People and Cultures

Though so many different cultures live and thrive here, there have been surprisingly few inter-racial wars and interruptions in the daily life of those who populate the world. However, many of those people are territorial and have strikingly different cultural expectations, so even though some parts of each culture are aware of and even mingle with or trade with others, the bulk of the populace hardly knows of the rest’s existence. That’s not to say that wars within any given culture haven’t existed: some have died out due to their actions against their own people.

The population of the world is moderate, existing mainly in heavily populated cities that collect near the Portals – or nearest in a habitable area when those Portals and Gates are in dangerous locales. However at least a third of the population lives outside of those cities, forming large farming hamlets up through minor urban centers. Only a scant few people actually wander the world or at least their portion of it as nomads, but that’s also not including those who make their living with trade and shipping. A vast shipping empire all but lives on the seas themselves, pausing to rest on the many isles across the world’s oceans. All in all though, not more than a few hundred million people exist on the world.

Because the world is populated by folk who have either arrived from another world through the Portals, or are descended from those folk, there is a firm agreement among scholars that the world can sustain their current number, but will be wary of too many more imports above and beyond natural births on the planet. Though the Portals do work both ways, far fewer people leave the world than enter it, and this is something that may cause strife or overpopulation in the future.

The technology level of each portion of the Land varies by both need and background of its people. There are star-faring folk as well as crafted artificial beings, but also those who feed on magical substances and have no use for electricity or machines, and even those who don’t rely upon written word for their histories to be passed down. Everything from hunter-gatherer societies through cybernetically enhanced Psionics, exists on Dragondeep.

Also because they hail from vastly different cultures and know that they are ‘new’ to the world (even if their culture came here millennia ago which is the case in some locales) there is a greater respect for one another’s religious beliefs and cultures – as long as that culture doesn’t insist on harming another, almost anything goes. Some folks still put their faith in mythological beings they intellectually know do not exist, while others worship creatures or ideas which cannot be denied exist – at least on their home world.

The main difference there and here, on that note, is that there were ‘Gods’ on Dragondeep, once. Great beings of power, grace and wonder – beings who fell to the Dragons once they rebelled. But even the dragons are waning in their power, and have not dominated the world since the arrival of those through the Gates and Portals. Many dragons would prefer their kind to remain entirely at peace with those on the land and in fact cooperate with most other beings. But there are still plenty who would ravage whatever they come across in anger and mistaken belief that they will be subjugated once more as they were in the era of the Gods.

Since the Dragons are – as far as anyone knows – the longest-established native intelligent life on the world, they are offered reasonable respect and space. Those who enjoy the company and culture of other beings are often welcomed, after all, who is going to turn down a 40 foot long dragon when they ask to borrow your book on orchid cultivation?

Some Dragons have gone as far as establishing a cooperative culture with the other cultures of the world, and it is with great sadness that those dragon-friends view the more destructive of their breed as they attack villages or wreck ships. There may come a day when dragon fights dragon, and woe to the rest of the world when they do, for their destructive force ended the very Gods.

Transportation on Dragondeep is mainly by sea on very commonly available boats, along rivers with steamers and paddle-wheel boats, and on land using horse or other creature drawn carts. Roads are extensive in certain parts of the world, but nearly impossible to find in others. Only locally are there many protections for the travelers, long distance travel between cities on un-patrolled roads is dangerous at best. Obviously, there is a good business for anyone looking for mercenary or protective work, along such stretches of wilderness.

Only in the Jewel Witches territory and the Clockwork Kingdom are there true powered vehicles. Elsewhere, there is neither need nor want for such things. Also in those areas and in the Lumin realm are the only true electrically powered devices, lighting, computers and such that actually require power. This may seem odd, that there is such a huge disparity between the Witches and other locations, but many cultures have legends of pollution and the like, and the Clockwork often remind their organic peers that even though they can withstand the Bitter Portal’s pollution, others cannot.

Communication between cultures and areas is generally by letter, though locally some cultures even use shortwave radio and video transmissions, most do not. Some can send magical transmissions, scrying and the like, while others have extremely powerful telepaths who can link up over long distances. On the whole though, expect a letter or parcel to be delivered by a currier on a flying mount (or even, a currier who flies), because the bulk of the world is not technologically advanced enough to support phone lines and internets.

The world itself supports many non-intelligent animals and a huge variety of native plants. However, scholars have frequently reminded their students that many of those ‘native’ creatures might have come from other worlds in the distant past due to the Portals and Gates. Surely there are a good number of seemingly haphazard biological oddities that exist to prove that point. But by and large, there are similar-to-Earth animals in good numbers: rabbits, snakes, goats, and hawks, along with more exotic animals. There are far fewer large terrestrial animals (akin to elephants or dinosaurs) though plentiful evidence that they did once range across the world. For the most part, the inhabitants which require meat either hunt those wild animals in their nearby wilderness, trapping and fishing, or have plentiful domesticated stock to work with. Many farms have the familiar pigs, chicken, cattle and sheep, and horses of different stock types are very common across the whole world. The deep sea offers a bounty of fish and shellfish of all manner, though there are also ‘sea monsters’ that aren’t Dragons out there too!

In order to truly appreciate the variety of different species that reside on Dragondeep, here is a size chart showing 'typical' members of different races. (Click on the image to view the full size.)