Environment Shapes the Fantasy Fiction You Write - Learn to Meld with Nature to Write Flawless Myths - Fiction Guide

Landscape Defines your Story

See that picture? I’m pretty sure it’s from Scotland. Wonderful is the only word that comes to mind, or even the root term for that word; Wonder Full or Full of Wonder to be more apt.

How can you not look on such a work of Nature without trembling with awe and love? The Highlands and lochs and glens and valleys of Scotland are among the most beautiful in the world. I must admit that while I got into Scottish history when I was a young student due to a fascination with the likes of Causantin II, Macbethad, Bruce and his heirs the Stewarts, most are more fascinated by the English monarchs and Medieval Culture.

The thing is though that the Environment plays a major factor in shaping how we look at the world. Just as this is true so too is blood. Blood and Soil matters as does language. How can you possibly write about a land you have no knowledge of, a tongue you don’t understand and seems as gibberish to you and soil you have no attachment to.

The fact is that most Anglophones/Anglo-Saxons no matter their birth-place write Fantasy worlds and stories that bear a remarkable similarity to Medieval England or the Holy Roman Empire in some form. This is what they have the ancestral memory of, as the Saxon remembers it cannot be denied the high keeps and forests of both lands.

If I’m honest though, my own stories are reminiscent instead of the lands of Scotland, of France and because I have seen it I can write it, Japan. I know their lands, I know their souls… because I’ve seen or felt them.

This shapes my fiction and stories so that they take the shape that they do. Certainly one who doesn’t know as well on a blood and personal level of things one isn’t as familiar with (it’s called learning after all), such as those kingdoms of Germany, of Spain and so on in a compelling way. But most prefer to fall back on what is familiar; either the Gygaxian model or some memory of the ancient lands of the ancestors.

However it must be said that the soil of our local landscape absolutely shapes our perception of reality, shapes the fiction which we write and shapes our relationship with our stories.

Fantasy is inherently ‘Localist’ by nature. What is meant by this is that the Genre thrives on those woodlands, rivers, mountains and fields you know best. It helps to shape the stories by inserting some measure of what you know and have felt in the past into the story.

That said the landscape also shapes the Lore by shaping the sort of Geography that you create in your world. Originally I never considered the possibility that landscapes one has seen in one’s life personally or seen a great deal of in film and photographs could shape what sort of landscapes you might craft but over the years I’ve noticed that the most believable, the most lovely of worlds are those forged from the Land that birthed the author psychologically or in actuality.

The French always write in such a manner that is reminiscent of France, and it is profoundly beautiful to behold. However, those with no comprehension of the history, language or culture or landscape struggle really to make their stories mesh as well as those who are familiar with her.

But herein lies the key: If your goal as I mentioned to

The Man Behind the Screen

a few days ago in the comment section of an essay of mine, is to forge for your state or nation a Mythology all your own the seeds are quite literally in the world around you.

Now, as a rule the finest of Fantasy authors are Rural People. I don’t make the rules, it’s just something I’ve noticed. J.R.R. Tolkien. C.S. Lewis. Robert E. Howard. And so many others were born in the country and many of them throve there or preferred it there, and generally their stories and imagery reflect these facts.

The Landscape is part of the culture that informs their decision making process, their thoughts and their ideas on the world. Because the simple fact of the matter is that those who live in Cities are cut off from Nature, cut off from the world around them and from Life itself in a lot of ways (this isn’t to condemn or deride city-dwellers it is only to comment on how cities can be difficult places to live in).

Medieval cities should be written differently than modern cities to be quite honest, as they are very different beasts (more on that in a later essay if possible for now we must focus on the countryside).

The Feel of the Land

What do I mean by there is a ‘Spirit to the Land’? Of course I don’t mean the Native voo-doo nonsense that Hollywood sold us as being Native Culture (which actually has little real basis in Native Culture humorously enough), but in the notion that each forest, each piece of land and each mountain has a sense of itself that is different from others.

If you visit your local forest (which you should), you will get a sense that is quite unique to it. Canada’s forests and mountains and rivers are very full, they have a feeling that is quite different from much of the rest of North-America. The Maritimes are as the name suggests a series of mountains that is quite a bit different from the Caribbeans, in a lot of ways it feels much more similar to some of the islands nearer to Europe. Quebec feels more like a Scandinavian nation (well duh), same as parts of Northern Ontario.

That being said, there is an important connection that must be forged with the land. You must also recognize the importance of knowing some history both of your local area and also most especially that of one Medieval Nation of Europe or Asia in order to better root your story in the land.

The Land around you and your perception of it WILL shape your story, just as the language you speak, and the history you know and the sort of European and Asian nation you love will influence it also.

My stories are rooted in Celtic folklore, ideas, inspiration and culture. I cannot help it. That is the nature of my stories. I am a Francophone with Scottish blood and some Nordic too, and who spent quite some time in Japan and studying Japanese history, philosophy and literature.

So rather than lean away from what you are, lean into it, embrace it.

Let the Highlands, or the Pyrenees, or the Alps be your guide just as you should let the St-Laurent, or the Seine, or the Loire, or the Mississipi be your guide.

Howard constructed a Mythology for Texas, one that has its roots also in France, Roman and English history, literature and culture and that of also Irish folklore, literature and culture.

A story founded upon ‘universal values’ or ‘universal core’ is impossible and boring. Make yourself as the Oak Tree; dig deep roots, and let them seep into the land that you might draw from it the wisdom, the knowledge of the land and the stories it wishes you to tell so to speak and the heart that lies at its core.

The core of Canada is frontiersmen, but also the Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland, France and also the Anglo-Saxons of England. At the core of France is a Latin-Celtic marriage that combines the best of both civilizations; the Romans interwoven with the Gauls who nearly toppled them several times.

This is what is meant when I say let the Land guide you and form your stories. You must embrace your land and understand that it is important and a bond with it can help shape your stories.

Urban settings will appear in your stories, but Urban centres were formed around rivers, mountains, forests and so on and were shaped by these things as much as men were. If you’re in the ‘New World’ be sure to combine your local area, your culture, and that of the country of origin of your blood as it will help your stories dig deeper roots.

Do not be ashamed of your Celtic, or Anglo, German or Nordic roots but embrace them and combine them with your local culture. Do this and you’ll create a splendid tale of incomparable beauty.

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