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Exactly what the title says. How do you fellow authors establish the way reality works in the fictional universe(s) you set your stories in? For example, if magic exists, how exactly does it work? What about the mythos, gods, and afterlife of the characters? I try to flesh out the metaphysics of my fanfics as much as possible. For example, here is an excerpt from the chapter I'm currently working on. In this fanfic, which is a crossover between Pokémon and a certain five-book series, a character, who is a mage, tries to explain magic in scientific terms. (In the backstory of the fic, there used to be human mages and wizards in the past of the Pokémon world, but as time passed and technology progressed, magic became a forgotten art.) Later on, he theorizes the differences of the Pokémon world's pantheon and the other world's pantheons, and it goes somewhat like this: In other words, the concept is something similar to the "Towers" concept in the Elder Scrolls series, but in this case, each Legendary Pokémon binds a fragment of metaphysics (which they control) to reality to hold everything together. Another example: When Rayquaza was created, the atmosphere formed. Each Legendary is the "cause", their 'sphere' is the "effect". In the other universe, it's implied that nature came first ("cause"), and the gods came to being because of those aspects of nature ("effect"). As for the afterlife, the other universe already has an Underworld. All we need now is a Pokémon universe equivalent. I've decided that all the bad ones are sent to prisons in the Distortion World, where Giratina (who also guards the DW as a cosmic gateway between realms) monitors them. I haven't decided where all the good guys go. Neutral/good beings also have a choice to stay as ghosts, because ghosts are a thing in Pokémon. So, how do you guys do these sort of thing? Or do writers tend to ignore topics such as these? To the mods: If I posted this in the wrong category, then I deeply apologize. Feel free to move this topic as you see fit.