Howdy hey everypony!
My name’s Astrid 🌸, and I LOVE worldbuilding! Everything about it is so fun and fascinating and freeing to me. I love thinking about all the different things that go into making our world what it is, and trying to do the same thing in my imagination. It’s also such an underrated part of the writing process as a whole, so I wanted to give it some love in this guide!
Like it says on the tin, this worldbuilding guide covers almost everything you need to build your own world from the ground up. Each tab in this document focuses on a different subject, filled with subsections about specific topics in that subject. Most of these subsections are made of: notes that I’ve accumulated from various public sources (which I’ve linked near the end of this guide); my own personal knowledge and research; and questions that I’ve come up with that will hopefully get your brain gears turning!
Here's a list of everything we'll be covering in this guide! Each of the links will take you to the corresponding page.
NATURE
🏞️ Nature Homepage 🏞️
Astronomy
Biology
Botany
Geography
Geology
Zoology
HUMANOIDS
Humanoids Homepage
Archaeology
Culture
Economy
Food
Health
History
Government
Language
Law and Force
Mythology
Religion and Cults
Timekeeping
META
Meta Homepage
Character Design
Creature Design
Astrid's Steps!
HOUSEKEEPING
Just Notes
Just Questions
Where I Got My Info
Further Resources
Shameless Plugs
Thank You Page
PLEASE READ!!!
Before we start, a few disclaimers. See contact info in the Shameless Plugs page of this site to notify me of anything I might have overlooked, anything you'd like me to add to this guide, or any alternate formats you'd like to see this website in, including accessibility options. Replies may be slow, so please be patient!
- Content Warnings:
- swearing
- mentions of billionaires and general hatred towards them, if that bothers you
- incredibly mild implications of a left-leaning political alignment/worldview, if that bothers you
- mentions of violence against another person and “othered” groups, that are not indicative of personal beliefs but rather historical trends
- mentions of The United States of America with implications the author was born in and currently lives there, if that bothers you
- some videos that are linked in the Where I Got My Info page of this website have disturbing thumbnails
- THIS GUIDE WAS NOT WRITTEN WITH GENERATIVE AI!!!! I HATE generative AI with all of my heart, mind, body, and soul. It is a waste of water, a massive thief of all kinds of art and everything that is good and holy, and is an incredible harm to everyone on the damn planet, both mentally and physically. I could literally go on and on about how much I detest this piece of shit excuse for a technological advancement. I hope every day that the bubble will pop and that the billionaires will be left with fucking nothing but their own idiocy. I have never and will never use generative AI to “assist” with this guide or any of my other projects.
- This guide does NOT include subjects such as chemistry, physics, physiology, etc. I’m much too daft learn, much less write about, those subjects, so instead, I will provide as many resources as I can find about these subjects in hopes that you are smarter than me. Said resources can be found on the Further Resources page.
- I am not an expert by any means!!! I am just very, VERY passionate about worldbuilding. I do not claim to know everything about every single subject on Earth. Everything that I have taken notes on is from outside sources made by actual experts that I have credited to the best of my ability, and research that I did before I even got the idea of making this giant guide.
- This guide is somewhat catered towards fantasy worlds with humanoid races/species that can perform magic, since that’s the focal point of most of my settings, and as such, you will see a few mentions about magic and its presence in the world. But of course, you can pick and choose what applies to your settings, or come up with new stuff that fits your world better! I just made this magic-focused because I’ve always wanted a guide like this for my settings, and to have it publicly available.
- There might be some repeating questions for some sections! This is because I don’t expect everyone who looks at this document to read all of it, so I’ve included the same information across certain tabs so that it’s available to those who just want/need to look at one tab. I also recommend skimming through all the questions on the Questions page in case there’s something from another section that might help you out. Do note that you might have to answer some of the questions multiple times as well, depending on how in-depth you’re willing to go with your world, and how many examples or use cases you have in it.
- While absofruitly not required, I recommend viewing this site on a computer rather than mobile, since the bullet points will make more sense and just look nicer. I plan to create a mobile version once the desktop version is complete.
And that's it! With all that out of the way, go ahead and start your journey into the wonderful realm of worldbuilding!