worldview

Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers. Worldbuilding often involves the creation of maps, a backstory, a flora, a fauna, different peoples and their technology, (And in many cases if one is writing speculative fiction, different races), including social customs and, in some cases, an invented language for the world.

Ecotopia

“It is so hard to imagine anything fundamentally different from what we have now. But without these alternate visions, we get stuck on dead center. And we’d better get ready. We need to know where we’d like to go.”

~ Ernest Callenbach

Scavenger Punk

Scavenged Punk is a stylized setting that focuses on technology and culture based on an unusual source: scavenged junk. Weapons, tools, clothing, and sometimes entire cities will be built out of repurposed materials. A key factor here is that these materials, often pieces of trash, are being used for something other than their original purpose. This trope shows up almost exclusively in two cases.

Improvisational Ingenuity

Necessity is the mother of invention and sometimes life just refuses to deal you a good hand. People who know how to turn an adverse situation to their advantage and make the most of whatever material they have on hand. Whether it’s exploiting the quirks of their seemingly useless ability, macgyver a device from utter trash or rapidly altering their plans (perhaps

Macgyvering Bamboo Tech Junk Punk

even inventing a new one on the fly) to account for rapidly changing circumstances. If the character is anthropomorphic, then it’s Resourceful Rodent.

“Among the multitudes of which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.”