[sticky entry] Sticky: 2026 Schedule

Feb. 11th, 2026 04:25 pm
[personal profile] mimihylea

Hello and welcome to Version 3 of the Worldbuilding Exchange! A big thank you to everyone who made the prior incarnations, Version 1 and Version 2, the wonderful exchanges they were!

Our schedule for 2026 is:
Nominations: Sunday March 1 - Sunday March 8
Signups: Thursday March 12 - Saturday March 21
Assignments Due: Saturday May 16
Work Reveals: Friday May 29
Creator Reveals: Friday June 5

Deadlines are 9pm EDT (UTC-4).

Rules are posted here!

 
[personal profile] mimihylea
The rules for the Worldbuilding Exchange v3 are mostly taken from the previous incarnation of this exchange.


Quick Links: Schedule | Tag Set | Collection | Evidence Post | Mod contact: worldbuildmod@gmail.com


What is "worldbuilding"?

For the purposes of this exchange, "worldbuilding" is defined as any exploration of how a fictional world works beyond the information presented in canon. This includes (but is not limited to) more detailed extrapolation of information presented in canon, filling in gaps in the canon backstory, attempts to reconcile apparent contradictions in canon information, exploring the perspectives on canon events of characters implied to exist but not considered within the canon, and so on.


This exchange allows all fandoms whose content is predominantly fictional. RPF or fandoms that are largely based on historical figures or events with very little fictionalization are not eligible. (For example, the film “Lincoln” would not be accepted, but “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer” would be.)


It is absolutely fine for the gift you create to be an action-adventure story/shippy fanart/etc (provided your recipient hasn't expressed a desire for you to avoid such things), so long as there are also worldbuilding elements present in a significant way.


Participants are expected to create one of:

Fanfiction - a complete fic of at least 1000 words

Fanart - a finished piece of art, not on lined paper

In-Universe Media - a complete piece of in-universe media (any format of text or documents that might exist in-universe) of at least 1000 words

Podfic - a complete podfic of an existing work (fic or in-universe media) of at least 1000 words, OR podfic of a newly written work of at least 500 words.


When you sign up, you will need to request at least three fandoms with distinct lore, and offer at least four. The maximum number for both requests and offers will be ten. You may request/offer the same fandom in more than one slot, but the total number of distinct fandoms must still be three or more (for requests) or four or more (for offers). You may request specific characters, Any or No Characters, or Original Characters, or any combination of these. If you choose Any or No Characters, this means any characters in the canon, not just in the tagset; however, you may DNW particular characters from the canon. You may specify a gender for original work characters if that gendered tag was nominated in that fandom.

Worldbuilding tags are requested in the relationship slot and are specific to each fandom.


Nominations
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Signups
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Posting
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Mod Contact
If you have any questions, you can contact the mods via email at worldbuildmod@gmail.com or comment on this post (please note that this post is unscreened and comments will be public). If you do not have a Dreamwidth account, you may comment anonymously, but please sign your comment in some way.

[personal profile] mimihylea
Thanks everyone for your nominations and clarifications so far! We’re still working through the nomination queue, but if not all of yours have been approved, please check below (and/or in Query Post #1) for questions and clarifications.

As a reminder, please nominate characters in the character slot, and worldbuilding topics in the relationship slot (formatted as "WB: Topic (Canon)"). Relationships ("Character A/Character B") will be rejected. Please also disambiguate all nominations with the name of the canon in parentheses.


For the following fandoms: we have questions about the fandom as nominated, or about one or more worldbuilding tags. If you’re the nominator, please include a link to your nominations page in your response.

DC Comics - For WB: Gotham and Metropolis as Sentient Cities, are the cities sentient in canon, or is this a prompt for an AU where they are sentient? If the latter, that’s not really worldbuilding within the scope of this exchange.

Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon - For WB: Characters Forced to Return to The Realm, this seems more like a plot and/or character study prompt; can you clarify how it is worldbuilding? For WB: How Long are The Kids in the Realm?, this seems like a question with a short answer; can you clarify what you would be looking for in a fill for this tag?

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood - For Chris "Madam Christmas" Mustang's Girls (FMAB), we are not accepting group nominations for characters. Could you specify a particular girl, or an aspect of worldbuilding relating to this group?

Loki - For Character: Other Loki Variants, we’re not accepting group nominations for characters, but given the fandom context we’ll accept WB: Other Loki Variants (Loki TV).

Marvel Cinematic Universe - For WB: Influence of Sarah Rogers on Captain America and WB: Influence of Steve's time in the USO on him, these seem more like character-study prompts than world-building; can you clarify?

Masters of the Universe: Revelations/Revolution - For WB: What Happens After Adam's Death (MOTU: R), this seems more like a plot prompt than worldbuilding; can you clarify?

Iron Lung - For WB: What happened at Filament Station (Iron Lung) and WB: What happened to the rest of humanity (Iron Lung), these seem more like plot prompts than worldbuilding; can you clarify?

Jean Robertson Series - For WB: Carse, WB: Castle versus Town, and WB: Up the Burn, we’re not sure what these mean and are having trouble finding fandom details; can you clarify?

Philosophers Series - For WB: Eupheus and Kite Jockeys/Fresh Gale on the High Sonora, we’re not sure what this means and are having trouble finding fandom details; can you clarify?

If you nominated a tag that was rejected and you don’t think it should have been, please let us know your nominations page.

[personal profile] mimihylea
 

Thanks everyone for your nominations so far! Due to AO3’s technical issues earlier this week and where we’re currently at with processing nominations, we’re extending nominations by two days to Tuesday March 10 at 9pm EDT. We still plan to open sign ups on schedule on Thursday the 12th. We’re still working through the nomination queue, but if not all of yours have been approved, please see the questions and clarifications below. 


Please nominate characters in the character slot, and worldbuilding topics in the relationship slot (formatted as "WB: Topic (Canon)"). Relationships ("Character A/Character B") will be rejected. Worldbuilding tags nominated in the character slot will be rejected.


For the following fandoms, please edit nominations to use character slots for characters and relationship slots for worldbuilding topics:

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Loki (TV 2021)


Please don't nominate specific types of original characters other than gender. For example, "Original Female Character(s) (DC Comics)" can be nominated, but not "Original Superhero Character(s) (DC Comics)". For the following fandoms, please edit nominations to avoid specific types of original characters (but worldbuilding prompts that might use such characters are welcome):

Harry Potter (Books Only)


For the following fandoms: we have questions about the fandom as nominated, or about one or more worldbuilding tags. If you’re the nominator, please include a link to your nominations page in your response.



Disco Elysium (Video Game) - For WB: First Meeting(s) and WB: You held a young woman by the arm and kept her in your apartment for 20 minutes against her will, the first is very broad and the second is very specific. Can you clarify how these are worldbuilding tags? For WB: Cunoesse's Backstory, this seems more like a character study tag--can you clarify?


Fire Emblem: Awakening - For WB: Future children trying to deal with knowing their younger parents in the present and WB: Future children´s relationships and/or memories of their parents, these seem more like plot or character study prompts--can you clarify how they are worldbuilding?


Gladiator (Movies - Scott) - For WB: The illness affecting Emperor Caracalla, can you clarify how this is a worldbuilding tag distinct from real-world illnesses? 


If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device (Web Series) - Several nominated but unapproved tags seem more like plot prompts than worldbuilding; can you clarify?


Minecraft: Story Mode (Video Game) - For WB: Exploring a Woodland Mansion, this seems more like a plot prompt--can you clarify how it is worldbuilding? For WB: Exploring features from a mod of your choice, this exchange doesn't generally use "creator's choice" tags; can you specify a target mod? For WB: Xara's Escape Attempts from the Sunshine Institute, this seems more like a character prompt than worldbuilding, would you be okay with this being changed to just WB: Escape Attempts from the Sunshine Institute


Moon Knight (Marvel Comics) and Moon Knight (Original Ultimate Marvel Universe) - Several nominated but unapproved tags seem to be more plot prompts or character studies than worldbuilding; can you clarify?


Phantasy Star - For WB: Odin and Myau's pre-game adventures, this seems more like a plot and/or character study prompt; can you clarify how it is worldbuilding?

If you nominated a tag that was rejected and you don’t think it should have been, or if a fandom you nominated was approved along with some but not all of the associated characters or WB tags, please let us know your nominations page.

[personal profile] mimihylea

Nominations for Worldbuilding Exchange 2026 are now open! Nominate at the tagset here.

You may nominate up to five fandoms. For each fandom, there are five character slots and six "worldbuilding" slots. Because of the limitations of AO3 tag sets, we will be using the "Relationship" field for worldbuilding elements.

Nominate only single characters in the Character field; groups or relationships (/ or &) will be rejected.

Nominate only worldbuilding tags in the Relationship field; groups or relationships (/ or &) will be rejected. All worldbuilding tags should start with the prefix "WB: ".

Fandoms must have at least one worldbuilding tag nominated by the end of nominations, or they will be rejected.

See the full nomination rules below:

Fandoms

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Characters

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Worldbuilding

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[personal profile] mimihylea

 Please comment on this post if you are nominating:

  • A crossover fandom, in which case please point us to the episode, installment, or other canon piece of media where the franchises are shown to share a universe
  • A recursive fandom, in which case please link to a public statement by the author permitting transformative works
  • A worldbuilding tag that might seem to overlap closely with the real world, in which case please explain why the fandom context makes it distinct
Missing evidence will be queried, but posting evidence in advance is much appreciated and will streamline nominations!

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