A thought on world-building

   Designing an internally consistent fantasy world is easy if it is a tiny world, and if it follows the same rules of common sense as our regular world. Worlds become more difficult to maintain as they expand and elucidate details. To maintain in this sense is to retain verisimilitude and the sense of immersion.
   There are two general patterns I have observed. First, as the world becomes more fantastic, one must progressively move out of familiarity and thus out of verisimilitude. Second, and in like manner, as the world becomes more complex it becomes more rigid and unable to expand.
   You see evidence of the first in Tolkien's middle earth, where, the most fantastic/grand elements are the most shrouded in mystery. Such as Gandalf, Sauron, and the rings themselves. The most mundane are painstakingly detailed. Such as Hobbits, and the genealogies of characters. He has done this to keep the fantasy world grounded in a familiar setting. The same is true of our world where the same is evident. The psyche and dreams are very mysterious, as are the nature of meaning and being.
   The second is a re-statement of the first observation, really. As elements of a fantasy world are explained and given a definite place, they lose their sense of the fantastic. The more a fantasy world is explained the more mundane it becomes. The extreme case being that everything gets explained and the fantasy becomes completely mundane. This pattern too is present in our world. We see that in a naive person the world is magical and inexplicable, however in a cynical person everything is "nothing but" a cause and effect.
   What the great world-builder must do to satisfy his audience is to maintain a balance of fantasy and familiar. This is the case in the great stories we love, even outside the fantasy genre. The author must always know something we do not, but he gives us some clues to help us try and figure it out.
   The same is true in our world. Our experience of life is grounded in the mundane, yet meaning and motivation are always glimpsed but never grasped. The author of our lives knows something we do not, but gives us clues to help us press onward.