Fantasy Creation

[polymorphikos]

I got it, I think.

 

[Myla Starchild]

Ah, that's alrighty then! I think


Anyway, the story really begins way way back, in a time before creation, and in a universe called Eliandim. Now this is before any notions of Light and Dark come into it, so, because nobody ever thinks about what's "good" and what's "bad", they've got no quarrel with anyone, and no reason to be unhappy.
Eliandim is inhabited by Solteera - "The Lady Rainbow-Bright". She is a prophet, who knows how easily the Balance that holds everything together at this stage in time could be broken. But she doesn't let on to anyone else, for fear of disrupting the harmony.

OK, have I confused everyone yet?

 

[polymorphikos]

We'll tell you when our heads explode

 

[Myla Starchild]

Thanks, my friend, I'll appreciate that Ack! Where was I? Oh yeah...

in the story, Eliandim is a land of the dead. Only the idea is that death came before Life, so there's no dead there, because Life hasn't been created yet. So Solteera and her eight children, the Einhyrim, create a new universe, a parallel one to Eliandim. Anyone who's read His Dark Materials will grasp some of this better than those who haven't.
Anyway, the peace and harmony continue, until a discovery is made in Fengalonia. (If anyone would like to read these stories in more detail, go to the link in my signature, click "Encyclopdeia", then "History Of Fengalonia)

 

[Vodstok]

Cool I like it so far. Not very hard to grasp, but it is a little esoteric (that is a compliment)

I like how you have a very original way of handling good vs evil. i had a similar plot i was working on, one time, where there was nothing, then God (in the form of an unthinking, creative force, rather than a deity) created everything. The being that inhabited the nothingness were given form by belief from sentient beings.

Human's fears led to them evolving into demons. Once they had form and motive, they became true incarnations of evil, and then sought to return the univers back to the way it was before God interfered, as they hated Hell.

I never went anywhere with it, but i'm glad to see similar thought-processes

 

[Myla Starchild]

Thanks Not yet! You'd have to understand my theology to get it properly, and I'll try to explain it later.

Well, this discovery leads the Einhyrim to argue, as half of them want more power, and half are content. Solteera is heartbroken to see this, and as her heart breaks, so does the fabric of space and time.
So the notion of Good and Evil is born. But, and this is where the theology kicks in, Light and Dark is just an illusion. There can be no such thing as pure good, or pure evil, because then, there'd be nothing to compare it to, if you get my meaning. But anyway, Eliandim and Fengalonia (the land of life) disappear, and are replcaed by Dream-Time, land of light, and Dira Gorna the dark.

 

[Esioul]

That sounds complicated Myla, but interesting- it seems pretty unique, not at all cliched. One of my worlds is sort of weird, and maybe a bit cliched, and probably totally impossible. It came to me that the rest of the world must have seemd pretty uncivilised to the people who lived in cities in Mesopotamia, and the thought of being so isolated scares me somehow. In my world, there are sort of several civilisations. One of them seems quite sophisticated on the technological front, but it hates demons (they are generally people). They are seperated somehow, probably by sea and due to demon magics perhaps, from two other civilisations. One of these allows demons, and is fairly laid back, but not as powerful as the advanced civ. The other civ is quite weird and based around a religion which I haven't really invented yet. I'm trying to decide exactly what each civ should be like. I'm thinking of the advanced one being maybe a little like the Romans (ok, plagarism, I know), but a bit more modern, if that makes sense. The laid-back one is a sort of cheifdom, a bit like the Anglo Saxons maybe. The other one is something I don't know much about.

 

[Myla Starchild]

Drawing on Roman culture isn't plagiarism. It sounds great, not cliched at all! And it's better than rambling on about a load of irrelevent viewpoints no-one can understand like I do.

And remember, this is fantasy! Absolutely anything can happen if you explain it all well enough Please carry on!

-------------

Sorry to bore you all with this ridiculously complicated story, but to continue...
So now we have the opposing forces of Light and Dark. This is where I lose my direction - we're about halfway through the story, but I think at this point it's necessary for me to explain a few things.
One of the big quotes in War Tiger is "All it takes to change the world is one in white, one in black, and a lady rainbow-bright". This refers to a chosen representative of Light, one of Dark, and Solteera, who managed to survive the fall of Eliandim, and who is Life (life and death are seen as being half-Light and half-Dark, so we'll just refer to her as Life )
Because, Solteera is a prophet. And she had forseen that a war between Light and Dark, and a tragic love story (more on that in the next post), will be repeated throughout eternity, until a balance can be found between the two, and the mistakes of the past are atoned, and all is restored to the harmony Solteera saw in Eliandim.

 

[Esioul]

I like your idea of continuity- making the past affect the future and everything. So far mine is a bit underdeveloped and 2D, I don't really know much about it's history.

Don't worry, yours doesn't seem irrelevant (if that's even how I should spell it?)

Anyway, I think my character Valerian and his brother Alcibiades come from the sophisticated civ. This civ knows that the others exist, but it keeps out of the way, at least at the moment as it doesn't desperately need or want demon-infected land. Valerian gets into some trouble so has to leave for the other civ, but after a few years he gets into trouble there, too, and has to come back. One of my other characters is going to come from the weird religious civ. Hmm- that civ needs quite a lot of work.I was thinking of making it the renmant of an earlier, more powerful civ. This one hates demons, but weirdly allows a few to exist, claiming they're saints or preists or something. I think their soc is pretty tightly structured, but there's not an awful lot of them. Maybe they go in for human sacrifice? I think they're pretty much a mystery to all the other socs.

 

[Myla Starchild]

You must remember that all this has taken over four years to formulate, so if it's good, it's only because I stuck with it. It takes time to fully develop your ideas, but it's so much fun along the way you can't complain It sounds like you've got pretty far already though...


Now Dream-Time, the land of Light, is inhabited by the Seraphim, and their king is the Lord of Light Rizad-Adana. Dira Gorna (Dark) is populated by the demonic Remmoncol, and their Black Queen Gwenmarwyn.
Neither Rizad-Adana nor Gwenmarwyn (Riz and Gwen for short ) are all-powerful, because there's no such thing. Going back to what I said before about no possible pure good or evil. Light and Dark both have one single weakness - and if it's not obvious, I'm not being musy enough!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Nothing wrong with using the Romans for inspiration. For my sci-fi in progress, it's effectively "Rome in Space" - certainly politically, anyway, though it also has extremely strong Orwellian overtones.

 

[Esioul]

Rome is just so interesting, isn't it? I get loads of ideas for it. That said, I heard on the radio this morning some bloke fm Oxford who was basically saying that state school people shouldn't be allowed to read classics because they don't know enough Latin and Greek. Iv'e been killing myself this year trying to cope with Latin, so **** you, you little Oxford snob.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I would have loved to have learned Latin, and Greek, and Arabic - like a Victorian public school education. Maybe a relief I didn't, though.

 

[Esioul]

Why? I think it'd be really fun to learn all those languages... aaargh why am I saying that? I have a Cicero unseen tomorrow and I haven't revised...

 

[Brian G Turner]

Again! Lol!

 

[Esioul]

Yep. My teachers just love giving me unseens. I managed to scrape a C by one mark on the last one, but I'm satisfied with that soI'm not going to kill myself over it. I will eventually revise... the exam is in a month aaarghh...

 

[aftermath]

What the hell is an unseen?

The Light vs Dark is a great theme. I like to make a character completely devoid of either, and have him good through the events I've laid before him and watch (Yes, I watch my writing. I don't have a damn clue what I'm going to write before I sit down and make it all up on the spot.) who events unfold. It can prove to be very amusing.

Also, when wrting, what are your views of swearing? Me, I'll throw every curse I know into my writing, because that is they way I think. If something were to go wrong, I swear inwardly.

 

[Hypes]

Oh, my characters come from all ends of the spectrum, so it's only natural some of them swear quite a bit. Language should be directly tied with the character's persona (defined by all the variables of social layer, education, general attitude, heritage, nationality, etc.)

I personally find the entire clearly set Good vs. Evil dull, but that's probably why I find it difficult to enjoy classic fantasy. Nothing is ever black & white, unfortunately, and thusly, I don't like it being portrayed as such in most works of fiction. Then again, there are some exceptions to the rule, but it takes quite a bit to make up for such a classic plot motivation. One such exeption would be (all strictly in my opinion, of course ) David Eddings. His series are all clear-cut classic fantasy, but they are still enjoyable to read, nonetheless. (edit: sorry, this came off as a bit snobbish - not my intent. It all boils down to personal likes and dislikes.)

That's usually how I go about writing as well, though I always have a rough plotline in mind to follow, but individual events are usually simply created in the spur of the moment.

As for languages, I'm working on quite a few myself. Got norwegian bokmål, and norwegian nynorsk (two entirely different languages, actually - they're a pain), german, rudimentary french and fluent english down. Next up is latin, soon followed by arabic. Always wanted to do russian, though. Intriguing language.

 

[Esioul]

Yes- I like my characters to be grey, or just realistic, really. I spend a great deal of time just watching how my friends behave to give me hints. The thing is, people aren't very nice or good at all, generally, and I try to show this.

I make up swearwords. This means I don't have to write real ones down, but my characters still get to swear if they need too.

An Unseen is a timed test where you don't get to prepare it before hand... nasty things. The only language I know apart from English is Latin, and a tiny bit of French. Not very impressive I know! Are you a linguist or something?!

 

[Hypes]

Not at all, though I suppose I will have an interim occupation as a translator through the two year draft.

People's actions are difficult to judge as they might seem/or be intended as kind by the person but actually turn out to be a simple bear hug.

So what cusswords have you produced, I'm intrigued.