How to take your fantasy WORLDBUILDING to the next level
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- Опубликовано: 20 мар 2020
- Be sure to check out Worldanvil, the Ultimate Worldbuilding Platform for Gamemasters and Fiction Writers: www.worldanvil.com
Let's explore the higher concepts of world-building for your fantasy settings to make it far more believable, realistic, and immersive as well as a few strategies to save time.
My novel, Shadow of the Conqueror Audio Book affiliate links:
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teespring.com/stores/shadiver...
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![On Worldbuilding: Fictional Histories [ Tolkien | Handmaid's Tale | Game of Thrones ]](/img/1.gif)
Shad, your first book was really amazing! Thank you for sharing your world building process that made your book great. Daylen's story and tales of Everfall is just beginning, and I look forward to the next one!
It has a high rating, I should look at it when it is safe to go outside again.
@@Riftrender or right now, as an ebook, while you can't go out to do other things anyway ;)
YEAH! What he said.
I declare Shad's book to be bad despite having never read it to annoy you four out of boredom.
@@redforest9269 corna really getting to you huh. punk
*Me when I started worldbuilding:* Eh, I'm just going to eyeroll it. Throw a couple names here and there and carry on.
*Me now:* Now, you may be confused why this style of hair braiding is called "shatou", which is a surprisingly poetic name for the Gamaho subculture. Well, you see, in the year 1622, there was a minor poet named Eto Fue the Second, who was upset over the price of cotton--
Worldbuilder's disease? What nonsense! I call it a blessing, not a disease XD If I don't know literally what happened to every atom in the multiverse from the minute of creation till today, am I even prepared?
Lucky for me that the universe was created the instant the story starts, last-thursdayism style, which means I just need the initial configuration of an entire multiverse. No big deal amirite *nervous laughter*
I will never start my novel, because the world is not finished.
I even started building terrain to make it more visually for me 😂
I'm sorry but i'm gonna need the full story on Eto Fue II, the price of cotton and the origin of the braiding style.
Yes, we need the story, tell us, tell us
Haku infinite Remember that, generally speaking, *people* name things. If it hasn't been discovered yet, it shouldn't have a name yet, and it will be given one when it's discovered. I've had to keep this in mind in my world where unnamed wilderness exists where no man has gone before. There are these rare occasions where not naming something is the right thing to do. Plus, it has the added bonus of you not having to think of another damn name.
20:01 Of course Shad would build a world where Gambeson is stronger than steel.
Ha ha ha, lol you noticed that did you ¬‿¬
@@shadiversity But what about Slime Armor?
Whole new meaning to steel wool.
A world where everything is gambeson based
@@digivagrant would certainly make good comedy ^_^
And of cause an Australian thinks of a world with deadly animals, making everything outside city's a death-zone for humans.
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
@Haku infinite So detroit
And of course all his fantasy creatures are rearmed to the teeth like in his series fantasy rearmed
Well, there has to be reason for adventurers to exist. If it weren't for deadly creatures and roving bands of marauding monsters, humanity or whatever other dominant cultures exist would spread everywhere, your fantasy world would basically look like Medieval Europe/Asia/etc, and specialized monster hunters, treasure seekers, and the like would have no reason to exist. Plus, with the kind of continuous nationalities found in most fantasies, external pressure is required to restrict the technological development of more stable cultures. In our own history, new technologies were experimented with and sometimes made to function but then lost due to warfare, natural disasters, or the fall and rebirth of an empire.
oh no, true
A fantasy world can be anything, but it can't be everything at once. Good worldbuilding is being selective.
Warhammer 40k enters the chat?
No! I refuse. I want EVERYTHING!
Ya. That's quite a shame, I kinda want to see world completely different from ours but at the same logical, but sadly our human brains are limitation, who knows Maybe simulation will allow something like that.
This is my problem with all the D&D worlds. They want any adventure to be possible, when that's simply impossible.
What if the world building is that it includes everything? Y’all having read Sandman
14:34 Shad: "What else could you do? What about..."
Everybody: "DRAGONS!"
Shad: "...gravity."
Everybody: O_o
buh buh buh buht dragons wouldn't work in normal gravity...
@@forevern2dust What about Space-Dragons so huge that they have their own atmosphere and people living on them?
@@schw4rztee502 I did think a while back that the basic idea of "space dragons" sounds cool but you brought that to idea to a new level.
My disappointment is immense and my day is ruined.
@@thegrammarcrusader4085 How about the resulting space battles, with entire armies firing from the back of their Dragon Worlds at each other? Imagine what sorts of technology that would generate. Would bunker busters be designed to pierce dragon scales? What kind of armor could they harvest straight from the ground? Would the dragon's fire breath be nuclear in nature?
"you dont need to actually write the vast rich history, you just need to hint at it." *Tolkien has left the chat*
You don't need to write it in the book, but you probably do need to write it down for yourself.
Scott Kenny yh
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKkk yes
Aaww, leave Uncle T alone, he's trying his best!
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
Actually, I get lost in world-building before even starting the story and realized that,when you have a very expansive world,you can have endless stories.
I'm worldbuilding a world where all of my stories can play out without problems due to the way the world is made.
You can make it a chronicle/anthology series set in the same universe.
I've been the same way for my book
I prefer to jump from world to world. Sort of a "fail faster" strategy but with world building. It's helped me to refine my particular type of absurd world design where each world seems less teathered to our own and I really enjoy that. In the stories I consume too.
That being said my worlds are obviously less fleshed out because of that but it helps prevent me from getting bogged down in choices I made to try and tell different stories. Depends what you like.
@xvoidgamer _TRUE_
This is why I love the worldbuilding in anime and manga. They usually take one concept and ride it all the way to the bitter end. For example: Clothing is actually an evil space alien parasite.
I literally watched the finale of Kill La Kill before coming here!
Case in point, that post apacalyptic anime where everything is underwater except these massive ships made out of abandoned tech. Gargantia
attack on titan is the same thing
FullMetal Alchemist and Hunter X Hunter are great examples.
Shad: "There's a syndrome of worldbuilding too much."
- J.R.R. Tolkien enters the chat
Mr. Sanderson often mention "world builders disease" in his classes he posts on RUclips.
@@D3epb1u3 tolkien really suffered from this. he was brilliant, but imagine all we'd have if he used better technique while writing!
Shad: "There's a syndrome of worldbuilding too much."
Me after 18 years of world building : "What do you mean?!"
On the plus side you can retcon some stuff easily.. because no one read or almost no one read it yet.
@@daghostds Yeah, one great thing about publishing nothing is that you can retcon and change at your hearts content.
@@theh5099 that can be a trap though. Tolkien was constantly revising and refining everything and never finishing anything.
Shad Fact: Shad has his own extra dimensional orchard that grows nothing but oranges. Thus Shad will always have a fresh a ready supply of OJ.
I Knew it!!
Lol wat
This is the best RUclips account I think I've ever come across lol. Keep giving us facts of shad!
So... Shad is Nakor from the Riftwar Cycle.
@Haku infinite I'm wondering who can call dibs on that idea now. You or the OP 😂.
Virgin hollywood writer: plot holes everywhere because nothing is really set in stone.
Chad Shad: makes constant rules for the magic system.
And I have way too many Rules. I even follow Laws like high speeds needing more amounts of energy. Thus Speed and Strength are directly corrolated.
Also most fiction makes powerful hits not have massive destruction that one would expect. Like characters hitting with the force of nuclear bombs, yet deals very little enviromental damage.
Mine has characters that need to actively focus energy in one place to not cause damage.
Like I have one seen where a character spits forward at high speeds, and the initial takeoff turned the concrete beneath him into plasma.
I have a max joule output for characters, and calc every feat to make sure it falls within that Output Range. Like a character that can output 100,000 J and weighs 70kg, he can only move up to 53.4522 m/s at maximum. (Not including air resistance)
C H A D I V E R S I T Y
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
@@blankblank1284 Air resistance is pretty much the only thing that actually makes top speed a thing, without it it's all just a matter of who can accelerate the fastest. Also in terms of output I'd say it'd be best to think of Watts, or rather Power, (Energy/Time aka Joules/Second) instead of Joules unless by 'total output' you're referring to the amount of energy the characters can store at any one time.
virgin using hard magic or soft magic vs chad, having limited hard magic and adding a second magic system that works by making deals with the employees of the pan universal bureaucracy, if someone points out an inconsistency just say "no thats illegal" or "powers beyond your understanding ok"
I love how he’s so confident in what he’s doing without being arrogant
he is arrogant tho
@@danimeisner9476 How so?
@@zachthegleeful he can be sometimes
@@Phticao He talks abt himself alot cos he is giving u tips that HE used for world building lol. Giving u information HE realised while world building. He is referencing himself, who wouldn't?
@@denzilokoye542115min in and he hasnt stopped patting himself on the back. Haven't heard any real conception of world building beside a bullet point between paragraphs about himself.
Shad losing his mind about flat earthers is the funniest thing I've seen today.
Was looking for this comment.
That absolute belly laugh was amazing
To be fair, Flat Earth model is something I would consider a great reference material for a fictional setting. I mean, how cool is it to develop space travel in a flat earth setting where you explore beyond the frigid edges and beneath the earth? Are we also riding a giant turtle all this time?
@@b.heaven9234 I'm considering a flat Earth for my own setting, but I'm going with a more realistic world and I would give it a more real world astronomy and astrology. Now I'm conflicted.
In my world the earth is both flat and round, there are 2 existence planes per say, in one there is physics and complex life, in the other there's magic
My universe: flat, floating continents, airships
Shad: this video
Me: well then this is awkward
No reason not to stick with it. Just do it differently!
It's not an entirely new concept, he admits as much himself. But you can go about tackling these concepts in a drastically different way, even think about your own physics concepts to justify them that are entirely different than his.
Ultimately the important part is the world itself and the culture of the groups of people living in it that make it unique. And then above that the stories themselves, how interesting and dynamic your protagonist, antagonist, and supporting cast are.
A good portion of modern fantasy borrows from Tolkien but that doesn't ruin their merit as their own thing.
Agree with Sophie Jones, if that’s what interests you then do it anyways, just do it different. I’ve always thought it would be funny if there was a mechanic that made these floating continents get earthquakes. Maybe strong air currents under the continental shelf cause them to split apart. Viola! Disaster/survival fantasy novel.
One of my settings where these massive floating creatures in a giant gas planet and the sentient creatures just live seasonally over them. I was thinking that the idea might be similar, except that the “continents” are less flat and are alive.
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
I love how with your world the sky's the limit, then it's the floor.
Actually when you mention the fire thing I remember reading that during the carboniferous period of earths history the quantity of oxygen was so high that combustion was extremely easy and even wet wood could start wildfires (also the extraordinarily high levels of oxygen allowed insects to grow to shockingly large sizes). Now mind you lignens in trees prevented bacteria at the time from being capable of breaking down dead trees so fire was probably the only way to clear ground... Even our world had some really mind bending things going on at different times in history.
A more reasonable way to look at that, from a scientific standpoint, is that since trees weren’t capable of being broken down forest fires became more likely because of the increased amount of fuel and with the higher oxygen content they could spread faster and grow larger
Me: *Scribbing notes like a madman*
Write that down, write that down!
same here
There is such a thing as speach to text software. Having said that, RUclips subtitles... Better keep scribbing!
Same here! 😊😊😊
James Lewis wow i forgot an L, Big deal
Shad: "Having an atmosphere the size of the universe would cause problems"
- Gurren Lagann enters the chat
Jimmy Neutron: "First time?"
sounds familiar
🎵I can show you the world, galaxy sized hurrincanes, not so splendid.🎵
Shinza Bansho: New here?
Do the impossible,
See the invisible !
Just checked, Chronicles of Everfall: Shadow of the Conquerer now has a Tv tropes page. Finally.
I don't know if anyone will see this, (with 1,511 comments already, I sort of doubt it), but I wanted to mention The Rivan Codex by David Eddings, may he rest in peace. In his introduction as early as page 7 of the book he describes his world building process and the items necessary for a good and believable story. I thought I would share some of his insights here:
1 ) Theology - What is the religious belief system for this world? Is there only one religion? Do the Gods actually exist?
2 ) The Quest - What is driving your characters to do something instead of just staying at home?
3 ) The Magic Thingamajig - The One Ring, The Holy Grail, The Sword in the Stone, The Book of all Knowledge, etc.
4) The Hero - Who is it and what is his/her backstory and character traits.
5) The Great Wizard/Magician/Sage - Hey every fantasy story has some wise and powerful magic user.
6) Heroine - The love interest for the Hero and the person who may get in trouble and need rescuing
7) The Villain - Got to have one of those. What is his/her motivation?
8) The group of companions - The characters our hero meets along the way who aide him in his/her quest, usually keeping the hero alive until he/she is strong enough to defend themselves.
9) The companions love interest - The guys and gals that motivate the companions and each have their own idiosyncrasies.
10) The Kings, Queens , and other bureaucrats that make up the governments of this world.
End of list.
Well that seems like a plot building instructions only for Classical fantasy and only for the typical story we already know and (at least me) are bored of:
Villain threatens something -> Hero (or Heroes) goes out and try to stop him -> initially fails or seems to fail -> grows through their failure and become stronger -> Defeat villain
Along the road there is some romance along the lines of overcome gender stereotypes or such.
@@JH-zs3bs If you take these less literal, you can make other stories. For example, what if the "villain" is a natural disaster? It has absolutely no motivation at all, but can still cause absolute destruction.
@@JH-zs3bs this is the basic plot for every book. Even ‘subversive’ plots have their roots in it
Fun fact: we do actually have storms in our universe that are the size of galaxies and reach the speed of light at certain points. That's a pretty spot on description of quasars.
excuse me w h a t
i looked it up on google and quasars seem v cool >w
Definitely not the size of a galaxy in volume. More like lighthouse beams that just shine as brightly as an entire galaxy. Still unbelievably powerful but not weather.
@@solsystem1342 space weather >:D
16:10 Shad proposes a world that's just like a normal one but without timber. My inner Minecrafter curls up and weeps at the sheer horror. Thanks, Shad =p
The funny contradyction is that world without timber wouldn't be like our.
This really helped me when it came to the "over-worldbuilding" syndrome, I found myself trying to develop every little thing in the world even if it's not important to the story in the slightest, but now I'll hopefully avoid wasting too much time! And the whole universe part really got me too, I gotta figure out my laws of physics too now, especially for a single world that is a floating landmass that's the size of Australia lol
just wanted to say that I love seeing worldanvil sponsoring more channels theyre legit one of the best worldbuilding tools out there I absolutely love it
"It's Fantasy, anything is possible."
It really is a tragedy that in the genre which has literally only imagination as the limit, we still see the same 3 species repeated ad nauseum: Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. EVERYWHERE.
And humans
Or pretty humans, ugly and usually evil humans, stunty tough humans that like to drink and eat a lot.
Y'all ever read rangers apprentice?
I don't mind having the typical race(s) being part of Fantasy works, the main issue for me is that they fill in the racial stereotypes instead of the creators adding and mixing in their own flavor for the races' culture
@@EJ_Red It bothers me because, well, on top of EVERYONE doing it, how on earth does Science Fiction wind up with a greater variety in their cultures and intelligent species compared to Fantasy? So many species in fantasy are just basically "humans but X". "Humans but they act like warmongering cavemen", "humans but they're better at everything and love nature", "humans but they drink a lot and live underground". Science Fiction, meanwhile, plays with concepts such as how a species' natural lifecycle may affect their technology and culture, or other crazy creative stuff.
Fantasy lets you have humans made up of smaller 6-inch-tall humans all working together like Voltron, or a person who is a living incarnation of the platonic ideal of cheeze-its, or explore what happens to a species that never needs to eat, etc.
You know someone has built a great fantasy world when you start thinking “what if” theories about it. I was thinking about the world in “Shadow of the Conqueror” and wondering what it would be like in a world like that where light could travel through the barrier. You could look up and see the bottom of your own island, and if you had a good enough telescope, you could lean over the edge of the deck of an airship, look down, and not only see the top of your airship, but also your own back as you lean over. Shad is a genius worldbuilder (and castle designer too)!
I was wondering about this. There could effectively be no "top" and "bottom" to the world. You wouldn't necessarily see any "seam". Wherever the inhabitants decide to define the top and bottom is completely arbitrary, like where the prime meridian is in our world.
Lol that is actually an incredible idea. But if that was the case it would go on forever as it would be like standing between 2 mirrors, so if you were looking at another island it would look like a stack of the same island. You should write a book or something because that is really cool.
Having not read the book, I thought that's how it was. If the world was 7 or 8 islands deep, it wouldn't look that abnormal if it repeated.
Actually, that makes sense. If the light could pass the barrier once, it should be able to pass through multiple times, making it look like you were in between two mirrors with multiple images of the same island in a row. Good thinking! 👍
What confuses me about that setup is actually air. Wouldn't it begin to fall endlessly, resulting in raging storms near anything that breaks the airflow?
I really loved the novel. I did have one rather serious problem with it though.
I got to the end and there wasn't another one
Well, this is a video I'll return to on multiple occasions...
The way shad describes the setting in his books, makes me really want to see some illustrations or concept art.
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
@@markoj.7675 thanks that was a nice way to start my morning
Warning, the above link is some kind of religious preaching video and doesn't look to have anything to-do with Everfall.
One thing I personally really appreciate in world building is good, original creature design, where they not only have an interesting design, but the author also has thought of its niche, what it evolved from and how it gets its food.
@Haku infinite as someone relatively well informed about Subnautica and its soon to be sequel, I'm very much inclined to agree.
Definitely my favourite part of worldbuilding. Artistry of creatures I made up in a hypothetical novel is my current pastime.
Then you may want to look into speculative biology. The branch of science fiction concerned with biology, Alien Planet is a very cool fictional documentary on it, as well as Dragons: a fantasy made real, there is also Life after Man which is a book in the style of a field guide of the creatures that live some millions years in the future, the documentary The Future is Wild also does this (but modifies the rest of the world as well, the last episode is bonkers and around 100 million years in the future with no terrestrial vertebrates remaining).
@@Ditidos I am already interested in speculative biology, thanks for the recommendations though
Ditidos Just to add one more to the list of good spec bio, I would suggest people check out the “Life on Snaiad”. Really well thought out alien animals there.
'Why do they always have to be on planets?'
Well, things get wonky and complicated when they're not planets or spheres like the gravity, magnetic fields, the directions, and the climate, but yeah, the easy way out of that is, just like what Shad said, 'make things believable'.
You should have your own class. I'd attend every single lecture if I could.
He's in a class by himself.
He is the class.
What do you think this channel is?
He and his brother could make vlogs together on "how to's" for art and history in a world
Me too, the reason why I subscribed is because Shad reminds me of a teacher passionate about the subject he teaches
In my book the planet was cracked in three during a battle of gods, the pieces are still conected but there is deep chasms as wide as small oceans filled with thorns where most of the monsters live
Draugre thats interesting as fuck
*as the would by logical and accepted world building and fantasy conventions*
Kind of similar but diferent to my world, basically my planet is just fantasy earth but the entire geography is completly diferent because of a war the gods had on the past that completly changed the entire landmasses of the planet
Are they fully disconnected? Or are the Chasms just very, very deep?
@@blankblank1284 their massive cracks in the crust, slightly connected and the brambles make up the core of that world while the dirt was meant to keep evil at bay
5:53 "...sky is the limit!" I find that statement particularly hilarious considering the setting in your own novel.
I mean... it's a world literally in the middle of sky
How about a fantasy world where the powers that be (gods, spirits, etc) are still in the act of creating the world and the mortals just have to sit there and watch.
Sounds like the first session of a new d&d campaign
You can technically use it as an adventure excuse in fact.
What if unbuilt part of the world are like an open wound ? There can be infection and intruder... (Demon ? Something else ?)
The heroes might be tasked by the gods themselves to explore and protect the world from the unbuilt part while the creators work somewhere else ! (I think that I would love to play an RPG in this setting in fact x) )
@@Jintorax better, the adventures are bug testers and the gods patch it on the spot
Sightless_Seeker well I was thinking all of the mortal creatures would be living on the planet, they would just be living in the completed sections of it.
I just imagine humans having to deal with a bunch of new species terrorizing them and their prayers to the gods amount to "pls nerf"
Man: discovers frying pan
Also man: this will be the greatest of weapons!
Spartan_ 1138
Memes: Allow me to introduce myself
I legit have a character with a frying pan as a melee weapon and the ability to just make cakes appear in his enemies face as if they'd been thrown there. He will never loose a single fight despite constantly being up against people that can literally break reality.
If man merely _discovered_ frying pan, who _invented_ frying pans?
I'm not saying it's aliens.
man: makes comment about frying pans being weapons
Tangled be like: allow me to introduce myself
*shows pictures of Maximus and Flynn and others fighting*
Give me a trench shovel. It’s a melee weapon with reach, a digging tool, and a frying pan ;)
I love SotC’s pseudo-Star Wars (particularly Jedi) setting in a Fantasy that’s not medieval but a unique mesh between Renaissance & Magical-Powered Industrial Revolution.
or what about a more ancient setting. There's more to fantasy than just medieval, steampunk, and advanced tech. I wanna see a more ancient greek or Roman setting where there's a parallel universe that can be traveled to and from using some sort of ritual and the parallel universe has trippy rules and have kite shield inhabitants that have highly advanced technology! I wanna read that gosh darn it!
crap with an opinion Then do it
@@crapwithanopinion2919
'If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.' - Toni Morrison
@@TheodoreMinick I was mostly kidding with the highly advanced kite shields. But yeah I am writing something sorta like what I just said.
Ff7-punk lol
A good story draws people in, an interesting world makes them come back.
Imma... borrow this...
People like mystery
You keep giving them interisting questions and answer that also create new questions to make them come back to the story
I feel like it’s the other way around.
"People "once" believed the world was flat" hahahahahaha... I'm a huge fan of your channel, I'm also an aspiring writer and your videos trully are helping me out with some elements of worldbuilding and creative writing, and I'm much obliged to you, keep this way, you are an incredible person!
Donut planet? My mind is overclocking ideas right now.
The donut planet can exist but does not form naturally. So there you have a new nut to crack.
@Mr. Dank
The donut planet is actually possible. It cannot be formed by itself and is so unstable that it is extremely unlikely to exist. It cannot have a moon or continental drift, because it would lead to collapse. There is a lot of preconditions that must be fulfilled for it to work. Like the right rotation speed.
Hungry obese god?
Niklas Molén so as long as it’s created rather than forked which can happen in fantasy and myths due to how they are structured. The Norse believed that Midgard was created from the flesh of Ymir after his passing so wouldn’t such a place be able to hold together with little difficulty.
When you first saw Halo were you blinded by its majesty?
Paused halfway to say that this new series idea is amazing and I'm going to watch every single one. Hopefully you'll take suggestions too if you ever somehow run out of ideas.
Oh, so you're approaching me? Instead of running away, and using the quarantine as a CLICKBAIT just like half of the website, you are coming right at me with quality content?
Ohoho! Then come as close as you like!!
Someone next line will be:
Is this a JOJO reference?
to be honest, since i watched Jojo i can't find any video without a JOJO reference lol
@@riverasamuel911 The Jojo fandom has that effect
A lot
@@riverasamuel911 Life is a JoJo reference dude. Think about it. In JoJo things are alive, and in real life things are alive.
@Nasser FireLord Arts tbh I don’t get the jojo hype...
YOU FELL FOR IT FOOL, THUNDER CROSS SPLIT ATTACK
A fantasy writer: _"Magic in my fantasy world has to be plausible and consistent, just like real physics is."_
The double slit experiment: _"Hold my Higgs boson..."_
I literally just spent three days straight rationalizing the existence and physics of æther particles in relation to String Theory.
Shad: It’s fantasy, do whatever you want.
Me: Lizardmen and Space Elves living on a Dyson sphere ruled by a magocracy.
*skunks and possums living together....Mass Hysteria!!!!!*
Shad, you're a legend. It doesn't matter what you talk about, you always make it incredibly interesting. Keep it up, Sir!
One of the best anime I've ever watched was Code Geass, which created a world very similar to our own, except it changed one historical event and added one element to the story, which both shaped the way the world operated.
The event was the conquest of Britain by the Roman Empire. In Code Geass, Britain united against Rome under the guise of a tribe king, all different tribes joining in order to repel the Romans, eventually succeeding in that. Afterward, they found the kingdom of Britannia, which persisted until the beginning of the story. This had massive repercussions into the world, some the anime didn't address and left for you to figure out.
For example, the story keep saying it takes place in 2017, except the point of reference they use isn't the birth of Christ, but rather the foundation of Britannia after the war with Rome, so it would place the story in 1945 in our own world. Once you know that, you realize how advanced that society really is, with technology even we haven't implemented on a large scale, such as completely clean energy production and giant robots (will get to that). Another cool thing is that with Britannia being so massive, countries in this world aren't like ours, they are truly massive, with Europe being pretty much one single country (Europa United) and most of Asia also falling in that category (Chinese Federation), all in order to oppose this massive superpower. In this world the American Revolution never happened, so all of America is part of the Britannian Empire as well.
And then there's Sakuradite, the superconductor material that is the basis of the technology of this world in the modern era. With it, they can produce clean energy, create giant mechas for warfare, be used in explosive devices and even led to the creation of their version of the Atomic Bomb. The show focus on their use in the awesome robots and their uses of sakuradite, but extra material explores how much it is a vital resource to the world at large, which explains why Japan is so important in this world geopolitical landscape, since they have 2/3 of the world's known sakuradite deposits.
Britons defeating Rome? Pff.
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
I would like to caveat what you said at the end: that you should avoid "worldbuilding disease" by only worldbuild the plot-relevant details instead of spending years building and never getting to writing. I'm not too sure about that. Take Tolkien. The thing that makes the Lord of The Rings so incredibly awesome for me is that throughout the story there are so many references to ages past and history long forgotten and ancient conflicts, the villain himself is a grand mystery, there is this wizard, there are elves and dwarves and none of that is ever explained in the Lord of The Rings. You only know enough to understand what is going on and all that you don't know imbues this world with a tremendous sense of wonder.
But then you read the appendices and you realise that, actually, there is a lot to learn here: there is information on those topics. And now you're interested: who is this Sauron? What is his goal? Why is he so evil? What are elves exactly? Where did orcs come from? Who are the Númenóreans exactly? Who the heck is Gandalf? What were those great hosts of the First Age that Elrond is going on about?
And you read the Silmarillion and find out that there is this vast, vast history behind LoTR. And you read Unfinished Tales, you read Tolkien's Letters, you read the History of Middle-earth and you discover this amazing amount of worldbuilding that has been done before writing LoTR was even considered. And every little detail fits together. And then you research Tolkien's motivations and his academic background and you discover the central themes and real-world conflicts that inspired elements of the story, and you find out that the siege of Minas Tirith is actually a masterpiece when it comes to tactical believability, and you see how Middle-earth is a huge leap up from classic Arthurian legends - the ultimate Arthurian legend, in fact. Original, English mythology.
That makes Tolkien so awesome to me. And I haven't even touched language yet - the very thing that started it all. This world is the most believable and deep fantasy world I have ever read about. And what makes it so great is this path of discovery. Tolkien didn't write a good novel and then reverse-engineer all of the worldbuilding detail when the fans came around to ask for it. No, he just explained to them what already existed.
I realise that this is very infeasible for a professional writer - Tolkien was a philology professor and worldbuilding just his hobby until the Hobbit was such a great success that he got down and wrote the Lord of The Rings because his publisher wanted a sequel (that turned out not to be a sequel in spirit but something much greater). However, I think this should be taken into consideration when worldbuilding. Consider that people will want to learn about stuff you tease and that plotholes will be recognised. I find Pottermore, for example, really sad: Rowling had exactly that approach for Harry Potter and is now writing tons of little stories and inventing minor details to stuff holes she left when writing the novels. For me, this takes the magic out of Harry Potter (pun not intended). Previously, I could at least imagine all of those details and explain them away myself. Now, I cannot really enjoy Harry Potter anymore because it feels artificial.
By the way, this is also exactly my problem with the Wheel of Time. Jordan teases a lot of interesting worldbuilding but, to my knowledge at least, does not actually have this information. There are no stories of the Age of Legends. He just pretends there are. I find this a bit sad. But absolutely excusable, as long as you don't do the Rowling and reverse-engineer all the stuff that's missing (Han shot first!).
Oh and I should probably mention that I have not (yet) read your book. Do not take my comment to mean that I cannot stand this approach to worldbuilding. If you don't want to dedicate your entire life to one world, as Tolkien did, that's absolutely fine but then, please, do not do so in retrospect because that takes the magic and wonder out of your world. It makes it artificial.
Really, what I'm trying to say is: try and be the discoverer of your world, not the inventor. That's what Tolkien did. If ever there was a fan who asked something of Tolkien he had not thought about, he would answer that he did not know. He had not discovered that part yet. (Btw this also means that further exploring your world in future novels is not necessarily bad; just stop with that once your novels are complete and don't act like you do know everything about your world when you actually don't).
100% agreed!
You can worldbuild all you want but just never lose sight of the narrative/story. Sometimes when writers worldbuild too much they plant roadblocks that hinder future ideas.
this pun was amazing kkk
I just want you to know, that this is exactly what I thought when he talked about this in the video, and it actually made me a bit angry because that kind of approach, somewhat devalues, what Tolkien G.R.R. Martin etc did, so thank you for your well thought out comment. I actually copied it in a word doc because I love it so much XD
@@valentinacoppola59 Why, thank you!
Paused again because you're really hitting the nails on the heads with this video. I'm currently working on a dnd setting where the existence of magical items is logically extrapolated (items only require the spell during creation and subsequently the wielder can cast the spell a limited number of times a day) which raises the prevalence on using magic in the world. This of course means they would advance to a "dungeon punk" stage but instead of everything being magitek as it is commonly portrayed the tech would be incredibly limited and magic would likely replace many of our modern conveniences.
The world would be full of cantrip weapons such as firebolt rifles (a rifled barrel could be used in the device to aid in accuracy of the plasma projectile.) Which is something I've thought of a lot. Traditional weapons would be developed in the world only if someone thought they could create a device that would be cheaper to produce or do more damage than the magic weapons with infinite ammunition. Devices would be made to utilize the shield spell as well and the arms race to develop even more powerful shield spells would continue.
Many mages would go to magic university with the hopes of getting a job in the magic tech industry. Items that heal, create food and water, clean and mend would all be possible. This in turn would allow for much higher populations in city centers as disease would be much lower and food prices would drop. The average age of death might be able to be raised to 120 for humans with these changes. This also means farm cultivating tech would potentially be forgotten over time depending on what type of food could be created with magic. If only bland food could be created, farmers would focus on planting spices or anything that couldn't be created via magic. If farms exist, they would also likely utilize climate control and growth spells on their fields.
Slime creatures, which take care of city sanitation, would eventually multiply via asexual reproduction and leave the city sewers since there wouldn't be enough refuse for all of them. Once that happened, the creatures would need to be dispatched by adventurers, city guard, or mercenary companies. I like the idea that some isekai manga have, where monsters you kill have magical cores in side them, which can then be harvested when they die. So that ecosystem could be a whole industry right there to train new adventures.
Fantasy worlds become much more interesting once you extrapolate them.
sweatshop wizards!
@@Jeff55369 Way ahead of you man, the arms race is looking crazy so far. I even have metamagic foci at this point in the most advanced civilizations.
"Items that heal, create food and water, clean and mend would all be possible." A lot of that stuff is already there (granted quite a bit is from Eberron which is a traditional dungeon punk setting) but their ramifications aren't being considered. I agree about raising the density limit and lifespan, it'd probably even cause greater density by drawing in rural folk if those items aren't commonplace enough to be in every household (think a movie theater in a settlement vs TVs in every house).
"farmers would focus on planting spices or anything that couldn't be created via magic." Items already exist for the spices, they'd be focusing on the latter and it would primarily be for the nobility raising the position of farmers on the "food chain" if you will.
"Slime creatures, which take care of city sanitation" Dude, I hadn't even considered using monsters for this stuff, that is a great idea. I'm familiar with the core idea from I can't tell which, because they've all blurred together in my head, manga/anime but rather than having a generic commonality between every single monster, I prefer using parts of the actual monsters which, if logically applicable, could be used to replicate some of the monsters abilities (natural armor from hide, breath weapons from some sort of gland/organ, etc)
"Fantasy worlds become much more interesting once you extrapolate them." Yes they do my friend, yes they do.
@@wicrosoft8091 Wizards running sweatshops or wizards in sweatshops?
@@darkbringer1440 both
As a writer and someone who loves the medieval substance-I fucking love this channel!
Your book is now definitely on my to buy list once I can afford to spend money on it. All you said is so true, fantasy doesn't mean that you can just abandon internal consistency and logic. This will help in my own writing for sure. I have found that adding restrictions and limitations improves my writing as it forces more creativity. Having limits on what things that magic can do makes coming up with solutions more creative and therefore more satisfying, rather than just making up some spell that will just solve the problem directly.
Just make your book doesn't suffer at the cost of worldbuilding
It's good you learnt that lesson sooner rather than later. Limitation/restriction, even when self-imposed, not only improves the logic and internal consistency of fictional worlds - it's also a great driver of creativity generally.
So in the course of deciding how magic works in your universe, you literally decided what the universe is shaped like... wow.
This got released an hour before my dnd game, thanks shad
admiral ackbar 3 hours before mine
True culture right there
Bruh that's literally the same situation as me lol
2 hours before mine lol and also I'm curious, do you guys use roll 20, or are you like me and play in person
@@HavenBriar kinda both to be honest :> D20 mainly though on Tabletop Sim
@@HavenBriar in person but now we use discord due to the quarantine
Shad: You don't have to worldbuild everything!
Me(developing an open world video game with a LARP tie in): But is that really true??????
Well his point is that you only have to world-build what the audience will interact with, so in an open-world game that's pretty much everything xD
"No writer in the word has felt like they've perfected it"
*Terry Goodkind has entered the chat*
Word-building is fun.
This makes me laugh because I hated the sword of Truth.
Terry Goodkind didn't 'felt like'
He wos shure.
Like all fools before him.
@@tnk4me4 many did. Just becouse the truth itself hurts ass XD.
I don't understand how he managed to get so many books published, and not just because he's a giant asshole: I never read beyond the first book because it annoyed me SO much that he had so many cool concepts and just utterly wasted them in an exceptionally thoughtless plot!
Re: magical healing. In trying to extrapolate the effects of D&D magic, many people ignore scarcity of casters and spells per day limits. A common example is remove disease. It can't stop a plague because it's a third level spell, requiring at least a fifth level cleric, and even the most powerful cleric can only cast it at most seven times in one day. On the other side, the orison stabilize allows any cleric or even an adept to stabilize someone's condition after injury. They won't get better, but they won't get worse. And being an orison, it's usable at will, so certain causes of death just won't happen, particularly hemorrhage in childbirth. That's the sort of thing that will change society.
This kinda depend on the edition. In certain older editions the city can just give a bunch of money to an high level cleric to craft many 50 charges wands, but such a thing is not possible anymore in 5e, as wand abusing was rampant in 3.5. Conversately, there were no cantrips at will, so a low level cleric was not able to stabilize more than a few people
@@noukan42 In the version I'm working with, that's possible, but each such wand takes 12 days to make and costs 11,250 gp to make, meaning 225 gp per treatment, which is about six year's income for an ordinary worker. Now consider that any plague worth calling a plague will infect hundreds of people in that time, and again it's fairly clear why this solution is impractical at best.
That assumes the priest alone is the only source of remedy, additonally even weaker priests and certain builds of other classes can still treat the symptoms extending their life significantly, not to mention potions or magical equipment.
@@kodaxmax There's still the scarcity of casters to consider, and the high cost of potions and other equipment (at least in 3/3.5/Pathfinder). I'm not claiming that D&D magic can't help with epidemics, but it's not enough to prevent them entirely.
That makes me think of the movie "Onward". Magic was abandoned because it was hard to master, so when easier ways to do things were found, the magical way was done far less. If it was also very limited, then society might well find ways to do that job every time, and eventually make people no longer use magic to do it.
Fun fact: Floating islands would be possible, if they had natural monopolar magnets in them, interacting with planetary magnetic field, like Floatstone in Civilization: BE.
Shad, author-to-be here, and I gotta say that I love your work. They taught me a great deal about medieval stuff here and there that certainly helped with the worldbuilding of my story. The first draft should be finished within a few weeks, followed by editing, and then publishing once the damn virus stops being a thing. If I wasn't so preoccupied with writing and consuming all sorts of media, I'd definitely be reading your book as well.
SIMPLE don’t let Disney do it
Alex Felix indeed
No thats worldWRECKING ;-)
Don't let Disney UNdo it.
Alex Felix true. Frozen had so much potential but they ruined it.
*don't even let them come near it*
I usually detest when youtubers start off with some random advertisement for other companies, especially these weird androidgames and when they don"t announce they are getting paid for it.
But I really like how you match your sponsoring with the thematics of the video, and that tool really sounds useful! Thank you for making great content!
(Okay, now back to the actual video Lol)
Meh. Whether they say it or not, if a RUclipsr is doing an ad for a mobile game or the like, it's because they are getting paid for it.
I would hate it more if I didn't know what RUclips is doing to their ad revenue. Gotta make ends meet.
More than half an hour of Shad, Fantasy, and worldbuilding?
That's perfect to listen to while building on my chainmail :D
5:47 exactly it pisses me off when people look at my world building and say this Dosen't follow the fantasy laws of Harry potter or Lord of the rings. this is a more recent example of my world building, I'm doing a fantasy futurist sci-fi world, and I changed alot of how space and planets work and other futuristic elements, and my friend to said to me "why don't you just use the laws of star wars, Destiny and star trek's universe laws". It's fantasy I should be able to do what I want as long as i can explain why it is the way it is in a satisfactory manor
Oh, my "Why don't you use the laws of ..." Because they don't use them either! At this point, they seem to contradict them more often than follow them. I feel your pain.
Whilst I certainly agree that it can be a good idea to take some inspiration from currently present fictions to determine factors of your own fiction, doing it to too great an extent or doing it too much becomes dull and repetitive. Plus as you say, it's your own fiction and you get to decide the basics of how it works. Would you mind giving an example of certain factors your friend criticised?
It is a double edged sword. Original ideas can really make your world more interesting, but nonsensical technobabble takes less explaining and is less likely to shatter disbelief if it's nonsense that your audience has heard before. An Alcubierre style warp drive is a no more scientifically sound solution to FTL travel than riding genetically modified space unicorns, but an audience will accept a warp drive without nearly as much convincing because they've seen them before. In contrast, space unicorns could make for a more interesting element in a story, but then you have to explain everything like how your riders don't die in space, and how your unicorns break the light barrier, etc. If your world includes too many things that you have to explain, then your story can very quickly devolve into a textbook of teaching your audience to just understand your world.
@@nosajimiki5885 that's kind of why I like stories that also have something akin to a side book on various parts of the mechanics of the world, but not everything so as to leave some room for development and expansion on current knowledge.
@@themockingdragon135 In my fiction I have it where there are 6 main factions each of them have their own colonies of planets. The 2 largest factions are located in the north and south of space while 2 other faction reside in the Western hemisphere of space but in that they are north and south of eachother.
While the smallest faction of the six controls a small part of eastern hemisphere of space, the last faction is right in the middle between the other five factions. The problem my friend has is that I have it set up where every solar system in each factions territory has a star(sun). But the eastern hemisphere space has the least amount of stars(suns) he thinks I should just use the star wars space map instead of me making my own. I made my own space map so that the placing of each faction and how the events that happen in my story makes sense.
That's exactly what I tell people who read or watch fantasy.
There is something called realistic which follow the rules of our world at the same time an author can do anything to his world that what I called realistic in the eyes of the author or it is realistic in this specific world.
*the physics of a given world or reality however strange or unrelated to our own need to be constant and make sense within the context in which they take place...reliance on plot convenience is not an excuse to change things midway through the narrative to suit a given situation*
@@scottmantooth8785 ofcourse all what you said is absolutely correct there is a need for explanation for some context, and sometimes we don't need an absolute proof but at least assumptions or theories (by the characters themselves) about a certain phenomenon.
It annoys me when people say things dont have to be explained or it doesn't have to be realistic cuz its fantasy.
Not understanding the concept of World Building, Magic Systems, and Magical Realism. It hurts my head talking to those people.
ruclips.net/video/tyw5b6kO_sE/видео.html .
Verisimilitude, when something is consistent and realistic within its own self-contained setting and follows the setting's rules.
Literally world building and then you drop this. Dam! How can i click away?
The idea of the tiny people reminded me of watership down of all things. Maybe tiny people would live in burrows. Sure is easier to protect against giant enemies when they can't fit inside your towns entrance.
You made some great points though. I was pretty transfixed on making a kinda stock fantasy world but yea, you can be far more original than that!
To the Shad Level!
Greetings from Adelaide! i loved your book and i was hoping you would make a vid on the topic. i loved the world building you created in your book.
Yes Shad, we'd LOVE to listen to you extrapolating the hell out of every possible change in our world! PLS DO IT KIND SIR!
This belongs in every Gamemaster/Dungeonmaster's RUclips Playlist. And every Novelist's playlist. And it's just a good video regardless. Great job
12:25
That "problem" of storms and wind currents being the size of galaxies and almost moving at the speed of light in some cases actually sounds AWESOME.
Realistically it wouldn't be a "problem" either. There are plenty of places in our own universe that are inhospitable as is. A galaxy-sized superstorm happening 2 million light years away doesn't need to affect the story. But yeah that could be a cool concept in a universe that is overabundant with carbon and oxygen etc. The universe is the way it is purely because of quantum inflation (the "big bang" wasn't a physical event to put it shortly), so theoretically other universes could and likely do have vastly different elemental profiles and dark matter percentages based on truly random variables during quantum inflation.
The extrapolation part is one thing that really bugs me in modern D&D, in the way they handle magic. Now that they took away all restriction to be a spell caster and that they made cantrips that you can use as much as you want, they didn't consider all the implications this would have on society.
Most cantrips don't actually affect much at much at all, especially since magic is relatively rare. True, anyone can technically use magic, but it takes time to learn to use magic in most ways. Wizards and Bards spend years practicing, while Clerics, Paladins and Warlocks use magic from gods, so you have to be granted it. Druids and Rangers use nature magic, so either from a nature god, or years of attuning to nature.
Sorcerers are just born with it, so their magic is out of the question.
Now, all except sorcerers are open to everyone of course, but most people won't ever cast magic. The common man doesn't have the time to learn or give devotion. Those of higher classes can, but it is implied through the stat blocks of random example NPCs that the progression of the classes isn't what everyone goes through.
Now, lets talk about the actual cantrips. Some have pretty serious implications for a society. Mending is quite powerful within trade, while Firebolt isn't actually that useful outside of combat, depending on what you view as a flammable object of course.
It doesn't really change anything though, as most uses of fire is for long-term, such as cooking fires, warming people or creating light, neither of which can be achieved by firebolt.
It could replace flint and steel, or tinderboxes, but that depends on when magic became available during human development.
But if we then include the Create Bonfire cantrip from EE, then that suddenly could upset development, since it could fulfill all the roles we traditionally used fire for during early development. It would probably not stop development, unless the population was small enough that the casters that could use the cantrip could fulfill society's needs, or if there were enough casters to use it. Maybe society is dependent on casters, because nobody discovered how to light a fire, creating a sort of worship of their abilities? But most likely, it would have just taken a bit more time before somebody figured out how to do it without magic.
Of course, light sources would be affected, since almost all casters has some form of light cantrip (Light is obviously superior to Dancing Lights in terms of game-mechanics btw, fight me).
Things like Acid Splash would probably have no effect at all, since people would still stumble upon it naturally in animals and such.
I could see Message having some implications for trade and travel, thought the limited range does make it less than optimal. Sending is not a cantrip however, but with unlimited range it would probably create drastic changes even if it was super rare among casters. Even as a 3rd level spell, just three people having access to it globally could lead to super fast communication. If you think the 25 word limit is a problem, then using code could make every word contain 15, and the definition of what a word is is pretty vague too, so assuming some loopholes are possible could lead to massive chunks of communication technology never being invented.
There are no healing cantrips, only Spare The Dying. That would have some effect, and obviously the leveled healing magic would probably affect things too. Since medical science is already something that was specialized and not widespread, the limited amount of casters would have a way greater impact than for things that every person needs access to. One caster can't create bonfires for 100s of people in a day, but one healer could probably keep 100s of people sated indefinitely. Natural remedies would probably still exist, since that is mostly invented by secluded people with no access to society, but whether it would ever gain a market in society is another question, and it would probably not be reliable, since it would not be tested by a huge amount of people. If you are lucky you could stumble onto something that actually works, but most of the time, natural remedies would just be confirmation bias and coincidental timing fooling hermits into thinking they were healed by whatever they tried last.
Most cantrips don't have enough versatility to be used for much, since they do more damage than actually affect objects. Even the elemental attacks won't have much effect, since the elemental effect is only really useful over extended periods of time (see Firebolt above).
It is more likely that the low level spells would have greater effect, such as society being inherently suspicious since a relatively high number of people can Disguise Self or Charm Person. We'd probably struggle to discover sedatives, since it is a rarely used drug, and Sleep should be common enough to completely eclipse the discovery.
There are a bunch of different consequences of magic, though they must be weighed against exactly how prevalent magic is. Most low level stuff requires a ton of magic users to have any significant impact, while the higher level stuff only requires a couple users to really change the world. I don't think the rules allow for consequential cantrips though, but I might of course be missing something. I can't say I know every spell and cantrip by heart XD
The idea of playing with gravity in the fantasy setting is quite powerful...imagine that gravity is non-consistent through the world. People from areas where gravity is significantly higher would be essentially superhumans to everybody else, and if you are from the region where gravity is lower you will probably have to wear an exoskeleton to visit any other place. Primitive planes, helicopters and balloons might be possible even on the medieval technology level, but at the same time, they can be used only locally in areas where gravity is lower. This one change in the laws of physics can add so much variety to the world.
Your book is great by the way Shad. I'm about half way through reading it and I love it so far. I just love your characters and especially Cueseg for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. But the best thing by far about your book is the world building. The insane amount of thought you have put into your world is just astonishing. I love how you made your world's different laws of physics have a real and realistic influence on the peoples, cultures, lifestyles, inventions, technology, architecture and pretty much everything else within your world. It's just great! it makes your world so unique. Ok, I'm gonna watch your video now and see how you did it all.
A donut shaped Earth would likely have very crazy seasons
And very uneven gravity too
Also, it would be a planet existing in constant fear of Homer Simpson.
@@Anacronian i... am homercron... for a time... i considered sparing your delicious planet donutron... but now... you will witness... its dismemberment!!!
Well, it would seem pretty normal on the outward-facing side. I've used a torus-shaped world in my FRPGs for years. I chose the shape mostly for the ease of mapping.
Depends entirely upon axial tilt in relationship to the orbital plane around its star, as well as how regular or eccentric the worlds orbit is.
Another important thing to consider is the electromagnetic field of a donut world, what generates that field, and the radiation out put of the star it orbits.
Size and mass of donut world, its rotational period, and everything else I mentioned all influence the weather patterns of the world.
I loved the world building in the book. It just felt logical. For example, when you introduced how the stones interacted in the very beginning, I immediately thought, "hey, this would make a great way to power a vehicle." Lo, and behold! Magic stone powered wagons!
I literally just clicked on your video after watching a flat Earth debate. That "oh God the stupid" laughter you're experiencing only lasts about 20 minutes, after that, it becomes "oh dear they really believe this, I wonder, can they walk while chewing gum". I don't think they could do it. The stupid is incredibly disconcerting.
Like, I get some of their arguments, like, yeah they dont know how Gravity works. But with limited knowledge it makes sense they would assume its as simple as "pulling objects downward", instead of pulling them towards the centre of gravity. Still stupid though, but you can at least see their point.
Also the curvanture argument makes sense of the surface, but being in planes or on mountains should fix that right up.
Everything else is just 100% stupid though.
@@blankblank1284 "AuStrAlia dOEsnT EXisT"
@@maynardshellholeofrandom5069 it doesn't. What's your point?
This has actually helped me tremendously. I think I know what is missing in my book now. It's the connection between the world and the main characters. How the world is changed and thus affects the main characters. Thanks for giving me this realization Shad, loved the video
Shad does a video about fantasy worldbuilding? My university dissertation can wait!!
I just bought a new scrapbook, see the video title and writing everything down like a psycho.
I highly recommend typing it out instead of taking notes traditionally. Personally when I'm on a keyboard my productivity is like x4 than when I'm using a pen.
Shad don't know why but just wanna say you are genuinely one of the greatest youtubers on here. You make some of the highest tier content and i wish you only the best, merry quarantine!
Very good Shad. I’m sure that you’re aware of what I’m about to mention, but some viewers might not be.
For a perfect tutorial on world-building in fiction, look no further than Frank Herbert’s Dune. It is a masterwork in the creation of an alternate reality. He created a futurist universe in which there are no computers (!), and where hand-held blades are a necessity for combat (!!). The Fremen, for example, are a *complete* culture, fleshed out to an amazing degree, with their own language, customs, religious beliefs, technology, and an overarching reverence for water and the sandworm. For the reader, Dune is a real world populated by real people who do believable yet amazing things.
After watching this video, I know you get what Herbert was up to. Imma have to read *your* book now.
Just bail out of the dune series about book 3. Takes a left turn at Albuquerque in book 4.
24:09 ->
Unless you have engineers and mages competing with each other, then, you could have inventions and magic constantly imitating and one-uping each other.
The artificer guilds and mage guilds could compete for the people to join them, resources from governments, demand for their services and products, and/or, simply, as a sport.
And some individuals incapable of magic, inspired by those gifted with it, would want to, at least, imitate magic utilizing their inventions.
It would require a pretty specific culture, but it could make a technomagical world work, and make it interesting at the same time.
The limited number of magical individuals would help that kind of a world, though.
Shad. Thank you for making these videos. Also, thank you for mentioning WorldAnvil because I did not know about it and I think it's a useful tool. I am a very visual person so this helps me a lot to flesh out all the details before I start writing. I always find the first page is the hardest part for me so to have something like that to help me get going is very encouraging.
7:46 And thus began a discussion on my favorite Minecraft server about how such a planet would work in terms of physics and geography. Thanks, Shad.
Seeing you have the whole wheel of time series on display, arranged chronologically, and on it's own bookshelf, in the first 3 seconds of watching a 36 minute video about world building immediately takes everything you say about world building to a totally new level, Shad. and I'm an Asian.
...and that, my liege, is how we know the earth to be donut shaped.
"Just one quick question Sire, if i may! What is a Dough-Nut? Can bread be made of it? N should we plant it for coming seasons harvest?"
"You Don't Need To Worldbuild Everything, You Just Need To Worldbuild What Is Needed For The Story"
2:07 - Qualifications to speak on the matter
3:10 - What worldbuilding is not
3:36 - Why worldbuild
5:40 - Author's personal approach
10:26 - What you can do with worldbuilding
25:30 - Summary [Cardinal Rules]
25:36 - First Cardinal Rule
25:43 - Second Cardinal Rule
25:57 - Third Cardinal Rule
*Thumbs up*
I want to thank you Shad! I really needed to see this video for where I am in my world building and it’s made me realize that I was developing world-builder’s disease. Amazing video as usual and I am looking forward to those what if videos you mentioned!
This answered a lot of my questions about world-building, especially balancing magic with technology and only world-building when needed. If I ever get published I'm going to credit you :)
Just remember, technology isnt robots and spaceships and lásers and things like that, technology is just a technique, the aplication of knowledge to do something, sticking a rock and a long stick together to create a spear IS technology, primitive technology but technology non the less
With that in mind "magic" would definetly clasify as technology since usually it requires a technique to be used and follows stablished rules and limitations
as an aspiring writer, this video was incredibly helpful, you just gained a sub, Shad. keep the good work
"you don't have to write the vast rich history"
Malazan fans: *laughs in potsherds*
Well, you don't. You need backstory related to specific events with only general timeline, what can be expanded later. He address specifically so called world-builder syndrome where people focus to much on lore to point that they never finish it and if they write book it rarely matter.
22:37 Exactly. I never understood why every city in D&D aren't illuminated by magic light, if permanent magic light is a thing, pretty low level, and low level wizards are a dime a dozen. This is why I banned this kind of magic from my campaign.
I love shad’s point about not being able to maintain a medieval setting when there is tons of magic in the world. Terry Mancore’s wonderful Spellmonger series appears to be painting itself into this corner. Magic is beginning to affect the economy of that world with what should be massive, economy destabilizing consequences. I hope the author explores these in future books!
I would love the idea of the series you proposed Shad! The video and ideas are very interesting and I would definitely watch it
You are such an inspiration for me to keep writing. I am proud of my world, and character, and you just give me the confidence to be as abstract as I want and not
Hi Shad, your book was absolutely amazing, can't wait for the next one :)
Really looking forward to this series! I love hearing you talk about writing.
30:36 is the bane of all creatives. Some people spend an inordinate amount of time on world building to a point nothing in the plot gets done and those intellectual resources are just wasted on drawing a cosmic map of detail, where nothing actually happens. Could not agree more with these statements. And I feel there's a certain discipline in writers, where they wrestle against their creativity to stay on track and not get lost in the infinite tangents they generate by just arbitrarily naming something.
Shad I can’t tell you how amazing it is to see you doing better now
I can’t tell you how much you can brighten up my day with your videos
I’ve been watching almost since I was in grade 9 or 10 and now I’m in college and I’m only getting older
And when watching your videos you always seemed to make my passion for story writing seem reasonable and reachable
It hasn’t been easy to keep my faith in myself and it’s been harder keeping myself on a path that I know I love
And after your hospitalization and surgery I knew you’d be ok but I still felt scared
and with recent issues with the Covid-19 outbreak I don’t know how my own future will turn out
But never the Less I’m happy to see you back in your throne
And I believe I speak for all of us when I say... welcome back my king!❤️
In Raymond E Feist's books there exists a world where all the metal (nearly all of it) had already been mined out and used up before humans came to it, called Kelewan, so they used wood with resin in it for weapons and armor which was nearly as strong as steel. When they came to another world which used metal commonly, they invaded for the resources. In Kelewan, a normal iron key was more valuable than gold.
>used up
Does metal just get consumed when it's used?
@@Amfortas What that means is that, when a sword rusts and breaks apart you cannot recover anything from it. That's happened to even common things like nails on the planet such that metals are truly rare, since they were dug up, used and discarded long before the Tsurani ancestors came there.
I have been world building for 4 weeks straight. This video couldn't have been better timed for me!