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inspirationmochi · 4 months

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WorldBuilding Ask Game

Here is a little ask game for WorldBuilding in your WIP to pad out one country or all of them! Use it for yourself or ask a friend and spread some love. Focus on a particular section and have fun!

Geography

What does your world look like? What's the biome? Are there different ones?

Are there any oceans? If so, are they accessible? Are they a reliable source of travel and food?

Are there any rivers in your world? Any lakes? What's the longest river? Deepest lake?

Is there a safe supply of drinking water? If not, why not?

Are there mountains in your world? What's the highest one?

What is the weather like? How does this effect life?

What animals inhabit the world? What animals are indigenous or considered exotic?

What are some natural features your world is famous for? Is your world considered beautiful?

How many countries in your world?

How are countries divided? By natural lines or by agreements?

Population

What's the population like? Is it large or sparse?

Is there any factors in population density? Do more people live in a certain area more than elsewhere? Why is that?

Are there different peoples living in your world? If so, how do they get on?

How important is nationality? Are foreigners tolerated? Or are they unwelcome?

What countries get on? What countries hate one another?

Are there any important cities? Why are they important?

What's the architecture like? Are there any outside influences?

What's a typical building material? What's considered an expensive feature to include?

What is infrastructure like? Are roads and railways in good condition?

Is there public transport? Is it reliable?

Government

What system of government does your world adhere to? Is it popular?

Where is the seat of government?

Are there different governmental agencies?

Are there political parties? If so, what are their goals?

How much control does the government have over the average person?

Can your people vote? If not, why not? If so, who has/hasn't the right to?

Are there any parties or organisations that oppose the government?

How does the government crack down on sedition?

Are people allowed to criticise the government? If so, how? If not, how do they get around it?

How are laws made? Who makes them?

Is there any odd laws in your world?

What are some punishments to crime? Are they considered fair?

What crimes are unfathomable for the people?

Who handles justice? Is justice obtainable for all?

Are there any police? What's their reputation?

What role does the military play in your world?

Who controls the army? Head of state or government as a whole?

Is it considered a good career path?

Who can join the army? Are there any restrictions?

What is your world's stance on war? Are there any neutral parties? Or particularly warlike ones?

Commerce and Trade

How is trade done?

Is currency universal or dictated by region?

How is your economy going? What effects it?

What trade is your world known for?

What are some exports? What must your world import?

Are any goods considered luxurious?

What services are available in your world? What services are niche?

What sort of work is common? Is work readily available?

Who is expected to work?

Are workers treated fairly or unfairly?

Are there any ways workers are protected? If not, what are some consequences?

Is your world more reliant on technology or on labour?

Is agriculture possible in your world? If so what can your people grow?

How big is industry? What goods can your people make?

What resources can your country exploit?

What are some barriers to trade and commerce?

Is your nation known for quality? Or Quantity?

Who does your country trade with most often? Who do they boycott?

Are there any major ports in your country?

Are there any banned goods? If so, is there a black market for their purchase?

Society

How society expect one to behave in public? Are there different expectations for different people/genders/ranks?

Is there a social order? Can one move up the ranks?

Is there any considerations made on account of rank, gender, age or position?

What is considered a social faux pas?

Are there any gestures or actions that are considered rude or socially unforgivable?

What would utterly shock somebody to see somebody do?

What are some opinions that are normal for your world but can be considered subversive in real life?

How can one rise up the status ladder? Is there much trouble to do so?

What denotes a person's place in society?

How is life different in cities compared to life in the countryside?

Daily life

Where would someone go to buy their weekly shop? Is food easy to come by?

What would be the daily routine of the wealthy? The common man?

How is hygiene handled in your world? Where does one go to spruce up?

What would be some day to day tasks one might face?

What is the favoured means of travel?

Are there any problems in your world that could effect a daily routine? Potholes? Gigantic spiders? Acid rain?

What ammenties would an average person expect to have access to?

Where would one go if they are injured or ill? What's healthcare like?

Do people feel safe where they live? Are there any places somebody might face danger?

How do people communicate? Is it difficult? Why?

What do people do for fun? What's considered normal fun versus hedonistic?

What pastimes are common? What kind aren't?

Is education valued?

Is there access to education? If so, for who?

Are the population educated? If so to what extent?

Family Life

What is the typical family set up?

Is extended family important?

Who can be considered family? Who can't be?

Is marriage considered a duty? Or is it more of a personal choice?

Is divorce possible?

Can people adopt children?

What happens to orphaned children?

Are children important? If not, why not? If so, why?

What are some typical toys children play with?

What are some games children play with one another?

How is in charge of household chores?

Is there a hierarchy in families?

Are children expected to take on certain roles?

What is the living situation like between the different ranks? Are the roles different?

What's considered the proper way to raise a child?

Culture and Languages

Are there multiple cultures in your world? How do they differ? Do they mesh well together?

How are cultures similar? How are they different?

Are there any traditions in your world? How important is tradition?

What are some rituals your culture undertakes?

Are there any special days? Events?

What are some traditional values in your world? Does it effect daily life?

Are there traditional clothes for your world? Are they something somebody wears on a daily basis or just on occasion?

Are there any rules around what people can wear?

What would be considered formal dress? Casual dress?

What would happen if somebody wore the wrong clothes to an event?

What languages are spoken in your world? If so, how do they sound?

Are there any dialects? If so, how do they sound?

Are most people monolingual? Or bilingual? Or multilingual?

Are there any languages that are closely related?

What is considered a universal language?

Religion

Is religion a thing in your world?

Is religion a staple of life or just a small part?

Does religion affect politics, personal lives and affiliations?

Is your world sectarian? Or ruled by religion?

What are some influences religion has on daily life?

What sort of religion is it? Monotheistic? Polytheistic?

What are some myths your people believe in?

What common rituals does one undertake on a day to day basis?

How does one please a deity?

Where do your people pray? How do they?

What symbols would denote a follower of a certain belief system to a stranger?

What places or objects are considered sacred?

Are there religious orders? If so, who can join?

Is there tolerance or violence over religion? If so, between which faiths?

Food and Drink

What are some traditional dishes in your world?

What would be a basic diet for the common man?

What's considered a delicacy?

Is there a societal difference in diet? What are the factors that effect diet between classes?

Is there any influence from other cuisines? If not, why not? If so, to what extent?

What would a typical breakfast contain?

What would lunch be?

What would be a typical dinner?

What meals are served during the day?

What's considered a comfort food or drink?

Are there any restrictions on who can eat what or when?

Are there any banned foods?

What stance does your world take on alcohol? Is it legal? Can anybody consume it?

Are there any dining customs? Are traditions?

Is there a difference in formal meals or casual meals? If so, what's involved?

Are there any gestures or actions unacceptable at the dinner table?

How are guests treated at meals? If they are given deference, how so?

Are there certain rules about how one can prepare food?

Are there any restrictions on eating with certain people?

How is food generally prepared by?

History

Who are some notable figures from history?

Who founded the country?

Is history looked back on with fondness? Or do your people rather forget?

Are there any heroes in history? Any villains?

What are some highpoints in the history of your land?

What are some points of history nobody likes to speak about?

Does history effect your land, people, culture, language in the present? If so in what ways?

What historic monuments are still around in the present day? What has been lost?

How do people learn about history? Do they learn the truth? Or just an abridged version?

What's a historical event that is important to the story?

#content: tips

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inspirationmochi · 5 months

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Trope Discussion: The Blind Prophet / Blind Seer

This covers blind seers, prophets, clairvoyant characters, etc. Anyone who can see or predict the future, usually through seeing visions. This trope is extremely common. It also has roots in classical mythologies, religion, and literature. It is not necessarily bad on its own, but the way it is used in fiction and it’s popularity with non-blind writers makes it an uncomfortable trope for me much of the time.

I understand that not everyone will agree with me, but I think some of my suggestions can be helpful because this post offers potential ways to make this trope better for those who wish to use it.

I neglected to include it in my post about Things I Want to See More Of / Less Of in Blind Characters, but it is still something I want to discuss. I thought it warranted its own post. To get an idea of my thoughts on this trope, I don’t think it is so much harmful on its own, such as the cure trope, but rather I feel it is over-used and used in ways that contribute to ideas I find harmful. In the case of this trope, the ideas I find harmful refers mainly to the idea that blind characters need something extra or special that is designed to make up for their blindness.

The blind prophet or blind seer is something people seem to assign to their blind characters because it feels right. I would like writers to consider why this is, ways to avoid problems associated with it, and ways to be more intentional with how they design blind characters in the future. To clarify, I’m not saying you should never write a blind character who can see or predict the future. I’m not even saying this is best left up to blind writers. I’m saying I want writers to be aware and have more intent when they use this trope. Hopefully this post can help people do that.

I often receive asks or messages about blind characters who can see the future. A few common characteristics include:

1. this blind prophet is the only blind character

2. this blind character is the only person in the story who can see the future

3. this blind prophet is always totally blind - I have only received one message in which the blind prophet in question had some vision in one eye

4. seeing the future is portrayed as making up for or otherwise replacing the character’s lack of vision (again, the trope is almost always about a totally blind character)

So, in other words, this trope can be used for writers to make up for blindness, whether that means actually giving the character sight through their visions or making up for it emotionally. For example: “This character is blind, which is sad, but that’s okay because they can see even more than we can! They’re special!”

Let’s break it down.

Discussion: 1. this blind prophet is the only blind character

Why is this a problem? First, I think we are well beyond having only one blind character in our stories. Sometimes having one blind character feels as if the writer believes having more than one would be unrealistic. Sometimes it also feels frustrating to explain over and over that affirming stereotypes can often be avoided by simply having several blind characters. Unfortunately it often feels like a struggle to get writers to consider it. This means the only example of a blind person in the story is one who can see the future, which means they affirm this trope or stereotype for the casual reader.

Second, having the prophet be the only blind character tells readers that blind characters cannot exist without something to make up for their blindness. They can’t even exist in a story without this.

Discussion: 2. this blind character is the only person in the story who can see the future

Why is this a problem? This one is similar to the first one. We have the token blind character who is the only one who needs sensory based powers. Because, remember, the blind character needs to make up for something, apparently.

Why does the blind person always have to be the prophet? Why can’t they be the strong one or the one with teleportation? Why can’t they be, I don’t know, the person with power of attraction or display proficiency with a weapon?

Why do they always have sense based powers? Why not another power? At least a character like Toph is a powerful bender. She can do plenty of things aside from see, plus her adaptation was derived from everyday use of a power she already had rather than a power she was given for the purpose of seeing.

It gets a little disappointing when a blind person’s power is just the ability to — I guess — see? More on that in section 4.

Discussion: 3. this blind prophet is always totally blind - I have only received 2 story ideas in which the blind prophet in question had some vision

Why is this a problem? I’ll try to explain this part as best I can.

There is nothing wrong with having a totally blind character. That is not what I’m getting at here. My issue resides in the idea of seeing the future making up for blindness, and this means, the character usually needs to be totally blind.

I think this is a manifestation of the myth that all or most blind people have no vision at all. This is not true. In fact, the majority of us have some remaining vision. I asked my totally blind friend who said she had only met one other person who was like her.

I think this is also a manifestation of the idea that blindness needs to be made up for. With a special sight power and not with something like flight or technology-based powers. Writers who are consciously or unconsciously accepting this idea need to have a totally blind character. Because if the character has some remaining sight, what needs to be made up for?

Discussion: 4. seeing the future is portrayed as making up for or otherwise replacing the character’s lack of vision (again, the trope is almost always about a totally blind character)

Why is this a problem? I want to stress that these are two separate things. Both problems, but different ones that have roots in ableism.

When I say ‘making up for’, I refer to a blind character being given visions to make up for their lack of actual vision. As I mentioned before, this character, almost always totally blind, needs something to make up for blindness in the narrative. These visions can be brief ideas of the future or actual flashes of light or color. Either way, this character is being given a special kind of “sight” which makes up for their blindness. This can be a way for a sighted audience to feel better, or for the writer to feel as if they have made up for the character’s blindness. This is mostly emotional or mental. The character doesn’t need to actually see anything in order to fulfill this part of the trope.

The second part is about how sometimes the blind prophet can literally replace their blindness with their future visions. For example, they don’t need a cane while using stairs because they can predict when each step is. Or they might not be able to see people’s faces in visions. This erases their blindness. And in this case, why write a blind character at all?

On that note, discussion 3 also comes into play. If you want your character to be totally blind while failing to write them as totally blind, you shouldn’t be writing a totally blind character. In this instance, you probably shouldn’t be writing any blind characters, period, but I do think you would be better off writing a character with some vision instead.

Additionally, back in discussion 2, I said this: [quote] “It gets a little disappointing when a blind person’s power is just the ability to — I guess — see? More on that in section 4.” [End quote]. I wanted to add that having powers that just make up for a lack of sight is boring. I’m bored by it. Does it mean it can never be made interesting? Of course it can be interesting. However, that would require more work than some writers are putting in when this trope is used.

How to Avoid Some Problems

Problem 1: this blind prophet is the only blind character

To avoid: add more blind characters, specifically ones who cannot predict the future.

I generally advise adding at least 1 extra blind character, but for big tropes like this my happy area is 2 to 3 extra. You should have at least 2 to 3 blind characters in total to avoid both tokenism and this problem specifically. This means, if you have 1 blind character who can see the future, you should have at least 2 who cannot. This is the minimum.

The point is to expose readers to characters who do not follow the tropes they are probably used to and may even think are representative of blind people in general.

Problem 2: this blind character is the only person in the story who can see the future

To avoid: Set out to have characters who can see the future and who are specifically not blind. Also, have characters who are blind who cannot see the future.

I think, if you want a bunch of prophets in your story, this is a good way to go. You could also simply not have any blind prophets, but it depends on the story you are telling and if you have a bunch of prophet characters, you might wish to include a blind character among them.

For an ask relevant to this point, go here.

Problem 3: this blind prophet is always totally blind - I have only received 2 story ideas in which the blind prophet in question had some vision

To avoid: Create characters who are prophets with residual sight.

This problem is very much connected to problem 4, but I wanted to mention it just in case. It is not as much of an issue on it’s own.

Problem 4: seeing the future is portrayed as making up for or otherwise replacing the character’s lack of vision (again, the trope is almost always about a totally blind character)

To avoid: Don’t erase the character’s blindness with visions. Don’t give them visions as a way of making up for not being able to see at all / well. Don’t connect their powers to their blindness. The idea of [quote] “My character can’t see so what if they could - gasp - see in an extra special way” [end quote] is not that creative. Also see problem 3.

Additional thoughts:

Consider giving blind characters powers that don’t involve sight, at least not in such a direct way. Whether you have a blind prophet character or not. Perhaps another alternative could be giving them several powers.

I would like blind characters to have more unique powers, because I see this trope often. It would be fun to see something different or for this trope to be subverted somehow.

Again, I want more awareness and more intent from writers. Not necessarily complete avoidance of this trope. Would I like to come across it less? Yes. But there is still hope for it.

I hope this helps.

-BlindBeta

I also offer sensitivity readings. See my pinned post for more information.

Edit: @stealthetrees Yes I think it would still apply. Think of this type of character as also being totally blind.

#content: ideas

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