Artifexian

Artefexian.

It’s a YouTube channel hosted by Edgar Grunewald. He’s got the cutest Irish accent. He ain’t hard on the eyes, either. Then there’s the doobley-doo. I’ve no idea what it is but hearing him say it never fails to get me to giggling.

Anyway, Artifexian is wild. All about science-based worldbuilding. And I mean ALL. Stars. Star systems. Planets. Terrestrial stuff, like plate tectonics. Weather. Language, for your alien or fantasy people. Even flags.

Artefexian is seriously bingeworthy.

Much of it appears geared toward video game design and RPGs. But there’s lots for the writer, too. Me, I know a lot about stars and such, but I’m real fuzzy on the mechanics.

So, I’ve been bingeing on Artifexian. What’s so fascinating is it shows you how to build worlds that work. As in plausible. Way I understand it, the laws of physics hold true everywhere in the universe. It’s possible there are places where they don’t, but until proven otherwise, they do. Grunewald showed me a star system I created wouldn’t work. Well, it could, but it’s highly implausible. Back to the drawing board, then. I’m just glad I found out now instead of after publication. Believe me, if the author makes a mistake like that, they’ll be called out on it. “My world, my rules” will get you only so far.

Imagination will get you everywhere.

There’s math in it. Both kinds. The kind that makes me cry and the kind that sends me into hysterics. No worries, though. Instead of crying, I pretend those square root symbols and viniculum are skeletal depictions of heaven and hell. Instead of becoming hysterical, I see those sigmas and epsilons as unicorns and saber-toothed tigers. Fortunately, there’s not a lot of it. The math, I mean.

Got nifty spreadsheets, too. I go blank when I see those. I wouldn’t know what to do with a spreadsheet if it ran up and handed me instructions. Well, that’s not quite true, but true enough for government work. Oh, wait. That’s a really, really bad analogy in the U.S. these days.

Anyway, here’s the skinny:

Wanna get your nerd on?

Hit up Artefexian.

You can thank me later.