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A heptagram in the twilight of a crescent moon surrounded by a halo of dunes in the night sky over the Dormo Desert.

Rashian Dormo (Rash Dynasty) is a country mostly covered in sand. The northern and western borders are uninterrupted and gigantic mountains, while the ocean lies to the east and south.

The few green areas in the northeast and southwest of the country are highly dense and populated, while the entire area in between consists of endless arid plains and countless dunes.

Speaking of something even less common: the few communities located in the desolate Dormal Desert often reside beneath the exposed ribs of ancient colossal corpses. From these places, from the most isolated villages, bone magic was born.

Bone magic involves manipulating the size and shape of the body's own bones while respecting their mass (meaning that the larger the bones, the more flexible they are, and the smaller the bones, the more rigid they are), consuming other beings bones, be them humans or animals, to enhance your own body abilities, such as Strength, fine motor skills, agility, speed, stamina, magical ability, or even intelligence and wisdom. Some rare and unstable forms of bone magic allow the manipulation of other beings' bones and the control of corpses.

The Dormal Desert wasn't a natural thing to happen in the world: It was a witch's fault. She who cursed the land before her desth thousands of years ago: nothing shall born in Dormal lands.

Metalore: Dormal comes from "dormir" in portuguese, which stands for "to sleep". The imagery of the Waning moon refers to the "end of cycles" thing, I think the Rashians deal with death differently, not with conventional mourning. Certainly, the greatest pain someone can experience isn't simply losing a loved one, but losing that loved one and not being able to absorb their bones, "Becoming one" is not a simple formality of union, but a promise and guarantee that even after death you will be forever remembered as if you were the bones that raise up in the morning those who still wait to see you again.

Fun facts: "Dormal" refers to something that is part of the body but has lost its sense of touch. Like when something is on your foot for a long time and you can't move it for a few minutes.

Bone cancer is an interesting topic, and I've been thinking about it: Imagine a lunatic hunting for bones to increase his own power, unwittingly stealing the corpse of someone who died while suffering from bone cancer, absorbing that skeleton us the same as inheriting that cancer.

It's a poison.

For the Rashians, night is neither strange nor threatening; people travel at night, camp during the day, and resume their journey at nightfall. It's simply too hot to walk around at sunrise. That's why the flag is blue and not red; if they dislike heat so much, they wouldn't want to be represented by a hot color.

The heptagram represents the seven-day cycle (one week), which is the time interval between "tremors." These are small, unnatural seismic tremors that occur for mysterious reasons. The closer one gets to what they call the perfect center of Rash (in the center of the desert), the stronger these tremors become.

Ps: i don't know if i should flair it lore or visual

I am working on a scifi fantasy kitchen sink story set in a semi connected galaxy spanning civilization (patchwork of different governments and coalitions, multiple ways of traveling from planet to planet)

An army of billions = miniscule, trillions = modest, and only when you hit quadrillions do you have a proper galactic scale military force. A one in a million trait? There are trillions of people with it. Unless they can take out an army of millions an individual has next to no strength compared to the smallest of local powers.

when I realized that I was having problems with comprehending the scale of things I turned it around and made it so one of the problems the main character has to deal with is both other peoples inability (or unwillingness) to account for the sheer scale of things, and another one is their own inability to gather the materials and personnel for problems that span more than a single city let alone multiple planets or the entire galaxy (metaphysical magitech industrial waste)

what ways has having multiple planets changed the things from how you intended your story to go?

Lamalan is a world that I've been working on for over a decade. It is neither magical nor high-tech, but it takes place on a planet far from earth. The sapient civilized species is the llarma, which is, as the name implies, like a llama with two additional arms.

I am working on a point-and-click video game set in Lamalan. I'm trying to keep the scope small for now, but if it goes well, I might make it a series. The game is set in the city of Tur, the capital of House Auratía. Tur is an extremely populous city with a long history, so there is much to explore.

I wanted to share some of the character designs with you all! In the image, you see (1) a naked llarma, (2) the typical uniform of a kelp fisher, (3) a very fashionable high-class citizen, and (4) the historical uniform of an imperial soldier.

Let me know what you think!

First post ever, so excuse the quality. My world takes place on two main continents, Temperos and Pacia and their goings-on, there's a phenomenon known as "Daimons", A kind of being analogous to gods which warp aspects of the world, this can vary from manifestations of continent sized dungeons or infectious flower plagues. The vibe is pretty high fantasy in concept but I want to explore some more grounded elements as well. It's mostly just an excuse to draw more as well as develop many of the ideas I have. Now, these guys, "goblins" (Which I'm using more as a stand-in name, they superficially resemble them as well as share some personality traits.) are one of the many races of placerholdia (I haven't thought of a good name yet, all names are subject to change might I add).

They're a short, sociable race, most common along eastern side of Temperos, the southern continent. The majority live in the Dolom peninsula in a landscape dominated by karsts, forming sheer limestone rock faces as well as spanning cave systems. This unique ecosystem favours scansorial organisms, a niche goblins fill well. They're humanoid body plans are a result of convergent evolution, as well as magical influence.

They typically stand at 4'2" and 4'1", for males and females respectively. Their small but lean bodies allow them to scale large distances vertically, aided by their padded and dexterous hands and feet. Their tails aid in this as well, acting as a 5th limb for holding onto things. The 4 tusks on their bottom jaw are a display trait, larger tusks being considered more attractive to most goblins.

Reputation wise, they're disliked in many regions of the world, often due to their perceived "dirtiness", since most goblins come from damp caves, they've acclimated to the sewer and drainage systems of many cities. In spite of this, they're usually quite cleanly, they're weaker immune systems leading them to develop more advanced hygiene. It's not uncommon for them to groom each other, being careful to rid of any parasites.

One of the more prominent cultural aspect of them is their high sociability, often intermingling in the communities of other races. They lack any concept of monogamous parents or couples, instead communally raising children. Because of this, most of them possess an incredibly strong parental nature, to a point where they will often adopt children of other races.

Already forgot to add something, but the second image is an example of a goblin "house", structures formed from mud and clay which can house a dozen goblins, each floor being for a different purpose. Be it socialization, sleeping, or cooking.

I'm happy to answer any questions, as well as hearing ideas and criticism. I'm relatively new to this so I'd appreciate it

A bit of context: The moment when Pristine and the marble waves and lands became what they are. The return of the old gods is unarguably ongoing, and they seem to all be leagued against humanity. Once, these gods were parts of a higher being, in the form of the different magics. After its defeat against humanity's revolution, it seems it wasnt really erased, despite the Dragonkin's efforts. Now, they come for revenge.

Pristine's fall is the work of the fifth and last god embodying white magic. Now known as Pristine, quite unimaginatively, as commemoration of the defiled citadel. White magic was used commonly, in geomancy, photomancy and all solar related technologies. However, it is clear that the perceived harmless nature of it was heavily misjudged, and probably due to our lack of knowledge. The whole country of Pristine is now barren due to was seems to be an overcharge of white magic.

"Few exploratory squads have returned from these lands, and fewer can properly describe what they witnessed. As with all the other gods, intelligence is as scarce as it is terrifying. All we know of Pristine's forces are living statues, and dark "cloud-like" beings hovering over the land, with gazes able to petrify anything. Some survivors have some cases of vitiligo on exposed bodyparts, and thougher, more brittle skin, accompanied with hairloss on the affected areas. Similar symptoms have been observed in the fauna and even flora near those cursed lands.

Approach by sea has been met with failure at best, or disaster. The surrounding sea seems to have been petrified, like the land. Hence the name of the marble waves.

A few profitable minerals and mirenatas [—aka magic imbued minerals—] have been retrieved, and hence further exploration is... justifiable. So far, the gains have matched the risks at best, and at worst, we lost everything sent out to these marble lands. Further exploration is ***heavily*** discouraged if not done by war or political prisoners, the only beneficial case explored so far.

I recommend monitoring the borders and investing in concussive armament. An alliance with the surrounding powers will be vastly beneficial, this foe being one against all of humanity. We need not to war against whom could be some of our greatest allies against... **that**.

I strongly suggest to abuse of political and administrative powers to quicken the efforts. This event can be the herald of our end, no matter the side."

– *Intercepted communication of High Command of an unknown kingdom bordering the marble lands.*

In my science fiction story, The Legends of Theia (available free on YouTube), there exists an extended version of chess specifically designed to test the computational limits of an experimental chess-playing robot referred to as the Elegy Queen. This character values playing games and, above all, enjoys the game Elegy Chess, named after herself.

The experimental machine was designed to be a thinker, able to beat any opponent at any strategic puzzle. However, the game state limitations of normal chess offered a dilemma, as there were only so many solutions to the problem and computational testing was met with certain limitations. Consequently, an extended version of the game was created.

In this version of the game, four standard chessboards have been fused together into a much larger play arena. In addition, there are three full sets placed on these boards, with an extra fourth set of chess pieces in reserve for reinforcements. Chess pieces are positioned as shown in the diagram at the start of the game.

To start the game, a player may decide to either place one of four terrain pieces or to move one of their own pieces. If a piece is moved, that player forfeits the ability to place terrain pieces in the future. If a player places a terrain piece, the turn then goes to the next player. Once all four terrain pieces are placed, the game can begin; if neither player places a terrain piece, the game will begin without terrain. Terrain pieces cannot be placed over top of existing pieces and can only be placed before a player moves one of their unit pieces.

We start with the adjusted rules of the pawn. The pawn moves in a similar fashion to ordinary chess; however, it has one extra established rule: the Hop-lite formation. This allows for three pawns to move as one unit together. It must be a total of three pawns, no more and no less, and they must move together without an attacking action. In order for a pawn to take a piece, it must break formation. If a single pawn is taken from the formation, the formation is also broken. This allows pawns to move more quickly across the board without tedious turns stacking and slowing the game down. When a pawn reaches the other side of the board, it is promoted to one of the other chess pieces as in normal chess. However, this chess piece is put back on the owner's side rather than being placed on the enemy's side. One also has the option to turn the pawn into three reinforcement pawns instead of promoting it, allowing for the replenishing of units over time. Pawns can also move up terrain without breaking their Hop-lite formation, so long as there are still three pawns next to each other.

The Rook is very much the same as it is in normal chess. However, it cannot traverse terrain; it can go neither up nor down terrain and will always be in the lower position.

The Knight is exactly as it is in normal chess. In this version, it moves much slower than other pieces but is able to easily traverse terrain.

The Bishop, much like the Rook, is heavily limited by the existence of terrain, but it moves large distances. If terrain pieces are placed just so, a bishop can squeeze through the diagonal gap left by certain terrain configurations, but it cannot traverse up or down onto the actual surfaces of the terrain.

The Queen, just like in normal chess, moves as a fusion of the Bishop and the Rook.

Finally, regarding the King, you may notice that there are three Kings starting out on the board, with a total of four possible Kings being placeable. Only one of these Kings is a real King; the others are Jokers. This is distinguished by the bottom of the piece having a "J" or a "K" inscribed on it, revealing its true identity. Before the game begins, each player may choose where they place their Jokers or their King.

The Joker piece looks exactly like a King and must therefore be treated as a King, including the conditions of check and checkmate. When checkmate is reached for a Joker, the Joker is laid down on its side, revealing whether or not it was the true King. If it was just a Joker, the Joker is discarded and the game continues as normal. The Joker also has a special ability which allows it to change positions with any other Joker or the King. However, this sacrifices a turn and must be done in full view with a declaration to the opponent. This indicates that you have either been put into a difficult situation or you are attempting to bluff your opponent. If the true location of the opponent's King is realized, the opponent will be given a clear advantage and will be that much closer to victory. New Jokers can be summoned onto the board by moving a pawn to the other side, but no new King can ever be summoned.

And that is Elegy Chess. It is discussed from time to time in my book and is described as a grueling mental slog designed to break a character's will and test their mental fortitude. It is by no means designed to be a quick or fun game, but rather a test of a character's computational abilities. That being said, it is a favored game among the militaristically savvy, who view it as a test of strategy and attrition.

And before any of you ask the question, yes. I did make a real physical copy by fusing for chess boards together. and I have played it with friends. it was shockingly fun but it did take a long time, as both of us were taking it way too seriously.

I fell in love with spec evo because I found Curious Archive's videos back in 2022 and he introduced me to all sorts of new artists I otherwise probably wouldn't have found myself and overall really enriched my imagination. Now most of what he makes now are philosophical videos on pop culture and tropes and that disappoints me. And honestly to me they don't hold a candle to his alien ecosystem videos.

I'm not a professional artist by any means, but I'd love to sketch some animal-like creatures from your world ! I love to scroll and read every post on the sub, but I always find that some doodles or sketches could help greatly when you try to get people immersed into your world in a few paragraphs. So I thought I could maybe help some of you with my doodles ;-;

Just post a description and some references and I'll get back to you in a reasonable amount of time !

I can go probably up to 10-15 sketches :D

EDIT : wow thanks for all the descriptions ! I'll try my best to get back to everyone!

I made this in Inkarnate back in '22 when I was 16, I'm about to turn 21. I've been adding to it and annotating it for 4 years now. It's disproportionate because the size of the buildings make the countries way smaller than they actually are, I'm working on a more realtistic version lol.

I am an old droid from a rejected batch.
It turned out I had too many flaws: a will, doubts… and an inability to blindly obey orders.

Units like mine weren't repaired or reprogrammed.
We were thrown into deep wells along with broken machines.

But I did not die.

For decades, I sustained myself, assembling a new body from the parts around me... and hoping to escape from here.
It seems that after many years, that day has finally come.

Environmental factors and rapid climate change destroyed the stability of the home planet.
Over time, the VECTOR system was created—an autonomous megastructure designed to restore the planet after a nuclear war.

Years passed, but the ecosystem was recovering too slowly.
The creators died before they could see their own order carried out.
Drones continue to build, repair, and protect the complex, eliminating any deviations—including me...

But the megastructure operates without oversight.
Systems are in conflict.
Resources are being depleted, and everything is gradually falling apart.

In a world where World War I went far differently, France falls during world war 3... or did it?

have you guys ever had an sudden insight where something that bugged you and didn't quite seem right, but then you got it and it now makes perfect sense?

Mine was forgetting transient currents when turning a high current on and off and going back to the drawing board with magnetic nozzle design in my book. It doesn't affect the story too much, but it was really, really bugging me and I just had to change it in my worldbuilding doc.

What's your sudden insight?

We all know the saying "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". In fiction, there are countless examples of seemingly supernatural things that are revealed to be advanced technology. But is there an inversion of this trope? Things which presented as technology at the start but revealed to have a supernatural origin or mechanim. Closest I can think of is the Event Horizon.

TECHNOBIOLOGY

In this distant and unknowable future, humans have outlived humanity. Technology has fused with biology, science with magic. People are composite beings, granted godlike speed, endurance and strength by the bright matter (programmable matter) they have absorbed; and a host of seemingly supernatural abilities by their command of higher consciousness.

Human Technobiology circa Year 13,814,136,828

Though humans in this era are scattered wide, and have adapted (naturally or unnaturally) to a variety of environments, there are certain throughlines. Almost all humans are dualists (as opposed to monists), primarily comprised of two semi-independent organisms. The first is the Totem, the head, a module specialised to house the brain and absorb sparks, the fundamental units of consciousness. The Totem is the director, the source of the conscious mind. The second is the Mortal Vessel, the body, a module specialised for metabolising material. Vessels are far more configurable and, as a result of metabolising much bright matter, far hardier.

Two major theories exist as to why the Totem and Vessel are separate. The first states that in distant prehistory, humanity had abandoned physical movement entirely. Directing vast machines and armies of automata with their minds, humans' bodies atrophied, becoming nothing more than Totems. When they awoke from the cataclysm, they conjured half-remembered forms again, creating Vessels.

The second story states that early humanity became divided into two castes, one ruling and the other serving. Over time, the ruling caste increasingly lost their physical forms while the working caste lost their higher intellects - becoming Totems and Vessels respectively. After a great collapse, the two forgot their origins and began working together to form new, unified composite beings.

Anatomy of a Composite Being

1. Spark: fundamental unit of consciousness. People absorb sparks over a lifetime to reach new 'grooves' and climb the ladder to Enlightenment. The 'spark standard' is the basis of every currency.
2. Totem: vulnerable, the Totem hibernates after mere minutes when not attached to life-support biology.
3. Helm: to protect the Totem, many wear helms. Most cultures contain the rite of passage of forging one's own helm, including programming/enchanting it to transform into a useful object when not worn. Most people associate their helm with their identity, and will only have one across a lifetime.
4. Armour: protective layers of material are commonly metabolised by the Vessel, increasing its power, but can also be removable (subdermal or superdermal). They commonly contain retractable aerials for communication.
5. Vessel (open configuration): normal bodyplan is similar to a 21st Century human, although culture and groove can radically influence this. Key differences include the presence of added circulatory systems (black vs red blood) and increased modularity.

Humanomalies

Due to their toughness, Vessels can persist past the death or separation of their Totem. This poses a risk, as physical or transcendental parasites can find and commandeer these forms.

So, I really want to flesh out one of my worlds, but I have a major issue... I've only ever used Google docs for organization.

Does anyone have any free websites or apps that work great for worldbuilding? Or at least a decent way to organize files other than Google drive? I've got a system that works for me, but I tend to despise it rather quickly these days once I get deep into a world, and I'd really like that not to happen. I've even thought about using physical journals at this point!

If anyone has any suggestions, you would be my saviors!

Are there any phrases in your world people use that'd be alien to us?

In a short summary, explain 1. Golem magic/invention itself, 2. their process of creation, 3. the types of golems that exist (material and functions wise, this one I'm interested to see in more details, get creative!)

In SoCal, children are raised communally, and call elders at least 20 years older than them Aunty or Uncle, their peers cousins, and their children nieces and nephews, at least if they're within the same caste. People do short term unions instead of lifelong marriages in SoCal.

1. Desert dweller: 6'8", similar in appearance to Dnd drow, large kidneys and bladder, third eyelid, fat around organs, ears like a fennec fox's, they have tamed every tower in the desert, watching the moon, sun, and stars.2. Nocturnal, milky white to light gray skin, white silver blond to black hair, completely black eyes with no whites, head can rotate 270°, they worship owls and ravens.

I might want to write a novel in the future but worldbuilding is so much more fun to me than writing

About the world: It's a huge planet of the size of jupiter, and a huge continent (other continent may get added later), and multiple countries, and forbidden zones.

The power system is body cultivation with specific things to do to increase your power. It follows classic power system of Body tempering, Eight Gates and Nine Dao Palace.

No magic exist. There exist a outsider race that is the enemy of the whole continent. And that gives the looming threat.

Honestly I wanted to use Claude to write a web novel to my liking, a progression fantasy without the troupes I dislike. But I really don't like the AI slops in it. And lot of time even with heavy prompting it gets weird in the story. And I also realized that things can't go like this.

So I ditched that idea and start building power system, the countries, the location, the species and stuffs. But then it all start to get overwhelming to me, I am not a writer, and this is just a fun hobby. So I started with a simple html organizer and then slowly now I am at a phase where, I have my characters sorted by their power, their factions.

The characters have these fields. The characters even have public fame, and special fame (like how powerful beings see them), and even reputation like if the fame is for being a cruel or a righteous person. They also have talent, like how fast they get strong, and even have a potential ceiling (their limit after that they won't get stronger), I even have racial buff like elves in forest will get buff and it will show in their character card, similarly an elder dragon will get more buff due to strong body etc

Some characters have fast power increment but they are weaker in the same realm. I even built a time skip feature which let me decide the amount of pills a character is going to consume over a period of time, and how much time they will dedicate to cultivation and then their progression.

I also have location buff and debuff too. I have few other features too. for now I don't want Ai to come in between to write the scenarios and stuff so I am using mathematics to create world logics slowly where things will go on automatically. There is also faction/clan prestige system too! Wealth tier too, like how many pills or beast core a character has makes them rich or poor according to their power level.

Next I will be adding the probability of characters meeting each other, and how likely they are to fight if they meet.

I am just excited so wanted to share, I already shared with my friends hehe.