Questions tagged [society]
For questions dealing with how sentient beings interact with each other in a community.
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What kind of small to medium town would be present on the border of two opposing nations?
So, a mountain range acts as the only land route between two countries. To the east, a humid land dominated by a massive jungle, which is occupied primarily by orc and orc-adjacent races. To the west ...
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Would superhuman elites allow for more liberal governance? [closed]
Suppose, if you will, that the aristocracy of my fictional pre-Christian European nation is entirely composed of superhumans. The source of their powers lies in their blood, and can only be inherited ...
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Does it make sense for the governments of my world to genetically engineer soldiers?
In the world - and universe - of Pandemonium, humans have existed for thousands of years in parallel to humans on Earth, having crossed over during periodic collisions between Pandemonium's universe ...
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How bad would near constant dreary/gloomy/stormy weather on our or an Earthlike world be for us and the environment? [closed]
So I have this idea to have the world(or maybe just a country/continent) be covered in gloomy and stormy weather with maybe only moments of sunny weather here and there in lieu of having it be post ...
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How to justify a ban on exclusivist religions? [closed]
Certain religions are known for fervent persecution of other faiths and/or non-standard lifestyles. In a satirical reversal, the target society is going to persecute such religions with the same ...
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Why would Space Colonies even want to secede? [closed]
First thing to note before you get into the story, it's a soft scifi setting with "magic" being a thing. It's basically just transmuting elements and substances into each other and healing. ...
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Why would radio-capable transhumans still vocalise to each-other?
In the universe of Pandemonium, humans have been genetically modifying themselves (more specifically, their offspring) for many years, in order to give them a variety of more advantageous traits.
One ...
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Could time (in the sense of a labor-hour) be a stable commodity base for a currency on the modern city-state level?
Commodity currencies were the standard for most of history. Coins were made out of precious metals like gold or silver. Later on paper currency was exchangeable for a certain amount of gold or silver ...
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What evolutionary pressures would lead to massive differences in intelligence between the sexes?
I am writing an alternate history timeline about a habitable Venus. On Venus are two species very similar to humans. They are Machos and Divas; they live on opposite sides of the planet. Both Machos ...
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Role of mouth size in ability to replicate human phonemes
(If you're uninterested in any of the background info, boiled down question is in the second paragraph)
As part of my worldbuilding, I have become very interested in conlanging; of particular interest ...
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Could a Black Market exist in a cashless society (digital currency)?
I'm writing a story about a fictional city-state on Earth. This city-state is very similar to modern-day Singapore. One unique aspect about Ebonia is that it is a 100% cashless society. All money ...
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What are the underlying social, economic, or cultural elements that create a scientifically minded society? [closed]
I am creating a little republic, one founded by religious dissidents and breakaway cults of the main religion of the setting. It's a trading republic, a wealthy one with high literacy by premodern ...
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How fast would unrest spread in the Middle Ages? [closed]
Context
Recently, the king of the long-isolationist and xenophobic Asimi has relaxed regulations surrounding other religions, leading to places of worship for Religion #2 (names are hard) popping up, ...
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What would happen to 'politicians' in this world?
In the world I'm building the constitution mandates separation of powers i.e.
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
Appointments Commission
Audit/Watchdog
Civil Service
Law Enforcement
All positions, are ...
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Why aren't the plains people conquering the city people?
In this state, there are two kinds of people: nomadic, horse-riding steppe-folk, and sedentary urban people. They both share the same heritage (the city people are descended from nomads who settled ...
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How to feed interplanetary humanity?
2175: humanity has expanded to the other planets, has found the ninth planet by observing slight gravitational disturbances from one direction (it turns out to have many habitable-ish moons that, if ...
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Would a hybrid parliamentary system-military dictatorship work? [closed]
I am trying to make the government for an interstellar entity, and was wondering if what I came up with could work or would instantly self-destruct.
It's essentially a fusion of a standard ...
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How to protect a country with no army, no police, no guards, no military authority? [closed]
In this country there's no such job as "armed men", no one is getting paid just for killing others and standing around looking menacingly just to scarecrow away the aggressors.
Considering ...
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What could cause a society to collectively forget about an event?
In my story, there is a nation(lets say it's NA) that invades another nation(NB). This war is unsuccessful, however shortly afterwards NB ceases to exist. NA also avoids that region of space in ...
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What would be the German and French attitudes toward marriage? [closed]
The story that I'm writing is set in an alternate, vaguely-medieval Europe. There are some differences, since in this world, magic has been a known and relatively steady influence on culture and ...
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Would gender segregation of bathrooms, locker rooms, and prisons make sense with a limited mating season? [closed]
In my world, the main sapient species are Naledis. Naledis are similar to humans, but they are smaller and have cartoon-like features. Another large difference is that Homo Naledis have a mating ...
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How many people can China geographically support?
I'm writing an Alternate History Timeline. In that timeline, the Self-Strengthening Movement implemented by the Qing Dynasty actually works. As a result, the Qing Dynasty is able to modernize, fight ...
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Could a species that is intelligent, but non-sentient, be able to create advanced technology? what would the ideal type of civilization be?
I took a single psych class in HS that I just barely passed, so the difference between intelligence and sentience is a little hazy to me. As best as I can understand it, intelligence is the means to ...
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How do normal species and a religious-fanatic species tolerate each other?
Setting: In this world (i.e. the one in which you’re reading a WBSE post), intelligent life turns out to be fairly common throughout the universe, just it tends to blow itself up somehow before it can ...
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What animals would herbivorous humans most likely domesticate?
When humans first domesticated goats, it wasn't for milking them. No, they domesticated them originally because they kept hunting them for meat. That's the primary purpose, the most aggressive and ...
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How can you change up medieval feudalism while keeping the concept of 'houses'?
My world is ruled by vampire-like superhumans, who have supernatural abilities like prescience and telepathy. The vampires require human blood to sustain their powers and long life. They lord over and ...
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An avatar from birth
In my 'world', there is the three-dimensional 'real world', and the four-dimensional 'realm of the gods'. The 'real world' is much like a magical version of our own world, while the realm of the gods ...
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How could I make literacy universal in a medieval society?
In a society with medieval tech, where the population is largely rural and agricultural, is there any way a majority of people could be literate?
I have a religion that that actively encourages asking ...
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Why would two factions in a long-running civil war tolerate the existence of a city not controlled by either party?
In the world in which my story takes place, a large country is contested by two factions which both claim to be the legitimate government. There was armed conflict in the past, but both sides signed a ...
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Steampunk-inspired constructed world tips? [closed]
Nothing too complicated but what are some tips and tricks to consider when creating a steampunk-inspired conworld and the like?
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What event, short of a war or apocalypse, could cause social and technological regress?
In the world in which my story takes place, interstellar transport was achieved and some tentative voyages were made. But then, something happened to cause a general and widespread technological and ...
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How might weapons and armor evolve in a world where Humans coexist with Dinosaurs?
I'm thinking of writing a story where due to magic, a bunch of Neolithic tribes get sent to the Late-Cretaceous Period.
While I was coming up with the idea, I realized that living with dinosaurs may ...
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What would the societal effects be, generally of inhabited worlds having time pass at significantly different rates [closed]
Thousands of years in the futures space was colonized, planets terraformed, history happening upon those planets and so forth. But it's not quite as was predicted, for in the initial foray of ...
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Can "innate" magic exist without fostering elitism? [duplicate]
It's a tale as old as literature; magic system is inborn, be it Harry Potter wizards, Tolkien's pretty elves, or the X-Men mutants, and you start to get people that think, "gee, it sure would be ...
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How might civilization develop if hunter-gatherers and/or early agrarian civilizations had access to highly advanced technology? [closed]
Imagine a setting where, across numerous worlds: people without memory, identity or culture wake up surrounded by the ruins and technologies of a highly advanced spacefaring civilization that ...
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Communism in a World With Magic [closed]
This setting takes place in a late Victorian era world, where magic is present, creating an additional upper class alongside traditional nobles, though nobles and magicians often intertwine. Magic is ...
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How to make a plausible foot-based mercenary nomadic tribe work in a Late Medieval Setting?
The background of the World setting is similar to 15th Century Europe with low-magic.
The tribe in question is a sub-race of human, but having a culture similar to IRL Romani People, who roams around ...
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What kinds of damage would narcolepsy do if it was made to be infectious
In my short story I have a character that has access to gene editing. They want to cancel work and school with another pandemic however this character does not want to kill or make people suffer with ...
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How to justify a racist empire's use of other sentient species as shock troops? [closed]
I'm writing a novel where an empire is on the rise, with a lot of discrimination against other species, yet, for plot reasons they use shock troops that are of another species, elves. The empire use ...
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Is it biologically possible for one species to need another species to reproduce?
I'm writing a speculative story about a planet in another Solar System. On this planet, there are five types of reproduction strategies amongst the sapient species. There are androgenic, gynogenics, ...
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Would hotels/motels/hostels serve a purpose when everyone has a magic bedroom they can teleport to? [closed]
In my modern fantasy novel, there is a species of people called the Torus. The Torus are blue-skinned humanoids who suffer from dyslexia and dyscalculia. This makes it difficult for them to perform ...
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How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
In my modern fantasy novel, there is a species of people called the Hammerts. The Hammerts are small orange humanoids who have issues running and jumping after they reach adulthood. To compensate for ...
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How would be society's reactions if scientistis created an hermaphrodite man capable of giving birth? [closed]
If genetic engineered and/or bioengineering was used to create a man with true hermaphroditism( he would also have male gender identity) who could get pregnant on his own by self fertilization or ...
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What would justify the use of homing pigeons in a world where sending digital messages is a viable option? [duplicate]
The setting is a post-scarcity civilization, where a galactic government exists, but due to the limitations on faster-than-light travel, each world is relatively self-governed.
I want a city on one of ...
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How are sapient crows utilized if there are phones for communicating?
A shaman society secret to normal humans, in the late 2000s era where phones and the internet exist: why and how would they still put to work their black feathery friends?
They were crucial before all ...
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Office Superpowers: which augmented soft skills help with happiness? [closed]
Office Universe:
In my fictional universe, superpowers exist, but they manifest in a peculiar manner. Individuals are granted abilities that are strictly related to enhancing their office work and ...
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How magical powers would affect the distribution of wealth [closed]
In the world I'm building, a certain amount of humans have the ability to gain magical powers. I'm still playing with the exact ratio, but let's say around 20% for now. These magical powers would ...
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What would be an appropriate size for an interplanetary bulk cargo ship?
I've been working with a friend to design a sci-fi setting for a TTRPG campaign and one of the issues I've run into is the scale of food production and transportation within the setting. In the ...
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My Medieval kingdom has birth control, why is the population so high?
My world is roughly the same as the middle ages but has a natural form of birth control in the form of a root that can be grown and consumed to prevent pregnancy.
Because of this root, opportunities ...
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Could humanoid life survive the violent formation of a planetary ring system?
The deepest mythological archetypes in my Earth-like world hint at a wondrous and terrible disaster in the ancient past. ~10 tya a celestial body (perhaps a small, second moon, or a wandering asteroid,...
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