Fantasy Gods, Races, Settings, Magic Systems and Miscellaneous

Your audience and characters don't need to, but you should know where these magics come from and why they work the way they do. Who was the first to learn about seals, for example, and who or what did they learn them from? Same with the other magics.

edited 9th Apr '16 4:31:42 PM by nekomoon14

Well, the main reason as to why I want this to be understandable for readers is that one of the characters is something of a scientist of magic theory, and when he explain magic to his student, he gives her a talk to the same effect as my explanation on Seals, which is why I'm worried whether I didn't make it too overcomplicated.

As for where they came from: in the backstory of the world, Earth was invaded by Lovecraft-esque Eldritch Abominations, and the people fighting them noted that cultists who sided with the Old Ones were starting to grow strange patterns on their skin. They wondered what would happen if you tattooed the same patterns (they were getting kinda desperate by this point), and thus Lesser Seal was discovered. As for the Greater Seal, they noted that some tattooed people would start to manifest Aetheric energy and tweaked with Lesser Seals' set of Coils until they figured out Marks. That's the official version, at any rate. Unofficially, the man who figured out the Greater Seal was clued in by an Old One who, feeding on human emotions, didn't want humans extinct. Witchcraft was also something the Old Ones taught their followers, and the defenders stole their grimoires. There's an underlying "science" behind it all, and people who study it, which is how new Marks, Coils and Witchcraft "lines of code" are discovered.

As for kalithia and pseudokalithia, it's something of a natural skill for creatures Old Ones created as their armies.^note They defected, which is how humanity had fighting chance. Don't ask how they managed to defect - I am going to point you to the same Old One. Learning it is kind of like learning how to cock one eyebrow, or twist your tongue into a tube - you know it's possible, you just need some practice to force your muscles to do it.

@ Kakai: Unnamed because I haven't figured one out yet.

One of the most recurring characters is Teples Kane, originally Cain of Anatolia. He is the very same Cain that the Bible was inspired from, however he's long since cleaned up his act. He was born in the Gobekli Tepes, and his son/younger brother/nephew are founders of the advanced but lost antediluvian civilization. He is the one human with Complete Immortality, a trait shared with one member of every species in the universe(it's unclear if it's true immortality, but he has survived a volcano).

Cain's mainly focused living in the now, and while he does play a hand in history, it's either accidental or because people figure out who he is. In order, he's been a king, a slave, a deposed pharaoh, another slave, a Bronze Age fighter, a guide for the Greeks, Roman soldier and so on. He has the Fog Of The Ages, but still remembers a bunch.

In a twist on the Beethoven Was an Alien Spy trope, most times he's a famous person it's someone obscure like Gratus(Caligula's bodyguard, who here didn't protect him because Caligula was having an affair with his daughter). He also became Vlad II Dracul aka Dracula's father, who became an Antagonistic Offspring as a vampire later on.

Is it a good idea to start out a series with tales from the distant past, then jump into the future and continue from there with your character?

Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Used to great effect in a range of stories. A video game example would be Lufia and the Rise of the Sinistrals. After all, if your backstory is interesting, why not set some of your story there?

In one of my Fantasy worlds dragons are simply to heavy to plausibly fly without the use of magic. Although they may share a common ancestor with birds they are mostly flightless creatures. Early on in their evolution their wings were purely vestigial but over time new functions have developed. Their wings are mountings for a massive amount of projectile weapon organs, which cover the inner surface of their wings. Some species have organs which shoot out razor sharp projectiles, many squirt out high pressure water, poison or acid. Some dragons even have a combination of even all of these under their wings.

Flapping their wings produces sudden gusts of wind which can knock over as well as incapacitate enemies and prey or fan toxic fumes in the desired direction. They can use their wings for quadrupedal locomotion.

The backs of their wings are either armored and used to block the body from harm or are covered in stealth scaling, which allows them to blend in with their environment much like a chameleon's skin.

edited 30th May '16 3:57:02 AM by matti23

How many 15th century soldiers would it take to kill a boss from Dark Souls? What kind of weapons would you take to the battle? What would it take if you only used spear men? How about only crossbowmen or even swordsmen (maybe they weren't expecting to run into this beast)? Pick any boss and assume for reference that the character is very roughly the same as an average soldier in how much damage they can inflict with a single blow.

That is a really hard question to answer, for the simple reason that Dark Souls boss fights are ridiculously abstracted. A naked, shrivelled prune-man with a wooden club can apparently kill a 30-foot-tall demon with a giant hammer, just by smacking it in the ass a dozen or so times. But stabbing the Asylum Demon in the ass with a sword would take about the same number of hits, so... what are we supposed to take away from that? That the Asylum Demon's ass/crotch/knees are all equally vulnerable to any weapon, and that damaging any of them enough will make the beast spontaneously keel over dead? Seems like if you just got 3 or 4 guys to surround the Asylum Demon, and all start hacking at anything within reach, you'd have the Demon down in seconds.

And this is a boss with no natural armour! What about the Bell Gargoyles, that are made of stone? That same club-wielding prune-man could kill the pair of them, too. So could a warrior with a sword, or an axe. What about the Iron Golem, which is literally just a giant animated suit of armour? Same thing: Mr. Club-Prune wins, swordsman wins, spearman wins, archer wins. Hell, Mr. Club-Prune could go through the whole game, killing every single boss. Insane crystal-dragon? Easy. Giant conglomeration of skeletons and darkness? Done. The lightning-king of the gods? Yawn.

Just go with whatever makes sense to you/fits your narrative. There's no "realistic" answer to be found here.

edited 20th Jun '16 3:22:11 PM by Tungsten74

The entire Souls series, is after all, built on souls. I think it was stated in Demon's and implied in Dark Souls, that consuming them essentially turns a normal human...inhuman. Normal soldiers (judging by the environs we adventure through), barely have a chance against even the most casual monsters.

edited 22nd Jun '16 4:23:10 AM by TerminusEst

The entire level up mechanic is implied to consume souls for strength.

The entire souls series is just plain weird and shouldn't have anything to do with science.

edited 22nd Jun '16 7:02:49 PM by Belisaurius

One of the races in my fantasy story is the Succubus. I'm trying to do a rather different interpretation of what they're normally portrayed as. Most stories portray them as complete evil, being demons that steal your soul by having sex with you. With the succubi in my story, there's a little more to it than that.

The succubus are magical beings that all look like statuesque, highly volumptuous women. They are born seemingly as human girls, but grow up to become this. There's a small (read: less than 1%) chance that a human-born female is a succubus. Its true that they steal men's souls. However, instead of killing them, it instead seals them within the succubus, living in eternal pleasure and happiness. The more souls they've stolen, the more powerful they become. However, they also have no choice in the matter. All sex ends with the men losing their souls to them. This means that when there's a man they genuinely love, they cannot be intimate with them unless they want to lose them forever. Because of this, some often go for Asshole Victims to justify their actions. Once discovered what they are, they're subject to Fantastic Racism. Many are hunted down, tortured, imprisoned, and murdered in cold blood ^note not raped though, for obvious reasons. Not to mention the aforementioned fact that they're born seemingly as humans, which causes them to be viewed as a sort of "disease". This may perhaps be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy — many steal souls without caring because the others already think of their kind as being pure evil.

I have many named characters in the story I'm writing. One prominent character is a succubus in a Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits, who are definite anti-heroes but are overall good even if some actions can be called into question.

I was wondering what you guys thought of this. Could a race that's almost universally portrayed as "evil demons who steal your soul with sex" be portrayed in a more sympathetic light, treated as people like any other who are both blessed and cursed with their powers? I'm doing this because I don't want any race to be Always Chaotic Evil. People have personalities and morals, regardless of what they're born as.

So, if a succubus pleasures a man manually, orally, or anally his soul will be consumed? How are succubae primarily attracted to people without penises regarded/treated? How are intersex succubae regarded/treated?

How are asexual succubae regarded/treated? Do they have any way of reproducing or do they only exist as transhuman beings?

Do they have souls of their own?

edited 15th Jul '16 3:34:09 AM by nekomoon14

Only actual sex steals the soul so they could do those things as a sort of way around it, but still as you can imagine it isn't easy for them to refrain from it.

Very few see succubi as actual people, so ones attracted to women aren't seen as much better. Succubi can be asexual but it's not easy for several reasons. They're naturally inclined towards sex, since it powers them, and not stealing souls to power their magic will make them very weak.

All succubi are born to humans, and are unable to be mothers of their own. Most discover what they are usually because they have a 'first time' with someone, invariably end up stealing their soul. Almost all succubi are disowned by their real parents for these reasons.

What do people think about intersex succubae? Can one succubus steal anotherz accumulated souls? And if so, wuld that deter them from forming communities of their own?

No, succubi can't steal each other's souls.

Okidoki. I still dont know how people generally feel about intersex succubae, tho.

Haven't really thought of that to be honest. Most just hate them in general.

Are succubae being tortured, mutilated, and/or killed? Are they being confined to insecure areas and/or being denied access to institutions that could allow them to acquire resources? If so, how many of them are committed to resisting this oppression?

Yes, that's part of the discrimination they face, due to them being widely feared. Once discovered, succubi are hunted down either to be killed, or imprisoned (often for experimentation). As for them resisting the oppression, it's not quite that simple. As I said, less than one percent of human girls are born as a succubus. It's like a fantastical condition comparable to some very few people being born with things like hair all over the body or purple eyes. There aren't a whole lot of succubi in the world, and not a whole lot of supporters for them either. Their best option is to simply hide what they are, or fight when they face discrimination as they continue through their lives.

That said, there is a hangout spot for succubi to meet. Like a sort of safe haven they can go to without the fear of being treated with disdain. Succubi can sense each other's presence, and most of them are on good terms with each other out of necessity.

1 percent can be a very large number, so that actually doesnt tell very much. If there are even one million XX females in the world, that means there would be enough succubae to form their own city-state and/or at least protect each other from humans. That doesnt even include X females, XO females, XXX females, or XX males (do they ever become succubae?); thats a lot of potential succubae, so it doesnt make much sense for them to endure abuse if they dont have to.

Sense any girl could turn out to be succubus, misogyny would be even worse; mothers wouldnt want to form the typical emotional attachments to girls and that would lead to emotional neglect, causing resentments between human women AND succubae with internalized misogyny. Those girls would likely fall victim to sexual predators (and their mothers would possibly see that as evidence that those girls are in fact succubae), which could traumatize them tremendously.

At some point, groups of succubae would HAVE to divorce themselves from human society and form secret communities away from ordinary people, simply for their own safety.

In fact, succubae insisting on living among humans would very likely be subjected to rape on a horrifyingly regular basis, theyd have no protection, nobody with the power to give them justice would, and many of them would be forced to turn to prostitution for survival (adding to the stigma against them).

I weep for your succubae. They are definitely the most sympathetic and tragic, for sure.

I'm still developing my world and it's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of. I didn't say they were one percent, but less than that, which is extremely low. Probably in the lower thousands out of the tens of millions who reside in the world. You can go your whole life without ever meeting one. Succubi are able to blend in because they on the outset they just look like highly attractive humans (though they possess a demonic One-Winged Angel form), and there aren't a shortage of those in the land of Arcania either. They also have the abilities to charm men with their magic. Depending on how many souls they've taken, they can be an extremely formidable foe to battle against. That's another reason why they are feared, and when are hunted are done so in large numbers.

Also, as said rape doesn't happen very often. because few are stupid enough to risk having their souls taken from them (the fact that souls are only taken through regular sex isn't widely known, because they're a species that haven't been studied extensively). Instead, if captured, it's torture by other means and/or death.

The aforementioned succubus character I told you about is looking to change this, which is why she allies with the gang of anti-heroes (consisting of a werewolf, a lizardman, and a human warrior). It'll be interesting as it all unfolds.

Seriously though, thanks for giving me all these pointers. I wanted to do something different with the succubus, because portrayals are almost universally the same — them usually being an Always Chaotic Evil race of soul-stealers.

edited 15th Jul '16 6:58:51 PM by UltimateLazer

So what ur saying is that as long as they dont reveal themselves, they can pass for human? You should research "passing for white" if you want a great idea of how succubae might live. A movie titled Queen starring Halle Berry could also help.

Imitation of Life is also great (if a bit problematic lol).

edited 15th Jul '16 6:48:55 PM by nekomoon14

Or if they don't get caught.

Do incubi exist too?

I'm still tossing around the idea if I want to include them or not. The main reason I created the succubus was because one of the prominent characters was one (I came up with the idea for the character before I created the race). I'm not sure where the incubus would fit.

If the succubi steal souls, why not have the incubi steal bodies in some way or another? Or maybe just blood. It would play well with a theme of duality - soul and solid - as well as give outsiders a reason to think poorly of them, lumping both races together.