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Another share from The Writers' Circle:
"Mundane" questions that get overlooked in worldbuilding
1. Where does water come from and how is it distributed?
2. Who makes the food?
3. Who transports and distributes the food?
4. If your world has modern utilities, are they widespread or only for the rich? Do utilities have to be modified to work in your world?
To add a little prompt of my own: If magic is an ability to harness and manipulate natural elements, are utilities like plumbing and electrical lines therefore considered forms of magic? If so, mages might be public works employees. But what's to keep a deranged wizard from unleashing a lightning elemental from a power outlet, or sucking you into the toilet with a violent whirlpool?
5. What happens to trash?
6. What happens to sewage?
7. What building materials are available?
8. What do people do when they get sick?
How common is disease? Is it things like the common cold and maybe allergies? Keep in mind that flu, fever, infection, diarrhea, etc are quite fatal if untreated.
How is sickness explained? Is it understood to be witchcraft, God's judgement, demonic possession, etc?
9. What do people do in the case of natural disaster?
Also, how are these events explained? In reality, cultures the world over often ascribe them to an angry god, or perhaps even the Earth itself fighting back against mankind's manipulations.
You could tie this to the magic utilities idea. Maybe using magic for modern conveniences can carry catastrophic costs like hurricanes, earthquakes, wild fires, etc.
This could be used to polarize cultures into groups that use magic to fuel their society's need to produce more goods (lumber, crops, swords, etc) versus a society where magic is completely forbidden because it has such disastrous side effects.
10. Are there emergency services?
Is their such a thing as a volunteer and/or professional fire department? Are they mages or regular people?
Are there paramedics/EMTs?
Are there police?
If there are all these emergency services, how are they contacted when someone is in need? Do you send a runner, does someone else summon them, are there alarms/sirens, etc?
11. How are large objects moved?
Is there such a thing as heavy equipment? How is it powered: hydraulics, steam, electricity?
12. When it comes to skilled labor (this could be anything from a carpenter to an apothecary) how are goods created and distributed?
Maybe a rural blacksmith has nothing but his hammer, forge, and an apprentice. Does he have to dig for ore/coal himself, or does he trade for it? Whereas a city smithy has coins to purchase his mass-market fuel from the local coal cart. Or maybe he pays a fire mage that stokes his forge. This mage might be able to imbue the forge to maintain a constant temperature meaning the smith doesn't have to stoke it and pump the billows.
Perhaps the largest cities don't even have smithies, but instead grand factories and foundries where molten flows pour into molds that mass-market stamped swords.
To add a final question of my own
13. Are there forms of mass communication? Printed/posted news, radio, visual projection, etc?
This could be as archaic as a single flier nailed to the church door, or a paperboy hollering and waving on the street corner. Maybe there are signs on posts/poles or large billboards. Is it advanced enough to have semi-regular news cried out from atop towers? Maybe these are actual "loud speakers" that merely holler or recite scripts while an air mage projects and intensifies their voice to carry.
Maybe the rarest and least understood magic is that of Illusion. An extraordinary and incredibly expensive spirit mage (or holonist) can conjure images like holograms. The smaller "ghost images" are a flickering white while the larger multi-hued projections require multiple mages to concoct and control them. These elaborate displays are exceedingly costly, both in magical energy to create and in coin to view.
Some say this is the most feared and unworldly magic because it is drawing ghosts from the spirit world and making them dance for magic masters. Angry ghosts/demons may not leave when the holo-show (a.k.a. Hollows) are over, and linger to haunt to world of the living.
"Mundane" questions that get overlooked in worldbuilding
1. Where does water come from and how is it distributed?
2. Who makes the food?
3. Who transports and distributes the food?
4. If your world has modern utilities, are they widespread or only for the rich? Do utilities have to be modified to work in your world?
To add a little prompt of my own: If magic is an ability to harness and manipulate natural elements, are utilities like plumbing and electrical lines therefore considered forms of magic? If so, mages might be public works employees. But what's to keep a deranged wizard from unleashing a lightning elemental from a power outlet, or sucking you into the toilet with a violent whirlpool?
5. What happens to trash?
6. What happens to sewage?
7. What building materials are available?
8. What do people do when they get sick?
How common is disease? Is it things like the common cold and maybe allergies? Keep in mind that flu, fever, infection, diarrhea, etc are quite fatal if untreated.
How is sickness explained? Is it understood to be witchcraft, God's judgement, demonic possession, etc?
9. What do people do in the case of natural disaster?
Also, how are these events explained? In reality, cultures the world over often ascribe them to an angry god, or perhaps even the Earth itself fighting back against mankind's manipulations.
You could tie this to the magic utilities idea. Maybe using magic for modern conveniences can carry catastrophic costs like hurricanes, earthquakes, wild fires, etc.
This could be used to polarize cultures into groups that use magic to fuel their society's need to produce more goods (lumber, crops, swords, etc) versus a society where magic is completely forbidden because it has such disastrous side effects.
10. Are there emergency services?
Is their such a thing as a volunteer and/or professional fire department? Are they mages or regular people?
Are there paramedics/EMTs?
Are there police?
If there are all these emergency services, how are they contacted when someone is in need? Do you send a runner, does someone else summon them, are there alarms/sirens, etc?
11. How are large objects moved?
Is there such a thing as heavy equipment? How is it powered: hydraulics, steam, electricity?
12. When it comes to skilled labor (this could be anything from a carpenter to an apothecary) how are goods created and distributed?
Maybe a rural blacksmith has nothing but his hammer, forge, and an apprentice. Does he have to dig for ore/coal himself, or does he trade for it? Whereas a city smithy has coins to purchase his mass-market fuel from the local coal cart. Or maybe he pays a fire mage that stokes his forge. This mage might be able to imbue the forge to maintain a constant temperature meaning the smith doesn't have to stoke it and pump the billows.
Perhaps the largest cities don't even have smithies, but instead grand factories and foundries where molten flows pour into molds that mass-market stamped swords.
To add a final question of my own
13. Are there forms of mass communication? Printed/posted news, radio, visual projection, etc?
This could be as archaic as a single flier nailed to the church door, or a paperboy hollering and waving on the street corner. Maybe there are signs on posts/poles or large billboards. Is it advanced enough to have semi-regular news cried out from atop towers? Maybe these are actual "loud speakers" that merely holler or recite scripts while an air mage projects and intensifies their voice to carry.
Maybe the rarest and least understood magic is that of Illusion. An extraordinary and incredibly expensive spirit mage (or holonist) can conjure images like holograms. The smaller "ghost images" are a flickering white while the larger multi-hued projections require multiple mages to concoct and control them. These elaborate displays are exceedingly costly, both in magical energy to create and in coin to view.
Some say this is the most feared and unworldly magic because it is drawing ghosts from the spirit world and making them dance for magic masters. Angry ghosts/demons may not leave when the holo-show (a.k.a. Hollows) are over, and linger to haunt to world of the living.
As I clattered away at the keyboard, posing and expanding questions, the answers began to form for a world I shall call Magaea.
It has varying views and uses/taboos for magic. Everything from Middle Age to early 20th Century technology.
There is no radio and TV, or at least not as we know them. There might be a somewhat steampunky feel to certain aspects.
I kinda giggle at the notion of Gandalf in a blue Magical Public Works (M.P.W.) jumpsuit to match his pointy blue hat. Maybe, depending on the task at hand, he has to don a hardhat and reflective vest. I suppose he ought to tie back his hair and beard with several bands - making it look like he has a ponytail in the front and back
It has varying views and uses/taboos for magic. Everything from Middle Age to early 20th Century technology.
There is no radio and TV, or at least not as we know them. There might be a somewhat steampunky feel to certain aspects.
I kinda giggle at the notion of Gandalf in a blue Magical Public Works (M.P.W.) jumpsuit to match his pointy blue hat. Maybe, depending on the task at hand, he has to don a hardhat and reflective vest. I suppose he ought to tie back his hair and beard with several bands - making it look like he has a ponytail in the front and back
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