Throughout history, there have been individuals who have changed the course of history. What would the United States be without the Founding Fathers? Rome without Augustus? Where would literature be without Cervantes, Dickens, and Hemingway? Where would industry be without Whitney, Diesel, and Atanasoff? For the next few posts, I’m going to talk about character and how they relate to world building.

One thing to consider is looking at what parts of the culture are unique or stick out to you as interesting. If the culture has had a long succession of kings, who started that dynasty? What was the dynasty before and why did that fall? If the country has some sort of constitutional system, who wrote it? Why? If the government is new, who set that up? What was it before? Once you decide that a small group of people or single person was responsible, what kind of person were they? Go beyond the fact that they were a patriot, really intelligent, and/or a political philosopher. George Washington wrote a book on courtesy, was a great general, and owned slaves. Benjamin Franklin was a publisher, effete snob, and womanizer. Thomas Jefferson was a backstabbing jerk who took credit for other people’s work, but was also highly influential in political philosophy for centuries.

Another path to go down is who invented what? Nikola Tesla was a brilliant electrical engineer who invented the neon light, alternating current power, transformers, and the electric grid we still basically use today. He was also an egomaniac who lost everything on increasingly crackpot ideas. Mozart was a prodigy, but also likely bipolar. George Washington Carver helped revolutionize farming, but wasn’t able to vote in parts of the country. Newton basically invented physics, but was also an alchemist. Since this is fantasy, look into who created certain spells. Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds couldn’t stand the thought of not putting their names on the vehicles their companies produced. Why would a wizard be any different?

Look into the histories of the people who changed the world. You’ll find a number of people who were lucky, brilliant, clever, persistent, boorish, touched in the head, and even down right scary. HP Lovecraft was a violent racist who committed suicide before inspiring Steven King, Robert Bloch, Dean Koontz, and Clive Barker. When working on your world building, you should be doing some character building at the same time.

Next week, I’ll be talking about political figures and how they shape and are shaped by the times and places where they live. See you next week!