Foxboy:
The thing is, there's gonna be a fairly large number of people who insist on clinging to the old ways. The old culture, the old attitudes. You're definitely going to have traditionalists who'd reject the changes imposed by the worldshift. I imagine that being particularly prevailent among the nobility - or former nobility. Or whatever. That might turn up in manner of dress, people who refuse to wear the crazy newfangled clothes. Traditionalist conclaves. And yes, in art.
Conversely, there's folks who'd view the changes in a positive light. Social liberation, of sorts. All that considered, I'll probably have to work in, somewhere in the background, a couple of references to...yeah, an in-story animated TV show, produced by some studio in the elven territories, that is in fact sympathetic to the Chaos Gods - who are, of course, vilified in mainstream culture for that region.
It's a rather strange situation, all in all, because people in this world know that the Gods exist - or at least existed. You'd have to be stupid to deny it. And they know a major world-changing event has occured. Though naturally, there's people who refuse to believe that the Old Gods are really dead...
The old power balance has...actually taken a serious hit from the worldshift, and the events leading up to it. Mmm... I need to actually sit down and work out a concrete list of all the nations involved here. To be perfectly honest, I've only actually identified three discrete political entities of the 'light' nations, and two for the 'dark' ones. There are probably more.
Probably the most relevant thing to the story is that Deon, whether intentionally or not, has pretty much destroyed the the old Empire that ran most of the European analogue - what's left of the central capital government is no longer a powerful force, and there's the beginnings of a new somewhat more democratic entity springing up on the former border regions. For a given value of 'democratic', anyway. Perhaps 'embracing capitalist economy' would be a better word.
Deadpan29:
You're right, however, in identifying that food supply is going to be an issue. I don't want it to be too big an issue, certainly not one that eclipses the story. But there could well be concerns about prices, supply, and a possible coming crisis. I'll have to mention something of the sort.
This wasn't the case for the 'dark' nations, the ones nominally belonging to the Gods of Chaos, who took a rather more hands-off approach. The 'dark' nations were, before the change, generally less civilized...fewer cities, lower technology level, more tribal in social structure, and so on. These days I imagine they're rather more prone to being the sort of country dominated by military juntas, or flat out military rule.
As for bandits and outlaws, I'm not sure. One thing to consider is the ripple effect lessens as you get further from the big cities, as I've noted before. But I'd imagine that outlaws would have a haphazard combination of modern firearms (and the knowledge to use them), as well as whatever spears, bows, and whatnot they had before.
I do need to think about this, because a reoccuring antagonist we'll meet in the story is Sir Matas Jager. He and other Knights of Valin have basically gone outlaw themselves, due to profound inability to accept what's happened to the world.
Epsilon:
As to whether it's a Character or Idea piece...well, using your classifications, what I'm writing is an Idea piece. The key focus is really the themes and questions... concepts of morality, religion, and so on. That was always my plan all along.
The thing is, I planned on using conventions that fall within, well, what you'd consider a Character story. There's a reason I chose a first person narrative, after all. There's a certain amount of development and change that both Deon and Zastra undergo...well, Zastra more than Deon, actually, but still. They're not quite the same people at the end, compared to how they start.
But the process of change for both characters is...essentially a vehicle to convey the overarching themes that the story is about. Heck, originally, Zastra was the only one to undergo any sort of transformative process...Deon would have stayed Deon throughout the whole thing, rather pointedly not becoming any different. I've moved away from that, and my current plans will see some changes for him. It helps to humanize him a little. which is necessary.
Then, of course, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but Deon isn't as happy about what he's done as he originally seems to be. He's got a few second thoughts - he's done a really big thing, and he's hurt a lot of people. He's conscious of that. Showing how the new world's failing, or where it breaks down, highlights this issue of guilt and responsibility.
The rules of magic in this world...well, okay. I hadn't actually planned to establish them explicitly. But I've got them worked out, and you're right, they need to be on the table early. In fact, given some plot twists I wanna put in with regards to the Old Gods, and their nature, it's probably best I lay as much groundwork as possible.
Most people generally took it as a given that Gods, in general, did exist. Certainly there's enough proof of that, since these are deities who occasionally took an active part in world affairs.
All of this has...somewhat crashed in the aftermath of Deon's actions. Precise attitudes would vary greatly from region to region, and run the whole gamut. Some people would cling desperately to the old beliefs, and refuse to acknowledge that their Gods are dead. Conversely, in some parts of the world, being religious would now be a bad thing - burning of churches, lynching of priests, and so on. It'd be a great source of social turmoil, yeah.
The Godslayer would have a cult, yes.
This isn't the one that Zastra belongs to. She's a Priestess of Senica, and she claims that the Church of Senica is now loyal to the Godslayer. This isn't true. What's left of the Church is split. Some believe that Senica can't be dead, this is all a lie. Some believe Senica is dead, and that makes the Godslayer the greatest evil ever. Others try to worship the Godslayer.
So there's probably some kind of new religion forming around the Godslayer, yeah... though I haven't really considered what shape and form it'd take. I do know that their very existence greatly annoys Deon, who doesn't like the idea of being worshipped.
It should be noted that...no worshippers really bother him directly. It isn't public knowledge that "Gideon Novak" is the Godslayer. The Godslayer is this big legendary figure to most people. Zastra's appearance at his doorstep is a very unusual event...but then, Zastra has access to information most folks don't.
Theoretically, he could have given himself the knowledge too, but he intentionally refused to mess with his own mind. He didn't want to be omniscient, or anywhere close to it.
Thing is...
You can take a village healer, and turn him into an MD overnight. You can. But the new knowledge he has doesn't erase everything he believed before, all his life experience. So it's quite possible for a stubborn individual to reject it all and go back to bleeding patients with leeches. Or still view electricity as magic, despite knowing the basic theory.
I hadn't considered people innovating in ways that Deon didn't plan on, however. Newly minted scientists figuring out things he doesn't like... that's interesting. I need to do something with that.
That's why Deon, who was born...somewhere else...could come to Tianan and be a mage. The magic was never in him, it was always in the world.
But the training is restricted. The secrets are closely guarded. It's possible for someone to teach themselves magic, but that's pretty rare, and the odds of hurting (or killing) yourself is pretty high.
There's a few implications here. With regards to how magic interacts with technology... well, yeah, it can. A mage can enchant any object, but they've got to have a fairly good grasp of how the thing they're enchanting operates, and how the enchantment changes that. It's all in the visualisation, y'see. Complex techno-magic is thus hard, since you'd need both skill in magic and a fair understanding of the object you're trying to alter... though as time goes by, it'd probably become increasingly common.
(Incidentally, Tias, as a fully sentient magical construct, is basically a self-sustaining spell. By this point, he's a piece of spellwork that's casting himself.)
Magic in this world is very strongly rooted in feelings and visualisation, which makes it more a vehicle to convey things about characters and their personalities, as you put it.
Zastra, for instance, is the healer of the hero party. Deon has at least as much regular magical aptitude, but he doesn't normally heal. See, the act of healing requires a certain mindset...usually empathy and compassion, though there are other ways to power a healing spell.
-- Acyl
EDIT: (I'll get to Bob and Catty's questions later. More thought needed.)
-- Acyl
Quote:Interesting question. Would there be an equiv of "Hellsing" and religious themes in anime? Possibly. Would any traditional artists have kept, or continue to work in old mediums? Some.
How has "Old Religion" meshed with "modern media?"
The thing is, there's gonna be a fairly large number of people who insist on clinging to the old ways. The old culture, the old attitudes. You're definitely going to have traditionalists who'd reject the changes imposed by the worldshift. I imagine that being particularly prevailent among the nobility - or former nobility. Or whatever. That might turn up in manner of dress, people who refuse to wear the crazy newfangled clothes. Traditionalist conclaves. And yes, in art.
Conversely, there's folks who'd view the changes in a positive light. Social liberation, of sorts. All that considered, I'll probably have to work in, somewhere in the background, a couple of references to...yeah, an in-story animated TV show, produced by some studio in the elven territories, that is in fact sympathetic to the Chaos Gods - who are, of course, vilified in mainstream culture for that region.
It's a rather strange situation, all in all, because people in this world know that the Gods exist - or at least existed. You'd have to be stupid to deny it. And they know a major world-changing event has occured. Though naturally, there's people who refuse to believe that the Old Gods are really dead...
Quote:Deon is American, though not one particularly enamoured of politics in general where he comes from. That said, you're right, it makes a difference.
And... The old world's Power structures WILL have bearing on the new world. What part of the world is Gideon from? If he's American, he'll have done VERY different things from a Briton, likewise if he's Aussie, Hong Kong born, etc.
The old power balance has...actually taken a serious hit from the worldshift, and the events leading up to it. Mmm... I need to actually sit down and work out a concrete list of all the nations involved here. To be perfectly honest, I've only actually identified three discrete political entities of the 'light' nations, and two for the 'dark' ones. There are probably more.
Probably the most relevant thing to the story is that Deon, whether intentionally or not, has pretty much destroyed the the old Empire that ran most of the European analogue - what's left of the central capital government is no longer a powerful force, and there's the beginnings of a new somewhat more democratic entity springing up on the former border regions. For a given value of 'democratic', anyway. Perhaps 'embracing capitalist economy' would be a better word.
Deadpan29:
Quote:A lot of them were moved into cities. Existing major towns were converted into much larger urban centres, and when that happened, they absorbed nearby agricultural villages to make up the population numbers - a geographic relocation for many people. The remaining farmers left in the countryside now have the benefit of modern technology, knowledge of agricultural techniques, and the actual land itself has been converted, in a large part, to modern farms. Though it should be noted that the further you get from the cities, the less 'changed' the countryside gets.
On the other hand, a classic medival-type society tended to have about 90% of the population involved in food production, with the slight surplus by that 90% going to feed the remaining 10%. Likewise, most of the population was in scattered farming vilages a few miles apart. When the world was rebooted, maybe a bunch of folks from the vilages got moved into the cities or maybe the population distribution stayed as was.
You're right, however, in identifying that food supply is going to be an issue. I don't want it to be too big an issue, certainly not one that eclipses the story. But there could well be concerns about prices, supply, and a possible coming crisis. I'll have to mention something of the sort.
Quote:Developing world democracy, yes. Within the story's timeframe, nowhere on Tianan does there exist anything even remotely comparable to the mature democracies of the Western world. There are no truly functional representative democracy by any stretch. After the immediate dust settles, we're talking places mostly dominated by single-party systems and no credible opposition in government. A fair amount of corruption and the like. You can implant the ideas and roles into people's heads, but that doesn't fully change the people.
If the political system changed, do the people in office really know how to and want to work a system like this, or is it going to look more like the sort of "democracy" you get in the third world or maybe current Russia?
Quote:Mmmm...good question. I hadn't thought about a lot of this. Uh, in the 'light' kingdoms - the ones venerating the Gods of Order, and so on, the ruling power was more a Mage-Priest Class. Religion was far more of a going concern there, and this is a world where the Gods do have power, and do take a rather active hand.
Despite modern concerns about crime, briandry and piracy were more common back in the day. Do all those outlaws now have modern para-military gear? Is the warrior/wizard/priest class still in power?
This wasn't the case for the 'dark' nations, the ones nominally belonging to the Gods of Chaos, who took a rather more hands-off approach. The 'dark' nations were, before the change, generally less civilized...fewer cities, lower technology level, more tribal in social structure, and so on. These days I imagine they're rather more prone to being the sort of country dominated by military juntas, or flat out military rule.
As for bandits and outlaws, I'm not sure. One thing to consider is the ripple effect lessens as you get further from the big cities, as I've noted before. But I'd imagine that outlaws would have a haphazard combination of modern firearms (and the knowledge to use them), as well as whatever spears, bows, and whatnot they had before.
I do need to think about this, because a reoccuring antagonist we'll meet in the story is Sir Matas Jager. He and other Knights of Valin have basically gone outlaw themselves, due to profound inability to accept what's happened to the world.
Epsilon:
Quote:Huh. You're right. It's a matter of form and function. The form is relevant insofar as it fits what I'm trying to do, and the message I'm trying to convey. It's definitely not a milieu story, no.
The reason I'm bringing this up? Because your story is NOT a milieu story. The setting of your story really isn't important to the telling of your tale. Its a stage on which your characters get to talk to each other. Thus, you don't have to sweat the details too much.
As to whether it's a Character or Idea piece...well, using your classifications, what I'm writing is an Idea piece. The key focus is really the themes and questions... concepts of morality, religion, and so on. That was always my plan all along.
The thing is, I planned on using conventions that fall within, well, what you'd consider a Character story. There's a reason I chose a first person narrative, after all. There's a certain amount of development and change that both Deon and Zastra undergo...well, Zastra more than Deon, actually, but still. They're not quite the same people at the end, compared to how they start.
But the process of change for both characters is...essentially a vehicle to convey the overarching themes that the story is about. Heck, originally, Zastra was the only one to undergo any sort of transformative process...Deon would have stayed Deon throughout the whole thing, rather pointedly not becoming any different. I've moved away from that, and my current plans will see some changes for him. It helps to humanize him a little. which is necessary.
Quote:That's interesting. The sewage thing, hadn't thought of that. It's the kind of thing that Zastra might throw in Deon's face, as a counterpoint to his philosophy.
This will emphasize to the readers that despite his claims to the contrary this world NEEDS gods because without them it will break down.
Then, of course, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but Deon isn't as happy about what he's done as he originally seems to be. He's got a few second thoughts - he's done a really big thing, and he's hurt a lot of people. He's conscious of that. Showing how the new world's failing, or where it breaks down, highlights this issue of guilt and responsibility.
Quote:Revealing to the reader precisely what it is Deon did, and exactly what he is now was always part of the plan. The introductory scene has a very large aura of mystery, but it's not like I can sustain that for long. The whole 'guy changed entire world' thing is supposed to come out in relatively short order.
Establish how magic works and establish this in your story EARLY. Make the rules, then never break them.
The rules of magic in this world...well, okay. I hadn't actually planned to establish them explicitly. But I've got them worked out, and you're right, they need to be on the table early. In fact, given some plot twists I wanna put in with regards to the Old Gods, and their nature, it's probably best I lay as much groundwork as possible.
Quote:Monotheism would be all but unknown, and atheism equally rare. The old religions mostly venerated one God above the others - the Elven Empire was dedicated to Senica, for instance, and Valin had his own religious orders. But the religions generally didn't try to claim their deity was the ONE TRUE God, and didn't deny the existence of other Gods.
Does this world still have god worship? In what forms?
Most people generally took it as a given that Gods, in general, did exist. Certainly there's enough proof of that, since these are deities who occasionally took an active part in world affairs.
All of this has...somewhat crashed in the aftermath of Deon's actions. Precise attitudes would vary greatly from region to region, and run the whole gamut. Some people would cling desperately to the old beliefs, and refuse to acknowledge that their Gods are dead. Conversely, in some parts of the world, being religious would now be a bad thing - burning of churches, lynching of priests, and so on. It'd be a great source of social turmoil, yeah.
The Godslayer would have a cult, yes.
This isn't the one that Zastra belongs to. She's a Priestess of Senica, and she claims that the Church of Senica is now loyal to the Godslayer. This isn't true. What's left of the Church is split. Some believe that Senica can't be dead, this is all a lie. Some believe Senica is dead, and that makes the Godslayer the greatest evil ever. Others try to worship the Godslayer.
So there's probably some kind of new religion forming around the Godslayer, yeah... though I haven't really considered what shape and form it'd take. I do know that their very existence greatly annoys Deon, who doesn't like the idea of being worshipped.
It should be noted that...no worshippers really bother him directly. It isn't public knowledge that "Gideon Novak" is the Godslayer. The Godslayer is this big legendary figure to most people. Zastra's appearance at his doorstep is a very unusual event...but then, Zastra has access to information most folks don't.
Quote:Well, your newly-minted doctor does have full medical knowledge downloaded into his brain. Same thing with physics, and so on. Even though Deon himself wasn't an expert in scientific fields, he knew that the world needed such people ... and so he created them. He had that much power. So yeah, this new world comes equipped with people who not only know how to do their jobs, but have the full and complete education that comes with it.
How do the normal people view the reality shift? Are they, by and large, happier? Do they understand how eveyrthing works or are they just stumbling through the motions.
Theoretically, he could have given himself the knowledge too, but he intentionally refused to mess with his own mind. He didn't want to be omniscient, or anywhere close to it.
Thing is...
You can take a village healer, and turn him into an MD overnight. You can. But the new knowledge he has doesn't erase everything he believed before, all his life experience. So it's quite possible for a stubborn individual to reject it all and go back to bleeding patients with leeches. Or still view electricity as magic, despite knowing the basic theory.
I hadn't considered people innovating in ways that Deon didn't plan on, however. Newly minted scientists figuring out things he doesn't like... that's interesting. I need to do something with that.
Quote:I have to prepare a proper document on this, if only for my own reference. Hm. Broadly speaking, anyone in this world is theoretically capable of performing magic. It doesn't require any specific talent. Magic is a background force of this universe, and any sentient individual can tap into it - even some non-sentients, if they can frame the proper thought.
Magic is the other magic leg of your setting tripod. You have to decide how it works.
That's why Deon, who was born...somewhere else...could come to Tianan and be a mage. The magic was never in him, it was always in the world.
But the training is restricted. The secrets are closely guarded. It's possible for someone to teach themselves magic, but that's pretty rare, and the odds of hurting (or killing) yourself is pretty high.
There's a few implications here. With regards to how magic interacts with technology... well, yeah, it can. A mage can enchant any object, but they've got to have a fairly good grasp of how the thing they're enchanting operates, and how the enchantment changes that. It's all in the visualisation, y'see. Complex techno-magic is thus hard, since you'd need both skill in magic and a fair understanding of the object you're trying to alter... though as time goes by, it'd probably become increasingly common.
(Incidentally, Tias, as a fully sentient magical construct, is basically a self-sustaining spell. By this point, he's a piece of spellwork that's casting himself.)
Magic in this world is very strongly rooted in feelings and visualisation, which makes it more a vehicle to convey things about characters and their personalities, as you put it.
Zastra, for instance, is the healer of the hero party. Deon has at least as much regular magical aptitude, but he doesn't normally heal. See, the act of healing requires a certain mindset...usually empathy and compassion, though there are other ways to power a healing spell.
-- Acyl
EDIT: (I'll get to Bob and Catty's questions later. More thought needed.)
-- Acyl