TOP・UPDATES・FOUR PILLARS・CINEMA/TV・GAMES・MANGA/ANIME・MUSIC・WRITINGS・FAQ・LINKS
TOP・UPDATES・FOUR PILLARS・CINEMA/TV・GAMES・MANGA/ANIME・MUSIC・WRITINGS・FAQ・LINKS
Jade Falls is a fantastical town that I imagine living in when life is too hard. It is the kind of place I would dream about living in. I've balanced making it utopian and perfect and also somewhat grounded in what a real town could be like to certain degrees. I'm not sure if I'll do anything creative with all this world-building like short stories or illustrations eventually but for now this indulgent, masturbatory writing is what calms me the most. I try to make it at least somewhat believable in terms of consistent natural features, animal biomes, and so on, but I'm not an expert at this stuff.
Jade Falls is a town out of time and history, but at the same time is a primordial and ancient place in its spiritual authority. It is lived in by those who have fallen away from and lost sync with the real, mundane world, but those who moved here were the opposite of mere transplants. They were all destined for it from eternity. It is a traditional community of ancient, primeval heritage for the deracinated, uprooted, and alienated in particular. This sounds like a fundamental contradiction. Maybe it is. Jade Falls does not function like anywhere else, nor could it ever.
Jade Falls is COLD! Even in the summer it rarely gets above 15 degrees celsius. Winters are bitterly cold and can get as low as -35 degrees celsius for months at a time. We have four seasons, but they are a bit different from those in the rest of the world. We have long days in the summer and long nights in the winter, but not as extreme as the furthest reaches of the Arctic.
Jade Falls is named after a waterfall that is modest in size but nevertheless very beautiful and tranquil. It's a bit outside of the city proper. It freezes over in the winter. The city is situated around a large lake that also stays frozen over the whole winter. Many rivers run though the town and feed it. We are high up in the mountains and the air is thin and clear. The mountains are steep, jagged, and impregnable. We are surrounded by lots of forests.
Jade Falls is very high up in the mountains. Its fauna and flora shows similarity to countries near the Bering Strait, from Hokkaidou to Alaska. Trees include pines, firs, spruces, and birch. Bears, deer, wolves, foxes, and squirrels are common wild animals. Although the citizens do their best to maintain a peaceful coexistence and avoid encroaching on their habitats, it is necessary to be alert as sometimes violent encounters are unavoidable. In fact, the town is so peaceful that a lot of the time the police are essentially wildlife control, keeping the humans and more potentially aggressive animals in tranquil coexistence to the best of their ability. Birds that are commonly seen and heard include ducks, geese, sparrows, warblers, thrushes, owls, cranes, hawks, and ptarmigans. The rivers and lakes are home to mackerel, trout, sturgeons, gobies, and eels. In the warmer seasons, insects like bees, dragonflies, butterflies, crickets, ladybugs, and fireflies and amphibians like frogs, turtles, and salamanders are common sights. Of course, this includes some not-so-popular bugs like cockroaches, ants, ticks, and termites as well.
Jade Falls is a pretty magical place to live, but it has its areas where it falls short of a city in the "real" world. One of them is the variety of foods. It's a remote mountain town and not everything is easily or cheaply imported. But we are used to and satisfied with our local fare. There are many communal gardens and farms and the whole town pitches in to grow and raise our own local food. Fruits and vegetables from warm, temperate climates are much more expensive and hard to come by. You can expect far fewer bananas and pineapples and far more blackberries, pomegranates, and peaches, for example. Tomatoes and cucumbers are less common than carrots, cabbage, and beets. Rice and bread are stockpiled along with fruits and vegetables for the freezing months when the town has to prepare for fewer yields. The winter diet is often sustained by mushrooms, lichens, algae, and seaweed. Milk and cheese is also an important part of our diet, but goats and sheep are more common as a source than cows, as well as oat and almond milk. We have some cows here, but beef and dairy from cows is more of a luxury. When it comes to meat, birds like chicken and turkey, pork, and lamb are more common. But fish is the most common meat of all here. Fishing is how we obtain most of our meat, but a smaller and braver subset choose to venture out into the forest to hunt game like deer. Many enjoy the thrill of it, but hunting is always done in a responsible and sustainable manner and never just for "fun." Sometimes we even eat insects because there are a lot of them and mountain traditions make it necessary to eat what you can get your hands on sometimes! Alcohol, coffee, and sugary processed drinks are uncommon luxury items. Tea is the most common drink.
Jade Falls is not famed for its ostentatious luxury homes. Most homes are quite simple and humble in appearance, and that's just how we like it! Only a small subset of the most important buildings are more than two stories. A lot of them are narrow and skinny, so they may have two stories, but they are not large. There are also many small apartment complexes, but none of them are high rises. These homes have a rustic charm of their own. Most of them are made of wood. They do have electricity, but most are powered by renewabel sources like solar panels or water mills. These are all designed in a way that accents the landscape properly. The philosophy is an old Japanese one: a building should look like it has "grown out of" the environment around it.
Jade Falls has almost no cars. The only residents that own them are institutions that need them for emergencies where speed is essential. This includes places like hospitals, fire stations, and police stations, for example. The city is quite walkable, but for longer distances the transportation method of choice is a bicycle. Boats are even available for transportation down rivers and across the lake during the warmer months. Sleds and sleighs cross the frozen lake in winter. There are a few trams as well for longer distances where all of the above don't work. Though the town is rural, it is quite tightly packed in terms of layout, so things are generally quite accessible by foot or bicycle.
Jade Falls is not an ethnostate. There are people of all backgrounds, as the ties its inhabitants have to the town are of the spirit and not bound by vulgar national borders of the "real" world. It consists of those who were chosen and called to arrive. And they were chosen from all over the earth, by mysterious means that we are unable to completely understand. However, the city does have noticeable majorities and minorities. Major languages spoken are Japanese and English, but the town honors and respects linguistic diversity and makes an effort to learn the languages of all its inhabitants, especially those which are endangered. It was originally founded by 50,000 people, and the population has remained about this level to this day. The original 50,000 had the following national backgrounds:
＊Japan (33,500)
＊China (5,500)
＊South Korea (2,700)
＊United States (2,500) [mostly indigenous tribes]
＊Russia (1,600) [about half indigenous tribes from Siberia]
＊Mongolia (1,500)
＊India (600) [about half Tibetan refugees]
＊Nepal (200) [about half Tibetan refugees]
＊Bhutan (100)
＊Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia (70 each)
＊Canada, France, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom (50 each)
＊Argentina, Australia, Chile, Hungary, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania (30 each)
＊Belarus, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sweden, Switzerland, Vietnam (25 each)
＊Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal (20 each)
＊Bangladesh, Belgium, Colombia, Estonia, Georgia, Iran, Latvia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Singapore (15 each)
＊Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macedonia, Moldova, Myanmar, Paraguay (10 each)
＊Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greenland, Guatemala, Kenya, Kosovo, Morocco, Mozambique, Oman, Panama, Samoa, South Africa, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela (5 each)
Jade Falls has people with many different body types, but the average height is around 175 cm for males and 165 cm for females. The average weight is around 80 kg for males and 70 kg for females. Women in Jade Falls often have HUGE breasts, for some mysterious reason. The average cup size for adult women is G, but it is very common to find girls with M-cups or even larger. There are plenty of slim and petite girls for those who have that taste, however.
Jade Falls is a small town, which in the "real" world often have trouble with finding single people choices for romantic partners. But our town does better than most of them. We have matchmaking programs, both formal and informal, that help matchmaking in a more organic way than bullshit apps. "Open relationships" are very uncommon, but prostitution is common and nobody cares if people go to prostitutes while in relationships as long as it stays confined to that regulated area. In fact, prostitution in Jade Falls most commonly takes place in religious settings as a holy service, the way it used to be in many societies around the world. Public displays of affection are unheard of. It is considered very important to remain restrained in public places. The most you will see is holding hands.
Jade Falls is an excellent place to raise children. It is a rich, beautiful landscape, and children are encouraged to play outside a lot as they grow up. We do not beleive in exposing children to screens very much in their formative and most impressionable years. Of course, in the colder months they will have to stay inside a lot and they can enjoy movies or games in healthy moderation, although only after many years of reading. The town is peaceful and safe enough that parents can enjoy giving their children a great amount of autonomy and independence. They still must go to school, but the schools here are pleasant and nurturing with a great sense of community.
Jade Falls has some idiosyncrasies in its laws that don't always accord with the "real" world. We are lucky to be segregated enough that we can decide these things ourselves. Most of the "laws" mentioned here are enforced more by means of cultural norms than by strict policing, as the town is small enough for this to be effective. You should almost read the word "illegal" here to mean "frowned upon" as these are practically the same thing here. One of the biggest differences is that it is legal to possess any kind of information in Jade Falls. This means that "pirated" copies of media are widespread. There is no industry of selling media here like game shops or whatever, only areas to host it with people who bring their own copies. Wilful pollution of the environment is the greatest crime and it is strictly controlled. Legal drugs include alcohol, marijuana, and most major hallucinogens, but all are restricted to ages 25 or older. We do have a very strong culture of guarding against addiction and overuse of substances, so abuse of these laws is rare. More addictive and dangerous drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin are illegal. Cigarettes are illegal. Cars are illegal except for special institutions like hospitals, fire stations, and police stations. Gambling is illegal. Firearms are legal to own with a license after the age of 18, but only for those in professions with a need for them like policemen or hunters. Other than that, most laws are pretty much what you'd expect: no violence, rape, theft, public disorder, etc. They are enforced more by compassion and sympathy than by discipline and repression.
Jade Falls has a Japanese majority, so it is no surprise that a lot of our customs are similar to traditional Japanese ones. For just a few examples, we bow rather than shaking hands, we take our shoes off when entering buildings, we largely eat with chopsticks and fingers, and so on. However, Jade Falls is not Japan at the end of the day and differs in some notable ways as well. We are not necessarily as reserved about inviting others into our homes as in Japan, as spending time together indoors is very important in the colder parts of the year. We are more honest and forthright than most Japanese are, but are careful to instill compassion and delicacy in our communication.
Jade Falls prefers a more frugal and simple existence with less work to a more luxurious one with more work. No one feels the need to travel as things are perfect here, except maybe to experience the ocean once in a while, which is far away. We have a very strong anti-work culture which attempts to limit the amount of work anyone has to do in a day insofar as that work is unpleasant to them. Of course, we are far away from full automation, especially as we are a tiny mountain town and often a bit behind on technology. But we at least center our economy less on constant growth and exploitation and more on what is necessary for simple survival and a simple life, made easier through cooperation. A lot of work in Jade Falls is remote. Otherwise, education, scientific research, agriculture, fishing, and forestry are notable sectors. We have a decent number of tourists who stop by in strange journeys between the "real" world and ours. But they are the few and the rare who can make it here for good.
Jade Falls is small, but its inhabitants know how to have a good time. Much of the year is well-suited to staying indoors for hours, if not days, on end. As such, a lot of the hobbies indulged in are indoor ones: reading books and manga, watching anime and movies, playing video games, and so on. These are often enjoyed alone, but there are plenty of ways to enjoy them socially as well. There are hybrid arcade/Korean-style PC-bangs all over the town, as well as similar plces for fans of things like card games, model kits, or whatever. Theaters and libraries are much more social than in the outside world and it's very common to meet and hang out with friends in these public areas bonding over shared interests. Karaoke is a common pastime and there are both private booths and public bars. There are also concept cafes like in Akihabara: maids, nurses, etc. Of course, Jade Falls is resplendent with natural beauty, and its inhabitants love the outdoors as well, even in the bitter cold. Ice fishing, sledding, skiing, and curling are popular pastimes in the winter and things like hiking, camping, mountain climbing, kayaking, and typical sports are all popular in the warmer months. Jade Falls is also blessed with a number of hot springs, all of which are unisex.
Jade Falls is one of the least "fashionable" towns you could ever visit, and we like it that way! That doesn't mean that people don't look nice. The citizens here are quite beautiful. But they have no fancy fashion brands here. Everything we wear is purely functional. We would all be naked if we lived near the equator, but since winters are brutally cold and evenings can get chilly even in the summer, we need to bundle up for a decent amount of the year. Most people buy clothes at used stores or wear hand-me-downs. We appreciate that some clothes might look nice on people, but no one really cares about it. No one has tattoos or piercings or uses makeup. Jewelry is only used for spiritual purposes. However, we do stay hygienic and generally clean-shaven.
Jade Falls has an excellent education system. Homeschooling is legal, but uncommon. Elementary, middle, and high schools are generally comparable to the real world, but with far better curriculums and a better pace and style of teaching and learning. Classrooms are smaller, with an average of ten students or so. Many students also have a chance to observe and focus on professions in town once they have discovered what interests them, as long as they continue to get the quired basics in all fields. Schools are entirely secular. They have clubs, societies, sports teams, and so on, and this is the most common way for children to make friends and have social circles. Students clean their own schools. There are also a few universities for higher academics along with trade schools or spiritual institutions for those who choose other paths.
Jade Falls has a very fluid attitude towards religion. As such, it can be hard to say that most of its residents have only one "religion." We have a number of traditions and deeply respect the wisdom and teachings of them all, and they are by no means exclusionary. The town is generally steeped in spirituality and has a great number of institutions like shrines, temples, lodges, and so on. There are also a great many wise ones in the town who live further away and more in touch with the mountains, sustained as holy men by those of us who remained involved in "everyday life." Many choose to follow the religious path in this town, and they help our community in a number of ways. This is part of the seemingly paradoxical nature of Jade Falls: many of the practitioners here are part of indigenous, polytheistic spiritual traditions of "nature worship" that are deeply tied to particular lands and cultures, but they have chosen to sever themselves from their sources and live in Jade Falls, as sorts of representatives who try to unite and live with holy people from around the world. But humans have had to migrate before, and they haven't ceased worshipping nature. Some have made the hard choice to live as representatives here. But to be concrete, this is what the religious makeup looks like to the degree that we can say that its inhabitants belong to "one" tradition more than another:
＊"Nature Worship" (a broad term describing a number of practitioners and followers of indigenous faiths) - 59% (Shintou 42%, Musok 5%, Native American Religions 5%, Tengrism 3%, Siberian Religions 3%, Shugendou 1%)
＊Buddhism - 30% (Tantric 18% [Shingon 7%, Tendai 5%, Gelug 2%, Sakya 1%, Kagyu 1%, Nyingma 1%], Zen 13% [Soutou 7%, Rinzai 6%])
＊Daoism - 6%
＊Irreligion/Unaffiliated - 5%