Worldbuilding Exchange 2025 Letter

[seal_nonnie]

Hello worldbuilder!

Worldbuilding is one of my absolute favorite topics, and I'm excited to see what you create for me. I've provided prompts below, but if you feel inspiration taking you in a different direction, please go with it; I'm sure it will be fascinating.

I go by Brachylagus_fandom on AO3. I have requested fic, art, and in-universe meta for all requests, and I've also requested Any or No Characters and Original Characters for all requests. I am open to treats!

Do Not Wants: explicit sex or gore (fade to black okay), animal cruelty

Likes:

• Characters being competent in their area of expertise
• Outsider POV
• Missing scenes and alternate perspectives
• Crack, particularly crack treated seriously
• Mystery/intrigue, casefic
• Hurt/comfort
• Fluff
• Hijinks
• Music

Worldbuilding-Specific Likes:

• Logistics - how does stuff get made? How is it moved?
• History and its relation to the present
• Period-appropriate details, esp. in clothing
• Science and scientific approaches to magic
• Things that did happen in canon but were only referenced
• Tech - what's standard, what's cutting edge, how it works. Blueprints always welcome.
• Cultural attitudes around queerness, race, education, or any other issue, and how they differ by region/class/etc.

Art Likes:

• Vivid colors, or colors used to emphasize parts of the piece
• I love really bold lines and really soft ones, really realistic drawings as well as really stylized ones 
• Basically the art equivalent of pastiche - stuff meant to look like canonical drawings or specific periods/styles (e.g., your fave in medieval tapestry)
• Overlap with In-Universe Meta! In-universe technical drawings/propaganda posters, sketches done by characters

In-Universe Meta Likes:

• Bureaucracy/paperwork
• Descriptions of canon events from dramatically different perspective
• Noodle incidents, either explained or created by the meta

One Piece (Anime & Manga)

Any or No Characters, Original Character(s) 

• Climate Science of One Piece - Specifically of the Grand Line, because it's so weird. Do experts use the spring/summer/autumn/winter island terminology, or do they divide island climates differently (and if so how)? What are the theories of how Grand Line weather works, and are there methods for predicting it in any meaningful sense or at any meaningful timescale? What are the folks up on Weatheria studying, and how? 
• Study of Devil Fruits - how common is the logia/zoan/paramecia divide across cultures/history, and what are other systems for categorizing devil fruits? How were devil fruit dictionaries like the one the Vinsmokes had created and verified, and how accurate are they? What are some theories about how devil fruits work, and how has support of them changed or shifted over time?
• The Period Immediately After Roger's Death - A very hectic time! What was this start of the great pirate era like for the pre-existing pirate crew, the marine, the civilian? How well-known was the hunt for Roger's child among the general public at the time, and why were the Marines so determined to find him? (Was this meant as a distraction from other things happening at the time?) How did the culture and practice of piracy change in the aftermath of Roger's death, and what of it stayed the same?

The 39 Clues - Various Authors

Any or No Characters, Original Character(s)

• Branch culture - I'd love a deeper look into how the branches work. What social roles do the branches play, and how has that evolved over time? Does it vary substantially from place to place (or big office to small office) or is being an active Tomas agent similar basically regardless of where you are? What are branch politics like? How does being an active member affect your family relationships and relationships outside the branch; is there pressure to engage with the branch exclusively? How does this differ between branches and over time?
• Cahill History - In the series, basically every major event in the past 500 years has been tied to the Cahhils somehow. I'd love to see an exploration of an event not covered by the books - or intra- and inter-branch squabbles that haven't made the history books! The early years and first couple generations of the branches must've been extremely rocky, with a lot of the things modern Cahills treat as standard not in place yet, and that would be interesting to explore. The early years of Madeleine's adventures as the first Madrigal could be super fun. Or the previous attempts at unification seen in Into the Gauntlet!
• Technology - I love all the weird tech in the series, and I'd love to see more of it. Development, use reports in the field, various characters' opinions on the latest card-worthy invention… all of it, please.
• The Serum - Speaking of tech, the original Cahill one! How did Gideon create it and source his ingredients? How did Olivia source the ingredients for the counter-serum after his death? How have various people attempted to reconstruct either serum since? How does it work? Is there a reliable way to test for it (as a proxy for what branch someone belongs to), and, if so, how does that work?
• The Vespers - How are they structured, and how has that changed over the years? (I'd love to see the org chart.) What are the organization's overall goals? How are the members recruited? Based on Sinead, there's a certain amount of grabbing revenge-seeking Cahills, but there's also some family recruitment if V1 and Arthur Trent are anything to go by. (I would also love to see what's up with the Trents specifically, and how they fit into this mess.) How did the various Vespers in canon come into contact with the organization?

FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns

Any or No Characters, Original Character(s)

• Facilities’ care and feeding between snake fights - whose job is it, exactly, to care for the snakes? Do these fall to the groundskeepers of the university, or is it managed by each individual department to feed their own snakes, or something else? (For example, my alma mater's live mascot is an animal of the appropriate species in the local zoo; are the thesis snakes maybe selected from zoos near the university, where they normally reside and are cared for, and if so what sort of consultation is needed with the zookeepers to remove them from their habitats?) Are the snakes on public display outside of defense season, or are they only for viewing during defenses? 
• History and development of tradition of snake fighting in academia - when did the snake fight portion come about? Was this something that happened to one poor guy on accident that he then decided to inflict on his grad students when the time came? Are there different philosophies of snake fighting as thesis defense based on institution or field?

Hunger Games Series - All Media Types

Any or No Characters, Original Character(s), Beetee Latier, Finnick Odair, Haymitch Abernathy, Lyme, Mags, Wiress

• Career Training - How does it differ between the Career districts? Is it purely physical training or is there also camera training/interview prep/etc.? What ages of kids are trained, and how are they selected? Is there some sort of application process, and if so what's that like? Do the kids have to pay for their own training, or is it subsidized by the District? What is the social life of kids in training like; do they interact with their non-Career friends at all? What is the general perception of the (ex-)Careers among non-Career parts of the Districts? What happens to kids in Career training who don't volunteer?
• Coordinating the Rebellion Across the Districts - how is intel transmitted between districts? Are most actions planned centrally, or do districts strike out on their own? How does this change during the 74th/75th games? How does the war make coordination easier/harder?
• Past Hunger Games - I'd love to see any previous Games, from either in or outside the arena. (For something I don't think I've seen much of, the first Quarter Quell, and how selecting the tributes changes the experience, for those reaped/watching in real time/watching the recap later on.)
• Evolution of the games in history - how have the Games shifted over the years? Which elements were introduced later, and how did those introductions go? Have things like the tribute parade or interviews taken different shapes as the Games progressed? Are there "trends" for aspects of the arena (biome, weapons availability, "narrative" for lack of a better term of what the gamemakers intend to be the major elements of the games)?
• Game design for any year of the hunger games - Who gets to design the arena, and what sort of Gamemaker politics go into who gets chosen (and who gets to control which areas of the arena)? How does a theme/biome get chosen; are there any restrictions on what Gamemakers can choose? Are the arenas finalized on the first day of the games, or do the Gamemakers shift the terrain/threats based on audience or tributes' reactions? (E.g., adding additional poisonous plants/venomous mutts if the tributes are suspicious of totally legit plants, or if a tribute's death to poison is particularly popular.) How long does it take to put an arena together? What are some famous (or infamous) arenas?
• Mentor's work during the Hunger Games - How are sponsorships tallied and earned? How does mentoring strategy differ between different mentors/districts; are there different schools of thought on getting tributes through? Have there been mismatches between a tribute's strategy and what the mentor believes the strategy is (and thus were trying to support)? What tasks do mentors have after their tributes die?
• Victors and their relationship to their home districts - Haymitch's relationship with District 12 appears to be rather fraught; is this typical for victors? How does the reaction change based on the victor's relationships within their district prior to their victory/remaining ties they have to general district culture, the victor's personality/reputation, and the district? Are Career victors more accepted because training to win (and winning) the games are more normalized, or more isolated because they don't necessarily need to interact with non-victors as often (since there are more victors to socialize with)?
• Victors and their relationship with their fans - Do some victors deliberately court a fanbase, in order to get more supplies for their tributes? Do some shy away from the attention (and does this help at all)? How much of it is purely transactional on the victor's side, versus a feeling of reciprocity or even friendship? What does victor fandom look like outside of the Games? What generates a victor a particularly notable fanbase?

Murdle Series - G. T. Karber

Any or No Characters, Original Character(s), Deductive Logico, Inspector Irratino

• Murdle Investigatory Methods/Forensics - I'd love to see how the investigatory work behind a murdle case works. Are Logico and Irratino handling the evidence, or are their specialists who determine whether the weapon contained a live animal? 
• Murdle Legal System - Why do murdlers only get a week in the rich people prison (if that)? For that matter, how does Irratino fake his death in the prison every week? And why is a lawyer considered a bludgeoning weapon and not a suspect? How are Marot readings or logic puzzles treated in court?

Leverage (US TV 2008)

Any or No Characters, Original Character(s)

• How the Leverage Team finds clients - What kind of process do they use? Discreet ads, some sort of referral service from people they trust, lurking on forums, some combination of the above, something else entirely? How has it changed from the beginning of the original run to Leverage: Redemption?
• Leverage International - I'd love to see how any of the other Leverage teams work. How were their members recruited? What's their group dynamic like? Do the cases they take on differ from the original crew? Do any former clients/allies of Leverage get involved with the international teams, and does the original team ever (intentionally or initially accidentally) step in?