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Two awesome worlds, one story, want to combine
, since the 6th grade I've been mind journeying through a 5 part epic, with the main character in the first four parts being Māvalavan - a title which isn't really "king" and isn't really "knight," but means "people leader" or "Lord of the Warriors." The main character in the 5th part is the reincarnation of the fourth Māvalavan, but is called "Takshanan" meaning "land knower," or "thinghood knower" and is different from the other main characters because he becomes more powerful through learning the land or the true forms of things, as opposed to every other character who becomes more powerful through slaying foes or doing things. . . That's not the main point of my post here. The main point is that I've in essence created two different worlds to house the same story: one with great European influence, and one with great Hindu (I am Hindu) influence. I would like to combine these worlds but I don't know how. The Euro world is thusly: it has a lot of races, people such as: Imps (slightly short, grey skinned hawkish elf eared folks), Yetis, Tamnari (big, chunky people often referred to as the "potato race" since potatoes originate from their island) Bugbears (furry elf eared folks) Oyoni (people from Sentinel Island who worship dragons and are dark skinned) Dwarves (they're tiny, 3 foot tall, rotund people) Etc. There's various classes in the world that the player can be, such as: Dragoon (it's a dragon warrior class which always uses two handed weapons) Mystic Archer (someone who combines combative magic and archery) Commando (someone who does stealth/quick DPS combat) And others. The Himdu influenced world is thus: The races are all ethnicities, and while they generally don't have overtly different physiological or linguistic traits, they do all consider themselves to be different. There are actually different races (the Manusas (this has all the ethnicities), the Asuras (this has clans), and Ahuras (this is a tiny group of people who are all one family)). The classes are exactly the same, with some differences. The European world has knights, Jesters (a league of chaotic evil aholes who dress as court jesters), an evil archangel who is trying to get resurrected, and the world mythology is centered around the Cycle of Darkness, since the world lived through its happiest years in complete darkness and it predicts the return of the world to its natural state. The Māvalavan, and the Takshanan, are the focal poiny of these prophecies, because their actions are meant to bring the world back to the caring, caressing dark. The Hindu world doesn't have the same mythology, and it also doesn't have "knights" in the European sense but it does have feudalism (it was a thing here in Southern India too). It has an evil conqueror named Rojan Rojan who takes it upon himself to end the Harsha dynasty (which the 3rd Māvalavan was of) as well as conquering the whole of the continent. Māvalavan must defeat this guy before trying to fight any other, greater evil. It has Asuras of many kinds, such as the Kaitala (who have a hand on the top of their head that can do magic and also make a phallic symbol and attack in physical combat). MY question, how should I go about combining these two worlds




Sounds like a tricky problem. In my opinion, there's a few different things you can do:
You could, basically, get rid of one of them and then incorporate those aspects of it that are needed for the story in the other. So maybe you keep the Hindu one but you invent a knight-like warrior class for the feudal society (if you decide that knight concept is the only thing that you -really- need from the European side).
You could make them two separate continents on the same world (which may not work for story reasons, it's hard for me to say).
You could, essentially, make them have a baby. That is, take those things you want to keep from each world and begin building a new world around those, that include the concepts and flavors of both (with some tweaking as needed). Then just use that world for the story and not the originals.
I think I'll go with option 3. I also want the aesthetic (I draw well) of the armor, people etc to reflect both influences. So, I'll pick the best aspects of both to incorporate as one.
I hope you share some of the stuff you come up with (including the art). It sounds like you could come up with something really original combining these elements.
Thanks friend! I think I will, because the story is my magnum Opus, great American novel, etc. I just also kind of want to create a writer's circle for fantasy writing, but haven't found any groups for that in person where I live. And I live in America's biggest city too, so that gets me frustrated. :(
Yeah, I can understand that. Until recently my social writing circles were all online too. Now I go to an in-person critique group, but to be honest most of my contact with other writers is still over the internet.
Where do I find a fantasy writing group online? Is there a website for writers' circles? Do you just have to Google it? Please halp. :O
Well, most people I know are people I interact with on Twitter. My best writer friends are ones I've met via the "cabins" feature for Camp NaNoWriMo. I've been in many dead, boring cabins on there but also met some really nice people. The writing communities (and related, like this one) have some potential too even if they're pretty small still.
My first thought is that you could have them as two regions of the same world, but have the same story span them both.
Have a character born in one, who must journey into the other to find the person/thing they need to help them fulfill their destiny to overthrow the greater evil.
Stranger in a strange land is always fun. And if you did something along the lines of having hero A venture into land B, experiencing the strangeness of that land, and giving opportunity to explain/ explore it. Then they find Hero B and bring them back to land A. Now you can reverse it and explain the strange uniqueness of land A through the eyes of Hero B.
Combined Hero A & B achieve epic story arc saving both lands?
Split the story and have parts take place in each region.
I appreciate this comment. But, I specifically want to make a meld of the two worlds, especially since Māvalavan is always just one guy or girl with a retinue of followers (a party).
My question, I guess, is exactly how I could combine the aspects of the worlds to make a baby. But I think I might have to be the one to answer that. Am sorry. :(
Well if making one world is the goal my next question would be, do you want I to be a long standing single world? Or could the story take place in the time of combination?
If you want it to have always been one world just pick elements of each and put them together in a single world. The clans/families of the Hindi inspired world could be the foundation of the dominant races (the roll often filed by humans in fantasy stories) and the various more fantastic races of the other world could comprise the other races of significance in the new world.
Another option would be to have the story happen at the moment of the mixing. Historically the worlds were separate, but recently the powerful Rojan Rojan recently led his armies to invade the other lands. So what you have at the moment is a mixed world, but the Hindi inspired elements are transplanted recently as part of a massive invading force.
Why can't the two "worlds" simply be two countries/continents?
Two reasons. One, they are built to house the same story. The same story can't repeat itself in two different places, although admittedly it would be cool if parts of it happened here and parts there. Two, because I want it to be one place. I think combining the European fantasy and Hindu fantasy would be pretty damn cool, but I just have no idea how to go about doing that.