I don't want the Arbiter universe to revolve around a single protagonist. Still, there's something to be said for simplicity, and no matter how complex or convoluted the plot may become, it helps if the reader knows who to root for.
Enter the clan: if they're members, they're probably on the right team.
So who are they? Well, we're diving right into the deep end. I guess the simplest way is with a small geography lesson. In the Arbiter world, there is a kingdom whose eastern border is shared with a world-famous forest: the Dawnless Woods. As the name suggests, these woodlands never see sunlight. Incidentally, it's also a profoundly dangerous place. Why? We'll get to that later.
What you need to know is that "the clan" (working title, but it may stick) is a nomadic tribe of refugees that migrate along the western edge of the Dawnless Woods (the eastern border of the kingdom). The clan are not official subjects of the kingdom, but the kindly monarch has left them to their peaceful ways ever since the first of them began to patrol the forest's edge.
The clan is made up of people from a wide variety of cultures. If someone were to accuse me of promoting the superiority of multicultural coexistence, I'd plead guilty. I think culture's like human reproduction: inbreeding's bad, mmmkay?
The impromptu founders fled a variety of circumstances and, having no safe place to go, decided to band together and create one. Since the clan is in such a remote area and since they are constantly on the move, it's profoundly difficult for any would-be pursuers to hunt them down. Even if they did, clan members can count on the protection of their fellow nomads.
I haven't fleshed out everything, obviously. I only have ideas for a few roles/members of the clan. I know they'll have no formal government (be still, thy anarchist loins), because that can work until the group grows too big. Though it won't be law, they'll have a tradition of every man and woman being a father and mother to every child; this is because they don't want any orphans to feel left out because they weren't born into the clan.
I've planned a character named Jedrek with some odd (to us) characteristics that are actually common within the clan: he doesn't know who gave birth to him, nor does he know exactly how old he is. In our society, we'd assume the kid has been bullied and/or has some emotional baggage, but since he's a member of this clan, nobody thinks twice about it. He's the norm.
There's a number of reasons this clan idea has me excited. First, it opens the door to having a ton of protagonists, thereby allowing the audience to pick their favorites and allow each favorite to have their shining moments. I hate when the moral of Harry Potter (okay, he's actually a terrible example for this) can be interpreted as 'boy, aren't we lucky that this guy was born so special.' I prefer the times when a group of individuals with conflicting personalities can get past their disdain for one another to achieve a common goal. Better yet if those characters possess traits that naturally predispose them to be enemies or would otherwise prevent them from contributing to a mutual goal. It allows for more tension, presents a satisfying obstacle to overcome and thereby makes victory that much more satisfying, and is rife with opportunities for comedic relief.
The clan also allows me to play with some cultural norms that don't work in our society. We covered some of that above, but the 'takes a village to raise a child' dynamic is only one among many. We touched on the 'monogamy is not enforced' idea in the last post. I'm intrigued to see what the issue may have looked like before we established the monogamy norm, and this feels like an opportunity to do that. I'm sure we've all been told something is really, really bad and reacted by thinking "I wasn't planning on doing that, but now I wonder what's so wrong about it." Y'know, things like "don't eat non-kosher food, don't date your cousin, don't swear, don't treat your child's terminal condition because Jesus will get angry and refuse to heal them if you do."
Every taboo has a reason, surely. Some (no cousin dating) make sense, others (Jesus hates medicine) aren't good reasons, but they're reasons all the same. With the clan, I feel like we can make some parables to explore some of these things.
Finally, as weird as this is gonna sound, I think there's some opportunity for some The Walking Dead-flavored survivalism here. I think we're drawn to the whole zombie genre because survival in a world without establishment is scary and intriguing and each day that survival is achieved feels like a victory. With the beasties lurking in the Dawnless Woods and the mechanics of magic, I think we can have a lot of fun by taking some cues from the post-apocalyptic genre and applying them to fantasy. The loose-knit interactions of the clan should fit the lawless + monsters vibe of the survival horror genre well - though I think we'll avoid going as gruesome as those stories tend to.
So what are we thinking? Did this rough outline of this nomadic people spark your imagination in any way? Were there any vague 'oh, I like this idea, because you could try THIS idea with it!' moments? Are there any social/religious taboos you'd like to see explored? And are there any story tropes or nomadic stereotypes you think I'm in danger of committing? Throw me some of them bones, friends!
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