Mastering World-Building: Tips for Developing Realistic Cultures in Fantasy Settings:
World-Building 101: How to Create Realistic Cultures for Your Fantasy Story
If you follow me on Pinterest, you have probably already seen my short-form content about fantasy world-building. I started this series because world-building can get quite overwhelming if you have never done it before, and it can also be intimidating to even start with it in the first place. With this series, I am trying to lead you through the maze that is world-building and help you create memorable and fascinating fantasy worlds. Today, we talk about culture and how to create realistic cultures in fantasy worlds. If you're new to world-building, also check out my detailed guide to realistic history in fantasy books.
Before we start with the different aspects you can work on for your different fantasy cultures, please keep in mind that cultures do not suddenly change 100% just because of a border (only if the society behind the border is completely shut off to anyone else, and even then there still might be some customs that are shared with neighboring cultures). This means that neighboring nations, realms, or kingdoms absolutely do share similar customs, similar beliefs, similar religions, etc. with each other. So if you want to create realistic and engaging cultures, make sure to not forget this! Let them share some things, and then make them completely disagree with others on other aspects.
Also, if you have a multi-cultural kingdom, for example, there will be multiple different cultures in one area, that can further lead to the mixing of cultures, which then can even lead to a whole new culture. I will write a blog post about this soon, so stay tuned if this interests you!
But now let’s start to explore how to create realistic and engaging fantasy cultures for your book:
Language
Let's start with the basic structure that will help you get into more details later on. The first thing you can start with is language. Here are a few questions you should consider:
Do different groups in your world speak different languages?
How much do these languages differ from each other?
Does language influence the way people see the world?
Why should you consider these questions? Well, the answers to these questions can already influence the way your different cultures interact with each other or the world around them. Researchers have once compared German and French newspapers that were reporting about a new bridge. What they noticed was that German and French newspapers described the bridge quite differently; while the German newspaper described it with the words “floated above the clouds," “elegance and lightness,“ and “breathtaking beauty“ (a little dramatic maybe, huh?), all descriptions that might be interpreted as more “feminine“ attributes (such as “breathtaking beauty," "elegance," etc.), the French newspapers described it with the words “immense“ and “concrete giant." How do these different associations come about? The interesting thing about it is that the German article for “bridge“ is "die," a feminine article, while it is “le“ in French, a masculine article.
As you can see, a simple difference in articles and their grammatical gender has already managed to form different ideas about the same inanimate object. So can you imagine how much our spoken language actually influences the way we see the world around us? You can use this in your fantasy world! This will probably be even more obvious when the languages differ a lot from each other, so think about which languages are closer related and which are completely different, and then think about how this can lead to different views on the world around them. This can even escalate into conflict.
This might sound a little intimidating, but keep in mind that you do not have to create a whole language or become a linguist to answer these questions. Just think about how language might be able to influence their behavior and their view of the world.
In Brave New World, for example, (I love this book!) Aldous Huxley created a world in which the word “mother“ was an insult (because women weren't getting pregnant anymore and people weren't born the normal way). How does this change their view of the world or of other cultures that are still living by the norms of having a mother and father? Language is a powerful tool for shaping our view of the world and our opinions about others. Think about how you can use it in your world.
Staying with the aspect of language for a moment longer, also consider these questions:
Do people from different cultures try to learn the language of someone else?
Is it even possible to learn these other languages?
These two aspects can influence the way your different cultures interact with others. If one of these cultures has a language, for example, that cannot, for some reason, be learned by outsiders, they either have to:
live quite isolated. Is, for example, sharing wisdom and knowledge even possible between the different cultures? Is trading even possible?
or they have to learn other languages to still be able to interact with other cultures. Does this maybe have the consequence that they are slowly assimilating to other surrounding cultures? Are there groups of people who might want to prevent this? (Can be from their own culture or from others.)
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Behavior and Mentality
Another huge aspect of different cultures is behavior and mentality. Here are a few things you should consider when it comes to social life in these cultures:
How do the different cultures treat the children, elders, widows, and poor?
What does a “normal“ family structure look like?
How do they treat people who do not follow the “normal“ family structures? Are they met with tolerance? Are they hated? Are they feared? Why?
How do they treat the sick? (physical and mental)
Is this culture misogynistic? Are they misandrous? How does this affect everyday life? How does it affect the relationship with other cultures?
What are the beauty standards in each culture? How do they differ? Is there a reason for the beauty standards?
Now that you have answered some questions about social life, let's see what else you might want to know about your fantasy cultures:
What are their beliefs regarding war and peace? E.g., is peace seen as a valuable resource that only the wisest rulers are able to protect? Or is battle seen as the only way to legitimate your rule?
Read my blog post about establishing legitimate rulers to learn more about this topic.
Are soldiers seen as threats to their way of life (because peace is valued highly by them) or are they respected and beloved members of society?
What behavior is seen as rude? What is seen as friendly? How does this influence history and the way people interact with others? E.g., Did someone accidentally start a war because their actions were misinterpreted?
Religion
I will write a whole blog post about this topic in the future, so follow me on Pinterest to not miss it. However, here are some basic questions you can ask yourself:
How many different religions are there in your fantasy world?
Are there people who do not believe in any religion? Or does everyone believe in a religion?
In each culture, is the majority of people religious or are the majority atheists?
How does the religious life influence the political and cultural life? (e.g., is the religion used to legitimize your ruler(s)? Are religious customs part of everyday life?)
How do different religions influence the way different people from different cultures treat each other?
Holidays and Festivals
This aspect is highly linked to religion and history. Read my blog post if you want to find out how to establish realistic history in your fantasy world.
What holidays and festivals do different cultures have?
Why are they celebrating it? This can have reasons such as the end of a war (if you want to explain it based on history), or it can be to celebrate a religious event or a god in particular (if you want to explain it based on religion).
Do different cultures share the same holidays and festivals?
Do they share the same dates for the different holidays, but the meaning or what they celebrate is different?
To dive deeper into the world-building process, explore my in-depth post about creating a captivating magic system as well as creating your own unique magical creatures. And don't forget to check out my list of recommendations for writers of all levels to enhance your writing journey.
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