Making a Fantasy world...

[TheApprentice]

Hey chroneys! My name is Kirin, a newbie here in chrons.Im currently researching and writing my first epic fantasy story.I would like to ask an Important question:How do you create a fantasy world? Are there any guidelines and rules about it? If there are, what are they?

Thanks!

​

 

[Boneman]

The answer is (IMHO), no there are no rules or guidlines and if there are, break them, and create somehting that is unique by doing so. It's called fantasy for obvious reasons, and it's only your imagination that will limit your fantasy world.

I'm not entirely convinced that you're not pulling our legs, here, but it isn't April 1st.....

 

[Sapheron]

Hmm... Way to go with the vague question. Anywho, there aren't any rules to fantasy as Boneman said. There are, however, guidelines. Those will depend on who you ask though, and you won't agree completely with anyone else.

...

Might be best to just assume you're good to go. Good luck.

 

[Strain Of Thought]

Guidelines For Creating A Fantasy World:

Step 1: Make up a pastoral scene, such as a farming valley.
Step 2: Add the hero.
Step 3: Have someone say to the hero, "There's a whole world out there!"

All done!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Starting with a map is often a good way to begin. Certain kinds of societies tend to develop in certain kinds of physical settings, and a map might spark off some ideas. "Geography is destiny," as Tad Williams once put it. And I assume you already have a lot of ideas (or why do this?) so a map might help you organize them.

You say you are already do research, and that's a good way to begin, too. The details of whatever it is that you are researching, the details that everyone before you has let pass, may set off a whole train of thought in you.

 

[GarrickW]

Personally, I think any good fantasy world should definately be strange, new, and wondrous - and even shocking. It bores me when I read books in which the world and its peoples are clear parallels of human peoples (this Empire is the Byzantine Empire, those guys are the Arabs, these dudes are Renaissance Italy, the mysterious travelers from far away are clearly Japanese... etc.). The point of fantasy is discovering new things, new worlds - not rehashed versions of old ones.

I think the best way to go about creating a world is to try to create cultures and places and situations that don't exist anywhere on Earth - and this involves knowing what does exist on Earth.

In my current WIP, I must admit, it is set on Earth itself, so I'm rather kicking my own advice in the nuts - but the premise of the story is that our human culture from the year 2024 is ripped apart and mutated into a sort of steampunk/fantasy world, and so I also, in a sense, make things that don't exist anywhere on Earth. Dark-epic-urban-mythic fantasy, that's basically what it is; in doing so, I basically asked myself questions. "What could I change in human culture? How does society react when technology collapses and magic arrives in its stead? What kind of people might try to take advantage of the chaos? What values or morals no longer hold in the new world? What effect do current values and morals have in this new environment?"

Basically, ask yourself questions about the world. As was said above, maps can be a good starting point, but you can do it from any other starting point as well. You want a culture that lives on cities in the trees, you think this is a neat idea - but then you have to figure out why. Why live in trees? How do they get their food? What kind of climate could support such huge trees? What kind of problems might they encounter?

Or you want a world in which magic is a function of the blood and bones of different animal species. So how does this change the relationship between animals and humans? Do people raise wolves as livestock, for instance? Are domesticated animals as magically potent as wild ones? How does this affect economics and warfare? Do people ride horses, when they could instead gain the "blessing" of a horse and become incredibly fast and strong? Etc.

The most important thing is to ask yourself questions about the world you are building, I think - most importantly of all, Hows, Whys and Whethers. I build worlds simply by having one-sentence bits of inspiration, and working from there ("Werewolves are waging a guerilla war for their freedom," for example). If you make statements like that in your planning, they must for the basis of a series of questions you ask yourself and answer. Otherwise you end up with incongruities and errors in the worldbuilding, which makes the reader blink and go "WTF" - which is not a good thing. You can't just think of a bunch of characteristics of a culture, a geography or a religion - it has to make sense as a whole, not just as isolated parts.

 

[TheApprentice]

Thanks a lot guys. btw I'm still on the research part of this project but I managed to write the introduction of the story. it 's not in a good shape yet. anyway, here it is. forgivem e for any grammatical and syntax errors you may find( I suck in grammar!).

​

“It is coming upon us... the reawakening of the shadows... I sense it everywhere... from the lashing of the waves in the ocean to the sweeping of violent gusts of wind through the mountains and highlands... across the deserts and the tundras... amidst the many quarreling kingdoms and realms of different races from the north to the south.... the beginning of an apocalypse. For many centuries he laid hidden on his tomb... forgotten by the very ones who bound him to his lifeless prison of blight and Ice... waiting for that opportunity to be whole again... to become the immortal evil he once was... but he won't wait no longer... the time has come for him to rise from his ashes... his dark soul shall find its trapped body from the frozen caves , break the seal binding it and once again unleash his demonic army and his madness upon the world, covering it in an unending hell of death and destruction... I must send out the warning far and wide... he must be stopped at all costs... together the world must reunite once again to defeat the Death Lord of Netheria and imprison him to the netherworld where he rightfully belongs. I am the Prophet of the present age and I was bounded by a seal of immortality and a difficult task to herald the forthcoming tides of doom so that all who dwell and live and breathe on this world may not be caught unguarded by the impending peril.I have many names.The Races of wizards and men in the east call me "the Watcher", the elves and treefolk of the north call me Shalah kul Manath, "the sounding horn of time", while amongst the Gnomes and Dwarves of the west, the dwellers of the mountain cities and underground towns,I am Breth Bvaradan Ladruum,The Keeper of lore and knowledge. Hardly anyone has remembered my real name or that I was once a free being who sought great power and gained nothing in the end but a curse that no sorcery nor any enchantment can cure: In me lies the destiny of this world."
​

 

[TheApprentice]

OK so I have finished drawing the map of my fantasy world. I decided to call the entire place "ASPHERIA" since its the best name I could come up with.
Here it is:

(just click the image to Enlarge)



I'll post more information regarding the races, creatures, lands, societies, principles etc. They are still under research.
​

 

[Threddy]

Did you draw that on a computer program. I would like to draw myself a map like that.

The names look cool and Aspheria is very good.

 

[Sapheron]

Looks like a paint map to me. That program is all you really need. Fancy programs are just more complicated, but don't actually do much more.

The only thing I don't like about it is the 'Deathlord's Spire'. Deathlord? Seems a bit... lame as titles go.

 

[Threddy]

On closer inspection, I would agree that it is a paint map.

Deathlord is either very cool or as you say quite lame. I'm not sure which at the moment.

 

[Postumus]

The important thing is to make your world logically consistent within the framework of your novel. It's okay to have almost any amount of weirdness, provided you account for its requirements or effects.

For instance, if you plunk a large city down in the middle of a desert you're going to need to figure out a way for that population to obtain water, feed itself, and some sort of rationale for them being there at all.

Is there a large oasis? Or maybe mages can conjure water out of the thin air? Or is it imported? (Heaven forbid...people need a lot of water and it's very heavy to transport!)

What do they eat? How do they get it? Each person living there needs to have access to enough food to avoid starving to death.

Was the city originally in lush plain that was destroyed in a cataclysmic mage battle (and even if it was, why didn't the population immediately leave for a less harsh climate?) or is there something special in the area that makes it worth being there (metal deposits, spice worm melange, crossroads of a major trade route (but why trade through the desert?!?!?!) or maybe it's an ancient sea floor so it's a huge salt deposit that is mined and exported in exchange for food and water)?

As long as there's a plausible reason for it to be there and be able to survive, great! If not, it's better to put it somewhere else (near a river or coast, etc.).

It's worth noting that something that's improbable or difficult to rationalise can actually stimulate a lot of interesting story or sub-plot ideas, so it's not necessarily a bad thing...

 

[Aes]

So the different races hate each other and will only live amongst their own kind? How sad... ;'(

Anyway for the map, looks pretty neat despite that. Next, you might want to consider identifying areas such as mountains, plains, forest, swamp, desert, or anything else along those lines, if you feel they belong, anyway.

 

[Trebuchet]

Oh, if you make up rules of your own, make sure you stick to them.

Most fantasy characters still have to deal with the laws of physics and nature, unless they have a bloody good reason.

 

[Spectrum]

Thanks a lot guys. btw I'm still on the research part of this project but I managed to write the introduction of the story. it 's not in a good shape yet. anyway, here it is. forgivem e for any grammatical and syntax errors you may find( I suck in grammar!).

​

“It is coming upon us... the reawakening of the shadows... I sense it everywhere... from the lashing of the waves in the ocean to the sweeping of violent gusts of wind through the mountains and highlands... across the deserts and the tundras... amidst the many quarreling kingdoms and realms of different races from the north to the south.... the beginning of an apocalypse. For many centuries he laid hidden on his tomb... forgotten by the very ones who bound him to his lifeless prison of blight and Ice... waiting for that opportunity to be whole again... to become the immortal evil he once was... but he won't wait no longer... the time has come for him to rise from his ashes... his dark soul shall find its trapped body from the frozen caves , break the seal binding it and once again unleash his demonic army and his madness upon the world, covering it in an unending hell of death and destruction... I must send out the warning far and wide... he must be stopped at all costs... together the world must reunite once again to defeat the Death Lord of Netheria and imprison him to the netherworld where he rightfully belongs. I am the Prophet of the present age and I was bounded by a seal of immortality and a difficult task to herald the forthcoming tides of doom so that all who dwell and live and breathe on this world may not be caught unguarded by the impending peril.I have many names.The Races of wizards and men in the east call me "the Watcher", the elves and treefolk of the north call me Shalah kul Manath, "the sounding horn of time", while amongst the Gnomes and Dwarves of the west, the dwellers of the mountain cities and underground towns,I am Breth Bvaradan Ladruum,The Keeper of lore and knowledge. Hardly anyone has remembered my real name or that I was once a free being who sought great power and gained nothing in the end but a curse that no sorcery nor any enchantment can cure: In me lies the destiny of this world."
​

I like the names and stuff on your map. However, the above description sounds very cliched. "Dark lord awakens, wise good guy must do something to stop him" is a cheesy formula followed. I might still read it, but some readers will be turned off. By the above description, your story might easily be a clone of dozens of others.

Hopefully your story and world have some more unique elements in them than the above. Try to introduce them instead.

 

[Professor 0110]

I like the names and stuff on your map. However, the above description sounds very cliched. "Dark lord awakens, wise good guy must do something to stop him" is a cheesy formula followed. I might still read it, but some readers will be turned off. By the above description, your story might easily be a clone of dozens of others.

Hopefully your story and world have some more unique elements in them than the above. Try to introduce them instead.

There's nothing wrong with using the main high fantasy theme of good against evil. In fact, a dark lord and a wise old guy - two forces of light and dark, take full advantage of what the fantasy genre has to offer. As long as isn't exactly the same as other high fantasy novels dealing with the same idea, there's nothing wrong.

Since this story does contain a titanic battle between good and evil, I will definitely read it should it be released entirely online, or in a bookshop. I absolutely love stories where there is some force of pure evil against the forces of good. That's why I love The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time (at least its core plot line), The Belgariad, Harry Potter and The Silmarillion. And A Wizard of Earthsea.

 

[Heoru]

From what you have written so far it almost sounds like the prophet in some way is the body of the evil soul. Anyways not to bad I will definitely read it.

 

[Blackrook]

It doesn't have to be original it just has to be fun to read.

 

[Cayal]

What is a paint map? Am I missing something or is it just a map created in Paint?

 

[Culhwch]

I don't think you've missed anything, Cay.