Fantasy Fiction Blog

This may help you visualize how those who specialize in enchantment have access to each of the 7 elements. All other magic users find one element inaccessible. Fire elementalists (pyromancers) have no access to water magic, Death elementalists (necromancers) have no access to Life magic, Earth elementalists have no access to Air magic, and so on:

Elements like Fire, Death, Water, and Air are considered primarily offensive. Life is popular for healing magic. Earth is popular for golems.

Saverin, Caleb, and Ee Geum stood, bracing themselves against a strong wind, on the final boat retreating across the river. The Great Exchange South was no longer an independent city, but the three comrades continued their fight along with a handful of other warriors on the small boat. Caleb concentrated on directing the actions of the death elemental he had conjured while Ee Geum worked to maintain control of his fire elemental.

The enemy, Sagek Kingdom soldiers, had defeated the Great Exchange South militia and wanted to dispatch the elementals quickly. Sparky and 5 other archers tried to strike down any wizards harnessing the light yellow aura of life magic or the light blue aura of water magic. Gusts of wind and the rocking boat made striking Sagek Kingdom soldiers down difficult as the enemies stood from 35-60 yards away. Saverin and his comrades stood behind a 5-man protective shield wall of Great Exchange militia.

Saverin smiled at the enemies’ poorly coordinated effort. They were slow to form shield walls around their mages and the enemy arrows and crossbow bolts thudded into the ship’s hull, bounced off the shields in front of him, or sailed overhead.

Saverin wondered how he would return to his home in the Great Exchange South after somehow extracting revenge upon the Sagek Kingdom. He didn’t allow tears that would blur his vision as he loosed an arrow that would miss its target. Saverin needed to clear his mind and find his aim.

The retreating boat was half way across the 50 yard wide river when a life spell felled Caleb’s death elemental. Saverin spotted three mages working with light blue aura, preparing ice spells to bring down Ee Geum’s fire elemental. The fire elemental charged one of these mages, making it more difficult for the other two Sagek Kingdom wizards to strike the fire elemental. The warriors surrounding the mage battled the fire elemental, giving Saverin the opening he needed. His next arrow struck the mage and ruined her spell.

60 seconds later, the fire elemental was defeated. Saverin and his retreating comrades were now only 10 yards from the shore of the Great Exchange North, 10 yards from the rest of the defeated Great Exchange militia. More archers now aimed their arrows toward the retreating boat. Several arrows struck militia fighters, but with some healing available once they reached the Great Exchange North no one in the last retreating boat visited Fate.

In all, 25 Great Exchange militia fighters had to sit down with Fate and 21 spirits were allowed to return home. Fate kept the other four in his Land of Whispers along with 10 of the 47 slain Sagek Kingdom soldiers. Tomorrow there would be funeral games.

Dwarves are almost always under 5 feet tall but they weigh as much as humans thanks to their thick, muscly builds. They grow long beards which are often decorated or braided.

Dwarves are extremely tough and are rarely affected by poison. Dwarves tend to be excellent warriors and prefer fighting in heavy armor expertly crafted to allow good range of motion. Dwarves fight with shield plus axe, shield plus hammer, shield plus spear, shield plus shortwsword, or with one larger weapon such as a battleaxe, long spear, or warhammer. Spears and swords are not as prestigous as hammers and axes, but they are very practical when battling in confined spaces such as tunnels.

Dwarves are very adventurous, and every large city has a “Dwarventown”. The largest Dwarven community is in Orderstorm Mountain.

Saverin Bone Littlebow is wood elf from Nehra who lives in the Great Exchange. He is a frequent adventuring companion of Caleb Strayfbin.

Although he spends much time away from Nehra, he is very loyal to the forest, his tribe (the bone tribe) and his clan (the otter clan). He seeks wealth, power, and allies in order to be someone his people can turn to in times of need.

Saverin always carries a bow, his primary weapon. Keen elven eyes and excellent skill with the bow means that Saverin strikes even distant, moving targets more often than not. When forced into melee, Saverin fights with a 30 inch axe in one hand and a 35 inch sword in the other. He relies on quickness (along with the grace and flexibility he tries to emulate from his totem animal, the otter) to avoid his opponents’ attacks.

The Dwarven King Almo Deepaxe rules Orderstorm Mountain. Although inhabited mostly by Dwarves, people from just about every race live in or visit Orderstorm. Visitors and inhabitants are well documented; no one leaves or enters without passing through checkpoints manned by the Orderstorm Border Guard and Security Council.

Mount Orderstorm is located northwest of Nehra. One of the “fingers” of Lake Trade separates them. Orderstorm is also surrounded by Lake trade on the east and north. South of Orderstorm is a hilly region inhabited primairly by monsters. To the west are more mountains.

November is America’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) so why not check out their forums for info on building worlds, saving world, creating memorable characters, killing memorable characters, imagining scary villains, destroying the villains, how to write sword figths, and more.

Shakahar are humanoids with the facial (and possibly some other) characteristics of a particular animal. Generally, one who is familiar with the animal will have no trouble identifying which type of animal the shakahar takes after.

In Nehra, there are shakahar for nearly every animal found there although shakahar are few in number. Shakahar vary slightly in size compared to the animals they take after. For example, a mongoose shakahar will be 6 or 7 stone, only slightly smaller than a wood elf, while a leopard shakahar might be 15-18 stone (210-252 pounds), larger than many well-built humans. In turn, the leopard shakahar would be smaller than an elephant shakahar; these shakahar could reach 25 stone or 350 pounds.

Shakahar tend to share some physical characteristics with the animal they take after. A viper shakahar will be very quick; an elephant shakahar will be very strong.

Shakahar do not form communities, possibly because they are so few in number. In Nehra, shakahar often live alone in the wilderness cooperating with animals of the type they take after and wood elves from the clan named after the animal. For example a mongoose shakahar may live alone in the wilderness, spend significant time with the mongoose wood elf clan, and spend time with actual mongooses in the wild.

Shakahar have been known to mate with humans and elves, but never with a shakahar that takes after a different animal.

As with all races, the mystery of the first shakahar, or how the race came to be, is a mystery. In Nehra it is said that the Silver Dragon known as Sand is in some way responsible. The magic that she wove to protect Nehra’s elves from the monster races may have imbued the land with enchantments that allowed the tribe’s representative animals to take on humanoid form. It is said that only one shakahar taking after a specific animal exists at one time, lending support to the theory that shakahar are humanoid aspects of elven tribe’s representative animals. However, there are shakahar outside of Nehra, something which this theory simply does not explain.

Some Finn McCool folklore is too high-fantasy even for me (like the part about chucking a big piece of earth at an enemy, missing, and accidentally creating the Isle of Man when it landed in the Irish Sea).

However, other parts of the legend are pretty good. His battle with the Scottish Giant Fingal is a good story although one does wonder how a Giant disguises himself as a baby. Still, the part about building a crossing to get at Fingal. Though Finn McCool should have taken a break every once in a while so he wasn’t too tired for a real fight when he finished. I guess he forgot to call upon the salmon’s wisdom by sucking his thumb.

Finn McCool has been described several ways in various legends. His spear that never missed makes things too easy for good fiction, but his sword has a cool name:  Mac an Luin or Son of the Waves. The sword has also been called Birga and while I’m not crazy about the name, but the story this site shares has some interesting ideas like hounds that were really McCool’s cured nephews and a deer who was really a young woman cursed by a druid.

Finn McCool has inspried some stories in modern fantasy, such as in The Dark Druid, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. I was also able to find a collection of creative writing by Irish students. These students worked on creating new stories about Fionn mac Cumhail. I’m not sure if I’ll borrow from parts of the legend, but knowing it can’t hurt a fantasy fiction writer.

Jonathan Starspear’s treatise How to Slay a Dragon: the experiences and expertise of the first and greatest ever dragon hunter, Jonathan Starspear details the first successful adventurer-led dragon hunt.

Jonathan Starspear invented the share system, organized a 790 person strong force of heroic adventurers, and led them on a hunt for the powerful Red Dragon, Senlo.

Topics include how to find a dragon, how to defeat a dragon, how to find a dragon’s lair, how to slay a dragon, and how to collect a dragon’s treasure. To summarize, after finding a dragon and doing battle with it, a divining ritual must be cast to find the dragon’s lair.

If the force is powerful enough, a dragon will collect its most precious items and abandon the lair. Many times, the dragon will battle the adventurers in its layer. Here the dragon will have several advantages: the dragon will know it’s lair well and may have a number of tricks to help it defeat invaders. Also, it’s unlikely that a froce of hundreds will be able to do battle the dragon simultaneously within the confines of the dragon’s lair. Adventurers who are unused to opertain in large groups and who are unfamilair with most of their company may have difficulty working well as a unit.

Once the dragon has retreated or been defeated cursed items must be identified and the real treasure must be divided by the shareholding adventurers.

Today the share system is widely used by adventurers to organize large forces. The average dragon horde is worth 50,000 gold. If 1,000 shares are issued, each becomes worth 50 gold. Before the shares’ final value is calculated, magic and mundane items in the treasure horde are auctioned off. Only shareholders may bid and winners must pay immediately. The gold raised from this auction is totaled with other coins and awarded to the shareholders.

Shares are not only used for hunting dragons. The share system has been used for hunting many powerful foes including wizards, vampires (and all types of greater undead), and any adversary perceived to have enough treasure to make the share system viable. Generally from 20 - 1,000 are issued depnding on the strength and supposed treasure of the hunted.

In larger groups, where personal accountability is difficult, shareholders will be required to voluntarily submit to a quest ritual. This insures that they will do what their part in the hunt. Without the quest ritual, adventurers would hesitate to put themselves in harm’s way during the hunt, preferring to collect their shares by doing as little work and taking as little risk as they can.

Wood Elves in and around forests, with a relatively large population in Nehra. They live in extended family clans, each of which has a representative animal. Several clans make up a tribe.

Wood Elves are strong for their small size. Wood Elves never reach 6 feet in height and never weigh more than 11 stone (154 pounds). They eat light meals and their diet consists largely of berries, roots, leafy vegetables, and fruits. This is supplemented with fish and occasionally with meat. Wood Elves hunt infrequently however, since nearly every animal represents one of the family clans. Permission to hunt a particular animal must be negotiated with members of the corresponding clan. Hunting expeditions to foreign lands are not uncommon and traders can often get a good price for meats.

Wood Elves always marry members of another clan. Negotiations determine with which clan the couple, and importantly the children that follow, will live. 

Warriors tend to fight with long spear, shield and spear, shield and sword, shield and axe, or 2 weapons (such as shortsword and short axe, spear and shortsword, or longsword and shortsword). Every warrior that is not using a shield carries a bow. Those with shields will often carry javelins, throwing hatchets, or knives.

Wood Elves are adept magicians and favor the following elements: Life, Death, Earth, Water, and Air. It is rare to find a Wood Elf specializing in Fire or Enchantment/Charm.