Fantasy Friday Chat: The World is Watching

What if it could love, hate, remember—or even seek revenge?

What if your favorite fantasy world knew what was happening?
What if it could love, hate, remember—or even seek revenge?

In today’s #FantasyFridayChat, we’re diving into one of my favorite world-building ideas: treating your setting like a character. Not just a backdrop but a living, breathing force—complete with moods, arcs, and secrets of its own.

When you think of your world as a character, you give it:

✨ Agency – It responds to what happens within it.
✨ Personality – Is it whimsical and tricksy like the forest in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell? Or cold, oppressive, and watchful, like Mordor?
✨ Evolution – Worlds evolve too. They can recover after war, crumble into ruin, or awaken from a magical slumber.
✨ Desire – Maybe the world itself is trying to heal. Maybe it wants to keep something buried. Or maybe it’s testing everyone who dares to walk its roads.

A land scarred by betrayal might be paranoid—full of wards, oaths, and hidden paths.
A world built on ancient ruins might feel like it’s whispering truths just out of reach.

Maybe it remembers—through haunted forests, cursed relics, or sentient stone.
Maybe it wants something—restoration, revenge, or simply to be left alone.

Middle-earth (Tolkien): Ancient, grieving, slow to change. The land mourns its past.

The Broken Earth Trilogy (N.K. Jemisin): The world is a literal character—angry, wounded, sentient.

The Neverending Story (Michael Ende): Fantastica grows or decays depending on the belief and imagination of others.

So here’s something to mull over this weekend:

📝 If your favorite world could write a letter to your main character, what would it say?

✨ I’d love to hear from you—if your world could write a letter to your main character, what would it say? Drop a line in the comments, or reply with a snippet from your world’s point of view. Let’s bring our worlds to life together. 💌🌍