Randy Ellefson's Blog, page 4

Creating Moral Laws

Creating laws is relatively easy if we view them as having two sources: an enforcement or prohibition on values, beliefs, and morals, or to inhibit repetition of a past action, which is viewed negatively. I refer to these as moral and incident laws. While people break laws, the laws exist to inhibit or control behavior. We should keep this in mind and use it to invent ones we can use, and which our characters can break, intentionally or not. It���s a good way to get them into trouble, especially in foreign lands. Sometimes a law is both moral and incidental in origin, as we���ll see by some examples being reflected in both lists in this section.

What does the ruling authority want to influence? Always consider the form of government, discussed in Creating Places (The Art of World Building, #2)��because this will impact how much control government is asserting through its legal system.

Moral Laws

Whether the system is religious or not, religion often influences laws as values, morals, and beliefs are promoted through restrictions on permissible behavior. Examples would be abortion or whether capital punishment is considered humane. Laws that discriminate are likely to originate in beliefs and values if not morality, as people characterize those who are different poorly. This includes gay, racial, and women���s groups. We can extend this to professions such as wizardry or specific types, like witchcraft and necromancy. If we���ve invented species and worked out their relationships with humans and others, we can envision laws resulting from conflict with or disapproval of another race���s values (or perceived values).

In chapter one, we looked at cultural ideas and vision and should leverage this while inventing laws of a moral nature. A society is a sum of its ideas, promoted in part by law, and those of the majority can inversely impact minorities through them. The simplest pronouncement of a law will not include explanation, but the reason for the law can often be inferred, at least by those living within the community. In parenthesis below, a short reason has been added, with an indication of whether it���s a value, belief, or moral leading to the law.

Examples of laws based on morals, values, and beliefs:

Black magic is forbidden (moral: it requires dealing with unholy forces)Goblins are not allowed near a treasury (belief: they���re thieves)Fire wizards must assist with extinguishing public fires (value: they should help)Communication with alien species is prohibited without a permit and government monitoring (morals: solidarity with your species should take precedence over befriending a potential enemy of the state).Wizards may not perform magic on the Holy Day (values/morals: it is reserved for godly shows of such power, as a sign of respect)Ogres may not eat in public places (belief: they���re believed to spread disease)Children may not perform magic (belief/morals: it teaches them to rely on this)Capital punishment by being drawn and quartered is forbidden (morals: too barbaric)All residents must pass a biannual swimming test, especially dwarves (value: too many dwarves must be rescued during periodic flooding, hampering efforts to rescue others)Those sentenced to death shall be devoured by dragon (morals/values: it���s a quick death and waste not, want not)A knight who flees shall be executed (value/morals: without courage, the knighthood will suffer loss of faith in it)

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Creating Legal Systems

Most of our settings will have a legal system, even if it’s as simple as “an eye for an eye.” This section takes a high level and simplified view of these systems because most world builders will not be writing a legal drama, which is the only scenario where more detail is likely needed. Some places have a mix of the systems we’ll cover, and we can do the same, though we may struggle for a reason to. In our setting, the publication of legal decisions, so that everyone can access them, is required; without this, laws are not enforced equally.

With all systems, our usage is primarily to cause trouble for our characters, who run afoul of a law, either by breaking it, encouraging others to do so, or even just speaking out against it. Any of these are more likely when traveling, due to ignorance of local laws, but there are other factors. Characters are usually on a mission and only passing through, and are therefore trying to avoid trouble, but we can have one member who tends to cause problems and another who knows the local laws and tells them what not to do. Use this as a guide. This helps us add an issue that either develops character(s) or plot.

Types

There are several types of legal systems. The source of laws is one of their primary differences. The system type arguably matters less than specific laws that impact our story, but they are briefly summarized next.

Civil Law

One of the most widespread systems (along with common law), civil law means that a legislature creates and modifies an authoritative source that formalizes laws. That source is either a constitution (at the sovereign power or federal level) or a statute (at a lower level, such as states in the United States). Constitutional law tends to be broad and interpreted more at the statutory level, which is one reason variations can exist between states within a union. For example, as of this writing, marijuana is illegal at the federal level in the U.S. but legal in some states. To do this in our fictional world, we mostly need to know there’s a sovereign power and self-governing bodies (like states or provinces) within it. A character can get themselves into trouble outside their home territory because they didn’t know something legal back home is illegal somewhere else. This can happen within a power, not just when traveling between different ones. If there’s no law we’ve broken when we’re brought before a judge, he has no authority and the case will be dismissed.

Common Law

Common law derives its name from being common across England among the king’s courts, and since Britain’s empire spread far, it is now common across a third of the Earth, too, making it the other most widespread legal system (along with civil law). Its primary feature is that a judge will look to past cases that are like the one presented to him. If similar enough, he must abide by the past reasoning when ruling on the current case, as the precedents are considered the law; this principle is called “stare decisis” and is the main difference between this and civil law. If the case is unique, he will be the first one to rule on the matter, his decision henceforth becoming law to be considered by judges thereafter when faced with a similar case. Because of this, if there’s no law, a judge can effectively make one. This contrasts with civil law, where a judge would have no authority to do anything.

Another name for this is judge-made law or judicial law.

Religious Law

If there’s a religious document, such as the Bible or Quran, this will be the source of religious law. Either a god or a prophet (through whom they spoke) may be considered the author of the document, and this sometimes results in the ideas being named accordingly; Mosaic laws were written down by Moses, for example. Such sources are considered the word of a god about ethics and morality. A famous example may be the Ten Commandments. Variations are considerable across religions, which gives us flexibility and frees us from “getting it right.” Canon law is the body of laws and regulations that a religious authority creates; these are typically named after a source, such as apostles or a church (or a group of them). As with seemingly everything in religion, these teachings can be interpreted quite differently, resulting in sects and other divisions within the religion, each adopting and applying their own laws. Past cases may or may not be considered; the interpretations of mankind are less important than the word of a god.

Contrasting Types

Both civil and common systems are unlikely among civilizations that have no written language or which are nomadic, due to the inability to codify the laws or a library in which to store them for reference. Expecting someone to memorize so much is improbable and prone to error, but maybe we have a trusted species with perfect recall or the ability to summon knowledgeable spirits from the afterlife as needed. Without such measures, only civilizations that have advanced to and beyond Roman or medieval may reasonably be assigned either legal system. We might see elves and dwarves with such a system in fantasy, but probably not ogres and goblins.

By contrast, religious systems may be heavily dependent on fewer texts (at least in the beginning), which are readily available in churches, with the laws implied or explicitly stated in sermons and other stories that practitioners regularly hear. While not a rule, a religious system may be likely before and during more sophisticated civilizations.

A character who understands the difference between common and civil systems might have a different reaction to being accused of a crime. If he’s aware there’s no law and finds himself before a judge in a civil system, he might be unconcerned because the judge can’t do anything to him. The case will be dismissed. But if he’s in a common law system, the judge can invent the law based on this case. He might not feel so confident. In a religious system, it could go either way.

Civil judges must consider any previous cases (known as case law), but this is secondary to interpreting the source of law (constitution or statue). By contrast, in common law systems, previous cases are the law the judge is following, and he is highly reluctant to go against precedent.

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Creating Mental Health Systems

On Earth, mental health services are a recent development; they hardly existed before two hundred years ago. Before that, people were often thought to be touched by the devil, possessed, or some other nonsense. Many were either killed or confined, whether in more official places like an asylum or in the basement of a village resident assigned to care for these prisoners, who might be shackled day and night. Sometimes sane people were dealt with this way when they went against powerful people or social movements, calling for change.

We can do the same in a fantasy setting or inject our modern compassion and understanding into the world. In SF, it���s reasonable that advances in health care parallel those in other areas of technology, but it���s not a rule. We���ve all seen seemingly dystopian SF where ships, space stations, and characters are all filthy and lawlessness seems to predominate; both physical and mental health needs may suffer, too, as the latter can almost be considered a luxury. The case can be made that the development of machinery helps provide for basics like food and shelter more easily and that ���free time��� is subsequently available for professions like psychology, but when people are struggling to get food, no one wants to spend time helping a disturbed person.

One reason all of this impacts characters is that people hear psychological terms, should they exist, and use them just as we do. But that depends on information flow. It���s better in SF, in theory, than in fantasy, as is education. Even a dystopian society where that education system has disintegrated might still be aware of the terms, if they entered common usage before the collapse. Do we want our characters using such terms? They���re optional. The term ���ego��� hadn���t been invented in medieval times, but people were aware of it, anyway, using other words like pride.

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Creating Medical Systems

Medical care varies widely between fantasy and SF worlds, though sometimes the latter has systems just as poor. Regardless of genre, it’s too convenient for wounded or sick characters to be instantly healed, without needing convalescence. It’s like when death loses meaning because dead people are easily revived without consequence; why fear for a character who can return? A recent vampire show featured them snapping each other’s necks during disputes. This would kill a mortal, but all it did to them was render them unconscious for an hour or two. Despite this, even other vampire characters would react as if someone they loved had just been murdered and they’d never see them again. Wouldn’t they be blasé about it? The neck snapping thing was little more than an inconvenience, so why react with horror? Similarly, if an audience knows characters can return from the dead or be instantly healed without issues, there’s no drama in health problems. For this reason, fights in superhero movies have no tension because everyone’s going to be fine! Removing tension is the opposite of a smart storytelling device.

It can be hard to generalize about average life expectancy before 1900 on Earth, due to it rising and falling, but it was seldom above thirty. However, if someone made it to age twenty, they could often expect to live another thirty years, especially among the wealthy, who had better access to health care. Children are more susceptible to sickness; the percentage of those reaching adulthood could be as low as 60%. In our fantasy settings, few characters will have living grandparents, or may not have both parents still alive. Most in their twenties are probably long married (even widowed, sometimes more than once) and with a few kids, and yet we seldom see this, perhaps because it gets in the way of adventuring and our escapism. When lifespans lengthened, the marriage age naturally rose, too. We can decide how long people are living, and the effects of this, based on story needs and general understanding of population health and resources.

Magical healing, or “laying on hands,” usually means channeling a god’s power through one’s body as a vessel, to heal the wounded. This often means that a holy person communes with that god, first establishing a relationship through prayer so that he’s not a stranger when calling on the god for this favor. Whether we call them a priest or another name doesn’t matter. This can exist in either SF or fantasy but is more common in the latter; SF typically has either medicine equivalent to Earth’s today or technology far in advance of us. In settings with supernatural power, we may have supernatural wounds that require supernatural healing techniques, as they may not respond to other methods. This is one justification, not that we need one, for magical healing.

Until recently on Earth, the understanding of germs was also poor, resulting in behaviors that spread illness more easily, such as people not washing their hands well or at all. The idea of invisible germs making people sick can be met with skepticism. In the early 1900s in New York, Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was an example of someone being a carrier, which means she showed no symptoms but can transmit that disease. She didn’t believe she had it due to the lack of symptoms; she refused to change her habits and infected others continuously until health officials imprisoned her for life to stop her. While some of that is specific to her, we can apply such concepts to inventing pandemics. A fantasy setting without multiple plagues (or lesser outbreaks) in the past may be unrealistic. That a parent (or earlier generation) perished this way is useful character backstory.

Many of us have heard of bloodletting, which has an interesting theory we can incorporate into our world. Ancient physicians believed the body had four “humors” and that an excess or deficiency in any, or a poor mixture of them, resulted in illness. The four humors were blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile, which is thought to be clotted blood (it appears black). Each humor was believed to have origins in specific body parts, and properties that resulted in certain illnesses. For example, yellow bile caused warm illnesses, and so on. Bloodletting attempted to cure someone by removing an excess humor to restore them to normal. People were sometimes made to consume a food or drink to counter a perceived imbalance in humors. These doctors were wrong, of course, but the practices lasted for over two thousand years, had no healing effects (unless coincidentally), and were sometimes harmful to patients. Not only can our invented world have such theories, but maybe we have species that actually work this way.

When medical ignorance abounds, quacks proliferate. Using wild claims of perfect cures, these disreputable people try to sell or otherwise profit from questionable and unproven medical remedies, then flee before the truth is discovered. Sometimes by luck, they actually helped, and not all quacks had malicious intent. They often claimed that exotic materials added to something like oil or a balm would help their foolish or desperate victims; if we’ve invented unique lifeforms, we can create an alternative to the “snake oil salesman” idea. These could be harmful, addictive, benign, or ease symptoms but not cure as claimed. A new, similar counterpart exists today, when conspiracy theorists claim that something proven to be beneficial, like immunization shots, are making people sick instead, in defiance of evidence to the contrary.

In SF, the exploration of new worlds can result in a flow of new discoveries, including both medical problems and solutions, and therefore, more quacks. There can also be devices, like the polygraph (lie-detector) that do not measure what they claim to. Based on the education system we’ve imagined, we should form an idea of the likelihood of such scams to succeed, but even today, many believe the polygraph works.

Fantasy worlds are usually akin to our past, meaning poorer health care and shorter lives, which pushes other milestones earlier. Today we consider it scandalous that a girl in her early teens might be expected to marry and give birth (especially when married off against her will), but it was practical because she might’ve been dead before twenty. There may also be the equivalent of medical devices to supposedly measure some aspect of a person; we have discretion to decide if they actually work or not.

SF offers a wider variety of health care quality due to lack of uniformity across the genre as to technological levels. This is especially true in planet-hopping stories, as every society on a new planet will have developed skills at different rates. Even spacecraft must get their organic medical supplies from somewhere else unless these are being synthesized. Given this wide range, how do we decide who can do what? One answer is story needs. Determine what kind of armed conflict will result, what sort of weapons exist and their damage severity and type, and then how many characters must be killed, maimed, bedridden, or healed (and to what degree) to impact our story for tension.

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Other Education Systems

For all systems, we should decide how many years of school are typical and at what age it begins and ends. Some governments mandate this so that it’s against the law to skip it; the parents are typically the ones responsible for ensuring it happens and the ones punished for refusing, not the child, but we don’t have to do that. The child could be punished instead. The problem with doing so is that children understand consequences less than adults, but if you had to complete your homework to get any food, you’d learn the lesson pretty quickly. We can be inventive with this. While that seems cruel, maybe an invented species of ours values self-reliance and isn’t above teaching hard lessons.

Are students expected to be separated from parents at any point in their education, living at a school or with a teacher (a boarding school)? This may be only on school days, through a semester or school year, or until graduation. Does segregation exist, such as by gender, species, race, ethnicity, social class, blood line, delinquency, or other elements? Does the school have facilities, such as dorms, gyms, libraries, labs, and other specialty rooms mingled with classrooms, in a separate building, or away from school altogether? These details mostly matter if we’re setting a story at school or a character has been impacted, such as not seeing their family for years. But we can also drop little details into stories, such as a wizard’s lab being crowded with students after school hours because it’s off campus, and now our wizard character must contend with people being in the way.

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Creating an Apprenticeship

With both knights and wizards, we see squires and apprentices respectively; other versions of this can exist in both fantasy and SF. But this is sometimes not part of a system if it’s private instruction. Being a knight’s squire might have defined expectations and a wizard’s apprentice may not, unless that wizard belongs to a guild that sets forth rules; we have leeway here. These understudies typically live with their master for years, doing menial work and otherwise attending to their master’s professional and even household needs, in addition to receiving instruction. Decide if this makes sense in the setting for any profession. It is more likely when public education is lacking or when someone is an especially sought-after master. It can also be true when the master or subject is evil, for lack of a better word, because it’s unlikely that public education teaches their methods.

Since this is less formal, we may not need to decide at what age apprenticeship can begin, and what duties are expected, what life is like for both master and understudy, and how it ends unless these are standardized. It could be a privileged life of fine dining with powerful people or a miserable one of squalor, suffering, and fear. If the profession is dangerous, this apprenticeship likely is as well. What sort of protection does the master provide, whether physically present or not? What are the benefits beyond the chance to acquire knowledge and skills? Forging personal connections could be a significant attraction, but then it depends on how much respect the apprentice is given. Someone may have had more than one apprenticeship in their past, with wildly different experiences. This is as much a character building as world building issue, other than deciding whether it’s available and for what professions, typically, and whether something like a guild or knighthood establishes guidelines.

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Special Education Systems

Any education that takes a deep dive into a subject can be considered specialized training that not everyone receives. For example, musicians might take specialized lessons as teens or earn one or more college degrees later, becoming an expert. Without basic education, advanced education is unlikely to exist, though we can decide by subject; focus on skills characters need. Someone can become an expert without this education, but there are typically gaps in their understanding or knowledge.

If schooling ends before the teens, this type education is unlikely except for nobility and rare individuals. In fantasy settings, we typically see less formal schooling. This suggests special education is rare and therefore private, via an apprenticeship or guild. With its advanced technology, SF suggests that specialized education is widespread, but it depends on the setting. A dystopia may feature a destroyed or depleted infrastructure. Many tools are so easy to use that people need only training in how to design and repair them; we don’t need to work out the education system to determine this.

So what do we need to decide? Mostly how common different kinds of educated learning is, per subject, if they matter to our story. We can make anything rare by limiting the number of resources available to teach it, whether instructors, actual schools, or textbooks. For anything common, colleges or technical schools will teach it. If we need details, determine prerequisites, training duration, subjects taught, the awarded degree, and professions. Unless it’s art, like music, few people get an advanced degree for personal enrichment, but for employment opportunities thus raised. Characters can bond with each other by discussing how much they both hated a subject you decided was disliked.

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Creating Education Systems

This chapter covers other systems that will exist in our world, including educational, health, legal, commerce, and information systems.

Education Systems

Educational systems aren’t the most glamorous subject but should be given a thought because every character has either gone through one (to one degree of success or another), skipped it, or one didn’t exist during their coming of age. Unless every character had the same experience, the differences between them will impact interactions, opportunities, and more. Developing character backstory is incomplete without this.

A system can be easier to devise if we omit explaining it. Few of us know why the system that raised us exists as is, which is one reason we’ll accept a different one if presented authoritatively. This is also a subject few are curious about, including audiences. Unless we intend to set a story in a school, we can skimp on inventing details.

Systems are often public, meaning that the government pays for them, likely through taxes, but a church can be the provider as well (paid for with donations?). This means students do not have to pay to attend, but they may need to purchase supplies, including textbooks, and we can change such a detail. The schools that require students to pay are known as private schools that, in theory, provide a superior experience. It is likely that if a public education exists, some private instruction might, too. We can decide when we want a character to have attended one, at which point we need a name, specialties, and reputation for the school and students.

Systems can be broken down into basic and special.

Basic Education

Basics are the subjects that most of us take for granted: reading, writing, and arithmetic. History, sports, music, art, culture, and more are typically included in earlier years and more specialized extensions are taught to teenagers. That would also mean biology, chemistry, different versions of math (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc.), and increasingly advanced uses of language, including foreign ones. The latter is especially important in fantasy and SF that includes multiple species, each with their own verbal and possibly written language. In a world like ours or a more advanced one (SF), we and our audience can assume these subjects exist and characters can learn them. This allows us to largely skip inventing details if desired.

But in a less developed world, less of this will be taught formally if at all. This impacts fantasy authors with a setting like a medieval one. Education may not have gone beyond the equivalent of fifth or sixth grade if it was required at all. One reason is that children must often work in the family business because earning money or performing labor is more important than book learning. The invention of machines to automate or improve the speed of tasks, or increase the yield of something like farming, helps create more resources and “free time” that becomes available for education. Consider whether basic needs are being met in the society without great physical labor. If they’re not, it’s likely that education is a lower priority.

When this is the case, only a few people will achieve more advanced education, meaning what we might learn in our teenage years (in middle, junior, or high school, or whatever we call them). We can consider this a kind of second tier of basic education, rather than specialized education, which we’ll examine next. There will be a criterion for those who are chosen for this extra instruction, such as being wealthy or unusually smart, and special permission may be required. Certainly, nobles are not assigned mundane tasks and therefore have the time for this. It’s one way they can easily distinguish themselves from peasants.

Decide how education works based on the story needs for characters who know more than others. Given that basic education may not be forced, this creates ample room for ignorant characters, who only know what they hear and may get by with streets smarts and people skills far more than learning. This seems likely in fantasy settings. Larger settlements provide for people with more specialized skills and this also suggests training for them and better education. It is believable to decide bigger settlements means better (or simply more) education opportunities and therefore that our most educated characters come from cities rather than rural areas.

Our setting might include magic or advanced technology, and if their prevalence is high, basic instruction in them may also be provided. This won’t turn someone into a wizard or engineer, but just as grade school teaches students high-level concepts about music or art, the population might know basics about magic or warp drive, for example. Those who become engineers need subsequent advanced education (i.e., college or technical school). Here’s what we might write in a society’s file for basic education:

For SF: “At age 6, students are legally required to enroll at a public Kierdyn School (named for the famous scientist, Kier), which they attend until age 16. After this, each student must enroll in a technical school for 2 years, learning space sciences. Advanced education beyond this is available in three-year stints, each resulting in a degree.”

For fantasy: “At age 6, students may enroll in a private Kierdyn School (named for the god of knowledge, Kier) if their parents can spare the child’s work hours and afford the modest price; students may work at the school in lieu of paying in gold. Enrollment is not required. School ends at age 12, though students can leave prior to this. Advanced schooling beyond this is only for nobility or those considered unique or special, and who must pay with not less than ten years of service in their profession after graduation (refusal results in lifelong servitude).”

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How to Start Creating Names

We should start inventing names of people before places because we can name those locations after some of our characters. Objects should come later because these are sometimes named after places where they originated or were used dramatically. For people, choose a sovereign power where you wish to create names and think about the culture you’ve envisioned for them. Do they place importance on family names? Do they wish to honor both mother and father so that both surnames are taken by a child? If so, considering hyphenating that for clarity. This may also suggest names tend to be longer. Choose a rationale for the number and order of names. Decide if an initial given name is replaced by another at an important milestone in life. While inventing names using the techniques in this chapter, choose a few letter combinations, such as prefixes and suffixes, that are common, to begin creating a style of names within that sovereign power.

We’ll likely be creating names for multiple powers in our career, so we can just practice with this and improve as we go. I’m much better at this now than twenty years ago and you soon will be, too. Our story or world might also have multiple sovereign powers for which we intend to invent names, so try to vary the style of one place from another, but don’t worry over this too much. Countries that speak the same language will have some similarities.

For naming places and objects, the techniques in this chapter can get us started, and we can leverage some of those people names. Using a little ingenuity and some techniques, name generation can be fun. Sometimes we might have momentum doing this and it can be wise to just invent many names at once and save them for later. Lastly, we might also get started with those name generators and modify the results if they’re close to our desire.

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Name Generators

Free name generators exist on the internet. Most focus on character names, but we can leverage the results for places or things, too. Some of them allow us to choose what sort of name we’d like, such as Elvish or Klingon. We can also choose the gender. The resulting names will fit the style we’ve chosen, though this feature won’t help us much if we’ve invented our own species.

The generators can make naming much faster and easier. With a button click, we get dozens of potential names. If we don’t like them, another click generates another batch. A side-effect of so many shown to us is that we can become picky and quickly dismissive. This may be why I personally have found most of the results to be poor and unusable, but your luck or standards may differ. We can also use such a name as a starting point, altering it using the techniques in this chapter.

One negative to this is that it lacks creativity. A program is doing the work for us. This reduces or eliminates a personal connection to the result; having less investment in the world we’ve invented can make us care less about it, which might show in our work and impact the audience’s connection for the worse, too. Our personality is also missing. If there’s an impression we’re hoping to create with names, the name generators are less likely than our minds to produce what we seek.

A few name generators are listed here, the first having over a thousand styles from which to choose and includes places, objects, and more:

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