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The cover for Abbott's Flatland No matter how trashy H. P. Lovecraft was as a person, his impact on the horror genre can't be understated. He created the concept of "cosmic horror," which Wikipedia helpfully describes as "emphasizing the horror of the unknown and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock." The core... Continue Reading →
A common trope in both fantasy and science fiction is the autocrat with unlimited power. It should be obvious that in real life, no one wields that kind of authority. One source of inspiration for these despots is the legacy of European monarchs. The proper term for the philosophy that kings and queens should have... Continue Reading →
Spoilers for Encanto incoming! Encanto was fantastic. If you haven't seen it, the basic plot is that there is a family with magical powers called Gifts that watch over a village. The magic behind their gifts and their sentient house starts to fade, and it's up to the protagonist Mirabel (the only non-Gifted member of... Continue Reading →
Many people argue that due to magic, fantasy combat should have more in common with early modern warfare than premodern war. To be honest, I haven't fully considered this idea. To get started, let's look at what war looked like in the gunpowder era before the Industrial Revolution. This will focus on European warfare at... Continue Reading →
This week, I'd like to take a brief look at something different. I recently read through the amazing webcomic, Stand Still, Stay Silent (here's page one), set in a unique post-apocalyptic Scandinavian setting. There are a billion good things about SSSS---fascinating usage of Nordic folklore, detailed worldbuilding, delightful character interactions, and an engaging storyline among... Continue Reading →
Now that the first article discussing the basics of the early modern era, is out of the way, we can get started dissecting the elements that can be used by worldbuilders. One of the features that defined the early modern period was globalization. The world went from being a collection of regional powers that only... Continue Reading →
Merry Christmas, worldbuilders! A few people have asked for info on the early modern period. While the premodern era has many lessons worldbuilders can draw from, the rest of history definitely has its share of inspiration. This is the introduction to a series collecting what I consider to be some of the more interesting features.... Continue Reading →
Well, here we are. As far as I can tell, this is the last topic I can helpfully cover about premodern life. Everything else is too varied or too complex to discuss in an article of reasonable length. But, that leads into two new upcoming series! For Your Enchantment will revisit the topics covered in... Continue Reading →
Another week, another ramble about the intersection between history and worldbuilding! This week, it's the commonalities between the upper classes of premodern cultures. I should note that while I use the word "nobility," I just mean an upper class that is given special rights and/or responsibilities by the government. In general, the concepts used in... Continue Reading →
I was recently rewatching David Attenborough's Planet Earth (which I highly recommend), and there's a part where a waterfall is so high up that the water falls unbroken for so long that it blows away in a fine mist. This got me thinking that this would likely be a spiritual or sacred place for nearby... Continue Reading →
This is a list of tv series set throughout history (cut off at World War 2), starting with the most recent first. Let me know in the comments any to add. 1940s USA, France, Germany Band of Brothers The story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from 1942 to the end... Continue Reading →
Intro Often it can useful to visiualise your characters and your world. Representing these with 3rd party art can be very inspiring and a great way to do so without spending ages writing descriptions and so you can spend more time developing your world. I've interspersed this post with art from my Pinterest boards so... Continue Reading →
The Importance of Inspiration Feeling inspired is very important to worldbuilding and art creation in general. It helps you come up with ideas, concepts, characters and narratives. It can also give you the drive to keep creating. Without it you might find yourself at the bottom of the "creative well" where you want to create,... Continue Reading →
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