Post/Author/DateTime	Post
LostMage 04-28-07, 12:06 PM	OK, DMs of the forums, I've run into a small problem: the world I'm building is supposed to be advanced not technologically, but culturally. So, the first way I wanted to do this was to make cosmoplitan states. But, why would states develop if not by race? I can't seem to justify to my players why there'd be an elf/human/dwarf/gnome state, instead of an elf nation, dwarf kingdom, etc.
Return of the Flumph 04-28-07, 01:17 PM	Why is New York full of blacks, hispanics, asians, jews, and arabs instead of just white christians?
taradusis 04-28-07, 01:30 PM	Location,location,location,Everybody tends to build where a river empties into a sea.Even dwarves probably visit a harbor town just for the trade possibilities.I beleive there's some other notes in cityscape as well?RANDOM THOUGHTS.
Darth Syntax 04-28-07, 02:34 PM	First, one has to recognize that there is an intrinsic difference between a state and a nation. The State is the political unit, the source of power. The nation is the collection of people who, for what ever reason, conceive of themselves as belonging to the same cultural grouping. It would be slightly easier to have a cosmopolitan state than a cosmopolitan nation, but both are possible. Option 1, The Empire: If you have a large and powerful empire that occupies a great deal of territory, then it becomes rather likely that your population is going to be a diverse lot. If the empire is stable, internal migrations of people are going to mix things about further, especially in the larger population centers and, hey presto, a cosmopolitan state. Option 2, the Caste System: Perhaps you have a state in which one's social position, occupation, and a whole host of other things is determined by birth and in this case species as well. Humans (considering they fast reproductive rate in comparison to many of the other species) could well form a kind of laboring class as well as forming the rank and file of the armies. Gnomes might be doomed to the life of the bureaucrat, or to becoming physicians. Dwarves are considered to be the builders and the architects. Elves dominate the arts and the study of magic and so on. Option 3, The Wondrous City: If a city (or other location) is sufficiently influential culturally as well as materially it is bound to attract all manner of people to it. Eventually some of these travelers will make the city their home. Within a few generations, an array of common cultures arise in the city, each dependent upon the others and out if this a sense of civic pride might well develop. The people of the city (regardless of their distant origins) see themselves as being of the same place as each other and so yet another cosmopolitan polity arises. -- There are all sorts of ways to work out such a system, it just takes a few minutes of thought.
GoriceXII 04-28-07, 02:42 PM	Reasons of economic development as stated above are the most common, probably. Especially if certain peoples have skills, are imported as slaves, conquered, etc. You could also have a developing nation out of various kinds of people. In my campaign there is a largely human republic, a small kingdom of dwarves, a collection of gnomes, wood elves, lizard folk, locathah and merfolk who are gradually becoming united in order to defend themselves against an alliance of barbarians, humanoids and giants. As the depredations increase they may very well entirely band together as a nation in the future.
LostMage 04-28-07, 03:31 PM	Hmm... thanks for the advice, everyone, that helps me justify the reason why I have integrated populations. I'm thinking of having "cultural hubs" for the main races. That is to say, there is an area that is the center of all things dwarven/elven/gnomish, etc. Members of the other races who live in integrated states would keep in touch with affairs in that city or area. Darth Syntax: they are supposed to be states, thank you for telling me there was a difference, I always thought the terms were interchangeable. The idea grew out of studying eastern Europe in the 1800s, with all the different German states.
GoriceXII 04-28-07, 04:26 PM	So in other words there is a kind of representative community at the capitol or whatever you have? That would make a kind of sense.
LostMage 04-28-07, 06:24 PM	Yeah, exactly. Sort of the same way that Vatican City is related to Catholocism. It grew out of the Cloudlands, the home of my homebrew race the serafi. Since they're scattered around the world, yet I wanted to give them a cohesive culture, I decided that at there home, in the Cloudlands, would be where all the cultural aspects are centered, such as politics, museums, liturature, etc.
Mazaron 04-29-07, 09:21 AM	OK, DMs of the forums, I've run into a small problem: the world I'm building is supposed to be advanced not technologically, but culturally. So, the first way I wanted to do this was to make cosmoplitan states. But, why would states develop if not by race? I can't seem to justify to my players why there'd be an elf/human/dwarf/gnome state, instead of an elf nation, dwarf kingdom, etc. I would have a mix, some areas by race, some mixed. Why would some be mixed? 1) The area is a crossroads, and attracts many people of many races. Maybe it along a vital overland trade route, such as in our world the interior of Central Asia or along a vital waterway such as the Bosporus (where Istanbul sits). 2) Perhaps relating to the first point, perhaps not, the area has been conquered many times and each new race puts its own stamp on the area and contributes its own population. India for instance as well as China has had successive waves of settlers and conquerers. Perhaps over time the new races retreat to ethnic enclaves, only certain cities, or just regions of the country near the original incursion but you still have a multiracial nation. 3) A cosmopolitan religious center, much like Mecca, which does not care about a person's race or species, brings in different races. The place might also develop as a trade crossroads. 4) Formerly one race nations are conquered by a nation of a different species, such as how Rome conquered so many formerly independent civilizations. A friend of mine ran a campaign where the PCs lived and adventured in a formerly independent human nation that was now part of a much larger hobgoblin empire. 5) As a DM friend of mine and I later did (I copied), a caste system exists. He had a goblinoid city state region, with multiple city states, with kobolds at one caste, goblins another, above them hobgoblins, then bugbears, and at the top great goblins. 6) One race is dominant and the other race or races are what is left of the original inhabitants, like the Native Americans. They were outbred and outfought perhaps by the colonists but are still present and technically make the nation multiracial. They have been assimililated to varying degrees.