n0t-int0-y0u:

I’m a sucker for urban fantasy, so here you go. Really though, let me know what you think, cuz I’d really love some feedback on this.

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In the modern cities, sorcerers find magic from within themselves. They are natural born bags of magic, and all of that magic just wants to burst out. This obviously can cause complications if the sorcerer is not informed about what they are or go untrained on how to control it.

The other denizens of the cities who aren’t blessed/cursed with this natural aptitude for magic must study and learn how to tap into the lay lines of magic that run beneath the asphalt and concrete.

Thankfully, the magicians of yesteryear have compiled every known magic practice into eight handy and easy to remember schools of magic. This guide will inform you of what these schools are all about and how they work in this modern age, as well as how to spot the practitioners of these schools.

ABJURATION: This school is all about protection. It is a school of defense, of protecting what is yours and stopping those that might try and take that which is yours. These spells can be as simple as putting up magical borders to certain targets, or as powerful as even banishing its target to another plane of existence. In today’s world, where the mortal races (humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) walk about rubbing shoulders with all the things that used to go bump in the night that now smile in the daylight, abjurers are very common to see. The spells contained in the school of abjuration, as stated before, can be quite simple as well as intricately difficult, so its a school of magic that most have experience in, but few have mastered. Because of their power and increasing rarity, master abjurers are sought after by just about everyone in the city. Most of these masters are employed by the wealthy and the famous as heads of security, layering spell by spell until a thick, nigh impenetrable defense system of magic is covering them and their assets. The easiest way to spot an abjurer in this day and age is to look for the charms. Abjurers are known for placing protection spells on trinkets like necklaces, bracelets, and bits of jewelry. To protect themselves from any wandering eyes or hands, abjurers usually have at least five of these trinkets on at one time.

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artprocrastinates:

blackcrowling:

artattemptswriting:

artprocrastinates:

spookyghafas:

this recurring trend of writing fae societies and making them all lilywhite cishets is soooo stupid bc these are beings who are wayy smarter than humans and also fucking immortal. there is absolutely no reason why they should follow/enforce arbitrary human concepts n norms (i.e.: gender, sexuality, fucking time) because they would’ve learned that none of this matters nor is it beneficial to their society!!! also genetic variation exists!!! unless you can give me a legitimate reason as to why having darker skin would actually be detrimental to fae, you should be writing brown fae!!!!

Ah, the old trend of whitewashed, human-gendered fae. *cracks knuckles* These are the stories I grew up on, and I love nothing more than telling people exactly why fae should always be written as diversified as possible, based on lore-fact.

For starters, it’s important to understand that “fae” is an umbrella term, talking about a whole range of peoples and beings whose mythological roots were understood to lie in Northern Ireland, Ireland, England and the associated British Isles. At the time, these countries were inhabited by a collection of tribes who shared beliefs, but also held many of their own that thrived independently. So, the root lore is composed of three main “groups” of fae:
Daoine Sídhe

(Irish),
Daoine Sìth

(Scottish, similar to the Irish, but only in very tenuous ways) and Twylleth Teg

(Welsh)- and, to add to the complexity, each of these are divided up into their own categories of peoples.

But what does this have to do with diverse fae societies in modern writing? As OP said, genetic variation is a thing, which is a perfectly okay way to look at the fae, but I would like to expand on the basic idea a little more. Here goes:

The Fae of old British Isles lore were beings that belonged to the ethereal realm, quite firmly. In Ireland, the mythology of the
Daoine Sídhe can be traced back to an old race of dieties; this means that they are definitely as far away from humans as you can get. However, during the Victorian era there was a rush of popularity for the flower fairy, which overlapped with the revival of the Pixie from Cornwall (which does not fall under the fae umbrella at all) and stories of the Alfr from Sweden. The result was a whole new, very mangled, idea of fairies wherein the fairies were humanoid, tiny and also elvish (the pointed ears). Just to make this all that much more confusing, artists and writers started to apply romantic ideals of monarchy to these new faries, resulting in the creation of courts (Seelie/Unseelie). Victorians being Victorians, and having such a love of their powerful, white monarchy, they were not about to make these fairies people of colour.

So then, coming back to the modern YA fae: the idea has become fixed that the fae are white, humanoid, tiny people. Even when a writer does draw on the base mythology, they still view the fae through the modern lense. This is problematic for two main reasons:

1. Fae, simply put, are not human at all. If you’re going to write fae, they ought to be written as existing outside of human concepts and conventions, as they were perceived by the tribes in Wales, Ireland and Scotland.  There is a common understanding connecting these three branches of the mythology that the way we see fae, when they appear humanoid at all, is the way in which our mortal brains can comprehend them based on our understanding of human physiology. Which brings me neatly onto the second point:
2. Our standards of the average human have changed, which means that when the Fae appear as humanoid (which only a few of them do, within the various mythological branches) they are far more likely to appear as PoC.

And to finish, some notes on the Fae, sexuality and gender:

You can’t apply sexuality and gender the fae, at all, ever. Even if they do appear humanoid, they’re not going to have the hallmarks that we would associate with biological sex. If anything, the Fae are a race of nonbinary or agender peoples and beings, although even saying that is dicy.

To summarize:

If you’re not writing the Fae as diverse beings existing outside of all human concepts, then you’re not really writing Fae at all.

Moving this to the right account, and adding something I could have said but didn’t think of in the moment:

The influence of the Victorian Flower fairy on the sexuality of the Fae

Bearing in mind that the peoples of pre-Christian Britain were very liberal in their views on marriage, sex and relationships, this ought to be reflected in the fae; however, the Victorians were never going to allow that. The result was that the modern pixie-esque fairies had to be categorised into male and female, and either have monogamous, heterosexual relationships or none at all. In order to remove the fairies further from the fae, they were also infantalised quite heavily, creating the image of the childish, playful fairy.

The fae were tricksters by nature, true, but they were also wise beings with knowledge beyond that of mortal grasp. Therefore, the Fae written into fantasy novels ought to reflect this. Rather than trying to apply human morality to the fae, or writing them as immoral for their diversity, try this: respect the mythology and that they are a libertine and forwards race who have their own standards and are probably more diverse and accepting than humanity could ever be.

And now I’ll shut up on the subject.

this is amazing and great but I do have a slight problem with “you can’t apply sexuality and gender to the fae, at all, ever.” given that there are specific fae who’s hallmark traits ARE things like gender or some idea of sexuality. The most well known being the banshee, appearing as a woman to keen (a thing done by women, not men) as a warning of death or an ill omen. There was also the leanan sídhe who appears as a beautiful muse like creature to talented people and causes them shorter lives as the price, while the story differs as to exactly how this price is extracted most stories contain a distinctly sexual element. Or the Gancanagh also a sexually charged fae “the love talker” known for its seduction skills.

@blackcrowling thank you for this!

I meant the whole “never applicable to Fae, ever” thing more in the sense that you can’t apply sexuality and gender to the fae-kind in a blanket fashion, as some authors do, but this is a very good point.

I knew about banshees but not leanan sídhe and the Gancanagh; that’s really interesting. So it seems a better stance to take is that aside from the specific beings whose lore is based in their femininity or powers of seduction (not necessarily always female, from what I understand. Often fae whose powers lay in seduction would appear in a form that the human finds most appealing) the fae-kind are mostly without of human gender?

concerningwolves:

Thoughts? Nonny, I need a whole other brain to contain all of my views about werewolves. They were a two-year obsession of mine a while back, and the fierce love for the folklore never went away. This ask also gives me an excuse to dig out my reference books on werewolves and English fairytales :3

Werewolves and Urban Fantasy

If we’re going to talk werewolves, then I want to lead by saying that, as much as I love them, YA fiction has distorted their image. The idea of alpha male aggression being the driving force of a pack, alongside all of the “vampires v werewolves” schtick, really gets under my skin. Wolves are territorial animals, true, but it’s a product of their evolutionary environment. If you look at the pack dynamics, you’ll see that they’re incredibly familial. Maybe not quite as much as elephants, whales or dolphins, but considering their predatory nature it’s really impressive. Taking that natural inclination to family bonds, and sticking it inside a human-wolf combination, you’re more likely to get that huge, sprawling family who like to feed everyone and do wayyy too much baking than is normal.

Then, thinking about pack v pack, they’re pretty good at co-existing so long as each respects the other’s territory. They would also be hella competitive. So that’s fun. In short, I love urban fantasy werewolves as long as they’re done properly and not to be dramatic or anything, but I would kill for my cosy werewolf families.

Wolves of the World

Almost every culture in the world has a version of the werewolf, or some kind of aligned creature/spiritual being. I devoured Werewolves by Doctor Bob Curran and something that really struck me was the sheer amount of “species” of werewolves.  Even in countries without wolves, a trip through the local folklore will unearth many creatures who are similar.

The whole idea of werewolves goes back to our primal nature, when we were just starting to run and walk as a buck-naked race on the African continent, battling with other predators for survival. That capability for violence and agression has largely filtered out of our system through thousands of years of evolution, but enough still remains to manifest itself our collective psychology. As societies settled down and became more ordered, more respectable, the idea of a beast within became a morbin fascination. The Victorians were largely responsible for the resurgance—and the warping—of werewolves (among many other cultural lores, which I’ve talked about here in regards to fae).

Personally, I’m not very fond of the Victorian werewolf achetype. I like to call it the Penny Dreadful Wolf. A lot of the lore and culture behind the creatures was stripped away in favour of providing the Victorian public with (literal) cheap thrills. The whole idea that werewolves can be killed with silver came from early Victorian literature in an effort to gentrify werewolf hunting. Silver was expensive and hard to come by, and so authors and playwrites decided that the middle working-class protagonists had to need it in order to kill the werewolf and save the day.

The Penny Dreadful wolf is also the source of the idea that werewolves are nothing but mindless, aggressive alpha-male killers; the poor man behind the wolf-skin was usually a lovely, mild-mannered person, until they got bitten. Because that was the archetype which society carried forwards into the modern age, that was the idea which filtered down through the years to us now. Imo, it’s a shame to only run with the resultant myths. There is so much that you can use to make your werewolves diverse, interesting and truly fantastical – and give other cultures positive representation in the process!

Some Other Takes

I prefer to think of the mythos of werewolves as a tree, or rather, part of a tree. The trunk would be human-beasts, and from it stem loads of limbs, and from those smaller branches, and each branch has fruit of its own. New stuff is always growing on it, as modern society grows and alters the stories, or older myths and ledgends re-surface.

From dog-headed races to shamanic rituals to spirit-totems of Native America, and then back in time to Wepwawet, the wolf-headed diety of the City of Wolves in Egypt; Romulus and Remus, raised by Lupus the wolf – and even further back, to the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Irish idea that a man could bring out the wolf inside himself by speaking of it. There are so many and it’s amazing!

These canine, supernatural beings ranged between everything from kind, wise protectors, to terrible, evil beasts. One of my favourites is the Cynocephali, written about in the Liang Shu, which is a text of uncertain authorship/origin concerning the Liang Dynasty. The Cynocephali inhabited an idealistic land which could either be America (links to Vinland) or Japan, and they gaurded it as their territory from anyone who tried to settle there. Fu Hsi is considered to be the creator of humankind from clay (another really common theme, and I’ll circle back to this) in Chinese lore, and his first creations were the dog-headed people, whom he banished. They could be the Cynocephali, or they could be another branch of the mythology entirely; either way, stories of their nature was conflicting. Some considered them to civilised, and others thought them to be feral, bitter about their banishment and without any humanity.

Later on, came the beserkers in Norse lore and the shamanic invocations of the wolf-spirit in Finland, where they invited bears, wolves and other predators to enter their skin. The early medieval Western mind siezed on these stories and, finding tales of wolves and men in their own lore, started to nurture the huge culture which today has such popularity.

Why stick with one broad, generalised view of

werewolves when you’ve got an entire tree to explore, plus all of its roots and the fruit it produces? The way I see it, you’ve got to drop the word werewolf completely and look at the broader idea of the beast within to really appreciate them.

Humankind, the Earth and Nature

Humans being created from clay or earth is a really common idea around the world. It never ceases to amaze me, and I’m of the opinion that the global popularity of werewolves and the global popularity of humankind-from-the-earth are connected to one another. No matter what happens to us as a race, no matter how many machines we build or how many inventions we churn out, we keep on coming back to the earth and the natural world. Solar and Lunarpunk are now gaining popularity, and green living is seeing a large rise in popularity. It’s even considered trendy now to shift back to rural living.

An angle I wish I could see worked further where human-beasts are concerned is the angle of humanity never being able to truly escape the primal nature we came from. Not as a bad, primal-nature-is-dangerous concept, but as the idea that humankind is so restricted by our own socially-imposed ideals that the best way to achieve accepting, diverse and all-inclusive society is by letting that primal nature (the metaphorical wolf) back in.

Wolves in Your Head

Before I finish up, I’d also like to touch briefly on the ancient link between inner beasts and mental illness.
We live in a far more open-minded society, and so the idea that mentally
unwell people are monsters should not be circulating, but occasionally
I’ll come across a werewolf piece of (fan)fiction that perpetuates the
toxic trope. I just?? Why would anyone??? This isn’t the Victorian era.

There’s
a whole connection between animalistic behaviour being bad,
hypersexuality, mental illess and social conventions, but this isn’t the
place to go on about that. I’m trying to stick to topic, so to be as
brief as I can: lycanthropy is archaic, don’t use it as a psychiatric/medical term to justify or explain a werewolf-like character; only use it in the context of transformation from human into wolf. I don’t believe that you can’t give human-beast/werewolf characters mental illnesses (they’re part human, after all), but I’d say that the inner animal and the mental illness must be completely seperate from one another.

So, in summary:

I heckin love human-beasts, be it werewolves, spiritual possession, beserkers, dog-men or whatever else you want to throw at me, as long as you consider the true cultural roots of each myth and don’t just pick and choose in order to twist a werewolf into something to meet your YA teen romance needs. Be respectful, steer clear of the “mental illness = monstrous” angle, and research, research, research.

These have been my thoughts on werewolves, and I’m not sorry for stretching your dashes with my super enthusiasm. 

ellekandera:

Dear Urban Fantasy fandom,

What I would like to see more of in urban fantasy writing:

– More werecreatures besides werewolves, ie. werebears, werecats, werebirds, etc.

– Transformations for werecreatures that vary from person to person, ie. one person’s might be extremely violent while the other sort of just melds into it

– Werecreatures who have different behaviors while transformed besides “KILL EVERYTHING”

– Werecreatures who don’t have this messed up canon where there can’t be any females, or they can’t give birth, or they’re extremely violent, yadda yadda yadda

– Werecreature loners who were forced to be loners by circumstance rather than chose it and are actually looking for or to form a new pack

– More packs with werecreatures that are positive, supporting places

– Werecreatures with “transformation night” packs so they’re ready for whatever

– People who are friends with werecreatures who knows what’s up and try to help them through the night if they need it

– Werecreatures who are totally cool being werecreatures

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– Vampires who are sensitive about their age

– Vampires who aren’t the most beautiful creatures ever to behold in existence UGH

– Vampires with acquired tastes to different blood

– Vampires with different skintones in their own variations of pale

– Vampires who don’t give a flying fatooty about history and are rather annoyed when people start to ask them questions like they should know

– Vampires who can transform into more than just bats

– Vampires who are endlessly frustrated they can’t get drunk but they try anyway

– Vampires who still wear the styles from, like, 20 years ago (70’s vampire guys!)

– Vampires who won’t drink blood without consent

– Vampires that still look like children but are actually well over 200 and swear like sailors

– Vampires in broods

– Vampires who are total geeks and have memorized every line of every Star Trek (or insert your own) movie and quotes them all the time

– Vampires who are totally cool being vampires

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– Witches who can’t afford fancy glass vials so they use milk jugs or tupperware

– Witches who make more potions besides liquidy ones, ie. some are really thick and grainy, others slimy, etc

– Witches who specialize in a certain craft, ie. potions, divination, thaumaturgy, etc

– Mass-produced witch items you can find in grocery stores and other witches complaining about how they’re not as powerful as homemade

– More familiars besides cats

– More magical focuses besides wands, ie. a pocketwatch, a favorite old coin, a keychain, etc

– Witches with planters on their windowsill

– Witch magic developing at different times for different people, ie. at birth, puberty, a random age for no reason, etc

– Witches having to LEARN how to use magic properly, not knowing how to do it instantly

– Witch support groups for people having trouble controlling or even using magic

– Wizards who classify as witches and witches who classify as wizards and wizards and witches classifying as neither because that’s who they are

– Witches who summon monsters or demons just to chill or hang out and the monsters and demons are totally chill with it

– Witches who are totally cool being witches

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– Other supernatural/mythological creatures besides the regular ones

– Lamias, kelpies, selkies, pischacha, jarita, chimera, xiāo, kui, yōkai, aswang, etc, etc, ETC

– A supernatural society that isn’t hidden from human society and even if they have problems they work together

– Supernatural creatures who run for political office

– Supernatural creatures working as baristas

– Supernaturals creatures who live in specific neighborhoods and identify with different races, classes, religions, etc.

– Supernatural creatures in gangs

– Romances between supernatural creatures, other supernatural creatures, and humans being A-OK and healthy and wonderful

– Romances beyond straight romances

And so much more! Please, guys, we need more variations! We can’t get stuck in an ocean of stale, overused urban fantasy stories! We need to improve upon the genre!

If you have any more ideas, please add on! 🙂