[Meta #2] Verisimilitude and Worldbuilding
AWW YEAH! Alright, boys and girls, hot on the heels of Meta #1 is Meta #2--and fashionably late to boot! By December I'll have it all done, BAM!
Today I was just musing on the idea of verisimilitude (or specifically, seeming authentic while not neccessarily being so) in writing--specifically in writing a medieval setting like FE, because that's what I know most about, but any period piece in general. How authentic does a story (especially a fan-work) have to be to its setting and the level of technology for their readers to properly suspend their disbelief? I'm guessing the answer to that would be more opinion than anything else, so I'm basically going to opine from here on in. :P
I still personally stick to the idea that for fantasy set in a specific time frame and place as well as for fanworks, just having everything seem like it's in place is the most important thing, even if it would contradict the "real world" (in historical fiction, of course, you'd place a higher emphasis on factual authenticity to the period in question.) So, "verisimilitude" is definitely what I adhere to when worldbuilding. For example, most people have no qualms with the existence of rapiers, even though rapiers weren’t invented until a couple centuries after most of the FEs (IMO) appear to be set. On the other hand, I’m sure many readers would consider hand cannons and firearms anachronistic, though arquebuses (as grossly ineffective as they often were) were indeed used in the 15th century to my recollection. So at a certain point, it comes down to "what can I get away with putting in the story without seeming out of place." XD And so sometimes verisimilitude works counter to historical accuracy, when writing to an audience including laypersons not familiar with the exacts of period technology.
Televisions shall be not counted, and modern-style hand grenades, holy or otherwise, are right out, obviously (aside from AUs.) But in a series that doesn't seem to put too much stock in adhering to a 50-100 year historical setting, I think it's fair to be roughly consistent just with what we see portrayed in game.
I think if I were to write the existence of some technology not apparently used in FE (like cannon, firearms, etc.) into one of my stories as a plot point, I would have it explicitly be explained as some sort of "forgotten technology"either recovered by the characters from the people of an earlier time or acquired from overseas (similarly to how gunpowder was made by Chinese chemists and eventually brought to the Middle East and Europe many years later. In this way, it both fits the rough real-world timeframe, but also doesn't contradict its non-existence in the FE world.
At any rate, that is my two cents on the matter. What do you guys all think?
Tomorrow Sometime soon, I'll put up the sequel to these thoughts, about how I think using real world analogies in worldbuilding a country is helpful and adds depth, but isn't the be-all and end-all to adding culture to a fantasy world.
Today I was just musing on the idea of verisimilitude (or specifically, seeming authentic while not neccessarily being so) in writing--specifically in writing a medieval setting like FE, because that's what I know most about, but any period piece in general. How authentic does a story (especially a fan-work) have to be to its setting and the level of technology for their readers to properly suspend their disbelief? I'm guessing the answer to that would be more opinion than anything else, so I'm basically going to opine from here on in. :P
I still personally stick to the idea that for fantasy set in a specific time frame and place as well as for fanworks, just having everything seem like it's in place is the most important thing, even if it would contradict the "real world" (in historical fiction, of course, you'd place a higher emphasis on factual authenticity to the period in question.) So, "verisimilitude" is definitely what I adhere to when worldbuilding. For example, most people have no qualms with the existence of rapiers, even though rapiers weren’t invented until a couple centuries after most of the FEs (IMO) appear to be set. On the other hand, I’m sure many readers would consider hand cannons and firearms anachronistic, though arquebuses (as grossly ineffective as they often were) were indeed used in the 15th century to my recollection. So at a certain point, it comes down to "what can I get away with putting in the story without seeming out of place." XD And so sometimes verisimilitude works counter to historical accuracy, when writing to an audience including laypersons not familiar with the exacts of period technology.
Televisions shall be not counted, and modern-style hand grenades, holy or otherwise, are right out, obviously (aside from AUs.) But in a series that doesn't seem to put too much stock in adhering to a 50-100 year historical setting, I think it's fair to be roughly consistent just with what we see portrayed in game.
I think if I were to write the existence of some technology not apparently used in FE (like cannon, firearms, etc.) into one of my stories as a plot point, I would have it explicitly be explained as some sort of "forgotten technology"either recovered by the characters from the people of an earlier time or acquired from overseas (similarly to how gunpowder was made by Chinese chemists and eventually brought to the Middle East and Europe many years later. In this way, it both fits the rough real-world timeframe, but also doesn't contradict its non-existence in the FE world.
At any rate, that is my two cents on the matter. What do you guys all think?
Tomorrow Sometime soon, I'll put up the sequel to these thoughts, about how I think using real world analogies in worldbuilding a country is helpful and adds depth, but isn't the be-all and end-all to adding culture to a fantasy world.