Need to base off of a culture?

[Alex]

Is there any true need to base a culture you are wrting off of a real, living or dead, culture?

 

[Steerpike]

Is there any true need to base a culture you are wrting off of a real, living or dead, culture?

No.

/10char

 

[Roc]

Of course not, however, it can be hard to avoid it because we write what we know, and it's very hard to write what we don't know. So you'll be influenced by some culture whether you want to be or not.

Good luck.

 

[Chilari]

No, there's no need. You can create a culture from scratch if you want. Using a base culture from earth history makes the creation process easier for some writers but it's not necessary. I would say it's impossible to avoid having some element of earth culture somewhere in there, because being part of an earth culture you've already got preconceptions about society which will influence your worldbuilding, but you don't need to consciously base your society on a single earth society. There's nothing to stop you, for example, taking the relgious beliefs of one culture, adding to it the economy of another and the social structure of a third, and then blurring the lines with some worldbuilding to get rid of the bits where the cultures don't quite mesh.

 

[Jess A]

Everything is influenced from something, but there is no need to base your world off one (or even two or three) single cultures.

If you have a canvas (the blank canvas that will become your world), you may find yourself throwing dozens, scores, hundreds of different colours at it. You have a rainbow artpiece - and all the colours compliment each other. They all work together.

I tend to learn little bits here and there and that influences my world, though I might come up with my own 'version' of it. Something as simple as a Chinese headdress that I photographed in the Shanghai Museum on Sunday. It might become the basis of a headdress worn by the Queen in one of my world's societies, or a cultural headdress designed for a life or death ritual (which may have its basis in some other culture). But all those influences have to work and compliment each other. And of course it has to fit the story, characters etc.

 

[Taro]

i do not think so, i base parts of my cultures off of real ones, but none entirely devoted to a culture. i mainly use Swedish/Norwegian cultures in most of my characters and generally mix it up. but i would not think it is a must do.

 

[Fluffypoodel]

I think that as long as the work that you are writing is beleivable then you don't have to base it off of anyuthing that has ever existed. that being said the easiset way that I have found to make my worlds believable is to study how other cultures work. if you study enough of them then you get a feeling for how they work and you can start to create your own, independent culture. the influence is still there though. I guess it is the trappings of the human race to look backwards to understand and create the future.

 

[ShortHair]

... but it says right here in The Writer's Guide to Everything, you have to base a fantasy world on a real culture.

My own feeling is that cultures develop because a certain group of ideas resonates with a certain group of people. If I borrow some of those ideas and put them in another context, I may benefit from that resonance. However, if you have so much confidence in the appeal of your ideas that you're willing to go out on a cultural limb, then you should.