One of the main tasks when planning a series like Dark Fire, is to decide on the mythology for your world. Okay, so you have forces of evil. What are they exactly? Demons? Vampires? Ghosts? All of the above? Some of the above, but not others? There is already a lot of information about these creatures out there and you need to decide which, if any, will apply in your books. If you are going to make up your own lore, what does this consist of? How does it work? As well as how this will effect your character and story.
The lore doesn’t have to be set in stone, myths are fable after all. But for me, making these decisions was important in order to have a clear picture to build into my story as I write. Joel and Lucas are demon hunters, this is what they do, so right from the beginning they have a certain amount of authoritative knowledge on the subject matter, and I wanted it to be consistent (and save time later during the editing process).
I’m sure I will be adding to this list as the series expands, but here is an idea of some of the creatures you might encounter in the Dark Fire world:
- Enhanced senses and strength
- Daylight burns skin
- Varying levels of evil
- Tend to live together in nests
- To Kill: Stake through heart/Fire/Beheading
- To Create: Drain victim to point of death, then feed from Vampire. Reborn within 24-48 hours.
- Change in-line with luna cycle (3 days surrounding full moon)
- Tend to live together in packs but not always
- Savage killers with little to no control when in werewolf form
- Garlic repels
- To Kill: Silver
- To Create: Infect with a single bite/transitioned by next full moon
- Humans practicing witchcraft
- Both male and female
- Both good and bad
- Varying levels of power/ability
- Present in various forms: Image of person/orbs of light/shadows/move objects etc
- Often trapped, prevented from moving for a specific reason
- Signs of spirits: coldness, flickering lights, strange noises
- To move them on: Resolve issue tethering them to this world, specific exorcism spell
- Repelled by: Salt, Iron, Clove, Garlic
- Come in all different shapes and sizes. Some more animal/beast like, some human like
- Can require specifics to kill. According to Joel, “Always do your research, but if in doubt a bullet to the head or heart should at least slow them down so you can run.”
- Certain demons can possess humans
- Doesn’t (necessarily) kill host.
- Exorcise via magic spell, or shot of heroin can be used to poison the host’s body, making it inhospitable.
- Host is partially aware of what is going on while possessed but suffers huge blackouts in memory.
*Disclaimer – this is the lore I am basing my drafts on however, maybe subject to change throughout the writing process*