Cosmology: Establishing a Foundation for your Worldbuilding

Definitions

Cosmology is the study of the universe, particularly as it relates to astronomy and physics.  In worldbuilding terms, Cosmology is the establishment of the basic building blocks of your world.  It is the “Natural Laws” within which your universe functions.

Don’t confuse Cosmology and Cosmogony.  Cosmogony is the study of how the universe came to be.  It’s creation story.  Cosmogony is a subset of Cosmology.

Verisimilitude

How realistic do you want your world to be?

External Consistency

This degree to which your world mirrors the Earth.  It has three basic gradations:

  • Pushing the bounds of imagination by tossing out as many of our Natural Laws as possible.
  • Strive for a great degree of consistency between your world and ours.
    • Rule of Thumb: Strive for great consistency EXCEPT for areas chosen for specific differences.
  • Don’t worry too much about realism. Overall precision isn’t that important.

Ultimately, “Know thyself.”  What will drive you nuts, and what will cause your creativity to blossom?  What is worth the effort and what is not?  And, of course, keep your target audience in mind.

Internal Consistency

How strictly will you obey the Natural Laws you establish for your world across the board?

To be internally consistent is to explore the impacts of choices you make.  For example, if magic is common, powerful, and elemental, then a medieval setting relying on castles for defense may be implausible as magic users could easily blast them down… unless you also allow for some sort of magical bolstering of those ramparts.

If internal consistency is important to you, consider maintaining a “rulebook.”  One technique is to setup a wiki to track such things.

Familiar vs. Strange

To what degree do you want your world to be familiar to your audience versus making it strange by pushing the bounds of imagination?

Familiar

  • Benefits:  You don’t have to push your audience to understand your setting.
  • Drawbacks:  Your world may end up humdrum and cliché.

Strange

  • Benefits:  Your world can be fresh, new, and compelling.
  • Drawbacks:  Your world may end up unrelatable.  This is can be especially true when exploring aspects of the human condition.

I discuss the nature of familiar and strange in the context of fantasy races in the video “Poisons of the Second-Hand Tolkien.”  Check it out if you’re interested in more.

Core Cosmological Concepts

Cosmogony

  • How did your world begin? 
  • Was your world created?  If so, do the inhabitants know how?  If they don’t, how about you? 

Religion

  • Does your world have a religion? 
  • Is it a pantheon, dualism, deism, monotheism or some other -ism?  Fantasy frequently has one religion with warring factions.  Or, like our world, does it have many religions?   
  • Some works of fantasy largely ignore religion altogether, though if you have a creation story from your cosmology, especially one that is widely known and generally agreed upon, you’ll likely need one. 
  • Another option is the same religion with many different interpretations, sects, or varieties of groups.

 

The Heavens and the Earth

  • Is there a sun, a moon, and stars?  Or maybe many suns or many moons? 
  • Is there a solar system like ours, or perhaps everything orbits around your world like was believed during the Middle Ages?
  • Or are the celestial spheres not spheres at all, but rather holes in a dome with true heaven shining through? 
  • What about the world itself?  Is it a globe like ours or is it a flat world, perhaps on the back of a turtle?  Or is it some other shape?  Maybe everyone lives inside of a sphere rather than on the outside!

Geography

  • Do the world’s lands and seas behave like our own, driven by tectonic forces, tides, wind currents, and so on with them driving climate, soil types, vegetation, etc. 
  • Or are there magical, divine, or otherworldly influences that make your world behave different than ours?

Magic

  • Is there magic in your world?  If so, how does it function?  Is it scientific, internally logical, and mathematically quantifiable?  Or is it an inscrutable wonder?  In other words, is it worldly or otherworldly? 
  • How powerful is magic?  Can it destroy huge swaths of the world like a nuclear bomb or is it no more dangerous than one guy holding a pointy stick? 
  • What powers magic?  Is it as integrated and natural as all the other more conventional power sources of the world?  Does the caster draw upon himself?  Or is the source either divine and/or infernal? 
  • Is magic good, evil, or neutral? 
  • Is magic vivid and physical like fireballs and lightning or is it more spiritual? 
  • Who can use magic and how do such magic users gain both skill and power… and what price do they pay for such efforts?

Races

  • What sentient races inhabit your world? 
  • Are there humans?  Are there fantastical races? 
  • Are these races traditional like elves and dwarves or concoctions of your own design? 
  • Are they humanoid or alien? 
  • Are some races “good” and some races “evil” or is this driven by individual choice and action? 
  • Do these races live side-by-side?  If so, is it in some semblance of harmony or is one in a superior position over others?  Or do they largely remain in their own domains away from each other?
  • Are there monsters? 
  • If so, is there a vast bestiary of fantastical creatures or are there just a small number? 
  • Are there fey, otherworldly creatures, or are all races, monsters, and beasts natural parts of the world?

World Quirks or Focus

Does your world have some sort of quirk or focus that helps it to stand out from others?  The answer doesn’t have to be yes.  There are two methods to find one, though.

First, it could be based upon your interests such as history, archeology, religion, language, old legends, and so on.  What you know and love you can build more strongly into what you create.

Second, it could be some sort of internal quirk that makes the world function in a unique way that is different from our own experiences.