doghead
thotd
Cor get distracted by RL for a couple of days and you lot have almost designed the world
My thoughts are that the differences in culture and technology of each slice will depend on how the portals are perceived. As I see it there are three main scenarios:
1. Where the general population know of the gates, it as something out of a myth. The gates position and operation is know only to a handful of adventures and explorers.
In this case the culture and technology of each slice will be
distinct.
2. The portals are not generally known about and are controlled by a single organisation: church, druids, traders guild, etc.
In this case, the actual effect on the culture and technology
will depend on the organisation's aims. For instance a church
will be trying to convert the people but wouldn't care less
about technology. While a trade organisation would equalise
technology but wouldn't give a fig about the culture.
3. The portals are generally know about and used. They could still be under the control of a guild but in this case the guild simply charges for their use.
In this case, cultures and technology would be more in line
with what exists on present day earth.
Comment?
At the moment, I have been thinking mostly along the lines of #3 - the portals are generally well known and incorporated into the day to day running of society. They range from great aches, through which whole wagons (or armies) can pass to small personal portals, mostly under the control of the rich or powerful. Many of these can send people to various destinations, where as the arches largely are fixed to a single destination. For me, this is the easiest setting to get my head around, but it seems to less opportunity for the exploration and discovery.
One idea I have been mulling over is that the portals are not teleporters, but gates into another dimension that allows travelling time to be reduced. If anyone has read Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen books, then something like the warrens. Travel between gates is safe, so long as one stays on the path. Leaving the path is dangerous. Sometimes there are junctions, allowing a choice of destinations. And there are abandoned paths, which go somewhere, but are only marginally safer than the trackless regions.
Another I idea was a setting in which the magic of the portals, so long taken for granted, starts to fail.So, plenty of ideas floating around. What I need now is to get an idea of what you see the characters getting up to so I can nails something down and we can get started.
thotd