De-Westernize Creative Worldbuilding | Building Cultures That Feel Real & Unique

Greetings, dear reader!

Have you ever felt like your fantasy cultures just aren’t… hitting right? You’ve got the maps, the names, the magic, the dragons—but somehow, it still feels like “the modern day, but with swords.” Western values like individualism, personal freedom, and binary morality somehow sneak into your stories almost by default, even when you’re trying to be inventive and subversive. You’re not alone. I’ve done that too.

Most of us are raised with cultural assumptions we don’t even question until they show up in our fiction—and as writers, we bring our cultural lenses into everything we create. Often, we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

It wasn’t until I started listening to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari that I realized I was letting many Western values sneak into my worldbuilding. Harari spoke about how different cultures define “truth,” “value,” and even “reality” in radically different ways—and how we often don’t realize how deeply our assumptions are shaped by the cultures we were raised in.

That hit hard. Because as a writer and worldbuilder, I want my fictional cultures to feel real, lived-in, and different—but I realized much of my own worldbuilding was still deeply entrenched in Western norms and values. And as I've become more and more committed to building immersive worlds that felt distinct and real, I realized I had to confront several of those unconscious biases.

Because here’s the thing: if we don’t question the assumptions we’ve absorbed, our fantasy cultures can end up feeling… Well… not that different from our own world. They risk reading like “Western society but with swords,” or “modern values in medieval clothing.” And readers notice. They may not consciously know why a world feels flat or unconvincing—but they feel it. I know. I’ve been one of those readers.

So if you want to create rich, believable cultures that genuinely transport your readers, one of the most powerful things you can do is step outside Western norms and imagine other ways of seeing the world.

In this post, I want to show you how I caught myself falling into that exact trap—and how I started unlearning my Western defaults to build fictional societies from the inside out, ones that feel real, rooted, and radically different.

Table Of Contents

1. How To Spot Unconscious Bias In Your Worldbuilding

2. Why It Matter In Your Worldbuilding

3. Deep Dive: Western Values To Watch For

4. Check Your Racism At The Door

5. A Personal Example & Examination

6. 5 Core Foundations For Building Fictional Cultures

7. Permission To Get Messy

8. Writing Exercises

9. Writing FREEBIE: Worldbuilding Worksheet

10. Concluding Thoughts

How to Spot Unconscious Biases in Your Worldbuilding

Before we talk about how to break free of Western norms, we need to know what they look like when they quietly creep into our stories. Start by asking questions like: Who holds power in your world, and why? If it's always inherited through bloodlines or granted by divine prophecy, you might be echoing the Western ideal of destiny and inherited greatness.

If your characters are praised for “breaking free” from family expectations to “be their true selves,” you’re leaning into individualism—a cornerstone of modern Western thought. Consider how morality works in your culture: is it a binary of good vs evil, or something more relational like shame, honor, or balance? What does family look like—are they nuclear units, or large extended or chosen collectives? And lastly, think about space: do your characters all have private rooms, personal property, and a high regard for solitude? If so, that may say more about our world than theirs.

These biases aren't bad—but recognizing them is the first step to writing cultures that feel like their own living systems, not echoes of our own. Which beautifully leads us into our next point.

Why This Matters in Worldbuilding

As I shared in the introduction, I've been one of those readers who could sense when something felt off in a story’s worldbuilding. Sometimes a fantasy world just reads like Western society but with magic. Other times, it’s modern values dressed up in appropriated non-Western aesthetics. Like I mentioned earlier from Sapiens, one moment in that really stuck with me was when Harari described how, in feudal Europe, even the son of a lord didn’t have his own room. Personal space and privacy weren’t yet valued the way we understand them today—because those concepts hadn’t fully formed yet. So when we write medieval-inspired societies where every character has their own chamber or en suite bath, it reveals more about our current expectations than the logic of the fictional world. (Also, can we please continue moving away from having fantasy's default setting be medieval Europe? Is anyone else over that? Because I sure am…)

One example that stuck with me was Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I haven’t read it in years, but I remember democracy being randomly introduced even though Aelin was becoming queen. It felt more like something added to appease the audience than something that naturally evolved from within the world. That kind of dissonance pulls readers out of a story.

When worldbuilding choices feel unearned, when systems and values exist in a world just to mirror our own ideals, it doesn’t just weaken immersion. It undermines the internal logic of the world. Cultures don’t evolve to be politically correct. They evolve through belief, survival, myth, power, and necessity. If your story ignores that, the world starts to feel like a backdrop rather than a living, breathing culture.

Also also—and I mean this with love, and I hope it's not just me—I’m honestly so tired of the same old trope of "patriarchy oppresses women" as the only form of gender-based worldbuilding. If someone is going to the lengths of writing a novel where society hates women, can it at least be original? Instead of falling into the common trap of “subverting” patriarchy by creating matriarchies where women act exactly like men in power—cold, militaristic, dominating, or emotionally detached—can we please have a world where femininity is powerful in ways that aren’t just masculine aggression with a new paint job?

Because it’s not really a flipped worldview. It’s just role reversal. A cheap, low effort role reversal. Don’t take the lazy way out. Have more integrity. Please, for the love of the writing gods and goddesses, please have integrity when you write.

If you're going to hate women, hate us for… I don't know… Our lack of nose hairs. Make fun of us for not looking old enough. Make fun of us for our breasts not being saggy enough. Just get creative. Otherwise, it just feels uninspired, and people will get bored of the same old regurgitated crap we've been force-fed for decades.

Deep Dive: Western Values to Watch For

The following values often show up in fantasy worldbuilding, not because they belong there, but because they’ve been absorbed so deeply into the Western psyche that they feel “normal.” But they’re not universal.

Here are some common assumptions to keep an eye on as you build your fictional societies:

Individualism (“Follow your dreams! Be yourself!”)

Western culture often prioritizes the individual over the group. In many non-Western or pre-modern societies, community, duty, or family takes precedence. A fantasy world may value harmony over uniqueness—or shame deviance rather than celebrate it.

Achievement-Based Value (“You are what you accomplish.”)

Tied to capitalism and modern productivity culture, this mindset measures a person’s worth by success. In other systems, worth might come from age, ancestry, generosity, or spiritual insight.

Binary Morality (“Good vs Evil”)

Western storytelling often frames morality as black and white. But many cultures view right and wrong as situational, relational, or fluid—based on harmony, shame, honor, or spiritual imbalance.

Private Property & Public/Private Separation

Western societies highly value personal space, ownership, and the division between public and private life. In other cultures, space is shared communally, and boundaries between “mine” and “ours” may not exist.

Nuclear Family Units (2 parents, 2.5 kids)

This family structure is not the default everywhere. Many cultures function through extended families, matrilineal clans, multigenerational homes, or even chosen families.

Linear Time & Progression

Western thinking often imagines time as a straight line toward improvement. But many societies view time as cyclical, ancestral, or based on seasons and natural rhythms.

Meritocracy

The idea that hard work equals success sounds fair—but often ignores structural privilege. Other cultures might measure status by lineage, age, reputation, or divine favor.

Equality = Sameness

Treating everyone “the same” is a Western liberal ideal. Other cultures may value fairness as respecting roles, hierarchies, or balance, not flattening difference.

Written Law Over Oral Tradition

Western societies rely on written rules, contracts, and documentation. In others, knowledge and agreements may live in oral history, ceremony, or communal memory.

Rationalism Over Intuition

The West prizes logic, science, and observable fact as the best way to know truth. But intuition, dreams, emotion, or divination are valid forms of knowledge in many traditions.

Work as Identity

Western cultures tend to link identity to productivity. “What do you do?” becomes “Who are you?” In other societies, identity may be relational or spiritual, not task-based.

Control Over Nature

The Western worldview often separates humans from nature—and sees the natural world as something to conquer. Other cultures see humans as part of, or even subordinate to, the natural world.

Secularism as Neutral

Many Western systems consider separation of religion and state as “neutral.” But other societies view spirituality as inseparable from politics, law, and daily life.

Child-Centric Societies

Western norms often prioritize the child’s feelings and development. In other cultures, children are expected to conform to the needs of the family or community, not the other way around.

Forgiveness as Virtue

Western values place heavy emphasis on individual forgiveness and personal healing. Other systems may prize restitution, public apology, shame, or restoring balance with the group.

Recognizing these patterns in your writing is not about shame—it’s about awareness. Once you see them, you can choose to keep, reshape, or reject them to serve your story’s logic and heart. Because none of these are universal truths. They're simply one way of structuring society—and often a very recent one, historically speaking. If we never question them, we end up copying our world in disguise. Our fantasy kingdoms begin to feel suspiciously like modern-day Western democracies, just with dragons and dirt roads.

Readers can feel when something is off, even if they can’t articulate why. If all your cultures reflect your default worldview, you’re not building a world—you’re just mirroring what you know. The more we break free of those inherited patterns, the more unique and compelling our invented worlds become.

Check Your Unconscious Racism at the Door

Another trap to watch for? Writers often borrow from non-Western cultures—whether it’s East Asian aesthetics, Indigenous symbolism, Middle Eastern architecture, or African spiritual systems. But too often, the values of those cultures get erased and replaced with Western ideals. And here’s the thing: you can’t just slap democracy on a kimono and call it worldbuilding.

This happens when writers try to make their fictional cultures “better” by making them more Western—individualist, secular, egalitarian, rationalist. They “fix” honor-based societies by adding gender equality, or “improve” spiritual traditions by removing mysticism in favor of logic. Stop Western-washing your fictional cultures.

This isn’t just lazy—it’s quietly supremacist. It implies that a culture isn’t valid until it resembles modern liberal Western values. But your world isn’t better because it’s whiter—or more American. A collectivist society that values harmony and shame isn’t “backward.” A religious kingdom that fuses law and faith isn’t “unfree.” A hierarchical society with rigid roles isn’t “oppressive” just because you wouldn’t want to live there.

Are you writing a culture—or decorating with it? If you’re borrowing architecture, fabrics, foods, and names—but erasing the systems of thought, belief, and social cohesion they come from—that’s not worldbuilding. That’s exoticism. Exotic isn’t a personality trait.

None of this means you can’t be inspired by other cultures. But if you’re going to borrow, do it with humility, research, and imagination. Worldbuilding without supremacy means letting cultures be complicated. At best, it’s lazy. At worst, it’s racist. Because it implies that the culture you borrowed from isn’t complete, logical, or moral unless it conforms to Western values. Your fictional culture doesn’t need to be sanitized to be meaningful. Let them contradict your own values. Let them disturb you. Let them be themselves.

A Personal Example: A Rethinking of a Personal Worldbuilding Project

In the novel I'm currently writing, The Glass Dagger, there exists a country called Ayvara that is a matriarchal society that follows the teachings of a divine being known as The Great Mother. Coming from a Western democratic, liberal upbringing, my instinct was to imagine this society as pro-choice and individually autonomous—especially for women. But then I asked: what if it wasn’t? What if their values evolved in a direction completely foreign to mine?

What if motherhood was considered the highest calling of a woman’s life? What if giving up a child—or refusing to bear one—was not just taboo, but shameful or spiritually dishonorable? That completely reframes how people view freedom, identity, and womanhood in this society.

Here’s where I think a lot of writers and worldbuilders fall into a trap: instead of creating cultures with unique belief systems and internal logic, they simply flip the script on familiar structures. They build something that looks different on the surface—but underneath, it’s just the same system with new labels. It’s not really innovation. Again, that's just cheap, low effort, role reversal.

I didn’t want that. Instead of defaulting to the trope, I pushed myself further. I wanted Ayvara to grow from its own sacred soil, not from a mirrored reaction to ours. That led me to ask deeper questions—especially around a current hot topic in our world: gender and sexuality.

What if woman-to-woman love was considered sacred—the most divine form of love, like how man-on-man love was considered the highest form of love in Ancient Roman society. What if woman-to-man love is normal, healthy, and widely accepted, but man-to-man love is seen as strange and unbecoming—not outlawed, but socially awkward. What if trans women (AMAB individuals who identify as women) are completely accepted, even revered. But a woman wanting to transition into a man? That’s seen as deeply concerning and unnatural.

In Ayvara, men are seen as lesser—not hated, but unnecessary. The culture doesn’t understand how pregnancy works on a biological level, so they assume women create life on their own, and men are only useful for labor and war due to their natural aggression. Male bodies are seen as more volatile, and therefore more expendable. In this framework, masculinity is useful—but not sacred.

Is this politically correct? Not at all. Is it narratively interesting, thought-provoking, and an honest exploration of what a matriarchal, goddess-centered society might actually look like without projecting modern feminist values onto it? Yes.

It may be uncomfortable, but that discomfort is where the magic starts. And that’s why I love worldbuilding. It’s one giant thought experiment that leads you down fun, beautiful, uncomfortable, and radically creative tangents. The farther you let a culture drift from what you know, the more vividly it reveals itself.

And this isn’t just fiction. We’ve seen this exact kind of narrative distortion play out in our own world… It reminds me of how certain groups in real-world history have been dehumanized through fabricated narratives. In the United States, for example, false beliefs about Black people being intellectually or morally inferior were used to justify slavery—and those same beliefs were then reinforced through laws, education, and systemic exclusion. These myths weren’t just harmful; they became structural, generational, and in many cases, internalized.

So what if something similar happened in Ayvara? What if the belief that men are less emotionally capable began as a sacred myth, then slowly hardened into social fact? What if that belief began shaping everything from temple access to public perception to policy? What kind of stories could emerge from that? What parallels could I draw—deliberately or not—to the real trials and tribulations people continue to face in our world?

This is where your world can start doing real narrative work. Because stories like these aren’t written to make readers comfortable. They're written because something needs to be said and discussed. Because when belief systems have consequences, when myths turn into policy, and when power justifies itself through story—you don’t just have a fantasy setting. You have a living, breathing society. And that’s when worldbuilding starts to matter. It gives us a way to reframe reality, to ask what if and why not. It lets us explore truths that are too heavy, too charged, or too complex to confront head-on. I’m not writing Ayvara to preach—I’m writing it to ask questions I, and many societies, don’t yet have the answers to.

Rethinking Culture from the Roots Up: 5 Core Foundations For Building Cultures

If you want your cultures to feel immersive, you need to build them from their core values outward—not just from vibes and visuals. A culture isn’t just clothing, language, or architecture. It’s a whole worldview shaped by what a society holds sacred, what it fears, and how it survives. Below are five foundational dimensions to help you start rethinking culture from the roots up. Stop copy-pasting Earth with new names and call it worldbuilding. This is where you build something that actually feels alive.

1. Family Structure & Kinship

• Who belongs to a household? Nuclear, extended, clan-based?

• Who holds power and honor?

• What do parent-child dynamics look like?

• Is marriage romantic, political, spiritual, or optional?

• Do families form based on love, survival, or duty?

2. Self vs Society

• Are people expected to stand out—or to belong?

• What’s more valued: personal choice or fulfilling your role?

• What does success look like in this culture?

• Is obedience a virtue or a vice?

• How are outsiders treated?

3. Morality & Values

• Where do values come from? Religion, tradition, collective need?

• Is morality binary (good/evil) or relational (dishonor, imbalance, shame)? (Many of these binaries are rooted in Judeo-Christian traditions, whether we realize it or not)

• How are sins/errors interpreted? What is forgiveness?

• Are there moral expectations by caste, gender, or age?

4. Built Environment / Architecture

• How do values shape physical space?

• Are homes private fortresses or open hubs?

• Do people sleep communally?

• Is it normal to share a bed without it being romantic? (*coughs* ahem… looking at you “there was only ONE bed!” trope…)

• Are sacred and mundane spaces integrated or separated?

• What’s at the center of the home—fire, shrine, hearth, ancestor wall?

5. Religion & Daily Life

• Are rituals part of everyday habits (eating, bathing, working)?

• Are certain seasons, foods, or life stages considered sacred?

• Is religion private, political, or deeply woven into law and custom?

• How do people interact with spiritual power: through prayer, dance, silence, sacrifice?

These questions aren’t a checklist—they’re starting points for deeper creation. Let them challenge you. Let them lead you somewhere unfamiliar. And if you’re ready to go further, I’ve put together a free worksheet that expands on each of these five foundations with prompts, examples, and exercises to guide you step-by-step. Your world deserves that kind of care. So does your reader.

Permission To Get Messy

If you’re feeling bold: it’s okay if not everything in your world is comfortable, progressive, or “politically correct.” Real cultures have contradictions. Real people are messy. Your fictional societies don’t need to reflect your personal ideals. In fact, the most compelling worlds often challenge you as their creator. Let your characters wrestle with cultural norms. Let your societies surprise you. You’re not writing propaganda—you’re writing a world.

Don’t create harm thoughtlessly—but do lean into the weird, the wrong, and the culturally complex. It’s how you move beyond flat, one-dimensional societies and into something unforgettable.

And even if you didn’t grow up religious, it’s worth remembering that much of Western thought—especially around good vs evil, sin, virtue, and redemption—is steeped in Christian (and especially Protestant) frameworks. This doesn’t make them wrong, but it does mean they aren’t neutral or universal. Other cultures may define morality in terms of balance, honor, shame, or reciprocity instead.

Don’t be afraid to make your readers uncomfortable. That’s the beauty of fiction—it’s meant to transcend, to challenge, to soothe and to provoke. Good books do that. If a reader shames you for questioning the status quo or exploring something taboo, that says more about them than it does about you.

That said… If you’re being intentionally racist? I will gladly stand with your readers in shaming you. That shit doesn’t belong anywhere, least of all in a world you’re creating from scratch (unless that is the topic and theme you’re specifically tackling within your book).

Writing Exercises: Building Beyond The Defaults

So, how do you start building cultures that feel grounded, distinct, and free of your own unconscious defaults? The first step is asking better questions—and being willing to follow the answers into unfamiliar territory. If you’re ready to reimagine your cultures through a new lens, here are a few short exercises to get started:

Exercise 1: Flip a Sacred Value

Choose one value your current fictional society holds (e.g., freedom, love, honor). Now ask:

• What if this value was shameful instead of celebrated?

• What if the opposite was considered sacred?

Exercise 2: Reframe a Common Trope

Take a familiar scene: someone visiting a friend’s home, a coming-of-age ritual, or a wedding.

• How would this look in a society that doesn’t value privacy, romance, or individual identity?

• Could guests share a bed without it being taboo?

• Would marriage even be between two people—or entire families?

Exercise 3: Design a Room Based on ValuesImagine the layout of a home in your world.

• What’s at the center: a hearth? a shrine? a water basin?

• Are there walls and doors, or open shared spaces?

• Who sleeps where—and why?

Exercise 4: Thought Experiment: Stranger in a Strange Land

Take one of your characters and drop them into a culture completely foreign to them.

• What shocks them?

• What comforts them unexpectedly?

• What assumption of theirs gets challenged?

Write a 300 word scene of cultural friction—or connection.

Practical Tips to Break Free from Western Defaults

• Start with the sacred: What does this culture revere above all? What do they fear losing?

• Question your assumptions: Is privacy really a universal desire? What if obedience is a virtue?

• Use cultural contrasts: How would someone from this world see our world? What would they find strange?

• Reflect values in space: Let architecture, rituals, and body language show what matters.

• Let contradictions exist: Not everything has to “make sense” by your standards, just theirs.

Free Worldbuilding Worksheet

Want to dive deeper? I created a free worksheet to help you build immersive cultures step by step—without defaulting to Western assumptions. It includes reflection prompts, design checklists, and space to experiment with values, rituals, and systems.

Get it sent straight to your inbox when you sign up for my newsletter. Or, if you’re already a member, head to the Members Area to download it now!

Download Worksheet Here

Concluding Thoughts

Worldbuilding isn’t merely about making cool settings; it’s about delving into the essence of existence within those realms. It’s an exploration of values, sacrifices, and beliefs that define societies. And when you stop defaulting to the world you know, you open yourself up to worlds that surprise you—worlds that challenge your own assumptions, and maybe even reveal some truth about the one we’re living in. That’s the power of storytelling. That’s why we build. By stepping beyond our familiar paradigms, we unlock the potential to create worlds that challenge perceptions and reflect profound truths about our own. As J.R.R. Tolkien once articulated:

The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power.

This sentiment underscores the depth and intentionality behind immersive worldbuilding. So, as you embark on your creative journey, remember: the worlds you build have the power to illuminate, challenge, and transform. 

Now I want to know… What’s a cultural assumption you caught yourself making while worldbuilding? Let’s chat in the comments!

Happy worldbuilding!

—Bair✍︎

---

Want to stay up to-date and get exclusive updates and insights on future projects, book launches, writer and reader resources, FREE literature, writing freebies, and a more? Sign up for my Newsletter!

Find more helpful writing tips on the rest of my blog.

SUBSCRIBE to the blog on my personal website, Substack, or Medium.

Struggling to get your word count in? Check out my writing podcast!

Need a new notebook? Check out my hand-bound books!

Support the blog on Ko-fi!

INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST

---

Check out My Writer & Reader Merch Store

---

Like this post?

Share the link on your social media or

pin the image below to your Pinterest board!

Congrats! You found Mosswing at the end of this post!