Worldbuilding
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, usually associated with a fictional universe. The result may sometimes be called a constructed world, conworld or sub-creation. The term world-building was popularized at science fiction writer's workshops during the 1970s. It describes a key role in the task of a fantasy writer: that of developing an imaginary setting that is coherent and possesses a history, geography, ecology, and so forth. Some examples of constructed worlds in literary works are Middle-earth and Ethshar. J.R.R. Tolkien began with creating languages, then developed peoples (the various races of Elves) to speak them, and much later wrote novels set there. Tolkien regarded the invention of constructed worlds (which he called "sub-creation", in imitation of God's creation of the universe) as a near-religious act, part of the process he referred to as mythopoeia. Other examples of worlds developed for novels include Terry Pratchett's Discworld
