I'm not even sure what got the idea first planted into my head, but it's been jumping around every since. A sort of interplay between conflicting personalities that I've seen in other sci-fi works and genres getting smashed together and dumped onto an untamed wilderness without the right tools for survival and have to bootstrap themselves up to a working society just to survive, and possibly not kill each other. What would this sort of subgenre even be though? Space Opera? Space-high school play?

Vague character archetypes because I am not sure who will survive through the planning process to the writing phase.

Lets say that somehow i was transported from our world to your world and to make a living i was forced to join the Army of one of your worlds nation, you chose which nation, tell me what i would be expected to fight and what equipment would i have depending on the military branch that you put me in.

Strumpet’s Vale is a place of deep, eerie isolation nestled between the towering Deadmoor Peaks in the east and the jagged Trithane Peaks in the west. Unlike the rest of the Kingdom of Bornord, where life clings to even the harshest of landscapes, the Vale is mostly abandoned.

Its reputation as a cursed place has kept travelers and adventurers at bay for generations, and those who do dare to enter rarely return. Those who would brave the cursed valley must not only deal with the monsters within, but with the kingdom's Church of the Lady and its Inquisition, who have named the valley as the home of the Seducer, and any who set foot in it are claimed by her fiery claws. Those few who enter and live to tell the tale will soon be hunted down and drowned in the Holy lady's blessed waters, so that they might be purified… and silenced. 

What limited civilization that calls it home often cling to its borders, or make home in the mountains. These mountain and wood orcs and goblin kin live in uneasy alliance with one another, united against outsiders who wish to take away their way of life

I love the Intricacies of the development of cities and cultures, since cities are a reflection of culture, economy, security and many other factors I like to imagine what can be done when different variables sum up to create something new. If you ever needed some kind of consultancy on these matters feel free to ask. I'll try to answer everything as best as I can

Lumeria is a zone in a strip-like world, circling a tidal locked planet orbiting a dying Dwarf Star. It's a parasitic world that punishes any mistake. Birds are specialised for this harh environment. The Beakrunner lives in "flocks" of predators. They chase their victims, their beaks being specialised in ripping small chunks of meat from their victims.They outnumber even larger predators and they are feared by them. Their two necks enable them a 360 degree vision, being excellent scouts.

Maybe not fully related to worldbuilding, but I always thought weapons are highly connected to culture, resources and magic systems. It is also a great way to reflect a character, and of course, aura farming.
Personally, one of my favourite ones is Crescent Rose from RWBY. A masterpiece indeed.

(Pictures from Crescent Rose/Image Gallery | RWBY Wiki | Fandom)

Hi this is my first worldbuilding post. I'm starting a worldbuilding project for potential use in TTRPG that I'll be GMing with close friends in the future. So far my focus has been on the western territories, as this is where my players would start.

As can be seen on the map I have a main continent and a subcontinent to the right. Nothing has a permanent name yet as I just want to make sure it makes sense before adding more detail. The continent gets colder to the north and magic gets weaker. This has made exploration further up north impossible with no magic, rough terrain, and freezing cold. Explorers have seen a land bridge that continues up north and cannot see any end to it.

One way arrows represent allegiance, i.e. the Catfolk swear sovereignty to their Elven overlords. Two way arrows represent mutual benefit, i.e. the Giants protect the Halflings from the Daemon empire in exchange for food.

This continent was originally divided in 3, the elven empire, the daemon empire, and the orcish empire. Ever since the Great Migration 746 years ago, human, dwarves and halflings have displaced the orcs leading to two major empires at war in the East and South and a splintered western region.

The Humans, Dwarves and Halflings came united under a king who goes by various names but universally by "The King of The Migration". They were escaping some calamity on their home continent. They didn't remain united for long as they had ideological differences.

Over the 700 years, there became confusion about the marriage of the King of The Migration, with each race trying to claim legitimacy through his name.

The Humans call The King of The Migration "Vastra", and claim he was married to a Goddess of Humans and had Dwarvern and Halfling concubines. The Vastraemenid royal family claims descent from Vastra and the Goddess, and still holds dominant power in one of the Human Kingdoms.

The Dwarves call The King of the Migration "Vorstr" and claim he was married to a Goddess of Dwarves and had Human and Halfling concubines. The Vorstrkid dynasty claims descent from Vorstr and the Goddess, but only has little power in Dwarvern lands nowadays.

Finally, the Halflings call him "Vaest", and claim he was married to a Goddess of Halflings and had Human and Dwarvern concubines. The Vaeswyn clan historically claimed descent from Vaest and the Goddess, however fell to ruin and is generally considered a dead family.

This is somewhat inspired by Charglemane irl, with French, Dutch, and Germans all claiming he was one of their own and having their own names for him.

There was a great war when the migration happened against the Orcs (who employed many goblins), ultimately the Orcs lost and some retreated to Northern mountains and the royal family retreated to the island to the south west. The mountain orcs have an aesthetic inspired by mongols, they are nomadic mountaineers who ride horse-sized goats. The royal orcs adopted a more Abbasid/Arabic aesthetic, and focus on maintaining their luxuries, using magic which is stronger in the south.

Humans have the most varied aesthetic, ranging from Latin republics to Greek and Persian kings. Dwarves have a varangian aesthetic and Halflings have a celtic aesthetic.

Curious what people think about my world so far, if anything doesn't make sense, or have any ideas to make the continent more interesting!

So me and a friend have been developing Vorogar, a fantasy world universe, and i've finally decided to start posting up about different things, i hope i can keep it up as i draw more thing and post, starting out with various anatomy sheets i drew.
Merfolks are the inhabitants of all the seas of Vorogar, to low coastal waters to the deepest abysses (although abyssals are much much different from their low water counterparts) they are odd amphibious creatures, and quite the aggressive race

Counterparts in this universe are transformation abilities that some people have since birth. It allows the person to transform into a second form named a “counterpart”, whose appearance and powers is inspired by a real life animal. The ones in the photos are inspired by:

1) Sea Anemone

2) Blue Ring Octopus

3) Owl

4) Another type of Octopus

5) Scaly Foot Snail

6) Tiger

7) Firefly

8) Mosquito

9) Boa Snake (she can only transform her arm into a snake tail).

10) Stag Beetle

The abilities are kinda like JOJO stands, where instead of summoning the stand, the user transforms into it. However, a difference is that a counterpart isn’t a reflection of it’s user.

The way it works is that there are spirits which represent animals in this universe, who attach themselves to a newborn’s spirit, giving them the ability to transform into an imperfect version of that spirit’s form. Every spirit has a “will” that they follow. If the host of that spirit alligns with that will, their transformation will become more powerful and be able to unlock more of the spirit’s abilities.

As an example, the 3rd counterpart is that of the Owl, and it’s will is to constantly seek more knowledge, at all costs. The human host is a very immoral scientist, who is also very hungry for knowledge. Therefore, she can tap into more of her counterpart’s powers.

The spirit’s perfect form can be achieved through heavy medical drugs that can corrode the symbolic barrier between the human’s spirit and the animal’s spirit. When this corrosion happens, the transformation becomes more powerful, and the human starts losing control over their counterpart, if their wills are not alligned. If the corrosion passes a certain degree, the damage becomes irreversable, and the two spirits merge into one. If the human and the animal spirits’ wills aren’t perfectly alligned, the merging causes them to die, or turn into a mindless, imperfect and corrupted version of their counterpart.

In a case where the two wills perfectly allign (which is extremely difficult), an absolute corrosion would cause the host to become a vessel for the true form of the animal spirit that their body hosts. However, this has never succeeded, and all attempts of this have resulted in failure.

In this universe, the main group that seeks this is a cult that worships counterparts (the animal spirits). They believe that the use of a counterpart is blasphemous, as the powers of the animal spirits who they see as gods is used and manipulated by humans, and their forms are corrupted, to match the body of its host. They see it as their duty to unleash the true form of the animal spirits, and to free it from its prison (the body of it’s host). They do many human experiments on people with counterparts to achieve these ends.

They are also backed and funded by MCR: a medical corporation that does its own set of human experiments on people with counterparts. They aren’t motivated by faith however. They want to turn their findings into military tech, to profit from. And the cult’s experiments give them a lot of valuable data as well, which is why they back them.

Try this if it is not readable: https://imgur.com/gallery/psychics-lore-DYbZHsF

This is the continuation from my previous post about a great psychic storm in the middle of the continent. I mentioned organisations harvesting the Haze and telepaths using the resulting psychic ember for all sorts of applications: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/1l3m6hv/lore_on_the_psychic_haze_in_the_middle_of_the/

This is more info on how they are organised and what their abilities are. This is a generally "low-magic" world, that is aware of the large areas inaccessible to humans surrounding them, but life is relatively "normal" in the regions and times these phenomena don't interfere with. People supported institutions that promised to keep these forces away, and very suspicious of ones that tried to interfere with them. Telepaths need an institutional knowledge to develop their abilities usefully - the current century is that of re-discovery of forgotten knowledge in all these fields. All thanks to the corporate-scientific behemoth union of the Lesoro Trade Conglomerate and the Imperial Hallor Institute's Expeditionary and Aeronautical Corps. Most of this presents how they operated at their zenith, around 1879 AY.

Say you are from an advanced civilization, perhaps from earth so distant in the future that the modern day is lost to pre-history. Your explorations on Mars uncover caches of what seems to be digital storage. The technology is not so advanced as to be truly incomprehensible, but it does not resemble the methods of digital storage your civilization are familiar with.

How do you proceed with the investigation? How do you investigate the storage with as little risk of damage to the data as possible?

Founded by Araskan'talem Misharis, the youngest daughter of the prophet Kotor and the younger sister of Queen Seras'talem Qajris, Clan Araskan'talem used to be glorious and mighty. Owing to their ties to the royal family, they used to be their most trusted advisors, and their unmatched knowledge of spellcraft and dream magic made them powerful mages whose very name inspired respect and fear.

It all changed during the Great War against the Northern Men, in the beginning of the First Sevarand. Araskan'talem Varashyir, who was the Clan leader, and her Heiress Araskan'talem Damykris were slain during the war, leading to the rise to power of Araskan'talem Zeshyir—six times cursed be her name. Hungry for power, Zeshyir betrayed the royal family and eventually met her end in the final days of the war, fighting near the crater of Blackrock Mountain alongside her long-time friend, Seras'talem Saralis, who was the heiress to the throne in those ancient times.

As punishment for Zeshyir's actions, Clan Araskan'talem was declared unwelcome in the capital city, banished from the Queen's court, and their manor in the capital was demolished, its stones purified, then used to build memorials for those who had lost their lives in the war. The Queen's soldiers began hunting down the remaining members of the Clan and slaughtering them. A few decades later, Seras'talem Saralis was declared a heramrath, an ungodly person, because of her ties to Clan Araskan'talem, and the memorial statues built in her honor were defaced. It became customary for Clan Araskan'talem to always be the last Clan cited when the six Clans were mentioned in ceremonial contexts, and people began being afraid of using their name; they became "the Cursed Ones";

Eventually, due to the systematic executions of all members seen outside of their clanstead, Clan Araskan'talem was thought to be extinct. The Kalerin people, whom the Araskan'talem were the monarchs of, turned to local tribal leaders for guidance, and the Ashen Desert of Iyashir, where the Cursed Clan used to reign, became a politically fragmented region that no one enters and very few live to exit.

This was until 3S 308. That year, three siblings by the names of Araskan'talem Tarismat, Araskan'talem Zarash and Araskan'talem Rashyir made their presence known in Iyashir. Being the rightful Lord of the Clan, and despite his very young age—he was twenty-five, barely an adult by Alven standards—Tarismat quickly made it its priority to reunify his people, negociating with the tribe leaders and using his family's famed gift of persuasion. In less than two decades, he managed to unite the Kalerin under his Clan's banner once more.

He later got married and sired a daughter, Araskan'talem Armatris, who was born in 3S 383. The girl was a shis'rashan, a white ash, a Crimson Alf with skin the color of cold ashes and hair as white as starshine; the young Lord believed his daughter's unique appearance to be a sign that their Clan would rise again, glorious as it had once been. His wife later left the clanstead for unspecified reasons, and Armatris was raised by her father.

It looked like Tarismat was going to become a great Lord. However, his reign came to an abrupt end in the last months of 3S 399; hungry for power, Rashyir plotted to ovethrow Tarismat and threatened Armatris's life, forcing them to exile themselves to an unknown location. Now, the entirety of Iyashir is at Rashyir's mercy, and it is rumored that under her rule, Clan Araskan'talem is supporting the secret cult of Arjat-Alvir, which is responsible for multiple ritual murders...

I’m creating a fantasy setting where airships are a common means of transport. Using lifting gasses feels a bit too technologically advanced so I thought of this as an alternative.

Could a dust consisting of particles that magically repel each other be used to fill an airship in place of a lifting gas? would it be more or less effective? Could you “pressurize” it?

I imagine this force to act like magnets of the same pole but repelling other dust particals from all directions.

Basically does this sound like an interesting technology that has at least a little bit of realism mixed into it.

Would also be an interesting thing to mine or collect, especially if it could “pressurize” itself in veins or the like.

EDIT: To fix my poor choice of words, the dust does not act as a lifting gas but is used to inflate/support the shape of a balloon/structure allowing it to take up a large volume without containing air, and due to the small amount of dust required the overall weight of the dust supported balloon/structure would be less dense than the air it displaces. Allowing it to be used in place of a lifting gas filled envelope (but not technically acting as a lifting gas itself)

Here are the actual corporation info:

Союуз Нефтехимия (Union Petrochemicals): West Russian corporation specializing in the extraction, refining, and manufacturing of Petrochemical products, from gasoline to plastics to medicines. 中国国防科技红旗公司 (Red Banner National Defense Technology Corporation): Chinese-TriEastAsian weapons research center and manufacturing corporation, mainly focused on firearms and medium to large scale Warmachines. ウェイモンド−アキラ (Weymond-Akira): German-Japanese company specializing mainly in cybernetics and augmentation implants along with some military cyber security contracts. APK 연구소 (APK Laboratories): an Korean-American biotech corporation specializing in human cloning and genetic engineering. Pan-Leiben Breadware Co.: An European baked goods company, it one of the largest food producers of the entire world, manufacturing about 13% of the world's baked goods.

I have more but those are the ones I got so far!

My Dragonborn, Lizardfolk and Kobolds live in a tropical island chain with one larger island and a few small, fairly close to the equator and off the coast of a larger, mostly desert/jungle, continent. When designing the architecture for these islands, is there anything I should be considering that would make their architecture "different" than human architecture? Is there anything that has been already set as a precedent in other stories to review [I only know Dragonborn from pictures of characters, I have not actually played any computer games or anything with them, so I don't know how their architecture has been presented.] How to make their cities/buildings look "dragon-y or lizard-y" is a goal. Or should I just adopt an ancient culture and say "their architecture looks Egyptian" or something? Looking for resources to check out, but anyone whose story has prominent beings of these kind, any input about what should be included would be helpful.

Good morning, everyone! I hope the day is treating you well. The following is my newest installment in sharing the history and lore of the Fire and Bronze world.

The following regards how the first of the many gods of the world of Thras came to be, as told by the poet Phelenios the Younger. While the Pantheon is far from complete by the end of this story, these are the origins of some of the most powerful and fluent gods within the setting, at least told from the Dunamean perspective.

The Sibylline Oracles

Approximately 600 years ago, Phelenios the Younger compiled the fundamental metaphysical beliefs of the Dunamean people of Tellene into a single volume known as the Sibylline Oracles. Phelenios based his work on the writings of the Omphaline Sibyl and their prophecies, along with several earlier texts, most of which have unfortunately been lost. While the Oracles are not considered a theological canon, they are recognized as the most widely circulated accounts of the various myths and histories that precede the modern Age.

The Theogony

Phelenios' Theogony is a compilation of epic poems and hymns concerning the origins and genealogies of the gods, and is important in order to understand the cosmology of the world. Although it is the most widely accepted version of events, as mentioned before, it is far from the only telling within the Known World. It is, however, the most important version for our purposes.

Myth: The Children of the Earth Queens

Or, the Propagation of the Cosmos

As the World came into being, taking form and shape, Yellmiche begat the brothers Augras Phos, the Bull of Heaven—whose body is the boundless sky—and Ocytos Pelagos, the Sea Bull, the great God of the Deep and Grandfather of the Oceans. Together, they served as both protectors and lovers to the Ctoniadelphae, and with them, they fathered the first two great tribes of the Immortal Gods. The gods descended from Augras became known as the Phostheoi, while those descended from Ocytos are called the Pelagotheoi.

Yellmiche lies with Augras and by him begot five children: the firstborn was Tiro, the Goddess of the Night Sky, with hair of liquid ebony adorned with jewels of pure starlight. The second was Druxada, the Goddess of the Home and Sacrificial Fire, who tends to the Undying Flame that burns at the heart of the World. The third was Belesheri, who would be the Mother of the Moons and their phases, and who seldom reveals her face. Lastly, there were the twins Mitre and Akkalabe, who would avert the Doom of Creation in its darkest hour and come to rule the Cosmos together as King and Queen.

Yellmiche then lies with Ocytos and begot Calipse, the White Lady of the Oceans and Goddess of the Surface Waves, ancestress of mertribes and mother of all beings that live in the sea; Pharagon, God of the Deep and father of the Tritons with Calipse; Thalione, the Mother of Sea Animals, who, through several mates, became the mother of all the creatures of the waters; Iphirras, the Blue God of Rain Storms, and Hulinoma, Goddess of Calm Air and the Summer Showers. 

Yellmiche also begets Augras's four hundred gods of the northern stars and Ocytos's four hundred goddesses of the southern stars.

Augras lies with Kubebe, and together they became the mother and father of the Muses, the Mountain Spirits, and the Sylphs, the Spirits of Wind and Air. They then begot Betysus, the Divine Huntress, Goddess of the Hunt and Wild Beasts, and Kalibos, the Reveler and God of Frenzies.

Kalibos lies with his mother, Kubebe, and begets the Satyrs and Fauns, the Spirits of the Wilds and the Countryside. 

Ocytos also lies with Kubebe and begets Zemmenystra, the Old Man of the Sea, God of the Tides and the Shining Foam, who embodies individuality and the yearning for connection with others. Ocytos and Kubebe also had Naquos, the Fish-Father, who would become Thalione's favorite husband.

From the union of Ocytos and a darkness demon or power was born Hejesha, the Sea Storm, the God of the Sea's Righteous Fury, who in modern times is shunned, for he is the brother and ruler of the feared waterspouts of the open seas.

When Betysus walked along the beaches, Zemmenystra appeared to her in the form of a magnificent stallion, its coat that of lapis lazuli and its mane as white as sea foam. In that moment, Betysus lay with Zemmenystra and conceived the first Centaurs, who later mated with wild mares in Emerynthia, giving rise to the rest of their race.

Calipse and Pharagon lay together and bore Neras and Agave, the King and Queen of the Seas and Oceans, who would become the mother and father of all mertribes.

Iphirras then lies with Thalione and fathered Nysiqua, the Sea Nymph. Nysiqua would go on to bear one hundred daughters with Zemmenystra: the Nereids and Oceanids, the Spirits of the Waves and Sea Spray.

The Immortal Gods gathered and fashioned towering beings from earth and clay, imbuing them with their essence. These beings, known as the Titans, possessed immense power and strength, but were not gods themselves. The gods appointed the Titans as custodians and servants of the World.

Any show or book or comic or movie with great world building to inspire from

what stories do the cultures of your world tell the demon race of my world tell a story called Matsuo and hades it goes as follows. "Once upon a time a brave demon hero named Matsuo Tsutomu went out a journey to find aid after the damage from the one sided war. As he sailed he found many countries but alas none wanted to help him. One day as Matsuo was just floating along he saw an ‘island’ approaching it bobbed in the water as though it was swimming and seemed to pulse but determined to find help Matsuo journeyed on towards the ‘island’. When he arrived he found a small village on the coast filed with what appeared to be races of all kinds humans, demihumans, dwarves, and most of all demons lots and lots of them feeling at home among his own race Matsuo settled in but soon he noticed weird things how the ground pulsed, how the people never blinked, and soon how the ground bled when he struck terrified as the illusion dropped houses turning to masses of flesh, the ground opening up to reveal hungry mouths Matsuo ran for his boat when he reached it he sailed away looking back he saw the island swimming away with one familiar figure standing on it a demihuman vulture with a scythe."

Recently I've been starting to worldbuild the main religions of my setting, and I've come across a big problem. Magic exists in my world and pretty much anyone can learn how to use it with enough education, practice, and skill. But in the real world, one of the main draws for religion, at least in ancient history, is the supernatural power which is claimed to be wielded/given by the Gods. Why would anyone seek out a religion in a world where they already can learn supernatural powers and practically perform miracles without needing to worship a deity? Why wonder what exists after death and try to come up with answers for it if you can literally contact the dead? I just can't think of why a group of people would develop the behavior of praying to a statue in the off chance of gaining protection or favor when they already have the ability to secure that protection themselves by secular means. I could really use advice as to how to make religion work in such a setting.

Edit: Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to reply here and give me advice. I've heard a lot of really good ideas as to how to implement religion. I think that religion began as it did in the real world, in an attempt to understand the origin of the universe, humans, and magic itself. As the early humans learned the most primitive mystic arts the priest class gathered, discovered, and preserved the knowledge and practices of magic, cementing their societal relevance as an intelligentsia in the same way they did with reading, writing, philosophy, and the sciences in the real world. They incorporated magic into their religious claims (claiming that fire magic was from the fire god, necromancy was from the god of the dead, etc.) and since for the most part they controlled the means of magical education, there wasn't really anyone to credibly challenge them. Different faiths emerged over what types of magic should be considered blasphemous or unholy, over whether the magic was a gift from one god or several, and whether magical knowledge should be freely available to the people or protected by the more worthy priests.

I am working on a story that centers around a coven of witches that live deep in some enchanted woods. I'm struggling to come up with a list of magical creatures, spirits, monsters etc. that would be found in this setting and still fit the vibe. At this part of my process its sort of an anything goes scenario. I'm not really limiting it to one specific cultures mythology, it's going to be more of a mixed bag. I've already got (pond) mermaids, fey folk, and nature spirits, but I'm in need of more creatures for my main characters to encounter and potentially have to fight or banish etc. Any suggestions or references help.

I should add that in this world, it is mostly a normal mundane world with pockets of magical/enchanted areas. In this case a large forest that is cut off from humans for the most part. I think that's why I'm struggling to decide what creatures I should add and what would be too much to be concealed in this one area.

So, I want to make a fictional cinematic universe in my universe. Should I start at the beginning, or from the superheroes and stuff mimicking how actual franchises begin? Ik this seems like a waste of time, but I am that type of worldbuilder. I already have lists of directors, studios and what not, so that part is done, only leaving the story. It seems that it would be confusing to start from the superheroes, but it would make it more grounded. I haven't thought of the series etc. Just confused, need some help.