Help:Worldmaking

From Aetilc

[edit] Introduction to Worldmaking

A conworld, or constructed world is a fictional universe created not for sake of fictional piece of work or role-playing setting, but only for enjoyment of creation process and/or the enjoyment of others. A constructed world typically has a number of constructed cultures and constructed languages associated with it, although not always with the latter. The practice of constructing worlds is also known as world building or conworlding .

Worlds are often developed only to the extent needed to complete a single work or series, but there may be considerable detail in a world designed for its own sake.

[edit] Methods

There are three common, generally accepted methods for world-building: top-down, bottom-up, and one-one.

In the top-down approach, the designer first creates a general overview of the world, determining broad characteristics such as the inhabitants, technology-level, major geographic features, climate, global history, and other details of strategic importance. Once this is complete, the details of the world are developed by gradually focusing on smaller and smaller details, such as continents, civilizations, nations, cities, and towns.

A world constructed using this method is generally well-integrated and the individual components fit together in an appropriate manner. However it can require considerable work before enough detail is completed for the setting is useful at a tactical level, such as for use in creating a story.

The alternative method is the bottom-up approach where the designer, with or without giving some overview, begins with a focus on one small part of the world, usually a city. This location is given considerable detail, adding in important facts about the local geography, culture, social structure, government, politics, commerce, and history. Many of the prominent locals are described, and their interrelationships determined. The surrounding areas are then described in a lower level of detail, with the information growing more general and less detailed with increasing distance from the focus location. Later when the designer needs to use other parts of the world, the descriptions of these other locations are then enhanced.

The benefit of a bottom-up approach is the almost immediate applicability of the setting. The details pertinent to a story or situation are rapidly developed, and the information can be used without waiting for the remainder of the world to be detailed. The draw-back of this approach, however, is the world is designed in an unfocused manner and the setting can develop inconsistencies on a global scale.

The method of the one-one approach is when the designed first gives an overview of the world, and then moves on the immensely informative areas, like a city or region. After that part is finished, the designer moves on to another part, and so on. At the same time the people, geography, history and other things are being written with those informative places. Eventually it all fits together and becomes one world.

A world constructed this way generally is slower than normal and takes more time to put together, but when finished, often leaves a masterpiece behind for others to marvel at.

[edit] Construction

An uninhabited world can be useful for certain purposes, but the large majority of constructed worlds are inhabited by one or more intelligent species. The designer usually selects these creatures prior to the start of the world-building process, although less significant species can be merged in at a later stage of the development.

Map construction is usually begun in the early stages of world-building. The maps are used to determine the location of key terrain features, and the significant civilizations, nations and settlements. When a realistic world setting is a design goal, the physical geography of the map is considered when determining weather patterns and the location of weather-dependent features such as deserts, rivers, swamps, and forests. These in turn affect the growth and interaction of the various societies, including the trades, locations of important cities, and places of likely conflict.

Some designers use software programs that can create random terrain using fractal algorithms. Sophisticated programs can apply geologic effects such as tectonic plate movement and the erosion due to climate and water flow. The resulting world can be rendered in great detail, providing a degree of realism to the result.

With a map under assembly, the various places are given names appropriate for their native society. Location names are often used to provide atmosphere to the world setting. When the civilization of an area is modeled after a human society, the place names can be chosen to match the style of the language of the model society. In other cases, the place names may be developed using a constructed language (perhaps a minimal one used only for devising names), or the names may be made up from scratch, hopefully with a consistent style that suggests they originated in a single language.

The use of past human civilizations as a model for societies in a constructed world is a commonly-employed method to aid in the construction of constructed world societies. The audience for the constructed world can usually relate more readily to a well-known civilization than to a novel culture. But this approach can become problematic when forming a society of non-human beings. Building a satisfying and self-consistent alien culture is a distinct design challenge.

With the establishment of societies and nations in place, the interaction of these groups becomes an important factor in the history and development of the world. A history is constructed to explain the current circumstances of the various nation-states, including the location of the borders and the various alliances and enmities. Conflicts are typically a key element of a story, and these provide a method for placing notable individuals within the setting.

Settlements are a significant component of most constructed worlds. Typically the description of a settlement includes the location, rulers and political organization, population size and composition, economic situation, military defenses, and whether the settlement forms part of a greater political body, or exists as an independent state. Significantly more detail can be added to this description, and for many purposes a large settlement can even serve as an entire world unto itself, with only marginal attention paid by the developer to the outlying world.

At some point the designer must determine a place for the world in the wider context of the system in which it is located. If a realistic world-setting is intended, the designer can choose to develop detailed astronomical parameters for the orbit of the world, and to define the physical characteristics of the other bodies in the system. This will establish chronological parameters, including the length of the day and the durations of the seasons. This can lead to cultural aspects of time-keeping, including names for sub-divisions of the calendar and important anniversaries.

Many of the above considerations also apply when creating a fictional country within our own world, as Austin Tappan Wright did in his novel Iceland.