Fantasy World Belief System

When building a fantasy world, one necessary element is a belief system. Do characters believe in divine beings? Is there a formal religion? Do leaders such as priests hold special powers? Is the belief system part of the governing hierarchy? Is the belief system based on superstition? If so, how did the superstition start?

In medieval times the church collected taxes and received gifts from citizens seeking special favors. Many people believed donations procured a better place for them in the hereafter. Donated land, crops, livestock and more built wealth and holdings for the church making it an ever-increasing powerful entity. What does the belief system do for the characters in your fantasy world?

Relics, Amulets and Sacred Artifacts

Relics, amulets, sacred artifacts and other such charms add an element of magic in fantasy. These special objects are both coveted and trusted. In many a belief system, the religious or superstitious teach that divine power is attached to remains of dead bodies, as well as sacred artifacts or amulets once used in everyday living.

Think of quests for the cup of Christ or the Ark of the Covenant. Those who sought these articles coveted the power they believed it would bring them. In fantasy, the power becomes real as characters wear relics to ward off evil, harm, illness or on the positive side bring good fortune or power. Consider the ring in the Lord of the Rings, or the Ark of the Covenant in the Adventures of Indiana Jones. Fantasy often centers around a quest or a battle for control or ownership of such an article and the power it provides.

Pilgrimages, Quests and Adventure

Entire fantasy novels are written around quests and pilgrimages that set out to locate long-lost sacred articles. The quest itself is an act of faith that supports the importance of the belief system within the fantasy world. What is the motive for the belief? Is it based on what the character will receive (money, power, etc.) or to better the world? Such scenarios lead to epic quests. If the power sought falls into evil hands....

In the fantasy novel Windwalker, relics and artifacts stored within the Fortress of Stone open the door to free an entire civilization from captivity. However, the protagonist not only has to find the secret location of the mythic structure, but must also have enough faith to use the power and battle the influence of the mage. Finding the artifacts is only part of the story.

History Of The Belief System

Fantasy writers develop a bit of history and backstory even for a belief system. Why do characters believe what they believe? Over time, rituals like religious pilgrimages can degenerate to a pale rendition of the original. Consider H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine. The simple Eloi population blindly paraded into the underground caverns when sirens blasted. Without question, it's what they believed they were to do. Underground shelters originally designed to protect, and sirens meant to warn although no longer needed became part of a distorted belief system.

Fantasy writers can develop plots based on an individual or group of individuals returning to the belief system in its purest form, or seeing it for what it really is. It's another form of good versus evil. What effect does the adulterated religious activity have on the population? What happens when people return to the true belief system? Is there a middle ground?

Mystical Orders

Whether fantasy characters are based on ancient druids, diviners, fortunetellers, oracles, monastic priests, or stargazers, mystical orders must have a base of rules to live by. Whether it's divine law or man-made is up to the writer.

Do your mystical or religious characters take vows? Are they required to take part in an annual pilgrimage? Are they obligated to serve the King or government? As an example, consider the Knights Templar (a religious military order) founded in Jerusalem in 1118. The Templars protected pilgrims from the Turks on the trip from the coast inland to Jerusalem. They served king and the church, took vows and were part of the military. History provides great resources and fantasy knows no bounds.

Creating a Unique Fantasy Belief System That Works

To make a unique fantasy belief system work requires:

1) characters who believe
2) those who don't
3) those who will come to understand or reject the belief system


Fantasy writers decide whether or not characters who hold to the belief system are serving good or evil. It doesn't have to be upfront information, but just like any aspect of fantasy writing, the belief system needs to make sense to engage the reader, because readers determine what they believe based on the provided information.

Adding an element of surprise like having the character step outside preconceived bounds adds entertaining value to keep the reader reading.

Small doses of detail added to the plot throughout the story guide readers to understand the hows and whys of the story line. It's the fantasy writer's job to make a believer out of the reader.

Historical Wedding Customs - Fantasy Writing - Part 3

Feeding the Guests

Medieval history provides plenty of rich detail for fantasy novelists planning the menu for a wedding (or any other feast). Barbaric by today's standards, etiquette at a medieval feast allowed eating with fingers, though forks and a knife were sometimes used. Napkins became popular during this era, so you can include them. Remember that, many who lived during these times were lucky to have enough to eat on a regular basis. Starvation was a real part of life and this fact may reflect in your character's table manners.

Traditionally, the wedding feast took place the same day as the wedding. Guests ate from wooden plates until the food was gone. Glassware may be constructed of precious metals, common clay or wood depending on social class. The Medieval Wedding Guide by Vanessa Hand offers specifics if you need a source for more details.

The Menu

Wedding feast particulars should fit the celebration based on social class. Every social class celebrated weddings. It wasn't uncommon for these elaborate feasts to serve up to six courses. Basics your characters would find on the menu include:

Roast quail

Turtledoves and partridge

Goose

Venison

Roasted boar (sanglier) Dangerous to hunt, wild boars have long sharp tusks and teeth. Yet, huntsmen scoured the forests using apple cores, rotten meat and peapods as bait. Your characters might even find them feeding on garbage dumped outside the village or castle. Smoking wild pig preserved the meat.

Gilded and slivered calves' heads

Fish Most fishing was done with nets made by spinning grasses, wool or flax. Contrary to what many would think the job of spinning to make fishing (or hunting) nets was man's work. Once they had the thread-like fabric spun, they knotted it into complex patterns and attached bits of stone, clay or led as weights. For fishing nets they attached a piece of wood which floated so they could spot their submerged nets. Fish were often preserved by pickling in a salty brine or a fermented sauce called garum which was prized by the ancients.

Roasted peacock

Mutton

Cheeses Because milk spoiled without refrigeration, people learned to make yogurt and cheeses. Aged cheeses can be kept without refrigeration for five years or more. Most aged cheese was made using rennet (a piece of the stomach lining from a cow).

Walnuts

Oysters steamed in almond milk Because animal milk spoiled, Medieval cooks depended on the milky liquid created by grinding almonds or walnuts and steeping the pulp in boiling water for five minutes before running the mixture through a sieve to remove coarse particles. Cooks prepared almond milk fresh as needed or could store it without danger of spoiling like animal milk.

Ale-flavored bread

Stewed cabbage

Tarts and custards

Spicy mulled wine.

Fruit Dried fruit included raisins, prunes, and dried apples. Without refrigeration, little food could be preserved. Apples were the only cultivated fruit. Depending on the climate of your fantasy world, characters can also collect wild fruits like pears, quinces, and even peaches. Strawberries raspberries and red currants could be found in the woods. Exotic foods like dates and pistachio nuts should only be found on tables set for the wealthy.

Fresh fruit preserves

Wine, Ale, and other Medieval Drinks Drinks included water, ale, beer, mead, milk, and wine. Within castle confines a well provided potable drinking water. Fruit juices made from cherries, sloes (a plum-like fruit), and mulberries present other possible fermented choices.

What About Vegetables?

Few vegetables were eaten during medieval times, but vegetables of this period include: carrots, cabbage, lettuce, leeks, cardoons, onions, shallots, parsley and asparagus.

Unlike the variety of salads we experience today, a Medieval Sallat might consist of scallions, chives, radish roots, turnips, boiled carrots, young lettuce, herbs, nuts, olives, and vinegar and oil.

Spices and Flavorings If you show your cooks slaving in the kitchen, keep the spices and flavorings period specific. Include: Cloves, cinnamon, saffron, mace, pepper, ginger, anise, nutmeg, basil, parsley, sage, tansy, savory, betony, and rosemary.

What About Sugar?

Honey was a popular sweetener and preservative usually supplied by the local monastery. Sugar became increasingly popular among the wealthy. They were the only ones who could afford it in large quantities.

Historical Wedding Customs - Fantasy Writing - Part 2

To find interesting plot alternatives when creating a wedding scene based on medieval times. What better place to hold a fantasy wedding than a castle or a rustic country setting? Even though marriage fell under the church's purview, historically it allowed weddings to be held within the castle's great hall or in one of the courtyards.

Who To Invite To a Castle Wedding

Remember a caste system existed in medieval times. Arranged marriages strengthened manors and kingdoms through political ties. When developing characters realize that the wedding day included an incredible celebration. Side or window characters to place within the scene include minstrels, jugglers and other entertainers.

Inhabitants of the manor also attended the celebration. Nobles from other manors and distant relatives were also invited. Bringing all these characters together in one place offers a myriad of possibilities to develop conflict within the plot.

Interesting ideas for plot threads includes historical practices like the lord of the castle freeing prisoners to mark the occasion. As unrealistic as this seems, historically it happened. These types of practices open the door to include the freeing of the man the bride truly loves as she is forced to marry a man because of arrangements made the day she was born. Or perhaps she marries only to free the man she loves.

Other interesting characters to include are the poor. Beggars gathered at the gates can feast on leftover food. It's a great place to disguise a protagonist with other plans.

Who to Invite to a Country Wedding

Do your characters love each other, or is their marriage prearranged? Marriage among peasants had more chance to involve love, but pregnancy often prompted weddings among lower classes. However, even among the peasants caste, marriage arrangements were often matters of business. An arranged marriage between peasant characters offers as many plot possibilities as marriages among the nobles.

Betrothal ceremonies were held at the bride's home where the village congregated to celebrate and give the couple practical wooden utensils or other tools as gifts.

When planning a fantasy wedding that involves characters from poor families again look to historical fact to create an interesting setting. Things like a wedding ring often could not be afforded in poorer families. One wedding tradition included giving a half of a broken coin to the bride and the other half to the groom. The unique break matches the two halves marking a one of a kind love united in marriage.

Much like the more modern custom of showering the bride and groom with rice or bird seed, villagers showered newlyweds with seeds or grains of wheat to wish them a large family.

Another historical aspect to prearranged marriages to incorporate in a plot or story line is that either the bride or the groom is an outsider. Grooms from another locale traditionally bought a round of drinks at the local pub for the village's young men. The reasoning behind this was that he "robbed" them of a possible wife.

Now that you have the guest list in place, part 3 of this article provides details to feed the guests.

Historical Wedding Customs - Fantasy Writing - Part 1

I just returned from a family wedding and have to say that with each generation they tend to become more...well let's just say more. This one had thousands of dollars of candy at a table for guests to bring home. In light of that, I thought we'd take a look at weddings in fantasy writing based in a more historical setting.

Fantasy writing includes historical customs and traditions that offer flavor and distinctiveness to a novel's world and plot. History overflows with wedding customs that by today's ideology stand out as peculiar. Including such practices in your writing develops an element of For instance, if your character plucks their hairline to create a higher forehead to be attractive for their wedding, the detail makes for a peculiar tradition but it's really a historical practice from medieval times.

Some historical wedding customs by today's standards would be considered strange and others are a clear variation of modern traditions which tie the reader to the story. Research customs and traditions and alter the practices to fit your developing fantasy world. Unique customs translate into believable practices creating depth to the scenes as well as invitations to plot twists leading up to and including the wedding.

One fact to make note as you plan your novel's wedding is that historically grooms were much older than their brides. Most women were married by age 19. Plus marriages among nobles were arranged. Many times the bride and groom didn't meet until days before the wedding. These types of relationships overflow with possible plot threads.

Hair

Brides of any era want their hair to be perfect for the big day. But what does that mean in your fantasy culture. Historically, because blond hair was admired many women coveted lighter hair for their wedding day. Of course back then, it took a lot more work to get the desired result. The process of sun bleaching took time. Other lightening process included doses of henna or concoctions made from animal innards.

Style is another matter to consider. Most hairstyles during medieval times consisted of the hair being braided and up rather than hanging loose. The wedding day was one of the few times a woman wore her hair unfastened, flowing with loose curls. Instead of a veil, brides wore a wreath of herbs and flowers. In fantasy, herbs and flowers can also hold magical properties. Do they wear a single ringlet, or do they weave the flowers into a braid circling the crown of her head? Something more to consider as you construct the bridal crown: where do servants or others have to travel to get the flowers or herbs and what do they offer the bride? Is it risky? What is the significance?

As I mentioned in the opening of this article, plucking the hairline was another medieval custom. Brides desired a high forehead, which at the time was the coveted look. Bringing an unusual custom like this into your story sets your world apart. Creating a female character with a high forehead would show the reader that the woman cares about how she looks and wants to be desirable.

Bathing

Do the customs in your fantasy world support a ritual bathing of the bride? Does it include your bride and groom bathing together? Perhaps it's part of the wedding ceremony. If so where does it take place? Public baths? If public baths exist, are characters usually separated by sex except for the bridal bath? Or does everyone bathe together on a regular basis?

What about the wood needed to heat the water? Is there enough? If forests become depleted will taking a bath be expensive? Historically, by the mid-1300s, firewood to heat water became a luxury for the very wealthy. Lack of firewood forced the general population to walk around dirty most of the time.

Something you may or may not want to include in the bathing ritual is religion. How do religious leaders feel about bathing? Do they oversee the wedding ritual? Or are they not involved. Creating rules based on religion creates a unique world. For example, in medieval times it was against the rules to look at your body while bathing. If you incorporate such a rule and it is broken, what is the penalty? Rules like this work to create tension within the plot.

Another superstition that caused people not to bathe was fear that water carried disease into the body through the skin. These "medical reasons" forced people to wipe dirt off without bathing and to use perfume. People still bathed but infrequently. The perfumes came from the oils of flowers combined with spices. Trade for such ingredients can be worked into the plot as improved trade strengthens a kingdom. Trade routes open opportunities for story lines. For example, if a cargo of special "wedding" ingredients is high-jacked to prevent a marriage from taking place it draws lines of conflict.

Taking historical facts as a foundation opens the door to unending possibilities. Does a perfume hold a magical quality that causes infatuation rather than distain as a marriage relationship thrusts two strangers together? Does one of them already love another? Yes, marriage unions provide an avalanche of details that thread throughout the storyline.

In part two of this article we'll take a closer look at the wedding setting), and in part 3 we'll see what it takes to feed the guests.

Elements of Writing Fantasy

How do fantasy writers create a fantasy world tangible for readers? It doesn't matter if you are writing Contemporary Fantasy, Epic or Heroic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Mythic Fantasy, Humorous Fantasy or Science Fantasy--every fantasy story must include the following:

Characters and Plot

Characters and plot are introduced through dialog and action. Although the fantasy genre earns its label through fantastic settings in otherworldly realms where magical ingredients factor in, without believable characters and an interesting plot you would not have a story. Characters must capture the readers interest and usher them into the magical realm--without the character and without the plot, no one will care about the world no matter how awesome.

Element of Surprise

Fantasy authors must hook the reader at the beginning of the story. Introduce information readers can identify with, something that actively gets them involved. Dialog and/or action introduces a character or characters involved in a situation that gives the reader enough to make them want more. Incorporating the element of the unknown can start here. Weave a thread of information about something that readers don't immediately understand. Make it interesting and the reader continues on the quest of discovery. Keep the quest interesting by leaving enough enticing breadcrubms to lead them through the story. For example, consider the opening paragraph of Donna Sundblad's Windwalker

"Fires burned in the bellies of small stone statues forming a circle within the Kiva. An orange glow warmed the chamber to the center of the gathering. In the back of the crowded cave, Awena sat against the wall resting her arm across her stomach. The baby kicked. Soon, her life with Cedrick would change. What kind of world would their child find? Cedrick's talk of fulfilled prophecies and the cycle of death scared her."

In this opening paragraph, readers can identify with having hope for an unborn child and the fear of death. What does it mean for these characters?

Don't bog down your first paragraphs with telling description. Instead, introduce descriptive elements as the story unfolds. This way they make an impact on the reader because they experience them rather than hear about them. Let the reader see the world through the character's eyes.

Learning From the Character's POV

A great fantasy world alone does not create a good story. It's a good start--a place for the story to evolve--but without interesting characters to bring the world to life, it will lie one-dementional among the unread pages of your manuscript. Use your characters to open up your new fantasy world to the reader's imagination. Let them see through the eyes of your characters. If trees can walk, let the reader experience it first hand through the character's viewpoint. Engage the reader and keep them reading--keep them walking in the character's shoes.

Time Travel Fantasy Writing

Time travel is a popular concept in writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. In Fantasy, the mode of travel is provided by some magical happenstance whether purposeful or by accident. Many times, this fictional travel moves to a colorful era from the past. In popular movies like Back to the Future, characters return to a time before they existed. Writing time travel fantasy opens the door for writers to pull intricate and long-forgotten details from popular history, or to push their characters into the future building on present day situations and asking the question What if? such as the Planet of the Apes series.

What Fantasy Readers Want to Know

When time travel carries characters to the past or future, author need to make the concept believable and interesting. What readers want to know is:

• Where characters are and when are they?
• How did they get there?
• How does the character feel?
• Why is the character there?
• Who else is there?
• Can they get back to their own time?

No matter where or when fantasy characters travel in time, a thread of logic needs to connect them to their home point in time. Fantasy writers face the challenge of not only creating a reason for the character’s arrival to this new place but a logical explanation as to how they arrived.

Time Travel Circle of Logic

Fantasy writers carry their characters to destinations in the past or future with a purpose. In the 1980 movie Somewhere in Time, staring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, an old woman gives Reeve’s character a watch as a young man. Later in life, the painting of a woman in a 19th century hotel becomes an obsession. He determines that he must meet that woman, and uses a physics professor’s theory to will himself back in time where he meets the woman.

The two fall in love. The main character accomplishes his goal, and gives the woman his watch as a gift. The romantic tale is bitter-sweet as Reeve’s character discovers a modern day penny in his pocket, resulting in an instant return to the present. His quest to meet the woman in the painting was more than realized, but the time travel theory laid down the groundwork. To stay in the past, the character could not look upon anything from the present. When the love-sick Reeves returns to his own time he doesn’t realize the old woman who gave him the watch as a young man is the woman in the painting. This is a good example of the circle of logic within time travel stories.

How Time Travel Works

No matter how your characters travel through time, it’s important that you make the process understood. If you use time travel terms like pacetime curvature, make it clear to the reader that this is a property of spacetime that causes freely falling particles initially moving along parallel world lines to then move together or apart. Find a good source for time travel terms to create a time travel terminology that makes sense. Studying these terms may even inspire creativity to generate a new time travel theory to work within your story.

Why Travel in Time?

Some readers don’t like time travel fantasy, yet it is a popular subgenre. Time travel creates romantic settings (Somewhere in Time), opportunities to learn about oneself (A Kid in King Arthur’s Court), improve or change the past (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court), or the quest may even start out as a source of curiosity to see if it can be done, like H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

Traveling to another time and place allows a modern character to experience an alternate history. It opens the possibility to create a paradox. The premise of most time travel plots is that points throughout time exist now. This provides the basis for visits to one of these points in time much like we might visit a place in an everyday experience. Even Einstein thought of time as another dimension.

Fighting for the Castle in Fantasy Writing

Castles situated on a high, hard to reach locations makes storming the castle a tapestry of interesting plot threads that offer opportunities for rich, vivid imagery when writing fantasy. To create a realistic scene, writers must know enough history to make a castle attack authentic from either side of the battle.

How To Capture The Fantasy Castle

To capture a castle, attackers must get beyond the walls. When writing fantasy, hold onto enough history to make it real. Fantasy writers should offer hints of how to capture or defend a castle throughout the plot threads. Don't offer too much detail, but put the pieces in place so that when the attack takes place, and these same pieces come into the picture the reader understands what will happen and how it works.

Because of the formidable design, historically, the safest way to capture a castle was to starve out the occupants. However, this wasn't as easy as it sounds. Remember those store rooms beneath the hall in the keep? If the castle residents had fair warning of an impending attack, they could hoard enough food and drink to survive a lengthy siege.

If castle occupants make adequate preparation to wait out the siege, it increases tension and conflict in the storyline. Action can advance as armies resort to weaponry of the era. Weaponry opens opportunities for the fantasy writer to create similar but unique weapons constructed specifically for the story-the fantasy version of the secret weapon.

In reality, many lost their lives trying to breech castle walls. Catapults hurled stones to weaken the wall, but as attackers stormed the castle, a barrage of arrows sliced through the sky from the arrow loops.

Another tactic to capture the castle was to fill the moat with rocks and fashion tree trucks into a rough semblance of a bridge to make crossing possible. Once the advancing mob reached the main gate, a large, heavy beam was used to ram the closed drawbridge until it gave way.

One other weapon used to break through the castle walls were storming towers. These wooden constructions (covered in wet hides to prevent burning) were rolled against the wall to work as a ladder.

Defending the Fantasy Castle

When writing fantasy, the writer can also learn from history to defend the castle. If you check the article (link)Social Classes When Writing Sword and Sorcery Fantasy, you'll learn that the army defending the castle was usually comprised of the lord of the castle, his knights and villiens who agreed to fight as part of their service due, along with vassals paying homage and those who served the vassal in a like manner. At times professional foot soldiers were hired to fill out the ranks, and even knights were known to rent out their fighting skills.

As attacking armies assaulted the castle with storming towers, defenders shoved the wooden structures from the wall and into the mob because once the first wave of attackers made it over the wall, they engaged in hand-to-hand combat to make it easier for their comrades to join them.

Other deterrents used to keep the enemy at bay were things like pouring boiling pitch from the top of the wall onto the army below, and of course the swarms of arrows whistling into the angry mob.

If your attackers break through, it results in bloody hand-to-hand combat, but that's okay. You're readers know where they are at every turn, how to escape, and engages the readers to keep reading to see your characters through the entire ordeal.