One way to build a world.

[Krnon]

In my opinion, making a world is not that hard. You basically need to think of some basic things to start.

1. What kind of land/water ratio do I want it to have?
2. What kind of solar system does it have, as it can affect the planet's gravity and thus change the density of the things on it?
3. is the planet inhabitable?

Now that we have these basic thoughts, let us think of some intermediate thoughts.

• How big is the planet? How much volume and diameter is that?
• What kind of ecology is on the planet? (plants, fish, bugs, mammals)
• What kind of rocks can one find on this planet? (Iron, gold, platinum ores)
• Does the planet contain sentience, and if so, what is it? (Humans for Earth)
• What kind of biomes are found on this planet and where are they found? (Arctic near the poles)
• Is there a food chain of each area, and what is it? (this one can take a long time to develop in some cases.)

Now that this is out of the way, let us go over what we have:

• We have a solar system, a planet, and a basic understanding of the planet.
• We now know what is on the planet for different areas and creatures on it and what they do on it.

Lets now go back to sentience.

• What is this being? (mammal, fish, reptile, bird, fungus, etc...)
• how does it procreate? (Copulation, sporing, seeds, etc...)
• What does it consume/excrete? (Food/waste materials)
• Is it social, or not? (Hippo are social, Cheetah are not)
• If social, does it have a obvious leader, or is it between all inhabitants?
• Do they make structures? (Houses) or do they live off the land?
• Are they curious or not?
• Do they get in trouble because of it if so?

Now, let us see some specific things.

1. Do they adapt to their surroundings, or do they adapt their surroundings to what they want? (This is the biggest thing for humans at the moment)
2. Do they fashion tools to aid their survival? If so, what are they out of?
3. Are they themselves their tools? If so, how did they evolve to fit this task?
4. Are they themselves a machine? If so, what made them? What was the process and materials used?
5. What are their living conditions? Do they have a poor environment for survival? (Lizard in the arctic)
6. What material is the base component of the being been made? (Important! Humans are made mainly of Carbon, and as such have specific weak points and strengths.)
7. If made of a metal, How does the being survive? Does it use a non-rust liquid as blood?
8. If made of flesh, do they fashion armor and weapons to aid their chances of survival?
9. Does this entity make civilizations, and where? (England, Northern Europe area)
10. Basic body type, Weight, Height, eyes, limbs, tails, etc...
11. What type of vision does this thing have? Does it see heat, reflected light like humans, or something interesting?
12. What kind of eyes would this thing have with that kind of vision?

Now for some other things.

1. Does this entity have magical, psionic, spiritual, or otherwise "unnatural" abilities?
2. How do they work? Are they linked to anything specific?
3. If psionic, does it have a special brain that allows for the difference? How did this develop?
4. If magical, how does it access, manipulate, and store the mystical energies? What can be done with these energies? What types of magic are there?
5. If spiritual powers arise, how does this entity access them? Do they pray for them, or can they use them for their own needs on their own? What can be done with this power? How did this develop?
6. If it has unexplainable powers, what event caused said powers to appear? Was it avoidable?

Now for some advanced thinking:

1. Does this entity use commerce?
2. Does this thing fit on the planet you made earlier? Where?
3. What views doe this being have on slavery, abortion, murder, or genocide?
4. Does it believe in marriage or any binding oath?
5. How fast can this being to produce the next generation?
6. Does this being breathe Air as we know it, or does it need a different atmosphere?
7. What specific ores and gems can be found on this planet that is known to this entity?
8. What are they used for?
9. Does this thing use vehicles?
10. What shape are they in?
11. What is the gravity of the planet you have made?
12. Using that, calculate the distance to it's celestial neighbors (planets if applicable and stars)
13. What does one see when looking out to the night sky from this planet? Do you see constellations?

After this, we have competent information on the planet, it's inhabitants, and what they do on the planet.

Now for some questions:

• What kind of illnesses could an outsider expect to achieve if exposed to the viruses/bacteria on this planet? What do they do?
• How did the above things adapt to be as such?
• How did the plant/animal life adapt/evolve to be the way it is?
• How frequent does one experience an earthquake here? Are the tectonics stable?

This information is needed in-between the basic and intermediate questions, sorry.

This is just the basic layout I have thought of when making a world. Please let me know your thoughts on this, and if it helps or not. I focus more on the physical aspects of a planet. I apologize, as not everything is ordered properly, I typed it as I thought of it. Ironically, I prefer to explore a world, rather then know everything before hand. Sorry for the length and any typos.

 

[Krnon]

Here, I will go and do an example:

1. 50% water, 50% land About 10 m/s squared gravity due to the gravity of the surrounding celestial bodies
2. 3 planets, 2 stars. Binary star system.
3. Only one of these planets are inhabitable, since only one falls into the goldilocks zone.
4. The orbit cycles into itself since both stars are of equal mass, the gravity that is pulling them to each other is counterbalanced by two super large planets and one normal earth sized planet.
5. The planet, being that it has two large stars around it on opposite sides, does not have polar ice caps, but has a definite rotation.
6. The super large planets are around 5 au each apart from the planet in question, whereas the stars are about 7 au.
7. The stars emit high levels of UV, thus causing the lifeforms to develop UV resistant eyes, would look very dark, almost black.

The planet I shall start with the basic microbes and such, then work up to insects and aquatic life, to plants and reptiles, then stop there. I will make the planet's water be 20% surface, 30% underground, of which roughly 5% of both is salt water. Taking this into consideration, I am making there be an equal spread of land to water throughout the planet. I am doing this by making the water all over, but only so high.

The planet would be roughly in the Jurassic Era of time, so I will base my ecology on that rather then worry about the finite details. Yes the planet contains sentience, in the form of an insect. The insect is about 50% larger then normal, and ant in origin of shape. It is larger due to the greater oxygen levels. The ant has no special powers of it's own, so it must rely on what it can accomplish on it's own. It is it's own tool, by breeding ants for specific purposes. Worker ants gather food and nurture young. Soldier ants are larger and equipped for battle with mandibles and a harder exoskeleton. The ants will make hives as communities and be social to greatly increase their chances of survival. The ant queen is the leader of the hive. They make underground structures, preferring to stay out of reach of larger predators by being below them. They do this by making a mound of ground above the water, then burrowing down under it. The ants are scavengers by nature, and will eat plants, and animals as the opportunity arises. Since the ants are about 50% larger, I will also make them weigh about 50% more. Ants do not use commerce, as such they have nothing limiting them from expanding and making large hive networks and eventually learning how to farm or turn some animals into cattle.
The ants have no problems with murdering, aborting, or even genocide, so long as it helps the hive survive in the end. Depending on the climate of the area, the ants will, over long periods of time, evolve for the new area. The ants are a technological marvel, by turning themselves into the tools, they are engineering themselves biologically to do as they need to. Tropical ants are made of iron, making them have an rusty look on the outside, while creating a lubricant naturally on the inside. This outside rust makes them have a large amount of body armor as time goes on from the build up of oxidized iron. This build up can lead to the death of the ant after a while, keeping the population in balance, and assuring constant food from their own elder members. The planet's denizens are made from iron and other metals, as such are denser and heavier then normal. A normal ant weighs roughly 1.5 mg, add the mass added from the planetary description and materials used, and you get an ant that weighs roughly 5mg. Since the ants are about the size of a pill, their cross sectional muscles are still large enough for them to carry up to 25 times their mass, meaning they can tote around things the weigh roughly 37.5 mg, which is a significant increase for their physical prowess. The only ant with actual sentience is the queen ant, since it controls the hives. The reason for the iron evolution is purely survival.

Mental Ability:
Hive mind - Ability for the hive to communicate back and forth using subsonic frequencies emitted at the temple part of their exo-skull by means of a special bony plate with a specific purpose and action.

The ants do fit on this planet, mainly in the shallow swamps, but later can be adapted to the mountains and lakes. Ants do not believe in oaths, as they are just trying to survive. The ants need only weeks for the next generation to be produced by the queen ant and another chosen ant. The production continues until resources start to dwindle, then it is stopped until it is restocked. The ants do not use vehicles, instead choose to crawl underground then ambush their prey. Their history leads them up to what they are, but that is more about survival.

I hope this explained the ants enough, moving on to some things. The ants are not aware of the ores on the planet, therefore, listing them would be pointless and more work unless you are adding another species to the world to be discovered. A world like this is for technological exploration due to it's defined nature.

This way basically goes to the basic lengths that start with the overall area, then details everything inside it as needed. As seeing how ants will not need to refine metals or such, rocks will not need defined until you introduce an entity that has interest in such, such as a human explorer.

Please comment if you have more you wish to add to this, or have your own ideas. This is just an example for the above method. Do any of you find fault with this, and if so, what is it?