How to Create a Culture for your Fantasy World
Table of Contents
Culture is one of the most important concepts in world building because cultures are the foundation of many people’s lives and stories. When done well, culture can shape politics, magic, and even the jokes locals know and repeat often. Culture is something that I find is really interesting to observe in fantasy book and stories. So, for this post, I’ll be talking about how you can create a culture for your fantasy world.
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1. How Does Geography Shape Daily Life?
The first thing you need to consider is how geography shapes daily life. You want to think about how you can join a landform and the climate and the features of the world and how they impact the way people live. Maybe the way they speak is different depending on their elevation from seal level.
For instance, in my series, The Fallen Age Saga, the Shaytaunurashi tribe of an alien species in the universe has a mountainous inspired culture and speak a more heavy tongue compared to other members of the species.
2. Which Belief Anchors Their Identity?
When it comes to cultures, there are beliefs that seem to be core or intrinsic to the culture. You want to choose a pillar or something that the culture sort of just agrees on and think about how it anchors their belief to the story as well.
You don’t need to give an in-depth lore dump, but consistency is something you want to maintain.
3. What Sets Their Social Ladder?
All cultures have some sort of social ladder where status means something depending on certain factors or conditions. Perhaps it’s tied to the military or a bloodline or a specific family. Status can be related to pretty much anything you want, so long as it fits in with your story.
I talk about hierarchies and social classes in The Ultimate Guide to World Building, which walks you through everything you need to know about culture from start to finish and how to create many cultures that coexist and interact in your world.
4. Where Does Tension Bubble?
A culture tends to have a lot of internal tension in the real world based on a lot of reasons. Here are some that you can consider below:
| Fault Line | Sample Spark |
|---|---|
| Class | Nomads taxed by nobles |
| Faith | Fanatics vs. pragmatists inside the same temple |
| Foreign Pressure | Empire demands tribute |
FAQs
You don’t need to do a full con-lang. You can just come up with a name for the language at least and it’s likely similar to the name of your culture.
As many as you want, but make sure to focus on where your story is centered around the most.
Proper research from well-reviewed sources is the best first step. I include A TON of research tips in The Ultimate Guide to World Building, as well as ways for you to avoid stereotypes and things like that.
Three Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Geography mismatch: The way people dress or eat is going to be impacted by where they live and what the geography is like
- Monolithic mindsets: No two people are the same!
- History vacuum: Cultures evolve over time. Make sure to show some evolution
Want to Take Your Culture to the Next Level?
The Ultimate Guide to World Building gives you:
- 340 + pages of deep-dive instruction, examples, and fillable templates
- Culture-centric worksheets covering geography, economy, religion, language, and conflict
- Printable & digital formats so you can build on paper or screen
Ready to craft societies your readers could write dissertations on? 👉 Get The Ultimate Guide to World Building
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