How To Write Fantasy Lore

Writing fantasy is thrilling and intimidating. As a seasoned author or a newcomer to the craft, crafting a believable fantasy world is no easy feat. The central element of any fantastic story is worldbuilding—it’s how believable the world is, how it operates, and how engaged it makes the reader. But worldbuilding from a blank slate can become overwhelming in no time, especially if you can’t wait to get to the action.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to employ lore, brief but effective pieces of in-universe history and custom, as a versatile instrument to create rich, vivid fantasy worlds without overwhelming readers with exposition.

Why Worldbuilding Becomes Overwhelming (And How to Fix It)

Settings in fantasy tend to be intricate by design. These contain items like unusual governments, deep histories, unusual technology, and supernatural elements. Developing all of that from scratch can feel like building a whole civilization because, in a large sense, you are doing just that.

You may have ready-made characters, dramatic moments in mind, and neat magical trinkets to share. But then you’re stuck. You see that to make clear the why or how of these things, you’d have to interrupt the story to tell how the economic system of a kingdom works, where a cursed object came from, or the whole fall and rise of an empire. That’s information that’s vital—but breaking the flow of the narrative to dump it in a heap can make it a real momentum buster.

The Answer is Lore

Lore provides a means of getting in worldbuilding organically. It’s “a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject, often passed down orally through generations.” That means lore is the things that the people of your world know—the myths, the stories, the beliefs, and the traditions that inform how they understand history, the supernatural, and even everyday life.

One of the things that makes lore work so well in storytelling is that it’s not strictly exposition. It’s not a lecture in history. It’s the kind of information that your characters would tell around a campfire, whisper to each other over before a mission, or casually mention in conversation. It’s built into the story, not heaped on top.

Some reasons lore works so well:

• It communicates meaning in a few lines.
  
• It’s real because it’s from the cultural context of where you’re coming from.
  
• It generates curiosity, causing the reader to seek to learn more.
  
• It allows you to develop your world without weighing down your story with cumbersome explanations.
  

Applying Lore As a “Story Within the Story”

Imagine that you are composing a fantasy novel of a mountain kingdom that dares not reach for the skies. The avian creatures of this world prey on the weak in the air, meaning simple flying machines are all but outlawed for safety.

Your book begins with a novice mountaineer getting set to make his first solo climb over the mountain to the next township. He’s apprehensive. He’s afraid of the avian creatures. You want to make sure readers comprehend that apprehension and why that instant is significant—but not by introducing a five-page prologue detailing the whole history of the kingdom.

Rather, insert a bit of lore just before the action commences. It could sound like this:

“They claim that the first king’s lieutenant was the first to venture into the skies of a mounted beast. But he never returned. Then it was a troop of their best soldiers, who also never returned. And so the profession of mountaineering was born, and the first mountaineers carved the way for the rest through the cost of their lives. Yet their bravery was not forgotten by the people.”

You’ve informed your readers within a few lines:

• Avains are dangerous and feared.
  
• The kingdom possessed a history of disastrous encounters with them.
  
• Flying technology exists but is outlawed.
  
• There is a veneration of past leaders and innovators.
  

This lore isn’t mere backstory—it establishes the tone, makes the world richer, and provides context to the character’s emotions without interrupting the narrative’s flow.

Focus over Exhaustion: Choose Just a Few Things to Work on Thoroughly

You don’t have to develop a fully fleshed-out world immediately. Quite often, trying to develop everything can end up doing more harm than good. The wiser plan is to develop just a few central areas and flesh out those carefully. This gives the impression of a vastly larger world, because the reader will make the assumption that everything else has that same depth—even if you’ve just mentioned it.

Building depth does not equal pages of prose. Bullet points, blurbs, and quick summations work just fine if they are meaningful and focused. Select the pieces of your world that either:

• Directly support the plot
  
• Enrich the subject
  
• Or ignite your own curiosity and enthusiasm
  

Determining the Proper Locations to Introduce Lore

Don’t know where to start? Start with these traditional categories of worldbuilding where lore tends to thrive. It’s not necessary that you tackle them all–select the ones that are most applicable to your story.

1. Power and Politics
   
   • Who is in command, and how did they ascend?
     
   • What’s the relationship between the ruler and the public?
     
   • Is the government feared, respected, resented?
     
   • Is justice fair, arbitrary, or nonexistent?
     
2. Small pieces of lore could derive from traditions of the courtroom, proverbs regarding monarchs, or popular folktales concerning crooked officials.
   
3. Resources and exchanges
   
   • What’s precious to you? Valuable minerals? Legendary herbs? Ancient artifacts?
     
   • Who owns those resources?
     
   • Which conflicts are generated by them?
     
4. Perhaps there exists a curse of a silver mine that continues to attract desperate miners—or a sea shanty of merchants who bargained with sea creatures to pass safely by.
   
5. The Social Structure and Cultural Norms
   
   • Which traditions characterize the culture? Are they still applied or largely forgotten?
     
   • How do different social classes interact?
     
   • Is your world egalitarian, patriarchal, or matriarchal—or somewhere in between
     
   • Perception of gender and sexuality varies widely across cultures.
     
6. These are ideal themes for small traditions, folk proverbs, or family myths that are handed down through generations.
   
7. Religion and Belief Systems
   
   • There isn’t a single dominant religion.
     
   • Are the gods silent or active within the world?
     
   • Do beliefs serve to control or to comfort?
     
8. You demonstrate beliefs by means of ritual, benedictions, curses, holy symbols, or even unofficially told stories of divine wrath.
   
9. Magic and Technology
   
   • My world is highly advanced.
     
   • Is magic common, exotic, or limited?
     
   • Does magic mix with technology—or conflict with it?
     
10. Perhaps in your world there are arcane engineers who compose spell-casting code, or bygone myths concerning how magic used to divide the world into continents.
    

Keep lore manageable and useful

One of the most prevalent misconceptions around lore is that it must be finely written and publishable. That’s not true. A large part of lore you write will never see the light of day in your finished story—and that’s fine.

You don’t have to write a 40-page cultural history of your imaginary country. It just takes enough to make the world feel inhabited.

Some quick tips:

• Maintain a personal notebook of short traditions, legends, and proverbs.
  
• Let me write in the voices of the peasants, soldiers, and scholars of the past.
  
• Consider how the lore influences the character’s decisions, beliefs, fears, or actions.
  

Final Thoughts: The World Breaths Through the Lore

Good lore does not just fill in the blanks of your world. It brings readers into a place where myth and history are indistinguishable, where each corner of the map has meaning, and where the character lives not just in the moment—but in the shadow of the past.

You don’t necessarily have to tell them everything. Keep your character’s world in his character and his ways. Make them feel that there is more going on beyond the page.

Begin with a single story, a single belief, or a single whispered rumour—and allow the rest to follow.