Introduction
It’s fitting that I posted this on New Year’s Eve. I’m sitting under a blanket with my dressing gown on, doing my best to hammer this idea into shape. I wonder if blacksmiths have hands as chilly as mine. First world problems, I know. Well, hope you’ve all been well. I’ve been busy with work… and playing computer games. Hardly taxing, of course. Anyway, renewal, new year, new writing project! I’m going to be doing a fantasy anthology! I’ve put that sci-fi idea on the backburner. I’m not going to say this was done sadly, I’m happy to throw an idea in the bin if I don’t like writing it.
The Novel is the Thing
I say “anthology” and not “novel” because the idea of making a full novel still sounds daunting to me. Then again (thanks to my mum’s advice just now), I can make them a novel of multiple parts connected by a central idea. It’s still in the planning stages, and I’ve only started one of the stories. The fantasy genre might be saturated at the moment, though really it’s always been filled with something. Be it Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s influence, or more contemporary, gritty stuff like A Song of Ice and Fire. Speaking of which, to quote a podcast segment – FINISH THE [swear] BOOK, YOU OLD [gentleman]. Not my fault swearing at him was funny, but I’m trying to be professional. GRRM still got published and made a lot of money.
(I don’t really care, I never read the books. It’s just funny to point and laugh at someone who didn’t plan things out well enough. It reminds me to keep writing, to keep going.)
There is Hope in the Darkness.
I’ll get to the good bit now. The meat of the story I’m writing. It’s an anthology, a collection of stories set in a fantasy world. But that doesn’t tell you anything, does it? Well, it’s a world I went out of my way to make “Noblebright”. This being a term made in opposition to Grimdark, itself a term made by Warhammer 40,000.
The central conceit of this fantasy story is right there in the term: noble and bright. There’s grim elements to be sure, but that just allows for conflict. I don’t want to get bogged down in misery, but I’m a Berserk fan. Evil exists and should be hit with a big sword.
The Lore (some of it)
The main human country me and a friend came up (the Eisenblut Sovranty) with had a massive civil war over whether the south could use slaves (the friend’s idea). Both sides are reeling from it since it only ended four months ago in-universe. Meanwhile the local elves are raiding and warring with each other, because that’s what they usually do (or what they let the humans outside their woods believe), and their goddess just lets it happen because “Nature is selfish”. But there’s hope. Infrastructure is in place to help those in need, and alliances can be formed if everyone SITS DOWN AND TALKS.
I say friend above because this setting started as the basis for a TTRPG campaign I’m running. One player, I’ll call him Faded because that’s his username, and I’m hardly about to dox him, made a lot of the setting together. Him and another player I’ll call Pillows made the initial Sovraty, but Faded has kept adding to it and made it his baby, as it were. We’re still making it, just that I’ve taken the basis and put it to the side to do my own lore as a book. The game setting and book will be in parallel. The point, is that this is a setting with slavery, but the majority are in agreement that this is a demonstrably heinous practice. I even put this in the notes of my lore document for the game:
Sorry to whoever’s reading this writing blog that thinks slavery was fine, or that the fact the American south were also worried about states rights somehow lets you ignore the slavery. As this video asks: States rights to do what? Slavery should not be tolerated, shocking I know. Let your players kill slavers, and let writers write about putting them to the sword like John Brown.
And this isn’t even mentioning the demons! There are demons, they used to rule the world because a god made them (yes, there are gods too). Then an elf woman killed their god, took his power (becoming the de facto nature goddess of the setting) and sent the demons to a hell dimension. It sounds like I’m glossing over it, but the point is that the demon king, Qadmiel, isn’t some cackling villain, he’s a king who has to corral all his nobles, keep his subjects together and happy, and he misses his husband. The first story we see him in is him sitting in his study, looking over the piles of tablets he wrote to his now-lost paramour. The husband, Baal, isn’t dead, he just stayed behind to kill elves out of sheer might and spite (an idea Faded came up with that I’m all for).
Wrap-up, then Snippet
A big thing I want to get across to my readers is a matter of scale but keeping character as a focus. The stories range in scale because one could be about a king, the next a farmer, another about an executioner.
I made a setting with players, I said that already. The important thing is that I managed to make sure the tone/vibe isn’t all over the place. Each country has a bit of magic in it, each people have their own culture and reactions to the problems of the setting. Like the Old Gods, eldritch beings who you really shouldn’t worship. It never really ends well for you. The New Gods are more human, but that makes them likely to miss out on helping everyone, or they can get things wrong. The setting needs contrast and conflict. The bright part comes in because most of the new gods at least care about the mortals and will help if called upon.
I’ll put a snippet of the first story down below. Feel free to offer feedback in the comments. I’m very excited about this one! Though, keep in mind that I’m still in the planning stages so this won’t be out for a while. Happy New Year to you all!
How to begin, my love? I sit alone in my study, the blood pulsing in these four walls adding their rhythm to my thoughts. Thrum-thrum, thrum-thrum goes the palace. A living thing, red meat and rich blood housed in a carapace of stone and shining brass. This blessed place, this realm, it gave us perils and we turned them into gifts.
The study – oh, you would love it. the desk was grown from the closest to trees we have here. Fibrous wood chopped, regrown, carved and shaped into a smooth, flat, polished surface. The metal for the legs is this red iron, rust-coloured but strong. The walls… I had them painted. I shan’t have a room without the right trappings. And bare stone is boring.
The chair. It’s nowhere near as opulent as my throne, but it supports me well. Perfect for carving.
You would like it here. The starless skies and howling wind fit your disposition. And of course, there are the unspeakable beasts on the fringes, too terrible to describe. Kohen says they aren’t so unknowable as they seem, but then again, he hasn’t been the same since we… arrived here. If I say, “cast out,” it will only bring up the old pains.
The letters, another to add to the pile, that will help. The stone tablet is small in my hands as I set it down, taking up a chisel and… pausing. I look over, in this candle-lit room, to the piles upon piles of other letters. Thick, black stone, carved with my previous attempts to speak to you. There was nowhere to send them to, we cannot reach back to the home realm. So, here they stand, looming over me, a monument to my…
I like to think of it as grief, but I know the lower lords, the dukes and earls and barons, they would think their High Lord mad if they knew. No doubt they wonder why I have so many tablets delivered to me. This is something you never really got, keeping secrets like this. A matter of reputation. You just went and did as you thought best.
I take a moment now to rest. Rest these old eyes. Old, ha. I cannot tell if I truly am such. The chair creaks under my weight and shifting about. Head in hands, I just need this little moment to pause. A quiet groan escapes my toothy maw. If my horns could itch, I would scratch them.
- Thanks for reading! If you like this, please check out my published work:
- The Spider and the Moths, on Impspired.
- A Model Dwarf, Wolf in Sheep’s Therapy, on Impspired.
- Cramped Quarters, on New Contexts 4.
- Endure, Reclaim, in New Contexts 5.
- Lost and Found, in New Contexts 7.
- The Cleaner’s Burden, in Apocalypse Now?.
- The Last Man Standing on the Ash Heap, on Impspired.
- Or, you could have a look at my last blog post, which you can find here.
- Also, I have a Fiverr page, check it out if you need proofreading or copywriting work done. Link here.