I was trying to flesh out a world for a story a long time ago. Here's what I got, in case anyone is interested. (It's got a steampunk feel to it. It's the setting for a war between, essentially, Christians and Satanists.)
major wall of text
On the planet of Aimulate, in the year 1845, a war broke out between the cults of the dark Develnisk and the Church of the divine Christaofir. This war was quickly given the name of "Tainted's Siege" by the commanders of Christaofir. Bishop Nennigeb, a newly promoted follower of Christaofir, prophesied that the war would last so long that it would require its own calendar. From that point onwards, small teams of scribes on both sides of the war began to chronicle the war. A year later, those teams grew tenfold in order to record as much of the war as possible. Both sides changed their calendars to the Tainted's Siege era calendar, or TS era calendar, although it took the largely theocratic government of Christaofir until ten years after the start of the war to switch to the TS calendar completely.
The TS calendar was largely the same as all the peoples of Aimulate's previous lunar calendar, except that it began on the 9th setting (of the sun) of the 4th moon of the year 1845. This day would be written as TSy1m1d1, or: Tainted's Siege (calendar prefix), year 1, moon 1, dawn/dusk 1.
The Tainted's Siege would end 50 years later, on TSy50m7d13 with victory going to the Church of Christaofir, although the victory itself was hard-earned and narrow. If the forces of Christaofir had failed their courageous attack, it could have meant at least another five decades of war.
After the war, the ATS; After Tainted's Siege, calendar was put into use, and began its service 5 dawns after the end of the Tainted's Siege. Note that the 5 dawns of pause were given to the TS calendar. The ATS calendar was the exact same as the TS calendar, except that it only referred to a new era with a different prefix.
The inhabitants of Aimulate are of a wide variety. There are some animals that are very much like Earth's and some that are completely alien. Many of the plants are alike in regards to appearance, while few are actually internally alike. The only high-intelligence sentient lifeforms are humans.
As for the planet itself, the makeup of the dirt, earth, and soil are all largely the same, with minor discrepancies such as more moisture across the globe in general. However, the soil is considerably more acidic on much of the planet due to the constant manufacturing of steel and because the process of refining and fuel burning is not particularly ecological or efficient. On a separate note, the planet is quite young, being only about 1.3 billion years old.
In regards to the land-water distribution, there is a rough ratio of 1:4. The land masses are highly separated in terms of above sea level, although there are still 10 recognized continents. The continents are, from largest to smallest: Urnbeight, Iamlorche, Gredyne, Seullin, Heikhu, Cerix, Verlon, Frawquer, Yulben, and Johaeyas. Much of the continents are underwater and only around 1789 was it discovered that the many large islands of each continent were connected, albeit underneath the surface of the seas.
Most islands are mountainous; the ratio for non-mountainous to mountainous is approximately 2:7. There are about 256 large islands, with a square of that number in terms of smaller islands. The combination of many different sized and usually mountainous islands interconnected underwater presents a very interesting topography for the planet of Aimulate.
Note that the continents usually have one large island that best represents its continent in terms of signature qualities and land mass.
Looking at the climate of Aimulate, it is much warmer and moist throughout the entire planet. Because there are no truly large land masses that are above the surface of the seas, most land that exists follow a very tropical and/or maritime climate. Temperature ranges stay relatively the same throughout the year, although the range itself would shift in accordance with the seasons, albeit shifting rather slightly. On some continents, the effects of the mountain regions can be drastic, causing some areas to be especially humid and subject to precipitation, whereas other areas will be the exact opposite. Besides the effect of relief from the mountains, elevation is also prevalent in mountainous regions. As a side effect, humans and animals alike that spend their lives in the mountains often have greater lung capacities.
The atmosphere of Aimulate is notably more dense, thick, violent, and humid in comparison with Earth's atmosphere. Also, Aimulate is subject to fewer natural disasters despite its young age of 1.3 billion years. This may be explained by the planet's rapid formation and initial cataclysmic events, rendering it rather domant in modern days. The planet is considerably more dense than Earth, has a gravitational field with a force of 1.23N, and it possesses a much stronger and active magnetosphere. Aimulate is also closer to its star, Aol, than Earth is to its own Sun.
The flora of Aimulate has adapted well to fit the very tropical conditions that are found across the world in majority. Many flora are much larger than Earth's species and more of them exhibit fantastic and intriguing qualities such as carnivorous diets, semi-sentience or even full sentience, and toxic spores as a form of reproduction. The largest plant species is the midgardion, weighing over 98 tonnes and spanning areas of over 80km^2 with heights of 256 metres, and moving branches that reach over 60 metres in length.
The fauna of Aimulate, like the flora, are also much larger than normal fauna of Earth, especially underwater. There are fewer large above-ground species, the largest being the giant cyx. Underwater, the largest animal is the suermaesivier, an enormous tentacled creature that is usually over 185 tonnes in mass and over 65 metres in length, while the tentacles alone are usually around 45 metres long and are toothed with serrated spikes with occasional suction pads for extra grip on prey.
The flora's and fauna's sizes and characteristics can be explained most likely by the thick atmosphere, nutrient-heavy soil, and a strong protective magnetosphere, all in turn are the result of Aimulate's young age.
In regards to sentient and intelligent plus thinking species, the most intelligent species are the homo sapien sapien's; humans. The humans are a relatively young race, but have been pushed to their limits ever since their humble beginnings by the other wildlife around them, ranging from man-eating plants to savage carnivores. Although humans did not develop to be very physically impressive, their minds evolved, and they later formed organized groups, societies, and civilizations. They gave birth to basic technologies, sought to understand the world, and how to bend the resources around them to construct shelters that would protect them from monstrous creatures. The humans later migrated to other islands by boats and ships when they originating continent, Verlon, came to be too small to sustain the large populations the humans grew. This had occurred around the year 1134.
In regards to key human cities and continents, Verlon's cities are some of the most beautiful, oldest, and most important cities around the world.
Heikhu, having incredulous pools of natural scattered on it, is renown for its cities' industries, high standard of living, and, alas, the smog of which is the result of the cities' highly productive and constantly operating factories. It was discovered in the year 1198 and colonized at the turn of the century.
Urnbeight, the largest of the continents, is also heavily colonized. Its discovery occurred in the year 1218 and colonization began two years layer. Urnbeight does not carry as many resources as Heikhu. Despite that, its relative flatness is exploited for the manufacturing of goods from raw respurces that might come from primary industries located on continents such as Heikhu. Like Heikhu, there is a strong, if not slightly weaker, economy, relatively high standard of living, and even more smog. Many of the coasts around Urnbeight is heavily polluted, although these coasts are usually around cliffs
and dangerous waters. These areas are void of huge and medium-sized organisms, and nothing at all lives anywhere near the surface of the water.
Johaeyas is perhaps the most densely populated continent, not only because it is the smallest continent, but also because it was, by chance, the first continent discovered and colonized during a time of belief in that Verlon was the largest of continents and that there would be no better continent to colonize besides Johaeyas. Discovery occurred in the year 1138 and was colonized in 1144. It's lands are more fertile than Verlon and was a farming colony in its early days, but in modern times, it is split in half demographic-wise. One half of the population are mostly farmers and manufacturers, while the other half is where dangerous criminals are put. The latter half exists in the high mountains and low valleys of Johaeyas and is serparated from the rest of society by barbed wire-covered brick walls and purposefully contaminated coasts, which would otherwise be perfect beaches. Smog is not much of a problem, although awareness for the crop-harming effects of acid rain are being raised by the farmers.
Besides these particular continents, most continents are more or less the same, with dependable farm land, mountains, and varying types of coasts.
Keep in mind that the descriptions of the continents are rather broad, as the continents themselves are mostly underwater. However, also recall that the continents usually have a main island which has the greatest land mass.
The six resources: water, minerals, agricultural land, timber, fish, and energy, are all in varying abundances and for the most part, scattered into a few great clumps of the same type of resource. Hence, there are some islands that may as well be made entirely out of iron, some where hot springs and geysers riddle the island, and some where vegetation can grow up to enormous proportions.
Concerning the cultures of the humans that reside on Aimulate, there are as many cultures as there are islands. Across all of them, many common qualities can be observed, such as the household rule, "shoes must be left outside the home" (the shoes would be stored elsewhere, outside of the home). Each culture itself is largely the same, except for small differences innately present.
Sometimes though, the colonies are unique.
As for spiritual belief, many of the people of Aimulate are aethist in the sense that they do not believe in godly or divine beings. They do believe that all living things have souls, whereas non-living things have spirits, which are equivalent with souls except in name. A particular quality of the people's faith is they have much respect in machinery, with the justification that machines have been brought to life from the planet itself.
Their respect for nature is somewhat ironic considering the great amount of pollution they release in the making of their machinery. However, few are aware that the pollution is harming the environment.
The spiritual belief is accepted by many humans, with very few branches that believe in different details. This lack of division between faiths lies in the small island humans began upon and stayed near for so many years. Besides this main spiritual belief, the people of Aimulate also have two main religious beliefs.
The two main religious faiths of the people of Aimulate are "Develnisk's Company" and the "Church of Christaofir."
Develnisk's Company consists of many cults scattered across the world, but strangely enough, there are no discrepancies between any of the cults and their single faith.
They are guided by the Delivered, men and women who govern each of their own cults but whose minds have formed a single, synthesized, spiritual entity which is fused to the spirit of Develnisk. The connection is always maintained during meditation sessions, but can be severed. Extraorinarily long life has been granted to the Delivered without any harmful side effects.
The cults are small but many and through the work of Develnisk, many of its members have lived threefold as long as the time fate had originally given each member. The majority of these people who have relinquished age are of low intelligence (alike to that of a four year old's); do not have individual goals, purposes, values, needs, and wants; and listen indubitably to officers of Develnisk's Company. These sickly automatons are known as Sheepmen.
The specially designated officers who can control the Sheepmen to an incredible degree are known as Shepherds. Groups of Sheepmen are Flocks, and Flocks or a single Sheepman led by a Shepherd are Packs (Packs refer to the organization of a Shepherd and his Sheepmen or Sheepman, whereas the Flock refers to multiple Sheepmen only). Often, the Shepherds have undergone special surgery and have had each of their teeth removed and replaced by the equivalent tooth of a Sheepman the Shepherd controls. The replaced Shepherd's tooth is grafted on to the base of the neck of the controlled Sheepman. The use of equivalent teeth is only done because of convenience and tradition -- any tooth of the Shepherd can be replaced by any tooth of the Sheepman. This tooth-trade enables the Shepherd and
Sheepman to communicate spiritually over a distance dependent on the spiritual strength of the Shepherd. Otherwise, only verbal commands may be utilized, which are slower and less reliable than spirit channels. Not only that, but the trade bestows upon the Shepherd at least 135 more years of life multiplied by the
number of the Shepherd's Flock. Because of the nature of teeth and human mouth structure, only approximately 28 to 32 Sheepmen can be allocated to a single Shepherd. With each Sheepman added to a Flock, the greater the spiritual strength of the Shepherd must be to prevent dire consequences such as (from less severe to more severe) lethargy, migraines, vomiting, hemorrhaging out of old scars, hemorrhaging out of spontaneously opening wounds, heart failure, and death. Side effects of spiritual entity overwhelming include mental and emotional instability, acute loss of spatial awareness, and epileptic-like fainting. (As many as 64 have been controlled at once by a single Shepherd before -- that Shepherd had undergone massive surgery to modify his jaw and mouth to accomodate a second bottom jaw bone. The original jaw bone was modified to accept teeth both above and below the bone. He exhibited some mental and emotional instability around 40 Sheepmen, occasional loss of ability to identify himself around 50 Sheepmen, and severely hampered spatial abilities around his body. His Flock was fully coordinated and very competent though. However, during a particularly intense skirmish, the spiritual strain of directing the Flock and loss of nearly half of the Flock quickly that was placed upon the Shepherd caused
him to hemorrhage from spontaneously opening wounds and enter an epileptic state. His spirit possessed the collective consciousness of the remaining Sheepmen and he comitted the suicide of himself and the Flock as the skirmish progressed.)
