A list of resources for research and worldbuilding.

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions by Patricia C. Wrede

"The following list of questions is meant to aid authors of fantasy fiction who are seeking to create believable imaginary settings for their stories. While many of these questions may be helpful or crucial to certain stories, they will not all apply to every story. It is not necessary for an author to answer all, or even any, of the questions in order to start writing, (or to finish writing, either). The idea is simply to provoke people into thinking about the ways their settings and backgrounds hang together...or don't. If it's useful, use it. If not, don't.

Some questions apply to more than one topic, and have been duplicated under more than one heading. This should not be considered as an exhaustive and final list, but as a beginning point from which each individual writer can compile a personal list."

Internet History Sourcebooks

"The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use."

They have Ancient History, Medieval History, and Modern History. They also have African, East Asian, Global [cultural interactions], Indian, Jewish, Islamic, Lesbian/Gay, Science, and Women sourcebooks, as well as a section on Byzantium studies.

The Language Construction Kit

"This set of webpages (what's a set of webpages? a webchapter?) is intended for anyone who wants to create artificial languages-- for a fantasy or an alien world, as a hobby, as an interlanguage. It presents linguistically sound methods for creating naturalistic languages-- which can be reversed to create non-naturalistic languages. It suggests further reading for those who want to know more, and shortcuts for those who want to know less."

Langmaker

"Langmaker.com was founded by Jeffrey Henning to popularize interest in constructed languages."

Technovelgy.com

"Explore the wide variety of inventions and ideas of science fiction writers - over 900 are available on Technovelgy (that's tek-novel-gee!). Use the Timeline of Science Fiction Invention or the alphabetic Glossary of Science Fiction Technology to see them all, look for the category that interests you, browse by favorite author / book or check Science Fiction in the News and watch sf come to life."

ARMA's Articles and Essays

The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts has a wealth of essays and articles on medieval weapons and combat.

Creating a Fantasy World

Epic fantasy author Sarah Douglass' take on world-building for European medieval based fantasy.

Growing Up Sexually: A World Atlas

Although I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this resource, it might come in handy for those looking for different cultural attitudes towards sex.

Encyclopedia Mythica

"Please enter the award-winning internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. Here you will find everything from A-gskw to Zveda Vechanyaya, with plenty in between."

SSA's Popular Baby Names

From the US government census, lots of statistics on names.

Chris Pound's Language Machines

Word and name generators useful for SF/F folk.

Medieval Demographics Made Easy: Numbers for Fantasy Worlds

"The information herd is distilled from a variety of historical sources, focusing on results, rather than on the thousands of details that create them. The rules here are meant to serve as a baseline, to be deviated from at need, not to cast numbers into iron - halve things, double things, or otherwise fiddle with them to suit the feel you're going for. The figures employ documented data from time periods ranging from the 12th-14th centuries, and from locales as varied as Russia, England, France, Germany and Italy. When a "default" was needed, rather than an average, I opted for late-medieval France more often than not, and the latest, most developed periods in general."

l_clausewitz: Military and Political Worldbuilding

A collection ssays and articles geared for writers dealing with military and political worldbuilding in their writing.