My World Concept

[dragonpoet]

I've been sitting on this idea for a while now. I have several different world concepts but for the moment this is the world I am focused on. I want to take an image of Pangea (basically when the world is one land mass) and have each regions divided into different elements of the world; grasslands, mountains, glacial plains, forest, deserts, etc. The concept is that each region holds a key junction, or way-point, for the leylines (focal points of magic). My idea is that there are 10 elements of magic; earth, fire, water, wind, ice, lightning, steel, wood, light, and dark (water and Ice could be together along with wind and lightning but I like keeping them separate).

Now my world in my story has dealt with a great evil in the past and sealed it away using the leylines. Magic is widely used but those capable of using magic itself is a minority. Mages coexist with everyone else and have been seen as saviors and bringers of destruction at the same time. The story follows ten individuals who become successors to ten mages from the past who sealed away the evil presence that plagued the land. They are referred to as the Nobilis Court and are considered the most powerful mages of each elements.

This is my first official post outside of introducing myself and I really am not sure where to start. Questions welcomed and bombard me with critiques as more is revealed. I really want to try and move forward with this idea and this is just a brief introduction to it.

 

[HabeasCorpus]

Sounds like you've got a lot already thought out. Have you just sat down and started writing yet? How much world-building do you like to do before jumping in?

 

[skip.knox]

I agree with Habeas and his Corpus. Just start writing. It doesn't even have to be the Big Story. You could try writing backstory or a vignette or anything, even descriptions of a city or castle One trick I've used is to pretend I'm writing a travel guide -- look at actual travel guides for models. But the writing you want to get to, as quickly as possible, is one that involves dialog and action. Again, it doesn't have to be your Epic Novel, though of course it can.

As you start real writing, you'll find there will be places where you need to flesh out your world. You'll even find contradictions that you must resolve. Every once in a while, you'll get stuck or frustrated. This forum is great for such moments!

 

[Queshire]

My only suggestion is to avoid making it a Patchwork Map or if you do make it a patchwork map then think up a reason for it being a patchwork map and make sure you explain that reason some time during your story, 'cuz patchwork maps aren't natural.

Its seems to me that you're talking about biomes and there's plenty of information about biomes if you look, including information provided by our good friend wikipedia; Biome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ThinkerX]

The concept is that each region holds a key junction, or way-point, for the leylines (focal points of magic). My idea is that there are 10 elements of magic; earth, fire, water, wind, ice, lightning, steel, wood, light, and dark (water and Ice could be together along with wind and lightning but I like keeping them separate).

To me, it looks like you have more catagories of magic than you need. You already mentioned combining water and ice along with wind and lightning; I'd suggest combining fire with light, and earth with steel (and maybe wood) as well.

Now my world in my story has dealt with a great evil in the past and sealed it away using the leylines. Magic is widely used but those capable of using magic itself is a minority. Mages coexist with everyone else and have been seen as saviors and bringers of destruction at the same time. The story follows ten individuals who become successors to ten mages from the past who sealed away the evil presence that plagued the land. They are referred to as the Nobilis Court and are considered the most powerful mages of each elements.

My first thought here is you have too many characters with abilities that are going to be very close to each other. Keeping the READER straight as to who has what sort of magic is going to be difficult, to say the least (though not impossible).
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[wordwalker]

To me, it looks like you have more catagories of magic than you need. You already mentioned combining water and ice along with wind and lightning; I'd suggest combining fire with light, and earth with steel (and maybe wood) as well.

My first thought here is you have too many characters with abilities that are going to be very close to each other. Keeping the READER straight as to who has what sort of magic is going to be difficult, to say the least (though not impossible).

I would agree here. Of course any system can be written up well, but I think it's both too separated and too similar to have ten physical elements. Is it really best for the story to have this many purely separate forces, rather than merging some or saying some are the interaction of others (lightning with wind and metal, for instance) that various wizards might branch? Do you need ten whole separate lands and Nobilis leaders-- or rather, do you need ten equal ones, rather than exploring ways some might be more important, and others under their influence or quietly manipulating them?

(After all, with 10 Nobilis, you'd need 45 chapters just to let each one interact with each other one-- that is if each combination was given a separate chapter, which you probably don't want to do, but it gives a sense of how crowded the cast gets just from those leaders themselves. If those are all full-sized, important lands and elements, that's a big world and a big series.)

 

[adampjr]

I think there is a lot going on, and I agree with the comment about avoiding a Patchwork map without a good reason.
As far as the world building goes, I think its helpful to do some world building (for your own purposes) before writing, but I don't think you need to include all the world building in your story. World Building is helpful (IMO) so that you can iron out some locations and hopefully avoid contradictions when you're actually wrting the story.

 

[dragonpoet]

Lots of great input I'm reading. I want to establish that the 10 Nobilis are not leaders. Nobilis is the name of the land and they are more of select individuals who have delved into the Leylines to enhance their strengths at the cost of shortening their lives to prevent a former evil. Basically, my idea is that they are direct, living conduits for each of the elements, thus granting them the ability to unlock "hidden" attributes of each element.

I'm trying not to make much of a patchwork map, but just some suggestions of terrain. I have a simple idea for the map where the Southern region is desert, eastern is forests, northern is mountainous, and western is plains. Anything else will probably be weather related if it comes up in story.

I was thinking ten was too much but the way I want the feel of the story to go is similar to Game of Thrones, where it can take it from different perspectives from each of the major players in the story. I noted that it could be possible to combine elements due to the fact by base nature they are the same or similar, but I also wanted to emphasize on what specific properties each one shows best. Between Ice and Water, Ice is like the teeth of winter biting down on you and draining your life or burying you in tundra, and Water is usually soothing and a calm attribute that is usually seen as a supportive role but can be offensive.

I guess now I'm deviating more towards what my story is about but as for the world goes I will lay down some more description. In the center of the continent is an established Kingdom that is surrounding by plains and some forest area. There are several towns and cities but the ones that matter will be 1 town in the west (the plains area), one ruined town in the north (base of a mountain), and the central kingdom. That is about the most I have on draft.

I have started writing a little bit on the story but trying to polish up on some of the dialogue and overall scenery I am trying to portray. It is possible for me to condense and combine elements and allow branches for other mages, or I could stand with the individual elements and emphasize a particular archetype with each one (ex. Ice mage either a craft mage that creates weapons of ice, or shoots cold air and icicles at people).

This isn't really a story I plan on being short by any means (more of a series) but I at least want to get input and help lay some extra ground work so I have a comfortable place to expand. I do have 2 other story ideas that are much smaller in scale and I feel have some good momentum on my part to push forward. This is one of my ideas I've been mulling for years and been trying to get my feet wet with it. I like the concept and hold with it and I appreciate all the critiques and suggestions so far.

EDIT: One thing I will probably consider is limiting the leylines to just the core elements; earth, fire, wind, water, light, dark (I've always viewed Light and Dark as separate elements from the others). It wouldn't change much I think to the layout I have for myself so far.

 

[AnnaBlixt]

What strikes me about your description, is that this world might come off as "constructed" rather than a natural phenomenon. In fantasy, this might be fine - but if so, be aware of it. Is there a god (or demon or something) in this world who created the land this way? If not, you might want to go for a slightly more varied terrain rather than dividing the land into such distinct zones.

 

[wordwalker]

What strikes me about your description, is that this world might come off as "constructed" rather than a natural phenomenon. In fantasy, this might be fine - but if so, be aware of it. Is there a god (or demon or something) in this world who created the land this way? If not, you might want to go for a slightly more varied terrain rather than dividing the land into such distinct zones.

It sounds like the ley-line junctures are causing the climates, or maybe caused by it but amplify it a little. Here's a thought from Queshire's suggested link:

My only suggestion is to avoid making it a Patchwork Map or if you do make it a patchwork map then think up a reason for it being a patchwork map and make sure you explain that reason some time during your story, 'cuz patchwork maps aren't natural.

In addition, may be Hand Waved by saying that the game is not to scale with the world it's depicting; that invisible line between the jungle and the desert in the game may be described as several miles of mixed terrain in the tie-in novel.

So the world becomes much more plausible if there are hinterlands between the territories, maybe hundreds of miles across, where the ley-line effects are weak or where several are balanced or clash. (In the last case especially, the weather could get pretty chaotic. For that matter, you could get a few quick plausibility points by studying up on weather patterns and making at least one statement that the desert is dry partly because the mountains blocked its rain; it's fun to have even a token nod to the physics that might form around the magic.)

This might be related to how, in a world with X main kingdoms or Orders or other groups of powerful people, it's always good to give some time to the smaller folks caught between them.

 

[Addison]

Like everyone has said, it sounds like you have your world's foundation laid out. My only tip is to, only in your head, put thumbtacks where each environment (jungle, mountain etc) is and which one(s) they neighbor. If you know which magic is in which place, great.

But it sounds like you have everything ready so start writing. Good luck!