Historical Fantasy

[Jabrosky]

"Historical fantasy" is the best genre descriptor I could think of for my current project Half-Sisters, insofar as it mixes fantasy elements like magic and gods with a historically inspired setting. Actually, my setting isn't limited to one specific time period in our world's history, but instead takes the form of an "alternate timeline" in which historical kingdoms and societies separated by centuries in our timeline (or OTL) coexist in the same period. For example, my story has New Kingdom-style Kemet, classical Axum (mixed with a few elements of Coptic Ethiopia), medieval Mali, and the Yoruba Oyo Empire all standing at the same time. A map of the whole situation may be viewed here.

My story's two heroines are, as the working title says, half-sisters. One of them rules as the Pharaoh of Kemet while the other has married the Mansa of Mali as part of a difficult diplomatic maneuver. In the one chapter I've written so far, the Pharaoh has a diplomat from Habeshat (the Axum/Coptic Ethiopia mix) implore her to convert to a new religion to save her ailing kingdom. Meanwhile, in the chapter I plan to write next, her feisty half-sister struggles to cope with her spoiled, domineering new husband.

I like the concept of historical fantasy because it lets me write settings inspired by history without stressing over factual accuracy as a strictly historical novel would require. I can write about ancient Egypt and medieval Mali while at the same time taking creative liberties with their cultures that historians and hardcore historical novelists can't do. At least I hope I can. That said, I do worry that people will complain about historical inaccuracies unless I change a few names around, but then I would be sacrificing the quasi-historical flavor that I like so much.

What are your thoughts on what I'm doing?

 

[Jabrosky]

The more I think about this project, the more I believe that changing it to full-blown fantasy, with wholly fictional cultures, would work better. That way, I have a better excuse for taking creative liberties with my subject matter!

 

[skip.knox]

You have already answered what I was going to say. Keeping fantasy elements constrained by historical events -- and not just historical events but real-world geography, physics, socio-cultural assumptions, economic realities -- can be a serious challenge.

That said, I'm tackling exactly that! But that is also why I can say, don't try it unless you're committed to it. OTOH, using cultures you know as inspiration, that's just fine and dandy.

 

[Devora]

I have a story that has a group of ww2 american soldiers meeting a Elf that speaks German in the Belgian Forests during the Battle of the Bulge, and another about Norse Gods as human vikings.

All the advice i can give: Research, Research, Research.

 

[The Unseemly]

I would suggest: remember. Why do we study history in the first place? Because it helps us think critically, because we can learn not to repeat silly mistakes made by people past. While this isn't particularly necessary in full-fledged fantasy, the best historical fiction I've read and watched (as film) always had a deep moral to the story.

My further suggestion would be to sit down an think "do to this and this piece of history, what have I learnt?" and make sure you incorporate this into your story. If anything, morals can be simply showing people what stupidities happened in history, and how pointless it was.

Just my opinion on historical fiction anyway.

 

[wordwalker]

I would suggest: remember. Why do we study history in the first place? Because it helps us think critically, because we can learn not to repeat silly mistakes made by people past. While this isn't particularly necessary in full-fledged fantasy, the best historical fiction I've read and watched (as film) always had a deep moral to the story.

My further suggestion would be to sit down an think "do to this and this piece of history, what have I learnt?" and make sure you incorporate this into your story. If anything, morals can be simply showing people what stupidities happened in history, and how pointless it was.

Words to live by.

We throw "you fail to learn from history, you're condemned to repeat it" around so easily, we don't always appreciate how useful the study can be. And "morals" get a bad name because they can be an excuse to get lazy in storytelling (especially, why someone really might make those mistakes). I think of a moral as knowing the organic reason why the hero wins (or loses).