Wanna Write a Folk Tale?
All right, so I’m always interested to know what sorts of ideas my readers have and it seemed to me these folk tales were an excellent opportunity to see them. I really enjoyed posting a folk tale in the breaks between chapters, it made for a quick and easy post for me, but also a more interesting post for you. I would like to continue that with new folk tales, and I’d also like to see what sort of boetheri folk tales you guys could come up with.
Let me state right off the bat that this is not a demand for stories. I’m not asking you to do the work for me, because if no one takes me up on this I’ll just write a new one on my own. They’re fun to do! So don’t feel guilted or pressured into doing this for me. Just do it if you want to! :D
Since there will be a LONG time between posting of stories, as they only go up between each chapter, there’s no time limit on this, but if I get more than one at a time, I’ll have an impartial judge pick which one I’ll be doing in the comic (possible by just deciding at random) but all of them will be posted as I’m planning on doing a subpage for all the folk tales. Whether or not it gets used for the comic, it will be posted there.
Now, as to the stories themselves! It does need to fit within the world of the comic, so that’ll be an important part.
It should be somewhat simplistic and written in prose as I’ll be illustrating it. (If you really want to draw it, I’ll post it on the sub page, because that’d be neat, but for the comic, I’d prefer to do it my style, so I might draw my own version.)
It should be either a story with a moral or a story explaining a natural occurrence. The moral in most boetheri stories would probably be “hard work pays off best” but there can be other morals as well. “Grik-nor and the Rain Spirit” which I just finished up is a good example of both. It shows the hero succeeding due to his hard work, but it also explains why they have a rainy season (and sometimes droughts. Oh that wacky Rain Spirit!)
Here’s the story again, for reference:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4/5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
The characters involved will primarily be Grik-nor and the spirits, but I don’t mind if you put some other boetheri characters in as well. I would like you to stay away from using either elves or humans in these stories, though, since they’re meant to be something for the boetheri alone. Grik-nor himself is meant to be a stand-in for all boetheri, so he’s good at nearly everything he does, but has no real supernatural abilities. He also will have little in the way of personality.
I have a few of the spirits figured out:
The Fire Spirit is passionate and, determined, but can be uncontrollable. He looks somewhat like a fox.
The Rain Spirit you’ve met. He’s creative and bright, but flighty and doesn't stick with one thing long. He looks vaguely humanoid.
The Mist Spirit is easygoing and difficult to upset, but is often secretive and unfocused. She has a beast-like appearance not really corresponding to other animals.
The Wind Spirit is driven and focused, but can be very close-minded and judgmental. He looks like an eagle.
The Sun Spirit is strong and steady, but is also overbearing and temperamental. He looks somewhat like a lion.
The Snow Spirit is calm and collected, but often comes off as cold and withdrawn. She is humanoid, like the rain spirit, only depicted colored white instead of black.
The Water Spirit is a good companion and very soothing, but has a tendency to being meandering and unfocused. She looks like a snake.
If you wish to use another spirit, though, just let me know what they are and if you need them to have any certain attributes for your story so that I can make sure they fit into the greater mythology.
I may make some small changes to stories I receive if I use them for the comic in order to make them fit in with everything else (because some stuff hasn’t appeared in the comics yet and only exists in my head and how can I honestly expect you to know those things?) I will be letting you know about any changes, though, no matter how small.
And that’s about it! Let me know if you have any questions on anything and again - there is no time limit, I’ll accept these as long as the comic is running. Though if you want it to be considered for the next filler story, I’ll need it before chapter 17 ends.
Submit any stories to my email at dragonsong12@hotmail.com (Though you may want to leave a note on the comic when you do, so I know to check my email, I can on occasion be slow about checking it)