This is something that I often ponder about as I write my stories. My current story, the world of Alagossia is drenched in history as it should be. So much lore and depth crammed tight into the vast world.
Something about this got me interested. In famed fiction, history is such a complicated thing. Because over time historical events are never truly concrete, though we do know most things. Whether the real world of fictional world, the history that shapes humankind or any species, though for whatever reason the lessons in history aren’t suited for everyone.
I am realizing that not everyone learns the major historical events that shaped the world for whatever the reason is. For example in my own story, there is a gigantic skeleton of some fallen god in some nation that is still bleeding. People know that about the ancient war, though they don’t have as much information as few important people.
Conspiracies exist, propaganda, and other issues that cause history to be warped or lost in the void of time.
Do any of you have issues with history in your fictional worlds? Since not everyone would have full knowledge of certain historical events or turning points in history, yet some of them do care about things while others not so much. Treating your characters as someone who would be eager to learn everything about history is not good, even if that history is something that is worth knowing.
Just curious do you have anything on such a level where not everyone knows enough about historical events and history related things due to for whatever reason?
mostly due to war lost and historical texts burned or stolen.
But that’s Elgana and Elgana is all sorts of messed up when it comes to historical lies.
Currently working on…new name, Arcanland (a discussion with my editor prompted me to finally change United Arcan to Arcanland, which I had been thinking about doing anyway). The Arcans know their basic history if they’ve been to school. Of course, there’s gonna be some extremists who don’t believe something happened in one way and believe a more utopian or dystopian version. None of my characters are like that though.
I could choose to write a character like that, I guess. I never thought about that
I was pondering that as I was writing Project Glorious. Many characters know the things that are obvious, the Saints and their families, and the First Monarchies. Though they don’t know every single thing, just the surface.
The education system in Alagossia teaches both academics and magic, some schools do the public school education the way American schools do.
I think part of why having an in-universe character discuss history in fantasy settings is so impactful: they’re able to be contradicted and forced to be a character, not just a sock puppet with the writer’s hand inside.
I think this is part of what I’ve tried to do in Meiste, I think. I wanted the Epic of the Hero of Life to be riddled with contradictions that would otherwise be unverifiable unless you’d actually met the Hero of Life. For the most part, the Epic is regarded as the historical text in Zeneste, even though it was written by a 20-year-old five years after the actual events took place.
Izi, the main character, knows none of the contradictions, and growing up as a Zenestian, he went to church and actually worshipped the Hero of Life. I feel like the facade of the epic, venerable Hero breaks down as soon as he actually meets the Hero of Life at the end of the story.
And since his mentor, Lozerief, actually knows it all (since she wrote it) I feel like she’d be even more awkward about the whole topic. (And the 200 year period where Izi’s mom fell off the face of Meiste.)
Deffo! History in the real world is not linear despite being presented to us in neat little narratives and timelines. I don’t see why history shouldn’t be complex and uncertain in fiction.
My story deals a lot with history: finding Zinzarel, a lost civilisation, is at the centre of it all. The characters and their motivations are tied to the recent and ancient past.
I describe my novel as a “narrative history of the end of the world”. It’s quite info-dump-y, with historical texts and stories interspersed with the “plot”. But that’s by design.
(Speaking of history, I’ve been thinking about the Roman Empire a lot lately. Actually no I’ve been thinking about Mary Beard. I love her she’s great)
Even just someone who claims to know the history. Even just learning history in elementary/primary school feeds us a narrative to focus on as a through-line through history, you know? Even if it’s not a completely correct one. I think that’s a pretty normal part of existence.
