Worldbuilding: Difference between revisions

|'''Umberto Eco''', postscript to ''[[The Name of the Rose]]''.}}

 

 

A common form of worldbuilding is the creation of history. This could just be a [[Framing Device]] for a story told by a historian, but fantasy worlds regularly include historical notes for centuries of warfare and intrigue. Stories can then be written at various points along that timeline, and each of those stories will have a clear relationship to all the others. It makes the writing of serial fiction much easier, especially if the series has multiple authors. If so, the fictional universe is a [[Shared Universe]].

 

 

Constructed worlds frequently have their own aesthetics, above and beyond the aesthetics of the stories taking place in those worlds. Some artists and hobbyists build fictional worlds with no intention of writing any stories in them—at least, none more detailed than historical documents.

* Eiichiro Oda's ''[[One Piece]]''

 

** And to a lesser extent, the Hunter's world, which the four visit in the Third Movement.

 

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Robert Jordan's ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', perhaps the most famous (and complete) constructed worlds in recent works of literature.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s [[Heralds of Valdemar]]

** Also, the Thousand Worlds of his [[Science Fiction]] short stories.

* ''[[The Saga of Recluce]]'' by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

* The [[CoDominium]].

* All of [[Brandon Sanderson]]'s works, in fact, they actually all share [[The Verse|a cosmology]] except for his young adult Alcatraz books, and of course the [[Wheel of Time]] books he's written in [[Posthumous Collaboration]] with Robert Jordan, [[Word of God]] says there's even a defined logic that underlies all the different magic systems of all Sanderson's works.

* Andrey Livadny's ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'' is a vast [[The Verse|'verse]] with over 30 novels, novellas, and short stories (and counting). The order of writing does not always match up with the universe timeline (although, currently, he seems to be primarily adding to the end). Most novels have unique characters, although there are story arcs that include several of the books. There's a reason the series includes the word "history", especially since many novels deal with alien races, most of which predate humanity by millions of years and some have stopped counting at billions. One novel even goes into the origin of life itself, and another off-handedly reveals that "true" origin of Christianity. Several fan-based web MMORPGs have been created based in the 'verse, especially set during the First Galactic War, a 30-year period of constant "technogenic" warfare between two human powers, a period so devastating that its effects are still felt 1000 years later.

 

* J. Michael Stracynzki's ''[[Babylon 5]]'', which has a setting with five major galactic powers and several smaller governments.

* The Twelve Colonies of ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'', which were fully fleshed out by the writers for the start of ''[[Caprica]]''.

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' doesn't have such an extensive time period to work with, but a higher number of factions and being limited to one planet means a lot more attention to small details.

* ''[[Traveller]]'' deserves special mention as one of the best sci fi verses ever built.

 

* The ''[[Bionicle]]'' universe, to the point where it has in-universe mythology and creation myths ([[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|which most members of the audience accepted in the first few years as canonical events in the timeline]]) that are later [[Deconstructed]] as [[Doing In the Wizard|science-based explanations for the seemingly mystical occurrences]] are gradually revealed.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Akira Tsuchiya's [[Ar tonelico]] world. To summarize, he created an extensive fictional musical language as a foundation for his world, complete with a physics section on how the language works in the world.

* ''[[Ivalice Alliance]]'' and ''Compilation of [[Final Fantasy VII]]''.

* Terreneus in [[Grandmaster of Theft]].

* In each compilation book of ''[[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]'', large amount of background info were given about its world, covering how things were before, and how much it changed after the reign of Succubus Demon Lord. [[Porn with Plot|Quite impressive one for fetish works]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In the early seasons of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' Springfield semi-qualified, as its events were contained enough to function as a separate world, even if it was never defined as such. This was abandoned later on.

* The Land of Ooo from ''[[Adventure Time]]'' is a mild example. Ooo is meant to be [[After the End]], arising from the remains of human civilization as we understand it, and and there are hints towards this in almost every episode, including the opening sequence. Examples include mispronunciations of names like "Mozart" and "[[The Marx Brothers|Groucho]]," and there's also a [[Nursery Rhyme]] that seems to be about mushroom clouds.

** One thing that it is direly lacking, however, is a distinct map. Not even the execs at Studio B have penned an official version.

 

* It's rather easy to do this yourself, just open up a word processor document and let your imagination take off.

** If you need help, the fine folks of [[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]] have an in-depth article on [[wikipedia:Worldbuilding|worldbuilding]].

* The setting of the [[Play-By-Post Games|forum role-play]] ''[[Open Blue]]'' has, over its extensive history, grown quite large.

* [http://www.santharia.com Santharia] is a world-building project for the world of Caelereth, which has been going since 1998. Everything from flora and fauna to cosmology is described in loving detail, and pictures added created by Dreamers themselves. The world of Caelereth is developed on the Development board, while on a separate Roleplaying board stories are told set within this world, most of them within the continent of Sarvonia. Recently an interactive game has been developed.

 

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