Worldbuilding
Process of constructing an imaginary world / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe.[1] Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers.[2] Worldbuilding often involves the creation of geography, a backstory, flora, fauna, inhabitants, technology and often if writing speculative fiction, different peoples. This may include social customs as well as invented languages for the world.[3][4][5][6]: PT103
The world could encompass different planets spanning vast distances of space or be limited in scope to a single small village.[6]: 104 Worldbuilding exists in novels, tabletop role-playing games, and visual media such as films, video games and comics.[7][8][9][10][11] Prior to 1900, most worldbuilding was conducted by novelists, who could leave imagination of the fictional setting in part to the reader.[6]: 106 Some authors of fiction set multiple works in the same world. This is known as a fictional universe.[12] For example, science fiction writer Jack Vance set a number of his novels in the Gaean Reach, a fictional region of space.[8] A fictional universe with works by multiple authors is known as a shared world. One notable example of such is the Star Wars Expanded Universe.[13]