Worldbuilding Exchange Letter

[galadriel1010]

Hello! Here we go for Worldbuilding 2021. This is my first time (it's my first time for most exchanges), and I am Very Excited. Whether you've been assigned me, you're curious about my prompts, or just wondering wtf this nerd is on about, it's a pleasure to have you.

As my nominations are mostly under the same umbrellas, I’ve merged them for the purposes of this letter and sort of thrown the kitchen sink at them, so they’re all there to pick and choose in a smorgasbord of worldbuilding elements.

I am a nerd and a half. I did Business Management for my first degree and picked up a keen interest in managing organisational change and project management, along with sustainable development, and my current one is in Geography and Environmental Science to indulge my love of rocks, weather and urban development. I’m fascinated by the interactions between geology and the development of urban areas, the unique features of the landscape that shape the culture over thousands of years. I love an archaeologist who gets excited about a lump of iron slag. Whether you do want to create for me, or you just want to geek out about Time Team and karst landscapes, I am entirely here for all of it.

So without further ado...

Contents
Likes and DNWs
Book Recommendations
Dragon Age
- Prompts
Doctor Who Universe
- Prompts

Likes:
* In-universe meta - Letters, guidebooks and travel guides, encyclopaedia entries, well-bred ladies 'little black books', 'Who's Who's, non-contemporary accounts, university or school essays, archaeological society reports, talks given to the Women's Institute, incredibly niche non-fiction books.
* Plotty worldbuilding - Archaeological excavations, first day at a new job, adventurers, urban explorers, criminal investigations, well-bred young ladies doing the Grand Tour/gap yah, organisational change projects, establishing new organisations.
* Relationship likes - Established relationships, power couples, close sibling relationships, close relationships between more distant relatives (e.g. cousins as close as siblings, aunts and uncles sharing in raising their niblings), amicable break-ups, blended families, multi-generational families, people generally being decent to each other and getting along.
* Trope likes – Friends to lovers, rivals to friends, love languages, things left unsaid but understood, excessive levels of detail.
* Worldbuilding likes – Geology, geomorphology, tectonics, glacial, fluvial and coastal landforms; meteorology; massive engineering projects; trade networks; pubs, taverns and inns; markets; urbanisation.

DNWs:
* Polar regions – I have an inexplicable and mildly inconvenient phobia of extreme cold, hypothermia, frostbite, etc. Love a glacial landform, not so keen on actual glaciers.
* Graphic depictions of injuries, especially to feet and bones.

Books I’ve enjoyed
Non-fiction I’ve enjoyed recently for worldbuilding ideas:
* Shakespeare’s Local – Pete Brown – The biography of the George Inn in Southwark, London’s last surviving galleried coaching inn.
* Built on Bones – Brenna Hassett – The impact of urbanisation on human evolution and the marks its left on our bones.
* The World For A Shilling – Michael Leapman – About the Great Exhbition of 1851
* Longitude – Dava Sobel – The story of the quest to solve the Longitude Problem and save lives at sea.
* This Other London – John Rogers – Adventures on foot through London’s suburbs
* How We Got To Now – Steven Johnson – Six innovations that changed the world and brought us to the one we recognise.

Fiction with worldbuilding I enjoy:
* Dragon Age, games and books – EA Games
* Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch
* Discworld – Terry Pratchett
* David Blaize – E.F. Benson

Dragon Age
Nominated fandoms:
Dragon Age – All Media Types
Dragon Age (Video Games)

Nominated Tags:
* WB: Avvar Culture and Religion (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Free Marcher City States (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Kalna Society in Thedas (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Orzammar under King Bhelen (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Teaching Magic in Tevinter (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Tevinter Politics (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: The Dalish Enclave in Ferelden (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: The Industrial Revolution in Thedas (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Avvar Culture and Religion (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Free Marcher City States (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Kalna Society in Thedas (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Orzammar under King Bhelen (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Teaching Magic in Tevinter (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: Tevinter Politics (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: The Dalish Enclave in Ferelden (Dragon Age AMT)
* WB: The Industrial Revolution in Thedas (Dragon Age AMT)

Prompts:
I love how complex Thedas is, and especially the fact that we have so many edges and so little of the middle of the jigsaw filled in. There’s so much room to explore, both geographically and chronologically, even in places we’ve explored like Ferelden and Orlais, and the Free Marches and beyond are almost completely unexplored. I really love the codices in the games, the different personalities that write them and the different voices and interpretations, but I also love things like Hard in Hightown and the potential for different genres of story told in the universe.

* Trevelyan Inquisitor undertakes a Grand Tour of the Free Marches before the Mage Rebellion and enjoys the delights of the cities.
* Kalna dwarves living under a human city but not interacting (inspired by Pratchett’s dwarven cultures in Ankh Morpork)
* Bianca Davri’s inventions drive the progress of urbanisation in the aftermath of the War with Corypheus with the usual unintended consequences.
* Archaeologists from various universities exploring different sites, either from history or a future interpretation of the Dragon Age.
* The Dalish adapting from a nomadic culture to a more settled and urbanised life in southern Ferelden, or not doing so, and reclaiming their history and sites.
* Life and politics in Tevinter told through minutes from committees of the Magisterium.
* Philliam’s essays on the creation of Orlais, or on the history of the Free Marches.
* Brother Genitivi’s evolution post-Tevinter Nights.
* David Blaize-style account of life in a Tevinter Circle. Sports, fraternisation, lessons and cheeking teachers, trying to impress the popular boys and become one of them. (Insert your preferred boarding school novels as appropriate, David Blaize is a personal favourite and available on Gutenberg)

Doctor Who Universe
Nominated fandoms:
Torchwood
Doctor Who and Related Fandoms
Doctor Who (2005)

Nominated Tags:
* WB: which former companions of the Doctor know each other? (DW 2005)
* WB: Alien hunting organisations after the disbanding of UNIT (Doctor Who Universe)
* WB: History of the Torchwood Institute in the 20th Century (Doctor Who Universe)
* WB: Inter-organisational cooperation in the 21st Century (Doctor Who Universe)
* WB: The Nixon Administration's response to the invasion of the Silence (Doctor Who Universe)
* WB: Other Torchwood branches (Torchwood)
* WB: The underground alien artifact black market (Torchwood)


I love the idea of what happens after the Doctor leaves. Class is one of my favourite shows and deals with that in a really interesting, challenging and frequently tragic way. I’d really like stories or meta about how people deal with living on a planet that’s frequently under alien attack, and is apparently scattered with Rifts that dump space flotsam and jetsam at random. I’m particularly interested in the impact that the collapse of the British Empire had on that, with Torchwood either withdrawing or being left behind across the world, underfunded and overstretched and dealing with the legacy of imperialism.

* Amy and Rory meet up with Talulah and Lazlo in 1930s New York and form their own version of Torchwood, possibly with help from Jack and River.
* Ryan and Graham meet up with other former companions and UNIT members to start a budget alien hunting organisation.
* An adult finally steps in at Coal Hill School to deal with that Rift.
* Canton and his partner are put in charge of setting up an American version of Torchwood in 1970.
* The annual conference for the various alien hunting organisations over the years, possibly seen through Jack’s eyes.
* A former companion becomes the nexus of the former companion network.
* Alien life on earth in the 21st century.
* Ace’s charitable foundation.