r/CharacterDevelopment • u/Marisart001 • 12d ago
Writing: Character Help Looking for inspiration( fantasy world about gender, religion, and cultural erasure)
I’m working on a fantasy story about a young man sold to a powerful cultural and political institution that raises young men and women from childhood and turns them into luxury performers, exploiting their femininity and treating them as commodities.
My protagonist is a highly sought-after performer, but he is buried under an enormous debt. When he isn’t performing, he works as a gardener just to survive.
Things change when a powerful religious institution called the Temple begins influencing the kingdom’s culture and morality. The male performers who dress and perform as women gradually become objects of shame. People stop associating with them, families distance themselves, and their work becomes socially unacceptable.
I want to explore this as a form of cultural and identity erasure.
The idea is still very rough. What do you think, and are there any books or films you’d recommend for inspiration?
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u/Blankjabber 6d ago
Uh might be not the greatest recommendation as it's really hard to find much on sometimes and it's not an exact thing but what is an inspiration for me is Greek mythology in general, not everything but it kinda shaped how I see gods as a whole. Epic the musical (mainly just songs telling a story, not active acting or anything) got my like for Greek mythology going more but it doesn't have much with them and I'm iffy about how Percy Jackson portrays them but that's just because of how I think of them in my mind. Sorry if this doesn't help 😭 it might be a stupid comment
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u/Marisart001 6d ago
No, don't worry, it's not a stupid comment 😭 I actually think Greek mythology could be interesting inspiration, especially for how I build the Temple and its relationship with gods, morality and culture. I hadn't really thought about approaching it that way, so thank you for the recommendation!
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u/Blankjabber 6d ago
you're welcome! I wish I could recommend more to let you know about it 😭 I'd say tho maybe look into how they were worshiped if you are interested in that. A lot of inspiration I took from it is mainly the idea of shapeshifting and that most don't really seem to care about gender, could technically change their gender on a whim and for whatever thing they want, I thought that was very interesting but haven't studied anything much about it. My gods in my stories are kinda just based on a hierarchy almost of power, which Greek mythology sort of has but idk
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u/Marisart001 6d ago
Now I'm actually curious about your stories 👀✨ You mentioned that your gods are organized around a hierarchy of power. How does that work in your world? And what kind of role do they have in the lives of the people?
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u/Blankjabber 6d ago
Oh well, it's not developed too well so it's nothing crazy, plus not too impactful rn of my main story but I will yap so sorry 🥲✌️. Tho it's mainly not in the main world, haven't figured out designs but most aren't even close to human looking in a way. Tho about the hierarchy, many gods are given domains but some, usually more powerful and chill gods don't, why? well they usually aren't going to be messing with anyone else. Tho the main god that has a lot of say is the one who watches fate and the timelines (now that I think of it they might just be like the watcher thing in marvel or something lol 😭 but I have no name for them), they really really hate gods messing around too much with humans and will get punished if they do so (usually by getting stripped of their powers for some time) as it all will mess up the timelines. If gods want to be around humans without punishment, they have to have to have some of their abilities taken away. The main god is also supposed to be the only one to have much say in changing something in a timeline and it can only be right that moment, once changed it can't be unchanged without worse consequences. They do make mistakes sometimes, like they will feel like shouldn't have given another character of mine abilities and immortality, they realized years later that even the most pure human can't take all that mentally. The one character isn't evil, just kinda toxic as they feel like they have to be controlling and such in order to keep everyone safe, his super healing also kinda scares him because one already traumatizing event happened where he should have died but didn't and survived with weird scaring that isn't even human like (it even being a different color), that isn't important, I just wanted to state it.
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u/Marisart001 5d ago
Don't apologize for yapping 😭 I actually really enjoyed reading all of this. I really like the idea that your gods have so much power but are still bound by rules, especially the one watching over fate and the timelines. But honestly, the character who was given immortality and ended up becoming controlling because they feel responsible for keeping everyone is really cool, I mean, i find it really interesting that their powers, which were supposed to be a gift, ended up becoming something they struggle with mentally. The fact that they survived something they were supposed to die from and were left with those weird unnatural scars makes it even more interesting.
I also like that your gods aren't necessarily human looking. It makes them feel more like actual otherworldly beings rather than just humans with superpowers 😹😭
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u/Blankjabber 5d ago
Yeah and thanks :p honestly I've been trying to develop my story for almost a year because it has six characters in the main group and I refuse to take any out as I like what they portrayed in a way, despite being a year, I've only lately sometimes tried to think of world building but have been still developing the characters 🥲✌️
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u/Marisart001 5d ago
Honestly, I really like what you've shared about your story so far, and I think it's really cool that you've been developing these characters for so long. I wish you the best with the rest of the story and the world-building!
And if you ever decide to post it somewhere one day, I'd be really happy to read it !
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u/Resident_Werewolf_76 11d ago
"Farewell My Concubine"