A Ball of Arcane Energy

It’s Not Easy Being Green – a 100 word story

“We don’t like your kind here” said the elf to the orc. “Your kind?” asked the orc, bewildered. “Green skinned, orcs” the elf retorted. “I’m not an orc” said the orc. “What are you then” asked the elf, scratching his head. The orc answered “Isn’t it obvious? I’m an elf.” The bar exploded in laughter. A ball of arcane energy appeared at the orc’s hand. A few minutes later, everyone at the bar was either scorched or electrified. “My name is Viridi, I’m an elf and a mage, and no one laughs at me” the orc said as he left.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 6, A Ball of Arcane Energy

Fiction is often held together by what is commonly known as world lore. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at the lore of fictional worlds and what it is made of. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so – you’ve been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about lore. The word lore might be a derivative of the word folklore, but it is far removed from it. If you want to immerse yourself in a fictional world, it has to be a believable one and there has to be some amount of suspension of disbelief. That’s where the lore of the story comes into play. It’s there to help your suspension of disbelief by making fictional worlds more believable. Lore gives you a background for the story and can include everything that surrounds the story, giving it a unique setting like stage decor. Lore is most common in the fictional worlds of fantasy and science fiction, though not exclusive to them. It would include the history of the fictional world, it’s mythology and even the geography of that world. It would include everything that would make it a living, breathing world. If it’s a fantasy world, the lore of that story might include things like the science of magic, how magic scientifically operates in that world. I have an experiment running in the other room. I’m trying to discover how magic works in our world. Let me check out how it’s going. I’ll be right back.

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Golbins – a 100 word story

“The Golbins are coming.” I looked at the man with the unwashed hair and seven day beard and was sorry I sat next to him at the bar. I had to correct his mistake though. “Don’t you mean Goblins” I retorted. “No, those are completely different creatures. Goblins are little and green and they are only after your money. Golbins are furry and cute looking until they go for your throat.” I gave up and went home. Later that night, when I went to bed a little furry creature attacked me and gave me a good bite at the neck.

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Welcome back. Apparently we live in the real world and magic doesn’t really work here. If we were living in a fictional world though, part of making that world believable might be an account of how magic scientifically works at that world. That would be only a part of the lore of that world. There might be, for example, a political counterpart of the lore. That’s where factions in video games come from.

Some games and stories, such as the worlds of Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, have such developed lore that they have entire encyclopedia volumes devoted to that lore. Such volumes can include things like maps of the fictional world, information about it’s politics and the races evolving there and even things like studies of the languages spoken on those fictional worlds, including professional looking essays on linguistics. In fact, you could put anything that makes up that world into that encyclopedia, and if it’s a well constructed fictional world you would probably need several volumes to cover just a small portion of that world. In fact, you can put so much lore into a fictional world, even the people living in that world would start believing it’s real. If our lore is rich enough, even we might start believing our world is real. This concludes episode 6 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget – I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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