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Anonymous asked:I always am stopped by technicalities. For instance,...
Anonymous asked:I always am stopped by technicalities. For instance, in a fantasy world, there may not be any such thing as Judaism or Christianity, so to call someone a messiah wouldn’t technically mean anything?? What do you call a piece of clothing that is named in the language of its country of origin, if the place doesn’t exist?? I can’t seem to get past these things.
It’s really just a matter of using your best judgement. If a word, item, or concept is directly specific to a particular real world place, culture, or religion, it may be best to find an alternative. This is easy to do if you put a little effort into it. For example, a quick Google search will tell you that the word “messiah” actually means “anointed one” and was used to refer to someone thought to be divinely chosen to lead the people. Plug “messiah” into the thesaurus and you’ll see some synonyms that could work in other contexts, like “savior,” “redeemer,” and “lord.” Plug “anointed” into the thesaurus and you get a whole host of interesting words that could be applied to a replacement for the word “messiah.” To name a few: hallowed, almighty, favored, divine.
As far as clothing goes, general items of clothing like “dress” or “veil” are fine to use. In fact, many English terms for items of medieval clothing are general use in most fantasy. Things like chain mail, gauntlet, shift, underskirt, stomacher, and doublet are all common in fantasy because they were worn in many different time periods, places, and cultures–even if the names were different. But for something culturally specific like an Indian sari or a Greek toga, you can make something up. In George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, he made up an item of clothing called a “tokar” which looks like a sari, but the word is reminiscent of “toga.” By describing how the garment looks and is worn, it gives the reader an understanding of what it looks like without explicitly relating it to a piece of real world clothing. :)
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