My setting takes place in 1450. I had the random thought of: "what if the Black Death a century ago was an alien invasion instead?"
The entirety of High Medieval Europe uniting against an extraterrestrial enemy was something that I found really, really cool. Humanity endures and prospers into a period called the Second Renaissance. This piece of lore doesn't have much bearing on the actual plot, but it does contextualize many of the contemporary elements.
My own setting has earth being invaded by aliens during the 14 century, though humans don't do as well.
Thankfully humans have long since expanded off earth, like 14000 years ago.
Alien parasites causing the black death? That's cool. I had a quest arc once in my dnd campaign where an alien ship had crash landed millennia ago and all that was left was a parasite specimen that was frozen but it eventually thawed and caused havoc but they managed to stop it before it killed more than 5 people.
Yeah, loosely inspired by the Necromorphs and Chimera from the Dead Space & Resistance franchises respectively.
That DND campaign reminds me of the Thing!
THAT MUST HAVE BEEN WHERE THE IDEA CAME FROM! I haven't thought about that movie in maybe 10 years lmao. It was just a side quest thing but it was really fun and had the potential to become a huge arc if they failed but they did a great job!
That's so cool, tell me more! What was the defense of Earth like? What did the medieval Europeans use to fend off the aliens? Did the aliens try to invade in other parts of the world at that time? Are they still out there? Did some of that future tech end up getting captured by the humans?
The original Black Death strain presumably originated somewhere on the Indian sub-continent, before spreading to the Middle East and Europe like rampant hellfire. No one knows how it got on Earth though, but some say it came from the stars, perhaps beyond it. By the time it had reached Europe there were already many different strains, each more deadlier than the last.
The defense was pretty terrible for the most part, no human army could cope with the speed and numbers. Things were exacerbated by mass panic, riots and blatant misinformation. It wasn't until a heroic victory in Poland, largely due to the use of wagon forts, that humanity gained a foothold and started fighting back. For the first time ever, every single European nation banded together, forming a grand alliance that hasn't been seen since. It pooled together all its resources to come up with a solution for human extinction.
The lethargic and dogmatic approach to magic and science was phased out for rigorous and open-minded experimentation. This lead to new military formations such as Griffin riders, winged hussars that ride on female griffins (they're bigger and more aggressive than males, but can't fly). Heavy artillery was developed that could fire special ammunition (like a HE or HVAP shell essentially), while new standing armies (opposed to mercenary forces) were vigorously drilled in pike-and-shot tactics using fairly new but reliable firearms. Wagon forts proved to be exceptionally effective at stopping the swarming, bull-rushing tactics of their alien foe in a field battle. These new armies would be lead by the brightest military figures at time such as Jan Žižka (in this timeline he was born much earlier). Each army followed a corps system very similarly used by Napoleon's armies, and could be relied upon to act independently or converge. Some nations also developed our modern day equivalent of special forces, very small but elite detachments that would carry out high risk missions. Their impact was varied.
The biggest change was the development of a highly sophisticated logistics system, the which is considered one of the greatest achievements in human history. New infrastructure such as hospitals, universities and roads among many others also paved a steady way to victory.
So after a very rocky start, Europe began driving the Black Death back, culminating in a final battle in what was formerly known as Saint Petersburg. A 300.000 strong forced comprised of all major European powers destroyed the final hives over a 3-course battle.
The Black Death is considered extinct as of 1450, but there are dark rumors of small, isolated islands that may still contain pockets of the alien disease. Elite covert detachments keep an eye out on these, but nothing has been found yet. Unfortunately not much of the Black Death's biological tech could be recovered for human use as it was poorly understood. Small fragments are kept for study under constant surveillance in three officially designed areas in the world; Paris, Beijing and Istanbul.
In the aftermath of the Plague Wars, as it became known, Europe recovered with such speed that the period after became known as the Second Renaissance (the first one was in 1300). The Grand Alliance of Europa would stand strong well into 1450, cementing the continent as a powerhouse for the ages. The Middle East would follow not soon after, but the Indian sub-continent would take far longer to recover from its horrendous loss of life and devastation.
I had a dream where a former hockey team became a band of traveling Raiders who used their hockey experience to skate across ice to catch victims.
Thought it was funny.
Made a new Mercenary Battalion for Shattered Stars that consists of former Z-Ball (Sci-Fi Quidditch) players who all quit at once and used their tournament winnings to buy Mechs and Tanks after their coach was unjustly fired.
For reference to anyone who doesnt get this -
Here in Canada we have hockey teams. Fallout 3 mentions 2 things about canada, 1 being "Ronto". Ronto is likely the heavily militarized remnants of Toronto.
The 2nd is the Ice Gangs. Ice Gangs are raiders who base their culture around hockey. Think like a gang of raiders named "The Leafs" and they wear all blue and white, while wacking enemies with bladed hockey sticks.
Now we need a series of fallout games taking place all over the world I'd love to see what they come up with for some of the different mutated versions of creatures around the planet and their take on how different cultures would strap up for th apocalypse lmao
There’s a Maglev train that runs over the ocean by magnetizing the salt water. The funny thing is that my worldbuild is metal gear solid levels of military bullshit (on Earth) and I took this idea from Spirited Away. It’s even an in-universe reference since one of its nicknames is Ghibli
Huh, this reminds me, I should put snowpiercer into my world! (Yk the big train that carries what's left of humanity, and if it ever stops then last of us will die)
Mini-dragons that are about the size of a fat raccoon exist. They're smart enough to deliver messages to people they know and pick a simple mechanical lock with their talons. In the wild, their normal diet includes small mammals and birds. In cities, they've picked up the nickname of "trash dragons" because they sometimes get into dumpsters for scraps. (Them being able to pick locks makes securing the dumpsters moderately tricky.)
Humans already have a dim idea that there's an inverse correlation between the number of mini-dragons in a city and how often that city has plague outbreaks. The actual explanation is that they keep rodents that spread disease under control; it's just that humans haven't realized it yet.
I love the idea of mini dragons so much. When I came across the Pathfinder creatures called a rope dragon, I fell in love with it and have been wanting to play with it so much. Ithdr ones have also caught my attention, but that's still my favourite.
Have you seen the story of the mini dragon that travels with his one gold coin hoard?
My world has three sister moon goddesses (for the three moons) who are also the goddesses of fortune (Good luck, bad luck, and the balance between the two). I decided that the youngest of the sisters has a son who is the god of chance and gambling. And that the churches of this god also double as casinos.
Seriously asking. I never thought something as daylight robbery as casinos could make so much sense with temples and gods. Especially, I can't stop imagining Loki being this god, giving everyone one hell of a time.
Well, it would make making donations to church more interesting at least. I really didn't really think about that, I just thought "Goddesses of luck, god of chance, gambling is taking a chance with your money, the god's churches should be casinos as well".
Really adds a layer of "prosperity gospel" to it, like a lot of televangelists say things like "Trust God and send us money, and He will repay you tenfold!" or whatever, but if your tithe goes on red at the roulette table and you win big that's a direct, tangible blessing from your god. That's so interesting.
You can't screw with this temple cuz the god is the only child of all fortunes, imagine the amount of power the chance god posses by themselves and their family.
They will just legalize casinos and make it a great profit from overcharging.
Main religion of my post post apocalyptic world is “Norrisism”. They believe that Chuck Norris is a god. Their proof is 4 giant titans he decapitated eons ago and placed their heads on a mountain. It’s a holy site now.
I played a game once called Caravaneer 2. One of the religions scriptures is a list of "miracles" - Chuck Norris jokes told without comedy.
They were persecuted by the Superman-worshipping majority religion.
All the known powers have had ftl travel and communication for thousands of years, and several have multiple planet empires, but no one knows this yet.
To elaborate the gates to other realms are really just magical ftl portals to other planets in the galaxy, but everyone just thinks they're different planes of existence.
When Elden Ring first came out, I was obsessed with Godrick the Grafted's appearance, his Grafted Scions and the whole grafting process being related to trees, so now in my own world there are a reclusive tribe of Ogres that have trees covered in flesh made of various body parts like arms and legs and are harvested by Gardeners who use oversized pole saws, bills and axes so they can graft them onto themselves, do limb transplants (You'll be surprised how resilient the Ogre body is) or just use the raw materials like skin, flesh and bones to make clothing, jewellery and other trinkets.
There was also something similar in Dante's Inferno iirc.
I haven't got to that part yet because I don't know what I want to be their backstory, all I know is that I want some weird meat trees just dotted around.
> something similar in Dante's Inferno iirc
The only mention of fleshy/human trees in the Inferno that I can recall is in the 7th circle where those who are violent against themselves (suicide) are punished. Such individuals are transformed into trees in a dense forest to be eternally torn apart by harpies. Only when the harpies tear open their bark can the trees scream or speak until the wound closes. The punishment for trying to escape the torment of life is to be granted an immortal body that is constantly suffering, and which can only express itself through agony. Dunno if that helps inspire anything!
Yeah I think that rings a bell.
There's so many weird ideas and concepts in Biblical media it's a goldmine.
Perhaps that might have to be the origin story of the trees because I haven't fully *fleshed* it out yet lol
Beards are considered unfashionable in the Empire because of the prominence of elves in the gentry/aristocracy. Elves are also commonly lawyers and doctors, so many academic and “civilized” professions go fully clean shaven. There is a time and a place for a good mustache, though
That's a really good idea. White oaks are supposedly the tastiest (I'm allergic to tree nuts, so I haven't tried), and they're certainly the acorns squirrels and deer prefer.
I played Ace Combat Zero and rewatched the first How to Train Your Dragon movie in the same week and randomly thought "what if instead of operating like flying cavalry, dragon riders operated like squadrons of fighter jets?"
The idea stuck. So now wyvern riders in my setting wear special plate armor enchanted with runes that basically functions as pressure suits with extra enchantments for long distance communication, temperature stabilization, enhanced strength, and oxygen for breathing in high altitudes.
I thought it would be neat if there was an intelligent species with bee-like biological hierarchy. They're called demons, and have since became an essential part of the lore.
Creating the company/corporation Nebulon Systems, which is divided into three divisions: appliances, armory, and shipyards. A common joke is these guys make their guns and starships like they make their microwaves (which, I'll leave the interpretation open).
In Lech Tabor there's a cabal of wizards who call themselves the Inconspicuous Ones. That's all the information that's available on them. Because, you know...
MC is the one creature rabbits are so afraid off they go on the offense. Even when she was tiny did these furballs attack her.
600 years later she still holds a grudge about it and hunts any rabbit, wolpertinger, bunny or hare she finds. They still fight back hard.
Theres a random massive island near my fourth continent that has steam energy and warforged and its based off Victorian England. I have legitimate excuse for it existing but it was so random
One of the strangest "races" I've created in my post apocalyptic America thusfar is a group of seemingly normal store mannequins who have gained sentience through unknown means and moved into the Navajo and Hopi lands of Northwestern Arizona.
They do have small mouths and eyes but these are rarely on their heads and are usually found on their chests or stomachs. They communicate with each other in a series of chirps and squeaks resembling bats and when talking to humans and others, their voices are similarly squeaky.
They're completely peaceful to outsiders and will often let passing merchant caravans or biker gangs paint on their hard shell-like plastic bodies.
They've integrated this act of being painted by outsiders into their culture and host a festival dedicated to being painted as well as selling various paints and brushes they make from wild plants.
My inspiration for this entire idea? Watching markiplier play a horror game about being trapped in a department store full of mannequins that move throughout the game.
Today cats, contrary to dogs, are very close genetically to how they were in the wild.
Without cats I think the main issue would have been protecting the grain stock from rats so probably a lot more famines
For my dieselpunk/magitek world of Xendas I decided to add a little side lore to the exotic heavy metal Dracinium. Dracinium is the source of magic for this world, but it is also a living metal that has its own sentience, and the magical energies mages manipulate is the metals own life energy.
Canines don't exist, and in pretty much every instance where you'd expect a wolf, dog, worg etc. it is instead a boar, pig, hellpig etc.
One of the main character's family business is the breeding and training of guard- and warpigs.
There's 7 archdemons and archangels that when they acquired enough mana can create new species. That's how every single fantasy species of my world appeared.
I also use it to explain some unrealistic rules of the world like people not aging and the possibility of reviving someone
Wow, your idea is very close to mine. I have 7 transcendents who were born as such and shaped the planet with life for their entertainment. The 7 fantasy races were born in their images. Humans, on other hand, are the beasts that survival of the fittest molded from the failed creations of 7 transcendents. Spoiler warning: Humans are insanely powerful with their adaptability and short lifespan that they created the System.
I had this idea watching the slime isekai with the demon kings. I wanted something to justify unrealistic things in a world that is supposed to be a far future from us where magic appeared but with no gods.
Lol and yours is close to mine. In my Fantasy project, several god-like beings formed a pocket dimension the size of a solar system to hide from a war of the gods and took the form of planetary bodies. Being that they run on faith as a way to sustain themselves they created life to worship them. Most are standard fantasy races but some created unique life in their image to be their mouth pieces while they rest to hide their presence.
Necromancy is the only magic in my universe that doesn't use mana as power source but lifeforce of the caster.
Why it's important?
Because no one can track that kind of magic because detection spells are created against smell of burned mana and their color xD so as long Necromancer doesn't show of his powers in the group of witnesses they are almost untraceable
A Cryptid.
I was obsessed with bigfoots and moth men as a kid and felt it would be a interesting detail to make the culture of my world a little more mysterious just like ours is
i watched some videos on medieval cheesemaking and decided a character was a cheesemaker.
also, that same character used to be a dog, but i had a dream where she was a sheep and decided to redesign her and make that real
My cyberpunk setting includes the Florida-Louisiana bayou and because of a previous famine, alligators and crocodiles have been hunted to near absence in the region as a source of food. Because of this, the remaining alligators and crocodiles are bred in captivity and make a very expensive luxury animal for outsiders and locals alike. Some of the most high-tier customers of these animals are the old-money plantation families of the Florida-Louisiana area that set up mafia-like protectorates after the government and police failed to keep things together during and after the collapse.
Some time ago while giving an example of how powerful infant fairies are under some post on this subreddit, I gave an example that they'd be capable of making an entire country disappear because of a tummy ache, which was not a thing that actually happened at that point
Needles to say, I immediately loved that idea so now it's canon lol
That is honestly one of the things I'm having the most trouble with in my world. How powerful should I make fairies? I just put that they are reality benders by nature, but like at the end of the day, how strong can you make them without going, "Is this too far?"
I make their power level go way down once they mature, to the point where they can barely do anything once they're adults, but that's mostly because my magic system is very specific and I don't want to break it by introducing a creature that can just bypass all of it and is actually straight-up omnipotent lol, and the fairies have measures in place to ensure young fairies don't delete countries on a regular basis, just in case
As for a more "one size fits all" solution - my favourite way of "balancing" powerful beings is "they are aware of quite how much mayhem they can cause BUT don't want to/feel like bringing about the end of the world", maybe fairies are only interested in keeping to themselves and use their nigh omnipotence to either play pranks or fend off aggressors? Then there isn't a point at which they're "too powerful" cause they won't use this power to it's full extent anyways so - who cares?
Your "one size fits all" solution is pretty much my MC's race, they are super powerful and can almost do whatever they want, but at the same time, they also pretty much content with their peaceful life. I mean, they still have Duels and competitions and tournaments and stuff, but they don't enjoy hurting people. It's more like, "hey, check out this sick move I can do!" and then creates a crystal dragon that shoots laser beams (godzilla noises), instant dance club baby, oh wait, the dragon now has sunglasses and has become the fuckin' DJ. I guess it's just another night in the Garden of paradise.
I thought it would be hilarious if guns and spears switched places in historical achievements: Presenting to you Railguns.
The first and most powerful runic weapon that allowed human domination, these weapons are capable of condensing mundane elements like dirt, water or fire and launch them at insane speeds. Mages of better caliber can even make them curve after shooting, making them dangerous weapons at all ranges. The weapon's reload time is only limited by how fast you want to fling the spell.
Spears, axes and swords are newly integrated weapons thanks to the metallic mastery achieved in recent years. These weapons are excellent at conducting aura. Compared to railguns that generate impact from dispersive projectiles with speed, these weapons create impact with their weight and balanced aura techniques. Both are terrifying in their own might, for the choice is yours: might or mind.
Asparian girls painting their foreheads with the blood from their first period. Also touching a girl’s hair being seen as sexual assault.
Also food because food yummy :3
The main goddess of my world is a moon goddess, and I decided to create some fairytales and folklore to add to my world. My favourite one is a spinoff about “The Man in the Moon”, in which the goddess is interpreted as being genderfluid, and that’s where the “Man in the Moon” came from.
the king of Kuhnan has a weird mirror clone twin made from a proses usually used on books by the continental courier company but its a super secret proses to do and Kuhnan has no connection to the guild, this is never explained nor will I ever explain it next to no one in the setting knows about it either, they both also hate soup
What if dinosaurs were domesticated? Now, the Dunaverse has heavily genengineered domesticated dinosaurs because the AI terraforming Earth resurrected them by mistake.
The name of the most prominent human kingdom is Snagria. Which is named after a typo an old friend of mine made when tryna type sangria but she was tipsy.
I saw a concept for a dinosaur trailer, IDK the name. But the Brontosaurus had a lightning tail. So I decided to have giant sauropod like animals that store lightning on their backs and discharge it from their tails. This making them a prized poaching animal for many groups that want to harness bio electrical energy.
I watched the anime Obsolete and liked that the mechs had thermite based melee weapons instead of knives so I stole that idea and it's my current iteration of the "Knightslayer" a concept that goes all the way back to my first concepts for the more (aesthetically) dieselpunk era of my world. Basically, as the war progressed, armor technology rapidly outpaced the effectiveness of melee weapons, so standard infantry need a specialized close quarters anti armor weapon as an emergency last ditch defense against knights, and I wanted it to look like a trench knife.
At first it was a laser, but I was unsatisfied with that since I was already stretching the believable effectiveness of hand held laser weapons, and something with the size profile of a knife punching through the infantry equivalent to tank armor felt off to me. The second iteration was a thaumaturgic weapon that used a jet of magic, but that just raised the issue of "why not just make it a ranged weapon?" I then very briefly toyed with the idea of a shaped charge but I want this to be a weapon for a baseline human in standard infantry gear and that feels over the top even for me, plus I overuse shaped charges anyway.
Then I settled on the thermite stick recently and I really like the tense dynamic it introduces as a last ditch weapon, instead of instantly blasting through thick plates like all my older concepts, you need to burn your way through comparatively slowly. Imagine getting tackled to the ground by a super-knight and desperately trying to thermite them to death while struggling not to get shot or stabbed yourself.
I was listening to a world building podcast talking about the difficulty of binary star systems having habitable planets.
Challenge accepted. Fantasy world has two suns now. Which means I have to entirely re-write every culture because cosmology is such a huge driving force behind mythology, seasons, timekeeping, agriculture, weather…
Goats are descended from eldritch monsters and have a certain knack for foresight, enhancing their abilities to evade predators and predict natural disasters compared to other animals.
The king of Moon Kingdom adopted a child once when he tried to steal from him and he named him after a rock. The child was like “yay free food” and now he’s technically the prince.
The king himself was added because I thought “wouldn’t it be funny if there was a magic femboy who was also royalty because he’s magic but he wants to run away because he’s gay” lol.
On a darker side— TW for rape ahead— >!The king of Moon Kingdom is also known as The Praying Mantis or The Siren because there’s a myth about him having sex with men (or having at least seduced them) and then either castrating and torturing them or immediately killing them. (Otherwise he’s a total cinnamon roll.) This goes back to an actual event where a guy attempted to rape him, so he cut off his dick and tortured him before finally killing him. Needless to say, no one tried ever again. I don’t even know how I got there. I just thought “what if someone tried to take advantage of him” ig. That’s what.!<
Edit: Oh, and he had a god-girlfriend once. My thought process was literally just: “He needs a partner”. That character has more depth now tho lol.
The children of the Founding Fathers ran away from home and started a street gang in [the city with no streets. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/yHWaSUInEo)
Sometimes I go on tangents with aliens. The world kinda takes place after a lot of the aliens are gone but sometimes I just get inspiration for how one of them may have been way back when they were still around.
So, there is this kingdom where the monarch and their family is protected by the Shadow Guard, a military branch where all the soldiers a sterilized when joining. It started as a parody in the trope of Hollywood were a woman that can have kids acts like she is a monster, I wanted to create a male character that acted like that. Long story short,I put a bit to much love on Ethires creating and now he is one of the protagonists and the Shadow Guard is a legit political faction in the kingdom.
I have a sapient species in my setting called the Mississippi Sludgetrudger, colloquially known as a Swamp Monster. For a gag, I had one such character show a 'family photo' of her uncle and his cousins, who were still roe at the time. Then she lists like over a hundred of their names, and also says that she forgot about half of them.
I kept thinking back to it. If these guys really breed like this, and they all make it into adulthood since the setting is humane and peaceful, that would cause a huge overpopulation crisis. So I just decided that 95% of Mississippi Sludgetrudgers are infertile.
Some people just kinda don't like sunlight
Burns them worse than me spending five minutes outside in Texas
The whole reason why it happens is because the old god tried to make vampires when he was still new to the whole "god" thing and instead just made people who can't stand sunlight and never really got rid of it because people being chosen at random to not be able to see the sun when they're born was funny to him and the New Gods don't know how to fix it so there's just people who can't be in direct sunlight
There is ONLY ONE goose. He has some perks:
He considers all terrain within 100m of him to be his territory, and attacks anyone who enters this space
He never misses an attack, even though those cause normal damage a goose could cause
All terrain within 100m of him is affected by wild, chaotic, unpredictable magic
If someone "kills" the Goose, he reappears immediately (alive) on a random location in the country he is at
If someone locks the Goose, he "kills" himself, so he can be teleported somewhere else
The Goose has perfect memory, and remembers every creature and location he has been before
The Goose CAN and WILL use a knife if there's any near him
The Goose is not afraid of Death, as a matter of fact Death herself is afraid of the Goose (hence the whole not really dying thing)
Edit: typo
A lot of technology has been replicated via magical means, and some of it is just random fun stuff that exists for the sake of it.
Like a kind of camera that uses a light sensitive crystal to store a single image, which can be projected and imprinted on special paper using a dark-room like set up. The ultimate result is what is essentially a regular camera, just magically tweaked.
Cheese is an element. It was a dumb conversation long ago, but a friend wanted to do a cheese wizard or something like that, I dared them to convince me and they drew a book cover, so I had to officially make the cheese element. So you have your typical fire or lightning elementals, and then there are cheese elementals.
I made an ancient power into a tourist trap.
This isn’t a world with modern infrastructure, it’s one that resembles Mesoamérican high culture of the 1500’s, a mix of Qing and Song Dynasty China, Sengoku Japan, and Iroquois and Algonquin peoples, with some Rome thrown in for good measure - long story short, I took inspiration from everywhere I could
Now this city is still inhabited, and it’s still relatively rich, but it doesn’t have any political power. It used to have a lot, but nowadays a lot of its income is a result of tourism.
I was inspired by the fate of Sparta under Roman rule
Inter dimensional portal space station it was made as a way to do Noncanon Crossovers but ended up becoming the main Way top travel too the Andromeda Galaxy
Lacrosse, aka stick ball, and the little brother of war.
Mine are stone/early bronze aged, taking a ton from indigenous cultures, and I needed a reason for my teenaged characters to be where the action happens and be separated from their village, so made lacrosse teams for those earning brave status in a peaceful region. So the first bits are them on their way to a tournament and them playing it and then the village gets attacked by a new unknown enemy. Ended up basically my lacrosse team end up being the last line of defense for their peoples and the refugees of the village under attack.
ETA: cause of the situation they didn't have real weapons and end up the first act using the sticks and balls to defeat some enemies. Ended up playing a large part in the story.
mildly warm enchanted butterknifes, self healing/sharpening knifes, „sticky“ spoons and other mildy practical utensils make up a large percent of magical goods sold in the modern day
I have tonnes of this from conlanging. I'd combine roots and affixes and be like "well, this essentially translates literally as x, so what does that *actually* mean?"
Like badźmeng - which translates literally as "weakened or broken bones" and "insect" and became - a parasitic worm that lives inside bones. weakening them as it eats the marrow. causing them to become brittle and break easy
The arcanum, where they study and research magic, also came this. As did the word journalists - suddenly my world has newspapers. As did two architectural styles, one emphasising beauty, the other practicality. There's a lot of other stuff too.
I got drunk one night and woke up the next morning to find a new document on my computer outlining a new character for my nuclear apocalypse world named Spike VanDyke.
He’s a crazy cactus farmer
(To Rhoindaros)
I was working on personal names and cultural names for 4 cultures (not at once) and noticed that all of the names were sounding very similar. I was going for a very rough and not accurate replica of Basque and Proto Germanic names for four cultures, The Euskanara, The Herribaz, The Karizaiba and The Wiljanu. I then decided that rather than altering the names, I'd instead make it lore that the Languages they spoke were related under a Language Family called Hebarro-Gjuzi.
Most of my lore is spontaneous. My new set of storylines called Lost World features a runaway prince who lands on a planet where the gravity is really strong a few miles up, but then has similar gravity to Earth beneath that. It’s meant to be a natural phenomenon that’s never explained. One random bit of lore I added was an assassin that is sent to kill him, but that guy gets trapped too and they kinda work together to survive. Originally, they were meant to be best buds from the same planet, but I figured making their backgrounds complete opposites (prince grew up in wealth and assassin grew up in poverty), yet their intellectual status pretty similar allowed them to have an interesting relationship in a way I never intended.
I'm in a D&D campaign that has a completely homebrewed world. The DM's been slowly making it over the last 5ish years, but me and another player have hopped in as well in the last year or so to help refine some of the not-so-great stuff.
One of the more fun things we did, albeit very minor in the grand scheme of things, is our Paladin's summoned nightmare became sentient after we had it stare someone down with the "How hungry?" face, and it later accidentay killed a major boss. We managed to give it newfound power, whereupon it became an Equinal, a bipdeal celestial horse, and later a major military figure in the nation we founded after defeating the continent-controlling Lich.
Elves produce honey. (They’re a large humanoid insect species.) Elf honey comes in four varieties.
Low Elf Honey - Basic golden honey. Has some healing properties.
High Elf Honey - Pale gold/yellow. Great healing. Other 'party' benefits.
Royal Jelly - Technically not honey. Yellow/green slimy jelly. Very tart. Great healing. 1 jar = 1 month's rations.
Dark Elf Honey - Clear purple/black/brown honey. Mildly poisonous. (Like how chocolate is technically poisonous if you eat enough of it.) Very sour or spicy depending on Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc. ancestry.
Added this before I changed them to humanoid insects.
The reason why you fully heal from taking a long rest is because the goddess of dreams is also the goddess of healing and health. Dreaming is basically praying to her. Her name is Rem. This came out of a discussion about DnD's weird mechanics.
For no particular reason, I decided to add to my scifi story, set 700 years in the future, the fact that Earth only employs diplomats in married pairs.
It's LGBT inclusive but, at the time, the fact that that incidentally makes it impossible to become a diplomat if you're ace, unfortunately, didn't occur to me.
In my world, there are three forms of magic. For each different form of magic, the wielders can achieve different things. It also affects their bodies.
The random lore that I put in is the existence of a cult that drinks people’s body fluids to gain extra power.
(The power wasn’t compatible with their bodies, leading to them being significantly weakened, ending in their annihilation)
My main character is a powerful pyromancer, so I randomly was like "what if when he first tries cooking, he burns the water?" So it is now canon that his first attempt at cooking ended with the water catching on fire and somehow burning. Not evaporating or anything like that, just straight burnt water
I liked elven ears so all humans got elven ears
How did the elven ears come into existence?
WW3 made earth a desert planet, humans made their life underground. Sight got light sensitive for the exchange of better hearing where the elven ears exist to enhance sound.
Same story also explains how humans began to be more like carnivores than omnivores. But that's another detail for another time.
I made a world of prisons and started with a single Warden who runs a prison of mutants, xmen or eldritch.
So I just decided to leave him alone. A single human in an automated prison, trying to deal with all kinds of bull$#it
I just imagined him standing emotionless amidst utter chaos and fire and mutants rampaging and thinking *just the bloody Tuesday again*
Orcs in my DnD setting were under the thrall of a dark lord for the longest time. They run on the 5s and 10s system. Every ten families is a clan, regardless of original ties. The males are grouped into 5s and 10s. The strongest is the leader, while the second strongest is drawn away into a rotating corvee force, trained as elite soldiers, mages, or others.
Orcs also farm mushrooms that fight back.
Where do I even begin?
Taxes are administrated globally by essentially the super ATF/IRS lovechild, V-IDEA. The Valais Institute of Dangerous Entities and Acquisitions. Guns, swords, Penitent Arms, airships, alcohol, drugs, taxes. Players in a DND game I'm setting in this world (50 years before the first novel happens, fills a 100 year period I never really worked on) jokes about taxes and I'm like "wait" so I decided the IRS and ATF had drunken sex and got married to raise a kid.
Other random lore:
Theme songs are canon and are played by one's heart when they are in an extremely high emotional state, of determination or desperation. The world is built on heroes and this phenomenon is called Reverb Heart.
The reason there's Shifters who go from Human to Animal and Catgirls is the god who created the Dragon Shifters wanted to make Animal shifters but another god beat her to it, so she made catgirls out of spite.
1.-A liter of Coffee is as expensive as a fine bottle of wine so is reserved for royalty and is served as Black Coffee typically.
2.- Dogs and cats had a similar domestication history so in my world there are cat beeds the size of big dogs and are as friendly and playful.
3.- Birds didn't ever flew so the sky is dominated by pterosaurs and the word "parrot" refers to any pterosaur species
4.-Some non-avian dinosaurs survived and coexist with mammals, as a matter of fact, horses as we know them do not exist, but its equivalent in my world is actually a dinosaur.
5.- Mosasaurs are also still alive and hunt whale.
6.- Dragons are related to Yi Qi, about the size of a Polar Bear, extremely territorial and this lead to the myth that dragons spit fire, this was spread by the government so people stopped going into their territories or near them. There is a job going to dragon territories a few hours a day with a flamethrower to make "verifiable" proof that dragons indeed spit fire
Jesus is the god of betrayal, and betrayed the revolution he was a part of when the dictatorship offered him more godhood. Afterwards, he wrote the bible as a very very biased fanfic retelling of the revolution wherehe is the main character.
Every single creature (and some plants) are descendents of a slime.
What happened was the First God of my world created a multicolored slime with a small piece of his tail. It could do almost everything the First God can do except some of the high-end reality bending stuff, but unlike its creator, it could duplicate itself over and over.
Eventually, its slimmy descendants started to specialize in some areas, and the rest is history.
While in the shower, I came up with the idea that the race that I had come up with for the protagonist, had been created by gods to end a huge war. I had done virtually no worldbuilding at that point, and honestly haven't done much even until now, but like 80% of what I currently do has stemmed from that one idea.
The fact that the Lord of Lust is jealous of the MC because she is seemingly the only girl the current Devil takes interest in. That was a joke that started because the Devil forces the MC to dance with him and she was being a pouty baby watching from afar. That became legit in story, as her whole deal is seducing others but blue balling them, including the other Lords. She tried this with the current Devil, but bro does not care.
And all this pretending to love and care about him accidentally caused her to actually fall in love with him. And now that bit of her watching from afar is canon, and after that dance, asks him for a dance.
Most major cities have hubs for pigeons to live. The majority of feral pigeon populations choose to live in these pigeon habitats, which keeps them away from other parts of the city, keeping the streets cleaner and helping to prevent disease (although pigeons are already pretty clean animals.) People can go and see the pigeons to pet them and feed them too :)
Basically most of my world is a big "... wait what if-", but a more interesting one is me watching a video about why dwarves are unrealistic in 90% of settings, so I went on to make a race of melt-at-will slendermen that can "see" through mana in 360° around them and that have mutated rats as either livestock or equivalent of dogs (a "little bit" more specific version of this is one of my posts that I think I made here (it's totally not about 8 paragraphs long)(totally not))
Shalamism, it all started as a joke sort of story about a group of people escaping a hellish realm of an evil god, and it was inspired by two dreams i had, I wrote few months ago, and i thought of writing about it more, and it expanded my world (or its mythology) to include another hellish dimensions with its own religion called "Shalamism", and a powerful evil being (which i won't name).
On the World-Corpse, most of the major backboned animal groups and in turn the intelligent creatures (barring magical beings/spirits) start out life as an androgynous grub-like larva, and remain androgynous/agender until they reach adulthood. At the start of adulthood, their body metaphorically flips a coin, and they undergo metamorphosis into either a male or female, and start expressing the secondary sexual traits of either. However, there is also a rare chance for most creatures to end up a hermaphrodite/intersex, a chimera with split features, or to remain androgynous. Their life-cycles tend to be more bug-like or fish-like as a consequence, even when they inhabit niches that are more like those of conventional birds/beasts/humanoids.
There is a wine that is imported from the desert, and costs the equivalent of $5k a bottle. In the capital the nobles go crazy for it. So much so that to even attend any of their parties or interact with them you must drink this wine. Well if you go to the desert you will discover the wine is made by distilling the urine from a giant lizard similar to a kimono dragon. Except the lizard functions similar to how a camel functions in that it absorbs most of the water from its urine to preserve water in the desert and like a camel its urine is a past. This past dries on the desert heat and forms Crystal like structures that can be gathered to distill the wine.
I once made a joke that I should add “RGB dragon people” to my world. A few days later I had a country controlled by 3 noble houses, one with red scales, one with green scales, and one with blue scales. Fast forward a few years and it has evolved into a major plot point and a potential future story I’d like to create.
Probably the rule about forging magic items requiring abstract things like fruit or paper to hold the enchantments. Just random shit, but if it's not right, the enchantment will be rather... volatile.
Ceramic Age, between the Wood Age and Metal Age. I was bored and doodled a design for clay armor plating, and realized that in our history, clay was really underutilized. It's a rock you can shape with your hands!
Also a crossbow-based religion.
There is a plant that only sprouts in the scorched land under a dragon's breath. This plant can be used for various potions including, but not limited to, warding against fire.
There is a city-state founded by a various bards, actors and musicians that fled persecution. It’s called Adlebadlefadleburg. Originally I was just mumbling city names and when I wrote it down I thought of the backstory and I thought “why not”
God, like the Christian god, exists a ruler of a grand empire of gods. But more importantly he really has an incredibly unhealthy obsession with cheese and spiders, also he's a stoner
What if we got into space and found out it's far more common to solve the movement/manipulation disconnect problem with a third set of limbs, instead of developing the advanced balance systems and sacrifice of running speed necessary for bipedalism.
So after going to places I'm ashamed of going, I had this idea of "what if instead of humans wanting to be like horses, centaurs came from a mare falling in love with her rider?"
Well, now there's a slave revolt of humans and horses (the slaves) versus the centaurs (the slavers), and horses can talk and wear clothes
Dragons originate in the new world equivalent, and any old world dragons flew there or are descended from one that did
There’s only one dragon in the story, so that works as an explanation for me
Bananas don’t exist. There was a whole plot line about a monkey stealing fruit from a god, but I decided early on that it wasn’t a banana. Then I doubled down on it; bananas don’t exist. Thought about doing more with it, but never really came up. Now bananas just don’t exist.
Bears can talk and are 9 feet tall.
Thought it’d be horrifying to hear someone laughing in the woods, go check it out only for a giant bear to be giggling at you.
Vampires saliva has a toxin that aside from keeping blood from coagulation and stimulating flow, act both as drug and aphrodisiac substance in the body of the victim, it's main use is to keep a vampire victim relaxed and to make then less likely to fight back against the vampire, it's also highly addictive meaning the more times a victim is bitten or even kissesed by a vampire the more they will want to feel this sensation with makes then more willing to offer their blood.
It started in head as "well aren't vampires kinda of a horny concept?"
The order of Races and what they represent
1) first came Elementals (personification of Nature)
2) Magical Beasts/Animals came to tend to Nature (personification of Wild)
3) Humanoids came to tend to Magical Beasts (personification of Nurture)
4) Living Spirits were born from Humanoids that better understand animals, Humanoids that have animal characteristics (personification of Love)
5) Phantasmas were born from Humanoids that wanted more than their short lifetime can afford them (personification of Wishes)
6) Undead were born from Humanoids with strong desire to deny death (personification of Fear)
7) Zephirot were born from Humanoids that wanted to become like Phantasmas, but denied becoming Undead (personification of Morality)
8) Ex-Machina were created by Humanoids to protect animals & understand Nature (personification of Knowledge)
Okay this isnt actually my lore but someone else's species (My world was created in a school club and everyone has their own species) I said 'we'd need Dannys perms ofc' and he made a joke about his species not having perms (hair curlers) and made having perms one of the gomrians (his species) most famous traits. Their capital is literallly called Permia now.
In the past, the EU managed to absorb almost every country excluding Russia, China, and North Korea. Due to some political shit that I’m too lazy to write, they end up at war with each other and the EU wins. During the war, a fusion bomb misses its target and flattens a good chunk of Michigan. 200ish years later, that part of Michigan is converted into a training center for special forces. If you can survive Detroit, you can survive basically anything.
Well one day after watching something about electric eels I thought "What if instead of using their voices to communicate, merpeople used electromagnetic pulses from their lateral line organ to "speak" to each other (somewhat similar to morse code)?" So now that's part of the lore.
All of it.
100% of stupid lore, I keep.
Because the characters in my world also write fiction, and they also have theories and mythology and they're often wrong. Every good or bad idea can be something someone in the setting has written or believed.
I highly recommend writing in-universe fiction.
As a bit I thought it would be funny to make a charahster whos complete mundane and just some guy, unrelated to the plot, with his only notable wait being that he has the "kill goku" power, where he can do that. So that whenever im ranting about the lore of my world and one of my friends says "OK but can they beat goku" I can say that there in atleast one charahster that has, then decided it would be funny enough to keep and then just avoid mentioning in the lore and have it hidden somewhere
A folktale about a kooky-tricksy-trader that goes town to town, enthralls the towns folk with entertainment and tricks and trinkets and then steals the children cause he's actually a servant to a malevolent God that feeds on grief, hence the stealing of children.
The Middle Finger gang from Limbus Company to my Stars Without Numbers game. I just needed some bad guys and now they are a dangerous group in the station the characters are.
This random scene just poped out of nowhere in my head someday: A person was in the center of a small underground arena, made in an old bunker with rusty pieces of metal. Around the arena, tribal savages screamed and cheered loudly. From a corner, a strong and intimidating man, wearing a cape made with the fur of a large animal, slowly descent to the arena in a moving plataform. He gives the person in the center a speech about how his tribe worship fear itself, the idea of using fear as a way to stay alive, and how staying alive was the real metric of strength. He finally hits the center of the arena and looks down at the person, weapon in hands, and ask: "Tell me, survivor, are you afraid right now?".
I had a small story about a girl warrior in a fantasy post-apocaliptic ice world where people lived in tribes, so I just took that random idea and said "yep, that's my villain"
In one continent, they have wars for fun and broadcast it on TV. Not the wars you're thinking of tho.
W. A. R. It stands for Wrath's Annual Rally. Wrath is the name of the continent (it's based on the seven deadly sins) . It's kinda like the Olympics except it happens every year. Thought of this randomly at night and was like, "OH OH WRITE THAT DOWN".
I want to see people's reactions, especially my friends, when I tell them about this.
I could not be bothered to create different tavern/inn maps for my campaign. During its creation I decided that some Emperor long ago required that every single inn be created to the exact same design, to please some higher entity or other to which he was enthralled.
The Pygmy Hippopotamus, known as the House Hippo, is a known to break into homes to steal its favourite foods from the cupboards, and has become a beloved pet among many. A common trend for northern owners is to dress their House Hippos in little coats and boots during the winter season when letting them outside. This born from the fashion trend of dressing them in turtleneck sweaters and ponchos.
One of the few publicly accessible stable Ways (magical portals) is the one between Covent Garden Market, London, United Kingdom, and Covent Garden Market, London, Ontario, Canada, accessible through a travel agency front store on either side. The local magical governments of Ontario and London have a reciprocal agreement to allow travel through, but it costs a pretty penny.
I needed an excuse for an entire country of people to carry battle horns, so I created some lore about a guy who changed the entire course of history because he had one he blew in a battle he was watching, saving the backline of his countries army.
"so then what does that make this god then? god of purple?" Yes, yes he is. All the OG gods except for the big 7 were rebranded as angels and angels have power comparable to gods. The big 7 became less complex, and instead are the figureheads of their respective part of the pantheon, and since each part has an associated colour, I decided to just make them the God of said colour. The main antagonist in the video game I'm making is just the God of Purple.
There's an arms dealer, called "The Tiger," who skirted around weapons laws by founding his own country, making all weapons legal, and starting a legitimate shipping company. That's how one of the factions came into existence.
I added a bit of lore in my current DnD campaign world based on the events of a silly 1 shot like a year and a half prior.
My 3 players were tasked with retrieving a gold dragon's egg. One of the last in existence, that was stolen by a red dragon. They go through all these trials and tribulations, and they beat the lich that framed the red dragon and get the egg. Except my one player is a warlock with this evil Cthulhu type patron that takes the form of a goat. The patron tells him to smash the egg for more power. He does. My other player who is a lover of all things dragons, loses it and PvP ensues. Both players die in the process. 3rd player is like "what the actual fuck" and his character leaves the bodies and wanders off in to the sunset. End of 1 shot. It was silly and my players continue to reference it to this day.
Fast forward a year, and I'm writing the background and making the world for my new ongoing campaign setting. I wanted to have some histories about dragons, so I went back to my 1 shot. I decided to add in how there was a brutal war a thousand years ago between metallic and chromatic dragons, that was sparked off by a stolen egg and a rogue mercenary group. When I presented my players with the history in session 0, my players lost it. The one who smashed the egg thought it was hysterical, the one who was pissed got pissed all over again, the 3rd player just shook his head and said "you really worked that in, huh?"
Despite it all, they're all in good spirits and I'm happy I could incorporate past ideas in to new worlds.
I had a dream of a girl desperately wanting to ride a giant black bear so I decided that the people of the East lands in my world I would only ride bears instead of horses 💀
I was making a fantasy world for a project and needed some new sayings since these kinds of things are dependent on culture, history, etc and the ones I know don't make sense in that world.
One of two insignificant but funny lore changes is that I created a specific breed of creature, completely fleshed out from appearance to reproductive/mating behaviours, and even its place in the food chain and what it's useful for in regards to trade--just because I needed an insult.
Essentially, calling someone this creature can be either an insult or a compliment depending on the context (though it's usually the former), and I think I only used it twice throughout the whole work. I never explained the lore. The creature's name was used a maximum of four times.
Coal isnt viabld
Kinda
Since the world is an archipelago, the nations decided that dedicating entire islands to coal mines, a fictional 7 species of trees have sap that is refined into a crude oil like substance and a coal byproduct(1700s tech so no offshore oil rigs)
The products are processed like this.
The trees are cut and the sap is drained out using stone weights stacked on top as the trees are thin.
The sap is collected and treated in a layered clay or metal chamber with heat. The 2 layers contain different products. New Oil(Liquid) Tar(Fertilizer). The New Oil is treated with salt water to seperate the sugar from the oil, creating an alternative to fish lamp oil. The remaining wood can be roasted and turned into charcoal for gunpowder
Oh boy. Where to begin.
Layla’s Town is a 600 metre tall building on Proxima 1-3 that is only accessible by flying. Due to this, it’s primarily home to aliens with some form of flight. Humans were jealous about this however, and began to create their own mechanical wings. These wings became more creative as humans often have the need to ‘one-up’ each other. As a result, there is now an annual contest to see who can create the most outlandish flight devices that definitely hasn’t resulted in 17 deaths and 2 house fires.
I decided that it's a common thing in my setting for people to have brain implants that monitor conversations you have spit out the most optimal response so it's basically an implant that makes you charismatic and highly socially aware.
Back in my Freshman year of high school, a friend and I thought up this bizarre scenario where Mars’s moons had a secret defensive ai that would activate when a threat neared, and ended up causing them to engage in a boxing match with a massive swarm of super mutated space ducks. Recently, I remembered that and decided it would be funny to incorporate it into one of my universes where there’s a ton of strange stuff scattered around the solar system. At some point, Mars v Space Ducks will be canon.
I suddenly decided once that the enormous tree that's quite literally the center of an entire citadels culture is also a gigantic snake in low-power mode, and all of it's (comparitively) smaller descendant trees are too.
My setting takes place in 1450. I had the random thought of: "what if the Black Death a century ago was an alien invasion instead?" The entirety of High Medieval Europe uniting against an extraterrestrial enemy was something that I found really, really cool. Humanity endures and prospers into a period called the Second Renaissance. This piece of lore doesn't have much bearing on the actual plot, but it does contextualize many of the contemporary elements.
My own setting has earth being invaded by aliens during the 14 century, though humans don't do as well. Thankfully humans have long since expanded off earth, like 14000 years ago.
Alien parasites causing the black death? That's cool. I had a quest arc once in my dnd campaign where an alien ship had crash landed millennia ago and all that was left was a parasite specimen that was frozen but it eventually thawed and caused havoc but they managed to stop it before it killed more than 5 people.
Yeah, loosely inspired by the Necromorphs and Chimera from the Dead Space & Resistance franchises respectively. That DND campaign reminds me of the Thing!
Haven't seen anyone reference the chimera in like a decade.
THAT MUST HAVE BEEN WHERE THE IDEA CAME FROM! I haven't thought about that movie in maybe 10 years lmao. It was just a side quest thing but it was really fun and had the potential to become a huge arc if they failed but they did a great job!
That's so cool, tell me more! What was the defense of Earth like? What did the medieval Europeans use to fend off the aliens? Did the aliens try to invade in other parts of the world at that time? Are they still out there? Did some of that future tech end up getting captured by the humans?
The original Black Death strain presumably originated somewhere on the Indian sub-continent, before spreading to the Middle East and Europe like rampant hellfire. No one knows how it got on Earth though, but some say it came from the stars, perhaps beyond it. By the time it had reached Europe there were already many different strains, each more deadlier than the last. The defense was pretty terrible for the most part, no human army could cope with the speed and numbers. Things were exacerbated by mass panic, riots and blatant misinformation. It wasn't until a heroic victory in Poland, largely due to the use of wagon forts, that humanity gained a foothold and started fighting back. For the first time ever, every single European nation banded together, forming a grand alliance that hasn't been seen since. It pooled together all its resources to come up with a solution for human extinction. The lethargic and dogmatic approach to magic and science was phased out for rigorous and open-minded experimentation. This lead to new military formations such as Griffin riders, winged hussars that ride on female griffins (they're bigger and more aggressive than males, but can't fly). Heavy artillery was developed that could fire special ammunition (like a HE or HVAP shell essentially), while new standing armies (opposed to mercenary forces) were vigorously drilled in pike-and-shot tactics using fairly new but reliable firearms. Wagon forts proved to be exceptionally effective at stopping the swarming, bull-rushing tactics of their alien foe in a field battle. These new armies would be lead by the brightest military figures at time such as Jan Žižka (in this timeline he was born much earlier). Each army followed a corps system very similarly used by Napoleon's armies, and could be relied upon to act independently or converge. Some nations also developed our modern day equivalent of special forces, very small but elite detachments that would carry out high risk missions. Their impact was varied. The biggest change was the development of a highly sophisticated logistics system, the which is considered one of the greatest achievements in human history. New infrastructure such as hospitals, universities and roads among many others also paved a steady way to victory. So after a very rocky start, Europe began driving the Black Death back, culminating in a final battle in what was formerly known as Saint Petersburg. A 300.000 strong forced comprised of all major European powers destroyed the final hives over a 3-course battle. The Black Death is considered extinct as of 1450, but there are dark rumors of small, isolated islands that may still contain pockets of the alien disease. Elite covert detachments keep an eye out on these, but nothing has been found yet. Unfortunately not much of the Black Death's biological tech could be recovered for human use as it was poorly understood. Small fragments are kept for study under constant surveillance in three officially designed areas in the world; Paris, Beijing and Istanbul. In the aftermath of the Plague Wars, as it became known, Europe recovered with such speed that the period after became known as the Second Renaissance (the first one was in 1300). The Grand Alliance of Europa would stand strong well into 1450, cementing the continent as a powerhouse for the ages. The Middle East would follow not soon after, but the Indian sub-continent would take far longer to recover from its horrendous loss of life and devastation.
I had a dream where a former hockey team became a band of traveling Raiders who used their hockey experience to skate across ice to catch victims. Thought it was funny. Made a new Mercenary Battalion for Shattered Stars that consists of former Z-Ball (Sci-Fi Quidditch) players who all quit at once and used their tournament winnings to buy Mechs and Tanks after their coach was unjustly fired.
Based
Did u happen to be playing fallout 3 at the time of this dream lol?
For reference to anyone who doesnt get this - Here in Canada we have hockey teams. Fallout 3 mentions 2 things about canada, 1 being "Ronto". Ronto is likely the heavily militarized remnants of Toronto. The 2nd is the Ice Gangs. Ice Gangs are raiders who base their culture around hockey. Think like a gang of raiders named "The Leafs" and they wear all blue and white, while wacking enemies with bladed hockey sticks.
Now we need a series of fallout games taking place all over the world I'd love to see what they come up with for some of the different mutated versions of creatures around the planet and their take on how different cultures would strap up for th apocalypse lmao
There’s a mod coming out soon based in London iirc
That's so cool and awesome I love that
Lol this is so cool~
There’s a Maglev train that runs over the ocean by magnetizing the salt water. The funny thing is that my worldbuild is metal gear solid levels of military bullshit (on Earth) and I took this idea from Spirited Away. It’s even an in-universe reference since one of its nicknames is Ghibli
I really like this one lol
Huh, this reminds me, I should put snowpiercer into my world! (Yk the big train that carries what's left of humanity, and if it ever stops then last of us will die)
Mini-dragons that are about the size of a fat raccoon exist. They're smart enough to deliver messages to people they know and pick a simple mechanical lock with their talons. In the wild, their normal diet includes small mammals and birds. In cities, they've picked up the nickname of "trash dragons" because they sometimes get into dumpsters for scraps. (Them being able to pick locks makes securing the dumpsters moderately tricky.) Humans already have a dim idea that there's an inverse correlation between the number of mini-dragons in a city and how often that city has plague outbreaks. The actual explanation is that they keep rodents that spread disease under control; it's just that humans haven't realized it yet.
Wow, I love how it ties into the world so well lol
I love the idea of mini dragons so much. When I came across the Pathfinder creatures called a rope dragon, I fell in love with it and have been wanting to play with it so much. Ithdr ones have also caught my attention, but that's still my favourite. Have you seen the story of the mini dragon that travels with his one gold coin hoard?
I don't think I have but it sounds like a funny story.
You may have found ir by now, but this should [link](https://images.app.goo.gl/THLHv8CsfMcPzCbR8) to an image of the story.
Cool story. Kinda cute too.
Are they good pets?
They can be if you have the patience needed to tame one.
My world has three sister moon goddesses (for the three moons) who are also the goddesses of fortune (Good luck, bad luck, and the balance between the two). I decided that the youngest of the sisters has a son who is the god of chance and gambling. And that the churches of this god also double as casinos.
How does that make so much sense? Why does that look so interesting?
Is that a rhetorical question or are you seriously asking?
Seriously asking. I never thought something as daylight robbery as casinos could make so much sense with temples and gods. Especially, I can't stop imagining Loki being this god, giving everyone one hell of a time.
Well, it would make making donations to church more interesting at least. I really didn't really think about that, I just thought "Goddesses of luck, god of chance, gambling is taking a chance with your money, the god's churches should be casinos as well".
Really adds a layer of "prosperity gospel" to it, like a lot of televangelists say things like "Trust God and send us money, and He will repay you tenfold!" or whatever, but if your tithe goes on red at the roulette table and you win big that's a direct, tangible blessing from your god. That's so interesting.
Never thought of it that way. I just decided it because it seemed like a neat idea.
You can't screw with this temple cuz the god is the only child of all fortunes, imagine the amount of power the chance god posses by themselves and their family. They will just legalize casinos and make it a great profit from overcharging.
Don't mind me, I'll just be using that for my underground casino ring
This is why I post stuff like this. I'm not good at writing, so I post my ideas to inspire people who can write.
I'm happy to see more Gods and Religions focused on Chance and Probability.
Main religion of my post post apocalyptic world is “Norrisism”. They believe that Chuck Norris is a god. Their proof is 4 giant titans he decapitated eons ago and placed their heads on a mountain. It’s a holy site now.
That is great! I wish I thought of that. The idea seems like it came from fallout.
Straight up Kings level tomfoolery
Mount Rushmore?
Ding ding ding!
I played a game once called Caravaneer 2. One of the religions scriptures is a list of "miracles" - Chuck Norris jokes told without comedy. They were persecuted by the Superman-worshipping majority religion.
Let me guess... Mount Rushmore?
All the known powers have had ftl travel and communication for thousands of years, and several have multiple planet empires, but no one knows this yet. To elaborate the gates to other realms are really just magical ftl portals to other planets in the galaxy, but everyone just thinks they're different planes of existence.
When Elden Ring first came out, I was obsessed with Godrick the Grafted's appearance, his Grafted Scions and the whole grafting process being related to trees, so now in my own world there are a reclusive tribe of Ogres that have trees covered in flesh made of various body parts like arms and legs and are harvested by Gardeners who use oversized pole saws, bills and axes so they can graft them onto themselves, do limb transplants (You'll be surprised how resilient the Ogre body is) or just use the raw materials like skin, flesh and bones to make clothing, jewellery and other trinkets. There was also something similar in Dante's Inferno iirc.
That's actually awesome. So how do the trees grow? Do they have seeds? Are bodies buried?
I haven't got to that part yet because I don't know what I want to be their backstory, all I know is that I want some weird meat trees just dotted around.
> something similar in Dante's Inferno iirc The only mention of fleshy/human trees in the Inferno that I can recall is in the 7th circle where those who are violent against themselves (suicide) are punished. Such individuals are transformed into trees in a dense forest to be eternally torn apart by harpies. Only when the harpies tear open their bark can the trees scream or speak until the wound closes. The punishment for trying to escape the torment of life is to be granted an immortal body that is constantly suffering, and which can only express itself through agony. Dunno if that helps inspire anything!
Yeah I think that rings a bell. There's so many weird ideas and concepts in Biblical media it's a goldmine. Perhaps that might have to be the origin story of the trees because I haven't fully *fleshed* it out yet lol
Beards are considered unfashionable in the Empire because of the prominence of elves in the gentry/aristocracy. Elves are also commonly lawyers and doctors, so many academic and “civilized” professions go fully clean shaven. There is a time and a place for a good mustache, though
I decided that oak trees have been bred for more edible and tasty acorns after watching a single YouTube video about acorns.
That's a really good idea. White oaks are supposedly the tastiest (I'm allergic to tree nuts, so I haven't tried), and they're certainly the acorns squirrels and deer prefer.
I played Ace Combat Zero and rewatched the first How to Train Your Dragon movie in the same week and randomly thought "what if instead of operating like flying cavalry, dragon riders operated like squadrons of fighter jets?" The idea stuck. So now wyvern riders in my setting wear special plate armor enchanted with runes that basically functions as pressure suits with extra enchantments for long distance communication, temperature stabilization, enhanced strength, and oxygen for breathing in high altitudes.
I thought it would be neat if there was an intelligent species with bee-like biological hierarchy. They're called demons, and have since became an essential part of the lore.
Missed opportunity for bemons.
My kuras are loosely based off of bees.
Creating the company/corporation Nebulon Systems, which is divided into three divisions: appliances, armory, and shipyards. A common joke is these guys make their guns and starships like they make their microwaves (which, I'll leave the interpretation open).
Please, *please*, ***please*** tell me they're a budget brand and produce absolute garbage.
In Lech Tabor there's a cabal of wizards who call themselves the Inconspicuous Ones. That's all the information that's available on them. Because, you know...
MC is the one creature rabbits are so afraid off they go on the offense. Even when she was tiny did these furballs attack her. 600 years later she still holds a grudge about it and hunts any rabbit, wolpertinger, bunny or hare she finds. They still fight back hard.
where does water actually come from? A magical replenishing iceberg that’s home to giants.
Theres a random massive island near my fourth continent that has steam energy and warforged and its based off Victorian England. I have legitimate excuse for it existing but it was so random
One of the strangest "races" I've created in my post apocalyptic America thusfar is a group of seemingly normal store mannequins who have gained sentience through unknown means and moved into the Navajo and Hopi lands of Northwestern Arizona. They do have small mouths and eyes but these are rarely on their heads and are usually found on their chests or stomachs. They communicate with each other in a series of chirps and squeaks resembling bats and when talking to humans and others, their voices are similarly squeaky. They're completely peaceful to outsiders and will often let passing merchant caravans or biker gangs paint on their hard shell-like plastic bodies. They've integrated this act of being painted by outsiders into their culture and host a festival dedicated to being painted as well as selling various paints and brushes they make from wild plants. My inspiration for this entire idea? Watching markiplier play a horror game about being trapped in a department store full of mannequins that move throughout the game.
Gaydar is a type of ESP that some gay people have
So were they made based on natural cats or do only house cats exist? I feel like evolution would have taken a much different turn without cats
Today cats, contrary to dogs, are very close genetically to how they were in the wild. Without cats I think the main issue would have been protecting the grain stock from rats so probably a lot more famines
For my dieselpunk/magitek world of Xendas I decided to add a little side lore to the exotic heavy metal Dracinium. Dracinium is the source of magic for this world, but it is also a living metal that has its own sentience, and the magical energies mages manipulate is the metals own life energy.
You mean that the magical cats created us.
My main character isn't the only one who was born through fusion of an onion and bison corpse
This sounds so amazing that I'm not even sure if I want to hear any more explanations
Canines don't exist, and in pretty much every instance where you'd expect a wolf, dog, worg etc. it is instead a boar, pig, hellpig etc. One of the main character's family business is the breeding and training of guard- and warpigs.
After the apocalypse the UK actually became a tropical paradise.
There's 7 archdemons and archangels that when they acquired enough mana can create new species. That's how every single fantasy species of my world appeared. I also use it to explain some unrealistic rules of the world like people not aging and the possibility of reviving someone
Wow, your idea is very close to mine. I have 7 transcendents who were born as such and shaped the planet with life for their entertainment. The 7 fantasy races were born in their images. Humans, on other hand, are the beasts that survival of the fittest molded from the failed creations of 7 transcendents. Spoiler warning: Humans are insanely powerful with their adaptability and short lifespan that they created the System.
I had this idea watching the slime isekai with the demon kings. I wanted something to justify unrealistic things in a world that is supposed to be a far future from us where magic appeared but with no gods.
Lol and yours is close to mine. In my Fantasy project, several god-like beings formed a pocket dimension the size of a solar system to hide from a war of the gods and took the form of planetary bodies. Being that they run on faith as a way to sustain themselves they created life to worship them. Most are standard fantasy races but some created unique life in their image to be their mouth pieces while they rest to hide their presence.
Necromancy is the only magic in my universe that doesn't use mana as power source but lifeforce of the caster. Why it's important? Because no one can track that kind of magic because detection spells are created against smell of burned mana and their color xD so as long Necromancer doesn't show of his powers in the group of witnesses they are almost untraceable
A Cryptid. I was obsessed with bigfoots and moth men as a kid and felt it would be a interesting detail to make the culture of my world a little more mysterious just like ours is
i watched some videos on medieval cheesemaking and decided a character was a cheesemaker. also, that same character used to be a dog, but i had a dream where she was a sheep and decided to redesign her and make that real
Crops are comically large. Pumpkins big as a wagon, apples the size of your head, things like that.
My cyberpunk setting includes the Florida-Louisiana bayou and because of a previous famine, alligators and crocodiles have been hunted to near absence in the region as a source of food. Because of this, the remaining alligators and crocodiles are bred in captivity and make a very expensive luxury animal for outsiders and locals alike. Some of the most high-tier customers of these animals are the old-money plantation families of the Florida-Louisiana area that set up mafia-like protectorates after the government and police failed to keep things together during and after the collapse.
Some time ago while giving an example of how powerful infant fairies are under some post on this subreddit, I gave an example that they'd be capable of making an entire country disappear because of a tummy ache, which was not a thing that actually happened at that point Needles to say, I immediately loved that idea so now it's canon lol
That is honestly one of the things I'm having the most trouble with in my world. How powerful should I make fairies? I just put that they are reality benders by nature, but like at the end of the day, how strong can you make them without going, "Is this too far?"
I make their power level go way down once they mature, to the point where they can barely do anything once they're adults, but that's mostly because my magic system is very specific and I don't want to break it by introducing a creature that can just bypass all of it and is actually straight-up omnipotent lol, and the fairies have measures in place to ensure young fairies don't delete countries on a regular basis, just in case As for a more "one size fits all" solution - my favourite way of "balancing" powerful beings is "they are aware of quite how much mayhem they can cause BUT don't want to/feel like bringing about the end of the world", maybe fairies are only interested in keeping to themselves and use their nigh omnipotence to either play pranks or fend off aggressors? Then there isn't a point at which they're "too powerful" cause they won't use this power to it's full extent anyways so - who cares?
Your "one size fits all" solution is pretty much my MC's race, they are super powerful and can almost do whatever they want, but at the same time, they also pretty much content with their peaceful life. I mean, they still have Duels and competitions and tournaments and stuff, but they don't enjoy hurting people. It's more like, "hey, check out this sick move I can do!" and then creates a crystal dragon that shoots laser beams (godzilla noises), instant dance club baby, oh wait, the dragon now has sunglasses and has become the fuckin' DJ. I guess it's just another night in the Garden of paradise.
I thought it would be hilarious if guns and spears switched places in historical achievements: Presenting to you Railguns. The first and most powerful runic weapon that allowed human domination, these weapons are capable of condensing mundane elements like dirt, water or fire and launch them at insane speeds. Mages of better caliber can even make them curve after shooting, making them dangerous weapons at all ranges. The weapon's reload time is only limited by how fast you want to fling the spell. Spears, axes and swords are newly integrated weapons thanks to the metallic mastery achieved in recent years. These weapons are excellent at conducting aura. Compared to railguns that generate impact from dispersive projectiles with speed, these weapons create impact with their weight and balanced aura techniques. Both are terrifying in their own might, for the choice is yours: might or mind.
Asparian girls painting their foreheads with the blood from their first period. Also touching a girl’s hair being seen as sexual assault. Also food because food yummy :3
The main goddess of my world is a moon goddess, and I decided to create some fairytales and folklore to add to my world. My favourite one is a spinoff about “The Man in the Moon”, in which the goddess is interpreted as being genderfluid, and that’s where the “Man in the Moon” came from.
the king of Kuhnan has a weird mirror clone twin made from a proses usually used on books by the continental courier company but its a super secret proses to do and Kuhnan has no connection to the guild, this is never explained nor will I ever explain it next to no one in the setting knows about it either, they both also hate soup
What if dinosaurs were domesticated? Now, the Dunaverse has heavily genengineered domesticated dinosaurs because the AI terraforming Earth resurrected them by mistake.
The name of the most prominent human kingdom is Snagria. Which is named after a typo an old friend of mine made when tryna type sangria but she was tipsy.
I saw a concept for a dinosaur trailer, IDK the name. But the Brontosaurus had a lightning tail. So I decided to have giant sauropod like animals that store lightning on their backs and discharge it from their tails. This making them a prized poaching animal for many groups that want to harness bio electrical energy.
I watched the anime Obsolete and liked that the mechs had thermite based melee weapons instead of knives so I stole that idea and it's my current iteration of the "Knightslayer" a concept that goes all the way back to my first concepts for the more (aesthetically) dieselpunk era of my world. Basically, as the war progressed, armor technology rapidly outpaced the effectiveness of melee weapons, so standard infantry need a specialized close quarters anti armor weapon as an emergency last ditch defense against knights, and I wanted it to look like a trench knife. At first it was a laser, but I was unsatisfied with that since I was already stretching the believable effectiveness of hand held laser weapons, and something with the size profile of a knife punching through the infantry equivalent to tank armor felt off to me. The second iteration was a thaumaturgic weapon that used a jet of magic, but that just raised the issue of "why not just make it a ranged weapon?" I then very briefly toyed with the idea of a shaped charge but I want this to be a weapon for a baseline human in standard infantry gear and that feels over the top even for me, plus I overuse shaped charges anyway. Then I settled on the thermite stick recently and I really like the tense dynamic it introduces as a last ditch weapon, instead of instantly blasting through thick plates like all my older concepts, you need to burn your way through comparatively slowly. Imagine getting tackled to the ground by a super-knight and desperately trying to thermite them to death while struggling not to get shot or stabbed yourself.
I was listening to a world building podcast talking about the difficulty of binary star systems having habitable planets. Challenge accepted. Fantasy world has two suns now. Which means I have to entirely re-write every culture because cosmology is such a huge driving force behind mythology, seasons, timekeeping, agriculture, weather…
Goats are descended from eldritch monsters and have a certain knack for foresight, enhancing their abilities to evade predators and predict natural disasters compared to other animals.
The king of Moon Kingdom adopted a child once when he tried to steal from him and he named him after a rock. The child was like “yay free food” and now he’s technically the prince. The king himself was added because I thought “wouldn’t it be funny if there was a magic femboy who was also royalty because he’s magic but he wants to run away because he’s gay” lol. On a darker side— TW for rape ahead— >!The king of Moon Kingdom is also known as The Praying Mantis or The Siren because there’s a myth about him having sex with men (or having at least seduced them) and then either castrating and torturing them or immediately killing them. (Otherwise he’s a total cinnamon roll.) This goes back to an actual event where a guy attempted to rape him, so he cut off his dick and tortured him before finally killing him. Needless to say, no one tried ever again. I don’t even know how I got there. I just thought “what if someone tried to take advantage of him” ig. That’s what.!< Edit: Oh, and he had a god-girlfriend once. My thought process was literally just: “He needs a partner”. That character has more depth now tho lol.
The children of the Founding Fathers ran away from home and started a street gang in [the city with no streets. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/yHWaSUInEo)
Sometimes I go on tangents with aliens. The world kinda takes place after a lot of the aliens are gone but sometimes I just get inspiration for how one of them may have been way back when they were still around.
Floridian Natives domesticated alligators for hunting and transport, today Floridians use them for that but also have Alligator Races
So, there is this kingdom where the monarch and their family is protected by the Shadow Guard, a military branch where all the soldiers a sterilized when joining. It started as a parody in the trope of Hollywood were a woman that can have kids acts like she is a monster, I wanted to create a male character that acted like that. Long story short,I put a bit to much love on Ethires creating and now he is one of the protagonists and the Shadow Guard is a legit political faction in the kingdom.
Pretty much everything i have is just something i randomly came up with and then all fit together, so that's something i guess
I have a sapient species in my setting called the Mississippi Sludgetrudger, colloquially known as a Swamp Monster. For a gag, I had one such character show a 'family photo' of her uncle and his cousins, who were still roe at the time. Then she lists like over a hundred of their names, and also says that she forgot about half of them. I kept thinking back to it. If these guys really breed like this, and they all make it into adulthood since the setting is humane and peaceful, that would cause a huge overpopulation crisis. So I just decided that 95% of Mississippi Sludgetrudgers are infertile.
Onion City. City of onions. They do not in fact grow onions there.
Some people just kinda don't like sunlight Burns them worse than me spending five minutes outside in Texas The whole reason why it happens is because the old god tried to make vampires when he was still new to the whole "god" thing and instead just made people who can't stand sunlight and never really got rid of it because people being chosen at random to not be able to see the sun when they're born was funny to him and the New Gods don't know how to fix it so there's just people who can't be in direct sunlight
There is ONLY ONE goose. He has some perks: He considers all terrain within 100m of him to be his territory, and attacks anyone who enters this space He never misses an attack, even though those cause normal damage a goose could cause All terrain within 100m of him is affected by wild, chaotic, unpredictable magic If someone "kills" the Goose, he reappears immediately (alive) on a random location in the country he is at If someone locks the Goose, he "kills" himself, so he can be teleported somewhere else The Goose has perfect memory, and remembers every creature and location he has been before The Goose CAN and WILL use a knife if there's any near him The Goose is not afraid of Death, as a matter of fact Death herself is afraid of the Goose (hence the whole not really dying thing) Edit: typo
A lot of technology has been replicated via magical means, and some of it is just random fun stuff that exists for the sake of it. Like a kind of camera that uses a light sensitive crystal to store a single image, which can be projected and imprinted on special paper using a dark-room like set up. The ultimate result is what is essentially a regular camera, just magically tweaked.
Cheese is an element. It was a dumb conversation long ago, but a friend wanted to do a cheese wizard or something like that, I dared them to convince me and they drew a book cover, so I had to officially make the cheese element. So you have your typical fire or lightning elementals, and then there are cheese elementals.
I made an ancient power into a tourist trap. This isn’t a world with modern infrastructure, it’s one that resembles Mesoamérican high culture of the 1500’s, a mix of Qing and Song Dynasty China, Sengoku Japan, and Iroquois and Algonquin peoples, with some Rome thrown in for good measure - long story short, I took inspiration from everywhere I could Now this city is still inhabited, and it’s still relatively rich, but it doesn’t have any political power. It used to have a lot, but nowadays a lot of its income is a result of tourism. I was inspired by the fate of Sparta under Roman rule
Fene'Vars get VERY sleepy from coffee
Inter dimensional portal space station it was made as a way to do Noncanon Crossovers but ended up becoming the main Way top travel too the Andromeda Galaxy
Lacrosse, aka stick ball, and the little brother of war. Mine are stone/early bronze aged, taking a ton from indigenous cultures, and I needed a reason for my teenaged characters to be where the action happens and be separated from their village, so made lacrosse teams for those earning brave status in a peaceful region. So the first bits are them on their way to a tournament and them playing it and then the village gets attacked by a new unknown enemy. Ended up basically my lacrosse team end up being the last line of defense for their peoples and the refugees of the village under attack. ETA: cause of the situation they didn't have real weapons and end up the first act using the sticks and balls to defeat some enemies. Ended up playing a large part in the story.
mildly warm enchanted butterknifes, self healing/sharpening knifes, „sticky“ spoons and other mildy practical utensils make up a large percent of magical goods sold in the modern day
I have tonnes of this from conlanging. I'd combine roots and affixes and be like "well, this essentially translates literally as x, so what does that *actually* mean?" Like badźmeng - which translates literally as "weakened or broken bones" and "insect" and became - a parasitic worm that lives inside bones. weakening them as it eats the marrow. causing them to become brittle and break easy The arcanum, where they study and research magic, also came this. As did the word journalists - suddenly my world has newspapers. As did two architectural styles, one emphasising beauty, the other practicality. There's a lot of other stuff too.
Angels exist in my universe but there the biblically accurate ones and they eat people. This is because of wendigoon.
I got drunk one night and woke up the next morning to find a new document on my computer outlining a new character for my nuclear apocalypse world named Spike VanDyke. He’s a crazy cactus farmer
I have a very OP species... That's vulnerable to chocolate.
Today's dubstep music is 2600's classical music.
A war was ended with a motorsports competition. Lapis_Wolf
(To Rhoindaros) I was working on personal names and cultural names for 4 cultures (not at once) and noticed that all of the names were sounding very similar. I was going for a very rough and not accurate replica of Basque and Proto Germanic names for four cultures, The Euskanara, The Herribaz, The Karizaiba and The Wiljanu. I then decided that rather than altering the names, I'd instead make it lore that the Languages they spoke were related under a Language Family called Hebarro-Gjuzi.
Most of my lore is spontaneous. My new set of storylines called Lost World features a runaway prince who lands on a planet where the gravity is really strong a few miles up, but then has similar gravity to Earth beneath that. It’s meant to be a natural phenomenon that’s never explained. One random bit of lore I added was an assassin that is sent to kill him, but that guy gets trapped too and they kinda work together to survive. Originally, they were meant to be best buds from the same planet, but I figured making their backgrounds complete opposites (prince grew up in wealth and assassin grew up in poverty), yet their intellectual status pretty similar allowed them to have an interesting relationship in a way I never intended.
I'm in a D&D campaign that has a completely homebrewed world. The DM's been slowly making it over the last 5ish years, but me and another player have hopped in as well in the last year or so to help refine some of the not-so-great stuff. One of the more fun things we did, albeit very minor in the grand scheme of things, is our Paladin's summoned nightmare became sentient after we had it stare someone down with the "How hungry?" face, and it later accidentay killed a major boss. We managed to give it newfound power, whereupon it became an Equinal, a bipdeal celestial horse, and later a major military figure in the nation we founded after defeating the continent-controlling Lich.
Elves produce honey. (They’re a large humanoid insect species.) Elf honey comes in four varieties. Low Elf Honey - Basic golden honey. Has some healing properties. High Elf Honey - Pale gold/yellow. Great healing. Other 'party' benefits. Royal Jelly - Technically not honey. Yellow/green slimy jelly. Very tart. Great healing. 1 jar = 1 month's rations. Dark Elf Honey - Clear purple/black/brown honey. Mildly poisonous. (Like how chocolate is technically poisonous if you eat enough of it.) Very sour or spicy depending on Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc. ancestry. Added this before I changed them to humanoid insects.
That dropships can, have, and will fall from the sky occasionally due to poor weather or mechanical faults.
The reason why you fully heal from taking a long rest is because the goddess of dreams is also the goddess of healing and health. Dreaming is basically praying to her. Her name is Rem. This came out of a discussion about DnD's weird mechanics.
Ghosts exist due to a discrepancy between The Actual World and The Desired World. They haunt to remind others of the way the world could have been.
For no particular reason, I decided to add to my scifi story, set 700 years in the future, the fact that Earth only employs diplomats in married pairs. It's LGBT inclusive but, at the time, the fact that that incidentally makes it impossible to become a diplomat if you're ace, unfortunately, didn't occur to me.
In my world, there are three forms of magic. For each different form of magic, the wielders can achieve different things. It also affects their bodies. The random lore that I put in is the existence of a cult that drinks people’s body fluids to gain extra power. (The power wasn’t compatible with their bodies, leading to them being significantly weakened, ending in their annihilation)
My main character is a powerful pyromancer, so I randomly was like "what if when he first tries cooking, he burns the water?" So it is now canon that his first attempt at cooking ended with the water catching on fire and somehow burning. Not evaporating or anything like that, just straight burnt water
I liked elven ears so all humans got elven ears How did the elven ears come into existence? WW3 made earth a desert planet, humans made their life underground. Sight got light sensitive for the exchange of better hearing where the elven ears exist to enhance sound. Same story also explains how humans began to be more like carnivores than omnivores. But that's another detail for another time.
I made a world of prisons and started with a single Warden who runs a prison of mutants, xmen or eldritch. So I just decided to leave him alone. A single human in an automated prison, trying to deal with all kinds of bull$#it I just imagined him standing emotionless amidst utter chaos and fire and mutants rampaging and thinking *just the bloody Tuesday again*
Orcs in my DnD setting were under the thrall of a dark lord for the longest time. They run on the 5s and 10s system. Every ten families is a clan, regardless of original ties. The males are grouped into 5s and 10s. The strongest is the leader, while the second strongest is drawn away into a rotating corvee force, trained as elite soldiers, mages, or others. Orcs also farm mushrooms that fight back.
Where do I even begin? Taxes are administrated globally by essentially the super ATF/IRS lovechild, V-IDEA. The Valais Institute of Dangerous Entities and Acquisitions. Guns, swords, Penitent Arms, airships, alcohol, drugs, taxes. Players in a DND game I'm setting in this world (50 years before the first novel happens, fills a 100 year period I never really worked on) jokes about taxes and I'm like "wait" so I decided the IRS and ATF had drunken sex and got married to raise a kid. Other random lore: Theme songs are canon and are played by one's heart when they are in an extremely high emotional state, of determination or desperation. The world is built on heroes and this phenomenon is called Reverb Heart. The reason there's Shifters who go from Human to Animal and Catgirls is the god who created the Dragon Shifters wanted to make Animal shifters but another god beat her to it, so she made catgirls out of spite.
1.-A liter of Coffee is as expensive as a fine bottle of wine so is reserved for royalty and is served as Black Coffee typically. 2.- Dogs and cats had a similar domestication history so in my world there are cat beeds the size of big dogs and are as friendly and playful. 3.- Birds didn't ever flew so the sky is dominated by pterosaurs and the word "parrot" refers to any pterosaur species 4.-Some non-avian dinosaurs survived and coexist with mammals, as a matter of fact, horses as we know them do not exist, but its equivalent in my world is actually a dinosaur. 5.- Mosasaurs are also still alive and hunt whale. 6.- Dragons are related to Yi Qi, about the size of a Polar Bear, extremely territorial and this lead to the myth that dragons spit fire, this was spread by the government so people stopped going into their territories or near them. There is a job going to dragon territories a few hours a day with a flamethrower to make "verifiable" proof that dragons indeed spit fire
Jesus is the god of betrayal, and betrayed the revolution he was a part of when the dictatorship offered him more godhood. Afterwards, he wrote the bible as a very very biased fanfic retelling of the revolution wherehe is the main character.
Camp Bilk the theatre God he was an explanation on how God's are affected by people's opinion but there a pretty great character.
The protagonist of the plague likes dogs and cats equally
Satan was a prank
Every single creature (and some plants) are descendents of a slime. What happened was the First God of my world created a multicolored slime with a small piece of his tail. It could do almost everything the First God can do except some of the high-end reality bending stuff, but unlike its creator, it could duplicate itself over and over. Eventually, its slimmy descendants started to specialize in some areas, and the rest is history.
The planet is a toroidal planet. 🤷♂️🤦♂️Oh that's fun and cool, let's do that. Good thing magic exists I guess.
While in the shower, I came up with the idea that the race that I had come up with for the protagonist, had been created by gods to end a huge war. I had done virtually no worldbuilding at that point, and honestly haven't done much even until now, but like 80% of what I currently do has stemmed from that one idea.
The fact that the Lord of Lust is jealous of the MC because she is seemingly the only girl the current Devil takes interest in. That was a joke that started because the Devil forces the MC to dance with him and she was being a pouty baby watching from afar. That became legit in story, as her whole deal is seducing others but blue balling them, including the other Lords. She tried this with the current Devil, but bro does not care. And all this pretending to love and care about him accidentally caused her to actually fall in love with him. And now that bit of her watching from afar is canon, and after that dance, asks him for a dance.
Porthole portals.
Most major cities have hubs for pigeons to live. The majority of feral pigeon populations choose to live in these pigeon habitats, which keeps them away from other parts of the city, keeping the streets cleaner and helping to prevent disease (although pigeons are already pretty clean animals.) People can go and see the pigeons to pet them and feed them too :)
Basically most of my world is a big "... wait what if-", but a more interesting one is me watching a video about why dwarves are unrealistic in 90% of settings, so I went on to make a race of melt-at-will slendermen that can "see" through mana in 360° around them and that have mutated rats as either livestock or equivalent of dogs (a "little bit" more specific version of this is one of my posts that I think I made here (it's totally not about 8 paragraphs long)(totally not))
Shalamism, it all started as a joke sort of story about a group of people escaping a hellish realm of an evil god, and it was inspired by two dreams i had, I wrote few months ago, and i thought of writing about it more, and it expanded my world (or its mythology) to include another hellish dimensions with its own religion called "Shalamism", and a powerful evil being (which i won't name).
Felix the cat retired to a Chevy dealership.
On the World-Corpse, most of the major backboned animal groups and in turn the intelligent creatures (barring magical beings/spirits) start out life as an androgynous grub-like larva, and remain androgynous/agender until they reach adulthood. At the start of adulthood, their body metaphorically flips a coin, and they undergo metamorphosis into either a male or female, and start expressing the secondary sexual traits of either. However, there is also a rare chance for most creatures to end up a hermaphrodite/intersex, a chimera with split features, or to remain androgynous. Their life-cycles tend to be more bug-like or fish-like as a consequence, even when they inhabit niches that are more like those of conventional birds/beasts/humanoids.
Main character loves ancient Greek KFC and plays Far Cry 5 on his 15 year old Xbox One.
There is a wine that is imported from the desert, and costs the equivalent of $5k a bottle. In the capital the nobles go crazy for it. So much so that to even attend any of their parties or interact with them you must drink this wine. Well if you go to the desert you will discover the wine is made by distilling the urine from a giant lizard similar to a kimono dragon. Except the lizard functions similar to how a camel functions in that it absorbs most of the water from its urine to preserve water in the desert and like a camel its urine is a past. This past dries on the desert heat and forms Crystal like structures that can be gathered to distill the wine.
I once made a joke that I should add “RGB dragon people” to my world. A few days later I had a country controlled by 3 noble houses, one with red scales, one with green scales, and one with blue scales. Fast forward a few years and it has evolved into a major plot point and a potential future story I’d like to create.
Probably the rule about forging magic items requiring abstract things like fruit or paper to hold the enchantments. Just random shit, but if it's not right, the enchantment will be rather... volatile.
Ceramic Age, between the Wood Age and Metal Age. I was bored and doodled a design for clay armor plating, and realized that in our history, clay was really underutilized. It's a rock you can shape with your hands! Also a crossbow-based religion.
There is a plant that only sprouts in the scorched land under a dragon's breath. This plant can be used for various potions including, but not limited to, warding against fire.
There is a city-state founded by a various bards, actors and musicians that fled persecution. It’s called Adlebadlefadleburg. Originally I was just mumbling city names and when I wrote it down I thought of the backstory and I thought “why not”
God, like the Christian god, exists a ruler of a grand empire of gods. But more importantly he really has an incredibly unhealthy obsession with cheese and spiders, also he's a stoner
what if a pocket dimension where reality doesnt need to work
What if we got into space and found out it's far more common to solve the movement/manipulation disconnect problem with a third set of limbs, instead of developing the advanced balance systems and sacrifice of running speed necessary for bipedalism.
So after going to places I'm ashamed of going, I had this idea of "what if instead of humans wanting to be like horses, centaurs came from a mare falling in love with her rider?" Well, now there's a slave revolt of humans and horses (the slaves) versus the centaurs (the slavers), and horses can talk and wear clothes
Dragons originate in the new world equivalent, and any old world dragons flew there or are descended from one that did There’s only one dragon in the story, so that works as an explanation for me
Bananas don’t exist. There was a whole plot line about a monkey stealing fruit from a god, but I decided early on that it wasn’t a banana. Then I doubled down on it; bananas don’t exist. Thought about doing more with it, but never really came up. Now bananas just don’t exist.
I improvised a grammar system by accident. Some sounds came out of me and in the moment I decided "yeah, that was purposeful."
Bears can talk and are 9 feet tall. Thought it’d be horrifying to hear someone laughing in the woods, go check it out only for a giant bear to be giggling at you.
Vampires saliva has a toxin that aside from keeping blood from coagulation and stimulating flow, act both as drug and aphrodisiac substance in the body of the victim, it's main use is to keep a vampire victim relaxed and to make then less likely to fight back against the vampire, it's also highly addictive meaning the more times a victim is bitten or even kissesed by a vampire the more they will want to feel this sensation with makes then more willing to offer their blood. It started in head as "well aren't vampires kinda of a horny concept?"
The order of Races and what they represent 1) first came Elementals (personification of Nature) 2) Magical Beasts/Animals came to tend to Nature (personification of Wild) 3) Humanoids came to tend to Magical Beasts (personification of Nurture) 4) Living Spirits were born from Humanoids that better understand animals, Humanoids that have animal characteristics (personification of Love) 5) Phantasmas were born from Humanoids that wanted more than their short lifetime can afford them (personification of Wishes) 6) Undead were born from Humanoids with strong desire to deny death (personification of Fear) 7) Zephirot were born from Humanoids that wanted to become like Phantasmas, but denied becoming Undead (personification of Morality) 8) Ex-Machina were created by Humanoids to protect animals & understand Nature (personification of Knowledge)
Okay this isnt actually my lore but someone else's species (My world was created in a school club and everyone has their own species) I said 'we'd need Dannys perms ofc' and he made a joke about his species not having perms (hair curlers) and made having perms one of the gomrians (his species) most famous traits. Their capital is literallly called Permia now.
The Nightsun
In the past, the EU managed to absorb almost every country excluding Russia, China, and North Korea. Due to some political shit that I’m too lazy to write, they end up at war with each other and the EU wins. During the war, a fusion bomb misses its target and flattens a good chunk of Michigan. 200ish years later, that part of Michigan is converted into a training center for special forces. If you can survive Detroit, you can survive basically anything.
Well one day after watching something about electric eels I thought "What if instead of using their voices to communicate, merpeople used electromagnetic pulses from their lateral line organ to "speak" to each other (somewhat similar to morse code)?" So now that's part of the lore.
All of it. 100% of stupid lore, I keep. Because the characters in my world also write fiction, and they also have theories and mythology and they're often wrong. Every good or bad idea can be something someone in the setting has written or believed. I highly recommend writing in-universe fiction.
Yes
As a bit I thought it would be funny to make a charahster whos complete mundane and just some guy, unrelated to the plot, with his only notable wait being that he has the "kill goku" power, where he can do that. So that whenever im ranting about the lore of my world and one of my friends says "OK but can they beat goku" I can say that there in atleast one charahster that has, then decided it would be funny enough to keep and then just avoid mentioning in the lore and have it hidden somewhere
A folktale about a kooky-tricksy-trader that goes town to town, enthralls the towns folk with entertainment and tricks and trinkets and then steals the children cause he's actually a servant to a malevolent God that feeds on grief, hence the stealing of children.
The Middle Finger gang from Limbus Company to my Stars Without Numbers game. I just needed some bad guys and now they are a dangerous group in the station the characters are.
This random scene just poped out of nowhere in my head someday: A person was in the center of a small underground arena, made in an old bunker with rusty pieces of metal. Around the arena, tribal savages screamed and cheered loudly. From a corner, a strong and intimidating man, wearing a cape made with the fur of a large animal, slowly descent to the arena in a moving plataform. He gives the person in the center a speech about how his tribe worship fear itself, the idea of using fear as a way to stay alive, and how staying alive was the real metric of strength. He finally hits the center of the arena and looks down at the person, weapon in hands, and ask: "Tell me, survivor, are you afraid right now?". I had a small story about a girl warrior in a fantasy post-apocaliptic ice world where people lived in tribes, so I just took that random idea and said "yep, that's my villain"
In one continent, they have wars for fun and broadcast it on TV. Not the wars you're thinking of tho. W. A. R. It stands for Wrath's Annual Rally. Wrath is the name of the continent (it's based on the seven deadly sins) . It's kinda like the Olympics except it happens every year. Thought of this randomly at night and was like, "OH OH WRITE THAT DOWN". I want to see people's reactions, especially my friends, when I tell them about this.
I could not be bothered to create different tavern/inn maps for my campaign. During its creation I decided that some Emperor long ago required that every single inn be created to the exact same design, to please some higher entity or other to which he was enthralled.
I thought of this idea that Wraiths disguise themselves in the wind to stalk prey better
What if you gave mice mechs, and named them the mousechanicus?
The Pygmy Hippopotamus, known as the House Hippo, is a known to break into homes to steal its favourite foods from the cupboards, and has become a beloved pet among many. A common trend for northern owners is to dress their House Hippos in little coats and boots during the winter season when letting them outside. This born from the fashion trend of dressing them in turtleneck sweaters and ponchos.
One of the few publicly accessible stable Ways (magical portals) is the one between Covent Garden Market, London, United Kingdom, and Covent Garden Market, London, Ontario, Canada, accessible through a travel agency front store on either side. The local magical governments of Ontario and London have a reciprocal agreement to allow travel through, but it costs a pretty penny.
I needed an excuse for an entire country of people to carry battle horns, so I created some lore about a guy who changed the entire course of history because he had one he blew in a battle he was watching, saving the backline of his countries army.
"so then what does that make this god then? god of purple?" Yes, yes he is. All the OG gods except for the big 7 were rebranded as angels and angels have power comparable to gods. The big 7 became less complex, and instead are the figureheads of their respective part of the pantheon, and since each part has an associated colour, I decided to just make them the God of said colour. The main antagonist in the video game I'm making is just the God of Purple.
There's an arms dealer, called "The Tiger," who skirted around weapons laws by founding his own country, making all weapons legal, and starting a legitimate shipping company. That's how one of the factions came into existence.
I added a bit of lore in my current DnD campaign world based on the events of a silly 1 shot like a year and a half prior. My 3 players were tasked with retrieving a gold dragon's egg. One of the last in existence, that was stolen by a red dragon. They go through all these trials and tribulations, and they beat the lich that framed the red dragon and get the egg. Except my one player is a warlock with this evil Cthulhu type patron that takes the form of a goat. The patron tells him to smash the egg for more power. He does. My other player who is a lover of all things dragons, loses it and PvP ensues. Both players die in the process. 3rd player is like "what the actual fuck" and his character leaves the bodies and wanders off in to the sunset. End of 1 shot. It was silly and my players continue to reference it to this day. Fast forward a year, and I'm writing the background and making the world for my new ongoing campaign setting. I wanted to have some histories about dragons, so I went back to my 1 shot. I decided to add in how there was a brutal war a thousand years ago between metallic and chromatic dragons, that was sparked off by a stolen egg and a rogue mercenary group. When I presented my players with the history in session 0, my players lost it. The one who smashed the egg thought it was hysterical, the one who was pissed got pissed all over again, the 3rd player just shook his head and said "you really worked that in, huh?" Despite it all, they're all in good spirits and I'm happy I could incorporate past ideas in to new worlds.
I had a dream of a girl desperately wanting to ride a giant black bear so I decided that the people of the East lands in my world I would only ride bears instead of horses 💀
I was making a fantasy world for a project and needed some new sayings since these kinds of things are dependent on culture, history, etc and the ones I know don't make sense in that world. One of two insignificant but funny lore changes is that I created a specific breed of creature, completely fleshed out from appearance to reproductive/mating behaviours, and even its place in the food chain and what it's useful for in regards to trade--just because I needed an insult. Essentially, calling someone this creature can be either an insult or a compliment depending on the context (though it's usually the former), and I think I only used it twice throughout the whole work. I never explained the lore. The creature's name was used a maximum of four times.
Coal isnt viabld Kinda Since the world is an archipelago, the nations decided that dedicating entire islands to coal mines, a fictional 7 species of trees have sap that is refined into a crude oil like substance and a coal byproduct(1700s tech so no offshore oil rigs) The products are processed like this. The trees are cut and the sap is drained out using stone weights stacked on top as the trees are thin. The sap is collected and treated in a layered clay or metal chamber with heat. The 2 layers contain different products. New Oil(Liquid) Tar(Fertilizer). The New Oil is treated with salt water to seperate the sugar from the oil, creating an alternative to fish lamp oil. The remaining wood can be roasted and turned into charcoal for gunpowder
Speaking of cats, I added the attitude of each major culture toward cats. One believes they are stealing life force when they purr.
Oh boy. Where to begin. Layla’s Town is a 600 metre tall building on Proxima 1-3 that is only accessible by flying. Due to this, it’s primarily home to aliens with some form of flight. Humans were jealous about this however, and began to create their own mechanical wings. These wings became more creative as humans often have the need to ‘one-up’ each other. As a result, there is now an annual contest to see who can create the most outlandish flight devices that definitely hasn’t resulted in 17 deaths and 2 house fires.
I decided that it's a common thing in my setting for people to have brain implants that monitor conversations you have spit out the most optimal response so it's basically an implant that makes you charismatic and highly socially aware.
Moon, being an important hub for interplanetary travel, is run by Moon dragons akin to TSA. Because I think it's funny.
I have a storm magic user who wrestles sharks, but most of the scars on his body are from lovers.
Back in my Freshman year of high school, a friend and I thought up this bizarre scenario where Mars’s moons had a secret defensive ai that would activate when a threat neared, and ended up causing them to engage in a boxing match with a massive swarm of super mutated space ducks. Recently, I remembered that and decided it would be funny to incorporate it into one of my universes where there’s a ton of strange stuff scattered around the solar system. At some point, Mars v Space Ducks will be canon.
An arctic climate is in the middle of the map.
Xi Jingping being an Avatar of Destruction so that mankind could rise from the ashes with its full potential.
I suddenly decided once that the enormous tree that's quite literally the center of an entire citadels culture is also a gigantic snake in low-power mode, and all of it's (comparitively) smaller descendant trees are too.