Krell
shook his head. “It’s a short walk back to Watford, and the council is probably
waiting to hear from us quickly. We should be there shortly after sunset.”
Petimus nodded, then set his quill aside and picked up a candle. He fished a
block of red wax from the case he had brought with him, then held the flame to
it over the charter.
When
a blob of melted wax had formed, Petimus took a ring from his finger. He ran
his thumb over it, muttering to himself several times. Krell could make out the
cadence of words of power, but hadn’t the faintest idea what he was doing.
Petimus then pressed the ring into the wax, which glowed briefly for a moment.
Petimus
stood and looked at the companions, then reached out his hand to each of them
in turn.
“My
thanks, then, for the recovery of our fallen, and for slaying the things that
attacked and killed them. The clan-speakers will hear the tale of your deeds.
Know you’ve made at least one friend among the dwarves, all of you.” Petimus
bowed to them, handed the charter to Orca, then led the way toward the gate.
“If
you’re setting out now, I doubt you’ll want to wait around any longer. Rain
stopped for the time being, but no clue what condition the road — if you can
call it that — will be in. May the Forge Father guard your path and the Fire
Lord light your way!” Petimus slipped the bar from the gate.
Krell
grinned. Olgar had taught him many things about arms and armor, but he had much
to learn. In his religious training, Olgar had been exceedingly thorough.
“My
thanks for the ward of Rold, the Forge Father, and the warmth of Phlogos the
Fire Lord’s breath. Your hearth and home were warm and kind, and may Rold
reward you for being a gracious host! Until we meet again, Petimus Smithforge,
and may ReckNor turn his baleful gaze away from you and your kin!” Petimus
stood, staring slack-jawed at Krell, as everyone else filed past.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Making the Story Believable: How to Write Realistic Fantasy
This
is, at its heart, the main reason that I wrote Beginning
of Arrogance, and the underlying theme of consequences. There
are a couple of key frameworks that I rely on when crafting a believable
fantasy epic. Those are internal consistency, influence of the divine, and
in-character consequences.
Internal
consistency is probably the most important of these. It represents the story
defining rules that it is going to follow, and then adhering to those rules.
Examples include the use of magic by the various characters. If they have a
power defined in an earlier chapter or book, then there should be an important
reason given that makes sense as to why they shouldn’t use this power to solve
the current conflict they find themselves in. Otherwise, they should use
that power.
Examples
of this done extremely poorly are everywhere, particularly in any crime drama.
Using Castle as an example, they’re running from mobsters, and find a cell
phone, but darn! It’s locked! However, since basically everyone owns a phone,
we all know that you can call emergency services such as 9-1-1 even if the
phone is locked. So why didn’t they? The 2007 Transformers movie is another
example of failing to adhere to internal consistency. Frenzy can fix himself
with the Allspark, but Bumblebee cannot? Optimus Prime crushes the road when he
walks on it, but can jump up and down on highway overpasses? Don’t even get me
started on Star Trek.
If
you want to read books where this is done exceptionally well, I’d direct you to
Jim Butcher or Elizabeth Moon, two of my favorite authors. In those series
everything remains almost entirely consistent from start to finish, and they’re
much better books because of it!
The
second point is the influence of the divine. In settings such as mine where the
gods are tangibly real, with demonstrations of miracles though their chosen
representatives, then it should follow that every single living creature would
be influenced and impacted by this truth. I read a lot of fantasy stories where
the characters profess to worship a god in an almost transactional nature. Oh
lord, hear my prayer for healing, cha-ching, healing delivered. It should be
much deeper than that and would come up nearly non-stop for all characters in
the story. In fact, one of my reviews for Beginning
of Arrogance complained that it came up too much, but I’m more
concerned that it didn’t come up enough!
It’s
easy to lose sight of the fact that in a setting with multiple deities all
representing different aspects of life, that it’s impossible to please all of
them. Inherently, following the teachings of Dazguroth means offending Hieron,
and vice versa, as an example. The way that many people deal with this is on a
case-by-case basis, offering prayers to the appropriate god in that moment, and
hoping that when they offer prayers to other gods later that they don’t give
offense. The other approach is to put all your faith in one deity and pray for
aid in all situations.
Some
of how I represent that is with the casual cursing that takes place. Other
aspects include direct praise, praying for aid, and adhering to the tenants of
the faith. ReckNor is the chaotic god of the seas and skies because I didn’t
want to burden the book with extensive rites and rituals like we would find in
real-world religions since that is ReckNor’s nature, but we’re certainly going
to meet followers of other faiths and see just how structured their lives are
as they follow the tenants of their gods.
Finally,
in-character consequences. These are often subtle (for example, Krell has
perfect teeth, as do his companions, because healing magic is amazing),
but can also be overt as well. Characters that perform mighty acts of valor
should be recognized for doing so. As another example, Fortis has a big impact
on everyone around him in town, which begins to change slightly as everyone
grows familiar with him. The epilogue to Beginning
of Arrogance also highlights directly the impact of actions, and
how the world begins to react to the presence of a new paladin. Just the
existence of Krell changes the world around him, let alone some of the things
he does. It’s important for the reader to see the impact in ways both expected
and obvious, as well as subtle and surprising.
I hope you enjoy reading Beginning of Arrogance!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
Bryan Cole is the author of the Paladin’s Journey series. New to the
writing world, he spent years working in the enterprise software space, focused
on quality assurance and delivery of software applications. Which is weird,
because that has nothing to do with writing fiction.
For
that, we need to go back – way back – to his first experience with Dungeons
& Dragons. His friend Chris brought over the box set for Myth Drannor,
eager to play. Together, they realized they had no idea what they were doing,
because neither of them owned a copy of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Master’s
Guide, or the Monster Manual.
From
those incredibly awkward beginnings, a lifelong passion for epic science
fiction and high fantasy adventure was born. Everything from his grade 4
teacher letting him stay after school to play a video game where you were the
wizard on a quest, defeating monsters by answering math problems, to some truly
memorable movies like Willow that showed him a world bigger and more exciting
than the real one.
Of
course, Star Wars and Star Trek have had a major influence on him. Want to get
in good with Bryan? Lead with a Star Wars meme. From one of the good movies.
Otherwise, your plan will backfire.
Bryan
is also an avid gamer, and enjoys video games, board games, and tabletop
roleplaying games.
These
days, he lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter, and his adorable cat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH BRYAN:
Website:
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Goodreads Author Page:
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Amazon Author Page:
https://amzn.to/3dPWMPI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFO:
Bryan will be
awarding a $15 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a
randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
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