I've learned to incorporate my own second thoughts into the universe itself. Don't like how I translated something into English? OK, it was a mistranslation that has now become too ingrained to change. Not sure how to portray a particular religious sect? Now there are two different denominations of that sect. Uncomfortable with how I characterized a controversial historical figure? OK, now there's a historical revisionist movement that seeks to paint him in a different light. Have some idea I like that really doesn’t fit the lore? Now it’s an in-universe urban legend/TV show.

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[–] veniasilente@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

This is an approach that I really like because it incorporates a layer of realism (the real realism, not "real is brown" meme realism) that as a bonus is quite useful to produce plot hooks and various conveniences. After all, just because you as the worldbuilder know everything (or most things) about your world, that does not mean their in-universe people do. They are allowed to be wrong or incompletely informed, and unless they are an epic level lore gatherer, simple statistics say they are!

Mix this with approached for in-universe folklore and bam, realism explosion.