So I've pushed some of my urban fantasy ideas together. I'm now working with them under the name of Mythical Lore 101 over at my original fiction journal, or Lore for short.
Of course, working on a new world means worldbuilding. And, while there's still a lot I have to figure out, this is what's clear about it this far.
Magic
There are different disciples of magic, but all share a common trait: technically, anyone can use them. Some people may lack the internal power to do much with it, but basically anyone who learns the rules and rituals can use magic, and anyone with the same power level and knowledge can have the same results. This includes summonings, magical runes, potions, and so on.
The level of magical power in a person is partly inherited, partly somewhat random, and for certain kinds of magic it can be increased by training, though everyone is born with certain limits they are unable to surpass.
Might
Might is different from magic in that it is an innate talent. Some forms of might can be replicated by means of magic, such as most elemental powers, but some are unique to their users. Nobody can learn to use might; you are either born with it, or you aren't. Those who are born with it naturally have the ability to use their might, though they might be able to increase their level of control by training.
As they are hereditary to a degree, certain kinds of might are tied to certain traits: for example, only women can have natural magic sight, while only men can be born with the ability to drastically decrease temperature. These traits, however, do not follow any particular rhyme or reason any more than there is logic to the fact that men are more likely to be color blind.
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sunnuntai 12. joulukuuta 2010
perjantai 19. marraskuuta 2010
Fantastic problems
No, I'm not talking about NaNo. It's going forward, slowly but surely, but it's not what's bothering me the most right now. That's not even my stupid Bleach fanfic that's threatening to take over my head.
No, what's eating me at the moment are my fantasy plot bunnies.
I currently have two main fantasy bunnies eating away at my head. One is fairly traditional; it has several kingdoms filled with fantastical races (elves, elben, golden people, silver people...) and a traditional "big bad" with centuries of evil reputation to back him up. There's a traditional band of "heroes" (if you can call a kleptomaniac prince very heroic, among others) and even a traditional task -- go and find the Big Bad's son before his father awakens and lures him to the side of darkness. Oh, and if he's already evil, you must kill him, and a certain prophecy says the leader of the heroes won't return home, have fun on the way. Did I mention the one sending them off is said leader's mother? And some "urban legends" (though there's hardly anything urban about the setting) are in fact real, including Grieving Queen, who the legends say is the mother of the Big Bad's son... and steals children whenever it rains...
The other one has no clear setting yet. I know there's a forest, because there's also a little boy who believes himself to be the god of the forest, and who latches onto a priestess because she looks like his mother. There's a couple of perfectly ordinary wandering knights, except one of them is immortal and the other obsessed with staying young, who come across the near-dead victim of a royal conspiracy scheme. There's a young stable boy who's really centuries old and fought in a previous war, and a crown prince who's working to start a new one, and an old and worn general who may or may not be evil but who's certainly prepared to kill an innocent child just because he's in the way.
...Maybe I could combine the two... the first setting does have a couple of immortals, and adding in the original quest against evil shouldn't make the plot of the second much more complicated at this point. I also know of at least one "royal" person in the first setting who'd like a war, though she's neither a prince nor the heir to the throne... I'll have to establish the magic system, but then I have to do that anyway. (Kinda want to retain some singing magic, since that was the point of the original reincarnation of the first plot years and years ago, but I still have to figure out if that's exclusive to a few people or if it works for anyone who knows the songs.) Grieving Queen might fit in with the actual forest gods, though if I want the priestess I'll have to establish at least one religion... though then those would naturally revolve around the immortals...
And of course trying to simplify things by combining them only brings up new complications. Yay. -_-
For those interested, here are some of the characters in the first one. Including the kleptomaniac prince (the first one from left). Last one on right is the Big Bad's son. And this shows the all-important difference between elves and elben. The one at left is an elb, the one at right is an elf. Crystal clear, ne? ...No? Well, too bad, since the difference's apparently been enough to keep up a grudge just about short of a civil war for centuries.
Also, while the little boy may or may not be a god, killing him does do bad things to the forest... ah, the joys of karmic retribution. >_>
...While I am at it, I wonder if there's any way to involve the old idea I had of four angels being reincarnated as four siblings, only one of them went mad when she realized what they really were, and another is in love with his sister...
No, what's eating me at the moment are my fantasy plot bunnies.
I currently have two main fantasy bunnies eating away at my head. One is fairly traditional; it has several kingdoms filled with fantastical races (elves, elben, golden people, silver people...) and a traditional "big bad" with centuries of evil reputation to back him up. There's a traditional band of "heroes" (if you can call a kleptomaniac prince very heroic, among others) and even a traditional task -- go and find the Big Bad's son before his father awakens and lures him to the side of darkness. Oh, and if he's already evil, you must kill him, and a certain prophecy says the leader of the heroes won't return home, have fun on the way. Did I mention the one sending them off is said leader's mother? And some "urban legends" (though there's hardly anything urban about the setting) are in fact real, including Grieving Queen, who the legends say is the mother of the Big Bad's son... and steals children whenever it rains...
The other one has no clear setting yet. I know there's a forest, because there's also a little boy who believes himself to be the god of the forest, and who latches onto a priestess because she looks like his mother. There's a couple of perfectly ordinary wandering knights, except one of them is immortal and the other obsessed with staying young, who come across the near-dead victim of a royal conspiracy scheme. There's a young stable boy who's really centuries old and fought in a previous war, and a crown prince who's working to start a new one, and an old and worn general who may or may not be evil but who's certainly prepared to kill an innocent child just because he's in the way.
...Maybe I could combine the two... the first setting does have a couple of immortals, and adding in the original quest against evil shouldn't make the plot of the second much more complicated at this point. I also know of at least one "royal" person in the first setting who'd like a war, though she's neither a prince nor the heir to the throne... I'll have to establish the magic system, but then I have to do that anyway. (Kinda want to retain some singing magic, since that was the point of the original reincarnation of the first plot years and years ago, but I still have to figure out if that's exclusive to a few people or if it works for anyone who knows the songs.) Grieving Queen might fit in with the actual forest gods, though if I want the priestess I'll have to establish at least one religion... though then those would naturally revolve around the immortals...
And of course trying to simplify things by combining them only brings up new complications. Yay. -_-
For those interested, here are some of the characters in the first one. Including the kleptomaniac prince (the first one from left). Last one on right is the Big Bad's son. And this shows the all-important difference between elves and elben. The one at left is an elb, the one at right is an elf. Crystal clear, ne? ...No? Well, too bad, since the difference's apparently been enough to keep up a grudge just about short of a civil war for centuries.
Also, while the little boy may or may not be a god, killing him does do bad things to the forest... ah, the joys of karmic retribution. >_>
...While I am at it, I wonder if there's any way to involve the old idea I had of four angels being reincarnated as four siblings, only one of them went mad when she realized what they really were, and another is in love with his sister...
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