These are a collection of info pages I have been making about different cultures in an area of my worldbuilding project, the World of Rhündal. This area is dominated by rainforests, monsoons, tropical savanna's, and plenty peninsulas and islands.

Most of the inhabitants in this region (called the Woodlands) are a mix of elvish, serpentine, and lizard ancestry infused with the natural spirits of the land here.

Let me know if you have any questions about these cultures, their cultural practices, their history, or about any of the info I have provided on the pages. I would love to hear any suggestions you have about any of these cultures or the conflict that might spring up between them!

I don't have any examples of these in my World. I'm just curious as to what everyone would say.

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.

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?

I was thinking and I realized a lot of fantasy races are green, usually Ogres, goblins, orcs, sometimes elves, sometimes trolls, sometimes fairies, gets, and pixies. Also aliens and monsters

My only theory is that it is more natural than the alternatives like red, blue, yellow, etc or that it is more natural because many things in nature are green.

Tell me a cute, whimsical thing about your world! I'll start:

Moon Rabbits fall from the skies every full moon, as the snow on the moon finally drips off and compresse into bunnies! They tend to find homes with especially generous and kind people, before eventually vanishing and leaving behind a sweet treat called Moonchi (mochi, from the moon!) as thanks

Witches in the modern-day track and record faeries via radios. Mind you, faeries are not winged creatures in my world but rather living radio signals that can alter their surroundings to an unknown extent.

Modern witches, as stated, can record and modify these signals to allow them to control the magic inflicted upon their surroundings. They do this through mixing and distorting the faeries.

Glamour, the magic of faeries, has three specific effects that can occur. It can change the properties of an object, entity, or place. Be it a perceived property such as how familiar you think someone is. Be it a physical property such the density of a rock. Or be it a spacial property such as where a door leads.

Glamour will often swap or copy these properties from things around and apply them to the unprotected items nearby.

These notations track the unwieldy frequencies in the faeries to allow modern witches to calculate, mix, and control artificial faeries.

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.

GUIDELINES AND ETIQUETTE

• Please do not write "Humans are the real monsters" or anything of that nature.

• If someone leaves a reply on your comment, please try to read what they post and reply to them.

So, a bit of background.

This world has no government; mobs and mafia-like groups run it (not specifically Italian or Russian mobs or anything, just mobs). I'm thinking this world runs on two types of economic systems, with the lower class running primarily off of looting and bartering. The upper class and the mob groups go off of an exclusively digital monetary system, and the middle class goes off of both the digital system and bartering.

I know the obvious answer would be something like "units" or "credits." "Credits" feels a little too overused for me, and I am already using the term "units" for something else, so it can't be units. I want a dynamic name that would feel natural in converastion and not need to be explained to the reader as "____ means money" something that can be easily understandable as money.

Please help; at this point, there are no stupid answers. I have been trying to figure this out for months and finally turned to creating a Reddit account out of desperation! 🙏🙏

I'm creating a species of Avian-human hybrids, there's more to it than that which I will go into detail about another day. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out the anatomy for these beings and have decided to go for a double shoulder kind of approach but I'm not sure if it actually works/makes sense biology wise. I'm a beginner in all aspects of worldbuilding and biology so any advice is appreciated!

Listen. I spent way too much time looking at my star maps and realized something dumb but maybe cool. What if the sun isnt a star at all. What if its just a massive eye from some crazy thing in a different dimansion that just wants to watch. Like we are just a show for this thing. Its just looking at our planet all day long because it likes the colors or the wars or whatever. Eclipses are just when the thing blinks. Thats it. No moon movement or math stuff just a giant cosmic blink. It doesnt need gravity or physics. It just needs to see stuff.

i started thinking about how this would actually change people. Religion wouldnt be about gods it would be about being loud and bright so the eye stays interested. If the eye gets bored it just looks away and then the world ends because the light is gone. Farmers dont plant for the soil they plant patterns that look good from way up high. Like massive ground art just to keep the gaze fixed on them. Its not about faith its about pure survival through entertainment. Sivilization is basically just one big circus for the sky.

People would be terrified of a cloudy day because they think the eye is losing interest or getting sleepy. Wars would be fought with neon fires and shiny shields just to catch that light. I think this makes way more sense for a weird setting than just having another yellow sun. It makes the whole world feel like a stage. Plus think how stressful that is. No privacy from the sky.

Do you have any advice for working on the intermediate scale of a map between a world map, with continents, great kingdoms and empires, and oceans, and a small scale where you can already see cities, roads and (in my case, since I use it as a setting for my roleplaying sessions) adventure sites? I am good at the macro and micro scale, but I struggle a lot with the intermediate one. I think my worldbuilding project (in itself, regardless of its impact at the table) would benefit a lot right now from simply filling in the world map, which is currently very basic, with more concrete information, regions, geopolitics, major cities, major road arteries, and large rivers, even though I might eventually reach a detail as fine as what I would do for a hexcrawl. Note that I have a lot of prose material about each of the regions, I just find it very frictional to reify it on the map, and that is what I am looking for advice on.

By "fantasy kitchen sink," I mean throwing in whatever you want, provided it makes sense within the universe—robots, elves, aliens, dinosaurs, cosmic horror, dragons, megafauna, and so on. What do you have in yours? And, by the way, do you have any tips on how to create such a setting?

Current years: 823 A.C (after creation)

Description: Pan'geas are a world full of Interesting History and Story, With nation That have It's own culture and language, To it's own Civil war And Global Scaled war

LIST OF NATIONS (SUTHERN LAND):

1. SUTHERN CONFEDERATION:

• Autonomous regions of Dreparto (Province)

1. FREATER DRAYPORT:

• Autonomous regions of Rheinfurthhal (Province)

1. EASTTHAWAIT COMFONRATIONSH :

• None

1. VPORTO UNF USPWICH:

• Autonomous regions of Glenmead (Province)

1. NUAVO VAN REVUVLIK BRANHAVEN:

• Autonomous regions of west Rheinfurthhal (Province)

1. DRAKULTIN REVUVLIK:

• None

LIST OF NATIONS (NORTHERN LAND):

1. REVUVLIK UF NEWES HROLHAUGEN:

• Grund Hrólhaugen repolvultion (Revolts)

• Drakultin revuvlik (Revolts/Disputed)

1. GROẞER AESAUGEN:

• Bozhisko veovle repolvultion (Revolts)

1. KJELLARDAL AFFONID:

• Fjeldal (Unrecognized Government)

• Mittelrath (Unrecognized Government)

• Runvika (Unrecognized Government)

• Brunzel (Unrecognized Government)

• Milport (Unrecognized Government)

1. ELDLEYMARCH REVUVLIK:

• Ost bozhisko revuvlik (Puppet government)

Alliance In the south: • Suthern Diplomatic Alliance (S.D.A) Alliance in the north: • Northern military and economic alliance (N.M.C.A)

I will add some lore to all the nation in the future, stay tune :p

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.

From bottom to top, and left to right:

Generic Halflings, Gnommunai (Elves but small), Dverga (Dwarves, made of stone).

Seafolk (Fishy), Orcs (Fanged), Generic humans (everyone's human, but you get the picture), Alfar (Elves, also highly varied in their own right), Stelmati (essays could be written about the way they souls work).

Striga (Owl people), Ithikkos (Made of stone but not short), Half-giants (Generic humans got busy with Blue giants), Ascetics (strangest way of life here).

Blue Giants (Quite widespread and varied), Forest Giants (tree huggers), Dhegdeer (tall elves).

Fomoraigh (Red giants), Matsieng (Fishy, and also very big).

This is a rough representation of the races in my world. These are categories that are applied in-world, but don't often see use. In all these categories are more granular categories that actually see everyday use. In no case is this clearer than with the "normies". These "generic" races, defined as having a lifespan similar to irl humans, are about what you'd expect, but in this category exists the greatest variety by virtue of how widespread they are and their proclivity to... canoodle with any and all of the other races.

Major criteria for the categories presented here are Lifespan, Average size, and Weirdness. The first image is an attempt to capture their average heights altogether.

In-world criteria base themselves mainly with "origin", many of which have been forgotten, but are still spoken of in generalities. All Alfar, for instance, believe to have been carved from trees, Dwarves and Ithikkos from stone (from cave and mountain respectively), etc. The kind of tree, and/or the kind of stone, and the location of their specific origin, are further details that form unifying narratives for these races. Naturally, thousands of years of history make the origins and specific ancestry of anyone truly dubious. Many races have a short enough history that they don't concern themselves with their prehistoric origin story at all.

This basis also makes for some false groupings. For instance, there are several races of "generic humans" with crimson skin. Due to this, they are falsely assumed to share an origin with the Fomoraigh. This association has gone swimmingly for everyone involved. No genocides have occurred whatsoever. It's all hunky-dory in Ag-Aistru.

Questions are welcome. I can break down some of these categories into the actual in-world races as they describe themselves, up to a certain point. Naturally, some of these have more lore than others.

These are some critters I've made these past day for my world. I don't have a lot of lore for them yet as I usually start with the visual side. The only one I have just started to develop is the first one. It is called a Ta'sal and is a herbivore that lives around the desert and is around 145 cm at the withers. [EDIT] these are just the first version of these creatures so they will surely change as time goes on... except for the tas'al, I love that little fella xD If you have any suggestion for what to add/remove/tweak please let me know

The world itself:
The world these creatures inhabit is called Galathea and is the first world I've committed to fully develop... well, as far as I can, at least. Galathea is a high fantasy world where the people recently, around a century ago, overthrew an almost all-expansive empire. The once unified lands have struggled with wars as new borders rose and fell. However, something mysterious is also going on as everyone knows about the Empire, they knew it was bad, they knew many of its Gods were banned yet even though plenty of people were alive no one can actually remember much of it. I cannot go too much into detail just yet as this is a place and story my Daggerheart players are going to explore.

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.

Most of Elsewhen is covered in white flowers called Blankblooms. They symbolize memory and are woven into wreaths for loved ones, worn during celebrations, and used in everyday life.

But Elsewhen has no cemeteries.

Instead, the dead bloom.

Gemblooms are mystical parasitic flowers that bloom where a person has passed away, gradually transforming their earthly remains into flowers. Vast flower fields have replaced graveyards and are now places where the people of Elsewhen play, rest, and remember those who came before them.

Each Gembloom bears a magical crystal at its center, known as Mae. There are four types of Mae:

Liame (Fire)
Aome (Nature)
Miome (Water)
Eome (Air)

The size and number of Mae crystals depend on the magical composition of the deceased. One person may produce dozens of Gemblooms of different sizes and elements. The dominant magical element produces the largest crystals, while weaker affinities result in smaller ones.

Gemblooms cannot be picked safely.

They are sustained by Elsewhen's magical flow. If a Gembloom is removed from its source, it will begin feeding on the magic of whoever picked it. Picking a single flower is harmless. However, picking too many may eventually drain a person's magical energy and completely exhaust their magical essence, which can prove fatal.

Once the person who picked the flower dies, the Gembloom crystallizes into an eternal stone flower, forever preserving the memory of both the flower and its bearer.

Fortunately, the people of Elsewhen have learned how to harvest Mae crystals without harming themselves.

Mae crystals are used as currency throughout Elsewhen. Their value is determined primarily by their size rather than their type. Although all four Mae are considered equal in value, some merchants may prefer certain elements and offer better prices or discounts accordingly.

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?

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.