marycatelli: (God Speed)
There's nothing quite like doing research for a term even though your society is not really parallel with any real world.

There's a servant who's attending on the princess. The fairy tale world has some touches of realism in there, so I don't think the marriageable princess would have her old nurse as a servant still (whatever happened in Tattercoats), but I need a term for her.

And it's still got some of the fairy tale world-building.

I think she's going to be a lady of the chamber.
marycatelli: (God Speed)
Rumors are flying. One is that there is a knight errant, wandering about, doing good deeds.

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marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
Was pondering how few origins there were for superheroes in my high fantasy world. Then I remembered that I had actually had another: gadgeteer. Mind you, with magical gadgets. There are clockpunk ones, but clockpunk needs something magic to make the springs hold enough power.

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marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
It's an insult from a knight. At least to a knight. No knight would use it on a wizard, who would be too curious about things and too interested in being able to do many, many, many things to be too insulted by it -- perhaps a little annoyed that you can't do things by spells as powerful as by powerset.

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
There is a great gap in the story.  It's part of the structure.

But I introduced seven characters before the gap, and didn't manage to work in their names.  The gap occurred.  And now the point of view character already knows all their names.  Unsurprisingly, they were all in the castle together, and all the other servants left.

Sometimes it can be interesting to juggle. 
marycatelli: (Baby)
One important -- and much neglected -- issue in world-building is the generation of the next generation. And in superhero stories, that has to mean whether powers are inheritable.

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marycatelli: (Cat)
There are powers that can break the world. Not so much the world itself -- most supervillains regard the world as a good place to keep their stuff, and those who don't will get all the superheroes and the vast majority of the supervillains to team up against them.

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
So if you're strong-willed, and a wizard tries to turn you into a magical knight with a powerset that doesn't really match your character, you end up with magical powers that don't exactly match

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
In the first book, two characters will discuss how to deal with evil sorcerers who fled the land.

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
Once it has become possible for someone to spontaneously just become a magical knight, without spell slinging, or a ceremony, or perhaps most vital of all, an oath of allegiance. . . 

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
So, who outranks whom? Wizards or knights? The magical knights, of course. . . .

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
giving way to the new. . .

The way to give this story a happy ending is to change how knights are treated.  Originally they were created for war.  Once certain spells were mastered, they were effective for protection -- more against wandering evildoers than armies, but them, too.

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marycatelli: (Default)
There's one definitely way you could oppress supers.

Have groups of them, and oppress one.

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
Ripping off a story idea and hitting on an issue. It's a nominally feudal land. (Nominally because it's inconsistent.) And the knight has a castle and an estate, both distinctly grand. It's explicitly mentioned that he got them in the original story, but nothing more. Which is one of the flaws that inspired me to redo the idea.

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marycatelli: (God Speed)
Was reading a story allegedly set in feudal times. The lord has his knights. And his castle with an array of maidservants dressed in black with white aprons and caps. . . .

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marycatelli: (East of the Sun)
The princess has to go gallivanting off by herself some time.

So I remember to have her talk about walking and even going into the mountains.

Except that I have her casually mention bringing along a man servant to help at need.  And she has to gallivant alone.

Ah, trade-offs.  There have to be political realities in this world, thus mitigating the fairy tale setting.  She might run away to become a scullery maid, at need, and might even succeed in getting away, but she wouldn't be able to announce that  she was off to seek her fortune.

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