Vitrue of Steel: World Building. Elves
Apr. 17th, 2007 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessSome of the many many many many many pieces of world building I have done for this setting. In fact, there are over 20 times as many words written on word building as there have been on fic.
This is what annoys me so much about this fic - the world is wonderful. I love it. It's vivid and deep and HUGE. I ahve races and cultures and conflicts and politics...
But the fic is fighting me every step of the way and I hate that this world I LOOOOVE is being mangled by a fic I'm not loving very much at the minute and is going so slowly that the world isn't being explored
Still, some intro on the Elves (I actually have 8 pages of world building on the elven race alone, discounting elven nations, famous elves, etc)
Elves:
One of the oldest civilised races in the world, elves have had considerable influence in shaping the lands and nations of all continents and remain a potent, but subtle, force even in the modern world.
Physical: Elves can vary considerably in appearance depending on the exact race of elves in question. All elves tend to be very slender, with long, elegant limbs (elven personality makes over eating or indulgence rather alien to them). They are extremely graceful and dexterous making them very fast, very agile and with impressive hand-to-eye co-ordination. While as strong as the average human, elves do not gain muscle mass easily so it is rare to find a strong or bulky elf. Elves are also considerably lighter than humans, leading elves to prefer a combat style involving staves, bows and long swords to prevent opponents closing on them. Elves tend towards long, angular almost feline features with sharp cheekbones, thin lips, slanted eyes and pointed ears. Elves are extremely long lived creatures, some living for several thousand years before old age sets in, meaning it is rare to see elderly elves. When an elf does enter old age their body begins to fade - it doesn’t wrinkle or become decrepit as become more and more immaterial as their flesh retreats and their magical nature becomes more pronounced. In appearance they look worn and thin - not slim or skinny, but like their skin is wearing away. They look more and more unreal, more immaterial until their flesh can no longer hold their spirit. The body they leave behind is tiny, a few scraps of flesh and bone.
Elves and Magic: Elves are an intensely magical and magically talented race, with most elves using low level magic as a matter of course. Magic is incorporated into every aspect of life, from their soldiers to their every day professions. Wizards are, however, rare. The elven talent for magic arises from magic being an integral part of their being. Excessive use of magic or use of powerful magic can actually change their being - there are many horror stories of elven wizards who devolved physically or mentally into monsters as they were unable to control the magic coursing through them. Legend has it that some of the monsters that walk the land were once powerful elven wizards who lost control of their arts. Even without magic mutating them, it remains dangerous. All wizards draw magic from various sources but an elf is himself a very good source of magic. It can be difficult for an elven wizard, when drawing on magic, not to draw upon his own body as a source.
This means that while magic is very common among the elves, actual wizards are relatively rare but also both revered (for the miracles they can perform) and feared for what they may become. Elven wizards do tend to be more specialised than the wizards of other races because of their natural caution - they prefer to master one branch of magic until they are utterly confident on it before branching out carefully onto RELATED branches of magic and mastering them. Most young and average elven wizards have a limited repertoire but are VERY good at them. Master elven wizards are terrifying avatars of power, and likely a little eccentric because even the most careful elf is going to be a littler affected by the magic. Most other elves treat them with the highest possible respect, make them frequent gifts and hope that they keep to themselves as much as possible. Oh, and they’d like to wake up the same shape, if he wouldn’t mind.
Despite this fear and wariness, a wizard is treated with great honour by other elves that goes beyond mere fear. The elven lands would have been destroyed a hundred times over if it weren’t for the power of their wizards. Elven wizards are seen in many ways as martyrs - they undergo horrendous, terrible risks for the sake all the entire elven people and are greatly honoured for risking their lives, their sanity and their souls in service to the realms.
NB: It follows, given the above attitude, that an elven wizard who is acting purely for his own greed is reviled. Not only are they abusing their ancestral heritage but they are taking an insanely stupid risk that puts everyone in jeopardy to do so.
Magic Hunger
Elves are creatures of magic. Magic is a part of their being, a part of their substance, of their being. This makes for extreme magical talents, skills, and senses but it also comes with a high cost. Elves need magic, they hunger for it, they desire it and without it they will wither and die. Elves need magic like humans need oxygen. The original elves’ natural habitat was in pure lands saturated with high levels of magic. Here, the original elves thrived. But they depended on this heavy background magic and as they enter lands that have weaker magic they suffer the cost. In areas with lower magic their fertility drops dramatically, until they reach an area where the magic level is so low that no elves will conceive. Still lower magic levels will cause extreme discomfort, rapid aging, illness or even simply fading to nothing. This decline can vary from taking several decades to fade away to an elf withering and dying in a few short months. It is a source of endless frustration to elves that humans and other younger races may live anywhere but elves may only thrive in a very few places and there are so many other places that an elf cannot live in for long.
This is what annoys me so much about this fic - the world is wonderful. I love it. It's vivid and deep and HUGE. I ahve races and cultures and conflicts and politics...
But the fic is fighting me every step of the way and I hate that this world I LOOOOVE is being mangled by a fic I'm not loving very much at the minute and is going so slowly that the world isn't being explored
Still, some intro on the Elves (I actually have 8 pages of world building on the elven race alone, discounting elven nations, famous elves, etc)
Elves:
One of the oldest civilised races in the world, elves have had considerable influence in shaping the lands and nations of all continents and remain a potent, but subtle, force even in the modern world.
Physical: Elves can vary considerably in appearance depending on the exact race of elves in question. All elves tend to be very slender, with long, elegant limbs (elven personality makes over eating or indulgence rather alien to them). They are extremely graceful and dexterous making them very fast, very agile and with impressive hand-to-eye co-ordination. While as strong as the average human, elves do not gain muscle mass easily so it is rare to find a strong or bulky elf. Elves are also considerably lighter than humans, leading elves to prefer a combat style involving staves, bows and long swords to prevent opponents closing on them. Elves tend towards long, angular almost feline features with sharp cheekbones, thin lips, slanted eyes and pointed ears. Elves are extremely long lived creatures, some living for several thousand years before old age sets in, meaning it is rare to see elderly elves. When an elf does enter old age their body begins to fade - it doesn’t wrinkle or become decrepit as become more and more immaterial as their flesh retreats and their magical nature becomes more pronounced. In appearance they look worn and thin - not slim or skinny, but like their skin is wearing away. They look more and more unreal, more immaterial until their flesh can no longer hold their spirit. The body they leave behind is tiny, a few scraps of flesh and bone.
Elves and Magic: Elves are an intensely magical and magically talented race, with most elves using low level magic as a matter of course. Magic is incorporated into every aspect of life, from their soldiers to their every day professions. Wizards are, however, rare. The elven talent for magic arises from magic being an integral part of their being. Excessive use of magic or use of powerful magic can actually change their being - there are many horror stories of elven wizards who devolved physically or mentally into monsters as they were unable to control the magic coursing through them. Legend has it that some of the monsters that walk the land were once powerful elven wizards who lost control of their arts. Even without magic mutating them, it remains dangerous. All wizards draw magic from various sources but an elf is himself a very good source of magic. It can be difficult for an elven wizard, when drawing on magic, not to draw upon his own body as a source.
This means that while magic is very common among the elves, actual wizards are relatively rare but also both revered (for the miracles they can perform) and feared for what they may become. Elven wizards do tend to be more specialised than the wizards of other races because of their natural caution - they prefer to master one branch of magic until they are utterly confident on it before branching out carefully onto RELATED branches of magic and mastering them. Most young and average elven wizards have a limited repertoire but are VERY good at them. Master elven wizards are terrifying avatars of power, and likely a little eccentric because even the most careful elf is going to be a littler affected by the magic. Most other elves treat them with the highest possible respect, make them frequent gifts and hope that they keep to themselves as much as possible. Oh, and they’d like to wake up the same shape, if he wouldn’t mind.
Despite this fear and wariness, a wizard is treated with great honour by other elves that goes beyond mere fear. The elven lands would have been destroyed a hundred times over if it weren’t for the power of their wizards. Elven wizards are seen in many ways as martyrs - they undergo horrendous, terrible risks for the sake all the entire elven people and are greatly honoured for risking their lives, their sanity and their souls in service to the realms.
NB: It follows, given the above attitude, that an elven wizard who is acting purely for his own greed is reviled. Not only are they abusing their ancestral heritage but they are taking an insanely stupid risk that puts everyone in jeopardy to do so.
Magic Hunger
Elves are creatures of magic. Magic is a part of their being, a part of their substance, of their being. This makes for extreme magical talents, skills, and senses but it also comes with a high cost. Elves need magic, they hunger for it, they desire it and without it they will wither and die. Elves need magic like humans need oxygen. The original elves’ natural habitat was in pure lands saturated with high levels of magic. Here, the original elves thrived. But they depended on this heavy background magic and as they enter lands that have weaker magic they suffer the cost. In areas with lower magic their fertility drops dramatically, until they reach an area where the magic level is so low that no elves will conceive. Still lower magic levels will cause extreme discomfort, rapid aging, illness or even simply fading to nothing. This decline can vary from taking several decades to fade away to an elf withering and dying in a few short months. It is a source of endless frustration to elves that humans and other younger races may live anywhere but elves may only thrive in a very few places and there are so many other places that an elf cannot live in for long.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-17 01:37 am (UTC)(Note: I haven't read the fic, just your /comments/ about the fic.)
There's a strategy we sometimes use when writing software. It goes like this:
1) Write the laziest, sloppiest, cheatin'est code that'll solve the problem. (Read: the fic)
2) In the process, write solid, well-tested infrastructure code to support it (Read: the world-building)
3) Throw away everything done in stage 1. Start over, building something you're not ashamed of on top of the stuff done in stage 2.
It sounds wasteful (hell, it IS wasteful), but it's effective when you aren't sure going in what sorts of problems you're going to have to deal with, so advanced planning is pointless.
Just sayin', you know?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-18 09:07 pm (UTC)