Please need help with my fantasy /sci fi story

[SavageBlade900]

Hello everyone. Nice to meet all fantasy and sci fi writers on here. I'm new and I need lot's of help on my idea.

It revolves around angels /devils /demons and it's about a warrior nun who's fighting with her inner demons. She's got half demon/devils blood and half human. She also has some angelic side to her which descends within her dna. The other protagonist is a warrior flagellant who's very similar to her and has the same half devil/demon breed just like her. I haven't decided if I want them related, cousins, siblings or just happen to come from the same race /breed.

My problem here is I don't want this taken place in medieval times or just some fantasy medieval world. I want to mix this fantasy unique world with these fantasy protagonists into a modern-day to near future setting in the real world where sci fi world of events take place. Can this be done?

Also I want the nun and flagellant to be like antiheros with a dark past. Since this is a modern day near future world, what kind of hand to jand combat training could is give them? Since they're from a fantasy church, what kind of combat training could they received? The nun could easily use a spiritual sword and the flagellant uses a chain whip, but how could I modernize their combat styles so it makes more sense? Could martial arts work? Could it make sense they train in some sort of medieval fantasy weapons martial art secret order?

And I want the villain to be the one who abused the flagellant and maybe the nun warrior. Does it sound better if he was the father? A priest lord who took the flagellant and nun in as children? Or just a manifested devil demon creature?

Thank you for any advice and feedback. I'll really appreciate all the help if can get.

 

[tinkerdan]

I was raised a catholic and let me tell you I learned very young that the nuns were wicked with the yardstick and any sort of pointing instruments; especially if you were the recipient of their rage.

Seriously, though; you are asking a lot, because this is your world you are creating and no one knows it as well as you do.

However a word of advice, try to emphasize the unique nature of your world and stay away form too much influence from what is contemporary unless you are fully rooted into the particular culture you are trying to parallel. There seem to be a large number of vocal readers who are more than happy to point out how little you know of their culture or their friends culture if you take too much license with it. It is a thin line and much like treading on thin ice.

For example. You really need to focus on convincing them that this is not Japanese Steampunk or some such; unless again you have your roots in the Japanese culture.

So be careful and good luck.

As to religious zealots and mystical fighting prowess; there are plenty of real life(hollywood)examples.

 

[SavageBlade900]

Hi, thank you for your response. Sorry if I misunderstood you but are you saying that it's wrong to romanticize anything related to religious characters, such as nuns, priests and flagellant warriors and demons into a mystic fantasy world? If it is offensive is there a proper way if doing it? Please let me what I need to improve on in order to create fantasy warrior characters based on religious settings.

And I'm not sure how my ideas relate to Japanese steampunk. Can you tell me why? Cause if it is I didn't realize it.

Sorry if any of this sounds offensive, I would love to hear more feedback on what I need to correct, thank you.

 

[janeoreilly]

In terms of can it be done, you can do whatever you want. As long as the rules of your world make sense and are consistent, the world can be anything. Half demon offspring I'm pretty sure has been done before - someone will doubtless be along shortly with a better memory than me (and book titles!) but if you aren't already reading urban fantasy then I would recommend having a look at writers like Jim Butcher, Ilona Andrews, Anne Bishop etc. The idea of special training to fight demons is a little bit like Cassandra Clare Mortal Instruments.

Making the villain and heroes related in some way can up the tension and the stakes which is why you see it so often and is definitely something worth considering.

 

[SavageBlade900]

Hey thanks! I will definitely look into these authors and stories to get a better idea. So there is a form of combat or martial arts and weapons art training I could base my protagonists around meant for fighting demons? Maybe I can avoid them being nuns and flagellants just to avoid any controversy.

So instead of romanticizing about them, is there another type of secret class of warriors I can base them around instead of nuns and priests? Not including monster hunters, or soldiers, etc. They don't need any gun trainings since they already are super powerful. In fact any military or authority would be their enemies because they are seen as monsters due to their demon offspring and they would likely hire monster hunters to kill the two demon offsprings, plus their demon offspring they're related to as an enemy shows even more dark past. Anyway they got demon/devil powers but can still be trained in special hand to hand and weapons.

Is there any locations I can base in real life that half demon offsprings could be from? Since this is the real world rather than an entirely fictionally developed world which is set in the near future. Is there a certain nationality I can base them off of? I do my research and Italy seems to come up. Is there anything else? Thank you.

 

[Shorewalker]

One of the great things about fantasy is that you can make your own rules as you go along...so long as you keep to those rules.

If you want your nuns to be kick-ass ninjas...go right ahead. If you want them to be fighting their own father...be my guest. If you want them to originate from a tiny Polynesian island...have at it.

The thing is, any of these ideas can work...because you can make them work. It's your world to tinker with, so maybe in your world, Polynesia is the home of mysticism, maybe religious orders have replaced the military, maybe people without demon blood are the exceptions.

You don't need any of it to make sense when compared to the real world. You do need to ensure that it has its own internal consistency.

Best of luck.

 

[tinkerdan]

No I didn't really mean it that way:

Sorry if I misunderstood you but are you saying that it's wrong to romanticize anything related to religious characters, such as nuns, priests and flagellant warriors and demons into a mystic fantasy world? If it is

What I meant is that if you are creating your own universe then you know your universe and only you know how it works as to who has what capabilities that make sense and who doesn't and how that fits into your universe.

However I was cautioning that if you start to borrow from existing cultures that you need to do homework because once you start creating Shaolin monks you should know about the real monks and not the hollywood Shaolin monks or there will be people who are not so much offended as they might vocally try to make sure all other readers are offended.

However these are only a risk assessment examples. There are some readers out there who simply can't separate alternate world fantasy from historical fiction. If you want to take this risk; then you chose to say that the risk is worth it you can do whatever you want.

And incidentally the Shaolin monk thing is an example;
the Japanese steampunk was an example;
and neither have any reflection on what your idea is. They are not meant to correlate, because they help highlight what I spoke of as the initial problem in trying to enlist help describing part of something that might require a longer explanation from you about the world you are building in order for someone to contribute intelligently. Clearly it is your Idea your world and I'm trying to emphasize that I don't know enough about it to tell you how your warriors should be built.

Anyway if you really want to do this:

Please let me what I need to improve on in order to create fantasy warrior characters based on religious settings.

I return to--you need to do the research if you are basing this on an existing religion so that you will know just exactly how your depiction might offend someone and so that you know where your fantasy is stretching reality to create the added drama necessary to your writing: because most of real life is rather boring.
There are plenty of examples of militant religious organizations throughout history and I suppose you could cherry pick from them the things you need for your fantasy world.

However if your goal is to create a new religion then the backstory or history of that religion will dictated how they became militant. And I suppose you can do some research and just borrow ideas from militarized religions.

 

[SavageBlade900]

One of the great things about fantasy is that you can make your own rules as you go along...so long as you keep to those rules.

You mean like making up my own religion? Or could I just make up a secret high order that trains to fight against their own demon blood?

If you want your nuns to be kick-ass ninjas...go right ahead. If you want them to be fighting their own father...be my guest. If you want them to originate from a tiny Polynesian island...have at it.

I wouldn't mind that what if I had a nun with demon blood where her sisters were mean to her and she was kicked out of her abbey, meaning she's no longer a nun an ex nun but she has these dark and light powers she's fighting through her inner self so she no longer has to depict the traditional values of a nun?

The thing is, any of these ideas can work...because you can make them work. It's your world to tinker with, so maybe in your world, Polynesia is the home of mysticism, maybe religious orders have replaced the military, maybe people without demon blood are the exceptions.

Is there anything in Polynesia that could relate to demons? It might come off as offensive. Maybe I could have the protagonists half Polynesian? Like the father could be the one that descends of demon blood from a religious order in Italy and the mother Polynesian that has more mysticism heritage like Lumerian? Therefore my protagonists could descend from both Lumerian mysticism and demon heritage?

 

[SavageBlade900]

However I was cautioning that if you start to borrow from existing cultures that you need to do homework because once you start creating Shaolin monks you should know about the real monks and not the hollywood Shaolin monks or there will be people who are not so much offended as they might vocally try to make sure all other readers are offended.

What if it was made up? Like a dweller warrior monk from Tibet with the snow leopard spirit! Just base off of the Shaolin monks but not the same?

I return to--you need to do the research if you are basing this on an existing religion so that you will know just exactly how your depiction might offend someone and so that you know where your fantasy is stretching reality to create the added drama necessary to your writing: because most of real life is rather boring.
There are plenty of examples of militant religious organizations throughout history and I suppose you could cherry pick from them the things you need for your fantasy world.

However if your goal is to create a new religion then the backstory or history of that religion will dictated how they became militant. And I suppose you can do some research and just borrow ideas from militarized religions.

Yeah that's why I rather sort of make it up cause real life is either boring or too offensive which is why I might be looking into creating my protagonist based on a fictional Himalayan warrior monk or some high knight religious secret order dealing with demons, that not even modern weapons could stand a chance against them. Is this plausible enough?

 

[Shorewalker]

You're dealing in fantasy...what is plausible in our world might not be in your own. Don't be getting hung up on what we have here...make your own countries, religions, creatures.

 

[Joshua Jones]

If you have some specific questions about religious orders, feel free to PM me. Comparative religious studies is a big part of my non-professional life, so I may be able to give you some help there.

Regarding the overall premise, I do feel like demon/human hybrids are present in some literature. Nightcrawler from X Men is pretty close to what you are going for, as is Dante from the Devil May Cry series. You may want to check out the TV Tropes website and see if you can find some additional examples. If you find that it has been done quite a bit, I wouldn't let that stop you, but you may want to consider ways you can differentiate from them. The standard "holy warrior" of fantasy is the paladin, who is often part knight, part monk, so you may want to look up tropes for that as well.

Regarding fighting styles, the two big considerations are what they will be fighting against and what sort of cultural/technology level you are going for. If your characters are fighting massive Balrog demons, they are going to want different weapons than if they are fighting miniature Imp type demons, and humanoid demons would be a third sort altogether. And, that doesn't touch on incorporeal shadow demons, invisible demons who inhabit skeletons, demons that fly, eldritch demons, oni, kappa, wendigos evil/fallen gods, humans who were transmorgified into demons, shapeshifting demons... all this to say, just saying they are fighting demons doesn't give nearly enough information about who they are going to be facing to give even the remotest guess about how to fight them. Then, you need to define what culture(s) your characters are from, what sort of technology they have access to, if magic is present and to what extent and application, and what sort of fighting style they prefer AND all these things for the demons. All this to say, as others have said above, that there are just far too many variables to make any intelligent suggestions to you. And, ultimately, this is something only you can sort out, as it is your story. Once all this is decided, feel free to PM me, and I may be able to make some suggestions about how they may fight, but there isn't much I can suggest otherwise.

I hope that helps!