Well, here's the rest.

So, now we have a world, and it’s time to take a look at how the inhabitants manage. Let’s start with how they live.

How people live and build their home is dictated by availability of materials and what is practical. So if we continuo the example from last piece, we now have a sentient species of forest-dwellers. Now, how they build their homes depend on the surroundings. If there are dangerous, ground-dwelling predators in the forest, they will probably make their home in the trees, were the beasts can’t reach them, or at least near trees they can escape into.

Also, because they live in a forest, it’s impractical to make too big villages, as food is limited to what they can gather and hunt. This depend a bit on the species, though. If they are purely herbivores, they will probably manage better than the purely carnivores, though a mix probably will work best.

Basically, size of population in a single place depends on one primary thing, availability of food. If an area can’t produce enough food to feed it’s population, it either has to import food, or separate into smaller populations. Of course, the reason you have a large population there in the first place differs from the reasons for a sizeable population. Most sentient species gang together for mutual protection. Alone, a single human is easy prey for most predators, but a gang of intelligently cooperating humans is very hard to bring down.

But how does a species govern itself? Most races have a natural inclination to follow a leader in some for. In small tribes, it tends to be a chief, or war chief, depending on the villages view on violence. In this tribe, the main function of the chief is actually to distribute food and goods for the benefit of the tribe. Basically, he functions as the leader of a well run communist state, by distributing the products of the village. (Please note that I’m not a communist, but it’s a fact that small tribes are the only places you’ll ever find a functioning communist system.)

Choice of ruler depends on race. A peaceful, academic race/nation will probably be ruled either by a council or have a functioning democracy. On the other hand, warlike, more primitive races/nations will probably follow the strongest, most charismatic leader. Society down from the ruler likewise depends on the people and on the ruler. A warlord king will get loyalty from his underlings by granting them some of his land to rule, while they have to promise to support him with taxes and soldiers. That was the prominent system during the middle ages in Europe.

It should be noted that size of population is very relevant to system of government. In a small community, where everyone knows everyone else there isn’t really any need for strict governing, but as population increases, it becomes more and more important to find ways to control. There is a reason we have police

On to culture. The definition of culture, as found in social anthropology, is: A culture is the complex whole consisting of knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law and customs, as well as all the other skills and habits an individual has acquired as part of a society.
It’s also the differences and similarities between humans.

This means that as an society ages, it will acquire it’s own traits, separating it from others, as a consequence of it’s history and what it excels at. Thus a warlike culture will place great emphasis on great warriors of the past, as well as on teaching the ways of war to children of it’s society.
Peaceful societies will probably acquire a more diverse culture, but just because a people is a warrior people does not mean that it can’t have art, and customs far more advanced than more diverse cultures, who have spread their energy on more than war.

So when a new race is created, it’s important not only to think about it’s appearance and habitat, but also how the habitat and the disposition of the race will influence their development. This is most prominent in the tools a race will use.

Let’s first use the sword as an example. The sword is actually an extremely impractical tool, except for killing things. It’s too light too chop wood, and it’s too unwieldy to be used for the same tasks as a knife. However, there is one thing the sword excel at, and that is killing other sentient beings. From these simple facts, it can be concluded that a peaceful race, who are rarely, if ever, involved in conflict, not will develop swords, as they have no use for it.

However, there are several tools that seems to be universal in all cultures on Earth, no matter how peaceful, because they can be used for more practical things than killing humans. I’m talking about knives, axes, spears and bows.

The knife is a very versatile tool, which can be used to anything from eating through carving to killing.

The axe is simply the most practical way of clearing trees (unless you have saws, but that is FAR more advanced technology), so any race living near a forest, who routinely need to fell trees are likely to develop it.

The bow is a very simple projectile weapon. Quite a lot of prey are rather difficult to get close to, and thus it’s more practical to kill them from afar. Of course, you might use throwing spears, but those are harder to handle, and have shorter range than a bow. Thus, most races who hunt fast prey are likely to develop bows.

And finally, the spear. Some prey is easier to take down when close. However, that kind of beast tend to be rather massive. Bows don’t have the piercing power to get them (I’m assuming pretty primitive race here, I know how powerful some bows are. Again, they tend to be rather advanced.) The axe could be used, but then again, they are rather unwieldy, and damage in the wrong way. But sharp sticks are pretty common anywhere there are trees, so it’s reasonable to assume that at some point, someone will get the bright idea of sticking one into something.

That is the way with all tools. They tend to, up to a certain point, develop because they are needed, and will constantly be improved. Then, there comes the point where you basically have everything you need, and you get spare time. Spare time means thinking. Then, it won’t be long before someone comes up with something not immediately needed, but still is a darn good idea, so it’s kept around. Or it’s something none can figure out, until someone uses it in a way the creator never intended.


I'll go over both and edit them when I get time.