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How to set up a fictional world so that the knight-errant archetype seems viable

HexartesHexartes
edited 2014-03-08 09:59:29 in Artistic Pursuits
I really like the idea of having "adventurer" be a common occupation, but I feel like it's not a terribly realistic one. And I know realism isn't necessarily a hugely important thing, but I still think this is something I should consider. What kinds of steps should I take to make an adventurer seem realistic?

Comments

  • AlirozAliroz
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    Ideas: rich people with too many sons sending the younger ones off to risk lives and maybe get killed. Escaped serfs who have nothing to lose. Those could both fit many social structures.

    Maybe some sort of caste system?
  • MetaFourMetaFour
    For once, or maybe twice, I was in my prime.
    I played a DnD session once where my character's backstory stated that, in his culture, every young male was expected to go adventuring for a few years and return with something of value. It was a rite of manhood for them.
  • Miss Miko MayoneggMiss Miko Mayonegg
    More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    In a medieval-ish setting, I think a nomad is plenty realistic.

    /miko "doesn't-know-anything" mayonegg's two cents
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    In the premise of Dragon's Egg Ryuutama, going on an adventure once in one's lifetime is something that is culturally typical of people -- in fact, the game is about ordinary people going on adventures, rather than a specific social class of adventurers.
  • One-Winged EagleOne-Winged Eagle
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    I can see this going in two different ways.

    First, a society growing in the shadow of an ancient artisan civilization that left all kinds of things, many of them unique. An adventurer economy would be viable there. 

    Second, like MetaFour's example, adventuring as rite of passage. There's Tali'Zora's Pilgrimage in Mass Effect, or the custom for thirteen-year-old godlings to go a'Rambling in Paul Pope's Battling Boy, quests to prove that they are worthy to be adults.
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    the plague

    ups travel, destroys community cohesiveness bindnig people to locations, spawns the devils of the min
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    edited 2014-03-08 21:35:19
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Many Australian aboriginal tribes have what is known as a walkabout, in which a young man enters the wilderness to find his true self, which connects with the idea that Meta brought up. Add in factors like mediaeval plagues (as Klinotaxis noted), which uprooted whole towns by killing massive populations, and maybe some kind of atomised feudal situation akin to the hundreds of vassal states in the Holy Roman Empire or under Genghis Khan, and being a knight errant makes a lot of sense.
  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/7Iil2JW.png
    now what you should actually do is attempt to combine the Holy Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan.

    I'd read that.
  • HexartesHexartes
    edited 2014-03-08 22:11:37
    I feel like it'd be necessary for me to divulge a bit of what I already have planned for this setting in order to give a better picture, here (but I really do like all of your ideas! Thanks a ton!)

    I don't want the world to feel dirty or dangerous. I don't necessarily want it to seem clean or excessively ideal, but I really want there to be a feeling of... not necessarily "security" but the feeling that security is at least attainable if that makes any sense. I like KingCrackers's suggestion to this end but all of yours are definitely ones I'll keep in mind.

    If you guys need me to I'll tell more about the setting, I'm keeping this brief because I have a few chores to do.
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Brief but highly relevant suggestion: Watch Kino's Journey. The dub or the sub will suffice, as both are solid.

    I am not joking or just trying to plug this show. The world that the story takes place in seems to not be too far from what you are going for, and the premise is definitely connected.
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    edited 2014-03-08 22:32:37
    kill living beings
    Kexruct said:

    I don't want the world to feel dirty or dangerous

    i'm out

    well ok definitely watch kino's journey tho
  • HexartesHexartes
    Will definitely check that out! Kino's Journey does seem a bit different from the setting I have in mind but I'm sure I'll get something from it; also I've heard it's really good anyway.
  • HexartesHexartes
    Klinotaxis said:

    Kexruct said:

    I don't want the world to feel dirty or dangerous

    i'm out

    well ok definitely watch kino's journey tho
    Well, maybe not the best wording. I don't want it to feel like it's always dirty or always dangerous.
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    it's not you. it's me. i rea da very interesting book on the plague in manchruai for fun,
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