:D I like that world, it's got a great capacity for both intra- and inter-race tension. One of the things I'm most interested in world-building is what the different cultures and customs that spring up because of (or in spite of) what makes them unique; the idea the tumans are the most romantic is nice and I would love to see what some of their art works and appreciations would be. I think the other races would definitely have gendered pronouns, and that could be a point of conflict that travellers often stumble into. Should tumans have to have a big warning sign saying what pronouns to use? I imagine not, but the other races both being binary gendered would definitely demand that information to be displayed somewhere. Maybe you should check out Star Trek TNG 5x17: The Outcast where Riker falls in love with a member of a genderless alien species.
I've seen the whole TNG series, I know the episode very well :p I'm not sure it's too necessary for genders to be verbally declared for bumans and lumans, or at least I hope it isn't, but that's something I think I'll discover when I construct their languages. When I was creating the three major races for my world, I tried to make them each as unique as possible, so they were easily differentiated on sight and by culture, but they didn't fall into the cliche traps it's all too easy to land in. The tumans are not just romantic, but introverted and solitary much of the time, so their list of friends is very small, but they hold a deep affection for them. Their art comes in the form of solitary activitives, where only the end result is shown, such as writing poetry, painting, or creating gifts (this is as opposed to performance art, for instance, which would be rather embarrassing to a tuman). Clay is a major commodity on their homeworld, so they learn pottery and ceramic skills, so a quality vase is considered a lovely gift. They have specific courtship rituals involving gift exchange. When two tumans decide to be wed, part of their engagement period involves building a house together. (Actually, that last sentence I just made up now on the spot, but I really like it, so it's canon now!) Lumans and bumans, however, are polyamorous, but in different ways. Lumans live in households of about three to six adults, which can have any ratio of men to women. They can certainly be loving, but they are more extroverted than lumans and have many friends and acquaintances. Their art is typically performance driven, so dancing, storytelling, playing music, and even cooking are considered great social forms of art. Bumans are on the far end of the spectrum from tumans. They are polyamorous to the point of having no single mate or mates, but rather they take the concept of "it takes a village to raise a child" rather literally. A tribe or village is the smallest familial unit bumans care about. They are extraordinarily extroverted, humorous, and have no concept whatsoever of privacy or private property. What is made by one buman is meant for the tribe, so the tuman concepts of monogamy, gift-giving, and the like are very foreign concepts. The varying customs of the races does have the potential to create some conflict, whether serious or playful, but, being that this world is made for a tabletop RPG, it's up to the players to decide how they'd like to play their characters. They might ignore those differences to focus on the external quest, or they might make internal conflicts the central focus of their game.
Very nice, I was thinking about architecture then you mentioned it and it was exactly what I had hoped. I imagine that means the Tumans are less advanced technology wise as they'd have lower population density and people would probably be home schooled as a family. One way to combat that could be to have wandering teachers who integrate into a family unit and move on once they're not needed anymore? Books would be a huge factor, passed down through the generations, perhaps players should encounter more "Ancient Textbooks" when they're in Tuman territories?
This particular set of worlds (ScatterWorlds working title, very subject to change), is very primitive; I think of each race being slightly more advanced than hunter/gatherer societies, but are certainly not medieval. Childhood schooling isn't something I've touched too much on yet, because I think with these races being so early in their development, they haven't got too much to teach, apart from social mores, labor skills, and art. I'm thinking that, while tumans were the first to create a written language, they specifically use it for poetical purposes, and less for conveying facts or historical accounts. The physical form of a book in particular is too advanced for them, but I'm sure they have created clay tablets for writing on. I think none of the three races care too much about history and don't record much, which I think makes such concepts more curious and intriguing when they do find artifacts and markers of other civilizations. Seeing evidence of someone else's handiwork in a previously unexplored area sends them into new lines of questioning they'd never considered. The way I imagine these three races is that each lives on a separate homeworld where they are limited by their resources and can only achieve some particular level of technology and sophistication, and it is only when they meet and find other worlds of abundance that they combine their skills and create cities and new technology. Once technical knowledge starts to take off and spread, it would then become necessary to have schooling, at least in the form of trades apprenticeships, but possibly more academic forms for those looking to improve life, acquire knowledge, and explore. Since you mentioned architecture, I'll add as a little aside that the tumans of course make their huts out of clay bricks, while bumans, having abundant wood on their homeworld (something akin to redwood forests), make treehouse villages, and the lumans, having cotton-like plants on their world, are primarily clothiers, and live in tents. When the three races meet, their cities are a smorgasbord of architecture that combines those three main styles elaborately and elegantly. When I get to designing city layouts, I expect it to be a trip.
I'm picturing the Ba'ku people from Star Trek Insurrection, that about right in terms of technology and environment? They might not record history directly, but I imagine being a high art output race, the tumans would have lots of instances of historical events being captured as part of something else: I'm thinking of The Scream being linked with Krakatoa's eruption. They would probably love allegories and fables too, adding a romantic twist on the stories. It's interesting that they would mix and build cities together, it seems anathema to the tumans but I think there'd be some really fantastic blends of wood and canvas architecture possible with the bumans and lumans. Speaking of: If they live on separate homeworlds, how do they meet? Have you got something in mind for that? Manmade or natural? Don't feel the need to divulge, got to keep some secrets :)
More or less. A little less, perhaps. Perhaps more like Native Americans to some degree. Perhaps in describing the tumans, I put too much emphasis on introversion. In terms of loving relationships, friendships, and so on, they keep very close-knit, but they do have larger societies, they just treat others with stoic reserve until they get to know them better. As far as fables goes, I might consider something like that, though I think culture-wise, the bumans are more into that kind of thing, since they like to tell stories, and, I think, have a grander sense of hero-worship than the other races. Lumans are more prone to make up fictional stories, while I think tumans are more down-to-earth and present-oriented. But Of course I may change things up as the world evolves; I recently made a massive change to the physiology of bumans after I thought I had that locked down, so we'll see. This one takes a bit of explaining, because the physics of these worlds is counter to our universe. I'm thinking of posting something like "Worldbuilding 101: What is the Gestalt of your world?" and give this as an example: Worlds do not orbit stars, but rather float through a lilac-colored cosmic aether along hard-to-predict paths. Miniature suns orbit each world, though this number can be different per world. Bumans have no suns at all, and live in a dark, snowy world; tumans have three suns, and have a hot, humid environment of archipelagos and deltas; lumans have too many suns to count, baking their world into a desert. So these worlds (and infinitely more) slide past each other, coming close and moving about the heavens in a grand cosmic dance. Now that you know how the universe operates, you see that such worlds can come in fairly close when they pass. But how does one hop from one world to the next? By waterrises. Like waterfalls, but they rise up into the sky, defying gravity. If you want to visit a world, you must track where the worlds will be passing, swim down a river, and dive up the waterrise, aiming for another world. But, of course, don't forget your parachute, or you're in for a lethal landing. (Parachutes, of course, invented by luman clothiers.) This particular aether-and-waterrise system was developed for a number of reasons in regards to gameplay, but in terms of setting, not only does it look cool, but it allows for a lot of variety of biomes and worlds that can be reached quickly without too much grand traversing and long miles over similar terrain. But also, since the dance of the worlds is difficult to predict, only when worlds get close can people really figure out where worlds will be connecting. You might also be stuck on any given world for weeks or even years until the worlds align for you to move on. This can also create a disparity of technology, where one world might have so many resources available that they can create grand cities, while other worlds lacking in resources are capped out at some level of tech. Since traveling by waterrise is rather bumpy, it's hard to bring too many supplies to a resource-scarce world (and besides, you wouldn't want to be dependent on imports because you'd never know when the next time would be that someone could bring you some).I'm picturing the Ba'ku people from Star Trek Insurrection,
If they live on separate homeworlds, how do they meet?
Possibly, but it all depends on how good their swimming skill is :p