Well, as the title said, I decided to drop it. Again.
Reasons:
- First and foremost I'm burnt out. I got tired of this novel, and after reading the scant history there is on the Romans, it just SUCKS. This is disgusting, and I can't get the picture of a guy wiping his ass with a gonorrhea-infected sea sponge. Roman times suck, gladiators are prostitutes with no way of climbing the social ladders, and I can't make it logically better EVEN with magic and divine magic, or it would take all the dark out of it. Bless our many ancestors for surviving those dark times for us, but live and forget as they say.
- Historically impossible. Let's face it, this novel has barely taken its first step, and is already awkward. Some of you might think it's good, and it might look like it at first, but after extensive thinking, you can see a few large problems. Some of which include: different species, the inclusion of magic, real gods, etc. All of these would have caused a snowball effect in whatever society.
- Only a low-magic(Magic is unobtainable to most people) setting is possible in this novel: Any higher setting, and you would see an entirely different society. Seriously, this is getting stupid and f*cked up.
- Different species in a low-magic setting is stupid. If I was going for a low-magic setting, I might as well have written an all-human world with that kind of low setting. I don't have a problem with it in general, but it just doesn't make sense in low-magic.
- I forced myself to write a dark novel. In truth, I didn't need to. I just needed to show you reality, because reality is dark enough.
GODDAMMIT! I just wanted to make a fucking fantasy novel with some smut, and only now have I realized that I am entering a logic loop.
I am done, screw this. No more ancient times, no more history. You know what? Fuck history. Those times suck, and only now did I realize why no one wanted to write about those times. I also realize why all those second-rate authors like system novels so much. It is to avoid all these real problems by literally going to lalaland.
Sigh, now that I got all of this out of my system, I am going to start telling you what I plan on doing.
My new world will be a setting with a 10% magic population. This means, 1 in 10 people can cast cantrips(magic tricks), but only 1 in 100 can cast spells of the first circle and above. Only 1 in 10,000 can reach the 6th circle, 1 in 100,000 reach the 7th, 1 in 1,000,000 reach the 8th, 1 in 10,000,000 reach the fabled 9th circle, able to fight a pseudo god or ancient dragon 1 on 1. This includes all magic professions out there.
Non-magic professional fighters(like soldiers) will be 1 in 100 too, although everyone with a fit enough body has the potential. (For balancing the economy. Someone needs to work on the field, you know, or how can society function?) Their proportion will be around the same as that of the magic casters, with their unique advantages and weaknesses.
Humans are also a majority, with a population of over half of the entire world. Other species are relatively uncommon in comparison, around 40% of the population. Racism is also rearing its ugly head back, but I won't dip myself in that mess, since the protag will now be a 100% authentic human being. Or at least initially.
Here are ideas for my new novel(Because I just want to write smut, badly.):
- Champion of Corruption: You are a rogueish, not-too-smart, and lecherous adventurer seeking your fortune along with your small team inside an ancient tomb, but little did you know that it was, in fact, a long-forgotten temple of an ancient and evil god of corruption. After a series of messy, dark, and perverted events, you got on the good side of that god, and become that god's champion, and you can become stronger by corrupting others to become as depraved as you! Oh, right, just a tiny teeny little detail. If you fail your new dark and wretchedly evil master... You will suffer a fate worse than death. The choice is obvious.
- Accidently turning into a sex monster: You are a genius, good-looking, and nice magic apprentice in a wizard tower... with a micropenis(ouch). After the love of your life rejected you for your puny size and left you for a bigger stud, heartbroken, you decided to take things into your own hands and delve into the art of transmutation, to find a way to permanently increase your penise size. After scouring the library for many candles worth of time, you have stumbled upon a certain book with an obscure spell to permanently increase dick size. Without testing further, in your haste for quick results, you have cast the spell on yourself, and you have succeeded!... In fucking up badly and permanently turned yourself into an extinct species of sex monsters who get stronger by fucking enlightened races. The downside is that if you don't fuck, you slowly lose your sanity, until it permanently ebbs away, leaving you a shell of yourself, a monster that attacks everyone indiscriminately. Will you ever turn back to normal?
- A sex-addicted adventurer turned into a dungeon master: You are an adventurer, seeking your fortune in quests and dungeon delving, only to spend them on booze, whores, and removing std's back in town. One day, as usual, you find yourself kicked out of the inn penniless due to spending your savings on that new and beautiful prostitute in that new brothel. As always, you head to the adventurer's guild to ask for your next quest, only to find that most of the quests are already taken, and only a few quests remain. One of them is to explore a newly discovered cave a dozen kilometers away from town, where there is a sign of monster appearances. With nothing better to do, and it being the most well-paid job, you decided to take it on, but little did you know that you would get more than you bargained for.
First off sooooo pissed. Had this whole comment written out and accidentally hit the back button. You should know how big my stuff usually is. So lets see how well I can do this a second time.
Have you decided if you want to stay in middle age time or perhaps move to modern. It is possible to have a sword/magic story in the modern world without using guns. Usually the excuse is that guns work on low leveled monsters but they are unable to pierce the skin or "aura" of stronger ones. So magic is needed in either the form of spells or coating of blades/arrows. Bullets by not being held by the user can not hold mana.
Now if you wish to do a modern setting with magic you can do it in a number of ways. One of the more popular is that the world we live in was hit by a mana wave or is awakening magic. I've seen a lot of Korean novels that go with this theme.
In this style the cities become the focus point of the stories with monsters usually invading the countryside and perhaps dungeons appearing. If you go early enough when the world changes you can have the story begin at a low level magic setting and work its way up
Some examples of these types of stores are: The Unwanted (scribble), Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner(Chinese), Everyone Else is a Returnee(Korean), Versatile Mage (Scribble) and Seoul Station's Necromancer(Korean). Foreign stories are translated.
The next type of story usually involves a higher power summoning humans off of our world into others to fight. This can range from humans being stuck there permanently or being able to be summoned back once the event is over. Going with this story risks losing the modern inventions that we have if you keep them there. Some exmples are Dimensional Paradise (Scribble) and Green Skin (Korean).
The reason why I am telling you about these stories is that they would allow you to skip over one of your big complaints about Rome. Your problem with "gladiators are prostitutes with no way of climbing the social ladders," if the problem is social ladders just destroy them. In these types of stories, especially the first group, the power structures would mostly be destroyed. Sure some great families would be able to survive and thrive but this would take time. Time enough for any mc to rise as well.
On to your point about other species. Social groups like that will exist no matter what you do. Look at how divided our own world is with race and religion. In a world in which the countries are already drawn out on maps and established their will be these structures.
Also would like to point out that the other races can exist in low magic settings but then you ask how they came to be and the advantages to each. In a low magic setting why wouldn't the orcs rule everyone and the elves being a slave race with how weak they are.
However, if you go with one of the earlier two themes you can have the world start out low and then move on to stronger. Another idea is to look at "the Unwanted" novel I mentioned earlier. See how he builds the world and explained it. After the mana wave occurred the world expanded and new islands/places came into places. Thats how the elves and other races came to be. In a different story the dungeons connected to other worlds and these races came out of those.
I would just like to point out though that if you do something where they only come out of the dungeons or are too small of a population, unless the Mc has a "hero aura" or a cheat it is very unlikely he would come into contact with these races.
On to your options. I picked number 2 for two reasons.
The first is freedom. I think option one limited the mc to follow the dark god and do along with all his plans especially if he gets killed if he doesn't obey. While option 3 limits him to a dungeon in some small town. Who knows what he will get. Doesn't get to really choose his woman, just whatever comes through the door. Also if he gets discovered he can't run. Either plot armor, stay hidden, or have high leveled people come and destroy the dungeon.
The second reason is moral questioning. First option he has no choice. He is a follower of an evil god so he can brush it aside. Option 3 he is already down on his luck so why not be bad. However option 2 has the option of him questioning and fighting himself on choices.
You know you could make him an incubus. Instead of not having s*x driving him crazy make it so he has to do it to feed. Make it so the spell he is doing makes him a pseudo half demon and the incubus are the powers he got along with the hunger.
Ps You missed the best part of the sponges by the way. The fact that in the public restrooms they were shared by everyone and rarely cleaned. . . Or that the sewage was so backed up that there were rats living in the toilets that would bite people who sat down and gave them infections. . . Another fun one was what they would do with gladiator blood. Drinking it and rubbing it all over there bodies because they thought it was healthy.
Anyway best of luck with whatever you decide
Thanks for the input. I will consider the incubus "feeding" thing.
About the sponges, bathrooms, and gladiator blood, I know. But you also missed a few things. Because of the clogging that you mentioned, there were methane buildups, and the bathroom would literally explode, killing dozens of people at a time. Also, gladiator sweat mixed with oil and dead skin were scrapped off with special tool, and then sold as aphrodisiacs. Another one is that gladiator blood was believed to also be a powerful aphrodisiac. I wont go into the details, but there were rumors that emperor Marcus Aurelius killed a gladiator that was finishing his load inside his wife, bathing her in the gladiators blood, before f*cking her himself while she is covered in blood. Although this can be taken with a bucketful of salt, you get the picture.
@bignt Knew everything but the emperor one. Laughed that instead of trying to fix there sewage system, then instead made little shrines inside to a god. Don't remember the name of the god.
On a side note I think a big mistake you made this time with the story is comparing everything to the real world. I think you would have been fine if you just used names of places but you put too much effort in the actual history.
Who was who, where, and what they were doing. The names were easier, but you had to fit it in with actual history or compare it to such instead of having free reign.
LesGo