Help wanted!

Ok, I need help here guys. And girls.
I am writing a story at the moment, its an fantasy story which started as a fanfiction idea for Fable & Fable 2, but evolved into a story of its own.
Now, I will be using this thread to ask everyone on this site for help with this story. This help will be used to write this story and hopefully with your support, I can actually finish it.
And no, Tommy, this is not the story with Rega in it. Its a different story.

Right now I need help with two things. The first is accents. Any ideas you have about how I can make the accents of the people in the story beliavable are appreceated. Also, some examples of accents could also be useful.

The second are people. More spesifically, 'NPCs' to call it that. If the heroes of the story are the 'players', I still need NPCs, and suggestions to this would be helpful.

Okay, to enable everyone to help, I will explain a bit about the world my story is in. I don't have any names yet, they are comming, hopefully. But basically, the world is made up of five continents, separated by four oceans. There are elves, dwarves, monsters and dragons. Basically, it's your run of the mill fantasy setting.
In this world, people who dedicate their lives to protect others, travel. Such a person is called 'Hero' (et annet navn på de hadde kanskje vært greit, forslag?) and Heroes are usually revered and loved, as they protect others despite risks.

The story will be two fold. The first part will be mostly flashbacks, connected by stories told by an old woman. the flashbacks are about the 'main' character and about his journey towards becoming a Hero. the second half will be about his wife and daughter, ten years after he disappears and their journey to become Heroes as well.

A lot of things are still uncertain about this story, still in development, but ask if there is something you guys want to know about the story.

As I said, any help would be very nice to recieve

Lets see if I can be of any help.

as for accents, narrating might be a helpful tool, describe the speed and tone of it, any unusal noises as cliking,smattering or unatural noises for the human tounge. and in direct sentences, do not overdo it, less is better, just make some expressions and words or grammar differences which is normally used, dont put apostrofes and extra endings on every word or phrase. its a dialect, not a new language..maybe a few examples will help you.

Gnome; "what ya think? They seem liked they went down here methinks. but ya can make the call, ya are the tracker after all arentya?" he said in a way that would make you think he was building up for a joke. I have never heard a gnome which sounded sad or scared or angry. the only other tone which they possesed, was the one of strong determination and courage.

"Dwarf: 2 gold for a this piss-of-a-ale? By the hammer and the anvil. this is nothing more then a robbery! here, take it, you nogood-son-of-a-leech." the dwarf growled so fast that the whole sentences almost seemd like an angry grunt of a word. This suprised me, dwarves dont usually say much, and when they do, they take their time. In a lot of way, an angry dwarf rant, is much like an earthquake.

For the second question, you need to be more spesific. Dont know what you need help with

Hero..what about, champion? are they freelancers? or a organisation?

Hope this where of some help.

Okay, what you say about the accents are very helpful, methinks. hah, see what I did there?
I will definately use what you say to help me when I write.

As for the second question, I basically need examples of non-plot characters, i.e random people that will be put in the story when it fits. Important characters like main antagonists and such I will make myself, of course, but a little help in making the population of my world would be helpful.
Like when I planned for my school campaign, I will try to plan/make as much as I can before actually writing too much of the story itself. that way, I feel more secure in knowing I have actual stuff to put in the story, not random things that are half thought out.

There is no organistation for the heroes, not really. Each town has a town hall, and in there people can go and place requests for the heroes, thus making the town hall the quest giver, so to speak. But they are more or less freelancers, yes.
Champion...i'm not so sure. somehow it doesn't quite fit. Champion sounds more like they are all a bunch of lawful good paladins going around smiting evil, but they aren't...there are some rogues there too, to put it that way.

Methinks I saw what you did there.

As for npc ideas, I can give a little list of some npc concepts. Let me see.

A mad smith which acuse the the towns other smith to be in allegiance with a demon, which he says, fuels the fire of his workshop and saboutages the mad ones workshop by stealing the heat from it. A timid shopkeeper which seems to fear gnomes for some reason. a blue blooded family with alot of members which is rumored to be behind the plague which have effectet the last of the govering family. an exotic merchant which sells strange flowers and gems out in the wilderness. a drunken city guard which only wish is to be a traveling explorer. a boy which only have been spotted on fridays. a human widow which desperatly seeks a dwarven husband.

these are more unique characters, which could be plot or non-plot. for creating personalities for very non-unique character with no real story to the them, you should check out the DMG chapter 4, page 128 which have a list of possible character traits.

Here is the synonyms which I found for the word champio(hero only generated words like celebrity and such as):

advocate, ally, backer, challenger, champ, conqueror, defender, endorser, exponent, expounder, guardian, hero, heroine, medalist, nonpareil, number one, numero uno, paladin, partisan, patron, proponent, protector, supporter, sympathizer, the greatest, titleholder, top dog, upholder, vanquisher, victor, vindicator, warrior, winner

Hope to be of assistance.

You can "make up" a new language for a character as long as they don't speak more than a (short) sentence or two. Any more and it might become annoying and/or difficult to read.

You can use it for instance to underline stupidity, crudeness or un-educatedness (probably not a word ;p) of a character or group of people the reader is not supposed to like.

Also, you are as an author allowed to make up your own accents;) You don't need to rely on real-worldly accents. Just as long as it's not annoying or hard to understand.

Plus, I like the word "ain't."

Linapina wrote:

You can "make up" a new language for a character as long as they don't speak more than a (short) sentence or two. Any more and it might become annoying and/or difficult to read.

You can use it for instance to underline stupidity, crudeness or un-educatedness (probably not a word ;p) of a character or group of people the reader is not supposed to like.

It could work the other way as well, comprehension of an advance and old language may give the character flavour and make them more admirable. Especially if the tounge is conected to something mystical and archaic.

Oh, btw. regarding the Hero thingy. I have an possible solution, just make up word, from one og your created languages. Ghertaks just to give you an example. tell the readers it means; saviours of the forgotten or something, hero and such as sounds way to corny.