How Worlds Unfold

Hatunasi is an inverse pyramid sitting above the underworld. Except, what does that mean? What is the Underworld? In light of our conversation on the spirit world, it required answering and so today we delve into the topic.

The Lower Layers of Hatunasi are full of mystery and ancient civilization. Oh, and also monsters that eat spirits and now humans. Yes, today I explore some thoughts on these monsters and how they could be used and I even have one particular idea that would affect an entire nation.

With the Spirit World complete, I start exploring the implications for the world beyond, starting with Zoilena. What's their deal? What are the secrets they hide? How can it even stay secret?

It nearly broke me... actually, maybe it did... but, I have finally finished my thoughts on the Spirit World! This episode I put the nail in my coffin, I top this present off with a bow, I.... alright, I have sure I will come back and change so much in the future but today marks the end of this mini-series.

By now, you know the drill. I really need to get some graph paper out and figure this whole problem out. I inch every closer to what I want, and yet it still doesn't quite fit in the way I want it to. I could give in, but so far I am refusing to.

Another day, another barely coherent rambling about spirits and magic and the spirit magic system. There's some gems here, but I still get stuck and refuse to quit.

I get all philosophical about what it means to be human in this world. Kinda. Sorta.Continuing this dive into the spirit world and its magic is providing such delightful worldbuilding fodder and in this episode it brings me to a point of asking about the origins of humanity and whether they were special. What does it mean to be body and spirit? I slowly get closer to my answers today.

I did not realize the Spirit World was going to be such a complicated issue. But today I complicate it even further! I inch forward a few steps before falling back several feet, as it were. All good things, all good things. But sometimes a really good idea just adds the amount of work necessary.

I begin my exploration of the Spirit World. Specifically, what's the deal with spirits and fey? Is that what they even are? Are they intelligent? Do they have magic? Honestly, as I go into it, I realize I have way more questions than I do answers.

I have some thoughts on Kianvale! Inspired by a lot of steampunk pictures I recently saw, I decided I want to make this dystopian utopia a pretty fun and epic place to visit.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Even children books. Especially children books a kid wants you to read five times in a row. A book about guardian dogs leads to some fun ideas for spirit domestication.

I do a deep dive explanation on the current iteration of the magic system of Hatunasi.

We get more cartilage on this skeletal structure of Tarist. I touch on how I think the main faction powers are structured, what the third state is, where the power of each city comes from, and even a hint at a fourth power group to throw into the mix. Tarist is coming together.

With our Tarist point/theme in hand, we now return to our city-state idea and start slowly fleshing them out, giving them distinction. We also start to wonder at the unity of Tarist over the last 100 years and in modern day.

It's a short one, but I figured out the theme and point of Tarist! It comes right out from the core ideas I had of Tarist as well as from the kind of stories I am actually interested in exploring. This idea is going to focus all my future worldbuilding.

As I delved through earlier episodes, I discovered something interesting: I never formalized a theme or point for Tarist! No wonder I've been at a loss of what to do with it. Today, I start to rectify it and toss out what I know and possible ideas based on those thoughts.

I start out trying to do some work on Tarist, yet I just can't find the mind to do so. I talk my way through a few unconnected threads of why I am working differently than before and eventually I create a tentative plan of what I need to do going forward to make the whole thing work.

We're building on some of the larger pieces of Tarist today, focusing on their technology and magic which leads directly to several ideas on the three factions of power within the nation. Nothing specific, but the bones are being laid.

I finished reading Gastronomy in Mesoamerica, and while I did not get any major inspiration or worldbuilding ideas like before, there were still many fun little snippets that got my mind moving. Not sure how a lot of it will work together yet, but that's the business for you.

Worldbuilding is not always continuous and at some point we all hit creative walls where we don't want to do it. I did and I share what the last few days have been like for me. The stuckness we can all feel and the little things we can do to get out of it.

After watching a video on Tenochtitlan, I started to think about what makes an empire an empire and what the modern land of Tarist looks like in regards to this.

I am heading into a process all worlbuilders have to do: research! Today is more of some things that have been coming up for me and the direction I am planning to take my research.

I did some work on the theme and point of Foundation outside the podcast and I think I've narrowed onto the idea I like. I share how I got there and why I like it. After that, we are moving on and I share what's next in our adventure.

At long last we are finally (maybe) at the end of the world tour! We finish up with Foundation, our dieselpunk, magitech, fascist place of adventure. We've already established a lot of what was going on with Foundation before, during, and after the Great War so we dive into figuring out it's theme and point.

We are nearly done determining the theme and point of all the major settings of Hatunasi and today we tackle Sarazta. We look a bit into its history of no one being able to establish colonies on it, some reasons as to why, but then we really go into the theme of the place and something beautiful happens in this worldbuilding.

Robot dogs and cyborgs and hybrid spirit people! This and more is what I envision for The Decided. I had a lot of fun thinking about this place and I can't wait to get back to it. We get right to bottom of what makes this nation tick and what its theme is all about.

We're back to Zoilena, trying to finalize its theme and point. It was definitely easier with some of the other nations and I figured out why today. Then I simply let my mind wander and ask questions until, finally, I get to where we were trying to go.

The world tour continues and it's starting to get harder and harder. Keeping the world united in theme and differentiated in feel is proving tricker and trickier. But we are trudging along into the land of Zoilena where I only got an inkling of an idea. Nothing revolutionary today, but the start of the conversation.

We finish up Trynland today! I take a few steps back and try to hone into what is the story generating main theme and point of Trynland. Is it honor and shame? Is it clan strength and power? Is it anything like this? Or is the answer even simpler than I imagined?

The world tour continues but today we hit our first snag! Trynland. We've got the vibe. We've got the societal structure. But we don't have that need "oomph" that takes the land from generic to story generative. It's a messy business, this worldbuilding.

Continuing our tour of the world circa 100 years ago, we turn our sights on Atar Nayar, the land where spirit magic sees its truest heights. It's a trickier one to nail down, and I nearly give up on figuring it out today, but by the end this place has a good foundation to build upon.

We continue into lands and people groups where I've had very little built out, even in my impressions. Today, Briver. We'll discuss possible relationships it had with the Tarist Empire, what makes it unique, and we will spend a while trying to hone in on what is the theme and point of this place. Let's dive into it.

Moving further north, we head into the land of Chertah and start thinking about how the Great War would affect such an isolated land, if at all. I throw some ideas around, change my mind, and come up with a theme for the land that I'm not entirely sold on. All in a day's work for worldbuilding!

We are continuing are broad status check of Hatunasi before, during, and after the great war that brought an end to the Tarist Empire. Today, we open talks on the northern neighbor of Tarist: Kianvale. It's the steampunk origin of the world and so what happens to create a people like that? How are they influenced when under empire domination for so long? What differentiates them from the rest of the world? Let's start unraveling those hidden answers.

The Tarist Empire is going to fall. But how? I come into this episode only having vague ideas, but it ends with me having an amazing starting ground for the modern lands of Tarist. It was a lot of fun to discover it like this.

There are those historical events that reshape the world for generations. I figure the fall of the Tarist Empire would be one of them. And it was not done peaceably. Today, I begin explorations into the great war that shook Hatunasi to its core.

With some ancient histories established, we start to get closer to more recent history and nothing is more impactful and necessary to deal with than the Tarist Empire. It's existence affects the rest of the world and so the question remains... why did it fall?

Spiritual forces are to be a big part of Hatunasi, but what is the part they play as gods? Are there gods? What form do they take? How do they work in regards to the theme of Hatunasi? This episode begins with me not knowing the answers, but through a series of questions I asked myself I end with a concept I am excited to play with.

I decided on the overarching theme, the overarching point, of Hatunasi and not only will I be sharing what it is, but I will be sharing how I got to it in the first place and even how it affects my worldbuilding.

There are several different ways to approach worldbuilding, but the two broadest ways to look at it is building from the Macro to the Micro or from the Micro to the Macro. It's a bunch of goobligook wordage, for sure, but these terms are at least going to help me see what my next steps are.

Nothing too fleshed out. Nothing grand or elaborate. These are simply the gut instinct impressions I have when I initially think of the main countries in this world. Some have more thoughts about them than others, but this will be the absolute ground level work that everything else will build upon.

In any fantasy setting, the magic system is often what excites world builders the most. I am no different and today I take time to go over all my initial ideas of the magic system and the tech systems that may incorporate them.

While I am not generally a big fan of maps, I decided I wanted to create something that would help stoke future creativity. So, today I rapid build a map that cares less about looking cool and more about being an idea generator.

In fantasy, creators often don't give much thought to the actual shape of their overall world. The default assumption is that every world, every setting, is a planet within a solar system just like Earth. But this is fantasy! We can do anything we want! So, today we shape this world into something never seen before...

We continue our conversation on the worldbuilding I have already done in this particular world, focusing here on the other major decision I made about this setting: its core inspiration was not going to be the histories and mythologies of Europe, but of South America...

Today, I start the journey of worldbuilding!...well, sort of. I may have accidently cheated already...but, we'll have fun with it anyway.

Curious about what this podcast is about? Start the rambling madness here!