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[Darkmakaimura]

What fictional universe do you feel is the most expansive as far as details and lore go?

I'm going to be biased but also due to researching I would definitely have to go with Warhammer 40,000.

It's just insanely massive and I can't really think of anything else that even comes close. Not even LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek, Elder Scrolls or anything else I can think of for that matter.

Apparently the Horus Heresy is over 60 books alone.

You could probably spend an entire lifetime doing research into this universe. Entire college courses could be made.

 

[uncreativename]

I'm less familiar with Warhammer, so you might be right, but Middle Earth has an insane amount of lore, if you get into all the many books Christopher Tolkien put out.

I've never actually read any of this writer's work, but a while ago I read an article about a man called Henry Darger who lived as a janitor in Chicago and was probably mentally ill, and who had a horrific childhood. He apparently also secretly wrote multiple books of thousands and thousands of pages, with a lot of illustrations, that construct a deeply disturbing world that was probably a way for him to deal with all that trauma. None of it was ever published in his lifetime. I wasn't able to find exactly the same article, but here are two different ones that between them cover what I remember.
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,985966-1,00.html
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017...left-a-legacy-of-brilliant-if-disturbing-art/

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Middle Earth was very in-depth but nothing compared to 40k.

 

[PeterBazooka]

Star Trek?

 

[IAmRei]

Star Wars
not current star wars though...

 

[ClanOfNone]

It's D&D. Multiple campaign settings each with multiple iterations and an absolute avalanche of source books, monster manuals, etc dating back to the 70's.

 

[Goalus]

Star Wars
not current star wars though...

True, but current Star Wars shines when it comes to diversity, inclusion and female empowerment.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

It's D&D. Multiple campaign settings each with multiple iterations and an absolute avalanche of source books, monster manuals, etc dating back to the 70's.

True but D&D lore is all over the place and the canon is fuzzy at best.

 

[Sybrix]

Dora The Explorer

 

[DKehoe]

Discworld is incredibly fleshed out.

 

[ClanOfNone]

True but D&D lore is all over the place and the canon is fuzzy at best.

The sheer volume of stuff to draw on is the hook for me. The Forgotten Realms being the mainstay is what really holds it back, the other settings like Planescape, Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and mother fucking Dark Sun are where the really cool shit is.
Alas, WotC is run by fucking morons so the lion's share of really interesting stuff is in the past.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

The sheer volume of stuff to draw on is the hook for me. The Forgotten Realms being the mainstay is what really holds it back, the other settings like Planescape, Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and mother fucking Dark Sun are where the really cool shit is.
Alas, WotC is run by fucking morons so the lion's share of really interesting stuff is in the past.

This is what makes second edition my favorite. So many different worlds and settings. Planescape is one of the best fictional settings ever made.

 

[Artoris]

I would go with D&D but it could easily be one of the Warhammers or Star Trek

 

[DreamcastSkies]

Star Wars?

 

[Trogdor1123]

Easily Warhammer. There are hundreds of books, 11 versions of the game, video games, over 500 white dwarfs, hundreds of codex's, etc.

I'd think Star Trek would be second due to hundreds and hundreds of tv episodes.

 

[jason10mm]

I think we kinda need to define what "lore" means. Timelines of events, spanning years and years, covering dynasties rising and falling of a single universe, like actual Earth history? Just lists of 'stuff' like weapons and factions? Or weight of stories, even if they reference the same pool of historical information?

I think Battletech has timelines covering many different eras, dozens and dozens of sourcebooks and novels of various eras and houses. Malazan as well, composes 15-20 novels but alludes to a DEEP history spanning thousands and thousands of years across a planet.

DnD can't really be taken as a whole, IMHO. You have to parse out Faerun, Ravenloft, Greyhawk as they don't really crossreference each other outside of the rules set. Then you have stuff like DC or Marvel, with THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of comics, but so many are, if not out right contradictory, at least incompatible with a single "truth" and can't really be considered 'lore' since the multiverse type shenanigans render any kid of objective "truth" irrelevant. Once an IP gets to the point of retconning things, that really destroys the "lore" of it as canon details of a place are the bedrock of being able to tell stories based on it. IMHO.

 

[Wastelander92]

Easily Warhammer. There are hundreds of books, 11 versions of the game, video games, over 500 white dwarfs, hundreds of codex's, etc.

I'd think Star Trek would be second due to hundreds and hundreds of tv episodes.

Technically there are soap operas that have been running since the 1960s. So technically them.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Technically there are soap operas that have been running since the 1960s. So technically them.

There's no depth there at all though. That's volume, not lore depth.

 

[DKehoe]

I think we kinda need to define what "lore" means. Timelines of events, spanning years and years, covering dynasties rising and falling of a single universe, like actual Earth history? Just lists of 'stuff' like weapons and factions? Or weight of stories, even if they reference the same pool of historical information?

I think Battletech has timelines covering many different eras, dozens and dozens of sourcebooks and novels of various eras and houses. Malazan as well, composes 15-20 novels but alludes to a DEEP history spanning thousands and thousands of years across a planet.

DnD can't really be taken as a whole, IMHO. You have to parse out Faerun, Ravenloft, Greyhawk as they don't really crossreference each other outside of the rules set. Then you have stuff like DC or Marvel, with THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of comics, but so many are, if not out right contradictory, at least incompatible with a single "truth" and can't really be considered 'lore' since the multiverse type shenanigans render any kid of objective "truth" irrelevant. Once an IP gets to the point of retconning things, that really destroys the "lore" of it as canon details of a place are the bedrock of being able to tell stories based on it. IMHO.

This is why Discworld came to mind for me. Because it comes from a singular vision and hasn't had a bunch of reboots and retcons.