Beyond Yttarria [Banestorm]

[combatmedic]

What about more stuff from Gabrook, Lorendil, and Olukun?


Undersea civilizations?


Lost Megalan colonies/outliers?

A Narnia-like realm?

[Phantasm]

Three words for an America-analogue: Iroquois, Aztec, Inca.

Two more words: Go Crazy. :)

[Flyndaran]

I prefer the mysterious Olmec to the overdone ones like Aztec and Mayan.

There's always the extinct hominids like "Hobbits", Neanderthals, and more primitive homo erectus.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I prefer the mysterious Olmec to the overdone ones like Aztec and Mayan.

Well, the problem is that they're mysterious. Doesn't give you much to work with :D

An obvious pulp fantasy route would be to go with Aztecs and dump in jaguar-people (Gabrook?) and snake-people (Olukun?) from other timelines,

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

There's always the extinct hominids like "Hobbits", Neanderthals, and more primitive homo erectus.

Do Homo ergaster and Homo neanderthal, they're both positively confirmed to be distinct species that archaeic Homo sapiens (aka "Cro Magnons") interbred with, so you can have half-humans without handwaving :)

[DAT]

Originally Posted by patchwork

I've tinkered quite a bit with trying to add a China-based continent to Yrth, but it runs into massive problems with the primary setting. The Song Chinese already had gunpowder and crude firearms and were very pro-technology and pro-exploration; it's hard to come up with good reasons why they don't have a world-spanning technological empire if they dodge getting sacked by the Mongols. I suppose we could put them in some radically different physical environment, such as a desert...hm.

I suppose a Mongol-based landmass could be interesting too.

From what I've read, the Chinese civilization has had waves of exploration, but due to concerns about cultural/social stability, they are normally stopped after a few years before they go too far. Technilogical improvements are also traditionally stopped for cultural/social stability; i.e., they discover gunpowered, but turn away from utilizing it for massive military purposes because of concerns on how it would effect the stability of their society.

[DAT]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I'm not sure that's really an issue. The Song dynasty's forward-looking tendencies would have been in the cities and the odds are against a banestorm abducting a chunk of a metropolitan center. You'd almost certainly get peasants, and a very small seed population of them to boot. There's no way that China Outremer would make significant technological advances for centuries after arrival. Magic and alchemy will still suck in most of their best brains. Also of course, China never really got the hang of blue water sailing, and Yrth oceans are a heck of a lot more dangerous than ours.

There are some papers out there that point to the ancient Chinese being a lot better sailors and navigators than they are normally credited being (although the navigators could have been Pacific Islanders). There is some evidense that the Chinese made huge (couple football field sized) wooden ships for exploration and visited parts of western Africa and the Americas well before Europeans (Vikings and Columbus).

They stopped the exploration due to concerns of their rulers over the social/cultural disruptions the exploration missions causes.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by DAT

There are some papers out there that point to the ancient Chinese being a lot better sailors and navigators than they are normally created being (although the navigators could have been Pacific Islanders). There is some evidense that the Chinese made huge (couple football field sized) wooden ships for exploration and visited parts of western Africa and the Americas well before Europeans (Vikings and Columbus).

Western Africa, yes. They could follow the coast all the way. The Americas, no.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

...
Do Homo ergaster and Homo neanderthal, they're both positively confirmed to be distinct species that archaeic Homo sapiens (aka "Cro Magnons") interbred with, so you can have half-humans without handwaving :)

Or just Cro Magnons, so you could have humans more human than human.
Who knew Rob Zombie was a paleogeneticist?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Ytarria already has this whole "Renaissance fair" shtick, so you might try something different for the other continent.

Let's say that another continent gets Banestorm victims from Africa. Let's also say that the locals lucked out with finding local high-yield crops (unlike real world Africa) - or maybe they just learn to make heavy use of Plant spells, which allows them to support much bigger cities than in history.

Eventually, they learn to make use of gunpowder, develop a TL4 civilization, and now their first transoceanic ships are ready to make contact with Ytarria.

For added irony, you can have them sell their guns to Ytarrian warlords in exchange for human slaves.

A technologically advanced Africa is a cool idea. But a pole reverse on slavery has been done to death.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Polynesians would be fun to play with, particularly in context with the other fantastic creatures. How do you survive on a small island with merfolk, sharkfolk, and Sea Elves around? Do you still like the ocean?

It would be a cool setting. And, as in my African notion, much easier to write, and more fun to use, than a GURPS: Polynesian Tribes and Mythology.