It's not REALLY a prequel...

This is somewhat on the subject of what consititutes a "standalone" novel, and somewhat about a few questions I have on the reality of certain events.

First, I have a story set on a conworld around a period vaguely equivalent to the Renassaince, at least in basic technology and somewhat in culture. It's technically a fantasy I suppose, though the closest thing to magic are a few religious beliefs.

Now the real issue is that a story I'm thinking of working on takes place in the same world, though distanced in time and space by a fair amount. By the time of the second story, it may or may not exist mainly as a myth relevant only to certain religious figures and culture heroes. Basically, it's intended as a standalone story set in the same world.

On the reality of certain events:

The basic background of the story is that it revolves around a sort of religious revolution, where a country is divided into three religious factions, the nobility(sort of), and the commoners. These three religious factions center on each a certain "element"--yes, three of the four basic cliche elements: Earth, Water, and Fire. They spheres of the factions project somewhat beyond the traditional borders, but not much. As noted above, there is no actual magic on this world. Whether or not the religion is based on actual events is up in the air. Bascially, without going into details, Air is seen as the Wild Element, beyond the power of rites and such to effect. It might even be considered a bit "evil". An "Air cult" arises, which is brutally supressed by the Fire faction. The story revolves around this "cult" and its fortunes. The problem is, as someone whose religion could mabye be described as something close to "non-practicing Wiccan", I'm not exactly sure of myself where portraying a "realistic" religion such as those on good ole Planet Earth. How willing would readers be to buy into the fact that the characters believe in this fictional religion, and that certain events could conspire to give it credence, even if it isn't necessarily based in reality, even in my fictional world?

IdiotsRUs said:

Well let's take someone who writes a lot and gets read a lot.

Are Cujo, Dead Zone and It part of a series? No. Are they set in the same fictional place or mention it ( ie Castle Rock)? Yes.

Are Night Watch and Weird Sisters in the same universe and do they reference the same things? Yes. Are they prequels / sequels? No.

All it means is you have a world which you are reusing. So what? As long as each story stands on its own, there is no problem. Granted people who have read all of them will have a better idea of the setting, but they don't need to.



Um, that sounds like you don't think wicca is a real religion, but I think / hope that's just a little inclarity. Do you know the weird things that people have believed in over the centuries? Have you read some of the ancient religious sagas? Some people believe that if someone pulls your brain out of your nose after death you get to go to the afterlife.

Almost any religion can be made to read believable. The trick is in the crafting, as always.

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Okay, so that's it on the first question. Thanks all.


As to the second, I wasn't quite as clear as I would have liked. I meant my focus to be mainly on the question of whether or not readers would buy that certain events such as "natural" phenomena occurred as the religion says without a definite statement on whether or not the religion is actually based in complete fact.

The issue comes about because at least part of the story focuses on the leader of the "Air cult", and his experiences. Certain events that inspire his founding of the cult are the result of what he claims to be actual happenings(they may or may not actually be shown in the story), and these events are miraculous, having mainly to do with the Element Air doing things. But as I mentioned, there is no form of magic in this world, so that these events occurred where and when they did would seem largely a matter of coincidence or divine intervention, whichever side of it the reader chooses to take.

What I was really asking was whether or not readers who chose to see the events as mere coincidence would accept them as part of the story, and not as plot devices to get the cult up and running. I don't really want to take a definite position as the author on whether or not the religious beliefs in question are factual within the fictional world or not. Unlike in arguments over something historical like the Bible, the events happen in the story's present, and therefore the reader sees/hears of them as they occur. If the reader chooses to take the position that the religious apsects of this story are merely inventions of the mortal characters to explain nature and history, then they may also feel that coincidences involved are too much to stomach.

Well, inspiring a religion requires some amount of coincidence if you don't believe so much in religion. It's just that my most comfortable genre is magical fantasy in which religious beliefs do tend to be obviously and intentionally true and factual, so I'm a little unsure how to approach a religion that isn't necessarily based on facts or placed in the distant past. The story is fantasy in the broad definition. But the religions involve almost entirely (purported) sypathetic magic or (purported) magic from a divine source.

To Danthia in particular, the characters all generally believe in it, but it's not necessarily an issue of how the world works, as to how the characters believe it works. There are no rules. Only occurances and how the characters interpret them.

To Oddsocks, a good point about unreliable narrators. That's the route I mostly thought to follow. I never planned to discolse the objectve truth. But I want the possibility of doubt. Perhaps I'll have to introduce an agnostic, or even, God forbid, an atheist even in a minor character role.

Of course, I'm still going to have trouble deciding how much I can get away with. Predicting a storm maybe, calling one, maybe not so much.

Oddsocks said:

One thing you might want to consider is how much the characters know scientifically. You could take some phenomenon that's pretty incredible, but which is real and which the reader understands - say, cyclones or tornados or something. Now, if your characters were to encounter one of these for the first time, and didn't know what it was, they might think it supernatural. If (and this is the kind of coincidence a reader might think entirely possible) it happened to, say, hit an enemy group's base and do significant damage, then that could be easily taken by characters as a sign/direct intervention/conscious activity.

Just an idea. Having a character call a storm, and having a storm appear, seems to me more likely to be taken as legitimate magic in a fantasy setting.

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Yeah, that's basically what I was thinking. The issue though, is that if the group is being supressed on an ongoing basis, how likely is it that the events will occur at an auspicious time?

To your question, they have limited scientific knowledge. Yes, a tornado or cyclone has been an option I've seriously considered using. Perhaps I should look harder at using omens and portents than just actual miracles, seeing as this is not in any way a christian religion.