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The Settings and Worlds of Adam Czech :
Zephyr

About: The world of "Zephyr" was started as a purely "constructed world" project in the summer of 2005. After some initial work and a long hiatus, it was picked up again in earnest in fall, 2006. The purpose of the world is to craft an alternate world - with a kind of alternate human - that is covered mostly by water and clings to an ocean-centric culture and way of living.

Premise/Hook: The world of Zephyr is similar to Earth, but 87% covered by a great ocean. The remaining land masses are mostly islands, arranged in chains and clumps on one side of the planet. Each of these chains developed a culture, language, and belief system for itself before joining back with all of the other chains, where some of these ideas merged and some conflicted. These peoples spend several centuries adopting relative peace between themselves, then focus on building their alliances and ushering in a revolution of invention. Adding to all of this cultural intermingling is the arrival of the eprrasigna, "visitors" allegedly from another world who are forced to make Zephyr their new home, creating another wave of culture shock in the process.

Themes: Some of the obvious themes for Zephyr is race relations - both between tribes of humans and, more blatantly, between the humans and the eprrasigna. Their childrens' quick acceptance of these new people create conflict between generations. The humans' love and fear of their world also goes at adds with their natural urge to create, their inventions striving to both tame the earth and work with it. Religious issues come to the forefront as all of these new ways of life - as well as the eprras' largely agnostic worldview - press back most vestiges of faith from many areas of the human societies. And of course, the backdrop of all this is the ocean-centered civilizations, dependant on sailing ships and inter-island trade.

For more information: The CPWiki article for Zephyr has more information.