Something that makes me fall in love with a world is when the author uses terminology that is unique to that world’s setting. It makes the world feel so much more alive.
One of my favourite stories of all time is Shadow Slave. It is set in a world where people can fall victim to the Nightmare Spell, which wisps them away into another, much deadlier, world called the Dream Realm when they fall asleep.
“Because of how bleak and tense the reality of the Bright Castle was, it was easy to forget that in this cursed world, all of them were fellow humans. But in front of the quiet grave, the truth was stark and cutting: it was them alone against the endless tide of Nightmare Creatures, and every human life lost diminished them all.”
Shadow Slave Chapter 247
One of the lines in the early story that still sits with me is when the main character comes across a grave with the following words etched on its tombstone:
“Her nightmare is over”
I love this so much. They are all fighting and struggling in this bleak and nightmarish world. It makes so much sense that when they can finally rest in peace, their nightmare is finally over.
Another story that I love deeply for its terminology is Magical Girl Gunslinger. It’s a story about a world which has magical girls that fight off alien invaders. Traditionally, magical girls gain access to magical powers upon forming a contract with something. They can also have a wish granted to them when they establish their contract.
In Magical Girl Gunslinger, the main character has been chosen to become a magical girl. But, she is selected during an emergency situation where aliens are invading the city and no one is around to help her and the people with her in a shopping centre. Not only this, she is the only person free to act and she does not have access to their full capabilities of her magical powers. In fact, she is simply an average high school girl with access to guns and ammunition.
For many Guardians, the contract had saved them in more than one sense, giving them a chance to live a life filled with meaning.
But not for this girl. Not for a girl who had been given power only to be told to die with it all in the same day.
She hadn’t been saved. She’d been condemned.
Magical Girl Gunslinger Chapter 22
And despite her heroic efforts and going above and beyond what anyone could have expected from her, she was given one final task. She was asked to die to save the lives of others.
“But occasionally, there is a need to do something to save lives, even if it means the Guardian might not make it out alive. For that, there’s a special name.”
”It’s called a Death Wish.”
A Death Wish. I love that term. Taking a common phrase and allowing it to take on new meaning within the magical girl genre.
Finally, the last story I would like to call out is The Last Ship in Suzhou. This is the kind of story that is poetic and opaque and intentionally difficult to understand. It does not hand hold the reader whatsoever in its vocabulary and the audience is expected to puzzle out the meaning behind interactions.
One example is in the greetings between characters:
“A son of Tianbei Valley, Ji Kang, Finding, greets Daoist Bo of Song Mountain, whose Fires will light the path, whose Resolve will shake the earth.”
“Disciple Ji Kang of the Ascending Sky greets his senior, Daoist Nan Pu’er, Resolved, of the Paper Flowers, whose banner will not flag, whose palace will not fall, whose promise will be kept!”
The words Finding and Resolved refer to the cultivation levels, in other words, levels of power that each person has attained. But, even knowing what the levels of power are, I am still unable to puzzle out which levels these terms are referring to. Then, you have the terms “fires”, “palace” and “promise” which all refer to aspects and elements of the level of cultivation that person has achieved. What does that all mean? I have no clue. But I absolutely love it.