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When it comes to building both a fantasy world and the story you want to tell with it, there are many things to keep track of which can feel overwhelming, especially for those doing it for the very first time. Even though it is important in terms of worldbuilding, there are things to do regarding lore in fantasy that makes both the world and its story better, not worse.
Lore helps the audience understand the framework of the world and its characters and it does so in several ways. It provides context to places and objects that are a part of the world like castles and weapons but it does so to increase your viewers’ immersion in the world. In other words, they learn information that helps them understand why things are the way they are in the plot.
As a worldbuilding tool, lore in fantasy serves as a ‘show, don’t tell’ device. This is a helpful tool for those who are discovering your world for the first time. They have a curiosity to learn about the past and see how things back then led to the events of the present. For instance, seeing the ruins of a great castle makes people wonder what happened and what it looked like when it was intact.
You want your audience to learn things about the world and the characters but you have to be careful since you don’t want to overwhelm them by giving out too much lore. Focusing on those germane to the plot is beneficial since they impact it in various ways. For example, exploring a previous conflict that occurred a long time ago between good and evil and how it led to the present state of the world holds more significance to the plot than incorporating info about something that ultimately winds up going nowhere.
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Lore is designed to provide additional information about the world and the people who live in it. It covers many areas, ranging from why a city is located where it is, why a particular sword has magical powers, or where a kingdom got its name from. This helps the audience learn more about the world they’re exploring and is presented in a way that invites them to spend even more time there.
In terms of the plot, lore in fantasy appears at periodic moments throughout. It could be an object, place, or character that the protagonist interacts with and learns a little more about the world. Through it, the audience discovers a tidbit of info that helps them understand why the world is in the state it is in.
Most of the time, lore is presented as something the protagonist interacts with but it can also be utilized as a storytelling device. This occurs when a character — usually the wise one or one who’s lived for a very long time — is telling a story about events that occurred in the past that led to what’s going on in the present. It could be a war, the rise and fall of a dark power, a powerful object, or an invention that revolutionized the world.
Throughout his journey, the protagonist comes across objects and places that don’t seem particularly special to him but are important to the world and the story itself. This is where lore in fantasy truly shines. His curiosity impels him to learn more about them, whether by exploring its surroundings or listening to another character explain their importance, and through his actions, the audience discovers something about the world that they previously didn’t know about.
There are many ways lore is used as a worldbuilding tool. The mechanism used is designed to give the audience a piece of information about the world that they didn’t know beforehand. This is structured to pull them in, making them want to spend more time in the world.
Though lore in fantasy is used in many ways, it is mainly utilized as a ‘show, don’t tell’ device. By showing your viewers a new part of the world and its characters, they discover a new element to it, leading them to have questions. For instance, seeing a dry riverbed makes people wonder what happened to the water. Did it dry out naturally or was it the result of something else?
The purpose of lore is to enrich the world, to illuminate a little light on the mystery that is the world and those who live in it. The world of the protagonist is not just something that appeared overnight. It is awash in mystery, intrigue, and other oddities that defy logical explanation. Lore helps solve at least some of them while leaving others unexplained to be answered at a later time, if they are answered at all.
Another purpose of lore in fantasy is to serve as a bridge between the past and present. The condition of the world in the present is determined by what happened in the past and lore showcases snippets of these events from then. This is by design to give the audience a little insight into how the world wound up the way it is in the story.
While lore is meant to give answers, it is also meant to raise questions. The audience, by virtue of discovering something new about the world, is supposed to wonder what happened to make it the way it is. For example, suppose the protagonist comes across a massive, twisted tree in the heart of the forest and yet there is a door at its bottom. He can go in but before he enters, he cannot help but notice that the tree itself is the only unusual thing around him, making him wonder how and why the tree looks the way it does.
Lore is a tool in which to whet your audience’s appetite which naturally begets the question of how much should you give them? On one hand, you want them to learn more about your world since doing so increases their understanding of the events unfolding in the plot. On the other hand, you still want to leave some mystery and suspense so that they can be caught off guard by a plot twist, especially at a turning point in the story.
Smart creators dole up lore throughout the story, beginning at or near the starting of the story. They pepper them in without giving away too much information without detracting from the unfolding story. Essentially, lore works in tandem with the plot to enrapture the audience’s attention and keep it.
How much lore should you divulge to your audience? Only use the ones that are plot-worthy. Many people are interested in learning about the world they’re exploring but they have no desire to learn every single thing about it. Furthermore, they don’t want to be bombarded with information that doesn’t really matter to them which is why many creators opt to use it strategically in ways to differentiate between those who just want to know more about the world and those who seek to learn as much about it as they can.
Lore in fantasy is designed to enrich the world and the story, not hamper it. Think of it as a piece to the puzzle that you created and giving one to your audience at a time makes your audience want more while maintaining the mystique of your world. You want the picture to be crystal clear when the time is right, not earlier or later.
Stories and worlds benefit from lore in many ways and it is up to you, the creator, to use it to get your viewers invested in them so that they can fully immerse themselves in something you built from the ground up.
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