Lore

Originally this was going to be a fictional piece, and likely I will work on that tomorrow as I'd actually like to do some planning first before I write this particular piece, but I want to take some time to talk about lore. To be honest, I've probably talked about this before, though I couldn't find a post directly talking about it when I was checking, so it may have been in bits and pieces, so if any of this sounds familiar I apologize, but hopefully I will be taking this at a bit of a different angle than I have in the past.

Coming as a gamer in particular, lore is an utterly fascinating concept to me. After all, the world of the story (in most instances) doesn't simply start at the beginning of the story. Time has passed before the main character is ever introduced. The world has rules, regulations, romances, religions, and ridiculously rigid or reckless rascals. But most importantly, it has history, and that's where the lore comes in. The things that created the structure of that world, the beliefs of its people, and the path and purpose for the main character's entire existence. This is where the story gains its meaning.

As with any piece of writing, lore needs to be balanced. Having too much of it ruins the pacing of a story, while not having enough of it takes away from any potential meaning. Lore has to be mysterious, but also give answers to otherwise unanswerable questions. Brief, with just enough detail to let the reader understand.

Like I said, there are a number of games in particular in which lore plays an incredible and important role, and others where the lore is virtually the only actual story the game has. In those cases, the game is all about action, but doing a little digging into the lore explains why that fighting is happening in the first place. In other instances, the story itself may seem cliche, typical, and even boring, but learning the lore makes you realize that there is more to the story than you could have ever imagined. Little details that at first seemed silly or even pointless suddenly become clear as vitally important.

I would love to figure out how to create that kind of lore. Sometimes I have, at least in parts. Character backgrounds I can do. To give individual characters motivation and drive and background. But that's background, not lore. Lore is the background of an entire world. Lore is the reason that the sun spins, the rivers flow, and the stars shine. I can create instances for that lore to be made. But making it...

Still working on that part.