Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Cultures and Beyond: The Art of World Building, #3
    Cultures and Beyond: The Art of World Building, #3
    Cultures and Beyond: The Art of World Building, #3
    Ebook789 pages8 hours

    Cultures and Beyond: The Art of World Building, #3

    By Randy Ellefson

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Creating a unique, immersive setting one culture at a time

    A guide for authors, gamers, and hobbyists

    Written to help fantasy and science fiction storytellers, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists, CULTURES AND BEYOND (THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, #3) is a how-to guide for filling an imaginary world with fascinating societies. It includes chapters on creating culture, organizations, armed forces, religions, the supernatural, magic systems, technological and supernatural items, languages, names, and various systems our world will have, from health, educational, legal, and commerce, to information systems. You'll learn how to leverage real world cultures while making them seem original. Even those who've never invented a world will soon be masters as the author's decades of experience walk readers through using pre-made templates that make world building faster, better, and easier to complete.

    Invent interesting laws, crimes, and punishments that involve imaginary creatures or technologies, and learn how to leverage trial by ordeal and other judicial acts from Earth's past. Determine how much education is available and what form it takes. Create currencies for different places while keeping them easy for your audience to fathom, plus learn how to determine the value to assign labor, materials, products, time, and more. Master the art of creating naming styles for different societies. Fashion new military groups in gritty detail. Dream up sensible rules for magic, its practitioners, the supernatural and what happens when things go wrong. Learn what kind of files you'll need to create, how to organize them, and get jump started with a dozen free templates you'll use again and again.

    CULTURES AND BEYOND is the third volume in THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, the most in-depth, multi-volume series of its kind.

    Build better, faster.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandy Ellefson
    Release dateJun 29, 2020
    ISBN9781946995049
    Cultures and Beyond: The Art of World Building, #3
    Author

    Randy Ellefson

    Author and world building strategist Randy Ellefson has written fantasy fiction and created fictional worlds since the 1980s. In addition to authoring the most detailed world building books available, he's the founder and lead instructor at World Building University, blogs regularly on the subject, and hosts a popular podcast. The Writer's of the Future contest has recognized his writing three times.He has a Bachelor’s of Music in classical guitar but has always been more of a rocker, having released several albums and earned endorsements from music companies.A professional software architect, he has worked for NASA, the State Department, and White House, and run a successful consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. He loves spending time with his son and daughter when not writing, making music, or playing golf.

    Read more from Randy Ellefson

    Related to Cultures and Beyond

    Titles in the series (10)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Composition & Creative Writing For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Introduction to Map-Making

      Dec 21, 2021

      Introduction to Map-Making
      4 min read

    • Article

      Welcome

      May 5, 2022

      What do you do when you’re not writing? You know, those pesky job things. Among our featured authors this month, there’s a thread of biding your time, and knowing that becoming a writer was the only ultimate goal. Editor For some, like our ruthlessly

      1 min read

    • Article

      Building Better Worlds

      Aug 8, 2022

      Building Better Worlds
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ax To Grind

      Oct 29, 2022

      Ax To Grind
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Three-Act Structure

      Jun 12, 2023

      The three-act structure dates back to Aristotle’s Poetics and is the typical structure for much of fiction, particularly in Western culture. While Aristotle’s framework focuses on writing tragic plays and has specific recommendations tied to that for

      4 min read

    • Article

      To Conlang or Not?

      Feb 12, 2024

      This might be an odd take coming from a column designed to instruct you on how to world-build, but I think there aren’t many reasons to construct a new language. I know; it’s hard to believe. When we think about world-building, so many people think a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Setting Part Two

      May 2, 2024

      Setting Part Two
      6 min read

    • Article

      The ABCs of Freelance Success

      Oct 7, 2024

      Many freelance writers, especially those at the beginning of their careers, tend to place almost all of their professional focus on one specific component: craft. They work extra hard to master the basics of effective nonfiction writing because they

      5 min read

    • Article

      How Writing Software Can Help Your Craft

      Oct 28, 2024

      Writers have scribbled on everything from a napkin to an app on their phone, but if you’re looking for a way to help organize your thoughts, here are two software programs to try. I made the switch to Scrivener after another word processing software

      5 min read

    • Article

      Write It Out

      Apr 10, 2023

      Use the following writing prompts to write a minicollection of interconnected short stories in the genre of your choosing. Think about how these scenarios would play out differently depending on whether you write romance, thriller, science fiction, l

      1 min read

    • Article

      Write It Out

      Jun 9, 2024

      Write It Out
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Snapshot Theory

      Feb 27, 2021

      The Snapshot Theory
      6 min read

    • Article

      Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another

      Sep 19, 2019

      A few years ago, David Adger was in his office at Queen Mary University of London, where he is a professor of linguistics, when the phone rang. It was a British TV company that wanted him to invent a language for monsters with no lips, just big teeth

      10 min read

    • Article

      Yulia Frumer

      Feb 1, 2024

      Yulia Frumer
      4 min read

    • Article

      Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another

      Sep 9, 2020

      A few years ago, David Adger was in his office at Queen Mary University of London, where he is a professor of linguistics, when the phone rang. It was a British TV company that wanted him to invent a language for monsters with no lips, just big teeth

      10 min read

    • Article

      A New BEAT

      Jun 16, 2022

      Agoria, born Sébastien Devaud, is a French electronic record producer, composer, and DJ. Early in his career, Devaud organized his own parties with friends, who titled their gatherings “Agora”—“meeting place” in ancient Greek—leading to his artist mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Kekulé Problem

      Apr 20, 2017

      Cormac McCarthy is best known to the world as a writer of novels. These include Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. At the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) he is a research colleague and thought of in complementary te

      12 min read

    • Article

      Bring It On!

      May 1, 2020

      Bring It On!
      5 min read

    • Article

      What Searchable Speech Will Do To You: Will recording every spoken word help or hurt us?

      Sep 3, 2015

      We are going to start recording and automatically transcribing most of what we say. Instead of evaporating into memory, words spoken aloud will calcify as text, into a Record that will be referenced, searched, and mined. It will happen by our standar

      16 min read

    • Article

      No Species Is an Island

      Sep 8, 2021

      The following is adapted from a speech Roger Payne gave at this year’s Interspecies Internet conference. His remarks have been lightly edited for clarity. Because I am involved with the Cetacean Translation Initiative, or Project CETI, I receive crit

      9 min read

    • Article

      A Linguist Responds to Cormac McCarthy

      May 25, 2017

      In his recent Nautilus essay, “The Kekulé Problem,” Cormac McCarthy suggests that our unconscious mental processes are a modern echo of the prelinguistic minds of our prehistoric ancestors. He sees a stark contrast between language as a fairly recent

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Cultures and Beyond

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Cultures and Beyond - Randy Ellefson

      CULTURES AND BEYOND

      The Art of World Building

      Volume 3

      by Randy Ellefson

      Copyright © 2020 Randy Ellefson / Evermore Press

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

      This book includes fictional passages. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any semblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

      Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

      (Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

      Names: Ellefson, Randy, author.

      Title: Cultures and beyond / Randy Ellefson.

      Description: [Gaithersburg, Maryland] : Evermore Press, [2020] | Series: The art of world building ; volume 3

      Identifiers: ISBN 9781946995056 (Amazon paperback) |

      ISBN 9781946995346 (IngramSpark paperback) |

      ISBN 9781946995117 (IngramSpark hardcover))

      Subjects: LCSH: Fantasy fiction--Authorship. | Imaginary

      societies. | Imaginary places. | Creative writing. |

      Storytelling.

      Classification: LCC PN3377.5.F34 E453 2020 |

      DDC 808.38766--dc23

      Endorsements

      Bestselling Author Piers Anthony

      I have been writing and selling novels for more that half a century, and I have been learning things here. I recommend all three for background reading for those who are serious about the worlds they create. The present volume is amazingly informative.

      Ed Greenwood, Inventor of The Forgotten Realms® and dozens of imaginary worlds

      Ellefson continues his masterful overview of worldbuilding, carefully and coherently dealing with every last detail...that...Creating Life and Creating Places haven't covered. All three are essential reference works...Ellefson is a master of this craft, and it shows. Highly recommended!

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Where to Start

      About Me

      Free Book

      Disclaimers

      The Chapters

      Templates and Newsletter

      Creating Life (Volume One)

      Creating Places (Volume Two)

      World Building University

      The Podcast

      YouTube Channel

      Chapter 1—Cultures

      What is Culture?

      Cultural Scope

      The Ideas

      Culture vs. Custom

      Cultural Vision

      Culture Depictions

      Visible

      Audible

      Performed

      Social Classes

      Creating Culture

      How Much Culture to Invent

      The Body

      Greetings and Farewells

      Language

      Daily Life

      Pastimes

      Rituals, Festivals, and Ceremonies

      Folklore

      Architecture

      Where to Start

      Chapter 2—Organizations

      Group Types

      Forces for Evil

      Forces for Good

      Common Traits

      Goals

      Enemies and Friends

      Power Structure

      History

      Origins

      Actions

      In and Out

      Joining

      Leaving

      Where to Start

      Chapter 3—Armed Forces

      Location

      Terrain

      Special Sites

      Transportation

      Their Weapons

      Their Defenses

      Armor

      Skills

      The Road to Enlisting

      Prerequisites

      Characteristics

      Initiation Tests

      Training

      Final Tests

      Identifiers

      Colors

      Symbols

      Those Who Serve

      Members

      Important Members

      Relationships

      Military Units

      Troop Numbers

      Ranks

      History

      Famous Deeds

      Lore and Myths

      World View

      Languages

      Place in Society

      Customs Among Them

      Where to Start

      Chapter 4—Religions

      History

      Creation

      Destruction

      Beliefs

      Names

      Followers

      Becoming a Follower

      Leaving

      Expulsion

      Worship

      Holidays

      Locations

      Identifiers

      Colors

      Symbols

      Clergy

      Important Members

      Sects

      Relationships

      World View

      Languages

      Place in Society

      Customs

      Outreach

      Combat

      Weapons

      Armor

      The Afterlife

      Where to Start

      Chapter 5—The Supernatural

      Supernatural Energy

      Magic Paths

      Alternate Realities

      Supernatural Beings

      Demi-gods

      Creatures

      Figures of Note

      Superheroes

      Familiars

      Prevalence

      The Impact

      Where to Start

      Chapter 6—Magic Systems

      Principles of Good Magic Systems

      Sanderson’s Three Laws

      What’s a Law?

      Local Laws

      Laws of Magic

      World Building Laws

      Ellefson’s Seven Laws

      First Law

      Second Law

      Third Law

      Fourth Law

      Fifth Law

      Sixth Law

      Seventh Law

      Do We Need a Magic System?

      Types of Magic

      White and Black Magic

      Alchemy

      Witchcraft

      Necromancy

      Shamanism

      Psionics

      Elemental Magic

      Magic Prevalence

      Where Does Magic Come From?

      Origins

      Sources

      The Cost of Magic

      Social Aspects

      What’s in a Name?

      Are Spells Needed?

      Spells Are Needed

      Spells Are Not Needed

      The Life of Magic-Users

      How the Ability is Gained and Lost

      Training

      Height of Power

      The Waning Years

      Attire

      Creating Limits

      Get Organized

      Pros and Cons

      How to Invent Spells

      Where to Start

      Chapter 7—Items

      Ownership

      Regular Items

      Magic Items

      Properties

      Origins

      Form

      Users

      Technological Items

      Technological Prevalence

      Properties

      Origins

      Form

      Users

      Creating an A.I.

      Where to Start

      Chapter 8—Languages

      Should We Create One?

      The Medium

      Our Options

      How to Hire Someone

      Option 1

      Option 2

      Option 3

      Option 4

      Where to Start

      Chapter 9—Names

      People Names

      How Many Names?

      Given Names

      Surnames

      Place Names

      Using Events

      Using People

      Adding Suffixes and Prefixes

      Compound Names

      Uniqueness

      Leveraging Existing Names

      General Tips

      Keep it Short

      Keep it Simple (Apostrophes and Hyphens)

      The Issue of Similarities

      Sound

      Appearance

      Techniques for Inventing Names

      Silent or Repeated Letters

      Vowel Substitution, Addition, or Subtraction

      Capitalize Another Letter

      Switching First Letters

      Add Suffixes or Prefixes

      Breaking Known Words Up

      Foreign Languages

      Be Consistent, Just Not Too Much

      Name Generators

      Where to Start

      Chapter 10—Other Systems

      Education Systems

      Basic Education

      Special Education

      The Apprenticeship

      Other Concerns

      Health Systems

      Medical

      Mental

      Legal Systems

      Types

      How to Create Laws

      Trials

      Commerce

      A Monetary System

      Relative Value in Currency

      Information Systems

      SF

      Fantasy

      Where to Start

      Chapter 11—Conclusion

      Goals

      Abide by Rules

      Tying It Together

      Approaches

      Top Down

      Bottom Up

      Random

      Which to Do?

      File Storage

      Hard Drives

      Websites

      My Approach

      Get Organized

      Folder Structure

      Suggested Files

      World Building Coalitions

      What Is It?

      Why Do It

      Who Does It

      The Covenant

      World Types

      Roles

      Creations

      Lifecycle

      Coordination

      Last Words

      About The Author

      Randy Ellefson Books

      Randy Ellefson Music

      Acknowledgments

      Bibliography

      Appendix 1—Culture Template

      Appendix 2—Organization Template

      Appendix 3—Armed Forces Template

      Appendix 4—Religion Template

      Appendix 5—Supernatural Energy Template

      Appendix 6—Supernatural Land Template

      Appendix 7—Magic System Template

      Appendix 8—Spell Template

      Appendix 9—Legal Template

      Appendix 10—Monetary Template

      Appendix 11—Education Template

      Appendix 12—Game Template

      Introduction

      With creating life and places covered in volumes one and two, we turn our attention to everything else about setting that characterizes our world, inhabitants, and storylines.

      In this volume, we’ll discuss:

      •Cultural vision, scope, origins, and manifestations

      •Organizations like organized crime or secret sects

      •Armed forces (the army, navy, and air force)

      •Religions and how to leverage deities we’ve invented

      •The supernatural and its impact

      •Items, whether supernatural, technological, or neither

      •Languages and the impact they have on setting

      •Names and techniques to invent them

      •Educational, legal, commerce, health, and IT systems

      •Approaches to managing our world building development

      Examples included in the text were created specifically for this guide and are not drawn from any setting I’ve created, or stories I’ve written or published.

      Chapter 1 from Creating Life (The Art of World Building, #1) includes discussion of some principles referred to here, the main one being the use of analogues. This means inventing something that is based on an Earth equivalent but making enough changes to it that people are less likely to recognize the influence. This is known as the Rule of Three.

      The book has a website where you can find additional resources and information on other volumes in this series:

      http://www.artofworldbuilding.com

      Where to Start

      The series and chapters within each volume can be read in any order but are arranged according to what might come first in a world’s timeline. This volume is an exception; one chapter has little to do with the next. If you have an idea for something covered herein, write down everything you’re thinking of before reading about other things you might consider. This will keep you from forgetting your idea or becoming overwhelmed with feelings of needing to get it right; there’s really no such thing. Then you can read on for new ideas to enrich your setting.

      So where do you start? Where your heart lies.

      About Me

      By profession I’m a software developer, but I’ve been writing fantasy fiction since 1988 and building worlds just as long, mostly one planet called Llurien. Yes, I am crazy. But I love what I do. I didn’t intend to work on it for so long, but when life has prevented me from writing, I’ve worked on Llurien. I’ve done everything in these chapters and authored two hundred thousand words of world building in my files. Llurien even has its own website now at http://www.llurien.com. I’ve written six novels and over a dozen short stories over the years, and have just begun my publishing career with a novella that you can read for free (see below).

      I’m also a musician with a degree in classical guitar; I’ve released three albums of instrumental rock, one classical guitar CD, and a disc of acoustic guitar instrumentals. You can learn more, hear songs, and see videos at my main website:

      http://www.randyellefson.com.

      Free Book

      If you’d like to see a free sample of my own world building efforts in action, anyone who joins my fiction newsletter receives a free ebook. That’s a separate newsletter from The Art of World Building at https://artofworldbuilding.com/newsletter/.

      Figure 1: Free Book

      Disclaimers

      While some authors prefer the term races to species, I’ve used the latter term throughout most of the series except for the section in the first volume discussing the merits of both terms. This book uses SF to abbreviate science fiction. SF is broadly defined herein as a setting with technology far in excess of current capabilities. Fantasy is loosely defined in this book as a setting using magic, knights, and lacking modern technology. As a stylistic point, to avoid writing he/she, I’ve also opted for he when discussing someone who could be either gender.

      The Chapters

      What follows is a brief summary of what’s included in each chapter in Volume Three, Cultures and Beyond.

      Chapter 1 – Cultures

      This chapter discusses the differences between a culture and a custom, and that morals, values, and beliefs underlie everything. World builders can determine the scope of an invented culture, as some are regional or extend throughout a sovereign power. Cultural depictions can have visible, audible, and behavior aspects that can be defined. These include issues such as body language, hair styles, gestures, clothing, and more. Greetings and farewells should be defined because characters will use them. Similarly, swear words, slang, verbal expressions, and colloquialisms can be created to characterize interactions. The daily life of a culture is depicted in dining, bathing, sleeping, employment, and transportation rituals and behaviors; pastimes, holidays and more create a respite for the everyday activities. Even architecture can be influenced by culture.

      Chapter 2 – Organizations

      Organizations for good or evil are a staple of both fantasy and SF. This chapter discusses both group types and their world views, plus common traits like goals, enemies, friends, and their source of (and quest for) power. How members join and leave such groups is an important element; some organizations might prevent or inhibit departure. Prerequisites can also bind a member to the group. The history and actions of a group are an important part of its reputation.

      Chapter 3 – Armed Forces

      Military groups such as the army, navy, air/space force, and knights are a staple of both fantasy and SF. We can leverage existing ideas or craft our own. Doing so means deciding how someone joins and leaves a military group, including requirements, tests, and training. Some species and races might be forbidden or assigned special roles. Throughout history, famous members can inspire pride or loathing. When devising military units and ranks, it helps to understand Earth analogues, so some basics are included in this chapter. The world view, locations, place in society, and symbols are all important elements of memorable armed forces and this chapters covers them all.

      Chapter 4 – Religions

      While some aspects of the societies we create have history as a minor element, history is crucial with religions, so first we look at where and how the religion formed, including a prophetic figure and the role of a god, should one exist. Creation and end of world myths, and the afterlife, are important elements that potential followers consider, along with the requirements for worship and the penalty for failing to follow the rules. How someone joins and leaves a religion can be trivial or significant and includes the possibility of expulsion. We’ll need holy sites, too, and a decision on holidays, customs, sects, relationships with everyone from species to other religions, and what members of the clergy are like and their role in society. Most importantly, we need the symbols and beliefs of this religion.

      Chapter 5 – The Supernatural

      Supernatural elements exist in both fantasy and SF and can be used to add surprises. The audience may expect magic, for example, but not our version of it, so there’s room for originality here. We can create energies that give rise to phenomena, beings, or places like magic pathways or alternate worlds and realities that impact our setting and stories. How much impact and prevalence these supernatural elements have, and how to determine this, are an important focus of this chapter.

      Chapter 6 – A System of Magic

      Magic systems can be simple or complex, but they should always be consistent. This chapter discusses the methods and principles of good systems and how to create them. This includes the importance of naming them, deciding if spells are needed and what those are for, whether spells can go wrong and how, and different types of magic we might want to include in our settings. We’ll also look at how much training someone might need, what forms that training takes, and learn how to decide what’s right for our setting. And no discussion of magic is complete without a look at how to invent spells.

      Chapter 7 – Items

      Whether magical, technological, or more ordinary, memorable items exist in our setting even if we don’t mention them. SF likely expects them, and fantasy often has at least one magic item someone has or covets in a story, but even ordinary items can be given significance through association with important people, places, or events. This chapter discusses how to invent their properties, origins, and form, and how to determine who is likely to use or want them. The creation of an A.I. is included.

      Chapter 8 – Languages

      Creating a language is one of the most challenging aspects of world building, but it’s also one of the few that we can outsource; how and where to do so is discussed. Even so, some basic terms must be understood so we know what we’re buying and receiving from our expert. If we choose to do it ourselves, we should consider whether it benefits our audience and how, or even whether it’s a burden that we can save both them and ourselves. This chapter will not teach world builders how to invent a language because there are entire books on the subject, and those are referenced here, but it will discuss the pros and cons of constructing a language and what we lose by not having one (or more).

      Chapter 9 – Names

      Many techniques exist for creating names of people, places, and things, and all of them leverage our creativity to make the results and process more satisfying than using name generators, which are also discussed. Caveats and pitfalls abound, for while a great name elevates our story, bad ones turn off audiences, or keep them from talking about a character with an unpronounceable or unspellable name. We look at the differences between given names, surnames, compound names, and different ways to use parts of our invented world for all of them. The tips in this chapter will make this required activity fun and rewarding.

      Chapter 10 – Other Systems

      Other systems exist in our setting and warrant development. We’ll examine educational systems and their impact on employment, plus where and how people are getting educated or being disqualified from it. Health systems include medical and mental, and they range from great to terrible, each having significant impacts on lives. Information systems aren’t just for SF, because fantasy settings need to disseminate information, too, and have their own ways of doing so. Understanding monetary systems and how to keep them simple is another focus of this chapter and includes how to determine the value of time, labor, and materials. And no world is complete without laws, crimes, and punishments, so developing a legal system is a critical world building task we breakdown into a manageable one.

      Chapter 11 – Conclusion

      In the series conclusion, we look at how to organize our files of world building notes so that the info glut doesn’t become overwhelming; this includes some tools others have created, whether free or not, and the pros and cons of using them. We’ll also look at different approaches to world building and how each affects our working methodology and results. Final thoughts include the merits of following our own rules and whether partnering with another world builder is a good idea or not.

      Templates and Newsletter

      Effective world building requires having written down details about the created world. To help you organize and jumpstart your efforts, each volume in this series includes templates in the appendices. This volume includes twelve: cultures, organizations, armed forces, religions, supernatural energies, supernatural lands, magic systems, spells, legal systems, monetary systems, education systems, and games.

      Rather than typing these up yourself, you can download these templates for free by joining the newsletter for The Art of World Building at http://www.artofworldbuilding.com/newsletter/. As each volume is published, whether you’ve bought the book or not, subscribers will automatically receive an email with links to download the templates as Microsoft Word files, which you can repeatedly use.

      Creating Life (Volume One)

      Everything we need to know about how to create gods, species/races, plants, animals, monsters, heroes, villains, and even undead is included in Creating Life (The Art of World Building, #1). Some basic techniques are also discussed, such as using analogies and deciding how many worlds to build in a career. As with every volume, it includes reusable templates that can help you build better, faster.

      Creating Places (Volume Two)

      The life we create needs to originate from somewhere on a planet: an ocean, a continent, in a land feature (like a forest or mountain range), in a kingdom, or in a settlement. Creating Places (The Art of World Building, #2) goes into detail about inventing such locations and figuring out how long it takes to travel between them by various forms of locomotion: foot, horse, wagon, dragon, wooden ship, spaceship, and more. The overall rules of our world are also considered, along with inventing time, history, various places of interest, and how to draw maps. We can start our work with any one of those subjects and crisscross between places and life, for one often impacts the other.

      World Building University

      World Building University (WBU) has online courses that provide step-by-step instruction on how to create all aspects of great fantasy and science fiction worlds. Each includes a series of video lessons, quizzes to test your retention of what you’ve learned, and assignments designed to make your creation a reality instead of a dream. Courses are intended for both authors, game designers, and hobbyists.

      To learn more, please visit www.worldbuilding.university.

      The Podcast

      The Art of World Building podcast expands on the material within the series. The additional examples offer world builders more insight into ramifications of decisions. You can hear the podcast, read transcripts, and learn more about the episodes at http://www.artofworldbuilding.com/podcasts.

      YouTube Channel

      The Art of World Building YouTube channel now has videos that also expand on the material within the series. Check out the growing playlists and subscribe. Videos include replays of webinars that feature a Q&A, lessons from the books, previews of WBU courses, and tips from the book, 185 Tips on World Building.

      Chapter 1—Cultures

      There are so many customs and culture-related items that we could disappear down a research rabbit hole, so we’ll focus on things likely to be useful as storytellers and gamers. In addition to working out details in advance, world builders can refer to this chapter when creating scenes.

      While much of culture can be invented when we need it, the disadvantage is inconsistency if we’re not careful and take notes. We can invent something earlier in a story or series, then forget and contradict it later. Generally, people (like our characters) don’t care about customs until encountering ones different from theirs or when expectations are not met. In the latter case, judgment about the offender results. This is one value to us as storytellers.

      If we need a reason for characters to not be accepted warmly, failure to follow customs is a solution. This can be individual characters or whole groups rejecting someone. It can be wise or fun to include a character who is more well-traveled than other characters and understands how to navigate other lands without offense. This requires at least two cultures: the one our characters are from and the one in which the story takes place.

      What is Culture?

      Culture is an abstract, complex concept. Most of us have a vague understanding of what it means, but when we’re building cultures, we need clarity to know what elements to invent, why, and how. Culture is a social group’s lifestyle. It is symbolic communication and often taken for granted, which is one reason we have troubling grasping the concept. It is a set of expectations. It evolves over time, though slowly, sometimes with bursts of social change. It not only differs across sovereign powers, but within regions and settlements. The culture of football players is different from that of rock musicians. Nonetheless, if they exist in the same society, they’ll share other elements of culture; to coin a term, we might call this cultural scope, which will be discussed further in this chapter.

      The case can be made that values, beliefs, and morals are the origins of culture. These are ideas. And they manifest as rituals, habits, customs, art, music, and the use of language. When broken down this way, it becomes easier to determine what work must be done, and in what order: the ideas, then the manifestations. This is how we’ll approach inventing culture, rounding out our concepts before deciding what they’ve resulted in.

      Even if inventing the ideas first is helpful, we may have a few of the resulting manifestations in mind because we thought of them first, but this is fine. We can work backwards from them and try to determine what ideas they imply. For example, if rigid formality exists in greetings, we can infer that people feel oppressed or suppressed, or that open expression of feelings is frowned upon. This can help us create more manifestations, but it can also suggest some values: that emotion is considered weak, that dignity is prized, or that appearance is important. We’ll look more closely at this.

      Cultural Scope

      Every culture exists somewhere: in a sovereign power (or several), a region, a settlement, a social group, or a race or species, to name a few. Every sovereign power has a form of government, which will greatly impact the cultures within it. We must therefore know what this is. Residents of a democracy have leeway to create culture whereas a totalitarian government may be forcing culture upon people; the culture will be very different.

      Creating Places (The Art of World Building, #2) detailed our primary government options and, at a high level, what life is typically like for inhabitants of each. We want to consider how much freedom and control people have over their lives. The less freedom, the less variation in culture at the lower levels of region, settlement, and social group. And the more oppressive and rigid a government, the more likely residents live in fear and avoid any violation of expectations, which could result in imprisonment, torture, forced labor, or death. Before embarking on the invention of a culture, decide what the sovereign power’s government is, even if you’re creating culture at the social group level. It’s wise to create culture in the following order:

      Sovereign power

      Regional

      Settlement

      Social group

      The reason is that ideas and manifestations at the sovereign power level influence the regional level, and so on down to the smallest social group. If this seems like a lot of work, most of what we need to invent is at the top level and, being inherited by lower levels, only needs modification as appropriate if our tale or characters need it. Each person will belong to every level above their social one.

      For example, Kier could be in the knight social group while Antar is in the archer one, but both are in the warrior one, the settlement culture, the regional one, all the way up to the sovereign power level. Some elements can be true in multiple cultures, such as nerds acting roughly the same way in Japan as in the United States; in reality, each will have its own nerd culture, but we’d still recognize some similar elements, in theory.

      We may want to invent the most universal items early, then more localized variations. But we should always make a note about scope in our files. For example, Throughout the Empire of Antaria (including sovereign powers and settlements that once belonged to it), wedding bands are worn on so-and-so finger.

      Every species and race is likely to have variations. The elves and humans in Kingdom Illiandor will not have the same dining etiquette, but some similarities will exist, just as the elves of Illiandor will share some dining etiquette with elves in another kingdom. This means that we could scope certain aspects as being typically elven and others as being of Illiandor. For example, let’s say that all elves drink only from the right hand, place a napkin in their lap, and never talk with food in their mouth, regardless of the elf’s origin (never mind that individuals can defy these customs). But all species of Kingdom Illiandor swear an allegiance to the king prior to dining. While more involved, this is believable depth.

      The Ideas

      There are arguably three types of cultural sources: beliefs, values, and morals, with some overlap. Deciding which of each matters to a group depends on what impression feels right to the world builder. Think about the group’s role in society and its goals and motivations. We needn’t feel locked into our decision. If we don’t think of a manifestation of a specific value, that’s okay. These are guiding ideas that we’re unlikely to explain to an audience anyway, unless a character is monologuing their thoughts, which is a great way to reveal these ideas.

      Morals and Values

      An individual’s values come from within, can change over time, and are personal principles. By contrast, morals are taught by society, are usually deep seated and slow to change, if at all, and guide us on how to live rightly. Morals sometimes result from a fictional or true story; the fictional ones are often designed to demonstrate a moral. While these differences between morals and values exist, we can treat them the same when using them to invent culture. Here are some traits we can leverage:

      Acceptance

      Compassion

      Cooperation

      Courage

      Dignity

      Equality

      Fairness

      Generosity

      Gratitude

      Honesty

      Integrity

      Kindness

      Justice

      Perseverance

      Politeness

      Respect

      Responsibility

      Self-control

      Tolerance

      Trustworthiness

      A more high-minded society will value different traits (like dignity, equality, politeness, and tolerance) than a barbaric one, which might value self-reliance, courage, respect, and integrity. A society with more freedom might value most items on that list while individuals in an oppressive one might value courage, responsibility, politeness, and perseverance, while longing for things denied them, like kindness, dignity, and quality. The oppressive society itself might prize obedience, humility, and sacrifice, expecting citizens to adhere to these. The society’s government may prize values that are different from its inhabitants.

      Beliefs

      Many beliefs in culture originate from religions; those beliefs and how to invent them are discussed in chapter four in this volume, on creating religions. As we invent our world, we can take any religious idea and make it more cultural. An example would be Christmas; most would agree that the religious nature of this holiday has been taken over by the cultural aspects of it. There are other concepts from Christianity that permeate life in the U.S., including heaven, hell, the devil, and common swears. Religion’s influence on culture runs from holidays to working schedules and beyond. Leverage the beliefs of a dominant religion to create parts of a culture.

      For example, if one day a week is for religious observance, or a few hours of every day are for prayer, then many will have work schedules structured around this. Even those who don’t practice the religion will be aware of these times if widespread. We tend to expect fewer people at stores or on the roads on a Sunday due to church goers, just as stores are often closed on Christmas. Our world’s inhabitants will be aware of these times and may plan for them, which is one way to sneak cultural elements into a scene.

      As for non-religious beliefs, some are based in superstition. For example, walking under a ladder is considered bad luck, as is breaking a mirror, stepping on a crack, or a black cat crossing our path. If we’ve invented an animal for our world, we can use it in the same way, choosing a physical trait that makes it ominous, such as one type being poisonous when the rest aren’t (such an animal should be somewhat uncommon but not too rare or it never comes up).

      Understanding the origins of such ideas can help us invent our own. Some are practical, like passing under a ladder being unsafe. Some may originate from a nursery rhyme. Then there’s the talisman that can keep evil away, whether it’s garlic and crosses for vampires or a rabbit’s foot. Associate an animal with something good like a benevolent deity and a piece of one’s body can become a talisman. Perhaps a plant has a root shaped like a humanoid and therefore any part of the plant, like garlic, is seen in either a good or bad light.

      The black cat idea likely came from being associated with witches, so if we have a world with magic and a type of animal is often seen with wizards, who are also considered dangerous, a similar belief can arise; we can make this true in one culture and the belief may spread across others even if wizards elsewhere don’t often have such animals with them.

      The idea that bad luck comes in threes is an example of confirmation bias, where we believe something and then look for the pattern, such as two bad things happening, prompting us to look for the third item. There’s debate as to the origin of this one, but the trinity is important in Christianity and we can do the same thing with a different number in our world. If we go with three, we earthlings will associate it with Earth.

      Touching wood for good luck also has debatable sources. Some say it dates from when relics that were believed to be pieces of the cross Jesus was crucified on were sold. Some religions also worship nature and believe trees had spirits in them. Churches of wood were once used as sanctuary and knocking on them in a specific pattern was a signal for entrance. Perhaps pirates (who are notoriously superstitious) knocked on their ships before a bad storm. We leverage rationales but it’s important to note that not only do most of us have no idea where these superstitions originated, we don’t care, simply accepting them. Our characters will be the same, but our audience may wonder at the new ideas we invent, but explaining is best done in a single sentence, like this:

      As she’d done since childhood, Tianna clapped her hands twice for luck, like the famous knight Kier had done to summon the horse he rode to glory at the famed Battle of Evermore.

      The breaking of a mirror is another superstition, which arose after we stopped gazing in water to see our reflections. Technology provides ever greater possibilities for image capturing, and at my local Renaissance Festival, there’s a running joke that photographers are stealing the souls of those whose picture they take. Such literal interpretations are less common in a more educated world like ours, but they can be fun and useful to remember for fantasy settings. Disturbing that which holds the image, such as breaking glass or causing ripples in the water, is seen as sinister portent. Leverage such a belief as desired, forecasting how many years of misfortunes are thus foretold.

      Friday the 13th is considered bad for reasons that aren’t agreed upon, but again, examples can give us ideas. Perhaps it’s due to Christ having supposedly died on a Friday, or one of his twelve disciples betraying him (13 were around the table, including him). Some speculate that 13 full moons in

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1