hmm, I know you're not thinking of this WIP rn, but for just a fantasy story: 2 and 5, pls? ^-^ (@enchanted-lightning-aes)
Okay, I love 2 because that could happen so easily.
2. Your hero is now the villain. What happened differently in their life to lead them down this path?
Mary is JYTFS's protagonist, and her whole arc is about learning to think and act for herself and to develop a less fluid moral code, but most of that happened because she got lucky. She got lucky, because she was summoned as a Chosen One, so people already expected her to be good. She was lucky because she made good friends, and learned to love her new world.
If she was summoned as a demon, for example, with nobody expecting anything good from her, and if she didn't make the friends she makes, and if she didn't have she chance to learn about the world, she would learn to hate it. She would learn not to take those that live there as people, because they're not really people, are they? Just characters from a dream that has been lasting for far too long.
It wouldn't take her much to become the villain, it would actually be easier for her, but at a certain point in the story she starts to care about this world and its people enough to actively choose to be the hero.
I’ve been saving this guy for a while as a treat to myself. He’s one of my favourite characters, and also one that hardly ever comes up because he’s a god of a small, modest cult of a civilization that has been extinct for over 8 million years.
This one is long, so I’ll put it under read more.
Before the time of humans and spirits, there was the time of Gurif and Iiima. The Iiima had mostly polytheistic religions, where spirits, gods, and heroes intertwined in an intricate system of beliefs. However, there was one god that was present in the beliefs of almost every tribe. Never in the leading role, never the most described or famous one, but always there. Aaa. Aaa was the god of roads, ways, decisions, and borders. His main task was to help souls on their journey to the underworld. A bit on that:
With some variations from tribe to tribe, in Iiima’s mythology the world was divided into three layers:
The overworld, where gods and mighty spirits live. A place of magic and wonder;
The middle world, where the Iiima live, plants grow and animals run. A place of life, a place to prove yourself in battle, to perfect yourself, to learn;
The underworld, where the souls of the dead dwell. A place of peace, but not sadness. A place of rest, but not boredom. A quiet place. Home.
Ultimately, every soul reaches the underworld, but first, it must finish its journey. The journey is the process of finding peace with yourself, with your life, with what you’ve done. If you lived a happy life and there are no demons of the past holding you down, your journey will be short and pleasant. If you are torn on the inside, if you can't make peace with yourself, your journey will be long and difficult. But no matter what, Aaa will be there to guide you, quietly, peacefully, never the one to judge.
His attributes: a gray cloak covering his body and concealing his face. Two axes, both double-serving as keys - one for the underworld and one for the overworld. Two guarding dogs sometimes follow him - Kri-kra and Kra-kri, meaning white-and-black and black-and-white. They are guardian dogs for the gates between the underworld and the middle world and the middle world and the overworld.
Traditional Iiima burial rituals involve leaving a grindstone for Aaa's axes and two treats for each dog so that he would help the soul on its journey.
Just one more thing!
There is an Iiima bonding ritual, Taaa-rin. If you become Taaas with someone, that means that when one of you dies, their soul will wait for yours to make Aaa's journey together. Of course, everyone meets everyone in the underworld eventually, but if you had a troubled life, your journey may last long. Hundreds, if not thousands of years long. So if you know you can't be without each other for that long, you become Taaas. This tradition died out with the Iiima and has not been practiced for millions of years, but the spirits remember it, though they do not use it for reasons I'll explain later. Shimmi learned about it, loved the idea, and always wanted to find someone to become Taaas with. Eventually, he found Yahgur and offered him to become his Taaa. He agreed, so Shimmi and Yahgur are the first Taaas in over eight million years.
I didn’t know how to sort them, so they’re in alphabetical order.
Ena - wakes up whenever the first-morning prayer reaches her, answers it, normally ignores whatever was asked of her, and tries to go back to sleep. She doesn’t really need food or sleep, but that doesn’t stop her from remaining in something of a coma most of the time unless someone or something really annoys her. Then it’s lightning-striking time.
Heshiktow - wakes up early, feeds the snake-lions and whatever injured creatures he’s taking care of at the time. Cooks breakfast for himself and Rukard - Rukard isn’t used to cooking for himself due to growing up in an environment where everything was done for him.
Mary - wakes up whenever Yahgur wakes her up, normally way too early in her own opinion. Eats whatever Yahgur cooked or ordered for breakfast - he’s the only one who knows how to cook in the whole Chosen One team, so he cooks for himself and Mary, and sometimes Shimmi, but Shimmi doesn’t always need human food.
Mourisha - wakes up whenever, but likes to wake up early and watch the sunrise, and sometimes draw it. Normally forgets to cook for himself and just heads out to continue with his journey, but after meeting Rukard he started to cook breakfasts for the two of them, naturally slipping into Heshiktow’s vacant place as Rukard’s caretaker.
Rukard - wakes up whenever and eats what Heshi (or later Mourisha) cooked for him. When Heshi is around, he likes to take showers in the morning, but when Heshi’s away he wouldn’t come in contact with big amounts of water even if his life depended on it.
Shimmi - he doesn’t really sleep. In the night, he exits his human body and wanders around as a spirit, chatting with other local spirits and finding himself some energy that he uses instead of food. He returns by sunrise and tells Mary and Yahgur all the spirit news of the region, which hardly makes any sense for humans. Puts on his make-up. Yes, he always wears bright-golden make-up, no matter the occasion. Sometimes sings in an extremely Disney-princessy way, with birds landing on his hands and everything.
Yahgur - wakes up first, cleans their camping spot if they were sleeping outside, alternatively room if they managed to find an inn. First takes care of himself, then of the bear, if necessary. Cooks breakfast or orders it if possible. Plans out the team’s travel route and course of action. Makes sure Shimmi’s body is safe and comfortable while he’s away and wakes up Mary.
I will make a general post on spirits soon-ish, but strangely, spirit education comes up more in my story so far than the spirits themselves, so here’s a post on that.
Spirits can transcend the natural borders - the borders between beings, which they use to form bonds and sometimes to read minds, the borders between real and imaginary (can be used to grant wishes or bring about nightmares), some other borders of such types. To learn to do that, they have to study for quite a while.
A spirit is considered an adult after studying for 128 years. The process is called “the understanding of the world” and is divided into four segments.
The first segment, from birth to four years, is the understanding of day and night, evening and morning - how does the energy flow within nature and animals, how does the sun, the moon, the stars influence it, why the division between times of day important. After that, the spirit also understands what kind of spirit they are - a morning spirit, a day spirit, an evening spirit, or a night spirit. That defines when they’re the strongest.
The second segment, four to sixteen years, is the understanding of spring and summer, autumn and winter. After that, the spirit can communicate with the primal energy better and also understands which one they belong to,
The third segment, sixteen to sixty-four - the understanding of the elements - air, water, fire, earth. Again, level-up, understanding which one they belong to. It requires meditating in each element for twelve years. And when I say "meditating in" I really mean it. Stay in that volcano for twelve years or your understanding of fire isn't considered complete.
The fourth segment, sixty-four to a hundred and twenty-six - the understanding of the energies of life and death, creation and destruction. With that, they understand the nature of all the primal forces of the world and know all the spirit tricks, and, of course, understand which one they are connected to.
Shimmi passed the first two stages - he “understands” the times of day and seasons and knows he’s a spirit of day and spring. That lets him become completely unnoticeable or very conspicuous by will in any setting and lighting, see in the dark and not be blinded by bright light, feel comfortable in any natural temperature/climate. However, continuing his spirit education would most likely destroy his human body, so he took a break to figure out if he’s okay with that.
