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Muskets, Elves, Slavery amongst other things...

King_Cagn

Scribe
Okay I've this idea swinging around my head for the last 2 hours about a story of an african slave caught in a violent storm which flings him to a world with no difference from the one he left, but, this time we've elves enslaving humans and vice verse... Now I'm looking at combining colonization weaponry and fantasy, the mix mesh of magic and muskets sword and sorcery gets me really thinking... How'd you guys think I can incorporate this?, Play it well and so forth?
 

DavidJae

Troubadour
Interesting idea. Would the humans have the colonial weapons only and the elves the magic, or would there be cross-over.

One way to go about it would be to do something similar to Princess Mononoke, which has medieval Japanese weapons fighting against the magic of the old world, humans versus wolf spirits.

Another way would be to mix the two. In Final Fantasy, they have gunpowder weapons that use 'magic' bullets that are imbued with different properties, such as fire, stone or blinding. You could do something similar where your bullets are crafted from magical substances with runic magic weaved into them or guns that have the runes carved into them that automatically impart the magic to normal bullets when they are fired.

The world of the Elves could shun guns entirely, relying on the old magics and crafts, putting them at a disadvantage to the humans. Or, they could be so scared off these new weapons that they declare war on humanity, pledging to wipe them out to protect themselves.

If you like, reply to this post and we can talk about this further.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
okay, to clarify the MC... he's an African slave, circa... what time period? 1776 or 1840? And what was his background? What was he doing when he was "transported" to the magical world and what explanation have you for that incident?

I'm somewhat skeptical of "traveling" to fantasy worlds and I have heard other people mention that they detest such "magical transportation" stories. I think if you're going to use it, having a good reason is important.

Also... why an African slave and from where? America? England? A Dutch slave ship? There has been a ton of slavery in the history of our world. What in particular speaks to you about the chosen time period and character?

Those questions would help me to give useful feedback. Without knowing more about the character, it's a hard call to make. And while the technological level of the culture might be interesting, I first and foremost am drawn to a character. Could you expound on the project a touch? What kind of story is the character going to be in? Is there a theme or themes we should know about?

For instance, without going into great detail, my WiP is a story of revenge--a group of people seeking to enact social reform to stop a corrupt religious leader. The main themes are social equality and sacrifice. I employ master/ servant relationships, the game of chess, and a unique city (parallel to 1576 Venice, an independent republic at the time) to contrast the lives of the upper class to the lives of the lower class, and I use an innocent country girl character to contrast the corrupt setting and the grit of my other characters (an assassin, a prostitute, a mercenary, and her husband, the chancellor of the city).

If you could give us some clues about your novel in this way, it would certainly help me understand. I think strong concepts are a really clear indication of how convincing the plot will be.

Best wishes!
 

King_Cagn

Scribe
Looking at the MC I could change quite a lot of things about the story and have it play out the same way our history played out but have it in its own fantasy world. By doing this I can allow the exploration of the world to expand greatly in the sense that he's naive about the world around him but isn't afraid to move from one place to another.

As for the protagonist himself, he recently lost his wife shortly after they got married, this being a week or so after the slavers came and raided their tribe. His drive would be essentially be revenge to the very slaver that happened to rape and kill his bride and during the course of the plot we see him spiral deeper and deeper in anger and

A slavery era to me is one of the darkest forms of fantasy writing someone can go for because I'm not looking to have a character redeem himself, he'd looking to shed blood through any means possible and it doesn't matter who he happens to ally with as long as he can ultimately kill who killed his wife and and enslaved some of his people.

Tackling this is very interesting to me because at the battle isn't just sword and sorcery but than we delve a bit into politics, conspiracies and look at the darker side of every race because we have humans enslaving humans but also elves enslaving humans and elves as well.

Concept wise this was really just an idea that came to me in a couple of minutes and I just shrugged it off. But if I was to take it deeper, the story is about the revolution of slaves because of that one slave that decided that he wouldn't give in.

As for the weaponry of the world, both parties could have both sword, musket and sorcery but having the elves have a higher amount because they 'rule' the world is what I was aiming for. This also allows me to introduce other races into the story by having the dwarven race being the pioneers of such sophisticated weaponry. By doing this I strip a great number of the elves of their old ways meaning that they have to rely mostly on muskets and less on magic because a great few have still retained magic within them.
 

DavidJae

Troubadour
It's a very powerful idea. Perhaps you could research some historical slave figures or those that fought for minority rights. Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King as inspiration for your protagonist.
 
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