History Main / NarrativeFiligree

* ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'', ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'', ''Literature/{{Ravenor}}'', and indeed near every book written by Creator/DanAbnett devotes much attention to histories, locations, technology, vehicles, animals and people, most of which has no relevance to what is happening. It also adds greatly to the AnyoneCanDie climate, as there is no way whatsoever of telling whether the recently introduced character - complete with appearance, brief backstory and glimpse of their personality - will be killed unceremoniously in the next few pages or become a major character that lasts for several books.

* The first half of the police station level in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne 2'' is dedicated to this. You can continue on with the story at any time, but you are encouraged to wander around the station, dicking around with people, breaking a room refreshener, listening to your colleagues bantering and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments a criminal trying to explain]] [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch how his wife and her friend killed themselves and framed him for it.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' took this to a whole new level, with plenty of areas, businesses and rooms to explore, side activities to partake in, and unique [=NPCs=] that each have their own schedule and routine for the day (e.g. Noticed the same guy working at both the convenience store and at the harbor? It's not because the devs got lazy; that guy is a college student working two jobs to make ends meet). None of this was necessary to make progress, but it helped to establish the setting as a larger world that protagonist Ryo happens to be a part of, rather than having the setting tailored around him and his quest.

* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', especially at inns (and a little at castles), there's a bunch of rooms with simply nothing or no one to interact with, just copy and paste furniture. A very few of them have one or two [=NPCs=], but who doesn't say anything useful.

* The Phase novels of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse''. There's tons of world building and characterization, but man, can the author go on about stuff that's not relevant to the plot. Like a detailed description of the awesome dinner the chefs prepared for Ayla, or Ayla's schoolwork.

*** ''{{VideoGame/Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' have tons of items, some of them with no apparent purpose. However, most of them can at least be picked up and used for ''something'', even if that something is the [[AbnormalAmmo Rock-It Launcher]] (a gun that fires almost anything that lands under the "Misc" category).

* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', particularly in the earlier chapters, lets the characters take lots of little mundane actions -- drinking coffee, using the bathroom, playing games, generally fiddling with stuff that serves no actual purpose. In the developer's previous game, ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', such activities ''did'' have an effect on gameplay (they raised the characters' {{Sanity Meter}}s), but in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' they're just... there.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' - way more objects modeled than mattered. A number of rooms were just crammed with well done object models with no game function: furniture, victrola, mannikin, vending machines, books, and so on.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' took this to a whole new level, with plenty of areas, businesses and rooms to explore, side activities to partake in, and [=NPCs=] that each have their own schedule and routine for the day. None of this was necessary to make progress, but it helped to establish the setting as a larger world that protagonist Ryo happens to be a part of, rather than having the setting tailored around him and his quest.

* ''VideoGame/Shenmue'' took this to a whole new level, with plenty of areas, businesses and rooms to explore, side activities to partake in, and [=NPCs=] that each have their own schedule and routine for the day. None of this was necessary to make progress, but it helped to establish the setting as a larger world that protagonist Ryo happens to be a part of, rather than having the setting tailored around him and his quest.

* The first half of the police station level in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne 2'' is dedicated to this. You can continue on with the story at any time, but you are encouraged to wander around the station, dicking around with people, breaking a room refreshener, listening to your colleagues bantering and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny a criminal trying to explain]] [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch how his wife and her friend killed themselves and framed him for it.]]

Compare EstablishingCharacterMoment, CrypticBackgroundReference, LeftFieldDescription, RandomEventsPlot, GarnishingTheStory. [[GoesToEleven Taking this to an extreme]] can result in PurpleProse. Also see CowTools for a visual SisterTrope. StoryBreadcrumbs is an inversion/opposite tropes, where plot details small enough to normally count as filigree actually relate crucial plot points.

Compare EstablishingCharacterMoment, CrypticBackgroundReference, LeftFieldDescription, RandomEventsPlot, GarnishingTheStory. PurpleProse is can result from taking this to an extreme. Also see CowTools for a visual SisterTrope. StoryBreadcrumbs is an inversion/opposite tropes, where plot details small enough to normally count as filigree actually relate crucial plot points.

Compare EstablishingCharacterMoment, CrypticBackgroundReference, LeftFieldDescription, RandomEventsPlot, GarnishingTheStory. StoryBreadcrumbs is an inversion/opposite tropes, where plot details small enough to normally count as filigree actually relate crucial plot points.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has tons of items, some of them with no apparent purpose. However, most of them can at least be picked up and used for ''something'', even if that something is the [[AbnormalAmmo Rock-It Launcher]] (a gun that fires almost anything that lands under the "Misc" category).

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. In most fantasy-[=RPGs=], boxes, chests, and barrels are filled with what else? Treasure! Gold! In Cyrodiil? Yarn! Grain! ''Calipers!'' In most games, {{NPC}}s who do something other than stand there are often leading the player to secret treasure, or maybe just running around in a little circle. In Cyrodiil? They have ''entire lives''. They farm, they eat meals, they even ''cheat on their spouses'' (''and'' they have nonsensical conversations and rake the carpet). Unlike Bethesda's subsequent game, ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', where the supposedly "junk" items can all be used in some way or another (appropriate to its post-apocalyptic survivalist atmosphere), in Cyrodiil yarn is exactly that, and has about as much usefulness to an adventuring hero as you might imagine. Less, actually, since you can't even knit woolly underwear with it.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' has just as much clutter if not more than ''Oblivion'', although significantly more of it is useful in some way (candles and lanterns set on tables can be picked up and used for light, for example), but there's still a ton of random stuff that never gets used for anything. And there's a huge number of books that can be read: some are related to quests, others give information on the backstory, but most are just there for world building.

* The film It's Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books by Richard Linklater is a whole film composed of narrative filigree.

* Part of the reason ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K'' is such a DoorStopper. Intricate attention is frequently given to insignificant details, with even the prologue, which is long enough to be its own separate story, full of things that are never mentioned again (and a few things [[ChekhovsGun that are very important later]], so the reader still needs to pay attention).

* A number of the [[http://codegeassfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Code_Geass_Colorless_Memories Fanon Wiki]] Pages for Fanfic/CodeGeassColorlessMemories are these, as they contain details that while irrelevant to the main plot. Add details to certain characters, Knightmare Frames and also hint to possible developments. With elements of UnreliableNarrator in places as well. Which was inspired by Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire from Creator/GeorgeRRMartin. Whom [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4409941/blackmambauk blackmambauk]] the writer of most of the wiki pages is a big fan of his work.

-->-- '''Narrator''', ''[[{{Amelie}} Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain]]''

* The Gossip Stones in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' are this. Some of them share facts that are a bit relevant to the plot (one says that Princess Zelda is a tomboy, hinting at [[spoiler: her identity as Sheik]]), but most are just neat background info.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': Practically every town is full of [=NPCs=] who say things that don't matter, and houses or rooms without anything to examine, interact with, or find.