This is the challenge I have at the beginning of each new series, but for some reason it feels daunting this time around. But because this is a second book I do have quite a lot of clues from book one to go on to give me a start. I'm not completely without information on this world.
I don't know what the land masses look like yet, but I do know that there needs to be plenty of them, and that they have to have differing biomes. A central part of the story is that tupill, the intelligent planimal Kaath met on Jade, came from T'zeen and still grows there. I also know there is an ocean equivalent to my intelligent rushok on Jade. Tupill grows in temperate wetlands, so that dictates the climate of some of my landmasses.
I know that the intelligent aliens who live there are called the Zarnn, and I know that they're like walking lions. My heroine Kaath's father was a Zarnn. And in Jade I show Kaath watching images of her now-dead father. So I know what the aliens look like, I know they have several tribes, and I know those tribes disagree about things. Some were hostile to Kaath's mother being with K'ynss, her father, and some were supportive. So I have the start of a political split there to work on.
I want my squabbling tribes to live in different regions, so that will give me the opportunity to provide a richer range of habitats for my planet. Some of the tribes respect the natural world, some don't, so I want the environment to support that split. Perhaps I need forests that can be subjected to deforestation, and grasslands that can be intensively and over-farmed.
And then there's the fact that the the Zarnn are descended from big cats, so they'll be carnivores. So I need some way for them to get enough meat to eat. That probably means they have to be livestock farmers, so I'll need spaces for farms on my map.
Even with this meagre amount of information I'm beginning to delineate my brand new world. The blank canvas isn't quite so blank as it was a day ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment