Tolkien also created complete Languages for each race of his stories.

Frank Herbert: Giant sandworms lol. /j

Tolkien is clearly the best, but I don’t have a problem with Martin borrowing from real-life history. History is incredibly cool, and full of amazing stories. Stealing from other authors is bullshit, though.

Then you have the author of Twilight that started world building after the first book, created a number of characters with interesting background lore, then proceeded to do nothing with any of it.

George Lucas: Let someone else handle it.

To be fair the children's story came first. In that regard Tolkien and Rowling had something in common, their first books were written for a much younger and simpler audience. It wasn't until they took off commercially that the more adult and deep lore was developed.

EDIT: I'm wrong

Steven Erikson: here's a world that contains millennia of anthropologically grounded cultures that got spiced up by some interdimensional elves, orcs, gods & dragons that me and my buddy use to play D&D in, have fun reading through the eyes of over 1000 characters lol

Also, fun fact: Tolkien converted C.S. Lewis to Christianity, who almost immediately disappointed him by adopting Anglicanism instead of Catholicism and then decided Tolkien's stories weren't Christian enough, so he basically wrote the Narnia books out of spite.

Tolkien is the best ever, but a lot of his stuff is inspired or ported directly from Catholicism.

GRRM wrote "Sandkings" which is one of my favorite novellas ever. He gets a pass from me.

My bottom panel is getting swapped out for the husband and wife duo of K.A Applegate and the Animorphs books.

Writing world building is fun!

Writing actual fiction is boring and dull because if it's not a monomyth your editor is gonna removed about it