In the book series Great Cities by N.K. Jemisin, the boroughs of New York city need to work together to save the spirit of New York which has just been born into the world. The boroughs are real people with lives and histories that play into each borough's identity, and into the identity of the city as a whole. The idea of place having a spirit is an old one, found both in ancient Rome and China, with the latter categorizing them by locality, city, and regional basis.

In the Harry Dresden  book series by Jim Butcher, the titular Harry Dresden performs a ritual on an island off the coast of Chicago to connect to the Genius Loci, or 'spirit of the place', to gain a strategic advantage. The spirit is scarred from the retreating glaciers that once covered North America, reflected in an old injury, a limp on the leg. While the term is now closely related to gardening and architecture, with attempts to find the genius loci of a garden, the idea of a place having a tangible spirit is an enticing one for me in world-building projects. Can I make a place alive enough in my mind to understand the genius loci it would create? What do the appearance and activities of that spirit say about their place? Or about their people?

Fantasy - Ty the Merc of Murktide, District of Storow

Ty doesn't take handouts or take quickly to new people. He likes the smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves, but always manages to stay high and dry. He's not picky about picking up the trash of others, or looting the dead for his own needs. He works hard, but he parties harder, and while he's ambitious, his plans tend to go awry when they meet action. His skin is covered in tattoos, quick on his feet, and a hell of a drummer. He's got a rotting sore on his side that he can't seem to heal, and 

Maybe you can imagine Murktide now, if this is the living spirit of that place. You know Murktide is near the water, but safe somehow from the brunt. You don't need to know it's a stilt city. It's a downtrodden place that works with what it's given, careful of strangers. The people there laugh and have hope while struggling to make ends meet. There's music throughout Murktide, mostly drums. Something in Murktide is broken, and it's possible the player characters can fix it or let it fester. 

You build a place and a person and both inform the other, giving you as a worldbuilder a better idea of both as their own entities.  By being specific to what the space is like through one person, you can introduce generalizations - and it makes the exceptions stand out more.  The Murktidian who welcomes strangers into their home easily is still from Murktide, but figuring out why they don't reflect the aggregate means diving into the character's backstory more and potentially finding interesting hooks for your story or game.

Science Fiction - Genius Data Loci

Padding above the sky of Futura Shibuya is a giant cat, part neon part projection, strolling across rooftops and taking in the glimmering gold lights of host bars and pachinko palaces. It comes out at night, moving between being enthralled with the lights and sometimes resting, often searching for entertainment, hungry for its next bite of attention. The cat is Futura Shibuya's people, informed by its place. Still, because it is made of A.I. and data points and algorithmic attempts to categorize, it also reinforces its place's best and worst possibilities. It doesn't sleep at night like it should, choosing instead to stay up and stare at the lights. It is constantly seeking new entertainment and toys, not satisfied for long. The cat is Futura Shibuya and the cat reinforces itself, and its place, even to the detriment of new possibilities.

What happens when someone who doesn't fit the data shows up? What happens when the self-fulfilling prophecy is tested? What does the cat do to keep its identity when residents want to maintain one outside the status quo? These questions are all possible material for an adventure or struggle, not just in a contemporary or fantasy setting, but for a future where the spirit of the place is codified. 

Work in Progress - Storm Riders

My white whale game design features a setting like this: a science fiction city made of districts, each with its own Genius Data Loci, resisting the invasion of an outside force that would generalize and gentrify the city. The Genius Data Loci aren't people, but massive animals made of data and light that shift their borough towards their ideal by their existence. The different segments have disparate approaches, but to build a coalition against the outside forces the player characters need to break each borough out of its singular focus, shifting them toward a more community-based approach. Players need to convince the followers of each Genius Data Loci, by showing them a possible future they couldn't create on their own, and transform the Genius Data Loci. 

The next time you're worldbuilding a place, try and see if you can imagine it as a person or animal as well. It might help inform your decisions on what to keep, what to throw away, and what might make an interesting exception.