Trope Talk: Planet Of Hats

[@MrJackalope15]

"For this civilisation I want to take cues from Asian culture." "Which Asian culture?" **visible confusion**

[@zoro115-s6b]

Makes me wonder if fantasy writers in Asia are making "Fantasy Europe" that's vikings, the roman empire, and victorian England all thrown together in a blender.

[@MrJackalope15]

@@zoro115-s6b all I want know is a fantasy race of upstanding Victorian Englishmen wearing horned helmets and togas.

[@zoro115-s6b]

@@MrJackalope15 No, horned top hats.

[@MrJackalope15]

@@zoro115-s6b outstanding

[@TheoreticalString]

@@zoro115-s6b Having seen enough badass machine gun undercover spy priests in anime... yes, yes they are.

[@gso619]

Everyone knows about elves being hippies and dwarves being miners, but one of my favorite hats is humans being crazy militaristic bastards. To quote an old DnD comic: Human: "Sing a happy elf song or something." Elf: "You do know that all the happy elf songs are about killing invading humans, right?" Human: "[Dwarf], sing us a happy dwarf song." Dwarf: "Also about killin' invadin' humans."

[@PhyreI3ird]

What comic is that from? Sounds like it might be a fun read

[@gso619]

Can't remember, but it's old as balls.

[@JordanSmith-yi3ji]

Its a D&D comic that to my knowledge has 3 volumes and is based off 4e D&D. I read it and it is very much a good read.

[@ClaireDeLoon]

In my fantasy word I’m thinking about maybe making the humans prone to stupid infighting. Like in real life.

[@jonsnor4313]

Dont forget to make some pacifistic humans criticizing it to not generalize all humans

[@pretzelbomb6105]

While the hat is the first thing you notice about someone, it is a minor part of the person’s entire outfit.

[@alisaurus4224]

And can be useful for hiding their face

[@madelinegonzalez8819]

@@alisaurus4224 Ooh good one.

[@sono7207]

Not if the hat is big enough

[@GustavoFernandesKing]

not in a nudist beach

[@soldier257]

And the winner of the Token Response Against Obvious Racist Sentiments goes to...

[@darklazer3769]

New trope talk? *drops dog* *picks up dog again because Red would not approve*

[@Marylandbrony]

Nick Boss **Drops Wepaons Grade Plutonium** Crap i'm never going to get a job in the nuclear industry agian as i'm going to die.

[@oof-rr5nf]

Marylandbrony . . . Homer Simpson? Is that you?

[@Marylandbrony]

Two things: It's implied my job is in the defense sector, not in civilian nuclear power and Two: Homer Simpson should be long dead at this point based on his record.

[@VikingBadass94]

@@Marylandbrony I think the only reason Homer is still alive, doing that job, is because he's so stupid, he probably fails at dying.

[@gabriel300010]

@@VikingBadass94 he is so stupid, even his metabolic functions had to be simplified, and that ended up making him more resistant to radiation, kinda like a fungus, or a tree

[@minaharker9316]

Red: Tolkien's elves are elegant, wise, and generally right *Silmarillion fans laughing in the distance*

[@gunjfur8633]

ʰᵃʰ

[@tatwood1123]

Well. Fan

[@Didierpelupessy]

Reads Fall of Gondolin Huh, the human was right... what do you know...

[@waveacoustica1224]

One word, Feanor

[@mustafamalik596]

Yeah Elves are even more evil than men in that book

[@err0r_fox686]

Me: *sees ‘planet of hats’* Also me: wait, planets full of LITERAL HATS are common enough to be a trope?!

[@DavidbarZeus1]

Well, one of the most beloved companions of the Doctor thought it was a thing, so why not?

[@loggingfire1]

Same

[@katierobbins1961]

Sam o nella animal planets

[@kabanzai]

Welcome to team fortress heaven

[@jean-paulaudette9246]

MST3k: We're having a Hat Party...and mine is the grandest of all!

[@TheCrispAlien]

"The average human has one testicle and is a Chinese woman named Muhammed" This needs to be a thing in a Sci-fi story.

[@bloodstoneore4630]

A testicle and is a woman

[@swallace7447]

It needs to be a shirt.

[@sureikashore1626]

@@bloodstoneore4630 intersex

[@Hideyoshi1991]

@Kieran4Emporer that is where you are wrong my friend

[@wolf1066]

I just knew when I saw it on-screen that someone was going to comment on it. A classic line!

[@IndustrialBonecraft]

Nordic Dwarves: Occasionally held longstanding grudges. Warhammer Dwarves: Their entire culture is based around longstanding grudges.

[@psychodrummer1567]

So, they are Corsicans?

[@psychodrummer1567]

@bo rick I'm Polish, the only grudges I hold are against -Nazis- Germans and -Commies- Russians.

[@αστρον]

@@psychodrummer1567 be careful.

[@hmmyou2544]

THAT'S GOIN IN THE BOOK

[@tanandalynch9441]

So Warhammer dwarves are just ants then?

[@stevenjlovelace]

I like how Worf on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is more "hat culture" than his fellow Klingons. Having been raised by humans, he knows Klingon culture in an abstract ideal form, but when dealing with other Klingons, he has to deal with a race that's a lot more nuanced than the the ideals they espouse.

[@alanbarnett718]

Everyone forgets that he was raised by humans. Including some of the writers!

[@PRGME7]

@@alanbarnett718 what?

[@kabobawsome]

@@PRGME7 He's from Earth, adopted and raised by human parents.

[@PRGME7]

@@kabobawsome I was referring to the fact people forgot that. Sorry for not making that clear

[@TheDtroupe]

most other Klingons have trouble dealing with worf... he has an idolized version of Klingon society though he has never truly lived in it

[@SamBrickell]

It would be funny to have a "Planet of Hats" and the loner who left because they reject the culture (or feel rejected by it, or whatever), but then the rest of the team somehow arrives on the Planet of Hats in a later episode and realizes that it is absolutely nothing like how their loner friend was portraying it.

[@AevitosTrath]

​@Nel16 to take an example from the video, berserker who is 7 feet tall, who left because he was smaller than everyone, and described the culture as 9 feet tall, are just like him because he left as a teen who hadn't hit puberty yet

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​@Nel16 simple: ["Legolas"] leaves elves because they're too ethereal and tired and Tolkien. Turns out they just have too much work and so spend sundays relaxing but are otherwise just as active as ["Legolas"] or even put him to shame. Or for subversion of expectations while still being completely accurate: Character leaves planet of hats because they're far too racist towards other races. Turns out that they're """positively""" racist, basically giving other races a much easier time because they expect them to Need handouts and privileges to keep up with regular folks; not that they're pulling a [insert Godwin's Law group here]. Or third option: Loner leaves because planet of the hats is a planet of hats. When party arrives, turns out that Loner's description was a planet of hats version of the real place which is far more vibrant and diverse than implied.

[@WannabeWryter]

So basically the Description of a society from the outcast , who never liked or felt a connection to this society or culture, might not be the most reliable narrator of what society is like. 😅

[@Kittymouth]

"Tolkien went ham on the world building." Boiled him down to his essence there.

[@daanstrik4293]

He also went pork

[@hamstersandwich9917]

He went bananas

[@destroyerinazuma96]

There's a strong argument out there that the story and characters were meant to portray, borderline "show off" his worldbuiding ability. He got away with it since he was a master of his craft.

[@jessicastimpson2152]

One thing about this: if the POINT of the culture is that everyone/everything is the same, pointing that out and/or having the main characters being creeped out by it is really cool

[@visionarycomics4230]

Now that’s food for thought right there.

[@deKahedron]

Also interesting to see what the individuals within the culture think of the whole idea. You could go for a functional hive-mind or an oppressed North Korea of a society where people are forced to be like the glorious leader.

[@JakeTalksGamesYT]

There is no war in Ba Sing Se

[@deffdefying4803]

That’s also a thing. A lot of media has at least one episode (or likewise segment) where the protagonists visit a settlement that is so homogeneous and samey that it’s basically a hivemind, and the conflict of that segment is basically “how can we make these people value individualism?”

[@indigopines]

Believe it or not, heckin' My Little Pony did this

[@vali6717]

One of my favorite ‘hats’ is a race of obsessive compulsive robots who practically go into anxiety if they do not have an objective or something productive to do. This is what happens when you make an army of sentient warrior robots who outlive the war they are made for and then outlive the ancient society that build them.

[@TeeBeeOhh]

N.johnson or the robots never finish the war and always let the enemy recover so they continue to have a purpose to their existence

[@Armendicus]

Also one of their "objectives" appear to have been to have sex with their creators as well , Cauuuse warriors don't dress like 19 yr old bdsm sexy house maids in white wigs . Nor do they dress like a mini bulter version of every boy lover's dream. When the human race went out, they went out with smiles on the faces. Only in Nier Automata.

[@davidfabella1]

What is my purpose? You pass butter.

[@SplitWasTaken]

N.johnson how do I feel like that slightly describes me

[@condor-yz6bo]

Oh My God.

[@samuelgault7118]

I wish that you mentioned Avatar the last air bender (again), because I think that on the surface level it could’ve very easily just have been 4 different kinds of hats -and that’s pretty much what happened in the film we don’t talk about-but throughout the series each different culture is shown in different lights and stereotypes are created and consistently subverted for each. I think that’s very impressive for the fire nation, as for 2/3 of the show they are simply imperialist Japan, invading and raping China (earth kingdom). But in the final season it shows how years of propaganda, and brainwashing through the state mandated education system, and the festivals celebrating fire nation strength, and even the (highly comical) ember island players show how homogenised art is. And despite all this we get the Iroh, and Sokka’s master, and we see that it’s actually just state manipulation, and not just an inherent evilness,, that’s caused the stereotype

[@AnthanKrufix]

And also then there's early on in the Last Airbender with Jet who starts mugging old men because of their nationality.

[@rosurin3646]

Dont for get the issue with the bloodbender or Ba Sing Se

[@irontemplar6222]

I am going to mention that aside from the earth kingdom the air temple had 1 hat, and the water tribe had 2 technically, but their was little difference. Than you had the fire nation which is ironically the most interesting.

[@Rainbowthewindsage]

I don't think the movie that we don't tall about even has hats, because that would require some character and personality and that we don't talk about didn't have any character in their characters.

[@Pingwn]

@@irontemplar6222 I don't think that you can say that the air nomads are a planet of hats because there is only one in the show, in addition to some flashbacks, and you can see that there are very different people in both poles and completely of there culture, and in the comics you can see that very clear. It is natural that we see a lot of diversity in the earth kingdom, it is not just huge - most of the show happens there so we can see a lot of it.

[@Aso-bi]

Red: I'm not very good at world building. *not 15 seconds later* Red: *proceeds to provide complex questions that can make or break a world while it's being built in a very in depth, comprehensive and easy to understand manner*

[@codyhubbard7223]

While these statements may seem contradictory they are not. All this proves is she understands how to create good world building not that she can put it into practice.

[@Gir558]

@@codyhubbard7223 Very much so, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be because you can't put it into practice. My biggest issues for example are primarily with losing steam after doing too much at once, and also that there's definitely parts of worldbuilding that interest me more than others, and I have trouble really committing to some of the parts that don't particularly interest me. So I can put the things I know into practice, I just can't maintain momentum, especially with topics I find less interesting.

[@Gir558]

@Brandon Quist It sounds like the problem you're having is probably overthinking things, especially for your second issue. Think about how many times in history problems could have been averted or solved much earlier if only someone had actually thought of the solution at the time, and you'll see that just because good solutions exist it doesn't mean people will think of them or put them into action. Sometimes when someone asks the question "Why didn't character X do Y" the answer is "they didn't think of it at the time" and there's really nothing wrong with that. If characters in stories always did the right thing all the time, well... there wouldn't really be a story half the time.

[@truekurayami]

I would like to add, to her steps after you get your main setting delt with, jump into "planet of the hats" for secondary settings and reverse engineer the region/culture from there. Example if your main setting has a more Roman feel to it in nature but you have an occasional group from another land that seems like the "Arabian Merchant" Hat that can act as an introductory point for the culture/region they come from and as you get more of the details beyond that "Hat" worked out it could be the point to bring in more characters from the culture/region or take your main cast there to help explore it.

[@andreeacat7071]

@@truekurayami And if you’re doing sci-fi where the protagonists can go offplanet, try worldbuilding a planet of the hats, and try and see what environment they would have to live in in order for the rest of the galaxy to stereotype them as such. Maybe they conquered their entire solar system once because their planet is lacking resources and they wanted to make sure they’d have a place to stay when the planet failed them. Maybe everyone sees all the members of a single planet as evil bloodthirsty conquerors because of that one stint they did.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

"That whole besties with Legolas thing" is such a horrifically understated way of mentioning that he SINGLE-HANDEDLY ends THOUSANDS OF YEARS of hostility between the Khazad and the Sindar, and he does it accidentally just by being a good person and showing the virtues of his people and falling in love, twice.

[@Vinemaple]

This was not Red's best parsing of Tolkien. It's also 5 years old now.

[@Adier_Twigg]

Red, I love your videos, but please, for the love of monkeys, move that bookshelf further back so there isn't a bookshelf-sized gap between it and the wall, or make it so that gap leads to a magical world of plot twists. Please.

[@FrogEnjoyer17]

I will now never be able to unsee this, thank you

[@liv7511]

Now I will be forever bothered by this, thanks very much.

[@matthewwong1552]

A prophet! You've predicted 'the hero's journey'!!!

[@iamkocka6457]

@@matthewwong1552 Probably inspired it actually.

[@BababooeyGooey]

oh my god. I never noticed this until I saw the comment, and now... I... Still don't care.

[@KiExx0]

OSP: “I’m not that good at world building.” Also OSP: *gives a million questions to answer and deconstructs the issue like a professional*

[@taiga738]

This reminds of how Gargoyles basically took an architectural structure and made it a species with a society. Great show.

[@Uriel238]

Technically, the statue form is a _grotesque._ Gargoyles are grotesques with a throat (as in _to gargle_ ) typically to drain rainwater.

[@gadielgonzalez2755]

YES!!

[@yerabbit]

@@Uriel238 garglegoyles?

[@Uriel238]

@@yerabbit Exactly!

[@avatareternal3204]

Shame it never got a third season. Yep.

[@martinluthers95theses90]

You should do the "entire story is actually a dream or a coma vision of the main character" trope

[@tntimothyroditi1576]

Is this really that common a trope?

[@mediatorraptor3349]

Kinda. I seen in some movies and video games. I find them kinda lazy.

[@moralityisnotsubjective5]

I don't care for that lazy trope unless it is really, REALLY well done and it almost never is.

[@joshwinters1409]

I always see this mentioned and yet the only example of this I have ever seen is Lost

[@FrostSylph]

Its mentioned briefly in the plot twist video where she says that she doesnt like that twist because it's a plot twist where the surprise makes the story more boring. It just takes the fun out of everything.

[@maxmetalknight]

Funny, there's actually a russian saying: "They greet you by your hat, and leave you by your mind" meaning people will always make assumptions about you from first impression (appearance, stereotype...), but will most likely change their mind about you, once they get to know you better

[@williamedward1666]

"People are not simple. They cannot be summarized for easy reference in the manner of 'The elves are a lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty.'" -Sten, Dragon Age: Origins

[@jacobfreeman5444]

William Edward Ah, good ol Sten.

[@matthewmuir8884]

Speaking of which, Dragon Age actually does a good job of avoiding this trope for the most part. A lot of the cultures are well thought-out. The elves in particular manage to avoid being stereotypical elves, and I like how they are portrayed (I just wish they could go one game without there being the risk of an entire clan being slaughtered).

[@NotAFakeName1]

William Edward As close to perfection as a game can get imo.

[@sulsulii810]

Despite going back and saying "Ugh I HATE this mission" for just about every mission, I can still say I adore Origins, and Sten especially. The characters made that game.

[@TheJohnnylupine]

I'm actually locked in this cage facing immenant death by darkspawn because I legitimately killed a family - Sten At least you're honest. have fun being left behind to die, you colossal psycho. - Warden

[@Moonstar79]

Alright, culture checklist, go: -Food -Biome/Geography -Population -Religion(s) -Language/Linguistics -Government/Politics -Recreation -Genre Staples -Economical Classes/Jobs -Romance Rituals/General Sexuality (yes really) -Appearance/Dress -Architecture -Memes/How Much KZbin They Watch Edit: replies have added some valuable additions to this list

[@mythochartis2943]

Great list, I add: Art (separate from architecture and economy/jobs) Mythology/legends (Stories that are widely known but not part of major religion) Morals (can be part of religion) Mannerisms (like talking with hands) Language Transportation

[@kieravermeal9127]

I have a world where it's basically Earth, but with fantasy elements, and you're a human with an elf neighbor, a siren boss, and a cat person coworker.

[@WOOTcorey]

@@mythochartis2943 To which I add on: Unique dilemmas of location/society. Developement of technology. Approach to magic/tech/psychic/etc Cultural self view/awareness (if any)

[@candy-coatedrose513]

I have this in another comment on this video, but cleanliness! How do they keep clean, what is considered an acceptable level of cleanliness, etc.

[@iv9753]

burgers ??? a couple hundred million Protestantism and Catholicism prezidunt and congress patriotism ??? average joe and rich guy ??? ??? mcdonalds yes

[@wontnotawill1356]

This made me realize how well written the show Owl House is. Almost all this wordlbuilding is represented in the show but worked in very organically.

[@Jack-sy8mr]

World building from the ground up...or rather, “the corpse up”

[@benjaminstorace6699]

So basically, make sure there is a person under the hat. :-)

[@Nortarachanges]

Benjamin Storace, beautifully put ^_^

[@Azmodeus87]

Or that the hat is a person. Or that the hat is controlled by the person etc.

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

@@Azmodeus87 Shades of Terry Pratchett's arch-chancellor's hat! 😜

[@kashiichan]

A three-year-old comment, with 333 thumbs-up and three responses. Time to ruin it.

[@forgototherpassword]

I remember one of my favorite recent D&D characters, Grundy the half orc. He dedicated his life to hiding the fact that he's a half-orc, and became incredible with cosmetic disguises. He became a rogue/barbarian who had two major disguises, one, a tall, muscley human merchant who sold various potions and alchemical products he made on his own. The other disguise is the opposite, an orc raider who was of below-average height and strength. He used a lot of his disguises to gather knowledge to better protect himself. Need to steal a recipe book from a rival alchemist who refused to sell? Break down the door and steal it as the orc raider. Need to learn a skill, but don't want the person teaching you to think you're the crazy orc who stole that other guy's recipe book? Put on your human hat and pay them for the service. This was also back in 3.5 when anyone could do alchemy, and make wondrous things over time, like stoneburners. Man the party used stoneburners a lot.

[@Vinemaple]

Hey there, that D&D character you mentioned in a random comment 2 years ago sounds really frickin' cool, either to watch or to play! What a clever and creative idea!

[@hockeyinalabama]

One of my favorite interviews was one with Tolkien. The journalist was trying to go into so much depth beyond this awesome video or any literature teacher/professor that likes to hear themselves talk. Tolkien just kept laughing off the depth and saying he was just having fun writing. The things he did that we gush over was just how writing was done to him. It was like an unconscious humility.

[@Vinemaple]

IDK about that, his published unfinished work seems to show that he needed to rewrite each story over and over again in order to achieve the quality he's famous for.

[@Archangel71]

I didn't really notice Red's fast talking before, but in this she's talking like a rap god.

[@VoidplayLP]

she should actually stand up since she obviously is the real slim shady.

[@ArloMathis]

I watched this on 1.25x speed, and had a bit of trouble keeping up sometimes.

[@jasmeetk0]

Me too

[@twisted_fo0l]

sped up.?

[@KarishmaChanglani]

I watched this at 1.25 and still understood. So cant relate sorry ;-;

[@thishandleisntavailable42069]

Heads up everyone, if I am ever in a coma just tell me when a new trope talk is uploaded and i'll be up in an instant.

[@fraya1022]

Bloody Heretic - for me it's more like "Hey Red finally uploaded the next Journey to the West video!" *instantly wakes up and gets on KZbin*

[@mq5731]

M8, I would come back from the dead to watch that.

[@chaptermastertushan3576]

Bloody Heretic Shall I purge thee now, or later?

[@angryrabidfoxes7380]

same, its like a holiday for me

[@mrclueuin]

Better than a cup of coffee for me! ☕😊

[@konnosx1213]

0:30 Actually orcs in their original version in Tolkien were miles away from beefy tribal warriors, they were the most advanced army around with industrial-y shit to back this up and they were seen as lacking any good qualities including warrior honor. Plus they were mostly described as ugly and disfigured rather than crossfit bros with tusks... In fact humans in LotR are way more Tribal in a way... Now orcs as they are in popular culture are basically what you described but pop culture orcs are not Tolkien orcs. Tolkien orcs were meant to be a metaphor for the savagery of war as well as a race of entirely unsympathetic evil arrow fodder... And who doesnt sympathise with beefy tribal warriors (Tolkien included)

[@lycaonpictus9662]

Tolkien's orcs were also usually smaller in stature than men & elves. Orcs being more muscular / taller than men & elves is mostly from all the fantasy authors who were inspired by Tolkien.

[@commenturthegreat2915]

@@lycaonpictus9662 If I remember correctly Tolkien's orcs are more similar to today's depictions of goblins, but today's orcs are more similar to the Uruk Hai.

[@sapphicdaisies1781]

It took me moment to realize that this wasn't about a planet made of hats.... So... Yeah,

[@paulollarsabaiii9824]

Professor Palmtree No Team Fortress 2 for you.

[@UltimateDrDoom]

Professor Palmtree Or is it?

[@sapphicdaisies1781]

BUM, BUM, BUUUUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

[@NeostormXLMAX]

I assumed this video was making fun of team fortress

[@oof-rr5nf]

Professor Palmtree Loved how you ended that comment. Because I love how every OSP Trope video ends with a "So . . . Yeah."

[@Archangel71]

I didn't even know this trope existed, yet I've been actively avoiding it. At least, trying to.

[@mullerpotgieter]

I think its so common that we don't really notice it, until its pointed out

[@malaineenerd146]

Ditto

[@TheScorpion0081]

I don't think it's 100% avoidable. Just got to start from the ground up and don't skimp on complexity.

[@BoWhitten]

Why avoid it? PoH is a great way to open the dialog of what is actually going on. In our own culture and history isn't the stereotypes of the past the leaping stones of understanding? In storytelling it is how you get someone to "buy in" without a major investment up-front so you can lead them away from it to the truth. Guardians Of The Galaxy is almost the only Super Hero movie to do this. It gives you the archetypes... oh sorry... STEREOTYPES (sorry... forgot) from Joseph Campbell then it twists them into charming, multi-layered PEOPLE rather than the 4-color cardboard characters of the X-Men.

[@rururiemn1941]

Bo Whitten: Well, the trope is used to describe an entire culture as a stereotype...and to never move beyond it. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this trope, but a story can be bogged down by the lack of complexity or that the Hat Culture is really really stupid in contrast.

[@Galimeer5]

Step 1) Create a general idea of the culture. Throw in a funky quirk if you want to put extra effort in Step 2) Add spice to individual characters from that culture Step 3) Don't overthink it. Real cultures are way weirder than anything you can make up on your own

[@sapphirewings8638]

One 'Planet Of Hats' trope I'd like to talk about is the warrior race obsessed with warfare. If you're going to make a culture where warfare is an important part of society, I'd recommend thinking about why that is. Maybe warfare could be important to their culture because they may have faced or got caught up in a lot of wars or battles in the past, making war an integral part of their culture in different ways. Or maybe a war deity has helped them in the past, so war is an important part of society as to honor said deity. Maybe there are other reasons. You just have to think about how making warfare important to their culture would affect society as a whole. For example: -Children could learn about different wars and battle tactics when young, as to prepare them for battle in different ways in case one was to come. -At a certain age people could learn basic first aid and life saving procedures if an injury was to ever befall one of their comrades and a professional isn't in the area to help -If the culture has a religion, they could worship a god/deity that they would pray to for protection or help in battle. They may even have ceremonies or festivals celebrating said deity. -People with power in militaries may be highly respected in society, or in some cases may even be in charge of an area. -They may take honor in war very seriously -There could be songs or nursery rhymes talking about war, and stories as well that adults could tell their children. ...and et cetera. It's a playground of possibility!

[@Predator20357]

Using your steps, I thought of a group of Bronze/Copper/Brass Men that while having similarities to some common Greek Stereotypes (Spartans and Athens) they are closer specifically to the People of Rhodes where the “Bronze Man” of the party is rather Mercantile and is able to figure out how to get proper prices for different items of life to show that fighting isn’t just their peoples personality, they aren’t war machines, just Men made from metal. For Step 3, think about how the Collosus of Rhodes was made using the money they used after selling the Siege Engines meant to besiege them. This is weird because this is like taking a Cannon meant to blow your front walls down to pay for your statue of Jesus.

[@Sinsystems]

In terms of world building I often find myself leading to some rather interesting features in the societies I make. For instance I am constructing this Modern Fantasy setting where various types of magic are used in a variety of professions, most were relatively simple (Like mages who can make portals being in high demand in the transportation industry) and then I got to Necromancy, now I could have been lazy and simply cut that field....but I am stubborn and wanted to include it. So first I asked myself, what sort of work could a necromancer do? Well after some thought I decided dumb labor would be best, with a preference for hazardous conditions since Undead don't suffer all those risks. So I figured that mines and the like would be the businesses that utilize undead workforces the most. However then I run into the problem of where they'd get the corpses, because lets be honest that has always been the biggest issue with incorporating necromancy in a setting. So after some thought I came up with something I call "Corpse Collateral" in which when one takes out a loan they can put their body up as collateral, so that if they die before they can pay it back the bank has ownership of their corpse until the undead has done enough hard labor to repay the bank. Thus I got a world in which Banks have dozens of corpses in storage which they rent out to necromancers to put them to work in the mines and the like. Now naturally this has a lot of in universe political and social issues on top of it but that is a rabbit hole I am still going down.

[@malaineenerd146]

This sounds interesting

[@fruitygarlic3601]

I'm just gonna comment here in case you update this thread in the future. Acc want to read this.

[@navotram6561]

Sounds interesting~! There's quite a bit to dig into how economy works around 'Magic' - but once you solve the 'magic is essentially a power source with no price tag' problem - you're into a rich, satisfying world of problems and interesting solutions :)

[@legomacinnisinc]

Dude, that's cool. Way to think outside the box. My first thought of how to incorporate necromancy was a kinda "Speak with Dead" service. Necromancers would allow people to say their final good byes to their loved ones, but I like your idea more. Another idea that you could use is the idea of being a "corps donor" like people are organ donors now days. Because, think about it. We already use corpses to better society in the form of organ donors or scientific research. Most of this is done on a donation basis but what if you could sign up your corps as a form of life insurance or retirement plan? You let your corps work to provide pay for your family after you die or you can retire off of the potential labor of your dead self. You could even have an interesting grading system of how fit you are and how good of a corps you would make and that determines the value of your future labor. The balancing factor is the people lending the money don't know how you will die and as such there is a little risk if you are horribly mutilated and don't provide a good corps. What does that mean for your deal? How is that risk hedged against? You can even have a very dark side of this of disreputable companies making sure their future corpses "have an accident" while still in prime condition. So much fun stuff you can do!

[@Thatonegirlwhosehangy]

Helloooooo just commenting to see it developping, it's really interesting

[@dantebanducci235]

“The US is an empire” ... That’s fair.

[@rikrob5172]

An empire sized merchant republic

[@springtrap1156]

In context of what empires did to people and cultures, yes

[@MeepChangeling]

Not fair, correct. It is a bunch of governments which all answer to a central athority and share a political, economic, and cultural identity. That's an EMpire. EMpires do NOT need to be a monarchy.

[@F14thunderhawk]

@@MeepChangelingEmpire is actually defined as the component groups not sharing cultural identity. So strictly speaking, the USA is and is not an Empire depending on how you discuss it. And is so actively hostile to other cultures that in fact it is continuously inflicting cultural colonialism on most other nations just by existing. So in theory assuming the balance of power never tips in any direction beyond its current balance, on an infinite timescale all of humanity will become american. At which point the US cannot ever be an empire.

[@howiechang8516]

@@F14thunderhawk In modern day political science empire can also be defined as an entity practicing imperialism. Do US of A practice imperialism? Of course.

[@kallebuchholz2156]

As a ex student of cultural anthropology and a full time daydreamer with writing ambitions: thank you for your content!

[@ChaoticLifemaker]

This series is basically wikiwalking tvtropes as videos. I cannot escape.

[@ElvishShellfish]

Same. I feel like I am learning something, but with the number of videos I watch in a row I have no idea how much I am actually retaining.

[@Silverwind87]

I wonder if Red edits TVTropes articles?

[@clockworkpotato9892]

It's a whirlpool, and we're all going downwards.

[@ladywaffle2210]

So there is a term for it

[@ThinWhiteAxe]

Send help

[@bluewarbler9034]

Worldbuilding is one of the great joys in my life. I like taking "hatty" societies, like every single species in Starbound, and writing pages on pages of details about biology, history, culture, technology, architecture, diplomatic relations, and so on and so forth. For example (warning: long worldbuilding explanation incoming), take the Floran from Starbound. Their hat is the generic hunter-gatherer savage, with emphasis on the "savage" part. Now, I decided to develop this. Basically, they evolved on a death world that was a death world not just because the planet's so hot that the equator is inhospitable for anything not evolved for such a place, but because all the life on the planet is ridiculously deadly. If you were to live on that planet, you wouldn't give a flower to someone you want to woo, you'd give it to someone you wanted to have an "accident." Anyways, so that's where the Florans evolved. They are essentially sapient, humanoid plants, but they're also very, very carnivorous, and have an overdeveloped "us vs them" complex. This means they have trouble seeing anything that isn't them as anything more than prey. To complicate things, one of roughly two hundred Florans is a "Greenfinger" who has both more intelligence, the ability to command respect from Florans around them, and the ability to manipulate plants at a genetic level. Naturally, things started to assemble into lots of warring tribes, each led by a Greenfinger. However, everything changed when a massive space battle between the Democratic People's Republic of the Apex and the Hylotl Republic took place above their planet, and lots of spacecraft crashed on their planet. The tribes immediately set about taking over these (drenched in the sap of the other tribes, of course) and their Greenfingers reverse-engineered them/filled in the broken parts with specially made plants, and suddenly this low-culture hunter-gatherer society had access to high-tech warships. Naturally, this went swimmingly for everyone involved. The Hylotl were the first victim of this initial rampage. The Floran-Hylotl War was a devastating conflict for both sides, but especially the Hylotl. They were displaced from their homeworld, lost a lot of their cultural and historical artifacts, and had their population reduced by over forty percent. The Floran advance was eventually stopped by the simple fact that they ran out of ships, as the Hylotl stopped trying to engage with the kind of traditional tactics that would result in enough Hylotl casualties for the Florans to replenish their armadas and a lot of the tribes had gotten tired of going after this new prey and started warring amongst themselves again. In the meantime, the Florans had discovered another species: the Glitch. This robotic race didn't register as "prey" in the minds of the Florans, and that gave them the opportunity to learn things like "reading" and "farming" that they'd never thought of before. Some of the more curious Greenfingers managed to figure out the captured Hylotl books, and eventually made a breakthrough. This triggered a massive cultural shift, and suddenly the Florans started trying to emulate both the Glitch and the Hylotl in the most odd ways, while preserving some of their original tribal culture. Most of the galaxy doesn't really understand how to treat them. Now, the Florans have very very short cultural memories, while the Hylotl have very long ones. Naturally, this results in a lot of modern Hylotl hating the Florans almost as much as their ancestors did, while the Floran have more or less forgotten that a conflict ever took place. I'd write more, but this youtube comment is already longer than it should be.

[@GustavGaming1]

Lemme be real with you chief, i aint reading all of that, but ill give ya a like because you put a lot of thought into what I did read.

[@jiromarte3623]

thank you for this its a gift

[@hello.-.205]

Yes, its very obvious that you love writing by the size of this comment

[@YataTheFifteenth]

I read all that. Fucking amazing I tell ya'.

[@eazy8579]

An excellent concept

[@mckenziemorris5414]

Christ! Every time I think I'm doing well in my writing, you poke a hole straight through my ego! I'm always thrilled and distraught when you upload. Sweats while frantically rummaging through loose pages

[@WardOfSouls]

McKenzie Morris Just because a group of people in something your writing comes across as a "people of hats" doesn't mean you need to change everything. One way you can work with it is to take Red's worldbuilding process and go in reverse. "Everyone sees these people as X. Why did they get that reputation?" If they are seen as a culture of villainous warriors, maybe that's just because the only ones that venture beyond their traditional borders are adventuring parties or outlaws. If they are seen as traders, maybe that's just because the only stories your home setting years are those of interactions with merchant ships or trade caravans. Avoiding world of hats is simply about taking some time to put thought into the cultures and interactions in your stories.

[@CJWproductions]

It's a trope, not a flaw. It can be a flaw, but it isn't necessarily. If your story *really* isn't about that culture, it just needs it as a background element, there's no need to go deeper. You'll just pull focus away from the main plot.

[@Snowie7826]

Don't worry about it. Trope talk can often be used as a "What to be mindful of" series, moreso than just a "What not to do" one :3

[@Vozwzov]

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools?from=Main.TropesAreNotBad ^_^

[@sophiejones7727]

no sweat :) world-building can be done at any stage of the project. Yes, even after you've finished the first book. Your reader won't know the difference. It's actually coolest if a culture appears as a "planet of the hats" at first (because that is how the foreign characters will see it) and then over time becomes more fleshed out. You can accomplish that either by worldbuilding first and simply holding back information (Tolkien's approach) or by worldbuilding as you write.

[@morsomnibus423]

Do you think we could get a D&D series on this channel? See your world building and story writing skills in action Red?

[@judeskater93]

Mors Omnibus that'd be awesome!

[@epaybe]

I second this notion.

[@bloodstoneore4630]

Agreed. Btw, are there any good d,d discord groups?

[@westtxtapper]

I would love to have Red as a DM.

[@SMunro]

What do you mean D&D series? Dungeons & Dragons?

[@Siegmernes]

What I usually use for getting started with a culture is the SPERM principle (yes) Society (more like cultural hubs and major practices etc) Politics Economic (What do they export? What do they import?) Religious Military If you tick off those boxes you've got a (very barebones) society done and can go from there. ^^ EDIT: Not my idea btw. I personally got it from the KZbin channel "Monarchs Factory" ^^

[@alecchristiaen4856]

i'd add science at the end to make it SPERMS, fleshing out the technological capacity of your culture is important (in a fantasy setting, this can be magic instead, but SPERMM ruins the joke)

[@Siegmernes]

@@alecchristiaen4856 You're right. ^^

[@sylversquirrel4703]

This is giving me flashbacks to AP World History. *shudders* But honestly, I like the framework (also the acronym is funny). It covers really important stuff without diving too deep into the fluff

[@sapphirewings8638]

One 'Planet Of Hats' trope I'd like to talk about is the warrior race obsessed with warfare. If you're going to make a culture where warfare is an important part of society, I'd recommend thinking about why that is. Maybe warfare could be important to their culture because they may have faced or got caught up in a lot of wars or battles in the past, making war an integral part of their culture in different ways. Or maybe a war deity has helped them in the past, so war is an important part of society as to honor said deity. Maybe there are other reasons. You just have to think about how making warfare important to their culture would affect society as a whole. For example: -Children could learn about different wars and battle tactics when young, as to prepare them for battle in different ways in case one was to come. -At a certain age people could learn basic first aid and life saving procedures if an injury was to ever befall one of their comrades and a professional isn't in the area to help -If the culture has a religion, they could worship a god/deity that they would pray to for protection or help in battle. They may even have ceremonies or festivals celebrating said deity. -People with power in militaries may be highly respected in society, or in some cases may even be in charge of an area. -They may take honor in war very seriously -There could be songs or nursery rhymes talking about war, and stories as well that adults could tell their children. ...and et cetera. It's a playground of possibility!

[@Vertigo6000]

... ... ... if you’ll excuse me, i need to revisit all my fantasy worlds and do some major upgrades. Thanks red, you’ve successfully obliterated my weekend. No but seriously, this really helps. I love your trope talks. They make me really think about my writings.

[@UltimateDrDoom]

Vertigo6000 Don't be afraid of the trope. Just either work a cliche to your strength or avoid the cliches within the trope. If you world build based on ancient Greek culture you're gonna hit some stereotypes and hats. How you spin those is important.

[@terozu5440]

Vertigo6000 hey remember, tropes are tools. Also check out tvtropes.

[@fist-of-doom487]

I remember in my favorite book series Animorphs their is an Alien named Aximili-Esgaroth-Isthill (or Ax) for short since it’s a mouth full for the rest of the main cast and is hard to say) he was Option 2 part 2 (actually being a weirdo and a loser) as far as the main characters are concerned he’s extremely smart and a face for his whole race. He’s bad at socializing, has a limited understanding of sarcasm, and is basically the Teams straight man and Info Guy. But he actually isn’t all they make him and his race to be. Others of his kind are versed in figurative speech, Ax actually doesn’t know a whole lot compared to others of his race, he’s a crappy fighter comparatively, and on top of that Ax is a Rookie and is pretty much still a kid. Ax is just a really uptight person and was a kid that apparently got distracted often by cute girls in class so he didn’t learn as much even though he knows more than the human heroes about specific things.

[@marleymacneil7966]

Same here, on both accounts. XD

[@shadowpod13]

I had to laugh at how true what it says on the projector at 2:30 is: "(The average human has 1 testicle AND is a Chinese woman named Muhammad)"

[@Rodanguirus]

I feel like Animorphs handles this well. Our human protags are introduced to a bunch of alien races that each wear a respective hat, then over the course of the series we meet more individuals and learn about the nuances of each race.

[@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

Tolkien could build an entire culture around a table and door. You would feel like you knew the furniture's backstory. Their hopes, their dreams.

[@Vinemaple]

And he did it with subtle hints. Or sometimes he did.

[@kbomb234]

I think the other problem with Planet of Hats is that the hat in question never really is developed well. For example, fantasy dwarves just mine and fight and drink. The particulars of their society, how they marry, child-rearing, or even how their healers function aren't usually explored other than the setting in which they function. If you want to avoid hats, then exploring non-hat facets of culture can be really helpful. Example, Klingons. While very much a hat, one of the things that really makes them interesting is the pitfalls of their culture. Star Trek examines why a society of honor-driven soldiers cannot be functional because of how they treat anyone else. They also like opera, which is weird but interesting considering that a culture of soldiers should find stage plays and music frivolous and unnecessary. All of this to say, I think that diving into the culture of a hat beyond the confines of said hat can help to mitigate some of the problem (other than writing characters that do not fit the stereotype).

[@MitchellTF]

One of the more fun examples on how just LOOKING at something can make it more interesting...Fyreslayers. They are dwarves who are on fire, kill things, and want Gold. But...if you look at how they could POSSIBLY function? It can get REALLY interesting. (Because...this means they have a LOT of trouble functioning, since they get very little trust from others, and why do they have to be so secreative?)

[@brabbit330]

My favorite thing about Klingons is that while they have a religion and mythology about the beginnings of their race and going to Sto-vo-kor in the afterlife (it’s basically Valhalla), they are a very secular culture. In their own religion, all the gods were killed by mortal Klingons that were symbolically immortalized through songs and stories. As Worf once explained “We killed our gods. They were too much trouble”. LOL.

[@lmbusiness5300]

I think Terry Pratchett handles the dwarves quite well, there’s that whole thing about the female dwarves wanting to wear dresses and appear female and have their own gender identity, and the male and older dwarves get confused by it.

[@LowestofheDead]

Klingons and Vulcans/Romulans are like the more developed versions of orcs and elves. Klingons may be a violent warrior race, but also have a sense of honor unlike orcs; they would never fight someone unarmed or disadvantaged. Vulcans are hyper-intelligent and long-lived, but it can also make them paranoid and homicidal. They're not just "good species" and "evil species".

[@adiraiju9336]

What's particularly interesting is the fact that the first member of each species that we get to know in real detail are total paragons of that species - and as a result, don't really fit into the culture. Spock is brilliant, unemotional, logical, and impeccably polite (with a dry-as-the-Sahara sense of humor), but is generally shunned from Vulcan because his half-human nature makes him something of an outcast - since Vulcans, loathe as they are to admit it, are often elitist, racist snobs, as well. Similarly, Worf is honorable, brave, passionate, and honest, which also makes him something of an outcast - not just because he was raised by humans, but because a lot of Klingons are drunken fratboys who pay lipservice to honor and all that good stuff while engaging in backbiting and political hanky-panky that would make the Romulans blush.

[@StormSage13]

One of my favorite lines from Dragon Age: Origins is when you ask Sten (a half giant) to describe his people. And he just explains how he can’t because he believes it is impossible to summarize people are cultures.

[@daviddaugherty2816]

"People are not simple. They cannot be summarized for easy reference in the manner of 'The elves are a lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty'." Side note, the Dragon Age series has some of the best world-building I've ever seen.

[@StormSage13]

@@daviddaugherty2816 Dragon Age had a massing impact on my own writing. Each of the characters take their own corner of the world and carry it with them. Idk if Red has ever played Dragon Age, but I feel like she's get a real kick out of the world building

[@daviddaugherty2816]

@@StormSage13 To me, what puts it over the edge is how much of the history of Thedas is straight-up wrong. You don't see that too much despite how realistic it is.

[@StormSage13]

​@@daviddaugherty2816 I KNOW RIGHT?! It's so good! Looking forward to Dread Wolf

[@legomaniac213]

Plus, he couldn't explain it because it wasn't his role to explain it. He was a soldier, not a diplomat or a priest. That's one of the reasons why the situation with the Quanari in Kirkwall went as bad as it did. The Arishok may have wanted to fully explain why his forces were there, but because it wasn't his role as part of the Qun he didn't.

[@navilluscire2567]

5:04 It helps that Legolas was born Waaaaay after the mythic period of the world's history, by the time he comes around there are few relics left over from those Elder days, a few slumpering ancient demons, fading old magics, few elves left that have seen the light of the two trees of Valinor, and a small handful of artifacts, forged by literal gods (or close enough) or ancient elven smiths.

[@williamgraham5238]

The elderscrolls game series does a good job with this, the races all have distinct feels and stereotypes but plenty of outliers like a Nord mage (a hearty warrior race who normally have a huge distrust of magic) or a big loud kajit warrior (a race of stealthy cat-people) as well as having events change and affect the cultures like the Oblivion Crisis causing Argonians (a race of reclusive lizard people)to end the Dunmer (dark elves) slave raids and strengthening the argonians as a whole. Basically there's loads of detail and thought put into the world, cultures and shared history of the peoples.

[@adamyooz]

Unfortunately, I don't get the impression Bethesda cares about lore very much. I love Skyrim but compared the cultural landscape of Skyrim to Morrowind (and arguably Cyrodiil) and it definitely is lacking. It's not _bad_ but compared to the lore and worldbuilding we got about Skyrim before the game came out it was definitely a letdown. The Nordic Pantheon is relatively unexplored and we miss a lot of lore present locations in-game that are supposed to be there. I find the justification that Skyrim had its culture toned down because of Imperial influence cheap. To me, it's a copout for Bethesda to reuse deities and cultural staples from Oblivion and to avoid making something very complicated because that would be hard. Skyrim still has a lot of cool lore and worldbuilding but it fell short of its predecessors and disappointed.

[@williamgraham5238]

@@adamyooz I absolutely agree, Skyrim dumbed down a lot of lore and truncated much of the landscape but it's still neat to see their races not be monoliths

[@adamyooz]

@@williamgraham5238 Definitely, there is depth to the cultures in Tamriel. You don't know too much about a character just based on their race or province of origin. Maybe it informs their politics and ideals but who they are, what they do, and what their background isn't determined by their "hat" because their culture is deep and has variety. A good example is that the Gourmet was an orc, a race whose stereotype is "rough tribal warrior".

[@linktomario712]

TFW Super Mario Odyssey took this concept WAAAAY too literally XD

[@dragonmaster834]

Especially the literal hats

[@izzy1221]

Tolkien and World-building is my OTP. God damn it's a perfect match!

[@ms-fj1sp]

Next trop talk: love triangels/relationships

[@ms-fj1sp]

Please?

[@jaojao1768]

ms 71234 that countries be interesting

[@liaminator4950]

HELL YEAH!

[@crypticcryptid4702]

Every story isn't complete without a love triangle. Just focus on the love triangle. Nothing else.

[@malaineenerd146]

I see you watch Terrible Writing Advice too!

[@LordRavensong]

I love David Eddings's work, and have to admit that the Belgariad is pretty much exactly as she puts it. I do wish that she would mention the Elenium or the Tamuli though, or at least the Malloreon, which was David realizing that the Belgariad was basically just a first draft LotR fanfic and him stepping out into real world building. David grew phenomenally as an author and I wish people would acknowledge that

[@ginkiba3]

It's kind of sad on how most modern fantasy settings have taken the "hat" of the other races in Tolkien and basically run with it to its most (il)logical conclusions. The Elves for example, despite appearance and pretense, are NOT flawless. Eldar aren't magical hippies living in paradises, but are deeply flawed, regretful, and as Red pointed out, tired as balls. They've been fighting against evil for almost as long as they've existed, and the kicker is that much of it is self-inflected. I am not exaggerating in saying that almost every bad thing in Middle Earth ever has involved the Elves in one form or another, usually due to their own selfishness or short-sightedness despite being the "elder" race that you'd think would know better. In fact, it's the super wise and super powerful Elves that caused most of the bloodshed and tragedy.

[@janerecluse4344]

Also, #FantasySoFuckingWhite. Tolkien was a Brit working off Norse stuff. It's not *bad* that his stuff is so white, it's just a fact. The problem is that everyone rips him off without even realizing the cultural underpinnings, and it leads to extreme dullness at best, active racism at worst. Other cultures have lore, and while people shouldn't just grab it without understanding it, the idea that all fantasy has to look like Middle-Earth is incredibly limiting.

[@navilluscire2567]

@@janerecluse4344 Late reply but... Yeah a think the the problem with alot elves or elf stand ins is that it's all to tempting to make them the condescending assholes. Rather than being wise, faithful, endearing, and seeing the good potential in others they instead are nothing but snobbish jerks, no wiser than lesser lived races, blind to their own hubris. That's what made the immortal elves in Tolkien's middle-earth so awsome, sure they had their flaws, and sure many did in fact look down on the younger mortal races but they also envied them. Yes that's right even the immortal, magical elves were jealous of the mortal races, especially men, why? Because our fate is not tied to middle-earth's unlike the elves death is release from the world and it's corruption, not to say the world isn't beautiful and full of wonder but death was never meant to be seen as something scary, and it was man's fearlessness in the face of death that allowed us to reach our fullest potential, accomplish great things even if that meant the ultimate sacrifice. And that was what the elves in Tolkien's works admired the most about mankind, dying for us is only the beginning of a new existence, while leaving the world behind was a sad affair it didn't have to be such a dreaded fate. Staying behind to watch everything you've ever worked for eventually crumble into oblivion, the fading of all the good magic in the world, the ever encroaching darkness, this was a deep pain that was all to familiar for elves because their spirits can never leave the world, forever bound to it, they have seen the envatability. But anyway that's just my thoughts on the matter, and I think if more folks took the time to really learn about the underpinning themes and context of Tolkien's worldbuilding, ironically they'd find new, fresh inspiration!

[@janerecluse4344]

@@@navilluscire2567 Thank you for your dissertation on Why Legolas Is Great. XD Seriously, he was elf enough to admit that mortals can have more fun, unlike some of the others, who wanted to pretend they weren't angsting. I really like Tolkien's elves, where other people's are often basically The Mean Popular Kids from some high school movie.

[@nasserfirelordarts6574]

@@janerecluse4344 I am working on a world of my own, probably the most complex magic system with it too... Elves in my world, to begin, only live about 300 years so although they live longer than humans, aren't everlasting OP Bois, they also (just like in many settings including LOTR) have low fertility rates to balance it, yet not as much as their life span isn't really crazy, they are masters of the bow, AND guardians of the forest and all, yet... They are just another species or race, they commit sins and do mistakes just like all else, they aren't exquisitely knowledgeable of any extra powerful magic, and they although nimble, and have a more compact* and airodynamic muscular system in comparison to humans, the ratio favors humans' strength over elven strength...(*compact as in, 1cm³ of elven bicep for example is more powerful than an equivalent volume of human bicep) so in conclusion, elves became a human sub class rather than an all seeing guardian force of good which is a favorable interpretation in many ways, especially as most uses of elves in DnD of such medieval fantasy is just for the qualities of combat they offer as individuals (nimble, light, relatively not dumb, archery, scimitar/dagger/staff mastery, magic)

[@Rainbowthewindsage]

Honestly I think the poor dwarves have it worse than the elves and far as bad interpretations. Elves seem to have a variety of intreptations in the works following Tolkien. Whereas dwarves tend to just be the stereotype of Tolkien dwarves and nothing else is added to it, the only big exception I've seen to this is the Discworld dwarves. There's a reason the Tv Trope page for dwarves is called "Our Dwarves are all the Same".

[@seiban8455]

A version of this trope seems to exist in conlanging, wherein a language made to sound harsh and warlike will involve at least six glottal sounds and consonant clusters galore! Likewise, conlangs for artsy peaceful societies will have more vowels than one could count. Despite the fact, one of the only languages in Europe featuring more vowels than consonants happens to be Finnish, and the people of Finland is too busy headbanging to care about speaking prettily.

[@MoonMoverGaming]

Seiban If modern Earth were a fantasy setting, Finland’s “hat” would be that they all play death metal.

[@janerecluse4344]

Also Finland will wreck your shit. They held the Russians off for a while, and they're a little country! Russia always has more Russians.

[@PennyDreadful1]

They are among the most highly educated people's in the world. Introverted and generally careful. When they are not drunk that is.

[@gunjfur8633]

Im pretty sure that theres only like 3 or so glottal consonants: the unvoiced glottal fricative /h/ the voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/ & the glottal plosive /ʔ/

[@Rainbowthewindsage]

@@gunjfur8633 yep but they could have been grouping uvular and pharyngeal with glottal in their heads since those also have a kinda back of throat feel, being next glottal. Or using hyperbole.

[@drahydra]

My own culture-building method: Start by combining the concepts of two different cultures and combining them. Then consider what happens to that combo culture over the course of 1000 years. The result is usually something that only vaguely resembles the cultures it borrowed from.

[@phillipmarsh1197]

Am I the only one wondering what's behind their bookshelf? It's clearly about, well, a bookshelf's depth away from the wall.

[@redgoldcrown3990]

IT'S ANOTHER BOOKSHELF

[@wolfcat1998]

Bookshelves all the way down.

[@senpasztic875]

Fuck i cant unsee it

[@eliad6543]

It's the land of adventures Red came back from that one time

[@Shrikeswind]

I advise also focusing on how your culture has interacted with other cultures - i.e., not just "What their stereotype in Culture X is" but also "What traits they might have picked up from Culture X, and conversely what traits Culture X picked up from them." Unless the culture is isolated or has had little intercultural relations, most cultures tend to not simply interact with nearby cultures but also develop in reaction to them. Examples can be found in the traditions surrounding Christmas or in the development of the English language. Speaking of which: Another tip I offer is to establish a language - it does not need to be of Tolkienian levels of complexity but you should at least be able to come up with words for concepts which the culture considers important. This tells your readers *a lot* about your culture's values, because the word's sheer existence implies that it is needed for some purpose which your culture keeps needing (for example, English needs "beef" but "cheval" has much less use to us because we don't eat horse.) So yeah!

[@richamohunta8767]

1:33 NOTE: Red, love the work you do, but I need to point out, the caste system only got rigidly defined and oppressive in the LATER Vedic Period. In the Early Vedic Period, you could freely travel between castes, but in the Later Vedic Period it got more rigid. We are literally doing this in school rn so just felt the need to point that out. Love ya! -an 11 year old Indian

[@aialaau3927]

You should make a T-shrit that says, " Skirted Manly Men"

[@tatersalad76]

Ahh, the Scottish

[@jimtaylor294]

Well; some of them anyway. (so~ many myths about kilts it's almost comical)

[@geraldfrost4710]

We're men! We're men in skirts! (SHORT skirts!) We roam around the forest looking for, um, um; make fun of us and we'll give you the hurts!

[@connorscorner443]

I'm Scottish. I want a kilt so bad

[@clockworkpotato9892]

@@connorscorner443 Not being a stereotyping Englishman, but do you also want to learn the bagpipes? Honestly, I do.

[@sinvector8020]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series plays with this tropes really well, and in a very realistic and in-depth fashion. The dwarfs and trolls seem like Planets of Hats at first, but as we learn more about their cultures and the individuals, it opens up to so, so much fascinating depth.

[@vladprus4019]

Dwarves in Discworld are in fact taken up to 11 parody of this trope

[@thirteenfury]

I was going to mention them! It helps that we get multiple dwarves and trolls as important characters, rather than like in most fantasy media where there's a token dwarf/troll sidekick. Hell, some of his books, such as "Jingo", "The Last Continent", "The Fifth Elephant", "Thud!", and "Snuff" are all about deconstructing the Planet of Hats trope. Even vampires and werewolves get three-dimensional characters.

[@shadowpod13]

I NEED to read those books. Heard so much about them, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[@canskntsfalan5430]

12:06 Someone at Bedhesta " Let's make drug dealer cat people!"

[@daviddaugherty2816]

That's still very reductionist. The Kajiit have a very spiritual side to them, too. Not to mention not even close to all of them encountered in the games actually _are_ drug dealers.

[@Darek_B52]

I thought this was going to be trope talk about heroes refusing to wear helmets when their the main character.

[@stavarosthearcane]

I think that's more a gaming/movie trope than a literary one. The TVtropes name for it is Helmets Are Hardly Heroic

[@Dawnshade1]

They don't need helmets. Their fabulous hair has tons of hairspray in it, that's armor enough.

[@unrealization6478]

As someone who wants both historical accuracy and cartoonish-artstyle visual appeal when drawing DnD characters and such, I struggle with this. My most recent fix is to have a character stick her helmet on when and only when she's about to crush people under her boot. Hm... :P

[@terozu5440]

Darek Baird srry but, *they're

[@Darek_B52]

No sorry needed M8. I'm actually surprised I messed that up...oh well have a great day (PS I think this is the most upvotes I've ever gotten for a comment...would it be morally questionable to say that I make content of the gaming kind here on this lovely platform we call KZbin?)

[@kelaestheicts6207]

You have no idea how HAPPY I am that you've read the Belgariad, Red. Seriously, it's like no one knows about that book series, and it's pretty damn good.

[@WraithReaper09]

I read it and the sequel series, The Malloreon, in about two weeks when I was in High School.

[@varana]

It's a prime example of how to write fantastically entertaining books with as many tropes and clichés as possible. :D Characters make or break a story - even if the plot isn't original (I mean, he basically used the same plot four times, including the Tamuli or whatitscalled, and it was even kind of average to begin with) and the backdrop consists of cardboard cutout hat people. And still, I find esp. the Malloreon one of the most fun series to read.

[@IceQ78]

I wonder if she was referring to the Tol Nedrans.... I am busy re-reading this complete series again... for the 5th or 6th time now. :P I back tracked 3-4 times to make sure that I heard right. :D

[@IceQ78]

The Elenium. the Tamuli was the 2nd trilogy. :)

[@eliasholzheimer8085]

I've found my people!

[@Nate-qf5zp]

Fantasy is such an easy target to get lost in. The masterful skill of looking at your script or lore or writings and learning when to let the arguement or discussion get dropped is amazingly displayed. I feel like I hear enough of everything to understand while still having questions but not to get side tracked you redirect tactfully and keep the script flowing its amazing.

[@ishanshah7521]

WHERE 👏IS 👏JOURNEY 👏TO 👏THE 👏WEST 👏PART 👏FIVE? On a more genuine note, great job! Keep up the amazing and informative work!

[@jayatobey1047]

Ishan Shah THANK YOU I WANT JOURNY TO THE WEST WEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@a.morphous66]

IT 👏 IS 👏 HERE 👏 NOW.

[@mediadetective6104]

I have two recommendations for Tropes to talk about One is the Secret Society, this is a good trope to make your villains mysterious Two, and one of my favorite tropes of all time, The Heavy, it's a dumb name for it, but TV Tropes calls it that for some reason, it's a trope of a piece of fiction where there are two main villains, ones the big bad, while the other is there second in command, but the second guy is more of the main antagonist than the big bad because he/she goes after and interacts with the main characters more than any other villain, for me, bonus points if the second in command has his own ambitions, like overthrowing the big bad and taking his position for example, a perfect example of this is Darth Vader from Star Wars Just some ideas

[@Teethmafia]

id argue shrouding your mastermind badguys in mystery with second in commands as a main focus is more of a way to keep the audience invested and asking questions... it seems like more of a story plot dynamic but yes i think it is a great trope to discuss

[@jonsnor4313]

That can easily backfire if you dont have satisfying answers.

[@MitchellTF]

"The Heavy does the heavy lifting in the story" And...that's why they call it that.

[@alexross1816]

I've heard another name for the Heavy as "The Dragon"

[@chrono-glitchwaterlily8776]

Avatar? Azula?

[@grimreefer9324]

I had no idea what I was clicking on when I saw the words “Planet of the Hats”

[@starfire2rav]

I actually did some similar 'from the ground up' worldbuilding for a story with the world being basically earth, but natural disasters happen ~monthly. It went in some very interesting directions that I didn't expect, like the volcanoes-keep-erupting people being experts in weaving and making various textiles(for screens and masks to keep out ash and poisonous gasses), or the earthquakes people taming lions and other big cats to ride instead of horses(cats have better balance). I even ended up with some random stereotypes(constant-lightning-storms people are all craftsmen and artists, floods-every-other-week people are thieves). It's a lot more fun to come up with stereotypes after the society is fleshed out than to try and add depth to the stereotype, and they're less predictable.

[@geraldfrost4710]

You mean like on Sim City?

[@666melodeath666]

So Fedora wearing Hipsters should be a different Race

[@liaminator4950]

Yes, we should.

[@velazquezarmouries]

666melodeath666 they ain't humans

[@maedhrosfeanorian9555]

joaquin Velazquez True we ain't humans

[@velazquezarmouries]

A. Hamilton one should be examined for similarities with the human race also we should analyze sjw's wich are like humans but they sometimes don't need a working brain

[@Enchie]

A. Hamilton Which is why their should be a genocide carried against them.

[@2timothy17girl]

I went down that rabbit hole with your questions and BOY have my eyes opened to a drayload of possibilities for my story! I just have to keep reminding myself "everything does NOT have to apply!" But this world-building style is indeed magnanimous fun while also keeping things generalized enough for me not to fall down the hole that is fleshing out every single individual circumstance that could possibly happen and trying to figure out the world's parameters that way. Thanks, Red!

[@VelvetCondoms]

My approach for creating civilizations is to start with origins. All populations, be they sentient or otherwise, come from one of three origins: * This population started as part of Population A, but traveled to location B, resulting in civilization C. "This is most human populations". * The population in question evolved in this location. "Humans in one chunk of Africa". * The population was introduced artificially. "Florida Armadillos". With this approach, you can handle the biological origins of a species and handle their sociological origins: * A boat-dwelling people who evolved on Planet A, which was earth like, but collided with a mostly-ice asteroid, which resulted in mass flooding, resulting in a society that was predominately a boat-dwelling people. Agriculture was hard, but trade VERY easy thanks to people being boat-dwellers. Later, when they went into space, these cultural elements held up perfectly, and now you have a trade people. They have many occupations, such as on-ship agriculture & engineering, but trade is their primary industry. * A civilization that fled from a thin allegory of the roman empire, and ended up in an area that's very barren. The result was a society that was isolationist for safety, but valued good engineering because importing labor wasn't viable. * A species of monocellular life that evolved on venus, and resembles the sorts of Archea you'd find at Yellowstone in thermal vents.

[@ingonyama70]

1:13 You name-dropped one of my all-time favorite fantasy series of all time. I ADORE YOU.

[@MGDrzyzga]

I'm gonna have to use this to revisit a campaign setting I've been writing. I'm particularly interested in applying this to a heterogeneous mountain folk - a friend compared them to the Swiss Guard? The mountain folk have never been part of any nation or empire - many have tried to conquer them, but none have succeeded. They do not see themselves as their own nation. They are just a collection of tribes living in the mountains, and frequently hiring themselves out as mercenaries. Three races are common in these mountains - the dwarves, the goliaths, and the dragonborn. Each culture produces mighty warriors. But amongst non-combatants, each race has a particular skill. Dwarves, as always, are master craftsman. So their warriors have exceptional gear. Goliaths produce more shamans, druids, and similar workers of magic - so they have access to more healing and support magic. And dragonborn know secrets to animal husbandry. So their warriors have support from draconic steeds and such. I'll need to homebrew some D&D 5e stuff that allow basically for (1) falconry, but draconic birds, and (2) like Hannibal with his elephants, but draconic. So the mountainfolk as a whole arose from tribes of these 3 cultures co-existing. And periodically forming alliances against outside incursions - because they found more common ground with each other than the outsiders.

[@YamiSouru]

This ep makes me think that at Random times Red just grabs Blue and asks him to tell her what ancient cultures hit X, Y, and Z criteria before then 'asking' for history lessons on said cultures.

[@dansattah]

If someone asked me about this I would probably start with Avatar: The Last Airbender .

[@MsWatismyname]

Fire nation are evil fighters? Waternation are fishers and spiritual? Earth nation are great architects? Air Nation are monks and very dead? Same for Hogwarts: Huffflepuffs are huggable goofballs Gryffindors are brave and heroes Ravenclaws are bookish and nerds Slytherins are evil and bend on world -domination

[@CJWproductions]

Dan Al Any story where the protagonists travel from place to place to place is probably going to have this trope. I think it's a fun one because you can use it to highlight the main characters and their long-term arcs while still providing a smaller arc that can be completed in one episode, every episode, and the episodic arcs feel different every time. Bonus points if the heroes wind up returning to those places and realizing they're more nuanced than they thought.

[@CelestiaLily]

I think by nature of the time skip Legend of Korra actually reverses a lot of the "Planet of Hats" stereotypes for the 4 nations. The Fire Nation isn't all evil fighters anymore, the Water Tribes are flourishing post-war, Republic City split off from the Earth Kingdom (which isn't a kingdom at the end), and the Air Nomads are alive again but not everyone's a monk.

[@eruyommo]

Dan Al I loved how they made fun of this trope when Aang was asked what air nomads ate and he didn't know more than fruit cake.

[@TheScorpion0081]

Good example, but not because it avoids the trope. Rather, it can show how an individual can be different from the collective whole, for better and worse.

[@catbatrat1760]

9:02 Aww, that Viking looks surprisingly super adorable all bundled up like that!

[@mightyd33r]

Please do a Trope Talk about disabled characters

[@ashildrdorchadon3258]

I think that comes under the "write what you know" video.

[@beckyginger3432]

There are lots of pre-existing disabled tropes - some very toxic. But there are definately enough to do a whole video on.

[@JohnSears]

Can I have a hat?

[@sarahchapman532]

I am Groot

[@nidohime6233]

🎩

[@JohnSears]

Nido Hime, Thanks!... Now what?

[@melissabautz2346]

John Sears Go generalize or something, Idk.👒🎩🎓

[@horseenthusiast9903]

👒 here is my hat

[@traceygonzalez4043]

Henry Stickmin Planet of the hats people: Wear actual hats as a defining feature

[@ethanwhite2210]

Great topic! As an anthro graduate, I'm always loving discussions about complex cultural differences and how inventive one can be when creating fictional ones, it's so exciting!

[@angryrabidfoxes7380]

as always, look to Avatar the last airbender for a textbook example of (insert storytelling technique here) done right.

[@bobbyh2720]

Angery Rabid Foxes minus romantic sub plot, Aang and Katara's love story is by and far the worst part of the show

[@frankbigtime]

I think traveling the world with a beautiful, intelligent, slightly older-than-you badass warrior with an unshakable confidence that you will save the world is a certain recipe for an aangsty preteen crush. So that half of the "romance" was pretty realistic. There were also a fair number of good moments where Katara was correctly understanding-but-uncomfortable about his feelings. Getting to know one another through hardship and travail is great and all, but it can't trump the fact that Aang is still a preteen boy. He could be her new kid brother, but not her love interest. If they'd continued on that trajectory, everything would've been golden. If the writers felt they HAD to make it work, they should've very firmly indicated that it didn't turn anything until much later, when they'd both grown up into adults, and kindled a new, much healthier romance that wasn't creepy and weird.

[@bobbyh2720]

The worst part about it is that the last time the two have any interaction pertaining to their romance before the final "I love you" kiss at the end was Aang kissing Katara and her pushing him away.

[@aruretheincomprehensible20]

The Planet of Hats trope seems useful for two really good reasons. The first is that it's a good time saver for episodic storylines. When you have a 1-episode story that needs to introduce a group of people, creates a story around that group of people, and needs to move on to another entirely different part of the story, you don't have much time to create a fully fleshed-out world there both in production time and episode time, and of course in television time is money. The second is that it's a really good starting point for worldbuilding. A world that rigidly conforms to a singular hat will have a cool novelty when you first see it but will feel flat when you start exploring it, while worldbuilding with no hat in mind might not be interesting enough for people to want to explore further. Taking a hat and fleshing it out will get you the best of both worlds: it will have a hook that gets people to explore it, but it will have an anchor that keeps people invested in that world.

[@Sl4wt3r]

**hears mention of The Belgariad** Whaaaaaat? **replays it 8 more times** You made my day

[@divinechild16]

She mentions the Belgariad in a few other videos, but I get the feeling she loves ragging on it a bit too much :"3

[@Belgand]

It always makes sense to have it show up when discussing tropes since it's pretty much pure, unfiltered trope.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

I am here to declare that the Jedi are not a Planet of the Hats.

[@charlesdewitt8087]

Clearly they are an order of hats.

[@ghostbl33d65]

Hmmm....A jedi declaring they are not a monolith type community? Seems legit and totally umbiased to me :D

[@vincentmartin9667]

Yes there is a vast different between most of the Jedi (for anyone who explores the universe) and they don't come from only one planet but many.

[@profmalicious]

But how about the gungans, or the ewoks, or the wookies even?

[@GriffinPilgrim]

You're an organisation not a culture.

[@smergthedargon8974]

This made me feel good about my D&D setting's long-dead civilization being spiders with some Indian (as in the country) aesthetics and a hint of the SCP Foundation. I subverted the pyramid cliche, yay! This whole video in general made me feel pretty good about my own worldbuilding. I try to make sure my world it more than just the stereotype of each country/race, and it made me feel like I'd done a decent job. Sure, some of the cultures are more hat-y, but that's specifically because they value homogeneity and order.

[@samcnut]

Now I want to build a world... There goes my weekend :(

[@bloodstoneore4630]

How did it go?

[@samcnut]

@@bloodstoneore4630 Made a cool map, still haven't used it lol. I'm about to tho since I'm here again for notes

[@thechad2553]

This gives me such a greater appreciation for the world's built in Avatar The last airbender/Legend of Kora(cartoon versions) and the Tolkien books. Thank you for another great video!

[@nathangoedeke694]

It may be worth mentioning that hat cultures are more prevalent in allegorical stories, where the entire point is to represent abstract ideas as nation-states. They can still use worldbuilding and be highly complex and interesting, but they are specifically engineered with a certain personality in mind rather than formed organically.

[@navotram6561]

This is so much fun~! World building is generally a very, very fun thing to do and having good reasons for why things happen is half the pleasure of watching your Roleplay group players faces go slack from shock at the clues they missed at arc 1 of the story...

[@nikki607]

Navot Ram a couple of weeks ago playing Call of Cthulhu the only thing my OCD character (actually me) missed to write down was the most important clue...

[@navotram6561]

And did it help or hinder your enjoyment of the game? In my Exalted chronicles, writing down sessions can become a chore - so I tend to reward players who take it upon themselves to log events int the game with some extra attention to their plot-lines or even some minute XP donations here and there.

[@nikki607]

Navot Ram we did have a lot of fun, but we didn't find that piece of information at all😂. It wasn't vital for the task, but it would have saved us a possession, a comatose investigator and a couple of injuries. Our GM told us after finishing. Wow, you are generous. I didn't get any of that, despite taking extra time at home to rewrite all my notes. With quill and ink on yellow-y paper that's supposed to look old. I have a a5-ringbinder whose sole purpose is to hold those sheets.

[@navotram6561]

Well. complication = plot (As Red aptly insinuated a few times) - which makes this moment of forgetfulness worth it... IF it was in-character to forget it. Losing the piece of paper out of character can spoil the whole thing. I am glad you and your GM are in-tune enough to work around it without any hard feelings. Having props made for the game is great~! The entire chronicle benefits from such devotion and often getting to use it is it's own reword. I once made a guide-book for vampires in a 24-7 sort of LARP. My character was a serious vampire-hunting werewolf-guy so he kept records of all of his kills and tableted their powers. It developed over five years into a practical guide other characters passed around to tutor werewolf cubs on 'these are vampires and how to fight them'. It yellowed out and got filled with pictures and notes taped on. I have to say i'm grateful for you to remind me of that. Thanks~!

[@navotram6561]

More on point of rewarding players - it's key for a GM to pinpoint where players are invested emotionally and physically (Your 5-ring binder is a clear example) - and reward it with attention and possibly, bring into the game. It serves two purposes - first, it's a cool, easy way to bring new things into the world without having to plan them out and the players are already invested in them~! Two birds at the same rock sorta thing. Second, it points out WHAT do the players want to play. The sort of a reaction they are trying to prompt, which sometimes isn't easy to intuit from the 'what are you looking for in a game' conversation everyone need to have every once in a while. Leading a good story is listening to the players :)

[@SDM-Zone]

Im currently designing a fantasy world and yeah your advice is pretty good. I usually first design the government system because I can then work backwards to think how that came to be with their geography and history. Like I have this nation at the equivalent of Antarctica and they mostly freedom loving kind egalitarian undead beings that were a result of a powerful necromancer biting off more than he could chew and the undead formed their own personalities and minds. Refusing the bloodshed of war they travelled to a land they could call their own and they decided to go to a place where being undead doesn't really matter, since they were basically former war slaves fighting a genocidal war, persecution was rampant. Rotting is still a thing but they have like magic spells that heal their wounds and they often go to peel all the flesh off their bones and become just all bones held together by necromancer magic. They allow foreign races to work and visit there if they get a permit and new undead are created entirely by choice of someone who is currently living. They don't need to eat or sleep so they are very productive workers and have achieved a capacity comparable to WW1 era tech which they use to make their nation even more unpleasant to be invaded. They are pretty good as diplomacy as many different types of undead have come to be under their rulership so these people already know their original cultures. Their government works under a fair and non corrupt social democracy that prides itself on creating a land in the snow where all undead young and old can live in peace. I guess their "hat" is they are mostly undead hippies.

[@StarlitSeafoam]

StormyDmaster undead hippies...I love it!

[@anotherpersonintheinternet6531]

I have paladin orcs

[@royaloreo1275]

In cold place flesh rots slower, that's why we put food in a fridge. So Antarctica makes very good sense.

[@janerecluse4344]

Nice! So many people are so boring. Kindly/good-natured/can-be-reasoned-with undead are so criminally underused. I wonder what they do about food for the living? Is it just a luxury import? I guess you could fish off the coast, since cold water holds more oxygen and thereby more life than warm water... Man, do the undead have big political arguements about food for the living? "Bah, so much trouble, they should all just go *live* somewhere else!" versus "Be nice, you were alive once, and they're an important part of the community!" I bet they get a lot of refugees, since living people get so fratchety about people worshiping other gods and being other enthnicites and stuff.

[@Виталякекс-ц3в]

Hey guys, I got a problem. I writing an sci-fi story about a war, and all my societies are varieties of these: militaristic-industrialist authoritarism quite similar to Nazis (in terms of government, not ideology don't kill me pls) socialistic-authoritarian state whose ultimate goal is to build utopia and who doesn't mind to force someone else to live in their utopia (if they think they deserve a place in their society, otherwise they become quite xenophobic) And democratic-egalitarian pacifists who spread they influence throguh diplomacy and economic integration, defending from their enemies by bribes and economic means (which usually result in war that caused by nation who doesn't buyed that, ha-ha) Please send some ideas and food supplies. (Food supplies are optional)

[@gudrun5531]

The Tolkien Professor pointed out that dwarves were almost always villains in old folklore, but his dwarves were good guys, which was pretty new in stories. We don’t realize how different this was in his books since Tolkien is now the gold standard.

[@Bysthedragon]

So I'm making my own fantasy story with my own original fantasy races, but I just want to talk about one of them that's going to be familiar to people, Dragons! In my story the Dragons call themselves Tarakona but other races call them Dragon and they are generally the 4 legged, 2 winged western body shape and about as tall as a Giraffe, but they have a lot of variation in particular body details like some are full scaly while others may have a mane of fur like a Chinese dragon or feathered wings like Quetzalcoatl. The Tarakona are an ancient people who are one of the oldest and longest standing empires in this world, each of them have 1 of 16 elemental powers that they are born with based on the phase of the lunar cycle so they make use of their powers to operate their society; Fire and Lightning dragons can create heat and energy, Wind Dragons can influence the Weather, Earth dragons can construct buildings that would be impossible to do by hand and faster than any stone mason, Water Dragons are excellent fishers, and so on, because of making use of the elements and how long they have been around the Tarakona are very advanced, but certain dragons of particular elements are not allowed to hold certain jobs. Their powers are also connected to their religion, there are 18 dragon deities 16 of them are connected to one of the elements divine 8 princes and divine 8 princesses and then their 2 parent gods the king and queen. The King god lives on the moon and is responsible for caring for dragons souls as they pass into the afterlife and giving the dragons who are born their elemental powers. The Queen is associated with the Sun and acts as the queen in chess to the king, he is the most valuable piece because dragon society would fall apart if something happened to him but she is the strongest piece and is charged with protecting him. The land that the inhabit is geographically similar to India, to the north there is a large mountain range isolating them from the rest of the world, which they want because long ago they tried to enforce peace between the other races but some of them saw the Tarakona as tyrants and fought back, so the Tarakona eventually locked themselves up in their own land and said "Fine if you're going to be like that then go ahead and kill each other if you'd like, just leave us out of it, we're too good for you anyway". No one dares go near the mountains because once the Tarakona see you coming they will use all the forces of nature at their disposal to make you turn back or kill you. There are another settlement of Tarakona in the north that split off from the home empire during the period of war and established many individual kingdoms to break from the rule of the Dragon Emperor who is referred to as the "Draco Rex"

[@bluemakespurple9995]

Dang that's cool

[@Bysthedragon]

Thank you so much!

[@corneliusfukyuself6742]

I actually do a lot of world building myself, and it defiantly can easily take up hours upon hours just like that *snaps*, so this was a very helpful video. And I never really thought about how entire planets act one way without variation, so I will defiantly take that into account when I work on planets and the more sci-fish part of my world. But I really do appreciate trope talk quite a lot, they are extremely helpful, and have made me think about things I probably wouldn’t have, I thank you.

[@malaineenerd146]

Oh my word it bugs the heck out of me when Space shows/movies do that. Like, I'm pretty sure there are more than one city on each planet...

[@EEYore-py1bf]

I avoided that problem in my Starfinder campaign by having it take place on an uninhabited planet that was terraformed to only have 1 biome. Magic

[@anotherpersonintheinternet6531]

Sammmmmeeee!

[@Systolic_Gaming]

10:31 This whole bit is what takes me so long to make my dnd settings. Down to the smallest village, I can’t help but think about the economy, social connectivity, class structure, and values in relation to their traits and location. Then the players burn it down ;-;

[@pretzelbomb6105]

I’m working on a DND campaign world right now, and this was definitely something I needed to watch for it. I wanted to make orcs more than just “tribal brute savages” so I began to make a society modeled after martial hierarchies like old Japan. Looking back at what I’ve got, I need to do a lot more research and flesh it out, as now I’ve basically just got “tribal brute savages with art”.

[@sylendraws1249]

Is planet of the Hats Earth but after a nuclear war Hats took over?

[@locuzpokes741]

As someone who's whole life right now is creating a fictional species and culture based on the Twili from Legend of Zelda. these are all great tips. Right now I'm figuring out what forms they can take and what cultural and religious practices they took from the Twilight Realm. SO FUN. Can definitely recommend

[@purplehaze2358]

I think that, in a universe where multiple species exist that are all basically just people, having one species with a strong leaning towards a certain occupation and others towards another just kinda makes sense to me.

[@samuelbott6104]

Thanks for the insight, Doctor Bright from the SCP foundation

[@trla6505]

I don't like to think of aliens as people, since diferent species have different tendency and treaty them like another species with different needs can lewd to problems, we are all humans, we made it so, but a chimpanzee will always be one

[@purplehaze2358]

@@trla6505 “Person” is not mutually inclusive to “human”. I’d argue elephants to be really big primitive people, but their last ancestor with us was over 60 million years ago.

[@TheYeetedMeat]

@@purplehaze2358 do you consider 7 year old children people?

[@oliverbengtsson6747]

In the Belgariad they travel with a Drasnian merchant for a while, and he is very upset with Silk. Since everyone "knows" that all drasnian merchants are spies, even the regular merchants are suspected. Silk counters that all the civilizations have spies, even the Thulls.