You gave gave exactly what I need. I been struggling for so long trying to get a map that makes sense and still work for my story so Thank you very much
I'm really suprised this video isn't doing numbers the way your vids normally do, especially given the topic. I think a part may be that the cover tile isn't immediately recognizable as *your content* - I started to scroll past it on the home page until I saw your channel.
The fourth movie where an evil mirror creates a literal foil of him called Jeremiah the warrior who hates cats is the best in terms of character development
As a New Zealander, I struggled to tell if you had an NZ accent or not, until I saw that Graham the Wizard who likes cats, is attempting to settle in Christchurch.
The Legend of Korra could have used the whole "don't sleep on older cities, if they can adapt then they have a leg up on newer cities that have formed when the times change and new resources gain prominence" thing. The only proper city we get to revisit in the series is Ba Sing Se. The rest of the series centers around the South Pole (which was a small collection of huts until recently), Zaofu (intentionally built in a secluded/abandoned part of the Earth Kingdom), and Republic City. I just wished we could have seen more from previous locations like the capital of the Fire Nation or the North Pole or Omashu and see how they've adapted and changed with the times.
True, but spending all your time in old locations risks getting boring or smells like excessive nostalgia. We could have spent some time in an old location instead of republic city for the millionth time during season 2 however. (I actually like republic city, but it got a little overused in season 2).
Gargh, where do people like this guy get off going around and giving .... useful and critical advice for story making. Doing it all in a helpful, non-aggressive manner that makes him feel like a mentor on your level. That ass! :P
Probably, but if it makes you feel better, I'm right there with you. If you're anything like me I expect you like stories a lot. I watch videos like this and trope talks because I like learning how things work.
I don't plan on writing a book I haven't played an rpg in my life I have no friends I just watch things like this to make my headworld work because right now it's just a mess of walking islands, time travelling soldiers from the 1920 and various things made by bored god lizards.
@@d512634 inconsistent? How? There are a few retcons but Oda managed to integrate them into the story well enough that they aren’t noticed and don’t detract from the world.
How did he do it? Why did he make it fly? Was there some sort of enemy he was trying to protect it from? Did some other wizard bet him that he couldn't do it? Did he just want to prove that he was the best wizard ever? Did he just always want to live in a flying city? Did he want it to become a base from which to conquer the world? How does he keep it going? Levitating a city takes a LOT of power, or a LOT of magic. Where does all that magic come from? Was the wizard just that powerful? Are all wizards that powerful? What do they do if they're aren't levitating cities? How does the city stay in the air now that the wizard is gone? (Or is the wizard still there? If he is, does he have to spend all his time managing the flying spell?) Does the city have a series of buildings in a huge circle around the city running the ongoing levitation spell? Does the city have to stay in one place over some kind of intersecting ley lines or over a magical metal deposit? Does it have some sort of HUGE magical levitation crystal or a massive metal disk with the levitation spell engraved onto it? Is there some sort of magical cage imprisoning a monstrous demon powering the city, or did the wizard talk some sort of benevolent spirit or even a god into doing it? Does the magic just amplify the power of some mechanical device (like a ring of ludicrously undersized propeller blades). Who keeps those mechanical parts in working order? It must have been one heck of spell (or all kinds of cities, castles, random inns, carriages and carpets would be flying all over the place - maybe, in this world, there ARE flying things all over the place). Does the city need new infusions of magic every so often to keep the spell going, does it need a LOT of infusions of magic to keep it going (if so, where does it all come from?) Or does it have the opposite problem of needing to bleed off the excess energy it's always generating? (If so, how does all that magical pollution affect the neighbors?) How does the city stay in place or move to where it wants to go or lock down when caught in a storm? Or does the magic that makes if fly insulate it from storms? What if someone cracked the main levitation crystal? What if the people who are constantly sucked of their magical energy to power the city finally decide to rebel (or the slaves that work the "magical fuel crystal mines)? I've got all sorts of questions about your flying city and all that I know about it is that it's "futuristic" in a "fantasy work" and it flies because "a wizard did it". Whole stories have been built around techno-magical Castles in the Air, why they fly, how they fly, and how they impact the world. In short "a wizard did it" is the sort of answer very few fantasy readers or gamers will accept as satisfying or enough without expecting there to be all sorts of backstory there.
This was super useful, Tim, thank you so much! It's at the same time disheartening and comforting that there is a valid reason for the majority of cities to just look like European capitals - it's all about that river resource and that first two bridges eh? I wish I saw more specialized cities in fantasy. As much as I love Novigrad, Luthadel or Bowerstone, I think a 1850 Geneva or Venezia could have been more picturesque, more unique! Even competing with the magic, the fantastic creatures and all. This idea inspires me very much indeed. Loved the little details about Kyoto/Tokyo, Slovakia mining gold and Soviet planned cities! Excellent references! Cheers :)
Another amazing video, well done! I'll add another example here, that came to mind: In the german medieval-fantasy pen and paper rpg Splittermond there was this sort of "prior civilization" that doesn't exist anymore for a number of reasons. They left behind cities and ruins of course and even though today's society does not remember them fondly (slavery and all that good stuff) they still live where the priors used to live because they built these portals that connect to other cities all over the world, that no one knows how they work but they do. Naturally, major trade is wherever one of these portals is, so the largest cities are where the portals are.
The anime Trigun uses this same motif--it's set on a largely desert planet where a fleet of colony-ships crash-landed before terraforming could take place. As a result, the entire planet is dotted with small towns tapping into the power of the 'plants'--a kind of living nuclear power plant that was the power-source for the colony-ships. The lack of much water keeps these towns from expanding too large, and also from new cities popping up very often. As a result, the entire world is basically the Old West writ large.
The only bad thing in that film was the actor playing the title character. Everything else was at least ok-ish, and many were excellent such as world building as you say, and also the core story (stand fast how that core story was implemented). The trouble is... Dane DeHaan is a terrible actor. I haven't seen a single thing he is in that's worth watching because his performance kills it.
@@mikeoxsmal8022 That's cool man, I like plenty of things that are real bad. Whether or not a thing is good or bad, or whether or not other people like it, has nothing to do with whether or not you like it.
The name "Byzantine empire" come only after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. They called themselves "Romans" throughout all of their 1000 years of existence.
I read somewhere it was retroactively imposed on them by something of an academic monk who was not fond of them. edit: my fault, it was actually the historian hieronymus wolf and reinforced later with the use of his work in a project by louis xiv to assemble knowledge about rome
@@gordo6908 In fairness, it makes total sense to have a different name for them than the Roman Empire. They were culturally dramatically different than ancient Rome and didn't even speak the same language. Greek was the official language of the Byzantine Empire for the vast majority of its independent existence. It's also strange to refer to an empire as the "Roman Empire" when it existed for 900 years without having Rome in its borders.
@@joni1405 Not so much. Firstly it depends on which period of 'Byzantine' History we look at. The part I am most familiar with, the Justinian/Anastatius Era in that it was very similar to western, christian rome. Justinian was bilingual in both latin and greek, and yes the empire was predominately in greek but the law/order was still largely latin. It wasn't until after the Justinian Dynasty ended and the one after that you make this argument. I wouldn't say culturally or dramatically different because to be very fair, many romans from the east when they conquerered parts of north africa/italy still treated them like romans. Of course these gains would be lost in a hundred years and then the tone shifts. After iirc the Heraclian dynasty and take this with a grain of salt because I dont know the exact one, it was around 100-200 years after Justin II died and rule from a Byzantine general. But then the empire shifts more greek like. It is still however a general truth that regardless of which of the two eras we look at, the cultural center was definitely more Constaninople and less Rome. In fact it was the last city the Ottomans conquerered and the last emperor of the great imperial city was killed. He identified the city as a roman stronghold. To be fair by this point, very romanticized considering the cultural shift but really does that matter? I mean this sincerely and hopefully unoffensively but come on, even the great city of the east was built to the present greatness by an emperor in the west, Constantine changed the entire game and you could definitely argue it sort of melted with latin influence as much as greek influence. Prior to that the city was called...Byzantium. Interesting, isn't it? It is like poetry it rhymes. In short, the idea that it was not a roman empire because it didnt have a rome is a strawman plain and simple. I don't think it is that big of a deal considering even purists will refer to them as the 'Eastern Roman Empire', which didn't even have roman when it was a two-client state TO the roman emperor. So in short, no it does not make total sense to have a different name. Historians just do it primarily to be make things more nuance. As I used above, I personally use all three interchangably. Mostly the Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire are my primary synonyms because my favorite emperor of that period not only had a dream but also conquered Rome once again. So yes, still romans. I hope this isn't too mean/condescending. I genuinely love the historical insight. I am not a historian by the way, just a history fanatic. I also think because of that connection I could be biased somewhere. I want to visit Rome and modern Istanbul one day. I think the two things that unify the two historically is the sister-ship of the two cities in their own roman-sphere. Plus, they have the same climate. No really, look it up. Not too different at least when it comes to rain/agriculture lol.
@@chabri2000 it has it's problems, but of course the biggest hobble to itself is the need for time stretch/filler to stretch the series out for longer. you know the jokes, it takes a month of new episodes to charge a spirit bomb, etc.
@@chabri2000 it's not thou, dragón ball is insanely good, it's not perfect but for its time it's quite well writen, more when you take into account a good chunk of the story was writen basically while it was being drawn because of pressure from Toriyama's editors
Thanks, Tim! A couple of other settlement types occur to me. One is the canal town - a variant on the trade route, river and railway town theme. The other is the University town. This brings together lecturers, librarians and students. They all need accommodation, catering and entertainment so those sectors move in. There may be a research hub like a science park. There will also be administrators and clerks to coordinate it all.
Further focusing on Tolkien's placement of the cities of Gondor. The Great River Anduin is indeed a vital place, it provides water and is a water course, a main way of transportation by ship (Minas Tirith also has docks at Harlond where the craft from all over sail to, and Osgiliath was a massive port which received even sea going vessels that traveled up river, which allowed those cities to be well supplied in water and food, trade center to gather wealth from other parts of the kingdom). It should be also noted that while Osgiliath was capital the establishment of Minas Anor (later Tirith) and Minas Ithil (later Morgul) was also connected to military purposes, Minas Anor and Minas Ithil were not so much great cities in their origin as much as strongholds and fortresses which later were enlarged for bigger population, in the beginning the primary purposes for those were to be secure military bases and also a sort of 'lord manor' (Minas Anor was a seat for Anarion while Minas Ithil was for Isildur while they ruled jointly and had the capital and government centered in Osgiliath) "Other strong places they built also upon either hand: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow as a threat to Mordor; and to the westward Minas Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin, as a shield against the wild men of the dales. In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the house of Anárion..." The Silmarillion, "The chief city of this southern realm was Osgiliath.... In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the house of Anárion, but they shared the realm between them and their thrones were set side by side in the Great Hall of Osgiliath." Tolkien actually acknowledged the economic matters in one of his letters: "I am not incapable or unaware of economic thought; and I think as far as the ‘mortals’ go, Men, Hobbits, and Dwarfs, that the situations are so devised that the economic likelihood is there and could be worked out. Gondor has sufficient ‘townlands’ and fiefs with good water and road approach to provide for its population and clearly has many industries though these are hardly alluded to. The Shire is placed in a water and mountain situation and a distance from the sea and a latitude that would give it a natural fertility, quite apart from the stated fact that it was a well-tended region when they took it over (no doubt with a good deal of older arts and crafts). The Shire-hobbits have no very great need of metals, but the Dwarfs are agents; and in the east of the Mountains of Lune are some of their mines (as shown in the earlier legends) : no doubt, the reason, or one of them, for their often crossing the Shire.” Minas Tirith is later capital because of specific reasons, but before it could happened it was rebuild and enlarged by one of the previous kings and for a time it was a summer residence of king, before the capital in Osgiliath fell into ruin completely. The story itself also mentions that the city that is at the time of Lotr story capital of Gondor is provided with good roads and trading connections to make a living: "Pippin could see all the Pelennor laid out before him, dotted into the distance with farmsteads and little walls, barns and byres... Many roads and tracks crossed the green fields, and there was much coming and going: wains moving in lines towards the Great Gate, and others passing out.. ‘That is the road to the vales of Tumladen and Lossarnach, and the mountain-villages, and then on to Lebennin,’ said Beregond. ‘There go the last of the wains that bear away to refuge the aged the children, and the women that must go with them. They must all be gone from the Gate and the road clear for a league before noon: that was the order. It is a sad necessity.’" ... “‘Yes, lord,’ she answered; ‘but not enough, I reckon, for all that will need them. But I am sure I do not know where we shall find more; for all things are amiss in these dreadful days, what with fires and burnings, and the lads that run errands so few, and all the roads blocked. Why, it is days out of count since ever a carrier came in from Lossarnach to the market!” Lossarnach the close neighbouring region south-west of Pelennor is another important agricultural area for providing required food and resources to the city: "It was generally called in Gondor Lossarnach. Loss is Sindarin for ‘snow’, especially fallen and long-lying snow. For what reason this was prefixed to Arnach is unclear. Its upper valleys were renowned for their flowers, and below them there were great orchards, from which at the time of the War of the Ring much of the fruit needed in Minas Tirith still came. Though no mention of this is found in any chronicles-as is often the case with matters of common knowledge-it seems probable that the reference was in fact to the fruit blossom. Expeditions to Lossarnach to see the flowers and trees were frequently made by the people of Minas Tirith. (See index Lossarnach adding III 36,140;{41} Imloth Melui "sweet flower-valley", a place in Arnach)." The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor Other cities in Gondor also make a lot of sense, for instance Pelargir is the oldest city in the region, it was in fact one of the first numenorean colonies in the region before Gondor's foundation. Pelargir is a great port-city located on shores of Anduin and estuary of river, it was a major port for ships and in fact for long it was a seat of the navy and fleets: "[Ships] approaching Anduin and making for Pelargir went by the eastern side of Tol Falas and took the sea-way passage made by the Númenóreans in the midst of the Delta of Anduin."
As a D&D map maker, I always ask two questions before I place a city... Where is the fresh water? Where is the food? If I have an answer for those two, then the third will dictate the rest of the city's character... Why here? Ask these three questions before placing cities, and you can write a few pages detailing the beginnings of each city. Much to the delight of certain players with a penchant for local history. If you can tell a good story, players will keep coming back for more.
And Graham first went to the site of Christchurch before finding a better place (Rangiora?). Because ChCh turns out to be built in a pretty bad spot. 😆
Your videos always make me think about my world building in a much deeper way. Admittedly I'm the type that thinks "hey that sounds like a cool setting" then builds the world around that. But even when working backwards it still helps to give sound reasonings and histories.
In the video game "Spore" from 2006 once you reach the age of space- travel spice (which comes out of the ground in the form of a geysir) becomes the trade good number one. I was so confused about this until i got that this was a reference to Dune.
I don't know why UA-cam didn't push this to my home screen until six days later, but damn this is some of my favorite content of yours Tim! Really captures all the systemic elements so well, and the presentation is just exquisite. Hope you're doing well buddy
I've been working all alone on this one project of mine for three years already which is worldbuilding with its own complex calendar, seasons, and still ongoing with its entire civilizations' history. Now everytime I think about where it all came from, it never fails me to smile.
Also, it wasn't agricultural economics, but the long period of war between feudal domains before that which really robbed Kyoto of relevance as a political capital. However, Tokugawa Ieyasu was shrewd in making his stronghold Edo the de facto capital, since it was significantly east of center (politically): in tying up the nobility and their armies by having them spend one of every two years in Edo (sankin-kōtai, an idea preserved from his forerunners), the city boomed quickly, enterprising merchants and artisans flocking there to sell goods and services needed by a sizable clientele. This policy also provided an incentive for the frequent travelers to ensure the maintenance and safety of roads along the way (and keep interdomain relations amicable).
Thanks to this channel I've started crafting a world to base a story. I NEVER knew how to even start with this until this channel popped up in my recommendeds. I've plastered my walls with corkboards, notes and strings! I have so many ideas so thank you 😊
11:06 3) the lowlands usually have better soil while the highlands allow for the building of say windmills. 4) The change in elevation will provide some protection from the elements leaivng your houses protected from the wind from at least one direction. These two points are especially big on islands. The island of Öland in Sweden for an example have a village every mile along the crest between the islands highland area and it's lowland area. Some scattered villages across the lowland but mostly you only find villages again when you reach the shore. And on the highland areas and the entire eastern slope of the island barely a village.
When I create a fantasy region and need to place cities or settlements I just do it Civilizations style. Make a map on graph paper and give each 'tile' resource points just like in the game Civilizations. If you've played that game a bit you know where to place your cities.
I often have to go back a minute or two when watching these videos because I start world-building in my head and totally lose track of what Tim is saying XD I think that's proof they're great content :)
oh man i nearly jumped when i saw the cover of "Children of Time" pop up. i recently finished reading it and it's sequel, "Children of Ruin" and it is some of the best sci-fi world-building i have seen in a long time. and yeah, the ant-colony computers does make sense with context of the book. it's REALLY good, i totally recommend it
Thank you your the one got me started on my writing im creating a animated action show and now I know how to write worlds, cultures,characters, and history
It's so fun hearing about building up where cities are and why they are the way they are. This was wonderful extra info added to my world building in helping work out ideas for other towns. The closest major city and primary location to the story is located in the heart of a massive forested region. I was wondering how this larger city and, important piece of the setting, a huge hotel / resort could exist in such an isolated area surrounded by drastically smaller towns and villages. This actually became a big piece on developing the shape of the entire geography in that region. The forest is surrounded by coastal mountains and for various reasons, sailing through those waters are dangerous. So the only means of travel from north to south is through the forest, following some of the rivers. And the city became a major stopping point along those paths.
A large hotel can always be the result of tourism. Either because people from all over the map want to see the beautiful landscape and experience specific activities, or because people pass through the area and need a place to stay at the night.
In regards to towns popping up along trade routes, there's the contemporary phenomena of encroaching urbanization inside of the Texas Triangle. The suburbs outside of Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston have been growing into urban centers of their own, and I think we're on schedule to see them merge into a singular Texas City in time for a real life Judge Dredd.
Settlements, Worldbuilding and Maps are some of my favourite things in the world and I enjoyed this video so much This worldbuilding advices actually help a lot
The availability of water, the arability of land, access to salt and metals, in addition to such human inventions as trade routes. | and as a hint, y'all. If it was a good place to live ten thousand years ago, it's still a good place to live barring truly horrendous bad luck. There's a reason that Egypt's cities are still largely where the Pharaoh's were.
Generally. In fact, New York State is a really interesting take. NY City itself is a coastal/dock city that attracts immigrants, and thus cheap "unskilled" labor. Buffalo is a Fall Line city, using the energy harnessed by its large waterfalls as a resource. Meanwhile, there are two agricultural hallmarks: Lumber and Wine. Lumber is actually easy: the Adirondack Mountains/Catskills have wide extensive forests. Which also lends to a large hunting economy, alongside a few sporadic ore deposits. You need shit to build cities, and the Adirondacks have the shit to build cities. Wine, meanwhile...covers a larger swatch of the state. The Hudson River offers fertile land in a straight line north from NYC to Saratoga Springs, and arguably the edge of the Adirondacks. Travel and food, as well as trade...various levels of success is kind of expected. The Finger Lakes region is roughly established with a triangle that covers Ithaca, Auburn, and Rochester (though Seneca/Seneca Falls, Keuka, and other cities may be more well-known entities). And then Long Island...arguably the smallest of these three, having an entire literal island available to grow crops is obviously helpful, and being so close to NYC itself means the product can be produced at less cost because you're getting unskilled immigrants as farmers. And then there's the trade outlet. This sees the Hudson River from North to South...but why Albany is potent enough to be the capital is because it resides along the Erie Canal path, which connects Albany specifically to Buffalo. And was the major trade route of New York State. Which then gets to Syracuse, my hometown. 'Salt City' (its historical nickname) exists literally in the middle of the Erie Canal path, and simultaneously was the source of massive salt deposits. Resource reserve and trade route at once? And with industrialization, factories were able to abuse the ever-living fuck out of Onondaga Lake, using it for power (from turbines) as well as a water source (to cool operations and thus increase runtime/production) and pollution dump-site (what goes in, must come out). And as Onondaga Lake became one of the top ten polluted bodies of water in the world, people moved out of the city into the suburbs: Liverpool, Manlius, Dewitt, Cicero. Airport between Mattydale and North Syracuse. Likewise, other suburbs exist elsewhere (Corfu and Akron for Buffalo, Buffalo itself for Niagara Falls, Schenectady for Albany, etc) A single state, with nearly every principle highlighted multiple times over.
Hence why when Schliemann dynamited the ruins of Troy to find the old city, he ended up also dynamiting every city and culture that had ever chosen that same place to build on
Every time I watch these videos I roll the dice on whether my self-esteem goes up or down based on if it turns I'm good or bad with the area of writing discussed.
I absolutely love your videos. In developing my life-long project, I've made more progress since I found your channel than I ever did before. The right questions to ask oneself is, to me, more important than having the answers to said questions. Around 9 minutes into the video you mentioned a world where there is no oceans, which made me think: "There wouldn't be enough water for rains if there wasn't any oceans, and if there wasn't an ocean, where would all the rain gather?" Which made me think of a magical way to make such a world possible, such as demi-gods that would pour rain into an ever-drying planet because of a curse placed by an old god. A question without an answer may lead to a truly original idea, but it would never surface if that question wasn't asked in the first place.
Love this video! I’ve been trying to world build for a TTRPG campaign I’m writing and I real struggle with things like this. I took screenshots of all the headings so I can remember your advice. Thanks a bunch!
THANK GOD. I've been looking for something like these for ages. All I've gotten was philosophical arguments on what makes a civilization. Thank you so much for explaining it so concisely!
Post industrial era story: Onward from Pixar. It's a world that has magic like Harry Potter and other fantasy series that are similar, but industrialization made using it, and any natural attribute from the "ancient times" obsolete.😊 I hope that helps doe any future videos Tim!❤
4:10 That peninsula in the bottom right looks AWESOME for a coastal trade city. Surrounded by sea and hills it's easily defensible and it's close to much fertile land for food. There would be mining towns on the southern side of the mountains which transport their product like stone, gem stones and ores down the rivers into the trade city. On the other side of the mountains is a forest which would have little hunting and lumberjack communities and fishing towns with one big port town which trades with the southern city by providing wood and wild meat for metal, stone and luxury goods.
the reach is like the perfect spot for food, gets the cool weather from the north bringing moisture and its really close to dorne giving that hot dry air and sand to feed that soil
An interesting observation is that a lot of rural towns in Australia are about 6 hours ride by horse apart. The towns that survived and grew were 4-6 hours car drive or on cross roads
I listen to your essays and continually feel like it hammes home just how unworldly I am, how little connection I have and reenforces my feeling that my attempts at making settings are hollow. 2020 however has shown me just how contrived and bullshit reality itself is so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.
I made a cool map back in the day. I've been trying to redraw and enhance the ideas behind each location. This video gave a lot of helpful notes for me to use, thanks Tim!!!
The Post-industrial era section sounds a lot like Jade City. The greatest amount of industrial, economic and bureaucratic power is all centered around the city of Janloon due to its close proximity to the Jade mines. Jade which, FYI, gives people superpowers when they hold it or wear it. It is an extremely valuable resource that is highly regulated and is considered a status symbol.
Thank you. This was exactly what I needed right now. Could you also make a video on building world maps? With geography, biomes, etc. And is there a thing where I can design on a globe, instead of just a flat map?
Infrastructure around culture is important too - EX - Speedway, Indiana. A town of 13,770 people that swells to 300, 500, 600+ THOUSAND PEOPLE for a single week during memorial day weekend and the Indy 500.
sometimes the strangest things can cause towns to exist I lived in a small city that was formed in the great depression when a bunch of people tried to move north in search of jobs but their old cars couldn't take the unusually steep road and broke down in the valley so lacking a better option they started building a town where they were because they couldn't fix their cars
Here in Argentina the city of La Plata was planned responding to a burocratic reason, Buenos Aires was the capital of the country and of the province. Great video!!
A way to have city states near world powers is to have them in the middle of two or more of these powers, and have them play all the sides. Many minor powers, including city states, managed to survive this way for centuries.
the timing of both this video and this sponsor could not be better! i was looking for a tool or system to organize all the information for my story for a while now, and i was starting to draw my map on paper just days ago! thanks tim for your impeccable work
Great video. There is one/two more rules to follow when creating cities : 1. Travel distance, especially in part 1 and 2 of this video. If you check 1000 and 500 yo maps of Europe you can see that settlements are usually a day away from one another, bigger towns more or less 3 days horse ride away 2. Big/swamps. With exception of Petersburg, people avoid such lands, so sometimes rivers are not perfect ideas
@20:45 a category of post industrial cities that you may have overlooked: Cities devoted to the entertainment/tourism industry e. g. Las Vegas, Macau, Cancun. I don't blame you since there are very few examples of these in pop culture.
![On Worldbuilding: - How Class Systems FALL [ Korra | Feudalism | WWI ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bbkSim9iaOQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![On Worldbuilding: — How Class Systems FALL [ Korra | Feudalism | WWI ]](/img/tr.png)
![On Worldbuilding: Monarchy [ French Revolution | British Empire | Chinese Dynasties ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8o0X8TE4aPk/mqdefault.jpg)
MY CHILDREN, remember the charity livestream next weekend for the Child Rescue Coalition. Book it in your calendars.
~ Tim
Thank you so much for this video!
oh, you're doing another livestream, nice!
You gave gave exactly what I need. I been struggling for so long trying to get a map that makes sense and still work for my story so Thank you very much
I'm really suprised this video isn't doing numbers the way your vids normally do, especially given the topic. I think a part may be that the cover tile isn't immediately recognizable as *your content* - I started to scroll past it on the home page until I saw your channel.
im the 100th comment like and 99th video like.
Oh I've missed Graham the wizard who likes cats. Can't wait for the unnecessary prequel where we find out when and why he first liked cats!!
and the sequel where they kill off his cat, except not really, woah plot twist
What about the Holiday special in which his twin sister Gertrude the sorceress who likes dogs comes home for Christmas
The fourth movie where an evil mirror creates a literal foil of him called Jeremiah the warrior who hates cats is the best in terms of character development
Or a prequel about one of his parents, even though they were not even relevant characters in the original story.
@@elpretender1357 or the sequel which is also a prequel because he goes back in time and meets his grandfather, Greyem the mage who adores kittens
you can always tell tim puts tons of effort into his videos and there's never a drop in quality, hope he doesn't pressure himself too much.
i like to imagine he has a lot of fun
he's got help from Graham the Wizard who likes cats
To be quite honest, I'm not an author. I'm really here for the:
a.) incredibly well-researched history lecture and
b.) the lovely accent.
I do enjoy a good New Zealand accent
Same. Tim's voice and accent makes it more enjoyable
I study history as a hobby and one can learn a huge amount of history through Tim’s videos. That’s why I’m here.
@@matertua2272 "Kempfaya Blaize"
same
As a New Zealander, I struggled to tell if you had an NZ accent or not, until I saw that Graham the Wizard who likes cats, is attempting to settle in Christchurch.
The Legend of Korra could have used the whole "don't sleep on older cities, if they can adapt then they have a leg up on newer cities that have formed when the times change and new resources gain prominence" thing. The only proper city we get to revisit in the series is Ba Sing Se. The rest of the series centers around the South Pole (which was a small collection of huts until recently), Zaofu (intentionally built in a secluded/abandoned part of the Earth Kingdom), and Republic City. I just wished we could have seen more from previous locations like the capital of the Fire Nation or the North Pole or Omashu and see how they've adapted and changed with the times.
True, but spending all your time in old locations risks getting boring or smells like excessive nostalgia. We could have spent some time in an old location instead of republic city for the millionth time during season 2 however. (I actually like republic city, but it got a little overused in season 2).
Tim: praises Venice
Blue from OSP: giddily claps and jumps, "I'm so proud!"
Gargh, where do people like this guy get off going around and giving .... useful and critical advice for story making. Doing it all in a helpful, non-aggressive manner that makes him feel like a mentor on your level. That ass! :P
The absolute slime
Simply scandalous!
The M-word is banned. You know what happens to M's.
@@NightWing1800 one word: Iroh
Great timing, was just making a bunch of new maps and worldbuilding several worlds.
Is it weird that I watch this, even though I’m not interested in writing a book? I just find these videos very entertaining
Probably, but if it makes you feel better, I'm right there with you. If you're anything like me I expect you like stories a lot. I watch videos like this and trope talks because I like learning how things work.
Well, you ain't the only one in that boat. So at the very least that makes it less weird.
Not at all.
I dont plan on writing a book, but i am a dungeon master, and this videos are very useful
I don't plan on writing a book
I haven't played an rpg in my life
I have no friends
I just watch things like this to make my headworld work because right now it's just a mess of walking islands, time travelling soldiers from the 1920 and various things made by bored god lizards.
11:09 - apparently Tim has never used the boat elevator glitch in Minecraft.
Most UA-camrs: Please try to keep the comments civil
Hello Future Me: Fight me in the comments! I expect *essays*.
*“Boats can’t go up waterfalls”*
Oda: Bet
Magic Systems.
All jokes aside, Oda is one of the best world builders in fiction.
@@caitlinbrewer4843 best inconsistant world builder
@@d512634 inconsistent? How? There are a few retcons but Oda managed to integrate them into the story well enough that they aren’t noticed and don’t detract from the world.
@@caitlinbrewer4843 Oda consistently blows my mind with his quality and thoughtfulness.
How to write a futuristic city in a fantasy work:
How is that city flying?
A WIZARD DID IT
How did he do it? Why did he make it fly? Was there some sort of enemy he was trying to protect it from? Did some other wizard bet him that he couldn't do it? Did he just want to prove that he was the best wizard ever? Did he just always want to live in a flying city? Did he want it to become a base from which to conquer the world? How does he keep it going? Levitating a city takes a LOT of power, or a LOT of magic. Where does all that magic come from? Was the wizard just that powerful? Are all wizards that powerful? What do they do if they're aren't levitating cities? How does the city stay in the air now that the wizard is gone? (Or is the wizard still there? If he is, does he have to spend all his time managing the flying spell?) Does the city have a series of buildings in a huge circle around the city running the ongoing levitation spell? Does the city have to stay in one place over some kind of intersecting ley lines or over a magical metal deposit? Does it have some sort of HUGE magical levitation crystal or a massive metal disk with the levitation spell engraved onto it? Is there some sort of magical cage imprisoning a monstrous demon powering the city, or did the wizard talk some sort of benevolent spirit or even a god into doing it? Does the magic just amplify the power of some mechanical device (like a ring of ludicrously undersized propeller blades). Who keeps those mechanical parts in working order? It must have been one heck of spell (or all kinds of cities, castles, random inns, carriages and carpets would be flying all over the place - maybe, in this world, there ARE flying things all over the place). Does the city need new infusions of magic every so often to keep the spell going, does it need a LOT of infusions of magic to keep it going (if so, where does it all come from?) Or does it have the opposite problem of needing to bleed off the excess energy it's always generating? (If so, how does all that magical pollution affect the neighbors?) How does the city stay in place or move to where it wants to go or lock down when caught in a storm? Or does the magic that makes if fly insulate it from storms? What if someone cracked the main levitation crystal? What if the people who are constantly sucked of their magical energy to power the city finally decide to rebel (or the slaves that work the "magical fuel crystal mines)? I've got all sorts of questions about your flying city and all that I know about it is that it's "futuristic" in a "fantasy work" and it flies because "a wizard did it". Whole stories have been built around techno-magical Castles in the Air, why they fly, how they fly, and how they impact the world.
In short "a wizard did it" is the sort of answer very few fantasy readers or gamers will accept as satisfying or enough without expecting there to be all sorts of backstory there.
@@liljenborg2517 he did it because PROPHECY
YES
@Samuel Dimmock I know. The baddie was just showing off, and made it fly.
@Samuel Dimmock noone knows. Noone remembers. Noone cares. They're too busy paying attention to the heroine doing SHENANIGANS.
13:33 The great city state of Akaroa, ruled by the white-flippered penguin overlords
This was super useful, Tim, thank you so much!
It's at the same time disheartening and comforting that there is a valid reason for the majority of cities to just look like European capitals - it's all about that river resource and that first two bridges eh?
I wish I saw more specialized cities in fantasy. As much as I love Novigrad, Luthadel or Bowerstone, I think a 1850 Geneva or Venezia could have been more picturesque, more unique! Even competing with the magic, the fantastic creatures and all. This idea inspires me very much indeed.
Loved the little details about Kyoto/Tokyo, Slovakia mining gold and Soviet planned cities! Excellent references!
Cheers :)
U can also look at the first citys on america
Europe numero uno!!!!!
European cities are just doing what cities in other places to as well. Exist at useful places.
8:10
oh. you just made me realize for the first time in my life why the word "shipping" (in the modern sense) means what it does =D
thank you! =D
That moment with Gollum was absolutely and needlessly unsettling.
Was wearing headphones and I just died
YES! I almost DIED!
Rivers: **exist**
Civilization: don't mind if I pop up right here
it's free real estate
*flood season*
China/Egypt/Mesopotamia: Ah shit, here we go again.
@@MasteringJohn To be fair it depends from the river.
In ancient Egypt people would have lost their shit if the river didn't flood.
It’s free real estate. Oh wait up you guys did it too ah man
"Totally randomly generated map"... hang on a second... *looks outside; looks back at the map* this place seems familiar
Illuminati *_INTENSIFIES_*
I CAN'T seem to BURY the feeling I've seen this before...
@@Kaffeinekiwi somewhere deep in the SOUTHERN part of my body it’s telling me I’ve seen this before
What are we referencing?
@@thegoodmudkip3652 new zealand. its new zealand. i think someone critized new zealand as being an unrealistic map before
As a person from Slovakia, I feel indescribably seen. Thank you.
Another amazing video, well done!
I'll add another example here, that came to mind:
In the german medieval-fantasy pen and paper rpg Splittermond there was this sort of "prior civilization" that doesn't exist anymore for a number of reasons. They left behind cities and ruins of course and even though today's society does not remember them fondly (slavery and all that good stuff) they still live where the priors used to live because they built these portals that connect to other cities all over the world, that no one knows how they work but they do. Naturally, major trade is wherever one of these portals is, so the largest cities are where the portals are.
The anime Trigun uses this same motif--it's set on a largely desert planet where a fleet of colony-ships crash-landed before terraforming could take place. As a result, the entire planet is dotted with small towns tapping into the power of the 'plants'--a kind of living nuclear power plant that was the power-source for the colony-ships. The lack of much water keeps these towns from expanding too large, and also from new cities popping up very often. As a result, the entire world is basically the Old West writ large.
Ah, so Mass Effect
The bad film, Valerian, had interesting world building. I'm with you. This concludes my essay.
The only bad thing in that film was the actor playing the title character. Everything else was at least ok-ish, and many were excellent such as world building as you say, and also the core story (stand fast how that core story was implemented). The trouble is... Dane DeHaan is a terrible actor. I haven't seen a single thing he is in that's worth watching because his performance kills it.
I liked it
Kinda reminds me of Jupiter Ascending. Like, great, interesting worldbuilding. Horrible, horrible execution in the story.
@@mikeoxsmal8022 That's cool man, I like plenty of things that are real bad. Whether or not a thing is good or bad, or whether or not other people like it, has nothing to do with whether or not you like it.
@@alexgroot2508 That is exactly how I feel about both of these movies, hahaha.
I was literally just thinking about how I was too hungover from Thanksgiving to do any worldbuilding. You, sir, have impeccable timing.
nice
Ant colony computer? Was this what pratchett was referencing when he uses ant colonies to power Hex? Pratchett Processors - Anthill Inside
Also how would tech support work in ant computer land?
Out Of Cheese Error
The name "Byzantine empire" come only after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. They called themselves "Romans" throughout all of their 1000 years of existence.
Also Konstantinople became the politcal capital quite some time before the fall of the West
I read somewhere it was retroactively imposed on them by something of an academic monk who was not fond of them.
edit: my fault, it was actually the historian hieronymus wolf and reinforced later with the use of his work in a project by louis xiv to assemble knowledge about rome
@@gordo6908 In fairness, it makes total sense to have a different name for them than the Roman Empire. They were culturally dramatically different than ancient Rome and didn't even speak the same language. Greek was the official language of the Byzantine Empire for the vast majority of its independent existence. It's also strange to refer to an empire as the "Roman Empire" when it existed for 900 years without having Rome in its borders.
most of their neighbors referred to them as rome
@@joni1405 Not so much. Firstly it depends on which period of 'Byzantine' History we look at.
The part I am most familiar with, the Justinian/Anastatius Era in that it was very similar to western, christian rome. Justinian was bilingual in both latin and greek, and yes the empire was predominately in greek but the law/order was still largely latin. It wasn't until after the Justinian Dynasty ended and the one after that you make this argument.
I wouldn't say culturally or dramatically different because to be very fair, many romans from the east when they conquerered parts of north africa/italy still treated them like romans. Of course these gains would be lost in a hundred years and then the tone shifts.
After iirc the Heraclian dynasty and take this with a grain of salt because I dont know the exact one, it was around 100-200 years after Justin II died and rule from a Byzantine general. But then the empire shifts more greek like. It is still however a general truth that regardless of which of the two eras we look at, the cultural center was definitely more Constaninople and less Rome. In fact it was the last city the Ottomans conquerered and the last emperor of the great imperial city was killed. He identified the city as a roman stronghold. To be fair by this point, very romanticized considering the cultural shift but really does that matter?
I mean this sincerely and hopefully unoffensively but come on, even the great city of the east was built to the present greatness by an emperor in the west, Constantine changed the entire game and you could definitely argue it sort of melted with latin influence as much as greek influence. Prior to that the city was called...Byzantium. Interesting, isn't it? It is like poetry it rhymes. In short, the idea that it was not a roman empire because it didnt have a rome is a strawman plain and simple. I don't think it is that big of a deal considering even purists will refer to them as the 'Eastern Roman Empire', which didn't even have roman when it was a two-client state TO the roman emperor.
So in short, no it does not make total sense to have a different name. Historians just do it primarily to be make things more nuance. As I used above, I personally use all three interchangably. Mostly the Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire are my primary synonyms because my favorite emperor of that period not only had a dream but also conquered Rome once again. So yes, still romans.
I hope this isn't too mean/condescending. I genuinely love the historical insight. I am not a historian by the way, just a history fanatic. I also think because of that connection I could be biased somewhere. I want to visit Rome and modern Istanbul one day. I think the two things that unify the two historically is the sister-ship of the two cities in their own roman-sphere. Plus, they have the same climate. No really, look it up. Not too different at least when it comes to rain/agriculture lol.
These videos are probably my most coveted content releases these days
i can't believe a youtuber mentioned my favourite book 😭 children of time is what made me love worldbuilding and sci-fi
Tim: ...like a good episode of Dragon Ball Z, totally imaginary.
Me: I came out to have fun and honestly I'm feeling so attacked right now.
I had to stop and collect myself before hitting play
....so I’ve seen Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece not DB.
I'm a dragonball/z/s fan, but lets being realistic, from a "writer perspective", it is shit.
The driving/basesball espisode however, were brillant
@@chabri2000 it has it's problems, but of course the biggest hobble to itself is the need for time stretch/filler to stretch the series out for longer. you know the jokes, it takes a month of new episodes to charge a spirit bomb, etc.
@@chabri2000 it's not thou, dragón ball is insanely good, it's not perfect but for its time it's quite well writen, more when you take into account a good chunk of the story was writen basically while it was being drawn because of pressure from Toriyama's editors
Him: “Terrible season changes”
Shows season 8 of GOT
Me:I see what ya did there
I was literally taking a break from drawing my map when you dropped this.
Thanks, Tim! A couple of other settlement types occur to me. One is the canal town - a variant on the trade route, river and railway town theme. The other is the University town. This brings together lecturers, librarians and students. They all need accommodation, catering and entertainment so those sectors move in. There may be a research hub like a science park. There will also be administrators and clerks to coordinate it all.
Further focusing on Tolkien's placement of the cities of Gondor. The Great River Anduin is indeed a vital place, it provides water and is a water course, a main way of transportation by ship (Minas Tirith also has docks at Harlond where the craft from all over sail to, and Osgiliath was a massive port which received even sea going vessels that traveled up river, which allowed those cities to be well supplied in water and food, trade center to gather wealth from other parts of the kingdom). It should be also noted that while Osgiliath was capital the establishment of Minas Anor (later Tirith) and Minas Ithil (later Morgul) was also connected to military purposes, Minas Anor and Minas Ithil were not so much great cities in their origin as much as strongholds and fortresses which later were enlarged for bigger population, in the beginning the primary purposes for those were to be secure military bases and also a sort of 'lord manor' (Minas Anor was a seat for Anarion while Minas Ithil was for Isildur while they ruled jointly and had the capital and government centered in Osgiliath)
"Other strong places they built also upon either hand: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow as a threat to Mordor; and to the westward Minas Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin, as a shield against the wild men of the dales. In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the house of Anárion..."
The Silmarillion,
"The chief city of this southern realm was Osgiliath.... In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the house of Anárion, but they shared the realm between them and their thrones were set side by side in the Great Hall of Osgiliath."
Tolkien actually acknowledged the economic matters in one of his letters:
"I am not incapable or unaware of economic thought; and I think as far as the ‘mortals’ go, Men, Hobbits, and Dwarfs, that the situations are so devised that the economic likelihood is there and could be worked out. Gondor has sufficient ‘townlands’ and fiefs with good water and road approach to provide for its population and clearly has many industries though these are hardly alluded to. The Shire is placed in a water and mountain situation and a distance from the sea and a latitude that would give it a natural fertility, quite apart from the stated fact that it was a well-tended region when they took it over (no doubt with a good deal of older arts and crafts). The Shire-hobbits have no very great need of metals, but the Dwarfs are agents; and in the east of the Mountains of Lune are some of their mines (as shown in the earlier legends) : no doubt, the reason, or one of them, for their often crossing the Shire.”
Minas Tirith is later capital because of specific reasons, but before it could happened it was rebuild and enlarged by one of the previous kings and for a time it was a summer residence of king, before the capital in Osgiliath fell into ruin completely. The story itself also mentions that the city that is at the time of Lotr story capital of Gondor is provided with good roads and trading connections to make a living:
"Pippin could see all the Pelennor laid out before him, dotted into the distance with farmsteads and little walls, barns and byres... Many roads and tracks crossed the green fields, and there was much coming and going: wains moving in lines towards the Great Gate, and others passing out.. ‘That is the road to the vales of Tumladen and Lossarnach, and the mountain-villages, and then on to Lebennin,’ said Beregond. ‘There go the last of the wains that bear away to refuge the aged the children, and the women that must go with them. They must all be gone from the Gate and the road clear for a league before noon: that was the order. It is a sad necessity.’"
...
“‘Yes, lord,’ she answered; ‘but not enough, I reckon, for all that will need them. But I am sure I do not know where we shall find more; for all things are amiss in these dreadful days, what with fires and burnings, and the lads that run errands so few, and all the roads blocked. Why, it is days out of count since ever a carrier came in from Lossarnach to the market!”
Lossarnach the close neighbouring region south-west of Pelennor is another important agricultural area for providing required food and resources to the city:
"It was generally called in Gondor Lossarnach. Loss is Sindarin for ‘snow’, especially fallen and long-lying snow. For what reason this was prefixed to Arnach is unclear. Its upper valleys were renowned for their flowers, and below them there were great orchards, from which at the time of the War of the Ring much of the fruit needed in Minas Tirith still came. Though no mention of this is found in any chronicles-as is often the case with matters of common knowledge-it seems probable that the reference was in fact to the fruit blossom. Expeditions to Lossarnach to see the flowers and trees were frequently made by the people of Minas Tirith. (See index Lossarnach adding III 36,140;{41} Imloth Melui "sweet flower-valley", a place in Arnach)." The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor
Other cities in Gondor also make a lot of sense, for instance Pelargir is the oldest city in the region, it was in fact one of the first numenorean colonies in the region before Gondor's foundation. Pelargir is a great port-city located on shores of Anduin and estuary of river, it was a major port for ships and in fact for long it was a seat of the navy and fleets:
"[Ships] approaching Anduin and making for Pelargir went by the eastern side of Tol Falas and took the sea-way passage made by the Númenóreans in the midst of the Delta of Anduin."
As a D&D map maker, I always ask two questions before I place a city... Where is the fresh water? Where is the food?
If I have an answer for those two, then the third will dictate the rest of the city's character... Why here?
Ask these three questions before placing cities, and you can write a few pages detailing the beginnings of each city. Much to the delight of certain players with a penchant for local history. If you can tell a good story, players will keep coming back for more.
I'm so glad Campfire has a free module now, been wanting to use their service forever.
It took me 9 minutes to realise that that map is South Island New Zealand.
Yeah
And Graham first went to the site of Christchurch before finding a better place (Rangiora?). Because ChCh turns out to be built in a pretty bad spot. 😆
It looks like Georgia/Azerbaijan with a different mountain range
Your videos always make me think about my world building in a much deeper way. Admittedly I'm the type that thinks "hey that sounds like a cool setting" then builds the world around that. But even when working backwards it still helps to give sound reasonings and histories.
this is exactly what I need at the moment thanks for helping me Tim
I watched this with my kiddos to spice up their social studies today. They loved it, great job 💯
24:12-22:13 "Harvesting 'The Spice'." Sounds like talking about something you can't mention on YT cause...YT
In the video game "Spore" from 2006 once you reach the age of space- travel spice (which comes out of the ground in the form of a geysir) becomes the trade good number one. I was so confused about this until i got that this was a reference to Dune.
I don't know why UA-cam didn't push this to my home screen until six days later, but damn this is some of my favorite content of yours Tim! Really captures all the systemic elements so well, and the presentation is just exquisite. Hope you're doing well buddy
I think you forgot one Kind of Cities. Garrison Towns, Bordertowns, Towns that where build around Forts, to secure the Area.
Haven't finished the video yet but this series is so, so helpful for my d&d campaign!
Finally a UA-camr that makes such useful content that it actually justifies a 30 minute video to fit it all in. Bravo!
I've been working all alone on this one project of mine for three years already which is worldbuilding with its own complex calendar, seasons, and still ongoing with its entire civilizations' history. Now everytime I think about where it all came from, it never fails me to smile.
4:50 It actually got replaced in all but name by Edo, centuries before Edo became Tokyo and the capital.
Also, it wasn't agricultural economics, but the long period of war between feudal domains before that which really robbed Kyoto of relevance as a political capital. However, Tokugawa Ieyasu was shrewd in making his stronghold Edo the de facto capital, since it was significantly east of center (politically): in tying up the nobility and their armies by having them spend one of every two years in Edo (sankin-kōtai, an idea preserved from his forerunners), the city boomed quickly, enterprising merchants and artisans flocking there to sell goods and services needed by a sizable clientele. This policy also provided an incentive for the frequent travelers to ensure the maintenance and safety of roads along the way (and keep interdomain relations amicable).
Thanks to this channel I've started crafting a world to base a story. I NEVER knew how to even start with this until this channel popped up in my recommendeds. I've plastered my walls with corkboards, notes and strings! I have so many ideas so thank you 😊
11:06 3) the lowlands usually have better soil while the highlands allow for the building of say windmills. 4) The change in elevation will provide some protection from the elements leaivng your houses protected from the wind from at least one direction.
These two points are especially big on islands. The island of Öland in Sweden for an example have a village every mile along the crest between the islands highland area and it's lowland area. Some scattered villages across the lowland but mostly you only find villages again when you reach the shore. And on the highland areas and the entire eastern slope of the island barely a village.
When I create a fantasy region and need to place cities or settlements I just do it Civilizations style. Make a map on graph paper and give each 'tile' resource points just like in the game Civilizations. If you've played that game a bit you know where to place your cities.
I often have to go back a minute or two when watching these videos because I start world-building in my head and totally lose track of what Tim is saying XD
I think that's proof they're great content :)
Your wrong it's not "Graham the wizard who likes cats." It's "Cats who like to ride on Wizards' shoulder."
I’m literally home brewing a D&D campaign going off Wendover’s video on this topic and this helps even more! Thanks SO much!
Tim! This is perfect timing! I was recently fretting over where to put settlements. Thanks for reading my mind
oh man i nearly jumped when i saw the cover of "Children of Time" pop up. i recently finished reading it and it's sequel, "Children of Ruin" and it is some of the best sci-fi world-building i have seen in a long time. and yeah, the ant-colony computers does make sense with context of the book. it's REALLY good, i totally recommend it
Thank you your the one got me started on my writing im creating a animated action show and now I know how to write worlds, cultures,characters, and history
It's so fun hearing about building up where cities are and why they are the way they are. This was wonderful extra info added to my world building in helping work out ideas for other towns. The closest major city and primary location to the story is located in the heart of a massive forested region. I was wondering how this larger city and, important piece of the setting, a huge hotel / resort could exist in such an isolated area surrounded by drastically smaller towns and villages. This actually became a big piece on developing the shape of the entire geography in that region. The forest is surrounded by coastal mountains and for various reasons, sailing through those waters are dangerous. So the only means of travel from north to south is through the forest, following some of the rivers. And the city became a major stopping point along those paths.
A large hotel can always be the result of tourism. Either because people from all over the map want to see the beautiful landscape and experience specific activities, or because people pass through the area and need a place to stay at the night.
This is what I love about your videos. They're informational, encouraging, humorous, and engaging with examples from multiple sources. Great job Tim.
In regards to towns popping up along trade routes, there's the contemporary phenomena of encroaching urbanization inside of the Texas Triangle. The suburbs outside of Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston have been growing into urban centers of their own, and I think we're on schedule to see them merge into a singular Texas City in time for a real life Judge Dredd.
Legit thank you, I m working on this right now for my comic. It's like you are there on time, thanks for the great work!
10:35
"like a good episode of Dragon Ball Z, they're imaginary"
Hey now, that's uncalled for!
Settlements, Worldbuilding and Maps are some of my favourite things in the world and I enjoyed this video so much
This worldbuilding advices actually help a lot
The availability of water, the arability of land, access to salt and metals, in addition to such human inventions as trade routes. | and as a hint, y'all. If it was a good place to live ten thousand years ago, it's still a good place to live barring truly horrendous bad luck. There's a reason that Egypt's cities are still largely where the Pharaoh's were.
Generally. In fact, New York State is a really interesting take.
NY City itself is a coastal/dock city that attracts immigrants, and thus cheap "unskilled" labor.
Buffalo is a Fall Line city, using the energy harnessed by its large waterfalls as a resource.
Meanwhile, there are two agricultural hallmarks: Lumber and Wine. Lumber is actually easy: the Adirondack Mountains/Catskills have wide extensive forests. Which also lends to a large hunting economy, alongside a few sporadic ore deposits. You need shit to build cities, and the Adirondacks have the shit to build cities.
Wine, meanwhile...covers a larger swatch of the state. The Hudson River offers fertile land in a straight line north from NYC to Saratoga Springs, and arguably the edge of the Adirondacks. Travel and food, as well as trade...various levels of success is kind of expected. The Finger Lakes region is roughly established with a triangle that covers Ithaca, Auburn, and Rochester (though Seneca/Seneca Falls, Keuka, and other cities may be more well-known entities). And then Long Island...arguably the smallest of these three, having an entire literal island available to grow crops is obviously helpful, and being so close to NYC itself means the product can be produced at less cost because you're getting unskilled immigrants as farmers.
And then there's the trade outlet. This sees the Hudson River from North to South...but why Albany is potent enough to be the capital is because it resides along the Erie Canal path, which connects Albany specifically to Buffalo. And was the major trade route of New York State.
Which then gets to Syracuse, my hometown. 'Salt City' (its historical nickname) exists literally in the middle of the Erie Canal path, and simultaneously was the source of massive salt deposits. Resource reserve and trade route at once? And with industrialization, factories were able to abuse the ever-living fuck out of Onondaga Lake, using it for power (from turbines) as well as a water source (to cool operations and thus increase runtime/production) and pollution dump-site (what goes in, must come out).
And as Onondaga Lake became one of the top ten polluted bodies of water in the world, people moved out of the city into the suburbs: Liverpool, Manlius, Dewitt, Cicero. Airport between Mattydale and North Syracuse. Likewise, other suburbs exist elsewhere (Corfu and Akron for Buffalo, Buffalo itself for Niagara Falls, Schenectady for Albany, etc)
A single state, with nearly every principle highlighted multiple times over.
Hence why when Schliemann dynamited the ruins of Troy to find the old city, he ended up also dynamiting every city and culture that had ever chosen that same place to build on
Every time I watch these videos I roll the dice on whether my self-esteem goes up or down based on if it turns I'm good or bad with the area of writing discussed.
busts through the wall
DID SOMEBODY SAY WORLDBUILDING???
Oh no
Oh no
*busts through the wall*
OH YEEAAHH!
WHO WANTS TO START A REV- WOLRDBUILDING.. ..ADVENTURE!!?!
I absolutely love your videos. In developing my life-long project, I've made more progress since I found your channel than I ever did before. The right questions to ask oneself is, to me, more important than having the answers to said questions.
Around 9 minutes into the video you mentioned a world where there is no oceans, which made me think: "There wouldn't be enough water for rains if there wasn't any oceans, and if there wasn't an ocean, where would all the rain gather?"
Which made me think of a magical way to make such a world possible, such as demi-gods that would pour rain into an ever-drying planet because of a curse placed by an old god.
A question without an answer may lead to a truly original idea, but it would never surface if that question wasn't asked in the first place.
there are some towns named "Vila Velha" in Brazil, which literally means "Old Town".
There's a German city called "Linsengericht" (lentil dish)
These are my favorites of your world building vids! Where you explain the logistics to me. I love it.
11:07 Don't tell One Piece fans that their boats can't go up waterfalls.
OP has some fantastic, weird, and fantastically weird worldbuilding.
Love this video! I’ve been trying to world build for a TTRPG campaign I’m writing and I real struggle with things like this. I took screenshots of all the headings so I can remember your advice. Thanks a bunch!
Got a chuckle out of me when you used good ol new zealand for the "randomly generated map"
Damnit, now I'm thinking of way more things than I thought I needed to. Thanks.
This is EXACTLY what I needed right now. Tim, you're a lifesaver
THANK GOD. I've been looking for something like these for ages. All I've gotten was philosophical arguments on what makes a civilization. Thank you so much for explaining it so concisely!
Post industrial era story: Onward from Pixar. It's a world that has magic like Harry Potter and other fantasy series that are similar, but industrialization made using it, and any natural attribute from the "ancient times" obsolete.😊 I hope that helps doe any future videos Tim!❤
4:10 That peninsula in the bottom right looks AWESOME for a coastal trade city. Surrounded by sea and hills it's easily defensible and it's close to much fertile land for food. There would be mining towns on the southern side of the mountains which transport their product like stone, gem stones and ores down the rivers into the trade city. On the other side of the mountains is a forest which would have little hunting and lumberjack communities and fishing towns with one big port town which trades with the southern city by providing wood and wild meat for metal, stone and luxury goods.
I can't unsee Graham the Wizard who Likes Cats as GoodTimesWithScar
man i can not wait to read your book based purely on how much thought you put into these videos :)
This is precisely what I’ve been struggling with for so long!! Thank you! Time for me to get to work!!! 😊
the reach is like the perfect spot for food, gets the cool weather from the north bringing moisture and its really close to dorne giving that hot dry air and sand to feed that soil
An interesting observation is that a lot of rural towns in Australia are about 6 hours ride by horse apart. The towns that survived and grew were 4-6 hours car drive or on cross roads
Same with Russia. Small ancient towns ~ Day by horse apart.
I listen to your essays and continually feel like it hammes home just how unworldly I am, how little connection I have and reenforces my feeling that my attempts at making settings are hollow.
2020 however has shown me just how contrived and bullshit reality itself is so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.
"maybe your species is telepathic" *cut to 3 argonians silently tending their gardens perfectly in sync"
I made a cool map back in the day. I've been trying to redraw and enhance the ideas behind each location. This video gave a lot of helpful notes for me to use, thanks Tim!!!
The Post-industrial era section sounds a lot like Jade City. The greatest amount of industrial, economic and bureaucratic power is all centered around the city of Janloon due to its close proximity to the Jade mines. Jade which, FYI, gives people superpowers when they hold it or wear it. It is an extremely valuable resource that is highly regulated and is considered a status symbol.
Brandon Sanderson - a master at worldbuilding, magic, and hitting you in the feels
Thank you. This was exactly what I needed right now.
Could you also make a video on building world maps? With geography, biomes, etc. And is there a thing where I can design on a globe, instead of just a flat map?
Am I the only one who wants to see a book with Graham the Wizard Who Like Cats being the main character?
Yay! Gramm the Wizard Who Likes Cats is back! Also, congrats on your new kitten! And this video came at a perfect time for me! Thank you!
Infrastructure around culture is important too - EX - Speedway, Indiana. A town of 13,770 people that swells to 300, 500, 600+ THOUSAND PEOPLE for a single week during memorial day weekend and the Indy 500.
sometimes the strangest things can cause towns to exist I lived in a small city that was formed in the great depression when a bunch of people tried to move north in search of jobs but their old cars couldn't take the unusually steep road and broke down in the valley so lacking a better option they started building a town where they were because they couldn't fix their cars
I LOVE that you referenced an OSC book
Here in Argentina the city of La Plata was planned responding to a burocratic reason, Buenos Aires was the capital of the country and of the province. Great video!!
A way to have city states near world powers is to have them in the middle of two or more of these powers, and have them play all the sides. Many minor powers, including city states, managed to survive this way for centuries.
the timing of both this video and this sponsor could not be better! i was looking for a tool or system to organize all the information for my story for a while now, and i was starting to draw my map on paper just days ago! thanks tim for your impeccable work
“As boats, surprisingly, cannot go up waterfalls”
Somebody needs to watch ‘One Piece’, specifically the ‘Reverse Mountain’
Wano!
Great video. There is one/two more rules to follow when creating cities :
1. Travel distance, especially in part 1 and 2 of this video. If you check 1000 and 500 yo maps of Europe you can see that settlements are usually a day away from one another, bigger towns more or less 3 days horse ride away
2. Big/swamps. With exception of Petersburg, people avoid such lands, so sometimes rivers are not perfect ideas
YE3EEEEEEEEES! HE TALKED ABOUT RAILWAY TOWNS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
ok got that out of my system time to continue with the video.
I also got excited there :P
I still reference this video before I launch into any world building for my D&D campaigns. Incredibly insightful and well researched
As a aspiring DM this couldn't be released soon enough :D
@20:45 a category of post industrial cities that you may have overlooked: Cities devoted to the entertainment/tourism industry e. g. Las Vegas, Macau, Cancun. I don't blame you since there are very few examples of these in pop culture.