Your World: Magic System
 EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding For Fantasy Authors
The Squidoo Series

Your World: Magic System

 EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding For Fantasy Authors

The Squidoo Series


By EelKat Wendy C Allen

Note... this article was originally written in 2007, the question coming from a MonkeyBrain comment. As both Squidoo, and it's MonkeyBrain commenting app, went out of business in 2013, there is no longer a link back to the original question.

Your World: Magic System | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding For Fantasy Authors - The Squidoo Series

>>>How much effort do you put into creating your magic system? I have considered making a glossery, listing spells and what they do, to put in the back of my book so that readers can look spells as I mention them and not have to describe them every time. Am I over thinking this?


I think it depends on the story you are writing.

Personally my fantasy is usually of the non-magical or very limited magical kind, (Yes, I know, and I write wizards, go figure) so I do not personally put too much effort in a magic system. Reason: It is not important to my story and my story can move forward without any magic involvement at all.

When I do use magic, I use it on a very limited basis.

For example: in my Twighlight Manor series there are a few *magical* characters: sirens, born with the ability to control electrical currents and water; phookas, born with the ability to shape-shift and *throw* fire; and an alchemist who spent most of his life studying how to control the energy around us and use it in a typical wizard like manner. The sirens and phookas are born with their abilities, and thus technically are not *using magic*. The alchemist is the only one who really does any magic that could actually be called magic.

As you can see, for the purpose of that series, I have no need to create a system, other than to write up a few rules about what these characters can and cannot do. The whole system easily fits in one paragraph.

The series constantly hints to an older period when wizards roamed the world and magic was a thing, but it also tells of magic going bad, being used for evil, and the people rising up and destroying all spell books, killing the wizards, and completely erasing from history the names of the wizards in an attempt to force the world to forget magic ever existed. This leaves the series open for magic to come into play, should anyone ever take it upon themselves to seek to bring it back, at which point I will need to do something about writing up a more detailed magic system.

For the Quaraun series, which is a spin off of The Twighlight Manor series, but ended up being more popular with fans and now is considered the primary series, not the spin off series... for the Quaraun series there is a lot of magic going on, but again, I've no full fledged magic system written up.

>>>How much effort do you put into creating your magic system? I have considered making a glossery, listing spells and what they do, to put in the back of my book so that readers can look spells as I mention them and not have to describe them every time. Am I over thinking this?

The Twighlight Manor series was straight up haunted house, slasher punk gorn, and was more serial killers running around with knives slicing up victims in endless abandon.

Quaraun was one of the serial killers from the Twighlight Manor series. He is in fact the mage who built the Twighlight Manor, and in the TM series he is referred to only as The Grand High Emperor of the Triple Planets, and is seen briefly as SunTa the mute mental patient who escaped the asylum and lives in the attic of the Twighlight Manor. A few scenes mentioned that he was a powerful Necromancer who always wore pink, and that he was the father of King Vielder, Melaca, and Dr Vangonese, making him the grandfather of both Roderic and AlKeeme, as well as the great-grandfather of Vwoodell, Kramer, RazzBury, and Etiole.

The name Quaraun is never mentioned in the TM series because he is the emperor whose name was erased from history, because of the events at the Battle of Ongadada. Readers kept requesting to know who SunTa was, what was his backstory, how did he go from being the emperor to building the Twighlight Manor to the mute lunatic living in the attic?

So, I wrote a short story to give the backstory of SunTa and than I wrote another and another, and fans of the series liked these stories better than the original series.

The original series was a lot of gory, bloody short stories. The series featured 750+ characters and EACH character had been used as a main character in a story of their own. The house being the common factor connecting them all. Each character was somebody whom had lived in the house at some point from it's being built in 1458 to it's destruction in 2525. So it was lots of little stories about lots of people in lots of time periods, but never a story about the wizard who built the house, though he was mentioned in nearly every story.

The spin off series is one long story, spanning many 300 to 400 page novels, following the the entire life span of an Elven Mage who lived 750 years and would go on to become build the Twighlight Manor and become SunTa.

But you see, here's the thing... though the main character is a wizard and the world is heavily magic based, you rarely see magic happening in the story.

Spell names are almost never mentioned and when they are, they are real word spell names from real world magic: Hoodoo, the magic system of Voodoo.

So you see Quaraun using things like Goffer Dust and Black Salt, to make things like Gris-Gris and Jack Balls. You see him drawing VeeVee in the sand with cornmeal. You see him lighting 7-day candles and making honey jar spells. You see him brewing things like Abramelin Oil, YaYa Powder, and Hot Footing Sachets. He turns people into Liches and Nzambie. These are all real world magic arts, from real world magic, practiced by real world Voodoo Priests and Hoodoo Conjurors.

I use books written by Denise Alvarado and cat yronwode... here they are if you want to use the same magic system I use in the Quaraun series:


Those books right there ^ THAT is the magic system I use.

And than for the fantasy stuff, like wand waving POOF spells that make big things happen, I use THESE books:

There's a lot more. I have over 2,000 books by TSR and Wizards of the Coast. A near complete collection of every 2e, 3e, and 4e DnD book ever made.

So, you can see why I do not create a magic system.

I don't need to.

I'm using an established one.

>>>How much effort do you put into creating your magic system? I have considered making a glossery, listing spells and what they do, to put in the back of my book so that readers can look spells as I mention them and not have to describe them every time. Am I over thinking this?


But, as I said it depends on your story. If your fantasy is set in a place where magic is a daily thing and is done by many beings, than you are going to want to write up a system of some sort. Why? Well, that's easy.

If you have your ice wizard saying he can only perform a snow making spell if he has the tooth of a rare snow dragon, in chapter one, than you better not have him cast a snow storm with a simple wave of the wand in chapter 10!

The purpose of writing a magic system is so that you know who can do what, when they can do it, and what they need to do it with, so that you keep your story consistent once you start writing.

So my answer to your question is this: match your level of magic system creation to the level of magic used in your story. If your story has no magic, than no system is needed. If it has minimal magic, you would only need a few lines typed up. If magic runs rampant in your story, than you may very well find yourself needing a details set of charts, graphs, and a full 50 page glossary of which spells do what.

There is no right or wrong answer here, because it all depends on your story and your preferred writing methods. You can build as much or as little, in regards to the rules your magic needs to follow.

It's been many years since this page was updated. Today is July 2, 2021, and here's an update:

This question is about time travel, but I'm putting it here, because in the Quaraun series, time travel is treated as a form of magic and is therefore part of the magic system of the Quaraun series.

This answer is very specific to the question asked, but, I'm putting it here for you to read, so that you can see further how I created Quaraun's world, characters, and magic.

>>>I'm writing time-travel but just can't seem to figure a few simple things out.

>>>I'm writing time-travel but just can't seem to figure a few simple things out.


I've written time travel, so perhaps I can give some ideas? 


>>>1- The protagonist's childhood dream has been to one day travel to the future, he is obsessed with the idea. 


In my case it was a kid (GhoulSpawn - YES, GhoulSpawn is a kid - for some reason some readers don't know that) who was playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends in the 1970s, and was playing a wizard, and did a chant to open a portal so time travel could happen in game, and, accidently opened a real portal that zapped him back into the 1400s AS the actual game wizard he was playing.

GhoulSpawn joins forces with the main character, Quaraun, who is a real wizard, and ends up inventing time travel via portals, in order to get back home to the 1970s. (The novel was published in 1978, so, it being set in the 1970s, was it actually being set in "current time" at the time of publication.) So, a bit different than what you are writing, because there is no time machine, and no scientists, and no kid obsessed with time travel, but still, it's time travel.

>>>What profession would such a character choose so he can build a time-travel machine? 

>>>What would a scientist who invents time-travel be called? 


Anything you want to call him.

In mine, GhoulSpawn was called "A Portal Master" because he had accidently discovered how to open portals. Which are later explained as rips in the fabric of time, which create wormholes, that act as vacuums and just suck anything near the mouth of it, into it and out the other end of the wormhole. Some wormholes connect time periods, others connect dimensions, but they always are the same location. 

For example: So, if you get sucked in while eating at a pizza joint in the 1970s, and land in a forest in the 1400s, the forest is still the same location. You haven't moved from the pizza joint, you are just now standing where it was, a few hundred years before it was built.

Or: If you live in our real human world, and get sucked into a portal and come out in another dimension, you are still in the exact same pizza joint and it's still the 1970s, but now the guy flipping burgers on the back grill could be a Dwarf or Gnome or Elf, instead of a Human, because the Human would and the Realm of Fae, exist on top of each other, mirror image of each other, existing at the same time, but, Humans are in one and "Magical races like Elves" are in the other.

In the case of my character, he went both back in time AND changed dimensions, but, never moved geographic locations, and was still standing in the exact same spot on Earth, just at a different time and in a different dimension.

Because he wants to get back home, he starts trying to redo the same chant he did to open the first portal and he ends up opening a lot of portals in a lot of places and a lot of Humans end up in the Fae Realm, causes the extinction of the magical races, because Humans just can't co-exist with anyone. 

The more damage he causes, the more the boy tried to fix it by opening more portals. It's through this trial and error process that he eventual masters the art of opening specific types of portals at will, and starts time traveling, just because he can. He eventually become really good at it and, becomes hunted by criminals who want to use time travel to get away with crimes, and they start calling him "The Portal Master" because they don't know his name. 

So, in mine, the inventor of time travel becomes known as "The Portal Master"

>>>And how much would he earn? (Important for question no. 4)


Depends on his job. If you are factoring in, real world careers, than look up various incomes for various careers. But if it's pure fantasy with world building and not in our real world, well, you really can just give him any income bracket you want him to have.

In mine, he was a kid. A 15 year old child. He worked at Rapid Ray's Lunch Van, in Pepperell Square, Saco, Maine. A real world lunch van (that is still there 50 years later, now run by the grandson of the original owner), that I sat in front of, eating at, WHILE I was writing the novel in the 1970s. I was sitting there on the hood of my 1974 AMC Gremlin, eating choc&fries and wondering: "What job should I give this kid?" And it was summer and tourists were lining up from the beach (Old Orchard Beach) to get burgers from the lunch van and the lunch van had taken on some local teens to help with the extra demand of summer tourists, and I was watching Ray and Dan shouting orders to the summer help kids, telling them to carry burgers out to the tourists, and I thought: "Wait, why don't I just make him a kid working a summer job at Rapid Rays Lunch Van?" And BOOM, I wrote that as his job in the novel, and the whole scene was just me writing what I saw happening as I watched the real workers at the real lunch van.

After the kid - GhoulSpawn - ends up in the 1400s, well, now of course he doesn't have a job, but, the DnD character he played was a wizard thief, so, he takes up being a thief. Ends up making a coat, lined with dozens of pockets, every pocket is a portal opening into some hidden stash, and he just starts stealing everything he needs and as his pockets are portals, he fit can fit anything in his pockets. Cows. Sheep. Lots of sheep. He becomes an animal rights activist and starts rescuing sheep off sheep farms, stuffing sheep in pockets. A sheep thief is his job throughout most of the series.

You REALLY CAN make you character have ANY job you want him to have. It's doesn't have to be science related or time travel related.

Look around you, what jobs do you see going on in your town. Grab one of those at random, and BOOM, now your character has a job. Then as you write the story, evolve his job into something more fitting to his personality. That's how I did it.

>>>2- What would a time machine look like? 


In my case: it was a 1974 AMC Gremlin, orange metal flake with yellow flames painted on the sides. Why? Because that was my real car, that I had in the 1970s and 1980s and I just wanted to put it in the novels, so, when the portal opens up and spits the kid out in the 1400s, it's said he just got his driver's lisnces, was 15 years old, and had just bought that car, the same day the portal opened, so the car went to the 1400s with him, and because he had just bought the car, he assumed at first, that the car itself was a time machine. It turns out the car wasn't a time machine, but for a few chapters the character is running on that idea and treating the car like it is a tie machine.

My point is, YOUR time machine cam look like ANYTHING you want it to look like.

Watch a few episodes of Dr. Who. I was heavily influenced by Jon Pertwee and om Baker's Dr. Who back in the 1970s when I was writing the time travel novels, and so a lot of my ideas came from the Dr. Who tv series, including the fact that a time travel device can look anything. Just look at the TRADIS. It looks like something different in every single episode. In it's natural form it's a round grey cylinder about 8 feet tall. But we see it become a rock, a school bus, a tree, and eventually a blue police call box which it gets stuck as ad remains looking like throughout most of the next 500+ episodes. 

You should definitely be checking out Dr. Who if you are considering time travel writing, because of any media out there, Dr. Who tv series does it the best.

>>>Will it be simply the size or an elevator? Or an enormous machine? 



There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of time travel novels, short stories, tv shows, and movies out there. And every single one of them does it differently from each other.

I would recommend you take a few weeks, to sit down and read 10 or 12 time travel novels. Each by a different author, so you can see the wide variety of ways, time machines are written.

I've seen some that are massive machines that fill a hole building, and I've seen others where the time machine was just a little pocket pen, that you pointed at someone like a laser pen.

My favorite one was Alfred Hitchcock's The Bronze Door, followed by H. G. Wells The Crystal egg.

In The Bronze Door, (set in the 1960s) this guy is remodeling his house and he buy an antique bronze door to go between his living room and kitchen. A few hours later his dog runs through the room and to the kitchen and POOF vanishes. The guy tosses a chair through the door. POOF. It's gone too. So he starts inviting all his "enemies' over" sends his boss to the kitchen for beer, POOF, the boss is gone; sends his nosey neighbour to the kitchen for milk, POOF the neighbour is gone. Tosses his ex-wife through the door. When the police show up to ask about the missing people, and ask to search the house, POOF the officers are gone. The door turns out to be a time machine.

In the Crystal Egg (set in the 1890s), a guy buys a Faberge egg made out of lead crystal, and when he opens it up to look inside, he gets sucked into another world, because the tiny figurine turns out to be a time travel device.

Stargate the movie, has archeologists uncover an archway in Egypt that turns out to be a time machine, and the government takes control of it later in the TV series. 

Back To the Future, first a DeLorean and later a Steam Engine Train are seen as time machines.

Hermione and Harry Potter had a necklace that they wore.

A common one seen a lot is a "magic" pocket watch, where you set the time and time either stops so you can move fast or send you to the date you put on the pocket watch.

In the Retief novels written by Keith Laumer back in the 1950s, the Terrain Diplomats (basically intergalactic space police) had confiscated a drug, that was illegal, but they didn't know what it did, so one of them (main character James Retief), takes one the the green pills so he can write down the effects of it in the police report he's writing up, and he suddenly finds himself an hour in the past, watching himself confiscating the drugs. The pills turned out to cause you to go back a few minutes to a few hours in time, depending on how much you took, so you could fix mistakes... he'd confiscated it at a race track, where the gamblers were watching to see who won the race, than took the drug, went back in time to place bets, then put the bet ticket in their own future self's hand, than melded back into their future selves, to be holding said ticket in the present. The gamblers were becoming millionaires using the time travel drug in this way. 

Dr. Who's time machine is a Blue Police Call Box.

In H. G. Wells The Time Machine, the machine is a big golden throne like chair with lots of gears and gadgets all over it.

In Star Trek, entire starships are capable of time travel, some via a device on the ship, others via jumping into vortexes in space. The Enterprise herself does the vortex jumping style of time travel in several episodes.

In the 1990s, Zebra Historical Romance novels (aka The Fabio Novels) did a series of time travel romances, where the main character was a girl from the 1990s, who, looked in the mirror and suddenly found herself in some past era (Civil War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, on the Titanic, etc). Always a different girl, but in each novel, the time machine was always a magic mirror that granted wishes, and the girl would be standing by the mirror when she wished to meet some famous war hero (who was always Fabio)

The Quaraun series is heavily influenced by Keith Laumer's Retief series, by the way, if you didn't know that.

And if you never heard of the Retief series (most people haven't) it was a serial written in the 1950s. Here it is:


 >>>What equipment would the scientists need to build such a thing?


It's your story. They can use any materials you want them to use.

Heck, it could be as simple as a wizard casting a spell to turn his wand into a time travel device, to point at the young boy working for him, to send the boy a few days into the past to teach the boy a lesson, or as complex as a whole team of NASA scientists spending years building a rocket that flies backwards around the world opposite the earth's rotation fast enough to go back in time. (And yes, BOTH of those concepts have been done in novels before... The Book of Merlyn aka The Sword in the Stone does one the boy being young King Arthur, and SuperMan comics does the other with Lex Luther funding the rocket and SuperMan spinning the world back to it's correct time after scientists flub up the world with time travel.)


>>>Or Is this entirely up to me to figure out?


Yes. This.

It's YOUR story. You can do WHATEVER you want with it.

>>>3- My story follows the idea that nothing can be changed. Things will unfold exactly as they were supposed to so travelling to the past will not affect anything at all. Nor will travelling to the future. So if my protagonist does invent time travel, would he, far into the future, be acclaimed by the world for inventing such an impossible thing even though it is of no use?


I would recommend you read H.G.Well's The Time Machine, and also watch the 2 movies (1960s and 1990s versions) based off the story, to see how the concept of time travel without changing history has been done by others. They do it really well. The whole idea is, someone he loves died, so he builds a time machine to go back and save her, and she dies minutes later in a different way. He keeps going back and saving her, she keeps dying minutes later in different ways. He comes to realize time can not be changed. If you try to change it, you are only delaying the inevitable. So he decides that since she's dead and he can't bring her back. He will instead use the time machine to just watch humanity evolve. So he sits in the machine, turns it on, and watches fashions change, families moving in and out of his house, and than one day an explosion causes him to stop the machine and go outside... he's now in the future, space science has happened, man has traveled to the moon, and blew it up, and now the world is falling apart. Desperate to flee the ending world as it falls apart he races back to the time machine, turns it on, and is knocked out as the explosions of the earth imploding, rip apart everything around the machine... and when he FINALLY wakes up the time machine has been moving forward for MILLIONS of years and the entire planet and solar system is completely changed... and the machine is broken and he can't go back, and he can't change anything. And THAN, he sees a greater horror: the human has evolved, and they ain't human anymore, and he's on the menu. Most people think of H.G.Wells The Time Machine as Science Fiction, but most people who say that also haven't read it. It's straight up Horror and it's one of the best Horror stories ever written, as well as one of the best takes ever done on time travel. You should definitely read it and than watch the old movie and than the remake movie, because all 3 are different enough that you can see how different people translate the same story in 3 different ways.

He can't change time, and he doesn't receive acclaim for his invention, and he goes too far ahead, to see what Earth eventually becomes, and learns far too late, the lesson, just be happy where you are, with what you have, because as bad as things are, they could be a LOT worse.

If you want your scientist to receive future acclaim, go ahead. It's YOUR story. Do what you want with it. There is no right or wrong.

Tell your story, your way, however you want it to be.

>>>4- Let's say a scientist says he can invent time travel, how would he convince, say, a big scientific organisation to fund him for it? Is this how it would work? Where could a scientist get funding for such a project? Would the government approve of it or will he have to work on it in secret (with any source of funding, in a warehouse he owns)? Just how exactly would all this work?

>>>Or maybe could I give him a big position at a big scientific organisation which funds him for it, but they don't know that he's building a time machine with those funds. Could this work?


Logically, I don't think anyone would fund him. I think big science corps would laugh in his face.

Unless you've done some heavy duty world building where time travel is a believable possibility, on a planet, in a time, when super mega sciences are being done already, and LOTS of scientists are seeking funding for time machines, and it's a fight to see who will get it done first (like the moon landing space wars of the 1950s/1960s between America and Russia), I can't imagine why any science corp would not kick him out on his ass the first time the words "time machine" came out of his mouth.

As a reader, I would have a hard time suspending disbelief, if a science corp suddenly funded his project, if the time wasn't something like 2525 and the everyday tech was cyberpunk, in his world.

I would think, that he would be laughed out of the science community and be forced to save every last penny himself.

In fact, I would think, that being laughed out of the science community, would actual BE the motivation that spurs him to actually build the time machine, because now he's got it in his head that he's going to prove them wrong, he's going to show them he can build the machine without them. I can see him saying stuff like:  "Laugh at me, will they? I'll show them! They won't be laughing when I build this thing! Than they'll wish they had funded me! Than they'll want in on the action. But it'll be just MY name my name alone. They won't have had any part in creating it. Yeah. It's better this way. It'll be JUST me. No one will share my victory. The glory will be all mine." As he leaves the building.

But again, it's YOUR world, YOUR characters, YOUR story. Anything can happen. Write it however you see fit.


>>>5- Let's say the protagonist has a garage where he works on the time machine, (not consisting the machinery itself, instead where he just... You know, sits down and figures shit our), how would it look like? A big white board with formulas and theories written all over it? A bookshelf with nothing but time travel or space related books? I thought this sounded a bit cliché, what do you think?


Watch the movies: The Absent Minded Professor and it's sequel The Son of Flubber. Old black and white Disney movies from 1940s/1950s era. They don't deal with time travel, but the main character is an inventor. They do a lot with setting up his house and his daily life, and you see how his obsession with inventing things, gets in the way of his job, his marriage, and causes him to be seen as the laughing stock of the town, until he invents flubber (flying rubber) and takes a road trip to fly his car to the pentagon to try to sell his invention to the government. In spite of it's low budget and the era it was filmed, it's really good at drawing you into the inventor's life and making you see the world from his perspective. It's definitely a "slice of life" style movie, so can be on the boring side if you are looking for a lot of action, but I would think, it could serve as good reference material for your story, give you some incite into how an inventor might live and might set up his home/garage. There was a 1990s remake with Robin Williams, but, it mostly just makes fun of the original movie and spends all it's time on endless poop jokes and is really BAD remark, that not worth watching, by far the worse remake Disney has ever made, possibly the worst Disney movie ever. 

>>>Or should I go for the very rich, big house with a fancy piano in the living room?


In my experience, having known both millionaires and homeless and average wealthy and welfare poor, at various points of my life, I've come to realize that, people on the extreme ends, actually like where they are and don't want to change. Most millionaires, like being millionaires and have no desire to change their life, and surprisingly, many people in long term homelessness, actually enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about material things, and likewise do not want to change their life. 

It's the people in the middle. Suburbia. Typical family. Typical job. Nice home. Nice car. Wife and kids. Nothing fancy. Not wealthy, but also not poor. Them... they are the ones, who strive for change. They are bored with the ho-hum-same-old-same-old. They yearn for a change.

So if it was me, if I was writing the story you have laid out here. I wouldn't have him either poor or wealthy. 

Someone in a shit life, may want to change it, yes, but, you want to make him addicted to drinking?

Uhm... I'm going to guess you don't know anyone in real life who has a drinking addiction. I do know people like this, and I've seen first hand, that someone with a drinking addiction, doesn't have hobbies, because drinking IS their hobby. They can't keep a job because they are too often passed out for days on end, because that's what drinking does to you.

Science is expensive, materials needed to make something like a time machine is going to require he at least have a fairly decent mid-to high end job. And someone addicted to drinking, is living a shit life BECAUSE he can't stop drinking, long enough to go to work, he has a shit house BECAUSE he drank away his rent money, he has a shit car BECAUSE rather than pay for repairs he bought more vodka, wine, or beer.

I've seen this happen to people in real life. Addiction, not just to drinking, but to drugs, sex, hoarding, food, hobbies, whatever the addiction is, it is the ONLY focus of their life. And they can't break free of it even if they want to.

So, I really don't think your scientists is going to have a drinking addiction, because, addictions are over powering and will not allow him to think about time travel, because he'll be too busy thinking about the next beer.

An addiction to drinking IS an obsession with drinking, and for most people, it's difficult to have 2 things you are so obsessed with that it over takes your life.

If he's obsessed with making a time machine, than time travel IS his addiction. The idea of time travel IS his drug of choice, and he's not going to have time to get addicted to a different drug. Yes, if he is obsessed with time travel, than for him, time travel IS a drug, it IS an addiction. He IS drunk on the idea of building a time machine.

When you start to think of it like that, than you start these why he can't both be addicted to drinking and addicted to time travel.

On the other hand, someone who is THAT obsessed with time travel, even if he was wealthy, he's NOT going to waste him money on a big house at all, let alone have a grand piano in the living room. ALL of his money is going to go towards buying materials and parts and supplies to build his time machine.

You want to match your character's living conditions to his personality. From how you've described him, I imagined that:


  • he's quite well off
  • single, too obsessed with work to ever think about love
  • has a scientific mind
  • works as a community college adjunct science teacher to pay his bills
  • also works in some factory assembly-line computer parts manufacture (this is VERY high end pay - you're talking $50+ an hour, my bf works at one of these places) to save up for materials
  • He has a small apartment in the slummy section-8 side of town
  • but isn't himself on a government housing voucher
  • he CAN afford an apartment in an upscale area
  • but he lives in a slummy area because the rent is cheaper so it allows him to save up more money for his time machine building project.
  • Every penny counts, so he eats microwave frozen dinners (Stouffers Mac & cheese, Lean Cuisine rise and beans, or Hungry Man TV dinners type of thing) and drinks orange juice out of the bottle, that way he doesn't have to buy dishes or cups for his apartment.
  • When at work, he walks to the McDonald's across the street to grab a $.99 kids burger and $.99 fries and $.99 soda, so he can eat lunch for under $5.
  • He's obsessed with time travel and MUST put every penny into his time machine building fund jar,
  • so he doesn't go to movies,
  • he doesn't drink,
  • he doesn't smoke,
  • he's wearing the same suit he's wore for the past 30 years,
  • he spends money on NOTHING but the barest essentials, so he can buy all the expensive rare materials needed to build his one true love: the time machine.

As I was reading your post, THAT is the type of man and how he lives, that my mind imagined, from the description you gave us here.

>>>How old would he be? 35? 40? 50?


In mine, he, GhoulSpawn, was 15 years old in the original edition, but that was published in 1978 when the legal age of consent in America was 10, and the age of consent was increased to 16 in 1984, and than 18 in 1997, so when the 35th anniversary reprints were self-published on Kindle in 2014, I changed his age to 19, because he becomes romantically involved with and has a few sex scenes between him and the 750 year old wizard, Quaraun.

Had the age of consent laws not changed between the original publication of the book and the reprint edition of the book, I would not have changed his age and he'd still be 15. 

In either case, the whole point of him being so young was precisely because, a child who suddenly finds himself in the 1400s is probably going to have trouble surviving and need an adult to help him out. Whereas an adult is going to be more self-sufficiency (or at least try to be) and is not going to deliberately seek out an adult to help him. And as I needed him to seek out help and end up getting help from the elderly MC wizard, I thus had him be a 15 year old child.

He is portrayed as a shy, frightened, nervous boy, whom has lived a sheltered life and has never been away from his mother before, and his entire motive revolves around his desire to get back home to his mother.

His being a young child, leads him to have no trouble believing he has fallen through a portal and met a wizard (things that otherwise should not exist in the world, and things adults would not believe in).

So in this instance, the plot of the story, required the time traveler to be a child, in order to make his meeting of and interaction with the wizard more plausible.

I think however, in most stories age would not matter quite so much.

If the plot requires the character to be a specific age rage for a specific reason, than age would be a factor. However, if you the author are left asking:

>>>How old would he be? 35? 40? 50?

I think that alone, should clue you in on the fact that his age doesn't bear any weight on the outcome of the plot. And you could safely say something like: *"He was middle aged. The freshman teens, straight out of high school, thought him to be an old man in his 50s, too old to be in their uni classes, while the ancient professors thought him to be a young kid of 35. His age however did not matter, for he was old enough, to have invented a time machine."*


>>>Would very much like your insight on this. :)

>>>P.S I know this is a lot, and a lot of it I should figure out myself, I'm not asking you to write my story for me, just seeking some insight :). I'm sorry if it seems like I'm asking too much.


Time travel can be a lot to wrap your mind around, because it's one of those areas where there are so few real world things to look up.

For real world reference: Look up Nickola Tesla. He tried to build a tie machine in real life, and no one knows what happens. All anyone knows is, whatever his machine did, it scared him shitless and he burned all the papers and chopped up the machine, and than had a nervous breakdown and married a pigeon. 

A few years later, in the 1940s, during World War 2, some government scientists took all of Tesla's work, everything he had written that hadn't been destroyed, and attempted to build a time machine out of a battle ship. The goal was to chart where U-boats attack, then send a battleship to blow up German U-boats before the U-boats arrived. Albert Einstein built the time travel device for the battleship, it was what killed his science career. The ship successfully vanished from where it was and reappeared elsewhere and the solders on board, claimed it had moved through time, but ALL of the soldiers, became part of the ship. Their heads, arms, legs, melted into and became part of the boards and metal. All of them died within an hour of the test run of the time machine battleship. It's known as The Philadelphia Project. There are lots of documents and YouTube videos that tell about it. The Philadelphia Project has gone down in history as the worst human test project ever done by the American government, and is WHY today they are laws which don't allow human test subjects until after successful animal trails have been done.

In 2018, some scientists in Australia, successfully sent a mouse, across the room, in a very Star Trek, bean me up Scotty teleport devise, which, they believe also sent the mouse back in time 3 minutes. They are currently expanding on this, and believe they will creative and fully functioning time machine before 2075. To date they've never been able to move anything back or ahead more than 10 minutes and nothing sent through the device came out alive, and most things fussed to other thing - mice, fused inside of rock, so, put a mouse and a rock in, get a rock with a mouse head and tail.

A time machine is being built as we speak, in Australia, right now. In successfully moved things through time, and it has since 2018. They've yet to start Human tests with it because so far no living thing sent through time, has arrived back out of the machine alive.

There are other real world time machine projects, but those 3 are the most famous, and are the ONLY three that ever claimed to actually move through time, but all 3 had the same result: anything sent through time, their living flesh melted become part of metal or wooden or rock surroundings and they died minutes after walking out of the time machine.

So, definitely look up the real world science of time machines, because, it's fascinating, especially fining out the horrors of what happens to the real people and animals who the real world machines got tested on.

How to have characters that are extremely powerful be balanced in the world? 

>>>So basically, i'm curious how you guys would have a world where basically most "Explorers" (let's say like 1% of the population) can basically go around blowing away entire cities, make any sense at all.

>>>how would you have a world where the average adventurer can blow up mountains make sense

In my universe, there are people like this, but it's extremely rare, to the point the bulk of the population thinks such people are myths/fairy tales/not real.

My MC has this ability and both of his partners have it as well, which is why they are together. Basically they are seen as outcasts from society because they have this ability and randomly found each other over the course of being hunted by a group of law enforcers that are sort of "justice mages". They are possibly the only 3 people alive who have this ability - I don't know, I've never explored the possibility of there being others besides them or not.

In my magic system, there is no buffer that would prevent them from just obliterating everything. They just don't have the personality for it. Meaning, it's not the sort of thing they would willingly do. But they do in fact destroy entire populations, that's kind of the plot point. The MC, as a child says "I wish you would all just die" to the neighborhood kids and they obediently drop dead immediately. Later as a teen he sees some villagers attacking an injured wild pony and orders them to die and, not only do the men hurting the pony die, but everyone in the entire city dies. In both cases he hadn't actually meant to kill any one and was left not realizing he had, not knowing why everyone around him died. But as time goes on and this keeps happening, he realizes he's killing people, a LOT of people... which he realizes when one of his friends gets attacked and he ends up this time not only killing the people in the city, but also all the plants and animals and birds and trees all die as well, leaving nothing but a vast dead sand desert wasteland behind. 

Well, this event terrifies him, because he suddenly realizes he's destroying things and has the power to take out entire cities... but here's the thing: he's a docile, peaceful person. He'd never willingly kill someone, so the horror of discovering he's not only killing people, but he's been killing a LOT of people a lot of times, just scares him shirtless and makes him become a recluse. He tries to stay away from people, get as far outside of civilization as possible.

The whole world thinks he's a maniacal super-villain hell bent on killing everything, when really every "attack" on these cities was actually an accident on his part and never meant to hurt anyone.  Governments are in a panic, because they realize they have NOTHING that can take this guy out. He's able to evaporate entire continents or even whole planets if he actually wanted to do so, and the government is hiring tons of knights, and bounty hunters, and adventuring party heroes to hunt him down and kill him, while spreading fear propaganda making him out to be a super villain.

But, he's more scared of the men who are hunting him, then they are of him. He WON'T attack these men or fight back, he just lives on the run, trying to get as far off grid as possibly, trying to "disappear off their radar". 

So, with mine, he COULD take out the whole planet if he wanted to, but, he doesn't want to. He just wants to live a normal life, have a normal family, a normal job, and forget about his powers, pretend they aren't there.

>>>So basically, i'm curious how you guys would have a world where basically most "Explorers" (let's say like 1% of the population) can basically go around blowing away entire cities, make any sense at all.

>>>how would you have a world where the average adventurer can blow up mountains make sense

So, mine is a bit different from yours in several ways: it's only a few people, not the average adventurer, and the people who have it aren't dicks who want to run around blowing up cities and mountains just because they could do so. 

I would say, character personality is going to be a big player in yours. Because from what you say, it sounds like the bulk of your adventurers are going to have some major sociopath villain vibes going on, if the average adventuring is just running around blowing up mountains and cities for the fun of it.

I would think in that type of situation, that your governments would go big time high alert on things like border defense, training mages in the art of magic barriers around cities, training an army of battle mages to hunt down the adventurers, that sort of thing.

I'm not sure how to deal with writing battles and such, because mine doesn't have that sort of thing. Mine follows the MC in a slice-of-life style, following his interaction with his family and how they have to be constantly moving, never able to settle down, so him and his 5 wives and 2 male partners and 37 children, become a vagabond traveling caravan of Gypsies, traveling the world in constant escape of the people hunting him, thinking he's a super villain, so there are never any fight scenes or battles or the like. It's very much a "look into the behind the scenes of the everyday life of the world's most feared supervillain" type of thing to show how he's not the evil that the super heroes are making him out to be. 

And it sounds like yours, you are planning on lots of action, adventure, fighting?

I would think based on what you've said, that your governments and politicians and probably religion leaders too, would be in full panic mode, and your cities would have heavy guarded gates and rely a lot on special forces mages, and have Witcher style magic barriers or SpellJammer style crystal spheres put around cities. Immigration laws would probably be pretty tight to make sure the adventures able to blow up cities didn't get let inside the cities.

I think a city rebuilding itself could be interesting if there was some story behind it, but I also think it would be limited to just 1 or 2 important capital cities the government wanted protected most, and would not be every city.

I know, from a reader's perspective, that I as a reader, would not be interested in reading about the world itself, so things like telling the reader the planet is jumbo-huge and trillions of people, would just bore me and make me stop reading the book.

I read, to fall in love with a character or become friends with a character. I want to know the character's story. How do they deal with having the power, how it affects their family life and stuff. I'd have no interest at all in hearing about how the world compensated for a character who had those powers, because I find tech details of how a magic system works to be very boring to read. I want the human connection, to be emotionally invested in the character who has the powers, rather than how the world was built.

So, if it was me, I'd pick a character who has the power and tell his/her story about how s/he deals with the struggles of having said power, rather than focusing on the science/logic behind if such a power could exist in the world or not. As a reader I'm able to suspend disbelief and follow the character, so don't need the world building explanations behind the science of the power sort of stuff.


How to avoid writing a boring magic system. Tips?

>>>How to avoid writing a boring magic system. Tips?

>>>As someone who is planning on writing fantasy stories, I'd like to get some opinions on how to write more interesting magic systems.

Perhaps an unorthodox or maybe even controversial way of going about it, but whenever I'm working on magic systems, I like to ask myself the following list of questions, because they really get my mind boiling on looking at more "creative" ways magic might be used:


* If my magic system existed in the real world:


  •  *   ... how would the current USA President use it to help his country?

  •  *   ... how would the current USA President abuse it to serve his own goals, to hell with his country?

  •  *   ... how would *(insert name of any past USA President here: Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama, Trump, etc)* have used it?

  •  *   ... how would scam artists use it to scam people?

  •  *   ... how would Hitler have used it during World War II?

  •  *   ... how would NYC stock brokers use it to take advantage of stock trends?

  •  *   ... how would Chef Gordon Ramsay use it? 

  •  *   ... could Chef Gordon Ramsay make it so ALL the world's Micheline stars went ONLY to his restaurants?

  •  *   ... how would the Pope use it?

  •  *   ... how would today's governments try to regulate its use?

  •  *   ... how would Gandhi have used it?

  •  *   ... what would Jesus have done with it? Would he have saved more sick, fed more starving, and saved himself from being murdered?

  •  *   ... how would Mother Tereasa of Calcutta have used it towards her goal of ending all famines, stopping childhood starvation, and getting medical supplies to all children? Would the world run into a massive overpopulation problem if the 1 in every 12 children who die before reaching the age of 8, all lived to adulthood? Would others use magic to stop Mother Tereasa from saving children once the consequences of doing so was realized?

  •  *   ... how would David Bowie have used it to make his music videos even more bizarre?

  •  *   ... how would PETA use it?

  •  *   ... how would Walt Disney *(the man, not the company)* have used it?

  •  *   ... how would Disney Corp use it?

  •  *   ... would mega-corps like Disney, Amazon, and Google abuse it to become global dominating monopolies and put all competing film, retail, and electronic corps out of business?

  •  *   ... would hippies of the 1960s/70s have used it instead of LSD? And how would they have used it to end the Vietnam Draft?

  •  *   ... how would The Boston Scottish Mafia use it?

  •  *   ... how would Russia have used it during the 1950s Race to Space?

  •  *   ... how would world leaders during 1930's The Great Depression have used it? Would they have ended the Depression to help the people or would they have made it go on longer to serve their own goals?

  •  *   ... how would moonshiners, gun runners, rum runners, gangsters, and feds have used it during the 1920s Prohibition?

That's not the entire list, but you get the idea. It's easy to make a list of your own like that, just by replacing with various famous names and events throughout history. 


I will take each question and write up a quick essay-like short story, 1,000 words-ish, to try to imagine, my magic system in the hands of real world people.


And I'm constantly adding new questions to the list all the time.


And I like to use current events, to ask even more questions. Like:


  •  *   ... how would/could Covid19 have been prevented/stopped/cured if my magic system was real?

  •  *   ... what would 2021 look like had Trump used magic to win the election?

I find that when I think in the more common terms of:


  • * Does a mage's hands burn when he casts fireballs? *(I ended up writing a story about a mage being mutilated and completely disfigured by his own fire spell, after determining real world science would say, yes, he'd get burned.)*

  • * If a mage can control water and flood a village to kill people, why can't he just kill people by changing the water in their bodies instead? *(Which resulted in me writing a mage who exploded people by altering/expanding the water in their bloodstream, because - science behind hemorrhaging.)*

  • * What is the science behind why a mage harnessing gravity, doesn't raise tides worldwide and implode the planet like what would happen in real world science?

I end up, side tracking into science books and science classes. A few years ago I got so hung up in the Earth imploding because of gravity thing, that I enrolled in an AstroPhysics degree at a local college, just so I could take a few courses in astronomy and planetology to answer the question... didn't go for the full degree, but, damn, 3 semesters of 5 classes each later, I knew lots of useless knowledge about "how outer space works" in case I should ever write a sci-fi novel, which I probably never will, LOL! *(I ended the story by imploding the planet, btw. That's not how I planned it ending, but, science said otherwise, so I ran with it.)* I have Kanner's Syndrome so, my brain turns on the "little scientist mode" every once in awhile and completely side tracks my novel writing for massive fits of researching things that I have no story reason to research.

Thus, needless to say,  I try to avoid the "hard magic system" side of magic system building.

Which is why I came up with that list of questions above.

Instead of being questions about how the magic system works and why it does this or that, it's a list of questions about how would people use the magic system and what side effects would there be?

I find that by asking what would someone real world famous would do, I'm able to analyse my magic system better, from a more "character driven" perspective. Which I personally find to be far more useful when writing a novel, than making the magic system have hard scientific rules to go by (which I find often places too many limits on what I can allow my characters to do.)

I'm one of those weird writers who will build massive magic systems, and than in the actual novel, there will end up being only one or two scenes where magic even gets mentioned, even though the MC is himself a mage. It's like, I have fun building the system, but than I never use it in the story, so readers wouldn't know there was a system at all. And it ends up being one of those things where, I could just not write the system at all, and get to writing the story faster, but I feel like the act of building the system, helps me to sort out in my brain how my mage MC's actions should be, even if he isn't using magic. Like, how he avoids saying certain common words because they could trigger a spell or how he refuses to cut his hair, which is now 12 feet long and he requires a servant to carry it when he walks, because the magic system is one that states mages get their power from their hair and he with the longest hair and/or longest beard can cast the most powerful spells. Or like how one town has a mage that made all the apple trees have ripe apples year-round and it changes the local economy because orchard growers corner the market on apple sales in seasons when no one else has apples, which in turn causes an "evil" politician to try to abuse magic in a similar manner to hoard up money.

So, even though you don't see the magic system in use, you see how the mage's personal life is changed by that system, and you see how local farmers use magic to help their businesses and how corrupt businessmen try to abuse magic. So in my case, I see building a magic system, more as a part of character creation.

For me this makes the act of building the system super fun and not boring, and I end up writing the characters' actions and reactions to the magic of their world better, without boring the reader with the dull/dry scientific details of a hard system. Oddly, while I create a hard magic system, in the novels what I use ends up being more of a soft almost non existent system, but having the hard system written up, helps me to keep flow and consistency in the story, even though the rules and hows and whys of the system are never mentioned in the novels.

I think I do it this way because, I find characters more interesting than plots or settings, so my magic system becomes more of thing which my character's bounce their personalities off of, rather than being a magor entity of the story itself.

More Pages on Writing Magic:

The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge:
Here are some Reddit Writing Prompts To Help You Discover More About Your World, By Inspiring You To Write Descriptions, Bios, Narratives, and/or Short Stories To Answer These Questions

I would like to do something a bit different for the 31 days of worldbuilding challenge, you can do it as well, if you like. But, here's the thought I had: Here on my website are several pages (70+ at the moment and more get added all the time) devoted to different aspects of world building... (If it has no link yet, it's because it's still under 2,000 words so I've not set it to live yet. Google requires an article to be 2,000 words long before they will index it)...

*  A Place To Live | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Aquatic Life | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Birds | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Bring Your World Alive | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Bugs | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

* Child Sacrifice in Fantasy Novels | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Churches & Religion vs Fantasy | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Creating A Fantasy Realm | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Cults, Criminals, & Dark Lords | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Culture & Architecture | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Culture & Every Day Rituals | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Daily Life In The Middle Ages | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Do You Use A System of Power Scaling Your Wizards? | EelKat's Guide To Writing Fantasy

*  Doing Research For Your Story | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Emotions | Eelkat On Character Creation

*  Everyday Uses of Advanced Necromancy | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Family | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Fantasy Creatures | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  FarDaarig | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Food | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  GhoulSpawn & His Sheep | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Gingerbread | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Give Your Characters Better Motives | Eelkat On Character Creation

*  God & Satan vs Fantasy | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Gods, Immortals, Demons, Angels, Heaven, & Hell | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Government | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  High Elves In High Fantasy: Elves, Drugs, & Opium | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  History | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Holy Days, Holidays, & Religious Rituals | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Horrors & Darkness | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  How do you make the story longer? | Novel Writing Tips

*  How Do You Pick Character Names? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  How To Write A Character Falling Asleep | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  How Would You Explain Your Fantasy World To a Random Stranger? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Ideas, Where? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Infodumps | Becoming A Better Writer

*  Landscape | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Liches | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Lighting, Sun, Moon, Candles, Fire, Shadows | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Little People Big World: Government & Big Corpa vs The Every day average Joe | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Lost Treasures Your Adventures Are Looking For | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Lovecraftian Aliens & Demons | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Magic Systems and How To Build Them | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Mammals | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Markets, Merchants, & Guilds | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Marriages & Other Such Stuff | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Money | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Monsters | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Moon Elf Society | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  On Writing A Child Character | Eelkat On Character Creation

*  Phookas | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Plant Life | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Politics | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Portals & Time Travel | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Psychotic Dead Things | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Question Everything Before Putting It Into Your World | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Reptiles & Amphibians | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Science Fiction & Space Fantasy | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Selecting a Theme For Your Story | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Skeletons In The Closet - Taboos In Your World | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Spell Casting Side Effects In Quaraun's Universe | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Suicide, Rape, & Abuse in The Quaraun Series | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Sun Elf Society | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  The Zaharam-Chapelle-Parunas Ethnographical Questionnaire

*  Thullids | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Travel & World Size | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Travellers & Tourists | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Unicorns | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Unique Wildlife | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Water | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Weather & Climate | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What does your world look like? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What is a God in your universe? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What is your world like? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What lives in your world? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What rules of magic do you use in your world's magic system and why? | EelKat's Guide To Writing Fantasy

*  What the Ocean Gives Me | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What will a traveler encounter on the roads in your world? | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  What's The Inciting Incident to Your Story? | Novel Writing Tips

*  Why The Quaraun books Are Rated M18+ | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Wood Elf Society | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Worldbuilding Considerations | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Writing Albino Races Accurately | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Writing Elves & Wizards That Are Not LoTR | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

* Writing Prompts Syndrome

*  Writing Violence Against Children In Horror | Dark Fantasy Worldbuilding: A Look Into Quaraun's Violent Society

*  Your Magic System | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Your Population | EelKat's Guide To Worldbuilding

*  Your World. Your Head. | Eelkat's Guide To Worldbuilding

...and I would like to answer these questions/prompts, for EACH aspect.

For example, answer Day 1 on the plant page, answering the question focused on the plants of the region, than answer Day 1 focused on the population, than answer Day 1 focused on fantasy creatures, and so on and so forth, etc.

As such these prompts will appear on each page of the series, but my answers on each page will be different.

And as there are 70+ pages that I'm putting this on (linked above) that means I will have to answer EACH of the 3 questions for each of the 31 Days + the 9 Bonus days 70+ times answering each differently. 

The challenge is actual 40 days, because it's 31 days + 9 bonus days. And each day has 3 questions. Meaning there are 120 questions total. 

40 x 70 = 2,800 days x 3 = 8,400 questions total.

40 x 70 = 2,800 days \ 365 = 7+ years to complete this task, if I did only 1 per day, the way the challenge says to do.

Sooooo...

Today is May 15, 2021.

This means it could take me up to 2028 or more to complete this challenge.

Well, let's get started then and see how long it takes me to complete this. Tjis is definitly going to be a long term work-in-progress.

If you would like to do this challenge on your own website or blog, head to the Reddit page for the prompt, under the post, click the "SHARE" button, click the "EMBED" button, the follow the instructions on Reddit's popup to create the type of code your website uses, than click "COPY" and paste the code Reddit gives you into the HTML box of your webpage/blog. Than type your answer under it.

If you would like to post your answer publicly or see the publicly posted answers of others, click on the links to head to Reddit and see the full prompt page of each prompt, submit your own answer on the thread, or read the answers of others.

Most of these prompts had 20 to 50 submissions, some have 100 to 200 or more, so there is quite a lot of answers on each if you are looking for a lot of worldbuilding Fantasy reading to do.

For each prompt, I've included 1 to 4 example submissions from others, also via Reddit's embed codes. If you enjoy a writer's sample, be sure to click on their username link, and check out ALL of their submissions on Reddit.

I've tried to choose examples only from writers whom have large samples of their work published online. Many of them have their own websites where they feature their work, most are published or working towards publication, while others are DnD Dungeon Masters who build vast worlds for their campaigns and post them on persona DnD blogs. 

They are all amazing writers, so be sure to check out their Reddit profiles for lists of links to their websites, blogs, WattPad/Deviant Art free-to-read-online accounts, SmashWords/Amazon profiles, web serials, etc. 

Many of them are self-published via Kindle, so if you like their work, be sure to support them by buying their Kindle and/or Kindle Paperback editions.

So, I was over on Reddit, you like I often am, and found this question. And answered it, like I do. However, the answer I initially gave was a simple generic answer. If you want to read my original answer unaltered, simply click on Reddit's embed feature links which Reddit provides for webmasters to be able to post their answers on their websites, while linking back to the original thread on Reddit (if you didn't know Reddit offered and encouraged the use of this feature, look for it in the "share" features underneath every post, comment, and reply on Reddit).

I am answering random questions today about world building, over on Reddit and decided to take my answers from there and expand upon them even further over here. So that's what this page is. Me rambling on about various aspects of world building techniques I use when writing the Quaraun series. The questions I am answering are embedded here. Clicking the link in the embedded question will take you to the original Reddit page where you can see the original answer along with other people's answers. If you wish to comment, you can do so on the Reddit page where a place to do so is provided.

In any case, as with all of my Reddit answers found on my site here, my original post on Reddit is much shorter then the article here.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 1 of 31:
Famous Townsperson(Local), River Basin(Region), Disputed Territory(World)

Edit: Day 2 is This way!

Well, technically 31+ days of worldbuilding prompts. The goal is to follow along each day and make at least one thing for your world based on one of the categories: Local Area, Regional Area, or Worldwide. That way, you can focus on what you need most for your world even if you don't have much time each day to work on stuff!

For my submissions, I'm going to try and do all three each day, but barring that, I'm going to focus on the local area category for the Region of El in my Nomads of Sky Setting, since I've got a campaign coming up there.

Famous Townsperson: Terrance Mortighast - A well known bounty hunter, but his age is starting to get to him. Not only has he been letting more and more bounties pass him by, but rumor has it that he doesn't even chase his quarry beyond of the Free Cities anymore.

River Basin: Wisp Willow Falls - This once-pristine feature has seen a lot of development over the years due to how readily Wisp Willow, A plant that normally only grows around the very edge of an island, grows there. The area now hails as one of El's primary Aerillium producers.

Disputed Territory: Fermia Archipelago - Known primarily for it's Red Metal Mines, the remoteness of this island chain means that it generally gets claimed by whichever country happens to be passing closest to it at the time. It is one of the few lands to travel near enough to the Maelstrom to be dangerous, though, which gives the island chain a brief period of respite every few years. An ironic sort of peace, really.

Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 2 of 31:
A Noble Family(Local), An Exported Good(Region), A Dying Land(World)

Figured I'd post a bit early so that people have time to get those creative juices flowing before the day of, and because some were waiting to do a couple of days together in order to catch up.

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List

I'll post my own takes once it's actually the 2nd of May in my Timezone.

Happy Worldbuilding Everyone!

Day 1 <-- | --> Day 3

Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 3 of 31:
A Corrupt Politician(Local), A Religious Order(Region), A Stormy Sea(World)

Alright, Round 3 of our 31 Day Challenge!

For folks just tuning in, We're following the prompts listed here.

There are a few MulliganPrompts Thanks to /u/Icy-Conference-5092 for the term :D at the bottom in case today's selection isn't jelling with anyone. Those are listed as letters instead of days.

I've decided to keep posting these around this time since my timezone is trails the end of the day. So, hopefully, that works for everyone.

Anyway, Good luck worldbuilding today!

Day 2 <-- | --> Day 4


If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 4 of 31:
A Domesticated Creature(Local), A Rare Resource(Region), An Icy Reach(World)

Day 4 and everyone's done awesome work so far, keep it up!

For those who've missed it, we're following these prompts each day, with extras at the bottom for those who get mental block.

Day 3 <-- | --> Day 5


If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 5 of 31:
An Abandoned Mine(Local), A Trade Route(Region), A mysterious Archipelago(World)

Greetings again everyone!

Bonus points if you can say why the mine was abandoned, what's the main trade along the route, and how many islands are in your archipelago!

Also, the points don't matter, so long as you're having fun.

Again, prompts are from here, with extra prompts at the bottom if none of today's are doing it for you :D

Day 4 <-- | --> Day 6


If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 6 of 31:
A Local Delicacy(Local), A Wooded Farmland(Region), An Unusual Coastline(World)

I've gone and added page links so that peeps can see what everyone wrote during previous days!

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if none of today's agree with you :D

Day 5 <-- | --> Day 7

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 7 of 31:
 An Old Memorial(Local), A Borderline Cult(Region), An Expanding Forest(World)

Apologies for the delay, but I'm posting this from my phone, so bare with me.

Bonus points question: why don't the cult members don't think it's a cult?

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

Anyway, happy worldbuilding!

Day 6 <-- | --> Day 8

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 8 of 31:
A Calm Pond(Local), The Highest Point of Elevation(Region), A Wild Brushland(World) 

Aha! One week down,everyone! Hope everyone's been able to keep up at least a little bit. I know my work hasn't left me with too much time as of late.

Today's batch has a bunch of natural features, huh?

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

Have fun everyone, and happy worldbuilding!

Day 7 <-- | --> Day 9

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 9 of 31:
An Inspiring Vista(Local), A Winding River(Region), A Rolling Highland(World)

Who knew that there were so many rivers, huh?

Bonus points if any of today's prompts harbor some sort of dark secret!

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

And with that I bestow upon you some happy worldbuilding!

Day 8 <-- | --> Day 10


If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 10 of 31:
A Busy Marketplace(Local), A Dangerous Route(Region), A Major Port City(World)

Finally back to some sort of civilization with these prompts! And with the challenge hitting day 10! Roughly a third down, so I hope everyone's still going strong.

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

As always, happy worldbuilding!

Day 9 <-- | --> Day 11

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 11 of 31:
A Place of Worship(Local), A Hidden Secret(Region), An Active Warzone(World)

Bonus points if all three are the same thing!

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

Good luck, worldbuilders!

Day 10 <-- | --> Day 12

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 12 of 31:
A Form of Contraband(Local), A Branch of Government(Region), An Active Volcano(World)

Bonus points: Hows your volcano activity on a scale of dead, to Saint Helens, to Yellowstone extinction event?

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

For those of you catching up a few days late, here's a "Happy Worldbuilding" from the past!

Day 11 <-- | --> Day 13

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

A Form of Contraband

Dreams are a commodity in many of the markets of my world. A bottled creature that will give you a pleasant night's sleep and a dream created by design. However the quality that these dreams have means they are also surprisingly expensive and addictive. Many people who run out of dreams seek out cheaper alternatives. Since the dreammarket is highly regulated these are not always entirely legal, let alone safe to use. They may incude nightmares or worse, create a permanent comatose state.


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 13 of 31:
Annual Festival(Local), A Merchant Guild (Region), A Paradise Island(World)

Hope everyone's still trucking along!

Bonus points today: Does your guild have a signet/seal used for official documents?

Prompts are posted here, with extra prompts at the bottom if you need them :D

Wishing you all some Happy Worldbuilding!

Day 12 <-- | --> Day 14

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


Examples From Others:

My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 14 of 31:

An Unlawful Group (Local),
A Navigational Waypoint (Region),
A Windy Desert (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 15 of 31:

An Opulent Structure (Local),
A Hard To Cross Terrain (Region),
A Deep Ocean (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 16 of 31:

A Burial Place (Local),
A Secluded Path (Region),
A Flooded Plain (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 17 of 31:

A Leadership Figure (Local),
An Accepting Faction (Region),
An Ancient Cataclysmic Event (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 18 of 31:

A Solitary Tower (Local),
A Widespread Rumor (Region),
A Dead Civilization (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 19 of 31:

A Gathering Hub (Local),
A Capital City (Region),
A Prosperous Nation (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 20 of 31:

A Local Tragedy (Local),
A Migratory Creature(Region),
A Recent Historical Event (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 21 of 31:

A Ghost Story (Local),
A Lost Treasure (Region),
A Pilgrimage Site (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 22 of 31:

An Abandoned Building (Local),
A City in Decline (Region),
An Ongoing Disease (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 23 of 31:

A Farmable Crop (Local),
A Narrow Passage (Region),
A Disaster That Occurs Once Every Hundred Years (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 24 of 31:

A Rediscovered Ruin (Local),
An Unusual Method of Payment (Region),
A Colourful Grassland (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 25 of 31:

A Humble Ranch (Local),
An Extensive Cave (Region),
A Worldly Travelling Clan (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 26 of 31:

A Local Fashion Trend (Local),
An Upper Class Collectable (Region),
A Taboo Crime (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 27 of 31:

A Memorable Bridge (Local),
A Grandiose Construction Project (Region),
A Rare Event of Religious Significance (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 28 of 31:

Someone's Unusual Pet (Local),
The Best Smuggling Route (Region),
The Greatest Waterfall (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 29 of 31:

A Thriving Garden (Local),
An Honor Guard (Region),
A Popular Constellation (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 30 of 31:

An Unfinished Foundation (Local),
A Method of Communication (Region),
An Extensive Mountain Range (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Day 31 of 31:

A Newly Wed Couple (Local),
A Counterfeit Operation
A Nest of Dangerous Creatures (Region),
A Recurring Astrological Event (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus A:

An Unfaithful Spouse (Local),
A Nest of Dangerous Creatures (Region),
An Endangered Species (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus B:

A Flavorful Breaded Pastry (Local),
A Common Variety of Flower (Region),
A Ritual Older Than Recorded History (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus C:

An Eccentric Entrepreneur (Local),
A Cautious Heroic Folktale (Region),
A Lost Continent (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus D:

A Scarred Hermit (Local),
A Seasonal Allergy (Region),
A Failed Prophecy (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus E:

A Jerk With A Heart of Gold (Local),
A Band of Mercenaries (Region),
A Scorched Land (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus F:

A Wandering Sage or Artist (Local),
A Natural, Defensible Border (Region),
A Land Bridge (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus G:

A Healer of Wounds (Local),
A Group That Keeps The Peace (Region),
A Wandering Horror (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus H:

An Inescapable Scent (Local),
A Relatively Lawless Area (Region),
A Sheltered Vale (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:

NOTE: The Reddit post series for The 31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge, ended at 13 instead of 31, but the chart gives us what the rest of the prompts should have been, so I will continue the list of the remaining prompts without links to Reddit posts as there were no more Reddit posts made in this series after Day 13.

This means there are also no more answers from others, and no place on Reddit for you to post your own answers for the remaining days, so fell free to post your answers on your own blogs and websites. Should I run across your blog posts I'll link to them here so others can find and read them.

Getting To Know Your World & It's People Using
31 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge!
Bonus I:

A Retired Adventurer (Local),
A Collection of Knowledge (Region),
A Land Owned By None (World)

If none of these prompts work for you today, Don't forget that there's a few extra prompts at the bottom of the 31 Days of Worldbuilding List


My Answer:

I have not yet answered this

Local:

Region:

World:

Bonus:

Bonus Added By Me:

Bonus: How do these 3 things come together?

Has Quaraun Yet Encountered These Things?
If so, how did they affect him?
If not, will he? Why or why not?:








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