I decided it was time for another installment of Look Into a World. This post is centered around two gods, one of which I introduced in this post.
By the way, in the first installment of Look Into a World, I posted a song that inspired a part of the world-building. I should say this cover of a song inspired a part of world-building for this post:
You'll see which part when reading...
The War in the Sky
In the world where Arisias lives, the humans and elves believe that the sun and the moon are in a constant war, where each night/day one of the gods wins, temporarily.
The moon goddess represents strategic warfare. Mortals who worship her call upon her in battle or when they looking for a strategic way to win. The moon goddess does help people outside of war, as well, with philosophy and non-war related activities. In contrast, the god of the sun, represents bloody warfare, and doesn't care about strategy only blood-shed.
During the night, the moon goddess overpowers the sun god by using his own light against him. In the daytime, the sun god uses his light to overpower the moon goddess. Hence, while the moon may appear in the sky during the day, the moon goddess did not win that fight.
The times we would consider the winter and summer solstice, are the times when holidays around victory of a certain god are considered. If the day is shorter than the goddess of the moon won the battle for the meantime and is making the god of the sun weaker, if the god of the sun and it is the summer solstice and the day is longer, it is believed the god of the sun won the battle for the meantime.
And when there is a solar or lunar eclipse, it is believed the gods are fighting in closer quarters than usual.
(Salissah and a comet).
Salissah (the goddess of the moon) and god of the sun choose warrior spirits to fight alongside them. They are warriors who died in battle, and are chosen to fight. So they fall in a second battle for their selected god. When they fall, they are represented as shooting stars/comets and are then sent to the afterlife.
The war between the two gods was foretold by Karleon. However, the sun god did not believe this prophecy, for he believed Karleon was tricking them somehow. Salissah believed she could find a way to avoid the consequences. It is unclear what event exactly caused the war in the sky, however, one answer tellers like to say is that the fay and human war is what caused it. For every god had to pick a side in that war. Because of their opposing sides, the sun god and the moon goddess were destined to be enemies afterwards. It is often modified by the teller what the true cause was, depending on the place or time period.
Relationship Between the Devotees
(a devotee to the moon goddess (left), a devotee to the sun god (right).)
Interestingly compared to Karleon and the god of time, the devotees in this case are rather nice to each other. They have a hope that one day the war between the sun and the moon gods will be resolved. And while they don't agree on everything, and fights do sometimes happen, most devotees don't get into heated debates over this.
However, other devotees are not very calm about the human and fay war, and they always ask "which god are devoted to?" in order to gather what side that person may be on. However, because the war related to the humans and fay is so complicated that even knowing the gods that the person is devoted to, may not tell you their opinion on the war as a whole. This is especially true since the person may disagree with their gods' opinion.
It happened that Elyerin (aka Detective Inspector Time) fought in the fay and human war before becoming a detective. He was on the side of the fay during the war. And while he ended up being devoted to neither god (he instead ended up being devoted to the god of time), his side of the war strongly honored the goddess of the moon.
So, in this post, I wanted to talk about an aspect of my general process of writing but one that is still related to Becoming the Body Thief and Arisias. So, I decided another installment for A Look Into a World. If you want to read the previous installments, here is #1 and #2.
A Look Into a World:
How the Power of Prophecy Came To Be
The Myth
Before Karleon had power over prophecy, the power belonged to the God of Time. The prophecies were very direct and to the point. They did not have any rhyming nor were they hard to decipher. Because of this a lot of prophecies came out sounding like threats rather than prophecies. Since a lot of people were not pleased to find out when and the exact date and time of their death, prophecies became less and less like a thing that people would travel to receive. It seemed prophecy was becoming a dying art. However, Karleon the god of mischief decided that he must steal the power.
(Karleon catching the god of time in a form of a firefly (he's not a real firefly, so his glow wouldn't be yellow but instead silver)).
So Karleon insulted the God of Time and challenged him to a shapeshifting contest. They took on different forms of different animals, until the God of Time turned into a firefly and Karleon caught him in that form and extracted the power that way.
As a result, the temples that housed the God of Time's oracles suddenly became Karleon's temples of prophecy. And devotees to the God of Time were still devotees to him, but they had suddenly become devotees to Karleon as well--and not in the typical way which would happen during The Festival of Magic.
This caused Karleon to get in trouble with the King and Queen of the gods again. But they were unable to remove the power from Karleon for he threatened that the power would cease to be in use if they removed it. Since he could see the future, they took what he said to be fact (though variations of the myth told by the God of Time's devotees, say it was one of Karleon's lies).
But, even though they were not able to remove the power, the King and Queen tasked the God of Time with punishing Karleon. So Karleon was temporarily frozen in time.
The Oracles & Their Powers
(An elvish oracle in a trance foretelling what is come)
There are many oracles across the different kingdoms. When an oracle uses their power, they go into a trance. Their eyes glow a bright vibrant blue, and they talk in a voice that sounds unlike their own.
The prophecies of course are told in rhyme and also are very ambiguous in meaning. In regards to prophecies related to heroes, some people in the world believe in "chosen ones." Others believe that the people mentioned in prophecies relating to quests are just descriptions of people who could fit the criteria, but not an exact person.
But it does all come down to a belief in fate, and what power it has over actions in the world.
The Relationship between the Devotees
Nisis/Nyro's and Karleon's devotees are on somewhat good terms. (The gods aren't exactly enemies, and despite their disagreements, they have teamed up more than once). On the other hand, the God of Time's devotees and Karleon's are not friendly.
This is because some of the devotees, think that the power should have been left with the God of Time, as prophecy foretells the future and is related to time itself. They are also upset that they could have received the ability but the god of mischief, Karleon stole it from them.
It is not unusual that arguments--even heated debates--would happen between them. The devotees to the God of Time would like the power back, whereas the devotees of Karleon think it is rightfully theirs.
Part two of the Q&A For Becoming the Body Thief
Now, we're back with part 2! If you wish to read part 1, you can so here. Many of the questions that were submitted related to the 2nd book in my Fantasy murder mystery book series, Becoming the Body Thief, and there were other questions relating to the world in general.
I'm wondering how far Arisias will go with her ruse. Will she hold back just enough to not commit an actual crime?
Without spoiling anything, Arisias does admit she has had a lot of regrets from having to do things because of her alias in the 2nd book. She actually said that in this post(note, that I called her "Annabelle" then, so the post is a bit outdated in terms of names but not content), in response to the question "what is the hardest thing you've ever done?" So, I will just say-- she has a lot of regrets.
Will she change the behavior of the real criminals?
You shall see, Arisias may be able to, or she may not. Italldepends...
Does she use costumes, disguises, to hide her true identity and intent?
(Arisias in disguise)
The criminals Arisias works with, have no idea they're helping Princess Arisias. So, yes. She's in disguise, and she is using an alias, so no one actually knows it is her. However, that is not to say that someone won't discover that she isn't who she says she is. 😉
Question from Anonymous:
Will Arisias find friends among the criminals?
She will have to be allies with them, even if not close friends. Because if she is enemies toward them that will not help her get to where she needs to go.
Will she turn these in to the police when she sees the crimes they commit?
This is one time, where she cannot turn criminals in to the civil guard (police) because, she herself has become a wanted criminal. So, by doing that, she would risk being arrested just for the sake of arresting a criminal. At this point, she is at the same level of the criminals so cannot do much to go against them-- unless, she wants to end up arrested, too.
Questions from Fleming:
What made you decide to change the character’s name to Arisias, especially after living with Annabelle for so long?
(Still from the video where I announce Arisias's name change).
When I named this character "Annabelle" back in 2016, the name fit her character at the time. However, when she was developer further, it stopped fitting her. So, it felt appropriate to call her "Arisias" as was drafting it now.
Also, I realized the name "Annabelle" sounds very strange when there are other characters with names like Cerawen and Vonivera. And also since she is the main character, it felt weird that the other characters had fantastical names, but she did not.
In the first book, Horatio only knows the character's name, rather than her as a person when he first wakes up. I thought "Arisias" as a name held more mystery than "Annabelle."
The name Arisias also seemed closer to who she was, and as for the background in creating the name I talk about it in this post here.
Also, are there any characteristics of the fairies, elves or dwarfs that you feel are completely original to this world?
(Image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology#/media/File:Riders_of_th_Sidhe_(big).jpg)
I wouldn't say anything is completely original. I am taking a lot of elements of my story from mythology from thousands and thousands of years ago (Greek, Norse, Irish, etc.), along with inspirations from some more modern fantasy stories. But, I would say they're different in some ways from other elves, dwarves, and fairies I have seen in the media.
For my fairies I actually took some elements from Irish mythology. Because of that they're more trickster like, not someone you want to anger, nor someone you can completely trust which is why they have a bad relationship with the humans. They have the ability to make themselves "invisible" (go to another dimension), and realm-travel. Both elves and fairies came from another realm, but fairies have the ability to actually magically get themselves there if they want to, whereas for an elf it would be harder.
The elves are more trustworthy. They have been there for thousands and thousands of years. They are able to detect gods from within a crowd more than a mere mortal (human) could. And elves believe themselves to be made in the likeness of the very gods they worship-- which is why they're so ethereal and live longer than humans.
Dwarves I'm still working on. At the moment, only two have shown up (the two criminals that Arisias has to work with). So their culture, beliefs, and society are things I'm still working on building as a whole. But, I will say that not all dwarves are miners. There are some who are, but while wealth is important to the culture (particularly jewels and gold), not all dwarves are miners.
....And that's the end of the Q&A. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. They were fun to answer. 😁
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would you (or your character) do if you could tell the future? What's your favorite Fantasy creature?
On September 17th, I finished the first draft of Becoming the Body Thief!It was a novel I worked on during Camp NaNoWriMo, and it feels good to have the first draft done so that I can move onto the second. In this post I will also be including a Q&A about my novel. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. Like my last Q&A, this is going to be divided up into two parts. I did this because some of my answers were quite long. So, if I don't answer your question(s) in this part I will in the next, and if you didn't get a chance to leave a question for this part, you can leave one for the next part here.
The reason I decided to do a Q&A along with this celebration post was that I realized readers would probably want to know a bit more about the story, or about what it is like to be a criminal in my Fantasy world. So, I decided to make a post asking for questions about that. This post will answer those questions, as well as talking about what I will be doing next drafting-wise.
Synopsis
(Images used from Pixabay. The paintings are: "The Soul's Prison House" by Evelyn De Morgen, "The Shadow" by Edmund Blair Leighton, and "God Speed!" by Edmund Blair Leighton. The lyrics quoted are from the song "Over the Hills and Faraway". The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules).
Genres: Fantasy | Crime | Adventure Series: Second book in the Princess Arisias Mystery series
After Arisias is framed for a crime that she did not commit, she finds herself having to work amongst criminals. In order to bring the one who wronged her to justice, that is "The Body Thief," Arisias finds she will have to blend into her new surroundings by acting like a criminal. In doing so, she has to enlist the help of two thieves and a con-artist. But as all of this is happening, Arisias fears that she will become the very thing she is pretending to be. Will she become a criminal like The Body Thief?
What's Next For Becoming the Body Thief?
The next phase for this novel is to work on the second draft. In the first draft I worked to get down what happens in the story, but I did not focus much on the prose. So, I will now be focusing more on the style and the world-building. While I already built a lot of the world (though there is still more to work on--such as the pantheon of gods, and the magic system), I didn't include as much of it as I would like to do in the first draft.
With this in mind, I will be focusing more on what the criminal world is like. In world-building for this book, criminals' relationship with the gods is different from that of law abiding citizens. Some gods will refuse to give criminals magic, but other gods are more willing to, or perhaps they just do not care about the background of the person. Karleon, the god of mischief, is one of these less careful gods. This is because he is a trickster god, and tricksters tend not to care about legality of most things. (Also, Karleon stole magic from the king and queen of the gods. I don't think he has a leg to stand on when judging criminals.)
Speaking of criminals who have magic, I have a con-artist character who was given magic by the god of music. But then, I also have a character who has no powers whatsoever, but his abilities as a thief seem magical even though they aren't.
I also want to develop the locations of the story more. For example, I made some versions of one of the taverns that appear in the book in a virtual world. I did this because I generally have trouble figuring out the layout of a room in writing: visualizing it is just hard for me. I want the readers to feel as if they are there and could visit the taverns that appear in it.
This was also one of the few books where I actually have written a fight scene. Most of my books didn't focus on fighting, but instead on solving a mystery. So, because fight scenes are important in Becoming the Body Thief, I want to make sure they are well written. For instance, I don't have my characters instantly defeat an opponent or monster with magic or weapons.
So, that is my plan for the second draft of Becoming the Body Thief. Now on to the Q&A!
* * * * * * * * *
Q&A
In order to make this more fulfilling and to ensure that I give you the information you want about the novel (but not enough that it spoils the story), I asked for questions for my novel in the previous post. Here are my answers to some of the questions.
The first wasn't really a question, but I want to talk about it anyway. Someone left a comment about fantasy stories involving heists and criminals, mentioning Six of Crows. I find this interesting, because it was only this year that I read Six of Crows. The Fantasy writing group I am running voted for it as one of the books to read for our book club. This really led me to think about the inspiration for my own story...
My inspiration was the TV show, Leverage (which is not Fantasy, but is a show focusing on heists). This was the first crime show I ever watched, and it also definitely inspired elements and characters of my story. However, I should say that, unlike the characters from Leverage, my thieves and my con-artist (who all work for Arisias) are completely unaware that they are doing something good (or at most, a pale shade of gray).
I love fantasy cities. Will Arisias be working with a thieves guild or anything like that?
The thieves that Arisias works with are loners. They work for themselves and don't like being tied down to a guild. (There are thieves who join guilds in this world, just not these thieves.) Nevertheless, they were persuaded to work for Arisias.
I also enjoy Fantasy cities: my characters visit several throughout the story. Some are shader than the others, like the one where Venus (the con-artist) lives. However, to visitors the city appears to be safe, People ignore what is going on beneath the surface and generally come there to have a good time (with or without later regrets).
I like the idea of Arisias having to work with criminals. I wonder if they'll be hardened ruthless types or more heart-of-gold types. :)
I'd say the criminals are in the middle between these two. I will say they lean more toward hardened-and-ruthless than heart-of-gold since they have been in the criminal world for years and years. However, a lot of my sympathetic characters have backgrounds that are...bad or questionable. Despite their ruthlessness you, the reader, will eventually be able to relate to them on some level...even if you disagree with their (past) actions.
Question from Anonymous:
How long will your novel be, and how long do you think you will need to complete it? Good luck!
Thank you for wishing me luck. 😃 The first draft was 32,520 words in length. My best guess is that the second draft is going to be twice as long or longer--in the first draft I was outlining more than focusing on the prose. I really don't know for sure, but my best answer is, longer than 32,520 words.
As for when I am going to complete it, it has really no exact date at the moment. It depends on other projects of mine-- given that I have to take into account details like world-building, character-building and naming certain characters and places.
I believe I am going to finish (and publish) Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass first, and then The Mystery of the Body Thief,and then this one. As I answer this, though, I also have to take into account that I've been working on The Mystery of the Body Thief since 2018. My writing was very different in 2018, so I had to do a lot of work to get it to my current writing style. For Becoming the Body Thief, it will be far easier to rewrite. But since Becoming the Body Thief is the second book in the series, the first book will have to be completed first.
I'm interested in the justice system in your novel's world. Is it fair? Are judges/lawyers corrupt and bribable? Is the justice system excessively punitive?
(Image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_william_waterhouse_fair_rosamund.jpg)
It really depends on what judge/lawyer you get and the situation as a whole.
If the crime is related to royalty then there can be meddling and bias in the court (as in if the person who was attacked was royalty not the accused). Judges will be on the side of royalty for the most part and rule in favor of them. But, if a royal is accused of a crime, there will be different opinions.
It is believed that if a king, queen, prince, or princess commit a crime, that they have gone against the gods, since they were chosen by the gods to be royalty. But others will assume that the royal is innocent and try their hardest to prove this, even if the evidence is pointing in the opposite direction.
So overall, for Royalty the legal system is complicated and sometimes can be corrupted. I should also say this applies to priestesses/priests, because they the same power as royalty.
All that being said when a crime involves only common citizens, the legal system in this world is quite fair. Nevertheless, other biases can arise in the court (such as people avoiding angering the god(s) they're devoted to, political biases, biases based on species, etc.)
Penalties for some crimes are quite extreme. But once again it really depends on the situation. Some people are not eager to give out penalties that are irreversible for petty crimes such as theft. Instead people will be confined to prisons for a certain amount of time. But for murder, it depends: some people believe in the death penalty, while others have argued that a life sentence is better.
(Keep in mind that a "lifetime" to a certain species might be different. For the Fair Folk that is hundreds if not thousands of years, to a human it would be shorter).
Will Arisias face the death penalty for any crimes she may commit or be framed for?
The death penalty is a thing some criminals face in Dragons' Province for committing crimes, and public executions are held (this is something some kingdoms ruled by elves find primitive, so don't do it, but since Dragons' Province has had both elvish and human rulers at different points that it is why it happens). In this case-- without spoiling anything, the crime Arisias was framed for would usually have the death penalty, but, they were unable to do it. (This is for reasons that will be revealed in the book. I'll let you, the readers, speculate for now on what those reasons are.) But regardless, her punishment is far from being pleasant and is very traumatic, even if not that extreme.
What are the prisons like? Warehouses or hellholes or both?
It depends on the prison you're sent to as a prisoner. Most are far from pleasant and quite hard to escape from (whether it was made by humans, dwarves, or the Fair Folk--that is the elves or fairies). They're all different, and they have different ways of messing with a prisoner's mind. This is not illegal to do in their world. (It would be illegal in our world.)
(A typical made by the Fair Folk, prisoner at the front an illusion appearing at the back).
A prison made by the fair folk (the elves and fairies) would seem beautiful upon entering. It would even be hard to tell that it was a prison because of its sheer beauty. However, upon staying there for a long time, one will begin to feel like the prison is playing tricks on their mind. They will see visions of different things that happened in their prior life and of their greatest fears. At times, it will seem possible to escape the prison-- the prisoner will have false hope and only later will find out it was all a trick. And sometimes when walking around the prison, they may feel as if they are getting lost in it. Time will feel as if it either going too quickly or too slowly, depending on what the prisoner is used to.
(A fay and a human prisoner in a prison made by humans)
A prison made by the humans is mostly like a warehouse. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells periodically and wander around-- but only at certain times. Prisoners usually keep to themselves. Even though it is periodic isolation, this kind of isolation eventually begins to mess with the minds of the prisoners confined there.
(An elvish prisoner in a typical dwarf prison).
In a dwarfish prison, one is confined in a completely underground prison. There are cells for different prisoners like in human prisons, but prisoners are not allowed out. The cells have the feeling of a collapsed mine: no sunlight is allowed in, and prisoners can feel as if they are stuck unground for ages and ages. It does not help that they are not able to wander about.
The state of the prisons makes criminals (and people in general) want to avoid getting arrested. Some authorities believe that the harsh nature of the prisons makes crime-rate lower, but in reality the prisons are not the issue. It just makes criminals try to avoid getting caught at all costs. And for those who are framed for crimes, it is a very scarring punishment when they didn't do anything wrong.
Are there a lot of criminals in this world? Are people forced into criminality in order to survive?
There are a lot--enough that I'd say that the crime rate is high in Dragons' Province. Generally, people are forced into being criminals in order to make ends meet. Though, people's reasons also depend on the crime committed. For murder, there can be sympathetic reasons (such as self defense), but it can also be done for horrible reasons...
Theft or conning someone, is something most people do to survive, at least something they are forced into doing. There are others, who do it for greedy reasons or because of the fun of it. But, mostly people do it because they have to or are forced to. It really depends on the criminal whom you're talking about.
...This is the end of part one of the Q&A. If you would like to get a question or questions in for part two, you can ask them here or comment them down below.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which prison from my Fantasy world would you least like to be confined in? And, do you have a favorite Fantasy story that involves criminals or crime?
This particular post is for the world of the Lady Annabelle Mystery series. These posts have helped me so far to know the world better. Also, in case anyone is confused and wondering why the gods from All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again are involved in something from the Lady Annabelle mystery series, that is because I ended up moving the gods (except the Creator Goddess, who will be modified) to that world, due to the setting change in All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again.The gods seemed a bit out of place, so I moved them to a series that seemed very in keeping with their nature.
Along with the world-building series on my blog, I will also be occasionally posting articles on World Anvil about this world. So sometimes when a Look Into a World post is published I will also post a World Anvil article that is related to it. I have an article that goes along with this post called "The Festival of Magic," which I will be linking on the world-building page on this blog. (You will see it under the "World Anvil" section of the page) and I will update you about it in a blog post.
Anyway, on to this post:
How Magic from the Gods Came to the World-
Nisis (left) and (young) Karleon (right)
Two trickster gods were involved in bringing to the world magic that is not inherited at birth. Their names were Nisis/Nyro and Karleon. These two trickster gods were very fed up with the fact that the King and Queen of the gods were hoarding all the magic and were unwilling to teach the mortals any.
So, Nisis/Nyro and Karleon came together and formed a plan to get the magic and give it to the mortals. Karleon played a role in distracting the god who protected the magic, while Nisis/Nyro took the magic down to the world and gave it to the mortals. The mortals were really happy about this; the king and queen of the gods were not.
While Karleon escaped punishment, Nisis/Nyro did not. Karleon told the king and queen of the gods that he completely misunderstood the plan that Nisis/Nyro had "told him" and didn't think the magic of the gods would come into the world of the mortals. In contrast, Nisis/Nyro got banished to the world of the mortals for a few years so they would learn from their "mistake." Though there are variations on this myth (some where both the gods get punished, and some where Karleon is the one who gets punished instead of Nisis/Nyro), all end with Karleon and Nisis/Nyro not being on good terms. In the version of the myth I'm following, Nisis/Nyro got banished because the other gods worried they would take on the form of their loved ones (since Nisis/Nyro has no clear form other than that) to escape punishment. So this was the reason for their unfair punishment of Nisis/Nyro.
After Karleon and Nisis/Nyro released magic into the world, the king and the queen of the gods decided to put restrictions on how much magic the mortals could have at once. This is because it turned out the other gods were very unwilling to take their magic back. Hence they created rules for becoming a devotee to a god or a goddess. This made it so that the gods whose magic was in the world was limited and had to be taught. The king and queen did this because they believed the other gods would be too vain or not feel that the mortals were worth their time. However this backfired, because the gods whose magic was given to the mortals spent a lot of their time teaching them the craft.
And out of this event came the Festival of Magic. It is celebrated biannually given that there are two different assumed dates for when it happened. These two dates are in the middle of spring and the beginning of winter.
Magic given at birth-
The species who have this are fairies, elves, and some other creatures. According to the religion that is predominant in Dragon's Province, the gods created them to have these powers and gave a little bit of their magic to those creatures.
For the fairies, the gods decided to give them the ability to make themselves "invisible" (though in reality they go to another dimension). This is a power that every fairy has, and the gods gave it to them so they could protect themselves if they were in grave danger (to hide from their attackers or from wild monsters).
For the elves, they were given better eyesight and hearing than humans, as well as a better connection to the gods. While they may not be able to turn "invisible," elves can spot a god within a crowd of mortals or see a god when a human couldn't. This also links them to the major religion in Dragon's Province, where the gods teach mortals magic.
Enchanted Objects-
An enchanted mirror
There are many different kinds of enchanted objects: one being enchanted crystals and jewels. If one believes the legends, then out of spite Karleon made all the jewels have different powers. (Some versions written by Elven scribes who don't have to mine in cold and damp mines say this is a "blessing;" most others call it a "curse.") Karleon thought it would cause confusion for mortals (dwarves in particular) and that it would be fun to watch. To this day, no one is quite sure what the powers of enchanted jewels and crystals are, and in mining them people have to be careful or they could be cursed by them.
There are also objects that are less dangerous and unambiguously blessed by the gods. These are considered sacred and can grant certain powers. Some are even said to be given to certain heroes on their journeys.
One notable magic object is a magic mirror, which can have different abilities. Usually they can used as a way to look at different areas of the world or see the true nature of a person. Fairy dust is also commonly described as being an "enchanted object," because it can be used in many ways: as a dye, as a way to find fingerprints, and for other uses.
This is the beginning of a new blog series on the novels I am writing.
I'm still writing the Mystery of the Body Thief. My goal in the first draft was lay out the story. The second draft is going to be a little more centered on character development and world-building.
This blog series will also show you more of the worlds of other Fantasy stories I am writing (All is Not Lost for All Will Begin Again and Eyes in the Night). I will be featuring the religions, the magic, the history, and the different species of the worlds I create, and maybe some of the world's scientific discoveries.
Medical Magic in The Mystery of the Body Thief
The song that inspired this:
If one is to be a nurse or a doctor in Annabelle's world, it is much more time consuming for the student than in our world. This is because not only do you have to learn how the different parts of the body react to different magics and medicines, but you have to learn to devote yourself to one of the various nature gods and then learn nature magic, which also doubles as healing magic. The various gods that you may devote yourself to are the fire god, the air god, the earth god, or the water god. All have different ways of healing someone through magic that the student will have to master.
Because of this, nurses and doctors are kind of druid and witch like, and sometimes even someone you might turn to for spiritual help. People believe they can heal their body and soul. It is common that two doctors of different elements will work together, because they can heal the patient more thoroughly if the two elements are combined: like earth and water, or air and earth, or air and water, but never fire and water, because they would cancel each other out.
A lot of the training involves prayer to the god or goddess whom you have chosen to learn magic from, and looking through different spell books and delivering the sacred words.
Earth's healing abilities:
The Goddess of the earth.
Earth is very centered on grounding the body if the owner of the body doesn't feel like they have their feet firmly planted on the ground. The goddess also wants the person to feel the healing power of the woods and creeks. Another healing thing Earth does, is to help the patient realize they are part of the cycle of the world, and that they are not separate from the cycle. They can be one with animals and plants of the world.
Spell to invoke the goddess: I call upon the goddess of the earth, to give me strength and ground myself, tell me the secrets hidden deep in the ground, open my eyes to what I may have overlooked, allow me to care for all the creatures of earth that you do, allow me to harm none. Give me knowledge to heal the wounded and the sick, goddess breathe life into the dying!
Fire's healing abilities:
The Fire god
Fire tends to do something very acupuncture like. The person who has the magic related to it, will touch the patient's body and temporarily heal them of the pain they have been feeling in that area. It only lasts twenty four hours or a little more, but it helps ease the pain of the patients.
Spell to invoke the fire god: Oh, ever changing fire god, I call upon you. Let your warmth heal the sick and those who feel cold, like those who are in pain feel energetic like your flickering flames, let the body feel worth, let the injured be able to move again, let them feel energy flowing again!
Air's healing abilities:
The Air God
Air wants to help get the body to its higher (or divine) self. This also helps on the spiritual level of having the patient get more spirituality connected to the gods and the universe.
Spell to invoke the air god: Ever high up air god, let others reach your height. Let the injured and the sick feel your presense, breathe healing wind in their direction and send not the sickening winds, but the healing winds with (Nurse or doctor chanting this adds in what they want the god to send), give me your knowledge and wisdom, let me heal the sick, and let your winds come close to us!
Water's healing abilities:
The Water Goddess
Water makes the body feel more fluid and in the moment. If the patient is feeling like they are overwhelmed the water elemental has powers that will help them feel more like they can affect the world in positive ways.
Spell to invoke the goddess: I call upon the ever flowing water goddess, help me heal, help me heal others with your enchanting gaze, let knowledge of healing trickle onto my fingers, let it flow onto the sick and the injured, let the stuck flow like a running river, like them feel whole instead of empty!
Because of this, the religion of the world and the magic are intertwined, and while you don't always need to be a priest or a priestess to have magic, you do at least need to be devoted to a god or a goddess in your practice of it. And if you aren't you are frowned down upon by society. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Which god or goddess is your favorite of the ones I created? If you had a choice what element would you have the powers of?
-Quinley
Greetings Travelers,
I thought I would make a post about world-building, and about censoring and criminalizing
something in your Fantasy world, Science Fiction, or dystopian world as this is an important issue in our own world, and it helps to think about the issue in as many ways as you can and not just black and white.
So let's begin: **warning: spoilers ahead for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, an episode from the TV series Star Trek: Voyager called "Random Thoughts," and an episode from the series Star Trek: Enterprise called "Stigma." If you haven't watched or read these, read the post with caution or go and read and watch them before continuing**
One should keep in mind when criminalizing something in their fantasy world or science fiction world for that matter that no matter how hard your society tries to stop people from doing whatever they want them to stop doing, that they won't be able to get rid of it completely. As an example in All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, the country where my characters live and where their story starts has rules against modern medicine and tenchology hence why they have not developed as quickly as they could have. The reason for this is fear because something like what happened in the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein happened causing fear and making people resort to using natural medicine and using mesmerism in place of drugs. And people have made sure that technology is safe before releasing it to the world. However, even if I like this form of censorship for my world (as a writer of it), I cannot say that everyone else in the world or that the people outside of my world who are reading my book will be okay with it. In fact I am sure there is a black market for different types of drugs in my world where people put new drugs that are potentially dangerous and untested there and models of the technology and the blueprints for the technology is also sold. The reason why this is all happening, though, is that if one makes something illegal, anything, people are likely to go and buy it or do the now-illegal practices that the government told them they couldn't do.
This in fact has happened many times in books, movies, and TV shows.
In Star Trek: Voyager there is an episode called "Random Thoughts" where to even think a bad thought is illegal because it will cause crime. The reason being the people of this planet are telepaths. They can read each other's thoughts and read non-telepath's thoughts. And to have a bad or violent thought in that world would affect people enough for them to kill someone or commit another crime. This seems like a reasonable law since we see the world represented as a safe haven, and a beautiful place. However, when B'Elanna gets wrongly accused for releasing a bad thought the punishment is a little
severe. They say she must remove the thought from her mind, and they would do it in a way that could potentially damage her brain.
(image from wikia, https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Random_Thoughts_(episode)?file=Engramatic_purge.jpg)
As the crew investigates we are led to find out that there is a black market where people sell bad and violent thoughts for the pure enjoyment of it, because "outlawing violent thought hasn't made it go away. All you've done is force people to share it in back alleys." (ep. "Random Thoughts") and the people who are doing it don't really care about the consequences of what they are doing. But they do it anyway because the government made it illegal, or just because they have an addiction to it or they want to, or they feel incredibly pressured by society and want some freedom to make mistakes. There could be a million reasons as to why one would do something illegal.
An addiction to the thing can also be a reason as to why someone would do something, even if it is something they themselves decided was prohibited. In The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll did not want to go back to being Hyde, yet his body forced him to, because it was unbalanced after he had tried to separate the two sides of himself and also disrupted the Yin and Yang balance of his body and soul.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_(character)#/media/File:Jekyll-mansfield.jpg)
Around the time that Jekyll stopped taking the drug he looked sickly. Utterson came to see him and he had "his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much, these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind." (pg. 27-28) Jekyll's addiction to the drug forced him eventually to take it against his will, despite the fact that he set up a rule himself not to take it. When he felt an urge to do it, it was because he was "seized again with those indescribable sensations that heralded the change; and I had but the time to gain the shelter of my cabinet, before I was once again raging and freezing with the passions of Hyde. It took on this occasion a double dose to recall me to myself; and alas! Six hours after, as I sat looking sadly in the fire, the pangs returned, and the drug had to be re-administered." (pg. 67) Either way, if something is outlawed by oneself or by a society, it doesn't mean the addiction, the need, or something else along these lines will not come in and break the rules that have been set up.
However this issue isn't black and white at all, and no one should view it that way, because it has happened throughout history as well as happening in TV shows, books, and movies.
Outlawing something, whether it be a religion, medicine, books, etc. has happened many times throughout... The Nazis outlawed books that they disagreed with and deeply censored them, even burning them as well as deeply hurting and killing people who were Jewish. The British in the 18th century censored Americans' letters to one another which caused the Americans to create their own postal service. King Henry VIII caused Catholics to have to hide their religious beliefs and some were forced to create a safe haven in their home so that when people came looking the people who were of that religion would not be noticed. Recently the book, Harry Potter, was almost taken off the shelves (and some people have succeeded in getting it removed) because some people were scared of the ideas that the book presented. Not every time that something is censored means the thing itself is evil, or that the people who are doing the now illegal thing are evil. It is often the censors that are evil.
We should also keep in mind that censorship can be really hurtful to people because it can also be used as discrimination against people they don't agree with, which is seen in history, but also represented quite well in another Star Trek episode...
When T'Pol from Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode "Stigma" unwillingly participated in a mind-meld which was illegal (and considered dangerous in her time-line), the Vulcans were not willing to give her a cure or a treatment for it and looked down on her because of it. It was illegal in their minds, and also uncivil. T'Pol even comments in the episode about how unfair the discrimination is by saying "There are no rules telling you to oppress minorities" (Ep. "Stigma")
The problem about taking censorship or criminalizing something lightly in your stories is that you can really hurt people who have indeed gone through similar things and felt discrimination because of it, so you do have to also keep in mind the hardships of it and how it may force people to hide who they are.
In any case no one should take censorship lightly. As a creative artist you have to be wary of that because people like us have been censored throughout history. And one day it could be our own writing that is censored, which is a scary thought, but you have to keep it in mind when writing a story involving censorship.
As for writing about censorship in your story, you probably want to bear these thoughts in mind..
1. Is the world censoring something potentially good? and why? 2. Do I view the thing that the world sees as potentially bad as bad as well? And why? 3. How does it affect the world now since the thing is censored? and why? 4. Does it affect a minority or a majority? and why? 5. Does the censoring of the thing, hurt a group of people's belief systems in any way? and why? 6. Does the censorship support another group of people's belief systems? and why? How and why did the thing get censored or turned illegal? And why?
7. What happens if the thing gets uncensored or becomes legal? 8. What happened to get the thing to be censored or to become illegal to begin with? 9. Are a majority of people going to be upset at all if the thing is uncensored or decriminalized? 10. Was the thing harmful in any way? Or was it something people deeply cared about? 11. What happens if someone breaks the law? Is it a harsh or more gentle punishment? 12. Does this censorship or criminalization remind you of any historical events or event? 13. Does society hurt or make fun of the people who do the censored or illegal thing? Are the people who do the thing a minority? 14. How do people hide that they do the thing? And is it possible to hide? 15. if people are banished for doing it? What stops other people from protesting? 16. if people get killed for doing it? What stops protests from happening? And does the fear of getting killed motivate people to continue doing it? 17. Do any of your characters do the illegal thing? And why do they do the illegal thing? 18. if your character doesn't do the illegal thing is it because of religious beliefs or something else?
I hope these world building questions are useful. Feel free to copy and paste them into whatever you are using and answer them. Last time I made character developing questions I realized there weren't enough for myself or for an another person to think deeply enough about it, so I added more this time for world-building. Enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does your Fantasy or Science Fiction world's censorship affect the world? And what is the censorship exactly, what is the government censoring?
-Quinley
I hope your having a happy October. As a quick reminder I will be needing questions for my next Character Interview, so you can ask questions to Riona and Celtierehere. But meanwhile in recent editing updates for my book, which now has a title Eyes in the Night, it has turned quite gothic while still retaining Fantasy elements... In my previous posts however I forgot to mention, what made me think Eyes in the Night (previously known as Tess Short {Book One}) was a children's book. It was because when I looked back at it the writing seemed like one of my stories that I wrote directed at children. However the real audience of this story is people who like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and want to read a book like it (but one that isn't a copy of it). I don't have an exact age range for this book yet. (I can't always give a direct age range for all my books). But, however old the people are who like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is what it is aimed at. If anything I do not think it is a very young children's book though... I hope that cleared everything up and now on to my editing updates...
Tess somehow revealed to me that she wanted to have black hair or brown hair, both of which she doesn't have. (I double checked, by asking the other characters who said she has red hair not brown or black hair.) She doesn't like her natural red hair, unfortunately for her. At least knowing the information of Tess's dislike for her red hair was useful in rewriting her introduction to the readers. Partly because in the first draft I made it seem as if she liked her hair color, when really she doesn't. Also since Tess is suddenly talking to me, she gave me information regarding actors...
(Image from IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3629668/mediaviewer/rm3418773760)
Dalia Bella, who has acted in Netflix's Anne with An E, I think could do an amazing job playing Tess. (Though it would be Dalia Bela with red hair instead of brown.) So now since Tess gave me the actor that she looks like, I can draw Tess more easily now since she has a consistent face:
And another character has also sprung slightly into talking into me, that is Robin. I'll say this: he went from a seemingly normal elf to an elf on the edge of insanity. Or at least he appears to be insane. And interestingly he reminds me strongly of the narrator from The Tell-Tale Heart. Though he isn't a murderer, because it would be a little weird for a murderer to be helping Tess.
But because of Robin's newfound "insanity" I do need to figure out how he will get Tess (and Inny) to come with him to figure out what is going on with the elves and fairies. No one would join a slightly insane person on a "quest." And Tess is smart enough not to trust someone who appears to be far from sane. It could be that he fails multiple times to get her to come, and then something happens that causes her to join him. The "something" could be that he rescues her in some way, or scares her enough to get her to join him. Whatever the reason is (I haven't figured it out completely), but I think it would be interesting if it was a little like a scene from Shakespeare's lesser known play, Pericles where Pericles's daughter Marina gets kidnapped by pirates (after she is almost murdered). But, I'm still trying to figure out what causes Tess to trust Robin enough that she willingly joins him on a quest.
As for Inny's character, I feel as if I didn't give her a scene where she uses magic ever in the book, which I found disappointing. She is half hag half human after all, which will be interesting to explore and I am sure there is a dark reason for why she is half human other than the explanation in draft one (as told by Robin):
Of course Inny, knowing that Robin may or may not be sane, could have taken the opportunity to tell him a story (above) where her father fell in love with her mother (because he thought she was a damsel under a curse) and married her (somehow) without a protest from her mother. But somehow knowing that Inny's mother is a hag, she could have easily put him under a love spell and made him marry her. Or perhaps she pretended to be a beautiful maiden and then got him to marry her, and then after the wedding transformed into her real form. Anyway, there are explanations for why her mother could have wanted to marry him,
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga#/media/File:Bilibin._Baba_Yaga.jpg)
It could even be a reason a little like the Russian Fairytale character, Baba Yaga, who at one point threatened to kill the main heroine, Vasilisa, if she didn't complete the chores that she requested. Her mother could have wanted to marry a mere mortal for reasons like Baba Yaga, or perhaps her mother wanted to do something with her father, or she even thought of eating him...
Double Trouble from (The Scottish Play) and Harry Potter
As for Inny's magic, I for some reason imagine something like the witches from the Scottish play (aka, the play whose name you should never shout or say in a theatre) happening. Though it would be good magic and not black magic. But even so the way the spells would be cast with potions would be the same. But there would not be overly disgusting ingredients like the Scottish Play's potion. And instead be ingredients from nature, so perhaps more Druid like magic than witch like. But even so, I think it would be neat if the spell casting had a Double Trouble rhythm to it. Or it could have the Double Trouble rhythm to it be more intense than a ordinary witch's spell:
And I think perhaps one of her spells would be as intense as this. This song to me, is almost like a call and response, in which you sing out a spell, and then you get a response that isn't your own.
Speaking of spells...
I've been also trying to figure out different kinds of ways people cast spells, other than the way Inny does. I know that Inny's magic is definitely going to have a mix of chanting and singing in it (and herbs). And I imagine that not every spell, but some spells that elves and fairies cast require some singing. There must be some separation between spells and songs, since if not then why don't lullabies or entertaining music cause something magical to happen? So that is why not all magic in the world requires song to work, but, a (somewhat) large amount does, and it will require knowing the right words to the spell, that will be done in a slightly different way than Inny does,
Some of the ingredients Inny may use for her spells.
Another difference is that her spells might require certain ingredients where as an elves' or a fairies' do not and can be done without. And then there will be more differences between the two. I know that fairies can at least shape shift into one animal and this doesn't require any chanting of any sort, though I haven't figured out all the non-witch spell's yet.
I am also trying to figure out what Tess's powers are. Since she is half elf, she does have magical abilities but the question is how strong they are compared to the other elves'. This will be more thoroughly discussed in part three. (This post was meant to focus more on Inny and Robin rather than Tess.)
Who is your favorite witch character? (From Shakespeare or some Folktales) And have you read Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-tale heart?
-Quinley
P. S. An upcoming post is an acting post. That is all I will say, but it will be the first time I've ever posted something acting related on this blog, so that will be fun! (It will probably be posted before or after Halloween (All Hallows Eve), depending how long it takes me to edit it and upload it.)
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