Your Type of Fantasy
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Hey there! In an attempt to do something useful and curb my boredom, I decided to start this new topic (because I haven’t done so in a good few years). I don’t know who to tag at all so fingers crossed that some people will see these, heh.
So when we say fantasy, we usually think of Tolkien’s fantasy, what with the medieval vibe, elves, dwarves, dragons, orcs… But after seeing a comprehensive database of over 50 different fantasy subgenres (this was a long time ago, at this point I’m still trying to figure out what my type of fantasy is) I’m pretty interested in seeing what your brand of fantasy is like! Since fantasy is purely imaginative, I’m sure we all have different worlds and creatures and things in our stories.
I think this could also help with worldbuilding. Anyways, yeah, feel free to comment below, tag some people… You know.
"I set a melody upon the scenery I saw outside my window;
It's beginning in my spacy world."
- TKI guess I’ll start…
I’ve only ever made one big fantasy thing before, but that I worldbuild as I write, so I won’t address it now.
Usually now for various works (novellas, short stories) they take place in an unnamed world, usually some Asian city, where some people have abilities, and are known as ability users, or antiquely, as gifted. As of now I don’t think there are any magical creatures or other special things about the world itself, merely an urban setting. So I’d call it urban fantasy, except I don’t think it fits that well with the definition of such. Maybe low fantasy? Alternate history? Not sure…
"I set a melody upon the scenery I saw outside my window;
It's beginning in my spacy world."
- TKI have two brands of fantasy I guess? At the least I have two fantasy worlds.
One is more of an urban fantasy akin to Percy Jackson or Supernatural; all the myths are true and teams of Hunters go around killing monsters to protect humanity. I do still take some liberties with the mythos of various cultures, or certain concepts. The story focuses on a small(ish) community of various Hunters, magic users, or mythic beings in the fictional city/county of Monarch, Montana.My other world is the culmination of my ideas on magic and fantasy. It has something of a d&d theme to it I guess, steeped in legends and mysteries and secrets. There are many different countries and cultures that each have their own perspectives on the world and magic. I like to use older or unusual words in the prose to give it layers of depth like there is something ancient beneath it, but not in the dry and textbook manner of Tolkien’s works. I’ve adapted or come up with dozens of little traditions to make the world feel more lived in; the prose is full of little details and comments to add to the world.
I don’t know if any of that made sense, but I hope it did. If you’re curious about either world I’m happy to share about them.
"Remember, you go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you." - Rev. Peter R. Hale
@skylarynn Whoa, Hunters! That sounds cool! What makes someone a Hunter? Do they have to be born a certain way or can anyone be one?
Ey, I love little traditions! It’s really great worldbuilding, and makes the whole world feel more unique. What’s the favorite one that you have made so far?
"I set a melody upon the scenery I saw outside my window;
It's beginning in my spacy world."
- TKSo, usually I do medieval Fantasy (i.e Ranger’s Apprentice style) with maybe a very light touch of magic (I have a phoenix in my current WIP novel). But I’ve also tried a dystopian/fantasy style for a MG short story I just finished. It’s kinda like alt. history, in the sense that there’s wagons, trains, towns and cities, but in a completely different world with different names (if that makes sense).Hmm. Let me see if I can help out and tag some (random) people:We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. — Ernest Hemingway
Erm, that looks a bit wonky…. Oops! Sorry about that; can’t seem to fix it….
Oh yeah, I just remembered!
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. — Ernest Hemingway
Heyyy,
I write urban fantasy mainly. My most current WIP is more urban, but something else too… maybe alt. history? It’s based off of different cultures but has a modern twist (techonology, languages, etc.) if that makes sense.
Cool topic!
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.
The Hunters are a global organization of monster hunters. Anyone who wants to become a Hunter can; they’re most often humans who have survived monster attacks, come from hunter families, or monsters/entities the Hunters have persuaded to helping the cause. Most of the Hunters focused on in the stories are humans, but there are a couple outliers:
A werewolf
Three dhampirs (a breed of vampire), though they’re technically Kinslayer liaisons
A huldra (Nordic fae)
An elf
A cambion (human-demon hybrid)
A wereowl
A godling son of Old Man Coyote
Several catamounts (think a were-mountain lion)I love the little traditions too! As for my favorite that I’ve come up with, ummm….probably the Eya ribbon traditions? The Eya are a subgroup of the Kithnarya, a cultural mix of the Middle East and India and Turkish. The Eya are more informally known as gypsies, and part of their heritage that is passed down is the skills of tablet weaving and weaving with inkle looms. These make ribbons. The colors and patterns of the ribbons have special significance. A Ram’s Horn patterned ribbon is a sign of leadership; you weave it and give it to someone you respect. The ribbons a woman wears in her hair indicate her relationship status. There’s so much symbolism in the ribbons that a woman accused of a crime can plead guilty in their court without saying a word by wearing green ribbons.
"Remember, you go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you." - Rev. Peter R. Hale
@imwritehere1920 Ey, thanks so much for helping me tag some people! I usually don’t interact much here anymore, so I’m a bit out of touch with the community, haha…
Dystopian/fantasy is something that I’ve been thinking about lately, yeah! You mention wagons and trains; would this be more of a 19th century type of time period?
@writergirl101 Ella! Lovely to see you! What are the different cultures that you’re using? How are you combining them?
@skylarynn Oo, monster hunters! I’m currently working on a story about those, actually. Those species names sound so cool! I’m impressed (this coming from a person who literally named a dark realm “The Darl Realm”).That ribbon tradition sounds so unique and interesting! I love how much thought you’ve given to it. Does it tie in with any plot points in your story?
"I set a melody upon the scenery I saw outside my window;
It's beginning in my spacy world."
- TKThe key to good species names is in part researching real mythologies. All the ones I listed I got from actual legends, and I didn’t make any up.
The ribbons aren’t a major plot point – I’m not sure how they could be honestly – but it’s just one of those small details I like to have.
"Remember, you go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you." - Rev. Peter R. Hale
No problem! Yeah, I guess it’d be more like 19th century. I was kinda inspired by the MG novels The Girl Who Drank The Moon and The Scourge (Barnhill and Nielsen respectively)
I’m also not too familiar with different sub genres of fantasy *haha*. *starts researching right away*
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. — Ernest Hemingway
Hello Linyang,And thank you for tagging me,@imwritehere1920 Much appreciated. 🙂Linyang, I will reply on a subsequent post from this one. Hope you are having a blessed day and I am so glad you are joining us. Each of us are passionate about what we do and there may be times we don’t see eye to eye, but Christ makes us family and what family do you know where brothers and sisters always achieve perfect harmony? 😉 But down deep we really do love each other. (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone. 😁) There are some very gifted writers here whom I could never even begin to have their talent, so maybe its a little envy in me…just a teeny bit. 😜 You will find for the most part we are a very encouraging group. [Some may think I am presumptuous to speak generally here, but in truth, I really am the shy one. I’ve just been let off my chain and jumped out of the box after “hiding from people” for……10 or 15 years. I’m like a puppy who has just discovered his tail, so I wag it a little over much lately. Someone here might pull out a broom and then I’ll scamper away back under the porch,…you never know…but I can assure you…there might be a little barking going on, before that happens, cause here at Story Embers, in the Forums, I seem to have found my yard. Yes, MY yard. If there are any doubts, I may have to raise a hind-leg to prove it. 😁😜]
Here’s a few others of our Fantasy crew that may have been missed on this thread response to your question.Brian Stansell (aka O'Brian of the Surface World)
I was born in war.
Fighting from my first breath.So, here is my follow-up email…as promised. Many of my friends here do not even know these things about my WIP that I am about to divulge, but I hope it peaks someone’s interests.
I have, after all, put this out there publicly on my blog as I work through it. Sort of a commitment to no longer hide my work under a bushel by allowing others to see me committing to seeing it through.
The first two “books” are in draft form. The third is planned but not fleshed out since I am editing through the first novel to finally get it out to my publisher within a “reasonable” time frame. (Been writing this since 2017, but contracted with the publisher in the fall of 2019, before the world turned upside down.
I am not sure I can truly categorize the type of “Fantasy” that I write. It is a blended genre of some elements of science-fiction, historical fiction, mystery, supernatural thriller, romance, symbolic allegory, and perhaps even some “horror”, though I tend to balk and chafe a little at that latter label.
As the ancient sailors and cartographers once wrote on nautical maps of the ocean, “Here there be Monsters”, that is true in my current work in progress…(yes “WIP” is the preferred reference, I know, but I stupidly skipped the short-hand class).
I have 3 types of Dragons in my work. The Three Dragons – of Air (Flier), of Water (Swimmer), of Land (Tunneler) ALL of which have biblical origins or ties into the subtext of a historical biblical account.
The “Flying Dragon” can breathe fire and…well…ascends to the heights. The “Swimming Dragon” is a Leviathan that excretes a phosphorus gel (Luciferan) that glows in the depths, and blinds deep sea swimmers and lures top swimming creatures towards the light deceptively in the deep rather than the sunlit surface, before it attacks. The tunneling dragon literally east dirt, rock and detritus, cutting and clawing its way underground in the darkness, cutting out the foundations of buildings and towns above, pulling it victims into the darkness to their deaths. The “Dust Dragon” is translucent in daylight and feels scorched by the overhead sun, so it dwells in shadowy places and rarely ever fully surfaces except in an attack. It can move and tunnel underground within “soft earth” at the speed of a freight train. It is strangely fully visible in half-light, say where a shaft of light pierces a tunnel and grays out into the darkness. It has bony spines, and metallic surfaces, a head the size of a panel van, and large stone-like teeth that torque when it opens and closes it jaws. Its eyes are odd, in that they are not uniform. They are the size of large platters, with one being a striated obsidian and the other appearing almost human, with a white sclera and an icy blue iris that is luminescent. It has a nictitating membrane, like a shark’s, that covers its eyes while it tunnels, and a curved and hard beak that can break through thick sheet-slabs of granite. It can sense the smells of blood on the ground surface from a depth of about thirty or forty feet and has the ability to psychically tag and pull at the thoughts of any sentient being above who are experiencing fear (like a fish on a hook and line). This ability is called a “thrall” in the story.
My WIP also has things called “Gollums” [following the traditional meaning of the term, not the LOTR character] which are molded and created by the “dragons”, but especially the “Dust Dragon” for it requires combining dirt, its own secreted and salivatory dragon plasma and human blood “with the Breath of God in it” so it HAS to be fully human with DNA to define the “attributes” of the “Gollum form”. Since the dragons, cannot create a soul or spirit, these mud forms, that take the image from the blood of the human victim the Dragon consumes, it must be inhabited by a separate spiritual entity, which is where the “elemental wind spirits” come in. The dragon supplies the shape-shiftable form, and the malevolent “elemental wind spirit” provides the sentient spirit trapped temporarily inside the Gollum for to go out an “deceive” humans, who do not know their “friend” or “family member” has been killed. A nasty kind of deception, I’ll grant you, but it makes for interesting story surprises.
I have a kind if biblical origin story for a group of half-human half-creature races of cursed hybrids that populate this “World” between “existence” worlds and are made up of many creatures appearing in Classical Greek and Roman mythology as well as some Babylonian mythical hybrids too. These “Half-Men” are a hodgepodge tenuous kingdom of kinds all subject under the rulership of The Pan, a monstrous hulking and ancient Half-Man/Half-Ram-Goat, standing about 12 feet tall, but anciently suffering the effects of extreme age with the inability to die without first being pierced through.
The Pan can see into the Physical World and whisper into the minds of humans, but it can no longer see into its present world, because its eyes are clouded by thick cataracts. It must rely on its other keen senses to move about and attack its prey in its own world and often has to rely on its underlings for simple things. It rages against the One True God, but fears Him and those chosen among mankind by Him who rely too much on His authority and find themselves empowered by that surrender. The Pan is weakened by a human who knows his or her identity is in Christ and he fears that one of these will strip him of his power by piercing him through. It is not that he doesn’t want to finally die, it is just that he is addicted to power and cannot imagine giving any of it up. Satyrs and dryad nymphs are his principal courtier companions, along with Harpies and others yet to be determined.
The lands are very medieval period in nature. Some are vast stone-hewn cities, carved by the use of what is called a conical “Builder Stone” that can lift massive monoliths with ease and precision cut through them. [almost like a pyramid builder…] There are 12 builder stones in this world, each divided up and given to an ancient tribal family, whose clans build the major sprawling citadels. Then these tribes became suspicious and envious of each other and eventually gathered their family behind great walls of stone. Certain tribes from among them became dominant and fractured the family into two warring kingdoms each with very different philosophies of how their peoples should be governed and ruled. There are three human groups of peoples in this world as a result at the time of the story. Indigenous peoples (Communal and Tribal traditions akin to a softened feudal system), the Xarmnian Empire (Marxian with leanings towards Totalitarian rule) and the Capitalians (Western style Democratic Republic governance).
The Half-Man Kingdom is Tribal and like a Monarchy, only very pagan in its rulership by gods.
All supernatural power is limited in some way. It is not merely conjured but yielded to and channeled from an internal Source. That circumstance is called “the quickening” and has its roots in the biblical meaning of the term. There is a sense of supernatural communication which appear to be a psychic ability, but it is merely due to the essence of the world in which these characters inhabit. It is a metaphysical world called simply “The Mid-World” and this place occupies its own timeline that every now and then eclipses the Human timeline of the Surface World, or physical world in which “we” occupy. Access to this “Mid-World” is achieved through any one of the Seven Oculus portals, but only by permission or calling by The One. Transit between the physical world and the metaphysical world without that permission will result in disastrous personal consequences for the intruder, either a full-mental breakdown or a permanent physical deformity or tragic fusing to whatever the intruder may be touching when attempting the invasion.
Some of the creatures are purely bizarre and arise and take their forms from tribal legends of peoples through the Surface World. There are creatures called Moon-Sprites which are far more hideous than one might think from the mere sound of their playful name. (Think of an aquatic silver-eyed, fish-belly white, mercurial bleeding, Medusa-creature, with living tentacles.)
There are many tie ins to biblical historical accounts and even two mysterious biblical prophets that show up in it.
I am fairly sure all that “before stuff” plops me primarily in the “Fantasy” category.
Brian Stansell (aka O'Brian of the Surface World)
I was born in war.
Fighting from my first breath.And…did I mention there are telepathic Trolls that can see into a person’s mind and weaponize their secret fears against them?
(These appear mostly in Books 1 & 2)
And there are pirates…yes, ships and the smuggling of contraband and sea-borne battles of wooden and metal reinforced clipper-ships that ply the great sound of Lake Cascale, a mountains chain of lakes and fjords in the Mid-World that empty out into the great Eastern Sea? (These will be more prevalent in Book 3, along with the accounts of The Leviathan “Dragon”.)
Certain mystical pools give time segmented visions into the Physical World, which is why the innovations in this world are kind of oddly reminiscent of human technology out of sequence. The view into the Surface World timeline is non-sequential and scattered, and transient.
The Pan is obsessed with the visions of these pools, because he and other half-person beings like him are also obsessed with getting back into the Surface World they came from, hopefully to become gods in their present form among the seas of humanity that have “forgotten” them and no longer truly venerate them, as they once did when they dreamed more vividly of them in nightmares. The Half-Men creatures are still savage in that the mind of the beast and the human mind of their former selves battle for their reason, and often they descend into the “animal” mind, before they come back to the awareness of having had their human side being subverted.
And there are Manticores among The Pan’s legion of eclectic creatures. Literal battle creatures with the body of a lion, the segmented tail of a scorpion and the face and beard of a man. A kind of living Sphinx, with the insectile tail being its primary assault weapon. These can be destroyed by fire or eaten alive by another beast, if ever given such an improbable chance.
Okay, that’s enough. I’ll shut up.
Gotta go to church now.Brian Stansell (aka O'Brian of the Surface World)
I was born in war.
Fighting from my first breath.Ooh, thanks for tagging me!
Very cool topic!Okay, I have gone back and forth on whether my WIP is high or low fantasy, and I have reached no conclusion XDI’d say, in style, it’s similar to Ranger’s Apprentice, but I like to think I added my own flair 😉 (Among other things, it isn’t based on Medieval England/Europe)There’s no magic and no fantasy creatures or races besides humans, but the cultures are a complicated amalgamation of several different cultures, and the political system is something I invented on a whim and then proceeded to world build to all eternity until it was somewhat plausible.The main country is divided into seven tribes, two of them nomadic. Each of them has a definite culture, but there are also large amounts of cultural exchange between tribes who trade/intermarry a lot. Each of the tribes has its own political structure, ranging from a triumvirate to elected leaders or monarchies. (Each of them has a slightly different structure because I enjoy making things difficult for myself XD)Anyway, what I quite like about this is that it forces a lot of conflicts since if two tribes get in a spat, all of them are impacted and have to pick sides or choose not to help either. And since they’re all relatively close to each other, there’s no ignoring the problem until it goes away.I took a lot of cultural inspiration from the Old Testament, (Often without noticing), the Amazigh tribes in North Africa, and Medieval Mediterranean cultures.Anyway, for a future book, I’m planning something similar, except I’m planning to merge eras (Edwardian and Rococo) and places (Probably Venice) into something fantasy and interesting 😉Without darkness, there is no light. If there was no nighttime, would the stars be as bright?
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