Building Worlds, Building Minds: The Art and Impact of Worldbuilding

Aug 21

by CJ Soriano (USA) and Max Mihov (USA)

I. Summaries of Vahevvea and the Hiraya Expanse

Vahevvea, a fictional world by Max Mihov:

Vahevvea is a fictional nation that is set more than a thousand years in the future. Its birth began after the greatest catastrophe in all of human history.

After a failed faster-than-light travel experiment caused the near-extinction of humanity, devastating Earth, only a few thousand survivors remained scattered across the planet. These survivors, whom historians later named "the Reliquiae," gradually reunite and begin rebuilding civilization from the ground up, being led by engineer Kamillika Nemiste.

In the following months, an issue emerged among the survivors. With dozens of surviving languages, people had very few ways of communicating clearly with one another; they could not all learn more than 50 languages to converse with everyone. There was no fair way to choose one language over another, so instead, the provisional government at the time chose to create an entirely new language—Vehevionian—to belong to everyone equally. Around this language (meaning "the new language age") an entirely new civilization and culture emerged, eventually growing into the nation of Vahevvea (meaning "writing a new world"), and centuries later, an entirely new world filled with dozens of countries, hundreds of cultures, histories, and traditions.

When I first began creating Vehevionian in seventh grade, I was not trying to create an entire fictional civilization. Ironically, my original goal was much smaller: I wanted to create the basics of a new language. However, as I developed new words, parts of speech, and complex grammar, I realized that languages don't just simply "exist." Every part of the language raises questions about the people who speak it and the culture behind it. Why did a certain word I created exist? What historical event led to the creation of a certain grammar rule? Why is one writing system used instead of another? These questions eventually drove me to create a world behind Vehevionian to give it a purpose, a culture, and a people, leading to the creation of Vahevvea.

Rather than designing a country first and then a language afterwards, I actually approached the process in the opposite direction. Vehevionian became the foundation for all of Vahevvea. Since I intentionally created Vehevionian to include aspects from many different languages, I was inspired to make the culture behind it an amalgamation of different real cultures. After that, as the language developed, I found myself creating the history, geography, culture, traditions, and political systems necessary to explain why the language had to exist in the first place. With every new aspect of the world, I came up with a new aspect for Vehevionian, and vice versa.

One of the biggest challenges I faced when creating the world behind Vehevionian was coming up with a coherent enough explanation to explain why humanity would abandon thousands of existing languages in favor of a completely new one. In Vahevvea's timeline, humanity experienced the Commutator Mundorum Disaster (CMD), a catastrophe that nearly caused humanity's extinction through the most devastating explosion in all of human history, akin to that of almost 900 Yellowstone volcano eruptions. The aftermath: only a few thousand survivors remained, most of which spoke completely different languages from one another. So, Vehevionian combined as many elements from them as possible while still being a unique language. Some of the main influences of Vehevionian include English, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Greenlandic, Latin, and Swahili, among others. Vehevionian represents the beginning of what survivors call the New World, and symbolizes cooperation after one of humanity's darkest moments.

From creating Vehevionian and Vahevvea, I realized that, to me, worldbuilding is about asking questions and answering them through your world. Looking back at my projects, I don't think I could've fully developed Vehevionian without creating Vahevvea. It was the story that Vehevionian needed in order to completely exist.

The Hiraya Expanse, a fictional world by CJ Soriano:

The Hiraya Expanse is a fictional group of nations off of the coast of East Antarctica, including Poemtopia, Lumkahari, and three other nations still in development. Its story is set in the 1980s and has nearly a thousand years of history.

The expanse was formed after an underwater volcano wrecked the kingdom of Poemtopia. The royal family possessed magical jewelry that granted them immortality, however, only one princess happened to be wearing it during the disaster. After 80 years, civilization came to fruition and the Hiraya Expanse was born. Albeit, it became rooted in corruption, resulting in extreme poverty for most inhabitants.

While Hiraya citizens do not have their own language, English and Filipino are spoken thanks to years of interaction with Southeast Asian culture; specifically that of the Philippines. Additionally, the Hiraya Expanse uses a writing system called Rayka. This can be thought of as an angular version of the Latin alphabet and the ancient script Baybayin.

The idea of a make-believe world was introduced to me in sixth grade. My social studies teacher challenged us to create the best civilization in the class. Thus, Poemtopia was created. It initially began as a tropical island on another planet. While it didn't end up crowned as the greatest nation, I was proud of what I made and continued to develop it.

My goal wasn't to create a sophisticated, sensible nation. Instead, I aimed to represent my personality, interests, and opinions on how society should function. For example, Poemtopians didn't have to pay taxes. They also greeted each other with high-fives, hugs, and breakdances.

My vision for Poemtopia shifted as I grew older. After reading George Orwell's 1984, I felt inspired to build my own dystopia. I took on several writing projects but very few surpassed 50 pages. I turned my attention back to Poemtopia and from that point on, it advanced into a corrupt paracosm for my next novel. The other nations in the Hiraya Expanse was made after I drafted the story's main characters.

Since I created Poemtopia with no intentions of making it into a complex world, it was difficult for me to imagine the Hiraya Expanse's history. I had never considered the "why" and "how." I solved this problem by drawing inspiration from the AP World History curriculum. It's broken into nine different timelines spanning from 1200 to present. This design—along with the curriculum's content—were utilized to organize Hiraya history. It proved a great way to study for exams too as I applied what I learned to the nations' histories.

To this day, I don't consider the Hiraya Expanse as a serious project even if it has grown in complexity from its conception in middle school. But I deeply enjoy imagining possibilities for this world and further developing it. To me, worldbuilding is a playful way of learning about how the world works. It is especially important to me as a teenager. When I'm informed about the inner workings of an industry, scientific field, or everyday problem, I understand it best by implementing it into the world and making it my own.

II. Comparing Vahevvea and the Hiraya Expanse to different fictional universes:

Middle Earth is the primary setting of the Lord of the Rings franchise made by J.R.R Tolkien. The first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, was published in 1954, meant to be a sequel to his earlier book The Hobbit. The story revolves around the main characters' quest to destroy the One Ring, an object that allowed the antagonist to rule over other magical rings to support his goal of conquering Middle Earth. Since then, it has become one of the best-selling books in history with millions of copies sold.

Star Wars is one of the largest fictional universes that has ever been built. Created in 1977 by George Lucas, Star Wars originally meant to be a recreation of 1930s Flash Gordon serials, but over time, it morphed into a universe that now spans thousands of years of history, countless inhabited planets in the universe, and hundreds of intelligent species. Instead of focusing on a fixed location, Lucas created an entire interconnected galaxy with different governments, religions, economies, languages, and cultures. One of the key identities of Star Wars is known as the Force. The Force is a kind of energy generated by all living things, with some characters able to use it for telekinesis, mind tricks, and even precognition; it serves as the central mysterious element of the Star Wars universe, while advanced technology such as lightsabers, droids, and even hyperspace travel drive most of the plot. Today, nearly fifty years since its creation, Star Wars has grown far beyond its original films and is now covered in novels, television series, comics, and games, making it one of the most expansive examples of science-fiction worldbuilding.

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of children's fantasy novels by C.S. Lewis published in the 1950s. It follows the story of multiple children as they are magically brought to the world of Narnia and are involved in adventures in which they uncover its lore. It has since been adapted into multiple forms of media including film and video games and has sold around 120 million copies, influencing other famous fantasy novels such as the Harry Potter series.

When you first look at Tolkien's Middle-earth and Vahevvea, the two worlds seem to have very little in common. Vahevvea is a technologically advanced country set hundreds of years in Earth's future, while Middle-earth is a mythological world that existed in Earth's past, with elves, dwarves, dragons, and even magic. Despite their differences, the philosophies behind creating these worlds are surprisingly similar. Tolkien first famously began by creating conlangs such as Quenya and Sindarin before he developed the bulk of Middle-earth's lore. In doing so, he let the cultures and peoples in Middle-earth develop naturally from these languages. Similarly, Vehevionian was created before many aspects of Vahevvea, shaping the world from city names to historical events. The largest distinction between the two worlds is scope. In making Middle-earth and the Lord of the Rings universe, Tolkien wanted to create an entire mythology which explained the origins of different peoples, languages, and civilizations. Vahevvea, however, hones in on one nation and explores how a future society might function after near-extinction under a common language, Vehevionian.

Middle Earth and The Hiraya Expanse are both governed through kingdoms and feudalism, along with having their own fantasy species, plants, and foods and beverages. Magical jewelry exists in both worlds, too, along with magic infused in writing. However, unlike in Middle Earth, alcohol is banned in the expanse. Citizens still go out of their way to create their own alcohol through magical means and artificially grown plants (specifically orchids). Additionally, Middle Earth covers a larger area compared to the expanse, which is only comprised of lands located in the East Antarctic coast. Another difference is that Middle Earth has conlangs such as Quenya, Common Eldarin, Rohanese, and Westron. While the Hiraya Expanse does not have a unique language, they do use a writing system named Rayka which is loosely based off of the Latin alphabet and the ancient script Baybayin.

Even though Star Wars and Vahevvea are both futuristic worlds, they both have very different approaches to science-fiction worldbuilding. The first difference is scope. Star Wars is a world with interstellar civilizations spanning thousands of planets, with most of the plot being centered around wars, galactic governments, rebellions, and the Force. Vahevvea is quite frankly the opposite. It depicts how human society, after near extinction, could potentially rebuild civilization from scratch and even create its own universal language. The world of Vahevvea, known as the New World, is set solely on Earth, focusing less on adventure and more on what everyday life could look like after society rebuilt itself. Another difference is the use of technology. In Star Wars, futuristic technology is used to support exploration and conflict with inventions like starships, droids, hyperspace travel, and even lightsabers. Vahevvean technology is meant to fit naturally into the world and evolve naturally with growing needs such as transportation, medicine, architecture, communication, and education. Additionally, although Star Wars contains numerous fictional languages such as Huttese and Shyriiwook, they aren't fully explored and primarily serve for atmospheric purposes in-universe. Vehevionian, however, is the core of Vahevvea and contains extensive grammar, its own writing system, evolution, and unique phonetics.

The most obvious difference between Star Wars and The Hiraya Expanse is the setting. The The Hiraya Expanse is located in Antarctica—a continent on Earth. On the other hand, Star Wars takes place in outer space with fictional stars, moons, and planets. Technology is an integral part of both worlds. However, Star Wars features more futuristic technology as well as the usage of artificial intelligence. This includes spacecraft, robots, energy technology, and of course—light sabers. The Hiraya Expanse is much more centered around radio frequency engineering and the construction of heavy artillery. While there are some instances of artificial intelligence in the expanse, it is very seldom. For example, one of the main characters in its story, Sarla, is one of only five people that have learnt the necessary skills to build AI-powered facial wear. On the flip side, even if the Hiraya Expanse and Star Wars have little to no similarities at a glance, they actually share several similarities. The "force" and the Hiraya magic system Rayka are very similar to each other. While Rayka does not have a "light" or "dark" side, it can still be seen as a metaphysical power that can be used for multiple purposes. Genetic engineering is also featured in the Star Wars franchise and The Hiraya Expanse. The expanse has several kinds of animal-human hybrids including deer, fox, and dragon mixes all made artificially.

Similarly to Middle-earth, Narnia is very different from Vahevvea in both its purpose and its atmosphere. Created by C. S. Lewis, Narnia is a magical world containing talking animals, fictional creatures, ancient prophecies, and even enchanted objects. All of these elements function together in the Chronicles of Narnia to tell stories of morality, sacrifice, and hope. The world of Narnia primarily exists to support the themes of the stories Lewis wanted to tell rather than simulating a functioning civilization. Vahevvea takes on the complete opposite approach. Instead of relying on symbolism and fantasy, the New World attempts to answer practical questions about rebuilding civilization and how a future nation would operate. Questions like how cities are planned, how creating new transportation systems works, how education is structured after a near-extinction event. Although they both have rich history and traditions, the goals of the two worlds are significantly different from one another.

Narnia is introduced as a perpetually snowy world similar to the Hiraya Expanse, with one difference being that trees are able to grow in Narnia. However, after the White Witch is killed, spring is restored to the kingdom. Aslan's country is also described as lush, green, and colorful. It is very difficult to cultivate any kind of greenery in the Hiraya Expanse without magic, though limited plant growth is possible with magical means.

Even so, the range of plants one can make is very limited. There is also no possible way to magically travel to the Hiraya Expanse. Unlike the expanse, the main characters in the chronicles of Narnia were able to reach the world through a wardrobe in the first book. On top of that, a realm known as the Wood between the worlds has portals to Earth, Narnia, and Charn. While magical jewelry exists in both Narnia and the Hiraya Expanse, they are used for different purposes. Hiraya jewelry grants immortality and protection when worn. The magic rings in Narnia were designed for transfer to and from the Wood between the Worlds. The most apparent similarity between the two worlds is their governance; they are both ruled by kingdoms. However, the Hiraya government has a long history of dictatorship and corruption rather than magical influence.

III. Worldbuilding and its potential effects on society:

Worldbuilding is the process of creating a fictional world. Although it may seem like simply making up imaginary places, researchers have actually studied this behavior in children. These detailed imaginary worlds are often called paracosms, fictional worlds with their own rules and systems that children develop over long periods of time. In one study, researchers found that children between eight and twelve who had created paracosms demonstrated a higher level of creativity in certain storytelling tasks, which suggests that there is some connection between worldbuilding and narrative creativity. Of course, this does not mean that creating a fictional world will automatically make a child more intelligent; it instead suggests that worldbuilding can provide a space where children can express their imaginations by creating places, characters, and histories and connecting them into a larger universe.

In the process of worldbuilding, one of the most important driving questions is "what if?" A child or worldbuilder in general might wonder what would happen if a country of theirs existed underwater, if people spoke an entirely fictional language, or if there were rules applied to the magic system in their universe. Once you answer one question, it often leads to another, encouraging the person to imagine different alternatives to a scenario. Research into children's imaginary play has examined this exact kind of thinking: constructing different possibilities that are beyond reality through storytelling and pretend scenarios. This kind of thinking encourages kids to move beyond searching for one sole answer to a problem, and instead consider many more possible answers to the same question. With creating a more and more detailed world, they must also decide which of these possibilities makes sense given what they have already created, making worldbuilding a combination of both open-ended imagination and logical thinking.

As a fictional world grows, maintaining consistency in the world becomes more and more complicated. For a world to be structurally coherent, a worldbuilder needs to not only decide, for example, that a city exists. They may also need to eventually decide why it exists there, how people travel to it, what language the inhabitants speak, its history; the list goes on. Therefore, worldbuilding requires its creators to think about how individual ideas and parts are connected to a larger framework of interconnected systems. Worldbuilding also introduces problems that creators must solve for themselves: if two parts of a fictional history contradict each other, it is up to the worldbuilder to reconsider the timeline and develop an explanation that either makes both events possible or chooses one path over the other. To make a consistent world, you can't simply rely on just your imagination; you need organization, cause-and-effect reasoning, and problem solving.

It is also worth noting that worldbuilding requires one to think in interdisciplinary ways during the creation process. Even in reality, every aspect of society will always be influenced by another. Science affects economic, geopolitical, and social conditions. English literature can affect psychology, which can interact with math. A worldbuilder must consider these interactions to balance their imagination with logic, resulting in a more complex, impressive fictitious world.

This interdisciplinary thinking has been utilized in teaching critical thinking. Maynooth University conducted a study on a course aimed to teach information literacy through worldbuilding. Results explained that students were able to make connections to research and knowledge they've acquired from their major (e.g. a history student connecting their sci-fi world to real life revolutions). Worldbuilding also helps us imagine possible futures for the realities we live in. It requires consideration of the current ecological, political, and social conditions and other variables that impact a world. Another study says that children with paracosms displayed increased creativity when asked to draw a make-believe person. They were also more likely to follow positive strategies when solving problems. Overall, these studies suggest that worldbuilding improves cognitive skills such as creativity, problem-solving, writing, and research.

Since worldbuilding can be a form of play, it is more likely that it'll inspire curiosity in children compared to learning imposed onto them. Children with imaginary friends show a sign of creativity and an increase in laughter, smiling, and excitement. Kids with fictional worlds display improved imagination, acquisition of knowledge, problem-solving, and cognitive abilities. Worldbuilding enables them to connect and elaborate on ideas and experiences through fantasy narratives and acting, as well as the process of putting together a consistent imaginary world.

In conclusion, worldbuilding is much more than simply inventing fictional worlds. It combines imagination, problem solving, organization, research, and interests from every subject; it gives people a place where they can ask "what if?" and lets them write the answers for themselves. Although existing research doesn't directly show that worldbuilding makes children much more intelligent, research does suggest that the kind of creative thinking that's involved in worldbuilding can in fact support valuable skills and ways of thinking that children benefit from. If worldbuilding is introduced more often in educational settings, we may be able to encourage not only children, but people of all ages, to become more curious, interdisciplinary, and creative thinkers.

Resources:

https://academic.oup.com/chidev/article/91/1/e164/8258225?

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