where are the people?
Today, we’re back at breaking down our giant fantasy worldbuilding checklist, thinking about what the categories mean and how to answer the questions we raised. Finally, we’re getting to the people at the heart of our story! We have to start with the basics: where do we find them?
If you’re just looking for the master list, you’ll find it here.
rural
Your people live in small towns or connected webs of isolated homesteads. They exploit a modest array of local natural resources. Populations are settled; few new people come in, few familiar people go out. News of the outside world arrives late, if at all, and it mostly isn’t interesting to people. There isn’t a lot of money, and goods or services are exchanged for barter or a promise and a shaken hand.
There isn’t much by way of formal education. Specialized crafts require an apprenticeship, but most of these folks know how to do most of the labor they need for themselves. They can tan hides, plant and harvest crops, cook, hunt and fish, and all of them are semiskilled veterinarians. The Haves and Have-Nots are virtually indistinguishable.
Crime is either nonexistent or so vast and systemic people don’t know how to deal with it; there are probably no laws and no enforcers. If anyone is ‘in charge,’ their powers are pretty limited. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone is all up in each other’s business. You might look up the custom known as ‘charivari’ if you want ideas on how a rural population might impose order on their own.
Customs are ancient and have been passed down untold generations. The old way of doing things has always seemed to work: people are getting by. Fates hinge upon the weather and the will of the gods, and there’s nothing for a soul to do in these circumstances but buckle down and get back to work.
So we’re clear: none of this should be rubber-stamped into your setting! These are just my thoughts on what I would expect to see in a rural pre-industrial location. Any of these details could be tweaked to great effect to throw off a reader’s expectations. Maybe there is an authority figure, one with a disturbing degree of power. Maybe the town was founded only recently by refugees who don’t know each other and follow different customs. Maybe the knowledge of how and where to fish successfully is a sacred secret handed down through generations of a single family.
The point is to ask these questions of yourself, adding value to your story by giving it depth and texture.
urban
So, confession: I LOVE CITIES. I live in a big city. I like to visit other cities. If you put a city in your book, I’m prepared to geek out big-time. Make it feel real and I will buy real estate.
The place to start with any city, in my opinion, is to contemplate the urban geography. First and foremost, are there walls? Anything that limits expansion (cliffs, a large body of water) is going to make sprawl impossible, increasing density, and walls have the added wrinkle that this limitation is manmade. People within the walls are protected in a way people outside aren’t, and that means a judgment is being made on who is worthy of protection.
Don’t forget the presence of elevations or bodies of water, if any. These features aren’t just going to affect how and where people can build but property values. There might even be a park or garden. In this urban environment, economic and social divides are very much A Thing and will be everywhere visible.*
*If that isn’t the case, rad, I’m excited that you’re innovating, not just importing from our world. Tell me more!
class divides rear their head
There are going to be neighborhoods with distinctive reputations and characters. The wealthy areas will have bigger, fancier buildings; the infrastructure is going to be in better repair because this is where the government comes to spend its tax dollars. Building materials are rarer and higher-quality, and there might be civic features like seasonal decorations, statues and fountains, and plantings of flowers. Depending on the nature of your society, these might be very dangerous districts for certain people (read second-class citizens) to venture.
Poorer districts might have higher population density. Everything is shoddy, old, and worn because the residents are all renters; their landlords live elsewhere and don’t give a shit that the house is badly in need of a fresh coat of paint. For damn sure the government isn’t dumping its budget into fixing missing pavement and overflowing gutters. There is a reputation for lawlessness, possibly moral degeneracy, and how just those judgments are is up to you.
I would expect to see more immigrants here. People who traveled from afar in search of a better future, equipped with drive and hope but not a lot by way of resources. Depending on how old and entrenched a pattern that is, these neighborhoods might have been imprinted by foreign cultures in ways more permanent than what produce is available at the local greengrocer. Are there temples to foreign gods? Does the architecture differ from that of the rest of the city?
Don’t forget the middle class. In the country, they don’t exist, but in a city, they may be the majority. They need neighborhoods of their own, filled with their businesses and schools for their children. These are scrimpers, savers, tame and well-behaved, who probably go in horror of the slums and venture the high-rent districts only on holidays to take a peep at the decorations. I’m not mocking: I’m middle class myself and will defend to the death the right of the bourgeoisie to be fucking basic. Just saying, don’t get to looking so hard at the nobility and the serfs that you forget all those boring, hard-working clerks.
And look, if you don’t like all the class distinctions, do something different. In The Elsewhere Riddle, elven society is a perfect anarchy. They have no hierarchies, no laws, no government, very little money, and basically the rule of thumb is: do your best to get along. They live in massive, fabulous cities where nothing actually belongs to anyone.
I’m just telling you what I expect to see to help you spark ideas.
culture
A city is going to have a plethora of cultural institutions. There might be museums, libraries, institutions of higher learning. Yes, magical education as well. Unless magic in your world is 1) taboo or 2) the exclusive property of the ultrarich, there’s no reason for it to be hidden, let alone distant. Where are you going to send your kid, that place out in the country where room and board alone are bleeding you for the better part of a year’s salary, and just the travel expenses of getting them there cost an arm and a leg? Or Magic U in the neighborhood next to yours, where your kid comes home each night to break bread at your table and sleep in the bed you already paid for?
I would expect for entertainment to be not just present but ubiquitous. Music: where do people go to listen to it? Is there a high/ low distinction between art meant for connoisseurs and the fun ditties people actually sing along to, so that someone in search of a good tune might look in completely different neighborhoods depending on their taste? And does anyone ever dance to this music? Other entertainments one might find are sport, theater, and gambling and/ or participatory games.
Food culture will also be a feature of any urban setting. Restaurants are not an invention of the modern world, and I expect them to be present. Street food would be a delightful feature. If you have located immigrants in your city, don’t forget they brought their favorite recipes from home with them. There will be trade channels opened, importing key ingredients from the motherland, but also adaptations that embrace local tastes or resources. There had better be alcohol or a damned solid excuse for its absence.
One last note on the subject of culture: you will want to consider how religion has imprinted itself on the city. This topic is so open-ended that it feels rather silly to give guidance. Depending on how you create your faith, it might be omnipresent or a virtual non-issue one only notes in passing as a character walks down a street past a temple. It’s entirely up to you.
government
A city isn’t just a place, of course; it’s also a municipality that requires running. Don’t forget to ask yourself who’s in charge of this urban wonderland. There ought to be a boss. If this isn’t the capital, there may be tension between your city’s rulership and whatever far-distant ass thinks they have a right to tell the people of City what to do. If it is the capital, the city’s head administrator and the ruler may still not be the same person. They’ll definitely clash with each other if so.
Is there a police force? If not, what exists in its stead? Do magic or your religion have a hand in the running of the place? And what do the buildings look like?!
P.S. To reiterate, I LOVE CITIES
migratory
I’m sorry to say I haven’t studied any nomadic civilization in any depth, so I can’t do much to flesh out the questions I raised in the master list. My observation (again, made from a place of just not knowing a lot) is that peoples who don’t inhabit a fixed location generally fall into two categories: 1) intermittent migrations meant to optimize scarce resources, or 2) a historical dispossession from an ancient homeland that rendered them outsiders everywhere. I’ll be waiting eagerly for you to educate me on the specifics and mechanics!
a bit of everything
Your world will probably have a mix of these environments, whether or not the narrative visits all of them. If we don’t ever go out into the country (or visit a city that’s nothing more to your characters than a dot on a map), there’s no reason to bust your butt teasing our specifics that will never be relevant. The only topics you need to address in these circumstances are, 1) how does Other Place affect the local economy, and 2) how do locals feel about the residents of Other Place if/ when they remember they exist. Worldbuilding is great and all, but don’t hesitate to cut corners when you can get away with it. The point of this is to make your story feel real, and you’ll need time and energy left at the end of all of this to write the actual story!
Now off with you and make for me a city!
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