We have now reached the next step in pre production the space where angels fear to tread world building.
So in my last world building post a lot of people had the critic “you need to make people care about characters and not just add “random facts” (I’m paraphrasing but that was the main gist
So let me very explicitly explain what this section of the pre production document is for: this section is for adding the random facts and details that make your world unique, give it character establishing potential dynamics, before you write a single chapter. Because the world is just as much a character in your world as the characters with names and you should build it as such. With that out of the way let’s go over the subsections
World’s Past
Intricacies of the present
Objects of interests
Persons of interest
Unique twist
World’s role
World’s past is exactly what it sounds like. On a macro scale what is the past of your world before your story takes place
Intricacies of the present is whatever weird thing is happening during the story that are directly effecting it
Objects of interests are objects/concepts that are integral to your story or play an important role.
People of interest can go one of a few ways. You can put other races here if it’s a fantasy setting or you can put factions here or some combination of the two.
Unique twist is simply what is the thing that separates your world from other worlds.
Last but not least is World’s Role. This is simply expanding upon the concept of how does your world treat the main characters. Is it antagonistic, benevolent or some weird other thing.
So for Off the rails mine kinda looks like this:
World building
World’s past
The world is like ours except when magic, science and alchemy diverged towards the 1900s it exploded in power and potency in somewhat congruence with the steam engine. As a result the three become interwoven in everyday life especially with the discovery of ancient elemental spirits that could be bound or changed.
Intricacies of the present
WWII happened pretty much the same except for instead of it being a nuclear bomb twice it was a nuclear bomb and a sylex (more in objects of power) as a result of the damage the world’s magic and arcane weave is being tainted by negative emotions. The effect is compounding in major cities for example Los Angeles is also called Hell-A
Objects of interest
Sylex
A sylex is a magic device used exclusively for mass harm very dangerous and aren’t meant to be Just used by anyone. For example the black Stallion is a sylex
Curio
A curio is just an object imbued with arcane weave that makes it powerful
Matchstick
A weapon that can channel/ focus arcane energy
Persons of interest
Arcane touched
Humanoids that are magically altered or inherently magically
Dawnkin
Legally distinct Aasimar
Duskglow
Legally distinct tiefling
Elf
Self explanatory comes in 2 varieties boreal, and desert
orc
Self explanatory
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