Kind of a weird question I know, but let me explain. I’m not talking about your themes or messages, but the general feeling someone looking into your world or imagining themselves in it might get about the situation, when the world is not in conflict. Basically, you know how when you watch a franchise like Star Trek, it has certain recurrent moods and feelings, like the tranquility of flying through space, the bittersweet isolation of being on a ship in deep space, where you are close to your crewmates but far from everything else you know, and the general professional but still sufficiently jovial atmosphere that they seem to go for? Or with Pokemon when it’s very adventure driven and based around meeting everyone you come across and making friends both with other humans and also with these magical creatures! I’m sure you can think of descriptions like these for your favourite franchises. We’ve all imagined ourselves in these worlds or imagined ourselves as characters in these worlds right? What were some of the vibes or feelings you imagined when you imagined your world? Or I guess another way of putting it is what would a slice of life exploration of your world be like?
My world is generally supposed to be what I call bright grimdark, but it depends on the time period. The low moments of the world are absolutely horrible, involving hopelessness, suffocation and horror. But there are moments of happiness, shining through all the grim darkness, there is a future, it just has to be fought for, and even then, it’s not garrunteed. Thats, at least, in the electromedeival era. In the “modern” era, things are typically better, if still dark, though in this era, its more about mystery and the unknown, rather than hopelessness and fighting through that. The world is much more united in the modern era, but violence, whether by the state or individuals, will always be a thing, even when greater threats beset the world.
One of the very first conceptions of Azuaveria was “the beach episode of Redwall in an urban setting.” So I imagined a sort of tropical-punk with a furry reimagining of the romantic aspects of San Francisco. As I’ve built up the world, it’s taken on a slightly different character, but that core attitude is still intact, I think.
Azuaveria is much more bright than dark. I hope readers think of Makoto Shinkai’s blue skies with enormous white clouds. The weather is actually pretty good almost all the time, but because this universe takes place in the eye of a gigantic hurricane (!) there is danger and peril if you seek it. The edges of the Storm Wall are way beyond the horizon for almost all denizens, though, so it’s easy to ignore. Nobeast WANTS to stay so close to the edge.
I’ve introduced a lot of mythology to the world over the years. Different cultures have different explanations for why the world is the way it is. But the main thing I focus on, as an author, is diversity. There are lots of different species, different walks of life, and as a result, different explanations for things. I’ve introduced more political intrigue over the years, as well. Hopefully this gives the world more nuance, and a more adult target audience, but the bright and sunny vibe is what prevails.
For my worlds, I think what I’m shooting for, not even really intentionally, is that feeling of arriving somewhere new for the first time with the intention of living there, and/or the feeling of a child in a big city exploring where they live. Both feelings may or may not have been present in my childhood. Everything is still a bit of a haze, you don’t typically remember everything about a place the first time you go there because there’s so many new things and it kind of overloads your senses, and totally mundane things can seem to have a sense of mystery and allure because you still don’t fully understand them or how they work yet. Fairly common technology also feel way more advanced and high-tech when you’re a kid because you don’t know how they work, and that what makes them so good to explore (I used to be super fascinated by public urban infrastructure as a kid, still am). It’s not exactly like that because I generally like to frame my worlds through the perspectives of adult characters, I just find it easier to write and advance the plot when my characters are all mature enough to know what they’re doing and have a general idea of what they should be doing, but it’s not like adults can’t experience those exact same feelings.
The other side I want to capture is the nostalgia and bittersweet familiarity of returning to your old home, somewhere you used to be really familiar with. But even though most things are still as you remember it, enough has changed to once against warrant exploration and experiencing the place again. Again, that enjoyable haze of exploring somewhere like a city comes to mind.
All this combined with the feeling that things will continue looking up and it’ll stay cozy and nice forever, which is definitely also a childhood thing but what if the world actually worked well enough for adults to feel that way too?
Not sure how well I described this but I hope you get the idea!
I have a science-fantasy world with intelligent animals trying to live in harmony with each other. Though none of my main characters are kids in this story, I definitely frame my main character to experience a “vibe” similar to what I described.
