Building a Society for your Fantastic People

We take a quick look at a few of the important steps about building a society for the people in your created world.

Now you have to decide if this is the way things work in your world.

In a typical day in Planet X what does Race Z do? Whenever we make people we have to have an underlying desire, something they want more than anything else. A people actuated by the desire for food will work much differently than those seeking nuclear technology. I food is readily available then we will have a people who do things differently. Their day will not be dominated by plowing or hunting and gathering. So, keep in mind the goals of your civilization.

Also think of the history of these people. History affects us all. A good example is MLK day this coming Monday. We don't have school and many people don't have work because of that. An alien race may wonder why we worship this Martin Luther King Jr. guy and ask why a day in his honour is a day without labour? Show us the holidays of your civilization. If they are peace loving they will likely celebrate the day they negotiated peace from Super Bad War IV. If they are war-like they will likely celbrate their victory over the people of NeighbourCountry.

Also show us what their government is like. A peaceful people will not likely have a strong head of state, why would they need one? A waring people will most likely have a strong, military leader whom they all stricly support. 

What are the government of the other nations like? Is there much trade and interaction between the countries, or is there one, all encompasing government? 

What is the diet of these people? Seafood? Field animals? Vegetarian? What was the diet like in the past? This will, in some ways, affect their dress.

People who have only ever lived on the sea are likely to incorporate sea animals and patterns into their clothing. Forest people are more likely to incorporate forest colours. 

What is their family life like? A matriarchal society will--as the word implies--be ruled by women. Are these women oppressive to men, or do they accept them as equals? Ask the same things for a patriarchal society.

Has there been internal struggle within the city, county, country you're writing about? What was this over? Who was victorious, if the fighting is even over.

These are just a few things to thing about, and it should get you on the path to really developing a back story for your invented people. You don't have to write all of this down, but having such things will allow your people to act in such a way that we can understand and relate to.

Feel free to ask questions, to comment, or to ask me to cover a certain topic.