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Geofiction

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Geofiction is a hobby where people design imaginary cities, countries or entire worlds, including placenames, culture, social and political structures and even constructed languages (conlangs), primarily for personal enjoyment.

It may be contrasted with the creation of constructed worlds, which are typically used to enhance the realisation of a fictional universe for a story or collection of stories, whereas geofiction is "world creation" for its own sake, sometimes but not always for creating a story setting, but always for fun.

Geofiction may range from diagrams of imaginary streets drawn by a young child to elaborate, internally consistent worlds created as a hobby or life-long project by adults. Alternately, geofiction is fiction where the (created) setting is the focus.

A good example of the art of geofiction is manifested in The Lord of the Rings, where J. R. R. Tolkien devised the fictional world of Middle-earth populated by various species and races (man, elf, hobbit, etc), along with imaginary languages and alphabets for his creations, all initially for his own amusement.

Neverland is another good example. It is a fairytale island world created by J.M. Barrie which is the setting of Peter Pan's adventures. It is a land much like earth but in Neverland time stands still. It is occupied by children (the Lost Boys) and their rivals the pirates, who are constantly battling throughout the fairytale. Neverland was created by Barrie also for his own amusement, just as Tolkien did with Middle-earth.

Micronations are sometimes considered an elaborate form of geofiction.

Geofiction flourishes over the Internet via nation and empire simulations and collaborative conworlding sites:

  • Eshraval is a geofictional modern world setting that is a mixture of role-playing, nation creation, and national simulation.
  • FractaPassium is spin on traditional geo-fiction in that it implements science-fiction on a stellar scale. Players create "star-nations" that interact in an active and continuing storyline.
  • ImagiNations, a network of geofictional planets and the brainchild of author Edward Mooney, Jr., is a prime example of highly developed geofiction as a hobby.
  • Vexillium is the oldest and primary geofictional planet of the ImagiNations network. Two of the active ImagiNations games are undergoing a reset and both are welcoming new players. They are Scandia, set in an Earth present-time equivalent period, and The World of Aurora, originally developed by Mike Phyle. Aurora's technology level is roughly like that of 1945-1955 Earth.

See also

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