Hello, stumbled on this forum in a google search and I've been lurking for a while.
Anyhow, I've been building a fantasy world for the last few years, and I'm trying to finally gear up for actually beginning work on writing the story (in a graphic novel format). Since getting visual elements consistent from the get go is pretty important, I sketched up part of the town that my protagonists will begin the story in from a birds eye view:
http://starstriker1.deviantart.com/art/Ravenpeak-harbour-102317498
The idea is that this was initially a backwater fishing settlement prior to the cataclysm that made most of the world uninhabitable, and it has since swelled in size to become a town that is self sufficiently supporting--and protecting--several thousand people from four different, uncooperative races. It all starts in the bay area, but quickly extended further up the valley (not pictured) into a series of rural, urban, and fortified segments. As available land ran out, they started terracing the mountainsides and building dwellings and farmland there.
They've been sitting around there for something like 600 years now, and they've exhausted almost all of their safe expansion room by this point. Technologically, these people were roughly WWI level prior to the cataclysm, with magical know-how that gave them an effective technology level closer to the developed world in the 1950's -1960's. When the cataclysm hit, they didn't get knocked back into the stone age, but the sudden lack of resources, infrastructure, and specialized experts has forced them to make do with what they have.
As far as natural resources go, they've got access to plenty of wood, stone, and animals. They're also able to gain rarer resources like metal for tools and weapons via trade with other safe havens that survived the catastrophe, but materials like that are expensive and in short supply.
My first question is going to be: is it plausible to have a mountain range that leads down into an ocean as such, and what kind of climate could the inhabitants expect? This is not a subject I'm very well versed on.
Second, is this a reasonable way for the town to have developed? What kind of solutions would a people of this level of sophistication have employed to make the most of what they have, especially in light of a consistently unstable civil situation and constant threats from violent (if unsophisticated) raiding groups?
Thanks for any help you can provide. I hope I'm not making my questions too broad!
Anyhow, I've been building a fantasy world for the last few years, and I'm trying to finally gear up for actually beginning work on writing the story (in a graphic novel format). Since getting visual elements consistent from the get go is pretty important, I sketched up part of the town that my protagonists will begin the story in from a birds eye view:
http://starstriker1.deviantart.com/art/Ravenpeak-harbour-102317498
The idea is that this was initially a backwater fishing settlement prior to the cataclysm that made most of the world uninhabitable, and it has since swelled in size to become a town that is self sufficiently supporting--and protecting--several thousand people from four different, uncooperative races. It all starts in the bay area, but quickly extended further up the valley (not pictured) into a series of rural, urban, and fortified segments. As available land ran out, they started terracing the mountainsides and building dwellings and farmland there.
They've been sitting around there for something like 600 years now, and they've exhausted almost all of their safe expansion room by this point. Technologically, these people were roughly WWI level prior to the cataclysm, with magical know-how that gave them an effective technology level closer to the developed world in the 1950's -1960's. When the cataclysm hit, they didn't get knocked back into the stone age, but the sudden lack of resources, infrastructure, and specialized experts has forced them to make do with what they have.
As far as natural resources go, they've got access to plenty of wood, stone, and animals. They're also able to gain rarer resources like metal for tools and weapons via trade with other safe havens that survived the catastrophe, but materials like that are expensive and in short supply.
My first question is going to be: is it plausible to have a mountain range that leads down into an ocean as such, and what kind of climate could the inhabitants expect? This is not a subject I'm very well versed on.
Second, is this a reasonable way for the town to have developed? What kind of solutions would a people of this level of sophistication have employed to make the most of what they have, especially in light of a consistently unstable civil situation and constant threats from violent (if unsophisticated) raiding groups?
Thanks for any help you can provide. I hope I'm not making my questions too broad!
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