Welcome back! How did everyone do with the worldbuilding exercises from last week?

I don’t know about YOU, but I am nowhere near finished with even my most basic worldbuilding yet.

Stained

So far, I’ve got my story set on a large island (small continent?) with two distinct geographically-based societies. Magic users come from the mountain-based society only. I have some rules governing the magic wielded by those people, including boundaries and limits. Additionally, I’ve got a society based around the fact that Stained exist. What does it mean to be a society that periodically produces magically-inclined folk?

I have some religions and a social caste system, as well as an understanding of the trade between the mountain-folk and the lowlanders. How do the mountain-folk survive? What food and goods can they provide on their own and what must they trade for? I also have a primary export and warring factions within the mountain folk.

Additionally, this is just one rather smallish country in this world. Thankfully, I have my husband and roommate to help me do the worldbuilding (and by “help”, I mean they’re doing most of the work. *winks*)

We have a seafaring society, an “alien” society, a vague history with highlights that goes back approximately 10,000 years, multiple other countries and a few different-but-related magic systems within those societies. We had a recent plague in the southeast that’s causing a lot of friction between the human denizens of that area and their warlike non-human parent country.

We also have a growing threat to all of these countries and societies – one that our desert-dwelling folks thought they’d locked away thousands of years ago.

Why So Much?

Why do so much worldbuilding?

A couple of reasons.

• My husband loves to do worldbuilding, and he’s pretty flippin’ fantastic at it.
• The more your world lives and breathes before you start adding characters to it, the easier it is to come up with plots and conflicts. Just based on what I’ve got above, I can think of at least three trilogy plots and one plot that would tie multiple series together into one massive climactic battle.
• Myself, my husband, and our roommate are all planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year. We decided to build a single world and each of us take a fragment of it to write about. Stained is mine, the seafaring society will be tackled by Mr. Moore, and He Who Lives In The Second Bedroom will be taking on the warlike non-human “alien” society.

How Much Will Be Used?

All of it, but very little of it.

Every piece of worldbuilding has affected this world. The addition of the primary export from the Stained mountain society has had a ripple effect on the other countries, peoples, and magic systems on this planet.

I have a rough map of the mountain society – where people live, how their political system is shaped, the specific types of brooches used to identify people of various castes – but my current plan has most of my novel taking place in the lowlander setting.

My novel will likely not even mention most of the other societies we’re worldbuilding for. It may not even mention this primary export, I’m not sure.

But because that building has been done, I know that my world will make sense. I know that my plots and conflicts will be closely tied to the setting. And best of all, I know that this world has MORE than enough room in it for a ton of books. Trilogies, series, the whole shebang. All of it should make sense as it’s revealed because all of it is THERE.

Homework

I’m not ready to move on to character building yet. I still have too many world details that I want to hammer out before I move on.

This week’s homework is the same as last week’s homework. Build your world. Shape it, craft it, mold it, and sing sweetly to it until it begins to thrum back at you. Let it live.

More Questions

Last week was BIG questions. This week is going to be smaller questions.

I have my list of societies. Which of those people are likely to show up in Stained? Which are highly unlikely to show up? Of the ones that might, how will the mountain-folk and the lowlanders react to seeing them? What happens if a Stained shows up in a lowlander country? How are they treated? If my character walks through the gates of a lowlander city, what will she see?

I might even draw out a few rough city maps if I feel up to it. Where do travelers stay? Are there slums? Prisons? Bars? Is there an industrial area? How about residential?

Next Week

Next week, we’ll get started on characters. I’m enjoying the worldbuilding, but I am REALLY looking forward to meeting my main character.

Okay, okay.

I gave in and I’m playing WoW again.

In a move that will surprise no one, I am immediately bombarded with ideas for Warcraft-inspired blog posts, which I shall condense into list format because I am NOT turning this into a Warcraft blog, nope, not gonna happen, no way, no how.

Onward!

Mr. Chilly, the penguin pet, is adorable and I will love him and squish him and hug him and call him George. Also, the fact that his eyes are flashlights (highlighted in dark dungeons even when he’s not focused on) is both creepy and awesome. Crepawsome. Aweseepy. Something.

The new random dungeon thing is awesomesauce, especially since we can vote to kick. Reasons we’ve kicked folks so far include: doing 12 dps (12. And that was AFTER stepping it up because they were warned), a hunter rolling need on a +stam cloth robe, a dps warrior (that was not doing any damage and had a shield equipped) rolling need on +agi shoulders (with a rogue in the group that actually DID need them), and my personal favorite – calling me a very naughty word and threatening to stalk me after I asked the group not to do the Thing That Can Wipe Even A Very Good Group.

Rogues, did I miss the patch where you get a damage bonus after sapping things? Because five rogues in a row can’t be THAT wrong in stealthing up and sapping everything in sight while the pallytank is drinking to replenish mana … could they?

This many huntards in a row is not a coincidence. Blizzard, you must be teaching them incorrectly. Hunters, I love you, but please use a ranged weapon.

Two hours to do the water quest for an orc shaman goes beyond “silly” and well into “ludicrous”. I don’t even want to know how long it took before they dropped the level requirements to get the first mount.

Have I mentioned how much I love the random dungeon thing? Because travel time to and from instances alone used to eat up HOURS of gametime. I love, love, love the random dungeon thing.

I realize that, as a druid, I can choose to morph into bear form and tank. However, since I am currently wearing healing gear and have all of my talent points in the Resto tree, I feel the need to comment on the SEVEN tanking cloaks that I’ve gotten as random dungeon goodie bag blues. Seven tanking cloaks. One healy belt. It’d be awesome if you’d let us trade those goodie bag blues to other people in that random dungeon group. Also, if your inventory is full, the goodie bag gets mailed to you. That’s great! Except … it would be better if a line appeared in the chat window or on the screen that lets us know to EXPECT it in the mail. I might’ve said a few naughty words when I didn’t get my bag, only to retract them half an hour later when my mail arrived. Maybe.

Roleplaying rarely ever works out as planned. My tauren druid (Yes, horde. No, not a priest) SHOULD be a mild, sweet-mannered peace-loving hippie, based on lore and common expectations. Around level 10, she let me know that she’s a pushy, foul-mouthed harpy. Our female blood elf tank is constantly bombarded with threats and insults, the most common of which is to call her “little boy” or refer to her as “that eleven-year-old boy”.

What is This?

Weekly Wordcount posts have two purposes:

• Personal accountability, to nurture a writing habit throughout the year
• Encouragement for others to do the same

My weekly wordcount goal is set to 2,000 words.

How Did I Do?

Specific wordcounts for me will be put on hold until HTRYN is complete. Talk about a time commitment!

• Choose installment written.
• Song of Binding – HTRYN work continues. We are on Lesson 8 now.
• Worldbuilding for Stained.

How Did YOU Do?

How is your writing coming along?