World Building and Justice


I’ve been thinking a lot about justice and world-building lately. This is spurred on by a lot of different things going on at the same time. First of all, and most importantly, the events going on around the Black Lives Matter movement recently have put the idea of justice at the forefront in my thoughts. I’m also currently writing a sci-fi novel that focuses on justice (and injustice) in society and how that plays out when contact with aliens is made. And I’m also watching a sci fi tv show right now that has really interesting world-building and tried to talk about all kinds of “deep” themes, but it has an enraging lack of justice. So anyway, I’ve been thinking about justice in world-building.

I’m not necessarily talking about a full-blown legal system and how it works in detail, I don’t necessarily think that fantasy worlds need to go into too much detail in that area. What I am talking about is a general idea of justice permeating the world.

- What is considered just in this society?
- How do different characters handle justice or injustice?
- More importantly, how do the characters who have actual power handle justice and how does this affect how they’re viewed by others?
- Is anyone who commits horrific acts ever held accountable for their crimes? Is this done by other people in the story and an official justice system of some type where they are tried and evidence is given or is it done by the story/world where they get what they deserve in the end even though no other human was able to mete out justice?

I think this is an important concept to consider when world-building. I also think that sometimes if it’s not overtly thought about you can end up with a situation where your story is still saying something about justice - just not what you wanted it to say. For example if people are committing horrific crimes and never being brought to justice and still considered “main characters” in the story, what does this say about those crimes they’re committing? Is it suggesting that they are OK? That they are forgivable? Or that the victims of the crime are less worthy somehow?

In the second half of Children of the Dead City there were some trials that became a focal point of the story. It was completely unplanned, but I reached a point in the story where a character had some power and uncovered some crimes and so this character had to pursue justice. If this hadn’t happened - let’s say the character just sent someone to assassinate the criminals or just had them executed because they could - then it would have, in my opinion, changed that character from a good person with power to a bad character or even a dictator. Because even if that character was right that one time, no one person can always be right. They can’t always know what’s best or what’s just or who is truly deserving of punishment and they certainly won’t always be able to keep their own desires and emotions out of it.

I’m probably wrong/missing a lot of good fiction, but I feel as though this idea of justice isn’t focused on as much as it can or should be in fantasy. Even when some of the characters are rulers or have a lot of power - even when the characters are fighting against an injustice the focus is often on just overcoming the evil/bad guys or becoming more powerful so they can kill that evil person off. I’ve done it myself before in some short stories, for example in The Renegade King or even in A Kingly Sword by depicting situations where everything was in total chaos and there wasn’t anywhere for the characters to go to get justice except to seek strength to fight the bad guys. But now, I do think it can be much more interesting to explore and include the idea of justice overtly. To have societies that have a way of delivering justice and trying criminals and see how that’s applied and who it’s applied to and who is allowed to get away, etc.

Anyway, I’m definitely thinking about justice a lot and incorporating it into my current sci-fi WIP, but also interested in how it can be applied to future fantasy works as well.

/Thinking out loud

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