Thread 24748733

Tropical Beach Edition

FAQ:
>What is worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding is the process of creating entire fictional worlds from scratch, all while considering the logistics of these worlds to make them as believable as possible. Worldbuilding asks questions about the setting of a world, and then answers them, often in great detail. Most people use it as a means of creating a setting or the scenery for a story.
>"Isn't there a Worldbuilding general in >>>/tg/ already?"
Yes, there is. However, that general is focused on the creation of fictional worlds for the intended purpose of playing TTRPG campaigns. Here you can discuss worldbuilding projects that are not meant to be used for a roleplaying setting, but for novels, videogames, or any other kind of creative project.
>"Can I discuss the setting of my campaign here, though?"
If you want to, but it would probably be better to discuss it on >>>/tg/ . We don't allow the discussion of TTRPG mechanics, however. If you want to discuss stats or which D&D edition is best, this is not the place.
>"Can I talk about an existing fictional setting that is not mine?"
Yes, of course you can!
>"Does worldbuilding need to be about fantasy and elves?"
Worldbuilding, as already stated above, and contrary to what many believe, does not inherently imply blatantly copying Tolkien. In fact, there are many science-fiction setting out there, and even entire alternative history settings which do not possess supernatural elements at all. Any kind of science fiction book has an implied setting at least, which involves a certain degree of worldbuilding put into it.

Old Thread: >>24667235

You forgot the thread question

>>24748733 (OP)
OP doesn’t seem to be doing anything in this department, and I was thinking of making a new thread myself before they did it, so I’m stepping in:
Thread Questions:
>What are the tropical regions of your setting like? Are they based on any particular place in our own world, and where do you look when coming up for ideas and resources on said regions?
>When it comes to the flora and fauna of such regions, what are they like? What about monsters if they exist, and where do you look for ideas and resources on either?
>How about the peoples of said tropical regions, what are they like and what real-life peoples, if any, are they based on? And what do they consider appropriate dress and/or beachwear?
>If your setting has more than one sapient race, which are most present in such environment? And what adaptations do they have for said environmental factors, especially if they’re semi, or fully, aquatic.

Bonus question:
>What are the polar regions like in comparison?

>>24749928
Since the last thread did better than the previous few and actually made it to the limit, I’m posting the thread questions from the last couple threads if you’re interested.

>What kinds of magic, psychic abilities, and/or other powers exist in your world? And if multiple types exist, how do they interact with each other, if at all?
>If the different types can be combined, what is the result? And if not, what is the reason?
>How do people use/gain access to the magic? And what are the most important things to consider/remember when creating a magic system(s) or power system, and what mistakes to avoid? How did you make your own?
>Is there anything that the magic or powers explicitly cannot do, and if yes, what? And how much of the limits of the abilities are inherent versus a lack of understanding?
>On the subject of hyper-advanced technology, what exists in your world and what do you need to remember when creating/including it? What about magitech, or other tech that incorporates powers, what can you say on that?

>Do the people in your setting believe in any celestial beings like Angels or something similar? And do these beings actually exist, and if so, how accurate are the beliefs?
>How about Demons or similar beings, how accurate are their beliefs to reality? And how do you add your own twist to them, or to Angels?
>Are there any other categories of otherworldly entities in your world, like the Fae, Yokai, Ghosts and specters, Grim Reapers, Elementals, etc.? If so, how are they related to Angels, Demons, or each other, if at all, and what are they like?
>What about the gods in your world, what are they like, how are their pantheons structured? And what is their relationship with the other mystical entities in the setting (do they have any specific groups of Angels serving specific gods, etc.)?

Bump

>Been writing post apocalyptic bronze age fantasy setting with tyrannical elves and evil gods and shit for a while now
>Xitter recommends me some other guy's post that's doing basically the same exact thing but his shit looks much cooler than mine
has this ever happened to you and how do i deal with this mentally

>>24751690
>bronze age
>elves
Really?

>>24752414
Fuck you mean "really" faggot what part do you not understand? You won't even reply to this cause half the replies in this thread is you asking nothing statements to bump an empty thread. Fuck off.

>>24749931
The last thread did well because it had me DESU

>>24752414
Think Annunaki crossed with Druchii from Warhammer.

We all know what fantasy settings we like, even love.

But what fantasy setting do we NEED right now?

>>24752422
>>24753361
Let me guess, your setting has dwarves and orcs and dragons too?

>>24753442
Did you seriously delete and repost that to basically say the same exact thing?

>>24753446
There was a typo.

>>24753456
That's not what a typo is.

i could just check but i'm going to bump (you)r thread. does /tg/ have writing threads? or is it mainly just in their wbg equiv

>>24753442
No orcs or dwarves, yes dragons. Something wrong with that?

>>24753497
I'm assuming when you say your setting is Bronze Age you mean it is Mesopotamian, correct?

>>24753512
I have a few anachronistic cultures that are more reminiscent of early Iron Age (Cimmero-Scythians, Vedic India, even some Celtic stuff, etc) but it's mainly a blend of Hittite, Mesopotamian, Minoan Greek, Ancient Egypt, Kush, and the like.

>>24753544
So why are you also including Germanic folklore (elves)? Why not focus on what makes your setting unique instead?

>>24753620
The modern fantasy elf is completely divorced from the original Germanic origin.
For some examples; TES already did Mesopotamian Elves, and stuff like Warhammer's elves don't feel Germanic at all.
Why include elves? Maybe because I like elves? And moreover the point is taking classic fantasy tropes and races and applying them to a new cultural/mythological background.

And like I mentioned, I was mostly just a touch salty because I saw some other guy also came up the same idea of tyrannical Mesopotamian elves and his look way cooler than mine
>pic related

>>24753645
>applying them to a new cultural/mythological background.
How are they different from all of the other elves in fiction?

>>24753729
By being Bronze Age Mesopotamian demigods?
Are you just begging for (you)s at this point?

>>24753759
Why are you so passive aggressive? I asked a simple question. You can't just take a cliche, move it to a new setting, then act like it is no longer a cliche. What sets your fantasy book apart from the tens of thousands of others, other than the fact that characters use bronze weapons instead of iron and ride chariots instead of on the backs of horses?

>>24753771
>You can't just take a cliche, move it to a new setting, then act like it is no longer a cliche.
Why are you assuming I did this? I explained the basic points on why my elves are different from the basic modern fantasy elf.
That being said, there is literally nothing wrong with using tropes or having generic elves. They're popular for a reason.
>Why are you so passive aggressive?
Projection much?
>Erm why are you using elves, you know they're Germanic right? You can't just have elves in a bronze age setting.
>Erm, your setting sounds really generic because it has elves, sounds like another generic cliche fest.

>>24753789
>Why are you assuming I did this? I explained the basic points on why my elves are different from the basic modern fantasy elf
No you didn't you only said that they're "Bronze Age Mesopotamian demigods". Giving Legolas an ethnic hat doesn't make him any different than the regular Legolas on a fundamental level.

>>24753794
>Giving Legolas an ethnic hat doesn't make him any different than the regular Legolas on a fundamental level
Do you have a single reason to assume my elves are in any way like that? Why are you assuming that my elves are Legolases in ethnic hats?
Especially when I already specified in my literal very first post (which was not asking for critique) that they are cruel tyrannical overlords who worship evil gods. You saw my post and decided to be a sarcastic asshole >>24752414
>Bronze age elves? Really?

>>24753803
>they are cruel tyrannical overlords who worship evil gods
Let me guess: They worship a giant spider?

>>24753810
Nope.
But I'm going to stop responding to you because you're obviously a retarded cunt. Enjoy your last (you).

>>24753442
Yeah.

Anyone have any good inspirations or ideas for how humans can be genetically modified to be domesticated animals?

>>24753941
Think about the job you want them to do and work your way backwards from there. If they are coal miners they should be able to see in the dark and breathe poisoning fumes without dying, for example.

>>24753941
Are you more interested in the mechanical aspect, like how exactly the genetic engineers use science/magic/etc to slowly transform humanity irreversibly into something new? Or just interesting ideas on what the end results could be?

>>24753422
pseudo-modernist metaphysical fantasy without any reliance of some shallow "_____punk" aesthetic

>>24753422
Something that sells people on the idea that you can do good things even when you seek glory, or power, or other selfish things.

I want people to know that success is not a zero sum game.

>>24754027
The latter. I'm sure there are some obscure settings that have already done it.

What programs do you guys use to keep track of shit? Trillium seems like a pretty good notetaker/article tracker (maker), especially since it's free and local. It's not a visualizer though, and I'd like to find something that can do this which isn't some subscription based, data mining/selling service.

>>24754188
>pseudo-modernist metaphysical
Holy fucking buzzword salad

>>24748733 (OP)
Alright my dudes.
I'm writing a character who has the ability to stop energy in an area of effect. So everything stops moving because kinetic energy expires, heat dies, electricity doesn't work, stuff like that. A complete ,bubble of energy vacuum.
I was wondering if light should work within? Is light an energy? I suppose sunlight should also stop because it's solar energy, but idk... should everything inside the AOE be a completely dark?

>>24755257
if you played pathologic, it would make complete sense to you, pseud.

>>24756087
it would have to be as visible light is electromagnetic radiation, which does make it energy.

You know, I think I'm finally considering what that meme said: write out my political fantasies and add them to my setting.

So hear me out. World War 2. The US decides to sit out the land war in Europe, refuses to aid the USSR with Lend Lease, and quietly focuses on developing the Atom Bomb and defeating Japan. As a result, the Soviets still manage to push the Germans out of their borders....but with disastrous losses that nearly collapse their nation due to famine.

And then the US just develops the Atom bomb anyway and turns most German cities into an irradiated heap. Half the German population is murdered and the nation surrenders the Nazis to prevent the other half from dying. Hitler and nearly ten thousand officials are executed and the country is occupied by US forces.
The Atomic Era begins. The US is the world's sole superpower and nuclear energy is now the default. The Golden Age of Capitalism of the 50s never ends. Leftism is fully crushed, and so is Segregation- but without the other things in the 60s. The US is occupying most of Europe, is planning to wipe out the remnants of the USSR soon, has forced the Brits and French to abandon their old colonies and replaced their viceroys with either democracies or puppet dictators sent by the CIA, and is sending out troops to destroy communist insurrections wherever they erupt.
It's going to be easy enough to translate this to my own setting.

Llys starts the war with Babylonian help, Tripura just nukes them all after mostly letting the Chinese and Persians die doing most of the fighting, Megacorporations take over and transform the country into one big Megacity with clean streets manned by Robocops.....oh, and there are airships threatening occupied countries with nukes.
Somewhere along the way, the natives (non-Dravidians) are given legal equality but never become anything more than an underclass.

>>24748733 (OP)
How do you make Angels more than just physically flawless humans with wings and halos and a divine glow? Especially if you want to avoid going the “Biblically accurate” route like picture related and keep them actually humanoid. I asked in the last thread but it was already near the end and I forgot to clarify the "humanoid" part, so while I got 'some' good answers, like them taking on appearances based on the viewer/of deceased believers, making them look like robots, and a couple others, I could still use some more. >>24744122 suggested some elementally-themed ideas, and I'd love more of those, as well as ideas for other elements like lightning, light, void, gravity, and/or ice, does anyone have any suggestions there please? I think that ice angels having shifting snowflake patterns as halos is a great idea, for example.

>>24756400
>/v/ermin
Ah it makes sense now. Only one of the brain rotted zoomies from there would defend talking in a bunch of meaningless terms

>>24748733 (OP)
I’m working on a setting where the forces of Heaven and Hell are in conflict, but are prevented from waging large-scale battle in either of their two realms. As a result, they use the mortal world to get around this. That’s not the issue at hand though, I’m running out of name ideas for both sides that aren’t just the names of angels or demons from the Bible, and could use some suggestions, and I would love to hear how you name your own angels and demons as well. I want the names to be meaningful beyond just slapping “el” to the end of ordinary names for angels, which of course makes it harder on me…

One idea I had was that succubi and incubi, especially the former, mainly take on the role of spies in the mortal world, so I could use some names for that kind of demon in particular. Lilith as their queen is a given, and names of historical women associated with lust (like Helen because everybody in Greece wanted to marry her) could work for some of them, especially if the rumors are true and said women become succubi after death, but I can only think of a few and I still need some more ideas for succubi that weren’t ever human, thanks in advance for any help you can give me! The last thread suggested I take a page from the book of Journey to the West where the animalistic demons have titles instead of names, which is a start at least, what do you think?

>>24757537
>like them taking on appearances based on the viewer/of deceased believers, making them look like robots, and a couple others
That was me
>24744122
That was also me
>lightning
You know how when lighting strikes wood, it leaves behind a pattern that looks like branches? Imagine that, but it takes (roughly) the form of a winged humanoid, constantly pulsing and vibrating. It has a booming voice made up of hundreds of different voices and when it departs, the surface he was on gets charred with the same pattern his body was made of. Or you could make it a humanoid version of the Thunderbird (an idea I had is that, only the people he wants to be heard can hear his "human" voice, the rest just hear a cacophony of wind, thunder and eagle screams)
>light
You can only see them through mirrors OR they don't have physical forms, they are only images, however, if you do see them they can enter your mind and wreck your perception of reality
>void
When I made that post about elemental suggestions, I mentioned I have never liked Darkness/Void as an element because its not really a thing... Its the absence of a thing
>gravity
Bodies made out of white feathers, mechanical wings of black steel, constantly shedding both parts, their faces are a yellow ring with a black center (this is a reference to that black hole picture ) the feathers are extremely heavy while the steel is lighter than air and floats OR normal human bodies, except it lacks a head in its place is a mini-replica of the solar system and its wings look like the space, dotted with stars
>ice
Their bodies are an aurora borealis
Or just their wings (they use them to hypnotize people)
Or their bodies are made of crystal clear ice and (depending on the person) it can reflect their biggest fears, insecurities or guilt. For instance, if you feel guilty about killing someone, their faces would reflect that of the victim while their bodies show you again when you killed them. If their trying to encourage someone, they could reflect something nice, like your father telling you everything is going to be ok

>>24757537
I personally like the "biblically accurate" look, but one commonish idea is to make them more based on birds, lions, "noble" animals with faces and porcelain aesthetics. Bayonetta are pretty much my go to.

>>24754188
You mean like other realms/dimensions? Dream realms? I've been trying to figure out what a 3rd genre would be. The supernatural, religious, metaphysical, paranormal, spiritual side of what i guess would be fantasy.

It's not sci fi and it's not traditional fantasy. It exists in another plane. I don't know how to describe it and it's probably just a form of fantasy anyway. That's what we need right now.

>>24749928
The tropical areas are pretty obviously based on the history of our world but not a straight copy. There are ordered, hierarchical kingdoms and tribes of desert nomads. There are also scattered jungle tribes that don't really matter except to thwart would-be world conquerors with impossible logistical problems for no real gain.

The major religions are henotheistic Sun worship and polytheism. These religions don't really go well together but many places have historically been tolerant of both anyway, at least to some degree.

There is an advanced city-state in the far South that is a major international producer of steel and has formidable city walls. Even more South there is an anomaly that spreads. (I need to world-build that anomaly to determine how exactly it works.)

There is a lost city of the Elves in the high desert. No one lives there anymore.

There is a kingdom in the not-so-South that is ruled by a very prestigious and respected dynasty of Elves, though currently only like 2 Elves remain (the king and the prince) and the rest of the kingdom is humans.

There are some "monsters" but those are more like animals for local color (possibly dangerous to travelers, though), such as small winged lizards that live in the desert sands and have a poisonous bite. I'm considering the possibility of spirit beasts but haven't reached a conclusion on that. There are a few powerful sorcerers who have found ways to cheat death by becoming monsters themselves, but the role of this phenomenon in the South is also something that isn't at all settled.

The polar regions in contrast are sparsely populated but some Elves can still be found there and other non-humans also exist, maybe even real dragons though no one can say for sure...

Thread is starting to gain steam

I literally cannot decide what fantasy races to include in my setting.

>>24759039
These are great, thanks! Not sure about Light though,. Oh, just had an idea, what if Light Angels look like they're multiple Angels at once in a spectrum of colors? Any thoughts on Death or Life besides the Grim Reaper and plants, respectively? Or halos specifically, like in picrel?

>>24748733 (OP)
I came up with part of the idea of a. Scifi world I'm calling "Jupiter; Independent" and heres what it's main scifi thing is going to be

In the far future humanity, through cybernetics, gene alteration, and general affronts to God, has created a new organ that allows them to naturally house AI within their body. It's not a full ai living in a persons body but more a housing organ that keeps the ai close to you. An addition piece of tech get put on/in the body to help run it and they're held like companions.
You have to get the AI and getting your first AI is like getting your first pet, a childhood experience. Very few peope don't have an AI and at most some just have Smart-Intelligences that are dime a dozen and can be replaced.

The story for this setting follows a young boy living on Jupiter who has to start looking for his father who's hasn't returned home.

How does it seem?

>>24758481
Name angels after virtues. Take names from jewish mythology and other related religions
Make their names start with A and end in Z
For demons name them after sins and vices. There are a lot of demons names from Catholic sources.

>>24759624
>Fantasy races
Don't, fantasy races fucking suck

>>24759786
I'm not sure what your angle is with this. Is it about the fantastic science fiction adventures of a boy and his AI friend or is the main character so young that he doesn't have an AI yet and has to survive in a world in which an AI is required for many things? Those are very different stories.

>>24759624
What is the theme of your setting?

>>24748733 (OP)
So I wanted an incident that was similar to the British seizing 2 ships that the Ottomans paid for during WW1.

My idea was a relatively wealthy country (let's call it Coastdom) that isn't too advanced at gunsmithing orders several cannons of a large caliber designed for coastal defence from a naval power (let's call it Anchorland). It's also funded by many donations in coastal regions.

However Anchorland suffers a large influx of pirate attacks, and increased aggression from a neighboring kingdom that has a weaker navy, but still strong enough to threaten. The newly made cannons are seized and used to defend their own coasts.

This of course outrages Coastdom, and when the two are forced to ally with one another, they "retreat strategically" when an ambush comes to attack the Anchorland fleet, causing much of their fleet to sink.

This creates a large resentment between both Anchorland and Coastdom. Anchorland's crown prince died during the ambush, so they blame Coastdom for abandoning him. Coastdom insists it was necessary to retreat, and still think of the Anchorlands as swindling liars as the cannons were never given, and the money never returned.

Do you think this is reasonable?

>>24761752
It's the former. The boy is around 14 and kids usually get some form of ai at around 7 - 8 years old.

>>24761781
It's partially meant to be a sort of mythological iron age-ish kind of setting, but "fantasy". As in less high power super wizards and courtly wizards with notChristian monks, and more mythological tales of valor with smaller stakes, clans and fortified towns, more wild and untamed lands, nature spirits and pantheism; but still in a distinctly "not real" setting that isn't meant to be "trying too hard" like a lot of fantasy settings do. Conan, Dwarf Fortress, and Dominions (the strategy video games) are my biggest inspirations, but I want something that doesn't feel quite as "humanocentric" as those without going full kitchen sink dwarves/elves/goblins. It's a very vague set of qualifiers I know, but I know it when I see it.

>>24759726
>Life
Does it really makes sense for an angel of life to exist? Since god created all the life and the world by himself
>Death
Pale, emaciated and with a wound on his head Make him look like Abel Covered in a lambskin (because lambs used to be sacrificed to god) Riding a pale horse adorned with withered roses

>>24753941
You made this exact post on the last thread

>>24763044
Fair, the Life and Death idea was basically right off the top of my head after waking up, what about Order and Chaos angels? For the former I'm torn between them looking robotic or crystalline, and for the latter there has to be something other than constant mutations.

>>24757537
Might not be exactly what you're looking for but I like the idea that while angels may appear 'human' their very presence signals their divine nature in impossible yet subtle ways:
- when outside, they always impossibly seem to be standing in front of a light source when noticed - whether that be the sun, streetlights, etc. Like somehow it's difficult to actually look upon their faces
- their footfalls on bare ground send up fresh shoots of green growth which die as their feet leave the ground
- their voice seems layered, as if somehow two people with an identical voice were speaking at once, but one deeper or greater or "higher" than the other (the idea being that their physical body on earth is an echo of their greater, true metaphysical being)
-likewise, when forced to act beyond the capabilities of the flesh, the shimmering outline of their "true" bodies can be seen pulling their physical "shells" along

>>24762156
Form ultimately fits function.
When making a fantasy race, think about what purpose it serves in the setting or story.
>Ancient immortal precursor race to humanity
Leans elf-coded.
>Vermin nuisance race
Leans goblin
>Savage forest dwelling race
Leans orc
>Underground miners
Leans dwarf
Now you don't actually have to literally use literal 'orcs' - but whether you go with something slightly more niche (say, any sort of beastfolk as a replacement for the orc-coded race, or kobolds for goblins, or gnomes for dwarves) or make your own "unique" race it ultimately should "fit" for what its purpose is.
As an example, Bakker's Cûnuroi aren't literally elves but they fulfill the narrative function of the ancient, immortal, precursors and consequently don't look like diminutive rat people; they look like the Engineers in Prometheus - basically tall, porcelain-white godlike beings when compared to humans.
You can intentionally subvert this of course but there's a reason why these tropes have been recycled for decades across a million different settings.

>>24764245
>Order and chaos angels
Aren't angels agents of order already?
Idk, I think if you want to go with that divide you should do: Order angels and chaos demons
Angels are mechanicals while most demons (with the exception of the originals) are purely organical

>>24764331
To keep using Bakker as an example, you can sort of see how this process works in practice with the Inchoroi
>I need a rape alien fantasy race
May as well start with xenomorphs. They're probably the most iconic rape aliens out there.
>Too bestial, these guys are also intelligent/scientists
Trim off the bestial elements (drop the tail, fix their posture)
>I need them to communicate with other humanoid races
Take the xenomorph's "second mouth" but turn it into a humanoid face instead of just being another monster mouth
Now just tweak it a bit, flip the color scheme (white evokes immortality), add some devil wings (because they're evil); now you have a completely "original" fantasy race that looks 'right' for their actual function in the setting

not a writer, nor even intelligent. but if i were to make art for my own little world building ideas. do i need to draw black people? I kind of don't want to, but i feel like i would have to answer to somebody if i didn't include them.

>>24764741
No

>>24764770
sick! ty anon!

>>24764331
Hey, nice reply, I appreciate it.

Unfortunately I have a massive problem that the moment I try to write anything down or codify my ideas or vague aesthetic impulses into a "real" work or outline it instantly loses all its appeal. I'm basically trying to write on vibes like running on fumes; it's ultimately futile.

The average Elyssan military camp, ever since the time when their aristocrats had souls and hearts, consists of a skyscraper sized "hive" that can be set up in merely 3-6 hours and has outer walls made of some bizarre black mud that can "heal" itself and repel anything short of bunker busters.

Basically just a mobile, artifical, magic constructed mountain fortress.
The Tripurans tend to invade it anyway by just crashing giant mecha from orbit right into their roofs. The gravity does a better job than artillery ever could.

This makes them the least favorite enemies of Elyssan commanders, who find mecha a stupid, childish design and prefer to fight conventional weapons like artillery or planes.
Besides, just crashing your weapons on your enemy just feels crass.

>>24764331
>When making a fantasy race, think about what purpose it serves in the setting or story.
Because people have a preference for a fantasy race.
>As an example, Bakker's Cûnuroi aren't literally elves but they fulfill the narrative function of the ancient, immortal, precursors and consequently don't look like diminutive rat people; they look like the Engineers in Prometheus - basically tall, porcelain-white godlike beings when compared to humans.
And therefore they do NOT invoke the same feelings in readers as having elves would've. This means that you lose some easy readers because you wanted them to be unique and quirky.

>>24765470
Think you've completely missed my point.
There's nothing wrong with just using elves (the original post wanted to go beyond using standard fantasy races) and I already said there's a good reason why they're popular. All I was saying is have the form fit the purpose, regardless of whether you make something new or use something established.
Elves, like the Cûnuroi, are generally tall, pale, and beautiful. Their form follows from the feeling they're meant to evoke. The Cûnuroi's visual language accomplishes the same thing as Elves since they have the same role in the setting.
>This means that you lose some easy readers because you wanted them to be unique and quirky.
Not everyone writes for the purpose of capturing the largest audience, but sure, I don't disagree. But successfully executing something novel while still leaning on established tropes can leave a positive impression as well.

>Bakkerfag has breached containment and its now in this general
Its over

>>24765687
What are you even talking about? I was just using him as an example.

>>24765697
>Bakkerfag thinks he's going to trick me by playing dumb
Nice try but I'm wise to your tricks now

>>24753456
Giga based.

>>24764741
Don't. Doing things that you don't want to will make you burn out and drop your project. Anyway people who complain about this type of shit are rarely taken seriously, even on twitter. They might get zero or a few likes depending on the popularity, but the headlines will make you think like it's the majority of the audience.

>>24764741
>>24766576
Just don't directly reference skin colour and leave people to their own inferences. There are faggots on Twitter who draw white characters as coal black, yellow eyed Africans, simply because the author made an off hand comment about them having a tan.

>>24766608
Even if the author explicitly says they're pale blond white people, tumblrinas will still draw them as the most vanta black bantu to ever exist

>>24764366
I didn't want to fall into the trap of seeing Order as inherently good and Chaos as inherently evil.

Well, thanks regardless. Do you have any specific thoughts on halos, for those elements we discussed or in general? I like the idea that an angel can use a halo as an emergency weapon, just thought of that.

>>24764318
This is a neat idea, thanks! Do you have any thoughts on how this might manifest for angels of specific elements besides things like an afterimage of their respective elements?

>>24766971
I think it would be particular to the element.
For fire, candles and fires might burn brighter in their presence or alternatively actually grow dimmer as their fire or light is drawn into the angel, who subtly radiates back a light of their own.
For wind maybe something like bits of dried leaves seem to be collected and swirl around the angel as if they were the center of a little invisible tornado or cyclone. When they walk the wind is always at their back. A cool breeze seems to pulse inwards and outwards matching their breathing rhythm.
For water, maybe these angels draw mists to their presence, where they walk stagnant pools become clear, and dried streambeds come back to life. Their blue eyes shimmer and shift in color, like a ray of light piercing deep crystal clear pools of water.

>>24766971
>I like the idea that an angel can use a halo as an emergency weapon, just thought of that.
I like it. How about manifesting/summoning the halo increases/realizes the full potency of all their powers but makes them vulnerable too; shattering an angel's halo is one of the only ways to permanently "kill" it

>>24766971
>I didn't want to fall into the trap of seeing Order as inherently good and Chaos as inherently evil.
Faggot
Chaos doesnt even exist btw

>>24765581
Elves are shorter than humans in most fantasy. It's only really LOTR and WoW that do elves bigger than humans and in the case of LOTR it's not entirely obvious.

>>24767148
>Elves are shorter than humans in most fantasy.
I don't really think this is true.
Tolkien, Warhammer, Warcraft, (mostly) TES, Pathfinder all have taller elves to varying degrees.
I'd say the settings that do shorter elves are more of a subversion and not the norm.
But this is really besides the actual point; elves also can evoke the "forest fairy" archetype in which case it actually makes sense to make them smaller in accordance with my logic.
You're just nitpicking.

>>24767072
Nta but chaos doesn't seem to exist because order comes from it. It's kind of like how you can't make something out of nothing. Chaos is unharnessed potential. Choas and order work in tandem.

How do you actually decide what kind of fantasy setting to create?

I just have "ideas".

>>24767318
D&D and folk lot/mythology (at least in Europe) are the bigger influences on it. In both elves are shorter and smaller than humans.
You're right that the fairy thing also makes sense.

>>24767473
>vegetawearingglasses.jpg
Thats a misguided view of chaos - most people view chaos as being without order, albeit nothing that even sotospeak touches order can ever be completely unordered. The force you are referring to as chaos, from which order suggests, is in actuality incomprehensible (both ordered and unordered) - the power of God.

>>24767730
I posted before finishing: the problem with making elves taller than humans is that they will proportionally end up bigger than humans in other aspects too. Bigger hands, feet, wider shoulders, bigger heads etc.
They will also weigh significantly more than humans if they're taller. If these factors aren't followed, then elves will end up looking weird and alien.
If you take someone of average weight for their height, eg 5'11" cm and 154 lbs, and you add 8 inches to their height, then they should now weigh 195 lbs. They will be worse at endurance and body weight sports, they're not going to be walking on snow etc. Grace isn't going to make up for that difference. It breaks the traditional ideas of what elves are.

>>24767743
Tolkien, who is essentially the origin point of fantasy elves as we understand them has literal giant elves (a lot of them are 7 feet tall or more) and they do walk on snow and are capable of incredible feats of inhuman agility and grace.
The point is that elves are capable of these things despite also being taller and bigger and stronger - they're fundamentally better than regular humans in ways that defy human understanding. They're simply closer to the divine. It's why elves of this type usually are the ones in fantasy that built great civilizations or Empires, only falling behind the upstart humans because of their decadence or population decline.
Usually "little" elves in fantasy aren't the heirs of ancient Empires which put modern humanity's kingdoms to shame. They are, like I said, closer to forest folk or fairies.
And like I said originally you can intentionally choose to subvert this but having the form of your fantasy race fit their role in the story or setting is something that just works fundamentally.

>24767649
FUCK OFF HOWIE

>>24766971
>seeing Order as inherently good and Chaos as inherently evil.
I never said that, think about it. If chaos (flesh) is inherently evil why would god make us in flesh? If he made us in his image does that mean he's also made of flesh or chaotic in nature? If so, why are angels robotic? This are the kind of questions you need to ask when making this kind of stuff

I feel like I've been stressing my brain out trying to hash out my world and I've hit a wall. I need to take a step back and let my head recharge. You guys got any good brain food worth reading (or watching) to get the juices going? I'm working on low-ish fantasy but any type of fantasy that does creative stuff with its magic would be welcome.

How many of you are actually writing a story? And how many are just autistically worldbuilding for worldbuildings sake?

>>24769893
I have been building a detailed synopsis for a novel, but I don't know if I will ever get to write out the story properly.

>>24769893
My worldbuilding is a setting up my fanfiction OC and his tribe in another setting

>>24770861
>fanfiction

>>24770575
>Synopsis
Couldn't be me
I just make up stuff as I go along

Today was a slow day huh

>>24771249
I tried writing a story where I didn't plan ahead and in an incredibly short space I had managed to go from some suburban strangeness to the these two characters needing to save the world from rather competent interdimensional aliens who preferred to shoot first and ask questions never. I couldn't figure out a way for the heroes to win without authorial contrivance that would have spoiled the story and so shelved the attempt, never to be finished.

Working on a synopsis first makes story revisions so much easier. I'm probably at around major revision v7 for a particular tricky part of my synopsis. My original idea for that part was radically different from the present version and far lamer.

>>24772560
Perchance you just need more practice

>>24769195
Remember, I also suggested the possibility that Order angels could be crystalline instead, and the reason I brought up the good evil thing is is because when most people think "demon" they think evil, so making demons inherently chaotic causes people to think that Chaos itself is evil. And humans are somewhere in the middle of the Order/Chaos divide in my book.

>>24767738
>>24767473
Please elaborate on this.

>>24767059
Huh, that could be interesting.

>>24767028
Thanks for the ideas, though I notice that you didn't mention any ways this might work for earth angels. What about halo-specific ideas? Like maybe water angels have halos that look like whirlpools.

>>24773453
That failed story was years ago. I kept escalating the stakes every time the plot threatened to stall out. Never again. Writing only when I have an ending in mind has always been the natural way for me.

The current story idea with the detailed in-progress synopsis is a lot more ambitious and complex than anything I've written in the past. I'm going for a very deliberate structure with multiple main characters against a backdrop of a massive high-level power struggle, and keeping the timelines coherent and everyone's motivations sensical while making for a suspenseful story takes a lot of effort, especially in the part where multiple intentional disasters get inflicted on the world because some people are bad losers.

>The world population hasn't changed since 1848 in my setting, where it peaked at 9 Billion. Now in 2033, the world population is STILL around 9 billion, but nearly a billion of them are in space.
>Population on the Earth proper has actually decreased.
>Predictions say that Space population will peak at 10B in just a century and Earth will basically collapse into Eastern Europe style states.
>Tripura is the main driver for this change.

I need a suitably ominous term for this phenomenon.

>>24770983
It's like isekai but with an entire tribe and shit

But yes it's fanfiction so yeah, if you don't like it don't

>>24774744
Tripura? The state in India? The Hindu goddess? (thanks Wikipedia)

The rest is a weird AU that sounds just really off, as in ChatGPT off.

>>24774934
It's the name of one of the evil empires in my setting. Techno-Dystopian leader of an evil NATO equivalent.

How do I do worldbuilding? I'm trying to write a story. I know what I want the story to contain, but I haven't really done any worldbuilding aside from adjusting the typical litrpg and fantasy elements to my liking.

Well, I suppose I have created a few set pieces, like a city near a volcano with lots of hot springs being an important location for water and fire mages both.

But aside from that I don't really have an answer to questions like who's the king? Religion etc.

Is there some kind of spreadsheet or graph that will have all of these "small" questions that I can fill out? So that I won't be writing along and then get side tracked by the question of who is the king of the kingdom they are in?

>>24775313
I think details tangentially related to the plot, such as the name of the local king in a story not really about kings or politics, can be safely left until the writing phase and then settled if they come up in the narrative. You should probably have a file recording your decisions for consistency's sake though, so that if the local ruler is King Bob II, he doesn't randomly switch into Emperor Golbazius IV while the main characters in the capital city were having a peaceful weekend eating crepes in the Central Park. I mean, that sort of thing can be justified in a story, but you should be doing it on purpose so that the readers don't wonder in vain about the political situation in the background.

>>24748733 (OP)
I’m looking to create a system of elemental magic, what do I need to remember when doing so/what are some resources I can use for this, especially if I want to have each element to have specialties/other abilities besides manipulating the substance of the element itself, like waterbending having healing abilities in Avatar, but with more expansive portfolios for each element?

>>24748733 (OP)
What reason could homosexuality be "accepted" or at least not viewed with disgust in a fantasy setting taking inspiration from the real world?

I'm working on a dystopian / utopian world setting which is similar to 1984 / Brave new World / V for Vendetta.

I'm aiming to set an anthology of short stories in this world but don't want the setting to be too unrealistic / unbelievable.

I also want a lot of the stories to be very mundane in nature, rather than the classic grand revolution and dissidents bubbling up, just minor transgressions and highlighting the bureaucratic nature of everything.

Any other inspiration I can draw from or any pitfalls to be aware of? I'm very conscious that this can easily become mega clichéd pure sci-fi and I'd like to avoid that. Keen to hear thoughts or questions or anyone else's experience doing similar.

>>24775484
I think the easiest way is to have the local pagan religion not explicitly condemn homosexuality, allowing for people to have different views. The religion could be very strict about seducing married women/virgin girls while being more lenient in other aspects. Some of the myths could even mention male gods and heroes having male lovers, which would naturally inspire people.

Yes, I'm alluding to Ancient Greece here, though the Ancient Greek gay acceptance has been exaggerated and depended on the time period and the location.

Based on the example of Ancient Greece, there would also probably be social pressure even for a man primarily interested in men to legally marry a woman for the sake of producing legitimate children to continue the family line.

>>24775461
I know what you're saying, but I'm afraid that these kinds of interruptions will take me off-track while I'm writing. Ideally I would like to have written these details down with a few words. It's just that I haven't seen like a comprehensive spreadsheet that does this. Maybe D&D material about DMing has something like this.
The reason I want them to be done before much writing is so that I can let these ideas stew over time.

I completely agree with your idea of writing these decisions down. I have a limited amount of memory that I can dedicate to keeping in mind the details in the story and if I write them down I feel like a burden has lifted from my mind.

>>24775471
Things you should keep in mind:
1. Can the element/spell harm the user when controlled? Ie can a fire mage burn his hand when they make a mistake?
2. What are the limits of control? Can a water mage control all the water in a lake at once? Can a water mage divide a droplet of water into two, then halve it again and again? What's the smallest amount of water they can control (same for the other elements).
3. What can the "bending" actually bend? Is it purely water for water mages or does it also include things like blood or oil? What about ice? Water vapour?
4. What are the rules around bending an element near an opponent? Can an earth mages just bend the bones inside someone's body? A water mage the water in them? Can an air mage control all the air around someone? Expand the air in their lungs? (You probably don't want to allow any of these due to some inherent protection on living things.)
5. Where does the energy come from for bending? Do mages need more food? Does it come from the air/world? Are there pockets of more mana or less?
6. How do the bendings overlap? Is ice part of water bending or earth bending or both? Is fire part of fire bending alone or can an earth mage control the fine soot in the fire?
7. What kind of additional abilities do you have in mind? Healing water, protective earth, hasty air, and energetic fire?

>>24769893
I'm writing the story in my own head. Does that count?

>>24775484
Have a famous general or leader that is widely beloved (like Ataturk is in Turkey) be discovered to be homosexual a while ago.

The people then view it as "well the leader was gay so it couldn't have been WRONG"

>>24775953
You could do a do-over of your recent writing when you finish a writing session and add the new innovations to your world file. Unfortunately I don't know about any pre-existing spreadsheet, but making one yourself shouldn't be too difficult. You can then add new lines to your spreadsheet as necessary, depending on how the story develops.

I've earlier made two different wholly custom spreadsheets for two separate stories myself, one to manage a complicated magic system, another to keep track of things pertaining to different generations in a multi-generation story. The first story was never written in the end, and the second one resulted in a nearly completed first draft that has been long abandoned now, but the spreadsheets proved themselves a good idea.

I am currently writing a book about two vampires who have been in love for 300 years and exploring themes of immortality, religion and being unable to die, love across centuries, and the purpose of life and death. it's not a "muh fantasy" book. vampires are just the vehicle i use to explore my ideas
but i need to do some world building surrounding vampires. do they have to eat humans, because these vampires are not "evil", they're just 2 people that happen to be vampires for reasons that will be explored in the book.
i literally don't know how to world build vampires without it becoming cliche and too much like women's romantasy

>>24748733 (OP)
In my story’s world, once every hundred years there’s a great tournament for a user of every group of magic/type of spell, or at least mages who are temporarily limited to those specific spell types for the tournament, with the winner of each round gaining all the magical knowledge and skill of the loser (types with more combat utility from the get-go might have to enter in the second or third rounds for balance reasons though), the mages growing stronger as the tournament continues, until the final winner becomes the most powerful mage in the world, and the head of the mage's council for the next 100 years, kind of like Highlander but less lethal (in fact, killing one's foe is highly discouraged, in part to make it more challenging) and with magic, and once the tournament is over there’s a great feast to celebrate. I just need more types/specialties of magic in order to pad out the brackets (there’s no set number right now) as much as possible, no matter how if they don't seem useful in direct combat or not like healing spells or the various kinds of divination, since I want to have every branch of magic possible to be included in this besides the go-to ones like illusions, summoning, elemental spells, or necromancy. So far, after the aforementioned examples, there’s alchemy of course, biomancy, banishing, runes, wards, demonic magic, holy magic, magitech/artifice, scrying, contract magic, buffs, debuffs, and dispelling magic, what else can you please suggest? Remember, no type of spell is too specific or broad to mention here. Trying this again.

>>24776130
>Tournament arc
Dropped

>>24776086
They could subsist on the blood of animals, but if you just want generic immortals without all the vampire baggage I think it would be better to come up with something else, such as the Philosopher's Stone, a rare immortality potion or fruit of the sort that appear in various legends, or a curse/blessing from someone/something powerful.

>>24776315
I have thought of that, and I'm considering dropping vampires altogether. the immortality part is the important part
i'm debating just making them simply stop aging, and they don't know why

>>24776130
Charms, potions, dimensional magic such as teleporting, time magic, voodoo dolls, spirit channeling, memory manipulation, telepathy, taking over the wills of innocent bystanders, continent-wide weather spells (I really miss this one in D&D), taming monsters, summoning meteors and comet impacts, restoring the "game" to a save point, prophetic dreams, lucid dreaming, inflicting nightmares, dream communication, plant magic, telekinesis, mana element spells, body fortification, shapeshifting, shadow magic, fate-weaving, death spells, communicating with animals, identification spells, gravity magic, sensing someone's true character, journeying in spirit to the Underworld, animating puppets, blood magic, sword magic, magical martial arts, curses, magical gardening, magical tailoring, spinning straw from gold, song magic, writing stories that alter reality, creating personal demiplanes, creating universes, black hole spells, sacrificial rituals, manipulating sub-atomic forces, communicating with microbes, manipulating volcanism, spells that do a percentage of the target's hitpoints in damage, spells that kill a target who is on specific character levels but do nothing otherwise, spells that repair damaged objects, spells that make other spells permanent, spells that make other spells trigger when a condition is met, spells that make other spells stronger, Locate City nuke (D&D), anti-osmium bomb (D&D), Manipulate Form shenanigans ("becoming Pun-Pun") (D&D), stat drain/stat damage effects, turning one's hand into a sword, snake charming, magical rope tricks, granting powers to others, granting wishes, opening locked doors, using a divining rod, mirror magic...

I got a little carried away, as you can see. All that stuff is sourced from somewhere too. There is simply no way to get that list balanced for tournament use, though.

>>24776170
>Dropped
What's wrong with that?

>>24776368
>All that stuff is sourced from somewhere too
Really? Impressive, thanks! I'm fine with original ideas too though!

>>24748733 (OP)
In my setting, I was thinking that the goddess of Life and Death wanted to retire, so she made deals with the god of the Day and the god of the Night to have kids with each of them. She had planned to split the two spheres between each respective child, but they instead they both inherited power over Life and Death, filtered through the Light and Darkness spheres they inherited from their respective fathers. As a result, both healing magic and necromancy have a Light and Darkness variant these days. For Light healing, I was thinking that it would be better at healing people in area-of-effect spells, both to tie into the typical depiction of a fantasy cleric and healing spells and to represent a lantern’s light. Darkness healing, at the other hand, is better at healing single individuals, including the caster. For necromancy, I was thinking that the necromancy would use either Light or Darkness as a replacement for the life force of the body, or as a medium to hit their foes with the essence of death. I would greatly appreciate any feedback you have, especially on the necromancy and undeath angle please. For instance, I was thinking that taking a cue from the White cards from Amonkhet in MtG, mummies could be one of the kinds of undead affiliated with Light necromancy, does that make sense to you? Healing magic and necromancy share some basic principles if one squints, but are separate disciplines save for perhaps the most skilled, those who can keep a soul from leaving the body until it’s patched up. I was partially inspired by Yin and Yang, but not strongly following it, if it helps.

What are some non-mainstream obscure mythology I can rip off for my setting?

>>24777746
Maya, Aztec, Slavic, Indian (feather ones)

>>24748733 (OP)
I was thinking that in my world the lord of the Abyss is a being of madness and corruption that cannot truly create, only twist and break. As a result, all demons were ultimately once elementals that came too close to a place where the barrier between the Abyss and the mortal world is thin, and got dragged through and twisted into a demonic form, but with some of their original elemental nature still shining through. I was thinking that there would be some kinds of demons, like imps, who can be of any element (flame, ice, lightning, shadow, etc.) while there are some kinds of demons that are only made of one kind of corrupted elemental, like gargoyle-looking demons for stone elementals. Besides ideas for which kinds of demons can be made of only one element, since I want there to be more than just one breed designated for each element, so succubi work better as demons created solely from flame elementals like picture related, or demons that can be any element?

>>24777746
Wikipedia has a lot of overviews on various mythologies. Something like Albanian mythology hasn't had much attention.

>>24777746
Why the fuck do you get lucky quads!

And there's Celtic, pre-islamic Arabia, Native American from Cherokee to Inquancin

>>24777746
i've thought about this myself and for me it's celtic
i am considering writing a book about selkies

>>24779368
Please elaborate further on this.

>>24748733 (OP)
Besides crab monsters and sea serpents, what are some good choices for beach-dwelling monsters?

>>24782083
Jelly fish, sea Turtles, land sharks, eels(technically different), coral monsters(walking reefs)

>>24782083
Piranhas

>>24782083
Crocodiles and dire plovers.

What it feels like to say "I don't know" in response to shit you didn't care to talk about in your setting.

>what is the tax code?
>what do they eat?
>why is there new world crops?
>why don't they use nuclear reactors instead of natural gas?
>how come the thieves' guild hasn't been stopped yet?
>if there is ghosts does that mean there is an afterlife?

I don't know (I don't care, imagine your own answer).

Do you have ghosts in your story?

God these threads are shit.

All anyone does is posts bumps, vaguely gesture towards their story they'll never write, or ask question in hopes othe problems do the leg work for them.

Or worse some pedantic asshole comes and says "that is le derivative"

>>24785810
I just wanted to post that Sadako pic

>>24786736
You could've posted that anywhere else and gotten more traction.

Do you write your worldbuilding documents like a wiki or more like an instruction manual for yourself?

>>24785810
Should just prompt jeetPT to emulate this thread and then get it to respond to the vague gestures towards the story they will never write, and ask questions in hope of the problems being solved for them.

>>24785810
>vaguely gesture towards their story they'll never write
That's me.

>>24786819
It ain't always about the (You)s anon

So we can also post stories here? Will you guys actually read?

>>24748733 (OP)
Hello /wbg/, I'd like to know how the fuck a cultivation or litRPG setting is supposed to function. Pretty much most of the time you'll read about it the world is just an excuse for the protagonist to kill shit and level up but I wanna think up something that makes sense. How does a society in a world where you can apparently infinitely grow until you reach godhood if you're HIM work? What's the main motivation for people having kids in such a world?(Other than just the usual lust)

>>24756931
The US only nuked two Japanese cities and that was enough. What would justify nuking half of Germany and where did the US find the capacity to build so many bombs so quickly? Why did Hitler chose to allow himself to be captured rather than committing suicide?

>>24751690
I know exactly who you’re talking about so some of his art work. I’m also writing a Bronze Age setting for this game I’m developing, but it’s more low fantasy pulpy shit.

>>24788196
Go to /wng/ for that

>>24785810
For me the low quality bumps piss me off, I don't exactly enjoy putting in the effort to describe something in my work for advice or whatnot and then the only response I get is some retarded question just trying to fish activity from me instead of having an actual discussion.

BUT WILL YOU GUYS READ MY STORY OR NOT?

>>24748733 (OP)
Besides magical pearls and corals, what treasures might be found at a tropical beach?

>>24790828
Mysterious artifacts from a lost ancient city, possibly submerged in the local lagoon. Pirate's treasure. Cargo from a wrecked ship. Items carried by tourists. Rare and valuable plants.

>>24791051
>Rare and valuable plants.
Like what, coconuts?

>>24792088
Like the characters travel halfway around the world for this one flower that only blooms on certain tropical islands and can be brewed into a medicinal potion that can cure the emperor or make him immortal or something, if the ancient records are correct.

>>24790828
Rum, obviously

>>24792891
>Rum, obviously
What is it with sailors and rum?

>>24793599
You are really fucking dumb, low effort bumps on this dead ass thread, no wonder people are pissed.

>>24779368
it's underrated.

>>24788196
In the traditional cultivation story, the process of cultivation takes years of dedication. Even if you get an extended lifespan and cool powers, is it really worth it if you don't really get to live and instead spend your days meditating alone in a cave? On top of that, people can get stalled in their cultivation and fail to break to the next level regardless of giving their all.

In a LitRPG world, we might have cases like a fresh young adventurer who gets ambushed by a random goblin encounter. The goblins get to attack first because it's an ambush. Then... the first goblin does a critical hit with a great-axe, and the poor level 1 adventurer is a goner. His parents will probably grieve for him and wish he had had the sense to avoid dangerous things such as adventures.

The thing is, in a properly functioning world (not a parody or similar) the monsters shouldn't be just some danger-free bags of hitpoints standing around outside settlements, ready to be farmed by everyone. Also, there is no reason why leveling up in a LitRPG world would need to have any effect on someone's lifespan except potentially ending it suddenly when one single combat goes badly enough.

How long is your world's history?
More importantly, how much of that timeline have you actually developed/meticulously planned out?
I have a little less than 4,000 years of history and I've basically written it all at this point, although some parts are much more in depth than others, obviously.

>>24794920
I have decided that there should be a massive timeloop (thanks to an unexpected interaction involving the plot and some really powerful magic), so that the setting is both the past and the future of our world, though I suppose the loop is not a complete repetition, so that there will still be variances. This naturally results in a vast amount of history that needs to be tied up together.

"Meticulous" plotting is another thing entirely. I was just today considering that I should have a kingdom's development over several centuries (or thereabouts) take an entirely different path, so that instead of declining and having a string of weak rulers, the country becomes an evil empire ruled by tyrannical undead...

>>24748733 (OP)
What races do you include in your setting, and especially the tropical regions? My races are all aligned with two or three of the six elements (Light, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Void, with humans being the Light and Void race), with the elements informing traits of the race like their preferred environment. For example, the Fire and Water race is the Naga, so their nation is on a set of tropical volcanic islands and they’re equally comfortable in the water and on the beach. I’m just having some trouble with some of the combinations, especially the three-element ones, and I can use some suggestions please.

>>24795311
Humans, elves, dwarves, various tribes of beastkin. They all live all over the place, just as different kingdoms and cultures. There are also other races with small numbers like giants and dragons, but they don't create societies.
> My races are all aligned with two or three of the six elements
If you're going to have a every 2 and 3 element combo be a different race then your will end up with too many races - 35 of them.

My suggestion is to make every race tend towards a few configurations, but also have outliers. Eg naga might be every fire + water + 3rd element combination, just different types of naga (or maybe even the same, just individual variation).

Earth + fire should probably be dwarves.
Earth + air are giants.

Why does it seem like there is a stigma around superhero books? Are they just oversaturated thanks to Marvel and DC? What would it take to make you interested in a story set in a superhero universe?

>>24796172
They are not serious worldbuilding-wise.
Actually no, they are usually a mess worldbuilding-wise.
It's just a childish fantasy, not serious worldbuilding.
>>24784370
You shoulddddd at least hint at an area that would hint at where people get the food from. It's always a good detail to have. Like, when readers realize by their own accounts "oh so this is where most of the food comes from", that's the moment they will think you put some effort into your setting.

>>24784370
or
use ai to run through a million questions & harmonize the lore

>>24796233
>They are not serious worldbuilding-wise
Would you mind elaborating? What distinguishes them from fantasy or sci-fi stories?

>>24796242
On the contrary, can you point out a single superhero setting with serious and credible worldbuilding? Because as far as I see, superhero universes are either convoluted messes of what is considered cannon, or simply fail into cartoon-esque power fantasies and don't bother making a credible and interesting setting outside of the main narrative.
The problem, I believe, comes from the origin of this type of media: Superhero comics were about a power fantasy, like daydreaming of what could happen if you could fly and how you could make a difference in the world. Worldbuilding was just outside the equation back then, as it is now still.
Though, i'm not an expert and I will admit I just don't enjoy them, so I might be biased.

>>24796271
I think superhero settings aren't good because there's no progression involved. The superheroes aren't becoming stronger, they're just learning to use their abilities a bit better. There's no path for a regular dude to becoming superman, so the regular dude ends up not mattering in the setting. That removes like 99.99999% of potential people as characters from the story (in relation to superpowers).

You were either born a superhero or got made into one by a freak accident. And when it happened you just got all that power at once.

I think this is why fantasy settings are typically more interesting. There needed to be a path for the super powerful wizard to get there from just a dude. This also meant that the are a bunch of other wizards that fill the gradient between a nobody to the super powerful wizard.

Also, superheroes are often so OP that they can't be involved in non-superhero conflicts. This rules out political conflicts too.

>>24796242
I don't hate superhero stories fundamentally but from what I've read (and I'm not a huge consumer of that type of media) they're mostly all character-centric stories that fall into two categories
>Origin stories
>Carousel of either interacting with other new/established superheroes or going up against new/recurring supervillains
The first can honestly be really well done and compelling, but I really tend to dislike the second type. And neither is really conducive towards putting a ton of effort into building a "world" around them. A relatable, plain setting actually works better most of the time because it contrasts better with the "super" part of the superhero.
Honestly certain genres more generally just don't lend themselves well to broader worldbuilding; superhero stories are best left as "shmuck gets superpowers and it changes his life but also challenges him in new ways + love interest + villain" one-offs.
Not a superhero story, but it's like the John Wick series; the "worldbuilding" they did to try to justify three sequels felt ridiculous and extremely silly/unnecessary. Just leave it as an ex-hitman gets revenge over a dead dog. Done.

>>24796848
The original superhero stories were written as a series of one-offs that could be read in any order. That's why the status quo could never change. The intended readership was assumed to be constantly refreshing itself as older readers aged out of the stories and were replaced with younger boys. The stories at that time were simplistic power fantasies but the world was originally relatively coherent as an alternate version of the real world. Plot devices could be introduced in one story and ignored afterwards, which caused plot holes for people who cared about such things.

Later on the fanboys took over the writing room and started the obsession over continuity and crossovers. This made the setting into a convoluted mess that over time became even worse, with new writers adding in new ideas, so that it was difficult for new audiences to understand what was going on and explanations only sounded ridiculous because the overall plot and the setting really had become beyond ridiculous. Attempts at rebooting the world resulted in the same problems recurring while alienating the fans of the old version. Attempts at meaningful story progression where dead characters stay dead were all undone eventually. This resulted in a setting where nothing matters even more than in the original stories where the status quo never changed.

Somehow there still are a lot of superhero fanboys alive though, so that even independent creators try to rehash bad ideas because people are familiar with those and expect them.

bros the webnovel general is making fun of us again.....

So I have a setting with war between elves and dwarfs. The elves rely on indentured labor typically, and in this war they often enslaved dwarfs. As dwarfs often refused to work, and elves had little need for women and children, they devised a "family wheel" to break their spirits. A large stone is suspended over the dwarf women and children they captured, held up only by a large wheel with handles. Dwarf men must keep the wheel from turning. Of course they tire eventually and their families are crushed. This becomes the norm for captured dwarfs to "break them in".

The dwarfs respond by decreeing elves are no longer people, but pig feed. They feed captured elves to their domestic pigs. When laying siege to an elvish hold, the dwarfs set up pigpens within sight of it, and feed captured elves from villages nearby to force the defenders to hear the screams.

Do you think these are fucked up enough that, in modern times, neither dwarf or elf likes to talk about it much? Like if anyone ever mentions it to them they respond like Worf here with "we don't talk about it with outsiders"

https://youtu.be/Xka6IYCpj4E?si=SPFl0DuZzLgBseHt

>>24795669
>Earth + fire should probably be dwarves.
That was indeed the plan, yes. To be clear, the idea was that the elemental alignments were the result of the gods of the respective elements being the primary contributors in the design of the race in question. So to use your dwarves example, while they still have traces of the other elements in them (such as having liquids in their bodies instead of just being molten rock in a stone shell because they have Water in them, etc.), the mentioned elements, like Fire and Earth for dwarves, dominate the others. In addition, in some cases one element is "dominant" over the other(s), like Dwarves being a bit more aligned with Earth than Fire, though there are occasional exceptions like you mentioned, like Dwarves that tend more towards Fire. Things like a Dwarf with a Void affinity would be extremely rare, and usually the case of inter-species pairings (since the races were designed using the same basic "template", they can interbreed but the child is always, or at least 99% of the time, the race of the mother). That help?

How does invisibility work? Let's imagine there's an invisible material. Somebody makes it into a shield. Is the shield just invisible or does it hide the wearer hiding behind the shield too?

Basically, should Frodo's cloak make him invisible or should the cloak just be invisible?

>>24797341
Two schools of thought
>It works by bending light to create an illusion
The shield would hide any part of the wearer hiding behind the shield
>It works by making itself transparent
The shield would be invisible and you would see all of the wearer
Frodo's cloak is the first type
>But bending light wouldn't actually work like th-
Yes, we know, but that's the conceit behind it.

>>24797341
>invisible material made into a shield
Sounds like it would work like someone holding up a window pane, though hopefully more durable.

>Frodo's cloak
Sounds like you're mixing together two or three different fictional universes that don't work the same way.

>>24797822
The One Ring in Tolkien works by partially shifting the wearer and his equipment to a closely connected parallel dimension/world frequency thing called the wraith-world/the Unseen.

>>24797033
Those sloppers are seething 24/7 about something
>Muh /wg/
>Muh discord cabal
>Muh /wbg/
>Muh woke westernslop
Just ignore them

I want to create a world centered entirely around my fetishes. How do I start?

>>24798833
Outline.

>>24798218
>The One Ring in Tolkien works by partially shifting the wearer and his equipment to a closely connected parallel dimension
Functionally the second type

>>24798833
Does your world have a purpose? Will there be a story?
If so, start with the story's premise and build outwards.

>>24799109
>start with story's premise and build outwards
I was planning on doing the opposite...

>>24799175
If the story is the purpose of the world it should, in my mind, naturally come first.
At least figure out the basic premise of the story before diving into building the details of the world.
The two can evolve alongside one another but your foundational premise - the one or two sentence idea that drives the story, is your foundation.
>The humble Hobbit Frodo takes a Magic Ring to a distant, evil, land to destroy it forever.
From such a premise we can start to branch out infinitely
>What are hobbits?
>Who made the ring?
>What does it do?
>Why is the land evil?
>Who goes with him?
>Oh, an long-lost heir-in-exile? Of what kingdom?
And so on, basically forever.

Alright, all of the three (3) people in this thread
Give me a quick summary of your world or synopsis of your story

>>24799701
I have a world where hamburgers eat people. This has led to cities that have anti-hamburger defences, and lots of people are vegetarians. But some hamburgers have special powers, because the moon in this world is a cheese spirit and at the age of 16 every hamburger needs to fly there to get his cheese. Until they get their cheese they have magic powers but if they don't get their cheese they never grow up which means they don't access the higher dimensions of relish (i.e. gherkins, onions) which allows them to become even stronger and take part in the democratic hamburger senate. There is currently a fight over the ketchup mines, so there is not enough ketchup to go around and this leads to constant infighting between the hamburgers/cheeseburgers. So some of the cheeseburgers sometimes join forces with the juvenile hamburgers to use their powers.

I'm not sure what the plot is at the moment but I've thought long and hard about how to make my hamburger world feel cohesive and realistic and I think I finally have it.

One thing I'm currently figuring out is how to write a convincing romance between two hamburgers. Any ideas?

>>24799701
There are five main characters. They all know each other and were all originally more or less friends.

A after some adventures ends up in the employ of a really scary guy who is probably the smartest character in the entire story, though not the wisest.

B and C become trusted retainers to an ambitious sorcerer king who wants to conquer the world. After the sorcerer king's death B and C end up going their separate ways.

D learns magic from the Elves and becomes a witness to the Elf side of the plot.

E considers himself a free adventurer but will later realize that he has been subtly manipulated by A's boss.

The real conflict is on a higher level than the main characters, who never really become enemies to each other. It gets pretty apocalyptic.

>>24799852
>five main characters
Stopped reading right there

>>24800483
It's meant to be a very long epic and also the aim is to avoid intercutting between characters (especially characters in distant locations) as much as possible. For example, the last section and only the last section is about character E who otherwise is barely part of the story. In the end E's actions however will turn out to be crucial to the fate of the world. Also, B/C are initially a duo doing things together and when they separate, C is going to be pretty much sidelined and might not ever have a POV again. In fact, C might never have a POV in the first place and only be a main character because of his frequent interactions with B. So there are really only 3 major storylines that interact and transform later on but don't really merge + 1 long epilogue of sorts.

Anyway, there is a section in the middle where there is a big problem with "villains act, heroes react" and needing to convey the political situation, so that some lesser characters threaten to force themselves into main character status, mainly through giving a POV to some of B's new companions but also possibly through showing some antagonist POVs. But at least that kind of thing is limited to that section. A later part was running into same type of issues, but I think I can just show it all from A's perspective since he's high enough in the hierarchy to have a grasp on the overall situation. B in the middle section is too much of a lowly tag-along, which is a big problem really, but one that isn't being so simple to solve.

I'm doing a high-concept top-down design on this one. There are a lot of things that need to be taken into account.

>>24801114
Hmm I prefer shorter stuff, so I probably won't read yours

>>24799852
I'm planning for five PoVs in my book as well. One I'm a little iffy on, he's ultimately really important for the plot but I feel like in the first big arc of the story he isn't really doing that much.
None of the five initially know each other but four of them would have significant interactions by the end of what I'd plan for the first book - except that fifth guy.

Multi-pov is getting popular? I also saw a lot of webnovel writers going with multiple povs

>>24802541
shifting/multi-pov has basically always been popular in fantasy/sci-fi

>>24802980
Falsenvke

>My tism is telling me to learn about erosion
It's over for me...

>>24802541
It's definitely popular with romance stuff.

>>24803652
If Lord of the Rings uses it, it's not niche.
And open up literally any popular fantasy book, a lot of them have dozens of PoVs at this point. Outside of like YA fantasy/lit (and even then) multi PoV is clearly dominant.

>>24799717
Male burgers have seasme seeds and female ones don't. Unless they smash patties to "get seeded".

>>24801114
Not sure if anyone is interested, but writing this made me think about my story structure and especially the flaws in the transitional middle section. That part is in need of a major re-think to figure out things like character goals and who the real main character of the section is supposed to be. I think I might even go for multiple rapid POV shifts in this section only.

>>24804365
Multi-POV is common, but still a lot of popular authors run into trouble with it. For example, the around two dozen (I counted) POV characters in each volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen make the overall plot feel glacial even though the individual plot threads themselves are quite brisk. Also it doesn't help that much of the time several of the POV characters are occupied in trivial pursuits that just serve to fill up the pages but the story gives regular updates on these characters anyway.

I think single-POV is just inherently easier to write, but also much more limiting in what sort of plots are possible. For example, I'm planning to have my initial main character end up in a horrible cliffhanger bordering on a bad end and then have a lot of pages pass before the old character reappears, changed, in another POV character's section. In a single-POV it would be obvious that the hero has to survive somehow because there are still many pages left.

>>24804790
>I think single-POV is just inherently better
FTFY

>>24776036
That wouldn't work. You treat 'homosexual' as a natural characteristic rather than a disgusting act (how people actually understand it). It is trivial to ignore, deny, or otherwise rationalise it in one already beloved person and still dislike it in any random person much less accept a culture of it.

>>24804790
>Multi-POV is common, but still a lot of popular authors run into trouble with it.
I think fundamentally Multi-PoV is the best choice for most fantasy but I agree there's a ton of examples of bad execution
The two worst offenders for me are definitely
>PoV creep
A ton of the most popular writers in the genre just seem to have a ton of PoVs and have trended upwards over time. GRRM obviously has a ton, I haven't read a ton of Sanderson but I heard he's basically the same.
>Bad at writing PoV shifts
I think some older works which used 3rd omniscient (Dune, for example) indirectly led to this; I've read a few things recently which are written in 3rd person limited but have a shifting/floating PoV which I find really annoying. One PoV per chapter is the rule for a reason, but that's just my opinion.

>>24748733 (OP)
How well-mapped is your setting, especially the tropical regions? And what are the most important things to remember when making maps in your opinion? What about the resources that you would recommend?

>>24803719
What do you mean? And why are you learning about erosion?

>>24798871
>Outline.
And what's the best way to outline?

>>24798833
Well, what are said fetishes?

>>24799349
Any tips on how to avoid getting sidetracked?

>>24748733 (OP)
The lack of maps in this worldbuilding thread is deeply disturbing. Let's fix that

>>24748733 (OP)
I've finally came to terms with the fact that I can't write worth a shit, and I love world building so now it's all I do, no story just world building, forever and ever and ever and ever and forever and ever.

>>24808332
I feel you, but considering that you also do worldbuilding by writing a story.

>>24808018
Getting sidetracked isn't fundamentally bad because you can ultimately end up enriching your main story by exploring your world more fully.
Just try to not lose sight of the big picture - maybe write some short prequel stories that help establish a tone and flesh out the history of what came before the present-day in your setting.

>>24808018
>And what's the best way to outline?
What helped me was approaching outlining a short story.

The conflict between the two Great Powers of my setting can best be described as Nation vs State in geopolitical terms.

The Union of Tripura is the State. Their idea of world domination involves making a UN with teeth, except with just one hegemon: themselves. It would mean an entire world run by the same laws, the same institutions, and the same groups of officials.

In other words, they are trying to make a World State.

The Ellysan Empire is the Nation. It wants to make a world dominated by Elyssan people. They want everyone to speak their language, worship their god, and carry on their culture.

Their idea of world domination is basically that all states are dominated by Ellyssans, even if they have different rulers and borders. Think of it like a global caliphate....or rather a Universal Empire.

>>24809701
What more can you say about the setting?

>>24809494
>What helped me was approaching outlining a short story.
Okay, can you explain more on that?

>>24812286
Make up a character. Come up with a thing he/she wants, and reason why he can't have it. Present them with an opportunity to obtain it. Something goes wrong, and they suffer for it, but they keep going.

Elves aren't explored that well despite how common they are in fantasy. Take your elves that live 1000+ years. They could have some very interesting familial relations.
>oh yeah, my niece is 100 years older than me because my big brother is 200 years older than me
>I had lunch with my great great great great great grandmother the other day, she complained that I still haven't taken her up on swordsmanship lessons.
>My younger sister met this human. They had such a cute family, but my nephew is starting to show signs of aging. I have to find something to help his aching bones in his old age.
>One of my great great... great grandpas gave me this brooch. He said that it needs his blood to activate and that I'm the only one out of all his youngest descendants that can activate the magic. He said the rest just don't share any blood with him anymore, despite being his descendants.

>>24810855
I love adventure stories, so I just mashed together every "type" of story I love and did my best to make it into a cohesive whole by using wikipedia level knowledge of sociology.

Tripura is the cyberpunk scifi dystopia that also happens to own the Heinleinian space colonies. Llys is the Dark Fantasy style evil empire created by an evil demon and his armies of monsters and evil sorcerers.

>>24812460
>One of my great great... great grandpas gave me this brooch. He said that it needs his blood to activate and that I'm the only one out of all his youngest descendants that can activate the magic. He said the rest just don't share any blood with him anymore, despite being his descendants.
Won't that make it unusable eventually?

>>24813536
Grandpa just has to charge up their blood once in a while if you catch my drift.
You're right though. It will eventually become unusable. That's just how blood magic works.

>>24808018
>what are said fetishes
Younger men with older women. Significantly older. Like, 18 year old men with 35-45 year old women. The kind of thing you would've seen in medieval Europe, but sexes reversed.

>>24814406
You could have it so that it the world it is the custom for older, financially secure men to marry significantly younger, fertile women in arranged marriages. Naturally this leads to the husband very often dying many decades before the wife. This then leads to many financially and legally independent middle-aged or younger widows who are interested in having relationships with younger men and now finally have the opportunity to do so. The younger men, deprived of relationship opportunities with their female age peers, are eager to reciprocate.

(Inspired by Ancient Greece.)