While there are plenty of common areas in the central tower of the Ringward, each kingdom's representatives will have one tower reserved for their own habitation. Each of these towers will require a common room, requiring some collaboration among players to describe. Further, each noble player character will be able to invent their own quarters within the tower in addition to any personal servants and servants' quarters deemed necessary. These aides are in addition to the default Ringward staff, and they must be named and described as significant NPCs rather than nameless entities. In order to be introduced, they must be approved collaboratively along with the other players within that kingdom's tower. (Please limit yourself to two or fewer personal servants and please try to not be redundant in your residence-creation, ie. your personal apartment probably does not need its own medieval kitchen and a fully-outfitted forge)
The Rest of the World
Despite the fact that there already exists a world Map and plenty of lore already, the RP world has been designed for more player-driven world building and customization. It is assumed that players of nobles hailing from each kingdom will work together in world building as each individual kingdom has been left largely undescribed outside of its basic geography. This is in some respects a bit of a moving target to design for as things move along, players collaborate, roleplay is had, and prose is written. The best way to go about it, then, is to read up on the story/description so far (LINK GOES HERE), and then to collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.
For this sort of world building, logic rules and collaboration is the tool best used to achieve it. You should be prepared to ask a lot of questions, both of yourself and of others. The other players are your best resource.
As one example, if you think a city ought to be in one particular place, why do you think that? Is the location defensible? Does it have easy access to fresh water or food or some other important resource that justifies its existence?
Perhaps it exists on a trade route, as some waypoint between other points of interest already on the map. Perhaps the reason for its founding was reasonable in one time, but no longer. This is how the Ringward itself was built in such an out of the way location; initially it was part of a series of towers built for observation and defense before falling out of favor and being sold to the Guild.
What kind of crops grow? In the desert kingdom of Capala Calor, huge fields of grain would be a bit of an oddity, but olive groves or coffee plantations would fit right in with a desert kingdom aesthetic. To some this might seem inconsequential, but it could rapidly become very important if, for example, a player character's noble family relies upon one of those plantations for their wealth and power. Perhaps raiders will eventually strike such a plantation, causing a great deal of emotional turmoil for your character. Or perhaps your own character simply has a refined taste for coffee, one cultivated from growing up with easy access to it.
Some choices have already been made for simplicity's sake. Each kingdom has a single ruling monarch and a supporting nobility, and each kingdom uses simple, equivalent, and exchangeable currencies of copper, gold, and silver. Nothing has been done to give any of the kingdoms anything but a very predictable code of laws, though that could change if enough players agree to implement something new and interesting. And while there are deadly and monstrous beasts on the continent, they tend not to lurk right outside major cities.
So, while some decisions form the foundation of the world, this still leaves countless other decisions available for customization. There is literally no end to the possibilities of world building; each question answered can provide more questions to ask. And as with any journey plotted through infinity, it's best to ask for some advice and collaborate on the way.
Names
The naming of things is a special case as it is necessary to follow somewhat stricter rules in order to keep the world etymologically coherent. No one wants to travel from the village of Forsburg to the neighbouring town of Xanadu.
When naming places and things, a simple translation of simple words is usually best. Messing around with the English spelling to make things more pronounceable or at least easier to read can also help.
Here are the major languages and their real-life counterparts used for naming. At no point will anyone be expected to roleplay in anything but English, of course.
- Traders' Tongue (English)
- Celestial (Latin)
- Travian (Slovenian)
- Kulden (Danish)
- Caloran (Catalan)
In addition, there are at least two minor languages known to some of the less civilized peoples of the continent and to particularly esoteric scholars.
- Dacian (northern nomads)
- Ancient Sylvestrin (wildlings' old tongue)
