Introduction
Note: Just skip to the "Tying It All Together" section if you don't wanna read the whole thing.
Yesterday I was working on some worldbuilding for a new kingdom for my home game. It was nestled in some beautiful mountains, the architecture of the palace was detailed and fascinating, the people used their own custom currency, and unlike the rest of my world they worshipped only a single deity: the winged goddess of the sky, Ava. They believe that long ago she appeared as a mighty warrior and cleared the land of monsters. As I was working out some finer details, I started thinking about some of the foreign kingdoms and locations which I loved in fiction and realized something important. My kingdom was boring as all hell. The only things distinguishing it from every other generic fantasy kingdom were superficial. Here they called their king a ‘sovereign’. Here they called their currency ‘talons’. Here they had a wings on their banners instead of horses. It wasn’t interesting enough to feel worth learning about. So I want to fix it. I’m going to detail three kingdoms/locations from fiction that I don’t think have this problem, and then see if I can spruce mine up to make it feel worthy of the players interest. Spoilers following for Critical Role, A Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
An Example From Critical Role
Matthew Mercer, the dungeon master on critical role, is a master of writing engaging locations that the players want to understand, and the perfect example is the foreign kingdom known as Xhorhas. The kingdom is initially presented as an evil ‘other’ only for the players to learn that it is a location filled with all kinds of people, and while this is initially intriguing, it gets better. What truly hooks the players is learning about the driving philosophy behind Xhorhassian culture: they believe that when you die, magical artifacts known as ‘beacons’ capture the souls of the dead, and redistribute them into bodies which are born under the influence of the beacon. I suspect that Matt came up with this concept very early on in the creation of Xhorhas. This one piece of culture leads to so many interesting consequences that the world practically creates itself. The Xhorhassians value the beacon artifacts above all else. Status in the Kingdom is partially determined by how many lives you’ve lived. Individuals who have died under the influence of the beacon need to be found when they are born again and reminded and re-educated about their old lives. This last detail is a particular favourite of mine, as it allows for the beliefs of Xhorhas to be totally false, while making it possible that their people wouldn’t realize it.
An Example From A Wise Man’s Fear
Living in the windswept wastes, the Adem people from A Wise Man’s Fear train their bodies in martial arts to serve their communities as mercenaries. The protagonist of the story only goes there to learn to fight and gain some knowledge, and so it would have been fine narratively if that’s all that was different about the Adem: they can fight good. However, the protagonist soon discovers that the Adem view sex as something casual and normal. A physical need everyone has which gets satisfied when it needs to be. Conversely, they view music as a terribly intimate act. This creates conflict when they realize the protagonist is a musician, which to them is basically a prostitute. Again this difference of views results in an interesting culture worth learning about. The Adem don’t believe that Males contribute anything to giving birth. Why should they? So much sex happens with so many different people that they don’t see a correlation between having sex and giving birth. As such men are considered quite a bit lesser than women in this society. They don’t contribute valued children, they simply contribute monetarily to their communities, whereas women can do both.
An Example From Pirates of the Caribbean
Finally, let’s talk about Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean. While the first two examples involve complex societal changes, it doesn’t always need to be that complicated. The pirates of Tortuga live by the simple creed that every man should be absolutely free. No law, justice or government exists there, making it a non-stop spree of drunken parties and fights. While having no law is a little bit more of a trope than the other two examples, it’s still much better than having another bland settlement. Imagine that your players are thinking about going back to a town. Which of the following is better? “Hey, let’s go back to that town that gave us the quest to hunt that hag and everyone speaks with a Scottish accent” or “Hey, let’s go back to that wretched hive of scum and villainy where we might get shot if we look at someone wrong. They know how to party”. I certainly prefer the latter.
Tying It All Together
So what’s so great about Xhorhas, the Adem, and Tortuga? What are they doing that your locations aren’t? In each case, some fundamental aspect of our society's philosophy has been flipped on its head or changed in some way. In Xhorhas it’s death, for the Adem it’s sex and music, and for Tortuga it’s freedom and justice. Making one change to some core aspect of how we view the world leads to enough consequences that it massively helps with worldbuilding. Once you know what the “big difference” in the culture you’re creating is, it’s fairly easy to come up with effects that this new belief system would have on society. It makes the really important part of your new location, the PEOPLE, interesting. When creating a new location always try and make sure that there’s some fundamental difference in belief. The size of this difference in belief can probably be proportional to how important you want the location to be in your story. Along with making the people interesting, it gives your players something to think about. Do they agree with how this culture lives? Do they disagree? Does it benefit them? Does it hinder them? These are all huge role-playing opportunities where the players get to decide where they stand. You’re almost forcing character development, and that’s fantastic.
Applying What We’ve Learned
Now I guess I’d better put my money where my mouth is and fix my lame kingdom. I’m going to take a cue from Matt Mercer and make my change related to the people's philosophy on death. I said that Ava was once a warrior who slew monsters. Well what if she had an army? Maybe when people die they believe that they’re taking what they learned in this world and using it to support Ava in her glorious battle against evil. The key here isn’t that when they die they go to battle, the key is that they believe their value is what they know how to do in THIS life. That changes everything. This life isn’t the main event, it’s basic training. If you don’t have any useful skills and you’re getting up there in years, you might get desperate. Maybe you enlist in the army or go back to school. Maybe you give up altogether, and are looked down upon by society for being useless to Ava. Now instead of a standard fantasy culture, we have a people who are desperate to build their earthly resumes. Certain devotees may spend their lives working on skills that no one cares about in this world. Honing their abilities as a warrior even in a time of peace. People who strive like no other to be the absolute best at what they do. These people have no time for laziness, and celebrate achievement above all else (sounds familiar). While it sure doesn’t sound like a healthy way to live, it definitely sounds more interesting. Thanks for reading. I hope this helped some people.
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