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Where do you look for inspiration?

Greybeard

Minstrel
I'm populating my world with a plethora of cultures. Creating them out of thin air is proving difficult, sadly. The canvas of my mind isn't as broad as I had thought?

Where do you look for ideas for cultures and religions?
 

kjjcarpenter

Minstrel
Inspiration is different for everyone. Personally, I don't go searching for inspiration. If I find something and by my calculations it fits into the scheme of things, I weave it in. All I can do is offer a classic field used for spawning new and interesting ideas: Ancient mythology. Egyptian, Greek, Roman. Dead cultures offer a range of interesting beliefs that can be taken and applied—you could call it post-modernising. I would definitely have a browse through wikipedia of a mythology-based website, there are some interesting characters and tales you will discover.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
Yes, dead cultures are always rich sources of inspiration.

As far as ideas for religions go, I like researching ancient "heretical" heretical sects. These groups were often highly unorthodox in their beliefs, and very imaginative in their mythologies. Check out some of the Gnostic groups.
 
i agree, dead cultures are useful, but everyone uses greek or celtic origins, i recommend that you go with some pizazz (is that even a word?) and use someone like the aborigines or chinese folklore, its alot more interesting and slightly easier to work with, also they have some amazing names just waiting to be used x
 

Legerdemain

Troubadour
Yes, dead cultures are always rich sources of inspiration.

As far as ideas for religions go, I like researching ancient "heretical" heretical sects. These groups were often highly unorthodox in their beliefs, and very imaginative in their mythologies. Check out some of the Gnostic groups.


I actually wrote a story about a Cathar Illuminati. It was awful, but it was interesting use of my knowledge of ancient France... GO CATHARISM!
 

Ravana

Istar
Everywhere and anywhere. And don't assume that your inspiration needs to come from religious or mythological sources, either. Art, history, philosophy, any of the various sciences (especially if you're including non-human cultures), other works of fiction (ditto… science fiction will give you a far broader range of what's possible than the best reference works will). Law, which is far too often neglected: what is a culture without laws? You don't have to present a full legal code; you should be able to say, whenever the issue comes up, whether something is acceptable behavior in the culture you're creating, and how violations are punished. Consider, for example, how you would interact with a lawyer in a society that uses trial by combat.…
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
I actually wrote a story about a Cathar Illuminati. It was awful, but it was interesting use of my knowledge of ancient France... GO CATHARISM!

Although you consider it awful, it sounds like an interesting reading. The Cathars were one of the more peculiar varieties of Gnosticism.

Gnosticism never vanished, by the way. It has morphed into various forms throughout the centuries. The Heaven's Gate Cult were really a modern variety of Gnosticism, with a Star Trek twist.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
Law, which is far too often neglected: what is a culture without laws?

Great suggestion, Ravana. You can learn a lot about a culture by studying it's laws. In particular, you can see what the people really valued, as well as what they feared.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
i agree, dead cultures are useful, but everyone uses greek or celtic origins, i recommend that you go with some pizazz (is that even a word?) and use someone like the aborigines or chinese folklore

I suspect that Greek or Celtic cultures are so widely used because they seem more familiar to us in the West. Because we have common cultural roots, it's easier for us to connect with them. Also, resources about these cultures are more widely available in English.

I think that there is a lot to be learned from Asian and Aboriginal cultures. Can you recommend any good resources on these?
 

kjjcarpenter

Minstrel
I think that there is a lot to be learned from Asian and Aboriginal cultures. Can you recommend any good resources on these?

I am actually Koori, the Aboriginal people who dwelt in New South Wales and Victoria. Specifically, I'm of the Darug tribe who inhabited the entire Sydney region before colonisation. Apart from speaking with an elder directly, the best way to find information on our stories and our culture is by researching "the dreaming". You can find many tales on how the land and the animals were created, and I think they offer wonderful inspiration and present unnatural scenarios that intrigue and entertain.
 

Ravana

Istar
I think that there is a lot to be learned from Asian and Aboriginal cultures. Can you recommend any good resources on these?

For general overviews, the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology contains a wealth of information on a wide range of cultures. It may not provide the depth you want (though it gives more than any other encyclopedic work I'm familiar with), but it will give you leads on which things you want to research more. For that matter, if you just want a whole bunch of names and brief descriptions to give you a starting point, check out the Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner and Charles Russell Coulter, which contains over 10,000 entries, ranging into cultures most readers will never have heard of. It does have its flaws (including occasionally frustrating cross-referencing to entries that only refer you back to the entry you're coming from), but nothing is going to beat it for sheer scope. And on top of everything else, it's inexpensive.

As for specific cultures I've drawn from: Indian (Asian) religion is particularly rich, exceeding even Greco-Roman mythology. It's also extremely well-documented, since unlike most other religious sources you might be considering, it's still a going concern: hundreds of millions of people still practice it. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana both ought to be readily available, through libraries and bookstores, in several translations—and, for the former at least, in abridgements of various lengths, as it is the single longest epic in the world (unabridged versions run several thousand pages).

One that few people are aware of, but which is also readily available: the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland. Finnish folklore is noticeably distinct from other European traditions—the Finnish language is not even an Indo-European one, and its only near-relatives are Hungarian (and they also have a distinct folk tradition), Estonian and a handful of dying ones scattered across Siberia (and they have some pretty nifty folklore, too, though it's harder to track these down: you'll probably need a university library). The closest thing I can think of to the Kalevala is some Celtic material; there are a few echoes of Nordic tradition as well, which is probably to be expected considering their proximity.

Native American traditions are also fairly well-documented, as these survived well into the period where things regularly got written down—though in some cases, such as the Mexican traditions, much was lost to deliberate attempts by Europeans to eradicate them. On the other hand, some traditions are still active today. For things most people won't be familiar with, check out Eskimo traditions, or South American ones, particularly from Peru on south. Unfortunately, I don't have any specific sources to recommend on those.
 
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Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
I am actually Koori, the Aboriginal people who dwelt in New South Wales and Victoria. Specifically, I'm of the Darug tribe who inhabited the entire Sydney region before colonisation.

Hey Kev,

That is extremely cool. Do you often draw upon your own Aboriginal culture and lore in your writing?
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
Hey Ravana,

Thank you for this terrific list of resources. You've definitely given us some new avenues to research. This is going to prove helpful.

One that few people are aware of, but which is also readily available: the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Tolkien drew heavily upon the Kalevala when creating Middle Earth. Is that correct?
 
Ooo! I'm researching ancient Sumeria right now? It's pretty fun.

Ideas come from almost anywhere when you let yourself pay attention. I've had revelations while studying texts on archaeology and ancient religions, and I've had revelations while getting my nails done. I won't tell if you don't.
 

Ravana

Istar
Hey Ravana,

Thank you for this terrific list of resources. You've definitely given us some new avenues to research. This is going to prove helpful.



I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Tolkien drew heavily upon the Kalevala when creating Middle Earth. Is that correct?

You're welcome. I have a habit of collecting reference works; if you're looking for anything else, I might be able to make suggestions. And I can always check for answers to specific questions in the materials I do have.

Yes, apparently (according to the man himself) Tolkien found inspiration in the Kalevala, though more for the Silmarillion and background material than for LotR. The emphasis on song that runs throughout Hobbit/LotR in particular could well have arisen from the Kalevala… which is also why I said it reminds me more of Celtic tales than anything else. I think overall Tolkien derived more from Nordic traditions than anywhere else, but he certainly didn't feel any need to limit himself to one source.

Moorcock's Elric may also have been based on one of the characters in the Kalevala, from what I've read, though the resemblance is only a loose one if so (troubled anti-hero who commits suicide with his sentient sword… but that's about where the similarity ends).
 
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Music has always been my main inspiration when writing. I won't claim that the books I've read have had no effect (they obviously have, even if it's been on the most subconscious level), but when I'm writing I usually have a big pair of earphones clamped around my ears (I tend to write in the wee small hours) and it's the impression these soundscapes create in my mind which have informed the tone of what I put down on paper (or, in this case, screen. I started writing on an old typewriter, back in the days when if you made a mistake you either ignored it or typed the whole page again. What joy it was).
 

Ravana

Istar
I started writing on an old typewriter, back in the days when if you made a mistake you either ignored it or typed the whole page again. What joy it was.

It did tend to make you very attentive to what you were writing. Liquid Paper was fine for drafts, not so good for submissions. Word processors encourage sloppiness: since you can always change things or move them around, you don't always pay enough attention to what you do change or move. And never, ever trust your spell checker. Remember that your computer is no smarter than your pop-up toaster or power drill; the only intelligence involved is your own.
 
Word processors encourage sloppiness: since you can always change things or move them around, you don't always pay enough attention to what you do change or move.
I can see some truth in that, but having only ditched my trusty old typewriter a couple of years ago I haven't yet become jaded of this wonderous new technology. I tend to write things out in longhand first, if only because writing in script seems to help my thoughts flow more freely, as well as being more pleasing to the eye than typing in block. The fact that much of what I write is complete drivel is neither here nor there.:)
 

Legerdemain

Troubadour
Oh, and remember, word processors make people like me, with dyslexia, able to write at all... as I still have to proofread to make sure my typing came out like I meant to write, I don't have to worry half as much as far as my typing is concern... interesting points though...
 
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