Is it bad to suddenly introduce another element to your fantasy world a good ways into the story?

Some of the best worldbuilding is done gradually.

If you introduce all the elements of your fantasy world very near the beginning, you risk boring your readers with a massive infodump. It's often better to introduce it piece by piece, as long as you do so in a way that seems 'natural'. This is why a lot of fantasy follows the standard Tolkien motif of the young provincial protagonist with little knowledge of the wider world - then the readers can learn about the world together with the character, and learning piece by piece is consistent with the story.

Example: in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, there are a vast number of characters and cultures which we learn about throughout the series. No way could all of those be explained in the early chapters, or even in the first book. We don't even understand fully what Aes Sedai are until around book 2; Aiel culture is introduced around book 4; Seanchan culture even later than that.

How to make a new introduction to the lore 'fit' with the story?

I mentioned above that you should introduce new elements of your world in a way that seems 'natural'. What does that mean exactly?

As a minimum requirement, it should at least make sense that this wasn't seen before. Going back to the Young Provincial Protagonist trope, it makes perfect sense that the readers only learn about Xidajopian culture halfway through the book if the viewpoint characters were unaware or ignorant of Xidajopia until then. But if you introduce a new magical ability which some characters had and knew about all along, you'd better make sure it's something they had no cause to use before.

For extra bonus points, make the new introduction fit with something previously unexplained. Sometimes it feels to readers as if the author is making it up as they go along and hadn't even thought of some new piece of lore until the time it's introduced. The best way of proving that your new addition isn't ad hoc is to make sure it connects with something earlier in the story, but not in such a way that everyone could predict it from that earlier something.

Example (bad): another answer here mentioned J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, in which many creatures and types of magic appear only far into the story, so that the worldbuilding gets deeper as the series goes on. But sometimes a thing introduced in a later book makes a nonsense of previous books because "why wasn't it used back then?" (the out-of-universe reason being "the author hadn't invented it yet back then").

Example (good): in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, there's a very logical and well-defined magic system, but not all of it is revealed at once. The first book introduces us and the main character to Allomancy and Feruchemy, but Hemalurgy is only understood in the third book. When that happens, we realise that many minor things throughout the story are in fact connected with it. It's clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the author did have this in mind from the beginning, but at the same time it would've been impossible for even the shrewdest reader to predict the details of this new magic system.

posted over 5 years ago

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Rand al'Thor‭

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OP: So, will suddenly adding this species to the mix over twenty chapters in throw the reader off (in a bad way)?

It certainly can do that, but you might get away with it. One way is to spotlight the fact that you haven't previously mentioned them, if you can think of a reason nobody has mentioned them in the first twenty chapters. Perhaps some magical concealment, or vampires are just covert. Perhaps they have learned to conceal the fact that they are operating in an area, disguising their kills as something else: rape and murder or lethal mugging. No characteristic teeth marks on the victim's neck. Or perhaps they have acquired magical amulets that transform the punctures of their teeth marks into the appearance of run-of-the-mill strangulation, looking like a rape. Or after feeding, they can make the remains of their victims vanish.

You can even begin the chapter with the vampire telling somebody (say her date) all the reasons she never believed in vampires, all the ways vampires don't make sense.

Yet another solution: In the final scene of the previous chapter, the previous POV character by some magical means learns, conclusively, that vampires are real, maybe along with the reason nobody talks about them or knows they exist. Then boom the next chapter stars a vampire.

You cannot make the new species look like a deus ex machina just to get your main characters out of a jam or solve some other problem. If they struggle against a bad guy, and your solution is "There are vampires, the vampire kills the bad guy, problem solved", that is not satisfying.

In other words, the vampire should not simplify anything for your main characters, it should complicate things for them. And unless you are writing a farce, don't make the vampire just another cardboard villain for them to put a stake in.

If you introduce a vampire character out of the blue, it is best if the vampire has a new problem, and the vampire's attempts to solve their new problem causes more new problems for the Main Character (or Main Crew).

So three parts: First throw a spotlight on why nobody in the world ever talks about vampires, Second give the vampire a new problem (an inciting incident that puts them on a new path to intersect the MC), and third, make sure you have complicated the story, do not let this introduction solve any problems for the MC.

Later (as EDL noted in Harry Potter) the vampire may indeed be instrumental. Later, in solving some problem for the MC, perhaps they cooperate, or perhaps the help to the MC is a side effect of the vampire solving its own problem (i.e. that is how the vampire's arc is concluded).

But not immediately; in its first chapter the Vampire must contribute to the troubles of other POV characters, and should have a real and new problem of its own to overcome, some motivation for changing its routine. It would be great if you can tie the vampire's new problem back to something caused by the POV characters; then the Vamp coming out will look like an unintended consequence of the Main Crew's actions.

posted over 5 years ago

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Amadeus‭

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If (as you say here) the vampires despide and hunted down, then it may be possible (if it does not conflict with other parts) introduce them out of blue in something like this (yeah everyone knows about vampires, there just was not reason to show it, until now):

... and so I stopped the running boy and asked him "what it is all about?"

"Don't you know? They catched a vampire today! They say that he will be put in chains on the main square for all day long and then burned at evening!" he enthusiasticly waved his hands as if he catched the vampire itself.

"Finally some good news" I replied "I did not heard about such catch for so many months!"

"Yes, our Prince is realy a hero" agreed the boy "nobody is such good vampire hunter as he is. Heralds say, its his tenth vampire and that the show will be really big today!"

"I must be there for sure, cannot miss such great event" I told, but the boy was already running toward main square again ...

posted over 5 years ago

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gilhad‭

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There's nothing inherently wrong with this at all - the important thing is that the introduction seem organic. Is there a reason why the existence of vampiric creatures wouldn't have come up (or even been known) to the existing POV characters before this point? If so, and it's in keeping with your world (you wouldn't just introduce actual magical wizards into Season 3 of ST:TNG for example!) then go for it!

Many stories with fantasy elements do similar, some by use of an audience surrogate (Harry in Harry Potter, Diana in the All Souls trilogy, etc) others because a complex supernatural world is big - and it can take time for even seasoned initiates to encounter everything (e.g. Harry in The Dresden Files).

Without wanting to cross much into world building here vampires are a an easy soft ball for this sort of thing - common tropes revolve around them living somewhat secretly from the rest of society (World of Darkness, Buffy, etc) and being relatively well equipped to do so.

posted over 5 years ago

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motosubatsu‭

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If you've established your world as one with fantasy species, it's okay if you don't mention every one early on. Lots of novels and screenplays throw new species into the mix later on and that's fine, so long as you've established that your world is one where similar species already exist.

Novels such as A Discovery of Witches establish a couple species not long into the story but add others later, sometimes in other books in the trilogy. Well known species too. TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Being Human do the same.

If you want to briefly mention or hint at it, that works too. But it's not necessary.

posted over 5 years ago

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Cyn‭

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