Lately, I have been invested in creating my own maps for my fantasy world of Calayos. There is just no feeling quite like world building, especially when it involves spending hours sketching out the world that has been in your mind for as long as you can remember. Though translating the the map into your fantasy world comes with some hurdles. Sometimes the map just stays a drawing of the landscape when you should be utilizing it to the fullest as the foundation to your world's history and inhabitants.
Great world-building is all about cause and effect. If you want to avoid dumping exposition upon your readers and instead create a setting that not only feels ancient but lived-in; your world's culture and growth needs to progress in a direct reaction to the geography you've set out. Not everything needs to be done at once either. To help fellow author's out, I've gone ahead and made a simple blueprint you can follow to turn a simple location on your map into a living, breathing culture.
Step 1: Select the Landmark or Geographic Feature
To start, you should pick one isolated location on your map. This could be a simple mountain peak, a coastal inlet, or like in my world, sulfur hot springs. Begin with anything to get a feel for the process; from something of minor significance to a landmark that is the pillar of your story.
The golden rule of building a world is that extreme geography shapes how characters and even cultures adapt to the land. This in turn naturally creates a unique set of societal norms and culture in the area. While we live in a land where most of our geography is concrete, your world may start in unique landscapes you are unfamiliar with. This is where the next step comes into play.
Step 2: Determine the Primary Resource (Economy)
Before laying out a detailed sheet of every possible thing that could stem from your landmark, a good place to start would be the economy of the region. How do the people in the area survive or perhaps thrive?
For example, if your culture resides in a open rolling prairie, they could farm or raise livestock. To survive they would tend to the land or perhaps even be nomadic with local wildlife migrational patterns. To thrive, they would need access to tools. These can be made of animal bone, or perhaps there's a neighboring region to trade with or collect ore to fashion metal tools or armor. This small thing can dictate what your culture values, what they eat, and what they can use for trade. Without a single line of exposition, you just built the economy of the area. Next, we can think a bit deeper.
Step 3: Determine the Threat (Politics)
As I mentioned trade in Step 2, you can also assume that someone or something else may want what is abundant to the culture. Look at the surrounding locations and determine if there is any alliances or perhaps tension to the people. Who wants this resource, and how does the geography might protect or expose it?
Perhaps your culture may have more sacred ties to their resource. This could cause tension when the other region may want or take it for their own reasons. Working on this can help determine your world's political alliances, military, migration, or simply trade. Just these three steps have already created a societal foundation for your world. But we can deepen it with just one more aspect.
Step 4: Create the Cultural Practice (Lore)
Finally, this is where you can insert your own unique twist to the landscape without anything that is based in the reality of how systems work. Start by inventing one fact or piece of deep and ancient lore directly tied to the environment.
Take a look at how the terrain may dictate daily life, including how they handle community values or loss. Say the city is built on a jagged cliff. How would they handle their dead? What about natural disasters? Perhaps they use ceremonial burning since the ground is too hard to bury them. Highlighting the specific environmentally driven practices helps the culture feel realistic and have a wealth of depth.
The Takeaway
Now that you've gone through the steps, you now have an outstanding foundation for how your world works in the area you chose. You can now take these steps and repeat it to your heart's content and build a deep world that is emotionally resonant. When your lore ties in to the terrain around it, the map becomes more than just an outline of geography. Instead, you now have a in depth ally for your narrative.
If you are currently drafting your own map and have hit a road block, feel free to reach out to me on any social! I'm always available to answer questions as I can, and I'm happy to help fellow authors grow their own worlds.
From my pen to you,
Mies Wright
