What IS the Tree of Worlds?
On Norse Mythology, Videogames, & the Creation of a Universe
Let’s talk about worldbuilding.
In coming up with the idea of Quiet, I thought about all the hundreds of videogames and movies I’ve seen where the human Hero enters a forbidden tomb and defeats the horrible skeletons within.
But what if those skeletons were serving a purpose? What if they were simply… (un)living in peace?
And what would happen if that violent interloper (the “Hero”) invaded their quiet hamlet and killed every one of them… leaving but a sole survivor? Wouldn’t that survivor feel obligated to pick up the sword of its people and try to stop the human’s bloody rampage?
“The Destruction of Everything You Love” is, of course, a classic hero origin story, shared by Conan, Luke Skywalker, even Batman himself. None of those heroes are, of course, 3-foot skeletons with oversized noggins (though in my humble opinion, this makes Quiet’s quest infinitely more impressive). But this origin-story-with-a-twist led me to the essential conflict of Quiet: Level One, which we can describe in video-game terms:
How can a Level 1 Skeleton defeat a Level 100 Barbarian?
And when the barbarian moves on to Level 2, what choice does the Skeleton have but to follow?
Quiet’s origin story has changed since inception, and yet the bones remain (if you’ll pardon the pun). Anyhow, this fantasy/gameworld idea got me thinking a lot about levels - both game levels and character levels - and how appealing it would be for our little protagonist to move higher and higher over the course of their quest, rather than just from east to west. Quiet will have to level up… as he moves up levels.
And that got me thinking about a Tree of Worlds.
This idea is not original, of course (very few ideas are). The tree of life, Yggdrasil, is a prominent feature of Norse mythology. Yggdrasil is an ash tree which contains all nine worlds - including the worlds of Gods and men - within it.
Thinking of this unfathomably large, multi-tiered tree of myth really sparked my imagination, and I began to draw. I focused on the video-gamification of this idea, and broke the trunk and crown into successive lands or “Levels.” The design I eventually settled on (not that I’ve totally settled, this is just a sketch) is a curling, tiered structure, with different Levels existing at intervals:
The essential promise of this design, of course, is that it immediately conveys a sense of progression, escalation, and climax. You move from the bottom of the tree (which is where our quest begins) to the top (which is where our quest will end).
Another key feature of this design is the promise of variety. Each “Level” will be totally different, with its own geography, weather, characters and quests. Ice world, lava world, jungle world, upside-down world… the possibilities are simply endless!
So where did Quiet come from? In the words of Spider, “allow me to orient you:”
As humans, we cannot appreciate trees in their entirety because we almost never see their roots, even though most tree roots occupy an area two to four times the diameter of the crown. They are underground, which is - as everyone knows - the land of death.
I’ll talk more about the Labyrinth soon. I’ll have to - it’s where our story begins, after all.
If there’s a lesson here for the enthusiast story-teller, it’s this:
Setting is a promise.
The setting of your world says a lot about the story you’re telling. One glimpse of the Tree of Worlds, and the audience immediately understands that Quiet’s universe is: Fantastical, Magical, Variable, Epic and yet Finite in Scope. Our story begins at the root and ends at the crown.
And one day, Quiet will stand amidst the blazing upper canopy of creation itself, and confront the Level 100 Barbarian.
If he even makes it that far.
Jonah