Aldarion
Neoreactionary Monarchist
I had been thinking about how worldbuilding differs in different settings. And I decided that there are basically two primary characteristics of worldbuilding: broadness and depth.
Broadness is, most simply put, amount of information that we get about the world. Basically, a canvas that author paints: broader the worldbuilding, more details there are.
Depth however depends on how that information interacts with each other. If broad worldbuilding is like a painting, then deep worldbuilding is like an icebreg:
Harry Potter is an example of broad worldbuilding. It has an entire array of magical creatures, spells, abilities, and so on... humans, centaurs, elves... muggles and wizards... "light" and dark wizards... all of this in spite of the story being (mostly) limited to a single magical academy. Yet that worldbuilding is also incredibly shallow. Rowling just dumps stuff into the story with little thought of how that stuff will interact and what the implications are.
D.Gray Man is an example of deep worldbuilding. You have the Noahs, the Akuma, and the Black Order. That's it, that is all that matters in the story. Yet within this relatively narrow framework, there are layers upon layers of meaning, symbolism, secrets and misdirections. Even the main character himself is largely a mystery that is only slowly unraveled through the story.
Tolkien's Legendarium, of course, is both broad and deep at the same time.
Broadness is, most simply put, amount of information that we get about the world. Basically, a canvas that author paints: broader the worldbuilding, more details there are.
Depth however depends on how that information interacts with each other. If broad worldbuilding is like a painting, then deep worldbuilding is like an icebreg:
Harry Potter is an example of broad worldbuilding. It has an entire array of magical creatures, spells, abilities, and so on... humans, centaurs, elves... muggles and wizards... "light" and dark wizards... all of this in spite of the story being (mostly) limited to a single magical academy. Yet that worldbuilding is also incredibly shallow. Rowling just dumps stuff into the story with little thought of how that stuff will interact and what the implications are.
D.Gray Man is an example of deep worldbuilding. You have the Noahs, the Akuma, and the Black Order. That's it, that is all that matters in the story. Yet within this relatively narrow framework, there are layers upon layers of meaning, symbolism, secrets and misdirections. Even the main character himself is largely a mystery that is only slowly unraveled through the story.
Tolkien's Legendarium, of course, is both broad and deep at the same time.