World Building Lesson 2
If you’ve made it this far it means you’ve slayed the dragon that is Module 1 and you are ready to tackle the remaining modules with a dignified bravery.
While the content may get a bit more difficult, these worldbuilding videos are here to get you inspired.
This theory session is made to prepare you for Module 2’s Scratch project, which will have you “scratching up” an animated avatar builder!
In this lesson we will:
- put a little life into our worlds by brainstorming their inhabitants.
- discuss core elements of species building and folk building
- contemplate what sort of societies and cultures exist within our new worlds.
When thinking about our world’s inhabitants it’s best to get your mind into a quiet place. A moment of zen. Throw out everything you know about humanity. Your inhabitants don’t even need to be humanoids! they can be trees, vapor, noise waves. That being said what is their form?
For the hard builders out there this could be a great time to develop some sort of evolutionary process. Most earthly animals have developed various adaptations because of the environments they live in.
Maybe your world’s inhabitants are giant bugs who’ve adapted pincers for aiding them in battle, wolf people with large ears that allow them to hear for miles, a phosphorescent breeze that only hums in specific frequencies in order to keep your world’s volcanoes from erupting.
Again this is all up to you!
While a world’s climate, physics, and geography may effect their inhabitants, the relationship is mutual, and worldly inhabitants often have an effect on the worlds that they inhabit. Think of the long-term effects of social interaction on your planet.
Is your world in a state of crisis, utopia? Is there tension between different inhabitants in your world. Is your chosen inhabitant a ruler or the lowest on the food chain.
In Octavia E. Butler’s Earthseed series, we follow Lauren and her daughter Larkin as they exploer a dystopian version of America set in the 2020s. The main character possesses the spiritual trait of hyperempathy and develops a religious system that bears the series name. Are your inhabitants spiritual, robotic, careless, are they even sentient?
All of these answers and more you can come up with while brainstorming for your Avatar Building Project.
And on that note, this has been a wonderful round of Worldbuilding theory. Tune in next time!