So, I was just reading in one of the Dragonlance books, and a character mentioned that if someone fell through a hole to the outer side of the world, they'd land between a god's hammer and the anvil the world is sitting on, and get smashed by the god, since he's still forging world/stuff.

So, I was wondering how y'all do your world's shape. Is it flat(sitting on the back of a giant turtle, perhaps?), round, pyramid/triangle, ice-cream cone, a table, etc.

It really intrigues me, so please share.

I've always gone with a sphere myself, although I do have one story in which some of the worlds might be flat, but generally I go with a sphere. It's kind of automatic, and it also lets me do things like put the story in the southern hemisphere, because that needs to be done more often.

The fantasy world I'm working on (Murel) is spherical, but I would love to work on something with a different shape sometime. The worldbuilding involved is so much fun.

I've got one where the small continent where the story takes place is on the back of a giant turtle (Archelon), but it's still on a spherical world. I haven't been as brave on that front as I'd like to be, since I'd feel compelled to bother about the impact on physics and geology and I tend to spend too much time on worldbuilding (and not enough on finishing a plot) anyway.

I tend to also have trouble with caring too much about physics as well... and go with a regular planet/sphere, but I think different shaped worlds sound cool.

The beauty of fantasy is that we aren't bound by the laws of physics

I'm thinking a flat world with multiple layers could be cool. Not sure what the sky would look like for folks on the lower layers.

As of yet, I have created but one world, and that is round. 'Tis different from Earth, however in that it has not a single moon, but three. Atop that, is the fact that Eshteka (my world and subforum name ) is considerably smaller than Earth, and consequently has denser mass.

Yup, I try to stay pretty realistic.

*nod nod*
Eventually, I'll take a break from Murel and work on something with really fun physics.

Wait, Murel doesn't have fun physics already?
*tries to envision a funner world*
*fails*

eru

The world of Middle-Earth began as a flat world, and the Blessed Realm of Valinor was made in the West by the Valar.

But it was invaded by Numenorians trying to gain immortality, and Eru, the creator and teacher of the Valar, intervened. The Numenorians he buried in an avalanche, the island of Numenor sank into the sea, and Valinor, and the western sea, were removed into the realm of hidden things.

Eru made the world into a sphere, so that every path returned to its beginning, and no one could reach the end of the world.

Except the elves, and few others, who could sail away on the hidden, straight way, and see the bent seas of earth falling away beneath them.


This is one of my favorite ideas in the Silmarillion.


I will probably have both flat and spherical worlds, but I will not have the seas pouring over the edge.

@Tsahraf The Silmarillion is awesome.

@Andrew You hate Murel's purple tinted sky.

Besides, with a spherical world you are stuck with a lot of our Universe's physics (in most cases). With something different you can let your imagination make really interesting physics from the ground up.

The world with which I am most concerned (let's call it "the world of the Shine Cycle") is flat, along one edge of its universe, and (I think) only a few miles thick. I don't think that the ocean ever reaches any of its edges; instead, there's usually some kind of wall or impassible winds or something, except for a few gates to beyond. I think that the universe may expand diagonally outward from its edges. But there are planets orbiting many of the stars in its sky; this isn't one of the few areas where I modify the laws of nature as we know them.

I also have several small universes where one small country is the entire universe; in those, trying to find the edge will either land you in some other universe, lead to you finding yourself back where you started, or end in frustration at not being able to make any more progress.

I've created numerous worlds, and for the most part they were spheres. But like 3 or 4 of them could be called flat, and none of them were any good. With having flat worlds, everything is so different--in fact the only world that might work in real life while flat would be Tinted Lands.

I'm working on world building right now and so far my world has three layers and is shaped like a rainbow... make sense? Am I biting off more then I can chew?

Wow, that's certainly creative, RJ. I like it.

I think my world will be spherical, or perhaps flat, but with two layers, one being the surface, where the actual landmasses and seas are, and another "in the sky" so to speak, called the "Outer Circles" wherein dwell the Devine Beings. I'm in the beginning stages, though, so I'll have to think through it more.

Oooh... I never heard that about LotR and the Silmarillion. (I've read Silm, but I forget that part.) That's really neat!

I just do round worlds--way too easy and requires less work to figure out how a flat world would logistically work out...

I do a round world, but that's so that I can have really weird physics. Not physical laws, mind, you, but physics.

There are two suns, each of the poles if fixed on a sun, and so the two hemispheres are always lit, but there is a band of twilight around the equator. Because both of these suns are extremely distant, the band of twilight is extremely cold, even though the poles are both unlivably hot.

There are also three moons which orbit the equator at equal distances to the planet and each other, creating a nice, predictable tidal cycle. I make that cycle a little more interesting by having a fourth, large but extremely distant moon, which orbits from pole to pole, making the tidal system much more complex.

Add to that the fact that both of the poles are water, resulting a wetter world with more extreme storms, and that the main land mass is a gigantic super-continent, and the rest of the planet is covered in water, and you get a very unique climate.

So you can have a spherical planet and still have fun and be nothing like earth.

Hmm... it used to be that Solarii was spherical, but then I realized how epic it would be to send pirates off the edge of the world, so I decided just now to make it flat.

That is epic!

Hehe, thanks. It'll be quite a while before I actually get around to writing something like that though--I'm much too bogged down with other stuff at the moment.

In my favorite world I have a a regular earth like planet since it is a realistic magic-less world (though the greater majority of the people still amuse the world is flat).

But in my latest story (which is going to be a satirical comedy) the world was round but then was turned into a plane and then in a attempt to fix this the magicians creating the spell accidentally destroyed the plane of the world so there is no world at all except what has been created since then and if one falls off you simply fall through the universe endlessly as if falling through the same hole endlessly.

I like the idea. If you find you can not chew it you could just sharpen your teeth!

Is it flat or square?

Just flat, I think.

Where do they go after they fall off?

Do they fall off? Or just go around to the other side, like earth?

I am not sure how to phrase this question: Do the three layers curve like scimitars, layered like a stack, or like bridges, layered with smaller bridges under larger ones?

That's something I'm still trying to figure out.