From: julie@pascal.org   
      
   It's easy to try to force world building into giving you what you want for a   
   story but I'm realizing that my initial ideas aren't really holding together.   
      
   I don't know if I can explain this so it makes sense.  And probably, just   
   typing it out will help me see the solution.   
      
   The setting is far future.  The tech is high-but-not-magical with their being   
   ancient runes and leftovers from a previous non-human civilization that does   
   count as magical which supports a Galactic Empire.  My population has been on   
   a particular planet    
   for many hundreds of years, at least.  The main population center is a fully   
   modern city and space port that works constantly to keep the jungle and   
   predators from over-running it.  The primary industry is archaeo   
   ogy/anthropology and pharmaceuticals and    
   Port City has only been there since the nearby ruins were discovered.  That   
   *could* be very recently, 20 years even, but I had defaulted to, perhaps, a   
   century ago which was probably lazy of me.     
      
   The older settlements are much smaller and in a more temperate but still   
   plenty harsh area. They're mostly agricultural and mostly self-sufficient.    
   They've got ruins too but pretty much kept that a secret.  Maybe the original   
   settlers were ideological    
   back-to-nature types, maybe it was a big colonization effort but the predators   
   got most of them, or disease, who knows. But there's no real reason to attract   
   new immigrants unless they want to be farmers and it's relatively easy for   
   young people to leave.   
        
      
   What I was hoping for was a long term stable, I won't say "inbred" because   
   they wouldn't be, population with long term loyalties and conflicts, possibly   
   even raiding and warring between the various walled settlements.  Actually,   
   *not* inbreeding might    
   provide the focus on who you're related to and how closely (sort of like a   
   ship culture) because the gene pool is sort of smallish. So they'd have to get   
   along in between the times when they don't get along.   
      
   But they've got access to all the technology anyone else in the Empire would   
   have access to.  And they use it.  They've got science and medicine and   
   communications. But they also go really low tech, too, for some things.   
      
   But I'm realizing... why *wouldn't* they have a couple big cities?     
      
   But if they do, I lose the personal loyalty, everyone knows everyone, your   
   most promising kid gets elected to leadership when you die so long as you   
   don't screw up shockingly "inbred" unite-against-outsiders sort of situation   
   that I want to have.   
      
   Unfortunately Ric isn't here to tell me what stupid thing I'm missing.  :(  He   
   was really good at that.   
      
   -Julie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)