Fantasy: Urban Fantasy & Paranormal

This thread is to discuss fantasy which takes place in the 'real' world e.g. Harry potter, BDB, Anita Blake

I'm starting mythology for a paranormal fantasy (I guess) and without giving too much away... there's going to be a race of people (er, beings? whatever) that can control the elements. But one person can only control one element. My question is: Should power over that element increase with age? Or should your level of power correlate to your lineage (like vampires in some universes, like BDB!)

On the one hand its sort of limiting in that newer people are less powerful. On the other (lineage) it could be useful and gives me the ability to expand the levels of power to a greater degree over a group. But it limits me to genealogy...

The few characters I have created so far are set in stone as far as genealogy, so this wont affect the outcome really.

I have more questions too, but I'll start with this one, since its like the BASE of the rest of it!

Thanks!!!

I don't particularly like lineage being related to power, Julie, because it seems to me like that way, it's inevitable that eventually there will be very little power in the world at all.

Have you read any of Rachel Caine's 'Weather Warden' series - that has element control as the 'magic' in the series. I'm pretty sure that the power increases with your age/experience, but it could just be that you start with a set amount, and gradually are able to use more of it.


I'm so glad we have this category, it'll be fun! Basically all I read now, and certainly all the stuff I write, is paranormal romance or urban fantasy.

I have to agree with Dae here. Lineage is a lot of fun to read and write, but sometimes I think it becomes too restrictive and like Dae said, too much power in one place and not enough to check it. If that happens then a novel becomes less believable to a reader.

Thanks Hadhafang and Dae!

While lineage would be limiting, there aren't going to be a whole hell of a lot of newbies in my universe, so power is pretty intense to begin with. However, age works to my advantage too, based on what groundwork I already have laid.

I'm not going black and white with this, its not like your age will = power, but more or less it will be important. Someone who has only been around 20 years wont have mastered things as much as someone who has been around 100 years.

However, if Joss Whedon has taught me anything, its important to define your rules, so you can break them later.

I've got to spend some time with the mythology now, but when I get something solid I'll be asking more things.

Thanks!!

Good luck! I'm excited for you! Your work sounds very enticing. And please, call me Hadha

Miss Julie, you could do what Trudi Canvan did and have lineage for some characters but then have other characters with no lineage and great power too. for example in her series all the magicians came from the higher classes, partly due to ignoring of those with innate abilities from the lower classes. The main character (from lowest class) erupts with power then, with no lineage. I don't think it has to be one or the other, and it might set up some nice conflict between characters if some are lower/higher class.

Personally i'd use a mix, lineage and experience = power with exceptions (like everything in world their are exceptions to the rule).

That might work too Emily. So far I've got at least one bad ass character who has to come from badass parents, to that could be a help too. If you're related to someone who was powerful you would be too. There isn't much of a social hierarchy in my mythology, so far anyway.

Tonight I'm supposed to sit down and tinker it. I wrote the boring part of the mythology a while back and am just now getting back to it with some major changes. And my weekend trip was cancelled so I'm hoping to get a rough outline done this weekend too... hoping being the key word there...

Or you could always do the "extreme powers but no way of honing them" So it's kind of a raw power your character has, but he/she has to learn how to control it to make it even more powerful.

That actually fits really well into this... Thanks!!

How will s/he "hone" them tho... hmmm...