Final Fantasy RP Guide: World Building

LeonaFirewater

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World Building 101

(A1) What is "World Building"
(B1) How detailed should I be in my world
(B2) The General Geography and Physics
(B3) History
(B4) The People
(B5) Threats and Reward
(C1) Levels of Magic and Technology
(C2) Levels of Magic
(C3) Levels of Technology
(C3.1) Hunter-Gatherer Clan or Early Agrarian
(C3.2) Classical
(C3.3) Feudal
(C3.4) Early Modern/Renaissance
(C3.5) Steam
(C3.6) Modern
(C3.7) Contemporary
(C3.8) Future/Far Future
(C4) Mix and Match
(C5) High/Low Fantasy/Scifi
(D1) Supplemental Material
(E1) Creating
(F1) Conclusion

(A1) What is "World Building"
World building refers to the art of creating an imaginary world. Although called "world" building, the scale of creation can vary greatly. At times it can be as small as a town, or as large as a universe. The world that is made typically depends on the scale of the story and how willing one is to explore it. A self-contained tale of a young boy growing into man hood, or other slice off life tales, can be contained within a small rural town, but tales involving conflicts between nations, require national scale, at a minimum.

(B1) How detailed should I be in my world
As detailed as the story requires! In open ended RP's or stories you might need to decide on the daily comings and goings of the shop keeper on the edge of town, or the life of soldiers before the war, and so on. In small scale and self-contained stories or RP's, you might only needs one house and two people fully developed. the world should be built to accommodate the story.
It's best to break down your world into four parts;

(B2) The General Geography and Physics: Deciding on the shape and physics of your world is the first part, this will completely influence all other parts of your story. Does your world have magic? If so what's its system? Does your world have people who can perform heroic feats, lifting boulders as casually as we lift crumpled balls of cardboard? It's best to take our world as a template and do tweaks here and there rather than figuring out the mathematical formulas of gravity for your new world. You can figure out the geography in two ways; Going from small to large, starting with your immediate setting and expanding out as necessary, or going from large to small, creating worlds, then continents, then nations, and then the towns villages and roads in which the players participate.

Other things to consider are; Different geographical zones, is the world going to be in one climate in one season, or will the players travel through deserts, tundra and swamps in all seasons. If they will be traveling through different climates and time, then you need to develop the way time travels through your world. Is it similar to our Gregorian calendar or will it be completely different?

Cosmology can also be important depending on the setting. Final Fantasy for example makes use of stories that deal with moons, astrological signs, and other planes. The general geography, physics, cosmology, and scale are good frame works for dealing with the second broadest topic in world building; History.

(B3) History: The history of your world is the second broadest section of your construction. Once again the scale of your setting is paramount to the way you will handle history. One shot battles don't need to worry about the history of the area you fight in, unless you wish to do something with destructible environments or hidden traps or monsters or such.

For story based sessions the history can be very important. The history of your world doesn't always need a beginning, and rarely need an end, although these can help. For most stories the immediate history is the most important aspect. History will guide the current happenings, and typically the immediate history is the reason behind the current plot. Perhaps a major battle has happened in the previous weeks, or a king has raised the taxes causing a rebellion, or the moon has disappeared, causing gods to appear in the skies as constellations. A common misconception is that the more recent the immediate history of the story is, the greater plot impact players will have. This is simply not true. While having a war start two days before the start of your story can make it so your players can have a large effect on the first days of the war, having the war start 2 years previously will still allow your players and characters to have plot impact. Sure they might not be able to have the first major victory of the war, but they can still turn the tides of battle, reclaim a city under occupation, or other feats of bravery.

Having a deeper history in fact can be preferential. Giving the players several months or years to work with can allow them to have a character with a greater tie to the story, including more details in your world allows characters to have more details in their own history. Ancient history can also be important. Perhaps there was an ancient prophesy yet unfulfilled? A race of advanced aliens are the cause for your worlds magic and magical items? Using the far distant past, one that your characters can have nearly no relation to, can be important to the setting and story. Creation myths can also be important to the cosmology, physics and magic of your world. Your history will dictate the creation of countries, religion, economies, cultures, society, geography, and physics. Today is the result of yesterday, and tomorrow is the result of today.

Deciding on the future is tricky when world building. Although it can be useful when creating a story to have one to several predetermined events, they should in some way tie into your past or present, and not come out of nowhere. This doesn't mean that all the information on what will happen has to be laid out in the open for your players, although leaving subtle clues or hints can be rewarding to players who figure out what is going to happen. Predetermined does not mean unstoppable, if the players figure out a 100% fool-proof way to stop the oncoming event, you should roll with it, although more often players will simply mitigate the effects of the event rather than stop it completely. Common future events include: Natural disasters, the coming of an important mysterious figure, a prophesy fulfilled, and the death of certain characters.


(B4) The People: The people are a product of their times, when creating actors/NPCs to fill your world you should consider how they are influenced by the world you've made and how they influence it. For smaller scale stories you might not need any actors, but for larger ones you will almost certainly need them. The people range in their diversity, from highly complex individuals, to sweeping, general mobs. You should always have some actors outside of your players to help steer the events of the RP session. This will ensure that a story of your devising can be told, and can nudge along more interesting interactions that the players may have not considered.0

In smaller sessions you won’t have to worry about culture or society as a whole and can instead focus on individuals, but in larger settings it helps to have a larger cultural background that can be applied to several actors. Larger cultural backgrounds are useful as a template, with a basic set up you can create actors that fit the mold of their world, or break free from it, allowing greater character driven conflict and interactions. Of course, who you decide to create varies, typically you should have a basic idea of who will and will not be interacting with the players in your story, whether it be quest givers, the king that must be dethroned, or a captured princess. All actors that interact with the players should have a small history, personality, appearance, and goals.

Common actors to create are people in positions of authority. This authority can be authority over a piece of land, a group of people, a shop, or the plot its self. Above all, your actors should feel natural, not everyone should be a special and unique snowflake that will change the flow of history, but everyone should be able to hold up a conversation, and it's hard for actors with no personality history or other defining attributes to do so.


(B5) Threats and Rewards: Now that you have the basic frame work for your world set up, it's time to really consider the players. Threats and rewards are used to spur action and engage the players to continue with your and their story.

Threats can be immediate or immanent. Immediate threats are useful for getting characters to first engage in your story, perhaps a monster has stolen the sister of one of your characters, or the ongoing war and it's resulting loss of like moves a player to action. Immediate threats are conflict driven plot points currently ongoing. A threat set up before the start of an RP allows players to create characters that have a motivation and clear goal related to solving a problem, or the problem as affected their history and personality in some way.

Immanent threats are good for keeping players engaged. If you wish your RP to be more open ended, have a secondary threat built up alongside the already ongoing threat, this insures that once the first threat is dealt with, players can continue with their characters into a new story line. Although the secondary threat does not have to be directly related to the first, it's best if they start up during the ongoing story, so that players can flow naturally into the new story. This is of course unless you wish to include some sort of time-skip, in which case secondary threats happening completely disconnect from the first story are completely fine.

Personal threats are also important to include, threats that only intimately involve one player, or two at the most, allows for deep character development on an individual scale, disconnect from the other players. This personal threat is where character rich actors can come in handy, allowing the player to work off them to develop in a way that they might have been unable to with the other players characters personalities.

All threats should conclude with some form of reward. World building scale rewards vary wildly, but should in some way involve the larger world you've created. Players willing to poke around the world you've built in interesting ways should be rewarded in interesting fashions. Rewards are not just material rewards, they can be conclusions to a characters arc, an introduction of a new story, or anything else that can help engage players really.

Players willing to explore should be rewarded in some way, either with a legendary item, a deeper connection to an actor, a new character arc, or a conclusion to some part of their character arc. As a world builder you should also consider your players personality and history. Include threats and rewards tailor made for them, if they have specific weaknesses exploit those, or if they have a specific talent include a challenge they can over some. If a player has a hobby or skill for their character include some way they can use it in the world, even if it's just an actor with similar interests they can discuss it with.


(C1)Levels of Magic and Technology
In the world you create you should consider what level of magic and technology you should have. The levels of both can have a very distinct effect on the tone of your story, and can change what kind of stories that can be formed.

(C2)Levels of Magic

High Magic: Magic is through out the entire world, mages and magical artifacts are common. Although there can be a reverence for magic users they are typically not treated as an anomaly. High magic settings allow magic to be incorporated into the geography, politics, and culture of your world. In High Magic settings institutions based around magic can be formed easily.

Low Magic: Magic is rare in your setting, mages are oddities and of note, magic artifacts are rare and powerful. There are little or no institutions of magic, except those against it.

(C3)Levels of Technology
When considering technology it's best to draw inspiration from different time periods, as well as different cultures. Each level of technology is usually paired with larger settlements and population. Bellow are suggested levels of technology.

(C3.1)Hunter-Gatherer Clan or Early Agrarian type levels will not have industry, and must rely on the natural resources of your world in a very hand to mouth fashion. This level of technology should have bands(~20 people) within a larger tribe(~200 people), with clans(familial ties) apart of the tribe. So there can be "nations" of "people" but no "government." People at this level of technology weren't always nomadic, and if they were they would have several sites they return to during the year. Large wondrous monuments were rare, and when they were made they were very well known or coveted. Magic would have a greater importance in these societies, where the is no technological equivalent of what magic can do.

(C3.2)Classical technology sees the prominence of secondary products and the beginnings of dedicated professions and class. The arts, sciences, and politics take leaps and bounds, entire artistic or scientific communities begin. Empires and advanced writing and mathematical systems begin. More advanced metal working has been developed, roads are built, and light siege weapons are made.

(C3.3)Feudal technology is based around people having more specialized roles, and the introduction of classes. Metal working, and individual industry has begun. agriculture and large scale mining are now common. Large monuments are now more prominent due to organized class based division of labour. A dedicated military has either begun to form or is fully formed. Spies are hired either by the state or people. Larger siege weapons, more advanced medicine, weapons, and raw material processing is around.

(C3.4)Early Modern/Renaissance technology see's the presence of guns, larger exploration either by land or sea, greater advances in the sciences, medicine, and generally because of the advancements a movement away from mythology. Coal use is more prominent, and in fantasy style worlds clockwork machinery and non-plane flying machinery is common. This is the age of pirates, monopolies, espionage and revolutions.

(C3.5)Steam technology get's its own section because of the sheer prominence of "steampunk." This level of technology replaces most fossil-fuel based technology with steam-based. Trains, airships/zeppelins, steam powered boats are all prominent. Tesla-styled electronics, tanks and airplanes are also prominent. At this point full democracies, communist states, and all forms government are around.

(C3.6)Modern technology is the technology used around the 1920's-60's. As you can tell this is a bit broader. Satellites, corporations, pop-art, multi-culturalism, major medical advances, spy agencies, nuclear power, greater fossil-fuel use, light wind and light solar power are all around. Stories around this time usually incorporate pulp influences; Cowboys, noire, retro-scifi, superheros, horror, mobs, robber barons, spy agencies, and Indiana Jones type adventure stories.

(C3.7)Contemporary technology is the technology of today. Although semi-futuristic subjects and items are incorporated at times, such as virtual reality or light cloning. We have very advanced medicine, globalization, corporations, the internet, and, well, just look around you. This time frame goes really well with "slice of life" style stories, as people don't feel bogged down by the setting too much.

(C3.8)Future/Far Future technology is the technology of TOMORROW! Space exploration/colonization, hyper advanced medicine, cloning, trans-humanism, and seemingly magical levels of technology. The future can be portrayed in a very pop style, almost kitschy, or dead serious. Technology can have outpaced cultural development, where our morals haven't caught up to our level of technology. Or our technology has allowed us to transcend war, poverty, and all sorts of societal issues.


(C4)Mix and Match: Obviously feel free to mix and match levels of technology, either by creating anachronisms or having different societies have different levels of technology. Maybe the ancient people had technology of a seemingly magical level. Magic and Technology together can be dealt with in several ways, in some settings they mesh with each other, in others they oppose each other. In the future, the distinction between magic and technology can be non-existent, where magic is initiated by technology.

(C5)High/Low Fantasy/Scifi: For brevity let's have a setting combine fantasy and scifi, or Science Fantasy as it's called. High Science Fantasy is the entire world is saturated with themes of magic and/or science, everyone is aware and science/magic is accessible to all. Fantastic things can be explained because "magic" or "science". Low Science Fantasy refers to any magical or seemingly far to advanced science being out of place, because the setting is bereft of these things typically, the occurrences are odd, or ignored/glossed over because the people can't handle it.

(D1)Supplemental Material
Having supplemental material for your constructed world can assist players in their engagement. Drawn maps, wanted posters, flyers, and other tangible objects for your players to use all assist in the "realness" of the setting, and can help engross players.

(E1)Creating
As I said, you can work from largest to smallest, as I have in my instructions, or smallest to largest. Doing largest to smallest allows for easier multiple stories or playthrough of your world, as you have a more developed and diverse landscape players can explore. Smallest to largest allows for more intimate playthrough with very player specific situations. Doing both at once, while difficult and more time consuming, ensures a rich world.

(F1)Conclusion
The most important part of your world will be how natural it feels. Players should be able to be fully involved in the story in which your world takes place. The more detail you put into your world, the more natural it will feel. Not all information has to be made available to your players from the get go, allowing them to discover details as they go along can help keep them engaged. The world you make will influence your players and the stories that can be told. Your stories, actors, threats and rewards should in some way relate to the larger world you have built, although having alien and out of place influences can be interesting, things should feel as cohesive and natural as possible.

These are of course guidelines and you can deviate as much from them as possible.
 
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True-Canon World Building

True-Canon World Building

What is "True-Canon World Building"
True-Canon(TC) world building refers to creating a world using the established canon of the original work as law. No deviations can be made, and everything is completely reliant on the original work, no alterations allowed, this includes races, geography, and the magic/job system.

What kind of stories can you do with TC
  1. Sequels are the most common, and the easiest to create. You don't have to mess with the established canon in any way with these stories, although to be really TC, canon characters should remain consistent, little to no geographical changes should be made, and the themes off the original should be kept. Of course new things can be added, although doing to much will distract from the establish canon.
  2. Parallel, Companion or Midquel stories, or stories that take place during the canon stories, are very difficult to do. The easiest way to do these are by not touching canon aspects, and having the players do as they will with in the setting so long as it does not clash with the story. Although having the players be responsible for certain things in the canon story is fine so long as they did not have an explanation originally.
  3. Prequel building is harder then sequels, although nowhere near as hard as the previous style. The best course of action is to have the players deal with characters and stories not involving the established canon, or have them cause the established canon. Although acting out as established history if it's vague enough is completely doable.

Why a TC story
TC stories are especially good for experienced RPer's, or those who really enjoyed a setting and don't wish to see it bothered. It also allows for a more cohesive story as typically the setting has been balanced enough, and adding new elements can cause some players to feel out of place. RPing in a familiar setting that stays true can be an especially fun experience, or even adding to the greater mythology of the setting, but in a very loyal way.

Conclusion
TC settings are for more experienced RPer's looking for a challenge, or canon purists. Nothing canon to the world can be changed or taken away, only added on to or expanded on. Having an extremely familiar world, one that those who participate in can know vaguely what to expect, is a nice bonus. TC settings also require the least amount of work to set up, as everything is there for you. Sequels are the easiest, then prequels in terms of difficulty creation and running a session.
 
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Semi-Canon World Building

Semi-Canon World Building

What is "Semi-Canon World Building"
Semi-Canon(SC) world building refers to taking established settings and stories and playing with them, keeping true to some, or most canon, but not all. Slight changes in the history, available jobs, the magic system, and character portrayals are standard in SC. There can be little to a lot of building, including adding entire continents or changing the outcomes of battles. Expansions on established canon are very possible.

What kind of stories can you do with SC
SC has much more room for different types of stories then TC, and reworking the original story can be rewarding.

  1. Sequels are very common, and one of the easiest stories to start. Unlike TC the underlying system of the setting can be changed, but the main points and occurrences of the original story are kept intact. Sequels can deal with both canon and non-canon characters easily, as changes in personality can be explained through a change in their history, or really far out things occurring to them post-original story. Sequels can change the geographical layout, the history, the actors and even the previous rewards of the original, to an extent. Changing a thing like a characters job or gender, provided they weren't terribly plot important, can occur in SC. Crack ships can be made canon, having wildly unlikely couples reproduce and using their offspring in the story is fully possible.
  2. Parallel, Companion or Midquel stories, or stories that take place during the canon stories, can also be fully explored. Playing as canon characters is slightly difficult, although moderately experienced RPer's should have no problem. Creating new characters, themes and story lines so long as they do not change the original story too much are fine. Replacing canon characters with new characters is also completely acceptable. What if FF5 didn't have Kain, but instead had a moogle knight? Why not? So long as thing's aren't taken too far off the rails and the over achieving plot concludes, not necessarily in the same way, there is no problem with working with SC stories of this nature. This type of story is not much more limiting then sequels, but in SC stories there are expectations of the original story that should be met.
  3. Prequel stories are about the same level of difficulty to form as the previous type, although harder than sequels. Once again you are working with a foregone conclusion, and any information introduced in prequels but are not present in the story as originally presented should be able to easily sweep away. It's harder to introduce new geography and a new system without doing some form of epilogue explaining what happened to them in the current time line. Of course, you can use the epilogue to explain that they are still around, and how they influenced the canon story. Prequels can be used in conjunction with the previous story type to flesh out a world more according to your parameters, or to expand upon the history of a canon story, especially if it doesn't have a fleshed out history.

Stories done in the SC should in some way mesh well with the establish canon, enough so that fans of the establish canon can feel comfortable engaging, as there is a base storyline they can be familiar with.

Introducing new elements to the story
With SC stories it's completely acceptable introducing new elements to the story, but you should consider how these effect the establish canon. Final Fantasy stories do not exist in a vacuum, great care is usually given to the construction of the setting and story, including the history. When world building you should take equal care in considering your changes. When adding new geography, consider how a new landmass or feature will affect the current setting. Plopping a volcano in the middle of a continent can have a large effect, while a small island chain hundreds of miles away less so. When changing institutions think of how these changed institutions will interact with unchanged ones.

Why a SC story
Semi-Canon stories allow players to have a comfortable and familiar basic set up, but gives them a lot of freedom with their character creations and interaction. Your world building is similarly guided by a familiar system, meaning you have the basic groundwork already there, but you have a lot of freedom in how you tweak it.

Conclusion
SC worlds are a nice combination of familiar and free. Giving you a basic set up to change or expand upon without limits, insofar as you don't alienate players who wish to recapture the feel or experience the original world. The type of stories that can be told are freer then TC and are more recognizable then non-canon stories. Sequel and Prequel settings can be harder to build then Parallel, Companion or Midquel settings, as there is little or no already made available information, but they allow you to get your stories out easier, as there are less expectations from players.
 
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Non-Canon World Building

Non-Canon World Building

What is "Non-Canon World Building"
This is going to be the shortest of the instructional posts. Non-Canon(NC) World Building is taking canon aspects of the Final Fantasy series, and using them with little to no regard for their original context. Think Dissidia or Theatyhythm. Both games involve canon FF characters and themes, but are complete reimaginings. NC stories can throw out or bring in canon as it pleases, mixing canon from separate games or using the world of a game with out any of the characters or story.

What kind of stories can you do with NC
Literally any kind of story you like. You aren't bound to any canon, just canon aspects. So long as you somehow involve canon FF assets, you're story is good. Have Tidus be the ancestor of Cloud hellbent on destroying him, but Cloud girlfriend Terra is there to defend him! All in the world of Memoria from FF9! Do anything you like.

Whats the appeal, whats stopping this from just being a Final Fantasy inspired world
The appeal is the creative freedom offered to you, the builder. The reason this is a NC world and not a world "inspired" by FF themes, is because you are taking concepts and assets familiar to the players and twisting them up. You certainly are free to use newly created characters, but your choice to include already created worlds, characters, and perhaps even motivation is what makes this a NC world.

The negative to this type of world though is that players may feel less invested in this type of story than in a more recognizable one. Players may fear that previous character arcs for canon characters have been made moot, and their previously favorite character is unrecognizable. It's also seen as the less "serious" format, and can be harder to construct a cohesive world that makes sense for all these different, and at times clashing, aspects.

Conclusion

Although allowing the greatest freedom, it can be hard creating a cohesive and natural feeling world for players, as the familiar and yet alien aspects will be off putting. NC worlds are best for "gaiden" like stories, where they are off kilter and fun, or a vast change from previous canon.
 
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Creating A Final Fantasy Inspired World

Creating A Final Fantasy Inspired World

(A1) Basic story themes
(A2) Good over evil, sacrifice, and odds
(A3) Duality and Cycles
(A4) The Power of Love and Friendship, and Evil Containing the Seeds of it's Own Defeat
(A5) The Power of the Individual and the Group
(A6) Institutions
(A7) "Green" Themes
(A8) Western and Eastern Themes Together
(A9) The Number 4
(A10) Time Lines, Non-Linear Time and Different Worlds(B1) Recurring themes in the world
(B2) Crystals
(B3) Summons
(B4) Chocobos and Moogles
(B5) Classes/Jobs
(B6) Recurring Enemies
(B7) Types of Magic
(B8) Limit Breaks
(B9) The Warriors of Light/Dark
(B10) A Greater Evil
(C1) Conclusion

(A1)Basic story themes

There are several basic story themes in Final Fantasy, some are cliche at at times corny, others are surprisingly deep and complex.

(A2)Good over evil, sacrifice, odds: Triumph of good over evil is one of the most basic concepts. It doesn't mean that winning is going to be easy, in fact sacrifices usually have to be made in some way. In every Final Fantasy game good shall overcome evil, despite the odds, in fact, insurmountable odds eventually overcome is a theme as well.

(A3)Duality and Cycles: This is an important one, duality refers to either two complimentary but very different forces working together, opposites working against each other, or even complimenting forces against each other. In many games there is a sort of evil response to good or a good response to evil, a thematic copy or mirror of the original being made. Life as opposed to death, technology as opposed to nature/magic, good against evil, the past and the present, and so on and so forth. Cycles are related to dualism in FF, in that these two opposing forces cycle through dominance and imbalance until a balance is reached. The cycle of souls, magic, and time are important in several games, especially in games with time travel or non-linear time.

(A4)The Power of Love and Friendship, and Evil Containing the Seeds of it's Own Defeat: Long title, but yes, the power of love and friendship can be important themes in FF, especially the later ones. There are points where love or friendship help characters remember themselves, or empower them. Love and friendship in FF are seen as dynamically opposed to evil, which can not have either love or friendship. In fact is is this lack of earnest feelings or bonds that often lead evil to it's defeat. Evil is powerful on it's own, but it can not rely on the strength of others to assist it except through fear or manipulation, both with are fallible. Evil does what it does for mostly selfish reasons, while good what it does for noble reasons, reasons related to the betterment of each other, or existence as a whole. It is this willingness to do for others that makes sacrifice easy for good, but hard for evil.

(A5)The Power of the Individual and the Group: FF has a large focus of heroic individuals changing the fate of the world, either because of destiny, will, or other reasons. Although in FF the individual is supported by the group, either through a larger party or a cast of supporting characters. These groups often are against a singular enemy, an agent of evil who acts alone. It is because of a collective effort working towards the greater good that the cast of FF can defeat the antagonist, usually a single person working for selfish goals.

(A6)Institutions: FF has a focus on institutions. Governments, the military, niche communities, and guilds are common institutions. Typically the alignment of institutions are based on the goals of the leaders. The military and the government in particular have been depicted as both positive and negative forces, while guilds which are based on a common goal or a gathering of like minded allies are almost always positive. FF has had protagonists as rebels or enforcers of the institutions.

(A7)"Green" Themes
: FF settings have also included "green," or the protection of natural resources or energies, themes. Exploitation of the natural world without moderation is treated as a negative, while finding a balance between the natural, spiritual, and material world is seen as a positive.

(A8)Western and Eastern Themes Together: FF settings owe a lot to classic RPG settings, in particular western RPGs. Particularly there will be a lot of European Medieval themes, such as castles, dragons and knights. Eastern themes though, are also very important, and not just Japanese, but Indian as well. Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, Pre-Islamic and Hindu religious motifs are through out several FF settings, allowing Yojimbo, Shiva, Alexander and Bahamut to be summoned in the same game, as well as having Knights and Ninjas fight with each other. Typically these themes mesh with each other into one culture, but it's possible to separate them into different cultures. If you are to separate them be careful not to have one "Super Asian" culture that's a pastiche of Japanese, Chinese and Korean culture, you can, but it's a bit racist. Same goes for European and other cultures. There were many cultures within the larger Asian and European societies.

(A9)The Number 4: The number 4 is significant to FF games, 4 heroes, 4 crystals, parties that are multiples of 4, etc. It should be of note that in Japanese culture 4 is associated with death, so having 4 be so prominent is going against the general idea of unluckiness.

(A10)Time Lines, Non-Linear Time and Different Worlds: FF settings involve different timelines, time travel, different cosmic bodies and dimensions to travel too. Typically time is treated in that going back in time is futile and you should instead look towards the future. Traveling to different dimensions or worlds signifies a change in tone of the world or some very major events.

(B1)Recurring themes in the world

Recurring themes are people, places or things that pop up in nearly every FF setting, and can range from having great plot importance to none at all.

(B2)Crystals
: Crystals are usually very powerful magical sources, and the gathering of 4 crystals is usually necessary to cause a great change in the world. Crystals also make a handy visual motif of something mystical and out of mortals hands, as they are either from primal magic or nature. Crystals can be either very common in their weaker form and rare in their stronger form, always common, or always rare.

(B3)Summons: Summons are typically spirits dealing with the natural or magical world who lend their power to mortals for a cause, or because they were captured. They can be exploited or treated as allies. Summons can help watch over the natural order or be alien to it, causing a disturbance. Summons can range in power and rarity. Summons that frequently appear are Alexander, Atomos, Bahamut, Carbuncle, Shiva, Odin, Phoenix, Fenrir, Chocobos and Moogles.

(B4)Chocobos and Moogles: Chocobos are giant birds that can be used for mounts, typically their colours dictate how fast they are, if they can swim, and if they can fly. Chocobo races and knights appear in many FF games. Moogles are small sentient creatures that often act as summons, delivery people, and chroniclers of the world. they can be organized in their society or randomly scattered.

(B5)Classes/Jobs: Many FF settings include classes and jobs, or roles in which characters assume and have specific powers associate with them. Common ones include Black Mage, White Mage, Summoners, Warriors, Dragoons, Monks, Blue Mages, Thieves, Gamblers, Paladins, Dark Knights, and Red Mages. Multi-classing can also occur, although usually there's no more then two active classes per person.

(B6)Recurring Enemies: Enemies that feature in nearly every FF setting are Bombs, Flan, Wolfs, Tonberries, Cacutar, Malboro, Mindflayers, Behemoth, Drgons, Toads, and Zombies. Common recurring bosses are Summons, Gilgamesh, The Four Fiends, Antlion, and Trains(yes trains.)

(B7)Types of Magic: Types of Magic include: White; Healing, holy and status removing magic. Black; Damaging, elemental(fire ice and lightning), and status inducing. Time; Speeding up, sowing down, or stopping time, as well as gravity magic. Green; Elemental(earth wind and water), status inducing, status removing. Blue; Magic stolen from enemies. Summoning; Summons creatures. Rune Blade/Magic Sword; Focuses on sealing magic and combining magic with physical attacks.

(B8)Limit Breaks: The hidden power inside people, once they come to a point of extreme emotional or physical duress it can activate inside them, allowing enhanced or new abilities.

(B9)The Warriors of Light/Dark: Usually 4 people who fight on the side of good and evil respectively. These people are chosen by a higher power, ither fate or the ultimate evil.

(B10)A Greater Evil: A power behind the main antagonist, a force primal and beyond comprehension, the manifestation of death, madness or evil, pulling the strings or taking advantage of a situation. They should have a vague presence and be thematically related to your setting, revealing themselves at the end.

(C1)Conclusion
Ultimately it's your world, and in fact canon FF games have had varying levels of these elements present. Two games that you can look at as two extremes are FF9, which is a distillation of the core aspects of the series 1-6(and some what 7 & 8) and FF13 which has taken the series in a different direction, although draws inspiration from FF7,8, and 12. Looking at larger mythologies help, such as the F7 compilation, FF13s compilation, and the Ivalice Alliance.
 
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