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One of my problems with a lot of fantasy stories I read is if you’ve never read fantasy before it can be very confusing. All the sudden you hit with all these strange names and unpronounceable cities and kingdoms. I want to bring a sense of familiarity to my novel so even the casual reader can enjoy it. I also have several cultures based on real ancient cultures. The capital is Germanic, I have Vikings, Greeks, and than the religious headquarters is Roman. I want the name to be familiar without bringing the aforementioned baggage to the table. Vicar was a simple word that I thought MIGHT work, but in the end I hated it, but I like a lot the suggestions given. No, I’m not writing about the Catholic church but something similar to it. Thanks for the help.
I like Pontiff and I also ran across Prelate, and at one time was considering using the Confessor because of the ominous tone to it. The problem with the later two is they are words used by to other fantasy writers (Eddings and Goodkind) and I really don’t want to step on toes or seem like I’m ripping these people off. I know these are fairly common words, but it could bother ME nonetheless. I’m still thinking about it and I’m actually researching other options.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited July 23, 2002).]
posted
This suggests Orthodox rather than Catholic, but there's always the Hierarch. Also you could use Cardinal (as in the cardinals and The Cardinal) or a term that is a biblical metaphor, e.g. The Rock (admittedly that has the wrong tone).
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I would just make up my own religion at this point. I'm aware catholicism has done it's evil deeds in the past and all, but are the really critical to the structure of your story? Couldn't you just as easily build your own mysterious cult and insert them? There were many more religious states other than the Roman Catholic 'empire'.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Hey, Chronicles thanks for that website I think it will prove helpful I tried to use some of the other ones you posted on medieval culture and maybe I'm slow but they were well no offense sort of useless. This one is helpful, though. I also now remember why I thinking about using Vicat. The Pope is sometimes called the Vicar of Christ and I thoughtI could play on that, but wasn't aware that vicar is such a commonly used word being Protestant.
Thanks again; I can't believe you actaully got me doing research. Im going to have to take a "Crying Game" shower now.
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