Editing Setting Aesthetics

[[File:Yvgg0vixpa341.png|thumb|right|520px|How it works. And if you're thinking there's only like five original settings in the world, you're absolutely right.]]

Worldbuilding can be hard. If you're creating a story that isn't already set on Earth at some point in history, you'll have to come up with a lot of different things on your own. And not just the names of places and what transpired, or what kind of culture each different people has, but also the more subtle parts of a setting that include tone and visual aesthetics.

That's why a lot of fictional worlds tend to cling to a particular '''setting aesthetic''', an amalgamation of different ideas that can loosely be thought of as "setting genres". These aesthetics aren't set in stone, as the edges of one aesthetic frequently blend into another.  Writers do generally tend to stick (primarily) to one type of aesthetic, because all aesthetics are just amalgams of individual characteristics, and the popular ones tend to be the most coherent or compelling.  Remember that when talking about genre, terms can be applied across all media: literature, movies, games, etc.

==Fantasy==
*'''[[High Fantasy]]''' - The default type of setting for most fantasy settings. Magic is commonplace, as is anything we normally associate with fairy tales and mythology. High Fantasy tends to be a bit more upbeat, as many civilizations tend to exist quite comfortably (apart from the odd dragon or zombie attack). Big focus on cosmological conflicts, namely Good vs Evil or if on the edgier "everyone is neutral or evil" side Order vs Chaos.

Examples: [[Lord of the Rings]], [[Dungeons and Dragons]], [[Age of Sigmar]] for a particularly High Fantasy, [[the Stormlight Archive]]

*'''[[Low Fantasy]]''' - The dark and gritty counterpart to High Fantasy. Not necessarily Grimdark, although life does tend to be harsher. The biggest exemplar of Low Fantasy is [[Conan the Barbarian]]; magic is uncommon but very powerful, political strife is more commonplace, and violence is the norm.

Examples: [[Conan the Barbarian]], [[Game of Thrones]], [[Mistborn]]

*'''[[Heroic Fantasy]]''' - Intermediary point between High & Low Fantasy; High Fantasy backdrops and upbeat take on the world, but Low Fantasy-esque focus on [[Your Dudes]]. Grittier and more grimdark examples do exist - Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Roleplay are technically Heroic Fantasy.

Examples: [[Dungeons & Dragons]], [[Exalted]]

*'''[[Sword & Sorcery]]''' - The pulp magazine version of [[Heroic Fantasy]], traditionally leaning more towards the Low end of the scale and incorporating some level of [[Science Fantasy]] elements in it.

*'''[[Dungeonpunk]]''' - [[Heroic Fantasy]] with Punk stylings and [[magitek]], usually of the "industrialized magic" variety.

Examples: [[Eberron]], [[Planescape]], [[Iron Kingdoms]]

*'''[[Gaslamp Fantasy]]''' - Victorian-themed (or at least painted) world with magic in it, the fantasy analogue to [[steampunk]].

Examples: [[Masque of the Red Death]], [[Castle Falkenstein]], [[Unhallowed Metropolis]]

*'''[[Dark Fantasy]]''' - Grimdark or Horror take on your standard fantasy world. This can be either Low Fantasy or High Fantasy, it does not strictly preclude it.

Examples: [[Warhammer Fantasy]] for Low-Dark, [[Age of Sigmar]] for High-Dark (AoS is also an example of setting evolution over classic Fantasy and demonstrates that sequels can shift genre without retconning the core building blocks)

*'''Modern Fantasy''' - An alternate take on [[Urban Fantasy]], where you have a fantasy world that's developed magic and/or technology until it's reached a semblance of the modern world. Or at least a historical/futuristic analogue to our world.

Examples: [[Arcanum]] (fantasy analogue to Victorian England), [[Shadowrun]] (fantasy world gone [[cyberpunk]])

*'''Weird Western''' - Either a Western version of [[Urban Fantasy]], or a fantasy world that has Western themes.

Examples: [[Deadlands]], [[Horizons]]: [[Spellslinger]]

Trying to draw strict lines between Low and High Fantasy is something of a folly as it is perfectly possible to present epic High Fantasy battles in one side of the setting and have a shit ass peasant toiling in low fantasy in the other.

==Sci-Fi==
*'''[[Cyberpunk]]''' - The original "-punk" genre, and the creator of the concept of naming aesthetics by ending in "punk", Atompunk's son (in terms of tech level). If you've ever seen The Matrix, that's pretty much Cyberpunk in a nutshell, although Blade Runner is probably a more classic example.  Dystopian urban environments and highly advanced technology is commonplace, as are dark and brooding heroes wearing black trench coats and sporting unconventional haircuts, and megacorporations which have more power than any government.  '''''High tech, low life.''''' 
** Some modern Cyberpunk is called "post-Cyberpunk" and is not quite as pessimistic, though still pretty grim compared to other settings. In post-Cyberpunk, augmentation and technology is seen as a powerful tool that can be used to control or liberate people, and is used globally in political and economical powerstruggl- Wait, where have I seen this before?

Examples: The Matrix, [[Cyberpunk 2020]], Blade Runner, Shadowrun. Post-cyberpunk examples: Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, most modern shooters with robots and augmentations. And it's "just" a novel, but let's not forget the first cyberpunk, and his creator: William Gibson's Neuromancer. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is also a high seminal piece of literature for the genre, if one that treats its conventions tongue-in-cheek even as it helps to codify them.

*'''[[Steampunk]]''' - One of the first derivatives of Cyberpunk, at least in name only.  In actuality, the aesthetic draws quite a bit from the works of Jules Verne, which taking place in Victorian times and features more advanced versions of the steam-powered technology of the day.  These kinds of settings can swing between [[noblebright]] and dystopian, since the Victorian Era was a time of wondrous progress, ''and'' huge inequality.

Examples: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, [[Warmachine]], [[Dishonored]]

*'''[[Clockpunk]]''' - Steampunk's father.  Borrowing aesthetics from the Renaissance Era, the Baroque Era, the Ming Dynasty, or the Song Dynasty, Clockpunk focuses on complex mechanisms made from wood or traditional metals, and is generally powered by water wheels, wind mills, draft animals, or slowly falling weights.  This aesthetic is typically found in genres that don't explicitly focus on it, such as Historical Fiction works.  Expect plenty of overlap with historical themes of the time period.

Examples: [[Deadlands]], [[Dragonmech]], [[Mechanus]], [[Mage: The Ascension]], [[Unknown Armies]]

*'''[[Dieselpunk]]''' - Steampunk's son, but typically grittier, inspired by the era between the World Wars.  Tyranny and warfare is commonplace, as are machines capable of deadly efficiency.  Expect Noir cities, petrochemical engines, stamped and riveted metal, and the aesthetic synthesis between traditional rural lifestyles and mechanization.  Typically features [[nazis]] in one way or another, sometimes as the winning side of WW2.

Examples: [[Command and Conquer|Command and Conquer: Red Alert]], Fullmetal Alchemist,  Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Leviathan Series (partially)

*'''[[Decopunk]]''' - A [[noblebright]] version of it's twin dieselpunk. Art deco everywhere, hence the name. Not a particularly common aesthetic however.

Examples: Bioshock, especially before the fall of Rapture

*'''[[Atompunk]]''' - Dieselpunk/Decopunk's son. The name applied to anything inspired by the science fiction of the 1930s to the 1950s and early 1960s. The difference between Atom- and Dieselpunk is that Atompunk is based on the stories told in that era, while Dieselpunk is about the actual technology and zeitgeist of the day. Space exploration is the norm, and technology is mostly based on what was slowly beginning to emerge at the time that we would now take for granted (such as video chat, portable phones, robots capable of walking) or else has proven to be wildly impractical if not impossible (Jetpacks, flying cars, ray guns, robots capable of independent thought). Features a sub-genre named Raypunk or Raygun Gothic, which is similar in most ways but ditches references to nuclear power.

Examples: Buck Rogers, [[Fallout]], [[Star Trek]] The Original Series, too many 1950s movies to count

*'''[[Screampunk]]''' - A weird mishmash of steampunk with horror tropes, especially those associated with [[Gothic Horror]], which it is often conflated with. It is also commonly conflated with [[Dark Fantasy]] and [[Gaslamp Fantasy]] as well, due to being set in the same time period as the latter, and being very similar to the former. A very new genre that has yet to find large popularity.

Examples: [[GURPS]] Screampunk (where the name came from), [[Unhallowed Metropolis]], [[Magic: The Gathering]] (the plane of Innistrad specifically)

*'''[[Casette Futurism]]''' - An aesthetic based on the "futuristic" styles of the 70s and especially the 80s.  This aesthetic also refers to the unique style of "futuristic-looking" devices made during that time. Can overlap with cyberpunk but cybernetics are either non-existent or are given less focus. Expect CRT-screens, fake woodgrain, wedge-cars synthwave music, neon lights, hard-edged plastic shells on all technology, and ''of course'' VHS-tapes and cassettes.

Examples: Alien, Terminator, Stranger Things

*'''[[Biopunk]]''' - An aesthetic which revolves around use of biotechnology and DNA manipulation.  Other than that core conceit, the actual look and feel of the aesthetic isn't set in stone.  Some incarnations might look modern, some might look futuristic, some might look historical. Can be mixed into post-Atompunk tech levels, with possibly early experiments starting in Atompunk era.

Examples: Bioshock, Resident Evil, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Leviathan Series (partially)

*'''[[Nanopunk]]''' - An aesthetic focusing around the use of nanotechnology, Cyberpunk's son.  This aesthetic is still evolving, but typically features organic-looking machines, synthetic meta-materials used create "impossible" things (vantablack clothing, mono-molecular edged blades, synthetic muscles), and transhumanist themes.  Can often share many themes with Cyberpunk, but the use of nanotechnology is what sets it apart.  While a Cyberpunk setting would have cyborgs with cybernetic implants, a Nanopunk setting would instead have people with nanomachines inside them.  Sometimes portrayed as a next step from cyberpunk, where cybernetics are becoming obsolete due to advancements in nanotechnology.

Examples: Crysis, [[Metal Gear|Metal Gear Solid]] (1,2, 4 and ''especially'' [[Meme|Rising: Revengeance]]), Deus Ex (First two games only, rest/the prequels are cyberpunk as aforementioned, in fact the original game has the PC as a prototype nano-aug about to replace your fellow mechanical-aug agents while the sequel -second game- has that replacement being complete)

*'''[[Space Opera]]''' - The grand-daddy of Sci-Fi, Space Opera features a multitude of worlds, races and technology that play loose and fast with the science part for the sake of a wide, bright adventure in SPAAAAACE! Space Operas are filled with larger-than-life characters, space-nations loosely based on different earth societies and great, galaxy-saving adventures, though it can easily be zoomed in to a planet- or even a party-focused story if needed. Can be split into three sub-settings: Hard sci-fi which tries to be as scientifically accurate as possible (which can become obsolete in real life, what [[TVTropes]] terms Science Marches On and Technology Marches On), soft sci-fi where technology works by it's own in-universe rules, somewhere in-between the previous two and science fantasy, which features stuff which is supernatural even by the rules of it's own universe (which can be either hard or soft or in-between, possibly justifying deviance from real life physics/chemistry/biology through the influence of the resident supernatural phenomena).

Examples: [[Star Wars]] for a Neutral one with pretty horrific details but a hopeful story, [[Star Trek]] with full Noblebright with some dark details, [[Warhammer 40000]] for full Grimdark with some bright details, Mass Effect (a textbook example of single point of divergence from real life science), [[Twilight Imperium]], [[Cosmic Encounter]]

*'''[[Solarpunk]]''' - The most [[noblebright]] punk of them all, necessarily more advanced than Atompunk but can slot into any after that.  An utopia for all environmentalists, this aesthetic features a world driven primarily through use of renewable energy and people live harmoniously with nature.  Expect to see windmills, solar panels, individualized replacements for infrastructure (home-sized wastewater treatment, people sewing their own clothing, household battery walls, etc.), farming and large gardens, and ''lots of plants everywhere''.  Settings using this aesthetic are frequently post-apocalyptic.

Examples:  All the Good Futures from Sonic CD

*'''[[NASA-punk]]''' - Term coined by Bethesda for their new IP, Starfield, though not the first to fit the description. Refers to a setting that is far enough into the future for space travel to be commonplace but still has a very functional look to it, or as Bethesda puts it, "advanced but still grounded and relatable". Expect things to look somewhat analog, not much unlike what one might find on modern day spacecraft and space stations.

Examples: Starfield, The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare 

*'''[[20 Minutes into the Future]]''' - An aesthetic that is definitely in the future, but not by much. Things are not too different from how they are today. For someone living in the 80s, the 2000's would be this aesthetic. This is a very hard-to-define aesthetic, because it keeps moving as time goes on.  Most media written with this aesthetic are archetypical science fiction stories, speculating and warning about how present trends will extrapolate. Usually used to insert whatever Macguffin or plot weasel that is used and as a convenient way to dodge contemporary political issues by sidelining them in favor of the new one created in universe without having to go so far into the future that it becomes irrelevant by default at the cost having to worldbuild the background of the setting.

==History==
Want to make something in a real world setting? Here's some setting aesthetics from real world history.
Are you making a fictional world? Sometimes worldbuilding doesn't have to go into fantasy or sci-fi. Instead, you could also simply make a world inspired by real history. Some might find this pointless, believing that if they are making a story in a medieval setting for example but with no fantasy or sci-fi elements, why not simply set the story in the real medieval period rather than a fictional world? Well the answer to this is simple: Making a story in the real middle ages needs to be historically accurate and making it so requires lots of research into the period. 
On top of this, making your own world also allows for you to come up with all the [[fluff]] yourself, something real world historical settings inherently do not allow for, even if you go for alternate history, you must still account for everything from before the point of divergence and are also limited to the geography of Earth.
So if you just want to tell tales of knightly heroism or clashes of empires without fantasy or sci-fi elements but also without feeling constrained by having to make it fit in with real history, making a fictional world based on these settings might be the thing for you.

*'''[[Prehistory]]'''
*'''[[Stone Age]]'''
*'''[[Bronze Age]]''' 
*'''[[Classical Period]]'''
*'''[[Dark Age]]'''
*'''[[High Middle Ages]]'''
*'''[[Renaissance]]'''
** Early Clockpunk
*'''[[Age of Enlightenment]]'''
** Late Clockpunk
*'''[[Industrial Revolution]]'''
** Early Steampunk
**'''[[Victoriana]]'''
*'''[[The World Wars]]'''
** Late Steampunk and Early Dieselpunk (World War 1)
** Late Dieselpunk and Early Atompunk (World War 2)
*'''[[The Cold War]]'''
** Late Atompunk, Early Biopunk, Early Cyberpunk
*'''[[Post-Cold War]]'''
** Late Biopunk, Late Cyberpunk, Solarpunk, Nanopunk
===[[Western]]===

:''See also the article [[Western]]''

One term that gets bandied a lot in discussions of Setting Aesthetics is "[[Western]]", which originally referred to stories that took place in the American West in the years between the American Civil War and World War I (although there is also the "Modern Western", which usually takes place sometime after World War II). The most important aspects of a "Western" aesthetic are roughly as follows:

* The single most distinguishing feature of a Western: Outposts of Law exist, but are far apart. While the region is somewhat lawless, this is a factor of the fact that places are distant from each other; the next town could be a week's ride away in some places, meaning reinforcements may be a very long time in coming, so the Sheriff or Rancher is more or less on his own if he can't get local support. The fact that this is actively changing is a frequent plot point of many actual historically-set-and-based Westerns.
** Yes, this means a lot of Westerns center around either [[Bandit]]ry or other outlawry, either as pro- or antagonists, and feature a certain degree of lawlessness.
* Next most important: Open ranges. Large areas where the nearest human being could be miles away. Sort of a consequence of the above, but worth mentioning on its own.
** This low population density leads to a certain degree of casual brutality and cruelty which is a frequent side-aspect of the aesthetic; with very few people to call a body out on their ugly behavior, such behavior is likely to grow into at least a minor problem of many people.
* Usually the next most important after those two: Guns, saloons, and horses. While it's possible to have a "Western" without much of one, you'll need a lot of the other two to cover for the absence. 
** If you're doing a pseudo-Western, you may need substitutes for all three. For example, Samurai-themed works usually use swords in place of guns, and limit the availability of horses, but still have some degree of all three.
*** In Science Fiction or Modern Westerns, "Off-road vehicles" can be substituted for horses.
*** Trading outposts can be freely substituted for saloons in sufficiently unsettled regions, or churches in more Christian or poverty-themed works. What matters is that it's a gathering place that's also somewhat neutral ground, where violence more serious than a fistfight is frowned upon.
** Side note: Railroads and stagecoaches are (in historically-set Westerns) the only alternatives to horses (besides donkeys and mules), and both are very restricted in how far away from their paths they can go (stagecoaches are ''heavy'', so hills can act as major barriers), so horses, donkeys and mules are your main travel options if you need to get away from those paths.
* Occasional feature of Fantasy/Science Fiction "Westerns": Natives, along the line of American Indians.
** Historically-set Westerns have plenty of American Indians, historically. It's just that, by the 1960s, most writers decided it was a better idea to center around subjects that weren't so likely to be read as making their protagonists "the real bad guys". Thus, most post-1970 westerns center purely on White vs. White conflict, or have protagonists who are sympathetic with the Indians, with a smattering of works centered on Black characters (most notably ''Blazing Saddles''). (Historically speaking, there were plenty of black cowboys, but this was ignored by most writers and producers historically, and frequently still is in the present day.)

If the above is longer than anything else on this page, it's because the "Western" aesthetic gets glued onto a '''lot''' of stuff that's very different from its historical roots. To give one example, there's been a non-trivial amount of works set in (something based on) historical Japan that have a heavy Western aesthetic--to the point that some of the earliest examples (Kurosawa films) were directly remade into Westerns, with very few changes.

==Other==
*'''[[Science Fantasy]]''' - Science Fiction and Fantasy gleefully mashed up, so you can wind up with [[Awesome|elves with laser pistols, sword-wielding robots, and dragons flying between the stars]].

Examples: [[Dragonmech]], [[Dragonstar]], [[Spelljammer]], [[Numenera]], [[RIFTS]], [[Shadowrun]], [[Warhammer 40,000]], [[Starfinder]]. arguably [[Star Wars]].

*'''Lovecraftian''': A type of horror setting that is either directly based on or inspired by the works of [[H.P. Lovecraft]], especially the Cthulhu Mythos. The main concepts revolve around monsters and deities whose mere existence is so horrible that knowledge or direct perception of them drives people insane, and feature copious amounts of existential dread.

Example: [[Call of Cthulhu]], [[Delta Green]]

*'''[[Supers]]''' - AKA Superheroes, Capeshit. Superpowers and melodrama. Frequently mixed with another aesthetic (Urban Fantasy, Science Fantasy or Science Fiction, usually).

Example: DC and Marvel, [[Worm]]

*'''[[Cattlepunk]]''': Western setting with [[Steampunk]].

Example: [[The Dark Tower]], [[Deadlands]]

*'''Space Western''' -  Western elements in a science fiction or [[Space Opera]] setting.

Examples: [[Firefly]], Borderlands, The Mandalorian, [[Star Trek]] was originally pitched as such but doesn't really fit the modern definition

*'''[[Magitek]]''' -  Magic has either replaced technology or been assimilated into it. Clarkes third law turned on it's head.

Examples: [[Eberron]], [[Deadlands]], [[Rifts]], [[Iron Kingdoms]], [[Exalted]], [[Hollow World]], [[Technomancer]]

*'''[[Urban Fantasy]]''' - Our world, but with magic and/or science fiction added to it. Considered by many the "easiest" sort of setting to get into by casuals & normies. Can be further seasoned with many other aesthetics. Despite the name, it really just means that it takes place in a post-Industrial-age world<ref>Although if you're more advanced than the current technology, you're either veering into [[Supers]] or [[Science Fantasy]]</ref> and doesn't have to take place in a city.

Examples: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, [[D20 Modern]], The Dresden Files, [[Mutants & Masterminds]], [[World of Darkness]], [[Dark Matter]]

*'''[[Weird Wars]]''' -  [[Urban Fantasy]] meets war stories, when one of our world's wars gets magical and/or super-science added to it.

Examples: Pinnacle Games' lines of the same name, [[Wolfenstein]], Dust, [[Call of Cthulhu]], [[GURPS]]

*'''[[Isekai]]''' - Your dudes come from the real world, but have been sent to a fantasy (or, more rarely, sci-fi) land.

Examples: Sword Art Online, GATE, way too many anime from the 2010s

*'''[[Post-Apocalyptic]]''' - The world ended, and now it's time for adventure! Expect rusted metal, moral ambiguity, relatively high-tech, mutants and lots, ''lots'' of sand. Can effectively be divided into three sub-settings: in post-apocalypse, the apocalypse happened fairly recently and as such people are mostly just concerned with simple survival. In post-post-apocalypse, a lot of time has passed since the apocalypse and people have started to rebuild civilization, though it is definitely still a work in progress. In post-post-post-apocalypse, the apocalypse is a distant memory and the world has largely recovered from it.

Examples: [[Fallout]], Mad Max. Commonly combined with sci-fi, but also sometimes with [[Dark Souls|medieval stuff]].

*'''[[Alternate History]]''' - One event in history went differently than in our timeline and this change caused the events past that point to be wildly different from our timeline. What if Rome didn't collapse and survived to the 21st century? What if Nobunagas ambition was realized and after conquering Japan, he went on to successfuly conquer Korea and China? Germany winning WW2 is a particularly popular one. Alternate history can effectively work with anything from real world history, fantasy settings to sci-fi settings but it's usually based on real world history. Alternate history based on real world history does have a tendency to feature sci-fi elements however.

Examples: Command & Conquer: Red Alert, The Man in the High Castle, Wolfenstein The New Order 

*'''[[Retro-futuristic]]''' - Setting that tries to imitate how people in the past saw the future. Many of the punk-genres fall under this. Often features technology that would have been futuristic at the time but now are either commonplace or outright outdated. A good example of this is a mobile communication device, something quite futuristic in the time of wired phones and payphones, which often in these types of settings is portrayed as quite cumbersome or of limited functionality, paling in comparison to smart-phones or even mobile phones from the 90s since they allowed for sending of text messages in addition to calls. There is also a type of retro-futurism known as [[TVTropes|Zeerust]] which refers to stuff that was actually made in the past and felt futuristic back then but now feels retro-futuristic.

Examples: Fallout, Alien, Star Trek: The Original Series (Zeerust)

*'''Complete and Utter Clusterfuck/All of the Above''' - Definitely lying on the side of metafictional parody, nonsensical but hilarious combinations can lead to, if it understands that it is a parody that doesn't take itself seriously, hilarious fun.

Example: Warhammer 40000, natch. The entire thing is a hilariously darkly comedic piss-take on everything under the sun.

==Footnotes==

[[Category:Gamer Slang]] [[Category: Setting Aesthetics]]