Folklore, Mythology, Paranormal, World Building, Naming and Language Creation Links

[donutsweeper]

For those times your fanfic canvas needs something in the background or you're writing original fic and you need to build your own universe from scratch.

Folklore/Mythology/Theology/Supernatural/Paranormal info:
God Checker - lots of different pantheons to search through
Folklinks, a Folk and Fairy-Tale Site
University of Pittsburgh's Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
UMass Amherst's Folklore Web Resources
Folklore and Mythology LibGuide at the University of Washington Libraries
Encyclopedia of Myths
Encyclopedia of Mythicia "an online encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legends. Established in 1995, the Encyclopedia Mythica is dedicated to become the single largest resource on mythology and folklore on the internet."
Monstropedia "Monstropedia is an electronic encyclopedia which aims at listing all monsters that belong to mythology, art and modern popular culture" (an older version via the wayback machine which appears to be more thorough)
Internet Sacred Text Archive (an archive of free books on religion, spirituality, mythology, folklore, alchemy, parapsychology, etc)
The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The Biodiversity Heritage Library has many helpful collections like Curious and Bizarre Creatures, Extinct Species and Monsters are Real available online as well as numerous other scientific, botany, zoological, etc collections
A Book of Creatures compilation of various creatures from myth and legend from different points in history around the world (currently on hiatus but with a huge archive of creatures)
bestiarium "A bestiary of lesser known mythological creatures from around the world"
Multilingual Folk Tale Database "Welcome to the Multilingual Folk Tale Database. On this site, you can read popular folk tales from all over this world, in their original or a translation." This site also contains the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Classification of Folk Tales
The Haunted Palace - a "History, Folklore and the Supernatural" blog with hundreds of articles on all sorts of subjects
Digital Occult Library "Here you will find information on occult studies organized so that academics, practitioners, and a general audience can learn and foster knowledge." (alchemy, cults, manuscripts, maps, witchcrafts, wicca and more)
Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica
The Cornell University Witchcraft Collection "104 English language books from the collection can be read online in the Digital Witchcraft Collection. These titles were digitally scanned from microfilm by Primary Source Media in 1998."

Yokai "the online database of Japanese folklore"
Japanese Fairy Tales "Innovative Japanese publisher and book importer, Hasegawa Takejiro, published this series of Fairy Tales in the nineteenth century. These ‘fukuro toji’, or bound-pocket books, were produced for improving English literacy of Japanese speakers."
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (originally published 1911, archive.org link)
The darker superstitions of Scotland, illustrated from history and practice (originally published 1834, archive.org link)
Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland, Collected entirely from Oral Sources (originally published 1900, archive.org link)
Irish National Folklore Collection - only a portion of the half million digitized pages have been transcribed but a huge resource of folklore and myth
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1880) (article and scanned book)
Welsh myths and folklore (from nationaltrust.org)
Welsh Folk Tales collection at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
Northern mythology, comprising the principal popular traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, north Germany, and the Netherlands (originally published 1851, archive.org link)
Andrew Lang's Fairy Books collection of 13 books, published from 1889-1910
The Theoi Project, a site exploring Greek mythology and gods in classical literature and art
The Secret Commonwealth: Of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies (written 1691, published 1815, official pdf scan and annotated version)
Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics (originally published 1892, archive.org link)
Nunnehi US Southeast fair folk
Pantheon of nonhuman Cherokee creatures (wayback machine link)
Native American Folklore by Tribe (site is run by a non-profit organization dedicated to the survival of Native American languages)
Collection of Victorian articles on folklore from the "Girls' Own Paper" published 1880-1891 (wayback machine link)
Collection of Open Access Monographs in Classics, Ancient History, Art History, and Archaeology - links to digital repositories, ancient art history, classics and ancient history, and classical archaeology
Under the Cotton Tree: The Tales of Trinidad and Tobago

Language Creation:
The Language Creation Society
The Language Construction Kit
Wikihow's 'How to Create a Language'
Designing Alien Alphabets (wayback machine link)
various conlang word generators: one, two, three (and another that is currently down for maintenance)
How to create a language in one day (wayback machine link)
How To Create Your Own Language
Omniglot has tons of information on existing languages as well as constructed scripts for constructed languages, fictional and magical alphabets as well as just a ton of general information on languages and alphabets from around the world.
Vulgar: a Language generator- free version will provide 200 words, paid version provides 2000 along with other features
The International Phonetic Alphabet (with audio illustrations)
IPA" The Phonetic Representation of Language numerous IPA resources, including translators
A Conlanger's Thesaurus (by William S. Annis, PDF)

Conlanging for cheaters some quick tips

If you want to crib your language off an ancient one Lexicity is a great resource with over two dozen, ranging from Akkadian to Ugaritic. (wayback machine link)
You can also check out this list of Open Access Ancient Language Textbooks, OERs, and Primers relating to the ancient world.

World Creation (Physical Aspects):
First, an interesting article on actual maps vs typically drawn fantasy maps to consider

Design Your Planet website will design a planet after you determine the amount of your world is covered in land, its rate of volcanism and position within the habitable zone
Tectonics.js "Tectonics.js is a 3d plate tectonics simulator written in javascript. It allows you to create realistic fantasy worlds from your web browser."
Mapgen4 "Pick a starting seed, then paint mountains, valleys, and oceans on the map! It will simulate evaporation, wind, and rainfall to determine biomes and rivers."
Fantasy Map Generator - quite a lot you can customize with this one
Fractal World Generator
Dave's Mapper (cities, dungeons, caverns, scifi ships, structures)
Tutorial to draw your own map- the macaroni method (wayback machine link)
Tutorial to draw your own map and decide its topography - the dice method
Medieval Fantasy City Generator
SciFi World Generator (there are numerous world and name generators on this site)
Create a Galaxy (more of an art adventure than actual galaxy building, but still neat)
World Anvil (designed for both rpg players and authors World Anvil "offers a host of worldbuilding features – timelines, interactive maps and way more – to help you build up your homebrew world as your PCs explore further afield.")

r/mapmaking's mapmaking wiki and r/worldbuilding's worldbuilding wiki

Illogical Worldbuilding: River Basics How rivers work, geographically

World Creation (Culture, Government, Religion, etc):
Legal Worldbuilding Guide "You’re worldbuilding, and you need a legal system." (a guide on how to do that, AO3 work)
How to Write a Believable World: A Guide to Worldbuilding (some good general How To thoughts)
Creating Believable Fictional Worlds
Worldbuilding: Things That Might Have Been Missed
20 Questions to Ask Yourself When Worldbuilding (wayback machine link of nanowrimo blog post)
Author Patricia C. Wrede's Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions (masterpost of over 3 dozen topics to think about and links to posts going in detail about each one)
How to World-build Without Knowing Everything (wayback machine link of nanowrimo blog post)
Worldbuilding: Phrases and Sayings

Creating Realistic Cultures (blog article)
On Creating Fictional Cultures - Culture is not shared.
Worldbuilding Religions things to consider (tumblr post)
Worldbuilding: Fantasy Religion Design Guide
How is religion organized in your setting?
Creating belief systems and religions in your fiction
World Building Considerations: Religious Attire (wayback machine link)
World Building Considerations: Ceremonies (wayback machine link)
Developing the cultures, civilizations, and races that populate your world Part 1: Culture and Part 2: Economics and Government (wayback machine links)
Mythic Justice – Crime and Punishment in Your Fantasy World

A Guide to Making Up Diseases (as Explained by a Biologist) (various things to consider, tumblr post)
Plants in World-building and the effect on your world's economy, technology, spiritual life, etc.

Creating a Fictional Currency things to consider plus a link to a currency generator
Fantasy Calendar Generator - helps you create a calendar for your world
Money and Economics for SF/F Writers

City Creation:
Worldbuilding: City Structure Models (how RL cities are set up and things to think about when setting up fictional ones, alt link)
Lonely Cities (I and II): "A look at the human terrain – that is, the landscape created by human activity – formed by agriculture outside of large pre-modern cities." (what fiction often forgets when worldbuilding cities)
City & Town Name Generator "The city and town name generator uses a database of over five million names across more than 150 countries." (currently down for maintenance)

Guide to Naming a Town or City considering ideas including genre, theme, tone, time, size, geography and more
How to Design a Town Map

Procgen Village Generator
Random City Map Generator

Home/Building Creation:
Procgen Mansion Generator create 3d mansions, complete with floor plans
Random Inn Generator – Floorplan
Room Sketcher - Create Floor Plans and Home Design Online (for modern homes)
Eplans.com is a website that sells blueprints for house. Choose the # of beds, baths, floors and type of garage and get numerous detailed plans and house types to choose from.
Floorplanner Design and furnish a home or office (requires a free account to use)

Name Creation:
Other things that might help when considering names (and coming up OCs' names in general):
World Building Considerations: Naming Systems (wayback machine link)
A Guide to Names and Naming Practices published in 2006 by the UK/Interpol to show that "names are a valuable source of information. They can indicate gender, marital status, birthplace, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and position within a family or even within a society." Perusing it might give ideas along those lines for your society/culture.
Huge tumblr post of name resources
So You Want to Name a Sino "A Guide to Not Making a Fucking Fool of Yourself" (wayback machine link)
Chinese Names + Naming Resources (linghxr's tumblr has numerous posts on creating and pronouncing Chinese names)
Kate Monk's Onomastikon, the original (1997) internet name resource
Mandarin Chinese Character Name Generator (names plus their translation)

(there are also numerous name generators as well as lists of names from various eras in the generators resources post)


Research and Resource Collected Links Masterpost

Comments

[alexseanchai]

eeee!

[donutsweeper]

Hope you find it helpful :)