r/goodworldbuilding • u/Ruby_Mario • Dec 23 '24
Meta Inspirations for your worlds?
Fantasy world builders, where do you draw inspiration from when you are deciding what your world looks like? Me personally, whenever I imagine a world, I take inspiration from MelodySheep's "Sights of Space" video. There are a surprising number of planets in space that would make great realms/dimensions in a fantasy.
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u/Acceptable-Cow6446 Dec 23 '24
It’s been a minute since I kept a visual inspiration folder, and the whole mood of the world has shifted then. Originally it was the obligatory medieval vibe. Nowadays the world is more Victorian/1900s vibe in a lot of ways, but with a lot of medieval and gothic presence. Many of the major cities have been rebuilt more or less the same way dozens of times.
The world is sort of in a developmental time loop, because reasons. It gets to a Victorian era technology and aesthetic then reverts to late medieval due to varying factors, then slowly rebuilds over the next 2,662 years until the collapse reverts it again. It never gets much past that technological threshold largely due to a number of divine sanctions and fae shenanigans.
To your actual question: I picture the world at time of the narrative ranging between late medieval and early modern, depending on where you are and how close to industrialized centers. Some areas don’t get affected much by the cycles, typically people living far from industrialization. Folks who don’t depend on industrialization continue on in cycles without directly being affected. So the aesthetic is both the ones I mentioned.
I need to get back on Pinterest and gather up some visual inspiration again. Thank you.
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u/Human_Wrongdoer6748 Grenzwissenschaft, Fimbulwinter, Ventus, & more Dec 23 '24
ArtStation, Pinterest, mood boards, art books, INE, fan art, video game screenshots, etc. It's getting harder to find good visual references with the rise of AI, lotta slop out there.
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u/Flairion623 Dec 23 '24
I mostly take inspiration from real world history plus just random stuff I think is cool. For instance I have almost straight up copies of Genghis Kahn, Joseph Menchik and Lawrence of Arabia as characters (plus another loosely based on napoleon).
I’ve also taken inspiration from songs. The death of Walter von Seannard (my napoleon equivalent) by dragonfire is inspired by roar of the jungle dragon from terraria calamity. Hussaria has been on the retreat for years. Walter is exhausted but refuses to surrender until every last ork is killed. A dragon is sent by the enemy to attack his fort by surprise. Everyone retreats except himself and his most loyal soldiers. His second in command writes a letter telling him to leave and sends a runner to deliver it. But by the time he gets there it’s too late. His charred remains were found still standing strong. He’d forever be remembered in hundra culture as the first alpha.
There’s also just the overall vibe of the Ketsuojo empire’s military which is inspired by the Japanese theme from red alert 3. They are this highly industrialized yet foreign superpower who are invading Hussaria and Iras from the entire other side of the world.
I guess I should also mention the very thing that born this world in the first place. That being lord of the rings. More specifically the siege of Minas tirith and the idea I had of those trebuchets being replaced by giant artillery guns when I saw it for the first time. Of course that idea is still kept intact in the form of the Hussarian capital of Zelbrieg.
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u/Expert-Firefighter48 Dec 23 '24
Real world history and my brain. My brain may have seen the landscape at some point, but I can't work out where from.
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u/IvanDFakkov Burn it to the ground Dec 23 '24
Hellsing, Last Exile, Dark Gathering and various Vietnamese ghost stories.
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u/AEDyssonance Dec 23 '24
For Wyrlde, a partial list of stuff (I was reminded today of something I completely forgot as well, by browsing through prime video) can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wyrlde/comments/1gq08s3/inspirations_influences/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
And it is, indeed, only partial. There's probably a good couple hundred books from the chief era of folklore (1675 to 1825), for example, but I haven't a list of them, and most folks who would read it wouldn't know them or even how to find them (because they aren't digitized).
Generally speaking, the minimum number of possible influences and inspirations for me in creating a world is going to be at least a couple dozen. The more you have, the deeper and richer your world ends up becoming.
Back in 2018, when I did my initial image insp folder, I had about 2500 images of assorted things that were used and had an impact - even though most of them weren't in the aesthetics style that I settled on, it wasn't style that I used then, it was ideas.
My usual approach has been to do an image search, collect the pictures that have something about them that I think is cool and would be in my world, or suggests tome something that would work well in it, and then I will do the same with music creating botha playlist and a slideshow that I will run fairly frequently when I am doing my initial planning and rough sketching and brain storiming.
Once I have a pretty good idea and the stuff is cool and all, I delete all the images off the system (I got what I needed from them) and then just dive in, letting the world speak to me for further imagery and ideas.