The urban fantasy market seems awfully stagnant
- Thread starter VelvetViolet
- Start date
Then it wasn't the character that was the issue. You had system mastery, the others didn't. If you didn't choose to correct for that, it isn't the character that's OP.
aramis erak
Legend
No, the character was also OP, in terms of being considerably easier to refresh than the others, because of how they set up the White Court mechanically. I chose it because it was clearly OP as written. Then add the system mastery...
VelvetViolet
Adventurer
I wanted to discuss werewolves again.
Coolidge’s 2006 essay on archetypes of lycanthropy lists medieval, monstrous (cursed), monstrous (diabolic), heroic and sympathetic as those relevant to contemporary fantasy fiction (fantasy lycanthropes are a miscellaneous addition). Although new fiction has come out in the intervening years, these archetypes seem to remain just as relevant and largely unchanged. All the werewolves I’ve seen in roleplaying games can be described by these archetypes, either singly or in combination.
In terms of designing the nitty gritty, GURPS Shapeshifters is extremely helpful. I’m just going to describe some broad world building here drawing on precedents in folklore and games.
A recurring concept of lycanthropes in games like World of Darkness, The Everlasting, WitchCraft, Dresden Files or Los Cazados is animistic. They are often the result of spiritual invocation or outright possession. This goes back to the folklore origins of lycanthropes, which generally involved invoking deities (if good) or demons (if evil) to induce transformation. An old concept, unknown in modern fiction, is that the transformation was a form of astral projection rather than physical.
Although lycanthropes in folklore are typically evil (which may be attributed to Christianization of pagan beliefs that previously depicted both good and evil lycanthropes), there are a few surviving stories of good lycanthropes like the Italian “hounds of God” or the Slavic “krsnik.” They fight demons, witches, vampires and so forth. Despite being a ready premise for a superhero, they’re bizarrely rare in modern fiction.
Pathologic lycanthropy was invented by Hollywood and, as many detractors in fantasy fiction love to point out, this would generally result in werewolf epidemics. Indeed, this was precisely the danger of folkloric vampires: if you didn’t re-kill them, then the undead would spread as a plague. However, there are plenty of pre-modern stories where lycanthropy is spread to humans from a kind of cursed reservoir. Such reservoirs include flowers, water, wolves, the Moon, cannibalism, and blasphemy. Although intentional werewolf curses like that placed by witches or saints typically left the victim’s mind intact so they could suffer through the life of a wolf, those from reservoirs seemed unpredictable. You might have control over the transformation, or you might turn into a vicious beast without your knowledge, and that’s assuming you know you cursed yourself.
In terms of character options for a specific setting (out of many potential settings), I can imagine a few examples drawing on Coolidge’s archetypes. The occult basis for this form of lycanthropy would be an animal spirit, either possessing the werewolf himself, bound into a magic token like a selkie or swarm maiden, or the token itself is symbiotic a la Witchblade or Guyver. Possession is broadly the result of a pact, blessing, curse, or heredity. Aside from how one becomes a lycanthrope and what benefits and drawbacks it provides; a key aspect of world building would be how lycanthropes treat their condition and how they build their secret societies.
To name a few examples from media:
I don't have a lot of steam right now so I'm going to leave off right here.
Coolidge’s 2006 essay on archetypes of lycanthropy lists medieval, monstrous (cursed), monstrous (diabolic), heroic and sympathetic as those relevant to contemporary fantasy fiction (fantasy lycanthropes are a miscellaneous addition). Although new fiction has come out in the intervening years, these archetypes seem to remain just as relevant and largely unchanged. All the werewolves I’ve seen in roleplaying games can be described by these archetypes, either singly or in combination.
In terms of designing the nitty gritty, GURPS Shapeshifters is extremely helpful. I’m just going to describe some broad world building here drawing on precedents in folklore and games.
A recurring concept of lycanthropes in games like World of Darkness, The Everlasting, WitchCraft, Dresden Files or Los Cazados is animistic. They are often the result of spiritual invocation or outright possession. This goes back to the folklore origins of lycanthropes, which generally involved invoking deities (if good) or demons (if evil) to induce transformation. An old concept, unknown in modern fiction, is that the transformation was a form of astral projection rather than physical.
Although lycanthropes in folklore are typically evil (which may be attributed to Christianization of pagan beliefs that previously depicted both good and evil lycanthropes), there are a few surviving stories of good lycanthropes like the Italian “hounds of God” or the Slavic “krsnik.” They fight demons, witches, vampires and so forth. Despite being a ready premise for a superhero, they’re bizarrely rare in modern fiction.
Pathologic lycanthropy was invented by Hollywood and, as many detractors in fantasy fiction love to point out, this would generally result in werewolf epidemics. Indeed, this was precisely the danger of folkloric vampires: if you didn’t re-kill them, then the undead would spread as a plague. However, there are plenty of pre-modern stories where lycanthropy is spread to humans from a kind of cursed reservoir. Such reservoirs include flowers, water, wolves, the Moon, cannibalism, and blasphemy. Although intentional werewolf curses like that placed by witches or saints typically left the victim’s mind intact so they could suffer through the life of a wolf, those from reservoirs seemed unpredictable. You might have control over the transformation, or you might turn into a vicious beast without your knowledge, and that’s assuming you know you cursed yourself.
In terms of character options for a specific setting (out of many potential settings), I can imagine a few examples drawing on Coolidge’s archetypes. The occult basis for this form of lycanthropy would be an animal spirit, either possessing the werewolf himself, bound into a magic token like a selkie or swarm maiden, or the token itself is symbiotic a la Witchblade or Guyver. Possession is broadly the result of a pact, blessing, curse, or heredity. Aside from how one becomes a lycanthrope and what benefits and drawbacks it provides; a key aspect of world building would be how lycanthropes treat their condition and how they build their secret societies.
To name a few examples from media:
- The hereditary werewolves of Lupine Ridge kept to themselves, aside from a cult run by one of their number who converted some muggles into subservient “betas.”
- The Knights of St. Christopher draw their lycanthropy from magical sentient wolfskins fused to their bodies, passed down across wearers. They hunt witches.
- The werewolves of Stonehaven make it their business to keep the existence of werewolves a secret from muggles and to put down any werewolves who make a nuisance of themselves.
- A group of werewolves in California are attracted to evil people and driven to destroy them. Because “werewolf” is apparently not cool enough, they call themselves “morphenkinder" and initiation "chrism."
- The government maintains a secret task force for investigating werewolf activity, with a few werewolves on the payroll. Less scrupulous government organizations want to weaponize werewolves.
I don't have a lot of steam right now so I'm going to leave off right here.
If I were your GM I would have had White Court vamps just dripping with mockery every time you showed up anywhere they could remotely be.
You're one of the cool, beautiful psychic vampires and you choose to own a game store? And feed off people showing up to buy Magic cards every week? Sure you might have power, but at what cost? AT WHAT COST??? Even the guys feeding off the strung out junkies who are borderline OD-ing on meth would sneer at your choices
VelvetViolet
Adventurer
To continue where I left off discussing werewolves...
Werewolf mythology
The reason why werewolves are the most popular shapeshifters, within Western (i.e. European descended) popular culture, is simple. Wolves, along with bears, are among the few predatory European megafauna that weren’t wiped out by humans ten thousand years ago. Wolves were the most likely to encounter humans, typically by attacking livestock, so more stories were told about them. As these encounters were unpleasant, the stories about wolves were likewise typically unpleasant and especially when it came to shapeshifting wolves.
Since bears are omnivorous and less likely to come into conflict with humans, the stories of bear shape shifters are generally far more positive. A recurring motif in European, Asian and Native American folktales is the “bear’s son cycle,” in which a hero has a shapeshifting bear as one of his ancestors and inherits its strength to help his people. Beowulf is a famous example.
When you delve into the stories of African, Asian and Native American cultures, where wolves are far less dominant in the landscape, the stories of shapeshifters are more diverse. Whatever the local predatory megafauna is, the stories of shapeshifters will draw from it. For example, Africa has stories about shapeshifting lions and hyenas, the Americas have stories about shapeshifting jaguars and pumas, and Asia has stories of shapeshifting tigers.
The moon and silver commonly feature in modern werewolf fiction as a result of Hollywood influence. In folklore, the moon was rarely associated with werewolves except for a few means of becoming a werewolf such as being conceived under a new moon or sleeping under a certain full moon. Silver has been associated with the moon since ancient times in multiple cultures including the Incas, Greeks, Mesopotamians and alchemists. The concept of silver bullets predates Hollywood by centuries. The association, though novel, has a logical progression.
There’s a ton of symbolism related to wolves in European mythology too. The portentous black dogs of the British Isles, the underworld guardians like Cerberus and Garmr, and hunters like the Cŵn Annwn and Laelaps.
If lycanthropes existed, then I imagine they would have their own creation myths. European werewolves worshiping a moon god makes a fair amount of sense.
The Greek goddess Artemis and her twin Apollo seem tailor-made for worship by werewolves. Their mother Leto was linked with wolves and named the land of Lycia in honor of wolves that befriended her. One of Apollo’s children was named Lycomedes. Both names derive from lykos meaning “wolf.”
Greece has an old tradition of ghostly vampiric werewolf-like creatures called vrykolakas. Among other descriptions, they would roam battlefields in the form of hyenas to prey on dying soldiers. Normal people could become malevolent ghosts, but those arisen from werewolves were apparently even worse.
The mythical founders of Rome (famous for openly copying Greek culture), Romulus and Remus, were supposedly raised by wolves. The festival of Lupercalia takes its name from wolves in relation to this.
The backstory writes itself as far as Greco-Roman werewolves are concerned.
(The Chronicles of Darkness books Blasphemies and Spirit Slayers cover similar ground, but still married to the premise of werewolves policing an inherently malevolent spirit world.)
Animism
Animism is a simple concept: everything has a soul. It is believed to be the first religion and provides the underpinnings of all subsequent religion. It is extremely opaque to people who grew up under the Christian tradition and as such it tends to be wildly misinterpreted in Western media.
For example, the concept of a “spirit world” as depicted in World of Darkness does not exist in real animistic belief systems. Another example, the use of the word “spirit” to describe animistic beliefs can give inaccurate connotations of intangibility. As plenty of so-called spirits are quite physical in nature, I prefer less nebulous terms like “god” and “demon.”
The foundation of animism is “magical thinking,” or the belief that your thoughts can alter reality. For example, you wish someone had bad luck and then they do so you believe you caused it; this is a universal concept often called the “evil eye.” Spoiler alert: this is the titular secret in that self-help book The Secret. Since inanimate objects and natural phenomena can think under animism, it follows that they too alter reality in that way. Magical thinking, as the name implies, is the basis of magic.
An example of an animistic belief system that might be more familiar to Western readers would be Greek mythology. It had a plethora of gods that presided over natural phenomena like the satyrs and nymphs. When Europe was Christianized, the gods of the prior animistic religions became the fairies of fairytales when they weren’t demonized.
Modern paganism is another example of animism. As is the psychological tendency for humans to anthropomorphize inanimate objects and natural phenomena, which probably led to animistic religions in the first place. When you are talking to your car and gendering it, that is animism. When you believe that inanimate objects have power over reality, like lucky charms, that is animism.
The eclectic religion of modern Shinto is another example, as it may be found readily in Japanese media like anime and manga that is often exported to the West. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are good examples. Another example that hits closer to home: when Japanese authors write fantasy fiction based on Dungeons & Dragons or its derivatives, metaphysical concepts are typically reinterpreted through a Shinto lens. For example, the concept of ki or the applied manipulation of one's own life force may be employed to explain how various supernatural phenomena occur. The closest Western equivalent are the occult concepts of vitalism, mesmerism, orgones and so forth.
Signing off again...
Werewolf mythology
The reason why werewolves are the most popular shapeshifters, within Western (i.e. European descended) popular culture, is simple. Wolves, along with bears, are among the few predatory European megafauna that weren’t wiped out by humans ten thousand years ago. Wolves were the most likely to encounter humans, typically by attacking livestock, so more stories were told about them. As these encounters were unpleasant, the stories about wolves were likewise typically unpleasant and especially when it came to shapeshifting wolves.
Since bears are omnivorous and less likely to come into conflict with humans, the stories of bear shape shifters are generally far more positive. A recurring motif in European, Asian and Native American folktales is the “bear’s son cycle,” in which a hero has a shapeshifting bear as one of his ancestors and inherits its strength to help his people. Beowulf is a famous example.
When you delve into the stories of African, Asian and Native American cultures, where wolves are far less dominant in the landscape, the stories of shapeshifters are more diverse. Whatever the local predatory megafauna is, the stories of shapeshifters will draw from it. For example, Africa has stories about shapeshifting lions and hyenas, the Americas have stories about shapeshifting jaguars and pumas, and Asia has stories of shapeshifting tigers.
The moon and silver commonly feature in modern werewolf fiction as a result of Hollywood influence. In folklore, the moon was rarely associated with werewolves except for a few means of becoming a werewolf such as being conceived under a new moon or sleeping under a certain full moon. Silver has been associated with the moon since ancient times in multiple cultures including the Incas, Greeks, Mesopotamians and alchemists. The concept of silver bullets predates Hollywood by centuries. The association, though novel, has a logical progression.
There’s a ton of symbolism related to wolves in European mythology too. The portentous black dogs of the British Isles, the underworld guardians like Cerberus and Garmr, and hunters like the Cŵn Annwn and Laelaps.
If lycanthropes existed, then I imagine they would have their own creation myths. European werewolves worshiping a moon god makes a fair amount of sense.
The Greek goddess Artemis and her twin Apollo seem tailor-made for worship by werewolves. Their mother Leto was linked with wolves and named the land of Lycia in honor of wolves that befriended her. One of Apollo’s children was named Lycomedes. Both names derive from lykos meaning “wolf.”
Greece has an old tradition of ghostly vampiric werewolf-like creatures called vrykolakas. Among other descriptions, they would roam battlefields in the form of hyenas to prey on dying soldiers. Normal people could become malevolent ghosts, but those arisen from werewolves were apparently even worse.
The mythical founders of Rome (famous for openly copying Greek culture), Romulus and Remus, were supposedly raised by wolves. The festival of Lupercalia takes its name from wolves in relation to this.
The backstory writes itself as far as Greco-Roman werewolves are concerned.
(The Chronicles of Darkness books Blasphemies and Spirit Slayers cover similar ground, but still married to the premise of werewolves policing an inherently malevolent spirit world.)
Animism
Animism is a simple concept: everything has a soul. It is believed to be the first religion and provides the underpinnings of all subsequent religion. It is extremely opaque to people who grew up under the Christian tradition and as such it tends to be wildly misinterpreted in Western media.
For example, the concept of a “spirit world” as depicted in World of Darkness does not exist in real animistic belief systems. Another example, the use of the word “spirit” to describe animistic beliefs can give inaccurate connotations of intangibility. As plenty of so-called spirits are quite physical in nature, I prefer less nebulous terms like “god” and “demon.”
The foundation of animism is “magical thinking,” or the belief that your thoughts can alter reality. For example, you wish someone had bad luck and then they do so you believe you caused it; this is a universal concept often called the “evil eye.” Spoiler alert: this is the titular secret in that self-help book The Secret. Since inanimate objects and natural phenomena can think under animism, it follows that they too alter reality in that way. Magical thinking, as the name implies, is the basis of magic.
An example of an animistic belief system that might be more familiar to Western readers would be Greek mythology. It had a plethora of gods that presided over natural phenomena like the satyrs and nymphs. When Europe was Christianized, the gods of the prior animistic religions became the fairies of fairytales when they weren’t demonized.
Modern paganism is another example of animism. As is the psychological tendency for humans to anthropomorphize inanimate objects and natural phenomena, which probably led to animistic religions in the first place. When you are talking to your car and gendering it, that is animism. When you believe that inanimate objects have power over reality, like lucky charms, that is animism.
The eclectic religion of modern Shinto is another example, as it may be found readily in Japanese media like anime and manga that is often exported to the West. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are good examples. Another example that hits closer to home: when Japanese authors write fantasy fiction based on Dungeons & Dragons or its derivatives, metaphysical concepts are typically reinterpreted through a Shinto lens. For example, the concept of ki or the applied manipulation of one's own life force may be employed to explain how various supernatural phenomena occur. The closest Western equivalent are the occult concepts of vitalism, mesmerism, orgones and so forth.
Signing off again...
Tony Vargas
Legend
Interestingly, it's also a stage in childhood development, or at least according to some theory that was explained to me many years ago... kids go through a phase where they experience empathy for inanimate objects, things like that.
Maybe we're wired, as social creatures, to interact with eachother, and that wiring can color how we view the rest of the world?
OK, yeah, you've heard that too.
Other worlds are common in a lot of mythologies, though, sometimes conceived of as being somewhere physical, like under the ground or in the sky, other times as simply a way of looking at the same world...
… the modern pop-culture sense is heavily influenced by Theosophy, which posited levels of existence that were concomitant, but invisible to eachother, as an alternative to the common Christian concept of a heaven and hell remote from the physical world... and, perhaps ironically, from scientific and mathematical concepts, like Flatland, and quantum physics.
Those seem worse.
An animist and a deist may try to understand eachother, and the deist may leave with the impression that the animist reveres 'Bear,' who is a deity with dominion over bears, and who exists on some spirit plane. while the animist will try to explain that, no:
"Bear is Bear and I was just talking to Bear the other day, and Bear thinks deists are jerks, and you should be careful in the woods, because Bear is out walking today."
"Well, sure there might be bears out in the woods, but do they all report to your Bear-god via telepathy or something? Has he issued a fatwa against me?"
"All bears /are/ Bear."
VelvetViolet
Adventurer
Yes. The Otherworld, Underworld, Overworld, etc is not the same as the "spirit world" as depicted in, say, Avatar: The Last Airbender. They have their own gods distinct from those of the Middleworld.
Yes. Greek mythology is a great bridge to these sorts of concepts. If you want to go all obsolete occult science, then you could invoke concepts like "morphic fields" to substitute for platonic ideals.
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