Dear Worldbuilder

[jenett]

Hello! I had so much fun with worldbuildingex last year, and I'm looking forward to it again this year. (You can get a sense of things I liked from my rec post for last year if that's helpful.)

This is rather long, but the relevant parts are in the general notes at the beginning, and then the specific fandom requests.

General notes

Types of material In-world meta or fic, please!

I'm generally pretty open to format of writing (fiction, travel guide, set of reviews, etc.) but please no poetry or music lyrics unless they're a smallish part of a larger collection of materials.

Art or other formats is very welcome as a treat, and there's a part of me that wonders about vids about libraries and magical settings.

General likes
I'm here for the worldbuilding, so while I don't mind canonical characters showing up, I'm a lot more interested here in the world they're doing things in rather than relationships, extension of canon plots, etc.

On the other hand, I'm also a fan of character choices illuminating details of the world, so if that's a direction you feel called to go, go for it! Diverse kinds of relationships very welcome - platonic friendships, colleagues, competitors, etc. are all very interesting to me, as well as a wide range of ways people have sexual and romantic relationships and who they have them with.

Likes:
- People being competent. People learning how to do the thing they want to be competent at.
- Changing interactions over time, especially things like teacher-student into peers and colleagues.
- Books or music or art that changes people's perceptions of the world and thus their lives.
- Worldbuilding that patches something the original canon glossed over.
- Magical theory that has a consistent internal logic.

Do not wants
Stepping outside canonical levels of sex-in-story, violence, explicit description, etc. please, and canonical relationships where that might be relevant. (My tastes in non-canonical things on this list usually require setup of some length beyond the scope of an exchange like this.)

Please also avoid stories where all the teachers/educational staff/etc. somewhere are not competent or ignoring the well-being of students. (One or two among a number of others is fine for dramatic contrast, it's the stories where every adult in an educational role is abusive or horrible or incompetent that I can't cope with.)

Libraries:
I'm a librarian by profession, and several of my requests have to do with libraries. I believe there's a lot of different ways libraries can work, but I want to see libraries that do work, at least for their target population. (Hilarious moments for other people who are not their target audience are fine, though!)

There are (good) reasons for librarian stereotypes, but please, if you write any of those, have there also be librarians who are also great at what they do and care about their library and the people who use it, even if in their own quirky ways. Same thing goes for colleges and schools, please!

Doctor Who

Any or No Characters
WB: Time Lord Education (Doctor Who)
WB: Non-Time Lord Gallifreyan Society (Doctor Who)

About this canon
I've watched Doctor Who from the time I was tiny, and I'm almost through a rewatch of Classic Who. While watching, I've been especially fascinated by the hints we get of life on Gallifrey, and the kinds of relationships and interactions that occur there.

This is a huge and sprawling canon, so I should tell you some things that might help. I have been dipping in and out of the wiki but any of the novels I've read were years ago, and I don't think I've ever heard more than one or two of the audio stories. Feel free to reference or not as suits your fancy. I'm also not quite caught up on the last two seasons of New Who, but spoilers are fine.

Also feel free to go off in a different direction - especially with my two tags I've requested, there's a huge amount of somewhat to very contradictory information in canon, and I'm fine with a story that's internally consistent but clashes with some part of canon. (Honestly, it's probably inevitable somewhere...)

Prompts and ideas
I'm particularly intrigued by the hints we get of the Doctor's education in Classic Who, notably his interactions as a student with Borusa and Azmael

How do Time Lords get matched with tutors? Do the tutors have a say in it? Do they keep notes about their students? Exchange gossipy letters or communications? Write reports?

How is information about the Academy (or about Chapters) shared? Is there a guidebook? Official or unofficial?

I'm also very intrigued by the hints we get about non-Time Lords on Gallifrey, and what their experiences might be like. And especially what their culture might be like since they presumably do not have the millenia-plus lifespan of the Time Lords. I'm particularly interested in farmer/village/community life here, rather than Outsiders.

Harry Potter - Wizarding World

Any or No Characters (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
Original Character(s) (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Fine Dining in the Wizarding World (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Knitting (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Libraries (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: London Blitz (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Magical Education (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Magical Jobs (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Magical Politics (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Magical Religions (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Music (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Squibs and their relationship with their families (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)
WB: Wizarding Home Cooking (Harry Potter - Wizarding World)

(I made these as two sets of requests, but they have the same notes...)

General notes
I have such Opinions about a bunch of the Potterverse worldbuilding, especially when it gets around the edges of what we see in canon. But at the same time, it's a world with so many interesting implications about what magic might do or not.

I'm love the potential here for in-universe meta (instructions, guidebooks, news or magazine articles, academic discussions, etc.) talking about these things. With the exception of the Blitz (which is when it is), I'm open to exploring different time periods (and might prefer it to the canon eras)w, though I prefer the UK to other locations.

DNWs
I'd rather avoid the canonical characters (mentioning them is fine, focusing heavily on them may or may not work for me for reasons.)

For education and library prompts: please don't focus on teachers / librarians / educators / mentors being lousy or incompetent (Opinionated is fine! Clashes of personality are a common thing. But I'd much rather a work about people trying to figure out how to bridge that gap than incompetence, selfishness, or other not-good things.)

Prompts
Fine Dining in the Wizarding World and Wizarding Home Cooking:
Give me recipes, or the introduction to a cookbook, or a restaurant review, or people talking about any of these things. What foods are much easier to make with magic? Which are much harder? Are there stasis charms to preserve foods out of season? If there are, why do people can things? Are there rituals about specific foods? Magical fruits? Do restaurants have particular highly skilled preparations similar to our molecular gastronomy?

Libraries:
Canon makes me feel certain there's more going on in the library organisation than we ever see. I'd love to hear more about what it's like. Does the Wizarding World have lending libraries in magical communities? What's the branch in Diagon Alley like? (Or somewhere else?) How do libraries interact with the publishing industry? What literature crosses over from the Muggle world, and what really doesn't?

London Blitz:
This is one of those places where once you think about it, you have to wonder about the gaping hole.

I'd adore a work about what Witches and Wizards did during the Blitz. Surely there were Muggleborn from the East End, and other areas that were hit hard, who did their best to save their families. Maybe their papers come out, now that that generation is dying, and their secrets are revealed. What about magical folk who were helping as Air Raid Wardens, or helping with ambulance crews. Were they slipping a little Calming Potion in with the tea urn to keep people from panicking in the Tube shelters? Using magic to help track down problems?

Magical Education and Magical Jobs:
Similar to my libraries question, I feel like there's a lot more to be explored here. I've felt that one answer to 'how do people get jobs' is apprenticeships (it fits other things we see around the edges). If so, how do those work? For advanced training, what are the training resources like?

Magical Politics:
I'm not very convinced by some of the fanfic that makes everyone into heads of noble households - but I do think there's got to be a lot of background politics going on, and people making trades.

(Every time I hear about the Wizengamot, I can't help but think of the Leverage episode where they're in DC and making chains of trades to get the one thing they want, "The Gimme a K Street Job".)

I'd love a look at that kind of consecutive deal making, especially if it's how a complex set of things ends up being a compromise state no one's really happy with.

Magical Religions:
One of my opinions in the Potterverse is that I think a lot of religion in the British Wizarding World got sublimated into family magical traditions that have religious or spiritual elements, and may well involve deities, but no longer match up to larger relgious community practice (though they might have at one point).

I'd love to see an exploration of these kinds of family traditions in the Wizarding World (ideally more than one, if you're up for it). I identify as a religious witch, and more interested in non-Christian practices than otherwise, but don't need what you come up with to make real-world magical or religious sense as long as it's internally consistent.

Music:
We see glimpses of music in canon, but I'd love more about the more classical and folk music traditions (rather than the modern pop / rock / etc. stuff we see a bit more of.) What kind of compositions are there? Are there songs that tell ballads or folk stories from a wizarding point of view?

Squibs and their relationship with their families:
Do they have any ongoing contact? What's that like? Is it different for different families? Different families almost certainly react differently - how does that work out?

Midsomer Murders

Any or No Characters (Midsomer Murders)
Original Character(s) (Midsomer Murders)
WB: Theories on the murder rates of Midsomer (Midsomer Murders)

I remain very fond of this series, but wow, yes, do they have a lot of murders in a low-density population. (And a lot of very weird ones!) I'd love in-universe meta about this, or fiction, that explores why.

Nexus of ley-lines? Interference by magic or science fiction? The presence of some object or artifact? Manipulation of the population by murdering someone so that people never ask pointed questions about something else going on that people want to hide? (I'm inclined toward fantasy rather than science fiction, but seriously, go wild here.)

Rivers of London

Any or No Characters (Rivers of London)
Original Character(s) (Rivers of London)
Isaac Newton (Rivers of London)
WB: Books (Rivers of London)
WB: Libraries (Rivers of London)
WB: Magical Apprenticeship (Rivers of London)
WB: Non-Newtonian Magic (Rivers of London)

I got a fabulous library story in this canon last year, and it has left me wanting more! There are more libraries possible! Exploration of specific titles would also be fabulous.

I'm also a complete sucker for magical training, and how that works - the interplay between master and apprentice, how people shape themselves in relationship to their student or their teacher, all the subtle ways and all the deliberate ones that are part of learning and growing.

The more I've read in the universe, the more I'm struck by descriptions of Isaac Newton as the Last Sorceror, and the liminal space between magic and science. (I just got a copy of Isaac Newton: The Last Sorceror and chances are good I'll have finished it by the time the exchange opens.) I'd love more exploration of this, whether it's about Isaac directly, the generations after him, or generations before him, for that matter. (And obviously, other options besides Newtonian magic come in there.)

Original Work

Any or No Characters (Original Work)
Original Character(s) (Original Work)
Bookseller (Original Work - Fantasy)
Librarian (Original Work - Fantasy)
WB: Bookstore (Original Work - Fantasy)
WB: Court politics (original work - high fantasy)
WB: Magic users in a modern society (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)
WB: Magical library (Original Work - Fantasy)

I continue to be fascinated by books, bookstores, and libraries in worldbuilding (lo, I remain a librarian). Please feel free to give me stories of any of the above. What makes the libraries unique? Do booksellers or librarians in whatever world have a unique gift for matching people with books they need? (And is that different than the book they want?) Do they use magic to organise their books or keep track of what they have? Are there systems for tracking down rare but not exciting books? (Or rare and exciting ones?)

I'm also always up for court politics (I adore The Goblin Emperor for how that plays out through the book, and a mix of kindness or optimism in with the politics is very welcome.) I'm especially interested by things that have a legitimate desire not to change moving against a need for some sorts of changes (whether both sides of the discussion can see the reasons, but something has to give) or the role played by less obvious people in the political discussion, whether that's a chance conversation with an assistant or servant, or a situation that comes up and is observed.

And I love a good story about magic users negotiating a non-magical modern society. Who do you tell about what? What do you do if that goes wrong? What about the slips that can happen in liminal spaces - wherever they are - where you might not realise someone isn't part of the community (Which might be a library or bookstore, to cross my requests around.)