Creating Unique Cultures

[TheHelpfulFawn]

How do you guys go about creating unique cultures within your fantasy worlds? Do you take influences and inspiration from modern cultures found around the world today or in the past? Or do you try to build it off of the unique characteristics of a particular race or species? An example of that would be Bird or fish people who live in the mountain tops or ocean bottoms respectively. Fantasy or sci-fi races like the Aiel from the Wheel of Time or the Fremen from Dune sometimes feel similar due to the common influences that they take from (middle-eastern/Muslim culture), so how would you differentiate your unique culture from something found within the real or another fantasy/sci-fi world?

 

[Lloyd]

Stealing

 

[NotaNuffian]

Stealing

Call it plagerizing.

+1

 

[Deleted member 54065]

For me, it's a mix. I base my races' cultures on what I know, and then add some unique traits for them to be totally separated apart.

Of course, I write down the specifics, lest I forget what I set.

Listing down the aspects each people would have a perspective on, like:

Family and Marriage
Education System
Society as a Whole
Sexual Preferences
Views on Other Cultures/People

Of course, there's a lot more categories to discuss. Also, I do take note of what kind of environment they are in, since their culture will be influenced by their situation.

For my story, for example, the Beastmen are hardy folk, since their land is populated by monsters.

Humans are war-like, since they got no other problem than fighting amongst themselves.

Demons are...well, they believe in the 'nobility' of their race so they end up with each other (like a huge Sweet Home Alabama).

I haven't gone deep into my Elves and Dwarves so I can't explain them here yet.

 

[longer]

Write them based on cultures most people aren't familiar with. Everyone and their grandma has seen a fantasy totally not Rome. But now imagine a version of the Kushan empire with its Yuezhi and Graeco-Bactrian roots given much greater presence than the Indian parts. Maybe not unique per se, but definitely not generic.

Making actual unique stuff might require systematically creating a civilization. How does their environment and food sources affect culture? How do their immediate or not so immediate neighbors affect them? What great historical event or people drastically changed their culture? And most importantly, have they come into contact with catgirls and what are their opinions on said catgirls.

 

[AKnightWithaKnife]

For me, it's a mix. I base my races' cultures on what I know, and then add some unique traits for them to be totally separated apart.

Of course, I write down the specifics, lest I forget what I set.

Listing down the aspects each people would have a perspective on, like:

Family and Marriage
Education System
Society as a Whole
Sexual Preferences
Views on Other Cultures/People

Of course, there's a lot more categories to discuss. Also, I do take note of what kind of environment they are in, since their culture will be influenced by their situation.

For my story, for example, the Beastmen are hardy folk, since their land is populated by monsters.

Humans are war-like, since they got no other problem than fighting amongst themselves.

Demons are...well, they believe in the 'nobility' of their race so they end up with each other (like a huge Sweet Home Alabama).

I haven't gone deep into my Elves and Dwarves so I can't explain them here yet.

Fun fact humans are the most inherently aggressive ape.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

Part of it is inspired by real cultures or past cultures, another part is based on their environment and place in the world, it is also based on the history I've made for them, religion, and finally how much random stuff I can throw in there because some weird things happen throughout real cultures. Egyptians worshipped cats and that sounds like bs to some people. Romans and Japanese had public mixed bathing and that is weird to many people. Beating each other with 10 foot whipping sticks while naked was a coming-of-age ceremony in some African tribes. Playing around with it is pretty fun and it makes a new and strange experience for the reader.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Fun fact humans are the most inherently aggressive ape.

You don't say?

 

[TheHelpfulFawn]

Stealing

Call it plagerizing.

+1

Yeah. It is sometimes easier to just take something that is already done, especially if it has been done over a thousand times (Medieval Europe, Fantasy Egypt, Generic Elves)

For me, it's a mix. I base my races' cultures on what I know, and then add some unique traits for them to be totally separated apart.

Of course, I write down the specifics, lest I forget what I set.

Listing down the aspects each people would have a perspective on, like:

Family and Marriage
Education System
Society as a Whole
Sexual Preferences
Views on Other Cultures/People

Of course, there's a lot more categories to discuss. Also, I do take note of what kind of environment they are in, since their culture will be influenced by their situation.

For my story, for example, the Beastmen are hardy folk, since their land is populated by monsters.

Humans are war-like, since they got no other problem than fighting amongst themselves.

Demons are...well, they believe in the 'nobility' of their race so they end up with each other (like a huge Sweet Home Alabama).

I haven't gone deep into my Elves and Dwarves so I can't explain them here yet.

Are there any small aspects of life that you always take into consideration when making your cultures? I know some points are a given such as environment, but what are some little aspects of life that you would find annoying to find a suitable solution to? Like how would a group of people be able to distinguish color if they evolved in a low-light or no-light environment? (Underground/Deepwater society)

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Mix and match the most interesting bits from your favorite historical civilizations until you get a desired result.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Yeah. It is sometimes easier to just take something that is already done, especially if it has been done over a thousand times (Medieval Europe, Fantasy Egypt, Generic Elves)


Are there any small aspects of life that you always take into consideration when making your cultures? I know some points are a given such as environment, but what are some little aspects of life that you would find annoying to find a suitable solution too? Like how would a group of people be able to distinguish color if they evolved in a low-light or no-light environment? (Underground/Deepwater society)

Of course I plan that out as well, though not much into details because it'd be a long talk.

One of the little aspects of life I gave my races is how they see the color of mourning, which back here in Earth is the traditional black (West) or white (East).

In my world, I made it Gray.

Also, we all know that the common color associated with evil is 'black'. My world got 'red' for evil, and while flame on Earth symbolises 'hope' or 'courage', my isekai people thinks that flame is for evil and destruction (cause it burns whatever it touches).

Now if you ask why the flame became like that? Well, the saint associated with the flame in my story is believed to be evil.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Yeah. It is sometimes easier to just take something that is already done, especially if it has been done over a thousand times (Medieval Europe, Fantasy Egypt, Generic Elves)

That is why fanfics exist, why xianxias can grow and why generic western fantasy fans who sucked off Tolkien can get their head into the written stories immediately. The sense of familiarity that instantly lets you immerse into the genre.

An already built world with the toys ready for writers to insert their OCs in. If they want, they can even minor mod like changing how the goblins look from green to blue or add in OC monsters.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Before, I'm talking about the general culture of all my worlds' people.

Now, I'll talk about samples of little aspects for each people.

For humans, I made them talk tough in their diplomacy. We all know that Earth diplomacy is based on proper words and similar stuff. However, my Cherseans conduct their diplomacy on tough talk, with the use of soft words seen as cowardly and weak.

For my beastmen, they are a pretty open society, and they can bend their rules according to the demands of the situation. That includes the issues of orphans, who can be adopted to any tribe willing to accept them.

My demons...well, they view human marriage as a sort of enslavement for eternity.

That sort of differences, I believe, makes my cultures more distinct from one another, and also serves as a foil for my MC's common sense.

 

[TheHelpfulFawn]

Before, I'm talking about the general culture of all my worlds' people.

Now, I'll talk about samples of little aspects for each people.

For humans, I made them talk tough in their diplomacy. We all know that Earth diplomacy is based on proper words and similar stuff. However, my Cherseans conduct their diplomacy on tough talk, with the use of soft words seen as cowardly and weak.

For my beastmen, they are a pretty open society, and they can bend their rules according to the demands of the situation. That includes the issues of orphans, who can be adopted to any tribe willing to accept them.

My demons...well, they view human marriage as a sort of enslavement for eternity.

That sort of differences, I believe, makes my cultures more distinct from one another, and also serves as a foil for my MC's common sense.

That's interesting that your Demon Culture sees marriage as enslavement. Probably due to the "marriage vows" and swearing yourself to only one other person, correct?

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

S

How do you guys go about creating unique cultures within your fantasy worlds? Do you take influences and inspiration from modern cultures found around the world today or in the past? Or do you try to build it off of the unique characteristics of a particular race or species? An example of that would be Bird or fish people who live in the mountain tops or ocean bottoms respectively. Fantasy or sci-fi races like the Aiel from the Wheel of Time or the Fremen from Dune sometimes feel similar due to the common influences that they take from (middle-eastern/Muslim culture), so how would you differentiate your unique culture from something found within the real or another fantasy/sci-fi world?

Steal.

 

[VoxPopulist]

Stealing and twisting what you've seen in other media is always fun, but the number one thing I love to do is to give each culture/race little idiosyncrasies. A good example is making a race of people say verbs twice, with an example bit of dialogue being, "We ran scurried away from the monster." It adds flavor to every race/culture and also lets you think very creatively. Loosening the reigns a bit and letting yourself get creative is what makes writing fun.

Definitely Totally Not Grimdark

 

[JohnDoe9838]

Man, everything is stealing.
Everything about what could be written was already written in Ancient Greece, we're just repeating the same themes (I stole this phrase from somewhere).
That said, it's also not about stealing someone's world word for word and changing the elves to be cat-boys and call it a day.
To build a culture, the acronym SPERM can be taken into account.

S: Social - what do the people do in their free time? how much free time do they have? who are the forces that lead the fads and trends? what are the stated traditions? what are the unstated traditions? what are the customs for eating and meals? for greeting? what are the social and family structures? what about social casts and heirarchies? what are the views and customs around sex? birth? coming of age? dying?

P: Political - who are the acknowledge decision makers; creators of rules and laws? who are the actual decision makers? who are the real influencers? how long has this situation been in place? how are transitions handled? who is currently angling for more power/influence?

E: Economic - how does the unit generate sustenance / income? who do they trade with? how easy is trade and who controls the rules and flow? how is the wealth distributed and controlled?

R: Religion - what are the sources of belief, morals, ethics? how do the view "the big questions": where do we come from? what happens after we die? how ingrained and flexible are these standards?

M: Military - who and what are the agents of force protecting from external threats?pushing external growth? the forces for internal control within the group?

Okay, it's actually MERPS, but SPERM sounds way better. Silly little things like this are the hardest to forget, to get out of your head.

By the way, I absolutely stole this from some Reddit user, u/lasalle202

 

[T.K._Paradox]

How do you guys go about creating unique cultures within your fantasy worlds? Do you take influences and inspiration from modern cultures found around the world today or in the past? Or do you try to build it off of the unique characteristics of a particular race or species? An example of that would be Bird or fish people who live in the mountain tops or ocean bottoms respectively. Fantasy or sci-fi races like the Aiel from the Wheel of Time or the Fremen from Dune sometimes feel similar due to the common influences that they take from (middle-eastern/Muslim culture), so how would you differentiate your unique culture from something found within the real or another fantasy/sci-fi world?

Compare real world cultures and how they formed, and use that along where the fictional culture is located geographically to formulate how a culture is.

 

[AryaX]

For the "special" places... First... I pour in my many Many fetishes... and then I throw in little bit of this, and little bit of that, of things i've seen or read elsewhere... recently... then I stir the mix carefully... until I have a nice looking, coherent and plausible, pervy fetish world/nation/culture... and let it cool for a while... next day, I take a look and see, what an incoherent and ridiculous mess what I came up with really is... and then adjust things, here and there and... leave it to cool for a another day... or a year... and then look at it again... repeat... repeat... forever and ever...

For the other places... much the same... only without the fetishes... If I can restrain my self...