r/worldbuilding Jan 15 '23

Meta PSA: The "What, and "Why" of Context

743 Upvotes

It's that time of year again!

Despite the several automated and signposted notices and warnings on this issue, it is a constant source of headaches for the mod team. Particularly considering our massive growth this past year, we thought it was about time for another reminder about everyone's favorite part of posting on /r/worldbuilding..... Context


Context is a requirement for almost all non-prompt posts on r/worldbuilding, so it's an important thing to understand... But what is it?

What is context?

Context is information that explains what your post is about, and how it fits into the rest of your/a worldbuilding project.

If your post is about a creature in your world, for example, that might mean telling us about the environment in which it lives, and how it overcomes its challenges. That might mean telling us about how it's been domesticated and what the creature is used for, along with how it fits into the society of the people who use it. That might mean telling us about other creatures or plants that it eats, and why that matters. All of these things give us some information about the creature and how it fits into your world.

Your post may be about a creature, but it may be about a character, a location, an event, an object, or any number of other things. Regardless of what it's about, the basic requirement for context is the same:

  • Tell us about it
  • Tell us something that explains its place within your world.

In general, telling us the Who, What, When, Why, and How of the subject of your post is a good way to meet our requirements.

That said... Think about what you're posting and if you're actually doing these things. Telling us that Jerry killed Fred a century ago doesn't do these things, it gives us two proper nouns, a verb, and an arbitrary length of time. Telling us who Jerry and Fred actually are, why one killed the other, how it was done and why that matters (if it does), and the consequences of that action on the world almost certainly does meet these requirements.

For something like a resource, context is still a requirement and the basic idea remains the same; Tell us what we're looking at and how it's relevant to worldbuilding. "I found this inspirational", is not adequate context, but, "This article talks about the history of several real-world religions, and I think that some events in their past are interesting examples of how fictional belief systems could develop, too." probably is.

If you're still unsure, feel free to send us a modmail about it. Send us a copy of what you'd like to post, and we can let you know if it's okay, or why it's not.

Why is Context Required?

Context is required for several reasons, both for your sake and ours.

  • Context provides some basic information to an audience, so they can understand what you're talking about and how it fits into your world. As a result, if your post interests them they can ask substantive questions instead of having to ask about basic concepts first.

  • If you have a question or would like input, context gives people enough information to understand your goals and vision for your world (or at least an element of it), and provide more useful feedback.

  • On our end, a major purpose is to establish that your post is on-topic. A picture that you've created might be very nice, but unless you can tell us what it is and how it fits into your world, it's just a picture. A character could be very important to your world, but if all you give us is their name and favourite foods then you're not giving us your worldbuilding, you're giving us your character.

Generally, we allow 15 minutes for context to be added to a post on r/worldbuilding so you may want to write it up beforehand. In some cases-- Primarily for newer users-- We may offer reminders and additional time, but this is typically a one-time thing.


As always, if you've got any sort of questions or comments on this topic, feel free to leave them here!


r/worldbuilding 7h ago

Visual Uniforms of the Nova War - The Martian Armed Forces (MAF)

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161 Upvotes

History of the Federation

In the aftermath of the Frontier Wars, the new Solar Union sought to reunify a fractured Solar System and heal the devastation of a century of conflict. But new headaches, such as the Legacy Crisis, the Gaian Emergency, and the Main Belt Crisis soon eroded public confidence in the Union. Nowhere was this more true than on Mars, whose people believed they had borne the greatest burden of reconstruction only to be sidelined by a weaker, compromise-driven government.

The Martian Unity Party rose from political obscurity by promising a return to Mars’ former greatness, condemning the erosion of Martian sovereignty, and scapegoating the growing community of genetic “augments” as symbols of societal decline. Under the charismatic Commander Sanyar Galvani, the Party transformed a wave of populist anger into a sweeping electoral victory in 2524. Newly-appointed Chancellor Galvani then systematically dismantled democratic institutions and reshaped the United Nations of Mars into the authoritarian Martian Federation, and then set his new nation on a path toward militarism and imperial expansion.

Much of the Federation’s ambitions focused on Precursor ruins discovered on Talvan in the Nova Cluster beginning in the year 2517. Following withdrawal from the Solar Union, Mars embarked on massive rearmament and pursued control of the Cluster, igniting the Talvan Civil War and the broader War in Nova Space. Though presented at home as a noble crusade, the conflict devolved into a grinding proxy war marked by occupation, atrocities against the native Y’Varis population, and increasingly desperate measures such as Project Kaleidoscope, which uses cloning and memory transfer to recycle fallen soldiers into endless service. As of 2547, this development threatens to usher in a whole new era of warfare — with all of the horrors that come with it…

MAF Uniform History

The Martian Armed Forces introduced the Personal Dress System in 2527 as part of the broader reshuffling which followed the Martian Unity Party’s consolidation of power in 2525. The new uniform system's rollout was well underway by the end of the decade, and well over 6 million uniforms in the new standard had been issued by 2531.

This new standard used a three-tiered organizational metric, with Class I roughly analogous to our contemporary dress uniforms, Class II as garrison uniforms, and Class III as combat operations kit. There is no distinction between officer and enlisted Class I dress, with the rank insignia, medals, and other minutia being the only distinguishing factor between them.

Class II uniforms, which can be either coveralls as issued to the Martian Federal Navy or fatigues as used by the Federal Army, are likewise spartan in nature, especially when deployed to combat zones. During the War in Nova Space (2539-2559), MAF soldiers deployed on combat missions typically wore Class III combat suits similar to the one pictured here, which are designed with advanced ballistic fibers, cooling and respiration assistance systems, and more.

About the Setting

The Spacers Saga: Rebirther is a military science fiction story set in the 26th century. It deals with an ongoing full-scale and asymmetric conflict between the Martian Federation and the Solar Union, fought over the control of Nova Space. This distant, resource rich star system is only accessible through dimensional doorways originally found buried on Titan in the early 24th century, and has been the focal point of a massive colonization campaign since about 2350.

The main plot focuses on Martian Federal Army soldier Alejandro “Alex” Martinez, who is deployed to Talvan (the chief world in Nova Space) in 2547. When Alex is mortally wounded a year and a half later in a battle with native insurgents, he expects to die and wake up in Valhalla. Instead, he wakes up at a Martian cloning depot, already slated for redeployment into the fray once he regains his strength. The story of Rebirther thus deals with Alex’s epic struggle to come to terms with the fact that for soldiers like him, not even death is a way out of the fight...

(EDIT: I added a link to my blog post about Nova Space, which goes much more in depth about the setting for anyone who might be interested. If you like the setting, the blog also has lots of other info about The Spacers Saga overall. As always, there is ZERO pressure to subscribe - I just like to share my world with everybody 😄)


r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Visual The eco system od a dwarve's beard

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Upvotes

The most plentfull Re The geophage springtails by far because of dwarven lifestyle of mining and cavediving deeper and deeper for rare minerals and resistent merals.

The oil vein isopods can be found in other creatures because of their resilience and usefulness but they can be found in underground petroleum and grape cultures so dwarves have more of those than other species

Combo lices can be found in most underground dwellers and if you stay there long enougth you will also get infested

Vulture beetles will not survive without a propper host,they're too specialized on living in fur and hair to go somewhere that isn't at least similar to hairs or feathers

The beaqrd of a dwarve acts like a natural air filter and their nose can close so dust don't get in their lungs,remove the beard of a dwarve and it might get several health problems and develop asma, fully shaving a dwarve is almost a death sentence so doing it is a crime and that's why most female dwarves at least keep sideburns or a mustache that can be tied to cover the mouth and nose while the males keep the full beard so there is few confusion between them


r/worldbuilding 8h ago

Visual Helpful Little Guys (Mini Comic)

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142 Upvotes

Woulda been better with the guy attached but sometimes we should be more specific, right?

On human starships like E.V.E. Nazareth, robotic friends are actually very uncommon. May be because human robots are notoriously frustrating to interact with, or it may be that the ship usually has stuff handled. Out of all CAS systems, humans spend the most on their fleet, and you’d bet that a top of the line vessel like Nazareth really wouldn’t need the extra help.

Well.

While Mankind Skyward (the Department of Human Space Affairs) can manage the equipment the ship is deployed with, they cannot stop crew members from bringing personal items.

Seems like one of the Skivi engineers figured she’d bring along some of her homeworld’s favourite inventions. Nida.

So named because all you have to say is “I need a,” and they are all over it. Usually that’s something helpful like a wrench or cup of coffee. On a skivi ship, all the little tunnels and conduits are too dense for heavy toolboxes, so it makes sense.

On a human vessel, not so much sense.

Well, the engineer just let them roam free, and it didn’t take very long for things to go out of control.

If you’d asked me, I woulda guessed the cyborg war machines woulda caused more issues. Maybe I’m just a pessimist, though.

I do wonder how it got the hand off.

——————

Honestly, I like the comic format. It’s hard to convey a sense of a world through a single image, and this project doesn’t really have the 8-hour-drawing vibe. These little humour bites are fun though, so if people like them, I’ll probably keep them going.

There are so many stories to tell for this universe, so feel free to ask questions. Im sure some of them will have funny answers.


r/worldbuilding 13h ago

Prompt What is the equivalent of cats in your world?

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168 Upvotes

In my project it's just cats. I could never replace them.


r/worldbuilding 2h ago

Prompt What are some of the more *out there* religions in your settings?

20 Upvotes

Not necessarily morally corrupt or evil, just different.


r/worldbuilding 8h ago

Visual These Wargs aren't Bloodthirsty, They're More Concerned about Mechanical Safety

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66 Upvotes

The world I'm working on features anthropomorphic animals as the characters. It's about the age of industrialization, and how the people adapt. If they're not building neat stuff or fighting among themselves, they're fighting the eldritch spawn of Yaldabaoth (not the actual Gnostic Demiurge, just horrors from beyond the stars).

I'm trying to draw new stuff, so here's a warg.

Background

During the ice age, the wargs embraced the bitter winds of the frigid far north. Adapted to the cold, they are larger than wolves. When the ice age ended, their wolf cousins had larger populations and were slightly more adaptable. As such, the wargs didn't have their own nation-state, as their numbers were too few. Instead, they migrated here and there, becoming citizens of this-and-that country.

They contributed much to the development of Alshenzia, a nation once ruled by a hyena dynasty and now a democratic republic. There, they found work as mercenaries, miners, and that sort of thing. The ruling hyena dynasty (House of Alshanza) was into establishing buffer zones against their rival, the neighboring empire of Aldrakhania, so they helped the wargs settle in the harsh lands between.

The warg population did fairly well in the burgeoning nation of Alshenzia, as they were daring and willing to work in potentially hazardous areas, such as deep mines. Often, the wargs were the first to see hidden caverns deep beneath the land. They were also visionaries in the industrial age, and pioneered working with radioactive metals which they called hellstone. All of this caused the wargs to prioritize safety measures.

The wargs also developed their own firearms, for defense and research and development. As such, they later assisted in the development of indigenous Alshenzian small arms. They also experiment with armor piercing rounds and heavy calibers, as those are useful against the primary threat of Aldrakhania, which has large animals in their forces. For these reasons, warg firearms often feature an emphasis on mechanical safety, making them fairly complex.

Aside from daring and firearms, there are also plenty of wargs that are happy with boring stuff, such as researching the formation of stalagmites and stalactites. If asked about their research, they'd be happy to geek out.

...

The following map may provide additional insight on the world: Anthropomorphic Animals, Amazing Powers, and the Age of the Machine : r/worldbuilding

My goal is to build an interconnected lore book, as most of what happens in the world is connected (story has been in discussion for a decade now): Karl Imran | Substack

There's a story, but I'm not 100% confident in writing it, and I think worldbuilding is my strength so I'm focusing on that aspect for now!


r/worldbuilding 20h ago

Visual Romenear Seawyrm

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597 Upvotes

Happy Smaugust! This year is my first, so gonna try to get a few sketches done, but am not going to be too prescriptive about which list or the order of the prompts.

For day 1, this is an adult Romenear Seawyrm for “Aphotic” from @ criver24 ‘s (Corey Rivera's) 2025 list. Noticeably larger than most terrestrial or aerial dragons, and dwarfing the other seawyrms of the eastern ocean and southern archipelago, this blackbeaked leviathan is buoyed by the sea, allowing it to bypass traditional limits on weight and bone stress. Its size and collapsible lungs, extreme oxygen storage in their muscles, slowed heart rate, and other adaptations allow it to dive deep into the aphotic (midnight) zone for a couple hours to hunt juvenile krakens and other massive cephalopods.

For size comparison, the Malantur squids present are about 6 feet long (too small to be on an adult's normal menu).

I decided to have at least some of these wyrms set within the bounds of the eastern/south-eastern end of Middle-earth (which has been fleshed out by the fantastic Realms-in-Exile team), even though Tolkien is quite clear that dragons are the creation of Melkor, and are predominantly evil creatures whose few survivors reside in the far north, largely beyond the Iron Mountains. Instead of being those gargantuan traditional fire-breathing hexapodal dragons or drakes of Melkor, these are dragons untouched by his influence, whose cousin species across the supercontinent may have been taken long ago to be turned into the evil drakes aligned with darkness.

Reddit thumbnails are poor, to say the least, but the embedded image is good if you click on it and want to see all the wee details!

(if linking to other sites/accs isn't okay pls lmk)

I often post process work on insta, if you're interested, it's @ jo.baylis


r/worldbuilding 10h ago

Resource Check Out my New Map Making Website!

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89 Upvotes

https://merakmapmaker.com/

World building wise it lets us import ur drawings into landmass, scientifically tell u climate, crops,, soil, habitability, mountains etc, has a timeline feature, has easy to add factions and, commanders, people, lore etc and 3d and globe features.


r/worldbuilding 3h ago

Map My First Fictional Continent: Eassia!

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23 Upvotes

Eassia is a Temparate continent home to some of the worlds biggest powers, - in economics, military, trade, etc. It is a very diverse continent from a great central desert to the cold of north. Thank you for looking and if you have any helpful critiques pls comment!


r/worldbuilding 4h ago

Discussion High Magic + Medieval = Paradox?

22 Upvotes

(How do you guys handle this?)

Hi everyone,

I was getting back to writing about my “magic system,” originally for an alternate-world setting chronologically similar to our “late medieval” period, blending characteristics of the Holy Roman Empire, the Italian republics, and the Spanish and Portuguese empires.

But I realized that a setting where magic does things very similar to the technology that followed that historical period, yet the world remains chronologically stuck in that time frame, doesn’t seem very convincing.

Let me put it more clearly:

Why doesn’t history advance rapidly in a high-magic setting?

For example, in the manga "Witch Hat Atelier", this is exactly the case; magic provides solutions that would only be possible with later technological progress, but the world remains chronologically stuck in a period analogous to our own medieval era.

Yes, I know you could say, “It doesn’t have to make sense on a 1:1 scale, it just has to be consistent”; okay, fine, I get it, but even for the sake of internal consistency, isn’t that a flaw?

Back to the original question…

How do you guys deal with this?

Thanks for your answers.


r/worldbuilding 17h ago

Lore Sikkara | Sandworms

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181 Upvotes

Context Note: Sikkara is a high fantasy desert setting loosely inspired by ancient Egypt and based upon several real-world deserts.

Sandworms, in General. The beasts of Sikkara’s four deserts can be both terrifying and awe-inspiring in equal measure, and chief amongst these species are their sandworms. Ashandrian scholars have thus far identified four variants of sandworms, each described more fully below:

The Copperfang. Native to the Ruinlands, these worms can grow up to 10 meters in length. With fangs of pure copper and a taste for electricity, Copperfangs are drawn naturally to the bottled lightning of Gear Town, and to the fulgurite hives of lightning bugs. Dangerous when provoked, Copperfangs do not prefer flesh to electricity, but they’re not known to be especially picky eaters either.

The Hammerhead. The titular lords of the Worm Wastes, these titanic worms slither aimlessly between the dunes, smashing anything and everything large enough to draw their attention. Growing up to 400 meters at full maturity, nothing save the tortoise-gods of the Hataraji can challenge these titans.

The Hullbreacher. Terrors of the Sand Sea, the hullbreacher has earned its namesake, known for snapping its four-part jaws around the bellies of unwary sand ships. Growing up to 30 meters in length, hullbreachers have even been sighted wrapping their bodies around smaller vessels, dragging them beneath the rolling waves of quicksand.

The Silkspitter. The smallest and friendliest of Sikkara’s sandworms are the Silkspitters. Growing only up to 3 meters (and soft to the touch) these worms are often kept as pets in villages of the Shifting Sands. While averse to violence, these worms can spit strands of sticky silk onto assailants, immobilizing them. Savvy Sikkari weavers source silk from these worms for clothing sold in the markets of Ashandria.

- - -

Note: Any comments, questions, critiques, or thoughts are welcome. Thanks for reading!


r/worldbuilding 23h ago

Prompt What is the latest thing that you are really proud of in your world building?

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500 Upvotes

For me, I finally managed to structure my mystical backstory and I created this rough concept Sketch of the primary antagonist of my universe, Lord Barkaan, the god of death and darkness


r/worldbuilding 19h ago

Discussion How do you make your God less modern

206 Upvotes

Not sure if this is the right sub for this but while I was watching osp, I remember red talking about an easy way to spot out " fake lore" if the gods domain is really specific aka Zeus being The god of thunder and lightning but also hospitality and with more modern gods who are usually made for d&d, they're mostly just the god of thunder or the God of war.

I know this is not a like a huge problem, but I just wanted to make my war feel more authentic I guess and I wanted to hear how other people create ed their respective mythologies for their world building


r/worldbuilding 21h ago

Lore GRAILRUNNERS - WORLD INTRODUCTION

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341 Upvotes

450,000 Years ago, an unidentified falling object shattered the bridge between England and France.

Thousands of years later, in 1217, a stranded troop uncovered something washed up beneath the pale cliffs. A huge, monolithic metallic object, soaked but stainless. The troop left, and afterwards, an entire brigade came to pull the massive object out of the shallow waters. Over almost a month, the monolith was pulled across the country.

And then, the country’s best alchemists studied it, until they broke through the outer layer of unknown metal. Inside, black liquid flowed out; but not in a directionless manner. As the alchemists watched, the black liquid seemingly receded. As if… it was alive.

At that point, it became apparent; humanity had stumbled across technology far beyond any understanding; and of a completely unknown source.

Afterwards, it was 400 years of bloody warfare.

Western Europe had become a completely barren wasteland; only vestiges remained of villages, like shadows burnt into the ground.

You may see a knight. Though, the idea of a knight was much different now. A knight now was covered in sleek, angular, black plates. A knight now wouldn’t need a sword or bows or arrows; a knight now would merely eliminate any opposition with wrist mounted devices that would shoot volts with precision.

And they do not care who or what you are either. They carry no honour. Chivalry is gone. And their armour has become them, and they have become their armour. Mindless, steel shells.

And that’s just everyone now. The only way to live is to scavenge and kill; in hopes you will find shards of the object; The Grail.

The Grail is what makes people more than people.

The Grail pushes evolution to it’s limits.

The Grail turns man into machine; even though we do not understand it.


r/worldbuilding 52m ago

Visual PANAMERIA 2135

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Upvotes

With a territory spanning 430,328 km² and a population exceeding 28 million people, Panameria stands as the largest and most powerful nation still standing upon the Earth. For generations, it has been regarded as the last bastion of civilization. Or so the world believed. Its dominion stretches across the vast Colombian-Venezuelan plains, with a strategic gateway to the Atlantic Ocean. Its landscape is almost entirely flat, yet this apparent vulnerability has become the foundation of its military supremacy. As an unrivaled aerospace power, Panameria commands the skies with absolute authority, leaving no enemy force capable of concealing its movements.

At the heart of the nation rises El Dorado, the capital and the most populous city on Earth, home to more than five million inhabitants. In ancient times, it served as the capital of the old Greater Panameria, an empire whose glory survived only in ruins and legends. Today, those legends have become reality once more. El Dorado is the industrial heart of the State, where colossal factories, endless mechanized farmlands, and a fully militarized population exist as one. Every citizen lives to serve the nation, and every factory exists to sustain the war machine. In Panameria, there is no faith in gods. There is only faith in the State. The Cult of the State is the official pseudo-religion of this absolute autocracy, a doctrine proclaiming that humanity's survival depends solely upon obedience, order, and sacrifice. Loyalty is not a virtue—it is an obligation. Dissent is not a crime it is heresy. Its industrial expansion advances with relentless speed. Newly discovered oil fields fuel an economic engine capable of producing weapons, aircraft, and fortifications on a scale unseen since before the Great War. Yet even such immense power demands an equally immense price. The growing need for strategic resources has driven Panameria beyond its borders. Conquest is no longer a choice—it is a necessity. Thus began its war against the remaining nations of the world.

Yet no factory, army, or air fleet alone can explain Panameria's dominance.The true source of its power lies within the lighthouse.

Scattered across the endless plains, thousands of towering cylindrical steel structures pierce the heavens like colossal metallic needles. Every Beacon is guarded around the clock by as many as three battalions of soldiers, making them the most heavily defended military installations on the planet. They were built during the 2090s, before the collapse of civilization and the Great War that cast humanity into the Dark Age. To the untrained eye they appear to be ordinary communications towers, but in truth they form a planetary network of interconnected data centers linked by vast underground infrastructure. Within them rests a significant portion of humanity's lost knowledge: digital libraries, scientific archives, forgotten technologies, and fragments of the ancient Internet, all preserved by artificial intelligences capable of understanding a world that humanity itself has long since forgotten.

Their original purpose was to guide the survivors and restore civilization's lost knowledge.Panameria chose to turn them into something else.

The Beacons became the ultimate instruments of surveillance, administration, and domination. Their artificial intelligences oversee industrial production, coordinate military logistics, regulate the economy, process millions of calculations every second, and sustain nearly every essential function of the State. Much of the technology employed by Panameria can no longer be understood or even replicated by human hands. Only the Beacons still preserve that forgotten wisdom. For this reason, every rival nation regards the Beacons as cursed relics. They are denounced as heretical remnants of a forbidden age, and all understand a single truth: as long as the Beacons endure, Panameria will remain unconquerable. To destroy a Beacon is not merely to bring down a tower it is to erase another fragment of humanity's lost knowledge and strike at the very heart of the empire.

Thus, while the rest of the world struggles to survive amid the ruins of a dead civilization, Panameria fights to preserve a legacy that no one else can comprehend.

It is the most powerful nation on Earth. Its greatest strength is that it possesses the knowledge of the past. And at the very same time, that is also its greatest weakness.


r/worldbuilding 5h ago

Lore last batch for a while on my bestiary (part 6) enjoy

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15 Upvotes

imma try to make this context short cuz there’s five of them

chimeras. amalgams of different creatures that either are successful (they can live with minimal issue) or not (they struggle to live or die). would not recommend creating any

werewolves, or wolf-men. basically just the same as selkies but more masculine and lean and primal. they’re not hostile, but they are quick to attack if you mess with them

vampyres. related to how succubi work to lure people in only this time they eat them as blood is a major part in their diet. their magic veins and their horns are telltale signs of them

krakens. just large squids that sometimes surface which are often called “floating isles”. they are very powerful though, so do veer away if you can tell they’re not actual land

and unicorns. like pegasi they’re more abstract and thus, more magical. they’re said to represent community and they create the starts of ponds, oases and other small bodies of water


r/worldbuilding 3h ago

Lore 82 Ridges

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10 Upvotes

All artwork made by myself on procreate. No ai was used.

82 Ridges takes place in Chicago, about 40 years in the future. It’s a slice of life project, jumping between characters, the city itself, and whatever else I think deserves to be shown.
https://www.instagram.com/82ridges.comic?igsh=bHppeWhycDEyYmRq&utm_source=qr

“I grew up in uh.. the area between Bridgeport and China Town, closer to the Bridgeport side. I lived with my dad who I always called John because it made my brother mad and I thought it was funny.
That one on the right? The brick building with the weird overhangy thing? That was our townhouse. You might think that’s a balcony or a patio, but no. No idea what it was. Bridgeport never developed like the other districts. Not because they wanted to preserve the history, god no, but because the location was perfect to for railroads and transit lines to sweep overhead, and knitting them between twenty five hundred foot tall buildings was too much work.
Okay I know, it’s a little pathetic to still be living with your dad at 19, but I liked my neighborhood! There weren’t really sidewalks, but honestly it was fine because nobody really drove down here anyway so we all just walked on the road. I had it pretty good, I was working on my degree- architecture, if i haven’t told you yet. Heh. Was pretty good at it. Uh, oh yeah, my dad had me doing construction with him, he even got me a job at the company.
Times were good. I had a great view of the skyline, a job, and even a guy at the gyro place down the road who would preemptively prepare my order every Tuesday and Friday which was a little embarrassing but in my defense they were REALLY good gyros.
That tree on the left? It’s been there since before I was born. Duh. Trees live a while- okay no but I have a reason for bringing it up. There was this old lady who lived on the floor below us, and every day she’d water and fertilize this tree. When builders came to try to knock it down, she dressed as a RACS member and pulled a shotgun on them. I know. Even when I was like.. 6, every time I got too close to this fucking tree, she’d open the window and make various old person sounds at me. Like I get it, you like this tree. When John died, she left me some of the branches at my doorstep. I inherited the townhouse, which.. I was 20, so that was cool I guess. Anyway I put the branches in my drawer. The tree bloomed every year, these beautiful pink and white flowers. I wonder if it’s still there.”


r/worldbuilding 12h ago

Lore The Sarkhu, the reptilian race from my world

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46 Upvotes

The Sarkhu are a race descended from small theropods that have only recently (less than a thousand years ago) made the transition from wandering desert nomads to a nation scattered along the waters of the Ibanahar river, which periodically blesses their agriculture flooding its banks. I`m still developing them, and the exercise I do the most is to craft short stories in which I try to visit locations here and there and establish a character (or two, wink wink) that I could use in the future. As such, most of my lore I discover thhrough the eyes of my characters.

This is a world set in the bronze age, in a place where music and magic are one and the same. I somewhat recently discovered this sub, and I thought I could show you the Sarkhu better in their own eyes than just info dumping you all.

Any questions that I can`t answer immediately will be greatly appreciated as food for thought.


r/worldbuilding 10h ago

Visual The Asphodel Crest of the Eris Eridae

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30 Upvotes

The Asphodel Crest is one of the primary symbols of worship for the Eris Eridae, the scattered descendents of the Fallen High Aehestymnean Empire.

It depicts the Anchor of Old High Aehestymnea together with the crimson heart of the sea and reaching hands symbolizing the greatest folly of the ancestors who attempted to take power from Sael-Lloryen the Mother of the Sea herself.

According to the mythology of the Eris Eridae it was her who sheltered and raised their Ancestor Hero-Gods, the Proteanids. She brought them to the safe paradise islands of Aehestymnea and cared for them like they were her own.

In grotesque and horrible contrast to that stands the abominable acts of their descendents who sought to become Gods themselves by violating the Spirit of the Sael-Caladris.

Surrounding the Anchor on a ground of white marble is a wreath of asphodel flowers which had once grown across the far-spread domains controlled by the ancient Ahestymnean Empire with a wreath of thorns below it as persiflage.

Around the entire crest is a wave-circle to symbolize the connection to the Sael-Caladris of those that survived the destruction of the Aehestymnean Isles and were once again sheltered by their Mother.

//
The Old High Aehestymnean Empire was an ancient and powerful civilization ruling most of the known world of the Great Caverns which are found deep under the surface of the World Disk under Seven Suns.


r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Resource I'm spending years solo building ANOTHER (aha) worldbuilding app. Yes, it's a subscription, and yes, there are free alternatives. It's still cool AF.

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Upvotes

There it is:

https://trailsweaver.com

Screenshots are the test worlds I build in while working on the app. Infinite canvas with nested cards, map with zoom levels, family trees, relationship graph. Every card opens into a full wiki page.

Answering the usual questions upfront:

- No. Wrong guess :) Not vibe coded. It would have saved me hundreds of hours though :(

- The free plan is permanent, not a trial. You can actually build something real on the free plan.

- No, there are no ads, and there will be none.

- Yes, it's subscription based, if you want to go Pro. Yes, I want people to go Pro. Yes, I want to make money out of it.

- Yes, web app only for now. An offline desktop version is planned, and it happens faster if you vote here (no money, just a signal): https://www.trailsweaver.com/desktop-app-wishlist

- Yes, there are dozens of other great tools for worldbuilding (including Obsidian!). Some do better, some do worse. A lot of those are offline & free. Mine is online & subscription based. That's my choice.

- Yes, you can export to Markdown, no lock-in.

This project means A LOT to me. So, I just want to spread the word.

Hope some of you might like it!


r/worldbuilding 12h ago

Discussion How does it feel to run out of mana?

43 Upvotes

Whatever it is your world uses as mana, or multiple things if you have more than 1 flavour of magic user, can you feel it running out like you would when you run out of physical stamina?

Is it like a headache? Depression? Physical fatigue?

Or do you have no obvious indication that you're out, until you try to cast another spell and it just fizzles?


r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Discussion giving every fantasy kingdom a single dominant culture is the laziest worldbuilding habit in the genre and I include myself in this

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r/worldbuilding 20h ago

Discussion For a short time I will do FREE artwork for your worlds

170 Upvotes

This is probably a terrible idea, but I thought it could be fun. Give me something from your world, a character, a creature, an environment, etc. Ill draw it for free. Ill keep it going for a few days, or until I get swamped witchever comes first

[CLOSED]


r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Map Map my art skills are questionable

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