Overpopulation

[Nihilium 7th]

For me the most enjoyable part of writing a story is world creation, and sometimes I can get carried away. For example the creation of races and sub races. In my current project I am creating a large world and I have everything well managed so far except my "ruling" races (Elves, Mortals, Dragoons, Sprites). For example there are more than eight types of elves who all have different cultures, skills, habitats and features. What I would like to know is how much is to much.

 

[Anders Ämting]

Are we talking in terms of what is realistic? In that case it really depends on the level of cultural unification in that part of the world. A society can be anything from vast organized empires to individual tribes controlling relatively small areas. The British isles were like that in the celtic times before the Roman invasion. Switzerland is still kinda like that to a degree. In extreme cases, one village may have different customs than the one neighbouring it. It mostly depends on how easy or difficult it is for people to travel and communicate, and how much shared cultural identity they have.

If we're talking in terms of how much world building is too much, I would suggest you only put real effort into creating things you actually plan to use in the story. You can still make notes about the rest of your world, but keep it short and vague. I personally don't believe that a more complete world results in a better story, or an easier time writing it. I do believe that getting too carried away with it results in world-builder's disease, though, so one ought to be careful.

 

[Wanara009]

My answer? Competition or Assimilation

Species die out due to competition all the time. When it comes to a world with multiple sapient species, some will die out eventually (just like how the Homo sapiens won against Homo neanderthal). You can have all the creatures you want but place them at different eras or geographical coordinates. Also don't forget to portray their struggle to survive.

For example: Sprites uses to rule the woods, but they are slowly driven out as the elves gained more and more grounds. By the time your story roll around, the sprites is practically extinct, with only few individuals scattered across the continent.

Also, it's possible that the different species (or at least certain society between species) would assimilate each other because they found the relationship a good way to survive. Perhaps one party could fill out a role that the other party couldn't do well for whatever reason.

For example: Dragoons and Human forms a society together. The human take care of agriculture and economy so the Dragoons could focus on warfare.

 

[Penpilot]

Our world has 150+ countries. Each country has a unique culture. Within that country there are probably dozens of subcultures. So you're probably not even close to stretching reality. As for how much is too much. The answer you should be asking is how much can you handle and how much is necessary?

If you think about it, you have to define the relationships between each of these races and sub races and it can get pretty messy. For simplicity, lets say you have 6 races. You'll have to understand how each of those races relate to one another. Do they hate each other, like each other, or is the relationship lukewarm, etc. With just 6 races the Math says you have to understand 15 different relationships. Now given, you don't have to define every relationship for the reader, but I'm just saying it gets complicated quick, so don't bite off more than you can chew.

 

[SeverinR]

The real question is how many cultures can one story hold. The worlds are full, as penplot said, of cultures and subcultures. The USA has so many cultures and subcultures from the melding of so many countries.

You can only display so many in a book before it becomes more of a documentary on your world's cultures and less about telling the story.
Create them, share what you need with the reader as it matters to the story, but don't info dump the cultures.

Look at a Character questionaire sheet, 30-50 questions, most of which you will never need in a story, but you have it written down for future use if needed. Does it really matter that the character is left handed? HAs a scar on his left knee? favorite color is green, had a dog growing up? Not unless it matters in the story, but you have more then enough information if you need it.

 

[PlotHolio]

This is fine as long as you don't have massive infodumps about the 99 Orc Clans of Glorm'ar the moment your character meets his first Orc. People will learn about the Orc Clans as they read and figure out for themselves which ones are more important to the story through events and dialogue.

For example, if the moment Jigr of Clan Darmoda introduces himself, the other Orcs start showing respect, the reader will either consciously or unconsciously note that either Jigr himself or Clan Darmoda must be important somehow, and they will associate the two from then on.

Only detail the cultures that your characters will meet and interact with. The others should stay in the background.

Lastly, don't write your story so that your characters are forced to interact with more of these cultures than he or she should. For example, don't have your party end up on Ijiji Island just long enough to meet the Ijijian Fishmen before sending them back on the main quest.

Welcglub to our humbglub island. Glub.

Have him see an Ijijian Fishman working on a dock or something. If this picture is anything to go by, they stand out in public.

NOTE: I have no idea what an Ijijian Fishman is. That's a picture of Noonsa from the Slayers anime.

 

[Steerpike]

One thing to keep in mind is that readers of Fantasy seem to have a high threshold for this sort of thing. I never used The Forgotten Realms setting in my old D&D games because the whole thing just seemed ridiculous on the face of it, with all the races and powerful NPCs and major things going on over a relatively small area. But that hasn't stopped the books and the setting itself from being tremendously popular.