Random Questions Thread

@ Nukeli:

I'm not sure about the rest of your question but I can actually answer this part quite well since I have a similar scenario in one of my societies (people chosen from birth to serve in certain roles including the military).

The soldiers could be given specialized respect above other classes even though the military doesn't actually control society. They could be praised as the defenders of the colony and their sacrifices given great weight and honor. Soldiers could have special privileges or leeway. Essentially think of the "thank you for your service" culture in the United States turned Up To Eleven.

While an army revolt is possible under such circumstances, those involved are less likely to desire or strive for freedom from their role if they are given a great deal of positive features. It's essentially ensuring Happiness in Slavery via making the metaphorical chains soft and fuzzy.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Apr 9th 2024 at 8:32:23 AM

I wonder if the following scene is both romantic and highly manipulative at the same time...or is that even possible?

In Part 1 of my story, my main character and his vampire girlfriend have an exchange in which he is starting to have qualms about certain aspects of their relationship—-specifically some of the "daytime work" he's doing for her, and the fact that she's actively killing people in his town for blood.

He brings this up because when he is spying on one of the villains for her, he sees that this character has a small son and he worries about what his girlfriend's plans will mean for that kid, as well as the husband/father who is a teacher at his school and this time he refuses to let her dismiss him or his questions.

Rather than become angry at his display of attitude, she takes him on a trip across the moonlit rooftops of his town, carrying him on her back and nearly flying high over the streets. It is exhilarating and captivating and he is completely awed at her physical abilities and her willingness to show him this experience.

She then innocently asks him whether or not he still cares about the fate of the villain's son and husband, and he just blankly stutters since he hadn't even thought of them during the last few minutes. She tells him that this is how it should be. Things like morality, questions about the future, etc...those are meaningless when compared to the honor of being "Favored by one of us" (meaning vampires).

It's enough to quash the argument between them at that point.

I'm wondering if that is both romantic but shows the deeper thread of manipulation that is going on in their relationship with him none the wiser to it since this is not just his first relationship with a supernatural being but his first relationship period.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Apr 9th 2024 at 8:59:13 AM

The one thing I find jarring in your description is how the vampire girlfriend tells him that this is how things should be. From my point of view, this feels patronising enough that the protagonist may very well realise this is manipulated. In fact, the vampire just smiling sweetly when he stutters that he did not think about the father during their flight would subtler and more effective.

Otherwise I find the overall situation more manipulative than romantic. Just replace "flying above the rooftops" with "the best sex he ever had" and think how the whole situation would look in a non-supernatural relationship.

@ C105:

Hmm, I see what you mean; there's definitely an air of "card-carrying" manipulation going on.

Part of it was me trying to be true to her character; she is manipulating him but it's also her true feelings coming into the situation. Their relationship is complex but at this point she truly believes what she says; that he should completely devote himself to her and never question anything, because her favor is all that he should worry about. This scene is also a setup for her speech about the "wonders" of the supernatural world and how a human should feel grateful to just glimpse it, regardless of what it costs them.

But yes, perhaps a small triumphant smile or just a nod would be a more subtle act that would indicate her intent to overwhelm him so that his questions are pushed to the back of his mind.

Going back to my first story. Quick recap, there are three species of minotaur, and the aurochsen are the only sapient species, having escaped imprisonment and started their own society, abandoning the name minotaur to distance themselves from King Minos. Aurochsen culture as a whole is also famed for their exploits in astronomy. Also, one of the heroes of the story, name pending, is a human and former priestess who was excommunicated and branded a heretic for studying draconic magic, which is notoriously volatile.

Okay, recap done. Some more lore. The minotaur homeland is named Pasipha, after Pasiphaë, and its capital city is Astrológos. In the original Greek myth, Pasiphaë was Minos's wife who infamously slept with the Cretan Bull and gave birth to the minotaur, Asterion. In this story, she was still Minos's wife, but she feared him for his tyrannical ways, and sought comfort in the arms of one of the slaves. The affair continued even after the slave was turned into a second generation minotaur, and she ultimately became pregnant. Fearing for the safety of her unborn child should Minos find out, she fled the city and took shelter in a remote village, still technically part of Minos' territory, but long ignored and left to fend for itself. She had a son whom she named Asterion, and taught him all she knew about astronomy. Asterion would ultimately grow up and return to liberate his people from Minos' clutches, and centuries later both he and his mother are hailed as saints by aurochsen society.

On to the story itself, one of the other heroes is a female aurochs named Adamantia who is a monk and a master of Trelós Távros, the sacred martial art of the aurochsen. Trelós Távros can be translated as either Mad Bull or Prancing Bull, which perfectly represents the dual nature of aurochsen society as mighty warriors with a love of the finer arts. (Seriously, the fact that it can be translated either way was a massive stroke of luck that made things so much easier for me.) Trelós Távros has two distinct styles; Mad Style places heavy emphasis on keeping a firm, rigid stance and delivering powerful and devastating blows, especially with one's horns and fists, while Prancing Style is much more designed around staying fluid and agile, able to switch up one's stance at a moment's notice, very much resembling a dance, with quick and deft strikes, primarily with one's legs. A true master of either style knows to borrow elements from the other style, balancing themselves out both physically and spiritually.

Adamantia herself is specifically a master of the Mad Style, and is incredibly disciplined physically, spiritually, and mentally. By the time her part in the story begins, she's been away from the land of Pasipha for over a year, having gone on pilgrimage to visit holy landmarks in other parts of the world, seeking to broaden her people's knowledge and understanding of other cultures.

Now, here's my question. My idea is for Adamantia to arrive at the priestess character's church just before witnessing her excommunication, and offering said character to join her in her pilgrimage since she has nowhere to go. The idea is to have the two of them eventually meet the last two heroes during their journey, setting up the party. Would it be too implausible for a monk who spent her life disciplining herself to so readily invite a heretic to travel with her? I know the heretic is from a different religion, but my main concern is that she willingly broke her vows by studying draconic magic, and a heavily disciplined person might take offense that said vows were broken at all, regardless if they suffer any personal loss from it.

I see no problem with it as, in accordance to the good book, "the road to salvation is lined with temptation".

And the priestess walking on it with the hero would be rather fitting considering her vice.

Tolerance is a virtue after all.

Likewise, the standards that one has for oneself are not necessarily the standards that one has for others. Or, put another way, one doesn't necessarily expect from others what one expects from oneself.

And indeed, I imagine that monk would be quite used to living by a set of standards quite different to those by which others live.

Would coming across the main-character-turned-villain's corpse add an air of "finality" or there's no going back now to an already grim situation, and ensure that everyone knows just how irreversible things are at this point?

When the thrown together hero team (the former main character's parents and aunt, his girlfriend and her older brother, the husband of one of the villains, and two members of the organization that wanted to wipe out his family) are planning to go after him to stop his insane plans, I pondered on the idea of having them come across his dead body at some point

The reason why is because not only would this be jarring for them due to their varying personal connections to him, it would also hammer home to them and the audience just how far gone he is, quite literally. He didn't just "turn into" a massive flayed and contorted wolfman, this is something far more messed up. This is far more than having him turn back into a person and all of them go home together.

This is all explained very much in detail, but I just wondered if them coming across his "empty shell" would just make that even more apparent.

Depends if you explain how he turned into the big stompy monster while also leaving a human body behind to the reader beforehand. Otherwise they might just be confused.

@ Altris:

Oh yes I make sure to explain what occurred in great detail. I just wanted to give a particularly vivid visual image so that the characters and readers have an unmistakable sign of it.

What do you guys think of this potential retort against someone who turned to fascism?

"You've thrown every excuse on the world, of how somehow it's one group's fault for your problems, that to solve it you have to exterminate it and everything. The truth is, you gave up on becoming better, to open your heart, to see that others are Humans just as you!"

Let me try something since the flow in that line feels a bit guppy.

Alternatively: "You gave up! Then you started hating others when in fact the only person you really hate is YOURSELF!"

Edited by Trainbarrel on Apr 10th 2024 at 3:58:30 PM

Would having the most powerful supernatural being in my setting be a mindless animal be a letdown or disappointing to the readers?

The parasitic Eldritch Abomination behind the creation of the werewolves is the most powerful entity in the story from both a physical standpoint (it is roughly the size of Earth's moon and its tendrils blot out the sky in the brief period of time it is visible) and its powers rival anything seen up until that point.

However it has absolutely zero higher consciousness; even calling it an "animal" is perhaps a little too much. It has roughly the same level of intelligence as a housefly, mindlessly seeking more and more human hosts to infect and transform. The only reason for the devastation it eventually unleashes is because of the main character's powers allowing him to interface with and eventually become this creature.

I just wonder if it would be a letdown to finally see its true nature and know that it's the main character "behind the wheel" so to speak rather than the creature's own will and drive.

I believe that in such cases, folks will draw a comparison to a force of nature or a Negative Space Wedgie.

That honestly sounds almost exactly like the entity "Ill Ilah" from Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.

And I am not certain, but when the reveal of what it really was came out, a lot of the Magi-fandom had quite mixed responses towards it.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Apr 10th 2024 at 4:54:37 PM

@ Septimus Heap:

I had to look up the Negative Space Wedgie trope, but it definitely is comparable to a force of nature or at least a powerful and dangerous animal/predator. No malice or higher plans, but just its presence and nature means it poses a huge threat or at least the potential of one. So I can definitely agree.

@ Trainbarrel:

Hmm, I'm not familiar with the entity and only vaguely familiar with Magi but I get the overall point. I imagine some people will be dissapointed, but the overall theme I'm going for is that it is the flaws, cruelties, and machinations of the people overall (humans or otherwise) who have brought about such a terrible outcome, not the manipulations or plans of some higher being.

Exactly. And in case you don't plan to read it...

"Ill Ilah" is basically a moon-sized entity with tentacles upon first being seen in-story, immensely powerful to the point EVERYONE has to join forces just to push it back through the hole it came in and even then it was a very close call. It's the source of everything bad happening in the series.

However, Ill Ilah is not exactly...bright.

To put it in perspective, a common jellyfish has more going on upstairs than "Ill Ilah".

It's the human villains that direct all that power in this entity for their own insane purposes.

So the similarities with what you drew for your parasitic-entity got my memory kicked into gear right away.

...

The point is, it's going to be a mixed response regardless of how the reveal goes.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Apr 10th 2024 at 5:47:54 PM

@ Trainbarrel:

Wow that is pretty insane. I knew that story existed and had seen some pictures of the characters but it never really caught my interest. So it's crazy to see the similarities.

Okay. I have a budding idea for a plot centering on child actresses. I want to ask if it would make sense for a Shirley Template to have another one for a mother or mentor (specifically based off Elizabeth Taylor) and if so, how would the latter's experiences factor into reasons why the former ended with a similar upbringing to the actual Miss Temple?

There are several works of fiction that use the word "Chronicle" in the title, in a manner that in my experience seems to suggest it's being used as a synonym for "story", "tale", and such. Recently, however, I learned that the word itself specifically means "an account of events in chronological order". Does that make the aforementioned usage improper, or did the word just evolve that usage as a second sense?

I'm pretty sure its the latter, and that misuse with regards to the original definition are rare (as most stories progress linearly and do not jump around in various points in the timeline, and the ones that do rarely had "Chronicler" in the title)

The word being pluralized in several cases also adds a winkle here as it implies there a more then one sequences of events here and more then one chronology. That would prolly eliminate all but a handful of misuse by virtue of semamintics.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 11th 2024 at 2:03:43 AM

The pluralized cases are probably named so because they're each a series of separate installments — typically, an original story and its sequels — so each one technically forms a self-contained chronology that just happens to be connectable to the chronologies of the other stories, allowing them to form a single macro-chronology.

So I assume that as long as a story doesn't involve Anachronic Order, it implicitly qualifies as a chronicle?

Can anyone recommend some fictional works that showcase subculture diversity to use as a reference for my own story? Far too many works only stop at surface-layer culture diversity, but don't delve deep enough into subcultures within a given culture.

that's my assumption as well.

It does imply being a record of some significance, like the official history of a political crisis.

I'm not thinking of a lot of specific examples right now, but I think Fantastic Noir is probably a good genre to consult? Let me think about it.

Edited by Noaqiyeum on Apr 11th 2024 at 2:58:01 PM