Anders Ämting
Auror
I've been thinking. Most of us use the word "universe" to describe our fictional settings, but how many actually design whole realities? As opposed to just continents and kingdoms and cultures, I mean.
I think the fun thing about fantasy is that its boundless - you can make up the rules as you go along, which allows you to tell stories in basically any way you have the imagination to concieve of. HP Lovecraft dreamed up cosmic horrors beyond human understanding. Terry Pratchett made a flat world that rests on the back of a giant turtle. Stephen King's Dark Tower is the axis around which an entire multiverse spins.
In your universe, what is the nature of time and space? What exactly happens to you when you die? For that matter, what is the definition of being "alive" in the first place? In what way are the laws that govern reality different from our own? What layers of existance lies beyond the mundane world? And what constitutes a "world", anyway?
Does anyone here take questions like these into consideration during worldbuilding?
I think the fun thing about fantasy is that its boundless - you can make up the rules as you go along, which allows you to tell stories in basically any way you have the imagination to concieve of. HP Lovecraft dreamed up cosmic horrors beyond human understanding. Terry Pratchett made a flat world that rests on the back of a giant turtle. Stephen King's Dark Tower is the axis around which an entire multiverse spins.
In your universe, what is the nature of time and space? What exactly happens to you when you die? For that matter, what is the definition of being "alive" in the first place? In what way are the laws that govern reality different from our own? What layers of existance lies beyond the mundane world? And what constitutes a "world", anyway?
Does anyone here take questions like these into consideration during worldbuilding?