The Worldbuilder Diaries: Cultures and Society

Every character has a distinct culture and/or societal influence that influences their beliefs, actions, and thought processes. While some of my characters come from a background similar to my own, others showcase very different worldviews—and I find those are the most fun to write about.

I’ll showcase a few of my cultures/societies in this post and what made them so interesting for me as the writer.

The Hive-Mind of the Corodan (The Caein Legacy series)

The Corodan were so much fun to work on. They’re an insectoid species, which in itself made them very different than any other people I’ve incorporated into my stories. I’ve had some readers call them “creepy,” but I personally found them fascinating. (I like bugs, what can I say?)

But what makes the Corodan so unique is their hive-mind. The hive-queen has the ability to impose her will upon every other member of the hive, and individuals have the ability to communicate over long distances. What one Corodan sees, the entire hive sees.

I modeled their society after ants and bees; they’re cooperative, and some individuals are born into specific roles (workers, warriors, etc.) Of the females, only the queens are capable of reproduction, though other females may hold roles of authority.

I had the opportunity to explore the Corodan society most thoroughly while writing Harbinger, and I loved every moment of that process.

The Solar-Driven Culture of the Botanaari (Wraith and the Revolution)

Of all my fictional people, the Botanaari are the newest. I was trying to come up with a unique alien race as I was in the outlining stages of Wraith and the Revolution, and started thinking about plants. There aren’t many sentient plant species featured in sci-fi (though I’ve seen it more frequently in fantasy.)

I drew a bit of inspiration for the Botanaari from Farscape (Zhaan’s character in particular.) The Botanaari are photosynthetic, but they evolved from carnivorous plants, so they eat insects/meat too. And since Botanaari cuisine plays a minor role in the book, I had to figure out what exactly that entailed. Since they’re plants, the Botanaari don’t consume anything plant-based, and they try to avoid using items made from plants too (things like paper or fabric… They have items that serve the same function, but are created from different raw materials. Their “paper” is made of compressed wings from an insectoid creature native to their world, and there’s mention of them using spider silk to make clothing.)

The other aspect of Botanaari biology that influences their culture significantly is that their people are monogendered, meaning there is no male or female division. Every Botanaari is capable of pollinating another for reproduction (but they are not capable of self-pollination.) While they’ve assumed masculine pronouns for the sake of their human counterparts, the Botanaari language itself has no gender-derived terms, since the concept was completely foreign to them prior to encountering humans. Botanaari seedlings (children) are given the surname of the parent who gestated them, which means siblings with the same two parents oftentimes wind up with different surnames.

And because they’re photosynthetic, the Botanaari have a special relationship with solar power. They’re renowned in the galaxy for their solar technology, but guard the specifics of designing it closely. They’d rather not have their specs stolen my a greedy megacorp like Zylar Inc.

The Botanaari people are led by a monarch-type figure, the Vynaas. The Vynaas’ eldest surname-bearing child is the heir, and is trained from birth to assume the position later in life.

The Matriarchal Society of the Murkor (The Relics of War series and related works)

Epic fantasy in general has a tendency toward featuring mostly patriarchal societies, so when I began to design the Murkor in the Relics of War series, I wanted to take a different route. Theirs is a heavily matriarchal society, and the women are responsible for the majority of household decisions (there are some exceptions, and I’ll get into that later.)

The society as a whole is led by their Matriarch. She is responsible for enacting rules/laws and upholding Murkor traditions. Her life’s partner, the Kal, oversees the alchemists’ caste and acts as a spiritual leader, though he defers to the Matriarch for major decisions.

Individual families are also led by women. Households defer to the mothers, who are responsible for guiding their children on their life’s paths. All important decisions, including caste placements and marriage, must receive the mother’s approval before going forward.

The one Murkor character who doesn’t fit this mold is Sal’zar. His mother died when he was young, forcing him to find his own path (which leads to much trial and error on his part.) Without a mother’s guidance, he’s at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to caste placement, because he has no one to vouch for his skills—and his father’s word carries very little weight.

Thanks for reading another installment of The Worldbuilder Diaries. If you’d like to see more posts from this series, they’re all available here: The Worldbuilder Diaries