11 Real World Places to INSPIRE Your WORLD-BUILDING

Need some inspiration for your world? Here are 11 places right here on Earth that you have to see to believe...

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[brennonlewis]

You realize just how beautiful the world is when you remember not all of Pandora is CGI and not all of Middle-Earth is a studio set.

[brennonlewis]

Our DM is gonna love this. Which is great but it's bad news for us because he's gonna fill some beautiful location with hellish abominations.

[mathmusicandlooks]

1. Danakil Depression - an alien-like toxic terrain loaded with sulfur, mud pots, and volcanism right at the juncture of three tectonic plates
2. Lake Natron - ridiculously hypersaline lake that has the strange tendency to “petrify” any and all dead animals in and around it.
3. Blood Falls - need I say more? Iron rich waterfall in Antarctica that turns the water red as blood.
4. Lake Nyos - one of the most notorious of three lakes known in the world to undergo limnic eruptions. Look it up. It explodes like a shaken soda can and killed THOUSANDS overnight.
5. Iguazú Falls - A bajillion paradisiacal waterfalls along the border of Argentina and Brazil. Photos are stunning!
6. Sigiriya - fortress on top of an isolated mountain in Sri Lanka. Beautiful and has a rich history.
7. Son Doong Cave - the world’s largest cave system that has its own isolated rainforest ecosystem inside of it. Incredibly remote.
8. The Everglades - everyone knows this one, but there is a lot of inspiration to be found in mangrove forests.
9. Giant’s Causeway, Ireland - photos and local legends say it all
10. Cave of Crystals - it’s… a cave full of crystals… MASSIVE crystal spires wider around than a person and several meters long, near Naica, Mexico.
11. California Redwoods. Because of the redwoods.

Otherwise, I’ve found tons of inspiration from other trees (Banyans, Baobabs, Rainbow Eucalyptus, …) and the likes

Honorable mentions: Petrified forest National park in Arizona, Craters of the Moon in Idaho, and really anything from Yellowstone National park….

[paulweyer]

I traveled to Ireland last year and just off the coast of Slieve League, there's a rock formation in the water called the Giant's Writing Desk. Not sure how, but I knew from the moment I saw it that it would inspire some art, story or campaign I'm in.

[danielkneeshaw]

So this got me thinking about some places in Australia which would fit the bill, and I thought of a couple.

1/ The Pinnacles in WA: Limestone structures that date up to 30, 000 years old from when the ocean receded and left deposits of sea shells.

2/ The 12 apostles in Victoria: Massive natural limestone structures off the coast that stand up to 50m (160ft) high.

3/ Ularu in the Northern Territory: A massive inselberg in the centre of Australia, it's immediately recognizable. One of the most notable features is that it appears to change colour at certain times of the year, including glowing red at dawn and dusk!

[StarlingInSpace]

Recently camped near some cool geography with the hoodoos in dinosaur provincial park alberta Canada, it’s not a very large location but I can only imagine what a “forest” of these stone towers would look like

[duanebradway]

Pamukkale Turkey and El Yonque Puerto Rico are both pretty amazing and have folklore to go along with them. Great video.

[kelmirosue]

My favorite plant is the lava cactus. They are in the Palapagos Islands, and they grow on recently cooled magma where their roots dig into the rock and release a bacteria that breaks down the rovks so the cactus can absorb the minerals. They also go from a yellow to a dark black as they age as well. Honestly sounds like a fantasy plant and I plan to add them into my world with some magical properties if used in potions

[The_Daved]

I literally learned about the colour changing lake this week from my history teacher and thought about putting it in my world

[gasmanoo]

Amazing video and a lot of wonderfull tips in the comment section as well. I´ll add few as well : Lake Maracaibo in Venezuella has a "neverending" lightning storm. Love Valley in Turkey has these needle mountaints called fairy chimneys. Lake Bled in Slovenia has an island with a church.

[thactotum]

Dallol geothermal field in Ethiopia, or the giants causeway, or the giant crystal caves of mexico, Cenote Ik Kil Yucatán Mexico, glowworm cave New Zealand, Pamukkale Turkey, Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, Indonesia's blue lava volcano... maybe I need to make my own list

[thomasharris]

Thanks for those locations, they will be great inspirations for me, as a DM or how to turn those beautiful places in nightmares for the player. After all, we need to remember that the most colourfol frogs are poisonous

[sinmaan]

Little waste of potential. You should have shown the landmarks and 2 or 3 scenarios ideas linked to it...just saying.

[certain_sloth]

Cave of a thousand buddahs in Japan, Setodachosawa. It has pillars in the underground caverns with stairs, walkways, and a couple domes. Just a heads up, when searching there is another place with a similar name, probably just as cool.

Bonus, when looking for inspiration I look at normal places really closely and imagine if it were blown out of proportion. Cool creek bend? Bet that would be an awsome raging river with one gargantuan tree leaning over the side.

[SSJPKBLUE]

I live in Kentucky and we have plenty of mountains and when ever i look upon them i like to make up lil stories of mountain people

[heatherkline]

I have found a few of these type of things in Facebook posts. I call them "magical real life".
Here are a few:
Oldest recorded bristlecone pine in California (looks like it would have a very interesting Ent form)
Fluffy, pink mushroom about the size of a pencil dot
"Rainbow" corn on the cob
A close view of a sunflower reveals it has more in common with a puff-ball flower than a daisy
Hala a strange fruit, look it up
Another tiny mushroom; blue with gold tips to each fuzzy fiber that sticks out from it
A rare flower that looks like bluebells made of ice
Another flower that has petals that go transparent when wet
Purple roses (not certain these are real)
Black Sapote the flesh of this fruit tastes like chocolate pudding
Various flowers that are naturally pitch black (black roses are only grown in Turkey)
Blue Java banana - tastes like vanilla ice cream
Pineberry, looks like a reverse strawberry, tastes like pinapple
Black Diamond apples with super-sweet extremely pale flesh - only in Tibet
Rudraksha (possibly not edible) but the royal blue berries larger than your thumbnail are amazing
A gothic flower that looks like Dracula made a daffodil
Edelweiss
Daylillies with orange centers and purple petal tips (may be AI)
I also have an image of a perfect fractal spider web made around an aloe plant (some magic could be injected here)

Albino or hypo-melanistic animals are always cool
A moth colored pink and green
Certain poison-dart frogs can look awesome
Rare sea shells are inspiring
Spider webs and bird's wings shimmer in many colors if the sunlight hits them correctly

Underwater waterfalls just off India
Northern lights!
The "fingers of god" effect
A mall that has a canal like venice (with boats to match) and the ceiling is decorated to be the sky
IDK where but a tunnel through solid rock that appears to be "20 feet high the door, and 8 may walk abreast" is intriguing
Lake Baikal
Believe it or not there are doorways with a large tree on either side just like the entrance to Moria
Lighting
In general, forests that contain ancient abandoned structures like random stairs and towers
Some where in the arctic circle there are a collection of pointy-topped arches that look like they could work as portals
Random old castles
The ocean in Menorca Spain; boats apear to float
Verzasca river in Switzerland
There IS a river that looks like a dragon (it has many miles of tail)
A lagoon in Florida does the Sea of Stars thing too
Faroe Island, Denmark
Iceland landscape: green fields, yellow river (because of the silt), black beach, blue sea
There is a natural structure - appears to be in Arches Park, Utah or something - looks like a dragon lifting itself out of the earth to roar


That's all so far, lol.

[nathanacooper]

Please do more of these. Ideas flowing like crazy. 😊

[dajim]

Truly amazing locations!! You can find a kind of Drago Tree in Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain). Way easier to fly to and visit,

[Marinanor]

::Watches, waiting for Petra to be brought up::

[SSoulDiamond]

This has done more than just inspire me