#and more worldbuilding

[bixels]

Quick worldbuilding comic about magical items.

#gonna do more of these #i'm trying to let myself be looser/less perfectionist #my art #comic #doodle #twilight sparkle #celestia #mlp #the grand galloping 20s #yes this was inspired by kui's worldbuilding comic doodles for dungeon meshi

[flickering-nightfall]

Playing with some ideas mostly regarding gender/reproduction in RW, and slugcat colonies.

Full transcript under the cut!

Creatures in Rain World are typically simultaneous hermaphrodites but require partners to reproduce, with either individual capable of being a genetic donor or carrier. Alongside what we are familiar with, this has lead to interesting reproductive strategies such as rotating donor/carrier roles, or dual/simultaneous genetic swaps.

Rotating donor/carrier roles - A K-selection reproductive strategy. One partner carries the first child, the other partner carries the next child, and so forth. Allows each partner to recover from the demands of childbearing.

Rain Deer aren't quite monogamous, but they tend to choose the same breeding partner whenever mating season rolls around. They serve as a donor one season, then bear and raise a child the next. Calves are raised away from the rain and worm grass, in places that have less food but more safety. Calf wool is softer, not yet gunked up by the dirty rainfall. Their legs are sturdier as children, allowing them to run for cover while the parent wards off threats.

Dual/simultaneous genetic swap - An r-selection reproductive strategy. Parents fulfill the donor and carrier role for each other. The more children you make, the more likely some are to survive!

Multiple batflies lay thousands of eggs in a single "blue fruit." Several eggs congeal and become nutrient paste for the surviving eggs (and for hungry slugcats). Like some plant seeds, batfly eggs that are consumed before pupating can survive passing through the digestive system. Ew.

Ancients also fell under this umbrella. Their genders (and the genders of iterators by extension, who have no sex anyways) could have been determined by a variety of other factors, such as societal role, donor/carrier preference, or simply different categorizations of personal expression.

It's difficult to say how well their common pronouns would translate to ours, but it seems they can translate to an extent, given what Moon and Pebbles use canonically.

Slugcats, like real slugs, can have children with a partner or self-fertilize. Unlike real slugs, they are often known to adopt.

In the case of self-fertilization: children who are born from one parent may display a large amount of genetic diversity despite the circumstances. Maybe slugcats have some sort of... genetic reservoir independent of their own genetic code?

Slugcats live 20-30 years on average... if they manage to reach adulthood. Their mortality rate is sadly rather high, especially in pups. If they were to develop as a civilization, it's likely their lifespan would increase dramatically.

Slugcats in a colony are more likely to have more children, and to successfully rear those children to adulthood, than those who wander alone or in small groups. The safety and stability of a colony cannot be understated.

Colonies either have a set, cycling migration path, or wander continuously. Survivor and Monk's tree home was a nesting site that their colony frequents about once a year. So it's likely that they'll see their family again!

...also, the strength of large colonies are why scavengers are likely to become the dominant species. In the time of Saint's era, continuous migration has become more of a risk, and it has become more difficult to support large populations. Slugcat populations have shrunk back to the more forgiving equatorial zones.

Saint's tongue is pretty unusual and probably unique to them, or to a small population that they hail from. Fur (of varying thickness) is much more common.

Meanwhile, scavengers are bulkier and covered in thicker insulating fur. They:

have seemingly massive populations

have a burgeoning society (the existence of merchants, tolls, bartering, elites and leaders)

are adept at communicating (non-verbally)

manipulate their environment

can build structures (scavenger-made structures were a scrapped idea from Saint's campaign)

can create complex weapons and tools

may have agriculture behind the scenes (unsure if scout parties prioritize exploration or hunting)

I would wager on scavengers developing more quickly than slugcats, but it would be nice if there was a future where both could co-exist.

#oops! impromptu rendering practice! #rotating donor/carrier roles could also be an r-selection strat #but i feel like it'd be more common as a k-selection strat #rain world #worldbuilding #headcanons #flickerdoodles #art #um #ask to tag? #that goes for all of my posts #rw spoilers #dp spoilers #saint spoilers #long post

[itseghost]

i almost want to do an expression sheet for him so i force myself to expand past his rbf. but its so easy and fun to draw him with one

#essek thelyss #the mighty nein #critical role #critical role fanart #mighty nein #m9 #cr fanart #i like the setup of these low stakes sketches same as the fearne one lol #i just get to do a chill sketch adn then color + blend mode until im bored yippie!! #gave him a lot of layers on his outfit bc of one of my favorite shadowgast fics i read recently that will affect how i draw essek forever #in the closet of our discretion by firefright on ao3 #REALLY cool worldbuilding through kryn fashion customs #im really excited to draw him in more outfits :] #itseart

[dyssonant-skyline]

"because its hell" doesn't hold up.

When you create a setting from scratch, you have total control over it. You get to make the rules. You can't excuse a flaw in writing or presentation with "it is hell, it has to be this way!"

Here is one paraphrased example from Hazbin Hotel I've heard recently in response to a critique of calling the main characters too reliant on pinks/reds:

"All the characters have red in their color schemes because they are from the Pride ring and the rings are color coordinated."

While this gives an in-character/in-lore explanation for the color schemes, what it doesn't do is change the fact Hazbin Hotel's characters having a hard time standing out from the background. An in-character/in-lore justification should NOT be prioritized over the overall quality of a project.

As a writer, you have control over the constraints of your story. If you write yourself into a corner, you can't just throw up your hands and give up. You have to be willing to rework your lore and stories to make them stronger.

If excessive cursing is grating and making certain moments within your story less impactful, you should reel it in because it makes the presentation stronger. If your color based lore is causing the visuals of your project to suffer, it is time to reassess the lore.

Just because something is logically consistent within a world, doesn't make it a good writing/art choice.

A setting's rules should serve stories and characters, not the other way around.

#please... stop using that as an excuse. it is an admission that the writers could have fixed the issue by thinking through the- #worldbuilding/lore more... but they didnt. Anyway #that's my personal take/rant on how stories should be written. #hazbin critical #hazbin hotel criticism #vivziepop criticism #hazbin hotel critique #hazbin hotel redesign #helluva boss redesign #vivziepop critical #helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical #Dys rants

[starry-bi-sky]

I'm in A Mood™ (stressed) so im going back to my roots of melting two character together into one person. So bruce wayne!danny fenton. Danny Fenton who, for eight years, grew up in a beautiful gothic manor with his mom and dad under the name "Bruce Wayne". Playing piano with his mother, running around the manor with his father.

Then when he's eight it's ripped away from him. There's blood on his hands and pearls pooling at his feet, and both his parents are dead in front of him.

And he gets shipped off to distant relatives "the Fentons" shortly after, Alfred close on his heels because someone needs to take care of him, someone that knows him. Bruce goes to the Fentons for the safety of anonymity. Gotham's press wants to sink its teeth into him.

Danny misses his city even if it took everything from him. There are shadows in his eyes and he's pale as a sheet even beside his distant cousins, and they change his name to "Danny Fenton' because nobody should know that their newest child was illustrious orphan Bruce Wayne.

They call him Bruce behind closed doors. Danny prefers it that way, he clings onto the name -- the one his parents gave him -- like a lifeline. He makes friends with Sam and Tucker. Tucker takes one look at the willowy, morbid little boy standing in the corner like a shade, ghosts in his eyes, and drags him out into the sunlight, and takes him over to Sam.

When Danny is twelve, he's still not over it -- and he's a little obsessed with the Fentons' research, with the morbid. He has books upon books on death, murder, detective work. Anything he can get his hands on. And stars. He loves stars.

Alfred owns the apartment next to them and comes over regularly. Danny clings to him.

When Danny is twelve, he's still quiet, meek, a shy little thing prone to being bullied. Freaky little Fenton with the night in his eyes and too-cold skin even before he put one foot in the grave. in a sleepover in his room with Sam and Tucker, he tells them the truth. They're his friends, he trusts them.

"My name is Bruce." he murmurs, voice quiet as the breeze, always quiet. he's staring at his star-covered sheets.

"Like Bruce Wayne?" Tucker asks, a joking tone in his voice.

Danny smiles a little, lamb-like with insecurity. "I am Bruce Wayne." And he takes them down to the lab, disrupting Maddie and Jack, to prove it. Sam tells them of her own wealth then shortly after. They start calling Danny "Bruce" in private too -- its trust. Thats what it is. It's trust.

Sam goes to media functions and comes back with aching feet and complaints on her tongue -- and Danny soaks it up all like a sponge, splayed across a beanbag chair with Tucker in her room. He's not envious of her, he used to go to events with his parents and they kept him safe from the ugly of Gotham's Elite. For the most part. He's had comments made at him, he doesn't miss them.

Alfred returns to the manor semi-regularly, Danny goes with him. he wanders the hallways and helps Alfred clean, the last thing either of them want is for their home to fall into disrepair. He brings Jazz with him next time, then Tucker, then Sam. They all help him clean, and he shows them his room. The one across from his parents', it feels strange.

When Danny dies when he's fourteen, the first adult he tells is Alfred. He and Jazz go over to his house more often than they stay in the Fentonworks building. At least at Alfred's, the food doesn't come to life. Alfred sits at the kitchen table and weeps when Danny tells him, Jazz is upstairs, and its just the two of them.

Danny's ghost form wears pearls around his wrist and the gloves look stained with some kind of black substance. He looks like a child who died in a lab accident, but he also looks like a child who has shadows dripping off his shoulders, curling at his feet, hanging from his eyes.

because amorphous blob batman has my heart always and danny/bruce will not escape it even in death even if that IS the only reason im giving him Mild BatBlob Vibes...so far

when they go to the manor, alfred helps danny make a pile of stones between Martha and Thomas' graves, nobody but the two of them (and sam and tucker) will know what it means. (not even bruce's children later down the line, not for a long, long time)

danny dives into ghost fighting on shaky feet and not half as witty as he once was in one world. he's skittish, skittering between blasts from shadow to shadow and clumsily making his way through each battle. but helping people lights a fire in him. he still has shadows dripping off his feet but there's a purpose in his eyes.

and god help him, he's going to help people.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #dpxdc prompt #this is just me torturing danny for a little bit because im stressed and i cried for an hour while i was driving so im taking it out on B #thanks for being my little stress ball danny #aha my old middle school habit of frankensteining two characters together is resurfacing again :) yall should've seen my wattpad drafts #in middle school. i had 50 of them and most of them were me combining two characters together to make one person and putting them in one au #my most memorable being skydoesminecraft and harry potter. THAT was a fun worldbuilding experience #do i think that growing up with the fentons would fix bruce/danny completely?? hurm. no. dont kid yallselves jazz is not a licensed #therapist not even at like. nine when she meets danny. she's not helping him through his trauma in the slightest. she's nagging. #she's his sister or sister-like figure before she's his therapist. would he be #*entirely* like canon bruce tho?? no. dannybruce is a mix of the both of them. but this is still the first post of the au and is more so #just me doing the equivalent of popping a stress ball so nothing is smoothed over. mostly im just trying to keep bruce's trauma prominent i #danny's character because he IS Bruce. i dont want him to just be 'danny with bruce's backstory but without any of the ugly bits'. #danny and bruce is used interchangeably because they're the same person but sorry if his personality feels imbalanced i came up with this o #the spot. was going to type more but the stress has left me. for now. watch ur back danny 👀

[marzipanandminutiae]

#poll #bad history #no Baylie Carson you cannot be 'she/they Boleyn' #you are a nonbinary actor playing a cis female 'character.' because she's not a character. she's a real person #who was a cis woman #with no known evidence of liking other women. ergo based on current scholarship...she was not queer #and it's cool I think! more trans and NB actors SHOULD play cis characters! god knows the reverse happens often enough! #but. yeah. #interestingly the pocket thing was a stolen and misrepresented bit of worldbuilding from another author #who was very clear- when the debate came to her attention -that it was fictional and she made it up #(it was from Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches) #but Forster blocked everyone who pointed this out and deleted all contradicting comments

[dimespin]

Do saratoans associate the shades of ashy brown that are natural to their species' skin under the magical pigmentation with death? Sorry for the kinda morbid question, I was just thinking about how controversial open-casket funerals are in some cultures (as one does) and your guys crossed my mind in context with that.

Not generally - it's considered an inappropriate color for say, a saratoan dolly, since that makes it look like a corpse, but shades of gray and taupe are popular for clothes where it's just judged to be a nice neutral tone that their bright skin colors pop against.

It takes a bit more effort to choose accessories that read as symbolic of death to them. Their funeral rites are themed around the color the deceased was in life, mourners bring items of the same color to place by the body, creating a cluttered collection of items of the same color

The symbolism of death is a little more individualized as a result. The color of "goth" for Saratoans is just whatever color they are + excessive clutter

Dressing like this is ironically considered off putting by younger adults and is accepted more warmly by elders rather than being a way to shock and rebel against elder generations.

Elders generally read an outfit like this as "funeral director" which is a role not considered totally necessary to the management of rites, but are a welcome relief to overworked household leaders to have someone experienced available to support them.

#death #funeral rites #funeral practices #worldbuilding #saratoan #I like rando funeral director girl I'm gonna develop her more #dime made this

[beastsoulart]

🕯 𝘏𝘶𝘴𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴 🕯

#artists on tumblr #oc #illustration #monster #horror #horror art #deer #skull #creature design #monster art #worldbuilding #concept art #oops forgot the tags first go around #I'll post more on here I swear

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

utter bullshit that we stop growing at a certain age.

humans should grow (both taller and wider) at a continuous rate throughout our lifespans. i want to be 80 years old with the proportions of an average human being except i am the height of a multistory building. that would be so fun. that would require so much societal rearrangement. this isn't a want it's a need

#snyesyd #you want worldbuilding? here's your worldbuilding *shoves it across the table* #take it! confiscate it from me! i cannot be trusted to provide a nurturing home environment. #there are legends that certain tall people who manage to reach the age of 100 have in fact surpassed the height of the statue of liberty #it hasn't been proven solely bc people that Old and Tall have no interest whatsoever in standing up just to prove/document a point #they are 100+ years old and 150+ feet tall and they are Tired and they Do Not Give A Shit #they will stand up on their great-great-grandkid's birthday so the kid can sit on their shoulder & survey the majesty of nature & etc #anything more than that? they're not interested they're staying in bed

[extrajigs]

More penta-beasts! Want to get a good grasp of the morphs going on in this planet. So sketched these out between coms! Info below!

First is more of a grazing type of 'animal', though their grazing is more so scrapping at the ground. The top and bottom jaws are used for scratching up edible bits from the biomat, while the middle are used for combing through the gunk they accumulate from scratching. They also got these long curved eyes. I was thinking like how animals with horizontal pupil align the pupil to the horizon, these guys just have their eye built into two modes so they have the wide vision when feeding and just hanging out. Maybe a lil goofy but this planet is just made to be silly. Like this other guy! This is a predatory pentapod, usually stalking up in the night before starting a quick chase. Most of the time the food gets away but if not they have modified their spear into their primary method of dispatching prey. They kill via exsanguination and eat with very dainty little bites as their jaws have atrophied a little bit. Also fun spikey shell to make them extra dangerous! Maybe it's when they have lil spats with each other.

#pentapods #working on a more detailed explanation of their mouths #worldbuilding #art #speculative biology #spec bio #xenobiology #aliens #ooo

[andr0nap]

ITS POLAR THOMA TIME BABY

with angie and buddy bc i LOVE them sm

#trigun stampede #trigun #thoma #nicholas d. wolfwood #vash the stampede #angelina the draft thoma #buddy the thoma #ice planet au #speculative biology #worldbuilding #andr0art #pondering these orbs #guess which animals theyre inspired by #for more thoma info check out the cowboy au version #basically the same but reskinned and with a buffed resistance to frost #hi yes i was supposed to post this ages ago #but i forgor :)

[rogue-rook]

I have SOME THOUGHTS about equal rites ushering in early era discworld by giving us eskarina, a girl who becomes a wizard with granny weatherwax's help, and now shepherd's crown is ushering out late era discworld by giving us geoffrey swivel, a boy who wants to become a witch with tiffany aching's help, neatly closing the narrative loop

#I'm not slandering colour of magic/light fantastic but they are very clearly just worldbuilding exercises #while equal rites is more of an actual discworld book #discworld #the shepherd's crown #gnu terry pratchett

[blackkatdraws2]

Giggling about this [Achromatic Loop AU/non-canonical]

Original Image:

#tsp achromatic loop au #wow i REALLY need to make more about them #I dont want their AU to be overshadowed by Blank Scripts #Blank Scripts is worldbuilding driven while Achromatic Loop is character driven #and I think it's a bit obvious which of the two I like more lmao [sorry Achromatic Loop AU eaugh your little sibling here is more fun] #by this point im pretty much just borrowing ideas and concepts from The Stanley Parable #this is an AU but its also an original work of mine #its up to you which one you consider it as #but i see it as a bit of both #either way im having a lot of fun creating these things #tsp au #the stanley parable #the stanley parable ultra deluxe #tsp #tspud #tsp narrator #narrator tsp #stanley tsp #tsp stanley #my drawing museum

[powdermelonkeg]

Okay but given that you can make alcohol from just about any plant, a world built around Minecraft could have SUCH a liquor cabinet.

You’ve got your basics, the potato and wheat vodka, gin, whiskey, then rum from sugarcane or beet sugar if you’re feeling a little adventurous.

Then you’ve got the fancier things. Dandelion and melon wine, spike vodka, pumpkin liqueur, applejack. Zhuyeqing jiu and chocolate liquor if you REALLY want to go for the cool stuff.

You’ve got mead and all kinds of moonshine, everything from carrots to kelp to sawdust brandy if you live out in the Badlands. Sunflower and rose spirits, lilac wine, even milk liquor and advocaat if you want to deviate from plants a bit.

But then you’ve got the plants that don’t exist in our sphere.

Chorus liqueur, dripleaf absinthe, glowberry champagne and sweet berry wine, glow lichen beer and crème de spore blossom, golden apple cider, glistering cordial. For the truly danger-seeking, wither rose lanique.

#minecraft #worldbuilding #alcohol tw #that's not even going into the FLAVORS you can add!!! #mushrooms and shroomlights in beer #nether wart maybe as a common flavoring #all kinds of cocktails and stuff #you've got different woods for barrels too #and allium is technically onion so #that's a WHOLE new can of flavors there #fun fact as i was researching this i found out there's an alcohol made from carrots that's just called C #we should do more with carrots seriously #also also lichens were used to make beer historically! #it was a brief stint but it's possible #also sawdust brandy. that's actually from an old loz project #i was trying to look up what kinds of alcohol would be possible in a decaying world like lorule #and sawdust brandy was up there #edit: if people are seeing this version where kefir is replaced #yes kefir is (minorly) alcoholic #you can fail a dui test if you have enough of it #in the same sense that poppy seed muffins can make you fail an opium test #if your tolerance is super low you CAN get buzzed off it #however #I put it on the list initially to have something milk-based for alcohol #it was originally kumis which is stronger #but it’s mare milk and you can’t get milk from horses in minecraft #I have since replaced it with milk liquor because 1. lithuania somehow has done it #and 2. china made vodka out of milk??????? #the site called it lai jiu but I can’t find anywhere else calling it that #so milk liquor it is!

[recurring-polynya]

My kid asked me to explain blood types to her today, which made me remember the odd little fact that in the character profiles that appeared at the ends of the earliest Bleach volumes, there are blood types listed for the human characters, but not for the shinigami characters. Shinigami obviously have blood, we've all seen it, we've seen so much of it, honestly, but is it like blood blood? Is blood transfusion a thing they do?

I did not have any particular recollection of anyone ever receiving a blood transfusion in Bleach, but I looked up all the hospital scenes I could think of off the top of my head. Both Byakuya nor Hinamori have sort of a notable absence of things sticking out of them. I'm no expert and I don't even particular like doctor shows, but this is a situation where I would expect both of them to have IVs for hydration, if nothing else. Hinamori's got a respirator and some mysterious carts off to her far side, at least, and maybe Byakuya's just far enough on the upswing that he doesn't need it anymore.

Next shot was the famous Rukia and Renji sharing a hospital room scene.

Renji's respirator goes...under his blanket? Is this right? This doesn't seem right. Rukia doesn't seem particularly attached to anything, although there's kind of a bundle of wires? tubes? coming out of her right shoulder area. You can see them better in this shot:

That sure doesn't look like medical grade tubing, the lower one looks kinda like Hihiou Zabimaru, tbh. IVs usually work by gravity, no? Also those tubes are way too big to be going into someone's veins.

Finally, here's Kira, getting his dubious Squad 12 medical procedure.

More shady, giant, intestine-ass looking tubes that... go into him? wtf. They're attached to a computer. Maybe these are data cables?

The upshot of all of this is that I don't think shinigami have blood transfusions. I can't imagine that they don't know about them, so I imagine it's more of a case of their blood is just part of their soul, like, all of them is just soul all the way down, and it would be nearly impossible to accept a transfusion that was made of someone else's soul (soulmate-enjoying fanfic writers, take note). They do like sticking tubes in people, tho.

This sucks because when I was originally thinking about this, of course I was thinking about all the blood Renji has in his body and whether or not he's a universal donor, because, frankly, if he is, I think they would have a special framed painting of him at Squad 4 and let him have as much donuts and apple juice as he wants.

I think the main reason manga list characters' bloodtypes anyway is because Japanese people use it as a personality test, similar to horoscopes. For the record, here are the characters whose blood types we know:

Ichigo - AO Orihime - BO Chad - AO Tatsuki - AO Isshin - AB Uryuu - AB Don Kanonji (????) - BO

When I was trying to look up what they meant, I found this hilarious graphic, thank you verywellmind dot com

Looks to me like these blood types were definitely chosen to tie into personality at least to some degree (I'm not sure about Isshin, but he probably has fake Urahara Shouten-brand gigai blood-substitute anyway, so I am choosing not to read too deeply into that). Anyway, along those lines, judging from this chart, if we wanted to bootstrap Renji's blood type from his personality, I think he would, in fact, clearly fit into the idiot-on-a-skateboard quadrant. So he is a universal donor! (or at least he would be, if he were filled with blood instead of high-concentration ghost juice.)

#bleach worldbuilding #tw: medical #rukia feels like an AB to me?? #i welcome the insight of people who are more medically literate than me #but i actually have a blood phobia which is why i didn't do very much research into that side of this post

[syl-stormblessed]

everyone loves talking about the batshit worldbuilding in WoT but I feel like everybody tends to overlook the Vaguely Evil Elves From Another Dimension that have their own officially licensed chutes and ladders-esque board game that you Cannot Ever Win

#unless you're a 9 year old boy who's surrogate father just broke their entire reality #society when olver won snakes and foxes without cheating #the day I get my hands on a real life snakes and foxes game is the day that I can die happy #but idk I feel like everybody tends to overlook the aelfinn and the eelfinn in favor of like. the ogier and radioactive two rivers #and the many. many. m a n y. other insane worldbuilding Choices robert jordan made #which are all valid I mean WoT is fucking insane #but I think we should have more aelfinn and eelfinn appreciation on this webbed site #like they're so interesting!!!!!! there's so much to unpack!!!!!!!!! #vin speaks #wheel of time #wot book spoilers #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #mat cauthon #the shadow rising #towers of midnight