Part of our week 5 exercises in class included mapping out an idea of world by starting with a location or setting as a “world”, and then branching out to review all the elements that could constitute that world.

During the midsemester break, I revisited the exercise with a personal exploration of a setting, in order to make sure my world-building muscles weren’t being left unused. Here is the mind map I developed.

 

 

Through exploring the setting of “Woodlands” (with a particular focus on the wilderness found within North America) – I began to briefly map out some ideas as to what may be found. This eventuated into exploring various elements that could be developed into potential characters (hunter / lumberjack / conservationist), locations, conflicts and stakeholders (flora, fauna) that exist within the world that could be created from the setting.

In hindsight, further exploration could have been also given into history and folklore associated with the setting – as there is abundant Native American belief of the inhabitants of the land. Such exploration would take further research; but would add more characters, more stakeholders, and most importantly – more depth – to a potential world that could be drawn out from this exercise.

Moreover, this is definitely something I could consider further as I develop my own world (“Lore Enforcers“) and the potential sub-worlds within it.