Writing a Fantasy Story

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Dolphin said:
Have you written other stories? Perhaps any we can read?
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I have written other stories online, but… I’ve taken them down due to my uh… “critics” voicing their displeasure very loudly with their rather unkind and colorful language.
 
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I could show you one of those hateful reviews but… due to the guidelines here, I don’t think I’ll be able to.
 
Krisvee said:
Now that the summary’s out of the way, it’s time to get to the main topic. The light kingdom is of course a holy kingdom, but my main problem is the clergy, magic users, and the use of magic in this new world I am building (mainly controlling nature and divine healing, though I’ve been told it’s been used one too many times). Yes, you have your typical preists, bishops, monks, clerics, and the like, but of course you have your mages and wizards as well. And there’s a possibility that I want to include holy priestesses as part of the clergy (I say that with great concern). Another concern is including fantastical creatures such as elves, dwarfs, orges, giants, lizardmen, possibly dragons etc. (I also say that with great concern).

So now, my question is… what should I do?
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Hello, first time poster!
I’ve been on CAF for about 10 years and my first post was about story writing-related things, too :3 Still haven’t published my story yet (due to world building and life-related stuff), but I have learned things since then…

First off, you mention you are hesitant that you are afraid of “creating a new religion”. Well, you haven’t specified what religion your story is supposed to be emulating. You said this religion will have priests, monks, bishops, etc so Christianity? Does your story take place in the real world? Even an unspecified region supposed to be real? Religions are necessarily connected to real places…unless your plot takes place in an alternate reality where the places and/or people have different names. Just remember: if you want to incorporate real religions in your fictional world/country and keep things consistent and believable, keep in mind religions come with history attached.

Who is the G/god of this lore? If it is the God of Christianity, why would there be mages if the God of the bible prohibits magic? I’m not dissing creativity by asking these questions, but these are the kinds of questions you will be asking yourself often if you choose to incorporate real religions. As one who is writing a fantasy story myself which incorporates real world Catholicism, I’ve learned there are about three options you can explore in this case:
  1. Completely write the magic out of your story to stay true to the strict form of the religion
  2. Write the magic in such a way that it, by definition, isn’t actually magic
  3. Rewrite the religion to allow for the practice of magic
I went for the happy middle option for my story. This meant rewriting a BIG part of the lore for my plot but resulted in a more unique story.

If I had to give an example of how this might look in a story like yours, what if the “seven saviors” were actually clergy themselves? And the power they are reigning down from heaven to fight off the demon’s were just them practicing their clerical role like an exorcist would?
Now, that might or might not work for your tale, but this is one example you might try to rethink what the term “magic” might mean in your story, and what it looks like… continued>>
 
You also mention the possibility of priestesses. I second what others have suggested. Think about what they are there for. If it’s for a love interest, you can get a love interest from anywhere (if you really MUST have a love interest). And again, this will collide with your religion if it is really that fundamental to the plot. If you are going for a Christian motif, you might think of something more along the lines of sisters/nuns? Consecrated virgins even? Priestesses are more a thing in eastern religions.

One option you may consider is creating a religion that basically mirrors Christianity if you need your magic/lore to be more or less the way you originally envisioned it.

As far as other mythical races go, I don’t see a problem with them. I suggest maybe reading up on how Tolkien used these races in his lore to tell what is very much “a Catholic story” in his own words.

Feel free to message me if you want to chat about this in length 🙂

Pax Christi!
 
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I say go ahead with your ideas; it sounds like a great idea.

One of the greatest fantasy authors of all time, John Tolkien, was a devout Roman Catholic despite living most of his life in a historically anti-Catholic country. In his story he included fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Dragons, Spiders, Hobbits, Ghosts, etc), Wizards, and women who fulfill priestess-lie roles (Galadriel).
 
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