#fantasy reference

[blossomsinthemist]

Jack Frost's Iridescent Chocolate Bark

[strangeduckpaper]

Wuxia style story based off of the wizard of Oz. A large realm divided between four immortal sorceress empresses and crisscrossed by golden roads leading to an Emerald hidden city. Is this anything? Has it been done before?

[inky-duchess]

Wars, Battles and Sieges: Artillery

Historical warcraft is not just limited to hand to hand combat. Just like today, most armies would have artillery, machines craft to fire objects at the enemy or a fortress. Here are some of the common artillery used in history before the creation of guns to use in your fantasy works.

Ballista

Ballistae are basically gigantic crossbows. These are probably familiar to most people, since they were used in Game of Thrones season 7 and 8. The ballistae were loaded with massive arrows and spears. However ballistae were not so flexible. Most of them would be fixed to their positions either on castle walls or in front of them. Ballistae were accurate, but not quite as strong as other artillery on the list.

Mangonel/Onagers

The Mangonel or Onagers consisted of a long throwing arm with bucket-like sling set on a wooden frame. It was fired by using levers and ropes and could fling boulders and any other projectile you can think of. Most were built with wheels in order to be more maneuverable

Trebuchet

The most powerful of the non-gunpowder using siege craft machines. The two main kinds of trebuchets ate traction and counterpoise. Traction was manned by people and counterpoise was fired by weights. Trebuchets launch the biggest projectiles, such as large boulders or heavy leaden projectiles. The largest trebuchet belonged to that long-legged dickhead Edward I. It was called War Wolf and the minute the besieged Scottish saw it they tried to surrender. Edward rejected their pleas and fired anyway, causing mass destruction.

Cannon

Cannons are not so popular in fantasy works as they should be. Cannons are rather interesting weapons and not at all like the toys we see firing cartoon characters into the sky. The cannons could fire massive balls of hardened lead or iron at the enemy. Sitting behind high stone walls? These things will fuck you up. Just take a single look at Mons Meg. It shot somebody's hand off as well has half the castle walls.

[wisteria-lodge]

So you want to write a character who uses THEE/THOU/THY pronouns?

Fantastic!  Love me some good vampires, time travelers, fay lords, wizards recently recovered from magical trances, weird off-the-grid societies, and mysterious immortals who start slipping into old speech patterns whenever they are emotional or intoxicated!

But if you’re going to do it, DO IT. Commit. (I’m looking at you, Christopher Paolini). Do it right, and it’ll give your character so much more depth.

I - So WHEN exactly am I supposed to use these thee/thou/thy pronouns? 

Not all the time! You look at the person you’re talking to, think about what kind of relationship you have with them, and then decide: thou, or you? 

YOU is the polite, respectful option. It’s for acquaintances and social superiors. 

THOU is the causal, friendly option. It’s for family, close friends and social inferiors.

Which leaves so much room for drama! “Thou” is either the most intimate, kindest thing you can call someone - or the most insulting. Think Jane Austen / Victorian England: when you’re calling someone “Mary,” they’re either your sister, your wife, or your scullery maid. That’s what a “thou” pronoun is. “You” is just sort of polite and neutral, like saying “Miss Jones.” 

You can insult a teacher/parent/king/commander by using “thee/thou” pronouns. You can flatter a servant or an up-and-comer by using “you.” And switching from “you” to “thou” is emotional, like calling someone by their first name when you’ve only ever called them by their last name. (and switching back from “thou” to “you” can be cold as hell.) 

And oh my god, if you’re ever reading Shakespeare and need to understand a relationship, or a power dynamic or whatever, just check if they’re saying “thou” or “you.” That tells you *everything.* 

II - THOU vs THEE

Take a look at these two sentences:

She curses the wizard.

The wizard curses her.

You’re using a different word depending on whether this lady is doing the action herself (cursing), or having the action done to her (being cursed.) 

Thou/thee works exactly the same.

Thou curses* the wizard.

The wizard curses thee.

And this is a little tricky, because “you” just doesn’t have that subject/object distinction. You use the same word both times. 

You curse the wizard.

The wizard curses you. 

Just remember: Use “thou” wherever it would make sense to say “she,” and “thee” wherever it would make sense to say “her.” 

[*I’m gonna come back to the verb thing, i promise]

III - THY vs THINE

This part easy.

THY pairs with YOUR (Is this thy castle? // Is this your castle?) 

THINE pairs with YOURS (Is this castle thine? // Is this castle yours?) 

That’s it. 

IV - THOU + VERB = ?

‘kay. Sorry to get all grammar on you, but here’s a very mini verb conjugation table:

You sing

She sings

Thou sing’st

Notice that “thou” gets it’s own very special verb ending: -’st. (the same way that he/she/it gets -s). Here are some more examples:

Thou come’st (You come) 

Thou know’st (You know)

Thou see’st (You see) 

Thou find’st (You find)

Thou pray’st (You pray)

Thou talk’st (You talk)

Thou answer’st (You answer)

And HERE is a little cheat sheet of all the ‘thou’ verbs that are NOT usually spelled with that handy apostrophe: 

Thou dost (You do)

Thou didst (You did) 

Thou art (You are)

Thou wert (You were)

Thou wilt (You will)

Thou shalt (You shall)

Thou hast (You have)

Thou canst (You can)

Thou wouldst (You would)

Thou darest (You dare)

Thou liest (You lie)

And don’t forget that you can flip the order to ask a question. For example:

Dost thou? (Do you?) 

Art thou? (Are you?)

Wilt thou? (Will you? 

Didst thou? (Did you?) 

Canst thou? (Can you? 

V - BUT WHAT ABOUT THE -TH VERBS? 

-th / -eth is the slightly older ending for he/she/it nouns. (it eventually got replaced with -s).

If you wanted to, you could re-write my mini conjugation table as

You sing

She singeth

Thou sing’st

But that’s extra credit, as far as I’m concerned. 

VI - THAT’S QUITE A LOT TO REMEMBER

If you can remember the first stanza of “Greensleeves,” then you’ve got this. It’s a perfect perfect little reminder

Alas, my love, thou dost me wrong, To treat me so discourteously, For I have loved thee well and long, Delighting in thy company.

You’ve got thou, thee, and thy all used properly. 

You have ‘thou dost’ in there, which reminds you to stick a -st on whatever verb you’re using with ‘thou.’ 

And also, it’s a love song, but also kind of a diss track. THAT is a good reminder of WHEN you are supposed to used thee/thou pronouns. 

And that’s it! I recommend grabbing yourself a nice Reader x Character fic, and switching out all the “you” pronouns as practice.  ;)

[NOTE: King James Bible  + Quakers have entirely different way of using thee/thou pronouns. DO NOT USE AS REFERENCE.) 

[But I did write an alternate, novelty version of this post that does use thee/thou pronouns. To be used as reference :) ]

[many-books-little-time]

Worldbuilding: How to Draw Maps

[This post is direct translation from this post I wrote on my main blog @hojasdeoctubre. If you are interested in writeblr and can understand spanish you can go check it out if you want. Also, thanks to @cawolters for showing the original post some love and requesting this translation]

I know there are some softwares and web pages out there that can draw fantasy maps, but I’m an analogic person and pen and paper are easier for me, so I’m gonna show you guys how I make my maps. We’re going to make this map of a city I called Odenwood (name of a city from a fanfic I wrote when I was 13 featuring a mercenary and a noble girl who was the biggest Mary Sue that ever lived and whose name was slightly similar to mine, but she was defenitely not me).

Warning: This post is reeeaaallyy long. Maybe you think that I’m overexplaining. I’d rather go slow and make myself clear.

1. Materials

2 sheets of paper

Pencil

Rubber

Black sharpie

Black pen

2. Land

Well, I like cliffs and coast towns, so that’s what I’ll draw. If you guys prefer mountains and rivers that’s fine too.

We start by drawing the land:

I first used a pencil and, when I was happy with it, I used the black pen. Don’t go thinking that I can draw perfectly on the first try.

3. Main points

Now is when we use the second sheet of paper. We place it on top of the first one so we can see through. We don’t need to redraw the land on the second sheet of paper but we have to see the beach, the cliff...

And now we place the main infraestructure of our city. I have placed a merchant harbour on the East because in my imagination the world expands on that side and merchant vesels will come from there. However, I’ve placed a fishing harbour down in the Suth because the waters are calmer there and the fishing is better.

The castle will always be in the most hard to access part of the city cause that’s the most protected. The cliff is the perfect place for that.

4. Paths

Now we start tracing the paths between our three main points and another path that comes from the mainland. People in the castle will need fish, goods and travel to the rest of the continent.

Long paths wil have curves as people always take the way of least resistance. Steeps, rocks and stuff like that will make them have to go around and create curves.

Then we draw shortcuts. People walking down the upper road (from now on we’ll call it the King’s Road, which is what people from the city will call it if the one living in the castle is a king) will want to get to the fishing harbour (Fish Street) and the merchant harbour (Merchant Street) [Note: As you can see, naming streets is a no-brainer]. They are not going to get to the castle every time they want to get there. That’s why we draw secondary paths (purple).

Then we draw paths that lead to other zones, like forests (that we still don’t have) and farming (blue).

And last, shortcuts between those cause humans are just lazy (green).

And now we have a web of streets and paths that will allow us to work.

Other common names for streets are: (this are common names for streets in Spain)

Main Street

New Street

North/South/East/West Street

Great Street

Sun Street (streets called Sun are usually the ones that go from East to West, for obvious reasons)

Church Street

School Street

(Name of the job: Smith / Librarian / Tanner...) Street

High / Low Street

We are not exactly original when it comes to naming streets.

Now we mark spots where several streets meet. Those are going to be plazas and rotundas:

5. Start Drawing

We go back to the first piece of paper and draw our castle and harbours:

(you can see the web of paths underneath)

6. Walls and neighbourhoods

Having the piece of paper with the streets underneath is going to be useful now because we are going to draw the walls of the city. We need to see where the paths are so we can place the gates:

Once we have the limits of the city, we can start drawing blocks (neighbourhoods) respecting the streets and leaving blank spaces for the plazas.

If you see, the gate of King’s Road is bigger. That will be the main gate, used by dignataries coming from the continent. We’ll call it King’s Gate, although probably the citizens will call it “the big / great gate” when they are not being formal.

The other gates will have names too: West Gate, South Gate, Merchant’s Gate and Coast Gate. I guess...

7. Small streets

Now that have our neighbourhoods (they will probalby be organized by jobs, although most services like inns, bars and shops will be near King’s Road), we break them into smaller blocks:

And after that, when we see blocks that are still too big, we can draw patios and yards, or small alleys:

(ignore those roofs that are already drawn. I got carried away and forgot to take a picture).

We could leave it like that, if you like the white aesthetic. I wanted to show you how it looks with all the roofs done so I’ve drawn the direction of the waters. I’ve also added monuments in the plazas.

8. Growth

Our city is finished. We coul leave it like that. However, if our city is ancient and thriving, and the peace has lasted long enough, it’s possible that more people have wanted to move to it. The problem was that the city was alreaady full or living inside the walls was too expensive. In those cases, it is possible the new neighbourhoods start to form. You don’t need the protection of the walls during peace times.

These new neighbourhoods wil start around the gates and will expand along the path. Only after a really long time will they start to expand far from the main paths.

We draw those new neighbourhoods and a forest and it’s done. Here you have the beautiful city of Odenwood.

[the-ambitious-author]

Helpful Resources for Medieval Fantasy

A collection of research links and cool websites I’ve found helpful for medieval fantasy worlds i.e. no electricity, horse and buggy, etc. 

I try to update this post but there will probably be old versions floating around Tumblr. Google Drive is the best place to find the most up-to-date version. 

If you find a cool link you think would help others, just message me!  

Need a name for something/someone? 

Fantasy Name Generator (this website has an awesome repertoire of basically any kind of name you could want - places, real language names, objects, and more!)

Another Fantasy Name Generator

Yet Another Fantasy Name Generator

Existing Fantasy Names (this one is a master-list rather than a generator, but it’s detailed and includes characters, towns and villages) 

Another Resource for Existing Fantasy Names (also includes references for specific fandoms/series) 

Can’t figure out how to describe that thing in a way that makes sense for the time period/cultural background? 

Castles (everything you need to know for that big, beautiful palace) 

Castle Gardening (this has detailed descriptions of classic maintenance of gardens but also gives a good idea of what engineering techniques were available before modern technology) 

Medieval Architecture (the website is also a great resource for any historical culture questions you have)

Japanese Gardens (helpful for constructing/visualizing those beautiful magical japanese gardens in K-dramas - hint: the red bridge is called a guzei bridge! ;)

Medieval Technology (an outline of available technology from agriculture to forgery) 

Another Technology Resource

And Yet Another Technology Resource

One More Medieval Technology Resource

Maps (this is meant to be a drawing reference but it can help you figure out the lay of the land for journeys and descriptions, from how a city or building is organized to what entire continents in your world look like)

Alternatively, A Fantasy Map Generator (for constructing kingdoms and continents)

A List of Ancient Cultures (each culture has more specific reference pages for technology, traditions, and more) 

More History and Ancient Culture Info (well-organized and well-described)

British Nobility (scroll to the bottom for resources on manners, rank, politics and more)

Medieval Clothing by Character Background (how to dress characters based on rank, class, etc. - also a good resource for lots of other things) 

What’s that thing/action/place called? 

Armour and Clothing (this website is actually a store but the sections are well organized and all items are labelled with their real names)

Royal Titles From Around the World (and throughout history - for all your nobility-naming needs) 

Weapons (a really good resource on basically any kind of weapon from any period of history you could think of) 

Another Medieval Weapons Resource

Fantasy Weapons (this one is also a store but is good for weapon inspiration)

More Fantasy Weapons (also has fandom/series’ specific weapons and weapons organized by type - melee, siege, ranged, etc.) 

Sword-fighting terms (for describing that fast-paced, action-sequence in gloriously accurate detail) 

Medieval Buildings Based on Usage

Other useful links 

Choosing a Weapon for Your Character

World-building (questions to answer to help develop your world)

Fantasy Writing Do’s and Don’ts

High Fantasy Tips

Reference Pinterest for my own book (my world is fantasy inspired by real historical cultures like Arabian/Korean/Japanese/Egyptian and African) 

Pinterest is also just a really good way of collecting and organizing reference images which I highly recommend!

[soullessandanonymous]

Whilst working on my fantasy series, I realized I know nothing about castles.  I’ve seen plenty of castles, but the actual vocabulary for the parts and structures of a castle—not so much.  I couldn’t find much on Tumblr itself for references, but maybe I didn’t look hard enough.  None the less, I decided to post whatever I research into a series.

Please feel free to let me know if anything should be added, what sort of castle research you're looking for, etc.

In this post—under the cut—I’m covering the main exterior structures of a castle, with some minor interior inclusions, such as a dungeon, etc. 

Allure/Wall-Walk

A walkway on a wall

Made it easy to move quickly between towers

High position let sentries watch for approaching enemies

Defenders could use as a platform to fight against enemies

Important security features in castles

Accessed via: ladders, wooden stairs, and other towers

Paved with stone slabs

Chemin-De-Ronde: wall-walk that spans around entire castle

Arcade

A covered passageway with arches along one or both sides

Blind Arcade: row of arches supported on columns, either free-standing or attached to a wall

Bailey/Ward

A courtyard enclosed by the outer wall of a castle

The area below the motte

Food and animals were stored here

There were inner and outer baileys

Used for exercise yards, parade grounds, and occasional corrals

Courtyards

Barbican

A walled passage projecting from the front of a gatehouse

A fortified outpost or gateway

Any tower situated over a gate or bridge, used for defense

Confined approaching enemy to a narrow front, leaving them open for easy attack

Protected castle entrance

Bartizan

An overhanging corner turret at the top of a tower

Supported by corbels

Crow’s Nest

Almost always located on the highest points of a castle

Allowed a warder to see all around

Bastion/Bulwark

A structure that projected outward from the curtain wall

Each corner of the curtain wall has a bastion

Long walls had a centered bastion, or multiple

Allowed defenders to cover dead ground (blind spots) and provide crossfire for the curtain wall and adjacent bastions

Battlement

A low, protective wall along a walk-wall or the roof of a tower with crenellations for shooting through

Often had openings called murder holes (machicolations) in floor to allow missiles or burning objects to be dropped on attackers

Berm/Berme

The level area between curtain wall and the moat/ditch

Intended to reduce soil erosion to keep wall from collapsing

Kept debris from wall from falling into or filling moat/ditch

Curtain Wall

An outer wall that surrounded the bailey and/or castle buildings

Walls were often connected by a series of towers to add strength and provide better defense for the castle grounds

Designed to protect castle

Arrow slits were often built into wall for defense

Average height was 30 ft

Varied in sized: 6-20 ft thick, ~30-45 ft tall, and ~1,500 ft long

Draw Bridge

A bridge built to span a moat/ditch that could be raised or lowered at will

A removable ladder in towers to reach second floor, and prevent intruders

Sometimes had a turning bridge that pivoted in the middle to prevent entrance

Drum Tower

A round tower built into a wall, usually connecting stretches of exterior curtain wall

Dungeon

Simply a single plain room with a heavy door, or whose only access was via a hatch/trapdoor in floor of room above it (oubliette)

Were under the keep, or gatehouse in later centuries

Fausse Braie

An exterior rampart, outside of and parallel to the main rampart, and considerable below its level

Forebuilding

A building attached to the keep guarding its entrance

Normally contained a staircase leading up to first floor of keep

Often held a small chapel

A keep’s equivalent to a castle’s barbican

Garden

Located in bailey near the kitchen

Has several sections: fruit trees/bushes, cooking herbs, medicinal herbs, vegetables, cooking flowers, and medicinal flowers

Often accessed through stairs from kitchen

Gatehouse

Main entrance/exit to castle

Once a simple doorway with a heavy door that could be barred shut

Now a portcullis (a heavy iron grate) that can be lower and raised

Had vaulted ceilings with murder holes 

Side walls had arrow slits

Usually located in curtain wall

Location where enemies often attempted to breach

Had twin towers on either side for protection

Could have up to 3 floors: 

Ground Floor: contained the guards room and sometimes a prison

First Floor: contained quarters for the guards and the castle constable as well as the mechanisms to control the portcullis

Second Floor: was a storage place for weapons

Defended by a barbican

Guardroom

A room used by on-duty guards

Likely stored weapons

Guards did not sleep here—they had barracks in the gatehouse, a tower, or under the keep

Hoarding/Brattice

A covered wooden balcony projecting from the top of a tower, a curtain wall, and used to defend castle

A temporary, shed-like wooden construction placed on exterior of ramparts during a siege

Had holes in floor to allow defenders to see enemies and attack them from above

Later replaced with murder holes

Hornwork

An indépendant earthwork located in front of and separately from the castle’s curtain wall, but within range to be defended

Front of hornwork had a curtain wall and two half-bastions, one on each endpoint

Sides are long and parallel to each other

Back was crescent shaped and faced castle’s curtain wall, built low so invaders couldn’t take shelter there

Forced invaders to begin siege farther away

Provided defenders with opportunity to destroy siege lines

Keep/Donjon

The largest and strongest tower in the castle

Great Tower

Was self-sufficient

Served as final refuge during a siege

Square or rectangular in shape, sometimes round

Walls could be ~17 ft thick

Windows were styled for archers, not viewing, such as arrow slits

Soldiers would keep watch from roof

Where lord and his family resided

Basement: held storerooms, barracked soldiers, and dungeons

Ground Floor: entrance to keep, held guardroom and kitchen, where servants/soldiers spent most of their time, or slept on the floor

First Floor: held the great hall, the lord conducted his business here, where banquets and court was held

Top Floor: held private chapel for lord and lady, where lord’s family slept, where lady of castle spent most of her time with her ladies-in-waiting doing various activities

Staircase: interior staircase would spiral all the way from the ground floor to the roof

Lunette

A fortification shaped like a half-moon or an arrowhead

Similar in appearance to a bastion, but did not have “wings” of castle wall connected to it

Either a separate structure, or connected to a curtain wall

Back was often open

Later became a redan

Moat/Ditch

A deep ditch cut into the bedrock or earth around the main part of the castle, usually filled with water 

Filled by nearby lakes, rivers, or springs; sometimes by changing the direction of flow to go into the ditch

Most had an inlet and an outlet, rather than being self-contained like a donut

A dam in the outlet would control water levels

Made of rocks, or earth

Invaders could not tunnel under moats because they would collapse under weight of water, could not swim across because it was too deep and made them targets for archers

Had sharp sticks—bungy sticks—placed in moat to prevent people and animals from coming across

Dry moats were still hard to cross because they were deep and had steep sides

Ranged from 3-30 ft deep, and ~12 ft across

Motte

An artificial earthwork mound on which a castle was built

To create: a wide, circular ditch was dug with earth and stone thrown up into the middle in successive, reinforced levels in order to create mound

Sometimes a natural hill or summit was used instead

Oubliette

A windowless chamber whose only entrance was through a trap door in the ceiling, which opened into guardroom above and was too high for prisoners to reach

Prisoners were lowered by rope into the oubliette, same for food

Was used rarely for prisoners, those placed here were intended to be forgotten

So tiny, moving around or turning at all was impossible

Shaped like a cylinder

Completely dark

Sometimes the oubliette was below ground level, thus water would seep through the ground and fill the space making survival impossible

Starvation hole

Parapet

A low protective wall along a wall-walk,  bridge, or roof

Does not have crenellations like a battlement

Portcullis

A wooden or iron grill that could be dropped to bar a gateway or raised to allow passage 

Moved strictly in a vertical direction

Occasionally used to trap attackers inside the barbican

Postern Gate

A secondary gate or door, often located at the rear of the castle in a back wall

Gate was often connected to a small guardroom, that then connected to the bailey

Located in concealed location, allowing occupants to come and go inconspicuously

In case of a siege, used as a secret exit for troops or send out a messenger, otherwise it was barred

Used by tradesmen and servants during peaceful times

Built for one person, unmounted to pass through

If possible, built on steep hill with access from a footpath required

Sometimes required a password to be let through

Rampart

A defensive wall with a broad top, a walkway, and a stone parapet

Raveline/Demilune

A triangular fortification or earthwork located in front of the curtain wall, with in range to be defended

Allowed defenders to attack enemy before they can reach the curtain wall

Forced attackers to start siege from further away, and allowed defenders to defeat siege line

Functioned the same as a hornwork

Redan

A small raveline

Often made of earthwork, but stone and other material could be used

Designed like a lunette, but shorter

Tower

A tall narrow building, either freestanding by itself or else connected to a larger building 

Unlike turrets, towers touched the ground

Provided access to wall-walks, lookout points and sleeping quarters for the garrison

Were square, d-shaped, or round

Turret

A small tower projecting out of a main tower, usually used as a lookout point

Did not touch ground

Allowed defenders to provide sheltering fire to the adjacent wall during an attack

 Roof was usually circular with various kinds of apex

May have a staircase if turret is taller than tower

Buildings often had both towers and turrets

Supported by a corbel, and limited in size

RESOURCES

Castles on the Web

My Literary Quest

Lady of Legend

Google Images

[thehuntershoard-blog]

I have been offline for a little while visiting family and have not posted anything so today I am back into it. Here is another one from the series of everyday objects, items, and trinkets of a fantasy world I’ve been doing.

Work and Mining Tools

Blacksmith Tools

Perfumes & Colognes

Adventure/Dungeon tools and gear

Merchant tools and gear

Mess Kit and Waterskin

Navigation Tools

Lamp, Light, and Torch

Travel Backpacks

Dice Game Cups and Dice

Monster, Wyvern, and/or Dragon Eggs

Monster Tooth Trophy Necklaces

Luck, Rune, and/or Ward Carvings

Luck, Rune, and/or Ward Stones

Magical and Herbal Potions

Gold and Money Pouches

Walking Sticks and Wizard Staffs