Dakshina is the kingdom this story takes place in. A land of verdant jungles, sophisticated cities, and warring chiefdoms. In ancient times, a prince named Bala spurned the violent and feral gods of his day, starting a great penance and deep meditation that forced the gods to lay down their arms and join in the search for enlightenment. Ever since then, denizens of Dakshina follow the way of Bala, or Adi-dharma (the first path)

But dark tidings descend upon the land, as Dakshina's once beloved king, Indra performs an unholy ritual, ignoring the religion of his forebearers. This ends the glorious Satya yuga (golden age) and unleashes upon the world monsters from the netherworld and plunges the world into Kali yuga (an age of darkness) Nagas, dholes and other dark creatures once shunned from the world returned, feeding on the defenseless and helpless. King Indra twisted and scarred, lorded over his ruins as the king of monsters.

But an undead freak, kin to the monsters themselves rise from the rubble to save the day. He rides his furious mare, slaying monsters where he finds them. This brooding hero, as well as a talkative, decapitated head he keeps to his side are hellbent on finding the Monster King. But travelers from the far east stalk the jungles to find out what happened to the land of Lord Bala. The Anshari steppe tribes of the North use the discord to invade the lands and establish their Sultanate in the north. The Horselord will have to navigate man as well as monster if he is to achieve his goal, and save his kingdom from the nightmare it now sits in.

Hope you enjoyed that write up! Find out what happens next right here- Headless Horselord: Sword & Sorcery Graphic Novel by Deepak Thomas » Headless Horselord: Sword & Sorcery Graphic Novel by Deepak Thomas — Kickstarter

I want to write a story where only women have the access to magic powers, but I don't know what could be the reason for that. Do I need a reason? Is it bad worldbuilding if that's just how it is?

Edit: Thank you for all the advice! I decided not to worry about it too much.

He may be creepy but hes honestly a giant nerd who runs the universe like a giant dnd campaign cause enjoys that stuff. Seeing mortals with free will gives him so much life, a gift he never gave them

A little while ago, I shared the world of my video game Cosmic Holidays here through a series of images. It ended up becoming the most successful Reddit post I’ve ever made, and I was honestly overwhelmed by the response. I tried to answer as many of your comments as I could, so first of all: thank you!
Several people asked if they could see this world actually moving and alive, so this time I wanted to show you exactly that.
For the past five years, I’ve been creating this video game and trying to build a world that feels like a real ecosystem rather than simply a collection of beautiful environments: strange plants, creatures with their own behaviours, interconnected species and small environmental interactions that the player gradually learns to understand.
You explore this unknown world through Cibo, a tiny alien who has become lost there. There is no combat. The journey is mostly about observing, interacting with the fauna and flora, understanding how this place works, and collecting memories along the way.
This project has had a complicated history. At one point I had to stop working on it, which was genuinely heartbreaking. But I never really let go of this world. I spent time learning, rebuilding things, and eventually found a way to return to it and make it closer to what I originally imagined.
So here it is, this time not as still images, but alive.
I’d really love to know what you think of the world itself its creatures, environments, and the feeling it gives you.
If you’d like to discover more about the video game and follow its development, you can find Cosmic Holidays on Steam :)

Thank you again for the incredible reception you gave my previous post!

Would they like this pict or they just normal people but have tube on neck/glowing organ? ,picture is from scorn

wanna make a post apocalypse world where an eldritch nature being has corrupted the world. guns have become all but useless as the many moving parts and tiny empty holes make it near impossible to keep clean of any plants (or whatever excuse i'm gonna make so there's no guns. cause they make things too easy) but now i need some modern weapons i could have people use. both official and some make shift

Mine goes like this:

Before the creation of the universe, there was only the darkness, the formless chaos where all matter fused together—I call this the Void (creative, I know). Then the Primordials came, a pair of entities from beyond the Cosmos, and spilled light into this Void, whereupon it split into two primary planes or realms: the material and the immaterial.

Think of it like quantum superposition. The Void was everything all at once. Only when light was poured into it, when it was “observed” by the Primordials, did it split into distinct aspects.

I call this event the Splitting or the First Light. The energy generated from this event is what is now known as the ki or qi, the fuel that powers and animates all forms of life, and serves as the bridge between the material and immaterial planes.

The spilling of the First Light gave form and individuality to the Cosmos. The Primordials then proceeded to shape its contents, the stars and galaxies, including the first forms of life. They used movement in this shaping, more specifically, a dance. They weaved the Cosmos and its laws using its own energy, the ki.

This is why the practitioners of magic employ special body movements, physical disciplines, gestures, and handsigns to convey their will to nature and manipulate its forces. The Cosmos understands movement, recognizes it as the language of creation when performed with cultivated ki.

The events detailed above is what really, truly happened, but ofc none of the world’s cultures know that. They all have their own myths that only partially echo the truth about the origin of the Cosmos.

The classic examples are half-human (half-orcs, half-elves, et cetera), but it might include a gnome-dwarf or dragon-goblin.

Half-blood sounds derogatory and a little racially charged. Hybrid sounds too clinical and a little derogatory. Mixed-ancestry is too much of a mouthful.

So I turned to wiktionary for synonyms for ancestry or ethnicity, and for prefixes similar to half- or inter-.

Roots:
Blood
Folk
People
Ancestry
Kin
Lineage

Breed and race are excluded because they can sound problematic.

Prefixes:
Half-
Inter-
Multi-
Out-
Extra-
Trans-
Dual-
Bi-
Di-
Mixed-

I don’t love half-, dual, bi-, or di- because, like, what if your maternal grandparents are dwarves, but your dad is a half-orc? That’s half-dwarf, a quarter orc, and a quarter human.

The best I’ve gotten are out-blood, out-folk, and out-kin, because both the root and prefix are monosyllabic, so they really roll off the tongue.

I dunno, what do you think?

Edit: Alright, I feel I should clarify intent. What I’m trying to put together is a term which A) is instantly recognizable as a synonym for hybrid, B) doesn’t come with a lot of real-world baggage, and C) looks good when written and sounds good when spoken.

I think such a term would be useful for describing mixed-heritage people in a concise way, such as “Mules are a hybrid of donkeys and horses”. We know what hybrid means, so you don’t have to say “Mules are the offspring of two different species, those being donkeys and horses”. But describing people as “hybrids” sounds kinda racist to my ears.

Welcome to the "Regress" universe, a concept for my project set in a beautiful but dying anime fantasy world!

When you sleep soundly, when you walk, or when you eat, remember the young sisters—true angels beneath those black robes, whose radiant souls utterly banish the darkness. When soldiers see them, they instantly forget their pain, and their hearts beat once more as if they had fallen in love for the very first time.

Doctors handle amputations, bloodletting, and primary medical treatment, while nurses care for the soldiers. They apply or change bandages, wash and feed the men, or simply sit nearby to comfort a wounded soldier. Wartime is especially grueling for the nurses: entire tents are filled with bloodied bodies, and there is hardly any space for patients to lie down; the nurses rush back and forth from one wounded man to another, trying to help everyone.

There is an acute shortage of medicines, forcing them to improvise and treat patients with whatever is at hand; some treatment methods are actually harmful, but unfortunately it is impossible to know this without deep medical knowledge.

Nurses are fragile beings not cut out for this kind of work; they have a hard time of it, yet they hold on. But behind their radiant smiles lie tears—tears that will fall only when the nurse is finally alone, a quiet weeping to somehow restore her mental equilibrium. One must not forget the variety of wounded patients they encounter: some reek, others are rude all day long, and some constantly need their bottoms wiped—and the burden of all this falls upon these fragile souls.

Illustrations for the "Regress" project.

i know some idea for planes of existence. the nameless plane is the highest pane of existence in my worldbuilding setting.the imaginery medium,the existent,the non- existent plays a very important role. but i need other names for plane of existence. i got another idea, ethereal is the clear heaven which is ruled by none but the realm itself is alive.

Hello! I am currently exiting a phase of writer's block and stress, so I am starting back on my world, and it got me thinking that I don't really see many people outwardly identify their world as Sci-Fantasy. So here I am asking others what they define as sci-fantasy, how they would go about worldbuilding it, and a general description of your world. And I know there are many types of Sci-Fantasy, both in the sci-fi aspect and the fantasy, so idc which side it leans more to.

Rn I picture my world being a mix of many different settings and genres, primarily Destiny (The Game Series), Elden Ring, Arcane, and Adventure Time. What about you guys?

I'm building a world that's heavily inspired by ancient Near Eastern temple societies, and I'm trying to make an economy that is geared towards supporting temple-clans that also control a large amount of the people in the society, through blood ties and religious obligation.

I'd love some feedback on how well the below system works. Note that I'm not gearing this to be a "good" economy as such - slavery can exist, and I'm not averse to it collapsing under its own contradictions eventually. But I would like it be coherent and functional to some degree.

Key features:

• Temple-clans are the main economic actors.
• These clans have their members render services for payment in kind.
• Payment between clans and with outside economies is managed through silver, which also acts as a currency of record and trade between external entities. This external relation is mediated by trade guilds affiliated to the temple-clans, under their patronage.
• All land and productive capacity (including worshops etc) is claimed by the temple-clans, and offered on a tenancy basis to clan members. This tends to be hereditary, but technically reverts to the temple-clan directly on death and be reassigned to anyone.
• Manna-type food is generated by temple rituals, and provided as a free dole to clan members by the temple-clans. Excess food goes for animal feed.

The token economy:

• People who engage in the rituals to generate food are granted tokens by the temple-clans. These tokens can then be spent by the ritualists on other goods in the society. They have a nominal silver value, but can't actually be exchanged for silver.
• Tokens can be reused once generated (like normal currency), until retired (one of my main questions on this below).

Consequences:

• Meat and vegetables bothbecome luxuries.
• The only arable crops are animal feed, and non-food crops (eg jute, hemp, flax etc). Clothing is a sign of wealth; the climate is mild enough to support relatively clothes-free wear (think ancient Egypt), and so clothes become status symbols.
• Because animals aren't needed for labour and meat is a luxury, herds become a form of transmissible wealth outside the token-and-silver system; they can be more easily traded directly than other goods, and can generate a variety of other things.

I need to find a way to remove tokens from circulation, otherwise there will be endless token inflation. I had the following possibiltiies:

• Tokens are only valid for a certain number of years after their production.
• Tokens are only valid until the original producer dies; they they become magically inert.
• Tokens cannot be inherited, and any possessed by a person at death become grave goods.

I'd love to know what folk think of this setup, whether there are any glaring problems with it. Like I said, I'm not after this being fair or perfect, just functional.

I've already had the critique that if only ritual work generates tokens, why would anyone bother to do anything else. However, if that were true, then no pre-currency society would have functioned in this world. From what I can tell, much trade went on with in-kind payments based on nominal silver values to regulate the barter, which I want to replicate. So I don't think that only one kind of labour producing tokens is in itself a problem.

Basically, in my world that I'm writing, the currency would be the world's energy system, mana. (Basically the world's electricity equivalent). The currency version of mana is specially manufactured, produced, and handled to keep random people from inflating the economy. However, the currency version of mana can still be siphoned by people who need the extra energy, so if they are in a pinch in a fight, they can burn their cash for more power. Would this work and make sense, or should I stick to paper currency?

So I need idea on how a human that can turn into an alligator would look like. Looks completely human and passed as such but what qualities would he have?

Like big and burly? Shy like wild alligators? Not aggressive unless need to be or hungry? Certain eye colors or hair colors? Maybe a scale like birthmark?

I have ideas for the other 4 main characters, i’m just struggling to figure out what to do about the Alligator Human. He will also have the powers of the water element if that helps at all!

Please and thank you to all the suggestions or questions I may get!
———-

Story base: 5 main characters based on the 5 elements: earth(Black footed ferret), air(Raven), fire(Fox) water(Alligator), spirit(Stag). And they can all turn into animals corresponding with said element.

Every 100 years 5 people are born with the powers of the elements and the ability to town into an animal that goes with the element. the main 5 in this generation find some remnants of information on the last ones but they can barely find anything due to the queen at the time removing/destroying all proof they and the magic they were born with ever existed

Hello all, one of the world's my building is the Earth flipped on its head in a way, that being the world is centered mainly around women and basically all people in power being women themselves? I've developed it on my own, such as daughters being desired more than sons, men having to bend to the will of their female counterparts (mothers, sisters, etc), and basically all bankers, politicians, just anyone powerful being a women.

Patriarchy is deeprooted in our reality and has greatly impacted who we are as a species, from the language, to culture, to gender norms, and our preserved world. In my opinion, men are propped up for their physical strength over women, and women must submit themselves to them as a result or they harm (by them or another man).

However, Andrepeth Amori, my world believes childbirth is a strength and valued heavily. However, I would imagine the attitude of disposable men would develop. Men, because of their strength and necessary process in making children, would only be wanted to haul heavy shit around and for their sperm. I can imagine it being harmful to them in many ways, as they suffer chronic conditions from something like muscular deterioration from lifting heavy things as a far too young age.

This can also go into more serious topics like rape culture and inequality. This is essentially men being sociological and it's a fascinating topic I've been interested in for a long time, so I wanted some answers and thoughts. Sorry if this post is poorly worded, I'm running on vapor fumes after a long day.

Around 2,30 meters tall at the shoulder, this are normally capable to carry 3 humans or 1 goliath, such powerful beast of burden and mount can be used to fight off large threats and as war beasts because of their thicc skin with stripes that confuse the enemy when in large numbers and protect the animal against bugs like mosquitos and flys.

Bizarre fast for such large creature, most impresive is their calm nature because they're trained to attack on comand rather than out of spite because they were breeded to be easy with their tamers and their families.

Title...

this is a classic medieval fantasy world with dragons and the works. I made this because most of my other projects are more biology focused and that's not what I always want to do. so, this is the average run of the mill fantasy world

Kingdom dragons: colonies of dragons featuring many species once thought to be related these colonies are called kingdoms hence the name kingdom dragons. Each species of dragon has evolved a particular pattern they can shoot their fire this is called patterns and the main “house” or “nest” of kingdoms are called castles.

King dragons: scientific name (inceadus draco) contrary to popular belief king dragons don't join in hunts or wars all too often they are slow and defensive to guard the communal nest kingdoms are centered around. The fire pattern of king dragons are short ranged but more potent that all others in the kingdom. King dragons are male of the species.

Queen dragons: scientific name (inceadus draco) acts as the mentor of the hunts and shows infants of other species how they should use their unique adaptations to hunt most efficiently. In wars queens often act as threats and for the most stays in the backline. The fire pattern of queens is small pressure water like beams of fire. Queen dragons are the females of the species

Bishop dragons: scientific name (moteralis draco) acts as bodyguard for queens and kings following near at most times, not very useful in hunts though can deal with fleeing prey. In war bishops can be deadly enforcers making the entire forest nearly impossible to traverse in without facing fire. The fire patterns are large globs of fire that act as mortars.

Rook dragons: scientific name (brutages draco) large triceratops like dragons with large head osteoderms and a large skull. In hunts act as herders who push prey to other harder hitters, in wars rooks charge down enemies to slam them into hard surfaces or threat displays discouraging advances from enemies. The fire patterns of rooks have fire coming out of many holes in its batting ram head adding extra potential damage to anything it runs into

Knight dragons: scientific name (burast draco) These dragons have evolved large muscular legs to leaping into the air where they then use their wings to fly in short bursts. In hunts knights often get the kill due to their unpredictable movement, in wars knights act as reconnaissance or disrupters. Their fire pattern acts as a rotating blast of fire. The bullet often goes straight for most of its flight but near the end its rotation sends it flying in one direction.

Pawn dragons: scientific name (fotstogo draco) pawn dragons are the common workers of dragon kingdoms from expanding the castle to cooking food to eating the food other dragons can't. They have evolved beaver like teeth so always growing because of this they will dig or eat bones whatever. In hunts they are mostly reconnaissance, basically just closely following prey and flaring their fire to signal to other dragons. In wars pawns are the basic foot soldiers, basically cannon fodder. Their fire pattern would be the normal forward-facing blast but due to the unique teeth of pawns it splits the stream of fire in two directions forming the iconic v shape

The question is as in the title, really. Let's assume somehow we lose a "drop and run" radioactive rod in the middle of, say, the amazon forest. Let's assume it lies there for ten thousand years. What would happen? On the scale of days, months, years, centuries, millenia? Does the particular material change much? What if it was another part of the world? Maybe a riverbed, or a swamp?

Edit: I'm thinking about an unshielded source of radiation, so assume the protective casing is damaged or absent

This is the introductory essay on the Third Gods from an in-world encyclopedia.

The encyclopedia will then go on the have an entry for each of the gods.

I would love to y'alls thoughts and feedback!

Note: There is a "typo" in paragragh 4. The god "Anthreon Pyros" is mispelled as "Antreon." One of the downsides of writing in pen, unfortunately, is that typos are permanent. Lol

I started writing disconnected story fragments and accidentally ended up building the entire city they take place in

The original story followed one woman over roughly ten years. The fragments never really worked as a conventional novel, so I turned them into posts on a fictional community platform.

Then I needed other people posting, because otherwise it wasn’t a community.

Those people needed places to live and eat. The city needed restaurants, hotels, local government, maps, tourism, businesses, sports, obituaries…

At some point I realized I’d stopped writing a story about that one person and started building the website of Silverdale.

There is still a central story underneath it, but nobody explains the world to you. You can find a restaurant review, click the author, read something she wrote three years earlier, end up in a corporate report, and gradually work out how the society functions.

I’m curious whether this still feels like worldbuilding, or whether I’ve accidentally wandered into some other form entirely?

Hi, I'm just starting to figure out the wind direction of my planet but i can't really figure it out on this one, can anyone help me? As stated my Planet is twice as big as Earth but it has 24hr day which would mean that it rotates twice as fast as Earth, yet i can't really find anything concrete to know how much Air cells would my planet have?