Izzit the last day of world-building month, already?

I guess I’ve been taking this past week easy. Oh well…

Then today will be all about random worldbuilding topics.

Milkfin: The most common freshwater fish. Looks like a black and white koi. (see? random! lol)

Okay, let’s try this a different way.

A chain reaction. Like a game of dominoes! I’ll start by explaining something, and if I mention something new in there, I’ll go on to explain that, too. Let’s see how far that gets me before I run out of new terms in my explanations or get sick of it.  :P

What to start with? Hm… How about the ancient rules? Read the rest of this entry »

So I finally completed something I feel is … well … good. Maybe hopefully really good. Maybe hopefully publishy good.
After I wrote it, I thought, “Wow. Where the heck did THIS come from?”
The first draft rolled off my fingertips while I was at work, of all places. As I wrote, I felt as if I was in (as I described to Steph no.1) a ‘writerly trance’.
What came out of that trance amazed me. I was like, “Wow. That was a pretty amazing faeries-whispering-in-my-ear experience. And I get a free story out of it, too? Sweet!”

It didn’t have a title yet, though. And it was definitely a first draft. (Steph came up with some good titles, actually. And I went with En Prise.)

My first critiques were along the lines of, “This was an enjoyable read and is a brilliant idea, BUT the flow could use a little work. And this part came on too fast. And here’s some important tips to consider when writing in first person.” Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a system in Kassara that tries to ensure everyone has a single, unique name (no ‘surnames’). There are few enough people in Lura that it’s still possible.

Many people strive for harmony (especially the Northern Alliance) because they feel if people start sharing the same names or start adding additional names, it will bring the world one step closer to chaos, thus one step closer to a repeat of the day of discord.

So if a family has a baby, they must send a message to ‘Sky Haven’ with their requested name.

The elected officials at Sky Haven check their records to ensure that name doesn’t belong to anyone living. If that’s true, they create an ‘ID card’ for that child to use when crossing any city gates. That card will be traded in every five years throughout their life for a new card. The machine that creates the cards is large, lumbering, unique, and takes an almost unfathomable amount of energy to run. Their unusually high altitude in the mountains (closer to the arc lightning) helps them generate that power. Sky Haven uses the gates system and ID cards, attempting to keep track of the people of Kassara. Read the rest of this entry »

A theory:

Is there any such thing as ‘bad’ worldbuilding? I’ve read that the only bad worldbuilding is when it hurts the progress of a story. But what about when somebody starts adding pointless stuff after their story is already done, stopping them from writing another story? Or what if they start adding stuff so obscure, they’ll never ever use it? What if they get so obsessed with worldbuilding, they can’t have a square kilometer of land without some kind of attraction/description attached to it?

I suspect everything we create for our stories—every single thing we worldbuild—should have something to do with at least two other already existing things in our story, or be accompanied by two very good reasons. That should help tighten the vision while keeping focus on the plot, and simultaneously activate the ‘synergy between rules’ to make the world seem more ‘alive’, as I was talking about here. (Yes, even my crimson moon has two reasons for existing. lol.)

So we have to make tough choices. Like, I wasn’t going to include dragons at all. Until something in my head ‘clicked’ and a set of mystic dragons worked very well as the fitting puzzle-piece for a particular part of the story. Read the rest of this entry »

• Linguistics

There is a language called ‘Pangeac’. It was developed as a universal language during the Exhaustive Reconstruction in order to help make the gargantuan task of rebuilding the world easier.

Following that time period, the people split off into five separate countries, which had developed cultural slangs, separate pronunciations, and incorporated words from older languages until there were noticeably different dialects.

As certain as wars were to come, so, too, did new languages. Back then, it was considered high treason to teach a local language to an outsider or to learn a foreign language. Which is one of the many reasons the gates system was developed. (The gates system makes sure everyone is identifiable by a card they carry, and they must present it every time they enter a major city.)

So everybody, basically, is bilingual. They speak their local language and a form of Pangeac.

People who move from one area to another can usually pick up on a third. For instance, the main character speaks Bastokian and Pangeac. He has lived in Aydomar, but not long enough to learn more than the basics of Aydomarian.)

There is Aydomarian, Shiir (or freespeech), Isbokan, Bastokian, and Estrianu. (I plan to “con-lang” ((the art of constructing an original language)) all of these, AS NEEDED, so far as phraseology goes ((and it’s easier than it sounds, thanks to Holly Lisle’s Create-a-Language Clinic)). But I do not plan to make any fully-working languages unless I’m really, really, REALLY bored.)

Smaller towns all have their own dialects. And smaller groups sometimes have added pseudo/meta-languages (For instance, the MC can speak in ‘thieves cant’).

Gargues-pula has a completely separate language structure. (Luckily, it’s not visited during the first book. xD)

Prev: Bio-schlock | Next: Courtly etiquette/Three things

Next, we have biology. (I’ll admit it’s not my best subject.)

There are two kinds of creatures in Lura:
1. Transient (mystical/magical/spectral) creatures
2. Living creatures

The animals found on Lura are much smarter than the ones we have on Earth. Most have a pack mentality. They are highly intelligent; able to communicate with each other, build, and attack in a very organized fashion. This makes travelling extremely dangerous.

If there is a large, organized group of animals, they usually have a spectral creature as a leader, which will have some kind of proper name and usually be the source of many colorful local stories; sometimes even worshipped as gods. They do not die until they are slain. And when they do, they don’t leave behind even a trace of a body. They just disperse like a ghost. Wardings work against them.

• animals

The dharchu are medium-sized living creatures with four muscular legs, their hooves extending in a claw-like fashion. They have round bodies, half of which are covered by very short armored wings they hold close to their body for protection — as if it were a second ribcage. While the wings are useless for flying, they can help the dharchu glide far when they leap and also aid their swimming. They are green and brown, mostly covered in scales with some patches of fur. Their tails are long, muscular, and very curly, which, coupled with their wings, allow them to swim very quickly. Their faces have a peaceful, solemn, humanesque form. They have long snouts and maws with sharp teeth, and protruding whiskers that are thick as beards. It is said the dharchu can leap over sea-faring vessels.

• birds Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Donna for pointing out a really cool tongue-in-cheek fantasy novel survey.
If you are writing a fantasy novel, you might find it fun to at least give it a read through.

(The Filmmaker’s Exam is equally amusing, btw.)

I guess you are supposed to be able to answer ‘No’ to every question, or abandon your project forever. LOL.

One of my nobler goals while deciding on the plot of Five Rings was to avoid or attempt to reinvent most of the common clichés out there, hoping to breathe new life into a largely unoriginal genre.

Let’s see how I did: Read the rest of this entry »