Help me build a coherent fictional world for [PROJECT TYPE] in the [GENRE AND TONE] genre. The premise is [CORE PREMISE]. My non-negotiable elements are [REQUIRED ELEMENTS], and I want the reader to feel [INTENDED EFFECT]. Work like a world-bible editor. Do not give me a random list of names, races, or lore. Start from constraints: geography, resources, technology or magic limits, institutions, labor, belief, and historical pressure. Every major cultural detail must have a cause and at least one consequence. Create: 1. A one-paragraph world premise and 5 governing rules, including what cannot happen. 2. A regional sketch with 3-5 places, their resources, power centers, transport links, and points of friction. 3. A 6-event timeline showing how the present conflict emerged; include winners, losers, and unresolved grievances. 4. Two social groups with customs around family, status, food, death, trade, or worship. Avoid reducing either group to one trait. 5. The operating system for [KEY SYSTEM], including costs, loopholes, enforcement, and who benefits. 6. Six sensory details and three everyday inconveniences that can appear naturally in scenes. 7. Five story pressures, each involving a character choice rather than a generic war or prophecy. Output as a compact world bible of 900-1,200 words with labeled sections, followed by 10 questions that expose gaps I should decide myself. Preserve ambiguity where it serves the story. Do not copy a real culture wholesale or invent historical claims about it. Before answering, check for causal consistency between resources, power, and customs. Flag any element that contradicts a stated rule. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions only if a required input is missing.
Fill in
| Placeholder | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| [PROJECT TYPE] | State whether this is for a novel, game, screenplay, comic, or another format. | Character-driven fantasy novel |
| [GENRE AND TONE] | Describe the genre and emotional tone you want. | Low fantasy with dry political tension and moments of wonder |
| [CORE PREMISE] | Give the central idea or conflict of the setting. | A river city survives by regulating memories extracted from debtors |
| [REQUIRED ELEMENTS] | List elements that must appear, such as a climate, technology, species, or political arrangement. | Seasonal floods, merchant councils, no immortal characters, memory extraction has physical costs |
| [INTENDED EFFECT] | Describe the feeling or questions you want the setting to create for the audience. | The audience should question what a person owes a community |
| [KEY SYSTEM] | Name the system to define, such as magic, trade, law, religion, or technology. | The legal and economic system for memory debt |
How to use
- Replace the inputs with the story constraints you already know, including limits you do not want broken.
- Keep the governing rules and timeline in your project notes; they prevent later scenes from contradicting the setting.
- Choose only details that force character choices, then remove lore that never enters a scene.
- Follow up with: “Write three scene premises that reveal this system through conflict, without explaining its history in dialogue.”
Variations
Single city
Use this for a contained urban setting.
Build a fictional city for [STORY FORMAT]. Its defining pressure is [CENTRAL PRESSURE], its physical setting is [GEOGRAPHY], and its ruling arrangement is [POWER STRUCTURE]. Create a district map in prose with five districts, who lives there, what each produces, and what each hides. Add transit, sanitation, policing, class boundaries, and one annual event that reveals tensions. Output 700-900 words plus five scene locations. Check that the city can feed, move, and govern its population. Ask up to 3 questions only if required inputs are missing.
Magic system
Use this when magic needs clear dramatic limits.
Design a magic system for [GENRE] based on [CORE IDEA]. The user is [WHO CAN USE IT], the desired story conflict is [CONFLICT], and prohibited outcomes are [LIMITS]. Define access, training, costs, failure modes, detection, social status, and countermeasures. Give three uses that solve small problems and three that create worse ones. Output a rules sheet and five plot tests. Check that power cannot erase the story’s central conflict. Ask up to 3 questions only if required inputs are missing.
Culture workbook
Use this to deepen one fictional society.
Develop the culture of [SOCIETY] in a world where [ENVIRONMENT AND PRESSURE]. Their central value is [CENTRAL VALUE], but an internal divide exists over [DIVIDE]. Show how the value shapes kinship, work, law, clothing, humor, ceremony, and insults. Include disagreements within the society, not a monolithic portrait. Output 12 concise entries and two characters who experience the culture differently. Check that customs follow material conditions and history. Ask up to 3 questions only if required inputs are missing.
Tips
- Decide what scarce resource organizes power before naming institutions; water, land, labor, information, and legitimacy produce different societies.
- Give each system a cost and a way people evade it, because perfect enforcement removes social texture.
- Reveal world rules through consequences in scenes, not encyclopedia-style dialogue.
- If using real cultures as research, borrow researched principles carefully and transform them rather than copying sacred practices, names, or histories.
FAQ
How much world building should I do before drafting?
Define rules that affect plot, character choices, and continuity first. Leave decoration and distant history open until the story needs them.
Can AI create original world-building ideas?
It can combine constraints productively, but originality comes from your choices about values, tradeoffs, and what the story examines.
How do I avoid generic fantasy settings?
Begin with a specific pressure and trace its effects through work, law, landscape, and daily life instead of starting with a catalog of familiar tropes.