Worldbuilding Tutorial #10: Example World A
Intro Starting with this set of example tutorials, I am going to continue to tighten my focus to a handful of regions in each world. Which regions these are may shift a little depending on which ones are most useful to demonstrate a given tutorial; likely it will probably tend to be a core few.
As a reminder (the “going over notes” step): the primary supernatural forces underlying this world are the world’s magical core; magic itself derived from emotion and instinct; the strong presence of Fate; the strength of Chance as fate’s counterbalance; and the presence of fey in the world. The actual post on it can be found here, if you would like a more detailed reminder.
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Region #3: Humans There are two primary influences on this region in terms of the supernatural. The first is the farming culture, and thus the way the culture in this region is heavily influenced by the seasons; the second is that it shares its only border with the region filled with Seelie Fey. The other influence comes in the way that magic works in this world; in that humans, because they are on the higher end of the food chain, have a difficult time with direct magic and must rely on indirect methods to practice magic at all. Because of the structure of this region - many independent villages that don’t rely on one another to make decisions or live under the influence of one overarching ruler - the actual religions and magical practices will vary some between villages. However, there are a few core ideas that permeate through most of them, and that’s what I’ll cover here.
The first is a sense of order and structure in the world. Most humans in this region do not have an overarching sense of fate being a major influence in their lives, per se; but they understand that there are structures in terms of the seasons, and in terms of the phases of the moon, and in terms of the constellations in the night sky - and that these things are inevitable and cannot be changed by mortal hands. Many villages in this region have rites that celebrate and acknowledge the passing of the seasons or other milestones such as the harvest. These tend to involve the entire village and take the form of giving gifts to the world - the best grain, the slaughter of a cow, etc - in hope for mercy during the upcoming seasons in return. These celebrations are usually led by the head of the village, sometimes in concert with the village caster.
Some regions may mark these celebrations by passing of the stars, sun, and moon; others may mark them by the first frost or the first blooming flowers - but the core of the celebration is the same. In nearly all cases, there is no concept of a god or goddess or any deity with a particular will; there is no figure of worship, merely the world. Its will is perceived as being diffuse and not embodied in any particular person or place.
Many people, however, worship the Fey. Because of the fey’s ability to perform magic - and because the Seelie Fey tend to be kind - it is very common for people in this region to leave out gifts for fey too, especially in places they are known to frequent; and to ask for help or advice in return. Fey are not seen as deities, but rather powerful beings with capabilities far beyond humanity’s. Some humans may build relationships with particular fey, and may come to know them more as people; this is particularly common with traders who trade for resources that they fey have with the few who understand that concept as humans see it.
Lastly, magic: it is common for a given village to have a single practitioner of magic. Most of this magic comes in the form of herblore and alchemy; as such, this person tends to also be the village healer, particularly since the set of tools to do so is the same. This is passed down through long apprenticeships with a chosen successor, and is a highly respected position within a village. It is very uncommon for a village practitioner to also be the head of the village: rather, they are often seen as a legitimate counter to the village head when it is needed. Any other particular requirements of the person - age, sex, rites of passage, etc - vary highly village to village, as does the name of the position.
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Region #4: Humans This region has many of the same primary influences as Region #3. The primary difference is that, because of the climate, this region has very little farming - and thus not the same attachment to the seasons as a force of order in the world. Instead, most of the region relies on fishing, hunting, and herding - and as such, the primary sense of order in the world comes from death, and from the duality of long winter nights and long summer days. As such, there are few seasonal markers or celebrations; some regions may have practices that mark the longest day or longest night of the year, but no more than that.
Instead, the primary form of worship comes in the form of sacrifice - usually in the form of sacrifice of livestock, sometimes in the form of performances simulating human sacrifice (actual human sacrifice is extraordinarily rare and generally taboo), and sometimes the form of ceremonial hunts performed in honor of a particular occasion. These occasions tend to be community events: marriages or partnering, death of a community member, birth of a child, adulthood ride of passage, and so on. These people, too, also perform rites to try to placate the elements; but it is less likely to be tied to season and more likely to be tied to weather and necessity.
The people in this region also do not have or worship deities; however, they may embody certain forces - storms, darkness, the ocean, etc - into various beings. Many of these started as stories - the kind of stories you tell children so they won’t go wandering off at night - that grew somewhat beyond the bounds of story; many of these beings do not exist at all, except for those that are based off of encounters with particular Fey. People in this region are somewhat more wary of the fey than people in region #3, and are less likely to have a direct relationship with them; most relationships are based off of interacting with these storied beings and attempts to placate or to ward them away from a village’s bounds.
Lastly, there is magic. Because plants do not grow well here, there is little magic done with herbalism; instead, most of it is done with stone. Most of this involves stacking stones or creating stone structures using particular types, shapes, etc; or making charms and talismans out of particular stones to lend properties to the wearer. Magic is treated with suspicion in this region, and fewer people practice it; it is common not to have a magic-worker at all living in one’s village, and people who do practice it are generally distrusted on the premise that they may be evil. This comes partly with people’s experience with fey being less direct and more as dangerous and hostile beings; and partly with the experience of a harsher world to contend with in general.
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Region #6: Elves This region in particular has a curious intersection of influences on their beliefs in the supernatural. Part of this comes from their mixed fey-human heritage, which gives them much easier access to magic than humans but much more limited abilities than fey; part of this comes from their longer lifespans, which allow them to see the ebb and flow of Fate and Chance in the world more clearly; and part of it comes from their cultural relationship to their heritage - which is to say, a heavy rejection of humanity and fey both.
I have stated previously that amongst elves, magic is viewed like any other tool: useful in the right hands, but dangerous if used improperly. Those who practice magic are often not fully trusted by others; however, it is also a skill that can be mastered, and a masterful practitioner can gain a great deal of respect from other elves as well. Not all elves are capable of performing magic equally; those elves who have more fey in their bloodlines tend to have more powerful magic.
Unlike humans, elves are capable of casting magic directly - and thus do not rely on indirect tools like plants and stones, but can do much more creative and flexible work when given reason. The source through which they access magic is through the strength of their emotions and intuition; many have also learned methods to increase their abilities by meditating or performing other rituals on stone outcroppings (either natural or built specifically for this purpose). These rituals are not religious, but practical only.
Elves do not practice any religion, and in fact tend to actively reject the notion of it. They prefer to take matters into their own hands; part of their emphasis on creating skilled individuals comes from actively leaning into chance and the possibility that any given person might have a chance to change things and to defy fate (which they see most often as cruel, if necessary - another piece of baggage from their rejection of both fey and humans). One role that elves have which neither humans nor fey do is that of prophet: those who hone their skills towards predicting the ebb and flow of fate and writing down prophecies of what is to come. Some do this through skill, and others through magic; in either case, this skill is highly valued amongst elves, as is the foresight that it brings.
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Region #2: Seelie Fey Last, but not least: the interaction between fey culture and the supernatural. This one is interesting because fey are, to the other inhabitants of this world, one of the supernatural elements in it; and some of the below deals not with just how fey view the world, but also how they respond to how the world views them.
Fey, as stated before, have an intimate relationship with magic: they live and breathe it, and rely on consuming magical energy in place of food and other forms of sustenance. They can cast magic on a whim - often literally - which is drawn from impulse and deep emotions. There are no rules when it comes to casting magic, nor customs: fey do whatever they please, much in the same way that any person in the real world has a particular laugh or a walk unique to them - the variations are as many as there are individual fey.
Seelie Fey, because they consider themselves caretakers of the world, tend to use their magic in ways that they see as beneficial to both the world (and the current flow of fate) and to the things living in it. This may take forms that seem odd to us: for example, mesmerizing a deer so that the wolf hunting it can nab it without chase - and return later to feed it to her cubs. Seelie Fey also often try to work beneficial magic for humans (and, at times, elves - though they encounter them less often and this is generally much subtler), particularly those in Region #3 - though this is, of course, much easier when they are moved to do so out of pity for the humans’s situation. Of course, this beneficial magic takes the form of what the fey feel will be beneficial - whether asked for or not, and whether they understand the situation or not. Many mishaps come from this kind of misunderstanding, and it is the source of many of the conflicts that arise between fey and other beings.
Seelie Fey do not have religion, nor enduring traditions surrounding magic, because of their highly individual nature. Many dislike the way that Unseelie Fey practice magic, this does not develop into codified practices or dogma. There are no other supernatural beings, and they do not believe in any; Fey, Seelie or not, are the the group that sees the world most accurately for what it is, because of the way their nature is intrinsically tied to it.
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Because of the nature of this world, practices around the supernatural are highly variable even within regions; and, all in all, tend to be very simple with few concrete rules. This also comes from the complexity of the societies it is drawn from: because these societies tend to be simpler and smaller-scale, so do their supernatural practices.
That’s all for this one - as always, World B will be very different in each of these regards.