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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1901575" data-attributes="member: 812">jez -- I don't see that it's "very clear". He published two works set in this world, which combine to tell a single story about the end of the Third Age. That he had innumerable stories in his head, or written in his notes, or mentioned in his letters, does not lend weight to the notion that he created the world with the intent of telling more stories in it.I have dozens of tales and notes and stuff about Barsoom, reams of pages, maps, pictures, lists, spreadsheets, the whole shebang. There's MEGABYTES of information about Barsoom that I've created, much of which has nothing to do with the primary story. If we apply YOUR logic to my work, we come away with the conclusion that it's "very clear" that Barsoom was created to tell more than one story.Which would be 100% untrue.So it's perfectly possible (given the exact same conditions exist) that it is 100% untrue with respect to Professor Tolkien and Middle-Earth.I'm not saying that it is or it isn't. I'm saying we can't tell. And much more to the point, I'm saying it doesn't matter.It doesn't matter WHY you create your setting. Your motives have nothing to do with the resultant richness or depth your setting possesses. Those qualities are a function purely of the output, not the process or the psychology behind it.</blockquote>