World Creation

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Hey all,

With my ressurgence in the hobby i am looking at my various IA/IT and reworking the dolchiate sector and on that last subject i wanted to take a serious look at the system design in the sector and even the worlds themselves.

 

So i would like some input from the liber: how do you guys go about world building?

 

-DR

[Brother Tyler]

To be honest, I don't focus on world building. I tend to develop only as much as I feel is necessary to describe the Chapter I'm building. For example, the Nova Hawks were forced to leave their first homeworld, Investus, and later claimed a new homeworld, Lulisa. I didn't really mention anything about Investus because it didn't matter to the story I was telling. Lulisa, too, didn't matter much. I'm working on an updated version of the article that gives a bit more information about Lulisa, but only a little.

 

If a world mattered to the story I was telling, I might devote a lot more effort to it. Again, though, I would only invest as much time and effort as I felt was necessary to the story I'm telling. My focus with the Nova Hawks wasn't in how their homeworld(s) impacted them. My focus was on external events to which they were a party, and how their decisions and actions came back to haunt them. If I were trying to demonstrate how a homeworld might have a significant influence on a Chapter*, there would be much more about the homeworld in my article. As it is, while I believe that a homeworld, or rather the culture of the people that live there, influences a Chapter, it is far from the only influence.

 

One thing I tend to avoid when conceiving of a Chapter's homeworld is the unrealistic mono-environment world. In general, the only times that I see mono-environmental worlds working are when they are extreme heat/cold because they are at the extremes of the habitable zone of a stellar system. Frank Herbert did this well with the Dune series, largely because he thought logically about the ecology and the climate. Also, Arrakis being a desert planet was central to his story. Herbert's expertise in ecology was a significant factor in ensuring that he did this well. Too often, we amateurs come up with unrealistic mono-environmental worlds that just don't work. Too often, we put a focus on the environment to the point that we forget what it is that the Adeptus Astartes actually do - they fight anywhere that the Imperium needs them, in any climate and in space.

 

Often, I suspect, we try to come up with extreme environments in order to justify why life is so harsh, making a Chapter's recruiting pool suitable for the Adeptus Astartes. We forget that there are civilized and temperate worlds such as those inhabited by the Ultramarines and others, where the harsh culture is what drives the suitability of the recruiting pool. And then there are the Dark Angels and Black Templars, who recruit from multiple worlds, some of which might be driven by environment/climate, some by culture, some by technology, some by a combination of those three elements (and perhaps others I'm not thinking of).

 

There are some DIYs (and even official Chapters) whose worlds do have a significant impact on the Chapter. The Space Wolves and Salamanders stand out, but the Iron Snakes and Emperor's Spears are also good examples. One might also look at the Crimson Fists, whose homeworld, Rynn's World, was an agricultural world, but is now becoming a fortress world. That Chapter recruits from other worlds, including Blackwater, in which the inhabitants are more primitive. We still don't know much beyond those facts about Rynn's World and Blackwater (except for the catastrophic invasions that took place on Rynn's World, of course). Baal, too, is an extreme world, nearly uninhabitable due to radiation. We don't know much about the culture of the people there, though (although I'm betting there's some information in the novels that I haven't read ). What do we know about Deliverance? Or Banish? Or Honorum? Despite the dearth of information on those worlds, the Raven Guard, Exorcists, and Novamarines are all fascinating Chapters in their own right.

 

If I were going to embark upon detailed world building for a DIY, I would try to avoid the mono-environment setting unless it really mattered. I would allow for some harsh climate elements, but those elements would drive how the population has adapted and survived. I would focus more on the culture of the recruiting stock, because those cultural influences are the things that are more likely to influence the personality and warrior-cult of the Chapter.

 

Naturally, different factions will draw upon different things. An order of the Adepta Sororitas wouldn't be driven by the environment/climate so much as their purpose for being on a world. Are they guarding a shrine world? Are they recruiting the faithful for a holy crusade? Are they part of a larger Ministorum presence? For the Adepta Sororitas, I would expect to see either a more hospitable planet, or, if they have some extreme mission (guarding a cemetery world, for example), something based more an how the world drives the mission. An Astra Militarum world, meanwhile, would be very much a culture-based study. Despite the occasional exceptions for worlds such as Tallarn or Krieg (both nearly ruined from major battles) or Catachan (typical deadly jungle world), I see the Astra Militarum faction as being very diverse in terms of how humans (and abhumans) from myriad diverse worlds can develop differently while still being able to fall into basic Astra Militarum patterns of organization. For the Adeptus Mechanicus, the environment doesn't even matter to me. My assumption there is that the Adeptus Mechanicus have chosen a world rich in resources, and though they are bleeding that world dry of those resources, they are putting their techno-religious stamp all over that world. With the Adeptus Mechanicus, I'm more concerned about their (un)orthodoxy when it comes to the Martian creed. That bleeds into the Adeptus Titanicus. Of all of the other factions of the Imperium, the Imperial Knights are the only ones that I liken to the Adeptus Astartes, largely because their background is driven by humans having to adapt to a harsh environment. With the Adeptus Astartes, hardiness is in the people and makes them suitable for transformation (sometimes successful) into a post-human. With the Imperial Knights, hardiness comes from the ability of the Knight Houses to employ their war machines in protecting the other people and asserting their dominance over them as a result. Even then, the environment of the world on which they live has to be one in which the Imperial Knights are suitable.

 

I'm not sure that I provided the type of response that you're looking for, but I hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

* One pitfall I've seen far too often in DIY development is focusing on a particular climate/environment and trying to define a Chapter by that climate/environment. As I said above, Chapters shouldn't specialize in specific climates/environments - they won't be successful at their basic purpose if they are shackled to such a specialization. The Codex Astartes is about flexibility and adaptability, and the purpose of the Adeptus Astartes is to fight anywhere that the Imperium needs them to fight. Preparing for that level of flexibility and adaptability requires diverse environments in which to train and hone doctrine (that is a worthy line of study - how a Chapter from a limited environment world prepares for other environments).

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Thanks for the well thought out response Brother Tyler. It does give me some things to think about!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Some mystery writers begin work by writing the ending, and then write backwards from the final revelation, working on scenes that would logically lead to the intended conclusion.

 

A similar approach may help. Picture your soldiers standing victoriously after a battle. How did they win this battle? What tactics did they employ? What world view did your soldiers share, that they thought these tactics would work? What history did their home world have, to shape such a world view? What environment did this home world have, to force such a history upon its inhabitants?

[BattleBrother446]

Excellent posts in this thread!

 

To echo Brother Tyler some, it can be a pitfall of world building that you will get a bit too focused on the world, and this can take away from your chapter.

 

I had a great idea for a world that, at the start, complimented my chapter so well -- but after more digging I realized it was not physically possible. What I ended up with was an article about my planet and its unique orbital and geographical characteristics, that no longer had any relation to my chapter. SUPER COOL, but no longer Space Marine related.

 

That said, if you WANT to design a realistic planet and go full astromoner on it, there are tons of great planetary resources on the web to help you 'science up' your articles.

[Ace Debonair]

Oh, sweet Throne of Terra, what a fantastic thread this is.

 

In contrast (but not in opposition) to Brother Tyler's excellent post above, I have to confess that perhaps my favourite part of creating Chapters and Warbands is creating the world(s) around them, and is very much my hobby-within-the-hobby. Whenever I get past the 'name-and-colour-scheme' stage of a Chapter, the first question I ask myself is: "So, where are they from?" and it's not unheard of for me to spend days at a time working on the answer.

 

It honestly takes considerable effort on my part not to write two thousand words per world when I get started on Chapter homeworlds!

 

As for how I create them, I like to look at planets in Warhammer 40K as little projects in their own right, and put them together bit-by-bit by asking myself a series of questions.

 

The first question always is: What is the purpose of the world you're creating? Once I've figured that out, I can branch out a bit. For example:

 

Is it to be a battleground? If so, what sort of battle? A siege? Out in the open with clashing armies? An ambush? What sort of terrain are you thinking of? Are there any landmarks you'd want present - perhaps a huge, ruined cathedral, or a jagged mountain pass, or a river with a waterfall, or a centuries-old battlefield still covered in the skeletal remains of ancient, rusted tanks? Who's doing the attacking, and who's defending? What are their ties (if any) to this world? If none, why are both forces here?

 

Or:

 

Is it a world with a purpose other than battle? Is it a recruitment world? If so, what are the people of the world typically like? What makes them suitable for your Chapter/Regiment/Order? Where do those traits come from? Does the landscape influence the people of this world in any way? What makes this world different from the others around it? Does the planet (or it's people's culture) have any influence your Chapter/Regiment/Order? Does your Chapter/Regiment/Order care about this planet, beyond it being a recruitment world?

 

By answering these questions as I go (and adding about six million others about general climate, planetary traditions, culture, prior battles, the planet's history and so on) I get a good picture of a world and it's people in my head, and then all I have to do is the relatively straightforward job of describing it and them.

 

 

 

For what it's worth, I think every Chapter of loyalists I've ever written has been greatly shaped by the culture of their homeworld, in part because I spend at least as much time (and words, in the first draft) on the Homeworld as I do on the rest of the Chapter.

 

That said, quite often I'll work out at least some traits that I want a Chapter to have, and work that backwards into the Homeworld. For example, I wanted the Infinity Knights to place a lot of importance on apothecaries, so I made their homeworld of Ashar have a tradition of honouring and venerating medicine men and doctors, which is carried into the Chapter.

 

 

Of course, I'll openly admit the 'less is more' approach is a lot more practical than my 'let's invent and answer this huge questionnaire' approach, and definitely a lot more sensible when creating multiple worlds at once. But if you're looking to go into detail about a world you intend to be important, then I think the Method of a Thousand Questions has got something to recommend it.