The Rules of PHYSICS and How To Break Them | Worldbuilding

Episode 2: Worldbuilding Physics and the Universe
In this video we discuss worldbuilding the rules of the universe for your fictional world and why saying gravity is ‘just a theory’ doesn’t mean you can ignore it.
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WORLDBUILDING CORNER: www.worldbuildingcorner.com
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The Full Metal Alchemist picture is credited to Gage Skidmore and is permitted for use under the Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 2.0.
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[@Flirtz420]

Your world kinda sounds like the one from Tales of symphonia. Really good game I loved it.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

I'm not very familiar with Tales of Symphonia, but googling tells me that the setting has two parallel universes that share mana? Fascinating concept, if I do say so myself haha. Looks like ToS explores inter-universal conflict, if I've understood correctly. Very cool!

[@TheOmegaXicor]

​@@WorldbuildingCorner yea, one universe doesn't know about the other but the other does know about the first but going there is prohibited. Then there's the axle of the wheel which is the Angels' home the actual source of mana/magic/life

[@amandhaka8847]

its like britanic mythology from the times of king arthur @@TheOmegaXicor

[@delegea6538]

I love your idea of two universes sharing energy! This is by far the best (imho) magic system I've come across. I think it's really unique and I wish you success!

[@ardidsonriente2223]

It is the same idea as the Full Metal Alchemist movie, when they discover from where comes the energy that makes transmutation posible.

[@joakker8820]

All I could think of was The Warp from warhammer

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

Tales of Symphonia went a step further. There are two universes that steal energy from each other in cycles. If one thrives, then the other withers, and then a ritual is performed where the workds switch and now the withering world is thriving.

[@T4N7]

There r theories about wether black holes could have gravity so strong that they touch or birth parallel realities n thus it would explain the paradox about the loss of information inside black holes

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Black holes are so fascinating, and the way our understanding of physics kind of falls apart at such strong levels of gravity makes for great worldbuilding potential!

[@baitposter]

Another fun part of black holes: They effectively create a small sum of particles thanks to quantum mechanics. Particle pairs normally pop into existence and immediately annihilate, but at the event horizon of a black hole, these pairs can end up separated on their birth, with one escaping and one trapped in the black hole. (I wonder if the portion being trapped in the black hole also contributes to the apparent loss of information, by helping to dilute and obfuscate it)

[@didsva]

@@baitposter Well those particles are what that could be called virtual particles, and because one of them have negative mass. When that particle falls into a black hole it makes it so that the black hole loses it mass

[@eunomiac]

This series is fucking brilliant; I watched a few of the later episodes and loved them, so I'm now watching the whole thing! You definitely deserve more attention; I'm doing my best to spread the word :)

[@moonglade420]

Making my monday great with worldbuilding stuff :3 The only thing I view slightly different is that elemental planes TTRPG games have (like D&D), are planes of existence instead of different universes and view it like string theory. So I end up with Universe wide rules and then rules that affect each plane of existence or groups of them if having certain rules affect certain constants. But I enjoy different viewpoints nonetheless as a fellow worldbuilder :3

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

For my own worldbuilding, I chose to do a parallels universe to Earth, a kind of Mythopea that hosts both species found on earth that have arrived there through rare portals, and native species. In this verse, magic is a much more tangible thing than anywhere else, and they are directly connected to Hell. The unusual rules of physics do apply, although they are plenty of things to break them. Creatures such as humans, cats, dogs, any tree you can think of and so on are not native to this verse, however, some of them are such as elves, strangling seaweed, demons and water monsters. There, amongst native species, a certain sense of being able to detect magnetism is strongly selected for due to having many predatory spirits or simply natural (in the form of aquatic monsters) predators with very good camouflage. Dwarves do exist there, but they are descendants of Neanderthal, and thus are human. It is part of the reason they do not like iron and magnets: not because it directly causes them tangible pain, but because it is for them a sensory overload that causes in them an instinctive fear response...Like "I cannot detect danger like this, please, stop it". However, due to being highly energetic and inventive, humans have managed to dominate this verse, although to a far lesser extant than on Earth due to the slightly colder climate. My world hosts magic, and the rule of it is simple: one does not own magic, and it is simply the ability to use one's body as a vessle through transes and rituals for foreign energies (mana, or real-life more regular types of energy such as electromagnetic). Thus, they would need to "buy" or simply return what they took eventually. However, magic can still procure a certain immortality, providing you sacrifice to whoever gave it you new soul-baring victims.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Very interesting! The magic on your world sounds almost like an equivalent exchange system, which is one of my favourite types of magic systems. I love the worldbuilding design of the dwarves and the concepts around magnetism. There's a lot of inferences that can come from that!

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

@@WorldbuildingCorner Thanks. Small clarifications that all things native to this verse dislike iron and magnets due to their sensory evolution.

[@no-np8dw]

An interesting effect of this is that while usually metals like copper gold and for the more classic fairies silver would not harm them in most settings under this system fey creatures would actually be more affected by these metals as well as being affected by most metals

[@rangergamestudios3353]

6:21 just got major steins:gate ptsd from seeing that blue sand hourglass

[@timhaldane7588]

And here I thought I was the only weirdo using physics and philosophy as the foundation of my worldbuilding. My entire 4E campaign was kind of an exercise in trying to resolve the philosophical tension between Free Will and Determinism (or, technically "Fate"). My goal was to somehow set up predestined events that would incorporate the players' actions. One of my biggest inspirations for this was Quantum Mechanics, specifically the double-slit experiment. This experiment demonstrates that the behavior of individual particles is always to some degree unpredictable (random), but over time they somehow build up to create a coherent, collective pattern that IS predictable. This even works without any obvious mechanism for the particles directly interacting with each other. I decided that Free Will and Fate have a similar relationship: Fate is the pattern, the big picture, and Free Will is the individual particles randomly choosing their spot. In other words, you can't change Fate, but your actions determine the role you play in it. The players would learn from an Illuminati type organization called the Skycallers of a future fated event, but the details were always just fuzzy enough that there were multiple ways to arrive at that result. Whatever the players chose, the rest of the world would collectively conspire to arrive at the fated result from a different angle. If you're familiar with the Xanatos Gambit trope, it's a similar idea. And it's also not railroading because the players' decisions directly led to how or if they were involved in that event. The villains of the campaign could also predict the future, and they wanted to control who ended up in the most key roles, with the goal of subverting and unraveling Fate. We never quite ended up finishing the campaign, but the players did get to the point of seeing how entire nations were being steered toward confrontation. And I decided that Free Will and Determinism are compatible because, even though we can on a certain level freely choose our behavior, we are necessarily limited to the finite number of choices available to us. In other words, Free Will is real (to us), but it exists entirely within the constraints of our chemical programming. (Or as Hamlet put it, "I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space.")

[@BlockyBookworm]

So the will exists, but is not free We are not slaves, but we are dominoes

[@timhaldane7588]

@@BlockyBookworm if the dominoes could choose which track to take, but all the tracks were all laid out in advance, yes. The choice is "real", but false.

[@timhaldane7588]

@@BlockyBookworm love the "not slaves but dominoes" metaphor, btw. Gonna steal that. 🙂

[@BlockyBookworm]

@@timhaldane7588 Oh yeah, we're all basically flow charts of dominoes that lead into each other

[@J4R0D]

I combined string theory, non euclidean higher dimensions, the pseudoscientific theories of Electric universe and orgone, and finished it off with imagination being it's own layer of reality. Also dragon spirit because dragons.

[@drago939393]

What about tanks?

[@J4R0D]

@@drago939393 The steampunk goblin faction makes tanks. along with airships and trains.

[@timhaldane7588]

Can't tell if serious or shitpost. Don't even care because it's awesome either way.

[@mikhailbirkin583]

Elementary particle physics may open up a great many ways to introduce 'physical' magic, as you can make magic a particle (a quantum field like the others) and let them interact with ordinary matter/energy/spacetime (e.g. borrowing energy from elsewhere to produce "law-defying" effects). On that note, your 'electric' and 'photonic' white holes are identical, since photons are the carriers of electromagnetic force, but none could blame you for that detail. The "thermal" variant is also quite awkward assuming vacuum around it, but it's also like, the more you know of the real world, the less room you can find to speculate and worldbuild "realistically"! And of course, every change in physical laws at this step *does* necessarily impact everything else, from planet formation to evolution and life. Breaking real explanations like "why is the sky blue" means you just have to "magic" your way to humans too, so be responsible ;)

[@DarthSupremeus1020]

I don’t think that would work, because all quantum particles either constitute matter (the fermions, containing quarks and leptons [electrons and neutrinos]) or mediate the interactions of matter particles (the bosons, with the photon, gluon, W and Z bosons, and Higgs boson). Though, I guess, if you made a new boson that acts as a “magic particle”, then you could somewhat explain the “law defying” matter interactions that happen when matter interacts with this boson. Though then you can only have a magic system confined to matter and not energy, as bosons don’t necessarily interact with each other in the same way they do with matter particles

[@mikhailbirkin583]

@@DarthSupremeus1020 What do you mean that the magic will only be confined to matter? Bosons can interact with each other, you would only have to make an interaction term with other kinds of bosons to be able to emit photons for example, but that's where you could *magic* your way into it, it is a magic system after all ;) And since they have mass, they hence must in a way infuence spacetime (outside of the Standard Model of course). If you also add a magic lepton, which can interact with various bosons, you could fill the gaps more easily and allow for magical matter.

[@DarthSupremeus1020]

@@mikhailbirkin583 I’m sorry. I was mistaken. You are right.

[@b.k.5667]

For my own worldbuilding project i just decided to practically throw all science out of the window and base everything on mythology, more specifically a form of animism. The earth isn't a planet but an ancient deity that resides between the sky and the ocean. All natural phenomena like the wind and weather, the seasons, the tides, the movement of the sun and moon etc. are essentially the work of spirits and gods. That also directly ties into the magic system. Magic users like shamans and priests are in mutually beneficial relationships with these supernatural entities, providing e.g. sacrificial items in exchange for the help of the spirits.

[@EricZeo]

You've brought up SO many valuable points I can't even process in one go. This is amazing! I will be worldbuilding alongside while watching this series - after I've answered those things... (two and a half universes, laws of physics and other stuff? still comprehending...) Thank you so much!

[@clairetellkamp6253]

I am very confused. So when entropy increases, it doesn't actually increase, it just sends the energy to the other world... So when a fire is burning, rather then increasing entropy, it is sending energy to the other world. But entropy would still increase, because chemical energy is still being transformed into photonic and thermal energy, which is a more disordered energy state. Also, does all of that newly transformed thermal and photonic energy transfer into the other universe? If so, then fires should do nothing when they are set. There should be no heat or light, because all of it is being transferred over and expelled from a white hole. So when you set a fire, you should see the wood beginning to blacken and burn, but without any heat or light. Or does only part of the energy transfers? Regardless, net entropy is still increasing across the two universes. This is particularly important, because when stars expel energy via fusion reactions, they are transforming energy into a LOT of thermal and photonic energy, and the temperature of the star plays a large role in that star's continued existence. If all of the energy were to get sucked into the other universe, then stars would collapse on themselves much more quickly, since they don't have the outward pressure of thermal energy travelling from the core to the surface. Stars would then burn much faster, because the pressure at the core increases due to increasing density. And no life could exist around said star, because it's no longer expelling thermal or photonic energy, so everything remains at the background temperature of space, or possibly even colder. There would be no light or heat in the universe at all, expect around white holes, since stars don't "create" light or heat anymore. Additionally, this is a question related to a later episode, but it ties into this. White holes would not be expelling matter, because they only expel energy. So why would they be the centers of galaxies? They aren't expelling matter, so you wouldn't get a ring of black holes around them, you wouldn't get star formation, etc. They are only expelling thermal, photonic, and electric energy. Otherwise, I think the magic system is very VERY cool. With some tweaking, it could make a lot of sense. I love when magic systems are based in actual science, but it definitely makes it harder, because one misstep can get noticed more easily than more nebulous and obscure magic systems.

[@truehexproof]

I had to backtrack all the way from gregraphy to here and it was a fucking trip

[@spacecat85]

this whole energy transfer bc of entropy idea actually solved a big issue I had with my sci-fi verse and its godtech/"magic". thanks!

[@demonic_myst4503]

no no and no you got greek myth so wrong tartarus is a prison in the underworld its not hell its purely where the titans are locked up itsd also a primordial god elysiam isnt heaven its a region of the underworld where only heroes go while every one else will be turtured in the other fields of the underworld its not a good vs evil heaven andf hell

[@ChiefGarth]

Great video man. I watched the video more than once juat to make sure i got everything. Keep on making good stuff like this man. It really helps me consider everythimg i need to when world building. Very inspirational 👏.

[@freshstart7534]

6:05 nice transition

[@alexs5814]

ok... i've seen three so far and it's absolutely enough to sub and start binging it from the start. i LOVE your careful and considerate approach to worldbuilding.

[@ajkonecny6830]

@Worldbuilding Corner Hello there hopefully your doing well. I just recently found out about your channel, i just finished episode 2, and I'm enjoying it so far. For my own story idea I'm thinking of putting quite a bit of science into my world since I myself am a Astronomy nerd. I think with the idea of magic in my story in some why that I might use some type of reason for why this "magic" exists in my world/universe. Basically since I've been interested in Astronomy for most of my life I'm thinking of putting lots of Astronomy concepts into my story in some way while also putting some fictional ideas like Magic, Fantasy creatures, and some type of Mythology,ect. But yeah I'm enjoying your series so far and like how you take your time explaining everything.

[@adamjenkins7653]

Following my comment in the previous video of this series. My worldbuilding exercise was focused on what I would do to fix what I disliked in games. In this I added one more energy source to my fantasy universe: "mana" Mana is generated by the rotation/motion of large amounts of matter in a manner similar to a dynamo. Thus any planet with a molten core would become a mana dynamo. The main planet generates so much mana that the mana generation is noticeable. The planets rotation generates mana and pushes it towards the equator, where the mana is forced out of the planet and into the crust and atmosphere. The energy then hits the mana radiation from the star forces it into a cone pointed away from the star on one side and a hemisphere on the star side. So excess mana that escapes the planet radiates outwards at night. Mana concentration changes or violates other natural laws, but does dissipate and can be destroyed. Unlike normal energy.

[@recursiveslacker7730]

So it's just a magical version of the fictitious forces produced by a non-inertial reference frame? Fascinating.

[@adamjenkins7653]

@@recursiveslacker7730 most of that went over my head, but the short of it is that mana serves as a pseudo-energy, and operates under its own rules first and foremost. I talk more about it during the video on the chemical elements.

[@TheYashakami]

This is the best world building ever

[@demonic_myst4503]

I used ewt aka energy wave theory as a fundemental law for my universe using it as a basis for the magic system

[@notyetdeleted6319]

My fantasy (sci-fi flavored) world has one fundamental difference to the real world. The existence of higher spacial dimension in THIS SINGULAR universe.

[@lapiswolf2780]

I had the idea of a world on a planet slightly bigger than Earth with equal or greater density, with inhabitants being ever so slightly shorter due to gravity and vehicles made lighter and having more powerful engines than those on Earth to over come the gravity, but atmospheric aircraft may not need to be as powerful to use a denser atmosphere.

[@LasseROM]

The two world cosmology where entropy is just energy moving from the "main" to the "second" world just sounds like an hourglass to me. Once all energy has moved from the "Main" to the "second" then the hourglass will "flip" and the two worlds will switch "priority".

[@VikingSloth]

I think it's an interesting idea to start with the idea of changing some of the rules of physics to give you a better world building base. Your system with transferring energy between universes is a great idea. I think I'm a bit hesitant to use the idea because I'd be worried about creating another midi-chlorians situation

[@LWolf12]

While I don't know about another universe, when it comes to quantum physics I think they have shown, I think quirks, disappearing and reappearing at random. If I remember right, it has something to do with Hawking's Radiation & black holes.

[@timhaldane7588]

Yes, in quantum field theory, there are so-called "virtual" particles constantly popping in and out of existence everywhere all the time. The idea behind Hawking Radiation is that, whenever a virtual particle appears right at the black hole event horizon and decays into a particle-antiparticle pair, one of those two falls into the black hole while the other escapes. The one that escapes has positive energy. The one that falls in has negative energy. The tiny bits of negative energy cause the black hole to slowly evaporate.

[@CharChar2121]

High entropy ≠ chaos; it is homogeneity.

[@deezboyeed6764]

I have had a concept for a universe in a bottle in a wizard academy. Its for a d&d game, the pcs will start as prisoners (they can be innocent or not that upto them) who accept magical experementation in return for lesser sentence. The wizard sees they have some applicable skills are thus sent in to the bottled universe to explore and begin colonising a planet similair to theirs. I'm still trying to figure what should happen if the bottle gets damaged, or how they should be able to communicate with the outside of bottle world.

[@ladvargleinad7566]

The easiest solution (I can come up with) for a Magic System is to have a Law of Physics that sets the amount of energy (and matter) in the world, and a parallel universe (or somewhere in the normal universe, like a planet's core) that has a vast amount of energy (and matter). Through the use of magic, energy (and matter) can be transferred into the normal universe by bending the law stating the allowed presence of energy (and matter), and when the magic is over, the law forces the energy back to where it came from (or in the case of matter, the imported matter sends the matter it replaces (usually air) to the parallel universe).

[@scerriyura]

11:16, in my world i just completly scrapped Entropy, aka my world doesnt have entropy😂

[@user-om7ms9ef9b]

The deviation of the 1st law of thermo isn't really a change; a system's total energy remains constant. So, all laws are followed here.

[@GraysonOhnstad]

Any thought to the underlying metaphysics?

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Many! Haha, but it would be an enormous discussion, and I feel non-digestible by most people, so wasn't what I focused on for this series. I do want to touch on philosophical topics when the species we'll worldbuild establish philosophies of their own. Stay tuned!

[@iwantagoodnameplease]

Your mic is picking up lots of bumps and bangs in this. Very noticeable with headphones! ps assuming your white hole is emitting thermal radiation, then all 3 forms you mention are the same thing! Electromagnetism :)

[@mumtazniazi9877]

7:07 the good thing about this edit is that it is also scientific as the transferring of energy from object to object is a thing energy can do in real life, though this edit to the Principle of Conservation of Energy is still fictional because 1. We aren't sure if there are more than 1 universes and 2. While a non-physical energy can be transferred in real life, as transferring kinetic energy is possible proved by Newton's Cradle, but I don't believe a physical energy can be transferred, as I don't believe a push or pull can be transferred while in your rule physical energy like a push or a pull can be transferred from 1 universe to the other universe. Why was I just being smart for like 5 minutes- Edit: if in your edit moving pushes and pulls isn't allowed, than the edit is even less fictional.

[@SMunro]

Would a white hole just be a negative time black hole

[@mihaleben6051]

You cant. Breaking them is another part of physics. You cant You can only make new ones

[@kappakiev9672]

A world of fat wizards