The New Worlds Patreon tour of religion continues! Real-world polytheisms feature a dizzying array of gods, but many of them fall into certain recognizable categories. Comment over there!

Polytheism! It’s all over the place in fantasy, and frequently feels all too much like D&D. This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we talk about how polytheism actually works.

For the month of July, the New Worlds Patreon turns its attention back to religion — this time for a look at some of its underlying concepts. We begin with what makes a god . . . which is something that differs quite a bit depending on what religion you ask! Comment over there.

Given how dangerous childbirth was in history — and can still be even today — I sometimes marvel that the human species still exists. This week the New Worlds Patreon delves into the perils and practices of delivering a child, both past and present. Comment over there!

As the New Worlds Patreon proceeds through the topic of childbearing, we’ve finally arrived at the pregnancy stage of the process — or more to the point, all the cultural requirements and prohibitions surrounding that. Comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we’re talking about one of the great advances in human history: birth control. Comment over there!

My patrons are awesome. No sooner do I put potentially “icky” subjects like sanitation or childbearing in the monthly topic polls than they vote for them — in this case with a much clearer majority than most of the polls get. Which is why this week’s New Worlds essay is about menstruation, and all the cultural baggage that surrounds it in various places and times. Comment over there!

As most of you probably know by now, one of the bonus funding goals for the New Worlds Patreon covers a fifth post in the months that have five Fridays. For these “theory posts,” I step away from the specifics of what goes into a world, and instead look at more abstract matters: either techniques of handling this stuff in writing, or anthropological concepts of use in worldbuilding. This month is one of the latter, with the idea of cultural spheres. Comment over there!

The tradition of keeping captive animals for display is an old one. This week, the New Worlds Patreon discusses zoos and menageries, past present, and future! Comment over there.

Do you have a dog? A cat? A bird? A tarantula? This week the New Worlds Patreon continues its exploration of the animals in our lives with a look at pets. Comment over there!

Our pets today have it easy: we rarely make them work for their kibble. This week, the New Worlds Patreon tackles the category of working animals! Comment over there.

It’s onward to a new month with the New Worlds Patreon, which means a new topic: animals! Starting with livestock, and questions like “what is domestication” and “why have we domesticated these animals and not those.” Comment over there!

In the last essay for April, the New Worlds Patreon turns its attention to the world of banking! (Part of it, anyway — the investment side will have to wait for later.) Comment over there!

This year we have an extension on filing our taxes, but the New Worlds Patreon is going to discuss taxation anyway: what we tax, how we pay, and how this can actually generate story. Comment over there!

They say love makes the world go round, but after writing this week’s essay for the New Worlds Patreon, I think it might actually be debt instead. Comment over there!

I don’t know if it’s tax season that made the Topic Backers from the New Worlds Patreon vote for an economics theme this month — but voted they have, and so they shall receive! After all, that’s the trade we’ve agreed to. And certain kinds of trade are the subject of today’s essay: specifically, barter. Including how I previously said a wrong thing about it, and need to walk that statement back.

Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon wraps up this pass through legal topics with the question of evidence: what we accept as legally valid, what we don’t, why, and how that’s changed over time. Comment over there!

In this time of lockdown, the New Worlds Patreon continues! (I mean, my regular life is only about one step away from lockdown regardless. Though I do miss going to the dojo.) This week we move on to other kinds of trial — specifically, the various types of ordeal once used to determine guilt or innocence. Comment over there!

Do you like watching legal dramas? This week, the New Worlds Patreon goes into the courtroom for a look at how trials operate — which turns out to be quite variable depending on the circumstances and which legal system your country runs on. Comment over there!