Hey everyone! We are back again with the next step in world building. I am excited to make the next post in this series. I hope that you are using these at whatever pace you need to help you work on your world building! So, without further ado…
Worldbuilding: Environment
The environment of a world has a strong influence not only on the people but also, your plot, the cultures, and the conflicts that might occur around your characters. There are a lot of things that go into the environment that aren’t just the weather. Natural disasters, extreme weather patterns, and other changes in the environment can not only affect the world around your characters but can also add conflict or tension to a story. There are also aspects such as natural resources that can greatly increase or decrease your world’s cultural development as well as develop conflict. I want to kind of talk about each of these areas in this post.
Natural Disasters
There are a wide variety of natural disasters that can affect a region and have a great impact not only on cultural development but also the development of agriculture, architecture, and religion. There are a couple examples of natural disasters really changing the development of real life cultures and countries that can be great examples to look at when trying to develop your own environment.
For example, Japan is a country that had frequently had earthquakes for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Looking back into Japanese history you can see the influence that earthquakes had on the development of Japanese culture. The fact that earthquakes are unpredictable and often deadly is one of the contributing factors to the Japanese cultural idea of mono no aware – the idea that life is fleeting. The devastating results of earthquakes also had a significant impact on Japanese buildings. They were often built of material that could easily break – so as not to trap inhabitants inside after an earthquake and so they were easy to rebuild afterwards.
Extreme Weather Patterns
On the other side of natural disasters (more sudden and abrupt natural events that cause great damage) there are also extreme weather patterns, which are things that happen more frequently and often on a predictable timetable. This includes things like monsoon seasons, summer heat waves, etc.
In the south-west United States and part of Mexico and the north of South America, the summer is dry and can grow to high temperatures – especially in the areas closest to the equator. In these areas, architecture has developed to deal with these extreme temperatures. Many buildings are built of stucco which can help to cool the interior of a home, they are also partially built underground to also help with cooling the interior of the home during the heat of the day.
In many countries in South America as well, there is a culture called siesta in which you would take a nap in the hottest part of the day. This culture is believed to have developed because of the hot temperatures in those areas that could grow to unbearable levels during the day.
Natural Resources
Natural resources can also be part of the environment and can be an important tool to help you develop your culture, history, or conflict.
In a real-life example, there are constant wars in many countries and also trade tensions between certain countries for the use and collection of crude oil which is used in many countries for a variety of things. This can create conflict between countries who have oil and countries who don’t as well as conflict between those who think we should use less oil and those who think we should continue to use it. This is a perfect example of natural resources creating a culture, history, and conflict.
In Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn there is a natural resource called Atium. There is only a single place that Atium is known to exist, and it is very difficult and dangerous to mine. This natural resource is utilized by the Lord Ruler to maintain power and is also the place he sends prisoners to punish them. This not only helps to develop Kelsier’s character, but also creates conflict later one when SPOILER AHEAD the atium mines are destroyed. SPOILER END This is the perfect example of using a natural resource from the environment in fiction to create not only culture, put politics, and conflict.
Conclusion
There are many more aspects of the environment that can be utilized to develop all sorts of important things in your world. The environment of your world can help to develop history, culture, politics, economics, architecture, language, and many other aspects. This is also usually the stage when I draw the topographical map since that will help me later on when drawing a complete map.
Environment is an aspect of world building that I think is always in the back of a writer’s mind but that often times get dismissed as not as important as others. I hope that this post gave you some idea of where to start with the environment of your story.
That’s all that I have for this week’s post. I think it was a lot of fun to write and think of examples for this one. I had so many more examples that I had to throw out or else this post would’ve ended up being way too long for a quick blog post. Next week we’ll be moving on to the next aspect of world building. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links below. And remember,
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