An oniric world

[BRG]

I've been thinking about creating a very dream-like fantasy world for a story, chaotic but with an odd sense of logic. I have some vague ideas as to how it could work but any suggestions or advice is helpful.

 

[joshua mcdermott]

I think we need more to go on- give us some of your vague ideas and maybe we can see if some of them resonate

 

[Charcuterie]

a dream world, well one idea i have is to balance it out with another world that can take away your grounding in the dream world. but yeah McDermott is right, more info pls good sir.

 

[BRG]

The two major things I have in mind is that there are various kinds of people from talking animals to just alien looking but you never see them referred as different species they're just there with humans, kind off like Alice in Wonderland. The other is about the enviroments. Have you noticed how in dreams shapes seem to blend into each other and you can't remember transitions? The idea is that you might be walking down a forest and slowly the shapes of the trees change and the ground takes on another texture... until suddenly you find yourself in a city. For a visual reference what inspired me was the videogame Shady Part Of Me.

Sorry if I don't explain myself well.

 

[LAG]

Hmmm, in the terms of how you describe your world and its gradual changes from one state to another, I'll suggest Roger Zelazny's Amber series as reference. Without giving away too much, the way his cosmological system functions is pretty much so, and while not an outright dream world, in a sense, it is.

 

[TJPoldervaart]

One idea is to design your world in a way similar to Studio Ghibli films and many fairytales. A youtube channel called Hello Future Me has an interesting video on this and calles it 'soft worldbuilding'. In essence, soft worldbuilding means you have a world where anything can happen without any strict rules, similar to a soft magic system. This can actually be very interesting, as long as the conflict in the story isn't depended too much on the magic in the world (beware the Deus ex Machina), but rather on the internal struggles of the characters themselves.

 

[BRG]

I should check those, then. Thank you!

 

[ThinkerX]

I am reminded of Lovecraft's 'Dreamlands.' The foundational work is the 'Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.' A couple years ago, a successor to Lovecraft wrote the very good 'Dream Quest of Vellit Boe'

 

[Valena]

To me, it sounds like a combination of Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz with maybe a hint of Ghibli's Spirited Away or Howl's moving castle.

You could consider your world to be crafted via 'soft worldbuilding' as suggested by TJP and then use the 'visual effect' - the blending or changing of the environment from forest to town - as a characterising trait of your story rather than as a restricting law. That way, you could include the aspect without the restrictions and problems that could arise if you treat it as a law. Do you know what I mean?

 

[BRG]

I am reminded of Lovecraft's 'Dreamlands.' The foundational work is the 'Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.' A couple years ago, a successor to Lovecraft wrote the very good 'Dream Quest of Vellit Boe'

I know that book, although I don't think is exactly what I am aiming for. Thank you, anyways