i love detail and building a believable fictional space. i think it is a profound error of the modern nerd-mind to think that the believability, 'immersiveness(?)' of fictional places is dependent on detailed and systematized 'lore.'
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
I like building out the "lore" to some degree because I hate having to make large structural edits or retcons, so I like things to make sense in advance.
But that lore is like... entirely for my own use as the creator. I might share it if someone was interested but it'll never be required reading.
i'm ambivalent about this which feels productive to me. i like the aesthetics of detail and systematic worldbuilding but it doesn't feel productive to me in itself. but it's useful as a structure to buttress the core material. idk i have probably said all this a hundred times lol
This infatuation with lore is like the end point of people listening to game theories on stuff like dark souls, where the game is treated like a "real" world with zero thematic reason to anything
Ryoko Kui of Delicious In Dungeon has a good model, I think. From her blog and bonus comics you can tell that she's gone full indulgent worldbuilding on her setting, but she's ruthless about not including any of it in the comic unless it's directly relevant to plot or character.
I think that the locked tomb books by Tamsyn Muir also do a great job here! Clearly a lot of setup went into the world she built, but it feels very similar in that it’s only given to you through character development
So mostly all you see of this work are the ways it informs visual details like costuming. A bit like making up a couple of full con-langs to make sure that your place names sound good.
Comments
But that lore is like... entirely for my own use as the creator. I might share it if someone was interested but it'll never be required reading.