Fantasy World Building- Agriculture & Civilization

How does Agriculture Actually work for World Building and story telling? Jacky Boy is here to educate for all your D&D, writing, story telling, and gaming purposes.
#Stoneworks #WorldBuilding #DnD
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Sources:
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0:00 - 2:45 Intro (Subscribe to Stoneworks)
2:46 - 5:39 Origins of Agriculture
5:40 - 12:55 Plants
12:56 - 17:26 Water
17:27 - 27:33 Soils
27:34 - 32:21 Chinese Agriculture
32:22 - 34:01 Outro (SUBSCRIBE TO STOMBORNKS)
Music List (in order of appearance:
Simon Folwar- Play All Day Long
Adi Goldstein- Think Different
Flow State- Sail
Adi Goldstein- Moving Forward
Trinity- So Tasty
Monument Music- Classic
Augustine- The Rusty Parlor
Adi Goldstein- Pure Interval
Josh Kramer- Soar
Adi Goldstein- Circles of Life
Matthew Shine- Black Marsh (Elder Scrolls Online Music, Fan Made)
Aura Classica- Summer, the Four Seasons by Vivaldi
Similar channels to check out- James Tullos, Hello Future Me, World Building Notes, Artifexian, How to be a Great Game Master, Runesmith, Tale Foundry
Descriptive tags- Worldbuilding, world building, writing, history, DM, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, culture, society, city, characters, empires, states, countries, borders, map, geography, how to, names, Rome, China, language, novel, writer, GM, art, migrate, character, land, help, creative, stoneworks, plot, story, structure, religion, archaeology, artifact, item, magic, quest, tv, movie, world anvil, campaign
This content is made for teens and adults

[@Stoneworks]

For my next video: How to grow a goth gf in your own backyard! Join the World Building Minecraft server: IP- play.stoneworks.gg discord- discord.gg/Wxf8Sn2zx5 Check out Weltengeist's content here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5fGqqRuYqmnZ80

[@rev7913]

can i also grow a femboy

[@Stoneworks]

@@rev7913 Yes but you'll need some good loamy soils for that cash crop

[@TitanOfGlory]

I'm dying

[@gaypedo4]

Time to get a big backyard

[@echillaoi451]

@@gaypedo4 you can borrow mine if you give me 20% of company profits

[@alextheim3920]

I genuinely love that you say “Plants on earth needs water to perform photosynthesis” while showing Indian Pipe which is a parasitic wildflower incapable of photosynthesis

[@Redlurk3]

Ghost pipe plz. Sounds cooler.

[@pandabear4565]

I like the idea of wood as strong as iron. A certain type, not all wood

[@juwebles4352]

If you're going to do that something interesting to note is iron is really brittle hence why steel is better in the case of weaponry

[@jarrah580]

that is probably the most overused fantasy idea ever

[@juwebles4352]

@@jarrah580 "overused" spoken like someone who doesn't respect the greats

[@SuperGamefreak18]

@@juwebles4352 which is what makes the idea interesting as well

[@keepermovin5906]

Honestly all wood being as strong as iron would be super interesting

[@CrispedUp]

Wait until he shows an entire nation that is just wheat field.

[@Stoneworks]

Ukraine be like

[@JG-vh6oy]

SLAVA

[@CraftsmanOfAwsomenes]

Nation and country aren't interchangeable words. A nation is the people. The dirt can't be the nation. (unless it's a nation of dirt people) It's a really tiny nitpick, but it always annoyed me when strategy gamers and worldbuilders just use "nation" as a fancier way to say country.

[@CrispedUp]

@@CraftsmanOfAwsomenes Who?

[@sontrombone6907]

@@CraftsmanOfAwsomenesUhhhhh, the word nation is a noun meaning a country, disagree, argue with the oxford dictionary.

[@billybones956]

Fun fact: Plants rarely absorb nutrients directly from the soil. Most actually rely on fungi and bacteria in the soil to make the nutrients available. The fungi tap in to the plants roots and trade the minerals for sugars and carbs that the plants produce via photosynthesis. The bacteria are attracted by sugary root exudates that the plants secrete, and while the bacteria live and die and excrete their own waste they're binding all the minerals they use to amino acids. When the bacteria die and decompose the plants can then access all the minerals. So there's an idea, maybe there are plants in your world that are a part of other symbiotic relationships.

[@LANSl0t]

Mycorrhizal Networks are incredibly fascinating

[@solsystem1342]

My scifi setting has huge interconnected resource distribution systems based on the mushrooms and bacteria in our world that fill the same function in our world. It's not like a global concious or anything crazy like that. It just happens to be more efficient for them ie: plants and fungi to build onto larger ones that starting anew so over time they reconnect even if parts are destroyed by fires, flooding, spaceships landing, etc.

[@NoirMorter]

I incorporated this knowledge and how easy it is to kill the microbial life forms in the setting I'm writing.

[@mogaming163]

This isn't always the case, right?

[@buckaroobonzai2909]

They also absorb smoggy and smokey airborne fertilizer through leaves. Like co2.

[@oranjethefox8725]

I feel it is important to explain that the nile river floods so regularly due to the monsoon season in Ethiopia. The Nile gets its water from ethiopia and since the monsoon season is so regular the increase in rain in Ethiopia causes an excess of water in the Nile resulting in flooding. So rivers that flow from places that have a regular monsoon season are more likely to have regular flooding like the Nile.

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

In parts of what is now Northern Ontario, the Ojibwé and Algonquins had started regular harvesting of wild rice, to the point of becoming a food staple and practiced horticulture. Imagine if the colonisation didn't happen. Maybe the world will have a cold-weathered rice growing culture.

[@jacobedward2401]

They still do gather wild rice, the Anashinabe in Minnesota claim the Line 3 pipeline threatens their traditional way of life. ... Possibly why I like fantasy stories, we can make it so the ents win

[@Redlurk3]

@@jacobedward2401 it does.

[@sophiejones3554]

My friend... please don't talk about Native Americans in the past tense: they ain't all gone yet. The Ojibwe still have exclusive rights to harvest wild rice on the rivers flowing into Lake Superior.

[@Redlurk3]

@@sophiejones3554 yeah it grows all over the Rez . Till the pipeline fucks it up Thanks Canada🖕

[@buckaroobonzai2909]

Is rice native to north america?

[@alehaim]

21:06 There is also in places the problem that due to the constant regeneration of the plants, the ground can be literally too thicc for traditional farm tools, needing much more hefty equipment in order to be able to plow it

[@buckaroobonzai2909]

Certain roots of annuals can break up tough soil. Nature also tills with voles and worms aerating the soil over time. People could figure out ways to break up the soil naturally, or at least grow in clay pots.

[@talonkaine7121]

I love the NFT. Seems screenshottable.

[@ImperialCommunicationsUnit]

Stoney, really cool idea for a video! Agriculture is definitely overlooked in favor of flashier parts of worldbuilding, though it is very important, almost universally.

[@k-osmonaut8807]

for me it's one of the most interesting things to develop imo

[@rileyexistent8738]

heres an idea: A tree that grows and reproduces not using that stupid photosynthesis but instead by absorbing slowly magic from everything around it -would probably mostly grow around cities, wizard towers, and around anywhere or anything inherently magical. -you could probably use its wood to make an armor that's fairly ineffective against stopping conventional attacks but which completly counters anything magical (maybe combining it with steel would make the armor too heavy to use for most people but those who can still be a threat even with the added weight by combining the two are dreaded and feared) -maybe its leaves and roots could make potions and poisons that sap a spellcasters strength and nullifies magic. -I image the tree would probably either be a symbol of hope of standing against the tyranny of spellcasters or symbolize the threat of those that oppose magic

[@wyattwear815]

Lol this is basically petricite from league of legends

[@memeinatorun-official144]

@@wyattwear815 neat idea: how would people selectively breed these? What about cross breeding? Are they harder to mass produce due to their nature?

[@MerkhVision]

That’s really cool and interesting!

[@Cryodrakon2]

Magic all around it still includes the sun tho.

[@victory8928]

I love this idea though mine mainly involves the opposite certain trees and wood absorb different types of magic in different amounts so you can select a wood that best amplifies your magic while nullifying the magic of others on what you incorporate it into. It’s a common strategy for weapon making to prevent metal mages from turning their enemies weapons against them while amplifying their own elemental attacks. E.g a feared queen’s weapons are all crafted from a single type of wood that is great at transferring water magic while bad at most others. The queen then make these very strongly enchanted metals to imbue different elements into her weapons allowing her to do crazy stuff like laughing off the efforts of an 200 grand mages while beheading them in the process

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

Millet is the most amazing grain I’ve ever imagined, and somehow the stuff is real. One dollar will feed a family of three and it grows everywhere and it’s so easy to cook- it’s basically an instant meal if you need it to be.

[@Barakon]

Budgie treat & a good feed.

[@leonartu3756]

you mentioned that volcano dirt and rock is really good, but the price is that there is a catastrophe once in a while, but you know what would be interesting? a civilization that can protect from a volcano eruption with minimal casualties. maybe it could make its cities fly, or they may make giant towers that can resist eruptions, or they live in a massive cave system.

[@leonartu3756]

Man i have more then one like Made by me because im cocky, this might be the best day of the week/year so far

[@creeperkingdom3190]

or mabye like the nile have a volcano that has a very predictable pattern of eruption say every fifty years that the people have simply gotten accustomed to.

[@francescosacca6674]

Talking about Sicily... some scientists attempted to dig a canal to direct the lava of the Etna in an empty valley. Though less lava than expected went where wanted, the experiment was considered a success. How about that?

[@jac0b88]

For the 3 sisters (corn, squash, beans) it has some more mutual benifits than just the soil fixing. The corn provides a structure the bean vines can climb and the vines help support the corn from high winds. The squash leafs help provide shade keeping the beans from burning and keep the soil from drying out. And if i recall correctly it provides plenty of coverage for small bush birds that help keep away weeds and insects while further fertilizing the soil.

[@victory8928]

It’s amazing how this experience over generations helped fueled the development of these practices how they often they unfortunately get pushed to the way side when other factors like wealth generating comes into play (cash crops be like)

[@rowanblair5694]

Cool plant idea. Skybreak: a tree native to dense rain forest that has a two part life cycle. During its growth stage it absorbs as many nutrients as it can to grow to the top of the canopy. It grows similarily to an Acasia trees where the leaves are almost grown flat across the top of the tree creating a large funnel like shape. It also grows one bulbous elastic blossom at the center of the tree. Once it rises above the canopy and detects that its lowest most leaves are absorbing sunlight it begins its 2nd stage. In this stage it absorbs purely nitrogen the nitrogen is transported to the tree and is stored as a gas inside the blossom. Over the next several decade growth cycle the blossom will fill with nitrogen and stretch like a water balloon over the tree canopy. Once the blossom covers all the trees leaves the tree no longer absorbs sunlight and releases a chemical compound that breaks triple bonded Nitrogen in side the blossom. This creates a massive burst of heat energy that ignites anything with a several 100 meter radius of the tree. Effectively creating a plant based wild fire in the jungle and a really cool natural disaster.

[@amountain7487]

Very cool idea. But anything that any creatures or plants do should benefit them in someway so they can have a reason to develop in that way, so i think the reason for it to make a forest fire is to create more land for it's sapling or destroy every trees so it can get all the nutrients or the fire that burned all the trees have something special that convert the trees in to nutrients that the tree can absorbs.

[@nathanphilbrick-cruse406]

@@amountain7487 that's easy, either the trees seeds are dispersed during the second stage and have evolved to grow after a fire, like some Australian plants, OR, there are seeds with thick husks all over the nitrogen sack, that are launched out when it bursts and also, grow after a fire

[@nathanphilbrick-cruse406]

To expand on this, I can imagine that there's a parasitic plant that is really nitrogen hungry like Corn, and latches onto the blossom to grow. Maybe it could become cultivated by humans who like the fruit of this plant and the seeds on the nitrogen sack.

[@kentario1610]

@@nathanphilbrick-cruse406 I wonder if, with enough nitrogen sapping plants and organisms, the nitrogen sack could be prevented from exploding at all, or if it would still happen for some reason. Building too many houses near one of these without control of when it will essentially bomb everyone could be reckless, that or people allow it to follow its cycle and just evacuate or move on to a new plant.

[@victory8928]

@@kentario1610I imagine it would slow down when it happened mostly cause these plants don’t want to deplete the nitrogen levels of the sac. Like mistletoe which will reduce its parasitising of its host during winter and other harsh times especially with many mistletoe on the same tree they will start using photosynthesis more to compensate and to not kill the host

[@user-ft3jq5vi2l]

Idea: A species of coral that lives very close to the shore, but on a thin and shallow inlet with no significant currents. The coral's method of dirpersal has become a fatty, energy rich substance filled with spore-like structures that can be dispersed by animals. Some variants may even use chitin for the skeleton and live in freshwater or even land (I know it's a bit unrealistic but a lot of other animals did similar transitions plus all hail the rule of cool). They may be cultivated by coastal peoples or even anybody in the world if you go for the land coral option. Edit: Another idea: Large carnivorous plants that pose *extreme* danger in their wild form and that only start getting cultivated by the likes of edgy crime bosses and warlords looking for unconventional and rather brutal security around their installations. With time, they start selecting them so that they are still dangerous, but easyer to control and that they maybe give some useful by-product of eating your enemies alive, thus justifying the domestication of things like elephant-sized flytraps.

[@wandernights7972]

On the plants that don't drink water, maybe we can substitute that for blood and go a ventus flytrap route? Could make places that were battlefields thrive and make the plant continuously traveling across areas? idk

[@3nertia]

Sounds reasonable to me! *yoink*

[@funnyswangoosething5088]

Imagine those blood drinking plants in an industrial war with technology similar to WW1/2 or modern era today, the amount of bloodshed on the trenches will grow an entire forest.

[@rileyexistent8738]

Now image that those blood consuming plants produced something useful to humans. There could end up being quite a bit of animal and human sacrifice

[@lifeuncovered6188]

Ight I’m taking that shit 💀

[@frenchempire9471]

Call it bloodsgrain or something

[@callahanklatt7773]

Since my setting is a flat, infinite plane with a sun that cannot physically set, the vast majority of all plant life falls into two categories. It is either subterranean, cannibalizing other plants to stay alive or has developed an increased number of external layers with a massive array of photon receptors to aid in the plant's growth beneath the massive exterior. Over time these outer layers eventually break down due to the large streams of unmitigated light, and so the secondary layer forms underneath to take over, ad infinatum until the plant is either harvested or its natural life cycle ceases. This results in an increased volume of yield from a single plant and some unusual ways of reproduction or pollination for the plant

[@mann_man8556]

Someone needs to make plants that can move and then they get domesticated by humans and then the people become crop herders.I mean I don’t know how that would happen but I think it’d be cool.

[@3nertia]

*yoink*

[@funnyswangoosething5088]

Not feasible irl but there’s a Disney animation short of speculating on life on Mars. Two of the organisms shown in that video is “migratory plants moving for better soil” and “plants that eat themselves”, the former could be an underground insect like creature with the stem being like a worm and the roots helping it move like a centipede underground, with its branches being the part gaining energy being harvested by humans for food and such. The plants that could “eat themselves” might be like what some fungus do today, and honestly a lot more realistic, some fungus just basically grow massive because it is growing while dying, basically growing past the parts that’s dying to greener pastures. This plant could work like aspens of today, where it’s one singular root system extending offshoots/clones of itself and “moving” by said method I just explained, alot similar to the former but less exciting lol.

[@3nertia]

@@funnyswangoosething5088 Wait, plants that eat themselves? Do you have any information readily available that I could use to look that up? Plant name or something? A link would be nice :D

[@funnyswangoosething5088]

3nertia oh what I said was based on the Disney short I was inspired by, if you want the some real life inspiration on the mumbo jumbo I talked about, bladderworts not only eat bugs but also microscopic plants, also the Broomrape (yes the name) is a parasitic plant that leeches off nutrients from other plants, although a perpetual self driving cannibalizing plant isn’t possible, you can have something similar of a plant “farming” another plant.

[@3nertia]

@@funnyswangoosething5088 Which Disney short were you referencing then?

[@Elkulan]

I have missed these kind of videos

[@bobross547]

I prefer these too

[@polystralianpuritist801]

10:22 I guess it can be used to determine how vital the crop is to the societies around its home range. In terms economy, it will explain as to why some crops are more valuable than others despite being from the same lineage.

[@aweetodd]

The book I'm currently writing takes place on these floating magnit islands that's constantly raining liquid nitrogen and lightning. Since there's not much sunlight the plants have evolved to relay on the lightning as a energy source

[@mid8150]

(My Idea.) A world with highly unpredictable weather patterns, non arable land and non existence of high calorie plants. The planet has no moon, rotates three times faster than Earth does, has ten percent of it's surface covered in water. Over the course of one thousand years the axial tilt can change by as much as sixty degrees. Plant migration is rapid as climates can change in a flash. This has caused the majority of this worlds inhabitants to live a simple hunter gatherer lifestyle. Some people however have rejected this trend and adopt a form of hierarchy based on the scarcity of the planets resources, the premise is that the intellectuals of the tribe would brainstorm and lead their people forward, this has encouraged them to take greater risks in anticipation of a greater reward. It pays off when they successfully grow a crop that is easy to grow in large quantity's and high in calories this enables them to settle in one place for an extended period of time, marking the true beginning of both agriculture and of what is basically a tribal form of Technocracy. Sry the post is so long, I didn't know how to shorten it with fewer words.

[@auri1075]

One of the plants i made was a filtering plant which lives in the desert. It has filaments that absorb water in the air and any organic matter that reaches it

[@auri1075]

Oh. And it closes down if there is a sandstorm to protecr itself. I know the whole description here is very incomplete, but i dont want to write everything again.

[@tinoizquierdo5646]

i’m currently in the process of creating a world, tldr magic was discovered in medieval era but agriculture. antarctic culture, lived in caves with geothermal springs and there were semi domesticated duck things that would eat the bacteria that lived in the pools, magic allowed them to create bigger caves and springs and shit… so on and the time that the story would take place, they use the bacteria to make scoby leather for clothes, use the bacterial as feed for the duck which are raised for meat, feathers and eggs, and media for mushrooms as well as other stuff but those being the primary food sources. they use the geothermal heat in place of fire in every sense other than light which specialised bacteria are grown.

[@cameoshadowness7757]

There was one world I had where plants (or rather fungi) only grow on people. It was based on DC's Apokolips, it has super little water and such and it was a very dark fic.

[@nicoruppert4207]

Blood soil. A civilisation regularly executes prisoners and animals to enrich the soil for their super crop. Super dark and easy way to make some baddies for a story.

[@nonya9120]

Geezer here.... In my cauldron agriculture has been a major consideration for decades. On some occasions the kittens actually seemed to pay attention. For me it's a magical "fantasy" setting. Love those magic tatters, halflings. There are simply eons of adventure waiting to be had. Look at earth history of rubber or bananas. Great vid. Gaming on.

[@beastmachine4793]

I'm writing a fantasy story taking place on an archipelago and this video gave me a cool idea. In the Urnu Isles, the smaller islands have very sandy soils, making it terrible for farming things like corn and wheat. To combat this, the farmers would take whatever fish they can't eat(as many native fish species in that area are extremely poisonous) and bury them in their gardens. This would provide fresh nutrients that the plants would need in order to grow.

[@leonartu3756]

I have another idea: non-starionary farming. Maybe they can transport the plants, maybe the plants can move, or i dunno, majik.

[@Gonenow.bye-]

One specific plant in my world is a hybrid of tree and mushroom. Instead of gaining energy with roots, they will get energy by feeding off small insects that enter the blossoms for sugar, instead being devoured as a food source. They make good food source when cooked, but can be toxic when eaten raw, for obvious and not so obvious reasons.

[@nekokoishi]

I think the first ever plant I ever made for my world is a Tree that grows inedible fruit that mainly grows around nearby bodies of water. The fruit it grows has a special fiber inside it that helps the seeds float around water. The society who discovered this tree used the fiber for creating cut resistant clothing which is important in the world I am making because the major weakness of the magic system is bleeding/getting wounded.

[@weltengeist]

Amazing video! I am feeling honored

[@dudster0624]

For my world, a steampunk skybound archipelago filled with airships, i had this idea for a plant called an aurerb. When a seed settles, it lowers sturdy roots into the ground nourishing itself on any Aeus (an ore that attracts this lighter than air particle called aerl) in the soil. As it matures, a bulb with a sturdy stem slowly grows upwards. After reaching up, for most aurerbs, about a foot, aeus the plant has been collecting in its roots shoots up to the bulb. The aeus than attracts aerl (that lighter than air particle), which fills the bulb with the lighter then air particle. The bulb expands like a balloon and the stem becomes less sturdy, becoming more of a string tying a balloon to the ground than a stem. Some Aurerbs will stay like this, and release smaller bulbs that travel until they run out of aerl, those bulbs contain the plant's seeds and will grow a new one where it lands. Other Aurerbs will lose the stem completely sustaining themselves only on the aerl they attract with reserves of aeus. These plants regulate their height by changing their aerl amounts depending on atmospheric pressure, maintaining a nice hover like there is no gravity easily. They release their seeds in bulbs as well.

[@GnarledStaff]

That golden rod thing makes a lot of sense. When I lived in the NE US, building a hole 2 feet deep meant making a hole 4 feet wide so we could take out all the rocks in the way.

[@ajdogz5088]

I have a type of grain in my world that thrives in the colder regions. It uses magic to melt the snow around it in the winter for both water and to keep itself from freezing. When it reaches maturity, the seeds glow with a color akin to twilight, which attracts the animals and birds that live there to eat it and spread it's seeds. This occurs in early mid winter It has become the equivalent of wheat for subartic cultures and even when it has been ground into flour, it retains it's glowing properties for a few months, becoming a few days once baked. Edit: Spelling

[@bretttracey8406]

I've been watching your videos for awhile, but this one earned you a subscription from me. The social norms caused by farming high maintenance crops sounds really good for a place in my conworld. Mine already has little infighting b\c of all the skull-island-esqe fuckoff monsters running around causing people to need each other's help pretty often, but they've extincted plenty of the megafauna too so this is a good backup.

[@tonydeveyra4611]

This is why the Polynesians are so fascinating. They brought breadfruit with them across the ocean to tropical volcanic islands its an agronomic cheat code.

[@zakmurdoch3129]

I literally watched less than 30 seconds of this and immediately liked and subscribed. Can't believe I slept on this for so long.

[@silvertheelf]

That intro caught me off guard “This video is an official Stoneworks NFT owned by you guessed it, Ba’al” Cue that kungfu panda picture where Po is distorted around weirdly and staring at the camera funny.

[@pojo398]

Very engaging video and pretty dang good! Loved every second, keep it up mate, purely for my entertainment and learning of course.

[@heycheno9310]

Yaaaas! Excellent video, can’t wait for the next one! I learnt a lot from this!

[@bernatsaenz5100]

Amazing video, loved it, I just would have liked some examples of how magic might influence the agriculture. I know that whenever we introduce magic or gods, logical reasoning goes out the windows, but I thought it could be interesting too. For example, maybe the local tribes have a ritual to enrich the fertility of the soil, or maybe there's an ore vein of a mineral that naturally contains magic, which plants can use as fertilizer, but may develop unforseen side effects. You could even create some sort of tree or flower that faintly glows in the dark, as a method of pollination, which then societies can use to locate spots where to mine the magical ore mineral.

[@Stoneworks]

That will hopefully come in the next one

[@eddie3051]

Idea: everything comes from Octavian Augustus, everything is named Octavian Augustus, everything needs Octavian Augustus and every word and frase is Octavian Augustus except for the frase "I'm having diarrhea on a horse while laughing and dying" which is Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian. everything is Octavian Augustus even the alphab- Octavian Augustus Octavian Augustus, Octavian Augustus Octavian Augustus. Octavian Augustus Octavian Augustus Titus Flavius Vespasian, Octavian Augustus.

[@eddie3051]

Bruh actually why did you Heart this comment?

[@Stoneworks]

@@eddie3051 shit's funny lmao

[@eddie3051]

@@Stoneworks seems.... Acceptable

[@GregMcNeish]

I feel the need to point out that I liked the "subscribe therefore Big Bang" joke enough that I immediately clicked Subscribe. That's marketing.

[@TheDaddiestBear]

The fantasy plant you came up with, the one that crawls around and preys on other plants… yeah that’s basically what strangler figs do.

[@ludvikpavel3758]

This is truly a great video Stoneman, we thank you very much.

[@McHaven07]

That's a fascinating theory describing the birth of the many vs. the individual cultures of the world. Thanks for sharing it!

[@dr.keinmann2996]

i've always wanted to make a world building system agnostic book for plants for stuff like dnd. although I don't remember much, I remember there was a plant idea I had come up with, that being a plant that was kind of like a bubble? using some sort of lighter then air poisoness gas to float above potential preditors. i remember though its fruit was a gigantic part of a civilization because it had made the best wines around. and it had saved some king from dying of starvation or something, and named after him. this reminds me how I should continue that project!

[@yeswonka]

The background music selection is well selected! Lol, great video!

[@adamjenkins7653]

My current project has all sorts of issues on the plant side of things, due to how mana (a force primarily generated by the planets rotation) mutates the life that absorbs it. The more you try to kill things, the harder they are to kill. Farmers therefore NEED to be able to fight in order to guide the plants mana evolution in the way they need to. If a long-grass crop gets flooded, there's a chance it may become drown-vine. A plant that like the name suggests will reach out and ensnare noisy things nearby and drag them down into the water to drown them near their roots. So a common "quest" would be to help deal with any vines that pop up after a flooding.

[@worldbuildingjuice]

Wow that's a lotta research you did here, respect! Thanks for the amazing video!

[@gideonjones5712]

Uses for genetic drift in crop types: maybe one nation develops a strain resistant to a plague or blight that comes along and devestates surrounding nations. Alternatively, stealing corn as an example, hundreds of varieties existed and would be grown alongside each other. So, a culture might find it super important to collect and cultivate different varieties of their crops for food security. A lot of potential stories of espionage and seed smuggling, trade deals and hell, even wars if you feel like it

[@alehaim]

Another interesting thing regarding the connection between culture and agriculture/climate would be the northern places like Scandinavia, where short growing seasons and need to store food for the winter support a more communal/community common good centered culture, as the need to store food for the winter so that the community doesn't starve forced people to work together and also meant in part that social democracy became so popular here. The welfare state is in large part only possible because the people are willing to sacrifice income to pay for common services, which are for the sake of comon good.

[@ToqTheWise]

For any traveler who sees this: Here in Utah, our irrigation isn't done through glaciers but through snow melts. Basically, here in the valley we don't get regular rainfall because of the wasatch rain shadow but during the winters it snows regularly in the mountains. (mostly...*cries in drought*) In the spring, we capture this snow as it melts and use it for our water grid and to try and fill the giant death lake before it poisons us all. ... Help me.

[@squesh5974]

Developing some stuff for my groups table top world (we share the world building) so this was awesome but also as a native person I was very pleasantly surprised! Thank you!

[@Marcoldnia]

Your videos get better and better nice work

[@seadaw2152]

In my world, I have a civilisation which uses a massive infinitely replenishing vessel of water, given to them by their gods, as a way of providing irrigation to even the middle of a desert. They've built their capital city in the middle of the desert, on an elevated plateau/highland, and from there they built four massive aqueducts (one to the north, one to the south, etc) to transport the water away (of course this civilisation was already prosperous beforehand, otherwise this massive feat of engineering wouldn't be feasible). The initial plan was for it to just irrigate small plots of land and provide drinking water over the area of desert they controlled, but over time, the aqueducts started spewing out more water than the people needed. Over centuries' worth of time, the surplus water has created massive inland seas, which in turn have gradually created precipitation, and whole new ecosystems. It's all supposed to have an oasis-like aesthetic, but I'm still busy trying to work out some of the details. For example, desert sands are often very rich in salt, so this people has devised a magical ritual (this is meant to be a d&d world fyi) to extract salt from the ground almost like an Earth bender from A:tLA, except... Just salt. This also leads to salt being one of their major exports and a widely used cooking ingredient and preservation method. I'm still struggling with some of the other details though, like where the nutrients come from.

[@OneNormalHuman]

Where can you make your own world im new in this worldbuilding stuf but i really like it so i wanna try build my own world can you please help me

[@sizanogreen9900]

Great video:) There are also cultivated forests, I have a civilisation in my world that has gone down that rabbit hole instead of more familiar field based agriculture and it has given them some interesting stuff.

[@nobody4248]

Hmm, how does that work?

[@Nostripe361]

An interesting idea I had was when a place had a problem with the amount of land would lead to them using placing edible trees an plants all around their cities that people take care of for free food while fish fill the fountains in the city.

[@brandonprendergast8342]

For the desert thing: look up Qanats...I think that's what they were called

[@rurikaunimoto]

Making this comment around 2:30 . On the topic of plants, not all the plants I have have roots. A plant, taking inspiration from the air plant, actually floats in the air, feeding on mana. Some spin to fly, others are just like jelly fish where they are simply carried by the wind. There are others, but this is the more unique one that I didn't directly rip from elsewhere.

[@orderofazarath7609]

Would also be interested to get this winter/summer/4x/3 sisters/crop rotation candidates thing explained. Like with a table showing calendar months and entries for when to put what into the ground and harvest months, so you can see which part of the year would be occupied with what kind of nutrient granting/using plant and can match and mix.

[@punzersashes]

For the genetic drift. There might be an immortal or a long-lived character in your story, who takes the plants/animals to different environments and waits for generations until natural selection does its thing. then they take the product and breed it back into the stock. it might be like pseudo-selective breeding in the older times, before the knowledge of genetics.

[@lordcjripper7621]

A volcanasaur is a creature that consumes rock and spews lava/ash as waste. These creatures are domesticated to enhance local agriculture. And thus a new society is born.

[@alsatusmd1A13]

As a consequence of worldbuilding musical instruments as humans, I have built humanoids with both animal-like and plant-like traits. They can also form metallic tissue which is basically “white” fat that their bodies can’t really burn (this is sort of elsewhere though) and they can also summon into being whatever raw materials they know about.

[@Lyki27]

In the primary Kingdom I have designed for DND, there is a series of aqueducts that stretch across the Kingdom. They all originate from the same Mountain in the north, where a citadel resides that is the base of operations and holy site for the Water Casters Guild. This organization was founded centuries ago and is the agents of the Water God, and they are the ones who built the Aqueducts for the Kingdom. This is in conjunction with retired paladins being placed in farming areas with mansions, so that they can use Plant Growth to improve crop yields every year, as the Kingdom is land locked and surrounded by other nations that are hostile toward it.

[@NoirMorter]

In my setting I have two interesting plants one that has effected the culture "running of the carrots." During harvest time the community gets together to harvest the carrots. The problem when the first in the field is pulled from the ground the rest run away. Until they learned magic to sooth the plants it became a festival done now in thanks and remembrance. The second plant is the first version of settlement walls. Great veins that would bear large fruits that resemble tomatoes but are as spicy as Thai dragon peppers. They are also sentient and prefer the magic of the beasts and monsters of the woodlands they are from. They blossom and grow gargantuan in size when placed around some forests in my world.

[@ernestlam5632]

In an Isekai I saw a character said they didn't have agriculture in that fantasy world bc that got everything from adventuring. I thought that was interesting. A world so abundant that agriculture never developed.

[@beserkthespartangamer3022]

We gotta cross polinate corn and hops, and then waboom wabam, we got alchoholic popcorn

[@dukesouleater7028]

Ah Mr Stoner, pleasure to see you uploading. Hope my favourite monkey has something in store.

[@ArcAngle1117]

I love the fact that your map of China is a World Box map

[@GROMALOCARIS]

the whole 7:32 section just sort of happened and it took me a solid 10 seconds after it occurred to realize that I did not comprehend what it was that just flew through my eyes, like my mind erased it from my memories to seem like it never occurred in my life, and then I rewinded

[@ethanpant]

OH YES WE GET A PART TWO

[@quel2324]

It's been a while but I'd like to add. Forest harvesting is a thing! Some plantlife in the amazon cannot be explained through natural selection, and after a lot of investigation it was discovered that Amazonic tribes artificially selected trees that gave bigger, juicier fruits. I'm using this in a culture in my world, where fairies often build houses in trees and favor those with better output.

[@magoschonkers711]

FINALLY A VIDEO

[@kirkwagner461]

This was all good stuff. Very interesting!

[@f4tornado450]

Idea: You could have self replicating machines bestowed onto humanity by god. This would allow for wacky farming practices and futuristic technology in a medieval setting, which would definitely be cool to experiment with in stories. For example, a radio communicator that replicates itself in sand (small quartz crystals, which are made of silicon), and something like chalcopyrite which provides iron and copper.

[@chasealmeida7228]

Nice job this is great inspiration and really helpful to world building

[@RocketJo86]

AS someone who recently grew very interested in mikrofauna: The fauna of the soil plays a major part in agriculture, too. They keep the soil airy (as do certain plants after they die, because of the roots) and greatly help in fertilizing. If you're going that deep into worldbuilding agriculture, you shoul consider all your isopods, springtails, earthworms etc. that live alongside your plants. Heavy fertilizing can kill that mikorfauna and ultimatly result in a dead patch of land, where the plants grow very well in the first year but die off in the next. And you didn'T even mention the cooperation between farmers and husbanding tribes (it could probably be in a follow up video which I haven't watched yet). Especially in middle and west Asia, but also some parts of Africa and the early Europe there have been small cities that lived off agriculture. Those where visited on a regular base by nomad tribes with their animals. While the trading between tribe and city happened, the animals where left in the fields. Of course the manure fertilized the soil, but especially ungulates did another thing. They sort of plowed the land with their hooves, just by walking over it and searching for food. This sort of soil regeneration was practiced in Europe up until the industrilaization and is a major part of the life cycle of steppe biomes like the Great Plains and the east african savannah. If you consider world-building a pre-industrial civilization (or certain biomes) you should keep this in mind as well.

[@devonodonnell715]

I feel like I’ve watched this intro before word for word…

[@ladyoblivious]

One of the most interesting ideas I've seen with plants in a fantasy would have to be from an anime called the twelve kingdoms. There are specific kinds of trees that grow fruit that can either be humans, animals, monster, or even the gods themselves being born from it. Life in that world is born through regular means, but through these different trees. Honestly some of the best world building ideas I've seen has come from this anime. Even to this day, and it's an old anime that had the protagonist isekaied.

[@Jormungandr633]

Tree in a dune. Never rains (except for like a whole month every 2 years) lots of ground water a half mile under ground. Truffles bring water up to the trees roots in exchange for nutrients

[@SwordlordRoy]

I seem to recall once having medieval farming explained to me, where you would have effectively 3 fields...let's call them A, B, and C. Field A in Year 1 would be where you plant your wheat, potatoes, etc. Field B would be where you feed your Pigs, Cows, Goats, etc. Field C would be left to rest for the year. Year 2 would see Field A with the animals, Field B resting and absorbing all the nutrients of that sweet sweet animal dung, and Field C is where you would have your planting. I could be wrong about this though, I just know that animals followed the plants to fertilize the fields, it's possible they had beans or something growing in the third field instead of resting.

[@jamesgaming-kn1zz]

my favorite line in this video CORN CRONS FUCKING WACKY

[@dragooney]

Im very proud of you Stoney :)

[@nicoruppert4207]

Personally like the Idea of using fungi and animals as plants, or hybridizations. I like the engineered aspect specifically because it allows for the exploitation of animal biochemistry, imagine like a cave in wich a fungus fed with sugar water grows. This fungus has engineered scorpion stem cells, with Wich after covering and dissolving the cave wall it starts sprouting "stingers". Those stingers are made up of a combination of iron alloy and chitin, they are harvested to fabricate different tools, weapons and structures or purified into steel. Optionally they are used like barbed wire covering every surface making passage incredibly hard for predators and raiders. Possibilities are endless like my personal favorite of trees growing "meat fruits".

[@tyrant-den884]

Then there's my least favorite result of magical agricultural world building: boot rear. It's root beer that grows on trees and kicks your butt every time you drink it.

[@ImpossibleEvan]

28:00 love the worldbox map

[@sithalo]

I wasnt expecting to see a mostly naked minecraft skin within the first 10 seconds but here we are lol. This reminds me of playing Horizion Zero Dawn, I saw the Nora (and others) have so much food but you would be hard pressed to actually find any large scale farming that provides the gameworld with such amounts of food. Theres a few small farms here and there and maybe that can account for the food of the Nora but the Carja would need much larger sources. Its possible I have just overlooked them but for as detailed as the game is I feel like farming is one they left out. Edit: Meridian does have a MaizeLand nearby it that I hadnt refound until after this comment. It grows lots of corn bananas and watermelons. But still the Nora dont have much in the way of farmland (again maybe I just have overlooked it) but they have a weirdly large amount of produce.

[@yippie1646]

so many comments before the videos even premiered! looking forward to this one, clearly so are a few others lol

[@xenwithapen]

"Spite God's creation" earned a subscribe lmao

[@popakontas328]

Maybe since the plant gets nutrients through ash particles in the air, a civilization ignited a bunch of controlled forest fires to try and cultivate it but it got out of hand and led to their demise.

[@brandonver-non7573]

I love all the historia civilis videos in the recommend videos. A man of culture i see

[@orsislactoniaplatonia44]

A crop I made up was a source of microchips bc it was silicon-based life and its fruit had a lot of raw material for computer components like silicon and gold copper iron etc so u wouldn't need to mine for these materials but it could only be grown on methane based planetary atmospheres

[@zetoboogaloo8802]

cat tails could be a very amazing crop if you think about it. The corndog top can be used for fabrics and be turned into food. the stem can be used in rope and other products. And the roots are edible. unmature cattails have more nutrients in the roots as well.

[@refoliation]

Lmao have fun with that we over here eating potatoes!

[@zetoboogaloo8802]

@@refoliationalmost the entire plant can be eaten at some point in its life making it more useful then potatoes.

[@refoliation]

@@zetoboogaloo8802 NOM SCROM NOM I'm eating potatoes the #1 staple crop in the entire biosphere! Their subterranean nature means they don't need heavy vegetable growth to grow stems or other junk - just delicious and nutritious starch! Just playin though. Hope you're doing well!

[@zetoboogaloo8802]

@@refoliation I move my cattails up to b1 your move!!!. And I’m doing alright. How bout yourself.

[@minxmeat5460]

Ok ok not sure *why* my mind supplied the base for this idea in 0.2 seconds but here! Expanding upon the sky whale idea: There are several species and their size/colour varies greatly, though they all share the same basic anatomy and whatnot. They have some varying traits, e.g some have thicker skin, the skin of certain species have healing properties. They are all born and grow in the sea, where they can grow to truly massive sizes, taking anywhere from 5-1000+ years to grow into adults(it depends on the species). The eggs are in the sea, before they (don't ask me how, k?) Join the others in leaving the sea and going on the annual migration across the landmass, often in the thousands, blackening the sky. The eggs are not fertilised until the return migration. The peoples of the land the whales migrate across at first simply hoped one fell ill or died on the journey, but over time they developed tech able to kill the whales, with different tech in different regions for different species and their migration routes. With a more sure-footed grasp on the products the whales give, a mass of trade All Things Sky Whale opens up. The products of the whales that take 1000+ years to grow are Revered, and *very very* expensive. If your family/clan/whatever has one/some, you best not sell it, unless you and the buyer want to face mass social Ostracization (the fam *will* snitch, no matter what). It is seen as a severe offence, and if you you're stupid enough can even lead to your execution. The peoples are very careful not to overkill the whales. It'd be hard to do it anyway, but the Whales are seen as gods/symbols of gods and are treated with much respect. I have not figured *how* the whales fly, how they carry lakes worth of water or anything else as of yet. This is very much a add as needed idea

[@aidan4472]

“He described it as alchoholic popcorn and I really wish that were true in real life.” 3 steps: go to AMC Order popcorn and a ticket to Space Jam II Profit. Wait that’s psychedelic popcorn… welp, I got nothin

[@realhuman4879]

I have no idea what the captains are trying to say but I’m scared

[@jacobedward2401]

Check out "forest gardening" or "ecological gardening" or "permaculture". Building off the three sisters technique you mentioned and other techniques developed by indigenous people, and combined with new knowledge of soil chemistry and soil microbiology, we can build a healthy ecosystem that can produce food and materials for us while also providing habitat for wildlife. For example, there are several nitrogen-fixing shrubs that have few direct benefits for humans but might be planted to benefit the soil and provide food for birds, whose poop then provides even more nutrients. It's the Ciiiiircle of Life!