What is the Legendarium? You say its the main setting, can you describe this setting?
It refers to an ancient but well known tome of Sylvanian History, which is as magical as the most fantastic fairy tales and epics you can come up with and also has information on the different regions of Sylvania. The Sylvanian Syndicate represents the main location.
Even if I were to go into detail, I speculate the diversity is quite extensive. I could go over an hour and still not cover everything. Sylvania is a world of vast contrasts. The homeland is a pasture surrounding a desert oasis in which the largest city is located. Another region of the homeland is in highlands resembling the Tibet and harbors the capital of the Syndicate. The Primeval Lands differ according to their family. The Mereis region resembles ancient Greece and is a hot, rocky region with lots of coastline, beaches, hot springs and reefs with a pleasant Mediterranean weather and people known for being associated with water, vitality and cultural traditions revolving around seduction and skinship.
What is the relationship between magic and technology? Did magic play a role in the development of the technology?
Technology grew at an accelerated rate, prompting magic to be used to allow people to keep up. As the people discovered technology was able to alter even the internal nervous pathways bestowing magic to people, they formed a symbiotic relationship.
What caused this big difference in life expectancies? A few years is expected but 20 years is 1/5 of the lifespan! Why do men live so drastically much longer?
Being a gender equal culture, normally you'd think the men would live slightly longer or shorter lifespans, but Sylvanian women are generally competitive against one another, being friends with some but treating other women as targets. This led to increased female female aggression and helped them become powerful warriors, all at the expense of treating rivals as enemies. Lots of cultures have a surplus of females due to the anomalous gender ratios in younger ages. Some of these cultures hold chivalry and honor seriously, leading to a large amount of females who die fighting either in wars, peacekeeping, protecting a love interest's honor or competing for a man's hand in a blood sport.
If no one works, how does the economic system work? Are there dalmations in this world? Does this world have all the same animals as our real world? Do they have all the same names?
The economy is fully automated. Everything factories use is synthesized from ether.
There are Dalmatians. Contrary to what we would believe, most species in our world also exist in others, with minor variations. They have all our animals and their own as well. They don't have the same names (omitting the mystical species, which are named the same, dog breeds like German Shepherds have different names).
So as a GM, to a player, you have no set of races set out? Can the players makes up any race they want? If so, how will you determine the relationship between races? Is it up to the players to sort out what races tehre are and how they got there and why they are the way they are, etc?
Not as a rule of thumb. Races are all amicable towards one another. Conflict is non existent. Often, if there are firefights, they are a faction rather than species triggered event. Players can use any race since the Sylvanian realms are vast and in the age of the unified Syndicate there are regions still yet undiscovered.
So what is the date for the setting of this roleplay? Earth exists. Did all the animals on earth come from Sylvania or vice versa? Do humans know about the races on this planet? Is it "real" earth or an alternate reality earth? If it's "real" earth, how do you explain authors like Tolkein writing about the races taht are apparently on the Sylvania planet? Where is Sylvania? How did it connect with earth?
It diverges from our timeline during the Summer of 2015. Animals from Earth are endemic variants of the animals in Sylvania. Some did stray their way here, whereas others, like insects, are completely Earth endemic to be found nowhere else. Sylvania itself is not a planet. The world is as if the entire universe was a land able to harbor life. It is technically our world in a way since the story starts on Earth but moves to Sylvania. Authors often found or heard tales of Sylvania or the Sylvanians stranded on Earth. Sylvania unlike others, however, is a sealed universe in the multiverse. It links to Earth through the legendary Empyrean gate located in a forbidden shrine in Mt Athos in Greece. The vast majority of the dead leave through there and reawaken on the magical realm.
So you have the modern era region (continent?) which is the Homeland. You have a medieval regions which are the Primeval Lands. And then you have the Wildlands. Now, how does the technology spread from the Homeland to the other regions? Why is there a difference in technology? Why is one region modern and the other more medieval? What dynamics occur between these three regions? Are they countries? Continents? Both?
The technology was created in the Primeval Lands, but cultural and societal standards forbid it from becoming apparent much like how cities bar tall skyscrapers from their skylines. Technology isn't really different. In the Wildlands, it is different due to cultural and societal restrictions on technology rather than on the changes it can bring to the region. The regions can be continents and countries.
My overarching questions are as follows:
- How will you sort out this "infinite race" issue?
Not an issue, given specific ground rules to limit races to those that can be described as sentient.
- It's a difficult aspect to handle properly because then you don't have a good level of development between races, you won't be able to develop the history of the world very easily. Without any limit or defined races, you don't have much of an option for depth. This takes away from how real a world can feel, leaving it in the zone of a sandbox RP. Players get to make races, political dynamics, regions of settlement, historical events. At what point does the GM make this world and not the players?
The Homeland is where I will actually hold control. Everything beyond the Homeland and Primeval Lands will be up to the player, hence why they are referred to as the Wildlands. While there will be a subset of specific crafting rules for those and limited customization will be available to those on the Primeval Lands, the Homeland and Primeval Lands are led by the Sylvanian race. This race is similar but more magically and aesthetically gifted than humanity. They have superior strength, speed, intellect, magical and psychic prowess and better physical appearance and are the bulk of Sylvania's population.
- Political dynamics and historical events are not the same. There is no relation between the all Sylvania representative Syndicate and the Historical governments. It is however known that the events of Ancient Sylvania were the precursors to the current communist state.
Historical events have repercussions in the Primeval Lands but are otherwise pointless. Political intrigue is absent from the transparent Syndicate, so political dealings will be few unless we dive into the unknown Wildlands and explore individual regions.
- What is the connection between your regions? Why are those connections in place? What is stopping potential connections from existing? What are the dynamics of the world?
They are connected by how they joined together to fight the threat of invasion. These connections stuck for reconstruction and eventually unity. Potential connections are established whenever possible and as a whole the dynamic is a power ruling over royalty who become the cultural guardians of the land while they deal with the humanitarian aspects.
- In the society, it seems like everything is perfect, it's a very eutopic region. But we all know that there is always a grungy side to these perfect worlds. Where is the downside of your perfect world?
Besides the fluctuations in the Wildlands, this was a world who faced complete annihilation in the distant past due to their differences. While the past is long gone, people in the Wildlands and colonies often end up with problems that start personally and grow to threaten realms far beyond the reach of their eyes. Perfection can make everyone find happiness, but it doesn't keep conflict from emerging.
- Where is the fault in the economy? If you think it's perfect, explain to me why there is no disparity amidst the social world.
The lack of disparity is a money thing. Products are freely available. Houses are built on request and nothing costs a dime. When you can have everything, it sort of becomes pointless to compete, so people wind up buying what they want and rarely spend solely to display their high standard of living.
- How old is this civilizaiton, what is the history of it, where did the races come from, what is the main race in each region, why is it called the Homeland, who is in control of your STARCOM people, why do the STARCOM exist, what is the connection between this world and earth, how many other planets have life on them?
They are around 300,000 years old. Their history was pretty uneventful until a war that saw them pitted against an Empire threatening to conquer their realm. It was a very bloody war with lasting repercussions that ultimately led to the demise of an Empire most had thought invincible. The races come from distant places, some from the Wildlands, others from colonies, others immigrants... And yet in the end the Sylvanians rule. Their rule is not totalitarian and iron fisted and this human look alike species leads a peaceful and prosperous world. On the name of the Homeland, it was chosen because the capital is located in the territory. The Syndicate, the core of the communist government, represents the backbone of STARCOM, which leads other contingents and answers to the head of the Syndicate's council. STARCOM was created to stop conflict in other worlds. There are countless planets in our universe that can harbor life and an effectively infinite number beyond.
In answer to the last question, the Empyrean gate links both worlds and has led to Sylvanians arriving on Earth and people finding themselves in Sylvania, with no known explanation.
I think that's it for this bit :3