Introducing Realistic History to your Fantasy World
Introducing your reader to an unfamiliar world in your fantasy story can be a pretty cool thing to do, but it also means you, as the writer, have to invest a little more planning in your world as if you just told your story in a familiar world. One of the things that you might want to consider is history and historical events.
Introducing a rich history to your fantasy world can make it feel a lot more engaging and authentic. As someone who is a big history nerd and who also studies history in university, I have to say that this part of world-building is one of my favorite aspects! But I also understand that it can become quite overwhelming.
So this blog post will show you what you might want to consider when coming up with history and how you can achieve a history that sounds believable to your readers!
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What do you need?
First of all, figure out what you really need to know about your setting. Maybe you have multiple different magical or mythical races in your story. (If you're interested in creating your own mythical creatures, you can check out my blog post about it!) How big of a role do they play in your story? I'd say that if they play a fairly important role, you should know some facts about their history (e.g., how they acted toward other magical races). But if your protagonist, or other important characters, are from a specific magical race, you might want to consider giving them some richer history. And if you want to write about a conflict between two of these races (e.g., a war), you should definitely know more about their past!
So think about for which races, creatures, etc. in your story you should introduce which level of historical knowledge.
2. History shapes Cultures
History tends to shape cultures as well as people living in a specific realm. You should never forget that while writing. While planning your different histories, consider the following questions:
Does this specific historical event or this period in their history explain how they act in modern times? (e.g., two kingdoms that have a history of invading each other never seem to trust each other, which can lead to a lot of conflict. Maybe one of these kingdoms is in danger, but they would rather go down instead of asking the other for help, because why would they trust them?)
Maybe this historical event also explains why the inhabitants of two different species or kingdoms hate each other, or why they like each other and would always trust each other.
Historical events can also be used as the starting point for myths/ legends/ festivals and beliefs, which can separate your different cultures in your fantasy world.
3. Teaching History
History, and especially the teaching of history, can also be used for a variety of negative things. It can, for example, be used for propaganda, for fueling hate towards someone else, and for manipulation. You should decide if you want to use it in your story like this. Consider the following questions:
How is history told and taught?
Who is in charge of teaching it? Does your world have experts? Or is it taught by people who do not know a lot?
If your world has experts, are they allowed to have different opinions about the past?
Keep in mind that, especially if the historical events we look at have happened a long time in the past, it is really hard to determine “true“ history. Just because one ancient author said something about an event or a specific person, it doesn't mean what they say is true! Sometimes you can also determine something completely different if you look at, for example, cultural aspects during the time this person lived. So it would also be natural that your experts wouldn't always agree on everything. Someone might blindly follow ancient sources, while someone else would question the validity of them more. Are your experts allowed to do this? If you want to introduce a more propagandistic approach to your world's history and how it's taught, forbid your experts to stray from the mainstream narrative of said historical events.
Once you come up with answers to these questions, you can dive even deeper into it and take a look at the following questions:
What history is taught?
What really happened?
Is there even the possibility of determining what “really happened“? Is the “truth“ lost? How close are people to figuring out the truth?
What sources can your people use to find out things about the past? (e.g., are there written sources? Do they only have sources that were deliberately written down? => a source that was written because someone was paid to do it should be treated differently than a source that was, for example, a diary and wasn't necessarily written to tell the current events to people in the future)
Do some kingdoms/ countries/ realms/ people leave out crucial pieces of history? Why? Why not?
Are there different possibilities to interpret specific historical events? If yes, who favors which approach?
4. Different Realms
If you have different realms that are located quite close to each other, it is pretty realistic to say that they have interacted with each other in the past. This does not have to be negative, but it can also include quite positive encounters (e.g., treaties, for example). But it obviously can also include brutal encounters such as battles, war, conquering, etc. This, consequently, can influence the way they see each other now (as mentioned above).
Apart from this, it is also realistic that these different realms were influencing each other's history. If you, for example, have a kingdom in which a rebellion broke loose, a neighboring kingdom might change their behavior towards a certain group of people to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen in their kingdom as well. They might also send their own troops into the other kingdom to help them break the rebellion. Or they might help the rebellions.
As you see, the effects of events that happened in a specific region are not limited to this specific region. So keep this in mind when you're planning your history.
5. Looking back at one’s own History
This is the last point I want to talk about, and I think it might slip one's mind while planning everything out: a realm looking back at one's own history:
Does your realm think knowing about one's history is important? Why? Why not?
Are they trying to learn from their history?
Are they trying to make amends for what they did wrong? Do they even see their wrongdoings?
Do they ignore everything they did wrong in the past?
Are they still doing the same thing? Did they not learn from what happened?
Maybe they are judging other realms for their history while completely ignoring their own?
I hope these tips helped you think a little more about the history you might want to introduce to your story! If you found this blog post helpful, check out my other blog posts about creative writing and follow me on Pinterest! Also, if you’re searching for recommendations concerning all the aspects of writing, planning, world-building, etc., check out my Benable profile as well!
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