Table of Contents

• The Shape of the World
• Plate Tectonics
• Rivers
• Mountains
• Deserts
• Natural Disasters
• How Many Seasons?
• Measuring Time
• Where Does the Food Come From?
• Local and Imported Food
• Kitchens
• Dining Customs
• Phonology the Easy Way
• What’s in a Name?
• Names and Their Meaning
• The Etiquette of Names
• Greetings and Respect
• Gestures of Contempt
• Insults
• Profanity
• Idioms and Slang
• Folk Magic
• Lucky Charms
• Curse You!
• Divination
• Birthdays
• Childhood
• Respect Your Elders
• Rites of Passage
• Lineage
• Third Cousin Twice Removed
• Fictive Kinship
• Residence Patterns
• Marriage
• Structures of Marriage
• Buying and Selling Spouses
• Divorce
• Funerary Customs
• Cannibalism
• Mourning
• The Afterlife
• Your Money’s Worth
• Follow the Money
• All that Glitters Is Not Gold
• Signs of Power
• Sumptuary Laws
• Status Without Wealth
• The History We Live In
• Worldbuilding as a Habit of Thought
• Bricolage
• Liminality

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About the Author: Marie Brennan is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for inspiration. She recently misapplied her professors’ hard work to The Night Parade of 100 Demons and the short novel Driftwood, and together with Alyc Helms as M.A. Carrick, she is the author of the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy, beginning with The Mask of Mirrors. The first book of her Hugo Award-nominated Victorian adventure series The Memoirs of Lady Trent, A Natural History of Dragons, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Her other works include the Doppelganger duology, the urban fantasy Wilders series, the Onyx Court historical fantasies, the Varekai novellas, and over seventy short stories, as well as the New Worlds series of worldbuilding guides. For more information, visit swantower.com, Twitter @swan_tower, or her Patreon.