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The Tradition Meme | Open!
Feb. 18th, 2016 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tricia868In the 500 Kingdoms, there's a power to fairy tales. Those who know about it call this power the Tradition.
The Tradition is latent magical energy that builds up around people and places when they seem to fit into the trappings of a familiar story. Its goal is to shove them down that same path, willing or not.
Now, some people fall in line with the Tradition willingly, and they really do wind up with happy endings. The thing is... not all fairy tales end happily. Just as many of them are much darker, and it's awfully hard to prevent tragedy unless you're lucky enough to find a particularly clever fairy godmother.
Or maybe the specific story isn't the problem. Sometimes the circumstances just don't fit. The Tradition wants any girl with ugly stepsisters and a cruel stepmother to marry a prince, but what if her prince is a toddler, or an old man, or cruel, or he'd rather marry another prince? It's a situation that happens over and over. What if the dragon would much rather peacefully hoard baubles or books than ravage the countryside? (Bookwyrms aren't the most common sort, but they do exist!) What if the sleeping beauty absolutely does not want to be manipulated into falling in love with whichever man wakes her with a kiss?
All that magical energy has to go somewhere. The Tradition will keep trying to push you wherever it wants until either you find a way around it or the magic is repeatedly siphoned away. A Fairy Godmother can do the latter, but then, so can an evil Sorcerer or Sorceress. No one wants to fall into the hands of one of those, and many of them are quick to seize any source of Traditional magic.
Wits are at least as important as power when it comes to changing your path, because the Tradition is strong, implacable, and incredibly difficult to escape. Finding alternate, more appealing, Traditional paths is an option. Changing your circumstances enough that you deviate from any Traditional course works too, if you can manage it. Confusing the Tradition by making yourself seem to fit any number of stories can sometimes help.
There is one other way, but it's more frequently a long-term strategy than useful in a pinch. Since stories and songs have such power, new Traditional paths can be slowly forged by creating works of fiction or music that lay out a new path. To really create a firm new course for the Tradition, though, a song would have to be popular. It has to be on the lips of people throughout the land. When it becomes widespread, the Tradition accepts it.
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Figure out what stories your character might fit into, and what ways these fairy tales might be turned on their heads or throw obstacles into people's paths. Note that the Tradition can draw from a broad range of mythologies and legends. Place your character in a fairy tale world, or think about how this power might manifest in theirs. You can choose to have your character aware of the Tradition, or they might not have any idea what's driving them onward.
Good luck to them, if they try to break with Tradition!
(Concept taken from Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series.)
The Tradition is latent magical energy that builds up around people and places when they seem to fit into the trappings of a familiar story. Its goal is to shove them down that same path, willing or not.
Now, some people fall in line with the Tradition willingly, and they really do wind up with happy endings. The thing is... not all fairy tales end happily. Just as many of them are much darker, and it's awfully hard to prevent tragedy unless you're lucky enough to find a particularly clever fairy godmother.
Or maybe the specific story isn't the problem. Sometimes the circumstances just don't fit. The Tradition wants any girl with ugly stepsisters and a cruel stepmother to marry a prince, but what if her prince is a toddler, or an old man, or cruel, or he'd rather marry another prince? It's a situation that happens over and over. What if the dragon would much rather peacefully hoard baubles or books than ravage the countryside? (Bookwyrms aren't the most common sort, but they do exist!) What if the sleeping beauty absolutely does not want to be manipulated into falling in love with whichever man wakes her with a kiss?
All that magical energy has to go somewhere. The Tradition will keep trying to push you wherever it wants until either you find a way around it or the magic is repeatedly siphoned away. A Fairy Godmother can do the latter, but then, so can an evil Sorcerer or Sorceress. No one wants to fall into the hands of one of those, and many of them are quick to seize any source of Traditional magic.
Wits are at least as important as power when it comes to changing your path, because the Tradition is strong, implacable, and incredibly difficult to escape. Finding alternate, more appealing, Traditional paths is an option. Changing your circumstances enough that you deviate from any Traditional course works too, if you can manage it. Confusing the Tradition by making yourself seem to fit any number of stories can sometimes help.
There is one other way, but it's more frequently a long-term strategy than useful in a pinch. Since stories and songs have such power, new Traditional paths can be slowly forged by creating works of fiction or music that lay out a new path. To really create a firm new course for the Tradition, though, a song would have to be popular. It has to be on the lips of people throughout the land. When it becomes widespread, the Tradition accepts it.
-----
Figure out what stories your character might fit into, and what ways these fairy tales might be turned on their heads or throw obstacles into people's paths. Note that the Tradition can draw from a broad range of mythologies and legends. Place your character in a fairy tale world, or think about how this power might manifest in theirs. You can choose to have your character aware of the Tradition, or they might not have any idea what's driving them onward.
Good luck to them, if they try to break with Tradition!
(Concept taken from Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series.)
