Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting, sometimes associated with a
: PT103The world could encompass different planets spanning vast distances of
Etymology
The term "world-building" was first used in the Edinburgh Review in December 1820[14] and appeared in Arthur Eddington's Space Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920) to describe the thinking out of hypothetical worlds with different physical laws.[15]: 160 The term has been used in science fiction and fantasy criticism since appearing in R.A. Lupoff's Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure (1965).[13]: 270
History
One of the earliest examples of a fictional world is Dante's Divine Comedy, with the BBC's Dante 2021 series describing it as "the first virtual reality".[16] The creation of literary fictional worlds was first examined by fantasy authors such as George MacDonald, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord Dunsany, Dorothy L. Sayers, and C. S. Lewis.[8] William Morris would be the first person to create the entire world of his story.[17]
Tolkien addressed the issue in his essay "
Later analysis of fantasy worlds in the 1960s contextualized them in the medium or the narrative of the works, offering an analysis of the stories in the world, but not the world itself. In the 2000s, worldbuilding in film has increased in popularity. When before, writers sought to create a character that could sustain multiple stories, now they create a world that can sustain multiple characters and stories.
Methods
Worldbuilding can be designed from
With the bottom-up approach, the designer focuses on a small part of the world needed for their purposes. This location is given considerable detail, such as local geography, culture, social structure, government, politics, commerce, and history. Prominent local individuals may be described, including their relationships to each other. The surrounding areas are then described in a lower level of detail, with description growing more general with increasing distance from the initial location. The designer can subsequently enhance the description of other areas in the world. For example, an author may create fictional currencies and refer to fictional books to add detail to their world. Terry Pratchett says "You had to start wondering how the fresh water got in and the sewage got out... World building from the bottom up, to use a happy phrase, is more fruitful than world building from top-down."[21]
This approach provides for almost immediate applicability of the setting, with details pertinent to a certain story or situation. The approach can yield a world plagued with inconsistencies, however. By combining the top-down and bottom-up approaches, a designer can enjoy the benefits of both. This is very hard to accomplish, however, because the need to start from both sides creates twice as much work, which may delay the desired product.
Despite requiring considerable work to develop enough detail for a setting to be useful, not every aspect of a setting can be explored, and instead an approach called inferred worldbuilding is often used. Inferred worldbuilding is when the author provides enough detail about the various parts of a setting that readers can extrapolate on what is written to come to their own conclusions regarding specific details that were not provided. This is especially useful for roleplaying game settings, as individual games may require certain details to be created on a case-by-case basis for the RPG's story to function.
Elements
From a game-design perspective, the goal of worldbuilding is to create the context for a story. Consistency is an important element, since the world provides a foundation for the action of a story.
An uninhabited world can be useful for certain purposes, especially in science fiction, but the majority of constructed worlds have one or more
Physics
Perhaps the most basic consideration of worldbuilding is to what degree a fictional world will be based on real-world
Some fictional worlds modify the real-world
Cosmology
Constructed worlds often have cosmologies, both in the
Fantasy worlds can also involve unique cosmologies. In Dungeons & Dragons, the physical world is referred to as the Prime Material Plane, but other planes of existence devoted to moral or elemental concepts are available for play, such as the Spelljammer setting, which provides an entirely novel fantasy astrophysical system. Some fantasy worlds feature religions. The Elder Scrolls series, for example, contains a variety of religions practiced by its world's various races. The world of the 2000 video game Summoner has a well-developed cosmology, including a creation myth.
Geography
Construction of a
The
Some software programs can create random terrain using fractal algorithms. Sophisticated programs can apply geologic effects such as tectonic plate movement and erosion; the resulting world can be rendered in great detail, providing a degree of realism to the result.
Culture
Constructed cultures, or concultures, are a typical element of worldbuilding. Worldbuilders sometimes employ past human civilizations as a model for fictional societies. The 1990 video game Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire, for example, takes place in a world full of tribes based on civilizations in early Mesoamerica and Africa. This method can make a fictional world more accessible for an audience. Simon Provencher has stated as a 'Golden Rule' of worldbuilding that "... unless specified otherwise, everything inside your world is assumed to behave exactly as it would in the real world."[28] Another example is Steven S. Long, a representative of the Champions role-playing game, who stated that "Everything that happened in the real world has also unfolded in the exact same way in the Champions Universe." This means any past wars, elections, and technological advancements in our world occurred the same way in the Champions Universe unless explained otherwise.
Creating a cohesive
Types of constructed worlds
Examples of constructed worlds include
.Constructed worlds are not always limited to one type of story.
A
See also
- Constructed language – Consciously devised language
- Fantasy world – Imaginary world created for fictional media
- Fictional encyclopaedism – Literary concept
- List of fictional universes– Self-consistent fictional setting with elements that may differ from the real world
- Mythopoeia – Narrative genre in modern literature and film
- Paracosm – Detailed imaginary world
- Planets in science fiction– Planet that only appears in works of fiction
References
- OCLC 767670861.
- OCLC 54416073.
- OCLC 1009182095.)
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- ^ OCLC 1004848638.)
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- ^ OCLC 851971993.
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- OCLC 1153082894.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - OCLC 1127387835.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - OCLC 1089274366.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ OCLC 608415902.
- ^ "World". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- OCLC 905652391.
- ^ "Inferno". Dante 2021. 11 Jan 2021. BBC.
- )
- ^ a b Tolkien, J. R. R. (1983), Tolkien, Christopher (ed.), "On Fairy Stories", The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, pp. 109–161
- OCLC 8628512.
- ISBN 0-7869-2889-1.
- OCLC 46649829.
- ISBN 1-58450-090-5.
- OCLC 1021810749.
- ISBN 0-312-06003-3.
- OCLC 60860826.
- ISBN 1-58366-016-X.
- ISBN 0-312-06003-3.
- ^ Provencher, Simon. "The Golden Rule of Worldbuilding". Worldbuilder. Simon Provencher. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
External links
- Worldbuilding at Curlie