The Language Of Flowers

There’s a site called Lexicity that offers information on tons of old languages, including Old Norse, Old French, Latin, Mayan, Old Chinese, Old English, and more.

Mysterious Characters

So, this time, I’m not going to use a paragraph patronisingly complaining about what I’m giving advice on that I have seen in other fiction, and I’m just going to jump to advice. I’ve used these methods with a pair of characters in A Thief’s War, but of course I’m not going to mention which two. Enjoy!

Use Them Sparingly:

You don’t have to do this with all of your mysterious characters, of course, but I find a great way to keep a character mysterious is to make them only show up from time to time. Only make them present when their presence is vital.

Write From the Other Characters’ Points of View:

Again, you don’t have to do this, but it’s really hard to keep a character mysterious if you’re writing from their point of view. Let the characters around them wonder about their motivations, their appearance, their talents, and so forth.

Don’t Give Too Much Information Too Quickly:

This should be obvious, but it’s easier said than done. The first time your characters encounter Mr. Edgy Mystery, only give a few details. The sweep of cloak, the shadow of the hood, and maybe a whisper of the character’s name. The rule of “show don’t tell” is even more essential with this. Convey the character’s attitude and behaviour through actions, or hints in their speech.

Please Don’t Make Their Voice Raspy:

Please don’t make their voice raspy.

After Their First, Second, or Third Appearance:

I advise making them absent for a decent period of time after one of their first few appearances. Make the readers wonder where they went, what their doing, or maybe if they’re even still alive.

Make the Character’s Answers to Question Evasive:

When the protagonist asks why the character does what they do, have the character smirk or frown at them. Don’t have the character go into a deep monologue, or explain their tragic past.

Explain Them Through Other Characters:

My last bit of advice, here, is the show the mysterious character through the other characters. Have them meet a childhood friend that mentions a few things that happened to them, or have the protagonist slowly fit pieces of the puzzle that is this character together.

Hope this helps!

Advice on Writing Thieves, Assassins, or Other Stealthy Characters

I’ve put a lot of research into this, and I’ve seen a lot of great rogue-like characters, where the author was clearly unsure as to how they perform their criminal activities. If you feel the need to ask why I know this stuff, my main writings are for a book series called “A Thief’s War,” which should be more than enough explanation. I swear I’m not personally a thief.

Anyway, here we go:

Lockpicking:

I’ve seen some stories where characters grab a paperclip, and boom, no lock can stop them. I’ve also seen some where master thieves take a hammer and smash the lock.

A lock has a series of tumblers in it, each of which need to click into place for it to unlock. A key’s design is usual exactly what it must be to get these tumblers into the proper position.

There are a wide array of shapes and sizes for lockpicks, and if you’re going to go around picking locks, you’re going to need more than one. There is no universal lockpick. Furthermore, for some reason a lot of people don’t include the secondary locking tool: a lock wrench. This is used to turn the the lock, and to keep the tumblers in place once you’ve appropriately placed them with the lockpick.

A lockpicker will know that a tumbler is in place when they hear it click, but the noise is usually quiet, so they’ll often have their ear close to the door.

Can you pick a lock with a paperclip? Yes, but it’s hard as hell, and a paperclip won’t fit into all locks. Not to mention it’s a pain turning the lock once the tumblers are in place.

 With code locks, a lot of movies or books show someone pressing their ear closely to the lock, whilst turning it, and listening for a click when it hits the right number. This actually works. These are the most useless goddamn locks in history.

Now, if you’re writing modern day, with smart locks and various other such tech, I’m afraid I can’t help. I haven’t studied that as much. Though, the previous advice will help for most locks, and that information still applies to basically all types of lock that aren’t incredibly expensive.

Sneaking:

The dashing rogue slips through the shadows, his cloak billowing behind him, and somehow none of the dozen patrolling guards walking right by happen to notice him.

Yeah, that’s not how it works.

Sneaking involves a lot of remaining very still, knowing your surroundings, and holding your breath.

A thief infiltrating a house will scout it out, usually for weeks in advance. Sometimes they’ll pose as various businessmen, and try to get the owners of the house let them in for a while so they can study the ins and outs of it. Cracking open a window isn’t quiet, and you need to know what doors will creak and what doors won’t.

If you’re trying to sneak, you need to try and stick near furniture and heavy objects. The floor isn’t nearly as likely to creak when you’re near these. Furthermore, you need to step lightly, and wear the appropriate footwear. Usually some cloth wrapping’s around one’s feet will help to be quiet, but avoid any shoes that might make clacking noises, or sound like they’re peeling off the floor when they move. A thief will also never scuff their feet, if they’re any good at sneaking.

Black clothing only helps you sneak if it’s dark, and your surroundings aren’t bright coloured. If you’re in a city of white buildings and marble, you’ll want matching attire. This is just for if you’re skulking about a city, though. Just make sure you don’t stand out. However, dark clothing will greatly help you not be seen from a distance when it’s night.

If a thief suspects someone is nearby, they should always try to locate a nearby hiding spot, and remain perfectly still. Do not move, and a good thief will hold their breath if they start getting anxious, as heavy breathing could easily give someone away.

Many stories also don’t seem to account for the fact that various rogues and criminals have shadows, too. Even a quick and subtle movement of a shadow might be enough to give away one’s presence. It’s really, really hard to actually sneak up on someone due to this, and several other factors. Most people will actually feel tense, and usually catch wind of it if someone is sneaking up behind them, as even very quiet sounds and movements like breathing will subconsciously register to people if you get too close.

I’m a master assassin, and I carry a goddamn greatsword:

There is a reason they would use daggers. Assassins didn’t usually sneak into the king’s bedchamber in the dead of night, without being seen once. There are guards. A long hallway with two guards standing in front of the door at the end, there is absolutely no way to slip past that.

They would usually have to get into the building during the day, disguised as a servant, or even another guard. They’d have to wait for the perfect opportunity to sneak into that nobleman’s bedchamber, midday when he was absent, and then wait in there for hours.

If the assassin is sneaking in at night, they rarely go through the interior of the building. Just like a thief, they’ll get the layout of the building, and then they’ll usually enter through a window, or wherever is closest to the target. If they don’t have those guard patrols memorised, they’re screwed.

But you know what’s not subtle? An assassin carrying around a scimitar, or some flashy crossbow. If you’re going to sneak past people, you need a weapon no one will see, and that you can probably hide if someone decides to search you.

Fingerprints:

This is mainly relevant for modern era stories, and I just wanted to say that I’ve seen a few shows where a criminal isn’t wearing gloves throughout the whole thing. You always wear gloves, you never leave the murder weapon. If you touched something without gloves, you may as well take it with you to avoid risk.

Slipping out of Handcuffs:

This usually requires dislocating your fingers. Ouch. But, if the one cuffing or tying up the thief isn’t paying too much attention, you can keep your hands at an appropriate angle that the cuffs will not go on correctly, or the ropes not pulled tight enough, and you can probably slip out of them.

Who needs masks when you have shadowy hoods?

Guess what the easiest facial feature to notice in the dark is? If you guessed eyes, then you’re right. But, if you’re blending in, and your eyes are veiled by the hood that’s somehow not obscuring your vision while you crane your neck downwards to ensure that it covers your face, then people are usually still going to be able to see your lips, which stand out the second most of any feature on a person.

Yes, a hood is good if you’re trying to blend in. But it’s not good for making sure people don’t see your face. Wear a damned mask.

This is all I’ve got, for now. Hope it helps someone!

Weaponry Advice

I’ve just got a little bit to say about medieval weapons, as I’ve seen a fair number of fantasy movies and books include cringe-worthy use of weaponry. Medieval warfare is one of the few topics I excel in (because that’s definitely far more useful than math), so I figured I could give a little advice for other writers out there.

Swords:

Large blocks of sword infantry were, uh, worthless. In the medieval rock paper scissors (archers beat spearmen, spearmen beat cavalry, and cavalry beat archers), swordsmen were an outcast. 

Swords, for the most part, suck at breaking through armour. They can’t pierce plate, and they’d usually struggle with even lighter armour.

Now, while units of swordsmen were useless, this isn’t to say swords were useless.

Units of archers and spearmen often had arming swords as side-arms, in case enemies closed to melee, or the spears broke, and throughout several points in history, cavalry sabers were shown to be devastating.

Many swords were mostly just used by the nobility, or in tournaments. 

Spears:

When you’ve got a thousand soldiers, and little money, you give the bastards spears. They’re cheap, easy to make, and they can be truly devastating. Spearmen and archers made up the bulk of most armies. Even a heavily armoured knight charging a spearmean could wind up screwed if the spearman hits properly.

Note that many spears would break easily, though. The solution to this was to give spearmen sidearms, or if you’re rich enough, give them halberds or pikes, which were even more devastating.

Cavalry also frequently wielded spears and other polearms, but I’m not going to go into that right now.

Bows:

That scrawny archer in every movie that never misses? Well, his arrows are probably about as effective as nerf darts, because for an arrow to have any force, you need to be strong enough to pull back an incredibly tight string. I’ve had some experience with archery, and it can require drawing back over two hundred pounds of force at a time.

Bows, however, were highly effective. Arrows usually actually could not pierce plate armour, though depending on the poundage of the bow, and the quality of the armour, there were exceptions. However, a storm of arrows is usually easily enough to shatter morale, and deal heavy casualties. Not to mention flaming arrows, wrapped in wool and oil, could cause heavy structural damage.

There are also a number of different kinds of bow, which unlike swords and polearms, seems to surprise a lot of people. There are longbows, which are harder to draw back, but hit far harder; there are short bows; compound bows; and a long list of others.

Crossbows:

I cringe every time I see a crossbow that’s basically a gun with wings. There are several different types of crossbow, all of which hit even harder than a bow. They’ll got right through plate armour, and sometimes even out the other side of a person. However, you can’t just draw the string back and shoot again.

Those strings are pulled and twisted tighter than you can imagine. It would take one hell of a person to draw that string back.

Most crossbows will have a winch that you turn to draw the string back, but this can take a few minutes. Alternatively, there’s usually a cocking tool to pull it back, but that still requires a hell of a lot of strength.

Now, this is just a basic list. If you really want to get into tools of medieval warfare, I advise researching somewhere other than Tumblr. But these basics should be enough for a basic medieval-themed world.

Keep in mind that there are millions of different types of weapons, used by different cultures. These are just the most common ones I’ve seen misused in fiction.

Also, please keep in mind that if you don’t clean your weapons after stabbing someone, it will usually ruin the weapon over time.

I should also point out that a lot of weapons were used because people didn’t have access to other weapons, usually due to expenses.

I hope this helps!

Water Masterpost - uses for magic

Hello my little sprigs! I just made a short “masterpost” of water types. I know there are a lot of these floating around, but I had to do this because I remember things better when I write them down tbh so why shouldn´t I post it.This is out of my grimoire, I added some personal references.

waters you have to “make”: moon water ritual cleansing, spell work, dream work, astral travel - but moon water can be used for almost everything

sun water ritual cleansing, self esteem, social anxiety, truth and the revealing of lies, enlightment

shadow water strengthening of lies, hiding ones location, tarnishing relationships

gutter water curses.

waters you can gather: sea/ocean water healing, psychich work, the ability to adapt changes, manifestation of goals, strenght, glamours

river water changes, moving forward, warding, releasing emotions and feelings

lake water (inner) peace, relaxation, reflection of thoughts and/or emotions

rain water light rain: (gentle) energy, protection, growth, finding truth heavy rain: energy, destruction, curses as well as cleansing

storm water force, motivation, relaxation, spells regarding anger and releasing (unwanted) feelings

swamp water banishing and binding, cursing, protection (to attract negativity and redirecting it from you)

waterfall water power, energy, success, moving forward, bravery

ice water transformation, balance, creativity

snow water purity, resolutions, balance

dew fertility, love, glamours, growth

fog creativity, hiding truth, protection (via hiding your location), curses

flower vase water growth, glamours, depending on the flower that was in there different uses

For Those Brave Souls Attempting to Write Medieval Fantasy

Clothing Regulations imposed by the Sumptuary laws of 1363:

Status: Lords with lands worth £1000 annually, and their families.

What they may wear: No restrictions

Status: Knights with lands worth 400 marks (£266 13s 4d) annually, and their families.

What they may wear: May dress at their will, except they may wear no weasel fur, Ernie, or clothing of precious stones other than the jewels in women’s hair.

Status: Knights with lands worth 200 marks (£133 6s 8d) annually, and their families.

What they may wear: Fabric worth no more than 6 marks (£4) for the whole cloth; no cloth of gold, nor a cloak, mantle, or gown lined with pure miniver; sleeves of ermine or any material embroidered with precious stones; women may not wear ermine or weasel fur, or jewels except those worn in their hair.

Status: Esquires with land worth £200 per year and merchants with goods to the value of £1000 and their families.

What they may wear: Fabric worth no more than 5 marks (£3 6s 8d) for the whole cloth; they may wear cloth of silk and silver, or anything decorated with silver; women may wear miniver but not ermine or weasel fur, or jewels except those worn in their hair.

Status: Esquires, gentlemen with £100 per year and merchants with good to the value of £500 and their families.

What they may wear: Fabric worth no more than 41/2 marks (£3) for the whole cloth; no cloth of gold, silk, or silver, no embroidery, no precious stones or fur.

Status: Yeomen and their families

What they may wear: Fabric worth no more than 40s (£2) for the whole cloth; no jewels, gold, silver, embroidery, enamelware, or silk; no fur except lamb, rabbit, cat, or fox; women not to wear a silk veil.

Status: Servants and their families

What they may wear: Fabric worth no more than 2 marks for the whole cloth; no gold, silver, embroidery, enamelware, or silk; women not to wear a veil worth more than 12d

Status: Carters, plowmen, drivers of plows, ox herds, cowherds, swineherds, dairymaids, and everyone else working on the land who does not have 40s of goods.

What they may wear: No cloth except blanket and russet at 12d per ell, belts of linen (rope)

Source: The Time Traveler’s Guide To Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

Marriages in fantasy, just like in history usually are dynastic and political moves that could make or break the future of the people getting married. As the writer, it is up to you to decide whether who marries who within your kingdom.

Match-up Map

One thing I found to match this process easier, is to make a list of the noble families in my kingdom or abroad including royals. List ages, gender and names of those unmarried in your kingdom. Make sure you plan with a meticulous plan before writing present weddings. Go back and see which lords married who and who has married the king, princes or princesses before the story begins as it can help with forming the political structure of your world.

Is it desire? No, business

Weddings are made for cementing alliances within kingdoms or with abroad. Each family wants something from the other they marry into, whether it be an heir, wealth or power. Let’s look at some examples

All is fair in weddings and war

Wartime is a good time for marriages to be performed. The factions will strengthen their bonds by marriage. If one king fights another, he may turn to a third for aid offering to wed his son to a daughter of that king. This would unit them in the effort to win the war and remain friends afterwards.

We’re all in this together, just on opposite sides tho

If a family has more than one heir, bank on the fact that they will marry into multiple other families. One sister could marry into a family and her brother could marry a bride from the rivals of that family. If all comes to all, the siblings could be going to war with one another. This can create a wealth of bad blood and fear between a family not to mention tear a kingdom apart.

Step by Step, get to that altar

So you have your list of eligible bachelors and desired brides. Now it is time to decide where we are going with them. There are 3 steps in the arranged marriage process. Talks, betrothal, wedding.

Super easy world creator!

I was looking for an easy map creator that makes beautiful maps for a while now to make a visually stunning map to go along with my book. And now, after such a long search i have finally found one that suits my needs! Because i like it so much, i thought i’d share it with you guys! Just go to inkarnate.com and start creating! I have to warn you though, it is still in beta so a lot still needs to be added, but already it looks great and is easy to use!

I mean just look how beautiful some of these maps are!

And it is so much fun too! Someone even created a game of thrones map that is simply amazing!

So check it out and start creating your visual aid for your story. I promise you, it really is super easy and you will make one in no time!

You can find the site here: inkarnate

Heroic Traits and Their Faults

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