Legends, Myths, and Folklore Edition FAQ:>What is worldbuilding?Worldbuilding is the process of creating entire fictional worlds from scratch, all while considering the logistics of these worlds to make them as believable as possible. Worldbuilding asks questions about the setting of a world, and then answers them, often in great detail. Most people use it as a means of creating a setting or the scenery for a story.>"Isn't there a Worldbuilding general in >>>/tg/ already?"Yes, there is. However, that general is focused on the creation of fictional worlds for the intended purpose of playing TTRPG campaigns. Here you can discuss worldbuilding projects that are not meant to be used for a roleplaying setting, but for novels, videogames, or any other kind of creative project.>"Can I discuss the setting of my campaign here, though?"If you want to, but it would probably be better to discuss it on >>>/tg/ . We don't allow the discussion of TTRPG mechanics, however. If you want to discuss stats or which D&D edition is best, this is not the place.>"Can I talk about an existing fictional setting that is not mine?"Yes, of course you can!>"Does worldbuilding need to be about fantasy and elves?"Worldbuilding, as already stated above, and contrary to what many believe, does not inherently imply blatantly copying Tolkien. In fact, there are many science-fiction setting out there, and even entire alternative history settings which do not possess supernatural elements at all. Any kind of science fiction book has an implied setting at least, which involves a certain degree of worldbuilding put into it.Old thread: >>25218478
>>25285316Thread Questions:>What major myths and legends exist in your setting? And how much truth is there to them?>Where do you look for inspiration for said myths? And what have you taken from existing mythologies and legends from our world, do you have any particular favorites?>How do you create the gods and religions of your worlds, and what are they like? Are there any particular pieces of advice you have?
I genuinely cannot decide on a single setting detail.
>>25285701Are you literally me? I never thought making up a fantasy world would be so difficult.
>>25285318I don't write but I'll answer this for the GOAT wn, Reverend Insanity.In Reverend Insanity, there is a profound collection of fairy tales that while not completely accurate (gu can't speak) has both real (the gu, locations, races, and people are all real) and philosophical implications. The cultivation system is also based on Taoism, but it's a much looser interpretation than other novels.There are also minor religions, such as mortals in Southern border worshipping SSDV, but these have limited scope.The best part though is the transmigrator protagonist, Fang Yuan. He often cited Buddhist religious texts, which are unknown in the gu world, and it adds a great level of profundity to his actions.There is also a hypocritical heavenly court, an analogy for the CCP. Unfortunately they win in the end, banning reverend insanity, but there is still hope: recent messages from the visionary Gu Zhen Ren have suggested it might be unbanned later this year.
Hi guys I'm not sure if this type of worldbuilding counts: >>25286652I imagine a world where the people live in know they are in fiction world。if it's counts I can move it to here
>>25285318>What major myths and legends exist in your setting? And how much truth is there to them?Takes place in a fantasy world where a portal to Earth was opened long time ago, so myths and legends are of people or creatures that may have come through it. Creatures and monsters actually exist though, and have to be dealt with according to their lore. >Where do you look for inspiration for said myths? And what have you taken from existing mythologies and legends from our world, do you have any particular favorites?Lots of fantasy creatures and peoples exist in the fantasy world already so I want to try to stick to legends and monsters that come from specific stories/origins or locations on Earth (like vampires, werewolves, and things like the Minotaur). Favorites would be ones that have specific ways to defeat them because of the myth wasn’t relayed, the fantasy world might not know how to take care of it (like if no one told them the legends of vampires but one managed to get through the portal). >How do you create the gods and religions of your worlds, and what are they like? Are there any particular pieces of advice you have? Haven’t really developed any specific religion or creation myths, figured I’d chalk something up to maybe some Earth religions came through the portal and found footing in some places
>>25286672Sure, why not? I’d love to hear more!
>>25285318>What major myths and legends exist in your setting? And how much truth is there to them?There are numerous myths and legends, which all have a core of truth somewhere but can be very inaccurate. For example, the myth of the creation of the world does not refer to the real beginning. There was a lot of history before that, but most of it has been completely forgotten by the normal people.>Where do you look for inspiration for said myths? And what have you taken from existing mythologies and legends from our world, do you have any particular favorites?My backstory is a lot like Wheel of Time in basic concepts. It's basically a science fiction approach to things in which an advanced technological civilization developed immortality technology and discovered that magic was real. The magic system is a lot like xianxia but non-Daoist.>How do you create the gods and religions of your worlds, and what are they like? Are there any particular pieces of advice you have?I don't have the gods as embodiments of natural concepts. Rather, certain individuals cultivated their magic to a very high extent, reachable only by immortals. These individuals had their own personalities and interests and also liked to have their own niches of excellence, but there is nothing to prevent multiple individuals from cultivating the same type of magic and nothing to make sure that every aspect of the creation gets someone specializing in it. People also don't need to stick to their specialties, though being focused helps reaching high levels in the specialty. There are multiple characters with some degree of death powers, etc. I think this approach leads to a more natural and less of an artificial spreadsheet feel.
Post a random image you made for your worldbuilding project right now (I swear to god it better not be a map)
>>25286672Since the thread died, why not?
>>25289132>(I swear to god it better not be a map)What do you have against maps? This is a world building thread. It's like walking into a forest and saying "I better not see any goddamn trees".
...Is it strange to have a world where "magic" is mostly misunderstood or unknown technology to the people within it (like making steel, mathematical concept of zero, natural gas/oil usage for heating, plumbing, optics, etc.) but mixing that in with actual magical practice? Basically I like the idea of an adventurer experiencing these magical innovations or powers demonstrated by certain societies but only finding out they are special trade secrets and technologies, but having no "actual" magic I feel makes the fantasy world a little too mundane for my liking. I had the idea to differentiate it into "true sorcery" versus these "tricks" but I don't know if the people in the world would naturally be able to tell these things apart since it's like bronze age collapse/iron age sort of tech level and there's a lot of superstition around.
>>25288785>>25290483thans for kindness,here it's:a world when people know they are in fiction worldI wrote a novel with 220k words(in chinese) to build a world which some people in there know they are in a novel.It's not unusual, you know, like the "breaks the fourth wall","meta-narrative" stuff. many fictions did that.only but I dug a little deeper.I start to think "how it works in our reality",if someone among us knows(or guess/assume etc) this is a fiction world,what will he/she do?compare to reality,it's bascily has 3 type of “high quality” reactions:1,trying to escape,back to reality——that's what most religious believers do,u know,like the whole "ascending to heaven through the Last Judgment" thing.or EVA like,or the so called "raise the dimension" thing.2,trying to refuse god(aka narrator\writer etc)come over the world,find ways to exile god. which is stop me from continuing to write this novel.3,bargaining,to make use of god,that's most chinese do:since I can't escape,can't completely exile you,and neither can I obey u,so let's do some cooperation.I thought a while here,fairly speaking,seems praying is another type of bargaining sometimes.if my characters make me satisfied,I do like to reward him/her.inference:the real belivers shouldn't pray for anything specific,they should only accept everything what god descends.(what I called "low quality" reactions including numbness, disregard, suicide, falling into a crisis of nihilism, or anyother non-constructive and negative reactions)
>>25292989>>25292989anyway,since I'm chinese,I chose to think option 2,which is how I can exile the god.it's not easy you know,since narrator/author is the god himself,how can I imagine my characters exile me myself?how can they do that?so I wrote a novel with 220k words in chinese(did I metioned before?) to analyse,deduce it,and I got the answer!to emphasize:it's not in the easy ways,like you set up some specific settings to allow your characters against you,that's not the good way I satisfied.what I'm trying to do is to find out,in reality,philosophically speaking,if our world is totally a fiction,how to exile the narrator,and why it's possible or workable from philosophy perspectivein the very beginning,when this journey begins,I didn't know what the answer is,and when the answer emerges itself,it seems——I have to say——a kind of cliché.it's new,but cliché,more like reinterpreting some old concept with some new perspective.but I think it's still has some ground-breaking work,and somehow——I don't know——interesting.It's a kind of like establishing some philosophical theoretical framework.but in a literary way.
>>25292999I finished my novel in 2025 late August,and I still feel weird,scary and crazy untill now——in some random times.because It's literally answers everyting,interprets everything,it can answer anything!(adding an "almost" here to show some strictness maybe?)like some philosophical problems are hard to answer,you need to go deep into those classic works,to understand them,and trying very hard(always fail),using some hilosophical terms to make your statement reasonable and clearly.but with my novel,no,I can answer them with some simple,easy-understanding sentences.and I do found some typical questions here in /lit/ to answer with my novel,to show you how it's possible.question 1.>>25271562>If Solipsism is true, why can't I (the solipsist) fly? It really makes no sense.my character asked exactly the same question.in chapter 29,she just wake up from a hypnotherapy(make you dream to cure some mental disease) and asks the doctor:"why I can fly in my lucid dream,but can't fly here?"the simple answer is:it's not your dream.so you don't control everything.but solipsists would argue:"isn't the whole world my dream?"-yes,but first you need to wake up in your dream to transfer this dream to your dream,like from a normal dream into a lucid dream.it's more like the difference between "believe" and "know",belive is not enough,you can never transfer your "belief" to "knowing".there is a eternal gap.but how?for example:my character thinks in the novel,but the novel readers clearly know he/she is not the real thinker,the real thinker is me,the author.(quote from chapter 43)so when the character in my novel knows he/she doesn't exist,it's all me,then he/she can fly in anyway he/she want.QEDI'll talk about my novel more tomorrow if things go well.
>>25293010Continuing from the previous post>>25276171this time I'll solve the Newcomb's paradox, also adapted into the Roko's Basilisk problem in lesswrong forum.but before my solving begin,here is my novel I mentioned in >>25276171 https://github.com/feiji90/dilingrencheng_zhushi , didn't publish yet, I use this novel to answer/solve/prove some philosophy problems, but I don't recomment you to read it, cause it's very long(again, 220k chinese characters), and written by chinese, I planed to translate it into english, but due to my procrastination, I don't know when the translation work will start myself.so let's focus on the Newcomb's paradox, for ones who don't know this paradox, here is the content:>In the standard version of Newcomb's problem, two boxes are designated A and B. The player is given a choice between taking only box B or taking both boxes A and B. The player knows the following:>Box A is transparent, or open, and always contains a visible $1,000.>Box B is opaque, or closed, and its content has already been set by the predictor:>If the predictor has predicted that the player will take both boxes A and B, then box B contains nothing.> If the predictor has predicted that the player will take only box B, then box B contains $1,000,000.> The player does not know what the predictor predicted or what box B contains while making the choice.In my novel chapter 43, there is a concept called "Event Propagation Interface", which indicating a event has a propagation speed, you can only be sure it happens when it influence you. that is called it's interface has propagated on you. so in this Newcomb's paradox, when you thought the money in the box is a determined event, it's not, because this event hasn't influenced you yet. the "Event Propagation Interface" was propagated on you only when you open the box. it's just like the Schrödinger's cat, you can only be sure when you open the box.also it has a explanation of narrator version in my novel chapter 43, that is the predictor is actually a narrator/author, when you made the choice, the author can modify the box setting in anytime. just like the author modifies the plot.so just choose the Box B and choose it only.
>>25285316I’m actually looking to create a setting where the majority of the non-human races are from myths and folklore in our world, albeit with the occasional original twists from me, each region having races corresponding to the mythologies of the region/culture they’re based on from our world. While some options are obvious, like Centaurs and Minotaurs for the Greece region, Kitsunes, Oni, and Tengu for the Japan region, etc., what are other suggestions that you could recommend for me please, especially more obscure creatures or beings? Thanks in advance!
>>25293061Wikipedia's mythology pages are great for this.
>>25285318The setting i am currently tinkering on is a quasi-futuristic Mesopotamia with highly uneven technological development. Industrial and computational technologies exist but are monopolized by temple bureaucracies and interpreted through a highly religious lens. The central technology is a highly technical/formalized cuneiform inspired by Hesse's Glass bead game only taught to temple scribes. This language is used to 'animate' divine idols with certain divine principles through invoking their divine names with this cuneiform, essentially using the idol as a supercomputer and the cuneiform as code. Gods are seen as equivalent to their active principle, hence once an idol of i.e Shamash (justice/sun) is animated (radiating light and casting legal judgement), the God is considered to be immanently present. It is philosophically ambiguous if the Gods 'exist' as we'd understand it or if its just a way to explain how certain supercomputers work, and if that matters at all to how people understand those gods as being real or not. It uses Mesopotamian myth, and especially the divine epithets as its basis. Different divine aspects can be represented in different idols: Idols of Sin (the horned god of the moon) can be used to do meteorological/prophetic computation under his epithets of "the luminary of the heavens and earth" or "the luminary of all creation", or to invoke Eleusinian Mysteries-type existential trances under the epithet of "divine judge in the underworld"
>>25285316I was thinking that the main deities of my setting would be a Lady of Creation and a Lord of Destruction (who I was thinking would be a couple, with potentially some children of theirs as lesser deities), the former making things all the time and the latter destroying the things that would harm the world at large and refining what he doesn't destroy, like a writer and their editor. What other aspects make sense for them and/or their subordinate deities to have besides Art and Life for the Lady and Death for the Lord (and maybe Disease, because things like diseases and monsters would be what occasionally slips by him and maybe because people pray for deliverance from said diseases)? Maybe Dreams for the Lady?List anon, are you here again?
>>25291600>What do you have against maps? This is a world building thread. It's like walking into a forest and saying "I better not see any goddamn trees".Good point. Do you have any advice for dealing with maps please?
>>25294983>Can there any good justifications for putting female characters in bikini armor in fantasy?It's hot and easy to move in? You don't really need to come up with some fancy justification for why someone would do something in fantasy (wear a bikini) that people do all the fucking time in reality. Have you ever watched the Summer Olympics? Top athletes aren't exactly covered in layers there.>but muh protectionIt's fantasy. Just say armor imbues defense to the body via magic. Monster Hunter figured this shit out forever ago.
>>25294983The female characters in question are adepts at magic that enhances personal combat power and durability. However this magic is limited to one's body only, not personal items such as armor. Skilled users of body-enhancing magic then start to find armor an expensive hindrance that contributes nothing except providing some modesty (necessary for a lady), so combat bikinis became the mark of a seasoned female warrior. Metal bikinis are preferred over cloth bikinis for having at least some resistance to accidental tearing in combat.
>>25294983Simple, they don't have the resources to make full armor so they just cover the most vital areas.
>>25294983Metals are rare and expensive. People used to go to war naked. Even now, many tribal people walk around with nothing but a loincloth and a spear.
>>25296761>>25296760>>25295027>>25294994C-C-C-COMBO!!!
>>25292907I have kind of like that but not quite so low tech. The setting has very high variances in tech level, so that in many places humans consider gunpowder to be magical, but then there are (isolationist, stagnant) High Elves with science fiction levels of technology AND very high magic that derives from individual psychic powers. The High Elves consider both of these equally rational and explicable but call them both magic because magic is just the High Elven word for science. Meanwhile other cultures see magic as something inexplicable and mysterious and deny that anything they collectively understand could possibly be magical even when it's something like casting illusion spells.
>>25297924I would love to her more about this setting please!
I have been thinking about this world for years and I still don't even have a map. At most have a vague idea of where certain places are. And I'm still insecure about the names of my setting. I know it shouldn't really matter, and I like those names, but they too similar to real Romance names and words, or my myths are too close to real myths. I know nothing is really original, and that even Tolkien copied from the real world, but I can't stop thinking that I am being too unoriginal.
>>25285318I'm currently working on a certain aspect in my setting which touches myths and whether they exist or not. In my setting gods are divided into Primordials, who created the Cosmos, and Apparitions, spirits who come to dominate certain domains of reality. Individual souls are animated by an Illuminative Fragment of Divinity, the power of which expresses itself as Mana, mental and emotional force. Mana can empower domains of reality (conceptual, organizational, phenomenal, personal, elemental, etc.) such that spirits can come to dominate and manipulate these domains, giving them power. Phenomenal Domains are especially important in this regard. Phenomenal Domains include both natural phenomenal as well as human events. The important aspect is when fictional or ahistorical Phenomenal Domains receives the collective Mana of a population. At this the Phenomenal Domain ceases to be a fabrication of the imagination. It becomes reality. The mechanism by which it influences reality can be called a sort of Law of Phenomenal Causality, wherein no Phenomenal Domain exists in isolation, and where every phenomenon is animated by both retrospective causation and prospective causation. When a phenomenon becomes a powerful Phenomenal Domain it manifests within reality not in isolation, but with vast retrospective as well as prospective cascading causal consequences, primarily affecting mundane phenomena, powerful Phenomenal Domains are immune to this. And when two powerful Phenomenal Domains come into conflict, existing in contradiction, only the Phenomenal Domain with the greatest causal connectivity survives. What we then get is less a straightforward River of Time, and more a Cosmic Palimpsest in which reality is constantly being rewritten, accruing ever more causal depth and emotional/mental resonance.
>>25300780The more I read self-published kindle fantasy series, the less self conscious I become about my own aspiring work. If these examples can publish, so I can.
>>25285316How does magic work in your worlds? Do you have any good advice or resources for creating magic systems for beginners please?
>>25301652Don't, winging it within rough boundaries is always better than some autistic algorithmic system
Posted it in another thread in the board, but since i wrote mostly about the world, here it is too.To outline the general idea>World goes expansion mode.>Buys all the dlc in existence.>World expands beyond belif and so does space and time, even the universe itself grows transfinitly.>Portals, towers, other dimensions, realitys and all comes crashing down in the free for all in all new giant earth.>MC wakes up in thr middle of it, lost to how long he has been asleep or what happend to the world.So exploration, fantasy, intend for harem, power systems will be a focus, action and portals, dungeons, gods of all kinds, maybe even aliens.Free for all post world end, though there still some big citys and people pulling themselfs together as the new "awakened" humans, fighting and scouting such new areas that are avaliable in the world(ex: the US suddely grew 10 times and all the once taken land is but a minuscle part of the whole country now. That can have anything, be from stronger animals, portals, dungeons or whatever else is waiting you in the unknown lands from beyond.)Technology still exists, but the satellites are in very specific places and its basically city-fortress working only, some people build signal poles in specific portals to make a "pathway" to other places and can take connection there by.But again, very limited.Intent to write it, but this is the general idea so far.What ya think?
>>25285318I myself really like the idea of a "free for all" Be demons, gods or spirits as a whole in the world acting at once.Even if it is chinese imortal emperors or hindu gods going 1v1 with mars for example.I too would count titanic beasts and monsters of "forgotten" religions which would give me a bit of leverage to write what i want.Now to creat newer ones i tend to inspire in either concepts or philosophical ideas i like alot.Like an overman related to growth and victory, or some chaotic monsters based on judge holden or even some mixture of signs with a reference to aleardy existing myths to make something nice
>>25302074Would be ok for YA
>>25301918>Don't, winging it within rough boundaries is always better than some autistic algorithmic systemProvide examples please.
>>25302074Sounds really Korean. I absolutely despise it but it might do well if you're going after the slop market.
>>25302824Lord of the Rings
>>25302353>>25302829Sounds like a good start, if i refine the idea enough and write it properly, may become a good read.
>>25299869A very long time ago a powerful federation centered in America and Europe dominated the world and in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity pushed the development of science to new heights. Groundbreaking discoveries were made about the nature of reality and the immortality of the soul became a scientific fact. This research was not only theoretical in nature though and it was discovered how to make humans truly physically immortal through a process that seemed to have no drawbacks except the loss of ability to have children, though because of overpopulation concerns many considered this last part a boon. Many people chose to turn themselves into immortals, though some hesitated for reasons of religion or distrust in the process, especially in the other countries.After some time a civil war broke out in the federation and all the other countries got involved too. Biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons were all used among newer and more horrifying inventions. The devastation was total and thorough. In the end the survivors of the faction aligned with the official federation government escaped into space while the rebels got to rule over ashes on Earth. The space faction reorganized itself into an immortal technocracy that also started to resemble a magocracy as with time the latent magical powers of the immortals grew more apparent and impossible to deny. No mortal humans were believed to have survived the war, though later it would turn out that multiple deep underground bunker cities had survived in places like Siberia and Australia.The space faction had many talented scientists and engineers among them, and soon prosperity and comfort were restored. The only problems were the looming threat of the ground faction and the idea that too few humans had survived out of the great multitudes of the past. The first issue was solved with a war against Earth, this time quick and victorious thanks to a major technological advantage, but the second would prove unsolved until a colony ship returned from the stars. These genetically engineered colonists were the only known humans in the solar system still capable of reproduction. The space faction successfully awed the newcomers with the feats of new science and magic and devised an experimental form of immortality that would still allow for bearing and begetting of children, though in numbers low enough not to cause a quick population explosion. The space humans who underwent the full process would later become known as the Elves. Others were more suspicious about the true intentions of the space faction and only accepted "minor improvements". The suspicions were correct, as the ruling council of the space faction was determined to avoid another bloody civil war and included a slight, almost completely unnoticeable tweak to remove true free will in the "minor improvements". This technique had been discovered much earlier but had been thought too unethical to use.(to be continued)
>>25304113The space faction did not want to return to live on Earth and was content to let it be a wilderness preserve to reseeded life. Some of the returned colonists were also allowed to live there, though it was the wish of the high council that eventually they all would move to be workers in the space society, in which even the lower rungs enjoyed abundant leisure time and high material comfort. However the people in the bunker cities discovered that the world above had become habitable again and returned to the surface. The majority of these people were had come to see unbridled technology as the root of all evil that had destroyed the world. A smaller group had genetically modified themselves to thrive in underground environments. This smaller group became known as the Dwarves, and they became secretive about their culture which still valued technology though much had been lost and the drive to re-invent was scarcely present.Gradually the memory of this all faded among the mortals. Some of the Elves were born with true free will despite everything and managed to disobey the decadent space faction that had started to consider itself divine and now some members even actively promoted pagan religions centered around themselves, though most didn't particularly care and let the mortals believe whatever, however mistaken it might have been. In any case, innate magical powers growing and developing with the slow years had made many of the original members of the space faction and even the more magically powerful among the Elves so far beyond the mortal ken that jumping into conclusions about having encountered true divinity could happen very easily.And as for the other side of the ancient civil war, those individuals weren't entirely wiped out either, and some had developed very significant and increasing levels of magic.
>>25302944Good luck anon!
>>25304272THANKS!!!Currently i am stocking up to 20 chapters to do the first launch, will send it here if you guys wanna check it!Posts Will be daily 5-7 times a week with 1,5k words is my aim.Will probably post it a month from now probably
>>25304223So the backstory is basically Silmarillion meets Wheel of Time with a little influence from Lord of Light. There is also some from the soulless folklore elves, though that part isn't very settled and is subject to change.
>>25286391>Unfortunately they win in the endThe enemies of the CCP are so cucked they can't even win in their own fantasies hahaha!
>>25301652Unless magic is super important to the story you don't have to really design a whole system for it. At least not in any detail. You merely need to allude to it, throw in whatever details you think sound cool or provide some kind of conflict or constraint, and peoples' imaginations will do the rest. Magic is inherently mysterious, after all, so having it mostly unexplained as long as there seems to be some kind of method to it will usually be fine.I'd only really suggest making a "system" if the mechanics of magic are going to be examined in detail in the story and are important to events and characters. This is very rarely the case.
>>25285316Hey, I was looking to have a good and evil faction both empowered by the cosmic force of light, and a similar pair of factions empowered by the darkness/void. Besides blasts and/or of the respective elements, and light-speed travel and shadow-walking respectively, what would you suggest please?
>>25306535supernatural charisma and courage/fear effectsillumination/creating supernatural areas of darknessenhancing senses/deadening sensesdetection/obscuringillusions/invisibilitymaterializing items/making things vanishmemory enhancement/memory erasureelemental enchantments on weapons and armorweapons and armor made entirely of the elementsummoning element beings
>>25306535Well it would depend on how literal you're being. If it's light, i.e. photons, then it's photon manipulation in two different forms. "Light" users would be able to manipulate photon movement, and "darkness" users would render photons inert, or otherwise somehow remove their ability to interact with matter, hence creating darkness (absence of light).But if it's more metaphorical, or metaphysical, then it's more about what "light" and "dark" represent in your setting. I can draw from real world examples like Zoroastrianism or Taoism, but I don't want to impose meaning that you haven't thought of
>>25305006I'm still trying to hammer down the spiritual mechanics of the setting. A point in the story is that the ancient humans becoming Elves was a horrible mistake even if it didn't seem that way at first and that the High Elves live in a post-scarcity false utopia in which everyone is secretly unhappy and desire to leave is considered a mental illness.
If you cannot find how a worldbuilding detail affects the plot, it is unnecessary. It doesn't need affect it a lot or much at all, but at least a little. If you cannot answer why a sentence in your book can impact the reader, cut it.
>>25307557In my case the spiritual mechanics are actually important to the plot and I need to sort them out even if I never explain them to the reader. Like what does it mean to turn someone into an Elf? Or a Vampire? How are these things similar/different beyond the obvious stuff? Both are spiritually disconnected beings but Elves do not need to drink blood from others, and there are also other differences. And that's just for starters.
>>25307842For starters, you should consider if elves and vampires are important for the plot in the first place. How does their existence create internal conflict for the protagonist? How are they engines to alter their ideals and perspectives? Do you really need those fantasy elements to deliver your message across via the climax?
>>25307557You are boring, I don't think you know how to have fun. I'm not cutting my worldbuilding. I am writting to show the world off and evoke thought.
>>25307863The main character finds himself living among the Elves in their high-tech fake utopia and being thoroughly miserable. It can be interpreted as a commentary about the superficiality of the modern world. Then some plot happens involving the unexpected presence of the feared Vampire Lord and things really go south... I don't want to give out the entire plot, which is pretty long and also still under development. Death, change, and immortality are major themes on multiple levels.
>>25301652>how does magic work in your worlds?People figured out a pidgin to work with shit living on another layer of reality and ask to trade favours, which works because neither side finds the other's requests very strenuous even if they don't really get the point of doing it. Being a person able to perceive that other layer is RNG, doesn't seem related to neither bloodline nor environment, but if you can then training works the same for everyone. And then you still gotta learn the pidgin and get used to negotiating in it. Lot of give and take.
>>25301652I have this as a resource. It's from my book. Don't read too much into it, I'm working on a second edition.>dumping
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>>25308189There, done.
Do you self-insert into your world?
>>25308519I hope not, nobody would want to read that shit.
>>25308519Of course! What other point is there to worldbuilding?
Is it possible to be unhappyundersocialism?
Is it okay to not have a detailed magic system or is that expected these days like having level ups I kind of wanted to write a story and not a TTRPG campaign
>>25309001Okay according to who? You can do what you want. Sanderson commands a pretty large audience and super detailed magic systems are his brand. So there's clearly a market for it if you are talking about something your audience will like. But no, you don't have to do that.
>>25309001For sure you don't need to even explain your magic system. LOTR never did to any real degree, just the effects and creation legends of artifacts.>is that expected these days like having level upsLitRPG is not trad fantasy. TTRPG-like stories tend to lean trad fantasy instead of LitRPG.
This general is stupid youre stupid
>>25310584>you'reFTFY
>>25309001A detailed magic system is not the same as having level ups and being LitRPG. The traditional TTRPG novelizations and their ripoffs don't have explicit level ups either because the characters in these stories don't know that their world works like a game and have no idea about things like hit points and attack rolls. And then you can have detailed magic systems not based on any game and which might not even make for a good game, and there is no requirement that a magic system must be detailed in the first place...If you are concerned with writing a popular web novel, you should check out the web novel general and also read more books.
>>25310625The fact that we have to talk about magic systems in terms of games now is exhausting. LitRPG killed almost all of fantasy fiction. I'm pretty close to just avidly shaming and berating all LitRPG "authors".
>>25285316What are some ways to keep the gods from solving all the story’s problems besides them being jerks who cause said problems, then needing prayer to do shit, and/or restrictions and divine laws on how they can directly interfere with, assuming that the gods actively exist?
>>25310709>assuming that the gods actively exist?They don’t. There. No more need for discussion. >>25310693Why can’t it just be looked at as the next step in the evolution of the fantasy genre?
>>25310784I don't want to write LitRPG, because I used to back in 2004 and people responded with "What is this gay shit? If I wanted to play a video game I would play a video game."So I ended up sleeping on it when I could have been a pioneer of the genre.
>>25307919If it can "evoke thought" which impact the character's choices, then it is important to the story. If it's a detail that doesn't affect anything, you're misguiding your reader into thinking it's important, and by extension, convoluting the entire point of the story. Adding a detail to "show off" just makes you look shallow. There should be a narrative reason for everything, and that's not necessarily hard to do.
>>25310795Which is why you shouldn’t listen to any feedback. Even mine. So none of this matters.
>>25310877Cool, I won't take your feedback to not take feedback.
>>25307557This is an inversion of the mistake of spending a thousand hours on worldbuilding while getting nowhere with writing a story while also being no less stupid.
>>25307557>>25310968Some people worldbuild without any intention of writing a story.
>>25310883Exactly! Or not.
>>25292907Book of the New Sun does this, and it's really cool. Things like electrical whips, and potassium being used as bombs when thrown into water, are presented as fantastical things that you might see as magical if you don't piece together what they actually are.
>>25292907What is the difference between magic and technology indistinguishable from magic?
>>25311796The author conveying to the reader that "it works because it has quantum technology" or something similar vs. "it works because it's inscribed with mystic sigils" or something similar.Science fiction and fantasy can often be converted into each other with surprisingly little modification. The difference lies in the justification for the fantastic elements.
bump
>>25310709Your first question should be whether the gods give a shit about the story’s problems.An evil wizard wants to destroy the universe? Would probably impact them so they would want to intervene.An evil king is oppressing his subjects? Doesn’t impact them, they probably don’t care.
>>25310709I like to use the example of Gods being like the sun. They benefit the people and world indirectly and at a distance, but they are so vast and so powerful that if they came directly to the planet and started to directly interfere their overwhelming power would annihilate all life on the planet. So instead they must use very indirect methods of interacting and interfering. Such as proxies, avatars, champions, etc. All of which can misinterpret or error since unlike the God they represent they are imperfect beings that fuck up sometimes.
>>25313924Sphere and globe building wise what is the point of introducing god or gods when substance/matter is more efficient at sphere ellipse building within the context to ellipse sphere weldt world globe sphere building or something such as that
>>25310976Given the context that this is /lit/ it's totally fair to assume that worldbuilders in a board about reading and writing might also write and read stories and thus discuss worldbuilding from that context.
>>25313928Look, I get that I phrased that a bit wonky but there is no need to be a ass about it.
>>25310609Fix around and find out.
>>25313930What the fuck other board would I be able to post a worldbuilding thread in?
>>25313930This also assumes that every single person here without exception is worldbuilding to write a piece of literature.>I didn't say that.Well you were arguing with a post saying some people didn't do that. If it's even two, that would be "some people".You are discounting all of the other reasons someone might want to worldbuild a fictional universe.- A video game, I don't have to be writing dialogue.- A DnD campaign.- A marketing framework for a line of toys. Or branding and theming of a group of performers.- Creating a visual medium such a animation.- Futurism and architectural design, starship design is worldbuilding.- Immersive experiences such a escape room, board games, or entertainment venues like laser tag or theme parks.You have to assume any of those people aren't searching for where they can discuss and understand worldbuilding and finding these threads. I'd have to guess that's rather unlikely.
>>25310693>. LitRPG killed almost all of fantasy fiction.Not even close.You just spend too much time online and not enough time in book stores.
>>25314082>Romantasy killed almost all of fantasy fiction.FTFA
>>25314084>none of it is futaDo writers even try?
>>25314084This is more correct, yes.
>>25314115If you see a gap in the market, perhaps you could fill it an make millions.
What if the moon was red like Mars? Same size as the moon, just the surface color is different. That could make for some cool in universe lore and religions and shit.
>>25308610Self-inserts do not have to be the Mary Sue power fantasies you read on your fanfics, anon. Some authors do it fine, like Nabokov.
>>25314079No one in this thread are worldbuilding for the alternative reasons you argued. What a weird unrelated tangent. Regardless the core of your argument, as you yourself pointed out, is a strawman thus I dismiss the core of your argument. Just because you point out that you understand you are strawmaning doesn't make it any less of a bad argument. >>25314062If you are genuinely curious./tg/ has both a general and half a dozen world building related threads at any given time. It's more or less the hub for general worldbuilding even when not connected to traditional games./d/ and /aco/ has fetish based world building threadsand of course there is /b/ and /r9k/ for occasional shorter threads on the subject usually centered around a single worldbuilding question.
>>25314264Most common associations with red is blood, which is why the trope of a blood moon is so common. Depends on exactly how red it is, because if it's more orange like mars, it's instead of a rust moon. The practical difference is that moonlight would be much darker because red absorbs more light than white and red light reflected on the earth would be much darker.There's probably more, but I'm not much of a scientist
>>25314742Sometimes, the worldbuilding is the story
>>25314758Worldbuilding is the story before the plot begins. The exposition, if you will.
>>25314762Sometimes, but there are cases where the worldbuilding and the "plot" are intertwined to the point of being indistinguishable. I want to make something closer to the Encyclopaedia of Tlön, than a fantasy novel.
>>25314767If the worldbuilding is in the plot, then that's world-*changing*. Worldbuilding as I understand it is about establishing the status quo, and the plot is about the protagonist changing said status quo. I'm not knowledgeable of Encyclopaedia of Tlön or the story it comes from, but if it's not about a linear narrative, simply stating how things are and not how things are becoming, then it's not really a plot, is it? There's not a central conflict tying it all together other than the metanarrative conflict of the reader trying to understand history. Or, an indefinite mini-plots that have no direct/permanent/significant impact on each other similar to an anthology.
>>25314767>Encyclopaedia of TlönTo be clear is this what you are talking about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%B6n,_Uqbar,_Orbis_TertiusNever head of "Tlön" so just seeking clarification so that I may understand.
>>25314758Can you give a example?
>>25314727Who the fuck is reading fanfics? Take xer ass back to ao3 or sufficient velocity or wherever the fuck people like you hang out.
>>25314742>No one in this thread are worldbuilding for the alternative reasons you arguedI am anon
>>25314727Self insertion is indulgent and inherently detracts from the story
>>25315163Writing stories in general is indulgent and so is reading them.
>>25314762If your worldbuilding is expository, you are doing it wrong.
>>25315585Let me provide some examples as usual.Expositional Dialogue>"As you all know, the goblin diarchy has taken over the fort, and now controls much of the eastern lands."Expositional Framing>When the goblin diarchy took over the fort, they gained control over much of the eastern lands.Dialogue>"Its a shame that we have to deal with the goblins to the east. My daughter and I visit every summer, looks like that won't happen this year."Framing>He looked out over the wall with his spyglass, eying the hide tents lined across the east. The goblins small fires dotted the nighttime horizon. He knew this war would last ages, and his daughter wouldn't be visiting the family this summer.
>>25314744I don't think nights would be that much darker if at all,, the lunar regolith is the same colour as asphalt, which is much darker than iron oxide, nights would probably look like a permanent lunar eclipse.Also i would imagine mythology surrounding the moon seeing it as a remnant of god's body, since flesh and blood are close enough in colour.
I think I've settled on just making the map a Middle-Earth style subcontinent with only 700 miles of distance between the furthest north and south points. There's something about the standard model that just works really well for fantasy. One of you should try something more novel like setting everything in an archipelago or a large river basin though.
>>25315569>le everything is bad!shut up curly
>>25315992Just because you think indulgence is automatically bad doesn't mean everyone else does. Also didn't argue that everything is bad or that everything is indulgence. So no, I will not shut up, and who the fuck is Curly?
>>25315585Depends entirely on the pace of the story and what is being told or shown.
>>25316509Let me give you a little linus tech tip curly: when someone says something is bad escalating to encompass everything as bad is not helpful. Writing self inserts is like eating cake 3 times per day. Writing or reading is like eating cake one time per month. The amount makes all the difference
>>25316696Your analogy is dumb to the point of nonsense. And who the fuck is Curly?
>>25293685Creation >Farming and fertility (growth + death)>The 4 classical elementsDestruction>Space of the cosmos >war and weaponsI think you can break those down into as many smaller categories as you want
>>25316707lol you are not very intelligent and very fat if you don't understand that a normal amount of something is good and gluttony is bad. I can't help you with that retardation
>>25316760And now all you have to say for yourself is childish insults.
>>25315585You can reference the past while discussing the present. Exposition is the world before the changes of the present, aka plot
DEI is not Slaanesh nor is it the gene stealers. DEI is Tzeentch trolling low level machiavellians into living like crabs in a bucket and making each other eat worthless slop.
It's kind of funny how in the distant past the way a "fantasy" hero was created was to give a give a hero incredible super strength; like Beowulf is described as having the strength of thirty men in just one of his arms, and this certainly makes it more believable when the hero is able to fight with creatures like dragons on even footing. But now this is only seen in capeshit while fantasy protagonists tend to just be normal guys; maybe with some magical ability.
>>25285316bump
>>25317953Sensibilities changed, we see ourselves as everymen so even our heroes need to be everymen, we just don't know how to think magically anymore.Beowulf and similar stories also had a lot more to say than capeshit.
>>25318193True. I just feel like fantasy needs to reclaim the image of the immensely powerful monster-slayer because it rightfully belongs to that genre and not to spandex-wearing homosexuals.
----------WORLD BUILDING----------ISLANDS, REEFS, BEACHES, CAVES, FORESTS, HILLS, MOUNTAINS, DUNGEONS, MARSHES, CASTLES, DESERTS, RUINS, PLAINS, RAINFORESTS, RIVERS, LAIRS, VILLAGES, TOWNS, OUTPOSTS, CAMPS, SNOW FIELDS/FORESTSSOME THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR A REGION INCLUDE (EVERYONE OF THESE QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED AND THEN SYNERGISED TO MAKE A BELIEVABLE REGION)DOES IT-HAVE FACTIONS- DIFFERENT FACTIONS- WHAT ARE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FACTIONSHAVE GODS / PANTHEONS- HOW DO THEY OPERATE- RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EACHOTHER- ACTIVE OR INACTIVE- WHAT TYPE OF FAITHS ARE THEREHAVE POLITICAL SYSTEMS- WHAT LEVEL OF CONTROL DO THEY HAVE- TYPE- INFLUENCED BY EXTERNAL GROUPS OR GODS- WHAT BELIEFS DO THEY HOLDHOLD ANY PARTICULAR BELIEFS EXPLOIT ITS PEOPLE OR OTHER PEOPLE- HAVE SLAVERYHAVE CULTS- SECRET SOCIETIES- IMPLICATIONSHAVE FREE TRAVEL- RESTRICTED TRAVEL- OPTIONS- PRICES- DANGERSWHAT IS-THE GENERAL WEALTH OF THE REGION- CLASSES- IS IT IN GOLDEN AGE OR BREAD AND CIRCUSES ETC- THE GDP OF THE REGION- WHYTHE LEVEL OF FOOD AVAILABLITY- DOES IT MAKE SENSE GEOGRAPHICALLY- WHAT TYPES OF FOOD ARE AVAILABLE- WHAT IMPACT DOES THIS HAVE ON THE HEALTH AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLEITS PROXIMITY TO OTHER CITIES, VILLAGES, OUTPOSTS, ENEMY CITIES, MONSTER DENS- WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONSITS RACIAL MAKEUP- ARE THERE TENSIONS BETWEEN GROUPSTHE GENERAL MOOD IN THE CITY- ARE PEOPLE ANGRY, HAPPY, WORRIEDTHE DRUG USAGE IN THE REGION LIKE- JUNKIES- DRUG FAITHS- LEGALITY- BLACK MARKETS- DEALER SYNDICATES- SPECIFIC DRUG- EFFECTS OF SAID DRUG- IMPLICATIONSTHE WEATHER, CLIMATE, GEOGRAPHY- IMPLICATIONSTHE PROXIMITY TO RIVERS, HILLS, MOUNTAINS- IMPLICATIONS- IS IT ON THE LESS FLOOD PRONE SIDE OF A RIVER BENDIS IT-LARGE, MEDIUM, SMALL, TINY.AN OCCUPIED REGIONUNDER ANY CURSESA RESOURCE RICH AREA- IS THIS WIDELY KNOWN- IS IT BEING UTILISED, WHY OR WHY NOTAT WAR- IN A CONFLICT- A COLD WAR- A TRADE WAR- WAS IT RECENT OR IS IT ONGOINGATTACKED BY MONSTERS FRQUENTLYARE/IS THERE-A MAIN INDUSTRY- MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES- NO INDUSTRIESSHOPS, SERVICESFARMS, MINES, INDUSTRIES, TOURISM, MILITARY BASES, GOVERNMENT HEADQUARTERSTRADE ROUTES- IMPORTS- EXPORTS- TAXES- WHO BENEFITS- WHYDEFENCES- WALLS, GUARDS, MILITIA, HIRED MUSCLE IS IT HAVING / HAS IT HAD-RELIGIOUS / SUPERNATURAL OCCURRENCESIMPORTANT EVENTS/PEOPLE PROPHECIESHOW-LONG HAVE THE PEOPLE LIVED HEREuse this or not idc
Can someone help me with the economics of swallow post?Basic premise is that swallows are magical birds that can relay messages or parcels. They're not doing it for free though, they're a fully intelligent species that wants payment for their services. One could even call them minor gods.You usually just gave them shiny stuff or food, but economics changes with time and they can't stay on barter economies forever. How should they operate in a modern economy?
>>25318899Swallows with bank accounts? Sounds weird to me.I'd like to know why exactly the swallows can't stay on barter economics. Do they want to benefit from passive income and buy stocks, maybe? The swallows earlier being satisfied with shiny things suggests that the swallows don't really care about money in the way humans do, though maybe the swallows could have simply taken some time to figure out that they can exchange a drab and uninteresting $100 bill for ten thousand shiny pennies. Maybe some particularly successful swallows could even get themselves luxurious super nests that shine and glitter like disco balls in an epitome of swallow aesthetic refinement.
>>25319092>Swallows with bank accounts? Sounds weird toMagic swallows. They're honestly closer to minor gods than animals. Idea was that shiny stuff is just prestige goods, like gold ornaments woild be for us. Stuff to show off how wealthy you are. But then I realized that as society becomes more monetized, keeping gold in your nest isn't quite as smart as keeping it in a bank account or in stocks. The real reason is simply that I thought the swallows should feel like another proper, intelligent civilization that trades with humans as equals, not just trained animals.
>>25319092>I'd like to know why exactly the swallows can't stay on barter economicsBecause that doesn't feel very modern. Humans don't stay on barter economies, why should swallows? They're just as intelligent as us, if not more. And have been so since before we stopped being apes.
>>25319131Yeah, it's an aesthetics thing. They aren't cavemen, they're supposed to look sophisticated.
The basic premise of my larger narrative is that the MC rejects Magic School because he wants to open his own private Magic agency that helps people out with supernatural problems. You know, exorcism, killing monsters, fetching magic items for money or pleasure, etc etc. I want you to evaluate the reasons for why it's not been done before, why he thinks it'd work, and why it does actually work.1. Wizards have always been in short supply. Almost all of them basically work for the government with the Magic Academies acting like medieval guilds slash labor unions. Hiring a wizard just didn't use to be possible for private citizens.2. He knows it'll work because his Master is a top ranked professor at the top ranked Magic Academy, and has leaked the fact that the current generation of wizards is the biggest and strongest in recorded history, which means lots of them are going to have to settle for less pay if they let the big shots in the Academies call the shots. There are only so many government jobs, after all. 3. The reason it will work is because the government is splintering with the rise of a new class of billionaires that don't want to play political games to get access to Magic...and the MC's own Master is one of them. So the new elite has reason to want private wizard companies that will scab.In other words, he has inside connections, is implicitly a political pawn, and has access to people that *need* his connections to achieve their ambition.So, how do you rate it?
>>25285316I hate that Darkest Dungeon came up with 'Vampires as blood-sucking insects' before I did. It's so good an idea and someone else already did it first and so well I don't think i could possibly improve upon it.
>>25319325well vampires are literally just parasites in concept. there's a million different ways something can be parasitic
>>25319174The fact magic communism even once worked in your world is astonishing
>>25319328There are limited kinds of blood drinking parasites. And the remaining ones don't really fit that well as vampires: leeches, lampreys, intestinal parasites, etc. They mostly live on water, for one. And water kind of conflicts with the themes of vampires, imo.
>>25319342then someone putting together the dots was kind of inevitable, wasn't it? you'd have to take more artistic liberties
>>25319350The only way I can think of making it work would be to lay on the fish-man aspect deeply. But then you just have blood drinking deep ones from the lovecraft mythos. I guess the real problem here is that if I specifically try to replace the crimson court from DD I'm obviously going to come up short every time.
>>25319331More like Magic Corporatism. Wizards are forced to work like a corporation under the Academies, because the academies have a monopoly on force.
>>25319325Nonsense. Vampires should be undead demons. Mine are the corrupted souls of greedy people possessing their bodies after death because they refuse to enter the Afterlife. Their hunger manifests in a psychotic desire to consume human flesh and blood. They are a spiritual pollution and need to be purged by exorcists.
>>25319406That doesn't mean you cannot use animal motifs in them. For example, some centipedes feed on blood, you could probably turn that into some sort of Japanese vampire-Hungry Ghost thing.
>>25319462Preta, literally the inspiration I used. Use whatever motifs you will, I'm not saying they can't be used. I'm saying that all those subversions and "new takes on old tropes" are just marketing gimmicks;don't put too much stock in them. Keep vampires what they are.
Holy shit, all of you are retarded
>>25319836And proudly so.
>>25319342You could just go for the classic vampire bat. It's classic for a reason. It doesn't have to matter that the vampire bat has been used in literature and film many times before.
>>25319392To what degree? Like, "Farmers cannot regrow GMO crops" and "every printer is surveilled by the FBI" kind of monopoly?
>>25319174That's a recipe for a very unstable situation with a lot of story potential. Your hero might end up exorcising an evil spirit sent by his client's business rival's hired wizard, for example. The inclusion of ambitious billionaires means that some characters will be trying to exploit magic to its fullest in pursuit of financial and political power. Even if the hero has limits to what kind of deals he is willing to accept, other freelance wizards might not be so scrupulous.I wonder thought what made the current generation so large and powerful. Is there some story reason or is the cause just normal variation like a few rare conjunctions having happened in the sky in a short time period causing the children born during those times become wizards...
For me getting good at worldbuilding has been the process of admitting I'm not Tolkien and shouldn't try too hard to create the most epic narrative ever from scratch. So instead I'm taking the Star Wars approach of just thinking of a fun story and rapidly adding as many entertaining ideas to it as I can in the hope that by some stroke of luck or genius it will come together beautifully.
>>25320593For me it's writing stories to build the world. I don't perfectly outline my stories, so they sometimes go in unexpected directions, which just adds to the flavor of the setting if not all the stories perfectly align and there's conflicting versions.
>>25319462I guess that's fair.>>25319949I wonder how vampires that behaved like Vampire bats would behave.
>>25319342I saw a show a long time ago. It might've been the Outer Limits or something similar, but it was about how vampires evolved into these huge immobile maggots that dispense immortality juice when fed blood. I thought it was interesting they had mastered the subversion and domination of humans so completely they atrophied into these helpless, barely sentient blobs over time.
>>25320062"We will literally kill you if you work without our permission" type of monopoly. Practicing magic without explicit permission from the Academies gets you labelled a Witch and hunted down by all Mages in their employ. Which is pretty much all of them.>>25320087>I wonder thought what made the current generation so large and powerful. Is there some story reason or is the cause just normal variation like a few rare conjunctions having happened in the sky in a short time period causing the children born during those times become wizards...It's background lore, but it's because a goddess is being awakened. Since she's a goddess of magic, this induced a surge of power in the current generation. Lots of kids that would only be latent Mages became full ones, and many that were already going to be born mages are significantly more powerful than the median.This surplus of powerful mages is actually why the MC more or less gets away with the business at first. The Academies decide it's the lesser evil compared to starting a possible civil war between the established elites and the miracle generation.>That's a recipe for a very unstable situation with a lot of story potential. Your hero might end up exorcising an evil spirit sent by his client's business rival's hired wizard, for example. The inclusion of ambitious billionaires means that some characters will be trying to exploit magic to its fullest in pursuit of financial and political power. Even if the hero has limits to what kind of deals he is willing to accept, other freelance wizards might not be so scrupulous.Stable settings are boring. I prefer worlds that are one spark away from exploding.
>>25320789Elder scrolls Oblivion vampires. Sneaking around feeding quietly on sleeping victims and keeping a low profile. Only with a lot more pissing while feeding, lol.
All my names sound too Latin/Romance aaaaa
>>25321712I just see that as the default naming style in English writing, better than trying to force something more alien unless you're really familiar with the language or culture.
>>25321712I want to use latin but written as if it was being pronounced phonetically by someone with a speech impediment for a far future setting. It might be too silly calling ancient humans 'hoemoeshapens' though so maybe I wont.
I think my setting looks geographically too much like my own country, or even, like my own region. I guess it is common, it is the the kind of climate, terrain, and the maps I grew up seeing, but I don't know.
>>25322019That is what tends to happen in your first constructed world if you just go off instinct and what you think is cool. I started off with a vast world with multiple continents, but the story I wanted to tell was focused in a region that, the more I developed its geography and history, strongly resembled the place I grew up, once I looked at it more objectively.
>>25322019What's the problem here? I consciously set out to do this to give my own country a mythology it never had, but I also added some extraordinary features to make it feel more magical. We need more "folk fantasy," so to speak.
>>25322161okay there, Tolkien Jr.
>>25285701surely you have interesting characters though, right?
I find that's it a good idea to weave worldbuilding with character interactions. r8 this exerpt /10>“Me? Huntress. I am Huntress. I am hunting for heads.” >Isaac gives a perplexed look she seems used to. >“Enough heads, and a man cannot deny me. That is a bachelorette’s recourse if she passes the age of twenty-two years. There are not many huntresses. We will see if I am successful”>Huntress made a habit, whenever climate allowed, of going topless. Amongst her fellow Headhunters of the Gnarlwood, such a thing was unashamed. The natural course of a woman’s body was displayed openly from youth to old age, as much as a man’s was. And such changes as she grew into full stature, as she bore children, and as she became wrinkled and elderly, were as familiar as a man growing a beard longer and longer, and grayer and grayer. Isaac recalled his youth in the hollows of Platsia, in which nursing breasts were not hidden, and mothers so easily bathed in a thousand rivers with their infants. Yorkan customs of prudishness (he supposed) grew into what, at the present, were now American customs generally. He wondered how men were convinced to be ashamed of such tenderness, but then he figured he was looking at her breasts for too long. >Though shirtless Huntress was never without several knives on her person, hidden on garters inside her baggy trousers. Her bow always ready seated in its case upon her hip. Liberal body paint, the custom of the tangled woods, obfuscated her minuscule (compared to a man’s) torso, well-muscled as it was. She wore a fur-lined phrygian cap so low on her face it was hard to see her eyes. As a sign of her warrior-vow, her teeth were filed into points, the custom of the Headhunters.
>>25321712Double down
>>25322297this.you have to latinize and then anglicize "foreign" fantasy names or else you will sound like even more of a sperg than you are.
I am afraid my setting might be too boring. I like it, and I enjoy creating it, and writing about it, but I think if anyone else read it, would find it dry and unoriginal
>>25322450>unoriginalIf you want to find your originality then it is an absolute requirement that you stop considering it at all and just do what you like without caring whether or not someone has done it before. Whatever you do just make sure it feels magical and it's something the child inside you would love; that's all you need to worry about.
>>25322450Settings are inherently boring in the overview. Your task is the zoomed in view.
>>25322450well, tell me about it and I can give you my opinion. I will say though as long as you are passionate about it that's all that really matters
>>25322175World building integration was pretty good. >“Me? Huntress. I am Huntress. I am hunting for heads.”Reddit chungus sentence. You're better than this
>>25322019Just make it take place there 10000 years into the future
>>25321712Literally just make the name of your kingdom a generic Latin word. Coolest thing ever.
The backstory for Mars - or to use its In Universe name Horus The Red - is that it was one of the first and richest extraterrestrial colonies in history, and the reason colonising the solar system was considered economically feasible in the first place, but eventually the locals decided they'd prefer to be their own state. I want to make this very clear, but all the talk in the actual story about Earth oppression, plans for a utopia and how much better things are due to the revolution are all just propaganda. It's not meant to be believed.They're wealthy today, but they were always wealthy anyway. The ones rebelling against Earth weren't oppressed citizens, it was shareholders of big Megacorps that though Earth was stifling profits. Other colonies that stayed loyal to Earth actually saw GREATER growth in wealth despite starting from a lower base.And most of the supposed war crimes were either fictional, comically exaggerated, or no worse than what Martian soldiers did. The only ones to truly benefit were the military, the megacorps, and a small class of planetary nationalists that want to create a Martian Empire controlling the asteroid belt with plans to eventually conquer the entire outer solar system. And they're not very pleased with how the normal Martian citizen would rather not pay higher taxes just so these bastards can control more land and people.
>>25322750>Valeria -> ValyriaBravo George
>>25321712Look up Gothic or Proto-Germanic dictionaries and go wild>>25322450There's a lot of people who are looking for "something like setting XYZ", whatever that may be. Original doesn't necessarily mean better.
>>25322861Just to be clear, my point is that no side is any more or less villainous than the other. Everyone is acting according to their incentives, even when said incentives clause clashes of interest. Earth aren't evil because they were the establishment, and Mars wasn't good because they were the rebels. Everyone was just doing what felt personally beneficial at the time.
>>25322871Exactly what I'm talking about. The first name would feel cool and genuine; what could be more awesome than calling your country the "hale/mighty land?" The second feels more like trying too hard to stand out and failing.
I couldn't decide if it's material conditions that influence the consciousness or the other way around. I decided to split the difference. The political and social ideals of people influence material realities like politics and the economy...and the other way around. And both are often influenced by outside events that can't be classified as either.As above, thus below.
Would people accept Megacorps as antiheroes better if the CEOs and executives are ferocious mecha pilots with private harems, instead of just middle aged autistic tech bros?
I have a concept for a magic system which involves calling upon various magical or spiritual forces from outside reality, which is all well and good and standard fantasy. Specifically, magic users specifically call upon these forces to cast spells, often combining them together in incantations. Instead of relying on a magical language, they just say the incantation in English (or the world's equivalent) which I think is more interesting and easier to write.However I'm running into a small problem. Why do magic users calling upon these forces bring them forth, but if someone who is not trained copies what they say exactly, nothing will happen? I don't want magic to be totally exclusive but it needs to require at least some amount of training or "induction" into the mysteries to be used. The setting's mystic side has a slightly Lovecraftian bent, if that helps.
Don't call your setting lovecraftian if humanity still has an exceptional place in it due to its unique attributes.
It's actually a misanthropic setting where one of the main themes is humans can't meaningfully change anything because of greed and shortsightedness and being little more then animals but you do you boo
>>25322672c&c?
>>25323295...has this guy never read Lovecraft before? There are mages coming out the wazoo
>>25317953There are plenty of contemporary fantasy stories where the protag is superhuman in some way or another. Super strength as a stand out or stand alone ability is rarer because it's been done to death.
>>25323260The magic users might need to do an explicit pact first, and most normal humans would be unwilling to get into that sort of stuff.
>>25323472Explicit pacts are probably the way to go but I dislike it always being at the mercy of supernatural beings and "magic in exchange" sort of stuff all the time (sometimes it's good). I'd prefer if it was possible somehow to call upon the powers that be without even necessarily them noticing, for the Lovecraftian theme. Of course if you try something too big for your britches then they may notice and actually demand payment, or crush you like an insect.
The best way to make a world is to just throw in disparate things that pique your interest and try to work out a way to make them fit together.I love hard sci-fi military stories, Japanese dark fantasy, alt-history, and cosmic horror. I also love talking about how awesome The Hero's Journey framework is, and how important escapism and wish fulfillment is for the human psyche.So I just threw it all together, and now I have monsters borne from the negative sentiments of mankind causing trouble in a cyberpunk future where the entire solar system is split into vast space filling superpowers throwing [Scientifically Accurate] automated armies at each other. And all this happened because Nyarlathothep, who is public domain btw, wanted to retcon away Christianity, Liberalism, and everything in the human psyche that is attracted to peace and justice.
>>25323490The big entities could give the magic users small entities that function as familiars and generally do as ordered. Familiars actually have some precedent in Lovecraft.
>>25323198Make them samurai.
>>25323633So it'll work.
>>25320593For me making a super epic narrative in the vein of Tolkien and pulp literature is the engine that keeps my worldbuilding efforts going. Actually getting that narrative written properly is another thing entirely. I have an outline that has undergone major revisions and still is in flux.
>>25323198Diehard anti-caps will still hate it regardless, but libertarian types would adore it, especially if you give pro-cap nods to Ayn Rand or similar writers in your work.
>>25289132
I was thinking of a fantasy setting where the heroes have regular 9-5 jobs but still regularly get roped into fantasy adventures on the side. Does anyone have advice or resources that might help me with this, it seems a bit hard to come up with a justification why people with legitimate jobs would be participating in adventures on the side.
>>25323317Is this character a goblin or something? That isn't even proper grammar
>>25324738Are there not enough context clues that the character is a savage by comparison to "Isaac"?Clearly the narrator is speaking with proper grammar, no?Might not be a large enough excerpt, I suppose.
>>25322861I'll be honest anon. Unified Earth vs Unified Mars is kinda boring. The western and eastern colonist aren't going to get along that well
>>25323198Thats how people felt about elon for a while
>>25324744I might feel differently about it if I read more. It could just be me personally but it instantly came off as someone's autistic dnd character. I almost didn't keep reading but I'm glad I did because my initial assumption was wrong. But that's how it came off to me. Make of that what you will
>>25324753>it instantly came off as someone's autistic dnd character.>But that's how it came off to me. Make of that what you willI've never played DnD. So idk.>What happened to that young man you said you knew? In your youth?” Asked Isaac. “He died. Eaten by cannibals. I loved him… and I have no other man in mind, no. Another may come. There are no unmarried men the same age as I, but perhaps I’d be a second wife. I don’t think about it much.” For once, she hesitated, and her laconism wavered, “I am thirty years old” >“You don’t sound like you have much of a plan beyond carrying some rotting heads with you back home. What’s the real reason-” >“What else am I supposed to do?.” She cut him off. “What of it? Are questions the only way you talk to each other, across the sea? Do you even have private vows?”So yeah I guess "autistic" in the sense of being closed off and bizarre are intended characterization goals. I hope some degree of "worldbuilding" can always come through with dialogue, keeping the thread theme.
>>25324747It's more like Unified Mars vs pretty much the entire Solar System. Mercury, the Sun, the Earth-Moon system, and even the Jupiter moons stayed loyal. Trivia asides, what's boring about it?
>>25324750I figure Elon's, and the techbros', real problem is that they're not really fitting societal norms for strength. They're autistic, nerdy, weak looking, and contemptible in every way.I'll just make them like old school Robber Barons, but with military experience and political power.
I don't think there's any point in adding standard roster of fantasy races like elves and orcs and goblins and shit if you're just gonna treat them like nations
How does your setting handle thermodynamics? Do you, like, just handwave it, or is there a cosmic cost?My own answer was that the energy is being "imported" from the multiverse, mostly from worlds with very different laws of physics. There's technically very little you can't do if you fetch enough energy. There's a catch though. All that energy you're fetching? It's going to make spacetime a little wobbly. And that's where Homoestasis comes in, the "God" of our Universe whose #1 priority is to keep Wizards from accidentally destroying reality with their lazy shortcuts. He/She manipulates humanity into constantly cutting down overly powerful, or at least wasteful, Mages to avoid a single overly powerful Mage wrecking everything.With that said, Homoestasis is totes fine if we just use magic responsibly. We just don't.
BTW, If your magic system allows for infinite level grinding, what keeps the absolute strongest mages from completely breaking the setting's status quo?
>>25320912>Practicing magic without explicit permission from the Academies gets you labelled a Witch and hunted down by all Mages in their employ. Which is pretty much all of them.Since it's magic, you need to be incredibly specific about surveillance capabilities. If there is a moment where magic is illegally practiced, the reader will demand to know why/how exactly they do/don't get caught. If it's a hand-wavy-reason, they'll get pissed at how magic is vague or how the monopoly on magic is run incompetently. e.g. Harry Potter
>>25324870Oh, they do surveillance the old fashioned way. It's legally no different from, say, practicing medicine without a degree. You don't need some magic power to tell whether someone does or doesn't have the proper license, do you?
>>25324865I try not to bog the stories down by getting deep into the details of the physics and mathematical equations related to made up magical phenomena. Maybe if you are writing super hard sci-fi something like that would come up, but otherwise getting that deep into detail never benefits the story or whatever you are working on.Like when have you read a story where it was compelling and interesting that the characters sat around doing physics equations in detail to balance thermodynamic reactions?Skip it and spend your time on something useful to your project.
>>25324865The power required to cast magic correlates with the amount of overt breaking of the natural laws. Casting charm or fear on everyone in the room is easier than bringing someone back from the dead which in turn is easier than producing a bolt of fire from one's bare hands. This is very different from the typical scaling. Consequently mind-affecting spells are very popular, though those can be resisted by strong enough souls.The power required for the magic comes from the caster. Normal humans can't manage very big spells, though regaining the spent energy requires nothing more esoteric than some nourishment and rest.>>25324867The strongest mages already broke the status quo tens of thousands of years ago. The current plot happens because the status quo is being challenged again.
>>25324943How did it last for thousands of years if a single strong mage can break it?
im losing my mind with making a magic system for my fucking story. i dont like numbers but I got grilled for making a soft magic system with my previous short story. is there a wiki or reference for a generic magic system?
>>25324953Those original strongest mages from tens of thousands of years ago are still alive. In this setting grinding levels (not that they actually have actual levels since this isn't LitRPG) takes a lot of time and the limited human lifespan effectively keeps mortals confined to the low echelons of magic. You just can't have an isekai hero appearing from nowhere and challenging the gods after a few years of dedicated grinding. The original strongest mages were really high in innate talent too and they have the advantage of experience on top of that.
>>25324972Who expects a hard magic system in a fucking short story?There isn't room for one unless the story is only about the magic system.
>>25325028>Who expects a hard magic system in a fucking short story?...Jack Vance wasn't writing long novels.
>>25325016So like Xianxia? Those people spend more time than all of human civilization just to become, like, 10% stronger.
>>25325045No one talks about or care about Vance outside of his incidental influence on D&D.
>>25325048...Ok, point, but it still proves it can be done. Just make the entire plot be about studying or using the magic system.
>>25325047It's influenced by xianxia but without any of the Daoist terminology and has overall more of a Western flavor.
>>25324972There is nothing wrong with soft magic as long as you make it clear what the rules are and stick with them. Concrete rules like "magic can't be used to raise the dead" or "magic can only be performed if the wielder had a staff" are really all you need. Technical jargon and power systems are not necessary.
How the hell do I even describe the geography of a space nation in my reference docs? I frame them in the same format as wikipedia pages for countries.
>>25325352uhh... the "space nation" exists in relation to other space nations right? and in relation to other star clusters? and in relation to a wider galaxy, right?how does it sit relative to the galactic plane? is it hard to reach with whatever technology there is available?Anon, come on. Why are you writing about space if you aren't thinking about this?
>>25325358No, it's the only space nation. And covers only our solar system minus Earth.Like, what am I even supposed to write here? "They rule everything except earth, the end"?There's no topography in space.
Now I'm a little stuck on just how exotic I want my setting to be. Part of me wants to go so far that every single tree and animal is something completely different from what we have in our world to make the setting feel as fresh and exotic as possible, but it's hard to dispense with some things as fundamental as eagles and horses.
>>25325062I think I'll add that while the fundamentals of the magic system are influenced by xianxia, the plot itself is not particularly xianxia.
>>25325352>>25325414>No, it's the only space nation. And covers only our solar system minus Earth.This would literally never happen. You are effectively writing a utopia. Are you writing a story about how everyone's life if perfect? Are the people in the nation without resource, or have a class divide?I don't think you have the chops to write. I'd practice and read a lot more before even starting.Sorry, it's just honesty.
>>25325414>They rule everything except earth, the endWhats wrong with a succinct and to the point description like that?
>>25324888>They won't break the law, because...well, because it's illegal, okay?!I think you need to research the prohibition anon. I'm being reductive here but only a little. A low supply only further increases the demand, and with a resource so universally influential, there's no reason an underground magic industry wouldn't already exist or endlessly try to exist. ESPECIALLY if any given mage were able to teach/propagate their knowledge/power.
>>25325625Don't go too crazy. Real life is full of crazy shit that people don't think about or care about. Like how pineapple makes your mouth feel tingly because it's stabbing you with microscopic needles.
>>25324972>got grilled by a redditorwho cares? You're clearly no doing something that you want to do
>>25324821Just seems to go against human nature. Mars would be colonized by different people with different cultures. It's hard to believe that they would just get along with each other more than their ancestors back home.
>>25324828Our society doesn't venerate strength. It's quite the opposite. As soon as Elon says or does something "based" all the weenies scream and complain.
>>25326018Mars is a radically different environment from earth and would produce radical physiological changes in just a single generation. That isn't even taking into consideration how it might be desirable to modify the human genome to more easily survive there. A unifying martian identity would form incredibly quickly in my opinion, which I suspect is why the powers that be in the real world don't want a real mars mission. Creating hyper-america 2.0 would completely annihilate everything that came before it.
>>25325625You got to pick and choose which hills to die on.My world has a lot of invented animals and the total or near total absence of whole branches of animals, yet the vast majority of plants are the same as earth plants because it just isn't worth my time or the reader's time to invent hundreds of new plants, herbs, crops, etc. that would be functionally the same as what already exist. It's also why I kept a lot of birds and rodents the same, because something functionally the same but with a different name just ends with you calling a rabbit a smeerp.If it's functionally and especially visually the same as a existing animal it's pointless to give it a diffrent name. So I instead spend that creative energy on truly unique animals.Like my Daggerdashes, which are large raptor like dino-birds primarily rode by the Fera, who are somewhat inspired by big foot and wild men legends. Or Rogs, which are a big rodent raised as livestock who taste very similar to pork but can be raised better in enclosed spaces. Thus making them a staple meat in smaller walled cities that don't have farm districts. Meanwhile I kept chickens but added made up breeds to fluff the lore.
>>25326020They do that because they are political tribalist, not out of a principled dislike of strength and power. They dislike when [outsider tribe] displays strength. They LOVE when their tribe displays strength.
>>25326018I know; my excuse was Martians are basically like the early US colonies- a bunch of elite refugees fleeing from their homeland after Earth was conquered. They're Chinese, Russians, Arabs, Turks, etc etc. All sort of people.The only thing unifying them is that they're agreeing to work together so they can reconquer their ancestral homeland on Earth.
>>25326020That's because he's just a middle aged socially awkward nerd with no wife whose kids hate him. There's no masculine strength in him.
>>25325883>>25320912>We will literally kill you if you work without our permission" type of monopoly.You obey the law or else the government will kill you.
>>25326822if you're caught*
>>25326826Yes, IF you're caught. It's just that you're not dealing with 1930s US. You're dealing with Space Fantasy Singapore. They can, and will, send you to the magic torture dimension if any of their 10^32 surveillance devices or algorithms catch you practicing magic without permission. Even the MC only gets away with it because his Mentor and chief sponsor is one of the top bigwigs in the government. He actually *helps* hunt down other private wizards both to destroy competitors and to make the government feel he's "safe" enough to ignore.
>>25325747>This would literally never happen. You are effectively writing a utopia. Are....unified nations don't exist?>>25325866It's just not very helpful. Every aspect of worldbuilding should induce more storytelling.
>>25326143....so a warrior caste running a megacorp that's gay, female, and black? I can't do that.
>>25326136>raptor like dino-birds primarily rode by the Fera, who are somewhat inspired by big foot and wild men legends.So you just reinvented Ostriches.
For those creating low fantasy worlds, when did magic start changing world history? Was it during the Bronze Age?Did your factions do anything during the collapse?
>>25327080idk if my setting is low fantasy (most people either 1. dont practice it, 2. call it "folk beliefs" dismissing it, or 3. treat it like a philosophy, so they reject the label "magic").but magic basically bootstrapped itself through time so that it would always exist and cause itself to exist. "magic" is part of a larger force/entity whose main goal is to zero-sum reality. magic is an entropic act and is helpful for the entity for reasons I will not go into at this time.
>>25327097Does it exist in our earth? If so, it's low fantasy. If it exists in its own different world? High Fantasy.
>>25327104depends. it takes place on actual earth (like, the earth we know) between the years 2100 and 2800. shifts perspectives from pre- to post-collapse.the pre-collapse segments could be imagined as "urban fantasy" and resemble our modern world. but I understand now that maybe still doesn't count as low fantasy. "science" is so far away from anything that matters in the setting that I strain to call it it "sci-fi" just because it takes place in the future. BUT. "magic" in this setting has been effecting society since the Bronze Age, yes. It can be imagined as a disembodied entropic force which may very well *cause* things like the Bronze Age Collapse.
>>25327131and the implication is that "magic" causes another collapse between 2100 and 2800, one way or the other.
>>25327131> it takes place on actual earthThen it's low fantasy.Anyways, did magic actually influence anything in the bronze age or older?
>>25327167It's meant to be ambiguous, part of a mystery, but yes. "Magic" planted itself into early man as soon as man had the cognitive ability to handle it... and it has subtly guided history to a conclusion where it can zero-sum everything. Homeric heroes, for example, may very well have been conscious or unconscious practitioners of this "magic" force, allowing them to change odds in ways beyond naturalistic means. King Arthur, Richard the Lionheart, Joan of Arc. that sort of idea. Entropy, or magic, is not "malicious" in a moral sense. It is just patiently guiding things in certain ways. The exceptional ability (or outright magic, depending on the society, just take it from that witch covens in this setting were 100% practicing magic) of "great men" derives from the same force which is attempting to steer history towards a final "conclusion"
>>25326850I wouldn't call that "old fashioned" but alright. REAL old-fashioned surveillance is spies, community watches, bounties, and so on. That kind of enforcement and incentive is what really causes dissidence.
>>25326863They are more really big raptors with extra feathers to aid in especially high and/or far jumps even when there is a sasquach on their back.
>>25327221I'm sorry, sasquatch? The giant ape?How big are these things?
>>25326861well that sort of thing doesn't exist because they purity spiral and generally self destruct. It's like having a caste system except the stupidest most inept people are at the top
Is this thread pretty much just for straight fantasy or sci-fi writing? Is anyone here writing something outside those genres?My current projects are about a government agency that employs mind readers and a group of unaging vampires who have been managed and cared for by the Catholic Church since the 13th century.
>>25328057The theme of the thread is tied to fantasy elements, but it's still world building ***general***
>>25327359>I'm sorry, sasquatch? The giant ape?Fera are a people in my setting that are somewhat inspired by nomadic wild men and big foot. They are giant hairy humaniods averaging around 7 1/2 to 8 feet tall and a average of 300 pounds.From that you can sort of extrapolate the size and carrying capacity of a Daggerdash, but it's not something I have hard numbers on, at least not yet.
>>25328139How the hell can a bird carry that? They're not built to carry big burdens.You'll either have to make the average daggerdash as big as a Trex or make them magical.
>>25328356Like i have said several times already. It's more dinosaurs than bird.I even posted a image of a feathered dinosaur to illustrate the point. I really hope the average reader isn't as dense as you. If they are then writing is impossible. Only picture books will be understood. I am not sure how you are still confused. Look at the picture I posted, now imagine it scaled up to the size a big foot could ride it.
>>25328505The dinosaur species you posted were really small. Like, chicken sized.
>>25328529Now imagine them really really big.You know like this is fantasy or something and you are playing pretend.
Should every faction of a gray setting be equally bad? Conversely, is it really a gray setting if all but one side are basically sadistic, ontologically evil omnicidal cosmic horrors?
>>25328556>morally grey is still measured on a lawful to chaotic, "good" to "evil" chartDnD and its consequences...
>>25328559Moorcock, the Father of Dark Fantasy, wasn't any better.
>>25328556>Should every faction of a gray setting be equally badYes. Next question.
>>25328556Not equally, but bad in different yet understandable ways.The result of moral compromise and pragmatism. That's what makes it gray. Not everyone being equally bad. When everyone is equally bad you end up with grimdark at best and grimderp at worst.
>>25328651>When everyone is equally bad you end up with grimdark at best and grimderp at worst.Not really? Grimdark is usually just bad guys vs degenerates, mutants, and the hordes of hell. So basically just a Fascist framing. Our guys might be immoral, but only because our enemies are pure evil and wholly dedicated to our destruction. So forget morality and just support the brutal thugs that look like you.Gray morality is when nobody is any worse or better than others.
>>25328556There's no such thing as equally bad. Morality isn't some quantified property that can be neatly measured.Let me give an example. Suppose there are n different factions with the same goal of conquering or destroying every other faction, and all are equally brutal. Do you think any readers will consider them equally bad? Of course not! Everyone will take a faction that has better aesthetics, or better characters, or just looks and feels more like their own culture than the others do, and start whitewashing them to justify supporting them. Or look at how even if humans and aliens are equally bad, people will still end up siding with humans.
>>25328658>Gray morality is when nobody is any worse or better than othersWhere the hell did you get that idea?That isn't even close to what it means.
>>25328690Gray itself means neither black or white. In other words: Neither good nor evil.
>>25328709In otherwords you made up your own incorrect definition of words with preexisting meanings.Why am I not surprised.
Anybody want to work on my "esoteric power system" bit of worldbuilding?Basically I'm running the idea of Planeswalker type beings who can travel between dimensions. Based on feedback I've grown quite accustomed to the planeswalkers gaining powers based on the worlds they visit, such as travelling to a sand world giving you great heat resistance or the ability to turn into sand, that kind of thing.However I need help with two factors>Limitations- How to prevent unlimited power growth by travelling to different worlds?>Aquistion- What do you have to do to actually get the power from the world while you're there?For the second, I've thought of doing a Kingdom Hearts style thing with a primary problem or world-heart kind of situation. For the first however, I have no idea, I know I want them to be like overpowered mages who've been around forever but not literal gods and run into a limit at some point, just not sure what.
>>25328835>LimitationsMaybe the human body's energetic system presents a limit on the power that is possible to channel at any given time. Experienced mages become masters of multiple disciplines, including some really obscure and esoteric ones, and can always have the right tool for the job but can never blow up planets with a spell.>AcquisitionI imagine acquisition would involve spending significant time on the relevant plane and doing research and training to become an expert on the plane and its magical applications. This research could function as a trigger for adventures.
There's another human race in my world - many of them actually, but only one is relevant right now- whose gimmick is that they evolved better civilizational skills than us.They're technically Homo Sapiens, but with immensely greater social skills. They don't really go to war against each other like we do, they discovered agriculture and society faster than we did - they actually went from agriculture to the moon in just two thousand years.We took more than ten, btw.Anyways, they look down on us normal humans. They see us the same way we see Congolese tribes. As far as they're concerned, there's no reason for us to exist at all; we're just taking up space on *their* Earth.I intend to use them to force Homo Sapiens to adopt a World State, with a global military, to survive against them. That's the only way, in my belief system, that humanity can be a single polity - to fight a common enemy.
>>25328835Let's start from the bottom. What IS magic, on a fundamental scale? Why does a person thinking really hard about a certain effect actually break the laws of physics in that specific region of spacetime?
>>25328984I don't have a good answer for this story yet but the basic idea I have is that you keep a piece of the world with you after you leave, being infused within your being, which is where they get their powers from.While I do call it "magic" since that's what it is I think of it less like traditional spellcraft or incantations since it's more innate abilities. Like you visit caveman primal world and gain superhuman strength or whatever it wouldn't be something you have to focus and turn on you'd just kinda "have" it but I'm not exactly sure. It's a vague concept. One of the reasons why I'm looking for limitations is also because the basic plot is that the main character is essentially the last free planeswalker guy after just getting his powers recently; the rest being killed by a group of evil planeswalkers who want to take over reality so I need a way for him to eventually fight back even though they'd have eons of years of experience or world-powers or whatever.
>>25328996I think you'd find the answer yourself if you work out why magic even exists in your world. Finding out the origin and nature of a phenomenon gives you hints about its limits. Just like how knowing the source and boundaries of a projectile can tell you its destination.
>>25329001See this is the kind of thinking that urkes me. "Why magic even exists in your world" it DOESN'T exist in this one, but in another universe, it could. The rules of our universe disallow it, but in a different world, which doesn't run on the laws of physics but on elemental forces or spiritual forces or Eru's song or whatever, magic could be real. People being able to go between different worlds in this way and yet retain some amount of sanity or personhood is kinda the whole gimmick.I'll stop colonizing the thread talking about my own shit now, I appreciate the feedback.
>>25328835>Anybody want to work on my "esoteric power system" bit of worldbuilding?Not really. However I will give mild general advice related to what else you have said. I think deciding on what kind of story (or other sort of project) you want will help a great deal in giving you direction in what power/magic system will best fit. As well as if any edits to that system are good or bad. Without putting the system into context of a project it's almost impossible to tell if you are getting closer or farther away from something that best fits your world.
>>25328984>What IS magic, on a fundamental scale? Why does a person thinking really hard about a certain effect actually break the laws of physics in that specific region of spacetime?Not every question needs an answer. Mysteries are often a good thing.
>>25329322Mysteries are for readers, not the author.
>>25329328Poppycock.
Spent the last two weeks worldbuilding an anthropologically plausible incestuous doomsday cult only to realise that no one is ever gonna read about it, making me tonight's biggest loser
>>25329818If you keep writing or making projects you likely will find a story where you can include parts failed attempts thus making the effort not in vain. Save the idea for a rainy day and keep writing.
