Hey y'all! (I apologize in advance if I have typos... iPads are not conducive to accurate typing) So I've been going through a writing slump. I hate everything I do and everything I come up with. lol I'm slowly (very slowly) getting through it. But in my slump, I realized part of the reason I've been having such a hard time is that my high fantasy novel blows. Seriously. It just.. blows. lol Some of the ideas are great, and I plan to keep them. But much of it is going to change, including the government, the country, character relationship, and names. But one thing I really wanted to focus on is the races I've created. I used a lot of basic terms, like sorcerer, shapeshifter, witch, and siren. But I also created many others, like Tempest, Natural, Purl, and Lucent. I've also created a religion, with fourteen gods and goddesses that I plan on keeping. And each god or goddess has at least two different races that share their qualities. For example, Naturals and Reapers pray to the Earth Goddess. Summoners and Wraiths pray to the Death God. Healers and Keepers pray to the Life God, and so on and so forth. So here's my question... Would it be completely strange to have these races evolve like Pokemon? lol Let me explain.. A Natural is basically an earth elemental that can control the trees and whatnot. But Naturals are basically Level 1 creatures. They aren't super powerful and can only do certain things. But a Reaper is significantly stronger, can do more, is considered higher class than a Natural. Would it be strange to have a Natural be able to train themselves to be powerful enough that they "transform" into a Reaper? I originally had planned that the stronger the person, the more they match their element. Earth elementals will have their hair start to grow in green or vines growing from their scalp. Air elementals will grow wings. Fire elementals will have glowing veins, etc. So the "evolution" would be kind of like that.. What do you think? Too elementary? Too weird? It was just a thought I had, literally right now, so it won't hurt my feelings if the idea sucks.. lol Thanks!
Well really it depends on how this fits into the plot of your story. If this ties into your story's plot it could work out, but if this is just something you add onto the story without any explanation it could suck. Try to think of ways to implement it into your plot. Give it a little backstory, so the reader isn't confused when in the middle of your story a human randomly evolves
lol Definitely. My main character is a Natural, but a weak one. She goes to a country-wide event and will be envious of the evolved forms of people. Eventually, I'll have her "evolve" as well. Basically, my main character is going to be incredibly strong, eventually. But I didn't want it to be so limited in the idea that the strong are born from the strong. You know how it goes in medieval movies. If you're born to a high-ranking family, you're immediately considered upper class. But if you're born to a low-ranking or poor family, you either stay there or you work to make your life better. I wanted to make a way for characters in my novel to change their social status. I didn't want it to be based on luck of birth. While planning my story, all I could hear was potential readers saying, "Well, why is she so much stronger than him? Why is he so weak?" Sure, some people are born stronger than others based on their family line. But I also wanted them to have an option to get better and stronger, not just leave it up to fate, you know? I've seen so many fantasy movies and novels where an ordinary person gets put into extraordinary circumstances, only to realize that they have some untapped potential that makes them ten times stronger than they were before. And that, to me, is boring. In most cases, they didn't have to work to get there. They were just born that way. And I feel like that's shitting on the little guy. What makes THAT guy so special? I feel like the "evolution" theory is something that hasn't been done before. I feel like it's a chance to make ordinary people extraordinary, without it being called "fate" or "the luck of the draw." A character could actually put their life in their own hands for once. Who know? It's just an idea.
I think it's a great idea Don't let thoughts of it being "too weird" put you off. Fiction is supposed to be weird in comparison to reality, which is why we read it It gives us escapism! It's an idea that would certainly engage me if I were reading a book that contained it. I say give it a go and see what you come up with
Going off what Panda said you can never get too weird with fiction unless you're referring to manga where things can get too weird
It's fantasy - if people wanted ordinary, they wouldn't read fantasy. So no, I wouldn't worry about being weird. Anyway, personally I think that evolution concept of how they're gonna change to be more like their element sounds awesome!
Thanks everyone! I know it's going to take a lot of work, and there's a very real chance I'll totally screw it up. lol But I'm feeling really good about it. I think it's different and fun and a way to play with social classes in a new way. I guess I've got work to do.
The idea sounds awesome, you can check Avatar: The Last Airbender anime for any ideas and to make some differences. It's a series with four nations, each nation can bend a certain element and then they fight each other (I think I never watched it, I just heard of it). I think the idea of evolving to a Reaper is good. Can only Natural people do that or people from all of these four races? If that's the case I think it would be interesting if a Reaper form a certain race would have a special abiltiy that only reapers from their specific race can have: Naturals can make really powerful (and controlled) Earthquake, Tempest people can make really powerful (and controlled) storms etc. BTW. I chuckled at the idea of a human repeating his/her name, because it can't say anything else - like pokemon. I know you don't plan that, it was just my imagination. hehe Edited to add: I think it would also be interesting if you invented some sorts of interesting pets or weird transport units. Sorry if my suggestions are weird, it's 2 AM and I can't sleep, meaning my brain has a high productivity.
I'll have to check out Avatar! I've heard of it before, but I've never really known what it was about. Sounds interesting! I planned on having more than four races, I think, since I have so many Gods and Goddesses. There's Earth, Air, Fire, and Water deities.. But then there's Life, Death, Day, Night, Fate, and Wealth too. I like the idea of making one type of race for each, but I realize that with even a minimum of three evolutions, that's a looott of different types of races in the mix. It could be too much. But I haven't really thought all of that out yet... lol And I haven't really decided if other races could evolve into a Reaper or if it's just the Naturals. I like the idea of other races being able to learn other abilities (like a Natural being able to use Tempest powers), but I don't know exactly how I'd do it yet. I know it would require way more training and growth to get there. But I haven't ironed out any details yet. They're all definitely going to have their own limit to their powers, that's for sure. I think for just Naturals, they won't have much control over "earth shattering" magic. They'd be able to do really simple stuff, like grow plants and whatnot. Tempests might be able to make it rain. But their evolutions would be stronger. Second level Natural (Reaper essentially) could do earthquakes, and second level Tempests could do storms. I'm definitely going to make it a hierarchy, where the highest level races are considered rich and look down on the lower class Naturals and Tempests. Haha! Maybe I could even make them battle each other to see who's stronger like in Pokemon... Tempest, I choose you! When I first started planning this novel, I wanted it to be a late 18th century style. No electricity, horse carriages, and all that. But the more I'm getting into it, the more I'm interested in making it more.. fantastical. I've always planned to have a town of creatures (not elementals) who live in clock houses. All of their homes are made of gold with lots of gears and stuff on top. And recently, I decided I wanted a train to run through the world. So now I'm starting to warm up to the idea of just a totally bizarre world where whales swim in the sky and tigers are the size of dragons. lol I definitely want to work on different bizarre types of transport. If I go with more races, I'm going to have the Night elementals be able to travel through shadows. Maybe I could do something like that for other races. And make a special type of transport that only the rich upper-class people can afford. Maybe different sections of the world have different types of transport based on their median class? That could be fun. Thanks for the suggestions!!!
I think it's even better if you have more than four races, it adds much more differentiality and options. Some of the setting ideas sound steampunk, which I like. But I have a feeling you don't aim at this right? you're more something like WOnderland? Colourness and vivacity? The animals sure sound nice Walking through shadows is interesting. Then naturals could maybe build tunnels just for their use and after they go out it collapses or something...
Oh good! More races it is, then! I use my fiancé to bounce ideas off of, and before I came up with this idea, he said I had too many. But maybe now that I have this evolution idea, it won't seem like too many anymore. Alice in Wonderland gives me the heebie geebies... lol There's a scene where a walrus eats all these baby clams. Yeah, completely traumatized me as a child, and I've hated it ever since. lol Maybe I should go a different direction with it then... I'll have to look at different fantasy worlds and get some inspiration.
