The Worldbuilders Podcast is a bi-weekly podcast where your hosts - Kerry, Josh, and Monica - explore settings in genre fiction by crafting them here and now for you, our listeners. Every season, we’ll explore and build a new world right here on air - and then, at the end, we’ll debut a creative work set in that world. This will usually be a piece of short fiction, but sometimes we might be doing something different.

In this episode we introduce a world known as Xanthuru, which has been one of Josh's long-term projects. He has already created a world that we get to explore and learn about with the audience. We wanted to get our toes wet in the pool of worldbuilding with something that was already created so we can get a feel for how each of us sees worldbuilding.

What types of people live on Xanthuru? This episode talks about subverting your expectations of what kinds of fantasy races are possible to have on your worlds. You don't always have to go with the "Fantasy standard" elves and dwarves.

For Xanthuru, we begin the discussion with the Earthshells, a mysterious and ancient race who are difficult to find, and even harder to hold a conversation with. We also talk about the Ohnyrek, who are the rebellious middle children of Xanthuru. They're a proud, strong race with a soft spot for storytelling.

Settle in and learn about how the people and the planet shaped each other on this unique world.

In this episode of the Worldbuilder's Podcast, we explore how to come up with good names for fantasy races, and explore why Aloe Vera could be good for worldbuilding. Join us as we explore another of the fantasy races developed by Josh to subvert expectations of fantasy races in Alteiryn.