THE WORLD

<h1>THE WORLD</h1>

<h2>COMPLEX CULTURES AND COMMUNITIES</h2>

<p>
  Natural fantasy settings often cover a much smaller area compared to others,
  usually a single region or no more than two or three settlements. You might
  think that this limits the variety of situations and cultural contexts during
  the campaign, but in reality it’s an excellent opportunity to flesh them out
  and make them more complex, human, and multidimensional.
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Recurring characters.</strong> When playing in a limited setting,
    it’s very likely that the same character will appear over and over again,
    even after many sessions. Give each one a name and a face, learn to love
    them, showcase their merits and flaws, and do your best to make them grow
    and evolve as much as the protagonists.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Humanity.</strong> No matter if they live in an elven village in the
    heart of the forest, are part of an ancient people in possession of
    extraordinary technologies, or inhabit an underwater city of fishpeople,
    each and every individual has feelings, an interest in unique forms of art
    and beauty, doubts, and curiosity, and behaves according to their own
    personal morality. No community should be a monolithic stereotype where
    everybody thinks in the same way.
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
  We might say that natural fantasy replaces vastness with density: this style
  of narrative likes to take time to showcase, for better or worse, all the
  facets of each character and asks you, in a gentle but firm voice, not to draw
  hasty conclusions, but rather to love the world in all its complicated,
  ephemeral, and magnificent vibrancy.
</p>

<h2>THE RECONSTRUCTION</h2>
<p>
  Natural fantasy worlds have weathered many catastrophes – the ability to get
  back up after a disaster, to reinvent and rebuild a world together with those
  who surround us is a recurring theme, but it might take two opposite forms.
  This dualism is often mirrored in the locations and their inhabitants:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Hope and adaptability.</strong> Some people don’t just survive in
    this new world, but find ways to gain strength and enthusiasm from it. They
    find new passion and emotion in an environment that tests them but they
    still respect the needs of nature.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Reactionary nostalgia.</strong> At the same time, there are those
    who see reconstruction as a way to go back to the past, to dominate nature
    without taking into consideration how the world has changed, and how the
    past they idolize has brought them close to ruin once already. They chase an
    illusion that will cause untold damage.
  </li>
</ul>