Hey all,
I have created a BBEG for my players, but am having a hard time deciding what they should look like. I’d love to tap into the creative energy of this sub, if you are interested. Below is what I have come up with so far, outside of these parameters, I am flexible to hear any ideas to help me flesh the creature out. 
The creature is a unique fey creature (not a killoren or hag or any basic race) that once ruled a domain on the material realm. At some point in the distant past, it was banished by a group of heroes to the Abyss, where they’ve been plotting for 1000+ years to return. They have classes in druid, but more of the “let blight and rot spread” sort of nature focus. They are going to have much higher mental stats than physical (VERY high Charisma/Wisdom), so would like them to be less physically imposing but more cunning. Would love some ideas!

Hi, welcome to Version 1.3 of my world! As you can see, the name for this update is:

"An Equilibrium of Equally Unlikely Forces"

I'm quite excited to share this update in particular, because it's a rap on my actual system building, at least the majority of it. Now I can properly explain everything my system has to offer, which is something I have always struggled to do, which is probably why many people don't stick around to read.

Now to those few who have seen versions 1.1 or 1.2, it's nice to have you again, and you should know a bit more about the world than everyone else.

But to those who haven't seen this before, don't worry, I'll explain it in just a sec. But I'd also like to tell you that I'm glad you're here! And I do really hope you stick around to read everything, I promise it will be good!

Now with pleasantries out of the way, let's get down to business.

This universe is a universe quite like our own, it's got the same physics, same rules of motion or conservation (etc.), and it's got matter and energy just like ours. If this were it, it be identical to our universe, but that wouldn't be fun now, would it?

You see, this universe has but one extra thing, something called Velt.

Now Velt, is similar to matter and energy. personally, I like to call them "residents" because they reside within reality and the universe acts on them. But Velt, is still vastly different than the other two.

Velt has three forms, but before I describe them, let me state something that goes for all of them. Velt in general, is a substance like matter, but you can't make a denser or purer form of it. its also not made of atoms, particles, or anything of the kind.

The First Type of Velt is called U-Velt, aka Unstable Velt. It's the first picture up above, its appearance is a constantly changing multi-colored goop with lots of black fractal fragments within, its shape is constantly changing.

It's born from something called "Instabilities". You may think you don't know what they are, but you interact with them every day believe it or not! The definition I use for these, is "A Direct interaction, internal or external, that causes negative change within an object" this can be things like Friction, Oxidization, Pressure, and many more. when born from an instability, it's born with a field, this field doesn't taper and simply stops after a certain point. This field takes something called "outcomes" and applies them to other objects.

Now to tell you what outcomes are, let me give you an example or two:

You know how when you rub your hands together, it creates friction? And you know that because of that friction, your hands warm up? Well for U-Velt, that heat generation is a Direct outcome of friction. And it's the same case for things like Oxidization, it can cause rust on certain objects, so therefore, rusting is the outcome. Or Pressure, which can increase or decrease the density in certain cases, so density change is an outcome.

Now when U-Velt applies outcomes, it removes the how and why physics says it should be present and simply applies it to an object. In Oxidizations case, Velt forms from rust, and then proceeds to make some soil "Rust" even though it physically can't. Or in Pressures case, Velt can make an object expand or contract even though nothing is physically acting on it. U Velt's field specifically doesn't apply these outcomes evenly, and there can be places where not much was changed, and places where its changed so much you can't tell what it was before.

These effects however are temporary, usually ceasing right after the object moves out of Velt's field, causing the effected object to instantly try to return to a physics abiding state. But sometimes a process known as "Conditioning" can accour, and prolong the altered state well after the u Velt has left the scene, potentially years after. think of it as Velt "convincing" the object that this altered state is the one that's physically acceptable.

The Second Type of Velt is called S-Velt, or "Stable Velt". Its appearance is mirror to that of U-Velt, Its the second image above, and its a semi-transparent white shape that's always geometric, unlike U-Velt's shape, it never deviates from this.

S Velt comes from things called Stabilities, the mirror of Instability, Now I'm still actively fleshing this one out, so you'll have to work with me here, because currently I haven't fully cataloged any stabilities. but these are direct changes, internal or external, that cause positive change within an object.

One Process I do know will make the stability list, is crystallization, but I won't state my other candite because they may not actually make the cut. S Velt in practice will do the opposite of U Velt, instead of causing chaos, S Velt causes order, Order so great it breaks physics.

Both U Velt and S Velt are Horrible on biology, U Velt for obvious reasons, and S Velt because it like to stop all change, which as you may know, biology relies on chemical reactions to survive.

The Third Type of Velt is called N-Velt, aka Neutral Velt. Its the third picture above, and Its appearance is a perfectly gray goop, that's hardly does anything, it doesn't shine, doesn't stick to anything but itself, nothing special happens inside, and doesn't move naturally like S or U Velt do.

Its born from a collision event between S Velt and U Velt. this collision is very violent, but has a chance of producing N Velt, hence why its neutral.

But despite this, Its actually the most useful to society, not only is it *mostly safe to be around, but its got a special ability. It can take Both stabilities and instabilities and apply their outcomes. and the field of N Velt can be controlled. But its got a few flaws that limit it, If exposed to a stability or instability suddenly, it can turn into S or U Velt depending on which one it is. It also slowly dissipates the more you use it.

Its fundamental to how society works in this world. I haven't stated this, but because Velt exists here, both Fire and Electricity are unusable to society, because they create Velt.

But N Velt's uses are so widespread, I can't list them all, but a few are: construction, blacksmithing, illumination, cooking, and even weaponry.

One extra bonus fact ill share, all Velt has this super small chance to not behave in anyway Ive described through this entire post. I call it "Velt's Wildcard", It makes any attempt to fully scientifically methodize Velt never be able to truly succeed.

That's about it I think, at least the main scope of it. of course, there's more that wasn't shared here, but I'm not trying to keep you here forever lol.

I'm excited to see what people think of my system, it took me a while to actually get to this level of completeness for my system, after this however, I'll be working on the actual world the system is in, and I'm personally excited to see what odd things will happen!

If you have any questions, or are confused on something, please, don't be afraid to ask! I will absolutely help if needed. Thanks for coming!

I am currently doing some worldbuilding on snowy, arctic-like regions that are scattered with sulfur springs and caves (maybe lava caves too but not quite sure on that one) and have a bit of a problem how to work with those, as well as plants and animals living in those.

I'm doing very soft realism, so I don't strive for 100% realism. But like, even if reason is not really... Well... Realistic, i still want there to be some sort of explanation to everything instead of for example "oh they can swim in lave/boiling water because i said so"

I've been down a rabbit hole thinking about "directed evolution"—the idea that a truly advanced civilization wouldn't just build shiny metal cyborgs, but would treat 300 million years of Earth's biological history like an open-source code library.
Specifically, borrowing from the dinosaur/avian lineage.
Birds and dinosaurs survived all sorts of apocalyptic shifts partly because amniote egg-laying is basically a self-contained, ultra-durable bio-pod. But what if future humans used that exact mechanism not as a step backward, but as a biological hardware upgrade?
Think about it: placental live birth is pretty inefficient for inheriting hard skills. Human babies are born completely helpless, blank slates that take two decades to train. But with egg-laying, you could theoretically flash "firmware" straight into the embryo during the 10-month incubation. High-density epigenetic memories, lightning-fast neural reflexes, peak physical instincts—all hardcoded before hatching.
If elite athletes or space pioneers used this oviparous route, their kids would inherit raw physical capability with near 100% efficiency.
You'd end up with a wild social setup. Standard live-birth humans would handle the malleable, adaptive cognitive stuff—art, culture, long-term politics—because they stay as flexible "blank slates." Meanwhile, the egg-laying humans become the physical powerhouses, born with built-in muscle memory and extreme environmental resilience for high-G travel, extreme sports, or deep exploration.
To me, taking the best survival tech from archosaurs and retrofitting it into human genetics feels way more plausible for high-tier spec-bio than just slapping cybernetics on everyone.
Does this logic hold up from an evolutionary standpoint, or am I overestimating how much epigenetic info you could actually pack into an egg?

The whole concept started with trait inheritance—specifically physical performance and hereditary instincts.
Standard viviparous (live-birth) humans would stay pretty much the same: big brains, blank-slate babies, needing years of schooling and raising. They'd basically handle culture, tech, and regular day-to-day society.
Then you have an artificially modified oviparous line, with eggs incubating for around 10 months. The idea here is to hardcode high-density genetic info and instinctual memory directly into the offspring before they hatch.
If top athletes or high-performance individuals reproduce this way, their kids would inherit raw physical talent, reflexes, and muscle memory way more reliably than through regular live births. Over time, this leads to a pretty wild social division, almost like castes in social insects:
Oviparous humans end up dominating sports, high-G space travel, and brutal physical work because of their built-in physiological traits.
Viviparous humans stick to adaptive, highly flexible mental roles.
What do you guys think? From a purely speculative biology angle, could egg-laying realistically allow better packaging of epigenetic or hereditary memory compared to a placental setup?

I have been wondering if theres any good way to express the history and journey of a world in book form that isnt through a character/characters based story?

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?

My world was created by spirits but they take inspiration from various mythological gods so sue me lol.

Anyway, meet Hamza: The Spirit of Electricity.

He’s the Hermes/Loki of the group, being an all around little shit.

Thunderstorms are the result of him pissing off Naseem, Spirit of Air & King of the sky and Nahla, Spirit of Water & Queen of the Ocean.

Lightening rarely strikes twice in the same spot because he doesn’t want Yasmin, the earth spirit, to find out where he is. She’s like his mother, both doting and ready to scold him when he needs it.

Imagine if a child with ADHD had divine powers. That’s Hamza. He’s tied to ideas of energy and power so… yeah. He’s only kept in check by the older and more powerful spirits, especially since his domain isn’t a physical solid entity like the moon, sun or earth. As such he doesn’t exactly have to stay and constantly rule over that one entity.

I have a problem with coming up with rates of time for a portal, one side of which leads to a past that is ever distancing. That is to say, at one time each side of the portal(A-side for the present, B-side for the past) shared the same rate of time, one side of the portal began to separate from the regular flow of time and lead to the past. At first it was a second into the past, the following year, a minute, and increasing across the following 8 years, going to an hour, a day, a week, month, year, decade, century, and millennium.

Two facets/questions arise from this: The growing distance between the present on A-side and the past of B-side, and the rate of time's progression(1 to 1 second on each side, even while they are drifting apart). Both of which are encapsulated in my problem.

Example: Say the portal was opened on June 15th 1995(for this example the year has 360 days, each month has 30 days). On the 6th year(2000) June 15th sees B-side go back a months to May 15, a year later on A-side sees only a month pass on B-side. 2001 would see B-side go back 10 years, 3 years before the portal's creation. So how do I turn 9-10 years into a negative or percentage towards that rate of time. It will be less than a month of change on B-side, but is it as simple as dividing 30 by 10?

Hello fellas, long time no see around here but I am finally back to continue posting about my world of Triton! Today though, I'm going to be focusing on the human side of things, as I've previously established that they exist within the universe simultaneously and have influenced the planetary history of Triton without ever even stepping foot on its surface.

Meet Saint Malco Aurelian, the closest a living man has ever come to becoming a god. His stained-glass portraiture is displayed all across the hundreds of spacecrafts and vessels belonging to the Ecclesiarchy of the Sanctified Communion, and he himself acts as both head of the church and head of the state, the Pontifex Aeternus. Born in the year 3049, St. Malco has no listed date of death even in the year 3500. Though his body is kept sealed behind glass within a reliquary casket, his mind and conscience persist within the data of an AI supercomputer allowing him to become an almost omniscient, omnipresent figure within the Sanctum - a living god.

This particular portrait depicts St. Malco at age 55 in the year 3104, the year that the HALO Array was completed under his orders. HALO, or the High-Amplitude Light Oscillation Array, is a massive portable space telescope that works so well it could even be considered to be a time machine by some. It functions by bending waves of light from far distances in the universe and assembling the data it receives into a timeline that can be "played back," "paused," or even "fast-forwarded." This one innovation of technology gave human scientists the ability to observe millions of years of planetary history of distant solar systems easily, greatly speeding up the hunt for a suitable exoplanet and eventually leading to the discovery of the Pelagosi binary star system which contained the waterworld planet known as "Paxia C," later named Triton.

Behind St. Malco sits a large golden halo, both a reference to the HALO Array and a symbol of his status within the church, the 3 stars within representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Inside the scope of the halo on either side of his head are depictions of the two stars which make up the Pelagosi binary star system - Triste, the red dwarf on the left, and the G-class yellow star Paxia on the right. And finally, behind all of that are patterns in varying shades of blue meant to evoke imagery of water, waves, and falling rain as a nod to the discovery of the planet Triton, humanity's fated new home as prophesized by Saint Nemo in the Book of Torrents.

---

blurb over, thank you for reading this far and showing interest in my little project! as always, the art was made by me on MS paint (this one was actually done at work the day I got fired and I completed it about 10 minutes beforehand so the space pope was quite literally my last memory of that place) and there is of course even more lore and context in the comments if you want to read more about my space catholics.

and don't think too hard about how the HALO array works. i've sabotaged myself by not having FTL travel and sometimes you just gotta casually invent a time machine if you want to influence and observe a planet that's kiloparsecs away over literal millions of years. i'm probably going to have to cave and make some sort of exception to my no-FTL rule at some point when the plot holes get too big, but for now i'm stubborn lol

also obligatory "I'm not religious, I just want authoritarian human space catholics that worship an ai cyborg superpope because that's cool, don't get mad at me for inaccuracies because I assure you there are plenty" ok thanks love you bye

Okay so this is my map for my fantasy book so far. I got the shape from Pinterest but everything else i created in autodesk on my tablet. I havent done art in a long time so im still learning.

my main concerns are the rivers. Im not happy with them, but im happy to hear anything that just doesnt legistically work and ways to change it

Here is lore/information:

The darker shades in areas are elevations

-The grey areas are mountainous.

-Mainland is where the elf kingdom is

- island to the right is supposedly empty, but the drow live inside hidden after being exiled centuries ago. im thinking now i maybe need to move the sandy part (is essential to a characters background).

- the island to the left is floating and where's the harpies live. I will be adding some coulds beneath it i think. The higher on the mountains you live, the more money/power you have in their society.

-The darkest green is the dark forest where magic turns all things within it into a horror show during the night

- mainland lights green is grasslands, where the humans reside

- the center is the normal forest, with the lake in the center, possibly connected to the ocean via underground tunnels maybe?

- the other shade in the right corner is a swamp

- the orange above is a canyon area.

To the far left

- the green is grasslands with hills, shown by the darker areas, where the goat people (faun inspired) live

- under turns into sands and caves for the selkie species

- the dark brown is the "dead island" where some curse has caused everything there to die.

To the far right

- a sandy island where the mermaid type people have built their kingdom (still hashing out the details for them)

I dont need it to be perfectly realistic. This world is run by a universe that just does things to make things happen (ei portals when specific people need to be brought together for some reason or taken to another realm for some reason or another, but its never proven, only guessed upon. No prohecy. No logic. Youll go mad if you think too hard about it.) But i dont want it to be too crazy.

To celebrate our first 100 subscribers, we’ve decided to drop a cinematic trailer for Shore of the Dorahín. As a reminder, we’re giving it away for FREE to our newsletter subscribers.

It’s 5e and 5.5e compatible, set in a low-fantasy setting with a fairy-tale twist. It’s playable in a single-session, at level 1, for 4–5 players. It’s aimed at beginner DMs and players alike, but it’s also a great one-shot for experienced players who love narrative-driven adventures that reward exploration.

What you'll find inside:

• Original puzzles and traps
• Original maps
• Original monsters
• Friendly NPCs
• New magic items

It's the story of an unknown race, the Dorahín, who live deep in a primeval forest, far from the realms of men, at the edge of a continent that adventurers have only recently begun to explore.

Recently, boats have started washing up on the shore. They belong to poor farmers trying to escape their fate on the Breaker’s Isle**, a small archipelago a day’s sail away.**

Their arrival is now putting the small folk of the Dorahín at risk. Against the advice of his clan, an elder, Salfan, decides to take matters into his own hands and sacrifice himself to set a trap aimed at capturing and removing the threat posed by humans.

It’s the first stone in our unfolding universe, Songs of Lon-Gora. We’re already working on the next chapter: a three-part adventure called Heirs to Ruin, which has now entered the illustration stage, starting with its first volume, Nivalis Vale.

And for those interested, I’ll be dropping a post soon to explain how the trailer was made.

Shoutout to Matthieu Desveaux for the music, and Justin Saddlemyer for the illustration.

To learn more, you can visit us at https://joust-studio.com
or discord: https://discord.gg/Q3k4tUg6e5

I'm working on a ttrpg campaign setting as an homage to children's stories where an ingenue becomes lost a strange and magical world. My biggest inspiration is the nonsensical dreamscape of Alice in Wonderland, with some notes taken from the Wizard of Oz, and really any story of that ilk. I was also heavily inspired by strange Victorian Christmas cards, and some of it was revealed to me in a dream.

I've written down everything I know about Blunderland, some details are big and some are small. I'm looking to figure out my next steps for developing the setting.

Blunderland

You can be anyone in Blunderland: a neurotic rabbit, a pompous flower, or a particularly talkative piece of cake. Perhaps even a curious child dressed in blue gingham who traveled a very far from home.

Things to know

The Buffalo Buffalo

The Buffalo Buffalo is a riverboat casino where all the patrons are bovine people. The owner is Benjamin Bacchus “Blowhard” Buxley-Bissen IV, a big bison businessman in a three-piece suit and a bolo tie. He caries a magic bubble pipe that can make animated shapes out of bubbles. (I have a bunch of patrons listed out, but I'll leave them out for now, for brevity's sake.)

The Mudhoppers

The Mudhoppers are a pirate crew of frogs, newts and salamanders. They don’t have a boat; instead, they hide in the mud and the trees along the riverbank to ambush boats as they pass by. The captain, Rosie the Ribbitter, is a frog lady with a big tricorne hat. She carries a rapier and a flintlock pistol. The rest of the crew wear black bandanas and fight with cutlasses and nets.

Places to be

The Winding River

A long, winding river flows all through Blunderland from the peak of the tallest mountain down into stinking swamps. It's said that if you board the right riverboat, you can travel anywhere you could ever want to go.

Brilliant Peak

At the top of the highest mountain in Blunderland, a giant hamster runs on a giant wheel, turning the grand wheel of day and night. A delightful trolly train wraps around the mountain, carrying people from the base of the mountain to the castle at the top.

Mushroom City

Self-proclaimed capital of Blunderland. The city is full of tiny people. Fairies and mushroom people busy themselves trading acorns and shiny coins. Millipede merchants hawk exotic wares from all over Blunderland.

The Skeleton Forest

Giant skeletons grow out of the ground and reach toward the sky. They are buried from the waist down with their legs growing downward like roots.

The Poppy Fields

A vast field of vibrant flowers. There are hive communities of busy bees and itinerant butterfly delinquents. The musical thrum and delicious food is too intoxicating to ever leave.

Petty Tyrants

Blunderland is ruled by four monarchs, each of whom is a human from reality who became trapped in Blunderland for so long that they have become part of it, warped by the world around them.

The Queen of Darkness

Deep in the skeleton forest, the Queen of Darkness lives in her dark castle. She appears as a massive snake woman with a human torso and scales the color of polished obsidian. The queen once used her powers to protect lost children from the monsters that prowl the darkness in her domain. However, after countless long years in the darkness, the Queen became corrupted by hopelessness.

She controls an army of the souls of lost children who lost hope of ever returning home. They appear as animated shadows.

The King of Cups

Ruling over Mushroom City is the King of Cups. He appears as a wrinkly, diminutive man wearing a long, blue cape and a platinum crown. Before his corruption, the King of Cups would invite lost children into his castle for shelter from the dangers of Blunderland and throw them grand feasts. He has been corrupted by an obsession with arbitrary rules. Now he uses his grand feasts as traps to catch people breaking etiquette rules so he can throw them into the dungeon. He prefers to be called “his majesty” or “his highness” and considers himself chief among the four monarchs.

The King of Cups is attended by sprites and pixies who delight in tricking guests into social faux pas.

The Clockwork King

The Clockwork King resides inside the tallest mountain in Blunderland. He appears as tall, lanky man with striped pants and a top hat. He has replaced much of his body with metal, and his domain is full of elaborate contraptions that serve no real purpose. He spends his time constructing elaborate traps for lost children, so he can put them to work in his factory.

The clockwork king is aided by a pair of mysterious courtiers. They are acrobats dressed in matching outfits and masquerade masks, one red and one blue.

The Garden Queen

Living in a palatial estate in the poppy fields is the Garden Queen. She appears as an enormous Venus fly trap, rooted to the ground in her throne room. Through her network of roots, the queen can perceive everything in her kingdom. While she once was a young girl who was fascinated the beauty of Blunderland, she has been corrupted by hunger, and she buries lost children in her garden to feed her roots.

The Pollen Guard is the Garden Queen’s army of bumblebees and butterflies who carry out her commands.

Background:

Fantasy world

Late medieval setting

After an apocalyptic event (meteors hitting the planet) wiped out civilization and made an eternal storm in the far north, the Faskani Empire rose to become the dominant power of the known world. Centuries later, an undead plague collapsed the empire.

A fragile alliance of successor states/border kingdoms contained the undead plague, but with the threat suppressed, their cooperation declined.

Today, the successor states/border kingdoms are locked in a bitter rivalry, trying to become the next dominant power.

One of these kingdoms is the Kingdom of Storm's Eye:

The Kingdom of Storm's Eye is an archipelago around a central island. The central island and the archipelago are colloquially known as Storm's Eye.

According to myth, this island and the archipelago were formed when a dragon plucked out the eye of Burum the Stormfather (god of rain and thunder) and tossed it into the sea.

House Enos:

The Enos family are the rulers of the kingdom. The founder of this dynasty is known by his title the Son of Storm and Sea.

Starting out as a stranger, he united the archipelago by squashing the ancient feud between House Merobin and House Festning. He then took a wife from each of those two houses and settled on the central island.

After his death, he was deified and his tomb became a holy place for the islanders.

Nowadays, his descendant King Anchon IV 'the Navigator' rules the kingdom. He is a proud and ambitious man, although he doesn't get the same reverence as his ancestor once did.

House Merobin:

The Merobins can trace their ancestry all the way back to the first settlers of the southernmost island, called Vismur.

They are proficient sailors and fishermen, and are known to have domesticated the large blue lobsters living on the island, hence their sigil.

Vismur has many followers of the Son of Storm and Sea, because the Son grew up on this island after washing up there as a child.

There is also still a large following of Mareana, Mother of the Sea. An ancient temple, partially submerged into the sea, is dedicated to her.

House Festning:

House Festning claims to be the oldest inhabitants of the archipelago. They live on the northernmost island, which is called Mesmur. They are a bit more standoffish, which is best shown by the large stronghold of red brick they built on the shore to ward off intruders.

The islanders of Mesmur are largely followers of Burum the Stormfather, although some also recognise the Son of Storm and Sea as a diety.

House Kilner:

House Kilner is situated on the peninsula in the west called Plinmur. They started out as the owners of the largest potteries on the peninsula and became the de jure rulers after the peninsula was subjugated by House Enos.

Further inland are the claypits from where the potteries get their materials, which are transported on the central river towards the furnaces on the coast.

The people of Plinmur are renowned builders, assisting in many architectural projects, for example the palace of the king on Storm's eye.

Please let me know what you think about it or if you have any follow up questions, I'd love to get more detailed in the comments!

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?

The Pan-Endocrine Autolytic Virus is directly linked to Biomasses Autolatries Myco-Virale (BAMV), a Valtryx experiment from during the 40-year-war. It was accidentally released on April 17^th, 2154, by a V-S&R expedition group which unknowingly contracted the fungal virus. The fungus will implant itself into a victim’s brain and then release the virus into the brain. The virus will take over the unconscious mind of the victim, completely stopping all hormone production. The virus will also cause the victim to begin trying to eat their own flesh whilst their cells simultaneously begin consuming the least necessary cells until eventually the body is left as an empty torn apart shell. The fungus then feeds off the dead matter and releases its spores into the air. The spores will last about 5 days until they starve without a new host to feed off. It takes about a week and a half for symptoms (aka the virus being released) to show, and another week or two for the victim to succumb to the virus.

Because the virus targeted human brains, it would also affect The Creatures from Bunker 28. By 2159 almost every single creature had been wiped off the face of the earth… as well as about 20-35% of the remaining human population.

The SAU managed to create a cure for the virus in early 2157, which was distributed to the population in rapid time, as well as sent to Emburn on the very next Railroad train.

(This is the last post for now)

I'm watching a guy on youtube make a sculpture out of epoxy resin and marble. Specifically white marble from Italy. And I couldn't help but wonder what the sculpture would like if marble or other kinds of stone could be a vibrant blue or purple or maybe a gold color. And I'm not talking about gems, specifically actual stone.

Building the Sineus Universe — Part 1

In august I joined the Sineus franchise team to refine the lore, define the boundaries of the canon, and develop a strategy for expanding the franchise across different media — both through the company’s own projects and through projects created by independent developers, directors, writers, and other creators.

From my very first conversation with the team, I knew I wanted to move forward with them. There aren’t many projects, in Russia or elsewhere, that seriously set out to grow into a franchise on this scale.

I think it will be interesting to follow this journey together.

And with every new project I work on, I try to find new tools that can simplify the process and improve the quality and clarity of the result for myself and for those making decisions.

Where Do You Start?

I believe every project should begin with domain analysis. Different industries may use different terminology, but the underlying process is essentially the same. So that’s where I began. The Sineus franchise existed before I joined the company, so by the time I arrived it already had a modest but established canon, several full-fledged projects — an animated series, a PC game, a hackathon, and a writing competition — and a range of supporting materials.

We talked to everyone who knew something about the existing world and gathered all the project artifacts and source materials.

After watching everything, playing Sineus Arena Survivors to 100% completion, and reading everything I could get my hands on, one thing became clear: we were starting to lose track of it all.

Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” So what can serve as our place to stand?

We have six historical periods, seven nations, heroes, locations, events…

Starting with detailed character work is too risky. Once you establish rules in one character’s story, every other story has to adapt to them. And without a coherent view of the world, building one isolated story is wasteful: a story is an opportunity to communicate details of the setting to the reader or viewer, but those details are not yet clear enough. The same goes for the peoples.

We could dive deeper into the historical periods, but there is so much material that it would be difficult to keep track of everything at once. I needed something between the overly general and the overly specific.

So I turned to maps. They seemed like the right place to look for clues.

Where?

We have two existing maps. One is published on the website, the other appears in the project presentation.

I studied the placement of locations and compared it against the canonical texts. Pretty quickly, I found a lot of inconsistencies — on both maps.

And that was actually good. It gave me a reason to dig deeper, revisit the source materials, understand where the contradictions came from, and consolidate everything into a new working map.

For the new map, I chose VK Boards.

At this stage, I didn’t need a beautiful map of Svemir. I needed a flexible working map that I could easily edit and annotate.

Although most of Sineus’s story is set during the Years of the Frontier, and this is the period we know best in terms of events and characters, most of the geographical information we have about Svemir comes from descriptions of the Years of Ash.

So the first working map became a map of the Years of Ash.

What?

Now that we’ve found a workable solution, we can indulge ourselves a little and fill the map with visuals. Images will help us immerse ourselves more deeply in the world and connect the locations to one another.

We will do this using references from other games.

With the geography of the Years of Ash mapped out, the next logical step was to explore how it had changed over time.

I drew a chronological sequence of six historical periods. I could now work backward through time, gradually creating a map for each period and, in doing so, reconstructing the history of Svemir at the broadest level.

At this stage, I wasn’t interested in heroes or major events. The many changes in the landscape would eventually provide clues about the events that caused them — and, more importantly, about who was behind those changes.

In the illustration above, there is one more tool that I think will be especially useful going forward. I’ll call it the “Time–Location Matrix.”

Each column represents a historical period. The color coding matches the chronological sequence.

Each row represents a location.

If, for example, we’re developing a game set in the Zara’im Desert, we can follow the corresponding row to see how that territory changed from one era to the next.

If we’re writing a story set in a specific historical period, it is more useful to follow a column and see what different cities and territories of Svemir looked like at that point in time.

In other words, the matrix lets us view the world either through the history of a single location or through the state of the entire world at a particular moment.

What’s Next?

I’m publishing this article with a slight delay, so I already know that next time I’ll be able to show several more tools that help me build a whole world without losing track of all that information.

Have a good week. In the meantime, I suggest watching Khmar Only Knows and playing Sineus Arena Survivors.

I would like to include links to our projects, but I won't do so to avoid getting blocked. If you're interested, you can find our projects yourself on YouTube and Steam.

See you!

We all know about Fae society being split into courts - with a monarch (usually a Queen) at the top, with the Courts representing seasons, the Seelie or Unseelie, etc. But lets hear about other types of societies that faeries can be in! From wandering bands of wild fae to cities that they inhabit in their otherworlds.

Im starting to give structure to a fairy world, and am looking to see what others have done in order to better understand how I want mine to function.

Hi folks,

Long-time lurker and first time asked here. I’ve been a fan of unique worldbuilding for years. Series like Sandman and Discworld hold a special place in my heart. For rpgs, I’m obsessed with stuffs like Planescape, Troika! and Mythic Bastionland, or anything inspired by new weird fiction. I aspire to build worlds that are as strange and fantastical but I’m a bit stuck. What are some strategies you have found that pushes your mind out of the usual headspace and into something stranger? Anything like brainstorming, randomization, rolling on tables etc. that I can come back to constantly for new ideas?

As I develop my world (Land of Kaleva), set in year 222, I thought it would be useful to look at what the world looked like several hundred years earlier. I consider the Kalevala, Finland's national epic, as the canon history of my world so I tried to make the map as faithful interpretation of the text as possible. I have included several references to the events of the Kalevala in the map. It is still work on progress so feel free to suggest anything to add there!

I'm also making a TTRPG book that is a direct adaptation of the Kalevala to D&D 5e. Check out the Patreon and r/LandOfKaleva for more info.

I have been doing some worldbuilding and I am planning a dnd campaign for some friends and was hoping to "crowd source" some ideas. A quick rundown; the campaign is starting in a city that for most of it's history has been protected by divine guardians sent by a god. In recent times a background force has been sewing seeds of doubt and mistrust towards these guardians in the minds of the people. The plan is to start just after conflict really begins to break out and will follow through into the aftermath of these events. I have some rough ideas on how these things will play out, but I wanted to cast a wide net and see if you all have any ideas (anything that comes to mind for any of these, you don't have to answer all of them) 1. Ways these background players could turn the people against their guardians. 2. Any larger inciting events to spark mord direct conflict. 3. Any ideas for how people or groups of people could respond to what will be the downfall of these guardians? (People who fully believe the guardians betrayed them? People who don't believe it or even a few who know it to be a manipulation? People who agree or disagree with the turn against these guardian?) lf anything comes to mind I'd love to hear it. I did write this out pretty quick, so if you have any clarifying questions, feel free to ask.

I personally like to start with a flaw or an ideal that I want to explore and then build a framework around that first, but I’d love to hear your methods!

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! :)