So I've had some ideas for an urban fantasy setting and am tempted to set a few short stories in it, to build it up more and see how if it works for stories. But first I'd like to get some opinions on these ideas, plus this is just an interesting subject of discussion. The world I'm coming up with is kind of like a cross of World of Darkness, H.P. Lovecraft and hints of The Dresden Files.
Magic) Magic is more primitive, a kind of proto-magic.
My first idea stems from something that came to me: Why do wizards throw fireballs? What I mean is, why do they use fire as an offensive weapon? There's drama and symbolism there, sure, but from a practical point of view wouldn't a greater weapon be
heat? Wouldn't it be easier for a wizard to superheat a small area of space than funnel it into a ball of flames? This is where my proto-magic idea came in, what if magic wizards use in the urban fantasy setting was just "manipulation of energy" (physics simplifications ftw!)? The ability to move and contain (for lack of a better word) the energy in particles.
Want to burn something to death, superheat the area in front of you which the something is standing it.
Want to freeze something, "move the energy" out of an area in order to lower the temperature to freezing.
So this proto-magic makes magic very powerful, whilst also making it require author and character have to be clever to figure out ways of using it effectively. It also solves the "why not just magic everything better?" problem by making magic a very focused, limited field.
Price Vampires Pay) Some of the downsides for Vampires. Obviously I have some more ideas about vampires in the world (like whether they bite or scratch and lick
), but I want to go into the downsides first partly because I feel it's the most "unique" of the ideas.
Super Strength: What if your body isn't as capable as your brain is telling you? So vampires have to learn to control themselves and recognise the new limits of their bodies. For example, the first time a vampire tries to run, they probably tear their leg muscles.
Super Perception: This idea I really like, namely give vampires a reason and an associated curse with super perception. The idea is that a vampires perception is a result of their brain being in such a state of overdrive, that they effectively experience several seconds (let's say 10) for every 1 second that passes. This gives them longer to process everything happening. Now, why is this a downside? Well, imagine if every 1 hour film you had to sit through, actually lasted 10 hours. Every word took ten words time to hear. Living in permanent slow motion would not be pleasant, emotions would come and go past so quickly to others it'd be like they never happened at all whilst sensations would last so long you'd get used to them, conversations would be unbearably slow and boring, life would be...hell, quite simply.
Transformation: The process of being turned into a vampire should not be a pleasant one. In fact, it should be painful. Your body is being drastically altered, after all. Well, what if the transformation was also malicious? So I started thinking, how could it be malicious? What if it left one completely immobile whilst also preventing unconsciousness and death? The vampire-to-be would have to experience every second of their transformation, experience enough pain to cause a person to die a thousand times, and have no escape, no embrace of darkness to free them. And depending on how lucky the vampire is, it could end in a few minutes or it could go on for hours or days. Is it possible to step through to the other side, and retain anything of who they once were? To even remain sane?
Ghouls) A ghoul in this world would come in two flavours
1 - Someone infected with vampirism but dies a few days before transforming or during the transformation (is killed but not enough for the transformation to not finish) is still transformed into a vampire, but with none of the person they were in that body. Instead, they become ghouls: Rabid beast of pure instinct that live to feed and kill and repeat until they are stopped. The idea in folklore of a ghoul or vampire digging themselves out of their own grave, and then returning to that grave, both come from these creatures.
2 - Someone whose mind is so damaged by the pain of transforming, they lose all of who they were and go so insane as to effectively be the same as the 1st type of ghoul although some retain some of basic reasoning and intellect remaining. Practically they are like 1 but with more intelligence, meaning they are more dangerous.
Both release a pheromone which other vampires can detect, and unnerves them enough to compel nearby vampires to seek and kill them.
Ghosts) An idea I am somewhat fighting with since I'm straying into Energy Can Do Anything! I'll probably leave any explanation as the "rough theory" being dolled out by someone only somewhat educated on the topic.
A person can either with knowledge or dumb luck, often when dying or being killed, create a kind of "construct" which is essentially an energy copy of themselves, their personality and traits. A ghost isn't the original person who died, they're simply gone, but a kind of 'imprint' of them left in the world. This imprint can have varying levels of sentience, being anything from creatures of anger and hate to effectively that person but in a less material form. They would essentially exist as a series of interactions between energies created in a specific way so as to manifest as if they were the original person.
However, as time goes on that energy slowly disperses into the surrounding world, causing the ghost to decay. Actually influencing the surrounding world requires them to expend some energy too, hastening the decay. Their powers and ability to influence the world weakens, and even the sanity of the ghost deteriorates into a much more base, primal personality. Eventually, they'll fade into nothingness.
Ghosts, especially the ghosts of wizards or warlocks created with preparation, can learn to take energy from the world and maintain themselves (Ghosts who can do this are what causes the "sensation of cold" reported on all those TV shows ^^).
Like I said, so far it's a topic I'm a bit vague on how I'll make it fit, it being a copy of the person in the "magical energies" mage-users work with seems the best I can come up with...
Common themes) In case you can't to tell by how I'm torturing vampires here, a theme I want to touch is the costs of immortality on the minds of those who seek or obtain it. Live long enough and everyone would eventually go insane. Imagine if you had thousands of years of life barking at your heels? Sanity amongst the eldest of the "once human" immortals at least would be a rarity, they'd all have some significant flaws and neurosis from their childhoods and adulthoods that time had only worsened.
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I'll post more of my ideas later, and expand on vampires more, but for now I'd like some feedback on these ideas.
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Topic: Building an Urban Fantasy World (Read 1937 times)