Darvick on World Building

Ah, good old world-building!



There are probably a few thousand people out there that want to build their own world - so that they can make it theirs, play-out the history of the world and its people in their heads, use it for role-playing, or to write a book... Or, maybe they just want to create a place to excersise their imaginations and escape the real world. I built my world, or rather universe, for all these reasons!



So, if you want to know how I created my "world", sit back and relax for a while, this might take some time :)...



World Building - how long does it take, what do you need to know, and is it worth it?



Well, it takes a long time, and truely, the process never ends! Just imagine for a moment that you tried to conceive of our world in its entirety, at all points on the globe, from everyones' perspective, during every given moment in history - your brain would explode! Building a world is like exploring a fractal, no matter how far you zoom in, the pattern is endless, and morphing all the time... All that you can really do when making a world, is to start somewhere, and develope things as you need them - shifting from perspective to perspective, time to time, and place to place... This will lead to minor changes often, like creating a village that did not officially exist a moment ago; and major changes too, like re-routing a river that might modify a good portion of your history as a consequence - lol... I would say that you could have a world created in a matter of days or weeks, depending on how comfortable you are with some basic skills and knowledge.



That leads me to "what you need to know"... Basically, there are a few backgrounds of knowledge that you might want to be familiar with, such as:



Geography: I don't just mean map drawing; although, it is pretty easy to tell when someone has no clue about how rivers flow, and mountains form by looking at their maps. I also mean, demographics, trade, and physical geography, like common terrain features, etc...



History: Depending on what time period you want to focus the "present" on, you may want to know as much as possible about the types of events, issues, cultures, goverments, plagues, religions, etc that were present on Earth in the similar time period. Not that you are necessarily going to have a world that resembles Earth, but your world should have as many natural clues and cues to the parallels it has with our Earth - this will give those visiting your world some ground to stand on, while they explore your world.



Economy: You're going to want to know a little about what drives your world, whether it be gold, silver, gems, wheat, etc. The nuances of each culture will spring from the underlying economic principals in each region, and within each race, both strange and normal... Learn a little about transactions with and without money, where resources are found, how they are collected, and where they go to be processessed, and where they end-up. It is amazing how much of the world is driven by economic factors - even in the stone age. Economy and resources will determine wars, migrations, and how cultures interact...



Cultures and Religion: Perhaps the most important part of your world will be its cultures and religions. You should at least be familiar with a host of common cultural and religious practices, as well as the reasons for those practices so that your world will make sense. Culture and Religion, for the most part, will provide your world with depth. It is what turns your flat map into the infinite fractal that is your world...



Whatever else that you know - it will be useful at some point in your world building process. The character of your world will originate from your unique tallents and knowledge, and that is inevitably what people will notice about your world - it will become a reflection of you because you are creating it!



Okay, so now you know how long it is going to take, and some of the basic knowledge that you will want to aquire in order to conjure up your world, but is it worth the time and effort?



In my opinion, it is worth... All the time you spend imagining, crafting, and escaping is basically you entertaining yourself. And, I should note that at this point, if you are not able to entertain yourself through this process, you might not be able to entertain anybody else either - maybe it is not worth it... Anyway, I think if you find your thoughts straying to the world whenever you have the chance, there is a good chance this process will be worth it to you too...



In my next post, I think I will talk about map making, and how the shape of the map will influence the history of your world. Just look at the multitude of shapes that Europe provides, and ask yourself why civilization differed in this region as opossed to others... ttyl, Darvick...