: How much can a reader remember? I've been writing some fantasy. Now, inevitably because its a big piece of fantasy, its all very involved with the world, culture, story and general bits. Personally,

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In my edition of War and Peace (not sure if it was added by the author or the editor, so can't tell if it's in all editions) there is an addendum to recap all the main characters (a lot), give an overview of their biography and their relationships. Very useful when you haven't heard of a character for a few chapters and can't remember his full name. It's only a couple of lines for each character but it saves going back in the book to find who is the daughter of X and the lover of Y.

The maps and addenda in a Song of Ice and Fire or the Lord of the Rings (maps only) play a similar role and I often find myself marking the maps and house history pages because I access them all the time.

It's not terribly aesthetic (except for the maps) but it certainly does the job in an efficient way.

This is explicitly something you want to avoid apparently, but if the cast of characters starts to become really large or confusing (unfamiliar and/or similar names for instance), I think this is still the best solution.

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Use knowledge about how people remember things to your advantage. There's a number of websites, books, etc. out there talking about how people remember and providing tips and tricks for memorizing. As a writer, you can incorporate lessons from these aides memoire into your writing.

Repetition People remember things better when they're encountered multiple times. Readers will be familiar with your main characters' names because they'll happen on practically every page. That minor government official mentioned once, 200 pages back? Probably not. The same minor government official, but who now has been popping up repeatedly in several chapters? Much better chance of being recognized.

Method of loci People's memories are highly contextual. You might recognize a barista on sight when at your local coffee shop, but completely fail to recognize them when you're at the DMV. The coffee shop environment primes you to remember things related to the coffee shop. Likewise in writing, it's easier to remember a priest if they're re-introduced in the context of a church, rather than in a bakery. As a writer, be aware of the contexts your characters appear in, and be more conscientious about re-introducing characters who re-occur outside of their standard context.

General vs. specific It's much easier to remember the general outline of things, rather than specific details. So people might remember that someone is a Lannister, but forget exactly how they're related to Tyrion. When you're writing things that may be forgotten, don't overload the reader with "useless" details, and make sure that the "general outline" of the character you present is the salient feature which will become important later.

Related to this, remember that the main interface you'll present to readers is the name of the item. All too often writers will use names that are very similar to each other (e.g. Ori/Dori/Nori, Bifur/Bofur/Bombur). If all readers remember is the general outline of the name, the exact details (i?/o?) may be glossed over. This gets worse for polysyllabic names. Only the most astute reader will remember - or possibly even notice - the distinction between Amaphidalia and Amothifalia. Using unique and distinguishable names helps to keep people from confusing things.

That said, sometimes similarity of names is helpful. For example, if you're attempting to invoke the trope of "practically indistinguishable siblings" (e.g. Fili/Kili), or if the relationship between objects is the most important trait (e.g. the Amaphae people are ruled by the Amaphidalia from the capital city of Amaphidon), using similar names may be warranted. If using related names to show a relationship, be sure to introduce them in close proximity to each other, so readers are clear on the relationship and are alert to the distinction.

Connections One very important point about memory is that memory is less about facts and more about the connections between facts. The richer you can make the interaction of your characters with the "interesting" parts of your world (while simultaneously avoiding unnecessary details), the better your readers will remember them. That named-but-faceless guard isn't going to stand out, but one with interactions and associations with other important characters or important places/events will. (Note that it's the connections that are important. Extra detail that's unique to the character and doesn't connect them with characters/places/events that the reader is already interested in will be promptly ignored.)

That's a sampling of how you can parlay memorization advice into advice for helping your readers remember your characters and settings. There's likely more tricks you could use, so I'd recommend reading up on memorization aides, and thinking about how they might be applied in structuring your writing.

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Use epithets like the stories in the pre-literate oral traditions. by using a name or phrase that reminds you of a character's defining characteristic, it becomes much easier to remember them. The more unique or outlandish the characteristic, the easier it will be to remember the character. So, for your main characters, you can just use a simple common name like "Joe". But for some minor character who only shows up every 200 pages, call him something memorable and graphic like "Barfie the pirate" every time he is mentioned. You would be surprised how natural that writing style can feel after a few chapters. Look at the epithets of Homer for inspiration.

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In addition to Mark's excellent advice, I would suggest:

1) Start slowly. In Game of Thrones, we start with just the Starks, and Martin adds on characters a few at a time and lets us live with them for a chapter before bouncing back to someone we already know. Granted that by book 4 you may need to refer back to the index, but that's over thousands of pages.

2) Either build your world or introduce characters, but not both at once. In David and Leigh Eddings's Belgariad and Malloreon pentologies, we start with one boy who has one aunt and one adult friend, the aunt's father shows up, and then the band collects more members one by one as they leave the small farm and go out into the wider world. Each person is distinctive and has a part to play, and the Eddingses either introduce a new setting/city or a new character, but not both at the same time.

3) Remind the reader occasionally. If you want us to remember that Sadi keeps a poisonous snake as a pet, make the snake's entrance memorable, and then remind us every 40 pages or so that the snake is around. Have Sadi feed her, talk about her, let her out of her bottle to crawl around. Then in the big showdown 200 pages later, it won't be a surprise when the snake bites the bad guy, because we've been reminded that the snake exists.

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