Candles
Candles are items frequently found in fictional settings. Composed of a wick surrounded by wax, candles help light up dark areas and are often used to help set a tone or solve the problem of dark places. Fictional candles are often found decorating shrines and altars or illuminating the corridors of catacombs and castles.
| Synonyms: wicks, candle lights |
| Example Mythonyms: the Dark Candle, the Autumn Candle |
Designing Fictional Candles
Overview
Candles are commonly used in festivals and rituals. As they can be designed to burn at a set rate, candles can be used to measure time. Markings at regular intervals along the candle can indicate time intervals and historically, small metal nails or pins stuck into the side of a candle can elicit a noise when the candle burns to that point, and they fall.
Fictional candles, especially if they are magic or composed of some unusual fictional material, may burn in different colors. Thematically, the light of fictional candles is often used to represent the life of characters in narratives, and candles being extinguished often represents death. Magical candles, in this regard, may be directly tied to the life of a fictional character, place, or other element.
