Initially i had thought if my story would be based on fantasy world , it would be best to learn regarding the culture and language of the medieval world , or at least the fantasy medieval world,
… after reading novels and stories from the Arthurian Legends, as well as the Dungeons & Dragons brand of DragonLance/Forgotten Realms , i am influenced with their “art” of writing and cultural behaviour in a fantasy world, which i think nothing is wrong. Plus i venture deeper into article/ chronicle dedicated to the medieval Knights and their code of chivalry, all in the spirit to recapture the true "fantasy world " imagination …
But as you advice, maybe some terms need to be carefully applied in modern days …however for a story background which is based on medieval fantasy, i suppose they are acceptable
I’m female, and I agree - damsel, milady, etc can be part of the charm of a historical or historical-ish setting (classic Tolkienish fantasy, for example). In fact I used “My lady” just the other day in a steampunk tale (as an expression of respect for a lady of higher rank).
Faux-medieval language (thee and thy etc) REALLY annoys a lot of people… but it can be fun, too. Of course, medieval language (and culture; the two are inseparable) IS very sexist, so should be used with caution (especially since offensive language changes quickly eg if a major modern politician used an out-dated word for women, it would instantly become both iconic and forbidden; all the more so because it would stand out in a modern context).
Just keep in mind that you’re still writing from a modern perspective, and the backdrop doesn’t automatically mean that your readers have to be comfortable with certain content. I’d recommend asking female friends to read over what you write, and listen to them if they say it makes them uneasy.
And I second everything that @Felicity_Banks has said. Proceed with caution, it’s very easy to say something unintentionally hurtful. You aren’t trying to be mean and your readers should understand that, but definitely still try your best to make sure you aren’t accidentally crossing any lines
It’s worth noting that being a female doesn’t make me incapable of sexism. The older I get, the more I realise how many prejudices I hold against my own gender (and all the others, of course. We’re all a product of our time).
wait, Felicity… thee and thy are annoying? I usually used “thou” which means you, since i think they are cool in a speech … and the term “Holier-than- thou” is a classic mockery of villain and peasants towards hero/protagonist …
If i write something like " so thee thinks thy holier-than-thou Grail Knight has any place among us rebels ? ", will it be annoying ? i thought the word, thee, thy and thou are good substitutes , so that i won’t have to repeat the word “you” multiple times…
Well, and there’s also the approach taken in Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, which gives some description of distinctive features for all characters, and then gives more “quality of appearance” descriptions only for the gender(s) the main character is into.
I also like (and plan to take) the approach where an author just gives a fairly neutral description of what a character looks like, such that the reader can decide whether this sounds attractive or not.
I do think this is particularly important when writing text-based interactive fiction because you (at least usually?) don’t want to force a perspective on the reader.
I always think neutral descriptions are the best way to go–giving a description that someone is hot kinda assumes that the MC is into the same kinds of people the author is, and I prefer having it up to me whether or not my character is attracted to someone.
It’s definitely something unique to written fiction–if you were just showing images of the characters, then it really would be up to the player if they were attractive. Even if you notice in some things that someone is sort of the designated “hot one”–but even that can be done in neutral language I think, even if you’re describing someone you’re attracted to you don’t have to state that they’re attractive.
Personally i think it was prejudice towards the behaviour of an individual … because the editor expect the male character to be someone he/she expecting for …
The editor thought Male won’t be so concern and caring about forest/plant/something green ? well , some of the most powerful wizards and druids care for plants and animals within the forest, especially wizards in Lord of the Rings and Forgotten Realms.
It is something similar like a General expects how his male soldiers should fight , most general prefer his soldiers to apply brute force in overwhelming their enemies, hence when a male soldier apply stealth and quickness to defeat his enemy , the soldier is consider “not Man enough” to be a soldier …
Basically , it was blatant prejudice to depict a male’s personality based on personal preference
It would be ‘so thou thinks’. Thou is subject (the one doing things) and thee is object (the one having things done to them).
It’s not necessarily annoying? There’s even some dialects of English that still use thou/thee in some form. But be aware that even in a historical setting it’s going to make the characters seem very formal or very old-fashioned (or maybe just very pretentious )
One of my friends gets VERY annoyed at thees and thous (etc) because they’re often used incorrectly, giving rise to a kind of “fantasy” language which not-super-well-researched fantasy authors (such as myself) tend to use, based on all the other not-super-well-researched fantasy authors they’ve read.
so for thee… it should be something like “what happen to thee?” right ?
and i can write something like " Thou shall witness when the tiding of wars descend upon thee kingdom…", i don’t think it is formal or old-fashioned, if anyone had watch the tv series sleepy hallow … you will realise the male protagonist’s uttering of such words to the modern day female protagonist is actually “fascinating”
Honestly I don’t know the correct manner of speaking from different eras, and have never truly studied it. I only know that fiction writers copy one another’s mistakes. Here’s an article (that I haven’t read) on the topic.
I’m much better at spotting (and removing) modern slang in my steampunk. Or at least I think I am. “Okay” is hard for me to cut, because I use it so much in real life.
The pronoun “thou” takes an “-st” or “-est” ending.
So it would be “thou thinkest…”
But an actual user of it would almost certainly want to start with the verb because you are asking a question in your example sentence , so a more colloquial rendition would be “Thinkest thou…?”
Thou shalt witness the tiding of war descending upon thy kingdom.
Or, if you like (imagine me an Anglo-Saxon clan chief): “þú beadu in þin rice adunestigende behieldest !”
Something like that. Doing it in Old English has the advantage that fewer people will call you out for messing up cases and endings.
If you call me damsel of milady you will lost me in that moment. The deep meaning of those terms is machist and attacks me as woman. Is like in English called some one uncle tom nigro.(Sorry for the terms. It is to show him the point) I don’t have to be virgin to be respected, and I am not yours, and not a lady of anyone else if I don’t choose. And I COULD DEFINITELY DEFEND MYSELF. Iam not crying out for anyone came to defend myself.
Yeah, in the post-courtly love world, it’s hard to use those terms and not hear them as misogynist.
One of the questions I always start my medieval lit classes with is “what’s the difference between a woman and a lady?” and that’s always a really good conversation, even if the beginning of it starts of in confusion and reluctance to engage the question. Then we talk about the invention of the idea of “lady.”
While we’re on the topic…my co-author and I actually met when we worked at Medieval Times as teenagers. And it was company policy that you had to call all the guests “my lord” and “my lady.” Unfortunately, that makes it a habit and another mutual friend/coworker once held the door open for a woman behind him at a movie theater in his street clothes with an automatic “My lady,” and I guess they both felt extremely embarrassed about it.
I also have a lot of renaissance faire friends and a rare few of the guys think it is suave to old timey kiss a woman’s hand in greeting (again, outside of faire IRL). Having been on the receiving end of at least two of those, I felt very uncomfortable, though I smiled through it to be polite.
So, yeah, modern world applications are weird. And can easily be seen as creepy or condescending. Use at your own risk!
Edit to add: On the subject of Sleepy Hollow (and, for that matter, other cross-era stories like Outlander)…he wasn’t putting on a false manner of speech to impress people, that was literally how he spoke, given his period of origin. Context is important!
In Spanish is far worse because we still perceive the older deep meaning in the word. It is curious for me that the man that in my opinion less use gendered language and destroy all that stereotypes was Cervantes. He loved play with the virginity part of world. I found sad that all young male words none talks about virginity. Language assumes boys have sex.
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), just in terms of refering to his qualifications as being a man in terms of anatomy. Nonetheless, the article still raises an important point. So much prejudiced assumptions from the editor: 
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