Eat Your Heart Out, Mr. Morgan

22 February 2010 | Filed Under Worldbuilding 

Welcome to A Single Bell’s week-long crash-course in worldbuilding! Over the next few days I’ll be giving you advice and questions to consider when building your world’s society, technology, religion, and magic system (saved the best for last!).

Deciding your world’s society and technology might very well be the easiest worldbuilding you do. (It is for me, anyway.) For some people, these two aspects go hand in hand – and since I studied anthropology, I can’t resist the chance to take a few jabs at Lewis Henry Morgan.

For the uninitiated, Morgan is infamous for his theories on social evolutionism. He claims that every society follows a natural progression to civilization, and has the audacity to decide what qualifies as civilization and what is decidedly lower. The spectrum is divided into three main stages: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. A society’s place on this spectrum is determined largely by its level of technology. For example, only civilized societies have writing systems – never mind that the Incans held a vast empire without one. And if you couldn’t work metal, he’d be darned if you were going to be any higher than a savage! I’d tell you to prove him wrong if it wasn’t so ridiculous. After all, he’s assuming that every society is going to go through the same progression as did Europe. It’s a big world out there, Mr. Morgan; we can’t all live in the rat-and-sewage dumps that were Medieval cities.

But wouldn’t that be original? An ancient society, armed only with stone weapons, possessing the power of flight with machi – oh wait, Disney already did that with Atlantis.

But you see what I mean. It doesn’t always have to be swords and catapults with knights and castles. In this crummy economy, you have to learn to Mix and Match!


RR Train, Great Britain, courtesy of Flickr

So, what kind of technology does your world have? Is it your run-of-the-mill Sword & Sorcery medieval realm? Or are you going to throw in some gunpowder? Maybe a magic train or two (it’s not like Harry Potter has a monopoly on them)? Maybe you want to do Steampunk? Or a world that exists within our own, which uses the same technology? Is technology (a.k.a. Science) banned by religion (a.k.a. the Church)? Does it replace it?

Now we’re getting into the realm of society. You can have your kings and your emperors. You can have a world run by merchants or no one at all (especially useful in post-Apocalyptic worlds). What’s marriage like? Gender roles? How old do you have to be before you’re considered an adult? What responsibilities do adults have? Has society changed (hopefully)? How? Any great events (civil wars, reigns of terror, etc.)? Is your world peaceful or militaristic? Who are its friends and enemies on the global stage? Is there a class system (don’t say of course, this is a relatively new concept)? A caste system? Are the lower classes educated? Only to a certain degree? What does your society value (intellect, bravery, faith, etc.)? How does it reward exemplary people?

I think that’s a good start. Once you’ve answered all (or any) of these questions, try to come up with more of your own. It’s all about the details.

Remember: worldbuilding is like set design. When you watch a movie, everything is perfectly detailed (compare the differences in design between Rohan and Gondor, for example). Maybe you don’t see all of the details that were created, but if they weren’t there, you’d notice.

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  • Welcome

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    Hi, I'm Jenn, new grad student and old YA fantasy writer. I've long dreamed of being a novelist, and I bet you have too. I hope you find my blog helpful, inspiring, and maybe just a little bit fun. (But not too much fun. Writing is serious business, you know.)

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