Recent content by Fakefaux

One of the reasons I respect Tolkien so much (also Bram Stoker, for similar reasons) is because he went through the folklore and mythologies that interested him, doing extensive research. He picked and chose, kept some elements and not others, and slowly formed something that was his, something...

I also agree with the above comments. Save the made up names for entirely original creations, or alternative names in made up languages. There have been so many different ways to interpret the word "elf" alone that people really shouldn't assume it matches up to their preconceived notions. Just...

Well, it's a good story. You might also be interested to know that it's thought to be a major contributor to the St. George and the Dragon legend.

While they're not quote "reverse curve" in the sense you seem to be thinking of, weapons like the kopis, falcata, and kukri have been popular throughout history. The heavier weight at the tip makes them very good at chopping, a sort of hybrid of sword and hatchet.

You're all thinking too modern. The romanticization of vampires starts with the Victorians, but it really got going in 1927. Vampires in Slavic folklore were monsters, pure and simple. There was very little that was romantic or sexual about them. They were a manifestation of human fears of...

I'd also note that it takes a while for a population to recover from wartime. Not just the people who die, but also the people who move away and don't come back. If there's been a recent war and the city is still recovering, the population will still be in the process of getting back to its...

Are your fairies a race of physical beings, like us, who just happen to have magical powers? Or are they they more like the quasi spirit-beings of legend? As for fairies mining metal, make it a part of their connection with nature. Imagine one of them commanding iron veins to grow out of the...

It sort of sounds like you've done that already. What exactly is the problem you're running up against? what precisely did you mean by "integrating these two cultures into a fantasy world"?

I'm just going to pass on advice I got from another writer on making up fantasy names/words: Take a name from the culture you want the character to reflect/imitate (since nobody is really imaginative enough to truly come up with their own completely original culture, when you get down to it)...

My inclination is to avoid overt signs of evil, like skull designs or glowing red runes. A lot of people have mentioned stories about the weapon being a good way to get the idea across, and I agree with this. Just having the weapon involved in a number of unpleasant deeds is a good way to go...

There is actually a lot of overlap between vampires and werewolves in Slavic lore, which is what most of our modern cliches are based on (or at least, based on works that were in turn based on Slavic lore, like Dracula) though it often involves elements of them that don't survive to their modern...

In most fantasy settings, the given assumption is that nobody is speaking actual English; the story is just translated from their languages for our benefit. As such, it makes sense that the story should work like a real translation. The fantasy culture may have something very similar to a king...

The way I look at it, there are two simple approaches. One is to go with made up mundane animals, some of who might be riffs on traditional mythical creatures. For example, the old tabletop game "7th Sea" had griffons, but they were just quadrepedal birds, a fluke of evolution as opposed to a...

My initial thought is that you simply don't need to address it. Most traditional stories where fairy warriors show up don't, after all. Unless it's directly relevant to the story, why point it out to the reader? Still, if there's a lot of warfare involving the fairies directly in the story, and...

As you can see, I'm called Fakefaux. Nice to meet you all. Like many of you, I'm an amateur fantasy writer. I'm also a big fan of mythology and folklore, having collected a small library on the subject. You'll most likely see me hanging out in the research forums, trying to help people out or...