As a fantasy author, I have to consider the layers of society. Nobles are the clearest division because they are composed of the kings, queens, princes, princesses, and other titled folks. A reader will have an immediate reaction to these characters even if they don’t realize it. So, what is the best way to use them if they’re more than window dressing for the story?
Not every noble has to be a pompous ass. This is a strange trap that authors tend to run into, but readers don’t typically complain. Maybe it’s a societal effect that those in the lower classes of society prefer to see those above us as evil. Yet, it creates a problem for the fantasy world. How could the civilization survive if everyone running it is selfish, evil, and corrupt? You’d have to create a dystopian setting for that to make complete sense.
The beloved ruler of a kingdom doesn’t have to be killed. Doing so tends to be a trigger of a darker tone or a symbol of the death of innocent/purity/whatever. We enjoy having our heroes fall and the good-hearted ruler tends to be sacrificed for the sake of drama. It’s not always necessary or sensible. Most times, it’s done primarily for shock value since they’re never the main hero. It transforms the character into a plot device with dialogue.
Nobles are not a hivemind system. You can have variety in how they see their servants and other citizens. I’m not talking the young noble who stands against the wall of oppressive elders/peers. While that is a viable story, it turns all of the others into nothing more than a symbolic mass. It prevents the group from having any variation in thoughts, words, and actions. Have your named nobles act as if they are individuals to bring a clearer sense of their societal tier, which gives you access to more plot points than the simple ‘nobles are mean’.
Not every noble stems from the same source. Some earned their station through business, others through conquest, and more through inheritance. Consider how a noble entered high society to help flush out their mentality. They may have no idea what it’s like to live below their station or they may remember with a sense of bitterness. Others may be curious about such a life since they know nothing more than decadence. Again, make a variety of nobles.
Consider what other characters think of nobles because it isn’t always love/hate. If you look at our society, you can see the variety. There will be those who despise them out of jealousy or distrust. Others have clearer reasons due to being personally hurt by a noble. You have those who aspire to be in high society and idolize the nobles without question. These types can cause friction if they’re with anyone who dares to criticize their idols. Finally, you have characters who simply don’t care. They know nobles exist, but have better things to do with their lives.
Masquerade balls aren’t necessary!
If a noble joins a band of adventurers, you don’t have to make them a useless idiot who only brings trouble. This goes back to how they’re commonly used. Authors typically add a noble into a group for fiction. Complaining about the walking, food, sleeping outdoors, and showing absolutely no sense of comradery. They bring more problems than they solve when used this way, but this only makes readers hate them. Even if you want them to be annoying and pampered, it’s best to give them some kind of positive quality. Otherwise, people will wonder why they went on the adventure or are kept around. Keep in mind that nobles tend to love stories as entertainment, so many won’t be as surprised at the trials as one would think. Besides, this type of noble has been done so often that it doesn’t have much impact, so you need some kind of twist on it these days.
This was a tough one because there are 8 subspecies. All of them look the same, so getting the pictures was a pain. I gave up and decided to simply go for a general thing. There isn’t much difference between them. Let’s talk about their status first because that will lead into another topic.
Leopards are endangered in Central Asia and Sri Lanka. They are critically endangered in Russia, Middle East, and Java. They are endangered for three main reasons. As you can guess, poaching for pelts is one of them. A bigger one is being killed by humans out of fear or to protect livestock/pets/family. Finally, you have the biggest one in habitat loss, which leads to a very dangerous situation.
Leopards hunting in cities!
The other big cats don’t typically go into urban areas for food, but the leopard seems to be adapting to this option. Night falls and they enter the streets from nearby jungles and forests. They’ll mostly go after pets, but they may attack a human out of desperation or, more likely, fear. Although, there are some reports that they will go for unsupervised children, but that is rare. So, there are a lot more leopard attacks than other big cats solely because they aren’t leaving the areas humans take over. They’re staying and figuring out how to continue hunting.
So, what is a leopard? This is one of the big cats and is found throughout Africa and Asia. They are spotted like cheetahs and jaguars. Most people will probably get a good visual concept off of that. One could say they’re kind of like muscular cheetahs, but that wouldn’t be fair. Leopards are built for stealth and climbing instead of sprinting speed. Climbing is very important because it allows them to hide food and escape their own predators such as lions, tigers, wild dog packs, and hyena packs. So, as strong as the leopard is, it isn’t without its fair share of enemies. That might be why it’s so vicious too.
Some fun leopard facts:
The black panther is actually a black leopard. They still have their spots if you look closely.
The black spots on their fur are called ‘rosettes’ because they resemble roses.
A leopard will stash food in tree branches. This doesn’t mean the dead animal will stay up there and can fall. So, one has to be careful about this if vacationing in leopard territory.
Leopards can run 58km/h and leap 6 meters forward.
They are solitary creatures that only meet up to mate. They mark their territory through urine, poop, and tree scratches.
Leopards are primarily nocturnal.
Litters usually have 2-3 cubs. The mother raises them until they are about two and can hunt for themselves.
They are very difficult to locate and track in the wild. In fact, they are considered the most elusive of the big cats.
How about some pictures and videoes?
Rare Black Spotted
I want to make a note on something about the next one. This attack was shown on a video I watched a few weeks ago at school. They guy you see being attacked in the still-shot is someone who is trying educate about leopards. He talked about not blaming the animal and how it was scared. I think he said he made a mistake too, but I don’t remember if I’m mixing it up with something else. All I know is that he made it clear that leopards don’t typically kill humans outside of self-defense and this one was terrified trying to find a way out of the area.
I’m not even going to look at last week’s goals. A big reason for this is because I failed pretty badly. At least with writing because I was barely able to write more than a chapter of Darwin & the Demon Game. So, what went wrong?
I HAVE NO IDEA!
Let me explain. I was feeling really out of it all of last weekend, which I thought was due to the weather. Sleep wasn’t easy to come by and my focus was all over the place. My sinuses were killing me, which was another weather thing. No fever or cough or anything that said I was sick. This is why I only got one chapter done and I was hating myself for it because I felt like it all sucked. It was better on reading it again, but at the time I would write a paragraph walk off for a few minutes and then go back. I couldn’t stay locked on target like with this paragraph. Yet, I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
Until Monday morning . . . And it hurt.
For a few days, I had been waking up at 2 AM and having some anxiety issues. I would sometimes fall back to bed, but it would take a while. It finally came to a head on Monday when I woke up and everything below the neck was locked. Not sure how long it took me to get my body moving again, but it was a feeling I haven’t had in years. This resulted in everything being a wreck. Stomach was soured, head was pounding, mind was racing, sweat was pouring, breathing was labored, vision blurred, and joints hurt. I had to take the day off of work and get myself tested to get an idea of what was going on. So, what was the verdict?
That’s the mystery. It seems I may have had some infection, but there weren’t any signs of what it could be. The top contender is that my anxiety finally reached a level that my body and mind couldn’t handle it. The week before was pretty rough, but I didn’t think it was so bad that I’d start to physically break down. Seriously, my bloodwork was like that of someone who just got over a bad infection. Yet, the numbers also fall into the range of someone who is extremely stressed. I’m still trying to regain my strength and durability here too.
That’s really the only thing I’ve been doing this week. I’ve been taking Zzzquil to help me sleep. Just got a pair of cooling pillowcases to see if that helps. I got some herbal pills to take if I wake up freaking out. Haven’t tested either of those yet. Screwed up sleep seemed to be a big factor, so I had to keep going to bed around 9:30/10. That meant no time for writing or much of anything beyond a little puzzle time. Might be that way for a while.
This weekend is going to be homework and my son was invited to another Bar Mitzvah. I doubt I’ll get any writing done. Managed to get 25% of Chapter 5 done, but I won’t be getting any further. I’ll have to try to reach the 1/3 completion mark next weekend. It’s doable as long as I get my stress levels lower.
Wish I had more to talk about. I’m still unsure of where to go with the writing career since it looks like I need a cover artist for Darwin’s adventures. Money is getting tight again due to the stuff for my anxiety and having to buy speakers to attach to my laptop. They aren’t that expensive, but they add up. Keep thinking it would have been smart to learn how to draw and do covers, but that’s not my talent. Really need to make good friends with someone who can do that. My foggy mind has trouble figuring out what would make a good cover style for Darwin too. It keeps going back to the ‘Not an Evil Tree’ as a background with the book title on the trunk. Seems kind of boring. I really don’t have a great mind for covers.
Anything else? I’ve been watching an old anime called ‘Gun x Sword’. I remember seeing it in Best Buy a lot. Finally gave it a shot and it wasn’t what I expected. Thought it was a sci-fi western like ‘Trigun’. Instead, it has giant robots that the characters fight with. It’s not bad, but seems a little disjointed at times. To be fair, my mind isn’t focusing on stuff and several episodes were watched as the Zzzquil started kicking in. So, I might have missed a few things. I keep comparing it to ‘Trigun’ and ‘Cowboy Bebop’, which isn’t doing it any favors. Guess I lost all the non-anime readers (that would be nearly everyone) at this point.
Briefly, next week is again going to be about recovery, but it’s going to be busy. My son has a few appointments and tests to study for. He also has his winter concert coming up, so the evenings will be heavily booked. Maybe I’ll be able to write a bit on Wednesday and Friday to give me an edge towards finishing chapters 5 and 6. It’s the week before midterms at my school, so I won’t expect my energy to remain high. Things are going to get crazy and I have to brace myself for it. Guess that’s the life I’m living for a while until I can lock in some stability.
Goals of the week:
Help my son stay calm at Bar Mitzvah even though I won’t be there.
Homework with son.
Watch Spider-Man 2 with son.
Get anxiety and stress under control.
Enjoy son’s concert.
Start new puzzle.
Stare forlornly at Amazon Fire Tablets that I can’t afford. I really need something that can work with digital graphic novels. My old Kindle is terrible with pictures . . . That and I haven’t seen the charger since my ex-wife moved out.
After talking about how pre-adventuring jobs can add useful skills to an adventurer, I should probably give some examples. The challenge is that I haven’t held these jobs, so I can easily miss a few things. In fact, I’m working off the fictional version of a lot of these careers since that’s what tends to show up. Feel free to add other careers and their uses in the comments. Here we go.
Farmer– The most common of adventurer origins. From this life, a person can develop a good amount of strength and endurance. They get used to waking up early and getting right to work. A farmer can also tell of the quality of certain wares when shopping for supplies. They can also have skills in bartering, tending to animals, and food prep.
Chef– This one is fairly obvious. They can cook and identify viable food sources when in the wild. Less chance of food poisoning and some knowledge of food preservation can come from this career too. If one wants to get flashy, they can note some level of skill with knives and frying pans.
Blacksmith– Many authors assume that a blacksmith knows how to use all of the weapons that they create. Possibly on a very basic level, but they won’t hold a candle to even a mildly trained warrior. Not unless they have gone through the same training, so what solid skills can come from this? A blacksmith can help to maintain their gear while on the road with more success than others. Similar to the farmer, they would be able to discern quality of weapons and armors that they come across. Finally, they will have a higher level of physical strength and maybe some heat resistance.
Carpenter– Now we’re getting into the thinner careers where not as much will carry over. Carpenters will be able to make repairs to wagons and note if a structure is sturdy before going across or inside. They can craft small wooden objects such as bowls, whistles, figurines, and other sellable items. Mentally, a carpenter may be fairly cautious and analytical since they would be trained to wait until they are sure before acting. ‘Measure twice, cut once’ here.
Mason– Similar to the carpenter, the mason would be able to analyze the sturdiness of a stone structure. This is very helpful in ruins where they may be able to see weakened floors and supports. Another use for this skillset could be when an adventurer finds themselves dealing with fortifications. Either they need to build some quickly as an army approaches or they need to get through to the holed up enemy. Masons would be aware of weaknesses in a variety of structures and come up with a plan.
Tailor– Repairing clothes and other objects that get worn down over time. A tailor may possess a high level of fine-motor control since they have to work with needles. This can help with delicate skills such as lockpicking or fighting styles that put reflexes and grace over power. One can add an attention to detail as well since that would be needed to create durable and beautiful clothes.
Fisherman– This one is pretty easy to understand. Fishing can provide food as long as there is a body of water nearby. This career requires tons of patience and very good aim if you’re casting out. Both of those skills can be transferred to a variety of situations, including a sniping archer.
Artist– I can only think of one advantageous skill to come from this career. An artist is more likely to come up with a strange and unexpected plan. Their imagination and creativity can make them a fairly unpredictable adventurer.
(I wrote this one after reading about an animal getting put down. It had attacked a human that had climbed into its enclosure. It made me think about how an animal that attacks people gets put down so easily, but humans who do the same aren’t given such treatment. It just got me thinking about the hypocrisy.)
I heard a man yell out
About evil executions
He said we are all God’s children
Not one should be put down
Even if evil is their way
*
I thought of what he said
But not the way you think
If evil men are spared
Though they always pose a threat
Why are panicked beasts put down?
*
A man can tell what’s right
He knows what things are wrong
It is a simple choice
Yet many choose to kill
For reasons beyond defense
*
A beast lives to survive
Not raised to heed our rules
It bites when it is threatened
Not with an evil thought
Because it does not want to die
*
Why kill the ignorant beast
Without a second thought
When we refuse to kill our own
That knows the rules of man
Yet still they wish to kill
There is a trend in fantasy and adventure stories that I didn’t really notice until recently. I don’t even know what triggered this thought. Many adventurers start out in a simple, mundane job. This is mundane when compared to battling monsters and traveling across the globe gathering treasure. How does this origin impact the hero?
First of all, we can all tell what story this turns into. We are talking about the ‘hero’s journey’, which takes a person from a ‘normal’ life and drops them into a life where they have to rise to great challenges. Best example off the top of my head is Bilbo Baggins going from a quiet life in the Shire to a seasoned adventurer who faced down a dragon and survived a war. People love this kind of story because they can believe on some level that it could happen to them. We all want to be heroes, but we’re just waiting for that pot-smoking wizard to come knocking on our door.
Something that you DO NOT see as often is the effect the previous life has on that of adventuring. I can’t really think of any job skills that Bilbo used during his adventure or even if he had a job before he left. His skills are passed off more as those of all hobbits such as throwing and sneaking. This is where some stories can become flat because it comes off as the hero waiting for their calling. They weren’t doing anything prior to their adventure. I know we should only show the interesting part of their life, but the boring, normal parts can still be referenced.
People might be scratching their heads at why this is something I’ve been thinking about and I don’t blame you. It’s hard to imagine everyday skills being useful on an adventure where one really needs magic, combat abilities, and probably a few thief skills. Being able to cook or sew doesn’t factor into that. At least, it doesn’t when it comes to the meaty scenes, which is my point. A character doesn’t need to have solely adventuring skills, especially if they were pulled into the lifestyle. If anything, they would need some abilities prior to becoming a solid adventurer to keep them alive.
We’re also talking about depth here. An adventure who only knows specific skills to get them through dangers can be seen as flat. They just happen to only possess the knowledge and skills for their quest. They have nothing else about their existence. It makes them talking about their previous life rather empty too. Sure, an adventurer can talk at length about how he used to be a leatherworker. It doesn’t mean anything if they haven’t shown these skills. In fact, one would call this superfluous since it has no bearing on the character or story. This is probably why many authors don’t touch on the past life because they can’t see it being useful.
What else can these histories be used for? It gives the hero a place that they came from, but also a possible role to go back to. A hero can’t be an adventurer forever. Their final quest needs to be written eventually. If they aren’t going to be killed or rule a kingdom then they might just want to retire. It doesn’t have to be their original life, but some type of mundane lifestyle that would help them relax. Keep in mind that these characters have probably seen some horrible events and been pushed to their limits. Them wanting to settle into a quiet life isn’t unbelievable. In fact, you can easily see why they would want to spend their remaining years living in such a fashion. To do that, they need some type of skillset that would either make them money or keep them busy.
I haven’t done a lot with this in my own stories. The champions in Legends of Windemere all began as warriors or trained for their destiny. The Dawn Fangs were typically warriors, but it was clear that Bob used to work with horses and Chastity was more into business. Not that the vampires would reach the end of their quest. Anyway, I do tend to lean towards warrior and caster origins. Darwin is neither, but his situation is fairly unique since he tries to help and has trouble mastering skills. Still, I do want to add more mundane abilities to my characters. Just to give them a little more depth and a possible path after their adventures. Time will tell there.
