Quidditch may not be a very well-designed sport, but one thing J.K. Rowling got right — sports can be an important part of a fictional society. Comment on the latest New Worlds Patreon essay over at Book View Cafe!

It’s a good thing I happen to have this month’s New Worlds posts written in advance, because I have been slapped flat by the Cold of Doom. But thanks to prep work, that doesn’t prevent me from sharing with you this week’s essay on games! Comment over there.

Another month, another theme for the New Worlds Patreon! To kick off our spin through leisure activities, we’re starting at the young end, with toys for children. Or, y’know, objects “for ritual use.” Depending on how much the archaeologists are throwing their hands up into the air and shrugging. 🙂

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Year Three of the New Worlds Patreon has had quite a lot of months with five Fridays, and this is the last one. Which means it’s time for a theory post! This time around, it’s the question of where to start the worldbuilding process — which parts of it should be high-priority, and which can be left until later. Comment over there!

As the New Worlds Patreon comes to the end of another month, we turn our attention to poison! Both the cause and the cure of suffering, depending on how it’s applied — as Paracelsus very wisely pointed out. Comment over there!

Warning: this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay includes quite a lot that is squicky or horrifying. Not in a super-graphic way, but simply in the realization that the medical treatments of the past were often howlingly wrong at best — and lethal at worst.

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Before there were synthetic chemicals, there were medicines extracted from leaves, flowers, seeds, nuts, fruit, bark, wood, roots, and every other bit of plant matter you care to name. This week, the New Worlds Patreon discusses the ancient art of herbal medicine! Comment over there.

For the first month of the New Year, the New Worlds Patreon is turning back to the topic of medicine! Starting with elemental imbalances. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon wraps up December and 2019 with a discussion of special cities: capitals, but also cities whose age and prominence gives them particular privileges among the settlements of the realm. Comment over there!

More on cities! This time the New Worlds Patreon goes inside the walls (and a little bit outside them) to talk about how cities are laid out and why. Comment over there!

As befits their size, cities are going to require more than one essay to unpack. The first installment looks at them from the outside, considering what makes a city and where it tends to be found. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon moves into the final month of the year — the calendar year, that is. Since I began my Patreon in March of 2017, the New Worlds New Year comes at the end of February. 🙂 My lovely patrons have voted, and this month’s subject begins with demographics: the makeup of a given society, and (as part and parcel of that) the idea of “life expectancy at birth,” which is a number many people seem to misunderstand. Comment over there!

And it seems like a good time to mention again that all of this, the weekly essays and the yearly collections, is made possible by the steadfast support of my patrons. I’ve said before that this is a project I’d wanted to tackle for years, only I couldn’t figure out how to break it down into manageable pieces; it took this “one bite per week” approach to make it feasible. So if you’ve been enjoying the essays, please consider either becoming a patron, or promoting New Worlds to your own friends and social circles.

This year has a lot of months with five Fridays! And as long-term readers of the New Worlds Patreon know, the funding of my gracious patrons means that when there’s an extra Friday, there’s a theory post. This time around it’s on duality, and the narrative power that kind of basic opposition can generate. Comment over there!

(No, not the game. Though I do mention the game in the post.)

The New Worlds Patreon wraps up its discussion of travel with the idea of travel papers . . . and people who don’t have them. Historically we’ve viewed wanderers, individually or as groups, with a very suspicious eye, because governments like to control who goes where and when.

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This week on the New Worlds Patreon, kick back, put up your feet — and hope there aren’t bedbugs or thieves, and that the proprietor doesn’t charge you for the privilege of having the bed all to yourself. It’s time to talk about accommodations!

(Comment over there.)

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we turn to something I love rather a lot: maps! They can take so many forms and serve so many purposes, and all of ’em are neat.

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Navigating your way to the latest New Worlds Patreon post is easy: just click on this link right here. After I’ll give you guidance on how to find your way to other places, whether it’s by landmarks, astronomical measurement, the observation of the natural world, or some other clue.

Comment over there!