#Worldbuilding ideas

[troythecatfish]

[whereserpentswalk]

Imagine what it would be like for a society with 21st century level tech, on an earth that was both flat and infinite. Our society lead us to stop exploring at a certain point. Eventually trade caravans stopped finding new lands to trade with, and colonial empires stopped finding new places to destroy. But in a world like this that just wouldn't happen, first contact situations would be basically indefinite.

Think about what that would do to your sense of place in the world. Around the equivalent of the 1800s we'd probably figure out that there wasn't going to be an end. Some exploration would be haltered by things like massive uninhabitable zones (who knows how climate would work), but a 21st century society would always find ways.

Imagine living comfortably in a 21st century world and finding out about new first contacts, new contents, new cultures, new species, every day. There would be entire places, entire human civilizations, that you only learn exist as an adult. It would certainly change politics a lot (there are always new threats, and always new players on the board, and imperialism might be way worse of the wrong regime is doing the exploration). There would be an entire branch of anthropologist that exists to find new cultures. Scifi and fantasy would make up weird things that exist in hidden corners of the world.

There's no big thesis to this. Just thing it's an interesting normalweird worldbuilding concept. Could be very lighthearted. Could be very very dark.

[thecrazyworldbuilder]

Reminder that there's no universal symbolism.

In your world, black can be the color of love. Horns can be a symbol of corruption. Hooves can be the sign of loyalty.

Like the dark nights spent in the embrace of your lover. Like fungi that grow out of dead bodies looking like goat horns. Like the loyal steed that will ride you into battle.

[mebis-art-dump]

Elves not liking red meat not because of "being in tune with nature" vegetarian trope, but because of its high iron content

[shy-raccoon]

Worldbuilding Tip

If you have a fantasy race with animal traits look at that animals social structure when desiging their culture.

A kingdom of lion people could have 2 types of towns, one with mostly women and one man as mayor and another made up of men banished from the first town when they hit puberity. With duals to decide the mayor of the first town.

Fauns and satyrs could banish all men from town except for during mating season with only women running socity or have seperate towns for each gender like actual deer herds.

Most cultures in fantasy are real world cultures with the serial numbers shaved off or a mish mash of real world cultures. So this is a great way to make more interesting cultures in your setting.

[writerbeemedina]

Hi I would really like to see a mermaid society modeled after orcas, please. 👉🏼👈🏼

• Matriarchal, led by oldest wisest female who raised other children in the pod

• Knowledge of their exclusive hunting techniques and hunting territories passed onto each generation

• Nomadic

• Often kills other sea creatures just for the thrill of it

• Strong emotional bonds

Thank you. You’re welcome.

[clarafyer]

A worldbuilding idea for making your fictional nation interesting: choose a crime, taboo, etc. and make it legal, perhaps even engraved in the culture.

For example, cannibalism. It could be tradition to hold a feast in the honor of the recently deceased, devouring them as a way to signify their sacrifice will not be wasted. That could be not only the main way of holding a funeral, but it could be embedded in the culture. Perhaps it arose from the early days of the nation, when the founders resorted to cannibalism to survive.

[sarahowritesostucky]

Dom/sub AU worldbuilding: collars

One of my favorite things to do when worldbuilding is to imagine the fashion. And in a D/s AU or a/b/o AU, I love to picture all the different collars people would wear. Just think of all the different types and styles there would be: ornate, jeweled, dressy, sleek, leather, functional, utilitarian, protective, ones for single people and ones for mated/claimed people, high fashion ones, cheap affordable ones, masculine ones and feminine ones, bold ones and demure ones, fabric ones, metal ones, jeweled ones. Here's a few from my stupid-long Pinterest board of collars:

[mossymossman]

Dnd Idea

The bodies of dead god-like creatures are mined for valuable resources.

In the mountains where a great purple worm was slain a dwarven city was built on its corpse. Houses are built into the bones and armor of the worm, and bridges cross between them because the bottom is filled with great worm poison. The people mine the corpse for it's valuable resources. It's a hub of chemical research.

[empress-violetlight]

Worlds of the Empire of the Hand - Kalee

Another in my Worlds series, along with Nirauan and Lysatra.

I LOVE the Kaleesh -- they're my second-favourite SW race after the Chiss -- and after learning of their history with everyone's favourite Grand Admiral, I had to have them join the Hand. I also think it's cool that a lot of their culture was inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, since I see a lot in common between Thrawn's story and The Odyssey -- it's a very nice parallel.

Mostly canon to SW Legends, though I did tweak one character's backstory a little.

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Kalee – homeworld of the Kaleesh (and colonies Oben and Abbaji Minor)

Galactic Map location:  J4 – Wild Space, on the border with the Imperial Remnant

World type:  Terrestrial planet with varied ecosystems. 40 102 km equatorial circumference 1.05 standard gravity.  Standard oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere.  Rotation Peroid:  23 standard hours.  Orbital period:  378 standard days.     

Solar system:  Orbits Iminec, a G-yellow orange dwarf main sequence star, approx. 5.5 billion years old, 0.95 standard stellar masses, sole stellar body in the solar system. Fourth planet from its sun of six (in orbital order): Prelly, a superheated terrestrial in a semi-molten state, Norbon, an airless rock terrestrial, Abbaji Minor, terrestrial with a habitable, mostly forested surface, Kalee,  Remsh, a gas giant with 43 moons, and Elke, a frozen rock terrestrial, possibly a dwarf planet.  (Wookieepedia actually had all this info for once!)

Moons:  1 medium-sized, no atmosphere.   

Surface conditions:  varied ecosphere with a continent/ocean ratio in favour of landmasses, with arctic, desert, tropical and temperate zones in different areas, featuring rainforests, canyons and steppes.

Population:  approx. 4 billion, 99% Kaleesh (spread across Kalee and its colonies)

Capital City:  Kaleela

Other population centres:  Kuru

The planet Kalee, and its proud, warrior/hunter people, the reptilian Kaleesh, were “discovered” sometime during the Old Republic era, but mostly ignored due to its people’s seemingly “primitive” tribal culture, except for a few individuals who wandered out to the wider Galaxy.  While individual Kaleesh served both sides of the ongoing conflict between the Old Republic and Sith Empire, Kalee itself remained mostly undisturbed, notwithstanding internal conflicts between clans.  This changed sometime in the century before the establishment of the Empire, when a neighbouring species, the expansionist, insectoid Yam’rii, or “Huks”, from the planet of the same name, invaded Kalee.  The Huks murdered, enslaved, sold and even ate the Kaleesh, with Kaleesh eggs being a particularly favourite delicacy of the “soulless bugs”.  After enduring generations of guerilla war against those who saw them as mere resources and livestock, two heroes said “enough!”

They were Qymaen jai Sheelal and Ronderu lij Kummar, seemingly invincible fighters who led their Kolpravis warriors in countless campaigns against the Huk and their allies.   It is unclear whether the two were lovers, relatives, or something more, but together, with Qymaen’s skill with his slugthrower and Ronderu with her lig swords, they seemed unstoppable.   Until Ronderu fell in battle.  A distraught Qymaen renamed himself “Greivous”, and massacred the Huk until the Kaleesh warriors finally drove them off their planet for good, and chased the murderous monsters out into the void from where they came.

Facing their own extinction, the Yam’rii cried out to their allies in the Trade Federation.  Through the manipulation of the corrupt Senate, the Huk convinced the Old Republic to send the Jedi to put down the Kaleesh uprising.  The Dogs of the Republic, fooled by the insectoids’ lies claiming they were the victims, put an embargo against Kalee that would lead to millions of Kaleesh dying of starvation. 

When the Intergalactic Banking Clan offered to alleviate Kalee’s suffering in return for Grevious’ services as mercenary and enforcer, he had little choice but to comply, until he learned of the Huk desecrating Kaleesh burial grounds on the colony worlds the Republic had forced them to abandon to the invaders.  The IBC did not take well to their enforcer breaking his contract, and secretly planted a bomb on the Kaleesh warrior’s shuttle.  This lead to Grievous’ near-death, until the IBC rebuilt him as the cyborg warrior that the rest of the Galaxy would know him as best.  General Grievous became one of the most feared military leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, becoming especially notorious for slaughtering hated, self-righteous Jedi, until one of them finally succeeded in killing him at the closing of the Clone Wars, right before the establishment of the Galactic Empire.

Out of Grievous’ eight elite Izvoshra warriors, only one outlived their leader.  A towering warrior, almost 3 metres tall, Bentilais san Sk’ar, former ruler of Kalee’s western hemisphere, had fought alongside Qymaen jai Sheelal and Rondeur lij Kummar during the Huk War, and joined Grievous during his work for the IBC.  He survived the shuttle bombing that disfigured his leader, seemingly without either knowing of the other’s survival.  He rallied the Kolkpravis under his leadership, slaughtered all the Yam’rii on the colony world of Oben, and most Kaleesh relocated to the more hospitable world, giving Kalee itself time to heal from the Huks’ decades of exploitation.  Following the rise of the Galactic Empire, Sk’ar violently resisted Imperial rule for over a decade, until in 14 AAE (6 BBY) the Empire sent in their specialist in the “Unknown Regions”, then-Captain Thrawn of the ISD Vengeance.  Famous for his talent of predicting his enemies’ tactics by studying their art, Thrawn unfortunately did not have the time to properly examine the few Kaleesh artifacts he managed to find.  Pressured by Emperor Palpatine to “get it over with”, and with his own concerns in the Unknown Regions, Thrawn simply leveled Oben with his fleet.  Though the Battle of Oben was an overwhelming victory for the Empire, Thrawn himself considered it a failure.

Sk’ar, however, was utterly impressed by the Empire’s sheer power, technological superiority, and noted how his adversary had mostly razed legitimate military targets, allowing millions of Kaleesh civilians to escape to the countryside to safety.  When Thrawn himself came down to assess the damage, Sk’ar waited for him in the ruins of his command centre.  He surrendered to the Chiss captain, and asked only one thing:  spare his people, in return for his services to the Empire.  Thrawn was equally impressed by the Kaleesh warrior’s ability to evade and fight back against the Empire for so long, and his willingness to put aside his personal pride for the Greater Good – something Thrawn was intimately familiar with.  With both knowing the xenophobic Empire would not accept a non-human recommending another “alien”, Thrawn had one of the other captains in his fleet take Sk’ar to introduce him to Emperor Palpatine.

Sk’ar quickly rose through the ranks of the Imperial Army, becoming the second-highest ranked alien in the Imperial forces after Thrawn, reaching the rank of Brigadier-General in only 5 short years by 19 AAE (1 BBY).  General Sk’ar was often sent to deal with particularly troublesome Rebel strongholds in the Outer Rim, until he was involved in another shuttle crash (caused by a very annoying Rebel whom Sk’ar had not been allowed to outright kill, much to his displeasure) on the planet Shiva IV and seemed to have died this time.  However, he was pulled from the wreckage by Imperial forces loyal to Thrawn, who had been keeping a close eye on his “colleague’s” progress in the Empire.  Waking up in a bacta tank on Nirauan after a few weeks of recovery, Sk’ar was offered a new position – become the commander of all of Thrawn’s ground forces in his “shadow Empire”, the Empire of the Hand, and in return, Thrawn vowed to always protect Kalee and its colonies, whether or not the Kaleesh agreed to join his Empire.  Sk’ar eagerly accepted.  

As Army General, Bentilais san Sk’ar serves wherever the Empire of the Hand needs boots/claws on the ground with the ruthless efficiency, yet fair and intelligent decisions both he and his Grand Admiral have become known for.  The Empire of the Hand’s numerous special forces divisions – the Chiss Rogue Phalanx, the reborn 501st Stormtrooper Legion, the Paccosh Commandos, Draconian Aerial Infantry, the Lysatran Void Divers and, of course, the reformed Kaleesh Izvoshra, among others, all answer to him.  Sk’ar was also one of the most vocal supporters of Thrawn’s wife, Governor Xelarra of Nirauan’s, ascension to Empress of the Hand.   

Kalee, where most of the survivors of Oben had once again relocated, its habitable system-mate Abbaji Minor, and Oben were left to their own devices, to be ruled fully by the Kaleesh themselves for the first time in nearly a century.  Thrawn personally extended an invitation to the Kaleesh to join the Empire of the Hand in 26 AEE (7 ABY), 3 years after Emperor Palpatine’s death.  In Sk’ar’s absence, one of his clanmates, Ninsun san Ve'Tani, rose up to lead the Kaleesh.  A talented hunter, Ve’Tani is rumoured to be the reincarnation of Ronderu lij Kummar, and she does nothing to discourage the myth, even marrying 3 of Grevious’ children – two of his sons and a daughter.  Feeling it was her responsibility to maintain her people’s long-fought for independence, Ve’Tani declined Thrawn’s offer, yet Kalee did become an ally of the Hand, and the two civilisations valued each other’s friendship.

Over the next five years, the Kaleesh became a common sight on Nirauan and other Hand worlds, whether following Sk’ar’s example and serving in the military, lending their survival skills to the Explorer corps, or just enjoying a peaceful civilian life, often being seen in the company of other reptilian races of the Hand – the Paccosh, Draconians, and the sizable community of Trandoshan immigrants, among others.  Inspired by Nirauan’s socialist policies and programs, which had a lot in common with their own tribal traditions, Kalee and its colonies implemented their own, taking the steps needed to make sure no Kaleesh child ever starved to death again.  The Empire of the Hand, in turn, quietly ensured that nobody, especially the Huk, violated their ally’s borders.

In 31 AAE (12 ABY), Ninsun san Ve'Tani would invite then-Govenor Xelarra for a diplomatic visit to her world.  The Chiss and the Kaleesh, both leaders of their people, and fiercely protective mothers to their children, got along quite well, and shortly after the visit, Kalee and all its colonies petitioned for membership to the Empire of the Hand.  A vote in Parliament on the issue was unanimous. 

Shortly after Kalee’s acceptance into the Hand, it became known that the Huk were plotting to cry to the New Republic (whom they were not even a member of), to try to launch another invasion of Kalee, to start the cycle all over again. By doing so, they declared war on the Empire of the Hand.  From his Nightstalker-class assault ship, Grievous, General Sk’ar, with support from Admiral Karyn Faro of Seeker Fleet, launched a pre-emptive strike on Huk.  As the fleet orbital bombarded all other Huk settlements – taking care to utterly destroy all spaceports and ways off-planet, Sk’ar commanded an invasion of the Huk capital, liberated all remaining Kaleesh slaves in the city and personally killed the Yam’rii Queen with his bare hands.  The Hand forces left the surviving Yam’rii in their capital, with no way off their planet and nobody coming to their rescue this time, to starve to death – just as their lies had condemned countless Kaleesh to starvation before the Clone Wars. Probe droids were left in orbit to ensure they don’t escape their well-earned fate.

As a gesture of friendship, then-Govenor Xelarra of Nirauan offered to return to the Kaleesh a sacred relic that Thrawn had managed to acquire for the Hand’s Imperial Museum before his death in 9 ABY – the Mask of General Grievous, which he wanted as the ultimate artistic example of the Kaleesh’s unrelenting warrior spirit.  The Kaleesh declined.  Grievous has ascended to godhood for his people, and the Kaleesh prefer that his mask remain on Nirauan, so all Hand citizens can share in their culture, and pay homage to him. 

[troythecatfish]

[whereserpentswalk]

For some reason I recently had the idea for mermaids that mate like angler fish. There's something about the image of this mermaid whose like a full person just having a ton of tiny men attached to her by the mouth.

She talks about each of them like they're her beloved husbands but they're very clearly not sentient.

[thecrazyworldbuilder]

How to worldbuild:

1: Don't try to do everything at once. Better define a setting by what cannot happen in it rather than what can. A world without tech more advanced than an Archimedes screw water pump is already more defined than a world where all animals can be hybridized.

2: Make things internally realistic, not externally. Unicorns and fairies don't exist in real life, but in your setting? They better be credible.

3: Continuity and consistency. If you put "but" into statements too many times, the picture of the world will be full of exceptions and broken rules, which raises the question - why are they (the rules) there in the first place if they are broken in the next sentence? Put things simply, even the most complex concepts can be explained through metaphors.

4: Reference yourself. Once you've wrote something, attach it to something you wrote previously. Relationships between kingdoms, the effect of this specific material on the economy and technology, why don't mages just hypnotize the monarchs and bind their will and so on.

5: Have fun :D

And lastly, remember that one and the same world will look different from different narratives. A farmer from Ancient Greece will see the world one way, a modern Twitch streamer - in an other way, a shrimp or pillbug will have a completely different worldview too but they all live on the same planet. So narrative matters.

[drinkinboilingcoffee]

So in g/t writing, size matters a LOT for the Tinies. Depending on how tall they are in your world, they might be near-impervious to fall since they weigh so little, or seriously endangered by water since it’s tension can pull them under and refuse to let go. Here’s a pretty good resource if anyone is interested (it goes over superlarge animals briefly too, so it can help with Giant writing too):

[lost-technology]

Something I found randomly on Youtube that was like catnip to me because I was all "THIS IS WHERE I GREW UP!" Technically, I grew up outside of Phoenix, in a rural area (below the Gila River, a stone's throw of it, crossed it driving to get anyywhere). Sometimes, it even had water! (I am serious. It only sometimes had water more than a dog pee stream by the time it hit my area). And, yes, I have many a tactic for coping with heat - at least when the heat isn't too humid). I visited my family last year and... wow, yeah, the growth has been... alarming. (It's actually caused a homeless problem as people in cheap housing have gotten their homes and lands bought out by industry and rich people). Back when I was growing up there, it was mostly just new exclusive communities being built, making their damn lawns and golf courses and fake-lakes that people in the nearby sticks (my family) were not allowed to swim or fish in because it was only for the rich people in the community. Did I mention I hate rich people? (I know that people are not supposed to be bigoted, but I think that this is one bigotry that I am allowed. It started early). The gentrification of the area has really messed up the already messed up environment there with the groundwater. (My family subsisted on groundwater). Anyway, this video goes into a deep dive not only about the history of the desert part of Arizona, but also the engineering challenges and how people are essentially TERRAFORMING it. I grew up with a front row seat with all of the farming and irrigation canals, but there's even other things. ( I was once commissioned to do ads when I worked at a newspaper out there for a startup company that was trying to FARM SHRIMP in the desert. Desert Sweet Shrimp). Yes, people in AZ are that brain-baked by the sun and that crazy. I thought a look into this (a "yeeeep, this explains my childhood home") might be of interest to anyone who does fanfiction for Trigun in terms of worldbuilding ideas. Just switch out rivers for secret underground No Man's Land water and Hydro-Plants pushed to their limits and you've got yourself some straggling survivors trying to do the old Project SEEDS dream on an inhospitable planet in a monument to man's arrogance.