#making for inconsistent worldbuilding.

[alicentsaegon]

Modern fantasy writers are like

"I want to tackle themes such as misogyny or clssism or racism or homophobia in my work!🤗🤗🤗 No there's none of that present in my book, this society that mimics 1300s central Europe suffers from none of these issues because thats not progressive and if we have DRAGONS and MAGIC why do we need this ahaha am I right? 😅🙂‍↕️Except for this individual conflict in this novel the characters have to overcome but that's an isolated case. Oh look there's a Queen!"

[nomsfaultau]

I recently got a comment about the use of the term Bird Pope within my charity one-shot Worth far more than your weight in gold, specifically about the world building implied there considering [Kristin] and [Philza] are notably very inhuman bird monsters (Ravengences). Specifically, the question was if there was Bird Catholicism and Bird Jesus died on the Bird Cross of Lorraine. (I think it would have to be a more complex shape given the extra wing limbs! Or perhaps an Orthodox Cross to pin the tail too?)

Anyway, let's examine the text between [Kristin] and [Philza] and the translator's note:

[Kristin's] expression changed utterly to one of delight, kneeling to affectionately bump her forehead against [Philza's]. “Praise be to the gods, I thought I was going to have to [bird divorce] you,” [Kristin] said with a relieved sigh, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.  (*While Bird Divorce is not forbidden, it is strongly discouraged by the Bird Pope.)

To explore Weight in Gold's species’ religious stance, I examined what terms they use:

Techno uses Gods (capital, plural). Ravengences refer to the seven winds (non capital, plural), gods (non capital, plural), and the Bird Pope (Capital, singular (*according to the translator)). Given Catholicism really emphasizes the singular God bit, I deduce Catholicism did not come from Piglins and Ravengences. Thus I am sadly assuming Worth in gold!Jesus was neither bird nor pig (which is good since pork is not kosher!).

As for humans, they are not worshiping Prime (as in, a god named Prime). Church Prime is the first church in the area. Akin to the format of First [Denomination] Church of [Town]. They worship the Catholic God, and centuries ago were very heavy into evangelizing. Has to be a very long time ago since Ravengences are mostly considered legends in the current time period, and aren’t particularly assumed to be sapient beings. So for the Ravengences it’s more of a legacy of cultural exchange than anything that’s happened of late.

Techno makes a lot of snide comments about the human church, and mentions not doing his sacrifices. But he does bite his tongue because the Church holds a LOT of power in human settlements. From this I gather Piglins on the whole are not Catholic, though as minorities have to navigate the sociopolitical power of the religion they don’t practice. Specifically, I note the way Techno uses the term Gods (capital, plural) which feels to me like a linguistic quirk picked up after the emphasis Catholics put on a capital G God, but in strict defiance of Catholicism by making it plural to reflect Piglins’ own pantheon before the humans started evangelizing. Along the line of 'Nyeh! Our Gods are just as important as yours!' Since we don’t see anyone trying to convert Techno, I reckon it’s something lots of wars were fought about way back when, humans eventually giving up (and probably writing Piglins off as demons in the process). Piglins rejected churches, partially rooted in the fact a central part is in money and donating it, and 1. Piglins do NOT give their gold away except in very intricate and personal situations and 2. Piglins think money is stupid. Using gold for fancy banners and clothing and murals (which Catholicism is very fond of) also didn’t fly with the Piglins. So a major part of human worship involves the (perceived!) frivolous use of gold, which is a big rift between human and Piglin culture.

Ravengences however do have a culture around donating gold, so it wasn’t as much as a massive conflict with human doctrine. In fact it helped facilitate the transfers in a way they liked. I imagine early evangelism with them was a desperate attempt to stop temple raids and was shockingly successful all things considered. To Ravengences, Catholic God is yet another god, added into the pantheon for flavor. I imagine they refer to God as god, since as tricky as crossing that language barrier is that particulars of capitalizing god names probably didn’t make it across. (Ravengences are seen only capitalizing names and the term Ravengence). Ravengences didn’t really agree with the whole abandoning their original gods things (what? You want me to STOP worshiping the seven winds? AND NEVER BE ABLE TO SAFELY FLY AGAIN? Are you MAD?!) and tended to eat conversionists who insisted on that point a little too firmly. The humans likely decided to shrug and declare that the Ravengence gods were really just saints if you think about it, so it’s probably okay please stop eating us now. And as the cultures lost contact, likely a lot of changes piled up in the centuries to follow. Ravengences probably lost the Catholic God (because of said lack of capital differentiation, and the lack of a name is tricky to keep track of when you have a lot of gods). But, positions like Bird Pope, which have lots of practical use regarding the distribution of donation gold so that families can have children, are likely vital to Ravengence society, and so remained, albeit looking very different to human popes. And the Bird Pope hates divorces, because Ravengences tend to want to take all of the gold for their new family, and the ex spouses probably tend to kill each other over it. Since, again, Ravengences are fond of the death penalty.

Alternatively: notably [bird divorce] [bird husband/wife] are within the translator's personal choices to explain concepts to a human audience, the mention of Bird Pope being within a translator's addendum. Even to the extent that within [Kristin’s] dialogue [bird divorce] is lower case, but the translator uses uppercase, further cementing the linguistic differences between Humans and Ravengences. So Bird Pope (capitalized) is how a human explains Ravengence culture to other humans, and may not reflect the capitalization Ravengences use (as they tend towards none) or even really the actual Ravengence cultural role being described. So all of what I just world builded could also be scratched out and explained with 'human translator trying to simplify for a human audience'. but one of those answers is a lot more fun!

[quilleth]

The Devil for the DATV ask game? :D

Thanks for asking!! (List of questions here if anyone is curious or wants to send others :3)

The Devil: What type of demon is most likely to target Rook? Why?

this one is good, so I had to think about it for a bit! I think Lilya would be most likely to attract a despair demon, or one of the ones related to them (like the remorse or regret ones that come up in the side quests in Minrathous in da4).

Explaining the why means getting a little handwavey with the story the game actually gives us for a MW mage!Rook and also sort of about how it seems to present the MW in general (or maybe I’ve just been too lost in the sauce of mage rights or mage fights for too long that it made me go huh that doesn’t sound right).

The game tells us MW Rook was found in the Necropolis as an infant on the background’s title card. However, a mage MW Rook tells Emmrich they ran around around the city for a while before their magic kicked in, and then they were found by the Mortalitasi and presumably, given the course of that conversation, raised by them? There’s contradictions to the stories they give us, and also to what we know from previous installments about how the Orlesian Chantry--which, unique funerary practices aside, Nevarra still follows-- works. Nevarra has two mage Circles including the one in Cumberland where the College is, and the one in Perendale that has a whole side quest in Inquisition about how the mages were afraid to leave it because they were afraid of how the people in the city would treat them given the whole mage-templar war.

So for Lilya, personally, I think if she did run around some in the city before her magic developed, she was too young to remember it. Then a guardian or parent brought her to the Necropolis, perhaps when she started showing magic and out of concern for her wellbeing, where she was found by the spirits, like the game describes. I think she probably stayed with the Mortalitasi for a while before her magic really kicked in and couldn't be overlooked, and then she was sent to the nearest Circle, like any other mage in a country that follows the Orlesian Chantry would've been before the Circles are abolished during Inquisition. I imagine the Mourn Watch make an arrangement for her to go through her Harrowing and join them back in the Necropolis when she's old enough.

And then the Banner Wars happens and they send her away. Again.

So Lilya has a fear of abandonment from having it happen multiple times, especially at a young age, and a very desperate longing to have a place and a family of sorts where she belongs. She, of course, buries this under several heavy layers of snarkiness, sarcasm, bad puns, and a gigantic “fawn” response in situations where other people might have fight or flight.

I think given that, and I think it was a despair demon pulling the strings in the fade quest in origins, by putting people in either remembered situations, or in idealistic situations based on what the demon thinks the companions would want (though maybe that was sloth. I don’t feel like checking it at the moment though xD), it could easily pull on the insecurities and self-criticism she has; creating a little idealistic alternate version of events where slowly, the companions express disappointment and eventually leave, until it’s just her.

[dexaroth]

man, the amount of mental gymnastics you have to use to justify an alien species that is just your average furry. like, just by replacing humans it falls apart bc youd evolve a totally different society and stuff bc ur literaly a different animal. then if you try to make them aliens, why are they so similar to earth species anyways?? raaaagh i think im way too stupid for worldbuilding but im Also way too stubborn to give this up. how r u gonna have ur ocs interacting without a fucking setting!!!

[griffynbird101]

Harry Potter: The Wizarding population doesn’t make sense

At the beginning of this tumblr (a few gears ago now I posted a series of rough calculations for the populations of wizarding populations across the globe based on the number that JK Rowling gave (1.1 Million Wizards in the world, 6600:1 Muggles to Wizards). I also calculated the number of children attending the identified schools. (I am in the process of digitalizing these posts because I know they’re hard to read)

Looking back my calculations were not entirely accurate because they assumed that the ratio would apply everywhere and didn’t account for societal factors. That aside, while creating them I noticed a very big problem with the number given.

Based on what I calculated then, the UK specifically had about 10 000 people in total. Recently I discovered that I was mistaken and the problem is much worse than I thought. JK Rowling stated (casually??) that there were “about 3000” Witches and Wizards in the UK.

….This is a society that has been around for a thousand years or more. In fact; a thousand years ago the British Isles had enough children to open a gigantic castle as a school. The numbers just don’t add up. Supposedly this society that marries young, and lives longer than average humans took a THOUSAND years to reach a measly 3000? No. I don’t think so. In fact, the logical idea would be that a reproducing wizarding society should have surpassed their muggle counterparts ages ago.

By contrast; it took hundreds of years for muggles to implement mandatory education, for many years we didn’t even have understanding of germs, and by all means even today there are many ailments that wizards can heal and muggles can’t. And today population trends have people marrying older and having fewer children, whereas in Wizarding society having children is still a priority.

Evolutionary speaking, muggles probably wouldn’t even exist anymore, or be a minority. Wizards in the old days had a much higher chance of survival and living to passing on their genetic information. Plus; Muggles just randomly have magical children sometimes…

Still; there are 67 Million+ People in the UK, and “about 3000” in Magical Britain.

In order to make this make some sense at all, there has to be a high percentage of squibs. Wizards can’t be having dozens of magical children that marry and have dozens more magical children; there has to be some kind of reason why there are so few magical people when they have such a better chance of having children. And yet squibs are apparently supposed to be rare.

What I’m saying is; The Weasley’s should be “The 7 magical weasley children vs those other 7 who we had to leave at the muggle orphanage” because otherwise my brain explodes.

Alternatively; Rowling should be banned from doing math because everytime she makes a flippant comment like “about 3000” she inadvertently makes either 1. A world that just doesn’t make sense or 2. Gives me a nightmare about a literal hellscape where apparently the world is filled with abandoned squibs that no one talks about (or Harry’s too dumb to notice) and where Cygnus Black was apparently a victim of child marriage (unrelated; he was born in 1938, Bellatrix was born in ‘51 you do the math).

PS: I am well aware that thinking too deeply about a children’s series where kids do magic, fight evil wizards, and go on adventures is a very silly thing to do; but I don’t seem to have an off button and this has been floating around in my mind for a few years now it was gonna come out eventually. So you TAKE my word vomit.

[over-fen-and-field]

Man, I can't believe that House of the Dragon is actually good.

[achilleid]

Imma say it

acotar ain't even good smut

[valmnera]

I'm not the best writer, but seeing how badly nocturne is written makes me feel better about my own writing.

There's a reason I'm redoing chapter 1 of my demon au fic. I'm planning it out. I intend to take notes and see if it makes any sense.

What I'm saying is no matter how skilled you are in writing, you will never be as bad as the writers of cv nocturne.

[elumish]

I've been reading Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, and it's gotten me thinking about how worldbuilding is multilayered, and about how a failure of one layer of the worldbuilding can negatively impact the book, even if the other layers of the worldbuilding work.

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, so I'm going to talk about it more broadly instead. In my day job, one of the things I do is planning/plan development, and we talk about plans broadly as strategic, operational, and tactical. I think, in many ways, worldbuilding functions the same way.

Strategic worldbuilding, as I think of it, is how the world as a whole works. It's that vampires exist and broadly how vampires exist and interact with the world, unrelated to the characters or (sometimes) to the organizations that the characters are part of. It's the ongoing war between Earth and Mars; it's the fact that every left-handed person woke up with magic 35 years ago; it's Victorian-era London except every twelfth day it rains frogs. It's the world, in the broadest sense.

Operational worldbuilding is the organizations--the stuff that people as a whole are doing/have made within the context of that strategic-level world. For The Hunger Games, I'd probably put the post-apocalyptic nature of the world and even the existence/structure of the districts as the strategic level and the construct of the Hunger Games as the operational level: the post-apocalyptic nature of the world and the districts are the overall world that they live in, and the Hunger Games are the construct that were created as a response.

Tactical worldbuilding is, in my mind, character building--and, specifically, how the characters (especially but not exclusively the main characters) exist within the context of the world. In The Hunger Games, Katniss has experience in hunting, foraging, wilderness survival, etc. because of the context of the world that she grew up in (post-apocalyptic, district structure, Hunger Games, etc.). This sort of worldbuilding, to me, isn't about the personality part of the characterization but about the context of the character.

Each one of these layers can fail independently, even if the other ones succeed. When I think of an operational worldbuilding failure, I think of Divergent, where they took a post-apocalyptic world and set up an orgnaizational structure that didn't make any sense, where people are prescribed to like 6 jobs that don't in any way cover what's required to run a modern civilization--or even to run the society that they're shown as running. The society that they present can't exist as written in the world that they're presented as existing in--or if they can, I never could figure out how when reading the book (or watching the film).

So operational worldbuilding failures can happen when the organizations or societies that are presented don't seem like they could function in the context that they are presented in or when they just don't make any sense for what they are trying to accomplish. If the story can't reasonably answer why is this organization built this way or why do they do what they do then I see it as an organizational worldbuilding failure.

For tactical worldbuilding failures, I think of stories where characters have skillsets that conveniently match up with what they need to solve the problems of the plot but don't actually match their background or experience. If Katniss had been from an urban area and never set foot in a forest, it wouldn't have worked to have her as she was.

In this way (as in planning), the tactical level should align with the operational level which should align with the strategic level--you should be able to trace from one to the next and understand how things exist in the context of each other.

For that reason, strategic worldbuilding failures are the vaguest to explain, but I think of them like this: if it either 1) is so internally inconsistent that it starts to fall apart or 2) leaves the reader going this doesn't make any sense at all then it's probably failed.

[bogleech]

Mortasheen is going to be four years late but so far every backer who's seen the preview book has loved it, compared to countless projects I've followed that went even further overtime and were disappointments. POST-KICKSTARTER TIMELINE SO FAR:

2021: spent on tons of new artwork of my own while organizing art from all the other illustrators I hired on, while also building, writing and formatting a prototype book myself. A lot of old material had to be redone, and a lot of brand new material was necessary. The team who had previously been developing gameplay took to the end of the year to get together the lore and worldbuilding materials on their end, which I didn't realize they had so heavily modified and expanded on from what I wrote a decade prior.

It had strayed a bit far from my concept of the setting, but had lots of good ideas as well, so I had to start a massive rewriting project to integrate everything together myself and make sure it all had a consistent tone and logic.

2022: I was still waiting on the actual gameplay mechanics themselves, which had been finished, but the dev team wanted to work out a new contract before sending them over. Their life schedule interfered with communication for months at a time, and I only got the mechanics later in the year. This contained the framework to build monsters and all their possible abilities thus far, but no builds for any specific monsters besides a sample for the player's guide. They were unable to confer with me regularly enough to stat the 100+ monsters I'd need, but I had shared the mechanics with a trusted enough friend who was really into the setting. By I think the end of fall, @gutsygills had already been playtesting and statting tons of creatures, so I made the decision to just hire her.

2023-2024: 160 monsters needed to be built from scratch while gutsy and others started running campaigns and playtesting vigorously, during which hundreds of things came up to edit, modify, add or remove about the system, specific monsters or specific abilities. Many issues coming up in the mechanics required new creatures or characters I had never thought of, especially a logical middle ground between completely defective "junk" monsters and powerful ones. I had essentially made too many of them too cool and grand, so we needed to give almost every monster class a few little mooks and goombas.

More worldbuilding, lore and fluff also needed modifying along the way to interplay with the rapid evolution of the system, which also necessitated me meticulously going over what I'd already written to scrap what wasn't working or wasn't that interesting.

2025: final playtests, massive final read-throughs and editing marathons to catch every last error or inconsistency, final polish on the last new monsters, gutsy writing a final guide to actually running a campaign with everything we've now developed, finishing the last necessary chapter on the setting's non-monster villains, and once we know the final page count for certain......we have to build the indexes, which is going to be pretty tedious, but that is going to be the very, very last thing to do. It's basically been entirely me doing an amount of work usually done by a larger team, until I hired one assistant whose job had to default to being just as huge. It's eaten so much of my time I feel like I aged at 5 times the normal rate...but I do feel like the end result is going to be worth it.

Once the book is out, we have to start working right away on the promised bonus book of all the backer-original monsters, and also start planning for the next book, which will be almost entirely more monsters.

[moltengoldveins]

ok but I have Thoughts about the way Minecraft usernames translate to actual names, both irl and in fanfic. They’re definitely ‘obsessed with structure and grumpy at inconsistency flavor autism’ thoughts but still. I find it weird how we cut and paste the media we’re given to fit what we view as functional worldbuilding, and how that gets screwy when translating online names.

like, you’re working with several categories here. The person’s actual real name, their irl nickname, their gamer tag, a name possibly contained by or possibly the entirety of that gamer tag, and any extra pieces or symbols in the gamer tag. And you have the weird situation where those categories might not easily translate to a ‘First Name Last Name’ structure. For an example, we’ve got Phil Watson, who’s gamer tag is ‘Ph1LzA,’ and is called Philza Minecraft or Philza. The ‘Minecraft last name’ is a…. Bit? A joke? A reference to a bit of lore? It’s unclear. The ‘Za’ bit was put there for flair and is now an integral part of his name. Sometimes it’s his last name. Sometimes his real last name is chucked in there. the 1 in his actual username is literally never referenced in nicknames or fic it’s like it’s not even there. But that’s a simple one. What about Tubbo_? because we call him Tubbo Underscore. Like. We say the ‘_’ aloud. Why do we do that. What has possessed us to make that decision? What about FitMC? I’ve usually heard it said ‘Fit Emsee.’ Why say that, and not say ‘Minecraft? That’s not even really a last name, it’s just like…. His full first name. Fit is used more like a shortened nickname. BadBoyHalo. Like. ‘Bad boy’ is a slang term, not a name. It would make the most sense to call him Halo, that’s the distinct noun in the name, the term the ‘bad boy’ bit is referring to. Like ‘GoodTimesWithScar’ but noooo. Bad. Halo is usually a last name, if it’s there at all. Skeppy on the other hand is… just his name. No last name ever. Technoblade is also weird. Technoblade is his full name. We call him that. We ALSO call him ‘Techno,’ and use Blade as a last name. We also use Blade as a title. What the heck. GeminiTay. We call her Gem. We use Tay as a last name sometimes. Her name is a Zodiac constellation. Literally nowhere I’m have I seen that affect her naming conventions. IJevin. We just… remove the I. For everything. This wouldn’t bother me except we don’t do it with everyone and I’m starting to get annoyed by the inconsistency. GoodTimesWithScar. Ok. This one also bugs me. Like, most fics call him Scar Goodtimes when they need a name. I’m not gonna dig into it but that’s…. Why? Why that? Grian never gets a last name. Ranboo sometimes gets chopped into Ran and Boo but usually he’s an Underscore or he’s last nameless. Wilbur Soot functions wonderfully (until the get involved shhhh) but it’s too close to his real name it gets very confusing.

anyway, all of this sucks, I hate it all, we’re a terrible fandom /hj

all that nonsense aside, yknow who has a functional Firstname Lastname username? It’s even got a space, and proper capitals: Mumbo Jumbo. That’s who. Look at that. It’s perfect. Everyone should be more like Mumbo Jumbo. Thank you and good night.

.

Edit: I know about Ranboo Beloved and Grian Dreamslayer and the various other characters whose names I didn’t mention perfectly in this post. This was no piece of journalism, this was an old man shouts at cloud meme personified. I was very overstimulated and this was what happened to catch my autistic ire. I’m not upset, just figured I’d clarify, a lot of people seem distressed at my not mentioning Beloved. Hope y’all are having a lovely day 💜

[trulycertain]

On Dragon Age & Accents

(My unhelpful tuppence, as an English player.)

One small thing I wish had come up in Veilguard from previous games: the accent worldbuilding. It wasn't always consistent - DA:O only seemed to care about country or race, anyone non-human being generically North American and anyone human being mostly RP English unless they were Antivan; for regional accents, they seemed to purely use them for effect or go with VAs' natural ones. (There are about two bandit NPCs who seem to have badly-done Midlands English accents purely because they're not meant to be very bright; thanks, love Canadians reinforcing that stereotype. Anders being Lancashire seems to be pure coincidence because of his voice actor - you rarely ever hear the accent in any consistent way in other NPCs, and it's completely ignored in his very Southern DA2 recast.)

But by DA2, there seemed to be definite trends: Free Marches could be RP English or North American depending where you came from; dwarves tended to sound North American but there were exceptions for some people raised on the surface; elves tended to be either Welsh or Irish, which matches the "very old culture with a linguistically completely different root from Trade/English". Starkhaven is most definitely Scots.

And then DAI! DAI, my love.

DAI kept DA2's trends, while finally giving us more complexity and regional accents, albeit limitedly (and still with some inconsistencies). Finally, we have a (vaguely Germanic) Nevarran accent! And Miranda Raison did such careful work constructing it! The Avvar, Ferelden's mountain folk, sound Northern English. I'd hazard a guess that several sound Yorkshire, actually - this matches the whole "the Orlesians got up there less" lore in real terms; Northern England and Scotland, particularly Yorkshire, was under Viking rule longer than the South, which became Norman-conquered earlier, and there are subtle dialectal differences to this day. (Similar thing happened with the Celts and Romans, and the Avvar are blatantly Celtic and Pictish). There's a reason that RP ("neutral posh") English is Southern, from the seats of power. Cullen's from Honnleath, somewhere smaller and less Orlesianified, and while it's softened by the character's travel and the VA's own posher bents, there are moments the Northern English accent gets leaned into, a little similarity with the Avvar. It's a coincidence but it works so well, lore-wise. Sera's VA sounds... Derbyshire? I think? which is Midlands/Northern border and sounds more than Northern enough to keep a consistent Fereldan sound. And in terms of NPCs? A lot of Fereldan NPCs suddenly start turning up Northern, albeit less broad in their accents! Have a listen round the Crossroads. I remember Gaider mentioning Dorian wasn't originally meant to be Indian, they sealed it for sure when they cast Ramon Tikaram, at which point everyone went, "Yup, let's run with it", cast his dad accordingly, and Gaider figured that Dorian was either part of a pretty big migrant population (which, other than the Dorian Gray reference, the fact his name roughly means "from across the sea" also makes sense), or quite a lot of Tevene folk natively were. Considering Tevinter started as essentially "mage Rome" and morphed into, even according to the writers themselves, "mage Byzantium" and it's very close to Seheron, which I feel is North Africa/Middle East influenced - Tevene folk being akin to folk of Turkish, Middle Eastern, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Bengali backgrounds makes a ton of sense.

It is... exceedingly rare to hear working-class British accents in fantasy series at all (unless Brits make them, and then we're still often peasants or generic NPC #2, a la Origins). It is even rarer to have a fantasy series bother to keep immigrant accents and show the moulding of them through the generations. And I can only think of one other video game that has consciously cast British Asian actors, that's how rare it is even in games that supposedly care about representation - despite the fact that Asian folk make up something like 30% of our population.

Now: would I like some more background on why some accents in the Marches sound British and some don't? Yup! Would I have liked to have more regions in the elves' Irish accents and the dwarves' NA? Yup! But do those really matter? Nope! They would have been lovely icing on the cake, but the underlying cake was great. The plot didn't need it. It didn't have to be perfect, and the filtering of British culture through Canadians, and strategic anachronism? Those are things I love about Dragon Age. I loved how much they seemed to be trying and how much they were thinking about the lore. And I loved hearing a "British accent" that finally made sense to me, not played into the long attempts by toffs to stamp out everything North of London or outside England.

And then Veilguard sort of... forgot about it most of it? Adored that we could play as a Geordie! I really, really love them continuing pointed casting of folk with British Asian ancestry for several Tevinters (*waves lovingly at elek and neve*). But then... uh... look! Working-class Tevene people with generic Mancunian accents! To show they're working-class! That's fantastic progress... for Origins. But lore-wise, by DATV we've already shown that Manchester and Northern English accents live... *points at Ferelden* somewhere over there. We're back to "Tevinters mostly sound like generically evil English folk", as in DAO and bits of 2, which, sure, Dorian doesn't contradict - but then why not have everyone sound Southern, like him? Or add a different tint to it? And no, I am not saying everyone should put on bad "ethnic" accents, and I do appreciate the number of American, English and Mediterranean accents in Tevinter showing a very Roman "you're a citizen of the Imperium but you might have been born in one of its several countries" - but…

Gideon Emery's slight Afrikaans tint made a ton of sense with Fenris and what part of Tevinter he was meant to be from, even if it was unintentional; Jennifer Hale's take on Krem was going for English but came out more Aussie to my ear. Something like those could have been really interesting. But that also means that, including Fenris, we've now had several slaves with an accent that reads... quite posh, to English ears. Same with Neve, who is supposedly proudly from the shithole part of Minrathous, but she and several others have very RP "posh" accents (while others like Tarquin and Elek are Mancunian). Now, not everyone picks up their local accent! I am one of those people! I ended up cursedly plummy for a long time! But... we had hints through the series that Tevinter class markers would be very different from Fereldans', but they're now the same, for some reason?

Add that to the fact that they didn't want to make even one VA suffer through doing the Nevarran accent... See, it makes total sense for Emmrich, who's a posh professor who's done a lot of international study and would probably have learned Common as a second language with a very generic, "neutral" accent; he also was very concerned about appearances with his class background and trained himself not to give much away. And I'm sure the Mourn Watch has international students. But no Nevarran NPCs sound pointedly Nevarran? Not a one? Kal Sharok has hints of something interesting going on but it's rare, and the Anderfels is just... full of sad English and American-sounding people. Rivain is supposedly Caribbean and there are a bunch of actors of Caribbean descent they could've cast, but we only have one NPC sound even slightly so? That's when it stops being "Trade is taught with a neutral accent and there are a lot of Fereldan immigrants and slaves in Tevinter" and starts feeling handwavey.

Basically: I wouldn't mind if we'd gone with most fantasy games' "Eh, we cast broadly based on sound, stereotype or none of the above"; I'm very happy to just go with it. However, DAI told me to pay vague attention because the accents meant something. Then DATV has heel-turned and is telling me "Nah, go with it" the way Origins did. My ears are... confused, to say the least. And we're back to "'working-class' has one accent, and characters with something to say who aren't cast as stereotypically plucky underdogs are all Southern and posh", which just... makes me really sad. I don't hear people who sound like me, my family, or my friends growing up, in Dragon Age anymore. I did hear they had a different voice director in DATV, so maybe it's that?

[goldensunset]

you know… i like that the pokémon series actually has such solid worldbuilding. you wouldn’t think a series of creature collecting games aimed at children that’s trying to make absolute bank off of marketable plushies and such would have like a whole entire lore bible but it does. every region is a separate place in the same world and they acknowledge that. people visit other regions and make note of cultural differences. they’re aware of the major news in other regions even though it doesn’t affect them or have anything to do with their own stories. it isn’t like one continuous story where you have to have played one game to understand another (like kingdom hearts) but it isn’t like a random inconsistent mashup of stories that contradict each other and reinvent the so-called timeline every game (like the legend of zelda). no shade to either of those franchises obviously i’m just saying i think pokémon kinda struck gold in that regard

[deception-united]

Let's talk about worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding is a crucial aspect of writing fiction, particularly in genres like fantasy and science fiction.

Remember that worldbuilding is a dynamic process that evolves as you write. Don't be afraid to experiment and make changes to your world as needed to serve the story.

Here are some tips to help you build a rich and immersive world:

Start with a Core Concept: Every world begins with an idea. Whether it's a magic system, a futuristic society, or an alternate history, have a clear concept that serves as the foundation for your world.

Define the Rules: Establish the rules that govern your world, including its physical laws, magic systems, societal norms, and cultural practices. Consistency is key to creating a believable world.

Create a Detailed Map: Optional, but helpful. Develop a map of your world to visualise its geography, including continents, countries, cities, and landmarks. Consider factors like climate, terrain, and natural resources to make your world feel authentic.

Build a History: Develop a rich history for your world, including key events, conflicts, and historical figures. Consider how past events have shaped the present and influenced the cultures and societies within your world.

Develop Cultures and Societies: Create diverse cultures and societies within your world, each with its own beliefs, traditions, languages, and social structures. Explore how different cultures interact and conflict with one another.

Flesh Out Characters: Populate your world with memorable characters who reflect its diversity and complexity. Consider how their backgrounds, motivations, and personalities are shaped by the world around them. (See my post on character development for more!)

Consider Technology and Magic: Determine the level of technology and the presence of magic in your world, and how they impact daily life, society, and the overall narrative.

Think about Economics and Politics: Consider the economic systems, political structures, and power dynamics within your world. Explore issues like inequality, governance, and social justice to add depth to your worldbuilding.

Show, Don't Tell: Instead of dumping information on readers, reveal details about your world gradually through storytelling. Show how characters interact with their environment and incorporate worldbuilding seamlessly into the narrative.

Stay Consistent: Maintain consistency in your worldbuilding to ensure coherence and believability. Keep track of details like character names, historical events, and geographic locations to avoid contradictions.

Leave Room for Exploration: While it's essential to have a solid foundation for your world, leave room for discovery and exploration as you write. Allow your world to evolve organically and be open to new ideas and possibilities.

Revise and Edit: Carefully review your worldbuilding to identify any inconsistencies, plot holes, or contradictory elements. Pay attention to details such as character backgrounds, historical events, and the rules of your world's magic or technology. Make necessary revisions to resolve any issues and maintain the integrity of your worldbuilding.

Happy writing!

Previous | Next

[zeropro]

can i kindly ask for a summary of how time is measured in your au? mostly the cycle/year stuff, im not sure if it's lifted from elsewhere or your own creation — either way i think it's really cool :) world building is awesome

very sorry if you've already gone over this elsewhere

Oh sure! I spent way too long figuring this out so i might as well explain it.

The cybertronian calendar goes in one direction forever unless a new Prime decides to reset it. Nova Prime reset the calendar when he declared the new Golden Age of Expansion, which is why Megatron’s canon Birthday is so small (1st cycle 012) as he was among the first Cold Constructed mechs onlined, and that started with Nova.

The only unit of measurement that we seem to have solidified is Vorns, which is 83 earth years (earth years=stellar cycle). The calendar’s cycles are measured by vorn, the first number counts vorn, and every 24 vorn the second number ticks up. after 24th cycle 12 it would become 1st cycle 013 and then 2nd cycle 013.

There…actually is no unit of time for the second measurement as far as I can tell, so I have no idea what to call it, but essentially you would say Megatron’s birthday as first cycle O’twelve, and people would know he was born 23904-ish years after Nova Prime’s calendar went in effect.

24 vorns is roughly 2000 years and every 500 dates on the calendar is roughly one million years.

I developed this calendar system based on the actual dates we do have in IDW1, I decided 24 vorns are when the calendar turns over because the war starts about a million years after Megatron’s birth and the canon dates for most of those events are in the 500s. I did have to ignore the single canon date set in the 51st cycle for this, but all the other dates are within the 1 to 14 range. And this is taking into consideration that the calendar probably reset some time under Zeta Prime (which is why the Battle of Sherma Bridge where Megatron and the newly anointed Optimus Prime allegedly duked it out for the first time happens in 2nd Cycle 087 even tho Megatron was beat up by Whirl in jail before the war in 4th Cycle 496). Some of the inconsistencies I also chalk up to some bots still using the old calendar. the only date I really cant figure out is 6th Cycle 356 being confirmed to be “half a million years ago” like?? Eh?? Ultra Magnus’ last fatality was pre earth pretty sure and that happened in the 3800’s (of nova’s calendar pretty sure). Maybe they missed a zero at the end of the date or something idk XD 3560 would make so much more sense for half a million years ago.

Also, 83 years is a long time and it does seem like they have smaller units of dating called chords and arcs but I just assume thats like days and months to us and I cant be bothered to figure it out. not enough info about it anyway. I’m sure one of those tracks stellar cycles and the other tracks cybertronian days.

i think the only other unit of time I've used is deca-cycles, just cuz I like how it sounds. a deca-cycle is about a month, or three weeks.

Megatron and Skywarp were constructed earlier on (012 and 023 respectivly), Thundercracker was constructed closer to when the matrix “ran dry” probably in the 100s, and Starscream was commissioned by Cryak at the end of the millenia, in the late 400s, after they’d stopped constructing seekers entirely. He must not have been more than a few vorns old when he met Thundercracker.

Starscream and Skyfire’s expedition would have taken them 40 on the calendar to get to earth, based on Skyfire’s shuttle speed. Starscream probably would have been able to make it back to cybertron a little bit faster.

I referenced this and this page of the wiki while working on this. Most of my worldbuilding is extrapolation from canon.

yes i did all this for one joke.

A few more timeline stuff: Megatron is about .7 million years older than Starscream, and Starscream is about half a million years older than the start of the war. The war lasted 3 million years before they crash landed on earth after which they went into stasis for one million years. Some time after they landed on earth, Shockwave successfully clones Sunstorm.

and in case you were wondering, sunny's serial code is referencing his Collector's Edition toy's ID number (089). SC stands for Seeker Class. they run out of glyphs slots after 999 so they sort them into batches. Sunny is the 089th frame built in batch 16. whether that means his frame was already built and left empty in storage somewhere and then repurposed by Shockwave, or Shockwave built him from scratch based on the blueprints and just continued the serial code sequence, I haven't decided. but either way, it means there was a finite number of seekers brought into the world and they dont even make up a whole united states city's worth of people. Lots of them are dead by now anyway. The whole cybertronian race is so small now they are all on first name bases with each other XD. But i digress, none of that has to do with time or calendar stuff, just thought it was fun.

thanks for asking!!

[meganwasbored]

let’s talk about the hidden world

not the entire movie, because it would take forever to point out every problem in that monstrosity, but just the concept of the hidden world itself. there are many inconsistencies but i’ve narrowed it down to a few points.

1. it introduces some sort of “magic” into the httyd universe

let me be clear, there has never been any sort of “magic” in the httyd universe. dragons are not these mystical, magical creatures that httyd 3 makes them out to be, they are just normal animals. they think of dragons how we would think of lions or bears.

this is the issue with the writers suddenly trying to bring the books into the picture after completely ignoring them for a decade. they tried to incorporate the books into the third movie, but at this point, the books and the movies are so vastly different that they take place in completely different universes with completely different rules and completely different worldbuilding. the book universe has some elements of magic in it, the movie universe doesn’t, so the idea of a hidden world at the end of the earth where all dragons come from might have fit if it was included in the book universe (which it wasn’t even), but it just makes no sense in the movie universe, so them basing the whole ending of the movie and the whole concept of the hidden world on nothing but the prologue of the first book (yes i’m convinced that that’s the only part of the books they actually looked at) is so stupid and caused the writers to have to destroy everyone’s character to even make that ending work (which it still doesn’t).

2. the earth is flat now???

they have been making flat earther jokes throughout the entire franchise, it’s a running bit and it’s funny every time. but it’s not funny anymore if that’s what actually happens. the whole joke is that even these smart people think the earth is flat because they’re vikings, but if they’re right then it’s not even a joke anymore.

the movie httyd universe has always been just our normal universe but with dragons, but with them suddenly making the earth flat and adding in the hidden world, that completely changes everything we know about this universe up to this point.

3. stoick knows about the hidden world

stoick says in one of the flashback scenes that someday he wants to find the hidden world and “seal it up” to stop the fighting, and it even pretty much says that that was his mission the entire time. but, we know that that’s not true because he directly says what his mission is in the first movie, which was to “find the nest and destroy it” so the dragons will “find a new home” and stop bothering them. he’s not talking about the hidden world, he’s talking about the specific nest that the dragons that have been attacking them are coming from. he doesn’t know where the dragons come from and he doesn’t care where the dragons come from, he just wants them out of his face. he doesn’t see the dragons as the creatures that they are, he still just sees them as monstrous beasts that need to be killed for the protection of his village. he never cared about peace because he never thought peace was an option. if he did then the first movie would’ve have happened because he would have listened to hiccup in the first place. hiccup (and valka, but more on that later) is the only one who believed that peace was possible because he’s the only one who was able to see the dragons for what they really were. that’s literally the whole point, that everyone looked down on hiccup because of his differences when those differences are the reason he was the only one who could finally stop the war.

him being so different from valka is important, too. a lot of people overlook that and act like he’s exactly like her and the exact opposite of stoick when it’s much more complex than that (see my valka defense post). people blame valka for leaving but if you think about it you see that even if she stayed she would not have been able to do what hiccup did. she didn’t create peace with the dragons, she became one of them. hiccup was the only one who thought that humans and dragons really could coexist. httyd 3 makes it look like stoick thought that stopping the fighting was possible, when hiccup (not even valka) was actually the only one with that mindset at that point.

the fact that hiccup is so different from both his parents and yet so similar is a crucial detail in not only the plot but also his character in general, and the fact that they changed stoick’s mindset and tried to gaslight us into thinking that that’s how he was the whole time is crazy.

4. they find the hidden world almost immediately after they start looking for it

hiccup and astrid literally find it by accident while looking for toothless. they and the gang have been exploring very far outside of the archipelago for the entirety of race to the edge and they never even found valka’s sanctuary. valka has been out there for 20 years and she never found it. stoick suddenly has been searching for this thing his entire life and he hasn’t found it. and they find it just like that? boring. yawning. sloppy. lazy. they clearly couldn’t think of a more interesting way for them to have found it so they just decided to take the easy way out. idk how long it takes for them find it from the time that they leave berk, but it’s fast. way too fast.