Worlds Building 101 Part 2- History

“One of the deepest impulses in man is the impulse to record, to scratch a drawing on a tusk or keep a diary… The enduring value of the past is, one might say, the very basis of civilization.”

John Jay Chapman, American author (1862-1933)

Editors Note - This is the 2nd Part of a Multipart series on Worldbuilding. You can read the 1st submission HERE.

The history of your world…where to even start? Let’s look at the very beginning. Was the world created by a pantheon of gods and goddesses? Was there just one creator mother goddess, or was there an “all-father” surrounded by lesser deities? If your world is inhabited by primitive peoples, many of the above creator scenarios could come into play. If there is not a widely held pantheon of deities interacting with the people of your planet, different civilizations may have completely different and separate creator myths. Another question that could arise is how did these creator beings create the people who live in your world. Do different races have different creator gods or do they all fall within the greater pantheon of deities?

One of my favorite resources for creation myths is to find inspiration in the mythology of our own planet Earth. I suggest finding a copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology. Within its pages you will find creator myths from the Sumerians, Egyptians, and many other cultures. You can also just perform a Google search on creation stories from different cultures. This will help jump start your imagination. You may also see some of these ancient myths being used in other RPG worlds. The Finnish goddess of the forest Mielikki appears in the lore of the Forgotten Realms for example. The creator doesn’t even have to be humanoid. It could be a monstrous creature from beyond the stars. Don’t feel you have to create gods and goddesses from scratch, but if you must, make sure your world has at least one creator deity. For mythology is a forge of adventure.

Your world may be populated by scientifically adept lifeforms. In worlds like these mythology may be just ancient tales from dead civilizations. A scientific world will know of gravity and its force for creating planets from a spinning accretion disk around a young star. These worlds will be technological and will know where they come from and where they are going, unlike primitive civilizations that depend on oracles and the gods themselves for guidance. Your modern or futuristic world can have elements of old civilizations. Maybe ancient beliefs or societal norms survived the advancement through the ages, so you can still have your mythology and science too.

How old is your world? Is it turbulent with plate tectonic forces changing the surface frequently, or is it an old planet where it is tidal locked with its home star with one side blistering hot, and the other side ice cold? Does it have a moon, or many moons? Do these moons’ gravitational forces play havoc with your world, or does the surface of the moon when full cast a different color on the nightscape of the planet?

Now that we have a good starting point let's move on to the peoples and their place in your world. Have they lived in one empire for as long as history has been recorded? Were they enslaved by cruel masters and finally freed from their bonds by others? Do or did they live in a feudal system where there were surfs, lords, kings, and emperors? In their societies are lower class people able to “change their stars” or were they forever tied to the soil for the benefit of their superiors? How did the civilization your players will be experiencing come to be? How many years of darkness or enlightenment did they experience if ever they had been able to find it.

Technological worlds may have been settled by a spacefaring race, bringing their cultures and beliefs from their home world. There are so many possibilities when it comes to fabricating histories, let your imagination take flight.

The history of the world is what ties your worlds societies and civilizations together. The history of your world is filled with stories of great heroes and infamous villains, and much like mythology, history can spawn great adventures.

• Creation Myth

  • One creator, many creators

  • Monstrous creator being

  • Scientific reasoning

• Age of the world

  • Young

  • Middle aged (Earth-like)

  • Old

• Type of World Societies & Civilization

  • Feudal

  • Enlightened

  • Barbaric

  • Modern

  • Futuristic

  • History lost due to a great cataclysm