Building My World (part two)

The next phase in building my world is making up rules pertaining to each individual supernatural type of being.   We must give them strengths, weaknesses, and limits.   

Thanks to folklore, each supernatural being comes with a set of premade rules.  But those rules are subject to change as time and cultures change.  Each culture around the world has their version of the supernatural…

Mythology rarely comes from only one area.  It has mirrored itself all over the globe.  Tales of the undead sucking the life from its victims, tales of merfolk saving or drowning those foolish enough to swim in their waters, tales of men who can shift into animals to name a few are supernatural creatures that exist in different folklore from all over the world.  Virtually every culture in the world has dragon myths.  Long before the east met the west the people were mirroring each other’s mythology.  But with each culture each myth changes.  Even modern times have affected folklore.  The silver bullet is courtesy Hollywood.  It didn’t come into play in werewolf legend until 1944 in the film House of Frankenstein. 

So with the folklore I have a great foundation for my preternatural beings.  Now to decide which of these various myths hold true in my world.   

Thanks to vampire popularity they are the perfect example of what I need to do to create my world.   

Okay so vampires exist.  How do you become a vampire?  Some legends say that you had to be bitten, some say that you had to be bitten thrice by the same vampire, some say you must drink the vampire’s blood, and the list goes on.  Does sunlight hurt vampires?  Modern day Hollywood makes vampires creatures that burn in the sunlight but Bram Stoker’s Dracula could walk in the sunlight, it just made him less powerful yet not powerless.  Does a vampire have a reflection?  Does garlic affect vampires?  Can vampires mesmerize you? How do you kill a vampire?  Do they have to sleep in coffins?  Do they have to have soil from their burial site in their resting place?  Do crosses affect them?  Are they evil?  Are they soulless?  

Each question poses more questions.  Let’s use the old myth that a vampire has to be invited into your home.  Well first we have to decide if it’s true.  If we say it’s not true then comes questions like okay if a vampire enters without an invitation does it make him less powerful?  Or perhaps unable to use his powers on any that considers that place their home?  Or does it not affect him at all?  Okay say it is true they need an invite into your home.  Can you rescind their invitation and cancel their ability to enter your home?  If you do recant their invite while they are in your home what happens?  Are they forced out of your home?  Does some supernatural force drag them out pass your threshold? Or can you only retract their invitation when they aren’t in your home? Or is once invited in a vampire always able to reenter your home?  And what about hotel rooms?  If you are staying in a hotel room does a vampire still need an invitation?  What about your car?  Some people (and laws) state that a car is an extension of your home so does a vampire need an invite to get into your car? 

You can see how a simple questions snowballs into many different scenarios.  I’ve got to answer these kinds of questions.  Not just about vampires but also about any type of supernatural creature I plan to put in my book.  Since my world will have many different types then I’m going to have to spend time answering these types of questions and further building my world….