Comments | little_details: Concerning assassins, beastiaries, and random facts.

gunningforcupid in little_details

Concerning assassins, beastiaries, and random facts.

Jun 12, 2005 22:35

I've done a lot of weird research for a modern-day supernatural set novel that I've been working on for a while, but there's one thing that's still bothering me, and two that I need help with.

ONE. [Assassins ( Read more... )

~vampires witches and werewolves oh my, ~assassins & hitmen

Comments 44

sarraceniaceae June 13 2005, 03:34:34 UTC

For one, I would think that in this day and age, she would use email. Actually, your post reminded me of a secure email service Hushmail, which lets people register for an email address without providing any information. (The name is randomly generated if you choose to do so, though.) My guess is she'd use this service or something like it. Or possibly find an email provider located in Siberia and use that.

For two, what type of beastiary are you looking for? Fantasy creatures or real creatures? I wasn't quite sure.

For three, your best bet for random facts is to go for non-Western critters. Like, kappas are a Japanese water sprite with a depression on their head filled with water that serves as their source of power. In order to defeat them, you bow. Since kappas are polite, they bow back and spill the water from their head.

gunningforcupid June 13 2005, 03:47:37 UTC

Fantasy/supernatural creatures. :) The weird stuff. And kappas I've already heard of - I'm looking for even more weird stuff like, saying, the Grinning Deer. Stuff almost no one's heard of, though I guess I can't complain .. I've done too much research in this vein already. *laugh*

Thank you for the hushmail suggestion. A randomly generated address saves me having to worry what the hell she'd chose, anyway. *G*

mmebahorel June 13 2005, 04:00:45 UTC

That's not even the fun part about kappas. If you're not careful when you're swimming, they'll stick their fingers up your ass. The next part depends on who is telling the story: either "now he gay from kappa" or "they pull out the ass jewels". (no, I don't know what ass jewels are. It's some weird Japanese thing.)

akilika June 13 2005, 03:37:07 UTC

I've heard that vampire's first two fingers (middle and index) are the same length . . . hearsay from my father, though, so take that or leave it as you will. :)

gunningforcupid June 13 2005, 03:48:44 UTC

xD Perfect. Thank you. I don't need truths or not - she'd know the lore, period, down to the rumors .. I have my own versions of vampires, but she'd know the things that people whispered as well as what will be true for certain creatures in this setting.

full4zaccordion June 13 2005, 03:52:58 UTC

Vampires are obsessive-compulsive, so they say to carry a bag of seeds with you. If you run into a vampire, throw the seeds on the ground, because he/she will have to stop and count them.

tabbyclaw June 13 2005, 03:58:49 UTC

Along the same lines, they can't see a knotted rope without untying it.

backfromspace June 13 2005, 06:47:22 UTC

They also can't cross barriers lined with sand, for the same reason.

phinnia June 13 2005, 03:54:50 UTC

The best bestiaries I've ever seen are The Encyclopaedia of Things That Never Were (I got my copy for about $20 - it's not huge, but it's good quality and surprisingly thorough) and the D&D monster manual.

gunningforcupid June 14 2005, 04:45:34 UTC

:3 Thanks for the note on that first one - $20 doesn't sound like too bad a price! I'll look into it.

D&D books I wouldn't want to use because this is a story I intend to publish, and I'd be afraid to touch anything with the possibility of being copyrighted. ;) Nice thought, though.

xtricks June 13 2005, 04:05:10 UTC

The best way to look for bestiaries is to look for folklore of a particular ethinc group... the other way is to look in gaming manuals.

D&D monster manual has a lot of creatures that are, in fact, actual folk monsters. You have to use common sense and sometimes additional research to make sure they would exist in a 'real' world but that's a good place to find lots of beasties in the same book.

Other fantasy/supernatural monster manuals from other games would also be a good bet.

gunningforcupid June 14 2005, 04:47:54 UTC

As noted above, I'd be afraid of gaming manuals because of copyright, and I think it'd take more research than I've already done to figure out which monsters have a basis in real folklore - and even then I don't want anything that sounds too similar to popular culture (if tabletop can be considered popular - xD I know, but it's popular with more people than, say, cryptids or grinning deers).