World bible template

A world bible helps you decide what can happen and keeps established facts steady across the manuscript. Record a rule when it creates a consequence, an entity when it affects a scene, and a past event when the present still carries its trace.

Copy the world bible template

The sections can hold a large setting, though the first entries should serve the current story. Leave a field empty until a scene, decision or continuity question gives it a purpose.

WORLD PROMISE
What experience should this world give the reader?
Which pressure reaches the protagonist first?
What makes this setting specific to this story?

FOUNDATIONAL RULES
For each rule:
Statement:
Visible consequence:
Cost or limit:
Known exception:
Who understands or controls it:
First scene that proves it:

PLACES
Name and function in the story:
Who controls access:
Sensory signature:
Conflict attached to the place:
Scenes set here:

PEOPLE, GROUPS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Goal or interest:
Resource or source of power:
Relationship to the protagonist:
What could change that relationship:

OBJECTS, LANGUAGES, SPECIES AND CONCEPTS
What it is:
How a character encounters it:
Rule or consequence attached to it:
Open continuity questions:

HISTORY AND TIMELINE
World event:
When it occurred:
Who remembers or disputes it:
Trace left in the present:
Scene that reveals the trace:

CANON CHECK
Facts established in the manuscript:
Ideas still under consideration:
Contradictions to resolve:
Scenes affected by a change:

Build a bible that supports the story

1. Name the active pressure. Find the law, custom, border, scarcity or memory that complicates the protagonist's immediate goal.
2. Give each rule a cost and proof. A rule becomes usable when readers can see what it prevents and who pays for it.
3. Add entities through scenes. Record the place, object or group when a character meets it, needs it or suffers its influence.
4. Track present traces of the past. A historical event earns space when it has survivors, ruins, rituals, disputed records or unfinished consequences.

Example: Roumat and its archives

Keep the world coherent without building an encyclopaedia

Track chronology and revelation separately

An old siege belongs to the world's chronology. A witness may reveal it halfway through the novel. Linking both dates lets you protect cause and effect while controlling what the reader knows.

Date changes in relationships

A general relationship may begin as family, mentor or enemy. When a scene shifts that bond, record the new state from that point in the manuscript. Later scenes can then draw on the correct version.

Assign every exception to someone

Write who knows the exception, who can use it, what it costs and why it has not erased the rule. Ownership turns a convenient loophole into a source of leverage.

Keep possible ideas outside canon

Store promising ideas as possibilities until a deliberate decision or a scene confirms them. You can explore freely without treating every note as an established fact.

Common mistakes

• Drawing the entire map first: begin with the route, boundary or place required by the opening scenes.
• Collecting rules without costs: add a constraint and an observable consequence to each one.
• Putting the whole bible on the page: select the details that feed action, atmosphere, character judgement or conflict.
• Changing canon silently: record established facts and identify the scenes affected by a revision.

Questions writers ask

Connect the world to the manuscript

Plumelin lets you create characters, places, objects, concepts, species, languages and histories, then examine their relationships, chronology and locations beside the scenes.