An information dump is okay...

...as long as it stays inside your head. Trust me, nobody likes reading extensive monologues or explanations about the Elvish Wars of 1142 if your story occurs 75 years later. As a general rule, information dumps aren't very much fun for the reader, as enjoyable as they may be to create for the author. As the needs of the reader must come first, please: Don't put one in your story. That said...

Having lots of background information and history about your world helps enrich the reading experience and makes your world seem so much more real - even if the information mostly stays out of the story! And guess what? If you find your characters suddenly need a diversion to add words or for some other reason, exploring the ruins of ____ will work just fine!

This is, in short, what I did today. It's going to be very tempting not to put most of it in the story, but I need to restrain myself. It was mostly the past 100 years of history, largely made up of conflicts between the humans and the elves. Not only did it give me a large chunk of background information to use whenever I find myself in need of it, but it was great fun to write and also gave me a good idea of the types of people the elves are. For example: Did you know that the old human capital, Pyrondeloth, was destroyed by elves? Did you know that there was a fight over the mountains in 1154, Wardiloth time (WT)? Did you know...

~ Sophia-Rose