[Introduction]
Creating a fantasy world involves more than just crafting a magic system or populating it with fantastical species. To truly embed the fantastical, one must consider the forces that shape the very essence of the world—its form and the life it supports. This process should be done in conjunction with developing your magic system and considering the sentient cultures inhabiting your world, as they are where your story unfolds. If this sounds overwhelming, don't worry. This podcast is here to guide you through building what you need, when you need it. Welcome to episode 3 of 'World Building Blueprints' by Just In Time Worlds. I'm Marie Mullaney, your host on this journey. In our first episode, we established your North Star—the guiding light of your story. In the second episode, we delved into magic systems and their construction. Today, we'll explore how to create fantastical geography, including unique fauna and flora.
[Membership and Resources]
As with previous episodes, a worksheet accompanies this podcast, exclusively available to members of the Just In Time Worlds YouTube channel. However, all worksheets will be compiled into a book on worldbuilding at the end of the season, available for everyone to purchase. If you would like to access those worksheets now and get access to exclusive member content, membership starts at just €3 (or around $3.50) a month and supports this channel in making more content like this.
Okay, let’s get cracking with fantastical geography.
[Fantastical Geography]
Fantastical geography adds an otherworldly quality to your setting, transforming the mundane into realms of mystery and enchantment. Imagine towering cliffs that sing with the wind or, in a science fiction context, crystal cliffs that resonate when you hit a single note, similar to Anne McCaffrey's 'The Crystal Singer' series. Such rare and powerful elements can spark wars, quests, and form the basis of magical items pivotal to your story's conflicts or magic system, much like Brandon Sanderson's approach to metals in his 'Mistborn' series. Unique weather patterns could dictate the timing of rituals or ceremonies, and features like multiple moons might create unique tidal forces, leading to storms exclusive to your world.
[Integration with Your World]
But what you don’t want is for these fantastical elements to feel out of place to the reader. It’s critical that all your fantasy elements, your magic system, your sentient species, your fauna and flora, your fantastical geography, all of it has to form a cohesive whole. And that’s where the world building philosophy of this podcast comes in.
When building fantastical geography, always keep in mind your North Star and your magic system. The goal is to integrate geographical elements in a way that complements your magic. If your magic is life-energy based, focus on fauna and flora rather than geology. Conversely, if the source of your magic is kinetic energy, shifting sands could become a significant power source and deserts could be places of immense arcane power. Remember, your worldbuilding should be a forward and back process, always aligned with your North Star. So as your building out your fantastical geography, you might well tweak your magic system and vice versa and that is completely okay!
Now, before we get to the exercises for geography building, just a reminder. In the philosophy of this podcast, we build what we need, when we need it. If your characters are not going to go to the misty moors of memory, you don’t need to build it right now. Maybe all you need is the name, the misty moors and a warning, don’t go there or the mind rats will eat you! And that’s enough. In the future, the characters might go to the misty moors and then you’ll return to that name and build out mind rats and the moors themselves, but that’s a problem for future you. Avoid overly detailed features that won't directly impact your story. Worldbuilders' disease is an ever-present danger that we need to combat!
Okay, caveats out of the way, let’s talk exercises for geography!
[Exercises for Building Fantastical Geography]
First up, minerals. By the way, under mineral I'm putting everything: metals, crystals, gasses, anything you can find on the periodic table, all of those things, I'm just lumping them all under mineral. We might need more detail later, but for now, that’s enough.
The first and most important question, always, is what is the plot purpose of this thing? Remember, we don’t want to build what we’re not going to use. Now, it’s fine if the plot purpose is just building out the culture you’re working with or creating a substance for people to trade. All of those are perfectly legitimate reasons to create a mineral. But if this mineral is not core to your plot, don’t sweat the details. Just note down what you need to get yourself writing (or running your campaign if you’re a GM) and move on.
Okay, so assuming this mineral is core, let’s get on with the details! First, what is its type? Is it a crystal or a metal or a gas or whatever else? What is its location and distribution? Is it widespread or only found in specific places? Describe it, including any part of it that is fantastical, like it’s a crystal that reflects sound. What properties does it have and how is it used? How is gathered? For example, is it mined, is caught in crystals during a storm, is it gathered like a harvest out of the field? How is it processed? Does anything need to happen to it to make it useful to people? How does it integrate with your magic system? Can it be used to make magic more powerful? Or perhaps it is essential to your magic items.
All those questions are about the physical attributes. But this podcast is about holistic world building. Therefor, let’s talk some culture! We will of course delve deeper into these elements in future episodes but for right now, are there any legends about this mineral? Are there idioms about this mineral? For example, not all that glitters is gold, or diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Is this mineral crucial to any religion or culture or ceremony?
Of course, you’ll need to repeat these exercises for all the minerals you create, but don’t go crazy. You’ll probably end up creating many more minerals when we get into the serious culture building. When that happens, you’ll just use this same structure for all your minerals and that’s how we world build what we need, when we need it.
Okay, but minerals aren’t the only thing in fantastical geography. Next, let’s talk weather patterns. For these you’ll ask more or less similar questions, starting of course with your plot question. How is this weather pattern plot relevant. Is it a storm, or mist, or eternal sunshine or what? What does it look like? Where is it and why does it exist? For this one, magic is a perfectly acceptable answer for why it exists, not everything needs an explanation. What does this weather pattern actually do? How does it integrate with your magic system and of course, what cultural impact does it have, like myths and legends or idioms (for example: lighting never strikes twice and so on).
And lastly in geography, you might have straight up fantastical locations. Think of The Wall in A Song of Ice and Fire, the island of Demon Reach in the Dresden Files, or the Cave of Thetalos in Kushiel’s Chosen. For these locations, after answering the plot relevance question, you’ll also want to note down at least some of the following. What type of location is it? A settlement, a megalith, a lake, a mountain, or what? Describe the place, including any fantastical elements. What does it actually do? Is it a place of healing, a place of power, a place to get rid of curses, a defense against a magical enemy etc. How does it integrate with your magic system? What myths and legends or idioms and sayings exist about this place?
Those three exercise will give you a good template for building out the fantastical elements of your geography and that will go a long way to making your world a wonderous place for readers or players to explore. But fantastical places do well when they’ve got some amazing fauna and flora to go with them, so let’s tackle those next!
[Fauna and Flora]
So first let's talk about fantastical versus magical. You can have fantastical animals and plants in that they do not exist in our world, but they are not inherently magical. You can see this in the Empire of Tsuranuanni books written by Ramond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. All the creatures in this world have six limbs, it’s a natural part of the evolutionary process. So all these creatures are fantastical. On the other side of the fence, you can have plants or animals that are magical in nature, for example Harry Potter’s gillyweed that, when eaten, allows the eater to breathe water. Or my bluron birds in Sangwheel Chronicles that ingests someone’s blood and can then track that person down with a message. These are examples of magical plants or animals. The fantastical are natural, but not normal to us. The magical are tied into your magic system in some way, either as a natural magic user or as a component to magic.
You also need to think about whether these animals or plants are natural or if they're constructed. Think for example of Mercedes Lackey’s Griffins, which started out as a constructed creature, but in the later books are a normally reproducing species. However, because they are constructed, they have some peculiarities that still exist in their breeding and lifespan. In essence, the question you’re looking to answer here is: was this animal or plant or insect designed or did they come about naturally? And of course, what does that mean for their species?
And speaking of what it means, a very important question is how do they propagate? There might be specific mechanics that accompany propagation, like a dance that they perform together, like scorpions. It could be tied to the moon like coral spawning. There could cultural elements if this is sentient species, like the women of Terra d’Ange in Jacqueline Carey’s books need to light a candle to Naamah in order to become fertile.
Of course, you also need to think about the environment these life forms live in. And don’t forget about those fantastical locations we’ve just created here. After all, the mind rats are only found in the misty moor of memory!
And naturally, plot, plot, plot! What is the purpose of these life forms in your world? How do they contribute to your story?
And those are the high-level elements I like to consider, but on this podcast, I like to delve deeper and give you a detailed blueprint to world building. So consider these questions in creating your fantastical life forms: What type of thing is this, plant, animal, insect, or what? What does it look like, including fantastical elements? Where is it located, and what is that habitat like? Also note down the ecological role of the creature here. Is it a producer? A predator? A keystone species? An eater of garbage? Or what? What are its origins, reproduction and life cycle? Does it have any cultural impact, for example is it domesticated? Are there myths and legends about it? And of course, does it impact the magic system or is it perhaps a natural magic user and it uses the magic system?
Using these questions, you should be able to put together a quick creature or plant or insect that will enrich your world and serve your narrative.
By now at the end of the third podcast you have the north star of your story you have your magic system and you have the fantastical elements of your world in broad strokes. You might very well be ready to start writing at this point. If you feel ready, I encourage you to do so. Remember, our goal is to get to the writing part as soon as possible and then to world build as we write, so that you build what you need, when you need it.
Next month we're going to hit building cultures. In the eventual book there will be a chapter before culture building on how to create a normal geography, like the map and so on. I don't think I'm going to do a podcast on that, instead I’ll release those worksheets too listeners of this podcast, so keep an eye out for that! When we start doing culture building it's going to be a whole series because that of course is the big one in the creation of your world, so make sure that you are subscribed or that you are following the podcast in order to get those episodes.
This podcast was as always brought to you by the members of my channel, who I very much appreciate, and a special shout out to Tony as a member of stone and Dylan and Tiffany as members of Build it in Wood. You can join their ranks for as little as $3.50. But if you want to support the podcast in a different way and also see how I worldbuild, there is a link to my website down below and the fiction books that I write are on there. And other than that I will see you soon for another episode. Do remember: build what you need when you need it and happy worldbuilding!
