Hello again, all you ugly mugs! It’s that time of the week, isn’t it?
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This week’s post is part of a two-part series; as this blog is still in its very early stages, I thought I would introduce you guys to some of what I write – in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres. The series begins with this week’s post – “Galaxies To Explore…At Your Fingertips!” – and ending with next week’s post – “Fantastical Realms To Explore…At Your Fingertips!”
Today we will be exploring Sci-Fi worlds using nothing but our keyboards and imaginations. The potential is limitless. From ancient galactic civilisations at war to super-powered bubble-gum, the galaxies you have available to type are endless. To demonstrate what I mean, I will show you guys examples of my Sci-Fi worlds which I have written in. These will be the world of Rhion (as explored in my WIP A Killer’s Remorse novel) and the world of the Milithron Galaxy (as explored in my ongoing series of Mirror Squadron novels, as well as the WIP Belief – The Tale Of Hessi Solm novel). I will also use the Star Wars galaxy as a brief example.
Firstly, a brief look at Rhion. We will examine Rhion through the description of the Dark to illustrate how you can create worlds for your darker themes. Inspired by the likes of Bladerunner and The Witcher, A Killer’s Remorse certainly does aim to explore these darker themes (if only I could get the book finished!)
[A Killer’s Remorse Extract]
***
The smog swirled around us, dark and oppressing, blotting out all light. I could feel not only my lungs and my body being squashed by the intense pressure, but my soul too, as if the darkness was squeezing all the goodness out of it.
Once again, as I looked up at the smoke-choked sky, I found myself silently cursing the Reno Corporation and those other bastard companies which had polluted the world and brought the Dark. Rhion had been a beautiful world once, but that beauty was lost now, shrouded by the thick blanket of darkness that smothered the land.
Like it not though, the Dark is my home. I was just as much a beast of the Dark as the reds. It was in the Dark, with the Dark Watchers, that I had been transformed; as reds were transformed from maskless fools to mutant beasts, I had transformed from a lowly man of nothing to a steadfast protector of the city.
***
This is only a brief extract, but I hope it illustrates – or at least hints at – some of the happenings in Rhion. The tone of the piece is oppressive and gritty, a tone amplified by the first-person narrative. In A Killer’s Remorse, readers are introduced to a world that isn’t quite a dystopia but is worryingly close to one. It is a world meant to be taken seriously. A world of darkness and fear. Note here that the world is portrayed in small-scale, with a tight focus on our main character. That is a technique common to worldbuilders of this type in order to heighten the connection to this world and to these specific places.
Other worlds, though, prefer to be more grandiose. They may even contain an entire galaxy, perhaps. Two of these worlds I want to look at are the Star Wars galaxy and my own creation, the Milithron Galaxy. I want to contrast them to show you different avenues of worldbuilding.
We will start this comparison with a look at Star Wars. For the sake of fairness (ish), I will be examining exclusively the Star Wars Legends books, not the films or comics as they can only pack in a limited amount of worldbuilding. In the Star Wars books, the worldbuilding is much more “soft worldbuilding” as opposed to “hard worldbuilding.”
What do I mean by that? It’s simple.
Soft worldbuilding, to me at least, is where one creates a huge world but with limited depth. To say it differently, you can ask questions about lots of things and expect many answers, but if you ask many questions about one thing, you may struggle to find answers. Hard worldbuilding is the opposite. Neither has supremacy over the other, though many people tend to prefer one over the other.
As I said, we are looking exclusively at the books (no sourcebooks, you nerds! :D) and in the Star Wars books – as I mentioned before – the worldbuilding is decidedly soft. Aside from a few aspects such as the Jedi, the Empire, and the Republic, the worldbuilding only goes a few layers deep. This is great, as it means the world feels huge and varied, with a plethora of species, governments, and histories. Without the answers to some of these questions, the depth is implied, which creates mystery.
However, soft worldbuilding is not without its issues. One of the big issues of the Star Wars Legends books was that the lore could feel very disparate. Things did not feel connected and could very well have existed in their own, independent universes. This was largely an issue that came about due to the wide variety and skills of the authors that penned Star Wars novels at this time. There are other issues with soft worldbuilding, but that is, I feel, the most crucial of them.
The Milithron Galaxy, by contrast, veers towards more hard worldbuilding (though it does have numerous elements of soft worldbuilding as well). Everything has an explanation, and it’s explanation is rooted in history which links all the Galaxy together. This allows it to feel like a united whole. One major example, found in the first Mirror Squadron novel – Liberty’s War – is over the question of why the people of Fortunesca dislike “Foreigners.” The reason is steeped in a major galactic event known as the Darnhest Rebellions, which has major ramifications across the various books of the Milithron Galaxy. This is an obvious example, but it is still a key example nonetheless.
This focus on hard worldbuilding provides a key advantage in terms of complexity. The world feels like a living, breathing thing, not just a jumble of ideas and thoughts. This gives the world focus and clarity. However, there are major downsides to this method. Depth of worldbuilding requires more time to create the world, to build depth into its atoms and fibres. Additionally, with all the depth prepared, one may find themselves tempted to throw every scrap of lore they have onto the page. I know I did in my early drafts of Liberty’s War; my first chapter had nearly a thousand words neatly outlining the Freedom Wars and how the various galactic governments were created because of it. It was interesting and beneficial for the world – but really harmed the pacing of the chapter (especially as the first chapter is the crucial chapter).
This post was just a brief overview of some methods for worldbuilding your Sci-Fi worlds, from an analysis of scale to an analysis of soft versus hard worldbuilding (as I define it). I hope you found it interesting. Please comment any questions or ideas down below, and I will try to answer them in a later post!
MORE BLOG POSTS:
- (Previous) Introduction To Typing Galaxies
- (Next) Fantastical Realms To Explore…At Your Fingertips!
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What are you still doing here? It’s over. Go home, back to your keyboard: there’s stories to write and galaxies to type!
Typing Galaxies 
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