Locations are the places your story happens — sub-step 2 of building your world. A location carries 24 fields across 4 sections, from a name and type to the full sensory texture and narrative role of a place. Like characters, you never have to fill them all: a few core fields is enough, and the rest let you make a place vivid and specific when a scene needs it.
The Locations page: your places, added and edited just like characters.
What’s on this page
A list of your places — each a card with its completeness %, an on/off switch, and delete.
Four ways to add a location — the same as characters: by hand, from your synopsis, one with AI, or from the Store.
A profile with tabs (Basics · Sensory · Plot) plus “All Fields” — the full 4-section schema.
A completeness read-out (Core / Details / Depth) that rewards the fields that matter most.
How to use it
1Add at least one location (the minimum to continue is 1).
2Give it a name, a type, and an atmosphere; add sensory and narrative detail where a scene needs it.
3Reach for the deeper fields on the places your story lingers in.
Adding locations
Locations work just like characters. The list carries the same controls — a completeness %, an on/off switch, delete, and the ✦ AI button to flesh out an under-filled place. And “+ location” opens the same four ways to create: Manual (blank), From Store (ready-made), or AI Generate — plus “Regenerate locations from synopsis” to draft the whole set at once. (For the shared details — the cast list, the store, the enrich button — see the Characters page.)
The “+ location” menu — the same three paths as characters.
The AI Generate wizard for a location is short: pick a Genre, optionally add a line of context, and Generate at a chosen quality tier (or your own key, BYOK). You preview the result before it’s added.
The location AI wizard — a genre, an optional hint, then Generate.
How to read the fields
Each field lists what it controls and what it affects. The good news for locations: almost everything reaches the writing — of the 24 fields, 21 shape how a scene set here reads, and only the three Connections/switch fields are structural. Nothing here is filled in vain.
The editor’s tabs (Basics · Sensory · Plot) are a quick curated view; All Fieldsshows the full schema below, grouped into System · Physical · Narrative · Connections. Same fields, two ways in.
A worked example — the Sensory fields give the writer a place’s texture.
Every field
All 24 fields, by section. Connections is structural — the rest shape the prose.
System / General
Identity and the on/off switch.
Namecanon_name · text
The location’s name — city, tavern, forest, fortress…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there. Also the name used for it in the prose.
Use itUse the exact name you want in the text.
Enabledsys_enabled · toggle
Whether this location is active in the project.
AffectsStructural — organizes your project; it doesn’t directly change the prose. Disabled locations are left out entirely.
Typelocation_type · text
What kind of place it is — city, village, castle, cave, space station…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Physical Properties
How the place looks, sounds, and feels — the sensory texture the writing draws on.
Geographyloc_geography · text
The landscape — mountains, plains, coast, underground…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Climateloc_climate · text
Weather and climate — hot, damp, windy, snowy…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Sizeloc_size · text
The scale — room, building, block, city, region.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Atmosphereloc_atmosphere · textarea
The emotion the place evokes — gloom, comfort, danger, calm.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there. One of the strongest levers on how a scene here reads.
Use itA vivid sentence or two beats a list of adjectives.
Aestheticsloc_aesthetic · text
The visual style — gothic, baroque, ruins, high-tech…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Lightingloc_lighting · text
The light — bright, dim, torches, neon glow…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Materialsloc_materials · text
What it’s built from — stone, wood, metal, glass…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Soundsloc_sounds · text
What you hear — silence, crowd noise, dripping water, wind…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Smellsloc_smells · text
What you smell — smoke, flowers, rot, spices, machine oil…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Conditionloc_condition · text
Its state — new, decrepit, ruined, pristine…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Key Featureloc_key_feature · text
The one detail a reader will remember.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Use itGive every important place one unforgettable feature.
Narrative Properties
What the place means to the story — its role, feeling, and stakes.
Emotionloc_emotion · text
The emotion the reader feels here.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Symbolismloc_symbolism · text
What the location symbolizes in the story.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Functionloc_function · text
Its purpose — meeting place, shelter, battle arena…
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Plot Roleloc_plot_role · textarea
How the place shapes the plot.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Populationloc_population · text
Who lives here or passes through.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Danger Level (0–10)loc_danger_level · number
How dangerous the place is (0 safe, 10 lethal).
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Danger Sourceloc_danger_source · text
Where the danger comes from.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Wealth (0–10)loc_wealth · number
How wealthy the place is.
AffectsShapes how the place is written when a scene is set there.
Connections
Advanced
Links to other entities. These organize your world; they don’t write prose.
Culture IDloc_culture_id · number
A link to the culture this place belongs to.
AffectsStructural — organizes your project; it doesn’t directly change the prose. Ties the location to a culture (used by world/culture context), rather than adding words to the page.
Connected Locationsloc_connected_locs · text
Links to other locations connected to this one.
AffectsStructural — organizes your project; it doesn’t directly change the prose. Builds the map of how places relate; read by the project, not the writer.
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