Channelknight Fadran

It worked! Haha! Oh. Uh... Hi. This is Icona. What's up?

Would you support me if I wrote a Harry Potter AU where Neville Longbottom was the Chosen One instead of Harry? (I ask because Draco would get the redemption arc instead of Snape probably)

How dare I be winning.

That's a great many questions. It really depends on what you want to emphasize. If it's all about your characters' stories, then soft worldbuilding is generally a good idea. That lets you build the world around your characters so you can make the story work no matter what. If it's more about hard plot, then hard worldbuilding is better. It gives you a clearly-defined set of rules that you can build your story within. Worldbuilding applies to every aspect of your world: setting, history, magic, etc. The extent you go to is up to you. Hardies generally have a lot of defined details that you can drop into the story whenever you need, while softies are more of a loose thing, where it doesn't really matter what you add and where. I mean... there're probably just author discussion threads in this subforum somewhere, but otherwise I have an old thread called RightingWrite. I actually follow that one and get notifs from it, so... yeah. Shameless self-plug

From somewhere else, a strange voice entered Queen's mind. Um... hello. Is this Queen? @DramaQueen

As soon as his letter was finished, Fadran sent it to his Mindscape. He wasn't sure if it would work, but he had to try.

Elya clutched her hands together. She listened without any ability to stop.

"I've got an... obscure form of magic."

"Information?"

"Thanks." He put on a nervous smile. "So..."

Elya wasn't really anywhere near the door, but could tell what they were saying anyways. It was almost more difficult not to focus on their conversation.

Looking up with a concerned glance, Fadran replied, "Um... yeah. I have extra knives."

Satisfied with their new quarters, Fadran decided to actually sit down for the first time in about a week. He set aside his backpack and sword, pulling out a single piece of paper and a pen to place on a makeshift desk. From there he started composing a quick letter, hoping his hypothesis would work.

Elya re-entered the hideout right about there. "Another one?"

If that's the case then you're probably writing soft worlds and magic by default. Based on what I've read of yours you're definitely more a character-driven storywriter than world-driven.

"Just some water, if you don't mind."

"Thank you." He stepped inside, nervous.

"No one I asked the name of."

"This is where I was sent."

I can't actually think of any books other than Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling had the idea for an orphan boy to be the Chosen One wizard man and completely built her world around it to support that storyline. She focused so much on wonder and awe that there wasn't ever really any room for nitpicky stuff and whatnot. If you're into video games I recommend Hollow Knight for soft worldbuilding, and the best visual media example I can think of is Avatar: The Last Airbender

Serious answer: You start by finding a character's story and going from there. Build the world around the character rather than the characters around the world. Sort of serious answer: Yeah, kinda

"I'm... looking for a way into local rings."