NINETY-NINE WORLDS, ONE AT A TIME
This is a work of original fiction, not an information site.
What this is
99 Worlds is an ongoing work of original speculative fiction: ninety-nine invented worlds, each written as a complete dossier — its hinge, geography, peoples, laws, economy, daily life, tensions and glossary. They are not encyclopedia entries and they are not guides. They are settings, made to be written in, played in and argued with.
Every world is allowed exactly one impossible fact. Everything else must follow from it by rigorous cause and effect. That rule — not the volume — is what the project actually is.
How it is made
Each world is conceived, edited and finished by a human author. AI is used as a tool — as a word processor, a dictionary or a brush is a tool — to help follow a premise through its consequences and to interrogate its contradictions. But the premises are chosen by a person, the judgement calls are made by a person, and every sentence is read and revised by a person before it is published. Worlds that fail their own logic are rewritten. Worlds that cannot be made to hold up are not published at all.
The first world, 東歸蓮花傳 The Eastward Lotus, has a different provenance again: it is the world-bible of the author's own stage musical, and carries its script, its song cycle and its illustrations — all of the artwork on that world is hand-painted by the author.
Why two languages
Every world exists in English and in Traditional Chinese. The Chinese edition is not machine-translated English: proper nouns get Chinese names, proverbs get Chinese shapes, and the prose is written to read as Chinese. The author works in both languages, so the work should stand up in both.
How it is paid for
Everything here is free to read, supported by advertising. Asking a Lorekeeper carries a small daily allowance, which exists to bound compute costs and deter abuse — not to sell anything. There is no paywall and no subscription.
Contact
99 Worlds is published by DAOx LTD in Auckland, New Zealand. If you want to use a world in your own work, or you have found a hole in one, or you simply want to talk about it, write to us.