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World Building: Where do you picture your characters living?
12 years ago
I haven't actively role-played or written stories with my characters for a long time. I don't rule out the possibility of getting back into RPing or writing fiction again, but it's low on my list of priorities. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to develop characters at all if I don't use them in anything other than the occasional drawing. That seems like common practice in the furry fandom, to just have characters for the sake of having them. I guess I use my characters to acknowledge and express hidden parts of my personality. I also use them as lenses to peek through, to try to see things from different perspectives.
But because I haven't been using my characters in stories (written solely by me or written with others), I haven't given a whole lot of thought to the particulars of the world they inhabit. I usually picture my characters on an alternate earth where furries, humans, and non-anthropomorphic animals coexist, and stuff like magic exists but is not commonplace. The geography is similar to the real world but not exactly the same.
I used to try to come up with alternate names and histories for countries. That way I could fudge the details, since these were "fictional" countries and therefore I couldn't say anything "wrong." Nowadays I find that kind of dishonest, and more trouble than it's worth. I prefer to just call a spade a spade and use real country names. Summer was born in Australia but raised in America, Lazarus is from Australia, Benign is from Jamaica, Clopan is from France, etc. This requires more research on my part if I want to accurately depict foreign countries in my writing, but I think I prefer researching something real to just making something up. And if I STILL want to fudge the details, I can use the "alternate universe" loophole. If I choose to outright make up a country, there needs to be a darned good reason.
Right now, most of my characters cluster around a fictional city called Port Regal. It's still an undeveloped idea, but it's an American port town with a long, colorful history, sort of a mashup of Portland, Oregon and pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. (The name is subject to change. Just now I Googled "Port Regal" and discovered that it's a location in a pirate game with furry characters, who'd have thunk? http://apiratesportal.com/)
My questions for you are...
-Where, and in what kind of world, do you picture your own characters living?
-Are there any tips, resources, or inspirations that you find useful when building a world around your characters?
But because I haven't been using my characters in stories (written solely by me or written with others), I haven't given a whole lot of thought to the particulars of the world they inhabit. I usually picture my characters on an alternate earth where furries, humans, and non-anthropomorphic animals coexist, and stuff like magic exists but is not commonplace. The geography is similar to the real world but not exactly the same.
I used to try to come up with alternate names and histories for countries. That way I could fudge the details, since these were "fictional" countries and therefore I couldn't say anything "wrong." Nowadays I find that kind of dishonest, and more trouble than it's worth. I prefer to just call a spade a spade and use real country names. Summer was born in Australia but raised in America, Lazarus is from Australia, Benign is from Jamaica, Clopan is from France, etc. This requires more research on my part if I want to accurately depict foreign countries in my writing, but I think I prefer researching something real to just making something up. And if I STILL want to fudge the details, I can use the "alternate universe" loophole. If I choose to outright make up a country, there needs to be a darned good reason.
Right now, most of my characters cluster around a fictional city called Port Regal. It's still an undeveloped idea, but it's an American port town with a long, colorful history, sort of a mashup of Portland, Oregon and pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. (The name is subject to change. Just now I Googled "Port Regal" and discovered that it's a location in a pirate game with furry characters, who'd have thunk? http://apiratesportal.com/)
My questions for you are...
-Where, and in what kind of world, do you picture your own characters living?
-Are there any tips, resources, or inspirations that you find useful when building a world around your characters?
Omadaun
~omadaun
I have my character in a modern day world with other anthro characters in my comic but i also imagine putting him in a fantasy medieval world. Inspiration for the comic is my life and world i live in. inspiration for the medieval world is ancient world and my own creative imagination.
DoorIntoSummer
~doorintosummer
OP
I also tend to go between modern day and medieval. Obviously The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been a big inspiration to me. Part of it is that it's set in an interesting period in history that straddles the line between "medieval" and "Renaissance," when the dark ages were ending and the modern western world as we know it was beginning.
