Writing What is the lore in your fiction?

[Sylver]

Magic in my world behaves as a cycle that clashes through its two forms of purity, Light and Dark. Light is categorically composed of magic who's purpose is selfless and casted to give onto others. Dark is its selfish mirror that engulfs or removes magic from others to enhance the user.

Both forms of Magic utilize the four key elements of life: water, fire, earth and air. These elements are the ingredients use for every type of Magic, both Light and dark, through certain combinations. Outside factors play a role into what type of Magic can be casted.

In an environment that is cold and damp, using the surrounding mildew and cold temperatures makes it ideal for casting ice related abilities but very difficult to cast heat or fire.

Furthermore, Magic cannot be crafted from nothing and must be taken from its source, be it the environment, it's user, or from magically enhanced items.

Magic is not just the surrounding environment, it is what nurtures life as well. Humans, Elves, Trolls, even beasts are composed of a combination of light and dark magic, with some life leaning more to one source over the other.

 

[MFontana]

Don't explicitly explain spoilers. Lore is a major event that serves as the secret ingredient to your narrative. Please explain it in general terms, as in the example above, without going into further detail.

Got it.

Spoiler: The Elarian Chronicles

About one month before the series begins, an anomalous magic/mystical event occurs in Elaria that coincides with the release of the new update to the MMORPG Duskfall on Earth, bridging the gap between the two dimensions to pull everyone on Earth with an active link to Elaria into the world that the game was based upon, their minds (souls if you will) now trapped within the bodies of their characters from the game (the 'active link' being them being online at the time of the event).

 

[NotProudofmySmut]

Isekai-Nazi-Summoners with gacha concentration Camps, getting beaten up by summoned MC, that sides with suppressed demons and demis.

 

[Tsathro]

??
Don't even know about what type of lore my series follows.
I'm cooked, also almost burned.

 

[Avarice_Of_The_Seven]

There's too much lore so I can't point out one thing.
There is mana, an energy that can trigger evolution. And a lot of bullshit has happened in the past because of this trait. (just like LOTM) thus the lore is related to it. Like creation myth, bullshit abilities, bullshit artifacts, conflicts, races, groups and religion bullshit. there's just too much( dunno why I wrote it all)

Then there are different countries have different lore. (Empire has Ancient noble families, the Kingdom has their own bullshit, and don't even get me started on the Alliance and Feralscar Domain!)

The power system itself has a lot of lore.

(I can't! I just can't, at this point!)

'Someone save me! I'm dying of writing it all!
'I'm not gonna do this shit anymore. I'm tired.'

 

[Macha]

Rebels surrounded the city, everything to eat was exhausted, soldiers and civilians would rather starve to death than surrender, generals killed their wives & servants and ordered soldiers to eat them, people volunteered their corpses as food for those who still can fight. After a ten-month siege, the rebels captured the city, all the defending generals were killed, and only four hundred civilians were left alive in the city. 20,000-30,000 civilians were eaten. Decisive Tang strategic victory.

 

[Eldoria]

Rebels surrounded the city, everything to eat was exhausted, soldiers and civilians would rather starve to death than surrender, generals killed their wives & servants and ordered soldiers to eat them, people volunteered their corpses as food for those who still can fight. After a ten-month siege, the rebels captured the city, all the defending generals were killed, and only four hundred civilians were left alive in the city. 20,000-30,000 civilians were eaten. Decisive Tang strategic victory.

It... reminds me of the siege of Kaliningrad

 

[CalypsoNymph]

Okay, my story is NSFW, so I can't give too many details, but I'm actually really proud of my lore -- because the entire lore is setup as a question.

My settings lore explicitly does not make sense.

There are so many things that do not make sense about it, and while 'why' things are set up like this is eventually told pretty cleanly, the real question is what do people do in a world that shouldn't function? A world where glitches in how reality itself works can result in death, or attention from entities that you never want to have look your way?

In a world that is explicitly designed for [REDACTED -- NSFW], how do you respond? How can you respond? How do real people, with real emotions and real thoughts, live in this world?

After all, no matter how bad the state of the world may be, it's the only one the people within it have. And even if they can't fix it, they still must live within it.

...I kinda wish I did a better job of fulfilling the questions of that lore in retrospect, to be honest.

 

[MafiaNoble]

Lore in Fiction​

Lore is a system of knowledge, a collection of stories, mythology, and world history that provides the backdrop for what is happening today. Lore is the worldbuilding that makes fiction feel immersive, vivid, and narratively realistic.

The Naruto series features chakra, tailed beasts (bijuu), and the history of ninjas as lore.

The One Piece series features devil fruits, the history of lost civilisations, and the legendary treasure (One Piece) as lore.

The Death Note series features the Death Note, the world of shinigami and humans as lore.

The LOTR series features rings of power, the history of Middle-earth, the language of the elves, the genealogy of kings, and the creation of the world as lore.

Almost all major series have lore that makes the story unique, meaningful, and profound. Lore is more than just aesthetics; it is also an extension of the author's well-thought-out story plan, promising a comprehensive series while also setting the pace of the story's conflict.

Without lore, fiction (specifically the fantasy genre) usually has difficulty determining the direction of the story. It's not absolute. But, with lore, conflict and plot would move within the world's internal logic, gradually revealing layers of lore, providing a complete picture of the world.

So, my question is, what is the lore in your fiction?


Critical note:
If you ask me what the lore in my fiction is:

Spoiler: My lore

Blood Rose Princess series: A world with amnesia for the sins of tyranny, the Disaster Princesses who are actually the living wounds of the world itself… and what deepest secret does the Eldora world hide?

Semen is a precious resource: A MC that reincarnates into the body of a coma patient in a world with skewed M-F ratio's (inspired on world of woman by whatsw). The MC finds himself waking up in the body of a demi human and has to adjust to his new senses, learn the new cultural differences between not only the varied species but also men and woman in general. He's suddenly stuck in a society that sees men as something precious that needs to be protected, aren't meant to be part of the labour force and are generally not taken as seriously as they should in the country of Vernholm. Not only that, his best female friend also got overridden by the same truck and reincarnated into the same world in the body of something that's in between male and female.


Nations

• Vernholm: A multi-cultural human nation that boast a variety of species. The country has a royal family with a king/queen that oficially only holds veto right and no other official powers, in reality they still hold a lot of influence behind the screen. Laws are made and suggested by the first cabinet and altered and accepted/denied by the second cabinet (after which the king can still veto). The kingdom is pretty much a democracy similar to the Netherland except that the royal family still holds a fair amount of power behind the screens.

• The Patriarchy of Tyslin: A patriarchal nation in which only males have voting rights. Females are indoctrinated thru the public education system and are thought that males are their betters. Their Patriarchal views puts them at odds with the Federation.

• The federation: A communistic matriarchy that believes in equality amongst females at the cost of the minority male population. Males are taken from their homes and raised in specialized camps ensuring that their seed is fairly distributed towards all common folk. Their treatment of the male population puts them at odds with the Patriarchy, regular border conflicts have blown into a full scale war as of late.
  
  Honestly i'm missing a bunch of Lore in my doc atm, there's Elenoir which is a elven nation, elves always have mana (typical cliche of long live span, strong mana, low birth rates to balance). Basically specializes in a variety of healing magic.
  
  Demi human mercenary nation, often works together with Elenoir, they're still using a pack system similar to what the nation did during the medieval ages but they have a council of Alpha's for decisions on a national scale.

Factions.

• MPA (male protection agency): One of the few organization established by the royal family before most power was (officially) transferred to the ministry. The MPA acts like the secret service but with the task of protecting their nations males which are considered assets of national importance. They generally handle the day to day security of consenting males, ensuring their safety and protection at large. Behind the screens they infiltrate and check other organizations, engage in extermination missions and generally sabotage targets that form a danger to their male population. The MPA reports directly to the royal family and not to the ministry.

Once again outdated, Vernholm also has the RIA (Royal Intelligence Agency) which is focussed on both domestic and international intelligence. They officially have certain law exceptions (Pretty sure this was inspired on a old cold war era law? or ww2 era law? of some country. Forgot about it, didn't take notes my bad) which essentially means they operate with legal immunity and use that to engage in black tasks (or whatever it's called, aka things that don't officially exist or are done). The right hand generally doesn't know what the left one is doing (Domestic vs international)

The Patriachy have their own version inspired on the Gustavo, while the federation has something inspired on the KGB. There are also at least one pro matriarchy terrorist organisation introduced in the story.

There's the blue crusade which is essentially a specialized police task force aimed at dealing with the mana/dungeon side of things (They can be compared with Max-Tec from cyberpunk aka big specialized guys) They also deal with murder investigations inside of dungeons and so forth. A fair amount of people within this specific task force are on the religious side (Church of the Father) basically a religion with pro male sentiements which puts them in good favour of the MPA while they're seen as a potential danger by the RIA since extremist could be in favour of the Patriarchy and their countries way of doing things.

Last but not least are dungeons and the way mana affects society at large which I once again appereantly didn't bother writing down in my notebook for some reason, I have this fancy tab though.

Form	Description	Primary Uses
Raw Mana	Ambient energy naturally present in the air and within living beings.	Spellcasting, enchantments, biological vitality.
Liquidized Mana (Mana-Oil)	Condensed mana extracted from ley conduits and refined into a viscous, glowing fluid.	Fuel for vehicles, airships, and industrial machinery. Functions similarly to oil or gasoline.
Crystallized Mana (Cryst-Powder / Cryst-Fuel)	Dried, powdered form of purified mana crystals. Stable until ignited by rune or compression.	Replacement for gunpowder and high-energy propulsion; used in ammunition and explosives.
Mana Conduits / Lines	Networks of etched runes that channel raw or liquid mana through infrastructure.	Lighting, elevators, heating, hospitals, communication wards.

Got a bunch of other lores for other fictions but this seems like enough of a info dump already.

 

[Macha]

Semen is a precious resource: A MC that reincarnates into the body of a coma patient in a world with skewed M-F ratio's (inspired on world of woman by whatsw). The MC finds himself waking up in the body of a demi human and has to adjust to his new senses, learn the new cultural differences between not only the varied species but also men and woman in general. He's suddenly stuck in a society that sees men as something precious that needs to be protected, aren't meant to be part of the labour force and are generally not taken as seriously as they should in the country of Vernholm. Not only that, his best female friend also got overridden by the same truck and reincarnated into the same world in the body of something that's in between male and female.


Nations

• Vernholm: A multi-cultural human nation that boast a variety of species. The country has a royal family with a king/queen that oficially only holds veto right and no other official powers, in reality they still hold a lot of influence behind the screen. Laws are made and suggested by the first cabinet and altered and accepted/denied by the second cabinet (after which the king can still veto). The kingdom is pretty much a democracy similar to the Netherland except that the royal family still holds a fair amount of power behind the screens.

• The Patriarchy of Tyslin: A patriarchal nation in which only males have voting rights. Females are indoctrinated thru the public education system and are thought that males are their betters. Their Patriarchal views puts them at odds with the Federation.

• The federation: A communistic matriarchy that believes in equality amongst females at the cost of the minority male population. Males are taken from their homes and raised in specialized camps ensuring that their seed is fairly distributed towards all common folk. Their treatment of the male population puts them at odds with the Patriarchy, regular border conflicts have blown into a full scale war as of late.
  
  Honestly i'm missing a bunch of Lore in my doc atm, there's Elenoir which is a elven nation, elves always have mana (typical cliche of long live span, strong mana, low birth rates to balance). Basically specializes in a variety of healing magic.
  
  Demi human mercenary nation, often works together with Elenoir, they're still using a pack system similar to what the nation did during the medieval ages but they have a council of Alpha's for decisions on a national scale.

Factions.

• MPA (male protection agency): One of the few organization established by the royal family before most power was (officially) transferred to the ministry. The MPA acts like the secret service but with the task of protecting their nations males which are considered assets of national importance. They generally handle the day to day security of consenting males, ensuring their safety and protection at large. Behind the screens they infiltrate and check other organizations, engage in extermination missions and generally sabotage targets that form a danger to their male population. The MPA reports directly to the royal family and not to the ministry.

Once again outdated, Vernholm also has the RIA (Royal Intelligence Agency) which is focussed on both domestic and international intelligence. They officially have certain law exceptions (Pretty sure this was inspired on a old cold war era law? or ww2 era law? of some country. Forgot about it, didn't take notes my bad) which essentially means they operate with legal immunity and use that to engage in black tasks (or whatever it's called, aka things that don't officially exist or are done). The right hand generally doesn't know what the left one is doing (Domestic vs international)

The Patriachy have their own version inspired on the Gustavo, while the federation has something inspired on the KGB. There are also at least one pro matriarchy terrorist organisation introduced in the story.

There's the blue crusade which is essentially a specialized police task force aimed at dealing with the mana/dungeon side of things (They can be compared with Max-Tec from cyberpunk aka big specialized guys) They also deal with murder investigations inside of dungeons and so forth. A fair amount of people within this specific task force are on the religious side (Church of the Father) basically a religion with pro male sentiements which puts them in good favour of the MPA while they're seen as a potential danger by the RIA since extremist could be in favour of the Patriarchy and their countries way of doing things.

Last but not least are dungeons and the way mana affects society at large which I once again appereantly didn't bother writing down in my notebook for some reason, I have this fancy tab though.

Form	Description	Primary Uses
Raw Mana	Ambient energy naturally present in the air and within living beings.	Spellcasting, enchantments, biological vitality.
Liquidized Mana (Mana-Oil)	Condensed mana extracted from ley conduits and refined into a viscous, glowing fluid.	Fuel for vehicles, airships, and industrial machinery. Functions similarly to oil or gasoline.
Crystallized Mana (Cryst-Powder / Cryst-Fuel)	Dried, powdered form of purified mana crystals. Stable until ignited by rune or compression.	Replacement for gunpowder and high-energy propulsion; used in ammunition and explosives.
Mana Conduits / Lines	Networks of etched runes that channel raw or liquid mana through infrastructure.	Lighting, elevators, heating, hospitals, communication wards.

Got a bunch of other lores for other fictions but this seems like enough of a info dump already.

5-stars.

 

[Eldoria]

Got a bunch of other lores for other fictions but this seems like enough of a info dump already.

It's insane in a good way. This lore is incredibly complex psychologically, socially, politically, and geopolitically.

 

[KnoxCross116]

I’m My Own High School Rival


My story takes place in Kokiri, a matriarchal society where power is inherited, ritualized, and enforced through culture rather than brute force. Authority doesn’t come from who’s strongest—it comes from lineage, reputation, and knowing when not to act.
Kokiri is shaped by five major clans, each representing a different way power is exercised: law and discipline, silence and consequence, rage and survival, seduction and spectacle, and observation and fate. Balance is maintained through tension, not peace.
Across three arcs, the story explores what happens when individuals don’t fit the roles the system expects of them—especially when identity, gender, and agency are treated as things to be managed rather than chosen.

At its core, this is a story about systems that decide who gets to act, who must endure, and what it costs to step outside the narrative written for you.

 

[Thalees]

The Nine-Fold Way

In an age long ago, one who could oppose Death disappeared, and the World gained a new ruler.

Death now reigns supreme. All die, and are reborn through her grace.
In death their Wills are bound by her chains, always to be subject to her whims, never to truly become Immortal.

A boy is now born. He has no chains. His soul is too weak to cultivate without them. What past does he have? The seer peers into the future, but all he sees is doom.

A dragon rampages the realms, searching. Searching for its treasure.

Spoiler: Diving Deeper:

The web of Destiny binds all men, but in life they are given free will. In death, they give up part of their soul to enrich the world. Death messed with that, and now men must also accept her chains to be reborn, to live past one life. They are Deathbound.

The protagonist is not so, but neither is he Firstborn (signifying a soul that is newly born, and is on its first life). His soul is too weak to command the world without Death's chains to help it, and he cannot progress past the first stage - Awakening.

Those who can go past are termed as Aware - able to see what the light points at - Dust. Dust covers all things, and the world may be commanded to direct its flow. With Dust, one can leave the cradle (body), carve out a domain (part of the world that is yours), and establish laws (rules of the world). They can even be elevated to Immortality for contributions to the world!

More lore?

Spoiler: Diving even deeper?

Some firstborn rebel, and are termed Renegades. They are the parasites of the world, seizing Immortality without contributing to its web.

There are also true Immortals, the ones born before Death changed the Way (heavenly dao). Unable to slay them, she sealed most as the realms mortals live on. They were part of the World, and Death's shenanigans thus crippled it. Hence the web of destiny requiring mortals to give up parts of their soul to drive these Immortals as if they never had been slain.

Spoiler: lore dump

A rune? Meaning? First: An inner world in which you may demonstrate something. A translation medium through which you transmit the 'intent' of the demonstration. A world that understands the intent, traces the rune and remembers it's aura. Thus, runes may be written by rote from the memories of aura, teachings of the elders. Or they can be created anew, personalized with the help of an inner world. Stage required: Domain.
The difficult part is creating one's own rune, the step to open the door of the body is similarly possible by creating the first rune. Since each path is it's own.
Unless of course someone has their own inner world even before they push open the door. But how can that be? Hmmmmm.
Intent is defined by the person and the situation, every redrawing of a rune will have its own intent. The world matches the approximate shape of the rune and it's wielder along with the aura to produce the desired effects. A large enough variation in intent can cause the effects to be very different, but the aura at the core will not change.
Ex. A man traces fire to cook. The intent is to cook, the aura is of fire, known through the demonstration. When the man changes his intent, to use the fire for battle, he does not need to trace another rune, he can use the same with a different intent. Strength varies, perhaps a personalized rune has higher power, but it suffers from inadaptability. Each rune takes strength to cast, not from the wielder, but from the world. Creating a rune takes the most "qi" since it must be stored, and thus requires the creator to pay for it from their own pocket, or world, or means. Using a rune does not take as much, can easily be replenished, as it does not require storage of memory but simply a change of form. Lightning drawn from such as storms is even easier to guide, thus environment affects runes. A sect formation can bolster effects too, rendering costs negligible for certain runes, due to already bringing forth their effects. Runes normally created may be expensive, but people are always willing to spend on themselves, or can even buy access to other people's runes to lessen costs. Fire for battle for instance, may cost a lot to create, and may have harsh requirements to guide, but buying access to long created techniques will allow the wielder to use a rune already stored, and already recognized. It may be slightly weaker than one's own rune, because of path conflicts or simply it's methods, but it saves time, energy, and assets.
Every sect will have its own collection of runes to be granted to its members, for easy use, and it expects new runes to be contributed, for a fee of course, but to be contributed unless deemed unnecessary (dangerous, expensive, weak, personal) for its use.
A talisman stores the power of a rune to be unleashed as required, with no demands on power, assets, or ability. The creator has already paid for its costs, the profit is garnered usually through extreme personalization, or path differences, where such a rune would be difficult and expensive to create for one, but readily available for another. Such a rune is cheaply reused, and is bought at a price considering the technique of reusal, cost of creation, and normal standards like power, use and ability.
Usual talismans are one- time use, but can be reusable If bolstered by a formation and certain expensive materials through which it regenerates either passively or actively. Durability of such a talisman Is usually low, and can be dangerous. A formation to regenerate it may accept 'qi' from the user ( an expensive route, hindered even more by path conflicts) or from the world itself, such as guiding lightning from storms to provide the energy required, attracting droplets from the rain. Or by simply being next to a powerful enough dude on the same path radiating his aura out to the world.
A rune is written out in an instant, a formation is arranged over a period of time. Usually according to an array diagram(blueprint).

A loooooooot more lore, but I can't spend more time on this. Off to write!

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

I research a lot of history and urban myths

 

[Worthy39]

For my story, the lore isn't insanely deep so far, but I also won't reveal all of it until the final arc, so with what's currently available, basically people with magic had existed since the dawn of humanity, and those who wielded it were treated differently by different nations.

In some they were enslaved, some they were treated as gods, and others they were just executed. Then, a great calamity put the world in danger, and all the nations of the world had to put aside their differences and brought all their mages together to fight it. In the end, the great evil was sealed, and only ten mages survived the war. The way the magic system works, only the descendants can inherit magic, and only one per generation, therefore only ten magic wielding families still exist, and less then twenty mages are currently active.

 

[MorgueAnna]

Some general world building lore:
There are two sapient species in the world; Dragons and humans.

Dragons are born sexless and genderless. Eventually they gain characteristics when they reach maturity, though this is unique to each individual. Some are shaped by the world around them while others have a firmer grasp of their nature from the start. This can also change throughout their life. There are 7 potential outcomes and a "blank state."

Dragons have been forced into humanoid forms is because of a curse after the mythological event known as the Godsfall.

Humans and Dragons had historically entered an unending state of brutal war.

One of the deities took pity on their creations and sacrificed themself to stop warring humans and dragons. They cast themselves down, resulting in the splitting of the continents and the separation of cultures so neither the humans nor the dragons could become overly powerful.

The impact also resulted in the guardians. These entities forcibly keep the peace by driving away or killing anyone who crosses the boundary areas.

Each of the dragon cultures has a different variation of the myth which all follow the same general plot beats. The human version is distinct from the others.

Water version - the god decides to separate the humans and dragons from eachother as well as their own, so rends the land their tears fill the crater,, leaving the ocean as the ultimate power to keep the peace, which the water dragons are tasked with presiding over

Earth version - when the god fell their bones created the mountains that allow the earth dragons to mine metal and gems

Air version - when the god fell their impact forced out their breath and made a ferocious thunderclap.

Fire version = when the god fell their blood spilled forth, creating the lava flows

Celestial version - when the god fell their knowledge spread across the frozen wastes, creating the
aurora.

Human version - the gods took pity on humans and killed a dragon god, splitting the land and creating the guardians

The other gods mourned the loss and left punishments for the mortals; stripping the dragons of their true forms, forcing them to become like the humans they so despised. They also took some natural resources from each culture, eventually leading to the interdependence of the various dragon territories. The prismaura dragons remind the gods so much of their lost kin that they receive forbidden knowledge and are also more severely punished with a lack of nature’s bounty.


The actual story lore:
The water territory's heir wants nothing more than to live an ideal life, like that of a beloved human princess. The heir got this idea from their late mother, who once befriended a human princess in her youth, when times were more peaceful between dragons and humans. The mother died, prompting the tension between the water dragons and the humans. The current territory lord wants the heir to grow into a male and rule with an iron fist.

The clash between their desires causes enough stress to start killing the heir, which they keep a secret from all but their most trusted advisor. Finally, the advisor encourages the heir to flee from their home to avoid their health from declining further.

Unfortunately the sudden disappearance of the heir causes the already tense global geopolitics to further destabilize, playing into the hands of an unknown adversary.

 

[empalgepuk]

There are so many living weapons of the ancient times feeding on people. Most are dormant, lesser ones have been terrorizing people for generations, silently. Barely any record of them survived the ancient world-scale war, so people have been referring them as demons, even though they are not; or rather, no actual demon exists.

Some holy order call these creatures Eidolons.

 

[SouthernMaiden]

Semen is a precious resource:

There be white gold in em hills, it ain't much but its honest work. ?‍?

 

[MafiaNoble]

It's insane in a good way. This lore is incredibly complex psychologically, socially, politically, and geopolitically.

If you'd like your free to use what you want.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

Lore in Fiction​

Lore is a system of knowledge, a collection of stories, mythology, and world history that provides the backdrop for what is happening today. Lore is the worldbuilding that makes fiction feel immersive, vivid, and narratively realistic.

The Naruto series features chakra, tailed beasts (bijuu), and the history of ninjas as lore.

The One Piece series features devil fruits, the history of lost civilisations, and the legendary treasure (One Piece) as lore.

The Death Note series features the Death Note, the world of shinigami and humans as lore.

The LOTR series features rings of power, the history of Middle-earth, the language of the elves, the genealogy of kings, and the creation of the world as lore.

Almost all major series have lore that makes the story unique, meaningful, and profound. Lore is more than just aesthetics; it is also an extension of the author's well-thought-out story plan, promising a comprehensive series while also setting the pace of the story's conflict.

Without lore, fiction (specifically the fantasy genre) usually has difficulty determining the direction of the story. It's not absolute. But, with lore, conflict and plot would move within the world's internal logic, gradually revealing layers of lore, providing a complete picture of the world.

So, my question is, what is the lore in your fiction?


Critical note:
If you ask me what the lore in my fiction is:

Spoiler: My lore

Blood Rose Princess series: A world with amnesia for the sins of tyranny, the Disaster Princesses who are actually the living wounds of the world itself… and what deepest secret does the Eldora world hide?

One writing project, I set them as sort of what I think of as "proto-vikings". So I went with Norse mythology. The gods are *real*, but I avoided the whole (overdone) mythology trope of the gods running around on earth doing incredible shit. I was kind of proud of my one character and his series of frank talks with Odin himself. Some of the shit that comes out of odin's mouth, and his hot take on things was at times humorous, others tragic, I hope interesting and original.