Worldbuilding 102 – Creating Societies in a Fantasy World – Demographics

Last updated on July 2, 2021

Demographics

If you are worldbuilding for fiction, either as a game or as a novel, you need people to inhabit your world. Your primary concern should be your main characters. They are what drives your plot. Similarly, you need minor characters for your main characters interact with. Fleshing out your fantasy demographics allows you to create characters the reader can relate to. Where do they come from? What is their family history?

Demographics tell us what the people in a certain population are like. It is defined as “the statistical characteristics of human populations“. Among most demographers, two of the main categories of demographics are race and ethnicity.

Race and ethnicity are somewhat artificial divisions in a society. Race is a social division based on physical characteristics, while ethnicity is a more narrow division based on racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origins. I will discuss the factors that make up ethnicity in later articles in this series.

Keep in mind that these guidelines are just that. Focus on creating compelling main characters first. If for some reason you have a good story reason to deviate from the worldbuilding rules you create, story should take precedence. If you do deviate, it would be best to find a reason in the rules you have created. What would be better would be to make the deviation a plot point.

For this article, let’s focus on race as expressed by physical characteristics. I will also expand on physical characteristics to look at the fantastical elements such as human sub-species, humanoid species, and non-human sentient creatures in a later article.

Physical Characteristics

When talking about the physical characteristics used to define the demographics of a race, modern humans look at things such as skin color, eye color, hair color, hair texture, and body size.

Of these, skin, eye, and hair features are mostly determined by genetics. The role of genetics versus environmental factors in determining human body size is a matter of great debate.

Mutations as a Source of Genetic Difference

Humans are widely believed to have evolved in the hot, open environment of the plains or at least, a tree-dotted savannah. Later on, with the invention of tools such as clothing, they moved to other environments.

Of course, such migration took place over the course of millennia, allowing greater variation in genetic diversity. Populations that are further apart geographically and ancestrally are more genetically distinct.

Mutations rose in distinct populations that affected appearance among other things. As an example, the stereotypical northern European has different hair color and texture, eye color, and skin color than a typical aboriginal Australian or American Indian.

Genetics and Racial Mixing

Contrary to much of what was taught through the history of the United States, racial divisions are not hard and fast. Rather, they are a social construct loosely related to genetics. Some scientists say that race is a poor description of genetic diversity.

In the United States historically, anyone with “one drop” of African blood was considered Black. This is a rare definition and was originally used to justify enslaving Negros in a time when any enslaved person in the United States was a Negro.

Consequently, in the rest of the world, such a definition confuses people. Most cultures other than the United States accept that different genetic groups mix. In such cultures, the offspring of a mother and father from two different racial groups would be called a creole, mulatto, or mestizo.

Through such mixing, different physical characteristics disperse throughout human populations. For example, the concentration of blue eyes in Europe is heaviest around the Baltic Sea and disperses in the population farther away from the sea.

For the purposes of fantasy demographics, we will use race as exactly what it is: a social construct. In later articles, we will look at how it influences economics and culture. For now, we want to examine the physical characteristics used as markers that signify race.

Genetic Mixing and Migration

The more humans move from place to place, the more mixed populations will be. With little genetic mixing, mutations might become dominant only in certain groups. On the other hand, with mixing, the mutation becomes shared. In the blue eyes example above, if Vikings didn’t raid, there would probably be fewer blue eyes in northern Britain and Ireland than there is now.

In the modern age, with world travel available to people from every country, the opportunity for genetic mixing is the highest it has ever been. Prior to the era of ocean-going ships, railroads, and flight, travel was mostly by foot. In those times, people did not travel great distances in large numbers very often. When they did, their migration was constrained by the natural environment. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas all did their part to limit and direct the movement of peoples.

Human Demographics

When creating your own fantasy demographics, use the map you created in Worldbuilding 101. Firstly, look at your landscape and see where the natural features that divide and direct people are. Any division will work. Northern vs southern populations, if distant enough are not likely to mix. East or west sides of seas, rivers, or mountain ranges usually have less mixing.

Next, take into account whether seas and rivers allow for greater movement of people or less. Obviously, boating cultures are more likely to spread their genetics across bodies of water than landlubbers. The Viking example mentioned above is a case in point.

In addition, mountain passes allow movement of people, but usually only in narrow bands. When the Lombards moved into northern Italy, they brought their Germanic genes with them, settling on the fertile plain of what was up to then Cisalpine Gaul. Since their arrival, the region has been known as Lombardy.

Fantasy Demographics and Races

The history of human evolution and genetics is very fascinating, you say, but what does it matter in a fictional world that doesn’t have Vikings, Africa, or aboriginal Australians? If it doesn’t, you have to ask yourself, does it have people with blue eyes, black hair, or green skin?

These human mutations happened in the real world (except green skin), but they don’t have to have happened in your own fiction. You could just as easily have a race of red-eyed, blue-skinned people as have races that mimic real-world human evolution. Keep in mind that, the further from real-world phenotypes you diverge, the harder it will be for readers to relate to the character. Usually, writers cast these more fantastical characters as villains, though not always.

If you do create characteristics not found in the real world, think about how the feature might have evolved. Why do forest people have green skin? Yes, I am kind of on a green skin kick. Perhaps some algae or chlorophyll DNA got mixed into their own DNA. Additionally, perhaps green camouflage allowed for natural selection among the various predators in the jungle.

Racial Divisions in your Fantasy World

By racial divisions, I don’t mean racial strife, but what natural genetic markers differentiate one group from another? For illustration, let’s look at three groups in southeastern Pancirclea: Hillfolk, Silvans, and Savannah People.

I chose these three based on the environment that divides them. I could also have chosen sea peoples or marsh dwellers. Maybe I’d do that if I were to set a story in those areas. For illustration, I’ll limit it to these three.

I’ll make a further distinction between the northern and southern Savannah People. I could also make distinctions among the various Hillfolk divided in each of their valleys, but let’s keep it simple for now.

Skin Color and Evolution

Among the people of the real world, skin color is probably the most prevalent marker of race, though other features also are used. The second most used feature is eye shape. For example, most East Asians have an epicanthic fold.

Humans evolved different skin colors over millennia. Dark and light skin correlate closely with geography and the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Originally, humans had dark skin. Later, they evolved white skin when they moved to higher latitudes with lower UV radiation. Of course, human migration and genetic mixing has moved these skin colors to every location on Earth.

This doesn’t mean that every person in a population will have the same skin color. Because of the proximity of different groups, there will be some variation of skin color within a population to account for mixing between the groups.

One of the most common classifications of skin type is the Fitzpatrick Scale, listing color from Type I (very light) to VI (very dark). These six classifications are described differently by different users. That is, the various descriptions for each classification are various synonyms for shades of black, brown, tan, and white.

Fantasy Demographics Skin Types

When creating my Dungeons and Dragon campaign, I created charts similar to the charts in the old AD&D 1st Edition Dungeon Master Guide. I still use it for minor characters in my novels. The chart below creates a distribution of skin colors for different populations in Pancirclea based on the Fitzpatrick Scale.

Skin Color	Ivory (I)	Ruddy (I)	Fair/Pale (II)	Beige (III)	Light Brown (IV)	Dark Brown (V)	Black (VI)	Special
Northern Savannah	1-22	23-41	42-55	56-80	81-90	91-96	97-99	100
Silvan	1-19	20-29	30-51	52-76	77-90	91-96	97-99	100
Hillfolk	1-10	11-13	14-33	34-53	54-75	76-90	91-96	100
Southern Savannah	1-3	4-4	5-26	27-35	36-60	61-79	80-99	100

As you can see in my chart, the southern Savannah People have a much greater distribution of dark skin than do the northern Savannah People. The southern Silvans probably also have a similar distribution vis-a-vis the northerners. Maybe they don’t because they get less Vitamin D due to lower levels of ultraviolet radiation underneath the forest canopy.

I kept this chart simple for the purposes of this worldbuilding demonstration. If I were going to be creating fantasy demographics for a novel or game, I would likely want to add more detail. For instance, I would divide each of the three groups into northern, central, and southern divisions, weighting the skin color of the southern divisions more heavily to the Black (VI) skin color and the northern divisions more heavily to the Ivory (I) or Fair/Pale (II) colors.

I also added a Special category to account for mutations. Examples of special skin types might be mutations, albinism, vitiligo, or diseases such as leprosy. I created an additional chart for special outcomes.

Special:
Grey	1-30
Pink	31-60
Yellowish	61-85
Bluish	85-100

Hair Color

Another major distinguishing feature of a race is the prevalence of certain hair colors. Almost everybody knows the most basic colors: grey, blond, red, brown, and black. There are other subdivisions and scales, but for our purposes, we can keep it simple.

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Black is the most common human hair color. It is a dominant trait in humans. Brown is the second most common color. Blond hair is most commonly found in Northern and Western Europeans, but many Melanesians also carry a gene giving them blond hair. Also, northern and western Europeans are most likely to have red hair, but it is the rarest of all colors.

White and grey hair is more prevalent with age because hair loses pigmentation as people age. Other conditions might also cause a person’s hair to go white.

Human Hair Colors on Pancirclea

	Blond	Red	Brown	Black	Special		Special:
Northern Grasslands	1-30	31-32	33-62	63-90	91-100		White
Silvan	1-20	21-21	22-51	52-90	91-100		Grey
Hillfolk	1-25	26-26	27-46	47-95	96-100		Bald
Southern Grasslands	1-15	16-16	17-31	32-90	91-100		Bluish
							Greenish

Human Hair Textures

Just as with color, you must keep in mind the variety of hair textures. These textures are found in almost every human population, though some are much more common than others. For example, the typical Japanese person would have straight hair, but wavy is also common. Kinky is very rare in Japan unless the person is of mixed race.

The image above shows finer detail than we need for creating fantasy demographics. I simplified it so the numbers correspond to categories: 1: straight, 2: wavy, 3: curly, and 4: kinky.

Hair Texture	Straight	Wavy	Curly	Kinky
Northern Grasslands	1-20	21-50	51-85	86-100
Silvan	1-35	36-65	65-85	86-100
Hillfolk	1-20	21-55	56-85	86-100
Southern Grasslands	1-15	16-35	36-70	71-100

Remember that these charts are for demonstration purposes. You can mix them up for your fantasy demographics as you want. Feel free to add more sub-categories of color and texture or change the distribution. Perhaps you want one of your races to have more red or blond colors to set them apart from the rest.

Eye Color

Now that we have skin and hair colors defined, we can turn to eye color. This should be the simplest physical feature to define. Seventy-nine percent of all human eyes are brown. Conversely, that leaves a minority of mutants descended from one person somewhere in northern Europe.

For those of us of northern European descent, we think of eye color as having a wide variety, but it is not. In fact, only 2% of the world has green eyes and about 10% have blue eyes. Other colors are Hazel, Amber, and Grey. Those might be categorized together with blue or brown, depending on your preference.

For fantasy demographics, you can use any eye color you wish, but your characters should be relatable. You can make green, blue, or grey eyes more prevalent than the real world. I will let you create your own chart for this among the populations of your own world.

Height

When talking about body size, we are mainly talking about height and weight. Humans all fall within a certain a size range. There is some variation mainly due to nutritional factors, which may also be related to climate and latitude. That is, in areas with fewer edible plants and animals, people may be shorter and thinner. People in mountainous areas often also have smaller stature due to food insecurity and poor health.

As we can see from the chart above, most human males are between 160 and 190 cm (5′ 3″ to 6′ 3″) . Similarly, most human females are between 145 and 175 cm (4′ 8″ to 5′ 9″). There are many cases of people falling outside those ranges an inch or two or in the case of dwarfism and gigantism. However, these are fairly rare. Dwarfism and gigantism are usually due to hyperpituitarism, genetic disorders, or growth hormone deficiency.

Weight

Height is the main determinant of a person’s ideal body weight. If the average male is 175 cm, then his ideal body weight would be 70.7 kg (155 lbs). However, weight fluctuates depending on a person’s genetic background, metabolism, eating habits, and activity level. Average weights for men in the world range from 55.4 kg in Afghanistan (122 lbs) to 99.4 kg in Tonga (219 lbs). Extreme weights have been found from 2.13 kg (4.7 lbs) to 635 kg (1,400 lbs).

The variation here is so wide, you can set just about any weight for a person within these parameters.

The simplest way to describe sizes is by size categories rather than specific measurements. For example, you could use categories such as tall, medium, short and light, medium, heavy. If you really want to get specific, you can create charts similar to the skin, eye, and hair charts I created.

Races and Racism

One thing to be careful of in discussing human races is the tendency to attribute certain features to a person depending solely on their membership in a particular race. For example, in political races in the United States, there is the assumption that, because you are black or Latino, you will vote for Democrats. The Democrats learned the hard way that this is not true.

Throughout American history, racist views have ascribed certain attributes to African Americans based on their race that were more likely due to the socio-economic status they were forced into.

Above all, be clear in your fiction that the classification of people into races is based on a few features, not that the classifications determine those features. We are creating fantasy demographics, but we don’t want to be drawn into real-world biases.

Remember that race is a social construct that might affect other aspects of your society, especially economics. When we get to that topic, we will cover such issues as economic stratification, caste, and class.

Sub-species and Non-Humanoid Species

We have been talking about the genetics that create the wide diversity in human populations, but there are more species found in fantasy literature than just homo sapiens. The classic Tolkeinesque fantasy includes goblins, orcs, elves, and dwarves, among other things. I had planned on covering this topic in this post, but there is a lot of rich material to be mined there. I think it merits its own post. Look for it in the next week or two.