The World in the Satin Bag has moved to my new website.  If you want to see what I'm up to, head on over there!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Fantasy Creature Inspiration!

It's hard to come up with valid articles that deals with fantasy. The reason being that there isn't much in the realm of fantasy to really talk about that hasn't already been discussed to death. I will certainly discuss things if they come up in a comment, but generally I think you can find the myriad of debates already out there with a simple Google search.
    But I've found something interesting that I think will be of use to you fantasy writers out there. It could also be good for an SF or even horror writer, but since I took some influence from a similar thing I would like to point you all to this Top 15 list of unusual deep sea creatures. I know I said no links, but this is an actual post, not just a collection of links for you to check out.
    The interesting thing about that list is that everything looks so alien, yet they're really from this planet. You can imagine the bizarre, even freaky possibilities of a fantasy world if you take into account that things don't have to be ordered, mammalian, or reptilian. Things can defy conventional logic. The Chimaera, for example, looks like something from a Men In Black movie, sort of like a baby alien with those big black eyes. The Fangtooth fish looks like some creepy Halloween mask.
    My favorite, though, is the Viperfish , although I imagine there are a variety of similar critters out there that have similar features, but for whatever reason aren't mentioned. Some of you might actually remember this fish. Can you guess from where?
.
.
.
Well if you guessed from The World in the Satin Bag, then you were right. There is actually a scene where a similar fish showed up and attempted to eat the characters. This was right after James, Pea, and James had escaped from Arlin City just before Luthien destroyed the entire city with his army. They took an underground path that passed under the river and when they reached the lowest point they found themselves in a bottomless pit filled with water, which happened to be home to a giant fish-creature that looked remarkably like the Viperfish. I did this intentionally. I wanted something so creepy, but real at the same time that it would be terrifying. I don't know if anyone was scared while reading that section, but I'm sure some were thinking "oh, that can't exist" (then again, maybe not because WISB is a fantasy novel). But, it is a real creature. You can tell from the link. I just made it a thousand times its normal size.
    The great thing about nature is that it is a treasure tome of great ideas. You don't have to invent every single thing in your fantasy world. Sometimes you can create something that is similar to something that exists on Earth, and it will work just fine. Even if you don't want to do that, you can still look at nature and find all sorts of ideas. It's all right here at your fingertips!

Related Posts by Categories



Widget by Hoctro | Jack Book

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:04 AM

    Wow! That's a really interesting site. I'm now going to to go research them some more. Not to use (I prefer classic fantasy beasts twisted slightly) but just to be grossed out at. :p

    ReplyDelete