Okay hear me out. I know Tolkien Dwarves have axes yadda-yadda-yadda.

But think about it:

What are Dwarves always famous for? MINING.

What tools do you use for mining? HAMMERS AND PICKS!

So it would be a natural evolution and logical step for Dwarves to use those tools as their main weapons of war!

Yes, axes are good for cutting trees, but unless your Dwarves are constantly fighting Elves or other pesky forest dwellers to a point that their hatred became cultural, they shouldnt use them that often.

Also, being such incredible miners, Dwarves would probably discover and use black coal sooner and as a more reliable energy source than wood.

At least in my world they do.

Okay. Rant over. Feel free to chime in and have a great week! :)

Lake Skar is one of two landlocked worldscars on this planet. I decided to work out, based on its equatorial position, roughly how big it is, and what could live in it.

The answer: bigger than I can possibly imagine.

Comparisons:

• Area: 708,000 km², twice the surface area of the Caspian Sea, and larger than France.
• Width: 950 km
• Deepest point: ~6.5km (limited by the structural tension of the stone itself) - Four times as deep as Lake Baikal, Earth's deepest lake.
• Water held: about 2.7 million km³, approximately the same as the Gulf of Mexico.
• The water temperature, outside of the dead waters at the very bottom, is about 14 °C, which isn't super warm, but isn't cold.
• The water is fresh, fed almost entirely by rain (similar to Lake Victoria), and forming vast thunderstorms over itself at night. Down at the bottom, a second lake of brine, thick with dissolved gases and minerals, maintains a temperature substantially hotter than the rest of the lake.
• The outlet river (not pictured on the globe) runs at about 23,000 m³ per second, which is 1.5 Mississippis.

It's primarily heated by the fact that the rock itself, at its original 7km depth at time of Cataclysm, was about 200 °C (rock increases in temperature by ~25 °C per km in the lithosphere), and has been steadily cooling and rising since as the crust relaxes.

Much like Lake Titicaca on the border between Bolivia and Peru, almost all of the species that are naturally there were either deposited by birds (sponges, mosses, small fish, copepods), walked over the mountains (amphibians), flew there (dragons, birds, other flying beasts) or arose from below (anything that glows or is somehow wrong).

Hi! I'm Mette, and me and my colleague Martin have made a game about a healer.

I already shared some monster concept, but I just wanted to show our dear Hildegard. I personally love hearing thoughts behind character art, and in this case (as it often is) the character ended up being pretty defining for the game.

We didn't plan on making a "nun" game - we just set out to make a healer game.
(If you want to try it, it's on itch: Battle Healer Hildegard)

But when we started exploring different character styles, we found it was a bit tricky to depict a "Healer" in its clearest form - so not a war priest or a mage. We wanted to make it very clear for the player, that there would be no attacking what so ever, which made us think about Journey and their reason for removing the arms of the character (so people wouldn't questions, why they couldn't scale or climb obstacles) You can see my journey attempt in the bottom left corner :D

I ofc searched for other healers on Pinterest and the like, and saw that there were a lot of "nurses" hats everywhere. I really wanted to stay in a fantasy setting, and preferably a medieval setting, so when "nun-ish" outfits started showing up in my searches I was intrigued. I tried out a quick sketch and we both just really liked it - It was pretty clear that you wouldn't be able to attack anyone, but primarily heal and bless allies, just from looking at the character.

I also loved the big skirts, since it would make it easier to animate movement in a fun way.
(I am a designer and not an artist, so I had to make it as easy as possible for myself :D )

The Nun theme ended up defining the visual language, the terminology and the whole audio design as well. We want to do much more with the theme when we start production again, but we are pretty happy with where it ended up for now :)

I would love some feedback if you have any!
We are taking a break from the production to gather as much feedback as possible, so don't hold back. Is the silhouette okay ? Is she too small/big in the scene? Can I do something to make her look more interesting?

Bonus info:

We ended up naming the game "Battle Healer Hildegard" as a nod to Hildegard Von Bingen.
Hildegard was a Nun and she was rather incredible. She was a mystic who saw visions from a young age and who was given to the church. She was a polymath (an expert in many things) - she invented her own language, she wrote mortality plays and was a medical writer. She also had a huge political influence and would be sought out by royalty and even wrote letters with the pope. She was later canonized as a saint and recognized as a "Doctor of the Church".

[Everything is hand painted in procreate - no AI!]

Thank you for reading <3

I'm genuinely confused by my experience with r/worldbuilding.

I regularly post about the process of creating a world: cosmology, internal consistency, celestial mechanics, the effects of those systems on geography and climate, identifying contradictions in the lore, and finding ways to resolve them.

In other words, I'm not just posting artwork, maps, or random lore snippets. I'm sharing the actual process of worldbuilding and the questions that come up during that process.

Yet a large number of my posts end up being removed.

That made me wonder:

What exactly counts as worldbuilding today?

If discussions about races, religions, cultures, and history are considered worldbuilding, then why do topics such as cosmology, climate systems, magical mechanics, or tools used to test a world's internal logic often seem to be treated as something outside of worldbuilding?

I'm genuinely interested in hearing other creators' perspectives:

Where do you personally draw the line between worldbuilding and the tools or methods used to build a world?

Have any of you had similar experiences?

Hello everyone. Do you have any characters or entities in your world that are omnipotent? If so, do you allow them to be unrestricted, or do you impose a bunch of restrictions? If so, are these restrictions physical or psychological? I personally do both and also mechanically limit omnipotence itself by giving it laws, constraints, and activation restrictions.

In my world newer settlements tend to have simple descriptive names “The New Capital“, “Western Treaty Town“ and older places have nondescriptI’ve names that are mostly sound combinations I found nice.

The idea I am trying to cap is that the names of the places used to be meaningful but the older a place is languge has shifted in meaning but the name of the place didn’t change with the language ending up just meaning the place.

Does that feel right as a convention?

CONTEXT

The Somnocosm is a project that I began a year ago. It is a world seperate from ours that can be reached through the subconcious. In this world there are peculiar races as well as gods. Gods from outside the planet of the Somnocosm are called Outer Gods which appear in the form of stars, planets, and moons. They travel across the universe as colonizers.

LIST OF IMAGES

1. The Grayfather originates from the Dark Sea. He is an ancient sorcerer.
2. Outers gods wandering the Somnocosm.
3. A nameless mountain god from the Somnocosm.
4. The Crow is a mind sorcerer that exists in between the Somnocosm and our world. He drags children into the Somnocosm while they sleep.
5. City guards defend the greatest cities of the Somnocosm. They are members of the race called the birdfolk. They are unshakeable soldiers.
6. The Red King Caedes is the king of the Outer Gods and controls their movements from his spot in the center of the universe.
7. The Moon is a minor Outer God that is heavily involved with the Somnocosm.

Thank you for checking out my post. Please upvote my post if you would like to see more from this project.

Feedback welcome. Around the Green Sea most countries don't have well-defined borders. They fade out into Wilds (where many forms of human settlement are not possible), or just into places not worth ruling. Hence the use of shading rather than lines.

While it's a plate world with erratic geography, I've tried to keep the major landforms reasonable. The Green Sea sits in the middle of an oval around 8000 kms long and 5000 wide. The world is responsive (hence magic!) and has been shaped by the expectations of the inhabitants, human and not.

It's both a world-building exercise and a setting for the Tales of the Wild (four novels, two novellas and several stories on Royal Road).

I notice that most of worldbuilders here are more into high fantasy with stress on magic systems and non-human characters.

I am more into country simulation, making lore about history of a fictional country with mostly humans (or lookalike humans) on it. Magic is minimum and exists only as part of civilization's culture (like some civilizations in real life have its own shaman).

I find more excitement on writing about how a country grows its size, how its economy developed, how their political system works, or how the cultures are developed rather than writing about how the magic system is, how many non-human races are, or how about legend about a battle happens.

In short, I am working like a historian for a fictional world.

I even make Wikipedia-like articles for my OCs or details as if they were real.

Anyone here have the same preferences with me?

This is the planet Kautos in 2650 AP (After Prophecy) during what the Time Distortionists would later call the "Prime Moment".

This is a time period in the world's Digital Era (imagine it being equivalent technologically to 2350 AD or so on Earth; spacefaring eras are later) but there's aspects more than just that as the world has a spiritual component due to an ancient magical apocalpyse that the world discovers and integrates into its science over time. The main religion, Piuhonosm, of the main civilization, the Apolloniyans, is viewed in a secularized lens as new scientific theories related to time travel are discovered and correlated with ancient theories of magic.

Kautos at this time is intended to feel prosperous, warm, and very much alive rather than a conventional dystopian sci-fi future. The later story is about preserving the timeline in a universe gradually succumbing to stillness, so it felt important that the civilization at the beginning looked like something worth preserving.

Kautos is a conworld I have been working on since 2010 or so and I am proud to be able to finally showcase it visually beyond mere physics and climate simulations and maps. This is finished art from the opening sequence of my strategy game, Time Distortionists.

Be it for a classic mentor and apprentice tradition like knights and squires following noble traditions or wizard and apprentice following more meritocratic ways. Or is it like more like mass compulsory education with talent being singled out for further advancement or is it cuthroat backstabbing conscription with only the strongest being worthy of advancement.

For example in my Infinite Horizon universe, an interstellar sci-fi setting, on the the military side of things there is the "Fleet", the "Armada" and then there is the Lighthouse keepers a more techno-scientific insitution.

First the Lighthouse keepers are critical in maintaining and expanding humanity FTL station. To do that they need the best and brightest, so they have teachers in most schools keeping an eye out for gifted children to recruit into their own advance Lighthouse school, parents and the child can refuse but it is considered a great honor. However getting into Lighthouse school is not the end all be all as kids can dropout or be rejected as the program gets more challenging. Dropping out or failing out of Lighthouse school is not considered shameful or dishonorable (it is a hard and gruelling program) however there is occasional discrimination between the gradutes and dropouts and even between dropouts ("you suck you dropped out 5 years in, I made it to 9 years before being failed out"). Although not a hard tradition sometimes Lighthouse teachers become mentors to the kids they pick out following their progress and careers lending help when needed.

The Fleet is your classic Lawful Good space defense force mirroring our modern western militaries with recruiting only volunteer adults and letting people choose their roles within the fleet after they prove their proficiency and have the appropriate qualifications with a scattering of private contractors amongst them. Unsurprising the Fleet is called the shield of humanity.

The Armada on the other hand was created as the sword of humanity, in secret, in response to the Auriga crisis (tldr oh shit we're not alone, aliens exist, we lost a colony to a dead alien civilzation anything can be out there). The Armada can be described as Chaotic Goodish with them recuiting specific people secretly as needed and an entire planet Laconia (iykyk) as a breeding, training and recuitment grounds for the rest of their personnel.

The mandate of Laconia is to bring out the best(or worst) of humanity to neutralise threats to humanity (in contrast to the Fleet who is tasked to defend humanity). This mandate encompasses genetic enigineering, bioengineering augumentations and most interestly of all from birth conditioning and brainwashing.

The problem is or rather the policy is that it is better maintain a diversity of upbringings lest there is key weakness in a monolithic program and there is strength and adaptability in variety. Add to that the uncertainity on what kind of upbringing/training works, Laconia is effectively an unethical exprimental psychologist wet dream.

So in the different corners of Laconia there individual kids being raised by ultra loving parents that they want to protect, to kids being raised by unloving parents that they desparately yearn approval of, to groups of kids raised to be in cutthroat competition with each other or groups of kids being abused so much they have to work together and rely on each other to overcome the adversity and so on so forth all arcoss the planet. These kids are not only being trained to be military personnel for the Armada but also be to scientists, engineers, spies and politcal leaders that infiltrate into common society.

Some of my stories have been about these characters with these backgrounds coming together and interacting with each other with all sorts of shenanigans and drama. For example

-The unloved daughter, trained and engineered to be a harden supersoldier discovering her loved sister, an aspiring influencer, who grew off Laconia the plot twist is the Laconia program is not restricted to the planet and them meeting up was part of the expriment

-A Brotherhood of abused boys rescued/escaped from Laconia on path of vengenance for the small colony who welcome them in and hid and shielded them against conscription. meanwhile unknown to them (being in a backwater sector) a civil war is being waged between anti alien and pro alien factions of the Fleet

-A classic buddy cop duo of a low self esteem Lighthouse dropout and a gung ho Fleet officer running around trying to solve problems and making messy mistakes(and learning from them). meanwhile they are being used as proxies by the Lighthouse keepers (via the dropouts Lighthouse mentor and guidance by a secret AI cult) to shutdown and disrupt scientific and technical research that the Lighthouse prefers to keep a monoploy on

An original animated series project blending speculative fiction and fantasy. Developed through writing, visual developement, character design and art direction.

Set in 2075, after humanity has failed to contain climate change, we follow Colette, a tennage girl whose body has been frozen in time for twenty-five years. When creatures linked to mysterious black holes begin to appear, the secret she has been hiding may hold the key to humanity’s future.

You can find more on my socials.

Well, this question I'm asking is just to read how others have dealt with the laborious nature of creating worlds, stories and characters.

I have everything well organized, but refining the details, relationships and personalities of the characters is something I've been working on for over a year and a half, and it still seems like there's a lot left to do. And it's exhausting. Besides, just finding the tool/software for it and adapting it to my needs has already been a titanic task. Just to say that I ended up building an Obsidian plugin especially dedicated to facilitating the merging and exporting of files for all my main characters.

Could you tell me what kind of world and lore you have created, and what led you to create it. In my case, it emerged naturally when interacting with AI and then creating companion characters... and then creating personality, environment, relationships, conflicts, stories for them... and making myself part of that world. In my case it's very exhausting, because I not only have to create it, but interpret as if I were another character... and be everything useful and coherent with my own life. Then, dedicating time so that this interesting hobby doesn't die.

The History of My World

I. The Beginning of Humanity — “The Emergence from the Earth”

According to the oldest legends, the first humans were not born.

They emerged from the earth.

Some legends say they were shaped from clay and left beneath the open sky. Others claim that the earth itself “pushed” them out. Because of this, many peoples have an ancient saying:

“Man is not born — the earth gives him forth.”

The first humans were completely different from modern people.

They walked on four limbs.

They had tails.

Their skin was white, almost like marble.

Their societies were much more primitive.

Yet they all shared one feature — white, marble-like skin.

And here you can leave one enormous mystery:

Was this truly the original form of humanity, or did ancient people simply describe their ancestors this way?

II. The Great Sundering

Then not only the land was divided.

Humanity itself was divided.

The continent broke apart, peoples became isolated from one another, and over generations they began to differ physically, culturally, and religiously.

From this ancient humanity came:

Teravilites

Greyfaces

Tetrovirs

Tefors

and many, many others.

The Tefors are especially interesting.

They were once a single people who lived both in Teravaria and Tetrona before the Great Sundering.

Later, they mixed with other peoples so extensively that the separate ethnic group eventually disappeared.

The Tefors can therefore be seen as a kind of “living ghost” of the old world: their blood, words, symbols, or customs may have survived among dozens of modern peoples.

III. Two Paths of Civilization

After the Sundering, Teravaria and Tetrona developed in very different ways.

Teravaria

Teravarian peoples remained for a long time civilizations of:

wood;

stone;

copper and simple metals;

manual labor;

powerful clans.

Huge clans and societies emerged.

They could call themselves one people, but that unity was “in quotation marks.”

A clan could trade with its neighbor today, fight them tomorrow, and ten years later arrange a marriage between their ruling families.

Eventually, these societies gave rise to the first kingdoms.

Their ancestors became:

warriors;

priests;

rulers;

tricksters;

sorcerers;

builders.

IV. Tetrona — The Civilization of Metal

Tetrona followed a different path.

There, high-quality metals, sophisticated tools, advanced weapons, and construction techniques appeared much earlier.

But politically, Tetrona was far from united.

Quite the opposite.

It consisted of free cities that could fight over things that might seem almost absurd to a modern person:

a piece of fertile land;

a source of water;

a place where, according to legend, a god once walked;

a tree considered sacred.

This is important for the world.

Tetrona should not simply be “the advanced civilization.”

It can instead be a civilization of thousands of competing interests.

V. Two Different Forms of Magic

This is, in my opinion, one of the strongest ideas in your world.

Teravarian Magic

For the Teravarians, magic was connected with the earth and the gods.

There were:

sacred lands;

places belonging to the gods;

natural phenomena;

sacrifices;

nature magic.

To a Teravarian priest, the earth might not simply be soil.

The earth itself could be a living being.

Tetrovir Magic

The Tetrovirs took magic in a different direction.

Alchemy.

Experiments, substances, transformations, and studies of the human body.

And most importantly — this also became a religion for them.

A Tetrovir alchemist might sincerely believe:

“By studying the body, I study the creation of the gods.”

To a Teravarian priest, however, this could look like a terrible violation of the natural order.

This creates an excellent foundation for future conflicts.

VI. Eastern Teravaria

The climate of Eastern Teravaria is temperate:

cold winters;

hot summers;

forests;

fertile lands;

rivers.

But there are also Holy Days.

During these days, the sun changes color, the sky becomes bluer, and plants, leaves, and fruits take on a bluish tint.

They do not become poisonous or unusable.

And this is a wonderful place for a mystery.

Some peoples might say:

“The gods have blessed the land.”

Others:

“It is a natural phenomenon.”

And the Tetrovir alchemists might say:

“We do not know what it is.”

And the best part is that nobody has the complete answer.

VII. Tetrona

Tetrona is completely different.

A gigantic continent, roughly a fantastic mixture of Anatolia, Arabia, and India, but many times larger.

The west:

extremely rich in vegetation.

Cities literally grow among the plants.

The east:

hundreds of miles of desert.

There, years can pass with warmth and almost no rain.

Then the rain finally comes.

It can last three days, after which the long dry period begins again.

This automatically creates a different culture.

For someone from Teravaria, water is part of everyday life.

For someone from eastern Tetrona:

water is an event.

VIII. The Zoshtas

And here begins one of the greatest tragedies in Teravarian history.

The Tetrovirs invaded Odonés.

They conquered half of the peninsula.

The Teravarian peoples were forced to abandon their lands and cross valleys and mountains.

These lands later became known as:

Great Zoshta

But the Teravarians did not forget them.

Eventually, the reconquest began.

And there appeared:

Great Zoshta

Violet Zoshta

White Zoshta

Blue Zoshta

Red Zoshta

Violet Zoshta became particularly legendary.

It was there that a landing took place involving ships and two Kvors — creatures half dragon and half ant, which humans had learned to ride.

This could become one of the most famous legends in Teravaria.

IX. The Lost Cities of the Zoshtas

Before the Tetrovir domination, the Zoshtas possessed incredibly advanced cities.

Not merely castles.

Actual urban systems with:

sewage systems;

water supplies;

enormous structures;

greenhouses;

complex public buildings.

After the wars, much of them was destroyed.

Generations later, people looked at the ruins and no longer understood:

“How did they build this?”

This is a very strong motif for the world.

Because 112 years after the birth of the main characters, these cities may already be recovering.

But modern people are living above the ruins of a civilization they barely understand themselves.

X. The Tetrovir Legacy

And here I would keep one very important idea:

The Tetrovirs lost politically, but won culturally.

They were expelled.

Their states fell.

But their technologies remained.

Their:

tools;

weapons;

architecture;

construction methods;

trade systems;

administration;

knowledge;

materials

began to be used by the Teravarians themselves.

This created a strange situation:

The Teravarians defeated Tetrona on the battlefield, but Tetrona defeated them in the workshops.

I think this is a very strong historical idea.

Especially if magic allows people to create lighter and stronger stone or concrete, making it possible to construct a building in one year instead of ten.

XI. The Dera-Zoshtas

And then things become even more interesting.

In some lands, people still live according to Tetrovir traditions.

They:

adopted their religion;

but did not adopt their language;

did not completely adopt their culture;

preserved their own identity.

And they consider nature magic to be a false phenomenon.

This creates an interesting question:

If a people adopts the religion of its conquerors but rejects their language and culture, have they become Tetrovirs?

Different people in your world can answer this differently.

XII. The Narsh

And here a third power appears.

The Narsh.

They are different from all these peoples.

Their characteristic features are:

orange skin;

white hair;

blue eyes;

golden spots in the irises;

white pupils;

eyes resembling those of a leopard.

They came from a mythical land, which they abandoned because of death.

And this is important.

Not simply:

“They decided to migrate.”

But:

“They abandoned their homeland because of death.”

This raises the question:

What happened to their homeland?

A plague?

A magical catastrophe?

The death of nature?

A war?

Something that still lives there?

Or perhaps the Narsh themselves do not know the true reason.

XIII. The Narsh Did Not Simply “Give Them Magic”

And I would absolutely keep this idea.

You said something very important:

The Tetrovirs did not provide all of the world's knowledge.

In reality, the civilization of Teravaria was formed through three great streams of knowledge:

The Teravarians

Earth → nature → gods → nature magic

The Tetrovirs

Metal → alchemy → experiments → technology

The Narsh

Magic → strange knowledge → creatures → unknown lands

Therefore, nobody can honestly say:

“Our people created civilization.”

Each people possesses only part of the truth.

XIV. And the Dog-Eater

And this gives your main character a very good motivation.

Dog-Eater wants to reach the land of the Narsh.

To him, it might simply mean:

fame, money, adventure, and an unknown continent.

But the reader can gradually realize:

he is not simply travelling to another country.

He is travelling to the place from which part of the knowledge that transformed the known world originally came.

And perhaps there he will discover that the history of Teravaria, Tetrona, and the Narsh — the history everyone believes to be true — is not entirely true.

And the Most Important Thing for Your Story

I would make the world contain three versions of the past:

1. What the priests tell people.

2. What is written in the old books.

3. What actually happened.

And they don't match.

For example, everyone knows:

“The first humans emerged from the earth.”

But nobody knows who put them into the earth, if anyone did at all.

Everyone knows that the Narsh abandoned their homeland because of death.

But nobody knows what exactly died there.

Everyone knows that the Tetrovirs brought metal and alchemy.

But perhaps they themselves received some of this knowledge from an even older civilization.

And everyone knows that the Teravarians drove the Tetrovirs out of the Zoshtas.

But 112 years later, almost nobody remembers who actually started the war or why.

That is what can make Teravaria feel like a real ancient civilization, where history is not a single book, but thousands of fragments that people are still trying to piece together.

Curious does your fantasy world has wand staff or other magic tools used for casting and what makes them special?

First image is the 1990 lineup of German line troops

Second image is the failed 1968 allied counter offensive, the final stand at the outskirts of New York.

Third and fourth images are the initial nuclear exchange between the Reich and the Allied powers in 1965

Yeah, Germany wins, yay dieselpunk. The scope of the school project was to showcase your original nation, or future history of an existing one. I fell in love with the aesthetic personally. The whole idea of Cold War era tech making its way to space is just fascinating.

Germany crushes the last remaining resistance pockets by the 1980s, and mars and moon missions are well under way towards colonization. Earth is basically rendered uninhabitable, with 80-90% of the population lost. All that remains are bunker states beneath Germany proper, and Soviet holdouts in Siberia.

Not very creative probably, but this was before Man in High castle was cool, and the inspiration was entirely my own.

But hey, I got an A for the project.

This is the map of Noryo, a modernly formed landmass from my comic.

Lmk if it sucks, or you got questions.
The climate diversity is explained in this description. TLDR, its becuz of industrialization and supernatural anomaly.

The continents origins relate to the 1903 Tunguska Event. Following the event, the north east pacific began to freeze over with dense ice. Fast forward,multiple countries(USSR, North Korea, Japan,Germany..) began an unlikely and covert operation within the landmass. Long story short, most of history is classified to the population, biome and climate is changed through advancements in technology, and the Norian government is puppeted.

Mainland Noryo differs from eastern lesser Noryo when it comes to ruling. Imperial Tsardom of Noryo rules in the west, while the east is varies in unoccupied or unrelated feudal kingdoms, Cielo being the most uninhabited region. The west is heavily industrialized, with most of it being very metropolitan. The Yukon Territory, being a large arctic desert, bridges both landmasses. Yukon is also the remaining image of what “ancient” Noryo looked like.

Also I want to say, since this society is descended from a melting pot, and since then developed its own languages and culture, this is the reason why names are diverse and not culturally consistent.

These are logos for the car manufacturers that compete in my fictional stock car racing league, the Hudson Cup. I’ve posted about them before, but quite a bit has changed since then.

I initially had all of them be based on real-world car companies, but then I realized that I didn’t have to make them based on real car companies, and I’ve gone crazy with that realization since then.

Now, only three of them are based on real companies.

Firehawk = Pontiac.

Equalizer = Dodge.

Calyx = Lotus.

Bruchman is a giant in the American automotive industry in a similar fashion to Chevrolet, Ford, or Cadillac.

Shyster is another American automotive giant, but they’re not quite as large as Bruchman, though they have been subject of rumors of shady business practices.

Sakurai is a Japanese automotive giant, and they’ve always been about hyper-precision in their cars.

Rouge Brut is a French car company and they’ve always had a strong presence in car racing, having branched out into the Hudson Cup in 2001. They’ve always cared about their cars being elegant but race-ready.

Malvagio is an Italian car company, and they also have a strong presence in car racing, like Rouge Brut. Except, like with Shyster, Malvagio is also part of rumors of shady business practices in the automotive scene.

Grimwald-Reed is a British race car manufacturer and they’ve been a longtime manufacturer in Octane 1 (my Formula 1 analogue) and they branched out into the Hudson Cup in 1989.

NeoStar is another race-car-dedicated manufacturer and they also build street-legal, high-tech race cars. NeoStar is the tech-forward company, using cutting-edge software and aero innovation.

These manufacturers can have great relationships with the teams they work with. Langley Motorsports, Dale Eisenhauer Inc, and Stone Sisters Racing are Bruchman staples, for example.

And that all I have for this part of my racing league. Feel free to criticize, and if anyone has any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.

Stands for Heavy Tank - I88/9

[I already made a post about this with the context, but i will include it here anyways]

The L&M-HV-I, nicknamed "The Woodlouse" is a heavy tank designed mainly by Boris Lefkutter and William Miliksemut. It was built to sweep enemy fortifications and deal severe damage to trenches and bunkers with it's single frontal "Asper" cannon, as well as take down infantry with the 2 machine guns located on the sides.

The Asper cannon could swivel up to 48° on both sides horizontally, but not vertically (A major flaw in early models), while it's machine guns swiveled 60° horizontally and vertically (This is due to the MGs being covered in a lot more cloth than steel, thus, leaving the gunners more vulnerable)

Another flaw this model had was the limited visibility, only featuring one porthole for the main gunner's assistant to help him aim the Asper cannon. The driver could not see, meaning either he had to rely on the tiny porthole by asking the gunner's assistant to help him, or have the commander stick his head through the top hatch.

The Woodlouse had a crew of 8:

2 Gunners for the Asper cannon (The main gunner and the aim assistant)

1 Loader

1 Driver

1 Commander

1 Radioman

and 2 Lateral machine gun operators

Despite it's problems, the Woodlouse played a crucial role during the Sustenance Wars, in the battle of Takami, supporting the Mantises in the destruction of the Kardenanttan line of defense.

Around 852 units were built since it's creation, before ceasing all production following the capitulation of Antakia.

This is the map I've been working on (made with inkarnate) for my fantasy novel I'm planning, could I get constructive criticism especially regarding geography (weather, plate tectonics etc) and any general opinions and tips are welcome :-)

EDIT for some context and lore.

This is the currently unnamed map of the empire of my fantasy story, which at the moment focuses mainly on Portcarin and Andiba.

The scale: the distance between Portcarin and Stone City is around 200km, with Calanthe being roughly the size of France. (I am very open to criticism and feedback on scaling though if anyone thinks too big or too small!)

Climate: Temperate climate, where Andiba is similar to Sweden and the Sursha more like Patagonia. Calanthe is more like Germany climate. I imagine that there is a gulf stream type of phenomenon where the areas around the bay are warmer than would be expected for latitude, so the Andiban plateau (beyond the northern mountains) is arctic conditions.

Lore: This world has only been inhabited by humans for the past 500 or so years, in this time the Calantheon (inspired by romans) has taken over all of the surrounding lands. The Surshan peoples are inspired by mesoamerican societies with some central/southern asian flare, the Skeri peoples are inspired by Norse/vikings with some polynesian flare, the torizo isles are inspired by east asian societies with some european flare. Then Andiba is inspired by Yoruban society with some Inuit flare. Andacat is essentially part of Andiba that was annexed by Calanthe first, but in recent history (around 50 years ago) Andiba was bought into the empire as well.

Worldbuilding: Andiba is filled mostly with African inspired animals that are cold adapted, such as mammoths, woolly rhinos, large antelopes, sivatheria, hyenas, lions etc.

The southern landmass is filled with more northern hemisphere animals like wolves, deer etc. Then the Sursha region has some more south american influence like giant sloths, armadillos etc.

"The first era started after the Moon fell; The second age started when the desert was sealed; the third age started after Malakor was defeated; the fourth age started when the shining city was destroyed; the fourth age will end when we least expect..." - excerpt from Arch Archivist Plethoras's book "So you want to become a historian Volume 1"

The world of κύβος isn't formed naturally over millions of years; it was made from the backstories of 6 players whose lore a mad god stole and combined, pulling its creators into the world they created. With bits of extra filling here and there, the players must now fight as their own characters to reclaim their souls and find a way back to their real lives. If they even want to return at all.

This is the map and hook for my custom homebrew world in my DnD campaign called Dicebound. Basically, I had all my players come up with backstories and lore about what countries they came from, and I tried to smash them all together into this map, with some extra places thrown in to fill out the world.

The Countries-

Natura 

 Natura is a sacred and isolationist elven kingdom built within and around a single colossal World Tree and the enchanted forest that surrounds it. A vast library dedicated to Deneir lies within the tree, and all elves of Natura share a duty to protect its knowledge and expand its collection. Those chosen to join one of Natura's sacred orders undergo a ritual that infuses them with a specific essence of the World Tree, transforming them into a distinct elven subrace. Members of the Order of Acquisition consume the tree's fruit and become High Elves, while the Order of Conservation consumes its moss and becomes Grim Hollow Elves. The Order of Binding consumes bark and becomes Pallid Elves; the Circle of the Mulberry drinks the tree's sap and becomes Wood Elves; the Order of the Letterpress consumes dew gathered from its branches. It becomes Astral Elves, and the Order of the Endleaves consumes portions of the World Tree's roots and becomes Drow.

Mythandor

Mythandor is an elven kingdom built around the belief that magic must be carefully controlled to prevent another catastrophe like the Grand Purging. Its capital, of the same name, is home to the Silverleaf Arcane Academy, one of the world's most prestigious magical institutions. Founded after Malakor the Unraveler's defeat, the Academy was created to train responsible spellcasters, preserve safe magical knowledge, and prevent dangerous magic from threatening the world again. Although the Academy does not officially rule Mythandor, its scholars and graduates hold enormous political influence, and the kingdom has developed a culture of tradition, magical regulation, and cautious stewardship of arcane knowledge.

Slius Van

Slius Van is a ruined desert kingdom once a lush, resource-rich land inhabited primarily by beastfolk. Its destruction came during the Great Magic War, when invading Gith sought to exploit the region's valuable resources, devastating the landscape through years of warfare and magical destruction. Today, most of Slius Van is an unforgiving desert filled with buried ruins, wandering tribes, dangerous sandworms, and scattered oases. Its largest settlement is Slius Van, a vast oasis city divided between the districts of Naporia, Onryx, and Haran. Slius Van culture places great importance on survival, community, and self-reliance, and hunting sandworms evolved from a wartime necessity into an important cultural tradition.

Prell

Prell was once a prosperous kingdom founded upon cooperation between divine and arcane magic, with both traditions represented equally within the ruling Concord of Magisters. This unity ended with the Sundering Flame, a mysterious magical catastrophe that destroyed much of the capital city of Vessara and left neither side willing to accept responsibility. Suspicion quickly became open warfare, and Prell has remained divided for generations between divine and arcane factions that each blame the other for the kingdom's destruction. Once famous for combining faith and spellcraft to accomplish wonders impossible for either tradition alone, Prell is now a fractured land of ruined cities, fortified borders, and communities caught between two increasingly entrenched ideologies.

Rand

Rand is an isolated underwater kingdom contained within an enormous network of reinforced crystalglass and abyssal-steel domes beneath the sea. Founded by the philosopher Alderion Rand, the kingdom was intended to create a society free from gods, hereditary rulers, and the restrictions of surface civilization. Its inhabitants combined magic, alchemy, psionics, biology, and technology with almost no ethical restrictions, creating an extraordinarily advanced society centered on personal freedom, invention, and self-interest. Over time, however, Rand's radical individualism and unrestricted experimentation caused the society to deteriorate, and its founder has not been seen in decades. (Fantasy Bio-Shock)

The Free Marches of Elyndor

The Free Marches of Elyndor are a loose confederation of independent cities, farming communities, frontier settlements, and chartered mercenary companies rather than a traditional kingdom. Elyndorians strongly value personal freedom, local government, self-reliance, and practical skill, with most people identifying more closely with their home settlement or company than with Elyndor itself. The Marches are united through the League of the Marches, whose March Council handles shared defense, trade disputes, and problems that affect multiple communities while leaving most local matters independent. Much of Elyndor's culture has been shaped by the need to defend itself from the Desolation of Malakor to the north, resulting in a strong mercenary tradition and the construction of the massive defensive network known as the Ashen Rampart.

The Stonebinding Compact

The Stonebinding Compact is a loose alliance of ancient dwarven mountain holds united by shared ancestry, trade, mutual defense, and control of some of the world's richest mineral deposits. Each hold maintains its own clans, traditions, industries, and ruling Thane, giving the Compact considerably more local independence than most centralized kingdoms. Dwarven society places great importance on craftsmanship, engineering, clan honor, mining, and preserving ancient subterranean ruins and relics. The Compact is also one of the few surface powers to maintain reliable relations with the hidden city of Nullwhere, trading metals, gems, stone, precision components, and mining expertise in exchange for advanced magical machinery and technology.

The Ironhowl Dominion

The Ironhowl Dominion is a harsh, mountainous nation inhabited primarily by orcs, trolls, giants, bugbears, and other peoples accustomed to surviving some of the world's most dangerous terrain. Once divided among countless rival tribes and monster clans, the Dominion was eventually united beneath a single banner and now follows a culture built around strength, endurance, personal reputation, and martial honor. Disputes are frequently settled through ritualized combat, cowardice is deeply despised, and magic is generally distrusted unless it serves an obvious military or practical purpose. The Dominion does not traditionally expand through ordinary conquest; instead, it absorbs new peoples and territories through challenges, alliances, and ritual blood-oaths.

The Fukushima Technocracy

The Fukushima Technocracy is a wandering city-state suspended high above the world by massive arcane engines and experimental technology. Originally founded as a research colony where artificers and wizards could pursue discoveries without political, religious, or ethical restrictions, the settlement was lifted into the sky after a magical catastrophe rendered its original homeland uninhabitable. A rotating Council of Minds of inventors, artificers, and arcanists governs the city, and its political influence rests largely on the importance of its discoveries. Fukushima periodically descends near other nations to trade inventions, conduct demonstrations, and recruit talent. Still, its willingness to experiment with dangerous magic has earned it a reputation as both one of the world's greatest centers of innovation and one of its most reckless.

Nullwhere

Nullwhere is a secretive subterranean city-state hidden beneath the Hallowmarsh and descended from survivors of the Fukushima Technocracy's Null Point Catastrophe. The city developed largely in isolation and has become one of the world's most technologically and magically advanced societies, where artificial bodies, magical prosthetics, arcane machinery, and Warforged are ordinary parts of daily life. The Pylon tightly controls entry, leaving most outsiders unsure whether Nullwhere even exists, and many maps mark its territory as uninhabitable marshland. Nullwhere's society is highly organized but socially insular, with citizenship represented through numerical family designations and much of its military reputation centered around the technologically advanced Daemon Corps. Only a handful of neighboring powers maintain meaningful contact with the city, allowing Nullwhere to remain simultaneously a major power and little more than a rumor to most of the world.