One of the fundamental truths of fantasy writing is that authors must build their world. While the amount of detail varies, authors need to figure out what their world will look like, and how it will operate. Cities are often key elements of that world building, and Sunday afternoon the High Fantasy Track welcomed session moderator Rebecca Moesta along with Cate Baumer, Ben Wolf, John Bierce, and J.D. Evans to their track room in the Marriott (L401-403) to discuss city planning in fantasy worlds.
Moesta began by asking the panel what was essential to the creation of a city. The answer: water. It is fundamental to life itself, and if you’re building a city, logic dictates that you have a source along with tools that allows you to get it. It provides not only sustenance (both directly through hydration and the irrigation of crops) but transportation as well, which facilitates commerce and trade. So, the very life of a city depends on this.
The very definition of a city was discussed and Baumer focused less on size and population than function. If you’ve got a political and or religious center, you can have a city. What matters is the degree to which the city contributes and participates in the narratives you’re creating. Some of the best cities in fantasy and science fiction are, in a sense, characters in themselves. The best ones, Baumer stated, look real and feel lived in. It’s not a place you necessarily want to live in, but a cool place to visit.
Where you place a city really is a testament to “location, location, location.” Bierce enjoys working with nautical themes so he will place cities near salt water. Coastal port cities offer opportunities for characters to move in and out of the city with relative ease. Baumer’s debut novel Faithful Dark is centered in a Vatican “like” holy city. She had to address how to make that feel real to a reader? Is it walled? How is it protected, etc.? Using real world and historical material can provide a lot of inspiration to your city design.
The group then turned to the question of how extensive one’s world building should be. Wilson pointed out that authors must remember that most of the work you invest in building out a world and its cities will never appear in the book. That is source material to you as an author that helps you accomplish your goals. He warned against falling into the trap of feeling obligated to put all that “stuff” in the book. If you succumb to the temptation, you are going to lose your audience. Bierce added: “remember the iceberg rule,” only about 10 percent of the iceberg is visible. You use those bits of the work you’ve done to support your character. Stay focused on your character and use the city (or the world writ large) to support her.
Another dimension of your city planning that you’ll want to consider is the role magic will play. Some authors have developed very elaborate religious and magic systems early in a project, precisely because the application of magic (whether part of a religion or not) must follow the logic of the world you’ve created. So, you must be very intentional in the application of magic and how it will function across all dimensions of urban life.
On the issue of cultural definitions, Wilson takes a “top down” approach. He starts by understanding who’s in charge, and what the religious landscape looks like. Once he’s figured out the “big ticket” items, he can move down and become more specific or “granular” when dealing with the character. You can tell your reader a lot about a character by showing them the things she notices while passing through the city. A warrior will notice different elements than a priest, so use that to illustrate the personality of your character.
A capacity crowd attended this panel and most identified themselves as writers. The robust discussion gave them plenty to think about and build upon in their own work moving forward.
