Ask Lemmy

Star Wars, specifically the universe created by the EU from 1991 to 1999. It was a wide open wild west of ideas. The details of the clone wars hadn't been established, Anakin Skywalker as the chosen one didn't exist, and there was just such a massive variety of content.

Iain M. Banks’s Culture series—the prototypical example of “fully-automated luxury gay space communism”.

Hogwarts.

A huge castle where you can learn magic, explore and live adventures with your friends? There's a reason there was so much success for that saga.

JKR is a horrible person, but that universe is still there for people to create and share stories. There are a few fanfictions out there that are better than the last books.

!leaky_cauldron@diagonlemmy.social for people interested in that universe.

Star Trek’s depiction of the late-24th century. The height of the Federation, with nearly-ubiquitous post-scarcity democratic socialism, where anyone can do what they want, unburdened by having to work just to survive. But if you do work, you have the freedom to pursue anything, anywhere.

I love the Expanse. I think it is a very realistic depiction of the future 400 years from now on the path we are on. The power struggles between the Earth and Mars and the Belters caught in the cross fire who are barely considered human. Everything is run ny corporations that only care about profits and will grind down anything that is in the path.

The Cosmere

Different worlds with hard-ish magic systems that are different. Yet each is a manifestation of the same underlying forces/rules across the Cosmere.

Whether it’s Stormlight, Ferruchemy, Metallurgy, etc. they’re all aspects of investiture.

Which means you get unique stories and challenges in the worlds but you also get the occasional cross of characters with one set of magic in another world of the Cosmere that has another.

And my personal favorite in the Cosmere is the Wax and Wayne series of Mistborn (books 3-7) where you have metal based magic in a Wild West like setting. So people who can manipulate metal using bullets from pistols in unique ways. Imagine all those fantasy novels with wizards… but centuries later as technology advances to the age of steam engine and firearms.

An excerpt from one of those books

Smoke curled in the air over the bandit boss’s pistol.

“Oh . . .” Wayne said softly. “You just made a bad mistake, mate. A very bad mistake.”

The boss turned away from the body, holstering his gun. “Fine,” he yelled, walking toward the door. “You can have some fun, boys. Burn it out of your blood quickly and meet me outside. Let’s—”

Everything froze. People stopped in place. The curling smoke hung motionless. Voices quieted. Whimpering halted. In a circle around Waxillium’s table, the air rippled just faintly.

Wayne stood up, shouldering his dueling canes, inspecting the room. He was placing each and every one of the bandits, Waxillium knew. Judging distances, preparing himself.

“As soon as I drop the bubble,” Wayne said, “this place is going to erupt like an ammunition store in a volcano.”

Waxillium calmly reached into his jacket and slid a hidden pistol from beneath his arm. He set it on the table. His twitch had vanished.

“Well?” Wayne asked.

“That’s a terrible metaphor. How would an ammunition store get into a volcano?”

“I don’t know. Look, are you going to fight or not?”

“I’ve tried waiting,” Waxillium said. “I gave them a chance to leave. I tried giving this up.”

“You gave it a good show, Wax.” He grimaced. “Too good a show.”

Waxillium rested his hand on the pistol. Then he picked it up. “So be it.” With his other hand, he poured out his entire pouch of steel into his wine cup, then downed it.

Wayne grinned. “You owe me a pint for lying to me, by the way.”

“Lying?”

“You said you hadn’t brought a gun.”

“I didn’t bring a gun,” Waxillium said, reaching to the small of his back and sliding a second pistol out. “You know me better than that, Wayne. I never go anywhere with only one. How much bendalloy do you have?”

“Not as much as I’d like. The stuff’s damn expensive here in town. I’ve got maybe enough for five minutes’ extra time. My metalminds are pretty much full, though. Spent a good two weeks sick in bed after you left.” That would give Wayne some healing power, should he get shot.

Waxillium took a deep breath; the coldness inside him melted away and became a flame as he burned steel that pinpointed each and every source of metal in the room.

For anybody interested in starting with a book that is in the Cosmere “Mistborn: The Final Empire” is a great starting point.

I really like the world of Horizon zero dawn and forbidden west. All the ruins from buildings we can recognize (and some we cannot) are really cool. I also like how humanity had to start again without all the knowledge that was lost in the Apollo purge and how they had to adapt to a world shaped by the AI called Gaia and her robots.

My favorite is Middle Earth, but my 2nd choice would be the Dresden Files. Everything from Chicago to the Feywild to Vampire parties to the realms of the dead.

High fantasy set in a post apocalyptic world. More-so when all of the technology is forgotten, or unknown, rather than when they are making use of the barely working technology.

The Shannara series is the only book/tv series I have read that fits this. I myself have set several of my RPG campaigns in a setting like this, and am working on another when the TMNT RPG is rereleased.

Into the Badlands (TV Show) is a close setting, it is feudal post apocalyptic fantasy where they have limited technology.

Dungeon-diving and katabasis in general. Roguelikes are clutch for this reason, but it's also why I fell in love with the Elder Scrolls franchise, especially Morrowind; and why Fallout 3 was the best one — crawling through the DC Metro. And why the World Adventures expansion to Sims 3 blew me away. Obviously Terraria, Minecraft, and Core Keeper are all favorites as well.

In literature, myths like Orpheus and Eurydice or the tale of Persephone and Demeter hold a special place. Jules Verne rocked it with Journey to the Center of the Earth but also 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Conan Doyle is known best for Sherlock Holmes but his "The Lost World" is my favorite. And yes, I'm reading Dungeon Crawler Carl right now and it's as good as advertised.

For movies, ones based on the above books are great. The Core kinda sucked, though.

Shadowrun. It's horrific and dehumanizing and dated. But it's perfect.

As a kid I loved the realm of Dinotopia. Something about the art style fascinated me as a youngster

World of Darkness, although my only experience with it is Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. It's so atmospheric though, I'm so sad there's nothing else like it. Rules are well defined, whole masquerade thing feels quite logic, characters are believable, structure of clans/families/groups and their rivalry and world views is interesting, it's also close to our real world, but mystical... I just love it.

Warhammer 40k, pre 8th edition. It's a massively deep setting full of stories that are told by unreliable narrators.

This is one of my favourites.

Academy City (Magical Index) It's set a bit into the future with elaborate world building. Most people have esper abilities or are capable of learning magic. The characters are well thought out. Ironically the least impressive character is the main character.

I'd love to be one of the other characters and get to live and explore that world.

Skies of Arcadia.

For one thing, the entire setting is just a bunch of floating islands, and I love that trope.

For another, there's 6 moons, each with elemental powers. The land under each moon is affected by these powers, making the land under the red moon a scorching desert, and the land under the green moon a thick jungle.

Then there's the subtle mysteries. There's an iron star in the atmosphere, which is a satalite but everyone forgot what it's called. There's a black moonstone, but no black moon to go with it. There's a looper of every moon colour, but there's also a black looper that only shows up once you defeat the main villain.

I think, most of all, I love the tone. Pirates fight an evil empire, and a heroic, upbeat attitude is never punished.

I havent finished reading it yet but I really like the setting in A Psalm For The Wild Built by Becky Chambers. It's a wholesome and positive vision of a world that saw the error of its ways and decided to make amends and do things right, technologically, environmentally and socially. It gives me a sense of hope and pride in humanity which is an unusual thing to get from a setting rather than characters and story.

Also Solaris by Stanislaw Lem for blurring (or even erasing) the distinction between place and person and evoking a powerful sense of wonder and total 'alienness'. It was the last story I read that I was completely captivated by. Horrifying, beautiful and compelling.

As challenging as it would be, the Fallout universe.

Don't know why. I just feel like in the Fallout universe, you can be anything you want to be as long as you can convince enough people to back you up. Those same people might eventually stab you in the back, but still...vigilance is a small price to have the freedom to climb from a nobody stumble-bum to a czar of your own city-state.

The Fugue from Weaveworld. Something about a magical world, hidden in the intricacies of something as seemingly mundane as a rug.

The Dragonball Z universe. The setting would be similar to earth but with the existence of Capsule Corp tech, the lookout tower with the hyperbolic time chamber, sensu beans, and of course the dragon balls. Having the powers of most of the characters would be dangerous though, so without all of those.

I think the halo lore is pretty neat (except for everything the TV show and 343 touched)

The world of the Tapestry series, by Henry Neff.

It's Potter-esque, except darker and more complex. Plus there's a great epilogue book set 1000 years into the future after the first series concluded.

Doesn't hurt that Neff is a wonderful person on top of being an amazing writer.

Being an Eloi wouldn't be so bad, "a banal life of ease". The nights are a little rough, but it's like that everywhere.

Almost anywhere in the ATLA world, but maybe the Southern Water Tribe or an Air Temple as a favourite.