(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In comparison with last week, the punishments we’re looking at this time around aren’t about hurting or controlling the body — at least, not as their primary function. Instead, they … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Physical punishment is a topic so large, I have to split one part of it off up front: we won’t be talking about executions this week. Those are complex enough … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) When we think about punishing criminals, especially in the modern-day U.S., our thoughts often go first to prison. It’s far from the only way to impose consequences, either now or … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Punishment for crime is a fairly universal concept. Not in the sense of everyone always being punished for every crime; there are many reasons why leniency occurs, ranging from good … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Dreams: do they mean something, or not? And if they mean something, is that purely a psychological phenomenon, or does it go beyond that? There are shelves full of books … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) If you listen to advertisements, sleeping on the wrong kind of mattress and pillow dooms you to a lifetime of back pain and under-slept misery. To be fair, there is … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Much like childbearing, sleeping is a fundamentally biological process with a lot of culture built around it. Even the biological part can be treated as fair game for worldbuilding, of … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Marked and unmarked categories are a powerful but subtle tool of worldbuilding — so subtle, in fact, that we often don’t even take notice of them. Which is all too … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) We often like to think of religions as clear-cut things, with distinct boundaries between them. In reality, they’re often anything but; they borrow and copy and change and blend, in … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In creating a fictional polytheism, it’s useful to have a sense of what kinds of gods are possible. The honest answer to this is “anything you like.” There’s nothing inherently … Continue reading
