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Worldbuilding Exchange 2025
Feb. 12th, 2025 01:46 pmHello, and thank you for considering writing something for me!
Any rating and tone is welcome! Questions are there for each prompt in case you find them useful, but I would be delighted with literally anything for any of these freeforms. Everything is ordered alphabetically.
Treats in any medium are welcome.
DNW: setting change AUs
Stylistically, I particularly enjoy:
The Inheritance Cycle
(Any or No Characters, OCs)
Marriage Practices in Alagaësia
We get a glimpse at the marriage practices of Carvahall, but what about other human cultures, or Dwarves?
Shur'tugal educational system prior to fall
How is it different to what Eragon encounters? How old were students, and how long did they stay within it? Who was expected to teach, and how long were they expected to stay in that role?
The Magnus Archives
Functioning of the Magnus Institute throughout history
(Jonah Magnus)
What does it actually take to keep the Magnus Institute running for 200 years on a practical level? How and when do departments and hiring practices change? Is there a particular decade of struggle or triumph?
The Magnus Institute's reputation in academia
(Any or No Characters, OCs)
Their reputation is poor, sure, but specifically in what way? What about before the statements were leaked in 1999? Does the Institute produce research? It has a wealth of historical documents; do any undergraduates (or professional academics) use it as the basis for their papers? (Can I see the papers?)
The Silmarillion
(Any or No Characters, OCs)
Cross-species pregnancy
IIRC, all of the multiracial children we see have a mother from a more powerful species and a father from a less powerful species, with zero exceptions. Why does this happen? Is it a gap in the record or a biological rule? How does that translate to other species? I'm interested in both the biological process of pregnancy and cultural traditions surrounding it.
Disability in Elvish societies
While Elves highly value beauty and symmetry, they are hardy, long-lived, and involved in quite a few conflicts across the Ages. Presumably a high number of Elves are going to survive injuries that would kill a human. Where, then, are the disabled Elves? (I'm interested in both congenital and acquired disabilities.)
Elven funerary customs
What do they do with the bodies? (Cremation, burial, something else?) How does this change in Cuivienen/Valinor/Beleriand? What gets carried forward through the Ages and what doesn't? What do mourning traditions look like? How does this differ for the various groups of Elves?
Heteronormativity in Elvish societies
I'd love to see the big and little ways this shows up in people's lives. I am not particular about which queer identities are focused on. I am intrigued by the structure LaCE establishes, especially given that in-universe it isn't written by an Elvish author. That said, there's so many ways to explore this, and if you're drawn in a different direction, I would love to see it!
Religious practices in Beleriand
(These questions are aimed at the Noldor because they're who I have pre-existing thoughts on, but if you'd prefer to focus on a different group of Elves, humans, Dwarves, or orcs, go for it!)
So you've cast off the authority of the Valar and sailed across the sea. Now what?
What are religious practices like for the initial generation of adults, particularly those who were on intimate personal terms with the Valar (eg. Celegorm and Orome)? Are people who don't remember Valinor more or less religious than people who do? Independent of opinions on the Valar, what traditions change and what don't? What gets treated as secular because they don't want to let go of it? Do they adopt any traditions from the Sindar?
The Time Master Series
(Tarod, Yandros, OCs, Any or No Characters)
Changes to laypeople's religious practices after Equilibrium
So we see how the Castle and Initiates change in the Chaos Gate trilogy, but what does it look like for ordinary people? Is there a melding in how people conceptualize Aeoris and Yandros (and/or the rest of the gods), or is a strict mental division between Order and Chaos maintained even when worship is shared? Is Tarod worshiped individually, or merely seen as an extension of Chaos? What traditions change and what stay the same? Since the choice is (in theory) individual, what does this look like within family units and within communities?
Any rating and tone is welcome! Questions are there for each prompt in case you find them useful, but I would be delighted with literally anything for any of these freeforms. Everything is ordered alphabetically.
Treats in any medium are welcome.
DNW: setting change AUs
General likes
Stylistically, I particularly enjoy:
- Outsider POV
- Second and third person POV
- Pre- & post-canon fics
- 5 + 1 things
- Character studies
- Unreliable narrators
- In-universe documents of any kind
- Happy endings, ambiguous endings, & bittersweet endings, as well as endings that the narrator/character thinks are happy but the reader doesn’t
- Situations where a character is forced to reckon with perceptions of themselves or their relationships, including but certainly not limited to:
- time travel
- time loops
- amnesia
- dimension travel
- truth serum
- Forced proximity
- Hurt/comfort
- Complicated relationships & complicated emotions
- Dramatic irony & the calm before the storm
- Identity porn
- Period-typical and/or internalized homophobia
- Asexual and/or aromantic characters of any kind
- When applicable to canon, queerphobia existing as a social structure, even if it doesn't come up interpersonally
- Disabled characters (whether canonically or as a result of injuries/trauma that were fine in canon)
- Non-sexual kink, if it fits the canonical relationship dynamic
- Romance as horror & horror as romance
- Cracking a stoic character open like a clam (emotionally, though it can certainly be done through physical means)
- Emotionally significant names and titles (and thee/thou as a marker for intimacy where canon-appropriate)
- Relationships that are hard to classify or ping other characters as weird
- Characters who are torn between loyalty to an individual and their ideals
- Unresolvable moral conflicts between two characters/groups the reader is meant to find sympathetic
Smut likes
- Un(der)negotiated kink & kink discovery (as long as it’s not DNW’d, it doesn’t matter which specific kink it is)
- Voyeurism of any type
- Watersports
- I am interested in the vast majority of things under this kink label, but particularly pissing inside, submissive wetting (including in non-A/B/O settings), and kinking on the sensation of pissing or watching someone else do so
- I'm less interested in consensual piss drinking as the sole focus of the fic, but it is okay to include
- Proxy sex (examples for pairing A/B, where C is either a canonical character or an OC):
- A has sex with C while thinking about B
- an A/B/C threesome has C in the middle as an excuse to legitimize the sex A/B are(n’t) having
- A or C is monitoring and/or directing the couple having sex, including physically maneuvering them
- Non-penetrative sex & penetrative sex
- Public sex
- Mutual masturbation & guided masturbation
- Manhandling
- Thigh grinding
- Somnophilia
- Consensual non-consent
- Coming in pants & clothed sex
- (Non-literal) dollification
- Honor bondage
- Manhandling
- Condescending praise
- Monsterfucking & shapeshifting
- Biting & blood-drinking (especially in a supernatural context)
- Unresolved emotional tension & pining while fucking
- Repression & attempts to control the uncontrollable
- “Oh god why do I find this hot”-flavored sex of any consent level
- Characters being told how wet they are, regardless of genitals/gender
- Kinking on shame (whether external or internal) and/or violating cultural taboos
- Psychological aspects of kink & porn as character study
- Submissive sadists with dominant masochists and/or sub tops with dom bottoms
- Dubcon
- Same-generation incest
- Characters justifying why the sex* they’re actively having doesn’t count as sex* & other intricate rituals-type things
- *or kink or incestuous relationship
- Sex that does not read as sex to characters outside the relationship
- Corsets & characters (of any gender) being put into Very Pretty Dresses
- Collars
- Words used for genitalia that feel appropriate to the POV character (including archaic and clinical language)
- Characters who have (and like their) nullified genitals (whether natal/surgical/magical)
Opt-ins
- Abortion or miscarriage in pregnancy requests
- Suicidal thoughts and attempts
- Requested characters present in thought only (including because they are dead, if they also died in canon)
- Period sex
The Inheritance Cycle
(Any or No Characters, OCs)
Marriage Practices in Alagaësia
We get a glimpse at the marriage practices of Carvahall, but what about other human cultures, or Dwarves?
Shur'tugal educational system prior to fall
How is it different to what Eragon encounters? How old were students, and how long did they stay within it? Who was expected to teach, and how long were they expected to stay in that role?
The Magnus Archives
Functioning of the Magnus Institute throughout history
(Jonah Magnus)
What does it actually take to keep the Magnus Institute running for 200 years on a practical level? How and when do departments and hiring practices change? Is there a particular decade of struggle or triumph?
The Magnus Institute's reputation in academia
(Any or No Characters, OCs)
Their reputation is poor, sure, but specifically in what way? What about before the statements were leaked in 1999? Does the Institute produce research? It has a wealth of historical documents; do any undergraduates (or professional academics) use it as the basis for their papers? (Can I see the papers?)
The Silmarillion
(Any or No Characters, OCs)
Cross-species pregnancy
IIRC, all of the multiracial children we see have a mother from a more powerful species and a father from a less powerful species, with zero exceptions. Why does this happen? Is it a gap in the record or a biological rule? How does that translate to other species? I'm interested in both the biological process of pregnancy and cultural traditions surrounding it.
Disability in Elvish societies
While Elves highly value beauty and symmetry, they are hardy, long-lived, and involved in quite a few conflicts across the Ages. Presumably a high number of Elves are going to survive injuries that would kill a human. Where, then, are the disabled Elves? (I'm interested in both congenital and acquired disabilities.)
Elven funerary customs
What do they do with the bodies? (Cremation, burial, something else?) How does this change in Cuivienen/Valinor/Beleriand? What gets carried forward through the Ages and what doesn't? What do mourning traditions look like? How does this differ for the various groups of Elves?
Heteronormativity in Elvish societies
I'd love to see the big and little ways this shows up in people's lives. I am not particular about which queer identities are focused on. I am intrigued by the structure LaCE establishes, especially given that in-universe it isn't written by an Elvish author. That said, there's so many ways to explore this, and if you're drawn in a different direction, I would love to see it!
Religious practices in Beleriand
(These questions are aimed at the Noldor because they're who I have pre-existing thoughts on, but if you'd prefer to focus on a different group of Elves, humans, Dwarves, or orcs, go for it!)
So you've cast off the authority of the Valar and sailed across the sea. Now what?
What are religious practices like for the initial generation of adults, particularly those who were on intimate personal terms with the Valar (eg. Celegorm and Orome)? Are people who don't remember Valinor more or less religious than people who do? Independent of opinions on the Valar, what traditions change and what don't? What gets treated as secular because they don't want to let go of it? Do they adopt any traditions from the Sindar?
The Time Master Series
(Tarod, Yandros, OCs, Any or No Characters)
Changes to laypeople's religious practices after Equilibrium
So we see how the Castle and Initiates change in the Chaos Gate trilogy, but what does it look like for ordinary people? Is there a melding in how people conceptualize Aeoris and Yandros (and/or the rest of the gods), or is a strict mental division between Order and Chaos maintained even when worship is shared? Is Tarod worshiped individually, or merely seen as an extension of Chaos? What traditions change and what stay the same? Since the choice is (in theory) individual, what does this look like within family units and within communities?
