Geography
Almost anything can vary from one archipelago to another. Climate varies from tropical to arctic and from desert to rainforest (though most follow a sense of "closeness"; two archipelagae that allow direct and fast travel between them will typically have similar climate); climate is not constrained to be "coastal", as real-world islands would have to be (on Earth, islands never have harshly varying temperature, because of the nature of water as a heat sink, but this is not the case in Ia).
Physical and magical law may be subtly different: some enchantments may be possible and some monsters able to survive in only certain archipelagae but not others; in some cases, creatures might be able to survive in many places but be fertile only in specific ones, and some enchantments can be placed in items in only certain places, but work as intended almost anywhere. Some archipelagae are astral, elemental, shadow, or fey in essence; some might be permanently overcast, or even permanently sunlit, twilit, moonlit, or dark. Even the nature of the ocean can vary; some "distant" (difficult to reach) archipelagae may float in breatheable "water", or be submerged, or the ocean may be of acid or fluid of a different nature, or even of ethereal, astral stuff. The water itself mgiht also be freshwater, or of other salinity than "earth" salt; the waters may be poisonous, acidic, basic, colored, opaque, or even flammable.
Geography can vary widely, including many sorts of geography not found on Earth.
Human "known space" includes approximately a hundred inhabited archipelagae, and perhaps three times as many uncolonized arches.
Human-dominated arches: each of these has a distinct human culture, generally held by one or another of the human nations from their original archipelago. There are about a dozen human-dominated arches.
Known friendly arches: these are arches not dominated by humans, but which have civilizations or colonies of races with which humans have reasonable relations. Several dozen are commonly known, and many hundreds more are known to exist (the Eldar alone are known to live in over five hundred archipelagae).
Waypoint arches: these arches have no independent cultures; some have small colony or research towns, but are primarily not destinations: some have resources for exploitation but do not have substantial colonies. General human knowledge includes at least two hundred.
Hostile arches: these are arches dominated by entities or environments inimical to humans and most peoples. The exact locations of over a dozen are known, but hundreds more must exist close enough that their peoples can come and menace human space.
Dead-end arches: these are like waypoint arches, but have no known path to anywhere else: many of these are poorly explored if they had no obvious resource use (and some may not actually be dead ends...) The Ministry of Exploration claims it has paths to three thousand archipelagae that are not known to lead anywhere useful, many of which doubtless actually can be used to travel still further through the cosmos of the Infinite Sea.
Tomorrow's post will be the first part of a set of essays on how D&D demihuman races -- i.e. human first contacts -- fit into Ia.
Physical and magical law may be subtly different: some enchantments may be possible and some monsters able to survive in only certain archipelagae but not others; in some cases, creatures might be able to survive in many places but be fertile only in specific ones, and some enchantments can be placed in items in only certain places, but work as intended almost anywhere. Some archipelagae are astral, elemental, shadow, or fey in essence; some might be permanently overcast, or even permanently sunlit, twilit, moonlit, or dark. Even the nature of the ocean can vary; some "distant" (difficult to reach) archipelagae may float in breatheable "water", or be submerged, or the ocean may be of acid or fluid of a different nature, or even of ethereal, astral stuff. The water itself mgiht also be freshwater, or of other salinity than "earth" salt; the waters may be poisonous, acidic, basic, colored, opaque, or even flammable.
Geography can vary widely, including many sorts of geography not found on Earth.
Human "known space" includes approximately a hundred inhabited archipelagae, and perhaps three times as many uncolonized arches.
Human-dominated arches: each of these has a distinct human culture, generally held by one or another of the human nations from their original archipelago. There are about a dozen human-dominated arches.
Known friendly arches: these are arches not dominated by humans, but which have civilizations or colonies of races with which humans have reasonable relations. Several dozen are commonly known, and many hundreds more are known to exist (the Eldar alone are known to live in over five hundred archipelagae).
Waypoint arches: these arches have no independent cultures; some have small colony or research towns, but are primarily not destinations: some have resources for exploitation but do not have substantial colonies. General human knowledge includes at least two hundred.
Hostile arches: these are arches dominated by entities or environments inimical to humans and most peoples. The exact locations of over a dozen are known, but hundreds more must exist close enough that their peoples can come and menace human space.
Dead-end arches: these are like waypoint arches, but have no known path to anywhere else: many of these are poorly explored if they had no obvious resource use (and some may not actually be dead ends...) The Ministry of Exploration claims it has paths to three thousand archipelagae that are not known to lead anywhere useful, many of which doubtless actually can be used to travel still further through the cosmos of the Infinite Sea.
Tomorrow's post will be the first part of a set of essays on how D&D demihuman races -- i.e. human first contacts -- fit into Ia.