Country with alot of lakes

[nrg89]

Hi!

I'm sketching up a country with alot of lakes in it. I need some ideas of how they could utilize the lake in a low-magic way. I already have a Netherlands-inspired country with lots of rivers and streams (water wheels, flood preperations etc) but this is it's neighbouring country with lot's of lakes and ponds so I'm trying to do something different.
I understand that they propably fish alot and can use it for irrigation, but is there other natural resources they could get? How about architecture, are there any wacky ways of building in a river that could give it a unique culture?

[DaedalusMkV]

Perhaps an entire nation of Venices? Since water is an excellent natural defense against a fairly wide range of threats, a nation with a great deal of access to shallow lakes (or lakes with large islands, et cetera) would likely see many towns and cities built using lakes as moat-style defenses, using man-made canals as a sort of low-tech highway system to travel between towns. Such a nation would have a great deal invested in water travel; when it's possible to go from your front porch to your distant cousin's in a different city without leaving your boat, you'll wind up with a lot of people owning small boats and merchants with heavy investments in barges and work-animals to pull them along the canals. They would need to be excellent bridge-builders, and in addition to fishing would probably set up quite a strong mercantile foundation, since it's much easier to travel by canal than overland.

Militarily, you'd see a strong focus on infantry, particularly archers, slingers or crossbowmen depending on the level of technology and availability of wood, and virtually no cavalry. Methods of warfare would be strongly defensive, since it's quite difficult to attack a decently fortified lake-town, and sieges would be focused on the use of ships to blockade and bombard enemy settlements into submission. Thanks to abundant access to fish and freshwater food will be very readily available, and the lake-nation would be able to maintain a fairly high population density, so you'd likely see large semi-permanent militia forces supporting small groups of professional soldiers.

Thanks to a presumed lack of mineral resources, you'd see a heavy focus on food-production and light industry, economically. I'd expect a decently strong textile industry, plus skilled and specialized artisans taking advantage of easy canal trade to distribute their wares. Heavy industry and metalworking would be near-nonexistant, and there would be a high demand for imported mineral resources and finished metalwork.

[Alexander1996]

You could probably have them use the lakes/rivers for easy water travel. Maybe a nomadic culture that lives on the water? As for architecture, Kampong Ayer might be a good place to draw inspiration from.

[Mx.Silver]

I understand that they propably fish alot and can use it for irrigation, but is there other natural resources they could get?
Natural resources, the big one is a large supply of water. This makes actually keeping the place reasonably clean a lot easier, and allows for more baths for the citizens.


How about architecture, are there any wacky ways of building in a river that could give it a unique culture?

In terms of cities actually built on lakes, another big example would be Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Capital (technically built on on island in a lake). Besides the architecture, it notably featured a number of floating gardens - artificial islands built for growing crops, which is a useful way of solving the problem of where to grow food.

[nrg89]

Perhaps an entire nation of Venices? Since water is an excellent natural defense against a fairly wide range of threats, a nation with a great deal of access to shallow lakes (or lakes with large islands, et cetera) would likely see many towns and cities built using lakes as moat-style defenses, using man-made canals as a sort of low-tech highway system to travel between towns.


In terms of cities actually built on lakes, another big example would be Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Capital (technically built on on island in a lake).

I just read up on Venice and Tenochitlan, and shallowness is apparently key here but one of the lakes in my country is the largest on the continent. Tenochitlan was built on an endorheic basin, so I would have to get rid of the lake's exit river and make it like lake Chad (10 meters at it's deepest while still being ridiculously large in area). This raises the salinity, but since people use lake Chad for water, I guess it's managable.

Well, either that, or I put it in a lagoon in the lake or something. I'm not sure if large, fresh water lakes actually have lagoons though.

[DaedalusMkV]

Well, either that, or I put it in a lagoon in the lake or something. I'm not sure if large, fresh water lakes actually have lagoons though.

Speaking from experience, while they may not have 'lagoons', it's entirely possible to have kilometer-wide sandbars where the water is only a meter or two deep in the middle of a very large lake. There are half a dozen such features that I can think of in southern Alberta and northern Montana alone. It should achieve the same purpose, really.

[Jimlad]

Well, just a few ideas,
You could have a nice sized city in that huge lake, underwater.
Some other ideas are that the cities stretch underwater, and onto dry ground.
For architecture, something I think would be cool is if the center building, (be it clock tower, city hall, mayors house, Etc.) have water pumped to the top of it, and make it almost like a big fountain. Something like clock that uses water as the hands on an analog clock wouldn't be a bad touch. Flowing water everywhere I feel would make it unique.

[Logic]

*snip*

I was planning on answering the OP's question, but it seems that every point I was going to make (and then some) was already deftly stated. Bravo sir!

[OzymandiasX]

Cities/villages of houseboats.

It would be a mixture of boats with living quarters (a bit packed for space) and houses that float (but are a pain to navigate with). The cities wouldn't be nomadic, but may relocate every few years or re-form slowly, since there is nothing keeping people from moving even a large store/boat if they want to move it to another part of town.

People get around by swimming or canoes, and use skiffs/rafts the way other places use carts.

[Weltall_BR]

Finland has a lot of lakes, formed by the retraction of the glaciers after the last Ice Age. Finnish like are quite different from Mexican and African ones and may provide you another source of inspiration.

[nrg89]

Cities/villages of houseboats.

It would be a mixture of boats with living quarters (a bit packed for space) and houses that float (but are a pain to navigate with). The cities wouldn't be nomadic, but may relocate every few years or re-form slowly, since there is nothing keeping people from moving even a large store/boat if they want to move it to another part of town.

People get around by swimming or canoes, and use skiffs/rafts the way other places use carts.


Speaking from experience, while they may not have 'lagoons', it's entirely possible to have kilometer-wide sandbars where the water is only a meter or two deep in the middle of a very large lake. There are half a dozen such features that I can think of in southern Alberta and northern Montana alone. It should achieve the same purpose, really.

I'm just so in love with the idea of a country of Venices (sandbanks will do the trick) because I've always wanted a country where the bankers rule and not the merchants. The Medici house were able to build their banking empire through keeping alot of banks throughout Italy that could each fail individually, so a country of floating cities (not to mention boat cities) would mean that only someone with alot of devotion and resources could keep track if they attempted to build a financial organization, so there would of course be a huge gap in power between the most powerful of banking organizations. Maybe even a virtual monopoly! I love that! There would be scholars with a full time job of keeping track of these boat cities, which makes for alot of plausible adventure hooks when he wants help to track influential boats.

Thank you so much for the help!

[nrg89]

Well, just a few ideas,
You could have a nice sized city in that huge lake, underwater.
Some other ideas are that the cities stretch underwater, and onto dry ground.
For architecture, something I think would be cool is if the center building, (be it clock tower, city hall, mayors house, Etc.) have water pumped to the top of it, and make it almost like a big fountain. Something like clock that uses water as the hands on an analog clock wouldn't be a bad touch. Flowing water everywhere I feel would make it unique.

While I won't use the underwater idea (since I want it to be low-magic) I do like water being used for time keeping since it symbolizes the power water has over the place. I think I will use water dials in some way, propably a huge one in the center.


Finland has a lot of lakes, formed by the retraction of the glaciers after the last Ice Age. Finnish like are quite different from Mexican and African ones and may provide you another source of inspiration. Yeah, I live in Sweden and we have not as many lakes as Finland, but they were formed in the same way around the same time. The problem is that the bigger they get, they often get deeper as well (sometimes around 100 meters). I guess the idea of sandbanks and islands is the way to go in that case.

[sktarq]

Some ideas.

Floating Crops. Not just the water mat based ideas of Aztec chinampas but things like Lotus, Lily, Water Chestnuts etc. For Lakes with exit rivers aquaculture can do rather amazing things overtime. The amount of shellfish shells that a city can go through in a few years can actually build up a new part of a sandbank for instance. - The southern end of Manhattan, Parts of San Francisco etc are actually built on this stuff.
Also Shallow areas would probably be at a premium for food production which would incentivize boat based cities. However if you do have boat cities there is the question of the source of the wood used to build them. hmmmm....Also Reeds. yes reeds. I'm talking baskets and the like as a major industry and trade goods. Heck they can even be a building material. Look at the Swamp Arabs for examples in this regard. As a cultural thing living on boats can do odd things as well. I'd recommend looking at the Boat people of Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam. Note also the the under boat fish cages to keep them fresh.
think think think
Other things to think about.....or check out.
Look the Plitvice in Croatia-it has an interesting effect of moss that catches lime turning into limestone while the water is acidic enough to etch and erode limestone elsewhere. Thus the number and pattern of the lakes changes of time- which could be a cool effect.
With this much water around did other animals from the ocean move in. Some odd stuff can happen. Like seals in the middle of Asia (Lake Baikal)
Other Questions - what type of climate are they in? Tropical? Temperate? Deserts? Rainforest? Are the lakes separated by mountains, low hills, flat land?
If there isn't too much rain in the area (thus the water flows in or is underground?) what about a salt industry? Also if the salt is scraped from the surface of the water as it forms the remaining liquid (called the mother liquor) can be a source of lots of odd chemicals and metals. Possibly magic spell components?
Fiber-what do these people wear and use for bedding etc....I'm not sure of any fiber that comes from an aquatic source. Fish leather sure....Maybe that is something they grow only on the land between the lakes maybe they import the stuff. If the later there is a lot of status to it. Otherwise you could make something up for local flavor.
Another odd thing to think about. How do these people stay warm. Boats even ones on lakes are Cold places to stay. You get wet, Wind, etc etc....And I'd imagine firewood would be at a premium with limited land area.
Also if they are going to live on the lakes......Why?....If there is land that splits the lakes is over there why not build there? Venice for instance was built where it was because major invading forces were common and expected thus making the additional effort of building in a difficult way worth it. Perhaps Orc hordes that sweep out of nearby mountains once every couple generations so that it makes sense to stay on the water.....

EDIT More thoughts

Seasonal variations? As in does the size of the lakes vary over the year. If there is a huge flood every year it would be a big deal. Also could be very interesting. If during very heavily flooding years the vast majority of nation is a single giant lake then it would make sense that people would live on boats. Also as the land becomes exposed lots of farmland is now available. It wouldn't have to be a very big change in total depth if the land is very flat to begin with. There is an inland delta in Angola That may be worth looking at there. Begins with O I think
Also if the nation is in a colder climatic zone - does it freeze? Yeah that could be fun.