Star Spun Souls

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more map-making content in my Cartography Directory . When building your world, it's important to keep in mind that civilizations first crop up near rivers . Obviously, ready access to fresh water plays a huge role in where early settlements are established, and the most successful of these settlements grow into cradles of civilization. But the mud available to a civilization also plays a key role. Mud bricks are a crucial building material for many early settlements, allowing societies to establish their first permanent structures, well before they develop the tools necessary to build with wood or stone. Of course, the presence of magic in your world may replace certain tools, resulting in a di...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. The best and latest worldbuilding workshops are gathered here at www.DNFrost.com/worldbuilding . Find more content navigation in my Resource Directory . Also check out my worldbuilding for the TotKW Saga at www.DNFrost.com/codex . And for worldbuilding from other authors, see the style analysis series at www.DNFrost.com/workshops . Define Your Standard: NEW POST! A standard world language can be useful, but unifying languages start out as regional languages and gain prestige over time. They have history, and they bring cultural baggage with them wherever they spread. Read more of this post here... What is Worldbuilding? On this website, the worldbuilding tag refers to ideas about deve...

BONUS: A mapping how-to! Fantasy Map Maker Jump Start : 61 Easy Tips for Fantasy World Building with Real Earth Science The world-building book for creative people who want to develop their worlds with the confidence backed by modern earth science. In this concise and practical how-to guide, professional author and creative cartographer, D.N.Frost, explains the myriad ways our planet creates all the environments on Earth, and she delivers those concepts in 61 useful bite-sized tips that help you to: • Build your fantasy world with a blueprint of how civilizations thrive and the power of geology in your back pocket. • Make your world make sense. And keep all the features you love. • Create the coolest world you can dream up. With unique places and cultures that defy logic but still feel ...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more map-making content in my Cartography Directory . Hello, there! Thanks for your interest in my mapping techniques. My name is D.N.Frost, and I'm a fictional cartographer, fantasy author, and world-builder. I began creating digital fantasy maps for my Tales of the Known World saga, and after making over twenty maps for my first book, I started offering map commissions to fellow storytellers. How exactly do I map a fictional world? Through tutorials on YouTube, hours of experimentation, detailed notes, and a lot of trial and error, I taught myself how to use Photoshop to create professional fantasy maps. To help you make your own publish-ready maps, please enjoy this collection of short mapping i...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more map-making content in my Cartography Directory . Most worldbuilders are hesitant to make maps. A lot of them might be willing to sketch out general layouts, but committing to a professional map is intimidating. Distant places haven't been filled in yet, and the science behind your geography can be daunting. These doubts often give worldbuilders pause as they consider mapping their worlds. But really, there's no way you can get things wrong. Even publishing a map does not bind your world to the details of that map. Imagine for a moment that your map was actually drawn by someone within your invented world. The map does not have to depict reality; instead, it represents your world as it is kno...

This post is Part 2 of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more map-making content in my Cartography Directory . After you've formed your river in Part 1 of this series , you can determine how your land was settled. Imagine settlers exploring your world for the first time. Since people need water to live, the first settlements usually form near rivers or other water sources. Nearby areas are often cultivated, hunted and fished, or harvested for natural resources like timber, stone, and ore. Wealthy towns draw more people, and these towns grow larger. Roads are laid to connect main towns, and smaller towns develop along main roads. Unsettled lands are often home to nomadic peoples who come into conflict with exploitative settlers. ...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more map-making content in my Cartography Directory . When mapping your world, a few factors impact the overall feel of your map. Visual cues communicate information about your world at a subliminal level, and your readers absorb this information within moments of glancing over your map for the first time. While your colors and mapping style create the general atmosphere for your map, your font is what really embodies the spirit of your world. It can be tempting to pick ornate fonts with grand details, but fancy fonts rarely work for cartography labels. Ornate fonts are often obscured at smaller sizes, so your best bet is to select a simple font that's easy to read. A map can backfire when the fo...

This post is Part 1 of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more map-making content in my Cartography Directory . As a worldbuilder, you have ultimate control over how your rivers flow, where your towns spring up, and the way your roads connect. But to create a realistic world that immerses readers in your story, you must consider some basic concepts about how lands form and civilizations rise. This implicit dynamic between rivers, towns, and roads will either lend credibility to your world or detract from the story at hand. Rivers form when a region of land sheds water. Instead of fully absorbing into the soil, the water flows across the land, following the pull of gravity from highlands into lowlands. Small rivers tend to feed into larger rivers, and rivers...

This post is part of a series to augment The Worldbuilder's Handbook available for free download. This and other world workshops are gathered in my Worldbuilding Directory for you to explore. Find more content navigation in my Resource Directory . Hello, there! Thanks for your interest in my worldbuilding techniques. My name is D.N.Frost, and I'm a fantasy author, fictional cartographer, and extensive worldbuilder. After designing myriad cultures, constructing multiple languages, and producing numerous maps for my Tales of the Known World saga, I've developed a realistic approach to building a complex world. How exactly do you build a fictional world? I realized that a world's cultures, languages, and geography are connected, and that they influence each other through the course of history. To build more realism into your invented worlds, please enjoy this collection of short worldbuilding ti...