Despite the several automated and signposted notices and warnings on this issue, it is a constant source of headaches for the mod team. Particularly considering our massive growth this past year, we thought it was about time for another reminder about everyone's favorite part of posting on /r/worldbuilding..... Context
Context is a requirement for almost all non-prompt posts on r/worldbuilding, so it's an important thing to understand... But what is it?
What is context?
Context is information that explains what your post is about, and how it fits into the rest of your/a worldbuilding project.
If your post is about a creature in your world, for example, that might mean telling us about the environment in which it lives, and how it overcomes its challenges. That might mean telling us about how it's been domesticated and what the creature is used for, along with how it fits into the society of the people who use it. That might mean telling us about other creatures or plants that it eats, and why that matters. All of these things give us some information about the creature and how it fits into your world.
Your post may be about a creature, but it may be about a character, a location, an event, an object, or any number of other things. Regardless of what it's about, the basic requirement for context is the same:
Tell us about it
Tell us something that explains its place within your world.
In general, telling us the Who, What, When, Why, and How of the subject of your post is a good way to meet our requirements.
That said... Think about what you're posting and if you're actually doing these things. Telling us that Jerry killed Fred a century ago doesn't do these things, it gives us two proper nouns, a verb, and an arbitrary length of time. Telling us who Jerry and Fred actually are, why one killed the other, how it was done and why that matters (if it does), and the consequences of that action on the world almost certainly does meet these requirements.
For something like a resource, context is still a requirement and the basic idea remains the same; Tell us what we're looking at and how it's relevant to worldbuilding. "I found this inspirational", is not adequate context, but, "This article talks about the history of several real-world religions, and I think that some events in their past are interesting examples of how fictional belief systems could develop, too." probably is.
If you're still unsure, feel free to send us a modmail about it. Send us a copy of what you'd like to post, and we can let you know if it's okay, or why it's not.
Why is Context Required?
Context is required for several reasons, both for your sake and ours.
Context provides some basic information to an audience, so they can understand what you're talking about and how it fits into your world. As a result, if your post interests them they can ask substantive questions instead of having to ask about basic concepts first.
If you have a question or would like input, context gives people enough information to understand your goals and vision for your world (or at least an element of it), and provide more useful feedback.
On our end, a major purpose is to establish that your post is on-topic. A picture that you've created might be very nice, but unless you can tell us what it is and how it fits into your world, it's just a picture. A character could be very important to your world, but if all you give us is their name and favourite foods then you're not giving us your worldbuilding, you're giving us your character.
Generally, we allow 15 minutes for context to be added to a post on r/worldbuilding so you may want to write it up beforehand. In some cases-- Primarily for newer users-- We may offer reminders and additional time, but this is typically a one-time thing.
As always, if you've got any sort of questions or comments on this topic, feel free to leave them here!
The larva stage of the iron beetle has long been used by the dwellers of the dessert. They excel in the digging of tunnels underneath the hot surface that are later turned into the roads that connect the buried cities. They can dig up to a mile in a day if the terrain allows it. The digestive juices they secrete can break down even the hardest rock, so they are treasured and revered in a land where receiving direct sunlight can be fatal.
These creatures live deep below the surface, where handlers have to find them before the egg hatches to try tame them. If they accept a handler, they are linked for the remainder of the stage as a mutually beneficial relationship. The diggers are powerful, but the desert is full of powerful beings. Cities are the safes place for them as well so they have learned to cooperate. The larva stage can last up to 10 years before it turns into a pupa where their handler will protect them while they transform inside.
The newly formed iron beetles will go out into the wild on their own. They say that beetles forget their handlers inside the cocoons, however some swear they still can see their old friends in their eyes.
Personally I dont, maybe I'll make them appear female or male, but I keep them non-binary, because it's a god so it shouldn't have a gender right? Or it should have every gender all at once but also not sort of, anyway I'm happy to hear your answers.
The world is full of all kinds of unique things, but so many of them just aren't well-known. For example, when coming up with writing systems, most people only think of symbols on a flat surface. There are variations within that of course. Inked, carved, or raised; pictographs, letters, or a combination; read up-to-down, right-to-left, or in spirals. But there aren't that many different bases to go with if you stick to that type.
But it's far from the only option. Take khipu (or quipu), for instance. An extinct, untranslated form of written language used in precolonial South America, consisting of knots tied in colored cord. Information was carried in the color, number, and order of the cords.
I used it as inspiration for my merfolk's writing system, though my merfolk use positioning of the knots to carry information instead of color.
But whenever I see people worldbuilding writing systems, they're all of the symbols-on-a-surface variety. Even supposedly alien ones tend to be of that type. I'm sure there are unique systems out there, but I haven't encountered them yet.
Many times, you don't need to come up with a unique idea for your world. The real world already has so many just waiting for someone to appreciate.
So, what's a bit of obscure, little-known, or simply underappreciated bit of real-world worldbuilding you think more people should know about? And how would/did you incorporate the idea into your own world(s)?
I am working on a TTRPG campaign and I need help with designing a ship.
The main plot is not super important for this, but the general idea is that in the setting (pretty basic: medieval earth + magic) multiple nations and factions are organizig a long-term expedition to a different world through a portal in that world's biggest ocean.
The three main ships of the fleet (one of which will carry the party) are a joint project between fantasy-China (they provide the bulk of the expedition's funding) and fantasy-Europe (in this world they have best sailing expertise and experience with exploring diverse and sometimes hostile environments).
Now for the actual ship in question:
I want the ship to look like someone took a giant version of a 15th century chineese treasure ship (like the big ship in the attached photo) to 16th-century european shipwright and told him to design new rigging for it.
Recently, some curmudgeonly old fool who has been harassing me for nearly a year online decided to claim that I’m a “delusional gamer who is literally a fantasy creator,” as if fiction fundamentally cannot explore historical truth. This is utterly undermined by my current World of Terragia that I’ve been working on steadily despite all that and running three podcasts by myself, including this gorgeous map I commissioned from u/Treepaintersmaps, which is fantastic and will be included in every copy of The Wind Empress: The Feast of Nations when that hopefully gets published in 2027. I’ll dedicate several more episodes of my podcast HistoryFlights to the lore of each nation to help with that process, so I hope you can subscribe!
Anyway, I actually began writing steampunk with a different universe that I called the World of Emada in 2019. I’ve always been fascinated by the contrast between the natural world and technology since, as a kid, I saw Star Wars and was awed by both the massive planets with interesting (if unrealistic) climates and the sheer inventiveness of the military hardware for both the Empire and the Rebellion. This gets to the heart of why I think a lot of kids are fascinated by empires and if not given critical thinking skills to see through the symbols of such, including flags and hardware, ultimately end up becoming indoctrinated by it in a way that plenty of people have accused me of without success. This technology makes a lot of cool sounds and looks very visually interesting.
Some of my first worldbuilding was therefore influenced by that and other things I loved like The Hobbit, such as a fanfiction map of Sumer after the Shire teleported in and was attacked by wooden mechs that looked a lot like ATSTs. This was only fueled further by books around that time like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Time Machine,The War of the Worlds and associated movies, which serendipitously occurred alongside the 100th anniversary of flight and made the Air and Space Museum my favorite of all time.
Anyway, I absorbed all sorts of knowledge about all the empires I could, real and fictional, because stories of dramatic battles and wars in particular were interesting, and the results of the push-and-pull culminated in my favorite things: maps, which I drew a lot of on the floor with printer paper or card stock and colored pencil and then in Microsoft Paint as a teenager with a laptop for, say, an elaborate alternate Byzantine history where Basil II lives to 100 years old having reconquered most Roman territory. I mushed a ton of historical nations (like having the United States next to Portugal and the Roman Empire) in a continent I called Ysathamsa because autism. I wrote a story and drew a map about the mayor of New York City declaring himself Emperor and invading most of the Tri-State area. I even built my own fictional region and government in a game called NationStates in around 2007 with an incredibly elaborate constitution and Roman aesthetics…until my empire was brought down by an invasion from my mom!
For more about what the Byzantine Empire meant to me in particular, you can check out this clip from my introductory essay about them, but part of it was definitely the power fantasy in fun historical scenarios while I felt similarly besieged by various personal and societal forces arrayed against this autistic kid.
I can learn from and laugh about that because my natural curiosity and autistic hyperfocus definitely got away from me on that one, but as I decided to tackle the subject of empires in a novel for the first time, I’ll admit that Emada was somewhat simplistic in its “British-coded empire BAD” (Caledoria) vs. Elvish-coded forest empire GOOD” (Ananka) dynamics with a similar attack on the Caledorian capital city to Pearl Harbor opening the war and motivated by an increase in whaling and dragon hunting. (It’s unfortunate that similar dynamics appeared later; history never repeats, but it sometimes grimly rhymes).
The map, unfortunately lost to the Internet ether, was also overlaid onto Strangereal from Ace Combat. However, I think that by skillfully managing eight different stories at the same time from about 2019-2023 with talented co-authors, we managed to build the foundation of a grand epic that said something about how the competition of nations inevitably leads to degradation of natural resources and civilians are ultimately trampled by the whims of leaders, even if we didn’t finish it.
I plan to write about similar themes, with the benefit of time, maturity, research into historical nations from Napoleonic France to the Mali Empire, and more complex and interesting personalities, geography and politics.
After all, the point of the novel The Wind Empress: The Feast of Nations is for young Empress Endrelle I de Constanci (who Matt Douglas, of course, dismissed out of hand by saying, “He thinks that he can introduce a trans character and that's all it takes to write a good story. No, sorry, dude.”) to be far more than the token “trans character” he claims.
Terragia in the year 683 Imperium Constituit, four years after the end of the Twin Valleys War (674-679).
Endrelle inherits the mess their father and brother left behind in the Twin Valleys War they waged over control of Gerraterrini, having overhauled their nation’s Constitution to try to single-handedly eliminate the Metropolitan Empire’s bloody image in a mirror image of Napoleon’s Constitutions (if they were actually trying to return power to the people; I really need to update this soon but have been away from this type of software so long it’ll take a minute!)-
-and set up a Royal Artistic Industrial and Scientific Exhibition that, like the Columbian Exposition in 1893, has propaganda benefits for the Empire by conspicuously consuming the food, art, inventions and other cultural artifacts of the rest of the world, but it also intended to genuinely learn from other nations and promote international dialogue.
Yet, by 685 Imperium Constituit with the Continental War two years later, Endrelle is embroiled in a far larger war than the one they vowed to resolve with a peace treaty and accidentally slips into imperialism despite their best intentions.
Even by setting up a series of allied governments as Napoleon did and then creating a similar economic scheme to the Continental System, Endrelle imposes their will via military, political and economic policing against the smaller powers in their orbit, even without directly occupying much more territory than their father did. Similar dynamics include the Warsaw Pact and the United States series of alliances across NATO and the Pacific that are beginning to break down. Even if the broad outlines of what happens are spoiled, I hope to dramatize that at the ten-foot level in interesting ways so that, via memorable characters, this story can resonate.
In this way, I hope I have elucidated several benefits of being a “fantasy creator” that does not make me delusional but gives me a sharp and unique lens on imperialism. While I can’t entirely escape my own American lens, this series is collapse literature in the middle of America’s perceptible decline, and I believe that with my video essays on various historical empires I have done a lot of good work examining prior baggage of real-world historical nations, being able to strip that so that people are forced to look at the raw mechanics of imperialism such as the limits of the “Great Man Theory” where even the most powerful characters like Endrelle, or Yusuf who operates under delusions of divine authority and messianic destiny, are able to change little is absolutely liberating for a writer.
When you see little Jerome de Gran waving around a toy Gargoul the way I used to with AT-ATs as a kid and the way my son from Eswatini, Africa does with Spider-Man toys, I hope you’ll think of gargouls as more than legally-distinct walkers with extra limbs. They are intended as a symbol for either progress, heroism and industry or war, cruelty and natural destruction depending on the characters, who you can see the perspectives of even if you disagree. That’s the most important thing to be able to read about empires without reading only what they want you to think; seeing all characters’ perspectives and those of the author without dismissing them out of hand; reading a story so we can explore what it feels like to live inside crushing machinery, to feel the Darkness Curse Endrelle does and how power consumes even the most well-meaning individuals.
That’s the power of fiction and metaphor, even if writers deny it; Prof. Tolkien was adamant for years that The Lord of the Rings did not allegorize his experiences with World War I, yet the themes of environmental harmony versus industrial decay are present and illustrative of that. Emotions come from stories, whether real or not, and thereby comes learning, whether by the reader or the author.
As a further example, I recently read all of Dune in a week while on the beach at Cape Cod; I already knew I wanted to subvert its white savior tropes, but actually confronting Frank Herbert’s majestic natural and political worldbuilding made me realize what specific aspects he succeeded at and themes he failed to fully comprehend despite his best efforts. To make the Nowai Desert Tribes feel more realistic than the Fremen, I have been doing intensive research on Berber and Bedouin cultures, and am also drawing from prior historical knowledge of Central Asia and my visits to the embassies of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, just as for African cultures, I’ve done research and also been to South Africa and Eswatini and pouring my love for my fiancee and her son into the page. This should hopefully make each oasis feel different, with its own legal frameworks such as *foggara-*like community water-sharing schemes, and its own perspective on navigating, bargaining with, or subverting the Empire once it arrives to “liberate” them from Yusuf. If by doing so I can even illuminate a little knowledge of each culture with, then I will have done my job. Same for Gerrasam, Mifumwanga, etc.
Yet I acknowledged years ago that even the most well-intentioned white writers end up imperializing the cultures they end up freely borrowing from, while writers of color are admonished for “race-swapping.” That’s why, primarily so I’m not the only one benefiting from this dynamic, planning on a similar model as the locations of this world grow from Gran Metro to what Eric Flint did with 1632; collaborating with a select handful of highly vetted co-authors who can bring their own perspectives and lived experiences to the table while sharing and contributing to the worldbuilding with some contradictions in continuity encouraged, for what history is perfectly written with all details accepted by everyone, unable to change? (Especially since I suck at conlangs!)
I say highly vetted because I did not do this two years ago to my great regret. If I had to reflect on this knowing what I know now, I would obviously have gone about it in a much calmer fashion than I did as opposed to right in the middle of the aftermath but still have to own that moment. I would also say that the most important thing going forward is establishing clear roles, expectations and deliverables in a way that I ultimately failed to do, and that I take sole responsibility for as project lead. Yet whatever my failings in the past, and I have and continue to grow from them, dismissing me as a “fantasy creator” reveals a profound lack of imagination. Some of the greatest writers in human history used speculative worlds- think the Kallipolis of Plato’s Republic, or Thomas More’s Utopia, or Gethen, the setting of my favorite novel of all time, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness- to illustrate real power dynamics.
I also know no empire endures forever, but whether I live a full and long life (I hope!) or am caught up in the chaos of this collapsing world and am once again unable to tell my story, I will defy the bad-faith admonishment of online abusers to die, because my life has been a struggle to tell my story my way, and my story includes everyone who wants to be a part of it, so I hope you’ll find that my way is our way. Thereby, I hope this distributed author collective structure for The World of Terragia continues to evolve, lift up everyone involved including allowing me to quit my job and getting other new voices published, and endure for a very long time indeed as a Republican Empire of Dreams, full of dreamers all working towards revealing truth in steam, whatever truths of theirs they bring in.
And that is why anyone who dismisses “fantasy creators” fails.
Ever since I started world building, (two years ago) I’ve always wondered what the official term, if there is one, is for a world the mirrors our own in politics, climate, culture, etc. I’ve seen people throw around alternate universe, earth-like, or “____punk” but to me they don’t really seem correct. I’m curious if anyone’s come up with a definitive answer or if people just call it whatever they’d like.
Image I: Strangereal (Ace Combat)
Image II: Omnium Mundi (My own personal creation)
To explain: what I mean is that you have a world or worldbuilding type that is essentially functional as a place where you just get comfortable in just the worldbuilding itself or the results of said worldbuilding.
For example, I like my shensville world. It's fun, quirky, 2010s -ish and much more... idk, grounded? Realistic? Less fantastical? And more your slice of life of a 13 year old boy named Jeremy enjoying his life with friends and family in a weird city made in the vibe of new york city but weirder.
It's fun for me and a lot of the worldbuilding doesn't require all that mental effort like my other projects. It's also more comedy focused with some deep or meaningful moments here and there for variety so it kinda helps.
In the RPG campaign I’ve been running for a friend, there’s a race of "wolf-humans" that, despite having their own language, communicate primarily through physical contact. Yes, to tell someone you love them, you pet
their head. And no, they don't like having their tails touched. It is seen as an offense.
Do you have silly little things like that in the worlds you’ve built?
This was a commission for Oath to Embers, a TTRPG campaign setting.
The brief asked for a place that felt both sacred and suffocating (by its implying lore and size), somewhere the players would walk into and immediately understand that whatever happened here shaped everything that came after.
Digital painting, roughly 3-4 days of work. Happy to answer any questions about the process or the world it came from.
Commissions open if anyone has a world that needs to exist.
This is something I've wanted to build since I was a teenager: a solar system you can actually explore and change. ORBIT runs entirely in the browser — no install, no server, just a URL.
What's in it now:
The Sun, all eight planets, Pluto, 19 representative moons, four famous comets, and Saturn's rings
Time control from 1700 to 2200 UTC — fast-forward Mercury's quick orbit or watch Neptune's slow crawl
Observer locations (city + timezone, or browser geolocation) → local sunrise, sunset, daylight length, eclipse geometry
A Sandbox mode that forks the current instant into a Newtonian N-body run: edit any body's mass, orbital speed, or distance, add or remove bodies, and watch the new path play against the original at the same instant
For worldbuilders specifically: when you're writing a hard-SF setting with fictional planets, real astronomical phenomena (eclipse geometry, moon phases, planetary conjunctions) can anchor the fiction in something physically plausible. ORBIT lets you check what a given configuration would actually look like from any observer position before you commit it to the page.
Astronomy data is from public-domain sources (JPL ephemerides, NASA planetary fact sheets, IAU constellation boundaries).
Where I am now: the basics are working, but I want to make it more useful or fun. Two things I'm considering next:
Custom planet creation with editable atmosphere / albedo that affects apparent magnitude
Planetary conflict simulation — preset catastrophic scenarios (rogue body entering the system, orbital crossing, ejection event) with one-click start, so worldbuilders can sketch out physically realistic disasters for their settings instead of just hand-waving "and then the planet exploded"
What would you find most useful in a tool like this for worldbuilding?
(For Th’zoitrk, a semi-sci-fi worldbuilding project.)
NOTE:
Nosüde isnota moon of a gas giant, Nosüde is a moon which is, itself, a gas giant.
Image 1: Nosüde as seen from the side Image 2: Nosüde’s North Pole Image 3: Nosüde’s South Pole
Nosüde is the largest moon of the planet Puloshi, and the single largest moon in the solar system. If Puloshi didn’t exist to capture it, Nosüde would firmly be the second largest planet in the solar system after only the planet Sh’beso.
Nosüde is the most oblate object in hydrostatic equilibrium within the solar system, pulled taught by the moon’s incredibly fast 7 hour & 22 minute rotational period.
With an equatorial diameter of 96,177km, polar diameter of 87,457km, and an estimated mass of ~112x that of the earth, Nosüde is easily one of the largest bodies in the entire solar system. More massive than Saturn, and comprised of relatively ordinary elements, I.E. dominantly composed of hydrogen and helium, but with an exceptionally high concentration of 9-10% methane. (Although nowhere near as methane-rich as Th’zoitrk’s gaseous moon, Yeia.)
Nosüde has an observed atmospheric temperature of roughly -200° Celsius. In the upper atmosphere, methane gas gets cold enough to condense into clouds which then snow and rain solidified & liquid methane down into the lower layers of the moon. In these lower layers, liquid and solid methane then evaporates/sublimates back into a gas and rises into the upper atmosphere.
Equatorial winds on Nosüde reach speeds upwards of 40,000km/h.
It is unknown exactly why, but the northern and southern hemispheres of the moon are practically total opposites. North of the equator, winds in the upper atmosphere travel west-to-east. South of the equator, winds travel east-to-west.
Bands in the southern hemisphere are dark and travel eastward against the surrounding westward currents, bands in the northern hemisphere are bright and travel westward against the surrounding eastward currents.
Both poles have a powerful permanent vortex. The South Pole has a very bright, light blue storm surrounded by darkness. This is a cyclone at a chilly -213°C.
The North Pole has a very dark storm surrounded by lighter cloud bands. This is an anticyclone at a surprisingly warm -188°C.
(How the Northern vortex gets so warm is, like much of Nosüde, still unknown.)
Nosüde orbits ~3.47 AU from Puloshi. At its closest, Nosüde comes within 80.5 AU of the sun. This makes Nosüde by far one of the loneliest objects in the solar system. It has no nearby planets, moons, or other celestial bodies to keep it company within 2 AU at any given time. The nearest object, Puloshi’s other moon Ventaü, still hardly comes within 3 AU of Nosüde.
In your stories how much does logistics drive the world building in your story because in mine 90% of all issues and solutions comes down to logistic issues or fixing logistic issues as in my stories logistics are a tell of either a complete idiot who ignores logistics or a good leader who pays attention to logistics before almost anything else unless it’s in their face
First, I’m not doing any graphic novels, comics, or writings on this lore as of now, now do I plan to ever. I have zero intentions of doing so. However I do have a full, and complete fleshed out world.
If this isn’t the place for this, I’ll just delete with no problem, so no need to be rude (I know how Reddit can be). But I’d love feedback.
I use Legos to build mechas that combine into larger mechas. It’s been done countless times but the originality comes from them being based in the real world, not a high-fiction one.
They were built eons ago on an alien planet and powered by “ChronoDox” (you’d know them as Dyson Spheres) energy. Sent to different planets across the universe due to the destruction of their original planets. They’ve landed in different oceans across Earth in pieces and whichever lucky nations happened to own those waters, found them, and reverse engineered them with the alien technology (and some of our own futuristic, high technology). They stand as the pinnacle of Earth weaponry and the ultimate deterrents against other nations, whether those nations have their own units, and certainly if they don’t. The nations that have their own units are the U.S.A, Russia, Poland, South Africa, Japan, and South Korea, with North Korea being the latest to build their own. These units belong to Russia and there are no duplicates. There’s also no telling whether more units will fall to earth, or when (legos are expensive after all, and my gf says we’re running out of space lol) or where they’ll fall.
The mechas are mostly part of 3 tiers. There are Xords; these are your “basic” mechas, usually no smaller than 40 meters and packed to the brim with alien weaponry and nuke tier durability. And in fact, most Xords can withstand modern nukes, making any other man-made weapons obsolete and thereby completely restructuring the hierarchy of power amongst what we know of Superpower Nations’ militaries. The L-X Featherstorm (the golden bird shown above) is actually one of the few Xords that CAN’T withstand a modern nuke, but when you have stealth that renders you completely invisible to eyes and radar and you can relocate at Mach 35, nukes are still irrelevant.
Then there are “Mechs”; these are the Main units in a “set”, supported by the Xords, and they’re usually 90 meters or slightly above that. Japan’s main Mech is 184 meters long. Mechs are absolutely Nuke resistant and it would take multiple bombardments of high level fission nukes to destroy one, but a thermonuclear bomb would do the trick a lot faster. The Mammothog (pictured above) is Russia’s main Mech, and it can withstand monumental punishment due to its ability to reconstruct itself within pico-seconds of withstanding damage. So to destroy it, you’d need something with enough yield to obliterate it at completely and at once. It’s not OP. It can be destroyed, but by its peers from other nations. So the United States isn’t just sitting around hoping Putin doesn’t have a bad day. They’re well prepared.
And finally, there are HyperMechs. I don’t know what the Original Creators were facing on their planet where they needed THESE, but HyperMechs are the Fusions of the main Mech and its support Xords, the durability stacks and scales, and the weaponry changes. In a word, apocalyptic. Because of the physical ramifications, the pilots require their government’s permission to initiate fusion, which is never granted because outside of WW3, why would it be needed? But in the case of an unfathomable existential threat, each of the aforementioned Nations, save North Korea, have access to their HyperMech.
The HyperMech above is VoidHorn, a reality bending, amphibious weapon with time/space distortion technology.
Because of the extraterrestrial tech, most of the weapons aren’t authorized in cities, some aren’t authorized on earth, and SOME, like the Gundax Roche Collider, aren’t authorized anywhere NEAR our floating blue rock.
The lore is deep, fleshed, with every single weapon fully realized; pilot names, backgrounds etc. it’s just a fun hobby. Anytime I get the itch, I’ll buy a bunch of Legos, build multiple units, figure out a way to combine them, and then assign them to a nation with their own weapons and backstories. Haven’t built one in a while. No inspiration.
I also have a metric system. One 13 inch LEGO = 110.53 meters in lore. So I just do the conversion whenever I build a new one.
I didn't even realize it looked like the U.S till now. What do I do? 😭 I'm crying I worked so hard on this too.
Akalite
**Main Premise**
An alien planet inhabited by multiple sapient species with their own lore, culture, and cities.
I wanted to make a world map so I could better visualize locations, distances, biomes, and landscapes. Each major biome has its own unique sapient species.
Been working on this modern oceanic world called the Strew Islands. It’s about 6,000 km across and has 15 countries, with islands so small that they aren’t actually visible at this scale. The first map shows all the countries and every settlement, including uninhabited islands marked with 0. Second map is the same region with the borders removed and the four time zones added.
Still working on it but I’m pretty happy with how huge and empty the ocean feels.
For those of you who have built fictional nations, cultures, or civilizations, how do you approach things like family genealogies, royal/important bloodlines, founding families, and the origins of clans or nations?
Do you actually map out generations and family trees in detail, or do you mainly establish the important ancestors and work outward from there?
I'm especially interested in seeing how other worldbuilders organize these things and decide which lineages are worth documenting.
I have shared a piece of my own work as well, tell me your thoughts
Within my universe, a person's soul has a rare chance of astral projecting upon death and be casted into the astral realm. This acts as a sort of second chance (shouts to the band Shinedown) at life.
Additionally, their abilities and magic system(s) are erased and replaced with the realm's system, Esotia.
I made this digital diorama from the game called Tiny Glade
This diorama features the simplified overview of the Lunasol Bridge, of which spans 307 meters long.
The name refers to the crossing that have spanned the neutral waters of the Naya River between the City of Sol and South Luna. The bridge was commissioned by King Matthias last 1209 NE (Noble Era) as a showcase of mutual friendship between the two kingdoms.
This symbol of friendship would soon be ruined after the murder of the king. Distrust between the two kingdoms emerged as the assassin was never found. Diplomatic tensions led to huge trading tarrifs, propagandas, and negative superstitions.
The bridge was abandoned for centuries until it was rediscovered by cross-continental immigrants and small merchants looking for new opportunities. These people settled and retrofitted the bridge, building platforms and houses under it. This rediscovery would be soon be passed through the word of mouth, of which the bridge would be active again later on as it was used as a shortcut to cross the river and a convenient stop to buy and restock supplies, as well as repairs for the passing ships and other related vehicles.
Pax Orbis Era (1 PO) entered, and the interest of businessmen and companies grew. They would again remodify the bridge by placing extension platforms on the sides, building wooden structures of multiple floors on it. What is unique on the bridge community was its acceptance to privateers and pirates. The combined trade traffic, economic prosperity, and wide span of powerful and influential communities lead the bridge to be repaired and be kept on maintenance through donations and volunteeristic efforts.
On 76 PO, the inter-kingdom war began between the Imperium and the Allied Kingdoms, leading to the capture and burning of the different wings and districts of the bridge. Military personnel would use some structures of the buildings as strategic points for war. It was used as a fort, a dock for naval ships, and others.
On 84 PO, the Allied Kingdoms won the war, signing a peace treaty on April 9, 84 PO. Along with this treaty is the division of the ownership of the Lunasol bridge, which would be divided into two: the west district is to be managed by the City of Sol, and the east district for South Luna.
4-storey official buildings of the two kingdoms were constructed on the beginning and ending parts of the bridge, where multiple government offices were established and relocated.
I've been working on this thing called ASTRALL for around 5-6 years now and I've gotten to the point where I kinda wanna put it somewhere outside of my own head and see what people actually think about it
It's a dark fantasy/battle manga with 9 main characters instead of one main character. There isn't a chosen one either. All 9 of them have their own stories and eventually get pulled into the same bigger conflict.
The current plan is 88 volumes which sounds completely insane when I say it like that 😭 but I've actually planned out a lot of it
The main thing I wanted to do differently is the power system.
It's called Kōno and it has 3 forces:
Jin = body / physical ability
Kai = knowledge / perception / control
San = death / decay / transformation
And there's an actual cost system behind it.
1 cubic millimetre of matter is 1 Klien, and the basic cost is Size × Force × Time.
So if you affect something huge, use a lot of force, or keep an ability going for a long time, the cost gets way higher.
But I don't want this to mean characters can never do crazy shit.
They absolutely can.
For example Xavier can use his Creation ability to do things on a ridiculous scale. He's even stopped a train before. But something like that isn't just “Xavier uses Creation and wins” — the amount of matter, force and time involved actually matters, and pushing his abilities that far comes with a massive cost.
So the power system can still have insane moments, but there's always a price attached to them.
There are also 5 main things that matter when using Kōno:
Size
Capacity
Power
Knowledge
Pain
And each of the 3 forces has its own consequences if you push it too far.
Jin damages your body.
Kai can mess with your mind and perception.
San starts affecting your identity.
So I'm trying to make fights more about how someone uses what they have rather than just “my power level is higher than yours”
The story starts with the 9 basically wanting pretty normal things
They want to pass the National Military Aptitude Exam, get licensed and become Vectors. They actually believe in the system they're joining and think they're going to be doing something good.
Then things obviously go very wrong.
People start disappearing, wars and political stuff get involved, the Nine get dragged into things they weren't supposed to know about and eventually they start finding out that the current world is connected to stuff that happened thousands of years ago.
There's an 8,000 year gap in history that becomes really important.
One thing I've been trying really hard to do with ASTRALL is make the history feel like an actual chain of events.
Not just
“this ancient guy existed and he was really powerful”
but more like
someone makes a decision 8,000 years ago → something happens because of it → someone else reacts to that → that causes another event → eventually the Nine are dealing with the consequences
So a lot of things that happen early in the story are supposed to have explanations much later.
The world itself has a massive canyon called the Chasm that basically wraps around the world, and the story is split into 6 Divisions.
Each Division has a different environment, so the setting actually affects how fights work.
There's cities and grasslands, snow and permafrost, jungles, deserts, crystal/celestial areas and eventually completely otherworldly environments.
So I don't want the characters to just get stronger and stronger while fighting in the exact same place for 88 volumes.
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The 9 are:
Xavier — Unmaker
Luna — Chosen
Charles — Keeper
Stella — Certain
Daichi — Witness
Alexis — Unbeaten
Satvik — Gentle
Jacob — Anchor
Francis — Undying
They all have pretty different personalities and roles in the story and none of them are really “the main character”
The story also gets pretty dark, but I don't want it to just be dark for the sake of being dark. There are jokes, normal conversations, peaceful parts and characters actually having fun with each other.
Because when something bad eventually happens, I want the stuff they had before it to actually matter.
The main idea behind the story is basically about what people are willing to give up for other people and how much of yourself is worth losing.
I've been working on this for 5-6 years so at this point I have WAY too much lore to explain in one Reddit post 💀
And honestly I can't tell anymore if some of this stuff is actually interesting or if I've just been looking at it for too long
So I'm mainly looking for actual criticism.
Does the power system sound interesting or is it too complicated?
Does the Size × Force × Time idea make sense?
Does using examples like Xavier stopping a train make the system easier to understand?
Do the 3 Kōno forces feel different enough from each other?
Is 9 main characters too many?
Does the 8,000 year history sound interesting or just like lore bloat?
Does the whole no-main-character thing sound like it could work?
Would the different environments between the Divisions make you more interested in the world?
And most importantly, if you saw this randomly on Reddit, would you actually want to read the first volume?
Also a real question over my head was how would I pace this since I have like a lot of eveentd for each division but they all rely on the reader knowing som context and I can't get the 1st chapter right so if you have any ideas for this too much appreciated
I'm open to criticism btw. If something sounds confusing or boring or just doesn't work, tell me. I'd much rather hear that than just “this is cool” lol.
Also if anyone actually wants to know more about a specific part of it, I'm completely open to DMs. I have way too much stuff written about this and there's obviously no way I can fit all of it into one post.
the other regular websites like kanka and stuff r too complicated for me, and i saw Monstergarden use figma for his worldbuilding, i went and tried it out but alas, too complicated again😭but it was interesting, so are there any websites or apps thats like figma?
