods, gold bars, or services.
|
|