World Building General /wbg/

Drew them by hand ( via Wacom tablet ) in Paint Tool SAI.

I'm ok with playing it loose with the naming. The setting is modern Earth is invaded by Hell, and after a few years of fighting off demons, angels show up. Or what is the inspiration for ancient angels, it turns out the war between Heaven and Hell are the impressions left on early humanity of an ancient ongoing war between "angels" (winged greys) and "demons" (an army of various conquered interdimensional creatures).

>via Wacom tablet
Such is life.

There really isn't a hard rule to it. Go with what sounds right with the particular river's name. In general, "the river X" tends to be more appropriate for something with an ancient/mythic feel than "the X river" does.

Like, "The River Nile" sounds good, while "The River Mississippi" sounds ridiculous.

>What's the worst place to be poor in your setting?
One of what use to be a fishing village on the sea of death. Economy in that area is dead, no trade, no jobs.
>What about the best place?
One of the large cities. Best bet would be the Crystalline Magic City, problem is getting there. You'd either have to work your way on an airship, or stowaway on an airship (or beg someone to pay transit through the teleportation system).
>Does anything resembling basic income exist in your universe/world?
Basic income as in minimum wage or as in government services?
Minimum wage is location and industry dependent.
Depending on location, some regions have social welfare, others don't.

Anyone else feel like their fantasy settings end up just being reflavored generic D&D settings? Anything that feels original doesn't feel like it could constitute for a working setting. Plus I can never decide what I might want to use the setting for in the future - just to tell stories? To be played with an actual tabletop system, and will it even work with said system? Just for fun, or something to do? I dunno. Maybe I'm just feeling melancholic today.

Don't build kitchen sinks. Establish themes and push them hard. If you do that, you graduate from D&D setting to Original Fantasy Setting. If you need more than that, you have to be innovative to a degree that you can only achieve yourself.

So, I have all the sounds and consonants down for the conlang I'm working on, but, how do I actually make words?
I don't just want to plop the letters and sounds into existing languages, but is that the only way to do it?
How do I make the actual damn words?

>How do I make the actual damn words?
The easiest way is to go full-Germanic.

You start with the basic words, and for that you just make shit up. Randomly put sounds together to create a basic vocabulary. Then you build up from that to more complex words/concepts by joining root-words together. If it's an obscure word, it will probably be just the string of root words. If it's a common word, truncate some syllables.

I do guess that's one way.
You just gave me a wonderful idea, user.

Yeah, well, I guess I'm shit at themes for fantasy. Ends up being something generic every time. Any ideas for places I can get some inspiration? There's always the possibility of laying in the dark staring at the ceiling for a few hours waiting for something to come to me but I'm not really feeling that at the moment.

Look up myths and legends for historic cultures across the globe, and studies on them. See the different values that cultures emphasize. Then pick what you like and build up from there. Try South American, African, and Asian cultures just to get away from the common sources for Western fantasy.

>What's the worst place to be poor in your setting?
An urban area in Saddath-Leng. If you're poor in this country you're invariably a chattel slave, and if you're in one of the great cities you're in a place where labor doesn't give your life value. Enjoy being subject to the most horrifying excesses of oriental despotism imaginable.

>What about the best place?
Anywhere in Nordenmark. Thanks to the King's rampant militarism and unusually egalitarian sentiments, basically anyone dissatisfied with their lot in life can enlist in the royal army and make a decent livelihood as a soldier.

>Does anything resembling basic income exist in your universe/world?
The Machine State has basic income, and an enormous one at that, but it's not exactly a conventional utopia. They can afford to provide the world's highest standard of living because there are only a few thousand actual “people” left in what had been a nation of several million, virtually all of the native population having been killed during the Prince's bloody return from exile and converted into puppet-like biomechanical servants. It's basically socialism for the nobility.

>sea of death
Has it always been called that? If so, why did anyone ever settle there?

What are you actually passionate about? Are you adding things that interest you, or are you just adding them because you feel they are necessary for certain reasons?

Most settings, fantasy or otherwise, will have taken derivatives from previous works in genre or out. It's not hard to turn any setting and describe it like a reflavored generic D&D setting at all.

>What's the worst place to be poor in your setting?
Depends. In terms of being a slave, the worst would be in Zunduri, where you can legally be killed off at anytime for any reason and often are used as parts of blood rituals. For this reason, almost all Zunduri slaves are from foreign lands.
Otherwise, there's a duchy in my setting that's essentially Sicily except even more fucked up and crazy. Most people there are subject to banditry and a poor harvest has caused rampant starvation and unrest.
>What about the best place?
In the Kingdom of Umbra or in the Newland Republic. Both are essentially proto-welfare states and have been expanding their industries with lots of new work to be done among a growing working class.
>Does anything resembling basic income exist in your universe/world?
Not unless you include an Anarchist Commune which is essentially a faux Makhnovia.

>What's the worst place to be poor in your setting?

The slums of the majority human city of laggatai.

>What about the best place?

Dys, the mage city of the Elden. Think a city the size LA filled with only maybe 50,000 actual Elden the rest being people they allow in and the rest being magical constructs doing their eternal masters bidding.

>Does anything resembling basic income exist in your universe/world?

Dys has that. If you consider making whatever the fuck you want and having it made for you is "basic income."

Hey guys, I'm attempting a unified religion for modern real life. Let me know what you think.

First, let us speak of God. God has three parts, which might be likened to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of Christianity. There is the part which is God and god, which is God and Man, and which is God and existence. The names for God and god, the Father, might be YHWH or Allah. The names of the Word might be Christ or Buddha. The Spirit could be named Brahman or Olodumare. The name for the three parts in totality may not be uttered by mortal tongue, but has the meaning of "I am".

Every mortal is a part of the Spirit, which is all that exists. If you lay a blanket on the ground flat and then take up a bit of it into your hand forming a pocket, the pocket is the soul, or Atman, and the blanket is the Spirit. It is possible to become so enlightened that upon death, the pocket is smoothed out, as all of the wrinkles of life are removed. It is also possible to become so divine that, while living, you become one with the Word, as did Jesus of Nazareth and Siddharta Guatama, though this is far more difficult. It is not possible to be one with the Father.

The creation of souls is caused by disruption, as is all disorder. This disruption is caused by Satan, who is a Demiurge created by the Father. This is the youngest Demiurge, but the eldest is Lucifer, who answered the call at the beginning of "Let there be light" and creates non-living firmament. Creating disorder and existence is his sole job of the demiurges, though they may do it in many ways. All of the Demiurges, although they were created by the Father, are in opposition to the Spirit, for the Father is concerned with creation and the Spirit with cessation. Both may be desirable to man, but in the time of living, it is the Word which is most important. The Word is what governs the chaos of life with a tolerable semblance of order, and it is the Word from which comes the concept of Good. Thus, the Word is also the Law.

I have spoken already of the foundational being of the world, with three facets and seven names but only one being, and of the Demiurges. Next, then, the created.

First, the tribes of Subjects. These are the Angels, the Fae, and the Demons, who are created by Lucifer, Gaia, and Satan, respectively. Their lives rarely intersect with those of mankind, as they live primarily inside of their creators. The Jinn of Atar behave somewhat differently, and others are rarely seen.

Besides these, there are the lesser gods, who are by nature finite. These are the gods that procreate and stem from single heads, such as Odin, Thor, and Osiris. Their seed is the origin of human ethnicity, and without their influence, all of humanity would be identical, except for gender which was created by Luna, another demiurge.

Below the gods are men who achieved greatness, including great Heroes such as Gilgamesh and Sundiata, demigods like Herakles or Madurai Veeran, and Saints.

Below them are the living things, with which you are familiar. These include humans, plants, and animals.

Below the living things are the unliving things.

In general the magnitude of an individual's soul is greatest gods, then for the living, and then the unliving, but there is a great difference which comes from wisdom (and wisdom comes with age as well as prayer/meditation). The greatest souls are those of huge and ancient trees, which spend all of their time in meditation and prayer. After these are wise men and lesser trees, and after them are humans, cattle, and spiders, and below them are the other animals and traitors. However, these categories are also not absolute and there is variation within them.

Anyway, that's what I've got so far. Is there anything major that I'm missing and should account for?

>What's the worst place to be poor in your setting?
Hammer Island. Then again, it's a bad place to be anyone unless maybe you like torturing people for fun and make a show out of it. Due to local insane racist policies, if you are of non-slave race, and aren't rich, you pretty much out of work. Forced to live in squalor in a district called The Ulcer they rely on soup kitchens and squatting in dilapidated buildings and hovels among criminal, smugglers and degenerates. However, Ulcer is much better than richer regions of the city, because the worst thing that can happen to you in Ulcer is having your throat slit and body dumped into the sea.
>What about the best place?
Probably Ilem Wildlands. It's primitive communism. Sure, life is hard for everyone there, but if you work hard, you will be fine, even if you don't have nice things.
>Does anything resembling basic income exist in your universe/world?
On Hammer Island poor people are fed for free by the monarchy.

Explain how your settings are generic. That can make your problems clearer.

In terms of themes; do not force them. They *will* come naturally, because themes are simply what you are interested in exploring. In fact, I guarantee you you've got them in your old settings already, even if they're distorted or clumsily explored. You could probably figure out your themes by looking at these worlds, and thinking about what you've written into them. But you don't need to do such a thing. As I said, you'll use themes without thinking, as you worldbuild.

In terms of inspiration; looking at others' settings is always good. I don't, necessarily, mean the worlds *here*; we tend to suck. But official settings, for example from Nobilis or Warhammer, are excellent inspiration. In particular I recommend Song of Swords' Tattered Realms, especially if you can catch the developer in the general, because you can see the actual process of worldbuilding for a game, and why certain decisions were made over others.

However, for me, Veeky Forums is the best place for quick inspiration. History threads on Veeky Forums are especially good, as they are geared towards settings from the get-go. However, Veeky Forums and Veeky Forums are also useful. Speaking of Veeky Forums: literature, as well as films, anime, music and video games, are all excellent sources of inspiration, although they take a lot longer. I would certainly recommend you read lots of literature if you mean to write stories.

Finally, in terms of the execution of your world: it's not the cliche, it's how you use it. Dwarfs *can* be very interesting, despite their overuse. It's the relationship you have between elements of your world that make it your world, not the elements themselves.

>What's the worst place to be poor in your setting?

Within the Interior of the continent, where the sea dried out and left behind what's simply known as "The Ring" there's a massive fucking inhospitable desert that basically divides the super continent by this massive band of inhospitable desert.
IN THAT DESERT; most communities exists living within the hollowed out nooks and crannies of massive stone-solid dried out coral formations where the elevation and shade creates spots where moisture can collect and normal life can happen.

If you're poor there you're basically fucked as space, food, water, etc is very limited and if you have no money you literally can't afford to leave as leaving without transportation is just.. it's suicide; temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius are not uncommon out in the open.

>What about the best place?
The Archipelagos.
Strings of Tropical islands created from a mix of volcanic activity & the MASSIVE fossilized skeletons of prehistoric slain gods/titans. These islands dot and surround the coast of the southern hemisphere and due to their proximity to the south pole: Days and nights are long, temperatures range at a constant comfortable 25-30 Celsius, food is HORRENDOUSLY plentiful with the seas fit to bursting and the land overgrown with fruit, nuts and edible plants.
Monsoon season however is an absolute bitch as some of these islands can become entirely swallowed up by the sea like clock work... So pay attention; local flora and fauna often dictate which islands persist and which get an annual salt bath.

Next one gets it's own post because I get to talk about food and I'm slightly poverished and LOVE talking about food I don't have.

>Does anything resembling basic income exist in your universe/world?

Most Dwarven societies allow taxes to be paid via public labor/volunteering and almost all of them provide "guaranteed" necessities: public dorm, issued clothing and a weekly grocery ration typically consisting of canned worm meat (think spam/cram), unleavened spore biscuits, 14 liters of 'root cider', and an assorted selection of dried/pickled tubers, roots & mushrooms.

Orcs have what they like to call a "runt/peon" tax that basically allows weaker and poorer Orcs to skim from the bottom: peons may scavenged the leftovers from crops, butchers, bakers and taverns are like wise culturally expected to allow peons & the poor to have first pick through their scraps and garbage. Orcs also often run soup kitchens that double as pest exterminations: butchering the rats, pigs and dogs running rampant in an Orc fortress and serving up surprisingly decent meals to impoverished Orcs.

Help me with my Lawful Neutral race, reddit.

The Truthseekers are demons from a ring of hell where conflict (even sports entertainment like Gladitorial combat) was steadily phased out in favor of rhetoric, the population as a whole dropping everything in search of Reason and Truth. Needless to say, the population immediately became splintered with dozens of different philosophical branches. The arguments grew more abstract, dependent on countless implied references and citations from texts of other philosophers, until they effectively became living people with Modron levels of bureaucracy.

The Caligae (PC class for reasons that will be obvious) were a growing minority of demons that couldn't make sense of the debates for whatever reason, and eventually lost track of the arguments and the paperwork, and the clauses, and loopholes. While the philosophers are legitimately making progress to finding the answers they seek (even though they and the Caligae don't know that) it's a complex process, and leaves their entire ring defenseless since most of everyone is trying to work on finding the Truth.

So, the Caligae basically work as the warrior caste for the philosophers, while also being an arguing sect of the same philosophers. They argue that the only thing that will really matter is the land they take control of, and the land they hold, and the Caligae seek to conquer and protect territory.

Of course, they're small in number, around 7,000 in all, and coming from a land that had abandoned combat for a while, they're poor fighters. What're they gonna do to conquer territory?

Well, just because they're ignorant by Truthseeker standards, it doesn't mean they're stupid by anyone else's standards. Magic is mental in my setting, and it works by invoking it in different ways, through trinkets, chants, dolls, emotions, whatever. The Caligae have the easiest, most reproducible way of casting spells.

(1/2)

The Caligae just have to reason with themselves that the magic they're doing makes sense. Through the power of rhetoric and debate, a Caligae can write a treatise on why, let's say, a Fireball works, and if that argument can be seen as reasonable by other Caligae, then the Fireball works. Think of it like the WAAAAAAAGH! It might be gibberish, but, to the Caligae, it's a fact. Just like how the Orcs believe painting something Red makes it go faster, so it goes faster.

>Couldn't they just write treatise on how they're the baddest, strongest, most handsome cunts in the world and take it over with their now-reality?

Nope! Caligae can't accept stuff like "This needs happen because it'll be easier for us" That's a fallacy. Writing magic in a way that will make sense to a majority of the Caligae, and will be passed with a minimum of debate and be generally accepted by all, is an intensely laborious process that is only seen as practical because there is a definite endpoint. And besides, the Caligae can't accept that magic can come from nothing (even though it pretty much does). There has to be a sense, there has to be order to it, otherwise it's just pointless stick-waving. So, the Caligae have to draft it into laws in order for it to work for them, and like most laws, there's limits.

To stick to the 'Fireball' example, let's say that during the drafting process, it strikes the writer that they can't just make fire from nothing. Fireballs need certain materials, and can only be cast while it's bright out, or near a source of light, because the Caligae have accepted that a Fireball should obviously need materials x, y, and z, and be cast only near light, because light is either caused by the Sun (A hot ball of fire), the Moon (Reflecting the light of a hot ball of fire), or fire, and of course you need fire to make a fireball happen, so
that's how they need to cast fireballs.

Anything I should flesh out, any comments, concerns, death threats?