9 Essential Questions for Your Fantasy World
One of the greatest things about being a fantasy writer is the chance to immerse yourself in the fantasy world you’ve built. Like reading fantasy books, your world can give you a break from reality. While you’re lost in your own escapism, there’s a possibility that you’re overlooking important details in your world building. And that’s alright! Today, we’re going to dive into some questions that will help you step back and assess what you’ve created so far.
While in the past I’ve focused on helping writers focus on creating their worlds, like with this World Building Template and this Magic System Workbook, this is to help those who already have been jotting down ideas for their fantasy world.
So saddle up your dragons and get your free 9 Essential Questions Workbook ready because we’re about to explore the essentials questions you should ask for your fantasy world.
1. What Does Your Fantasy World Look Like?
Not all fantasy writers begin by creating a map for their world. We sometimes get so caught up in our magic systems and creatures that we neglect to develop the physical world surrounding our characters. Not only their immediate locations but also the region and world they exist in. Lucky for you, I have a few questions below that we’ll get your creative brain thinking about the physical world in your fantasy story.
What is the geography like?
Consider the continents, islands, mountains, rivers, forests, and other natural features. How do these elements shape the world and its inhabitants? How does it affect where cities would form in your world?
Even if you don’t plan to have your characters visit these locations, it gives them something to reference in the story and makes your overall world feel more realistic and broader.
What are the climates and weather patterns?
Is your world mostly tropical, arctic, desert, or a mix of climates? How do these affect the daily lives and activities of your characters? Does it form cultural aspects of different societies? Utilize weather and climate as a narrative device, but maintain consistency in your world building.
What unique landmarks exist?
Consider significant locations such as ancient ruins, vast forests, and rugged mountains. What legends or history surround these locations? Are they presumed haunted or sacred? What happens when people visit these locations? Maybe they’re a reason different civilizations are separated from one another. Maybe it makes trade difficult, or creates new jobs to help protect traders as they traverse the landscape. Having notable landmarks in your world only helps bring it to life and gives you (the writer) another point of reference.
To take my own writing as reference, there is a section of forest called “The Dead Forest” (original, I know). The first book simply mentions it, while the second briefly touches on the topic. However, the readers don’t get an answer on why it’s a forest of dead trees or what happened to make that section of a larger forest die off. It’s little mysteries like these that some readers like to question and continue reading to see if they get answers.
2. What is the History of Your World?
A rich history adds depth and context to how your world’s modern day civilization functions. Building on the last part, they might even be influenced by the physical world you just covered above. Consider your world’s geography and its implications as you answer the following questions about your world's history:
What major events have shaped your world?
Consider wars, natural disasters, great migrations, and key inventions or discoveries. How have these events influenced the present?
Remember, different regions may have experienced these major events differently. In a war, the winning and losing side will have vastly different outcomes that can affect the modern day. The invention of gunpowder or other technological advances might have further swayed the war from one side to another. When writing these major events, consider the downstream effects on your societies.
To tie in geography, consider how natural disasters changed the region. Even wars could influence geography (cutting down a mass amount of trees, explosions that alter the terrain) or the geography could alter wars (avoiding a forest to fight in open fields, fighting for natural resources).
To use my writing as an example again, in the second book of Aithyr Uprising (New Worlds Wake, releasing 10/10/2024) I introduce a historical event that changed the social structure in a region. By providing cultural context, it increased the tension and seriousness of modern-day events in the story.
Who are the significant historical figures?
Think about legendary heroes, infamous villains, and influential leaders. What are their stories, and how do they impact current events?
This can be both past and current. Consider the historical figures and how current-day politicians, leaders, or figures could emulate or contrast with them.
3. What Cultures and Societies Exist?
Diverse cultures enrich your world just like how it enriches ours. Take what you’ve built out for your world’s geography and history and apple it to the questions below:
What customs and traditions are followed?
Explore the unique rituals, celebrations, and everyday practices of different cultures. How do these customs influence the characters’ lives?
If you’re pulling from a real world culture, make sure you do so respectfully and change it enough that it isn’t a direct copy.
Consider the impact of climate on cultural holidays—what if there’s no autumn and therefore no Autumn Harvest? How are holidays arranged throughout the calendar year in your world? How does climate impact it? Don’t forget that historical figures and events can also mark holidays, thus traditions and customs, in your world.
With customs, think of how your different civilizations greet one another. Are they overly friendly or standoffish? Did this stem from some historical moment? This could even be down to something as simple as how they wear jewelry.
Something that I’ve built into the world of Aithyr Uprising (A Queen’s Game specifically) is that people from Enomenos don’t wear jewelry during the day. Against her wishes, Marietta, the main character, finds herself in a foreign region and must adopt their fashion. When she puts on jewelry during the day, she feels how she would in her home land—tacky. This adds to the world’s completeness, although not the main focus.
What languages and dialects are spoken?
Consider the variety of languages and how they affect communication and relationships. Are there language barriers or common tongues? If you don’t have different languages, consider different dialects that regions might have.
If this is your first book, I would advise you to steer away from creating your own language. While is a cool feature to add into stories (anyone a LOTR fan?), if done wrong, it can confuse readers and muddle the story. However, I’m not here to control your choices, but to offer guidance and advice as you create your world. If you are determined to write your own fantasy language, I recommend researching how J. R. R. Tolkien created his.
What are the social norms and taboos?
Identify the unspoken rules that govern behavior. How do these norms shape interactions and conflicts?
4. How Does Magic Work in Your World?
Magic can be a defining feature of fantasy worlds. I even built an entire guide on how you can build a magic system for your story that goes into more details than the questions below. If you plan to build a hard magic system, I highly recommend you check it out.
What is the source of magic?
Determine where magic comes from. Is it innate, learned, or drawn from nature, artifacts, or deities? How do users draw from that magic?
What are the limits and costs of using magic?
Magic should have rules. What can it not do? What are the risks or consequences of using it?
Brandon Sanderson has an entire list of magic laws like this one that are helpful for building a magic system. I recommend watching his free lectures on his Sanderson’s Laws of Magic.
Who can use magic?
Identify who has access to magic. Are magic users revered, feared, or persecuted? How does society view them? Consider the cultural significance of magic or the unequal distribution of magical abilities among the population, and specifically how it can relate to your main characters.
5. Who Inhabits Your World?
Like the real world, yours should also be one filled with an array of beings that come from different backgrounds with different physical characteristics. It’s also important to consider fantasy races within that context.
What are the different races and species?
Think about the various beings that inhabit your world. What are their characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses?
While writing your fantasy races, I highly recommend doing some research into the tropes and creation of said races, particularly goblins and orcs. Some times, the “classical” depiction of these beings are laced with hateful and racist stereotypes.
How do they interact with each other?
Consider the relationships between different races and cultures. Are there alliances, rivalries, or prejudices?
Remember the example above about Marietta from A Queen’s Game and wearing jewelry? Think of these little moments of cultural differences. While they might seem small, they create moments of realness for your world.
6. How is Your World Structured Politically and Socially?
Political and social structures in a fantasy world? Say less. This is my favorite aspect of writing fantasy, specifically in the world of Aithyr Uprising (it’s a romantic political fantasy series). I love adding politics and social structures into stories because it provides a constraint in which your characters need to exist. Within that constraint, there are opportunities to create conflict and tension that elevate your story.
What forms of government exist?
Think about the different types of governments, from monarchies to democracies to theocracies. How is power distributed and maintained?
Consider your world’s cultures. What makes sense, or makes an interesting compliment or contrast to the world you’re building? There’s also historical implication. Did past events that you decided earlier for certain laws? Did they change the type of leadership in your world?
Who holds power and how is it maintained?
Identify the key figures and factions in your world. What are their goals and conflicts? How do they hold onto that power?
Like above, consider how they came into their power and if you can tie it back to any of the world building details above.
What are the social classes and hierarchies?
Explore the divisions within society. How do class and status affect characters’ lives and interactions?
Social classes and hierarchies will likely affect your main characters. For example, in the world of Aithyr Uprising, there’s a region where elves have all the power and pilinos (half-elves and humans) are subservient to them. This greatly affects the main character, a half-elf, who is abducted and brought to this elven dominated society.
7. What is the Economy Like?
While reading the nitty gritty on a fantasy economy is akin to chewing on cardboard (bland, flavorless, hard to digest), it does matter when setting the stage for your characters.
What are the key resources and industries?
Identify what is produced, traded, and valued in your world. How do these resources shape the economy?
How does trade work?
Consider the trade routes and relationships between different regions. What goods are exchanged, and what conflicts arise from trade?
What is the currency?
Think about the form of money used. Is it coins, barter, or something else entirely?
8. What Myths and Legends Shape Your World?
Even now, myths and legends persist in everyday life. From Greek heroes to indigenous North American tales, there is likely at least one myth or legend you can think of off the top of your head. Why should your fantasy world be any different? Lore adds richness and depth to your story. Take a look:
What are the creation myths or religious beliefs?
Explore the stories that explain the origins of your world. How do these beliefs shape cultures and values?
In A Queen’s Game, the humans of the world believe the old gods formed them of earth and gave them life. Those first humans were called ‘pili,’ which later would form the term ‘pilinos,’ the word used to describe anyone with human blood.
Consider how inhabitants of your world might distort or fabricate creation myths based on the age of their world and the level of interaction between the deities and mortals.
Who are the legendary heroes and villains?
Create tales of past figures whose actions have become myths. How do these stories influence current characters and events?
Think of the history you’ve already created for your world. Are there notable battles that continue to be discussed in the present? Were there any standout heroes or anecdotes that survived? The Iliad provides a great example of this. The Trojan War can be found in culture all across time. Heroes, like Achilles, are often referenced, or how about the ever-famous Trojan Horse? Pull inspiration from real life examples and apply them to your world.
What supernatural elements exist?
Consider the presence of gods, spirits, and mythical creatures. How do they interact with the world and its inhabitants?
As I stated above, consider how their presence affects what inhabitants in your world believe. If the gods are actively involved in mortal affairs, do they provide false information about the origins of humanity? Is there a reason they’re lying? Or do the deities nudge inhabitants in your world toward their desired outcome? Can your world’s inhabitants sense that?
9. How Will You Reveal Your World to Readers?
We’ve gone over the different aspects of your world and now it’s time to put it together. When delivering the world building in your story, keep the following questions in mind:
How will you show, not tell?
Reveal your world through characters’ actions, dialogues, and experiences rather than exposition.
Info dumps have a bad rep for a reason. They stall the story and bog down the pace, making for a less than pleasant reading experience. Instead of huge chunks of paragraphs explaining your world building, sprinkle it through your story with the methods listed above.
What details will you integrate into the plot?
Use the events of your story to naturally unveil the intricacies of your world. Let readers discover the depth through the narrative.
Let’s face it, creating an entire world is fun and we want to share all of it with our readers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always make for a good story. Make sure the details you’re adding in add to the plot. Whatever is left over, you can include as fun ‘freebies’ for readers outside of the story.
How will you maintain consistency?
Ensure your world’s rules and details are logical and consistent. Track your worldbuilding elements to avoid contradictions.
There are several websites out there that help track your world building. I’ve tried Campfire Writing, which could be a good solution if you need help organizing your thoughts (it did not work for me). I’ve also used Miro as a way to plot out timelines and events in my story, but it isn’t great for long explanations. Plus, being online means you can only access it if you have internet (trust me, it sucks when you’re trying to write and there’s an internet outage).
If you can swing it, I highly recommend Scrivener. It’s expensive upfront, but you have it for life. It’s folder system makes it SO easy to reference world building materials while I write and has helped me keep consistency in my own stories.
Can’t afford Scrivener right now? No worries. I’ve also created a workbook that you can use to track your world building. Fill out the form below to download yours!
You might have noticed throughout this blog that I talked about referencing the parts that came in earlier sections. There’s a purpose behind it all—every aspect of your world should connect. That’s the key to creating a world that feels full, realistic, and comprehensive.
As you put that world in your head onto paper, I hope you reference back to these questions, as they can help you stay organized and considered details you might have missed. If you need extra help with your magic system, I highly recommend my ‘World Building Magic Systems with Workbook’ blog and my ‘Tolkien-Inspired World Building Template for Fantasy Fiction’ blog. Both offer extra materials to guide you on your writing journey.
And don’t forget this one! Download a version of these questions with a section where you can write your notes to save for later. Just fill out the form below to get started:
