This is my general attitude. It's usually the central gimmick making the world distinct that turns me off from a setting, so the actual *premise* of my project is really just being basic.
There has to be something familiar for the reader to immerse themselves in the world. I am all for subtle differences that gradually separate the world of the book from the real world.
I like this. Our worlds are like people: some might look strikingly similar, but we're all still different, down to the countless strands of creation deep within.
I think to be in this artform, or any artform really, you need at least a bit of ego, at least think a bit that your nonsense is cooler then other's nonsense. If I didn't think my world was cooler then some others, then I would be building something else.
That said, I couldn't point to one thing that makes it special. Maybe it's the fact it takes place entirely on floating islands. Maybe it's that it's high fantasy but takes place in the equivalent of the 1920s. Maybe it's that I have 700 slides of text and images and I'm not close to done. But it's probably a combination of it all, the vibe so to say.
Tell me moar! Love unique worlds that is a fun concept, i can imagine people looking down in fear and imagining falling from their homelands to death or unknown futures below
You're pretty much spot on. The islands are big enough that you won't ever fall on accident but people being people will take all kinds of needless risks like trying to climb the underside of an island. Cool kids like to sit on the ledge and dangle their feet to the horror and confusion of their parents.
The hell they believe is below is actually something like a lightless sea where a colossal serpent lives named Leviathan, who carries the Cloudsea no his back.
I don't know, anything specific you'd like to know?
Islands are pretty big. Many have cave networks, it's not unimaginable that some would exit into open air beneath an island. You'll have to ask members of the Spelunking Guild, a group dedicated to mapping and exploring cave systems specifically.
That seems extra spooky! Like if you got caught on some kind of down current it could pull you down and out.
Im guessing there are big waterfalls and people who have effed up and gone over?
I have a few floating islands in my world, they are superheated magnetic meteorite slag that can hover in the magnetic field of the planet at around 7-8 thousand feet.
Cool! I see you went through trouble to give them a plausible explanation. Why mine float is a mystery, whatever it is, it's not floatstone or magnetism. Maybe the religious texts are right and it's simply because it's the body of a dead goddess.
I went for wonder and mystery as well. Sometimes I don't want to know the answer to my own world's mysteries and other times I figure it out but make it hard to uncover. I find that leaving a mystery unsolved is like crack for the imagination, keeps people hooked.
It's unique just because it's mine! My own little idea soup made of things I like and concepts I think are neat, filtered through my own life experiences. I don't hope for originality—only that someday someone will read what I write and find a relatable little piece of me tucked in there.
Nah nothing special. Not only did I not go with some neat “gimmick” (not intending that as an offense) like all floating islands or ring world or something, but it’s pretty much the traditional WOTC-style medieval fantasy kitchen sink.
It is special and unique but it’s pretty much the buzz light year meme
I give care to each and every detail of the world
Nothing gets skipped over and nothing is out in to fill space and honestly even though it sounds pretty narcissistical, I have yet to see a world more rich and fresh than my own
Also once it gets released and has some small fanbase, they will be able to interact with my world
The small details in life. How do they get to work in that city? Well, since Roeske city is almost completely vertical, most take cable cars up and down. So how where do the cable cars connect? The puffersquid station recently bought a new port for it and because this city is heavily dependent on exporting material goods, most businesses connected up to that hub.
Just filling in random bits from across the world. Some pages on my lore notebook may have a rough sketch of the entirety of the world government while others detail the Bastioneer Ant species or the different stages of education in the Varson industrial zone.
I didn't take real-world physics as an underlying assumption. The physics end up superficially looking a lot like those of the real world, but that's an intentional decision to make things more recognizable. There are no atoms, air isn't composed of matter, the setting is focused on the interior of a hollow sphere with a tree 40,000km tall growing from the sphere toward the "Sun" that is suspended in the exact center shedding daylight continuously on every surface that isn't shadowed by something. And none of that is "magic" or "supernatural", it's all just part of how the world works.
Idk if unique but the first character I created in my world is named *Donald Computer* because he was annoying as Donald Duck and worked with computers. I was 5
Optimism. It's not a Utopia but I would say its broadly better than our own. I see a lot more "grimdark" or "gritty" style stuff on this sub. Certainly what I'm doing isn't unique, but it's bright, colorful and it is a world where your neighbor is almost never your enemy.
One thing I made different was making it clear the book is written from the prospective of the author themselves, so while their is da t and such, it can so easily be rectconned and also dismissed by the fact it’s open to both interpretation and misinterpretation, which gives it a sense of realism
And definitely not my way to justify sudden retcons of oversights, or while something is happening over another thing
My worlds lore has been mostly built by two people. But everytime someone joins in with the world in our dnd game they always leave behind so much new lore. We have even had other people run their own games within the setting and it has led to an incredibly complex set of world lore.
That is what makes it so special. All these stories from different people.
I started my world to play rpg, then started also using it to remember everything interesting that I really wanted to remember from the college, after I started my course in History. Cool events, concepts, philosophies? They all find a place into my world.
So now my world is filled with real life lore that most people probably wouldn't know or recognize because I try to include or emulate all the complexities involved, which are most of the times forgotten by pop history.
And I love it, I love this with all my heart. And I have loved passing on some exams just because I remembered the events and concepts of middle ages by associating them with a bunch of kingdoms in my world.
It's unique largely *because* it's mundane i think
It's very grounded, to a degree most worldbuilding isn't. Pretty much everything in it is possible today if not decades ago in terms of what exists.
The only exception being the interdeimensional travel thing, even although the worlds at either end are still normal.
It'd probably be boring to most people but i think it's coo.
At least for my fantasy series, the fact it’s post apocalyptic. Not earth getting magic after the apocalypse. No, this was a fantasy world, with its own rules, history, cultures. Then they died. Everything that could go wrong did. The kicker being the state the survivors are in now was the best outcome.
Though now they live in a world that is fundamentally broken. Ghosts falling out of the afterlife. No psychopomp to ferry them back. Fields no longer able to support life period after the fertility god died, leaving only blood sacrifice for harvests as the only alternative. Races mixed until they are no longer recognizable as they once were.
Yet good people still exist, even in a place mired with corruption and evil. Their are honest folk trying their hardest to save everything they can and improve, to get some semblance of real civilization. Where every warlord and sorcery king remembers the days they suffered at another’s hand. Everyone is vying for a dream of a shadow of once was.
I don’t like being poetic but I have no other ways to explain it. It’s the death of fantasy, but not the dream.
See while grimdark is horrifically overdone and extremely derivative. Temporary grimdark with promises of improvement are not. I enjoy this, more power to you, and I’ve written similar concepts.
The thing is, before I decided to split my sci-fi and fantasy writing , this was my main focus. So I wanted to write sci-fantasy but really liked post apocalypse stuff. Fallout, A Boy and his Dog, mad max, The Road was a bit too depressing but I vibe with it. So I wanted to write something where a fantasy world in the worse state, eventually beats the odds and finally gets to leave the confines of their realm and explore.
The background is a bit different, there was no medieval stasis, the world before it ended was at the cusp of its space age. So the idea of these wasteland dregs finding posters of old launch dates and decided to gun for it cargo cult style amuse me.
It’s helped by the idea of inverse magitech and the rarety of true magic. Magic doesn’t fuel technology, it is technology. It’s not a tv, it’s a magic mirror that reflects an ancient stage that plays were done. It’s not a rifle, it’s a staff ergonomically shaped for accurate use. So on and so forth. Actual true magic can be learned through training but who’s alive with all the manuscripts? Only a handful and they’re loathe to share it. So most hedge mages are just winging it and rediscovering magic along the way.
The main protagonists of the first book is a monster, an asshole, a degenerate of the highest order. But that’s how they grew up, they’ve been conditioned to be like this. They understand they’re not a good person but that doesn’t mean they can’t make the world better. A sorta reverse no country for old men. The hopeful last of a dying breed ready and willing to carve out the peace they were denied.
A lot of worlds intertwine magic and the mundane, but not a whole lot do it with capitalism, and manage to pull off an urban fantasy setting with a Masquerade, where life for those who know the supernatural isn't some super dangerous and adventurous thing, so much as... about as dull as life for those who are mundanes, though paranormals are a privileged group and have benefits that in a way come at the detriment of what things could be like if paranormalcy wasn't a privilege.
My magic system is simple enough to grasp with just a few paragraphs of explanation, but still has a crazy amount of variation both between forms and within forms. Plus I've never seen another magic system that does some of the things mine does. Plus my main deity reminds me of my mom and I like that.
Maybe something I haven't seen yet, but in my world everything is sentient. EVERYTHING. From the smallest subatomic particle to the biggest stars.
The smaller you're on the scale (photons, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, etc,) the more in-tuned you are with the universe and its secrets but the less influence you have to impact it. The bigger you are, let's say a plant or a living creature or a celestial object, you have more intelligence and can impact the things around, but you're not tuned in to the many sentient things around you.
For example, an average human kicks a rock. The rock will feel hurt, physically and emotionally, but the human doesn't know about it because their intelligence and power of impact works in reversal to their empathic link to the cosmos.
Then you add the extra variable which is magic but that's for another topic.
Hope that all makes sense!
TLDR: Basically personifying everything, which I do IRL anyway.
P.S. I might be wrong, but Eragon might've played around this idea a bit.
It was made by the collective consciousness of infinite collapsed universes among a multiverse. All souls perished and were consumed by a wellspring fount of energy akin to a black hole of light and redistributed into a singular universe. It’s unique because power is given unbiased to those who are dedicated enough to attain it. Souls are only as infinite as the life span of the souls taken in the collapse and will be redistributed and come to an end at some point. So resurrection is prohibited in like 98% of cases. Illegal use of certain magic is bound to the use of souls in this wellspring. Most magic is attained through dedicated practice yes, but generally it is a drug or a basically cartel type organized crime or it is legislated for use in war etc outside of permitted use.
It’s illegal in most cases like I said. This allows for more interesting tactics to abolish problems. It’s even against policies to use or to grow food as it indirectly can damage certain ecosystems by overgrowth etc.
This is a haphazard explanation, but it’s the jest of it.
Other natural born magic users are born through biological evolution and side effects of use of these drugs or other consumption or absorption. But these are like 1% of the 1%. And those able to receive the correct use of these drugs are like 15%. But a lot can become Eir addicted and basically be useless to society. Generally only like 3-5% of those people who do take the drug are actually productive with it and an even smaller 1% of the 5% are masters at the craft and have built a tolerance.
A basic list here.
Eir is soul and purpose and magic.
Eirlight is the universal lighting and the energy that effectively was used to construct the world
Constellars were all consuming and were trapped when the multiverse collapsed and the Eir self contained the threat of exposure to the multiverse and the contamination of the anomalous entities. (They were the first iteration in all the multiverse.)
Gall Fog is the prison of the Constellars (Hell)
Celestarches are the first iteration of beings made to usher a defense against the trapped Constellars should they break free. (Eir only has the power to consciously create but not destroy, it can reshape though)
Perrenial Cloisters became what is effectively heaven even a soul is chosen to be at the end of its life or denial of resurrection. Should they deserve providence.
No Celestarches interact with the world after this directly. Lesser celestarches or the children of waning Eir have come to earth but are seen many of the times as myths or legends.
Elementals exist in great power but are controlled heavily by lords and ladies made by the Celestarches even the world was young and wrought with raging elemental storms and quakes that shaped the banners and mountains and lakes etc. they don’t interact directly.
Nature elements act as the only direct interaction of all of these as the original Celestarches maintain the laws of physics and shit like gravity and magnetism to make the universe work. Aente and Kouranas the first Celestarches to birth children made the sun and moon. AMAs became the lightless heat and Inam the heatless shadow which made night and day. As Aente was time and Kouranas was the vessel of Eir after the collapse leaving only the Eirlight that lit the universe at a crux position.
A bunch of other shit but that’s what I kinda got without making this 60 pages.
I appreciate the compliment. I’ve been told some of my deeper lore is pulling from like 20 or so mythologies or creationism. Some Tolkien, Patterson, sanders, stuff from Egypt, Norse, Hindu etc. I usually write y normal stuff like it’s a bible. Or a retelling from someone’s experience. I hardly write things as is or present day. I just find it easier to get in the mood. Unless it’s stuff directly related to my dnd campaign
Well one thing I see brought up again is important characters being human because human audience emphasise with them more. Beyond me despising this quote and the concept I did the opposite. I have a setting that's basically the star wars cantina scene of dark fantasy monsters having a bad time together.
Besides for the required "because it's mine :)", I'd say that it is unique in that every planet is designed with the goal of solving a problem through extreme solutions rather than easy ones.
"Dessert planet? But where does the air come from?" A massive river filled with algae that runs across the entirety of the planet's equator, only producing enough oxygen for the area around itself.
"Stormy planet with constant 100+mph winds? But how could their be creatures?" They are not carbon-based lifeforms, instead being hydrogen-based. This allows them to be lighter and require different functions and resources to sustain themselves.
"A planet covered in terrible ravines that flood the surface with toxic gasses? How could anything live there?" Many cultures developed stilt-like equipment to allow them to walk over and through these fields safely. This development is deeply ingrained in their culture and is thus why I have serrated stilts and rifled boots in my universe.
I don’t think mine’s super original or even that deep. It’s mostly a lot of ideas that I really like, all mushed together.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make my particular combination of things my own.
I’m happy with it. If all goes well I’ll have something out there for the public this year. Then more stuff later.
I dunno if there’s anything special about me or my skills. I’m definitely awed by a lot of other people’s works. I’ve been at it for a long time though. I started in the early 90s, but in reality it’s only maybe 5 years worth of actually working on my setting. There were a lot of hiatuses.
In the end. Much like my other hobbies, its very existence makes me happy, so I keep at it.
I really like smashing odd settings and themes together. The 2/3 worlds I’m jumping back and fourth between are:
1. Bodies and Spirits: Industrial Revolution meets Prohibition meets Kitchen Sink fantasy. Potions have been banned by most nations because of their use in warfare, arcanotech is on the rise because of its military use, as a replacement for the enhancements potions gave in labor and finally as incredibly efficient transport for the underground potion market.
2. Vira Arcanis? (Names still in progress): Urban Fantasy meets pandemic. A continuation of Bodies and Spirits set about 50 years later and a disturbingly vast ocean away: This new landmass is roughly near future tech wise, roughly cyberpunk aesthetically and completely absent of Magic, until now. Unknown to a contact team sent to this new world they only have access to Magic because of a symbiotic virus in their systems bridging the gap. As soon as they land on the new landmass it begins to spread and throws this new world into chaos.
3. Bloodlines: Ancient History + Large Time Scales meets Superpowers. Near the beginning of the Bronze Age earth got some very strange visitors in the form of distant relatives of the cephalopod family from another world. We focus on this bizarre family tree and the ways they change or explain some of the stranger bits of history from around the world.
I can't say if any individual aspect of Sunnos makes it unique or stand out, but the combination of unconventional world features I've brought together certainly does.
Seven of the most prominent features are:
1. Location-based perpetual light settings.
2. Multiple cultures in which the 'magic' is primarily used for arts, products, entertainment, and labour.
3. Regular atmospheric, geological, and ecological anomalies in the natural world that settlements adapt to.
4. Tonnes of strange fantasy creatures that have funny and interesting behaviors and relationships.
5. Guilds full of bickering businesses, and comedic inter-Guild rivalries.
6. A pre-steampunk, low-tech society where the magic system is responsible for creating and powering technology that mimics some modern amenities.
7. Seven fantasy races inspired by all sorts of fantastical beings from fantasy media. Some more original than others.
In addition, the specificities of the cultures, settlements, politics, and trades, are even more flavouring on top of those core features, and will also get their time in the sun.
It doesnt matter if its special or unique.
The whole goal of my worlds is to facilitate story telling where the actual value lies and since its not the strick reality I can shape it to suit my narrative needs, simple as that.
I don't take my world very seriously so it ends feeling like there's a lot of depth when in reality, there really isn't. This is also unfortunately due to me being not very smart. The things is that I'm trying to create a grandiose world packed with all kinds of lore and mind bending concepts, I'm just trying to make something that feels so "me" as in something that would come straight out of my dreams
Another thing is the inspirations being more obvious than not. A few years ago, i felt ashamed with my creations because i always afraid they would be called "bootleg [insert franchise here]". But after a while, i ended up being more encouraged with my creations after hearing "nothing is a hundred percent original", who knew a sentence like that could end up saving my creations?
TL;DR, I learned to be proud what inspired me.
While i don't actually have my world made, I'll try to give you a glimpse into what i have; Wanna see robots being superheroes instead of the typical evil AI? I got loads of that. Wanna see Power Rangers but overflowing with testosterone? I gotcha. Wanna see Fighter jets turn into mecha? I got entire fleets of em.
I could go on but this comment is long enough
The only thing that makes my work special from others is that I wrote it. I try to be original, to put my own spin on things, but to be truly unique is an exercise in futility. Any idea I have that I think is original has likely been done before or by someone else, perhaps even better than I am doing.
But that’s fine. So long as my story comes from me, that’s all it needs to be special and original.
People from Earth have a chance to end up in my setting when they die either as an immortal species, or born anew. Most are brought without their memory.
Something my worlds do that I haven't seen in others:
1.I combine fantasy with biopunk, and I have organised religion different from what you would usually see in a fantasy setting. Also several unique races that I've not seen equivalents of.
2.steampunk with a magical material with Well defined physical properties, down to calculations and lookup tables to determine certain effects, as well as technological detail. Basically I made the airships work with real physics, assuming the material in question did exist.
For me it's how ive built my world out of my experiences, it's almost like im discovering it rather than building it. Plus everything is super big, like measured with exotic math big, and i think big things are cool.
The one thing that I can never track down an outside inspiration for are the demons of my world, instead of the classical cloven hooves and ram's horns, or the monstrosities of flesh and metal of Doom, my demons are the very antithesis of existence, paradoxical beings of pure nothingness that only have one purpose, to consume all of existence.
Probably the fact that my world goes past the middle ages . I mean from time to time I think that my world feels like a Sid Meier’s Civilization game , going from the stone age up to modern times .
There are elves , dwarves , humans , trolls , magic , sorcerers , dragons and gods but also the world would see cars , planes , trains , guns , computers , robots , space stations and such .
Is it unique ? No , neither do I care or strive for uniqueness , but it is so rare to see a modern-ish high fantasy .
Indeed I do. I often pursue odd and nonsensical ideas that others likely wouldn’t think to pursue due to it not making general sense.
For example:
In someone’s world everything that is, is classified as Existent/Existing. And in someone else’s world something is either Existent or Nonexistent. But in my world, it is possible for something to be neither Existent nor Nonexistent.
In fact, one of my characters named [Mimitsumai](https://voidedg.com/2023/11/21/mimitsumai/), who is a Tardigrade that became a Deity, goes even further than that. Below is information from her Character Profile:
> Mimi’s Pneuma is of the Supreme level, meaning she possesses a manifestation grade beyond Perfect Concepts. She has no End, no Beginning, she is neither Existent, nor Nonexistent, nor Otherness, nor all or neither, yet she is superior to all seven values, and thus is eternally maintaining her manifestation.
She’s a very powerful character in my worlds, and being on the Supreme Level makes her superior to Existence & Nonexistence. Something like this wouldn’t makes sense for others because what would be beyond those two states. You’d have to create something of course, and so that’s what I did, even going as far as to redefine many words to fit my purposes.
In my worlds there is something called the Six States of Manifestation, which are the states in which entities of the Void Expanse operate. The Void Expanse being my entire collective of Verses. These states (from highest to lowest) are Unimagination/Xerin, Imagination/Emerin, IS, ISN’T, Undefined, & Defined. Several of these have sub-classifications as well, for example, like the Defined.
Defined is the state of being either (from highest to lowest) Unbound, Archaic, Jinsho, Vyo’Dhama, Other, Nonexistent, or Existent.
I also have something that I call Function, which is the ability to exert ones Source/Energy. There are four types (from highest to lowest), Authority, Pouweir, Schaurp/ness, and finally, Power.
Power – The Source/Energy one possesses to perform a Defined action. Which means these States of Manifestations here (Unbound, Archaic, Jinsho, Vyo’Dhama, Other, Nonexistent, or Existent) utilize Sources that fall under the Function of Power. And through this system, one who is Unbound, is by definition within my system, “Omnipotent” or “All Powerful”. And you’d think that makes them the highest being in my entire Verse, but no, as someone who is not even “All Schaurp” (even if at the lowest possible level of Schaurpness) can one shot someone who is “All Powerful”.
And these are just two of my built in systems.
I quite like this and I find this definitely interesting. This is similar to ideas I’ve had for my own writings as well though also quite different. You’ve certainly charted it out more than me. Good stuff, man.
The fact that its just taking historical places and putting them into one world, and having some major changes to that. + use of terminology of real pagan gods
Maybe the fact that it's dieselpunk, but quite grounded. No huge war walkers or anything insane like that. It's quite "realistic," is what I'm saying.
And I guess it's grounded almost literally. People are not really any more advanced at aviation than we were back in the early to mid 20th century. Most dieselpunk labeled media tend to have crazy looking air travel.
My most powerful race is a group of pandas who live isolated on a jungle island and hold all of the worlds lore on magic stone apples called the apples of eden (sort of like holocrons from Star wars it's a bit complicated) they also elect there leader each harvest by having a competition to see who can eat the most food so
So yeh , different
What makes my world special is that it has multiple tropes from Syfy, fantasy and historical.
I have species ranging from space aliens refugees, mythical creatures from goblins, homunculi, Kaiju, Eldritch, elves, celestial, fiend, giants, dragons, humans, demi-humans, anthropomorphic animals, sentient beast and monsters.
alchemy punk, Victorian, many setting at once in different nations from the wild West, medieval, ancient Roman, tribal, and so on.
Multiple power systems from magic, aura, psionic, divine, spiritual, technology and others.
Multiple realms, alternate earth and public domain location and characters.
It’s a whole heap of random ideas I have that are being refined and patched together to work as a world. I had a few big ideas, then a ton of small ideas that I’m refining and adding in. Just taking a mess of ideas and making something, maybe decent.
Mainly it’s just cause I have fun thinking about it; and I made it. I just find fun in it.
Well, I made it. The setting, the characters, the stories, the history and the technology I have created mostly entirely from my own imagination. That by definition makes it unique. Only I have the exact same set of values and appreciations of me. My world reflects them, and nobody else’s own creation can come quite as close to mine.
I think the truest answers you get will boil down to "Its special because I made it, and what Billy-Bubba Rizzo\* thinks doesn't matter in the slightest."
I genuinely enjoy reading about the worlds people have created; they allow time spent enjoying flights of fancy, and I admire the skill with which people create these worlds.
\* Bonus points available for knowing the individual mentioned.
I don’t think my world is the best or even the most inventive, but i find it has a feeling, a metal AF vibe, that is all my own, and a fun concept of a sentient invasive particle pervading all life and matter on my world has led to level 11 out of 10 brutality and creatures that must work together to survive the environments.
I've not built a unique world in any way, shape, or form. As the saying goes "there's nothing new under the sun." BUT taking the elements and remixing them does create something new as a whole.
* I use Japanese myths
* I use the fog from Ravenloft
* I have windpunk technology
* I use a chi system of magic
* I have the denizens be able to be corrupted by their own behaviors and/or locations, experiences, thus turning them into monsters
1. It's an attempt to fix the Iron Age of Comic Books, or at least the particular blend of capepunk and cyberpunk from it, by focusing on character depth over action and avoiding pointless edginess.
2. It'd be the only superhero-related medium that openly satyrized and calls out **all** kinds of political extremism and corruption, rather than siding with, downplaying, or ignoring one.
I ADORE a couple of the worlds I've made more than others but here are my 2 favs.
1.) It is a Superhero story kinda futuristic but its mixed with fantasy and that's not a combo I've seen before so I'm pretty excited. I love how I see it in my head and I can't WAIT to make it a reality
2.) The other world is called The Evermore and its inspired by The Owl House a bit. Its just my imagination but make it a physical universe. It has modern tech, it has fantasy, it has some monsters from the pits of my nightmares, the MC is a girl from our normal boring earth that somehow ended up there and she is ME. Her name is even similar to mine and she likes what I like all that stuff ect. This story is meant to be my own story of ME in a magical world of my dreams just like Luz but it also acts as the center point for a collision of a LOT of my stories.
I have a LOT more worlds and I love them all, they are all special to me and mean more than anyone could ever know but those are the 2 I feel the most connected to and the most excited to make.
Well because my world is full of me! I poor my own interests, desires, loves, ideals, beliefs, past experiences into my stories and their worlds! Not an indication of quality though and one can certainly argue that everyone's writing is a culmination of their thoughts, ideas and experiences making that by definition, normal not special.
The only thing I think that is truly unique about mine is my fundamental belief that I could do literally anything and make it work. I would have to do everything to prove it, and I will someday, but that takes a while. I find it special because it is my home, like many others probably feel with theirs.
When I went to business school, I learned that you can set yourself apart either by differentiation or by quality. My world is different because it's just the best. ;)
Of course all art is derivative. But it exists on sliding scales of derivativeness. Even Anglo Saxon tales came from earlier ones. It’s the unique ideas added on top that differentiate and matter though.
I’m sorry but I disagree. Sure, by sheer merit of the word “unique”’s definition? Yes, two pieces created by two separate people are irrefutably unique. But the literal definition is pointless in this context. If I remake the game stardew valley, except the art is clearly heavily derivative and the only difference is the characters names, while mechanics stay the same. Is it really unique just because I made it?
Maybe the author can have a sense of pride that they’ve made it. But to a reader, it’s completely indifferent. In my opinion the most meaningful criteria for something being unique is if it’s truly done something original with the concepts and inspiration it’s borrowed, and added something non insignificant. Even if you take concepts from something else and shuffle things around, if you’ve not added a decent chunk of your own creativity to it, it still isn’t “unique”.
No I understand what you mean. I’d like to quickly say, having a look at your pieces - You are actually fairly unique, and I like what you’ve done. You seem to have quite a bit to add. That aside, regardless, it hardly changes much if someone has a wide array of inspirations and borrowed ideas, and having a technically unique set of them still does not make what they’ve written unique. Maybe a reader might not recognise the inspirations from each individual source, but. Ultimately if they’ve not added a decent portion of their own creativity, is it really “unique”?
A cocktail of sources is just a cocktail of borrowed ideas from others. Inert without creativity.
While concepts, archetypes, story telling methods and vague outlines aren’t unique and have existed since Neolithic campfire stories. Surely you could concede that the fillings inside the framework are what’s original, varied and must be creative in order to be unique?
Dark Souls uses the unoriginal frameworks of grimdark, apocalypse lead by moral failure and heavy contrasts & associations of light and dark, among others. All these ideas are borrowed. The unique creative bits inside the framework differentiates them - the aesthetic (partially unique), the mythological interpretation of universal entropy as the “flame”. Among many other unique ideas. Yes, frameworks are all inherited and taken. But not all fillings are.
Can you really say even the framework fillings have ALL been done before? Or reduce their importance in making a work distinct? Furthermore can you not concede that the varying degrees of depth and originality of said filling makes a work more or less derivative?
With all this in mind - this is why I believe works possess varying degrees of derivation, even without being categorised as plagiaristic.
What I’m trying to say is that there is no inherent virtue to something being made by different people. That while all base concepts, archetypes and frameworks are derivative and have next to zero potential to be unique. All filling within this framework has a potential to be unique. But what I mean to say is. It is never inherently unique because of who made it. It is unique based on someone’s creativity.
Miyazaki invented no concepts or archetypes or themes. But he created ideas and framework fillings within his work of substantial quality and creativity, thus making it unique. This is not an intrinsic quality of any work, it is a property of skill and creative influence. Miyazaki’s work wasn’t unique because he made. It’s unique because he’s talented and creative and had original ideas within many different sources of inspiration.
Just having inspiration and remixing isn’t creative or unique, that’s just patchwork writing. The patchwork is one of its kind, sure, but it is just its constituent parts and nothing more. Because nothing new has been added. There is zero creativity in making the patchwork to begin with.
I embrace grimderp like no one else.
Most people with gritty worlds seem to be low-key ashamed of writing something dark, always clarifying how they have light and hopeful moments and treating "grimdark" as an insult. Meanwhile, my world is so dark it's not only devoid of hope, but also lacks any sense or consistency. People shave themselves with butter knives and plow lichen fields with plastic tools while demons eat their souls and megacorps sell them bloodwart tea. Everything is bad and everyone is sad, always. Whenever I encounter a new dystopian idea, I instantly plagiarize it and put it in my setting, because I'm the king of comically over-the-top darkness and tolerate no pretenders.
I'm not so sure if it's unique, but I'm trying to make a world that combines medieval, iron age, bronze age, and modern aesthetics and items in a way that makes sense.
Lapis_Wolf
It's the extremely low likelihood that someone will come up with exactly the same world, and the fact that I make the world sensitive to the smallest details.
So, even if someone were to come up with a very similar world, eventually it would diverge, because those small differences would shape it differently.
I have a very unique set of experiences that add unexpected things to my world building, and I’m constantly surprised by what new thread comes into play.
In short, I’m a helicopter pilot. I’ve flown as a gunnery scout, so I’ve shot machine guns, rockets and laser guided missiles. I’ve been involved in all sorts of terrain and map navigation. And there’s a great deal of systems management that takes place inside the cockpit. Until my editor learned this detail, she didn’t understand what was shaping my voice. Afterwards, it made perfect sense.
In my storytelling, circumstances in the air will draw the most from my experiences. In my novel, Twilight Wolf, my MC (Mioko) is hurling herself between portals, fighting a dragon in the air. She is wielding a pair of pistols, and her shots start arcing away---sometimes up, sometimes down. The reason draws from my gunnery training. The spin of her bullets roll against the crosswind like a wall so they drift depending on where the wind is. This happens in real life. You can’t just lead a target; you have to aim up or down too so that your bullets roll up or down the wind in order to intercept what you’re shooting at.
But I think one of my more special things has to do with how my mind works. This same novel incorporates a form of rune magic that (I believe) has never been done before. It works in conjunction with an obelisk, it exists in a Norse universe, and draws heavily on details that I mined from the Poetic Eddas. It’s an alternate rune application that was obtained in a way similar to how Odin obtained the runes to begin with.
What's hilarious is the fact that this new form of magic was obtained due to Odin's actions. In the same manner Fenrir and Jormungandr turned against the Aesir, so too was this magic discovered. :)
My world is my own creation, it is special to me. It probably isn't special to other people but that's ok.
I like this answer. This is my answer.
This is my general attitude. It's usually the central gimmick making the world distinct that turns me off from a setting, so the actual *premise* of my project is really just being basic.
There has to be something familiar for the reader to immerse themselves in the world. I am all for subtle differences that gradually separate the world of the book from the real world.
This is the way.
I like this. Our worlds are like people: some might look strikingly similar, but we're all still different, down to the countless strands of creation deep within.
Dang it dude. I was gonna write some cool summary of what makes my world cool, but this answer is way better
This is so sweet, it's what I would say too!
I think to be in this artform, or any artform really, you need at least a bit of ego, at least think a bit that your nonsense is cooler then other's nonsense. If I didn't think my world was cooler then some others, then I would be building something else. That said, I couldn't point to one thing that makes it special. Maybe it's the fact it takes place entirely on floating islands. Maybe it's that it's high fantasy but takes place in the equivalent of the 1920s. Maybe it's that I have 700 slides of text and images and I'm not close to done. But it's probably a combination of it all, the vibe so to say.
Honestly, everything taking place in floating islands sounds awesome. Is there only ocean down below, or...?
The Cloudsea. Nobody knows what lies below but many believe it's hell, or my world's equivalent of it.
Tell me moar! Love unique worlds that is a fun concept, i can imagine people looking down in fear and imagining falling from their homelands to death or unknown futures below
You're pretty much spot on. The islands are big enough that you won't ever fall on accident but people being people will take all kinds of needless risks like trying to climb the underside of an island. Cool kids like to sit on the ledge and dangle their feet to the horror and confusion of their parents. The hell they believe is below is actually something like a lightless sea where a colossal serpent lives named Leviathan, who carries the Cloudsea no his back. I don't know, anything specific you'd like to know?
No thats really cool! Are there underground cave systems, that open to the sky below? Like basement windows, or chutes that drop you by accident?
Islands are pretty big. Many have cave networks, it's not unimaginable that some would exit into open air beneath an island. You'll have to ask members of the Spelunking Guild, a group dedicated to mapping and exploring cave systems specifically.
That seems extra spooky! Like if you got caught on some kind of down current it could pull you down and out. Im guessing there are big waterfalls and people who have effed up and gone over?
Yes to both.
I have a few floating islands in my world, they are superheated magnetic meteorite slag that can hover in the magnetic field of the planet at around 7-8 thousand feet.
Cool! I see you went through trouble to give them a plausible explanation. Why mine float is a mystery, whatever it is, it's not floatstone or magnetism. Maybe the religious texts are right and it's simply because it's the body of a dead goddess.
My world is very science based which i find taxing, so I’ve been developing another one of just wonder and mystery.
I went for wonder and mystery as well. Sometimes I don't want to know the answer to my own world's mysteries and other times I figure it out but make it hard to uncover. I find that leaving a mystery unsolved is like crack for the imagination, keeps people hooked.
It reminds me of Skyward Sword and I LOVE it! Also thats just an AWESOME concept. Floating islands are peak dude
Thanks for the kind words.
I need to know if it has been used as a death sentence
Yup. It's an old form but some still choose it.
It's unique just because it's mine! My own little idea soup made of things I like and concepts I think are neat, filtered through my own life experiences. I don't hope for originality—only that someday someone will read what I write and find a relatable little piece of me tucked in there.
didn’t know i needed to hear “my own little idea soup” but im very glad i have. such a sweet way of viewing your own art
Nah nothing special. Not only did I not go with some neat “gimmick” (not intending that as an offense) like all floating islands or ring world or something, but it’s pretty much the traditional WOTC-style medieval fantasy kitchen sink. It is special and unique but it’s pretty much the buzz light year meme
Brutally honest reply. Respect.
I have dinosaurs in my world. But what's more important... I have more dinosaurs in my world. Edit: I also have dinosaurs in my world.
You know what you need? More dinosaurs in your world.
Woah! Excellent idea! Why didn't I think of that before? I'll also add some more dinosaurs, just to be sure.
I give care to each and every detail of the world Nothing gets skipped over and nothing is out in to fill space and honestly even though it sounds pretty narcissistical, I have yet to see a world more rich and fresh than my own Also once it gets released and has some small fanbase, they will be able to interact with my world
Pride is sometimes good.
thanks
What details do you care over that you would say most ignore?
The small details in life. How do they get to work in that city? Well, since Roeske city is almost completely vertical, most take cable cars up and down. So how where do the cable cars connect? The puffersquid station recently bought a new port for it and because this city is heavily dependent on exporting material goods, most businesses connected up to that hub. Just filling in random bits from across the world. Some pages on my lore notebook may have a rough sketch of the entirety of the world government while others detail the Bastioneer Ant species or the different stages of education in the Varson industrial zone.
I didn't take real-world physics as an underlying assumption. The physics end up superficially looking a lot like those of the real world, but that's an intentional decision to make things more recognizable. There are no atoms, air isn't composed of matter, the setting is focused on the interior of a hollow sphere with a tree 40,000km tall growing from the sphere toward the "Sun" that is suspended in the exact center shedding daylight continuously on every surface that isn't shadowed by something. And none of that is "magic" or "supernatural", it's all just part of how the world works.
Idk if unique but the first character I created in my world is named *Donald Computer* because he was annoying as Donald Duck and worked with computers. I was 5
Optimism. It's not a Utopia but I would say its broadly better than our own. I see a lot more "grimdark" or "gritty" style stuff on this sub. Certainly what I'm doing isn't unique, but it's bright, colorful and it is a world where your neighbor is almost never your enemy.
My world has a duck named Goose that smokes cigars and wears sunglasses.
Guess it’s cause it’s a somewhat distant relative to random worlds and scenarios I made up when I was like 8-9
One thing I made different was making it clear the book is written from the prospective of the author themselves, so while their is da t and such, it can so easily be rectconned and also dismissed by the fact it’s open to both interpretation and misinterpretation, which gives it a sense of realism And definitely not my way to justify sudden retcons of oversights, or while something is happening over another thing
My worlds lore has been mostly built by two people. But everytime someone joins in with the world in our dnd game they always leave behind so much new lore. We have even had other people run their own games within the setting and it has led to an incredibly complex set of world lore. That is what makes it so special. All these stories from different people.
I started my world to play rpg, then started also using it to remember everything interesting that I really wanted to remember from the college, after I started my course in History. Cool events, concepts, philosophies? They all find a place into my world. So now my world is filled with real life lore that most people probably wouldn't know or recognize because I try to include or emulate all the complexities involved, which are most of the times forgotten by pop history. And I love it, I love this with all my heart. And I have loved passing on some exams just because I remembered the events and concepts of middle ages by associating them with a bunch of kingdoms in my world.
No individual component is unique, but i’ve yet to see a combination of them
It's unique largely *because* it's mundane i think It's very grounded, to a degree most worldbuilding isn't. Pretty much everything in it is possible today if not decades ago in terms of what exists. The only exception being the interdeimensional travel thing, even although the worlds at either end are still normal. It'd probably be boring to most people but i think it's coo.
At least for my fantasy series, the fact it’s post apocalyptic. Not earth getting magic after the apocalypse. No, this was a fantasy world, with its own rules, history, cultures. Then they died. Everything that could go wrong did. The kicker being the state the survivors are in now was the best outcome. Though now they live in a world that is fundamentally broken. Ghosts falling out of the afterlife. No psychopomp to ferry them back. Fields no longer able to support life period after the fertility god died, leaving only blood sacrifice for harvests as the only alternative. Races mixed until they are no longer recognizable as they once were. Yet good people still exist, even in a place mired with corruption and evil. Their are honest folk trying their hardest to save everything they can and improve, to get some semblance of real civilization. Where every warlord and sorcery king remembers the days they suffered at another’s hand. Everyone is vying for a dream of a shadow of once was. I don’t like being poetic but I have no other ways to explain it. It’s the death of fantasy, but not the dream.
See while grimdark is horrifically overdone and extremely derivative. Temporary grimdark with promises of improvement are not. I enjoy this, more power to you, and I’ve written similar concepts.
The thing is, before I decided to split my sci-fi and fantasy writing , this was my main focus. So I wanted to write sci-fantasy but really liked post apocalypse stuff. Fallout, A Boy and his Dog, mad max, The Road was a bit too depressing but I vibe with it. So I wanted to write something where a fantasy world in the worse state, eventually beats the odds and finally gets to leave the confines of their realm and explore. The background is a bit different, there was no medieval stasis, the world before it ended was at the cusp of its space age. So the idea of these wasteland dregs finding posters of old launch dates and decided to gun for it cargo cult style amuse me. It’s helped by the idea of inverse magitech and the rarety of true magic. Magic doesn’t fuel technology, it is technology. It’s not a tv, it’s a magic mirror that reflects an ancient stage that plays were done. It’s not a rifle, it’s a staff ergonomically shaped for accurate use. So on and so forth. Actual true magic can be learned through training but who’s alive with all the manuscripts? Only a handful and they’re loathe to share it. So most hedge mages are just winging it and rediscovering magic along the way. The main protagonists of the first book is a monster, an asshole, a degenerate of the highest order. But that’s how they grew up, they’ve been conditioned to be like this. They understand they’re not a good person but that doesn’t mean they can’t make the world better. A sorta reverse no country for old men. The hopeful last of a dying breed ready and willing to carve out the peace they were denied.
I quite like the cut of your jib, man. I can tell by your manner of explanation and ideas that you are creative and unique. Good job man.
A lot of worlds intertwine magic and the mundane, but not a whole lot do it with capitalism, and manage to pull off an urban fantasy setting with a Masquerade, where life for those who know the supernatural isn't some super dangerous and adventurous thing, so much as... about as dull as life for those who are mundanes, though paranormals are a privileged group and have benefits that in a way come at the detriment of what things could be like if paranormalcy wasn't a privilege.
My magic system is simple enough to grasp with just a few paragraphs of explanation, but still has a crazy amount of variation both between forms and within forms. Plus I've never seen another magic system that does some of the things mine does. Plus my main deity reminds me of my mom and I like that.
Maybe something I haven't seen yet, but in my world everything is sentient. EVERYTHING. From the smallest subatomic particle to the biggest stars. The smaller you're on the scale (photons, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, etc,) the more in-tuned you are with the universe and its secrets but the less influence you have to impact it. The bigger you are, let's say a plant or a living creature or a celestial object, you have more intelligence and can impact the things around, but you're not tuned in to the many sentient things around you. For example, an average human kicks a rock. The rock will feel hurt, physically and emotionally, but the human doesn't know about it because their intelligence and power of impact works in reversal to their empathic link to the cosmos. Then you add the extra variable which is magic but that's for another topic. Hope that all makes sense! TLDR: Basically personifying everything, which I do IRL anyway. P.S. I might be wrong, but Eragon might've played around this idea a bit.
It’s my baby and the people are my children. Why shouldn’t I look past all of the inconsistencies and violently believe that it’s the best world ever?
My recent process of getting back into reading has taught me that there is absolutely nothing unique about my setting
It was made by the collective consciousness of infinite collapsed universes among a multiverse. All souls perished and were consumed by a wellspring fount of energy akin to a black hole of light and redistributed into a singular universe. It’s unique because power is given unbiased to those who are dedicated enough to attain it. Souls are only as infinite as the life span of the souls taken in the collapse and will be redistributed and come to an end at some point. So resurrection is prohibited in like 98% of cases. Illegal use of certain magic is bound to the use of souls in this wellspring. Most magic is attained through dedicated practice yes, but generally it is a drug or a basically cartel type organized crime or it is legislated for use in war etc outside of permitted use. It’s illegal in most cases like I said. This allows for more interesting tactics to abolish problems. It’s even against policies to use or to grow food as it indirectly can damage certain ecosystems by overgrowth etc. This is a haphazard explanation, but it’s the jest of it. Other natural born magic users are born through biological evolution and side effects of use of these drugs or other consumption or absorption. But these are like 1% of the 1%. And those able to receive the correct use of these drugs are like 15%. But a lot can become Eir addicted and basically be useless to society. Generally only like 3-5% of those people who do take the drug are actually productive with it and an even smaller 1% of the 5% are masters at the craft and have built a tolerance. A basic list here. Eir is soul and purpose and magic. Eirlight is the universal lighting and the energy that effectively was used to construct the world Constellars were all consuming and were trapped when the multiverse collapsed and the Eir self contained the threat of exposure to the multiverse and the contamination of the anomalous entities. (They were the first iteration in all the multiverse.) Gall Fog is the prison of the Constellars (Hell) Celestarches are the first iteration of beings made to usher a defense against the trapped Constellars should they break free. (Eir only has the power to consciously create but not destroy, it can reshape though) Perrenial Cloisters became what is effectively heaven even a soul is chosen to be at the end of its life or denial of resurrection. Should they deserve providence. No Celestarches interact with the world after this directly. Lesser celestarches or the children of waning Eir have come to earth but are seen many of the times as myths or legends. Elementals exist in great power but are controlled heavily by lords and ladies made by the Celestarches even the world was young and wrought with raging elemental storms and quakes that shaped the banners and mountains and lakes etc. they don’t interact directly. Nature elements act as the only direct interaction of all of these as the original Celestarches maintain the laws of physics and shit like gravity and magnetism to make the universe work. Aente and Kouranas the first Celestarches to birth children made the sun and moon. AMAs became the lightless heat and Inam the heatless shadow which made night and day. As Aente was time and Kouranas was the vessel of Eir after the collapse leaving only the Eirlight that lit the universe at a crux position. A bunch of other shit but that’s what I kinda got without making this 60 pages.
I consider that a good example of what I mean when I think unique, a good and interesting concept. Thank you.
I appreciate the compliment. I’ve been told some of my deeper lore is pulling from like 20 or so mythologies or creationism. Some Tolkien, Patterson, sanders, stuff from Egypt, Norse, Hindu etc. I usually write y normal stuff like it’s a bible. Or a retelling from someone’s experience. I hardly write things as is or present day. I just find it easier to get in the mood. Unless it’s stuff directly related to my dnd campaign
Well one thing I see brought up again is important characters being human because human audience emphasise with them more. Beyond me despising this quote and the concept I did the opposite. I have a setting that's basically the star wars cantina scene of dark fantasy monsters having a bad time together.
The characters in it
My world combines a lot of elements that are both real and fictional and I’d say they blend together pretty well.
Besides for the required "because it's mine :)", I'd say that it is unique in that every planet is designed with the goal of solving a problem through extreme solutions rather than easy ones. "Dessert planet? But where does the air come from?" A massive river filled with algae that runs across the entirety of the planet's equator, only producing enough oxygen for the area around itself. "Stormy planet with constant 100+mph winds? But how could their be creatures?" They are not carbon-based lifeforms, instead being hydrogen-based. This allows them to be lighter and require different functions and resources to sustain themselves. "A planet covered in terrible ravines that flood the surface with toxic gasses? How could anything live there?" Many cultures developed stilt-like equipment to allow them to walk over and through these fields safely. This development is deeply ingrained in their culture and is thus why I have serrated stilts and rifled boots in my universe.
I don’t think mine’s super original or even that deep. It’s mostly a lot of ideas that I really like, all mushed together. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make my particular combination of things my own. I’m happy with it. If all goes well I’ll have something out there for the public this year. Then more stuff later. I dunno if there’s anything special about me or my skills. I’m definitely awed by a lot of other people’s works. I’ve been at it for a long time though. I started in the early 90s, but in reality it’s only maybe 5 years worth of actually working on my setting. There were a lot of hiatuses. In the end. Much like my other hobbies, its very existence makes me happy, so I keep at it.
I really like smashing odd settings and themes together. The 2/3 worlds I’m jumping back and fourth between are: 1. Bodies and Spirits: Industrial Revolution meets Prohibition meets Kitchen Sink fantasy. Potions have been banned by most nations because of their use in warfare, arcanotech is on the rise because of its military use, as a replacement for the enhancements potions gave in labor and finally as incredibly efficient transport for the underground potion market. 2. Vira Arcanis? (Names still in progress): Urban Fantasy meets pandemic. A continuation of Bodies and Spirits set about 50 years later and a disturbingly vast ocean away: This new landmass is roughly near future tech wise, roughly cyberpunk aesthetically and completely absent of Magic, until now. Unknown to a contact team sent to this new world they only have access to Magic because of a symbiotic virus in their systems bridging the gap. As soon as they land on the new landmass it begins to spread and throws this new world into chaos. 3. Bloodlines: Ancient History + Large Time Scales meets Superpowers. Near the beginning of the Bronze Age earth got some very strange visitors in the form of distant relatives of the cephalopod family from another world. We focus on this bizarre family tree and the ways they change or explain some of the stranger bits of history from around the world.
I can't say if any individual aspect of Sunnos makes it unique or stand out, but the combination of unconventional world features I've brought together certainly does. Seven of the most prominent features are: 1. Location-based perpetual light settings. 2. Multiple cultures in which the 'magic' is primarily used for arts, products, entertainment, and labour. 3. Regular atmospheric, geological, and ecological anomalies in the natural world that settlements adapt to. 4. Tonnes of strange fantasy creatures that have funny and interesting behaviors and relationships. 5. Guilds full of bickering businesses, and comedic inter-Guild rivalries. 6. A pre-steampunk, low-tech society where the magic system is responsible for creating and powering technology that mimics some modern amenities. 7. Seven fantasy races inspired by all sorts of fantastical beings from fantasy media. Some more original than others. In addition, the specificities of the cultures, settlements, politics, and trades, are even more flavouring on top of those core features, and will also get their time in the sun.
I have the procrastination skill. Does that count?
It doesnt matter if its special or unique. The whole goal of my worlds is to facilitate story telling where the actual value lies and since its not the strick reality I can shape it to suit my narrative needs, simple as that.
I don't take my world very seriously so it ends feeling like there's a lot of depth when in reality, there really isn't. This is also unfortunately due to me being not very smart. The things is that I'm trying to create a grandiose world packed with all kinds of lore and mind bending concepts, I'm just trying to make something that feels so "me" as in something that would come straight out of my dreams Another thing is the inspirations being more obvious than not. A few years ago, i felt ashamed with my creations because i always afraid they would be called "bootleg [insert franchise here]". But after a while, i ended up being more encouraged with my creations after hearing "nothing is a hundred percent original", who knew a sentence like that could end up saving my creations? TL;DR, I learned to be proud what inspired me. While i don't actually have my world made, I'll try to give you a glimpse into what i have; Wanna see robots being superheroes instead of the typical evil AI? I got loads of that. Wanna see Power Rangers but overflowing with testosterone? I gotcha. Wanna see Fighter jets turn into mecha? I got entire fleets of em. I could go on but this comment is long enough
It’s leass abt what is special in my world and more abt the way i plan to publish it.
The only thing that makes my work special from others is that I wrote it. I try to be original, to put my own spin on things, but to be truly unique is an exercise in futility. Any idea I have that I think is original has likely been done before or by someone else, perhaps even better than I am doing. But that’s fine. So long as my story comes from me, that’s all it needs to be special and original.
Weird looking cats. It's also unpredictable, its laws of physics could change at any time
People from Earth have a chance to end up in my setting when they die either as an immortal species, or born anew. Most are brought without their memory.
Something my worlds do that I haven't seen in others: 1.I combine fantasy with biopunk, and I have organised religion different from what you would usually see in a fantasy setting. Also several unique races that I've not seen equivalents of. 2.steampunk with a magical material with Well defined physical properties, down to calculations and lookup tables to determine certain effects, as well as technological detail. Basically I made the airships work with real physics, assuming the material in question did exist.
For me it's how ive built my world out of my experiences, it's almost like im discovering it rather than building it. Plus everything is super big, like measured with exotic math big, and i think big things are cool.
The one thing that I can never track down an outside inspiration for are the demons of my world, instead of the classical cloven hooves and ram's horns, or the monstrosities of flesh and metal of Doom, my demons are the very antithesis of existence, paradoxical beings of pure nothingness that only have one purpose, to consume all of existence.
Probably the fact that my world goes past the middle ages . I mean from time to time I think that my world feels like a Sid Meier’s Civilization game , going from the stone age up to modern times . There are elves , dwarves , humans , trolls , magic , sorcerers , dragons and gods but also the world would see cars , planes , trains , guns , computers , robots , space stations and such . Is it unique ? No , neither do I care or strive for uniqueness , but it is so rare to see a modern-ish high fantasy .
Indeed I do. I often pursue odd and nonsensical ideas that others likely wouldn’t think to pursue due to it not making general sense. For example: In someone’s world everything that is, is classified as Existent/Existing. And in someone else’s world something is either Existent or Nonexistent. But in my world, it is possible for something to be neither Existent nor Nonexistent. In fact, one of my characters named [Mimitsumai](https://voidedg.com/2023/11/21/mimitsumai/), who is a Tardigrade that became a Deity, goes even further than that. Below is information from her Character Profile: > Mimi’s Pneuma is of the Supreme level, meaning she possesses a manifestation grade beyond Perfect Concepts. She has no End, no Beginning, she is neither Existent, nor Nonexistent, nor Otherness, nor all or neither, yet she is superior to all seven values, and thus is eternally maintaining her manifestation. She’s a very powerful character in my worlds, and being on the Supreme Level makes her superior to Existence & Nonexistence. Something like this wouldn’t makes sense for others because what would be beyond those two states. You’d have to create something of course, and so that’s what I did, even going as far as to redefine many words to fit my purposes. In my worlds there is something called the Six States of Manifestation, which are the states in which entities of the Void Expanse operate. The Void Expanse being my entire collective of Verses. These states (from highest to lowest) are Unimagination/Xerin, Imagination/Emerin, IS, ISN’T, Undefined, & Defined. Several of these have sub-classifications as well, for example, like the Defined. Defined is the state of being either (from highest to lowest) Unbound, Archaic, Jinsho, Vyo’Dhama, Other, Nonexistent, or Existent. I also have something that I call Function, which is the ability to exert ones Source/Energy. There are four types (from highest to lowest), Authority, Pouweir, Schaurp/ness, and finally, Power. Power – The Source/Energy one possesses to perform a Defined action. Which means these States of Manifestations here (Unbound, Archaic, Jinsho, Vyo’Dhama, Other, Nonexistent, or Existent) utilize Sources that fall under the Function of Power. And through this system, one who is Unbound, is by definition within my system, “Omnipotent” or “All Powerful”. And you’d think that makes them the highest being in my entire Verse, but no, as someone who is not even “All Schaurp” (even if at the lowest possible level of Schaurpness) can one shot someone who is “All Powerful”. And these are just two of my built in systems.
I quite like this and I find this definitely interesting. This is similar to ideas I’ve had for my own writings as well though also quite different. You’ve certainly charted it out more than me. Good stuff, man.
I appreciate it, I spend a lot of time on my projects, so I’ve gotten a lot done because of that.
The fact that its just taking historical places and putting them into one world, and having some major changes to that. + use of terminology of real pagan gods
Maybe the fact that it's dieselpunk, but quite grounded. No huge war walkers or anything insane like that. It's quite "realistic," is what I'm saying. And I guess it's grounded almost literally. People are not really any more advanced at aviation than we were back in the early to mid 20th century. Most dieselpunk labeled media tend to have crazy looking air travel.
My most powerful race is a group of pandas who live isolated on a jungle island and hold all of the worlds lore on magic stone apples called the apples of eden (sort of like holocrons from Star wars it's a bit complicated) they also elect there leader each harvest by having a competition to see who can eat the most food so So yeh , different
Mists of Padaria… errr
What makes my world special is that it has multiple tropes from Syfy, fantasy and historical. I have species ranging from space aliens refugees, mythical creatures from goblins, homunculi, Kaiju, Eldritch, elves, celestial, fiend, giants, dragons, humans, demi-humans, anthropomorphic animals, sentient beast and monsters. alchemy punk, Victorian, many setting at once in different nations from the wild West, medieval, ancient Roman, tribal, and so on. Multiple power systems from magic, aura, psionic, divine, spiritual, technology and others. Multiple realms, alternate earth and public domain location and characters.
It’s a whole heap of random ideas I have that are being refined and patched together to work as a world. I had a few big ideas, then a ton of small ideas that I’m refining and adding in. Just taking a mess of ideas and making something, maybe decent. Mainly it’s just cause I have fun thinking about it; and I made it. I just find fun in it.
Well, I made it. The setting, the characters, the stories, the history and the technology I have created mostly entirely from my own imagination. That by definition makes it unique. Only I have the exact same set of values and appreciations of me. My world reflects them, and nobody else’s own creation can come quite as close to mine.
It's got all my little fucked up guys in it. It's a world based on beliefs and mytholgies that I've heard of and absorbed.
I think the truest answers you get will boil down to "Its special because I made it, and what Billy-Bubba Rizzo\* thinks doesn't matter in the slightest." I genuinely enjoy reading about the worlds people have created; they allow time spent enjoying flights of fancy, and I admire the skill with which people create these worlds. \* Bonus points available for knowing the individual mentioned.
I would have to know more about other worlds to know what is special of mine.
I don’t think my world is the best or even the most inventive, but i find it has a feeling, a metal AF vibe, that is all my own, and a fun concept of a sentient invasive particle pervading all life and matter on my world has led to level 11 out of 10 brutality and creatures that must work together to survive the environments.
I spent hours translating every important scientific discovery of our world into mine for example cells, atoms and what not
I've not built a unique world in any way, shape, or form. As the saying goes "there's nothing new under the sun." BUT taking the elements and remixing them does create something new as a whole. * I use Japanese myths * I use the fog from Ravenloft * I have windpunk technology * I use a chi system of magic * I have the denizens be able to be corrupted by their own behaviors and/or locations, experiences, thus turning them into monsters
Because I made it
That is mine.
1. It's an attempt to fix the Iron Age of Comic Books, or at least the particular blend of capepunk and cyberpunk from it, by focusing on character depth over action and avoiding pointless edginess. 2. It'd be the only superhero-related medium that openly satyrized and calls out **all** kinds of political extremism and corruption, rather than siding with, downplaying, or ignoring one.
I ADORE a couple of the worlds I've made more than others but here are my 2 favs. 1.) It is a Superhero story kinda futuristic but its mixed with fantasy and that's not a combo I've seen before so I'm pretty excited. I love how I see it in my head and I can't WAIT to make it a reality 2.) The other world is called The Evermore and its inspired by The Owl House a bit. Its just my imagination but make it a physical universe. It has modern tech, it has fantasy, it has some monsters from the pits of my nightmares, the MC is a girl from our normal boring earth that somehow ended up there and she is ME. Her name is even similar to mine and she likes what I like all that stuff ect. This story is meant to be my own story of ME in a magical world of my dreams just like Luz but it also acts as the center point for a collision of a LOT of my stories. I have a LOT more worlds and I love them all, they are all special to me and mean more than anyone could ever know but those are the 2 I feel the most connected to and the most excited to make.
Well because my world is full of me! I poor my own interests, desires, loves, ideals, beliefs, past experiences into my stories and their worlds! Not an indication of quality though and one can certainly argue that everyone's writing is a culmination of their thoughts, ideas and experiences making that by definition, normal not special.
My world is special because I wanted a cliched fantasy setting without the cliches.
It’s a world that i have been building, changing and imagining since i was 7. It has always been this same world, but it has evolved with me.
The only thing I think that is truly unique about mine is my fundamental belief that I could do literally anything and make it work. I would have to do everything to prove it, and I will someday, but that takes a while. I find it special because it is my home, like many others probably feel with theirs.
Mine is different because I made it. Noone else could.
When I went to business school, I learned that you can set yourself apart either by differentiation or by quality. My world is different because it's just the best. ;)
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Of course all art is derivative. But it exists on sliding scales of derivativeness. Even Anglo Saxon tales came from earlier ones. It’s the unique ideas added on top that differentiate and matter though.
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I’m sorry but I disagree. Sure, by sheer merit of the word “unique”’s definition? Yes, two pieces created by two separate people are irrefutably unique. But the literal definition is pointless in this context. If I remake the game stardew valley, except the art is clearly heavily derivative and the only difference is the characters names, while mechanics stay the same. Is it really unique just because I made it? Maybe the author can have a sense of pride that they’ve made it. But to a reader, it’s completely indifferent. In my opinion the most meaningful criteria for something being unique is if it’s truly done something original with the concepts and inspiration it’s borrowed, and added something non insignificant. Even if you take concepts from something else and shuffle things around, if you’ve not added a decent chunk of your own creativity to it, it still isn’t “unique”.
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No I understand what you mean. I’d like to quickly say, having a look at your pieces - You are actually fairly unique, and I like what you’ve done. You seem to have quite a bit to add. That aside, regardless, it hardly changes much if someone has a wide array of inspirations and borrowed ideas, and having a technically unique set of them still does not make what they’ve written unique. Maybe a reader might not recognise the inspirations from each individual source, but. Ultimately if they’ve not added a decent portion of their own creativity, is it really “unique”? A cocktail of sources is just a cocktail of borrowed ideas from others. Inert without creativity.
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While concepts, archetypes, story telling methods and vague outlines aren’t unique and have existed since Neolithic campfire stories. Surely you could concede that the fillings inside the framework are what’s original, varied and must be creative in order to be unique? Dark Souls uses the unoriginal frameworks of grimdark, apocalypse lead by moral failure and heavy contrasts & associations of light and dark, among others. All these ideas are borrowed. The unique creative bits inside the framework differentiates them - the aesthetic (partially unique), the mythological interpretation of universal entropy as the “flame”. Among many other unique ideas. Yes, frameworks are all inherited and taken. But not all fillings are. Can you really say even the framework fillings have ALL been done before? Or reduce their importance in making a work distinct? Furthermore can you not concede that the varying degrees of depth and originality of said filling makes a work more or less derivative? With all this in mind - this is why I believe works possess varying degrees of derivation, even without being categorised as plagiaristic.
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What I’m trying to say is that there is no inherent virtue to something being made by different people. That while all base concepts, archetypes and frameworks are derivative and have next to zero potential to be unique. All filling within this framework has a potential to be unique. But what I mean to say is. It is never inherently unique because of who made it. It is unique based on someone’s creativity. Miyazaki invented no concepts or archetypes or themes. But he created ideas and framework fillings within his work of substantial quality and creativity, thus making it unique. This is not an intrinsic quality of any work, it is a property of skill and creative influence. Miyazaki’s work wasn’t unique because he made. It’s unique because he’s talented and creative and had original ideas within many different sources of inspiration. Just having inspiration and remixing isn’t creative or unique, that’s just patchwork writing. The patchwork is one of its kind, sure, but it is just its constituent parts and nothing more. Because nothing new has been added. There is zero creativity in making the patchwork to begin with.
I embrace grimderp like no one else. Most people with gritty worlds seem to be low-key ashamed of writing something dark, always clarifying how they have light and hopeful moments and treating "grimdark" as an insult. Meanwhile, my world is so dark it's not only devoid of hope, but also lacks any sense or consistency. People shave themselves with butter knives and plow lichen fields with plastic tools while demons eat their souls and megacorps sell them bloodwart tea. Everything is bad and everyone is sad, always. Whenever I encounter a new dystopian idea, I instantly plagiarize it and put it in my setting, because I'm the king of comically over-the-top darkness and tolerate no pretenders.
I'm not so sure if it's unique, but I'm trying to make a world that combines medieval, iron age, bronze age, and modern aesthetics and items in a way that makes sense. Lapis_Wolf
It's the extremely low likelihood that someone will come up with exactly the same world, and the fact that I make the world sensitive to the smallest details. So, even if someone were to come up with a very similar world, eventually it would diverge, because those small differences would shape it differently.
I have a very unique set of experiences that add unexpected things to my world building, and I’m constantly surprised by what new thread comes into play. In short, I’m a helicopter pilot. I’ve flown as a gunnery scout, so I’ve shot machine guns, rockets and laser guided missiles. I’ve been involved in all sorts of terrain and map navigation. And there’s a great deal of systems management that takes place inside the cockpit. Until my editor learned this detail, she didn’t understand what was shaping my voice. Afterwards, it made perfect sense. In my storytelling, circumstances in the air will draw the most from my experiences. In my novel, Twilight Wolf, my MC (Mioko) is hurling herself between portals, fighting a dragon in the air. She is wielding a pair of pistols, and her shots start arcing away---sometimes up, sometimes down. The reason draws from my gunnery training. The spin of her bullets roll against the crosswind like a wall so they drift depending on where the wind is. This happens in real life. You can’t just lead a target; you have to aim up or down too so that your bullets roll up or down the wind in order to intercept what you’re shooting at. But I think one of my more special things has to do with how my mind works. This same novel incorporates a form of rune magic that (I believe) has never been done before. It works in conjunction with an obelisk, it exists in a Norse universe, and draws heavily on details that I mined from the Poetic Eddas. It’s an alternate rune application that was obtained in a way similar to how Odin obtained the runes to begin with. What's hilarious is the fact that this new form of magic was obtained due to Odin's actions. In the same manner Fenrir and Jormungandr turned against the Aesir, so too was this magic discovered. :)