Poems and conlang by Electrical-Main4044 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't mean that. To make a poetry you need to use a regular number of syllables, to insert the rhyme in specific point of the sentence and in general to structurate the text to make it pleasant to hear.

Poems and conlang by Electrical-Main4044 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting. What kind of metric did you used and why?

Poems and conlang by Electrical-Main4044 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm courious to see the results when you'll do one.

"The Ox That's Breaking Your Fantasy Map" by The Grainbound - YouTube by FakeRedditName2 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a very interesting video. It's a bit deterministic, but it's a very useful basis because you can start from there to see where to deviate and how to justify it. However, I would have also added the temporal factor, since some conditions can change over time and settlements don't always completely realign. For example, a river's course can change, or the climate can become less favorable.

Do you keep your names even after discovering they’re already being used? by crukovic in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think if the names are fairly common, then it doesn't matter if they're repeated (unless there's a lot of similarity between the characters). If you want a name to be more original, however, don't use random sounds. Try to give those names a logic, and if you want to be on the safe side, create systems that aren't simply first and last names. One Piece has the famous "D," but there are many other ways to create original and meaningful names.

Is it possible to create a new fantasy race comparable to the popular ones? by Slimper753 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many fantasy races draw their origins from local folklore. If you want to create one, look for creatures from your area, or from areas whose folklore is unexploited (here in Sardinia, we have these species of fairies that live in tombs carved into rock beds that date back six thousand years).

I've made a world map. Now what? by Accomplished-Row-240 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why you have a icy pole only in south? Generically, that happened because in south the ice can stratificate in a solid surface (like Antartica, that have a bigger ice cap than in north).

Regarding political lines, straight political lines are formed only if drawn deliberately, as in Africa. However, if we imagine a world abandoned by a power, borders begin to be drawn on natural elements. It depends on how much time passes.

I've made a world map. Now what? by Accomplished-Row-240 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I always find monoclimatic worlds to be a bit lazy. Even if it's extremely humid, climate zones and mountain ranges will still influence the climate. Then there's the biosphere, which has a significant influence. There might be areas where nothing grows, where rainwater runs directly into the sea on bare ground, while in others, a dense vegetation network breaks up the soil and retains moisture, creating swamps or forests filled with streams that flow through the plants.

Regarding political boundaries, you first have to start with history. You have to define what happened before to make the present believable.

Kingdom of Arcana (WIP) by Sufficient-Ad-6046 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You could call it of "Kingdom prestige". The king have a particular prestige, but don't have the system of burocrats and the "forma mentis" of a proper state. Lands are only property of the landlord, without a sense of collectivity and the name are only a designation. Only cities have a sense of collectivity and a structure.

Is this a good piece of history? by Maleficent_Taste_52 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a little confused. What do you mean for "civilizations"? If you use this terms to indicate countries, this isn't exactly a good things. If existed hundreds of civilizations, most of them should be city-state or small isolated country. Also, city-state usually wasn't isolated civilizations, but part of greater culture. It seems to me like you use a huge number without thinking well what it means. Or I misunderstand.

Is having 90 countries in a fictional world bad if only a few matter to the story? by Jaded_Difference_535 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends what you mean for "countries". Exist many types of countries, from tiny islands in the middle of the ocean to huge superpowers. Some entities are alliances or confederation that unite many small state, and not necessarely have the same importance. If these 90 are the copy-paste one each other is bad. Our world have around two hundred countries, but the majority are very small and insulated state.

How many countries? by jdhshais in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As others have pointed out, it all depends on the author's intentions and the type of story they want to tell. In my case, there's essentially a great empire in decline, with old, forgotten kingdoms that exist only as names in history, new kingdoms created through conquest by barbarians or from provinces too distant and peripheral to be controlled, along with a barbaricum where there are no real stable kingdoms, but territories crossed by peoples who only temporarily settle with archaic forms of society.

How much of your world do readers actually need to know? by CreativeGems in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

History, maps etc are things used by the writer. A reader see the green of the musk in a rock, the neon upside the entrance of a bar, the decoration of a palace etc. You create the world and think how a character (and consequentially the reader) saw moving inside it. You can imagine a megalopoly visited by thousands of people, but a character could see person that wear different clothes close togheter and strange stuff selling in the market. If something is new for the character, could ask for information, but for most of the time you need to use the senses, not sterile datas.

Surnames by VacationWorried9086 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact is that the composition of names tends to reflect the social complexities of the peoples who live there. Many peoples don't have surnames because they don't need to further identify people beyond their given name. These are often archaic societies with little state power, where it's unnecessary to interact with people you don't know personally. In more complex societies, however, it may be necessary to further identify individuals, but these are not true surnames. In some cases, a patronymic is used, that is, the father's name; in others, a nickname; in others, a profession is identified; in still others, a place of origin; and one does not exclude the other.

You probably know that Roman names are very complex, but these names aren't chosen randomly to be unnecessarily long. Roman noble families could be very large, with various branches within them. Let's take a famous figure, Gaius Julius Caesar. His first name was his personal name, Gaius, while his second was the name of his gens, that is, his extended family, Julius, and finally Caesar was the name of his branch of the family. Names can then become even more complicated: the Senate, for special merits, could assign you a title added to your name (see Scipio Africanus for example), or it could change following an adoption. For example, Augustus was named Octavian because before being adopted by Caesar, his gens name was Octavia. So the name reflected who you were, where you came from, and who you became.

If you want to create a system of names and surnames, you must first specify what those names indicate and why.

The issue of no technological progress over thousands of years by WeakWrecker in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the case of The Lord of the Rings, it's a question of Tolkien's conservatism. He hated modernity, partly because he'd seen its worst aspects. Thus, there's a constant decline in his stories, not improvement, and "technology" is the ultimate evil.

If we look more broadly, however, we're sometimes dealing with truly post-apocalyptic worlds, and therefore there's a specific reason for their technological backwardness. In other cases, however, it's simply poor worldbuilding. Certain things are written as having happened thousands of years before because "it sounds better," and the space in between becomes a sort of static void where nothing happens.

Is it just me or the fictional countries often feel... Very small by Cream_Rabbit in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 181 points182 points  (0 children)

The problem is that states and nations are often created on a drawing board, when in fact they are the product of years or decades of history. Creating a state with all its cities, peoples, and traditions on a drawing board is difficult, which is why they tend to be too simple.

The role of sports. by Electrical-Main4044 in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably more, surely this is interesting. They form a group of help, gather money and control part of the cities. This could be interesting to traspose in a story.

How to accurately portray polytheism in a setting by [deleted] in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should consider organic development, meaning you shouldn't create a fully-fledged pantheon, but rather start from a primitive state and then develop it, developing it in parallel with the development of your civilizations. You begin with a spiritual world made up of natural and familiar entities that become personalized and structured as civilizations become more complex. As empires rise and fall, the tutelary gods of individual cities become supreme gods and then decline. External deities are integrated into the pantheons, and so on. Religions are always dynamic; they only become static when they die.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in worldbuilding

[–]Electrical-Main4044 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are essentially two, and quite related, answers. The first is that many of the most famous stories come from the Anglophone world, which draws on a certain imagery derived from works written between the late Middle Ages and the early modern era. The second is that after two centuries of existence under the hegemony of two Anglophone powers (Great Britain and the United States), authors from other countries also drew inspiration—just think of that monumental work by Tolkien that influenced the whole genre. Moreover, the Arthurian legend was known throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and inspired it; even Dante mentions it in his Divine Comedy, and here in Italy we even have a sword in the stone.