Cruelty was actually one of her better qualities. (commission__dark_priestess_by_skyzocat-d935u3r.jpg)
Tag Archive: Fantasy
Oct 04
Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/4/17: Legendary Creatures
World mythology is full of fabulous beasts, beings, spirits, and creatures. There are the ones everybody knows, like gryphons, dragons, and unicorns; then there are those that are semi-familiar, like the harpy and thunderbird; and lastly, some that are truly obscure, like the grootslang, the ahkluyat, the senmurv. Here’s a list of randomly generated creatures …
Sep 27
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/27/17: Arabian Nights
Many people, myself included, have thought that the book of Middle Eastern fantasy tales, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, is a unified work of one author or compiler from the 16th century, ala The Brothers Grimm. But it isn’t. It’s a far older collection of folk tales and poetry from a far wider …
Sep 20
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/20/17: Useful Magic Items
Oh, lookies! I found another book of forgotten magic in the vast dungeon library I call my home! Wonder if it has anything this fellow is looking for? Perhaps something to animate that pink lightbulb heart? A new group of randomly generated, mostly useful, magic items that may find a home in your story or …
Sep 13
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/13/17: Houses of Ill Repute
How do (mostly male) adventurers spend their hard-won leisure time? They might visit a brothel. Game of Thrones has shown fantasy fans what such a brothel might look like, but whorehouses, or rollicking inns filled with willing (or working) women have long been a staple of the genre, especially in sword and sorcery. Straight female …
Sep 06
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/6/17: Barbarians
A barbarian ready for action on the battlefield. Note the cleanly picked skeletons. (Conan the Barbarian, by Uncanny Knack) Without dispute, pulp author Robert E. Howard invented the fantasy character trope of The Barbarian Hero, specifically with his creation Conan. But the roots were laid before that in the Tarzan tales of Edgar Rice …
Sep 04
Dracolich
The Dracolich, or undead dragon, is the most terrifying and powerful of all dragonkin. Fortunately they are few and far between.
Aug 30
Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/30/17: Mundane Fare
Let’s face it. Most of the food in a typical Medieval European kingdom wasn’t very exciting. This is better than most, folks. Historically, the peasant staple in Europe and the Near East was porridge, which is, basically, a form of oatmeal — whole grains boiled in water or milk, decanted into a bowl and eaten …
Aug 16
Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/16/17: Dragon Names
Dragon Names No other creature is as evocative of the contemporary fantasy genre as the dragon. They combine snakes, lizards, dinosaurs, large mammalian predators, and human intellects into one massive, armored, fire-breathing package. (Their drives, however, are their own.) The current version of the dragon dates from within the last 100 years. Tolkien gave us …
