#writersofindia
Up.
Then down.
Then up.
Conclusion -
- So mostly up.
Good night // thethinkinggirl ☄️
They say
there’s always light in the end of the tunnel-
and I am here to tell you its not.
There isn’t any light;
Cause you are.You become it.
Hopes,Happiness - don’t suddenly appear out of nowhere,
They live within you.
It will blind them for
when its time.
// thethinkinggirl
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military fantasy is GODTIER. BEST GENRE. i love it with all my heart and soul and its my current obsession so. you get a post about it.
i love both military fantasy and scifi, so this post applies to both in general!
#1. Weapons.
If you’re leaning to a more fantasy-based military story, maybe with magic and all, you might want to choose more midevalish weapons, all of which is freely available to be researched! You don’t have to stick to swords and spears; there are a variety of weapons that can be used! You can make up some of your own too :))
If you’re going more towards scifi/modern warfare, you’ll want to know more about modern weaponry like tanks, guns, etc! Once again, try to make up your own, especially in scifi where it doesnt need to be “realistic.” For example, in the 86 novel series, there is a “railgun” that’s a gigantic weapon with a 400km range movable on train tracks. So really, go wild.
#2. Strategy
Strategy is complicated. Depending on whether you’re going to have a traditional military structure, you’ll have and infantry (foot soldiers who participate in close combat) and a cavalry (in the past, referring to soldiers who rode on animals like horses, and in the present those who fight in armoured vehicles)
I’d recommend checking out the wikipedia page on military strategies. It’s a bit complex if you’ve never studied it/read about it before, but try to understand it. You don’t need to be an expert on it - just make sure that whatever the situation is in your story (a siege, outnumbered by enemies, holding the battle frontiers) has a strategy that makes sense. It shouldn’t be stupid. Some great books with great strategies are the Poppy War series (ensure you check trigger warnings!) if you want an example of good, written, believable military strategy.
The 36 stratagems is an excellent resource too! A lot of websites simplify it and its a goldmine for understanding strategy.
#3. Understand the importance of supply routes, forests and rivers
Easiest way to screw over a city? Cut off their supply routes. How long will a city survive without an income of trade and materials, bonus points if its a small city with very little farming capabilities. It’s like starving them out. Secondly, rivers. Controlling a river means that a) supply routes are controlled. b) its easy to make an offensive over water than on land, and provides a quick escape route too. Forests? They’re excellent for snipers and picking off travellers and soldiers. Also great hiding places for guerilla warfare (do understand what that is!)
#4. Use actual historical references
If you want to really understand the CRUX of military writing, then look at history. Understand the strategies and techniques of past wars that could apply to your fictional ones! It’s a smart technique - but remember that no-one wants to reread a step-by-step repeat of an actual historical event. Writing military stories means that the writing HAS to be fast-paced, and only important moments/beats of the story can be shown rather than the entire tale.
#5. Recommendations of militaristic stories!
I haven’t READ a lot of books about military fantasy/scifi, but here are some manga/anime/light novel series I really love that are related to this genre!
The Poppy War Series (book series) - The Poppy War is the story of passionate yet ruthless Fang Runin, also known as Rin, who grows up poor, orphaned by a previous war. But she studies and gets into an elite military academy, and develops a gift for shamanism that lets her call upon the fire powers of a vengeful Phoenix god.
Eighty-Six (anime, manga, and originally light novel series) - According to the Republic of San Magnolia, their ongoing war against the Giadian Empire has no casualties—however, that is mere propaganda. While the silver-haired Alba of the Republic’s eighty-five sectors live safely behind protective walls, those of different appearances are interned in a secret eighty-sixth faction. Known within the military as the Eighty-Six, they are forced to fight against the Empire’s autonomous Legion under the command of the Republican “Handlers.”
Vladilena Milizé is assigned to the Spearhead squadron to replace their previous Handler. Shunned by her peers for being a fellow Eighty-Six supporter, she continues to fight against their inhumane discrimination. Shinei Nouzen is the captain of the Spearhead squadron. Infamous for being the sole survivor of every squadron he’s been in, he insists on shouldering the names and wishes of his fallen comrades. When the fates of these young souls from two different worlds collide, will it ignite the spark that lights their path to salvation, or will they burn themselves in the flames of despair?
Yona of the Dawn (anime & manga series) - Yona’s perfect world comes crashing down when a heinous act of treason threatens to erase all that she holds dear, including her birthright as the princess of Kouka. Left with no one to trust but her childhood friend and loyal bodyguard Son Hak, she is forced to flee the palace. Faced with the perils of surviving in the wild with a target on her back, Yona realizes that her kingdom is no longer the safe haven it once was.
Free from the shackles of naivety, Yona vows to do everything in her power to become strong enough to crush her enemies. With Hak by her side, she must piece together the remains of an ancient legend that might be the key to reclaiming her kingdom from those who conspired to steal it from her.
there are tons of different types of governments - mostly, as a pattern in fantasy, the government is either in the form of a monarchy or extremely corrupted. so i’ll be sharing some cool methods to write this, again, its just the way I want, do your own research if you want more in-depth info. (also, not a historian, these are things ive studied in history class!)
#1. Totalitarian states
These governments are extremely right-wing (conservative) usually, and impose strict censorship laws and usually have a very active secret police and intelligence systems made up of informants, militants and spies. A lot of the time, they also tend to brainwash their people into believing them using propaganda and silencing dissenters. They often use terror tactics like making the entire population distrust each other, as no-one is sure who is working for the government. Its using systemic terror and the fear of not knowing who to trust that creates very efficient (and terrifying) government systems.
#1a. Revolutions & Freedom of Speech
The reason why a totalitarian states rules in the first place is often because of having a great amount of military power, which subdues the people and is an efficient way to take away rights without having a massive protest or revolution. The only effective way for a totalitarian government to be taken down is if the head of state or an important general is murdered, throwing the lower governmental ranks into chaos. That usually culminates in a breakdown of the economy and politics and the chance for a new government to take power.
#2. Monarchies
A monarchy is a form of government where there is Monarch at the head of it. There are a bunch of different ways it can be organized, but usually there is a council of ministers in charge of different things (i.e Defense, Health, Education, etc) that meets and consults with the monarch, who is in charge of all the ultimate decisions. They monarch also deals with important foreign relations - meeting with monarchs or heads of other governments would be their job with advisory from the Foreign minister. Monarchies are more old-school, and also have no democratic election system.
#2a. Puppet rulers
A lot of monarchs in history - and in fiction, have been puppets controlled by a much more powerful person behind them. Whether this be because they’re old and powerless, or are blackmailed into it, they have no actual autonomy and are overridden by the person controlling them. Puppet rulers are especially useful as plot twists in fantasies, because the person who was built up to be the “big bad enemy” was actually being controlled by AN EVEN WORSE ENEMY⁉️
#3. Some questions to ask yourself about your governmental system
- Is it corrupted? To what extent?
- What factions exist within it? (eg: conservatives, liberals, etc)
- What do the people support/think?
- If there was an emergency crisis at the same time as a war was being fought, would the government prioritise its people or its soldiers/territory?
- Who was the previous government? How did the current government succeed it?
Not all of these require long answers, even a couple of lines to understand how the government did xyz would be enough context! hope this helped <3
writing high fantasy: a series ~ part 1; language
am i using this an excuse to rant about my new fixations? yes.
I genuinely feel like linguistics is SUCH a cool worldbuilding aspect but it just isn’t?? explored enough?? LIKE GODAMNIT do you not understand the possibilities of different dialects and just differences in regions? imagine character a asking a question in dialect A and character B giving a long-winded explanation in dialect B which character A just nods along too, but when asked to explain to the other members of their team they’re just like “bold of you to expect me to understand that”
disclaimer: this is stuff my mom and i talk about while watching gujarati cooking shows im not a linguist and this is my own personal experience!!
#1. If there’s a nationally spoken language, it ORIGINATED from a certain region
so, basically, spoken (and written) language differs over regions. mostly, the region where it originated from will have the most “pure” and “original” version of the language, with a lot of high-level words other people may not understand. this is so useful for comedy because a lot of people may just go ??? like what are you saying man use simpler language.
#2. Vocabulary!! and Accents!! Differ!! Depending!! On!! Where!! You’re!! From!!
if there are multiple languages spoken in your country/world, its ineviable that languages will mix. words from another lanuage may be modified and added to another one. it really annoys me when languages are treated as untouchable “wholes” as if they aren’t growing changing evolving things?? some examples of books where different languages aren’t written that well are the Grishaverse. inej learnt kerch but she NEVER used suli words in it by mistake?? or the fact that ketterdam a motherfucking PORT CITY never had misunderstandings due to different accents and vocabulary?? wild. unrealistic.
#3. the implications of language
okay. lmao. there are studies that show how you literally think differently when using different languages (re: the movie arrival) and ITS SO COOL. maybe a character switches to a different language when bargaining with murderers and talking to their s.o?? or maybe they choose to speak really formally in one language and only knows slang in another. its extremely varied and fun to experiment with!
#4. SOCIOLINGUISTICS and honorific systems
essentially, the way society affects language. when is formal language used? when is informal language used? do women talk differently from men? how many levels of politeness/rudeness are there? additionally, honorific systems are some of my favourite things - an honorific system exists in some languages like Japanese, for example, in which a suffix is added to the name of a person for formalness and is a social norm. there are so many implications of it, and can be used in so many different ways.
#5. an example (last point i swear)
one of my favourite books that incorporates language SO WELL is these violent delights by chloe gong. the incorporation of different Chinese dialects, switching of languages between English to Russian to French, all with diffrent connotations and implications. it was a DREAM reading it, because i have literally never seen a book have so much detail in languages.
anywayyyyy be glad i deleted all my rants of my personal experiences witih the amalgamation of gujarati and marathi, you really dont want to know.
And when thousands of years from now
Our story will be told
To the lovers
Their souls will be pierced
The pain would be immense
As fate would be feared
The trust would break
These ink stains
On my letter
Will tell the tale
Of love and hate
Oh, everything would perish
For, noone would love again
Because if we couldn’t make it
Neither would they.
~Shubhaa
