Worldbuilding Exchange 2023

[withinadream]

Thank you for writing for me! I’m within_a_dream on AO3 and I have a tag of previous letters on this journal if you want to take a look at some of my previous requests. I'm requesting fic and in-universe meta for all requests. I welcome art treats, but didn't feel that my requests for this exchange were well-suited enough for art to request it as a main gift and risk stymieing my creator!

I have no DNWs for this exchange. I just really love the universes of all these fandoms, and I want to see what you come up with! In general, please feel free to include whatever characters or ships you like, including OCs. I'm mostly picking the characters I feel are best suited to my worldbuilding requests, but if you want to run with a character I didn't request or one that isn't in the tagset, please feel free to take the Any/No Characters tag at its word!

Likes and Such

• Any characters/ships/friendships


• Any POV and tense (especially canon pastiche if that's your thing), any format (interactive fiction, poetry, etc)


• Worldbuilding as seen through an outsider's perspective


• Worldbuilding through a character's school classes, magic lessons, characters' notes on things they're researching, etc


• In-universe myths, religious texts, folklore


• Scientific and academic papers


• Anthropologic research on the requested cultures


• Characters' notes in the margin of nonfiction books they're reading


• A close look at anything you as my assigned creator/treater are especially passionate

Queen's Thief

I haven't read Moira's Pen yet, but I'll have finished it by the time works are revealed, so feel free to include details from it (and please forgive me if my prompts contradict anything from it).

Characters: Any or No Characters, Original Characters, Pheris Erondites, Any God or Goddess

Worldbuilding

• WB: Faith on the Little Peninsula (Queen's Thief) – I'm fascinated by the religion stuff we get in the books, and I always want more of it. We mostly see the religious beliefs of people who the gods have directly interacted with, and I'm interested in the faith of more mundane characters, or how witnessing direct divine intervention impacts people's faith. I'd also love to see how a character chooses which god or gods to dedicate themselves to, and what their worship entails.


• WB: Religions outside the Little Peninsula (Queen's Thief) – we barely see anything about the religious beliefs of other countries, and I'm really interested to see more. We get the most about the Mede Empire, through Kamet, but even that leaves a lot to expand on, and we don't get anything about the other continental powers as far as I recall. Are there any monotheistic or non-deity religions? How do ambassadors from the Continent react to the religion/s of the Little Peninsula? Has the Mede Empire developed a syncretized religion that includes the other countries and cultures it's conquered?


• WB: Festivals and holidays (Queen's Thief) – I want to see the yearly holidays that Eddis, Attolia, or Sounis (or other countries on the Continent) have! Are there big summer or winter holidays that everyone celebrates? How are birthdays celebrated? How do holidays and festivals differ between countries? How are the monarchs involved? I'm also really into Pheris getting to join in celebrations for the first time after the war, as I imagine he didn't get to participate much in anything with his family pre-Return of the Thief.


• WB: Interaction between religious pantheons (Queen's Thief) – so we see in canon that the gods and myths of at least two religious traditions are real. Do the gods of different pantheons interact? Or is it a situation where the gods of the Little Peninsula are also the gods of other religions, and they appear in the form that their worshippers expect? If the latter, it would be very fun to see a god embodying different religions as they appear to different people.

Rivers of London

In addition to the book series, I've read all the short stories and novellas, and will have caught up on the comics by the time works reveal, so feel free to include details from either of those.

Characters: Any Genius Loci (Rivers of London), Any genius loci outside England (Rivers of London), Any or No Characters (RoL), Original Character(s) (RoL), Practitioner(s) of Chinese descent and/or trained in Chinese traditions (Rivers of London), Abdul Haqq Walid (Rivers of London),Abigail Kamara, Peter Grant

Worldbuilding

• WB: Death/birth/rebirth of genii locorum (Rivers of London) – I'm so fascinated by the birth of new genii locorum that we're seeing in the series, and I would love more detail about the life cycle of genii locorum. We see genii locorum die 'natural' deaths due to pollution and other societal changes, and also hear about them being killed by humans, and I would love a work that delves into either of those aspects. Is it possible for a genius locii to die due to lack of belief in it? When one is born, how much of the memories of their past self or selves do they retain? I'm also interested in the first birth of a genius locii, like we see with Walbrooke and Mr. Punch – what other events have caused so deep an impact as to create a god? The old selves of the rivers who died naturally do seem to linger on, but we have less information about the ones killed by practitioners. I also find the idea of a young genius locii who still has all the powers of a god and possibly the memories of an ancient being remaining with them fascinating, and would love to see some moments in the lives of the young rivers we see in the series.


• WB: genii locorum in places other than England (Rivers of London) – if you have a particular city or country you are interested in, take this as carte blanche to tell me a story about it! Give me your OC spirit of a Tibetan mountain or a US river or a Sierra Leonean city. Rivers are great, but I'm also interested in genii locorum who embody/represent different things. The world of the series has such potential for a vast and global scope, and while I understand why the books stay mostly in London, I would love fic to take me farther abroad, whether that's to other places in Great Britain (I chose 'non-English' as the scope of this tag deliberately) or Germany that we get glimpses of in the series, or a country or continent we don't see in the series at all.


• WB: Non-English magical traditions (Rivers of London), WB: practitioner groups in other parts of the world (Rivers of London), WB: how practitioners are found and trained in other parts of the world (Rivers of London), WB: human non-Newtonian magic systems (Rivers of London), WB: magical practices or traditions influenced by or related to Chinese culture (Rivers of London) – much like with the genii locorum, I'm really interested in seeing a wider variety of magic than just English Newtonian magic! I think it could be very interesting to see what spells other cultures' magic systems focus on – we mostly see Peter's education focus on battle magic, although that's as likely to be due to necessity as to the focus of English Newtonian magic in general, but the healing magic that Helena Linden-Limmer focuses on seemed entirely unknown to the Folly. We also see that not all magic systems use a verbal system, and I'd love to see what other casting systems exist.


• WB: Magic's involvement in pre-20th century historical events (Rivers of London) – the series basically only shows us how magic was involved in the World Wars, and I want to see its impact on earlier history! When did English magicians become actively involved in wars? What role did magic play in colonialism, and how did the magic of imperial countries like the UK and Spain interact with the magic systems of the places they colonized? Has magic or magical practitioners contributed to any great scientific or medical discoveries?


• WB: Scientific study of magic (Rivers of London) – whether that's Peter and Dr. Walid and co's investigations, or earlier English or elsewhere studies. I love the combination of magic and science that Peter brings to the Folly in the books, and I would love to see if any other magical traditions have systematized a study of magic or if there are other individuals out there studying it.


• WB: the Quiet People (Rivers of London) – I am absolutely fascinated by the Quiet People. Literally anything about their culture, from when their society was first established to how it's changing with their introduction to the outside world post-Whispers Under Ground. I would love to see their folklore, their linguistics, their educational system, their marriage and relationship traditions, or anything else you'd like. Individual Quiet People trying to hold onto their culture as they leave their underground city and integrate more with modern London would also be really cool!

Doctrine of Labyrinths

I had hoped to finish a reread before signing up, but I didn't have time, so apologies if my prompts for this fandom are vaguer and if they ask for things that are already elaborated on in canon. These books just have such a rich sense of place, and there are so many things that are vaguely sketched out that nevertheless have the feeling that there's a full story behind them that's just not being elaborated on. To that end, my tags here are somewhat broader than my other requests – I just really want any worldbuilding at all here!

Characters: Any or No Characters (DoL – Monette), Felix Harrowgate (Doctrine of Labyrinths), Mildmay Foxe (Doctrine of Labyrinths), Original Character(s) (DoL – Monette)

Worldbuilding

• WB: Folklore (Doctrine of Labyrinths) – I'm especially interested in the place where history meets folklore, and actual events become legends, but I would love any legends or folk stories or superstitions or anything you want to give me. If you want to just give me 1,000 words of Mildmay telling someone stories about locations in Melusine, I would love that! An anthropologist's study of the practices or beliefs of any country we see or hear about in the books would also be really fun! Or a compare and contrast of like, folklore in the palace and among the wizards and nobles there versus the folklore of the Lower City.


• WB: Ghosts (Doctrine of Labyrinths) – I love ghosts! I especially love the way this series does ghosts! I want to see more ghosts, or characters interacting with ghosts, or scientific studies of ghosts, or methods of dealing with ghosts. Are there methods of banishing them/laying them to rest other than labyrinths? What exactly creates a ghost? I'd also just love to see more of Mildmay and/or Felix encountering ghosts.


• WB: National and cultural differences in magical practices (Doctrine of Labyrinths) – I love all the different traditions of magic we see, and how aspects that are commonplace in one country are considered heresy in others. I'd love to see either an internal study of a country's magic, or someone's anthropological look at another country's magic, or Felix or other wizards learning or practicing magic or encountering another tradition of magic


• WB: Religion (Doctrine of Labyrinths) – I am also fascinated by the religions we see in the books. I'm in the middle of rereading the first book so the saints of Melusine are particularly grabbing my attention. I'd like to see more of the religion as a whole, or anything about devotion to a particular saint. I'm also very interested in what the religions of other countries look like, and how they might interact with each other! And at least the religion of Melusine seems to have demonstrable effects in protecting against ghosts and certain types of magic, and I'd like to see more about that too!

The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself

I haven't read the books, so everything in my requests is based off the TV show. You're welcome to include book worldbuilding where it doesn't contradict TV canon, or ignore it entirely as I am.

Characters: Any or No Characters, Original Character/s

Worldbuilding

• WB: Fairborns and Bloods (Bastard Son) – I am so curious about the difference between Fairborns and Bloods. There don't seem to be Fairborn- or Blood-exclusive gifts, and the only inherent difference we see in the show is that unlike Fairborns, Bloods will die if they don't get their relative's blood after their 16th birthday (and to be fair, we don't know that this isn't the case for Fairborns, just that the English Fairborn Council says it isn't). There really don't seem to be that many differences at all other than the war between them, and I'd like to know either about other differences between the groups that we don't see, or something about how there's less of a difference than we and the characters are led to believe. And when did the different groups originate, if they aren't inherent to magic? When did the conflict between the two start? I do have a few more thoughts about this in the National Differences tag as well


• WB: Magical gifts (Bastard Son) – at heart I am a simple fan who loves to categorize things, and I find such joy in a system of magic with distinct categories of powers people can get. Are they categorized into overarching groups, like plant magic vs human-affecting magic vs animal magic vs weather magic, etc? Would you like to just show me other magical gifts we don't see in the show? How did the tradition of the birthday ceremony start, and are there any cultural variations on it?


• WB: National differences in views and practice of magic (Bastard Son) – this is full of my conspiracy-board thoughts on magic in this world, and do feel free to ignore them and do your own thing. But it seems to me like in canon, the Fairborn/Blood war seemed to start in the UK, and possibly spread to Europe afterward. The Bloods are fully subjugated in the UK, whereas there are Blood territories in France. And when we see the French Bloods talking about Fairborns, their word for Fairborn is just straight-up "Fairborn". Wouldn't French have its own word for that group if Fairborns were a longstanding group in France? (Or am I reading too much into a translation choice? ;) ) Are there any countries or regions where there is no distinction between Fairborns and Bloods? Are there any countries/regions where magic is less secret from the non-magical population?