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Originally Posted by Morning Star I like what has now been established as traditional western concepts of fantasy, which found their roots in european legends and I think a lot from Tolkeins own visions. |
I have to agree with Leto on this one. The Euro Tradition is very, very done, but it's often done poorly. For some reason, fantasy people living in medieval conditions seem awfully healthy. Bad teeth, disease, shortened life span, and the back breaking day to day labor of the serfs is rarely mentioned. The labor is especially important, as that's what kept our nobility in their castles, but it's rare to find a story this blunt. It would be no fun to read.
I'm also tired of authors borrowing from other world cultures and religions as well. I often wonder why no authors are going all out an devising completely unique cultures, creating new solar systems, new principles of how the world works, new races that avoid the cliches of elves and orcs. It's as though humans are humans, elves are elves, dwarves are dwarves, modes of behavior are set, here are your conventions, write about them.
But then again, I wonder if the community would embrace omething so alien to them. Le Guin pulled it off with "Stranger in a Strange Land," but how many places are that unique?
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Originally Posted by Morning Star However, I do not like to think that a world so infused with magic and epic landscapes is one set in the 'middle' or 'dark' ages...if magic was such a tangible concept then it could substitute a lot of science.
I would like to create an alternate 'fantasy' world that has developed in it's own right, but is still dominated by magic and monsters and dark lords...without the need for cars and computers. |
Actually, I agree with you, and that's what I'm working on. I think a lot of the novels out today are set in the medieval period of a world because we have very little groundwork for what might come before or after. My series (anticipated 36 volumes) starts 200 years after time begins and follows the world through to space travel. There will be something like computers, but they come across AI sooner than we do. The world is also much more thinly populated (part of the Laws of Essences laid down by the Deities of the world) and natural features are left mostly intact. As for magic, there are two main groups of users: those whose abilities are Deity given and those whose abilities are scholarly. Deity given gifts vary according to race; some can earth sculpt, some can shape shift, some can see the future. The scholarly arts include Alchemism, Naturalism, and Contraptionism - these are basically magic-based versions of mage-work requiring the use of various substances, mage-work based upon biology, and mage-work based upon mechanics respectively. Some people specialize in one discipline, others work in all three. A lot of the time, the three groups work together: for example, they created a line of living mechanical horses that require maitenance rather than grooming and feeding.
One of the cool things about the series is going to be seeing what kinds of situations arise organically from the past and how the cultures change over time. By the time I get to the last of the books, it will be an aggressively fleshed out world, with it's own history and unique cultures. (I hope!)
Luce.