🏹 fantasy worldbuilding pt. 4: politics, economics, & daily life
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
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✨ watch the rest of the fantasy worldbuilding series:
PART ONE: the absolute basics - • ☀️ fantasy worldbuildi...
PART TWO: geography, ecology, and history - • 🌎 fantasy worldbuildin...
PART THREE: culture, identity, and language - • 🌙 fantasy worldbuildin...
PART FOUR: you are here!
PART FIVE: magic systems, myths, and faith - • 🔮 fantasy worldbuildin...
finally back with the fourth installment of my fantasy worldbuilding series! today we'll be talking about politics, economics, and daily life in the context of fantasy worldbuilding.
thank you for watching :)
✨ timestamps
0:00 - title card
0:06 - intro
1:26 - mini disclaimer
2:25 - PART ONE: POLITICS
2:30 - the goal behind including politics in your worldbuilding
2:53 - the purpose of including politics in your worldbuilding
4:21 - what does a fantasy world look like without politics being taken into consideration?
7:10 - building a political system step 1: decide on the system of government you want to use
7:58 - fantasy government system example #1
10:02 - fantasy government system example #2
11:15 - building a political system step 2: divvy up your systems
14:34 - building a political system step 3: figure out the key players
15:44 - building a political system step 4: consider sources of political conflict
19:25 - PART TWO: ECONOMICS
19:26 - the goal behind including economics in your worldbuilding
19:32 - the purpose of including economics in your worldbuilding
20:25 - common types of economic systems
23:02 - currency in fantasy worlds (the basics)
24:11 - wants vs. needs and the allocation of resources
25:31 - PART THREE: DAILY LIFE
25:35 - the goal behind figuring daily life into your worldbuilding
25:43 - the purpose of including daily life in your worldbuilding
26:37 - a list of potential areas of daily life to consider
31:40 - final thoughts
✨ further reading:
Worldbuilding 102: Politics and Government in Fantasy Societies: michaeltedin.com/worldbuildin...
The 36 Types of Government (Broken up into 2 lists!):
www.chaoticanwriter.com/world...
www.chaoticanwriter.com/world...
Governance and International Relations for Deeper Politics: worldbuildingworkshop.com/202...
Worldbuilding 102: Economics in Fantasy Societies: michaeltedin.com/worldbuildin...
Economic Systems in Fantasy Worlds: www.worldsunending.com/blog/e...
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions Covering Daily Life: pcwrede.com/pcw-wp/fantasy-wo...
✨ more of my writing craft videos:
• 💕 10 tips for writing ...
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"what else do governments do? not that much" LOLLLLL. I love this breakdown! politics is something I think gets so oversimplified in some fantasy stories and nailing that nuance in your world, even if politics isn't the "focus" of the story is so essential in making the world feel lived-in. these are banger tips as always
I agree!! I think there is room for the exploration of politics even if it's not a hard fantasy story lol, I always find it interesting and relevant at least. thanks for watching
Economics flusters me too. But this is partly because money in real life is a joke.
LOL so true
tbh i love thinking about like, economics in the sense of "what kinds of resources/products are valued by a society/group of people" and how can i make it an interesting point to be explored in the world, in a side story if not part of the main thing? i'm totally with you in the 'ew, econ' headspace but in FICTION it's a whole new thing where i'm like "yay! i can fool around with monopolies!" all these little specific things really add up to a balanced story and world. you're always coming through with these craft vids!! 💫💫
Late response but this is an excellent comment! thank you for watching :)
I fell down a world building rabbit hole and ended up on your channel, and I’m really glad that I did.
I’m Hawaiian, and wrestling with the culture I know vs the standard of fantasy has always been difficult for me. It’s nice to see a PoC tackle those same questions in plain speech.
I’m subbed and looking forward to watching more!
I can't say how much it means to hear that my perspective resonates with other marginalized specfic writers, it can be so so lonely out here so it's really touching to hear.
Thank you so much!!
Im brazillian, so as english is not my first language it happens to be kinda difficult for me to find any good writing content in portuguese, specially when it comes to workful worldbuilding and stuff like that. I just found your channel (like, TODAY) and I instantly fell in love with it, as it is really helping me through the blank page situation I ve been on for a while.
THANKS, really, and keep on doing that, please. ❤
Ahh thank you so much!! I really love hearing that I've helped in any way
Disclaimer: this turned into an essay, and I apologize.
TL;DR: Politics can be so rich, most of it boiling down to motivation, most of which is governed by fear.
Politics is so underutilized in fantasy stories. One big thing to consider is motivation beyond what their job is or what their duties are. Then there's corruption and bribery which also ties into economics. Governments lie a lot to keep the calm or for their own interests, so figuring out what their secrets are can be interesting.
The biggest thing with politics and fantasy is really fleshing out your fantastical aspects in a practical way. Most fantasy books have magic which is a huge thing. You need to figure out:
- how prevalent is magic?
- how powerful is it?
- how can it be used to take over another kingdom and seize their resources?
- how do they safeguard against that and what balance is reached?
- how is magic abused?
- how is magic weaponized?
- does having this additional power increase distrust on an international scale?
- how is magic regulated?
- what magic is forbidden? Does the government still use it?
- what are some magic-related crimes?
- how is magic used as a part of governance? Which is to mean, can they use tracking spells to find/follow someone? Can they use compulsion spells to get a confession for a crime? Does the castle have wards or powerful magicians on their payroll?
- what magical creatures exist?
- how do they fit into the rest of the world in a meaningful way?
- how are they used and abused?
- is magic a case of Mutually Assured Destruction? How is it used in little ways anyway maybe disguising spies or having a mole?
There's so much to be done here even for the most limited magic because if the source of magic is limited, governments will try to seize all of it. If the potential power of magic is limited, governments will try to overcome them, for no other reason than that the same can be done against them to take over their land. Governments tend to go to extremes and forgo morality because not doing so puts them at a disadvantage. Understanding the basic motivations of governing bodies is more important than understanding their duties because that's generally more prevalent to conflict and political intrigue. If there's clashing motivations within the same governing body, that's even more interesting.
Connecting that with the other aspects of worldbuilding makes it more holistic. How does history shaped the way the country is now run? How does culture shape it? And how does the current political system actually go against all of that for the sake of necessity or fulfilling their current interests?
Too many fantasy stories have this set up that magic is natural and therefore safeguarded as a part of nature, whereas in reality, it would never be that simple. Too many fantasy stories have the protagonists doing things that the government would have some interest in, but they just don't. Stories that are disconnected from the political climate they exist in make no sense to me. Even non-political fantasy should have mentions of it. It could be a royal festival or elections, rallies, protests, or even them witnessing and believing propaganda.
On economics, I have a business degree, and I still don't know because so much of the focus was on supply and demand, currency in terms of exchange rates, interest rates, etc. It's really interesting to hear about other systems. I want to use the gift system in a future story. It would make for such a wholesome community. Then we rip the protagonist out of that because as writers, we want them to suffer 💀
There are some good points, I think most stories (I watched mostly anime and scifi and fantasy, haven't read much) want to just get to the point that they want, like in each episode, they have a goal, for example for protagonist to learn trust, so all the stuff that happens is 8n service of that goal, so they tend to cut the other things,
All the things you said is valid, but they have to use it in a way that it doesn't take away from the story, otherwise is the same as info dump,
Imagine a political story and magic story mix together and maintain all of there details, it would be a really heavy book in size and in content, it will make everyone's head spin,
But I thinking writers should have some ideas of all that in mind so even if the rules and politics doesn't mentioned directly, we can feel the impact of them on society and behavior of people, like kinda the way you show that it is cold by saying "it was hard moving through heavy snow with boots and fur coat"
You probably should've emphasized that political anarchism means free association and communal organization and not just a total lack of societal structures. Even a functional, large-scale council democracy could still be described as an anarchist society as long as the hierarchical structures of the councils are always able to satisfactorily justify their existence to the people living within that system.
Thank you for the clarification, I wasn't aware of the distinction so I've learned something new today!
@@lynndjung It's interesting - The association between anarchy and violent lawless chaos actually has roots all the way back in pre-ww1 reactionary propaganda. Revolutionary Catalonia is a great study of actual anarchist society if you're interested in learning more.
Yes, "anarchy" as perceived in capitalist pop culture and Anarchy as a political system are completely different things. Anarchy as a system is a type of socialism/ communism that tries to eliminate hierarchies and establish egalitarian ways for everyone to coexist without these oppressive structures. Hopefully that was a good enough explanation as I am not an anarchist, but am a socialist so we have the same goals
Watching every video one by one and making a list of things I need to do because rarely worked on my fantasy world LOLLL im on page eight already!! 😭😭😭😭
My current novel Tenkairoku is a war fantasy on the surface but more so in really two of the five storylines, one of the main characters is returning to their homeland after centuries away to discover it has been plagued by civil wars, particularly over the issue regarding the power vacuum left behind by the imperial clan's alleged end. Thats just background fluff as his main story theme is navigating yhe troubles brought on by the conflcit, which in this land is simply just known as "The War" basically its a warring states period. Im leaving out alot but yes it features a war,because its critical to really everyone's development.
The other is a descendant and princess of the realm who is struggling to not only finally end the chaos but heal her nation, since their family are divine descended, its also an obligation to fix it directly, and as she is young (relativey for an elf) its particularly burdensome and stressful, because failure means death, and the cycle will continue. I think a lot of people get caught up in the actual war aspect but ignore the daily life issues that war, won or lost does to the people in power or just the thief in the poorest district
Again a great and inspiring video!
The more i learn about the middle ages the more i find big differences to the presentation in medias and the way quasi-medieval fantasy societies seem to work. So many negative things from the 18th and 19th century are projected into the medieval society, which where so much more interesting and life was in many way better for the "normal" people than it was in the early modern age. There was no nationalism, no absolutism, no worker slums, no witch hunts, for most oft the time even nearly no money, that all came later.
It naturally also had its fair share of problems, but they where very different to the ones pseudo-middleage settings use, and that is quite sad because it was such a fascinating time...
wooo I’ve been waiting for this video :) Your series has been helping me get started with my first fantasy novel so thank you 😊
ahh I'm sorry it took so long!! thank you for watching, best of luck with your fantasy novel
what is it about?
I love this series, super helpful!! I'm writing a novel for the first time so this helps listing the main things I need to figure out
thank you so much, I'm so glad it's been helpful! Best of luck with your novel, you've got this :)
AHHH great video again!!
Aww thank you Kelley!! I'm really excited for that one too, magic systems are so interesting!!
Super interesting things to think about!!
This video popped up on my feed right on time! World building is so mystifying to me, your videos really helped break it down into digestible bits, that make sense.
I'm so glad it did!! Thank you for watching, very happy to hear my videos have helped :)
I love this video and all your other videos! I would love to know your take on different fantasy species and how that nuances the worldbuilding.
Thank you so much!! I'm honestly not too experienced when it comes to developing different fantasy species, but to my understanding the main considerations for their impact on worldbuilding are:
- differences in physiology
- the history of their relations with other races, eg human
- whether they keep to their own societies or are mixed in with other groups, and their social roles in that case
Otherwise, I imagine a lot of the worldbuilding processes would remain the same!
What are your thoughts on fantasy that’s set up in a way to critique real world politics? Personally, I like fantasy as an escape so for me I sometimes feel pulled back to reality if it’s included - but I know there are very well established fantasy authors who lean this way
For me that REALLY depends on the book and my mood at the time of reading, I agree that a lot of the time they're quite heavy for me. I'm much more receptive of scifi that critiques the real world!
I love your vibe, new sub! 💚
thanks so much!
oh. my. god. BABY 😻
So the second example is just capitalism?