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Enchanting Fantasy World Building: Robert Jackson Bennett's Founders Trilogy
Updated: Jul 30, 2023
If you read the last post, you'll remember I was pretty hard on Foundryside, book 1 of the Founders Trilogy. I felt like I was being hard, anyway.
Side note: If you haven't read that post, it's here.
Though I really did like it, and I think Bennett is a talented writer.
Today, I want us to discuss why his fantasy is so great.
Contents:
What Makes Great Fantasy World Building?
I may not have liked the Founders Trilogy as much as the Divine Cities series, but I enjoyed it all the same. What I find remarkable about Bennett's work is how well integrated his fantasy worlds are. Nothing seems unbelievable.
He is able to brilliantly incorporate gods and mythology, magic systems, technology, economies, political systems, and class systems in his books to make a real-feeling world for his readers. Unlike many other imaginative worlds, Bennett's could easily translate into reality if it weren't for the fact that magic (of the fantasy kind) doesn't exist.
I like to use an example of the first Black Panther movie to iterate my point:
The film was fun and entertaining, but there were a few striking problems with its fantasy world. One of these problems was the fur-wearing Jabari. Not only must they have killed those animals for their fur, but they also live in a climate where they probably wouldn't be able to grow vegetables.
Yet they are vegetarian?
What?!
Worse still, Wakanda's political system makes NO sense in the technologically advanced world that they set it up. To have a booming technological sector (to have even a portion of a population that can invent), you need to have a thriving economy.
In any stable economy, there are going to be people with money and interests in that economy. NEVER would such a place just allow any jackass with muscle to stroll in and put the whole system at risk. NEVER.
But ok. I'll let it all go for the sake of sitting back and enjoying the movie. Turn off the editor's brain, Tessa…
And I can and will do that for books as well. Just to get through. But that is why it is so refreshing to come across books where the author has tried really hard to avoid these mistakes.
Founders was one of those, and I knew it would be because the Divine Cities series was too. It's why I was so looking forward to reading this book, and it didn't disappoint!
So here are 5 reasons why Robert Jackson Bennett's series has some of the best fantasy world-building you will see. I tried to keep this list to things that writers may not automatically think about when creating their own.
1. Intricate lore that is revealed to you organically throughout the entire plot.
I think the most crucial point to make here is that it Bennett's lore is actually integral to the plot. But it is never dumped on us, even though it is detailed and intricate.
One of my favorite things about the Divine Cities books was how much of the world's history was presented to us at the beginning of chapters as quotes from fictional holy texts and the like.
Bennett also made sure that every bit of information he gave served a purpose and was not just told for its own sake. Too many fantasies provide us with information that is cool but really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
This is where many writers fall into the trap of the info-dump—a reader's (and editor's) worst nightmare.
I also love how Bennett's books raise and integrate the stakes from personal to societal to global by the end of the book. He does this gradually by revealing more and more of his lore throughout. The reader comes to realize just how important all these historical tidbits are, and by the end, the pay off is immensely satisfying.
That is what a good fantasy novel needs to do!
2. Magic that has an origin
Another reason the gods and lore of Foundryside are so great is that they give his magic systems an origin story.
Magic is not present just because it is fantasy and the author thinks it should be there. People don't have magical powers because some people just do have magical powers in that world.
Bennett's magic is there for a reason. In Founders, a group of people had come across the gods' written language a long time ago that gave them the ability to do godlike things. In a pinch. I'm oversimplifying.
I see a lot of fantasy manuscripts, and too many of them take magic for granted. They will explain how it works, the rules of it's use, and that's all fine. But rarely do we get a glimpse of where magic came from in the first place, and even more rarely are the magic systems as unique and refreshing as Bennett's are.
Is it necessary for magic to have an origin story in a magical world? Not really. But I love it!
Even if you don't reveal to the reader where magic comes from, do you at least know? Perhaps taking the time to really develop where your magic originates is enough to give your story the boost it needs.
3. A technology sector and economy that is built around magic.
In a world where magic allows people to do amazing things, it only makes sense that an economy would build up around it. Not many fantasy novels do this, and I don't know why. I get that it does not always make sense for the plot to include this stuff, and that's fine. Less is more in that regard.
When the economy included in the story seems to disregard the very magic developed in the book, however, my feathers get ruffled.
In Founders, the markets and black markets revolve around the development and sale of magical goods, because why wouldn't they? If something existed in the world that made people's lives exponentially easier, don't you think it would get used? Frequently?
Think of what happened when computers and smartphones came into existence. First available only to the moderately wealthy, and eventually, they became cheap enough for most people to afford it. Those technologies have also changed the way people do business and live their everyday lives.
Magic would do that, too, but on a grand scale! Your fantasy world should reflect that.
For instance, if a large King or Leader had magics at their disposal, the first thing that these magics would be used on is growing industry to gain more wealth. Like making the fields yield more wheat to feed more workers, building machinery to produce textiles or provide heat.
Next, he would probably use the magic to wage war and gain more land.
Too often, I see economies in fantasy novels that are like middle age markets, or like our own, but completely oblivious to their own world's reality of magic. It is strange to me, and to anyone else who has studied economics in any capacity.
If you really don't want your economies or technologies to reflect magic in anyway, then at least give us a plausible reason why.
4. A political system that seems a natural progression of the economy and technology
In Founder, politicians are replaced with heads of merchant houses, who have taken power by possessing magical assets and successfully competing directly with the other houses. This competition drives the economy (and the plot) and feels like a realistic progression of a power system if all those variables were really present.
Many fantasies rely on real-world political structures like monarchies, or dictatorships, that don't make a whole lot of sense in the fantasy world the author has created.
Kings and Queens, even everyday people have powerful magics or mages at their disposal, yet the worlds do not differ a whole lot from historical Europe (or wherever place they're based off).
The only difference is magic is real.
Sometimes this can make sense, most of the time, it doesn't.
Resources are power, and magic is a resource. A powerful one. You have to be able to explain how people in power have accumulated the resources, how they manage to keep them, how they distribute them and more. It's not always enough just to say a monarchy exists just because.
Political systems must have a function, when they begin to function poorly, they are replaced. It's why you do not see monarchies all over the place nowadays, because they are not political systems that are able to function properly in fast growing economies.
Something to think about when planning your fantasy world's political system.
5. Systems of power that don't subjugate those without power for no reason.
Where there is power, there is subjugation, or those oppressed who do not have power. In many fantasies, the people in power keep those down for the simple reason that they are evil tyrants.
Don't get me wrong, these people exist, but even your most evil character needs a reason for doing something in fiction. In Founders, the class distinction makes sense. Economies of magic have made natural and realistic disparities between the haves and the have-nots.
Even a tyrant needs a reason to starve his people to death.
We like the idea of having our heroes stem from the oppressed segments of society. And that's not a bad thing, readers love the under dog story and it gives the protagonist a reason to fight. But not often do we hear a great answer of why these people are oppressed in the first place.
They just are....because racism...or whatever else.
Just remember nothing happens in a vacuum and there are roots under every tree. Not saying the reader needs to be told this stuff if it has nothing to do with the immediate plot, but if you don't know either, the reader will feel it.
Conclusion
And there you have it. The world building in Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett hits all the right notes. With its intricate lore, well-thought-out magic system, and economy that revolves around it, the world feels grounded in reality. The political system is believable, and the systems of power are realistically motivated.
All in all, it's a fantastic example of what great world building can do for a fantasy story. If you haven't checked out the series yet, I highly recommend it. It's a wild ride through a world that feels both familiar and completely unique.
My advice for writers who are building their own fantasy worlds is to focus on creating a cohesive and consistent world.
Remember that the details matter - from the geography and climate to the political structures and magic systems, every element of your world should fit together in a logical and believable way.
Take the time to research real-world cultures and histories for inspiration, and don't be afraid to make your world different from what's come before.
World building is an ongoing process, and you need to be willing to revise and edit it up until the very end. if something doesn't feel right, or you know in your heart that you didn't research something thoroughly, then don't leave it. You'll regret it.
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