u/Cereborn

Welcome, everyone to the first Schedule Sunday of Ashagon. If you’re not familiar, the Schedule Sunday is where we hash out the behind-the-scenes meta details to keep the shard chugging along while people let their creative juices flow for the rest of the week.

During the Schedule Sunday we typically recap moderator announcements, update major events within the shard, set the clock, and assign slots for our weekly event posts.

##News

First week of the shard, so we are still getting everything up and running. Claims are still coming in, and hopefully will continue to do so as we advertise around Reddit to drum up some new interest.

IMPORTANT LINKS
Claim Template
Welcome to Ashagon

##Ashagon Check-In

Current map

Current Year: 1 CE
(Time usually progresses organically in accordance with player posts. If you have an event happen, you can attach a year to it. The furthest advanced year will become the current year in the next Schedule Sunday post, unless the mods decide someone jumped unreasonably far ahead.)

ACTIVE CLAIMS

The Kingdom of Aelbaion (/u/OceansCarraway)
The Aeries (/u/Crimsonheart4269)
Audio (/u/BoobooMaster)
Ayetho (/u/Harfordplanning)
Wingdom of Cheelia (/u/TinyLittleFlame)
The Faerie Court of Cwmyteg (/u/JFritz2308)
Cyrenthia (/u/Square-Tumbleweed-15)
Dragon Republic of the Gold-and-Green Fields (/u/adminscales1155)
Freeport (/u/goop_lizard)
The Mangroves of the Crones (/u/SPACEMUHRINE)
Origin and the Xanoi (/u/madicienne)
Star Cities of Paroma (/u/DartMonkey)
Rexdom of the Saur-kin (/u/gingecharmander)
Rockborn (/u/palmtree219)
Kingdom of Sarmeqarki (/u/SgtWolf01)
Empire of the Six Cities (/u/Northrnr)
Trezera (/u/PhoebusLore)
Tritechniquon (/u/Cereborn)
Kingdom of Verdantis (/u/joec533)
The Wuavreni Mercantile League (/u/Soapybint)
Y Chruine (/u/thefuzzsakenone)

NPC CLAIMS
None yet

##Weekly Events

MARKET MONDAY
Market Monday is an open interaction post that anyone can join. The host chooses a setting somewhere within their claim. Quite often this is a market/bazaar/merchant harbour, but it can also be a religious or cultural festival, or any other event you can think of that has reason to bring people from around the continent. As host, you should set the scene with a fairly detailed intro post that informs us of how the physical space is set up, what points of interest there are, and what event is happening. You are not required to DM interactions and you’re not obligated to interact with everyone who comes in, but you should have enough ideas that players have something to dig into and develop their own stories.

Monday, May 4th (unassigned)
Monday, May 11th (unassigned)
Monday, May 18th (unassigned)
Monday, May 25th (unassigned)

TECHNOLOGY TUESDAY
This post is, as you might expect, focused on technology. For this shard, the TT post will be able to cover both conventional technology and specialized Ana-Tech. That doesn’t mean that you need a Tech Tuesday slot to write about your technology. There is a “Technology” flair and you’re welcome to apply it to a lore post at any time. Tech Tuesday is intended for significant inventions that have the potential to change things across Ashagon (provided you’re willing to share). We also expect Tech Tuesdays to keep a certain standard of thought and detail. (Anyone requesting a TT slot will need to let the mods know a general outline of what technology they will be introducing.)

Tuesday, May 5th (unassigned)
Tuesday, May 12th (unassigned)
Tuesday, May 19th (unassigned)
Tuesday, May 26th (unassigned)

THAUMATURGY THURSDAY
This is similar to Tech Tuesday, but it is for significant creations of a magical nature. Anyone wishing to introduce a Faded Wonder not included in their claim will need to book a Thaumaturgy Thursday slot. It can also be used for interesting applications of Faded Wonders you’ve already introduced. You can use one to talk about magic apart from Faded Wonders, but since this is a Low-Power shard, it will be more about complexity and interesting applications rather than showing off something shiny and explosive. (Again, you will just need to give the mods a short description of the idea when you book a slot.)

Thursday, May 7th (unassigned)
Thursday, May 14th (unassigned)
Thursday, May 21st (unassigned)
Thursday, May 28th (unassigned)

FEATURE FRIDAY
This is our oldest weekly event post. This one has no particular rules around content. You can write it about anything you want as long as it displays more thought, care, and detail than a typical post. People have written about major historical events, the culminations of wars or revolutions, conlangs, pottery, music, art, or introduced fascinating narratives. The FF post will be stickied at the top of the front page for the following week.

Friday, May 8th (unassigned)
Friday, May 15th (unassigned)
Friday, May 22nd (unassigned)
Friday, May 29th (unassigned)

##Regional Naming Suggestions

We enjoy collaboratively naming the major geographic features of each shard. For Ashagon, we have divided our continent into eight regions, and divided the surrounding waters into six seas. In the comments on this thread, feel free to suggest names for any or all of the regions pictured; just indicate which one with the assigned number or letter.

Regional Map

Seas Map

If you have any other questions or comments, please share them below!

NAME: Tritechniquon

FLAG/SYMBOL: Image : The flag is split into the three primary colours of Eryskan dye, representing the three major guilds. The four white stars represent the four levels of guild status.

LOCATION: Here

GEOGRAPHY: The Tritechniquon has grown outward from its original core settlement on the Bay of Mellatas, which is surrounded by rainswept lowland plains. These plains transition into rocky highlands, which then slope into lush, forested valleys.The northern border follows a major river (known as River Eryska locally), while mining and forge outposts stretch west deep into the mountain range.

BIOLOGY/ETHNICITY: The native population of the Tritechniquon is human. Their complexion ranges from olive-toned to dark, with most of the population having black hair. Blonde hair occurs in about 5% of the population, but is highly desirable for how easily it takes dyes.

HISTORY: The Tritechniquon’s began as a merchant’s harbour called the Port of Mellatas, within an area that was characterized by two important resources. One is the Eryska weed, an inedible plant that propagates prolifically in three strains, each one having seed pods that grow in vibrant colours. The presence of such amazing colours made the Port of Mellatas a vital trading post for textile merchants. The other resource was the good quality iron, and the ancient forges able to work it. The craftspeople organized into guilds, and two guilds — the Textilers and the Metalworkers — controlled everything.

Over the years, society in the Port of Mellatas and its environs grew more tense. The Metalworkers Guild asserted control over any purveyors of metals, and tried to take control of any crafters who simply used metal tools, but that included the tanners and weavers who were strictly under control of the Textilers. The Textilers, in response, asserted control over all agricultural products, since Eryska weed was a crop. Tensions continued to flare until there was outright war in the streets. Eventually, a council of citizens rose up and exiled the guild leaders. They packed up and founded two new settlements nearby.

These new settlements languished — the Metalworkers town suffered from scarcity of food and clothing, while the Textilers suffered from a lack of tools. The Port of Mellatas suffered in its own way, losing its centres of craftsmanship. Eventually the guild leaders agreed to a meeting to sort their differences. They met on neutral ground, at a farm between their settlements. A bard named Rollo had come by to perform as a way of easing the tensions. As negotiations got more heated, only Rollo’s songs kept the guildmasters from killing each other. And finally, they realized the solution was right there. They would create a third guild - a Bard’s Guild - to act as a buffer between the other two. Where two leads to conflict, three brings balance. Thus the Tritechniquon was born.

SOCIETY: There are three Arch Guilds: the Metalworkers, the Textilers, and the Bards. Each of these Arch Guilds contains within it dozens of other guilds that fall within its purview. A worker will rise within the ranks of whatever their particular guild is, starting at apprentice, then journeyman, then elite, and finally master. Each guild has one master, chosen from a council of elites. The masters of the various guilds then elect from their number one Grandmaster of the Arch Guild. The three Grandmasters form a triarchy that rules the nation. The current triarchy consists of:

• Bard’s Guild: Lord Rollo III (Singer)
• Metalworker’s Guild: Lady Tiama I (Armoursmith)
• Textiler’s Guild: Lord Empanas (Dyer)

These Arch Guilds control virtually everything, but the merchant lords of Mellatas, who see to the selling of these fine craftworks to ships from across Ashagon, sometimes act as a fourth part to the triarchy. However, while they may have money and influence, their power is limited. Merchants are not part of a guild, because they do not create anything, and only a guild master can be trusted as a leader.

A master’s term lasts for seven years, after which point they may have their position challenged by any other elite guildmember. A Grandmaster may be chosen for their wisdom and leadership, but they are expected to retain mastery of their craft or else they will lose their lofty position.

CULTURE: One thing that stands out about the Tritechniquon is how intensely meritocratic they are. At the core of their culture is the belief that it is a person’s calling to excel at a craft. What a person’s craft is can vary widely. Heredity counts for little, and it’s very normal to choose a craft that’s different from your parents, but when you have selected a craft, your ability to perform it will dictate your standing in society. Those people who are the best smiths/carvers/weavers/artists/etc. Will be taking the important roles in governing society. That means that some skills that would be beneficial to a leader (or just a well-rounded person) are often neglected in favour of those that are of a material benefit to crafting. However, on the bright side, under this system nepotism is impossible and family lineages that hoard wealth won’t emerge. (Also, “Your mom’s bad at carpentry!” is a legitimate insult in the Tritechniquon, and serious fights have begun over it.)

Arts are quite popular. Since it is core to the Tritechniquons history that the Bard’s Guild is the force to balance the other two, craftspeople of the other two Arch Guilds patronize the artists of the Bard’s Guild frequently. Singers, dancers, storytellers, poets, painters, sculptors — various disciplines are all enjoyed and given equal respect, but in every case, the greatest respect is paid to those who are the best in their art. And if you’re about to say, “But they can’t objectively determine who is the best at art,” then let me assure you, they can. They have, over a period of generations, perfected a complex scoring rubric to judge every single artform and assess mastery.

There is even a guild for courtesans. They practice their craft openly, both men and women, and are duly recognized for their skill. (The process by which the council of elite courtesans chooses their master is shrouded in secrecy and spoken of only in the most reverent whispers.) Many types of vices are allowed in the Tritechniquon, and there’s little in the way of cultural taboos or purity culture. All that really matters is that your vices don’t interfere with your craftwork.

OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC: Mages are not viewed as a separate class of people in the Tritechniquon. Anyone fortunate enough to possess magic simply channel that power into their chosen craft. Displays of magic here will rarely be obvious, but instead will simply infuse existing craftwork and enhance mundane skills. Magically inclined craftworkers may find other students with the aptitude and pass on their unique practice of working. Sometimes these practices evolve into offshoot crafts that attain guilds of their own, as when the Potioner’s Guild broke away from the Herbalist’s Guild. Using magic to create a better product isn’t viewed as cheating. But magic is also only respected as something that is honed and disciplined. A mage bursting with raw, untrained power is not likely to find a home in the Tritechniquon.

FADED WONDER:

1. Eryska Weed: How does a wildly proliferating plant produce colours so vibrant they’re not seen anywhere else in nature outside of poisonous frogs? It cannot have happened by accident. An ancient civilization that occupied this land infused colour into the plants by means no longer understood and let them grow to seed. Our historians continue to study remnants of this ancient people. We do not know why they took such and interest in colour, but we thank them.

2. The Magnaforge: The metalworkers of Mellatas were skilled, but falling far short of mastery, before they discovered the Magnaforge. It was a structure built from steel, set into the rocky highlands north of the bay. The interior, lit with flameless lights, contains a foundry and a forge, seemingly designed to be worked in tandem as part of a continuous production line. The ovens are clean and white, and burn more brilliantly on far less fuel than a conventional forge. The greatest of the Tritechniquon’s metalworkers are allowed to work at the Magnaforge, and the products made there are the best in the nation. But recently, an even larger one has been discovered to the west, deep in the mountains. A new forging settlement is being constructed around it.

IMPORTS, EXPORTS, & MAJOR INDUSTRIES: Exports: Eriskan Dyes, which form naturally in the colours yellow, cyan, and magenta; fine metalwork and bulk steel; fabric and textiles. The most common metals in the area are iron, copper, tin, and silver. Imports: They are very interested in anything that indicates a new kind of craftwork they haven’t developed. The latest interest has been in glasswork. They also have an interest in gold, which is nonexistent in this territory.

##What is CreateThisWorld? We are a collaborative worldbuilding subreddit that has been going strong for more than a decade now. We run worlds that last for an average of about 6-8 months each, based on player interest and activity. During that time, players join in, make Claims for a particular nation, political body, or cultural group, and then we interact with each other! We like to give individual players a lot of freedom with what kind of societies they want to create, and it has resulted in some very diverse worlds. Each setting, or “Shard”, is given a particular theme. We have explored several different time periods, from Antiquity, to Sci-Fi, and everything else in between! This Shard, we embark on the Late Middle Ages, with an anachronistic twist. (You can read all about that in the Welcome to Ashagon post.) ##Moderator Team /u/Sgtwolf01, lead mod. I will be posting the weekly updates, approving claims and expansions, handling day-to-day issues. The core moderator team for this shard will consist of /u/Cereborn and /u/Sgtwolf01 — who will be in charge of posting the monthly megathread, handling slots for the special weekly posts, and dealing with day-to-day issues — and /u/OceansCarraway, who is the head moderator on Discord. We will all be dealing with approving new claims and expansions.

In addition, our illustrious cartographer for this shard is Northnr, who has been working very hard dealing with the unique demands of the map.

##How to Play We have an in-depth New Player's Guide on our Wikia. You can follow this link here or find it in the side-bar on the right. But I will break down the major points here anyway.

RULES OF CONDUCT

• I'll go over this briefly, because it's all very standard.
• Be civil. We're all friends here.
• Be understanding. We all have lives. Perhaps your interaction partner is not able to post as frequently as you. Don't sweat it.
• Have fun. We are all here to have fun, so we try our best to avoid getting bogged down in technical details
• Be collaborative. Collaboration is the name of the game. Try to be engaged with the overall world, rather than just taking a corner and pumping our lore posts. Also, respect the creations of other players.
• No plagiarism. If you want to use some piece of artwork that is not yours as an illustration, you are free to do it, but please remember to credit the source.
• Respect the decisions of the moderators. We frequently ask players to make amendments to their claims to fit better with our theme and ruleset. It's nothing personal.
• You get out of CTW what you put into it. You don’t have to be an expert novelist to take part in CTW, but we want to see people putting a genuine effort into their posts. If you want to do wild and fantastic things, you need to put in the work to develop ideas fully.

CONFLICT
Wars happen, but they are treated on this sub the same way we treat everything else: as a collaboration. We don't use dice rolls or any other RPG techniques to declare a “winner”. All parties of the conflict should be committed foremost to telling a good story. And please do not use in-game conflicts as a way of airing grievances against another player. If you have issues with the way someone else has been playing, bring it up with the mods. ##Discord We have a Discord chat channel. You can find it here or in the sidebar. Joining the Discord is not a requirement of participating in CTW, but most of our active members post there regularly and a lot of discussion happens there. It is an appendage of CTW that allows for a much faster-paced exchange of ideas. ##Claim Template You're still here? Glad to hear it! You want to participate? Even better! The first thing you need to do is to make a Claim. The Claim tells everyone else who you are, where you are, and what you're all about, so we can bring you into our new collaborative adventure. To make a claim, just follow this handy claim template:

CLAIM TEMPLATE
NAME:

FLAG/SYMBOL: (Optional)

LOCATION: (Please post an image link that indicates your desired position on the map. Feel free to crop the world map down, but don’t crop it so much that it’s difficult to tell where on the map your claim is. If you are claiming territory on both the main continent and the floating islands, please upload two different map images to make it clear.)

GEOGRAPHY: (Brief description of climate and notable geographic features) [75-150 words]

BIOLOGY/ETHNICITY: (Please give a brief description of the physical characteristics of the people who make up your claim.) [100-300 words]

HISTORY: (Give a brief history of how your people came to be where they are.) [150-300 words]

SOCIETY: (How is your society structured? How are leaders chosen? Tribal or urban? Monarchy or democracy? Classist or egalitarian? Mercantile, socialist, patriarchy, matriarchy, meritocracy, etc.) [150-300 words]

CULTURE: (A quick overview of your people's culture. Things like traditions, art, clothing, food, customs, religion, etc. It need not be lengthy or comprehensive. Just give us a few high points of what sets your people apart.) [150-300 words]

OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC: (How are magic users perceived in this society? In what ways is magic used?) [100-200 words]

FADED WONDER: (Does your society have Faded Wonders? What form do they take, what power do they offer, and how are they viewed by the people?)

IMPORTS, EXPORTS, & MAJOR INDUSTRIES: [A general overview of what resources, products, or services your nation exports or imports and is generally either; famous for, a big player in that market, particularly relevant to your claim, or buys/sells in large quantities of. Remember, though, this is a pre-industrial society; long-distance trade is a costly endeavour and likely only done for high-value resources.]

(Note on Ana-Tech: Please don’t introduce Ana-Tech in your claim. That should be introduced in a separate technology post where you have time to explain it in detail.)

Quick reminder: please flair your posts. There is a Claim option in the flairs, and that makes it a lot easier for the mods to find your post.

Empty Claim Map with max claim size reference
Floating Islands Map

(If you are unable to view Imgur links, you can also find map images posted on Discord in the Announcements channel)

APPROVAL
All claims need to be approved by a moderator before the player can begin posting normally. A claim is almost never rejected outright, but mods may ask you to make some changes if some parts of your claim seem unrealistic, or if it falls outside of the scope of the shard, magically or technologically (refer to our Ashagon Introduction post). Don't take this personally; we are just trying to keep everyone on an even playing field. Also, when there are a high volume of claims coming in, we can't keep the map updated quickly enough. So please be patient if you find yourself choosing a piece of territory that has already been claimed.
To have your Claim approved, ping the moderators in the following format: /u/Sgtwolf01, /u/OceansCarraway, /u/Cereborn
Mods must be tagged in the comments. We will not be notified if the tag is in the main body of the post.

##CLAIMING TERRITORY Because there are a lot of people rushing to make a claim at first, we enforce a maximum territory size for new claims. For this Shard, the maximum claim size is equal to the real-world size of Türkiye (which is quite large, considering this map is smaller than normal). The map link above includes a size reference.

The territory you select reflects the land that is controlled by, or under a very strong sphere of influence of your claim. Precisely what’s inside your territory doesn’t really matter. It can be a fully functioning federal state, it can be a collection of city states, it can be the roaming territory of a loosely connected cultural group. Whatever your claim is, that territory is yours and yours alone.

Unless, of course, you prefer to share territory with another player. Collaborative territory is perfectly fine, as long as all parties understand what the deal is. It has, on occasion, arisen organically from two players who made claims that overlapped territory.

Nomadic Claims / Stateless organizations - Some people want to claim nomadic peoples. That is perfectly acceptable, but the question of how they get mapped varies, and will be dealt with by the mods on a case-by-case basis. The easiest way to do it is just to claim a set roaming territory that is within the maximum territory guidelines. If that doesn’t work, you can make several disparate territorial claims to represent semi-permanent settlements, seasonal hunting grounds, etc. You might also want to make a claim that’s not on the map at all, like perhaps a mercantile organization that is active in a variety of ports across the map. In the latter case, just make sure you have permission from the territory’s owner before you start writing about your people in someone else’s claim.

NPC Claim - Players will have the ability to create NPC claims to help fill in the world. For example, say you are in a section of the map that is very sparsely claimed. There is a patch of mountains where you imagine a civilization could live that could trade with you, but no players have claimed it. You can create an NPC nation to give your own nation something else to deal with in your posts. But once you create an NPC, you do not control it. Other players can interact with it, and they can add lore to it, provided it doesn’t contradict any of the original lore.

Expansions - Throughout the game you can try to expand your existing territory. For an expansion to be approved, they must be accompanied by substantial lore explaining the reason for the expansion, and the player must be consistently active in the shard. We will start allowing expansions two weeks into the shard. You will also be allowed one retroactive expansion during the shard. This means you make an expansion, but as far as the lore is concerned, you always had it; you just couldn’t take it at first because of size restrictions.

Climate - Climatic zones in this world are roughly the same as they are on Earth’s northern hemisphere. If you claim way up north, expect it to be Arctic. At the southern edge, it’s tropical. If you claim in the middle, there’s a range of climates. Northrnr made a detailed climate map to answer these questions for you. Players also have some creative leeway when it comes to their own climates. Due to the extreme verticality of the map, you might have significant climatic differentials right next to each other owing to different altitudes. The climates of the floating islands is also a bit of a grey area.

##General Posting Guidelines

You've made your claim. Yay! Now what?

A lot of people make their first claim and then get stuck on what to do next. There are no hard rules for how you want to develop your nation, but keep in mind that world-building on this sub breaks down into two broad categories: macro-building and micro-building.

Macro-building relates to your civilization at large. This includes lore posts that simply give information about aspects of your people's biology, culture, and society. It includes posts about large societal events like wars, new technologies, or changing of leaders. It also includes posts about animals, plants, or interesting geographic features.

Micro-building focuses on the lives of individual characters who exist within your civilization. These might be simple vignettes, or sprawling sagas that you develop piece by piece over a span of months.

Some people prefer one style of writing over the other. As you write, you will find what works best for you, but you should really engage with both levels of worldbuilding in order to get the most out of the experience.

EASY FIRST STEP
If you are still stumped about what to write, consider one of these options.
Biology – If you have invented a new race, then you should get a biology post out about them soon, outlining their characteristics and letting everyone else know what sort of folks we are going to be interacting with.
Religion – This gets lumped in with culture in the claim posts, but religion is a busy topic and is important to a lot of civilizations, so there is another good option for an early post.
Cities and territories – Most people will be claiming an area larger than a single city state. So you can introduce different cities and territories in your civilization, and the differences between them.
Cultural trademark – Do your people have something particular to their culture that sets them apart from everyone else? Is it a unique style of dress? A crazy religious or holiday festival? An obsession with keeping lemurs as pets? A practice of greeting one another by touching elbows? Whatever it is, you could always explain it in a little more detail (except for the elbow thing; that probably doesn't need much explanation).
History – Some people love writing about history. Are you one of those people? Tell us more about how you got here.
Story time – Maybe you are still working things out and you're not ready to make a big comprehensive lore post. One thing you can do is devise a character and write a little story for them, exploring the aspects of the world you've created through their eyes.
Maps and artwork – Play to your skills. If you like to draw or design maps, put those up and let us see what's going on.
Interactions – Market Monday interactions happen every week. They are a good place to introduce yourself to the world at large. And speaking of interactions....

INTERACTIONS Interactions are, in some ways, the lifeblood of CTW. I don't think we would have lasted this long if we hadn't developed such an interactive culture. There is no pressure on anyone to participate in interactions, but it is encouraged. There are personal interactions and group interactions.

Personal Interactions are arranged between two players (usually) in a thread designated with the “Interaction” flair. Those players work out a story between themselves and eventually it reaches a conclusion. It is advisable to communicate with your interaction partner via PM or Discord beforehand, and don't simply surprise them when you make the post.

Group Interactions are most often the weekly Market Monday thread. One person hosts the interaction and everyone is free to join in and post. This is a great opportunity for new players to join in and get some experience interacting without committing to a whole thread on their own.

When interacting, keep these tips in mind:
Respect boundaries. As a general rule, you control your characters and the other person controls theirs. Don't try to pilot the other person's characters when they are not looking. Also, don't try to steer the interaction in a direction the other player doesn't want them to go. And if you have any issues with what is happening, please speak up and communicate with your partner.
Keep things moving. You don't need to take 20 comments just to have a conversation. While you can't control the other person's players, you can control other aspects of the scene, making multiple statements, asking questions, and introducing events, leaving room for them to react in different ways. The other player can then respond to the various stimuli in succession and carry on from there.
You get as much out of interactions as you put in. If you respond to everything with single sentences, you are not going to get much back.
Be mindful of time. Everyone has lives, and many of us live in different timezones, so be patient waiting for replies. But also, don't get involved in an interaction if you know you won't have time to be responsive.
For more detailed interaction guidelines, check out the Market Monday Guide.

GENERAL TIPS
Read as much as you can - This is a collaborative community, and everyone works hard on putting out their own content. So try your best to read what everyone else is posting. Learning more about other players helps the entire world come together in a more complex way, and also, if people notice you not commenting on anyone else’s posts, they will become less inclined to read yours.
You don’t have to read everything - I emphasize the words try your best in the above point. We know that people have lives to attend to, and some weeks there is just a ton of content being posted here that it becomes difficult to keep up with. So don’t feel that you have to read absolutely everything in order to continue participating. There won’t be a test at the end.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions - No one expects everyone else to read and remember everything they post. So if you are confused by another player’s post, if you want clarification on something, if you’re just curious. Then ask. In most cases they will be happy to tell you. No one is going to get angry at you for not remembering a single detail mentioned in a post from six weeks before.
Utopias are boring - People are going to get bored if you only want to talk about how great and wonderful your civilization is. Be sure to have some problems, and give yourself some weaknesses. It makes everything much more interesting.
Have fun - That's what this is all about. Don't obsess over little details. Just enjoy the community.

Thank you for reading all the way through this. I hope you enjoy your stay! :)

Welcome, one and all, to Ashagon, the lucky 13th shard in CTW history. Step into a rugged, mountainous world where islands float in the sky and strange wonders are buried beneath our feet. Ashagon evokes the Late Middle Ages, but with some clever ingenuity and a limited dose of magic, we might be able to dream bigger than that.

##The World

Standard map

Floating islands map

Floating islands migration patterns

Climate Map

Major Rivers

The continent of Ashagon is the world that we know. There may be other lands out there, beyond the vast seas, but right now they exist only in dream and theory. Ashagon is situated in the northern hemisphere, which means the climate ranges from frigid taiga in the far north to the tropical archipelagos of the south.

FLOATING ISLANDS
Throughout the globe, there exist islands in the sky — compelled by some strange force beyond our comprehension. Some islands are static, while others drift with the winds across the continent. Of varying sizes, they provide a unique opportunity to harvest material that may be absent from the local area, or to use them as impromptu transports. Not to mention the sheer aesthetic of it all as well.

Some floating islands are stationary, but others migrate along regular patterns (as you can see in the map link above).

EXTREME VERTICALITY
Whether by tectonic or astronomical forces, or by some other means, this is a world of extreme verticality. Sheer cliffs of dizzying heights exist by valleys many times below the sea level. Sometimes even in close proximity to each other. This has resulted in a world with great differences in height between different localities, and presents unique difficulties in being able to navigate such a vertically inclined world. These dramatic differences in altitude can also create major climate differences over a short span of distance.

##The Technology

LATE MEDIEVAL (1350-1450)
Our technology setting corresponds to the Late Middle Ages. While Ashagon’s development is not 1:1 with Earth, we use real history as a guideline for our technological, scientific, and sociological development.

The world of Ashagon is rapidly evolving in the field of combat, with the introduction of gunpowder and improvements to ranged warfare, while armoured knights are still important. We have a good foundation of mathematics, which applies to disciplines like architecture and engineering, but scientific knowledge is still limited. We know nothing of microorganisms, chemistry and alchemy are interchangeable, and medicine is still full of superstition and quackery. Travel is getting easier, with inventions like the compass and astrolabe allowing ships to navigate like never before, while overland trade routes are getting safer and better established. Early mechanical clocks exist, and promise to change the way we think about the world, and we are on the cusp of a revolution in the printed word.

Here are some inventions we can expect to exist at the beginning of the shard.

• Gunpowder / cannon
• Armored cavalry
• Crossbow and Longbow
• Compass and astrolabe
• Magnifying glass / reading aids
• Early movable type
• Mechanical clocks
• Wind and watermills

Conversely, here are some inventions we can expect to see developed during this shard:

• Primitive firearms* / matchlock mechanism
• Printing press
• Organized banking / paper currency
• Mainspring / advanced clockwork
• Wearable eyeglasses / concave lenses

[* As for what we mean by “primitive firearms” — there is the basic hand cannon, which was a small cannon barrel capable of being held by a person, and would be fired the same as a cannon, by introducing flame to an opening at the back. Those lead into the culverin, which had longer, more slender barrels more similar to rifles, activated by open fire or primitive matchlock mechanisms. Those lead up to the arquebus, which introduced the trigger as we know it today. That’s as far as our setting will allow, in terms of conventional tech.]

ANA-TECH
In this Shard, engineering is more forgiving than it should be. The inventors and craftsbeings of this world can use the base methods and materials of this world to produce unique contraptions with capabilities hundreds of years ahead of time, and with a dash of magic, things even more advanced. Miracles like horseless carriages and great airships can grace the world, but they are rare and require an ardent host of tinkerers to maintain; furthermore, while the only limits are their imaginations, these producers of ahistorical devices are limited by the understandings and ideas of their time. Things like spaceships and AI are beyond their capabilities, but a clanking clockwork contraption is possible.

We are leaving the ana-tech concept pretty open for players to dig into. Rather than trying to carve out boundaries and hard limits, we are encouraging players to give ana-tech the proper amount of care and attention (the long-held CTW precept is that if you can do a good job justifying something with writing, you can probably do it). Just remember that these inventions should be special and rare, not something commonly produced across a whole society. You also need to keep in mind the limitations of our time period, in terms of the resources and techniques available to you.

##Magic
Power - Low
Magic is a minor affair, with mages often applying magic in more subtle expressions. While not incapable, magic is more often than not simply another, sometimes uninteresting, tool that an individual or community may have access to. With significant preparation, mages are able to perform spells of the above tier, and sometimes perform magical feats of a higher power level at a much greater cost.

Under low magic, a magic user can affect natural forces over short range and small scale. These forces include such things as temperature, electricity/electromagnetism, air pressure, and gravity, but not strong/weak nuclear forces. If you want to affect these forces on a larger scale, you will need some combination of: a) multiple mages working in concert; b) a lot of preparation and build-up of magical energy over a period of time.

In a Low Power setting, magic will typically find itself in a supporting function. Rather than being great wizards calling an arsenal of elements upon a single staff, as you might see in a High Power shard, most mages here will be more subtle. Oftentimes magic will be used to enhance an existing skill or assist in a practical task, making things more impressive and efficient than they would otherwise be, but not doing things wholly impossible.

Of course, it doesn’t always have to be used that way. Low Power doesn’t have to be boring or especially subtle, and there are more soft limits than hard limits on mages’ abilities. While in a high magic shard, one mage could summon a large pillar of fire without too much effort, in a low magic shard, a similar mage would be restricted to creating small bursts of flame, or influencing the movement of existing blazes. If one wanted to create a large pillar of fire in this setting, one would either need to gather several fire mages together to pool abilities, or create a spell that takes considerable preparation and consumes a lot of energy.

Also, not all mages are created equal. In a low-magic setting, most magic users will be restricted to certain abilities, and will need to devote a lot of time and energy into unlocking new skills. So your rare powerful mages will be distinguished from common mages more by versatility than raw power. Mages will also have the ability to create magical objects. These can serve a number of different purposes, but they are still limited in capability. Creating big effects from magical items will involve either bringing a number of items together, or having a number of mages each participating in the magification of the artifact. In the latter case, there would still be restrictions and it would still need to be justified with lore. You will not simply be able to introduce an ultra-powerful item that breaks scope by saying, “It was created by a thousand mages!” (Unless it is an artifact that exists as part of the Faded Wonders quirk. Those are allowed to break scope, according to the quirk guidelines.)

Frequency - Common
Mages are fairly commonplace across most societies, and you would be able to come upon them easily enough. You have a pretty good chance at being a mage, and if not, someone in your extended family probably has the potential. Mages are regular fixture of this world as such, no more or less than any other force or demographic that may exist.

If a child tells you they want to be a mage when they grow up, no one really bats an eye. Unless you’re a hermit or live among a people who are unusually unattuned to magic, you’re going to know a couple mages. If you arrive in a new town, you might seek out a mage just as routinely as you’d seek out a blacksmith or fletcher.

Some people may be born with magical affinity, while others may unlock it through diligent study. Magic expresses itself in myriad ways across races and cultures, and chronicling the mystic customs of a given people, alongside things like food and clothing, is perfectly reasonable.

Magical items are also found scattered across the world, perhaps by intent, perhaps by accident. They may be picked up and used by people who would otherwise have no magical affinity. However, magic users are still very much a minority in this world. They might be a well-respected minority, or they might not.

The following are completely off-limits:

• Teleportation
• Raising the dead
• Opening portals to the Void
• Time travel
• Affecting the world on an atomic or subatomic level.

FADED WONDER
Once, the world was filled with magic, and wizard-kings and archmages of great power and majesty graced the land. That was a long time ago though, and since then, that wonder has faded. Remnants of that wondrous time remain however, and as a result, each player claim will have access to a very limited number of artifacts of a magic scope medium or high. While not a part of day-to-day life, their power and the stories attached to them mean they are likely (but not necessarily) important symbols to nations and cultures alike.

Faded wonders can take many forms, and as players you can use your imagination. They can be tiny objects of importance, kept safe and secret, or they can be structures that people of your society flock to, for reasons spiritual or practical. Just a few things to keep in mind about attaching Faded Wonders to your claim:

• Nothing of the “epic” magic tier, or violating the off-limits subjects listed above
• Wonders of a “high” magic tier are restricted to one or two in number, whatever the size.
• Wonders of a “medium” tier should be kept to three or four; you can exceed this only if it is a set of items intended to be used in tandem.
• You can also have Wonders that are not actively magical in their present usage, but could only exist because of more powerful magic (eg. a huge mega-tower at the centre of your capital that defies the capabilities of our present-day architecture).
• If you can’t decide on a Faded Wonder in time for your claim post, you can introduce one later using a Thaumaturgy Thursday post.
• All Wonders are subject to approval by the moderators