Worldbuilding Wednesday: Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar

Welcome to another edition of Worldbuilding Wednesday!  On the menu today is a fresh hot serving of discussion on how critical a good foundation is to any story-world, and the differences between acceptance, plausibility, and believability.

The main example on the dissection block is the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey.  And okay, yes, this post did have its origins as an essay about how creepy Valdemar actually is, until I realized that it's also a good example of worldbuilding and face value.

This post is all Alz, btw, since Krispy only read a few of the Valdemar books, whereas I read all of them many years ago, all the way up to Exile's Honor before I gave up.  Possibly I simply became more critical as time passed and I read more widely, but I'm also pretty sure that the later books started going downhill too.  I used to love love love Valdemar and while I still do, my love is now tempered by my ever-present Companions companions Judgment and Criticality.

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Foundation


Didn't read this one and am afraid to
after what I heard about it.

Good worldbuilding often starts with a good foundation.  This is the world, this is how it works, and these are its rules--that sort of thing, albeit hopefully not so bald-statement info-dumpy as all that.

Let's take a look at Valdemar, a kingdom whose entire system of governance is bound up in the intelligent magical semi-divine horselike Companions who Choose certain estimable, honorable, good people to become the Heralds that serve in all manner of capacities from arbiter to police to messenger.  The King by law must also be a Chosen Herald. Companion and Chosen are bound together for the rest of their lives, and the various series typically follow this or that Herald in his/her efforts to save etc. good thing from etc. evil thing, or a newly-Chosen Trainee getting the hang of the Herald ropes and incidentally overcoming various obstacles in order to uphold truth and justice.

We are asked to believe that the Companions Choose true--that they only Choose inherently good people, so even if one Chooses a thief (such as the character Skif in Take a Thief) or someone on the way to the gallows (a random mention in one book, I forget which), it must mean that said person is still somehow good.  Questioning the Companion's Choice is brought up very briefly in Brightly Burning, in an instance where the King explains they have to hold a public trial in order to defend a Herald from an accusation of murder because the Valdemaran people absolutely must believe that the Companions always Choose true since their entire government revolves around this fact.

There's a Collegium adjoining the Palace where the newly-Chosen Trainees attend classes and graduate into the uniform Whites of a Herald.  Yes, the series does semi-gratuitously capitalize a good many things, but that's a gripe for another post.  Anyway!

We've got a premise: The Companions and their inherently good Heralds serve and protect the land of Valdemar.

We've got rules: The Companions Choose certain people and are bound to them as partners and advisors; the King/Queen must also be a Herald; Choosing is permanent; etc.

We've got a reasonable system: Heralds serve in a variety of governmental roles and are generally trusted by the population at large due to their reputation.

That's all a good basic foundation for worldbuilding.  Let's move on!

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Acceptance

I buy the Companion-based government.  I mean, it's the concrete basis of the entire series.  It's laid out pretty simply and is easy to grasp.  I accept the Heraldic system.  I accept the land of Valdemar as it is presented.

This is typically a necessary qualification of enjoyment and, in this case, is dependent upon the taste of the reader rather than the skill of the author.  The world can have a good foundation, be totally plausible and believable, but maybe you just can't accept the premise that our society somehow devolves into the virtue-based dystopian society of Divergent, or that a "virus" is responsible for boys dying at 25 and girls dying at 20 in Wither, or that faeries are actually plants a la Wings.  If you can't accept it, maybe you can overlook it, but if you can't do that either then you'll probably start banging your head against the wall if you continue reading.

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Plausibility

Since Valdemar is set in a magical world, the whole Companion/Herald thing is magically plausible.  The kingdom still has a judicial system, guard force, army, and other assorted governmental bodies that are separate from the Heraldic system; the Heralds are basically a multi-tasking quasi-military force answerable to the King and devoted specifically to protecting the people and fostering peace.

Despite how disgustingly helpful and happy-dappy people are in the very first Valdemar book, Arrows of the Queen, the world eventually develops enough to mention that not everyone loves Heralds--for instance, in other kingdoms and countries, Heralds are regarded as mystics or weirdos. The King (or Queen in some books) and others have remarked that Heralds are not perfect because they are as human as anyone else.  For instance, in Magic's Promise, there is a Herald who beats a Companion with a whip because he believes the Companion is a demon despite the fact that his own Companion was freaking out all the while.  As I recall, he didn't exactly feel bad after he was stopped because he was still convinced there was shady business going on.  See?  Not perfect.  But the guy was still a Herald.

The point here is that the worldbuilding is complex but also reasonable.  It makes sense, it follows its own rules, allows for imperfection, and it explains the inevitable anomalies and exceptions.  And that, my friends, is 90% of the plausibility rating.

 

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Believability

Here's where you get two breakdowns of Believability: Young Innocent Past Alz and Jaded Curmudgeonly Current Alz.

Young Innocent Past Alz says: Yes!  I believe in Valdemar!  I accept it all, it's plausible, and I believe without question the storylines and characters and the world!

Jaded Curmudgeonly Current Alz says: Yes.  I believe in Valdemar.  But now I'm cynical and analytical enough to realize how damn creepy the entire system is, so although I believe the storylines and characters and world, it's only because I'm taking them the way they're meant to be taken: at face value.

 

To explain, we have to go back to the whole Companions thing.  The Companions are the ones who Choose people, and the pair are then bound together in a deep bond of love and companionship (harhar) for the rest of their lives.  As is mentioned and exemplified more than once throughout the various series, Companions and Heralds don't really outlive each other because of the depth of their mental/magical bond.

Companions serve Valdemar and Valdemar alone, and therefore their Chosen are bound to serve and live in Valdemar for the rest of their lives--regardless of what their lives were like before.  Without spoilers, there is one character in one book who wasn't of Valdemar but ended up Chosen, and therefore had two choices: stay and become a Herald, or leave and also leave the Companion behind.  The character couldn't bear the second choice because omg! the bond! the unconditional love and mental link!  And anyway, the character felt that Valdemar needed him/her, so staying was really the right choice after all.

So--this is where the believability begins to fail me.  The Companions are essentially the creepiest-ass emotional manipulators/blackmailers in their entire world.  A person cannot (so far as is shown) refuse to be Chosen, though there is one instance in one of the Owl Mage books where a girl doesn't want to be Chosen because she's her village's only healer and thinks very hard at the approaching Companion that she does not want to be Chosen and the Companion appears to understand and Chooses someone else.  But this is the anomaly; the norm seems to be that Companions pop up and Choose whenever and wherever and whoever they damn well please.

In another instance, a character on the verge of suicide was Chosen.  The character wanted to die, but the Companion thwarted one attempt and roused help to prevent another.  I mean, I'm not saying that this character should have committed suicide or suggesting that the Companion is bad for stopping suicide, I'm just using this as an example of how the course of Heralds' lives are dictated by their Companions.

The Companions hold all the power, both to make and break their Heralds.  The Companions can also repudiate their Heralds and break their bond--something whispered about in Herald lore because it only ever happened once, after a Herald went mad and did something unforgiveable.  His Companion repudiated him and then promptly committed suicide, and the former Herald wasn't far behind.

So Companions Choose people to serve the country whether or not the person is willing, coerce them to stay through emotional manipulation (our bond! we love and understand each other!) and guilt-tripping disguised as an appeal to sense of duty and responsibility (the kingdom needs me!  these people need my help!), and if that person does something they deem unforgiveable, they essentially kill themselves and their Chosen.  (Mind you, the unforgiveable thing in the one instance of repudiation was pretty bad.  But still.)

Once Chosen, Heralds have no other choice of job.  Old Heralds can "retire" and teach Trainees and stuff, but now that I think about it there aren't really that many old Heralds mentioned in the series.  This would seem to indicate that being a Herald doesn't leave you with a long life expectancy.

Come on, I mean, look, the Companions even dictate who rules the freaking country!  The Regent, be it King or Queen, must be a Herald too, by law.  Not to mention the creepy fact that the sole exception to the Companions-don't-outlive-their-Heralds rule is the Companion Roland, who is always the Companion to the King's main advisor, the King's Own.  Also, Roland is a special snowflake because he's always male and always born out of the magical Grove that spawned the very first Companions ever during the Founding of Valdemar.

At face value, even the apparently unwilling/ambivalent Chosen are still so duty-bound and good that they don't mind being forced to become a Herald.  But the fact that any of them still have doubts is troubling.

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Ultimately--

Valdemar's first books started off a little shaky, especially considering the fact that the first trilogy features in large part a secret longstanding code Heralds use to communicate with each other by breaking certain bits out of the feathers fletching arrows, a code that is never mentioned or used again in subsequent books.

But it's probably a mark of good worldbuilding that the author ditched the arrow-code because it becomes obsolete in face of the fact that many Heralds can communicate mind-to-mind, not to mention the fact that the arrow-code itself seems kind of unreliable--for only one example, what if the arrows got banged around and a bit of fletching got knocked off?  That'd totally change the message.

The Companions and their Heralds remained though as the highlight and main factor in the world.  As the series goes on and becomes more detailed and complex, the relationship between Herald and Companion is explored, as well as between Heralds and non-Heralds.  Questions about the origins of the Companions and what they are arise and are eventually answered--and this falls into the realm of worldbuilding because finding out these things are not the focus--the focus is usually the characters and their personal journeys in relation to the plot.

Because the author had 25+ books to explore Valdemar and its concepts (and is still writing more), you can see the evolution of ideas and concepts as well as the abandonment  Although many of the books (especially the later ones) are lackluster and even the good ones have their issues, Valdemar's worldbuilding is both interesting and problematic due to its organic nature, developing as the books develop.

Is Valdemar unintentionally creepy?  Yes.  But it's still interesting.

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I recently saw one of the new Valdemar books at the library.  The fact that I've read bad things about it and know that I'm way more judgmental now stayed my hand from borrowing it, but I must admit that I am morbidly curious. 

Should I borrow the book anyway?  What do you think about organic/evolving worldbuilding VS doing all the worldbuilding beforehand and having it concrete?  Have you read any Valdemar books?



Worldbuilding Wednesday: Series Intro

Hey there, folks! Welcome to our semi-new Worldbuilding Wednesday series, where Krispy and Alz dig deep down into the why, the how, and the for the love of god DON'T DO THAT of worldbuilding.

Today is going to be a little intro post about our motivations for doing this, and some initial thoughts on worldbuilding.

As you may know, Alz has been (and still is) reading Stormdancer and hates it with a holy passion due to its disrespectful treatment, exoticizing, and general abuse of Japanese culture. Some measure of said passion is mentioned in passing in this post, which also includes links at the bottom to further discussion of problematic worldbuilding and cultural appropriation.

This has spurred us into frequent griping discussion about depicting non-traditional fantasy settings, i.e. not medieval Western-European settings, and especially how one goes about writing a story based in a foreign cultural setting--and before you get your hackles up, I (Alz) am using "foreign" here to mean "any culture with which the author is not native and/or intimately familiar."

We will also be discussing what "based upon" means, and how the term can lead to both innocent and deliberate cultural appropriation--by which we mean "acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture." (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

So! There's our intro. Now some basic thoughts on worldbuilding!

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Don't Be Lazy

If you're going to worldbuild, don't be lazy about it.



All right, so we were tempted to end it right there, which surely would win us points for succinctness, but doesn't explain how much lazy worldbuilding bothers us.

When creating a world--be it alternate universe/alternate history, paranormal, or pure fantasy--the world needs to work. The society has to make sense, its rules have to be plausible, its people act reasonably within the bounds of the world, and everything should either make sense or have an explanation for why it's different. This is the foundation of good worldbuilding and often the foundation of a good story.

Sometimes you can have too much of one and not enough of the other though. For example, we didn't like (Alz hated) Divergent's worldbuilding because we just couldn't fathom how our current U.S. society became the society of the book: divided into 5 factions based upon 5 virtues and so rigidly enforced that belonging to a particular faction dictates not only what you wear and how you think and act in public but how you do those things in private as well. Since there was no real backstory, history, or explanation as to how our society became theirs, we couldn't suspend our disbelief and enjoy the world.

On the other hand, Divergent is rich in character development and thematic exploration, and the daily world is gritty and full of realistic obstacles, which made up for the clumsy implausible setting. Which, by the way, we would have accepted without batting an eye if it had been a purely fantasy world instead of based in Chicago--linking the book world to the real world was what killed it for us.

For the opposite example, there's When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen [Alz read this], which has a gorgeous atmospheric world built from the ground up, haunted and full of seaside breezes and old magic and thick with politics and a thriving underworld. It also has a heroine who doesn't matter, a plot that's hardly there, and interchangeably indistinguishable characters.

For a good example of both, take Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. We wrote a joint review for the book in which we praise the worldbuilding as encompassing, engrossing, enriching, and other good things beginning with en-.


The three examples cited above are all Western-European based fantasies (When the Sea is Rising Red is more diverse/non-traditional than that label implies though) or based upon a post-apocalyptic future of Western civilization. We'll get into other cultures and worldbuilding problems in a future post.

Mind you, even when writing historical and contemporary fiction, worldbuilding is essential--instead of building a world from scratch, the onus is upon you to write a world that is realistic and rich in context. These are urban and historical fantasy examples (mostly because neither of us have picked up a straight contemporary in a while), but they illustrate what we mean well.

Source: Susan Dennard's SS&D Pinterest

For worldbuilding rich in context, Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty [Krispy read this] gives us all the trappings of Victorian England from the sights and sounds to the very real constraints placed upon women and girls of the time. A Great and Terrible Beauty is a fantasy, but that doesn't mean the heroine isn't subject to the mores of her historical time period. This was something we appreciated about Susan Dennard's heroine, Eleanor Fitt, too in Something Strange & Deadly, which was set in Victorian Philadelphia. Sure, she had zombies to worry about, but she also worried about her family's social standing and the limited avenues of her future.

A contemporary example of worldbuilding rich in context is Holly Black's Curseworkers books [Krispy read this]. The trilogy is set in the modern U.S., the only difference being the existence of Curseworkers - people who can change you (or even kill you) with a touch. But this one difference is threaded into the context of the U.S., so that it fits seamlessly into a world that is recognizably ours. The existence of Curseworkers affects aspects of history, politics, crime, law, and even fashion (e.g. everyone in this version of the States wears gloves).

For some pure contemporary worldbuilding thoughts, here's an excellent post on the importance of using Setting from Sarah Enni: How NOT to Incorporate Setting, Courtesy of Top Chef

So worldbuilding from the Real World is just as hard as writing straight fantasy. For the purposes of this and future posts though, the focus is going to be on writing fantasy. But that doesn't mean that 90% of this doesn't apply to every other genre of fiction-writing.

Q4U: What are some worldbuilding topics you'd like to see us discuss?


Our previous posts on worldbuilding:
World-Building Wednesday: Books with good worldbuilding!
World-building Wednesday: Krispy muses on the difficulties of worldbuilding in her own story
A Matter of World-building: Pondering when "based upon said culture" turns into "this is said culture."

Hmm, for consistency's sake, I'm going to pitch it to Krispy that we should just use worldbuilding as a singular word and concept instead of jamming a hyphen in there.

World-Building Wednesday

For those of you who have read any of our book reviews, you'll know that we love good world-building and can be kind of sticklers when we feel it's not up to par. But what makes world-building good? When is it inadequate? Where is the line between too much Real World influence and not enough realism?

These are all things we often discuss, and a few of you have expressed interest in these topics as well. So, we thought we'd write up a few posts discussing world-building. To kick things off, we'll give you a few quick examples of world-building we liked in recently (relatively speaking) read books.

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Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor possesses two richly-rendered worlds: cold misty stony Prague and a fantasy world rich with magic, angels, chimeras, and war.  The scenery is stunning, the prose lovely, and the magic systems striking without being vague or overly detailed.

Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott is a fine example of a fantasy world based on a Real World culture (in this case Japanese culture) without grounding the story in a particular time period or even necessarily making it set in Japan.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman features an exemplary clash of cultures: dragons versus humans.  The dragons in this book are cold mathematically-minded sentient creatures who--wait for it--do not feel human.  This may sound like an obvious facet of world-building a non-human race and culture, but far too often in fantasy books the dragons/gryphons/faeries/etc. think, act, and behave exactly like humans.  In other words, the non-humans are merely humans exoticized by having four legs, a tail, and fur or scales.  Kudos to Ms. Hartman for crafting an unusual and viscerally non-human race!

When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen - This is a book that Alz didn't like because it was (oddly enough) all world-building with very little plot.  But that world-building was spectacular--atmospheric, damp, moody, dark.  The city of Pelimburg felt real and solid, all wood and stone and mist by the sea, its social systems complex, its various cultures and races and creatures diverse and at odds with each other.  These people have their own distinct mythologies and histories, and their interactions are always laced with intrigue and undertones of deceit.  It's just too bad that there was no easily discernable story to go with this beautiful world.

Graceling & Fire by Kristin Cashore We really liked Fire because it made neon-colored animals like chartreuse hawks and pink kittens with fascination powers seem non-ridiculous.  As for Graceling, the exploration of how Graces are used and taken advantage of was pretty interesting, and it had fascinating political implications.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - The island of Thisby is atmospheric and grounded in a reality that is easily believed. It's the picture of a small, mostly rural community that subsists on the tourism brought in by their one magical draw- the vicious water horses. Everything about the island and its hardy people is brought so believably alive that it's easy to believe in the existence of flesh-eating horses that appear out of the sea. The water horses themselves are recognizably horse-like and yet frighteningly alien as well.

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Of course, there are other great examples of world-building, and we'll probably discuss those in later posts (as well as these again).


Q4U: Where else have you found examples of great world-building?

Choose Your Own Dystopia: Part 2

This Friday, we'd like to present to you the dystopia we chose.


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THE LAST MANATEE
A city named Heaven is Hell on Earth

In a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, the utopian city of Heaven is ruled by the benevolent council known as the Alza. Legends and myths are carefully documented and interpreted as metaphors for life and the rule of the Alza; to speak of them in an unauthorized manner is punishable by death, for everyone knows that unicorns, dragons, and manatees are symbolic imaginary creatures and not real beasts.

Until the day that Krispin, a naive young boy who believes in the millennia-old Alza, discovers a forbidden manatee. Intrigue and disaster ensue with the death of Krispin's parents and the disappearance of his best friend Sophael--and the arrival of an unusual young man named Julien who speaks of manatees as if they were his people.

Krispin's world becomes a nightmare of malevolent Alzans, mysterious manatees, and the increasingly attractive Julien. Krispin's latent magical powers burst into full pineapple-flavored bloom as he aids the Resistabellvolutionaissance--the R, for short--in their attempt to overthrow the Alza once and for all.

Even Krispin cannot imagine the destiny that awaits him, the passion and heartbreak that will arise from betrayals and hardships, and the loss of the one who is too precious for this world. Filled with rage and hunger, Krispin's story has only just begun.

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Moon Stock from wyldraven
Manatee from Wikipedia


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Q4U: Want to take a shot at building a dystopia OR do you want to guess how this story goes?

Happy Friday (and happy building)!

Choose Your Own Dystopia!

We've been reading a number of dystopians in YA lately, and thus talking a lot about what they do and don't have in common. While we may have a more serious discussion of dystopians with you in the future, we thought it'd be more fun to present you with our findings...in a sort-of quiz form.

It's not really a quiz though. It's more of a framework for helping you build your own dystopian!

Proceed to our Dystopian World-Builder:

1) You live in a dark dangerous ______ world.

a. post-apocalyptic far future
b. post-apocalyptic near future
c. post-apocalyptic fantasy

d. post-apocalyptic fantasy far future

e. post-apocalyptic fantasy near future

2) It's a terrible place ruled by a ______ government.

a. utopian
b. militaristic
c. tyrannical
d. religious
e. all of the above

3) ______ is forbidden!

a. love

b. mutation

c. technology

d. the manatee

e. free thought

4) You are a naive young ______--

a. girl

b. girl
c. girl
d. boy
e. girl


5) --who believes in ______--

a. the obviously evil government
b. truth, beauty, freedom and love
c. destiny
d. Star Trek
e. the inferiority of "other" people

6) --until ______ changes your mind about everything.

a. the death of your parent(s)
b. the disappearance of your annoyingly boy-crazy bff
c. the appearance of a mysterious hot young man
d. the appearance of two mysterious hot young men
e. all of the above (which means three mysterious hot young men)

7) After the aforementioned life-changing event, you discover that you have ______ powers!

a. mutant

b. magical

c. divine

d. genetically engineered

e. pineapple-flavored 

8) With these newly discovered abilities, you will help ______ overthrow the government.

a. the Resistance
b. the Rebellion
c. the Revolution
d. the Reconaissance
e. the Resistabellvolutionaissance


9) Tragically, your ______ dies in the process--

a. tofu love interest
b. bff
c. mentor-figure
d. sibling
e. forbidden manatee

10) --in what is surely the most ______ of all.

a. noble sacrifice
b. senseless death
c. deserving death
d. consummate metaphor for this dystopian world
e. badass scene

11) After all, s/he was ______.

a. too precious for this world
b. a traitor
c. annoying
d. too badass to continue living without threatening to overshadow you/the protagonist.
e. all of the above

12) You are filled with _______.

a. rage
b. hope
c. regret
d. determination
e. hunger

And now your story truly begins...


We hope this worldbuilder has helped you create a truly terrifying future for your imaginary victims friends. Tell us what your future dystopia is like in the comments!

On Friday, we will share our bleak vision of the future with you. Until then, do tell us, did we forget any pertinent dystopian concepts/events/tropes?