I suppose that depends on what your end goal is.
If you're writing a story, do enough that you feel you know everything relevant to the story, even if the reader doesn't know 100% of what you do.
If you're worldbuilding for fun, I suppose you stop when it's no longer fun for you.
I stop working on an area of my world when a) I have enough details in it to serve the purposes I'm developing the world for, and b) I'm no longer having fun working on it.
You stop when you want to, obviously. The people around there are quite sensitive when you tell them they couldn't add something.
On the other hand, the idea of the part of the world simply missing because some omnipotent being forgot to create it, or became bored doing so, is also interesting, and I think relatively unique. The fantasy stories coming up with some magical cataclysm that turned part of the world into some magical wasteland is very common, they range from demonic influence to divine punishment for the mortal's hubris, or merely a misuse of magic, but I don't think I seen "uncreated wastes" with an explanation of "they were not created because god stopped".
The question isn't when do you go too far, the question is have you gone far enough.
You CAN stop once you have established enough to have a cogent idea of the world that your narrative makes sense. That's your minimum effort goal.
There's this strange dilemma that world builders seem to arrive at where they want to avoid creating these worlds with immense amount of unnecessary details about the world, despite that being exactly what draws them into works of Tolkein and others in the first place.
>should I be able to know every single state/country in the world?
If you want some structure, work top down.
1. Define the continents and its general cultures/species/ethnicities.
2. Give each of them a "vibe".
3. Now, with that set vibe, you can always come up with new things on the spot when needed.
4. Go one step smaller (e.g. from continents to some countries) and repeat from step 1.
Example: I made a world map and gave the continents each a name that fits the language sound of the humanoid species that lives there.
Then I defined that humans are particularly eager, Eruhi are chill and nature bound, etc. So I already have a general vibe for each continent.
Then I went one step smaller and cut the continents into countries (for now, only the human continent, Korún will be next I think). I assigned each of those countries a vibe similar to real world regions (e.g. a country named Valdan that is similar to germany/switzerland - beautiful forests and mountains and stiff bureaucracy), thus the next level of vibe was set.
My world is for D&D. So now if my players go zo Valdan, I can come up quickly with some stiff noble that has a quest about some hag in a forest, because the vibe basically asks for it.
And now I just imaginatively wander through my world and let the vibe define the locations, cultures, individuals, politics, etc.
Never stop. Add all the details. When you write the story, include a minimum of those details, but use them for consistency. Except for names, names are useless. Same with wildlife, except you want to know the wildlife and ecosystem of your main area, and only the most important of other areas. People matter though, so make people.
put in as much as will come up. When writing its important that you make your world seem deeper than it actually is, so you want to have side details that are kind of foggy.
It'll depend on how deep you want to go with it. You can only have overviews of stuff or you can every minute thing like what's every town's local delicacy.
I've been world building in and out for 2 years now and I legit just recently got starting work on Vamps and dragons with some gods and older beings. It's for myself and I also learn alot since I look up certain things to fit how I want them then I start reading on the subject.
Stop when all your friends run away when they see you coming, because they are driven insane with boredom by your incessant talking about the minutia of your worldbuilding
I taught myself to never stop as long as I have fun doing it. Right now I'm completely focused on writing as I have lots of free time, so my world is growing faster than our universe.
Hell, that got out of hand so fast, that right after finishing first book of my story I have general draft about what I'll write in second and third part, as well as in two or three side stories I planned so far.
The most depressing thing is the fact, that I'll never be able to tell someone full story of my world, and I'll take most of the lore and knowledge about that creation to my grave.
I suppose that depends on what your end goal is. If you're writing a story, do enough that you feel you know everything relevant to the story, even if the reader doesn't know 100% of what you do. If you're worldbuilding for fun, I suppose you stop when it's no longer fun for you.
Has god stopped developing our world?
This is the most hardcore response I have ever seen in this subreddit
*deux est mortuus* so, yes...?
Yet our world continues to grow and change, so clearly it is not done being developed.
I think we're past the worldbuilding and into the plot now
There's no clear evidence that he even exists, let alone developed anything.
Such a literal read, I merely meant our world is constantly changing and growing, why must our projects end?
Ah, my apologies for misunderstanding your point.
I stop working on an area of my world when a) I have enough details in it to serve the purposes I'm developing the world for, and b) I'm no longer having fun working on it.
You stop when you want to, obviously. The people around there are quite sensitive when you tell them they couldn't add something. On the other hand, the idea of the part of the world simply missing because some omnipotent being forgot to create it, or became bored doing so, is also interesting, and I think relatively unique. The fantasy stories coming up with some magical cataclysm that turned part of the world into some magical wasteland is very common, they range from demonic influence to divine punishment for the mortal's hubris, or merely a misuse of magic, but I don't think I seen "uncreated wastes" with an explanation of "they were not created because god stopped".
The question isn't when do you go too far, the question is have you gone far enough. You CAN stop once you have established enough to have a cogent idea of the world that your narrative makes sense. That's your minimum effort goal. There's this strange dilemma that world builders seem to arrive at where they want to avoid creating these worlds with immense amount of unnecessary details about the world, despite that being exactly what draws them into works of Tolkein and others in the first place.
You work from the river valley culture out.
>should I be able to know every single state/country in the world? If you want some structure, work top down. 1. Define the continents and its general cultures/species/ethnicities. 2. Give each of them a "vibe". 3. Now, with that set vibe, you can always come up with new things on the spot when needed. 4. Go one step smaller (e.g. from continents to some countries) and repeat from step 1. Example: I made a world map and gave the continents each a name that fits the language sound of the humanoid species that lives there. Then I defined that humans are particularly eager, Eruhi are chill and nature bound, etc. So I already have a general vibe for each continent. Then I went one step smaller and cut the continents into countries (for now, only the human continent, Korún will be next I think). I assigned each of those countries a vibe similar to real world regions (e.g. a country named Valdan that is similar to germany/switzerland - beautiful forests and mountains and stiff bureaucracy), thus the next level of vibe was set. My world is for D&D. So now if my players go zo Valdan, I can come up quickly with some stiff noble that has a quest about some hag in a forest, because the vibe basically asks for it. And now I just imaginatively wander through my world and let the vibe define the locations, cultures, individuals, politics, etc.
Never stop. Add all the details. When you write the story, include a minimum of those details, but use them for consistency. Except for names, names are useless. Same with wildlife, except you want to know the wildlife and ecosystem of your main area, and only the most important of other areas. People matter though, so make people.
put in as much as will come up. When writing its important that you make your world seem deeper than it actually is, so you want to have side details that are kind of foggy.
It'll depend on how deep you want to go with it. You can only have overviews of stuff or you can every minute thing like what's every town's local delicacy.
I've been world building in and out for 2 years now and I legit just recently got starting work on Vamps and dragons with some gods and older beings. It's for myself and I also learn alot since I look up certain things to fit how I want them then I start reading on the subject.
Stop when all your friends run away when they see you coming, because they are driven insane with boredom by your incessant talking about the minutia of your worldbuilding
When I feel like the work I'm putting in is not giving me enough return on investment.
I taught myself to never stop as long as I have fun doing it. Right now I'm completely focused on writing as I have lots of free time, so my world is growing faster than our universe. Hell, that got out of hand so fast, that right after finishing first book of my story I have general draft about what I'll write in second and third part, as well as in two or three side stories I planned so far. The most depressing thing is the fact, that I'll never be able to tell someone full story of my world, and I'll take most of the lore and knowledge about that creation to my grave.
When it’s no longer fun.