Writing Fantasy LORE Instead of Worldbuilding

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Find even more videos to transform your storytelling and fantasy writing here: kzbin.info/aero/PLDpOcpMPZP3D-KapKbtwA5mjPlEon9rad

[@wyattcole5452]

I see lore/history as a part of worldbuilidng, what you call worldbuilding is in fact the skeleton of worldbuilding itself and like you said the flesh and blood is the lore and reasoning for why things are the way they are. All of it making up world building

[@beskamir5977]

It's also important to realize that we're writing stories not encyclopedias. Worldbuilding is great for supporting lore, but the reader wants to read a story and lore is much easier to turn into a story than raw worldbuilding.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Exactly! 🙂 Both worldbuilding and lore are things you can spent infinite time on. The latter is often just a bit easier to actually help you actually write the story - IF that is the goal 🙂

[@hikarihitomi7706]

Except, some of us are not writing stories, we are running a roleplay game, in which lore is absolutely great, but we need more worldbuilding as a structure that we can rely on as we create scenes and locations on the fly.

[@beskamir5977]

@@hikarihitomi7706 I'd argue even a roleplay game needs a foundational story for the main characters to play through, though in that case it's more of a collection of individual stories that all work together into a narrative. Otherwise, you risk creating real life... a world with insane worldbuilding and lore, but with a completely directionless story with terrible day to day gameplay and which ultimately doesn't really matter or even makes much sense.

[@hikarihitomi7706]

@@beskamir5977 You are describing a railroaded game, where there is a set plot the players are expected to follow. Not all games play that way. For example, in my game, if the antagonist asks the PCs to join him, the PCs have the option of actually doing so, because the story is the tale of what the PCs have chosen, not what they will do. Playing that way is not about making or creating a good story, that’s not the experience being looked for. The stories told of such games are unscripted and unwritten, but rather simply memories of what happened.

[@beskamir5977]

​@@hikarihitomi7706 Yeah okay that does sound like an emergent narrative simulation instead of a carefully hand crafted story. Still, I doubt you can just write lore and worldbuilding for a procedural story to emerge without any thought to the final product. I think you'd still have to define or generate the key characters (skills, abilities, motivations, etc), and unless the point is to allow for absolutely anything, which is imo would be difficult to both design and play, I would assume you'd also need some constraints and potentially a few clearly defined story snippets or themes to piece together a coherent narrative. Unless the point is for it to be as directionless as real life. Every example I can think of a sandbox narrative still gives the player some sort of guidance on what to do. Some kind of side or main quests even if it's as simple as 'stay alive' or 'expand'

[@flaviahermo249]

Focusing on lore instead of worldbuilding is the most powerful way to get inspiration for the ACTUAL story, without feeling stuck (this happens sometimes with worldbuilding, at least to me)

[@katsandall3673]

Instead of actually writing my book I procrastinated and just did more world building instead, at least that is what I thought I was doing untill I forced myself to start chapter 1. This is when I found that my world building notes were actually really usefull lore that fixes many major issues I had with the plot so in the end it was better that I waited because I ended up rewriting my entire plan for most of my book 😅

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Surprise discoveries where worldbuilding/lore notes suddenly propel the story forward are always super motivating, yeah 🙂

[@MalachiSouth]

This is a fantastic video. Seriously this is one of the most illuminating and helpful videos I’ve seen as writer. It’s like erverything suddenly clicked in my head while watching this video as I realize why my, and other writers, worlds can feel so bland or laborious. Because they are missing lore and focusing only on hard worldbuilding. I now realize that all of my favorite novels actually focus mostly on Lore over concrete facts or systems, notably Tolkien’s work. Thanks so much for sharing this powerful tool.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Really appreciate the positive feedback - thank you 🙂

[@TheRoomforImprovement]

In my series, I’ve been trying to incorporate lore in my series in a similar way from software game do. The idea is that major plot and lore events play out by characters investigating where and how something happened, not unlike how from soft games have you explore worlds long after a catastrophe happened. The difference is that from soft’s intent is to leave things ambiguous for the player to encourage them to explore the world and come to their own conclusion. In my case, these explorations of ancient conflicts are crucial to understanding and solving the main conflicts.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Sounds like an intriguing approach, especially one that ensures that the work you put into lore writing is actually relevant to things happening in the story 🙂

[@christopherpoet458]

2:00 - From what you have said here I think I use a mix of both or at least do both at the same time. Much of my world-building involves setting up origin stories, exploring the workings of magic, etc while also addressing the "What" elements as you described them. And from time to time I hard alternate between the two depending on what my objective is.

[@CoyoteGris]

In my TTRPG games, i not only write and tell lore, but I make oneshots inwhich the different tables play in the past as part of it.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Sounds like an interesting way to combine things, yeah :-)

[@The_Trident_Master]

I’m trying to incorporate lore into my story in the same way that the Myridian Constellation series by Wayne Thomas Batson did: basically just putting snippets of in-world books, journals, proclamations, legends and the like before each chapter. I try to make the specific snippet somewhat relevant to each chapter

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Sounds almost like lots of video games do with their in-game books 🙂

[@JynksterDM]

Thanks so much for all the help! This is really super charging and getting me inspired!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you for the kind words - always so great to hear when someone finds value in a video of mine 🙂

[@bastionbrom8927]

I would argue that lore isn't separate from worldbuilding, it's just one aspect of it.

[@swervyghost]

This is one of my biggest problems rn is the why and how i find myself overthinking and trying to keep things grounded but even in real life there is no structure and order i just cant decide how i want to throw in sci fi with fantasy

[@germoneysuniverse7908]

I've seen at least a dozen of your videos and I must say, every single one is TOP NOTCH!! Much respect and also THANK YOUUUU!! You are very much appreciated brother, great work!! I think you should make sure to ask people to SUBSCRIBE to your channel, ask at least once in every video, probably twice would be best, once in the middle and a second time at the end of the video!!! Your channel deserves to grow 100x!!!!! Wishing you the best!!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you for the kind words - these are really appreciated 🙂

[@ImmortalLemon]

I’m gonna take notes here, cuz I made one world for a story and I somehow managed to create a FANTASTIC fantasy world while having no idea what I was doing. But now I’m expanding the project to involve the multiverse and I need to start making more realities for the story. So thiiiiiiiiis is gonna help a lot!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Best of luck with your multiverse - glad to hear the video can help you a bit with that :)

[@ml677]

This video was super helpful thank you

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you for the kind words - and no worries, I will 🙂

[@Disgruntled_Dave]

Also worth noting that the word "lore" basically just means a body of knowledge. It can be applied to magic systems and constructed languages, but it can also be applied to real-world history and specific skills. If you've worked as a retail clerk for decades and you've figured out ways to calm angry, entitled customers without becoming too distracted from your actual work, you could accurately call that accumulated knowledge as "retail lore." It might sound goofy, since we usually associate the word "lore" with the mystical and the imaginary, but it still works!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Great addition for anyone browsing through the comments :-)

[@Nightmarc369]

One thing to consider when writing lore and mythology for your story is if if you compare it and read a lot of the other established mythologies of the world, a lot of them can be... Weird. A good kind of weird, to where it sounds like an actual mythology. Dont be afraid to get crafty when it comes to the explanation of things in your world. And tell it not as if its an encyclopedia, but more as if its a snippet from a fable.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Yes, absolutely. Lore is definitely allowed to be a bit weird/out there 🙂

[@beccaknight5763]

Thank you! This video is so straightforward and helpful

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Glad to hear that you found it useful - thank you for leaving that positive feedback 🙂

[@Lorna-JWB]

I am only halfway through this video, and I already utilised questions to get me unstuck and add such rich stock to my story. Honestly, I feel that world-building is or should be born out of lore. It is more organic that way.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Glad to hear there was something useful for you in the video. Thanks for taking the time to leave that feedback 🙂

[@AmandaFessler]

Excellent tips on how to make outstanding lore. I've been doing some worldbuilding myself (or is it lore writing?) as of the past month or so. What I'm doing instead of what I normally do - write wiki-esque matter of fact stuff - is write the title of a specific subject, then under it, put in a quote from a either character, document, or whatnot. And it's not always 100% clear or reliable. Rumors, comments about certain elements, personal anecdotes, even dialogue exchanges sometimes. For example, there are several quotes concerning the special metal in my story. Several from modern people concerning its rarity, or apparent properties. A few from a certain religious sect that's trying to recover the lost history of the old world - including the religion it's modelled after - since a great disaster reset everything. A couple more from people in ancient times who knew what the metal was for. And finally, the metal's creator, a major background character, who explains its true nature and purpose. Presumably when he is finally revealed to the main characters or something. I sometimes wish I could write more factual elements, since the AI often can't distinguish between fact and legend/rumor, but the exercise is just so much fun. I did eventually add in some directly stated notes, but the vast majority is quotes. Not everything will make it into the manuscript, and of those that do, they probably need to be rewritten to keep them from becoming exposition dumps. But it's certainly different from what I used to do. No idea why. Just felt like trying it, I suppose.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you for the insights into your works. Always great to see other people focus on lore too, and glad to hear the video was helpful with that for you going forward :-)

[@AmandaFessler]

@@TheTaleTinkerer I'll definitely try out those tips. I honestly don't even have an outline yet, though I did manage to pants out a first chapter... which I have to rewrite because the second half feels cliched after some thinking. But your advice really will come in handy in developing new plotlines as it goes forward. :D

[@3dchick]

Ok, that question, what's the oldest story in your world, is brilliant!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

That one really hit close to home for me back then, yeah. Certainly sparked some much-needed growth on my end 🙂

[@Tuesday_Mourning]

Thank you for this! I love the ideas in this video

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Glad to hear the video was useful for you. Appreciate the positive feedback 🙂

[@3dchick]

I have legendary world maps that are actuality accurate because they were charted from dragon back. Most think they are a myth, until one of my characters encounters one.

[@immortaljanus]

Solid advice. I do this all the time. I don't have a map of my world drawn but I have a few thousand years of history written down simply by going back from the starting point, asking myself "Why does this issue exist? What caused it?"

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Sounds like a lot of work put into it - kudos. Just be careful not to overdo lore writing as the risk is the same as worldbuilder's disease. Unless of course you just want to build your world and don't care about actual story progress 🙂

[@immortaljanus]

@@TheTaleTinkerer Well, they're an elven society so a "few thousand years" means exactly four generations. The idea is that each generation has a crisis that they must solve because of the friction between their nature and the natural world around them. Problem is every solution that the previous generation put in place caused problems for the new generation.

[@generationm2059]

Thank you so much for the info and for inspiring me!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Glad to hear you got something out of the video :-)

[@MichaelReddick-g4r]

Thanks for the writing tips.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

You're welcome. Glad to hear there was something useful for you in the video :)

[@NartrachGaming]

5:53 donyou know the muffin man! The muffin man the muffin man!

[@bluejayblaze1180]

Write lore? Okay! *Writes, among other things, a legend explaining why my pseudo-Viking dragon riders have potatoes when they're not native to that part of the planet.*

[@3dchick]

That's awesome!!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

@@3dchick Agreed - I'd like to read that lore snippet 😀

[@sethreyes8988]

I'm curious, are you still a Warcraft fan, at least lore wise? I ask because I too kind of started with the Warcraft universe before becoming fascinated with fantasy worlds and exploring other ones and wanting to build one of my own. I think it was the cosmology of the Warcraft universe that really sparked my interest at first. I don't play the games anymore, but I still think the lore is pretty cool. The legend of the ashbringer is a great example of storytelling making lore.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

In terms of Warcraft I was actually more of a video game fan rather than a lore fan. Both the RTS and the MMO was something I played heavily from a gameplay point of view. Early fantasy that really pulled me in were things like Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, and He-Man & the Masters of the Universe for example 🙂

[@retinazer7652]

lore about cheese

[@retinazer7652]

best lore

[@MLiskindagay]

An essential part of writing

[@TheRunemasterRollo]

For the Alliance!!!

[@vlc-cosplayer]

Ohh, so worldbuilding is sociology and natural sciences, while lore is history!

[@hadeshades2365]

Why is sokea basically immortal if not starving? His home is a neutron star. Why are the others so different? He is the only true born noxar left. Why is he the last one? The others made self delete. Why did you they self delete? They didn’t see purpose any more.

[@Yora21]

That sounds like the opposite of what I see as common knowledge.