SANJIESAN LORE / Starting a setting
Build a first worldbuilding scene around three connected places
A new setting can begin with a useful local problem rather than a complete continent. World Anvil’s meta page discusses an active worldbuilding area. Try an original exercise with three connected places, one person and one unfinished task, then add only the details that help the scene work.
Choose a route with a purpose
Invent a character who needs to return a repaired object. Give them a starting place, a place where they must ask a question and a destination where the task can be completed. Connect the locations in a rough layout. Avoid choosing three impressive landmarks that have no reason to interact. The movement should reveal how this small part of the setting is used rather than merely show its skyline.
Let each stop add a different constraint
At the first place, decide what the character knows. At the second, let a conversation change the route or timing. At the destination, choose what makes the return successful or incomplete. Give each stop one setting detail that affects action, such as a shared entrance or a local way of recognising the recipient. Do not stop the exercise to name every shop and write every institution’s history.
Expand from a real question the scene raises
Read the short scene and identify one question that now matters: who maintains the shared entrance, why the recipient moved or how the repair trade works. Choose that as the next development task. If no action depends on a proposed new fact, leave it for later. For an established universe, place the exercise within approved geography and relationships; a convenient local example does not authorise replacing the official world.