102
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A list of worldbuilding resources
Worldbuilding Lexicon
What is a LitRPG?
A Word about Copyright
How does using Worldbuilding.SE affect my copyright?
When is a person a co-author of a joint work?
General Guides
Universe Factory: ...
82
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For fiction purposes, are there any reserved or non-existent top-level-domains writers can use in stories?
Register a real domain
You could think about registering a real domain (with a name relevant to your novel) and then:
Adding some real content that either is an optional part of the story or
Adding ...
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78
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For fiction purposes, are there any reserved or non-existent top-level-domains writers can use in stories?
Several people have suggested the possibility of using real-life reserved domain names. (For those curious, I have a summary of names and networks reserved for examples and documentation on my ...
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64
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Is there something like "Open Source Elvish"?
All Elvish is (probably) open source (in the US)
There is a real legal history of battles over open source languages, two threads of which are relevant here. The first is that the US court system has ...
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For fiction purposes, are there any reserved or non-existent top-level-domains writers can use in stories?
As mentioned by @journeyman-geek, you might consider giving your world an alternative name resolution system which avoids collision by not following the format of domain names as seen in our own DNS ...
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40
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Searching for a database of real historical names
Some time ago (about 2 years) I went looking for a huge list of names. I wanted to use that list to uniquely name objects in my game-engine without having to resort to using generic uids that are ...
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How can I develop scientific names for my species'?
Use Binomial Nomenclature
Part of what makes scientific names sound consistent is that they're part of a formal system called binomial nomenclature. If you apply the same system to the names of your ...
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34
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How would one go about making a star map for a planet that is within 50 ly of Earth?
I recommend Celestia (https://celestiaproject.net/). This is a very detailed (and free) astronomy simulator that lets you view planets, stars, constellations, etc. from any angle. You can view stars ...
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How would one go about making a star map for a planet that is within 50 ly of Earth?
I use software called Starry Night Pro. It allows you to "fly" to a star in the database and take a picture (with or without labels and guidelines). The software is not free, but it has many graphic ...
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Would it be possible to make a custom zoomable world map (kinda like google maps)?
This kind of applications are called Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The Stack Exchange network has a dedicated stack, appropriately named Geographic Information Systems SE.
One of the best ...
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Is there something like "Open Source Elvish"?
You could also use an extinct language that no one speaks anymore. There are hundreds to choose from.
Being a real language removes any legal issues, gives you all kinds of real grammar and everyday ...
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27
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Are there any non-organic resources that are rare in the grand-scheme of the Universe, but common on Earth?
It is in reasonable abundance on Earth, but is rare throughout the universe has a whole
Let's start with a note on scale. "The universe as a whole" is bigger than we can even see, for ...
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How would one go about making a star map for a planet that is within 50 ly of Earth?
I spent some time putting together a project which does this to within 75lys, hosted here. All the source code is on GitHub.
This definitely isn't as professional as Starry Night, as mentioned above,...
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24
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How could I maintain unofficial diplomatic relations?
You can use a "man in the middle". Country A doesn't have an official relationship with country C, but both A and C have a good relationship with B.
Through B, A and C can have diplomatic contacts. ...
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Are there any non-organic resources that are rare in the grand-scheme of the Universe, but common on Earth?
Soil.
It is nonorganic. It is super abundant here on Earth because Earth has been working on it for a few billion years. A global catastrophe could deplete the Earth of its good soil. You could ...
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Searching for a database of real historical names
A partial answer, combining my comments on the question, plus subsequent finds:
For historical names, the Society for Creative Anachronism has an administrative section, the College of Heralds, who ...
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23
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A tool that draws the borders around settlements automatically
In a pure mathematic world - you want to generate a Voronoi diagram.
Here's an online webgl tool that will do it for you: http://alexbeutel.com/webgl/voronoi.html
However it's perfectly straight - it'...
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22
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What are some of the most powerful theoretical sources of energy?
I would highly suggest that you read the Isaac Asimov book, The Gods Themselves. In this story, humans transport matter between a few parallel dimensions where the fundamental laws of nature are ...
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Where can I find data on real world extrasolar planets, to use as inspiration for my imaginary world?
A quick Google search for "list of exoplanets" yielded several useful resources.
Wikipedia has multiple lists of planets including a list of nearest exoplanets, a list of multiplanetary extrasolar ...
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21
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Worldbuilding forum or other conversational place?
There are many!
CBB -- a discussion forum catering to invented languages & worlds
Reddit Worldbuilding -- general worldbuilding forum
Reddit Fantasy Worldbuilding -- a narrow focus
Reddit Fantasy ...
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20
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What is (if any) the commonly accepted phonetic set for a fictitious language?
Indo-European languages... have a common origin and common grammatical concepts; but they don't really have much of a common inventory of phonemes. A linguist, or an amateur who knows their basic ...
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18
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How do human girls who are sterilised at age 9 develop as they mature?
They Would Look Unusual
The best bet for an approximate equivalence here would be Estrogen Insensitivity Syndrome.
The default body plan is female, and initial development (including uterine ...
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17
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Are there any software tools available to map the solar system hundreds of years from now?
JPL's HORIZONS system will give you ephemerides, charts of a planet's location in the sky (via right ascension and declination) and position in space via quantities like the true anomaly. You can find ...
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16
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Culturally Correct Naming Conventions
I Said Do You Speaka My Language
One thing about names is that they are pronounced like regular words. That's because often names actually are regular words. Consider, for example, that silly trope ...
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Anyone know of a good software for making a galaxy map?
Keep in mind that what your asking isn't straightforward at all. A true galaxy map must map hundreds of billions of stars and quadrillions (if not more) planets, asteroids, nebula, etc., etc. The ...
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Where can I look up information for creating a magic system based on Tarot?
The basic logic of Tarot magic can be explained as simply as this:
If you think of a spell ingredient as something conceptual rather than
something tangible, then it makes it a lot easier to ...
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At 1.5 g of constant acceleration, how long does it take to get to 0.93c?
There are online calculators which exactly answer your question.
When I input your parameters into the one I linked, I get
acceleration time: 1.07 years in ship time, 1.6 years in earth time
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Are there any non-organic resources that are rare in the grand-scheme of the Universe, but common on Earth?
Look at the stunning color variations, the beautiful discontinuity of the impurities, all the gorgeous minute imperfections! This, my dear gentlebeings, is a pristine certified-natural carbon crystal, ...
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How can I do programmatic generation of fantasy maps?
Fortunately the author, Martin O'Leary, has posted rather detailed walkthrough of the algorithm of how the maps are generated here: http://mewo2.com/notes/terrain/ as well as how the names were ...
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For fiction purposes, are there any reserved or non-existent top-level-domains writers can use in stories?
Nothing that would really work - as per bob's excellent comment, there's a list of reserved, example TLDs, none of which are suitable and the new gTLDs are pretty broad.
There's nothing stopping a ...
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