Creatures of Luck/Fortune/Power?

[Addison]

I've been mulling over my WIP. I've discovered the problem, too contemporary. That's why I'm here.

Is there any kind of creature, culture of fairy or any kind of mythical being/creature/race, whose birth would bring a whole lot of good even if the person there is evil? Or maybe something that for whatever reason needs so much gold, gems, treasure or such in the room before it can hatch/arrive/revive?

If it helps, the too-contemporary part that's holding me up is a gang of thieves is growing, stealing more stuff for the boss who wants/needs more. Right now I have, or rather had, it so all the loot would pay a magical source for a powerful spell or so much magic to the boss. Basically one crook stealing goods to pay off a bigger boss. The thought of there being more purpose to the thefts and a bigger fantasy element in the reason would balance things out.

So if there's any kind of god/magic/race/creature etc whose birth, arrival, revival or just existence would benefit from a bunch of loot and then benefit the antagonist, please let me know.

 

[Reilith]

I believe there are many stories/myths that are history based that you could draw inspiration from. I could try to put up a list of suggestions - but you could always just google it and then go from there.
If it's a completely contemporary story with magical elements, you will need to dig deeper into the history - so is your story centered around a certain culture? If it is, they you should check out if there are any culture-based byths about good luck/gods etc.
E.g.
If I were writing a story based in the Slavic region (and I use this therm loosely, but i do know stuff about Ancient-Slavic culture as I hail from it) I'd know there is a certain "magical" creature - something like Faith, or God that delivers luck to people on the day of their birth. That entity changes the amount of luck a person receives at birth, but it is not based on the person, but the day of birth. So if you're unlucky, you were born on an unlucky day. And if you're really luck (even if you are a very bad person throughout your life) you were still born on a lucky day. This is simplification, of course, but you can see how some powerful entity gives out luck that follows the person thought their life.

On the other hand, if your story is more fantasy, WITH contemporary elements, then you can mix and match different RW cultures and deities and make something that works for your story alone.

I'd go about it with googling a few cultures I'd want to base my fantasy culture on, then see if there are any deities pertaining to the luck aspect, and then mix it and see what I get.

There are many was to go with this, but I'd need more info to give you a more specific answer.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm not entirely sure I understand the question completely. Is it that bad things need to happen in order for some greater good to occur later on? You're wondering if there's a creature that can be born/summoned in this way?

The "bad things" in your example would be the collection of gold/wealth?

One parallel you can draw is with some religion where sacrifices must be made to summon a god or something like that.

Also, and this is probably way off target, but the question somehow got me thinking of the movie Brewster's Millions: Brewster's Millions (1985 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's not a fantasy movie at all, but it's kind of funny.

 

[Reilith]

Also, and this is probably way off target, but the question somehow got me thinking of the movie Brewster's Millions: Brewster's Millions (1985 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's not a fantasy movie at all, but it's kind of funny.

Ooh that movie is awesome.

Sent from my HTC Desire 820 using Tapatalk

 

[Trick]

Also, and this is probably way off target, but the question somehow got me thinking of the movie Brewster's Millions: Brewster's Millions (1985 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's not a fantasy movie at all, but it's kind of funny.

Ooh that movie is awesome.

I second that.

As for the creature that requires wealth to be born or gain power, etc., why not make one up? Play on the dragon-esque greedy hoarding gold-blindedness and create a creature that consumes gold or who perhaps dies but can bribe death to get their soul back... something entirely new seems more likely to eliminate your 'contemporary' issue.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Aren't some dragons in Chinese mythology supposed to bring luck - good or bad? Also what about leprechauns?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Addison]

Trick and Psychotick, you both make good points, as does everyone.

To clear up the problem:

It's based in Portland Oregon. Thefts are occurring left and right, in every class of life. (Magic in the world is a known element, in traffic you share a lane with a ghost-drawn carriage and are cut off by flying carpets) They steal modern ware, old treasures.

I'm toying with the idea of having some of the stolen items be targets. Like even though a certain amount of wealth must be present, specific items NEED to be present or either nothing will happen, the creature will turn on the summoner, or bad crap will happen.

I like the "make the creature yourself" idea, that's kinda one of the monsters the heroes have to face. Only problem is they face it once before they realize what's going on and before the antagonist has acquired everything so, either a new monster takes the original's place or something worse is coming.

Just typing about the problem has given me ideas of how to handle it. But anyone who knows of creatures who can only be born or summoned in hoards of wealth and/or specific items, let me know. Thanks. Happy writing.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

The Neverending story had luck dragons - sort of Chinese dragons. And in Chinese culture people with certain traits are said to be dragons. It's a complement I suppose (not really my culture so I'm interpretting). So why not use the gold to summon a luck dragon (dragons - western - traditionally love gold) Make it a bargain so you've got to provide enough gold to attract the dragon, but then it presumably bestows enough favours on the summoner for him to make even more. (Pearls too if you go for a Chinese style dragon.) Then make it a continuing bargain. The summoner has to keep giving the dragon more gold or things go bad. If he stops paying and is lucky, the dragon goes away along with the gold and the favours. If he's unlucky he takes the summoner's head too!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Maybe some kind of dragon phoenix. It keeps getting born and then dying. Maybe the wealth is needed to fuel/fund an accelerated rebirth cycle, and the special relics are need for their own special properties? Perhaps if a certain item is available when the phoenix hatches it will affect its traits in some way?

 

[skip.knox]

To reply to the question directly, I know of no such creature. Most traditional monsters, or even demons, were not really focused on wealth. They were more about power, specifically in the power to control or at least influence other people directly.

Rather than summoning, how about prevention? The vast amount of wealth is needed in order to prevent some terrible monster from appearing or pursuing the MC. The wealth could buy off the monster directly, or would be wealth needed to hire the only wizard who knows how to stop the monster.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Check out these two website for ideas about beings and creatures you can use. I like that they show artist images of the creatures and provide a brief description of their cultural origin. It is nice to fuse the features of different creatures to come up with your own unique mix to fit your story. Mythical Creatures List - The Mythical Archive

Mythical Creatures, read about and see your favorite mystic creature.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Had another thought - Genies. They can be good or evil, and their wishes always come true but not always in the way you want them to. And someone always wishes for money. So why not instead of rubbing the lamp and releasing them have a plate etc on which you place a gold offering? By the way genies are middle eastern demons - djinns / Jinns.

Cheers, Greg.