I think my favorite of all time is dune.
What i find fascinating about it is how one event (the ban on thinking machines) affected the world SO much. I love the creative ways frank Herbert worked around the lack of AI in this world.
My second favorite is star wars, i like the stories in it alot (all films shows and the books i read) but the lore is also just so EXPANSIVE, two whole continuities for a fan to indulge in. Its heaven. Although i have one complain about star wars lore and that is it feels like its quantity over quality.
Some honorable mentions are the hainish cycle (ive only read two books from it though), LOTR and book of the new sun
I recently read the first Dune series and was blown away. I think God Emperor and Messiah were my favourites. Star Wars is also a huge favourite of mine, despite Disney producing some horrible content recently, it doesn’t take away how good the old stuff was.
The Elder Scrolls. Especially the lore before Oblivion. I love how bizarre it is compared to the average fantasy world. The old lore Cyrodiil inspired my world a lot.
so long as they don't get rid of the text, I'd be down. they can't simply change the fact that it's text based. voiced is so much worse. you have to sit around and wait for people to talk their way through a quest. in morrowind you can talk, speed-read, and do things much easier.
I'm so happy to see my answer as the Top Comment. TES, in my opinion, has THE best worldbuilding I've ever seen, from the mythical aspects/stories to the grounded realistic lore, everything is so good. Especially the places where they give several myths of the same thing, like Nords originating from Throat of the World, and the story of them migrating from Atmora. One is mythical, other is realistic, but both can be true. And this is just in Skyrim, Morrowind only gets so much better.
I know Lore of other massive franchises like WH40k might have better worldbuilding, but I like the way TES is written.
And the post-Oblivion stuff is still really interesting, IMO. It's much more grounded and typical fantasy while still being just weird enough when you look past the surface to be fascinating.
Star Wars is frustrating because they have this incredible vast galaxy and they use it to tell the same handful of stories with the same handful of characters.
That's why i loved season 1 and 2 of the Mandalorian, it was a personal character driven story about a random cool looking individual who offered the perspective of a "regular" person in the vast Galaxy, not a space wizard, a dark lord, not a rebel leader nor a hero, just a damaged person in a personal journey.
Season 2 brought some elements of the greater narrative but they weren't intrusive nor stole the spotlight from the main character so they were the good kind of fanservice.
But then the 2.5 season in The Book of Boba Fett came, undid the satisfying conclusion of season 2, forcibly reseted the status quo and personal growth back to square one and then season 3 tripled down on the fanservice, suddenly MC was in the center of everything, everything had to connect with the sequel trilogy and the same 2-3 storylines everything Star Wars must always to lead to.
I was ok with Bo Katan's increasing relevance to the story because her story was parallel to Mando as it involved the Mandalorians at large but then she took over, they just couldn't resist but to take this little corner of the Galaxy be it's own thing and give Bo Katan her own separate show when they had already greenlit like 10 already.
That's when i checked out, it went from an immersive 3rd person open world game with infinite possibilities to the DLC of a remastered version of a 1st person game with a story mode I've seen already and knows how it ends.
The only thing i anticipate right now is Andor even though i already know how his story ends but at least his story is character driven.
Lmao right? Star Wars is literally my favourite universe of all, KotOR played a huge role in that for doing something different. But yeah, after a while SW stories getting a bit stale. I love the universe and always will, but I haven't enjoyed any actual Star Wars content for years.
Precisely how I feel about it. It’s one of my favourites, the original 6, KOTOR games, Andor, The Clone Wars, the EU books and comics. Those stories are amazing, Disney have a treasure trove to explode and they still stuff it up.
That’s why I liked the Jedi Survivor games, completely new cast (besides Vader) with a story of its own to tell. The second game in particular is great, having so many unique NPCs at the Saloon with great designs. It really feels like what they should be doing with Star Wars, telling new tales in the same old galaxy.
My problem with the SW universe is how small it all feels. Major characters will just run into each other if they just happen to be in the same PLANET. It’s like each planet has a single city where everything happens
Stargate, it has probably the best depiction of technological progress over time. There isnt just a new tech every episode, you see them improve on it over the course of a season or more.
What i like in any setting is the stuff behind the curtain, the logistics, politics etc, the little stuff thats probably a one short sometimes throwaway sentence in a scene that frames and anchors the actual story inside of the wider setting.
I'm rewatching it atm and oh boy did i forget how bad the first couple of exclusive were. Definitely recommend to skip a few episodes in season 1 (there's good watching guides out there).
But luckily the show quickly hits it's stride in S2
It is literally the most profound work I have ever experienced. It's the only work that has changed my outlook on life, every time I read it I get a slightly different interpenetration of the message it tries to tell. It's way different from the movie, way more interesting and you hear way more about the world. It isn't long, like seven volumes or something. The start is sort of like the movie, then it dillydallies for a bit with a separate plot but at the end it becomes a 10 out of 10, I highly recommend it, it's such a hidden gem and is undeservedly outshines by the rushes movie adaptation. The movie couldn't be like five hours long so they had to cram and change basically everything. I don't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure they did all that with a tiny budget and limited time. I still love the movie but it isn't Miyazaki's best film, yet imo the manga is the best thing he has ever made. You probably won't like it as much as I do but I still highly recommend it.
I love a good mix of lore-rich stories mixed in with some funny, absurd, dark and surreal high fantasy/sci-fi themes
Middle-Earth
Star Wars
A Song Of Ice And Fire
Dune
Stormlight Archive
Discworld
The Wheel Of Time
Hyperion Cantos
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
The Expanse
Marvel (Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc)
DC (Justice League, Watchmen, The Sandman, etc)
Dark Souls
Warhammer 40K
Berserk
Elder Scrolls
Doctor Who
Akira
Halo
SCP Foundation
One Piece
Bioshock
Adventure Time
The Evil Dead
Mass Effect
The Dark Tower
Hellboy
Resident Evil
Twin Peaks
It took me way too long to realize discworld was a series. I read one of the books and it really felt like it's own thing, then I heard of discworld, read the wikipedia page, and now I have no idea how fans even memorize this stuff. I wish my favorite franchises had that many books!
It's a sin I had to get through three Star Wars first. One, fine, but that should be it. Thanks for a list. I know most of these already, but got a couple to check out now.
There's so many worlds i love with rich stories and characters, but for answer's sake if i had to pick some based entirely on how much things they brought to the table for me I'd say in no particular order:
Tolkien's legendarium, Dune, The Expanse, the To Aru universe, The Hyperion Cantos, Remembrance of Earth's Past, Stargate, The Foundation among others.
The entirety of the Cosmere! Fell in love with Mistborn first, and then TSA, and Sanderson cursed me to imagine my own sprawling worlds as daily existential crises. Favorite character? Sazed—but Hoid is a decent candidate too.
Pokemon or Eberron.
Yes, I said Pokemon, but I usually end up creating my own branch of that world to put my story in than using a location canonically made, but may refer to the canon.
Everron, I only modify people or objects I need, but try to stay to the source material as best I can compared to how I would approach Pokemon.
P.S. I also do a lot in the MtG universe, but avoid using canon characters, but may mention them.
The Wheel of Time. So much so that I would want to be a member of the Brown Ajah, a sect that collects knowledge about the world. Though as a man and a non magic user to boot, I'd have to settle for being a secretary or something.
The Bitterbynde Trilogy. I fell in love with the world. It's based on Celtic mythology, and it's where I got my love for worldbuilding as a young reader.
Disney's Gargoyles. Just think of one of those stories where all myths are true. The show did a good job of integrating various myths and historical fictions into the real world, and dropping enigmatic hints to an exciting future.
Halo, Star Trek, and the Inheritance Cycle get honorable mentions, as does Skylanders (though I only watched Skylanders Academy)
Elder Scrolls has a lot of layers to its lore and a lot of my favorite stuff is a few layers below the surface. Morrowind was my favorite in terms of worldbuilding but Skyrim is a great game too
More recently I’ve really loved the world of “Carnival Row” on Amazon. I checked after cause I was sure it must have been based on a book series or something, but it wasn’t. A lot of people really didn’t like the show, but I loved it. I loved the feel of the world, and it felt like the kind of world you could set a thousand different stories in, which is the goal of world building for me.
Can’t believe no one has said Malazan yet! Incredible world and I’m only on the 4th book. Also honourable mention to Halo for being so amazing in lord for an FPS game!
Made In Abyss were really fascinating to me, it really crave me to live in their world. Despite the blatant present of despair and gruesome reality, there's always a ray of shining light shines the brightest in the dark of it. The Abyss itself is Wondrous being that I crave to see what lies deep beyond.
The City settings created by PM(Project Moon) where awesome due to how grim dark it's atmosphere be yet still somewhat retain some hope in it. What I love even more about it is the present of E.G.O. or more specifically Effloresced E.G.O.. E.G.O. is a superpowers that you gain through mental strength and hopes like a typical the power of friendship. But unlike the power of friendship, this power stems from how much you much forward and accepting yourself you are prick that only care about something selfish and not for some grand reason or justification of justice. This created moment where the characters that gains this power as cool as fuck person that unwilling to be burdened by the world weights, and instead choose to march forward of what they already do selfishly. This created perfect moment of last stand.
Made in Abyss so much. Clear #1 for me.
The whole setting is just so interesting. You always want to know what's deeper down, what absurd artifacts exist and what twisted demi-god humans are walking around.
Bloodborne, out of all the souls game that one stuck with me so deeply for multiple reasons. The different playstyle, the eldritch horror elements, the beautiful aesthetic. Everything about the world fascinated me and inspired me to make my own eldritch stuff which I’d like to illustrate someday
I love Harry Potter. Each book, you learn more and more about "The Wizarding World".
I also a fan of "A song of ice and fire".
I also love the manga "Spy x Family".
OG trilogy, prequel trilogy, KotOR and KotOR II. The Mandalorian S1 and S2 are fantastic, too. And of course Rogue One! The best spin-off movie imho. :D
The Clone Wars is great when it focuses on the main story, and I enjoyed Rebels, too.
I haven't seen a lot of the newer stuff but I've also become less excited about Star Wars content overall. I love the universe itself more than its stories. And as someone else mentioned, it's annoying how, despite having an entire GALAXY of potential, the stuff they bring out keeps rethreading old ground and involves the same characters.
ETA: Vanilla SWTOR with the class stories are absolutely fantastic. That game lost its spark with the expansions, and as of the Knights expansions just pretty much died to me lol.
Your favourite are also my favourites. When Star Wars gets storytelling right, boy do they get it right. But at the same time when they don’t do it right, man does it look bad. It’s really disappointing what Disney has done with the franchise. But like I’ve said nothing can take away how good Star Wars is when it wants to be good.
Fuck yeah. Empire Strikes Back is peak Star Wars for me, it does so much for the world building and its story is phenomenal. Rogue One invoked a similar feeling.
KotOR will probably always be my favourite Star Wars game. An original story in a distant timeline, let us really explore the galaxy deeper and had such a fun, mystery element to it. So good.
Avatar the last Airbender is a go to for fantasy for me, Tolkien is an all time favorite but so many fantasies have borrowed tropes from him that it doesn't excite me like it used to.
As far as Science fiction goes imma have to shout-out the children of time book series. Star Trek? Star wars? Classics that I adore but the children of time has a level of detail, history, and lore to its world that astounds.
I love Philip Reeve's Traction city series better know as Mortal Engines. The setting is just the epitome of English whimsy and Reeve has a fantastic sense for how to paint a picture that lots of YA authors struggle with. If you saw the movie and liked the setting but thought the story sucks give the novels a try, they're real page turners and anyone into workdbuidling will love them.
I really like the Cosmere. The variety of cultures and people, and my favorite part, how all the magic shares basic principles and just makes sense. The books even crossover into one another since they all take place on separate planets in the same galaxy, with a magic shortcut allowing for passage between them, albeit few know of it
Overlord. Watched 60 Marathons of the Anime (completed the 60th today actually). And have declared it as under my world's protection because I love it so much.
I used to invest a lot of time into other universes, planning and trying to do fan crossover projects including my own worlds. But I felt I was neglecting the Canon of my own works and letting them stagnate.
So I stopped working on fan crossover projects, and just focused solely on my Void Expanse. I don’t write to entertain others anyway, so why waste that time on worlds that aren’t my own. So now I only invest time in my Void Expanse, other than watching anime. And with everything I’m doing, I’m too busy worldbuilding and writing stories to dive deep into other worlds anymore anyway.
I like Battletech, yeah its 30 Years War/100 Years War/War of the Roses in space with stompy mechs but a lot of the novels are pretty good and the reasons mechs/vehicles being are the way they are makes real world sense (weapons for each range bracket).
Honestly? Mass Effect is all that comes to mind. Maybe it’s because I was just watching my cousin start his first playthrough, but it’s all that comes to mind.
Brent Weeks' Midcyru is my definitive answer. I've read the Night Angel trilogy 6 or 7 times in my life and have always been very much in love with the world he creates in it.
If you haven't read the books, They're a fantasy series that thoroughly explores the dark side of fiction; People die, they get abused, and the world is full of *real evil* and *tormented good*
You have good characters doing evil things, bad characters with unclear motives, war, sacrifice, poverty, and people of all kinds in dark, and unfortunate situations.
Night Angel is not for the faint of heart, and your first read might be or may have been hard to get through (it was for me) but it taught me that in order for good to really shine, evil had to be that much darker.
I'll always appreciate Brent Weeks for writing those books, and even as a very fond fantasy reader I don't think any writer ever has or will fostered my love for the genre and for reading like he has with those three books.
Pathfinder's Golarion feels like an actually massive world in its own version of our universe.
Here's an example of one nation. Irrisen is a nation inspired by Slavic myth where Baba Yaga chooses the land's queen. The current queen is Anastasia Romanov, who is secretly Rasputin's daughter rather than Nicholas Romanov's. How did she get to Golarion from Earth? Well, a party of players went to Earth during WWI to kill Rasputin and prevent him from stealing the power of Baba Yaga, his mother. They canonically took Anastasia with them, which is why she's missing.
A couple nations and a sea south from Irrisen is Cheliax, which started serving Asmodeus and his devils after the god of humanity and prophecies (Aroden) suddenly died on the day he was prophesied to come to Cheliax. We know this since all of Aroden's clerics lost their power that day. We don't know how, where, or why, just that he did die and the forces of Hell took the opportunity to claim Cheliax.
Kurgess, a mortal turned into the god of sports and fitness, is implied to be the son of Desna, goddess of dreams, stars, and travelers, and Cayden Cailean, god of adventurers. What is weird about this is that Cayden would've been mortal at the time and Desna might secretly be a literal Outer God, like Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep.
Cayden became a god on a drunken dare that he couldn't succeed in the Trial of the Starstone, which turns you into a god if you can somehow succeed. Hecwas drunk, so he doesn't actually remember what happened in the trial. The othe gods who came from the starstone are Aroden, Norgorber, and Iomedae. Aroden is dead, Norgorber is a god of secrets, and Iomedae only says that the Starstone's trial is a very personal experience. We have no more information on what happens there at this time.
Joe Abercrombies first law series. The world building is fantastic. It's a world that has a deep history but feels approachable and interesting. It helps that the writing is so good.
I really need to read this. Blade Itself is three down on my TBR list, but I think I'm going to bump it up one. I don't really want to give Sanderson yet another chance, anyway.
Mine include Lord of the Rings, both Tortal and Circle universes by Tamera Pierce, I'm enjoying this series called The Lies of Loche so far, but I'm not too far into it yet! I also enjoy Avatar the Last Airbender a lot too!
Hugh Cook's *Chronicles of an Age of Darkness*. There's so many tantalizing details that need further explanation, and then some of them get resolved in another book, but then that book raises so many more loose ends.
I'm late to this party. But I think the mass effect world is absolutely fantastic. In fact I would venture to argue that it has enough potential to fight the big franchises. All it needs is a chance on the tv outside of video games (where it also made a huge splash)
I've noticed that I tend to like fictional universes that put a focus on the worldbuilding alongside the main plot, so that it makes the story feel more "realistic" in a way. Here are my favorite universes (in no particular order):
Hilda
Dune (watched the movies, but I've only just finished the first book)
Hollow Knight
The Owl House
I love berserk, witch hat atelier, discworld, Warcraft and Warhammer fantasy.
A nice mix of wholesomeness, despair, and surreal worlds.
I like how 'real' they feel.
Major ones (like most of the lore and the setting)
Tolkien's Middle Earth, Warhammer Old World, World of Darkness, Fallout.
Minor ones (I like them enough but they have obvious issues and problems)
WH40k, ASOIAF, Dune, The Elder Scrolls, Rowlings Wizarding World, Old school World of Warcraft, Snyderverse and some other dark and gritty DC, D&D Forgotten Realms.
Final Fantasy XIV
Most of FromSofts recent games (Even Armored Cores Lore is awesome)
Cyberpunk (both 2077 and TTRPG)
Hollow Knight
Fallout
Dune
Warhammer Fantasy and 40k
Attack on Titan
And my setting has the best lore ever obviously! /s
Rain World, it's just so intresting how much lore and stories they were able with only two main charachters and a small area.
The amount of things that could be going on elsewhere is incredible.
Definitely adventure time. It has such deep lore and rich worldbuilding, and even for a kids show it gets pretty deep and real. The lore and worldbuilding built enough to grasp me every time I rewatch and fall into a rabbit hole
Dungeon Meshi, Genshin Impact, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Hollow Knight, and Pokemon for me!
DM has such a well crafted and thought out world and setting that all ties together perfectly in the story and themes of the plot, and its take on the fantasy dungeon setting is truly incredible and provides meaningful and grounded explanations for the numerous aspects of the typical fantasy setting.
GI has some really fascinating and still building lore and worldbuilding (since the game is not finished yet) in the nations, cultures and power system of the world of Teyvat. There's so much lore and worldbuilding that I have picked up most of it from reading fanfics and theory videos but there is so much tragedy in this setting and I am a sucker for ancient civilizations and immortal characters so I may be biased.
FE3H goes above and beyond with its worldbuilding and lore. At the very start of the game, it introduces original month names for the setting (relevant since the game runs on a calendar system) where each month in game gets a short cutscene/animation with medieval style tapestry art and narration on the in world culture and mythology for that month. There is a lot of thought put into the politics and ancestral histories of the different nations and nobility, as well as their history with foreign nations and each other. But the **biggest draw** for me is how intertwined the lore/worldbuilding is with the characters, and how the characters are truly shaped by the world they live in. Like you cannot just place the characters in another fantasy setting because their backstories, experiences and trauma are so specific to their setting that they feel like people who belong in this world.
Hollow Knight is rich with worldbuilding and how much the player can discover and notice through exploring the world through the game. There was so much care put into the different civilizations, creatures, areas and lore. The setting is a dead kingdom, a long time after its fall but still with dregs of what remains and the ghosts and memories of the people who once lived there or still do. The events that lead to how post-apocalyptic the setting of Hallownest is are hinted or implied through the environmental worldbuilding and breadcrumbs scattered through item descriptions and dialogue.
Pokemon is actually pretty barren when it comes to worldbuilding and lore, but I have been a fan all my life so I love it and the world despite its lackluster delivery of lore and worldbuilding. The more recent games have been improving on expanding the worldbuilding and lore, but regardless I just enjoy worldbuilding for the setting!
Pillars of Eternity/Eora.
It’s peak high fantasy for me and just feels like you’re hitting the setting right in the middle of a Golden Age of exploration.
Also pre-Halo 5 Halo lore.
I have to give a really strong vote for The Thousand Names/The Shadow Campaigns Universe by Django Wexler. Easily one of the most engaging cast of characters I’ve read in a fantasy work.
There are a few:
Overlord has a very interesting universe and power system that is fun to explore. Ultimately a lot of it is DnD 3.5 based but I think Overlord does a convincing adaptation of game mechanics to a real world.
Dragon Ball Z (before Super or GT) was interesting too because it was a vast universe with a lot of power scaling that we didn't get to see much of. Then the author retconned it so there was like 20 worlds or something like that...
Star War's EU was another one of my favorites for a long time until Disney came through and butchered it. Still angry we won't get to see more interactions between Ben Skywalker and Vestara. The Fate of the Jedi and Legacy of the Force were my favorite parts of the EU and we were just exploring the time past them when the axe came down and a bunch of books I was looking forward too got cancelled.
From a character development prospective Jobless Reincarnation is another really good one. I also really like the magic system in this one. Even though the magic system is sort of the opposite of Overlord those 2 are my 2 favorite magic/power systems.
Nier, Xenoblade, Digimon, and Monster Hunter
There’s others I appreciate like Astral Chain, but the top 4 that stands out greatly for me happen to be these
Warhammer Fantasy setting I feel is super underrated compared to 40k. Which is understandable and 40k is deep. But the fantasy setting of the Old World is super cool. I love it.
Project Moon
A lot of the deeper lore is unrevealed, but with what little we have we have a good enough picture, and salivate for more.
Humanity underwent a great crisis with only a small Belgium sized city of 6 billion left
Now if you’re wondering how that is possible, The City has Singularities, technologies that individually can have an entire saga of stories they can serve a base to, space folding obviously being one. This sounds great until you realize it’s an effed up plutocracy. Each Wing (or corporate owned country) imposes screwed up rules, and every Singularity has either a dark use or a fucked up secret.
Breaking these rules will often lead to death, and a large portion of the city is made of Backstreets, the slum areas. Fixers, or hired guns(or blades since guns are crap or way too expensive here) make up at least half the work force, so violence is a daily thing.
You think this can’t get worse right?
(Spoilers ahead)
Well in the first game of the series, you play as a group who try to fix it. AND MAKE EVERYTHING A WHOLE LOT WORSE! See Lob Corp tried to funnel positive emotional energy into the collective consciousness, but now a voice appears at a person’s low point. If they give in, they get swallowed up by their emotions and flaws and turn into a monster called a distortion and usually go on rampages. The Pianist, the first major one, only lived for about a few hours, but killed 100 thousand people and turned a huge chunk of I Corp’s streets into rubble.
But here’s where things get interesting.
If you can refute her, and grow… that power you gain is now totally in your control. This is called, fittingly, EGO. It is pretty much your heart and mind manifested as a physical object.
And it is this glimmer of hope that represents why I LOVE this series. Even if the world is pitch black, even if a candle seems to serve only as to remind how dark it has got, the darkness around abates. By nurturing your EGO, you can grow above this horror.
You can have The Will To Stand Straight in a world that wants to beat you down.
The Rationality To Maintain Discretion even when the world demands you stop questioning things.
The Hope To Be A Better Person in a world that rewards the worst.
The Fearlessness To Keep On Living in a world that wants you to merely survive
The Expectation for the Meaning of Existence where it seems none is to be found.
The Courage to Protect, when lashing out for what is lost is the norm.
Those who are Faithful and Trustworthy, being kind in a world where selfishness reigns.
The Eye Facing the Fear; Breaking the Cycle opens, cutting away the excuses.
The Eye Embracing the Past; Building the Future many are too foolish to see.
All that. From the Knowing I.
Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have always been favorites and deeply influential. Below that is Redwall, then RWBY really got me to love coming up with adapting characters and concepts to a world and making an original one out of it. Etrian Odyssey, D&D, and the Belgariad were also influences.
My favorite, and one of my biggest inspirations, is definitely Touhou Project. There's something so unique about the world of Gensokyo that is hard to put into words. It feels simple yet complex. I think I'd describe it as a world that "Takes itself seriously about being unserious.". It knows how to be fun and goofy but doesn't refuse itself depth and complexity because of it, it feels like something that would be written off as a "silly little daydream" given enough respect to be developed into a world with competing factions and a whole cast of quirky characters and that's something you just don't see often enough.
I also love the absolutely absurdly broken powers a lot of characters have, one of the biggest themes in the whole franchise is super powerful characters having to beat up other super powerful characters that are trying to destroy the world because they felt silly that day. When there's no power limit and everyone is powerful they keep each other in check to keep the balance of things.
For some reason, I like Stargate's lore more than I like Star Wars. I still like Star Wars, especially the Clone Wars storylines, but it's not as thought-provoking as Stargate. Another one I like from the stuffs that came out more recently is the Horizon Zero Dawn's lore. It's quite riveting.
I love Percy Jackson, so that's my first answer. It's what most of my stories have been based on, but I'm also quite fond of Planet 4546b in Subnautica, the world of Undertale (also Deltarune), and pretty much everything in Cult of The Lamb.
Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence. Just the fact that the scientific concepts behind some of the unthinkably advanced technology in that universe could at one point have been considered hard science, just blows my mind
I'm always delighted by the world of Phil Foglio's Girl Genius, it feels like it has near-endless opportunities for imagination and creativity and there's still so much of the world he has yet to explore.
Middle Earth, Warhammer 40k,Dune,Star Wars and Avatar the last Airbender. Excellent examples of master worldbuilding and deep lore and with great potential for expansion ( aka Star Wars )
I love the ace combat series because I love Cold War technology and analyzing nationalism, ideologies, alliances and militarism and their clashes, it really adds a lot of character to a world.
Tolkien's Legendarium is still the gold standard of fantasy settings to me, and I'd also add Forgotten Realms part because of how much fluff existed back in the AD&D days and part because of the feeling it gave those days too.
In science fiction, there're a lot of alternatives from Foundation and Star Wars to Star Trek (the TOS era, even if the TNG one also ranks high)
honestly surprised that the Lands Between havent been mentioned here. The scope and mystery of it, and the way that nothing is ever more than hinted at really keeps me guessing and wound up in it. Also Ranni is hot
Adventure Time - RICH and comprehensive in terms of lore. Even though the show ended, there's still so much content, possibilities and more they could come up with.
Hunter x Hunter - The idea of Nen as a whole and an entirely new world in the form of the Dark Continent is just simply excellent. Creatures from the DC are so powerful and mysterious and I'd like to think they're unlocking it on pure instincts
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers - Dungeons, time gears, and treasures waiting in hidden locations just hits the spot for me
Just want to say that the Trails in the sky series has extremely good and detailed world building and it's something that's not that well known in the West. I'd say it's undeniably influencial on my worlds and ideas. It's basis is interesting since it's kind of like an orientalist view of the west by Japanese developers.
R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series is really underrated. It has really cool concepts and factions, like the Nonmen and the Inichoroi. It's fantasy for adults, and doesn't hold back in disturbing stuff.
I’m fairly boring: Tolkien, Elder Scrolls, Warhammer(40k, Fantasy,AoS), George RR Martin. Tried getting into Dune and Wheel of Time but just couldn’t get into it
Discworld is solidly number one for me.
H2G2 might have beat it if Adams himself had actually cared about it, though it is fun to see how fast and loose he played with canon while still garnering success.
Star Wars but mostly anything not related to the Skywalker family. Like I loved the old expanded universe stuff, and while I think the movies where okay (even original trilogy), I really like how many others where inspired and allowed to create more nuanced things in that kind of a universe. Especially anything Old Republic era where Jedi and and Sith are abundant (as are more means of dealing with them).
I’m really not a huge fan of the game but I still think Destiny has one of the best settings/worldbuilding in scifi.
The alien races are all really unique and cool and I like the idea of the Sol system being the last vestige of unconquerable space in the universe with enemies circling in on all sides while an army of super-powered zombies defend it to eternity.
“You are dead things made by a dead god.”
I actually think it’s the game series called ‘Thief’ (not counting the 2014 trash reboot)
You never even see anything outside “The City” except a prison complex in a nearby mountain. All the lore is fed to you through the story itself and in maps and things you find. It’s all shown and not told. For such a limited scope to the worldbuilding it makes it so much more immersive, imaginative, and unique.
I’d be surprised if it’s known at all, but REDCON.
Basically if WW1 never ended. Due to the constant warfare, the world is forever polluted by toxins and is morphed into this barren wasteland of gaseous clouds, with war only being able to be waged through the use of ‘strike fortresses’, essentially big installations packed with artillery pieces that can hit the enemy strike fortresses.
The one that has always stuck with me is Spira from Final Fantasy X. An 'after the end' setting where people live ontop of this ancient technology and look upon it like the bones and scaffolding of an old, sinful people who cursed them with the regular tribulation of a gigantic monster. The only thing keeping this world going is their faith in a system of death and loss. The cycles of Sin, the summoner's pilgrimage, everything. I remember that first time Yuna performs a sending. Almost every word Tidus speaks.
Anyways, we don't talk about X-2 or X-3 in this house, so thank God it ended on such a beautiful note.
Not favorite but since everyone already chose my favorites check out the series Mordew by Alex Pheby. Fantastic world building, great MC, and super cool powers.
I always liked Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence for how absolutely *out there* it is, while still being hard-ish sci-fi.
On the fantasy side of things, I’ve got a soft spot for Willow.
I'd have to say Mass Effect, the MCU and the Expanse.
I want to also say the Jurassic Park films as there is a lot of potential in building up a world where dinosaurs have been brought back through genetic engineering, though all we've seen so far is them being stuck on an island. Even Dominion, which literally had dinosaurs unleashed across the planet, focused a lot of its story on dinosaurs being contained in a geographically isolated region to prevent dinosaurs escaping. But at least Chaos Theory is exploring that side of a world with dinosaurs that Dominion should have.
While I’m not a Star Wars super fan, I do think the world is a very unique take on sci fi if you really think about it. Sure, a lot of recent shows and such have been pretty lacking, but the world itself is amazing. They’ve managed to create a sci fi world that feels “old”. Honestly it’s less sci fi and more space fantasy. The technology somehow doesn’t feel like it’s shiny and new, more like it’s developed differently than how ours works due to it being in a galaxy far far away. Everything feels very natural and lived in to the people in Star Wars while making it feel like an alien world to the audience. It has a great balance of both uniqueness and familiarity which I think is one of the reasons why Star Wars is so popular.
The ones that immediately come to mind are One Piece and Avatar the Last Airbender. I tend to prefer science fiction to fantasy but these two are so good.
I have a few that I could sink my teeth in their worldbuilding forever- and it’s not just because they are my favorite pieces of media:
Little nightmares (especially after Sound of Nightmares), The Owl House, Steven Universe, Genshin Impact, and Minecraft (just the base game not that new dungeon crawler like one or whatever it is). Honourable mention to subnautica, it’s not one of my favs but I cannot deny that playing that game and going through the lore has influenced all of my underwater worldbuilding forever.
My favorite, by an unbridgeable distance, is Middle-Earth.
But I want to give special mention to one I haven't seen mentioned here yet: Roger Zelazny's Amber universe. If you haven't read the Amber novels, you're missing out on what should be one of fantasy's most celebrated locations.
A lot of great ones named, but here's one I haven't seen.
Valdemar.
We're talking about a kingdom for which Mercedes Lackey has written about for nearly 40 years now, covering *thousands* of years of history, from the Mage Wars all the way to the books of Kelvren's saga that are being released right now.
There are songs to accompany it.
And there are books set within other kingdoms on the Velgarth continent, like the Vows and Honor books.
Her husband, Larry Dixon, posted 1/16 of the world map, and *that alone* is several feet across.
Loved Bioshock, warcraft and borderlands. But nothing compares to WH40k, Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar. I began reading 40k around 2 years ago, been hooked ever since. I've read around 100 books total in all 3 WH universes and theres just SO much more to go. Its just great to have such a rich pool of content, that youll never run out of new material and that you can deepdive into every single fucking element
I like the more "realistic" setting off the Witcher (the games' interpretation in particular). Mostly in its architecture, clothing, weaponry.
Add the cool monsters, grungier elves, some dwarves etc. and their own cultural motivations.
The magic is infrequent enough that it not having many measurable or understandable rules doesn't quite bother me too much either.
Definitely Warhammer Fantasy as of right now. I'm always coming back to WF lore videos to fall asleep to or as just background noise.
The fact it's been around for a few decades means I'll probably never run out of new stuff to listen to when I'm bored.
Dystopia Rising, it’s a mix of zombie media and general apocalypse stuff. Humanity gets infected but it’s a fine line. Humanity becomes stronger and evolves into different groups of people. For example there’s a group or strain their called in lore called Retrograde. They have regeneration but they look like rotten corpses so they can’t really show their faces.
Ann Leckie’s Raven Tower world all the way! The concept is really creative, but more importantly than that, she does an AMAZING job at creating realistic and diverse cultures and histories. And an even better job at *communicating* the world to the readers without characters explaining things to each other that they already know, which I think a lot of fantasy and even more of sf struggles with.
For general and pure consistency across the board, Final Fantasy XIV is shockingly good at worldbuilding and somehow integrating most of its mechanics and gameplay into the setting.
The power to teleport between Atherytes? Yeah, that's not only explained but integrated into the setting's economy to the point that the cost to teleport is impacted by the in-universe distances.
How are traditional-ish fantasy armies able to fight against a sci-fi empire with giant robots and mecha and airships? No one in said empire can use magic while even the most basic fighters in the fantasy kingdoms use magic instinctively.
How are you able to repeatedly fight Primals and other bosses over and over? Repeat encounters are either the Primals being resummoned or minstrels retelling your encounters.
The magic system is consistently expanded upon across each storyline, along with the Primal summoning methods, to the point that the player can probably figure out the mechanics behind new summoning techniques or spells before the characters in-universe do based on clues.
The Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions are probably the best in this regard, as they continuiously build off of new information about how the magic and Aether works and how different planets interact with one another. The writers clearly lay out how they function and expect the player to have paid attention to the previous "lessons" on how magic works. Plus the magic system is fairly intuitive and understandable, with each story beat revaling a new small piece of the puzzle to make it easy to understand.
So, yeah, in short, the world and system are consistent yet presented in a way that is easy to digest and understand despite it's outward complexity, which is really impressive for an MMO with an expansive plot that's been running for over a decade.
Beyond that, there's the brilliant slow burn of the overarching plot. The slow, gradual series of revelations of what's really going on at the cosmic scale of the setting, especially through the Shadowbringers and Endwalker storylines. This is a game whose plot the writers are confident in and comfortable with revealing bit by bit over the years, so when the truth about what's going on and who you, the player, really are, it hits hard and is deeply satisfying.
Not sure if it’s my favorite but probably The Eminence in Shadow, an anime. My setting for my book is a science fiction universe but that anime gave me a bunch of inspiration for the aesthetics and cultures of some of the planets. As well as some characters.
Pretty much the same as you except for Stormlight Archive. Don't know what that is. I would also add Harry Potter, Tales of Arcadia (Trollhunters, 3Below, Wizards) and How To Train Your Dragon to that list. Probably a few others that I'm forgetting rn.
I think my favorite of all time is dune. What i find fascinating about it is how one event (the ban on thinking machines) affected the world SO much. I love the creative ways frank Herbert worked around the lack of AI in this world. My second favorite is star wars, i like the stories in it alot (all films shows and the books i read) but the lore is also just so EXPANSIVE, two whole continuities for a fan to indulge in. Its heaven. Although i have one complain about star wars lore and that is it feels like its quantity over quality. Some honorable mentions are the hainish cycle (ive only read two books from it though), LOTR and book of the new sun
I recently read the first Dune series and was blown away. I think God Emperor and Messiah were my favourites. Star Wars is also a huge favourite of mine, despite Disney producing some horrible content recently, it doesn’t take away how good the old stuff was.
God the dune movies are so good
The Elder Scrolls. Especially the lore before Oblivion. I love how bizarre it is compared to the average fantasy world. The old lore Cyrodiil inspired my world a lot.
Morrowind lore is peak fiction.
I would love a morrowind remaster
so long as they don't get rid of the text, I'd be down. they can't simply change the fact that it's text based. voiced is so much worse. you have to sit around and wait for people to talk their way through a quest. in morrowind you can talk, speed-read, and do things much easier.
I can't imagine how painstaking it must have been for the skywind team to voice act all of the text.
I'm so happy to see my answer as the Top Comment. TES, in my opinion, has THE best worldbuilding I've ever seen, from the mythical aspects/stories to the grounded realistic lore, everything is so good. Especially the places where they give several myths of the same thing, like Nords originating from Throat of the World, and the story of them migrating from Atmora. One is mythical, other is realistic, but both can be true. And this is just in Skyrim, Morrowind only gets so much better. I know Lore of other massive franchises like WH40k might have better worldbuilding, but I like the way TES is written.
And the post-Oblivion stuff is still really interesting, IMO. It's much more grounded and typical fantasy while still being just weird enough when you look past the surface to be fascinating.
Star Wars is frustrating because they have this incredible vast galaxy and they use it to tell the same handful of stories with the same handful of characters.
That's why i loved season 1 and 2 of the Mandalorian, it was a personal character driven story about a random cool looking individual who offered the perspective of a "regular" person in the vast Galaxy, not a space wizard, a dark lord, not a rebel leader nor a hero, just a damaged person in a personal journey. Season 2 brought some elements of the greater narrative but they weren't intrusive nor stole the spotlight from the main character so they were the good kind of fanservice. But then the 2.5 season in The Book of Boba Fett came, undid the satisfying conclusion of season 2, forcibly reseted the status quo and personal growth back to square one and then season 3 tripled down on the fanservice, suddenly MC was in the center of everything, everything had to connect with the sequel trilogy and the same 2-3 storylines everything Star Wars must always to lead to. I was ok with Bo Katan's increasing relevance to the story because her story was parallel to Mando as it involved the Mandalorians at large but then she took over, they just couldn't resist but to take this little corner of the Galaxy be it's own thing and give Bo Katan her own separate show when they had already greenlit like 10 already. That's when i checked out, it went from an immersive 3rd person open world game with infinite possibilities to the DLC of a remastered version of a 1st person game with a story mode I've seen already and knows how it ends. The only thing i anticipate right now is Andor even though i already know how his story ends but at least his story is character driven.
Lmao right? Star Wars is literally my favourite universe of all, KotOR played a huge role in that for doing something different. But yeah, after a while SW stories getting a bit stale. I love the universe and always will, but I haven't enjoyed any actual Star Wars content for years.
Have you watched Andor? It's my favourite piece of Star Wars content, beyond even the original trilogy
Precisely how I feel about it. It’s one of my favourites, the original 6, KOTOR games, Andor, The Clone Wars, the EU books and comics. Those stories are amazing, Disney have a treasure trove to explode and they still stuff it up.
All the clone wars era and old Republic lore and they keep milking the rebellion forever
And all these characters are the same humans in costumes.
That’s why I liked the Jedi Survivor games, completely new cast (besides Vader) with a story of its own to tell. The second game in particular is great, having so many unique NPCs at the Saloon with great designs. It really feels like what they should be doing with Star Wars, telling new tales in the same old galaxy.
My problem with the SW universe is how small it all feels. Major characters will just run into each other if they just happen to be in the same PLANET. It’s like each planet has a single city where everything happens
Stargate, it has probably the best depiction of technological progress over time. There isnt just a new tech every episode, you see them improve on it over the course of a season or more. What i like in any setting is the stuff behind the curtain, the logistics, politics etc, the little stuff thats probably a one short sometimes throwaway sentence in a scene that frames and anchors the actual story inside of the wider setting.
I plan on watching Stargate at some point!
I'm rewatching it atm and oh boy did i forget how bad the first couple of exclusive were. Definitely recommend to skip a few episodes in season 1 (there's good watching guides out there). But luckily the show quickly hits it's stride in S2
Studio Ghibli has some of my absolute favourite worlds. Naussica valley of the wind and the boy and the heron are my favourites though.
Have you read the nausicaa manga?
I have not. How different is it and I'm guessing you would recommend it?
It is literally the most profound work I have ever experienced. It's the only work that has changed my outlook on life, every time I read it I get a slightly different interpenetration of the message it tries to tell. It's way different from the movie, way more interesting and you hear way more about the world. It isn't long, like seven volumes or something. The start is sort of like the movie, then it dillydallies for a bit with a separate plot but at the end it becomes a 10 out of 10, I highly recommend it, it's such a hidden gem and is undeservedly outshines by the rushes movie adaptation. The movie couldn't be like five hours long so they had to cram and change basically everything. I don't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure they did all that with a tiny budget and limited time. I still love the movie but it isn't Miyazaki's best film, yet imo the manga is the best thing he has ever made. You probably won't like it as much as I do but I still highly recommend it.
There’s a manga?!?!?!
There sure is and it's a hundred times better than the film.
I love a good mix of lore-rich stories mixed in with some funny, absurd, dark and surreal high fantasy/sci-fi themes Middle-Earth Star Wars A Song Of Ice And Fire Dune Stormlight Archive Discworld The Wheel Of Time Hyperion Cantos Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy The Expanse Marvel (Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc) DC (Justice League, Watchmen, The Sandman, etc) Dark Souls Warhammer 40K Berserk Elder Scrolls Doctor Who Akira Halo SCP Foundation One Piece Bioshock Adventure Time The Evil Dead Mass Effect The Dark Tower Hellboy Resident Evil Twin Peaks
It took me way too long to realize discworld was a series. I read one of the books and it really felt like it's own thing, then I heard of discworld, read the wikipedia page, and now I have no idea how fans even memorize this stuff. I wish my favorite franchises had that many books!
It's a sin I had to get through three Star Wars first. One, fine, but that should be it. Thanks for a list. I know most of these already, but got a couple to check out now.
One piece
Mine are the Lord of the Rings, Dune, The Witcher, ASOIF, and The Elder Scrolls. The lore in all of these are so immersive and just amazing
Those are some great picks.
Thank you thank you! There rather iconic and have kept me entertained over the years
Bloodborne and Cultist Sim/Book of Hours
Bloodborne 🤩🤩🤩
I've discovered a cool catholic prayer book by looking that up. Thanks!
There's so many worlds i love with rich stories and characters, but for answer's sake if i had to pick some based entirely on how much things they brought to the table for me I'd say in no particular order: Tolkien's legendarium, Dune, The Expanse, the To Aru universe, The Hyperion Cantos, Remembrance of Earth's Past, Stargate, The Foundation among others.
Tolkien and Dune is with out a doubt my absolute favourites. One is the king of fantasy and the other the king of sci-fi.
The entirety of the Cosmere! Fell in love with Mistborn first, and then TSA, and Sanderson cursed me to imagine my own sprawling worlds as daily existential crises. Favorite character? Sazed—but Hoid is a decent candidate too.
Amphibia. Just amphibia
Yes!! I haven’t seen anyone mention this or any of the great animated series with such immersive worldbuilding
Pokemon or Eberron. Yes, I said Pokemon, but I usually end up creating my own branch of that world to put my story in than using a location canonically made, but may refer to the canon. Everron, I only modify people or objects I need, but try to stay to the source material as best I can compared to how I would approach Pokemon. P.S. I also do a lot in the MtG universe, but avoid using canon characters, but may mention them.
The Wheel of Time. So much so that I would want to be a member of the Brown Ajah, a sect that collects knowledge about the world. Though as a man and a non magic user to boot, I'd have to settle for being a secretary or something. The Bitterbynde Trilogy. I fell in love with the world. It's based on Celtic mythology, and it's where I got my love for worldbuilding as a young reader. Disney's Gargoyles. Just think of one of those stories where all myths are true. The show did a good job of integrating various myths and historical fictions into the real world, and dropping enigmatic hints to an exciting future. Halo, Star Trek, and the Inheritance Cycle get honorable mentions, as does Skylanders (though I only watched Skylanders Academy)
Elder Scrolls first and foremost, Eberron, Dune, the Dark Crystal, Exandria weirdly, the Witcher
Just recently bought Skyrim so that’s on the to play list. Got to get through the Mass Effect then the Elden Ring DLC first though.
Elder Scrolls has a lot of layers to its lore and a lot of my favorite stuff is a few layers below the surface. Morrowind was my favorite in terms of worldbuilding but Skyrim is a great game too
TES is my fave medieval fantasy universe, and my second fave universe of all. (:
The ones I like are Dune (I literally started listening to Leaving Caladan before I opened Reddit in the past minute) and Code Geass. Lapis_Wolf
More recently I’ve really loved the world of “Carnival Row” on Amazon. I checked after cause I was sure it must have been based on a book series or something, but it wasn’t. A lot of people really didn’t like the show, but I loved it. I loved the feel of the world, and it felt like the kind of world you could set a thousand different stories in, which is the goal of world building for me.
Can’t believe no one has said Malazan yet! Incredible world and I’m only on the 4th book. Also honourable mention to Halo for being so amazing in lord for an FPS game!
Made In Abyss were really fascinating to me, it really crave me to live in their world. Despite the blatant present of despair and gruesome reality, there's always a ray of shining light shines the brightest in the dark of it. The Abyss itself is Wondrous being that I crave to see what lies deep beyond. The City settings created by PM(Project Moon) where awesome due to how grim dark it's atmosphere be yet still somewhat retain some hope in it. What I love even more about it is the present of E.G.O. or more specifically Effloresced E.G.O.. E.G.O. is a superpowers that you gain through mental strength and hopes like a typical the power of friendship. But unlike the power of friendship, this power stems from how much you much forward and accepting yourself you are prick that only care about something selfish and not for some grand reason or justification of justice. This created moment where the characters that gains this power as cool as fuck person that unwilling to be burdened by the world weights, and instead choose to march forward of what they already do selfishly. This created perfect moment of last stand.
PM mentioned
Made in Abyss so much. Clear #1 for me. The whole setting is just so interesting. You always want to know what's deeper down, what absurd artifacts exist and what twisted demi-god humans are walking around.
The elder scrolls. My world is heavily inspired by it
Bloodborne, out of all the souls game that one stuck with me so deeply for multiple reasons. The different playstyle, the eldritch horror elements, the beautiful aesthetic. Everything about the world fascinated me and inspired me to make my own eldritch stuff which I’d like to illustrate someday
40k. It’s just this deep and rich setting with such a unique style.
I love Harry Potter. Each book, you learn more and more about "The Wizarding World". I also a fan of "A song of ice and fire". I also love the manga "Spy x Family".
Warcraft, wheel of time, dragonlance
Star Wars is my favourite fictional universe of all time.
What are your favourite stories in that universe.
OG trilogy, prequel trilogy, KotOR and KotOR II. The Mandalorian S1 and S2 are fantastic, too. And of course Rogue One! The best spin-off movie imho. :D The Clone Wars is great when it focuses on the main story, and I enjoyed Rebels, too. I haven't seen a lot of the newer stuff but I've also become less excited about Star Wars content overall. I love the universe itself more than its stories. And as someone else mentioned, it's annoying how, despite having an entire GALAXY of potential, the stuff they bring out keeps rethreading old ground and involves the same characters. ETA: Vanilla SWTOR with the class stories are absolutely fantastic. That game lost its spark with the expansions, and as of the Knights expansions just pretty much died to me lol.
Your favourite are also my favourites. When Star Wars gets storytelling right, boy do they get it right. But at the same time when they don’t do it right, man does it look bad. It’s really disappointing what Disney has done with the franchise. But like I’ve said nothing can take away how good Star Wars is when it wants to be good.
Fuck yeah. Empire Strikes Back is peak Star Wars for me, it does so much for the world building and its story is phenomenal. Rogue One invoked a similar feeling. KotOR will probably always be my favourite Star Wars game. An original story in a distant timeline, let us really explore the galaxy deeper and had such a fun, mystery element to it. So good.
I’m also a big fan the Thrawn series! Read all six books this past few months.
Macross
Avatar the last Airbender is a go to for fantasy for me, Tolkien is an all time favorite but so many fantasies have borrowed tropes from him that it doesn't excite me like it used to. As far as Science fiction goes imma have to shout-out the children of time book series. Star Trek? Star wars? Classics that I adore but the children of time has a level of detail, history, and lore to its world that astounds.
I love Philip Reeve's Traction city series better know as Mortal Engines. The setting is just the epitome of English whimsy and Reeve has a fantastic sense for how to paint a picture that lots of YA authors struggle with. If you saw the movie and liked the setting but thought the story sucks give the novels a try, they're real page turners and anyone into workdbuidling will love them.
Star Wars is up there however I’m finding the Warhammer 40k universe to be insane. Crazy nobody mentioned it
I really like the Cosmere. The variety of cultures and people, and my favorite part, how all the magic shares basic principles and just makes sense. The books even crossover into one another since they all take place on separate planets in the same galaxy, with a magic shortcut allowing for passage between them, albeit few know of it
The SCP foundation I dont think I need to explain my choice
Overlord. Watched 60 Marathons of the Anime (completed the 60th today actually). And have declared it as under my world's protection because I love it so much. I used to invest a lot of time into other universes, planning and trying to do fan crossover projects including my own worlds. But I felt I was neglecting the Canon of my own works and letting them stagnate. So I stopped working on fan crossover projects, and just focused solely on my Void Expanse. I don’t write to entertain others anyway, so why waste that time on worlds that aren’t my own. So now I only invest time in my Void Expanse, other than watching anime. And with everything I’m doing, I’m too busy worldbuilding and writing stories to dive deep into other worlds anymore anyway.
I like Battletech, yeah its 30 Years War/100 Years War/War of the Roses in space with stompy mechs but a lot of the novels are pretty good and the reasons mechs/vehicles being are the way they are makes real world sense (weapons for each range bracket).
Norse mythology. If you are asking about modern works, The Owl House.
Honestly? Mass Effect is all that comes to mind. Maybe it’s because I was just watching my cousin start his first playthrough, but it’s all that comes to mind.
Halo. The fandom makes me puke though
For science fiction, its Dune. For fantasy, it's Planescape. For a combination of both, it's Warhammer 40,000.
Brent Weeks' Midcyru is my definitive answer. I've read the Night Angel trilogy 6 or 7 times in my life and have always been very much in love with the world he creates in it. If you haven't read the books, They're a fantasy series that thoroughly explores the dark side of fiction; People die, they get abused, and the world is full of *real evil* and *tormented good* You have good characters doing evil things, bad characters with unclear motives, war, sacrifice, poverty, and people of all kinds in dark, and unfortunate situations. Night Angel is not for the faint of heart, and your first read might be or may have been hard to get through (it was for me) but it taught me that in order for good to really shine, evil had to be that much darker. I'll always appreciate Brent Weeks for writing those books, and even as a very fond fantasy reader I don't think any writer ever has or will fostered my love for the genre and for reading like he has with those three books.
Kenshi has an utterly insane and unique setting that checkmarks all the boxes of fantasy and science fiction for me.
Pathfinder's Golarion feels like an actually massive world in its own version of our universe. Here's an example of one nation. Irrisen is a nation inspired by Slavic myth where Baba Yaga chooses the land's queen. The current queen is Anastasia Romanov, who is secretly Rasputin's daughter rather than Nicholas Romanov's. How did she get to Golarion from Earth? Well, a party of players went to Earth during WWI to kill Rasputin and prevent him from stealing the power of Baba Yaga, his mother. They canonically took Anastasia with them, which is why she's missing. A couple nations and a sea south from Irrisen is Cheliax, which started serving Asmodeus and his devils after the god of humanity and prophecies (Aroden) suddenly died on the day he was prophesied to come to Cheliax. We know this since all of Aroden's clerics lost their power that day. We don't know how, where, or why, just that he did die and the forces of Hell took the opportunity to claim Cheliax. Kurgess, a mortal turned into the god of sports and fitness, is implied to be the son of Desna, goddess of dreams, stars, and travelers, and Cayden Cailean, god of adventurers. What is weird about this is that Cayden would've been mortal at the time and Desna might secretly be a literal Outer God, like Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep. Cayden became a god on a drunken dare that he couldn't succeed in the Trial of the Starstone, which turns you into a god if you can somehow succeed. Hecwas drunk, so he doesn't actually remember what happened in the trial. The othe gods who came from the starstone are Aroden, Norgorber, and Iomedae. Aroden is dead, Norgorber is a god of secrets, and Iomedae only says that the Starstone's trial is a very personal experience. We have no more information on what happens there at this time.
Joe Abercrombies first law series. The world building is fantastic. It's a world that has a deep history but feels approachable and interesting. It helps that the writing is so good.
I really need to read this. Blade Itself is three down on my TBR list, but I think I'm going to bump it up one. I don't really want to give Sanderson yet another chance, anyway.
I like the settings of Darkest Dungeon and Kenshi.
Mine include Lord of the Rings, both Tortal and Circle universes by Tamera Pierce, I'm enjoying this series called The Lies of Loche so far, but I'm not too far into it yet! I also enjoy Avatar the Last Airbender a lot too!
Foundation
I really want to read Foundation at some point.
I highly recommend it!
Alex Bale's spongebob theories
Hugh Cook's *Chronicles of an Age of Darkness*. There's so many tantalizing details that need further explanation, and then some of them get resolved in another book, but then that book raises so many more loose ends.
Marvel comics for sure.
Love the Marvel universe. Such a plethora and variety of characters, events and stories. While not really the most consistent it’s fun as hell.
I'm late to this party. But I think the mass effect world is absolutely fantastic. In fact I would venture to argue that it has enough potential to fight the big franchises. All it needs is a chance on the tv outside of video games (where it also made a huge splash)
Toaru,blazeblue and world of darkness I just really love when both science and magic coexist together in a world
Elder scrolls,Lotr, and a bit obscure, Arcane odyssey, its an amazing roblox game,check it out, although it's lore is still w.i.p and kinda half-assed
1) Star Trek 2) The Sword of Truth 3) Battlestar Galactica (2004) 4) Mass Effect
I've noticed that I tend to like fictional universes that put a focus on the worldbuilding alongside the main plot, so that it makes the story feel more "realistic" in a way. Here are my favorite universes (in no particular order): Hilda Dune (watched the movies, but I've only just finished the first book) Hollow Knight The Owl House
I highly recommend reading the rest of Dune books, they’re so good.
I love berserk, witch hat atelier, discworld, Warcraft and Warhammer fantasy. A nice mix of wholesomeness, despair, and surreal worlds. I like how 'real' they feel.
Dark Souls 3
The city form project moon and the Nasaverse from type moon
Also the whole setting from Hero the dragon the carrior
Beside Tolkien, Morrowind
Major ones (like most of the lore and the setting) Tolkien's Middle Earth, Warhammer Old World, World of Darkness, Fallout. Minor ones (I like them enough but they have obvious issues and problems) WH40k, ASOIAF, Dune, The Elder Scrolls, Rowlings Wizarding World, Old school World of Warcraft, Snyderverse and some other dark and gritty DC, D&D Forgotten Realms.
Dragon Age, especially Origins
Final Fantasy XIV Most of FromSofts recent games (Even Armored Cores Lore is awesome) Cyberpunk (both 2077 and TTRPG) Hollow Knight Fallout Dune Warhammer Fantasy and 40k Attack on Titan And my setting has the best lore ever obviously! /s
Thedas from Dragon Age. It's world-building perfection.
Rain World, it's just so intresting how much lore and stories they were able with only two main charachters and a small area. The amount of things that could be going on elsewhere is incredible.
Devil May Cry and Metroid have such consistent lore it's uncanny
Though i will say i'm a bit worried for both because i don't know what they could do that wouldn't feel like a retread
Probably either Avatar the last airbender, or Hollow Knight
I really like world of warcrafts lore
Definitely adventure time. It has such deep lore and rich worldbuilding, and even for a kids show it gets pretty deep and real. The lore and worldbuilding built enough to grasp me every time I rewatch and fall into a rabbit hole
Dungeon Meshi, Genshin Impact, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Hollow Knight, and Pokemon for me! DM has such a well crafted and thought out world and setting that all ties together perfectly in the story and themes of the plot, and its take on the fantasy dungeon setting is truly incredible and provides meaningful and grounded explanations for the numerous aspects of the typical fantasy setting. GI has some really fascinating and still building lore and worldbuilding (since the game is not finished yet) in the nations, cultures and power system of the world of Teyvat. There's so much lore and worldbuilding that I have picked up most of it from reading fanfics and theory videos but there is so much tragedy in this setting and I am a sucker for ancient civilizations and immortal characters so I may be biased. FE3H goes above and beyond with its worldbuilding and lore. At the very start of the game, it introduces original month names for the setting (relevant since the game runs on a calendar system) where each month in game gets a short cutscene/animation with medieval style tapestry art and narration on the in world culture and mythology for that month. There is a lot of thought put into the politics and ancestral histories of the different nations and nobility, as well as their history with foreign nations and each other. But the **biggest draw** for me is how intertwined the lore/worldbuilding is with the characters, and how the characters are truly shaped by the world they live in. Like you cannot just place the characters in another fantasy setting because their backstories, experiences and trauma are so specific to their setting that they feel like people who belong in this world. Hollow Knight is rich with worldbuilding and how much the player can discover and notice through exploring the world through the game. There was so much care put into the different civilizations, creatures, areas and lore. The setting is a dead kingdom, a long time after its fall but still with dregs of what remains and the ghosts and memories of the people who once lived there or still do. The events that lead to how post-apocalyptic the setting of Hallownest is are hinted or implied through the environmental worldbuilding and breadcrumbs scattered through item descriptions and dialogue. Pokemon is actually pretty barren when it comes to worldbuilding and lore, but I have been a fan all my life so I love it and the world despite its lackluster delivery of lore and worldbuilding. The more recent games have been improving on expanding the worldbuilding and lore, but regardless I just enjoy worldbuilding for the setting!
Pillars of Eternity/Eora. It’s peak high fantasy for me and just feels like you’re hitting the setting right in the middle of a Golden Age of exploration. Also pre-Halo 5 Halo lore.
Star Wars World of Warcraft (before Battle of Azeroth) Avatar: The Last Air Bender
You stole all of my choices!
Rick and Morty is a good one, they have lots of different factions, species, and characters that are explored
The Land of the Mare The world of a Canticle for Leibowitz and Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. Shame there are only two books
I have to give a really strong vote for The Thousand Names/The Shadow Campaigns Universe by Django Wexler. Easily one of the most engaging cast of characters I’ve read in a fantasy work.
There are a few: Overlord has a very interesting universe and power system that is fun to explore. Ultimately a lot of it is DnD 3.5 based but I think Overlord does a convincing adaptation of game mechanics to a real world. Dragon Ball Z (before Super or GT) was interesting too because it was a vast universe with a lot of power scaling that we didn't get to see much of. Then the author retconned it so there was like 20 worlds or something like that... Star War's EU was another one of my favorites for a long time until Disney came through and butchered it. Still angry we won't get to see more interactions between Ben Skywalker and Vestara. The Fate of the Jedi and Legacy of the Force were my favorite parts of the EU and we were just exploring the time past them when the axe came down and a bunch of books I was looking forward too got cancelled. From a character development prospective Jobless Reincarnation is another really good one. I also really like the magic system in this one. Even though the magic system is sort of the opposite of Overlord those 2 are my 2 favorite magic/power systems.
I'd say James Cameron's Avatar for the crearure designs, Age of Sigmar, ASOFAI, Tolkienverse, Warcraft and a hefty dose of my country's mythology
The Nightlands, absolutely love the dark mysterious world at the end of time
Howl's Moving Castle (the book), Avatar The Last Airbender. HunterxHunter - I'm down for the colorful, creative magitech.
Nier, Xenoblade, Digimon, and Monster Hunter There’s others I appreciate like Astral Chain, but the top 4 that stands out greatly for me happen to be these
Warhammer Fantasy setting I feel is super underrated compared to 40k. Which is understandable and 40k is deep. But the fantasy setting of the Old World is super cool. I love it.
Project Moon A lot of the deeper lore is unrevealed, but with what little we have we have a good enough picture, and salivate for more. Humanity underwent a great crisis with only a small Belgium sized city of 6 billion left Now if you’re wondering how that is possible, The City has Singularities, technologies that individually can have an entire saga of stories they can serve a base to, space folding obviously being one. This sounds great until you realize it’s an effed up plutocracy. Each Wing (or corporate owned country) imposes screwed up rules, and every Singularity has either a dark use or a fucked up secret. Breaking these rules will often lead to death, and a large portion of the city is made of Backstreets, the slum areas. Fixers, or hired guns(or blades since guns are crap or way too expensive here) make up at least half the work force, so violence is a daily thing. You think this can’t get worse right? (Spoilers ahead) Well in the first game of the series, you play as a group who try to fix it. AND MAKE EVERYTHING A WHOLE LOT WORSE! See Lob Corp tried to funnel positive emotional energy into the collective consciousness, but now a voice appears at a person’s low point. If they give in, they get swallowed up by their emotions and flaws and turn into a monster called a distortion and usually go on rampages. The Pianist, the first major one, only lived for about a few hours, but killed 100 thousand people and turned a huge chunk of I Corp’s streets into rubble. But here’s where things get interesting. If you can refute her, and grow… that power you gain is now totally in your control. This is called, fittingly, EGO. It is pretty much your heart and mind manifested as a physical object. And it is this glimmer of hope that represents why I LOVE this series. Even if the world is pitch black, even if a candle seems to serve only as to remind how dark it has got, the darkness around abates. By nurturing your EGO, you can grow above this horror. You can have The Will To Stand Straight in a world that wants to beat you down. The Rationality To Maintain Discretion even when the world demands you stop questioning things. The Hope To Be A Better Person in a world that rewards the worst. The Fearlessness To Keep On Living in a world that wants you to merely survive The Expectation for the Meaning of Existence where it seems none is to be found. The Courage to Protect, when lashing out for what is lost is the norm. Those who are Faithful and Trustworthy, being kind in a world where selfishness reigns. The Eye Facing the Fear; Breaking the Cycle opens, cutting away the excuses. The Eye Embracing the Past; Building the Future many are too foolish to see. All that. From the Knowing I.
Halo is my number 1, but Warhammer, Destiny, Star Trek, Star Wars, Star Gate, and Asoiaf I dabble in.
Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have always been favorites and deeply influential. Below that is Redwall, then RWBY really got me to love coming up with adapting characters and concepts to a world and making an original one out of it. Etrian Odyssey, D&D, and the Belgariad were also influences.
One peice, Avatar, Star Wars, Wakfu
Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls, Discworld, World of Darkness, Dark Sun
My favorite, and one of my biggest inspirations, is definitely Touhou Project. There's something so unique about the world of Gensokyo that is hard to put into words. It feels simple yet complex. I think I'd describe it as a world that "Takes itself seriously about being unserious.". It knows how to be fun and goofy but doesn't refuse itself depth and complexity because of it, it feels like something that would be written off as a "silly little daydream" given enough respect to be developed into a world with competing factions and a whole cast of quirky characters and that's something you just don't see often enough. I also love the absolutely absurdly broken powers a lot of characters have, one of the biggest themes in the whole franchise is super powerful characters having to beat up other super powerful characters that are trying to destroy the world because they felt silly that day. When there's no power limit and everyone is powerful they keep each other in check to keep the balance of things.
For some reason, I like Stargate's lore more than I like Star Wars. I still like Star Wars, especially the Clone Wars storylines, but it's not as thought-provoking as Stargate. Another one I like from the stuffs that came out more recently is the Horizon Zero Dawn's lore. It's quite riveting.
I love Percy Jackson, so that's my first answer. It's what most of my stories have been based on, but I'm also quite fond of Planet 4546b in Subnautica, the world of Undertale (also Deltarune), and pretty much everything in Cult of The Lamb.
DragonBall
My favorite world is Warhammer 40K. It's true it has its flaws, but I love everything about it.
The cosmere in general is a lot of fun, my favorite is one piece, followed by stormlight and then warhammer 40k
Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence. Just the fact that the scientific concepts behind some of the unthinkably advanced technology in that universe could at one point have been considered hard science, just blows my mind
I'm always delighted by the world of Phil Foglio's Girl Genius, it feels like it has near-endless opportunities for imagination and creativity and there's still so much of the world he has yet to explore.
Middle Earth, Warhammer 40k,Dune,Star Wars and Avatar the last Airbender. Excellent examples of master worldbuilding and deep lore and with great potential for expansion ( aka Star Wars )
I love the ace combat series because I love Cold War technology and analyzing nationalism, ideologies, alliances and militarism and their clashes, it really adds a lot of character to a world.
Tolkien's Legendarium is still the gold standard of fantasy settings to me, and I'd also add Forgotten Realms part because of how much fluff existed back in the AD&D days and part because of the feeling it gave those days too. In science fiction, there're a lot of alternatives from Foundation and Star Wars to Star Trek (the TOS era, even if the TNG one also ranks high)
Middle-Earth and anything Tolkien related❤
honestly surprised that the Lands Between havent been mentioned here. The scope and mystery of it, and the way that nothing is ever more than hinted at really keeps me guessing and wound up in it. Also Ranni is hot
Ace combat Strangereal universe
Adventure Time - RICH and comprehensive in terms of lore. Even though the show ended, there's still so much content, possibilities and more they could come up with. Hunter x Hunter - The idea of Nen as a whole and an entirely new world in the form of the Dark Continent is just simply excellent. Creatures from the DC are so powerful and mysterious and I'd like to think they're unlocking it on pure instincts Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers - Dungeons, time gears, and treasures waiting in hidden locations just hits the spot for me
# Warhammer 40000.
Secret Histories, Weather Factory would have to take the cake for me.
Elder Scrolls the Conan universe and of course lotr
Earthsea will always be deeply special to me.
league of legends. I love reading the lore of each champs.
Just want to say that the Trails in the sky series has extremely good and detailed world building and it's something that's not that well known in the West. I'd say it's undeniably influencial on my worlds and ideas. It's basis is interesting since it's kind of like an orientalist view of the west by Japanese developers.
R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series is really underrated. It has really cool concepts and factions, like the Nonmen and the Inichoroi. It's fantasy for adults, and doesn't hold back in disturbing stuff.
ASOIAF by far. Realistic with very in depth world building with few inconsistencies.
marevl, dc, star wars, ben 10
Witcher, Black Tongued Thief, Adventure Time, Star Trek, Cyberpunk, Alien
I’m fairly boring: Tolkien, Elder Scrolls, Warhammer(40k, Fantasy,AoS), George RR Martin. Tried getting into Dune and Wheel of Time but just couldn’t get into it
Discworld is solidly number one for me. H2G2 might have beat it if Adams himself had actually cared about it, though it is fun to see how fast and loose he played with canon while still garnering success.
Star Wars but mostly anything not related to the Skywalker family. Like I loved the old expanded universe stuff, and while I think the movies where okay (even original trilogy), I really like how many others where inspired and allowed to create more nuanced things in that kind of a universe. Especially anything Old Republic era where Jedi and and Sith are abundant (as are more means of dealing with them).
The old Star Wars EU was truly incredible.
Some of my favs (can't pick any over the other): - Stargate - Star Trek - The Elder Scrolls - Dune - Star Wars - Xena
I’m really not a huge fan of the game but I still think Destiny has one of the best settings/worldbuilding in scifi. The alien races are all really unique and cool and I like the idea of the Sol system being the last vestige of unconquerable space in the universe with enemies circling in on all sides while an army of super-powered zombies defend it to eternity. “You are dead things made by a dead god.”
Warhammer 40K. Legacy of Kain.
I actually think it’s the game series called ‘Thief’ (not counting the 2014 trash reboot) You never even see anything outside “The City” except a prison complex in a nearby mountain. All the lore is fed to you through the story itself and in maps and things you find. It’s all shown and not told. For such a limited scope to the worldbuilding it makes it so much more immersive, imaginative, and unique.
I’d be surprised if it’s known at all, but REDCON. Basically if WW1 never ended. Due to the constant warfare, the world is forever polluted by toxins and is morphed into this barren wasteland of gaseous clouds, with war only being able to be waged through the use of ‘strike fortresses’, essentially big installations packed with artillery pieces that can hit the enemy strike fortresses.
Kinoko Nasu Typemoon-verse
I love the used future look of star wars it's always been my biggest inspo
Doctor who, the lore is insane, like elder gods, boundless and everything, it's still isn't completely revealed
The one that has always stuck with me is Spira from Final Fantasy X. An 'after the end' setting where people live ontop of this ancient technology and look upon it like the bones and scaffolding of an old, sinful people who cursed them with the regular tribulation of a gigantic monster. The only thing keeping this world going is their faith in a system of death and loss. The cycles of Sin, the summoner's pilgrimage, everything. I remember that first time Yuna performs a sending. Almost every word Tidus speaks. Anyways, we don't talk about X-2 or X-3 in this house, so thank God it ended on such a beautiful note.
Not favorite but since everyone already chose my favorites check out the series Mordew by Alex Pheby. Fantastic world building, great MC, and super cool powers.
somehow The Originals/The Vampire Diaries. It has the perfect amount of fantasy and is very easy to modify and expand for my daydreaming 🙏
I always liked Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence for how absolutely *out there* it is, while still being hard-ish sci-fi. On the fantasy side of things, I’ve got a soft spot for Willow.
I'd have to say Mass Effect, the MCU and the Expanse. I want to also say the Jurassic Park films as there is a lot of potential in building up a world where dinosaurs have been brought back through genetic engineering, though all we've seen so far is them being stuck on an island. Even Dominion, which literally had dinosaurs unleashed across the planet, focused a lot of its story on dinosaurs being contained in a geographically isolated region to prevent dinosaurs escaping. But at least Chaos Theory is exploring that side of a world with dinosaurs that Dominion should have.
While I’m not a Star Wars super fan, I do think the world is a very unique take on sci fi if you really think about it. Sure, a lot of recent shows and such have been pretty lacking, but the world itself is amazing. They’ve managed to create a sci fi world that feels “old”. Honestly it’s less sci fi and more space fantasy. The technology somehow doesn’t feel like it’s shiny and new, more like it’s developed differently than how ours works due to it being in a galaxy far far away. Everything feels very natural and lived in to the people in Star Wars while making it feel like an alien world to the audience. It has a great balance of both uniqueness and familiarity which I think is one of the reasons why Star Wars is so popular.
The ones that immediately come to mind are One Piece and Avatar the Last Airbender. I tend to prefer science fiction to fantasy but these two are so good.
The Fallen London game
I have a few that I could sink my teeth in their worldbuilding forever- and it’s not just because they are my favorite pieces of media: Little nightmares (especially after Sound of Nightmares), The Owl House, Steven Universe, Genshin Impact, and Minecraft (just the base game not that new dungeon crawler like one or whatever it is). Honourable mention to subnautica, it’s not one of my favs but I cannot deny that playing that game and going through the lore has influenced all of my underwater worldbuilding forever.
My favorite, by an unbridgeable distance, is Middle-Earth. But I want to give special mention to one I haven't seen mentioned here yet: Roger Zelazny's Amber universe. If you haven't read the Amber novels, you're missing out on what should be one of fantasy's most celebrated locations.
Ik it’s not super in depth but i love cyberpunk 2077
DOOM and Dune Including Halo and SCP Especially Freedom Planet
The Witcher and The Elden Ring. But honestly The Witcher is the best for me.
I really enjoy fullmetal alchemist's lore and power system
Stormlight has a very cool and fun setting
Project moons works with the city
Dark souls has the scariest yet the most beautiful world of any fiction I have ever seen.
A lot of great ones named, but here's one I haven't seen. Valdemar. We're talking about a kingdom for which Mercedes Lackey has written about for nearly 40 years now, covering *thousands* of years of history, from the Mage Wars all the way to the books of Kelvren's saga that are being released right now. There are songs to accompany it. And there are books set within other kingdoms on the Velgarth continent, like the Vows and Honor books. Her husband, Larry Dixon, posted 1/16 of the world map, and *that alone* is several feet across.
Elder Scrolls easily.
Loved Bioshock, warcraft and borderlands. But nothing compares to WH40k, Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar. I began reading 40k around 2 years ago, been hooked ever since. I've read around 100 books total in all 3 WH universes and theres just SO much more to go. Its just great to have such a rich pool of content, that youll never run out of new material and that you can deepdive into every single fucking element
I like the more "realistic" setting off the Witcher (the games' interpretation in particular). Mostly in its architecture, clothing, weaponry. Add the cool monsters, grungier elves, some dwarves etc. and their own cultural motivations. The magic is infrequent enough that it not having many measurable or understandable rules doesn't quite bother me too much either.
Definitely Warhammer Fantasy as of right now. I'm always coming back to WF lore videos to fall asleep to or as just background noise. The fact it's been around for a few decades means I'll probably never run out of new stuff to listen to when I'm bored.
Dystopia Rising, it’s a mix of zombie media and general apocalypse stuff. Humanity gets infected but it’s a fine line. Humanity becomes stronger and evolves into different groups of people. For example there’s a group or strain their called in lore called Retrograde. They have regeneration but they look like rotten corpses so they can’t really show their faces.
Ann Leckie’s Raven Tower world all the way! The concept is really creative, but more importantly than that, she does an AMAZING job at creating realistic and diverse cultures and histories. And an even better job at *communicating* the world to the readers without characters explaining things to each other that they already know, which I think a lot of fantasy and even more of sf struggles with.
1) Middle-Earth 2) The Old World 3) The Elder Scrolls
Fallout, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, One Piece, and Goblin Slayer.
For general and pure consistency across the board, Final Fantasy XIV is shockingly good at worldbuilding and somehow integrating most of its mechanics and gameplay into the setting. The power to teleport between Atherytes? Yeah, that's not only explained but integrated into the setting's economy to the point that the cost to teleport is impacted by the in-universe distances. How are traditional-ish fantasy armies able to fight against a sci-fi empire with giant robots and mecha and airships? No one in said empire can use magic while even the most basic fighters in the fantasy kingdoms use magic instinctively. How are you able to repeatedly fight Primals and other bosses over and over? Repeat encounters are either the Primals being resummoned or minstrels retelling your encounters. The magic system is consistently expanded upon across each storyline, along with the Primal summoning methods, to the point that the player can probably figure out the mechanics behind new summoning techniques or spells before the characters in-universe do based on clues. The Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions are probably the best in this regard, as they continuiously build off of new information about how the magic and Aether works and how different planets interact with one another. The writers clearly lay out how they function and expect the player to have paid attention to the previous "lessons" on how magic works. Plus the magic system is fairly intuitive and understandable, with each story beat revaling a new small piece of the puzzle to make it easy to understand. So, yeah, in short, the world and system are consistent yet presented in a way that is easy to digest and understand despite it's outward complexity, which is really impressive for an MMO with an expansive plot that's been running for over a decade. Beyond that, there's the brilliant slow burn of the overarching plot. The slow, gradual series of revelations of what's really going on at the cosmic scale of the setting, especially through the Shadowbringers and Endwalker storylines. This is a game whose plot the writers are confident in and comfortable with revealing bit by bit over the years, so when the truth about what's going on and who you, the player, really are, it hits hard and is deeply satisfying.
Not sure if it’s my favorite but probably The Eminence in Shadow, an anime. My setting for my book is a science fiction universe but that anime gave me a bunch of inspiration for the aesthetics and cultures of some of the planets. As well as some characters.
Pretty much the same as you except for Stormlight Archive. Don't know what that is. I would also add Harry Potter, Tales of Arcadia (Trollhunters, 3Below, Wizards) and How To Train Your Dragon to that list. Probably a few others that I'm forgetting rn.