AWB #1 - Rise of Bob

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The Beginning:

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Welcome to the first installment of Adventures in World Building. Today, I'm going to be setting out on my journey of developing and revitalizing the fantasy world that JacobMace88 and I created fourteen years ago. If you've ever read the old webcomic Demordicai Diamonds or saw some of Jacob's saw some of Jacob's artwork over on his dA page, then you already have a rough idea with what world I'm going to be working on throughout this journal series. No worries if you haven't, I'm going to be starting from the ground up anyway.

This series is meant both for those who wish to learn how to create their own detailed, imaginary worlds for their writing and art and also for myself to help me organize my own thoughts and further spur my imagination onward and write stories with depth and resonance that take place in a remarkable locations.

As with any long journey, it is always best to prepare and take stock of what you already have and intend on taking with you. Since this is a literary world building journey I'm setting out on, there are really only two things to take stock of: myself and the world that is to be built.

Going into this as a writer, I'm already well aware of my greatest weakness in the literary arts and that's visualization. That is the one thing that I know for certain that I am utterly terrible at. In my mind, faces are always blurry, maps are smeared, and the colors tend to spill outside the lines like a child's coloring book. If there is any demon I'll be grappling with, that is the one that I predict will harry me the most throughout this series. As you probably already know, I'm also not much of an artist either so it is highly unlikely that I'll be able to supplement these journals with art unless it is the most basic of diagrams.

So where does this journey end? If I'm lucky, it won't ever end. A world that is complete is a world without hope. It is dead and nothing else changes or occurs in it. A living world is full of life and change and those are two key ingredients for story. I want to go down this path as far as I can for as long as I can and develop and enrich this old world as much as I can and eventually write stories, either told through the more traditional media of a book or perhaps a webcomic. Don't worry, I won't be doing the art if more visual story-telling is pursued.

To this point, all my attempts at writing stories set in this world have always had the fatal flaw of being set in a realm so incomplete that there is almost no solid ground for much of anything to stand on. If I am to write, that must be rectified and is why this series has come into existence today. Thanks to the guidance of friends and family was I able to realize my talent for writing and I get the odd feeling that this has something to do with what my own purpose in life is or at the very least, that which will bring me the most happiness and fulfillment in my own personal existence. But alas, happiness and hunger don't go hand in hand so some degree of literary success must be attained if I am to thrive and that is where the first and most personal goal of AWB will be found.

PERSONAL GOAL #1

Through writing, become able to financially support myself.

Like with any writer, that is a lofty goal and very few ever manage to accomplish it. If I am to accomplish it, writing of value must be done and that can only occur with thorough world-building before hand. Since I'm already shooting for the moon, I'll aim a little higher for the stars with my second goal.


 

PERSONAL GOAL #2

Create a successful company to rival Wizards of the Coast
and be the competition that they sorely lack while partnering
with creative individuals of vision and character to accomplish it.

Now THAT is lofty! I'll save my opinions on the state of Wizards of the Coast for a different AWB and why I wish to compete with them but for now, two lifetime goals hinging on the success of this journal series is more than enough for the time being. I intend to keep up with this series until at least my first goal is met though it is too early for me to say with the second one. Regardless, there's going to be a lot more AWB coming in the future.

Now that half of the preparations are complete, let's go over the last part of it. If you noticed that I didn't mention just what exactly the name of the world that will be the center of attention for this series is, you weren't mistaken. Even though the world is fourteen years old, Jacob and I never were able to find a fitting name for it. This world has fought and resisted having a name for years. Which brings us to the simultaneously largest and smallest world goal.

WORLD GOAL #1

Name the world.

Besides an absent name, the world, let's nickname it Bob for now, is lacking plenty of other things. Countries, cultures, races, history, and story, are all among the categories of aspects that need to be shored up. Some of these categories do have some elements that already exist that I will be bringing back and working with but for my starting location in the world of Bob, I'm going to go into the depths of the void and start with nothing. Absolute nothing. For now, it is best to start small and isolated and away from any interaction from pre-existing elements lest things get too complicated too quickly. Slow and steady wins the race and the same is true in world-building and I've lost it plenty of times playing the part of the hare. Bob always wins when he plays tortoise. He's always tortoise.

From what I've experienced in the past decade and a half, Bob is a clever world that loves to taunt me with possibility and opportunity only to have that become my downfall. I've come to realize through my repeated world-building failures that Bob may not solely be just a mere fantasy world and should not be underestimated as such. There have been many worlds dreamed up by others, each with their own personalities, tendencies, and challenges they present to those who would develop them. As if a type of adversary, some worlds are mighty warriors, others mystical wizards full of wonder, and some more rogue-like and full of hidden secrets just waiting to be found. I fear Bob is the most powerful class of world building adversary there is. Not a warrior, wizard, rogue, or anything else of the like. There is only one class that can wield most powerful force in the universe, the same force that has beat me in every prior world-building attempt. If Bob had a class, that class could only be one thing and one thing only.



The Accountant.



I've been crushed under the power of compounding imagination time and time again so I got to keep imagination rates as under control as possible and not running wild and compounding against me. I'll pick up the pre-existing elements along the way when it's a good time for them but I don't want to give Bob the upper hand right at the beginning of the game. Come to think of it, games are played to be won and I believe it is now abundantly clear that there is only one way to defeat Bob. A little change to WORLD GOAL #1 is in order to reflect that.

WORLD GOAL #1

Learn Bob's true name. 

If I can learn what Bob's true name is, I reckon he won't fight me any longer and world-building would become much easier. Imagine if Earth did not have a name or if any other location that we live in did not have a name. It would be hard to even talk about it without having a name to talk about. The same goes for a world. It should have a name, if not for its own sake and the people that live in it then at least for your own sake to better organize things in your head and to give it a soul and personality.

That should cover all the preparations for beginning my journey. I'm pretty confident on knowing where I stand now and where I want to go. I got a good idea of how Bob is going to attempt to thwart me again and I know what I need to do to defeat him. All there is left now is to take the first step out the door and into the void that is Bob.

Join me next time in AWB #2 as I take the first steps in my adventure in world-building and my battle against Bob. I'll be making a secondary journal to keep track of all the lists that are bound to pop up through out the course of AWB and will be adding to them continuously. If anything, organization will be a useful weapon in my arsenal in the fight against Bob.