Overview of Scarterra versus Medieval Earth

Things that are very similar to medieval Europe

    Waste is taboo in Scarterra   Privacy is a luxury in Scarterra   People wear a lot of hats and head coverings in Scarterra   Market days are once a week shopping events available in most settled areas   Market fairs are once a year shopping events available in many settled areas   -Most careers are farmers or directly supporting farmers   -Human Scarterran towns are usually organized laid out in a similar manner to medieval Earth towns.   Most commoners have a complicated love/hate hate relationship with strangers.   -The medieval and ancient world of Earth had lots of holidays. Scarterra has lots of holidays. The holidays are for different deities but the basic idea is the same.   High status individuals are expected to be publicly generous to maintain respectability.   -Most highborn people have a personal name and a family surname, maybe with a nickname. Most lowborn people have a personal name and a signifier for their profession or place of birth   -Even with the existence of magic, pretty much all manufactured goods in Scarterra have to be made by hand: cheese, beer, barrels, dresses, horseshoes, knives, bricks, loaves of bread, hats, houses, etc.      

Things that are moderately different

  -Like real world Earth, many civilizations are built on the ruins of ancient predecessors, but in Scarterra the rise and falls of civilizations tend to be more dramatic. The fact that there was a First and Second Unmaking makes lot of people on the lookout for a Third Unmaking.   -Hunting on a nobles without his permission without his permission is a serious crime much as it was in medieval Europe, but most nobles are more concerned with reagent potion than animal poaching. Wooded areas tend to be larger and nobles are more likely to give limited permission for visitors to hunt and forage (for food, not reagents) there.   -Due to limited access to magical healing, Infant mortality is somewhere between medieval Earth and modern Earth and this has trickle down effects on society.   Farming techniques in Scarterra are very similar to real Earth medieval farming techniques but judicious use of plant theurgy increases relative crop yields   Having multiple names is a sign of status, with a vaguely religious or spiritual aspect to it.   -The Stewards of Korus encourage and ethos of conservation of nature that is centuries ahead of medieval Europe, but this ethics is backed by a powerful carrot (reagents) and a powerful stick (Korus’ wrath). As a side effect of this, Scarterra has more open wilderness than historical Earth.   -There are no anti-usury laws and banking in Scarterra is centuries ahead of medieval Europe but its still well short of modern banking.   -Scarterra's religious institutions get a lot of money in the form of donations, but not enough forcing them to sell "temple cheese".   -"Privvys" and waste disposal are MOSTLY the same as medieval Earth, but there is some magic to help   -There is a precious metal currency that transcends cultures across Scarterra   -There is a feudal system with hereditary nobility in most places, but “the Dragon’s Path” gives a path for social mobility   -Pitched battles were relatively rare in medieval warfare and fighting hit and run skirmishes was the norm. Magic tends to enhance that style of fighting.   -Messages have to be hand delivered, but some forms of magic make travel easier. Scarterran Messengers still mostly rely on mundane methods of carrying messages.   -Cities tend to be cramped and dirty. Purification helps with sanitation a little bit.   -Periodic monster attacks are a real thing, but it tends to make feudalism even more attractive as a political system. It leads to citizen militias being more widely utilized and private weapon ownership laws being laxer. This leads to fewer slaves and serfs and more free peasants. The advocacy of Zarthus’ Lanterns also leads to fewer slaves and serfs.   -Scarterrans are widely aware that boiling water is a cheap and easy method of sanitation that didn’t catch on Earth till well after the medieval era.   -Various factors mean that Scarterra has more Marco Polo type characters than historical Earth did   -Castles and walls are still important for defense but this is largely because they enhance defensive magics.   -Breaking an oath was a big deal in pre-industrial societies on Earth and in Scarterra oaths are sometimes backed by supernatural force though intermittently. In most but not all cases, oaths are backed by social norms alone. Likewise, curses are taken seriously because they are sometimes backed by real mystic powers.   -Filial piety was and is a real thing in historical and contemporary Earth, but in Scarterra it’s even bigger. The spirits of the honored dead have a limited ability to interact with the living...especially those who practice filial piety.   -Elemental ethnicity replaces Earth’s real physical indicators of race and ethnicity but they are largely treated similarly. Elemental ethnicity can form the basis of racism ranging from joking stereotypes to true bigotry.   -Necromancers are fairly rare, but they are common enough that funerary practices often have anti-necromancy precautions baked into them. Though the core of a funeral remains mourning the dead.   -There is a relatively small number of languages globally.        

Things that are very different

  -Reagents and the lands that can produce them are the most hotly contested resource   -The words of religious leaders are indirectly backed by theurgy (divine magic) which increases their political power relatively to real world Earth religious institutions.   -Religious institutions are politically influential, but a canny Prince can play them off each other. Most pre-industrial Earth religious institutions had veritable monopolies on the orthodoxy of their respective areas.   -Alchemy is real, it’s effective and can mimic some modern substances in their utility.   -Divination magic is relatively common. Athletics contests and tournaments usually have a diviner to check for magical cheating, and visitors to important areas often have to go through check points where they and their possessions are scanned not unlike a modern metal detector checkpoint.   -Magic is common enough that pretty much every adult has seen something magical at least once in his or her life though it’s not an everyday thing for most Scarterrans. A whopping 1% of Scarterra’s mortal population are spellcasters or wielders of supernatural abilities of some sort although powerful magic users are fairly rare.   -The world of Scarterra lives alongside and with the subterranean Scarnoctis and the aquatic Scaraqua. Most Scarterras, Scaraquans and Scarnoctans are aware of the other two realms in broad strokes but underestimate the size and complexity of the other two places.   -Fair Folk are real and they are often dangerous and unpredictable.   -Spirits manifest solidly in the material plane fairly regularly to carry out the Nine’s will