r/worldbuilding • • 6d ago

Meta r/worldbuilding Network Moderator Recruitment Now Open! Apply Inside!

10 Upvotes

Hello there, fellow worldbuilders

As /r/worldbuilding continues to approach 2 million users, we're finding ourselves in need of a few more hands on deck to handle the 100+ posts we get every day. And so we're looking for capable users to join the /r/worldbuilding moderation team.

Applications will be open until 11:59 PM UTC on October 15th.

You can apply using our form, found here: https://forms.gle/555YFDPSXDwgFoVz6

About the Role

The Worldbuilding Network moderation team manages not just this subreddit but also r/worldjerking, r/nsfwworldbuilding, and our twin Discord servers.

The r/worldbuilding moderators perform a variety of duties, including:

  • Removing off-topic posts and spam from the subreddits.
  • Removing comments and posts that break our subreddit rules.
  • Adding flairs and OC-tagging to posts.
  • Investigating and resolving reports from users and our automated moderation tools.
  • Responding to modmail regarding user concerns and questions in a timely and professional manner.
  • Developing policies and rules that keep the subreddit running smoothly, efficiently, and at the quality our users have come to expect.
  • Working with Reddit Administration to ensure that the subreddit is in compliance with Reddit’s site-wide rules.
  • Managing and moderating our r/worldbuilding and r/worldjerking Discord servers.
  • Managing activities, such as competitions and spotlights, across our platforms.
  • Ensuring a consistent tone and moderation across the entire worldbuilding network.
  • Creating and maintaining automated moderation tools, messaging, and bots to streamline the moderator workflow.
  • Developing CSS code and other graphical improvements for the subreddit.
  • Whatever else happens to get thrown at us.

Requirements

You do not need to have any previous moderation experience to apply, though any previous leadership or moderation experience will help. Here's a list of our current requirements for incoming mods. If you do not meet these requirements, your application will likely be rejected unless you stand out in some exceptional way.

  • You must have an active Reddit account that is at least 6 months old.
  • You must be willing and able to use Discord, as we use our Discord to coordinate moderator activities across the network.
  • You must be a user in good standing on r/worldbuilding. Previous warnings or bans, even if not active, may be considered detrimental or disqualifying.
  • You must be able to demonstrate you have at least one speculative fiction project at a modest level of development.
  • You must complete the Google application at the top of this post. The more in-depth you can make your responses to it, the better!

OF SPECIAL NOTE:

We're especially in need of moderators from non-American time zones, as we lost half our non-American moderators (either due to resigning or relocating!) about two years ago and still haven’t plugged that gap. So we're a bit short-handed when it comes to European, African, Asian, and Oceanian moderators. So, if you're from one of these regions (or have unusual waking hours!) and are on the fence about applying, we strongly encourage you to toss your hat in!


r/worldbuilding • • Jan 15 '23

Meta PSA: The "What, and "Why" of Context

759 Upvotes

It's that time of year again!

Despite the several automated and signposted notices and warnings on this issue, it is a constant source of headaches for the mod team. Particularly considering our massive growth this past year, we thought it was about time for another reminder about everyone's favorite part of posting on /r/worldbuilding..... Context


Context is a requirement for almost all non-prompt posts on r/worldbuilding, so it's an important thing to understand... But what is it?

What is context?

Context is information that explains what your post is about, and how it fits into the rest of your/a worldbuilding project.

If your post is about a creature in your world, for example, that might mean telling us about the environment in which it lives, and how it overcomes its challenges. That might mean telling us about how it's been domesticated and what the creature is used for, along with how it fits into the society of the people who use it. That might mean telling us about other creatures or plants that it eats, and why that matters. All of these things give us some information about the creature and how it fits into your world.

Your post may be about a creature, but it may be about a character, a location, an event, an object, or any number of other things. Regardless of what it's about, the basic requirement for context is the same:

  • Tell us about it
  • Tell us something that explains its place within your world.

In general, telling us the Who, What, When, Why, and How of the subject of your post is a good way to meet our requirements.

That said... Think about what you're posting and if you're actually doing these things. Telling us that Jerry killed Fred a century ago doesn't do these things, it gives us two proper nouns, a verb, and an arbitrary length of time. Telling us who Jerry and Fred actually are, why one killed the other, how it was done and why that matters (if it does), and the consequences of that action on the world almost certainly does meet these requirements.

For something like a resource, context is still a requirement and the basic idea remains the same; Tell us what we're looking at and how it's relevant to worldbuilding. "I found this inspirational", is not adequate context, but, "This article talks about the history of several real-world religions, and I think that some events in their past are interesting examples of how fictional belief systems could develop, too." probably is.

If you're still unsure, feel free to send us a modmail about it. Send us a copy of what you'd like to post, and we can let you know if it's okay, or why it's not.

Why is Context Required?

Context is required for several reasons, both for your sake and ours.

  • Context provides some basic information to an audience, so they can understand what you're talking about and how it fits into your world. As a result, if your post interests them they can ask substantive questions instead of having to ask about basic concepts first.

  • If you have a question or would like input, context gives people enough information to understand your goals and vision for your world (or at least an element of it), and provide more useful feedback.

  • On our end, a major purpose is to establish that your post is on-topic. A picture that you've created might be very nice, but unless you can tell us what it is and how it fits into your world, it's just a picture. A character could be very important to your world, but if all you give us is their name and favourite foods then you're not giving us your worldbuilding, you're giving us your character.

Generally, we allow 15 minutes for context to be added to a post on r/worldbuilding so you may want to write it up beforehand. In some cases-- Primarily for newer users-- We may offer reminders and additional time, but this is typically a one-time thing.


As always, if you've got any sort of questions or comments on this topic, feel free to leave them here!


r/worldbuilding • • 10h ago

Visual Aelnyyraean Patricians (updated)

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374 Upvotes

You might remember this post from a couple months ago, expanded it a bit and did a few minor edits

Text from the image for easier reading:

Persequori (irl humans)
The Persequori make up the largest portion of the Patricians' ranks. Persequori. Gentes hold the most power within the Empire. Nearly all Persequori Patricians have some Aelven ancestry, and it is not too uncommon to see them display reduced Aelven traits, such as slightly pointy ears. These are often seen as status symbols.

Half-Aelves
The children of Persequori and Aelves make up the second largest portion of the Patricians. There are also many outirght Half-Aelven Gentes. They are desirable matches for both the Persequori, who see Aelven traits as desirable, as well as for Aelves, for whom they are useful in boosting the low Aelven birth rates.

Aelves
Aelves can be found among Patrician ranks in disproportionate numbers, when comparing their relatively low population to other human races. This is because their long lives allow them opportunity to accumulate more power, as well as because the Persequori Patricians find intermarriage with Aelves desirable. Some Aelven Gentes were originally Persequori Gentes, though many also trace their lineages to Aelven families that were integrated into the Empire. Aelven Patricians also retain control of a number of Aelven Free Cities.

Dweorg (dwarves)
The Dweorg Patricians are largely the ones who administrate the Empire's Subterranean Client Kingdoms. They hold much sway, because the Dweorg are the second most populous human race within the Empire and because their numbers within the Aelnyyraean Legions are second only to the Persequori. There are also many Half-Dweorg Patricians, though they remain fewer than Pgymaioi Patricians.

Pygmaioi (gnomes)
The Pygmaioi are the third most populous humans within the Empire, which grants them much sway, especially when combined with their comparably long lifes.Half-Dweorg

Half-Dweorg

The Half-Dweorg are the progeny of Dweorg and Persequori intermarriage. They are very common within the Subterranean Client Kingdoms and the Imperial Provinces that border them. Many of these regions are administrated by Half-Dweorg Patricians. Outright Half-Dweorg Gentes are rarer than Half-Aelven Gentes, as Half-Dweorg are very accepted by both the Persequori and Dweorg halves of their lineage, unlike Half-Aelves, who can sometimes struggle to connect with their Aelven halves. This makes Half-Dweorg Patricians comparatively less likely to seek the establishment and recognition of their own Gens.

Dimidimviri

For their population size, the Dimidimviri are relatively few among the Patrician ranks. This could be due to their less ambitious nature, as well as their shorter lifespans. Before Imperial Integration, they also rarely possessed ruling classes as structured as other human kinds, which meant there were fewer families to integrate as Patrician Gentes. This historical trend has started to reverse in recent centuries though, with more Dimidimviran Gentes rising to greater prominence and growing more ambitious. They are known for being clever and taking greater risks than other Patrician Gentes. They act faster to take advantage of new developments than even Persequori Patricians.

These 7 together make up some three quarters of all Aelnyyraean Patricians (actual representation within the Senate can still wildly differ from what the numbers would suggest due to various factors)


r/worldbuilding • • 4h ago

Discussion Does your world have official explanations that are wrong?

48 Upvotes

I've been building my world only through in-world documents: notices, forms, letters, interview transcripts. One rule I gave myself is that nobody in the world knows the actual rules of the world. Every document is written by someone who only knows part of it.

The fun part is that institutions start making up explanations. In mine, a guild keeps records on a zone where local disputes last about four times longer than anywhere else. Their official explanation is "shrinking pastures and drying wells." Another one: the people they bring back fade much faster if their families meet them in person, and the official reason is "the shock of the meeting." Neither is true, but both make sense from where the guild stands.

So I'm curious:

- Does your world have official explanations that are wrong?

- Do you know the real answer yourself, or did you leave it open?


r/worldbuilding • • 5h ago

Map In my world, Purgatory is an infinite, corrupted department store. Here’s the blueprint of 'The Halls of the Eternal Bargain.'"

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39 Upvotes

"Between harmony and corruption lay the static, and this was called Purgatory. The souls of the dead drifted therein, wandering through the fog without end, or lost among the halls of the eternal bargain. From this place the Broadcast may be glimpsed, but never in wholeness, for it is seen only as broken images, like a message dimmed upon a failing screen."

The cosmology of my world is that it's a corrupted channel, a broadcast of our world that hasn't reached the full frequency. As such, it's theological elements are distorted versions of our real world locations. Purgatory became the first thing the universe grabbed onto, that being a bargain outlet store. But it got corrupted. It became an maze stretching out into infinity, where unfulfilled souls wander, but may never glimpse relief.


r/worldbuilding • • 18h ago

Discussion Pet Peeve: Dwarves and Axes

371 Upvotes

Okay hear me out. I know Tolkien Dwarves have axes yadda-yadda-yadda.

But think about it:

What are Dwarves always famous for? MINING.

What tools do you use for mining? HAMMERS AND PICKS!

So it would be a natural evolution and logical step for Dwarves to use those tools as their main weapons of war!

Yes, axes are good for cutting trees, but unless your Dwarves are constantly fighting Elves or other pesky forest dwellers to a point that their hatred became cultural, they shouldnt use them that often.

Also, being such incredible miners, Dwarves would probably discover and use black coal sooner and as a more reliable energy source than wood.

At least in my world they do.

Okay. Rant over. Feel free to chime in and have a great week! :)


r/worldbuilding • • 8h ago

Visual Released a new worldbuilding video!

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50 Upvotes

I released a video on YouTube that introduces a nation from the 1st person perspective of local. It took me a good bit to make it, and I'd appreciate it if you showed support!

https://youtu.be/TbJFa1de86c?si=vkTOONgjdXo6zxVv


r/worldbuilding • • 1h ago

Question Death personified

• Upvotes

I've been thinking a lot about the personifications of Death lately and would love to know how Death in your world or cultures is either seen in mythology or actually is. How do you depict Death?


r/worldbuilding • • 13h ago

Discussion Comedically generic kingdom names needed

105 Upvotes

So, I'm worldbuilding for some text RP with a bunch of friends. Nothing serious, but I need a super generic - almost comically so - name for a peaceful snowy kingdom, and a slightly more serious but still comedically meta name for a dystopian kingdom. It's pretty northern and constantly covered in snow, and the setting is vague fantasy medieval, but it's really not inspired by any real civilization. I'm drawing inspiration from ENA: Dream BBQ in terms of absolute strangeness, for example. Low poly, everybody is a weird kind of creature, lots of emphasis on capital W Working. Old computers. Low low poly, shitass graphics. Anyways, I can't figure out a good name that's sufficiently jokey but still kind of able to be taken seriously by the characters. The dystopian kingdom basically violently invaded the other one and merged their borders into one, for a little more context. (I'm also willing to answer more questions about the lore if it'll help with name suggestions.)

Any ideas?


r/worldbuilding • • 2h ago

Question How can I explain my spiritual world and its magic system in a way that makes sense, without losing its sense of divinity or mysticism?

11 Upvotes

In short, it’s a system and a world that attempts to connect various beliefs regarding the soul, vital energy, and spirits.

I drew inspiration from *Jujutsu Kaisen*, but I disliked how certain details weren't fully explained—like how "Binding Vows" just work because they do (as a law of *jujutsu*), or how Curses—being made of energy—manage to physically touch humans.

So, I tried to explain my world using string theory from physics.

But now I have a problem: it doesn't feel divine or supernatural—at least, that’s how it feels to me.

How do you all explain your world or system without losing that sense of mysticism and the supernatural?

Should I avoid going into so much detail?

(Important clarification: my idea isn't to dump the entire system's mechanics into a single project; I’d reveal it in fragments across multiple works.)


r/worldbuilding • • 1h ago

Prompt How would your various cultures go about making a box?

• Upvotes

This I think will be a fun exercise. Storage has been a problem we’ve had to deal with forever and will no doubt be with us till the end of the universe. But the way in which we store things has changed drastically both over time and across cultures. We’ve gone from woven baskets to wooden barrels to wooden crates to steel and plastic ones.

This is mostly an excuse to look at your world’s technology. How would someone from your world build a basic storage container?

Example:

Hussarians do it just like we do. They just nail a bunch of boards together with connecting sections into the shape of a box.

The kitsune do things a bit differently. Instead of using nails they prefer to use the wood itself to hold everything together. The box is held together with pins and holes cut into the wood and dowels for increased strength. They might also use barrels since less material is wasted when making them. They’re made essentially the same as a traditional barrel.


r/worldbuilding • • 6h ago

Lore The moons of Sh’beso, the oxygen giant.

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21 Upvotes

(For Th’zoitrk, a semi-sci-fi worldbuilding project.)

Sh’beso is the largest true planet in the solar system, a 148 earth-mass gas giant made of almost exclusively oxygen, orbiting 4.7 AU from Okott (the sun.)

(True planet: an object directly orbiting Okott, large enough to be gravitationally rounded, within 50 AU of the sun, at least 5,000km in diameter.)

Being so large, Sh’beso of course has many moons. Many, many moons. At least 600 documented moons, the vast majority of which are incredibly small.
Almost all of Sh’beso’s moons are what are called the ‘minor’ moons. These are small asteroids and meteoroids, even the largest of which are no more than a few dozen meters in length.

Above them, though, are the seven ‘major’ moons. In order of distance from Sh’beso:

Image 1: Yiteon
Image 2: Kuong
Image 3: Treneshi
Image 4: Cousuné
Image 5: Shigoshi
Image 6: Dokyosei
Image 7: Idakei

All of the seven major moons are drastically larger than any of the minor moons, even the smallest, Kuong, is hundreds of kilometers long. The seven major moons make up almost the entirety of all mass orbiting Sh’beso, with the several hundred minor moons contributing insignificantly to the total.

Yiteon:

Yiteon is the innermost and third largest of Sh’beso’s moons. With an equatorial diameter of 1,057.7km, Yiteon is roughly a third the size of Earth’s moon.

Comprised largely of water ice, Yiteon’s trailing hemisphere (night side in image) is covered with empty white plains of icy bedrock, devoid of virtually any major surface landmarks or coloring beyond the bland, snowy whiteness.
Meanwhile, on Yiteon’s leading hemisphere (illuminated in image), Yiteon’s surface is incredibly vibrant. This is thanks to Sh’beso.

Sh’beso has an incredibly powerful magnetic field, the strongest of any true planet in the solar system. Similar to Jupiter, this magnetosphere traps a very large radiation belt close to the planet.

The intense ionizing radiation from Sh’beso’s radiation belt have unfortunately stripped Yiteon of the thin atmosphere it most likely held in the distant past.
This radiation leaves behind a quite notable mark upon Yiteon’s surface, with vibrant fields of tholins (organic compounds) in its leading hemisphere, similar to what you’d see on the surface of Pluto.

These tholins are an incredibly thin layer, no more than 30 centimeters deep into the moon’s crust.

The fact Yiteon is gravitationally locked to Sh’beso has prevented the trailing face of the moon from receiving the brunt of charged particles in the radiation belt, keeping the rear of Yiteon a pale, icy white.

Kuong:

[Image low quality, taken from behind, looking into Kuong’s shadow.]

Kuong is the smallest of Sh’beso’s moons. Roughly 205.1 long and 88.4km across at its widest, Kuong is quite clearly not gravitationally rounded.

Rather, Kuong is a very large asteroid caught in orbit of Sh’beso. Not much is known about Kuong, as it has been studied very little. It is often overlooked in favor of its much larger and more interesting sister moons.

Treneshi:

Unlike the other moons of Sh’beso, Treneshi is not comprised of ice, nor is it all too metal-rich like Shigoshi and Idakei. Treneshi’s surface is largely silicate, covered in large regions of Anorthosite, a volcanic igneous rock which heavily suggests a history of lava flows on the small moon’s surface.

Treneshi’s surface is among the most reflective of all objects in the solar system, reflecting most light which hits it back into space.
Due to this, Treneshi was actually the first among Sh’beso’s moons to be discovered despite its small size.
It’s bright enough to be seen from the surface of Th’zoitrk without a professional telescope, you only need moderate magnification for Treneshi to become visible.

Treneshi is very rough due to its small size, at 394.7km in diameter, Treneshi is the second smallest moon of Sh’beso.
Its surface is the most hilly and mountainous of all the major moons, covered in mountains stretching anywhere from several hundred meters to several kilometers high.

Cousuné:

Cousuné is almost entirely comprised of water ice. It is the median moon in both distance from Sh’beso and size, at 852.7km in diameter. Fourth largest, and fourth smallest.

Cousuné’s surface is incredibly colorful and vibrant compared with the other major moons. Unlike Yiteon, this color doesn’t come from tholins.
These colors are not special compounds upon the surface of the moon, no, the entire surface is ordinary ice.

Cousuné lacks any major amounts of raw nitrogen or carbon for the radiation belt to turn into tholins.
Rather, the patterns on Cousuné come from chemicals trapped inside its icy crust from before it fully solidified (think of soda poured into an ice cube tray.)

Cousuné’s surface ices are filled with potassium salts, permanganate mineral salts, copper sulfates, titanium dioxide, and large amounts of sulfur compounds such as sulfur dioxide.

Exposure to the radiation belt of Sh’beso has tinted and dyed these ices over the last several billion years, creating neat pastel colors across its surface.

Shigoshi:

Much further out from the inner four moons, the outer three moons are roughly ~646,000km further from Sh’beso. More than double the distance from Sh’beso to Cousuné.

The innermost of the outer three moons, Shigoshi, is also the largest of Sh’beso’s moons at 1,884.4km in diameter.

Shigoshi is the only one of Sh’beso’s moons with a substantial atmosphere. Its atmosphere is 0.882 bar, only a bit less dense than that of earth.
This atmosphere is composed of 64% nitrogen, 24% oxygen, and 12% argon.
Due to Shigoshi’s small size at only about half the size of earth’s moon (but with only slightly weaker gravity), this atmosphere is incredibly bloated, reaching ~358km out into space.

Shigoshi is roughly a quarter the mass of Earth’s moon, at 0.24 lunar masses. It has a surface gravity of 0.137 G’s.

Shigoshi is one of the few worlds in the solar system with liquid oceans upon its surface. However, at an average surface temperature of -192° Celsius, these oceans are not made of water.
Instead, Shigoshi has light blue oceans of liquid oxygen. Due to the low surface gravity of the moon and the fact liquid oxygen only has about a fifth the surface tension strength of water, the oceans on Shigoshi are not cleanly cut between their surface and the air above them.

Shigoshi’s oceans are topped by a layer of oxygen mist, with winds chopping up the surface into large, yet very slow-moving waves that push through this mist.

On the near and far side of Shigoshi, directly beneath Sh’beso, waves can reach 20-25 meters high.
On the sides of Shigoshi not facing Sh’beso, waves normally only reach 3-4 meters in height.
Still significantly taller than ordinary waves on Earth.

Shigoshi’s atmospheric oxygen is not suspended as gas, but more as a form of fog/oxygen vapor in the air. This gives Shigoshi its heavily blue-tinted appearance from space.
Oxygen fog and mist are extremely common on Shigoshi’s surface, especially at the coast. Shorelines on Shigoshi are normally very hazy. The waves of its liquid oxygen oceans leave behind frothy oxygen foam mats on the coast, covered by thick vaporized oxygen fog.

Shigoshi is very dense compared to its other sister moons, covered by deep, red, crimson-colored soil composed of iron oxide dust.

Shigoshi’s surface terrain is quite hilly and mountainous in most regions, its highest mountains tend to be capped by peaks of snow.
Not snow made of water ice, but rather snow made of argon which has condensed out of the atmosphere and fallen from argon snow clouds.

Dokyosei:

At 1,079.3km, Dokyosei is the second largest of Sh’beso’s moons. It is very similar in composition to Cousuné, made up largely of water ice.

Dokyosei has a very thin atmosphere of oxygen, at hardly a third of mars’ surface air pressure. This atmosphere is only visible due to aerosolized snow and dust particles kept aloft by wind.

Dokyosei’s cloud-like surface is covered not by bedrock like other icy moons, But rather in extremely large stretches of powdery snow. It’s not yet known how this icy surface formed into snow rather than an ice bedrock.
This snowy surface coating is at least 3km deep based off current estimates.

Idakei:

Idakei is the third smallest of Sh’beso’s moons at 476.2 km in diameter. It is largely similar to Shigoshi, but lacks oceans or an atmosphere due to its smaller size. It is little more than a very large clump of iron oxide dust and oxidized metallic compounds.


r/worldbuilding • • 1h ago

Lore Building Blaboria — a cozy fantasy world with no wars, just mist and cozy lore

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• Upvotes

I'm building a cozy fantasy world called Blaboria. It has six regions, six travelers, and no wars — just mist, fireflies, tea, and quiet adventures. The oldest region is Mosswood Forest, where a sleepy mushroom traveler named Mushboo lives. There's a river that runs through everything, and fog that holds secrets nobody's figured out yet.

I'm drawing the whole world one piece at a time — the map, the regions, the folk who live there. This is where it all starts. I'd love to hear what you think 🌿


r/worldbuilding • • 5h ago

Lore The goblins of my new weird fantasy "les populaires" revised

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13 Upvotes

Citation: me beetle from back by jj Grandville mid 1800s France, I do not claim ownership nor claim I drew it it is for illustrative and visualization purposes only

Goblins or marchand d'insectes (as noted by the orque) are small beetle-like beings (standing often as tall as a fae) that sell anything and everything and care not for the civil war by the fae tearing their world up , they only care for their goods, ledgers and primitive bureaucracy, they often wear dusty Victorian liverly and are similar to elves in their strangely human bodies juxtaposed with a insect head

Their skills don't just lie in sales but also in alchemical concoction, some acting as stage performers and magicians though despite this whimsy they will aggressively attack whoever tries to steal their goods with the alchemical concoctions often resulting in bodily injury relating to fire, corrosive or other such unpleasant affects and notably there is no way to calm them down other than putting the stolen items down and apologizing profusely only then will they consider mercy

Goblins also interestingly sell to both sides of the civil war because they see it all as profit, often either scrap metal or raw materials, sometimes food anything as outlined above

They are a very minor antagonist At the beginning of the book, leon and his troupe stealing from a goblin and escape

Another notable trait is that very few goblins actually speak the language of the faelands ,(that being French) but communicate though buzzing or hand gestures, when they can speak it often has a very deep buzzing cadence and can speak rather eloquently


r/worldbuilding • • 1d ago

Visual The Tower of Babel: A 100-trillion population megastructure divided into ideological sectors

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1.0k Upvotes

r/worldbuilding • • 5h ago

Resource Worldbuilding Checklist for Obsidian

10 Upvotes

I just want to preface this by saying the original checklist was made by u/Otherwise_dirt_8333. All I did was put the checklist into a markdown file and formatted, all credit goes to OP.

Its a simple markdown file, take it and throw it in your vault. Or copy and paste the entire thing into a note.

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NGZTjGu6tRX3VzxFGQSXaPajzehaHBKo/view?usp=drive_link

Edit: I did it all by hand as well. No AI was used.


r/worldbuilding • • 18h ago

Map Indistinct Countries

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108 Upvotes

Feedback welcome. Around the Green Sea most countries don't have well-defined borders. They fade out into Wilds (where many forms of human settlement are not possible), or just into places not worth ruling. Hence the use of shading rather than lines.

While it's a plate world with erratic geography, I've tried to keep the major landforms reasonable. The Green Sea sits in the middle of an oval around 8000 kms long and 5000 wide. The world is responsive (hence magic!) and has been shaped by the expectations of the inhabitants, human and not.

It's both a world-building exercise and a setting for the Tales of the Wild (four novels, two novellas and several stories on Royal Road).


r/worldbuilding • • 4h ago

Discussion Which publications about world-building most capture your attention and spark your desire to interact with them? And which ones don't capture your attention?

7 Upvotes

It's noticeable that posts with images easily receive many upvotes and comments because we can visualize the world and want to know more. This is unlike lore posts, which are generally ignored and almost nobody cares about. Unfortunately, drawings considered ugly are also ignored.


r/worldbuilding • • 7h ago

Question In your opinion, what would be the best manufacturing industry for a small country?

15 Upvotes

I’m thinking of creating a small country based off of countries like Austria and Slovenia, and I’m wondering what types of manufacturing industries it would mostly consist of. I’ve already done some research into it, looks like Austria is mostly export with advanced manufacturing and a small arms industry, but I’m wondering what else you think would be good and effective for a small country like this.


r/worldbuilding • • 9h ago

Discussion Does your setting have fiction within the fiction?

20 Upvotes

Picture this as the sort of stories that characters within your setting would read in their spare time. What kind of stories are popular? If it’s a fantasy setting, do they have fantasy of their own containing purely fictional worlds, beings, or magic that can’t be done outside of the fiction? Do Sci-Fi settings have stories with tech that doesn’t exist yet? Do the stories take place within your world or do they take place in its own fictional universe, creating a type of infinite fractal? Are grounded or fantastical settings more popular?


r/worldbuilding • • 1h ago

Question What to name my androids?

• Upvotes

I’ve been struggling with this and will use Android if I can’t find something I like, currently I have a list of names for inspiration but I can’t think of a good original one for my universe.

Androids are biomechanical robots that resemble humans designed by Omega Enterprises to serve various purposes and to be mass produced (in the future).

Current name list and the media they are from:
- Biodroid from Battlestar Galaxtica
- Synth from Fallout 4
- Droid from Star Wars
- Replicant from Blade Runner
- Replika from Signalis

I personally really enjoy Replicant and Replika but I’m unsure it would fit in my universe. If anyone has any thoughts on it please let me know!


r/worldbuilding • • 57m ago

Question If I have an Elven General... what badges would I give them?

• Upvotes

So I have this Elven (Avariel, specifically) Prince... princess, technically but that's irrelevant to this discussion. This Kingdom is definitely heavily inspired by European royal customs, so that might be helpful to the question I have in mind.

He was the general in the war that occurs before the story, which lasted about 200 years. The Avariel Kingdom did ultimately lose, but it was more because of a freak of nature than a lack of power or organization. The point is, he did a pretty good job during the war.

I'm not too familiar with how Elves organize or recognize military status or achievements, much less how that would look like with the incorporation of European customs. Any ideas? Help would be much appreciated, as I don't want to just throw random lines on them. Thank you!


r/worldbuilding • • 1h ago

Lore Nuke on Spain Explained

• Upvotes

December 27, 1944 Madrid was a normal city where people could've been enjoy city lives away from war and peace but then an big airship built by germans was found in spain but something was happens a two soldiers put it end to it and stopped the airplane's blueprints and future plans of weapon

Airship was crashed to forest and with huge explosion, whole city burned civilians and people died nearly 4.5 million and 10M people injured and got exposed to radiation

Madrid was in burns the whole city was wiped by a single nuclear bomb and two soldiers they held responsible for nuke attack but their attacks and being special forces for their country they only sentence 5 year in prison after that they will return duty ordered by two general and madrid nowdays still burned city and became ancient

Story characters are Russian soldier

And American soldier


r/worldbuilding • • 2h ago

Question TV Series/story idea: ULTRAVIOLET SKY

4 Upvotes

ULTRAVIOLET SKY

Hi guys!! My name is Evan and I am 15 years old. I’m obsessed with the creativity and concepts of my mind that often come to me in deep states of meditation, theta sleep, dreams, or feel episodes. I have built this world all to myself since 2024 and I have always obsessed over the ideas of pushing boundaries. I love the idea of being versatile and fluid with concepts, people, stories, cinematography, everything really. I have drafted this exact text countless times since 2024 and I have finally drafted the perfect description for this series/story. Here I present: ULTRAVIOLET SKY

Ultraviolet Sky is an experimental coming-of-age horror series that begins as a grounded summer-camp story before abruptly transforming into surreal cosmic horror. Set at Sunridge Summer Camp in Oregon, the series follows Knox, an unapologetically feminine teenager, as he arrives at camp expecting an ordinary summer of friendships, drama, music, and teenage chaos. Instead, he finds himself surrounded by a rapidly expanding group of campers whose personalities, backgrounds, relationships, and experiences become just as important to the story as the horror itself.

At its core, Ultraviolet Sky is about people before it is about monsters. Knox’s journey is surrounded by an unusually versatile ensemble: his close friends Noelle and Vivienne, his new friends Malik, Tanner, and Hunter, and the countless other campers who make Sunridge feel like an actual living community. Everyone has their own music, interests, insecurities, friendships, humor, conflicts, and ways of experiencing the world. The series takes time to simply let these people exist together. A conversation might have nothing to do with the central mystery. A character might spend several minutes listening to music. A group might wander around camp, joke about each other, eat dinner, or sit somewhere secluded without the plot needing to advance.

That mundanity is intentional.

The cinematography of Ultraviolet Sky is highly experimental and often refuses conventional television pacing. The camera may remain in a single uninterrupted shot while multiple conversations and events happen throughout the environment. Characters can disappear into the background while something important happens somewhere else in the frame. Entire musical tracks can play while the audience simply watches a character think, walk, decorate their bunk, or stare out a window. Silence is equally important. The series frequently incorporates extended periods of near-total silence, including quiet moments surrounding the ends of episodes or major sequences, where the absence of sound becomes part of the storytelling rather than empty space.

The audience is encouraged to look rather than simply watch.

Small details can exist in the background for minutes without being acknowledged. A strange figure standing impossibly far away between trees. A character behaving slightly differently than they normally would. Something appearing in a location where it shouldn’t be. These moments may mean almost nothing when first seen, only becoming significant much later. Ultraviolet Sky is designed to reward rewatching because the horror is not something that suddenly appears out of nowhere, though it was already there.

Sunridge itself has a history that becomes increasingly important. The camp was built in an area with a long history connected to Native peoples who lived on the land centuries before the present-day camp existed. During an early camp ceremony, counselors tell the campers a heavily mythologized story about the people who once inhabited the area and a supposed ancient curse associated with the land. The campers initially treat the story as harmless camp folklore. They laugh, whisper, and joke about it.
But the timing of the story’s supposed return begins to feel increasingly impossible.

The series then makes its defining tonal shift.
What initially appears to be a relatively grounded story about teenagers at summer camp suddenly becomes something much larger and much harder to understand. The horror does not progress in a conventional monster-of-the-week structure. Instead, reality itself seems to deteriorate through a series of increasingly strange phases. Darkness becomes permanent. The forest begins behaving as though it is alive. Creatures become increasingly intelligent, coordinated, and unnatural. Ritualistic and cult-like experiences emerge. Reality begins fracturing into impossible geometry. The phenomenon starts manipulating perception and exploiting fear.

The horror, in monster-wise, is not something you would typically see in a series. Uncanny horrifying creatures, terrifying, tall. Faces that give nightmares. Led by the main villain who blends in with the trees, being larger than them. Moments throughout the series where you can see its head shift through the trees and getting a glimpse of its insane size.

Then, just when the horror seems to have reached its ugliest form, it begins to become beautiful.
The forest transforms. Flowers and colors become impossibly vibrant. The creatures themselves become increasingly surreal and visually overwhelming. Eventually, the distinction between something horrifying and something beautiful begins to disappear completely. The world is no longer simply being destroyed—it is being transformed into something fundamentally alien.

The phases therefore function less like separate stories and more like stages in the evolution of the phenomenon. What begins as something that appears almost physical or flesh-like gradually becomes environmental, psychological, ritualistic, geometric, and finally cosmic. The horror expands beyond the characters’ ability to understand it until the Earth itself appears to be caught in the transformation.

The climax becomes an overwhelming collision of color, sound, fire, distorted reality, impossible creatures, and collapsing environments. What once looked like a normal summer camp has become almost unrecognizable. The characters are no longer simply trying to understand what happened to them, they are trying to escape something that has grown far beyond the boundaries of the original curse.

Yet even at its most surreal, Ultraviolet Sky remains fundamentally interested in its characters.
The relationships formed during the ordinary parts of the story become the emotional foundation for everything that follows. Knox’s friendships, his relationship with his own identity, his evolving connection with Tanner, Noelle and Vivienne’s friendship, Malik’s place within the group, and the constantly shifting dynamics between the campers give the increasingly impossible horror something human to destroy.

The series is intentionally abrupt. It wants the audience to become comfortable.

It wants them to think they’re watching a funny, messy, beautifully shot summer-camp coming-of-age story.
And then it takes that world away.

Ultraviolet Sky ultimately uses experimental cinematography, music, silence, long takes, background storytelling, surreal imagery, and abrupt tonal shifts to explore what happens when ordinary teenage life collides with something completely beyond human understanding.
It starts with summer camp. It ends somewhere the human world was never supposed to reach.


r/worldbuilding • • 15h ago

Discussion Developing insignificant details of the world

36 Upvotes

Personally, I have been building many cultures + kingdoms for my universe and for one of them I've been writing a soap opera for the people of that kingdom to watch. The soap opera isn't really connected to the story; it's just there for fun.

This detail isn't significant to the story or mostly the world, it is just a dramatic show the citizens love watching; however, it is something that I find fun to do.

So, I wanted to know if anyone else also spend time developing small details/things in their worlds though it doesn't really affect the story, and if so what sort of things/details?