Culture 101
October 4th 2010 15:00
Today's exercise is designed to help you give the culture you're working on depth and realism. There are many different levels of culture building, things like language, religion, history, law, and social custom. Today's post is divided into sections: reading recommendations, religion, and law.
Reading Recommendations
Before you start this exercise, if you have a spare half hour, check out these rants by limyaael:
~Language Rant 1
~Religion Rant 1
~Medieval Societies
Religion
You probably already have a vague idea or two of your kingdom's religion(s), but today we're going to make up a fact sheet and establish some basic information about it. If there are multiple very separate religions, create a fact sheet for each. If there are sects, don't bother; we'll deal with sects on a later day.
~How many Gods does this religion worship?
~What does each deity represent? (Answer this with a list of deities and their traits.)
~How many religious orders are there? (Different orders within the same religion, similar to sects. Sects are religious orders but may also be divided into orders, i.e. one sect might have a healing order and a fighting order.)
~What are the religious orders named? (List names, and beside each write a brief descriptive sentence)
~When was the first temple built?
~What are the rituals around birth? (More on this later; general idea now.)
Law
In the majority of medieval societies and fantasy societies, religion and law are almost entirely inseparable, which is why they're both in today's exercise. One builds upon the other. Today's questions about law aren't very in depth; I'm working on a more detailed law exercise which we'll probably see on Friday.
~Who makes the laws? (King, Queen, Parliament, etc.)
~What is the official state religion? (Most ancient kingdoms had one)
~Do the temples have their own court system?
~How much influence do the temples have over the courts?
The Prompt&The End
This week you can look forward to questions about religion, language, and law. Every day I'll post a prompt-on Tuesdays and Thursdays this prompt will be accompanied by one recommended reading link and one question, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, on Fridays I will post full exercises.
Today's prompt is:
Freewrite for fifteen minutes without stopping about miracles.
Did you find today's exercise useful?
Reading Recommendations
Before you start this exercise, if you have a spare half hour, check out these rants by limyaael:
~Language Rant 1
~Religion Rant 1
~Medieval Societies
Religion
You probably already have a vague idea or two of your kingdom's religion(s), but today we're going to make up a fact sheet and establish some basic information about it. If there are multiple very separate religions, create a fact sheet for each. If there are sects, don't bother; we'll deal with sects on a later day.
~How many Gods does this religion worship?
~What does each deity represent? (Answer this with a list of deities and their traits.)
~How many religious orders are there? (Different orders within the same religion, similar to sects. Sects are religious orders but may also be divided into orders, i.e. one sect might have a healing order and a fighting order.)
~What are the religious orders named? (List names, and beside each write a brief descriptive sentence)
~When was the first temple built?
~What are the rituals around birth? (More on this later; general idea now.)
Law
In the majority of medieval societies and fantasy societies, religion and law are almost entirely inseparable, which is why they're both in today's exercise. One builds upon the other. Today's questions about law aren't very in depth; I'm working on a more detailed law exercise which we'll probably see on Friday.
~Who makes the laws? (King, Queen, Parliament, etc.)
~What is the official state religion? (Most ancient kingdoms had one)
~Do the temples have their own court system?
~How much influence do the temples have over the courts?
The Prompt&The End
This week you can look forward to questions about religion, language, and law. Every day I'll post a prompt-on Tuesdays and Thursdays this prompt will be accompanied by one recommended reading link and one question, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, on Fridays I will post full exercises.
Today's prompt is:
Freewrite for fifteen minutes without stopping about miracles.
Did you find today's exercise useful?
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Comment by Anonymous
Link in usual location
I enjoyed the rants immensely. While I am not in the market to build a "world" per se, I am trying to build a reality and these questions and lessons (in form of rant) are useful to me.
Looking forward to a full month lead up to Nano. Not sure if I will be able to post all the writing lessons but I will do what I can.
Cheers!
RP
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
I really enjoyed the flash fiction piece
I'm glad you liked the rants. Limyaael is one of my favourite people on the interwebs, and her rants are the main reason for that.
I'm enjoying working out the lead up to Nanowrimo and I'm quite excited to start Nanoing myself. I've got all kinds of awesome ideas for my blog and my Nanos floating around in my head.
~Dianna