Getting to know your races

[face-face12]

So where do I even start? ok so I have been doing alot of world building with the help of web-writer.net 30 days of world building and everything was going smoothly until I got to day 7 which was labeled recent history, this section told me about the importance of recent history in a fantasy world, so it told me to recount the major events of the last 100 years and at first I was ready but then I got stuck, and found it extremely difficult to come up with anything. Just as I was getting ready to give up again i thought to myself "I can't come up with the recent history of my people because I don't know them" I mean I have the race names, general ideas of what they look like and the region of my landmass they live in or originated from but I don't really know them intimately, so my questions are 1) how do you get to know the people inhabiting your world or what is the process or protocol you follow when creating a new race 2)how do you come up with the recent history that takes place in your world and 3) when coming up with the recent history how far into the past do you think the recent history should go? hope I this was not too confusing.

 

[thecoldembrace]

The thing I have advocated to several people on here, and have helped with several people by giving them examples, is to write a short story in the eyes of one person/creature of your envisioned race. It doesn't have to be someone of importance, it generally works best with those whom we as readers would never normally see. Create a character, and give them a task. Send them from their house to the river to fetch water or something. Along the way show their society, how people interact, how things look and a few tidbits. The best thing about this is the character will tell you about their world, not the other way around. Let the character speak and the race will speak as a whole.

If you are interested and need help, let me know. I can try and give an example.

-Cold

 

[skip.knox]

Here is another vote for starting with the story. What's the point of building a world if you never write a story, right? So, why not start with the story and build the world out from there? You'll be amazed at how many details you have to work out, even for the most modest of tales.

 

[face-face12]

Thanks coldembrace, ive always thought about doing this but never really considered it thanks again and if I need help in this endeavor I shall contact you!

 

[face-face12]

Thanks skip.knox for your advice , I've always debated on whether or not i should take an approach like this or not, fearing that not having planned out my world before writing the story would cause me to make many mistakes and contradictions while writing and what not but ill give it a try and a fantasy world does not have to be created with the purpose of making a story it can be done just for fun, but thanks again

 

[Bortasz]

I cannot enter page with 30 days of world building. Any chance that you have archive of it?

On you subject.

I have pretty general races. Human, Elf, Dwarfes. And I simple force them to point where I need them. I do not go to detailed. You do not need detailes. You need reason why stuff that happen now is how it is.

 

[face-face12]

this is a pdf of 30 days of world building http://www.mortaine.com/personal/MagicalWorldBuilder.pdf the first 20 pages are in intro and the first day starts on page 21

 

[Bortasz]

Thank you.

 

[glcinnamon]

Thank you so much for this information. All my races do not currently exist in the annals of literature, so I've been struggling with a few of them in terms of depth. I've just finished reading this document and feel more empowered to flush a few of them out now.

 

[arboriad]

A couple of years ago I was mapmaking a wip, and created two alternate versions, one set 10 years in the past defining boundaries then (just shifted them around depending on my vague aspirations for the cultures) and then 10 years in the future to show where it all intended to be going during the time of the heroic quest. It was surprising how the intercultural tensions became immediately clearer.

Sure, it's not a 100yrs of history, but unless you're seriously deep into worldbuilding, I think a lot of fantasy and sci fi authors forget that an insane amount happens within 50yrs (never mind 10,000). Heck, most of us have a hard time remembering what happened before our own lifetime. And even then, we remember the basics that tell us who we are, and have little interest in what happened half a world away.

if the history isn't going to affect the story, you probably don't need it. store it up for later, and channel the events that lead up to your story. And there are some fun history generators out there to keep your creative juices flowing: e.g.; Chaotic Shiny - Historical Event Generator

 

[face-face12]

Thank you everyone for your feed back and suggestions I really appreciate them!