The feel of a setting comes as much from what things are around as from the people and buildings. If everyone is using bronze for armor and weapons and the horses are pulling chariots, you’ll have a very different society from one where people are riding warhorses wearing steel full plate armor and swords.

The first and arguably most important thing to decide is the dominant material available in the culture. Generally, a society can’t advance further than what material they have to work with. After all, you can’t have steel horseshoes if you haven’t invented iron smelting, yet.

Shildaria is an area crippled by decades of devastating war. This has actually caused them to regress in many aspects of their development, and this is true in their dominant materials. Iron is a common material, but steel is a rare and expensive metal to find. If you find it at all, it was likely imported from Taeoch.

The next area is their power sources. Shildaria is known for their horses. Their mills, power saws, pumps, and the like all use horses as their primary source of power. They use some wind power for pumping water in the south, but there aren’t many rivers to use water power. Spinning wheels and fulling stocks are rare, but this means that finer spun cloth and thread is coming to market in the larger cities, particularly in the north.

The one area where Shildaria truly excels is in their agricultural technology. Between the wars and the abomination threat, the populace as retreated into walled cities and towns. This concentration of population means that they need to get as much food as efficiently as possible from the land. This means they use advanced crop rotation techniques and have mold boards for their plows. They are known for having the finest horses in the world, and their extensive horse breeding programs are the envy of their neighbors. They have different breeds of horses for different tasks, from the sturdy plow horses to the strong mill horses to the mighty war horses. Some are bred for speed, others for endurance. Where some countries will have pride in their local cheese or wine, every village in Shildaria is proud of their specific breed of horse.

In terms of building and architecture, Shildaria lags everyone around them. They use basic building materials and techniques to make basic wood or even sod houses. Since they need to be willing to abandon even their biggest cities, if necessary, they have never advanced their building technology. They have little in the way of city planning, with expansion done by simply adding another section of wall to accommodate the growth. Wood shacks are the norm, with true houses reserved for the more well to do.

In terms of transportation technology, again the horse is the dominant mode of travel. They have multiple types of carts, collars, horseshoes, and saddles available. Four and even six horse teams can be used to haul heavy goods at speed, if necessary. They are landlocked and even the largest rivers can’t carry much more than a canoe, so ships and boats aren’t a concern.

The military in Shildaria is extremely important, particularly in the use of cavalry and archery. They have specialized curb bits for their horses, war saddles, and stirrups. Their bows are well built and they have started specializing their arrows to specific uses. Lances and iron sabers are also important. Their armor is generally gambesons and sometimes chainmail over padded leather. With the heat and the rain, heavy armor isn’t practical most of the time. The Shildarian military relies on speed, archery, and precision attacks over heavy armor. They have no regular infantry, which is unusual, but they aren’t trying to take and hold land from other armies. They are trying to wipe out creatures before they can wipe them out.

Other technological advances include simple standards for dealing with weights and lengths, advanced jewelry and fashion for the wealthy members of society, and the reemergence of cities in the northern provinces. They have fired ceramics for tiling roofs and paving their streets. Stringed instruments are popular in many places. Reading and writing are rare, but those who can use the Taeochian alphabet.

Each technology type is rated in Aria Worlds on a 1 to 20 scale, with 1 being stone age to 20 being early Renaissance technology (for example, a military rating of 20 allows for flintlock firearms to be invented). A 10 is considered average on my world. For Shildaria, I came up with the following:

• Dominant materials: 12
• Power sources: 12
• Agriculture (primary focus): 17
• Building/Architecture: 8
• Transportation: 12
• Military: 12
• Miscellaneous: 7

So, they are slightly above average for dominant materials, power sources, transportation, and military technology, they are advanced in agriculture, and below average in building/architecture and miscellaneous.

Next week, I’ll go into Shildaria’s government, how it works, and how it doesn’t work. Let me know what you think in the comments below. See you next Thursday!