History within Fantasy

First of all, I would like to apologise for the somewhat ambiguous title.
This week I will be looking at the writing of lore/history, and what functions it fulfils within a fantasy narrative. This, of course, means that after something of a hiatus, I am returning to the 'normal' form for The Narrative Within. Sorry, should have told you to sit down before dropping that bombshell.
Are you ok...?
Hello..?
Ah good, you are twitching, that is at least a start.

History in Fantasy?

When talking about 'History in Fantasy' I am not talking about 'real' history and how it influences fantasy works, nor am I talking about the fantasy of history writing. Or is that the other way around?
What I am talking about is the history and lore a writer creates during the creation of his or her narrative world. I have touched on this before, but I thought it would be good to go into greater depth - and yes, it does tie in with Credibility within the Narrative (see post from 24/03/2015).
As you might have guessed, I love my lore, and greatly enjoy writing the history of my world (hell, my first published work was essentially just that), so this discussion is obviously going to have certain biases. As always, these are my thoughts and opinions, and I am not dictating to you as a certain bearded chap did to another, lesser bearded chap did (supposedly).

Structuring History

When I use the word history in this context I am stretching it a bit, as I will also be talking about things that could be considered 'pre-history' (creation of the world, for example), but please, bear with me.
For me, history comes into play during the creation of the narrative world, and functions on many levels.
When shaping the landmasses, I ask myself why they are the shape they are. Were they volcanically shaped? Were the mountains and valleys created by tectonic activity? And, because this is fantasy, did magic/gods play a role in shaping part of the world. At first I jot this things down, to be fleshed out later.
When placing nation states/nations/kingdoms/etc there is a whole swathe of things that I must consider:
Why are they there? - How did this particular nation form? Did the people travel here recently? Did they conquer this land? Why are the cities where they are? (When placing cities in your world, a bit of research would be advisable. Examine why ancient cultures settled particular places, and mimic that.)
How is it ruled? - Is it a democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, theocracy, magocracy? How big is the government? Are there multiple levels of government? Is there corruption? Shaping the political system helps to shape many factors of the nation (or other designated nationesque body) - don't skimp on your bureaucracy! Each of the above forms of government would then need to be worked out (ex gratia: How does the Royal family function? Is it an elective gavelkind monarchy? Or perhaps it is based on the idea of Primogeniture?
How big is it? - Is it a city state? Or perhaps there are twelve large population centres across a large area. How many people live there?
WHO lives there - In this category I include distribution of wealth, ethnicities, and religious groups. All of these elements are important in fleshing out the world and making the narrative credible.
Enemies/Allies? - Pretty straight forward, but how a particular nation interacts with its nation is important, and should be consistent (at least so much as international politics are able to be consistent).
As you can imagine, a similar process can be used when fleshing out racial groups (elves, dwarves, etc) and I find this template to be very useful.

What about Lore?

Whether you call it Lore, Mythos, the History of the World, or whatever else, this is particularly key to the fantasy world. My post from last week is an example of lore, in that it is part of a creation myth.
Lore is tied in at a fundamental level to belief systems, as well as to other elements of society (Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: A body of traditions and knowledge relation to a particular subject). Lore is often used by a culture to define itself, and to explain its origins. Naturally, this makes it very important to the narrative.
For example, the elves might explain how they came into existence in one way, while humans would (possibly) explain the creation of the elves very differently. Of course, as the writer, you can also tell the reader how it really happened, which - let's be honest - is really cool.
Lore is very important in giving elements of the narrative (especially cultures) a feeling of being something that is alive. Well-written Lore allows the writer's creations to stop just being ink on the page, and permits them to step out from the book and interact with the reader. As I will discuss further a bit later, the sign (for me) of good lore, is it being rich enough for others to write their own stories within the world that you have created.

Hey, this book hasn't got any lore/history, but it is still good! YOU'RE WRONG MR BLOGGER MAN!

Yeah, I know you were thinking it.
Fantasy novels can be, and have been written without a fleshed out lore (or an apparent one, anyway) and have been insanely successful. I have a few thoughts on that.
The novel follows a focussed series of events: When a novel, or series thereof, is bound very tightly to a particular protagonist/antagonist, or series of events, the Lore and History of the world doesn't (initially) seem as important. The reader can ignore what would otherwise be (at times blatantly) obvious holes in the world's background. Especially when the plot is well written, the writer can avoid explaining things as adequately as one might like. While this works, people will inevitably start to poke holes.
The Author just hasn't told you: Different writers present things differently. Just because the narrative doesn't shove its world's history in your face doesn't mean it doesn't have any. Some writers (like yours truly) like to immerse the reader in the Lore and History of the Universe they have created, and relish sharing everything they have created with the reader (though they should do so in a way that is meaningful to the central plot). Others, however, may have maps, books worth of history, and a whiteboard covers in mindmaps, flowcharts, and everything else, but don't express that in their writing. Ultimately, it is down to the writer to decide what they do and don't share.
The narrative doesn't require it: Some books, especially one-offs, may not need extensive world building to function. After all, it is a bit of an economy of scale issue. If you were going to write one novella in a particular universe, you wouldn't do the same amount of world building  as an author who intends to set 30+ epic novels in a fantasy universe. It just wouldn't make very much sense.

What do History and Lore bring to the party?

Ideally? Cider and nice cheese.
For me, well written Lore and History give novels life they wouldn't otherwise have. The books I have enjoyed reading the most are those that have thoroughly written, and well though out back-stories. I know how much I enjoy immersing myself in a functional world. When a book has so vividly expressed its narrative universe that you can imagine day to day life within it, or mentally create your own adventures within it, then it is successful.
I could gush on and on about how amazing books with good Lore and History are, but I think you get the point, and hope you feel the same way (p.s. the same applies to other narrative mediums, such as Films and Video Games.)

Conclusion

As is probably quite obvious, I see Lore and History as a crucial element in the creation of a Narrative World. There isn't much more to say - I would like, in the future, to expand upon this discussion.
Also, if you have any suggestions for what you would like me to discuss in future posts, let me know!
As always, please comment and share as you will.

Until next week,
N N B Clarke