More often than not I’ll crack into a sprawling fantasy series and, while I appreciate the luscious descriptions of furniture, landscapes, and clothing, all I’m focused on is that I don’t actually know how this world works. I only know what it looks like.
Including some functionality to your universe can add to immersion and give your reader a strong foundation on which to build their mental model of your universe.
You certainly don’t need to use all of these questions! In fact, I recommend against that, as all of these certainly won’t make it into your final draft. I personally find that starting my worldbuilding off with 5 to 10 functional questions helps pave the way for glittery and elaborate aesthetic development later on.
- How is the healthcare funded in your world?
- How does healthcare functionally differ between the wealthy and the poor? (i.e. can only the wealthy go to hospitals? do poor families often have to rely on back-alley procedures?)
- Where are health centers (i.e. hospitals, small clinics, etc.) organized in your cities?
- Does it differ in smaller towns?
- How does this affect people’s ability to get healthcare?
- Is healthcare magical, and if it is, how does that affect the healthcare system?
- If healing is instantaneous, how does that affect people’s views on injury, illness, and chronic ailments?
- If you have both magical and physical healthcare, which one is deemed superior and how does that affect society?
- What illnesses are common in your world?
- How does this affect daily life?
- What do the people in your world think illnesses are?
- Is it a miasma theory?
- Humor theory?
- Demons?
- Do they know about biological viruses and bacteria?
- How does this affect healthcare?
- How do people get water?
- Is the water sanitary and if not, how do they sanitize it?
- How does agriculture work?
- Is it large corporations or individual farms?
- What sort of agricultural technology exists in your world and how does it affect food production?
- Are farmers wealthy or poor?
- What sort of natural resources does your world/country(ies) have and how are they obtained?
- How does this affect the average wealth of the country?
- How does this wealth affect the culture?
- What livestock or beasts of burden are most valued? Least valued? Why?
- What is considered a luxury good vs. a regular good?
- What forms of transportation does your world have?
- What classes use what forms of transportation?
- How far has the average citizen traveled, given your transportation limitations?
- Which cities are the most accessible and which are the least? Why?
- How do popular transportation methods change how cities/towns are laid out?
- Does your world have public transportation? What is it?
- Is there a coming-of-age aspect to travel?
- Describe your world’s postal system or whatever equivalent there is.
- Who pays for it?
- How reliable is it?
- Are there emergency methods for transporting information?
- How does your world keep time (i.e. watches, sundials, water clock, etc.)?
- Does your world have a currency system, barter system, or something else?
- If you have multiple countries, do different currencies have different values across said countries?
- How does this affect travel?
- Do you have banks in your world and if so, how are they run?
- Who owns the banks? Government? Wealthy? How does this affect the economy and/or class system?
- How does credit operate in your universe?
- Does your world operate more on big corporations or small business? Something in between?
- How are workers/labourers treated in your world?
- Are there workers unions and if so, what are common views on unions?
- Describe your tax system. If you don’t have a tax system, explain why and how your world is affected by that.
- Can certain social classes not own property, certain livestock, certain businesses, etc.? Why?
- How are business records kept? Are business records kept?
- If your world has technology, does your world prioritize developing entertainment tech, communications tech, transportation tech or something else entirely?
- What does this say about your world?
- How does this affect your economy?
- To the closest approximation, what type of government does your world have?
- How are rulers/presidents/nobles put in place?
- How much power does an individual ruler have?
- Is there a veto process?
- If you have multiple countries, do they have different types of rulers?
- Describe any large-scale alliances (i.e. countries, factions, etc.) that are present in your world.
- How did they come about and how are they maintained?
- Are they strained or peaceful?
- How does it affect the greater politics of your world?
- Describe how wars are fought both internationally and nationally.
- Do methods of war differ between countries/races?
- What about philosophies about war?
- If there is a military, what is its hierarchy structure?
- How does the military recruit?
- Is the military looked upon favourably in your society?
- What weapons are used by each country/type of people during warfare, and how does that affect war strategies?
- Describe the sentencing system of your world.
- Is your accused innocent until proven guilty, or guilty until proven innocent?
- How are lawbreakers punished?
- If you have prisons, describe how they are organized and run, and who owns them.
- Does differing ownership change how the prisons operate?
- What are the major ways in which laws between countries vary?
- Do laws between cities vary? If so, how and why?
- How does citizenship work in your world? What rights and privileges do citizens have that others do not?
- Can certain classes or races not become citizens?
- Are there certain taboo subjects or opinions that artist/authors/musicians are not allowed to depict (i.e. portraying the official religion in a negative light, explicit sexual material, etc.)? What does this say about your society?
- How do people get around these censorship laws?
- What is the official hierarchy of duty in your world? (i.e. is family the most important, or patriotism? What about clan?)
- How many languages are there in your world, and how many languages share a common origin?
- How many people are multilingual?
- Which language is the most common?
- How is multilingualism viewed?
- How are different languages viewed? (i.e. is one language ugly/barbaric while another is romantic and sensual?)
Feel free to add your own questions in reblogs or in comments!
