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How do you write your in-universe holidays?
A question for the real worldbuilders out there, those who aren't content with just fictional characters in our world, but need an all new world with all new history to really grow a narrative.
As we come closer to Christmas, I got to thinking, what is it that fellow writers like to make up when it comes to traditions and holidays? Do you guys have holidays created for your worlds, or would that maybe not fit? I mean, an Easter-esque custom might be a bit odd in an apocalyptic story. Have you thought about it, or is it just sawning on you now that your worlds have no version of Halloween?
Tell me about it!
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Wow, Fye... We got nearly to Christmas before you "got to thinking?" I'd say you've messed a lot of chances to think sooner. ðĪŠ
This is an interesting question. I don't know that I've written anything to specifically be a holliday celebration, but I have done several rituals, such as a right/rite of passage.
I'm presently working on a story where young magicians have to undergo a specific "leap of faith," where they have to manifest and focus their energy in a specific way to save themselves from the fall. While not everyone survives, it's necessary for the mage to prove their control before coming into the full scope of their power.
I have another story that is presently set aside due to needing structural and narrative-drive adjustments. But it shows 3 different cultures, and their rites threaten the children's lives. It's only purpose is to qualify them for adulthood, and each generation continues simply because "This is what we've always done." Two involve sending the children out; one surviving in a savanna environment while the other is meant to depart a remote mountain village and bring something back, which is the only time they're allowed to leave the village. If the child doesn't return to the savannah, the locals accept that they perished while the mountain folk take it as the child rejecting their way of life.
Lastly, there is one scene that I have planned for a later book in my Grim Legacy series. It involves Mioko meeting the dwarves during a time of celebration. She's only there in search of her late father's past, but comes to find that her father is exactly what they're celebrating. He managed to relieve them of a racial trait akin to a vampire turning to ash in sunlight. The difference with the dwarves is that they would turn to stone. So they celebrate his birthday due to his unique rune-magic discovery, enabling them to travel openly under the sun. It's a celebration centered on festive dancing ð
That's all that I presently recall!
These are cool ideas and I
intend to stealam inspired by them. I really like how two groups interpret the same results in opposite ways.Do these events have names? Maybe the rune-discoverer birthday could be a Not Rock Festival.
Steal away! I'm all too happy to inspire or influence the work of another. I'm not threatened by the idea of another writer using my ideas. After all, it's not like they'll portray it the same way I would. You'll focus on different details and utilize a different style, likely even improving on it in some way.
In truth, they're not wholly mine. I took inspiration from elsewhere. With the savannah, I was researching things related to Australia. For the mountain, I looked to Tibet.
...which reminds me of another detail about the mountain people. Those that ventured out planted a brightly colored streamer before returning. This detail was inspired by the colorful flags strung throughout the Himalayas. My culture planted them so that travelers could make their way during blizzards.
Researching something you get curious about will probably provide a wealth of ideas!
As for the birthday, while I haven't built the specific things around that event, the character's name is Branrrafn (fire raven). It couldn't be named something as straightforward as "Brandrrafn's Birthday," though. They actually couldn't use his name openly because he's technically an enemy of Odin in my world. So whatever they call it would be something only "club members" would know the true meaning of ð
Hey heli! Indeed, I should think more often, but then again, not thinking has kept me alive this long, so who needs it!
I find it intriguing that so many of your traditions are based on death, coming of age and proving oneself. Like the Spartans used to do in Ancient Greece. I can already imagine what issues that might lead to. A child coming back years later as an adult, bringing back newfound knowledge and potential freedom.
And I love the little wholesome celebration you have there at the end. I do wonder what Mioko would make of it all, would she be immensely proud and happy, or a little frustrated if her father left her and her mother in order to do things like this.
Thank you, as always, for sharing, heli!
Intriguing, but not surprising. While not deliberate, it's basically a view of this author's self. Constantly appraising and reevaluating one's beliefs is essentially a repeated death and rebirth.
Those cultures are relayed through an epistolary tale, a journal where a set of parents recount the cultural breaking point of their old villages--the mother from the mountains, the father from the savannah. Both cultures failed as parents began to rebel against sending out the new generations, both fracturing between those for and against the tradition.
As for Mioko, she's highly defensive when it comes to someone referring to her father in a negative light. After all, he's the only reason she's alive. So when she discovers the reason behind their celebration, she is elated.
Her father was a refuge from the Aesir-Vanir war. She was adopted during his new life. But after he passes, she discovers his Aesir origins, and as his heir, she's searching for his past so that she can properly honor his legacy ð
He was also over 800 years old, so there's lots for her to learn in her search ð
Happy to contribute! Thanks for the great questions!
Ah, nothing like trying to retrace the steps of a near immortal being, haha. I wish Mioko luck! And also secretly hope she encounters some of her father's less savoury deeds, perhaps when he was younger or mistaken. Really challenge that view of hers.
As for the bit about death and coming of age, I do hope you explore the ideas of rebellion in your story too, that would be incredibly interesting and a fresh well of fascinating narrative.
Good words and contributions!
Can they say not or decline being a full mage? Like just go "no I do this for fun don't make me do that" or live with the shame of having decline full Magedom, or is it just forced on everyone. I guess also question 2 is 'is it a set timeframe or do they have to go through a test whenever they can like a driver's license'.
Hey, Jay! Great question. In truth, I didn't develop that part of the story. This is a short story, and it focuses on a different aspect of this kingdom's way of life. While this rite interacts with the plot in an important way, expanding its in-story details would disrupt the pace.
That being said, based on the kingdom's other cultural details, I don't forsee them implementing any sort of adverse punishment or forced ascension. There would likely be a soft-class system where it wouldn't be necessary for commomers, artisans, merchants, and the like.
However, this kingdom is a cohabitation; they live alongside dragons. More than likely, the rite would be required in order to bond a dragon or to assume any sort of higher role where greater magical control might be necessary. And the undertaking would likely only be permissible when the individual demonstrated some measure of competency so that survival was a reasonable expectation.
Thanks again for the great questions!
So since you said you like it when people steal, I made a new magic-based species for my Sci-Fi/Fantasy DnD thing and their military uses this to gatekeep inferior magic casters from diluting their ranks. So thanks
Me who workdbuilds in a multiverse:
Anyways, it depends on the world. I find that birthdays/founding days tend to be the most common for me to say exist, however, I also work on relative time.Â
Now that I think of it, historical events/traditions also make good holiday options (I think that means that by one definition, the Union Order selecting random students from the Multiversity to be Judges the week before finals counts as a holiday by some definition.) Anyways, that means some worlds have real holidays, some don't.Â
For example, Simon Galen's cities like making, changing, and erasing municipal holidays on a regular basis.
The light mage cults of The World of Shadow and Blood tend to make holidays based on historical events (like they have a fasting day to memorialize the number of them that got captured in the Shadow Forest), while Sananko celebrates a number of old holidays that everyone outside of the Shadow Forest don't know exist.
On the points of holidays, the Union Order is usually very accommodating about working schedules (off time/vacations) regarding them (especially for former refugees) Since they are not just confined to a single world, they have to deal with an extreme number of differing holidays and religious systems. They do not, however, respect individual rituals and may just ban some for various reasons.
Loredumping aside, combining different reasons for having holidays is fun. The biggest thing you need to do is make it "special" somehow. "Why is this date/week different from all others?" Once you have that reason (which can, again, be nearly anything) you can get a holiday. Also, not all holidays have to be happy.
Heavy on the "not all holidays have to be happy". Ive heard of some irl holidays in different cultures that were so impactful to hear the reasonings and practices. Changed how i saw the concept of holidays. I also just love learning anthropology so anything that goes into that always tickles my brain just right
Raised Jewish. A lot of our holidays just aren't happy, and a lot that are still have horrifying stories/origins associated with them. Like both Hanukkah and Purim are celebrated because we didn't die.
Ah, I really like this. The corporate side of holidays and such. I think you are the only place one can go to to get fantasy corporations done right, rouge, lol.
I like the bits of canonical lore and how everything is thought through here, and also the bit about not all holidays being happy. I do hope we see more of them in your serial, rouge!
Thank you for sharing!
my characters who are in a random universe in the middle of nowhere:
I suppose I could talk about birthdays. And maybe the fact the Union Order would totally have a holiday about defeating the forces of chaos, anarchy, and entropy.Â
As a passive thing, I do like studying cults and religion, which means I am interested in holiday and ritual. Actually, I have a paper somewhere I wrote for a college class turning the simple concept of a family dinner into.a ritual. (It was very fun to write.)
Lol, family dinner ritual, that amuses me greatly considering I just had one of those a few hours ago, a family dinner, not a ritual, that is.
Also, you should, it would be interesting to see how your characters measure the passage of time and what constitutes an elapsing of time before celebrating again.
Good words and contributions!
This post sent me into a strange spiral of "huh never written anything holiday related before" to "huh I've never written a holiday in a story before". This isn't to say I don't have holidays but at the same time, I can never really say I have done anything fun or exciting with it, just generic offshoots of something real (and now remembering I had a scene involving a Birthday that will probably get cut, but it was for the character based on my Grandfather, since Birthdays are really just rituals (anything involves the lighting of candles is ritualistic by design)).
So screw it I'll make one now, 'Thinning Day' is a Lyceri holiday where they must, for the entire day, eat nothing but meat, later tradition became less strict with some animal products, like eggs, being allowed. Lyceri come from the planet Lycerion which is always snowing and has some of the worst, nastiest predators in the galaxy. Much of their history is Man v Nature more than anything.
So basically it has to reflect not necessarily their Gods or Religion (I rarely do gods - I mostly just forget too I think making religions is fun it's just something my brain goes absent on) but has to do with their world and acts as an extension of their identity. And is probably religious when I eventually get around to that.
Oh I love that! Why have ~I never heard of a holiday, real or fictional that involves the consumption of only meat? Any thoughts on the importance of this custom? You'd think food would be scarce on this snow planet, so they wouldn't want to needlessly mess with their food stores for this. Or is it more of a custom of the people that have made it off their planet and do this in a way to honour their home?
Also, I really like how you based the birthday off of your grandfather, might be quite nice to keep it around somewhere even if it's cut from the main piece.
Good words!
Yeah I put cuts in a cuts folder (which I plan to add a 'director's cut' folder) the birthday would 100% be a thing.
Anyways, Lycerion as a planet I've always written as life is adapted to the intense cold, the kinda joke being Lyceri are wolf-like, so a predator felt like prey on their homeworld. This later leads to Borealis, their planet they eventually made the capital over their homeworld (this happens like 2 times total, assuming homeworld is available) so they consumption of meat is 100% just a giant holiday of spite towards the planet(EDIT:'s wildlife they hate on the planet. They eventually have a form of animal husbandry and growing plants, like greenhouses even on a cold world. Granted, all space-farring species are at least partially omnivores, as herbivores in real life eat meat Source, plus I think it's a fun video).
This is an extension of the fact Lyceri don't have vegans/vegetarians for moral reasons up until far later, and their global warming debate isn't 'is it happening' it's 'planet cold should we warm it?' so it's between Warmers and 'For the love of god that seems like a bad idea'.
The planet itself I've always pictured vast forests and blizzards with comical predators like most holleywood movies (though normal sized). It's admittedly something I've never sat down and done though I keep saying I will. Current thing is I may make multiple species capable of photosynthesis early on to deal with the food (like the slugs), which caused an unintended Cobra Effect of prey being plentiful, and predators now having a reliable food source and so on.
Also notable since I heavily rely on convergent evolution to handwave a lot of things up to and including many species speaking variations of Modern-day languages (Lyceri for ex. speak their own form of German, English, Anglic (Germanic English idk the term for it) among others) which is similar enough to be understood, and also so I don't have 50+ beef variants it's all just cow, so it's instead like 10+.
As for ecosystems though I try to use the rule 'evolution is not an overseen process' until I just need something to work so the planet works, as long as said baseline 'something' is plausible.