Creating a fantasy world...what do you like/dislike?

[Eddie the head]

If there's one thing I'm really tired of in fantasy and to an extent sci-fi. There is always a lost, hyper advanced and powerful civilization whose relics are the treasures of the current story.

Game of Thrones: Valyria
Lord of the Rings: Ancient Kingdoms of elves and men, as well as the events of the Silmarillion.
Star Wars: The ancient Jedi and Sith were apparently far more powerful than current ones.
Halo: The Forerunners
The Elder Scrolls: Aylieds, Dwemer and Falmer
Mass Effect: The protheans (didn't mind this one so much as they cleverly turned it on its head)
Stargate: The Ancients

The list goes on, virtually any story where they have to retrieve some lost mcguffin, it is always a relic of a lost civilisation.

Well you got to remember that most fantasy is based off of Europe and they kind of did have that. Not "hyper advanced" but more advanced in so many ways that you could be forgiven for at the time for thinking "How did this grate civilization fall?" I agree it's a little played out now, but if you are going for the knights and magic angle I can see the reasoning for it.

So yeah I could agree with you to a degree, but it just goes back to "Don't set it in middle earth." Also the Infinite Empire would better fit that then the old jedi in Star Wars.

Also if you are going for the religious angel the Aztec's or is the Mayans could interesting. I can't remember who it was but one of them sacrificed a person every day so the sun would rise. Plus they have some interesting creation myths, that could make for a cool setting. Although Christianity is more in the public eye so you would likely have to explain less, but don't blind yourself to alternatives.

 

[Vault101]

snip

my place holder for their god was firejesus...I since changed it to buring-man

I feel really really silly making up names XD

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think we're all a little burnt out about elves and dwarves, or any two feuding civilizations that are wise, soft-spoken and nature-loving vs. brutish, hard-headed and machine-crafting, or simply above ground vs. underground.

I think we're also a bit tired with quests. Whoever said fantasy requires travel? Why can't it all take place in a few scenarios? And if there is travel, must it be a scenic tour through every possible landscape, going through prairies, swamps, forests, volacanoes, tundras, mountains, caverns, deserts, oceans, etc?

Also, language, as everybody has pointed out nicely. It's wise to keep things simple, and don't just spout cool-sounding names ala Baldur's Gate at random. Try to fit in a pattern. Pick any civilization and any language in history, you'll notice all the names pertaining to that culture obviously share the same phonetics and the like.

 

[Ashadowpie]

i like fantasy creatures/plants/places with lots of colourful imagination, but still have hints of real life in them. basically if all the animals had the " birds of paradise" flair to them, all being vibrant colours and stuff. like a silly cute idea would be a rabbit, squirrel or deer but they're colourful like green, or blue or whatever you want but its like a nice shade, and they have fantasy looking stripes or something or whatever you want. n the flowers are just even crazier concepts of the amazing flowers and plants we have already

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

If you're going to try to create your own languages--even if it's just a word or two, or a place name--then the best place to start would be The Language Construction Kit [http://www.zompist.com/kit.html]. (There's also a set of two books that expand on the website, if you're really interested in that sort of thing.)

 

[DoPo]

its not somthing serious, perhaps not even a full story, just an Idea I had and I'd like to try and see if I can create some kind of "fantasy" world or otherwise

I'm pretty sure you can. It's not as complicated as you think it is. I'm saying this because I know people a lot less clever than you that managed to do it - so it can't be that hard. Sure, their worlds weren't necessarily brilliant but weren't truly bad, either - sort of mediocre-ish, meh-ish but they managed. I'm sure you can do it better if you want.

And something I forgot to say - if you're going sci-fi, don't worry about not being scientific enough. Soft sci-fi exists, you know, you don't have to have tech perfectly consistent with modern physics. In fact, you can even not explain most of it and have a "science fantasy", so more like Warhammer where things happen because they happen than anything else.

 

[TheHmm]

I always like when the previous Eras were more technologically and culturally advanced. Like Fallout or Lord of the rings.

Where pieces and clues of the ancient world still litter the world like greek runis, thousands years old, litter ours.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Here's a good tip for writing a story.

When writing, don't start from the begining and write to the end. Doing this will only mean that you end up spending a lot of time writing drafts that are going to be throw away as the story takes form in your mind.

If you have a good idea for a scene, jot down the basic details on a post-it note or business card (yes the notes should be this brief). Name the characters involved, the setting and the outcome of the event on the card. Once you've got a bunch of scenes written down in note form, arrange the cards into an order you like the feel of and picture how one scene could lead to the events of the next. The reasons these events are happening should become apparent to you at this stage. Fill out additional cards to bridge the gaps. Make changes to existing cards to make it work. Once you feel you have a logical storyboard to follow, then you can start writing up your first draft.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Unless you can provide some really good justification, I don't think you should include dragons.

Dragons were, for the longest time, unkillable death-bringers who were essentially gods in physical form. Now they get killed every other chapter in some stories. That must stop.

 

[[REDACTED]]

If you're going to try to create your own languages--even if it's just a word or two, or a place name--then the best place to start would be The Language Construction Kit [http://www.zompist.com/kit.html]. (There's also a set of two books that expand on the website, if you're really interested in that sort of thing.)

Since I can't get away with just saying "This", I'll add that the book (I only have the first one) is absolutely worth the price.

 

[SinisterGehe]

My problems with people's personal or their own fantasy worlds is usually lack of structure and logic.
As a person who spend 3 years in of my life to get a degree in media and theater (waste of 3 years on retro spec) I hate people and writers who do not construct their worlds logically. If I find something interesting or great about their worlds and ask them to expand on it or explain it they often go mute - or use the cliche card of "because magic".

So if you are going to write your own world, construct it logically. Just think the past tales of different cultures for examples and inspiration.

-Start from creation: (What/who/why does this world exist and how), what "year" it is. (Basically how much time has gone past from creation - to development of culture(s) to now - remember there can be many different calendars/timelines)

-Then continue to construct the races and cultures of the world (Start by rough sketch and classifications. Humanoid/hivemind/computer/robot... etc you can use anything, just go wild.
---"Race A is furry cat like creatures that are extremely racist/speciest"
---"Race B is short and round race of frog like creatures that are called blogs and communicate with farts...
----!You can do ANYTHING, just remember to construct and explain carefully enough.

-Construct the political spectrum and ideas "Who hates what and why", "What religions there are"... Etc basically shape the face of the world culture.

-Start creating myths and legends, add detail to your world.

And remember: You do not need to explain everything in your writing/story/text/whatever. Just enough to round up things and hold them together. And for you to expand it and understand thing, it makes writing easier when you know you material. You don't need to bring it all to daylight some can be your personal fantasy or "secret". But long as you can understand your material and present it in a manner that reader can draw a rough picture of it.

In my own fantasy world everything rotates around one massive super being that is and isn't. It is completely objective and neutral and acts only as the world anchor for the planes in the universe. And as a beacon that defines the whole universe's position and place in the great empty. It created 3 primal gods from which every being and living thing exists from as their children. When they create a new generation from each other, there will always be son and daughter (Even tho the the first 10 "levels" of beings are genderless things that require a lesser being as their avatars to contact the minor beings) - positive and negative (basically evil and not evil - destructive and creative force). And from that generations down and different mixature of forces every being from demonic races, "elf" kinda thing, "Animal humanods", sons of flesh, daughters of metal and children of stone have been made. And if you want to ask how something got it's existence, it can be explained logically and everything leads back to the super being.

Ofc. That is just summary of things. My stories exist in the finer details of the world. But that is basically my thought process.

 

[KrabbiPatty]

This is not a "like or dislike" thing but a suggestion, from someone who also writes fantasy stories.

You can't keep everything in a kind of "Dark Age stasis" forever. That was ok for Middle Earth because it was, by definition, a lost age--it doesn't matter how unrealistic it was that gunpowder existed but they still had swords because it was thousands of years before recorded history so you can handwave it by saying "it was lost and rediscovered later" or something like that.

In a setting NOT supposed to be a lost history, like Dungeons and Dragons just as a notable example, it's stupid that alchemist's fire and what amounts to gunpowder exists...yet bows are still a viable weapon. Match locks and cannons should have rendered such things museum pieces, at best, or archaic reminders of a bygone era at worst. You could even find some use if you argue that alchemy is "new" so not widespread, but even then the question arises why people WITH alchemy and knowledge of gunpowder and alchemist's fire don't dominate everyone else. "It's super-rare" is one answer, it's kind of a cop out but it's as good as any.

My point is either come up with a reason that guns are not present or make guns an emergent technology, or, third option, have no mention of alchemy, alchemic explosives/incendiaries and the like. Otherwise it becomes difficult to reconcile.

 

[KrabbiPatty]

Oh one more thing I do like/dislike:

Try not to have everyone talk funny. Yeah its kind of endearing that EVERYONE in D&D or LOTR talks with a weird, pseudo-british, olde timey accent but it's also not really logical nor is it easy for everyone to follow.

It's perfectly fine for people in this other world to speak as plainly as we do, even so much as using slang the way we do or swearing like we do. Not only is it easier to follow, believe it or not, some less well-versed in fantasy literature will see this and think it's "edgy" or "different"...it's not but they won't know that.

But as an example...

"Fly you fools!" is a great line, if you know what it meant. Otherwise its really archaic and sounds silly.

"Go! Get the fuck out now! Go!" is clear as day to anyone born in the last 100 years. It's not as "epic" or "dramatic" but it conveys the exact same information in a form readily understandable to people who aren't massive nerds that play tabletop RPGs all day (like I am lol).

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I tend to prefer just modern English. I don't really like it when authors create a language and use it at length; they're rarely very original, and it's obvious where each word comes from. Unless you're going to spend a ridiculous amount of effort (Tolkein style) or use it sparingly (like how other languages like Aylied are usually only used for place names in TES) it just ruins immersion. For example, the ancient language in The Inheritance Cycle, a few words are inexplicably Japanese sounding, and it's quite jarring.

I guess in general it's best to try and make the world feel believable, so it has to make sense. Like magic being overpowered; it just makes you wonder why people bother raising huge armies when some old guy can speak a few funny words and wave his hand, killing half of them instantly.


Another thing that tends to bug me is how all non-human races tend to be unified in one faction. It doesn't make sense.

 

[rednose1]

Give everything a much shorter lifespan. With less days to do anything, every day will matter that much more. We always hear about people finally living their lives when they have 6 months to live. If everyone had roughly five years to live, people would be doing all sorts of crazy things because hell, why not?

 

[Oinodaemon]

so I want to write a story (more or less) and to do that I need to create the world in which it takes place



[b/]Naming things[/b]
I absolutly suck at naming things.Given its a fantasy setting though I probably should come up with (more or less) unique names for locaions and charachters, are "fantasy name generators" a too tacky? or useful? I mean as long as I don't over do it so every charachter has some bizare name with 3 hyphens or somthing



[b/]language[/b]
as in how people should talk. I would never in a million years attempt anything "ye olde" it seems alot of fantasy setting speak in a kind of neutral "sounds kind of old but still easy to understand" way, whats your opinion on using more contemporay language? particually curse words

aside from that what are some other things that I definetly shouldn't do? in regards to say fantasy races and level of cliche's used....or anything else really

Names- names are easy for me. Keep cultural quirks in mind. As in, in our world, names like Jose or Jesus are very common in Hispanic Culture. Names like Bob or Jim for Caucasians. My elves roll their L's, so I get names like Villalai, or Ellinieth, or something similar. For Dwarves I go for earthy names, Brundin, for example.


Language- I figure my characters aren't speaking English, or any other language I (or anyone else) would understand. With that in mind, there is no reason a character can't use contemporary curse words, because they are simply a translation of whatever the character IS saying. If someone didn't like that my character said "Shit", I would say, "He didn't. If I wrote the actual word, we wouldn't understand it, but it means "shit" when translated into English. "

Don't know if I helped any, but I really hope so.