Worldbuilding exchange letter 2020

[yvannairie]

Oh man. Ohhh man I haven't done exchanges in so long. Okay so. Hi! You might not know it, but in-universe discourse and meta are like my entire hat and this exchange feels like it was made Exactly For Me. I am excited. I am also super duper terrified and really hoping that whoever I get the privilege of writing to will like whatever ends up coming out of this.

For my part, I'd definitely also be excited to read in-universe discourse, in-universe documentation or just a general explorative essay on the topic of your choosing. I'm not opposed to fic with a strong infodump-y angle, and I also don't want to stand in the way of artists flexing their, say, structural schematic or strategic map drawing, but don't feel compelled to involve any characters at all if you feel like you get your words flowing. In fact, feel free to not include any narrative, either! I definitely wish there was more non-narrative fanwriting out there, this is your chance to join me and go "yeah, me too -- so I made some :D"

I'd also really prefer any fic or art for this to be gen only. If you want to feature friendships or familial relationships, that's cool (although please keep any familial angle to characters canonically related to one another) but I'm not here for romance or sex unless we're discussing how those things manifest on a societal level. Put on your anthropologist hats, and let's get into some details.

Fandom 1: Transformers (Aligned continuity)

I also write a lot for this continuity, but what I'm terrible at is history, so I'd be super into anything involving the ancient and premodern history of Cybertron, starting with the Thirteen and all the way up to when the Quintesson war ends. How was society structured, how did the city-states form, what sort of sociopolitical forces were present before the Quintesson invasion created the more strictly hierarchical Cybertron that we start the canon with? How far back does the recordkeeping of the Hall of Records go? What was the period after the departure of the Thirteen leading to the Golden Age like?

Pretty much the only thing I don't want is anything Megatron-centric, as I'm honestly well-stocked on that front. I also don't want anything that focuses on society post-The Great War, but rather something that looks backwards, preferrably even further than the Quintesson War. Writing sent in the antebellum period should also focus on things in the past, rather than the political turmoil leading up to the civil war.

Fandom 2: Indivisible

Indivisible was great! It uses a set of assumptions and cultural reference points (namely, Buddhist and Hindu beliefs) that I'm entirely unfamiliar with, but that I'd love to learn more of. You can get really down to the bone with this one -- how are the basic physics of this universe affected by the existence of prana and iddhi, and how does this affect the culture these characters come from? How is the land cultivated and who does the cultivating? How do the Deva and Ashura live normally, and how is their culture informed by their abilities?

Special mention goes to how Loka handles gender, and what sort of gender roles or societal expectations might apply to different characters -- especially the nonbinary ones! -- across the different nations. How does the cycle of rebirth affect gender identity, and how does it affect social identity?

Fandom 3: Xenoblade Chronicles X

I'm up for anything with this one, especially anything exploring how the arrivals become naturalised on Mira, and how the culture of NLA becomes its own Miran culture rather than the Earth immigrant culture we see in the game.

If you're up for writing more character-focused stuff, I'd definitely like something involving the professional soldiers of the bunch (especially Frye and Vandham) and how their experiences on Mira shape the way they do their jobs -- for example, what changes about Skell piloting now when they have flight packs and how this affects field operations? What is the training for Miran Skell pilots like compared to Earth pilots? How does the utility of Skells change and what sort of adjustments does that require?

Fandom 4: Kingdom Hearts

Similarly to the Transformers prompt, I'd definitely want something looking backwards at the history of the worlds and the culture that existed before the Heartless crisis. I'm especially interested in the history of Radiant Garden -- how it became such a notable center of magical research, especially how the magic created there is different from the magic wielded by Keyblade users. Does the history of the magic reach all the way back to the time of Scala Ad Caelum? What were the politics of Radiant Garden like, and what was its relationship to the other worlds like before the paths between worlds were closed?

Also, if you especially want to get into the nitty-gritty, I'd love to hear about the town-planning and economics of Radiant Garden before it became a stronghold. How were its citizens fed, what was the economic infrastructure like, what jobs did everyone have? Who were the people who built the Bastion that became Hollow Bastion, essentially.

Fandom 5: Hollow Knight

You might realise there's a trend with my requests, but I'd also want something looking backwards to the Golden Age of Hallownest, both the civillian and official life. How was the society arranged, what were the economics like, what was the military like. Go wild with OCs for this one, I want to know more about the bugs we mostly see dead on the streets, I want to know what their lives were like both in good and in bad.

I'd also be interested in knowing what the religious culture of both the official state religion and the Radiance cult was like, and how the the religion manifested in the day-to-day lives of the citizens. What sort of rituals or religious traditions were observed, how was the "official" religion different from the folk religion and what sort of personal or political implications that might have.

And I think that about covers it! Naturally, these are just nice-to-haves, and if you get inspired to write something else, I'll be just as excited to see it. Hope you have fun with your assignment, I'm super looking forward to seeing what you come up with :D