Real, Imaginary, and Perception

[Ghost]

I haven't written enough for this to come up, but I'm curious about what is treated as real and unreal in your world. Do you write in creatures that don't exist there? Do you ever let the reader know which beings truly exist? How would you show which ones are real and which are imaginary?

I figure, even in a fantasy world (or especially in a one) there'd be legends about people and animals that don't exist. Regular critters are misidentified, and I imagine fantastic beasts cause more confusion when they're thrown into the mix. Let's say I have a chimera. That's a fantastic and biologically unlikely creature. Who's to say there isn't also a beast with the head of a crocodile, the body of a yak, and ducks' heads for feet that quack when it walks? If most of the population believes in both, do I treat both as real even if the shaggy duck-footed beast doesn't exist?

Right now, I plan to treat real creatures and imagined creatures the same way. (Although the one with ducks' heads for feet is an academic joke in my world.) I wonder if I should handle it differently so I don't confuse people.

 

[mythique890]

To be honest, my world isn't this extensive, so I don't know how I'd handle it. In books I've read, MC's seem to be more "enlightened" than normal characters, or they meet their "mentor" who enlightens them as to what is real and what is not. So the MC's usually know, which in turn allows the readers to know. But I don't know if this is something that's an option for you.

Honestly, I never thought of fantasy worlds having their own make-believe creatures before. Usually even when an author creates a "fake" creature, they turn out to be real later in either a humorous or terrifying way. I have enough on my plate making up "real" fantasy creatures.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

When creating a world, all the creatures in it are real, unless you have your own mythical type, then you won't see one, so they won't be real. What you ask is confusing, because the only time, as an author, I would make a comparison from the world the characters live in to the one the reader does, is if I'm writing for very young children, or one of the pov characters came from this world. Otherwise, there is no basis to compare real creatures here to real creatures there. The reader steps into your world with the story and expects you to make those creatures real in the story. If you spend any time trying to convince them they are real in the story, you'll introduce doubt to the reader who will then have to wonder if you believe in the creatures you are writing about.

 

[Deleth]

Pretty much what darkstorm said. The characters and people and races are real in the world in which they exist, they have grown up knowing everything that is fantastic in their world as normal and if you treat them that way, then it will be belivible to the reader.

Hope that helps

 

[JCFarnham]

Don't mean to be contencious but isn't this more of a thread about mythology within Fantasy worlds guys? I didn't read anything about comparisons with the real world.

If in a fantasy world's own religion/mythology/folklore they want to have their own mythological beast, that aren't added to the hordes of other weird creatures already running around then isn't that just realism? Dragons don't exist in the real would [unless we're talking about cyptzoologistic misintepretations of Komodos of course] but they are still talked about, they still crop up time and time again across a variety of folklores and such, So yeah, why can't a fantasy world have it's own examples of that? Because after all, people of a fantasy world are going to treat fantasy creatures like a part of the metaphorical furniture aren't they? "Oh just another unicorn. -Ignore ignore ignore-"

It depends on tone. Then again everything in a book depends on the tone you're going for. If there's very few non-standard creature hanging around then I would take an in-world mythology all the more seriously [but only because the setting is closer to our own world in tone, and we have all kinds of tall tales don't we]. If the story HAS strange creatures though ... well I still think they would have their own cryptids.

I've never really toyed with this idea because the only fantasy settings I have are a low, similar to earth type setting and an urban fantasy [obvious a real world setting], but I think its a really interesting idea that would add uncountable depth to a setting if mentioned in the right way. That being an off handed mention or something with you the author being subtle, NOT trying to "cram the fantasy" down our throats because you made up something cool and by golly gosh its going to make its way into the narrative.

So yeah, I'm all for this.

Then again I haven't mentioned anything about belief. You could have creature that one group of people don't believe exists while another sees it all the time and definitely believes. Thats a distinction between real and unreal and perception is it not?

 

[Eimingami]

I try and project real world psychology when handling what you are describing.

Any group will develop stories/myths these then are simultaneously believed in and not believed in. Most people in a medieval setting will need something to gossip about when they gather but will in all likelihood not really spend much time thinking about gnomes and goblins when they are working.

So these emerging myths are then -not real- but believed in to some extent within the population. Now -real- races/creatures will either exist everywhere and thus the point is moot or only exist in certain areas/be rare. To an ignorant population in an area stories of these creatures will be met with laughter or the same believe it/ don't believe it attitude as any local myth. We don't have to be talking about dragons here. There are examples in our own history; Vikings, who believed in fairies and gnomes were astounded seeing camels.

Alright, I have a headache clearly what I just wrote really doesn't make much sense... Anyway -the main point- If real people inhabited your world, how would things be? That is how you should write it.

 

[eposic]

If you write dialogue involving a creature, or are describing what a person or persons think about the creature, then how real it would come across would depend on the beliefs and observations of the person(s) involved. If you write exposition about a creature that is separate from what anyone thinks about it, then you must simply be honest about it within the world setting; you wouldn't absolutely have to reveal everything about the creature, but whatever you did reveal should be true. Otherwise you lose the trust of your reader. But, yeah, if a character in your story truly believes a creature is real, then have them speak and act accordingly. On our Earth, some people (primarily only very young ones), believe in Santa Claus, and they act and speak as though he is real. If in your world someone truly believes that a Coo Coo Kachoo exists, then they will act and speak differently about it than someone else in your world who considers it myth or children's nonsense.

 

[Ghost]

In books I've read, MC's seem to be more "enlightened" than normal characters, or they meet their "mentor" who enlightens them as to what is real and what is not.

Ah, this is something I definitely want to avoid. I'm sure I've read scenarios like that, but I completely forgot. I don't want my characters to have insight into those kind of truths unless they specialize in that information or have personal experience with it.

When creating a world, all the creatures in it are real, unless you have your own mythical type, then you won't see one, so they won't be real.

I know what's real and what's not, but my characters don't always have that luxury. I don't see how everyone on the planet would know The Truthâ„¢. Especially in a low-tech period when most people have no formal education and rarely travel more than a few miles from home. Some people would be less credulous than others, but not every commoner would be a skeptic.

Even when the creatures are real, people might not believe in them. It's like Eimingami says about the Vikings and camels, or how naturalists first viewed the platypus. It can also go the other way. Some people believe in things with little or no evidence. Perhaps someone gave me "proof" of unicorns by showing me a blackbuck horn. I wouldn't know the difference if I've never seen a unicorn or a blackbuck. It's not as though characters in my world can google it.

Don't mean to be contencious but isn't this more of a thread about mythology within Fantasy worlds guys?

Yeah, you said it much better than I did. I'm talking about legends and mythology and whether there should be a division in how I portray mythical beasties and the real deal. The responses here helped me make up my mind about some things. I need to streamline the possibilities. If I have a huge range of fantastic creatures, it's hard to know where to draw the line. I can relegate more of my creations to legend, so they still affect the cultures without cluttering the landscape. I probably won't refer to the in-world mythical beasts outside of dialog or passing references in art or heraldry.

These things don't actually come up often in my stories, but I want to be prepared so I don't confuse myself and my readers. Is anyone else doing something similar with their myths and legends?