As I move further into creating the world of Keltorin, I have realised with a story as complex and multifaceted as mine I need to ensure that what I am writing makes sense.
I don't mean storyline when I say this, I am referring to fundamentals of both ancient and medieval societies.
Things like how did they live? What tools did they use? How did they interact with other societies? What jobs did people have?
And what were their lives like? Not only royalty but commoners as well.
These are all questions I have that can and will affect the story and the people in it, I want this world to be realistic - yes it is fiction and fantasy, but to the characters the world must be realistic and balanced.
So in order to stay true to my intentions and vision for this story and indeed the world, I have realised I need to study different aspects of life from different cultures and time periods.
I realise this will put further delays on me writing my story on here, but there is no point in rushing out the story and having it be less than what I know it can be.
I have decided that whilst I can't post my story yet, I am spending hours watching many documentaries about different cultures and civilisations throughout history - I should post about the research I am doing.
This way I have interesting content to post, whilst learning what I need to write my story - all without having huge delays in my posts because I'm not ready to post about my story.
Civilisations:
Civilisations are a major aspect of any inhabited world, they are complex and require a lot of detail and history to seem authentic.
Without giving too much of the story away, I have multiple societies some are ancient and have dwelled on Keltorin for thousands of years.
Others however are in a state of infancy and haven't yet acquired the knowledge of the ancient races, this is a crucial aspect of my story - How would civilisations such as these coexist on Keltorin?
To help me understand what life was like back then I have been and will continue to study and research many different cultures from different time periods.
Civilisations like the Minoans and Egyptians or the Aztecs and Mayans, as well as more modern civilisations from Medieval times.
Once I have all that I believe I need to know, I will write a post on that culture and any interesting facts or details I come across.
Warfare:
On top of learning about civilisations I will also need to expand my knowledge on other areas of focus, such as warfare - the terminology, weapons and methodology/strategy.
The story on Keltorin will have many different conflicts and battles from small raids and skirmishes, to full fledged wars with massive numbers and drastic repercussions.
I don't want the reader to have to follow the story with me fumbling over the terminology, using the wrong phrasing even if close to what was intended can change the overall meaning.
I think this will also help me develop my ability to accurately describe what it is I am envisioning, from how fighters move in hand to hand combat to how commanders coordinate large forces for strategic benefits.
How would these events truly play out on the terrain, what strategies would be best implemented where and how different weapons and fighting styles would interact.
I have a basic knowledge on these topics so far, I studied Aikido for years and also to a lesser extent Karate - but as my brother was very active in these areas, I was always aware of these styles.
This will definitely be an influence butt as there are many different styles of hand to hand combat I am interested to learn of new and different styles and techniques.
Again once I have gathered the knowledge I require, I will post about what I have learned and found interesting.
General Knowledge:
Ontop of specific focusses I need to ensure I don't stuff up basic details, any obvious mistakes can distract the reader and cause a moment or event to loose its intrigue or suspense.
With these details I will be focussing on the little things, like the names of a blacksmith's tools and basic methodology used by them.
Then there is details like the different parts of a horse's saddle and bridle their uses and purpose, if someone takes a fall what was it that could have caused this or influenced the outcome - a foot caught in a sturyp for example.
These are the little nitty gritty details that some writes gloss over, or use the same terminology repetitively to describe - I want my readers to have informed variety.
I wanted to let my readers and followers know again, that although I am not posting yet the work on the story is continuing.
I have watched many documentaries over the years and the knowledge I have gained has influenced my opinions and understanding of our ancient world and civilisations.
I find these cultures and their technology fascinating, how did they accomplish their amazing architecture? What was it's true purpose? These are all things that are influencing different aspects of my story.
I will present facts as they are, but I will also give my opinion and beliefs even if they differ from the mainstream narrative.
In these posts I won't be explaining how they may or may not be incorporated into my story, I will make them self contained articles based on the realities of what we know.
I hope that my readers know and understand why this is so important to the quality of the story, and I hope they can enjoy a different type of content from me.
It is all for the purpose of creating a more realistic and interesting world in which my story and it's characters will reside.
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