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I'm just barely starting out with trying to get a basic idea of what architecture, infrastructure, and systems would work best as I'm drawing my world. I have a twin characters who are raised in a warrior and magically inclined based society whom are frequently hired to take out mythical creatures causing mayhem.

I'm trying to imagine a mercenaries Guild, the Knights Hall, the town square and merchants marketplace, and the furthest part where the Duke's royal palace should go. So far I'm unable to provide any physical examples as I'm still working out the bugs with my designed world map and had to redo the drawing for the world due to certain ideas needing to be scrapped multiple time's.

Though I'm under the impression I'm making headway, I thought to create an SE account here and get some useful answers as to what I should be considering at the early stages of world building.

Specifically, can you recommend any order or process of the critical components of a new world, that will help me minimize the number of times I have to scrap and re-do designs in my world?

I would like to point out that this is purely an artistic venture as of now but in the future hope it can become a part in a story that I've had in mind for some time.

elemtilas
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Kenta Lightpaw
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  • Do you mean city planning rather than world building? – Separatrix Oct 24 '18 at 09:55
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    It really depends on how magical your world is. Big difference between magic only used for special occations and magic used in everyday tasks. Also on how rich the city is. Big difference between local town and empire's capital. – Euphoric Oct 24 '18 at 10:18
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    What is the question? – The Square-Cube Law Oct 24 '18 at 10:38
  • Please try to be more to the point with the question. If possible state it clear at the beginning and then give the context. It's annoying having to go thru the whole text without understanding what the whole point is. – Lupino Oct 24 '18 at 11:24
  • Though not a duplicate - take a look at the answers to this question on the general process for designing a modern city map as much of the answers remain the same no matter what the world/time period – LinkBerest Oct 24 '18 at 12:05
  • Welcome to the site, Kenta. Please note that the Worldbuilding SE is dedicated to providing detailed answers to specific questions you have while developing your fictional world. As is, it's hard to tell what, exactly, you're looking for with this question. Tips on city design? General worldbuilding process? If you could [edit] this question to provide some clarification, the community would appreciate it. Otherwise, this is liable to put on hold until such a clarifying edit is made. – Frostfyre Oct 24 '18 at 13:22

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If i'm right you're asking for a General Process for creating world maps.

if this is correct, then basically it can be anything you want it to be, but thats not helpful so i'll explain the process i go through, but i admit its a strange one...

Start off with a few simple decisions:

  • Decide the size of the Planet
  • Decide what percentage (roughly) i want the landmass to oceans to be, Earth's surface is roughly 70% water,
  • Decide the Orbital period and Star Type

This will give me the important factors such as how green the planet will be, how many deserts roughly etc

Then and this is where it gets weird... I boil an egg, 3 reasons for this

  1. They are full of protein and nutrients that help my brain function
  2. They are tasty
  3. i can carefully crack them with a few hits of a spoon, and then i do my best to use these as guidelines for the tectonic plates of my planet.

Once i have these tectonic plates then i know areas which should have mountains, areas that should be flat(ish) and i start with rough outlines of the continents around these plate boundaries. I cannot stress enough, i do this only as a guideline. And work out the basic climates of each area based around the the tectonic plates and my pre-egg decisions

After that i just draw it up roughly, and then pick a continent and make a bigger map of it, with more detail, including the major rivers leading from where the mountains down towards my oceans. and then figure the people of my world will start out from X. and migrate in every direction unless they come across mountains oceans or desserts.

Figure out that people tended to follow animals and bodies of fresh water and rivers, so plot out settlements along these and then once i get to "i want this as a medieval society i use the below link to plan out the towns and city information

http://www.d20srd.org/fantasy/demographics/

I have done this 3 times and i admit i haven't fleshed out out a full map yet, only a single continent on each but i'm fairly happy with them

Stupid thing is i have yet to actually do anything with these maps... i just like building them

Blade Wraith
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