mc776 | Some very basic not-even-sketches for a maybe-setting. (Reply)

Me, commenting a while ago on someone's post on Mastodon:

now i want to write up a setting where everyone's nomadic and the only borders are natural or seasonal

Some very basic ideas...

The relevant places:
The Mountains
The Hills
The Lakes
The River
The Marshes
The Sea
Mountains to northeast, surrounded by Hills; Lakes somewhere tucked away in the Mountains, drained and fed by streams that coalesce into a River flowing westwards past the Hills into the Sea. By the sea on the southeast of the River, the Marshes.

Mountains to northeast, surrounded by Hills; Lakes somewhere tucked away in the Mountains, drained and fed by streams that coalesce into a River flowing westwards past the Hills into the Sea. By the sea on the southeast of the River, the Marshes.

(yes i know what this looks like, oh well "write what you know")

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

1. Sea, Mountains, Mountains, River - they love cold
2. River, Lakes, Hills, Sea - they eat lots of fish
3. Marshes, Sea, Hills, River - they dig
4. Sea, River, Lakes, River - they live in boats

1 and 2 meet in late fall to mingle and trade, and intermarry frequently
3 and 4 meet in early spring and ritually forgive each other for what they do to each other in the fall
2 and 3 often have ad hoc "border" disputes but also rely on each other for things they aren't usually specialized to obtain themselves
1 raids 3 and 4 in the fall and gets away with it by pitting them against each other
1 and 4 rarely interact in winter since 4 is usually far equator-wards
2 and 4 might once have been the same people but one of them thinks sbubuu is an extension of uuquru while the other thinks sbubuu/khwophong is an independent existence that lives in harmonious reflection of uuquru/okangoro