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Cultural Development
Plantations and Ranches
Deforestation to clear areas for agricultural use of animal breeding and food crops.
The most useful and common ranches are cattle, pigs, horses and chickens which have been imported by the colonists.
The most useful and common crops are hemp, beans, coffee, cocoa, rubber, which are indigenous species and wheat, oats, tea, fast-growing Pines for straight wood and Birch for tar, which have been imported by the colonists.
Forestry typically also doubles as Bee-keeping for honey and wax. The bees are indigenous and larger than those found on the Other Continent although they have taken well to ‘domestication’. There is no corn in this world.
Plantation work is not exactly slavery although it’s not exactly a good living wage it is definitely better than mining.
The plantation owners and ranch owners certainly live a better quality lifestyle by far and are significantly wealthier than the workers. They have benefited from the land rush and form a cornerstone of the colonial establishment providing exportable necessary commodities to the towns, both secured and frontier towns.
Rail and Mining
The standard width of railtracks in the real world is 4’8 1/2” between rails which is the width of two yoked horses to pull a wagon. It has been that way since Roman times.
In mines we have single-donkey width railtracks called narrow-gauge tracks. Historically no universal standard developed as happened with larger cross-country railtracks. The larger the cart, the more load it can carry, the wider the tracks. We are going to keep everything simple and standardise the width of minecarts and rails in our fantasy world.
Taking inspiration from the famous sequence in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom movie we require to fit at least two grown adults into one minecart. Remember the minecarts are also used as transport to get the miners in and out of the tunnels. In terms of how much gravel that equates to it is approximately a tonne (1000kg) per minecart measuring around 2’x3’x2’ (it is a heaped teaspoon not flat level teaspoon).
I admit I am not an expert at this in real life and am relying on guesswork for the practicality of the game world. I did sit in a minecart in Wales as part of cultural heritage (movies and videogames) and they’re much bigger than that.
How many HorsePower are small and large Steam Engines?
Steam-powered engines pull the carriages. There are two sorts; small ones for the mines and big ones for cross-country. They require water and either coal or wood to burn. Coal is mined, wood is forested or deforested depending on its source. Coal is much preferable but requires mining which requires miners and minecarts. Thankfully there is a lot of coal in them thar hills.
“It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.”
Steak House and Stake Outs
Meat preserved in salt and spices is cooked up at the Stake Houses a term which covers restaurants and fast food outlet alike. These feature prominently in colonial society. If the town is within easy reach of a meat ranch (cows, pigs, chickens) there is likely to be freshly butchered local meat. Livestock is regularly transported by train.
Smoke House
A tradition of both the Indians and of the Other Continent which is continued in the settlers culture and welcomed wholly by the indigenous population are comfortable and relaxing Smoke Houses which serve smoke, tea and story. Red tea which is hibiscus, green tea which is leaf, and spice tea, are all taken both hot and cold, sweetened with honey. Spice tea is made from either water, milk or both.
Smoke Houses are often smoky with incense in addition to the fragrant fruit, herb and tobacco mixes inhaled by sharing in turns on the Sheesha pipe or clay Chillum. In both cultures these are recognised as community bonding peace-pipes and for communing with Spirits. Seating is on cushions on the floor around low, round tables.
Harem
The business of pleasure is highly respected to the extent of sacred.
Harem in the Other Continent are run by the state under the regional Deputy who issues the required entertainment tokens. Harem in the colonies are more open brothel-houses.
Harem are pleasure-houses run by a Mistress or Master who is not always the owner of the premises and business. All money earned goes to the house, its workers are on a wage plus bonuses. Every man and woman who works there gets a room, a personal boudoir assigned to them. All household chores are collective by rota.
Stone Carvings
Although the Indians use the ancient stone carvings as way-points and boundary markings they did not carve them and claim to have no idea who did or how they got there. They say they were made by the Temple People a long time ago. The Indians avoid the Temples which are rare and are usually inhabited by ‘dangerous and annoying’ wild animals which for a nature worshiping culture says a lot about the distaste associated with the sites.
Each stone carvings is unique. They are all usually too big and heavy to lift. Indians worship the stone carvings as deities connecting them to the supernatural worlds, the spirits of nature and of ancestors.
The settlers also build their towns and ranches close to source of water and therefore close to the stone carvings. Indians name the settlers places after the spirit who they know to live in the place. They are aware how the spirit residing there will inevitably affect the nature of the camp which is built there in some way, even despite the area becoming part of the dead world having been deforested.
Indian Camp
Always camp close to a source of water. A spring or a river. Springs and rivers are considered sacred in their own ways. Each one has a Spirit. All rivers feed into the ocean. We call the little streams rivulets. From Rivers we have also the words Arrive, Riven and Rival, by watching the behaviour of how water moves and how things move on water. Life always flows always in one direction. The importance of water to us should never be disrespected. When the rivers become the ocean it meets the skies and the sun. The water becomes the clouds and rain.
Everything in Life moves in cycles. Whatever we give out is returned to us. Whatever we take is taken from us. We do not have to become anxious from loss or become greedy for gain. The forest provides our needs. This understanding is our way of Being.
Kayak are light animal skin and wood boats, easy to carry. Upturned Kayak provide shelter, a dry area when it rains. Building your own Kayak is a rite of passage. Some people are so good at building Kayak they will make many of them for everybody else.
Even with the nomadic lifestyle there are times when it is useful to have enough space to do the things we need to do, especially with trading and after a good hunt.
The question we must always ask ourselves is;
“Do I need to do this thing?”
Quite often when the answer is no it frees us to enjoy a carefree life connecting with existence instead of being distracted by work. We should always celebrate when we are freed to not have to do a thing which previously was bothering us.
Because the forest is Life, everything we will ever need will be provided by the forest.