Fantasy World Building 101

Consider this your one-stop shop for all things WORLD BUILDING! I’ve created a world building template as well as a list of world building questions to ask yourself when creating your fantasy world.

First: Is world building necessary for your story?

Short Answer: Yes. Yes, regardless of your story being set in contemporary society or in a galaxy far, far away.

Long Answer: World building is more than just creating a brand new society on a brand new planet. World building is creating the coffee shop your main character works at; world building is another way to describe setting in this instance.

World building for a book centered in 2022 New York City is very simple to do. But you should still have a place in your outline that describes every significant place your character goes to. (This is helpful during editing when you can’t remember if the coffee shop is called Coffee Cat or Cat Cafe.)

But for us fantasy writers, world building is a beast to write and a MASSIVE part of our outline. World building is literally building an entire society from nothing—from government to language to history. There are many, many elements to world-building but before we start, there’s one question you should always go back to: Is this necessary for the story?

For example: Think of a romantic story about a college graduate in New York City who was just fired from her job. She moves back home to her very religious family and rekindles a secret relationship with her high school best friend/sweetheart, who also happens to be a woman. Religion is going to be a more important aspect of this story than education. Sure, she graduated college (and that’s a nice filler detail to the story) but the readers need to know more about the religious family—how religious are they?What does that mean for the secret relationship? How does that affect the main character?

Now take this example and put the main character on a different planet. Now you really need to explain the different aspects of religion and why it matters versus the level of education the main character received.

So, when you think of world building, and how much time you want to invest in creating a higher education system versus multiple religions, come back to this question: Is it necessary for the story?

Second: Where do I start when world building?

Short Answer: Wherever you are at.

Long Answer: Seriously. Wherever. YOU. Are. AT.

I have one world that I built it’s entire language and ancient history before I even glanced at the main character and the main story I’m planning on sharing with readers.

On the other hand, for my current WIP, I started world building with a simple question: What would the world look like if Greek gods existed but had hidden themselves from mortals?

This started my journey in world building with a very specific look at the current world. I started with religion (obviously). I kept the same hierarchy within the Greek Pantheon with Zeus as the King of the Gods…but what did that mean for the magical beings, like nymphs and centaurs, or demigods? Were they under the King’s rule? Where did they live? Did they live on Olympus? Did they go into the mundane world and if so, how and why? My main character is non-binary, how would they refer to themselves? (Answer: Demimortal.)

Asking questions is the easiest way to world build but sometimes it can be the most overwhelming and scariest part of world building. Because you, as the author, must have the answer to every, single question. And sometimes you don’t even know if you’ve asked all the questions you need to ask!

So let’s break down into parts. I keep in mind these elements of world building to help me organize my thoughts in my outline as well as trigger questions for myself!

Before we begin, let me be clear here: there is no correct order to world building. Whatever element speaks to you clearly is the best place for you to start. Scroll through this list and start where you want to start. For myself, the order in which I world build changes with each society I’ve built up and that’s okay!

The Elements of World Building:

• Government
• Language
• Religion
• Culture
• History
• Geography/Population size
• Education
• Technology
• Magic system (if necessary)

Use this list as a template for world building. Insert it straight into your outline as the building blocks for your world.

Now let’s break it down even further.

Government

Government is the easiest place to start when creating a society because the type of government tells you a lot about the people and the history. Just take a look at reality for inspiration—where would the United States be if the colonies never revolted? Would America be more similar to Canada? Or would the Spanish influences on the west coast overtaken the country? Would the United States be more similar to Mexico?

There are a variety of governments to start with (including a lack of one):

• Republic
• Monarchy
• Oligarchy
• Dictatorship
• Anarchy

These are just to name a few. After you decide on a government system, look at real world examples for details on how it actually functions. For example, my world has a monarchy (with Zeus as king) but he has an Immortal Consul ruled by demimortals to handle mortal issues—Do you really think Zeus cares about waste disposal in a city? No.

Delegation, no matter what type of government you’ve decided upon, is REAL. Once you’ve decided on the President/Ruler/Dictator/etc, then build your government down. This is a time to get creative—you don’t necessarily need a Parliament or Congress when your population size is only ten thousand not ten million!

Which brings us back to questions. Here are some world building questions all about government for you to consider:

• What type of government does your society follow?
• Are there different governments for different people?
• Who are these people and why did they decide on this specific government?
• Has there been different types of government for these people in the past? (Think US as a colony, then the Articles of Confederation, before the US Constitution.)
• How is this government broken down?
• Are there governors that rule specific, smaller areas? Or mayors? How are they chosen?
• How are laws followed and enforced on a one-to-one scale?
• Is there a police force and/or army/navy/air/space force?
• Are there elections? On a local level? National level? Planet level?
• Who votes in elections and how do they vote? How often do they vote?
• How do people feel about the government?
• Who’s happy with the status quo and who isn’t?

Before you deep dive into these questions, remember that sometimes a one-sentence answer is good enough. Do we know that there is a Galactic Republic in Star Wars? Yes. Do we know the process for how Senators are elected? No (or at least I don’t!). And we don’t need to know as fans. You, as an author, need to know the general idea but if the process is never questioned in your story, then don’t worry about the details. It could be as simple as: Every second Tuesday in November there are elections every four years. BAM. DONE. Next question.

Language

Oh boy. This can be as complicated and detailed as a brand new language, with characters, like Elvish and Klingon. Or it can be as simple as naming the language but writing it all out in English. (That’s what I’ve done in my WIP—the language is Theikos but I didn’t create a conlang for it.)

If you want to create a conlang, I will (eventually) go through the process…after I finish writing my conlang for my sci-fi novel that I’ll be working on in 2023. In the meantime, here is a list of books/resources via The Language Creation Society.

As for the simpler way to create a language (naming it and moving on), it’s still important to think about how other people who don’t speak the language can understand it. Also SIGN LANGUAGE. Don’t forget to include that in your world building. Watch a course on ASL (or your national sign language) to learn that it’s not just hand movements, but facial expressions and so much more. (I’m not qualified to explain sign language but I researched sign language so when it came up in my story, it wasn’t just hand movements—mine is supplemented by facial expressions and auras, which all my magical characters have!)

Religion

Is there a religion in your world? If not, why? Do any characters believe in a higher power? (I.e. the Force, karma, Fate).

Questions for Religion World Building:

• How many religions are there?
• Are they well liked?
• Are the religions at war or in general conflict with each other?
• Are there holidays for the religion?
• Who worships who and why?
• What’s the mythos of the religion?
• How was the world created via religion? Is that “reality” in your world or is there a contradictory “scientific” point of view?

Remember: You are actually God here. So if your world is created by a black cat with purple eyes—great. If some of your characters believe that but it was actually created by the Big Bang—also great—just make sure you know that.

Culture

This is a tough one. Culture is a combination of history, technology, geography, population, education AND a magic system if you have one. I’ve included it in this list because it is something you should think about—but culture is best answered by breaking down the other elements.

For example: YAS QUEEN. That’s slang, which you could’ve invented during the Language part of world building. Or maybe it came together, as it did in reality, with a mix of history, religion, and different subjugated groups of people. And now, it has become a part of queer, BIPOC culture.

Culture is the part of world-building where you see everything come together!

History

History begins to develop on its own after government and religion come together—because both of these institutions consistently and directly affect the course of your world. History is also one of these elements in which, it only matters in so much as you need it to matter for your story. Consider how history impacts your story before you start creating a detailed history of your entire society.

There are different levels of history to consider and so start with whatever makes the most sense to you. You have the history of your character, their family, their community, their city/province, and then their country/world.

Instead of a list of questions, many of which might mean nothing to your story, I’m going to ask you: What comes up when you think of your world? What is important in your world and how did it get there?

Example: Your main character is gay and lives in a small religious town. This religion discriminates against gay people. Why? And how did it come to that position? This is history just as it is religion. This is more important than coming up with and explaining the Hundred Years’ War that happened six hundred years before your story even begins.

Geography/Population

Where does your main character live and how many people live around them? Again, this is something that might come up when you are creating a government or religion, or maybe it won’t. Maybe this is the first thing you think of. In that case, think of the geography around the character. A person born and raised in mountains has different life skills and a perspective than someone who grew up in a desert. Consider that the culture and day to day life in a city is vastly different than that of a rural farm. There’s a different expectation of daily life from the amount of people around them to their slang. 

Finally, consider population sizes. Are you in a city with 8 million people (New York City) or 8,000 (Montpelier, Vermont)? It’s extremely helpful to compare your imaginary world to cities and countries around the world! For example, when I was considering the population of my magical world and creating an army/police force, I looked at real-world examples of countries around the world and chose a similar ratio. This is helpful in making your fantasy world seem realistic!

Here are other questions to ask:

• Where do they live?
• What is the physical geography around them?
• Is it urban or rural?
• How does the culture change from an urban to rural setting?
• How long have they lived there?
• How does the government/authority interact in their community?
• How many people live around them?
• Does everyone know everyone? (Small town) Does that change the social interactions and expectations of individuals within the group?

Education

We have numerous examples of education systems around the world and throughout time to help you create your own. Consider standardized (government regulated) versus private schools versus apprenticeships to start you off. 

• Who decides who goes to school?
• What do they learn at school?
• Are there different types of schools?
• Are some schools better than others?
• How can one go to the best school versus another? Is there a choice?
• Does the type of school affect the future of the character?
• Is the government involved in schooling or in ensuring every child goes to school?
• At what age does a child go to school?
• When do they graduate?

Magic System

And then, after all that, you’ve decided to add magic to your world? Are you insane? Yes? Me too.

Every magic system is unique but I (recently) learned the first question you should ask yourself: Is your magic system hard or soft?

Hard magic systems have strict rules—in order to do X, you need to do Y and then Z with A, B and D. Soft magic systems (seemingly) have no rules—Gandalf just has magic and sometimes it helps Frodo. Harry Potter is an example of the middle ground between soft and hard magic—he needs a wand, a proper incantation, and correct wand movements to do some spells, and then some stuff is more wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey. (Oh wait, that’s a different British export!) ((Here’s a YouTube video that goes more in depth on it!)

Once you answer this question, a different set of questions will come up for you. I’ve thought of a few here to start you off! (Keep in mind that some of these questions can work for both hard or soft magic systems.)

Hard Magic System:

• What are the main rules of your hard magic system? (Think the law of gravity—it’s simple, but expansive. It explains how apples fall from trees and how the earth moves around the sun.)
• What are the elements needed to do magic? (Herbs, crystals, or metals?)
• What happens when those elements are replaced with something different?

Soft Magic System:

• Is the magic elemental or natural? 
• Science based or religion based?
• Who has magic and why?
• What can they do with their magic and what makes it work?

These are just some questions to kick start your magic system! But keep in mind everything you’ve build up before. If there is magic in your world, then that has changed your education system – how do magic users learn to use their magic? It has changed your government – are magic users allowed in government? What procedures are put in place to prevent corruption by magic users? Magic has changed history and religion – how is magic explained in different religions around the world?

Some people may want to start with magic as it changes every other element of world building. But I still stand by my original position: Start wherever it makes the most sense to you.

Final Piece of Advice:

My last piece of advice: Adapt.

Your world is fluid. You are going to build out an entire education system and then build your magic system and realize the education system no longer works. Adapt. Be flexible when world building and accept that it is a long process. Rome was not built in a day and your new fantasy world won’t be either.

Fantasy world building is a lot fo work! But remember what I said earlier: a one word answer will do. Example: at what age do children go to school? Five. Done. Over. Next question please. Every answer does not need to be a full length novel. It needs to be long enough for you to understand the world you’re creating. Put effort into questions that directly relate to your story—do not put effort into every question.

Creating a fantasy world is a lot of work, but you can do it! Catch me on Discord for more world building tips and workshopping!