How to Worldbuild Cultures

Start with cultural values + environment.

One of the reasons we read fantasy and science fiction is to experience new cultures and world views. We crave interesting governments, bizarre moral codes, and unique rituals. We’re fascinated by how these cultures survive in environments that are foreign to us—huge forests, dangerous seas, arid deserts, other planets.

When we sit down to create these worlds, however, the challenge can be overwhelming. Many world building resources focus on filling out lists and lists of facts: geography, climate, governments, justice systems, gender dynamics, etc. While these world building details are important, the process (not to mention the options) can seem endless. Today, we suggest you take a step back.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed in worldbuilding a culture for your story, start with the foundation: the physical environment + cultural values.

Physical environments put different restraints and pressures on a culture’s survival, and those struggles can influence their cultural values. Deciding on an environment and value(s) creates a useful lens through which you can analyze all of the detailed decisions you want to make about your world.

In the Wheel of Time, for instance, Robert Jordan created the Aiel. The Aiel have lived in the Waste, a harsh desert, for centuries. One value that Jordan chose for them is strength. Their men and women are equally capable of both battle and survival. Another value he chose is honor; the Aiel must deeply trust and respect one another in order to survive. As such, they live by a strict moral code called ji’e’toh.

WHAT TO DO: List out your current environments.

Include both geography and terrain, surrounding human threats such as rival cities or over-extraction, or biological limits such as physical challenges or infertility problems. Consider the pressures that these factors will put on your culture and what important values might arise to help your communities survive them.

Tie your environment + cultural values to your story point.

If you’ve not yet developed your story point, or message, check out this blog on the topic. We’re big proponents of putting your point in conversation with everything in your story, including the setting. What values (i.e. trust, strength, love, justice) does your point explore? What does your character value? Can you put these values in conflict with, or at the forefront of, their culture?

Consider Frodo in the Lord of the Rings. The environment that Tolkien chose for the hobbits, the Shire, is a beautiful and fruitful land. The hobbits, however, are small people with no magical powers or advanced technologies. Therefore, the culture Tolkien shaped for them is one that values hard work, community, and peace because they could not survive without them. Frodo’s choice to go on an adventure is in direct contrast with these cultural values, but the reason he does it (to maintain peace) is entirely in line with the Shire’s values. See the brilliance in this? Frodo must go against his culture’s values in order to save them.

WHAT TO DO: List out relevant values.

List the values that are in conversation with your story point (i.e. honesty, security, beauty, love, strength, justice, etc.). What moral codes and ethics is your main character driven by? Explore how these values could have been borne of specific environmental restraints (lack of food, scarcity of water, harsh seasons, uninhabitable lands, infertility, etc.) and build your setting to implement those pressures.

Once you have your environmental restrictions and cultural values, you can use them to brainstorm the intricacies of your culture.

Your culture’s environment and values will influence almost everything they do from culture to government to religion. For example, as the Aiel in The Wheel of Time value honor, they are horrified by the concepts of slavery and life-time servitude. Instead, they have a practice called gai’shain, in which they voluntarily enter into servitude to another (for exactly a year and a day) when they have been shamed. Another example is how the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings have a custom of giving (rather than receiving) gifts on their birthdays, which is in line with their values of peace and community.

WHAT TO DO: Get creative and extrapolate!

As you peruse the many worldbuilding lists the internet has to offer, answer the questions through the filters of the qualities you’ve chosen.

Some facets of culture that could be influenced by an environmentally based value: religion/creation myths, standards of beauty, government structure, military organization and purpose, gender dynamics, marriage, parenthood, coming-of-age rituals, sex, art/architecture, weapons, language, education, social classes, healthcare, justice system.

Examples!

In two different instances, I picked environments and values and examine on what world characteristics and

EXAMPLE 1: Harsh Landscape + Strength

Let’s say your culture is based on a value of strength because people live in harsh and nearly uninhabitable mountain ranges. This could mean that they worship a God that values strength. Perhaps the justice system is based on one’s ability to physically fight, not their innocence. Maybe beauty is tied to physical strength and women are expected to be just as strong as men. Children could be encouraged to wrestle and fight, rather than waste time on art. Coming of age ceremonies could be based on survival excursions into the mountains. The story could be about a child who wishes to do art, instead of fighting. Their internal value for beauty could be at odds with their culture’s expectation for strength.

EXAMPLE 2: Limited Resources + Innovation

Perhaps your culture lives in a fertile river valley that is surrounded by mountains. Currently, your people are thriving, but as the population grows, you will soon overrun yourselves—as has occurred in the past. A culture like this could value innovation. Children’s imagination and academia could be central to the society. Their religion could be agnostic, recognizing that gods cannot save them from themselves. The story could be from the perspective of an outsider attempting to streamline work into production lines to get the most with the least effort—the character’s value of efficiency would be at odds with the culture’s value of creativity.