In my opinion, every worldbuilder should do their own maps. Not only does it allow a worldbuilder a set of geographic references to rely on when trying to figure out what is in relation to where, but it also gives those same references to their audience, allowing them to better visualise the setting which the worldbuilder is setting their works in. Of course, this isn't something most worldbuilders have a problem with. In my experience, most worldbuilders love to make their own maps, to the e...
2021-11-08 16:01:03 +0000 UTC
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2021-11-08 16:01:03 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for November's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the three lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on October 21st.
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2021-10-10 03:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Note: This wasn't going to be a multi-part series, but given the amount of detail I wanted to get into, I figured I probably wouldn't be able to do it justice without a map, so I decided to pick a format which could let me go a lot more in-depth than I would have been able to otherwise.
Also, it lets me practise drawing maps.
2021-10-09 05:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Over the past parts of this series, we've mostly remained focused on the theoretical and the general aspects of fictional societies: which is to say, I've been discussing the broad outlines of a society, the parts it's made of, and how they roughly fit together. However, while these fundamentals are important to grasp before moving onto more specific aspects of a society, it is just as important to tackle those specifics. So, over the next section of this series, I'm going to be going through...
2021-10-09 05:01:00 +0000 UTC
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2021-10-09 05:01:00 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for October's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the three lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on September 21st.
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2021-09-08 05:00:03 +0000 UTC
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2021-09-08 01:01:00 +0000 UTC
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2021-09-08 01:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Individuals are the result of their own decisions, but the decisions they are presented with are determined by the characteristics of the society they live in. Needless to say, the same is true for fictional characters living in fictional societies.
What this means to a creator is that the characterisations of the figures which populate their narrative do not appear from thin air. They are, at their core, shaped by the prejudices of the societies which they grew up in, either because th...
2021-09-08 01:01:00 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for September's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the three lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on August 21st.
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2021-08-09 05:30:47 +0000 UTC
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2021-08-09 03:01:01 +0000 UTC
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2021-08-09 03:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Unless your society exists on an island which has never been visited by another society (and these places still exist), it has not developed in a vacuum. Almost all societies have changed not just through the dynamics of their own societal forces, but through the influence, and sometimes the domination, of their neighbours, and other societies even further away. Sometimes, these influences may be brought in willingly, in the sense of gifts, or mutual exchange. At other times, it comes in the ...
2021-08-09 03:00:00 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for August's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the three lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on July 21st.
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2021-07-08 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Let me paint a picture: the good and just government of the realm has just been overthrown by a tyrant. Immediately, he begins to implement a vicious programme of violent repression. The formerly free press is shut down forcibly. Marginalised groups are made scapegoats for poverty and civil unrest and are targeted for violence. Dissidents are met with violence, and everywhere, there are troops and police in the tyrant's uniform, ordered to ensure that his rule goes unchallenged. Yet even so, ...
2021-07-08 01:00:02 +0000 UTC
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2021-07-08 01:00:02 +0000 UTC
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2021-07-08 01:00:02 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for July's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the three lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on June 21st.
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2021-06-09 06:57:52 +0000 UTC
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In the last section, I talked about how geographical and sociological conditions shape a society. In this part, I'll be doing part of the job of explaining how, not only talking about how those conditions create needs which a society must fulfil, but also how the the way those needs are fulfilled will answer the question which ultimately underpins the structure of every society, from the first bands of hominids to our own: who has power?
Power, in short, is the ability to make someone d...
2021-06-09 05:41:12 +0000 UTC
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2021-06-09 05:38:33 +0000 UTC
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2021-06-09 05:37:23 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for June's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the three lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on May 21st.
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2021-05-09 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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2021-05-08 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Creating a fictional society is perhaps the most exciting and frustrating part of worldbuilding. The ability to create a whole new culture from scratch is an amazing power, and when done right, it can captivate the imaginations and draw in the interests of people who are willing to commit as much time and energy to considering, examining, and talking about a fictional creation as they might the society they live in. However, getting to that point takes a lot of work. After all, societies in t...
2021-05-08 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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2021-05-08 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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This is the voting post for May's articles.
Please choose one topic from each of the two lists below, and reply with the respective letter and number of your two chosen topics in the comments below. Voting ends on 11:59 PM PST on April 21st.
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2021-04-08 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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2021-04-07 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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2021-04-07 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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There are many reasons to want to write a series instead of a stand-alone work: maybe the story a creator has in mind is larger than can be encompassed by a single narrative arc or book or film or game. Maybe a creator wants to explore the features and narrative potentials of a single setting without necessarily being confined to the story of one event, or one life, or one location. Maybe a creator wants to secure a way to develop a fanbase around a given setting or series to secure a stable ...
2021-04-07 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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