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[ziloe]

This is something I've been kind of curious about, and I know it's a little different when voice actors are picked for the characters, etc. But for say, Orlesians, how do you explain their culture and their accents without saying straight out, this is like France and they have a French accent? Or other various things that are inspired by real culture, without being outright obvious about it? This is of course in the context of writing, and not what we see and hear on screen.

Even reading the Dragon Age books, perhaps it's something that I've just taken for granted and haven't noticed. So if there are any particular things or styles to go with, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Modifié par ziloe, 13 février 2014 - 06:31 .

[Mary Kirby]

ziloe wrote...

Because when you're writing a fantasy book, you don't want to keep calling back to reality?

I can just imagine: "The party stumbled into town, exhausted. As the Inquisitor looked with weary eyes ahead, he was reminded of his home. These buildings were quite similar to those that could be found in the Capital of France."

Except that none of the places in Orlais are similar to those that could be found in France. 

If we have to describe elements of the setting in prose for a book, we do it the same way any other fantasy writer does: We describe what's there, not what inspired it. If the vaults of the palace celing are covered in jewelled mosaics depicting the life of Emperor Kordilius Drakon, and the gilded flying buttresses depict Blessed Andraste holding up the palace, that's what we write. Nothing in Paris looks like that, and even if we could write, "It looked sort of like Paris," which Paris would we mean? Not modern Paris. Eighteenth-century Paris? Seventeenth-century Paris? There's never been a single time period that combined the artistic elements of Orlesian architecture, which probably was also inspired by a lot of things that aren't French. France is the starting point, not where we end up.

[Mary Kirby]

Foopydoopydoo wrote...

The mosaic depicting an emperer sounds like the ERE for instance. Buuuut maybe I've just been playing too much CK2.

You're never going to escape comparisons to something. 

You could start with, 'This is like Versaille, but on an asteroid in space." And then no matter how much you change, someone is going to say, "That one room you described sounds like Sainte-Chapelle." And that's not even a bad thing, because if they can compare it to something real, even if it's not the thing you were thinking of, then they can probably imagine what you described to some extent. So, mission accomplished anyway!