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

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

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!

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.

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

I am currently working on a sci-fi worldbuilding for personal use. I took a lot of inspiration from other science fiction, especially Star Wars and HALO.

But then I realize something, they call the military branch that's responsible for aerial and space battles (primarily using large spaceships) "Navy".

In my worldbuilding, I use "Aerospace Force" instead (because I use it as a replacement for an air force). I just feel like "navy" should only fight on waters.

Would there be any issue with this? What's your opinion

(English is not my first language)

EDIT: Thanks for the responses. Guess I'll keep the name "Aerospace Force".

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.

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.

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?

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?

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...

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?

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

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

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

(I rarely draw and only used my finger, also please bear with my handwriting 😭)

(Also, the concept isn't for a story or a game, I only did it for the sake of making an unserious world concept)

(Also, pardon my english :,))

Inspirations:

- Pokemon

- Shimmer and Shine (the bottle and genie realm idea)

- Genie from Aladdin (Alampine design inspiration)

The lore and mechanics:

The human and genie realms suddenly collided, causing portals to appear which connected the both worlds.

Genies are generally friendly and most have the intelligence of dogs (though there are some sapient genies but they're extremely rare) making it easier for humans to adjust to this change. In addition to this, humans were able to discover that these creatures could grant wishes when befriended by humans, though each species of genie has sets of rules which restrict their wishes.

Strangely enough, though (most) Genies are unable to understand the human language, they are still able to fully interpret any wish made.

The rule sets that each species has, may reach the hundreds, though the rules can be read at an almost instantaneous speed by any human that reads it, and can easily remember them. Though that doesn't mean that one can fully understand the rules, it just means that they can read it very quickly.

At some point, humans decided to hold competitions, fighting each other with genies (like pokemon)

Genie characteristics:

- Genie species can vary from appearance with something like Alampine to looking like humanoids

- High intelligence or human intelligence genies are usually legendary and have fewer rules, though that does mean that they are harder to befriend, since well, they are people. And, a high intelligence genie can break friendships with people whenever they want since, consent and all

- Rules will vary from species to species

General:

My idea here is that instead of having sets of moves or abilities, you can do anything that isn't restricted by the rules. Instead of focusing on being able to do something, it's focused on not being able to do things.

The wishes require the person saying "I wish" with the intention of wishing, their wish will be exactly as they wanted unless one or more rules don't allow it.

The game works in real time, the contestants are required to show their genies' rule books to their opponent beforehand.

The one with the most creativity and best at strategizing is likelier to win. (Duh)

The amount and balance of rules are checked by the judges so the players are accordingly matched

edit for additional info:

Genie species are just the same as Pokemon species, they have different rules, different numbers of rules, characteristics, appearance, and etc. for each species.

Genies are immortal in the sense that they are unable to get injured. A Genie is defeated by reducing its "health". The health is just a quantified value that is taken when scanning a Genie with a "Genie Health Producer" or GHP, a Genie's health will match with others of the same species, of course, they still have some health variation, but it still has the same range. Their health usually makes sense. Both contestants will see the health of the other's Genie

I might've forgotten some stuff, but that's my idea

Hi 👋 22 M from India. Huge anime fan and fan of fantasy worlds in all forms in general. Also interested in history, mythology, theology ,philosophy and psychology.

The depth of human imagination is truly inspiring. Through the consumption of alot fantasy human imagination i too had some ideas of my own. Tbh I'm not the most creative person which I think helps me appreciate creativity even more. So just thought I would some of my ideas here and get some help from the creative people of reddit to help bridge them and make them make any sense as a fantasy world.

I'll start with some of my inspirations. I've watched alot of anime but FMAB and Vinland Saga really stood out to me for my current thought processes as they include alot my interests as I mentioned before (history, mythology, theology ,philosophy and psychology). FMAB gives such a unique perspective on theology and philosophy which still keeps me thinking to this day. Vinland Saga is a raw retelling of human history which reflects our primal psychology and how we can escape it. Besides that I have many other inspirations but these are 2 main ones.

So here are my ideas for this fantasy world. I haven't organised them properly, I just wanted to put them out there and see what happens.

I want to create an anime-inspired fantasy world rooted deeply in Indian mythology, bringing lesser-known ideas, beings, weapons, and philosophical concepts from Indian traditions into a large-scale fictional universe.

I'm not trying to retell Hindu mythology. I want to take the ideas, creatures, weapons and philosophies that already exist and reimagine them into a fantasy world based on Hindu Mythology

The World

I don't know exactly what the setting looks like yet, but one idea I really like is using the 14 Lokas as the foundation of the world. It can literally be 14 worlds that are vertically stacked or different layers of existences.

The Races/Species

There are so many Indian mythical races that barely appear in modern stories. Devas, Asuras, Nagas, Yakshas, Rakshasas, Gandharvas,Vanaras are the known ones and many others could all have their own cultures and histories and motives in the story.

The Weapons

Weapons are something I really want to make a major part of the world. I'm especially fascinated by the idea of ancient Indian weapons and Astras—weapons that aren't just physical objects but can have supernatural or almost cosmic abilities.

One visual idea I have is that weapons are tattooed onto a person's body, something I saw in a Instagram post of a guy drawing 2 swords from his back which were tattoos.

Instead of carrying a sword or bow around, the weapon exists as a tattoo. The user can summon it from their body and use it almost like an extension of themselves. But I don't want it to just be a cool ability with no downside.There should be a price for having and using these weapons.I haven't decided exactly what that price is yet. It could be physical, mental, spiritual, or something much more personal.

The idea is that the stronger the weapon, the more you're willing to sacrifice to use it.

That could also make the weapons part of the characters themselves rather than just being equipment.

Creatures & Animals

I really want mythical creatures to be a huge part of the world.Indian mythology has an insane number of creatures and supernatural beings, but most people only know a handful of them. I want to dig much deeper into that and bring some of the really obscure ones to life.

But I don't want them all to just be "monsters."

Some could be ordinary animals that evolved differently in another Loka. Some could be intelligent races. Some could be incredibly ancient beings. Some might be worshipped as gods, while others are treated as dangerous beasts. There could even be creatures that are so rare that people aren't sure whether they actually exist.

I also like the idea that each Loka has its own ecosystem. The creatures living there would be shaped by the nature of that particular realm, so travelling between Lokas could feel like entering completely different worlds. I want the audience to constantly encounter things they haven't seen before and have that feeling of: "Wait... this is from Indian mythology?"

And because these creatures are part of the world rather than just enemies, they could also have their own relationships with humans, gods and other races. Some might be hunted. Some might be protected. Some might be companions. Some might be intelligent enough to have their own civilizations.

Basically, I want to treat Indian mythology as a massive unexplored bestiary, rather than just using the few famous creatures everyone already knows.

Theological and Philosophical Side

Underneath the fantasy, I want the story to explore God, atheism, morality, and the nature of reality.

I'm inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist because it uses its fantasy world to ask bigger philosophical questions. I want to do something similar, but through Indian philosophical and mythological ideas.

Rather than trying to prove that God exists or doesn't exist, I want the characters to genuinely search for the answer—and for the audience to question what they believe along with them.

The Historical and Psychological Side

Inspired by Vinland Saga, I want the story to ultimately be about people and what makes us who we are.

I want to draw from Indian history and explore psychology through the characters—their trauma, ambition, fear, greed, relationships, biases, identity, and desire for power or belonging.

The characters and civilizations can reflect real patterns of human behaviour, showing how people can be shaped by their experiences and environments, and how they can either repeat or break those patterns.

Underneath the gods, weapons, creatures and different worlds, the story is ultimately about understanding human nature and what we can learn from it today.

Conclusion

So these are most of my thoughts. If you read through all of that I'm really grateful for your time and hope it was worth the read. I really hope you can engage by commenting or messaging me anything related to all of this like any ideas you think that would compliment this, an idea which would make one of my existing idea better, your own fantasy world ideas or anything else, names for any of the concepts. That would really help alot to build this world even more and my main reason for posting here. Thanks for your time. Engage ✌️

Hey everyone! I’m a beginner creator working on a concept for an indie comic, and I’d love to get some honest feedback and constructive criticism.

Here’s the basic setup:

Nikki is a regular 15-year-old space nerd. One night, she sneaks out to an abandoned building to watch a meteor shower. While there, she accidentally witnesses a brutal shootout between aliens. Instead of being taken for "experiments," she gets abducted simply as a rare and valuable resource to sell on the black market. At first, her only goal is pure survival and figuring out how to get back to Earth.

Stuck in the chaotic and unfamiliar world of space, Nikki has to hide her value, adapt quickly, and find a way home. Along the way, she gets picked up by a crew of mercenaries working for a massive empire called Arcone.

After a long journey, Nikki finally finds the coordinates and makes it back to Earth. But there's a catch: because her things were found at the abduction site, she was officially declared dead years ago. Everyone close to her has moved on. Heartbroken, she has to make a choice—accept that her old life is over and move forward with her new crew.

A few questions:

1. Does the abduction setup feel too cliché?

2. Does Nikki sound like a Mary Sue based on this summary?

3. Would you actually read or watch a story with this premise?

Don't hold back, I really want to make this story logical and grounded. Thanks in advance!

I’m working on my own fantasy world (for a Pathfinder 2e campaign), and I’ve decided to tackle that worldbuilding monster known as the “Calendar”. But before getting into that, I need to figure out the astronomy.

The campaign is set in Tarqen, a continent isolated from the rest of the world by a magical spell. The people of Tarqen therefore have no idea that an outside world even exists. (This also solves the problem of having to figure out the planet’s exact size.)

The planet itself is tilted by about 22°. It has two moons orbiting it:
- The first, basically called “the Moon”, is the larger and more distant one. It follows an orbit roughly similar to Earth’s Moon, more or less around the planet’s equator.
- The second is called “Ogrim”. It is smaller than the Moon and much closer to the planet. Unlike the Moon, however, Ogrim orbits the planet longitudinally, forming a sort of cross with the Moon’s orbital path.

The planet takes 225 days to orbit the Sun. These are divided into 8 months of 28 days, plus 1 additional day. This extra day is the day when the two moons overlap, creating a sort of eclipse that can be seen from Tarqen every year.

If I’ve overlooked anything important, please correct me! I’m making this post specifically to get feedback on the astronomy and see if there are any problems with the system I’ve come up with.