#worldbuilding ideas

[troythecatfish]

[redd956]

3 Things I'd Like to See In Worldbuilding More: Architecture

Jaali

[Image Description. Three geometrically patterns Jaali windows. The central one has a open window in the middle of it. End ID.]

Jaali, or the jali are latticed screens, decorations, and windows that are a well known facet of Indian architecture, and found in Indo-Islamic architecture in general.

They have prominent detailed geometric patterns, sometimes with natural influences, and details with calligraphy. Jaali are beautiful, and come in so many shapes and sizes that simply describing them isn't enough to get a good picture of the thousands of designs and forms jaali take.

Jaali provide shade, privacy, and passive ventilation. They minimize sunlight and rain coming in, and the holes, through the venturi effect, cool the air coming through, and allow proper airflow out as well. Since the holes are about the same width and size as the structure of the jaali they are also sturdy and structurally sound.

Jaali aren't always open either. They can be used as ornate detailing, and can have religious and cultural connections, much like how the real world jaali were important to various faiths, including Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism.

I'm personally just a huge fan of their soft lighting.

Jali from the Tomb of Salim Chishti

Tree based Jali from the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque in Ahmedebad

Jali from the Red Fort in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Non-Western Architectural Terracotta

[Image Description. The Latta Mosque in Nazir Khani, India. It's bricks and terracotta are a vibrant and aged orange color. The outside is detailed with calligraphy, carvings, and layers. Modern glass windows replace where once ancient windows sat. End ID.]

Terracotta is a staple of the world. Many could recognize it's use in architecture, especially in the west, such as in the Bell Edison Telephone Building of Birmingham, England, or the Natural History Museum in London.

To this day terracotta continues to be used worldwide in various projects from decor, dishware, and still, construction. But why?

Terracotta is any mix of clay and water. Due to how clay forms it can be found everywhere in the world, most people probably live near a clay deposit and have no idea. It's so malleable when wet that it makes easy sculpting and constructing material, and when mixed with water then dried/heated, it provides strong brick. It's use goes back to ancient times in cultures of all sorts.

[Image Description. African-American and Italian clay miners circa 1910. End ID.]

It also provides unique colors, even when unglazed.

Since Terracotta is so widespread, seeing its use from nation to nation reveals little artistic touches from culture to culture. From the giant terracotta house of Mexico, to the curling columns of Greece, and the sun-dried clay of African villages. There's so much to explore in clay architecture worldwide, but I wish would see more of it that wasn't based on Western cathedrals, Greek city halls, or Post-Modern brick buildings.

Terracotta Casa by Octavio Mendoza, in Villa de Leyva, Mexico

Yurts, tipis, and other traditional tents and portable dwellings

[Image Description. A red wooden frame of an Bentwood style Yurt used by the Karakalpak in Uzbekistan. It has short wooden double-doors, and the side is designed with weaving wooden slits. It has a clay platform as its foundations. End ID.]

Many indigenous groups around the world rely on a some form of lodging tent as their shelter from the elements, especially those that are nomadic, and live in large plains and steppes. In each of these kind of tents we see are unique in their own shape and features.

I'm tired of people (white people especially) pretending that nomadic lifestyles, and tents in general are some kind of torturous way to live, meanwhile trailers are okay though? No it's not everyone preference, but the utility of lodging tents is far underplayed.

Take for instance the tipi, a lodging tent used among various Native American tribes (and incorrectly stereotyped to be used by all Native Americans ever). Tipis are sturdy! And especially practical for nomadic peoples, as it's easy to pack up and then rebuild somewhere else. They fair against the rain, are cool for the summer, and stay warm enough for the winter.

Tents tend to also mean camps. While mansions, and palaces can serve for one large family to all hole up in, tents well serve a community-based culture, with families and communities gathering in encampments instead.

Anyway you're nomads should actually be nomads by the way

Sioux Style tipis that have been modernized for events and rentings

Sami family standing in front of their Goahti.

[effortlessly-unhinged]

Being immortal with ADHD would suck. You would finally get around to returning that book to the library only to find out said library was demolished eight years ago to make room for a mall. You'd suddenly remember that one friend you haven't seen in a while and turns out he's been dead for two decades. You'd get a random craving for a street snack that hasn't been made since the silk road was a thing and the recipe has been lost to time (you did scribble it down at one point but hell if you know what happened to that piece of parchment and there's no way you can recall it from memory). You keep mixing up your falsified identities and got arrested for driving with a license from 1972.

[devondespresso]

im sitting outside with no tasks rn so heres some random woodsy world building ideas you're free to use for your dnd stuff (tho pls dont do a plagerism and try to sell em in a book or smthn):

yknow how trees are kinda just lines that split over and over? like one big line from the ground, split into branches, split into sticks, split into twigs, and even leaves are twigs split into stems that split into veins. well reverse that for some freaky alien forests, where the ground is littered with millions of vine-y plants that join together, forming trunks that go up and merge with each other and merge with each other the higher they go. could basically be a bunch of organisms sharing resources/'body', or for extra freaky points, theyre no longer separate orgamisms and instead become a hive mind or something

nocturnal flowers that attract nocturnal moths/bugs pollinators by glowing. theres no way imthe first to think of this but i really like it so its here

the above idea but mushrooms that glow underneath the caps, again so their spores get out and shit

tiny trees that are just as hard and woody, but theyre tiny. maybe theyre hella wide, or maybe they're to scale

more plants that inexplicably grow sideways

shelf fungi that swirl around a tree like vines, not just popping up but a continuous fungi slowly creeping around this dead vertical tree

flowers, but instead of soft petals they're wood. maybe bc theyre year round or serve a different purpose, but they're sturdy like trunks and grow bigger out of thicker branches instead of being where leaves grow

trees or plants with reflective bark/leaves/parts that directs sunlight to leaves/photosynthesis zone

predatory fungi for extra scary points. fungi that will circle a tree near the base and slowly try to choke it/cut it down. its slow so its not everwhere, but you can see it occasionally and its just like. freaky. magic users or alchemists or doctors or chemists or villains could probably invent something gnarly with them

land barnacles that snare tiny bugs with little harpoons. if they're literally just like barnacles evolved for land they can probably store a lot of water inside like a coconut (see hank greens "everything is fish"/" fish dont exist" video). again, big if you wanna be freaky.

in general turning sea-unique creatures into land or air creatues. a floating tree octopus would be wild and awesome. you could say their balloon lookin noggins are full of a gas they produce as waste thats lighter that whatever airs in your atmosphere, not making them go up infinitely per se, but making them able to float down gently like an old balloon

woody/tree plants that grow sets of special holes that are basically lil fuckin animal calls on them, trying to draw in pollinators or other symbiotic relationship creatures. similarly, squiggly trees where every now and then a branch just goes round and round and round, making a convenient nest base.

MORE! CARNIVOROUS! PLANTS!!! venus fly traps are cool, as is pitcher plant, but what would a carnivorous woody/tree plant look like? venus fly trap esque leaves? a hollow top of the trunk like a pitcher plant? flowers that close? or maybe it grows onto something else and eats it. maybe roots try to get things and just hold it there or pull it into the ground to richen the soil with nutrients. maybe theres ferns that suck blood like leeches, maybe sharp undergrowth scrapes little bits of skin cells as things brush agsinst it or get scratched.

moss but its like velcro with them tiny hooks. or maybe its a fungi and it eats dead stuff caught in it

sky waterfalls where the source is just clouds. like instead of raining, clouds and watervapor join together into bigger abd bigger droos in the sky, but in the specific atmosphere they're notheavy enough to fall individually and float, combining and combining until big waterfall-ish splashes come down

trees that grow flower petals individually from their bark instead of flowers. maybe sone flower pollenation bits grow at the base of the petal too. maybe this is because the air at branch/leaf level limits life or pollinators so they stay low, or maybe this species just fills a new niche of ground pollinators

[zooming-glass]

Everyone says that sapient alien species will naturally tend to take a humanoid form, but their reasoning is, to be perfectly honest, really shit

The general form of the argument is such:-

Animals must be bilateral and cephalized to be able to be sapient

Sapient life needs to be terrestrial for them to progress technologically

Four legged creatures are ideal for terrestrial locomotion

Sapient life needs prehensile members, and the most plausible way that can happen is through repurposing the forelegs

Following this argument, according to proponents of humanoid aliens, results in humanoid aliens being a plausible thing to arise

But, there are a tonne of holes in this logic

First, the start of the argument; or rather, where it should start. While this argument is so often started at the point of cephalization, this point relies on the unspoken assumption that alien fauna will proceed up to this point exactly as telluric fauna has:- It is assumed that the earliest ancestor of a sapient alien must be a globular thing that crawls on a substrate of its food and has a single mouth and gut, and thus it would adapt as such life did on Earth. It's true, that IF it was so much like the prebilaterian it would likely evolve similarly, but we have no reason to assume it would be in the first place. There are plenty of other ways that proto-animals could exist, and thus ways it could differ from our bilaterians

Consider these:- If rocky/inorganic substrates dominated, animals would have to move in many directions to reach food, leading to a radial body form being more likely; While if the ancestor of the complex animalia didn't live on a solid substrate at all then it would have to adapt for swimming rather than creeping, likely taking on a radial or biradial form due to the lesser effects of verticality

The most dramatic variations involve the possibility that animal life evolves proper structure before adapting for mobility. In this case, the primitive animals could have multiple copies of its feeding structure, which would almost certainly evolve into multiple guts. Sometimes it is argued that this would evolve back into a singular gut, but among real lifeforms with multiple guts or similar, most if not all of these guts are retained amongst different forms. Perhaps it could be different in more active forms, but also perhaps it isn't. Also, a star-shaped or forked form could be imagined to result in multiple cephalized regions (i.e. multiple heads); as cephalization occurs because the front point is usually the first to hit new stimuli, if many points are in the front cephalizing all of them might be most useful. All of this is really speculative, so take it with a grain of salt

The assumption of terrestriality is pretty dubious. While obviously there's quite a lot a creature can do on land that it cannot underwater, none of that is really essential to sapience or civilization. Though, of course, there are a lot of terrestrial animals, so this is more of just a side note

While terrestrial life existing is essentially a given if there's land, the idea that terrestrial life will necessarily be tetramelic is, well, obviously wrong. Outside of gnathostomes, the only examples of four-limbed creatures anywhere are some butterflies and such bugs, and jellyfish. Every other non-gnathostome, and several gnathostomes too, have six or more limbs, or none at all (and if we set aside hexapods then it's usually ten or more limbs). Given this, it's quite likely that many alien worlds wouldn't have tetramelic creatures at all, let alone such creatures being the dominant classes from which sapience arises

Also suspect is the idea that sapient life specifically needs limb-based hands. Of course they do need some sort of prehensile member, but why is the only option a pair of limbs that are exclusively for manipulation? If we look at real animals with prehensile parts, then we see all sorts of parts, from proboscides and tentacles, to grasping hindfeet, to even penes specially adapted for grabbing

In fact, there seem to be a trend indicating that aliens wouldn't have hands like ours; specifically, it is that almost all prehensile members that evolve specifically for manipulation are either facial extremities or genital structures. Prehensile tails, feet, and hands are almost exclusively found in arboreal creatures (or descendents thereof) as an adaptation for climbing; while clearly they can adapt for manipulation, it seems clear that proboscides and such are a much more likely candidate for alien prehensors

Even if we ignore all that, the argument has only really gotten us to assuming sapient aliens will be bipedal tetramelic creatures. While this is often where humanoid alien proponents drop the argument, it does not necessarily mean humanoid. There are plenty of nonhumanoid bipeds on Earth; in fact, most real bipeds aren't even upright at all

Perhaps you might think this is just happenstance, due to Earthly reptiles having a thick tail that can work as a counterweight, but this is not the case. Firstly, because many bipeds without such a tail (such as kangaroos and most birds) have remained as pronogrades, and secondly, pretty much all animals with a small number of limbs evolved from an ancestor with many more; usually, most of the reduced/lost limbs are behind the full limbs, thus resulting in a large abdomen/opisthosoma which would serve as a perfectly good counterweight (perhaps even better than a tail). Thus, most bipedal aliens would likely be able to have the same counterweighted form as Earthly dinosaurs and other bipedal reptiles

All in all, the argument for humanoid aliens breaks down at literally every single juncture, and that isn't even getting into the issue of so many humanoid aliens being essentially Earth tetrapods

TLDR:- Humanoid aliens don't make sense

[thecrazyworldbuilder]

Reminder that there's no universal symbolism.

In your world, black can be the color of love. Horns can be a symbol of corruption. Hooves can be the sign of loyalty.

Like the dark nights spent in the embrace of your lover. Like fungi that grow out of dead bodies looking like goat horns. Like the loyal steed that will ride you into battle.

[splosh-crime]

Unanswered Questions + Worldbuilding Ideas from ATLA/TLOK

The Joo Dee’s from Lake Lao Gai in Ba Sing Se. These are the tour guides assigned to the Gaang and likely other elite/rich refugees entering Ba Sing Se. Questions include: Who are all these near-identical women? Where did they come from? Who knew/reported them missing? Were they able to reverse the brainwashing post-war? How many psychologists are there and what quality is their care? Clearly there are enough that Sokka knows about them despite growing up super isolated.

Zuko’s Metamorphosis. Man had an existential crisis so strong that he went into a high fever coma for like 2 days and no one questioned it?? Uncle Iroh acted like this was a perfectly normal response. Did he go through this after his son died and he went soul-searching? Is this just a common response for firebenders with existential crises? Was there a massive pandemic of this after the war ended and practically everyone in the Fire Nation was forced to reevaluate their worldview?

The Sandbenders of the Si Wong Desert. Do they have any folklore/ghost stories around the Spirit Library? Do they know who’s in it? Do they have designated sages that visit the library for knowledge? How do you think they felt about it mysteriously disappearing one day? Do they think Aang buried it in his anger about Appa’s kidnapping/trafficking?

Combustion-Bending. What happened to the other combustion-benders? Is there a community of them? Do they need the tattoo for it or is that decorative/symbolic like it is for Air Nomads? Does this firebending style have any connection to airbending in the way that lightning-bending connects to waterbending?

The Nuns of the Abbey in the episode where Bato and June the Bounty Hunter are introduced. Made a post with more questions here (link) but main questions include: Do they worship the Spirits or someone/something else? Knowledge & traditions? What’s their relationship to the Airbender nuns and monks? The Abbey nuns wear clothes similar to Christian nuns whereas the Airbenders are based on Buddhism. Are they different sects of the same religion? Different religions entirely?

Dai Li Reform or Disbandment. Never happened in canon but definitely needs to. Their crimes include multiple counts of human/child trafficking, mass brainwashing, use of child soldiers (see: TLOK), kidnapping, conspiracy, and treason. If they’re reformed, they’d need tons of oversight/transparency.

The Foggy Swamp Tribe of the Earth Kingdom. Did Southern Water Tribe members settle the Foggy Swamp with nearby Earth Kingdom citizens? Do they have any spiritual practices regarding the Swamp? Do many of them share Huu’s views? Is he seen as a spiritual leader? Do the visions people in the Swamp receive of dead loved ones affect their funerary practices? How does Foggy Swamp style bending differ from North/Southern Water Tribe style bending beyond a focus on plant matter?

Princess Yue’s Deification. She sacrificed her life to replace/merge with(?) Tui as the Spirit of the Moon. She is, as far as I know, the only human to have ever become a Spirit apart from maybe the Painted Lady. Did Yue replace or merge with Tui? Is Yue also the Koi Fish in the Spirit Oasis or is that Tui resurrected? Does the Northern Water Tribe know that Yue’s a Spirit now? Is there a day of mourning for her? Do they consider her their patron Spirit?

Reminder that all my posts double as invitations for discussion! I love talking to anyone who loves this media like I do. I love building ideas off each other. I love questions about the content. I appreciate constructive criticism too!