When you set out to build a fantasy world, the first thing you’re probably going to do is ask how it’s different than Earth (or, if you’re really good, how it’s different than the Generic Fantasy World). You’ll probably give a short answer to that, and start building out from there. I call this a “Gimmick World”: Everything you create centers around the Gimmick. Mirrodin can roughly be seen as a gimmick world (It’s gimmick being “made of metal”). The people have metal bits, the plants are metal, even the water is just another sort of metal. The rest of the setting goes into answering how anything even begins to survive when the world is solid-freaking-metal (or hollow metal, as the case may be). Usually, Gimmick worlds are interesting for a story, but unless something about them moves past just “explore the gimmick”, you’re not going to get any more than that.



Note here that a Gimmick doesn’t have to start in the world. Very often, I would consider a world ruled by your Stereotypical Evil Overlord to be a Gimmick World: All that matters is the Overlord and his reign. Once the heroes inevitably defeat him, the world ceases to be interesting. Gimmick. In some ways, you could see the Gimmick World as being the top-down design of world building: It has a strong concept, and everything else fits to the concept



The other method, one I like a bit better for stories if not for Magic sets, is the bottom-up world: Call it the Rules World, you start not with a single “wouldn’t it be cool if…” but rather by answering a lot of questions and getting the physical (and spiritual, if applicable) laws of your universe and working out from there.



For instance, you need to ask yourself when building a fantasy universe from scratch if Magic exists. The answer to that is usually going to be a resounding “yes!” as this is fantasy, so now you need to ask other questions. Let’s try to bottom-up build a world. We start with Magic = Yes and decide that magic is a good enough place to start. The questions that follow here could be answered in just about any order, assuming they aren’t dependant. Sometimes, I like to start with the source of power, for instance, or the functions available.



Can Mortals use Magic? Yes

Can Anyone use it? No



What lets a person use magic? Inborn Talent

How common is this talent? 1 in 100



Okay, 1 in 100 persons born are capable of using magic in some form. We can probably extrapolate that strength of magic (if variable) is also inborn. Let’s keep going, we’re not even done with magic yet



What can magic do?

This is a big, BIG question when making a new fantasy world. There are so many sorts of magic and most of them are more specialized and limited than the magic we see in Magic: the Gathering or Dungeons and Dragons. So what can magic in our new universe do? Well, let’s say it works with the elements of nature: it’s therefore not going to dip into mind control, or effect the soul. Instant death effects would have to be very creative to fit the theme here, so we’re mostly looking at weather magic, water control, producing fire and lightning, and the like.



How is magic used?

Another big one. Do you snap your fingers and have it happen? Do you need reagents like a science? In this case, I’m going to go with (Lengthy) Ritual: Casting a spell is going to take between 10 seconds and 10 hours (longer if, say, the Big Bad needs an end-of-the-world spell), so not useful in combat. Ten seconds may not sound like much, but when people are fighting that’s an eternity for a cantrip.



Where does magic come from?

Ah, the power source. This question is going to determine a lot of the nature of spellcasters in your world (and spellcasters, as different from the familiar, are fundamentally interesting). If the power source is somehow tainted (for instance, a demonic pact made by your ancestors), spellcasters are going to be shunned, maybe hunted. If the power source is internal rather than external, there might be some side effects. This isn’t always going to be a compelling or even an answered question. Sometimes, for instance, you want a world where magic just works and your plot doesn’t really care about the why so much as the how. This is the case in D&D, usually, but Dark Sun actually takes a stand on it as Defilers raze the land of life to power their spells (at least, they did before 4e. No idea if that still holds, I don’t keep up with 4e). Since I’m answering these as I go along, I’m going to say magic comes from the favor of “The Spirits”: poorly understood, perhaps nonsentient entities that may gift children with the power at birth.



What are the costs/restrictions of Magic?

This one may be answered in the previous questions, but if it’s not and you don’t you’re going to kick yourself as you come to the realization that SOMETHING has to stop magic from being the Deus Ex Machina cure-all that it very easily could be. I’m putting this one last out of the complex magic questions because it often draws on the answers to the questions above. An evil power source will often exact a toll, an internal one could very well kill the caster much more quickly than a normal person (or kill them if they get careless). On the other side, magic that’s hard to use or has only a limited and not too story breaking power set is pretty safe and doesn’t need some extra restriction. Basically, think really hard if there’s a good reason why your casters don’t break the plot. If there isn’t, give them one.



As a side note, mana is actually a rather elegant solution to the restriction of magic: if the caster needs to not be awesome, they can simply run out of juice somehow. Neat. However, I’m going to go with unreliable magic for this example world: magic will usually work, but against magical creatures or other magicians, the spirits will often favor one side and abandon the other temporarily



So we have our casters. With chants and prayers to the spirits that blessed them, the earth and sea and sky are theirs to command! This sure took a while but it provides a good framework to build on.



Aside from Magic, you have World and Society to build on. I’m going to go over these a bit more quickly even though they’re what people building M:tG planes are going to care about more.



Society: You need to figure out the tech and politics of your world.

Tech level ranges from stone age to space age and beyond. “Middle Ages” with magic pushing some aspects towards “Renaissance” seems to be standard, though if you’re drawing heavily from classical mythology it’s going to look more like Bronze Age or Iron Age. Now, with what we know of our spellcasters, this all feels very primal. I’m going to go with Ancient Egypt/Babylon for our tech level to reflect this… it gives more interesting societal options than the Stone Age while still having that “OLD” feel. Perhaps there are still some stone age groups sticking around…



Politics are a complicated affair, and it’s in the crafter’s nature to, creating in an hour what it’s taken humanity thousands of years to create, simplify it a bit. Having a single world power is very tempting, but I find it more interesting if, even if there is one overpowered culture, to create countercultures or rivals that make things a little less like the tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Plan..." title=" tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Plan...">Planet of Hats. There are a lot of roads you can go on this, and I have found it useful to sketch a rough map of your world when deciding what the world powers look like. For our purposes, we’ll say there’s one Egypt-like central power, with a population and static cities giving it the edge over nomadic groups at the same tech level. Culture in a fantasy universe can be either really complicated or really simple. Since this is just an example, they’ll be polytheists worshiping thin pastiches of the Egyptian gods, while other groups revere the Spirits that grant magic directly. There is SO MUCH MORE that can be done with this section that it’s not even funny. I could probably write ten thousand words on the matter and still not be done crafting an example society.



Now, as far as the world goes, a map is a good place to start but a poor place to end. There are a lot of questions here, some of which can get very complex. I’m going to simplify that to two “BIG” questions.



1) Does your world use familiar physics?

You’ve introduced magic onto your world, so this is NOT a trivial question. Is the world round, a planet orbiting a star in a basically familiar universe, or is it something else? Perhaps the world is flat, and the stars are glittering gems implanted on a perfect invisible crystal dome that arches over the world. For this example, we’ll go weird: the world is flat, and there are cracks: great rifts in the world that lead down and out into seas of infinite nothingness. This certainly makes the geography… interesting.



2) Does your world use fantastic species?

The answer to this is either “no” or “which?” an answer of no indicates that there are only humans and familiar organisms, while any other answer requires you to decide between a myriad of humanoids to an entire ecosystem unfamiliar to humanity. I’m going to say that in this world, we might have a few giant flyers, but nothing else. It can be interesting to build with either nothing or just humanoids as well, but unless I’m going to build the food web from the bottom up, I like to keep to familiar or magical-only nowadays, and focus on the society unless the world is BIG.

Broadly put, for the purposes of this discussion, an “alien” has the following qualities. First, an Alien is not human, or a member of any other Earth species. Second, an Alien is sentient. Third, an Alien is a species, not a unique being. Fourth and most mutably, we will assume that an Alien is a physical, living, biological entity. While these are the only “hard” rules to apply to this discussion, we can also assume your Alien is being created from scratch. Note that while I have chosen to use the term “alien” and therefore the following words will probably contain a lot of Science Fiction baggage, I feel what I have to say also applies to nonhuman sentients in fantasy.



Alien Biology

This is, perhaps, the most logical place to start when creating an alien: what does it look like and how does it live? If you know what role in your story the aliens have to fill this might come later, but for the purposes of a neutral exercise, we’re starting here.

There is a lot to consider when you’re creating the physical nature of an alien. The first question that probably comes to mind is this: are the aliens going to look like us? By in large, this tends to be answered with a resounding yes; aliens in film and television are largely played by human actors while it also helps to have sympathetic aliens look like relatable humans while frightening aliens can be just human enough to strike that chord of fear and distaste known as the “uncanny valley”. We aren’t bound to do so, but it’s very convenient that most aliens follow a human body plan.

There is, even, an arguable good reason for aliens looking something like humans. First, any alien is going to have some manner of gathering information (senses) and some manner of processing information (A Brain). From that alone, because neurons don’t transfer information instantaneously, you’re going to want the most important and focused of your sensory organs as close as possible to the brain that’s going to be processing and collating their information. Meanwhile, it’s going to be very useful for aliens from most conditions to have sight: Light has this funny way of getting everywhere and being modified by objects, so if you process light hitting you as information you’re going to learn a lot about your surroundings very quickly. This means the alien will probably have eyes; sightless aliens are possible, certainly, but the sighted are going to be more common in a universe or setting that approximates your own. Now, because you want the most utility out of your sight, you’re going to have the following: Eyes placed forward, at least two of them for depth perception, and eyes situated up near the top of the alien for a wider field of vision. The brain follows the eyes and together you have, surprise surprise, a head! Meanwhile, an alien by our definitions is also going to need some means of locomotion: slithering or stranger are possible, but legs of some description are actually quite nimble and efficient – somewhere between two and six balances balance and the processing power required to coordinate said legs rather well. Meanwhile, the creature will also need some sort of appendage capable of manipulating objects with dexterity, one or more arms or convenient replacements therefore. This provides a lot of leeway for very nonhuman builds, but also suggests that the human structure is not entirely out of left field from the construction of life as we know it.

If your aliens are more or less like us – possessing most of arms, legs, a torso, a head, a recognizable face – then your task is mostly to decide how they differ from us: Aliens like Vulcans and Orcs can mostly be said to be “humans except…” they have green blood and pointy ears, or green skin and pointy teeth. These are the most comprehensible aliens, and the more like us the more relatable they become (but the more alien or over-the-top their culture has to be to be worth having any distinction between the alien and humanity)

If, on the other hand, your aliens are NOT like us, remember what I mentioned above – aliens need senses, locomotion, and manipulators. They need a way to intake and process sustenance, and a core that processes the input from their senses. Within these needs, though, there is room for a myriad of possibilities diverging entirely from humanity. Even so, it is useful to take your inspiration from somewhere in nature, but it isn’t required. I find it helpful to start with the sentient creature as a non-sentient animal: how did it survive? This is, of course, if an idea for an alien visage does not simply present itself

Example 1: For this example, we’re going to take a human-alien. They are like us, except a strong, prehensile tail, skin with a metallic golden or coppery sheen, and wide, dark eyes.

Example 2: For this example, our alien is going to be largely nonhuman. Its lower body is much like a slug, and it slides along with a powerfully muscular foot. A torso of sorts rises from this, and six tentacles arranged radially from it manipulate objects. Finally, the creature’s head crowns that torso, a bloated mass of flesh surrounding a radially symmetric, fanged mouth that widens vastly. Just above the mouth, the creature sports a dozen, writhing eye-stalks



Alien Psychology

Nothing says that aliens have to think in vastly different ways than humans, or even in systematically different ways, but the fact of the matter is that they tend to: the human aliens need to be distinct from humans somehow, and the truly strange aliens look too odd for most people to accept that their minds work just the way ours do.

So, how do Aliens think? One easy shortcut, especially for human-aliens, is to say that “they think like us, except…” and the “except” being anything from a singular focus on logic to a general disregard on higher thinking in favor of bloodshed. Alien psychology so built tends to be… exaggerated. They will often have a singular focus on one aspect of life, and all their culture will be built around it. For instance, aliens that are strong will probably be warlike: they are likely to apply great strength as the attribute most common to their gods, and their leaders will be the strongest among them chosen by a contest of strength. This is good on the fly, but when you think about it, it gets a bit grating: why don’t the creatures that are, in comparison to humans, weak and frail, choose those that are strong in comparison to others of their kind to lead? Since their metric should be their own average, it makes just as much sense as the strong-aliens doing it.

The alternative is much harder, of course, but I think I find it more rewarding: think of how the creature, based only upon its own position in the web of life and its own attributes, what sort of thought patterns would it develop? You end up creating a very intricate culture this way, and you have to in order to understand an individual of an alien rendered in this manner.

I think, perhaps, I have less to say about culture, because unlike physiology it has no set rules and is not even needed: Some aliens are too incomprehensible to have what we would recognize as a culture, and if humanity cannot comprehend their mindset than all the writer needs to know is what they do. Of course this stretches the bounds of “aliens are sentient”, because they serve a role little different than any rampaging monster that way, but I still feel that truly incomprehensible aliens are aliens if the fact they have some strange intelligence is recognizable.

Example 1: Our human-aliens have a prehensile tale and large eyes. This suggests that they might be nocturnal and might be arboreal. Since they’re so close to humans, they’re probably social mammals as well. Now, a noctournal, arboreal creature is probably nor a predator, even if it’s an omnivore and is probably keeping to the treetops and coming out at night to avoid predation. Make that sentient, and these creatures are probably relatively meek and inoffensive. At the very least, they aren’t aggressive: they probably have the capacity for great viciousness if threatened (Fighting like cornered rats). Their culture will, mimicking some primates, be a matriarchal hereditary monarchy.

Example 2: Our strange aliens are big and powerful, and almost certainly carnivorous or omniviorous. However, slugs not being known for their speed I’m betting more along the lines of scavenger. Either that, or everything else where its from is just as slow as it is, allowing it to be a “fast” predator by relative speed. Since they look so strange, it’s safe to dispense with a lot of the trappings of human civilization. While not fiercely individualistic enough to fail to build communal dwellings, their territorial instincts mean they are NOT pleasant creatures to be around, even for each other. Quite probably, when thrown into a mix where they aren’t the top dog, they react badly. I also think they may very well be quite methodical. If we go for a sci-fi species, they probably carefully strip a planet of resources, maximizing yield, and then move on.



Alien Technology (or Magic)

The last thing to consider is what the aliens do. In science fiction, what are their ships and weapons like? Their other technologies? In fantasy, you still have to consider what technologies they would develop unique from other cultures, if any, and also potentially what magic they access and how.

I’m going to be brief with this: Since so much of the tech and magic depends on the psych, It’s easier to do things by way of example. Suffice to say that tech/magic development can run in one of two lines, sometimes both…

Technology or magic that COMPLIMENTS the alien builds on its strengths: the smart alien makes an even smarter supercomputer, the tough alien specializes in protection magic, the strong alien gets power armor. This builds on and exaggerates a theme

Technology or magic that SUPPLIMENTS the alien compensates for what weaknesses it has: the smart but frail aliens create deadly war machines, the tough but slow aliens have a strong focus on mass transit, and the strong but dull alien uses mind-addling magic to bring everyone else down to its level.

Example 1A: Let’s send our human aliens to the stars, and give them technology that compliments them. Since they’re observant and defensive, their ships have better scanners and shields than average, but tend to run light on weapons: these aliens won’t fire first.

Example 1B: In fantasyland, the tech and magic of our aliens will supplement them. They certainly don’t have the prodigious physical strength of something like an orc, and in combat tend to be a cowardly lot. Their forest homes also make for poor farming and not a lot of good stone to build fortifications from. However, they are very skilled craftsmen, and experts in the use of poisoned arrows that can fell even the largest foes with a single sting. Their magic mostly weakens or debilitates foes, while on the other end probably encouraging growth and plenty. In Magic terms, they’d probably be Black/Green while in D&D (3.x) terms they might use Conjuration and Necromancy magic

Example 2A: The fantasyland version of our strange alien has magic and “technology” that compliments them: They’re stuck in the stone-age and wield massive stone clubs as they’re basically made of muscle. Still, little can withstand an onslaught of d6 or so club hits bashing it to bit. Their magic is vaguely understood and shamanistic, flowing practically from their guts. It suffuses them and grants them the ability to regenerate, or even more strength, or some extra speed: basic buffs.

Example 2B: Taking our strange aliens to the stars, their technology supplements their obvious problem with speed – their ships have a “jump” drive rather than a usual warp-drive, allowing them appear and disappear instantaneously. Meanwhile, they use huge amounts of automation both to sustain their colonies and go to war: their quick-moving aerial drones gas entire cities on the attack.