Share interesting worldbuilding tidbits that you probably won't be able to fit in your story

Oriflamme 2025-02-24 14:47:02 UTC #1

Everybody likes to worldbuild, but often everything we create won’t be part of your story. It could be any for any number of reasons, be it pacing, tone, plot relevancy, or good taste.

For example, in my case, it would be that Rose is not the first person to get Isekai’d into this world. There is a surprising number of people from our world that ended there including quite a few historical figures like Alexander the great, Joanne of Arc, and at least one U.S. president. Although they are not often viewed in a positive light ever since Joanne of Arc started a decades long religious war after starting to convert the locals to christianity.

Reply with an interesting worldbuilding tidbit that will likely not end up in your story.

Try to keep it weird and short, and you can include a link to your own work for people who want more context for what they just read.

Aeneas1 2025-02-24 14:52:58 UTC #2

There are probably millions of them. There's even a page on my new ComicFury mirror dedicated to them:
https://nixvir.thecomicseries.com/lore/

Leyelle 2025-02-24 15:04:12 UTC #3

All the details of how fairy motherhood works. fairies do not age past their first year of adulthood under normal circumstances, which is why they're called "immortal flowers." they're stuck looking like girls in their late teens, however, if they have a child, they age. They then will spend the rest of their lives looking like a woman in her twenties (a woman in the peak of her childbearing years.) They can also keep an egg dormant in their wombs for an indefinite amount of time (years and years) by controlling their body temperatures. this keeps the egg from maturing and the baby from being born until the mother thinks it's safe.

ArtGremlin 2025-02-24 15:14:54 UTC #4

I swear I have some but they’ve all fled my mind now… I’ll come back if I think of any.

KevinReijnders 2025-02-24 15:22:01 UTC #5

Much of the history of the Forebears won't gt directly featured in Trespasser. How they were an multi-species, intergalactic society that used a psionic mineral to breach a higher dimension to facilitate communications across the vastness of their galactic territory. Allowing to communicate with people lightyears away without delay.

2DLenzy 2025-02-24 16:15:15 UTC #6

This reminded me that I have pages of silly (chicken) lore to work on. I might relay some of these as metaphors/short parables/etc in the story, but for now, they're just sitting in Comicfury unseen and untouched (still need to edit them, so they're not live yet.)

Here's a (somewhat long excerpt from the first chapter)

The Halakaw
as writ by the Mother Hen, Halaka
scribed by
Shmultz
Chantecleer
Friar

The GenEggsis - Creation of Life and Fowl

In the Beginning, there was emptiness...

[Mother Hen creates everything, then fowl, and now humans]

"I cannot do this forever" she brooded. "I must create for them companions."

So, she plucked a few feathers, some bone, a few drops of blood, and fashioned an ugly gangly upright walking giant. She made them tall so that the fowl could use them as perches, and made them walk on two legs as to not overpower any in speed or gait. They had no wings, for she did not want these fleshy things to fly and exert their will over her favorites. She gave them half a mind, and a mouth, and language, so that they may communicate amoungst themselves and tend to the fowl.

She sharpened their beaks, bills, and talons, should they need to use them for dominance.

"Remember, fowlians," she declared "That you can fly while they cannot. They are beneath you, and serve you. But in return, show me thy favor, and you will be blessed. Never forget..."

[end of chapter 1, more to follow...eventually...not to mention the three other Orders have their scripts/oral traditions of their beliefs/origins, language, etc, yeesh]

Another tidbit: there's also some anthro, Egyptian gods that banished one to human flesh for his crimes and he's currently doing all in his power to save one certain human soul in the story so he can redeem himself in some manner. Not sure I'll explore this tidbit in depth, or ever reveal him fully, but it's still very early.
Yeah, it's a weird one XD

KevinReijnders 2025-02-24 16:22:59 UTC #7

Wait wait wait, I know I haven't read far into your story, but there are actual supernatural elements in there as well!?

2DLenzy 2025-02-24 16:29:33 UTC #8

There will be! But they'll be subtle, like some characters will have dreams/visions/experiences that appear to be mental breakdowns or just imagination - including the chickens. I'm trying to reveal the supernatural/spiritual side of the story very gradually so the "big secret" doesn't look too far out of place when the time comes, at least that's what I'm hoping.

The Egyptian god in question has extremely limited abilities, eh, something like hypnosis and influencing mortal minds to a certain degree. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but that may change...

KevinReijnders 2025-02-24 16:33:09 UTC #9

Very interesting!

It can be tricky to introduce these sort of elements "late" in the story, but if you dripfeed them, make the audience accustomed to it, I'm sure it'll be easier to swallow once you reveal it in full.

To take myself as an example, the weirder side of Trespasser was teased on the very first page haha.

ArtGremlin 2025-02-24 19:37:10 UTC #10

Oh yeah, I remember now.

So those who have read my comic know about how there are undead servants in the castle, and that they were all mostly created by Xivian and Daevon’s father. Their father was a very different kind of ruler than Daevon. While Daevon tries to compromise with the people and do what’s best for them, his father was more of a “my rule is absolute” kind of guy. You try to overthrow him and he sends a hoard of zombies after you and lights your house on fire as an example. The people sure like Daevon a lot more, but if he does something to lose their favor things could go badly for him and he won’t have any way to stop them, since he’s been disposing of his father’s undead army…

Another kinda weird bit of history is that Xivian and Daevon’s parents were most likely cousins since they were both apparently sorcerers they must share some common ancestor. Back then that was a thing I suppose.

Another thing (this one actually gets talked about at some point really late in the comic) The reason the sorcerers are royalty is that this guy- Gavindor? I think. Anyway people (mainly elves) really hated sorcerers, so they got together and made some magic potion that stopped his magic powers and got him and his family to surrender. They then killed his family and exiled him to the prison island that he helped create (The island of outcasts) where the story takes place just a few hundred years later. Before Gavindor came, it was just a wilderness full of criminals and other exiles, but he introduced civilization and progress so the people made him king. One of his sons (he made a new family on the island) is the one who created the castle out of magic. So um yeah.

kyupol 2025-02-24 20:05:36 UTC #11

I dunno... For ADB I have a future arc which will be a step by step progression on how the world is gonna end. Definitely will have to cover some social, religious, and politically sensitive topics.

Not like it wasn't done before. I remember those Nostradamus documentaries from before 2012 and y2k... As well as those "rapture" ones.

As well as maybe a more detailed one that has to cover more Philippine history which was my favorite subject in high school.

eldritchtroubadour 2025-02-24 20:34:50 UTC #12

People living in the Sky Isles tend to put less spices in their meals, due to the increased costs of securing such luxury items. In fact, only members of nobility or very wealthy merchants can afford to have those on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, people living in the Wastes enjoy a much richer selection of tastes and fragrances due to living in close proximity to them and having more land to cultivate. Only issue are the giant corrupted spirits trying to kill them roaming around.

But you can't have everything, can you?

TnrOfficial 2025-02-25 05:22:51 UTC #13

There are a lot of things I would love to share into the story, especially stuff like the guardians, the old kingdom, all the wars that took place and the backstory of all four of the kings and how they ended up as they are now in the story.

While I do show brief glimpses of the past throughout the story, these moments definitely deserve their own books and I look forward to it when the time comes!

ArtGremlin 2025-02-25 06:24:49 UTC #14

NO NO NO- So I was thinking about all the beautiful world building that was going to be in my retired first comic “August” (After he gets abducted back to his home planet) And I thought, what if I just rewrote August? Like the reason I can’t bring myself to continue it is because it was poorly planned out and I don’t like the writing. Like I just started picturing how fun the scenes could be if only a little different. but another project? Hoo boy why do I do this to myself… but if I rewrote it, I could change it so that it doesn’t take total eons to get to the abduction…

Seriously the world building was really cool… his people were also racist man I have three different stories with racism background plots idk what that’s about

justanothernerdling 2025-02-25 14:42:00 UTC #15

a super deep history of thousands of years of societal shifts in cities, religion, etc
one of my cities that i made when i was about 12 is technically super far north in the continent but the characters have no reason to go :')
Emilia's entire story (side character)

remiquise 2025-03-10 03:43:35 UTC #16

The kraken exists here, and is a mermaid. Her name is Hilda. She's protecting the merman a side character has made a deal with in this story, and frankly is the only reason that merman (and thus our character) are still alive.
Merfolk have a lot of names: Sea demons, Seawitches, Merms, ect. However, there are "land witches" too, who are people descended from mermaids. They came about thousands of years ago when a mermaid named Blythe foresaw the death of her kind but never gave a timeline. Her colony fled to the shores and mated with humans to preserve their bloodlines. So "land witched" or just "witches" have very weak powers compared to their seafaring counterparts and, unlike seawitches, have a very limited scope of powers. Small glimpses of the future, seeing what people's hearts desire, or glimpsing into people's pasts. All magics associated with the colony that has long vanished. (That said, the future seer Blythe is alive and... mostly blind, incredibly unhealthy, and has lost her mind from looking as far ahead as modern day. Recall this story takes place around the 1700s, and she's out there making references to modern day memes. Needless to say, she's far too unserious to ever put into the story proper but I do draw her a lot on my art accounts, even doing short comics about her nonsense.)
As implied by the prior point: humans and mermaids can have viable children! They usually just turn out looking... quite odd. They also tend not to have the full scope of abilities mermaids have like fully turning into their respective sea creatures or to dismiss their sea creature bottom halves for legs. Some are even born with both human legs and a fish tail. However, their magic is pretty potent still, that takes more generations to dilute.
Mermaids do not have their own languages. Since they gain power from making deals with humans, they opt to just speak human languages.

Leyelle 2025-03-10 15:10:30 UTC #17

tell me i'm not the only one who believes the kraken really exists and is just a colossal/mammoth squid

remiquise 2025-03-10 15:21:35 UTC #18

I absolutely believe that it was just a squid lol think there's even a case where sailors cut off a giant squid's arm and brought it back as proof of the kraken's existance-- but take that tid bit with a grain of salt.

annuskabriar 2025-03-10 17:40:48 UTC #19

This is hard because I'm not sure what I can or can't work in still I don't have the much later chapters fully scripted so I want to add in worldbuilding tidbits, but I'm not entirely sure yet what I can add. Probably stuff about other areas in the world that won't show up in the comic; e.g. the city Savvin in the nation Sjevereka is the most northernmost megacity, latitude around 53.9°N. I could spout a ton of facts about Sjevereka since its the main nation in my main story, haha.

Hmm. There's something called the "crux" which is basically the connection between the physical world and the spirit world, and which is the most powerful "piece" of magic, I guess, out there, that allows one to use all types of magic. I suppose sort of similar to the avatar in ATLA in that respect. It used to travel around the world in six pieces, but now is fused into one piece and passed down in Sjevereka's royal family, the Aerinsithes. Not really important or relevant to my comic, but important worldbuilding to my world in general!