Indiana Brown ✧ University Blog

“Blueprints for a New World” – Emma Raey

Firewatch Map:

• Has a vertical sense of ascendancy 
• Maps can serve as a visual aspiration as well as a guide 

Ancient Egypt Topography and Mythology

• Civilization was built on the floodplace of the Nile for travel and a water source, but the other side of the river was very rich fertile soil for an abundance of food. 
• “Kemet”, the Egyptian word for their land, means “dark soil”. To the West was barren land. Which means we have 2 underdefended sides which means they are ALWAYS being raided. 
• Due to this, Egypt was one of the first countries to have its own army to protect itself.
  • Geography also has an impact on creatures. Egypt has adapted crocodiles, jackals, cats, etc. 
  • Additionally the position that cats have in a lot of cultures is held because they are easily domesticated and hunt vermin
    • The Cretian Minotaur and the Pantheon are also very important stories in Egypt 
    • Myths likely came from people making up stories to fit what we don’t understand. The Minotaur likely came from people rationalizing earthquakes, as the stories come from Crete, which has a lot of seismic activity. Fossil records conclude that the earth has shifted a lot. 
    • Meanwhile Hawaii ended up with Paylei because Hawaii has a lot of volcanic activity, and lava is made of basalt, which is highly fertile. After so many years, life would have grown from the fertile soil made from the lava, so Paylei ends up as a destroyer, as well as a life-giver. 
    • The connection between mythology and science are very close!!!
      • What prayers and rituals does my gameworld have that links to its geography?

Exercise: 

The day/night have both extreme cold and extreme heat. Due to this, shelter is incredibly important to the culture. People build roofs above walkways to keep the sun off their backs and there are fireplaces and insulation in every home. Covering yourself with cloth to keep out the heat and the cold is important, so the fashion is floorlength skirts and widebrim hats and headcoverings with long sleeves. Worship is given to gods of balance and significance is given to harmonious symbols like weighing scales and yinyangs; dichotomies are an important cultural idea however not always a very useful one. The most prominent types of creatures are those which make burrows to survive the cold but also have hard shells to survive the heat, or animals that can crawl in and out of shells for the same purpose. 

Religious Stories always Answer one of these four Questions. 

1. What is unsatisfactory about the current human condition?
2. What is the ideal human condition? 
3. How do we get to this ideal? 
4. Who/What will show us the way?
   1. Eg; in Judaism the unideal is that everyone lives in exile 
   2. The Ideal human condition is returning to this place
   3. You get there by repairing the world 
   4. You get there by pursuing justice and 
   5. Moses and the scholars of rabbinical tradition
      1. Eg 2; In buddhism it is wasted craving what we don’t have 
      2. Nirvana is emptying yourself of desire 
      3. Medication, mindfulness, compassion which turns your eyes a way from your own desire 
      4. Do impermanent things like drawing patterns in sand to be swept away by tide
         1. Eg 3; Confucius’ unideal is social disorder. People should know their role.
         2. Through education, learn to become a profound person and inhabit your role
         3. Pouring tea, greeting neighbors. There is always a right way to do simple things
         4. Ancient written texts by sages tell how to experience profoundest 

Town planning is also an indicator of cultural values. 

• Centuripe in Italy, that looks like a man from above, was actually built on the top parts of a hill 
• Designs of mediaeval fort towns were built in star shapes because they were good for protection
• Manhattan was designed to be as efficiently designed as possible in a numbered grid system 

Inscribing Values: 

• What is the most important thing for this community? Fresh water? Temples? Theatre? Monument? 
• What infrastructure is there? Power sources? What materials are structures built from? What scale?
• Where do people eat, trade, rest, work, and play? 
• How are families organised? Kinship? Guilds? Is there class structure? How does this reflect in the town? 
• How do people move through the city? Do they value efficiency, or use public transport? 
• Where do your significant characters live? 

Social-Spatial Metaphors 

He’s beneath me, he’s below me, she’s ahead of me, he went over my head, high culture and low culture, how could he stoop so low, he’s crossed a line, etc. 

Palimpsest is a good way of layering history. 

Biomes – forests, grasslands, freshwater, marine, desert, tundra, or a fantasy made up one 

Climate – atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere. 

Climate types – tropical, dry, continental, and polar on Earth

Landmass – peninsular, mountain range