Do you like the fantasy genre? Ideas

[Sunset]

Well, the animals and plants are different. And humans need specific nutrition to be healthy and being able to carry babies to term.

Or maybe there is a specific disease that kills off all pregnancies unless a whole village collaborates to prevent a human from temporarily being affected by it.

Think Zika virus that can only be countered by eating a very rare plant that needs to be prepared in a specific way to preserve the anti-viral properties?

Or that there is no anti-viral solution, so they resort to manual methods of protecting the individual for first X amount of time, which would be a real challenge in a non-industrial society.

 

[Amethyst]

This is just what I wanted. Ideas that couldn't have come from my brain.

I love writers who create environments so vivid that you feel you've been on an extended visit. Are there any particular aspects of a "fantastic" environment that you would particularly like to visit?

 

[Totoro]

I love the discovery of how strange rituals flow very logically and naturally from the natural environment.

Or sometimes can be traced back to the founders of a certain tribe. People doing things a certain way because 'religion' and 'taboo' turns out to be actually crucial after all. With some strange side-effects because locals don't really understand what they're doing.

For example: In the 100 there is a transition ritual from one leader to the next involving required incantations and rituals etc ..

Turns out it's not just for show: the incantations involve activation sentences allowing an AI to transfer from one human host to another. Other rituals were necessary to ensure biological compatibility and definite proof the transfer took place.

Same thing with Dune: a lot of the culture flows from the lack of water, and a vision of a scientist who thinks he can turn Dune back into a water-rich planet. His followers don't really understand everything, but a collection of taboos ensure execution of his vision long after he dies.

You see it in real life too: supposedly the taboo against pork for example stems from the fact that many diseases are easily transferred from pigs to humans (and vice versa).

Same thing with not being allowed to shake hands with your left hand (sanitation) in Hindu religion.

 

[Amethyst]

There is in fact something along these lines (although not at all similar in its elements) in my story line. When I first came up with the idea (at age 15) I hadn't heard of Dune, but of course Earth religions are heavy with "do this, don't do that, and don't ask why."

His followers don't really understand everything, but a collection of taboos ensure execution of his vision long after he dies.

 

[Nemo2]

Same thing with not being allowed to shake hands with your left hand (sanitation) in Hindu religion.

Likewise don't go to a Saudi kabsa, (what the expats refer to as a 'lamb grab'), and pick up from the communal plate with your left hand.