How Worlds Unfold

Robot dogs and cyborgs and hybrid spirit people! This and more is what I envision for The Decided. I had a lot of fun thinking about this place and I can't wait to get back to it. We get right to bottom of what makes this nation tick and what its theme is all about.

We're back to Zoilena, trying to finalize its theme and point. It was definitely easier with some of the other nations and I figured out why today. Then I simply let my mind wander and ask questions until, finally, I get to where we were trying to go.

The world tour continues and it's starting to get harder and harder. Keeping the world united in theme and differentiated in feel is proving tricker and trickier. But we are trudging along into the land of Zoilena where I only got an inkling of an idea. Nothing revolutionary today, but the start of the conversation.

We finish up Trynland today! I take a few steps back and try to hone into what is the story generating main theme and point of Trynland. Is it honor and shame? Is it clan strength and power? Is it anything like this? Or is the answer even simpler than I imagined?

The world tour continues but today we hit our first snag! Trynland. We've got the vibe. We've got the societal structure. But we don't have that need "oomph" that takes the land from generic to story generative. It's a messy business, this worldbuilding.

Continuing our tour of the world circa 100 years ago, we turn our sights on Atar Nayar, the land where spirit magic sees its truest heights. It's a trickier one to nail down, and I nearly give up on figuring it out today, but by the end this place has a good foundation to build upon.

We continue into lands and people groups where I've had very little built out, even in my impressions. Today, Briver. We'll discuss possible relationships it had with the Tarist Empire, what makes it unique, and we will spend a while trying to hone in on what is the theme and point of this place. Let's dive into it.

Moving further north, we head into the land of Chertah and start thinking about how the Great War would affect such an isolated land, if at all. I throw some ideas around, change my mind, and come up with a theme for the land that I'm not entirely sold on. All in a day's work for worldbuilding!

We are continuing are broad status check of Hatunasi before, during, and after the great war that brought an end to the Tarist Empire. Today, we open talks on the northern neighbor of Tarist: Kianvale. It's the steampunk origin of the world and so what happens to create a people like that? How are they influenced when under empire domination for so long? What differentiates them from the rest...

The Tarist Empire is going to fall. But how? I come into this episode only having vague ideas, but it ends with me having an amazing starting ground for the modern lands of Tarist. It was a lot of fun to discover it like this.

There are those historical events that reshape the world for generations. I figure the fall of the Tarist Empire would be one of them. And it was not done peaceably. Today, I begin explorations into the great war that shook Hatunasi to its core.

With some ancient histories established, we start to get closer to more recent history and nothing is more impactful and necessary to deal with than the Tarist Empire. It's existence affects the rest of the world and so the question remains... why did it fall?

Spiritual forces are to be a big part of Hatunasi, but what is the part they play as gods? Are there gods? What form do they take? How do they work in regards to the theme of Hatunasi? This episode begins with me not knowing the answers, but through a series of questions I asked myself I end with a concept I am excited to play with.

I decided on the overarching theme, the overarching point, of Hatunasi and not only will I be sharing what it is, but I will be sharing how I got to it in the first place and even how it affects my worldbuilding.

There are several different ways to approach worldbuilding, but the two broadest ways to look at it is building from the Macro to the Micro or from the Micro to the Macro. It's a bunch of goobligook wordage, for sure, but these terms are at least going to help me see what my next steps are.

Nothing too fleshed out. Nothing grand or elaborate. These are simply the gut instinct impressions I have when I initially think of the main countries in this world. Some have more thoughts about them than others, but this will be the absolute ground level work that everything else will build upon.

In any fantasy setting, the magic system is often what excites world builders the most. I am no different and today I take time to go over all my initial ideas of the magic system and the tech systems that may incorporate them.

While I am not generally a big fan of maps, I decided I wanted to create something that would help stoke future creativity. So, today I rapid build a map that cares less about looking cool and more about being an idea generator.

In fantasy, creators often don't give much thought to the actual shape of their overall world. The default assumption is that every world, every setting, is a planet within a solar system just like Earth. But this is fantasy! We can do anything we want! So, today we shape this world into something never seen before...

We continue our conversation on the worldbuilding I have already done in this particular world, focusing here on the other major decision I made about this setting: its core inspiration was not going to be the histories and mythologies of Europe, but of South America...

Today, I start the journey of worldbuilding!...well, sort of. I may have accidently cheated already...but, we'll have fun with it anyway.

Curious about what this podcast is about? Start the rambling madness here!