How realistic is the Fantasy adventurer? how would they exist in a fantasy world? | FANTASY RE-ARMED

[Music] greetings i'm shad and i've been thinking a little bit lately about the role of the fantasy adventurer specifically the medieval fantasy adventurer and how would that actually play out if we try and look at it from a more realistic point of view which is why this is another episode in fantasy re-armed because that's what we do in fantasy realm we try and have a look at just fantasy tropes and just see all right what's a different kind of take on it and usually that different take is a more realistic approach doesn't mean you have to do it this way everything in fantasy realm is kind of like an example uh just to show this is how we can look at things from a different point of view to make it interesting possibly more realistic and encourage everyone to perhaps try and approach these same things in the same way so the adventurer is an interesting kind of role task everything yeah the quintessential and probably the primary aspect to medieval fantasy because a protagonist the main characters are adventurous this is in d but also many you know fantasy literature and stuff now in fantasy literature usually these characters are driven to their adventuring in a more organic kind of approach there is a catalyst type of event a call to action that sends them on their journey that's a little bit different to a world in which the role or job of an adventurer is kind of an establishing and understood by the general people which is usually what you get in say dungeons and dragons and other fantasy like that now certain fantasies that use that as an adventurous kind of like a common uh job or role actually kind i really enjoy it's fun they did it in goblin slayer and then goblin slayer is actually a really interesting example of taking many strict kind of d like fantasy tropes even the magic system into like a setting in which they try and apply them in a more realistic way content warning for goblin slay i already have two videos on god and say if you're interested but separate to calls to actions and inciting incidences that send people on individuals on quests i'd much rather like to kind of discuss what are the conditions that would encourage the role or job of the adventurer as a more common thing separate individuals but as a thing that you would expect to find in monday and if there were those events that would encourage adventurers what would they actually look like would they look like the d d fantasy adventurer or would they be kind of different the way that we can determine this is one look at the things that encourage adventuring and i think there are two clear very big ones monsters and treasure okay they'll fly a search for fortune and everything so looking at those two if we take a generic fantasy world with monsters but also great treasure ruins with ancient magics and whatever things would that bring about the adventurers as we kind of see them i'm not necessarily so sure about that actually because if we were to take such a world we can get insight or input as to what would people would naturally more respond to from history and i really feel the um fighting monsters and looking for adventure would create two different kind of roles and they wouldn't uniformly just create adventure we'd actually have two more distinct types of groups and so before we get on the dealing with the monsters i'll go back on the adventuring actual thing because that's the term the adventurer people that go on adventures well when we look to history we see people that love to go on hunts safaris and stuff and these were generally more wealthy people that wanted something fun to do and they had the money and resources to do it we've also had expeditions people going on in searches potentially for new lands but also there were rich people in actual fact that the people that the downton abbey show was originally based upon i forget their name but this um wealthy aristocrat actually used his money to go on expeditions into egypt and discover egyptian relics and things and he actually helped push forward certain archaeological endeavors and what we're seeing here is that there seems to be the role more so of the rich than of the poor historically speaking though there is another example where all people from all walks of life in factual factors more representative the poor would go on a type of adventure and that's when fortune could be found and it was said to usually be easier to achieve than in their regular jobs and we see this more so historically in the nature of the gold rush when people heard that there's a place with gold everywhere and you could just basically walk around the ground just pick it up from the ground easy money easy rich's fortune right there that made a massive influx of people to go there would be some caveats in a fantasy setting of course because it depends on how easy this treasure adventure is but already we have certain examples that we're drawing from historically one is the idea of just going off on an adventure because you have the means and resources to do it but success riches are not actually guaranteed in actual fact it's going to be harder to achieve fortune this way than other more mundane things that you do at home or it requires so many resources to even go on such an endeavor that are the rich can try and do it so in that type of adventure you could apply it in a fantasy setting where an ancient ruin was discovered but it's a long journey and you need a lot of resources manpower equipment to reach there and to do what you need to do when you get there and so that would take a lot more organization than a band of plucky heroes just grabbing some weapons a few resources and going off but if the riches were said to be much easier you just need to go there and you can find treasure and stuff and depending on how big the treasure is of course that would cause people to be willing to risk certain things and not be nearly as organized as other things but you would almost see a different kind of tier of interest you could have this small group of adventurers but if the riches were truly significant in a medieval fantasy setting be actually vastly more realistic to have larger organized expeditions by kings and nobles sending off in actual fact they might be looking for capable people who have cert capable of certainty so the adventure the classic adventuring archetype but basically warriors magic users rogues any like any person that can you know fulfill important tasks healers all that stuff that i'll more likely be getting hired by people who could perhaps organize larger expeditions and stuff and they would be going off on the quests to receive great wealth from ancient ruins and things both could logically exist the smaller band of adventures doing on their own but already we're seeing unique examples that can open up opportunities for adventure a really fun classic and well-known book series that actually is framed much around classic fantasy tropes is dragon lance for example where you have a band of adventurers but they do really have the bigger inciting incident where they were just uh more pocky bed ventures in their past but then something larger happens and they're called to try and combat larger you know problems and things and so if you're actually interested in checking out dragon lands there's a way you can get it for free because as luck would have it this video is sponsored by audible all you need to do is go to www.audible.com shadowversity or if you're in the us you type shadowversity2500 500. sign up for your first month you get your first audiobook for free and i would recommend dragonlance such a classic fun fantasy and then you also get access to the audible plus catalog and this gives you a huge amount of content right out of the gate from select audio books but also podcasts self-help books sleep tracks all this content right out of the gate and when you sign up you get your first 30 days completely free free order your book and free access for the audible plus catalog for a full 30 days before you even need to pay the first month his subscription which is very affordable and by the way that monthly subscription then gives you a credit that you can trade for any audio book in audible and that monthly credit is far cheaper than many of the retail costs of the audiobook like my own audiobook shadow of the conqueror the retail cost is a lot more than this monthly credit and so you can get access to such awesome content all your books are brilliant i i really do i recommend it i love them my son has just been getting into them and is addicted basically he's been going through uh skyward by brandon sanderson a really fun sci-fi fantasy uh kind of like dog fighting in space it's so good i loved it and is it hooked now just listens to it when we send him off to bed because we don't want him playing on the games but okay listen to audio bookies yeah well i sleep and then that's end up keeping him awake until 10 at night because he just gets hooked so anyway audio books are great really recommended and you can dive right in at such a great deal great cost get your first audio book free recommend dragon lance www.audible.com or text adversity to 500 500 if you're you're in the us so now let's look back at uh the concept idea of the adventurer we've mainly been talking about looking for riches or literally adventure go off on an adventure so what about that aspect because we actually haven't addressed that we're addressing going off for riches because riches can attract people from all walks of life large expedition everything but in terms of just adventure like you know the rich people going on safari and stuff well you literally would have that you know for people that just want to go do something more interesting another example of a person just going off on a type of adventure is the concept of holidays actual traveling to go to some place that's more interesting we haven't seen everything for an experience that is a type of adventurer okay world travelers are types of modern day adventurers not in the classic fantasy sense but they are looking for excitement fun something different and historically people from all walks of life did that the classic idea of the pilgrimage often was a type of holiday for many commoner to go see the world travel meet new people and see something really interesting and so often times are perhaps like a religious relic would that really create the classic type of fantasy adventurer this is where we get to the different aspect in medieval fantasy versus the historical one is that medical fantasy have monsters and traveling might not be the safest thing i already have a video on addressing how monsters would affect the fantasy world which uh you probably want to take the things we talked about in that video combine it with the things we're talking about in this video because monsters affect a world vastly so and free travel would be a big impact so depending on how prevalent monsters are really would people just be traveling alone like farmers just with their produce on their wagon to sell in the next town you would have to have like large armed escorts and groups like there would be the role of an escort would be like a permanent job where you travel from town to town at a set time and if you wanted a safe journey you have to get to the time when they're just happening and so they could do it in a kind of economically viable way uh to get from point a to point b safely so if monsters are that much of a problem traveling anywhere without armed protection could be a problem that could completely nullify the possibility of the common folk going on holidays adventuring in that sense or if they ever tried to they would want to know how to fight and that could give rise to the fantasy type adventure but that's a lot of work to just travel the world a bit for fun usually you need something more significant to cause someone to change their entire life's profession to know how to fight competently become like a classic d d character type for the off chance that they might like to travel now and then no that would be an actual role this is a job it's an occupation and if that's the case that leads to other interesting manifestations that we can draw from history in terms of how the combative warrior type adventurer would actually look like what are they doing how do they support themselves when they're not looking for riches or fighting monsters this is where we come to the concept of a mercenary if they have the skills well then they'll be trying to use them to make a living and more often if we look at this more historically okay people need to support themselves the adventurer whose entire occupation is revolved around the capacity to freely travel in a world infested with monsters perhaps in groups or even by themselves would be more difficult they would more often fall into the role of mercenaries versus the plucky person who just travels and then what justifies them developing their skills now the thing is though being a mercenary if we were to take it from a more historical perspective is a more complex kind of thing than just hey i've got these skills i'm going to be a mercenary it usually attracts a certain type of personality more commonly than other types and they're not always the most savory or best people mercenary groups historically were often very cutthroat and not very nice groups i mean there are some pretty severe bad atrocities caused by mercenary groups that grew too big for their anyone to try and control them uh there are situations when mercenary groups are hired promised money and then the money wasn't delivered and they still need to get paid and so they just go on raiding sprees in the surrounding area sacking everything to get the money that they felt that they were entitled to they weren't getting and they just end up robbing and sacking and pillaging starting land it happened to rome right just listened to sabaton the last stare to get some historical context like one of my favorite songs of all time but the whole like story behind that song the historical context is of army of mercenaries that were uh left high and dry by the people that hired them and they're like what are we gonna do lads rome's over there let's capture the pope and the historical record accounts them doing some horrific we're talking about raping nuns on altars bad stuff okay hey when in rome i think that was more consensual this is the thing though the the the idea of someone who is going to learn to be able to fight and kill things really effectively and then choose to do it as a living these are like that's a life that does not attract the wholesome i want to settle down razer family and live a good happy life type of people uh and even if you know you can get good on women being mercenaries i'm not saying it's impossible but would that be the more common type of person that would end up doing that job we don't generally see that historically just in the larger trend and i'm not saying all of them were bad but they're at least more aggressive bit more rougher these are like their career soldiers this is separate to oh my country is under attack and i'm going to take up arms to defend my family or to protect the holy land or any noble call to action these are guys that are good at killing good at warfare and they want to get paid for it that does uh have certain application to the adventurer and i really feel a more uh realistic result is that you would actually see a larger representation of these cutthroat mercenary that's where the literal term that's very mercenary of your eye comes from where it's cutthroat it's aggressive it's you know right the face i feel we would see more examples of this type of adventurer far more so than the plucky band of heroes that would be the exception to have them but they usually do have a more noble call to action like my country's under attack there's a dark lord that needs to be defeated a ring needs to be thrown into a volcano and only this guy is can resist the temptation and stuff or the holy land needs to be reclaimed today his fault oh look there's a lot okay um but in terms of just general warfare yeah mercenaries but there is an actual a more noble kind of role for the career warrior again this could be the career not necessarily but if they are a career wizard of course you have many jobs that a wizard could fulfill the store everything but in terms of traveling i if there are so many useful things that you can do in your local area and achieve great success in it and you don't have to risk your life wizards would more often for those kind of roles councils to kings and all those things then constantly going out fighting monsters the monster clearing thing would actually yeah mercenaries adventurers and they would almost use black well like you know there's this village and constantly being hounded by a horde of goblins and then there's some mercenary group adventures come by and say we can deal with him for you just need to pay the right amount if not we'll let him slaughter you all you know so there would be a lot of uh villages in that difficult situation but this is where i come to the more noble role that could arise because the way that villagers could try and deal with that and not have to be extorted by cutthroat mercenaries would be by the role of the local champion or local hero all right the strongest man in the village who ended up you know just uh reaching the top being the like they got attacked by goblins there was one guy that turned out wow you took care of those goblins really good and when the goblins attack as a natural result of your success last time people are going to be looking to you for protection and then they'll regularly look to you that that could actually be your job your role you become the local champion the village champion the local hero who is there to protect the village and that i actually feel now of course you'd have like there's local militias and things but in terms of the fantasy world where you have these roles that individuals can take upon them as their occupation and then grow to a much greater level of competence than their average joe who's a member of the militia and he has his pitchfork next to him if these roles existed in a more historical lens and people can naturally fall into them just by ending up fighting in the process of events and everything something that's far more realistic in my mind is not necessarily going off on adventures because people have ties wherever you grow up you have family you have friends you have property that you own that you become attached to i love living in my home right and when i travel you know one of the things that i like most is coming back home right i look there are people just don't like traveling i'm one of them and even if i think this would reflect in the world because even people that don't like traveling we all have our homes and if you have your central location where you live and you have all these skills of fighting monsters uh you're the role you're a fighter or a ranger or a barbarian or any number of those things okay the local people are definitely going to be looking to you if there's any issues that are arising and if they can actually fulfill their needs be employed in their local area through operating their occupation i think vastly more adventurers would prefer to operate as adventurers in their local area than going on these long quests unless there's obviously an inciting incident that calls for it or maybe opportunity great adventure but outside of those i think more often that you would have the concept of the local hero adventure maybe a local adventuring group so instead of like adventuring guilds that reward rely on traveling adventurers the plucky blended heroes that just come upon them it's like oh we are looking for quests sir now that would be more mercenary types you would not have the local guild looking for outsiders you would have a local adventuring group that solely operates in their town village and they're known they have ties there they have houses family property all those things that's actually a vastly more realistic kind of result when we look at this so if we look at okay what are people like what do they do with their occupation all those things and that is again another opportunity for great conflict because adventurers just by the operation of adventuring you know they defeat a big bad goblin they would get some type of recognition for it they're known for being tough they might end up being vastly stronger than even the local militia and adventurists can get so darn tough that they can take on weak armies basically to the point there that they either might be offered certain roles influence stations of power in the local area or if they're somewhat morally dubious they might extort or demand it and going kind of like on the mercenary route but they could do it in a more subtle clever way to gain influence to the point where the leaders of these areas the true ones that become the nobles everything could be the adventurers and that could even corrupt certain groups to end up extorting them as like all right you rely on me for protection i'm gonna live in this castle i've got the money i've defeated all this thing and build it build a castle right next to the village and look i mean if you want me to stick around to protect you you just got to give me a monthly you know stipend wage or anything and that could increase the point where they could end up extorting protection money i don't look at that protection money have we seen that done historically so if monsters are around adventurers you know dubious you know un immoral kind of ventures could end up operating like organized crime in gangs in there like starting their local populace because they've got they're stronger they're more powerful but also they're the ones who deals with adventures and then you have conflict and that's already a story you could have a whole story just around this whole village of this is this village it could be a sizable village somewhat large trying to find reliable local people capable of protecting them from the threats around them and they relied on one they became corrupt and then now they're extraordinary village and the new thing wants to try and you know take them out and all that or they say we'll protect you don't you give them and abundant power get annoyed and they tell conflict story heaps of fun that you could explore here and these are just some examples when we try and analyze what would a fancy adventurer actually be like in a more realistic lens what are your thoughts i'd love to read them please do share them in the comments below because you can keep going with this idea keep exploring and there are other ideas that i'm sure i haven't mentioned so i look forward to reading what you have to say thank you very much for watching hope to see you on the next video and until that time farewell [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 298,027

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Id: DWHZ6HEpAZk

Length: 23min 25sec (1405 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 21 2022