## 1. **Mythic Cosmology** — _The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild_ - **Logic:** cyclical myth of hero, kingdom, and catastrophe. - **[[Worldmaking]] Method:** open world structured around archetypal motifs (shrines, guardians, divine beasts). - **Symbolic Function:** a living myth that repeats across generations. - **Arc:** slumber → awakening → restoration. - **Contribution:** demonstrates how mythic archetypes can structure procedural exploration --- ## 2. **Metaphysical Cosmology** — _Dark Souls_ (and Soulsborne lineage) - **Logic:** entropy, cycles of fire and dark. - **Worldmaking Method:** cryptic lore, fragmented ruins, punishing ritual of death/rebirth. - **Symbolic Function:** a meditation on persistence, futility, and the collapse of order. - **Arc:** fire → decay → rekindling / abandonment. - **Contribution:** builds a cosmology through opacity and atmosphere, where mystery is the core mechanic. --- ## 3. **Ecological Cosmology** — _Subnautica_ - **Logic:** survival through immersion in a living ecosystem. - **Worldmaking Method:** resource loops embedded within interdependent biomes. - **Symbolic Function:** nature as alien, threatening, and yet knowable through attunement. - **Arc:** crash → adaptation → escape / communion. - **Contribution:** demonstrates how ecology itself can be the organizing principle of a world. --- ## 4. **Historiographic Cosmology** — _Disco Elysium_ - **Logic:** a shattered city as archive of ideology and history. - **Worldmaking Method:** dialogue trees, thought-cabinet mechanics, and failures of memory. - **Symbolic Function:** meaning arises through interrogation of political and personal ruins. - **Arc:** amnesia → investigation → fractured revelation. - **Contribution:** a cosmology where the world is made of discourse, memory, and ideology. --- ## 5. **Procedural Cosmology** — _Minecraft_ - **Logic:** infinite generation, procedural creation. - **Worldmaking Method:** blocks, crafting, and survival loops scaled into worlds-without-end. - **Symbolic Function:** a cosmology of becoming, where play itself is the generative force. - **Arc:** nothingness → creation → endless continuation. - **Contribution:** demonstrates how procedurality itself can serve as a cosmological engine. --- ## 6. **Simulative Cosmology** — _SimCity_ / _Dwarf Fortress_ - **Logic:** worlds as emergent systems. - **Worldmaking Method:** complex interlocking simulations of economy, ecology, or society. - **Symbolic Function:** cosmologies of control and emergence, where agency is distributed. - **Arc:** foundation → expansion → collapse / resilience. - **Contribution:** demonstrates how systemic simulation is itself a form of cosmology. --- ## 7. **Dream Cosmology** — _Silent Hill 2_ - **Logic:** interior world externalized as environment. - **Worldmaking Method:** symbolism through horror, geography as psyche. - **Symbolic Function:** the unconscious made spatial. - **Arc:** repression → confrontation → revelation. - **Contribution:** a cosmology of the psyche, where worldmaking = dream logic. --- ### Toward a Taxonomy - **Minimal** (_Journey_) - **Recursive** (_Outer Wilds_) - **Monumental** (_Shadow of the Colossus_) - **Mythic** (_Zelda: BOTW_) - **Metaphysical** (_Dark Souls_) - **Ecological** (_Subnautica_) - **Historiographic** (_Disco Elysium_) - **Procedural** (_Minecraft_) - **Simulative** (_Dwarf Fortress_, _SimCity_) - **Dream** (_Silent Hill 2_)