Why does Kinoko Nasu worldbuild so much?

[Megari]

What drives him to make such a complex world? I know I won't be able to get a direct answer without asking him but I'm fine with a good enough guess.

This is not to throw shade on his works.

[Ratman]

Have you ever done worlbuilding? It can get pretty addicting. The perfect hobby for the 21st century schizoid man. But in the end you've gotta stop yourself from making your work pointless, no matter how much fun it is.

What I want to know is how does he worldbuild so strangely. I guess you could say most settings are built top-down, where the writer first figures out what the pitch is, and writes from there. The Nasuverse feels like it's written bottom-up, even if the writer himself knows what's at the center. The whole thing is this overly detailed mess of loosely connected structures, all of which is satellite to a bunch of central ideas and events, which themselves are never too closely defined or challenged. I guess it lets him keep creative freedom.

- - - Updated - - -

No, I will not believe anyone saying that it's a result of his authorial integrity and Mahoyo 2-3 as well as The Dark Six were all meant to be out by now. That's bollocks.

[Megari]

i've tried to worldbuild and it ended up being a chore for me, but i can understand how other people can like it.

also, never noticed that nasuverse was built 'bottom up'. that's interesting.

[Ideofago]

Kinoko Nasu's entire carrer consists of writing the same 5 stories over and over again, succesfully.

[OnesFleetingGlory]

Do you prefer architect or gardener? IMO, architects can keep track of plot points and pivotal elements that make their world function, but the scope is limited to what they had planned from the beginning, without flexible ways to branch out without violating its pre-established premise, so it's top-down. Gardener can have many ways to expand their world due to its flexible nature of allowing additional elements into the story without them feeling contradictory much, since they weren't established at the time. But writers can switch to each mode once a story is done IMO.

Nasu also has the advantages of drawing inspirations from his older works and integrating them, plus he could also draw from IRL history and legends to supplement his world via Fate side.

That's what it is IMO.

[Clown]

It's complex in a somewhat unique way because it's actually a TTRPG Nasu created for his buddies to play in. He writes stories set in it as a side hobby.

[Takashi]

A better question is how does he world build so much and throw it away..LB 7 and LB 6 has amazing world building then you realise it doesn't exist. Only some tidbits in it applies.
I think there's still more to build in the world anyway..i mean he barely touched African continent, nothing on SEA countries, mage side of Indian sub continent and native magecraft of Australia maybe?

[tsugumi]

What drives him to make such a complex world?

I suppose he finds it fun.

[Dullahan]

He actually doesn't worldbuild that much

[Megari]

He actually doesn't worldbuild that much

gonna have to disagree with all of the rules of his magic system.

[Ideofago]

How consistent are these rules, though?

[warellis]

How consistent are these rules, though?

Honestly haven't they been relatively consistent for a long while, and generally exceptions to those rules are still exceptional and often have specific limitations themselves?

[Five_X]

The real worldbuilding was the Servants we made along the way.

[Kirishima]

gonna have to disagree with all of the rules of his magic system.

His world is flavor for his characters though. I don't think he ever does pure worldbuilding, he only builds as much setting and world as he needs for his character focused stories to function.

[Petrikow]

Nasu also doesn't favor what is the traditional bread and butter of worldbuilding (that of overly detailed fictional historiography) but rather prefers to write about functions and rules of the world itself. If you take a look at the traditional example of obsessive worldbuilding (Tolkien, who many authors since have sought to emulate), you'll find that most of it concerns things like events and people. Nasu, however, seems to not favor this at all, and actively resists establishing any continuity whatsoever, to the point that the Fate series basically has no main continuity at all.

[Comun]

Nasu’s brand of worldbuilding involves:
1) Doing the bare minimum for the stories he’s planning to tell. Rules are established mostly for the sake of writing about exceptions. To make the point that the events happening in each specific title are not commonplace within this world, they are truly unique circumstances worth telling. Unelaborated flavor text exists, but everything that has over two sentences talking about it is put there with its payoff either showing in the same title or in an already conceived title. Takashi mentioned Nasu’s Lostbelts but instead of history, Mictlan has a reason why it doesn’t have any history, and Avalon le Fae’s disclosed history never covers any history not relevant to its characters’ background. It’s everyone’s extended backstories organized into a chronological chart. Even for the most untouched part of the franchise, the Dead Apostle Ancestors, the information in their mini-profiles are centrally about their role in Tsukihime 2. In short, never making worldbuilding in the priority in the plotting process.
2) Ensuring past works won’t limit the possibilities of what future works can be. Any potential contradiction is resolved by isolating timelines with different circumstances. Anything that would not cause a contradiction but would cause a weird reinterpretation is an allowed to pass. Future plans can be changed to conform with what’s coming out now. Spin-off writers get one solid “no” for every 100 only “are you sure?”. In short, never making worldbuilding the priority in decision making.

[kirien]

gonna have to disagree with all of the rules of his magic system.

Having extensive and magic system doesn't mean that the world building is complex. Magic system is just a part of the presented world.
Usually he builds the world through characters and what is relevant to them rather than other way around. (I think)

[Maroon540]

He actually doesn't worldbuild that much

Actually, he does. I get the feeling that the Nasuverse is actually very deeply constructed qnd is probably on par with Tolkein. The bottom-up feeling I think, comes from the fact that it's more heavily implied rather than explicit in his works. Most fantasy authors will set up diagrams and charts and exposition that outlines the fundamentals of the world and its systems. Nasu on the other hand, won't do that. The basic fundamentals are discussed and special cases are introduced but due to the nature of the storytelling, you don't really learn that much else. Which makes sense in a lot of ways because the world literally runs on mystery.

[Five_X]

Writers these days can get away with a lot by saying very little and letting people on the internet fill in the blanks, it's true. Psychic iceberg theory.

[OnesFleetingGlory]

It's a really slick way of doing interconnected stories. Instead of having the authors narrate the way the world works, they introduce the world from the PoV of a seemingly ordinary person, going about their mundane, daily life, but then they slowly learn that the world isn't as they thought it was. It helps keeping the 'openness' that let the plot develop more freely since they know basically nothing to begin with, and then other characters start to fill in the blanks through their perspectives, but their information is not entirely absolute either due to the individual biases. So not providing author narration is really clever as to avoid the world from too rigid.