You're welcome, lots of luck and I hope you get to live off your creativity!
I've some experience on the other side of the fence, seing aspiring artists trying to sell their fantasy and sf. From what I see, it's quite hard to sell WB disconnected from an actual story package, and the decisive factor is very often the actual story rather than the worldbuilding. It's very difficult to convey the interesting aspects of a setting without a driving force to move the camera, so to speak. And very easy to fall into trappings like "showcasing the world" without first establishing characters or situations.
As to how to do it, I would suggest focus on having a solid story above having an airtight setting. Then apply for young writers contests, or any kind of contest really to get your stuff read and evaluated. Once you have made some kind of "proof" of your writing ability, it's easier to get people to pay.
Other tip would be to not "waste" your big story on the first or second attempt, as it's very hard to get people to pay for sprawling and complex settings without any idea of how your stuff may work or not work (a base of comparison).
Actually very relevant questions to ask, though I would be interested in discussing the priority you give to those. Some have a severe case of diminishing returns, but are nonetheless crucial to at least determine to some extent...
I love to see that kind of out of context sketches. You put quite the effort on the style and the expressivity of the characters and their situations, so it leaves an impression regardless of the level of finition, simplicity or technical quality. And in my book that's what such sketches really are about, even more so if you did them to get a grasp on what you were imagining.
Regarding your trio, they are all as you said damaged goods. Physically for the cyborg guy and the pilot, morally for the arweli. I imagine that it makes them complementary in a way, though I expected at one off them to be mentally damaged (wounded body, jaded soul, broken mind). Oh well, they probably all are to some extent.
From the trio, I think that the cyborg is likely the most appealing as a leading character (from an outside perspective, not knowing nearly enough about the story as a whole, of course).
While the two others are characterized either by having renounced (because of the injury) or given up (losing faith in the cause), the cyborg is characterized by an active drive, his need for identity... He is in that unstable situation that you mention by definition, while the two others are in a stable (bad, but stable) state that will require effort to drive them out of.
I'm also curious as to what could bind that ragtag crew together given that they are not connected via any conventional link (from ly understanding). They are not from the same place, they are not from the same faction or even species, they have no common history, their ideology -or absence thereof- do not match, and there is likely no outside force other than fate to push them to join hands. Maybe they agree that the villain needs to get what they deserve?
Good villains gonna vile^^.
The post-it method is quite interesting, I used to do something quite similar during my university years. I would draw a small square on my class memo or notebook and only draw within the box (in a futile attempt to keep it contained). Though I mainly did environments that way. I wouldn't enjoy drawing big environments anyway. Chars would usually span the margin.
Do you still have those postits kept somewhere? Have you tried organising or structuring them?
About blank slate v jaded. It really depends on the tone you are trying to strike with the whole story and setting, but usually it proves quite difficult to have a main cast that is solely jaded or has lived through everything already. The blank slate 16 yo are a trope for good reasons I think. They are just mature enough so that their reasoning is still relatable for an adult reader, but they also, like the reader, don't know much about what life is really like in the setting. They offer the opportunity to explain, or easy and natural exposition.
That's no surprise that there is Edward in the crew of Cowboy Bebop, you do need those curious types. But on the other hand, having only chars that have lived through nothing and don't know what they are doing is closer to a ttrpg party than narrative storytelling, so...
It's really not the original opinion of the year I guess, but balancing helps.
Akira! A fine reference indeed...
About creating order
I find it interesting that you already seem to have your main cast worked out, even as you seem to be still refining core elements of the world itelf. You start out with chars, then events then?
About obvious references
I think it's quite ok having the DNA of the work plain to see, it's in a way more honest than to basically try to masquerade obvious calques as new ideas. Moreover, it can even become quite a creative challenge, trying to fit together different influences that don't necessarily work well together.
About scale
Personally I always feel like the scale of stories is what makes it hardest to import concept from one story to another. When "Galaxies" are in danger, you can't really take much time to talk about human drama for the main cast, as it would make them feel really egocentric or oblivious of what's at stake.
Regarding the geography-history conendrum
I totally get you. I usually have only broad ideas for the lay of the land, and will start creating loose pieces and main events that will find their place locally when I eventually decide on geography...
Usually it's eventually a back and forth, moving forward with geography creates context for events or requires adjustments, sometimes generates new events that will in turn need to be inserted in the geography. It's endless...
Ok, if I followed correctly, then in that case your robots are more an autonomous synthetic lifeform, and since they even have organic brains, they are even technically cyborgs. So an army of tube grown Grievous, so to speak^^. Which does justify spirituality though.
The hivemind aspect is a nice addition, especially if regular organics can be connected to it. Though it does give a huge advantage to Groupthink, especially when space distances are involved... Feels like the Arweli didn't have a chance!
The dynamic around the crystal shards is interesting, very high scale if it connects to the whole universe being created or destroyed.
But given that there are enough shards even in that area of space to allow at least several civilizations to expand off of them, the task to gather them all seems to be insanely difficult, barring the intervention of a truly godlike being. Moreover it would necessarily mean that whoever tries to gather them has the power to detect them, even if they have been sent into a Black Hole for instance. Of course they would also need the capacity to retrieve them from there too.
I also like high scale stories, but they have in my opinion one great weakness: you end up needing to buff the protagonist to insane levels of aptitude and powers to be up to the task, and when they are there, they have nothing human or relatable left as a character. Like in Mistborn from Sanderson for example...
That's the thing with worldbuilding, topics are interconnected and often deserve their own diving into. One aspect that strikes me: the robots have a spiritual reverence ror the crystals? Is it the result of their primary purpose or programming? What were they designed to do at first?
As for generally not using FTL, is it because they can afford the long travel time since they can shut down temporarily? That would still imply a huge quantity of traffic in order to sustain their territory and keep regular control of it.
Did other factions like the Arweli make more extensive use of FTL?
Quite an interesting tradeoff! If the drive crystals were irreplaceable and precious, does it mean that it was a last resort move from Groupthink as they would have lost otherwise? Did the sacrifice of these ships impact Groupthink's overall mobility? Does the fact that there are now humans roaming the area show that the robots didn't last for long after having Godzilla'd the Arweli?
Also, I dig the retro posing and coloring of your illustrations!
I think they might be goat people as in looking like goats.
They live on a megastructure ruin drifting in space (on the only part of it that still has life support active for its biomes). Their orbital path is littered by debris from the megastructure falling back on it regularly, mostly on the unshielded part that the Vidiars live in.
Since the megastructure has been broken for a very long time, to them the meteorites are a natural part of life, deeply rooted in their culture just like the weather or astronomy is.
They have been declining for a few different reasons, chief among them the encroachment of other cultures from protected areas that were easier to survive in. Those had considerably less ground ressources available and are now hit full blast by scarcity. As a result they are forced to go get these resources elsewhere.
Given that they also have industrial bases in their homelands, it's no fair match and the Vidiars are continually pushed back towards more dangerous areas.
I have Vidiars, a dwindling civilization living inside a barren hellscape battered by small and not so small meteorites. Their tribal cities move from crater to crater to collect underground ressources brought up by the impact.
Frequent dust storms and meteor showers preclude any long term settlement, and as the water sources are mostly underground, access may change after big impacts, forcing or enticing them to move somewhere else.
The impossibility to sustain industry has limited their technological accomplishments, but they still have great access to minerals and metals, and have low scale but high quality workmanship.
Their distinctive cultural artefact is the (often heirloom) reinforced mechanical suits that help them survive the unforgiving environment, a piece of gear as complex and minute as clockwork but still made to last.
Hi.
I've checked the maps, but if you had a link for the files in a higher res' that would be great. Especially the world map it's kinda hard to see what's what.
I like the overall feel of the map, it feels clean and well thought of, you have overall variety an some distinctive features too. Seeing that this is 5E's medieval fantasy setting however, there are a few things that could use some consideration.
First, the size of the territorial entities. If this is a planetary sized world, then each individual territory spans tremendous stretches of land, despite the massive geological features within themselves.
Of course, if we are talking biomes rather than countries it is more plausible, though some of the larger ones could clearly and logically be fragmented (mainly through relief). I we are talking countries, then not only it is harder to believe that in this era you would have as many "empire level nation states" capable of unifying great stretches of land, but I also feel that it "robs" you of the opportunity to create emerging power dynamics and instability from the map alone. Everything feels very balanced and neat, which will make it a bit harder to create natural points of tension for the story.
This also has to do with the overall map design (from a solely visual perspective). Though the biomes are diverse, they are somewhat monolithic, with few diversity within biomes. Also, there is a strong sense of simmetry between the four central blocks (west and east, then the two islands). The two big ones are basically of similar size and shape (a large landmass thinning out towards the south, divided by a main mountain range). Same goes for the middle islands, apparently having a single biome or being countrolled by a single entity. They are also of similar shape and basically very centred in the ocean. The southern block breaks the equilibrium a bit, but not enough in my opinion, ans you have very few small islands (1), fragmented peninsulas or city states (none) that could bring a bit more variety.
If I were to give any advice (from my individual perspective of course, it can be discussed), that would be to break simmetry and disrupt balance. Have countries or biomes of more various sizes, and likely more of them. Reshape landmasses to avoid the " left half right half" feel that makes it feel less natural. Bring more randomness!
I would say, to get busy with something else. Having to do other stuff and not get any time to work on your world will eventually gnaw at you. When you finally get your hand on a writing implement and two hours of free time, then you will get a rush of creativity and progress.
Hubris leads to doom. Usually occultists or zealots trying to control powers beyond their comprehension in my fantasy settings, or scientists and politicians trying to control -natural- powers beyond their comprehension in my SF settings.
I don't have a single unified process, but I usually create name in focused sessions, trying to come up with all the toponyms for a region in one go for instance. This to avoid having names that sound too similar or too different, while still having some unified approach and feel.
I will take basically whatever the place inspires me, including dank memes and private jokes, and twist it until it fits with that "feel" that I'm going for. As a result, many names in my projects are recycled and adapted from previous projects.
On a different note, tbh AI to me is a tool, if it lets you focus on what you dig in your WB, that's great. Art has always been about reinventing what others did before, following and improving on existing patterns. AI made the process much more accessible, giving people without artistic skill the power to express themselves in a visual fashion. Personally I find this awesome and liberating.
Actually I'll second that question. I used to conlang marginally just for the map and naming process, and it always ended up so cheap and awkward.
I use a Remarkable 2. It's a bit pricey, especially when factoring in the cost of the stylus and the keyboard-case accessory. However, for my use which includes taking meeting memos at work on top of my worldbuilding, it's actually very well suited. I wouldn't have gotten it just as a hobby device I think. The battery is great, stylus is very close to a paper feel though the tips gets blunt rather quickly... Aaand I'm starting to sound like I'm trying to sell it. Tbh the software is very minimalistic so there are probably more versatile options out there, but for the purpose of having basically a blank page at hand whenever required, I must say that it's nailing it totally.
I used to write on basically any piece of paper that would come my way, up to and including stuff that I should really have kept clean. Stupid amounts of halfway filled notebooks, bills and receits, work memos and sometimes even important docs wrong face up on the desk... Never the proverbial napkin though (pen goes right through that crap). After ending up with huge folders that ate too much space and basically made it impossible to find my way through stuff I got an e-ink tablet. Now it's just as much of a mess but I can at least cary it around and I don't have to worry about some kind of work related stuff randomly having alien morphology specs on it. When I'm in good spirits, like most people here it seems, I will try to make sense out of it and put it on an organized Word file.