Latest revision as of 09:52, 20 March 2015

Taijitu Worldbuilding: How to Start

A simple and straightforward guide.

Introduction

Here are a few basic guidelines to help you get started.

Taijitu Worldbuilding exists in its own world on the planet of Taijitu. Many countries may be based off of countries from the real world, but there's no overt connection. Tajitu has its own self-contained history. That being said, timelines generally match up for the sake of simplicity. The year 1975 in Taijitu, for example, will be treated like the year 1975 in our world in terms of setting, culture, technology, etc... Taijitu is, like Earth, a closed system. Nothing comes in, nothing comes out. Nothing shows up out of nowhere: everything has a history. (You need not write it all out, it just has to be possible). The regions have varying levels of development: Ennorath, Pelagea, and northern Libia form a cultural region to be described below; southern Libia is a vast wilderness and desert with little in the way of civilization; and Australis is a distant land full of strange and fascinating creatures. The vast Cefnor region is the source of civilization. The north side is a bit ahead of the south, as are its colonies and former colonies. To the west is the continent of Phoenixia and to the east is the mysterious continent of Iadak.

Don't be daunted by national history. Long time World Builders here have a bit of history with each other. We know the history of our nations in relation to each other's but don't let that detour you! Your own nation's history is what you make of it. If you think you have a good idea about incorporating someone else's nation into your own history just PM them! Be polite and explain the situation. If it's something they're open to doing you two can work out the specifics. If you have any other questions just ask in the Planning Room or on IRC and we'll help you out.

Make your Nation

NOTE: We do not use any NStracker information for Taijitu Worldbuilding. Try to keep the population and GDP of your nation reasonable and "realistic".

Now to think of a new nation. If you're having trouble, the first thing your nation needs is a single defining characteristic. It need not be completely descriptive, but it should be the most distinctive aspect. For example, Eluvatar is the Kingdom with an absent King. Later on, you should add depth and graduate from the one-dimensional.

As you add depth, consider some things a nation needs:

1. A nation is inconceivable without a location. You want to select a region and then get a space on the map.
2. A nation needs people, many players create their own ethnic group(s). If you make your own ethnicity, it's still preferable to make it related to existing ones. A list of ethnicities is below.
3. A nation needs religion (or lack thereof). For religions it's probably better to use an existing religion, as one religion per nation would get very old very quickly.
4. A nation needs a government system, laws, and culture. You can't go wrong using a system from real history, but inventing your own is fine so long as you can justify it.

Existing Faiths: The Path of Truth, The Church of Eru, Maerorism, Gaeanism.

Ethnicities:

(wikilinks to come)

1. Ozi (A Desert People. Ask St. Oz to use this)
2. Moacians (ask Oz to use this)
3. Jutensans (ask Allama to use this)
4. Iadakans (ask Oz to use this)
5. Fre'zhi (ask Oz to use this)
6. Kar'zhi (ask Oz to use this)
7. Letonnese (ask Letonna to use this)
8. Funkadelians (ask Funkadelia to use this)
9. Ser’ev (ask al’Khem to use this)
10. Da’kun (ask al’Khem to use this)
11. Al’ta (ask al’Khem to use this)
12. Da’kavo (ask al’Khem to use this)
13. Myrorian (ask Myroria to use this)
14. Pelagian (like Roman/Italian/Spanish)
15. Mor'osi (Like Chinese. Ask Gulliver to use this)
16. Edain (like Generic European, ask Eluvatar to use this)
17. Finn (Ask Eluvatar to use this)
18. Dunedain (Ask Eluvatar to use this)
19. Edain (Ask Eluvatar to use this)
20. Minosian (Ask Eluvatar to use this)
21. Benn (A formerly nomadic people. Ask Eluvatar to use this)
22. Kita (Ask Delfos to use this)
23. Suna (Ask Delfos to use this)
24. Seijin (Ask Delfos to use this)

If you make your own, you may want to make it related to one or more of the above.

Characters and Plot

Our story is mostly based around characters in their national setting, and simply mentioning events that happen in your nation is boring. Instead have the actions of your characters affect events or have an event be your setting. For example, if my post says "My nation of Tritopia declares war on Squaretopia, Tritopian troops start to invade their borders so they can achieve Pentagon Destiny," there's no depth of story and this invasion is a boring competition among players out of character. The best way to make a compelling story out of this is to talk to the player of Squaretopia, determine the nature and perhaps outcome of the war, and create characters that interact in this war setting. Yes, that's right, it's easiest to agree on the outcome first like reasonable people, and then work from there. This is collaborative fiction, not a competitive game. If you both want to change things as you go along, that's great, change it, but it eliminates a great deal of problems to have at least a vague idea of where the story is going.
If you've come from RPing on the NationStates forum, you may see that it works much differently in Taijitu. Even at Taijitu RP's height there were much fewer people RPing at any one time, which has turned the region's fiction from the diplomatic and militarist game on the NSForums to original fiction - here, characters are the RP rather than the supporters of the RP. Taijitu is not unique in this approach, but we hope we can be the best.
Introduce your Nation
Make a first post, preferably in Modern Era Fiction. It should highlight some important details about your nation and open interaction with the outside world.

Choose a Foreign Policy Choose a grand alliance or neutrality. Please, please base it on how the leadership of your country would think.
Decide how your nation approaches events in other nations, to what extent it believes in national sovereignty or in overriding ideals.
Below is a list of ideas on how your nation might interact with others on the world stage:
Alliances
Alliances may be large organizations or simple bilateral agreements, where nations agree to protect one another or support a common cause.
Unions
Some nations may form Unions, which are tight associations of nations with a significant degree of unification. Such Unions may be a multilayered federal system of great complexity.
Satellites
You might want to RP a nation dominated by a great power or a superpower. This allows for the RPing of complicated conflict and collaboration with the dominant power.
Regulatory Treaties
Nations may form treaties under which the signatories agree to some limitations or standards, like laws of war or the high seas. You are free to join or not join; intelligently designed treaties will have strong incentives, so keep in mind your people may suffer for a decision to remain diplomatically so isolated.

The Regions

The Subcontinent of Ennorath:
Ennorath, Eruvite for "Middle Land" is a fairly large and somewhat mountainous region. It's home to Eluvatar including the seven Baan, Zimmerwald and Elara. In ancient times, it was the heartland of first the Sindarin Empire and then the ancient Dunedain Empire. The waters between it and Pelagea are fairly narrow at the northern edge of Cefnor. The northwestern part of Ennorath is far less civilized than the eastern part.
The Subcontinent of Pelagea:
Pelagea is a large subcontinent in eastern Cefnor. The northern swathe, with Myroria (former Pelagia), Ozia, Letonna and the Allied states is a land of conflict where old wounds heal slowly. This was the main battlefield of the Great War.
The Subcontinent of Libia:
Libia is a vast land. Its northern coast is civilized and inhabited by such peoples as the Funkadelians and Jutensans. South of that coast is an enormous desert. Humans emerged from this land many hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The Continent of Australis:
Australis is a colonial continent, the stories written here have yet to affect the larger world.
The Continent of Phoenixia:
A pleasant lush biosphere in the north gives way to the immense Hiyake Desert which dominates the center of Phoenixia. The southlands are cool through much of the year with hot and humid summers.
The Continent of Iadak:
A story is yet to be written in this northern land. Could your tale define this mysterious place?

Guidelines of Behavior.

1. Be respectful at all times. Flaming, malevolent trolling, and general asshattery are not tolerated.
2. No explicit sexual content in your RP. Keep it PG-13. Profanity is acceptable providing it is not used simply for it’s own sake.
3. No matter when your RP takes place, use military hardware and technology at least somewhat appropriate for the time period. For example, no chainswords, gundams, clone armies, etc. If you have an idea for a particular weapon you want your nation to possess and aren’t sure whether or not it’s acceptable, just ask someone or make a thread in the OOC area about it.
4. As mentioned above, this is National Roleplay, and any combat is based at least loosely, on technology from around that time period. This means no magic.
5. No Godmodding. No matter how elite your spy is they’re not omniscient. No matter how awesome your missile defense system is, it’s not going to shoot down 99.99999999% of everything. Again, if you have questions, ask a mod or make a thread in the OOC area!
6. At least attempt to use correct grammar and spelling. This includes proper use of punctuation and capitalization. No one’s going to beat you up over a few mistakes but if you don’t give a shit about your RP, no one else is either!
7. DO NOT HIJACK THREADS! OOC comments in a thread should be kept to a bare minimum, and not made at ALL unless you are actually participating in that particular thread.

"What's going on now?"

Taijitu is an open RP setting, with many possibilities. Some notable current storylines are listed below: (links to come)
Pre-Modern
The | Pre-Modern Fiction section takes place in the past, with the Great War around the turn of the century. Anything can go there so long as it respects period technology and ultimately leads to the proper conclusion of the Great War, with the Coalition emerging victorious.

| Household 1968-69

| The Beginnings

| Novrith Conference 1971

| Misc Accounts of the Three Week War

| Wolves of the Westa

| Cynocephaly

| Birth of the Allied States 1773-85

| Primogeniture 1351

| The Empire of New Letonna

| From Public View

| Little Secrets 1965

| The Winds of Gaea 1400BCE

Modern
| Modern Era Fiction takes place in a time period that's more properly understood to be the early 1980s. We start there and go forward. The latest one can set anything is 2020. So feel free to use modern/post-modern tech in the appropriate years.

| Delfingrado Energy Council

| Men Behind the Shadows

| Succesion 1994

| Love and the Aftermath 1999

| Geioshu Nuclear Complex

| The Noble Republic 2008

| To Own One 2009

Post-Modern
Post-Modern Era Fiction takes place between 2030-2100. Nothing in this section can alter other sections of the timeline. This is a great place to make use of all those neat gadgets you are always dreaming about. Robot Armies? Cold Fusion? Graphene Batteries? Power Armor? Utopian RBE? Add it here!

Be sure to post your idea in the | Planning Room for community feedback.