A sci fi and fantasy setting for multiple stories

[TheRealKyleTM]

I am working on a world. Well... a universe. It started because I wanted to tell a story eith the basic structure and tropes of LOTR but across a star wars level galaxy or between galaxies. It also allows me to go back in time and write my alternate history for earth with vampyres and Catholic super heroes. And I have now developed an isolated world that I want to tell its story through the lens of an extra terrestrial historian who is watching them like ants in an enclosed colony.


I will potentially start adding more details here or if i create a world bible online I may tag it here. I think it would be cool to make it a shared creative universe.

 

[pmmg]

I am not into sharing or doing a collaborative effort. I am not sure when I have ever seen Catholic superheroes, and most things 'catholic' that I see, are capturing the trappings, but not really anything any Catholic would call...accurate. I hope you get that right.

 

[ThinkerX]

I have a dozen dark fantasy tinged with SF books out there set on three reasonably detailed planets, plus references to several others (including Earth). The stories include knights, quasi-Roman soldiers, wizards of a sort, goblins, elves, dwarves, cat-people, utterly inhuman aliens, crashed alien starships, a living labyrinth hundreds of miles across, impressive (but failing) alien tech, swords, exploding crossbow bolts, lines of semaphore towers extending across thousands of miles, and more.

The WIP adds another planet to the mix along with a human starship.

 

[TheRealKyleTM]

I am not into sharing or doing a collaborative effort. I am not sure when I have ever seen Catholic superheroes, and most things 'catholic' that I see, are capturing the trappings, but not really anything any Catholic would call...accurate. I hope you get that right.

Well, it is fiction. I plan to represent my own faith well as a Catholic myself. The superheroes i have come up with so far are Aegis who is chosen and blessed by St Michael the Archangel, and Virtus who finds the long lost skull of St Maximilian Kolbe (which does not exist in real life) and receives abilities as a blessing from the relic. They are not perfect beings by any means and will struggle with faith the same as others.


Why are you not a fan of collaborative efforts? Just curious, I totally understand it isn't for everyone

 

[TheRealKyleTM]

I have a dozen dark fantasy tinged with SF books out there set on three reasonably detailed planets, plus references to several others (including Earth). The stories include knights, quasi-Roman soldiers, wizards of a sort, goblins, elves, dwarves, cat-people, utterly inhuman aliens, crashed alien starships, a living labyrinth hundreds of miles across, impressive (but failing) alien tech, swords, exploding crossbow bolts, lines of semaphore towers extending across thousands of miles, and more.

The WIP adds another planet to the mix along with a human starship.

Oooo this is cool! I am working on two different settings rn. One is for a set of novels and the other is for a ttrpg I am fleshing out

 

[Prince of Spires]

I am not sure when I have ever seen Catholic superheroes

I have come across several saints who definitely fit into this category. Especially some of the earlier ones. This summer I came across one in Spain, who was beheaded by the Moors because he was a Christian priest. After being beheaded, he picked up his own head, forgave his executioners, and continued preaching for several years. If that's not superhero territory, I don't know what is.

Unfortunately, I forgot the guys name... But there are several Cephalophores in Christianity. So plenty to choose from.

Why are you not a fan of collaborative efforts? Just curious, I totally understand it isn't for everyone

The question wasn't aimed at me, but for me there are plenty of reasons not to be a fan. For one, the worldbuilding part is the easy part. Few people spend 200 hours worldbuilding, but that's the minimum for a first draft (and there will be more...). Writing the thing is much harder work. Which creates an imbalance in the amount of work that has gone in.

There's also the question of what to do when it accidentally becomes wildly successful (which sort of follows from the previous). Everyone's great friends right up until there's a lot of money in it. Say I write a novel in your universe. A movie producer likes it and picks it up for $1 million. How much of that do you think is yours? After all, I wrote the novel and thus did all the hard work. But it's your universe? And what if there is a follow-up movie in the same universe but not based on my novel that also pays $1 million? How much do you feel you deserve for that?

There are lots of variation on the above problem. This might be a more extreme version, but there are plenty more realistic, similar ones. There is a reason authors who write Star Wars novels get very lengthy, clear, and restrictive contracts before their novels are published.

There's also the fact that I already have plenty of worlds floating around in my head to write, so I don't need someone else's universe to play around in. In my own I can dictate my own rules without having to worry about what someone else thinks is cool.

I don't really see much of a positive in it.

 

[TheRealKyleTM]

I have come across several saints who definitely fit into this category. Especially some of the earlier ones. This summer I came across one in Spain, who was beheaded by the Moors because he was a Christian priest. After being beheaded, he picked up his own head, forgave his executioners, and continued preaching for several years. If that's not superhero territory, I don't know what is.

Unfortunately, I forgot the guys name... But there are several Cephalophores in Christianity. So plenty to choose from.


The question wasn't aimed at me, but for me there are plenty of reasons not to be a fan. For one, the worldbuilding part is the easy part. Few people spend 200 hours worldbuilding, but that's the minimum for a first draft (and there will be more...). Writing the thing is much harder work. Which creates an imbalance in the amount of work that has gone in.

There's also the question of what to do when it accidentally becomes wildly successful (which sort of follows from the previous). Everyone's great friends right up until there's a lot of money in it. Say I write a novel in your universe. A movie producer likes it and picks it up for $1 million. How much of that do you think is yours? After all, I wrote the novel and thus did all the hard work. But it's your universe? And what if there is a follow-up movie in the same universe but not based on my novel that also pays $1 million? How much do you feel you deserve for that?

There are lots of variation on the above problem. This might be a more extreme version, but there are plenty more realistic, similar ones. There is a reason authors who write Star Wars novels get very lengthy, clear, and restrictive contracts before their novels are published.

There's also the fact that I already have plenty of worlds floating around in my head to write, so I don't need someone else's universe to play around in. In my own I can dictate my own rules without having to worry about what someone else thinks is cool.

I don't really see much of a positive in it.

I appreciate your viewpoint, but i suppose in my case I imagine it as a sandbox. I want people who maybe dont like worldbuilding, or something akin to that, to be able to add to the world. But I want it done on submission and approval, and then by a very detailed terms of service agreement and specific choices about the copyright style of the work. But also, its worldbuilding. If someone else writes a banger story in a world I built, I just want to be named as the worldbuilder. I can make money on my own time. I'm more interested in the fantastic outcomes of collective creativity which can be really fascinating and diverse.

If everything artistic we ever do is boiled down to equity of effort and monetary value then the art is lost. If you're writing professionally full time I totally understand the aversion to shared collaborative worlds, but in my case, I can't even finish a manuscript yet and I've been writing for ten years. My favorite thing to do is world build. Why not share that?

 

[pmmg]

I am not sure Saints and Superheroes conjure up the same connotation is todays world, But, fair enough... Still, I am thinking on more modern renditions of the faith in today's story telling. There are not too many who show any real understanding of the thing they are writing about. Just kicking it around with an outside understanding. (And, if I really get at it, most renditions of religious people in today's media does so with the purpose of showing them in a bad light).

I would agree with PoS on all his reasons. I don't collaborate cause I have my own stuff to do, and I don't need someone else's. These things read to me as, I have an idea, but not the ability, how about you lend me your ability and do it for me, then we both share... No thanks. I have enough trouble writing my own stuff. Plus, I am a loner type. I would not get along with another in this regard.

 

[TheRealKyleTM]

I am not sure Saints and Superheroes conjure up the same connotation is todays world, But, fair enough... Still, I am thinking on more modern renditions of the faith in today's story telling. There are not too many who show any real understanding of the thing they are writing about. Just kicking it around with an outside understanding. (And, if I really get at it, most renditions of religious people in today's media does so with the purpose of showing them in a bad light).

I would agree with PoS on all his reasons. I don't collaborate cause I have my own stuff to do, and I don't need someone else's. These things read to me as, I have an idea, but not the ability, how about you lend me your ability and do it for me, then we both share... No thanks. I have enough trouble writing my own stuff. Plus, I am a loner type. I would not get along with another in this regard.

That's fair. I definitely understand the criticism. In my position though, id be releasing under specific creative commons licensing so I couldn't ask for any compensation from someone else's work

 

[TheRealKyleTM]

I am not sure Saints and Superheroes conjure up the same connotation is todays world, But, fair enough... Still, I am thinking on more modern renditions of the faith in today's story telling. There are not too many who show any real understanding of the thing they are writing about. Just kicking it around with an outside understanding. (And, if I really get at it, most renditions of religious people in today's media does so with the purpose of showing them in a bad light).

I would agree with PoS on all his reasons. I don't collaborate cause I have my own stuff to do, and I don't need someone else's. These things read to me as, I have an idea, but not the ability, how about you lend me your ability and do it for me, then we both share... No thanks. I have enough trouble writing my own stuff. Plus, I am a loner type. I would not get along with another in this regard.

And I am Catholic, so this won't be an outside understanding