Worldbuilding guides on Charted Roots

I want to align a hand-drawn map to coordinates

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your custom map image doesn’t match a coordinate grid out of the box — typical for hand-drawn fantasy maps, scanned historical maps, or composite images assembled from multiple sources. By the end your map will be positioned and scaled so place markers land where they should, with the alignment persisted across sessions.

What you’ll need
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A custom map already created. See I want to create a custom map of my fictional world.
An idea of which features on your map should anchor the alignment — landmarks, coastlines, rivers, or known cities are the usual reference points.
(Recommended) Target coordinates for at least two reference points so you can verify the alignment.

Steps
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1. Open the map in Map View
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Open Map View from the ribbon, command palette (Charted Roots: Open map view), or the Maps tab in Control Center. Use the Map dropdown in the toolbar to select your custom map (not OpenStreetMap).

I want to build a family tree for fictional characters

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when you’re populating a fictional universe with characters and their relationships. Maybe you’re building out the noble houses of a fantasy world, the bloodlines of a sci-fi dynasty, or the alternate-history forks of a real lineage. By the end, you’ll have at least one character note linked to your universe, with relationships wired up and (optionally) fictional-calendar dates in place.

The workflow mirrors I want to add my first person from scratch — same Create Person modal, same relationship fields. The worldbuilding-specific bits are the universe field and (optionally) fictional dates in born / died.

I want to build a noble house with succession over generations

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your fictional world has noble houses, dynasties, royal families, or any other group whose identity persists across multiple generations of biological descent. By the end you’ll have the house itself as a first-class organization entity, members linked across generations with roles and tenure, biological succession captured via family relationships, and (optionally) political ties to other houses captured via custom relationships.

The workflow combines four Charted Roots primitives: organizations, person notes, family relationships, and custom relationships. Each does a distinct job — modeling a noble house cleanly is mostly about knowing which primitive owns which fact.

I want to compile a worldbuilding bible from my notes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your fictional world has accumulated enough notes that you need a single canonical reference — the “bible” — for yourself, your collaborators, your future self when you return after months away, or readers who want a guidebook to your setting. By the end your universe note will function as a living overview that auto-renders the world’s people, places, events, organizations, and maps; you’ll know which dynamic blocks to use; and (optionally) you’ll have an exported printable book ready to share.

I want to create a custom map of my fictional world

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your universe needs its own map — a hand-drawn fantasy continent, a sci-fi system chart, a fictional city street grid, anything that doesn’t belong on OpenStreetMap. By the end, your image is registered as a custom map, places have markers on it, and you know how to extend with drilldown regional maps if your world needs multi-scale geography.

What you’ll need
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A map image file (PNG, JPG, or WebP) somewhere in your vault.
A universe note to scope the map to. See I want to create a fictional universe. Optional, but recommended — it lets places filter automatically by universe rather than coordinate match.
An idea of which coordinate system fits: Geographic (lat/lng — best for historical real-world maps) or Pixel (image pixel coordinates — best for hand-drawn fantasy maps).

Steps
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1. Open the Map Creation Wizard
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Control Center → Maps tab → Create Custom Map. Four steps follow.

I want to create a fictional universe

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when you’re starting a new fantasy / sci-fi / historical-fiction project, or migrating an existing project to Charted Roots. The universe note is the foundational entity for worldbuilding — it groups characters, places, events, organizations, and sources; provides defaults for calendars and maps; and unlocks autocomplete + orphan detection across your worldbuilding workflow. By the end, you’ll have a universe note in the vault, optionally linked to a calendar / map / schema, with the Universes tab showing it and starter entity counts of zero.

I want to link drilldown maps for regions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your fictional world has multi-scale geography — a continent map plus regional maps for specific areas, or a city map nested inside a country map. By the end you’ll have a parent → child relationship between two maps, with a clickable marker (and optionally an overlay rectangle) on the parent that drills down to the child, plus a breadcrumb on the child that navigates back.

What you’ll need
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Two custom maps already created. See I want to create a custom map of my fictional world. The “parent” is the broader map (continent, country); the “child” is the more detailed map (region, city).
The map_id of each map (visible in the map note’s frontmatter, or in the Maps tab when hovering a thumbnail).

Steps
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1. Open the child map’s note
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In the file explorer, find the regional/detailed map note and open it. Frontmatter looks something like:

I want to set up a custom calendar with eras

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your fictional world needs its own date system — alternate-history fork, custom fantasy ages, sci-fi reckonings, anything that doesn’t fit Gregorian dates or one of the four built-in calendars (Middle-earth, Westeros, Star Wars, Generic Fantasy). By the end you’ll have a calendar registered with named eras, optionally scoped to a universe, and you’ll know how to use the resulting date format in person and event frontmatter.

If your universe is Middle-earth, Westeros, or Star Wars, you can skip this — the built-in calendars cover those. A built-in-calendar guide is queued.

I want to track narrative events alongside vital ones

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when you’re worldbuilding or writing fiction and your event timeline needs more than births, deaths, and marriages. Charted Roots ships eight built-in narrative event types — anecdotes, lore events, plot points, flashbacks, foreshadowing moments, backstory beats, climaxes, resolutions — that sit alongside vital and life events on the same timeline. By the end you’ll know how to pick the right type, when to mark an event as canonical, and where the resulting events surface across the plugin.

I want to use a built-in calendar (Middle-earth / Westeros / Star Wars)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this when your fictional world is one of the four major franchises Charted Roots ships built-in calendars for: Middle-earth (TA / FoA / SA / FA), Westeros (BC / AC), Star Wars (BBY / ABY), or Generic Fantasy (A1 through A4). By the end you’ll know how to enable the built-ins, recognize the date format the parser expects, and (optionally) scope a built-in to a specific universe so it surfaces in the right context.

Worldbuilding guides on Charted Roots

I want to align a hand-drawn map to coordinates

What you’ll need #

Steps #

1. Open the map in Map View #

I want to build a family tree for fictional characters

I want to build a noble house with succession over generations

I want to compile a worldbuilding bible from my notes

I want to create a custom map of my fictional world

What you’ll need #

Steps #

1. Open the Map Creation Wizard #

I want to create a fictional universe

I want to link drilldown maps for regions

What you’ll need #

Steps #

1. Open the child map’s note #

I want to set up a custom calendar with eras

I want to track narrative events alongside vital ones

I want to use a built-in calendar (Middle-earth / Westeros / Star Wars)

What you’ll need
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Steps
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1. Open the map in Map View
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What you’ll need
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Steps
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1. Open the Map Creation Wizard
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What you’ll need
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Steps
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1. Open the child map’s note
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