Worldbuilding Exchange Letter 2020

[narya_flame]

Dear Creator,

Hi!

I'm so excited we're a match; I love the concept of this exchange, and I can't wait to see what you come up with. Worldbuilding is a huge geeky obsession of mine, so I'm sure I'll love whatever you're inspired to make.

General Stuff

Given the focus of this exchange, I'm not going to go into a massive list of things I love to see in shippy or smutty fanworks (although I'm open to receiving it unless there's a fandom-specific DNW in my signup that says otherwise. If you do want inspiration in that direction, I put some ideas in my Smut Swap and Chocolate Box exchange letters). Please don't read anything into the length of the prompts, or whether I've requested or written a certain fandom or character before; if it's in my signup, I'd love to receive it.

I've added in a list of things I love that seem vaguely relevant to this exchange, but as always, if you're inspired to do something different then please ignore all of this and follow your heart; I don't want this to be stressful, life's tricky enough without making fandom hard too. (And feel free to take fic prompts and turn them into art, make fic out of the meta prompts, create illustrated meta, swap things around and blur the boundaries wherever you like.)

 

Fic

 

• In-world myths and legends
• Unusual perspectives, minor characters, original characters and textual ghosts
• Unreliable narrators and quirky narrative structures – for example, epistolary, fragmented narratives, stories told through found documents, framing devices, stories told out of chronological order
• Philosophical musings
• Anything to do with languages, linguistics and alphabets
• Canon divergence AUs, especially if used to explore some of the worldbuilding prompts below

 

Meta

 

• In-world scholarship
• Catalogues
• Bestiaries and spellbooks
• Contracts and agreements
• Instructions and recipes
• Etymology
• Marginalia
• Letters, working papers and project notes
• Literary criticism
• “Filling in the gaps” e.g. fragments of poetry complete with in-world commentary

 

Art

 

• Maps! Maps are amazing! (I DM for a group of friends so I am a bit obsessed with maps, whether it's a tiny village or a huge continent. Oh, and floor plans. I love floor plans too.)
• Clothing, jewellery and hair, especially close ups of tiny details like stitching, beading, braiding etc.
• Similarly, intricate detailing on weaponry and armour will make me drool

 

Any

 

• Objects and places with special significance – a “sense of history”
• Food, drink and celebration
• Games, contests and competition
• Music and musical instruments
• Battle plans, battle scenes and/or aftermath
• Storytelling, riddles and poetry
• Libraries, archives and other knowledge repositories
• Myth, folklore and fairy-tale
• The supernatural and uncanny – ghosts, magic, telepathy...
• Fusions of science and magic

 

Prompts from the Tag Set

I've referred to my tagged characters in a few of these prompts, but I'm aware we may not have matched on the character and worldbuilding combinations that I think are the obvious ones, so again, ignore and adapt wherever you like.

 

Roverandom

 

Selected characters: Any or No Characters; Original Character(s); Psamathos; The Great White Dragon; The Moon-dog

 

 

• Memories and Half-forgotten Things on the Dark Side of the Moon – the grey, shadowy realm where the brighter, warmer lands of the Man-in-the-Moon meet the Dark Side feel insubstantial and liminal. What are the half-forgotten things that lurk there? The Moon-dog tells Roverandom that the dreamers “all go around the back” to the dark side, and later we see the children playing there while they sleep – but there are “nasty things that lurk in the bogs” too, which reminds me a little of the Dead Marshes, and memories seem like they can be a pretty dangerous, always spoken of with wariness and respect respect. I'd love illustrations of what the dark side looks like, fic about a dream-journey there, or maybe some bestiary entries about its occupants.
• The Creation of Dreams – how exactly does the Man-in-the-Moon make dreams? What do they look and taste and feel like, if anything? How does one store or transport a dream? (The Man-in-the-Moon seems to have no trouble getting spells into corked bottles, so maybe dreams don't need much more – I quite like the idea of a cellar full of shelves dreams of different kinds, all neatly labelled up...) The spiders make dreams too...how do theirs differ from the Man-in-the-Moon's?
• The Monsters of the Black Abyss – I do like that this seemingly sweet little tale has some darker elements, and scary sea monsters would be an amazing thing to receive fic, art or meta about. I'm afraid I don't have any specific prompts here so feel free to let your imagination loose.
• Wizarding Relations - “Magicians and wizards are few and far between, and they know one another very well, and keep an eye on one another's doings too, not always being the best of friends in private life.” I'd love anything about the interactions of the wizards and sorcerers that populate Roverandom's world, whether they're “the best of friends” or the exact opposite. Feel free to include any of the canon enchanters or invent your own.

The Fall of Arthur

 

Selected Characters: Any or No Characters; Agravain; Gawain; Guinever; Lancelot; Mordred;Original Character(s)

 

• Coats of Arms – I've waxed lyrical about heraldic devices in my Silmarillion prompts below, and would love anything similar in an Arthurian context – stories behind chosen sigils (either in the form of fic or meta), artwork featuring the coats of arms of any of Arthur's knights, or something else entirely.
• Guinever's Fay Magic - “Fair as fay-woman and fell-minded”? Tolkien's interpretation of Arthur's queen is...a little on the dark side. She is brave, proud, ruthless, clever, manipulative and fascinating – and the continued use of “fay” in the text (and her own musings on turning men's fates to her own ends) suggests she has some kind of otherworldly power. I don't have any specific prompts, but I'd love art of her, or a glimpse inside her head, or records from the court chronicler that give us more insight into what she could do.
• The Runes of Power on Gawain's Sword – Gawain's sword was marked with runes by “smiths enchanted ere Rome was built,” and I can't help wondering whether Tolkien was thinking of his Elven smiths here...

The Silmarillion

 

Selected Characters: Any or No Characters; Celegorm; Eönwë; Fëanor; Houseless Elf; Lalaith; Maglor; Original Elf of Cuiviénen

 

• Architecture in Beleriand – This tag has so much potential. If you're into the idea of in-world meta, or artistic meta, then scale drawings, project notes and construction details for any of the great First Age cities and strongholds would be incredible – or maybe an in-world historical document from a later age, speculating about how some of the great feats of First Age engineering were achieved. If you're making art, then drawings of Menegroth or Gondolin or Nargothrond in all their glory would be fantastic – but equally, I'd love a close up of a smaller detail, like a hidden alcove, or delicate scrolling around an archway. For fic, I'd love to read something about the process of building any of these places; there must have been so many human stories bound up with their construction. Architectural horror would also be amazing, if your muse takes a darker turn, or a depiction of one of these great cities or fortresses crumbling and abandoned; Himring, after all, still remained as an island in the Third Age, ripe for exploration by adventuring Hobbits...
• Burial Rites in Cuiviénen - I'd love to know more about Cuiviénen, and fanworks which play with the origins of the Elves are fascinating to me. (I'm completely open to unconventional takes here.) Life must have felt far more fragile to the earliest Elves than to their descendants in the West, living in the shadow of Melkor, before the journey to Valinor. What rituals did they use to honour their dead? Did different causes of death warrant different ceremonies? What did their tombs look like? Did they bury their dead in the earth at all? (I could see funeral pyres or water burials easily enough.) In later Ages they called Sauron the Necromancer...did the dead of Cuiviénen always stay dead?
• Ghosts and wights; Hauntings of Middle-earth - I adore ghost stories and spooky art! Some kind of in-world legend or folk tale could be amazing here, or for meta, maybe something about how to appease a hostile spirit or bring them some measure of peace. Tolkien tells us of the sad fate of Houseless Elves; I imagine that by partway through the First Age there were a number of these hauntings scattered across Beleriand, so any character or group of characters you may want to involve is fine by me. Dark and disturbing is fine here; perhaps a character is haunted by a vengeful spirit from their past, and eventually meets a grisly fate. (Very Specific Prompt coming up – ghost baby Lalaith is a weakness of mine.) A cosier take on the supernatural is fine too if that's what you'd prefer – maybe Nargothrond or Himring has a friendly ghost? Or perhaps a character from a later Age, or even our times, has a mysterious encounter they can't quite explain...
• Heraldic Devices - Their Development & Uses – Heraldry is a fascinating subject. The Elven sigils are beautiful and I would love something about how and why any of them were chosen, whether that's fic or meta. Alternatively, feel free to draw me something gorgeous displaying one or more of them, or make sketches showing how they developed over time. If you're after a more specific prompt, I am a shameless fan of Fëanor, his family and his followers, so something about why that star was chosen and what it meant to those who wore it would be incredible – or if Elves aren't your thing, how about the devices of the Edain, or the Dwarves?  We know almost nothing about Dwarvish heraldry so you could really go wild here.  Or what about the symbols used by the Ainur?  (I may have pulled Eönwë out of the tag set with this prompt in mind.)  Did different races use their sigils for different purposes?  How did the process of choosing and developing them differ by culture?
• Maps & Mapmakers of the Elder Days; Maps and Mapmaking – I picked on both of the mapmaking tags because I didn't know which one people would offer. I really don't mind where you want to focus here – the maps themselves, their makers, or the process of making them. Draw me a map of any region of Arda that strikes your fancy; write me diary entries by a crotchety cartographer; create meta about the tools and techniques of the trade; tell a tale of adventure and peril as characters map an unknown land.

The Hobbit (Book)

 

Selected Characters: Any or No Characters; Original Beorning Character; Original Character(s); Original Character from Dale; Original Raven Character; Thranduil; Thrush of Dale

 

• History and Culture of the Beornings - I love the Beornings! How did they get their shapeshifting abilities and at what age does this power kick in? Do Beorning playtimes consist of naughty bear cubs tearing around and getting in their families' way? What does it look/feel like when they change? We know they speak Westron, but do they have their own language and alphabet too? I imagine them to have an oral storytelling culture, so if you're making art, maybe something with them all sitting out under the stars on a summer night, sharing tales.
• Languages of Birds – how did the ravens and thrushes living near the Lonely Mountain learn to understand Men and Dwarves, and speak their tongues? How do the ravens and thrushes communicate with one another? If we go with the canon of Middle-earth being our world, how and when did they lose their gift of speech? (Or maybe they didn't. Maybe we just forgot how to understand.)
• Nature and Origins of the Stone Giants - They only make a fleeting appearance, but it's enough to make me curious. Are they sentient creatures? Do they awaken with the storm, or create it? An origins story would be fascinating here, or art depicting their creation/birth, or perhaps a piece of in-world lore or history about them.
• The Corruption of Mirkwood - I'm fascinated by the idea of a bond between the Elves – especially the Elven king – and the forest. Is Thranduil's power tied to Mirkwood itself? How does it feel to have Sauron lurking on his borders? When does he realise what the Necromancer is? For art, maybe you could draw some of those weaving spider web tunnels, or a sinister forest scene with shadows that might just be dark, wicked creatures following you home. For meta, something about the early days of Sauron's occupation of Amon Lanc could be interesting – maybe observations about wildlife decreasing, trees in an unusual and sickly condition, something strange in the quality of the light...
• The Fight Against the Spiders of Mirkwood – How was the army of Mirkwood structured and organised to ensure maximum effectiveness against arachnid incursions? What were their battle tactics? Did the warriors have to train in more than just physical combat? (These were the descendants of Ungoliant, after all; I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them deploying scaled-down versions of her power.) Away from the military side of things, what about those who weren't on the front lines of battle – how did healers refine and develop their craft to combat the spiders' poisons? Were weapons specially designed and refined for maximum effectiveness against giant creepy crawlies? Alternatively, were there any positive sides to the plague of spiders in the Woodland Realm – for example, were the parts of dead spiders useful for anything? Did the Elves make cloth from the silk of their unwelcome neighbours?
• The Magic of Mirkwood – Moving on from the darker side of Mirkwood, this is your opportunity to explore something a little more positive, or at least (to borrow a phrase from Dungeons and Dragons) chaotic neutral. I adore the scene in the book with the vanishing lights, so maybe you could draw that, or write something exploring the Elves' magical abilities? Or (this is quite specific) I also really love the scene with the white deer, and the mythic weight behind it. Do the deer have some kind of alliance or bond with the Elves? Or maybe you could play with the Enchanted River, that always creeped me out when I was young...
• The Toy-market of Dale - I'd be thrilled to get something about Dale in its glory days. Slice-of-life would be great here, or in-world art or meta – how about sketches of toy designs, or notes kept by a travelling trader?
• The Woodland Realm – this is your chance to go wild with any aspect of Mirkwood not covered by the prompts above. Trade with other cultures? Politics? Daily life in the caverns? If you're familiar with The Silmarillion and you'd like to delve into the history of the Woodland Realm, I am fond of Oropher, so something about the founding of the Realm in Greenwood the Great would be amazing.  

The Lord of the Rings

 

Selected Characters: Any or no character(s); Faramir; Glorfindel; Original Character from Rohan; Original Éothéod Character; Original Lossoth Character; Original Wainrider Character; Théodred

 

• Calendars – feel free to get as geeky as you like about the Reckoning of Years. After the defeat of Sauron and the return of the King, was there a campaign in the Shire by certain Hobbits to change over from Shire Reckoning to New Reckoning, in honour of the heroes who went on the Quest? Or, going back in time a little, how about something covering the shift from the Kings' Reckoning to the Stewards' Reckoning? Something about a significant festival would also be brilliant – or if you're making art then I would love it if you just drew me a really pretty calendar!
• Culture and Customs of Rohan - The horselords were my first fandom love. Any aspect of their culture, customs or history that interests you is fine by me – food and drink; life inside Meduseld (or, if you feel like exploring, something about life outside Edoras altogether, in one of the other cities or on a small farmstead); records giving insight into the reign of one of the Kings we don't know much about; celebrations and festivals; games; superstitions.
• Myths and Legends of the Lossoth – I love original characters, and seeing what lies beyond the edge of the map. We know so little about the Lossoth so you could really take this anywhere you like – maybe they shared some of their tales with Arvedui, or with the Rangers who came to retrieve the Ring of Barahir. Or maybe their tales are sacred, and to speak them to strangers is a terrible crime...
• The Great Plague – For those unfamiliar with the Appendices, the Great Plague coincided with the Shadow gathering in Mirkwood. Did Sauron or one of his lackeys create it? Was it the land's reaction to his return, or was it simply a dreadful coincidence? Healer's notes could be interesting if you're doing meta, or a traveller's diary entries, showing how the Plague affected different lands and peoples. If you're a Hobbit fan, the Plague's impact on the Shire was terrible, and I don't mind having my heart broken by fic or art once in a while – there must have been so many bereaved families. (That said, Hobbits are a hardy folk – miraculous recoveries and similar tales of hope are also very welcome!) Or maybe you could explore the impact the Plague had on Cardolan, and how this affected the war with Angmar. Speaking of which...
• The War with Angmar – The wars in the North went on for hundreds of years, so there's loads you could dig in to here. If you want to examine the causes of the war then I'm interested in the three kingdoms that Arnor was divided into – Cardolan, Arthedain and Rhudaur – what life was like there, and the political relations between the kingdoms. Did the lack of unity lead to the Witch-king being able to gain a foothold in the North? Alternatively, explorations of the assaults, battles and sieges themselves would be fascinating. I've pulled Glorfindel out of the tag set in part because of his famous prophecy (“Not by the hand of man will he fall...”) but if that isn't who we've matched on then feel free to involve any canon characters or groups that make sense – OCs very welcome!
• Wars of Rhovanion – Again, the canvas here is vast. I'm interested in Rhovanion's fall to the Wainriders, in the Northmen (in particular the Éothéod), and in their alliance with Gondor. I'm a big fan of alternate viewpoints and I've always been intrigued by the Wainriders training their young women for war, so if that's a road you'd like to travel then please be my guest. Art, fic, in-world historical analysis, it's all good; I'd love something about this underappreciated period in Middle-earth's history.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

 

Selected Characters: Any or No Characters; Farmer Maggot; Fíriel; Goldberry; Old Man Willow; Original Character(s); Tom Bombadil

 

• Elf ships on the Baranduin – 'The Last Ship' is so poignant – I re-read it the other day, after the death of Christopher Tolkien, and found myself with tears in my eyes. I always wonder why the Elves asked Fíriel to go with them. Maybe she'd seen the Elven ships before? Art of the ships (and of course of Fíriel and the Elves), fic about their comings and goings, or in-world documents about their travels all very welcome.
• Motivations of Barrow-wights – I will lap up anything you're inspired to create here; I remember being petrified by the Barrow-wights the first time I read The Lord of the Rings, and I still get the shivers when I find myself near old tombs or standing stones at twilight with the mist creeping in. Tom clearly has power over the wights, which makes me wonder why one of them went sneaking into his house; perhaps they have a grudge against him from the old days, which of course begs questions about who they were and where they came from. In-world folk tales, historical records or just a straight up scary story would be great here.
• Shire and Old Forest Relations – I find Old Man Willow fascinating and frightening, and can't help wondering about his origins. What kind of power does Tom Bombadil have over him? What made him decide to start luring and devouring stray wandering Hobbits? What other powers lurk in the Old Forest, and how do the Shire-folk keep them at bay?
• Spirits of Land and River - What and who are Goldberry and Tom!? They definitely have a dark side, or at least I don't think they follow quite the same moral code as most of our Middle-earth protagonists, and I would love to see that explored. How did they come to the forest, and what is the nature of their power over the land around them? Who is the River-woman? And are there other spirits of land and river, either in Tom and Goldberry's domain or elsewhere, that Tolkien didn't tell us about?

Middle-earth – J.R.R. Tolkien

 

Selected Characters: Any or No Characters; Original Character(s); Original Elf Character; Original Took Character; Tom Bombadil

 

• Food and Cooking – I almost missed this catch-all fandom in the tag set but I'm glad I spotted it! I love food in fic and art; it has the power to evoke home, or to throw strangeness and difference into sharp relief. It's a precious lifeline in winter, and the cause of wars and feuds. It's the ultimate offering of friendship and acceptance. It's fuel, it's comfort, it's indulgence, it's our link to the land and the world around us. If you're making art, how about a groaning feast table, or a homely family meal in the Shire? If you're doing meta, Middle-earth recipes would be great – or maybe something about food and drink in the house of Tom Bombadil. Fic-wise, there are any number of reasons why two characters might sit down for a meal together and talk – reunions, reconciliations, homecomings, political manoeuvrings, chance meetings in the wilderness, or the beginning of another adventure...

The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)

 

Selected Characters: Any or No Characters; Original Character(s); Thranduil

 

• Coinage and Currency – I know they have their detractors, but Jackson's The Hobbit films absolutely nailed the Dwarven aesthetic, and I would love to know a bit more about the Dwarves' currency system. What shapes and designs did they use on their coins, and why? (For example, there's a whole raft of reasons why the British 50p is the shape it is – although maybe there's a more romantic story behind Dwarven tender?) What and whom did the Dwarves commemorate on their coins? Or if Dwarves aren't your bag, I'd be equally interested in the currency systems of Elves, Men or Hobbits. Was there any kind of common system in use? What alternatives were there to traditional coinage?