Ineptshieldmaid, I'm kinda aiming this at you...

[xxlucyferxx]

Or anyone else who just happens to be a history buff. Although I don't think I have any others on my flist.

I really need some vampire mythology that Dr. Cornelius could feasibly have unearthed at some point during one of his magical escapades. I'm working on this section in Sanguinis Vinculum where he's been going through some ancient books he has about vampires, incubi/succubi, etc. I won't explain the whole scene here, but I really want to be able to quote a relevant passage or two from these books.

Problem: my knowledge of vampire mythology is fantastic when it comes to the 19th century, but that's far too modern for a Narnian setting. I need something that sounds as if it could have been written in a medieval book of the occult, or something along those lines. I tried to write my own passage, but I really don't know enough medieval literature to pull off that sort of thing. So basically, if you can give me a positive answer to one of the following three questions, I will love you forever:

a) Do you have access to any suitably ancient writings about the vampire, which I could use as a reference point and/or quote in my writing?

OR

b) Do you have any skill at all in writing in a way that might sound appropriate to the sort of literature PC-era Narnians/Telmarines might have had access to, and would you be at all willing to sacrifice a bit of time to help me construct something that won't sound completely embarrassing?

OR

c) Do you know a person who COULD help me with either of the above, and could you direct me to them?

Comments

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

It's EPIC all right. Epic and hideous :P Although Northanger Abbey becomes absolutely fabulous once you've read Otranto (or, possibly, Udolpho, which I think is the more pertinent object of the satire).

Even sensible people read racy gothic novels sometimes. The most Sensible teacher I ever had- who spent years trying to wean me off fantasy- read two dollar gothics obsessively.

Hum, well, the only other advice I can add is- don't feed Dr Cornelius all the answers at once! Make his source(s) vague, or misled, in places, even if they're right about the really important facts. It's no fun researching anything if all the answers are there in front of you.

Another way to get out of writing the actual source is have it in another language, so that your story is actually Dr Cornelius summarising for Caspian.

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

A good portion of his sources are in another language - only Caspian speaks it as well. He'd still have to summarise for the Pevensies, though, so it makes little difference.

I think all the research I've had him do so far has been too straightforward and clear. I'm going to have to do some editing to make it a more difficult path for them all.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes. Fish out bits of vampire mythology which DON'T apply to your vampire, and throw them in. Maybe mix in some Banshees?

Also, put some thought into who the authors of the sources are and what they're trying to say. Chances are, they're not trying to help Caspian X with his vampire problem...

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

The whole two-different-threads-of-conversation thing is getting really confusing, so I'm replying to both your comments here. :P

You're right. Dammit, you're going to infect me with your backstory syndrome...I really need to figure out who these authors are. Most of them are the 'batshit crazy' types I think, but once I write in this report it'll be a lot of scepticism.

Oh dear! If I'm the sort who doesn't put enough thought into the finer details of stories, then you're the sort who puts far too much. You'll get yourself in a right pickle here, if you're not careful. :P Social understanding of sexuality is a really tricky one...most people I read seem to let themselves off the hook with 'ok, Narnians were completely hedonistic and Telmarines were completely prudish'. But that drives me up the wall...SURELY it was a bit more complicated than that.

If you find yourself getting too preoccupied with the events of PC, it might be better to write them as a sort of prequel-cycle rather than trying to tie them in as memories to VODT.

Pirates I can follow (Pug's close enough) but a Telmarine empire? That's got me curious. And how would Narnia avoid getting flattened by Calormen in a war? Unless said empire comes into play, they're much too small to take on Calormen.

Haha, I suppose that's what you get when you get when you have two emotionally illiterate Kings in the same bed together. They really aren't good at the whole 'relationship' part, are they?

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Social understanding of sexuality is a really tricky one...most people I read seem to let themselves off the hook with 'ok, Narnians were completely hedonistic and Telmarines were completely prudish'.

Which is nonsense. Of course. It all started with me thinking 'oh dear have I fallen pray to the Everyone Is Gay (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EveryoneIsGay) effect? ARE my characters gay? Edmund I can't tell, since he effectively opted out of puberty the first time around. Peter I've nailed down as functionally bi with a statistical preference for men, which was fine in the Golden Age (hey, fauns and satyrs don't care who you boink as long as you rule well. Animals don't care as long as you can reproduce. Which might be a problem as the kids get older and don't marry... hmmm...), but really really messes him around when he gets back to England.

Caspian, meanwhile, is incapable of forming meaningful relationships with women. Not too great at it with men, either. This might make him gay, or a moron. Except, after long reflection, Telmarines understand sexuality in terms of top/bottom, not gay/straight. This makes Caspian's hangup about teh buttsexs sooo much more interesting...

Mm, Telmarine empire. Which explains what some Telmarines are doing in Narnia in the first place- expansionism. Except it wasn't a very STRONG empire, and Telmar itself got overrun by Calormen due to overstretching itself with the conquering thing. So Caspian, by a strange stroke of luck, is possibly the last surviving scion of the Telmarine royal line.

Haven't yet decided why Telmarine Narnia didn't get flattened by Calormen. Possibly they were unwittingly protected by the legacy of That Rabbadash Incident? Also they have very closely tied themselves with Archenland.

Pirates come in because Drinian is a Telmar-Calormene pirate, I have decided, who heard that Narnia had, with the aid of Galma (I think?) launched a baby navy and was wobbling around learning to sail. Drinian took his pirate ship down there to prey on the baby navy and got the shit kicked out of him by griffins. Accordingly he swore loyalty to Caspian. (H/T to Bedlam who used similar plot devices in her Golden Age fics.)

This, happily, means that Caspian isn't setting off to the end of the world in a boat captained by a man who had until a few years ago been afraid of the sea.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Peter I've nailed down as functionally bi with a statistical preference for men

gah. I mean preference for womn. It's ME who has the statistical preference for men. Must not confuse self with character.

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

This might make him gay, or a moron.

I have a rather more eye-rolling angsty explanation for his behaviour. My Caspian didn't cope too well with his upbringing - he didn't have any parental figure (except for Cornelius, but that didn't really substitute) and Miraz was distant and occasionally quite abusive. That was all fairly normal, run-of-the-mill stuff in Telmarine Narnia, but for whatever reason it messed with Caspian's head a bit. As an adult he's needy and a bit emotionally immature, and that clashes with his sense of duty and his need to feel in control of situations. And because he's about as introspective as a lump of granite, he has no idea about any of this.

Oh, so is that what you needed 'catamite' for? That could get very interesting...poor dear Caspian. He's such an ass.

Hmm, the Telmar thing makes sense, actually. Expansion is a far better reason than just 'ooh, we don't like Telmar, let's go find some other place'. Archenland would be virtually useless as an ally against Calormen...if I remember correctly, they're smaller than Narnia. Anyway, both countries together are dwarfed in comparison to the Calormen empire. They'd have to out-maneuver them politically...or yes, the Rabadash legacy could be very helpful to them.

For myself, I always imagined Drinian coming from Galma, or some other island whose inhabitants didn't fall prey to Telmarine superstition about the sea. I like your pirate idea, though. That would make an intriguing story...I see why it'd give you trouble though. It's an awful lot of backstory to fit into your cycle.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's shades of that- although I'm not touching the Abusive Miraz thing, it's a) unpleasant and b) done too often for my liking. Basically, poor ole Caspian doesn't know how to have friends. I'm not sure he even knows how to have fun.

Yep, that's what I needed Catamite for. Cornelius gets to give Caspian a pointed lecture about not puppy-dogging at Peter's heels, because the Telmarine lords will not be pleased if their king is this Narnian upstart's catamite. And then Susan is going to forcibly dance Caspian around the ballroom and threaten to string him up by his heels and castrate him if he doesn't leave Peter alone. And then they all leave and Caspian's back to square one.

Caspian *is* such an ass. Also a bit of an arse. And he likes BEING the arse. It's all rather complicated.

I'm thinking the Narnian Telmarines may actually have conquered Archenland. Which is important, because they control the mountain pass. And also there are priceless silver deposits in the Archen mountains, which Telmarine Narnia needs to support its economy in the absence of sea trade. See also mountain passes and desert routes.

Oh, and they DIDN'T find Narnia bereft of humans. That's received mythology Dr Cornelius picked up from his dwarfish roots. There were humans in Narnia when the Telmarines arrived- and naturally they were absorbed into the Telmarine population. Or the Telmarines were absorbed into the Narnian population, depending on how you look at it. Working example here is the Norman Conquest of England. So Caspian speaks something which can best be termed Telmonarnian. For convenience, we will inhibit language development in order that Telmonarnian be intelligible to speakers of Old Narnian, which is not actually the language spoken in the Golden Age, but the language spoken by 'Old Narnians'. The language of the Golden Age, which Dr Cornelius has termed Old High Narnian, is not quite intelligible to speakers of Old Narnian but is relatively easy to learn. Caspian must've learnt it, since he read Susan's treaty. This is actually quite a clever political move, as far as establishing himself in Narnian good books goes.
DRINIAN, on the other hand, speaks CalormoTelmarine as his mother tongue.

The Pevensies understand all this because of Magic. Also Old Narnian is intelligible to speakers of Old High Narnian but not the other way around. Anyway, it is Aslan's Will that the Pevensies speak any language necessary for them.

Oh, and the Lone Islands speaks something close to Telmonarnian. Let's call it Narnimarine. It's the common tongue of the island nations, not exactly parrallel to Telmonarnian, because Telmarine Narnia has been isolated due to hydrophobia. But mutually intelligible.

YEAH I PUT WAY TOO MUCH THOUGHT INTO THESE THINGS.

In other news, I have written a title on my paper for monday. That's all. Time to panic now.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

actually, on reflection, all this language business is unsustainable wank. Bugger. We shall keep the cultural development, and ignore language. If C.S. Lewis did, so can I.

Did you know your LJ eats the edge of the comment box

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

I feel dreadfully sorry for poor Caspian. XD

Wow...well, I personally find the language issue absolutely fascinating, but it's nearly impossible to sustain without doing a Tolkien and writing whole books about the grammar of invented languages that only obsessive hardcore scholar-fans are going to read. And in fanfic, it doesn't work. I keep wanting to fit some form of French into my stories, because it's the only other language I speak with any degree of competency, but sadly I can't make it fit into the Narnian universe in any way, shape or form. I spent hours looking up all the different islands and far-flung corners. It doesn't work.

Really? Are you sure? Crap...well, I am NOT fixing the goddamn layout again. CCS coding is HARD. Does it always do that, or is it just because this thread is getting so long?

Eep! That's what you get for filling your brian with Narnian politics and teh buttsecks. Good luck getting it finished... :/

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I think it's just because this thread is getting too long. It started doing it at about the third comment, though.

You can code? *envies*

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

Well, not really...I kind of just make it up. Like, I know how to make it work once I've got a template, but I couldn't write my own code to save my life. XD

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

still a pretty handy skill, that :)

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

True. But it's so masochistic. It makes my head explode. :P

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

pssht, who needs a head anyway?

[xxlucyferxx.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly. Nice to see SOMEONE has a bit of common sense.

PS. This conversation has now completely disappeared. XD

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

WHEEE MAGIC VANISHING CONVERSATION!