#worldbuilding what worldbuilding

[lainalit]

So tiktok and also goodreads recommended me acotar to read because I usually really like Fantasy with a good portion of romance. But I'm currently on acowar and I think one of the reasons why I didn't like the series as much as others online is that the worldbuilding is probably one of the worst I've read in quite some time.

Like every time I try to understand anything in this world, it is either a) retconned b) contradictory, or c) doesn't make much sense.

For example, in one chapter, we learn that High Lords are chosen by a godlike figure, and apparently High ladies don't exist because of this,so it's like godlike sexism, but then Feyre becomes High Lady, and we should believe she is equally as powerful as Rhysand, so either Rhysand lied to her and she only thinks she has any power over the night court or everybody can technically become High Lord/ High Lady but why established the rule that they are chosen in the first place?????

Another example would be the whole Court of nightmare thing, so we know that Mor comes from the CoN and everybody there is awful, cruel and evil, but then Mor talks about her cousin, who are in seemingly in abusive marriages, and there are also probably children there too, so either a) the abused women/children are also evil or b) abused women/children deserve to be there for reasons...

I'm usually not so nitpicky about worldbuilding, but the world in acotar is so black and white, like there's no nuance or even more explanation given. Instead, we get feyre painting, training with sexy guys, or having thoughts about how hot Rhysand is....

[sylvies-kablooie]

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

[daisywords]

One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.

Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.

It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?

Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.

[cemeterything]

[aarchimedes]

for context: I read the hobbit first over the course of two years when I was like 13, but I'm only now starting to read lotr. having a blast tho!

anyways, reblog if you feel like it 🙌🏻

[canisalbus]

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It's very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it's now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

✦ Separation ✦

[sanctus-ingenium]

Collectable woodblock prints commemorating individual conquests were commonplace in the theocracy, distributed by the church as a way to announce its victories.

get a print here :>

[vladdyissues]

The great thing about canon giving you only vague details about a character is the fact that you can take that character to the Build-A-Blorbo workshop and stuff them with whatever headcanons your little heart desires.

[koshka-sova]

love this genre of arknights image

they love making us (and the characters) look at the world of terra.

[prokopetz]

Inadvisable tabletop RPG premise #137: Fantasy setting where wizard towers have approximately the same role and cultural significance as Cold War nuclear missile silos. It’s impossible to really hide the fact that you’re casting a high-level spell, and extremely difficult to defend against one, so all of the world’s greatest wizards are locked in a mutually assured destruction scenario; the moment any one of them tries to perform a world-shaping act of magic, all of the other great wizards will smell it and immediately respond by casting Fuck That Guy In Particular.

The setting otherwise superficially resembles a perfectly standard Generic Fantasy Setting, though any close examination will rapidly reveal how deeply its culture is informed by the looming knowledge that the world is perpetually one wizardly temper tantrum away from total annihilation, and the extent to which the conspicuous Generic Fantasy atmosphere is a deliberately constructed facade of business-as-usual over a howling void of nihilistic uncertainty.

[calamitaswrath]

I have feelings about fantasy worlds

[ID: The "shoutout to women, gotta one of my favourite genders" meme edited to say "shoutout to unconventional fantasy world shapes, gotta be one of my favourite settings. I fw individual fantastical areas too if anyone was wondering". Several drawings and screencaps are edited in, such as the Discworld, Laputa from the Ghibli film Castle in the Sky, and the titans Bionis and Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles in the upper half. The lower half of the meme has has screencaps from Satorl Marsh and Valak Mountain from Xenoblade Chronicles and Sylvalum from Xenoblade Chronicles X edited in. End ID.]

[halfbit]

ok the last post was infodump friendly. this one is NOT.

i expect you to explain your/something about your magic system as badly as possible. i want to be confused. i want to lack context.

i'll start:

big wyrm gives off radiation that is also magic. ohhh no gas.

[squidknees]

Random Worldbuilding Questions

Are there any foods with symbolic meanings that are eaten on special occasions (e.g. katsudon for victory, or new years oranges for luck)? How did the tradition get started?

We all know about weddings and marriage, but are there any ceremonies that symbolically / legally / magically officialize a different type of relationship in your world's culture? (Adoption, apprenticeship, friendship, etc.)

What's a rule or social norm that is widely followed in theory, but in practice everyone knows it's not a big deal and breaks it all the time?

Are there any trades or hobbies whose practitioners are stereotyped as weird or extraordinary? (E.g. the "mad hatter" trope.) Why? How true is this perception?

What are some cliches, tropes, and/or plots that commonly appear in stories written by your world's inhabitants? What were they inspired by? Why are they popular?

What is a common way to subtly insult someone in your world, without crossing into overt rudeness? Gifting an item with negative connotations? Addressing them more familiarly or formally than normal? Backhanded compliments?

If you pulled a random average Joe off the streets of your world and asked them to draw a house, what would they draw? (Shape, roof style, position and number of windows, etc.)

Is there a place in your world that nobody has ever been to - the bottom of a cave, the moon, another dimension, etc.? How do people know it exists? Why haven't they gone there? What do they believe it's like, and how right/wrong are they?

What aesthetics are considered "advanced" or "futuristic" in your world - canvas wings, shiny chrome, smooth plastic? How has this changed over time?

What's a fun fact about your world that you as the worldbuilder are dying to share, but nobody ever thinks to ask? 

[hoofpeet]

Vague concept doodles I was playing w/ for the idea of what spider syndrome might look like in satyrs . Kinda couldn't really make these look right though, just like the actual guy's design

[powdermelonkeg]

Minecraft's worlds are cyclical.

The End, called such, is the last place you go to. It's got floating islands over nothingness. It's still forming.

The Nether is full of lava, ruin, decay. The monsters don't hide at night, because they don't even have a concept of night. Killing the Wither, made fully of parts you can only find in the Nether, grants you an achievement called "The Beginning."

The Overworld is full of life that's constantly changing. The terrain is forming bigger and bigger, new entities and old come into/back into existence.

Neither the End nor the Nether are habitable for human life. You can make do, somewhat—chorus fruit and hoglin porkchops can technically sustain you. But there's no sun, no flowers, no trees.

The Nether came first. It's dying.

The Overworld is the current, alive world.

The End is still just coming into being.

When the Overworld is no longer habitable, the End will have evolved new landscapes, new horizons. And while the End's life flourishes and the Overworld's life dies off, the Nether will have a chance to heal, start over. Like a phoenix, or a forest after a wildfire.

Idk guys I just really like the idea of worlds that live, die, then live again.

[adobe-outdesign]

thinking about Pokemon depictions in-universe. the few times we see something like that it tends to stick to the actual Pokemon designs, but humans love to portray IRL animals as all sorts of weird colors. imagine kids walking around with rainbow Eevee plushies and the like

and that's not getting into the idea of in-universe cryptids. I feel like we got a bit of a taste of this with the paradox 'mon sketches, but those were at least based on something real. I wanna hear all about some incredible powerful mythical Pokemon and then it turns out not only does it 100% not exist but it's also apparently just a Wobbuffet with a horn