How I World-Build: Heranyt

 

So the other day someone messaged me asking about The Wanderers' Psalms. I'm still sitting with that one, because, like, I don't really think about it much these days. Crescendo has consumed me for two years and it's going to for quite a bit of time more. So I was quite shocked and very pleased to talk to someone who actually reads this little shitling blog. After a few minutes I decided to ask this particular person what they thought of me actually talking about world-building and all that. I've put up some theory on here, and always felt very weird about. I don't really see myself as having any actually unique opinions on worldbuilding or really anything else like that. Well, this individual said I should take a shot at it.

You know who you are.

Thank you, I'll give it a try. That's really all I can do.

I begin with a game system in mind. In the case of Heranyt, the central planet of The Wanderers' Psalms, that was Burning Wheel originally, but now Crescendo is in the stable too. The point is the that the setting has to be capable of supporting the type of gameplay and stories that the game is supposed to tell. And what stories do these two games tell? Self-discovery, mysticism, and desperate struggle. So the foes of the setting need to be existential, a persistent and eternal threat that one can only evolve in response to.

I always begin with a story, something to focus the setting around. This little tale takes the basic actions I want the setting to continue encouraging. Players respond to context, not directives. So it's important to make that context as clear as possible. I usually set up five differing parties and try to have them all doing the types of actions that are important in the setting. In Heranyt's case the tale is a mythological struggle between the Outsider (a singular God) and his creations, the khen-zai Verzhoben and the demonic Eous, with the Eternal Flame and Telos to aid him.

Once upon a time Verzhoben decided that he did not wish to serve creation, but to master it. He corrupted himself and the ensivalo, along with all their slave races, extinguishing the First Flame. When they did so, the ensivalo realized they cared nothing for their own genetically engineered creations, and left them, to parts unknown. Without the First Flame the races fell to barbarism and undeath.

The Outsider intervened. He incarnated as each of the races -elves, orcs, minotaurs, dwarves, dusken, wolves, dryads, and humans - trying to get them to accept him… only to be killed by each of them, in turn. The humans didn’t even let The Outsider survive childhood. But as the last incarnation of the Outsider was killed, a pillar of blue flame leapt from the corpse and burrowed into the planet, straight down to the core… where the Eternal Flame now rests. The undead plague ended. The insanity ended. Some were nostalgic.

Led by Eous, some began to try to extinguish the Eternal Flame, to no avail: the Outsider’s will was behind The Eternal Flame. Telos, Eous’s right hand man, turned on Eous, founding a resistance group, Those That Sailed. Unable to extinguish the Eternal Flame Eous forced the flame within him, which he could not extinguish, to turn to his mind, to his goals. And thus the first Anti-Flame was born. Others followed suit, drawing power from Herna, the Abyss.

Telos and the Eternal Flame begged The Outsider to force the Anti-Flames to relent, traveling to the very heights of Seitseman to plead their case. No one knows what was said that day; Telos and the Eternal Flame will not speak of it. But Telos, along with Those Who Sailed, have spread throughout the world, working towards an end goal that none know of. Someday we may know of it.

I always take this story at face value. I do not subvert it, I do not challenge it, I do not in any way shape or form tinker with it, because once you do that the setting begins to fall apart. Your mileage may vary, but I don't really suggest it.

At any rate, I then look this story and start asking what sort of world would be centered on such a story. I close my eyes and just try and picture the place: Aztec pyramids, cold lands with iron trees, rings made of destroyed continents where the elves may yet fly in their ships... I just start writing down. Once I got some images written down I make a map and situate these images on it.

The next part is the hardest one to quantify, because it takes a long time and it's generally the one I don't remember all that well. With the images in mind I start researching real life cultures and religions that would fit... kinda. I read up to my heart's content, until something sparks off and I can just start creating on my own. It's been more than ten years since I did this with Heranyt, so I'll be more specific with the process in an upcoming series on worldbuilding, but basically at this point I'm not so much using the real-world inspirations strictly, just to push my subconscious just enough. 

And then I rinse and repeat. For years. With each thing, whether it be history, a piece of geography, a race, I ask myself: "Does this support the central mechanics of the game I want to build this setting for?" And if the answer is no I throw it out immediately. Focus. Focus. Focus. On the fact that you are not making a work of fiction, but a backdrop for a game, where the stories depend upon mechanics and the world those mechanics evoke together.

We'll get into the weeds more for the next post, as a I start to build Viestinta.