forum Worldbuilding Discussion: Ideas and Concepts

Started January 11, 2018 by @ghostphoenix

tune

ok thanks!

I want to create a world where myth and non-myth coincide together, but I have no clue how to not make a cliche, any suggestions?

Think about what kind of effects this would have on your world and compae the effects to real-life aspects of life. Would wing-care be similar to hair-care? If feathers turned gray, would the people with feathers try to dye them? What about racism? Would the marriage of a human and a nymph be frowned upon in some circles? Stuff like that.

The main one for me:
If you don't want it to be cliche, then try not to make your protagonist "all-powerful" and stuff. I dislike protagonists that are "special" and the only ones to have their "amazing power" etc.

Hay, may I join?

Ember Ris, I read the thing about Jupora! It was really cool, you put so much awesome detail into the history. But I have a question: why did the people who could wield magic without being a daemon go extinct?

This might or might not be helpful but Artifexian did some videos on calendars (lunar, solar, and luni-solar) and uses a program to fix the days of the calender by it's calculations. Also, there is donjon's fantasy calendar to with might help visualize as well.. idk.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3EPovK2-Uw
http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/calendar/

"Some time later, I had learned to stop asking questions about the Hyperdrive. To ponder its workings only invited madness. It was not a thing of mystery, but cold terrifying clarity. The engineering behind it is certainly aspirin inducing, but the basic principle can be summed up with a simple logic puzzle - understandable, yet wholly incompatible with our shit flinging primate intellect.

‘How do you fit a larger bubble inside of a smaller one?’

I now know. I wish I didn’t.

I became aware of the ticking of my watch. Each second sliced away by the click of the silver needle made manifest as the heartbeat of an invisible demon that spanned every measure of the cosmos. Science may be a candle in the darkness, but I am left with the feeling that there are things lurking in that darkness that we don’t want to shine a light on.

It is discomforting to realize what the Hyperdrive could do. Not the Hyperdrive itself, but the raw tampering it exerts on a universe finely tuned to support intelligent life. Saying that the Hyperdrive can take you from Point A to Point B is like saying a sphere of highly enriched uranium can make a functional paperweight. The potential for misuse, either accidental or malevolent, could produce an entirely different effect. Say, breaking down the fundamental forces governing the passage of time, and squeezing entire eternities into a sharp gradient that radiates outward so fast that it reaches the far corners of the universe before you have a chance to realize it’s going to catch you."

@Masterkey So in Jupora, there are three God-Spirits which have their own heavenly conflicts, etc, etc. Basically, there was a major war, each side "sponsored" by a God-Spirit; the spirit of creation for one, destruction for the other. When the war was over and the God-Spirit of destruction was sealed away, his allies - who he had gifted with magic - lost their abilities. The third and final God-Spirit - the spirit of balance - took away all magic to even the scales, instead of rekindling the destructive magics and potentially starting another war. I hope this makes sense!

@KyoumiOnism Thank you! I'm definitely going to look into this!

Hey, I'm having real troubles thinking of a name for the rebel group in my series and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

What I do most of the time to find cool names for the bad guys or powerful people is go straight to Google Translate. Latin has some pretty cool words that I like to mesh together. For example you could take the words "Flesh" and "Eat" to get the Latin words "Sanguis" and "Manducare". Mesh those two together to come up with a fantastical, exotic sounding name.
Another way I like using is to come up with a few words that your rebel group is best known for and add your own special twist on the words to get around the same effect as the Latin tactic I mentioned earlier. Ex. Star Raiders could be Stella Ray. Idk just something I thought of on the spot.
My last thought whilst brainstorming was just taking words that are what the rebellion is working towards. Ex. Justice, revenge, preservation, etc… and just reverse the words. Maybe even taking out a few letters to make it more pronounceable XD
Thanks for taking the time to read all of that if you did :D

I'm having trouble with a plot hole. In this world, all magic users have tattoos they are born with that indicate their ability (For instance there are the "angels" that have a tattoo of wings on their backs and can fly). In the time period the main story takes place in magic users have no laws discriminating against them, but there was a time before where they were imprisoned and killed. I have some vital characters that are from that time but I'm stuck on how they were able to hide their tattoos/magic. Help pwease? :3

Does every tattoo have to be in the same place? They could be in places that are easily concealed like on the bottom of the foot on behind the neck (if they have long hair or wear hoods a lot). Or does the placement of the tattoo have something to do with the power like what you said about the angel wings on the back?
There could be a way for them to learn illusion magic or something to make it impossible for people to see the tattoos or just not notice them. Or something simpler like having a bandage wrapped around that particular area to conceal it easily by calling it a "healing wound." Hope this helps!

Thanks so much! The bandage idea was a really good one! Yes, the tattoo placement reflects their ability. So for instance all angels would have their tattoo on their backs. This is why I was having so much trouble because the authorities would know some of the tattoo placements and look in those spots.

Thanks so much! The bandage idea was a really good one! Yes, the tattoo placement reflects their ability. So for instance all angels would have their tattoo on their backs. This is why I was having so much trouble because the authorities would know some of the tattoo placements and look in those spots.

Makes sense. Glad I could help!

One of the alien homeworlds in my universe has a backstory I would like to share. So the planet was kinda like earth but slightly smaller. It had oceans and continents but it was less hot in comparison to earth, allowing more jungles and forests, and a small moon. There where two sentient races, One was similar to Cockroaches, the other being similar to Tarantulas. The tarantula people where physically stronger and belived that the roach people where inferior and should be killed, so they usually fought each other. The roach people made up for their weakness by using more weapons and veichles, not to say the tarantula people didn’t have this technology, they just needed less of it. Eventually, the tarantula people planted nuclear (or whatever equivalent they could find) In many places around their planet, then had a large part of the population move to the planet’s moon, leaving those who couldn’t get on to die. The roach people found out about this and evacuated as many people as they could into a large cave system that was used previously for mining. When the bombs went off, everyone that got in the cave survived. The planet was scorched, and all surface life died due to heat and radiation. The tarantula people’s rocket made it to the moon, and eventually established a colony. But due to a gas leak near a fire, a large part of the colony exploded, and eventually the tarantula people went exinct

My story takes place in the Cloud Lands, which is literally exactly what it sounds like. On top of the clouds. Anyway, so the book is specifically about these cat like creatures called Spirit Kats, and they live in Starry Valley, which is a valley surrounded by an impassable mountain range(at least, impassable until the end of the book when magical fighting explodes a path through the mountains). The Kats’s purpose is to protect this tree called the Star Oak, which keeps all the clouds of the Cloud Lands solid. Also, they’re spirits are all tied to the tree, so if it dies, they will die instantly, even if the fall to the surface didn’t kill them.

I don't know if I'll get a response here, but I'm in desperate need of some help. I've developed a lot of stuff for my worlbuilding including races, original species, social structures and societies as a whole- biomes and environments- but the more I've stuffed into it I've realized it's entirely overencumbered, and I'm trying to split everything up into different worlds, now.

My main goal at the moment is to put all the different species into different worlds- the problem is, I don't know who to put where. For the basics, I mainly have humans, werewolves, vampires, seraphs, demons, devils, angels, elves, warlocks- etc etc. There's too many. Point is, I need some easy concepts such as 'a shepherd and his sheep'- a concept I've thought a bit on where there's a guardian species watching over mortals and defending them from a hostile species- it's a simple concept but could be fleshed out properly, and that's what I'm needing. Thank you!

Hey there!
I'm currently working on a story on Hiveword and need a title. The one I've been using sounds like a really cheesy anime title and…I just need a new one. The story takes place in two small towns in the middle of Maryland where a string of murders have been taking place. Two sisters visit the woods near their house after school and unveil secrets they probably shouldn't've. I reeeaaalllllly need a title.

TheoldonewasGrandMassacreReplaythankyouforyourtime

I don't know if I'll get a response here, but I'm in desperate need of some help. I've developed a lot of stuff for my worlbuilding including races, original species, social structures and societies as a whole- biomes and environments- but the more I've stuffed into it I've realized it's entirely overencumbered, and I'm trying to split everything up into different worlds, now.

My main goal at the moment is to put all the different species into different worlds- the problem is, I don't know who to put where. For the basics, I mainly have humans, werewolves, vampires, seraphs, demons, devils, angels, elves, warlocks- etc etc. There's too many. Point is, I need some easy concepts such as 'a shepherd and his sheep'- a concept I've thought a bit on where there's a guardian species watching over mortals and defending them from a hostile species- it's a simple concept but could be fleshed out properly, and that's what I'm needing. Thank you!

Hi! I'm pretty sure this is too late but whatever, I just saw this and I want to help.
I used to stuff things into my stories because I wanted them to be more in depth. The thing was, that they weren't in dept, it was just fluff to fill the book. So I got a separate journal to put all of my creature, magic, food, biome, etc… concepts into. When I want something to fit into my story that will actually add to the story arc, I take a look in my journal and see what would fit. (I like putting in sub plots and pieces of conversation that i think would be cool to have in a separate book, just so I wont forget for later reference)
TL;DR. If you would like to have everything simplified then pick three categories to put the creatures in. Such as Good, Bad, and Impartial (such as creatures who don't really have a mind of their own and/or just do things that would help themselves. ) It's always easiest to start there.
If this isn't exactly what you were thinking then please let me know. I'm interested in what you're asking but it's not especially clear.
Thanks bye!

Hi I'm new and was thinking of making a new world so could someone help me please

Hey I'm making a world full of like paranormal stuff. I wanted there to be like a government agency that sort of stops the paranormal. I've just had trouble coming up with a =n acronym or cool sounding name.

Hello! currently have two ideas for two separate books. One is a romance and the other is a fantasy novel.

Hello! currently have two ideas for two separate books. One is a romance and the other is a fantasy novel.

Do you know what they are going to be about?

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