McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Making it real
groinkick:
--- Quote from: Griffyn612 on March 12, 2015, 10:36:25 PM ---I don't read much urban fantasy other than the Dresden Files. How is it handled in other series? I imagine the easiest thing is just to say that everyone agrees to keep it secret to avoid witch hunts and mobs, just like in the Dresden series and the Underworld franchise. that way you've got the built-in plot of someone trying to go public with it, and the debate between the two factions.
Let me ask, are you going to have elves or elf-types in the series? Not necessarily Fae, but something similar?
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I was considering having Fae, and Dwarves. On the surface it sounds like a Dresden book, but it's not. I will have a much different spin on things, and how magic works.
It's tough because I know in the real world it would only take one real wack job wizard to put on a huge display in say new York city for the secret to get out. It's pretty unavoidable. I'm trying to figure out a way to explain away that kind of random thing.
groinkick:
--- Quote from: OZ on March 13, 2015, 12:29:13 AM ---
How big is the supernatural in your world? Are there vampire nightclubs, werewolf biker gangs and huge bazaars run by demons or are there just a few scattered supernaturals that are easy to disbelieve? It takes a lot more, especially in the age of cell phone cameras, to cover up a major magical battle that leaves buildings a smoking ruin and pedestrians half-eaten than it does to cover up the disappearance of a homeless person that has been preyed upon by something hungry. Is your supernatural world going to be loud and bright or subtle and hidden in the shadows?
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The wizards mostly exist together in a large hidden city. The Vampires, and other predators would prefer the company of normal humans. Not all would be bad.
groinkick:
--- Quote from: OZ on March 13, 2015, 12:29:13 AM ---Many books and/or series have a group of powerful supernaturals whose job it is to keep the supernatural a secret. This may include such things as repairing damage, wiping and/or changing memories and creating cover up stories in the media. They may also be responsible for punishing or destroying anything that tries to make the supernatural knowledge public. Sometimes it is a governmental agency that adds its legal power to the supernatural power in keeping secrets. The Pax Arcana series has a massive spell in place (called the Pax Arcana) that keeps the secret. I don't remember all the different things the spell does but it keeps the majority of the population in the dark about what's going on.
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Thanks for the input. I was considering some sort of world wide spell that continuously releases subliminal messages that help people forget, and explain away strange events.
OZ:
It's been a while since I read the Pax Arcana books but I believe the spell, among other things, caused people to believe the closest non-supernatural explanation for events. If they saw a dragon fly over they'd think it was a jet. A vampire might be seen as someone in costume. I believe the spell also acted as a geas to some not allowing them to speak of what they knew.
Quantus:
There are a few ways to handle it that Ive seen.
Willful ignorance like in the Dresden Files - This is particularly aided by the antagonism of magic to Technology, which gives a believable mechanism for modern recording tech's not catching wind. Others like Supernatural (tv show) just kind of assume that nobody wants to be called Crazy along with lots of denial.
Active Conspiracy - pretty self-explanatory, either mortal or immortal agents.
Active Spell/mystical cover-up - The Percy Jackson books took a pretty direct version of this route: The Mist, which is a naturally occuring energy field (for lack of a better word) that completely hides supernatural events in the minds of the muggles present, replacing their perceptions with something more believable in real-time. This was particularly interesting to me because while nearly everything had some kind of supernatural Power, they defined actual Magic as the ability to manipulate the Mist itself. Also interesting is that while the other supernatural elements are pantheon/mythology specific (Greek/roman, Egyptian, and Norse all have series in the same world) the Mist is more universal. It was a fun trope.
Recent Development - Some event or change or cyclic resurgence that explains why the supernatural doesnt have a presence in accepted History but is around now. Limits the sort of entrenched society you can have, to some extent. One setting had the proto-dieties (Titans/Giants) having recently broken free of their ancient prison, which stirred up all sort of things, as an example.
Population growth - this is one that Ive sen mentioned but cant site an example work off-hand. Its a corollary to the Recent Development bit, which hinges on the idea that magic only manifests rarely in a given human generation, but with the "recent" population explosion what used to be a "once in a generation" sort of occurrence is now far more common by simple math. This requires a more Human-centric magic setting, though.
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