The second instalment of “The Great Article Hunt” is an Elf Wood special. All articles presented here can be found by visiting the tutorial section of elfwood.com
This website has some real world building gems hidden away! Below are what I consider to be the best articles on the site.
Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds
A 7 part guide to World Building – this is a must read!
Author: Michael James Liljenberg
Description:
Michael uses the story of creation to structure his world building guide. This is the first article I run to when planning a new world. The topics he covers are:
- Chapter 1 – In the Beginning God: Theology
- Chapter 2 – Let There Be Light: Physics
- Chapter 3 – Let There Be an Expanse: Weather
- Chapter 4 – Let There Dry Land Appear: Geology
- Chapter 5 – Let There Be Lights in the Sky: Astronomy
- Chapter 6 – Let the Land Produce Living Creatures: Zoology
- Chapter 7 – Let Us Make Man in Our Image: Anthropology
- Chapter 8 – The Rest of the Story
To read Michael’s articles click here
The Seed of Government – Part 1
Author: Crissy Gottberg
Description:
Governmental structures are key to definite the ways society interacts as a whole. Building a strong government in your world will open up interesting political plotlines and allow for areas of conflict in your world. Crissy does a fantastic job of explaining how to implement different types of government.
Part 1 looks at the wider elements that effect a government such as
- political boundaries,
- history
- geography
To learn more about governments click here.
The Seed of Government – Part 2
Author: Crissy Gottberg
Description:
To continue the series on government in fantasy worlds Crissy brings us part 2. This part starts with a list of different sizes of government before providing an extensive list of government types. Examples include:
- Monarchy
- Anarchy
- Caste
- Gerontocracy
- Magocracy
To pick which governments will rule your world click here
Creating Effective Pantheons for Fantasy Stories
Author: Sarah N. Snyder
Description:
Like it or hate it religion holds a lot of power in many cultures. In this article Sarah provides tips on how to create a pantheon of gods similar to those made famous by Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythology.
Click here to read this article
10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Animals
Author: Ashley Lange
Description:
Just as the title suggests, this is a 10 point guide to creating new animals for your world. It is a simple yet detailed tutorial for creating new animals and I’ve not found one to beat it online or offline. If you’re the kind of writer who likes to create their own ecosystem to the scale of Avatar’s then you need this article in your library.
Creating an Original Character
Author: Maisha Foster-O’Neal
Description:
While The World Building School doesn’t cover creating characters this tutorial fits in so well with the other Elfwood guides that it had to be included here. Maisha offers a number of character creation exercises along with a list of clichés to avoid.
Conclusion
When you combine the articles in this hunt you’ll find there is more than enough information to start building your world.
Along with the guides presented here, Elfwood hosts other useful articles. Which article is your favourite?
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