McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Genre Craft: Expectations of a Hybrid Genre
Nickeris86:
Just had a thought on Native Magic. In traditional shamanistic magic, the shaman communes with spirits of nature for knowledge and power, their are also a lot of right of passage rituals that require young natives to travel into the wilderness by themselves to get a vision or something.
You could combined these two elements so that natives use magic by bonding themselves body and soul with a nature spirit during their right of passage. Depending on what type of spirit the Native attracts would dictate what type of magic they can work. This would also open the door for those pesky native monsters that use to be human, evil spirits attack the young Indians and possess them turning them eventually into monsters, or if their will is not strong enough they are overwhelmed by their spirit and are killed.
Lanodantheon:
--- Quote from: OZ on July 04, 2011, 08:25:05 AM ---There are of course a lot of ways to go with this. As has been mentioned before there are several steampunk novels that mix Westerns with magic. I don't know of any books off the top of my head that mix high fantasy with Westerns. One way to have guns in your story (I personally have trouble picturing a Western without some type of guns.) is to limit the effectiveness of the guns. Maybe put them back in a cap and ball era so that you got your six shots but there is no way you would have time to reload. Maybe make them all muzzle loaders. Maybe make gunpowder much more rare and expensive so it is only used sparingly. Maybe make the only bullets that would be magically relevant, big enough that pistols would only have two or three shots instead of six or twelve. You could use something similar to what L E Modesitt does in his Recluse novels where magicians can easily ignite gunpowder so anyone that is going up against a wizard tends to avoid it unless they have some means of shielding it from the wizard's power. It's not very helpful to have all the bullets in your gun or in your belt or pocket go off at once.
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Probably the route I'm heading towards if not more primitive. I am modelling the Magical Arms Race over the course of the tale and at the start is the beginning of the history of Firearms is the hand-held Bombard or Hand Cannon, which if turned on it's side looks a lot like a Wizard's Staff..... ;D
It is also important to remember the History of Cinema. To a Genre Theorist, the Samurai Film is almost identical to the Western Genre. They follow the same formulas, have similar archetypes and in some cases can take place during the same time periods as some the old Westerns and Civil War movies.
With the High Fantasy element I have license to borrow from that tradition as well especially since the Western and the Samurai film are inexplicably linked. John Ford inspired Akira Kurosama, who made Yojimbo, which was ripped off to make A Fistful of Dollars(There's a court case and everything) and every sequel that followed.
--- Quote from: OZ on July 04, 2011, 08:25:05 AM ---Although it's not the old West, if you want a story that combines guns, magic or advanced science ( the lines are a bit blurred ), and frontier like settings, I would recommend Modesitt's Corean Chronicles series.
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I will definitely check that out in some capacity. Reading the wiki page on it, it sounds interesting to at least investigate.
--- Quote from: Nickeris86 on July 04, 2011, 04:49:15 PM ---Just had a thought on Native Magic. In traditional shamanistic magic, the shaman communes with spirits of nature for knowledge and power, their are also a lot of right of passage rituals that require young natives to travel into the wilderness by themselves to get a vision or something.
You could combined these two elements so that natives use magic by bonding themselves body and soul with a nature spirit during their right of passage. Depending on what type of spirit the Native attracts would dictate what type of magic they can work. This would also open the door for those pesky native monsters that use to be human, evil spirits attack the young Indians and possess them turning them eventually into monsters, or if their will is not strong enough they are overwhelmed by their spirit and are killed.
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It's called a vision quest or going on Walk-About in Australia.
I have 4 sources of Magic laid out in my plans that has been sitting idly on my comp for year. 2 of them are similar but not identical to what you describe, but that's because it overlaps with ideas from Shintoism.
After reading your post, I thought about it and figured out my take on Native Americans or at least the stand in for their place as "Strange Outsiders on Land That Properly Theirs Before the Small Pox" in the Western Genre formula without being cartoonish exaggerations of actual Tribes. And they scare the hell out of me as they should....
Thanks, Nickeris. Nice...
tallgrrl:
Check out Territory by Emma Bull
Lanodantheon:
*Looks up description of Territory*
That looks interesting and relevant to what I am writing. Thanks. :)
Nickeris86:
Glad to help ;D
Another thing to consider is faith magic. Religion was very prevalent in the old west and in many towns was the most fortified building so that the villagers could fall back there in times of trouble.
I could see a lot of potential for a old powerful priest bustin out the whoop ass when the sh**t hit the fan.
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