InsaneJournal

Quest-fantasy again.
Aki's post.


Ah, the problems of fake-medieval travel; I'm glad you mentioned that, because I'd completely forgotten. Yes, people did not travel around much back then.

Normal Reasons That People Moved Around In Medieval and Renaissance Times:

* Pilgrims. However, I can only think of one fantasy that has characters traveling from Point A where nothing is happening to Point B where plot is happening because of a pilgrimage, and that is Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. The only other books I've read where characters go on pilgrimages are plain historical fiction or simply darn old (Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales). There's actually, I think, a very good reason--I mean, it's a terrible reason, but there's internally-consistent logic--why so few fantasy characters go on pilgrimages: the gods aren't really the focus of a religion, they're literal dei and deae ex machina (please pardon any incorrect pluralization; Latin is not my forte). They exist to spew prophecy, choose heroes, and occasionally war with each other. (We really have to talk about gods in fantasy soon.) There is very rarely any kind of thought-out religion--half the time, there are no regular places of worship and no or almost no festivals. So a pilgrimage would seem very out-of-place.
* Monarchs moving from one court to another. I'm not sure if this was medieval, but I know Queen Elizabeth I of England (Renaissance-era, right?) moved around all the time, and expected people to clean up their towns even if she was just passing through, and, if she was actually staying with someone, they generally bankrupted themselves entertaining her as she expected. If your monarchy has a summer palace and a winter palace (see: Imperial China), or something like that, then they'd have to travel from one to the other. Or if every so often some sort of messy thing has to be done at the main seat of the monarchy (either something magical, like stripping the entire place to make sure there are no curses accumulating, or something physical, like... I don't know, repainting, or cleaning out the privies, or something), then they'd probably want to go somewhere else while this happens.
* Armies. Obviously, people invading another region have to move around to do so. This one, most fantasy authors seem to be aware of. With the armies--and this is where awareness starts breaking down, depending on how much attention the author is paying--you maybe have a figurehead (a monarch, a member of the monarch's family, a noble..); you have the people in charge of supplies; you have the people in charge of preparing supplies (the high-ranking people are quite likely going to expect more comfort than the common soldiers, and quite likely have cooks or servants or similar); you have people in charge of making and repairing weapons, whether they're soldiers or extras; and you have either camp followers or a very good reason why you don't.
* On a similar note, refugees. They can be fleeing war, natural disaster, famine, plague...
* Tinkers, gypsies, itinerant bards and minstrels, etc. People whose livelihood means wandering from place to place, fair to fair. It's a chancy lifestyle, and the people who followed it were generally looked down upon (especially the gypsies) at least a little, but they did more or less roam around however they liked.
* Merchants. Fairly self-explanatory, right? They went places with stuff, they sold the stuff, they bought other stuff, they brought it someplace else, they sold it...

That's about all I can think of. There might be more reasons, but none that I know from history instead of from reading medieval fantasy, which... isn't a reliable source, since I'm trying to think of actual historical things.

Oh, and here's something fun for people to think about! In the middle ages, you had two ways to travel: you could ride a horse, or you could walk. Carriages were totally impractical because the roads were entirely unsuited to it. Produce could be carried in wagons, but it was jostled really badly--springs and comfort in vehicles and such hadn't been invented yet. People who couldn't ride or walk (the wounded, extremely pregnant noblewomen) would be carried in a horse-litter. If your medieval world has roads like the ones the Romans built, and if they haven't fallen into disrepair, then some form of carriage is possible. Otherwise...? Nope.


Prophecy, destiny, and fate vs. Choice. Yeah, that's something that a lot of authors seem to forget about. I have an allergy to writing prophecy because I hate the idea that human beings have to do certain things. (Calvinism, with its "you are predestined to go to heaven or hell, and nothing you do can change it" deal, has always creeped me out for the same reason.) But yes. There's some sort of omnipotent entity running around making cryptic statements that are somehow completely understandable and can be deciphered to read, "Joe, Bob, and Sally must go through Generic Medieval Kingdom, Generic Viking Kingdom, Generic Middle-Eastern Kingdom, and Generic Asian Empire so that Bob can receive the Pointless Doodad of Sparkly DOOM from Generic Fantasy Deity in a cave all the way back in Generic Medieval Kingdom." I mean, if it's that important, couldn't the prophecy just tell Bob to go to the cave? It's not like there's character development along the way, or anything.

And then there's the whole "prophecy is infallible, and only means one thing, and we listen!" bit. Historically--if you go back to the Sibyls and Pythia of classical Greece--the prophets almost never made straight remarks. Just think of the king who asked the Delphic oracle what would happen if he went to war with ... was it Persia, or was he the Persian king? ...anyway. And the oracle said that a great empire would be destroyed. He raced off to war and got his own empire destroyed. And look at Cassandra, for heaven's sake--she received the gift of prophecy from Apollo and then made him angry, and so he made it so that nobody would ever believe her true prophecies. But no, fantasy prophecies are so much simpler.


You know what another problem with the Farm Boy Who Is Mysteriously King is? He grew up on a FARM. HOW is he supposed to be able to rule?! So running around with some oddly-assorted companions makes him mysteriously--in addition to king--capable of dealing with actual politics? You're telling me that nobody, nobody at all, has had their eye on the vacant throne? No, because the Gods decreed it must only be held by one of the Speshul Bloodline, so it's been vacant for something like 1300 freaking years. With a "warder" to do the actual ruling. But the Warder isn't king, because the king is SPECIAL. And that this farm kid is going to be able to deal with everything that's been happening, and all the people who're trying to use him or manipulate him? (That's another thing--why is it always a boy?)

The problem is that this trope is old. King Arthur is the first case I can think of, so it's had centuries to wriggle its way deeper and deeper into our collective minds. (Ew, that makes it sound like a parasite.)


...I think that's about all I have to say at the moment, too, except for one thing. Girls can grow beards if they're Discworld dwarfs. Cheesy


What shall we talk about next, unless you have something else to say about quests? The gods in fantasy, both well- and poorly-done? Romance in fantasy (with its marvelous little offshoot, soulmates in fantasy), also both well- and poorly-done? Stock Characters We Hate, Or Are Tired Of, and How Not To Have Your Stock Character Be So Stock-like?