Going from nothing to something
For the sake of my story I created six different cultures. I didn’t waste a lot of time which real culture was the most fitting, I choose the ones I was most interested in and wrote them in a way that readers want to know more about them. Our protagonist was born in Noviss, so I spend a lot of time there. I started with selecting a language which was Latin and thought of some kind of history as a start: The city is on the fringe of a sea, they believe that they are the center of their goddess, the shining thread point, they have forests and water, and love the light.
- The light of the goddess = Numen et lumen (Name of the first city in Latin)
- Numen lumen -> For simplification (after 100 of years)
- Numenlumen -> For simplification
- Nomenlomen -> New city, “u” could not be pronounced by the new generation
- Nomen Vis (name power)-> for them the name was important
- Noviss -> taken over from the Veterans
After answering a lot of questions, simultaneously exploring the plot and characters I found somehow a direction which felt right. For Noviss the connection to the Sun, Goddess, was the key characteristic of the culture. To increase this importance, I introduced different classes within the City:
- The Radiant. Clergy/royal class - king, aldermen/women, believers
- The Glossy. Warriors - tactician, supply, fighter
- The Shining. Craftsmen - tailor, blacksmith, baker, chambermaid, messenger boys, ...
- The Bright. Scholars - mathematics, medicine, historians, philosophy
- The Shimmering. Old ones - exchange of experiences, knowledge library
- The Faded. Classless - servants, night watchmen, thieves/murderers, but also the countermovement to the class system to increase conflict and tension
Within the classes there are also ranks called “Acies” from 1 – 6 to create more conflict potential. (Conflict is used in stories to keep the reader and create tension) At the beginning of the story the class system is already falling apart which has an effect on our protagonist, which is part of “The Radiant”. There is also some special food only available in the city, technology and fighting tactics, but in my opinion it was easier to focus on one topic and just use some really detailed things from other subjects to make everything more realistic. The fantasy of the reader is enormous & it only needs some right triggers (words or sentences) to create a whole world in their heads.