Constructing a Verse

[DanJames]

When building a brand new fantasy verse, what are the types of things everyone else does? Do you come up with a rough geographical layout in your head, then assign nations, races and cultures to each corner? Do you come up with an initial story, and plot the points out on a rough map and fill in the blanks at a later point? Do you start with a character and fan out everything from there?

I'm curious mainly because it isn't that common thing to do, build an entirely fictional world/series of worlds, even for writers as a lot of them will just write a story on Earth, so I'm not often graced with the chance to ask like-minded individuals.

My idea is a joint project with my best friend, I came up with a fantasy idea nearly a decade ago, when I was still in my mid-teens. The idea was fairly juvenile, but as I've aged I've seen things that could and/or should have been done differently. So when I finally introduced my friend to this idea, removing everything I disliked, all it was was a geographical layout, and two races. It's now exploding and there is four races atop one continent, a host of races upon another, their cultures, relegions, thought processes and ideals are developing at a nice easy pace, but I feel like maybe we're not doing this as efficiently as we should be.

So how do you start your verse, be it a small country or state, continent, world, series of worlds or entire an universe, and how do you catalogue all these things is also a bit of curiosity.

**EDIT** Also apologies, I had already submitted it when I realised it would've probably fitted more in world building. Just for a little clarity on it, I was looking for more tips, tricks and tools on how to construct something efficiently, rather than advice about how to construct specific lore-based things for a verse. That can come later.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I start with a difference, e.g. "This setting has magic that affects the body, mind, and soul" or "This setting has spirits that embody what people deny about themselves." From there, I start thinking of characters who reflect the effects of the difference, e.g. "a character who has unusual magic, but doesn't admit it and avoids using it." Then I fill in cultural and demographic factors that would explain the existence and roles of the characters, and once I have them explained, I'm ready to write. Anything else can be filled in later.

 

[DanJames]

I really like that, just a simple statement about the world or a part of it and building elements around a single statement. A good way to keep it simple so as not to distort the focus, all the while still being able to add deep complexities to it.

Thanks for that.

How do you catalogue your ideas then, in terms of keeping individual races and/or cultures in check with each of their individual qualities, or are you just the sort that is good at keeping that stuff in your head (so jealous if you are).

 

[Feo Takahari]

Most of my stories only have two or three focal cultures. There might be immigrants or refugees from other regions, but they're more easily considered as individuals than as representatives of their culture. I don't do a lot of epic journeys.

 

[evolution_rex]

It depends on what you want to do with this world.

If you want to write a story, come up with a story and the story's characters first and as you do it, you'll be creating your world along with it. Then once you've got some good ideas of your story, then go in-depth about your world. If you're doing this simply as hobby or for a personal D&D or D&D-like game, then you don't have to exactly worry about a story and you can get straight into building.

If you are going to go straight into building it, then I don't think there is really a clear-cut process on how to start. I think you should jot down all the ideas you have, not all of them may be good ideas and may not end up working in the future, but just jot them all down. Then apply those ideas in a map of the world. From there you can start anywhere you want really. I would say, just from my experience, to not start off by creating your god(s) and creation story. I think those fit much better after you have a world mostly built. Then you can sort of reverse it and see how the people in your world might think everything came from.

 

[X Equestris]

I ended up starting with just a character idea and a couple short stories. Once that was done, I fleshed out the world a bit more with in-universe scholarly writings on things like magic and magic creatures, the main religion, geography and peoples, and made a timeline. I also drew a map to nail down the various nations. Currently, I'm continuing to write short stories (both to flesh out the world and build some publication credits) as I work out plans for a couple novels.