Beltonia

One of my religions, Shastithism, is partly based on the premise of what would it would have been like if Jesus had come to a different world. The symbol of the faith is a hangman's noose.

I just have humans. I don't mind worlds with multiple fantasy races, I just wasn't inspired to do the same thing myself.

The Deer, the Bear-Sloth and the Mammoth

This is one of several fables that appear in the teachings of the western religious leader Gnilpa (also known as Naiban and numerous other variations), though at least some of it has an older origin. The fable builds on several archetypes common in western fables: deer representing cowardice, bear-sloths representing fatalism, mammoths representing wisdom and wolves representing evil. It also demonstrates a recurring theme in this world: divination is possible, but rarely useful. Gnilpa taught that compassion is more important than following a prophecy.

I agree you should start with no more than four major characters and introduce others one stage at a time. Even if other characters are present at the start, keep them in the background and properly introduce them later.

I'm close to 150k and on 29 out of 36 planned chapters. The outbreak of uncontrolled magic has stopped, but partly as a result, the realm is now in civil war. I'm still doubtful I will get this wrapped up with 6 more chapters, but I think there is a path to making sure this is publishable length.

Could you help me too please? A skin that is as white as a wall is called pale, right?

That depends. What colour is the wall?

Very few societies have a concept of teenagers as we understand it. One analogous word is the Aukorian word ségvidas. It means "one who is between": old enough to work but not old enough for marriage. However, the term is not associated with youth culture.

A religious movement started around Shastith, a reformer who opposed the elitist, warlike and literalist aspects of Ancient Barolian polytheism. Not long after her death, the movement became divided between polytheistic and monotheistic movements. Both movements retained the songs of Shastith with only minor differences, but their later theologians developed very different interpretations.

Some authors spend years fleshing our their world, others spend exactly zero. If you want to just get going with the story, then just get going. You can adjust the story to fit the setting when you re-draft.

In studying how empires appeared in history, whether the British Empire or others like the Romans, it is far more important to study the economic and military inequalities between the places involved than to attribute it to individuals (whether as blame or admiration).

A good place to start is Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660 (2004) by Trevor Royle, also titled The British Civil War in some editions. If you are new to the subject, it is beneficial to read about the decade of civil war before the republic to understand how it came about. And although Royle saves his strongest enthusiasm for accounts of battles, he also does a good job of joining the dots of the political history together. Another recommendation, more focused on the interregnum period, is Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate (2020) by Paul Lay.

In terms of how the trials played out, there was no major significant difference between the Salem Witch Trials and continental European ones. People were accused in the same way, arrests and trials played out in similar ways, and the even the controversial use of spectral evidence was not unique to the 1692 trials. While there was a global fear of witchcraft that many times transcended "borders" and cultures, the way the Salem (and Massachusetts) officials handled the "outbreak" of witchcraft was very much in line with European practices.

There are two more possible reasons:

I'm on 137k words today. In this chapter, magical disorder breaks out in a city, causing people to walk on walls or find themselves vanishing and reappearing in different places, as do inanimate objects — enough of a problem on its own, but a lot worse if buildings catch fire. This chapter marks the start of something of a 'Sanderlanche' conclusion, although I'm still apprehensive about whether I can really wrap the book up in 40k words. In hindsight, there is at least one character who will be key to the conclusion that I should have introduced earlier.

Witchcraft was treated as a serious crime, and so defendants would be tried according to the customs of where they lived. The legal process helped protect many who were accused of witchcraft; about 75% of all defendants in England were acquitted, though lynch mob incidents could also happen.

Yes, you should work on your grammar. A good editor can correct grammar mistakes and teach you a thing or two in the process. However, the better your book is before editing, the better it will be after. Another option is to find a collaborator.

In Ancient Barolian mythology, the sun and the moon are connected to the god Okhmar and the goddess Gimo, respectively. They are both children of Tainor, the king and father of the gods. Okhmar represented courage, strength, the weather, manliness and agriculture. He also represented goi, a concept which translates roughly as "contentment in a simple life". Gimo represented romantic love, beauty and guile. They believed that Gimo seduced Okhmar. Thus he violated his marital oath to Nyer, and Gimo gave birth to the first humans. (Incest was not an issue, as Tainor's children were exempt from the ban on incest.) Since humans were descended from the holiest of beings yet born of an immoral act, they were capable of both holiness and evil.

In Shastithism, the predominant religion of the East, there is a pantheon of twelve beings, who are the ancestors of humans and all living things. The polytheistic sect treats them as twelve gods. The monotheistic sect treats only their father and leader Tainor as a god, with the other eleven being demi-gods who are venerated rather than worshipped. In both sects, there are also venerated ancestors which form the next tier down.

Most of the speculated reasons as to why the Cahokia civilisation declined fall into two categories: a change in the climate or human overexploitation of the land. However, that raises the question: either way, why was there a collapse of an urbanised society in the Mississippi Valley, but not in other parts of the world, including many regions where the land had been intensively cultivated for thousands of years?

One option is to write phonetically in English. However, the problem with this is that English spelling is messy, with vowel letters having three or more different pronunciations. An alternative is adopt a more consistent but less intuitive spelling system, such as like Spanish or like Latin transcriptions of Arabic, and provide a pronunciation guide at the back.

Wait how did she intend it??

With a silent "t", like in French.

Both Tolkien and Rowling took the view that they preferred not to deliberately write stories with obvious allegories or messages, but instead let readers interpret them.

I'm writing a story in a setting where people speak a fictional language. Here is how I find words for concepts:

Thank you, for your advice. When you can't find a title in English do you ever use titles thay are clearly from other languages or cultures (if maybe in a common anglicized version) or would you go straight to making up your own? And do you use titles that are typically (historically) associated with a single person (like "Lord Protector") or after their meaning shifted ("Dictator"), if those associations aren't what you're going for? Or would you in that case rather invent your own.

My high fantasy settings are designed to avoid resembling real life cultures. My approach when writing high fantasy is to avoid words that feel like they were borrowed from another language, such as faux pas. When I see words like that, it makes me think "Oh, that's a French word... you mean there are people speaking French in this world?"

In monotheistic Shastithism, there is an analogous figure of Kak, also known as "the Enemy" or "the Turbulent Son". He is the son of Tainor ("the God") who rebelled against him and became his chief enemy. He became the founder, ruler and ancestor of the demons.

It is more important to write a worthwhile story with compelling characters or plot than to be historically accurate.