Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! Let's talk about interconnectivity. What are some ways your worldbuilding links together? Do you have elaborate political maps with dynamic group interactions? Or delicately balanced ecosystems, where your flora and fauna have detailed relationships? Complicated mgaic rules? Elegant family trees for your gods? Draw some connections today--maybe even between things you didnt previously know were connected
Happy (belated) Worldbuilding Wednesday!
So the because of the way that my brain works, in the same vein as a year old beagle catching a whiff of a beggin’ strip on the wind, one thing always leads to another.
This, after having written it, is long! So I’m going to put my infodump after the break. It doesn’t get into everything that I consider to be connected in terms of worldbuilding within Roam, but its a fairly accurate example of how one thought began the process of working on Roam as a whole.
Short answer: My worldbuilding tends to link together through extant historical examples changed just enough to suit my needs for magical/narrative purposes. I cant think of anything that has appeared in Roam not inspired by something else already there.
The idea for Roam began from an idea I had while I was getting my first tattoo, in honour of my mother. She would say not to worry because “All roads are connected” (this was because she was constantly getting turned around while driving, but the sentiment was one I could get behind.) So, while I was getting the tattoo I let my mind wander and wondered, what if that were true? Of course, physically, it is essentially true, yes, but I meant in more of a magical metaphysical sense. So, if all roads are connected, and all roads lead to Rome, how would that work?
Well, the beagle was off and running, then. What was interesting about Rome, to me, was in learning just how the Empire got to be as powerful as it did, and then how it collapsed. What if the thing that led to its pinnacle was also that which, once gone, led to its decline? Keeping the quote in mind I decided to use the technologically advanced system of roads to put the magic in, and if they were magic roads then they should lead to a magic place. Rome, homophone for Roam, another word for wandering which was a nice little link to roads.
Then everything stopped and I went on vacation to England and by chance and proximity I was able to go to the city of St Albans where the ruins of Verulamium (a former Romano-British settlement) are. Britain has a long history with the Roman Empire, and not only a great set of Roman roads, but also ancient, ancient trackways and Neolithic “roads” that are still extant, and many modern cities built on the ruins of Roman ones. With this in mind, I looked for a town to use as a sort of base of operations and I found Crowthorne, in Berkshire which appears along the route of a Roman road that was named The Devil’s Highway, which leads from London (Londinium) to Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) which was a main route west toward Bath.
Crowthorne is also just north of Sandhurst Military base (and academy) and is the location for Wellington College, a very high ranking and very expensive private boarding school. From there, the fictional Roaman society came into focus. A society of the haves and the have nots. An elitist society that uses its “lesser” members to do the work they see as beneath them, and viciously keeps them under thumb in order to ‘maintain the status quo’. A Society so focused on how great they used to be that they cannot see what they have become, and refuses to change. (Too on the nose?)
But one country doesn’t make an empire, and to claim that the UK was the centre of all of this seemed.... disingenuous. So, I went back to the history and created 7 modern provinces, and named capitol cities for each, reporting to the Imperial Capitol in Rome. From the top down there is an Emperor (Empress, in this case), 2 Consuls elected from the Senate and 1 Tribune elected from the general population. The Empress has final say, and is counselled by the Consuls and Tribune. Those four preside over the Senate (10 members from each province, Senator title inherited) and the decisions made in the Senate are relayed back to the provinces to where provincial Ministry’s deal with the actual day-to-day issues.
But, since I decided that its a world of the haves and have nots, and this is a ‘democratic’ system, I had to figure out who benefits from it and who doesn’t. So, three social classes (four if you count those who aren’t in Roaman society, non-magic Plebs), sort of low, middle and upper class but its more like low, upper and uppiest. In decending order we have the Senatorial class (the only ones who are able to hold the title of Senator and cast votes within the Senate. Very old money, very happy with things the way they are), the Patricians (these are families who HAVE a vote to cast, but must align themselves with a Senatorial family in order to have that vote cast. Well off, sends their kids to like, oxford and shit without much financial worry usually. Can serve in the Ministry, sometimes serves in the army.) and finally we have those who are considered “Citizens”.
Citizens are magical enough to qualify as having Roaman blood, but their lineage is either mixed with Plebian or “Beast” blood that excludes them from holding votes. (“Beasts” are creatures from the myths and legends from each province, Roamans believe they came from the Roads themselves and when the ancient empire fell and the Roads were disconnected, the Beasts were stranded and began to interbreed.) They are given protection from Plebian discovery by Roam, and are given the opportunity to work in Roaman venues where they might not be able to in the Plebian world, but they have no say in how their world works. They do not benefit from the high-class eduction or job opportunities that the other classes get.
Votes, as you can see, are almost as valuable as actual currency, and this leads to a huge emphasis being placed on alliances, marriages and feuds between family lines. It’s not a 1-1 scale of Family to votes, though. A family gets their votes based on property holding, assets, vassals (citizens who might live on their land or other lower status families who pledge to support them). Also, the number of magical Prices you hold count toward votes.
So, all this to say that things in Roam are at a tipping point, which is precisely what my BBEG is all about. They want chaos, and they know precisely how they want to take advantage of that chaos. They are the ultimate puppet master, showing one face to someone and turning around with another.
I’m trying desperately to make Roam grounded in fact, in history, because the point I want to make is that the things going on in Roam are the things that I am seeing. The magic is background, almost, maybe just icing or decoration. Quarantine and Tr*mp have started my brain beagle sniffing in the direction of learning more about what an Empire really is, what happens when Fascist ideology starts to take hold in a society and what can be done to heal the wounds of a fractured nation. The answer is love, partly, but I’m no so naive that I don’t also think that what is needed is decisive action, by and in support of the people who have been suffering in an unfair system.
Hi there person! Happy MAGM! To whichever character feels like answering, what is your happy place and why?
Hey there! :D Thanks for the ask! I think Tully’s going to take this one.
T: So, I’m the middle kid. Shock, I know, I’m just so quiet and unobtrusive! Anyway, when dad found out that mum was having the triplets, all girls, he decided that there needed to be at least one room in the house where we’d at least have a wall between us and the estrogen. Lucy and I were what, maybe 5? 6? So I couldn’t help out, but Vic was about 11 by then so he and dad worked on making us a little clubhouse out of the cowshed in the back.
I begged and begged and they finally let me go in as long as I sat in one corner and didn’t try to- I don’t know, eat nails. I felt so special because it was just for boys and Lucy wasn’t allowed to come in. Privacy when you’re a twin is in pretty short supply, you see. And it was just me and Vic and Dad all summer, working away until the place didn’t smell like cow anymore, and had glass in the windows and a little camping cot we could sleep in if we checked with mum first. It was perfect for when I pissed Lucy off and needed a place to hide, or if the babies were crying, or when I made friends with Quin and we wanted a place to hang out just on our own.
I haven’t gone in since Dad and Vic died. I mean, I haven’t really had a reason. Not much need for a clubhouse nowadays. I’m busy with the Inn, running the bar- I’m too busy. But hanging out in that stupid little loft, fixing it up with Dad, running around with Vic, even just chilling out doing nothing with Quin-
My life has been so much better ever since I traded my impostor syndrome to brilliant conman -syndrome. Do I deserve anything in life? Fuck no! Will I grasp it anyway? Fuck yes!
My art has never been worth shit, but watch me bullshit my way into art school! I am a horrid goblin, but watch me make these people like me! Am I qualified to do this task? Well I sure have the certificates that say that I am! And how did I get those? Who knows! Not me! I am so good at cheating, I don’t have to break a single rule to do it!
I am brilliant, fast, and absolutely drunk with power!
Am I procrastinating by making this quickie little mood board thing for Roam? Why yes, yes I am. I’ve got through (more or less) the first quarter of the plot through some severe underwriting, but now I have to do the thing I’ve been dreading. I have to figure out the murder-mystery. I know the murder, but I am woefully ill-prepared to figure out how to make it mystery. Y’all, how do you do it? It’s like trying to keep secrets in my own brain.
Bonus points to anyone who can pinpoint who of my three protagonists is throwing up which gesture!
About the bottled up OC lore... what do you want me to ask???? I will ask it! What do you want to say? I am famished for lore!
Oh my, now that I’ve been asked, my mind has gone almost entirely blank on what characters to talk about! There are many that I’ve talked about in vague terms, but I never went fully into their lore.
I’ll just start listing a few ocs below that come to mind right now:
WORLD OF SKIES UNIVERSE
One oc that I’ve barely mentioned would be the goddess Khysis. I’ve noted that her bloodline is important to the archangels, but I never talked about what her origins were and such, though I have slightly alluded to it before.
Stuff behind Alinar and Memphia’s relationship and how things turned so bad. I’ve mentioned before that they’re both horrible people in their own ways, but wasn’t specific to what they did back then or even nowadays.
What happened to the all the angels in general, what role Zarrian played in it, and why they’re bloodline is important later on (which has some spoiler material).
Speaking of which, Ameera and Silas (who are descendants of Zarrian). Their bloodline is the reason Silas was taken as a child and Ameera was pretty much hidden away by her mother.
Things going on between Radan and Vietna (it hurts my heart and I want to talk about it all so badly, but it’s also quite riddled with spoilers).
I’m mean I’m def interested in what’s happening with Radan and Vietna, but I also don’t want to be spoiled! If you’d want to ramble about Alinar and Mephina though... I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed! Lol. I am so in your boat about little things you love that just haven’t really come up yet, though, sometimes it’s those sort of things that I’m proudest of!
happy (early) wbw! tell me about transportation! are there roads, trains, boats, planes? what's the main way to get around?
Happy WBW!
Ooh boy, transportation! Thanks for this ask! This is like, one of the main concepts I’m playing around with. I’ll try to keep it brief, but I hope I explain it well! Roads have always been a weird obesssion of mine. I even have a tattoo about them!
In the broadest sense, how people move around in Roam is exactly the same as we move around in our world. Cars, bikes, boats, planes, the whole deal. But where it gets tricky is when we take into account the whole conceit of Roam, that a hidden magical population has figured out how to harness latent magic hidden in the earth (that are known as Roads), and then used their magic to travel these Roads at high speed and great distance in order to further their own agendas. In the time that Roam takes place, Roamans who walk a Road usually live nearby to what they refer to as an Inn or a Waystop, and might walk over or park their Plebian cars, then get on the Road and exit at the next Inn until they get where they’re going.
Roads are a sort of a liminal space, a world between worlds. Roads are where magical creatures are said to have made the leap into the non-magical world, and where they are said to hide if they cant blend in. Supposedly, they are the basis for the legend of Faerie courts, where time and space works differently. This magic crosses the world and it is theorized that it is what drew the first humans to walk certain paths in the first place. Pleb or not, the Roads have a pull, and generally Roads and modern trails, trackways, streets, highways... they follow the same lines.
When you’re on a Road, it isn’t a modern paved surface. Roads may lead through modern towns and cities, but all that can be seen on a Road is forest. Trees so large and densely grouped everything looks greyscale. There is a path, wide enough for two men to pass, never wider or narrower and when you walk a Road that is exactly what you do. You walk. Running is seen as rude, and dangerous. You might knock someone off the path.
oooohhhh your Roads sound so cool!!!! I love it when stories play with liminal spaces, and they sound like there's that good balance of "fantastical and magical atmosphere" and "Dangerous Place Do Not Try Anything," which is always 10/10 for me :D
It sounds like they're a bit of a historical thing as well as a current fixture which is interesting. Are they kind of viewed as something to be in awe of, or are people kind of neutral about them?
Thanks @inkwell-attitude! Yeah, there’s certainly a well-deserved amount of healthy fear surrounding them. You don’t let kids go on a Road alone until they’re at least 12 (the traditional age of being given your own Price and being able to do magic), and its seen as dangerous to be on a Road after dark for more than a short journey.
They’re not like, put in a place of reverence, but they’re certainly thought of in more detail then a Plebian road. There’s a whole tradition of studying Roads, their history and how they work, and there’s always been interest in figuring out how to find or replicate the methods that the original Roamans used to harness magic. Some people think that there might be a way to reconnect the Roads to Roam, to rediscover it and get the ancient power back.
I really wanted to play around with liminal spaces when I came up with this idea. It mostly sprang up from thoughts on what a modern liminal space would be, and then daydreaming connections in more traditional stories. I’d originally hoped to set this in the Americas and make some comments about like liminal spaces and the experience of a truck stop Burger King, but I had to rework the idea. Though, if things lead where I think they’re going, a trip back to the Americas might be on the cards!
Rough first line, still not quite decided if it works.
“ Leah Bird worked at a store that sold the kind of trinkets white women over 50 seemed to love.”
I’m super far behind on who has already done this, so I’ll tag a couple of people that might be into it. Sorry if I tag you and you’ve already done it/aren’t up for it!
happy (early) wbw! tell me about transportation! are there roads, trains, boats, planes? what's the main way to get around?
Happy WBW!
Ooh boy, transportation! Thanks for this ask! This is like, one of the main concepts I’m playing around with. I’ll try to keep it brief, but I hope I explain it well! Roads have always been a weird obesssion of mine. I even have a tattoo about them!
In the broadest sense, how people move around in Roam is exactly the same as we move around in our world. Cars, bikes, boats, planes, the whole deal. But where it gets tricky is when we take into account the whole conceit of Roam, that a hidden magical population has figured out how to harness latent magic hidden in the earth (that are known as Roads), and then used their magic to travel these Roads at high speed and great distance in order to further their own agendas. In the time that Roam takes place, Roamans who walk a Road usually live nearby to what they refer to as an Inn or a Waystop, and might walk over or park their Plebian cars, then get on the Road and exit at the next Inn until they get where they’re going.
Roads are a sort of a liminal space, a world between worlds. Roads are where magical creatures are said to have made the leap into the non-magical world, and where they are said to hide if they cant blend in. Supposedly, they are the basis for the legend of Faerie courts, where time and space works differently. This magic crosses the world and it is theorized that it is what drew the first humans to walk certain paths in the first place. Pleb or not, the Roads have a pull, and generally Roads and modern trails, trackways, streets, highways... they follow the same lines.
When you’re on a Road, it isn’t a modern paved surface. Roads may lead through modern towns and cities, but all that can be seen on a Road is forest. Trees so large and densely grouped everything looks greyscale. There is a path, wide enough for two men to pass, never wider or narrower and when you walk a Road that is exactly what you do. You walk. Running is seen as rude, and dangerous. You might knock someone off the path.
Happy MAGM! For the character of your choice: If you could start your own country from scratch, what would it be like?
Happy belated MAGM!
I’m going to tackle this from the point of view of someone I don’t think Ive mentioned yet, Lucia “Lucy” Thorn, Tully’s twin sister.
Lucy was born with a colour coded brain, a born administrator and whatever country she would create would reflect that. The trains would all run on time, the streets would be clean, the lawns all clipped and manicured. There would be no shortage of resources because she would be sure to make sure their production and distribution was steady and equal. Education would be a priority, and so would employment. The Empire would be led into the modern world in the bright light of day, where Lucy could make sure that everything ran smoothly. No starvation, no homelessness...
And no Plebians. Plebs, to Lucy’s mind, have been kept in the dark about magic for long enough that their ignorance has made them dangerous. A country for Roamans, by Roamans, would eliminate the danger.
happy MGM! what accessories/colour schemes would your characters have if they were magical girls?
Happy Meet and Greet Monday to you, too! This is a really fun one.
The three of my protagonists are associated with the three metals from Roman coins. Gold, silver and copper, but they don’t fit the way I think might be obvious.
My (arguably) main character Leah ends up with a golden coin to focus her magic, her first name is actually Aurelia (taken from Aureus which means gold), and some will describe her eyes as golden, but Leah is copper. She is incredibly malleable, overlooked and works as a capable conductor of energy. If she were a magical girl she’d be in green with a tall copper staff.
Tarquin is considered to be the golden child, the one who everyone has the highest hopes for, but he is not gold. His last name is Argent (from the French/Latin for silver) and in this case, its spot on. He is surprisingly sensitive and is meant to portray the balance between darkness and light. If he was a magical girl he’d be in blue, with a silver bow and arrow.
Tully, overlooked and underestimated, is gold. Under all of his.... personality, he is warm, giving and self-sacrificing. He is, though, still glamorous, dramatic and not shy about getting attention. If he were a magical girl, he’d be dressed in black or white, with a golden sword.
Happy Meet and Greet Monday! How would your characters handle one of those "fake baby assignments", where they have to take care of an egg for a week? Do they partner up? Name it? Boil it to keep it safe, totally missing the point?
Happy Meet and Greet Monday to you, too!
Leah: Oh, I loved that assignment in high school! I was partnered with Caleb Walker and he didn’t give a shit, so I got to take the- why are you looking at me like that?
Quin: An egg? I had to sit through 10 years of Latin, and you got to take care of an egg? And you got graded on it?
Leah: Well, excuse me little Lord Fauntleroy. I didn’t get the chance to go to Hogwarts and learn Latin and play cricket, so yeah, we had assignments like taking care of eggs.
Tully: He’s just grumpy because he knows he’d fail. Look at the mitts on him, he’s been swinging swords so long he couldn’t help but make an omelette. I’d be aces at it. I’ve had 16 years of not killing my baby sisters. Automatic A.
Quin: You’re delusional Thorn. I was always top of the class and personally-
So, my week of feral drafting is over and it went exactly as planned!
Which is to say, I didn’t come anywhere close to finishing. But I knew I wouldn’t! This is my first real writing project in over half a decade, this whole pandemic thing has me questioning the entire direction of my life, and I knew that it was just an absolutely unattainable goal for me to reach in just a week.
But it made me start and actually get words down rather than just world building in my head! And its really given me a good understanding of just how long this first draft is going to be, and how much I am going to have to trim and re-work. It’s also really pushed me to think that Ive got some undiagnosed ADHD thing going on, but that’s- I mean, its whatever. I’ve written, in fits and starts, just over 10k words of plot-based outline. It began as a drafty draft but then the time crunch started to encroach and the speed picked up. So, 10k worth of outline, and I think that I’ve only just started to approach the first pinch point in the narrative (25% of the way through).
Anyway, It was a fun exercise. I would, for anyone else thinking of attempting it, suggest having an outline. I had no idea where these crazy kids were taking me, or what they would need before they could move on to the next thing. An outline would have helped enormously. I think I didn’t make one just because I knew from the start that I wouldnt actually be finishing.
This is a great challenge if you need a kick up the ass to just GO and DO IT if you are having trouble making yourself DO THE THING. It’s super low-stakes because at the end of it you’ll just have more words! I highly recommend it :D
