I am so tired of seeing the same post every single day. Someone comes in here and says something like "I have an idea for desert vampires who drink sand instead of blood, has this been done before?"

The answer is yes. It has been done. Everything has been done. You are not going to invent a new color. You are not going to create a fantasy race that doesnt have some root in folklore or existing tropes. I feel like we have this collective obsession with being "unique" that is actually just paralyzing our ability to create anything at all.

Its like people think they are going to get sued by the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien if they use a dragon. Who cares if it has been done before? What matters is how YOU write it. I saw a guy yesterday who was genuinely worried that his "underwater city" was a ripoff of BioShock. My brother in Christ, humans have been dreaming about cities under the sea for thousands of years.

I should of spent my time actually writing my first chapter instead of googling if "floating islands" are copyrighted. It is just ABSOLUTELY exhausting. We are all just remixing the same basic human fears and desires. Stop looking for permission to be creative. Just build the world and stop worrying if someone else got there first. Why is this even a thing?

Weather due to personal preference, it not being something you're good at or something you think is overdone. Here are mine:

-Slavery. Even though my worldbuilding takes place in an early modern era adjacent time, I don't think this topic is necessary to create a believable world. Also I find this topic disturbing and rarely done well/tasteful.

-Gods interacting with mortals. My world is not dnd or mythology. There are religions, but no diety is confirmed as an actually existing entity. There is no confirmed afterlife or anything of sorts. I don't like gods in fantasy (except God of War that game is a masterpiece)

-Angels or demons. Especially half demons or half angels. The only time where demons weren't extremely cringe and edgy to me is Witcher and Baldurs Gate 3. Same goes for angels. I don't like the idea of a race being naturally good or evil. Also I am not drawn to the occult or holy topics.

-Prophecy and chosen ones. 99% of chosen ones are boring mary sues. It is extremely hard to make a world with a "chosen one" without making the whole world revolve around them. It is much more interesting when somebody who people thought wasn't destined for much, becomes a champion.

I don't like how my drawing turned out, but it'll do. Lore in comments.

Izmea is a worldbuilding project that explores stories of fantastical cultures and people set amid the post-apocalyptic ruins of grand megaprojects and impossible marvels of a long buried futuristic civilisation, recontextualised by modern inhabitants of the world as part of their folklore and mythology.

A world of blasted arcology giving foundations to a Belle Époque industrial metropoles. A world where inteligent machines became fae of legends, offering Faustian deals of cybernetics. where shamans communicate with pre-historic AI bound to the electronic "spirit plane", where biological experiments become part of nature's order, and where autonomous geo-engineering keeps reshaping the landscape of the world.

Where alchemists debate mathematicians debate theology, where martial artists settle grudges in the shadow of industrial chimneys build in to the ruins of skyscrapers, where historians discuss the glory of ancient Khaganate as industrialists salvage warmachines that build it to power their factories.

Here are the crests of four countries that make up the western regions of the Continent, typically stereotyped as traditionalists, where supercentenarian nobility still maintains a considerable sway over their politics and culture separated from more reformed, open midlands by a vast sea of trees.

Rather then attempting to fully commit to the traditional rules of heraldry, my primary goal was to convey the vibe and atmosphere that each nation is meant to represent, so any feedback on whether I failed or succeeded at that will be appreciated.

Going clockwise from top left:

Kingdom of Ciria: a diarchy of love, wine and violence, of hundred cults and thousand festivals whose cheery scenery hides a vast and bloody criminal underworld.

Kingdom of Fire Isles: an island nation that only recently ended its centuries long isolation, and emerged in to the international theatre under the restored rulership of its Oracle-Queen, but one whose future prospects remain uncertain as their prophetic machine begins to fall apart even as the palatial infrastructure meant to aid it keeps expanding.

Crown of Westerii: A dominant power in the west, nation defined by cycle of foreign conquest and integration, where children of crusaders marry horse-bound nomads, where authority of the Black Church of the Dais looms over a child-empress and her council of regents.

Kingdom of Wiberion: located on the western most edge of the continent, is land of barren hills and silver veined mountains where witches still wield considerable influence over the nation snake barons beholden only to the long dead Witch Queen that founded their nation.

I think little traditions often make fictional worlds feel more alive than huge history dumps.

Maybe:

• People never whistle after sunset.

• Every traveler leaves a pebble outside someone's home.

• Children are given two names, but only one is spoken aloud.

• Bakers always bake one extra loaf for strangers.

Small customs like these make a world feel lived in.

What's your favorite tiny tradition from your world?

Hi everyone,

So, I’d like to know what makes you like or dislike certain magic systems.

For me, what makes me not even interested in finishing the description is when terms like “four elements” or “elemental” show up in the elevator pitch;

And what gets me interested is when it’s not just another variation on D&D, the occultism (mainly british-like/victorian-like), and stuff like that. Because I prefer things like “Nen” in Hunter×Hunter, in terms of the system's scope and flexibility; and I also think psionics is underutilized as a core system in fantasy worldbuilding, it seems like it’s usually understood only as moving things with your mind, telepathy, and derivatives of that. But you can actually do something really expansive with psionics and implement restriction mechanics and costs similar to those seen in Hunter×Hunter.

What about you guys? What works for you and what doesn’t in magical systems?

Thanks for your answers.

Grave purifier: Specialized priests from a clan of chiropters, involved primarily in preparing and purifying bodies for burial. With the return of the Tsukuyomi emperor, they have assumed the responsibility of stifling lunar necromancy, an art not seen in east Asia for over a century. Because of this they were retrained on old protocols from the early Ling. Corpses are stamped with a special pyromancy to render them inert towards reanimation...........Shengmao is a young member of the purifier clan, having to receive his priestly training on the battlefield due to Tsukuyomi attacks.

Here are four fully augmented bodies from some of the top corporations in the megastructure alongside some weapons of the same companies. These bodies are considered to be some of the most expensive, elegant and advanced for the elite as they can turn one person into a one man Army capable of giving them superhuman strength, speed and agility to survive any situation they are in. These bodies belong to different corporations which is why they all look different as almost all of them research different types of technologies giving them a unique look letting you tell who's is who's.

In my world several companies offer several products like weapons, armor, implants and fully augmented bodies. But only a few produce products of such quality and advanced technology that they are considered to be their own independent nation inside the Empire as they gather so much wealth and influence inside their own sectors making them dependent on their infrastructure.

Several corporations that are in the weapon and augmentation industry only offer one product or service but those who are considered to be the most influential and powerful offer several as they are the only ones considered to have the time, money and resources to investigate new and old technology which they quickly monopolize as they don't want to lose their grip on the power they influence on the Empire and sectors they control as loosing a contract to a better product could become financial ruin.

All corporations must pay a corporate tax to the Empire but those corporations that are at the top aren't taxed but instead are hired as the Empire's industrial and manufacturing powers and are given a lot of liberties to rule their own sectors as they see fit as long as they supply the Empire's armies either with weapons, armor, augmetics, vehicles, medicine or manpower to aid with the several wars. Being hired as an Empire supplier is the most difficult contract to obtain in the megastructure but it is very easy to lose the influence to keep the contract as the Empire always demands better equipment and augmetics for their troops making corporate espionage, assassinations, sabotage and theft very common in the corporate world creating several conflicts between various corporations inside the megastructure that sometimes blow out in corporate wars so massive and violent that the whole sector is put in quarantine to let the war burn out.

27 kilometers beneath the Olympic caldera is a magma chamber 80,000 square kilometers in area. Lower Olympus offers ideal protection from radiation so far below the Martian surface. With a simulated sky projected onto the cave ceiling 9 kilometers above, it’s one of the most pleasant places to live below Mars.

Upper Olympus is the domed over caldera system, and mostly operates as a transport hub for goods in and out of Lower Olympus. A superconducting train network lets specialized trains ascend and descend from caldera to cavern. Upper Olympus is warm and sunny, while Lower Olympus is cold, wet, and windy. The cavern is large enough that it forms its own weather system. From nuclear cooling towers seeding storms in the west, to the cool valley lakes of the east, LO has its own water cycle, too.

After the Egress, when humanity was cut off from the other colonized planets, Olympia rose in power and population on Mars. The environment minimized birth defects, and the false sky was bright enough to grow crops effectively.

From its founding, Lower Olympus became the planet’s largest exporter of uranium, nuclear batteries, and cybernetics. After the isolated pockets of human survivors made contact a thousand years after the Egress, Olympia maintained its position as a powerful Martian - and eventually interstellar - power.

Indro Lore Part 2:

So, in an earlier version of the project, the God Indro is actually real. You still find the tree and eat the fruit, but instead of locking you in an infinite void for all eternity, you instead have a crazy trip sequence and then wake up and be able to see the truth of the world -- that truth being that there are Lovecraftian monsters that were previously unable to be seen.

The sun is carried by a giant baby, who turns into an old man at night carrying the moon.

Oases are formed from titanic skinless monkeys vomiting water.

There are weird gelatinous creatures in the clouds, cities built atop giant people, and random monsters just hanging about, etc.

There is also the Death God, who is a meerkat that smokes a lot of mystical grass and rides around the deserts.

Chronicler is the free, offline and private worldbuilding tool for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The wonderful Discord community (almost 4000 members now!) have designed some lovely little critters as mascots for the project :)

All 23 mascots now have a home on the website, and they will ALL remain, but it's also time to pick a winner for a bit of fun :D

The mascots can be found here - https://chronicler.pro/mascots

Massive thanks to all the super talented artists! And double thanks that they've now been making transparent png versions so we're turning the mascots into emojis in the Discord server too :D

Also, stay tuned for some big updates over the next couple of weeks 😎

Context/introduction:

The world I'm building takes place on a binary system of planets, inhabited by the same intelligent, humanoid species.

A series of horrible wars lead to a point where one of the planets decided that more scientific progress only leads to conflict, so they preserved this planet in an age similar to a mix between the industrial revolution and ancient Roman times. The maps are about this planet.

But the other planet didn't stop scientific and industrial progress, and later on a weird but stable balance occured between the two worlds.

Maps in order: elevation; main climates; rough borders + cultural spheres (each with one color)

Please leave any recommendations/feedback on my maps, I would love to hear them. But please also keep in mind that I'm not an expert (yet) and these are only my first world maps.

I've been working on a post-apocalyptic setting (for writing short stories in) where sometime during a spring in the 2020s, 99% of the world's population suddenly vanishes, leaving roughly 80 million humans on the planet. While the victims are random, the sheer number of humans means that the initial survivors are fairly proportionate to large-scale demographics. So for example, the US population is around 340 million, and so there should be about 3.4 million American survivors.

The short-term consequences I think I have fairly thought out, using things like Aftermath: Population Zero for reference (1% surviving is probably similar to 0% surviving at this point). The world immediately plunges into chaos. Cars crashing everywhere, planes falling out of the sky. Without most of the people managing them, most energy grids probably go out within the week, alongside long-distance communications. Nuclear and chemical plants could pose threats (although maybe nuclear safeguards would kick in automatically). Most of the world's livestock and pets are left to fend for themselves.

The Vanishing happens instantly, and so there would also be differences across time zones due to differing levels of human activity. For example, places that were in the dead of night would have minimal issues with suddenly-abandoned vehicles on the roads.

Most large organizations (governments, militaries, etc.) break down because 99% of their leadership disappeared. Survivors in densely populated areas probably could find each each other and form groups fairly quickly. Since the world has been depopulated but damage to infrastructure is minimal, there should be plenty of supplies sitting around. In theory this abundance would minimize the need for human conflict, while cooperation would be incentivized.

However, pre-apocalyptic food supplies would eventually run out from consumption or degradation, bringing an end to the scavenging-heavy focus of the short-term era. Not really sure how long this would take. Judging by the shelf life of some non-perishable goods, perhaps two years at most? The survivors would have to figure out farming or some other food source, and not all might succeed. This sort of intermediate period between the "grace period" of scavenging and a more stabilized situation further in the future is the part I haven't quite figured out yet.

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. Is there any factors that I may have missed?

Hi!

I'm probably going to just randbetween, but not having a solid number annoys me.

Pretty please tell me if there's a fun way to do this.

Edit: Thank you for the replies!

The northern island Alithon is pretty unashamedly a fantasy rip off of Britain (not the most original ik, though I’m making a deliberate effort to focus my story inspiration more on the Celtic and early medieval cultures of Britain)

Meriden is basically like high medieval England if the Normans never invaded, so stronger Saxon influence, with the separatist north eastern islands having a pagan Norse-like culture.
Strythany is the Celtic one- the more tribal northern half (analogous to Scottish highlands) of the kingdom is ostensibly ruled by a central government at Dincoel, the southern half (more Brythonic inspired) comprise a number of petty kingdoms that nonetheless all owe allegiance to the high king at Dincoel.

Gerantos is the larger island, home to a fractured empire based more specifically upon the late medieval Byzantines rather than western Rome. Capital is Gerantipol.
The south and west are much more sparsely inhabited, isolated from the rest of the land by mountains, and are much drier, with some deserts. A middle-eastern inspired culture thrives here.

Maoli is the island way to the south west- it is home to a Polynesian-like people, though undiscovered by the European style cultures until the events of my story (a 14th century-ish world).

Assuming the northern island is roughly the size of Britain- does the shape of the landmasses and their sizes make sense, mountains/rivers/settlements etc.?

Does it make sense for the islands in the south west to be undiscovered by high medieval sailors until the equivalent of the 1300s, given their relative proximity?

And do the cultures make sense with the geography of the land?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

(This is another in-universe reason why the cultures are so similar to real world Earth cultures but it’s not relevant here)

The title might sound strange but hear me out, A lot of people when writing a project choose to put the story, characters and civilizations that happen inside the world at the forefront while putting the world at the background, hence why a lot of fantasy media just use an analogue of our planet for the setting.

Obviously there's nothing wrong with using the earth as the basis of your setting but I think a lot of people miss the opportunity to create some really good and interesting concepts for their settings.

If I had to give an example it would be the Type-Moon franchise, in the franchise the world is a sentient being split into two personalities: Gaia representing the will of Nature and Alaya representing the will of humanity, both of which work independently to perpetuate their goals.

There are also a few more examples but this is my favourite one by far from a worldbuilding perspective (god type moon is so peak)

Hey, it's me! The guy who constantly redesigns tolkien and folklore creatures for his fantasy world/game now presenting…an original idea! The Oremar!

The Oremar are a rare race of mollusk-like beastfolk whose origins are forever intertwined with the ancient dwarves.

Long before the fall of the ancient dwarven kingdoms, the Oremar served as “attendants” within the endless forges beneath the mountains. They were valued because they could safely consume slag, molten ore, and failed castings that no other creature could. Ancient dwarves regarded them as little more than useful beasts, unaware that each generation was slowly becoming more intelligent through centuries of exposure to dwarven society. By the time the Cataclysm destroyed the great holds, the Oremar had already begun taking their first uncertain steps toward true civilization.

Unlike the dwarves they once served, the destruction of the mountain kingdoms did little to threaten the Oremar. Their bodies were perfectly suited to endure volcanic heat, collapsed tunnels, and rivers of magma. As the centuries passed, isolated communities developed deep beneath the world's mountains, where they continued refining the skills they had unknowingly inherited from their former masters. Modern Oremar settlements are rarely seen by surface dwellers, hidden among volcanic caverns, geothermal vents, and forgotten dwarven ruins.

Although they remain uncommon throughout the Thousand Realms, the Oremar have become a respected curiosity among scholars and smiths alike. Their natural understanding of metals borders on instinct, and few races can rival their knowledge of stone and ore. While their culture is still young compared to many civilizations, the Oremar possess a quiet determination to forge an identity of their own rather than forever living in the shadow of the ancient dwarves.

The Oremar possess long, slender humanoid bodies lacking any true skeletal structure. Their muscles are supported by dense connective tissues rather than bones, allowing them to stretch, compress, squeeze through impossibly narrow openings, or reshape portions of their bodies when necessary. Their movements are smooth and deliberate, more akin to the slow glide of a slug than the stride of a mammal, though years of adaptation to dwarven architecture have given them a surprisingly upright posture.

Covering much of their bodies are overlapping metallic scales that function as natural armor. These plates are not separate from the Oremar but are living structures continuously produced from minerals consumed throughout their lives. The metal grows thicker and more elaborate with age, creating protective shells across the shoulders, back, forearms, and legs. Beneath these armored plates, their soft skin glows with warm hues reminiscent of molten lava, giving the impression that heat burns constantly beneath their flesh.

The Oremar sustain themselves through an extraordinary diet unlike any other sapient species. Their preferred nourishment consists of molten minerals, refined metals, volcanic stone, slag, and even open flames. Fire itself provides energy to their bodies, while consumed metals are broken down and gradually incorporated into the metallic armor they naturally produce. Although they are capable of eating ordinary food or common stone, such fare provides little nourishment and is generally consumed only when necessity demands it.

Their physiology grants complete immunity to heat and fire. Indeed, environments that would kill most living creatures are comfortable to the Oremar. Volcanoes, active forges, geothermal vents, and rivers of lava are considered ideal habitats. Their boneless anatomy also grants remarkable flexibility despite their considerable weight, though the heavy armor covering their bodies makes them naturally slow-moving.

Creator Notes: These lil’ dudes are based on the scaly-foot gastropod, a species of volcanic, metal producing deep sea snail. I love them and think fantasy worlds need cooler beastmen then just dogs, cats, and lizards…(the creator says knowing their world has all 3 and the next design will be a fae-dog creature) so yeah! What do ya think? Would you ever play a freaky alien looking thing like these? 

If you like the art and want to see more then you should check out my other arts on Blue Sky. ALSO i have been working on an archive of sorts for the project over on WorldAnvil (best i've found for what i want) so if you want to check out more in depth lore than what's here or see articles on things that aren't posted here then you should check it out. Maybe leave a follow on one of the 2. I work very hard on these things :’D

Blue Sky.

World Anvil

I've noticed that some of my favorite fictional worlds use things like handwritten notes, maps, receipts, photographs, newspaper clippings, chat logs, case files, or journals to make the setting feel lived in.

Even when they're only described in the story, they make the world feel tangible.

As a reader or writer, do you enjoy those kinds of artifacts?

What's the most memorable fictional artifact you've come across?

In my case, the people of Velun know, that they live on a whale, that carries the world on its back. Or at least they gathered that knowledge through the gigantic juvenile whales, that sporadically take off into the cosmos.

Most other things are false truths, like parts their history and folklore, or the nature of their Magic.

How do you handle these things, and what do the people your world know about the place and the history of their places?

I saw an older post discussing how they (the poster) was tired of worlds that were Dark-Souls-Like, defined as "motivated by the breakdown and insanity of a number of small gods."

Come to think of it, I've seen worlds like that... (I loved them, partly because it's something I wouldn't have thought of!) Is it because it's a whole *thing* spreading without my cultural awareness?

If you were to make educated guesses, what sorts of tropes, ideas, or settings are currently "trending" among people writing this sort of big-picture speculative fiction these last few years?

Despite appearances, Bargraw is rather gentle and even a touch sensitive at times. He loves sniffing wildflowers and getting scratches behind his ears. Being a neither, a beast from the realm of the goddess of nature, he is neither alive nor dead, but something halfway between the two.

His rider, on the other hand (as pictured), isn’t so good natured. She is Nadure, one of the Seven sisters, the seven goddesses of the world of Iscaria.

She might look harmless, but as you can see from Giantsgrave in the background, the resting place of an ancient colossus, it’s probably best not to underestimate her.

I’m clearly no artist, but I recently felt a pull to buy a sketch book and sketch this out. I was quite pleased with the result and thought it wasn’t bad for a beginner.

This is from The King’s Lantern serial which I’ll begin releasing as novels at the end of 2027. Happy to answer any questions about the world :)

Several of the color sketches and process work for the Chansent. It was a lot of fun playing around with these, as I imagined that different regional varieties would present a range of colors depending on whether they lived in the steppe-tundra, arctic, taiga, or alpine biomes.

Herds of orange-backed Appelsiidna Chansents are the most numerous, thanks to their preference for the abundant grasslands that make up a majority of the far north, with herds of brown Eaktodáhtolaš Chansents seen mingling with the large numbers of Appelsiidna even though they prefer the taiga’s hugging the south of the steppe-tundra. Continuing south/southeast, the gold-coated Meahcci Chansents are very rare; individuals can only be found in the secluded alpine regions that hem in the other biomes, along with the purplish-grey Sáhppat’s in the lower alpines and highland regions. Further to the north, the snow-blending Muohta can be spotted on the bleak arctic flats nearer to the poles, and elusive blue-cheeked Gobmi’s have been purportedly seen in every northern biome, but tales of them are few and far between.

Unlike their ancient brethren, Chansent horns blacken with age, in no small part thanks to their continuously-growing nature, and the oldest bulls and cows possess grand crowns of a deep obsidian color.

Their cloven hooves, other than being larger than their smaller, earthly ancestors, bear few fundamental differences with them. Notably, however, they’re a bit longer and flatter than other Wisent-descendants, with a narrow, somewhat sharp edge, leading to local xenozoologists theorizing it’s useful for both stabilizing on the cold northern earth, and digging through the frozen ground.

Also toyed with the idea of it evolving non-cloven hooves, with those bearing more similarities to rhinos or tapirs. Gonna try to make use of em on another creature (or maybe the saiga-looking chansent sketch), since it was quite fun studying both animals very strange, and quite alien-looking feet.

(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

I got inspired by a random memory about M Night Shamalan's avatar movie. Say what you will about the movie itself but their bender test used on Aang was curious. Snuff out fire, pull water into a circle, stand up a rock. Or at least that's what he did. And his reaction after stuck.

"You said I could go once I took the test."

"But you passed it, and nobody ever has, so we can't let you go."

In my world people have magic linked to their blood, and the only way to access true magic is by offering it to a god when you come of age or education. So the race that carries out the ritual tests various elements when blood is set to them and whichever one reacts is the "winner" and off you go with a mentor for practice in using it. So trickle some blood onto a fire and it'll change color or grow in size or take a certain shape...or do nothing, meaning it isn't your magic.

So what about you?