World building is a very extensive process and the main goal of proper world building is to ensure that your world doesn’t just fit in your story, but also feels immersive and expansive. Geography is part of that process and it affects everything from the political landscapes to the economy to the daily lives of characters. Geography is something important to include in your world building process and today’s post will go into why geography is important in fantasy world building and how to ensure that your geography makes sense.
Why is Geography Important in Fantasy
1. The Environment and the Ecosystem
Geography is one of the most foundational parts of your world and determines the main basis for where your story takes place. Geography also shapes the environment and the ecosystem, meaning that mountains, rivers, forests, oceans, deserts, etc… are all part of that and all will have an impact on your story. Different ecological regions can have different impacts on the story, and different regions can be home to different things, with each area having its own sort of curated culture.
You want to think about real-world geography and take inspiration from that. You don’t have to stick to what Earth is like, but you should ensure that there is consistency in your world through whatever you design.
2. Culture and Society Develops Around Geography
It may not seem like it, but geography actually greatly impacts the culture and society of a civilization. Throughout Earth’s history, civilizations have developed around rivers and bodies of water due to agricultural reasons. Many civilizations have formed around the ocean as well and have relied on fishing and that sort of system. Some groups don’t develop near these things and may opt to live in the mountains, which makes their life more reliant around self-sufficiency, hunting, and rugged living. Groups in the desert might rely on different systems and hunt in unique ways to survive.
Deities in a religion can also be influenced by the location or the environment that a group developed in. Look back at ancient civilizations and you’ll find things like gods of agriculture or gods of harvest. These things developed due to the geographical location and work that this specific culture developed around. If you want to learn how to develop deities in a religion, check out this post.
How to Properly Incorporate Geography in Fantasy Worlds
1. Create a Map
One of the first things that will help you with your geography is to actually visualize it by drawing out a map. Open the cover of any book you find that’s in the fantasy genre and you’ll most likely find a map that exists there that showcases location names and geographical features that are significant, such as oceans and mountains. Creating fantasy maps is a very important part of the world building process, even if that map is very simple or drawn on paper. This map should serve as a guide for you to help you figure things out. You can create professional maps as well by trying out any of these recommended map softwares (free and paid versions too).
A map should include things like continents, bodies of water, landforms, locations of cities, villages, countries, etc… and they need to make sense geographically. A mountain range cannot be plopped somewhere random that doesn’t make sense and if there are continental plates, there will likely be mountains near that or volcanoes or something different. I recommend looking at Earth’s map and then go from there. You can also study other popular fantasy maps from books and see how they look as well.
2. Consider Natural Resources as Well
Natural resources are probably some of the most important things ever and almost all nations on Earth need some form of natural resources for trade and to stimulate the economy and build up the society. Resources also help to determine wealth, which is why countries that produce oil are so vehemently sought out, since oil tends to be an extremely important natural resource. A country that has a huge surplus of iron might be dominant in weapons and the military while a country with fertile land might be dominant in agriculture.
The scarcity of natural resources can also lead to conflict and create alliances and rivalries and even war. Natural resources should be located in a geographically sensical way. So, a mountain range isn’t going to have fertile soil the same way a riverbed will.
3. Produce Challenges and Create Obstacles
Geography can also serve as a source of conflict in a story, especially if you want to go for the person vs nature conflict type. You can also just utilize geography to serve as an obstacle instead of the main conflict, but geography might help to influence the main conflict of your story or the main quest behind your story.
For instance, if you need your characters to go on a sea voyage, they may be impacted by weather events and animals that live out in the sea, which is difficult for the characters and can add more peril and conflict to the story.
Geography can also be symbolic in a way that will test your characters and will impact and influence how they develop over the course of the story.
4. Disputes
Geography can also be a source of conflict, aside from just natural resources. Territories and borders are often contested in states of war, and even if there is relative peace in many areas, there is bound to be some level of conflict in some areas, even if they are just small skirmishes.
Using geography to your advantage, you can create opportunities for diplomacy, political conflict, war and more. You can use geography to shape different cultures, religions, societies, and more, which can also help you create conflict sources for your story too.
5. The Trade Economy
Geography also affects trade and thus influences the development of the economy. Countries and areas along an accessible trade route or port cities will likely experience significantly more wealth than secluded mountain tribes that have treacherous ascents.
The geography of a world can divide and join regions together, such as trade routes. Look at the Silk Road–it cut across an area of land that was more accessible to most people along the route rather than take them to difficult and complicated locations in areas far off the trade route.
The sea is also a stimulating source of the economy and trade by ocean is important. There will likely be mapped out trade routes through the sea as well, and these routes will often be the safest compared to other routes. Take a look at merchant routes today on Earth–even though we have lots of technology, there are still parts of the ocean that are difficult for shipping companies to go through.
If you want to learn more about developing an economy for your world, check out this post!
Conclusion
For fantasy world building, geography is more than just something that exists in your story–it’s a very large force for the story’s development. Geography is an underlying factor in many pieces of a story and everything builds around geography, even if the geography is not constantly explicitly mentioned.
Before you head on out, be sure to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you can get updates on all my latest posts, WIPs, book releases and more!