Collapsing World

[bartmoss]

So I have a confession to make. I started Yet Another World. I certianly did not WANT to but I had an idea today, one that I liked a fair bit. So I felt compelled to sit d down and begin building it. You know - while the idea was still fresh on my mind.

Let me explain with a little sketch:

concept.png

1) The world had a large - very large - underworld. This was mostly unknown above-ground, and it certainly did not matter much to the surface people. They built their societies up, founded cities, researched magic, whatnot. Not pictured in this step are the height of their achievement, flying cities.

2) Some day, The Catastrophe hit. Perhaps a meteor strike, perhaps an evil wizard who tried to destroy the world. Perhaps a god went on a rampage: At any rate, the Underworld collapsed. The oceans drained into the colossal caverns below, leaving the world above dry.

3) While the world above begins to try out and become a parched wasteland, the rubble from the collapse of the caverns turns into lush, new continents.

4) Status quo: The world is arranged into layers.

a) Flying cities - many of them died, too, but a few remain the last remnants of the old civilizations

b) Cloud layer - in a fantasy world, this might include floating islands, or there may be additional flying cities etc hidden here. Some mountains are probably high enough to reach the clouds.

c) The old surface world: Barren, dry, desert, except where rain keeps rivers flowing - his is very rare now because most of the water cycle happens underground. There may even be remnants of the oceans, depening on the outflow rate (I kind of envision having one old ocean around). The remains of the ancient civilizations are all over the place, and he remaining creatures and people fight a bitter war over dwindling food resources, or try to emigrate to the new continents etc. Think barsoomian deserts for the old surface world.

d) The former underworld. Much of it is still underworld, just flooded - creating shadowy subterranean oceans. The rubble piles have become overgrown continents, think Lost World type places.

e) Mmmh, perhaps there's more stuff even further down...

Anyway, I started mapping this world. It's very basic, but I figured I'd post a first WIP. Ignore the legend explaining water depths and land levation, right now it's simply a combination of the old surface, the new rubble continents, and the oceans. I hope it's fairly intuitive otherwise I'll post a better legend on the next WIP.

map02-a.png

Edit: Grammar.