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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/32990
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A book that I'm currently writing called Surge features an enemy faction called the Degenerates that are heavily inspired by the Scythians (Indo-Iranian horse nomads that ruled the Eurasian Steppe and Central Asia from the 9th century BC to the 1st century CE) and consists mostly of humans that have been parasitized by a small worm-like endoparasite that has evolved solely to parasitize and radically alter the entire physiology of a wide variety of organisms from the phylum Chordata.

I have been toying with the idea of writing up in-depth profiles of the various Degenerate subspecies (which go into painstaking detail about their physiology, anatomy, weaponry, armour and tactics in straightforward, jargon-free manner) presented as excerpts from [an in-universe book that was given to the protagonist](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EncyclopediaExposita), set between chapters as a kind of intermission. It's basically a chance for me to dabble in a bit of world-building without having to make [characters constantly provide wordy info-dumps that consist entirely of scientific jargon](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TechnoBabble/) or [talk about what they already know](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AsYouKnow) [while not treating the reader like they're stupid.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ViewersAreMorons)

Is a good or bad way of handling exposition?

Original score: 6