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| From NBC News |
The physical geography of the land plays an import part for why a place develops where it is (covered in a previous article). Another major influence on how the culture develops is the environment.
Cultures around are world have been, and are, influenced by numerous conditions people have to deal with. One of the first aspects people have to learn to live with is the environment that defines the space. This happened in the past and continues today as people move from one location to another. Each location has a unique set of conditions, but there are some general considerations to be taken when developing your own setting.
General climate is an easily identified factor. How hot or how cold an area is determines many factors of how people see, define, and act in their lives. Harsher climates usually mean a higher level of cooperation for survival, whereas climates where life is "easier" tends to lend to more aggressive societies. As societies develop, they develop different means for dealing with these issues. Another aspect of dealing with the different climates is preparing for the change in seasons.
Every place has its own variation of seasons. Where I live there are four distinct seasons, while a friend in San Diego prefers it there because there is basically one season. The change of seasons determines many natural food sources, plant and animal. Plants are adaptive to their area and food bearing plants are different all across the world. As we advance in technology food sources can become more homogenized, but earlier societies and farmers' markets were dependent on what they can produce in the area.
Availability of food and water is an early determination for how the culture develops. Places where food is easily collected, or hunted, make it easier for the people to sustain themselves. In cultural studies it has been shown that many hunter-gather tribes living where food is easily obtained have more free time than in agrarian cultures. However, the agrarians usually develop in places where growing their own food is easier to do than working at gathering and hunting for everything.
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| Etna December 2015 |
Drinkable water is another consideration for the community. Communities in dryer places must consider water conservation as part of their development. Even places where water was available it has been found that large cultures and civilizations were lost because of food shortage tied to their water usage (salination of the soil). When water resources have been depleted earlier cultures moved on. Later societies find other ways of dealing with the loss of water.
In many game settings food and water are not considerations needing to be dealt with, but they can add an interesting twist to your setting and how you have your players and their characters interact with and within the community.
Seasonality also produces different weather conditions the culture needs to adapt to. Think about where you are placing your society. If that town is built along a river, and what is the regularity of flooding and how big is the floodplain? These are two reasons for the rise of the Egyptian culture along the Nile. Dealing with winds on the steppes or on the plains are usually very seasonal and play a part in cultural development. Winter storms, spring rains, summer heat, and the autumn harvest all help define the culture.
Catastrophic events may or may not be regular, but they are used to define the culture. Places where they are used to having the typhoon or hurricane season define many aspects of the general culture. Others might be dealing with tornadoes. Some events are not tied to seasons but are part of the lives of the people. Earthquakes and volcanoes are two natural events people have used to define aspects of their world beliefs.
Within each of these there are parts you can explore and exploit to create a setting all your own. They are also going to influence a number of other aspects of your culture.
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| Zeus with a thunderbolt |
Language is a reflection of what the society has to deal with in their environment. The Inuit people have many different words of what most people just call snow. That is because for them the type of snow is more important than just knowing there is snow. Knowing the type of snow could mean the difference between life or death for them. If you have traditional dwarfs in your setting, they probably have a much broader language to talk about rocks and minerals. A traditional elf might have different words to describe a certain tree to let you know how old it is. In many languages the colorful phrases used are tied to the environmental aspects the society has been dealing with.
Religions through our history, around our world, have developed as a reflection of the environment as a culture developed. Many times the religion was an aspect of defining and understanding the reason for the seasons, weather, and catastrophic events. The stories developed were also used to teach the next generation how to live in the environment they live in.
There are a lot more areas where the environment of a particular society is developing in can affect them. This should give you some areas to think about. This also gives us a stepping point for future articles on some more of the intricate aspects of cultural development.
Have fun with your creation. Even if it is set in an existing game world, you can place influences in you town or city that no other location has to deal with. Someone might say you put something together wrong, smile, take a note, and let them know they don't fully understand the backstory. By doing this you can go into your notes and add information so you can have your people do what you want them to.
If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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