#worldbuilding research

[inky-duchess]

WorldBuilding Ask Game

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

Geography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How many countries in your world?

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

Population

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

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

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

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

What countries get on? What countries hate one another?

Are there any important cities? Why are they important?

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

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

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

Is there public transport? Is it reliable?

Government

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

Where is the seat of government?

Are there different governmental agencies?

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

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

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

Are there any parties or organisations that oppose the government?

How does the government crack down on sedition?

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

How are laws made? Who makes them?

Is there any odd laws in your world?

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

What crimes are unfathomable for the people?

Who handles justice? Is justice obtainable for all?

Are there any police? What's their reputation?

What role does the military play in your world?

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

Is it considered a good career path?

Who can join the army? Are there any restrictions?

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

Commerce and Trade

How is trade done?

Is currency universal or dictated by region?

How is your economy going? What effects it?

What trade is your world known for?

What are some exports? What must your world import?

Are any goods considered luxurious?

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

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

Who is expected to work?

Are workers treated fairly or unfairly?

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

Is your world more reliant on technology or on labour?

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

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

What resources can your country exploit?

What are some barriers to trade and commerce?

Is your nation known for quality? Or Quantity?

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

Are there any major ports in your country?

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

Society

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

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

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

What is considered a social faux pas?

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

What would utterly shock somebody to see somebody do?

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

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

What denotes a person's place in society?

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

Daily life

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

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

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

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

What is the favoured means of travel?

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

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

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

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

How do people communicate? Is it difficult? Why?

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

What pastimes are common? What kind aren't?

Is education valued?

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

Are the population educated? If so to what extent?

Family Life

What is the typical family set up?

Is extended family important?

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

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

Is divorce possible?

Can people adopt children?

What happens to orphaned children?

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

What are some typical toys children play with?

What are some games children play with one another?

How is in charge of household chores?

Is there a hierarchy in families?

Are children expected to take on certain roles?

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

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

Culture and Languages

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

How are cultures similar? How are they different?

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

What are some rituals your culture undertakes?

Are there any special days? Events?

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

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

Are there any rules around what people can wear?

What would be considered formal dress? Casual dress?

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

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

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

Are most people monolingual? Or bilingual? Or multilingual?

Are there any languages that are closely related?

What is considered a universal language?

Religion

Is religion a thing in your world?

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

Does religion affect politics, personal lives and affiliations?

Is your world sectarian? Or ruled by religion?

What are some influences religion has on daily life?

What sort of religion is it? Monotheistic? Polytheistic?

What are some myths your people believe in?

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

How does one please a deity?

Where do your people pray? How do they?

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

What places or objects are considered sacred?

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

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

Food and Drink

What are some traditional dishes in your world?

What would be a basic diet for the common man?

What's considered a delicacy?

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

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

What would a typical breakfast contain?

What would lunch be?

What would be a typical dinner?

What meals are served during the day?

What's considered a comfort food or drink?

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

Are there any banned foods?

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

Are there any dining customs? Are traditions?

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

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

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

Are there certain rules about how one can prepare food?

Are there any restrictions on eating with certain people?

How is food generally prepared by?

History

Who are some notable figures from history?

Who founded the country?

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

Are there any heroes in history? Any villains?

What are some highpoints in the history of your land?

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

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

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

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

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

#WorldBuilding Ask Game #WorldBuilding list #WorldBuilding reference #WorldBuilding research #WorldBuilding resource #WorldBuilding #writing #writeblr #writing resources #writing reference #writing advice #writers #Writing resources writing reference #Writing reference writing resources #Ask game #Writeblr ask game #writers on tumblr #spilled ink

[halfbakedspuds]

Okay here's a question for any of ya'll who know biology: would growing up in a low gravity environment (like a fifth of Earth's gravity) affect someone's height, and if so, would that extra length be permanent or something that gradually falls away if they are eventually acclimatized to living in Earth gravity?

This is a research question for my book because I'm too uneducated about human biology to even try taking a guess at this.

#Worldbuilding research #writeblr #writing #fiction #idk how to tag this #sci fi #ya fiction #children of the stars

[moonfishlagoon]

Venetian language & gender-neutrality

Vèneto! Known colloquially as “dialect,” (e.g., “speaking dialect”) Venetian is nevertheless a distinct language still spoken in the Venetan region of Italy. My current writing project takes me to the centro storico of Venice in CE 2080. The centro storico is the historic center - where you think of when you think of Venice. Tourists, canals, etc.; the mainland being terreferma.

At this point in my worldbuilding, a third neutral gender is widely accepted across large swaths of the world. So, how to reconcile this with the distinctly gendered grammar of Vèneto while still being respectful of a language that is not my own?

The first question: are there resources discussing this online? No, of course not! That would be too easy! (if you have these resources, please send them to me posthaste.) A series of Reddit posts in my new favorite subreddits, r/linguistics, r/Veneto, and r/Venezia, have clued me in to the fact that:

Venetian speakers are largely conceptualized as elderly and rural, thus:

Presumably aren’t thinking about gender neutrality, and moreover:

Aren’t posting about it online if they are

This is clearly a biased and seemingly-ignorant point of view. Yet if there are Venetian-speakers out there talking about this, I’m probably largely out of the loop because, most significantly of all factors, I don’t speak Vèneto. Crushing.

Investigation in this direction thus stymied, I turned instead to Italian, which has in recent times been investigating that curious beast known as neutering your language.

Surprising no one, most of the English-language writing on this topic is horribly bigoted! Much bemoaning of the dissolution of the integrity of the Italian language. Sound familiar?

I gleaned enough from these rantings to understand that Italians are playing with a lot of gender-neutral options. I’ll use the word “tutti” (“all”) as an example. If you’re familiar with gender neutral efforts in Spanish, these will likely strike you as familiar. Our options, among others, are:

Just using the masculine - tutti

An asterix - tutt*

Leaving off the ending - tutt

A ‘u’ - tuttu

An at sign - tutt@

A schwa - tuttə

For even more, see Italian linguist Vera Gheno’s breakdown on Facebook. (And wow, I just found a bibliography about the schwa on her FB page, time for another deep dive ...)

Only one of the above options seems useable to me in a narrative context, and that’s the schwa. It’s easy on the eyes, it looks basically like a letter, and it makes a comprehensible and distinct noise. Furthermore, gendering in Vèneto and Italian seems to work in similar ways, so I feel fairly confident that I can apply the schwa to Venetian endings as I would Italian ones and not be making a mockery of myself. (Fairly confident, I said!)

Authorial side-bar - using the schwa will also signal to readers that I am doing something different with language; likely even those unfamiliar with Venetian and Italian.

Next question: what about singular nouns??? All the examples I’ve found with the schwa are for plural nouns, and googling (or duck-duck-go-ing) is getting me nowhere. After about half an hour of wishing I could just go to Venice, I found a Reddit thread that linked to a marvelous article:

Linguaggio inclusivo in italiano: guida pratica per chi scrive per lavoro (e non) by Ruben Vitiello

With some help from Firefox’s Simple Translate extension, I dove into this lovely, thorough, and most importantly not bigoted guide on the schwa. Not only does it talk about the schwa, but it has fantastic background on choosing ungendered language, speaking about trans people, and the history of gender neutral endings in Italian. This article is a goldmine.

It also contained one parenthetical that made all the research worth it: “sua forma semplificata (un solo simbolo sia per singolare che plurale)”.

“Its simplified form (only one symbol for both singular and plural)”.

That’s all I needed to know! The schwa is used for singular and plural endings. Ruben Vitiello, I owe you my life.

With hours of research under my belt, I now feel fairly confident in my choice to use the schwa for a hypothetical future Venetian that exists in a world which recognizes a third neutral gender.

If anyone reading this wants to share their thoughts, please feel free! If you speak Venetian, I’m actually begging you to chime in!

And now, on to the next research hole ... Adìo!

Further resources:

Lingua Veneta (dictionary)

Glosbe (dictionary)

Non-binary in Italian: Queering the Italian Language (article)

Gender neutral language (nonbinary wiki page)

Schwa (ə) and Inclusive Language, a Conversation Among Colleagues (article)

#worldbuilding #scifi worldbuilding #venetian language #veneto #speculative linguistics #in a very basic way i suppose #science fiction worldbuilding #world building #sci-fi worldbuilding #gender-neutral language #worldbuilding research #moonfishlagoon

[faytelumos]

I was writing, but then I came upon the fact that I don’t actually know what a healthy diet for my 300-600 pound reptiles would look like.

If you plan to keep reading, please tighten your seatbelts, not because this is exciting, but because we’ll be taking 90 degree turns at 45mph.  This is basically just me researching out loud so people can see my process.  Also, I will be mentioning various parts of animals that may make some people queasy.

Useveu are a species of intelligent, flight-capable reptiles that, in adulthood, stand between 6 to 9 feet high on average and weight roughly (so roughly) 300 to 600 pounds on average.  They are carnivores, but they live closely to humans, and would therefore eventually incorporate other types of foods into their diets.

(I think it’s worth it to note that the humans who live in countries where Useveu are common almost always have a vegetarian diet.  There are logistical and social reasons for this.)

Reptiles like komodo dragons and snakes can eat pretty much every kind of meat.  Bones and organs are definitely going to be in an Usevuth’s diet, as well.  Reptiles like geckos, however, seem to need veggies, and one thing I read specifically said to make sure geckos are getting enough calcium.

Komodo dragons and snakes eat their prey’s bones, but a gecko isn’t big enough to eat vertebrates.  Pet birds, also, are said to need calcium-rich diets, and we humans go crazy for calcium supplements, but again, pet birds and song birds don’t get opportunities to eat bones, and humans don’t exactly make an effort to eat them.

So maybe Useveu won’t naturally need calcium-rich vegetables.  And maybe they don’t need to avoid phosphorous if their intake of bone is high enough.  But they are a social species living with another social species, and both have relatively high populations, and they have to pay for their food.

Poor Useveu will largely exist off of chicken, eggs, and probably fish for their meats.  These are all high in calcium when consumed whole.  But there are more dietary needs than that.  Useveu are huge animals, and in whatever wild conditions their bodies evolved to cope with, they definitely eat red meat.  If their body relies on red meat in their diet but they’re too poor to afford meat from larger animals, this could lead to iron and vitamin B deficiencies.

I think the bottom line for the fact of whether these guys are getting everything they need from a diet of animals is pretty straightforward.  If they are consuming healthy animals whole, they themselves will be healthy.  This is with the sole exception of deficiencies from being unable to afford red meats.  These can probably be compensated for with the purchase of blood (iron, affordable) and whatever amounts of liver (B vitamins, expensive) can be managed.

My questions becomes what non-animal items an Usevuth can eat off of a human’s plate.

I know for a fact that Usevase (males) will have citrus in their diets.  But citrus fruits require a substantial amount of water to grow, and in a pre industrial revolution world where there are no freshwater rivers or lakes particularly nearby, these foods become expensive.  However, there are trains, which can extend the reach of an affordable citrus belt.  Flying to buy or deliver groceries like this would be impractical and expensive, since the quantity of products would be small for such a long distance.

Citrus fruits contain a lot of oils, acids, and vitamin C.  Usevase have a bodily use for the oils (which can be harmful to digestion in other animals), and will build a tolerance to the acids.  Psoralen, which is a substance that can cause cell damage when combined with sunlight in the skin, would be mostly harmless to Useveu thanks to their scales.

So citrus doesn’t pose a threat to my reptiles that I have to worldbuild around.  Then I look to staples of human vegetarian diets that will grow in the climate I’m looking at, as these will be foods Useveu are most likely to ingest.

Vegetarian staples are largely going to be protein-rich foods, like lentils, beans, quinoa, and eggs.  My climate can’t grow quinoa, but soy and lentil are fine.  Another good food would probably be brown rice, which can grow in this climate, as well.  Looking at its contents for things that could hurt a reptile, I see unfamiliar things like selenium and manganese, but both are water soluble and will be passed by the body once it has the amount it needs.  Bread is another thing that will likely find its way into an Usevuth’s diet, and wheat is both accessible and appears to be non-toxic.

Last on the list of human foods I’m going to bother worrying about is cabbage, which appears to be completely fine for reptiles.  Some species have trouble due to acidity or phosphorous levels in various breeds of cabbage, but this shouldn’t be a problem for Useveu.

So there I have it.  I wasted what must have been almost an hour and a half finding out that nothing I was trying to feed my reptiles was actually going to hurt them.  But at least now I know!

눈_눈

Writing is great.  Always do your research.

---

Yes, I have sources.  No, I will not format or further fact-check them.

https://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/komododragon/diet

https://www.completecritter.com/leopard-gecko.html

https://birdsupplies.com/blogs/news/144550983-calcium-deficiency-in-parrots-and-what-to-do-about-it

https://reptilecraze.com/what-human-foods-can-snakes-eat/

https://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/white-meat-vs-red-meat.html

https://www.historyrundown.com/can-cats-and-dogs-eat-citrus-fruits/

https://www.thekitchn.com/10-vegetarian-staples-that-are-always-on-my-shopping-list-252972

https://morningchores.com/growing-quinoa/

https://www.homedepot.com/c/ai/find-your-usda-plant-hardiness-zone/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90108cf77fc

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-brown-rice-good-for-you#nutrition

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/selenium/

https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/manganese

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/wheat#vitamins-and-minerals

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/conditions-need-grow-rice-wheat-corn-soybeans-80104.html

https://dragonsdiet.com/blogs/dragon-care/can-bearded-dragons-eat-cabbage

https://www.animalhouseofchicago.com/news/reptile-amphibian-herbivore-nutrition

#worldbuilding #food worldbuilding #not canon #dragon worldbuilding #dragon diet #worldbuilding research #writing research #this is what research looks like I guess #just wanted to share the thoughts and process I go through #for one line of a story #this took so long #*drags hands down face* #I am better for this knowledge and now anyone who needs it has it you're welcome #writing

[worldofdrakarna]

Worldbuilding Research: The Theory of Classical Elements

One of the core design questions to Drak'Arna's world is 'What if the theory of classical elements were true?' that the elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water were the foundational building blocks of well, everything. Below is a summary of what will be a research article found on the Campfire wiki for this world.

The Theory of Classical Elements was formed from a few sources across numerous cultures and was discredited by Ja'far al-Sadiq and Rhazes in during the Scientific Revolution in the 1600s. Atomic Theory is what explains the material basis of our physical world.

The theory while under what we understand to be Chemistry today, was used amongst many ancient philosophies to explain patterns in nature. The term 'element' in this context is to refer to a state of matter or a type of energy or force rather than what we know as the Chemical elements today.

The number and quality of these classical elements vary depending on the culture the philosophy originates from. Certain philosophies around the elements also impacted culture and the arts which is still seen today with the correspondence of these classical elements in various works of pop culture like Journey to the West and Avatar the Last Airbender.

While I haven't taken on every aspect and quality from these various philosophies, some have been an inspiration to my worldbuilding for Drak'Arna. Notably the States of Matter, Aristotle Qualities, Greek, and Chinese Generating & Overcoming interactions.

To read more on this, I recommend these articles on related discredited theories:

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/Classical_element.html

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/Elemental.html

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/Luminiferous_aether.html

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/List_of_discredited_substances.html

The purpose of this table is also to highlight some of the elemental philosophies from across our world.

The table pictured above is what I compiled from the above links as well as Wikipedia deep-diving. Note that I haven't dove into the esoteric layers there are many schools of thought, belief, and practice across occult and pagan traditions. When looking through these I tend to recommend exploring the history for understanding where some people of the past may have taken elements (heh) from other cultures - it's good to be aware of that, but also when exploring reconstructed traditions hearing lived experiences and academics explaining their history adds a better depth to understanding than just a wiki-dive.

I'd like to emphasize that I do not use every correspondence in my world-building. I think it's incredibly important to treat traditions, living or ancient, with respect. For example, I do not feel it's appropriate for me to use the Native American Tradition with medicine as I do not share heritage with them. However, if I felt that the aspect of medicine associated with seasons would be fascinating to explore further, I would talk to people to understand how to do so respectfully. I admit using this as an example has piqued my curiosity. Such is the way of learning! 

~ ~ ~

What kind of correspondence have I used?

I mentioned above that the notable examples are the States of Matter, Aristotle's Qualities, the Greek Elements, and Chinese Generating & Overcoming Interactions. So I'll elaborate on them here:

States of Matter - this is something that is still referred to today and usually highlights the various 'states' an element can be in. For example, Water's states are:

Gas: Vapor.

Liquid: Water.

Solid: Ice.

Plasma: Uh... There isn't one. (Well in our world ;) )

An example of what this inspired is when looking at what mixtures of elements are for magical purposes, Mostly Water + Lil bit o' Earth = Ice. 

Greek Classical Elements - which is to say are very 'classic' in pop culture too. But this is your usual Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. 

Aristotle's Qualities - this was a further elaboration on the Greek elements which I particularly liked as it showed the connections between them. 

Air: Hot and Wet. 

Earth: Cold and Dry.

Fire: Hot and Dry.

Water: Cold and Wet.

I used these particularly when working on the biomes and climates of my world when figuring out how certain areas were elements mixed - what would they include or lack?

Using Earth-like qualities. The equator is Hot and the Poles are Cold. However, my hemispheres are split based on which is the 'dominant' element. So the North Pole is Cold + Wet, predominantly water with an ice cap. While the South Pole is Cold + Dry because it's in the Fire hemisphere but because I have the Poles as 'Cold' the other quality of Fire is 'Dry' so this has meant that the South Pole is more of a cold-dry badlands desert. 

Chinese Elements - I've always liked the Generating and Overcoming interactions of these five elements. They've played a particular part in both the climates and biomes of Drak'Arna but I've varied it by which element is 'dominant' in the area such as the aforementioned Poles and Hemispheres example. 

~ ~ ~

That's all for this article, I imagine I'll add more to it as I go but this is a look into how I've used the Elements in my worldbuilding. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below or my ask box but I'd love to know if there's a show or book you love where they use the elements as a form of magic! I know I've harked on about AtLA but there are so many good shows out there.

#worldbuilding #worldbuildingblr #worldbuilding research #worldbuilding inspo #worldbuilding progress #worldbuilding elements #elemental magic #elemental magic system #worldbuilding update #classical elements #world of drakarna #drakarna worldbuilding #drakarna #wrennavere writes #wrennavere worldbuilds

[lyralit]

types of conflict - world building

person vs person - between two people - a hero and a villain - the mc's goal is obstructed by another person - Victor Hugo's les misérables

person vs technology - a person faces technology - between a person / group of people and an object of science - technology refers to science over magic - Mary Shelley's frankenstein

person vs nature - a person faces nature - the effects of nature on the human world - the mc's goal (long- or short-term) is obstructed by an element of nature / a natural force - John Green's a fault in our stars

person vs society - a person faces a collective group of people - a smaller group of people vs a large group of people - their goal is obstructed by this group of people - Suzanne Collins' the hunger games

person vs supernatural - a person faces a supernatural subject - this tends towards the magic, although similar to person vs. technology in a sense - fate, magic forces, otherworldly beings, religion, deities - Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson

person vs self - conflict between a person and their inner self - may be conflicted with their own feelings - can have two opposing goals - Fyodor Dostoevsky's crime and punishment

#world building #writerblr #lyralit #creative writing #writing #writers #writing ideas #readerblr #writing prompts #writers block #writing tips #writing resources #writing research #types of conflict #worldbuilding #wip

[ahb-writes]

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions (Society)

Society Worldbuilding Questions:

What is each society’s crowning achievement or proudest "claim to fame"?

What are each society’s greatest ills or challenges? (Do these differ depending on who you ask?)

Who garners the most respect in this society, and why?

Who is shown the least respect in this society, and why (what does it value)?

Where are hierarchies and power differences starkest between people in this world, and why?

Where are social norms and influences (such as laws) most stringently upheld in this world, and why (e.g., what roles do politics, ideology, religion, or competition for resources play)?

When did this society’s power structures emerge or change significantly, and why?

When did major societal beliefs or practices become entrenched? Are there any that have recently fallen away or started to disappear?

Why is living within this society challenging for your main characters?

Why does each character enjoy or appreciate this society, if anything?

❯ ❯ ❯ Read other writing masterposts in this series: Worldbuilding Questions for Deeper Settings

#writeblr #fiction writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing #novel writing #worldbuilding #writing research #fwq #society #social norms #greatest ills #now novel

[powdermelonkeg]

Okay but given that you can make alcohol from just about any plant, a world built around Minecraft could have SUCH a liquor cabinet.

You’ve got your basics, the potato and wheat vodka, gin, whiskey, then rum from sugarcane or beet sugar if you’re feeling a little adventurous.

Then you’ve got the fancier things. Dandelion and melon wine, spike vodka, pumpkin liqueur, applejack. Zhuyeqing jiu and chocolate liquor if you REALLY want to go for the cool stuff.

You’ve got mead and all kinds of moonshine, everything from carrots to kelp to sawdust brandy if you live out in the Badlands. Sunflower and rose spirits, lilac wine, even milk liquor and advocaat if you want to deviate from plants a bit.

But then you’ve got the plants that don’t exist in our sphere.

Chorus liqueur, dripleaf absinthe, glowberry champagne and sweet berry wine, glow lichen beer and crème de spore blossom, golden apple cider, glistering cordial. For the truly danger-seeking, wither rose lanique.

#minecraft #worldbuilding #alcohol tw #that's not even going into the FLAVORS you can add!!! #mushrooms and shroomlights in beer #nether wart maybe as a common flavoring #all kinds of cocktails and stuff #you've got different woods for barrels too #and allium is technically onion so #that's a WHOLE new can of flavors there #fun fact as i was researching this i found out there's an alcohol made from carrots that's just called C #we should do more with carrots seriously #also also lichens were used to make beer historically! #it was a brief stint but it's possible #also sawdust brandy. that's actually from an old loz project #i was trying to look up what kinds of alcohol would be possible in a decaying world like lorule #and sawdust brandy was up there #edit: if people are seeing this version where kefir is replaced #yes kefir is (minorly) alcoholic #you can fail a dui test if you have enough of it #in the same sense that poppy seed muffins can make you fail an opium test #if your tolerance is super low you CAN get buzzed off it #however #I put it on the list initially to have something milk-based for alcohol #it was originally kumis which is stronger #but it’s mare milk and you can’t get milk from horses in minecraft #I have since replaced it with milk liquor because 1. lithuania somehow has done it #and 2. china made vodka out of milk??????? #the site called it lai jiu but I can’t find anywhere else calling it that #so milk liquor it is!

[daisywords]

So annoying when people try to hold alternate-world fantasy to "historical accuracy" standards like. if I wanted historical accuracy I simply would have read/written historical fiction.

The only thing that should matter is if the alt world feels internally consistent/believable. Not "oh but back then" THERE IS NO BACK THEN. IT'S NOT REAL

and just because some aspects of the world (fashion, systems of government, levels of technology) feel consistent with a particular time period in our history doesn't mean that the author is obligated to stick to all other characteristics of that time period. The POINT of alt-world fantasy is to create a world in which the story they want to tell can work, and that's the metric I'm holding things to

#fantasy #high fantasy #worldbuilding #seriously sick of this #Obviously it's common and helpful to use historical research to enhance worldbuilding #but people aren't trying to write an exact representation of medieval europe except with dragons for example #don't you see how that's actually less ''realistic?'' #the dragons would change things

[recurring-polynya]

My kid asked me to explain blood types to her today, which made me remember the odd little fact that in the character profiles that appeared at the ends of the earliest Bleach volumes, there are blood types listed for the human characters, but not for the shinigami characters. Shinigami obviously have blood, we've all seen it, we've seen so much of it, honestly, but is it like blood blood? Is blood transfusion a thing they do?

I did not have any particular recollection of anyone ever receiving a blood transfusion in Bleach, but I looked up all the hospital scenes I could think of off the top of my head. Both Byakuya nor Hinamori have sort of a notable absence of things sticking out of them. I'm no expert and I don't even particular like doctor shows, but this is a situation where I would expect both of them to have IVs for hydration, if nothing else. Hinamori's got a respirator and some mysterious carts off to her far side, at least, and maybe Byakuya's just far enough on the upswing that he doesn't need it anymore.

Next shot was the famous Rukia and Renji sharing a hospital room scene.

Renji's respirator goes...under his blanket? Is this right? This doesn't seem right. Rukia doesn't seem particularly attached to anything, although there's kind of a bundle of wires? tubes? coming out of her right shoulder area. You can see them better in this shot:

That sure doesn't look like medical grade tubing, the lower one looks kinda like Hihiou Zabimaru, tbh. IVs usually work by gravity, no? Also those tubes are way too big to be going into someone's veins.

Finally, here's Kira, getting his dubious Squad 12 medical procedure.

More shady, giant, intestine-ass looking tubes that... go into him? wtf. They're attached to a computer. Maybe these are data cables?

The upshot of all of this is that I don't think shinigami have blood transfusions. I can't imagine that they don't know about them, so I imagine it's more of a case of their blood is just part of their soul, like, all of them is just soul all the way down, and it would be nearly impossible to accept a transfusion that was made of someone else's soul (soulmate-enjoying fanfic writers, take note). They do like sticking tubes in people, tho.

This sucks because when I was originally thinking about this, of course I was thinking about all the blood Renji has in his body and whether or not he's a universal donor, because, frankly, if he is, I think they would have a special framed painting of him at Squad 4 and let him have as much donuts and apple juice as he wants.

I think the main reason manga list characters' bloodtypes anyway is because Japanese people use it as a personality test, similar to horoscopes. For the record, here are the characters whose blood types we know:

Ichigo - AO Orihime - BO Chad - AO Tatsuki - AO Isshin - AB Uryuu - AB Don Kanonji (????) - BO

When I was trying to look up what they meant, I found this hilarious graphic, thank you verywellmind dot com

Looks to me like these blood types were definitely chosen to tie into personality at least to some degree (I'm not sure about Isshin, but he probably has fake Urahara Shouten-brand gigai blood-substitute anyway, so I am choosing not to read too deeply into that). Anyway, along those lines, judging from this chart, if we wanted to bootstrap Renji's blood type from his personality, I think he would, in fact, clearly fit into the idiot-on-a-skateboard quadrant. So he is a universal donor! (or at least he would be, if he were filled with blood instead of high-concentration ghost juice.)

#bleach worldbuilding #tw: medical #rukia feels like an AB to me?? #i welcome the insight of people who are more medically literate than me #but i actually have a blood phobia which is why i didn't do very much research into that side of this post

[not-poignant]

Tbh one of the reasons I haven't gotten around to Palmarosa yet is because I knew I had to do a fuckton more worldbuilding research and couldn't be bothered because I was like 'this is going to be a lot more work than it needs to be.'

And after 4 straight hours and over 50 tabs which distilled down into 2000 words of worldbuilding that isn't even me getting to the chapter yet, I was right lmao. But in good news, it means I can officially get started! We're going to Luskan, folks :D

#palmarosa #thespectaclesofthor #i've got a bunch of new characters whose names we'll probably never learn #even though they have names #and i've researched more into espruar than i ever cared to #and then had to invent some new terms #anyway i tried to keep the worldbuilding as short as possible #i could write *two chapters* in four hours with the right motivation #so sometimes i get a little annoyed at how long worldbuilding takes #when most of it never ends up in the story lmao #sdalkjfsdlakfjas #i also found a line of scandinavian perfumes i kind of want to try #only to find out they don't ship to australia so

[ionlybleedbubbles]

Writing tips deep in my heaps of cringe, that are actually good (imo) :

When writing in third person, don't say what a character cannot do while talking from their perspective. Frame the idea by telling us what they can do, or through the opinion of other characters. For eg. Instead of saying "Mattie was bad at flying planes", say "Mattie preferred cars to planes, and would much rather his brother do the plane-flying." See? Now you've even managed to drop in a nod about his brother. You could also say, "Kevin felt safer when Mattie's brother flew the plane than when Mattie did." Put the blame on Kevin - don't judge Mattie yourself. As a narrator you must pretend to always be on your MCs' side. Ofc, this would vary with different styles of narration, but this is a general rule.

Show how important a character is by how much time you take to talk about them. You would describe your MCs well, and bring up their hobbies and interests. You wouldn't describe a background character as much. You can use this to humanize or dehumanize characters. You may initially talk very little about the main villain yourself, and rely on dialogue among the other characters. This makes the villain feel like a force rather than a person. As the story progresses though, and you decide you want to drop in a *hairflips dramatically* sad back story, you can humanize the villain, and make them more understandable as a person.

Learn from art. Try describing different sceneries or portraits as practice. Also practice writing comic books or manga as stories. Visualizing your story as comic or manga panels can really help you understand pacing and paragraphs. Take note of their vibrance and positioning.

Learn from people's mannerisms and how they are received by other people. For eg, when we ask my dad a question, he pauses to gather his thoughts before speaking. Out of respect, we wait silently during this pause. This shows how confident and charismatic my dad is. A friend of mine only verbally roasts people within our friend group, and apologizes profusely after. This shows she is both empathetic and extremely quick-witted. I could create well rounded characters based on just examples as simple as these.

This tip is what I like to call 'the fake solution' and is employed by many famous authors. For this, you force readers to make assumptions. Maybe about how the magic system works, or about who the villain is. Make it seem like the characters have come to a conclusion and that conclusion is the final solution to conflict. Then tear down those assumptions and create a whole other ending. Similar to the red herring, except this time it's all in the characters' heads and dialogue. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy is a good example of playing with assumptions forced upon readers by the writer.

In your first chapter, focus on creating potential. You don't have to jump into the heart of the action right away, but you have to make sure your readers understand the potential for this action. For example the opening chapter of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys is relatively low paced, but it leaves you with questions. It makes you wonder who the boy who talked to Blue is, and how Blue will deal with life after such a strange prophecy. This makes you need to continue reading, to find answers.

For good worldbuilding, study at least a little bit of history. Wars and military tricks make for good free prompts. If your world contains vibrant races, make sure you research and incorporate the history and implications of racism, social hierarchy and trade. Understand how this will impact travellers and mercenaries (audiences love those). Make up your own old wives' tales and coping mechanisms.

Understand that the best stories are written around an idea rather than a character. Your protagonist is simply the face of your story. The weather of the world reflects on the protagonist's choices and health. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games focuses on the dark side of media and politics and how they are used to control a people. Notice that by the third book, Katniss, our protagonist, is doing very little herself, though her few moments are loud and powerful. Katniss could achieve nothing alone. It takes a whole bunch of people to fuel the revolution. Note that it is completely okay to write a character based story, if that's what you like. But there are tons of those. If you really want to make an impact, make an idea-based story.

Respect all your characters equally. You may love some characters more than others, but remember all your characters are representatives of people. Make sure each of them has a voice and a chance to prove themselves.

Use prose to your advantage. Let the length of your sentence define whether the sequence is fast paced or slow. For example, if your want to show surprise, your sentences must be short. Instead of saying "She snatched the last dagger and stared at it, observing each engraving", say " She snatched up the last dagger. Each engraving was sick, gnarled. "

That was a heck of a long post, but that's all from me. Feel free to add your own or contradict anything I've written.

#writing #writing advice #author #teen author #brandon sanderson #mistborn #raven boys #maggie stiefvater #the hunger games #suzanne collins #writing tips #worldbuilding #character design #character traits #writing research #fiction #fiction writing #story

[helioscenic]

For anyone who grew up in the USA, I was posed a question by one of my fellow, non-American irl writing friends that had me thinking. For high school sports, is football truly the most common option and furthermore, is there never any girl's teams as well? Would it be realistic to write a teenage girl who was a football player and that was not controversial or would an all female football team turn heads? For context, where we grew up the main sport was rugby and there was always women's and men's teams, especially in high school.

#worldbuilding #i guess? #research #writing #my friend is writing a contemporary sapphic romance btw #she wanted the jock and cheerleader tropes but make it gay #writeblr #we tried google but i was wondering more about the social aspect #like how acceptable / normal it could be?

[volo-omnia]

Y'know something I really love that makes a comeback in PLA but it never gets explained ever? The Arceus sigil from the Heartgold/Soulsilver Arceus event.

Y'know, this thing.

Now I know we do get an indirect explanation from the HG/SS event, although it does make me wonder about it's meanings and connections:

To start off, the in game meaning of the sigil is pretty cut and dry. Or at least....part of it.

Triangles are pretty common throughout gen 4, with the obvious connection being the creation trio.

As explained by Cynthia in the event, the bottom left circle corresponds to Dialga, bottom right with Palkia, and the one on top being Giratina. (And of course, the larger circle in the center with the sun-like design being corresponded to Arceus.) Their designs and placements in their hierarchy is pretty directly shown here, which is pretty nice.

However we also see a similar triangle in the Celestic ruins in the modern day, with their correspondences being related to the Lake Trio. Their placements of course being related to their respective lakes they reside in Sinnoh.

Now while these separate sigils don't explain the greater whole, they do explain parts of it. Since both the creation and lake trios are represented by upright triangles, we can clearly see 2 upright triangles in Arceus' overall creation sigil.

However that does leave the much larger image unexplained for the most part. There have been theories that each circle in the larger image corresponds to another legendary pokemon in the greater pokemon universe, but it's hard to fully place where each legendary goes where.

Now what I wanna do instead is speculate the design of the Arceus sigil from an esoteric perspective.

Most sigils have different meanings and designs based on the person making them, but I just wanna have some fun breaking down the design in itself. Disclaimer, I don't expect Gamefreak to know this stuff when designing their game, so most of this will be speculation.

Now with both creation and lake trios being represented by triangles, I find it interesting that they're both layered upright as opposed to one upright and one pointed downward. From an esoteric perspective, the way the triangle points reflects different meanings. If you have a triangle pointed upward, it would direct energy upwards to the heavens, as opposed to pointed downward, where the intended energy is directed down to earth/below.

However assuming the shape of the triangle was irrelevant, the usage of the number 3 could also be a point to the worldbuilding. The common theme of trios in the world of pokemon is typically symbolized by the ideas of harmony, order, and perfection, as well as regarded as a "holy number" in various cultures and religions. At least in the ideas of Agrippa, the number 3 is considered the "ideal" number of forms, with number 2 being the number of creating matter. (Although this is interesting as Giratina does get kicked out making the creation duo, Dialga and Palkia. Their loyalty to Arceus does indeed make 3 again.) Going back to the lake trio, the number 3 being represented by the three states of mind, that being wisdom, willpower, and emotion.

However, if we also take the obvious Christianity route to things, then the usage of triangles in the sigil also is quite an obvious indicator!

Since the ancient Celestics are inspired by the Greco-Romans, the usage of 3 is also quite common in mythology! I'm sure you don't need me to explain the common trinity of earth, water, and sky in Greek myths, trying back to Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

Now, here is where we get to the hard part. What are the other circles of the sigil? Well....I actually have no idea.

You see, an idea I've seen others try to connect this sigil back to is that of transmutation circles and alchemy circles.

And....yeah, I guess, but this is the part where I bring back that disclaimer that I don't think Gamefreak actually knows in depth what the hell I'm talking about right now.

There's a large plethora of alchemy symbols from Agrippa, The Golden Dawn, to many other occultists throughout history that are used to design these things, but....the Arceus sigil has nothing.

Typically you would have some sort of connection between each area of the circle that you wanted to channel in terms of that celestial aspect, that being a triangle/pentagram/hexagram/etc, but there are no clear chemical symbols or connections inbetween the circles. A lot of the circles are overlapped in this kinda weird way, with a lot on the surrounding edges just kinda sitting by themselves.

So be perfectly honest I'm not sure what kinda design they were going for here? Given by the cutscenes in the Arceus event of the Earth being overlaid the image of the sigil...the circles could represent a type of unity in the world and the circular nature of creation, but part of me thinks the game designers just kinda slapped a bunch of circles together to make it look cool. (And well, probably not to draw too much attention to real life occult topics in their kids game.)

At most I can say it's a type of creation circle given it's symbolized a lot with the idea of Arceus being The Creator, but it's difficult to say given it's design is quite far from what actual real life sigils would look like. All in all though, it's still quite an interesting thing that's included in it's worldbuilding.

....although now I think I get why it's never explained directly.

#pokemon legends arceus #headcanons #text #arceus #pla #now i get why volo had such a shit time researching myths this thing looks like ass #i think cryptotheism even got an ask on this thing and they said it doesnt look like anything if i recall #i wanna say arceus is this weird christian god-demiurge-zeus hybrid but theres this weird flux with no clear line #at most i can say its just original worldbuilding lol

[ahb-writes]

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions (Geography)

Geographical Worldbuilding Questions:

What is the terrain like for key setting regions – which regions are coastal, mountainous, arid, or have dense vegetation?

What effect does geography have on other aspects of world, such as transportation, trade and industry, environmental challenges, clothing, food and drink?

Who lives in each geographical region and how have they adapted to it?

Who prefers which regions or biomes, and why?

Where are the world's borders and boundaries? Are there separate nations or kingdoms? What distinguishes the geography of each?

Where are the largest metropolises or wilds? Or is everything undeveloped (e.g., if your story features extra-terrestrial exploration)?

When was this world first mapped? Are there regions people know little about or tell legends about ('There be dragons')?

When has landscape changed, due to natural causes or development? What effects did this change have?

Why is this world's geography interesting or unusual?

Why is any region in this world habitable or uninhabitable? What are its dangers, threats, or quirks?

❯ ❯ ❯ Read other writing masterposts in this series: Worldbuilding Questions for Deeper Settings

#writeblr #writing #fiction writing #novel writing #writing tips #writing advice #worldbuilding #fwq #worldbuilding questions #now novel #geography #regions #biomes #environment research

[nyaagolor]

Random headcanon I don’t think I’ve ever posted before: In the Pokémon world, language education encompasses the native language of the region and “common language” which can be spoken anywhere without much issue. The reason the protagonists can move across the world and still understand everyone perfectly is because people are speaking common language to them out of courtesy. When characters (Hau and Nemona for example) speak in slang or a different language, that’s fragments of the region’s native language they’re incorporating

#this is a small worldbuilding thing I’ve had for a while #relevant to my SV stuff bc I think Nemona isn’t very good at common and uses native Paldean everywhere except around the player #the professors spoke common bc of research and grants and stuff so Arven defaults to that #and penny is Galarian so she has to speak common #which is why only Nemona speaks Spanish out of the three #anyway. #mod vex #headcanons