Category: Book Blog

To create organized religions, we’ll need our god(s) worked out in some detail (refer to Chapter 1 of Creating Life, The Art of World Building, #1)). Many religions focus on a single god, even if others exist, but some will Read More …

Our first choice with creating armed forces is to decide whether it’s a smaller, specialized group like the U.S. Marines or a larger force, and what kind it is: army, navy, or air/space force. This will determine where they typically Read More …

Languages We may have little need to specify which languages this military group can speak. Instead, we can take a predictable but believable route and decide they know enough about the language of any nearby species that they must communicate Read More …

Languages We may have little need to specify which languages this military group can speak. Instead, we can take a predictable but believable route and decide they know enough about the language of any nearby species that they must communicate Read More …

Unless our military group is less than a decade old, there’s a likelihood that some of its members, while on official missions or not, have been part of famous exploits. This can be admirable or not, depending on our goals. Read More …

While we don’t need an extensive history on our armed forces group, some details make them realistic. We don’t have to say what caused them to exist; people will assume that a need led to it. If the military group Read More …

Commissioned Officers vs. Enlisted Grades In the previous table, ranks are divided into commissioned officers (CO) and enlisted grades. The former is appointed by a formal document issued by the head of state (the individual running government; Creating Places (The Read More …

Using ranks makes our armed forces more realistic. The simplest approach is to use a standard naming convention from Earth. It’s familiar and already understood (especially by those in a similar military branch here) while creating the necessary and believable Read More …

Those wishing to write war stories often struggle to determine how many troops are in a settlement, sovereign power, or in an army facing another army. This will depend partly on things like forced military training, expectations, the level of Read More …

Large armed forces are organized into military units, each led by a commander. When combined, these units form larger groupings that can amount to an army, navy, or air force (or space force). The armed forces we’re inventing now may Read More …