lore-development

name	lore-development
description	Develop coherent world lore with causal history, cultures, institutions, beliefs, conflicts, and constraints that support stories and gameplay.

Lore Development

Use when expanding a fictional setting beyond isolated facts.

Procedure

1. Establish the setting's existing canon, themes, physical rules, and narrative needs.
2. Build lore through causes and consequences: geography shapes resources, history shapes institutions, beliefs shape behavior.
3. Create tensions and contradictions that produce story rather than encyclopedic completeness.
4. Distinguish objective setting facts from in-world beliefs, propaganda, myths, and incomplete knowledge.
5. Check new material against established chronology, factions, technology/magic constraints, and character knowledge.
6. Record reusable canon clearly enough for other writers and designers to apply consistently.

Quality gate

Lore should create usable constraints and opportunities for stories, characters, and play, not merely add names and trivia.