On “In Turn with Nature” Heroes & Societies

 I picked up the digital library copy of A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir, and uh, I don’t think it really worked for me. Which was a bit of a disappointment. Next I’ll be reading more Hellboy, I think, and maybe a new author? We shall see!

I will put up pictures of last weekend soon, I hope, for people on Facebook. But in the meantime, since this is Earth Day, I thought I would try to do something remotely related to the idea? I’ve also been looking at Limyaael essays lately, so I think this shall end up being an essay in that vein.

On “In Turn with Nature” Heroes & Societies

It’s Earth Day! I was whining about Iron Druid Chronicles and I thought about making this a “Here’s another way in which Atticus fails as a protagonist” essay, but we’re going to try to go in a different direction instead. Part of the reason I thought about that for Earth Day is that Atticus apparently has it as his sworn Druid duty to protect Earth and care about the environment, but he does fudge all about it over the course of the story.

I got to thinking though, because he’s hardly the only character in speculative fiction who is meant to be environmentally-friendly, and I had thoughts about how that should look! So here are some things I think that writers should be thinking about when trying to write environmentally-friendly characters or societies, those that are supposed to be “in tune with nature.”

Also! I highly advise that if you are writing a fantasy or science-fiction story, that you don’t make the “nature-tuned” characters clearly coded as Native Americans. That’s just lazy.

WHERE DO PEOPLE LIVE?

Random dunk on Iron Druid: Atticus lives in a suburban house in Tempe, Arizona. Yeah, the eco-friendly Druid who “lives simply” just lives in a house next to a bunch of other people. Clearly he’s got the fate of Gaia in mind.

But this is a question to ask about characters and societies who are supposed to be in tune with nature! The stereotypical answer, for characters like Radagast in Tolkien or Paolini’s elves is that they live deep in the forest to commune with the animals and trees and such. Which certainly sounds nice, but hey, you do realize that there’s more to nature than forests, right?

Where are the in-tune-with-nature types when it comes to other biomes? Forests, mountains, and rainforests are covered, but are there any nature-tuned characters in deserts? Underground cave networks? Swamps? Tundras? Beaches? The ocean floor? Volcanoes? These are all part of nature! And I know that fantasy and science-fiction writers are happy to put characters in these places, but very rarely are they the types who are meant to be in-tune with nature. Which is a shame because I would like to see a nature-tuned kooky wizard, a bit like Radagast, except living on a houseboat shack thing on the sea, surviving off of fish and seaweed. Where does he get water? I don’t know yet. But it’d be fun to find out.

If this is a fantasy or science-fiction world, you can make really weird worlds for people to live in. What would it be like to live in a giant mushroom? Next to a lake of syrup? On the head of a giant the size of an island?

If this is a modern day setting, figure out something that makes sense. Unlike Atticus, a nature-tuned character, who is meant to really care about these things, might live alone out in the wilderness. They certainly would not be living in a nice house in a suburban neighborhood, using up electricity to watch movies with the dog.

HOW DO THEY MAKE THEIR STUFF?

This one takes some thought because a lot of people today don’t have a clue where any of their stuff comes from.

Paolini’s elves are meant to be incredibly in-tune with nature; they sing their architecture out of the trees around them, and they don’t use animal products to make clothing. Which is kind of cheap, but okay, fine. We’ll accept that they’re that magically-powerful. Still, one wonders where they get the metal for their weapons and armor; there’s no mention of mines, and I don’t know if singing works for minerals and rocks.

Without industrialization, metalwork isn’t impossible, but it is certainly less common! So nature-tuned characters probably don’t have as much of that kind of tool lying around. And that’s okay! There are cultures that made knives or axes out of stone, after all. Or heck, I’d like to see where 

Clothing! Where did that come from? Where did the fabric come from? Plant fiber? Wool? Skins? Think about if these people use sewing needles, and if they do, what they’re made out of, depending on whether they can use bone or metal. Again, a lot of these nature-tuned cultures in fantasy tend to be vegetarians, so would they use bone for tools? Leather for clothing? And if so, do they get it off of already-dead animals?

Also, once again, different environments other than forests would lead to some interesting things. If a culture lives in a cave deep underground, or in a desert, where there aren’t a lot of trees, they probably won’t be using a lot of wood to craft things–unless you worldbuild a special kind of tree that lives in those places! The same with animal materials.

WHERE DOES THEIR FOOD COME FROM?

Related–what do they eat? In Iron Druid, despite Atticus saying he lives simply, and having magical control of plant life, he apparently just… buys all of his food. He goes hunting with his dog sometimes, but all of his usual foodstuffs are store-bought. This is because he’s inconsistent as all get-out.

In Horizon Forbidden West, you meet the Utaru, a tribe that’s very “in touch with nature”, and they’re all vegetarians, although the recent Blight has led some of them to take up hunting in desperation. That’s some interesting worldbuilding right there! It’d be interesting to see further–how good are they at preparing a dead animal and cooking it, having never done it before?

I’ve never really understood the idea of nature-tuned characters not eating meat though; the Utaru get a pass because they live in the middle of a crop field plowed by their deities (a group of robot triceratops), so they have reason to think the gods want them to prefer plants. But considering that animals eating other animals is part of nature, you would think more of these characters would be okay with eating meat. There are some excuses I understand–Daine in Immortals has some trouble eating wild meat, given that she can communicate with animals, and Beast Boy in Teen Titans has been those animals so he doesn’t want to touch meat.

Also keep in mind, if these people are vegetarians, how do they get those plants? Do they grow them as crops, or forage for them, which means depending more on nature to provide regular meals? And do they keep animals, perhaps for things like milk or wool?

WHERE DO THEY GO TO THE BATHROOM?

A short one, but most writers don’t get into it, and really–if they’re so in-tune with nature, do they use their poop to fertilize their plants? That’s what it’s good for, after all. But it’s gross. 

[Random, somewhat unrelated thought about that time Rowling claimed that before plumbing, the wizarding world just pooped in corners and used magic to clean it up.]

There’s a line in Artemis Fowl in which it’s revealed that the fairies think the idea of having a room to go to the bathroom in your house is gross. What they do with it, other than have outhouses, I don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought. But if this is a society that cares that much about the environment, where do they do that business? And what do they do with it? Do they have a way to cycle it back into nature to help grow plants? Do they have a designated place outside of the habitation zones for plumbing to go (if they have plumbing)? 

WHAT ARE THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS?

I feel like there’s a general vague idea of a ‘faux-Celtic pagans in touch with nature’ religion, but most people don’t know anything about pre-Christian Celtic religions so it always falls flat. 

These nature-tuned people will have different gods based on where they live and what affects their lives the most, just like anyone else in the real world. The main antagonistic deities to a lot of pre-Christian societies were storm gods, for instance, because those caused a lot of damage to people’s lives–but if you’re a people who desperately needs rain or water, gods of rain, river, and lakes will be pretty influential.

The gods that people care about are going to be the ones that give them what they need–whether that’s food, water, sunlight, or some other factor I haven’t thought of.

Gods of trees are not likely to do that much, unless these people actually live in the trees (though trees might be sacred to certain gods–oaks were the trees of Zeus and Thor, after all). Trees don’t provide that much food on their own. Although if you made a fantasy world in which people live in the trees, or the trees are magic in some way–then yeah, a tree deity might make sense. You’ll have to figure out if it’s okay for those people to use wood for fire or carving though.

One last detail! What do they do with their dead? There’s a nature-y quality to burying or burning the dead, letting them go back to nature, but that’s not what every culture on Earth has done. The Zoroastrians of ancient Persia let their dead be eaten by scavengers on a designated platform, as a way to feed the world they came from–that’s also a part of nature, though not one people like to think about today.

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