Nothing pulls readers into an epic story quite like a fantasy world that feels real—a place so immersive, it seems to extend beyond the page. The best fantasy worlds feel like they existed long before the story began, with deep histories, dynamic cultures, and internal logic that makes every detail feel inevitable. So how you can make your fantasy world feel real?
As one of the hottest genres on the market right now, fantasy seems to be everywhere. So many writers are interested in introducing fantastical elements into their stories. But even though it can seem as if fantasy authors can simply do whatever they want in their stories, since bending reality is the point, this isn’t actually the case. Exactly because of its potential for sprawling possibilities, successful fantasy requires a sure hand at the helm. This is nowhere truer than when it comes to worldbuilding.
I decided to write this post in response to a request from Timothy Joseph Coakley:
I would like you to write about fantasy/worldbuilding.
In fantasy, worldbuilding isn’t just about settings. Fantasy worlds play a much larger role than simply a physical background. For starters, a good fantasy world provides the necessary verisimilitude to help audiences suspend disbelief and invest their interest and sympathy in stories set in far-flung landscapes.
More than that, as perhaps the most symbolic of all genres, fantasy does best with worldbuilding that upholds a deeper level of meaning and metaphor. This can be done through parallels and references to real-life historical contexts, as well as by developing the “natural” laws that govern the story’s magic system.
Fantasy also requires a great deal of originality in its settings. Although Singapore or San Francisco can be used over and over in realistic fiction, fantasy requires a fully original setting for every new story. Although motifs emerge—usually via historical periods (such as the Middle Ages) or popular aesthetic trends (such as steampunk)—every fantasy world requires its own original social, historical, and sometimes even physical (as in the law of physics) context.
That’s no small task. But crafting all these details is also one of the chief joys of fantasy and one of the main draws for many authors.
However, by its very importance, authors also can’t afford to overvalue their fantasy worldbuilding. The world—including its magic system, creatures, history, language, landscape, and more—must exist to serve the story. In fantasy, perhaps more than any other genre, the worldbuilding becomes a key part of the plotting process—just as the plotting process becomes key in informing the worldbuilding.
Similar to weaving together a story’s plot, character arc, and theme, fantasy authors must employ what I call the “bob and weave.” This is a flexible method that recognizes the integral symbiosis of all story parts. Instead of plotting (or worldbuilding) in a strict, linear fashion, this technique encourages you to move back and forth between different elements—and returning to adjust earlier sections as new ideas take shape. The goal isn’t to lock yourself into a strict blueprint but to build a framework that evolves naturally as your understanding of the story deepens.
>>Click here to read: Genre Tips: How to Write Fantasy
In This Article:
Want to Make Your Fantasy World Feel Real? Start with These 6 Pillars
Although in some ways historical fiction has always been my true love, most of my own stories have landed in the fantasy genre. Worldbuilding has always been one of my favorite parts of the process, not least because integrating the setting into the plot allows it to become a vibrant and thematically pertinent character in its own right.
My absolute #1 resource for fantasy worldbuilding has always been and remains Patricia C. Wrede’s bravura list of Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions, which organizes its hundreds of pertinent prompts into every useful category you could ever think of. If you have no idea what to do with your fantasy world, start there. If you’re already deep into your worldbuilding, circle back around at the end and use her questions to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
>>Click here for a shorter list: Are You Asking These Important Questions About Your Fantasy Settings?
For a more organic approach, start your worldbuilding with the following six pillars. These will show you how to make your fantasy world feel real.
1. Start With the Symbolism (and the Theme—and Character Arc)
Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)
Your choices for your fantasy world should never be arbitrary. Every piece of the setting should be intentionally chosen to support what’s most important: the story arc. Ideally, the fantasy world and its magical (i.e, non-realistic) aspects will act as an extension of your thematic metaphor by creating external events that catalyze and resolve your character’s inner journey.
This doesn’t mean your setting’s symbolism should be obvious. At its simplest, the setting should function to create the story’s conflict—which in turn will evolve the protagonist’s arc, which in turn will reveal and prove the story’s theme. (This means that if you have a really cool idea for a setting, but it doesn’t directly interact with your characters’ personal crises, then it probably isn’t an integrated choice.)
For Example: Star Wars setting of “a galaxy far, far away” felt particularly appropriate in a story about an intergalactic war, featuring a protagonist whose personal journey integrally connected him to that galaxy’s tyrannical rulers.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), 20th Century Fox.
You can look to your theme for initial ideas about how to create or strengthen your setting. If you’re uncertain, turn to your understanding of historical, mythological, or archetypal stories. Is there a motif that feels catalytic to your plot or character ideas?
For example: The erupting classism of the Victorian period provided a potent backdrop for the fantasy Carnival Row, which played out themes of racism by exploring the relationships of different fantasy creatures—Pix (fairies), Pucks (fauns), Marrocks (werewolves), etc.
Carnival Row (2019-2023), Amazon Prime Video
2. Exploring Magic and/or Religion
Perhaps the single factor that sets true fantasy apart from alternate history is its inclusion of fantastical elements—most often in the form of magic. How this magical element alters the rules of nature (as we know them) opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities. Because fantasy magic represents unfamiliar forces, it automatically becomes a type of metaphor, as audiences seek a real-life parallel through which to understand this story element. Most commonly, magic represents power, creating the opportunity for thematic explorations of power’s cause and effect, both for good and evil.
For Example: Lord of the Rings‘ primary example of magic is simply the existence of the demonic One Ring—through which are explored questions of the corrupting influence of power and the countering possibilities of devotion and grace.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), New Line Cinema.
Throughout the decades of fantasy worldbuilding, magic systems have become notoriously more complex and sophisticated. Magic maestro Brandon Sanderson sets the bar for thematically cohesive magic systems based on logical laws of use, usually created by organizing the system around a unifying catalyst, such as metals in Mistborn.
However, it bears saying once again that the story doesn’t serve the magic system; the magic system serves the story. Although complexity can be fun, “complicated” is not. Cohesion and a tidiness of focus are hallmarks of magic systems that enhance their stories rather than taking away from them. Audiences (not to mention you) should be able to explain how your magic system works in a few sentences. You can layer complexity on top of that, but the basics should be clear.
For Example: Rebecca Yarros’s staggeringly popular Fourth Wing and its sequels offers a complex magic system full of revelations and twists, but the basis of its magic system is clear enough to describe in one sentence: dragons bond with riders and give them unique powers.
One of the best ways to integrate your magic system into your world is to look at how it appears from within your world. Magic systems will often be established within a story world as either scientific (e.g., Fourth Wing) or spiritual/religious (e.g., Lord of the Rings, Blood Song) or a little bit of both (e.g., Mistborn, Black Prism, Star Wars). Even if you don’t feel your magic system naturally arises from one of these angles, examine how both institutions interact with the magic. Plenty of metaphors waiting to happen right there!
The Magic System Blueprint by C.R. Rowenson (affiliate link)
For a handy guide to creating a cohesive and complete magic system, check out C.R. Rowenson’s Magic System Blueprint.
3. Connecting the Antagonist and the Climax
One of the most important parts of making your fantasy world feel real is integrating it cohesively with your plot. One of the best ways to do that—whether you’re creating, double-checking, or troubleshooting—is to consider your story’s finale.
Remember: your story’s ending proves what it’s about.
Structuring Your Novel: Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition (Amazon affiliate link)
Whatever happens in your story’s Climax—however it decides the conflict—is your story. Everything leads up to that.
Although fantasy can focus on smaller more relational stories, the genre is best known for epic confrontations between forces of good and evil. A good battle is de rigeur for a fantasy Climax. As such, fantasy is also usually known for its strong antagonist characters. Like all parts of the story, the antagonist should never be an arbitrary decision.
Apart from the usual requirements that the antagonist be formed as a worthy foil to challenge the protagonist on both the outer and inner levels, a fantasy antagonist should also be chosen to fully represent the opposing aspects of the thematic premise. In fantasy, as we’ve already discussed, it’s even more important than usual for the theme to be sewn into every part of the worldbuilding. This means crafting the antagonist is fundamentally a worldbuilding decision (even more so, in some ways, than crafting the protagonist).
Think of it this way: if your story’s magic symbolizes the theme in some way, then the antagonist must interact with that magic in a way that opposes or challenges the protagonist’s own use of it.
For Example: Almost all of the great fantasy stories offer obvious examples of thematic antagonists, including Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. One of the best examples is Harry Potter, in which the protagonist’s evolution into his full magical ability is continually contrasted by, compared to, and challenged by the antagonist’s relationship to that same magic. This story is a particularly good example of tight plotting, thanks to an antagonist who, even in his absence, is never an arbitrary opponent or simplistic representation of evil—but rather is a mirror to the protagonist’s own character arc as he explores the potential of magic as a metaphor for both corrupted power and love.
4. Shaping History, Culture, and Government
The fun of fantasy is that it allows us to explore scenarios that look like things we are familiar with, but without needing to worry about getting all the facts right. The flipside is this means you have to make up everything. And you have to do it in a way that feels just as real as real life. In some ways, it’s actually more work than research!
It’s tons of fun though. As long you’re focusing on several key areas, you can easily create a facsimile world that feels utterly real and convincing. Start with your world’s history, culture, and government. These three will be intertwined (more bob and weave, anyone?). It should go without saying they should also be intertwined with your intentions for your story’s plot, theme, and character arc.
If you’re like me, early ideas for your fantasy may give you a sense of what its world looks or feels like. Perhaps, in the genre’s oldest tradition, it seems to take place in a pseudo-medieval setting. However, you might just as easily base your setting on modern-day social structures and mores.
Either way, this provides a basis for exploring questions that can flesh out an entire world in a way that feels compelling and convincing. You can ask how the circumstances of people’s lives in this period would have influenced their views. What historical developments—either positive or negative—might have led to these circumstances? You can also retcon this by examining what you know about your characters’ plights or actions, then examining what kind of history and culture would have created such a scenario.
From there, you can advance to what is often an important decision in fantasy: government. Not all stories will focus on government-level conflict, but because of the scope of their stakes (and their frequent thematic discussions of power), many fantasies create elaborate governments, usually based on something more than a little bit familiar.
For Example: In many ways, Game of Thrones is as much alternate history as fantasy, since it utilizes relatively little magic, while exploring the history, culture, and themes of medieval succession, explicitly based on England’s War of the Roses.
Game of Thrones (2011-19), HBO.
5. Crafting Language
Although not all fantasy stories will feature multiple and/or foreign languages, many do. Again, this is largely due to the scope of the stakes in many fantasy stories, which deal with the fates of one or more countries at the national level. Another attractive reason for indulging in special languages for your fantasy is that doing so can foster the impression your story world is as vast and varied as our own.
A little language goes a long way in fantasy. Tolkien’s linguistic genius aside, most audiences (especially readers) don’t find much joy in skimming over long sentences (or, God forbid, paragraphs) they can’t understand.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), New Line Cinema.
As with every intentional decision in your story, your inclusion of made-up words should always further the story in some obvious way. One of the most obvious reasons for including a foreign language is when it makes no sense for one group of people within your world to understand the language of another.
However, unless you’re a linguist yourself, there’s no reason not to keep your language creation relatively simple. One of the easiest approaches is to choose an existing language (one that fits the motif of your story world) and use its conventions to construct a language that follows similar rules. For example, the story I’m currently working on is set in Dark Ages Great Britain, where it made sense to create a language that looks a bit like Gaelic.
The Art of Language Invention by David J. Peterson (affiliate link)
For a heavy-duty resource, check out The Art of Language Invention by David J. Peterson (who developed the languages for the Game of Thrones HBO adaptation). For a slightly more intuitive tool (which you can customize to the complexity you desire), check out VulgarLang.
6. Weaving Backstory
When you focus on backstory, you narrow your focus from the general history of your fantasy world to the specific history that informs your story and your characters. Discovering characters’ backstories can be one of the most important tools for developing your fantasy world.
Why?
Because it tells you a) what you need your story’s world to do in order to best further the story and b) what events in your world’s historical development are truly important.
In working through your story’s backstory and then plotting it, you will discover the richest and most pertinent details. This is where you will learn how to make your fantasy world feel real.
This is also an important part of the “bob and weave.” As you’re developing your characters and plot, you will inevitably get stuck as you realize you don’t know how (or why) to get your characters to do something important. Perhaps you don’t fully understand what would motivate such a person. Or perhaps you need characters to accomplish something magical but don’t know quite how your magic system will pull that off.
This is where you stop what you’re doing and move over to worldbuilding. Then after a bit, you’ll get stuck again. Perhaps you don’t know what kind of antagonistic government might best oppose your protagonist’s personal journey. Or perhaps you’re worried your magic system is starting to get too complicated. Stop again and return to ask your characters. What do they need? What best serves them?
***
Worldbuilding is one of the greatest joys of writing fantasy, but it’s also one of its greatest challenges. The best fantasy stories aren’t just set in immersive worlds; they’re shaped by them. Every detail, from the magic system to the antagonist’s philosophy, should serve the greater whole of your plot, theme, and character arcs. The key to making your fantasy world feel real isn’t in how much you invent, but in how seamlessly everything fits together. By approaching your worldbuilding with purpose and flexibility, you can craft a setting that breathes with life and resonates with readers long after they turn the final page.
In Summary:
Creating a fantasy world that feels real requires more than just imagination. It demands cohesion, intentionality, and integration with your story’s plot and themes. From magic systems to history, culture, and government, each aspect of worldbuilding should reinforce the story’s conflicts and character arcs. By weaving these elements together with a dynamic, evolving approach, you can build a world that captivates readers and elevates your storytelling.
Key Takeaways:
- Worldbuilding isn’t just about setting—it must serve the story’s plot, theme, and character arcs.
- Start with symbolism to ensure your world reinforces the deeper meaning of your story.
- Magic, religion, and science shape the world’s internal logic and can serve as powerful metaphors for your themes.
- Antagonists should be deeply intertwined with the worldbuilding, particularly if magic plays a central role in your conflict.
- History, culture, and government provide realism that makes your fantasy world feel as deep and layered as our own.
- The “bob and weave” approach allows for flexibility, letting your world evolve naturally alongside your story.
Want more?
Writing Your Story’s Theme (Amazon affiliate link)
If you want your story to resonate on a deeper level, theme is the thread that ties everything together—from your antagonist’s motivations to the climactic choices your protagonist faces. In my book Writing Your Story’s Theme, I break down how to craft a theme that emerges naturally from your story’s elements, rather than feeling forced or preachy. If today’s discussion got you thinking about the deeper layers of your plot, you’ll find insight inside the book. It’s available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook.
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What are your favorite techniques for how to make your fantasy world feel real? Tell me in the comments!
Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).
___
Love Helping Writers Become Authors? You can now become a patron. (Huge thanks to those of you who are already part of my Patreon family!)
How to Choose Story Settings: The 4 Basic Types of Setting
Figure Out Your Story’s Magic System Using Story Structure
Genre Tips: How to Write Fantasy
Your Story Isn’t Working? Here Are 6 Problems to Troubleshoot
About K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland
Another great article! Thanks, K.M.!
My way around the fantasy worldbuilding was to use an alternative universe plot. This involved heavy research into all aspects of the Middle Ages, Greek and Celtic culture, Medieval China, Ancient Egypt, Normandy, and more. Odd thing, though — all this research was fun and never felt like work. LOL
Yes, I often end up researching just as much for fantasy as I do for historical fiction! It’s fun either way.
I recently did a rewrite on one of my antagonists. I got so used to putting obstacles in the paths of my characters that I had made the villain look a bit weak and ineffective. Easy enough to fix by the simple act of “changing the minds” of various guild and city leaders to pledge actual support for the antagonist rather than simply wishing him luck and thanks for the banquet.
Aw, I don’t know, banquets are always important in fantasy. 😉
K.M. writes: “One of the most obvious reasons for including a foreign language is when it makes no sense for one group of people within your world to understand the language of another.”
Amen to thank. And a “Domo, arigato” to Google Translate.
You’re welcome. 🙂
Amazing article K. M.! Thanks for helping me feel like it’s okay to have an ever-evolving world. Something I struggle with! I love the idea of the bob and weave worldbuilding, which I have been doing all along without realizing it!
THANK YOU!
Nothing about writing is linear–we just use linearity as a tool so our little brains can manage everything. 😉
Thanks for this helpful post!
I agree that too much “foreign language” is a put-off for the reader. In fact, much inclusion of it can feel trite, as if the writer had a need to prove he could pull it off. Mark Twain comes to mind. Although I do not exactly write fantasy, some of the very real worlds within our world can be so unique to a small people group, that almost every aspect of the setting is an unknown to most readers and is integral to plot and character–is totally necessary.
In my story, the facts that the bedding gives off a stench, that the chickens in the chicken yard are dead from old age, that the outhouse is all there is and is termite-ridden — build the world of the protagonist and also contrast it to that of the antagonist, who has every desired prop, however humble. The average reader has not experienced the MC’s level of poverty, and needs to be there, to see it and smell it, and needs to know some of the explicit vocabulary and turns of phrase given in the culture.
It is an alternate reality, a foreign world to most readers, and is very much needed to explain all the actors.
I have a question, though. Using an example Twain, some having accused him of, idk, maybe irreverence toward some of his characters, I think he was merely painting the world he was referencing and using its language to add depth to the paint. Of course, there is no way to predict how the majority of readers will interpret any given writing, but do you have a short checklist for possible signs of abuse of existing cultures, maybe to avoid such accusations?
I’ve often pondered the old advice to “write like you talk” coming from veteran writers. (Which my mental editor corrects to: Write as if you were speaking.) I’ve countered that, more than once, with, “Ah toke lack a hail baily; yioo won’t me to rat lack they-at?” Of course, no one is amused, and some accuse me of cultural abuse, when I’m speaking about my own self, for pity’s sake. Where is the line? How do we know when the language we truly need to invent has become overdone?
If you’re writing of your own experience of your own culture, I think you, above anyone, understands what’s appropriate and what’s not. If it’s something you yourself have experienced, I would write it as you see it. This sharing of authentic experiences is how we all learn and grow.
Oh, yes. You are right. I should describe the interior of the outhouse. Ha! The flies. And the wasps. The writer earns credibility at the price of having been there. Hmm.
And I do have a fun-to-me way to introduce depth, and color the world (which also gives other needed backstory info) and that is to tell some of the story from the limited understanding (but unlimited imagination) of a child. The child playing under the furniture is painfully shy and enjoys writing in the dust and pocketing the coins he finds there. The adult version often ducks into a side room, closet, etc., or even into a marriage, to escape social interaction, to come home daily to familiar faces, and to be reunited with old memories associated with things in storage.
As long as it’s well integrated into the plot, the introduction of an “ignorant” character can be extremely helpful in supplying audiences with information they, too, are ignorant of.
Got it. Thanks so much.
The “bob and weave” concept is very validating. I was already working that way, and feeling like maybe I *should* be doing it differently. Hah! Thanks!
In my experience, there’s really no way around it!
This makes me wish I’d studied anthropology. Thanks for the reminder that the story climax, and how the conflict is decided, is the story and informs the worldbuilding. Very helpful for me today!
Yes, I’ve often thought that anthropology is one of the most useful topics to fantasy.
TLDR – As a pantser your comment “the story doesn’t serve the magic system; the magic system serves the story” (said several times!!!) is the whole point. I pants everything, supporting characters, plot, the magic system, and the whole fantasy worldbuilding.
In detail – a pantser’s perspective
The focus on the process you outline, as I pants forward, gets me writing the story faster, and the world building is forced to serve story because it has to emerge as the characters discover it. The world builds on what has gone before. There is no gratuitous “I have to include that cool idea”, as the fantasy elements are generated only by the need to move the story forward.
Not only do I pants, I don’t revise – I post my story online within minutes of completing the chapter. And the only way this is possible is to focus like a laser on — the magic system and world-building serve the story.
And the result – my WIP fantasy plot revolves around the main character’s discovery of the world, the implications of the magic system for characters, and the trajectory of society – what is tulanvarqa (connexion)? How are zharaqsa and lushvra (aether) related, and why do creatures have to suffer during its creation? Who is truly loyal by conscience and who is naraqhan (imprinted/bonded) and loyal by force? And what are the political implications when someone controls these processes?
Just as you emphasize, deep metaphors are needed, because under it all our stories are about our own society as much as the alien or fantasy world – a dark looking-glass that mirrors our life experiences.
So I totally agree – complexity arises because of the impulse you highlight and repeated throughout your article – all the world building serves the story.
Thanks so much for your insights. They absolutely apply to pantsing as much as to plotted works.
Marc
“Just as you emphasize, deep metaphors are needed, because under it all our stories are about our own society as much as the alien or fantasy world – a dark looking-glass that mirrors our life experiences.”
Exactly!
An amazing post. I have a duo in which my protagonist has to go from the ‘normal’ world to four other worlds, each based on a different element of the ancient world: earth, air, fire and water. I thus had to create four different worlds with these elements in mind. Earth (terra) was a green, forested place, with people living in tribes. Air (Aeris) had people living in floating cities held up by magic. There are two classes. Aerials live in the cities and have a membrane connected from their wrists to their ankles, and can glide. The others have no membrane, they are called Groundlings and live on the ground and are slaves. Fire (Ignis) has active volcanoes and dragons. Water (Aqua) has little land, merfolk and sea dragons.
I had enormous fun creating these worlds.
What a fun premise! That sounds delightful to build.
Great article as always. I agree that a little of a ‘new’ language goes a long way. I had created a language, and was so delighted with it, I overdid it, leaving critique partners glossy eyed. I’ve since pared it down, leaving hints of the language without hitting the reader over the head with it. If you want to create your own language, I recommend this site. http://practicalcryptography.com/ciphers/ Thanks again for the helpful advice.
That’s great! Thanks for sharing. And, yes, I think fantasy authors, perhaps more than any other genre, tend to fall in love with all the minutiae that readers prefer as subtext. :p
My mermaid character speaks Gaelic in my story. Do you have a favorite story do read when you were little like Snow White or Cinderella?
I always liked Beauty & the Beast.