3 Ways to Pick Great Locations for Your Fantasy Cities!

Welcome to season 2 of Worldbuilding Blueprints where we'll be discussing worldbuilding towns and cities! In this first episode, we'll cover city locations, why they matter and how they affect the lifetime of your city. 

KICKSTARTER: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starvingwriterstudio/worldbuilding-blueprint-volume-i?ref=4k2pct

My website: World Building | Marie Mullany Writing
My Amazon Profile: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marie-Mullany/author/B099QJMV6C
Join the YouTube Channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxvBH0EkwuHsQ9ryHHQNi2Q/join
Buy the Worksheets: https://ko-fi.com/justintimeworlds/shop/worldbuildingforms

Chapters

• 0:00 Location, Location, Location
• 2:30 Blueprints!
• 3:22 Strategic Geography
• 7:24 Resource Based Cities
• 11:44 Politics
• 16:54 Planned vs Unplanned

Transcript

Have you ever stared at a map of your world or your continent and thought, "Okay, but where am I actually going to put this city?" Or even worse, have you looked at a place where you already put a city and wondered, why in the name of the little golden apples of goodness did I put it there? If you've ever been in that position, then today's podcast is for you. We're going to dive into why cities come to be where they are, the reasons behind their founding, and how those reasons influence the way they grow. Welcome to the very first episode of Season 2 of Worldbuilding Blueprints brought to you by Just in Time Worldbuilding with your host Marie Mullany.

Why here? is a pretty fundamental question that underpins the founding of any city. Throughout history and in most well-built fantasy worlds, settlements arise at locations that offer some kind of advantage. That might be strategic, economic, or cultural. And that initial site choice doesn't just decide where a city begins. It shapes its growth, its character, and often its fate over time. And that's what we're going to explore today. We'll look at the classical reasons cities emerge where they do, from geography and resources to politics and religion. Then we'll discuss how those founding factors influence a city's development. And we'll start with ancient foundations, drawing on examples like Luxor, Rome, and Axum. And finally, we'll circle back to worldbuilding and ask, how do these same principles play out when you add magic and fantasy into the mix? So, let's get going with the first and probably biggest reason that cities are located where they are: strategic geography. If you're watching this on YouTube, there's a playlist where you can watch the previous episodes in the information card. If you're listening to this in a podcast app, the previous episodes are available there. As always, this episode is brought to you by the wonderful members of my YouTube channel who make this entire endeavor worthwhile. In return for their support, they get access to the worksheets that accompany this podcast to allow them to build out their own city. If you want access to the worksheets as well, you can join their ranks or you can wait for the book to come out. The first book, Worldbuilding Blueprints Volume 1, has been successfully kickstarted, but it is still accepting late pledges if you want to pick up a copy of that. Links to that below as well. All right, let's crack on.

One of the strongest drivers for city locations is strategic geography. Cities often form at transportation hubs or defensive positions that give them an edge over surrounding sites. For example, many cities appear where trade routes intersect or where rivers can be crossed. London famously began at the first convenient bridge point on the Thames. Likewise, Rome rose about 25 km inland from the sea at the first ford of the Tiber. A ford made easier by an island midstream. A bridge or shallow crossing doesn't just invite trade and travel. It also creates a natural transport node where goods and travelers must stop, transfer, or pay tolls. And that seeds urban growth. In a similar way, river confluences provide access to multiple valleys. Think of Pittsburgh at the junction of the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela rivers. Or the ancient Chinese capital of Luoyang, positioned where rivers met, perfectly situated to control both land and water transport, and crucially to tax whatever moved by the river, especially grain.

Just as important as connectivity is defensibility. In eras of frequent conflict, a settlement that could easily be defended was far more likely to survive and prosper than one that couldn't. This is why so many old cities occupy hilltops, islands, or peninsulas. Take Paris for example, which began on the Île de la Cité, a defensible island site. Athens grew around its steep Acropolis, a high rock that offered a fortified refuge overlooking the plains of Attica. Even without an island or hill, a narrow approach can do the job. Boston was originally founded on the Shawmut Peninsula, connected to the mainland by a single narrow neck of land that gave it natural defenses from the sea on most sides. And when combined with its perfect natural harbor, Boston's site illustrates how multiple geographic advantages can converge to create the ideal city position.

And speaking of Boston, harbors and straits deserve a special mention. Control of a chokepoint waterway can catapult a city to prominence. The clearest example is Istanbul. Known as Constantinople in its past, Istanbul straddles the Bosphorus Strait, linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It was ideally located to command east–west trade and to block or permit naval traffic between continents. The city grew into a metropolis largely thanks to its strategic position, its famous Golden Horn Harbor, and its favorable peninsula. Later, as the capital of empires, it thrived on controlling the Silk Road with goods moving from Asia to Europe through Istanbul.

In short, geography that offers access to trade routes, rivers, seas, harbors, while also providing protection through natural barriers or defensible layouts, has been a winning formula for city foundations all around the world. But that's not the only reason that cities are founded where they are. So, next we'll talk about resource-based cities.

One major reason cities spring up in a particular spot is the presence of valuable resources. A settlement in a rich agricultural zone with abundant fresh water or atop a coveted mineral enjoys an inherent economic advantage that can spark its growth. Many ancient cities began as market towns serving fertile lands. For example, Luxor. Luxor's position in the lush Nile Valley wasn't just strategic. Ample irrigation supported agriculture, which in turn sustained the city's population and wealth. That economic foundation funded the magnificent temples and tombs you can still visit today.

In a similar vein, Delhi in India sits on the fertile floodplains of the Yamuna–Ganges Doab. This location not only placed it on a vital trade route, but also ensured steady access to food and water, a key reason why various dynasties made it their power base for centuries. Mineral wealth, of course, can be just as magnetic. Think of all the gold rushes in recent history, boomtowns that either went bust or matured into full-fledged cities. My personal example of this is Johannesburg, where I lived for 20 years. It's a city built on gold, yet located in a pretty awful location. It has no natural defenses. Water is scarce. There are brutal winds and hailstorms that drop hailstones the size of hen eggs so wild that car insurance often denies claims citing an act of God. And yet Johannesburg persisted because the gold beneath it was extraordinary.

The mines beneath Johannesburg are among the deepest in the world. For instance, the famed Mponeng gold mine reaches depths of around 3,891 m with mining horizons between approximately 3,160 m and 3,740 m below the surface. It's currently the world's deepest mine with aims to extend past 4 kilometers. Now eventually in Johannesburg they did deplete the most accessible gold, but by then the city had grown so firmly around the mine that it couldn't move and anyway the wealth had kept the city alive and evolving into a finance capital. So if you need a city in a weird place, toss a resource down. People will find a way to make that city work.

And of course, in fantasy contexts, resources don't need to be mundane. Strategic magical resources like crystals or ley lines or rare alchemical materials can become compelling magnets for settlement. Throw enough wealth into play and even the most inhospitable spots can turn into thriving cities populated by people driven by opportunities in the worst environments. But it's worth remembering resource-based cities often remain vulnerable to the fate of their resources. If soil erodes in an agricultural city or the demand for a mined resource collapses, those cities must adapt or face decline. Some, like Johannesburg, pivot successfully into diverse economies. Others fade into ghost towns, like the many spooky remnants that dot California after the gold ran out.

But resources aren't the only reason to found a city in a weird spot or to have weird growth. So, up next, we'll explore another powerful motivation: political, military, and religious foundations, which can place cities in even more unusual locations.

Sometimes a city doesn't arise organically from trade or resources. Some cities are placed on the map deliberately or chosen as a small town to grow into a large city, and this is the product of political will or spiritual vision. Capitals and garrison towns in particular are often founded by rulers making strategic choices for governance, defense, or symbolism. Planned capitals show this very clearly in places like Brasília or Canberra. In South Asia, the constant shifting of imperial capitals in the past shows how political motives drive city locations and growth. Delhi was repeatedly chosen by conquerors because its position allowed control over the rich northern plains and gave access to the Grand Trunk Road. From this crossroad, Turk dynasties, the Mughals, and later the British administered vast territories.

In 1010 CE, Vietnam's king moved his capital to Hanoi, then called Thăng Long, for similar reasons. The old mountain capital, Hoa Lư, was isolated, while the new site in the Red River Delta was fertile, convenient for trade, and more defensible. The move was justified with a legendary omen of a golden dragon rising from the site, blending practical politics with religious symbolism.

Religion itself has also birthed cities. Sacred sites, an oracle, a temple, a holy river confluence attract pilgrims, priests, and in time those settlements grow into towns or cities. Returning to Luxor, religion was just as important as resources. Luxor became the spiritual center of Egypt because a dynasty from the region elevated Amun's great temples there. As one historian notes, Luxor's strategic location combined with its religious stature made it an indispensable junction of both spirituality and authority.

Axum in Ethiopia offers another striking case. It began as a trade hub but became a holy city where Ethiopian kings were crowned and according to tradition where the Ark of the Covenant resides. Its location in the northern highlands gave it command of African, Arabian, and Mediterranean trade routes, making it a very wealthy city. And later its adoption of Christianity and the building of its great stelae cemented it as a religious center long after its political power waned. In fact, Ethiopia was the second country in the world to declare Christianity its state religion long before Rome was even considering it.

In a fantasy world, you can ask similar questions about your cities. Who founded the city and why? Was it a king establishing a fortress? A prophecy marking the site as holy ground? A military order building a citadel to guard a mountain pass? These founding motives imprint themselves on the city's design and even its street layout. A planned capital might be laid out on a geometric grid, while a pilgrimage town could radiate outward from a central shrine. Politically founded cities also tend to enjoy royal patronage, which can spark rapid growth. But if the political winds shift, if the court moves elsewhere or a religion loses influence, the city may decline.

The waxing and waning of fortune can add a lot of depth to a city's evolving story. Think of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Russia's rulers moved the capital back and forth between them depending on their vision: closer to Europe when they wanted to look west, back to Moscow when they wanted distance. Each city's fortune rose and fell with those choices.

So, those are the main reasons cities might be founded: strategic geography, resources, politics, and religion. Have I missed any? Let me know in the comments.

And up next, we'll dig into planned versus organic growth. Another way to think about why a city exists where it does is to ask, did the city grow organically or was it planned? Did its founders consciously design its location and layout or did it simply emerge over time because of other forces? Many ancient cities began as unplanned clusters of habitation around advantageous sites like river fords, ports, or mines. These streets often wind and twist because they evolved from old paths with patchwork layouts that reflected centuries of expansion.

In contrast, planned cities are founded with intent, often with a grand design in mind. New Delhi, for example, built between the 1910s and the 1930s, was designed as an imperial capital by the British. It was laid out with broad boulevards and hexagonal grids, standing in sharp contrast to the older organic Delhi right beside it. Long before that, Roman colonial towns and Hellenistic cities founded by Alexander the Great were deliberately placed and built on orthogonal street plans for administrative control and aesthetic style. In China, dynastic capitals like Chang'an or later iterations of Luoyang were also master planned. Luoyang's grid was not just practical. It was a statement of imperial order: this is the new era, distinct from what came before.

For worldbuilders, whether a city was planned or not can guide how it feels on the page. A planned city might have symbolic alignments, streets leading to a central plaza, districts separated by function, even walls laid out to form a holy symbol. Its location might also be somewhat artificial, chosen not for natural advantages but for political or religious reasons, like Brasília in Brazil and Canberra in Australia, which both exist because they were picked as neutral capitals, not because their sites offered obvious economic or geographic benefits.

An organic city on the other hand feels lived in and adaptive. Its neighborhoods grow along trade routes radiating from a central market, or its streets hug the bends of a riverbank or the contours of a valley. Sometimes the streets are just old lanes that once wound between different gold claims. The form of such cities may be messy, but it's rich with history. Think of Boston. Founded on that small defensive peninsula, it quickly prospered as a port. Within decades, it had expanded onto landfills, and its street networks became a notorious maze, a stark contrast to the orderly blocks of New York's later planned grid.

Of course, planned versus organic isn't the simple either/or. Most cities fall somewhere on a spectrum. A city might have a carefully designed core with organic outskirts, or an old organic core with later planned expansions. Those layers tell the story of the city's founding and its later evolution.

And that brings us to the last step of thinking about your city: layering multiple founding reasons together to give your city real depth. As you can see from the examples we've covered, real cities almost never exist for a single reason. Instead, multiple factors layer together to create a tapestry of causes that explain why the city was born and how it grew. A location might first be chosen for its strategic geography, then later accumulate religious significance, or it might start as a resource outpost and evolve into a political center. Layering founding reasons gives a city depth and adds realism to the lore you build around the city.

Take Istanbul again. It began as a Greek colony chosen for its superb harbor and trade position. Then Constantine refounded it as his imperial capital, adding political and religious motives. Centuries later, the Ottomans made it their capital and enriched it as an Islamic cultural center. Istanbul can't be reduced to a single factor. It's a trade hub, a fortress, an imperial seat, and a holy city all at once. That layering is why it remained enormously important for over 2,000 years.

Rome offers another case. Its original site at a border between Latin and Etruscan spheres and on a river crossing was perfect for trade and mediation. Its seven hills gave it natural defenses. That mix of trade and security allowed Rome to grow from village to kingdom. Later, as Rome became the capital of an empire, it gained new reasons to flourish: political power, monumental architecture, sacred status in the Roman religion. When you walk through Rome today, you can literally see the layers—archaic walls on the Palatine, republican forums, imperial palaces, and later Christian churches. Each represents a new reason for the city to continue to thrive.

Let's take a less obvious example: Plovdiv in Bulgaria, one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Why Plovdiv? Well, it sits in the heart of the Thracian Plain, a fertile agricultural basin along the Maritsa River with defensive hills nearby that made it a natural center for farming and trade. But on top of that, it lay along the Via Militaris, the great Roman road through the Balkans, making it a prized military and administrative site. Under the Romans, it became the capital of Thrace. Later, it was an Ottoman stronghold. Look, Europe is like that. Empires rise, empires fall, cities change hands, people stay. It's just the way it goes on the PvP server of the world. Anyway, Plovdiv's long history shows how a good site can repeatedly attract new layers of purpose under different rulers. A fantasy city built this way might carry legendary founding myths from one era, fortifications from another, and still serve as a trade hub in the present—all because its layered advantages keep it alive.

Even small cities can have these layers. Shkodër in Albania, for instance, was founded by the Illyrians for its fortress hill by the lakeshore, a perfect defensive site for controlling a mountain pass and water outlet. The location kept it important through Roman, medieval, and Ottoman times. Strategic frontier, fertile lands, and trade routes all reinforcing each other.

So when designing your own city in your fantasy world, think about how one advantage might attract the first settlers and how another might keep people there through upheavals, and then consider how those layers would appear in the city's physical layout or its culture. Understanding why a city is located here and not there is crucial for bringing it alive in a story or a role-playing game. The founding reason shapes everything that follows. A city born as a fortress will have stout walls and martial traditions. One that grows from a market crossroads will be cosmopolitan and commercial. One that centers on a holy shrine will be filled with temples and thronged with pilgrims. These traits persist even as the city grows.

So when you're worldbuilding, start with the land. What strategic resource or cultural value does this spot have? Make sure the environment justifies a settlement. Either the land must produce enough food to feed the city or the city must be rich enough to import enough food to feed all its citizens. Then layer in the human or fantastical motives. Who founded the city and for what purpose? Was it political will, religious devotion, or economic ambition? Did multiple waves of settlers arrive with different motivations? Was it conquered and reshaped into a capital?

Next, consider whether the city's growth was guided or unguided. Did it start higgledy-piggledy and later get brought under control? Was it carefully planned from the beginning and then sprawled out more organically over time? Or did it remain rigidly planned with straight avenues, designated quarters, majestic plazas reflecting someone's vision? Most cities are a mix, so embrace that mix. It will make your city feel more realistic.

And of course, don't forget the fantastical. You can have cities that are floating on rocks. You can have cities founded because a mage built their tower there. You can have cities that are founded because of religious reasons—where a priest first made contact with a god, or there is a special spring where people bathe to be healed. It can even be the location of some fantastical beast that provides some kind of protection or some kind of valuable resource, like a dragon's lair that might produce dragon scales because the dragon sheds once a year. All of these can provide great reasons for a city to be founded in a fantasy world.

Whatever your city's founding cause, once you've identified it, you've got a guiding flavor, a foundation you can build forward through the lore you give the city. And don't forget about layering those founding reasons. A city with layered reasons for its founding and a dynamic growth arc becomes a place that sticks in the memory of readers and players alike because it feels alive. It feels like a real place.

And that's my opening thoughts on worldbuilding cities. This podcast drives the writing of the Worldbuilding Blueprints books. And as I said, Volume One has been successfully kickstarted and is still open for late pledges until the book goes to print, after which it will be on sale on my website and various other bookstores. If you want in on that action, there are those links down below.

And a huge thank you to my channel members for sponsoring this podcast. A specific shout-out to Epic, Laurabones79, A Wellyard, Neil Buckley, Necromancer JM, Katy Kofemug, and Tony Lemanna, Just in Timers of the Build It in Stone level, and Ignacio Rascovan, Moxain, Patricio, Jackmeowmeow Meow, Joaquin Moreira, Nicholas Ammann, BearNecessities, husoyo, Michelle Fleck, pablo barrios, Glacier Maniac,
Carrie, Aya Shameimaru, Tiffiny Felix, Dylan Buttera, Just in Timers of the Build It in Wood level. And to all of the members of the Build It in Straw level as well. Your support makes this podcast possible and I am so grateful.

And on that note, I will see you soon for another episode. Remember, build what you need when you need it. And happy worldbuilding.