Logic and Consistency in World Building

By Brynneth N Colvin

Logic and consistency help fantasy worlds seem real and enable readers to believe in your story. Creatures, climate, geography, history, human cultures and non-human species all interrelate. Even if part of your scenario is a big shift in one of these aspects, you still need to make sure it all links up properly. You may invent a really original creature – ask yourself what keeps its populations in check, what predates it, what makes use of it. Thinking about the ways in which different features of your world link together, instantly adds detail and richness to the setting. Logic and consistency ensure the story makes sense and gives you the chance to develop more good ideas.

Be Original

A fantasy world doesn’t have to be like this one. It need not have the same plants, animals, weapons, systems of government etc. Many fantasy books have settings resembling medieval Europe, with kings, castles, and a few beasties like dragons thrown in. But really, if giant fire breathing lizards could attack you from the sky, would you build a castle to defend yourself, or would you dig a bunker?

Be original, be creative and make your world your own. Generic fantasy has been done to death. Strike out in a new direction. Why not give your world its own technology? Don’t arm your wizards with spells to solve every problem, limit them, make them interesting. You don’t have to have elves and dwarves, goblins, orcs or even dragons for that matter. There are other mythological monsters to borrow, or you could make up your own. For example my in my fantasy book Illyan Daughter the forest Estraguil contains large, ill tempered beasts called krask. They look a bit like enormous wild boar, and the scent of blood drives them mad, sending them on killing sprees. Their hides are almost impenetrable. They are hunted by krask hounds – large, slender, white furred hounds possessed with thirty second precognition so they always know what’s going to happen. More original details add interest to your world. It doesn’t take much to flesh out an idea, and it is worth the work.

Help Readers Relate

Fantasy has to have some bearing on this world, or readers don’t relate to it. Make sure there is something about your main characters that helps people empathize. Keeping them humanoid is useful. Giving them emotional responses comparable to ours aids considerably. A good fantasy world sets challenges for the characters – not necessarily the ultimate evil, or slay-the-dragon-rescue-the-princess scenarios. Warring tribes, hostile creatures, inhospitable landscapes, old blood feuds, untamed magical forces, love triangles, power hungry rulers, and psychotic killers can all play their part. The challenges you devise for your characters are part of the world you make, and should fit in as coherently as anything else.

It helps to start by thinking about what sort of atmosphere you want and the kinds of stories you wish to tell. If you want something moody and mysterious then deep forests, high mountains and secret catacombs may suit you. If you desire something warlike, small countries, warring city states or tribes, and scarce resources that people can fight over make sense. If you fancy something romantic, then rolling hills, farmed countryside, gentle rivers and cute little villages may be more suited. If it's boats and pirates you long to write about, then lots of small islands are going to be called for.

Flora and Fauna
 

Think about what sort of plants grow in the areas you’ve settled on, and what else lives there. If creating flora and fauna from scratch isn’t your thing, look at exotic creatures around the world and put a few together. There could be elephants in your forest, yetis on your mountains and giant otters in your rivers. Borrow widely, so long as your chosen creatures fit the world. Pre-historic creatures are also a good source of ideas – giant carnivorous kangaroos, mammoths, aurochs, sabre-toothed tigers. You can mix and match, have sabre-toothed foxes and giant carnivorous frogs, woolly pigs, or winged snakes. Just make sure they fit in your habitat, have something to eat, and something that checks their population growth.

Cultures

Think about your human cultures. Do you want cities? Tribes? Do you want monarchy, meritocracy, democracy or anarchy? Who has the power? Who can take control? How do the laws work? Are there any? Who enforces them? What religions exist and how are they observed? How are the dead disposed of? Is there an afterlife? What sorts of names do people have? I strongly recommend avoiding giving anything long, unpronounceable names. If you aren’t sure, test them on your friends. Do your people have a written language? What do they value? What have they outlawed? Take one simple thing, such as making fires, or naming the dead, and outlaw it, and the effects on your culture are dramatic. A few such variations from current life add considerable interest and help create challenges for your characters.

The work your people do will be affected by the levels of technology available, the landscape, and the culture. You don’t have to settle for medieval levels of technology. Why not give them hot air balloons, solar power, or advanced skills with ceramics? If your terrain is really uneven, maybe they haven’t invented the wheel yet, or perhaps they don’t count, or they haven’t invented weaponry.

The more you do to make a world unique, the more features you give it and the more you develop its details, the more interesting it will be. Don’t skimp on the planning stage, and keep good notes of anything you decide to include. Above all, keep it consistent.