Today I decided that one of my main characters was not working and some changes were needed. One such change was her profession, it needed to be replaced.
This got me thinking about what unusual or less common professions I would like to see. My short list ended up including things like, Sculptures, Cartographers and Philosophers.
So what is a profession that you would like to see portrayed in fantasy?
Posted Feb 3, 2015, 6:26 AM UTC
Exotic animal husbandry
Watchmaker and painters.
A fantasy watchmaker, now that is a story I want to read.
I also like the idea of a Renaissance inspired artist, a fantasy 'Da Vinci' could become something really cool.
I use some strange professions from the past in my fantasy - eelers, meat-lenders, temple prostitutes and worm-dancers, as well as some that I make up, like bat-anglers.
a) all of those sound amazing.
b) what's a meat-lender? I could amuse myself all day with what this might entail...
I can't find the source of the meat-lenders online, so I'm worried that it's a job I made up, but I really don't think I did. To hazard a guess, I think I read about them in THE INVENTION OF PARIS, by Eric Hazan. A meat-lender did just that, lent people meat, for a specified length of time, kind of like a payday loan.
Oooh neat! Thanks for the reply; that makes more sense than what I was imagining!
Another thing they could do (in a fantasy world) would be to lend bones for cooking up stock, or, grossly, lend someone meat, and get it back eight hours later: nightsoil collection.
I also need to know about the meat-lenders.
Pest control, ie rat catcher or what not... I was an exterminator and feel it's horribly underrepresented in the fantasy genre.
In medieval London men were paid to be swine killers, there were so many wild pigs living in the streets feeding off the gutters. Being a rat catcher would be totally futile however - they'd keep cats or terriers for that, or else it would be such an ongoing task that whoever ran the house would have someone assigned to laying simple traps on a continual basis.
That could produce some fun adventures: a fantasy exterminator would probably go after carrion crawlers as much as they did cockroaches :D.
I've found that most low-level D&D modules end up being some form of pest control.
And video game introductions.
"Help our village is under siege! ...it's lots of rats!"
I gave my setting's version of runeology a lot of traits in common with computer science. Much like how there's programming languages, there's rune languages, and they have compilers in the form of specific magophillic materials that draw ambient magic into behaving in accordance with the rune instructions. I would love to see more fantasy settings with at least something that follows the basic principles of computer science, but it does have quite a bit in common with math. And I suppose that in the case of a lot of fantasy writers, they're writing fantasy instead of code for a reason. I guess I'll just have to be the change I want to see.
god damn it, are you me? A series i was working on has artificers who create artifacts based on a very similar process.
That's actually a really great concept (and that's coming from someone who hates maths and is too ignorant and impatient to truly understand computer science!) I like the idea of magic being organised in such a way, it feels like such a change from your usual wicked witch or wandering wizard. It also opens up magic to a wider range of characters and it allows magic to be apart of everyday life and the world around your characters.
My magic system was already very regimented and rulebound before I even considered runeology. The ambiguity of a lot of magic systems bothers me, so I essentially made it a fifth fundamental force. Making runeology, a discipline that in most fantasy novels involves the control of magic through writing, into a subtype of programming simply made the most sense. At its heart, programming is about controlling the flow of electricity inside the circuits of your computer. They're basically the same thing!
That led to magic-powered circuits, things that we would recognize as computers, and even nanotech, an engineering discipline where runeology shines thanks to its ability to function when etched into nanomachines on the atomic level, smaller than any wire could hope to be. Squee! That's nearly science fiction, though. And I get that most fantasy seems to take place in settings with tech levels predating our modern day, and computers aren't exactly what comes to mind when you think of fantasy. Nevermind that Ada Lovelace was the world's first programmer in 1842.
I share your view on the ambiguity of magic systems, without clear rules and limitations it can equate to poor writing in a sense that the only explanation you need have is "cuz magic". Also, I learnt something today!
Fishmonger. A very common type of merchant historically that I don't see often in fantasy.
Ordinary town-based professions that you just don't see. All the fantasy heroes are blacksmiths or, occasionally, carpenters or stablehands. I've never seen a character start out as an apprentice to a butcher, a baker or a candlestick-maker. Or a barrel-maker, basket-weaver, potter, weaver, dyer, fuller, cobbler, tailor, boat builder, and so on.
The Glasswright series by Mindy Klasky followed...a glass maker.
Simon Morden's Arcanum follows a prince, but also a hunter and a librarian.
The Glasswright series by Mindy Klasky followed...a glass maker.
Interesting. I'll have a look into that.
I'd love to see some studies on this... like, what percentage of the medieval population was urban, versus rural? How many were just subsistence farmers? How many were respectable tradesfolk, and what were the most common trades? How many were vagrants, or people without regular employment but who just worked odd jobs?
I know I could probably find all this information with enough reading, but my reading/writing/etc schedule wouldn't really allow for it. In the meantime, I'm afraid that my picture of medieval society (esp. in terms of professions) is heavily influenced by a lot of misinformed "conventional wisdom."
Cartographer would be great. And it gives you an excuse to travel the world.
I don't really know if this is an uncommon profession in fantasy literature but I like the idea of having a physician, barber surgeon or plague doctor featured in a fairly major role. I just love thinking about how they believed they were so right yet used such outlandish treatments. Also with the plague doctor, it would be nice seeing the world from their point of view and experiencing how they believed they were fully protected from miasma and whatnot yet unknowingly had very little protection at all.
There is so medical history to play with. Could have a more learned Doctor, who robs graves to learn about the body. The Butcher who does surgery in his spare time. A Victorian pharmacist blending new discoveries with old world wisdom.
What I'm working on now draws from the 4 humors, with one of my major characters practicing medical alchemy.
Ah the good old Four Humors (I'm amazed that theory stayed around for as long as it did!) :P
I especially like your idea of a learned doctor doing a somewhat deplorable act in robbing graves, especially when you step back and see that it's for the greater good. Sort of reminds me of Burke and Hare.
Also you should try and include the way the Church/religion in general (if applicable to your story) was a very important factor when it comes to medical treatments and advancements. I can see the possibility of making an over powerful religious organization into a sort of antagonist, or obstacle to overcome
Adding zombies and necromancy to the grave robber could make for an interesting comedy, could even have the story from the pov of the corpse and the grave robber the villain.
Funny that you should say that, the character I am having issues with is(was) a priest and her story includes her having to chose between a friend (the Alchemist) and the church. With this 4 humors inspired Alchemy being condemned by the church and those who use it hunted. The church however, promotes more modern (well as modern as 18th century inspired setting gets) medical practices.
I like the idea of a zombie and a grave robber teaming up for some reason, kinda like a buddy cop film but nothing like a buddy cop film!
That's a really interesting concept, but it kind of sounds like the alchemist is the 'bad guy' in a way, simply because he's promoting such an incorrect theory whilst the church is being more progressive (although hunting people down isn't very progressive!). Unless that's what you're going for.
I don't know. I've never really liked how religion is portrayed as this huge obstacle to progress. Yeah, the Christian church doesn't have the best track record, but look at the medieval Islamic empire. There were tons of new innovations under that empire--drip irrigation, the astrolabe, triangular sails--so I feel like religion in general is being misrepresented in the fantasy genre. Sorry if I sound like an idiot, but this has kinda been bothering me for a while. I think it'd be better for someone to write a theocracy under which tech thrives. It'd be harder, and less cliche.
Archaeologists, professional mourners, undertakers, sewer scavengers.
I like the idea of a Victorian inspired Archaeologist digging up / exploring the ruins of a more common fantasy setting.
The Cheese-makers (why don't they get a cooler name?) , brewers, road builders, firefighters, census workers, and or magic technicians (works with magical artifacts).
I use this website when I'm looking for unusual medieval era occupations
Plenty of unusual professions there out of the hundreds listed..
Wailer Removed impurities and foreign bodies from coal in the mines
Gelder Animal castrator
Seeker of the Dead During the Plague, old women woere employed to diagnose the Plague from the buboes and count the dead to enable the compilation of Bills of Mortality, for which they were paid from 3 to 4 pence per corpse. Risky job!
Don't forget that you can make up a profession, too. It's a great way to add depth to your world building.
For example, in my Finding Tayna, series, there's a career called a "charm-trimmer." This is a guy who examines the objects and constructions of magic and harvests any dregs of unused manna he can find still attached to them, which he then resells to people who cannot produce manna of their own. And in some cases, this process can actually weaken the original spell, which leads to all sorts of disasters and complications.
IMO, the invention route is much more interesting than simply taking a know profession and putting it into a fantasy context.
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I liked that one so much I wrote a series about it ;)
My email was just chirping about your new book. Congratulations on the newest release.
I'm all in favor of emails chirping. It's a digital note of springtime in a miserable winter ;)
So earlier I accidentally bought the Mad Tinker daughter. I mean, I'm not mad I hit the button with my fat thumbs but I haven't finished Firehurler yet. Oh well, I'll just read both and drop you a review when I'm done.