How do you create your own planet?

[Darkfantasy]

I'm creating my own planet for my Epic Fantasy but I've never done anything like this before. Normally I write short novella's that are an alternative history type thing based on earth. I wanted to try something new but this is more difficult than I thought.

I did some research and found to work sheets to get me started and I realized half the questions I couldn't answer. Like "how many moon's does your planet have?" - well I have no idea. I don't even know how having two or more moons would affect/change a planet.

The idea for my planet is: It was an Ocean planet, so all the activity happened under the sea. Land began to appear in the form of a super continent. And some of the ocean creatures slowly began to venture onto the land but it's largely untouched when my human settlers find the planet. Humans were forced to leave the planet they inhabited and using portals came upon this one that seemed desolate. They bring magic with them and start to harvest the land.

I'm not sure if having so my ocean would change the planet from earth. Or if having one large super continent would change the climate.

As you can see this is a topic I know very little about and I wasn't that good at science in school. Can anyone help me get started? I obviously need to learn about building my planet and everything involved I just don't know where to begin really.

Thanks guys

 

[Ban]

Keep in mind that you're writing fantasy. If you don't know terribly much about geology and physics and the likes then you can just choose to not focus on those aspects of the world too much. If you are fine with taking a more lax approach, then just choose the features of your world as you please. For example: In real life 3 moons would significantly impact the tides of the ocean. But if you don't want to deal with that issue, you can just not address it. Most readers will not care about the specifics as long as it is not the focus of your story.

If on the other hand you are aiming for a scientifically acurate world... I guess you will have to study up on geology.

You will likely want something in between. For that I suggest you watch some of the worldbuilding videos on this channel Artifexian - YouTube . Just watch some videos on the matter, read a bit and implement the amount of realism you feel comfortable with.

Good luck!

 

[Thomas Laszlo]

Also, a good source is "Way With Worlds" by Steven Savage. You can find all the original
Posts and the place to buy his book on his website
Seventh Sanctum - Welcome To The Page Of Generators!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
NaNoWriMo WIP!

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

For my WIP and the series it is to be a part of, I invented many magical aspects of my world that distinguish it as a fantasy world, so that I won't have to abide by Earth's laws of nature.

In book 1, I only mention those aspects of the world that help introduce the world to the reader or are of particular importance to the story of book 1. For instance, the fact that the world has three moons is established early on. But there is no mention of how this affects the world's tides, or even if the world has tides. There's no particular reason to mention tides, so I don't.

Later books will further explore the physical laws of the world when it is important to the story to do so.

 

[Alyssa]

I love this idea. Is land formation still occurring? Is the region volcanically active? if so you might have earthquakes arising, depending on the depths of the ocean this could lead to tsunamis.
Also depending on the climate in certain regions you would end up with massive hurricanes feeding off massive bodies of warm water and essentially slingshotting themselves around the equator into your megacontinent although this depends on the size of the landmass standing in the way.
You might have impressive monsoons as well, followed by extreme droughts. Read this: Pangean megamonsoon - Wikipedia
The climate would be based mostly on latitude, hot regions centrally, cold regions at the poles. In addition, because of the monsoons you might find the interior of the continent to be a massive desert with brutal variations in temperature extremes.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Super continents open up a major can of worms when it comes to a lot of things. I would recommend studying plate tectonics if you are interested in a realistic feel. This helps determine your mountains, and mountains greatly effect the locations of deserts (rain shadows). Also, super continents and deserts are going to be a natural fit, most likely. It's more difficult for rain to reach all the way to central locations. Study basic weather patterns, how the winds function, etc. With basic knowledge, you can get things good enough.

One good source for a lot things is cartographersguild.com as those folks do a lot of mapping and worry about climate and such.

In designing my world I first knew the plate tectonics... and then I screwed with it because of the additional forces of creation in a magical world.

EDIT: and if you really want to cheat, check out Fractal Terrains Pro. it's far from perfect, but a fun toy. I used it to create a world from scratch and then photoshopped a poster-sized map... but it can create worlds on the fly.

 

[Darkfantasy]

@Alyssa - I haven't thought that far yet. I may study our own planet a bit first to get a better grasp. My planet isn't that much different from earth really. But my books takes place twenty years after the humans arrive, and go to war with the dominant species (aquatic apes) and lose.

You guys have been so helpful.

 

[Darkfantasy]

Most of Earth’s oxygen comes from tiny ocean plants so if that's true I should be okay on the Oxygen front

 

[Russ]

@Alyssa - I haven't thought that far yet. I may study our own planet a bit first to get a better grasp. My planet isn't that much different from earth really. But my books takes place twenty years after the humans arrive, and go to war with the dominant species (aquatic apes) and lose.

You guys have been so helpful.

A few comments.

While I love Sci Fi, I see a lot of people angsting way too much over scientific world building details when writing fantasy. I don't think most of it is needed and a lot of it is a bit of a waste of time. I can't think of any of my favourite, or really even significant fantasy where much scientific world building has been done.

Having said that:

- there is no doubt that having an ocean planet with one main super continent would have a very different climate than earth
- if your ocean is biochemically the same as earth's, than having a big ocean planet may end up with having more oxygen in the atmosphere than earth (which would have significant effects)
- if you are building a planet consistent with scientific principles...how do aquatic apes happen?
- trying to create a scientifically plausible planet that can withstand more than quick scrutiny is a huge task. It requires a solid grounding in a number of areas of science. If you don't have that grounding, or aren't inclined to enjoy learning all that stuff you might be better off taking a pass on that task and just go with the "sniff test."
- unless you take pleasure in it, if it doesn't impact your story than you don't need to know it or figure it out

 

[ascanius]

With difficulty. I'm realizing that the further along you go the amount of details needed grow exponentially.

I started with basics of the planet, more or less like earth. Then plate tectonics, map with mountains and a height map, wind and precipitation patterns for summer an winter, rivers and lakes. Then climate. I spent a lot of time on maps, like an insane amount of time. Now I'm on cultures and history.

 

[Darkfantasy]

I think you guys have given me some good advice and I'll take it because I don't have good grounding in Science and I find it a bit difficult to understand. Even plate tectonics was something I struggled to grasp. I was good at History, Psychology, English etc. Like Russ said: "than having a big ocean planet may end up with having more oxygen in the atmosphere than earth (which would have significant effects) And I have no idea what those effects would be.
- there is no doubt that having an ocean planet with one main super continent would have a very different climate than earth - I have no idea what a plausible climate would be or how to figure one out. Would it even have the same seasons? Probably not.

So I do have some learning to so. (All ready I can feel my brain aching)

Its just hard to know where to begin with the world-building.

 

[Alyssa]

Just some things I thought up, but don't take my words as gospel, I might be wrong

"than having a big ocean planet may end up with having more oxygen in the atmosphere than earth (which would have significant effects) And I have no idea what those effects would be.

Fish would be larger or faster due to increased oxygen saturation of water (this would not be as noticeable as insects or amphibians as the low solubility of oxygen in water would give diminishing returns)

Fire becomes a real danger to any society. Fires thrive off two main things, availability of fuel, and availability of oxygen. Wildfires will become a real threat and you might well have plant life evolve to either survive fire, or incorporate it into its life cycle/reproductive cycle. As a result some wood will be inflammable, possibly even crystalline, while other types of wood might be hyperflammable in order to promote the continuation of that particular tree's life cycle. There might be something that causes this hyperflammability, a resin perhaps that can be used as a more refined fuel or it might just be an intrinsic property of the wood. Animals would either be burrowing, airborne or fire resistant in such a scenario. Alternatively, they would have to be fast, and i mean very fast. It's hard to outrun a wildfire when it gets going. Much easier to find another way to hide, such as fire protective cocoons/membranes/armour. Insects would grow to tremendous size - give some thought to having them as the sentient form of life native to the planet in this case, back in the cambrian period there was 66% higher percentage of atmospheric oxygen (35% compared to the 21% today). Amphibians would also be larger, any mammal too, and have greater endurance, modern day oxygen is like rocket fuel to life. Massively boosted amounts of oxygen would be like a pocket nuclear reactor (don't go overboard here on animal size, this isn't macdonalds - no supersizing everything).
Impact on humans - land clearing projects to stop spread of wildfires nearby. Strict limits on fire. Also whereas prehistoric hunter gathers used fire as a defense, here it might become a liability if certain species like being near fire, imagine a 1 meter lone centipede coming to snuggle with you and your campfire. The existence of large aerial insect predators might lead to living on mountaintops where it is too cold for most insects or in the vast interior deserts to eke out an existence. Or it might lead to an archer tradition that makes the Mongols look like little children. However, while there are many drawbacks, human ingenuity can usually overcome them. Also, increased oxygen would be positive for humans too. Resulting in greater stamina (but no greater strength for the first few generations), from there you might get divergent evolution between one branch of humanity that becomes stronger and one that becomes weaker (they wouldn't become new species for a long time, but they would certainly adapt to exploit the new oxygen content of the air). Ease of firebuilding might lead to quick discovery of many metals and firehardening techniques although who uses fire would have to be restricted. Finally, magic would be a very valuable resource indeed. Ice magic would be invaluable and the ability to create fireballs would verge on the apocalyptic.

there is no doubt that having an ocean planet with one main super continent would have a very different climate than earth - I have no idea what a plausible climate would be or how to figure one out. Would it even have the same seasons?

Pangean megamonsoon - Wikipedia
"seasonal reversal of winds, resulting in extreme transitions between dry and wet periods"
"immensely arid regions along the interior regions of the continent. These areas would have been nearly uninhabitable, with extremely hot days and frigid nights. However, the coasts experienced seasonality, transitioning from rainy weather in the summer to dry conditions during the winter"
you would have a vast lifeless desert in the centre of your continent, plants animals and maybe humans (read Frank Herbert's Dune) ekeing out an existence there. It is dry all the time here and even the superpowered hurricanes don't penetrate this deep.
On the coastlines the rainfall and hurricanes would be devastating during the summer leading to intense flooding making the coast dangerous to go too, along with the risk of large aquatic predators when you reach it. During the winter rainfall lowers drastically, although you might still get some if you are close to the sea. this would require ways of storing and retrieving water, lakes suddenly become a valuable source of not only food, but also lifegiving water. Humans could also invade the burrows of some animals as well, which might dig down to underground caves/rivers and the watertable, although this might be dangerous when you want to limit flammable material and access to fire.
I don't know enough about climate to say for sure, however, while extreme, coast life on patches of high ground (oceanic vs continental plate subduction zones? = volcanoes/mountains but also earthquakes (makes tunnels more dangerous although earthquakes would still be rare)) would be safe and more like an Earth climate than the interior.


Edit: also, depending on who was chosen to go through the portal, there may very well be fewer (or more dieases)

Edit x2: Finally, two things I must stress:
1: It's fantasy - do what you want
2: It's your story - do what you want

 

[Darkfantasy]

Alyssa - thank you so much. I think my best best is to do some research into earth's history and go from there.