Hey guys, or should I say, Boo!
Sorry. I really am. I’m just getting into the Halloween spirit, if you’re at a party in DC this year and see a very disoriented Bojack horseman, that’s probably me. (I’ll be disoriented because Those masks are hard to see out of!)
I’ve been dabbling in monster and fae related literature lately, Dresden, Sookie Stackhouse, James lovegroves’ Redlaw, the walking dead novels, and season 10 of supernatural of course. But I’ve noticed a growing trend, there’s a lot of different kinds of creatures that happen to share the same name.
Before we move on, I’d like to give warning, this is a fantasy heavy blog post, so if you don’t like fantasy, click away now or be subjected to a barrage of magical beings.
My investigstion began about a week ago, when a friend and I were arguing the necessary qualities of an elf. This began because I told her that I didn’t like elves in Skyrim, due to their strange looks. My friend told me that was absurd, elves didn’t have to be beautiful, and pointed out Santa’s elves, the shoemaker elves, and the keebler elves. My reasoning was that those are hardly the standard elves, and would be considered more gnomeish by today’s fantasy standards.
My first real encounter with divergent types of fantasy characters were the vampires in magic the gathering. In the Zendikar block, vampires are a dark, tribal race of blood suckers. Two years later in Innistrad, they were re introduced as a aristocracy that held humans in terror of their power. So what’s the difference?
The difference is how you write your characters. It’s no secret, fae, zombies, and monsters are still in the spotlight of trendy literature. One of the big tricks to writing a well thought out story is making sure you know your characters. If your zombies are the result of a voodoo witch doctor, don’t use the characteristics of world wide disease zombies. (See Age of Voodoo by James Lovegrove.) If your werewolves are actually sharpshifters, they don’t need to worry about the full moon (Fool Moon by Jim Butcher explains 4 varieties of werewolves.) if fae are a parallel race of beings, they need to be more unified than if vampires and fairies and demons are separate races (Lost Girl vs. Supernatural.)
My overall point is, make the creature you write your own. Don’t rely on others explanation of how a race operates, unless of course you’re deciding to make vampires not drink blood. That’s just crazy talk.
Until next time
-Josh
Josh Read This 