: Re: How can I explain my world if the character is technologically not yet capable of understanding it? One feature of my world is a plant that lives in a magmaous (rather than "volcanic") cave.

@Candy753

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If this detail is important enough that readers should get it, you can have your characters make guesses at the truth close enough that (at least some) readers can connect the dots, while the characters can't and remain puzzled.

For example, two especially educated explorers in your world could discuss the plants, and how all other plants they know need sunlight to survive but these don't. One of them could notice that magma gives off dim light when very hot. He might wonder if maybe when it cools down and appears as rock it still gives off light, just so dim a human cannot see it. Or one of them could wonder if there might be some kind of light that humans cannot see, connecting it (falsely) to animals that can see in the dark such as bats.

Give enough hints that it "clicks" for the reader, but the characters, missing some science facts that are taught in schools today, can't complete the thought and leave it as a puzzle for later generations to solve.

Bonus: This makes the reader feel smart.

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