How to Make a Terrific Fantasy Society That People Like

Part of a fantasy society, this city has 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 autumn-like 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 several white oval clouds.
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Sunfire

CONTENTS

The PRemise

Stories within the fantasy genre don’t occur in isolation. Typically the protagonist is part of a larger world, a community of sorts regardless if he lives in a bustling city or out in the country. He meets and interacts with different folks throughout the plot and each one of them is part of the fantasy society of the world.

Society in fantasy is largely inspired by that of the real world. The society shown in the story varies by world. Some are informal and friendly whereas others are more rigid and controlling. Many fantasy creators like to highlight how the society in the world can be either an asset or a hindrance to the protagonist as he battles the forces of evil.

The last thing you want to do is to create a fantasy society that is dull and insipid. Your audience will quickly become bored if it’s just there and offers no value to the plot whatsoever. Instead, you want to make it interesting and present it in a way that spurs them to want to learn more about your world.

True to its name, a society in fantasy doesn’t have just one class. It features a multitude of them, each one different than the other. Exploring these various classes is a superb way to showcase how the society in your world operates.

If you want to be really creative, you can opt to put your own spin on your fantasy society. For instance, you can have your kings be more involved with the people of the realm instead of just dwelling in his castle, making decisions that will affect their lives all day long. This can help your world stick out in an ever-growing number of worlds.

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Make the Fantasy Society Interesting

People who love fantasy worlds don’t just love watching or reading about the adventures of the protagonist; they love seeing the world the stories take place in. A large part of these worlds is the society and how it’s shown can make or break a story. All fantasy creators work hard in creating a society that isn’t only visually interesting but is deeply integrated in the plot, one way or the other.

Thus, when constructing your own fantasy society, the goal is to make it interesting to the point that your audience wants to learn more about it and how it works. Fortunately, there are a myriad of ways you can go about it but we’ll cover just a few to help you get started.

6 small brown lower class fantasy homes sitting on a grassy plain in autumn. The background has two red hills and the ocean in-between them. Above them is a pink sky with white clouds and birds.

The first one is to make it feel believable, like it makes sense for it to exist in the world. For example, having a nobility-dominated society leads to nobles wearing extravagant clothes and speaking in a sophisticated manner to emphasize their position in the realm. Furthermore, it also sees them constantly scheming to increase their power at the expense of their rivals. See how just including these things help make the world more dynamic and makes you curious to learn more about it?

Another way to make an interesting fantasy society is to incorporate a variety of how people speak. Those in the lower classes are more blunt and coarse in their language whereas those in the upper echelon are more subtle and grammatically correct. How a character speaks reveals where he is in regards to society.

The third way is to show the lifestyles of different classes. For instance, the wealthy prefer to partake in events where they don’t just bet money, they also bet properties and so on as opposed to the peasants who can’t afford to attend them so they go to free places like the beach or park. Wealthy people are members of clubs where they meet to discuss many things like literature or the latest scandal rocking the city and the peasants are the ones serving them.

Explore Different Classes in the Fantasy Society

One social class does not make a society. Instead, it is comprised of a number of classes, each one playing their role in the realm. When developing your own, think about the classes you want to show in your story. You can have however many classes you want, after all, it’s your world.

The reason why you want to have more than one class in a fantasy society is to explore them and show your audience how they function. This allows you to dive deep into each class and how they interact with those higher or lower than them which can give you plenty of ideas for cultivating plot-lines.

A building is being constructed since there's a fantasy construction site around it. Gray building materials are scattered around the lot. The gray building has a golden trim and golden door. It also has a reddish-brownish roof and a steeple-like part jutting out from the middle. The building is in the middle of a forest atop a grassy plain. Blue skies and white oval clouds are above the forest.

The classes you plan to include are heavily dictated by where your world is in terms of political development. For instance, a story set in medieval times typically features monarchs, nobles, and peasants whereas one set in the modern age depicts elected officials, bureaucrats, and citizens. Be sure to match them to the world you’re building, lest you run the risk of only leaving your audience in bewilderment as to why these classes exist in your world.

No matter which era your world is in, the classes in your fantasy society will all have competing interests. Some will be solely focused on amassing as much power and influence as possible even to the detriment of others; some will just be trying to stay alive and stay away from the power struggles of others. These interests can drive the plot in exciting directions and affect what happens throughout it.

All classes have internal tensions simmering within them which affects how their members treat each other. For example, two great lords could be clashing violently over a land dispute or two store owners could be trying to steal the other’s customers by slashing their prices in a bid to drive their rival out of business. These tensions can cloud their judgment, causing them to make decisions that they otherwise wouldn’t which will have repercussions all over.

Put Your Own Spin on Your Fantasy Society

While many creators like to use elements of the real world in creating the society in which the story takes place in, some opt to put their own spin on them. Doing so is a superb way in helping to distinguish their world from the countless others in the genre.

Why would you want to put your own spin on your fantasy society? It’s because the world you’re creating is driven by your own perspective. The experiences you’ve accumulated during your life dictate how you perceive the world and everyone around you which you bring into your imaginary world. Since you’re already doing that for it, why not apply it to the society in which your story is set?

A magocracy rules from grand castles. This light gray castle's shape resembles the upper body of a kraken. It has many windows and a golden trim around the door. Red, blue, and green diamond symbols surround the door. A gray path leads to the door and pink diamond statues line it. The castle sits atop a grassy plain with several mesas in the background. Above them is the pink sky with oval clouds. This castle is one of many upper class fantasy homes. Fantasy court jesters entertain people here.

Should you deign to take this route, there’s no shortage to the amazing possibilities you can come up with. The best part of it is, this is something only you can do, for nobody else will have the same life experiences as you do. So how do you get started on this?

One surefire way is to brainstorm. Having one or more sessions where you jot down ideas can can help you figure out how you’d like to bring your own viewpoint into your fantasy society. For example, if your story features kings and nobles, you can think of a creative way to fashion the society in which they live in. Maybe it’s a long-standing requirement that all nobles have to serve in the military upon reaching adulthood which can inspire both a sense of patriotism and resentment towards serving the realm. This can drive the plot in several exciting directions!

Sometimes some creators like to go in the opposite direction of what the mainstream is doing. For instance, in a medieval-era kingdom where society is rigid, you could make it more loose and relaxed which is a great way to subvert expectations while weaving your own perspective into the world and the story. If you take this option, be sure to showcase it in a way that feels natural to both parts and not shoehorned in for the sake of either. Your audience will notice immediately which will hurt their ability to fully immerse themselves into your world.

Tying it all Together

Constructing the society of your fictional world is essential to creating the story. It is the framework of how the people your characters meet throughout the course of the story function. Thus, it’s something you want to spend at least a little bit of time on, working until it’s exactly how you envisioned it.

A crucial element of making your own fantasy society is to make it interesting. Try not to use typical tropes which can make it feel dull or worse still, vapid. Go with something that makes your audience curious to learn more about its inner workings or why it is the way it’s presented in the story.

The best stories don’t just focus on one class in society; they look at the disparate classes that comprise it. Featuring a mixture of characters from different classes in the plot is a fantastic way to explore the various classes which can naturally lead to conflict and drama since the classes they grew up in affects how they perceive one another.

Of course, you could always decide to just your own spin on the society in the story. This is a great opportunity to let your creativity shine forth, for the things that have shaped you can be used to create a society that only you could come up with. This can really help your world stand out amid the crowded marketplace of fantasy worlds.

If you haven’t given much thought to building your fantasy society, there’s no better time to start than today! Take as much time as you need to make it the way you want it to be!

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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,

Sunfire

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