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The other day I was in one of my classes aimlessly daydreaming when I thought to myself how awesome it'd be to do a 30-day worldbuilding challenge. I've done visual research for comic stories before, but I always stumble when I'm trying to draw the thing and come up with the props and background simultaneously. A challenge like that'd be fantastic prep, not to mention a good source for conflict. I found a couple worldbuilding challenges through google, but I wasn't able to find something that was what I had in mind. So, I wrote up my own. These are the days and their challenges:
1. The World- the general setting that this will all take place in.
2. Geography- the specific landmass you'll be focusing on, the Morrowind to your Tamriel. Talk about weather patterns and the general lay of the land.
3. Landmarks
4. Resources- How do the people get water? Food? Are there rich minerals nearby, or mystical ley lines that power magical energy?
5. Flora
6. Fauna
7. Races/General Culture
8. Clothing- detail differences in outfits between genders and ages as necessary
9. Food- describe an example of a daily diet, however it's divided up (breakfast, brunch, elevensies, etc.), along with any other noteworthy foods for special occasions
10. Arts
11. Trades- Smithing, Carpentry, Dragon-taming, etc.
12. Education
13. Tools- for use in Arts and Trades, or something yet unmentioned
14. Weapons
15. Transportation
16. Politics/Officials- Describe the system of government or leadership used in your society, and who if anyone is in charge. What are the relations between your society and others nearby?
17. Currency/Economy
18. Religions
19. Warfare- How is war handled in your society? Do they fight at all, and if so, who do they send? How do they fight?
20. Housing
21. Businesses
22. Political Buildings
23. Religious Buildings
24. Social Groups- these can be classes grouped by caste or by cultural boundaries (Upper-classes, undesirables, punks, jocks, etc.)
25. Language- for use in naming all of the things you've designed. Establish phonetic patterns with particular cultures (Example: All of the Kokiri people save for Saria have names using Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Da)
26. Folk Traditions/Holidays
27. Toys/Games
28. Legends
29. History
30. Life Cycle- create an entirely new character. Based off of everything that you've already written, give them a full life story, describing how they grew up, what games they played, whether their family was rich or poor, if they were religious; whether they married or stayed celibate, if they became famous or not, and if they die with honor in battle or maybe in their home surrounded by friends and family. Describe how people react to the person's death, and what if any impact their life had upon the land.
I've already spoken to a few others about it, on other forums and in person, about trying this out. Making the official month October feels like it'd be a smart move, as it'd be a perfect warm-up for NaNoWriMo, but I'm itching to do this sooner. If anyone else is interested in doing a January edition of this, please let me know and we can begin planning how to sort this all out. I recently set up a Tumblr for myself [link] and I've done very little with it so far, but I see how it could be useful for a challenge like this. A simple addition of hash-tags would make it very easy to find entries for the challenge, but of course I can't expect everyone in the world to have one of these things. Any other suggestions for a central meeting place would be greatly appreciated. So, who's in?
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Little known fact is, before the Mafia influence during the height of their power, Las Vegas was a small Mormon settlement. It was a dusty pioneer settlement that the mafia seen potential in and long story short, Las Vegas is what it is today because of the crime families. Now, what if it wasn't only Vegas that the mafia seen potential in, what if they had split ventures between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City? How would the Mormon church and their followers handle and deal with crime families turning what was supposed to be Zion into another adult playground?
On top of this, I'm adding in the superhero element, a world full of meta humans that either use their powers for good, for evil or stay off the grid and become neutral. I still plan on keeping the national parks that are huge landmarks for the state like Zion National Park, Arches, etc etc. The story will follow a character native to Zion, his race and people are a clan of half human, half wolf- humanoid type creatures developed and bred to be protectors of the region. They come to be after a truce between the local Native American tribes and the Red Cliff wolf tribe who were warring with each other before pioneers even thought about settling the west.
My character makes it to SLC after his tribe is destroyed in the crossfire between a group of heroes and super villains working with the mafia control in Salt Lake. With nothing left he sets up shop bent on destroying anyone, villain or hero who crosses him, while at the same time trying to help the city. He's got a bit of a morality complex which makes him sort of a anti hero.
And that's the basic nutshell...