How do you build up your fic’s world and lore?

[BossCar]

I use real world architecture/design styles for world building, plus I also...kinda use real world history to build up lore? I’d like to see how you all go about it, since as with characters, we also have to flesh out and expand the canon universe

Here’s an example:

Spoiler

“Melanie has brought Calem to another of the city’s battle arenas. Melanie folds her arms and smirks in amusement, noticing that Calem is currently mesmerized by the Neoclassical style of the arena, towering proudly right before his eyes as its cream color is vividly illuminated by the beaming sunlight from the cloudless sky. Calem glances upwards, using his red cap to shield his eyes from the sunlight as he studies the center of the circular, enclosed arena’s roof. The center prominently displays a massive formation of bronze statues, depicting a king in a chariot being pulled by four Galarian Rapidash. Calem notes that the king depicted by the statue is wearing armor all over his body, making him look much more like an 18th century Kalos soldier. The cracks that dot the statues indicate their age, but despite the wear and tear due to time, they have been well preserved. Then, Calem’s gaze shifts downwards, noting the massive columns that surround the entire arena’s exterior. To Calem, not only does this place looks more like a 18th century palace or some sort of ancient temple than a public stadium for Pokémon Trainers. However, were it not for the statues, he may have wondered if this was a modern reproduction of an older style of architecture. The arena looks that well maintained. Calem notices that the buildings left and right of the arena, as well as the buildings across the street, look equally well maintained. All of the buildings in this area share the styling of the battle arena. The buildings are finished in either a similar shade of cream, or varying shades of white.”

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I like making references to regions and pokemon we don't have, just to flesh things out, just how we would refer to various places or creatures.

 

[WildBoots]

I’m a big fan of inventing brand names—it’s a good way to make the world feel lived-in and to establish the realistic (read: capitalist hellscape) tone I’m setting. Like, I avoid pokemon species name puns for the most part, but I’ve got Blue Ring cigarettes as a nod to camel camerupt.

I also love in-universe myths and folk tales. I don’t have many of those, but I really enjoy when others do it. Kint and Pen both do a lot of it, and there’s some of that in Persephone’s work, too.

 

[K_S]

I'm a bit of an outlier in the fandom that I incorporate a lot of 'mon sayings in my fics.

People swear on mew, arceus, ect, going with the legendary of the region/ where they were raised/ more often than not. Legends are part of the language of blessings, salutations, and what not. There's common throw away lines that tie Legends into regular life, for example, is it a roasting hot day in Cinnabar? A local might say it's Moltress blasted hot outside. Not swearing on a 'mon/Legend marks you as an outlier (and adds a lot of weight to actual profane swearing) and can lead to some subtle snubbing by characters of the 'mon world if you evoke the wrong local 'mon or just swear on anything else. Other less loaded sayings I swapped out for example are "growlithe eyes" to replace "puppy eyes", "Persian that stole the cream", "Muk eatting grin" and so on and so forth.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

This is something I've only really begun to focus on recently. When I originally wrote The End I didn't have much world building at all. I hadn't even named the region. I just made things up as I went along, which included the world's story of Xerneas and Yveltal. But afterwards I wrote a few back-story one-shots, and this has been fleshed out for the re-write as I'm re-doing all of those as well, and then some. They've helped to build characters and introduce plot-lines much earlier on.

With more recent works, particularly my PMD cyberpunk System universe, I researched a LOT into various technical terms to name the different cities and locations, as well as to give pokemon names. The persecution of the aquatic pokemon in System:Reboot was a big deal, and space pirates even themed their ships off water dwelling pokemon although not all of them sympathised with their plight. System feels a lot more fleshed out than the original world of The End did. I'm hoping I've learned from that and carried it over to the re-write.

 

[Katanaeyegaming]

You don't just build it up. You make the story about the world itself or have a lot of the story elements based on the world around the characters.