I have watched the first 23 episodes on the anime known as Fairy Tail. For some time, I did not know if I was going to like this anime, but I was pleasantly surprised when I started watching. I loved each characters’ eccentricities and the camaraderie they shared. I also noticed that the creature known as Plue was a character in another anime I watched as a kid, Rave Master. Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying this anime and would recommend it to anyone who is seeking good humor, epic action, and heartfelt storytelling.
Allow me to give you all a terrifying scenario on this lovely Halloween night! I am thinking of depicting a semi-apocalyptic event happen in my fantasy series. This age of darkness will be caused due to a massive imbalance in the natural order. This imbalance will be caused by the excessive usage of dark magic and necromancy so that an overly ambitious few can be immortal. As this imbalance increases in intensity, the nights will be longer and darker, the screams of the damned will be heard for miles, and unholy creatures will lurk in every shadow. As necromancy is tinkered with to higher levels, worse undead abominations than zombies will appear in the darkness. One of the major obstacles the heroes will have to overcome is destroy the source of the imbalance and bring light and life back into the world.
What happens when you combine magic and technology? The end result is complex machinery that is powered by sorcery instead of electricity or nuclear power. Imagine building an army of metallic soldiers that are given life by magic. Such soldiers would be immune to conventional medieval weapons such as swords and axes. Now, think of a type of bomb that is fueled by magic that is powerful enough to destroy castles. It would be a fantasy equivalent of a neutron bomb! These innovations will look like something out of a steampunk universe, but they will be powered by magic instead of steam. As factions grow in strength and power thanks to sorcery, new abilities to wage war will be invented that would ravage the land. I will be exploring this in greater detail in my fantasy series.
One of the most common and controversial themes of magic would be necromancy, which is the power to bring the dead back to life. Bringing back the dead is not as simple or straightforward at it sounds. The reason for this is because magic always comes with a price. ALWAYS! It never gives anything away for free. In some fantasy stories, bringing back the dead was a forbidden art. In the Harry Potter books, the Resurrection Stone could only bring back the deceased’s spirit, but not their physical bodies. In Stephen King’s Pet Sematary and Game of Thrones, every time something or someone dead was brought back, they returned less than they were before. Like alchemy, magic is governed by a law of equivalent exchange, which means in order to gain something, you have give something of equal value up. With bringing back the dead, you have to pay a life for a life. What essentially happened in Pet Sematary and Game of Thrones was that when the dead were brought back, a part of their souls had to be sacrificed. It could be a memory, an emotion, a personality trait, or something else. In addition, the trauma of dying, being exposed to the afterlife, and then being brought back is a grotesque experience that would explosively change a person. In Game of Thrones, this was the case for Beric Dondarrion and Jon Snow. I will be exploring necromancy in my latest fantasy book as well as the consequences that comes from being the dead back to life. What I am envisioning is a combination between Pet Sematary/Game of Thrones and the Nazgul from The Lord of the Rings.
Another item I noticed in several fantasy stories is the concept of the enchanted armor. Enchanted armor can provide an absolute defense against mortal weapons while others can augment the wearer’s fighting capabilities. I am thinking of including an enchanted armor in my fantasy series and were will be unexpected features that will make it look organic instead of metallic.
In several fantasy stories, there have been versions of what I like to call magical super-soldiers. Essentially, they are a mystical and medieval version of Captain America. Some of these soldiers are made from living metal, some are undead, some have the strength and speed of ten men, and a few are rendered immune to physical pain. An army of a thousand of these soldiers would be worth ten thousand mortal soldiers. I am thinking of including these super-soldiers on either side of the conflict in my latest fantasy series.
One of the most common magical sword powers is what some call the Sword Beam, which is when a blast of mystical energy is generated from the sword before being fired from the tip towards its target. Sword Beams come in a variety of different intensities. Some are strong enough to obliterate a single opponent while others are strong enough to cleave open hills. I am planning to include the Sword Beam in my fantasy series and it will be the bane of every foe that faces it.
