Why don't I just write about fae? (Patreon)

If I could go back in time, maybe I would not have invented my own races of people for the Hidden Lands. Fae are super hot right now. They tend to live in a magical world adjacent to our own, similar to the Hidden Lands. Why didn't I just write about fae?

Originally, in fact, I did call the two races "elves" and "demons". At the age of 10 I was obsessed with Elfquest comics and Nightcrawler from the X-Men, so it made complete sense to me that elves were mainly characterized for being telepathic as they were in Elfquest, and the demon thing was just because I liked drawing tails.

But eventually I realized this was giving the wrong impression because the demons were not demonic, and elves are more likely to be associated with Tolkien elves, which mine were not.

The "lore" of the Hidden Lands, alas, does not really match any pre-existing being, so I looked to their own language instead and called them the Miralem and the Daramons (literally, "People of the Moon" and "Clan of the Earth"). I also dropped the tails, which I sometimes do regret, but them again, in the current indie landscape tails do tend to indicate some tail sex is going to happen, and although I am ALL FOR SEXY TIMES WITH TAILS, these books have sex scenes but are not really about getting kinky so I guess it was wise.

I find it ridiculously fun and interesting to play with different beliefs and circumstances and how it affects a society. It's one of my favorite things about writing fantasy. How are they like us and how are they different? It's also one of my favorite things in reading. Certainly one thing that informed my perspective early on is my love of JRPGs, manga and anime as a kid. Japanese storytelling had so many entirely relatable aspects. Sometimes it seemed to "get" me even better than my own culture's storytelling. And sometimes it could be verrry different.

If I had to name the elements of Hidden Lands society that shape them, it would be 2 major things:

1. The Miralem are telepathic, and the Daramons are not. The two races can have children together and are otherwise very similar, but there will always be a power imbalance, at least until some potential far off future where their blood has mingled enough that everyone has some lesser telepathic ability.

As a result, Miralem women are as powerful as men. Physical strength is irrelevant because telepathic powers are much stronger, but perhaps more crucially, a woman can never be forced to have a child. If there are strong emotions of anger or fear surrounding a potential pregnancy, it simply will not happen. Telepathy gives Miralem much more control over the body. Gender equality is a given for Miralem and always has been.

But it also means Miralem have a much lower birth rate, and it also means that the one advantage Daramons have had over the centuries is sheer population numbers. There are about three Daramons to every Miralem. Their society is quite the opposite and is very patriarchal and focused around advantageous marriages and children.

The Daramons often feel like the villains of the story because of this but at the same time, I can see their reason for how their society shaped up. It WOULD be legitimately scary to share a world with telepathic people and have very little defense. You might reach for anything you could to keep them at bay.

2. Telepaths have basically proved reincarnation by being able to sense when a reborn soul has the exact same "feel" as someone who died. No one would argue that reincarnation is real in the Hidden Lands. But beyond that, life after death still remains a complete mystery. They don't know if everyone always reincarnates, if reincarnation is determined by fate, karma, randomness, etc., if there is anything "after", if there is any sort of progression of the soul, if there is a god or gods, where souls are between reincarnations which are usually not immediate, etc.

I think so much of our culture is based on that unknown we all face, so it's interesting to consider how that culture would shift if we knew just ONE piece of what happens after death. I think it's sort of like the quest for having enough money, enough success...we want to know if there is life after death, but if we knew there was, that would immediately become just as unsatisfying because all they have is one shred of an answer.

Besides that, what happens if theoretically, you could find the souls of your loved ones in a new life? But there's no guarantee of it either. It's very difficult and most people can't be found. There are some moral questions about it if you do find them, as they will be a new person.

Super random post today. I'm working on The Last Dragon Queen, which I've just retitled to The Broken Queen, and I'll probably start posting some chapters here with some notes. March was crazy but I knocked out a long, long list of adulting things in March and...perhaps a bit of calm awaits. Oh, I hope so!