{"id":39907,"date":"2022-01-31T06:30:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T17:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=39907"},"modified":"2022-01-26T21:24:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T08:24:14","slug":"my-worldbuilding-a-few-thoughts-on-guiding-influences-reprised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2022\/01\/31\/my-worldbuilding-a-few-thoughts-on-guiding-influences-reprised\/","title":{"rendered":"“My Worldbuilding: A Few Thoughts On Guiding Influences” (Reprised)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week, I posted “On Worldbuilding”<\/a>, a comprehensive post on an art and craft (worldbuilding, that is) I consider fundamental to fantasy and science fiction storytelling.<\/p>\n

(So did the late, great Ursula Le Guin, as the quote in last Thursday’s post made clear.)<\/p>\n

Today’s post is the companion piece, which specifically address some (but not all) of the guiding influences on my own worldbuilding.<\/p>\n

~*~<\/p>\n

From the Backlist: “My Worldbuilding: A Few Thoughts On Guiding Influences”<\/span><\/h2>\n

(First posted on<\/em> February 25, 2019<\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Books — & worlds…<\/p><\/div>\n

… This week I thought it might be fun to take a closer look at what (I believe) informs my own worldbuilding.<\/span><\/p>\n

In particular, last week I mentioned the \u201cbody\u201d of worldbuilding having a \u201cspine\u201d, such as a period in history, which can then provide a guide in terms of events, personalities, culture, technology, clothes, social mores, and potentially landscape as well. (If one models the world on the place where a distinctive society or culture evolved, or formative events took place.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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This UK cover deliberately referenced the world\u2019s historical influences<\/p><\/div>\n

Another \u201cspine\u201d could be the importance of geography and the natural world that strongly imbues the iconic and highly influential Fantasy works of JRR Tolkien and Ursula K Le Guin.<\/span><\/p>\n

I re-mention history and the natural world specifically, because I believe they are probably the two strongest influences on my own worldbuilding. While I don\u2019t \u201cconsciously\u201d pre-worldbuild, which I believe authors such as Julie Czerneda<\/a> and Brandon Sanderson<\/a> both do, I am deeply interested in history and have always read widely in terms of both nonfiction and fictional works on the topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The aspect of the world referenced in this cover is the influential dreamscape<\/p><\/div>\n

Similarly, I am deeply interested in the overlaps between environment, landscape, and culture. And when a person spends a lot of time exploring, reading, studying, and thinking about any topic, it\u2019s hard to see how that would not have considerable influence, however subconscious, when embarking on fictional worldbuilding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In terms of my published work, I believe the historical influence is most evident in Thornspell<\/em><\/a>, which evolved as a Middle European-style kingdom very much in the style of the Holy Roman Empire and its affiliated states in the early Renaissance period. The period is recognized in terms of clothes, technology (which includes armour, weapons etc) and the broadbrush of how the nobility live.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main character is a prince so that\u2019s why the focus on\u00a0 the nobility, although the background of the world includes references to how other sectors of society live. There\u2019s even the occasional reference to wider influences such as the evolution of swordplay, technology such as telescopes, and games such as tennis.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Keeping the focus “fantastic.”<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But because Thornspell <\/em>is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty<\/em> from the perspective of the prince, the main focus of the story and the world remains on the fairytale and its resolution. So I do not delve further into the wider events of the period in developing the story, such as the threat posed to Middle Europe by the might of the Ottoman Empire, or the divisions within Christianity as the Protestant religions emerged to challenge the hegemony of the Roman Catholic church.<\/span><\/p>\n

All fascinating stuff, but beyond the focus of the story I wanted to tell and so not part of the worldbuilding for this<\/em> story.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The dark world informed the original US cover for HEIR<\/p><\/div>\n

The wider conflicts that characterized this period and others throughout history, not excluding our own times, undoubtedly inform The Wall Of Night<\/strong><\/a> series, but I have not drawn on any one particular period or conflict to inform the story, and by extension the worldbuilding. As discussed last week<\/a>, a distortion of the natural world \u2013 that of a twilit, windblasted, and storm ridden environment \u2013 forms the primary \u201cbig idea\u201d for building the world of Haarth. The environmental influence has remained strong as the world has evolved, because of the magic that imbues the world itself and takes different forms depending on the land and landscape in which the protagonists find themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

The historical influence does noticeably creep back, in parallel with the natural influence, in The Gathering Of The Lost<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>(The Wall Of Night, Book Two.) In the realm of Emer, in particular, I have drawn \u2013 again, very broadly \u2013 on (what we now know as) France in the Dark and Middle Ages periods. So in terms of backstory, Caer Argent as the \u201cisle of Emer\u201d is based on the \u201cIle De France\u201d as the ancient heart of the French realm.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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The worldbuilding focus was continued in the US cover for GATHERING<\/p><\/div>\n

Similarly, the role of Ormond holds echoes of the respective roles of semi-autonomous states such as Burgundy and Aquitaine in the development of France, while the \u201cspring songs\u201d nod to both the influence of the troubadors and the celebration of legendary figures such as Roland, Oliver, and Aude.<\/span><\/p>\n

But because Emer is not<\/em> France, those of you who are also history fans will understand, even from the one paragraph above, the extent to which I have \u201cslipped\u201d time periods and woven filaments from them together into a new whole that is Emer. The events, too, are not based on any particular historical events in any given period, so in that sense I really am talking historically influenced worldbuilding rather than historically guided storytelling or alternate history, both of which occupy distinct places (subgenres) in speculative literature.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Keep of Winds, from “The Heir of Night” — art by PJ Fitzpatrick<\/p><\/div>\n

As for the landscapes, whatever the historical influences may be, the description of the Argent Vale in The Gathering Of The Lost <\/em><\/strong>owes far more to Nelson in New Zealand than any region in France. (Just sayin\u2019) 😉 <\/span><\/p>\n

As for the Northern March, while influenced by many wild and bleak landscapes I have experienced, when it comes to the particulars of the WALL story, I needs must own up \u2013 dear readers, I made it up! \ud83d\ude00<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I posted “On Worldbuilding”, a comprehensive post on an art and craft (worldbuilding, that is) I consider fundamental to fantasy and science fiction storytelling. (So did the late, great Ursula Le Guin, as the quote in last Thursday’s post made clear.) Today’s post is the companion piece, which specifically address some (but not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,50,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-writing","category-epicfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39907"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39920,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39907\/revisions\/39920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}