World Creation 15: The Last Waltz

Welcome to the final World Creation post. It’s been exactly three months since this series began, and now, I’m bringing it to a close.

We’ve covered science, religion, culture, warfare…by now, the setting is established enough. If I was to write anything in it, of course, I’d flesh out more things as I went, but this series has already provided a very firm ground on which such sub-settings could be established. One doesn’t need to start out knowing the name of every factory in Caulplanck; to establish that much would be a waste of time that could be spent actually writing.

However, there are a few little things about the setting I either missed or have retconned, and I’d like to go over them before I wrap up the series.

As Thiel pointed out way back in Part 3, the use of telegraphs relies pretty heavily on the use of electricity, and is thus infeasible in a (theoretically) Industrial Age society. I’m going to need a more plausible way for the cities to communicate quickly and efficiently. I’m tempted just to have the supply ships carry letters; that would be an elegant solution, seeing as they’re already jetting all over the place. Unfortunately, this would mean communication would probably be relatively slow, much slower than the telegraph.

Perhaps a sort of Pratchett-esque semaphore tower system would work better for express messages. These would fire immense blasts of flame into the air that, depending on height, would signify dots or dashes. Operators would transcribe and pass on messages until they reached their targets.

Phase, in the most recent post, asked a pair of questions that I’d like to take this time to answer.

The first asked what sort of holidays were observed in the Great Machine. As I’ve stated beforehand, the Great Machine is hardly culturally homogenous, and different areas will have different traditional ceremonies. The Great Machine tolerates these, but does not enforce any sort of mandatory day off work for them. It’s up to the local business owners to respect the traditions of the people.

For its part, the Great Machine does have days revering famous and heroic members of the Machine, most of which merit little more than a public announcement regarding said figures. However, there is one day of festivities, Soul Day, on which the Machine strongly encourages workplaces to give their employees a day off to revere the souls of those who have passed on. Towards the center of The Machine, where the religion this day is founded on is more entrenched, the day is a time for solemn reflection. Towards the outskirts, where other religions are more influential, the day is more or less a day for random partying.

The second question asked whether or not banishment from the Great Machine was ever practiced. The Great Machine is usually pretty draconian with its punishment: as Steampunk Tales 2 demonstrated, a chief rule is that evading the justice system (resisting arrest) means waiving your right to it (to a trial). Punishments for crimes such as theft and vandalism usually involve being sent to work camps on the fringes of The Machine. Crimes such as petty theft incur one year of servitude, crimes such as arson incur up to 5 years, crimes such as grand theft could result in ten years. The interesting thing about these camps is that they are constructed, maintained, and for the most part governed by the criminals incarcerated within, sort of like self-contained communities. The only roles not filled by inmates are that of food production, since there usually isn’t arable land nearby, and policing, which is done by Warders. Crimes such as murder usually incur a death penalty, and there isn’t much of a lead-up to the carrying out of that sentence.

Courts do tend towards acquittal as opposed to conviction, but there isn’t really such a thing as appeal in the case of the latter. There are, incidentally, no lawyers—only investigators, expected to be impartial, and judges.

That was an incredibly long-winded, inefficient lead-up to saying banishment isn’t really practiced. Their criminal justice system has other priorities.

I realized that I’ve never really dealt with the concept of prejudice in the Great Machine. Obviously, it exists, but it might exist in different forms in different places. Since the actual citizens of the Great Machine are as diverse as the nations of Earth, I’ll deal with the prejudices of the citizens in the core cities (which tend further towards homogeneity).

The more I think about it, the more I realize that racism would probably be alive and well in the core of the Great Machine. Conventional wisdom states that when cultures mix, racism tends to die, but history tells a different story. At best, immigrants are viewed by the worst traits of the worst members. At worst, they are dismissed offhand as unwashed heathens out to steal jobs from honest locals. The fact that the Great Machine flies under one banner wouldn’t really change either impression.

This isn’t to say everyone would be racist. Some cities have been multicultural for centuries, and over time the other races have gone from dangerous outsiders to innocuous locals. There still is racism, but it’s not nearly as widespread.

Sexism in the core cities is almost nonexistent. Around those parts, technological aptitude goes a long way towards defining one’s worth to society, and women have often excelled in the technological academies. The reason for this is that there was never preconceived cultural notions about what women were capable of; the reason for that is that some of the original Councilors were female, proving quite definitively that women were capable of preternatural abominations of science. Of course, there still exist pockets of sexism, but it hasn’t been a cultural institution anywhere in a long time.

Religious persecution is common in the core. Towards the core, the belief in the Great Machine’s religion of perfection is firmly entrenched. Other religions are viewed with condescension at best and disgust at worst.

Homophobia is more or less a non-issue with most.

Well, that more or less does it for this post, so I guess the series is over. No more World Creation posts. Don’t fret, though—next week, this spot will be occupied by a new series, and though I don’t want to spoil anything, let’s just say you haven’t seen the last of the Great Machine…

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7 Responses

  1. Icewalker says:

    I look forward to the first fiction within the setting. I already have secret and possibly malicious plans involving your setting…

    *wanders off into a corner steepling fingers and muttering*

  2. Chris says:

    “I’m going to need a more plausible way for the cities to communicate quickly and efficiently.”

    Carrier pigeons: travel at anything up to 70 mph. Small and inconspicuous and, with microfiche technology, can carry a book’s-worth of information. Plus the transcription process to and from microfilm means the Great Machine can keep tabs on what’s going through the posts.

    Zeppelin mail: slower, but much more lifting capacity than even the most beefcake pigeon.

  3. Phase says:

    Icewalker shares my sentiments, would you ever consider starting a PbP game on GitP with this setting?

  4. Rutskarn says:

    I’ve already started another PbP, or else I might consider it.

    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105972

  5. Occam says:

    The formating is back. Good. Makes it much easier to read.

    I know you said this was going to be the last world-creation post, but I would like to lobby for one more, very crucial, installment.

    Art. You can’t know a people or understand their culture until you understand their art. Music, sculpture, jewelery, paintings, prose. These are what gives a people their identity.

  6. Rutskarn says:

    Well, art is pretty variable from culture to culture, so that’d be a tricky post to pull off.

  7. Majikkani_hand says:

    That could be a pretty picture post…

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