#creating worlds

Hello fans yes I am alive lmao

So I see there is activity on this blog so Imma throw a brick at'che, catch:

CONSCRIPTS

Constructed Scripts are a common topic in the media: may it be Tengwar, Daedric, Klingon, Circular Gallifreyan or else.

We as worldbuilders do need to use it well right? So what are the differences between bad and good conscripts?

1) Writing system or a childish cipher?

So tell me the difference between those two pictures:

and

First is the Gnommish Alphabet, used in the Artemis Fowl series, and second is Ingari, created by Kyle Elshoff. Do you see the difference or should I point it out?

There is no actual way the Gnommish alphabet would stick long in the reality as a writing system: it is too complicated, and most probably is too difficult to write. Scribbling every single letter, and I checked it, takes around five seconds to finish, and is unreasonably ink-consuming. It is a fun way of encrypting messages for children, yes, but in a real world, a realistic world, it would not stick for long. Of course there existed Egyptyan hieroglyphs and many other writing systems, but they were ancient, and the reason they died off is because they were not perfect and were too "stiff" to use.

Ingari on the other hand is swift, takes lesser space, and is consuming less ink per letter: some consonants might appear alike each other, but a skilled scribe instantly notices what is what. It has it's own aesthetic, and isn't just a jimble of stamps, like the Gnommish.

This is regarding the alphabetic systems, yes. It is acceptable for something like Gnommish to exist, but it won't stick for long. Perhaps Gnommish as we see in AF evolved from a hieroglyphic writing, and now is just a rebus of pictograms depicting objects and carrying the sound of the initial phoneme (for example, the word for "dragonfly" might start with an A, and because of that, is depicting the letter A).

2) ˜”°•.˜”°• Aesthetic •°”˜.•°”˜

You can sense the difference between different writing systems, don't you? Might it be Cyrillic, Latin, Georgian, Hebrew, Hiragana, Hangul, Arabic, Aztec, Egyptian or whatever else.

When I make conscripts, usually, I make boundaries. Might it be a maximum of strokes per letter or some elements used in writing, some specific way of depicting specific letters (like the vowels, consonants, fluids, semi-vowels, sonors, thrills, stops et cetera) or some unique ideas.

Writing systems are of different kinds: remember that there is not only Alphabets, like Latin with which this post is written with, but also Abugidas, Abjads, Logographies, Syllabaries and so much more. I reccomend, strongly recommend you to research on that before making it.

Gerianish:

Codex of Matan:

Ingedol:

All of those scripts are basically ciphers for English, even though those shown are modes for English and are used differently with respectative conlangs or cryptolangs they are bound with.

Gerianish has descenders and ascenders, it is heavily inspired by the at sign (@) and the Georgian, and has a degree of featurality to it, different letters that sound alike or are phonemically close to each other are, in most cases, mirrored versions of each other. The little "flower" diacritic is used for easier differentiation of letters from each other.

Codex of Matan is stylish, high-tech to a degree and looks a bit unusual. It was made how? With using the frequency table of letters in English, numerating all letters 0-25 and then transferring those values into ternary numeral system, with symbols E, T and A representing 0, 1 and 2's. I like this one because of the solid style and the fact it is used by high-tech beings.

Ingedol is, too, quite remarkable. See, each letter is composed out of three possible elements with four allowed positions, and each symbol thus is unique. I believe it to look pretty when written in a long row of text.

(Each individual one of these is free to use, just remember to tag my authorship on them ^^)

3) Steal

Yes, I know that sounds unright, but just look at this:

Left one is Greek, right is Latin and bottom is Cyrillic. So much letters that look alike!

There is no stealing in writing, there is deriving, evolution and borrowing.

You like that particular letter from Daedric that depicts F - Hefhed? Sure do, copy it. Your O looks like real life O? No problem with that.

Your glyps kind of look like Japanese? If anyone tells you that that's cultural appropriation tell them to stop using Latin then and go live in a cave, because writing systems are constantly evolving, m8.

As well, some of my writing systems are based on Tengwar, Pigpen Cypher and Katakana, because I like their style.

OF COURSE YES, if you directly steal some symbols or an entire alphabet from some source and edit it slightly it might look suspicious and frowned upon (*looks at Alternian*), but as long as you can wiggle your way out of it, it's kind of okay.

:p

Like, great, you've added multiple races, whether they're all human or, in a fantasy setting, completely different.

But lets not.... make them all the same? Yeah?

Like the idea that your WHOLE country is religious and also follows every tradition and speaks the language the exact same is insane and so unrealistic.

It reads as lazy worldbuilding, yunno? Like you just went with your basic concept.

So, you wanna make a world, huh? Well, you’ve come to the write place! (See what I did there? Haha, I’m funny.) By “world” I’m going to assume you mean your story is either in the fantasy or sci-fi category, so I’m going to try and include both.

First, as with any world, you need to lay down some rules. There are always rules in what can or cannot be done, and you’ll want to establish those so you can stick to them when writing. Unless there are no rules in your world. In which case, that sounds like a hectic world.

For example, if there’s magic in your world, who can use it? Can it be taken away? What are its limits? Similar questions can be asked if there is advanced technology in your world.

Once you have everything that can or cannot be done in your world, you’ll want to figure out what has already been done. For example, you wouldn’t write about someone researching on a computer during World War II, so why would you mix up the timeline in your story? For example, think about what the greatest invention has been, what wars have already been fought, or even how long your world has been around in the first place.

Then comes the big part. What it looks like; this could also depend on what has already been done. Does the architecture have that futuristic feel to it, are the buildings rusting and falling apart due to a recent war, or are they just like they are here on Earth? What kind of transportation do they use? Is the sky cloudy with pollution?

You’ll also want to think about the flora and fauna in your world. Are there animals we on Earth would recognize? Are there any plants with special abilities? Or is there even any nature left (if you’re writing something post-apocalyptic)? What are the natural surroundings people come into contact with every day?

With worlds, another (quite obvious) thing to think about is your characters. Are they human? If not, you’ll want to describe what they’re differences are. Are there different intelligent life forms in your world? How many are there? Is there a conflict between them? Are there multiple languages, or one universal one that everyone speaks? What kind of government system do they use? Is there religion?

But don’t forget that the best way to learn how to create your own worlds is to read some! Read some sci-fi or fantasy books and think about the worlds within them. However, don’t forget that the world you create doesn’t have to be exactly like theirs. Be unique and creative with it, and don’t forget to have fun!

Well Anon, I think that’s all. I hope it helped, and if anyone else has any questions with writing or requests for prompts, feel free to send them in!