Picture a blank piece of paper in front of you; the first page of a thick pad. There is a sharp pencil in your hand with a pristine eraser. These are the first tools of worldbuilding.
Thus far I’ve discussed many techniques and strategies for developing a unique and original world, including what kinds of details are needed to help devise cultures, non-human races, religions, climate, map-making, and other aspects.
So now it’s time to actually go ahead and put these practices into action. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some input from you, my readers, as well, though as the blog is still new I might have to reach out on facebook to get that feedback.
So where do we begin? Oftentimes, you may begin with the idea you want to work with andbuild out from that concept, rather than approach it from an “in the beginning” starting point. But while I have a few ideas I know I want to incorporate, I want to start by establishing a new, original setting and world to play in and/or tell stories about. Given that, what is the first thing I need to determine for my world?
Well, first I can’t keep calling it “the world”, “my world”, and “our world” but I also don’t have the context established to name it yet, so as a placeholder, I’m going to name this world: FERGUS.
So I look now at Genre, Aesthetic, and Tone.
GENRE
Here I’ll define Genre as the subset of tropes and cliché elements which are recognized as belonging to a certain category, called a Genre. Establishing this genre will lump the story in with other stories that share those similar tropes.
Genres might be things like Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Horror, Drama, Crime, Mystery. And of course, there is room for complexity. There can be combinations, derivations, and nuance to make your own world stand out a bit more.
Every given story is going to have it’s own kind of formula regarding what makes up its genre, and while it begins as a pretty broad description, it can get pretty narrow as we go.
Bright, on Netflix, combines a lot of Fantasy Tropes with a Buddy Cop Action Movie.
Star Wars is a Science Fiction on it’s face, but it’s sprawling nature and melodramatic scenarios might define it more as a “Space Opera”. What’s more, when you really boil it down, though it features space ships, aliens, and has a major focus on technology, there is a lack of established science around those technological elements, they just work without feasible explanation. Betrween that, and the Force, many people would more classify Star Wars as a Fantasy with a Science Fiction hat on.
So looking at FERGUS, I know I want it to be a Fantasy World. I know I don’t want it to be Earth, but a new and unfamiliar world. There are certain emotions and nostalgic elements I want my stories to evoke, so I will now consider what stories are going to be inspirations for FERGUS. This will help me pin down the more specific genre.
Inspirations: Conan, The 13th Warrior, Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, The Elder Scrolls, Jason and the Argonauts, Theseus and The Minotaur (Myth), King Arthur (Myth), Primal, Vikings, Avatar and Legend of Korra, King’s War, Krull, Willow, Clash of the Titans, Evil Islands (Video Game), Dragonslayer, Ladyhawke, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Stardust, The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, The Riddlemaster of Hed (Novel), Legend, Blue Moon Rising (novel), The Game of Thrones (Novel), Beastmaster.
So from these I can better define what I’m looking for to define FERGUS. I ask, what do I like about all those settings?
- A strong 80’s vibe, with big action, big music (possibly a rock ballad from Queen) and shamelessly ambitious special effects.
- Stories about hope, friendship, kindness, love, unity, coming together even in the face of overwhelming darkness.
- Overwhelming darkness. Mysterious, verging on “lovecraftian”.
- An ancient world setting with deep, forgotten, antediluvian remnants present but never deeply explained.
- Sympathetic “monsters”, and things not being always as they appear to be. Numerous non-human races. Maybe even humans not being the dominant race.
- A pantheon of capricious and petty gods, also perhaps verging on lovecraftian.
- High politics, king-making, Nation-building.
- Characters that would be be portrayed through Jim Hensen puppetry or Claymation.
- Magic that is engimatic and powerful, not casual or commonplace.
- Characters with a strong connections to animals/creatures.
Also take note of what I’m apparently NOT looking to put into Fergus: Probably not as elaborate a magic-system as many fantasies like Dungeons and Dragons would have. Probably not a big focus on the classic fantasy races that have come down through Lord of the Rings and D&D. Those things already exist to fulfil those needs, and I want to make something that strikes people as different and unique.
So with all that in mind, I’ll define FERGUS as belonging to the following genre and subgenre:
Fantasy: High Adventure/Ancient Horror/Sword and Sorcery
Even if it doesn’t look like that on a bookshelf, I can always use these terms as a key, to find my way back to the spirit of FERGUS when I find myself stuck or going in the wrong direction.
AESTHETIC
There are many aesthetics to be found within the fantasy genre. In this I’m talking about things like the scale and design of architecture, what eras and cultures the fashion is inspired by, what materials are used, how does the metal-work look (clean and precise or rough and kind of lumpy?), and even what is the level of grunge and gore vs cleanliness.
Of course, FERGUS is going to be a whole world (maybe more than one) so there is a lot of room for everything from fur-covered barbarians, to knights in shining armor, to scantily clad sorcerers. However I can still establish a general feeling, like a filter that everything in FERGUS will be colored by.
I want to mention that as we are establishing a world here, that may be used solely in the imagination, it may never become a movie or TV show, but the aesthetic is still important in terms of cover art, character art, and anything created to define your world in visual terms. If you want to share it with people, providing visuals will, at some point, be important and highly beneficial.
I don’t NEED to pin the exact aesthetic down right away, but I do want at least something to inspire me, so to that end I’ll scour the internet and create a collage of pictures that speak to me of FERGUS.
(You don’t need to worry about copyrights for an inspiration folder, but I don’t want to post a bunch of other peoples work without permission so I’ll do it very small here, lol)
This helps me not only establish a design aesthetic, but also an imagery aesthetic; that also helps me imagine how the development process will go, such as what races and monsters and locations might show up.
Patterns that I can see from the pictures that spoke to me are major differences in size (giants or very small races), reptilians, centaurs, mages with body-paint, massive carved monuments, and strange hybridized animals.
Oh yes, and portal gates. I do think I want to do something with those. I like this idea of magical connections between distant lands that actually end up being entirely different worlds.
TONE
The tone is about the overall mood of the setting. This means not only the nostalgic and aesthetic elements but also the language used, the scenes and stories played out, the morality of the characters, the ideals, the philosophical concepts on display, and the levels of things like tension, and humor.
Is it a world of happily-ever-afters? Is this a world where someone seeing something magical and otherworldly would be struck by wonder? Or would they be driven insane as their minds cracked? Is there a focus on bad things happening to good people? Is justice often served or does evil generally win?
So this is less about what is IN the setting, as it is how people react to it. The tone is about behavior; that of your cast, of your NPCs, of the villains. It’s also about how you want the audience experiencing your world to feel.
Again, I can turn to my movie inspirations. Among other things, I want my audience to feel:
- Inspired to go out and play with swords.
- Wonder at the bigness of the world and the mysteries of the past.
- How small characters can have big impacts.
- Seeing beyond even vast differences and strange skins and making allies out of enemies.
- The hope of making the world a better place even when it looks dark.
- Nostalgia for 80s fantasy action movies.
- The thrill of exploring a new world/frontiersmanship.
- Seeing humor in dark situations and fun in bleak situations/Not losing yourself.
So again, these ideas, these goals, become a kind of guide that I can use to chart my course as I continue creating this world. They may change over time, new ideas may be adopted and some of these may be dropped, but this is still very early in the process for FERGUS.
CONCLUSION
This is only the beginning for FERGUS. I wanted to invite you to help me develop this project. There will be more opportunities for specific input as we go, but for right now I would really be pleased if some of you reading would post below to answer any of the following questions:
Can you think of any more fantasy movies, stories, or games that you think might help inspire the design of FERGUS?
Of those, or using the ones I have listed, what is a scene that stands out for you, as something that affected you as an observer?
If you could adopt/befriend any animal or creature from a fantasy setting of your choice, what would it be?
With that, I leave you, but I look forward to next time when we’ll discuss Origin Stories and Creation Myths (probably).
See you next world!
—Charles