🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces
(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)
So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented:
→ Three types of ceremonial jewelry
→ A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed
→ A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn
Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.
And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.
Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.
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🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style
Ask yourself:
→ Who’s in charge, and why?
→ Who has land? Who doesn’t?
→ What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?
Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.
Start there. Not at the embroidery.
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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict
Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?
→ What was destroyed and mythologized?
→ What do the survivors still whisper about?
→ What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?
No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.
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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists
Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about:
→ Death?
→ Love?
→ Time?
→ The natural world?
→ Justice?
Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.
You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.
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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)
Culture shows up in:
→ What people apologize for
→ What insults cut deepest
→ What people are embarrassed about
→ What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately
For instance:
→ A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?”
→ A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.
This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.
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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals
Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about:
→ Breakfast routines?
→ How people greet each other on the street?
→ Who cooks, and who eats first?
→ What’s considered “clean” or “proper”?
→ How is parenting handled? Divorce?
Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.
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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture
A culture isn’t a monolith.
Even in deeply traditional societies, people:
→ Rebel
→ Question
→ Break rules
→ Misinterpret laws
→ Mock sacred things
→ Act hypocritically
→ Weaponize or resist what’s expected
Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.
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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap
Worldbuilding gets boring fast when:
→ The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure
→ The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric”
→ Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like
You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy.
→ Let ugly things be beloved.
→ Let beautiful things be corrupt.
→ Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.
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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy):
→ Culture is not food and jewelry.
→ Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction.
→ Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter.
→ Let your world feel lived in, not curated.
The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list.
It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.
Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)
—rin t.
// writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range
// thewriteadviceforwriters
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honestly, if I were to ever make a Jsab story, which would most likely just be mostly a retelling of the game, I’d make Cyan the leader, Yellow the brains, Green the speedster, and Orange the brawn with one point in the story being Cyan getting killed by Corrupted Cube and then Green just be booking it while carrying both of the other team members that aren’t dead. What bad attributes should I give to all of them that relate to the main thing they’re known for?
Unrelated btw but I ship Macabre with Heli.
you could add extra shapes on their heads to look like hairstyles (or just give them hair), you could give them distinguishing clothing styles, you could give them all different friendship bracelets, etc.
Hi everyone -- now that we're a good chunk of the way through the third Valicer In The Dark story, "The Van Dort Vacancy," I wanted to take some time and talk about where the series is going from here. Specifically, my aim today is to put at least some of the many, many story ideas I've talked about in the past in order chronologically! So both you and I know what's coming up -- at least in terms of the "main" stories (since prompt fic and one-shot nonsense is still gonna happen from time to time). Here's the list I've got so far:
->1. "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of" (the one where Alice and Smiler officially meet Victor and help him with his "ghost bride" problem -- only for the three of them to end up accused of the murder of a Spirit Warden and end up fleeing to Six Towers to hide and regroup. Posted and completed)
->2. "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" (the one where the trio go "well, if we're already accused of murder, might as well murder somebody for real" and go to Houndsditch to find proof of Bumby's vile activities and take him out...only learning afterward that they were cleared of the "Spirit Warden murder" hours after being accused. Posted and completed)
->3. "The Van Dort Vacancy" (the one where Victor plans to go back to his normal life now that everything has been cleared up regarding the "dead Spirit Warden" mess...only to discover just how much his parents really love him and instead help Alice, Smiler, and guest stars Barnaby "The Butcher" Fortescue III and Kasimir Jones rob their vault before running off back to Six Towers with Alice and Smiler. Posted, in progress at time of this writing)
->4. "They Would Have Done It For An Ottoman" (the one where Victor, Alice, and Smiler -- having officially become the Shadows crew The Three Pillars -- steal a list of the names and addresses of newly-elected union reps from a factory to save the workers from their boss's attempt at anti-union retaliation (by threatening their families). The title comes from the fact that they're paid for the job partly in furniture (a couch, a dining table, and a couple of chairs) because one of the men hiring them recently got some new stuff from a recently-passed relative and the trio DESPERATELY need furniture to make their house more livable)
->5. "I...Might Be Afraid Of Some Ghost" (the one where Victor, looking to learn more about the ghost-hunting side of being a Whisper, basically apprentices to Bonejangles and goes with him on a job to capture some Echoes (Alice and Smiler tagging along for moral support)...only to discover one of the ghosts is actually a Specter. As per an earlier post, this was originally named "Who You Gonna Call?" but I changed it after listening to the iconic Ghostbusters theme tune and coming up with this much funnier line)
->6. First Greenhouse Story/Radcliffe Story (the one where Victor discovers an old greenhouse in Six Towers and decides he wants to fix it up and turn it into a place where the whole district can get fresh food; after consulting with a glazier about the cost of replacing the glass, Alice suggests shaking down Radcliffe for her inheritance to pay for the work...leading to them discovering his secret collaboration with Bumby and his decision to sell his daughter Angela for safe passage out of the city -- they naturally stop him, and it turns out there's a reward for bringing in people who were part of Bumby's ring, which pays for the glasswork. You may recognize this from previous posts as two story ideas I've combined into one -- I couldn't come up with a good idea for what the gang could do for the glazier to pay for the job, so I decided "why not get the Radcliffe stuff out of the way as part of this story?" I think it works)
->7. Second Greenhouse Story (the one where the gang, having fixed up the glass in the greenhouse, travel to Barrowcleft to see about getting plants, both regular and radiant, to grow in it -- and agree to help some of the local farmers investigate some disappearances to get a discount. I haven't fully figured out the score here, but I know it'll involve another Alton Towers ride turned into a cult -- currently I'm thinking "Junkers kidnapping people to give to the Nemesis monster" or "Beornen kidnapping people to put into the Wicker Man," with a slight lean toward the latter because that'll help establish the "Advocate vs Beornen," and more specifically the "Smiler vs their leader Bob," dynamic)
->8. Third Greenhouse Story (the one where Victor works on creating butterflies infused with radiant energy to further help the plants in the greenhouse grow, but needs to get a bigger supply of electroplasm to continue his experiments. This is the least-well-defined of the "greenhouse arc" stories so far, but I'm thinking it might involve the gang doing some work testing out various inventions from Dr. Egon Spengler and Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, the introduction of the "lighting thrower" seen in the Deep Cuts supplement to BITD (which, yes, IS essentially a proper gaslamp fantasy proton pack), and possibly my own take on the "ghost bug zapper" @marlynnofmany invented in her story "Bright Spirits" (I said I wanted to do something like that in VITD!))
->9. Fourth Greenhouse Story (the one where the gang, on the verge of opening up the renovated greenhouse to the residents of Six Towers, get a surprise visit to said greenhouse by Lord Nathaniel Rowan -- who informs them that he owns the place and will be taking it for his own unless they pay him a truly astronomical rent; cue Smiler managing to talk him into betting they can't get the deed to the place out of his house without getting caught by his guards, and the trio doing just that. The very important introduction of recurring antagonist Lord Rowan!)
->10. "Welcome To The Sanctuary" (the one where the trio discover that Dr. Kelman is after Victor, Alice, and "Marmaduke Kelman" to make them socially compliant...leading to Victor and Alice learning Smiler's backstory and birth name and deciding this guy has to go down. I'm currently thinking that this is triggered by the Van Dorts hiring Kelman to track down Victor and make him "socially compliant" (Kelman deciding on his own to get Alice and Smiler when he learns who Victor is hanging out with), and involves the gang finding Smiler's birth mother Margaret in the Sanctuary (as a vegetable, sadly, as per "The Miseries Of Margaret Kelman") and Miles Cedars being the one to ACTUALLY take down Kelman. As for the title, I was a bit torn between "Welcome To The Sanctuary" and some variant on "Time To Get Corrected," but I think the latter works better as a chapter title. We'll see how I feel later!)
->11. "And There Was Only One Bed" (the one where Smiler hypnotizes Victor to help him with his insomnia, leading to the three all sharing a bed together and -- after a close call with Victor nearly falling off a roof the next day -- finally admitting they have feelings for each other. I felt it important that this one not happen until Victor and Alice learn Smiler's backstory, since it's a big relationship upgrade! Still very much looking forward to it, though)
->12. "This Settlement DEFINITELY Needs Their Help" (the one where the trio find a mysterious dog hanging out by an abandoned electroplasmic carriage maintenance building who leads them to a different building where they find a group of survivors from the Quincy Street Massacre, under the protection of ex-Bluecoat Preston Garvey, being menaced by a gang trying to kidnap one of them for her psychic powers; cue the Three Pillars helping protect the survivors from the gang...and then from a horror that bursts out of the sewers midway through the first fight. I didn't originally think I would put this story so soon in the timeline, but I like it here because it means Dogmeat will be joining the gang of pets sooner rather than later. Victor shouldn't have to wait ages to get his pupper when Smiler got their raven buddy Sooty in the second story and Alice picked up her cat Guide in the sixth! Also, I originally thought the title should be a play on the title of the Fallout 4 quest it's adapting, "When Freedom Calls," but I could never come up with a variant I liked. So a play on Preston's (in)famous line while giving out Minuteman radiant quests it is!)
Not a bad start, I think! I want to see how far these twelve stories bring me into the Duskwallian year (and to figure out exactly what's going on with a couple of stories in the Greenhouse Arc so I can give them titles) before I continue lining things up, but I do have some thoughts about where some of the other stories I've come up with should fall:
->The "stealing a Dragon's Bane fruit (aka a pineapple) from Lord Rowan for Chef Roselle" story should definitely happen within the first year of the Three Pillars' existence, so Lord Rowan is appropriately pissed off at them for showing up in his house again during "A...Gratitude...Carol?"
->Speaking of which, "A...Gratitude...Carol?", being a Christmas Carol parody, will cap off the first year of the Three Pillars' adventures, and will be immediately followed by the "the three compete on the local version of Taskmaster" story to start year two (as I previously mentioned it made sense to set it around that time of year because of Taskmaster's "New Year's Treat" specials)
->The "Bazso Baz of the Lampblacks invites the Three Pillars to a party supposedly to celebrate how fast they've made a name for themselves in the underworld...only to reveal he's letting the OTHER criminal gangs in attendance hunt them for their bounties" story should happen sometime solidly in their second year, after it's established that Lord Rowan has a price on their heads. It also has to happen after the "Lord E.A. Bethesda hires the group for a job...only to then trap them in the Deathlands so they'll die and he doesn't have to pay them; cue a follow-up where the gang takes out a real-life Jabberwock" stories because I want to establish that the group is harder to kill than people first think (and because Baz is actually friendlier to the group in that one when he hears their story...maybe the "Doc Brown hires them to help him out with his debt to the Red Sashes" story happens in between the Bethesda one and the party?)
->There's at least one jokey one-off I want to do based on one of the earliest Oxventure One-Shot Wonders that'll be set sometime after "I...Might Be Afraid Of Some Ghost" -- I don't want to give more detail than that as I want this one to be a surprise, but I'm definitely looking forward to writing it XD
->There's also a non-zero chance that I'll be writing a prequel story featuring the three times Smiler and Alice chatted before "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of" -- mostly because I have a draft of the first chapter (the very first time they met, from Smiler's POV) already done, and I know exactly what I want to do for the other two chapters (Alice learns Smiler's nonbinary, from Alice's POV, and Alice saves Smiler from some roughs trying to intimidate them out of their territory, from Smiler's POV). Not sure yet where it'll fall in the story order, admittedly...
->And of course I'd like to post all the various prompt fic and such I've written for various Polyship Weeks and Multiamory March, plus the one-off prequel fic "Blessing" (covering Smiler's reaction to waking up with glowing yellow eyes after presenting their Joy Serum to Dr. Gertslauer and gaining the favor of Mar-Mal) at some point -- though I'm not sure when, as a few of them are kinda spoilery at this point in time (especially any featuring the full complement of pets). I also don't know if they should be separate one-shots or gathered as chapters of a single story, like my "Scenes From Secundus" prompt fic collection for the Secundus Verse -- though if the latter, I do have a potential title for the collection: "The Duskwall Digest." I don't know, I just like it!
And there we have it for now! Stay tuned for the inevitable follow-up when I get a little further into this series and have to organize more story ideas! Because, as has been established, I have SO FUCKING MANY of them...
Transformers, Rise Up and Roll Out: A Storybuilding Attempt, Part Two
Welp, Part One sank like a stone, but if I was the giving up sort, I wouldn't still be trying to do this on Tumblr, so.
MODERN HISTORY:
Ok, so. War is vaguely G1-ish deal, culminating in something like the Movie. Except that Rodimus Prime doesn't suck. He rallies the Autobots to defeat Galvatron, and the 'Cons break into various bands under various warlords. Rodimus leaves cleaning them up to his generals (Ultra Magnus, Fort Max, Dai Atlas, Star Sabre, etc ) while he focuses on rebuilding Cybertron and the galaxy at large. Eventually, one of them, in desperation, makes the extremely stupid decision to ally with the Quints, resulting in the creation and release of the Hate Plague. Rodimus puts an end to it, losing his life in the process, passing the Matrix to the aforementioned generals to safeguard until a new Prime can be chosen, and accept the Decepticons' surrender.
Thousands of years later, a generation of Transformers have known only peace (barring the occasional police action), the galaxy united under the Council of Worlds, chaired by the wise Logos Prime. His best friend and closest political ally is Deceptitron, a warrior who's valor and honor are unimpeachable and has taken as much pride in repairing the damage Megatron and his initial successors did to the Decepticon Nation's honor and reputation as he does in likewise rebuilding their economic, industrial, and military might.
But there are those who don't care for the current era of galactic peace and prosperity.The cruel and greedy Quintessons, the mad genius Primacron, the zealots known as the Reapers, etc. Individually, none of them can threaten the combined might of the Galactic Defense Force, the Autobots, and the Decepticons... until they are united by a mysterious, shadowy figure ...with an insidious plan. A plan that no one else knows about until the shocking moment when Logos Prime is assassinated. Even more surprising is what follows, for mere moments after dying Autobot leader uses his last strength to hand the Matrix of Leadership to his Decepticon counterpart...
"ARISE VERITAS PRIME!"
Uhh, anyways.
I know I want the thing to end with the reveal that the Cloaked Mystery Villain is Starscream's Ghost, that he sacrificed his pawns to possess Cybertron as his new body, and that Veritas Prime defeats him using the combined power of the AllSpark, the Enigma of Combination, Vector Sigma and Underbase.
Possibly uses that power to Combine all Transformers into a single entity?
Final blow would be channeling the power of the Matrix through his Fusion Cannon?
Currently not sure how to get from A to B, just same vague bits and bobs, EG. The Council of Worlds meets in Blackrock Hall, located in the Prime Plaza just outside Optimus Park, in the heart of Rodimus City on the planet New Lithone, in orbit of which is Faireborn Station, headquarters of the Galactic Defense Command. The flagship of the GDC is GDCS Ginrai, which is not to be confused with her sister ships: GDCS Lennox, GDCS Galen, and GDCS Nakadai.
There was a nightmare that collapsed here not too long ago. A large and bellowing spirit that swallowed small souls that would float in the wind. They had a long neck and a bird-like appearance.. When their old body decomposed enough, the souls that it had swallowed long ago had grown into ribbon-like creatures that seemed to multiply in mutations and variations from one another. Some micro organism souls that rolled in the warm sunlight once they finally touched the twinkle of daylight. Few pearl-like beings with multiple heads shone in the flood. Nothing seemed like catastrophe in this world, just a state of relaxed being. Every flood, every decomposition, every chaotic massive turn seemed to just be a movement of energy for this place. Souls were so fluid and yet so warm and personal, so original from one another. Every being original with a connection that could only be explained by calm. Wishes comforted some of the ribbon creatures, excited in their new world, away from the stomach of a nightmare. They were so soft and silky.
Art, World, Characters and Story by me! (Baphobabee) <<3
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