A Short Guide to World-building

World-building is an essential part to every single fictional book, especially those with superpowers, based in space, or existing in an alternate world. High fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is known for its expansive, fictional worlds distinct from that of Earth and fantasy and magical elements such as wizards, dragons, or gods. High fantasy is distinct from low fantasy, which adds magical elements to a world we are already familiar with. 

Good world-building lies at the heart of high fantasy; without a well-developed world, magical system, and people, the story would not be as engaging, interesting, or realistic to the reader. Sometimes discovering and understanding the magic and rules of the world is just as interesting as reading the plot. World-building, however, as simple as it seems, is a complicated process. It includes everything, from the very basics such as geographical locations, to the very backstory of its universe—what happened 500 years ago that led to the countries, empires, or people that exist today? World-building is not just a project of space, but also of time. A good way to think about world-building is to ask, who, what, when, where, why? These questions are not asked about the main plot (though they could be), but of the world as a whole—what has contributed to this world being as it currently is when the story begins, what is this world, why is it relevant? For a high fantasy book to be coherent, all of these questions must be answered as the plot develops. This requirement to help the reader understand the world while developing the plot is what makes writing (and sometimes reading) high fantasy hard. In order for the world to completely develop, the plot would have to go at a rather slow pace, which may cause some readers to consider this genre boring. 

To create an engaging world, world-building must happen on every single level, with each of the layers influencing another to create a world that is ‘whole’. The basics are the geography, or the map which lies in the first few pages before the book begins. This answers the question, where? The map is a point of reference to each and every ‘thing’ in one’s story. Usually, one would not create a world made up solely of plains, with the temperature constant in every location—that would make it boring. Rather, a variety of temperature, geography, and names are created not just for the map to look cool or engage the audience, but for the different people (or other species) which develop in the different locations, the different wars that the geography causes, and the resulting empires, kingdoms, people. The geography fits into the bigger picture by creating the underlying causes and the basic grounds for existence for other parts of the world. Often, though, cool names of locations might make the finishing touch for the world.

Another basic aspect is the magical system and creatures of the world. This answers the ‘what’. Magical systems often consist of things such as spells and supernatural powers. The most important things to consider under this section are the gaining of the powers and limitations of the powers. The gaining and limitations of powers are often associated with, one, the natural (innate) abilities of the character/creature, such as a dragon born with the ability to breath fire, two, the level of ‘spiritual’ awakening, such as powers arising from an urge to protect others (like Kaladin the Stormlight Archive). The limitations of these powers are shown though the method of gaining themselves; for example a dragon born with the ability to breath fire might breath fire and fire only, unlike some other dragon who can breath ice; the ‘spiritual’ awakening might only limited to certain levels, and is marked by oaths, ideals, and surroundings. The level of magic often dictates other aspects of the world, such as the amount of power one holds over others, one’s position in a military army, etc. Also under this aspect are powerful artifacts. These can take the form of rings, swords, staffs, etc, and can sometimes contribute to the power of an individual or group. Other times, a powerful item could not just contribute to the world, but also plot, such as the One Ring to rule them all in Lord of the Rings, which essentially begins the entire adventure of Frodo Baggins. Often, these weapons are made into real-life things through a variety of methods, be it a forged sword, a 3d-printed model, or a ring sold in a themed souvenir store—these things might be the ‘cool item’ that people will remember! 

A more dynamic aspect of world-building might be the existing populations and the groups they form, the ‘who’ in the problem. Who are the players in this world currently? How powerful are they? How many does each group consist of? What are their names? These problems address identity—how does one tell one group from the other? These groups make up the kingdoms, tribes, empires, and villages littered across the map. To add another layer, interactions between these groups currently make up the enemies and alliances, contributing to the complex overall state of the world.

Lastly comes the history—why are things the way they are? The history of the land is the interconnected relationships between people and people, people and land, power and people, and most importantly, the effect of passing time on all the factors listed above. Time puts a world together: what happens as the people age, as the land erodes, as the artifacts are lost, as the gods stay gods, as empires rise, as nations fall? This complex interaction is what makes the world real, and it is this complex interaction that makes a world a world, and not just separate pieces of a puzzle, or an unmoving, emotionless rock. 

In the end, the creation of a fantasy world is a complicated process, and refining and perfecting such a world to make it both humanly realistic and fantastically wonderful often takes an author a lifetime. The complex interactions among the people and creatures, land, and time makes a story of itself, and the author is merely a chronicler of history, recording down the heroes and the villains, the clashing armies and the flaming torches, the winds of winter, the songs of the fallen…