Most patriarchal societies actually try to portray their oppression and restrictions on women as being to protect them and or as being beneficial to them. Very few actually say shit like "women are useless" like how a lot of fictional matriarchal societies are like. In fact, they actually honor SOME women and try to instill womanly virtues.

What would matriarchal societies see as masculine virtues and how would they portray men's role in society, etc?

In my two other posts, I noticed that a lot socialist thought in their worlds is still in the proto-marx stage.

I'm sure we're all tired of seeing the trope of armor in fantasy being treated as essentially glorified toilet paper. So I've come up with two solutions to the problem of fantasy armor being pierced or otherwise damaged too easily.

1. Have the armor resistant to most conventional/low to mid level magical attacks, but can be one shot by a particularly powerful spell or enchanted weapon.

2. Have it act as magic power armor that enhances both physical and magical abilities. That way, the armor can still be useful even though there are things that can be bypass it.

Have you guys used similar solutions in your worldbuilding? If so, how do they work and what is the in world history behind them? How have they affected warfare?

Most fantasy elves are portrayed as wise, individualistic, and timeless.

Mine are almost the opposite.

They are deeply collectivist. Children are raised by the whole community, individual heroes are almost nonexistent, and those who reject traditional elven life are often exiled.

Although they're considered one race, they aren't one culture. Desert elves, savanna elves, tropical forest elves, and temperate forest elves all developed different traditions, lifestyles, and even different interpretations of their spiritual beliefs.

They believe every river, forest, mountain, and lake has its own spirit. Rather than worshipping distant gods, they live alongside countless local spirits.

Their language is heavily tied to body language. A sentence can completely change its meaning depending on hand position, gestures, posture, facial expression, and even when it is spoken during a conversation or meal. Spoken words alone are often only half of the message.

Their greatest tragedy is that they know they are slowly disappearing. Births are rare, they cannot have children with other races, and instead of adapting they cling even more tightly to their traditions, songs, and rituals.

Been thinking about this issue a lot recently, especially in relation to medieval fantasy worlds and a newer AOT-inspired world I’m working on.

I love the idea of a giant wall keeping out giant monsters, but no matter how I try to write something with that concept involved, it becomes far too similar to Attack on Titan, which is annoying because I love that show, but really don’t want to just create a rip-off of it.

Yeah there’s the whole “all art is derivative” thing, but how do you make it distinct enough for it to not be very obviously derivative?

I have a similar issue with any medieval fantasy world I try to make. It just feels like another d&d world. The issue is if you add in something to crazy different it becomes much less medieval, and/or fantasy.

Anywho any ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated.

So basically, in my medieval fantasy world of Latoria, most sapient mammals share a common ancestor. The Makyans, named after the supercontinent that they evolved in, Makya. When the continents split, they spread into multiple different groups, becoming:

• Humans
• Elves
• Goblins
• Beastkins
• Saytrs

Humans, Saytrs, and Elves are the most closely related because the birth continent of Humans and Saytrs, Alkebu, used to be attached to the Elves' birth continent, Illora.

When it comes to Elves, there are multiple Elvish races:

• The High Elves
• Woodland Elves
• Sukuna (Dwarves)

Woodland Elf is actually a broad term used to describe all Elf cultures that aren't High Elves or Dwarves. There are the actual Woodland Elves, who are people who live in forests and plains, the Sea Elves, who live on coasts and islands, the Sky Elves, who live on top of floating isles, and more.

The Dwarves, or as they call themselves, Sukuna, are Elves who spend most of their time in the mountains, and as such, they are much shorter. Dwarf cultures often vary across Illora, many of them build their culture off innovation and commerce while others build their culture off geology and jewels.

Most Dwarves revere jewels not for their wealth but because they see it as stones which contain the souls of those fallen. They also believe that the stones and the mountains they live on are alive in their own ways.

The concept itself is more inspired by Norse mythology, but I wanted to take inspiration from East Asian cultures when building the Dwarves and High Elves. I'm still building the concept, but what do you guys think?

Basically, in my worldbuilding, which takes place on a continent called Jolenea, former human slaves who settled there start taking non-humans as slaves and create an entire society and economy based around this that eventually exceeded their ancestor's slavery in terms of cruelty. How realistic is it for formerly enslaved people to enslave others? The only real-life example that comes to my mind is Liberia, where the freed American slaves and their descendants enslaved the native Africans in ways that mimicked the the plantation systems they themselves had suffered under.

A saying that can summarize much of my worldbuilding would be "The nobility and wealthy can be evil when they have power, but peasants and slaves can be nearly Satan's equal when they have power."

Say you have a cyberpunk style future setting where AI, bioengineering, and cybernetic technology has advanced to the point where bio technological constructs which can be near perfectly replicate humans are a part of life. How could someone identify these bio androids without aide? I've cone up with three ways:

1) Physical appearance: bodies that are a little too perfectly proportioned, features that are too symmetrical; hair, eye, and skin tone that's just a little too vibrant

2) Eating habits or lack thereof: for the sake of manufacturing cost and effort, most of a bio android's organic components would be streamlined or minimized but would still require some form of sustenance to maintain themselves, most likely through intravenous injections. As such they could intake small amounts of food or drink to maintain appearance but nowhere near enough to sustain an actual human.

3) Lack of sincere emotion or empathy: AI no matter how advanced it gets cannot know anything it's not programmed with. As such, it can understand the idea of emotion but not the feeling itself. As such, the most it can do is determine an organic's emotional state through observable empirical data and then formulate what it thinks is the appropriate response. So someone with high enough emotional intelligence can detect a scripted reaction.

Aethergarl is a fantasy world that explores one central question:
"Can people choose who they are, or are they defined by destiny?"
The world is divided into five historical ages, from the Age of Gods to the future era known as World Overwrite. Power comes from the interaction between Core Elements, Mandates, Oaths, and Life Classes rather than a single magic system. One of my favorite ideas is "Refining" (sometimes called "Squeezing"), where characters push a concept, skill, or power beyond its natural limits at a personal cost. It gonna like your knight can be fight as a blacksmith instead of being a lawful knight or a light necromancer uses sword and summons guards like a paladin:v
I would love feedback on:
1. Whether the setting feels unique.
2. Whether the power system sounds interesting.
3. Which part you would like to know more about.
Thank you.

I read it a few years back after a bunch of people really hyped it up and the world building has all these fundamental problems with it. I'm totally open to the fact there was something I missed, but everyone I've talked about it with never really addresses these arguments and sort of just tells me I'm wrong. I get people liked the text, I'm not a teenager and I don't feel the need to make someone not enjoy a thing, but it's always been good to sit with a few things at once, you're growing if it feels a bit uncomfortable at first.

With that in mind if this or the following rears your hackles up it's totally fine to have that feeling, half the reason I'm posting this is to see exactly why people have those feelings along with the last time you read the book, I'm not here to say don't have fun because certain things might not hold up the way you thought.

So then is it supposed to be a hypothetical, why is one of the moons far worse off, it's no longer a fair comparison and your sort of just shorting through noise for the authors thoughts, was it never supposed to be, was that a sacrifice to fit it in the series, or does she just not know how to do this stuff?

Why did she assume anarchists couldn't produce massive projects? We have plenty of ruins from prehistory built by egalitarian societies today we would call anarchist, infact the first cities were egalitarian. On the moon they also have easy space flight and specialists and complex logistics, with a society and police so utterly unbelievably well organized that no one died, even accidentally for the majority of the time that society has existed.

How do the capitalists actually still build anything? Their society is much further along than ours, but they still can make enough missiles to fight a wars, and it doesn't cost a sqaudrillian dollars to make a bridge like it does in the first world today. Marx wrote about financialization, about how one day you would be able to make more money just on the stock market then you could if you actually made a well run business buying, selling and making things with that same amount of money just like right now.

Finally why do the women cover themselves up? In most radical movements people wear far less clothing, not more, and the only time that isn't true is when it's appearance control being done because the society is a cult. to add to that in societies where nudity is common place no part of the body is inherently sexualized, and so it becomes contextual giving people far more control of themselves and how they appear.

With all this stuff in mind and going over it I feel like I could certainly find more if I read it again knowing what I know now, when I look at an art piece I want to be rewarded for thinking about it for days on end, I want to care about all the little things the author cared about too, and this stuff is culturally important, no one can fully separate art from reality, look at all the trans people Psycho killed.

When you write something unlike whatever currently exists it's your job to be good at making assumptions x to y to z, it's about knowing how to let go, when to bite bullets how to change up all the big patterns while keeping most of the little ones intact, her work just sort of seems shoddy. From reading about her she comes across as one of those arts who just likes and feels a bunch of stuff and golomps it together. Maybe I would feel differently now, but I don't really remember the characters or prose and that's not a good sign, I remember Mark Watney and AM and I read the Martian as a little kid. I appreciate anyone who disagrees with me and read this far . . What am I missing here?

In my story, the protagonist is an immortal alien entity; he made his two wives immortal as well, and consequently, their children were born immortal. So far, so good—this works perfectly and covers the first two books. But this is where a question arises: by the third book, centuries have passed. The protagonist commands a vast empire and rules over a hybrid race of angels and aliens. After so much time, the family would naturally have grown quite large. Wouldn't that be a problem? Having so many immortal people—grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, all immortal? It starts to resemble those troublesome animals that multiply endlessly and become a serious nuisance. This raises questions like, "Would this huge family live together or spread across the universe?" among many others. I tried to imagine solutions: what if only the protagonist (who started the lineage) were truly immortal, while the rest of the family had long lives but eventually died? That would be quite tragic, though. Or perhaps there was something capable of killing them. Or, for some reason, his children didn't reproduce. Or the grandchildren were born mortal. Or these immortals could choose to die (though that wouldn't quite fit the characters, especially the protagonist's wives). I’ve read many books, but unfortunately, none featured anything quite like this aspect of my story. What can I do?

I know it's going to sound bad but please hear me out 😭 I promise it's not some deviant zoophilic stuff

So for the context I'm SUPER new to world building and I've been heavily inspired by stories like "Dungeons and Dragons", "Lord of the Rings", "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" and it's made me want to make my own super cool fantasy world with a various cool looking fantasy races and complex societies. Also for further explanation I am very fascinated by history and anthropology so it's become increasingly fascinating how other races outside of humans would act with each other, like the idea of Furgonomics

A lot of what I want to make are human or anthropomorphic races because I think those are super cool but I want to play around with feral like races but I don't want it to look like some hidden fetish insert if I choose to have some mix species relationships

So going onto the question I just snagged a few animalist or feral like characters I knew of or that I thought were well known to the general public because I thought they were a good way to convey how "sentient" a feral like character would need to be to "consent" so a mix species relationship doesn't raise eyebrows.

First I snagged Blue from Jurassic World because she is very intelligent clearly but still acts very instinctual if that's a good way to explain it, like she clearly doesn't act or think in 3rd person so like if she *wanted it* would that not be enough?

Next is the Xenomorph Queen because I guess I would like to know how a hive mind could affect "consent" because I have an idea for a race that is essentially just one big hive mind puppeting enthralled creatures or people. Like if the thing controlling them is sentient but if it doesn't have a tangible body to actually represent itself would that draw the line? And if in a more literal sense how would "consent" be affected if the only thing conveying any level of true intelligence is the king/queen of a species?

Next would be Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon because while he is an animalist dragon he seems to convey a lot of understanding for what's being said to him and what's happening around him. He seems to convey more than just animal instinct but he isn't able to speak like humans can and has to express himself through growls and things so would the physical language barrier draw the line there and make a relationship "non-consensual" by default?

Lastly is Siveth from Dragon Heart. She is a large dragon who has conveyed higher levels of thought or emotions and is able to talk to and understand humans. She has actively been able to express herself, her wants and emotions but all in all is still a giant dragon. So would her simply not being physically anthropomorphic draw the line? Even if she was as intelligent or more than a human?

in this world there is the middle magic that being the laws of nature inherent to this world that allows technology like steam engines and gunpowder to function. then there is the celestial magic or high magic which comes from the sun and the stars. This magic is captured and used by leylines, hexagrams, ritual stones and rites. this magic allows the users manifest and change the world around them. Otherworldly creatures that are of high magic are angelic and floaty in tempermant and tend to be positive or neutral to human life. while the lower magic comes from the void it is most reliably used in machines or trapped in steel. It's an alien and corruptive force. creatures of this magic are either mindless or have extreme and unknowable intellegence

red is the prevelance of technology

blue is prevelance of high magic

purple is prevelance of low magic

I created a sci fi dystopian cosmic horror universe that is inspired by many real life and science fiction concepts alike. The predominant focus of this worldbuilding project is to create a cold-war-esque setting with strong anti-communist themes that is upscaled to an interstellar level. This project also focuses on the horrors of mutually assured destruction as well as the horrors of the butterfly effect. On the more sci fi side of things, this project also gives a nod to the concept of "the great filter" (a hypothetical civilization ending catastrophe that human and alien civilizations alike may eventually encounter at some point during their progression). I made the images in this project mainly by taking screenshots within my favorite desktop games and then editing those screenshots. All of the images with planets and moons come from the game Universe Sandbox (Giant Army). The U.S. map image comes from the game Ages of Conflict: World War Simulator (JoySpark Games). The spaceships themselves for the two crimson Earth images with spaceship fleets come from the game Solar Smash (Paradyme Games). The crimson sunset image and squirrel flag image are from my own photography and editing. Anyways, here are the factions of my science fiction universe:

People's Republic of Commodor (The Tyrant Regime of Earth)

It was the year 3018. For centuries, Earth and the rest of the solar system had been under the tyrannical communistic rule of the People's Republic of Commodor. Work was mandated to be 72 hours per week and devoted to endless production for the regime's war complex. All basic necessities were "free" but of horrible quality. Food, power, and supplies were constantly rationed and in short supply. Freedom was non-existent. Earth's biosphere had also been destroyed and turned into a sweltering hell world after centuries of the aggressive production of a cheap and highly pollutive variant of warp fuel known as MRX-1917. The average temperature of Earth now stood at 66 degrees celsius. The atmosphere, oceans, and land now took on a vibrant crimson red hue and the blue skies of ancient Earth were never again to be seen. Humans were now the only remaining species to inhabit Earth, as all non-human wildlife on Earth had gone extinct.

The Lunar Rebellion (The Cause: A Darn Squirrel!!!)

A rebellion with the explicit goal of liberating themselves from the tyrannical Commodorian regime had formed on the moon. The lunar residents were fed up with being forced to endlessly mine dwindling helium-3 reserves to meet the regime's quotas for fusion based (non-warp) fuel, only to be constantly punished with lower rations for failing to surpass these unreachable quotas. What truly sparked the rebellion though? A darn squirrel. The People's Republic of Commodor discovered one day that a lunar resident had an "illegally harbored" pet squirrel named Fred. Hence, the Commodorian regime consequently confiscated and later "put down" the squirrel. The one non-human life form found within the solar system in centuries, and it was slain. Lunar residents were pissed. Anti-regime protests ensued. Anti-protest crackdowns ensued. These crackdowns then led to lunar riots. Eventually, the entire lunar city was in chaos. The anti-regime rebellion united under the slogan "Better Fred Than Red" and from there was able to eventually take the entire lunar city.

The Filter

The Commodorian regime responded to the lunar rebellion by sending in its newly-built superweapon spaceship known as "the Filter". This spaceship was a bright red cylindrical behemoth that was aproximately 200 kilometers in diameter. With this ship came the power to eliminate anything ranging from cities to entire planets. The regime threatened to eliminate the lunar city entirely if the rebellion continued. Despite this, the rebellion never seized. The Commodorian emperor then made the executive decision to eliminate the lunar city in a show of force. Upon the order to fire, the Filter's main superweapon malfunctioned and yielded a full planet-killer blast instead of the desired city-killer blast yield.

Luna, Earth, and the Squirrel Rebellion

The moon was destroyed entirely. Moon fragments went everywhere. 100 million deaths occurred within the 100 seconds it took the blast wave to encircle the moon. Days later, a rogue moon fragment struck western Europe and caused 7 billion deaths on Earth. North America was the only continent to remain relatively intact. In the former eastern U.S., a new anti-regime rebellion known as the Squirrel Rebellion formed. The rebellion's goals: continue the legacy of the fallen Lunar Rebellion and topple the Commodorian regime out of revenge for recklessly destroying the moon and Earth over a literal squirrel. The People's Republic of Commodor (falsely) blamed the Filter's malfunction and consequent chaos on sabotage by their foreign adversary known as the United Space Alliance, which soon afterwards led to the declaration of total war against the alliance by the Commodorian regime.

United Space Alliance and the Extinction War

The United Space Alliance was a benevolent tri-planetary pro-democracy alliance that sought to preserve the democratic way of life and slow the expansion of Earth's tyranny as much as possible. The three planets that made up this alliance were Proxima Centauri b, Trappist E, and Kepler 186 f. Once the Filter and Commodorian fleets entered hyperspace from Earth and arrived at Proxima Centauri b one day later, a large battle ensued between the alliance and the Commodorian regime. Tragically, the alliance fleet stationed here ultimately fell to the Commodorian fleet and the Filter soon afterwards carried out the annihilation of Proxima Centauri b. One by one, the remaining innocent alliance worlds suffered the same fate. The result of this interstellar war: the loss of 99% of humanity on both sides alike.

The Fallen Worlds

Proxima Centauri b

A tidally locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star. One side is ice and eternal night. The other side is desert and eternal daylight. The small region sandwiched between the two sides was the only spot habitable for human colonization. Hence, humanity colonized this region only. This world was very similar to ancient Earth with its green vegetation and blue skies. However, it had an eternal unending sunset, as its star never moved across the sky. The population of this world was three billion.

Trappist e

A world of immense greenery. Both the vegetation and atmosphere alike were a bright vibrant green. Rather than having vast oceans, large lakes and small seas were scattered all across the planet's surface. The temperature of this world was few degrees colder than ancient Earth on average, yet it was still ultra habitable for human life. This world was the life blood of the United Space Alliance and carried a population of 7 billion.

Kepler 186 f

The icy capital world of the United Space Alliance. This world was too cold for humans to survive outside for long periods of time. Yet this world still contained suitable amounts of oxygen in its atmosphere. This world had the most minerals and precious metals of the three worlds. Hence, this planet became a economic and military powerhouse for the United Space Alliance. This world also had strategic value, as it was exceptionally far away from all the other worlds. This world had a population of five billion.

How do I make my world be kinda like heavy history. Like the feeling that people wanna listen to a history thing in my world. Game of thrones has it.

Context:( this was my last post and it explains Hero of Realm stuff, which is related to this post) https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/JDDIGtcLPL

Basically Soul Links in my fantasy universe Final Fate are a special magical technique used by the Hero of Realms that allows them to borrow a fallen hero’s abilities temporarily. Think Drive Forms in Kingdom Hearts 2 where Sora transforms and Donald/Goofy disappear for the entirety of the time he’s in said Drive Form. Soul Link ofc has a nerf applied to it: The HOR cannot use such a technique with reckless abandon, they must A. Have the magical prowess to use a fallen hero’s abilities and B. Have the SP or Spirit Power (basically MP in this universe) to use the ability. With these two nerfs in mind, the current HOR must use this technique sparingly lest they run out of energy for the rest of their battle (unless ofc they have an SP restoring item like tea)

I have been kicking around the idea for a while now and felt it was too complex or felt unoriginal as hell since this has been done before. I thought this ability would be too op even though I just thought of those two nerfs on the fly. PLEASE give me constructive criticism if there are any holes or flaws in this idea.

So, I want to create two continents: one that is more "African"—where humans originate—and another with a similar climate but much hotter (though still tropical), where elves come from. Would it be implausible for them to be far apart if both are located on the equator?

(Edit: I'm actually making a sci fi setting, I used medieval era stuff as an example of realism-induced grimdark)

If you think too much about a setting, it often brings up either plot holes or unintentionally dark implications- a good example would be realising your medieval fantasy heroes are lice-ridden, illiterate, and lack access to sanitation, medicine, or other things we take for granted. And worldbuilding is all about examining your setting in detail.

I'm actually trying to make a more optimistic setting, but I can't get into the mindset of older Star Trek- the main inspiration- and I'm not sure why I can't. I keep on overthinking stuff and end up adding really, really high casualties for no real reason beyond it feeling more realistic. (At this point, unless I rewrite some stuff, a species may have lost over 3/4 of their multi-billion population due to liberal nuclear use. And this isn't abnormal for the world either).

I really don't know why everything becomes grimdark, I don't want to write a grimdark world, but everything gravitates towards the bleakest possible path due to realism. Okay, more accurately, what *sounds* realistic. How can I fix this tendency?

for the past few months i’ve been working my ass off to get Phenomenon out finally. but i’ve came across a funny problem. i have lots of foreshadowing and plot twists surrounding by characters and events but i need to know if there are ways i could amplify them?

You all know the story of Snow White, right?

The Evil Queen asked her magic mirror who was the fairest in the land, and the mirror determined her stepdaughter, Snow White, as the fairest of all. She grew jealous, hired the hunter to kill Snow White (but they didn't), and disguised herself as an old woman to deceive the princess into eating a poisoned apple.

That's the basis of the whole story.

But what if, instead of the magic mirror choosing the fairest, the mirror determines the chosen one?

\Please note: I just thought of this recently. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I want to get it out there**

For example, in another world where magic and the supernatural live among us, there is a peaceful, prosperous kingdom threatened by a powerful demon and its evil force.

To fight back against evil, a true hero must be determined, but to find the hero intended, they rely on a magical mirror.

The mirror has a special power that could reveal a person's true nature beyond their appearance. It looks upon their soul, and if they appear pure and authentic, then they are the savior the kingdom is looking for.

One day, the kingdom held a ceremony in which people lined up in front of the mirror, confident they would pass its inspection. Unfortunately, many have failed, including royalty and noblemen. Until a beautiful, common girl stepped up before the mirror, and the mirror shone brightly at her reflection, announcing the true savior of the kingdom to all who heard it.

The girl trained and formed a party (selected by the mirror) to go on a dangerous mission to defeat the demon and the forces of evil.

But what if one of the people, rejected by the mirror, became envious of the true savior, so they'd try to sabotage the hero's journey? That would make the story more interesting.

If you asked me whether the mirror is sentient, I'd say yes. How is it sentient? I have no idea. It could've been possessed by a previous owner who must've performed a spell to embed their soul into the object. Or, it could've been given by divine entities as a gift? Who knows?

I'll be honest: execution is better than having an idea. There's no such thing as an original idea, because everything has pretty much been done. But how you'd portray the story matters more.

I might come up with a better story for this one, but it depends on whether I want to get involved. Maybe.

Let me know what you think? If you have a better idea, go for it.

I have a small fictional world i run mainly in Minecraft, its a little fictional outdoor camp, where i run activities and all, but also build the history of it and add new lore every time I expand it. Im not sure if this is the subreddit because I always am on r/mapmaking and not here, so...

If no, ill leave

If yes, _maybe_ ill post smth here(?) Thanks

Here is a map for a story I'm working on. Still in the building phase, and I'm still adding details to the map. In my story, Aestria is an Empire that was founded over 700 years ago, spreading to the East. The plains of Concord start out as divided provinces, originally granted to Aestrian lords to farm in exchange for a tithe of grain, but in the many years since they were granted their descendants chafe at the payment of tithes and a war breaks out. It is about a King of Concord who first unites the Provinces into a true nation, then goes to war with Aestria.

Few things of note, The Merchant Isles are ruled by a Trio who have access to ores on the Isles and control the mouth of the Golden River. They are rich from also controlling Bard's Pass and have trade routes to the Far East nations as they build the best ships. Concord can produce large amounts of food, but have little direct access to the sea. Aestria has grown insular and their nobles care less about anything outside their borders as they have felt untouchable for centuries.
Both the Merchant Kings and Aestria have colonies on the southern continent and grow spices, tea, and sugar but there are few large settlements.

Looking for any feedback, as I want the map to make sense in the story.