When it comes to worldbuilding you don`t need to know every single detail about the setting, you only need the important details, like technology (not in detail, unless a detail is plot relevant) magic if it exists (is not neccesary to know all the rules of magic, but the plot relevant ones are vital). Races and maybe the important places.

Now about planning stuff. You don`t need to know every single detail in advance, but you need the big picture, like who are the characters and the important events that will happen to them, how the story begins, how it ends and the key events. As long as you have a clear reason why the events happened and why the characters do the stuff they do, you should be good.

hope this helps!

How I get started is that I make out my plot and characters then I play the whole story in my head and start writing from there. It's just a matter of knowing what you want and how to put it.

The first thing I do is an "step outline" where I put everything that's important in the story and then cut things that are useless for the plot, refining some other things, etc.
The world building came in this step because I build the world in accordance of the actions of the characters, what they believe, what they wear, where they live, etc. But the most important thing for me is the step outline, is like the skeleton of all my process

First I outline

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I brainstorm where start from while doing this ↑

I also go over the cast that'll be involved, and what their motives are. How they interact with each other and such.

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For worldbuilding? Imagine you have one of your characters getting a tour of the key locations. Or giving a tour to an outsider.

My story is basically a gaggle of people from different places bouncing around, so there was always someone in the cast acting as temporary tour guide. Some of them were also students in a magical world so they also has a reason to explain regional differences in the magic they used.

Mind you that didnt mean they all knew everything, but there was always someone who could make approximations or give general tips on what there was to do and what options were available. from demons spilling out of the faucet to angry gods demanding retribution, there was always someone who has experienced something similar or paralell to it.

I'm of the opinion that all that matters is what's inside the story. All little world details you compile for yourself are cool for feeling safe, but at the end of the day, it's only what serves the story that is truly essential, the rest is ''fat'' or, in the best of cases, ''flavor'', some extra spice!
What I'd do if I was in your shoes is I would sit and settle for the royal houses and a quick summary of how each is different. Something quick. Then I would proceed to design an outline for my story. I'm assuming it will be serialized, so I'd try and break it down the chapters, quick descriptions, so I would see the whole taking shape. I feel that in this stage, while you see your story unfolding, you might get a better idea of what the world should/could look like and details would come.

For my usual process, I don't do a lot of worldbuilding documents, honestly. Not even character charts (although I do write a little bit about them for concept art reasons, since I only write and work with my friends). I try and have an idea of each character's function and main theme in my story and then I try to work from there, fleshing them out as the story progresses. I do like to have a little document for myself with the main concept, plot and theme of the story. I also like to plan my chapters ahead, though, so I like to keep a general outline of what happens in each chapter and how many chapters there are in each story arc and etc. That's how I start: little guide document and a plot outline. From there, it's going for it. Me and the blank page with ''PAGE 1, PANEL 1''.

Btw, @nightwingwife is a great name. I love it. Nightwing is the best.
Finest piece of ass in all superhero comics.

while pre production is really important to making something thatll last, be careful not to get stuck in limbo. if you start thinking 'i cant start until ive done x and i cant do x until ive done y, and i cant do y until ive done z' - youre in limbo, and should just get started. not posting publicly started, but start writing or drawing.

my planning process is uh... a little bit 'as i go.' a lot 'as i go.' for my current webcomic, There was a War, it was more or less my first time making a comic and after about a year of developing the story, i figured out scene 1 and jumped in head first. figured it all out after. and then again. and again. i need to stop and figure things out again in the coming months - not exactly because i keep getting into knots (i do), but largely because im at a point in my life where my artistic goals and understanding keep developing, and my projects are struggling to keep up.

however, i really enjoyed the process of writing myself into a bit of a hole for a few chapters, and then sitting down to dig back out. thats more or less what a first draft is for - and webcomics tend to find themselves being all first draft (maybe each chapter is drafted, but how far in the future can you think when making a serialised story on your own, on the side, often for the first time?) i liked throwing myself headfirst in and then being able to step back and look at the foundations. what i really wish is that i hadnt got myself to a place where i had to just keep up the momentum, leaving myself little time to keep tinkering and editing.

right now, im making a short sci fi pilot that i developed as part of a college project, so i got to do the 'starting' process all over. i started with research - into art, films, other comics and comic theory - and then brainstormed concepts and ran with what formed most organically in my mind. i kept holding myself back from working because i thought 'no, i need worldbuilding' 'no, i need character sheets' 'no, i need this research and that research'

what i actually found was that it was so much easier to just throw yourself into the drafting stage, and do the research / developing when you get to it. my project was on urban landscapes, so i went round my city and took a craptonne of pictures, and that was the only worldbuilding research i had at the beginning - besides my own experiences in london. when i hit a point where i needed to develop some side characters or a particular aspect of my world, i developed a moodboard for that part, fiddled around to see what i liked, and then carried on drafting. once the draft was all complete, i could get it together and tweak it.

i think if i was to go ahead with a theoretical project today, my process would be:
1: lay out concept and goals, and keep referring back to them
2: meet my main characters, spend some time with them in my head or on the page
3: moodboard - in the project above, this would be my photos of london and various collections of crap i pulled off pinterest. for twaw this is more in my head, pulling from studies of scottish coast and celtic jewellery
4: draft! this process is different for everyone - for twaw i like to write first, thumbnail later, but for any other project id write as i thumbnailed.
~~~~4a: a good method ive tried recently is to mark out how many pages youll allow for a scene, and then go through page by page deciding what develops in each page. it gives you a really good idea of how much detail you can go into, and makes you think way more economically about what you include, and how. so it leads to better storytelling. that said, i do like to set myself off on a freewrite and then cut down when im really stumped.

tbh, id even prioritise getting a full draft of your first chapter over getting a full outline of the series at large (if it is a series). while having an outline is really important for not getting lost and knowing what it is you need to set up, i find that getting a version of chapter / scene / episode one out of your head and into the physical plane gives you a far more concrete ground work to start forming your overarching plan with.

... man, this is reminding me of so many things i need to be doing this summer

oh! also! some resources that might help you

the podcast dirty old ladies had a great episode recently on worldbuilding that i think would help you out a lot - theyre on itunes and the like, theyre really cool. they have another episode about reasons why people hold back on starting3, which really motivated me

also, im reading the anatomy of story1 right now, and really loving it. it has a bit of a step by step it guides you through for making a story on strong foundations, from first glimmer of an idea to the actualised product. it might be a bit late in the stage of your projects development for it to be terribly helpful, but for future reference and for general writing advice i think its worth checking out

One of the best ways to start your story is to create it as a package for submission to a publisher. If you go to any site that takes unsolicited projects, they will have list of things you need to have in place and a format to follow.

Getting your idea(s) or story in a state to be PITCHED is a very solid way to start. I should make a video about this and more. lol

There are no cons, only pros.
1) it will force you to distill your massive amount of ideas and tangents and subplots and world-building and extraneous junk into the most important aspects.

2) It will get you to focus on THE START of your story and expose the momentum of your series. If it begins too slow with exposition and unimportant details, it will be discovered here.

3) You will need a bio for your most important and relevant characters. (Those from #2, the start) That will enable you to focus on your core cast and get past sketching up random, interesting (to you) people. Or spending way too much time on character details that don't matter (yet).

4) The elevator pitch. The Easy to say and SHORT summary of what your comic/series is about and WHY anybody should care. If I need to read (a lot of) it - to figure out what it's about- that's no good.

5) The Long pitch. Someone likes the short pitch and asks you to go into detail.This is THE STORY and what we'll be experiencing if we check it out. What happens goes here. Still no adjectives have been used yet.

6) The Story Arcs. This is what happens over the long run. Lots of things are super-planned out the gate, but the writer(s) never consider what happens after 'year one'. See anything that started off good and then suddenly started to suck. Sometimes this is a combination of the opening story line (they accomplish an initial goal) and the long story line - -> well, what do they do that KEEPS them interesting and worth following and caring about?

7) Next, they usually want sequential art, which is your story telling system. What's your format? How do you make your series/comic? How does it work? a) Anyone can draw/illustrate cool figures in heroic poses. b) Portraits are easy c) Storytelling with pictures is a skill d) A lack of the fundamentals and basic skills are usually exposed in this area. Composition, Framing, Perspective, Anatomy, Dynamic motion etc. This is also where they see your lettering (which for many, is a huge, huge dip in overall quality)

But once you get this basic framework down, you have a guide ( for yourself) to follow.