So, back to world building. Let’s take a look at it in three mediums- written, video, and game.
First, we take text. Now, textual world building has to be rather literal and direct. That is to say, all the details, all the little facts are ultimately laid out for you, and easy to see. If someone has a small scar, and it hides a deeper piece of lore about that person, the scar will have to be mentioned, at some point or the other. It may be in a small mention, it may come up as part of another character’s detail, it may even be in another book. But it will have to come up.
An example of world building through text would be the works of J.R.R Tolkien. I’d say it’s a fair assumption that most who read regularly have at the very least heard of The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. In addition to these books, Tolkien also had numerous other works, many unfinished, which were published with the collaboration of his son, Christopher Tolkien. Possibly most famous among these is The Silmarillion, which serves as a Bible of sorts for the world of Middle Earth. What this book does is provide us with the very foundation of Tolkien’s world; it provides background for his stories.
This makes me want to make a quick tangent and talk of what I’d consider an essential detail of worldbuilding – establishing background. Your established world is incomplete without some form of background (unless of course you’re using the real world as the base. In which case you still need to provide some details to give a time and location.)
Tolkien was rather… thorough in his world building to say the least. Though credit where it is due, he didn’t create a world as much as another reality.
Then we look at world building in video. First off, the advantage over text. Much of the time spent in describing the world, the character details, sounds and so on is shortened due to the ability to simply show the viewer what they want to convey. This also allows the ability to hide secrets, such as maybe a gun just about tucked under something, alluding to a later scene, or a plot point which isn’t explicitly shown.
Films have a restriction in this, that they have a time limit of sorts. That isn’t to say that you don’t have really long films, or those in parts. But for a general audience, time is limited, and for sequels you have to spend some time providing a background. This applies to television shows as well, mind you, but television shows can take the chance of assuming that the viewer has kept up thus far.
So, films allow you to provide more subtle details and clues, and allow you to give more information in a shorter amount of time. (One might start thinking about movie adaptations of books and such, but that’s a topic for another post.)
To give an example of a show with great continuity and forethought, let’s take a look at Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s Rick and Morty. Throughout numerous episodes, details are hidden for us to find. An example is the episode Total Rickall. In this episode, numerous impostor alien parasites enter the family home, and try to place themselves by planting false memories in the minds of the family.
An odd detail which we see however, is a character known as Mr. Poopybutthole (his actual name). Mr Butthole seems to be accepted by the family, he even appears in the opening credits! However, this is the first time that we the viewers are being introduced to him. As a result, suspicion naturally falls on him as being a parasite. However, at the end of the episode, we see that he is in fact a real being.
If you were to go back and re-watch the episode, you’d notice various details that show he isn’t a parasite. While this is some great attention to detail, where does this fit into world building?
Well, it fuels a theory. A theory that the episodes we see in Rick and Morty are in fact not necessarily in the same universe. The fact that there are multiple parallel universes (known as the Multiverse Theory) is one established in the Rick and Morty… well, I can’t quite say universe. Rick and Morty multiverse, maybe? (If you want to explore this theory of Rick and Morty, there a number of people who have don their research and put together videos and such on the topic.)
Thus Rick and Morty builds its world by clues dropped here and there, which simply need to be connected.
So we finally come to video games. Now, you might have noticed a trend. As the media provides more and more opportunity for the reader/viewer/player to interact and experience more, the ability to create worlds improves, and more subtle details and secrets can be added. Video games allow you to be a part of the world itself. They allow you to explore, make your own stories and choices.
Now, one great game to talk about here would be Life is Strange. But I feel that that game would be more appropriate for me to talk about immersion in stories.
So, I’m going to talk about Dark Souls 3, or rather Dark Souls (and Demon Souls) in general. Now, this game is absolutely incredible in terms of world building. So many little details here and there for an observant player to notice, and all the story is hidden away in little snippets which players have to put together. You have to hunt, explore for items to put together the lore, and watch for details in the environment.
An example is how you can see where traps are located if you pay attention. Bloodstains, holes, oddly raised flagstones, all little details.
Another thing which Dark Souls does is that it never outright tells you the story. You have to piece it together, and in that way, it actually allows you to build your own world, your own theories and stories.
That’s not to say that all theories have merit, many could be obvious crapshoots. But it adds to the sense of mystery and the thirst for knowledge about the world of Dark Souls. It has such a rich history that isn’t given to you, you have to earn it. You, like a true scholar, have to explore, examine, learn about the world yourself.
Now, I may have gotten a bit sidetracked here and there, but I hope I was able to get my point across. You may have noticed that I haven’t really mentioned music, and to be honest that’s because I don’t really know too many examples of world building in music. The closest thing that comes to mind is My Chemical Romance’s album, The Black Parade, and that’s more of a story than a world. That said, if I do come across a good example, I’ll make a post about it.
Do let me know what your thoughts are, and remember, this post is just, like, my opinion, man.