Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy Vol 2: The Opus Magus by Tee Morris & Valerie Griswold Ford

Author:Tee Morris & Valerie Griswold Ford [Morris, Tee & Ford, Valerie Griswold]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Writing
ISBN: 9781896944159
Amazon: 1896944159
Barnesnoble: 1896944159
Goodreads: 20436544
Publisher: Dragon Moon Press
Published: 2004-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Princes, Politicians and The People’s Voice: Government and Social Structure for Fantasy Realms by Erik Amundsen

Karsh the Innkeeper, as we come to know him in Peter S. Beagle’s The Innkeeper’s Song, is angry. He finds himself a common man caught up in the ebb and flow of forces and disasters beyond his control, and he doesn’t like it. Between arrogant, possibly violent and possibly insane guests, the assassins sent to kill those guests, the near death and transfiguration of a wizard into a demon, and the loss of his pigeons, he’s had a rough time of things. One day, he promises himself, he’s going to walk up to the Black Castle and ask the king, or the queen, or the elected council, or the military junta, or whoever is in charge why his life absolutely must be so difficult. He has no idea who is in charge, and doesn’t really care, he just wants them to hear what he has to say.

Asking the Big Question: First Steps in Creating Government

If “What’s for dinner?” is the first great question humans face, the second is “Who’s in charge here?” The need for hierarchy, a place for everyone and everyone in their place, is far more pervasive than most folks would like to admit. Even though Karsh has no earthly idea who it is that runs his country, he believes that he lives in a country and there is someone running the show. People need someone above them and someone below them in order to function. Rule and government are key elements of any setting. Even in small, informal groups, you will see an individual name him or herself as “leader.” With larger alliances, it’s necessary to have a chain of command in order to get things done. The larger the group, the more complex and explicit that chain of command needs to be. Whether the government is the distant conjecture of an irate innkeeper or the focus of wars and assassination and shifting alliance, such as you’ll find in George R. R. Martin’s Ice and Fire series, it is a sure indicator of the complexity, sophistication, values and culture of a place and time. How the ruler, the law and the people interact is a necessary element of the creation of a culture and understanding how they interact brings a deeper note to your world and your writing.

The government of your fantasy work will largely be back-story, and most writers have issues with how much of it to include as their heroes go off on their heroic business. Robert Jordan, in the Wheel of Time series, gives you the whole history, with all the practices and intricacies of his governments, in excruciating detail. If you have multiple thick volumes to fill and a patient reader base, feel free. If not, you’ll want to restrain your background, however clever or well-reasoned. Mark Helprin, in the book A City in Winter, gives us the Usurper, who stole the kingdom from the rightful king and

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