Worldbuilding and ecology

In reply to Jay: I agree that what Morrius is describing doesn't sound like late 17th century. In fact, Morrius descibed the world as medieval fantasy. It's impossible to put an exact date on historical trends like "the Renaissance," but it happened somewhere around the end of the 15th century, so by the late 17th century, the medieval period had been over for about two hundred years. Educated people had stopped believing in magic and were super optimistic about the power of science and technology. When I think of the 17th century, I think of Descartes (b. 1596, d. 1650) and John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704). If you want an age of peasant villages and a strong belief in magic / distrust of science, you are really looking more towards the 12th - 14th centuries.

That said, this is a FANTASY world. There is absolutely no reason why its history must be consistent with ours at all! That would imply a deterministic view of history that I find quite impalatable. So by all means, create whatever you want and don't let real history constrain you!

Ravien: This is a very good point. Given that there is communication between these two worlds, there must be strong inertial forces supporting the belief systems of the two worlds or they would, over the years, have ben a lot more mixing and homoginization. It seems to me like it is more believable if the gates between the worlds are a new discovery. In this case, it makes sense that most inhabitants of both worlds are unaware of the existance of these gates. But if they have been around for a long time, it must be a very powerful conspiracy that keeps them secret, especially in the 21st century world, which presumably has the internet, news media, and other powerful forms of information dissemination.