How to Make Your Own Fantasy World
Decide what the inhabitants are like., Think up a name for your world., Terraform your world., Create the wildlife of your world., Create the history of the world., Decide the religion of your world., Decide upon or create the language the people...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Decide what the inhabitants are like.
Start by imagining what basic kind of world you are envisioning, and what their lives must be like.
This will help you shape the "feeling" of your world.
Is it a peaceful world, without wars, anger, or violence? Or is it a world that's falling apart at the seams, with crime, mayhem, and battles? Knowing that, you can start describing your inhabitants.
Create them, write their histories, cultures, ways of living, weapons, food, education, governments, transport, anything.
Are there multiple races, like fish lizards and sentient octopods wandering around? What conflicts occur between different races? Define the extent of the culture.
It can be a single dominant culture, like the Klingon Empire, or it can be a number of different cultures, with different customs, like Earth. -
Step 2: Think up a name for your world.
You can change it later, if you like, but it's good to start somewhere.
One way to do it is to use your own name as a basis.
For example, Lilithopia has a nice sound to it, especially if it's a pretty world, filled with flowers.
Zachtopia, maybe not so much! But if you dropped the "...topia" bit, and called it "Zakchan," or even just "Zakh," you have a good start.
You could just say some random cool sounding thing. (Kaiu, Mikvar, etc.) Maybe even a play on words. (Guess what a Catacloyapa would be like).
Names of cities in foreign countries can be used well.
For example, Ravonik or Turan, from Albania.
Make the name of your world reflect the inhabitants.
For example, if it's a warlike world, calling your planet "Bliss" might not be so good.
On the other hand, if your world is populated by unicorns and elves, calling it "Kzrakh" would not work at all.
Create different countries! Design flags for each country, give it a unique name, and create the culture and customs that are both unique to them, and common to all the cultures of your world. , Decide what the landscape of your world is like.
Where are the deserts? Where are the mountains? The forests? Think about how much of the world is covered in the various environments.
For example, it could be a desert planet, an ice asteroid belt, or forest moon.
Or it could be more temperate, like our earth, but with different creatures and plants. , You can use a lot of wildlife from Earth, but if you're feeling adventurous, make them all up! Are they vertebrates (have a spine)? Invertebrates (don't have a spine)? Teeth, fangs, claws, scales, fur, wings, eyes, limbs and slime are some of the many things you can stick on them.
Check out books about unusual bugs, and deep-water sea life.
Those are some of the most unusual-looking creatures in the world—like aliens in our own back yard! What kind of animals do your inhabitants ride? Figure out what the animal eats, and then figure out what eats the animals! Building the ecosystem (what eats what, what's the top predator, how everything lives together) is a good way to learn more about the world you're creating.
Where in your world do all these creatures live? They can live in the sky, or under the lava beds.
Maybe they're ice worms that burrow through solid methane, or energy beings that can be both solid and light at the same time. , Once you start getting an idea who your inhabitants are, and what they do, it's time to give them a past.
Describe how they evolved from another life form or were created by god(s).
Who or what created gave rise to the life on planet Xyxyx? What major events have changed the course of the world? Are there gods and/or goddesses, has evolution shaped things, or is it a combination of the two? Describe what your planet's cultures have done during their history.
Have there been wars (civil, international)? Strife? Anarchies? Rebellions? Have they actually been quite peaceful? , This is often a touchy topic for those who are incredibly faithful to their real-world religion.
Just remember that you still believe in your deity, and that you are not transferring your faith in any way.
Just like writing a murder mystery doesn't turn you into a murderer, so will writing about other gods not turn you into a heathen.
Is the dominant religion polytheistic (many gods), monotheistic (one god), pantheistic (everything is god), monistic (no god, only a holy energy), or atheistic (no gods)? You get to define if they look like the inhabitants only a lot bigger and purple, or like little chipmunks with fangs.
The field's wide open.
Are the gods animals? Does each have a specific power? Do they have one spouse or multiple spouses? Do these gods exist, or are they made up? Did anything predate these gods? , Do they speak English? French? Spanish? Or a completely new language? Remember, if you're planning to write a book from this, which you might be, don't create a new language and have your characters use it all the way through.
Most will throw the book down in disgust, not being able to understand without constant reference.
To see how this was accomplished by a master, read Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien created complete languages so the characters would have a "history," but he only used their language sparingly, for important things.
It gives his world an air of authenticity that it might have otherwise lacked. , What are the myths of each country? Create bedtime stories to scare children, make up fairy tales, and imagine legends with "more than a grain of truth in them," or major prophecies (such as the Mayan Calendar prophecy!) , What games do children play? Which countries are poor? Which ones are rich? Is it hard work or is there plenty of time for play? , First, draw in land masses, like continents, and large bodies of water or other geographic features (if any) that your world possesses.
Add technical boundaries.
Much like Europe and Asia, they are separate continents whose boundaries are defined by nature.
Add political boundaries: these are countries, states, and cities.
Take a look at Google Maps to see how these things are handled, and use that as a guide. , Once you have the borders of your country defined, start adding names.
Work your way down from big to small, as the there will be few large features, and many small.
Name your major features first: continents, oceans, deserts, forests, etc.
Give each country a capital city.
Locate and name major cities, then the names of countries, provinces, continents, oceans, deserts, forests, etc.
This may seem overwhelming, but just relax and don't think about anything, just let the ideas flow.
There's no rush.
You can put it all in an imaginary box in your mind, or write notes down on paper.
Search for "random fantasy name generator" on Google if you can't think of as many as you need. , Exclude small islands to begin with.
Make sure to make the borders of the landmasses are jagged (like coastlines), not smooth and curvy (unless you have a very good, in-your-world reason for doing this, not just because you're lazy).
It helps to use a computer because it is easier to edit than on paper.
Add the small islands.
Remember, these islands can be made to be very important, economically and strategically. , Use simple symbols like triangles for mountains and dots for cities (unless you're a bit of an artist, and you like drawing the mountains beautifully and drawing tiny little houses and castles for the cities).
Then fill in the place names.
Be sure to make continent names in a larger size than country names, country names larger than city names, etc.
Don't forget to adjust the size of your city symbols and make a different symbol for capitals, countries and provinces. , This can be done any way you want, tweak it slightly, and voila! You have your map. , To do this you want the nearby countries to be grey or sepia-colored.
Then color each province a different bright color.
Of course, if no countries exist (i.e you have a very early world, or one ravaged by war, or a peaceful, John-Lennon-Imagine kind of place), then you don't have to do this step. , You can write the introduction as if you were a professor studying this, and write the rest as if it were nonfiction.
Publish your information on the Internet if you wish for everyone to see.
Study anthropological writings about indigenous peoples, plants, or animals, to see how they describe them.
Or check out how National Geographic writes about discoveries.
Adapt that style to your own descriptions. -
Step 3: Terraform your world.
-
Step 4: Create the wildlife of your world.
-
Step 5: Create the history of the world.
-
Step 6: Decide the religion of your world.
-
Step 7: Decide upon or create the language the people will speak.
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Step 8: Create folklore.
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Step 9: Roughly map out each country's daily life.
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Step 10: Make a map.
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Step 11: Start naming your places.
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Step 12: Draw a rough sketch of your map.
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Step 13: Add a map key.
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Step 14: Color your map.
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Step 15: Create individual maps of countries.
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Step 16: Type everything up and print it out as a book.
Detailed Guide
Start by imagining what basic kind of world you are envisioning, and what their lives must be like.
This will help you shape the "feeling" of your world.
Is it a peaceful world, without wars, anger, or violence? Or is it a world that's falling apart at the seams, with crime, mayhem, and battles? Knowing that, you can start describing your inhabitants.
Create them, write their histories, cultures, ways of living, weapons, food, education, governments, transport, anything.
Are there multiple races, like fish lizards and sentient octopods wandering around? What conflicts occur between different races? Define the extent of the culture.
It can be a single dominant culture, like the Klingon Empire, or it can be a number of different cultures, with different customs, like Earth.
You can change it later, if you like, but it's good to start somewhere.
One way to do it is to use your own name as a basis.
For example, Lilithopia has a nice sound to it, especially if it's a pretty world, filled with flowers.
Zachtopia, maybe not so much! But if you dropped the "...topia" bit, and called it "Zakchan," or even just "Zakh," you have a good start.
You could just say some random cool sounding thing. (Kaiu, Mikvar, etc.) Maybe even a play on words. (Guess what a Catacloyapa would be like).
Names of cities in foreign countries can be used well.
For example, Ravonik or Turan, from Albania.
Make the name of your world reflect the inhabitants.
For example, if it's a warlike world, calling your planet "Bliss" might not be so good.
On the other hand, if your world is populated by unicorns and elves, calling it "Kzrakh" would not work at all.
Create different countries! Design flags for each country, give it a unique name, and create the culture and customs that are both unique to them, and common to all the cultures of your world. , Decide what the landscape of your world is like.
Where are the deserts? Where are the mountains? The forests? Think about how much of the world is covered in the various environments.
For example, it could be a desert planet, an ice asteroid belt, or forest moon.
Or it could be more temperate, like our earth, but with different creatures and plants. , You can use a lot of wildlife from Earth, but if you're feeling adventurous, make them all up! Are they vertebrates (have a spine)? Invertebrates (don't have a spine)? Teeth, fangs, claws, scales, fur, wings, eyes, limbs and slime are some of the many things you can stick on them.
Check out books about unusual bugs, and deep-water sea life.
Those are some of the most unusual-looking creatures in the world—like aliens in our own back yard! What kind of animals do your inhabitants ride? Figure out what the animal eats, and then figure out what eats the animals! Building the ecosystem (what eats what, what's the top predator, how everything lives together) is a good way to learn more about the world you're creating.
Where in your world do all these creatures live? They can live in the sky, or under the lava beds.
Maybe they're ice worms that burrow through solid methane, or energy beings that can be both solid and light at the same time. , Once you start getting an idea who your inhabitants are, and what they do, it's time to give them a past.
Describe how they evolved from another life form or were created by god(s).
Who or what created gave rise to the life on planet Xyxyx? What major events have changed the course of the world? Are there gods and/or goddesses, has evolution shaped things, or is it a combination of the two? Describe what your planet's cultures have done during their history.
Have there been wars (civil, international)? Strife? Anarchies? Rebellions? Have they actually been quite peaceful? , This is often a touchy topic for those who are incredibly faithful to their real-world religion.
Just remember that you still believe in your deity, and that you are not transferring your faith in any way.
Just like writing a murder mystery doesn't turn you into a murderer, so will writing about other gods not turn you into a heathen.
Is the dominant religion polytheistic (many gods), monotheistic (one god), pantheistic (everything is god), monistic (no god, only a holy energy), or atheistic (no gods)? You get to define if they look like the inhabitants only a lot bigger and purple, or like little chipmunks with fangs.
The field's wide open.
Are the gods animals? Does each have a specific power? Do they have one spouse or multiple spouses? Do these gods exist, or are they made up? Did anything predate these gods? , Do they speak English? French? Spanish? Or a completely new language? Remember, if you're planning to write a book from this, which you might be, don't create a new language and have your characters use it all the way through.
Most will throw the book down in disgust, not being able to understand without constant reference.
To see how this was accomplished by a master, read Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien created complete languages so the characters would have a "history," but he only used their language sparingly, for important things.
It gives his world an air of authenticity that it might have otherwise lacked. , What are the myths of each country? Create bedtime stories to scare children, make up fairy tales, and imagine legends with "more than a grain of truth in them," or major prophecies (such as the Mayan Calendar prophecy!) , What games do children play? Which countries are poor? Which ones are rich? Is it hard work or is there plenty of time for play? , First, draw in land masses, like continents, and large bodies of water or other geographic features (if any) that your world possesses.
Add technical boundaries.
Much like Europe and Asia, they are separate continents whose boundaries are defined by nature.
Add political boundaries: these are countries, states, and cities.
Take a look at Google Maps to see how these things are handled, and use that as a guide. , Once you have the borders of your country defined, start adding names.
Work your way down from big to small, as the there will be few large features, and many small.
Name your major features first: continents, oceans, deserts, forests, etc.
Give each country a capital city.
Locate and name major cities, then the names of countries, provinces, continents, oceans, deserts, forests, etc.
This may seem overwhelming, but just relax and don't think about anything, just let the ideas flow.
There's no rush.
You can put it all in an imaginary box in your mind, or write notes down on paper.
Search for "random fantasy name generator" on Google if you can't think of as many as you need. , Exclude small islands to begin with.
Make sure to make the borders of the landmasses are jagged (like coastlines), not smooth and curvy (unless you have a very good, in-your-world reason for doing this, not just because you're lazy).
It helps to use a computer because it is easier to edit than on paper.
Add the small islands.
Remember, these islands can be made to be very important, economically and strategically. , Use simple symbols like triangles for mountains and dots for cities (unless you're a bit of an artist, and you like drawing the mountains beautifully and drawing tiny little houses and castles for the cities).
Then fill in the place names.
Be sure to make continent names in a larger size than country names, country names larger than city names, etc.
Don't forget to adjust the size of your city symbols and make a different symbol for capitals, countries and provinces. , This can be done any way you want, tweak it slightly, and voila! You have your map. , To do this you want the nearby countries to be grey or sepia-colored.
Then color each province a different bright color.
Of course, if no countries exist (i.e you have a very early world, or one ravaged by war, or a peaceful, John-Lennon-Imagine kind of place), then you don't have to do this step. , You can write the introduction as if you were a professor studying this, and write the rest as if it were nonfiction.
Publish your information on the Internet if you wish for everyone to see.
Study anthropological writings about indigenous peoples, plants, or animals, to see how they describe them.
Or check out how National Geographic writes about discoveries.
Adapt that style to your own descriptions.
About the Author
Nathan Peterson
Creates helpful guides on organization to inspire and educate readers.
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