I Find The Presence Of Florida On This Map Hilarious, Considering It Will Be Gone In The Next 50-100

I find the presence of Florida on this map hilarious, considering it will be gone in the next 50-100 years, let alone the thousands between now and Lancer's Present Day.

Looking at the time frame of Lancer, it is unlikely that the people of Union speak living languages that look anything like our languages today. Take a look at the oldest writings we have of humanity on Earth, and it's probably closer to us than Union, even at its founding date, let alone five thousand years later. For playing the game, this is irrelevant, unless you want to conlang with your friends. It makes sense to import today's language, mapping today's slang on those people who would use slang in Union. However, place names, which are (mostly, nowadays) independent from languages itself (everyone calls New York some version of New York), are more difficult to justify for some people. To me, it would break my immersion of the names of locations in Union solely reflected contemporary inspirations. At the same time, coming up with nonsensical names is harder and also less inspiring. Therefore, it makes sense that the names of planets and cities on those planets are still informed by English meanings, or old Earth myths and inspirations.

With Cradle, the problem is a bit more difficult, because it is after all the old Earth. There are plenty of towns that have had the same name for thousands of years, but what if a climate apocalypse happens? Aren't most of our oldest cities located on coasts, vulnerable flood plains, or at least reliant on steady agriculture? This is what happens in the Lancer timeline. When Union finally picks up the pieces, they spend more than a thousand years on Earth before they take to the stars. What are they doing?

I like to imagine from the way that Cradle is described, that Union went for a fresh start. Cradle has 2 billion people, but most of the planet is left to nature (and presumably communities living in harmony with nature). 2 billion does not sound like a lot, coming from today's 8 billion, but that was the Earth's population around 1910. Nature had taken a pretty severe beating by then. To avoid a world like our 20th century, I imagine most Terrans live in big metropolises, densely-packed and well-connected. Efficient use of space for living allows for maximum space for both Earth's nature and long human history. Carefully planned cities follow, clustered around the equator where space ports are located, built on top of pre-existing population densities, or close to Massif Vaults, which have likely remained as centres of cultural significance if not population centres outright. Mentioned in the old Field Guide to Harrison Armory is Dharamsala, the cultural capital of Cradle - a city that mostly survived the fall. Struggling with the concept of names, I'll permit the authors at least one name that survived ten thousand years, but I'll leave the rest of the planet unnamed for now.

(original image credit CC BY-SA 4.0 Maulucioni)

Update from the WGA on negotiations

Read all of these. Not a request.

great news, one of the books I was looking for arrived today and it has a whole section on pre french revolution book piracy and the thriving trade in hiding and trafficking banned literature.

Is graffiti runic?

Graffiti is pretty close to sigil magic yeah

Oh hey, this feels familiar!

champion of overthinking