Great time travel

Chapter 21, "Preliminary Investigation Report on Another World"
The southern half of the entire Farmat continent is roughly a terrain of hills, plains, and low mountains. Generally speaking, the terrain is not high, the precipitation is moderate, and the climate is mild, making it easier for agricultural development.The coastline in the southern part of the mainland is rugged and tortuous, with many harbors, suitable for the development of shipping and fishing.In this area, most of the population, cultivated land and cities of the entire continent are concentrated, as well as the main developed civilization areas.

However, the most prosperous area on the Farmat continent is roughly divided into east and west parts by the northwest-southeast Romanian mountains that span half the continent.Although the altitude of this mountain range is not high, the terrain is quite steep, and it is not easy to cross the mountain range, so it still has a certain geographical isolation effect.To the east of the mountains is the most extensive plain on the continent, and it is also the core hinterland of the empire. The imperial capital is located at the westernmost end of this plain.To the west of the mountains, the terrain is relatively broken and rugged, and there are many independent or semi-independent vassal states scattered. Although it is close to the emperor, the empire's control over this area is still weak. The Arnus Hill where the "gate" is located is located at the western foot of the Romanian Mountains.

On several large islands in the south of the mainland, the empire has migrated its population across the sea and established some colonies, but the development level is very low, the actual control is limited to the port, and the population is very small. It can be roughly compared to the great voyage on the earth. Early American Colonies.

The northern half of the Farmat continent is relatively desolate, most of the land is in an undeveloped state, but there are still many cities, ports, and settlements of intelligent races scattered here and there.However, most of these civilization strongholds are limited to the coast, and the inland far from the coast is generally inaccessible.

Among them, the most prominent terrain in the northwest of the mainland is a long and narrow desert sandwiched between the inland mountains and the coastal moist hills on the north coast of the mainland. The local indigenous people call it the "Western Desert".According to the field survey conducted by our traversers, the total length of this desert from east to west exceeds 20 kilometers, but the average width between the north and the south is only [-] to [-] kilometers.In the narrowest part of the desert, it is said that it is only more than [-] kilometers from south to north, and it only takes one day to hike across the desert.Even in the wide desert area, there are generally many oases that can supply water and food.Therefore, if only the "Western Desert" itself is not enough to hinder passenger traffic and trade.

However, because the southern part of the desert is close to the insurmountable steep mountains, travelers must climb the mountains and cross the desert at the same time to reach the other side of the continent. north-south dividing line.

Just north of the mainland is a precipitous mountain range covered with snow all the year round. The locals call it the "Ice and Snow Mountain". , also produces many precious medicinal herbs, mineral deposits and wild animal furs.However, due to the harsh climate, the "Ice and Snow Mountains" is also the most desolate area on the entire continent, roughly equivalent to Alaska in the eyes of people on earth.

In the northeastern part of the mainland, on the east side of the ice and snow mountains, is a vast grassland. Its area is roughly the same as that of the Mongolian grassland. However, the terrain is low and flat, and the northern end of the grassland is directly adjacent to the sea. Therefore, it is far warmer and more humid than the Mongolian grassland, with abundant water and grass. , the climate and environment are more similar to the undeveloped Polish plains.On this grassland, there have been many powerful nomadic peoples successively, and they have repeatedly invaded and plundered southward, posing a huge threat to the civilized city-states and kingdoms in the southern part of the mainland.Since the last nomadic tribe that dominated this grassland is the rabbit tribe among the orcs, they are also called "headhunting rabbits" by the locals, so this grassland is also called "headhunting rabbit grassland", just like the place name of the Mongolian Plateau The origin is the same.

[-]. Intelligent Race

Unlike the earth where only human civilization was born, besides humans, there are also civilizations of other intelligent races such as elves, orcs, and dwarves on the Farmat continent.The competition, alliance and melee between various races are the main theme of history on this continent.

However, no matter which intelligent race, they are not the natives of the Farmat continent, but the outsiders who moved from different worlds through the "gate" on the hill of Arnus.Among them, humans arrived at the Farmat continent through the "gate" the latest, but developed the fastest, so they came from behind in the fierce and brutal race competition, and eventually became the hegemonic race that ruled the entire Farmat continent.

At the same time, a large number of animals and plants from other worlds were brought to the Farmat continent by these intelligent races from other worlds.Due to the age, unless a large-scale and long-term archaeological excavation and fossil exploration are carried out, it is impossible to determine which creatures are native to the Farmat continent.

According to the known situation, the humans in Falmate are all Caucasians, and there are no yellows and blacks.The physical characteristics of the local white people are similar to those of Western Europeans and Nordics. They are tall, have a variety of hair colors, and have unified the same language long before the empire unified the continent.Their clothing, customs, diet, etc. are quite similar to the early Europeans before the Roman Empire.At present, the advance team has applied to the superior to send linguists to investigate and analyze to confirm whether it has a relationship with the European whites on Earth.

In the last few thousand years, humans have become the most powerful race on the Farmat continent, ruling almost all the plains suitable for farming, as well as most of the big cities.Compared with other races, they are in a crushing absolute advantage in terms of numbers, force and territorial control.

The elves are also an ancient civilized race living on the continent of Farmat. The common ones are white-skinned high elves, brown-skinned dark elves, and palm-sized, delicate goblins like dolls (this kind of goblins have They have transparent wings and can fly. The former two have no wings and cannot fly), their history of survival in this world is longer than that of humans, and the lifespan of individual elves is as long as thousands of years.However, on the continent of Falmat, elves are far inferior to humans in terms of civilization and reproductive ability. Not only are the population of the ethnic group sparse, but they have not yet established a large country, and they cannot unite their own strength—different from humans. However, the elves on the continent of Farmat do not have the concept of a country, and their own supreme government is limited to the tribe.Therefore, in the long-term racial competition, the elves were finally defeated, and the surviving elves were forced to flee in various remote areas, forming many elf villages, and gradually switched to human language, and now they have surrendered to the empire in name.

Among the rescued and sheltered indigenous refugees from another world, there is a young female elf, who is being studied by the medical team of the advance team.

There is not much known information about the dwarves on the Farmat continent, and I have not seen any real dwarves so far. I only know that most of them live scattered in human cities and countries, and are highly integrated with human society. Metal smelting is the main means of livelihood. He has a bold personality and is addicted to alcohol.In some remote mountainous areas on the Farmat continent, there are also tribes and small autonomous city-states belonging to the dwarves.

On the Farmat continent, orcs are a very general term, referring to all subhumans with the characteristics of mammals and birds.The common ones are rabbit people (headhunting rabbits), werewolves, fox people, dog people, cat people, pig head people, wing people and so on.Among the aborigines from other worlds who were exiled to Mount Arnus and taken in by our army, there are a small number of foxes and werewolves, and then there are two compatriots from our country who need to be rescued. In this world, their races have been changed and they have become The priestess of the headhunting rabbit clan.According to the currently known information, the physical appearance and customs of these orcs are very different, and they cannot be regarded as a whole at all.Even different tribes within the same kind of orc have very different physical characteristics.For example, in the refugee camp on Mount Arnus, there are werewolves from two different tribes. The former has a wolf head, which is basically a large wolf wearing clothes and standing and walking, while the latter is more like a long wolf. Ordinary humans with wolf ears and wolf tails.Therefore, although they are all werewolves, the latter who are more human-like generally look down on the former, thinking that they are "vulgar, barbaric, and humble" and so on-roughly speaking, the more human-like orcs are, the higher their status is, and vice versa. .

In addition, on the Farmat continent, there is also a kind of intelligent life called "Puka", which is similar to the red-skinned "mountain ghost" in Japanese mythology, as well as many other ethnic groups such as ogres and goblins. Basically, they all live together with humans and have become part of a civilized society in another world.

Generally speaking, due to the dominance of human beings on the Farmat continent, other intelligent races have been discriminated against and suppressed to varying degrees, but in general, all ethnic groups can still coexist harmoniously, just like the ancient Like those multi-ethnic empires.Moreover, on the Falmat continent, except for a few stubborn top nobles, the lower class people do not pay attention to the purity of blood, and all kinds of interracial marriages are extremely common, thus giving birth to many strange mixed races , further increasing the diversity of intelligent races on the continent.

Finally, for some reason, judging from what has been seen so far, the indigenous humans, elves, and orcs in other worlds generally have a higher appearance. Although it cannot be said that all of them are handsome men and beautiful women, there are indeed a lot of handsome people.In particular, the appearance level of female indigenous civilians is already far higher than that of ordinary people in ancient Western society, and even higher than that of citizens of Western countries in Europe and America on the modern earth.Whether this is a special situation limited to the area near Mount Arnus (rich in beauties) or a general phenomenon in the entire Farmat continent remains to be further verified.

[-]. Industrial and agricultural technical level

Divided according to the social development concept of the earth, the Farmat continent is roughly in the stage of development from slavery to feudalism, and there are still a large number of primitive tribes in remote areas.However, due to the different social backgrounds, it seems that it cannot be misappropriated so simply.

At present, there is no industrial revolution, large factories and mechanized production in Farmat, but the handicraft industry has been highly developed. It can weave linen, cotton and woolen cloth, produce various metals and alloys, as well as pottery, glass and porcelain, etc.Construction workers from other worlds also know how to use volcanic ash to make cement, so that they can build many magnificent buildings.Due to the lack of sailing experience, the shipbuilding industry on the mainland of Farmat is relatively backward, and it is difficult to manufacture large ocean-going ships, but small sailboats on offshore and inland rivers are also very common.In general, the handicraft technology of the Farmat continent is roughly equivalent to the level of Western European countries before the industrial revolution. It lags behind in some aspects and slightly wins in others.

The agriculture and animal husbandry of humans in Farmat is very similar to that of ancient Europe. They also use wheat, barley and oats as the main food crops, grow grapes to make wine, rely on olives to extract oil, and raise cattle, horses, donkeys, etc. to provide animal power and so on.However, compared with ancient Europe, foreign agriculture seems to lack some common crop varieties on the earth, for example, there is no radish on the Farmat continent.

On the other hand, farmers in other worlds have grown many fruits and vegetables that do not exist on the earth, and domesticated large lizards to pull carts and plow land, but they don't seem to know how to use pesticides and fertilization, so crops are more plagued by diseases and insect pests. Agricultural yields were also far lower than on modern Earth.

However, due to the vast land and sparsely populated land on the Farmat continent, and a lot of wasteland that can be reclaimed, the food supply of the aliens is not too tight for the time being.

As for the agricultural production system, the human society on the Farmat continent is similar to that of medieval Europe, dominated by owner farmers and tenant farmers.Although slavery was preserved on the continent of Farmat, the use of slaves was not as widespread as it was in the Roman Empire.Except for some plantations that cultivate cash crops, nobles and rich people seldom put slaves directly into agricultural production, but mainly serve people in their mansions, similar to domestic servants in ancient China.

[-]. Country and regime
The current Farmat continent has been nominally ruled by a huge country called the "Empire", and theoretically all intelligent races have been brought under its rule.This "empire" has no so-called country names or prefixes. According to public statements, the reason seems to be that the first emperor once declared: "There is only one sun in the sky, and there can only be one empire on the earth. Why do we need country names to distinguish them? "

Since the current emperor Molt II sent troops to attack the last few city-states and small kingdoms that opposed the empire three years ago, the empire has unified the entire Farmat continent in name, but this so-called unification, in the It remains largely a mere formality.

The political system of this empire is roughly equivalent to a mixture of the early Roman Empire and the feudal kingdoms of medieval Europe, and it is a bit like Japan in the shogunate era.The empire retained remnants of the republican system such as the Senate in the center, similar to the early Roman Empire; locally, it implemented the enfeoffment system of noble lords, much like medieval Europe; legally, slavery was used, but the population of the entire empire Most of them are free people.

The emperor of the empire is the supreme ruler, possessing the highest authority and the richest directly-administered territory of the royal family, but his rights are not unlimited, but are still limited by the Senate.Under the emperor are the feudal aristocratic lords. These aristocratic lords each have their own territory, army, law and minting rights, forming independent small kingdoms.Among them, some lords have the status of veterans and are regarded as "inner vassals", while the other part of lords who do not have the status of senators are regarded as "outer vassals". the concept of.There are also some elders who have no territory and live entirely on the favor of the emperor or aristocrats, roughly similar to the favorites and court nobles in ancient Europe.Like medieval Europe on Earth, the political game among emperors, lords, and favorites is the most important political activity within the empire.

In addition to the territory directly under the empire, there are dozens of autonomous city-states, vassal kingdoms, and tribes of various sizes. Some regimes are also dominated by humans, but there are also many tribes and kingdoms of alien races.Generally speaking, these city-states and vassal states were once defeated and conquered by the empire, but have not been directly annexed, so they can still maintain a certain degree of autonomy for the time being, but they are only required to submit and pay tribute to the empire.Some of these vassals were so heavily burdened with tribute that they were being milked like cows by the Empire.However, the tribute burden of other vassal states is very light, and even only verbally express their submission to the empire, such as the headhunting rabbit tribe that defeated the imperial expeditionary force and captured the imperial prince; Rendell, the "capital of knowledge"; and several religious holy places with a long history on the mainland, etc.

It can be seen that the empire's rule over the Farmat continent is still very weak and unstable at present, and the imperial power of the empire is far less majestic and glamorous than it appears on the surface.In the entire continent, about two-thirds of the land only surrendered to the hegemony of the empire in name, but in fact they still acted on their own, or they were simply desolate and lawless lands.Within the empire, there is no mature political system for ruling a super-large centralized country. The emperor's directly governed territory only accounts for a few percent of the entire continent, and most subjects lack a sense of identity with the empire.Noble lords, religious groups, and even academia (magician groups) have posed serious challenges to the supremacy of imperial power, and they cannot be resolved at all.

The reason why such a crumbling mud-footed giant was able to achieve such brilliant feats, conquer so many human beings and foreign nations, and at least nominally unify the Farmat continent was entirely dependent on military success.Therefore, the overall impression of this country is more similar to a colonial empire like the British Empire, or the short-lived Nazi Third Reich.Compared with the former two, the only advantage is that a unified language and writing have already appeared in the Farmat continent, but nationalism and racism have not been awakened, so the ruling cost of the imperial government has been reduced to a certain extent.But for a superstate of such a large scale, such a software foundation alone is far from enough.

[-]. Religion and social customs
Due to the extremely unbalanced social development in various regions, the social customs of the Farmat continent also showed a mixed state from primitive society to feudal society.Just taking the form of marriage as an example, there are monogamy, polygamy, monogamy and multiple concubines, primitive group marriage and matrilineal clan system coexisting at the same time, and they are used to it by the natives of the Farmat continent.But in the eyes of earthlings, it is really confusing.Because these messy marriage systems do not appear in different regions that are far apart, but often exist in different ethnic groups in a city at the same time.

Then, the customs and habits of the various intelligent races on the continent are also very different. Some behaviors are polite in one race, but they represent provocation and insult in another race. The resulting misunderstanding and vendetta can be described as Countless.However, after thousands of years of collision and contact, the various races on the Falmat continent have gradually worked out a form of peaceful coexistence, and gradually learned to respect certain habits of other races—no matter what these habits look like. How strange it sounds.At least they will no longer pick up big knives and kill each other.

In terms of religion, because of the existence of the true god, the Farmat continent practiced polytheism, and each god has its own temple and holy place. Among ordinary people, there are devout believers who believe in one god, and there are also those who believe in most gods. Pan-believers who keep admiration and distance.Generally speaking, although there are true gods capable of exerting great power, due to the long-term coexistence of the gods and the peaceful competition with each other, the religious atmosphere in Farmat is not as fanatical as that of medieval Europe on Earth. Only a few people claim to believe in a certain god. One god, but respects other gods as well.And most people follow the crowd and worship at the temple. In their eyes, the gods seem to be just super big men who are similar to the emperor.

[-]. Magic

At present, it can be confirmed that magic and magicians, as well as priests and divine arts do exist on the Farmat continent-but in the concept of foreign natives, divine arts are also understood as a special kind of magic.In general, magic has a wide range of applications in different worlds, and this supernatural power is needed from war to life.However, the magic in Farmat is not universal, and the inheritance and exchange of magic depends entirely on word of mouth between masters and apprentices. So far, there is no unified standard for magic on the entire continent, and there is no magic in the true sense. School.Even the so-called "Knowledge City" Rendell is just a "scientific research city" that gathers a large number of magicians, not an education base.

Generally speaking, each magician just uses his spare time to teach his apprentices, or recommends his favorite apprentices to other familiar magicians to learn some knowledge that he is not good at.Because a lot of other knowledge must be mastered when learning magic, magicians are often also great scholars, and are highly respected by commoners.But most magicians seem to be hard-headed nerds, who only know how to study ancient books but don't know how to be flexible, and they are not good at connecting with reality, and they are quite arrogant and self-confident. It is also difficult to bring any benefits to ordinary civilians, just like the philosophers and mathematicians in ancient Greece, or the great Confucianists in ancient China.

The priests in the temple also master some spells, but generally speaking, they are not considered as powerful as magicians by ordinary people.Moreover, the degree of secrecy and monopoly of priests' knowledge about spells is stricter than that of magicians, and it seems that they have no intention of popularizing education at all.

According to the legends of the local aborigines, human magic is just the superficial knowledge learned from the elves. The ancient elf mages are the pinnacle of magic. Legend has it that they can call wind and rain at will, summon thunder and lightning, launch earthquakes and tsunamis, and so on.However, the elves remaining in various parts of the Farmat continent now obviously do not have such an exaggerated ability.As to why the above-mentioned contradictions and paradoxes arise, further investigation remains to be done.

summary
Although the current investigation of other worlds has just begun, we have already found six kinds of minerals that do not exist on earth, nine kinds of plants that do not exist on earth, and 22 kinds of animals that do not exist on earth.In addition to breakthrough discoveries in natural sciences, the observation and research of civilizations of different races in other worlds is also an exciting social science topic-this will be the real "alien contact"!
As for the benefits of foreign exploration, it is still impossible to accurately estimate and consider. Perhaps, we can obtain some new energy sources and new crops with huge benefits from this new world, but even if we cannot obtain economic benefits in a short period of time, there are still some Need to further increase investment.Because the impact of many scientific breakthroughs cannot be measured by money at all, and it is necessary to pay tuition fees just for a certain possibility.

Although the opening time of the "door" is likely to be limited, and the country may not be able to obtain a stable new territory in another world, but because of this, we need to seize the time and increase investment in this work, and strive for the limited time. Get the most results in the shortest possible time.

For this reason, I hope that the central government can further increase its support for the exploration of other worlds, and at the same time properly handle the resulting worldwide impact...