The Worldbuilding Summer Camp is here! This third prompt wave is themed around Belief, so let’s look at how you can approach this theme and the various prompts!
The gold theme: belief
Religious belief is a foundational element for many cultures, but belief doesn’t have to be about religion! Beliefs can be about superstition, urban legends and myths, people you believe in, and more. There are also schools of philosophy and even just personal codes of values that you can believe in. Essentially, anything and anyone that inspires people, for good or ill. There are plenty of opportunities to tie this in with the past two themes too! The introduction of a new belief system can cause huge social changes and, on the other hand, people with strong beliefs might be resistant to certain changes. As for refuge—many people find refuge in their beliefs, religious or not.
Belief prompts
These are the prompts that follow the theme of Belief. To answer them, visit the Summer Camp challenge page!
Somewhere in your world, describe…
21. A faction of an organization built around belief [Organization]
Monastic orders, political parties, knightly order
Writing about a specific faction rather than the organization as a whole lets you introduce depth into your world, and even conflict! Various factions within an organization might share the same goals but be antagonistic to each other at the same time. And while your mind might go straight to religious organizations, there are many organizations that need belief to work! Political parties are factions within the organization of the country, and they need their voters to belief in them. Similarly, a knightly order will be loyal to something or someone—that’s belief too!
22. A myth, urban legend, or conspiracy theory believed by many to be true [Myth]
Creation myths, folk etymologies, flat earth
There are many things people falsely believe and most of them aren’t as grand as a creation myth—sometimes people are just wrong about random stuff! These mundane myths can still be really interesting to explore, as they can have deep historical or cultural roots. For example, most people accept that the Earth is round, but there are still people who are very convinced of the opposite. Folk etymologies (i.e. when people wrongly assume the origin of a word or idiom) can also be really fun to play with to show how people see their culture and history. So, as always, go back to your setting’s themes and consider what sort of common beliefs your people would have!
23. An evil spirit or divine antagonist [Character]
Asmodeus, Japanese yōkai, the Man of the Noses
For this Character, we’re taking the spiritual route! Now, not all characters will actually be part of a formal religion, although they’ll usually be related in some way to folk beliefs or superstitions. For example, in Japanese folk culture, the yōkai are evil or mischievous entities that are generally not considered part of Shinto, Japan’s indigenous religion. But you don’t have to create someone who is evil—they could just be perceived as evil or unsettling by some people. For example, in eastern Spain, the Man of the Noses appears on December 31st and is said to have as many noses as days in the year. He’s not a creature with evil intent, but it can seem scary, which is often enough to make him feel antagonistic to children.
24. A document of spurious or controversial attribution [Document]
Apocryphal texts, Shakespeare apocrypha, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor
This time we’re focusing on a document not because of its contents, but because of its author. For example, there are multiple plays that were originally attributed to Shakespeare, but we know they weren’t actually written by him. Sometimes things aren’t as clear though: there is some controversy about whether Bach really wrote all the music that’s attributed to him; and yes, music also counts as a Document on World Anvil! So to begin with, think about why the text was written in that way. It could be someone using a famous author’s name as a strategy to get published, it could be an anonymous text that has been wrongly attributed by society. You could even have a document written by an important person but declared apocryphal by a figure of authority to further their agenda!
25. A relic or symbol of belief [Item]
National or political flags, a saint’s bones, Sword of Protection (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)
Symbols are a very important part of creating and maintaining belief. Be it brand fidelity, patriotism, or religious faith, a symbol is a straightforward way to create a community around the belief and, in some cases, an object of worship. And of course, symbols have a history behind them, which is why they’re so fun to write about! But symbols can also be unique objects; in She-Ra, the Sword of Protection is not only a very powerful magical item, but also become the symbol of the rebellion. So, to begin with, look at the history of the organization or faith behind this symbol and think about what type of item would make sense.
26. Slang or a language associated with a religion or belief [Language]
Religious swears, The Scottish Play and other euphemisms
There are two main ways you can approach this: either have language that references a belief, or language that exists because of a belief. For a basic example, the expression “Oh my God” is obviously related to religion, while “break a leg” probably exists because of the belief that saying “good luck” will jinx it. The case of The Scottish Play is very interesting: according to superstition, saying “Macbeth” inside a theater, unless it’s part of a script, will bring back luck. Therefore, The Scottish Play developed as an euphemism for the play Macbeth. So in order to develop this, you’ll first need to look at your world’s beliefs and superstition to figure out where this sort of language would appear.
27. A leading or high-ranking position in an organization [Title]
President, cardinal, chef
This prompt is about a rank or title, not about a specific person. This means that, while you can talk about current and past holders, the focus is on the duties, responsibilities, and privileges that come with the title. Most leaders will either need or want belief or loyalty from others, but try to find one that especially reflects this! Beyond the religious field, democratic leaders need people to believe in them in order to hold their position—and for non-democratic leaders, encouraging their citizens to believe in them is a way to stay in power too. You can also approach this on a small scale: the chef of a restaurant or inn also needs their customers to trust they aren’t being poisoned.
28. The practices and ceremonies of worship [Tradition]
Political rally, prayer, giving likes to celebrities, Purelake religion (Stormlight Archive)
How do people show their support and admiration towards a belief or a person? All three examples are things most people have either seen or taken part in, but even this can vary a lot between cultures and time periods. To figure out how your people would display their admiration, there’s a couple of questions you need to ask yourself. First of all, why do they hold that belief? From here, you can design the basic structure of their worship practices. Then, think about the cultural background behind that belief. For example, in the Stormlight Archive, Purelakers are a culture that publicly worships a false god so that he doesn’t get jealous of their true god. Their true object of worship is a single deity, but their worship is affected by the cultural associations with that false god.
Wild card prompts
Every week, we also release two prompts that are not related to the theme, so you can answer them instead if you want to take a break from the main theme! Here they are:
29. A settlement that’s known as a party town or pleasure city [Settlement]
Las Vegas, Venice
Time for a lighter prompt! Where do people in your world go (or wish they could go) to have fun? And what kind of fun is it? If you’re writing a dark setting, their concept of fun might be horrifying to our eyes. But you could also go the opposite way and subvert our expectations by making it an actually nice place that also serves as a haven for those outcasts that just want a happy calm life. This goes really well with the Refuge prompts from last week, in case you want to tie it in with previous answers!
30. A hybrid species intentionally bred [Species]
Mules, beefalo
Hybrid animals are frequent additions to fantasy worlds, but what about intentional hybrids? In the real world, we sometimes do this to “get the best of both worlds”. For example, mules are larger than donkeys and sturdier than horses, which is really useful for a pack animal. So this is where you might want to start: what does your society need from your animals (or plants) that isn’t fully covered by a single species? Then, look at any other species you might have already created to see if you can pull from there. You could even end up with a four-way hybrid if your world has animals that would look like hybrids to you (such as in Avatar: The Last Airbender).
DON’T MISS THE NEXT PROMPT REVEAL!
Excited to get the fourth (and final!) prompt wave? Because we’re excited to show them to you! Make sure to tune into next Saturday’s stream at 6pm UK/10am Pacific to be the first to know the 8 Decay prompts and two new Wild Card prompts. Remember that to get Gold, you need to complete any 24 prompts, not necessarily the ones in this wave!
What are your tips for this theme? Share in the comments—and go to the challenge page to answer the prompts!
