I was thinking about fantasy worlds, and how they're almost always just rocky planets orbiting a yellow star. And I thought, why? It's fantasy! It can be whatever! It could just be a flat plane extending to infinity....

(shoutout to Discworld, which I should really go back and read more of)

This is gonna be a transplant of a thread I used to have on twitter, of all the thoughts and ideas I had about this fantasy flat plane world. And once I'm caught up on that, I may even be inspired to keep adding to it~

A flat world. Infinitely spreading in the horizontal plane. Vertically, it loops around (if you dig straight down, you'll eventually fall into the sky and land back where you started) but it's a long journey, I think

The sun is.... idk, big magelights? I don't know the specifics of how that could work. Some powerful god-sorcery that keeps 24-hour days across the world. At night, the stars are the twinkle of minerals in the distant ground above

Gravity is constant everywhere (straight down), as is atmospheric pressure. No thinner air as you go up

Different civilizations on an infinite world, many of which will never meet. Tunnel people, living underground. Sky people, living in the clouds. Water people, island people, tree people, every kind of development people could try. People who live on the underside of the ground, a city hanging above the sky (western air temple style). A nomadic people, who delight in meeting the wide and various civilizations across the plane. An endless waterfall, pouring through a hole in the ground to fall back into its reservoir

Every conceivable civilization could exist because none could ever achieve universal reach. Internet, faster-than-light travel, even conquering empires would have a finite spread, and leave other civilizations untouched by their influence

A megacity ten thousand light years across that has been growing and expanding for aeons. A wonder of titanium and steel, of science and arts.

In the central origins of the megatropolis, the buildings extend full circle, meeting their roofs at their base, taking up the full vertical expanse available. It is powered, of course, by waterfalls. Endless cascades turning great wheels which provide all the energy they could need. Greenhouses the full height of the ground and sky provide food

Uncharted lands, as well. Vast wildernesses unwitnessed by living eyes. And ruins, of civilizations that did not survive, or that simply moved on

And of course not all people are human (cause what kind of boring world would that be?). Mermaids, centaurs, reptiles, intelligent sheep, moss people, gelatinous life, synthetic life, microscopic cities of tardigrades....

There's some magic in the world too. Not too strong, just enough to light a fire, or for a light in the dark, to keep something cold, or hot, or just right

A marvel of the Plane: a lake, whose bed was removed, now falls through the air as a single enormous drop. Crowds gather from leagues away to witness its fall, and to feel the rush of wind as it passes

If I were to write a book of this world, it would be about a traveler, who sets out to explore the world and its many wonderful civilizations.

A group of nomads, in their great flying home, made up of curious and wandering souls of many civilizations, happens upon a town and the traveler. The traveler gladly joins their crew and sets off for new horizons!

A vast desert where a great storm rages. An incredible, unrelenting sandstorm. And in the eye of the storm, a peaceful desert town. Virtually unknown to those outside the storm, the people live serene lives, surrounded by the great walls of swirling sand

One particularly ambitious city has freed itself from the chains of gravity completely. Or rather, it has given itself over completely, so that its inhabitants may be free: the whole city, encased in a great glass sphere, is in perpetual freefall. The people within live weightless lives, floating about as they please

Their most skilled magicians and engineers keep the city on course, to ensure it falls through the great chasm carved out for it

Shuttles from the anchored ground outside make trips to take people and cargo to and from the city, dropping down to dock with it and then gently gliding back down to land

A bottomless ocean, surrounded by mountains with no peak. The ground extends up to the bedrock above, containing the great sea. Some life clings to the rocks and reefs along the walls, while others venture deep into the abyss, far from any wall or ceiling

A completely virtual society. Sentient software living in a virtual world. A few brave souls inhabit physical, robotic forms in order to maintain the hardware so that everyone can live in peace

A glacial land, with ice and snow piled high to the ceiling above. There, a society lives, in caves in the ice. Great passageways with pillars and sculptures carved in the frosty walls.

But they are not the only inhabitants of this icy land. Creatures great and small roam the ice, making their homes in caves and burrowing out new passages of their own

A robotic society, with members of all shapes and sizes. Some with ten legs, some with none. Some choose to be towering figures, while others use bodies as small as a fly. Others still, choose to become architecture itself, their body formed into a whole building that others use

A fractured landscape; a terraforming mistake becoming a work of art. Geometric chunks of ground form a unique polygonal landscape. At all elevations, people live and play and farm on fantastical floating shapes, enjoying the idiosyncrasies of life on this accidental wonder

A great sword forest. Enormous swords sticking hilt-first out of the ground like trees. Smaller blades scattered about like underbrush and saplings. Each winter they rust, and as spring comes, they emerge polished and refreshed.

Where did they come from? A fantastical natural formation? The site of some ancient Giants' battle?

A fungal people, with a unique life cycle: the young caps sprout from the ground, still connected to the mycelium below. There they grow and learn and are tended to by the untethered adults.

Once they mature, they sprout limbs for locomotion and are free to live in the community or strike off on their own. The caps will live as long as they have food to eat and water to drink. If they ever feel the desire, an old cap may choose to take root and become the mycelium from which new caps will grow, continuing the cycle into a new generation

A long-dead city. An ancient metropolis, reclaimed by nature. A wondrous intermingling of architecture and nature, now given life again by a new people, who now occupy its green floors and entangled flights of stairs

A vast expanse of air. A seemingly endless sky, with no surface below. But not totally empty. Some make their homes in airships, or on the backs of flying leviathans. A few on floating isles, isolated in the sky. And even on falling isles, with no other ground around to fear

A plateau.... full of living stone.... whose society is slow, and ponderous.....

Communication made through the gradual changing of shape.... through weathering.... and the slow uptake of sediment......

A simple conversation may take a century.....

The movements of other creatures.... of birds... or squirrels... or even snails.... go almost completely unnoticed.... moving too quickly to perceive.... there, and gone again before they are even aware there is something to notice....

Their most common source of annoyance and entertainment.... is the arrival of a tree.... so swiftly and hastily growing large and towering, pushing aside well-set stones before they can even finish reacting in surprise.... and so the new upstart becomes a source of conversation.... of amusement and grumbling.... for just a few moments in a lifetime of eons....

A swamp teeming with life. Creatures flit between the slender trees and wade through the cool muck, enjoying a peaceful life in their waterlogged wonderland. Unique trees and critters thrive here, forms of life not found anywhere else on the plane.

All of this life, all of this activity, within a small, muddy puddle in the floor of a well-traveled forest

An enormous labyrinth, stretching for miles in all directions.... A three dimensional maze of clean-cut marble. The passages are perfectly square, and vast; tall enough for a dragon to walk upright.

The creators, if there were any, paid no heed to verticality; hallways turn towards up and down just as often as east and west.

The labyrinth attracts many people: adventurers, certain that it must guard some treasure; hobbyists, who delight in the puzzle; hermits, eager to find a quiet dead-end to call their own.

Towns have popped up inside, whole cities even, of people who got too deep in to find their way out, and banded together to settle down. Of course, the largest city is at the entrance, serving as both a gateway for arrivals, and a line to the outside for those within.

The most common currency between explorers is the trading of maps. Sections one has explored and charted are swapped, copied, and bartered with others. Each group tends to keep their own maps and records, as much for secrecy as for the fun of the puzzle.

Of course, for those more interested in assembling complete information recorded for posterity, the Cartographer's Guild coordinates the Great Expedition, the largest single cooperative exploration effort in the labyrinth, for the purpose of assembling a complete and accurate map of the entire labyrinth.

A great forest. Living.... and restless.

The trees wake in waves, brief hours of frenzy as frantic foliage whips about. The trees and vines and grasses scramble for reasons unknown; growing, branching, uprooting, even flailing about in some mad melee which only the plants can make sense of.

The creatures and peoples of the forest take cover, or dig for shelter, or move on to stay ahead of the oncoming wave, when they feel the leaves begin to grow restless....

When the wave of activity reaches the edge, it does not stop - there, the woods spill out onto the plains or sand or rocky cliffs, new growth sprouting, breaching the surface of the earth to seek daylight; old growth moving, uprooting and clawing up the ground to claim fresh soil; all adding just a few more meters of forest to kick and grow and climb yet more when next the trees wake.