Muse Food – How Does Your World Defend Itself?
There are a gazillion ways for a civilization or a world to defend itself.
The choice of method tells us a lot about the civilization, how they think, what they value.
A truly peace loving civilization, for example, might defend itself by building strong partnerships with other civilizations. They are less likely to be attacked because they have friends or they ARE friends. In a disagreement, their first response will be to send a negotiator. Partnerships will be valued and celebrated. They might even recognize the special celebrations of their partners as well as their own.
A war loving, violent civilization, as another example, might defend itself by attacking first. They will have a strong military with many of its residents expected to serve or have served in it. There will be multiple holidays or celebrations of the military. They will place special emphasis on wars in their history, maybe even reenacting them.
Adding these details can add richness to your world and/or your story!
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Predator: Badlands And Intelligent Adversaries
Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Predator: Badlands and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this SciFi Action Movie set on a fantastical alien world, you might wish to skip this post.
I LOVED Predator: Badlands and yes, I have enjoyed ALL of the Predator movies (my favorite being the first Alien vs Predator movie, which I would consider to be a romance if the hero’s fate wasn’t what it was – dang it).
But Predator: Badlands is special.
Because the alien world it is set in is absolutely amazing. It is worth viewing for this alone.
There are magical little details like the razor grass, which could very well have ancestors in common with our Earth vegetation. Grass cuts on our planet are extremely painful (they are similar to deep paper cuts, yet with the increased possibility of infection). And there are plants that are silver in color.
Every plant and/or creature in this alien world has possible relatives here on Earth. As someone who loves world building AND evolutionary biology, this level of care is impressive.
Another reason to watch Predator: Badlands is the big baddie.
The unkillable creature the Predator is hunting has earned its place at the top of this hostile planet’s extensive food chain.
One of my pet peeves are dumb big baddies. Yes, underlings can be idiots. That is highly likely. (grins) And yes, villains can make mistakes (one common human mistake is overconfidence).
But you don’t get to the top by being dumb (So NEVER dismiss a real life big baddie because you feel they lack intelligence. They don’t. You’re underestimating them.).
In Predator: Badlands, we are shown that the Big Baddie, the alien creature the Predator is hunting, can learn. Quickly. It can communicate. It can problem solve.
It is formidable opponent.
And that makes this already action-packed movie even more thrilling. And interesting.
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Muse Food – Respect For The Land
I read a quote recently that said you can determine who are the invaders and who are the locals by how they treat the land.
Invaders are careless with the land. They destroy it. Forever
Locals are careful with the land. They try their best not to harm it permanently.
Are the beings in the world you’re writing or reading invaders or locals? How do they treat the land around them?
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Muse Food – New Year’s Eve And Other Points In Time
Wednesday is New Year’s Eve.
It is the end of the year, of 2025.
It is also a day we, humans, invented to help us keep track and deal with passing moments, with the relentless progression of time.
It has no meaning other than the ones we give it. Yet it has become super important (and fun!) for many of us.
Do your characters have days, months, years in their worlds? Are there points in their timelines they celebrate or acknowledge?
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Muse Food – The Ruins That Remain
In any world, there are remnants of the past. There could be a fallen rotting tree, the skeleton of a bird, dilapidated buildings, crashed and now rusting spaceships.
These remnants give newcomers hints of the world’s past.
There are also the ruins that are deliberately not built over or removed. They are indications of the past the current inhabitants WANT to be seen and remembered. And often they reflect what the current inhabitants WANT newcomers to understand about their current culture or society.
What are these ruins in your world?
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Muse Food – Fairy Houses And Other World Building Hints
When the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I visited Iceland, we were fascinated by the fairy houses, tiny homes crafted by humans for the hidden folk.
In a story, structures like that would be a strong hint we weren’t in a purely human world. It is a hint of magic, of the paranormal, of the unknown.
And hints like these are powerful in storytelling and for worldbuilding.
Because a much beloved story technique is to, at first, make a world seem like the reader’s world here in present day Earth. That is comfortable. It is relatable. The reader can focus on the characters.
Then we slowly introduce the unusual world-specific elements, pushing the reader out of their comfort zones.
Little hints such as fairy houses or a clockwork-like clicking sound deep in a forest or upside down rain are great ways to start this transition.
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Muse Food – Waterfalls And World Systems
Every planet, every civilization, every home runs on systems.
(And yes, a waterfall is part of a system, the planet’s magnificent water system.)
I think of systems as flows. The water from a melting glacier flows into a river. A new law flows from the political system to the communication system to the legal system. A story flows from an idea to a scene.
What are the systems in your story’s world?
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Muse Food – Glaciers And Unexpected Permanence
One of the (many) things that fascinate me about glaciers is they are crafted of ice and snow, which are usually transient, yet glaciers are semi-permanent entities.
The above is a glacier located in Iceland that was surrounded by greenish grass when we saw it.
Snow and ice usually melts and goes away. Especially in warmer part of the planets. It isn’t designed to stick around. We expect it to disappear.
Yet glaciers have survived for hundreds of thousands of years. Some glacier ice in Antarctica is almost a million years old. And if human activity hadn’t warmed the planet so dang much, glaciers would have survived for hundreds of thousands of years more.
What elements of your fictional world are transient? What elements are permanent? And are there some elements that we think SHOULD be transient yet are permanent?
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Muse Food – What Is On The Flag?
(This flag was flying at an important historical site in Iceland.)
Countries have flags. Monarchies have flags. Sports teams have flags (or banners). When we were kids, a school assignment was to create our own personal flag.
Flags are important.
The images and words displayed on a flag symbolizes the values that person or entity wishes others to know about them.
The Ukraine flag, for example, is a band of blue over a band of yellow.
The band of blue represents the sky (which, in turn, represents things like freedom and endless opportunities).
The band of yellow represents wheat fields, a key crop for Ukraine. It relays that the country has its roots (pun intended – grins) in farming and agriculture. Feeding their people and others is important for Ukraine.
It is a single simple image yet it conveys so much.
What would be on the flag for the world in your story? What would be on your characters’ flags?
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Muse Food – Currency In The Seychelles And The Things We Value
The paper currency in the Seychelles is so beautiful (when not crumpled – grins) many travelers save the smaller denominations as souvenirs.
The images feature nature and landscapes.
And I thought it was great that locals and visitors are reminded of the importance of nature whenever they use the currency! Maybe it will cause them to think more intensely about their purchases and about how those purchases impact the environment around them.
Currency here on Earth and in our fictional worlds often reflect what that society values.
An authoritarian regime, for example, would have an image of the authority figure on their currency. A rock-loving society would have images of great rocks on their currency.
Sharing little details like the images on currency can deepen world building and draw readers more fully into our stories.
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