The Step-By-Step of Epic Fantasy

Part Two

Chapter 7

Unlike the mentor figure, the new companion will not teach the MC anything, nor will they derail the plot with their own quests. Sometime around Chapter Six the protagonist will have decided on a quest. In the old days this often involved an object, now the object is more often the catalyst of Part One, and the goal of Part Two is to fulfill the mentor’s dying request. This is often mysterious, yet oddly plot-furthering.

The new companion has no problem with any of this, nor does s/he (could be either) show any surprise, and the party goes on their merry way.

Chapter 8

Now that the main quest has been introduced, a side-quest can be initiated. In the old days (ah, how I sigh for them!) this involved yet another object, though modern side-quests more often involve a rescue. The rescued entity will become the Love Interest, and thus is often (though not necessarily) of the opposite gender as the MC.

The MC and companions discover the existence of this side quest through passing comments, often in bars or in the rare non-demolished village.

Chapter 9

Usually spend on the side quest. A random encounter with a monster (traditional) or thugs (modern) occurs. The protagonists make steady progress towards their goal.

Chapter 10

The side quest is at last completed! My vagueness on the topic may irritate the would-be epic writer, but the problem is that side-quests are one of the few things in epic writing that cannot easily be categorized. I said object or rescue, there’s monsters, and they ALWAYS succeed in the end.

In the case of the rescue option (and sometime even when the side-quest wasn’t a rescue mission), the protagonist’s love interest has now appeared in the story.

Chapter 11

Things are now going well for the MC. Too well. In order to provide some conflict and make this a story, rather than a drab linear documentation, something will need to happen to the MC and their loyal party. What better than to be captured and held captive?

The people doing the kidnapping can vary, being either:

A. Random bandits, easily dispatched with no guilt whatsoever on our righteous protagonist’s part

B. Soldiers of the Evil Overlord. The bright side of this for the author is that there is now a chance to show how creepy and evil the Evil Overlord is. Many scenes of torture and carnage follow. Eventually, some of that torture and carnage reaches the kidnappers.

C. Slavers. The MC and friends escape before being sold any deeper into slavery. Sometimes these scenes are used to show how ‘slavery is bad’, just to clear up any confusion the readers may have on the issue.

D. Member of the Army. The Army is not, under any circumstances, to be confused with the soldiers of the Evil Overlord. The Army are the noble warriors and heroes of the rebellion, good country, or True King (who is, alas, always absent) who opposes the Evil Overlord. Their capturing of the protagonist and their companions is usually and honest mistake, though it could be that the MC is traveling with someone evil unbeknownst to them.

In all instances except for D, the heroes escape on their own or with the aid of a party member who was somehow not captured (usually the ‘new companion’, aka the old mentor’s replacement, aka the only competent member of the party). They pick up a new friend who was also being held prisoner, unless all of their fellow prisoners have died gruesomely, which is just a shame.

Chapter 12

Remember the Army from option D last chapter? Well, one way or another the protagonist is going to meet them. This can be as simple as walking right into their hands on an open road or as complex as (assuming the capture in Chapter 11 was not perpetrated by the Army) being captured for the second time in two days and lead to the Army’s commander on the suspicion of being spies. There are also middling in-between ways, like when the character rescued in Chapter 11 turns out to be a member or ally of the Army and shows the MC how to find them.

During this chapter it is also revealed that the MC is the Chosen One. This wraps up many dangling questions like ‘Why is everyone after the MC?’ ‘Where do these strange powers come from?’ and, of course, ‘Is the MC some sort of Chosen One?’

Being the Chosen One, the MC is also part of a Prophecy, which is also revealed.

The events in this chapter can take place in two different orders.

The protagonist somehow discovers that they are the Chosen One, finds the Prophecy, and then seeks out the Army to join them. The Army meets the MC and immediately see that here is the Chosen One spoke of in the Prophecy.

Miscellaneous facts about the Prophecy: In the old days, these read like poems and were extremely obscure. More often nowadays these are murmured in extremely vague snatches by the half-mad or half-blind.

When translated, Prophecy-Poems always rhyme in English, though with strange pronunciation.

Miscellaneous facts about the Chosen One: The Chosen One has cool powers. There is something that only the Chosen One can do. The Chosen One has a cool sword.

It is possible to be more than one kind of Chosen One, especially in the case of sequels.

Miscellaneous facts about the Army: The man leading the Army is very rarely the one who founded it, though he is probably on the second or third leader the Army has had. He will not survive through Book Three.

The entire Army pledges itself to the MC’s cause, but the MC never become a military commander and does not lead troops into combat, at least not during their first battle, preferring instead to fight their own way.

Chapter 13

Strangely, though it is a tendency for things that do not center on the protagonist to not occur, at least one event happens in every epic fantasy that he MC is not in command of, and that is the Final Battle (Of Book One).

Not being in command is of course not synonymous with having no effect on the outcome of, but that will be told later.

There are three Final Battles in each epic fantasy trilogy: one at the end of each book. They will be covered in-depth under the chapter where they occur. But of course, in order to have a battle you must first have an army to fight it. Two armies, actually, and that is where this chapter comes in: Chapter 13, where the King’s Army appears.

The ‘King’, of course, is only the reigning monarch- also known as the Evil Overlord. He has not the power of blood or destiny to back up his claim, but he does have an awful lot of manpower. Either the protagonist has arrived at a bad time or has inadvertently lead the King’s Army here, because there they are!

The King’s Army vastly outnumbers the righteous Army. The source of all these soldiers is a bit unclear, but they are probably a mixture of conscripts, mercenaries, and graduates from the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy. They are all evil and bloodthirsty. It should be noted that while the Evil Overlord often allies himself with evil brutish races like Goblins, Orcs, and Trolls, these creatures are never a part of the King’s Army, since he never admits to having allied with them. Their unwashed masses from hordes of their own, but something about the way the MC has handed various parts of their anatomy to them during every random encounter in the book (losing only one old man in the process) makes them strangely non-threatening.

The Army’s reaction to the arrival of the threatening King’s Army range from

A. We’re screwed.

B. We’re F-ing screwed.

A Council is called to make use of all the nervous energy floating around, and to determine the exact level of screwedness, and Part Two ends.

Notes:

The Protagonist

Even though women are so often persecuted in fantasy worlds, the Hero of epic fantasy is equally likely to be male or female.

They do not have a family. The people they are living with are not their family. Both the people they live with and their actual biological families are both dead, or soon will be.

Some have commented on the MC’s apparent lack of character. The thing is, the MC IS the plot, so the plot is the MC, and how much more character can you get? Characters are born out of necessity. TRUE epic fantasy writers understand what I’m saying here.

Some terms you may encounter in Epic Fantasy:

Sennight/Tenday- A period of seven nights is the standard workweek in some fantasy worlds, in others (where labor unions are woefully inactive), it’s ten days. How this effects the length of tenday-ends is unknown. One cycle of the moon (or moons) is called a moonturn, a moon, or rarely a month.

Wench, Vixen- females of the fantasy milieu. Usually seen carrying ale (the first) or with red hair (the latter).

Mead- ale. Don’t let anybody tell you different.

Wyrd- also Fate, Destiny. Sometimes referred to as the Plot. It’s what makes things happen.

Magick- A Power far more powerful than ordinary magic. As a rule, the more capitalized letters and the more kool letterz injekted intu the title or name of the objekt, the more powerful it is.

Coldfire- a glowing orb of light, like fire, only it isn’t hot. Also the name of an excellent fantasy trilogy by C.S. Friedman, that is woefully non-epic. You can tell this because the Coldfire in her stories isn’t a source of light. Though it isn’t hot.