Breaking Down the Great Benefits of Time Travel in Worldbuilding

Anarchy in fantasy depicts a lawlessness world. This image features a city with a castle on a hilltop above it. The city has both rectangular- and square-shaped buildings with a wavy roof on each one. The buildings come in four colors: light yellow, brown, light blue, and white. The roofs come in the following colors: dark blue, red, light black, and dark brown. Many of these buildings have windows and some have a visible door. The road itself runs down the middle of the image, swaying to the right and then the left, ending at the doorstep of the castle. The road also meets two others, one that runs to the left, and the other to the right. Behind the city is a grassy field with blades of grass scattered throughout. A river cuts through the field, meandering from the left edge to the right edge of the image. The castle itself is white with gray shadows. It has four red turrets and diamond-shaped windows. Smoke billows forth from the buildings and castle, as if they're on fire. The grassy field is yellow-orange and the sky is a pale yellow with gray clouds. The castle and town being on fire is an effect of the fantasy military and war. It can also be used for time travel in worldbuilding.
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Sunfire

CONTENTS

Introduction

All fantasy stories use themes to explore and expand upon topics such as nature and industry. The best ones use them to great effect and cleverly tie them into the lore of the worlds they’re set in. Themes help make worlds more interesting and using time travel in worldbuilding takes them to a whole new level.

Stories that utilize time travel in a way that works strengthen the audience’s immersion to them in that they don’t feel like they were used simply as a plot device. People can easily tell the difference between a plot line that occurred naturally versus one that was just thrown in just for the sake of it. If you’re constructing a story using time travel, avoid the latter at all costs.

Time travel in worldbuilding comes with several major benefits, one of which is that it expands the lore. By the time the protagonist moves through time for the first time, the audience’s learned a little bit about the world. Whether going back to the past or the future, people get to see a different version of the world they’ve become accustomed to which gives creators the perfect opportunity to build upon the already established lore.

Having the hero travel through time adds immersion in that it makes it easier for the audience to be pulled into the setting. The goal here is to make it so that they love spending time in the world you’ve created and using time travel correctly goes a long way in enhancing that immersion.

The third benefit that comes with time travel in worldbuilding is that it gives creators a chance to dive into different themes and ideas that might not be feasible in the present-day world. At first glance, it might seem like they’re starting on a blank slate but they have to show how the same world changes between the two time periods. They use a medley of themes and ideas not found in the present world to highlight these changes and how they impact it.

This is article number two in the series examining time travel. For more, take a gander at our many articles, all on our blog page!

Time Travel in Worldbuilding: Expanding the Lore

Lore is an essential component of constructing both the story and the world it’s set in. It enables viewers to feel like what they’re seeing is just part of a larger picture as well as making the world feel more grounded in reality. Time travel can take the lore to a whole new level.

The protagonist doesn’t travel through time until partway through the story which means creators have some time to start building and establishing the lore of the world. This is an important step since the audience will have a framework in which to work with by the time the plot shifts to a different era of time. You don’t want to go to the past or future when the audience is still learning the basics of your world, do it when they’re more acclimated to it.

Fantasy cities are important in the genre. This image depicts a city with a castle on a hilltop above it. The city has both rectangular- and square-shaped buildings with a wavy roof on each one. The buildings come in four colors: light yellow, brown, light blue, and white. The roofs come in the following colors: dark blue, red, light black, and dark brown. Many of these buildings have windows and some have a visible door. The road itself runs down the middle of the image, swaying to the right and then the left, ending at the doorstep of the castle. The road also meets two others, one that runs to the left, and the other to the right. Behind the city is a grassy field with blades of grass scattered throughout. A river cuts through the field, meandering from the left edge to the right edge of the image. The castle itself is white with gray shadows. It has four red turrets and diamond-shaped windows. The sky above is a bright blue with two white clouds. Some birds are flying on the left side, above the castle, and the right side. It also features a fantasy marketplace.

The magic of time travel in worldbuilding begins the moment the hero goes through time, either wittingly or not. After he has successfully arrived in a different era, it is the perfect time to begin laying the groundwork to expand the lore. After all, he is in a world unknown to him.

The protagonist has no choice but to familiarize himself with this mysterious world while trying to find a way back to his time. He will eventually cross paths with a different set of characters — either wholly new ones who live in this era or the younger versions of those he knows from his own world — visit locations, and so on.

The best creators use the hero being in a different period of time to build upon already established lore. They use the people living in this era, the locations of this time, etcetera to expand it. Additionally, they also find clever ways to tie it to that of the present-day world, strengthening the connection between the two different versions of same world, showing how it changes between these two periods.

How Time Travel in Worldbuilding Adds Immersion

The greatest stories of the fantasy genre make it feel as if you’re right there with the characters, whether they’re sailing down a river, fighting monsters, or eating supper. There’s nothing that takes you out of the immersion. The same applies to those that use time travel effectively.

Traveling through time is a tricky subject to include in the story, meaning it’s imperative that you have a good grasp of how it works before you implement it into yours. Having a good understanding of it makes it easier for you to make it work in a way that enhances your viewers’ immersion in yours, not deter them.

A large white circle with small gray circles inside. It is surrounded by many oval-shaped white objects with small gray circles. They all point to it. They all are in front of a light blue gradient background. This is one of many examples of fantasy time travel.

An effective way to go about using time travel in worldbuilding for immersion purposes is to have it occur organically. That is, it happens at the perfect time for the story, serving as a neat plot twist. Stories like “The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time” and the Back to the Future series have the protagonist unexpectedly go through time when faced with a situation they never envisioned would happen.

These stories work because you, the viewer, are not taken out of the experience. Rather, they strengthen your immersion because you are discombobulated by what just happened beforehand and how the hero travels through time is presented in a way that feels believable to you. Your curiosity beckons you to want to understand how such a thing could be possible even though you saw it happen.

Some stories explain what happened right afterwards, others let it dangle in the air for a while before providing the answers. Regardless of which choice they go with, the protagonist and the audience are stuck in a world unfamiliar them and must endeavor to find out why they are there. When it comes to immersion, the power of time travel in worldbuilding pulls people in and makes them want to spend more time exploring these new worlds.

Exploring Different Themes and Ideas Using Time Travel in Worldbuilding

Themes are a vital part in constructing a great story. They enable creators to develop messages that resonate with people long after they’ve turned the last page. The vast majority use just one world to explore the themes they wish to communicate to their readers and viewers. When time travel is involved, well it’s a whole other matter.

The driving advantage time travel in worldbuilding has going for it is that it gives creators not just one but two or more different platforms in which to delve into themes and other ideas they’re interested in illuminating. The worlds they create become physical embodiments or representations of the themes that dominate them. For example, having one be comprised of forests and trees signify the untamed, pristine nature that is still pure.

This forest in summertime is studied by a fantasy researcher. The forest has green-yellow grass, trees, and a green-yellow canopy of leaves. Green-yellow spheres float in the air.

When fleshing out a different period of time for the world, creators are quick to take advantage of things that help distinguish it from the one they’ve been working on. Nobody wants to see that the world is the same in two different eras, they want to see what’s changed, regardless of if it’s in the past or the future.

Just as in the real world, a fictional world undergoes changes and these changes customarily denote the end of one era and the dawn of the next one. One example could be the last vestiges of magic dissipating into the air as the period comes to a close, formally marking the end of magic, meaning people must now endeavor to live in a world without it. Using time travel in worldbuilding here showcases how people lived in a time where magic reigned supreme versus a later time where they had to develop ways to get around without the use of magic.

Those who dabble in time travel like to illuminate the connections between the different versions of the same world and the ideas they use can serve as these connections. They particularly place an emphasis on the connections to highlight how the earlier incarnation of the world changed into the one the audience sees, whether it’s in the present or the future. Having different iterations of the same world be filled with different themes and ideas  enables creators to weave them together as if telling one long story.

Tying it all Together

Time travel in worldbuilding is a powerful asset to those who take full advantage of the benefits it offers. It lets creators create a story that transcends even time and if done correctly, lingers in people’s mind long after they’re done reading it, watching it, or listening to it.

One powerful benefit of this is that it significantly expands the lore of the world. The audience is introduced to a slew of new characters, places, ideas, that become part of the overall story, affecting it in ways they did not see coming. It adds an interesting dimension to the one they got to know beforehand, letting them view it in a new light.

The moment the protagonist leaves his period of time is a key development in the plot. Thus, the objective of keeping the audience immersed in the world and the story mustn’t be overlooked. It’s essential that it occurs naturally, feeling as if it’s a logical progression of the plot and is presented in a way that seems believable and not far-fetched.

The chance to explore different themes and ideas using time travel in worldbuilding is its third great advantage. Creators incorporate them into the different eras of time in the world and use them to highlight how it changes from one to the next. Think of them like a piece of a larger puzzle that if you put them all together, you get the full picture.

There is great power in using time travel in worldbuilding but it must be done so in a way that only strengthens the story, not diminish it. If done correctly, it can take it to a new level! 

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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,

Sunfire

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