World Building
Synopsis
In most of the cases, the results of the efforts of World Building is very apparent, rather than the World itself. We all have seen the splendor of the story told in the Lord of the Ring series. We have been awed by the futuristic pictures detailed of the Star Wars movies and novels. These works were based on Worlds that were built by the process of World Building.
This article ventures on summarizing the various issues that go into building of such World. This statement does come with a disclaimer that it is not the first venture. World Building has been recognized as concept, arguably as an art-form, and many works exists on the process. This article attempts to have an exhaustive understanding of the basics and origin of World Building. This article would also touch up on application and try to categorize the Worlds built based on the approach used. This article is not a how-to-build set of instructions as that would be a series of paper in itself.
Introduction
World Building is a loose concept that would be difficult to be defined to encompass all its meaning. The definition of World Building may be made as follows: World Building is the design of a consistent and logical structure that describes the existence of everything within it. As said, it does not describe the process or act of World Building wholly but does put the underlying principle into perspective. World Building is the proof given to the questions put by the human mind when receiving any form of literary or artworks.
World Building is an art where a World Builder designs more than one element that exists only within the world that is being built.
The extent of how consistent it is depends on the Builder in the same way as any artist chooses to put effort into his work of art. An artist may choose to draw only the outlines and not the rest features, and only exaggerate the anomalies in the face of a person - then it becomes a caricature. Or the artist may choose to put in the perspective and the details of the light and shadow, like Michael Angelo's works. Similarly, a World Builder may choose to detail only that much into the World, as much as is required out of it.
The origin of World Building may not be pointed to an exact date, as the process was developed on a need-to basis. The concept can be said to have had an origin in the mythologies. In this case though, the Worlds created were not done by one person but by many. And these Worlds did not have a definite boundary as many of them got integrated into the lives of the people who created them. (This is a bit contrary to the definition made above if taken word to word, and hence it is difficult to put a definitive sentence or set of sentences that fully describes World Building). Many works of literature contained worlds in themselves. Sometimes, they were based of the real world as was the case with the vivid life described by Charles Dickens.
The process of World Building started to take shapes as works were done that were in series. A classic example for this would be the works of J. R. R. Tolkein. Literature alone did not gain from this process - there were other areas. Graphic novels, comics, movies, games and many other forms of recreational works of art have used World Building. An article would be infertile without the mention of role-playing games (RPG). A lot many Worlds have been built around the Dungeons And Dragons and similar RPG systems.
Application
Before we can look into the different process of creation of Worlds we can have a bit more than glance at the various applications (some have been mentioned above) of World Building. It can be said that the role-playing games, both pen-and-paper and computer (or console), base themselves on a World. It is one of the intensive works where the audiences, in this case the players or the party, interact heavily with the world and the world is continually asked various questions about what is being interacted with, right from its origin, to the state or action it is involved in - either implicit or explicit. Why do the skeletons exist in this chamber of the dungeon? How do they move around? Why do they attack the adventurers? What is the motive behind their actions? Why are they harmed by the holy weapons or spells that the adventurers wield? The multitude of questions can only be satiated by a clearly defined World.
The World Building also helps to maintain the consistency in the movies and novels. They may be standalone works or a series of work. The gloomy details of the manor of Count 'de Dracula must be worded to give the same effect when he is hunted back there as was done when he was described to arise from his coffin. The elves have pointy ears and are tall and lithe through out the world of Middle Earth. The elves may be short and mischievous in the Celtic or English lore, but that is a different World. The two are separate and have no relation to each other. It is a different issue if the World Builder was influenced by one or other Worlds during the creation of his or her World. The argument of why things are as they are forms the major chunk of the literary work, which if not done, does not result in a convincing enough work.
As World Building helps as the basis for other literary forms, they also form the basis for graphic novels, comic and general computer or console games. The goblin drawn in the graphic novel in the initial panels if green, need to be drawn the same at the end of the book; and if it is not, the in between pages should tell the story of why there was a change of pigment of their hide. If this is not done, there is always a question that remains at the back of the mind of the reader that forms one of the hurdles in enjoying the novel seamlessly.
In recent times, a World that is built out of the process forms the basis for more than one application. Six movies have been made, a growing number of novels are being written and graphic novels or comics are being created based on the Star Wars Universe. There are number of games merchandised by Lucas Arts based on the Star Wars Universe.
Classification
Classification of Worlds built may be done on the genre - there are fantasy, science fiction, punk, steam puck, horror, Dickensian, post-nuclear, holy Worlds that are based on specific way of channeling the logic that drives them. The classification may be done based on the applications it has been used for, but in recent times this would be an unwise approach - as said earlier Worlds have been used for more than one application.
Classification may also be done based on the way in which the Worlds were created; that is, the process of World Building used to arrive at it. There are a handful of ways by which one can build a World and new ways are being found every now and then.
Approach
- World Building on the fly (small to big)
- World Building from Universe to individual (big to small)
- Hybrid approach
This is the approach mostly used in table-top or pen-and-paper role-playing games by the Game Master (or Dungeon Master or Moderator). Here the Game Master is the World Builder. He (or she) has to take the part of players through the adventure supplying them with pieces of the world as they encounter and make decisions. The party in a role-playing game usually does unexpected and obscure choices that are nearly impossible to be predetermined. It requires very less effort in terms of World Building as the Game Master need not put time into detailing the unnecessary parts of the World. This is the sort of approach used by the first time Game Masters. Such approach usually leads to an inconsistent World and the ends rarely tie up. That said, it is not an impossibility to build a consistent world by this approach. A Game Master with rigor and a bit of cunningness can build a vivid, exiting and consistent World.
This sort of approach may also be used by authors of novels who like to let their pen flow. They write the initial draft and then revisit it, mending all the inconsistencies that crop up on review.
This approach starts with laying down the boundaries and then working inwards towards the subject. The amount of detail put near the boundaries may be less, but they lay down the foundations for the laws and govern the logic as the details of the inner regions are stated. This is the approach used by authors who intend to put forth a series of literary works that can stand alone and also can be taken in series. This approach gives a very believable World that can be quite out worldly. Once a World is drafted, it is an easy task to add details to it as long as the basic laws of that World are kept in mind. It is also easy to have spin-off works from such Worlds.
As the word states, it is a combination of the other two approaches. This is an approach that can be quite useful when the World Builder is at the liberty of having some reviewers (or play-testers in cases of games), and has the will to rework on things that were already worked on. The World Builder would start of with a small to big approach, and get the initial taste of his or her own likes, dislikes and inclinations. When such an infant world is put to test by reviewers or players, a lot of flaws and inconsistencies crop up, that needs to be taken note of. When a considerable review effort is spent, the World Builder goes to the drawing board and this time begins with a big to small approach. Using the flaws and inconsistencies as a guide, basic laws are put down. Next, with only these handful of very basic guidelines, another World is built that is similar to the previous one, but without the earlier flaws. This set of iteration is done a couple of time and the World Builder arrives at a World that is robust and consistent. Now, the World Builder can produce any work based on this World and can be assured that there would be no inconsistencies.
Conclusion
As stated earlier, the Worlds got out of World Building have various applications. With that in view the World Builder has to choose the approach that would cater to all the applications. Also, the applications would also decide on the amount of detailing that would go into the World. It would be a mistake to assume that a World created out of World Building has everything described right form the Universe to the last speck of dust on every body in that Universe. The amount of details depends on the application and purview of the application. It would be a waste of effort to describe the laws with which the stars move if the World under observation is a world of bacteria, viruses and antibodies in a mammal. In this case, the particular mammal and its immediate surroundings would be the Universe and the different organs would be synonymous to planets and the blood stream would be the hyperspace using which the denizens would travel between the planets.
Choosing the right approach and the amount of detail in an original way would make a World unique and it could be said that the World Builder has created a work of art.
