# Looking for suggestions on world building



## Traget (Nov 1, 2020)

Hello there!

I hope this is the correct location to post this.

A couple of people and I have been playing around with a fantasy furry-like world that doesn't currently have any humans in it. It's a bit convoluted in a way with magic and so forth, and I'm worried it might be confusing for a reader to get in to.

Would anyone have any tips as to how to introduce a world setting to an audience without having to stop and go into long sections of exposition to explain how things are different? The fantasy books I've read manage it, yet I can never quite click as to how they're doing it with any degree of subtlety.


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## Vinfang (Nov 1, 2020)

focus on describing the geography / traditions / habits / cultural worldview between different groups, maybe with a visual guide or two.

Example. made in abyss, avatar, fullmetal alchemist, etc.


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## reptile logic (Nov 1, 2020)

^ Agreed.

Though the term, "Show, don't tell" is regularly used, it can be confusing. A relatively easy way to go about this is a 'stranger in a strange land' scenario; where the local characters explain stuff to the stranger. It's easy to overuse this method, though, so take it easy. Another method is to give good, descriptive narration. The hard part here is to do it in a way that entertains the reader and stimulates the imagination, rather than trying to 'teach the reader' through textbook-style prose and drawn-out explanations.

Example: From its vantage point in the Scarlet Hills, He/She/It looked out over the village. The bright blue sun was beginning to peek out from the morning cloud cover. It could see people scurrying about on their errands; the bright plumage of the adults flashed in the light. The young scrambled to keep up with their parents, their four, short legs lost in a blur of motion. . .


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## Miles Marsalis (Nov 1, 2020)

If you're creating a magic system for your story, make it consistent and with limitations. 

This guide may be helpful: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/WriteAFunctionalMagicSystem


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## AceQuorthon (Nov 1, 2020)

I personally love quirks in fictional worlds, just something that makes it stand out from the rest and make it memorable!


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## Crazyman1 (Nov 1, 2020)

Start off simple then grow from there.
Yes you can do some details on how your world works and some of its history but in storytelling give off details in short bursts rather than all at once and it will go down smoother.
World building is best served in bite sized pieces, its how the Hobbit was made.


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## Arishipshape (Nov 1, 2020)

This is gonna sound crazy, and it probably is, because i’ve never wrote anything, but here’s an idea:

Don’t explain things.

Definitely make sure _you_, the author, know how and why everything works, but the reader? The reader only needs to know what happens. If everything you’ve constructed makes sense (I.E. magic is governed by rules X, Y, and Z, but deities A, B, and C can change this for their “chosen ones”), then simply showing the consequences of that is often enough for the reader to intuit how it works. If there’s some sort of crazy history or backstory, then if it’s relevant, it’ll come up in conversation (and if it’s irrelevant, then the reader doesn’t need to know). If there’s some laws governing an area, people will follow them, and ideas that involve breaking them will be frowned upon.

Essentially, demonstrate the consequences of the world you’ve built. Readers are relatively good at reverse engineering the rules, _especially_ if you understand them and keep them consistent. Take Star Trek. Without ever showing the audience a warp drive manual, most Star Trek fans understand the basic rules of how it works. Take Harry Potter. While there are in fact magic classes that the characters attend, we only get the briefest of snippets, directly relevant to the plot. The rest of the rules are just assumed.

Again, it is _imperative_ that _you_ understand how your world works, to the minutest detail. Inconsistent rules or history will lead to confusion. But the reader only has to know what directly affects the plot, and if you show them the plot, they’ll figure it out.

This could all be crap, good writers are encouraged to explain how I’m wrong, enlightening both me and the poster.


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## Crazyman1 (Nov 1, 2020)

Well you can explain things but don't overdo it, if your magic system has rules then it may be best to tell people how it works.
But again short bursts may be a good idea, going over every detail all at once is a bad idea and can distract or bore the audience.


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## Traget (Nov 1, 2020)

Thank you for the suggestions!

Yes, having solid rules was always something I wanted in place for magic. The magic comes from a form of life energy, and can be stored and used on anything living. Carrying a bag of walnuts around in your pocket can be used as a form of battery for example, as they have a life energy that can be pulled out to power a magical device.

Thank you Miles Marsalis, that tropes page is useful.

Just so there's some idea what it's about, here's a short description of the world: In a way the world is a bit like people's fears of AI and robots, but with magic instead. Humans were the only ones who evolved by nature and they learned to harness magic. They created magical species in the same way we in real life have built machines, only as time went on these species grew angry at their slavery and rebelled, driving all humans to extinction.

The story then takes place a few thousand years after that, and follows the magical creatures. We have decided to go with a human transported to this world and transformed into a new species to use as the protagonist, so they readers can learn about the world as the character does. Going to try and make it a comic, so that should possibly make things a bit easier to show rather than tell.

It's not particularly original perhaps, but hopefully entertaining at least.


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## Crazyman1 (Nov 1, 2020)

I dunno the "have human being taken to another world" is a bit overdone and one can learn of things in the universe from a character who is already in said universe.
Again to use Tolkien as example we learn of the world from the titular hobbit, and he is not a human magically taken to another world.
Good world building can be done by characters already in that universe.
Perhaps as a viable alternative perhaps have the character appear first as a child and have each chapter have them learn about the world around them slowly, this way you could draw up a family dynamic connecting us to the character more.
Or if you want to have them as an adult and slowly peel back the world as you go along, it is what I am doing in my story


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## VeeStars (Nov 1, 2020)

Anyone else just world build for fun? I make all sorts of worlds and I can't ever imagine using them for an actual story :V


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## Crazyman1 (Nov 1, 2020)

Well yes though I do make an effort to make a solid universe out of it


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## Sablesword (Nov 3, 2020)

Thoughts:
Infodumps can be used if you can make them entertaining. 
Sometimes hoary old cliches can be made to work if you're audacious enough. E.g. 

======
The Matron pulled the now-nude Suzanne in front of a full length mirror. “Describe yourself,” came the command. “Practice describing yourself. When they put you on the auction block, you will need to sound both confident and honest.”

Suzanne watched the image in the mirror take a deep breath. She began to speak…
======

Different readers have different levels of tolerance for world-building information. Some are happy to be given generous amounts of background information. Others are "Get on with the story, already!"

The usual alternative to an infodump is to weave in bits and pieces of world-information, keeping it all low density. "Fritz muttered the words, showing that he was either a master of the craft or dangerously overconfident." The reason why muttering spell-words is risky doesn't have to be revealed until much later - or ever. Or, "She had yellow fur, something Fritz had only seen two or three times before." And then leave it at that, going on with the conversation where Fritz asks Ms. Yellowfur about the missing ooja. 

Readers are generally willing to accept implicit "I will explain this later" IOUs from the author, in lieu of an actual explanation on the spot.


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## Sablesword (Nov 3, 2020)

VeeStars said:


> Anyone else just world build for fun? I make all sorts of worlds and I can't ever imagine using them for an actual story :V


Well I usually do world-build for a story (or tabletop RPG setting) but original settings and characters are the easy and FUN part of writing for me. That's why I don't do fanfic. Why should I let other people do the fun parts while I do the hard work parts?

Although I can toss off world-building "bits" at the drop of a hat. "Foxes have the stereotype of being intensely suspicious of rabbits." "Creatures with striped fur have a reputation for being airheads." "A sultan's harem is the best place to learn magic, if you are female." "In 1769, Herr Otto Rein invented a technique for making *comfortable* boots for digitigrade walkers. Before then, the bad choice was between uncomfortable shoes and uncomfortable bare feet."


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## Zehlua (Nov 5, 2020)

This is a really good thread!


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## Attaman (Nov 6, 2020)

I'm going to be a bit of a stickler on the magic suggestion in saying that "If you don't plan to use it as part of a RPG or other system, you don't need to codify everything about your magic". By this I mean part of magic's appeal is that it's _magic_, and if you go too heavily into giving it firm rules or heavily understood and applied it's going to cease to possess much of its... well, magic.

This isn't to say "No rules", just "You don't need to explain everything". Not planning to make any sort of RPGs or other interactive media with it _significantly_ reduces the need, even more if you don't intend it to be co-written or contributed by other authors / creators. MrBtongue has a pretty good video along these lines.

As for world-building various cultures and whatnot, there's a few ways to look into this. Some of the more common methods are to release a bunch of side-stories / vignettes (either as part of the work itself, or as additional - stand-alone - material), to include a glossary / mini-encyclopedia at the end of the work, footnotes, and - if you have multiple point-of-view characters - to make the earlier chapters for them into setting-dressing. To go more into each of them:

Side-Stories / Vignettes: In addition to some of Tolkien's writings and side-stories, you can often see this in works like Valsalia's _Out of Placers_ with the in-universe reports. Or _Kill Six Billion Demons_' stories included just above the comments of the official website. The beauty of this method is that it lets you keep productivity flowing and drop lore at a desired pace without interfering with the main story's development. The problem with it is that if somebody's not aware of such - or just doesn't care - it can lead to some confusion later on as you're basically dropping potential future plot points in secondary material.

Glossary / Mini-Encyclopedia: This was another favored tactic of Tolkien, and is something that's also done relatively frequently for everything from RPG manuals to scholarly materials. The plus side of this is that it's a handy reference somebody can turn to whenever needed, and again it doesn't interrupt the flow of the story (while also having the glossary contained in the same material, versus somewhere else). The minus side is it can lead to books that are deceptively thick, can be a bit spoiler-ific if not properly organized (even then, for that matter), and tends not to work as well with visual mediums.

Footnotes: These function much like the mini-Encyclopedia, but broken down into bite-size bits included per-page. On the plus side these help handily to avoid future spoilers, and are typically close enough to the event in question as to not cause somebody to have to flip elsewhere in the book for reference. The minus side is they can get chaotic fast, can break down the flow of reading, and again don't work as great (if better than Glossaries / Encyclopedias) with visual media.

PoV Window Dressing: Relatively self-explanatory, these bits are used to help convey both the character and the world they live in. You might have a farmer spend 1-2 full pages (with however many panels) of a comic going about their daily routine without a single line of dialogue. You might have a character musing on some memories of the town they're currently walking through, or debating with another each of their thoughts on a certain faction. The plus side is that these _can_ be rather natural, and don't involve any external / secondary-source delving. The minus side is that these can also, if not done carefully, become blatant exposition bombs that don't progress anything in the story.


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## Sablesword (Nov 8, 2020)

For magic in your setting, you don't have to work out crunchy RPG mechanics, but you may still want to sketch an outline of how magic works in the setting. 

How powerful is magic, overall?
What is magic particularly good or bad at doing?
What are the things that magic absolutely cannot do?
How common is magic; how common are the practitioners of magic?
How common are "powerful" magic users, compared to "weak" ones?
Can anyone learn to use magic, or does it require a special inborn "gift" of some sort?
How easy is it to perform weak magics compared to strong ones?
How easy is it to share the fruits of magic?
From the answers, you can work out what sorts of "magitech" exists in the setting. (Are "magic lamps" routinely used instead of candles? Used by the rich but not the poor?) Alternatively, you can decide what sorts of magitech you do and do not want to have in the setting, and reverse engineer your magic to get that result. (In my "Cern" novels I made healing magic really incredibly stupidly easy, because I wanted frequent and casual sword-duels without a high body count.)

Another trick is to have magic work as well as technology, but not like technology. E.g. instead of magic "cold boxes," food might be preserved by petrifying it, and then changing it back from stone when you want to eat it. Or (another example from my "Cern" setting) instead of magical lights, there are magical mirrors and chandelier crystals that amplify light so that the light from one mundane candle becomes the light of a hundred or more.

Finally, commonplace magic risks becoming boring, but there is also a danger to making magic rare in an attempt to make it wondrous. Magic must be witnessed to seem wondrous; magic so rare that no one ever actually sees any becomes completely mundane.

As an example, consider Merlin’s transport of Stonehenge to England. If your protagonists personally witness this, it is most wondrous. If they hear about it but don’t witness it personally, the sense of wonder depends on how reliable the reports seem to the characters. The more mythical the event, the less wondrous it seems.


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