Using RL Cultures For Worldbuilding

[D. Gray Warrior]

I am planning on building a fantasy world, but I do not know how to go about it.

Building from scratch seems overwheling and I feel like no matter what I do, the fictional society will be too similar to a RL culture.

I get that some resemblance to real life cultures is inevitable, but to what extent should you borrow from those cultures?

Let's say you want to build a world and you use China as the main inspiration for your culture. How similar should you make it? Do they have their own versions of Confucianism and Taoism and philosophy or do they have their own beliefs completely different from their RL counterpart?

I know Avatar borrows heavily from Asia with a little Native American thrown in (Southern Water Tribe are Inuits, for example.), but it is still very Asian-esque from architecture, to names, etc.

I want to use a real life culture as a starting point for worldbuilding and have it go its own way as I development more. I want a balance between RL cultures while still having plenty of creative freedom when designig the culture and world

However, it is tempting to make such cultures very similar to their real life counterpart, just with different names.

I'm trying to find the middle groud between TvTrope's "Fantasy Counterpart Culture" and worldbuilding from Scratch.

 

[Queshire]

Personally I think you already have your answer. You have your starting point, the real life cultures you want to use for inspiration, and you know what you DON'T want to do. From there just let it naturally grow as either fits best for your story, or appeals to your sense of world building.

As for my own world building though, I like to combine two things, though not always cultures. For example, one country might be based off a combination of the Roman Empire with Samurai Japan; heavily militarized with a strong soldier culture and emphasis on honor. Another country might be a combination of Greek City States with the Holy Roman Empire and musketeer France style culture and tech. My Elves might be based off of genetic engineering with plant tech while my Dwarves might be inspired by Sci-fi style space marines (only with MAGIC!power armor instead of tech based ones) with maybe almost wild west style company town or cattle baron type culture.

 

[Peat]

Queshire gave the answer I would have - combining real life cultures and elements is the best way I know of to give you that middle-ground between built from scratch and Not!Real Places.

 

[Miskatonic]

I'm doing exactly this for my series. I'm creating hybrids out of certain cultural pairings and using others that are just altered slightly.

 

[FifthView]

I think Queshire's approach is fairly common and works well. Mix-and-match.

One thing I'll point out, however, is the use of place naming and general terminology and language structures from real world cultures. Usually this doesn't bother me at all, but I will often consciously note it when I first begin reading a new book. I recently read something that had two primary cultures, one based on ancient Greece and the other based on something like a blend of Persian or Arabian architecture/culture with French-sounding names. It worked fine for me ultimately, although more than once I felt slightly knocked out of the story just because this linguistic borrowing came to mind.

 

[Boiled Water]

I usually have a hard time combining cultural elements without it looking too obvious. What i do now, is start with the aesthetic or general feel of a RL culture and begin writing unique stories, histories, and traditions. After I do that enough times, I think about how this alternate history would have changed the culture over time. The product is culture entirely unique to my world but still has familiar real-world elements that readers can latch on to.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I try to base culture development around the world setting, rather than consciously mish-mashing cultures. I create basic religions (not based on Earth, but rather that fits the greater world mythology) with their creation myths, and then take into consideration natural resources and tech level, and how these forces combine to create a culture. Things will tend to have elements from Earth cultures, of course, but I try to make them extensions of other driving forces.

 

[Heliotrope]

Is this a world for a story you are planning? Or just a world for the sake of building a world?

 

[Chessie]

Do a lot of research. Anthropological articles, history books, websites, etc all of these are good sources of material.

I created Mirovinia over a course of several months, and mostly studied early Slavic culture, Russia in the 1700s, and the cultures of Athabascan and Haida Alaska natives. Studied their weapons and folklore, too, which definitely ties into the stories. None of this, of course, will help you write a good story as all of that's separate, right? But I wanted to make a world that I'd use for stories over and over again, so I went into depth as far as was comfortable. I make up what they eat as I go along in the story, but from what turned out in my research was pieces of the world's culture which I then filled in the blanks.

So the world has a vague political system, two holidays they observe (and only put them in because of story), and I established the type of environment for the world, how/where they live, do the two main cultures of humans mix, the magic system. In reality, it's not a lot. Just the basics I needed in order to start writing stories about it. Hope all of this helps.

 

[Miskatonic]

I should also add that I'm not basing any of it on our own history. It's just a place to start.

 

[Reilith]

People have already said everything I would have said, but I am still going to put in my two cents. Inspiration always comes from the real world - all the great ideas have already been done at some point. Just see what you like, combine it, play around with it and you will eventually get your fantasy world, with aspects of the real one.
For example, I am doing an Elven like nation that is a mix of Japanese and Slavic culture, with Ancient Egypt architecture and face-painting, while it incorporates a gender-equality system and matronymic names. My humans on the other hand are more Middle Ages Europe based, heavily inspired by male dominated societies with christian-like religion. There are so many interesting things you could try, just see what works best for you. Good luck!

 

[Russ]

I am planning on building a fantasy world, but I do not know how to go about it.

and

Is this a world for a story you are planning? Or just a world for the sake of building a world?

Your question is actually very difficult to answer without knowing why you are building this world. I have some thoughts on the subject, but am not sure if they are of value to you until I know why you are building this world.

 

[Velka]

^^ What Russ said.

I am a firm believer that the world of the story should exist to support the actual story. Is your story about a seafaring people who are expanding trade and dominance? Check out the Phoenicians. Is your story about a nature based people resisting being conquered by an invading 'civilized' force? Read up on the Germanic tribes vs. The Romans.

There's nothing stopping you from dipping into many cultures, religions, peoples, and places to create a pastiche of your own. As long as it works organically and makes sense anything is possible.

 

[DeathtoTrite]

I'm going to give two bits of conflicting advice.

1) Get into the nitty gritty of the RL inspiration. There are a huge number of Celtic culture fantasy equivalents. These primarily rely on names, druids, nature themes, etc. Get inspiration from some of the Celts less known traits- the wickermen, the importance of seating at social gathering, the way finances of married couples were handled.

2) Don't sweat about getting every detail right. Unless you're writing historical fiction, its only inspiration. Don't be afraid to diverge in some pretty big ways.

I guess my point is present world-building subtly and in plot-related ways while using little quirks and interesting obscure tidbits to really bring out the life in your cultures.

 

[AJ Stevens]

I think it's extremely hard to do from scratch, and it's inevitable that we end up leaning towards cultures which mirror those we've seen throughout history. It's what we know, after all. Even if you built one from scratch, someone would manage to categorise it into a human culture, whether it was militaristic, tribal, pastoral, whatever.

Something I quite like to do is to take an example of a relatively modern culture or society, and drop it into a (broadly medieval) fantasy world with magic and immortal beings and suchlike, and think about how it would manifest in such a world. For example, I have a completely walled off country based on modern day North Korea that has no knowledge of the outside world and vice versa, that worships its leader unconditionally, and where the gods have no power or influence. I then intend to explore how such a society would exist and behave in the world I have built, and how my protagonists would react in relation to this society/culture. All with a few twists and bits added in/taken out here and there.

 

[Russ]

I think it's extremely hard to do from scratch, and it's inevitable that we end up leaning towards cultures which mirror those we've seen throughout history. It's what we know, after all. Even if you built one from scratch, someone would manage to categorise it into a human culture, whether it was militaristic, tribal, pastoral, whatever.

Something I quite like to do is to take an example of a relatively modern culture or society, and drop it into a (broadly medieval) fantasy world with magic and immortal beings and suchlike, and think about how it would manifest in such a world. For example, I have a completely walled off country based on modern day North Korea that has no knowledge of the outside world and vice versa, that worships its leader unconditionally, and where the gods have no power or influence. I then intend to explore how such a society would exist and behave in the world I have built, and how my protagonists would react in relation to this society/culture. All with a few twists and bits added in/taken out here and there.

Those kind of thought experiments are just awesome arn't they?

 

[Miskatonic]

I think it's extremely hard to do from scratch, and it's inevitable that we end up leaning towards cultures which mirror those we've seen throughout history. It's what we know, after all. Even if you built one from scratch, someone would manage to categorise it into a human culture, whether it was militaristic, tribal, pastoral, whatever.

Something I quite like to do is to take an example of a relatively modern culture or society, and drop it into a (broadly medieval) fantasy world with magic and immortal beings and suchlike, and think about how it would manifest in such a world. For example, I have a completely walled off country based on modern day North Korea that has no knowledge of the outside world and vice versa, that worships its leader unconditionally, and where the gods have no power or influence. I then intend to explore how such a society would exist and behave in the world I have built, and how my protagonists would react in relation to this society/culture. All with a few twists and bits added in/taken out here and there.

You risk ending up with a Dr. Seuss scenario if you try to get too bizarre.

 

[AJ Stevens]

You risk ending up with a Dr. Seuss scenario if you try to get too bizarre.

Yes, but I'm not imaginative enough to get that bizarre!

 

[Nomadica]

I'm in the process of world building as well and there are some things i have found that really smooth out the process for me. One thing I'm doing is braking things down to their smallest prerequisite. So for culture much of it is often tied to the geography and the religion and culture are tied. So first I decide the people I'm creating are on and dependent on the sea, so they probably would reflect that in their religion. I created a religion with some Greek flavor but still very different and the main god is the god of the sea. I created a Genesis story and rituals and in this process a lot of the culture was formed as it created a good bit of how they perceived the world and their points of reference. Then I consider the political structure and problems of that society, especially since that is suppose to play a big role in my story. After I run out of these influencing factors I fill in the blanks with other cultures and it becomes much easier for me. This is my first time seriously world building so I'm still leaning and may change my techniques but this is the easiest and most organic way I have found so far.

 

[Tanihatu]

Can I add a question about basic mechanics? I feel that I am running into a similar/related problem with my current WIP.
I am currently creating a fantasy western but am unsure of the best way to move forward. I know I want to create my own world loosely based on the Wild West but do they still 'drink whiskey or coffee'? Do they still ride the stage? Do they still drink in saloons? Is it still god and the devil etc or is religion different?
Does everything need to be reimagined or can you still feasibly use real world 'stuff'?