Dragons, and Gryphons, and Unicorns, oh my!
Let’s take a few minutes and talk about magical creatures! Just because you have mythological creatures in your story world doesn’t mean that they have to be magical. Additionally, we’ll discuss the concept of magical companion animals in a couple days.
Animals do not have to be capable of doing magic spells for them to be magical. Magical animals may have an innate sense of magic, and be able to influence it in certain ways. This may lead to a market for animal parts that are seen as a source of magic—like a unicorn’s horn.
If animals can work magic deliberately, you’ll need to decide how much they interact with your characters, peoples, and cultures in that regard. It would certainly add an interesting equation to certain magical events—what if an animal sends in their own bit of magic and throws a spell off completely?
Worldbuilding Exercises:
- Are there animals/creatures in your world that are capable of using magic, or exist solely because of magic? If so, what are they?
- Do these creatures have any symbiotic relationships with the peoples in your world?
- What is the most sought-after magical animal product in your world?
View 2019 A-Z Participant list here.
Rebekah Loper began creating epic worlds and stories as a child and never stopped. She is the author of The A-Zs of Worldbuilding series, and has a fantasy novella published in Beatitudes and Woes: A Speculative Fiction Anthology.
She lives in Tulsa, OK with her husband, dog, two formerly feral cats, a small flock of feathered dragons (…ok, ok, they’re chickens), and an extensive tea collection. When she is not writing, she can be found battling the elements in an effort to create a productive, permaculture urban homestead.
One of my favourite ‘magic’ pet is the Cat in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. It is debateable is he’s magical, because he doesnt’ really do anything particlular… well, aside from beign able to cross into different world and speak when he’s on the other wolrd 😉
I still need to read this book. One of my writing group peers was just talking about Coraline today!
Yay for magical creatures! They make everything more fun. I’ve used tons in my work, from the usual suspects – dragons, griffins, golems – to my own inventions, including lylits and sulchym. My current work is an entire bestiary of fantasy creatures. And my A-Z Challenge D is for dragon, too. =D
Black and White: D is for Dragon
These are very interesting points. I don’t really have many (any?) magical creatures in any of my settings, because I’m not writing high fantasy, so I try to keep the number of special creatures at bay.
I honestly haven’t toyed with magical creatures a whole lot either, but I have one story world where they seem to pop out a lot. Someday I’ll have time to write in that universe a little more, instead of just disjointed bits and pieces!
And you’ll fall down the rabbit hole of world building for good ;).
I think one or two magic creatures might add up a lot of flavor to a book. Personally, I’m just not a fan of high-fantasy-esque books where there’s myriad of them – they stop being interesting or exotic.
Hah, considering I’ve already written one book on worldbuilding, I think it’s safe to say I’ve fallen!