I've spent 12 years mapping out a million year civil war in my kingdom before realising that there is no air on the planet
So I was polishing the lore document for my main kingdom last night. I had everything down to the exact dates: three hundred fallen dynasties, a fully fleshed out military system with fourteen thousand ammo types, a constructed language for the nerds, and tectonic fault lines that explain why the rivers split.
Then I looked at my world map and froze. It was a planet made for billions. There are no air, not a single breath, no oxygen what so ever.
I caught myself trying to handwave it with "they have air mages filling people's lungs every morning" before I stopped and felt ABSOLUTELY disgusted with myself. That is the cheapest cop out in fantasy writing. I should of figured out basic medieval air breathing before inventing twelve different religious holidays and a salute that looks strangely like a fuck you. Now I either have to redraw six separate battle maps or accept that my majestic ancient kingdom would have declared war on Druidia to steal all of their fresh air and drink PeriAir cans in the mean time.
How do you guys stop yourself from falling down the useless lore rabbit hole before fixing basic survival infrastructure?
