Question: What are your influences?

As far as art and the style of my drawings, Beksinski, Dali, Giger, Doré. Rodin has also influenced me a lot, to the point where the main character of my story is named after him.

Musically, I like Steve Roden, particularly his "Stars of Ice" piece, as well as most ambient music. Debussy and Chopin are more mainstream influences, and to a lesser extent Bach, Mozart and the like.

As far as writing, J. R. R. Tolkien (of course), H. P. Lovecraft, and G. R. R. Martin are the biggest fantasy authors, as well as Guy Gavriel Kay (particularly Under Heaven). Cormac McCarthy doesn't write fantasy but his writing style and tone have been massively influential on my own. Blood Meridian is probably the best book I've ever read.

LISA: The Painful RPG, NieR: Automata, Shadow of the Colossus, and the Soulsborne games have given me a lot of storyline ideas.

Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophies have influenced my world's structure and cosmology. More obscure philosophers like Zapffe and Mainländer have also played a part there.

Breaking Bad, Westworld, Hannibal, Texhnolyze, True Detective, Serial Experiments Lain, and Naoki Urasawa's Monster are some shows that have influenced me. Lastly, U M A M I on YouTube has recently affected me through his excellent "Interface" series. I recommend it strongly for anyone who likes surrealism.

/r/worldbuilding Thread