War of Magic

[Yutyrannus]

I am writing a book called War of Magic. This will be the official thread where I post information about the book, and drawings of creatures from it. Map of Albion below.

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EDIT: I changed the idea of the book, it is now about Merlin and Arthurian Legend.

[Yutyrannus]

War of Magic takes place on a different plane where there are only two continents, the Northern Continent and the Southern Continent. Here is a list with short descriptions of a few creatures in this world. First country's creature list.
Albenia: A very large country on the far west end of the Northern Continent.
Dragon: A large, winged reptile that comes in many forms and lives across the entire world, always fight for the good in the world.
Roc: An ancient, dragon-like creature that now survives only in the deep corners of the world, acts similarly to a dragon.
Winter Wolf: The first type of great wolf (and like all types of great wolf, it lives to fight for good), Winter Wolves are able to breathe out frost and live on the icy peaks of the Mountains of Moria.
Shadow Wolf: The second type of great wolf, Shadow Wolves lived at the bases of the Mountains of Moria until wiped out by Typhon (see Naga) now only one individual named Raven survives, they were able to spew shadow.
Sand Wolf: The third type of great wolf, Sand Wolves live in the Great Desert (see map of Albion in previous post), they are able to conjour up sandstorms.
Quthun: A race of people from the Great Desert, the Quthun are skilled swordsman and are very good at parkour, their usual language is Arabic but some have learned English.
Draconithad: A race of people from the north of Albion, skilled sorcerors/sorceresses and friends of the dragons, their usual language is English.
Goblin: Decendants of the Kobolds, Goblins originate from the Great Desert and instictively know how to speak their normal language which is Arabic, some have learned to speak other languages, goblins are renowned theives and the leading cause of tavern brawls, goblins are very good at parkour, they are not necessarilly mean but mischeivous.
River Troll: An enormous goblinoid, River Trolls are odd-looking combinations of hairless-bear and crocodile. Able to find creatures that are invisible by sense of smell alone.
Orc: A vicious goblinoid, skilled with swords, evil, minions of Typhon.
Gremlin: Vicious goblinoids capable of changing color to blend in with any environment, evil, enemies of goblins.
Griffin: Griffins are mixes of bird and big cat that come in many shapes and sizes, but the most common type is the Plains Griffin which is a cross between a bald eagle and a couger, griffins are benelovent.
Scorpiogon: Odd lizard-like, malicious creatures that dwell in caves, have scorpion-like tails.
Bedhyr: Bedhyrs (pronounced Betheers) are shockingly uninteligent, malicious, slug-like creature that is basically a moving mouth, found in the Great Desert.
War Giant: Ferocious, uninteligent servents of Typhon that typically use spiked clubs.
Naga: Nagas are evil, malicious creatures made of smoke, they look like pythons with arms exept made of dusty, brown smoke, Typhon is a naga.
Lindworm: Look similar to nagas exept benelovent, King Viperion the Lord of Reptiles is a Lindworm.
Ogre: Evil, six-armed goblinoids that can be ten feet tall, servants of Typhon.
Manticore: Malicious, untamable creatures that have the body of a lioness, the head of a gila monster, and the tail of a scorpion.
Deineagle: Ferocious, reptilian birds with golden scales and a venomous stinger, servents of Typhon, more of an annoyance than anything.
Common Questing Beast: Secretive, deadly, untamable creatures with the body of a leopard and the head of a cobra.
Sphynx: Very rare, almost never sighted, have become thought of as a myth by most.
Basilisk: Very rare, deadly bite, shapeshifter, benelovent, have become thought of as myth by most.

[tyrantqueen]

A bit of constructive criticism: the name "Albion" has become so overused lately, I would recommend changing it.

The fantasy book genre is quite a saturated market. If you want to sell copies of your book it might be a good idea to try and make it original.

[Yutyrannus]

A bit of constructive criticism: the name "Albion" has become so overused lately, I would recommend changing it.

The fantasy book genre is quite a saturated market. If you want to sell copies of your book it might be a good idea to try and make it original.

It will still be pretty original, some of the creatures are very strange.
P.S. Wait till you hear about the Kobolds.

[Takama]

Nice to see another writer with a dream on here.   It evean nicer to see others help out with the creation of a new story

[Coke]

Nice to see how people embarks on ambitious epic stories. I love it, really. The only thing I can tell you as a writer, is this: work hard, very hard.

And don't give up 

[Yutyrannus]

Nice to see how people embarks on ambitious epic stories. I love it, really. The only thing I can tell you as a writer, is this: work hard, very hard.

And don't give up 

I definatly won't give up. I've been working on this book for the last two years already, and that was still just designing the world, I have still yet to start actually writing it.

[Gwangi]

Looks like you have a few original creatures there and I commend that but like TyrantQueen said, I would strive to make it more unique and more your own. Fantasy is really big right now what with LotR, Harry Potter, D&D, Skyrim etc. etc. and to truly stand out you will need to do something really different. A couple points though. I notice you have the "Mountains of Moria". Moria already exists in fantasy in the Lord of the Rings, I would avoid using that name. I would also avoid using known languages like Arabic and English. Even fictitious universes like "Star Wars" that still use English have changed the name to something like "galactic basic". You're trying to make a world of fantasy, similar to but discontented from the actual world. Using languages that already exist takes away from that. Tolken made up an entire language for his books, even "Star Trek" did the same and they stand out more for it.
Good luck with your story though and don't give up on it. It is good to see imaginative people coming up with new ideas. I too have an idea brewing in my mind for a fantasy type world, one I don't think has been done before. I have an idea for the world but no story to center it in so I am at a loss. 

[amargasaurus cazaui]

After reading your thread I went to work and thought about it a while myself. I too agree with Gwangi about languages. English and Arabic are unique enough that there are so many other languages that have formed around them just here on our own planet. There are literally dozens of languages ...rather than mankind defaulting to just those two languages. The concept of a similar world that would also evolve those identical particular languages is going to be a hard sell.
  So once you start down that road, by association all of the terms you are using become redundant...dragon , troll,ogre, wolf, shadow, they are all already terms well used and worn in so many other stories and they rely on the langauge and terms already established and present. Manticore, sphinx, basilisik , these are all known components of stories already and offer little room to bring anything original to a story.
   I like the feel of your idea and the world you are building, but I think if you are going to truly invest in it, you almost have to go the extra ten steps and create everything in your own vision, rather than borrowing so heavily from known work.

[Yutyrannus]

After reading your thread I went to work and thought about it a while myself. I too agree with Gwangi about languages. English and Arabic are unique enough that there are so many other languages that have formed around them just here on our own planet. There are literally dozens of languages ...rather than mankind defaulting to just those two languages. The concept of a similar world that would also evolve those identical particular languages is going to be a hard sell.
  So once you start down that road, by association all of the terms you are using become redundant...dragon , troll,ogre, wolf, shadow, they are all already terms well used and worn in so many other stories and they rely on the langauge and terms already established and present. Manticore, sphinx, basilisik , these are all known components of stories already and offer little room to bring anything original to a story.
   I like the feel of your idea and the world you are building, but I think if you are going to truly invest in it, you almost have to go the extra ten steps and create everything in your own vision, rather than borrowing so heavily from known work.

There are WAY more than 2 races and languages, I just didn't put them all in the list because there are WAY too many. Same thing with creatures, that is a very small percentage of all the creatures in that one country alone. Remember there are MANY countries in that world and that list is only from one of them. Also I did change some of the names- the Mountains of Moria is now called the Spine of the North as that mountain range stretches across the wholle of the Northern Continent. Albion is now changed to Albenia. Also Albenia is one of the less odd areas, there are weirder things elsewhere. Those descriptions are just trying to sum everything up in a few words, so they do not do justice to how weird the creatures really are. By the way, I mixed up the Plains Griffin with the Mungol Griffin. The Plains Griffin has the front half of a BALD eagle and a COUGER. The description I put was of the Mungol Griffin, I will fix this error.

[Yutyrannus]

Next country's creature list.
Mungol: A relatively small country in the center of the Northern Continent, made mostly of savannah and desert.
Dragon: (See Albenia)
Griffin: (See Albenia) Most common type in Mungol is Desert Griffin which is a peregrine falcon/cheetah mix, Mungol Griffin the largest griffin in the world, bigger than Camel Bear, lives here too.
Goblin: (See Albenia)
Camel Bear: A two ton, short haired bear, not neccessarily good or evil.
Naga: (See Albenia)
Shade: Deadly mindless spirit, help Typhon.
Deineagle: (See Albenia)
Ladon: A two foot long, double-headed venomous snake, allied with Typhon, deadly.
Warg: Large crosses of bear and wolf, malicious, evil, allied with Typhon, disgraces to the wolves.
Fire Serpent: Malicious, evil snakes made purely of flame, created by Typhon as guards.
Quthun: (See Albenia)
Simiad: Large ape-like creatures that walk on two legs, Simiads live in tribes and usually weild scimitars, benelovent, can grow to be 15 feet tall.
Gobbler: Huge relatives of the Bedhyr (See Albenia), gobblers will swallow anything in their path, less intelegent than Bedhyrs, malicious, allied with Typhon.
Bunyip: Ferocious, howling creatures, very rare, more often heard than seen, malicious, untamable.
Axebeak: Huge, predatory birds, flightless, not neccessarily good or evil, untamable.

[Gryphoceratops]

When you mention "Typhon" are you referring to a character you made up or the one that already exists in Greek myth?  Because Typhon is already the name of a huge monster in Greek Mythology. 

[Yutyrannus]

When you mention "Typhon" are you referring to a character you made up or the one that already exists in Greek myth?  Because Typhon is already the name of a huge monster in Greek Mythology.

I made him up, he is a naga. I know about the greek one.

[TheAllosaur]

I like how you see the trolls. Bear+crocodile is how I see them!

[Yutyrannus]

Thanks.

[TheAllosaur]

[Yutyrannus]

First creature image: a Camel Bear.

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[Yutyrannus]

Winter Wolf.

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[Yutyrannus]

Shadow Wolf.

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[Yutyrannus]

Sand Wolf.

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