Over the weekend, my dad had a minor heart attack. Prefacing “heart attack” with the word “minor,” doesn’t negate all the feelings that the term naturally inspires. Thoughts of death immediately spring to mind, whether you want them to or not.
Dad’s doing okay now, so the scare has passed. But it also made me think about how this applies to writing fantasy stories.
The fear and uncertainty of death is a vital part of human existence. When creating a new fantasy world, this needs to be addressed or else it will never “feel” truly real. How do the characters in this world feel about death? Do they have a terror of it? Do they believe in an afterlife? What kind?
In one of his letters, J.R.R. Tolkien claimed that the real theme of The Lord of the Rings is Death and Immortality. When you pay close attention, you see this throughout. The elves, with their mysterious immortality, are fascinated by human mortality. The dwarves speak of the halls of waiting and the earth being renewed. Valinor, the realm of the Valar (angels/gods) is referenced numerous times, and is the subject of the final chapter, when Frodo and the others set sail to reach it.
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In the movie version, Peter Jackson took the description of what Frodo saw at the end and gave the words to Gandalf. He describes it to Pippin when hope seems lost at Minas Tirith. (Video clip.)
In Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, one of the characters spends much of his life researching dozens of religions and exploring their beliefs. The topic of death and the afterlife comes up repeatedly. At the end, he discovers the truth and references the major characters who died as being in a pleasant afterlife.
Fantasy stories are by nature full of danger and death. The protagonists will face at least the possibility of death likely multiple times. If they don’t at least contemplate this possibility and what it means, then the story is not as real or deep as it should be.
As a Christian, I have pretty firm beliefs on the topic. However, I’m not writing about Christian characters in our world; I’m writing about characters in other worlds. In my current work, Viridia, the protagonist has a near-death experience mid-way through the book. Since he’s rejected his society’s belief that the dragons are gods, he can’t help wonder about the existence of other gods or an afterlife. This is not an attempt to sneak Christianity into the story; it’s a natural exploration of what he would be wondering at a time like that. It also leads to specific development in his beliefs on killing others.
I’m brainstorming my next fantasy novel, and I’m just beginning to explore what the different people groups within it think on this topic.
Death is probably not the first thing you think of when considering worldbuilding, but without it, an invented world will not seem fully developed. If characters do not consider the reality of death, they’re never really alive.