 Fantasy: September 04, 2024 Issue [#12725] |
This week: Birthdays and Aging in Fantasy Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
With the site birthday bash full of excitement, it's fun to think about other types of birthdays. Considering the different creatures found within fantasy, it's plausible that birthdays and even aging might look different in your fictional world. |
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While birthdays haven't been the most exciting thing for me, over the years, it's something that could look very different within a fantasy world, which gives me something to ramble about here. Sure, 40 might seem like a big deal to a human if they might live to 100 or so at the most. However, when the character lives hundreds or thousands of years, a number like 40 is very young or not even a big deal. How a character ages and their cultural viewpoints will have an influence on different developments within a story. It can be used to showcase something about the character, whether it's something they even notice or not, for example. The societal viewpoint on aging has the potential to be an element that really showcases the difference in the fantasy world, giving something interesting for the reader to notice.
What approach do you take with aging and birthdays in fantasy?
I will admit that I hadn't put in too much thought for the matter. This might be one of those things where it helps to be a plotter instead of someone who just writes. I have an epic fantasy story that includes: humans, elves, dwarves, other creates kinda like orcs/trollocs and dragons. There are going to be different life spans and cultures, which means they are bound to have different viewpoints on things like aging and celebrating a single year. What are those differences? I have no clue. I haven't written a scene that involved a birthday nor has the topic of aging come up in the attempts I've made over the years with the story, so I haven't figured out this part of the world. I should probably do something about that.
Do they have a birthday party or celebrate their date of birth? Could it be a somber occasion?
There are some fantasy stories that take a particular birthday as the most significant. Sort of like the quinceanera or coming of age birthdays in different cultures. Coming into powers is one example, since it's common place for someone to reach a certain birthday then they get powers or a mermaid's tail, or something like that. Whether they know about this upcoming change is also an important factor because in movies, it often is a surprise even though someone might have known in advance that something could happen. Others will be expecting it and waiting to find out how it goes on that fated birthday.
However, one could take a more macabre approach with the aging milestones as continuing down of a path of entropy and decay leading to the eventual, which is death. You could have a community that mourns the loss of a decade or age instead of viewing it as a cheerful celebration.
This week is a good time to write about a fantasy birthday bash. There are plenty of places to share your approach to the topic of a birthday in a fantasy world. Try to write an unsual, fantastical approach to the birthday with a nod to thoughts on aging. Have fun writing!
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