Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is the process of creating fictional worlds for books, games, tv show and similar. It includes the big stuff, such as maps, planets, nations, civilizations, gods and heroes and subtle things such as architecture, costumes and what people eat.

Note

For speculative fiction, worldbuilding is generally an important part of what makes them work. Never the less it is only one part of what's required to make an good story. There is a reason why The Lord of the Rings (an actual story about people caught up in events involving elves, orcs, rings, a dark lord, etc) has outsold the Silmarillion (a History of Arda).

See also Fluff {Stub}