Ancient Civilizations
Ancient civilizations are civilizations that long ago reach their peak and then collapsed. Ancient temples, ancient tombs, ruins, megastructures, giant statues, and more may remain from an ancient civilization and dot the landscape of a fictional world or be hidden somewhere within it. Powerful magical items, treasured relics, or unknown technologies may be the only things left enduring, resulting in treasure hunts, archeological excavations, ownership disputes, and legends. Ancient civilizations (and their portion of a fictional history) may be known to all to have existed, may exist only as a myth, or have been entirely forgotten.
| Synonyms: old, lost, forgotten, kingdoms, countries, empires |
| Example Mythonyms: Old Ampheria, the Lost Kingdom of Murr |
| Factions |
Designing Ancient Civilizations
Archetypes
Foundations
Overview
Cultures and civilizations from long ago offer worldbuilders a number of opportunities to explore. While worldbuilders can construct these civilizations in any manner they usually employ to make present civilizations (designing architecture, culture, religions, etc) the obvious central question is what caused the destruction or fall of this empire. It may have been a catastrophic event or a slow decline. Worldbuilders should consider this event, what lead to it, and what happened in the aftermath.
Also consider the lingering impact such a civilization has on your world’s present. This may manifest itself in place names, expressions, religions, belief systems, current country borders, and more.
Physical elements may not be the only things left behind by an ancient civilization. Forgotten gods, forbidden knowledge, and lost manufacturing techniques are other examples of elements.
Is the language spoken by this civilization a dead one, or do people still speak it?
Ancient Places
