Welcome to our first Worldbuilding Wednesday! On Wednesdays, we will discuss the creative process behind different facets of the Twinverse, from as lofty a concept as the entire cosmology, to specific characters and their role in the setting. Worldbuilding Wednesday is meant as a behind-the-scenes column to give insight into how the setting itself changes and evolves, beyond just the events of the books.
Today's topic stems from a personal reflection as I asked myself, what is the "official" name of the cosmology where my stories take place?
Alas, this is a trickier question than one might imagine. For most of its existence, the setting has been referred to as "The Twin Worlds", although in-setting, the term should canonically only apply to the main two worlds descended from the nameless Primal World: Ibrin and Azran.
But if the term "Twin Worlds" only refers to them, what name can be used to describe the entire cosmology? There are a lot of moving parts in it - Wandering Planes, Dimensions, Netherwheres, Otherworlds and more. We will eventually introduce all these concepts, but for now, the question remains.
It's a question with which I have struggled for a while. Of course, other authors have solved it elegantly (e.g. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Sanderson's Cosmere). Colloquially, I have sometimes called the whole setting the "Twinverse". There are other options, however. Considering the in-setting origins, Cosmoneiron might work quite well, too. Yes, it's not a coincidence that it is also the name of our newsletter.
But I eventually realized that, realistically speaking, there shouldn't be a single name for the cosmology. Or rather, there should be many, based on the different cultures and entities who can even fathom living in a vast cosmology. We'll discuss this later as well, but most people - even most scholars - in the Twinverse don't know or understand the existence of other Planes beyond their own.
So, Cosmoneiron could be one name, used by a culture, a language, or a deity to refer to the same cosmology which another could call the Celestial Sphere, the Endless Spire, the Ring of Time, and many other names. None is more valid than any other, and all can apply. Personally, however, I feel that to select one of those names would almost imply that it is the "most correct" one. So I might as well continue to use the term I have used for a while. I will refer to the setting as the "Twinverse".
But this brings up a larger point. Is it realistic for certain things in a setting to have only one, universally known name? I suppose this could be true for sentient beings who have active agency in terms of sharing their name. But when it comes to phenomena, locations, or similar topics (and yes, even a cosmology as a whole), is it realistic to think that everyone who knows of it in the entire universe calls it the same name?
It is certainly easier, and some authors get away with it because their focus is the story itself, not the worldbuilding. But for those who focus on building a robust background for their stories, this question leads to one of two answers. Either it doesn't matter, or it does. And if it does, then many things in the setting might have different names, depending on various cultures or countries. This certainly makes things harder, and has the potential to make them more confusing, but I think if an author handles it well, it can also provide more realism and verisimilitude to the stories.
What do you think? Feel free to comment, and thank you for joining us on this very first Worldbuilding Wednesday!
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