It’s Time!

Perhaps the most overlooked element in world building is the time setting. The time setting is what the name suggests, a time frame which your story takes place.

In a High Fantasy story, time setting is a lot more flexible. Because High Fantasy takes place in a fictiional world that we could just slap on any number of years there and it would still make sense. George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ had his realm stuck in the middle ages for thousands of years! My book, The Ocean Hearth, for example takes place only ten thousand years after creation and somehow the humans already reached medieval times.

But let’s put High Fantasy away for a moment and let’s talk about the time setting in a pseudo-realistic world such as those in Urban Fantasy, Arthurian fantasy and so on.

Time setting is important because a certain population have different norms, culture and behavior over different spans of time. People from the middle ages may be prone to solve conflicts with violence, for example, making intelligence a distinguishable trait for your hero.

So while you are world building, try to think about which time period is your story taking place? What was normal at that time? What is beyond normal? How do people comunicate? What was the social structure of that era? These are important to keep your story realistic and consistent.

Here are a few examples of time settings that I enjoy.

1. Creation

[image error]This one is perfect if you’re making a story about deities and how your world came to be.

 

 

2. Middle ages

[image error]Whether if it’s in this world or if it’s fictional, this is a typical time setting for many fantasy stories. Btw, it doesn’t even have to be in a western-styled middle ages