47 World Building Prompts for History and Time

These world building prompts come from 3000 World Building Prompts, which you can get at Amazon. This section is focused on creating gods.

How far back does written history go?
Where did civilization begin?
In what directions did it spread?
Are there “ages” to the history?
If so, what defines them and when did they occur?
When was magic discovered?
When was each type of magic discovered?
When was each important technology discovered?
When was the first launch into space?
When was the first alien contact?
Was there an important magical or technological disaster and when? What happened and what was the aftermath?
When was the last major war, what was it fought over, who won, and what happened to the loser(s)?
When was there a great cataclysm?
Was the cataclysm natural (volcano, meteor) or not?
If not, who caused it? What happened?
Has a major sovereign power recently collapsed or been conquered?
If so, why?
How long ago?
What is the fallout from the collapse?
What important missions have been undertaken, by whom, when, was it successful, and what was the result?
When were important items invented or discovered and by whom?
When was an important item lost or destroyed and by whom?
If gods exist (or even if they don’t), what are some famous events associated with them? When did this occur?
What impact did these events have then and now?
What supernatural or technological events shaped the present and when were they? What happened?

Do you want/need a different time scale to be a factor in your work?
Do you want time measurements to be like Earth’s?
How many days are in a year?
How many months are in a year?
How many days are in a month, or does it vary?
How many weeks in a month, or does it vary?
How many days are in a week?
How many hours in a day?
How many minutes in an hour?
Is time measured like military time or is there an AM and PM?
For your universal calendar, what event is Year 1?
From what sovereign power did the universal calendar originate?
Do people know that?
Do they care?
Is a designation like B.C., BCE, or A.D. in use?
If so, what do the letters mean?
Since then, how many years have passed?
What are the names of the months?
Will you create month names that use seasonal words, and which differ in each hemisphere since the season is different?
Do the years receive names, too?
What are the names of the days of a week?
Do weeks receive names and if so, what are they?