Your World

Original (I think) world.

Basically there is no world. The world has already been destroyed -- the analogy I use is that there was an orange that was the world, and a bunch of gods decided they wanted to eat it. So they did. But they left behind little pieces of orange-peel, and people still live on those teensie-weensie patches. The reason they are able to live is because of a gnarly little mineral called "Magic."

"Magic" is an ore that naturally develops under the right conditions in patches of certain stones. The substance is special because, when it is present in certain proportions, it overrides certain natural tendencies of whatever it's in contact with. For example, "Magic" in stone causes it to ignore gravity, and float (society exists exclusively on these magic floating islands, BTW). Freeze enough Magic into a block of ice, and it will never melt -- but it *will* gather condensation from the air and, if the block is big enough, give off enough clean, drinkable water to support a population. Cake a log in Magic, and when you burn it, it won't be consumed. Put the right amount of Magic in your plowed fields, and the plants that grow there won't exhaust the soil. Stuff like that.

I aim to focus a lot on cultures. See, society has basically developed for thousands of years with practically zero land. Politically this does a lot of interesting things -- imagine how different the world would be if territory was never available to fight over. The wars that would take place would be different, the scientific advancements would be different, the politics would be different.... everything changes. I want to explore that deeply. In general, though, I'm approaching at about the rough equivalent of the Enlightenment period in Europe -- society is highly evolved to its conditions, and very advanced by all standards.

Religion is, again, on par with the enlightenment. There's a dominant religion focusing on four gods responsible for preserving life; there's also a secondary pantheon of acknowledged gods who are no longer worshipped (think Greek gods at -- again -- Enlightenment period. Still cool to know about, but the religion is dead). The difference is that the gods are all real, and everybody knows they're real -- like if Catholic Jesus was a regular customer of Sweeney Todd's on Fleet Street. Religion is never second-guessed, because it never has to be -- that resolves a lot of other conflicts that took place in Earth's history.

The protagonists are pretty dispicable people. The MC is friends with one of the lesser (Greekish) gods, knows more about "the truth of the universe" than most philosophers, and basically ignores the hell out of it the whole plot. His comrades are nasty, evil pirates -- not friendly-adventurous pirates, but nasty-evil pirates. They sail around and do nasty-evil things for a while before suddenly and without warning being tasked with saving humanity, despite their nastiness and evil. It's kind of a cruel trick of fate. Anyway. They give it a shot -- still evil-ly and nastily -- and eventually hatred, cowardice, and evil save the day. The plot is less important than what goes on with all the many characters -- I've got about 7-9 MC's, and about two dozen important characters total right now and plans to expand that by a bit with tertiary characters.

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"This is going to be the worst day of your life. I'm bringing nunchuks." H. Freeman

I'm basing this year's story on earth (most likely the USA, since that's the country I know most about, of course :P, and it doesn't play a huge part in the story anyway), but most of it takes place in the forest. The forest is my own world, my own rules and such, because the High Elf makes the laws, and they just ignore all American laws.

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I'm a Christian, and I'll stand up for my beliefs.

I'm going to catch a LOT of hell for this... but I'm planning on using the Forgotten Realms. No, Elminster and Drizzt aren't going to play a part and no realm-shattering events will take place. I just happen to like the setting, as I practically grew up in it. Plus it means more focus on the plot and less on the name of every little town and inn and forest.

My world is original, as far as I know. The concept is that the world is flat, and is divided into approximately six continents of roughly equal size. These continents are completely separated, so that travel between them can only be achieved through a magical portal/tunnel system.

The fun part is that although the world is flat, it has livable land on "both sides of the coin" so to speak. One side is basically growing and green, the other is a barren wasteland. Those who rebelled against the rulers of the green lands were exiled into the waste land. Needless to say, there's quite a bit of conflict between the two sides.

There's a large variety of creatures, with equivalents to everything from wizards to gnomes to fairies to elves, just to name a few. Humans live there as well, but they're not a very influential race. The major races I'm focusing on are Ethereans, who for all intents and purposes are elementals; and Phoenixes, who have a limited shapeshifting power.

Magic is very diverse. Each kingdom was allotted magic to use as the inhabitants saw fit, and that magic was invested in many different ways. The only true magic wielders either belong to the Mage race or learned from them. This magic requires the use of dirt from the Mage homeland, since they instilled all their magic into the earth itself.

Culture will also show diversity. While some kingdoms still maintain a medieval society, others may be more advanced. There is a system of checks and balances involved, however, which prevents any advanced kingdom from taking advantage of less advanced neighbors.

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If it's not the write answer, then it's the wrong one

2008: The Earliest Dawn
2009: Star in the Mist

Currently working on the Guild and Guile Project...

That's pretty cool. Is there easy passage from the regular world to the wasteland-world? I picture kickass spells punching holes in the ground and elementals busting through to wreak havoc. Anyway that's a legit concept, I like it.

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"This is going to be the worst day of your life. I'm bringing nunchuks." H. Freeman

I would like to point out that I would probably read MurderDeathKill's story. That's right up my alley.

So this year is my world-hopping story, which means my world is actually five worlds (although while I know a good bit about the fifth, it doesn't come into play much). Which means I'm doing a lot of pretty sloppy world-building, and mostly focusing on the aspects of the world that directly come into play regarding my MC.

The first is relatively modern -- or it was. Recent events before story-time resulted in a backslide. The people of this world still have a lot of "modern" type weaponry, but most everything else was set back at least one hundred years. The magic in this world is not something the humans/people of this world can actually harness. It's all within the creatures that inhabit the world other than the humans, who are all quite dangerous and hostile and are pretty much trying to eat/kill all of the humans. Also, because of the magic, the world is in perpetual twilight. Makes some aspects of life quite hard.

World two is roughly on par with Ancient Egypt. Culture-wise, there is a pretty rigid caste system. There is also extreme overpopulation, and the planet is considerably larger than Earth, with gravity a good deal stronger. Most of the climate is desert. Magic in this world is mostly tied in with the religion, and only a sort of religious elite can access it at all. To be completely honest, I'm still working out exactly how the caste system works within the society and exactly how the religion works. I was leaning towards some basis in actual Egyptian mythology, but I moved away from that. Multiple gods still, but nothing directly inspired.

World three is actually more sci-fi than fantasy. There really isn't any magic. In this version of reality, some tragedy befell the home planet (the people of this world themselves don't fully understand this) and they had to vacate the planet. They had been working on some terra-forming on moons in their system, and the "world" is one of these moons. However, the colonies on the moon are pretty much failing.

World four is a mostly water based planet. Dry land is scarce. I'm leaning towards steampunk flavor, with the magic worked in, perhaps. Most life takes place on airships, which can also sail directly on the oceans. The governments of the world have a hard time enforcing their laws on the seas, and I know there will be some piracy and generally unsavory behavior. There will also be what are essentially sea monsters, who do have a sort of magic of their own.

The fifth world is kind of a secret. I do know it's general specifics, but I have been ridiculously tight-lipped at my writing friends in regards to it.

...if you can't tell, I still have a lot of world-building to do. But I still have over two weeks!

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2003: Hell-Bound and Heaven-Sent (WON)
2004: Transcendence Theory (LOST)
2005: Ghost Story (WON)
2006: PenQuest (LOST)
2007: Technophile (LOST)
2008: Cogsworth (WON)
2009: Untitled World-Hopping Story (Tiebreaker?)

At the moment my world, is an alternate universe that starts out very similar to Earth of 537AD, of course on closer inspection my characters find out that not everything is the same and they are virtually have to build there world over. Houses and such.

Within my world, the Sidhe live in the shadows being the rulers of the four other Fae Branches, and long ago those Fae were banished from the World of the Sidhe and now with the coming of the humans the four branches of Fae are banished once again to the outer reaches of the land which is known as the Outlands.

Magic does play a part in my world the humans control it. Farming animals as well as Unicorns. Dragons died out a while back, and all that remain are the Draconai, the product of a Dragon male and a Faery female.

That's it for now.

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2005, 2006, 2007 - WON
2008 - FAILED

2009 § The Sidereal Rose

http://thesiderealrose.blogspot.com/

Wow, I'm really impressed that everyone is putting in the effort to make their own world.

I'm pretty much setting mine in the real world in 1815 Germany. Everything's the same except, well, there's magic. So all I have to do is to check out all the history books on the 19th century from the library...

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http://www.gamalei.net/nano/

Oooh, the both of you are doing what sounds like historical fantasy to me. I'm not the most skilled at accurate research for nanowrimo, so I tend to make up my own worlds that derive some aspects from actual times in Earth history -- such as the Ancient-Egypt-ish world and the world that in some ways is supposed to hark back to piracy in the 1700s. So I admire anyone who even jokingly intends to check out a slew of library books.

Also, syaffolee. I believe I read your nanovels back in 2003 and 2004. Perhaps 2002 as well, although I wasn't participating myself, just supporting a friend who was writing. I just wonder if you remember me at all. ^^;;

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2003: Hell-Bound and Heaven-Sent (WON)
2004: Transcendence Theory (LOST)
2005: Ghost Story (WON)
2006: PenQuest (LOST)
2007: Technophile (LOST)
2008: Cogsworth (WON)
2009: Untitled World-Hopping Story (Tiebreaker?)

That's fine. My world sprouted from Iriaebor, in the Western Heartlands. I am not ashamed. What I built was on a single paragraph in the setting and, truly, it's become a completely different entity. There's not even magic anymore, and the river turned into a huge lake/interior sea. The Forgotten Realms are fun, if you ask me. :)

Oh, and the world that was compared to an orange? Awesome!

So, yes, my world is a city. Not that there isn't anything around, but the novel never goes more than a hour away from it.

Isandor, the City of Spires, is standing proudly on a somewhat narrow cliff, near a great body of water. This has prompted the local nobles to build ever upward, creating a small city made of high towers, spiralling steps and arching bridges. All those nobles are part of trading families, who hold the power in the city. The wealthier a family is, the more power it holds -- and the more flamboyant its tower is!

Consequently, politics and trading deals are deeply intertwined. Three major families fight over the deals and vye for control: the Allastams, the Lorns and the Balthazars. They all have their allies, both minor and mid families. Wealth is not measured directly in gold pieces: it is the worth of the deals and their importance that counts the most. The system is very subjective and overseen by the Mayor Tosk, but the man has otherwise little power: a council of the merchants vote the laws.

Of course, all these deals are not fought exclusively with words. Mercenaries have plenty of work around, though there is a tacit agreement against killing - or, well, killing the important folks. The nobles respect this because they know that if they strike against someone, their turn will come. It is a line most are not willing to cross. Threatening and spying are frequent techniques, however, and mercenaries thrive.

There's a lot more details to it, of course, but it's enough to give you a feel of what it looks like. The story revolves around multiple threads and is a political intrigue at its heart. An foreign trading force has established itself close to Isandor and in the past seven years, it has garnered a lot of influence. The Dathirii House offends them in a clear 'no-allying-with-you' move and a solid trading war begins for control.

Meanwhile I've got a sellsword assassin looking for his partner and plodding in the dangerous intrigues of the 'low city', as they call the non-nobles areas. He is joined by a local, mostly independant investigator. A bastard son is taken out of the streets and into the Dathirii House, despite his protests and clear indications he wants nothing to do with them. On the other side of the 'war' is a foreign girl, daughter of their leader. After spending 7 years around the city, however, she begins to wonder where her home really is.

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ML for Quebec City

NaNo '08 - The Spirit Sword - 64,038 words, finished in May.
Frenzy '09 - Vie Publique - 101 pages.

My world is basically made up of four large continents and five smaller islands. There is one center island, surrounded by an island to the north, south, east, and west, and beyond each of those islands is one of the major continents. (There is also a land mass/continent on the other side of the planet, but it’s kept pretty secret by the few who know about it, for reasons I don’t want to go into here.) One of the main parts of the story is that all the world except for the northern-most continent has been taken over by this semi-mysterious group who claims to serve “the Light.”

The world was created by one god, called “the Origin” by most. He infused magic into the world, so that if taught properly, all people can use magic to some extent. Therefore, all technological advancement is usually done through the use of magic. However, that group I mentioned that took over the world (the Servants of the Light, or the Order of Servants) doesn’t want people using magic or worshipping the Origin. They claim that it’s for the good of the people, but it’s actually for their own selfish reasons (they’re powerful, and they don’t want anyone else to be). It’s a pretty big deal, forbidding religion and magic, but that’s not the only thing they do that really pisses people off. So they’ve made quite a few enemies, and that’s where my protagonists come in. (Ironically, the protagonists are considered to be on the “Dark Side,” since they’re against “the Light.”)

There are two main ways to tap into magic. Anyone, if taught, can tap into the six external forces of magic, collectively known as the Energy (the six are air, water, fire, earth, metal, and light/energy/spirit – the last one has several names, depending on who you ask). But only a rare few are born with the ability to connect to the Origin (the god who created the world) and use magic through His strength. Of course, since they’re more powerful than other magic users, most of them have been killed off (they are born with a mark that distinguishes them, which makes them easy for the Order to find). The places with the most magic are the most advanced. The center island, where the Order is centered, has quite a bit of advancement, but only through the secret work of the Head Servants. In all the world, the most technologically advanced place is the Northern Continent (the only continent not under the rule of the Order), since they still use magic on a daily basis.

The primary antagonists of my novel are members of the Order of Servants that serves “the Light” and rules most of the world. Of course, not all those who think they’re serving the Light are bad guys, since they’re truly devoted to what they think is right. It’s really the ones who head up the organization that are the antagonists, since they’re anti-magic and anti-religion and anti-everything but themselves.

The main protagonists are all people (from various walks of life and various continents) who somehow find themselves, for one reason or another, joining the Resistance to oppose the Servants of the Light. One is a prince, one is a slave girl, one is a hunter, one is a maid in an inn, one is a ship captain, one is a man seeking revenge on a wrongly-killed brother, and one was even a monk serving the Light until he learned too much about the Order he was following. In this novel, their main goal is to stop the Servants of the Light from taking over the Northern Continent, the last stronghold of magic and true worship of the Origin.

I’ve still got a lot of worldbuilding to do, but one interesting culture I’d like to mention is a group of people from the Southern Continent. They all naturally have strangely colored hair (blue, purple, green, etc.), and for a long time, they’ve been a culture of slaves. They’re literally brought up just to be sold or to have children that will be sold – and they believe that this is what they’re supposed to be doing. One of my main protagonists, as I mentioned, is a girl who’s a slave from this culture. Even though the man who buys her (another MC) wants to free her, she won’t let him, because she believes that she is meant to be a slave, and it’s a good thing. These people are very stubborn about it, and I find it very interesting.

I’m hoping I’ll be able to get enough worldbuilding done for this world in time for November 1. There’s quite a bit left to do, but I’m hopeful. This is the first time I think I have a good chance of winning, and I’m excited to get started.

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Well, the plan is that it's going to be very, very hard to pass between them. Since there's no planetary core, I created a powerful "buffer zone" between the regular world and the wasteland, which provides gravitational force in both directions. Since it's magic (and pertains to gravity) I think it would be very difficult to break through, and probably painful.

There's going to be plenty of breaking through occurring though, at least in the grand scheme of things. Not sure if that'll happen in this year's story, but certainly in some of the others I have planned for this world.
2008: The Earliest Dawn
2009: Star in the Mist

Currently working on the Guild and Guile Project...

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If it's not the write answer, then it's the wrong one

2008: The Earliest Dawn
2009: Star in the Mist

Currently working on the Guild and Guile Project...

Annalia: Oh wows. Your world/plot sounds like a lot of fun to me, and like you have a pretty exact idea of what you want to do with your story. I'm kind of trying to get to a point such as that, but improvisation has served me well in the past, so we'll see how it goes when November rolls around (and how much planning I squeeze into the meantime).

Also I laughed a little, because my nanovel from last year had a character named Balthazar. Who my friend nicknamed Balthy, much to the character's dislike.

I would totally read your story, I think.

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2003: Hell-Bound and Heaven-Sent (WON)
2004: Transcendence Theory (LOST)
2005: Ghost Story (WON)
2006: PenQuest (LOST)
2007: Technophile (LOST)
2008: Cogsworth (WON)
2009: Untitled World-Hopping Story (Tiebreaker?)

Reading through, and fairly intrigued by most everybody's worlds. This is my favorite part of fiction.

@ Tirandil -- cool beans. I think I may buddy-ify you and keep track, cuz you've got a wonderful little creation there, and I'd love to make time for it after the sprintathon.

@Analia (Annalia?) -- I love political intrigue. Gotta echo Lira's enthusiasm -- sounds like you've done your homework! Keep on it for sure.

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"This is going to be the worst day of your life. I'm bringing nunchuks." H. Freeman

MurderDeathKill and Tirandil, I'm LOVING your worlds. They sound so fantastic and believable. Seems like you've put a lot of work into them as well because they're so fleshed out!

My worlds are going to switch between the Real World and Original. Starts off in the world as we know it, but will eventually transfer into Othermoon. Haven't fleshed it out much, though, so I won't bore you with 'possible' details just yet ^^

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Christina
Adelaide ML

"Take your clothes off, we've got some writing to do!"

Of course I remember you! :) Thanks for following along way back when.

The thing is, I only have to bother with one setting. You have to juggle several, which is impressive in of itself.

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http://www.gamalei.net/nano/

I've only really thought out the immediate area of my story. So far, my world looks kinda like an AU version of the Los Angeles area, with the city of Avalon standing in for LA. It's not gonna be completely like LA though, since I'm not really familiar with the geography. I've only been there a few times.

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/

Mine is an urban fantasy, set in its own world.

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(morgan says hello =P)

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2008- Niamey's Mountain-WON

My NaNo, which is the 6th book in my fantasy series, takes place on two worlds of my own creation. The main world is Ashael, a planet comparable to Earth, except that it has magic and faeries and dragons, among other things. The basic premise behind the story is that hundreds of inhabited planets exist, scattered across the universe, which are connected by magically created wormholes through space. Earth was once a part of this interconnected web, but it's inhabitants evolved into a dangerous, fearful, warlike species and were deemed a threat to the universe, and so were isolated. All of the creatures and races which Earth humans now think of as mere fantasy actually exist, but were evacuated from Earth before it was cut off.

Human magic is powered by emotions, typically lust (which makes complete sense since I write erotic fantasy :p). Human society is divided into various classes: mages, lords, merchants, laborers, and slaves. Slavery is legal and condoned by the government. Polygamy and same-sex marriage is commonplace. Humans have a pantheon of gods, most notably Maele, the god of life, light, and love, and his sister, Cheyn, the goddess of death, darkness, and hate. Then there's Iana, goddess of the moon and protector of unicorns, Caraeden, goddess of wild places and untamed beasts, Kaelea, god of the sea, and Eraevion, god of the mountains.

The main character is Lark, a young human and slave who is bought by a seductive and frightening mage. There really isn't an antagonist to speak of. Several characters have conflicting goals and questionable methods of obtaining them, but there is no "bad guy". Most of the conflict is internal, as Lark struggles to overcome the years of abuse he's suffered at the hands of former masters, and to come to terms with his attraction to his master.

The second world is Daron, an under-inhabited planet that belongs to Naeven, the mage. Daron suffers from frequent ice ages, which kill off almost everything every 10,000 to 15,000 years. No people, and most life lives in the sea, including a species of 300 foot long whale, and giant crabs that stand eight feet tall. Naeven also introduced a species of rare sea turtle, which plays a key role in this year's plot.

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Katica Locke's Website
FictionPress
LiveJournal

I actually have two "universes". Our universe, exactly as it is, up to 2008, when the story begins, (with a little historical revision) and a "neighboring" universe that the (known) inhabitants call the Side (See-day, I can't do accents on this keyboard...). The Side has eight inhabited planets, and various moons (not all inhabited). Each planet and their associated moons are ruled by a King or Queen. The central and most powerful planet planet, Daylight, hosts the Court of Twelve. The Daylight Queen rules the Court of Twelve, and she is, essentially, Queen of the Side. The Court is made up of the King or Queen of every planet plus four Kings or Queens who reign in magical dimensions that have entry into the Side. The magical dimensions, called Hunts, have no physical presence in the universe of the Side, but they are much more magical and more powerful than the Side planets.

There are only three sentient races in the Side:

Fae--semi-immortal beings, who can live forever, without interference, and are very difficult to kill (iron and steel will do the trick, though)

Changelings-- Earth humans who have been influenced by the Side. While there have been many studies done and theories proposed, no one knows why and how Earth humans are influenced by the Side, except just in general, "It's magic." Changelings become faster, stronger, harder to kill, just like Fae. Eventually, they will become Fae--they will stop aging, have the complete range of basic magical abilities and be semi-immortal. Changelings often have special gifts that they lose when the eventually become full Fae, such as a sort of ESP. Changelings were often noted to have the ability to find lost things, see through disguises, and sense when someone was telling the truth.

Simmorrians--humans (or humanoids) snatched from another part of the Side. The Fae snatched the Simmorrians when their supply of Earth human Changelings dried up. Simmorrians do not become Changelings, though. They live longer than Earth humans (average llfespan is approx 90, maximum ages are about 150). Some have magic, but not all, and most aren't nearly as powerful as the Fae. When the Fae realized the Simms weren't Changing, they turned them into a lower class. The average Simm is poor, sometimes indentured to a Fae, and they are easily taken advantage of and made into virtual slaves. There are generations of Simms that have been born into slavery or indentured servitude.

The worlds all follow pretty much the same pattern--large walled cities where magical means have overridden or merged with Earth technology (up until 1905) and sprawling expances of farmland and wilderness. There is not much in the way of "suburbs".

Magic in the individual are usually specific gifts, (like the ability to sense the truth, control water, fire, etc). Most Fae have general abilities like the ability to alter their appearance, show their age, hide and conceal objects, control and/or talk to animals. Fae can also use Rune Magic at various levels (depending on the talent of the individual user) Rune Magic simply uses combinations of 100 basic signs to enact a magic effect. The difficulty of Rune Magic comes in a) pushing the appropriate amount of power into a rune and 2) accurately combining the signs to produce the correct effect.
Using Rune Magic without the runes (merely visualizing it) is a talent only the oldest of the oldest Fae have. Most of the elder Fae can use Rune magic by "drawing" their runes in the air.

Simms can't use rune magic and it's forbidden to teach them. However, some of the early transplants learned when the Fae still thought they would be Changelings. They, in turn, taught their descendants in secret, and it has been passed down, in secret, from elder to younger. However, most Simm rune mages don't have a complete knowledge of all 100 runes, and seeking out other rune mages is far too dangerous. So their spells are limited.
Simms also brought a "speaking magic" (spells, created with words) from Simmoria. This is a type of magic that the Fae can't use. However, they are forbidden to congregate and practice, so they have no schools or covens, and like rune magic has 'lost' bits and pieces when being passed down in families.

There is no religion among the Fae. The Fae believe they are directly ascended from the ones who made their worlds. Simms have a rich cultural history and religion which has evolved with their capture by the Fae. Simms primarily devote their worship to Neera, originally a minor goddess of freedom and justice in their extensive pantheon. Many old Simms believe that one day, Neera will "cross the worlds" like they did, to rescue them and take them back to Simmoria. However, younger Simms have largely rejected the view that they should go back to a strange world they know little about. Instead, they believe Neera will come to the Side and exact justice for their suffering.

The antagonist in my story (in the first book, anyway) is nature itself. Huge fields of deadly, poisonous flowers have been springing up in all of the worlds, Fae and Simms alike have been coming down with strange new illnesses, magic is acting strangely... the Fae believe it is due to the fact that they are cut off from Earth. They believe that Earth is their "13th Court" and that without direct contact with Earth, their natural balance is disrupted.
The protagonist in my story is a girl from Earth--nobody knows how she got to the Side, least of all her--but as the first Changeling in over 100 years, the Fae hope that she will have the ability to find the legendary "Gatekeeper"--the one who will open all of the closed connections, including the one to Earth. Legend says the Gatekeeper will be found somewhere in the Side.

Wow, this got kind of long... sorry about that...

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Chloe, ML for Busan, South Korea!

2009: The Gatekeeper [hoping for 65k]
2008: The Rose and Pearl [WIN! 56k]
2007: The Steamwitch [BOMB! 6k]
2006: Blaireshire [Oh so close! 45k]

1) London, England, Earth, The Solar System.
2) The Otherworld, which consists of three kingdoms. Originally the "Fae" where from a place called Moytura. They came to Earth (Terra) when humanity was just starting. After a very long time, there was a war (that may or may not have destroyed Atlantis) and the six "Fae" kings and queens formed the Otherworld a pocket world attached to the Earth. They still interacted with humans, fueling their legends, myths and foltales, until around the turn of the last century when they were forced to flee to the Otherworld and close the portals. Some Otherworlders were left stranded ( or banished) forced to hide their true nature.
3) The Sanctuary, a goth nightclub. Origionally a place where Otherlanders and other creatures could let loose. It has recently become popular with humans.

Whatcha think?

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I am using some sort of Narnia-esque theme with multiple travels in a world not in this solar system, but with little travel delay. Deviances from CS Lewis' original idea is the same person enters multiple times, it is always from the same place, and time still runs here when he is over there.

The original setting will either be a Mars colony, or someplace rural in the Midwest. The Door, transportation device, will be there when it wants in the forge of the MC. The exits will be in different places depending on when he enters.

I do not have much on the other side as I would like, but that will probably come as I write. So far all I have is the second and third settings will be in a kingdom that houses its population within the mesa that it is on top of and the only entrance requires passing the entire length of the kingdom through the gorges below to enter. The first area is a desert by the time the MC returns the first time, and is half-way across the world.

The Mars colony was a different idea, but i may just lump them together in order to get enough words.

That's all I have so far, the rest will come with writing.

"What worlds are you setting your nano in? Is it a world that's already made, the real world, an alteration, or a completely original creation of your own?"

Pretty much the real world. It starts out on land, with humans, but quickly gets pulled underwater, to some places people don't know a lot about.

"What creatures live there?"

Fantastical ones? Mermaids (although I need to come up with a less gender-determined name) and a big nasty sea serpent.

"What kind of world is it? What is the magic like? The cultures? The Religions? How do the protagonists and the antagonist fit in?"

As far as the mermaids are concerned, they are the gods. They have the ability to use magic- it's solely vocal, however, which may or may not cause issues. In their minds, they created the world, they rule it, and it obeys them. Until the sickness came, the sickness magic couldn't even fight. Now they're just holding onto remnants of their culture.

My protagonists are decidedly human, if not in form by this point, by mentality. Much easier that way. They just want to get home, away from these creepy mermaids and the secret everyone's keeping from them... My antagonist is the girl who is Heir, and she is angry and bitter. She's the one keeping my MCs in the dark about what's really happening. The only real "bad guy" I have is the sea serpent, who isn't sentient like a human, but she is very dangerous, and likes to kill mermaids.

My story takes place on an island - a biggish island; I'm saying it's roughly half the size of Australia, though I need to actually look at a map and gauge whether I actually want it to be that size. You know, a bit too big to be an island but a bit too small to be a continent. The humans sailed there thousands of years ago, for some reason no one remembers anymore. They started off with four kingdoms united by one High King.

Then the Ashers came, with their magical ability to reduce anything they touched to ash if they so desired. Before any of the humans could figure out how to fight them, the Ashers subdued them and ruled over them, forcing them to take on the Asher language and culture. After a hundred years of war, the humans finally managed to push back the Ashers, but not before their whole way of life was altered. Now the humans are organized into three main city-states, in the southwest, southeast, and northwest. The Ashers are held in the northeast.

The culture of the world has become a strange mix of human and Asher cultures, which roughly translates to Western and Japanese cultures. There are many disparate elements all smushed together, but in things like fashion and cuisine, the common people use Asher things but the upper class use the old human things because they think they're more "refined". Technology is...roughly 1600s-1700s, I think. They have guns and cannons, but they're very cumbersome, expensive, and inaccurate, so most people just stick to swords and that kind of thing.

One thing I wanted to try with this was to make there be no horses. So they don't have carriages or cavalry charges or anything like that. This means that most of their transportation is either on foot or by boat along the many rivers running through the country. And this also means that I get to make them all freak out when the Ashers break out their secret cavalry >:D

I haven't quite decided on the religion yet, but I think the humans' original religion was to worship the Great Eagle, and the Ashers have a large pantheon and are generally rather superstitious. I'm not sure how it is now for the humans, after being oppressed for so long, but I suppose they'd have elements of both religions by now.

The protagonist lives in the southwestern city-state, and is part of a criminal organization trying to overthrow the usurping king of their city-state. Unbeknownst to him, he also is a direct descendant to the High King. There are several antagonists - the king, nasty people in that city-state, and of course all the Ashers.

I think the main thing I need to develop is the nitty-gritty details of the other city-states, and what's in the middle of the island. As it stands now, it's a blank hole in the map - maybe it could be the ancient battlegrounds, forever turned to ash?

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All writing begins life as a first draft, and first drafts are never any good. They're not supposed to be.
- Patricia T. O'Conner

@Griselda Banks: I am totally interested and would definitely read it.
@MurderDeathKill: I wanna read it and I wanna read it now.

@The Thread In General: You're all making me want to dig and really flesh out my world. >.< Darn you. (:

Is it a world that's already made, the real world, an alteration, or a completely original creation of your own?

While it is an original creation, I'm basing it on Earth (size, gravity, rotation, distance to sun, ect.). I'm also basing some aspects on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

What creatures live there? What kind of world is it? What is the magic like?

Manipulator: A human that can manipulate an element. Whatever element they have the ability to manipulate, they can't produce it themselves. They can only use what's in nature.

Nons: Humans that can't manipulate.

It's not magic per-say. The magic in my world is strictly elemental. There are no enchanted objects, spells, or non-elemental magic. The ability is inherent, but it's not genetic. The people with the ability to manipulate an element are able to do so by manipulating the element directly. Water manipulator's for example use the water in lakes, ponds, oceans, plants, atmosphere, rain, bodily fluids, ect. However, it should be noted that using things like bodily fluids, plants, and atmosphere for water are advanced and take a lot of training, practice, and experience. Air manipulator's control the wind. And so on and so forth. The people don't create the element, they manipulate the element as it exists in nature. The elements are: Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Sound, Light, Dark, and Physic.

Some of the more religious cultures believe the manipulation ability comes from the gods themselves. Scientists have hypothesized that the ability may come from genes but a substantial group of geneticists argue that it's impossible for that to be the case. Other scientists focus on the fact that there are 'eight' elements. They argue that only Earth, Fire, Water, and Air are the only true elements and that the ability to manipulate sound, light, darkness, and physic, are mutations. They argue that light is apart of fire, sound apart of air, and that physic is a freak accident caused by come kind of pollutant. Meanwhile, another group of scientist speculate that physic is a valid element because the people with the ability tap into brainwaves and manipulate them. They say that brain waves are a form of energy (electrical activity) and that's why it's a valid hypothesis.

The magic in my world is strictly elemental. You could say there is no magic. There are no enchanted objects, spells, or any other type of non-elemental magic. The ability is inherent, but it's not genetic. The people with the ability to manipulate an element are able to do so by manipulating the element directly. Water manipulator's for example use the water in lakes, ponds, oceans, plants, atmosphere, rain, bodily fluids, ect. Air manipulator's manipulate the wind. The people don't create the element, they manipulate the element as it exists (in nature).

Not everyone can manipulate an element. When it comes down to it, you're either born with the ability or your not. The initial ability/level of control/power depends on the child but generally, when they're older, they are taught how to manipulate the element they were born with. A person can only manipulate one element. There are legends of people being able to 'control' more than one element but that's all they are; legends.

The cultures? The Religions?

This part I'm still working on. The cultures are primarily based upon the nation's 'element.' There are eight nations, two of which are gone now. Sonus (Sound) was reduced to rubble, while Aurora (Light) was absorbed into Gravis (Earth).

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Poetry is the moan forced from your mouth just as you’re being gagged. Freedom is the sound of the handcuffs clicking shut around your wrists. Trust is the darkness you can see while blindfolded. Life is bondage. - Anonymous.

Holy Jebus, my world building looks incredibly lazy compared to you guys.

It's a world of my own. :) It takes place on a planet called Temesis that's actually in a sci-fantasy setting. There's magic, but there's Star Trek level handwavium tech too. The planet's under strict quarentine, though, because there was... well.. there was a Noodle Incident. There was a Noodle Incident of catastrophic proportions and for a while the planet was in a state of dimensional flux, and when it stabilized there was a decidedly greater amount of weird shit. It's now completely in one universe, but it's snatched up a lot of passengers. Different peoples, plants, objects, entire cities, possibly mountains have found themselves now a part of Temesis. It's become a multidimensional hodgepodge. As well as that, it pretty much made some of the planet's ley lines explode.

So the first hundred years of Temesis' current existance were absolutely horrible for the inhabitants. All the new diseases and magical fallout wiped out a very large chunk of the population, including the entirety of many species who'd found themselves there. Not to mention no one knew how to communicate with eachother. Culture clashes, some people mistaking others for food, just plane desperation and panic... the planet became pretty empty for a while.

The story starts a couple hundred years after the Noodle Incident (I swear I'll come up with an actual name for it), the ecosystem's more or less stabilized, there's complex society now in coastal places and around rivers. It's fairly high tech, though most of it's run by magic. A lot of the people were very resourceful about getting back their comforts. :) There are Dead Zones where life just refuses to exist, and Slaughter Zones - the magical fallout areas where things have become, for lack of better word, twisted.

I'm having the story mostly take place exploring abandoned ruins and the effects of the Slaughter Zones. It'll mostly be set in country areas around farms and small towns because I've just come to loath cities in fantasies. The countryside can be interesting too, damnit! ...I think this comes from living in the Midwest and being heartily sick of people from the coasts assuming that, you know, we don't know anything. Or that nothing happens here that's worth hearing about. "Oh, that's just flyover country!" *hiss*

There's freaking everything. Elves, dwarves, dragons, weird hoof-toed demon things. Aliens that I dreamed up for a nano a couple years ago that went absolutely nowhere. It's culture soup. It's so hodgepodge and for a while things were just so bad that there's an amazingly small amount of friction lasting between most of the groups. It's mainly the ones that like to place other sapient beings on their "to eat" list that get shunned. People can tolerate a lot of things if they have to, but the possibility of being eaten by the neighbor is not one of them.

The different species do like to clump together, though, both for familiarity and also because a lot of them are still in danger of becoming extinct. That's another reason for a very strong effort to get along. When your breeding population is only a few thousand, wasting the young on war is beyond stupid.

As for magic, it's split into two general groups: Those who biologically eat, excrete, and use magic and those that can only influence it through external methods, and only that though great efforts of study. There's not a lot of friction between these groups either because each group knows the other has a pretty good chance of kicking their ass in a fight. It's all pretty equal, just different methods. This goes for people who haven't bothered to learn any magic too, because... well.. a blunt object to the head can put an end to a lot of arguments, can't it. There're magic defense courses. XD

Specific magic or cultural things I'll pull out of my ass as their needed. The only one I've got nailed are elves because they're the only ones who, aside from that whole most of the population died thing, are damn happy with their lot. They got an excuse to throw off the shackles of their long-standing civilzation, and, most importantly, they get to learn new things. Very exciting for them.

The PoV character, Saunder, is a dumbass. He had a great home life, but noooo. It was too dull for him. So he pretty much said "Screw you all, I'm gonna have adventures!" to his loving parents once he reached adult age and set off. Cut to a few years later and he's a waiter less than a hundred miles from where he started because he couldn't swallow his pride enough to go back home. At some point he runs into a dead Paladin named Toby, manages to convince her to let him tag along, and off they go.

Toby's job is to clean up messes. She's a few hundred years old by now- being alread dead, death isn't much of a problem- and got to see the entire Noodle Incident first hand. Where she comes from, to be a Paladin is to give up your soul, so her body is on Temesis, her soul is still in her own dimension. But there's a link there and she's able to access her Light's power through that. So, using her mad Paladin skillz, she's cleaning up the unleashed mini-Eldrich abominations, taking care of whatever weird stuff the Slaughters sprouts, and exploring ruins for goodies to sell.

Legion really got screwed over by The Noodle Incident. He was a hive-mind demon in one body (I mean, he IS Legion), but during the Noodle Incident most of the souls got slung about every which way until there was only one left. He's pretty much been in a vegetative state in one of the ruined cities since.

...and that's all I can stand to type XD

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My fantasyland is called Larelm. It's not a world in the sense of being a planet; Larelm is only about the size of the state of Washington. It's halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, so it has a moderate climate. It's got a variety of landscapes -- the coast, the wooded river valleys, beautiful mountains. It's quite pretty. Beyond the Western Mountains is a great desert, but that's not part of Larelm, even though it has featured in several novels.

I have a history for it spanning over 2000 years, and I write novels about various time periods. Not to mention over a dozen distinct cultures, from woodfolk to Children of the Wind to dwarves to highlanders. The countries are usually divided by geographic barriers, such as the larger rivers or mountain ranges. Even then they change quite a bit over time. Most are monarchies, but not all. The woodfolk, for example, have a democracy.

The magic is elemental based; it's hereditary. Some elements show up more often than others, and some are more widespread. The eight magical elements are wind, water, earth, fire, light, darkness, life, and spirit.

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"What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don’t let fear of failure discourage you." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I'm working with a world I made myself. So far, I have four countries with the rough outline of a map sort of sitting in my head, adn the idea it involves dragons and magic.

The magic is kind of the main focus, so I've got more of an idea of how it works than how the world works. So far I don't have any fantastical creatures besides the dragons, but I'm thinking my heroes might spend a time in the desert, so I'll be looking up desert-related beasts soon. Any other monsters and fey creatures will be added as the plot calls for them. >.>

The magic is... well, not much different than classic fantasy magic, except that it's not just certain people that can use it, it's that everyone has the ability, it's just a total pain-in-the-ass to learn. Naturally, one MC picks it up like it's nothing.

The magic system was based on the idea of healing magic that isn't very effective. I'm setting the novel earlier in the world's developments, so that people still have kind of a taboo about studying bodies for anatomy, and so the medical care of the time is about equivalent to the medical care of our time, except that cell growth can be stimulated to recover injuries. Unless it's a very good doctor working on a pretty simple outer wound, it's pretty easy to over-stimulate cell growth and totally fuck up a person for life. This happens a lot. The medical system is not well-trusted.

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The search has begun, this is page one. Man meet your maker, I give you... the Author. --The Author, The Academy Is...

My world isn't too developed as of yet, though I'm getting there.
My world is pretty original (as far as I can tell)

Geography- The world is called Aleria, and the known part is the main continent, which consists of 6 continents, the middle which is the one my story takes place in, Silgarn. The other countries, from largest to smallest, are Malvaria, Sensere, Endorsen, Advadria, Veresen. The major countries in my story are Silgarn and Malvaria, which are at war. The climate is pretty earthlike, with seasons, and many different kinds of terrain, though almost no tropics. I'm drawing up a map (not my strong point) and I've pretty much only gotten Silgarn's basics down so far.
Race and culture- Not quite sure about creatures or races, just that there's humans, I'm pretty sure I'm going to put in some huminoid races though. Culture... not too much of yet. I'm going to try to insinuate some kind of christian religion in there, though I'm not sure how.
Magic- Magic is probably my most developed part. Magic consists of a network of power-lines, invisible to the ordinary person. By mages, however, it can be seen as lines of whatever element that magician uses (so for fire, they'd see it as lines of fire in the air) the thicker the lines are, the more power is there. Magic users also have magic contained in them that they can use, but they can replenish it using the lines of power they see. (this needs training). In Aleria, magic users are becoming rare, and whenever a person starts showing signs of it, they are immediately taken to whatever mage school that country has. They are extremely important to the leader's of the countries (well, Silgarn and Malvaria) because of the war.
Other- All my countries have monarchies, as well as being in a more middle-ages level of technology.

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Hee, thanks. ^^ I do hope the juggling works out. I'm a little bit worried at myself, because the worldbuilding probably will be so ridiculously sloppy.

And I had a good time following! I'd probably read your nanovel this year, too. Except I don't anticipate having that much free time, so it might have to be after November and not during.

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2003: Hell-Bound and Heaven-Sent (WON)
2004: Transcendence Theory (LOST)
2005: Ghost Story (WON)
2006: PenQuest (LOST)
2007: Technophile (LOST)
2008: Cogsworth (WON)
2009: Untitled World-Hopping Story (Tiebreaker?)