/wbg/ World Building General

Using tribals from the Area, like not-Dayaks/Igorot headhunters, Not-Naga(the tribe)Blood, fertility and madness worshipers, Not-Aghinori cultists than aren't exactly malevolent but very off-puting and love to break societal taboes (Diogenes is another great inspiration) than some times can work minor tribes in religious frenzies (usually to punish cities and settled people, with the promise of plunder and slaves being a bit motivation), Not-Scythians spawn than settle, rule over cities or do steppe niggers stuff.
Lots of little cults and spirits working and scheming vs each others than use human tribals as fodder for the equivalent of magical crumbs (for the spirits, being able to raise more crops is a true blessing for the tribals) "mad" sorcerers trying to make wonders, recreate an ideal society, dig ruins and all that tend to kidnap,brainwash or control them too, lots of times clashing with spirits and minor godlings.
Also fucking captcha.

Isn't including the content the point?

Should people add additional links to this?

This makes for some fine reaction images.

thanks for posting the link in previous thread, OP

is there a city name generator?

fantasynamegenerators.com/

>trying to make a script to go with conlang
>draw pictograms, simplify them to make them easily writable
>they end up looking like somewhat warped real-life letters
goddammit

Season ten of face off had an episode with the guy who made Dothraki as a guest. He made a few little languages and the contestants had to create the creature/person who would speak it. And he was like, "there a clear puh sound that requires lips and you gave him a beak so"

You might like it tho, that show is great anyway and that episode was particularly worldbuildy.

that might be interesting, I'll check that out, thanks

Does anyone have The Quiet year pdf? IIRC it was linked couple of threads back but it 404'd

Because people myself included love random tables.

>How would you do a barbarian from a non european setting such as the middle east or asia?

Afghani tribes, papua new guinean tribes, mongolian horse nomads, bedouins, etc. cmon, it's pretty obvious

>How would you do a barbarian from a non european setting such as the middle east or asia?
Mongolions are the usual go-to.

It's me! The one who linked it!

You'll need a deck of cards, too.

These might help too

That guy's name is Noodle. Really?

That's great. Why are his ears so big? Are they horns? Is he part Ibex?

Noodle is, I believe, the name of the artist.
This appears to be an elf barbarian or shaman.

Noodley, the priest of forest.

the yellow font is bad, doesn't scale
the white is not much better
>get better fonts
empires and geographic features are the same font. some bend randomly others are just dropped in. like KRONLAND and ORINIA are same thing, different, are they two of three areas or are they two of the "NORTHERN KINGDOMS"

fonts are boxed some places not others
>use outer glow to define, choose better colors
the white is also garish in on otherwise subdued palette

your flow is fucked up, see pinkish read
just don't bifrucate. also your scale is all fucked up, is that a bay or a puddle loshire is on
>deltas should be much smaller and close to the coast which makes farming good which makes cities
>bays make cities, real bays

why is loshire on shore and portsmith and kriesgrad back from it. why isn't kriesgrad at the river mouth

why t.f. is waidback and several others where they are

how big are these cities, again what is the scale
how wide is the weird canal thing going to shallow sea?
>canal and shallow sea are outlined as coastline, what?
cities are just dots, doesn't add to the map tone and it gives no idea of scale or actual position

I absolutely HATE the frame. I don't like fancy shit frames on maps tho, not ever.

tl;dr: this shit is a HOT MESS. all the fancy coloring and frames in the world won't help your map be decent

donjon.bin.sh

o hey nice appreciate it.

Thanks so much! The website shows the pdf as Sold out, which is one of the most idiotic things I've seen in a while

I like it. The biggest issues I see are some river bifurcation (either get rid of that or turn it into swamps) and some of the naming. "Technocratic Commonwealth" and "Vivocracy" sound more like technical names of government types, not actual places people live. Two things I think would make it look even better: a scale and some color gradients for difference climates. I don't know how you would do the latter to make it look good, but right now it looks like the whole map is a dessert.
Don't listen to this user, the frame and general art style is great.

I paid for it, lost my pdf, and can't download it again. irc is all I need I guess.

>is there an X name generator

akana.conlang.org/tools/awkwords/

this is the greatest tool of all time

I'm trying to justify having both a monotheistic church and the occasional scattered temple to a different (polytheistic) deity, while the monotheistic religion is both evangelist and also allows people to worship at the temples. Like the monotheistic religion wants people to be part of the church, but with the exception of clergy will allow people to worship elsewhere. Or if not the religion, at least society.

By Norton's horrible haircut, this is awesome!!!

Yea that's really cool.

Though I put a few too many Y's in different bits and ended up generating "Cyyy" whooops.

>Have to come up with a name for a Japanese province
>Province is known for its beautiful coasts and tropical forests
>Keep running into problems with naming the fucking thing
Most I got so far is 玉水 which phonetically is "Tamamizu", which supposedly means "Jade Waters". I thought it'd fit in the idea of seeing endless healthy green forests from the waters. But I'm running out of ideas here. I'm also not sure if I'm completely fucking that up.

So if I shut myself up in my room and start worldbuilding hardcore, when can I expect people to start learning about, adoring, and speculating about my work and wanting to add to it far into the future like Tolkien?

玉水
ball water

About 50 years if you include writing at least one novella and a three-volume epic set in your magical realm

>when can I expect people to start learning about, adoring, and speculating about my work
never
market's oversaturated
for all its popularity, how many people are learning Dothraki? a few fanboys.

Don't forget to go to WW1 and beat the Gerrys.

Rate my map names?

sounds jap enough for my ear

Look at existing provinces for some ideas.
Tokushima (徳島) --- Benevolence island
Okayama (岡山) --- ...both characters seem to mean "hill", maybe "hilly mountains"?
Ishikawa (石川) --- Stone river
Aomori (青森) --- Green forest
Niigata (新潟) --- New bay/lagoon
Shizuoka (静岡) --- Quiet hills
Chiba (千葉) --- Thousand leaves
Kagoshima (鹿児島) --- Island of the fawns
Yamanashi (山梨) --- Mountain pears

Tamamizu seems okay to me (although I don't know Japanese), but I'd personally skip the "Jade" thing. Jade seems to me more of a Chinese thing than a Japanese one. You might also go with something more specific than 水 for your waters, but that's fine as well.

Aogawa --- blue river
Aogata --- blue bay
Aoba --- green leaves
Himemori --- Forest of the princess
Tokumori --- Benevolent forest
Shimori --- Quiet forest
Fukumori --- Lucky forest
Katamori --- Lagoon forest/bay forest
Kawamori --- River forest
Okimori --- Open sea forest
Morikawa --- Forests and rivers

>littlegreen

...

Thanks!
It's lovely this time of year. If you ignore the ghosts.
Pic related.

Touched up some names & northen borders

I dropped the "N" from Aragon because it upset one user, because it's a real old world kingdom/region.
Arago pronounced Air-Ra-Go with a Spanish accent, is a place of bombast, academia, & faith. The people are as spicy as their food.

Fleur is a country of old honor & dignity. It is now know for courty intrigue & chevialires

Aventine, used to be a powerhouse, the first real naval power in the Sea of Storms, but when the faith fractured it gutted the country, now it is ruled by merchant families & old groceries, with bravos swaggering the streets

Ursagrad is a far northern kingdom with not much but beets & winter. Baba Yaga is the real power of the land, especially with the royal family almost non-existent, fighting off a peasant uprising. It's crown Prince is it's best hope of reclaiming it's lost glory, but he has been cursed by Baba Yaga to take the shape of a bear

Luslav are a bunch of horse nomads

Balkovia, has Byzantine/Ottoman/Persian fluff, I don't know enough about its real world history to flesh it out right now

Slyvania is a gothic elven land, where the forest are ensorcelled to make travellers loose their way & so only those the elves permit can find there cities. It is fighting a war against the Prince of Pestilence, whose bloated hordes are a constant threat. The Prince himself sent a special plague to the elven nobles, who must now feast on flesh & blood to stay beautiful & ageless. (Vampires)

Komahyrvillyr is a land of cold & iron. They raid & pillage & drink mead. Right now the Jarls are mistrustful of each other & the Prince of Change is orchestrating the deaths of their gods & the Doom of their people (Ragnarok)

The Chaos Wastes are a blasted land, full of mutants & dark sorcerers, but to the south lies Al-Solomas (working name) the Holy City, underseige by the Prince of War. He tore a hole through Hell to our world & now leads a mighty host to devour our world. Called the Pit of Hell

...

...

The Krazidar Commonwealth is a land of dwarves & humans that used to be two separate nations. They decided to merge recently. They have Winged Husars, some of which ride flying mounts like hippogryphs

Avalon is a kingdom of three kingdoms.
The Halfling Shireland, full of redheaded, temperamental drunks... I mean industrious farmers & boisterous sailors & riverfolk
The human Camwyn, full of moors & mist
& Albion the seat of the Three, whose storied Knights protect the land & High King

Portuga, a hive of scoundrels & sailors. I don't know much about Portugal, but I picture this place as a mix of it & Tortuga. I should also mention, the Pleasure Isles which is an exotic colorful place of birds & hedonistic pirates & sirens/mermaids/harpies & rape demons, rules by the Prince of Pleasure

Centered in all of this is the Holy Republican Empire (working title) beset on all sides by Chaos & peril, the land is divided up into regions ruled by Elector Counts who elect an Emperor to rule them. (Basically Holy Roman Empire)

I welcome any critic or suggestion, & especially any insight into any one of these countries real life counterpart, to help me flesh out the setting.

Sorry folks, my sketch app doesn't like me

>Holy Republican Empire
okay, that is really funny
since your whole setting seems quit tongue-in-cheek, I suggest you keep that name

I know it sounds like Ronald Regan's wet dream but it's the only name I could think of the mimics the Holy Roman Empire, & calling it the Holy Republican Empire is not untrue, the Elector Counts represent their own interests & region, so the nation is a republic, they also have an Emperor, so it is an Empire too.

This is why I will never finish my setting.
While I work on whatever feature of it, I discover more features to add.
When I started drawing the map, I did not expect I'll be making conlangs and designing scripts for them.
And I haven't even began exploring music-writing (btw, if user who suggested writing in-universe music for your setting is reading this - FUCK YOU BLOODY FAGGOT)

Anyone else here has the same problem?

Tear up the map I just made for a campaign I'm running, my dudes.

>Om is a trade capital in the known world. The mountain range behind it is actually a giant cliffside of which it exists in the shade of. The Grand Elevator right next to the city takes you to the top of it, and the two gaps at the far sides are ways to pass through it.
>Leskirk, while in a horrible place to live on its own, exists as a waytown between hospitible lands and Om and gets supplies from passing travelers and merchants, in trade for some elegantly crafted clothes.
>Desertreach is Leskirk but actually hospitable, to a degree.
>Sanctity is a city founded around the holy peninsula where the Gods first greeted humans. Holy Point is where it actually happened. Access to the peninsula is heavily regulated and you can only get there through the Cathedral, or by boat and risk getting cut down by paladins.
>Famnuh is the closest non-desert place to live to the trade city, and is for many, the last stop. They run a tollbooth.
>Pagans and the ancient desert natives are pinned to the west coast by watchtowers, though they do manage to rob a few caravans.
>I genuinely have no idea what to call the Dwarven Lands, but for now let's say no one really cares about the dwarves here.

Whoops, used an old version. Here's the latest one.

why is trade capital so far away from civilization?
trade cities form on intersections of trade routes or on coasts

Because Om is the hold of a supposed Goddess of Wealth and Bounty, though the Church does not recognize her as one. Gold and unique, rare materials are mined from the cliffside at a astoundingly fast rate, to the point where it costs less there than elsewhere. With rumors of the gold supply beating the demand, merchants flock over there to amass large amounts to bring it back home. Far from convenient, yes, but people are familiar with the concept of going through great difficulties to access greater things; that the struggle for something greater is a holy pilgrimage, which lends credit to the supposition that the Queen of Om is as she claims; a diety, posing a challenge and awarding perserverence.

Trying to fix the scaling. Should it be bigger or smaller?

Forgot to mention that it's in km.

Looking for some input on this map for a scifi setting. This is the bare minimum, before adding anything other than the general galactic shape and the major systems (star symbols). Any input useful.

pretty.

I like it
Name it Celestial Donut

I have such a place. Well not exactly 'barbarians' per say. The Venterfelk are natives of the Venterlands, the freezing lands to the North-West. They are not simple savage nomads, but their society is very reliant on hunting and warrior might, mostly related to fishing, as sharks are a symbol of strength and hunting prowess, thus their hunter warriors wear shark skin clothing and adorn themselves with shark teeth

Thanks guys. This is a different version featuring the same assets, but different configuration. Added trade lanes between major systems.

I love your flags. Very cool and flavorful. What program do you use?

non-Western Barbarians?
>Mongols
>Huns
>Zulu, and basically any African tribal military
>Apache

aztec gnomes

I used Paint tool Sai

The loofa galaxy...

Cosmic Crepe

And one final map meant to capture a more...ripple-style galaxy? What would you guys call this one?

Galactic Cinnamonbun

Which is the superior galaxy? Donut, Crepe, or Cinnamonbun?

r8 h8 masturb8

>Arago pronounced Air-Ra-Go with an Aragoian accent

fixed. also it it would be ah-rrray-goh only about 5x as fast as you read it

>Anyone else here has the same problem?
nope.

yeah, scale is like the least of your problems

the stars are too uniform. they should be dense in the center and sparse in the outside. the stars in the center are probably too dense for populations to survive.

regardless the stars are way too uniform

why wouldn't ships trade like this also (and more?)
it's got to be hella inconvenient to go to those end-of-chain stars then right back. I fee like things should be loops or there should be a single major trade circle with offshoots or something. that really just looks like you drew random lines without thinking about it

first map is best map

the trade routes are still bad, it's just connect to the nearest neighbor, what's even the point of illustrating them?

It's continent shape, isn't it? The biomes can't work for it?

Well here's a new one.

flying sword vs. fly?

The stars are the way they are because it's just a measure of "major" systems. Be sure, there's a LOT more out there, just not big enough for this map.

And I'll redo the trade routes next. This was preliminary, and I had the idea that there's a lot of scary shit out in space that makes certain routes inviable.

This post is 100% more accurate than mine. I couldnt think how to properly text the phonetics.

Dude, the full realisation of a new world is not the goal. Just create enough to have a base & boom that's the end. You have created a thing. Everything after that is fancy paint. Do you think I have names for anything beyond Capitols in my setting? Hell no. Unless you are writing a book you don't need it, & even then you don't actually need it.

Why is your continent doing a jig? Did it get a raise after working extra shifts?

My problem is that the more I work on it and the more I post here for feedback the more generic my world becomes, realism almost always getting in the way of fun.

Eventually it reaches the point where I wonder why I bothered trying to make a unique world at all.

what?

Because I'm tired of continents looking squarish.

look dude how am I supposed to sleep when you drop shit like this in my lap

the sword has wings. it's a flying sword? duh

>because it's just a measure of "major" systems

your major systems are too equally spaced then

the distribution of stars is not such that your major systems would be so equally spaced, not to mention habitable planets, or terraformable planets or hell even distribution of wealth.

it's never going to be an even distribution no matter how you slice the representation.

>flying sword vs. fly?
is not a sentence

Oh, sorry. What I meant was:

So the interpretation of your flag is clearly "flying sword" versus "fly".

Your welcome.

Have any experience with photoshop? I placed these stars using the scatter and spacing functions of a custom brush. I don't know if there's a way to randomize the amount for either of those, however. Like I said, preliminary stars. Once I got gradwork done later tonight I'll throw up another version.

Which map overall was best to represent a galaxy though? I think one person said original, but one person isn't really consensus.

Pic unrelated.