Fantasy World Building: World History


The history of our world is very important. It is what made us who we are now. Thus, if we want to create an authentic world for our story, we need to have a fair knowledge of its history. Having this knowledge will make your world deeper and richer. Things that happened in the past are related to the things that are happening now. If something bad is happening, it's probably happened before. For example:


Wars: They are happening now, and they have happened plenty of times before. There are various types of wars; they don't all have to be guns or swords. See how present "wars" could relate to the past.

Political War: People of high status fighting over events of the past.

Social War: Aborigines wanted a formal apology for actions taken during the White Australia movement.

War Over Land: The Gaza Strip. Who really had it first? Where else have people fought over land? (The United Kingdom)


Religion: Where did they begin? How have they changed?

                                  > Protestantism
Judaism > Christianity
                                  > Catholicism > Anglicism

Islam

Hindu

Buddhism

(And I believe there are plenty more)

____________________
In Aundes Aura, the religion and wars are very related. Válkia used to be one big country, but an island split off from the west, and the north an south adopted differing beliefs based on the gods. The countries then split into three. The north and south now war over who is right about the gods, about which of them are "good" and "evil".

An example of the relation to the story is when the group travel to Tierra, and they find it half-destroyed. This is because the village was making trades with the other country (as it sits on the border), and the Church of Duthonne didn't want them making trades with "non-believers". So what did they do? Attacked it. But the problem is, Tierra's main source of food and other supplies is the villages in Meira.

I know that the Church would go this far. They are so purist that they won't even allow trades with the other country. The fact that they have warred with each other simply due to their beliefs in the past makes it entirely probable that the Church might do something like this -- destroy a village in a brutal attempt to force compliance.
____________________

Our own world has a history, and that is what makes it true. If you have some knowledge of the history of your story's world, you can place details in the story that relate to its history, and this can help make the story truer, deeper and richer. More authentic.

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4 comments:

zellakate said...

This was a very informative post, Ryan! I love history (Hehe I am actually double majoring in history and English), and what you say about events having prior causes is very true.

I haven't had time to do the world building for my fantasy this semester, but I am definitely going to be using your series to help me along the way. Thanks so much! :)

Ryan Sullivan said...

You're very welcome. Thank you so much for your support along the way. It keeps me motivated to continue.

When I finish VCE (Year 12), I'd like to do a diploma or degree in Arts, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring French. My latest ambition is to teach Creative Writing at a tertiary level.

zellakate said...

Oh, that's so cool! I also plan on teaching--history and literature. What is tertiary level in Australia? :)

Ryan Sullivan said...

That's after Year 12, so University or TAFE (don't know if you have TAFEs. Those are more hands-on courses after you finish school).

Oh, I'm doing Literature in high school, and I love it! We're doing metaphysical poetry at the moment.

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Welcome to The Dark Corner of the Mind. My name is Ryan Sullivan and my aim with this blog is to help others with their own writing, as well as to make note of some of my own writing endeavours.

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