Polarity: Help Wanted for Fantasy Worldbuilding Project

[Drakevarg]

Alright, last thing I do before I go to bed, I promise.

*ahem*

Hello, Playgrounders. I'm posting here as a request for assistance in a fantasy worldbuilding project I've been working on for roughly five years now. The majority of the framework is built already, I'm mostly working on the juicy bits these days.

The project is called Polarity, and its a setting built around a magic system that I think is fairly different than pretty much anything I've spotted anywhere else. Its primary use (other than the simple mental exercise of it) is for use in literature. It was originally an RPG setting, but that was abandoned years ago.

I'm not sure what I can really tell you about the setting, other than simply show you a large pile of my writings on it. I'm sure someone responding to this will give me a barrage of inquiries towards it, which I'll happily respond to. A questionnaire is easier to fill out than an open-ended essay, after all.

The reason I'm asking for help at all is mostly the scope of the project. Again, it's an entire world spun largely out of whole cloth, which is no small feat to be handled alone. A few extra helping hands to write history and whatnot would take a huge burden off my shoulders so that I could handle what's left with more focus and finesse.

The majority of my writings on it can be found on my DeviantArt page, (tootiredtomakename.deviantart.com) and I can be contacted over AIM under the handle Psychogoji almost every weekday, usually between 4 PM - 11 PM (Central Time). Weekends are generally less reliable, as I'm probably on the XBox. If you're interested, post here, comment on my DA page, IM me or PM me, I don't care. Feel free to ask whatever questions you have over any of those mediums aswell. I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

I'll probably lurk nearby for a few minutes to see if anyone takes a look, but then I gotta get to bed.

[Forever Curious]

I'll get to reading it over the course of the next few days. Can't say I'll be much help but I'll give my 2 cp.

[Drakevarg]

Just a quick update as a flimsy excuse to bump this, but I'm working on a "For People Who Can't Read My Mind" series of cartoon-articles to explain what's going on, since most of the writings thus far are train-of-thought and probably have huge gaps in them.

Which, now that I think about it, is going to require LOTS of articles...

[MethosH]

I have a question... Where exactly should I start reading?

[Drakevarg]

Polarity: Genesis might be a good place to start. But after that, probably just peruse randomly. Don't skip the pictures, though. They might have something relevent scrawled in the comments section or on the margins.

Thinking about it a bit harder I'd say:

Polarity: Genesis
The Dragon War
Mordan Timeline
On the Undead
Ragnan Social Classes
Orc Minibio
Vampire Caste System
Monsters of Aldakemen
The Barony of Northrim
The Phantom Legion

In order of relevence. Journals are important, too, and I'd read those in chronological order.

[MethosH]

I'm done with genesis and going for the dragon wars now... I've seen the other articles and most of them are surprisingly short. And I kind of miss a world map and a timeline... What exactly you need help with?

EDIT: You also need to make a more technical world-bible. Less romanticized and with more solid information. That kind of helps to build the romances later.

[Drakevarg]

Well again most of these have been train-of-thought blurbs that only bounce off the surface of a much much bigger idea.

The lack of a world map is due to the fact that I'm a sucky cartographer; maps EXIST, but they're poorly drawn scrawls that don't go into detail much deeper than "which city-state goes where?" and even those have a habit of changing when I'm not looking.

As for the timeline, that's something I've been (sorta) working on lately. This really shouldn't have taken as long as it had, since there are only 3 nations with any recorded history at all (of the other nations 3 have an oral history and the fourth just doesn't care), and human civilization is only 2000 years old (not sure about the elves yet). The main reason I'm still light on that area is because a good 60% of my work thus far is simply been playing with metaphysics.

Really mostly what I need is a second brain. Literally this entire debacle has been going on in my own head and most of what you see there is the result of me not wanting to forget what I'm talking about. With another person to observe what I'm doing, telling me whats wrong and offering their own ideas, things would be much easier and much fuller.

As I've probably mentioned in my journals a few times, perhaps I haven't I can't recall, one of my biggest limiters in terms of providing the information is that my brain insists on editing what it thinks before it comes out my mouth (or fingertips as the case may be) and I wind up choking because most of my thought process ammounts to a word salad.

Indeed if you met me over AIM I would probably wind up mentioning more information offhand in one conversation than half my articles put together. I think the way I talk, and trying to crush that into a "Thesis, Arguement, Conclusion" format loses alot in translation.

EDIT: Edit-Ninja'd. Kind of exactly my point, really. When putting it in article form alot of the concept gets lost in romanticization. My journals are probably more helpful in that regard, as they really are just me having a monologue without the pretense of it being analyzed from the perspective of someone in-world.

[MethosH]

As for the timeline, that's something I've been (sorta) working on lately. This really shouldn't have taken as long as it had, since there are only 3 nations with any recorded history at all (of the other nations 3 have an oral history and the fourth just doesn't care)
Right there! You did it again! Tsc tsc.

When I tell you not to romanticize unnecessarily is because you are building the world, not exactly writing a novel. The characters may not know parts of the worlds story for this or that, but you should know. You may eventually use this information that the characters didn't knew.

On the AIM... I actually don't have AIM. Any chance of MSN or GTalk? :smallbiggrin:

[Drakevarg]

You do make a good point there. See how lovely a second brain is? That would honestly never have occured to me.

And yes, my MSN handle is [email protected]

[Drakevarg]

Oh, one last thing; someone fluent in the following languages would be helpful;

Japanese
German
Greek
Swedish
Quenya (As in Tolkien Elvish. I suppose Sindarin is acceptable, as well.)

Russian
Arabic

I mention the last two seperately as they are far less likely to come up.

[Maximum Zersk]

You know what's funny? I'm learning one of those languages (German), and can read another. (Arabic)

By the way, any chance, whenever you're free, if you could come one down to the GitP Worldbuilding Project and help out a bit?

[Drakevarg]

I'd consider helping, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that worldbuilding is an obsession of mine. And I'd like to limit the number of distractions I have to Polarity. I have, since I began working on it, paused momentarily to attempt creating... at least four different worlds. After having a revelation in the midst of working on the latest distraction, I decided to do my best to keep my fingers off of such things.

One of these worlds was when a friend of mine asked for help with a biblical post-apocalyptic setting, and literally within minutes I was waist-deep in ideas. Can't be havin' that, no sir.