Many of the tavern patrons keep complaining about not understanding the fantasy and fiction jargon. So of course as the Tavern Mistress I couldn't have that, so I scoured the lands for the definitions and made a list just for the patrons and you visitors. I'll separated them between Fantasy and Fiction on different pages.
What is...
Antagonist: A hostile party or an opposing force to someone or something.
Synonyms - A foe, adversary, enemy, nemesis, rival, the 'bad guy'
E.g. The Powerpuff girls must defeat the antagonist, Mojo Jojo
Apprentice: This person is someone learning a trade or skill and training under a skilled employer or, in some cases, a Master for a period of time. They are usually paid low wages or sometimes no wages and are just provided with food and housing during the period of their apprenticeship.
Beast: This is an animal or creature, they are usually depicted as dangerous and powerful. Some works have them as mindless and murderous monsters and some as tameable creatures ranging from weak to strong.
Cauldron: This a large metal pot with a lid and handle. This is used in alchemy and for making potions.
Changeling: This is a fairy baby that was left with a human family, as the fairies steal the human's baby. Some also have it being a child of elves that was left with a human family as they took the human baby.
Dragon: These are large reptile like creatures. They are majorly depicted as fire breathing winged reptiles. Over the years, dragons have been given various different characteristics. Some breath things other than fire, some can speak and some swim in the sea rather than fly in the air.
e.g. How To Train Your Dragon (HTTYD) has a list of various types of dragons, each with unique looks and abilities.
 |
| The Source |
Dungeons:
1) An underground prison cell usually in a castle but they can also be in other influential places and buildings.
2) A place where monsters spawn from that contains treasures and valuable materials. Some depictions of dungeons have them being natural locations or man-made by a powerful person, some disappear after being cleared or reset after 3 days to a week.
Fable: This is a short story that has morale with the characters being animals.
Guilds: An association and body of either adventurers, merchants or craftsmen. In fantasy there are different guilds for different jobs and they provide aid and support for their members. Guilds form a link between consumers and skilled individuals. The consumers place their requests, which the guild will give to suitable guild members to complete. After they completed the task, the consumers' pay for it is shared between the guild and the guild member.
Halfling: A being that is half human and half of another race.
Lore: A body of traditional knowledge about a specific subject that is passed from person to person.
Magic: The ability of using a mysterious and supernatural force to influence people, places, things and events. In most fantasy, magic is something that can be explained and is studied, while in some it is a mysterious ability. Magic often has certain rules it follows which vary from work to work.In some fantasy worlds only a select few can use magic and in some it is something everyone processes. Some names of people who can use magic are:- magician, wizard/witch, sorcerer/ess, magi or spellcaster.
Monster: A large and dangerous creature. Monsters can be found in forests, caves, the sea or spawned in dungeons. The difference between beast and monster would be that some monsters are beasts but many depictions of monsters also have them being certain humanoid species e.g. orcs, goblins and lizardmen. Elves, dwarves and merfolk are also depicted as monsters in some cases.
Oracle: This person is sought out to give advice or reveal prophecies.
Portal/Gate: This is a magical or technological door that connects two distant locations with a passageway that travels through space time.
Quest: An effort or journey to find something or complete a certain, specific goal. A book could be about the protagonist going on a grand quest to achieve something specific while in some creative work the quests are the many tasks requested by consumers to the guild for completion, these quests are then given to adventurers to complete.
Seer: A person with the ability to see visions of the future.
Sorcery: The practice of evil magic also known as black magic. Sorcerers are generally used to refer to those who use malicious magic for things like divining cursing and necromancy. In some works, sorcerer is just the name used for anyone who practices magic. It is also used interchangeably with witchcraft, wizardry and black magic.
Talisman: An inscribed object typically a piece of paper, stone or jewellery that brings good luck or can be used to ward off evil and evil spirits.
Notice my frequent use of words like; some, sometimes, usually, often and depicted. This is to show that in different works of fantasy, whether it is books, movies, games or anime, creators have always varied in their portrayal of different fantasy elements.
I also avoided listing any definition of races such as elves, demons or dwarves because each writer would have their own characteristics of the races used in their stories. For example. I have seen elves that have a normal human lifespan and demons being portrayed as either mindless destructive monsters, a bloodthirsty race or some simply have the demons as another coexisting humanoid race. So I don't want to give any definitions for these races and end up making you feel you have to be boxed by the standard characteristics applied to the races. Though certain characteristics of their appearance such as elves' pointy ears, dwarves' dwarfness shortness and demons' red eyes are still good defining and identifying features of each race.
I will make a separate post that covers these different races and species and their standard characteristics and also examining the various ways they have been represented across the fantasy genre.
If you have any word additions to the glossary, comment them below. What words can fill in for the empty letters? e.g. E, N and U.
Comments
Post a Comment