Worldbuilding 2022 Letter!
Jan. 14th, 2022 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitsunerei88Dear Worldbuilder,
Thank you for writing for me! This letter looks long and intimidating—despite this, I’m actually fairly easy to please, so feel free to pick and choose as you want! I have a tendency to ask for the moon, but I’m pretty happy with a mooncake, too! As always, if there’s something confusing, you can reach out to the mod to ask me because chances are, I just didn’t think of something or didn’t edit something properly.
General
General Likes:
General Dislikes:
In general, unless otherwise requested, I don't take well to crack fic, soapbox fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I would like comfort, or I often just can't get through it—same goes for angst (unless explicitly requested, of course!). That said, these are general dislikes--they're not DNWs, I have liked fics with all these themes, I have sometimes requested these things, and if you have an idea that you’re worried might come close to one of these but where these aren’t the focus, don’t worry and go for it.
Hard DNWs:
Please note that these are my general hard DNWs. In some cases, there may be sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply, and in that case follow what was in the sign up.
Harry Potter
Magical Britain’s Economy and Monetary Systems of the Wizarding World
Honestly, I have so many questions about this. Why, exactly, is this controlled exclusively by goblins? I would think that some witch or wizard at some time thought to set up their own economic or financial system, but why does the goblin one dominate? Do goblins dominate worldwide? Surely some witch or wizard somewhere had the brilliant plan of setting up their own currency and financial system—what happened? Is this what the goblin wars were ultimately about?
Alternatively, there’s a trope in fic where Harry is rich because he apparently has a trust fund that he gets when he’s seventeen. Considering that Harry seems to have free and ready access to his account right from when he’s eleven, and from someone who does this for a living, this… doesn’t actually make sense unless James and Lily went and did some truly wonky stuff while they were alive that purposely divided Harry’s money into two separate pots. Given that they were about twenty, I somehow don’t see that they would have thought of a complicated dual trust structure for their infant child, especially if they were in hiding and didn’t expect to be betrayed. Realistically, there are two paths if children receive an inheritance:
1. The parent(s) die with a Will in place: the most common Will structure here will appoint a trustee to take charge of the inheritance, and that trustee would have the power and authority to invest and spend the money for the good of the child. Since Sirius was already Harry’s godfather, it’s likely that if they had Wills, he would have been appointed. This makes sense with canon, in that since Sirius is in Azkaban or on the run until Goblet of Fire, he’s effectively an “absent” Trustee and Harry has free range over his funds even if Sirius is legally responsible for his spending. Ideas from this: Harry and Sirius talking about his account? Sirius reviewing Harry’s account at Gringotts and deciding to let things lie because Harry is actually a very responsible kid? Really, any interaction between them about his money?
2. The parent(s) die without a Will in place: the money is just Harry’s, with no oversight. In most modern common-law jurisdictions, this means the money would go to somewhere like the government or the courts to manage with virtually zero access by the child until they came of legal age. In the Wizarding World, you could substitute the goblins for this role. Ideas from this: Harry argues with the goblins over his access to money before he’s seventeen? Harry reviews his transaction history at seventeen for the first time and argues with the goblins about their bank fees?
Basically, in no common structure would Harry also get a trust fund later at seventeen—but if you want, you could also make this make sense by having a First Wizarding War fic where James and Lily actively discuss this very strange and wonky system that could in fact be written into their Wills?
The Ministry of Magic / Justice System of the Wizarding World / Wizarding Law
Look, I’m enough of a nerd that I wrote an essay on this very topic not too long ago, which led to some really fun and wonky ideas which I’d love for you to explore if you wanted.
Honestly, for all of these tags, I just have so many questions. How is the Ministry of Magic structured? How is authority delegated from the Minister of Magic downwards? What about international politics—does the Ministry of Magic have embassies in other countries, or at the International Confederation of Wizards? What is working at the Ministry like, day-to-day? What about the physical Ministry of Magic building? How is legislation passed? What is the relationship between the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot?
What about Wizarding Law? Beyond the structure of the wizarding courts, which seem to be fairly alien if you stick strictly to the books—what about Veritaserum? Is Veritaserum testimony admissible in trials? And how are sentient creatures treated under law? If a goblin commits a crime, who has jurisdiction?
Outside of criminal law, what about civil law? How does wizarding family law work? Are divorces allowed? Or how about contract law—in a world where there are any number of magical vows and oaths to compel compliance, how does contract law develop, or does it simply not develop at all?
Honestly, the world of law is your oyster, and there is basically no wrong answer because what’s shown in canon is so different from a common-law system that you could tell me the moon was green and I’d believe you. Have fun!
Post-Second Wizarding War Rebuilding
I love rebuilding and post-war fics in general, so I’d love to see pretty much anything here. How does Hogwarts adapt to having a year of students who are essentially “eighth-years”? How do they handle the fact that almost every student is somehow traumatized by the war—for the second-years and up, they lived through the Carrow reign of terror, even if they weren’t fighting in the war itself. How is Defence Against the Dark Arts handled?
What about society at large? I’m sure there was damage to places like Diagon Alley, at least to certain, Ministry-supporting shops and so on, or to Hogsmeade. What does rebuilding look like outside of Hogwarts? What about funding for rebuilding—is there a department of the Ministry that’s just dedicated to raising funds for rebuilding? Are they applying for funds from the ICW or the goblins for rebuilding?
Magical London
London is a magical place, says me who’s never been there. I love the idea of London in the way that people who have never been there idealize it—there’s so much history, and it’s the land of Sherlock Holmes and black cabs and the Tower of London and all the things! This is a great place to explore the life of a witch or wizard living in Muggle London, and how they might mix magic with the place they live; or, how about Muggles living in London who witness magic, are they just like “oh that just happens here”? What about those legendary places, like the Tower of London—is it actually haunted? Is it magic? Is it both and do Aurors periodically have to go there to exorcise a magical threat?
Courting in the Magical World
This is an interesting one because you can really go in so many directions with this! I think there’s good canonical evidence for saying that witches and wizards just date like anyone else (at least in the circles that Harry runs in), but I’d love to see really traditional rituals, or particular magical traditions or gifts.
His Dark Materials
The Magisterium
All right, let’s just confront the fact that Pullman was writing a screed on the Church and especially on Calvinism. So, let’s take that and just run with it—tell me about any of the schisms in Christianity in the context of Dust and daemons. But in real history, we get a massive divide in the Protestant Reformation, wherein a large number of Christians simply reject the authority of the Catholic Church; so, what is the Magisterium? In this world, did the Counter-Reformation adopt some Reformation ideas to reunite the Catholicism with Protestantism into the Magisterium?
To summarize: I am weirdly fascinated with religious history and would probably like anything.
International Politics/World History
What do these look like in a world with other sentient species? How do the panserbjorne and the witches impact world history? Do the panserbjorne or the witches have a seat in the international political scene, or are their traditional lands simply marked as “do not go there”? If so, how do the panserbjorne or witches handle conflicts over, e.g. settlements, or fishing waters, or pretty much anything?
Old Kingdom
The Interregnum
I’m just fascinated by the entire period of the Interregnum, and how the Old Kingdom people survived during this time. How does Belisaere decline, if it did at all? What is life like through the Interregnum, both in Belisaere and elsewhere? How did people cope with the rising threats of the broken Charter Stones and the undead creatures through this time?
I’d love to hear something about one of the Regents who held the throne in this period, trying to keep the country together, or about the Abhorsens before Sabriel during this period.
The Old Kingdom before the Interregnum
What was this world like? What world did Touchstone grow up in, compared to the one that he woke up in? From the books, we know a little about the palace, but little else. Alternatively—what is remembered about the Old Kingdom before the Interregnum afterwards? How do the people rewrite or imagine their own history? I’d love something Touchstone centred, but this is a fairly blank slate, so have fun!
Original Work – Sci-Fi
Early Human-Alien Communications / First Contact with an Alien Civilization
Recently I was thinking about the two messages that humans sent out into the void: the Voyager messages, and the Arecibo message. Take the perspective of the alien civilization that receives it—do they decode it? If so, how? What do they think, once they do? Or, invert it—let’s say we receive a message. Do we decode it? If so, how? What does it say? What do we think or do?
Alternatively, any alien civilization is not going to share a language with us, and may not even share a mode of language (e.g., what if they use smells and scents to communicate?). How do we establish contact or communicate at all?
Early Law of Outer Space / Policing and Law Enforcement in Outer Space
All the legal stuff under one section! One thing that has always struck me is that space is huge. How are we going to regulate it? What does the early law of outer space look like, in a world where enforcement is necessarily going to be complicated or non-existent? How does policing and law enforcement work, when they know that first it’s very difficult for them to capture anyone committing a crime at all, and second that there won’t be much backup coming, if at all? I’d love something that treats the early space-travel period most, since that’s the time that we’ll be working this sort of thing out.
Alternatively, outside the criminal system, how do contracts and so on work early on? Maritime law is in many ways responsible for modern day corporate and insurance law, because once only a few centuries ago, the ocean and trading missions were distant, dangerous, and expensive. How are early private spaceships funded? How to early private spaceship captains pay back their debts?
Finally, for aliens—what laws do we put into place for first contact? What do regular people do if they encounter an alien, possibly for the first time? Are there regulations that spaceship captains must study before being able to purchase a ship? Is there anything like the Prime Directive? Enjoy!
I hope you enjoy writing as much as I know I'll enjoy reading it!
Thank you for writing for me! This letter looks long and intimidating—despite this, I’m actually fairly easy to please, so feel free to pick and choose as you want! I have a tendency to ask for the moon, but I’m pretty happy with a mooncake, too! As always, if there’s something confusing, you can reach out to the mod to ask me because chances are, I just didn’t think of something or didn’t edit something properly.
General
General Likes:
- Fics that are character-focused, character-driven, and deal with character exploration or character development. Show me aspects of a character I never considered before, or explorations of how a character's upbringing influences their worldview!
- Fics as challenge, whether it be a challenge on canon, on fanon, on fandom, or a comment on our own reality! This includes rage-driven spite-fic where you want to make a Point, which I often enjoy.
- A focus on relationships, particularly how a character interacts with the world around them and other characters based on their upbringing and worldview.
- Thematically, I love when characters are put in a tough spot, moral ambiguity, and themes around honour, duty, and responsibility.
- All flavours of AU. Canon-divergence, Modern AUs, Mundane AUs, crossovers, etc, especially if it interacts with one of the above.
- Worldbuilding, especially through in-universe documents (please consider this an opt-in to pretty much whatever in-universe document or weird in-universe storytelling device you can dream up).
- Alongside the worldbuilding, I really like accuracy and real-life details. I’ve fucking adored fic that involve a deep understanding of 9/11, I’ve written fic where R2P is a big deal, I suspect I’m known for my legal shit, and so—if you have specialized knowledge of something, I love seeing it!
- Romance of all varieties: fluff, happy endings, drunken confessions, friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriages, established relationships, slow-burn, shovel talk, and pining (mutual or otherwise). In general, I prefer M/F pairings, but I don’t mind M/M or F/F pairings and prefer them if canon (I just enjoy them differently because I’m cishet).
- Smut-wise, I love first times, gentle sex, rough sex, possessive themes, mild BDSM (e.g. bondage, spanking with a hand), D/s with femsub, impregnation and pregnancy.
General Dislikes:
In general, unless otherwise requested, I don't take well to crack fic, soapbox fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I would like comfort, or I often just can't get through it—same goes for angst (unless explicitly requested, of course!). That said, these are general dislikes--they're not DNWs, I have liked fics with all these themes, I have sometimes requested these things, and if you have an idea that you’re worried might come close to one of these but where these aren’t the focus, don’t worry and go for it.
Hard DNWs:
Please note that these are my general hard DNWs. In some cases, there may be sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply, and in that case follow what was in the sign up.
- Character bashing. In general, I like to imagine that all characters are like people—they're complex, and they have an array of good points and bad points.
- Harm or death of children or small animals (background mentions or past references is fine, as are things like statistics—I just don’t want to be dragged through it in detail, like please don’t make this a central point of the fic).
- Except otherwise indicated, non-canonical major character death, graphic violence and torture (graphic being “more than what is in canon”), non-con or dub-con, PWP or large age differences (>15)
- Adultery or infidelity (specifically, this is mostly about the betrayal--if you have a plot where two people are married for convenience and happen to have other relationships, that wouldn't trigger as long as everyone knows and doesn't care)
- Smut-wise, unless it’s indicated above in my likes, I’m likely not going to appreciate anything kinky. To be more specific, I DNW A/B/O, age play, humiliation, bloodplay, cannibalism or vore, watersports, scat, mpreg, snuff, or underage (<15).
Harry Potter
| Any or No Characters | Magical Britain's Economy |
| Original Characters | Monetary Systems of the Wizarding World |
| Magical Law and Legal Systems | |
| Magical London | |
| Post-Second Wizarding War Rebuilding | |
| The Ministry of Magic | |
| Courting in the magical world |
Magical Britain’s Economy and Monetary Systems of the Wizarding World
Honestly, I have so many questions about this. Why, exactly, is this controlled exclusively by goblins? I would think that some witch or wizard at some time thought to set up their own economic or financial system, but why does the goblin one dominate? Do goblins dominate worldwide? Surely some witch or wizard somewhere had the brilliant plan of setting up their own currency and financial system—what happened? Is this what the goblin wars were ultimately about?
Alternatively, there’s a trope in fic where Harry is rich because he apparently has a trust fund that he gets when he’s seventeen. Considering that Harry seems to have free and ready access to his account right from when he’s eleven, and from someone who does this for a living, this… doesn’t actually make sense unless James and Lily went and did some truly wonky stuff while they were alive that purposely divided Harry’s money into two separate pots. Given that they were about twenty, I somehow don’t see that they would have thought of a complicated dual trust structure for their infant child, especially if they were in hiding and didn’t expect to be betrayed. Realistically, there are two paths if children receive an inheritance:
1. The parent(s) die with a Will in place: the most common Will structure here will appoint a trustee to take charge of the inheritance, and that trustee would have the power and authority to invest and spend the money for the good of the child. Since Sirius was already Harry’s godfather, it’s likely that if they had Wills, he would have been appointed. This makes sense with canon, in that since Sirius is in Azkaban or on the run until Goblet of Fire, he’s effectively an “absent” Trustee and Harry has free range over his funds even if Sirius is legally responsible for his spending. Ideas from this: Harry and Sirius talking about his account? Sirius reviewing Harry’s account at Gringotts and deciding to let things lie because Harry is actually a very responsible kid? Really, any interaction between them about his money?
2. The parent(s) die without a Will in place: the money is just Harry’s, with no oversight. In most modern common-law jurisdictions, this means the money would go to somewhere like the government or the courts to manage with virtually zero access by the child until they came of legal age. In the Wizarding World, you could substitute the goblins for this role. Ideas from this: Harry argues with the goblins over his access to money before he’s seventeen? Harry reviews his transaction history at seventeen for the first time and argues with the goblins about their bank fees?
Basically, in no common structure would Harry also get a trust fund later at seventeen—but if you want, you could also make this make sense by having a First Wizarding War fic where James and Lily actively discuss this very strange and wonky system that could in fact be written into their Wills?
The Ministry of Magic / Justice System of the Wizarding World / Wizarding Law
Look, I’m enough of a nerd that I wrote an essay on this very topic not too long ago, which led to some really fun and wonky ideas which I’d love for you to explore if you wanted.
Honestly, for all of these tags, I just have so many questions. How is the Ministry of Magic structured? How is authority delegated from the Minister of Magic downwards? What about international politics—does the Ministry of Magic have embassies in other countries, or at the International Confederation of Wizards? What is working at the Ministry like, day-to-day? What about the physical Ministry of Magic building? How is legislation passed? What is the relationship between the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot?
What about Wizarding Law? Beyond the structure of the wizarding courts, which seem to be fairly alien if you stick strictly to the books—what about Veritaserum? Is Veritaserum testimony admissible in trials? And how are sentient creatures treated under law? If a goblin commits a crime, who has jurisdiction?
Outside of criminal law, what about civil law? How does wizarding family law work? Are divorces allowed? Or how about contract law—in a world where there are any number of magical vows and oaths to compel compliance, how does contract law develop, or does it simply not develop at all?
Honestly, the world of law is your oyster, and there is basically no wrong answer because what’s shown in canon is so different from a common-law system that you could tell me the moon was green and I’d believe you. Have fun!
Post-Second Wizarding War Rebuilding
I love rebuilding and post-war fics in general, so I’d love to see pretty much anything here. How does Hogwarts adapt to having a year of students who are essentially “eighth-years”? How do they handle the fact that almost every student is somehow traumatized by the war—for the second-years and up, they lived through the Carrow reign of terror, even if they weren’t fighting in the war itself. How is Defence Against the Dark Arts handled?
What about society at large? I’m sure there was damage to places like Diagon Alley, at least to certain, Ministry-supporting shops and so on, or to Hogsmeade. What does rebuilding look like outside of Hogwarts? What about funding for rebuilding—is there a department of the Ministry that’s just dedicated to raising funds for rebuilding? Are they applying for funds from the ICW or the goblins for rebuilding?
Magical London
London is a magical place, says me who’s never been there. I love the idea of London in the way that people who have never been there idealize it—there’s so much history, and it’s the land of Sherlock Holmes and black cabs and the Tower of London and all the things! This is a great place to explore the life of a witch or wizard living in Muggle London, and how they might mix magic with the place they live; or, how about Muggles living in London who witness magic, are they just like “oh that just happens here”? What about those legendary places, like the Tower of London—is it actually haunted? Is it magic? Is it both and do Aurors periodically have to go there to exorcise a magical threat?
Courting in the Magical World
This is an interesting one because you can really go in so many directions with this! I think there’s good canonical evidence for saying that witches and wizards just date like anyone else (at least in the circles that Harry runs in), but I’d love to see really traditional rituals, or particular magical traditions or gifts.
His Dark Materials
| Any or No Characters | The Magisterium |
| Original Characters | International Politics |
| World History |
The Magisterium
All right, let’s just confront the fact that Pullman was writing a screed on the Church and especially on Calvinism. So, let’s take that and just run with it—tell me about any of the schisms in Christianity in the context of Dust and daemons. But in real history, we get a massive divide in the Protestant Reformation, wherein a large number of Christians simply reject the authority of the Catholic Church; so, what is the Magisterium? In this world, did the Counter-Reformation adopt some Reformation ideas to reunite the Catholicism with Protestantism into the Magisterium?
To summarize: I am weirdly fascinated with religious history and would probably like anything.
International Politics/World History
What do these look like in a world with other sentient species? How do the panserbjorne and the witches impact world history? Do the panserbjorne or the witches have a seat in the international political scene, or are their traditional lands simply marked as “do not go there”? If so, how do the panserbjorne or witches handle conflicts over, e.g. settlements, or fishing waters, or pretty much anything?
Old Kingdom
| Any or No Character | The Old Kingdom before the Interregnum |
| Original Characters | The Interregnum |
| Touchstone |
The Interregnum
I’m just fascinated by the entire period of the Interregnum, and how the Old Kingdom people survived during this time. How does Belisaere decline, if it did at all? What is life like through the Interregnum, both in Belisaere and elsewhere? How did people cope with the rising threats of the broken Charter Stones and the undead creatures through this time?
I’d love to hear something about one of the Regents who held the throne in this period, trying to keep the country together, or about the Abhorsens before Sabriel during this period.
The Old Kingdom before the Interregnum
What was this world like? What world did Touchstone grow up in, compared to the one that he woke up in? From the books, we know a little about the palace, but little else. Alternatively—what is remembered about the Old Kingdom before the Interregnum afterwards? How do the people rewrite or imagine their own history? I’d love something Touchstone centred, but this is a fairly blank slate, so have fun!
Original Work – Sci-Fi
| Any or No Characters | Early Human-Alien Communications |
| Original Characters | Early Law of Outer Space |
| First Contact with an Alien Civilization | |
| Policing and Law Enforcement in Outer Space |
Early Human-Alien Communications / First Contact with an Alien Civilization
Recently I was thinking about the two messages that humans sent out into the void: the Voyager messages, and the Arecibo message. Take the perspective of the alien civilization that receives it—do they decode it? If so, how? What do they think, once they do? Or, invert it—let’s say we receive a message. Do we decode it? If so, how? What does it say? What do we think or do?
Alternatively, any alien civilization is not going to share a language with us, and may not even share a mode of language (e.g., what if they use smells and scents to communicate?). How do we establish contact or communicate at all?
Early Law of Outer Space / Policing and Law Enforcement in Outer Space
All the legal stuff under one section! One thing that has always struck me is that space is huge. How are we going to regulate it? What does the early law of outer space look like, in a world where enforcement is necessarily going to be complicated or non-existent? How does policing and law enforcement work, when they know that first it’s very difficult for them to capture anyone committing a crime at all, and second that there won’t be much backup coming, if at all? I’d love something that treats the early space-travel period most, since that’s the time that we’ll be working this sort of thing out.
Alternatively, outside the criminal system, how do contracts and so on work early on? Maritime law is in many ways responsible for modern day corporate and insurance law, because once only a few centuries ago, the ocean and trading missions were distant, dangerous, and expensive. How are early private spaceships funded? How to early private spaceship captains pay back their debts?
Finally, for aliens—what laws do we put into place for first contact? What do regular people do if they encounter an alien, possibly for the first time? Are there regulations that spaceship captains must study before being able to purchase a ship? Is there anything like the Prime Directive? Enjoy!
I hope you enjoy writing as much as I know I'll enjoy reading it!
