As a reader I’ve tended to prefer science fiction to fantasy, with a few exceptions. The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books and I go to Middle Earth whenever life feels too stressful.
But about a year ago I had this idea pop into my head and I can’t shake it. So now that my space opera, Imperials, is finished, and the Carolingian series about the war between science and rationality and superstition, religion and magic is also finished. (Those books will be going live in the next few months with fabulous cover art by the amazing Elizabeth Leggett). I desperately needed something new to write.
I get twitchy when I don’t have something to write.
So, despite my terror over ever attempting to write fantasy, I’m currently in the process of making notes about this new book series. I’m thinking 3 books, but I’m an architect so I need to lay these out on a board and have a full outline for at least book one, and some major plot points for the other two. I also need to know how these books end, particularly the final one.
Each day I sit down at the computer, open up my document with the air of a high strung cat facing a terrifying new object in their space, and I try to think about the political structure, the economics, religions. Do I have different races and how do I avoid just doing the usual fantasy thing of elves and dwarves and dragons, Oh My! It’s hard to get Tolkien and the Dragon Age games out of one’s head when starting to sneak into a fantasy world.
And magic. Let’s not forget the whole magic thing. I really want to avoid the incredibly annoying trope where the protagonist gets themselves in a bind and then they suddenly discover a magical power they didn’t know they had, that totally solves their dilemma. I also want to use it sparingly. I do know the magic is music based so I’ve got that much. Go me!
When I plotted out the 5 book Imperials sage it was easy. They were humans from Earth so despite it being 500 years in the future I didn’t have to create everything from whole cloth. And the Carolingian series is a contemporary occult thriller, so no need to make up anything new. So, maybe what has kept me from writing fantasy was just pure laziness?
Anyway, I’ve got the major characters named, but there are secondary characters who need to not be numb nut 1 and numb nut 2. What do I call this kingdom’s version of the inquisition? Does it have a military arm?
There is a low boil rebellion going on against the evil empire, but I need to know what happened to that country’s ruling family/president/prime minister when the evil dudes marched in. Am I doing the Princes in the Tower or have they all been killed or fled into exile?
What’s the money called? How do people dress? What is the level of technology? The one thing that’s always bugged me about fantasy is so often characters are talking about how this famous sword has been carried by the kings of Wherever for five thousand years and all I can think is “In all that time they never managed to invent gun powder?”
Anyway, I’m terrified, but soldiering on as I try to create this world. Which reminds me the damn world needs a name not just the different kingdoms.
Looking forward to this!
Some random thoughts for you:
Until 1820 or so, the ratio of farmers to town-dwellers was about 12:1. On the coasts, the ratio of fisherfolk to town dwellers was 8:1.
Until the 1890s, cities had an _astonishingly high_ mortality rate due to waterborne diseases. There were exceptions, like the Roman Aqueduct system, but for the most part, if you moved to a city, you had a roughly 1 in 4 chance of dying within 3 years; if you lived through those years, your odds of dying dropped to about 1 in 12.
Compared to living in a farming hamlet, you were much likelier to die before the age of 50 in a city. You’d be richer in most ways that mattered, but your health and nutrition would be worse.
Making gunpowder, then cannon, then arquebuses, then handgonnes, are a long meandering path of developments feeding on other developments. By the time of the Renaissance, we were switching from match-locks to flintlocks, and most guns were things you’d shoot once, drop, and pick up after the fight if you lived. Think of them as expensive single shot weapons that can’t get wet, don’t work in the rain, are horribly inaccurate past about 30 feet, and they don’t dominate your fantasy, but do have a role.
(Even ostensibly well-trained users of modern handguns using metal cartridge ammunition hit about one time in three in actual live shooting environments. Think about that when you’re writing about blackpowder weapons).
As to 5,000 year old swords…um. Steel rusts. Swords break. Anything that’s 5,000 years old and was _actually used as a weapon_ is going to be the Sword of Theseus. Also, a sword is like an officer’s pistol: It’s your *backup weapon* for someone fighting in a war. The rank and file are armed with spears, and through the 1500s, lances and spears often had stone tips because they were cheaper, and the weapons were considered semi-disposable.
To give an analogy on the durability of weapons: You’re an equestrian. How long does riding tack last for, before it needs to be replaced/mended/fixed? You’ve probably got kitchen knives that are 30 years old; how well have they held up to day-to-day use? How often do you replace them?
If you want some real mind-mending ideas, I recommend reading the first…half…of Graeber’s “Debt: The First 5,000 years.” I don’t agree with everything he says in that book, but there are plenty of jumping-off points for making fantasy series that feel different from the standard tropes. Among other things: A couple of pounds of gold coins would fit in a backpack and would, through most of pre-New World Europe, be sufficient to hire an _army_. 98% of the people in Medieval Europe, from circa 600 AD to about 1500 AD, can count the number of gold coins they’ve _seen_ in the course of their lives on the fingers of one hand. Much of commerce was brokered in barter and favors; the purpose of coinage was to pay your army in something they could use to buy food, shelter and sex with while on campaign and burning out the farms of the locals, and most of that coinage was silver. And then debased silver…and then defaced debased silver…
Many things we take for granted as modern humans were much more expensive pre 1820s. Cloth (remember Ned Ludd? He fought against junk cloth made by automatic looms to protect the weavers who had a skilled trade they worked.) Clothes got washed, mended, washed, and then when worn out, turned into other clothes, because cloth was expensive. With a handful of regional exceptions, nails for carpentry were both expensive, and had a 2-week waiting list. Lots of construction was done with peg-and-tennon and glue, and used as few metal nails as possible. Likewise, the archetypal treasure chest people think of with fantasy is based off of an 19th century steamer trunk.
This is something I can help you with if you like. (Degree in Medieval History.)
Thank you. All very interesting information. Tack can actually last for decades if you take care of it. I was a history major and a lawyer so I know a good bit about how societies structure themselves, and I’m not planning on making the readers suffer for my research (as they used to say at the Turkey City writers workshops), but I want it to feel as real and fleshed out as I can make a world in 90,000 words.
Fantasy is fun to write. I’ve written some. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no easier or harder than anything else. (Well, historical fiction is pretty damn hard to write; historical fantasy, maybe more so.) It just has to make sense. Which is always the challenge, no matter what one is writing.
Dumb Nut 1 and Dumb Nut 2? I think Thing 1 and Thing 2 have already been used.
I tend to only use numb nut or Dumb Nut in gaming situations, but that certainly would be easier.