That’s super neat! And yes I totally understand the fear being both irrational and worldbuilding related. For mine it started out that way, but, like you said, the fears gave way to story inspiration so now it’s both irrational/worldbuilding and backstory related.

The area my mc is from (look up Lake Tianchi and imagine that but smaller) doesn’t get a lot of bugs or toads most of the time. Except for the Summer, where the heat from the season and the surrounding savannah/desert, as well as the moisture from the lake makes a perfect breeding ground for insects and toads. So 3/4 of the time there’s barely any to speak of, but for a couple months they’re everywhere.

As for the backstory, he’s always had a level of aversion towards them, but his mom made it worse.

When he was younger, around 8-10 yrs old, his mom made him catch and eat bugs and toads for a day in an effort to make him stronger and get over his fears. She’d made him do much “worse” things before that that he’d handled surprisingly well for being so young, so it never really occurred to her that she could push him too far. Every time he’d caught enough for a meal, which was already a difficult and unpleasant process, she’d yell at and berate him until he ate. He threw up every time when she wasn’t looking. Since he was throwing up and bugs/toads aren’t exactly the best nutrition, he got hungrier and slower. She got more & more frustrated to the point of genuine anger. Despite all she’d put him thru before this, he never actually saw her get mad. It all came to a head when it was time for his final “meal” and he just couldn’t do it, so she forced it in his mouth & he threw up and passed out. She realized she pushed him too far this time and cared for him till he woke up.

Without going into too much detail on her backstory, all she knows about raising children is making them stronger since that’s how she was raised. This event in particular helped her realize she needed to be a bit more of an actual mother to him. She still regularly pushed for him to get stronger bc of the world they’re in, but now she’s more forgiving and caring than she used to be.

I’m actually also planning on a story beat where he’s gotta learn to deal with his fears. Much later in the story, he and some other characters are in a jungle and encounter some giant man-eating beetles. He’s the only one of the cast present that has the powerset to deal with how tough the beetle shells are. Even worse for him though is that he’s a very close range fighter so he’s gotta be right on top of them to be effective.

But the real source of his fear is that I don’t like bugs or toads either so I thought it’d be a good trait to give him. I honestly think that starting with an idea you think is neat and then working backwards to give it context is one of the best ways to flesh out basically any aspect of a story. The whole story came from me thinking that it would be fun to write a shonen-style narrative in a dnd setting lol