#diegetic worldbuilding

This last year, I have been working on (well, obsessing over) a worldbuilding project I provisionally called Emberrun, due to it originating as something of a mash together of the Emberverse and Shadowrun (originally magic returned all at once at the end of 2019, and our computers failed at the same time. It has become more gradual since.)

The story, as it goes so far, is that magic returns in 2014. April 20th to be precise. But it takes a while to realise it, because magic at this point is almost entirely supernatural perception, with a side helping of telepathy (which extends to the peripheral nervous system -- very important). The effects are noticed far earlier; psychic powers aren't limited to humans, and no one wants to work around the psychic screaming of mistreated animals. Over the next few years, the impacts on healthcare and plant breeding are.... very large. Oh and the Wild Hunt don't consider grouse moors to be sporting enough, so those shut down. And the forests of Albion reclaim much of the island. Also there are certain morphological changes that happen to a number of individuals, due to subconscious self magic influencing bodily processes...

Things step up further in 2019, when oil and gas wells start to clog with polymerised oil, which may or may not have been caused by Extinction Rebellion mages doing a hyperworking. Then a couple of big solar flares get launched on the Winter Solstice and hit Christmas Day. Our most advanced computer chip fabrication gets crippled, too, by all the magical flux -- these machines are incredibly sensitive, and it's impossible to isolate them. After 2019, magic becomes more potent, with some healer mages able to influence over body systems and processes, not just those linked to the nervous system (magic in this world is subtle and based on steering processes, systems; as fun as fireball fantasy is, this isn't one. Until the alchemists get involved.). This includes being able to slow down dying dramatically, meaning people spend hours in an only mostly dead state where emergency medicine can save them, not minutes. In 2034, it's proven that certain individuals can control how materials form, for example they can ensure cooling metal forms a single perfect crystal, or create alloys that aren't possible to manufacture through mundane means. This leads, of course, to all manner of widespread magi(callyproduced)tech. Affordable carbon nanotube tape, high temperature superconductors, metamaterials galore.

Woke up this morning thinking about in-universe scholarship and stories around important figures and events across media and how characters in-universe are people (in-universe) that are doomed to be carved by hands they don't know.

Anyway, Enjoy this tea fueled yap session. I had fun writing it.

What kinds of legends surround 'historical' figures in the worlds we are but a visitor to? The ones we only glimpse fleeting visions of, the brief touches on the set dressing as we pass through. How do the people of Irithyll speak of the Four Knights of Gwyn compared to Farron? How were their characters exaggerated, invented, twisted in their wake? Are there entire treatises and books dedicated to dissecting the great heroes of the past, with scholars unable to piece together the few pieces left in their wake, with the few people remaining who knew them being unable (on unwilling) to correct the narrative?

Are there great scholarly debates around what became of Gwynevere, pulling from journals and diaries and fragmented whispers passed down through the ages? Are there people increasingly believing that Gwyn never had any sons until Gwyndolin steps back into the world? Are there still people who believe Gwyn's seed was weak because, well, there is no son of Gwyn that they're aware of and 'he only had two trueborn children'. Are there 'radical' scholars who have dug up evidence of the Nameless King's existence, only to begin another fight over what his name could have been? What points of evidence are seen as strong and how are they countered by people who believe the opposite? Scholars are petty creatures, after all.

Are there regional variants of these stories that we in this world, as removed from the original events as these hypothetical scholars, have come to adore? Do the different regions of Hyrule squabble over which Hero called what region home? Do the Hylians of Central Hyrule push the idea that the Hero of Legend was from their number while the Hylians of Akkala push back that he was a mountain-born son of Hyrule?

Is there a version of a ghost march in Hyrule but it's instead a procession of previous heroes? Is the Hero of Time remembered as OoT Link or the one that existed before Ocarina of Time? Have they become conflated so there is no difference or has the original legend been supplanted so fully that in the wake of the cataclysms that befell Hyrule only a small handful of obscure texts refer to him, sequestered away in private collections or in ruined and unreclaimed libraries?

How have their stories evolved over time? Has Ciaran gone from an assassin upholding the Age of Fire to a valiant Robin Hood-esque figure? Is Artorias remembered as a paragon of selflessness or of blind faith in a broken system? Was the Hero of Twilight remembered for bringing the Day back to Hyrule or as a loyal friend who never stopped his search for a way to see his dear friend again? Does it simply depend on who, when, and where you ask these questions?

Have any of them been used as a King Arthur-esque figure, reflective of the soul of a nation and used for agendas? Is Ornstein a culture hero in Forossa due to his leonine associations? Has the Hero of Hyrule's duel with his Shadow told and retooled time and time again to reflect conflicts, both internal and external?

Are there individuals, forcibly removed from the context in which they lived and bled and fought and died, who are believed to be completely fictitious? Are there any survivors of their actions that die ever more inside when they read another treatise or legend, filled with 'scholarly' commentary about whether this or that was true or even possible. Was Lucatiel of Mirrah remembered this way, the knight-errant from a 'fictitious country' journeying to a kingdom of legend to find something, with only a small number of retellings saying it was for her beloved brother?

Is it wrong to imagine the lines of thinking? To almost see the words on parchment, the Hero of Time being dismissed as a 'flight of fancy' in the Child Timeline, despite having saved the world twice (potentially more depending on individual headcanon). There is no place called 'Termina', so all legends deriving from it are simple inventions of older writers and bards. The Chosen Undead's journey to Oolacile being called an outright fabrication by any who prop up that it was not Artorias who stopped the Abyss there; they were not alive at that point of history! Yet among that majority group could be those who turn around and propose the much more 'reasonable' idea that Ciaran and Gough were the ones to have slain Manus, for they were both unknown factors at that time and 'capable' of doing so.

The true tragedy of heroism and mythic status is not being forgotten. It is in being remembered, being warped and carved, in the pieces you thought were fundamental to who you were that are cast aside by complete strangers only for new things to take their place. If those pieces of You ever return, they will be wrong. For once you have died a hero, you no longer belong to your loved ones. You belong to the World. A horrifying prospect, to be sure.

Or, something like that, anyway.

I really like worldbuilding. More than I like writing stories; what interests me is the story of the world as a whole, the broad sweeps, how everything fits together. I can spend hours reading Wikis of fictional worlds, hundreds of hours dreaming up worlds of my own. I've decided to start writing them down, creating fictional guides, textbooks etc.

And... as far as I can tell, there isn't really a name for non-narrative fiction.

Narrative non-fiction, sure, that's a recognised thing. Epistolary fiction is also recognised, and sometimes has this character e.g. World War Z. But fictional encyclopedias, like the SCP Foundation or the Orions Arm project? Guides like The Zombie Survival Guide? History books written in universe? There doesn't seem to be much academic attention paid to this kind of writing. Or non academic either. It's a disappointingly ignored niche.