Worldbuilding

Overview

Create and manage world elements for a story project. Locations, systems (magic, politics, technology, etc.), factions, and artifacts are stored as markdown files in the worldbuilding/ directory with YAML frontmatter. All elements cross-reference characters and other story elements.

Prerequisites

A story project must already exist (created via the story-init skill). Verify by checking for story.md in the project root.

Creating a Location

1. Read story.md for genre, era, and tone context
2. Read worldbuilding/_index.md for existing locations and systems
3. Ask for the location's name and type (city, fortress, wilderness, etc.)
4. Build the location through conversation, covering:
   • Physical description and atmosphere
   • History relevant to the story
   • Culture and customs of inhabitants
   • Notable features characters will interact with
   • Current state at story's timeline
   • Routes to other locations: travel time in hours and mode (see references/maps-and-routes.md)
   • Pronunciation, if the name is invented or easily misread (pronunciation: "KEL-ah-mar")
5. Before settling an invented name, run story names "{Candidate}" to catch clashes and look-alikes (see references/naming-languages.md)
6. Create it with story add location "{Location Name}" --type "{type}" when the CLI is available (add --region, --population, --controlled-by, and --character as known); it writes worldbuilding/locations/{name-kebab}.md and updates worldbuilding/_index.md. Then fill the body from references/location-template.md
7. Without the CLI, write the file from references/location-template.md to worldbuilding/locations/{name-kebab}.md
8. Without the CLI, update the worldbuilding/_index.md locations table
9. If notable characters are listed, verify those character files exist and add this location's kebab-case identifier to each character file's locations frontmatter list
10. When CLI access is available, run story reindex ., story wordcount . --write, and story check .

Maps, Routes, and Travel

Record travel between locations as routes on the location file, not in prose notes, so the CLI can check it:

routes:
  - to: harbor-district
    hours: 1.5
    mode: on foot
  - to: saltmarsh-fort
    hours: 9
    mode: coach

• to is a location id; story links . checks it exists.
• A route is two-way unless the other location declares its own route back (for example, uphill slower than down).
• story continuity . errors when a character appears in two dated scenes at locations joined by a route and the story time between them is shorter than the route's hours.
• story diagram locations prints the route network as a Mermaid map-graph with edges labelled in hours; add --out dist/locations.mmd to save it. Use it to spot unreachable places and implausible shortcuts.

Use the travel speeds table in references/economy-logistics.md to set plausible hours, and references/maps-and-routes.md for the full workflow.

Creating a System

1. Read story.md for genre and themes context
2. Read worldbuilding/_index.md for existing systems
3. Identify the system type and consult references/world-element-types.md for the relevant prompts. For calendars, naming languages, economies, and magic costs, also use references/calendars.md, references/naming-languages.md, and references/economy-logistics.md
4. Build the system through conversation, addressing the key questions for that type
5. Write the file using references/system-template.md
6. Save to worldbuilding/systems/{name-kebab}.md
7. Update worldbuilding/_index.md systems table
8. Cross-reference with characters who interact with the system (e.g., magic-users for a magic system)
9. When CLI access is available, run story reindex ., story wordcount . --write, and story check .

Creating A Faction

Use story add faction "{Faction Name}" --type "{family|guild|government|military|religion|company|community|criminal|other}" when the CLI is available. Otherwise create worldbuilding/factions/{name-kebab}.md with frontmatter fields name, type, status, members, locations, and tags.

Cover:

• Purpose and ideology
• Power base, resources, and territory
• Important members
• Conflicts and pressure points

Then:

1. Save to worldbuilding/factions/{name-kebab}.md
2. Update the Factions table in worldbuilding/_index.md
3. If members are listed, verify those character files exist
4. When CLI access is available, run story reindex ., story wordcount . --write, and story check .

Creating An Artifact

Use story add artifact "{Artifact Name}" --type "{object|weapon|document|technology|relic|symbol|resource|other}" when the CLI is available. Otherwise create worldbuilding/artifacts/{name-kebab}.md with frontmatter fields name, type, status, owner, location, and tags.

Cover:

• Description and recognition details
• Function, constraints, and costs
• History and prior owners
• Current owner/location state

Then:

1. Save to worldbuilding/artifacts/{name-kebab}.md
2. Update the Artifacts table in worldbuilding/_index.md
3. If an owner or location is listed, verify those files exist and cross-reference back
4. When CLI access is available, run story reindex ., story wordcount . --write, and story check .

Updating World Elements

1. Read the existing file
2. Make the requested changes. If a location or faction changes partway through the story (a city falls, a guild disbands), add a progression instead of editing the opening value (see Changes Over the Story)
3. If cross-references changed, update the linked files
4. Update worldbuilding/_index.md if name, type, or status changed
5. When CLI access is available, run story reindex ., story wordcount . --write, and story check .

Changes Over the Story

Location and faction files describe the world as the story opens. Record a later change as a progression, so drafting an early chapter does not see what happens in a late one:

progressions:
  - from: chapter-10
    field: status
    value: occupied
  - from: chapter-10
    field: controlled-by
    value: lord-maren

• from is the first chapter where the new value holds. It may be a planned chapter-NN with no file yet
• field is a kebab-case single-value field, existing (status, controlled-by, region) or new (ruler, population-note). List fields (notable-characters, routes, members, locations, tags) cannot change this way
• value is one value. A faction's type and status must stay within their allowed values
• Keep entries in story order, and read the progressions up to the chapter being drafted before describing the place or faction in it
• Artifacts and systems do not take progressions; track an artifact's changes with object-state and scene state-changes (see the revision-continuity skill)

After adding or editing progressions, run story reindex ., story wordcount . --write, and story check ..

Cross-Referencing

• Locations reference characters via notable-characters in frontmatter
• Characters reference locations via locations in frontmatter
• Factions reference character members and locations
• Artifacts reference an owner character or faction and a current location
• Systems reference practitioners via character tags
• Location routes reference other locations by id
• Invented names across characters, locations, systems, factions, artifacts, and glossary terms may carry a pronunciation; story build --format narration gathers them into a pronunciation guide for audiobook narrators
• When a location is used in a chapter, the chapter's frontmatter locations field links back
• Keep the worldbuilding/_index.md world overview section current as elements are added

CLI Maintenance

Use the Story CLI when it is available. If story is not installed, use the bundled fallback node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js with the same arguments. Use node <checkout>/bin/story.js instead only when the user names a Story Skills repository checkout or you are working in one. Write the script as an absolute path (resolve the fallback relative to this skill folder) and run it from the folder you would run story from, so . and other relative paths keep their meaning. Use Node, not Bun or a package script: Bun would load that folder's bunfig.toml (which can run code) and .env, and a package script runs from the checkout's root. If no CLI is available, perform the registry, backlink, and word-count checks manually.

Reference Files

• references/location-template.md - Template for location files
• references/system-template.md - Template for system files
• references/faction-template.md - Template for faction files
• references/artifact-template.md - Template for artifact/object files
• references/world-element-types.md - Detailed prompts for each system type (magic, political, technology, religion, economic, military, social)
• references/maps-and-routes.md - Recording routes, the story diagram locations map-graph, and the continuity travel check
• references/calendars.md - Adding a custom calendar to story.md, dating scenes in it, and recording seasons and moons as a system file
• references/naming-languages.md - Phonology sketches, naming rules per culture, pronunciation, and the story names collision check
• references/economy-logistics.md - Prices and wages, supply lines, magic and technology costs, and a travel speeds table by mode

Shared Conventions

Every story skill follows the shared conventions in ../story-maintenance/references/conventions.md, resolved relative to this skill folder. Read it before creating, renaming, or linking story files. If that file is missing because this skill was installed without story-maintenance, the essentials are: kebab-case ids and filenames, YAML frontmatter on every story-project file, _index.md files as the authoritative registries, bidirectional links between entities, characters for who is on the page and mentions for who is only referred to, status: deceased plus died-in: chapter-{NN} for deaths, and no project-local generator or build scripts (run only the installed or bundled Story CLI).