Civilization

Posted on 08 December 2009

So, one thing I always think about when I’m coming up with a world to write in, and the story I want to write in it, is what kind of civilization is there?  I’m not much a fan of the video-game disparity much of fantasy and SFF genre has.  It’s like, they had so much to do in their world building, cultures and habits and rules of physics, they forgot to put people in the world and there are only three major cities and a handful of villages.  Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

Now, I’m all about the story simplification of only naming and establishing settings you are going to use, but the very fact that there could be numerous cities and countless towns and villages can do a lot for a setting.  And if there is a seemingly lack of it, make it important, please!  Like in the Wheel of Time, the massive tracks of land *snerk* that are uninhabited is actually a semi-important thing that has to do with the entire setting of the world.  But, in “Tower of Shadows”, the scant handful of towns (seriously, like an entire kingdom has less then ten solid municipalities across a hundreds if not thousands of miles kingdom.) does nothing except make it easier for the author to skip by the whole “let’s travel from one coast to the other” part of the story.  Oh wait, silly me, he through in a completely irrelevant dragon fight too.  Can’t forget that. (I swear, it was just a D&D campaign that somehow got past an editor).

Next up: what kind of civilization?  Is it a Roman-Greco republic or democracy?  Is it a constitutional monarchy.  Is it a military Punta?  And how does that make every single spear-bearer in the story act.  Trust me, people act completely different depending on the civilization they are in.  Do you have a good reason for this civilization to work?  Are you using a canned historical model or trying to make your own system.  Are you going to explain why the heck your own system works (Heinlein style), or are you just going to gloss over it?  If you gloss over it, you’d better at least take one or two more steps of design in your notes to know exactly how it works.  *shakes fist at authors who don’t*

And finally, where, really, does your protagonist (or group of protags) fit into this society, and how are they really going to react if they’re being shifted around in it.  Are you making them change their status?  If so, are they going to fall into with minimum discomfort (Like Mat from Wheel of Time), or are they going to kick and scream like an emo blacksmith that nobody likes?  Oh, sorry, Wheel of Time venting.  That’s what I get for reading The Path of Daggers right now.  Gah!

Anyway, Civilization, yeah.  I suck at ending my little expositions.  Maybe it’s cause I never liked the stupid “restate, recap, sting” thing they taught in high school.  Felt like a complete load of BS to me.  Basic Science, that is.  Dunno what you were thinking.  Yeah, I’m going to wonder off now.  Happy Pop-eye day (according to Google).