101 TIWIK #34: Worldbuilding II: 50 Crucial Questions

As promised, 50 crucial questions to ask when building a world. Feel free to copy and paste and adapt this list for your writing needs.

For the Story World as a whole

What is the basic geographic layout of the world, and where does everyone (including the beasts, humanoids, and different races) live? Consider including various features–mountains, oceans, rivers, deserts, etc. (hint–you can draw a map and label it to answer this question)

What is the climate like in all of these places, and how does it affect your story world in terms of landscape, arability, culture, travel, and so on?

What plants and animals inhabit the landscape? Are they real, like bunnies and wolves, or imaginary like dragons and unicorns, or a mix of both? How do they fit together to make an ecosystem?

Which resources are present where, and who has charge of them? For example, does the King own all the deer in the forest, or are people allowed to hunt freely?

Where and how do the people get the basic things they need to live: food, shelter, clean water, clothing? What cultural traditions have risen out of the way they obtain, process, trade, and use these things?

What actually happened in the history of the story world (a timeline can be useful here, go as far back as you care to imagine) and what do the various people living in the story world actually believe happened? Does it differ from group to group?

How does their history actually affect their current lives? What beliefs drive their actions, what traditions bind them, what old allegiances or rivalries cause them to like or hate other cultures now?

How many different languages exist, and how do different groups get past language barriers? What accents are present in the speech of the characters, and where do they originate? Are there any concepts that a group wouldn’t have a word for, or things that they would have many words for?

How does magic make the story world different from our contemporary world? i.e., does it change the rules of physics? Alter geography?

Are there sentient magical beasts, humanoids (like elves or dwarves), or different human races?

What are the rules of magic use–i.e. who can use it, where does it come from, what is required for it to work, what is the cost of using it?

For each individual country or area

How does one country compare with the others around it? What alliances exist, what conflicts and border disputes exist? What advantages do they have, what weaknesses?

Who are the heroes, villains, and otherwise noteworthy characters in the history of the country?

What occupations exist, how many people work which jobs, and how does one’s occupation affect their class?

Where does magic fit into society and culture? Is it forbidden, worshiped, or an everyday affair? Do magic users have a separate culture?

Which one is used, magic or technology, or a combination of both, to do the following things: travel, communicate long distances, heal, produce/procure the necessities of survival, manufacture and deploy weapons, and create things (art, music, etc)? How does magic, or technology, or both accomplish these things?

What is considered a normal family unit? How is family perceived–how important are people’s families to them? What does extended family look like?

What are the traditional rites of passage? How do they differ from culture to culture, class to class?

What does education look like? At what age does it begin? Who gets it? what do they learn, and how?

What do the people do with their dead? What rituals accompany burial or its equivalent?

What does food look like? Do different classes and cultures eat different food? What does a meal look like? Who eats with whom?

What kinds of greetings, gestures, salutes, and body language are common to this culture? How do they differ from the other cultures in the world?

What do people claim to value the most in this society? What do they actually value? How does it differ among cultures and classes?

What sets this society apart from our contemporary one? What do they find normal that we wouldn’t? What do they find shocking that we don’t?

What is the class structure of the society, and what does it entail? Who is on top, and who is at the bottom? What rights and privileges are inherent to which classes? What are people in different classes called?

How do courtship and marriage work?

Which ethical/moral decisions are considered the province of religion, and which are not?

What religions are present in the story world, and how do they conflict with or complement each other? Are there non-believers, and if so, are they persecuted?

What is the population of the world/country/area/city? Where do most people live? How are populations sustained?

What is the basic style of government: feudal, aristocratic, oligarchy, absolute ruler, democracy, etc? What does the government provide the people, and what does it take in return? How much power does the government have? Do the people tend to trust and agree with their governance, or is there discontent?

Who is next in line to take power if the most powerful person in the story world or country is incapacitated?

What force upholds the laws of the land? How much power do they have? Is there a format for justice (court trials, petitioning the King)? What unusual things are considered crimes? How is guilt or innocence determined?

What weapons technology exists in this story world? Is there an imbalance in who has which weapons? Are there restrictions on who can own and use weapons?

How does magic affect the way that war is conducted?

How are armies structured? What are the command levels and ranks? How many bodies are in each army in the story world?

How are the armies supplied, and what does their support structure (camp-followers) look like?

How do trade, commerce, and money work? Who does business with whom, and across which borders? Are coins used? Is there a standard currency? How do economics affect relationships between countries and classes?

How are records kept? What form of written language, if any, exists? What libraries and collections exist? Who can read and write, and who cannot?

What level of technology exists in the story world? (Compare the story world to a corresponding age in real history to help narrow it down).

What do people in the story world know about their world? How do they understand it? Do they have a scientific method, or are they mainly superstitious?

How do people spend leisure time in this society? What hobbies, sports, arts and entertainment do they enjoy doing or watching?

What are homes and buildings made from? What do they look like? How big are they? How are cities laid out, and why? What exists in cities other than buildings (markets, squares, parks, beaches, etc)?

What do people generally look like? How do looks differ between countries?

How are garbage and sewage disposed of?

What kind of furniture is in use? How does it vary?

What do people wear? How does it vary from class to class, or country to country, or occupation to occupation?

How do people tell time? Is there a central clock, or do they have watches?

How does time work? Does it differ from our way of keeping it? Do the seasons and year length vary from our own? What are the equivalent months and their names, and how long are weeks and days? What holidays or festivals exist?

What date is it currently, and what event does the current date stem from? What important dates do people mark from the past?

What will this place look like in a hundred years? 500 years? 1000 years? What will historians recall of the present story world?

Tomorrow, what do you do with all these answers? revealed in 101 TIWIK #35: Worldbuilding III: Putting Together the Pieces

This post is part of a series of 101 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Wrote My First Book. Start reading the series at the beginning. 

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