When you hear of elemental lands and weapons, do you think of Avatar? Or do you think of an obscure cult classic video game from the 1990?
I'm fascinated by people who draw inspiration not from what you would expect to be obvious or well-known sources but instead something far more niche. This isn't necessarily a case of second-hand inspiration, where you draw inspiration that clearly derives inspiration from the original, "major" source material. Rather, imagine drawing inspiration about "The Hero's Journey" not from Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or even something religious, but something like a Pixar movie or Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Believe it or not, this is a very common situation for me, because even though I write fantasy and read a ton of fantasy nowadays, I really wasn't a voracious reader until my late 20's. I didn't read Lord of the Rings for the first time until I was 28 years old (despite obsessing over the movies in my teenage years), only finished Wheel of Time this summer, and didn't read much of Brandon Sanderson's work until I was in my early 30's despite him starting to break out when I turned 20. Instead, a lot of the fantasy tropes and stories I derive inspiration from come from a different medium entirely.
Video games.
And my current series, The Forged and the Forgotten, is no exception.
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When my dad was in law school in the early 90's, back when I was a little lad, he bought himself an NES video game system to unwind from schoolwork. He at times would call that his biggest mistake, because I became an avid--sometimes obsessive--video game player. While screen addiction is no joke, I think if he knew what such playing would turn into, he might have softened his stance. Slightly.
One of the NES games I became fascinated by was Crystalis. The simplest way to describe Crystalis to someone who has played video games and only cares about the mechanics is that it's the original Legend of Zelda with more types of swords; the simplest way to describe Crystalis to someone interested in plot is Avatar meets a post-apocalyptic world with a flying tower in the middle of the world. It's a little whacky, it's a ton of fun, and it's a more complex story than any video game made in 1990 had any right to be.
There are far better articles and videos that summarize the plot of Crystalis and its various messages. A better question here is--how, exactly, did this video game influence The Forged and the Forgotten?
The most obvious and perhaps superficial (though also cool) way is that there are four swords from Crystalis that inspired the Legendary Swords in The Forged and Forgotten. The Sword of Fire, the Sword of Wind, the Sword of Lightning, and the Sword of Water are all weapons that have different game mechanics in Crystalis; in my world, Nubia, each sword corresponds to the weather it is named after, but they also correspond to a certain level of virtue required to hoist them. Put simply, the colors, the elemental ties, and the differences in these natural elements got me going, but because five fantasy novels can expand in ways one single game cannot, I went way deeper into what these swords stand for.
But!
A key about Crystalis is that there is a fifth sword, Crystalis (creative, I know), and I expect that in The Forged and the Forgotten, the series will conclude with a sword that is not named after one of the elements.. What that sword will be will remain a mystery until you read it, but rest assured, it's already being plotted out!
But if swords provide the "cool" factor, there's one other element that I considered before actually going in the opposite direction of the game.
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Crystalis is a post-apocalyptic world, set after a nuclear holocaust that obliterated the modern world. It's actually very similar to another famous fantasy series (I don't want to say which one as it's a bit of a spoiler, but it's a series any fan of the genre has likely heard of), and it creates a really cool setup where magic is used regularly, the game has a bit of a Medieval feel, but there are hints of a world like the modern day that once was. That setup can work--as evidence by another series using it--but to me, that's just a creative setup for the everyday fantasy world we all see. Interesting if the backstory is explored, superficial if not. I'm more interested in the opposite.
The Forged and the Forgotten is a pre-apocalyptic world, much like Wheel of Time is. In other words, there is an imminent event coming, some people know it, some people don't, but it's not in question to the reader. In Wheel of Time, it's the Lost Battle, Tarmon Gai'don. The less I say here about Robert Jordan's series, the better, but if you've read to the 14th book, you know that it's one of the greatest climaxes in any fantasy series ever.
In The Forged and the Forgotten, it's the cleansing of the world that takes place every one thousand years. Different nations have different interpretations of what this event might entail, but given past events, there's little debate that the destruction that will come will be devastating, perhaps even an extinction level event for all of humanity. This event serves as the backdrop to the entire series, and while it might be common for fantasy series to take place against an apocalyptic event, there's still little doubt that in my case, the inspiration came from Crystalis.
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That's not to say this series is an exact replica of Crystalis. For example, one of the strongest themes about my series is the nature of a god, how we interpret such a possibility (or if we consider it a possibility versus a reality), and what it means to strive to become a god. That's... not at all present in Crystalis. But again, there's only so much story you can pack into an 8-bit video game that takes about 6-8 hours to beat compared to five novels that might span 60-80 hours of reading time.
Nevertheless, it's another example in my life of something completely outside the realm of literature influencing my life in writing. I am curious to you, a reader of this blog--what examples do you have of this? Which one is your favorite, if so?
Let me know with a comment and I'll respond as soon as I can. Enjoy reading, playing, and watching fantasy of all kinds, and find inspiration wherever you look!