All of my stories, despite being separate serials, novels, etc., are interconnected with an internally consistent world. I'm basically doing what Sanderson did with creating the Cosmere, except less world-hopping, and more reoccurring themes/characters.
Same here. You learn a lot about yourself from writing. I think I'm writing the same story over and over from different angles. Whether or not they're the MC, there's always one quiet, dull, bureaucratic type who is pretty sure the situation can be solved with a spreadsheet or everybody just following the damn rules. I have a lot of 'the one sane person in the world' going on too. Clearly all from the same place.
Wow, this is why prompts exist. Not really a WIP, more of something back-burnered at the moment, but: The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, is not a hotel at all. It was a Soviet-financed project, but when the Soviet Union collapsed, Kim Il-sung halted construction, knowing that the portal would be far too dangerous to open in a large urban area. Upon his death, however, Kim Jong-il resumed construction, not believing his father's warnings. Whether or not he would have actually activated the device, and how much Kim Jong-un knows or believes about its true potential is unknown. But we're all going to find out soon. (and yes, I'm heavily inspired by The Laundry Files) (and "Ghostbusters")
Fantasy -Atheray Condari de Cuerzava commissioned a luxurious set of plate armor built to his specifications. As part of its journey towards completion, the armor took a literal journey around the world for almost five years to stop in the shops of the world's best enchanters. It is said that a Tavronan duke's armor costs more than a barony and its manufacturing employs a workforce the size of a small nation. -Despite its incredible power, Tavronans have always looked down on magic... perhaps ironically, considering that the only reason a Tavronan man at arms can compete with a spell-caster is that his armor has been thoroughly enchanted to resist most magical attacks. -Catherina Velovois de Semanth, who was expected to live the stay-at-home life of a typical Tavronan lady, was refused a role in the investigative quest into her husband's death by her brother-in-law, Atheray. However, she still joined by disguising herself as a prostitute travelling with the baggage train. She is eventually discovered. Despite lack of any combat skills, her desire for vengeance for her husband's death means she refuses to flee in situations that the rest of the party ran from, causing Atheray (followed by the others) to stop his retreat and come to her aid. -Altres Corath aut Delith is a result of hundreds of years of careful magician-breeding by a secret society in Acias. His heritage has given him the ability to use all nine spheres of magic effectively, making him the most powerful magician to ever exist. -Humans were the only sentient race to be created without magic but were able to learn to use different spheres of magic from eight different deities. Humans can choose one sphere of magic to invest in and once their path is chosen they cannot change to another one. This is why Altres is unique. -At one point the main characters release the deity of darkness and fire upon the world. Oops, their bad.
My MC has a magical chest that manifests an article of clothing every twilight. The clothing articles are random and vary wildly in quality and materials. His personal favorites are a pair of green and yellow polka-dotted mittens and what he thinks is a diabolically scratchy necklace for fat people, but is actually a jewel encrusted thong. haha.
The origin of vampires is the inspiration for the Hindu story of the goddess Kali and the demon Raktabija.
The newest villain that I've come up with for my Urban Fantasy series – one of the Top 5 favorites on my very long list of Villain Antagonists that I have ever come up with – is a Muggle: completely locked out of the Masquerade with no knowledge of the supernatural existing whatsoever
Now that sounds fun. I have only a very vague and general idea how my world works. I've got bows and swords, want my country to have a 'behind the Iron Curtain' feel, and compare my character's journey to the Underground Railroad. So, pretty mismatched. Also, originally, my trio was only a duo. My gal got added to the cast later, but I really like how she fits.
Thanks! My world has taken years to get as far as it is now (non-human psychology, where each species came from, what different kinds of magic my different protagonists use, how magic is hidden from the world, what are the different groups of antagonists all fighting for, what have they done in the past and what are they doing now...) and I'm still coming up with more I didn't think that my leading hero protagonist would have girlfriend, but the love interest I came up with for her fits into the story so well that even the other woman's father is going to become a – what I thought was going to be a minor character, but typing this sentence gave me a way to make his involvement even bigger
While I don't specify exactly what kind of magical creature one of my MCs is, he is strongly based on Djin mythology.
Must have a good knowledge of Middle Eastern folklore. Although they are wary of such beings as they can be deceptive.
The warrior caste of my main country deals with it's PTSD by purposefully trying to split their personalities.
My main vampire – currently terrorizing Richmond as "The KT Bomber" – claims to have been the Zodiac Killer, and nobody in the supernatural community have been able to prove that she wasn't. (I personally still think it was Richard Gaikowski, and there's a pretty strong real-world viewpoint – which some of my characters share – that the DNA evidence exonerating Arthur Leigh Allen was less conclusive than it's given credit for, but everything else I'd come up with about my vampire's timeline fit perfectly with the idea of her being Zodiac long before I came up with the idea itself. I don't want to commit to her being Zodiac, but I still surprise myself with how well it would fit with everything else) Spoiler: Timeline KT was born in 1900 Her sister was born around 1905 KT decides between 1910-1915 that she wants to be famous as a singer The sister realizes that she's gay a little after 1915. She doesn't tell anybody, but KT knows how she looks at boys, and she realizes that her sister looks at girls the same way. She buys a copy of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's vampire novella Carmilla so that her sister can have a lesbian character to read about – not as a role model, obviously, but as confirmation that the idea exists In 1919, the Axeman of New Orleans threatens to go on another rampage, but that any house playing Jazz on the night in question will be spared. Every house in the city did, and nobody died. KT has always hated Jazz, she's always felt alone as the only girl in New Orleans who doesn't like Jazz, but she stayed awake with all of the Jazz playing because she was terrified that one lunatic could have so much power over so many people In 1923, KT is killed by a necromancer, abducted, and wakes up as a Nosferatu-style vampire: hideous, thirsty for human blood, unable to go out in the Sun without burning up, and thoroughly sociopathic. She keeps her personal love for her sister, but she's lost her general compassion for anybody else. KT's sister learns about the supernatural and joins a team of vampire hunters to protect the world from monsters like her sister. KT spends the next 30-odd years trying to stay out of her way, not killing her sister – no matter how many times her sister tries to kill her – and not drawing attention to herself. Instead of wanting to be famous as a singer, KT now wants to be famous as a monster, but not while her sister is alive to be haunted by the publicity of KT's carnage. In 1960, Lord of the Rings has become popular enough that experts in shapeshifting try to develop rituals for turning into orcs in real-life. The first successes come around 1965, and a human supremacist terrorist organization – The Order of Saint Michael – try to kill the shapeshifters who've permanently turned into orcs before they can birth a generation of natural-born orc children. KT's sister dies protecting orc-shapeshifter who'd been kidnapped by the Order, and KT is free to experiment with supervillain identities. In the 1970s and 1980s, KT makes a name for herself in the supernatural world as "Nemesis," a vigilante who kills crime bosses and serial killers because she wants the scariest people in the world to be afraid of her. She drops this identity when she discovers how boring it is creating a supervillain identity that comforts more people than it scares, especially when a cult of vigilante serial killers steal her name with the express intent of using it to protect the innocent. She takes on the new Cult of Nemesis, trying to a) prey on this new higher level of predator who've been inspired to prey on the previously-highest level of predator, and b) scare the general public that they don't have vigilantes protecting them anymore. Modern-day: she kidnaps a victim, straps him into a suicide bomb vest, and tells him that he's going to be starring in a 30 Minutes or Less scenario where if a bank gives him a bunch of money, she won't set off the bomb. She sets it off anyway, destroying the bank and killing a bunch of people before the guy had a chance to ask for any money. She waits a day to make sure that everybody's heard about the bombing, then walks into another bank disguised as "Special Agent Sheridan" by using a ring that a) turns her invisible, and/or b) covers her with a glamour that makes her look human (if she used the glamour without the invisibility, then the imaginary-human body would appear superimposed on her Nosferatu-demon body and ruin the point of the disguise). She announces that the FBI have received a manifesto from "The KT Bomber" explaining that the plan "send a hostage into a bank with a suicide bomb vest to rob the place" was tried in real life, that it was later turned into a comedy film, but that the masterminds didn't get any money in either. What the KT Bomber did differently was destroy a bank first, and will then send a hostage to a second bank for an actual robbery. She is also using a remote-controlled bomb, not one on a timer, so the bank won't dare take the risk of not cooperating. She then announces "At this point, I should hope that the cleverer among you have already pieced together that I'm not actually here on behalf of the FBI." She dares bystanders to call the police by telling them that she already has her next hostage in a bunker someplace where the police will never find her. If Sheridan is picked up by the police before she can get back to the hostage, then Sheridan will kill herself in prison just so that everybody knows that her hostage will also starve to death. Somebody might still be tempted to call the police in case they can get Sheridan to tell them where her hostage is, but if Sheridan walked into a bank and announced in her own words that she was a Bond-villain megalomaniac, then does that really sound like somebody who can be negotiated with by appealing to her humanity? Between December 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac killed claimed 7 confirmed victims – 5 dead and 2 wounded – and he sent 4 coded letters to the press in August and November 1969, 1 of which has been deciphered and which talks about The Most Dangerous Game, a short story about a Russian aristocrat who hunts humans because it's more of a challenge than hunting other animals.
I write about dragons. My characters are all dragons. Zarakharn's successor was actually older than him because Shrakhaan was his cousin by his father's brother, since Zarakharn never married and sired an heir. Shrakhaan aldso seemed much older to those who knew Zarakharn because Zarakharn was physically young despite being fairly old, while Shrakhaan looked his age. Ichor is slang for erotichor, a drug that induces sensual fantasies in one's mind. It is taken in the form of eyedrops and leads to serious health dysfunction. Zarakharn's cousin Kharda is addicted to it. However, ichor is not one of the illegal goods Kharda deals in; ichor is legal, but its use is considered incredibly shameful and perverted. Songwriters release sheet music albums of their songs so other singers can learn and perform them, since there is no sound recording technology. It is a rare and rewarding experience to hear a singer perform a song in their own voice.
My main character's first name, Dragomir, means 'precious world' or 'precious peace' in Serbian, his nickname in the Anglosphere, Drake, denotes a lesser dragon. He is aware and refers to this irony on occasion.
Coal and iron ore are only to be found in the Broken arm of Wit and the Norð isles (a highly disputed area) which isn't good when you are trying to start the industrial revolution. Mermaids are drug dealers (this cracks me up every time I try to explain).
In Dark Fire, Kira is a shape shifter who prefers to have sex in wolf form (with other wolves), because in human form she has an unrequited thing for the hero Aidan, who has sworn to a goddess to remain a virgin in exchange for his skill at arms. She has to be careful though because Wolves find shifters just as weird and "other" as humans do, and would kill her if they determine that she was not 100% wolf
Vampires do not believe in abstinence before marriage or arranged marriages. This is partially because flirting is an easy way to get a fresh meal, but they also believe not understanding what gets you going will really suck the life out of your marriage. Pun semi-intended...
I just realized a little back that my three villain protagonists form "The Freudian Trio" of the Id, the Ego, and the Superego ... in three completely different ways Morality: Amy is the antiauthoritarian Id, Charlie is the ambivalent Ego, and Alec is the authoritarian Superego Personality: Alec is the sensitive and spontaneous Id, Amy is the sensitive and methodical Ego, Charlie is the insensitive and methodical Superego Temperament: Amy is the hot-blooded Id, Alec is the level-headed Ego, Charlie is the cold-blooded Superego
Fantasy: Instead of vampires, the fictional world has a race of all-female humanoid blood suckers called Dearg-du. No one, however, understands them very well, especially not reproduction or society. Are there male Dearg-du, or not? None have been seen. If they're out there, do they stay close to hypothesized Dearg-du covens or dens as guards? How do Dearg-du reproduce, if at all? Dead ones have been dissected and proven anatomically female, but no Dearg-du child has ever been seen. Are they immortal, and slowly dying out? Lastly, they only suck the blood of women, but why? To maintain their female appearance? Do males genes in blood poison them? Or is it simple taste? I intentionally maintained these mysteries of the Dearg-du to make them more fearsome and folk tale-like, and to avoid taking the fun out of things by making a huge list of mundane details. Bonus: the werewolves of this world transform at will, regardless of the moon.
Janxica is a fun side character. Standing a mighty 20cm tall,and weighing in at 1 kilo, She is an easygoing Geko like creature with hair. While it has not been easy on her losing/leaving her career as a top software designer and researcher in evolving algorithms and advanced quantum computing, at the facility on Helene. She is a bit of a young rebel, and is able to hack into some of the best firewalls and security systems either commercial or military. Without her help in taking out the vast majority of the Confederations orbital drone defenses, there would never have been a ground war on Terra. She can keep her cool in tense situations, and calls everybody Sugar. While not in her ideal environment, she easily gets along with who ever she happens to be working with. (Though it cannot be easy when everyone towers over her at 1.5-2.43 meters.) She doesn't mind riding on a console, or in less ideal circumstances in a ruck sack. So when you need to get in without making a lot of commotion, Janxica is the gal who can open locked doors or shut down key systems for ya.
