Do you mind real life physics when you create a "fantasy" world

[FieryLou]

Question as in the title. For example, a cold region. Or a sunny dessert. Do you just place it wherever you want, or do you use real life physics there?

 

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

I absolutely try to imitate normal world geography, unless I specifically have a reason not to. I'm not opposed to using fantasy logic for geography but I feel there should be a purpose to it, not just handwaving it as "eh its probably magic or something". As an example, in my otherwise mostly normal-ish geography world, theres a gigantic unnaturally shaped chasm carved through half of it called the Great Rift that was formed by magic. But thats like, a specific thing in the lore and story, its not just something that was placed there because I wanted to and then decided "um, magic I guess?"

If that makes sense?

 

[Tyranomaster]

My entire novel started from the premise of "How would you actually integrate magic into physics?" So yes, yes I do. Outside of this novel though, I'm more than willing to say that as long as the internal consistency is maintained, you do you. A desert can have explanations within the world that aren't reliant on it being "the same" as Earth. It is easier to go the earth route though, since keeping your world consistent can be hard otherwise.

 

[Zagaroth]

My baseline for all physics and related topics such as geology and ecology is the real world.

Magic is a layer on top of that which can alter things.

For example: There is a east-west range of mountains across a continent in the northern hemisphere. They tend to 'catch' clouds and cold air on the northern side, which makes the division of cooler northern climates and warmer southern climates a lot sharper than than it would otherwise be. OTOH, there is a nearly perfect semi-circle taken out of a shoreline because of a magical incident from over a thousand years ago.

 

[Cipiteca396]

For the most part. Magic is an extension of physics, so it's inevitable that there would be overlap.

That said, real physics do some bizarre shit... SO you can basically just handwave anything and still be pretty accurate.

 

[LiteraryWho]

I even try to consider the physics of friction and gravity in fight scenes. I'm too lazy/stupid to do the actual math, but I do at least try to keep in mind that if you try to push off too hard, you'll end up sliding your foot over the ground rather than move anywhere, and other such annoying little physics quirks.

 

[Zagaroth]

For the most part. Magic is an extension of physics, so it's inevitable that there would be overlap.

That said, real physics do some bizarre shit... SO you can basically just handwave anything and still be pretty accurate.

I approve of all relevant OSP videos. :D

They do great stuff.

 

[LesserCodex]

I try to keep logic with my fantasy world-building, giving reasons as to why things are the way they are and expanding on lore.

A quick example, the Grey Continent, home to vampires, is near the equator. For that reason, it would be mostly sunny and a hellish life for vampires. and for that, a simple reason to combat it with real fantasy world effects is that a weather mage created an unending cloud covering the entire continent, shielding them from the UV rays.

Because of this, mage towers have more depth and reason behind their existence. They focus on assessing the weather and climate, among other things, just beyond the typical place for mages to study, because how can you just study for your lifetime without a job or a benefit to society?

 

[Ai-chan]

Question as in the title. For example, a cold region. Or a sunny dessert. Do you just place it wherever you want, or do you use real life physics there?

The answer is yes. While it's possible to put a sunny sand desert in the middle of the sea, it is not possible to be completely desert. It would only be a desert because it doesn't have fresh water but it would have salt-resistant plants that could be harvested for food or fresh water. Contradictions have to make sense.

 

[LilythGeist]

I mean... my fantasy novel includes such genre staples like Nerve Gas, Thermobaric Missiles and Cluster Bombs.

As far as magic goes, while the [Meteor] spell hasn't been technically used in the book so far (though it's end results are seen), the spell works by quite literally teleporting a huge rock into the planets atmosphere and using it as a projectile. It is technically possible to turn it into a relativistic impactor if you mess enough with combining spell effects.

So go team physics here.

 

[Deleted member 166465]

I have learn a few things about that. (we talking about pure fantasy here, not science fiction)
1) You can do whatever you want and make things in a totally nonsensical way if it is a comedy or something the like.
2) If you try to make the character too realistic (like people really is not the idialized version we have of ourselves) people wont like it.
3) How much you can get off with depends on the reader. I have seen fantasy in a medieval world with working toilets... or many amenities and cleaness of the current world, in reality medieval times were dirty as F, there was crap everywhere from the horses and other animals, taking a bath was kind of optional, etc... so it is not realistic at all. Some readers dont mind. Then we got the more hardcore, they get a bit fustrated couse I used percentages as measurement for something... go figure.
4) Some times is not only the phisics, the most hardcore readers of fantasy expect the writer to follow certains already stablished concepts about world building or races. Except the writers of horny stuff... they can justify anything by involving some sexual stuff into it.

Now if you are talking about science fiction with a touch of fantasy, you are forced to be a lot more "technical" and focuss a lot in the Science part.
Hope this is some what usefull, this I learned the hard way.

 

[Eldoria]

I'm not against the idea of physics in a fantasy world. To me, a fantasy world is an alternative world where we can experiment with the world by creating new laws or combining real-world laws with new ones. The emphasis of the world itself is more on setting and providing a consistent explanation of how the phenomena in a plot work. Whether you use physics, magic, or supernatural effects, as long as your world can explain how the phenomena work, it will be a compelling worldbuilding.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

For the whole continent, I put nothern cold southern hot to make things simple, or make it southern cold nothern hot to mix it up a bit.

And there's western-vs-eastern geographical political powers fighting for influence as well, with central western continent and others joining or becoming their victim.

Even if naming is different, I simply used the exact same map for my convenience. Imagine a child renaming real-life map to your own imaginary countries. Then they get another real life map and renaming them differently again.

Mostly I also warp and twist the map, sometimes I rotate the map, sometimes i flip it left right, upside down, to fit different stories and different lores.

Reusing the same map in different universes doesn't matter that much to the readers, as long I keep describing them and naming them differently each time.

I just use simple basic real-life inspired examples to anchor the readers to grasp the day-to-day living condition, and mix-or-spice it up when needed.

 

[Arch9CivilReactor]

Reality is easier to imagine. Hard to write what you don’t understand. If I’m going to add fantastical elements it will be on top of something familiar.

 

[l8rose]

Little bit of yes and no.

For my sci-fi stuff, its full blown as close to realistic as I can figure out (I'm not a scientist so probably still some wonky stuff). Unless the setting is already flipped on its head.

For fantasy, its usually more lore based but still in a way that makes sense in the general scheme of things. No tropics bordering an icy plain.

All that aside, my stories dont really have a lot of traveling so its all moot anyway. My poor characters usually just stay in one biome for the whole thing.

 

[Clo]

About 60% of my story happens in a VRMMO, where computer and game physics rule.

The other 40% is in the real world, where I try to be on the more realistic side...

Despite throwing magical healing and levitation in.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I mind, but just a little. Tis called 'fantasy' for a reason.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It's all physics, just not the physics we're used to... Metaphysics...

 

[Viator]

Yes and no... honestly the introduction of magic as a force would change the way the known universe expresses itself through the physics we know. I hold to some familiar things personally, so that I don't alienate the reader by creating something too unfamiliar, but I don't hold myself to the shackles our universal laws. Depending on how you structure your "magic" it has the potential to throw everything you know about physics in a blender; and create something entirely new.

 

[Corty]

To a certain extent, but not really.

Plot takes priority over making sure everything happens as it would in our world.

I'm a writer, not a doctor, Jim!