How to make three continents work together in one plot

In my story's setting, the world is divided by three continents.
Each of them have their own respective curses;
Continent A - People born here only live until they are 18
As a result, the population is very young and they have to borrow more mature people from other continents to act as their governing body. Consists of 4 cities.
Continent B - People born here would permanently turn into monsters when their physical condition is worse enough. (Injury /Illness)
Everyone born in this continent is feared by the rest of the world. People here who turn into monsters may end up killing and devouring their own family and friends. Due to this chaos, the government here has completely collapsed. Consists of 4 villages.
Continent C - People born here would be wiped out from everyone's memories when they die
Due to the nature of this curse, no one is actually aware that this curse exists. So they tend to act like elitists who are unaffected by the misfortunes of the rest of the world. It's run by a powerful kingdom which consists of 21 districts. Majority of my story's antagonists reside here. One of my main characters was born here, theorizes that they do have a curse and spends a big chunk of the story looking for answers.

My 3 main characters come from each of these continents. They help each other grow and conquer their fears brought about by their fate.

My question is, how can I make this world feel natural and not messy? At first glance it almost feels like it's three worlds in one. How can I make these 3 continents work well with each other?

 

To give a little backstory. there were three gods who wished to rule over this world. In a dispute on who gets to have it. They split the land into three continents, gave power to humans including the curses (as a preview of what they want the world to be like), to engage in a big war.

Centuries later, the humans grew tired of war and grew more civil and started to live in peace as they deviated from the purpose of helping their respective gods "win", much to the gods' dismay. Fearing that their dispute would never reach a conclusion, they created creatures called a "Primus" to cause more conflict and continue the war. Everytime war in this world comes to a halt, they produce Primus to cause war once again in a never ending cycle. My story starts during an era when Continent C is the only one who's still interested in making their god "win". Since their king is a Primus.

A Primus is just like a human being, who is also able to deviate from their purpose, hence my main protagonist, the Primus of continent A.
The motive to of the story is to end the curses and stop the cycle of war by defeating the three gods themselves.

 

if (A) is afraid of (B) it leaves (C) as their only alternative to draw a governing body from.This would turn (A) into a puppet state of (C). To C's ambitions, the only obstacle is (B), which is a chaotic mess, with the help of (A) as cannon fodder this should be easy pickings. The twist is the introduction of a Primus on (B), seeing the curse as an obstacle to his own survival and ambitions, he realizes he must kill the Gods, offering (A) longer lives for their help. In so doing he creates pockets of resistance against the ruling government on (A). Meanwhile (C) remains fiercely loyal to their God. God (C) will be the first to go as (A) and (B) plot his demise. The people of (C) remember their past and joins forces with (A) and (B) against the remaining two Gods.

 

I really like what you came up with there! It presents a new angle to my story in which I never thought of before. I like the idea that A is a puppet of C and B makes a deal with A. I'd definitely take that into consideration! Thanks!

 

Glad you like it, but honestly, your own words were more or less already describing this scenario. You were Just taking the long way around the horn.

the logical mechanism was just out of reach because of your overall investment in the separation of parties and powers involved... all you needed was an outside pair of eyes to get you out of the forest.

You can also play with the alliances and diplomacy aspects a bit, throw in some betrayals along the way, kill the messenger(s). You have a lot of options, just play with it for a while.

personally the hardest part of your story I feel is going to be the character consistency

 

To add to the advice already given here, as a way of making their coexistence logical, I'd look into the economy. I know B is literally four villages, but do they produce food for the other two. Is the terrain in A too harsh to grow crops? But this is just my two cents, I'm a notoriously bad world builder.

I agrew with TheNineMagi that your largest challenge is going to make the characters work. I'd advise reading fantasy that takes place over three, distinct continents to inspire you, and see how they juggle viewpoints and setting. Brandon Sanderson's Elantris is structured around a strict rotation of three viewpoint chapters in three seperate cities. The result is a perhaps a little disconnected at the start, but very satisfying when it all comes together!

 

Hmm.. My main characters were already made before this whole plot grew. I personally don't find it too difficult since they join forces early in the story. The ones that are doing things seperately is the supporting cast and I do believe they could use a bit more work. Backstories for the main and supporting cast and how they all intertwine is quite the tricky one, but I hope I'll get the hang of it eventually.
Btw, Elantris sounds like a pretty interesting book

 

throw in a couple spy craft novels in there and you have can have really interesting ideas for your story... some classics like Ian Flemming (James Bond), Frederick Forsythe (Day of the Jackal), Robert Ludlum (Bourne Supremacy).

 

A lot of the curses do not seem entirely thought through in terms of how they would affect things like sustainable populations and, in other cases, a few questions that poke certain holes in them.

This place should consist of no cities as it's basically unsustainable. Anyone born here will massively struggle to have kids, the first being that they'd need to have sex before that time period, and then have enough time to give birth to the child, and then, the child will need someone to raise it, not to mention surviving childbirth at such a young age with no medical professionals around.
Secondly, convincing someone to stay here long term seems very, very hard as well. "Oh, you get t0 rule over a bunch of teenagers who are going to die before they can be fully trained into a proper trade, and also, having kids here will result in them dying." Might be useful as a colony, tourist destination, or for essentially slave labour, but not much else.

This place is much, much more sustainable than A, though it depends how you define "worse enough". If it's a scratch, then the place would be entirely unsustainable. If it's being wounded to being near death, then you have two options, ensure peace, or have someone ready to put the person down before they do turn. The truth is that both would need some sort of totalitarian regime in place.

Once again, much more sustainable than A, though it still leaves a lot of questions. Firstly, do they remember conversations they've had about people, or are those removed as well, and, if they are entirely removed from people's memories, how do people's whose parents have died think they were born and raised?

 

Those are really good points. I was mainly thinking of my main characters when I came up with those curses, but not so much the rest of the population. I'll definitely reevaluate everything. Thanks for the insight!

Hmm.. A quick solution would probably to increase the age limit to 25 or 30 or there is no fixed time limit but depends on a variable or perharps a means to extend their lives.. I need to think this through.

 

I don't know how you could do it in the context you have described. If they are all the same exact species, then it doesn't seem clear how their location could have the effects you describe, unless there is some physical attribute to each continent -- like something in the water -- that has some physiological affect. One and two seem to be physical attributes, and three is a psychological one. So I see no link. I think you need to tinker with the differences and make them more sociological/tribal traits, that could evolve over time as isolated societies evolve. IMHO.

 

Thanks to your helpful insight, I was finally able to make a decision and make the curses genetically inherited. Having one curse a more dominant trait than the other. This is what my readers would intuitively think of anyway, so why not go with that? Due to the whole three-way god conflict, inter-continent breeding would be incredibly taboo, opening a new horizon to my story.

 

Where the three continents meet. This can be through trade, politics, physical location. They don't have to necessarily make sense to each other to coexist. Don't forget that the differences in cultures increases and creates a sense of alien in other cultures. This promotes strife and advancement and in return adds depths.