Most fantasy settings draw on real world history, popular folklore, and ancients legends to inspire their worldbuilding.

While many authors focus on these more fantastical elements, I find a certain joy in grounding my worldbuilding with realism.

Focusing on the small details of historical life creates immersion and increases the contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Fantasy, in general, tends to be light on historical accuracy, so I've spent a great deal of time trying to be reasonably accurate while writing The Last Sin.

For example, mirrors are made of polished metal instead of glass. Chamber pots are used instead of indoor plumbing (much to my characters' chagrin).

This realism extends to the martial.

My characters' stylized moves are techniques referenced from real martial arts. For example, the standing armlock Sin performs on Wulf in Slice of Sin is a technique in Judo called ude-hishigi-ude-gatame.

Instead of treating swords like lightsabers, my characters use all of the blade to perform a wide range of half-swording techniques to trip, stab, and bludgeon their enemies into submission.

Despite my focus on realism, I had a massive blind spot I didn't realize until I was a month from the release of my debut novel, Disciple of Sin: leather armour.

Few images are as iconic in fantasy as a rogue in black leather armour.

This image is also completely ahistorical.

While leather had its uses as a durable, water-resistant material (particularly for hunters and woodsmen), padded cloth armour was often more effective and cheaper to produce.

This wasn't a problem for my Luskainian characters (who already wore padded armour as standard military equipment), but when I started writing my Dahlgeshi characters, I was dressing them up like live-action versions of the Witcher:

While this looked cool, it didn't fit the more grounded, historical vibe I was going for. Luckily, historical leather armour did exist, but it looked nothing like the tight-fitting cuirasses popularized by western fantasy. For inspiration, I drew references from Central and Eastern Asia, where leather was one of the common materials used in lamellar armour. Crafters in these regions sewed together rectangular plates of boiled leather to create effective and easy-to-maintain armour used by warriors for hundreds of years:

With a few weeks to spare, I updated the manuscripts for Disciple of Sin and its sequel Rebel's Road (releasing November 3rd), to give Dahlgeshi characters more distinct and historically accurate armour. This is not to say no other kind of leather will be worn in my series, but it makes my departure from realism intentional rather than a mistake.

That's it for this week! Reply to this email to let me know what other piece of worldbuilding you want me to talk about next. Also, if you are interested in experiencing how I blend realism with fantasy, Disciple of Sin releases October 6th on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Until next time,

J. W. Weld

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P.S. Next week, I'll drop my biggest hot take.

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