AI Prompts for AI Prompts for Worldbuilding

Generate a world concept for [GENRE: FANTASY / SCI-FI / ALTERNATE HISTORY / OTHER] based on this seed idea: [DESCRIBE YOUR CONCEPT OR STARTING POINT]. Give me three foundational rules that make this world distinct from comparable settings. For each rule: state the rule clearly, describe one consequence players or characters would encounter day-to-day, and name one story conflict this rule naturally creates. Rules should interact with each other, not be independent.

Design the geography of my world: [DESCRIBE THE WORLD TYPE OR SETTING]. Create a geography that drives culture, conflict, and story. For each major geographic feature (mountain range, sea, desert, forest, etc.): name it, describe how it shapes the people who live near it, and name a political or economic tension it creates. Avoid geography that is just decoration. Every feature should do narrative work.

My world: [DESCRIBE WORLD]. Create a climate system that feels internally consistent and creates varied environments. Cover: how seasons work (or if they do not), which regions have extreme climates and what they are, how climate affects food and agriculture, and one climate-driven event (drought, flood, endless winter, etc.) that shapes current events in the world. Ground the climate in physics even if the world has magic or technology that modifies it.

Give my world a history by defining five pivotal events that explain why the present world looks the way it does. My world: [DESCRIBE CURRENT STATE OF WORLD]. Work backwards: what happened to produce the current political map, the current power structures, and the current tensions? Each event should: have a name, a one-paragraph description, and a lasting consequence that is still visible in the present-day story.

Help me think through the spatial logic of my world: [DESCRIBE WHAT EXISTS SO FAR]. Where are the centers of power relative to resources? What routes connect them and what makes those routes difficult? Where are the frontier areas, contested zones, and forgotten places? What would a traveler moving from [LOCATION A] to [LOCATION B] pass through and encounter? I do not need a literal map I need the spatial relationships that make the world feel navigable.

Design a culture organized around this resource or constraint: [NAME THE RESOURCE OR CONSTRAINT: WATER SCARCITY / MAGICAL ENERGY / A SPECIFIC CROP / A COMMUNICATION LIMITATION]. Show how this single factor shapes: what the society values, how status is determined, what the marriage or family structure looks like, what taboos exist, and what the dominant art form or ritual is. The culture should feel like it grew from this constraint, not like it was designed around it.

Create a religion or belief system for [CULTURE OR REGION IN MY WORLD]. Give it: a creation story or cosmology in 3-4 sentences, the core moral or spiritual principle that guides daily behavior, 2-3 rituals (one for ordinary life, one for crisis, one for death), a tension or heresy within the belief system, and the way this religion has been used to justify political power. Make it feel like it evolved over centuries, not like it was designed as a plot device.

Design the class or caste structure for [SOCIETY IN MY WORLD]. Define: what determines your class (birth, wealth, skill, magic, lineage, profession), how many distinct levels exist and what each one looks like from the inside, what social mobility looks like and whether it is real or mythical, what the bottom class is told about why things are the way they are, and what the current tension in this system is. Avoid mirroring real-world systems exactly: give it at least one rule that is specific to this world.

I have two neighboring cultures in my world that need to be clearly distinct but plausibly in contact: Culture A is [DESCRIBE] and Culture B is [DESCRIBE]. Develop what is different between them: values, aesthetics, food, approach to strangers, relationship to the supernatural, and what each thinks of the other. Then create one thing they share that neither would fully admit, because of centuries of exchange. This shared thing should be a source of both connection and resentment.

Design the linguistic culture for [SOCIETY IN MY WORLD]. You do not need to invent a full language. Instead define: 5-10 words or phrases that do not translate cleanly into English and what they reveal about the culture, how formal versus informal speech differs and who uses each, whether literacy is common or rare and what that means for power, and one linguistic taboo (a topic, name, or phrase that is avoided and why). Include 2-3 example phrases that would feel strange or revealing to an outsider.

Design the political landscape of my world: [DESCRIBE WHAT EXISTS]. Identify 3-4 major factions or powers, what each wants, what each is afraid of, and what keeps them from acting directly against each other right now. Then name the single incident that could break the current equilibrium. The political system should feel like it is being held together by tension rather than functioning normally.

I need a central conflict for my world that does not have a clear good side and bad side. The conflict is over [DESCRIBE: TERRITORY / RESOURCE / IDEOLOGY / POWER / SOMETHING ELSE]. Create 3 factions with stakes in this conflict. For each: what they want and why it is understandable, what they have done that makes them hard to fully sympathize with, and what they are willing to sacrifice. A reader should be able to argue for any side depending on which characters they follow.

Create a historical war or conflict that ended [X YEARS AGO] and still shapes the present of my world. Give it: a name and a one-paragraph description of what happened, who won and what they did with their victory, what the losing side was told the war was about versus what it was actually about, three specific ways this conflict is still present in daily life or politics, and one secret about the war that, if revealed, would change how everyone understands the present.

Design a governance system for [REGION OR NATION IN MY WORLD]. It should emerge from the world conditions: [DESCRIBE RELEVANT FACTORS LIKE GEOGRAPHY, RESOURCES, HISTORY, MAGIC SYSTEM]. Who holds power? How did they get it and how do they keep it? What is the official justification for their authority and what is the real one? What is the biggest structural weakness of this system, and what is the most recent thing that exploited that weakness?

Create an underground or resistance movement within my world. They are opposing [POWER STRUCTURE]. Give them: a name and what members call themselves, what they actually believe versus what they tell new recruits, how they communicate and organize without being detected, what their greatest internal disagreement is, and what they have done that could be used to discredit them. Make them morally complicated rather than purely heroic.

Stress test my world for internal contradictions. Here is what I have built: [DESCRIBE KEY ELEMENTS: GEOGRAPHY, CULTURE, HISTORY, POWER STRUCTURES, MAGIC OR TECHNOLOGY]. Ask me 10 questions a skeptical reader might ask: "If X is true, why does Y work that way?" "If the culture values Z, why do they also do W?" I will answer each one and you will help me either fix the contradiction or make the tension intentional.

My world has [DESCRIBE KEY FEATURES: MAGIC SYSTEM / POLITICAL STRUCTURE / UNUSUAL GEOGRAPHY / TECHNOLOGY LEVEL]. Walk me through a single ordinary day for someone in the middle class or equivalent of [REGION]. Not a hero, not royalty. What do they eat for breakfast, how do they earn a living, what are they worried about, what do they take for granted that would seem bizarre to someone from a different world, and what one feature of daily life reflects the world conditions I have built.

Build the economic system for my world: [DESCRIBE WORLD]. What is the primary basis of wealth? Who controls it? How does trade work across regions (currency, barter, credit, magic contracts)? What does inequality look like at the top and bottom? Name one economic tension that drives conflict in the current story, and one economic fact that seems minor but reveals something important about how power actually works.

My world has [MAGIC / TECHNOLOGY / BOTH]: [DESCRIBE WHAT EXISTS]. Help me define the rules so that this system creates interesting constraints rather than solving all problems. For each ability or technology: what is the cost or limit? What can it not do that would seem obvious? Who has access to it and what does that access differential mean for power? Good story magic/technology has at least as many limitations as capabilities.

I have built a world with the following elements: [DESCRIBE ALL MAJOR ELEMENTS]. Write a world bible summary: a 600-800 word document that captures the essential facts, rules, and tensions of this world in a way I can reference while writing and share with collaborators. Structure: geography overview, cultural landscape, political situation, key history, the central rule or fact that makes this world unique, and three things that are true of this world that do not exist anywhere else.