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Weekly roundup 10/12
🕑 Added 2025-10-12 18:03:42 +0000 UTCFun Tangents:
At one of the Worldcon talks, Martha Wells, Paolo Bacigalupi, and several other authors discussed worldbuilding tips. A few I noted:
- Societies leave layers behind. Wells gave the example of Native American sites still visible in Texas. In Spain, I visited a ruin that archeologists hadn't gotten around to excavating, and there were just ancient pottery shards mixed in with the gravel and dirt everywhere. Sediment, however, had buried most of the city ruins, and you could hardly tell there'd been a city there.
- Another author (Nicola Griffin) mentioned how, prior to the industrial revolution, in many places women spent about 65% of their day on textile production. In a given medieval European society, the most valuable thing people owned was the clothes they wore. No one not rich was just going to throw an old shirt away--a very different mindset, guided by society's productive capacities.
- Rivers and seas in ancient times were routes, not barriers. Today, if a bridge is out, it impedes traffic and trade, but in, say, ancient Greece, the archipelago was a great advantage because the easiest way to move goods was boats. Something to consider when designing where and civilizations rise up on a fantasy map you've made.
Patch Notes:
Chapter 253 has 2 new paragraphs. I can't do spoilers here, but if that's your tier, check the comments underneath it for what got added and where.
And the chapters released this week:
Extra-Advanced Tier
Chapter 254
Chapter 255
Advanced Tier
Chapter 244
Chapter 245
Comments
Amadhe
While I knew about the seas and rivers one and the layers one due to just generally being a history enjoyer, the textiles one surprised me.
UraniumPhoenix
No, just after the first section break.
Leila
Are the two extra paragraphs at the end
