For this year’s A to Z Blog Challenge, Richard and Jayden are worldbuilding! Using Rebekah Loper‘s book The A-Zs of Worldbuilding as a guide, we have teamed up to give descriptions of the world we’re creating, along with snippets of what it’s like to exist in the world. Enjoy!

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Background by Jayden for A is for Architecture:

Imagine a world where dinosaurs roam the Earth. They went extinct, as in accurate history, but then scientists figured out how to bring them back, funded by a wealthy billionaire. Unfortunately, as we all know, life finds a way, and the dinosaurs took over, pushing civilization into pockets around the country. In the Northeastern part of what used to be the United States, there is a large community called Adirlachson.

In this area, most natural resources are available, such as they are. There are lots of freshwater lakes and springs. They are not particularly close to the ocean. They have snow in winter, but hurricanes and tornadoes are rare. They have built up their community in the mountains where they use caves to live mostly below ground. They spent a long time digging out further sections, but it started as a tunnel through the mountain that was once a highway. But now, there is no oil or gas, so they don’t have cars. They do have electricity though, which they get from solar panels hooked up high on the mountain. Even though electric cars are a thing, no one has access to them. Something something factory breakdowns something something (which really means that the government made cars unavailable so people couldn’t travel and see what else is out there).

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Story by Richard:

Sam sighed and gave the safety line a tug. Last year, he’d have been done this job by lunch and already on his way back down the mountain. Now, he’d spent his whole morning hiking up here, because they were down to one car for the whole city, and the mayor was using it for official business and definitely not joyriding. Some people might think that with most of the cars and the manufacturing plant shut down, they wouldn’t need that much electricity and it would be okay if a couple panels went down. Those people would be wrong, as Sam found out this morning when he had to take a cold shower. Giving the line one last tug, he tied a prusik knot on the line, and started up the side of the cliff. It was fifteen minutes of hard, sweaty work to get to the cliff side the panels were on. He sat down on the edge, feet dangling, and looked at the entrance to the city. At one point, a massive sign over the top had spelled out something, but now it just had A  B   N   MM  L. He took a long drink from his water bottle and started working on the panel. Something had been gnawing on one of the wires again. Splicing a new line in was an easy fix at least.

“You should be coming back up, how’s it look Artie?” he asked into his radio.

“All green. How’s the weather today?”

“Cold. Wet. Not sure if it’s raining, or if I just walked into a cloud.”

“Good to know it hasn’t changed since the last time I went outside. Come in before they run out of soup at lunch. Pepper Pot today, good shit.”

“Yeah, try to save me some. Unless someone can come pick me up, it’s going to be a while.”

As he prepared to climb back down, he looked down at the tunnel again. Somewhere, almost as far below ground as he was above it now, were hundreds of people doing their own jobs. That sent a kick of vertigo into his stomach, and he grabbed onto the rope to make sure he didn’t slide back down…

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Thanks for joining us for A to Z! Don’t forget to check out all the other blogs over at www.a-to-zchallenge.com and comment below if you’re blogging from A to Z!

Next up: B is for Birth