The protagonist of my monster-slaying fantasy story, Ghost, was originally a tall able-bodied hunter. At the very beginning of the story, however, his body is completely destroyed when he accidentally comes across one of the main monsters of the story, a witch. Thanks to the aid of another witch named Nyse, his soul is bound to the body of a golem so that he is still able to hunt down the witches that killed him. The only problem is that the golem body he inhabits is much stronger and weaker than others because it was built by the young witch that brought him back. So the main character goes from being a 6ft+ man to a small ironclad 3.5ft golem. I'm a little stumped trying to write someone who's realizing such a dramatic change in height is a little difficult. So my question is how would you go about writing a character who is recognizing that something is different about his height and body. (For comparison, the witch who brought him back it a little less than 5ft tall.) I don't know if it's helpful, but I attached some very old and VERY messy and incomplete concept art of Ghost, the main character in question. I don't know if this is allowed, I'm so sorry if it's not! Let me know if you need more context and I'll be happy to answer. Thanks to anyone who'd like to give their opinion!
Did you mean smaller and weaker? By others did you mean in comparision to other golems or just his old body. What is the overall tone of the story? If humorous/comedic you could have him complaining about how he never realized how far away something was now that he has to take four or 5 steps to equal one stride. If less humorous- I would treat it like he is recently physically disabled. He will have significant emotional trauma, and maybe social trauma as friends will not recognize him, and it will change the dynamic of relationships.
Whoops. Yes, I'm sorry. I did mean smaller and weaker. And by others, I was referring to other golems. Golems in this world are built for either combat or manual labor so they tend to be rather large. As for the overall tone of the story, it's a dark fantasy, though a lot of its darker subjects are coated in layers of jokes and sarcasm. The best example I can give is perhaps the Castlevania series on netflix.
Well on a basic physics level a normal sword would toss him around when he swings it, do to momentum and lacking in mass to control it properly. (Granted fantasy has been cheating for years with average people wielding gargantuan weapons as if they weighed nothing.) There may be a reach issue in combat, but being inside an opponents reach will make their strikes less effective, than they would be with normal full range motion. Also being shorter/smaller is great for stealth and sneaking around in places most can't go. Downside is he'd need a step ladder to reach the top shelf. IDK, maybe study up on how dwarves and midgets manage in an average sized environment, with all the perks and disadvantages they have to come to terms with. That would be your best bet in portraying your short statured protagonist.
Difficulty reaching things high up that used to be a cinch for him. Having to climb up onto a barstool that he would once have swung a leg over. Getting onto a horse being almost impossible. Finding that the tip of his sword (scabbard) drags in the dirt when affixed to his belt. Three foot five? Being mistaken for a child, or literally tripped over in the market/bar/whatever. Trouble finding adult-fashioned clothes or a tailor who can dress him. Finding a new short-statured friend who can help him adjust and teach him the "tricks" of negotiating a world built for those taller than he is now.
He might find that he's a lot heavier than before (not sure?) and since he's ironbound, he clangs a lot now. No way to move silently I would assume, unless he pads himself with some layers of clothing or something. Rust would also be an issue unless the iron is somehow an alloy or treated to resist it (perhaps magically?) I'm curious, what's inside the iron? Unless you don't want to reveal that of course. Knowing could help us come up with ideas. Is is standard Golem clay?
I'm not too entirely concerned about his ability to use a weapon or maintaining the actual armor himself. Since it's a fantasy genre, I can get away with the 'magic weapon' excuse haha. I also have two characters who help him with maintenance, the one who built him and someone who knows what they're doing lol. Not gonna lie I'm getting lots of ideas for some funny jokes, though. When you ask what's inside of the iron, do you mean inside the armor suit? The golems in my story are powered by magic stones that act as a generator for them to move and they need to be replaced when they're out of power. A frame is built over the stone and then the iron suit is built over that. Ghost is built differently though because he's not powered by a stone nor does he even have the built in framing. He's basically just a hollow suit of armor being held together by witch's magic. The golems in my story aren't your standard rock monsters (I'm sure they vary depending on what story/series they're in but that's how I've always known them), it's just the name for these manufactured suits of armor that can move and obey commands, though they don't have a mind of their own. So I have another question for anyone who cares to answer. If you were to awake one day to find you were in an entirely different body, as Ghost does, what would be going through your mind and how would you personally react? I know its a weird question to answer without exactly experiencing it, but I'd like to hear from a reader's perspective how they would handle a situation and what would be going through their mind. Thanks again!
I was thinking of the original Golem, from Hebrew legend, which was made of clay and animated by magic. So basically, the new body he finds himself in is no body at all. Wow, I think if it were me I'd be freaking out and wondering what happens if the armor gets destroyed or the magic runs out. Would he become a disembodied spirit, or just cease to exist, or what?
Ahhh gotcha! Pretty much, its like that! The witch who built him uses her own magic to keep his soul bound to it, so he doesn't have to worry about the magic running out as long as she's around. But if something were to happen to her (i.e. death), then he'd lose his link to the physical world and disappear. As for the armor getting destroyed, it depends. If there's still a salvageable piece of his body that his spirit can cling onto, he can be repaired. But if there's nothing left, then he disappears too. The danger in the story isn't so much Ghost's safety, as he is already dead at the beginning of the story, but the safety of the witch that keeps him together and the comrades he's with.
I would quickly grow homesick of human bodily functions. Drinking, eating, breathing... and the other ones. A lack of skin would take some getting used to as well.
Are golems normally intelligent? If they are, he may be subject to prejudice from both humans and other golems. If not, he may have to deal with being 'the circus freak' to humans. Since it sounds like you're going darker with a touch of gallows humor thrown in, I would definitely treat it like a physical disability. He's going to have issues with depression, and probably have issues with anger at least at first. I'd expect him to react badly when people say anything that could remotely be interpreted as a reference to his stature EX: friend and him are competing in a game like darts(where his size is not an issue), he loses, barely. Friend makes a comment about coming up short and ends up with a bloody nose.
Glad you like him! This is definitely something that'd I'd like to explore in this story. No, they don't typically possess any intelligence beyond the commands of their master. (There is another golem character I plan to introduce later that is self-aware but the circumstances behind that are completely different from Ghost's.) He's definitely an anomaly which becomes the focus of alot of unwanted attention. Not gonna lie, that darts scenario gave me a good laugh. It definitely lines up with his short-tempered and stubborn personality. I'm definitely gonna have a ball coming up with some short gags, though.
