Tag: Culture

Scribes & Archers > Culture
Developing Fictional Views on Providence, Luck, and Fortune

Developing Fictional Views on Providence, Luck, and Fortune

Posted on by R.M. Archer

St. Patrick’s Day has nothing to do with leprechauns, four-leaf clovers, or lucky pots of gold… except in grocery stores and on my blog today because I did allow the seasonal aesthetic to inspire today’s topic. Today we’re talking about how your fictional cultures view providence, luck, and fortune–whether they see all three as synonymous or maintain distinct categories. Let’s get started! (And to be fair, here’s a video–albeit a somewhat comedic one–about the actual reason we’ll be wearing green next week.)

Establish Your World’s Baseline

Before you develop individual cultures’ views of providence and luck, it’s beneficial to have an idea of what those terms really mean in your world and who (or what) is truly responsible for events occurring the way that they do. Is your world guided by a sovereign god/pantheon? Do things really come about by chance or luck? Are events steered primarily by man’s choices?

Knowing how things truly work in your world will inform Continue reading “Developing Fictional Views on Providence, Luck, and Fortune” →

Fantasy Cuisine & Mealtimes

Fantasy Cuisine & Mealtimes

Posted on by R.M. Archer

Are you tired of feeding your characters generic medieval fare? Do you need to figure out who should be eating first or how food should be served up in your mealtime scenes? Are you just curious to see your world through the eyes of a foodie? Then this is the right post for you. I’ll be getting into what your characters eat, why they do or don’t eat the things that they do or don’t eat, and how meals Continue reading “Fantasy Cuisine & Mealtimes” →

Birthday Celebrations in Fantasy Worlds

Birthday Celebrations in Fantasy Worlds

Posted on by R.M. Archer

When I wrote about how to develop your culture’s timekeeping ideology and methodology last month, I concluded with a brief section on “lifespans and personal timekeeping.” Y’all expressed interest in a post that focused on that topic specifically (and I was recently inspired by a letter in which Tolkien went into great depth about the birthday customs of hobbits, which I highly recommend checking out as an example of this done well), so here it is! Let’s talk about birthdays.

To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate

The first thing to consider, of course, is whether your culture even celebrates birthdays in the first place. As I said in my general timekeeping post,

In a society that thinks more communally or that doesn’t make a big deal of keeping time, birthdays might not even be a consideration; it may not much matter how old you are as long as you’re doing things with your life. The same may be true in a culture that sees time as something designed by a deity; to mark time around your own life may be seen as selfish and even idolatrous.

But there are options between Continue reading “Birthday Celebrations in Fantasy Worlds” →

Creating Fantasy Etiquette

Creating Fantasy Etiquette

Posted on by R.M. Archer

Do your characters mind their manners? If so, this post will help you determine what manners they’re minding; if not, this will help you determine just how rude your characters are. Etiquette differs from culture to culture, and this post is for you if you haven’t yet considered what good manners look like in the fictional culture(s) you’ve created!

Greetings & Farewells

I’ve discussed how greetings and farewells may be communicated in terms of language before, and saying the right thing is an aspect of a polite greeting or farewell. Your characters should Continue reading “Creating Fantasy Etiquette” →

Government Values

Posted on by R.M. Archer

This post was originally published at Lavender Bleu Books. That site is currently on full hiatus (i.e. inaccessible), and this post is a stand-in for the time being. Upon Lavender Bleu Books’ re-launch, this post will disappear and links will once again go through to Bleu’s website.

Fantasy cultures are often placed under monarchies. Dystopian cultures are often placed under autocracies or totalitarianism. But there are many government types to choose from, and what Continue reading “Government Values” →